Protect the Reefs

     For my cumulative action project in my Climate Change Communication course, I created a Facebook page to inform the public of the impacts climate change is having in ocean acidification and in return the coral reefs. This page is aimed at informing adults. 

   I created Protect the Reefs after making an art piece using watercolor to show a half flourishing reef with colorful corals and different species of fish, and on the other half depicted bleached coral skeletons, with the bones of a fish. This artwork was meant to depict ocean acidification. After realizing this single painting wouldn’t receive the desired attention nor would it be able to share enough information without being too wordy. If I wanted people to read all the information on how they could help and the importance of coral reefs I needed to share this with them with smaller posts.  

 In order to stick with the original approach of using art, I began making different watercolor paintings of coral, both healthy and bleached skeletons. Each post I made on the page contained a painting I created and information on the importance of coral, how acidification works, and individual actions that can be taken to lessen the impacts. 

  I chose the reefs as my focus because many of my Facebook friends and family are not located by any coastal areas and have no connection to these fragile ecosystems. I hoped that using social norms to demonstrate how others are switching to reef-friendly sunscreens to limit their contribution to ocean acidification would convince my audience that switching was important and how a simple switch makes a huge impact, especially on a larger scale. 


References:

    

Climate Interpreter. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://climateinterpreter.org/content/effects-ocean-acidification-coral-reefs

Is Your Sunscreen Destroying Coral Reefs? (2018, November 5). Retrieved from https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/your-sunscreen-destroying-coral-reefs

US Department of Commerce, & National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (2013, June 1). The Importance of Coral Reefs - Corals: NOAA's National Ocean Service Education. Retrieved from https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_corals/coral07_importance.html

Stoknes, P. E. (2015). What we think about when we try not to think about global warming: toward a new psychology of climate action. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing.