🚨🪸 Warming ocean temperatures have led to a global coral bleaching event, in which corals around the world are bleaching en masse. This is essentially a mass mortality event, as many of the corals that bleach likely won’t survive. These increasingly frequent events are threatening one of the most important ecosystems on our planet. Worldwide, an estimated one billion people benefit directly or indirectly from the ecosystem services coral reefs provide, including seafood, tourism income, and storm protection. Scientists once thought that 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming would mark a tipping point, leading to the collapse of 70-90 percent of coral reefs. Some scientists are starting to believe that the tipping point is actually at 1.2 degrees Celsius — meaning we may be dangerously close to that threshold. While local conservation efforts, like coral restoration, fishing regulations, and pollution prevention are buying us time, lowering our carbon emissions is the only real way to save our reefs—and it’s not too late. We need climate action now.

🎥 @dr.shireenrahimi

Special thanks: @eslam_o_osman @tinybeaker

Sources:
IPCC 2018: https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/10/SR15_SPM_version_stand_alone_LR.pdf
Kelly et al 2024: https://esd.copernicus.org/preprints/esd-2023-35/#:~:text=Coral%20reefs%20face%20unprecedented%20threats,above%20350%20parts%20per%20million.
IPCC 2022: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGII_SummaryVolume.pdf
McKay et al 2022: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn7950
Coral reef livelihoods: https://coast.noaa.gov/states/fast-facts/coral-reefs.html#:~:text=1%20Billion%20People,ecosystem%20services%20coral%20reefs%20provide.