Great Barrier Marine Park: Reef Will Collapse With Just 1.5C More Additional Warming
Australia's top Great Barrier Reef officials warn the natural wonder will virtually collapse if the planet becomes 1.5 degrees hotter – a threshold that scientists say requires shutting down coal within three decades. This federal election campaign is a potential tipping point for Australia's direction on climate action, as the major parties pledge distinctly different ambitions for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
However neither party has rejected the proposed Adani mine outright or promised to phase out coal, an export on which Australia is heavily reliant. Climate change has already wrought devastating effects on the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef, including two consecutive years of mass coral bleaching in 2016 and 2017.
In response to the threat, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority – the federal government's lead agency for managing the reef – has prepared a climate change position statement. The document, obtained by the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age under freedom of information laws, has not been released to the general public despite being in development for the past 15 months.
EDIT
The document cites scientific evidence that the reef could experience temperature-induced bleaching events twice per decade by about 2020 and annually by 2050 under high-emissions scenarios.
EDIT
https://www.smh.com.au/federal-election-2019/radical-climate-action-critical-to-great-barrier-reef-s-survival-government-body-says-20190413-p51dul.html
