Coral Reefs, Antibiotic Resistance, & the Precautionary Principle

Some researchers at North Carolina State University are currently working with a natural compound found in coral that is able to fight off diseases that antibiotics cannot. The significance? This compound could be used to fight off bacterial infections such as chlorea and staph. It may also be used to fight off future potentially disastrous diseases that may arise.

Coral reefs have been severely damaged by humans over the past century. If it were not for awareness and proactive solutions to conserving these reefs, there is a chance they could have been nearly lost altogether by now. This is just another example of why we need to follow the precautionary principle. That is, human actions must be proven to not be harmful to ecosystems. We cannot simply destroy natural areas because there is no obvious benefit to conserving the areas. Organisms such as coral reefs may prove to someday save human-kind, and we need to preserve biodiversity as much as possible so that we don't lose something that ends up being invaluable.