Human Interactions with Coral Reefs

My topic is about human interactions with coral reefs and how humans affect the reefs. I will use the two of the main coral reefs around the world: the Great Barrier Reef and the Red Sea Coral Reef to describe human interactions with coral reefs.

My topic covers ongoing threats to coral reefs, specifically the Great Barrier Reef and the Red Sea Coral Reef, since the 1980s when scientists started noticing bleaching and destruction to the coral reefs. I will cover specific time periods of climate change events in the Great Barrier Reef, the Red Sea Coral Reef, and coral reefs in southeastern Mauritius, such as 2016-2017 and 2020.

Learning about historical events helps us realize our world’s mistakes and try not to repeat them. It also helps us to create solutions for ongoing problems that will become historical events in the future. For example, my project is about coral reefs and humans’ interactions with them. I am learning about conflicts in the reefs, which can help me think of solutions and inform others about their threats. Then, these solutions could be applied to people's everyday lives.

Australia is working to meet their international climate agreement using the Emissions Reduction Fund, but they are running out of money. The agreement is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28% below levels from 2005 by 2030. Having everyone agree on different climate change laws is hard for Australia, and although the ALP Government created a carbon tax, it got repealed by the Abbott Government. Now, the Emissions Reduction Fund is Australia’s only resource to reduce greenhouse gases.

The Red Sea Coral Reefs are being monitored by the Transitional Red Sea Center, which is a neutral organization because of the tension between the countries surrounding the Red Sea. Even with a neutral organization, without the cooperation of the governments, the Red Sea Coral Reef will continue to die. Physical destruction by boats, ships, marine construction, oil spills, ocean acidification, sun screen poisonings, and rising water temperatures are all serious problems that humans have caused. If the governments around the Red Sea do not act, these human caused problems will not be solved.

The descriptions about the two main coral reefs and their surrounding governments’ solutions to human caused problems on the coral reefs have similar and different themes. They have most of the same problems and are both struggling to find solutions but do not have the same initiative. While Australia’s government is invested in saving the coral reefs, the governments surrounding the Red Sea have so many other conflicts, the Red Sea Coral Reefs are the least of their concerns.

I am researching coral reefs because I am interested in human geography and I have never been to a coral reef. I’d like to see one before they all become bleached and I’m sure other people my age feel the same way. I would also like for the generations after me to be able to see all of the wonders of Earth.