2021… or was it 2020 on repeat? I can’t really remember where one ended and the other started. 2021 was actually a very good year for me personally, punctuated by the welcoming of the littlest member into our family; baby Cameron. Joining his big sister Olivia, he’s doubled the trouble and the fun in the Harvey household, reminding us once again that sleep really is overrated. However, I know that 2021 was another tough year for many people.
2021 continued on the trajectory of our narrowing world. Many of us kept an eye on the local news with bated breath to see what the pandemic would bring next. How our day to day lives will change, what new restrictions we will need to adapt for, which plans will have to be cancelled, dreading that the latest infection forecasts will predict yet more sadness and loss. It’s not that we have stopped caring about global news, it’s simply a case of capacity that stops us from staying up to date elsewhere.
If you were able to look, you’d know that life outside of the pandemic did continue, and some of it was really very positive. Indeed 2021 started with a bang as a new president, Joe Biden, took office in the US, and only a few hours later, he announced that the US would be rejoining the Paris agreement. And even though COP 26 may not have closed the gap on a viable net-zero pathway, the Glasgow Climate Pact signed in November has some key differences from the Paris Agreement that experts say give us a fighting chance at staying below 2°C (3.6°F) of warming if the actions and commitments made in the pact are fully adhered to.
In other international policy news, 2021 was the first year of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, an effort that is calling on nations across the globe to restore 1 billion hectares (2.5 million acres) of degraded land - if successful this would cover land bigger than the size of China.
2021 also saw humpback whale populations bouncing back to an estimated 93% of their original population, pre-dating modern whaling in 1830. This comes after they nearly went extinct in the mid-20th century, declining from 27,000 to an estimated population of just 450. Thanks to years of conservation efforts, China’s giant panda is no longer endangered. The mighty red kites have made their way back to 2,000 breeding pairs in England from just 37 pairs in southern England in the mid-1990s.
Damages after Super Typhoon Rai. Photo credit: @camillerdp / Instagram
Of course, it wasn’t all good news, and 2021 brought warnings of a changing climate that just can’t be ignored. July’s average global surface temperature was the hottest since records began in 1880, with Death Valley in California registering 54.4°C (130°F). While in a single day in the same month, Henan province in China saw a year’s worth of rainfall in a single day (604mm). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change delivered its starkest warning to the world yet, concluding that human activities unequivocally caused climate change and warning that some of the impacts were now inevitable and “irreversible”.
The year was like a roller coaster of natural disasters with torrential rains in Malaysia at the beginning and end of the year, severe droughts in Istanbul, floods in Australia, India, China and Europe, sandstorms in China, a powerful heatwave in North America leading to devastating wildfires. Then a final blow was felt in the Philippines just before Christmas as a typhoon, powered by increased sea surface temperatures, was transformed from a tropical storm to a super typhoon in just a few hours before it made landfall.
With little warning, the readiness of local residents was compromised, and a vast number of cities and villages were devastated. It’s estimated that 630,000 people were displaced, and many of them are still without homes at the time of writing this. Luckily our Reef-World family, based out of our Philippines office, were all safe. It is perhaps a sign of climate-induced natural disaster overwhelm that these events, reaching new levels of damage and frequency, have made few waves in the international media.
In environmental news a little closer to our Reef-World home, coral reefs have been under the spotlight as the latest Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2020 report was released in 2021 by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN). The report was downloaded more than 4,000 times, and media coverage reached an estimated 2.5 billion people. I’m saddened to say that the report made for quite bleak reading, but there’s a cheerfully delivered animation here to give you the highlights.
Overall it’s estimated that we have lost 14% of the world’s coral reefs as a result of repeat bleaching events over the past decade. This is a very significant decline. However, the recent data hint towards signs of recovery and perhaps even evidence of adaptation. The overall message of the report is that many of the world’s reefs remain resilient. So if we can remove the pressure on our coral reefs, then reefs have retained their natural ability to recover.
This is the core focus of Reef-World; to remove local direct pressures to coral reefs posed by marine tourism activities. Even though we were restricted by the effects of the pandemic, the demand for Reef-World’s Green Fins remains strong and we welcomed Costa Rica as a new country to our network. The next 12 months will see our work expanding in the digital world in a completely new and very exciting way.
This will enable us to respond to demand and reach every single dive and snorkel operation around the world with practical and tailored guidance on how to follow best environmental practice. So, while the Reef-World squirrels (or reef-building coral polyps?!) continue to busy themselves behind the scenes, watch this space — exciting things are coming in 2022!