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Science Friday

Degrees of Change: Coral Restoration. Nov 22 2019, Part 1

Science Friday

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Science, Life Sciences, Wnyc, Natural Sciences, Friday

4.46.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 November 2019

⏱️ 47 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A quarter of the world’s corals are now dead, victims of warming waters, changing ocean chemistry, sediment runoff, and disease. Many spectacular, heavily-touristed reefs have simply been loved to death. But there are reasons for hope. Scientists around the world working on the front lines of the coral crisis have been inventing creative solutions that might buy the world’s reefs a little time.  Crawford Drury and his colleagues at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology are working to engineer more resilient corals, using a coral library for selective breeding experiments, and subjecting corals to different water conditions to see how they’ll adapt.  Some resilient corals are still in the wild, waiting to be found. Narrissa Spiers of the Kewalo Marine Laboratory in Honolulu found one such specimen hiding out in the polluted Honolulu Harbor.  Other scientists, like Danielle Dixson of the University of Delaware, are experimenting with corals that aren’t alive at all—3D-printed corals. The idea, she says, is to provide a sort of temporary housing for reef-dwellers after a big storm or human damage. Dixson likens these 3D-printed structures to the FEMA trailers brought in after a hurricane.  Dixson’s team is experimenting with these artificial corals in Fiji, to determine which animals use them as housing, and whether they spur the growth of new live corals too.  Two huge challenges remain. For any of these technologies to work at scale, we need quicker, more efficient ways to plant corals in the wild, says Tom Moore, the coral reef restoration lead at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Listen to this chapter of the series, Degrees of Change. Plus, California Governor Gavin Newsom imposed a moratorium on new fracking permits in the state. An independent scientific board will now need to review each project before it is approved. Reporter Rebecca Leber talks about what this state initiative tells us about the national debate on fracking. And, a look at the new members of the bipartisan Congressional Climate Solutions Caucus and their strategy for addressing climate change.

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is Science Friday. I'm Ira Flato.

0:10.8

The climate is changing, and because we need to deal with it now,

0:15.3

we open the next chapter of our series, Degrees of Change.

0:19.7

Our series explores the challenges of a changing climate and how we as a planet and a

0:25.2

people are adapting to the crisis.

0:28.1

Coming up, we'll talk about some hopeful experiments with scientists on the front lines of

0:32.7

the worldwide coral die-off.

0:35.3

But first, we check in on the gatekeepers, the decision-makers,

0:38.8

the controllers of the purse strings. Every year for the past 25 years, countries converge at the

0:44.8

United Nations climate change, or cop, to talk about big climate change policies. The conference

0:51.2

was scheduled to start on December 2nd in Chile, but it had to be moved due to the civil unrest happening in that country.

0:59.5

Here to fill us in on how COP25 will continue, and what's on the agenda is Rebecca Lieber.

1:05.4

She's the climate and environment reporter at Mother Jones based in Washington, D.C.

1:10.6

Welcome to Science Friday.

1:12.2

Thanks for having me back on. It's nice to have you back. Let's talk about COP 25 moving to

1:17.3

Madrid. How will the sudden change of location affect the conference, do you think?

1:22.5

Well, it certainly hasn't happened in this conference's history the past few decades. So it definitely throws a

1:29.0

wrench into things that just a few weeks out, the thousands of negotiators that descend on

1:34.8

this cop have to readjust their plans. You have the activist, Greta Thunberg, having to literally

1:42.1

cross the ocean to get to this conference in time.

1:45.4

So it is certainly happening in this larger context of uncertainty around the future of the Paris Climate Agreement.

1:53.2

And it is a pivotal year because every year is pivotal in figuring out how to implement this agreement.

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