The Year of Living Coral

Forget the arrival of Santa, December also sees Pantone announce its colour of the year by taking cultural trends into account.

2018 was the year of "ultra violet"  a colour they described as “dramatically provocative and thoughtful”. For 2019 they have gone for Living Coral.

Talking about their choice Pantone said -“Colour enhances and influences the way we experience life. “As a shade that affirms life through a dual role of energising and nourishing, Pantone 16-1546 Living Coral reinforces how colours can embody our collective experience and reflect what is taking place in our global culture at a moment in time."

The choice of "living coral" as Pantone's colour of the year explains how it is "evocative of how coral reefs provide shelter to a diverse kaleidoscope of colour".

This highlights today's society's increasing concern over environmental issues, with divers in Australia recently reporting the "devastating" impact that bleaching has had on the corals of the Great Barrier Reef. Linked to Global Warming Coral bleaching occurs when stresses from higher water temperatures cause the corals to expel symbiotic photosynthetic algae, draining them of all colour and eventually causing them to die

Bleaching is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon, spelling disaster for coral reefs across the world. Earlier this year a study also published in Nature found the Great Barrier Reef is unlikely to recover from the devastation caused by the 2016 heatwave. Many areas of the reef still appear to be slowly dying and replacement of dead corals takes in excess of a decade. Some estimates have predicted that 90 per cent of the world’s corals could be dead by 2050.

Sorry this isn’t the sunniest of posts for a Saturday but it will take us all to wake up and do something to help save our seas…

Queen Marie