A specific scene that stood out to me was the part when the corals unusually started glowing neon. No one knew why this was happening at first, but they found that the corals did this in order to protect themselves from climate change. The bright colors reflect the light, reducing the heat that the corals absorb. This is fascinating but also very sad because they are only doing this because they are so close to dying. Turning neon is their last stand against the rising temperature of their habitat.
It surprised me that coral are considered animals, not plants. And they are also very very big. I thought corals were tiny things living together, but they are very big in reality. Corals are made up of thousands of things called polyps and they all have mouths and stomachs just like animals. They also coexist with plants that live on top of them. These plant cells make food that the corals can eat. Another thing that surprised me was the fact that parrotfish eat coral, and poop out sand. I don’t think this is the only way sand is made, but I never thought that part of our beaches came from fish poop.
After finishing the documentary, I understand more about coral and climate change in general. I now know that corals are living animals, not plants. I also understand how much climate change is affecting them. Now knowing about the role of coral on our planet, I have another reason to fight against climate change. Before, I knew that plants and animals were affected by climate change, but I didn’t know such a huge part of the entire Earth's ecosystem was at such a risk. I thought the biggest issue was sea levels rising. This has made me more committed to changing the little things that I do, in order to do my part in the fight against climate change.
We should avoid doing research because we could develop an idea of the documentary that’s not accurate. This is because our interpretation will be based on someone else’s interpretation. We should stick to the source by only taking notes on the documentary. If we do research, we may also add too much unnecessary information. Our summaries shouldn’t be too long, so we should only summarize what is seen in the doc and what is absolutely necessary.
Really interesting that corals are classified as animals, I'm hearing that for the first time. It's truly terrible that we are causing the destruction of one of the most beautiful ecosystems on earth. Healthy prosperous coral reefs are vital to our planet, and we all need to do more to save them.
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ReplyDeleteIt is a very cool fact that corals turn neon to protect themselves from climate change; I honestly thought that corals were just naturally neon. I also didn't know that corals are animals! That is very cool!
A lot of cool facts in this blog. I have a climate change class that I'm taking right now and we talk about so many things that climate change affects. I think we might have mentioned something about coral in one of our units.
ReplyDeleteI had never considered that coral were animals at all. At first glace I always thought that they were just plants. It's quite unfortunate that lots of coral are dying and there is not anything that I could do right now. I always wanted to see all of the worlds wonders and nature's beauty. Now my bucket list has one less goal with climate change killing coral.
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