Course:ECON371/UBCO2011WT1/GROUP2/Article 1 : The extinction of coral reefs

Article

http://blog.arkive.org/2011/09/coral-reefs-likely-to-disappear-within-a-century/

Summary

Due to overfishing, carbon emissions acidify the ocean water, and climate change scientists are predicting that the coral reefs will be extinct by the end of the century. The climate change has caused coral bleaching by increasing the surface temperatures of the ocean which puts certain reef species under a significant amount of stress. Ocean acidification makes reef organisms unable to build their skeletons because they cannot retrieve the materials needed. The combination of this is leading to the extinction of reef species. This would be the first time an entire ecosystem would become extinct and would cause a substantial decrease in biodiversity, especially marine biodiversity. One quarter of all marine life is found in the coral reef ecosystem and many of the species in the coral reefs contain unique chemical compounds, several of which are believed to be useful for medicinal reasons. In addition the fishing and tourism industry in the coral reef will suffer a substantial loss. The coral reefs also provide shoreline protection. Twenty percent of coral reefs have already been lost mainly due to human causes. However, not all of the damage is due to humans. Significant damage has also been done to coral reefs from natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes which have been on the rise in severity recently due to climate change. These events cause the reefs to slide off into the ocean. The loss of coral reefs would be an environmental tragedy and it is very important to continue local conservation efforts but also create a larger long term plan that will reduce climate change and stop the acidification of the oceans.

Analysis

The loss of the coral reef ecosystem is very difficult to analyze economically because it is hard to place a monetary value on biodiversity and the loss of these unique species. The loss of tourism and fishing is much easier to do a cost benefit analysis of. To get the true value of the economic loss a willingness to pay analysis for the tourism, not the market price would probably be more effective because there are a large number of people willing to pay higher than market price for the tourist attractions. WTP would also be useful to value the biodiversity of the reef ecosystem by seeing hwo much people would be willing to pay to sustain it. To stop the loss of the coral reefs CO2 emissions would need to go down substantially enough to stop making the ocean more acidic and causing a climate change. The effects of CO2 emissions do not only affect the coral reefs but also cause other significant environmental damage and if the total benefit of the positive externalities of lowering the carbon emissions were measured against the cost there would be a much lower level of efficent emissions. This type of analysis would be probably be more accurate and useful in this analysis, however extremely complex. If this were looked at from a local stand point a local analysis of emissions could be calculated and local regulations could be put in place to stop the direct acidification of the lake. This would have a lower cost but also lower benefits because you are not counting the global benefit of lower emmissions on the environment. These issues of standing create difficulty in pinpoint the efficent level.

Another significant factor in the coral reef disappearance is the overfishing of the reefs. Simply by reducing the overfishing the reefs could be sustain for a future generations. This would allow the tourism industry to continue to bring in revenue for several more years and be able to keep moderate fishing for several more years. This cost benefit anaylsis would be much less complicated and the total cost of reducing the fishing would be substaintally less than that of lowering the CO2 emmissions globally.

The coral reefs are just one part of a much larger global issue of acid rain and climate change, however they are showing the effects early and would be a signifcant loss that many people care a great deal about and cause significant economic damage as well. Globally an efficent standard of CO2 emmissions needs to be set so the problem can be stopped and the ecosystem can be sustained for many generations.

Profs Comments

You could have discussed how bleaching is part of the external cost of using fossil fuels, and ways to measure that cost. Travel cost by visitors to reefs, contingent valuation, ...

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