Carbon is Posioning our Coral Reefs

For those of you who have read my bio, you may already know that one of my catalysts to start CarbonGage was the destruction of our oceanic coral reefs. Ironically, as I was working for a global automotive company who's product mix primarily consisted of gas hogs (inefficient Trucks and SUVs), I moonlighted as an coral reef aquarist in my free time. Unfortunately, my custom three-room two-floor aquarium system was not very efficient with regard to electricity usage, however, it did provide an artificial replacement for many endangered species that are currently dwindling away in our coral reefs. Soon coral will only grow in artificial "labs" like these.

Earlier this month there was a study published in the Journal of Science that warned that our Coral Reefs will be extinct in less than fifty years! Our oceans are increasing in pH (acidity), linked to an increase in carbon emissions, a third of which is absorbed by water. Thus, global warming is not the only cause of coral death, as shown on the cover of Science (left), wherein coral polyps with exquisite coral pigments (pocilloporin) remain after bleaching of the southern Great Barrier Reef around Great Keppel Island (Wappaburra), a result of elevated sea temperatures in January 2006. During heat stress, the symbiosis between corals and dinoflagellates fails, leading to mass exodus of the brown plant-like symbionts from the tissues of the coral host.

The acidic damage will have dire socio–economic impacts, particularly in the Caribbean, where dive tourism alone is estimated to generate more than $100 billion a year. It doesn't help when people stress and touch the coral (primarily tourists on vacation and in local fisheries). At the end of this summer I got a chance to visit Saona Island in Dominica, and I was appalled by snorkelers touching the fragile coral and locals illegally "trapping" the reef fish.

According to the report, “Under–resourced and developing countries have the lowest capacity to respond to climate change, but many have tourism as their sole income earner and thus are at risk economically if their coral reefs deteriorate. For instance, tourism is a major foreign exchange earner in the Caribbean basin and in some countries accounts for up to half of the gross domestic product.”

It is time for us to make a difference by using less energy and focusing on reducing "dirty" fuel usage.