Corals are vital for life on Earth, providing food for coastal communities as they give homes for fish, crabs, octopus, and a myriad of other creatures. Coral reefs also help construct our world by building islands and beaches and by protecting shorelines from wave impacts. Corals are fragile and are among the most sensitive of all living beings to environmental pollution, negative tourism impacts, and overfishing. As if that were not enough, corals reefs are also the most sensitive of all marine ecosystems to climate change, and scientists predict that coral reefs will be the first marine ecosystem to collapse from rapidly warming seas in the coming few decades. This vital and most diverse marine ecosystem on Earth is now on the front-line of the present environmental crisis.
C4C works with heat adapted “super corals” that do not bleach white and die in the warming waters, giving hope for the future of coral reefs. Saving coral reefs is essential in averting the predicted climate change driven mass extinction of species and ecosystems of the planet. If we can save coral reefs, the seagrass, mangrove, and coastal ecosystems which they protect will then also be saved. This success will in turn nurture hope that we can save the other threatened ecosystems of the planet as well! Coral reefs are where we must now hold the line. The first domino must not be allowed to fall! Everyone should become involved on some level with solving the climate crisis, in order to save the natural diversity of this precious Earth.