The really valuable thing about documenting coral bleaching is that it is this straight, very direct visual indicator of how hot the oceans are getting. If the temperature of the water passes a certain threshold, the corals turn white. It's that simple. There's nothing natural about the cycle that's going on right now. In 2016, we lost 29 percent of the Great Barrier Reef. So 29 percent of the Great Barrier Reef died in a single year, because the water was hot.

I believe deeply that every one of us has an individual talent or trait that can be used to make a difference in some way.

There's a huge challenge around coral bleaching specifically, because when most people think about coral, they think about the beautiful, white sculpture sitting on their mantle. And it looks so pristine and clean and beautiful. It's not supposed to look like that when it's in the ocean. It has color, it has animal flesh living on it, it has plants living inside of that. They look very, very different when they're healthy in the ocean than they do when they're sitting in somebody's home.

The question is not, "Is climate change happening?" Nor is the question, "Is climate change man-made?" Rather, we need to realize itʼs already here, and start asking, "What are we going to do about it?"

The consequences of man-made climate change are real and very significant.

Climate change isnʼt a distant threat. Itʼs already changing the way we live.

Coral reefs are the backbone for the entire ocean. They are the nursery for the ocean. About a quarter of all marine life in the ocean spends part of its lifecycle on a coral reef. And there are about a billion or so people that depend on coral reefs for fish for their food, for protein.