What’s the news?

• According to UN experts, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef should be added to a list of “in danger” World Heritage sites as it has been “significantly impacted” by climate change.
• It was the first time on record the reef had suffered bleaching during a La Nina weather cycle, when cooler ocean temperatures would normally be expected.
• Bleaching happens when the water warms too much, causing corals to expel the colourful algae living in their tissues and turn white.
• A UNESCO-tasked report highlighted that warming seas and agricultural pollution had put the reef at risk and its resilience had been “substantially compromised”.

About Great Barrier Reef

• The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,300 kilometres over an area of approximately 3.4 lakh square kilometres.
• It is found in the northeastern coast of Queensland state, Australia.
• It has a geological history going back an estimated 23 million years to the Miocene epoch, and has survived many challenges.
• It has been on UNESCO’s World Heritage Site List since 1981.

What are World Heritage sites?

• A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). 
• World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, scientific or other forms of significance. 
• The sites are judged to contain “cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity”
• To be selected, a World Heritage Site must be a somehow unique landmark which is geographically and historically identifiable and has special cultural or physical significance. For example, World Heritage Sites might be ancient ruins or historical structures, buildings, cities, deserts, forests, islands, lakes, monuments, mountains, or wilderness areas.

reference:

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-climate/the-great-barrier-reef-is-in-danger-australia-pushes-back-8301161/