In 2017, Hurricane Maria ravaged the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. The United States government's response was far from satisfactory. Disaster relief was slow and inadequate, the official death toll was only in double-digits but later reports revealed the number of deaths is in the thousands.
As months went by with inadequate access to clean water or electricity, these U.S. citizens and disaster victims were being insulted by their own president, Donald J. Trump, who complained the island would not be able to pay for the disaster relief being provided and that the recovery effort was being poorly handled by the locals.
Recent studies have shown that future extreme weather events, now a certainty due to the effects of climate change, will be even more damaging without the protection that coral reefs provide. Failure to take action to protect Puerto Rico's coral reefs now will therefore mean unprecedented damage when inevitable future hurricane disasters occur.
Please sign the petition to demand action be taken to protect these critical coral reefs!
The head of the EPA has a duty and an opportunity to protect critically-important natural resources, including the coral reefs around Puerto Rico that have become ever more important as a bulwark against extreme weather events such as Hurricane Maria.
Take critical and decisive action to protect not only the reefs, but the United States citizens for whom they provide critical protection.
