Big Ideas: “How to grow corals cheaper, better, faster and stronger”, With Sam Teicher of Coral Vita

Coral reefs sustain 25% of marine life and the livelihoods of up to one billion people in nearly 100 countries and territories. Conservatively, they generate $30B through tourism, fisheries, and coastal protection and are the source of compounds found in many life-saving medicines. But we’ve lost half the world’s reefs since the 1970s, and are on track to lose over 90% in the next thirty years. Ecological tragedy aside, this could be a socio-economic catastrophe. The best thing to do for reefs is to stop killing them, and we need our political, business, and media leaders to step up to enact climate change, pollution, and overfishing solutions. Until they do, however, we need to rapidly scale up the pace and impact of reef restoration.