The Great Barrier Reef will continue to deteriorate, largely to climate change, and the window to secure its future is rapidly closing. That is the sobering conclusion of a major new report into the state of the reef. The report was released by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.
It confirms what scientists have long known: humanity is killing the Great Barrier Reef, and other reefs around the world, by failing to curb the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. Earlier this year, I visited parts of the southern Great Barrier Reef where mass coral bleaching and death had just occurred . The picture was devastating.
Vast swathes of coral were bleached a ghostly white. It was interspersed with bright flashes of pink and blue: a final, heartbreaking release of coral pigment as the organism makes a last-ditch effort to survive . I’ve since learned much of that coral is now dead.
Anyone who knows anything about coral reefs would have been upset by what I saw. The world’s largest reef was in very, very bad shape. As I swam, in the back of my head was the knowledge that 2023 was Earth’s hottest year on record .
In fact, the Great Barrier Reef is the warmest it has been for at least 400 years. Unless humanity takes dramatic action to halt climate change, we will lose the beautiful, complex reefs that have existed on Earth for millennia. As this latest report shows, even governments and officials now acknowledge this fact.
Make no mistake: the reef is in di.