Ecology Problems

Once carbon dioxide had hit the levels predicted for between 2030 and 2060, all coral reefs were doomed to extinction, Charlie Veron, former chief scientist of the Australian Institute of Marine Science said commenting the situation with The Great Barrier Reef disappearing, “it will be over within 20 years or so”, he predicts. “They would be the world’s first global ecosystem to collapse. I have the backing of every coral reef scientist, every research organization. I’ve spoken to them all. This is critical. This is reality.”

Is there no way out, no loopholes? The Royal Society and the International Program on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) held a crucial meeting on the future of coral reefs in London yesterday. In a joint statement they warned that by mid-century extinctions of coral reefs around the world would be inevitable. The international conservation group WWF warns that 40% of reefs in the Coral Triangle have already been lost. The area is shared between Indonesia and five other South East Asian nations and is thought to contain 75% of the world’s coral species. There are ways to avoid the worst-case scenario and one of them is significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and better controls on fishing and coastal areas.

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