Even with the parlous state of wildlife preservation, it is rare to witness the slow but seemingly inexorable death of entire ecosystems in real time right before your eyes. Yet that’s what’s happening to the region’s coral reefs far and wide. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, a wonder of the planet’s…

Coral bleaching. The very term evokes something ominous – and an ominous development it indeed is. As water temperatures rise, often as a result of climate change-triggered heat waves, corals (fragile creatures as they are) begin to turn white. That’s because warmer water temperatures cause corals to shed the zooxanthellae…