大堡礁面臨死亡

　　6月13日BBC聽力：大堡礁面對滅亡

　　The latest survey of the Great Barrier Reef off thecoast of Australia reveals that an average of 35percent of coral is now dead or dying in the northernand central sections. Experts from James CookUniversity say it’s the most extreme case of massbleaching they have ever measured at the WorldHeritage Site.

　　So in the last 30 years or so, we’ve seen unprecedented episodes of mass bleaching that isvery strongly linked to global warming.

　　And just describe specifically what happens then to the coral as the temperature in the waterrises.

　　Here corals get most of their colour from the microscopic algae that live inside their tissues,the zooxanthellae. When the coral is stressed, the zooxanthellae die back. And because theygive the coral most of its colour, when a coral is bleached, we can actually see the underlyingcarbonate skeleton underneath the tissue. A bleached coral is a very sick coral because theyare compromised nutritionally because they get most of their energy from photosynthesis bythe algae.

　　And how serious is the situation in the Great Barrier Reef?

　　Severely bleached corals can die. And right now on the Great Barrier Reef, we’ve seenunprecedented levels of coral mortality in the northern third of the Great Barrier Reef. So weestimate that in the top half of the Great Barrier Reef on average, 35 percent of the corals aredead or dying. It’s much less than that in the middle and southern section of the Great BarrierReef. So in the north, many of the reefs we’ve surveyed have already lost half of their coralcover.

　　And in the context of the Great Barrier Reef, how much of it is the responsibility of theAustralian government?

　　Well, the Australian government is responsible for stewardship of the Great Barrier Reef. Therehas been some progress recently in dealing with issues like fishing pressure and with waterquality, but not at all really with climate change. So Australia is hardly leading the world interms of its greenhouse gas emissions which are pretty much stable. Over recent years theyhaven’t yet declined. Australia recently issued a permit for a new coal mine through the next60 years. That coal mine, if it goes ahead, would be the largest coal mine in the world.

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