Death rates among coral reefs along Asian coasts and the Indian Ocean are reaching the worst ever recorded amounts. 80% of some species have already died out and will likely cease to exist in the near future. Andrew Baird, a researcher at James Cook University in Australia, reported these die outs "may prove to be the worst such event known to science." This mass extermination of coral reefs is taking place from Seychelles in the Indian Ocean all the way to the Philippines in Southeast Asia, which is known to be the most diverse marine ecosystem on the planet. Scientist are blaming this event directly on the increase in water temperatures surrounding the reefs, which has raised almost 4 degrees Celsius from the average for this time of the year. These ocean temperature increases are a catastrophic effect of global warming. This event isn't just going to affect our oceans and their marine life. The coral reef is just the beginning of the fatal effects associated with global warming and ocean temperature increases. If humans don't cut back on their contribution to global warming, our livelihood could be threatened as Earth loses its stability, which could trigger an ice age.
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| Living Coral |
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| Dead Coral |
Ice Age? or Global warming?
ReplyDeleteWhich is it?
Global warming impacts the stability of Earth which could trigger an ice age
ReplyDeleteCoral reefs would be my last thought as to things being affected by global warming. I didn't really see reefs as something that could be greatly affected or even slightly. But, hearing this is very surprising. When I went snorkeling in the Key I was in awe of how pretty the reefs and fish were.Coral reefs are so beautiful!! I don't want them to die out and I hope they don't.
ReplyDeleteI agree, coral reefs are very beautiful. It’s very nice to look at and it’s a home to other fish. This will all spiral out of control. I don’t want to see the reefs I have seen dead. Global warming affects a lot of things and I was surprised its harms reefs.
ReplyDeleteThis is kind of scary, coral reef's are awesome, I'd be pissed if their weren't fish or live coral or anemone's when I snorkeled.
ReplyDeleteThough I kind of go both ways on the global warming being the complete cause to these enviornment corruptions.