“We can still save our reefs”
“[Corals] have stood up to several episodes of global warming and high CO2 in the past – and bounced back, even from mass extinction events." Image: ultramarinfoto/iStockphoto John Pandolfi keeps his optimism alive despite the grim scientific evidence he confronts daily that the world’s coral reefs are in a lot of trouble – along with 81 nations and 500 million people who depend on them.The world-renowned coral scientist from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and University of Queensland has traced the story of the world’s reefs over more than 50 million years and is deciphering delicate signals from the past to reveal what doomed them in previous extinctions – and how this compares with today.This knowledge is priceless in understanding what we humans have to do to prevent such a tragedy recurring, he says.“I’m an optimist – you have to be, to devote your life to this field,”...