Red Sea Might Just Turn into DEAD Sea!

The Red Sea

A recent study has found that Global Warming is slowing the growth of Coral in the Red Sea, and all growth could stop by the year 2070.

By utilizing CT (computed tomography) scans, some scientists over at the WHOI (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) have found that the greenhouse effect (which is the leading cause of global warming) is killing off one of the predominant species of coral in the Red Sea.

The summer temperatures on the sea surface remained at roughly 1.5 degrees Celsius above what’s the norm for the past ten years. The growth of the coral, Diploastrea heliopora, has seen a marked decrease of 30% and as has been quoted by scientists, “could cease growing altogether by 2070” or even sooner, as the research team quoted in the July 16th issue of the journal Science.

“The warming in the Red Sea and the resultant decline in the health of this coral is a clear regional impact of global warming,” said a WHOL postdoctoral investigator, Neal E. Cantin, who is also the co-lead researcher on the project. In the 1980s, he explained, “the average summer [water] temperatures were below 30 degrees Celsius. In 2008 they were approaching 31 degrees.”

This could spell some big trouble for the Red Sea. If the Coral is being affected in such a way, what of the other species? Could it be that the Red Sea will become another DEAD Sea in the very near future? Scientists are working round the clock on a solution for Global Warming, but it seems a solution is still years from being worked out, and in the meantime we are losing out.