The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has just announced a troubling new metric, outlining a record mass bleaching event for coral reefs all over the world. They blame fossil fuels and humanity’s continued reliance on the emissions-producing energy.
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00:00The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has just announced a troubling new metric,
00:09outlining a record mass bleaching event for coral reefs all over the world.
00:13As of October 10th, 2024, approximately 77% of the world's reef area has experienced
00:20bleaching level heat stress since January 2023.
00:24They blame fossil fuels and humanity's continued reliance on the emissions producing energy
00:28source.
00:29The latest record for worst bleaching event was recorded from 2014 to 2017.
00:34During that one, some 65.7% of the planet's reefs were bleached.
00:38However, that took three years, whereas during the fourth global bleaching event, we've already
00:42gone over that by about 11% in about half the time.
00:46Coral bleaching events are marked when reefs oust the brightly colored algae which live
00:49inside of them.
00:50This leaves them white and bone-like, and they become vulnerable to starvation and diseases
00:55without their symbiotic partners.
00:56They may yet survive, but unless our planet's waters magically cool off, they may never
01:01recover.
01:02Experts have theorized that coral reefs would not survive past the 2.7 degree Fahrenheit
01:06global warming threshold with this new mass bleaching event, suggesting that might just
01:10be the case.