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I doubt 10 billion will fix it. Unfortunately, AFAIK coral reefs are sensitive to rises in ocean temperature. And so climate change is killing them & will kil

I doubt 10 billion will fix it. Unfortunately, AFAIK coral reefs are sensitive to rises in ocean temperature. And so climate change is killing them & will kill most warm water surface coral around the planet. The same thing is playing out in the caribbean, and in Thailand. Also, judging by our progress on controlling CO2 emissions, and by our not so great understanding about how fast greenland / antarctica will melt, we may need to put particulates into the atmosphere one day. This will help prevent runaway climate change, but will do nothing to stop the buildup of CO2. This extra CO2 will cause oceans to acidify further. Hopefully we don't reach the point of acidification which will prevent the basic food chain creatures such as krill to stop forming exoskeletons.

wycx 10y ago
It is also the rate of sea level rise. If sea level rises faster than the coral platforms can keep up, then they will drown. See the figure here [1] for a summary of reef responses to sea level rise. Also, if the corals die, then they stop calcifying, and then the platform starts to erode, making life harder for the organisms that are still alive... Coral reefs are a complex system of feedbacks. [1] http://www.sepmstrata.org/page.aspx?pageid=345 http://www.sepmstrata.org/page.aspx?pageid=345
flashman 10y ago
One proposed solution is putting shade cloth over parts of the reef. Not sure how much this would alter the water temperature, but it may be enough to reduce heat stress in the corals.