One environmental issue that I believe is extremely overlooked is the degradation of coral reefs. Due to climate change and marine endeavors, our coral reefs are being demolished. Climate change is causing temperatures to rise in the oceans and when the temperatures rise, the algae that live in the coral reefs die out. Algae are an organism that is put on the back burner. But the algae are what give the coral reefs their beautiful color and when the algae die, the reefs are bleached out and no longer give us the gorgeous portrayal of the under-water world we see in post cards.
In his article, Matt Kallman explains that “Since reefs are highly sensitive to changes in water temperature, clarity, and acidity, they are early indicators of the impacts of climate change and human activities. They are vulnerable to coastal development, sediment runoff, water pollution, and many fishing practices.” All of these factors are almost totally caused by human activities.
It is not fair to these organisms that obviously don’t have the means to defend themselves against everything “we” do to them that they are being destroyed. We don’t have the right to determine what gets to live and what doesn’t get to live, therefore we need to contain the damage we do to a smaller region. The destruction of coral reefs is a prime example of why we need Island Civilization to decrease our impact on the earth and its beautiful coral reefs.
As an aside, I think it is important to point out that one person can have a tremendous impact on reefs. For example, the captain of the Costa Concordia made the decision "deviate the ship from its ideal route" and ran the ship into a reef.
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