An ashen pallor and an eerie stillness all that remains where there should fluttering fish and vibrant colours in the reefscape, one conservationist says
The world’s coral reefs have been pushed into “uncharted territory” by the worst global bleaching event on record that has now hit more than 80% of the planet’s reefs, scientists have warned.
Reefs in at least 82 countries and territories have been exposed to enough heat to turn corals white since the global event started in January 2023, the latest data from the US government’s Coral Reef Watch shows.
Coral reefs are known as the rainforests of the sea because of their high concentration of biodiversity that supports about a third of all marine species and a billion people.
But record high ocean temperatures have spread like an underwater wildfire over corals across the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, damaging and killing countless corals.
Yeah, the defeatist view is really dangerous. But as the video addresses, by limiting other stressors, reefs can recover even at higher temperatures.
We’re in for 4-10C (highest probability at 6C) of warming. Where’s the hope?
There’s no hope of zero warning. There’s hope that we can minimize the warming to that 6C or lower. And hope that we can help ecosystem adapt to new climates. There are corals that are adapting, we need to make sure they survive and spread. We might even need to engineer in heat tolerance. Warming is coming, if they only need to deal with it, they might be able to adapt. But when you stack an half a dozen other significant stressors, it becomes much less likely to survive. So reducing those stressors helps, even if global warming is going to be bad.