{"id":393986,"date":"2025-08-09T13:01:05","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T11:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=393986"},"modified":"2025-08-09T13:01:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T11:01:21","slug":"great-barrier-reef-in-great-health-but-climate-change-is-killing-science-institutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=393986","title":{"rendered":"Great Barrier Reef in great health, but climate change is killing science institutions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Underwater<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

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

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

The biggest and best studied reef in the world is looking good<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Despite record high emissions of carbon dioxide, and hottest ever temperatures, the Great Barrier Reef was again enjoying one of its best years yet. In the 40 years that AIMS has been studying it, the last four years are great results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judging by the data, corals are coping fine with today\u2019s heat and CO2. But the more money we spend finding a climate crisis, the worse our science institutions get. One-sided money and monopoly science can turn any institute into a tax-grabbing-machine, that serves the Blob, not the people. Thus, is it so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AIMS annual reef survey for 2025,<\/a> tells us that the Great Barrier Reef had suffered \u201ca sharp decline<\/a> after a record breaking heatwave \u201c. Worse, mass coral bleaching is becoming more frequent<\/a> as the world warms, and the time between events is shrinking, giving corals less time to recover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\u00a0Peter Ridd<\/a>\u00a0took the same data and did the graph that AIMS, with\u00a0$90 million in<\/a>\u00a0taxpayer dollars, couldn\u2019t do, so we can all appreciate the full disaster. And here it is:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Graph<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

AIMS also tells us that the\u00a0\u201creef is more volatile\u201d,<\/a> and has suffered the tragedy of declining from record highs all the way back to \u201cnear long term average trends\u201d, which sounds awful, I mean, \u201cnormal\u201d. Like regression to the mean.\u00a0 Though it doesn\u2019t look very \u201caverage\u201d in the long term graph that AIMS don\u2019t want you to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Blob Media promptly took the one-sided, politically-convenient AIMS press release,<\/a> investigated no claims, asked no hard questions and churned out the worst possible interpretation of a good result. Which is apparently exactly what AIMS expected, because they didn\u2019t complain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ABC, with a billion-dollar budget, could have done the graph Peter Ridd did. They could have asked AIMS for it. Heck, they could have just phoned Peter, he would have given it to them, and with a smile.\u00a0 Instead they pressed the \u201cClimate Alarm: Give us Your Money\u201d button.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Collage
The ABC\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0The BBC<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0The Guardian<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It\u2019s clear that The Australian Institute of Marine Science\u2019s (AIMS)<\/a> is not even trying to give Australians the most meaningful information they can on the reef.  When the media exaggerates the crisis, the experts are happy. AIMS don\u2019t ring up the journalists and correct them. They don\u2019t explain the bigger perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AIMS researchers surely know, but won\u2019t mention things like the extraordinary genetic adaptability of reefs:  corals already have the genes to survive another 250 years of climate change. <\/a>They can use epigenetic tricks to adapt to warmer and \u201cmore acidic\u201d water <\/a>and that the Great Barrier Reef has 112 protected tough spots that survive and replenish<\/a> after the bleaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corals got bleached way back in 1862,<\/a> before the first coal plant, and long before the Ford Model T. Most likely corals have been bleached on and off for millions of years, it\u2019s just that there were not many scuba divers around to take a photo or collect an ARC grant in 2 million BC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After millions of years of asteroids, volcanoes, wild temperature changes and dramatic shifts in atmospheric gases, (plus sea level swings of 125m) it would be a shock if corals did not hav<\/em>e a full toolkit to cope with a bit of climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The Australian Institute of Marine Science\u2019s (AIMS) annual reef survey <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter Ridd, Reef Rebels<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\t

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