The race to save Florida’s devastated coral reef from global warming

The Paris climate agreement is a key factor in preventing further damage to the ecosystem, and the tourism and seafood industries dependent on it.

PICKLES REEF, Florida — Twenty feet under water, Nature Conservancy biologist Jennifer Stein swims over to several large corals and pulls several laminated cards from her dive belt. “Disease,” reads one, as she gestures to a coral that exhibits white splotches. “Recent mortality,” reads another card. Along the miles of coral reef off the Florida Keys, Stein and her fellow divers have found countless examples of this essential form of ocean life facing sickness and death.

The pattern of decay is shaping up as one of the sharpest impacts of climate change in the continental United States — and a direct threat to economic activity in the Keys, a haven for diving, fishing and coastal tourism. The debate over climate change is often framed as one that pits jobs against the need to protect the planet for future generations. In deciding to exit the Paris climate agreement and roll back domestic environmental regulations, the Trump administration said it was working to protect jobs. Warming waters and disease are killing the coral that makes up the […]

Full article: The race to save Florida’s devastated coral reef from global warming

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