Focus On

Warmer seas may be great when you are on holiday, but even small changes in temperature can be disastrous for some people.


	©John Miles/Panos Pictures

Coral Reefs that surround many South Pacific islands are under threat from warming waters. Coral reefs are not just pretty to look at. They are also the breeding ground for thousands of fish, and they protect the islands from big storm waves.

You might not notice a change of 3°C in temperature, but coral reefs do! Coral needs a water temperature of at least 20°C in order to survive, so it doesn't grow around our coasts.

Roll your cursor over the coral to see what happens if the temperature rises to 32°C or more, which is still less than our normal body temperature. This coral 'bleaching' is killing entire reefs in the South Pacific. Without a healthy coral reef, fish lose their habitats too.

Harry: Visit Global Eye Primary Spring 2001 to find out why coral reefs are threatened in other ways.
http://www.solcomhouse.com/coralreef.htm

Warmer seas bring another problem to South Pacific islanders, this one from the atmosphere. Warmer temperatures make hurricanes more likely. The warm water is like the hurricane's battery, giving the storm more power. The people of Tuvalu used to expect one or two serious hurricanes every ten years. In the 1990s there were seven.

To find out more about hurricanes check out these websites:
http://www.oar.noaa.gov/k12/html/hurricanes.html
http://www.fema.gov/kids/hurr.htm
http://www.ns.ec.gc.ca/weather/hurricane/kids.html and
http://www.motherjones.com/coral_reef/ are other sites worth visiting.

Damage from storms and rising sea levels in the South Pacific have already cost countries more than $1 billion in the last ten years.
Who should be paying the bill?

to go to a page where you can say what you think about the problems caused by global warming.