Minister suggests ‘shade cloth’ to protect Great Barrier Reef November 2, 2006.
“Federal Tourism Minister Fran Bailey says using “shade cloth” over parts of the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland could protect it from the harmful effects of global warming.
Earlier this week, Britain’s Stern report said climate change could cause a global economic downturn and bleach the reef.”

Scientists issue strongest coral warning September 25, 2006.
“Scientists have issued their strongest warning so far this year that unusually warm Caribbean Sea temperatures threaten coral reefs that suffered widespread damage last year in record-setting heat.”

Caribbean Coral Suffers Record Death March 30, 2006.
A one–two punch of bleaching from record hot water followed by disease has killed ancient and delicate coral in the biggest loss of reefs scientists have ever seen in Caribbean waters.
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“We haven’t seen an event of this magnitude in the Caribbean before,” said Mark Eakin, coordinator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coral Reef Watch.
The Caribbean is actually better off than areas of the Indian and Pacific ocean where mortality rates — mostly from warming waters — have been in the 90 percent range in past years, said Tom Goreau of the Global Coral Reef Alliance. Goreau called what’s happening worldwide “an underwater holocaust.”

Australia’s Barrier Reef: here today, gone tomorrow Feb 27, 2006.
‘Background temperatures have reached the level where every summer we are getting to dangerous conditions,’ Berkelmans told The Australian newspaper. ‘It will be a gradual decline — patch by patch and species group by species group, from one area after another.’
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‘Reefs will not disappear but they will be devoid of coral, and dominated by other less appealing species such as macro–algae and cyanobacteria (seaweed),’ said a recent report by the centre’s father and son team, Hans and Ove Hoegh–Guldberg.
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‘The Great Barrier Reef is a balance between calcification and erosion,’ Professor Ove Hoegh–Guldberg said. ‘Take away calcification, the process powered by corals, and whammo! the reef will begin to erode away.’

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