CORAL BLEACHING

3Between a quarter and a third of all marine species rely on coral reefs to survive at some point in their lives, but extreme bleaching events are destroying them. As global temperatures increase, bleach events are becoming more frequent. A rise in temperature, along with increased levels of carbon dioxide, strip away the mutualistic algae that are vital to the coral’s survival, leaving the coral bleached white and dead. In 2016 and 2017, 50 per cent of corals in the Great Barrier Reef were killed. Coral reefs in all 29 reef-containing World Heritage Sites could be lost by the end of the century if current global CO2 emissions aren’t reduced.