Oceans Getting Hotter Than Anybody Realized

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2. I used to keep a 65 gallon salt water aquarium full of corals

I can't even begin to tell you how much I spent to populate that thing, or how much care and nurturing it took to keep that aquarium going.

One fine winter day I didn't close the back door to my house right, and a north wind blew the door open and chilled the house. Temperatures dropped in the tank by one degree. That's one degree Fahrenheit.

Within three days the corals began jettisoning their chloroplasts. Within a week, they were all dead.

All dead due to a one degree drop in temperature.

I've never kept a salt water aquarium since then. Too sensitive and I don't want to contribute to depleting the coral beds for my amusement.

One degree, that's all it took to kill them.