What are coral reefs good for?

Who cares if the corals go the way of the dodo? You should. Science has progressed to the point where we can understand this fact: We can't live without those tiny animals and their coral reefs—at least not all of us. People need the coral reefs. Here are what coral reefs are useful for:

Food. Coral reef zones are home to one quarter of all marine plants and animals: Nearly a million species of fish, crabs, eels, mollusks, sponges, worms, grasses, algae, and other marine animals live on reefs or use them as nurseries to protect their young. Corals also provide natural filtration of seawater for their neighbours. These reef ecosystems support vast fisheries that people, especially in coastal nations, depend upon for much of their protein. Collapse could mean famine. No coral reefs- No food.

Shelter. Natural harbors that take a long time to build, coral reefs provide people with living sea walls against tides, storm surges, and hurricanes. They also act as giant sand factories, creating limestone from dissolved minerals in seawater and leaving it behind as sand to keep shorelines from eroding. They also help provide clownfishes shelter from its predators.

Medicine and other resources. Like the tropical rainforests, coral reefs are a center of extreme biodiversity, a great reservoir of intriguing DNA we've hardly begun to explore and natural compounds we don't yet understand. Australian scientists in Queensland have developed a sunscreen from substances that corals use to protect themselves from ultraviolet light. It has an SPF of 50+. In Menlo Park, Calif., Neurex Corp. has developed an extraordinarily potent pain-killing drug from the poison of reef-dwelling sea snails. The paralytic agent, used by snails of the species Conus magus to render their prey helpless, is hundreds of times more potent than morphine. It is injected directly into a patient's spinal fluid, providing relief for those suffering from cancer and other agonizing conditions. Look how great coral reefs are.

Fun and profit. Coral reefs are one big underwater amusement park for snorkelers and divers, a searingly colorful undersea world of Cousteauian delights—which drives a tourist industry worth tens of billions of dollars, in many cases propping up the economies of entire nations. It makes the Earth beautiful.

Now you know what coral reefs are good for. For many things. But we continue ignoring the fact that coral reefs are facing extinction. And we continue harming them.

Source: Action Atlas