Don't Look Down - Emma Camp On The State and Future of Reefs

Today’s guest is Dr Emma Camp, a marine biologist who’s pioneering research into the resilience of coral reefs and their restoration. The awards and recognitions she’s already received are longer than my arm - A National Geographic Explorer, appointed a Young Leader for the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the World Economic Forum, A Time Magazine Next Generation Leader, and many more. All of the awards, the appointments and the recognitions are because of the work she has dedicated herself to in seeking to better understand reefs, the potential of preservation that could be possible by discovering and better understanding varieties of coral that may have a higher tolerance to climate change, and the way she has been able to generate interest and funding globally as part of the mission of many to save one of this planet’s most unique, precious and vulnerable ecosystems.

I wanted to speak with Emma to get under the hood of what is occurring for coral and on reefs around the world due to climate change. That seemingly straight forward question resulted in this conversation which became a masterclass in coral, reef science and revealed the multitude and colliding threats humans are imposing on an underwater landscape now under serious threat and seemingly on a path to oblivion, taking the lives and livelihoods of billions of human and non-human species with them. Speaking with those working on the frontlines of climate change is always painful. The grief associated with what’s already been lost and the knowledge of what is still to disappear is evident with Emma. Above the grief though is someone of immense passion, curiosity, intellect and determination. Better than collapsing into the awfulness of species decline and ecosystem degradation, Emma models what we must all do - act.

We cover plenty of ground in this chat. From a coral science 101 to begin, into the state of reefs globally and how to understand the often binary assessment of reef health, to the complexities and connectedness of the threats faced, the role and value of reefs to the planet, her research into the misfits and mutants of the coral world, the effort to preserve them and the difficulty of balancing bad news against the need to keep working.

In this chat, we reference Don’t Look Up - maybe in the case of reefs, don’t look down. 

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