The News
The water at the Great Barrier Reef has been warmer in the past decade than at any point in the last 400 years, according to new research published in Nature on Wednesday.
Climate change is largely to blame, and the hot water has significantly increased the risk of mass coral bleaching and die-offs that could ruin the world’s largest coral reef system.
If global warming is kept under the Paris Agreement’s limit of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, as much as 90% of the world’s coral reefs could still be lost, the scientists said.
Study co-author Benjamin Henley said he hoped the findings would prompt UNESCO to rethink its 2023 decision to postpone putting the Great Barrier Reef on the list of world heritage sites “in danger,” a designation that would bring substantial monetary support from the World Heritage Fund.
SIGNALS
Reefs could recover — but the chances are slim
The world’s opportunity to save coral reefs from extinction and ruin is shrinking fast, but fatalism risks creating a self-fulfilling prophecy: “We need to believe in [the reef] to keep it going,” one of the researchers behind the new study said at a press conference. “Every fraction of a degree of warming we can avoid will have benefits to the reef…If we can stabilize toward that 1.5°C level, there’s at least a glimmer of hope,” another added. But tackling climate change may not be enough, The Economist argued in 2019, as overfishing, sewage, and plastic pollution are also part of the problem, and may require measures like marine protected areas and tighter industry rules to fix.
Some marine protected areas may be little more than ‘paper parks’
Critics argue marine protected areas risk displacing fisheries, but the long-term benefits of safeguarding marine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning outweigh a temporary disruption to fishing, and can generate millions in tourism revenue, a scientist wrote in The Conversation. Yet 62% of the MPAs designed to safeguard rare migratory fish across western Europe don’t cover their core habitats, in part because the so-called “rare species paradox” means there is a lack of data to make them as effective as possible, according to a separate 2024 study. Other MPAs are “paper parks” that don’t exist in reality, another scientist argued, and it would be better to pursue a mix of conservation strategies rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
Coral reefs have economic benefits, but they have ‘intangible’ value, too
Coral reefs provide a first line of defense protecting shorelines from heavy waves, and their destruction makes coastal communities more vulnerable to flooding and erosion, according to a 2019 report. Reef loss also reduces biodiversity, which is detrimental to the estimated 6 million reef fishers worldwide who rely on coral-reef associated fisheries to survive, ResourceWatch wrote. Tourism to the Great Barrier Reef also represents an economic boon to the tune of approximately AU$ 6.4 billion per year. But reefs also represent something “intangible, things you can’t put a dollar price on,” one researcher said — natural beauty and a unique ecosystem.