Unbleached reefs this year are coloured blue.

This is the most widespread and most severe mass bleaching and mortality event ever recorded on the Great Barrier Reef.

The build up of heat exposure (Degree Heating Days) on the #GreatBarrierReef this summer has been extraordinarily brutal.

Compare late February with yesterday:

This is more widespread than any previous mass coral bleaching and mortality event.

My prediction - billions of corals will die on the #GreatBarrierReef this year due to anthropogenic heating.

Because accumulated heat exposure this summer is the highest on record, and for the 1st time it’s affecting all regions of the Reef.

Australia: A government spokesperson “concedes the reef is probably changing… he cannot be sure what effects the bleaching will have…the #GreatBarrierReef has shown remarkable resilience.”

Frankly, this is understatement bordering on misinformation.

abc.net.au/news/2024-03-1…

Bleaching.
My The Sydney Morning Herald The Age cartoon.

February 2024 was the warmest February on record according to Copernicus ECMWF

1.77°C warmer than pre-industrial

9th record breaking month in a row

Global temperatures for the past 12 months are the highest on record, at 1.56°C above pre-industrial

#ClimateAction

.⁦Adelaide Writers' Week⁩ full house for a discussion on climate change hosted by ⁦Marian Wilkinson⁩ with ⁦Peter Frankopan⁩ ⁦Joelle Gergis⁩ and #DeputyPremierSusanClose

#BREAKING - Australia just had its 3rd hottest summer on record, with a mean temperature anomaly that was 1.08°C above the 1991-2020 average. The only warmer summers were 2019-20 (+1.29°C) and 2018-19 (+1.56°C).

📷: Bureau of Meteorology, Australia