In a very recent study published on the eve of the Conference on Climate Change in Bali, researchers have sounded a grim warning that in less than 50 years, oceans may have become too acidic for coral reefs to grow, because of carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels by human beings.

According to these findings, unless the still rising carbon dioxide emissions fall in the near future, even existing reefs including Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral expanse, could be dying by 2100.

The study found emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas,contributing to global warming, and boosting acidity so much that seawater covering 98 percent of all coral reefs may be too acidic by 2050 for some coral reefs to live. Though others may survive,they would be unable to build reefs.

"We need rapid reductions in carbon dioxide levels,"said Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a marine science professor at Australia's University of Queensland and a lead author of the study . "The impact of climate change on coral reefs is much closer than we think. Its just round the corner".

Another researcher, Ken Caldiera observed that unless mankind took action immediately, there was a real possibility that coral reefs and everything that depended on them would not survive the present century.

Film makers and environmentalists Francois, ocean explorer Jean-Michel Cousteau,and Mantells brothers, have joined forces to prepare a new 3-D documentary entitled 'Dolphins and Whales', which will enable audience to view in three dimension, small and giant cetaceans, such as the humpback, and sperm whales, orcas and dolphins.
Through this documentary, its makers hope to send a powerful message of the need for all of us to act responsibly and in a sustainable manner in order to conserve our living marine resources.

The documentary will show a large variety of cetacean species in the wild, as they really are in their daily lives: interacting socially, playing, communicating through their highly complex system of sound, feeding, breeding, migrating, and perpetual fight for survival, and the unparalleled loss the world would suffer if all this amazing biodiversity were to disappear through unrestrained and ruthless exploitation.

Principal photography began in 2004 in Polynesia, and the footage during the course of 12 international expeditions and over 600 hours of underwater filming, took the crew to some of the most remote parts of the earth .

The documentary will be released in February 2008