From: Julian Jackson
Columbus
Coral reefs are marine ecosystems located all around the world. They help us daily by giving us air — producing almost the same amount of air as forests — and absorbing nearly one-third of carbon dioxide output.
Additionally, they provide for millions of fish and 25% of sea life. There are a lot of sea animals living by, and depending on, reefs. The coral reefs protect coastlines from storms and erosion, and also provide jobs, food, recreational activities, and medicine. They provide for more than a half-billion people, and therefore it would be a huge blow to the economy if they were to die off and disappear.
Without the reefs we’d have less fish, and more bad storms and bad air. We’re already killing trees, and now we’re killing the reefs. If we don’t stop, they’ll be gone by 2050.
What is happening to the coral reefs? Coral reefs are dying off every day. There are many things affecting coral reefs negatively, but what is their biggest threat? Humans.
Humans have created most of their own threats, including global warming and pollution. Two big problems for reefs are rising water temperatures and ocean acidification, which is related to rising CO2 levels. We over-fish, which means that fish are underpopulated which breaks the reef’s balance and ecosystem, and we litter and don’t take care of trash we use, which leads to pollution in the oceans, further unbalancing the ecosystem. Other problems we cause include overdevelopment of land, damaging their protective layer, contributing to global warming, the list goes on, but most of these things are results of human intervention in a bad way.
So how can we help?
There are many things you can do to help save coral reefs — most of which are quite simple. Conserving water leads to less runoff and wastewater finding its way into oceans. If we do this then chemicals and pathogens in the water won’t find their way to the coral reefs.
By using only environmentally-safe fertilizers, we avoid dangerous chemicals and pesticides from finding their way into the water systems, which may eventually flow into oceans.
We need to try and stop doing anything that contributes to global warming, which leads to rising water temperatures and kill reefs. This means biking or walking instead of using a car, recycling, reducing, reusing, and being energy efficient.
Last and most importantly: we need to inform others. The more people who know, the bigger the impact. If we all do our part, we can make a big impact on the environment.
We need to inform others about what’s going on in our planet because it involves everyone. We need to take action and help our planet return to how it was decades ago, and the only way to do that is by working together as a community.
