The Australian government on Wednesday rejected a proposed open pit coal mine that would have been located less than 6.2 miles from the Great Barrier Reef.
Three years ago, Australia was supposed to have its “climate change election.” Polls had predicted a win for Labor, which had promised to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent by 2030, and nearly two-thirds of Australians agreed that the climate crisis was a major problem that required action. Despite this, the conservative Liberal-National coalition […]
More than 90 percent of the Great Barrier Reef was impacted by coral bleaching during the Australian summer of 2021-2022. This is the conclusion of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, which released the results Tuesday of aerial surveys taken of 719 reefs between Torres Strait and the Capricorn Bunker Group. “The surveys confirm […]
Coral bleaching leaches a reef of its yellows, greens and pinks, leaving behind a graveyard of brittle white. Now, new research indicates that it isn’t just the coral that loses its colors after a bleaching event. The fish that find a home there become less brilliant, too. “We found that as the cover of structurally […]
The coral of the Great Barrier Reef is experiencing “widespread” bleaching just two years after the reef’s last mass bleaching event in 2020. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority said Friday it had observed the bleaching after conducting surveillance flights over the 1,243-mile reef, as AFP reported. “Bleaching has been detected across the Marine […]
After record-high temperatures for the last four months of 2021, the Great Barrier Reef is at risk of another mass bleaching event. Experts are shocked and concerned by the unprecedented levels of heat stress on the corals. From September through December 14, 2021, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) noted more heat stress over the […]
There’s hope that an innovative idea may have what it takes to help save the beleaguered Great Barrier Reef. For the first time, Coral IVF babies have themselves reproduced on a previously degraded reef, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF) announced Monday. “We couldn’t be more excited to see that these coral babies have grown […]
The news is full of dire warnings about the future and current health of the Great Barrier Reef, but the World Heritage Site is not dead yet. Scientists on Tuesday night recorded videos of corals spawning en masse off the coast of Cairns, Queensland. “Nothing makes people happier than new life, and coral spawning is […]
The Great Barrier Reef is in trouble. It has experienced five mass bleaching events since 1998, three of them in the last five years. Now, new research published in Current Biology Thursday finds that only two percent of the reef escaped some bleaching during that time. “This is one of the most confronting results of […]