- coral_reefs.jpg (63.36 KiB) Viewed 1116 times
[Cities] are the coral colony for Man, the collective being. -Alfred Doblin
Coral reefs, the gardens of the sea, are havens for over 25% of the sea life on Earth. Over the last 10,000 years, shallow waters reefs emerged in a race against the warming earth from the last ice-age. Now their calcium carbonate cathedral walls are doomed to topple as another species on Earth destroys their ocean environment through global warming: mankind.
In 2010, world scientists determined that mankind had exceeded the tipping point for saving the coral reefs. (1) It’s now 2012, and our failure to change the trend has resulted in a 19% of all coral reefs on Earth being lost. Continuing at this rate, it’s expected that within half a decade all coral reefs on earth will be lost.
A tragedy in the making considering reefs take decades to grow, and the consequences of their death may include our own as food shortages occur due to seafood morbidity, erosion destroys cities by unprotected breakwater, and indirectly the oceans turn to acid with the ever increasing CO2 levels. At the very least, tourism at reefs, such as the Great Barrier Reef, and the lives of nomadic sea dwelling tribes who use the reefs, could be decimated. In addition, dozens of societies in the Philippines, and Indonesia, derive their food supply from the fish of the coral reefs. (2) The larger question is can we take the risk, that the extinction of the coral reefs don’t mean the extinction of mankind?
Closer to home, the Belize reef, which is the second largest in the world, is showing nearly a 50% reduction in its size as of 2003 (2) due to a 1997 mass bleaching event.
Bleaching, a process in which Coral reefs loses its ability to maintain its balanced eco-system and then begins to die. It is a direct result of ocean acidity (preventing calcifying bonds) and higher ocean temperatures. There have been six major extinction level bleachings since 1979, corresponding to spikes in the global world temperatures. (4)
Several attempts at saving coral reefs are in the works. From cryogenic preservation, to deep sea gardening which involves replanting live coral into other dead reefs. It’s a constant battle of preservation as coral commits suicide in response to mankind’s horrors.
It would seem obvious that the real solution is to prevent what’s killing coral in the first place: manmade global warming, but to make such an assumption, we would have to believe mankind was capable of being responsible for their actions. I’m reminded that man like a sea squirt may simply be incapable of reform due their innate ability to ignore their need for self-preservation:
The juvenile sea squirt wanders through the sea searching for a suitable hunk of coral to cling to and make its home for life. When it finds its spot and takes root, it doesn't need its brain anymore so it eats it! - Daniel Dennett
Works Cited
1. Evolutionarily Distinct, and Globally Endangered. Edge, The. 2011, p. http://www.edgeofexistence.org/coral_reef/default.php.
2. Extreme Heat Bleaches Coral, and Threat Is Seen. GILLIS, JUSTIN. New York : New York Times, 2010, Vol. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/scien ... coral.html.
3. Belize Reef Die-Off Due to Climate Change? Hafvenstein, Brian Handwerk with Lauri. s.l. : National Geographic News, 2003, Vol. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... reefs.html.
4. Coral Bleaching. Wikipedia. s.l. : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_bleaching.
