If you've been dreaming of snorkling around coral reefs during a future vacation, hurry, for they may be dead by 2050.
"There is a dire future for coral reefs around the world if we continue the way we are going," said Canada-based United Nations University professor Peter Sale, one of the Science [magazine] paper's 17 authors from seven nations.In a press briefing this morning, scientists told the media that changes to the climate are unfolding a thousand times faster than anything that has occurred in the last 420,000 years.
“The science speaks for itself. We have created conditions on Earth unlike anything most species alive today have experienced in their evolutionary history, " University of Maine marine science professor Bob Steneck, a co-author of the paper, said.
"Corals are feeling the effects of our actions and it is now or never if we want to safeguard these marine creatures and the livelihoods that depend on them."
As a resident of an island which has coral reefs all around it, this is a big deal. The water and the beaches are mainstays of our economy in Hawai'i, and we're not alone. Australia (see article linked above) derives $6.8 billion from tourism, and without reefs its Gold Coast would be in serious trouble.
This was one of the topics on Science Friday today; you can listen to the program here if you missed the live broadcast.
Posted by Linkmeister at December 14, 2007 10:47 AM | TrackBack