The current global coral bleaching event represents the worst on record, impacting over 80% of the world's coral reefs across 82 countries. Since January 2023, record high ocean temperatures have caused widespread coral bleaching, affecting essential marine biodiversity and ecosystems. Authorities have declared multiple bleaching events, including the sixth for Australia's Great Barrier Reef in just nine years. Scientists warn that even so-called refuges from heat are no longer safe, indicating a critical and unsustainable situation for coral reefs as climate change intensifies.
The 84% of reefs exposed to bleaching-level heat in this ongoing fourth event compares with 68% during the third event, which lasted from 2014 to 2017.
Even reefs considered by scientists to be refuges from the ocean's rising levels of heat have been bleached, suggesting that ocean warming has reached a level where there is no longer any safe harbour.
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