Darwin once stated that coral reefs “rank high amongst the wonderful objects in the world”. Reefs are amazing, they are animal, they are plant, they sometimes appear dead, and they sometimes are brimming with precious life. Reefs are rainforests, filled with so much life and beauty. “It is estimated that at least half a million and possibly as many as nine million species spend part of their lives on coral reefs” (“The Sixth Extinction”, Kolbert). This chapter sadly tells us that these exceptional elements of our globe may vanish as soon as 2050, if we don’t stop our ways. Coral reefs face many problems, overfishing, that promotes the rise of algae that competes with reefs; agricultural runoff, that also promotes algae; deforestation, that
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They are also being battered by waves and storms, like the one that created One Tree. Thus, just to hold their own, reefs must always be growing” (“The Sixth Extinction”, Kolbert). Ocean acidification kills coral reefs, as Elizabeth tells us on this chapter: “One Tree’s reef flat was brittle and brownish… it crackled ominously underfoot” (“The Sixth Extinction”, Kolbert). With the death of Coral reefs comes the death of all life on it. This CO2 that is causing the ocean to acidify has been caused by us since hundreds of year. The Industrial Revolution has affected reefs dramatically, before all major reefs had a saturation between four and five, now due to our ways almost no place on the planet has a saturation above four. On top of all of this the chapter also explains that, the diversity on reefs is astonishing due to the conditions of tropical waters. These water are low in nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which are extremely necessary to most forms of life. This should then make the seas in these areas barren, but reefs prevail. Hence “are not just underwater rainforests; They are rainforests in a marine Sahara” (“The Sixth Extinction”, …show more content…
The first artifact would consist of a small tank filled with water where we would drop a solution that acidifies the water. Inside the tank we would have a seashell or something that would be visibly affected by the acidification of the water. We would demonstrate the acidness of the water with pH indicators. Through each “level” we would talk about the repercussions the acidness of the water would have on society, socially, in terms of world hunger, extinction of species etc.... This way people are engaged and they’ll know about this issue. The second artifact idea is to develop a timelapse video of how reefs are being affected by us. We would show how the reefs are changing, by year, visually and then we would tell the people on the video the repercussions on the biodiversity of the seas, the economic effects on humans, the hunger that increments because of it etc… The time lapse would show what we lose and gain each year from our effects on the reefs. We would finish explaining what we can do to fight this issue. This way people will know more about the issue and can fight this problem head on. We must change our ways to save the
They are also being battered by waves and storms, like the one that created One Tree. Thus, just to hold their own, reefs must always be growing” (“The Sixth Extinction”, Kolbert). Ocean acidification kills coral reefs, as Elizabeth tells us on this chapter: “One Tree’s reef flat was brittle and brownish… it crackled ominously underfoot” (“The Sixth Extinction”, Kolbert). With the death of Coral reefs comes the death of all life on it. This CO2 that is causing the ocean to acidify has been caused by us since hundreds of year. The Industrial Revolution has affected reefs dramatically, before all major reefs had a saturation between four and five, now due to our ways almost no place on the planet has a saturation above four. On top of all of this the chapter also explains that, the diversity on reefs is astonishing due to the conditions of tropical waters. These water are low in nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which are extremely necessary to most forms of life. This should then make the seas in these areas barren, but reefs prevail. Hence “are not just underwater rainforests; They are rainforests in a marine Sahara” (“The Sixth Extinction”, …show more content…
The first artifact would consist of a small tank filled with water where we would drop a solution that acidifies the water. Inside the tank we would have a seashell or something that would be visibly affected by the acidification of the water. We would demonstrate the acidness of the water with pH indicators. Through each “level” we would talk about the repercussions the acidness of the water would have on society, socially, in terms of world hunger, extinction of species etc.... This way people are engaged and they’ll know about this issue. The second artifact idea is to develop a timelapse video of how reefs are being affected by us. We would show how the reefs are changing, by year, visually and then we would tell the people on the video the repercussions on the biodiversity of the seas, the economic effects on humans, the hunger that increments because of it etc… The time lapse would show what we lose and gain each year from our effects on the reefs. We would finish explaining what we can do to fight this issue. This way people will know more about the issue and can fight this problem head on. We must change our ways to save the