Coral off the Texas-Louisiana border.
The unusually high temperatures we've experienced this year are causing detrimental changes to coral and fisheries around the globe. Many scientists are concerned about many reefs completely dying off. Because of the heat, coral is going into survival mode, which causes it to change it's coloration. Forecasters are predicting that coral in a Caribbean may experience extreme bleaching over the course of a few weeks. This isn't the first time scientists have seen bleaching like this. in 1998 an estimated 16% of shallow-water reefs worldwide died. For years coral has been an early warning sign of global warming. Although coral reefs only occupy certain parts of the ocean, they are home to over 25% of the worlds water-dwelling species. In 1983 the world experienced an El Niño, which was the first time scientists saw extreme regional bleaching.The organisms found in coral reefs are called polyp and they share symbiotic relationships with the algae found in the coral regions. The heat a bright sunshine cause algae metabolisms to speed up and create toxins, which also cause the polyps to recoil. The end result of this is the starving of the coral and the coral dying. People around the world rely on coral reefs and what the have to offer, whether it be tourism or food. If the temperatures keep rising above normal as we progress into the summer, the world's most famous Great Barrier Reef will experience serious bleaching.
People don't really pay attention to things like this when it comes to global warming. It's little things like this that's going to add up to something big and we are going to be in serious trouble.There's the obvious, big immediate affects of global warming like unusually warm temperatures in February and snow in October, then the ice caps in the North Pole are melting causing the dying off of polar bears and the water levels in the oceans to rise. We should've planned for preventing this the first time it happened in 1983, then it would've been one less thing we have to worry about and less money being lost.
Questions
1. How could we prevent the bleaching of coral from happening again in the future?
2. What are other effects of global warming besides those previously mentioned?
3. What could we do now that would prevent other results of global warming from happening in the future?
4. How long do you think it will take for the earth to run out of viable resources?
Well, we really only have ourselves to blame for this issue. As humans, we have been polluting our earth way too much. Even though we benifit from the things we do that pollute the earth, these benifits are only short term. I can relate to the global warming issues from this winter. We saw accumulating snow in late october, which seemed to foreshadow a cold and snowy winter. However, this was followed by warm temperatues in winter. These are all signs of global warming.
ReplyDelete1) In order to prevent the bleaching of coral, humans would have to completely stop their pollution. Although this would be benificial, it just does not seem viable. It would completely disrupt the human way of life. But if we dont stop, the human race will run out of resources and possibly die out.
I agree with Andrew; we are the ones causing the problem, so we really don't have anyone else to blame but ourselves. We pollute the earth way too much. Humans are causing natural habitats to be destroyed and to adapt because of our horrible pollution; if we don't change, then the earth has to. Global warming ties into life today. We are experiencing it right now with the unnatural warm weather in March. We can also see global warming by watching the ice caps melt because of the warm weather.
ReplyDelete2. Other effects from global warming would be (as I already mentioned): our unseasonal weather and melting of the ice-caps which causes the oceans to rise. The effects from global warming are very serious. The melting of the ice-caps is causeing the polar bears to lose their habitat and they could soon becom extinct. Humans are the main cause of glabal warming and we should do all we can to try and stop it.
Although humans are to blame for this happening their are also other factors too. But the main contributors are humans. We pollute the air so much with cars and other machines. By polluting the air we trap the carbon dioxide which causes global warming. Global warming have been destroy life in mostly colder areas. As we just read it is becoming more dangerous, threatening creatures that live in oceans. One of the big problems that global Warming leads to is the decrease in biodiversity.
ReplyDelete4) For the earth to run out of viable resources it is going to take a while. But the countdown to that time keeps getting pushed forward whenever we waste our resources and don't use them properly. I would have to guess that we will run out of viable resources in about 300-500 years. But with all the advances in technology it will probably be much longer.
Opinion
ReplyDeleteThe only blame for the extreme heat is human activity. The extreme heat was probably caused by pollution and fossil fuels being burned. I wish that the extreme heat would stop because the coral reefs are a part of a species habitat and if they die it could make some species extinct in the future. Hopefully the heat will become cooler and more coral reefs will be protected.
Question 1)
We can prevent the bleaching from happening again if we stop polluting the air with gases and stop littering. We only have one earth so we have to protect and treat it the right way or else it will slowly disappear. Also I play a role in this situtaion because I have once littered because I was too lazy to put it in the trashcan. So I beleive that I need to help since I was part of the problem. We need to stop burning fossil fuels also.