The Great Barrier Reef threatened by the Blob, El Nino and global warming
A growing number of studies are showing that strong El Niño are becoming more frequent, and climate change is likely a significant driver of this. This and phenomena such as the mysterious warm patch in the eastern Pacific (nicknamed the “Blob”) suggest the weather forecast simple model may need to be modified.
The Blob, the mass of warm water in the Pacific, is estimated to reach up the Great Barrier Reef during christmas.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the world’s largest coral site rich with great marine life, registered since 1981 in the World Heritage Site, is threatened by the combination of three phenomena: in addition to the Blob, it takes with the intensity of El Nino right now and most global warming. The ocean absorbs 90% of the heat that destroys brown algae -zooxanthellae- which lives in symbiosis with the coral. This death causes discoloration of marine organism which becomes white.
Besides the giant mining project of the Indian group Adani, who after being struck by the government has been put back on track, would have disastrous consequences on the Great Barrier Reef.
Many NGOs and even UNESCO expressed concern openly about the imminence of a “complete disaster for the climate and the Great Barrier Reef,” linked to the intensification of maritime traffic and large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions generated.
