We should let the ocean fix global warming

Coral Reefs Regulate The Environment?
Posted May 22nd 2005 3:07PM by Willy Volk

The New Scientist provides yet another reason to protect the world’s coral reefs: it appears that as temperatures rise, coral reefs cool themselves by creating cloud cover!  It’s the next best thing to applying sunscreen.  According to researchers in Australia, corals are filled with dimethyl sulphide (DMS), the compound which gives the ocean (and diver's wetsuits) its distinctive smell. When released into the atmosphere, DMS creates zillions of tiny particles on which water vapor condenses to form clouds. DMS is also produced by algae, which play a vital part in regulating Earth's climate; previously, no one had considered that reefs might have a similar role.
Scientists (being scientists) are high-fiving one another in the hope that reefs might be able to use a Gaia-like mechanism to regulate the amount of sunlight they receive and keep themselves healthy.  The world’s big polluters are probably high-fiving one another, too, as they can now argue that depleting ozones are irrelevant, because coral reefs will regulate the world's environment. Sadly, there’s a fine line between self-regulation and saving the planet.

More coral information available here at divester.com
http://www.divester.com/search/?q=coral+reefs