It is high time the human race takes a step and start doing something. The continuous degradation of one of the world's most precious heritage sites is a living testament of this.

The coral bleaching and degradation of Australia's Great Barrier Reef - a World Heritage site - emphasizes the need for human race to actually take action and help minimize if not alleviate the effects of climate change.

The Great Barrier Reef, specifically in the shallow waters off Cape York Peninsula's east coast, is experiencing the most severe bleaching event in the last 15 years. On the other side, Tasmania also is suffering from wild fires of unprecedented severity that erased century-old forests to ashes.

These are just two of the signs that something needs to be done.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the "several months of hot and still waters in the Coral Sea combined with a weak monsoon have resulted in some of the worst conditions for coral bleaching in decades."

It further stated that coral bleaching is happening more frequently and is continuously changing the health of the Great Barrier Reef. This condition is made worse by the "ongoing impacts of pollution and sediments run-off." These occurrences make it hard for the reef to recover. "Now, the most healthy and intact section of the reef is cooking in the heat," the report added.

Because of this damaging coral bleaching, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has upgraded its alert system to level three. This level is considered to be the highest category. Meaning to say, the life of the coral reef is threatened.

On the other side, Tasmania has continued to experience severe heat with cloud-free days continuously increasing.

This also is considered a threat to the rainforests in the area, including significant flora and fauna. If no one does anything to at least lessen the impacts of climate change, then it could lead to the loss of the rainforest along the Great Dividing Range. This mountain-top refugia serves as home to some of the world's rarest species.

Across Australia, the impact of climate change can be felt anf can be seen. To make it worse, it is not only happening in Australia, but all over the world. Climate change is made worse through human activities that include land degradation, El Nino events, and more. These can push species to extinction and ecosystems to collapse.

As University of Tasmania scientist Professor David Bowman said, "This is what climate change looks like. It is the blackened stumps of pencil pines and the ghostly white of bleached coral."