World Oceans Day is celebrated on June 8. Above-average ocean temperatures are about to make the current global coral bleaching phenomenon the worst in history, as scientists in Australia and Florida highlight the plight of the world's coral reefs.
Coral reefs around the world are suffering from global bleaching for the fourth time, a consequence of warming ocean waters amid man-made climate change, according to scientists. TeleSUR
Coral reefs around the world are suffering from global bleaching for the fourth time, a consequence of warming ocean waters amid man-made climate change, according to scientists. TeleSUR
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00:00World Oceans Day is celebrated on June 8th.
00:08Above-average ocean temperatures are poised to make the current global coral bleaching
00:12phenomenon the worst in history.
00:14In this sense, scientists from Australia and Florida highlight the plight of the world's
00:18coral reefs.
00:23Coral reefs around the world are experiencing global bleaching for the fourth time, a result
00:28of warming ocean waters amid human-caused climate change according to scientists.
00:38In order for bleaching to be declared on a global scale, significant bleaching had to
00:43be documented within each of the major ocean basins, including the Atlantic, Pacific, and
00:48Indian Ocean, in both the northern and southern hemispheres.
00:53The situation right now is pretty dire.
00:55We are in the 11th hour in many places with mass coral bleaching all over the entire world.
01:02We're right now in the fourth global mass bleaching event.
01:07So make no mistake about it, the situation is grim.
01:11But I have not lost all hope.
01:13There are still things that we can do to turn this around.
01:19Bleaching happens when stressed coral expel the algae that are their food source and give
01:23them their color.
01:25If the bleaching is severe and long-lasting, the coral can die.
01:34In the world's largest coral reef ecosystem, Australia's Great Barrier Reef, bleaching
01:39affected 90% of the coral assessed in 2022.
01:43In March 2024 Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority announced a mass coral bleaching
01:48event following aerial surveys.
01:52The reality for what's happening in the Great Barrier Reef unfortunately isn't a surprise
01:57and it's a consequence of rising global temperatures and we're very certain of that partly because
02:03of the science but also because of what we've seen across the whole of the last 12 months.
02:11The world is experiencing the second global bleaching event in the last 10 years.
02:16The last one ended in May 2017.
02:19Brought on by a powerful El Nino climate pattern that heated the world's oceans, it
02:24lasted three years and was determined to be worse than the prior two bleaching events
02:28in 2010 and 1998.
02:32In this sense, also the Florida coral reef, the third largest, experienced significant
02:37bleaching last year.
02:43In mid-July 2023, water surface temperatures averaged about 33 degrees Celsius in the Atlantic
02:50off the lower Florida Keys, well above the average of 29.5 degrees Celsius, according
02:55to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports.
03:00The hot water resulted in nearly 100% bleaching along portions of the reef.
03:11Atmospheric reports have long said loss of coral is one of the big tipping points of
03:14future warming as the world nears 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming since pre-industrial times.
03:21That's a limit that countries agreed to try to hold to in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
03:29Oceans are incredibly important for humanity, for all the things they provide and they deserve
03:36our attention to look after them.
03:38Climate change is a substantial threat to all of those systems, so it's beholden upon
03:44all of us to take action on climate because it gives the planet the best possible future
03:49and hence all of us.
04:06For more UN videos visit www.un.org