News Flash
PARIS, Nov 13, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Almost half of all warm-water species of
coral are threatened with extinction -- and climate change is the chief
culprit, a new report said on Wednesday.
The updated risk assessment from the International Union for Conservation of
Nature (IUCN) was announced at the COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan, which
is being skipped by the leaders of many top polluting nations.
Oceans have absorbed around 90 percent of the excess heat in the atmosphere
due to the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
Rising ocean temperatures have spurred mass bleaching events at coral reefs
across the world, threatening crucial ecosystems for marine life as well as
the livelihoods of people who rely on them.
The updated assessment of the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species looked at
reef-building corals, which live in warm, shallow waters in tropical areas.
Its analysis found that 892 reef-building coral species are now considered
threatened, representing 44 percent of the total.
This marked a significant increase from the last assessment in 2008, when a
third of all species was listed as threatened.
The organisation is still assessing the extinction risk for cold-water coral,
which lives in deeper, darker ocean waters, making it difficult to study.
The IUCN called on negotiators at the COP29 conference to act quickly to
reduce planet-heating fossil fuel emissions.
"Healthy ecosystems like coral reefs are essential for human livelihoods --
providing food, stabilising coastlines, and storing carbon," IUCN chief
Grethel Aguilar said in a statement.
"Climate change remains the leading threat to reef-building corals and is
devastating the natural systems we depend on."
As well as global warming, pollution, disease, unsustainable fishing and
agricultural runoff also threaten the world's coral.
Most reef-building coral is found across the Indo-Pacific region, such as
Australia's Great Barrier Reef which suffered one its worst-ever bleaching
events this year.
The IUCN's updated assessment included results from a study about reef-
building coral in the Atlantic Ocean, which was published in the PLOS One
journal on Wednesday.
That study found that almost one in three -- or 23 out of 85 -- species of
Atlantic coral is critically endangered, more than previously thought.
Staghorn coral and elkhorn coral were given as examples of two critically
endangered species in the Caribbean that have been hit hard by warming
waters, pollution -- and hurricanes.
"Without relevant decisions from those with the power to change this
trajectory, we will see the further loss of reefs, and progressive
disappearance of coral species at larger and larger scales," warned IUCN
coral specialist David Obura.