We play a role in our environment

Amanda Jung/ Contributing Writer

Imagine taking a test and from the moment you turn it in, you’re confident you aced it. You’re expecting only good remarks and quite possibly a 100 percent at the top of the paper. However, your teacher hands it back to you with one simple letter at the top, a D.

This is the grade the Great Barrier Reef received on its “health report card” for the fifth year in a row, according to The Guardian. And no, this isn’t a report card Mother Nature would be proud of.

At some point or another, you thought you did everything in your power to secure a grade your parents would be proud of. But when it comes to the current situation with the Great Barrier Reef, it quickly becomes apparent that we aren’t doing everything in our power to make sure that essential ecosystems and habitats are healthy.

The Great Barrier Reef, according to its personal website, is home to the world’s largest coral reef and comprises 3,000 individual reef systems and coral cays along with hundreds of picturesque tropical islands.

Recently, there were rumors circulating that the Great Barrier Reef was pronounced dead, that it was no more. Although this isn’t the case, something must be done about this current situation. The Great Coral Reef might not be dead, however, it’s certainly is dying.

Although some of the reasons for the reef’s current state are out of our control, we still have a responsibility to take care of it. According to a report by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in a CNN article, the reef has been most easily affected by bleaching. This is something that occurs when coral are put under extreme stress by changes in temperature, light or nutrients.

You might be wondering what our role in this is. The environment minister of Queensland, Steven Miles, put it best: The Great Coral Reef is suffering, he said, because “there has been a failure to address runoff pollution and climate change.”

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Image retrieved from Flickr.