Journal Entry Seven(Chapter 7)-Ziomara Aguilar

Located at the tip of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia is One Tree Island. On the island, there is a research station affiliated with the University of Sydney. There, scientists study the chemical composition of nearby coral reefs. Since 1770, when the first Europeans found the Great Barrier Reef scientists know that coral reefs are part animal, vegetable, and mineral. A coral reef is largely composed of a calcium-rich structure. The grow by adding new life forms over time. Scientists estimate that by 2050 the Great Barrier Reef will have completely eroded.

At the research station, Kolbert meets Ken Caldeira, who is a scientist that research focuses on the impact of carbon dioxide on the ocean's pH. He also researched the chemical composition of forests as well as the recent changes in global temperature. During the late 1980s, evidence that CO2 can destroy coral reefs with the Biosphere project in Arizona. The biosphere project was a huge glass structure that was designed to be a self-sustainig ecosystem. The people who lived there go altitude sickness because the CO2 levels were too high. The high CO2 levels eroded the compositions of coral in the biosphere, at this point people believed that coral reefs were immune to changes in CO2 levels. Studies have recently shown that coral reefs significantly erode when CO2 levels rise. At the current rate of CO2 emission, the reefs are expected to disappear in the next half-century.
This chapter also relates to the theme that humans alter natural systems because they release CO2 too quickly and it harms the reefs.