Cover Stories

Paradise Lost?

Bleaching incidences have increased since first noticed in 1979 and scientists are hard at work studying how warming oceans will affect the Great Barrier Reef. One study by World Wildlife Fund indicates up to 95 percent of the reef could die by 2050 if ocean temperatures increase by just 1.5 degrees. Coral bleaching affects reefs worldwide, and the Great Barrier Reef is faring comparatively well — in part due to its massive size and a team of scientists and government officials dedicated to preserving this World Heritage Site.

Dead reefs will recover over a period of years with a little help. Reducing other stressors such as pollution and overfishing will allow the coral polyp’s free-swimming juveniles to re-colonize the hard calcium structures left behind.

“Australia’s reefs are better managed to cope with climate change than anywhere else,” said Hughes. “Controls on pollution and overfishing can preserve the resilience of a reef in the face of inevitable bouts of bleaching that are occurring now and into the future.”

Pro Dive-Undersea (www.undersea.com.au) is an eco-certified livea-board dive boat that operates tours to the outer reef.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: ITS DELTA IN DANGER, THE REGION FACES AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE
As it faces the biggest drought in more than a century, reports indicate Southern Africa could be in store for a desertlike future. A study published in the scientific journal Science suggests Africa’s Okavango Delta — a watering hole for thousands of African animals — is at risk. South Africa’s Cape also may face a reduced rainfall. The Orange River that runs through South Africa and empties into the Atlantic Ocean, one of few permanent water sources in the arid western part of the continent, could completely evaporate.

Permanent water sources are a stable and necessary requirement for wildlife. A decline in wildlife populations could have a negative impact on tourism, an economic staple to the economies of many African nations. And because rivers form nearly 40 percent of African countries’ borders, water — or the lack of water — could lead to conflict. Encouraging water conservation is the first step in planning for the possibility of water shortages.

“In the past, water was treated as a renewable, non-exhaustible resource. This is clearly no longer the case,” said Maarten de Wit, the lead scientist on the study published in Science.

Combining existing environmental stresses, such as overgrazing, with decreasing rainfall puts more of the population and its wildlife at risk.

“[Many] areas sustain only marginal farming, yet there are important intergenerational cultural and social practices that are tied to them. Should we be farming there at all?” asked de Wit. “This, in fact, is the real tragedy of the commons: We don’t know how to deal with it yet within a social framework of equity, so instead, everyone continues to grab things, greedily, for themselves.”

Ecologically friendly tour options include the Mala Mala Private Game Reserve (www.malamala.com) in South Africa and Phinda Lodges (www.ccafrica.com/reserve-1-id-2-1). Wildland Adventures (www.wildlandadventures.com) offers a “Walking with Elephants Botswana Safari.”

EURASIA: WHERE THE HIMALAYAN GLACIERS ARE MELTING
The Himalayas — spanning India, Nepal and China — are known for drawing adventurous souls who climb to see the world from new heights, the indigenous Sherpa culture and unique wildlife. The glacier-filled area is also one of the most vulnerable to the immediate consequences of global warming. Sir Edmund Hillary, the first to reach the summit of the Himalayas’ Mount Everest, joined in petitioning UNESCO to put Nepal’s Sagarmatha National Park — which contains Mount Everest — on its danger list due to global warming.

World Wildlife Fund scientists who put a monitor on top of the world – on Mount Everest and several other peaks — found that Himalayan glaciers are receding at an alarming rate. In fact, 95 percent of Tibet’s glaciers are melting. Glacial melting threatens fragile alpine and sub-alpine habitats, home to endangered wildlife species, including the Himalayan black bear, the snow leopard, the red panda and several endangered ungulates — Himalayan tahr, blue sheep and musk deer.