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We report three major and confronting environmental issues that have received little attention and require urgent action. First, we review the evidence that future environmental conditions will be far more dangerous than currently believed. The scale of the threats to the biosphere and all its lifeform including humanity is in fact so great that it is difficult to grasp for even well-informed experts. Second we ask what political or economic system, or leadership, is prepared ti handle the predicted disasters, or even capable of such actions. Third, this dire situation places as extraordinary responsibility on scientists to speak out candidly and accurately when engaging with government, business and the public.

Increasingly frequent severe coral bleaching is among the greatest threats to coral reefs posed by climate change. Global climate models (GCMs) project great spatial variation in the timing of annual severe bleaching (ASB) conditions, a point at which reefs are certain to change and recovery will be limited.