We Must Act Now to Save Our Planet
I just finished watching “Chasing Coral” with my wife on Netflix this weekend and it was an eye-opening experience. For the uninitiated, Chasing Coral is a documentary film featured at the Sundance Film Festival and now available worldwide on Netflix that tries to follow and document the continuing bleaching of the world’s great coral reefs.
Background
If you’re not a scuba diver, and many times even if you are (due to dive operators avoiding bad sites), you may not be aware of the major bleaching of much of the world’s coral reefs that has been primarily occurring since the 80s and 90s when the world’s oceans began to show major consistent temperature gains over what we know is their normal 200-year averages (that’s as far back as we have good records from around the world). Bleaching is basically a process where we see the corals go from many vibrant colors to bright white. The corals are basically shedding all of their outer ‘skin’ to try and stay healthy and the end result is that we see just their ‘bones’ underneath.

After years of research, scientists know that coral death (bleaching) normally happens when corals are subjected to temperature rises of greater than 2 degrees Centigrade (3.6° F) over time. And if you look at charts documenting the yearly temperatures at many of these reefs, you will see distinctively higher temperatures over the last few decades.

Why
The first thing I asked is “why is this happening?”. As a engineer (I originally studied aerospace and systems engineering and now work as a software engineer) these graphs are fairly astounding and scary. You look at decades of averages and then all of a sudden these major spikes in the last few years are very abnormal. But, once you start looking at the research on the topic, it becomes quite clear.
You see, research tells us that the oceans are acting like this giant heat storage unit. Without the presence of oceans over most of the surface of the Earth, all of the greenhouse gases (mainly Carbon Dioxide and Methane among others) would have massively increased global surface temperatures around the Earth over the last 100+ years. But due to the density of heat that can be contained within water, the oceans have mostly hidden this massive temperature change for decades. The newly-rising ocean temperatures and global bleaching of corals that is happening as a result indicates that we have reached a saturation point, where the oceans are not able to hold as much heat in their depths and the heat is now affecting the shallow water coral areas.

As greenhouse gases continue to cause more of the sun’s heat to be trapped here on Earth, the land and the oceans’ temperatures will continue to rise. But one good thing I noticed in my research is that scientists have found that this effect that ocean temperatures have on corals can be reversed if we can get our emissions under control and give them a chance. The oceans will release the excess heat if we allow them to and corals do recover if the water cools.
Now what?
While the story that “Chasing Coral” makes deadly clear in pictures and photos is not good, there is some progress being made in the fight against these major climate changes around the world. My only worry is that it may be “too little, too late”.

If you look at the major CO2 emitters around the world, the stand-outs are China (#1 emitter by far) and the USA (#2 emitter). Both countries realize that their emissions are an issue and are making moves to suspend the amount of carbon they are sending into the atmosphere. China is not issuing permits to new coal power plants and has stopped development on over 100 new planned plants in the last few years to help prevent the smog that is choking their cities. They are also investing heavily in renewable energy, so much so that they sent a number of U.S. solar firms into bankruptcy a few years ago because they couldn’t keep up.
In the USA, emissions have been slowly falling since the year 2000, partially due to newer, more efficient energy-using appliances and increasingly strict car MPG standards (that drop CO2 emissions as a byproduct) and also mainly due to cheap natural gas, which has taken many coal power plants offline. But at the rate that reefs are dying, climate stability is degrading, and the world is warming, this slow downward progress is really not enough. President Obama tried to move some levers to make it faster with the Clean Power Plan, which would have become legal enforcement to ensure that states deceased dependence on dirty CO2 fuels and moved towards renewables, but the Supreme Court & President Trump have made moves to try to slow or stop the Clean Power Plan, and there are thoughts that Trump’s budget may try to defund it entirely.
This is not the direction the United States should be going. The Earth needs our help if we are to keep the many beautiful species of plants, animals, fish, and corals alive to see another decade. Luckily many cities within the United States have made their own commitments to utilizing clean energy and cutting down on carbon pollution. The Sierra Club has been pushing cities to go 100% renewable energy by 2035, which is a powerful goal. But, we still need more people to push their politicians at the local and national level to meet and beat these goals to make a big difference.

What can you do?
If you can watch “Chasing Coral” I highly recommend it. Even better if you can invite some friends over to see it too or host an event in your city as the creators suggest on their website at chasingcoral.com.
If you’re like my wife and I or want a new exciting hobby, get your scuba certification (it only takes a couple days of training) and go dive the many spectacular reefs that remain on our planet. Take photos, share them with friends and then tell them about how global climate change could destroy it all. The Great Barrier Reef in particular is in great danger, so be sure to get there while you can (I added one of my photos from 2014 below).

Take political action!
- See what your state legislators have committed to and push for more renewable energy.
- Join local groups and events to push for change like 350.org or the Sierra Club’s #ReadyFor100.
- Provide direct support for coral reef preservation organizations like the Coral Reef Alliance, Surfrider Foundation, Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF), Reef Check, 50 Reefs, Project AWARE, and the Coastal Conservation League.
Hopefully this piece taught you something or inspired you. If it did, please leave me a comment and I’ll try to write interesting things on Medium more often. Thanks!
