Chris Morrison – The Daily Sceptic Aug 13, 2026
It might be wondered why climate catastrophising clots bother with coral and in particular the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). For years as GBR coral cover hit new record highs, it let them down all the time. A bout of temporary natural ‘bleaching’ in 2024 gave a little Armageddon hope with the Guardian reporting last year that GBR coral may reach a “tipping point” where it cannot recover fast enough between “major catastrophic events”. But it’s back to disappointment this year with the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) observing in its latest 2025–26 report that hard coral cover remained stable or increased across much of the GBR, “demonstrating the capacity of many reefs to withstand and recover from disturbances when stress is limited and conditions are favourable”.
It’s called Nature. Who knew that corals that have been around for hundreds of millions of years can survive slight changes in water temperature, surface storms and attack from other creatures in the sea. Apparently not King Klot himself, George Monbiot of the Guardian, who told us in June 1999 that: “The imminent total destruction of the world’s coral reefs is not a scare story but a fact”.
The dramatic bleaching that has always affected coral is a classic ‘look out of the window’ trope. These days it seems to be the only argument left for Net Zero promoting fanatics to explain natural events, weather and complex atmospheric science. It is of course anti-scientific junk, easily debunked, and reliant for its effect on emotional, gullible and politically motivated messengers. It is the poster explanation for the ‘post-truth’ world of settled climate science. Who cares about understanding detailed science about underwater coral, when children and adults need scaring about upcoming ecological collapse. Carry on munching meat and flying to Fuengirola and the polar bears, bees, penguins, moths, coral get it (all other soon-to-be-extinct species are available if required).
It doesn’t help when the scientists clamber on board the Net Zero gravy train. Last year, Dr Mike Emslie, who leads long-term reef monitoring at AIMS, told the Guardian that: “It has been a pretty sobering year of surveys with the biggest impacts I have seen in the 30-plus years I have been doing this… This volatility is very likely a sign of an unstable system”. Who knows what depths of despair the estimable Emslie would have plunged if he was not commenting on 2024–25 figures that showed coral was at its fourth highest level since detailed observations began in the 1980s.
The AIMS no longer compiles a graphic representation of overall coral growth for the entire GBR, a gap filled by the reef scientist Dr Peter Ridd, as shown below.
As can be seen, 2025–26 coral cover remained at remarkably healthy levels with an upward tick resuming the growth path of recent times. Headline you are unlikely to see in mainstream media: ‘Five years of record coral levels on Great Barrier Reef points to robust healthy ecosystem’.
The AIMS divides the Reef into three separate zones: northern, central and southern. In the north, the region-wide average hard coral cover increased from 30% last year to 35.1%. The AIMS notes that this is a rise of 16.7% relative to 2022–25 and coral cover is said to remain above the long-term average of 27%. In the central area, coral cover was boosted from 28.6% to 31.6%, well above the long-term average of 20%. In the cooler waters of the south, where growth is often more constrained, the hard coral cover was stable within the margin of error, although the current level of 26.4% remains below the long-term average of 29.3%. Despite 2025–26 summer sea surface temperatures remaining 0.7°C – 1.1°C above average across the Reef, numerous surveys showed low levels of bleaching across the entire area.
Net Zero activists blame coral bleaching on spikes in seawater surface temperature – ‘marine heatwaves’ is the common term – that are caused as humans release carbon dioxide by using hydrocarbons. Of course, there is no proof of a direct connection since it is impossible to measure and attribute a cause to such micro natural variations that occur all the time. In fact, supposed human-induced changes in water temperature are a particularly unconvincing argument for ecosystem collapse since tropical coral grows happily in waters between 24°C and 32°C. It hardly helps the argument that coral growth is often more vigorous in the warmer waters around the equator.
Natural bleaching is not rare at the GBR, with events occurring in 1998, 2002, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2022, 2024 and 2025. Needless to say, alarmist Monbiot-inspired column inches show upward spikes at the same time. Writing in the Australian last year, Peter Ridd noted that the Reef was still doing fine despite suffering six allegedly cataclysmic coral bleaching events in the last decade. “There should be no coral at all if those reports were true”, he added.
Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor. Follow him on X.
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Yes well anyone who is not discerning and accepts what they are told by whomever deserves to be fooled.
In the 1970’s the media whores where constantly droning on about a “new ice age” by the year 2000.
When that didn’t scare the plebs they started droning on about “global warning” and the alleged “ozone layer” in the 1980’s.
When none of that had the plebs terrified and hiding under the desks they came up with the panacea: “Climate Change”. Now whenever this is mentioned by the plebs in my local I just say, “the climate constantly changes”. That usually shuts them up.
All that matters with anything anywhere is the actual environment there. If there were endless forest fires and tornados in canada, it wouldn’t affect the coral in australia. If it’s grown, it will be because the environment there was healthy enough to allow it to do that. Perhaps they didn’t kill so much of it with their speed boats, or not so many dived down to dig it out to put on their mantelpiece, or there was a lot more food for it to eat, or any number of other things, or all of them together.
Some organisation says it rescued two lions from israhell, where one was tied to a tree and the other was locked in a basement. Then they tell you lots of cuddly stories about how they’re “settling into their new home” in south africa. Only that “new home” is a space a hundred meters along each side. Sure, it’s better – how could it not be – but they’re still locked up, because humans are endless abusers. I bet the owners of the organisation have houses on land bigger than that.
Unfortunately, there is very little actual communication between the realists who are actual truthers and environmentalists led by the globalist and money-power bribery fold. When you can actually communicate with an engineer supported by the carbon-credit industry, showing that there is no real threat from CO2 emissions, and that the carbon credit-credit industry was founded on a false premise, he will have no trouble admitting such facts. What you get in the way of justification is that the devices his engineering firm makes for factories are to control actual toxic emissions from burning various fuels, and that the CO2 levels estimated from production in a particular area are only a “handle” to estimate general production and consumption levels where it is assumed there are many other emissions, and that the credits his customers receive are only related to installation of his actual pollution-control devices. At least that was the story I got about 10 years ago from the lead engineer designing pollution-control devises for foreign nations which when installed entitled them to carbon credits.
Yes, such a “brilliant” solution to actual destructive industrial pollution, but why not just target the actual pollutants instead of trying to just generally have a handle to regulate production and consumption levels everywhere is some kind of global leveling scheme? And, what of all of the actual effort and money put in to reducing actual CO2 emissions from burning any kind of fuel, when we know that is where over 90% of the carbon credits are going and there is no real threat from man-made CO2? Well, the answer is more convoluted.
You see it all has to do with that magic word “sustainability” made so authoritative and popular back in 1992 with UN Agenda 21, when the international banking cartel got all of their puppet representatives of our nations to “endorse” on behalf of us, the globalist plans for centralized controls based on the their own manufactured perils of alleged global warming, human extinction, and limited natural resources – all allegedly coming from unregulated and uncontrolled industrial development and reckless human consumption. Hence, the debt bomb, the global warming fraud, the climate-change fraud, the Covid virus & toxic-vaccine plandemic, and now the fake threat of a WWIII – all of which are manufactured crises to concentrate wealth and power into the hands of those few who claim to “own” the world and everything in it.
All of those “on the take” obediently obeying or supporting this Culture of Death and Lies, which include everyone who “goes along in order to get along”, and think of themselves as “realists” with the rest of us being only “naive” and “idealists”, are only helping to clear the way for our own extinction in the technocratic & totalitarian system they are consenting to and actually backing. You cannot expect an engineer to stop selling actual pollution control devices to eliminate actual toxic emissions where the industries can prove the devices effective to get carbon credits, but you ought to expect some resistance to the false premises of alleged CO2 pollution being any real kind of culprit, and for all of those under the gun of carbon credits to at least oppose the fake global-warming and climate-change frauds which are parcel of the giant manipulations and lies to enslave us. However, just like our physicians were afraid of losing their positions by standing up for the truth during Covid and saying that the vaccines were not necessary and for anyone really sick with the virus the known proven and effective cures were the HCQ and Ivermectin protocols, we find that all of those in the various industries feeding the top-down lies simply do not want to bite the hand that feeds them.
Hence, we go along to get along to our doom.
One wonders if these Pinocchio nosed climate doomsayers are actually disappointed of the coral reef results.
yes it looks like paradise . but it is a paradise
of hell . like this whole planet of Satan .
every creature kills + eats the others .
it is a paradisic hell .
Buddah was right . not jesus .
Come on! The Ozzie Govermin worked very hard discussing and fixing the environment with the help of the usual global Come on Wealth $ponsors for at least 4 decades. If Chris Morrison is right it would mean that the Ozzie Authority was wrong all along and “THE LAW of OZ” should call in one or two of the holy woyal commissionaires to cover up any lies or truth from either site!
Monbiot?
Meh
Another jew propagandist