Lesson Sixteen: Coral Reefs
Why we actually won’t be able to find Nemo anymore
We all know carbon exists in our atmosphere, but did you know oceans absorb part of it too?
More than a fourth of the carbon emitted by humans is sucked up by the oceans. We’ll dive into this more in the ocean acidification lesson next week, but for now all you need to know is that the excess carbon is 🔥 heating 🔥 up 🔥 our 🔥 oceans 🔥
As your hair can attest, the words “bleach” and “healthy” are not synonymous. 🙅 Same goes for coral bleaching.
Definition: Warmer ocean waters strip reefs of protozoa (called zooxanthellae) that provide, up to 90% of the energy the coral needs to thrive.
No Energy = No Corals
Scenes like these:
Are being replaced by:
Since 2016, as much as half of Australia’s landmark Great Barrier Reef has already been bleached to death. These large-scale die-outs are called “mass bleaching events”.
What’s worse, is that once bleached, coral is extremely difficult to revitalize … near impossible at our rate of global warming.
If you remember in 2019, Pantone named Living Coral Colour Of The Year. I doubt this is what they had in mind…
At this point, you might be asking that the causes are for coral bleaching. Below is a summary of some of the major factors.
Coral is extremely vital to surrounding ecosystems as well:
Not to mention the countless human impacts it has as well. Below are a few ways it will impact our economies/populations:
If you’d like to stay in the know or donate to some organizations who are fighting the good fight, check these out:
Living in Toronto, Canada, it’s easy to feel removed from what it happening on the other side of the planet. But the reality is that it will impact all of us, in one way or another, regardless of our location. The best thing we can do is stay informed and action where we can. 💪
Drop a comment below and let me know if you have ever seen coral reefs and what you think about what is happening to them!
