A recent UN report spelled out the grim state of climate change in exceedingly bleak terms. Without a monumental shift in how people live and work, scientists expect the Earth to already be experiencing dire effects by 2040: Sea-level rise, more ferocious wildfires, as well as the die-off of coral reefs around the world.
Coral reefs have already experienced bouts of bleaching over the past decades. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef lost around 50% of its coral between 2016 and 2017.
Photos from space underscore the precarious position of these oases of life in the ocean—and what we all have to lose.
