How dead is the Great Barrier Reef? This explainer from Vox is about coral bleaching, the No. 1 threat to coral reefs around the world. Apparently it can no longer be saved, only maintained. Via Vox:
It’s official. The Great Barrier Reef cannot be saved.
The prognosis comes from the Australian government’s Reef 2050 advisory committee, made up of experts and scientists responsible for managing the reef’s future.
In the more optimistic times of 2015, the committee put out a report on how to best preserve the reef. But now two of the committee’s experts have told the Guardian that the plan is no longer feasible “due to the dramatic impacts of climate change.”
Instead, they recommend that the goal be revised to “maintain the ecological function” of the Great Barrier Reef. And the reef may now have a better shot of being listed as a “World Heritage site in danger,” a designation the Australian government has fought for for years.
One reason for the bleaker forecast for the reef is the record ocean temperatures for the second year in a row that produced mass bleaching along the reef, leaving almost half of the coral dead.
The latest aerial surveys released by scientists in April show a recent bleaching event almost as severe as the record bleaching of 2016 that left two-thirds of the reef damaged. Bleaching occurs when extreme heat forces algae to abandon coral, turning them pale white.