The world's largest coral reef - under threat from Australia's surging coal and gas shipments, climate change and a destructive starfish - is declining faster than ever and coral cover could fall to just 5% in the next decade, a study shows. Researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in the northeastern city of Townsville say Australia's Great Barrier Reef has lost of its coral in little more than a generation. And the pace of damage has picked up since 2006.

Fogarty, D. (2012, October 5-6). Storms to starfish: Great Barrier Reefs faces rapid coral loss. BusinessWorld, p. S3/9.