What if I told you that one of the most beautiful forests in the world is burning, and there is nothing we can do about it, and it won’t grow back. Well, that is precisely what is happening to the Great Barrier Reef. Corals are very sensitive to water temperature, and in the summers of 2016 and 2017, the reef was inundated by warm water, which caused massive bleaching and ruined a large portion of the most beautiful parts of the colorful forest. Reefs take at least 10 years to grow back after being bleached, but at current bleaching rates (every 6 years), the reefs simply have no chance to recover (see the beautiful summary provided by Lauren James of National Geographic, August 2018; click here).

Today, half the coral is gone. A new paper in the Journal Nature describes all of this in detail. Their conclusion is disheartening – “the Great Barrier Reef has forever changed.”  

Girls Against Climate Change!

I’m Izzykat and remember to bikepenguin!