Im hill harper. Thanks for watching. Welcome to the whole story. Im Anderson Cooper, australias Great Barrier reef is the Worlds LargestMarine Habitat and one of the natural wonders the world. But its now in its seventh Mass Bleaching during events in 1998, which means the warming waters around australia are killing the coral, turning this vibrant ecosystem into an underwater graveyard this is just one of several Climate Crisis thats plagued australian recent years. Theyve been devastating wildfires and massive floods that are made parts of the country uninhabitable. And has decimated the population of native species like koalas. Cnns ive and watson has been reporting on the Climate Disaster in australia for years. And he recently traveled back to see the evolving threats firsthand and how people are both contributing to the crisis. And trying to find ways to fix it a Once In A Lifetime experience a chance to walk hello, on a Desert Island in the middle, the Great Barrier reef all around me Turquoise Blue Water as far as the eye can see im on the edge of one of the most beautiful Marine Habitats on the planet. Planet. A Natural Wonder Of The World Underwater Jungle teeming with Colors Movement Life but on this journey off the coast of australia, i learned about the death and destruction being caused by Human Activity both on land and under the water the reefs not fine unhealthy, its definitely feeling a lot of stress. The temperature of this water is rising. That result, coral bleaching and dying what is happening now in our oceans is like wildfires, underwater. Were going to have so much warming that were going to get to a Tipping Point and we wont be able to come im back from that growing up, i could never imagine one day visiting australia. It was an exotic place. On the other side of the planet, a land of koalas and kangaroos boasting natural treasures. Unlike any other place in the world decades later, im here enjoying this vibrant place. But also facing a frightening reality. Its ratcheting up. And more and more people are being affected in normal lives my job distracting for things fires, storms, floods and unprecedented level unprecedented scale. Humanity is being threatened at a rate which im not sure we really understand. Australia is a country, a continent on the front lines of Climate Change and it is threatening communities and its most iconic species to get to australias Kangaroo Island drive straight south from adelaide until you hit the ocean and then board a fairing. It brings me to this remote place thats rugged sparsely populated, and wild and it does feel a little bit like the end of the world and thats partially true because from here for the next several thousand miles, its open ocean until you hit antarctica surprisingly, for an island named after kangaroos, my team and i initially had a hard time finding the animals. Thats shape after a de with no luck, we learn kangaroos prefer to come out at sunset when its cooler. But thats also a dangerous time for these animals koko, his mom is probably hit by a car. Guy goes mama satan kill ball car. Yeah the small team at this Wildlife Center helps raise some of these orphaned animals by hand. Either already including pearl, who seems pretty fun of humans is this a little bit like holding a child, but pretty fuzzy kid. And the other part about this is the the for a really saw there are few things sweeter than cuddling a koala my teammates couldnt wait for their turn its cute. But then we learn the real reason perl is here so he had some burns stories and she still has lingering scar tissue there. We cant see obviously see the pods of hands and feet, but the leather was pretty badly burned on there as well four years ago as a tiny joey pearls survived apocalyptic forest fires, which raged across australia. Australians now call it the black summer i cannot either the severity on the style and intensity and the duration of the 2024 hours it was nothing else locket in any recorded history in australia australias extreme climate makes it more vulnerable to bush fires and floods and Climate Change is exacerbating these next patrol disasters barry trail, a Volunteer Firefighter and environmentalis t, is seeing this firsthand going to get more than, more often im going to get more floods more often if its a wet year, its going to flood morph to draw, youre going to get how to five. Thats, thats just the physics of it. The fires destroyed thousands of homes and wiped out billions of animals we had local people showing up here with 30, 40 animals in their car that they picked up on the way here or that theyve gone back to check their farm and id found you know, it kangaroo with its legs noted offer essentially its did you in the staff here have to euthanized jagan hundred koalas . Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that was those leaves a last thing scarf issue those scars still raw for many survivors. And for the families of the 33 people who died that summer im ivan. How are you doing . Justin lang meet me at the stretch of highway with a fire killed his father, dick and his brother clayton the fire. Caught them as they were driving home after helping protect a friends farm from the blades and his glass from the vehicle . Yeah. Sorry. Thats the best window. We find pieces of their truck still hear four years later, who thinks you could get burned to death and driving on a road . Exactly. I pulled it off the rights either out of the way but yeah, the car combusted the whole cow was on fire with fire jumped from trees and the vegetation into the middle of a highway, ember tech its hard to imagine a bushfire engulfing a moving vehicle on a highway until you see footage like this nigel the smoke so thick, it turned day into night were asking through the front. We still zero visibility the fires even created their own Weather System fired tornadoes ripping across open farmland. A frightening example well, this power of the blaze for the islands small population, it meant all Hands On Deck of a splitting malts on between jumping on a truck and i dont fall groundwork and, and being here and do them all off work. So there were dies during that fire where there was nothing anyone could do the weather was too severe and the fall while i was supposed to heart this shows the area that was burned in 2019 and 2020. That fire burn 49 of the islands total land area, 49 , and Kangaroo Island is one of the biggest islands Third Largest island in australia burned. Yeah the inferno destroyed almost all of Kangaroo Islands, Flinders Chase national park. And yet today, i find evidence of some remarkable rebirth four years ago, this was a burned out moonscape that all of the greenery was destroyed. And you can still see the remnants of bushes and trees that are still charred from the 2020 fires. Its hard to imagine how any of the wildlife could have survived that inferno but look four years later at the regrowth greenery. As far as the eye can see but the same cannot be said of the islands wildlife. And that includes kangaroos and koalas we estimated that there were probably 50,000 animals before the fire on kangaroo Kangaroo Island, which has a population of about 5,000 people. Thats right. So a lot more koalas and people after the fires, it was probably more like five to 10,000. So it had a major impact on quality. We head into the fall forest. These scientists are tracking whats left of the islands. Koala population using Satellite Radio Collars to pinpoint their location oh, yeah, there it is. Our first discovery was unfortunately pretty bleak pull little guy but a few miles down the road, we have more luck for this one here oh, yeah, one there. Wow and one here. And then theres another one in the tree just over here hi, yeah. Hi, there yeah. They weigh and check a female named sunny before setting her free. Were very grateful to sunny and shes free to go id like to introduce you to sunny. This is a female koala she has been captured three times by the team here. And just had her Satellite Tracker removed. Take a look over here part of the tree. Shes standing on still bears scorch marks from the previous fires here, which are believed to have killed off more than half of the population of the wildcard wallace on Kangaroo Island this animal is a symbol of this country. Its an iconic species is it in trouble . Its very much in trouble highly endangered. It may, while were seeing it going locally extinct in different populations on the east coast populations decimated by disease and habitat loss from logging and wildfires that are Ravaging Australia all of those catastrophic Climate Change impacts are directly affecting Koala Populations in australia. Do you think this fire was a product of client Climate Change . I think ultimately it was an Australian Government report concluded the same harder to measure the impact on people like justin leg still morning after the black summer fires killed his father and brother is expected from braga who . Was only 44, but no man is trauma is an oxime i certainly expect him to be around for a few more years yeah its nothing sounds like something land you have nausea, heartburn, and Pepto Bismol Coates and suits for fast relief when you need it, most to give your teeth a dentist clean feeling, start with a Round Brush Head ad power, and youve got oralb round cleans better by surrounding each tooth to remove 100 more flack for it. A superior clean oralb brush like a pro necessary no neither is missing your daughters competition do payroll with pay com employs do their own payroll. So you dont have to miss your daughters big day time to shine get pay com and make the unnecessary unnecessary how could anyone possibly know that every single one of these pistachios is guaranteed to be wonderful by reading right here. Wonderful pistachios or the pistachios are wonderful, but the word wonderful on them. 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Im scuba certified my guide is professor jody romer, a reef scientist at James Cook University how many species did receive bit of marine life just now . Well im a phish person. Theres over 1,500 species of fish here on the Great Barrier reef. How many do you think we saw . You can see them all today, but how he a species a its an underwater rainforest. Its the most diversity, seven on the planets above. Or underwater, i would argue and its been my inspiration for my entire career were diving in february, the peak of the australian summer its like bathwater unclear night yeah, were were in sort of lowered mid 90s Fahrenheit Jodie repeatedly shows me coral thats Turned Bone White the reefs not fine a lot of curls that were at very stable it is reaching at something thats already been overrun with algae a close, its a pretty depressing site coral basically being cooked and killed by unusually warm water what we see beneath the surface confirmed several weeks later by the Australian Government as scientists and told us that were facing a Mass Bleaching event this is the seventh Mass Bleaching event since 1998 experts once argued this habitat was too big to fail and the Great Barrier reef is the larger continuous reef system on the planet 2,300 kilometers long and it is literally mindboggling when you think that many, hundreds of thousands of species are there on this, this ecosystem . This is huge. Im into size of italy if you want a repair this ecosystem once youve damaged it its going to take 1,000 years australia is experiencing eight global recordbreaking marine heatwave this extreme heat is causing what some scientists are falling the worst coral bleaching the state has ever seen we come here to this furman how the coral reefs off the florida peninsula are coping with unprecedented ocean keith in 2023, this Weather Pattern caused a massive die off of coral off the coast of florida what happened in florida or the Eastern Caribbean in the last couple . Sort of shocking. And were seeing similar thing happening at the moment on the Great Barrier reef ove hoeghguldberg, basically predicted this a quarter century ria go in this 1999 article, he wrote thermally triggered coral bleaching events will increase in frequency and severity in the next few decades corals are not keeping up with the rate of warming and they may be the single largest casualty of business as huge War Greenhouse policies the article sparked a nasty backlash did you anticipate Death Threats and response to an Academic Research paper . No, not at all. I okay. What whats going on here you put it in front of you how reduct . Hilus have your predictions from 1999 followed . That model. We are pretty close to what we predicted would happen has happened as Carbon Emissions drive Climate Change the Warming Temperatures of the worlds oceans. Keep breaking records not more than about five to 10 at this rate, over predicts only a fraction shin of the worlds coral. Will still be alive 25 years from now youre talking about a mass die off yeah as this moves past coral reefs, bleaching so this is whats fascinating and quite terrifying is that the number of disasters that are happening is increasing on a decade by Decade Spaces B that are huge forest fires in many parts of the world, or massive floods . Some of australias most recent floods the port city of cans, a main in gateway to the Great Barrier reef river on december 18, 2023, the worst reigns in decades flood parts of the city the whole streak was a river, including the home of Thomas Herridge and trini hussein lead you water up to here when we left by yes. I okay. Girls, can we had one age record high floods, a growing threat across a string . Well, yeah. Sunday on the whole story, the debate over Transgender Athletes that i believed they needed to sacrifice Skiing Brands in order to swim. 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