Too late.

Great Barrier reef, headed out.

""There is a terrible future in front of us for the reefs," said Canada-based United Nations University professor Peter Sale, one of 17 authors from seven nations of the Science paper...

(carbon emissions)...if they rise above 500ppm, the minimum emission level forecast by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climage Change by 2050, reefs will become "rapidly eroding rubble banks". "These changes will reduce coral reef ecosystems to crumbling frameworks with few calcareous corals," the paper says.

"It is clear that coral reefs as we know them today would be extremely rare."

LINK

Great Barrier Reef being polluted, too.

"The Great Barrier Reef, already under threat from global warming, is also being affected by pollutants and pesticides from the land carried into the sea by flooded rivers, satellite images show.
Pictures taken this month by Nasa and US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellites indicate that coral is being affected by the run-off at a greater rate than previously thought.
According to Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), they show sediment creating a hazy cloud in the water over the reef, blocking out sunlight and preventing photosynthesis, the process which keeps coral alive.
Arnold Dekker of the CSIRO said: "The run-off from torrential rainfall goes into the Great Barrier Reef lagoon and straight into the ocean at speeds which were not thought to occur before we saw the images."LINK

Australia. Crikey, mate.

Queensland "BENDIGO residents should embrace the use of treated sewage in their drinking water taps or risk their city becoming a desert, a leading academic has warned.." LINK

Sydney "...severe droughts nine out of every 10 years, a dramatic rise in the number of bush fires, and freak storm surges which could devastate the coastline... rainfall will fall by 40% by 2070, not only creating a massive water crisis, but producing double the number of bush fires." LINK

Great Barrier Reef "...it's fairly clear that this century we would lose the Great Barrier Reef as an ecosystem, I don't think there is too much doubt about that." LINK

Great Barrier Reef- headed out. 20 years, maybe. We live in sad times, dude.

"Australia's Great Barrier Reef could be "functionally extinct" within decades, warns a leaked portion of a major United Nations report on climate change.
It warns warmer, more acidic seas could severely bleach coral in the world-famous reef as early as 2030. " LINK

This warming and acidifying is covered wonderfully in the LA Times MUST READ series, Altered Oceans. Part 5 of the series covers acidification and the impact of that, but the entire series is wonderfully done. Read this if you read nothing else ever.

"A chapter on Australia in the report on global impacts warns that coral bleaching in the Barrier Reef is likely to become an annual occurrence by as early as 2030 due to warmer, more acidic seas.
Bleaching occurs when the plant-like organisms that make up coral die and leave behind the white limestone skeleton of the reef.
The World Heritage site, stretching over more than 345,000 square kilometers (133,000 sq miles) off Australia's northeast coast, will become "functionally extinct", the scientists are quoted as saying. " LINK
additional LINK to another article