After a twelve-month set of climate records driven by global warming it is time to take stock of how we’re impacting the planet as a species. Coral biologist Kate Quigley, of the Minderoo Foundation and James Cook University, dives into the 8th mass bleaching event at the Great Barrier Reef. We explore how deadly heat stress continues to threaten this underwater paradise and induce mass sickness in the corals that call it home.

Heading onto land we reunite with Mike Flannigan, Professor of Fire Science at Thompson Rivers University, after a record-breaking Canadian forest fire season in 2023 we ask if conditions are set for a repeat. And what about the human cost of these climbing temperatures? In the future 800 million outdoor workers in the tropics may be exposed to intolerable heat stress. However, Yuta Masuda, director of science at the Paul G Allen Family Foundation, advises that options for individual action may be limited for workers to protect themselves. One of the driving forces behind a record year of global warming is the now waning El Niño system. With its counterpart, La Niña, due to pick up in 2024, we ask NOAA oceanographer Mike McPhaden what to expect from this transition and if we’re headed for a turbulent hurricane season.

Presenter: Roland Pease
Producer: Roland Pease
Researcher: Katie Tomsett
Production Coordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth (Photo: The McDougall Creek wildfire burns in the hills West Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, on August 17, 2023. Credit: Darren HULL / AFP via Getty Images)