Great Barrier Reef would cease to exist if current rate of global warming continues: Study

The Great Barrier Reef is all but doomed, with between 70 and 99 per cent of corals set for destruction unless immediate “transformative action” is taken, a new report by the Australian Academy of Science has revealed. In their report, the team concluded that the earth has warmed 1.1 degrees since the start of the industrial era, however, if the present rate continued warming of 1.5 degrees likely to be reached by 2050. Australia, in particular, has warmed by 1.4 degrees. They further argued that if the same rate of warming sustained, then the reef would cease to exist in the near future. 

Survival only if warming reduced

The Great Barrier Reef stretches for over 1,430-miles or 2,300 kilometres along the northeastern coast of Australia. As per the researchers, at 1.5 degrees of global warming, the reef is expected to shrink by 70 to 90 per cent. At 2 degrees, only 1 per cent of the reef is expected to survive. As per the lead researcher of the study, only if the warming was stabilised, surviving corals suited to warmer temperatures may eventually return to cover the reef. 

Only a few weeks ago, an international conservation group said that the condition of the Great Barrier Reef was in a “critical state and deteriorating” as climate change warms up the waters in which it lies. According to the latest report by the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the coral reef, which is considered one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world has lost more than half of its reef in the past three decades. In addendum, coral bleaching since 2016 has worsened its health adversely affecting marine life.

“A third (33 per cent) of natural World Heritage sites are threatened by climate change, including the world’s largest coral reef, the Great Barrier Reef, assessed as having a “critical” outlook for the first time,” IUCN warned in a statement.

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