Climate change could kill Great Barrier Reef by 2100

A report, Implications of Climate Change for Australia's Great Barrier Reef, written for WWF Australia and the Queensland Tourism Industry Council has revealed that the long-term prospects for the Reef are bleak...

Under a best case scenario, global temperatures will increase by less than 2°C and, though seriously reduced in size by 2100, the Reef will slowly recover as the climate stabilises again - over the next century.

Under the worst case scenario, coral populations will collapse by 2100 and the re-establishment of coral reefs will be highly unlikely over the following 200-500 years...

Strong action to increase the reef's resilience, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions today, is therefore recommended in order to secure the future economic + environmental wealth of Australia.

Only if global average temperature change is kept to below 2°C can the Reef have any chance of recovering from the predicted damage.

The report highlights that this can best be achieved by replacing oil + coal-based energy with clean, renewable energy sources.

As things stand, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of 1200 international climate scientists, has predicted that the mean global temperature will increase by between 1.4 and 5.8°C by 2100... although it should be noted that the lower increase is based on us doing absolutely everything within our power to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, without delay.

This is of course not happening at present!