Over the past two weeks, a team of researchers led by Julia Baum, a biologist at the University of Victoria and Kim Cobb, a climate scientist at Georgia Tech, has been stationed at Kiritimati, and via hundreds of dives they have taken comprehensive measurements of the reef’s health, or lack thereof in this case… about 80 % of coral colonies now dead…From cores ..analyzed…nothing like current die-off in Kiritimati in the 7,000 years of ancient coral history there.  Global warming will
make the pressure on global corals even
worse in coming decades. For some, like those in Kiritimati, the last few months — the worst global coral bleaching episode in history — may be a point of no return. The reef, pre-bleaching event, bustles with life and color… as far as bleaching goes, “[Kiritimati is] the worst location in the world.”

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