This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on June 20 - 26, 2016.

One of the most sensitive ecosystems in the marine world may be signalling the predicted impacts of climate change, but a troubling question mark hangs over our responsiveness to nature’s message.

Vanishing coral reefs are telling us that human activity is seriously impacting the environment, with grave consequences for life on earth.

The alarm was sounded earlier this year when reports surfaced that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is experiencing the worst mass bleaching event in its history, as the country’s task force on the problem reported in March.

Coral bleaching occurs when the living organisms that make up coral reefs expel the colourful algae that live inside their bodies and provide them with food. Those algae give coral reefs the technicolour beauty that rewards snorkellers in the unspoilt tropical waters where coral colonies thrive.

Prof Terry Hughes of James Cook University in Queensland, who heads the university’s coral research centre, described the task force’s survey in a media release as the "saddest research trip of my life". In the survey, which covered 4,000km, researchers found only four coral reefs that were unaffected.

Closer to home, in 2010, coral bleaching was found to have affected 60% to 90% of reefs in Malaysia, leading the Department of Marine Parks Malaysia to temporarily close 12 out of 83 dive sites in national marine parks. The parks were reopened for diving the next year when it was found thankfully that most of the corals had recovered. On a positive note, that episode led to the adoption of a coral bleaching response plan by the department in 2012.

In sum, however, the outlook is not reassuring. Reef Resilience, a programme of the US-based Nature Conservancy, noted in a 2011 assessment that:

•    Almost 95% of coral reefs in Southeast Asia are threatened;

•    Coral reefs are experiencing higher ocean temperatures and acidity than ever before in 400,000 years; and

•    Without appropriate action, 90% of coral reefs worldwide would be threatened by 2030 and almost 100% by 2050.

Why is coral degradation an issue?

Besides their stunning beauty, coral reef ecosystems provide critical benefits, as noted by Reef Resilience:

•    Supporting a variety of human needs, they are key to subsistence economies, fisheries, tourism and shoreline protection, and yield compounds that are important in the development of new medicines.

•    At least 500 million people rely on coral reefs for food, coastal protection, and livelihoods.

•    In developing countries, coral reefs contribute about one-quarter of the total fish catch, providing food to an estimated one billion people in Asia alone.

•    Coral reefs form natural barriers that protect nearby shorelines from the eroding forces of the sea, protecting coastal dwellings, agricultural land and beaches.

•    Coral reefs are the medicine chests of the 21st century, with more than half of all new cancer drug research focusing on marine organisms. Coral reefs have been used in the treatment of cancer, HIV, cardiovascular diseases, ulcers, and other ailments.

 Unfortunately for corals, human activity has had devastating impacts on their existence. Apart from rising water temperatures, corals are threatened by ocean acidification from the absorption of carbon dioxide produced from human activities. Ocean acidification prevents corals and other marine animals from absorbing the calcium carbonate they need for building strong skeletons, and so threaten their survival.

Other threats to coral reefs include overfishing, fishing using poisons and dynamite, pollution from sewage and agriculture, outbreaks of predatory starfish, invasive species, and sedimentation from poor land use practices. Reefs are also affected by destructive fishing and exploitation to supply the coral reef wildlife trade. In addition, fish, corals, and various invertebrates are harvested to supply the aquarium business.

Despite the gravity of the threat, however, human society has failed to take decisive action to avoid the climate catastrophe that will impact its own chances of survival. An ongoing expose in the UK’s Guardian newspaper tagged “Reef on the Brink” provides an eye-opening take on the problem.

 An opinion piece in the paper’s series on the topic, by Australian marine scientist John Pandolfi, argues that while the threat to the Great Barrier Reef may seem overwhelming, there are in fact several concrete steps that can be taken right away to tackle the crisis. His five proposals, in a word, are to vastly increase funding, impose a moratorium on coal, empower the regulator, honour the science and avoid news fatigue.

On the face of it, none of these actions are anything more than the essential remedies to address a global crisis. What is revealing is that they continue to remain proposals even at this eleventh hour in the countdown to irreversible climate change.

This clearly shows that the current approach to the dilemma of development and its destructive effects cannot be adequately addressed by even the most elaborate of mitigation and adaption plans for a very basic reason — they don’t address the intrinsic imbalance between man and the environment that the present development paradigm is based upon.

So no climate change action plan or green economy agenda that hopes to maintain the consumption culture of the current generation can postpone the climate crisis for long. As the Global Footprint Network, a non-profit organisation, has calculated, humanity today uses the equivalent of 1.6 planets to provide our resources and process our waste.

Evidently, technological fixes will only go so far. A more logical option is to aim for a transformation of the individual’s values away from a consumerist culture to an outlook that emphasises living in harmony with oneself and the wider world.

The problem with that world view, if it may be called a problem, is that it would put the entire circus of demand creation that is driving entire industries today out of business.

The trade-off, however, is that we get to enjoy our coral reefs.

R B Bhattacharjee is associate editor at The Edge Malaysia

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