Corals at risk from global warming

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For anyone with us for the first time, welcome to Voyage Green News! We provide a weekly dose of news and inspiration for a sustainable life. 💚 

♻️ This week’s sustainability news

Mass coral bleaching event hits the Great Barrier Reef

What’s happening: The Great Barrier Reef is experiencing another mass coral bleaching event as a result of global warming. It’s the fifth such event to occur there in the last eight years. Scientists also fear the excessive ocean heat is affecting the world’s most southern coral reef at Lord Howe island. Ocean temperatures may also be reaching dangerous levels for corals at Norfolk Island.

Why it’s happening: Dr Roger Beeden, the chief scientist at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, confirmed the bleaching there was caused by global heating and an El Niño climate pattern. Corals can bleach when they are in very warm water for a long time. Some types of coral are better at resisting bleaching than others, but they will die when the bleaching is severe. Scientists say that corals that recover from bleaching are more likely to get sick and struggle to regenerate in the future.

Why it’s important: The first mass coral bleaching event at the Great Barrier Reef occurred in 1998. It occurred again in 2002, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2022, and now in 2024. The accelerated frequency of these events mirror the advanced warming of our planet and oceans. Similar mass coral bleaching occurred in the northern hemisphere across the Americas during their summer months. An estimated 20% - 50% of corals at Lord Howe and Norfolk islands have not been formally described. If the corals there do succumb to bleaching, species will disappear before we get the chance to identify what we’re losing.

Large-scale alternative to plastic packaging announced

What’s happening: Sway, a Californian-based startup, has announced a breakthrough technology that will enable seaweed to replace flexible plastics at scale. Their “patent-pending Thermoplastic Seaweed resin (TPSea™) is a 100% bio-based, home-compostable, microplastic-free ingredient made from a regenerative ocean crop that can replenish ecosystems and support coastal communities.”

Why it’s happening: Sway was founded with the aim of utilising the natural resource of seaweed with advanced materials science to replace the plastic packaging damaging our environment. After being available for four years, Sway is ready to introduce their patented seaweed products into the existing global manufacturing systems and speed up production to scale their use.

Why it’s important: Retail bags, food wrappers and polybags (the plastic used when shipping goods) are estimated to make up 30% of all single-use plastics. These plastics either end up sitting in landfills for years or contribute to the estimated 4.8 million to 12.7 million metric tons of plastic per year that make their way into the oceans.

📖 Read the press release: Sway unveils new tech

🌐 Travel to Vanuatu

Experience natural wonders and traditional village life

Remote islands and inland swimming holes: Vanuatu was one of the most adventurous and beautiful destinations we travelled to last year. We have nine articles about our travels there for you to enjoy.

😇 People doing great things

Answering the call to provide aid in Gaza

Much needed food reaches Gazans facing famine: World Central Kitchen (WCK) was founded by Spanish-American chef José Andrés in 2010. They provide meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises, while also working to build resilient food systems with locally led solutions. They have served more than 35 millions meals, dispatched more than 1,400 trucks across the Rafah Crossing, and opened more than 60 community kitchens across Gaza. Their main field kitchen is in Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have fled.

They have now worked with Spanish charity Open Arms to send a salvage vessel towing a barge filled with rice, flour, legumes, canned vegetables, and canned proteins from Cyprus to Gaza. Palestinians working for WCK built a jetty on Gaza's coast to offload the aid, using rubble from buildings and infrastructure destroyed over the last five months. The 200 tons of food from 12 trucks has now arrived as seen in the image below. The hope is this success will prove the concept for a maritime aid corridor between Cyprus and Gaza.

⭐️ Weekly inspiration

Why nature sounds are so relaxing

How they are linked to the fight-or-flight instinct: Amanda MacMillan explains the science and how to incorporate them into our daily lives.

Out with animal cruelty, in with mushrooms

Ending factory farming: Whitney Bauck profiles farmers in the US leaving the financial, health and environmental harms of industrial agriculture behind them.

Speed of coral reef restoration brings hope

‘Full recovery’ in four years: Per a study in Current Biology, coral cover and important ecosystem functions could be recovered, and relatively fast.

👌 Sustainable products we love

Our favourite reusable coffee cup

Sip in style: Boasting the world’s first shatterproof ceramic reusable cup, Sttoke has cracked the secret code to keeping your favourite beverage hot while honouring its flavour. A staggering 500 billion coffee cups are thrown in the trash every year around the world. Plus you’re drinking a toxic soup with every sip you take from your disposable plastic cup. So help reduce needless waste and protect your health by using one of Sttoke’s reusable cups.

👀 Check it out now: sttoke.com

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