One of Australia's most famous natural gifts, the Great Barrier Reef is blessed with the breathtaking beauty of the world's largest coral reef. The reef contains a large variety of life and over 3,000 reef systems and hundreds of islands with some of the world's most beautiful beaches. Because of its natural beauty, the Great Barrier Reef has become one of the world's most sought-after tourist attractions.
However, for the past few years, the news about corals has been discouraging. Currently, the reef is threatened by climate change, tourism, water pollution, and overfishing. Agricultural fertilizer (肥料) run-off from Australian farms also has caused the widespread growth of sea-plants ,which absorb most of the nutrients (养分) and leave little remaining for the living coral reef and the animals that live in it. "What has changed is the increasing importance of climate change as a greater threat than the others," says David Wachenfeld, a scientist of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Coral reefs are extremely sensitive (敏感的) to warming ocean temperatures.
In a report on April 28, the Australian government said it set aside $ 500 million to help protect corals. The money will be spent on reducing water pollution from agriculture, reef monitoring and research on climate influence.
Though the Australian investment is welcome, it will at best only delay coral deaths. It's too little, too late, as a leading coral-scientist Terry Hughes of James Cook University put it. The only way to save corals over the long term is to slow down climate change. That process will require all countries to work together to find the most effective way of cutting emissions (排放) of greenhouse gases.
The most recent emissions figures, however, show that the world is failing at that task. The year 2019 has seen an increase in global emissions. This week in Bonn, Germany, countries are meeting to discuss how to keep their word in the Paris climate agreement. Let's hope they hear about the silent death of the world's corals.
