Great Barrier Reef ‘cannot be saved’

 The Great Barrier Reef can no longer be saved because it is so damaged, scientists have concluded, after surveys showed 29 per cent of corals died last year.

The plight of the reef is partly as a result of the “extraordinary rapidity” of climate change, they said.

The reef has been severely damaged by the warming of the oceans, with around 95 per cent of it suffering from bleaching, according to scientists who surveyed it in 2016. The bleaching has led to widespread coral decline and habitat loss.

A committee of experts set up by the Australian government said the lesser target of “protecting the ecological function” of the reef as it changes was more realistic than salvaging it.