‘Earth’s living systems still want to heal’: Scientists urge climate action as coral reefs reach ‘tipping points’

Waterloo native Neha Acharya-Patel was just 15 when her father took her deep underwater for the first time at a dive park in Gulliver’s Lake, near Hamilton. 

“It was disgusting and it was so cold…someone had just thrown toilets and refrigerators into it,” Neha tells The Pointer, laughing at the memory. 

“It was horrible. And then I didn't dive again.”

That changed in 2013, when she moved to British Columbia to pursue an undergraduate degree in marine biology. There, she trained in scientific diving and fell in love with the deep, cold waters of the Pacific Northwest.

“There was no going back,” she says. 

Neha had found her calling and would go on to log more than a thousand scientific dives from the Arctic to Antarctica, chasing the microscopic clues that tell the story of a changing planet.

Working as a marine molecular ecologist, she has been using environmental DNA (eDNA) and metagenomic tools to study biodiversity, species abundance, and the invisible threads that hold marine ecosystems together. 

But one of her most memorable experiences was in 2019 when Neha became the first Canadian to receive the prestigious Rolex Scholarship from the Our World Underwater Scholarship Society.

 Neha Acharya-Patel during her scientific dives.

(Top: Andrew McCurdy, Below: Rosie Poirier)

The award opened doors to some of the world’s top marine scientists, including a team of Canadian researchers in Florida working with the Coral Restoration Foundation, a U.S.-based non-profit organization that since 2007 has been racing to save the reefs before they vanish.

That summer, she found herself in the Florida Keys, home to the world’s third-largest barrier reef, learning how corals form the architecture of reef ecosystems and support 25 percent of all marine life. 

Hard corals, she discovered, are the keystone species of warm-water reef systems.

But those systems were deteriorating rapidly. Since the 1970s, the Florida Reef Tract has lost 97 percent of its acroporan corals, the major structure-building species that once defined its vibrant underwater world.

Despite the knowledge, when Neha learned that Earth had reached its first catastrophic tipping point linked to greenhouse gas emissions, with warm-water coral reefs now facing irreversible decline, it still left her feeling “sad and pretty hopeless.”

“I think a lot of people don’t really understand how much their lives depend on a functioning ocean,” she says. 

“The air we breathe, the oxygen we rely on, the nutrients that support our food systems, all of that comes from the ocean. It drives global nutrient cycling, which ultimately feeds us. But people are so disconnected from that reality…The real issue is that most people don’t have a strong understanding of ecology. A food web exists because every organism has its place, and when we lose even the smallest species, it disrupts everything else.”

Just weeks ahead of COP30, more than 160 scientists from 23 countries released a report on October 13 warning the planet has entered “a new reality,” with global warming pushing humanity into a “danger zone” marked by cascading climate tipping points, including not only the collapse of warm-water coral reefs but also the dieback of the Amazon rainforest, the disruption of major ocean currents and the melting of polar ice sheets.

“Warm-water coral reefs are vital to the wellbeing of up to a billion people and almost a million species,” the report notes.

“Globally, coral reefs are experiencing unprecedented mortality under repeated mass bleaching events, highlighting the impact that global warming (interacting with other, predominantly human-driven environmental stressors) is already having.”

Experts warn that even under the most optimistic scenario, where global warming stabilizes at 1.5 degrees Celsius without exceeding that threshold, there is a 99 percent probability warm-water coral reefs will collapse, as 1.5 degrees Celsius sits at the very upper limit of their thermal tolerance.

Even meeting the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping global warming “well below 2 degrees Celsius,” or ideally at 1.5 degrees Celsius, will not be enough to prevent coral reefs from crossing an irreversible tipping point.

Canada is home to only two known live coral reefs: the Lophelia coral reef in British Columbia’s Finlayson Channel on the Pacific coast, and this fragile Lophelia reef off Atlantic Canada, southeast of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The Atlantic reef, discovered at the shelf break near the mouth of the Laurentian Channel, covers roughly 490 by 1,300 metres at depths between 280 and 400 metres. It consists of several small mounds where live Lophelia pertusa colonies grow among dead coral blocks and skeletal rubble, creating vital habitat for marine life. When first documented in 2017 using underwater video and sidescan sonar, the reef showed significant damage from past bottom-contact fishing, broken coral colonies, overturned boulders, and lost gear. Historical data confirmed heavy trawling between 1980 and 2000, prompting the establishment of the Lophelia Coral Conservation Area in June 2004, which protects 15 square kilometres from all bottom-fishing to aid recovery. While fisheries for redfish and halibut continue nearby, vessel monitoring indicates the closure is generally respected. This reef remains a crucial example of marine conservation in Canada’s Atlantic waters, demonstrating how protection can help cold-water corals survive and regenerate.

(Fisheries and Oceans Canada)

The findings have left Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Pacific marine biologist Heidi Gartner feeling uneasy and worried, especially because Canada found its first and only known live coral reef in Pacific Canada ‘Lophelia’ relatively recently.

In 2019, Fisheries and Oceans Canada received a tip from a First Nations about an area on the ocean floor with thriving biodiversity. 

That clue led Gartner’s colleague, deep-sea ecologist Cherisse Du Preez, to join forces with the Kitasoo Xai’xais and Heiltsuk First Nations. Guided by Indigenous knowledge and supported by the Central Coast Indigenous Resource Alliance (CCIRA), the team began a series of deep-sea surveys in the Finlayson Channel, about 500 kilometres northwest of Vancouver in 2021.

Using a remote-controlled submersible, the crew descended into the darkness of the Pacific, searching for signs of life hundreds of metres below. 

For days, the dives yielded little more than cold sediment and rocky outcrops. Then, on the last dive of the last day, everything changed.

“And, of course, it was the last dive on the last day of the expedition,” Gartner tells The Pointer.

“I heard gathering around the monitors together, and then cheering as the image came through. It was true excitement in the room, just taking in the sight of it.” 

What appeared on their screens was a thriving, beautiful and “highly sensitive” ecosystem of live coral reef, a discovery that would later be named qÌ“áucÌ“íwísuxv by the Kitasoo Xai’xais Nation and Lophelia by scientists.

The Lophelia coral reef is a long-lived, slow-growing ecosystem with a delicate structure and life history traits that make it highly vulnerable to disturbances such as bottom-contact fishing, particularly when combined with the mounting stresses of climate change. Its structural fragility underscores the importance of the fisheries closure now in place to safeguard the reef from physical damage. Careful scientific documentation of this site provides a valuable baseline for monitoring future ecological changes and guiding science-based conservation and management. The Pacific Lophelia coral reef has been formally identified within the Northern Shelf Bioregion Marine Protected Area Network Action Plan and is also under consideration as part of a proposed Parks Canada National Marine Conservation Area Reserve (NMCAR), now in the feasibility assessment stage. Understanding how this reef manages to survive in its unique deep-sea environment offers crucial insights into the resilience of cold-water corals facing accelerating climate change. Its ecological impact extends far beyond its boundaries, supporting a rich web of marine life, including vibrant Fuzzy Crabs (Acantholithodes hispidus) nestled among three species of glass sponges that grow across the coral’s orange and pink branches, creating a thriving and biodiverse underwater community.

(Fisheries and Oceans Canada)

“We designed surveys that took cameras into deeper waters beyond where people can fish or scuba dive and that’s where we found them,” Gartner says. 

“That first glimpse of live Lophelia on a cliff face was the first time they’d ever been seen in situ in Canada in a very long time.”

Geological evidence suggests Lophelia reefs once thrived but were extirpated following environmental shifts, including increased sedimentation, warming, ocean acidification, and deoxygenation.

In 2022, the team returned to map the reef, a continuous structure of Lophelia pertusa supporting a vibrant community of sea life, nestled along the seaward ridge at the entrance of Finlayson Channel. 

“They did a bunch of dives around the area and they couldn't find any more, except for [the one they found] on the last dive,” Gartner says.

Like its tropical counterparts, the reef provides a three-dimensional structure for marine biodiversity. “Animals live in and amongst them, seek refuge, feed there. They increase the biodiversity and abundance in the area, and they even play a role in the carbon cycle,” she explains. 


“There is so little known about the deep sea, and there's still so much to learn. It's fascinating because people know more about [the] surface of Mars than they do our own deep sea. So there's still a lot to discover and find out there.” 

This discovery, she says, contributes to the global understanding of cold-water reefs and highlights why protecting them remains crucial, even as the planet warms. 

“These ecosystems face multiple stressors,” she explains, emphasizing that it’s not only warm-water corals but also cold-water species that are bearing the brunt of global warming.

“By making changes in how we interact with the ocean, we can help give these fragile environments a chance to persist.” 

The Lophelia reef not only enhances biodiversity and supports marine food webs but also creates cascading benefits that extend through the water column and into local coastal communities. 

“People sometimes think of the deep sea as out of sight and out of mind, but it’s deeply connected to us,” Gartner shares. 

“These reefs provide countless ecosystem services, from supporting fisheries to helping regulate the carbon cycle. It’s said that every third breath we take comes from the ocean, so protecting these biodiverse areas ultimately helps protect ourselves and our planet.”

Researchers are now trying to understand why the reef thrives in this specific spot and whether others could exist along the coast. 

“We do think it’s living right at its limits and we do think climate change has affected where it could be,” Gartner says. 

“It’s out near the open ocean, on a ridge, with extra mixing, nutrients, and oxygen…conditions that might help it survive as many fjords become deoxygenated.”

But the reef’s survival is far from guaranteed. 

Lophelia corals are long-lived, slow-growing, and built from calcium carbonate, a structure highly vulnerable to ocean acidification. 

“Their skeletons don’t do well in acidic waters. They’re fragile, and that makes them susceptible not just to climate change, but to bottom-contact fishing too,” Gartner warns.

“We are really well known in our waters for having low calcium saturation horizon, which basically means our water is a little bit more acidic, making it harder for these animals to form their calcium carbonate skeletons.”

To protect the site, DFO and its Indigenous partners implemented a commercial and recreational bottom-contact fisheries closure on March 7, 2024, prohibiting all forms of trawling, including mid-water trawl across the area on B.C.’s central coast.

“Immediate action on climate change isn’t something we can do today, but closing the area to bottom-contact fishing — that we can,” Gartner says.

The 2025 Global Tipping Points report warns that the Amazon rainforest, the world’s largest tropical forest and a critical carbon sink, is rapidly approaching a catastrophic ecological tipping point driven by the combined impacts of climate change and land-use pressures at 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius of global warming. This shift threatens to transform vast areas of forest into degraded ecosystems, undermining their ability to regulate global climate, disrupting regional weather patterns, and accelerating biodiversity loss. Indigenous and traditional communities are facing severe social consequences, including displacement, health issues, and cultural erosion, risks often overlooked in climate policies and exacerbated by weak governance that fails to protect land rights or enforce environmental safeguards. Indigenous Territories and Protected Areas remain vital in maintaining carbon storage and resisting forest collapse, while undesignated public forests suffer disproportionately due to insecure land tenure. Compounding these threats, the ongoing expansion of oil and gas extraction financed heavily by banks in the Americas like Brazil’s Itaú Unibanco, Canada’s Scotiabank, and Bank of America fuels deforestation, pollution, and social harm across thousands of contaminated sites. Although some European banks have begun scaling back such financing, fossil fuel investments continue to accelerate the forest’s decline, with Indigenous peoples bearing the greatest burden. With the first UN COP30 climate summit set to take place in the Amazon’s heart in Brazil, multiple environmental organizations have been calling for urgent, justice-centred action: ending fossil fuel financing, strengthening Indigenous rights, halting destructive drilling, and promoting inclusive governance and targeted conservation investments to prevent irreversible damage to this globally vital ecosystem and the communities that depend on it.

(Neil Palmer/CIAT - Flickr/Wiki)

Her cautious optimism mirrors a sentiment shared by Steve Smith, a research fellow at the University of Exeter and co-author of the Global Tipping Points report.

“How do I stay hopeful?,” Smith tells The Pointer.

“Well, I don't see the alternative for a start.”

He remembers seeing a poster recently on the London Tube (subway) with a quote from the Dalai Lama: “The past is past, and the future is yet to come. That means the future is in your hands - the future entirely depends on the present.”

“I’m still thinking about whether it matters, or how much it matters, but doing our best is all we can do,” Smith says. 

“A year or two ago, I was much more pessimistic because I couldn’t see enough signs of progress. But recently, I’ve started to feel more hopeful.”

He notes the bad news is that “we’ve crossed our first major climate tipping point with the collapse of warm-water coral reefs. But the good news is that we’re also hitting positive tipping points in clean energy, and the pace of that change is extraordinary”.

The report finds that solar and wind power have already passed economic tipping points, driving what Smith calls an “exponential transition”, a shift that’s beginning to cascade through transportation, agriculture, and manufacturing. 

A recent International Renewable Energy Agency report underscored that renewable energy is now the most cost-effective option for new power generation, with 91 percent of new renewable projects cheaper than fossil fuel alternatives. 

In 2024, solar photovoltaics were, on average, 41 percent cheaper, and onshore wind 53 percent cheaper than the lowest-cost fossil fuel options, demonstrating the economic as well as environmental case for accelerating the energy transition.

The global renewable energy sector reached an unprecedented milestone in 2024, adding 582 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity, a 19.8 percent increase over 2023 and the largest annual expansion on record. Solar photovoltaic (PV) led this growth, contributing 452.1 GW, or 77.8 percent of the total, followed by wind with 114.3 GW (19.6 percent) and hydropower at 9.3 GW (1.6 percent), alongside smaller contributions from bioenergy, geothermal, and marine sources. These additions brought total global renewable energy capacity to 4,443 GW. Asia was the main driver, adding 413.2 GW, a 21.1 percent increase from the previous year, bringing the region’s cumulative capacity to 2,374 GW. Within this expansion, China accounted for 61.2 percent of new solar PV and 69.4 percent of new wind capacity. Other countries, including the United States, India, Brazil, and Germany, also saw significant growth, reflecting a strong and accelerating global momentum toward renewable energy deployment.

(International Renewable Energy Agency) 

The addition of 582 gigawatts of renewable capacity in 2024 avoided approximately US $57 billion in fossil fuel costs.

“For the first time, fossil-fuel electricity is in structural decline…That’s a great cause for hope,” Smith exclaims.

“Even a few years ago, even the most seasoned experts and observers were saying that renewable energy would never be able to manage more than 20-30 percent of our electricity needs, and we'd always need some fossil fuels on some. And the electrification of our economy is so rapid now that it's gonna happen a lot quicker than people think.” 

Smith says social tipping points are also reshaping the future: youth movements, divestment campaigns, and climate activism are driving public demand for change faster than governments can react.

In 2024, the world’s largest survey on climate change conducted by the United Nations Development Programme found that 72 percent of people globally support a rapid transition from fossil fuels to clean energy, with majorities in nine out of 10 countries. 

The support is strong even in fossil fuel-producing nations, including Nigeria (89 percent), Brazil (81 percent), Iran (79 percent), and Saudi Arabia (75 percent). 

In Canada, roughly two-thirds of the population favor prioritizing clean energy development over fossil fuels, and 85 percent want federal climate action to be maintained or strengthened, according to a recent survey conducted by Abacus Data.

A recent national survey commissioned by the David Suzuki Foundation revealed more than two-thirds of Canadians support prioritizing climate action and renewable energy, with 65 percent favouring investment in renewables over fossil fuels and 62 percent backing Canada’s commitment to its climate targets regardless of U.S. policy changes.

Smith observes that people worldwide are not only urging their governments to act on climate change but are also undergoing a personal “behavioural shift”. 

Systemic transformation remains essential, yet individual choices in transportation, energy use, diet, and waste can collectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions in measurable ways.

In Canada, emissions are dominated by a few sectors: oil and gas account for about 28 percent, transportation 22 percent, buildings 13 percent, and heavy industry 11 percent. 

While Canadians may not directly influence oil and gas extraction, they can reduce emissions from other areas, like switching to electric vehicles, cycling, using public transit, or simply minimizing unnecessary trips can prevent thousands of kilograms of carbon dioxide annually. 

Household energy improvements, including LED lighting, insulation upgrades, and smart thermostats, can cut several tonnes of emissions per home each year. 

Yet incentives for these changes face challenges: the EV mandate has been suspended for 2026, federal rebates cancelled, tariffs on Chinese imports, and inconsistent provincial policies have complicated adoption.

The Global Tipping Points co-author Steve Smith encourages everyone to regularly use carbon footprint calculators to get an estimate of changes they can make in their everyday lives to help bring emissions down.

(Footprint Calculator)

Smith notes dietary choices offer a powerful lever. 

Agriculture contributes roughly 8.5 percent of Canada’s emissions, largely from industrial animal production, which strains land and water, pollutes ecosystems, and drives biodiversity loss. 

A Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future campaign recommends small shifts like Meatless Monday or choosing plant-forward meals, which can meaningfully reduce emissions and free land for forests, wildlife, and soil regeneration.

Human activity has left its clearest mark on the planet through the conversion of wild habitats into farmland. Just a thousand years ago, less than four percent of habitable land was used for agriculture, but today nearly half, about 48 million square kilometres, is devoted to farming. Croplands make up one-third of this, while grazing land for livestock occupies the remaining two-thirds. When combining grazing land with cropland used to grow animal feed, livestock alone accounts for 80 percent of agricultural land use. Yet despite this vast footprint, animal products supply only 17 percent of global calories and 38 percent of protein.

(Our World in Data)

In February, Brampton became the first city in Ontario to endorse the Plant Based Treaty and make “a plant-based approach as a part of the city's climate plan.” Mississauga followed suit by adopting the treaty on September 26.

Scaling plant-based diets nationwide could reduce food-related emissions by 20 to 30 percent. 

Shifting toward plant-based diets not only reduces emissions but also frees up massive areas of land currently used for livestock, offering co-benefits for biodiversity and soil health.

Beyond personal choices, Canadians are also turning to renewable energy, including installing heat pumps in their homes and carbon offsets. Solar panels, home energy efficiency upgrades, and verified carbon offsets allow people to directly measure the reductions they are generating. 

Unfortunately, Ontario’s Home Efficiency Rebate program for heat pumps ended for new applicants on January 27 this year.

Residents can still access incentives through programs like the Home Renovation Savings Program, which offers up to $7,500 for a cold-climate air-source heat pump and up to $12,000 for a ground-source (geothermal) heat pump.

Nationally, the phase-out of coal cut the power sector’s emissions intensity by 45 percent between 2005 and 2019, contributing to an overall reduction in Canada’s GHG emissions of roughly 8.5 percent from 2005 to 2023.

The federal government projects the new Clean Electricity Regulations will lower cumulative GHG emissions from electricity generation by nearly 181 megatonnes between 2024 and 2050.

When financial institutions, governments, and communities act in concert, progress can shift from incremental to exponential, according to the Global Tipping Points report.

Nature, too, is showing signs of resilience. 

While freshwater systems and vulnerable species in Ontario remain threatened by highway and infrastructure development as well as cuts to Great Lakes restoration from the Donald Trump administration south of the border, globally, there have been signs of “hope spots” in lakes and wetlands where nutrient pollution, coastal development and overfishing has been reduced, oxygen levels are rising, and biodiversity is returning including rapid rebound of kelp forests, seagrass meadows and mangroves. 

The 2025 Global Tipping Points report warns that kelp forests, vital coastal ecosystems supporting rich biodiversity and providing habitat and food for numerous marine species, are rapidly approaching or have already crossed tipping points due to climate change. Driven by marine heatwaves, ocean acidification, and shifts in nutrient availability, kelp forests in regions like western North America, Australia, and parts of Europe have collapsed or transformed into ecosystems dominated by sea urchins or turf algae, rarely recovering without intervention. A 2024 study focused on British Columbia revealed dramatic kelp losses, especially between 2014 and 2016, when a warm water “blob” caused mass sea star deaths, leading to unchecked urchin populations that devastated kelp forests, with up to 74 percent loss near Valdes and Gabriola Islands. In contrast, areas with sea otters, such as parts of the central and northern coast, showed more stable or growing kelp populations. Neha Acharya-Patel says kelp is a major carbon sink and habitat, emphasizing that Canada remains one of the last refuges for giant kelp forests globally but faces serious threats from warming oceans. For her, kelp is personal, discovered through UBC’s scientific diving program — she remembers feeling mesmerized when she first saw it.

(Neha Acharya-Patel)

These ecosystems act as “blue carbon” sinks, absorbing vast amounts of carbon dioxide, stabilizing coastlines and supporting biodiversity. 

Smith says they also serve as a reminder that Earth’s living systems “still want to heal”. 

“Positive tipping points are our best hope for turning crisis into opportunity for ensuring the planet works with us, not against us,” Smith says, encouraging Canadians to join the global movement in climate action.

Email: [email protected]

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