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UNESCO opts against 'in danger' status for ravaged Great Barrier Reef

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UNESCO opted to keep the Great Barrier Reef off of its official list of World Heritage sites 'in danger' at a meeting in Poland this week.

There are currently 55 World Heritage sites on the 'in danger' list, including the Everglades National Park, the Syrian city of Palmyra, and Liverpool's historic docklands.

Australian Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg said UNESCO's decision was a "big win" for the country, but climate activists slammed the move as short-sighted, BBC reported.

"Farcical: half of the Great Barrier Reef gone in two hot years, yet World Heritage Committee says 'not in danger,'" Climate activist David Spratt tweeted.

Adding the Great Barrier Reef to UNESCO's "in danger" list could have resulted in more funds for Great Barrier Reef restoration and amped up the pressure to do more to protect the reef.

The world's largest coral reef system has experienced massive bleaching for two years in a row. The back-to-back bleaching events mark the first time the reef has not had several years to recover between bleaching events, according to researchers at the ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.

UNESCO noted in its draft decision, that Australia had taken great strides to protect the reef under its Reef 2050 Plan. The committee encouraged the country to accelerate efforts to meet the long-term goals of the plan, and to submit a report to the World Heritage Center by Dec. 1, 2019.

The committee noted that the bleaching events were of "serious concern."

Bleaching is partly due to record-breaking temperatures driven by global warming, according to researchers. The vibrant colors that draw thousands of tourists to the Great Barrier Reef each year come from algae that live in the coral's tissue. When water temperatures become too high, coral becomes stressed and expels the algae, which leave the coral a bleached white color.

UNESCO's decision to keep the massive reef off the "in danger" list comes less than a month after the non-profit released its own report on the dismal future of coral ecosystems. The report noted that soaring ocean temperatures has led to bleaching events in several of the World Heritage reefs.

"The analysis predicts that all 29 coral-containing World Heritage Sites would cease to exist as functioning coral reef ecosystems by the end of this century under a business-as-usual emissions scenario," the report concluded.
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