Coral Reefs Dying Across Globe

Coral reefs are experiencing more frequent and severe bleaching events. Bleaching occurs when the host coral organism ejects symbiotic algae that photosynthesize nutrients due to elevated sea temperatures.This global event stared in 2023 in the Northern Hemisphere summer when seas reached record warm temperatures. Prolonged and severe bleaching can kill coral animals, but they can recover if temperatures receed rapidly. Previously bleached corals are weaker and have difficulty reproducing. Coral reefs are hotbeds of diversity, providing habitat for a quarter of marine species while covering less than 1% of the ocean.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef has experienced the most widespread bleaching event on record in 2024. GBR is suffering its fifth mass bleaching event in eight years. In 2024, 80% of the reef area is affected; previously the record was 60% in 2017. Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a pioneer of coral research among the first to link bleaching to global heating, told the Guardian: “It’s a shock. We clearly have to prevent governments from investing in fossil fuels, or we won’t have a chance in hell". Current climate models predict that every reef on Earth will experience severe, annual bleaching sometime between 2040 and 2050. They will not survive this assault.