Oceanspace News
Nusa Dua,
Indonesia - Scientists are saying that more than a quarter of
the world's coral reefs have been destroyed by pollution and global
warming and unless drastic measures are taken, most of the remaining
reefs may be dead in 20 years. Meeting on Indonesia's tourist
island of Bali, some 1,500 delegates from 52 countries are attending
the Ninth International Coral Reef Symposium. In some of the worst
hit areas, such as the Maldives and Seychelles islands in the
Indian Ocean, up to 90% of coral reefs have been killed over the
past two years by an increase in water temperature. "You
have to go and look at the coral reefs now, as we are losing them,"
said Clive Wilkinson, a leading Australian scientist.
Oceanographers
say that the El Ni¤o weather pattern two years ago, which
led to a rise in water temperatures by up to 3 degrees C, did
enormous damage to the coral reefs, some of which had been alive
for up to 2.5 million years. Australian scientist Ove Hoegh-Guldberg
said 26% of coral reefs around the world have already been destroyed
and that in another 20 years, water temperatures are likely to
have risen to the point where corals will be sitting in a "hot
soup" and unable to survive. Wilkinson added that the loss
of the reefs would not only be a major blow to the environment
but would also threaten the livelihood of half a billion people
around the world who rely on them for food and income. The reefs
bring in an estimated $400 billion a year in fishing and tourism
revenues.
While many
Western countries have started to seriously address the problem,
some governments in Asia have ignored the issue. Indonesian scientist
Rili Djohani said many regional governments cut their conservation
budgets by up to 80% when the Asian financial crisis hit three
years ago. Indonesia's maritime affairs minister, Sarwono Kusmaatmadja,
told Associated Press reporters that half of the nation's coral
reefs were already dead and the other half could soon follow suit.
Indonesia, an archipelago nation of 13,000 islands, relies heavily
on its colorful coral reefs to attract hundreds of thousands of
tourists a year.
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