Hello. Thought I would periodically (once a month) post news bits related to climate change events. If you folks think it's an effort to troll, the title of these posts clearly includes "Troll" and you can avoid reading them. Also, much of the news will be probably be depressing, so if you don't want to be bummed out, you don't have to read. Each post will be very short and cover only a single climate change event.
The ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies released it's latest report indicating that about 35% of Australia's Great Barrier Reef has died due to the effects of ocean warming. Although the temperature increase has been small, about 1 degree C, it's enough to cause a specific symbiotic microbe to exit the coral and cause a condition called "bleaching". If the microbe doesn't repopulate quickly enough when the temperature drops later in the season, the coral dies. This is affecting the northern portions of the Reef a great deal more than the southern regions which have only a 5% death rate. The concern is not only for the coral itself, but for the long term effects on myriad populations of native fish that rely on the Reef for habitat.
In addition, the reaction from the Australian government has been to pressure the ARC Centre to suppress the news as much as possible because it could have a negative effect on Australian tourism.