Global warming killed 14% of world’s corals since 2009

Amid climate change concerns as world leaders look to reduce their carbon footprints, the global warming crisis has already wiped out 14% of the world’s coral reefs since 2009.

CAPE TOWN, October 5 (ANA) – Amid climate change concerns as world leaders look to reduce their carbon footprints, the global warming crisis has already wiped out 14% of the world’s coral reefs since 2009.

According to a report released on Tuesday by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) which involved more than 300 scientists, it warned that climate change combined with overfishing and coastal development had destroyed at least a quarter of all marine animals and plants.

In what has been the largest-ever analysis of global coral reef health, the GCRMN survey spanned 12,000 sites in 73 countries through two million individual observations.

“There are clearly unsettling trends toward coral loss, and we can expect these to continue as warming persists,” said Dr Paul Hardisty, CEO of the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

“Despite this, some reefs have shown a remarkable ability to bounce back, which offers hope for the future recovery of degraded reefs,” he said.

Hardisty added that climate change was the biggest threat to the world’s reefs and that everyone needed to urgently start curbing global greenhouse gas emissions.

Using the data from 10 coral reef-bearing regions around the world, GCRMN found that coral bleaching events also had a significant impact on coral loss. Coral bleaching is when sea surface temperatures are elevated, which expels algae that causes the coral to turn white.

During this time the coral is not dead, but under severe stress and has the potential to survive. In 1998, a coral-bleaching event killed 8% of the world’s coral, which is the equivalent to around 6,500 square kilometres of coral.

The preservation of coral is important not only for anchoring marine ecosystems, but also to ensure environmental suitability, food and job security, as well as protection from storms and erosion.

– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher