Great Barrier Defies Alarmists, Thrives

Climate activists and their media allies have made coral reefs a poster child for the asserted climate crisis. Here are some examples:

• CNN in February 2020 published an article claiming, “About 70-90% of all existing coral reefs are expected to disappear in the next 20 years due to warming oceans, acidic water and pollution.”
• The New York Times Maria Cramer reported on October 4, 2020, “The Great Barrier Reef has lost half its corals.”
• Asean Post published a 2019 article titled “Coral reefs are facing extinction.”

Recent data show all these scaremongers to be totally wrong. And the media for the most part have been very quiet. The annual data on coral cover for the Great Barrier Reef produced by the Australian Institute of Marine Science showed the amount of coral on the reef is at record high levels. Record high, despite all the doom stories by reef science and management institutions. ¹ Like all other data on the reef, this shows it is in robust health. For example, coral growth rates have, if anything, increased over the past 100 years, and measurements of farm pesticides reaching the reef show levels so low that they cannot be detected with the most ultra-sensitive equipment. These data are good news. It could hardly be better. But somehow, science organizations have convinced the world that the reef is on its last legs. How has this happened? One reason is that occasionally colossal amounts of coral are killed, mostly by cyclones, but also by the crown of thorns starfish and bleaching. So the media, with its predilection for bad news, can be fed a regular diet of doom. Some scientists are always happy to oblige. ¹ The quiet recovery is generally downplayed or ignored. Record coral cover means there was no disaster on the reef. The only disaster is the quality assurance at the science organizations.

---

Other Supporting Facts

The year 2020 might have been the hottest or the second hottest year on record, but it was a bonanza year for reef recovery. The Great Barrier Reef had a good year. The reef covers 344,400 square kilometers, survived the Holocene Optimum, the Minoan warming, the Roman warming and the Medieval Warming, and is already recovering from a streak of a few nasty El Ninos and a cyclone or two. ² And speaking of resilience, particularly of coral reefs, let's not forget that the reefs at Bikini Atoll were totally obliterated in the 1950s by atomic bomb testing, but had resurrected themselves to their former glory in just 60 years. A total of 23 atom bombs were dropped on Bikini Atoll in the 1950s. It was a typical atoll, solid coral all the way to the ocean floor as they established by drilling, at least 3 km of solid coral so obviously the coral has proven very hardy over a huge time as the mountain sank while coral stayed at the surface and changes and storms and temperature variations which make 1.5 C of global warming look silly. And it is now flourishing wth plenty of living coral. A newly published study of coral reefs finds coral populations are staggeringly large and extremely unlikely to face extinction pressures in the foreseeable future. The peer reviewed study by scientists who had previously promoted alarm about coral populations deals a major blow to alarmist climate change campaigns that corals are on the verge of extinction. The study documents that there are more than 500 billion coral colonies in the southwestern Pacific Ocean alone. Still more corals and coral colonies exist throughout tropical and warm water seas throughout the world. ³ The documentation of so many coral colonies blows away coral alarmism. According to the authors,”Remarkably, of the 80 species in our analysis that are considered to have an elevated extinction risk (listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered), 12 have estimated population sizes exceeding 1 billion colonies.” ⁴

---

Support Canada Free Press

---

Mid-Holocene South China Sea maximum temperatures were ~3.5 C warmer about 5,000 years ago, when corals experienced an 'optimum coral growth period.' There were 'numerous coral bleaching episodes' even when temperatures weren't as high, as coral bleaching is naturally occurring. ⁵ Key points from this research throw cold water on the claims that modern coral bleaching is unprecedented, unusual, or unnatural. There is evidence of rapid recovery after bleaching and coral bleaching events have occurred repeatedly in the mid-late Holocene and corals have proved to be resilient despite this environmental stress. ⁶ Another study has revealed a collection of 100 individual reefs spread throughout the 2,000 mile long ecosystem that not only withstand warming seas and attacking starfish but also protect others. “The presence of these well connected reefs on the Great Barrier Reef means that the whole system of coral reefs possesses a level of resilience that may help it bounce back from disturbances, as the recovery of damaged locations is supported by the influx of coral larvae from the non-exposed reefs,” said Dr. Karlo Hock, who led the research. ⁷

Summary

That climate change threatens the extinction of coral reefs is among the least well-founded but most persistent assertions made by climate alarmists. To paraphrase Mark Twain, “Reports of the Great Barrier Reef's and other coral reefs' deaths have been greatly exaggerated.” ⁸ 
Potential bad news from all of this: The bad news is that the record high coral cover means it is likely that coral cover will decline in the next few years. In other words, if you're a climate crusader, the Great Coral Reef is the gift that keeps on giving.

---

References

1. Peter Ridd, “Record coral cover of Great Barrier Reef shames climate alarmists, media,” wattsupwiththat.com, July 23, 2021
2. Joanne Nova, “What a recovery! Hottest ever year causes coral reefs to grow,” joannenova.com.au, July 20, 2021
3. Andreas Dietzel et al, “The population sizes and global extinction risk of reef building coral species at biogeographic scales,” Nature Ecology & Evolution, March 1, 2021
4. James Taylor, “Coral extinction crisis canceled—new study documents billions of coral colonies,” climaterealism.com, March 5, 2021
5. Hao Wang et al., “New evidence for the periodic bleaching and recovery of Porites corals during the mid-late Holocene in the northern South China Sea,” Global and Planetary Change, 197, February 2021, 103397
6. Kenneth Richard, “New study: coral bleaching repeatedly occurred throughout the warmer than today mid-Holocene, notrickszone.com, January 18, 2021
7. K. Hock et al., “Connectivity and systemic resilience of the Great Barrier Reef,” PLOS Biology (doi 10.1371/journal.pbio2003355), 2017
8. Climate Change Dispatch, “Great Barrier Reef healthy with record growth, media silent,” Principia Scientific International, August 2, 2021