Traditional Palauan Agriculture Supports Healthy Coral Reefs.

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With all the bad news out there regarding climate change and the death of all that is natural and beautiful, science has found a little bit of good news in the form of traditional agriculture. Palaua is an island in the western Pacific that is faced with the dual threat of both rising oceans and sedimentation. The island is surrounded by coral reefs that, when they’re healthy both break waves and higher water while also filtering run-off and sediment from streaming into the surrounding waters. The main food crop on Palaua (as in most of the Pacific islands) is taro, a starchy root vegetable who’s growing process has surprising effects on the surrounding environment.

A NOAA funded study has revealed that when taro is planted in the traditional way, as in planted near the water with an embankment that allows a steady water flow, the roots act as a natural filter. When the taro fields are combined with the naturally growing mangrove forests, you see that 90% of runoff gets trapped between the two, greatly improving the surrounding water quality. If tactics like this continue to be used and grow in popularity, we might see some progress being made in the fight against pollution and the dirtying of our oceans. If nothing else, at least we will continue to have coral reefs and the organisms that live in them to explore.

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Melting Ice Might Raise Ocean Levels Faster Than Expected.

Most people are firm believers in climate change and the melting of the ice caps, even though there are those that continue to stand against the rising tide of scientific and observable evidence. While it was always known that the ice caps are melting and that sea levels will rise, a new study says that they are melting faster than we thought and will make the oceans rise higher than we thought. This is bad news for a huge number of reasons, least of which is that all the coastal cities and settlements that might’ve escaped the previous estimates are now going to have to figure out if they will be flooded with by the oceans.

This is the first study to actually show how much water will be added to the oceans in the next century by the melting ice caps. With 37 centimeters being added solely by the melting ice caps (that’s ignoring all the other things causing the sea levels to rise), the oceans are going to drastically change the way people live. Cities such as New York and Shanghai are going to have to think of drastic plans to prevent untold destruction and flight from the cities to country. With the oceans rising faster than we though, we have less time to make plans and this will lead to more chaos and loss of life. The most unfortunate thing about this is that all of this could’ve been prevented with logical laws and a unified effort by all countries and political parties around the world.

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