Trash in the Coral Reefs

 Owen O'Brien

    This week, I watched a TED talk titled "Why I Still Have Hope For Coral Reefs", this TED talk focuses on the preservation of the coral reefs. The speaker Kristen Marhaver is a marine biologist that studies things like, ecology, reproduction, and behavior of the coral reefs. 

    The main idea of the talk is that there are things that we are doing right that allows us to have the ability to keep coral alive for so long, and there are some things that need to be changed. This is interesting because when she said this, "There were corals 1,000 years old lined up one after another. They had survived the entire history of European colonialism in the Caribbean, and for centuries before that." (Marhaver) this is very cool to see because now when we see news about coral reefs we are starting to just associate it with bad things. but seeing this now is a very good morale booster. 

   

   

   This TED talk made me wonder about how much pollution it takes to destroy one coral reef, so I looked up some information on this topic. After some research I found Erik Stokstad talking about this, this is what he wrote: "Corals without any plastic had a 4% chance of being diseased, but the presence of plastic raised the risk to 89%, they report today in Science" (Erik) This is very interesting to look at because knowing that just a small amount of plastic can make irreversible damages to the reefs. 

             

 The Coral reefs are beautiful places that need to be saved and having trash throughout them is not cool at all. We need to be more aware and find new ways to make the places thrive again. Even though we are on land we have the biggest impact on these places.

Work Cited

Marhaver, Kristen. “Why I Still Have Hope for Coral Reefs.” TED, Apr. 2017, www.ted.com/talks/kristen_marhaver_why_i_still_have_hope_for_coral_reefs. 

Monster, Bag. “Plastic Bag Floating in Ocean.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 19 Aug. 2008, www.flickr.com/photos/28020116@N02/2779061348/in/photolist-5ezq7Q-69xhPC-7cVZaw-2iFdDMn-2jXqMuK-2gU45wu-899Fat-6R3iKh-kJzuEP-2iHMJJ2-qeSpuM-RT4Fj5-nUUCxD-ap4ihk-7WK82G-kJjwdk-XSoTqo-DmjQrE-88MDGv-Z4wsLy-4RnkAb-mim5ec-4aTRSi-rnxtVT-4RRQuD-4QkJhz-2frNUnt-P67jqU-dX4zCN-4P25fk-4QkHMB-GYLLiQ-FSy3pY-4P27H4-dX4zEj-4P23An-6Mx9Ed-88QWJS-akM6Ei-GDFyBh-64F9Cu-dWXVvr-gPCSzY-GC8afr-HvXZMr-W43bEs-69xhEC-q1w8d7-GKR4y3-GDFyuJ. 

Erik StokstadJan. 25, 2018. “Is Plastic Trash Making Coral Reefs Sick?” Science, 25 Jan. 2018, www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/01/plastic-trash-making-coral-reefs-sick.

"File:Plastic Pollution in Ghana.jpg." Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. 14 Nov 2020, 10:08 UTC. 18 Dec 2020, 15:24 <https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Plastic_Pollution_in_Ghana.jpg&oldid=512560044>.

Sentinel-6

  

Owen O'Brien

    Late last month, the sentinel 6 launched with a plan to monitor the oceans around the world from space. This is a large step in climate change tracking. this is because the oceans absorb about a quarter of the carbon on the planet (What). The main job of the sentinel-6 is to monitor the sea level activity going into the near future (Brown). NASA released this in one of their statements last November.

This latest mission marks the first international involvement in Copernicus, the European  Union's Earth Observation Programme. Along with measuring sea levels for almost the entire globe, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich's suite of scientific instruments will also make atmospheric measurements that can be used to complement climate models and help meteorologists make better weather forecasts. (US) 

    The use of this technology to track weather and atmospheric measurements is a very large step in pre-disaster warning technology. we will be able to track tropical storms better, leading to the ability to be able to limit that tropical storms and hurricanes can do to coastal communities. NASA even said this "Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich's twin, Sentinel-6B, is scheduled to launch in 2025" (Brown). Allowing for more opportunity to track what is happening in the ocean.

    This week I also read a blog that had to do with what one person can do to make a difference. It started as long as you are actively involved in saving water, recycling, and things like that you will make the biggest difference as a single person. If we can let the larger companies do things like sending satellites to monitor the oceans. the article even had a man named Jason Shmedon, a climate scientist saying this ""We don't need people to be extreme about what they're doing," he said. "Be conscious in every area that you can.""(Jacobo) even better stating the fact that you do not need to be extreme.

    All in all these steps that are being taken to track and come up with plans to limit the impending doom of rising sea levels and carbon control are going in the right direction. We can trust that for the next decade we will be able to track and monitor our own oceans very consistently.

Works Cited

Brown, Katherine. “NASA TV Airs Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich Launch, Prelaunch Activities.” NASA, NASA, 13 Nov. 2020, www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-tv-to-air-sentinel-6-michael-freilich-launch-prelaunch-activities. 

“US-European Mission Launches to Monitor the World's Oceans – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet.” NASA, NASA, 1 Dec. 2020, climate.nasa.gov/news/3045/us-european-mission-launches-to-monitor-the-worlds-oceans/. 

“What Is Happening in the Ocean?” NASA, NASA, 1 Dec. 2020, climatekids.nasa.gov/ocean/. 

“Why the Ocean?” One World One Ocean, oneworldoneocean.com/pages/why-the-ocean/.

Jacobo, Julia. “What You Can Do to Help Prevent Climate Change, According to Experts.” ABC News, ABC News Network, 

                28 Sept. 2019, 6:07am, abcnews.go.com/US/prevent-climate-change-experts/story?id=65721423.