Time
running out for Great Barrier Reef: scientists
科學家說：澳洲大障碍岩焦所剩時間不多…
Sydney (AFP) - Time is running out for Australia's iconic Great Barrier
Reef, with climate change set to wreck irreversible damage by 2030 unless
immediate action is taken, marine scientists said Thursday.
In a report prepared for this month's Earth Hour global climate change
campaign, University of Queensland reef researcher Ove Hoegh-Guldberg said the
world heritage site was at a turning point.
"If we don't increase our commitment to solve the burgeoning stress
from local and global sources, the reef will disappear," he wrote in the
foreword to the report.
"This is not a hunch or alarmist rhetoric by green activists. It is
the conclusion of the world's most qualified coral reef experts."
Hoegh-Guldberg said scientific consensus was that hikes in carbon dioxide
and the average global temperature were "almost certain to destroy the
coral communities of the Great Barrier Reef for hundreds if not thousands of
years".
"It is highly unlikely that coral reefs will survive more than a two
degree increase in average global temperature relative to pre-industrial
levels," he said.
A barren section of
Australia's Great Barrier Reef, which scientists have warned could be killed …
"But if the current trajectory of carbon pollution levels continues
unchecked, the world is on track for at least three degrees of warming. If we
don't act now, the climate change damage caused to our Great Barrier Reef by
2030 will be irreversible."
The Great Barrier Reef, one of the most biodiverse places on Earth, teems
with marine life and will be the focus of Australia's Earth Hour -- a global
campaign which encourages individuals and organisations to switch off their
lights for one hour on April 29 for climate change.
The report comes as the reef, considered one of the most vulnerable places
in the world to the impacts of climate change, is at risk of having its status
downgraded by the UN cultural organisation UNESCO to "world heritage in
danger".
Despite threats of a downgrade without action on rampant coastal
development and water quality, Australia in December approved a massive coal
port expansion in the region and associated dumping of dredged waste within the
marine park's boundaries.
The new report "Lights Out for the Reef', written by University of
Queensland coral reef biologist Selina Ward, noted that reefs were vulnerable
to several different effects of climate change; including rising sea
temperatures and increased carbon dioxide in the ocean, which causes
acidification.
It found the rapid pace of global warming and the slow pace of coral
growth meant the reef was unlikely to evolve quickly enough to survive the
level of climate change predicted in the next few decades.
03/10/2014
AACHW13
全聯會
沒有留言:
張貼留言