Global Warming Threatens Great Barrier Reef

Posted by Ivan Garcia on February 6th, 2007 filed in global warming

Scientists have noticed a great deal of coral bleaching throughout the world in recent years, and it is becoming a particular concern to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Coral bleaching is usually caused by rising water temperatures. When coral reaches a temperature that it can no longer tolerate it shoots out the tiny animals that live inside it and dies (unless the water is cooled soon enough). This coral bleaching is a threat to the marine life of the reef and therefore a concern to the Australians, because the reef is a very important tourist attraction. The article also goes into the subject of global warming a little more, because global warming is believed to be the cause of the coral bleaching in the reef. Experts are upset with people for first causing and then underestimating global warming. The dying coral in the Great Barrier Reef is a sign that global warming is happening and is a danger. Not only could the Great Barrier Reef and the life it supports die, like in many of the Indian Ocean’s coral reefs, but global warming can become a disaster for everyone and everything on the planet.

I can see why many people are concerned about global warming (especially if they watch movies like “Day after Tomorrow”), and the effects it is having and will have on life on earth. The Great Barrier Reef is not an isolated case–global warming is a threat everywhere. Yet as horrible as the loss of the Great Barrier Reef would be to Australia’s toursim, I doubt that even Australian citizens are going to drive their cars less or do anything else out of the ordinary to try to slow down global warming. I’m afraid that people just won’t get it until the polar ice caps melt completely, flooding most of the world’s coastlines (if it happens, hopefully it won’t). However, I suppose that global warming is just one more way that the signs and destructions of the last days will be manifested. We should individually do our best to take care of the earth and be less wasteful, and then live in such a manner that we “shall not be burned (or otherwise destroyed) at His coming.”

More info: Durran-Austral Realm