Tag: coral reefs

New Innovations in Geoengineering Are Needed to Save the Coral Reefs

The coral reef crisis continues thanks to threats like climate change and pollution. With that in mind, the National Academy of Sciences released a major report last week detailing the high-tech interventions...

Valuable Wetlands Are Disappearing 3 Times Faster Than Forests, New Study Warns

Wetlands around the world are disappearing at an alarming rate. New research shows that these valuable ecosystems are vanishing at a rate three times that of forests. Unless significant changes are made,...

Forecasting Coral Disease Outbreaks Could Buy Time to Save Reefs

Hawaii's knobby finger coral careened toward extinction in 2015. The species was so rare that scientists could only find a few fragments in the wild, scattered across the seabed of Oahu's Kaneohe...

Last Year Was Warmest Ever That Didn’t Feature an El Niño, Report Finds

Last year was the warmest ever recorded on Earth that didn’t feature an El Niño, a periodic climatic event that warms the Pacific Ocean, according to the annual state of the climate...

Domino-Effect of Climate Events Could Move Earth into a ‘Hothouse’ State

A domino-like cascade of melting ice, warming seas, shifting currents and dying forests could tilt the Earth into a “hothouse” state beyond which human efforts to reduce emissions will be increasingly futile,...

Coral Reefs ‘Will Be Overwhelmed by Rising Oceans’

Scientists have uncovered a new threat to the world’s endangered coral reefs. They have found that most are incapable of growing quickly enough to compensate for rising sea levels triggered by global...

Climate Change Threatens Kelp Forests With Invasions of Weeds

The devastating consequences climate change is already having on coral reefs is well known, but now scientists have discovered that yet another unique marine ecosystem is threatened by rising carbon dioxide levels.A...

Hawaii Becomes First US State to Ban Sunscreens Harmful to Coral Reefs

Coral reefs and sunshine keep tourists flocking to Hawaii but add sunscreen to that holiday mix and the result can be serious damage to the marine environment that makes the islands so...

World’s Coral Reefs Reaching The Point Of No Return

The vast majority of the world’s coral reefs are now reaching the point of no return — the point at which it wouldn’t even theoretically be possible to save them from disappearing...

Trump Plan to Reduce Marine Monuments Could Put Vital Ecosystems at Risk

A report from United States Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke recommends shrinking three ocean monuments and opening them up to commercial fishing. The monuments, two in the Pacific Ocean and one...

Coral Reefs Show Signs Of Both Climate Stress & Resilience

Coral reefs are home to a vast array of ocean creatures. They provide food, protection against storm damage, sustain tourism and inspire wonder. “If we lose corals, we lose a vital piece...

Artificial Reefs Could Help Save Our Oceans

The Smithsonian Institution calls coralline algae “the unsung architects of coral reefs.” These pink-colored seaweed, with a skeletal structure that resembles honeycomb, live in harmony with coral. They strengthen the corals’ foundation by...

Stopping Global Warming is Only Way to Save Great Barrier Reef, Scientists Warn

The survival of the Great Barrier Reef hinges on urgent moves to cut global warming because nothing else will protect coral from the coming cycle of mass bleaching events, new research has...

Coral Reefs Are Dying Faster than Ever! We Have to Do Something, NOW!

Photo: 50reefs.org Unless we act now, we could lose all reefs by 2050, risking the food source and livelihood of half a billion people. Coral reefs are a critical global ecosystem. They support 25%...

‘Paris Agreement Not Enough’ to Prevent Catastrophic Coral Bleaching, Marine Biologists Warn

Current targets for reducing damaging greenhouse gas emissions are not enough to prevent catastrophic loss of the world’s coral reefs, marine biologists have warned. Rising sea surface temperatures are having a devastating effect...

Maldives Urges Rich Countries to Rapidly Ratify Paris Climate Agreement

Rich countries must ratify the climate change agreement reached in Paris last December, one of the world’s most at-risk nations has warned. Thoriq Ibrahim, environment and energy minister of the Maldives, told the...

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