Professor Terry Hughes, Australia’s foremost coral reef scientist, warned that government plans to restore the Great Barrier Reef are too small and expensive to make any real impact towards saving the reef.
A recent report by the Australian Academy of Sciences said only 1 per cent of corals would survive a 2 degree temperature increase. It forecasted 1.5 degree warming by 2045.
The federal government committed $100 million for reef restoration, including a $2 million plan to trial underwater fans to cool the reef.
Professor Hughes said reef restoration projects distract from solving the real cause of reef decline: climate change.