Global warming threatens to destroy 99 per cent of Great Barrier Reef’s coral
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the world’s most extensive and spectacular coral ecosystem, could be destroyed by global warming.
A report by the Australian Academy of Science said that if the continent warmed by 2°C, only 1 per cent of the reef was expected to survive.
The report said the Paris Agreement to keep global warming at 1.5°C above preindustrial levels “has now slipped out of reach and is virtually impossible”.
The Great Barrier Reef, which stretches 2,300 kilometres along the north-eastern coast of Australia, has lost more than half of its coral in the past three decades.
Coral bleaching in 2016, 2017 and 2020 further damaged its health and affected its animal, bird and marine population, the International Union for Conservation of Nature said.
Bleaching occurs when warmer water destroys algae that coral feeds on, causing it to turn white.
Scientists say the surviving coral would be able to return and cover the reef if the warming were halted.
Global warming will also be disastrous for other famous ecosystems, such as Australia’s largest nature reserve, the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park in Queensland.
The IUCN has changed the reef’s status to critical and deteriorating on its watch list.
Some activities that threaten it, such as fishing and coastal development, can be tackled by the management authorities, the union said.
Progress towards protecting the reef under a long-term sustainability plan to 2050 has been slow and the reef continues to deteriorate, it said.
But scientists have been involved in projects aimed at improving the reef and helping to protect it.
Coral from Australia’s first “Coral IVF” trial on the Great Barrier Reef in 2016 survived recent bleaching events and should spawn this year, researchers say.
Peter Harrison, director of Southern Cross University’s Marine Ecology Research Centre, led a restoration project that re-established 60 coral reproducing populations on the reef by collecting coral sperm and eggs during the annual mass spawning.