"The colourful world supported by coral reefs is under threat as oceans absorb greater quantities of carbon dioxide, says Rod Salm." In the BBC News Green Room, he says we must accept that we are going to lose many of these valuable ecosystems, but adds that not all hope is lost.

"Imagine all the colour and vibrancy of coral reefs fading away into fuzzy, crumbling greys and browns, and you're left with a coral graveyard that could become the norm I've been privileged to see many of the world's finest and least disturbed reefs. Mine were the first human eyes to see many of the remotest reefs at a time when we really could describe them as pristine. I would never have dreamed that they were at risk from people, far less than from something as remote then as climate change."

 Rod Salm is director of The Nature Conservancy's Tropical Marine Conservation Program in the Asia-Pacific region. Read the rest of the article here.

Jeff Ardron offers a simple explanation of ocean acidification, the change in ocean chemistry caused by excess carbon dioxide in the air, which in turn comes from the burning of fossil fuels. Jeff is an oceanographer with the Marine Conservation Biology Institute (MCBI). This was shot in Barcelona at the IUCN World Conservation Congress. For more information on ocean acidification and related issues, see A Sea Change.

You already know about climate change. But did you know climate change affects the ocean?

Some of the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is dissolving into seawater. It's changing the pH, making seawater more acidic; some say "corrosive." This water actually dissolves the shells of certain shellfish—clams and oysters, for example, as well as tiny plankton—and coral reefs. The effects are working their way up the food chain.

Imagine a world without fish. It could happen.

A Sea Change is a new documentary about ocean acidification. This grave problem is only now being covered by mainstream media. The film combines hard scientific information-—we interview internationally known scientists—with the personal story of a family of fishermen. With Sven Huseby, retired educator and concerned grandparent, we travel from Norway to Northwestern America, learning about the scientific, economic, and cultural implications of ocean acidification.

A Sea Change won't be completed until the fall of 2008. We are posting now to invite you to help us get the word out, not only about the documentary, but also about the problem of ocean acidification. For more information, please visit our website and watch the film trailer.

A new document called the Honolulu Declaration was just released at a U.S. conference on coral reefs in Hawaii. Reefs are considered sentinel ecosystems, key sign of environmental degradation.

The document states: "The most logical and critical action to address the impacts of ocean acidification on coral reefs is to stabilize atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration." The full Reuters article is available here.

"The world's leading scientists in ocean acidification have released an open communiqué stating the issue is an urgent scientific and policy challenge."

Key points in the communiqué follow.