As Climate Change Ravages The Great Barrier Reef, Tourists Flock To Say Goodbye
The Great Barrier has been altered beyond recognition in recent years. In 2016 and again in 2017, the structure was hit by successive mass bleaching events that left large swaths of the once-colorful corals dying or dead. Nearly one-third of the reef was killed as a result of the first bleaching, and the following year served as a gut punch that further crippled one of the world’s largest living organisms.
Bleaching happens when coral is effectively cooked in water much warmer than usual. Oceans around the world are warming, primarily thanks to heat-trapping greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere by human activity. Coral that’s bleached lose colorful algae and turn ghostly white ― yet can recover if given time to recuperate. But cook it for too long and the centuries-old structures are done for.