Even Paris Climate Protocol Is Insufficient to Shield Coral Reefs from Climate Change

It seems no efforts can save the earth from the harsh impacts of climate change. Though organizations globally are giving much effort to save the ecology and ecosystem from the insensitive outcomes of climate change, but all of them seem to be insufficient for saving the world. A new research, made by an international team of ecologists has highlighted an awful impact of global warming and climate change, according to which more than 99% coral reefs are endangered because of climate change.

As highlighted in the study, “The abnormal changes in climate patterns are rapidly killing coral reefs in the course of a procedure called ‘coral bleaching’. The last year, 2016 witnessed the biggest-ever die-off of coral reefs and in next few years, the existence of coral reefs is expected to completely vanish from the earth”. The study also suggested that in few aquatic regions of the Great Barrier Reef, loss of coral reefs is recorded up to 35% and if it goes on in this manner, soon we won’t be able to find any colorful coral reefs in the earth.

The process of coral bleaching is being triggered by intensifying hotness in oceans and the atmosphere, which eventually making the reefs drop their multicolored appearance and becoming ashen. Even after the Paris Climate Protocols coming to an effect few months back, under which almost 200 nations have agreed to put a ceiling on the global warming underneath 2 degrees Celsius, the damage of the aquatic species and coral reefs are still found in an endangered situation. The outcomes of deep warmth are accelerating the intensity of the coral bleaching over the year; causing the rapid demise of the reefs.

The UN-sponsored study, published in the “journal Nature Scientific Reports” cautioned that, if emissions of the unrestrained greenhouse gasses are continued with the same pace and rate, the annual coral bleaching is expected to hit 99% of the world’s reefs within one century. The report also warned that the coral bleaching will become the most dreadful issue for the ecologists by 2054 if the emissions of the greenhouse gasses continue at the current speed.

According to Ruben van Hooidonk, the lead author of the study and an associate of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “Coral bleaching is the upshot of the excessive oceanic heat. It is taking place each year and if the current speed goes on, it will trigger multiple unexpected and dangerous changes in the environmental function of coral reef ecosystems.”