Michael Slezak - The Great Barrier Reef: a catastrophe laid bare
Australia’s natural
wonder is in mortal danger. Bleaching caused by climate change has killed
almost a quarter of its coral this year and many scientists believe it could be
too late for the rest. Using exclusive photographs and new data, a Guardian
special report investigates how the reef has been devastated – and what can be
done to save it
It was the smell that
really got to diver Richard Vevers. The smell of death on the reef. “I can’t even tell you
how bad I smelt after the dive – the smell of millions of rotting animals.” Vevers is a former
advertising executive and is now the chief executive of the Ocean Agency, a
not-for-profit company he founded to raise awareness of environmental problems.
After diving for 30
years in his spare time, he was compelled to combine his work and hobby when he
was struck by the calamities faced by oceans around the world. Chief among them
was coral bleaching, caused by climate change.
His job these days is
rather morbid. He travels the world documenting dead and dying coral reefs,
sometimes gathering photographs just ahead of their death, too. With the world now in
the midst of the longest and probably worst global coral bleaching event in
history, it’s boom time for Vevers. Even with all that
experience, he’d never seen anything like the devastation he saw last month
around Lizard Island in the northern third of Australia’s spectacular Great Barrier
Reef...
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