The scientist who was branded alarmist for exposing the fate of coral reefs

Australian researcher Ove Hoegh-Guldberg takes no joy in being proven right about coral bleaching. He says there's still time to act - but only just

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Ove Hoegh-Guldberg was just 10 years old when he first saw the Great Barrier Reef. That year, 1969, most young kids around the world were getting their inspiration from Nasa's mission to put an astronaut on the moon. But for Hoegh-Guldberg, the fine grey dust of the lunar surface had nothing on the other world below the gentle Queensland waves.

He remembers the copperband butterfly fish and its fringing iridescent colours whose beauty defied logic", as well as the incredible" epaulette shark that uses its fins to walk on the sea bed.