The director of Titanic and Avatar, James Cameron, has issued a blunt warning about the future of the Great Barrier Reef, saying that unless things change, the reef will die.



Cameron, who devotes most of his life outside of film production to deep sea exploration, told journalists in Sydney on Monday that reef bleaching, such as that seen on the Great Barrier Reef, is an "inevitable side effect of climate change".

"The heating, even a few degrees, can cause the symbiotic algae in coral to depart and coral bleach, and then it becomes an unhealthy reef system, and then it ultimately fails," he said.

"This is something that if we don't course correct with regards to the carbon we are dumping into the atmosphere, it's going to become an inevitability. The Great Barrier Reef will die, it's that simple."