It s a classic case of money versus grassroots. Right now, industry has the upper hand.
Coral is also a lucrative international commodity.
According to Lauretta Burke, senior associate at WRI, Coral reefs offer tremendous value. The economic benefits derived from tourism, coastal protection and recreation far outweigh the short-term benefits derived from the reefs when they are exploited in an unsustainable way. Last June, engineers from Plug Power threw a switch and disconnected a small Latham, New York ranch house from the power grid. But the house didn t go dark because it was powered by a fuel cell, a promising emission-free technology that was invented in the 1830s, but is only now becoming practical for a range of uses, including distributed power for homes. Instead of burning the fuel, they chemically produce electricity from it, with only water vapor as a byproduct.