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🪸 Coral Maker:

There are few things on this planet as wondrous, beautiful and diverse as coral reefs, which are responsible for a quarter of all marine life, providing shelter for fish and other marine organisms. Their value to humans is also hard to overstate, with half a billion people directly dependant on reefs for food, income and protection (not to mention the enormous cultural value for Traditional Owners and Indigenous communities). 🐠

But, like so many of Earth’s fragile ecosystems, reefs have been struggling under the strain of human activity and, as always, climate change is making matters worse. As the ocean warms and becomes more acidic, mass coral bleaching events and disease outbreaks will become more frequent. Shockingly, scientists anticipate that even a drastic emissions reduction (one that caps global warming at 1.5℃) will still leave us with ~70% fewer corals by 2050. 😫

So, is there anything we can do? Well, coral reef restoration could go some way towards offsetting reef degradation by ensuring habitat is suitable for natural coral growth, building coral resilience, and planting nursery-grown corals back onto reefs. However, because traditional restoration relies on manual techniques, it has been difficult to scale, restoring less than 1 hectare per year. That is, until Coral Maker came onto the scene. 🪸

Founded by former Fulbright Scholar Dr Taryn Foster, Coral Maker is using technology to speed up manual tasks in coral production and deployment, eventually hoping to restore a million corals a year.

In addition to her technical and scientific knowledge, Dr Foster has proven to be incredibly adept at building partnerships. Following her studies in San Francisco, Dr Foster joined the Autodesk Technology Centers Outsight Network residency, where she benefited (and continues to benefit) from Autodesk employees’ expertise in design, engineering, advanced manufacturing, robotic automation and AI. Meanwhile, Dr Foster has commandeered her own family’s Geraldton-based masonry business to mass-produce the coral skeletons required for replanting. Finally, Abrolhos Coral and Live Rock, a commercial grower, is supporting Coral Maker’s mission by placing its seedlings and coral skeletons in the ocean. Talk about doing a whole lot with very little! 🙌

🚨What’s Caught Our Attention:

The Australian government has just handed down its Budget for 2023/24 and it contains some good news for nature and climate. Ultimately, however, it doesn’t go far enough and has been rightly criticised as a missed opportunity.

On nature, government came into power promising to end species extinction, fix environmental laws and protect 30% of Australia’s land and water, but environmental experts argue there’s insufficient funding to achieve any of these important goals. 🐨

And, while the increased investment in green jobs, electrification and clean tech is to be celebrated, it’s nowhere near enough, especially when we’re still subsidising fossil fuels to the tune of $41B over the next four years. 🤯 

To quote our friends at Beyond Zero Emissions:

🤩 ICYMI:

The finalists have been announced for the Environmental Music Prize 2023, which means it’s time to vote! We’re loving Milkumana by King Stingray, a band that’s on a “mission is “to open the eyes of a nation while simultaneously rocking its socks off”. 🎸 According to guitarist Roy Kellaway: