A team of researchers from around the world warn that the only way to save coral reefs is to use climate engineering.
Coral reefs could be the first ecosystem to be systematically destroyed by climate change. Rising sea temperatures and ocean acidification are both occurring due to higher atmospheric carbon dioxide resulting in mass coral bleaching.
Even if (and it is a big if) governments around the world get their butts into gear and actually implement the changes needed to significantly reduce our CO2 emissions, scientists estimate that widespread coral bleaching and degradation will occur by the middle of this century.
If we want coral reef ecosystems to survive our only option, according to researchers from the Carnegie Institution for Science, the University of Exeter, the Met Office Hadley Centre and the University of Queensland is to use a geoengineering technique called Solar Radiation Management (SRM).
Solar Radiation Management involves injecting gas directly into the stratosphere. The gas will form microscopic particles which will reflect some of the sun’s energy and help limit rising sea surface temperatures. Even though SRM does not address the issue of ocean acidification the study suggests that it will give us time to address CO2 levels without losing the majority of the reef to bleaching.
The study, published in Nature Climate Change paints a stark picture “We must either accept that the loss of a large percentage of the world’s coral reefs is inevitable, or consider technological solutions to buy those reefs time until atmospheric CO2 concentrations can be reduced.”
Image: NOAA’s National Ocean Service (C)
