Ocean: A 360-degree tour of the mysterious, magical corals of Palau | The Economist

we define ourselves by our ocean around how we live how we survive and if that disappears it would be devastating [Music] my name is Lukas Assad and I work as a researcher here at Palau International coral reef center today we are going to a very special place and we are going to count and identify corals allow his collection of hundreds of islands maybe 250 about seven to eight degrees north of the Equator south east of the Philippines and north of Irian Jaya there's about 27,000 people we live very much off the land and you've done so for many many years coral is really planted and animal so the color that you see in the world is a plant that uses sunlight and then the coral animal is the part that builds the skeleton the plant part of the animals marketed in symbiosis happily together for Lisa important in so many different ways so many different people whether that be food whether that be a source of income it's a unique habitat with unique species that sleeps throughout the world to find firm for everybody the reefs of the world are in the decline they've been on the decline for quite some time now it's attributed to many different reasons but climate change is the common enemy it has no leads to be heartbreaking we just lose very big part of our identity and culture in our way of life I think cloud would cease to be you don't have big skyscrapers we don't have to figure an ark this is like our landmark and when that's gone not be put out at all but I think there is hope something seems to be magical here in kalau the water has been identified to be very acidic and very high in temperature the same conditions are what's predicted for the world's oceans in 50 years and yet we see vibrant coral many species of corals growing on top of each other there is something to be learned from these spaces maybe it's something to do with the corals themselves maybe something to do with the environment we are beginning to understand some factors but this is a very big question for us we can unlock the mystery of Palau could be what the future would look like for the world for me [Music] [Music] they're students a lot to learn but we know at least that for now that kind of a vision in the darkness of destruction of the college we know that there's some corals that are doing pretty much okay and we need to replicate that [Music]

Channel: The Economist

Views: 535,632

Rating: 4.6256881 out of 5

Keywords: The Economist, Economist, Economist Films, Economist Videos, Politics, News, short-documentary, ocean, sea, environmentalism, climate change, corals, 360 degree video, 360 degree, ocean 360, 360 ocean, 360 video ocean, 360 degree ocean, economist, the economist, economist magazine, economist films, 360 video, vr video, 360 vr, 360 vr video, vr, vr videos, vr 360 video, videos vr, 360 videos, vr 360 videos, video 360 degree, 360°, 360° video, virtual reality, vr 360, 360

Id: jvtvFHPRcsY

Length: 5min 51sec (351 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 08 2017