Monday, September 20, 2021

A surprising bit of good news about coral reefs and climate change

Published Sunday, September 19, 2021 

This Sept. 12, 2019 photo shows fish near coral in a bay on the west coast of the Big Island near Captain Cook, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Brian Skoloff)
Dan Riskin on a glimmer of hope for coral reefs

Dan Riskin reports on a new study that offers some hope that coral reefs may be able to adapt to and survive the impacts of climate change.

TORONTO -- When a heat wave hit the Phoenix Islands Protection Area in the South Pacific in the early 2000s, more than three-quarters of the region's coral was destroyed.

That's not an aberration. Coral is considered to be at severe risk due to climate change. The world's most famous coral ecosystem, the Great Barrier Reef, even nearly lost its UNESCO heritage designation because of it earlier this summer.

What's different about the Phoenix Islands example, though, is what happened when two other heat waves baked the area years later.

As CTV News Science and Technology Specialist Dan Riskin explains in this week's Riskin Report, new research suggests that corals may be able to adapt their way through a warming world.

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