Australia's Great Barrier Reef, one of the largest living structures in the world, is at very high risk of extreme and widespread bleaching and ecosystem collapse due to the brewing “Super El Niño”. The warning comes from a group of scientists, which indicates the possibility of localized extinctions of some coral species within the Great Barrier.
El Niño threatens to collapse Great Barrier Reef
Australia's Great Barrier Reef, one of the largest living structures in the world, is at very high risk of extreme and widespread bleaching and ecosystem collapse due to the brewing “Super El Niño”. The warning comes...
“It is very likely that we will see large-scale and severe mass bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef,” said Morgan Pratchett, from James Cook University in Queensland (Australia), during the International Symposium on Coral Reefs, held in Auckland, New Zealand, cited by AFP.
Bleaching is an increasingly common problem among corals, including in the Great Barrier Reef. With the warming of the oceans, resulting from climate change caused mainly by the burning of fossil fuels, environmental conditions have become increasingly unfavorable for the survival of several species of coral. Since 2016, the Great Barrier Reef has experienced six waves of mass bleaching, with the latest occurring between 2024 and 2025.
Although not necessarily fatal, prolonged and repeated bleaching weakens corals and can result in the death of entire colonies. With the prospect of more heat in the Pacific due to El Niño, the risk is that the next wave of bleaching will be so intense that the ecosystem will no longer be able to recover, suffering a widespread collapse.
For scientists, the loss of corals in the Great Barrier Reef is a strong sign of lack of climate control and governments' lack of will to effectively tackle the cause of the problem – the consumption of fossil fuels.
"If you were on a big ship, like the Titanic, and someone came up and said the ship was sinking, you would immediately get into a lifeboat. We're not doing that. The ship is sinking in a really catastrophic way and we're not realizing the gravity of the situation," lamented Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a professor at the University of Queensland.
Folha and Jornal de Brasília also reported the warning about the Great Barrier Reef.
Source: ClimaInfo
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