A new video by Google Earth and the World Resources Institute (WRI) highlights the world’s many endangered coral reefs. A part of the WRI’s Reefs at Risk program, the video highlights regional and global threats to the oceans’ most biodiverse ecosystem. According to the WRI, a stunning 75 percent of the world’s reefs are currently threatened.
Coral reefs currently face a barrage of stresses: overfishing, pollution, coastal development, energy extraction, soil erosion from deforestation, warming waters due to climate change, and ocean acidification from the emissions of greenhouse gases.