Killing The Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef has been seriously damaged by too much ocean heat. According to University of Sydney: The damage is at catastrophic levels. And as stated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the southern region suffered the highest thermal stress ever recorded since satellite surveyance started in 1985. Only 3% of surveyed reefs were not bleached.

Corals can recover. if given a fighting chance. NOAA says: “Only the strongest and fastest actions to decrease global greenhouse gas emissions will reduce the risks of thermal stress on the Reef.” Well, if history is a guide, don’t count on it. CO2 has increased every year, never missed a yearly increase, since UN climate conferences started over three decades ago.

As for additional earthshattering worries, according to Arctic News: “Despite temperatures being suppressed during La Niña, the global surface air temperature reached 13.29°C on January 25, 2025, the highest temperature on record for the time of year. This is according to ERA5 data.” Despite a natural cooling off phase, called “La Niña,” global temperatures continued upwards. This could be, will probably be, bad, bad news for The Great Barrier Reef.

The ongoing catastrophe of the 2023-2024 global marine heatwave at the Great Barrier Reef is the most compelling evidence yet of the devastation caused by manmade climate change, spewing CO2 into the atmosphere by the bucketful. Indeed, when world-famous iconic landmarks go down for the count, it’s a red flag, a not-so-subtle message that manmade climate change is on a rampage like never before.

Bloomberg News took notice: Oceans Are Warming Faster and Faster as the Earth Traps More Energy, January 28, 2025: “New findings provide early evidence that burning fossil fuels played a major role in the worrying spike in ocean temperatures in 2023 and 2024.”

Bloomberg goes on to say the referenced study of ocean temperatures found evidence that the world’s oceans are warming up 4x faster than last century. “The findings have enormous ramifications for ocean health… the new study is one of the first lines of hard evidence linking the recent acceleration in global warming to burning fossil fuels, said Kim Cobb, director of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society,” Ibid.

The University of Sydney published a study that highlights the alarming impact “of unprecedented marine heatwaves on coral ecosystems”: Coral Bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef now at ‘Catastrophic Levels’ The University of Sydney, January 21, 2025.

It is common scientific knowledge that the oceans have been absorbing 90% of the excessive heat generated by global warming, making the oceans the primary heat sink for the planet. But there are limits to what ocean life can tolerate. The 2023-2024 damage to the Great Barrier Reef is essentially an ocean SOS that it’s absorbing too much excessive heat to survive. It is starting to die. Too much heat is a death warrant for coral reefs. This would not be happening without extraordinary levels of CO2 bursting into the atmosphere from manmade burning fossil fuels, thus creating a “blanket effect” of CO2 that retains solar radiation. Over the years, that “blanket” has thickened into a monster as can be seen by the following:

Here’s data that demonstrates why ecosystems, like The Great Barrier Reef, are overly stressed and starting to collapse:

When JFK was president in the early 1960s the amount of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere per year globally was 11 billion tons per year.

Now, according to Global Carbon Budget, “Total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are projected to be 41.6 billion tons in 2024, up from 40.6 billion tons last year. This includes fossil CO2 emissions of 37.4 billion, and the rest from land-use change (deforestation).”

The University of Sydney, Sch0ol of Life and Environmental Sciences, tracked the health of 462 coral colonies at university’s Great Barrier Reef research station at One Tree Island over a period of 161 days to determine the impact ot the 2023-2024 global marine heatwave. The results were catastrophic: “The results revealed that 66 percent of the colonies were bleached by February 2024 and 80 per cent by April. By July, 44 percent of the bleached colonies had died, with some coral genera, such as Acropora, experiencing a staggering 95 percent mortality rate,” Ibid.

According to Professor Ana Vila Conceio, a co-author of the study from the School of Geoscience; ‘This research is a wake-up call for policymakers and conservationists. The resilience of coral reefs is being tested like never before,” Ibid.

It was only six months ago that Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority issued its 2024 Outlook Report, stating: “Great Barrier Reef on one-way path to decay thanks to climate change with no end in sight… the long-term future of the Great Barrier Reef is precarious with the impacts of global warming ‘locked in.” Now, this new study indicates the Outlook Report of only a few months ago was too conservative as portions of the “long-term” have suddenly become short-term.

What does it take for international forums like the annual UN climate conferences known as COPs (Conference of the Parties) to seriously approach the dangers to life from global warming caused by excessive CO2 because of burning fossil fuels? Will killing southern portions of the world renown iconic Great Barrier Reef move the needle enough to make a difference at the upcoming 2025 UN Climate Change Conference in November 2025 in Belém, Brazil?

Based upon three decades of climate conferences attended by 195 nations agreeing to massive reduction in CO2 to achieve NetZero by 2050, emissions have increased the year following each UN climate meeting, without fail. The Paris ’15 agreement by 195 nations to hold average global temperature to under +1.5°C pre-industrial is already failing, badly. According to the Columbia Earth Institute: “It will be clear that the world is passing through the 1.5°C ceiling, and is headed much higher, unless steps are taken to affect Earth’s energy imbalance.”

Earth’s energy imbalance is at terrifying levels indicative of more planetary heat in the pipeline, which will kill off much more than the Great Barrier Reef. Globally, Absorbed Solar Radiation (ASR) has increased since 2010 in part due to a darkening Earth, decreased ice/snow and cloud albedo which in past years reflected solar radiation back to outer space.

Here’s the really bad news, actually, horrible news: “The increase of ASR is the reason Earth’s energy imbalance (EEI) since 2020 is nearly double what it was in the first decade of the 21st century. From this increased energy imbalance, we conclude that global warming in 2010-2030 should be 50- 100 percent greater than the warming rate in 1970-2010.” (James Hansen, Global Warming Acceleration: Hope vs Hopium, March 29, 2024)

Obviously, The Great Barrier Reef can’t handle 50-100% higher global warming by 2030, and who knows how badly it’ll impact the Amazon and Antarctica and Arctic permafrost and Greenland.

Within one year of Columbia Earth Institute’s statement that global warming in 2010-2030 should be 50-100% greater, and in sharp contrast to that warning, the U.S., effective January 20^th, has thrown-in the towel on combatting global warming. Fiendishness!

Will the rest of the world help stop loss of ecosystems that simply can’t take the heat, like the Great Barrier Reef, Greenland, Antarctica, Arctic permafrost also emitting CO2, Europe’s great rivers Rhine, Danube, Po, Rhône whacked hard, almost dried out, two years ago, Himalayan glaciers all-importance to SE Asia river systems melting fast, and harsh drought sequences clobbering the Amazon rainforest, becoming a net CO2 emitter joining along with cars, trains and planes. What’s to stop these ecosystems from collapse? They’re already tipsy.

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