No, the Great Barrier Reef is Not Actually Dead…But It Could Be Soon
Photo courtesy of Getty
Outside Magazine declared the iconic Great Barrier Reef dead in a recent viral obituary that caused Twitter to explode with the news:
The Great Barrier Reef was pronounced dead… Do you guys care yet pic.twitter.com/6Kp7txAVBE
— Nicolas (@fxcknicolas) October 15, 2016
The largest living thing on Earth, The Great Barrier Reef, which was over 25 million years old was pronounced dead today..let that sink in.
— Jenna (@JennaRae63) October 14, 2016
Global warming and greed for fossil fuels killed the Great Barrier Reef. RIP https://t.co/XhnNkiY9Xdpic.twitter.com/dXN24a75bC
— Now Playing (@jfleit) October 12, 2016
At least 20% of the 1,400-mile long UNESCO World Heritage site has died from mass-bleaching events. This phenomenon has become a common occurrence in tropical reef systems in the last ten years.
Coral isn’t made up of one organism; rather, millions of tiny polyps form symbiotic relationships with algae. The corals provide a hard skeleton shelter and, in turn, the algae photosynthesize food. When corals become stressed by extreme changes in environmental conditions, such as temperature, light, or nutrition levels, they begin to expel that algae, which turns them completely white (or “bleached.”)