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Australia’s Great Barrier Reef should be listed as a world heritage site that is “in danger”, a UN panel recommended on Tuesday, saying the world’s biggest coral reef ecosystem was significantly impacted by climate change and warming of oceans.
Frequent bleaching events are threatening the reef, including four over the last seven years and the first during a La Nina phenomenon, which typically brings cooler temperatures, this year.
Bleaching happens when the water warms too much, causing corals to expel the colourful algae living in their tissues and turn white.
“The resilience of the (reef) to recover from climate change impacts is substantially compromised,” a report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) scientists, who visited the reef in March, said.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek…
