Sunday, September 8, 2013

Environmental Justice On Coral Reefs.

Hidden beneath the ocean's waters, coral reefs teem with life. Fish, corals, lobsters, clams, seahorses, sponges, sharks, and sea turtles are only a few of the hundreds of thousands of creatures that rely on reefs for their survival. Not only that they also control the amount of CO2 in the water. They also feed close to 30 million people a year. Yet, these great organisms are dying. 
The problems facing coral reefs are huge, and increasing. They are being pressured by changes in ocean temperature, pollution, overfishing, sedimentation, acidification, oxidative stress and disease, and the combination of some of these problems may destroy reefs even when one cause by itself would not. Some estimates have suggested 20 percent of the world's coral reefs are already dead and an additional 24 percent are gravely threatened. 
Reefs are immensely complex structures which makes it even harder to find a solution to the decline. It would take a vast effort of cutting down on CO2 emissions, overfising, and polluting the worlds oceans. Just because an individual can't see the pollution in the ocean doesn't mean it isn't there.  


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