Climate change causes Australia to downgrade Great Barrier Reef′s outlook

The government agency that manages Australia's Great Barrier Reef on Friday downgraded its outlook for the condition of the coral system from "poor" to "very poor."

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority's (GBRMPA) report blamed climate change for coral bleaching, which occurs as a result of rising sea temperatures.

"Significant global action to address climate change is critical to slowing the deterioration of the reef's ecosystem and heritage values and supporting recovery," said the five-year review of the world's largest coral reef system.

Read more: The global injustice of the climate crisis

• Doomsday tourism and climate change: Visiting natural wonders before they disappear

  Transient treasure

  Of the 2 million-odd people who visit the Great Barrier Reef annually, a 2016 survey found that 69 percent were coming to see the UNESCO World Heritage site "before it's too late." And no wonder. The IPCC says that even if we manage to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, 99 percent of the world's coral will be wiped out. Tourists can hasten their demise by touching or polluting reefs.

• Doomsday tourism and climate change: Visiting natural wonders before they disappear

  Bearly there

  And what's the carbon cost of flying to remote natural wonders under threat? A 2010 study found that the business of polar-bear safaris in Churchill, Canada, had an annual CO2 footprint of 20 megatons. Most visitors arrived by plane, and while 88 percent of them said humans were responsible for climate change, only 69 percent agreed that air travel was a contributing cause.

• Doomsday tourism and climate change: Visiting natural wonders before they disappear

  Art of the apocalypse

  Along with the polar bear, one of the most iconic images of climate change must be the dramatic curves of an iceberg sculpted by the warming atmosphere. Gliding between the melting giants on a cruise ship is a haunting experience that tourists will pay huge sums for. In the early 1990s just 5,000 people visited Antarctica each year, compared to over 46,000 in 2018.

• Doomsday tourism and climate change: Visiting natural wonders before they disappear

  Peak season

  You don't have to go to the poles to see vanishing ice. Kilimanjaro's snowy peaks are a striking sight above the equatorial savannah of the national park, which generates €44 million ($50 million) from tourism annually. Many visitors climb to the Furtwängler Glacier — where 85 percent of the ice has vanished over the last century. The rest is unlikely to survive much beyond mid-century.

• Doomsday tourism and climate change: Visiting natural wonders before they disappear

  King without a crown

  When Montana's Glacier National Park opened in 1910, it boasted over 100 of the ice features from which it took its name. Now, there are fewer than two dozen. So dramatic is their retreat, that the park has become a center of climate science research. Some 3 million hikers and holidaymakers also visit the "crown of the continent" each year, soaking in the dying days of its ice-capped glory.

• Doomsday tourism and climate change: Visiting natural wonders before they disappear

  Paradise lost

  The Maldives are the archetypal tourist paradise: 1,200 coral islands with white beaches rising just 2.5 meters above the turquoise waters. In 2017, the president decided to build new airports and megaresorts to accommodate seven times as many tourists, and use the revenue to build new islands and relocate communities. He has since been voted out of office and faces corruption charges.

• Doomsday tourism and climate change: Visiting natural wonders before they disappear

  Saltwater swamps

  It's not just islands that are going under as sea levels rise. Wetlands like Florida's Everglades are disappearing too. Over the last century, around half the Everglades have been drained and turned over to agriculture. Now, saltwater is seeping into what's left, making it the only critically endangered World Heritage site in the United States.

• Doomsday tourism and climate change: Visiting natural wonders before they disappear

  Disturbing the peace

  The Galapagos will be forever associated with Darwin, who realized their unique wildlife had evolved over countless generations in isolation. Today, they are besieged by visitors and environmental changes are happening too fast for species to adapt. Ocean warming has left iconic creatures like the marine iguana starving, while UNESCO lists tourism among the greatest threats to the archipelago.

  Author: Ruby Russell

Bleaching and other factors

But the agency added that the threats to the 2,300-kilometer (1,400-mile) reef were "multiple, cumulative and increasing." 

Agricultural runoff, coastal land clearing and coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish were also to blame for its woes, the report said.

GBRMPA's Chief Scientist David Wachenfeld told reporters in Sydney that despite the threat, "with the right mix of local actions to improve the resilience of the system and global actions to tackle climate change ... we can turn that around."

Located off the northeast Australian coast, the Great Barrier Reef is home to 400 types of coral, 1,500 species of fish and 4,000 types of mollusks.

Scientists have been concerned about the health of the coral network for decades. In 2012, a study found the reef has lost more than half its coral cover since 1985.

A 2017 study published in the journal Nature found that 91% of the reef had been bleached at least once during three bleaching events over the past two decades.

A fourth significant bleaching struck later in 2017 after the report was published.

Read more: The Amazon: Vital for our planet

Australia: Mining prioritized

Australia's conservative government has faced criticism for favoring an expansion of its its already massive coal mining industry, the country's biggest export, over action to curb climate change.

New government data released this week showed that Australia's emissions of greenhouse gases, blamed for climate change, continued a four-year rising trend during the first half of 2019.

Environment Minister Sussan Ley said she was not surprised by the downgrade given the damage done by recent cyclones and latest bleaching events.

But she insisted that the Great Barrier reef "is the best-managed reef in the world."

Resilience-building program

The Canberra government earlier this year announced a US$380 million (€312 million) program to breed more resilient coral.

However, the downgrade has boosted calls for UNESCO to revoke the reef's status as a World Heritage site, which would be an embarrassment for the government.

Read more: Tourism expert: 'Many say they want to travel sustainably — but then they don't'

The reef is estimated to be worth at least US$4 billion a year to Australia's economy.

mm/ng (AFP, AP, Reuters)

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