Damage to the Reef
The area where the cruise ship sank is a popular scuba diving site for many tourists. One diving site reviews the underwater environment off the coast of Giglio as one of the most beautiful and fascinating in the entire Mediterranean Sea. This says a lot, considering that the Mediterranean aquatic environment is already rather compromised with the introduction of aggressive invasive species, warming due to climate change, and loss of sea life due to overfishing.

Now the newest danger to this area of the Mediterranean is the Costa Concordia wrecking and sinking in shallow water. The reports were that the ship hit a reef – Mediterranean reefs are already rare, and the sea life of the Mediterranean depends on the reefs as areas to breed, feed, and live. The destruction on this one reef caused by the huge ship hitting it would be massive – dislodging corals, scraping up the bottom environment, and directly killing sea life. Now that the large ship has come to a stop, the damage continues in the form of leaking oil, gas, engine fluids, and other environmental pollutants.

Search and Rescue Continues to Affect Marine Life
Another danger comes in the form of the explosions that search and rescue divers must perform to open up sections of the ship. Explosions travel through the water in the form of intense pressure and sound waves – these affect marine life in the worst possible way, able to directly kill fish and delicate marine animals that cannot easily escape the sight by rupturing air bladders and organs. Other sea life like seals and dolphins have been displaced from their home habitats by the sounds and activities of the Costa Concordia crash site.

United Nations says: temperatures will rise

The United Nations says that the earth has already warmed by more than 0.6 degrees centigrade over the last century, and that even at the lowest predicted levels of warming, temperatures will rise by more than double that over the next hundred years. While precise climate change facts are hard to pin down, many people around the world say they can see that mother earth is already feeling the impact.

Extinction follows Climate Change

As polar ice caps melt, sea levels are rising and will continue to do so, inundating lowlands and destroying cooler habitats around the planet. Meanwhile, patterns of precipitation are expected to change, with some areas getting far wetter while others become drier – leading to the extinction of plants and creatures unable to cope with their changing circumstances. The United Nations (UN) predicts that up to a quarter of all mammals and more than one in ten birds could become extinct over the next few decades – a huge loss to the diverse population of mother earth.

We have to take action to safe Mother Earth

As for humans, climate scientists say we too will suffer, as fiercer storms and more flooding hit coastal areas – a potential disaster for the billions who live there. We’ll also face an increasing shortage of drinking water, as the seas rise, flooding freshwater supplies. Global warming could severely disrupt food supplies, as previously fertile lands dry out or are flooded. What’s more, scientists warn, warmer temperatures will help diseases such as malaria spread, with potentially devastating effects. While the accuracy of many such climate change facts may be hard to test, scientists and campaigners say their warnings are a call for all of us to take action.