The harmful bleaching of the world’s coral has grown to include 84% of ocean reef in the most intense event of its kind in registered history, the International Coral Reef Initiative announced on Wednesday.
It is the fourth global bleaching event since 1998, and has now exceeded the bleaching of 2014-17 that reached about two thirds of the reefs, the ICRI said, a mixture of more than 100 governments, non-governmental organizations and others. And it is not clear when The current crisiswhich began in 2023 and blames the warm -up of the oceans, will end.
“It is possible that we never see the heat stress that causes the bleaching fall below the threshold that triggers a global event,” said Mark Eakin, executive secretary of the International Coral Coral Society and head of Retired Coral Monitoring for the Oceanic and Atmospheric National Administration of the United States.
“We are seeing something that is completely changing the face of our planet and the ability of our oceans to maintain lives and livelihoods,” Eakin said.
Last year it was The hottest year on Earth in the RegistryAnd much of that goes to the oceans. The average temperature of the ocean sea surface away from the poles was a record of 20.87 degrees Celsius (69.57 degrees Fahrenheit).
That is deadly for corals, which are key to the production of shellfish, tourism and protection of erosion coasts and storms. Coral reefs are sometimes called “tropical jungles of the sea” because they support high levels of biodiversity, approximately 25% Of all marine species can be found in and around coral reefs.
The coral obtains its bright colors of the colorful algae that live inside them and are a source of food for corals. Prolonged heat causes algae to release toxic compounds, and the coral expels them. A marked white skeleton is left, and the weakened coral is at a greater risk of dying.
The laundering event has been so severe that the NOAA coral coral surveillance program has had to add levels to its laundering alert scale to explain the growing risk of coral death.
Efforts are being made to conserve and Restore coral. A Dutch laboratory has worked with coral fragments, including some taken from the coast of the Seychelles, to propagate them in a zoo so that one day they can be used to repopulate the wild coral reefs if necessary. Other projects, including one in Florida, have worked to Rescue corals in danger of extinction over high heat And we feed them back to health before returning them to the ocean.
But scientists say it is essential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that heat the planet, such as carbon dioxide and methane.
“The best way to protect coral reefs is to address the root cause of climate change. And that means reducing human emissions that are mainly from the burning of fossil fuels … Everything else looks more like a curite instead of a solution,” Eakin said.
“I think people really need to recognize what they are doing … Inaction is the kiss of death for coral reefs,” said Melanie McField, co -president of the Caribbean Steering Committee for the Global Coral of Coral Monitoring Network, a network of scientists that monitors the reefs worldwide.
The group update occurs when President Donald Trump has moved aggressively in his second mandate to boost fossil fuels and reverse clean energy programs, which according to him is necessary for economic growth.
“We have a government at this time that is working very hard to destroy all these ecosystems … Eliminating these protections will have devastating consequences,” Eakin said.
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