Environmental Impact of our Hobby.

[Reefer Rob]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Sure, but what about all the rock we take? The mining for materials to make salt? The cheap electronics that end up in the landfill? All impacts of the hobby.

Yes, we now have man made rock, dry rock, etc, but that all comes from somewhere. Salt. How much salt gets used a year globally for the hobby? And really, does that even matter? No idea personally But just thinking about what we use, how much we use and where it all ends up!

Everything we do has an environmental impact. The question you should ask is whether reef keeping is contributing to something that may causing irreparable damage to the earth (thus the discussion on global warming would be valid ) As long as the collection of materials and animals is done in a sustainable manner I don't really have a problem with it.

The reason I downsized my tank, and thought seriously about getting out of the hobby (I almost succeeded) was because the energy consumption (carbon footprint) of my aquarium probably equaled the combined usage of every other aspect of my life.