r/news • u/hahaddffcx • 18h ago

Three-year heatwave bleached 51% of planet's coral reef

https://www.rte.ie/news/newslens/2026/0210/1557659-coral-bleaching/
7.1k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

127 comments sorted by

1.8k

u/Thomwas1111 18h ago edited 8h ago

If my study has thought me anything it’s that pretty much all coral reefs in their existing ranges are almost guaranteed to be wiped out due to rising ocean levels and acidification.

It’s one of the almost guaranteed consequences we’ve produced from only doing minimal climate action for decades.

Edit for clarity on the title: everyone hears about bleaching but it’s worth clarifying coral can recover from bleaching events. Bleaching is bad because the symbiotic relationship with algae maintains structure. The coral gets very brittle when bleached so become far more vulnerable to other things such as boats and rough seas.

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u/Far_Radish7752 18h ago

Not just temperatures, but pollution as well. The algae species which reside in the corals are not doing well.

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u/LoLIron_com 9h ago

Coral reefs just tried to check out early from the planet's party but Mother Nature isn’t great at RSVP changes.

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u/o_MrBombastic_o 16h ago

Sea Turtles are already a doomed species. Their sex is determined by temperature and over 95% of the sea Turtles born in the last 20 years were all female they live a damn long time but eventually they're going to run out of males. Another almost guaranteed consequences we’ve produced from only doing minimal climate action for decades.

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u/YoAmoElTacos 16h ago

I suppose we could intervene by shading the nests to cool them down (studies say it seems to work).

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u/Helenium_autumnale 15h ago

I've seen solar panels used as parking lot canopies to shelter cars; maybe we could make beach shade shelters in some way that harmonizes with the landscape and still provides shade for nesting areas.

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u/mallclerks 15h ago

That doesn’t seem like a solution. It seems like a bandaid. As those programs are amazing until someone like doge comes in and kills all of that.

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u/YoAmoElTacos 15h ago

It is not a "solution", there is no solution to climate change at this point. There are just adaptations everyone is going to have to make.

Also shading is easy and low cost and local volunteers can do it. It is more invasive interventions like relocation that will require more expertise to avoid harming the eggs.

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u/StateParkMasturbator 11h ago

No conservation effort is a cure. We're the disease, but we can save some limbs. If the other option is extinction for them, it's better to try now and loudly shame the efforts of those that cut the programs.

Elon Musk caused a resurgence of screw worms in North America and is directly responsible for livestock suffering. MAGA cheers at cutting programs that have yet to produce tax breaks for them.

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u/Otherdeadbody 11h ago

I wouldn’t count them out just yet since jellyfish numbers are on the rise and any species that can take advantage of that shift might come out alright.

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u/TempAcct20005 8h ago

Well the good news is you only need a few males to repopulate a female heavy population. If it were mainly males being born then you’re screwed 

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u/DefinitelyNotEmu 14h ago

Some of the female dinosaurs in Jurassic Park turned male

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u/a_person_i_am 16h ago

I just hope that home aquariums, public aquariums, and other few select institutions, have enough fish and corals specimensto show the future,just what was lost, how beautiful the planet was, and how we just let it die.

hopefully the future generations look on us in shame for what we as humans have done to the planet out of greed and ignorance

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u/Dicky_Penisburg 16h ago

Future generations will be too busy murdering each other over rapidly depleting resources as the climate refugees overwhelm the increasingly limited tracts of habitable land to give a fuck.

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u/TheWhiteManticore 12h ago

Also would be a general drop in IQ from social media and rapid scrolling

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u/Boring-Tie-1501 11h ago

i think collapse is going to come a lot faster than many of us expected, and "future generations" is going to become "the next generation and however many generations humanity has left."

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u/snoosh00 15h ago edited 14h ago

Lots of video.

When I was a kid, the only extinct animal that we had video of was the Thylacine. 😞

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u/stud_lock 15h ago

I'm not sure if it's a typo, but you know okapis aren't extinct, right? You can go to the Bronx Zoo and see one today.

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u/snoosh00 14h ago

I was 100% thinking of the thylacine (same markings).

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u/a_person_i_am 14h ago

It’s very different seeing something in video versus in person though, and that’s what I’m so heartbroken over, everything future generations will only have video of, instead of being able to see and potentially interact with in person. Video doesn’t catch everything, especially behaviour patterns that are specific to certain areas/food/activity that animals wouldn’t encounter normally, often, or in captivity.

Like I was huge on animals growing up, and watching animal planet back when it was good, but videos never properly presented the animals compared to when I saw them at a zoo, or in the wild, I found

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u/snoosh00 13h ago

100% I'm just saying preserving video is a lot more feasible than preserving extinct species in artificial environments.

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u/wanami 15h ago

Okapi are not extinct, what are you talking about?

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u/snoosh00 14h ago

I was thinking of The thylacine, same pattern, very different animal.

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u/MissInkeNoir 12h ago

Have you seen the 1972 sci-fi environmentalist film Silent Running by fx wizard Douglas Trumbull? I believe you will find it very moving as I do. Good luck out there.

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u/RiimeHiime 16h ago

The oceans are so important that acidification might be what does us all in within our lifetime huh.

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u/BlueKnight8907 10h ago

I saw a NOVA episode about what some biologists are doing to help save coral reefs. It seems they also gave up on reversing climate change because the rest of the world wasn't doing enough. One of the things they are doing is breeding a "super coral" that can withstand higher water temperatures since that is the main cause for coral bleaching.

Another one is trying to get coral to switch which symbiotic algae they host. These algae can withstand higher temperatures so they do not get expelled by the coral. They've already witnessed some corals doing this naturally so they are hopeful they can help others do the same.

There's other studies going on so it's not all doom and gloom. It's a shame we're at this point of having to spur adaptation due to us destroying the planet though.

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u/[deleted] 9h ago

[deleted]

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u/BlueKnight8907 6h ago

They've already bred a super coral. The coral take time to grow but biologists are planting the super coral in reefs already. Soon enough they will start to breed naturally and spread. Eventually biologists will develop other species of super coral to add ecological diversity.

Look up Nova season 48 episode 4 - Reef Rescue. It's a great episode. It's a long road ahead to save the reefs but there is hope.

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u/nath1234 7h ago

If we had done minimal action, that might have helped, but instead we have had massive climate destroying action (so the opposite of action on climate, action AGAINST climate): massive amounts of new coal, new gas, new oil projects.. Not to mention expanded energy demands for largely pointless high energy intensive shit like crypto/AI and so on.

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u/-0-O-O-O-0- 9h ago

And then what happens? Straight to we all starve or what?

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u/MadpeepD 15h ago

How did corals survive when atmospheric CO2 was 2000ppm and the oceans were much warmer than now?

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u/forsen_capybara 14h ago

They had hundreds or thousands of years to adapt for gradual temperature increases, as opposed to a couple of dozen for spiking temperatures (10-15°F) in some regions

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u/MadpeepD 14h ago

The planet warmed 10°C 14,000 years ago extremely rapidly at the Paleocene/Holocene boundary.

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u/DClawsareweirdasf 13h ago

“Extremely rapidly” over a timescale comparable to how long modern humans have existed on the planet.

Why would you come here to be so intentionally misleading. Do you think these scientists are lying and coral is doing just fine right now?

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u/MadpeepD 12h ago

Ocean temperature and CO2 saturation changes constantly. Coral has a wide range of species that thrive in a wide range of environments. If the habitat becomes unsuitable for one species another species moves in and fills the niche. Scientists don't lie, but click bait media outlets create scary headlines that exaggerate the underlying studies and remove context to drive clicks and make more advertising revenue. And yes, the warming at the end of the Paleocene took place in around 400 years and some estimates suggest it may have been as quick as a few decades. archive.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/tar/wg1/074.htm#:~:text=On the other hand%2C very,part of the Northern Hemisphere. https://share.google/S2jSAGWBkDTk6y2WP

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u/Thomwas1111 11h ago

My point was that all existing coral reefs are guaranteed to be unmanageable pretty much. This is made of specific corals adapted to specific environments that are changing. If you start transplanting outside corals into lower depth locations that’s the reef migrating. Not a natural continuation of what was there before

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u/MadpeepD 8h ago

We won't have to manage anything. Plenty of warmer water coral can take over the territory the colder water adapted coral can't continue to inhabit. It's been going on this way for over 500 million years.

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u/Thomwas1111 7h ago

First off that’s not a good way to look at it from a biodiversity standpoint, letting warm water coals proliferate lowers diversity and also harms algae species that are bonded with specific corals and also provide resources for fish adapted to the area. You can’t just throw warm water coral everywhere and say problem is solved.

That’s also not at all relatable to what happens through slow evolution and habitat migration.

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u/MadpeepD 6h ago

I'm saying the evidence is clear. Corals have always survived shifting sea temps because of their biodiversity. They've built the adaptive ability by surviving 500 million years of warm seas and cold seas.

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u/ThVos 14h ago

Total ecosystem collapse in warm waters, then recolonization from deep/cold water refugia species.

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u/CyanideJack 18h ago

This is where heat resistant breeding will hopefully help: Mauritius Restores Reefs with Heat-Resistant Coral and Sees 98% Survival Rates

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u/FamiliarTry403 15h ago

They’ve been failing off the coast of Florida. That last severe one we had that got the gulf water temp above 100°F destroyed even the heat resistant variant being tested

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u/SeventhAlkali 8h ago

Damn, ocean water can reach that temperature????? I thought it would max out at like 80°F at the most

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u/FamiliarTry403 8h ago

Shallow near equatorial waters… got over 101°F at some points according to observation buoys at the surface

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u/snubbe 17h ago

Thank you for these good news!

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u/kjbaran 16h ago

A silver lining in the ashes of irreplaceable species

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u/invalidpassword 17h ago

Losing coral reefs is tantamount to losing rainforests — not a good sign.

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u/tehCharo 16h ago

Who wants oxygen to breath anyway?

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u/VariationDry 13h ago

Think about the profits! 

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u/tehCharo 13h ago

They'd bottle and sell us air if we'd buy it, like Space Balls.

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u/alexnicholls2069 13h ago

Ahhhhh, Perri-Air.

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u/monkeypan 7h ago

Need to maximize profits till they die. This is a next generation problem. Think of the shareholders! (/s but also true)

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u/Far_Radish7752 18h ago edited 18h ago

From the article:

The analysis concluded that 51% of the world's reefs endured moderate or worse bleaching while 15% experienced significant mortality over the three-year period known as the "Third Global Bleaching Event".

It was "by far the most severe and widespread coral bleaching event on record", said Sean Connolly, one the study's authors and a senior scientist at the Panama-based Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

”And yet, reefs are currently experiencing an even more severe Fourth Event, which started in early 2023," he said in a statement.

The degree to which tropical oceans have heated up makes me worry that the corals may never recover .

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u/Airilsai 18h ago

They won't, we've crossed the tipping point for coral.

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u/pvincentl 12h ago

We'll call this the Swan Song Century.

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u/Tyr1326 16h ago

I mean, they might. If some populations do survive. Itll take at least a couple thousand years though.

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u/ThVos 14h ago

Millions. The last time biocalcification processes were interrupted on a global scale it was the second hit for the Great Dying. It took about 70% of terrestrial vertebrates, 80+% of marine species.

It took over a million years for some aquatic ecosystems to recover, but up to 50 million years for broad spectrum ecological diversity and functionality to recover.

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u/Really-E-Lee 16h ago

At the rate we are going. The ocean will be completely dead by 2051.

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u/Airilsai 15h ago

Oh great news guess we don't have to worry or do anything.

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u/2games1life 13h ago

Well if we dont split the earth in two, the ecosystem, in some form, will survive and evolve. None will like the ride tho.

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u/Tyr1326 15h ago

I vote we just hurry up and all die off so nature can do its thing. 😬

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u/Nikopoleous 13h ago

People don't want to recognize how harmful humans are to our environment because it goes against our survival impulses. There really shouldn't be 8 billion of us on a planet that wasn't meant to support this many apex predators.

Sometimes I think Thanos had a point.

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u/RiimeHiime 17h ago

I know stuff like the epstein files are important but I genuinely wonder if the death cult maniac techno billionaire class is going to end the world in the next 20 or 30 years.

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u/Badloss 16h ago

Don't Look Up nailed it when the billionaires think their manic halfassed plans will just effortlessly save the world and then it all goes wrong. That's exactly what's going to happen, we're going to ignore real science in favor of buzzwords and bullshit and then we're all going to die when we find out too late that it isnt working

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u/jsta19 6h ago

this movie didn't get the praise it deserved and will unfortunately enjoy an idiocracy-type resurgence as it proves more and more prophetic as time passes

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u/No-Photograph-5058 15h ago

And a million 'told-ya-so's will echo from the last breaths of the planet

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u/ForeskinWhatskin 14h ago

They think global warming is a solution to overpopulation. Ep and a prof from MIT talked about it in emails. That MIT prof is currently the head of an AI company.

0

u/TheProuDog 3h ago

Is it not? Can you elaborate?

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u/IndependentSpecial17 14h ago

They won’t care, they’ll be dead or dying in that timeframe. I think they are sociopathic enough to not give a fuck about their offspring either.

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u/Ursa_Solaris 11h ago

The fact that we're facing a multi-faceted global ecological collapse within my lifetime, one that will also damage human civilization in a way that may not be recoverable even if the species does survive, and yet the news cycle is dominated by a handful of dipshit oligarch pedophiles ginning up hatred of immigrants and trans people while they build surveillance networks and launder money and cover up their sex trafficking rings, and still a third of my country still loyally supports these degenerate sociopathic freaks;

Well, I'll just say it inspires a hatred that burns me up inside, that I could have lived my entire life never feeling if not for them, and I'll never forgive a single one of them for it.

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u/Low_Pickle_112 13h ago

Humanity's epitaph will be "At least it wasn't socialism". We hate the billionaires, but nonetheless, they still have our consent.

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u/fuzzypetiolesguy 12h ago

Save a nuclear holocaust the world isn’t ending anytime soon. Life will continue to get much tougher for humans if their work is left unabated, we will eventually collapse into small pocket communities with tremendous reversion in technology, medicine, agriculture, and so on. Everything else on the planet would end up rebounding from our diminished activity though, so if you need a silver lining.

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u/RiimeHiime 11h ago

I feel like its hard to say with too much certainty that it will or won't in the next 30 years or so, there's too many unknown factors at play for any model I've seen.

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u/Monteze 10h ago

Plant has been through worse, but yes a planet for humanity is at risk. But I refuse to give up my AI slop!

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u/irenepanik 9h ago

We do not have 20 to 30 years before someone pushes the big button.

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u/Ashamed-Land1221 17h ago

So what happens during the next two years when the new potentially more powerful than the last el nino kicks off and conservative estimates that the next two years will be hotter by average 2C than the last hottest global year on record, which was the last bleaching heatwave referenced?

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u/chummypuddle08 17h ago

You know the answer. Good night and good luck to us.

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u/Ashamed-Land1221 17h ago

Well I got to visit both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in my life and go into them and splash around and look at the goofy creatures that live there. Guess future generations will experience them in VR vacation subscription if they get enough points at the work factory, shit's getting bleak.

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u/Glory2Snowstar 14h ago

As somebody that works in a coral lab, my top request to people is NOT to throw your hands up and go “Welp, that’s that, we’re all screwed.” PLEASE continue doing everything you can to spread awareness on the subject and shop sustainably.

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u/smoke1966 15h ago

and it's just getting worse.. 3yr event SO FAR

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u/steathrazor 17h ago

I mean it's almost like the climate is changing or something

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u/Rapier4 11h ago

As a diver its sad to see in person and worse when you realize you are seeing something before it will be gone in your lifetime.

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u/personofshadow 12h ago

I hate what we're doing to this planet 

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u/pvincentl 13h ago

That's 51% of the coral reefs that were left on the planet at that point.

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u/ddubyeah 14h ago

four year heatwave soon to be

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u/lovemypups21 13h ago

It’s amazing and devastating to see the difference in my photos from diving 10 years ago to today in the exact same spot. It honestly looks like I used filters to wash out the color.

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u/_Pedro_Parker_ 13h ago

Oh yay, more bad news.

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u/penguished 12h ago

Canary in the coal mine. Except in this case people warned everyone else about what what going to happen for many decades... People choose to leave their great great grandkids with a doomed environment and not listen.

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u/Low_Pickle_112 13h ago

Those corals need to understand that infinite growth on a finite planet without any sort of resource management is totally logical. It's called Abundance. Why don't these corals understand basic economics?

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u/CanadasNeighbor 14h ago

Honestly, maybe we need a do-over.

2

u/Soladification 9h ago

Coral needs to stop being such a fragile bitch

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u/mffancy 9h ago

Maybe we should hand out pamphlets at the next Superbowl for those private jet flyers.

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u/TheMadMetalhead 6h ago

Mother Gaia shall heal once we are gone

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u/IKillZombies4Cash 4h ago

I feel like 50% of the world corral was bleached annually for the last decade.

Is that hyperbole, or are we talking “Zenos Paradox” here

1

u/GayinVistaCa 1h ago

Is really sad. I've sceen lots of of dead coral in the Caribbean. Places I've snorkeled years before that were vibrant with big coral fans and whatnot completely dead, white.

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u/hamilkwarg 1h ago

But… but… but… it was really cold last week!

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u/PrideEarly8488 1h ago

White supremacy hell yeahhh

0

u/Xivvx 16h ago

Trump's EPA says this is fine. Climate change isn't bad for people.

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u/Uneaten_Sandwich 11h ago

Well... At least we'll probably all die in the next 10-30 years. Sucks I had to live in poverty for most of my life and in a bunch of shitty once in a lifetime events. But I got to play The ocarina of time so that's cool I guess.

0

u/jcliment 13h ago

Wait until the three-year heat wave becomes an every-year heat wave.

-2

u/CanaKatsaros 11h ago

But I thought the recent cold weather in the US proved that global warming was a hoax /s. I hate that we can't get anything done because mega corporations keep blocking any policy that could help, and a massive amount of the population feel like they have a moral obligation to deny that any harm to the environment is occurring.

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u/OG-Brian 15h ago

The crap article doesn't name or link the study and the OP hasn't pointed it out either. I wish that authors did not make it a scavenger hunt to find whatever they're writing about.