In this undated photo provided by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a healthy coral reef in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands is shown. According to the NOAA, some 27 percent of the world's reefs are already gone. If current trends continue, the agency predicts another two-thirds will disappear by 2032. That's nearly 70 percent of the world's reefs gone in just the next 20 years. (AP Photo/U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, HO)

(AP) — Coral reefs are dying, and scientists and governments around the world are contemplating what will happen if they disappear altogether.

The idea positively scares them.

are part of the foundation of the ocean food chain. Nearly half the fish the world eats make their homes around them. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide – by some estimates, 1 billion across Asia alone – depend on them for their food and their livelihoods.

If the reefs vanished, experts say, hunger, poverty and political instability could ensue.

"Whole nations will be threatened in terms of their existence," said Carl Gustaf Lundin of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Numerous studies predict coral reefs are headed for extinction worldwide, largely because of global warming, pollution and coastal development, but also because of damage from bottom-dragging fishing boats and the international trade in jewelry and souvenirs made of coral.

More of the story,
click image