Plan for net-zero emissions combined with a new diplomatic effort is Australia’s best chance at saving reef for future generations
The news is overwhelming and exhausting in a way it has rarely been in most of our lifetimes, but if you have five minutes of energy left this is worth your attention. That it hasn’t been reported in most of Australia’s major news outlets doesn’t make that any less the case.
Across nine days last month, Prof Terry Hughes from James Cook University travelled the length of the Great Barrier Reef in a small plane to survey the health of more than 1,000 individual sites. He was joined by an observer from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, a government agency.
Related: Great Barrier Reef’s third mass bleaching in five years the most widespread yet
Related: Rescuing the Great Barrier Reef: how much can be saved, and how can we do it?
I’m not sure I have the fortitude to do this again. It’s heartbreaking to see the #GreatBarrierReef decline so fast. pic.twitter.com/LHgP5cIAQW
Related: Australia’s path to net-zero emissions lies in rapid, stimulus-friendly steps
Adam Morton is Guardian Australia’s environment editor
