Large parts of Great Barrier Reef could be dead in 20 years, says scientists
Research shows this year’s bleaching event is 175 times more likely today than in a world where humans weren’t emitting greenhouse gases
Large parts of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef could be dead within 20 years as climate change drives mass coral bleaching, scientists warned Friday.
The World Heritage-listed reef is currently suffering its worst bleaching in recorded history with 93 per cent of corals affected due to warming sea temperatures.
Experts from the government-backed ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science said in a study that if greenhouse gases keep rising, similar events will be the new normal, occurring every two years by the mid-2030s.
Given reefs need some 15 years to completely recover from bleaching of this magnitude, the centre said “we are likely to lose large parts of the Great Barrier Reef in just a couple of decades”.
Researchers found climate change had added one degree Celsius of warming to the ocean temperatures off the Queensland coast in March, when corals were first noted turning white.
“These extreme temperatures will become commonplace by the 2030s, putting a great strain on the ecosystems of the Great Barrier Reef,” said lead author Andrew King.