Image via Wikipedia

Ahhhhh, the coral reef! Coral is the underrated, misunderstood miracle life-form of our planet. After all, people don’t really eat it, so it’s not much of superfood. Seaweed also has some wonderful benefits for ingestion and the environment, but because you can eat it, it’s quite a trendy oceanic benefit at that.

What about the coral reef; the oh so lonely coral reef? Well, actually, as humble as coral might appear, being under that radar and all, this life-form is far from being lonely, even if it is slowly dying due to harmful pollution and over-fishing. You see, coral is a symbiotic master. It lives a beautiful existence, mutually taking and giving back to the life-forms around it. As balanced as coral is, don’t you think we as humans can learn a few things from this biological exchange? Just food for thought, even if coral isn’t quite a food.

Maybe isn’t necessarily food (although it produces much of it) but it is most definitely medicine. Just see this wonderful video about coral and it’s medicinal benefits:

Coral has been a lifesaver for many, but for how long can we continue to take from coral reefs and not give back the way they do. What a basic principle that we as a global community can’t quite get.  Coral reefs have this “give and take” down to a science!

With an astounding 75% of our earth’s coral under immediate threat, is there something we can do? Even for the sake of “medical greed”, can’t we do something to save the coral reefs? After all, many scientists now project that coral holds the key to unlocking cures for cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Now do we have each others’ attention?!

Money talks, so let’s get the big drug companies involved in preserving our precious coral reefs. If drugs derived from coral for medicinal benefit (and therefore commercial benefit) end up being lucrative for big pharmaceutical companies such as Merck, Pfizer, and the other giants, they should fund efforts to preserve coral for future generations.  It would be a win-win situation.

Your Green Magazine is out to spread the word on this issue.  Help spread the word on saving our coral reefs. Lives depend on it, human or otherwise.