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November 30, 2016

Australia's Great Barrier Reef Has Worst Die-Off on Record
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This comes as the coral of Australia's Great Barrier Reef has
experienced its worst die-off on record, as a result of warmer ocean
water due to climate change. Scientists say bleaching has killed
two-thirds of the coral on the 430-mile northern stretch in only nine
months. This is Terry Hughes of the Australian Research Council.

Terry Hughes: "Well, we've seen now three bleaching events on the Great
Barrier Reef. The first one was in 1998, the second in 2002, and the
third one this most recent summer in 2016. This one is by far the most
extreme. And we've seen three of these events now with just 1 degree of
global warming. So, 2 degrees of global warming, which is the
international target, is going to be a very challenging place for the
Great Barrier Reef."



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