
Beautiful
Bethel, Connecticut
2019, Junior, Art (2014 – 2023)

Reflection
Reflection
Climate change has disastrous effects on our Earth's oceans. Due to environmental factors like pollution and global warming, corals go through a process called coral bleaching, leaving them colorless and vulnerable to disease. Already half of the entire Great Barrier Reef has died due to coral bleaching. This process has effects on fish and creatures that rely on the reefs for survival as well. It disrupts the structure of fish communities, their diversity, and their behavior. Many people know the Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef system, as a gorgeous destination spot. What they don't know is that the Great Barrier Reef may only last around another hundred years before caving into extinction because of global warming. People don't know that half of the reef has died or the effects this is having on the countless creatures depending on it. Many only have a "beautiful" image of it in their heads. The effects of climate change on reefs are a continuously growing problem that go beyond just the Great Barrier Reef. My drawing is meant to show how climate change is destroying ecosystems, and how our coral reefs may end up if we don't do something about climate change now. It is meant to represent the strenuous problems faced by coral reefs and their creatures, and how far from "beautiful" coral reefs may end up. I believe we need to teach others more about the problems caused by climate change and find ways we can all work together in order to help to fix them. We need to keep reminding ourselves that our oceans and coral reefs are worth saving because, in a hundred years, it may be too late.