As climate change and global ocean warming proceed and become increasingly stressful, the Earth’s coral reef ecosystems would become maladjusted with the eventual extinction of innumerable species. This projected decline is now occurring worldwide, more so in some areas (western Atlantic, Arabian Gulf) than others (Indian Ocean, eastern Pacific). Eastern Pacific coral reefs have experienced severe bleaching and mortality in recent decades, however, the predominant reef-building coral taxon, Pocillopora grandis, consists of bleaching resistant populations hosting thermally tolerant, coevolved dinoflagellate symbionts (Durusdinium, Cladocopium) that greatly alleviate impacts and potentially allow for rapid recovery and persistence. Increasing local scale extirpations of corals, coincident with recent record-breaking high ocean temperatures, are expected to result in mass extinctions by the end of the present century. The 2023–24 El Niño event, superimposed on an already stressful warming ocean, resulted in widespread coral bleaching and mortality, the fourth global coral bleaching event since 2000. Although the survival of the world’s coral reef ecosystems as we know them today is in doubt, the majority of reef investigators still maintain hope that greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced. Various methods of coral reef protection and restoration are currently underway to preserve reef building coral stocks to sustain some vestige of this ecosystem in the future.