Project 1 Final
Walking through the doors of my junior year of high school we were reminded by the administration that this was the most important year of our high school career. During course selection the previous year they had told us to shake it up and take some different classes. Up to that point I had only taken honors classes, so I opted to take an AP class. The class that the counselor suggested was called Environmental Science. Other students had told me that the class was one of the easier AP classes and that I should be able to pass it without too much worry. The other students were right, it was not a hard class if you did the work and studied for the exams. It was also a very informative class about many topics that were not taught in my previous science classes. The one section that piqued my interest the most was when we started reading and talking about ocean systems and their environments. I was interested in the content the entire two weeks of the unit due to my love for the ocean and scuba diving. It’s sad to say that didn’t happen very often in my high school classes. During the unit, we would learn about the community of reefs and how reefs help us humans survive. As we moved through the chapter we talked about how the coral reefs around the world are dying. My teacher explained that the cause of the reefs dying was by human greed and a lack of understanding and respect for the ocean. For me it was sad and scary to look at the differences between what our ocean reefs used to look like and what they looked like presently in some parts of the world. I have been scuba diving since I was 12 and have seen some of the most beautiful reefs in the Caribbean and South America where the coral was bright and beautiful and full of assorted colors, and now was aware they were dying.
The curriculum of this class really helped me understand that we need to do something about the decline of these reefs. I wasn’t the only one in the class who saw that we needed a change and we needed the change now. Other students in my class also saw how important the ocean and the coral reef are to our survival. As a class, we all recognized our love for the ocean in that it was in our backyard. Most of us were born in South Florida and the beach and the ocean was a major part of our childhood. We discussed as a class how these reefs may not be around forever. This was one of the first classes where similar interests and concerns for the environment really allowed us to bond and helped us create friendships with kids we didn’t necessarily knew had the same interests. Some of these classmates are the kids I am still in contact with today.
During one of the lectures my teacher showed us a series of pictures from the Great Barrier Reef, in Australia, and the impact of years of abuse. It was a vivid depiction of the dying reef. I learned that in in the last decade the effects of climate change had slowly changed the temperature of the water and was causing coral bleaching. The color of a coral comes from the algae living in the coral. An increase in water temperatures causes the coral to become stressed and this stress causes the coral to expel the algae living on it. Once this occurs the lack of algae will cause the coral to start turning white like it is being bleached, and ultimately lead to the death of the coral. All of this is caused by global warming which is a human dynamic. But, that is just one reason the reefs are dying. There is ocean acidification, over fishing and the list can go on and on. After sitting in class and studying the reasons why the reefs were dying and how quickly it was occurring I was shocked. I also learned that the reefs in my home town of Palm Beach Florida were also starting to see the effects of these man-made problems.
There are so many benefits to a healthy coral reef including them being the home to almost 25 percent of all fish that live in the ocean. When healthy coral reefs around the world are responsible for feeding millions of people. With the death of coral reefs, the fish will must migrate to where they are able to live, or they will end up dying alongside the coral reef. In a class lecture we learned that it is estimated that sixteen percent of the coral reefs have already been destroyed.
Unfortunately, most people do not understand the importance of coral reefs, nor do they know about them dying. Unless you snorkel or dive you would not even know what a healthy or unhealthy reef looks like and I believe this is one of those things you need to experience to believe it is happening. The next generation of kids won’t have the chance to experience the beauty of the coral reef if something dramatic is not done soon. Through my class I did learn that there are some organizations that are working on fixing this problem, so it is not a problem that can’t be reversed. This class may not have been the most intriguing class that I have ever taken, but it did have a profound effect on me. When I can, I will participate in local events on saving the coral reefs and will continue to do so until we reverse this trend. Since taking this class I am also more aware and appreciative when diving. Finally, this class allowed me to meet some new people that share my love of the ocean.
