00:00World Oceans Day is celebrated on June 8th.
00:08Above-average ocean temperatures are poised to make the current global coral bleaching
00:12phenomenon the worst in history.
00:14In this sense, scientists from Australia and Florida highlight the plight of the world's
00:18coral reefs.
00:23Coral reefs around the world are experiencing global bleaching for the fourth time, a result
00:28of warming ocean waters amid human-caused climate change according to scientists.
00:38In order for bleaching to be declared on a global scale, significant bleaching had to
00:43be documented within each of the major ocean basins, including the Atlantic, Pacific, and
00:48Indian Ocean, in both the northern and southern hemispheres.
00:53The situation right now is pretty dire.
00:55We are in the 11th hour in many places with mass coral bleaching all over the entire world.
01:02We're right now in the fourth global mass bleaching event.
01:07So make no mistake about it, the situation is grim.
01:11But I have not lost all hope.
01:13There are still things that we can do to turn this around.
01:19Bleaching happens when stressed coral expel the algae that are their food source and give
01:23them their color.
01:25If the bleaching is severe and long-lasting, the coral can die.
01:34In the world's largest coral reef ecosystem, Australia's Great Barrier Reef, bleaching
01:39affected 90% of the coral assessed in 2022.
01:43In March 2024 Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority announced a mass coral bleaching
01:48event following aerial surveys.
01:52The reality for what's happening in the Great Barrier Reef unfortunately isn't a surprise
01:57and it's a consequence of rising global temperatures and we're very certain of that partly because
02:03of the science but also because of what we've seen across the whole of the last 12 months.
02:11The world is experiencing the second global bleaching event in the last 10 years.
02:16The last one ended in May 2017.
02:19Brought on by a powerful El Nino climate pattern that heated the world's oceans, it
02:24lasted three years and was determined to be worse than the prior two bleaching events
02:28in 2010 and 1998.
02:32In this sense, also the Florida coral reef, the third largest, experienced significant
02:37bleaching last year.
02:43In mid-July 2023, water surface temperatures averaged about 33 degrees Celsius in the Atlantic
02:50off the lower Florida Keys, well above the average of 29.5 degrees Celsius, according
02:55to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports.
03:00The hot water resulted in nearly 100% bleaching along portions of the reef.
03:11Atmospheric reports have long said loss of coral is one of the big tipping points of
03:14future warming as the world nears 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming since pre-industrial times.
03:21That's a limit that countries agreed to try to hold to in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
03:29Oceans are incredibly important for humanity, for all the things they provide and they deserve
03:36our attention to look after them.
03:38Climate change is a substantial threat to all of those systems, so it's beholden upon
03:44all of us to take action on climate because it gives the planet the best possible future
03:49and hence all of us.
04:06For more UN videos visit www.un.org
Comments