Great Barrier Reef
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Hypnotic, dynamic, in danger: Netflix’s ‘Chasing Coral’ explores a threatened undersea landscape
An interview with Jeff Orlowski of 'Chasing Ice' fame on his new film.
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First mammal goes extinct because of climate change
The Bramble Cay melomys lived on an island in the Great Barrier Reef ... until sea levels started rising.
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Climate change made catastrophic coral bleaching 175 times more likely
A new study compares the probability of coral-bleaching ocean temperatures occurring with and without the effects of global warming
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Is climate change giving the Great Barrier Reef herpes?
A new study suggests that bleaching and viral infections go hand-in-hand on coral reefs.
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Google Street View brings the world’s coral reefs to you
Even if you failed SCUBA certification, you can visit the world's coral reefs -- minus all the water and animals that might slime or sting or bite you.
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Here is a shark swallowing another shark
Researchers from the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies took this picture of a shark eating another shark near the Great Barrier Reef. Nature is crazy!
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Australia is so, so screwed
It's possible that the 19th century British powers-that-be were just running a really, really long con when they sent their convicts to settle Australia, because anyone who lives there now is royally screwed. In Rolling Stone, Jeff Goodell chronicles exactly how screwed. (Answer: Royally.)
In the few weeks he was there, Goodell encountered:
a record heat wave, a crippling drought, bush fires, floods that swamped an area the size of France and Germany combined, even a plague of locusts.
And in the longer term,
What water is left is becoming increasingly salty and unusable, raising the question of whether Australia, long a major food exporter, will be able to feed itself in the coming decades. The oceans are getting warmer and more acidic, leading to the all-but-certain death of the Great Barrier Reef within 40 years. Homes along the Gold Coast are being swept away, koala bears face extinction in the wild, and farmers, their crops shriveled by drought, are shooting themselves in despair.
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One more blow to the ailing Great Barrier Reef
The Shen Neng 1 in a plume of heavy oil in Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.Australian Maritime Safety AuthorityUgh. Everything about this is bad: A Chinese freighter crashed into Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Saturday, running aground and spilling heavy fuel oil into the water. The ship is stuck, and while the flow of oil has […]