A new manmade hybrid reef being tested off Miami Beach aims to do what climate change has increasingly foiled: provide a powerful protector to storm surge and rising seas hammering Florida’s shores.
The Australian government on Wednesday turned down a proposal for a new open-cut coal mine near the Great Barrier Reef, invoking environmental laws and the risk of “irreversible damage.”
Seventy percent of coral reefs off the coast of Florida are eroding and experiencing a net loss of habitat, according to new research out of the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Science.
The report’s authors said current conservation efforts were not enough to address the “ongoing and increasingly serious challenge” presented by climate change.
If worsening coastal storms damage the reefs, the Nature Conservancy will get a payout and use the money to repair the coral — work that state officials can’t afford to do.
