John Bruno and Elizabeth Selig confirmed that this coverage is decreasing by 1% per year for the studied period. In comparison, the Amazonian forest “only” disappears at a rate of 0.4% per year.The dramatic consequence of the regression of the coral is that, in 2003, only half of the coral living in 1980 is still alive.
This indicates that the disappearing rate has drastically increased for the last 20 years.
There is an even more alarming result with a decrease of the coral reefs by 1.5% per year with the possibly of totally disappearing within few years.

adapted from:www.myclimatechange.net