Political Opinions, News Aggregation

Great Barrier Reef 'will die' unless carbon emissions slashed

Australia's Great Barrier Reef will be severely bleached and eventually die unless the world's industrialised nations drastically cut carbon emissions by up to 90 per cent by 2050, a leading coral scientist has warned. Professor Terry Hughes and representatives of the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies told a meeting at the Canberra parliament that the future of the reef, and a large chunk of Australia's tourist industry, was under grave threat from rising sea temperatures. Just a small increase in average temperatures could cause massive coral bleaching on the reef, he said. "We've seen the evidence with our...