Aussie Marine Biologist - 20 - 50 Yrs @ Current Rates Of CO2 Emissions = "No Live Corals"

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The Great Barrier Reef could be dead in 20 years unless there is a drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, a marine biology expert said on Friday. Rising sea temperatures were bleaching the coral and causing it to die, said Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg of the Australian Research Council Centre for Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.

At the same time, increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were turning the world's oceans more acidic and preventing corals from forming their limestone skeletons, he said. Prof Hoegh-Guldberg and Professor Terry Hughes provided expert advice to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which released its latest report in Brussels on Friday.

The combination of rising temperatures and increasing acid levels could be deadly for the reef, Prof Hoegh-Guldberg said. "I'd say with 20 to 50 years under the current unrestricted emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere it is highly likely that it will be significantly changed to the point where we no longer have live corals," he said. "They could be replaced by things like seaweed.

"It (the reef) certainly won't be the place it is now, which is a place of incredible biodiversity." The warning signs had been around since 1998 when a major bleaching event caused the death of 16 per cent of the world's coral.

EDIT

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Barrier-Reef-could-be-dead-in-20-years/2007/04/06/1175366469177.html