Cuba’s coral cure: organic farming!

Here’s a great story coming out of Cuba:

‘All over the world, coral reefs are dying at an alarming rate. But off Cuba, they are flourishing.

Why?

The answer, according to David Guggenheim, a marine scientist and president of Ocean Doctor, a Washington-based conservation organization, is pretty straightforward: The absence of typical human behavior.

“After the Soviets pulled out [in 1991], Cuba couldn’t afford fertilizers and pesticides, so they were essentially forced into organic farming — and that’s had a beneficial effect on corals,” Guggenheim explains.

The result has been far less nutrient pollution in the ocean waters surrounding Cuba. Nutrients in the water do the same thing in the ocean that they do on land: They fuel the growth of plants and algae — and in the ocean those algae overgrow and ultimately kill coral reefs.’

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