The Not So Great Barrier Reef, Thanks to Global Warming

The CBC was a leaked copy of the report to be issued later this week by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a collection of climate scientists from around the world. According to the IPCC report, due to increased carbon dioxide in the world’s oceans from the atmosphere, those oceans are increasingly acidic. The increased acidity is bleaching out the world’s coral reefs. The IPCC projects that the Great Barrier Reef will be crippled by 2030 even if there is no further rise in atmospheric CO2. But if CO2 levels rise, says the report, the Great Barrier Reef will become “functionally extinct.”