The dire state of the world’s coral reefs means the planet is now reaching its first tipping point due to human-induced climate change, the report finds.
Scientists working to save coral reefs are growing corals, protecting endangered and endangered species, and building gene banks.
Thanks to the dire state of the planet’s coral reefs, the planet is now reaching the first tipping point in human-induced climate change, according to a new report by European scientists.
The second Global Tipping Point Report, released on October 13, said warm-water coral reefs, on which nearly one billion people and a quarter of all marine life depend, are “beyond the tipping point”.
The report says widespread coral die-off is occurring and unless global warming is reversed, vast coral reefs as we know them will be lost, but small refugia may survive and must be protected.
A “tipping point” occurs when a small change brings a system to a new state, triggering significant long-term transformation. In the case of climate, these points of no return are specific moments when the Earth warms so much that certain effects become irreversible.
The debate about tipping points in the climate system has intensified over the past two decades, according to research published earlier this year.
“We are rapidly approaching multiple tipping points in the Earth system that could have devastating effects on humans and nature and transform the world forever,” Tim Renton, a professor at the Institute for Global Systems Research at the University of Exeter and lead author of the new report, said in a statement.
He said the crisis demands unprecedented and immediate action from leaders and policymakers around the world.
Other tipping points include the melting of ice sheets, the displacement of the Amazon rainforest, and the collapse of important ocean currents.
How serious are the threats to Earth’s coral reefs?
「非常に深刻だ」とレントン氏はUSA TODAYへの電子メールで述べた。 “Coral reefs support the livelihoods of 500 million people and provide ecosystem services valued at more than $2 trillion annually. This includes supporting abundant fisheries and providing critical coastal protection from storm surges and sea level rise for communities and their assets that live behind coral reefs.”
全体として、サンゴは海の健全性に不可欠です。 Although it covers only 0.2% of the ocean floor, it is home to at least a quarter of all marine species.それらは稚魚に安全を提供し、より大きな魚の餌となる小さな生物や魚の住処となっています。
“We assessed that the tipping point for coral reefs would likely be about 1.2 degrees Celsius (more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit) of global warming, with a maximum of 1.5 degrees of global warming,” Renton said in an email to USA TODAY. “In the two years since we first reported the global tipping point, the world has spent most of the time at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
“This has led to marine heatwaves and severe bleaching impacts on 80% of the world’s coral reefs. We also find it inevitable that global warming will exceed an average of 1.5 degrees Celsius (possibly as early as 2030). We therefore conclude that coral reefs have passed the tipping point where most of them are (or will be) suffering widespread die-off.”
Experts not involved in the report agree that coral reefs have indeed passed a tipping point. “I think many coral reefs, especially in Florida and the Caribbean, have passed a tipping point,” William F. Precht, director of coral and marine science at Biotech Consulting, said in an email to USA TODAY.
“Clearly, global climate change, in all its manifestations (bleaching, increased coral disease, more tropical storms, ocean acidification), poses an existential threat to coral reef health. Unless the root causes are addressed, reefs are headed in the wrong direction.”
“We probably crossed the tipping point for coral reefs decades ago, and the transition from historic reefs to other types of ecosystems is already well underway,” Terry Hughes, another expert at Australia’s James Cook University, said in an email to USA TODAY.
“The first global coral bleaching event occurred in 1998, (at the time) the hottest year on record. At the time, scientists predicted that as temperatures continued to rise due to global warming, these mass mortality events would recur more and more frequently.”
They were right, he said. For example, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has experienced widespread and severe coral bleaching six times in the past decade (2002, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2022, 2024, and 2025). There are currently very few unbleached coral reefs left anywhere in the world.
“This report is a wake-up call (again) to governments around the world to urgently address the coral reef crisis. Local protection alone is not enough and is too often a smokescreen for inaction on climate change. For example, countries like the US, Australia and Saudi Arabia claim to be world leaders in protecting coral reefs and restoring small patches of coral reefs, but they still refuse to cut back on fossil fuels.”
What can the public do about this report?
“We can all play a role in triggering a positive tipping point that accelerates the transition to zero emissions to limit the risks from further climate tipping points,” Renton said. “For example, the adoption of clean technologies (such as rooftop solar panels and EVs) stimulates learning-by-doing and economies of scale that improve the quality of those technologies, lower their prices, make them more attractive to subsequent adopters, and generate amplifying feedback.”
Some progress has been made in recent years. “In the two years since the first Global Turning Points Report, we have seen a sharp acceleration globally in some areas, such as the uptake of solar power and electric vehicles,” Renton said in a statement.
“But to seize the opportunity for a positive tipping point, we need to do more and act faster. In doing so, we can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save the world from a catastrophic tipping point, and lead us to a prosperous and sustainable future.”
