

Dr. Jim Porter
Meigs Professor of Ecology & Marine Sciences
University of Georgia
Email: jporter@uga.edu
Host: Andrea Grottoli
Location: Mendenhall Laboratory Room 291 or online through this Zoom link.
Making War on Coral Reefs: Human Rights, Environmental Justice, & Underwater Munitions in Hawaii and Puerto Rico.
Almost a trillion pounds of high explosives have been detonated or abandoned on bombing ranges and on coral reefs off Vieques, Puerto Rico. Underwater Unexploded Ordnance (UWUXO) is now also found in the Molokini Coral Reef State Park off Maui, Hawaii. UWUXO leaches 7 known carcinogens which spread throughout the ecosystem. People living in fishing villages on Vieques die at 30% higher rates for cancer, 45% higher for diabetes, 95% higher for cirrhosis, and 381% higher for hypertension than the rest of Puerto Rico. We are inventing green ways to disarm and remove these bombs.