Anonymous. (2020, February 22). Climate Change Could Kill All of Earth’s Coral Reefs By 2100, Scientists Warn. Retrieved February 23, 2020, from https://www.wktv.com/content/news/5 68108432.html

 

Due to climate change, the warming oceans haven’t been very hospitable to coral reefs, leading to widespread bleaching and the eventual death of many coral communities. In the future, this will lead very few places for coral to grow– by 2100, there will be hardly any viable sites for coral reef restoration, only Baja California and some spots in the Red Sea might work, but they’re still too close to rivers. Being situated next to rivers is less than ideal, as it introduces sediments and pollutions to the fragile reef areas, which might just end up killing or damaging them further. 

I found this article rather depressing, as it didn’t offer any optimistic statements towards coral health- I was hoping for a little, “But you can help by doing this!” at the end, but, alas, there was none. I found it interesting that they were already looking towards a worse-case scenario option, which is actually quite smart as at the rate we’re going, I don’t necessarily think enough might be done in time to completely (or at least notably) save the corals. This article is relevant to environmental science because it discusses climate change and the rather disastrous effects that it will have on the environment if nothing is done.