The bleaching began in May. By September nearly one-sixth of the world's corals had turned white and were onthebrinkofdeath.Vast marine havens, once populated by schools of vibrant fish, were replaced by ghost towns of white, broken coral skeletons. The 1998 mass-bleaching was the greatest in recorded history. Although it was triggered by a natural event - a strong El Nino that temporarily warmed the oceans - bleached corals have come to symbolise the ultimate consequence of our thirst for fossil fuels: a barren landscape where once there were lush ecosystems. While greater bleaching is undoubtedly on the list of things that are threatening coral reefs (see "Reefs at risk", page 39), this is a rare instance of where the climate pudding may have been over-egged. New research is painting a very different portrait of corals, one that casts them in the light of plucky little fighters with more oomph in the face of climate change than previously thought.
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