Hi, my name is Elliot Gannon, the founder of a U.S. non-profit. You probably have no idea who I am, but we likely share one very BIG thing in common:
The feeling of a desperate need to act and save our planet from the rapidly accelerating climate crisis.
But what I am about to tell you has completely changed my mind on climate change and habitat destruction FOREVER.
It was this same information that caused me to collect every dollar I had to my name, travel thousands of miles, and give up everything...
Just a decade ago I would have never done anything like that, but literally everything has changed in these last 10 years.
It’s why you saw my video shared on Facebook or Instagram, it’s why I founded Reef Revive, a nonprofit, and it’s why you are here reading this right now.
It’s why I have given up everything (I will explain more in a moment) to erase 2 tons of YOUR carbon footprint, absolutely free, just for reading this letter.
Yes, using my own money out of my pocket, I am rebuilding ocean habitats that directly negate our carbon footprint for FREE.
I believe in what I am about to tell you SO MUCH that I will spend my personal funds to make it happen.
But first, let me tell you the “why” behind it all… and why the world we live in now is drastically different than the one that your parents (and grandparents) new up in...
And why we’ve discovered it is actually the ocean that is our last hope at reversing climate change, when for so long we believed forests and trees were the largest driving factor…
That’s right. Humans, which only represent 0.1% of life on Earth, had destroyed the homes of 6 out of 10 animals across the globe… and with them, the species themselves.
But what happened? How did we end up going this far without realizing it?
It didn’t spring out of nowhere, everything has a cause and effect.
Coral reefs. They are disappearing at an incredible rate.
And it’s not just affecting animals like the sea turtle fighting for it’s life in the video above…
It is permanently affecting humans.
The reason is simple:
Many of us ignore the ocean and its coral reefs because we simply don’t live underwater. We either think these don’t have a direct influence in our lives… or we just don’t realize it…
For decades we believed that plants, trees, forests, and jungles were responsible for our planet's oxygen… but we’ve only recently discovered that 70% of the air that we breath actually comes from the ocean...
Coral reefs specifically contribute to more than half of the oxygen our planet relies on, and these are vanishing at an unprecedented rate.
The ocean is only home to 15% of planet life, but almost all living animals and organisms directly depend on the ocean.
You’ve probably already guessed it: when the coral reefs go, so does everything that relies on it… not just ocean life, but everything else, too.
In just the short time it took you to read that sentence (7 seconds), 27,442 cubic feet of coral reef has died.
Gone.
But I would be wrong to tell you this without providing the 4 hard facts, based on a collection of peer-reviews studies from experts in virtually every field...
These 4 hard facts were nominated because, together, they show “cross-domain” significance.
This is a scientific term to explain that these 4 cross-domain facts really show what is happening in every corner of the planet.
Yes - even the areas not included in the 4 facts themselves (which is why they are nominated as “cross-domain” data).
Nearly 90% of new coral in the Great Barrier Reef has collapsed in the past few years.
Ocean life diversity has dropped 60% in Indonesian reefs (where the majority of the world's coral exists) due to climate change and pollution.
& Florida is home to the last living reef in the United States, and it is down to just 6% coverage due to rising temperatures and chemical dumping.
What I am about to write is painful to read, and I wish I didn’t have to type it right now.
But you need to hear it. You must hear it and understand the truth.
The world that we live in - you, me and everyone we know - is full of more luxuries, more technology and more convenience than any other era in history.
No previous generation even comes close.
Did you know that royal families, the kings and queens of old - with all their gold and riches and land - still lived significantly worse lives than you and I currently do?
Running water and sewer infrastructure, electricity, internet, easy access to food, transportation, advances in medical care...
And that only begins to scratch the surface of how extravagantly we live in comparison.
But remember when I said that everything happens for a reason? Everything has a cause and effect. Our extravagant, modern lives do have an effect.
And the cause is simple: the lives we live right now are creating more toxic carbon waste than any humans that have lived before us.
And just like the luxuries and conveniences we have today - the levels of carbon waste doesn’t even come close.
The average American citizen today creates over 20 TONS of carbon dioxide every year.
Even the very best energy-conserving Americans still produce 8 tons of carbon waste annually.
And that has a direct, negative effect on the rising water temperatures that are destroying coral reefs around the world.
Not only are we killing a habitat for underwater life, but also our primary source for our atmosphere's oxygen.
I know it is painful, I promise you, I know.
It’s part of my biggest weakness that I am about to tell you about.
The reality is that virtually every single modern part of our lives creates a growing negative carbon impact.
Now don’t get me wrong. I am living this life, too. I am not throwing stones under the belief that I am 100% clean of this causation.
Some things (and lifestyles) do create much more of a negative impact than others, and it’s important to know this so we can all make smarter choices - like riding a bike, carpooling, planting a garden, using green energy - just to name a few.
But as I mentioned, even the most conservative Americans are still producing 8 TONS of carbon dioxide waste. We simply cannot escape that our lives today are creating a carbon footprint, no matter how green we try to live.
How exactly does this connect to coral reefs, though?
Well... because of the rising water temps and increasing acidification of the ocean...
Every 14 seconds a football field sized area of coral reef becomes bleached and dies.
It can be hard to understand how FAST and how large of an area that really is without seeing it yourself...
So here is a visual straight from the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration):
This diagram shows the extent of coral bleaching around the Hawaiian islands in just a couple months.
One last thing, and I promise this is the last statement I need to make that is extremely painful to read
Because of all of this, the average person in today’s modern world - in other words, every person we know - is directly responsible for the destruction of thousands of corals during their lifetime.
I am not blaming or pointing the finger, because I am one of these people, too. This is also my fault.
But there is some good news here…
The amazing opportunity in this otherwise horrific situation we are building…
By replacing the reefs, we can swap the carbon for biodiversity, oxygen, habitats and more!
I won’t bore you with the exact science of it, but the fact is that trees and plants only sequestrates 25% of the world’s carbon dioxide the rest of it is absorbed into the ocean.
Ocean flora, like those found in reefs, are the NUMBER ONE carbon sequestration organisms.
In other words, when it comes to removing carbon footprints, nothing else even comes close.
Even trees convert 50% LESS carbon dioxide than their ocean-dwelling counterparts. That’s how important the ocean ecosystem is to our planet.
Each year, saltwater flora sequesters around 190 MILLION TONS of carbon dioxide from out of the atmosphere.
Now...
Remember when I said just a decade ago I would never have had my huge weakness that caused me to leave everything behind?
I said that because of one single day that will put everything into perspective for you, and show you just how harmful our modern lives have become: Earth Overshoot Day.
Every single year, since the 1970s, there has been a calendar day that marks when humanity has already used up their planet resources for the entire year.
To put things lightly, when we pass this day each year, Mother Earth has nothing left to give us… but we keep taking… and taking.
And each year this day comes sooner and sooner.
In fact, this year, Earth Overshoot Day will land in July. Once we pass July, 2020, we will be using resources we cannot afford to use.
And those resources will disappear from Earth forever. Gone.
This graph tells the story of how bad things have gotten in a short amount of time.
In the 1960s there was nothing to worry about, but today, in 2020, alarms are rising with the very real possibility that we will run out of resources in our lifetime if we continue on this path.
This isn’t even the plot fo a doomsday movie, this is real life.
We are only just discovering this relation between carbon dioxide and the ocean. It isn’t your fault because we simply just didn’t know before.
But now that we do know…
It has become clear that if nothing is done, humans will literally go extinct off the face of planet, taking most of Earth’s species with us.
As coral reefs disappear, the ocean becomes more barren (they are home to more than 25% of all sea organisms), and without that diverse ocean life, the underwater ecosystem starts to fail, and with it, our primary carbon dioxide sequestration source.
Not to mention the famine that will spread as the regions of the world that rely on the ocean for food are unable to fish in the empty oceans.
Over 3.5 billion people rely on the ocean for sustenance… and fish is the primary protein source for over 20% of the world population.
When you think of the hunger crisis, most people instantly have Africa come to mind, but many island nations are struggling now, too. Their fishing efforts aren’t producing the abundance of food that they were once seeing just decades ago.
Why are these food sources disappearing? It’s because their habitats are gone. The reefs are fading away.
And in regards to the rapidly-accelerating climate crisis, as the reefs vanish, the carbon dioxide continues to climb, and the food sources dwindle.
While there are a handful of scientific factors that worked together to make our planet Earth livable, the ocean is by far the number one reason, creating the conditions for our atmosphere and water cycles that drive life.
Like I said earlier, we really should do everything we possibly can to “go green” and use green energy.
But that alone won’t save us.
Because just changing our habits now will not reverse the damage we’ve done. The damage we are continuing to do every day to our planet.
I honestly wish I was just making this up and typing out fallacies right now. I wish I didn’t have the knowledge of this situation and I could go back to living the blissfully ignorant life I had just a few years ago...
But that wouldn’t stop you from seeing these same words spread by even more prominent speakers than me.
“Coral reef ecosystems play a vital role in maintaining Earth's marine biodiversity and are also valuable to humans as a source of food, and medical advances”
“Storehouses of immense biological wealth, reefs also provide economic and environmental services to millions of people.”
“These vital ecosystems are being rapidly degraded as a result of warming sea temperatures due to climate change, overfishing, destructive fishing, ocean acidification, and a range of land-based activities.”
“Restoration must go in parallel with conservation. Not only do we need to bring corals back into the sea, but we also need to rebuild the whole reef ecosystem.”
Action.
We MUST take action.
Not tomorrow, not next week or next year. Not “later.”
We need to act right now.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is recording this situation in real time. If nothing is done, by the year 2050 over 90% of the world’s reefs and accompanying ecosystems will die.
That’s 25% of ALL ocean life. That’s 25% of our carbon dioxide poisoning buffer. With reefs gone, the climate disaster will begin to rapidly increase.
This is now being defined as the critical tipping point of marine life as we know it, and marks the point of no return.
Once we reach that point, there is no going back and the environment will begin to dissolve as marine species die out one by one.
Just like we learned in elementary school, every species is dependent on another species either above or below it in the ecosystem - when 25% of them are gone, this system will crumble.
The primary purpose of this article is not to scare you or show you how desperate our situation is… because you already know that climate change is here and understand the gravity.
No, I wrote this article to tell you about Reef Revive and the founding principle we are using to reverse the damage and help heal our planet through it’s main life source: the ocean.
REEF REVIVE was founded with a simple idea: if humans can destroy the Earth, they can just as easily help rebuild it.
Reef Revive. Reviving the reef.
We are a team of scientists, engineers, wildlife veterinarians, ocean ecosystem experts, but most importantly, regular, passionate people who want to make a change.
I started the nonprofit organization Reef Revive because research tells us that if we can protect and recreate these ocean habitats, we can save our planet and reverse the man-made destruction.
At its core, Reef Revive carries out large-scale reef habitat recreation projects and helps fund smaller-scale local projects to fuel a positive environmental change.
While rebuilding habitats for ocean life, we also help nurture coral farms and reintroduce them into these new habitats thus doubling the effectiveness of new habitat locations.
And we are gaining traction FAST!
We have help with 17 massive reef projects so far this year!
From 3D printing reef habitats, to land-based and underwater fractional coral farms, it brings tears to my eyes when I see people who love our planet enough to join and help erase their own carbon footprint.
I personally believe so much in what we are doing at Reef Revive that I am offering to rebuild enough habitat to offset 2 TONS of your carbon footprint for free.
I will be honest, I never even predicted what would happen when I started Reef Revive. It was a small passion project that began in my living room...
But suddenly governments all around the world heard about our projects and goals and we were flooded with emails, phone calls, and letters begging for help with reviving their local reefs.
From the Caribbean to Southeast Asia...
Now with the support of governments around the world, we are able to help setup conservation areas to rehabilitate reefs.
Did you know that many governments around the world want to take action but they just don’t have the resources to do it? Most of the world’s coral reefs are found in third-world locations which makes conservation funding difficult on their own.
That’s where we come in and gain their full authorization over a given area of coastal ocean, and begin to completely restore the area with a new habitat that not only rejuvenates active sea life in the area, but helps grow back the flora that removes massive amounts of carbon in the air as well.
Now I have to change the subject because this next part is what hurts me the most...
Some people just will not act.
They claim they want change, but never want to change themselves. These people would rather watch others try to make a change without lending any help.
That makes it difficult for people like us who have to carry double duty in our efforts to restore the planet and make drastic changes for results with climate change.
Now what I am about to say is controversial, and many people don’t like this fact because they cannot see past themselves...
But you will understand why I need to write this and you will know it to be true, too...
We need to accept painful truths about ourselves if we are going to have any chance at reversing the destruction on a massive scale...
When we think about the top 1% we often imagine the huge corporations destroying out planet for profit or the billionaire elites in our society that live in lavish luxury well beyond our imagination, with no care in the world and gluttons in consumption.
And you would be right. They are the absolute peak 1% in the United States.
But the picture is wider than that. The truth is that these people are in the .001% on a global scale.
Which leads us to the painful part...
YOU are likely in the top 1% globally. In fact, anyone who makes over $32,400 USD is in the global top 10%.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s easy to forget this when you see how much wealth exists above you, and how little these elitists care about the world beneath them.
These elitists and corporations are destroying our planet at unprecedented levels, and what they are doing is sickening...
But we have to realize that many of us, though we are not rich by many standards, are very wealthy on a global scale.
And because of this wealth, we almost automatically have a much, much higher carbon footprint.
That’s why the average carbon footprint for everyone around the world is 5 tons per year...
BUT the average carbon footprint of people living in the United States is 24 TONS on the low end.
That means that the chances are - if you are reading this - you are either in the top global 1%, or at the very least, within the top 5% globally.
That means it is up to us to take our part in this problem seriously. We must face the fact that we are responsible on some level for contributing to this crisis.
All I would ask of you is to simply do your part and erase just your own carbon.
First I just need to say...
THANK YOU for allowing me to tell you how desperate the reef crisis truly is. It is because of people like you, who are willing to listen, that we have a chance at fighting this.
But I also need to tell you precisely how I am going to erase 2 tons of your carbon footprint right now for free.
As you know now, ocean flora is the most effective carbon sequestration machines on the planet - by far.
And you know how bad of a carbon footprint we are each leaving.
So I am going to rebuild 3 cubic feet of reef for you, just for reading this page. We do this using 3D printing new habitats with environmentally safe limestone composite which is proven to be the best surface for coral regrowth and home to all other sea life.
The math is pretty simple here: one cubic foot of reef will create a habitat for enough fish, turtles, coral and seaweed to remove 185.2 pounds of nasty carbon dioxide from the air.
I wish I could do more and personally cover every person every day, but I can only go so far paying out of pocket on my own...
And I am not going to sugarcoat this... creating these reefs is hard, expensive work...
Now, you have to understand this list is just the tasks laid out in the simplest terms. The entire actual process ends up having many more roadblocks and difficulties that I couldn’t even start to list out. I could write a 400-page novel on the complete step-by-step process to build just 1 new ocean reef habitat.
But it is important that you know the trouble we go through to rebuild these reefs, because I am going to ask you to do something that is infinitely easier to lend a helping hand.
Now... the above bold sentence is very important… because it directly ties into what I am about to ask of you.
Reef Revive was started as a nonprofit organization, with my own money invested to supercharge governments and local communities, just like I explained above. And to make all of this possible, we set aside as little as necessary to cover administration costs. We simply want AS MUCH of our funds to go into actual change as possible.
BUT...
That also means we are unable to just offset your carbon footprint for 1 month without you signing up to help.
And trust me… I really do wish I could do this for free forever, or fund it myself indefinitely. It would be my personal dream to make every person on this planet completely carbon neutral without them having to do anything at all.
But that’s obviously impossible, and - to be frank - it’s not fair. Everyone has to do their part to stop this crisis. Anyone who knows about the problem and knows about the solution yet still does nothing to act... well that is just sad.
So we just ask that you sign up for 1 month EVEN if you change your mind and ask for a refund right after you sign up at least you made that bit of effort to help.
And that helps us show the board and local governments that we are actually getting the word out to more people and spreading awareness.
On the next page is a short form. Just fill it out and donate what you can to join us in our mission. In seconds you will finally be taking action and doing your part… and I wouldn’t be able to tell you how proud I personally am.
Because we ALL do have a real part to play in this crisis. And that part is removing just OUR OWN carbon footprint.
I hope you will stay a member past just one month to help reduce your ongoing carbon footprint, but I cannot force you and I wouldn’t if I could.
We need people like you on our side in this fight to save our planet, because, the truth is, most will get this far and do nothing.
I’m counting on you... Every Reef Revive member is counting on you.
Signed,
Elliot Gannon
"We just need more ocean plants to help put the carbon back in the ground to save the planet from destruction and Reef Revive are doing that! So simple to sign up and set up a renewing monthly payment."
"I literally just started this program and already love it so much! Keep up the good work guys! Even though I am younger than you thought, I started making youtube videos and posting them online for other and know that i know that youtube videos and just uploading them harm the planet, it broke my heart. PLEASE use this! it will mean the world to everyone in this world later on so we can actually have a future and not worrying about not having one."
"That just shows that there are some people in this world that dont just think about saving the environment but they take action and just do it"
"Please lets be grateful and loving to ocean! It is our planet’s lungs"
"Thank you for taking the initiative to help all of us save the planet, lets keep up the hard work, happy earth day everyone."
"It's the best thing right now to be doing. Im serious... The world is dying and guess what..? - WE ARE THE KILLERS! But doesn't need to be the way it is. Think of the future generations, thats all i want to say. Thank you so much Reef Revive! It really meant so much to me and I'll do anything for our planet!"
"Humans are very destructive creatures and have a tendency to ignore the problems they cause in hope that they will disappear but that wont happen. not without effort. I'm not much better though, sure I donate to some charity's when I have the extra cash and I try to be mindful about wasting energy, paper, and water but I don't do enough. we all can work harder to save this planet we call home. sure we didn't start the fire, but its burning down our house and no one else is gonna put it out for us. It's good to see people are out here working towards fixing our planet and I'll try my best to do my part."
"I have always been “eco friendly” and have tried to maintain that lifestyle for my planet’s benefit. This man Elliot has completely outdone himself, I would be honored to help him in this fight to save our planet."
"Ever since I was little, i've always loved nature. Each year for my birthday (coming May19th!) I wish that there is less harm to nature. I've always had the thought that nobody else agreed with me. I love your website! There is no words to be said. All I want to say is, I'm sorry. I'm sorry mother nature. Hopefully people will realize what is happening to our Earth"
"I have a big passion for saving all natural habitats globally if we want to live in a safer world"
"This group are doing more for my carbon footprint than I can. They are working in potentially hostile environments and are as important to our world as Wilberforce was for fighting slavery. We can win this war against ocean destruction and regrow flora that help to balance our beautiful planet."
