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Nearly All of the World’s Shallow Coral Reefs Are Now Critically Endangered: If climate change continues apace, 96 percent of shallow coral reef ecosystems may collapse within 50 years, including in Australia’s Great Barrier reef. —The New York Times, October 22, 2026 |
I read it in the business section
of the newspaper today,
the prediction that in 50 years
almost all coral reef ecosystems
in all the oceans and seas
will be dead
due to climate change
and ocean warming.
Perhaps it matters
only because of its impact
on the marketplace?
Or is it of interest
only to people
involved in business?
Or is it a matter
of the monetary value
of the coral reefs?
To whom does it actually matter?
It certainly matters to the fish and anemones,
sea urchins and octopuses,
invertebrates of all stripes
and so many other creatures
living amongst the coral,
and it matters, of course,
to the coral themselves.
It probably matters to people
who go snorkeling
or deep sea diving.
It definitely matters to fishing people.
It matters to some artists.
It matters to people
whose hearts
are tied to the sea
and the land and the air.
But the reality is,
what is happening to coral reef ecosystems
matters to every iota of life
on this Earth,
for when one of us goes,
it is only a matter of time
until we all go.
But today the sun is shining,
a breeze is blowing,
the trees are turning,
my beloved is at my side,
and some say we can still
save the coral reefs.
Life goes on.
For now.
Katy Z. Allen is a lover of the more-than-human world, poet, retired rabbi of an outdoor congregation, former healthcare chaplain, and co-founder of a Jewish climate organization. Her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in print and online in such places as The New Verse News, Amethyst Review, The Bluebird Word, Cosmic Daffodil, The Soliloquist Journal. She was awarded Honorable Mention in The Prose Poem’s 2025 Prose Poetry Competition, her chapbook My Sister and I was published by Botlecap Press and A Tree of Life: A Story in Word, Image, and Text by Strong Voices Publishing.
