{"id":335184,"date":"2024-06-29T17:11:27","date_gmt":"2024-06-29T15:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=335184"},"modified":"2024-06-29T17:11:29","modified_gmt":"2024-06-29T15:11:29","slug":"after-a-trillion-tons-of-co2-the-great-barrier-reef-hits-record-coral-cover-third-year-in-a-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=335184","title":{"rendered":"After a trillion tons of CO2, the Great Barrier Reef hits record coral cover third year in a row"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From JoNova <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jo Nova<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sixty percent of all human CO2 emissions<\/a> have been emitted since 1985 but today the corals are healthier than ever<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In 1985 humans were emitting only 19.6 billion tons of CO2 each year, and now we emit 37 billion tons. In the meantime AIMS have been dragging divers thousands of kilometers over the reefs to inspect the coral cover. These are the most detailed underwater surveys on the largest reef system in the world, and they show that far from being bleached to hell, the corals are more abundant than we have ever seen them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Peter Ridd points out, when the reef was doing badly, AIMS was happy to combine the data on the whole reef, so we could lament its demise. But lately AIMS splits it into separate sections and if Peter Ridd didn\u2019t check the numbers, who would know it was a record across the full 2,300 kilometer length of the reef? And that may be exactly the point. As Ridd reminds us, in 2012 the AIMS team predicted the coral cover in the central and southern regions would decline to 5 \u2013 10 percent cover by 2022. Instead the whole reef is thriving at 30 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile preposterous power games continue<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

UNESCO has been threatening to slap an endangered label on the reef for years. They would have looked ridiculous if they had done this whilst corals were at a record high. But that didn\u2019t stop them demanding tribute and conditions anyway, as if Australia can\u2019t manage the reef by itself. Our Prime Minister should have laughed at them and cut UN funding until they start making sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The resilient Great Barrier Reef fights back<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

By Graham Lloyd, The Australian<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UNESCO recommendation that the World Heritage Committee not proscribe the reef as \u201cin danger\u201d at its meeting next month no doubt has come as a big relief for government but it still has plenty of strings attached. To keep favour with UNESCO, governments must ban all gillnet fishing by mid-2027 and more closely supervise land activities stretching hundreds of kilometres inland from the coastline, and further still from the reef itself. It must also keep the billions of dollars flowing for research and reef management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Who runs the country, is it our elected government or a foreign committee at the service of third world dictators?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Greens, unfortunately, still struggle with big-numbers, or any numbers at all:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Greens say the UNESCO decision is a \u201ctriumph of lobbying and spin over science\u201d.  \u201cThe burning of fossil fuels is \u00adliterally cooking our oceans and degrading marine ecosystems across the globe, and nowhere else has this been more politicised than on the Great Barrier Reef,\u201d says Greens spokesman Senator Peter Whish-Wilson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And who is politicizing The Great Barrier Reef more than The hyperbolic Greens themselves? No wonder Greens voters were the most confused in the AEF survey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten years after our corals hit a record low, our survey showed that half the country didn\u2019t realize the reef has recovered<\/a>. Only 3% knew the corals were at a record high, and nearly half the Green voters were as wrong as they possibly could be \u2014 they thought coral cover was at a record low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The full AIMS report will be released in August. There have been some bleaching events both before and after the survey, and as is normal, we won\u2019t know for months whether any corals actually died or whether it  was just the normal home renovation that corals go through when they get stressed. It\u2019s common for corals to throw out the zooanthellae as temperatures change and let in newer house-guests that are better acclimatized. Since sea levels <\/a>near Queensland <\/a>were 1 -2 meters high<\/a>er 6,000 years ago, and the world was a lot warmer, corals can clearly look after themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Peter Ridd says the biggest threats to the reef are cyclones and crown-of-thorns starfish plagues, neither of which appear to be any worse now than they were years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

REFERENCES<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cumulative CO\u2082 emissions by world region<\/a>: OWID (CO2 cumulative emissions were 687 bt in 1985 and 1,700 billion by 2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sixty percent of all human CO2 emissions have been emitted since 1985 but today the corals are healthier than ever<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":335189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818076,691821787,691821661,691822484,691821662],"class_list":{"0":"post-335184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-co2","9":"tag-corals","10":"tag-dr-peter-ridd-2","11":"tag-great-barrier-reef-gbr","12":"tag-unesco","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/00E011_rt-featured.jpg?fit=2200%2C1294&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1pcc","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":364009,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=364009","url_meta":{"origin":335184,"position":0},"title":"Truths about Coral Bleaching: CO2 Warming vs Reduced Clouds Cover?","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/30\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The coral that now form our modern reefs evolved 240 million years ago during the Age of Dinosaurs when coral formed a marvelously fluid symbiotic relationship with symbiodinium algae. The new algae symbionts absorbed CO2 and produced sugars via photosynthesis for the coral. In turn coral respiration produced CO2 that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Bleaching\"","block_context":{"text":"Bleaching","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=bleaching"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0Great-Barrier-Reef.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0Great-Barrier-Reef.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0Great-Barrier-Reef.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0Great-Barrier-Reef.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0Great-Barrier-Reef.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":289282,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=289282","url_meta":{"origin":335184,"position":1},"title":"Corals\u2019 Fantastic Recovery Exonerates Skeptical Scientists\u2019 Coral Analyses!","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"11\/30\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"By Jim Steele A coral survey ending in May 2022 found that despite decades of worrisome bleaching the northern and central Great Barrier Reef recorded their highest amount of coral cover since the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) began monitoring 37 years ago. Bleaching does not mean coral mortality.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"climate propaganda\"","block_context":{"text":"climate propaganda","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-propaganda"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/00GACXB-HbYAI6XZF.jpeg?fit=874%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/00GACXB-HbYAI6XZF.jpeg?fit=874%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/00GACXB-HbYAI6XZF.jpeg?fit=874%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/00GACXB-HbYAI6XZF.jpeg?fit=874%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":373529,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=373529","url_meta":{"origin":335184,"position":2},"title":"Great Barrier Reef Corals Are Growing and Thriving\u2026Earlier Damage Not Climate Related","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/03\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The facts: Record numbers of coral reefs were already measured in 2024, and the coverage has indeed tripled over the last 12 years.","rel":"","context":"In \"Australia\"","block_context":{"text":"Australia","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=australia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0-corals-GBR.jpeg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0-corals-GBR.jpeg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0-corals-GBR.jpeg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0-corals-GBR.jpeg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0-corals-GBR.jpeg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":211892,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=211892","url_meta":{"origin":335184,"position":3},"title":"Climate Change causes record coral cover","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/04\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The new AIMS annual survey is in with the shocking result that not only was last year a record, but this year is even better. There is more coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef than ever recorded. We\u2019ve had four bleaching events in the last seven years, and record\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-76.png?fit=1200%2C623&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-76.png?fit=1200%2C623&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-76.png?fit=1200%2C623&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-76.png?fit=1200%2C623&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-76.png?fit=1200%2C623&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":393986,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=393986","url_meta":{"origin":335184,"position":4},"title":"Great Barrier Reef in great health, but climate change is killing science institutions","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/09\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Despite record high emissions of carbon dioxide, and hottest ever temperatures, the Great Barrier Reef was again enjoying one of its best years yet. 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