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The coral bleaching that is currently devastating the Great Barrier Reef would not occur without the influence of climate change.
We have issued an urgent scientific alert in response to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority upgrading the coral bleaching threat to level three, the highest level of response to coral bleaching.
The alert finds Australia has weathered El Niño patterns for centuries but it was only once global warming began in earnest in the 1970s that the Great Barrier Reef began to experience repeated coral bleaching events.
Preview image credit: CoralWatch