One of the great natural wonders of the world is in its last throes.

The Great Barrier Reef is known for its strikingly beautiful colors, amazing depths and large perimeter. However, it is no longer as vivid as it once was. It has now become a bare and desolate wasteland. The cause? Us.

Located off the coast of Queensland in Northern Australia, the Great Barrier Reef is dying due to the impact of global warming. Despite being on the verge of its demise, there is still hope say scientists.

According to the Great Barrier Reef’s official website, “The reef contains an abundance of marine life and comprises of over 3,000 individual reef systems and coral cays,” in which all of these living organisms are at high risk. Though the reef is 500,000 years old, it hasn’t run into threats of extinction until now.

The Great Barrier Reef is much more than an exotic diving sight. According to the NOAA (National Ocean Service), many drugs are now being developed from coral reef animals and plants as possible cures for cancer, arthritis, human bacterial infections, viruses, and other diseases. Marine Scientist Stephanie Wear believes the reef is the key to finding new medical breakthroughs for cancer in animals and humans, and the threat of the reef dying is a “scary reality.”

Earlier this year, the Great Barrier Reef was hit by the largest mass bleaching event ever recorded. Coral bleaching plays a part in causing its previous vivid colors to turn a white, pale colouration. Basically, the animals that built up and strengthen the reef are dying, and the strong skeleton of the reef is breaking down. The reef is unable to withstand such an intense outbreak, so instead they get severely damaged, hence the bleached looking color. According to Ocean Portal, an online National Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, coral bleaching can also occur when “high water temperatures cause corals to lose the microscopic algae that produce the food corals need.”

According to the Natural History Museum, “Coral reefs are declining globally, and while different types of coral might eventually replace them, it will take time and there will be an inevitable loss of biodiversity. Understanding corals and the effect we’re having on them may be one way to protect them.”

Coral biologist and professor at University of Hawaii, Ruth Gates, says the solution of conserving the reef is creating a new breed of corals that have high tolerance to stress, which takes time.

But do we have that time? Data released recently reveals 67% of the reef is completely dead, and 93% of the reef has been affected by the bleaching.

According to Nasa Earth Observatory, the great barrier reef has “a wide variety of plant, animal, and microbial life, and is an important indicator of ocean health.”

While scientists have more and more data that show the decrease of reef health, they lack the background data to understand long-term cycles to check if what we see now has happened in the past. When thinking about the future of the reef, most experts agree that one must focus on the bigger picture: overall ocean health.