Coral Reefs as Critical Infrastructure: Automating our Oceans' Future | Ian Enochs | TEDxDelrayBeach
In this inspiring TEDxDelrayBeach talk, under the theme: Point Break, Dr. Ian Enochs—lead of NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory Coral Program—shares his lifelong passion for reefs, sparked by childhood days spent poring over a picture book of the Great Barrier Reef. He reveals how coral reefs function as “living infrastructure,” providing critical ecosystem services: sheltering shorelines, supporting fisheries, and driving billions in tourism revenue.Dr. Enochs then takes us through the alarming toll of warming oceans and acidification—four global bleaching events, escalating degree-heating weeks, and once-vibrant reefs reduced to ghostly white rubble. But he doesn’t leave us in despair. Drawing on cutting-edge work in his Miami “coral gym,” he shows how super-charged genotypes, stress-hardening protocols, and robotics can scale restoration efforts by orders of magnitude.Closing with a rallying cry, he challenges us to treat reefs like the critical infrastructure they are—mobilizing public-private investment, policy support, and community partnerships—because the tools exist and the time to act is now. Dr. Ian Enochs is a coral reef ecologist and inventor with more than 70 peer-reviewed publications. He leads the coral program at the NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory and has worked all over the world, from sunken volcanoes in the Marianas to the urban waterways of Miami. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
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