Climate Facts: World’s coral reefs facing unprecedented dieback, study finds

The complexities of climate change and its associated jargon can prove difficult to digest.

TheCable’s quick climate facts will help demystify these concepts through easy-to-understand and straight-to-the-point explanations.

Here are some to keep at the tip of your fingers:

• A new report says the warm-water coral reefs are crossing their thermal tipping point and experiencing unprecedented dieback, threatening the livelihoods of hundreds of millions who depend on them.
• The report noted that the world has entered a new reality, as global warming will soon exceed 1.5°C.
• A new study by World Weather Attribution and Climate Central says in every country, human-enabled climate change added more extreme hot days.
• The days, according to the scientists, were warmer than 90 percent of comparable days between 1991 and 2020.
• The study added that the world is now heading towards 2.6C (4.7F) of warming, and that under this scenario, the earth will still add 57 super-hot days annually by 2100 — nearly two months of dangerously high temperatures.
• The World Health Organisation (WHO) says climate change is expected to cause about 250,000 additional deaths per year from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress, between 2030 and 2050.
• WHO said the direct damage costs to health are estimated to be between US$ 2–4 billion per year by 2030.