A report released by the World Meteorological Organization's annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin warned that this summer could mark the worst for corals in the Caribbean and Florida. The report stated that a new record high had been set by atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations in 2013 because of increased emissions of carbon dioxide. The oceans absorb carbon dioxide after it is released in the atmosphere, making the oceans more acidic.

Corals struggle to build skeletons at lower pH and could not seek normal growth.

A US Geological Survey on the ocean temperature in Florida has showed that the water temperature has increased by 2 degrees Fahrenheit than what was recorded only a few decades ago.

This shows that ocean acidification is not alone to make the survival of corals difficult, said Ilsa Kuffner, a USGS research marine biologist and the report's lead author. Rise in water temperature is another major factor to create stress on corals in the Florida Keys. The loss of their symbiotic algae has turned them white and if the condition does not improve, the corals could starve to death, said the report.

"Our analysis shows that corals in the study areas are now regularly experiencing temperatures above 84 F during July, August and September; average temperatures that were seldom reached 120 years ago", said Kuffner
The USGS survey showed that late-summer water temperatures near the Florida Keys have reached a level that has not been witnessed in more than past 100 years.

Between July and September, water temperatures in the region in recent decades were recorded to be 2 degrees Fahrenheit more than a century earlier.

The report from the World Meteorological Organization has showed that the continued use of fossil fuels have to be blamed for the rise in water temperature.