A rap summary of Kristen Marhaver's enlightening TED talk about Coral Reefs - what they do, what threats they face, how they are born and grow, and the latest techniques for helping them.
What's the hardest job you've ever done
Did you toil on a farm in the blazing sun
Did you create art and medicine to benefit everyone
well aware that the requisite respect and recognition might never come
All of this among other awesome feats
Are done by these creatures near to many a shore and beach
All we receive Is beyond belief
We owe it to ourselves to properly study these coral reefs
What’s the toughest job you’ve ever had?
Was it producing food to keep the community fed?
Or did you work night and day for national defense?
Or in a lab to create medicine, with no guarantee of success,
or respect? Or was it working hard to create a work of art?
The people who do those jobs deserve regards.
But humans aren’t the only ones to play these parts
These jobs are also done by animals plants
Including the ecosystems I study: coral reefs
When I explain these beings you'll alter beliefs
Coral reefs harvest larders of food like farmers
They protect our shores, filter water and guard us
They stock medicines like pharmacists
And they carve breathtaking living sculptures like artists
And because of all this, the work of the reefs is valued to be
worth hundreds of billions of dollars at least annually
“Think back to the most difficult job you ever did
Many of you would say it was being a parent”
What's the hardest job you've ever done
Did you toil on a farm in the blazing sun
Did you create art and medicine to benefit everyone
well aware that the requisite respect and recognition might never come
All of this among other awesome feats
Are done by these creatures near to many a shore and beach
All we receive Is beyond belief
We owe it to ourselves to properly study these coral reefs
And yet in spite of all this hard work from these species
It seems we've done our best to decrease it
We've overfished, polluted, added sewage, diseases
Acidified the seas, changed the seasons and each of these things
Acting together compound, like during a storm in Curacao,
Where the coral was thriving the island was safe and sound
But where it had been damaged around the town
The broken coral was picked up by the storm and smashed the rest down
So this damage has combined with the ravages of time
And our actions to turn coral to algae and slime
Now you’re probably expecting me to say Please Save the Coral Reef
But I gotta be honest that admonishment just bothers me
We've been saying save the reef all these years
But most people don't even know what a coral is
So why are they supposed to care or think about it
When they’re not aware and don’t know anything about it?
“Now I’ve been trying to help corals become parents
for over ten years now
And watching the wonder of life
has certainly filled me with amazement to the core of my soul”
What's the hardest job you've ever done
Did you toil on a farm in the blazing sun
Did you create art and medicine to benefit everyone
Well aware that the requisite respect and recognition might never come
All of this among other awesome feats
Are done by these creatures near to many a shore and beach
All we receive is beyond belief
We owe it to ourselves to properly study these coral reefs
Corals are mostly born from mass spawning
On one night a year all the eggs and sperm burst forth and
Go to the surface and try to find a match and combine
At that time, they divide and divide and begin life
As a tiny swimming larva, with a complete array of senses
Colour, light, texture, ph, wave pressure
And then it seeks a perfect place to dwell and reside
And keep feeding and dividing and growing the rest of its life
And its limestone skeleton is left behind
Creating massive structures as it grows in the direction of light
Providing habitat for millions of species to diversify
And in Curacao, this is what it still looks like,
While in many places it now looks like this
But we’ve discovered through analysis 3D printing and tests
The colours and textures of a baby corals preference
And that means that we can emulate these conditions
Whenever we construct something underwater to help them grow
Yet their birth process we’re only just beginning to know
Even so, while corals have had a hard time, many still survive
It’s time to thank them for their job and then help them to thrive
What's the hardest job you've ever done
Did you toil on a farm in the blazing sun
Did you create art and medicine to benefit everyone
Well aware that the requisite respect and recognition might never come
All of this among other awesome feats
Are done by these creatures near to many a shore and beach
All we receive Is beyond belief
We owe it to ourselves to properly study these coral reefs
“So never mind that they're worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Coral reefs are hardworking animals and plants and microbes and fungi. They're providing us with art and food and medicine. And we almost took out an entire generation of corals. But a few made it anyway, despite our best efforts, and now it's time for us to thank them for the work they did and give them every chance they have to raise the coral reefs of the future, their coral babies.
“Thank you so much”
