El Vaquero

Issue date: 12/12/07 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: Dieuwertje Kast While diving, Justin Davidson admires a señiorita swimming by. Señiorita fish live in kelp forests and have evolved an ability to blend in with the kelp, which camouflages them from predators. Global warming and habitat destruction, including the decline of sea otters, are causing the once-abundant kelp forests to disappear off the coast of California, including the Channel Islands.

In spite of an abundance of evidence to the contrary, our government refuses to admit that global warming is actually happening and that it affects us right now - not as a remote possibility in the distant future.


As a scuba diver, I see first-hand how global warming is causing not only vast climate change but it is also changing the ocean. As the temperature continues to rise, the condition of the ocean becomes progressively worse. A Los Angeles Times exposé, "Altered Oceans," stated that by the year 2050 more than 50 percent of the world's coral reefs will have disappeared.


Coral reefs are indicators of environmental stress because they are quite persnickety about the conditions in which they live. They need to be in water with a certain temperature range, pH, salinity, even turbidity (clarity), and if those conditions are not met, the corals die. Because coral reefs provide diverse habitats for an abundance of animals and plants, when the coral dies because of global warming it will devastate the oceanic ecosystem.


Imagine diving through dead and bleached coral with no fish, sharks or sea turtles, just primitive organisms like bacteria and jellyfish. All of the beauty and diversity of the coral environment would be gone forever. Would anyone travel to Hawaii, the Florida Keys, the West Indies or Australia to see where the coral used to be?


Global warming also increases the rate at which the polar ice is melting. Ice caps are a valuable source of fresh water - one of earth's most valuable commodities. Humans need water to survive and uncontaminated, pure drinking water is becoming scarce.

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