WCU Report - Half Of Planet's Reefs May Go In 40 Years Or Less - ENN

BANGKOK, Thailand — Nearly half of the world's coral reefs may be lost in the next 40 years unless urgent measures are taken to protect them against the threat of climate change, according to a new report released Tuesday by the World Conservation Union. The Swiss-based organization called for the establishment of additional marine protected areas to prevent further degradation by making corals more robust and helping them resist bleaching.

"Twenty percent of the earth's coral reefs, arguably the richest of all marine ecosystems, have been effectively destroyed today," said Carl Gustaf Lundin, head of the agency's marine environment program who helped write the report "Coral Reef Resilience and Resistance to Bleaching." "Another 30 percent will become seriously depleted if no action is taken within the next 20-40 years, with climate change being a major factor for their loss," he said in a statement.

Coral bleaching is caused by increased surface temperatures in the high seas and higher levels of sunlight caused by climate change. As temperatures rise, the algae on which corals depend for food and color die out, causing the coral to whiten, or "bleach." Prolonged bleaching conditions over ten weeks can eventually lead to the death of the coral.

"Current predictions are that massive coral bleaching will become a regular event over the next 50 years," Lundin said.

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when the era of oil is over, so will be the lives of over half the worlds population!!