Global warming is killing coral reefs: “an unprecedented die-off”

Thanks in large part to global warming, at least one-third of the coral in the Caribbean, much of it many centuries old and virtually irreplaceable, has died in the last year.

“It’s an unprecedented die-off,” said National Park Service fisheries biologist Jeff Miller, who last week checked 40 stations in the Virgin Islands. “The mortality that we’re seeing now is of the extremely slow-growing reef-building corals. These are corals that are the foundation of the reef … We’re talking colonies that were here when Columbus came by have died in the past three to four months.

Thanks to reader Abby for the wildly depressing tip. 

Global warming is killing coral reefs: “an unprecedented die-off”

Thanks in large part to global warming, at least one-third of the coral in the Caribbean, much of it many centuries old and virtually irreplaceable, has died in the last year.

“It’s an unprecedented die-off,” said National Park Service fisheries biologist Jeff Miller, who last week checked 40 stations in the Virgin Islands. “The mortality that we’re seeing now is of the extremely slow-growing reef-building corals. These are corals that are the foundation of the reef … We’re talking colonies that were here when Columbus came by have died in the past three to four months.

Thanks to reader Abby for the wildly depressing tip.