Picture this: 132,974 square miles of vividly colored reefs ranging from violet to orange to pink, home to over 9,000 species. Now picture this: 132,974 square miles of bleached coral, home to only few species. Both are descriptions of the Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest coral reef located in the Coral Sea off the coast of Queensland, Australia. As well as being a prime attraction for tourism, the Great Barrier Reef offers shelter to over 1,625 species of fish, molluscs, sponges, marine algae, soft coral, sea pens, marine turtles, and 450 species of hard coral. The rich biodiversity found in the Great Barrier Reef aids in the reef maintaining its healthy, stable conditions; however, the habitat once seen as beautiful is becoming more and more bleak due to the vulnerability of the reef to climate change.
With the inconsistent changes in the sea’s temperature and acidification, the Great Barrier Reef’s habitat is becoming critical with every passing day, affecting not only the biodiversity found in the reef, but also the economic sustainability brought on by tourism. Increasing sea temperatures are causing coral to bleach. The degradation of the coral is creating fewer shelters and refuges for the thousands of species that seek the Great Barrier Reef as a source of safety. The increase of acidification in the water is causing the rate of skeleton formation of reefs to significantly slow and this, in turn, is weakening the reef building organisms. Another critical affect climate change has on the Great Barrier Reef is that the storms occurring due to the drastic temperature changes are deteriorating the barrier further. The Great Barrier Reef acts as a wall protecting inshore habitats from large waves and storms, but because of the storms occurring more often, the reef’s recovery rate is slowing and fewer coral are surviving. Because of the reef’s inability to protect itself from the radical climate changes, it is becoming incompetent in providing safety and comfort to the biodiversity relying on the reef. Based solely on tourism, the Great Barrier Reef attracts billions of dollars annually. Tourists want to see the multicolored, pristine coral as well as the thousands of vastly different species located in and around the reef. As time passes without any successful preventatives against climate change, tourists are becoming more and more disappointed. Instead of seeing the colorful coral they are witnessing the coral deteriorate, and instead of laying eyes on the 1,625 different species of fish, or the marine turtles, the tourists are seeing a vacant expanse of dying organisms. Local folk describe the current state of the Great Barrier Reef as “devastating...even the pristine part of the reef is dying” (cnn.com). Even though it may seem as though the impending doom of the reef is inevitable, it is not. Actions can be taken to prevent any more reefs from dying, and in time, taking these preventative measures can help the reefs recover. Planting trees to reduce the runoff damaging the coral reefs, reducing one's own carbon footprint, and using organic fertilizer to stop chemicals from going into the sea are examples of precautionary acts that will halt the degradation of the Great Barrier Reef. If the number of people taking action to save the reef increases, one day the beauty once witnessed in the expanse of the Great Barrier Reef will be restored, and the biodiversity relying on the reef as a home will be saved.
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There are several pressure groups throughout the world, the 3 that I will be talking about are ABC Nepal, Croydon Community Against Trafficking (CCAT) and The Arizona League to End Regional Trafficking (ALERT). ABC Nepal is a pressure group that works to rescue girls from brothels and for women and children's rights. This organization advocates gender equality by encouraging women's education, economic empowerment and lift recognition about social and political issues that influence women the greatest. Croydon Community Against Trafficking (CCAT)is a pressure group that works to stop labor trafficking all around the world. This organization does walks to raise awareness and promotes itself through ads, websites, public signs and social media (facebook and twitter). The Arizona League to End Regional Trafficking (ALERT) is a pressure group that helps victims of human trafficking by providing food, shelter, medical care, mental health counseling, etc.. In order for this organiziation to promote itself, they go around to the public and try to expand the anti-trafficking initiative. These groups want to stop human trafficking, and they would like everyone to help to, by donating or volunteering their time.
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The internet is a large group of computers that are connected wirelessly into a huge network that is easily accessible to the public, as long as you've got a computer and a decent connection. Since you're here, chances are you're doing well in that department, and I can safely assume that you want to hear about this internet, so here goes. As I said, the internet is run by computers, and a computer's sole job is to store and process information; this can also be said about the internet. However, this information can be sent to any other computers at long distances almost instantly, which allows people to send a message in whatever form they choose so long as it is made of the kind of information that can be stored on a computer. Beats having a bi-weekly chat with your grandparents and spending an hour writing down your life's story when you could be catching up on the all latest memes. Now you can tell them anything, anytime.
The internet is like a worldwide library that anyone can stop by. You can check out as many books as you want from everywhere in the world, have a chat face to face, and maybe leave behind a little something of your own. As such, it is a wonderful place to learn because there are people out there who set up tutorials and videos that bring a teacher straight to your monitor. Clever people are constantly developing new ways of using and distributing the internet, including creating new and improved technology for accessing the internet (such as smartphones). More people are becoming exposed to it at an increasing rate, and they join/contribute to the massive community formed by it. I predict that this growth will continue until we somehow find a better way of doing things. Not all heavily populated areas in the world have the pleasure of being connected to the internet, but clever people, again, are working on that. By: Lauren Perry and Silas Langdon |
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