2. The ocean...
2.
The ocean is home to a treasure house of biodiversity, and evidence is showing that protecting such significant local areas builds resilience to climate change - and can even help regenerate what has been lost.
Climate change has begun to compound the pollution and overfishing that wiped out an estimated half of all commercial fish since 1970. The oceans are absorbing most of the heat caused by our carbon emissions and 30 percent of the carbon dioxide itself. Sea surface temperatures are at record highs. The water has become 30 percent more acidic since the industrial revolution.
The changes may be invisible, but increasingly, the effects are not. The Gulf of Maine is warming faster than almost any other ocean region on Earth - and on Machias Sea Island, a popular destination for bird watching tours, puffin chicks are starving to death by the hundreds. In southern Florida, the higher ocean temperatures have boosted the toxic algae blooms that emptied beaches and hotels last summer. And around the world, many of the largest, most colorful coral gardens have gone tombstone gray. The worst coral bleaching on record was triggered in 2014 by ocean warming caused by greenhouse gases.
Human-caused global warming has also worsened hurricane impacts in the United States by increasing the intensity and decreasing the speed at which they travel. A hurricane can lash the land with 25-foot waves and 150-mile-an-hour winds, destroying the coral reefs and causing 10-15 percent more precipitation. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey dropped more than 60 inches in some locations and Hurricane Florence in 2018 demonstrated the devastating floods. (265 words)
(Adapted from: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/)
