Author: Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Professor, School of the Environment, The University of Queensland

The Great Barrier Reef will continue to deteriorate, largely to climate change, and the window to secure its future is rapidly closing. That is the sobering conclusion of a major new report into the state of the reef. The report was released by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. It confirms what scientists have long known: humanity is killing the Great Barrier Reef, and other reefs around the world, by failing to curb the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. Earlier this year, I visited parts of the southern Great Barrier Reef where mass coral bleaching and death…