The Great Barrier Reef is Doing Just Fine

Wrong, WSJ and U.N., Data Show Climate Change Isn’t Threatening the Great Barrier Reef
CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS NOVEMBER 30, 2022

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) recently published a story describing a new United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) mission report, claiming that climate change threatens the survival of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR). This is false. Data show, even as the Earth has modestly warmed, the GBR has added coral. . . .

 

Because the second largest reef is doing fine, and the government is strongly committed to keep it that way.

Belize government imposes moratorium to protect world's second largest reef

LINK

 

The Great Barrier Reef is doing fine too.

 

It remains important to speak the truth.
Being Disagreeable – At Christmas

December 24, 2022 By jennifer 17 Comments


It is increasingly difficult to articulate a sceptical perspective on catastrophic human-caused climate change and other such issues. Not only with colleagues, but also within extended families. This is especially the case at Christmas time when … [Read more...]

 

The GBR is setting records.
Record Great Barrier Reef Coral Cover – Time to Pull the Climate Crisis Funding?
Eric Worrall
The Guardian talking up the alleged climate risk to the reef, in the midst of a record boom in coral cover. . . .

 

Professor Peter Ridd – The World’s Coral Reefs are not Declining
Charles Rotter
Professor Ridd reviews the latest data on the state of the world’s coral reefs, which is extremely encouraging, especially for the Great Barrier Reef, the largest single reef system, with…

 

Bellies Full of Coral

April 5, 2023 By jennifer


I spent some of last weekend at the Great Barrier Reef, with my daughter sliding off a boat called Reef Encounter moored variously at Norman and Saxon reefs to the northeast of Cairns. The sun was shining, the water was crystal clear and so warm – a … [Read more...]

 

Happy Easter, Happy End of the 2023 Cyclone Season at the Great Barrier Reef

April 7, 2023 By jennifer


Back in the 1950s, it was only after Easter each year, that resorts on Great Barrier Reef islands allowed tourists to visit and stay. It was only after Easter that it was considered safe, because that was the end of the cyclone season. The … [Read more...]

Back in the 1950s, it was only after Easter each year, that resorts on Great Barrier Reef islands allowed tourists to visit and stay. It was only after Easter that it was considered safe, because that was the end of the cyclone season.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology now classify the period from November to April as the cyclone season, and most years they predict an increase in both the number and intensity of cyclones. For example, earlier this year it was announced via The Australian Broadcasting Corporation that:

For Queensland climatologically, we see the most cyclones in February, and we also see quite a few in March as well,” senior meteorologist Laura Boekel said.

The BOM’s latest cyclone outlook, released in October, predicted more tropical cyclones that average this season.

Year on year, however, contrary to human-caused global warming theory, neither the number nor intensity of cyclones has increased at the Great Barrier Reef. The available data shows that there has been a steady decline in both the number and intensity of cyclones since the 1970s.

This is probably why coral cover, as measured around the perimeter of coral reefs, is reported to be so high. The most recent Australian Institute of Marine Science survey reported coral cover to be the highest in 36 years. Cyclones can be incredibly damaging to corals, with fewer cyclones there will be more coral. . . .

 

Coral Snapshot 2022-23, & All the Unanswered Questions

May 20, 2023 By jennifer


Full marks to David Mills, writing in the Courier Mail, for asking why the government tends to bury good news reports about the Great Barrier Reef. There are a few other questions that I would like answered. Key government ministers, … [Read more...]

 

Invitation to Visit Mass Coral Bleaching, and see the Fishes

June 24, 2023 By jennifer


I don’t think he has ever been there – not once. But he has an opinion about the Great Barrier Reef. Last time I looked more than 111K of his followers (after just a few hours of it being being posted) were regurgitating the nonsense message that, … [Read more...]

 

June Update. Kidding Ourselves, Temperatures, Corals, and Kings

July 1, 2023 By jennifer


It has been a cold start to winter here in Yeppoon, just across from Great Keppel Island that is part of the southern Great Barrier Reef. And it has also been very cold in Sydney if you believe the readings from the automatic weather stations – and … [Read more...]

 

Justification for Peter Ridd. Repudiation for Terry Hughes.
Great Barrier Reef: A Story of Activist Histrionics and Genuine Progress
Charles Rotter
The Great Barrier Reef recorded the highest level of hard coral cover in the northern and central regions in 36 years of monitoring. . . . .

 

Just finished this article; got to wondering if the coral damage off Florida that has become big news would follow a similar recovery path.

 

The alarmists try to explain away the health of the coral.
Claim: Record Coral Reef Cover Hides “Cryptic” Diversity Loss
Eric Worrall
Following the embarrassment of record coral abundance, Aussie academics now claim the reef is dying in ways which cannot be observed. . . .

 

More evidence that the coral are doing just fine.
New Studies Suggest Corals Are Rapidly Developing Tolerance To Bleaching, Heat Stress
By Kenneth Richard on 28. August 2023

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Scientists report a surprising coral reef resilience to bleaching, as well as a growing 0.1°C per decade heat stress tolerance.
The Great Barrier Reef region has reportedly warmed by 0.8°C in the last 150 years (Page et al., 2023). This is warming rate of about 0.05°C per decade.

Scientists (Lachs et al., 2023) are now reporting that corals in Palau are rapidly developing an improved capacity to tolerate heat stress, with an estimated tolerance enhancement of about 0.1°C per decade. In other words, corals are quickly adapting to modern warming rates and associated heat-stress-induced bleaching.



Image Source: Lachs et al., 2023
As an example, a marine heatwave bleaching event affected 75-98% of Great Barrier Reef coral cover in April, 2020 (Page et al., 2023).

However, the resilient corals recovered within a span of months. In fact, there was slightly more deep coral coverage in October (65.5%) than before bleaching began in April (62.3%).



Image Source: Page et al., 2023
The warnings peddled by climate alarmists often characterize Earth’s 500 billion corals as critically endangered by modern global warming.

But the science itself says corals have been and continue thriving in the Current Warm Period – just as they have in past warm periods.

Last year Long et al., 2022 squelched at least 4 false climate alarm narratives.

1. Coral reefs “develop rapidly in the warm period” (Roman, Medieval), and “coral reefs develop slowly in the cold period” (Little Ice Age, the Dark Ages Cold Period). Why? Because “warm periods are conducive to coral growth.”
2. Coral reef growth rates have rapidly accelerated in the last 300 years, or since the industrial revolution commenced.
3. Sea levels were 2 meters higher than they are today ~4,000 years ago, and still about 1 meter higher than today 1,000 years ago, or during the Medieval Warm Period. Lower sea levels produce a “decline in the coral reef development rate”.
4. The South China Sea surface temperatures were “3 to 6°C higher than today” from about 5,000 to 4,000 years ago; coral reefs developed rapidly in that warmth.

Image Source: Long et al., 2022

 

Peter Ridd continues to speak truth to power.
The Woke Transformation of the Australian Academy of Science
Charles Rotter
The Australian Academy of Science is now a joke. . . .

 

Coral is doing quite well.
How Brown the Corals – That were Pink Last Year
October 12, 2023 By jennifer


I was back at John Brewer Reef last week and many of the corals are now dark brown. John Brewer reef has lost its pink, for the moment. There is a Coral Watch program that was developed at Heron Island by the University of Queensland. … [Read more...]

 

Another bogus claim debunked.

CORAL REEFS
Wrong, ABC News, No Evidence Exist Demonstrating Climate Change Is Harming Corals
November 22, 2023

 

This is one way the climate alarmist tub thumpers lie.
Removing Colour, for a Sick Story

November 26, 2023 By jennifer


My Aunty Bunty used to work in a factory in Dundee, in Scotland, with thousands of other women all adding colour to black and white photographs. She was allowed to be creative; the idea was to make people happy. So, for example, she could add … [Read more...]

 

Alarmist claims are refuted by science.
2 More New Studies Undermine Alarmist Claims That Corals Are Harmed By Warming
By Kenneth Richard on 21. December 2023

Warmer sea surface temperatures are associated with coral growth, not decline.
According to a new study, coral growth was slow during the ~1°C colder Little Ice Age (LIA), but grew rapidly as sea surface temperatures (SSTs) warmed after 1850. Warmth is associated with coral growth, whereas colder SSTs are linked to growth rate decline.

“The average growth rate of four colonies living in the LIA is 0.87 ± 0.11 cm/yr, which is significantly (t-test, p < 0.0001) lower than the colonies in the 20th century [1.23 ± 0.22 cm/yr].”

“The observed low average growth rates during the LIA can be explained by the ~1°C lower temperature.”

Ocean pH levels were as low or lower (more “acidified”) than recent decades during the LIA (e.g., 1500s to 1700s CE), suggesting that the atmospheric CO2 levels are not an ocean pH variability determinant. In fact, the authors point out that anthropogenic CO2 can only ever affect pH variability by 0.05 of a unit over centuries, whereas natural variations in pH units can reach 0.1 to 0.3 within a decade or less.



Image Source: Liu et al., 2023
Another new study (Gischler et al., 2023) also indicates that falling temperatures and declining sea level rise rates in the last few millennia after the warmer early- to mid-Holocene is “responsible for reef decline” in Beliz and south Florida.

“A decline in the rate of sea-level rise, as observed after 6 ka BP, has diminished accommodation space and, hence, reef accretion. Rate of rise in Holocene sea level and reef accretion rate indeed exhibit a positive correlation (Fig. 3B). Likewise, a mid-to-late Holocene temperature fall has been suggested to be responsible for reef decline in Beliz, as well as south Florida.”

“Coral sclerochronology and vegetation data from offshore Belize suggest also that warm and wet conditions during early Holocene times were followed by cooler and drier conditions in the mid-late Holocene. The results of the present study suggest that there are gaps in the Holocene A. palmata record, and, that A. cervicornis was twice as abundant during the early as compared to the mid and late Holocene (13.1 ± 1.7% vs. 6.7 ± 1.4% and 6.3 ± 1.7%, respectively), suggesting a deterioration in the environmental conditions for reef development over time.”

 

Alarms about the health of coral reefs were apparently based on ignorance.
Why Climate Scientists were Duped into Believing Rising CO2 will Harm Coral and Mollusks
Guest Blogger
The world can only hope that NOAA and all those alarmist websites will soon admit that improved science has revealed the error of their ways. . . .

 

A wave of anti-science silliness has struck Australia.

The “Great Barrier Reef Is Dying” Scam

By Paul Homewood

It was only a year ago that Australia’s leading reef expert, Dr Peter Ridd, reported that coral cover was at record highs:

. . . Peter Ridd: Coral in a Warming World: Causes for Optimism (pdf)

As Peter Ridd’s report noted, it only in the last two or three decades that the GBR has really been systematically surveyed. Yet there is plenty of evidence that similar bleaching events have frequently occurred in the past, particularly during El Nino events. They were just never observed.

Whereas it was natural to assume that coral reefs would die off after bleaching, Ridd shows that they actually recover very quickly. Bleaching, far from being fatal, is actually a remarkable adaptive response to changing temperature, because having expelled the microscopic algae, which gives it its colour as well as energy, it reabsorbs another strain of algae which thrives in warmer water. The opposite happens when the seas cool. . . .