There is another school of thught that attributes coral blaeching events to starvation...not global warming. Everyone is jumping on that train ,,because it is easy to do so. Some feel the bleaching events are caused by the fish population declining which is disturbing/disrupting the food chain.
These bleaching events have only been followed over the past few decades. Also, the temp of the ocean has been as high or higher many, many, many years ago and there is no evidence that these temps damaged reefs.
I persoanlly am somewhat hesitant to blame everything on the "gobal warming" theory. In some respects it is "lazy" science. I'll try and find a link to the info is I can..or do a cut and paste.
