Skeptics visit the poster-child of severely bleached reefs, and it’s just fine 18 months later…

By Jo Nova

18 months ago the coral on John Brewer Reef was dead according to The Guardian, but Jennifer Marohasy, Peter Ridd and Rowan Dean took the risk of going back to the same dead reef to make a short documentary on it and found the same coral, 80 kilometers offshore and it, and the whole area around it, is flourishing.

According to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park authority, the area was surveyed in April 2022 and the damage was classed as “severe”. According to them, 60-90% of the reef was bleached. It was so bad that when the Sydney Morning Herald wrote about “500 kilometers of severe bleaching” it was John Brewer Reef that they picked for the feature photo.

Just like The Guardian:

Scientists, apparently, were dreading the damage to come (of the reef that recovered):

Widespread bleaching during the cooler temperatures of La Niña has left scientists dreading the damage that could be caused by the next El NiñoIf the John Brewer reef was sick, most of the Great Barrier Reef was bound to be sick too, said Graham Readfearn:

“This is one of the healthiest reefs off Townsville and one of the best reefs on the whole Great Barrier Reef. So for these corals to be stressed and damaged … well, it’s likely it’s the same at other reefs down here.”

The John Brewer Reef was so symbolic of the man-made apocalypse one British artist was planning to install a 100 ton “coral” greenhouse out there, because corals need artistic playhouses.

Art on The John Brewer Reef

But here in the real world, the formerly bleached coral now is a normal “cafe latte” brown color, showing it has recovered from the bleaching. The growing tips are always white, apparently, so it’s all good. Jennifer wrote all the details up on her blog.

The coral threw out the zooxanthellae last year, but this year it has new ones…

Coral, John Brewer Reef.

The John Brewer reef, right now, is full of colorful fish and very alive corals.

Coral, John Brewer Reef.

As Jennifer Marohasy says, it was a risk to return to the “The centre of the sixth mass coral bleaching”. The 15 minute video of the trip to John Brewer Reef is below.

How to create a coral crisis

When divers scan the Great Barrier Reef under the water, they find it’s been in record good health for the last two years.

Coral, John Brewer Reef.

But some official agencies that diagnose the doomed reefs do it from a plane. Here’s an example of the same reef from 120 meters above sea level. For some reason nearly everything deeper than 2 meters is hard to see, and vertical walls of coral are, invisible.

Coral, John Brewer Reef.

The Australian government gave $1 billion dollars to save the reef in January 2022. Perhaps it worked? You’d think The Guardian might want to tell the world, but they don’t seem to want to give a healthy reef the same attention they gave to a momentarily bleached one.

It’s not an accident that  97% of Australians don’t know the Great Barrier Reef is in record good health.

Though alarmists are losing the head,
John Brewer reef is anything but dead,
With its colourful coral,
Spread like bouquets floral,
Where parrot fish swim and are fed.

–Ruairi

10 out of 10 based on 130 ratings

102 comments to Skeptics visit the poster-child of severely bleached reefs, and it’s just fine 18 months later…

  • #
    Ronin

    #1.
    It’s no news that good news just doesn’t sell.

    411

    • #

      Good news doesn’t sell well because people prefer reading the lies placed in front of them as they have been trained to be negative and ignorant.

      380

    • #
      Ronin

      Perhaps it is the result of that $444M of our money that Malcontent so graciously donated to ‘Save The Reef’.

      140

      • #
        Kalm Keith

        At the time, that “allocation of Australian taxpayers hard earned” was equivalent to seven and a quarter tonnes of pure, unadulterated, certified Gold.

        And that was well before the tunnel to nowhere.

        Does anybody else get the feeling he is rubbing our noses in it?

        90

        • #
          David Maddison

          Does anybody else get the feeling he is rubbing our noses in it?

          I have no doubt a lot of our psychopathic politicians enjoy doing just that.

          It was particularly offensive that the Great Barrier Reef Foundation never asked for it, had no plans for it and were as shocked as any of us that they received it.

          92

    • #
      Gerry, England

      The Guardian is not noted as a source of factual information. I know that can be said of the majority of the legacy media but some are incompetent whereas the Guardian and BBC are deliberate liars.

      201

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    It’s not an accident that 97% of Australians don’t know the Great Barrier Reef is in record good health. – how was that 97% figure calculated? The figures show that where the recovery is happening, species diversity is changing. The reef is unique because of the variety of corals and coral species found nowhere else. The lack of understanding of basic facts makes me despair

    270

    • #
      John Hultquist

      how was that 97% figure calculated

      the key word there is “calculated”
      After the number 42, the second number, that is 97, was derived as the go-to always useful {sarcastic}, but useless number when directed toward ClimateCult™ acolytes.
      I hope this helps. 🙂

      531

      • #

        Dear Peter-Despairing, how was the 97% calculated? It’s called arithmetic.

        The AEF asked 1004 Australians “compared to the last 30 years, what do you think the state of the coral coverage on the Great Barrier Reef is today?” And only 29 people correctly said “a record high”. So (1004 -29)/1004 = 97%.

        It’s a measure of how biased the media and government agencies are.

        And Peter Ridd explained to you at time (if only you read my posts) that the fast growing corals are the first to die in a bleaching episode, and they are the first to grow back. In the long run corals have survived far worse, hotter for longer, and bleaching is as normal as bushfires are in the Australian bush.

        Bureaucratic parasites use these bleaching episodes, that have probably always happened, to terrorize taxpayers into giving them more money.

        521

    • #
      GlenM

      What a load of bollocks. Where do you get your information from? . I’ll say that you have never been to the reef though I could be wrong, but you have no idea at all really. On top of that you have the gall to exclaim that the lack of understanding of basic facts makes you despair. You remain clueless.

      421

      • #

        GlenM,
        Very few people have have visited the main Outer Rewef that is the backbone of the system. I have tried on and offr for 65 years, but have newver been able to plan for weather, availability of transport, funds, permissions about places where ordinary folk like me are not allowed to go, etc.etc.
        There are no 5 star hotels out there. No hotels at all. There is nowhere to stay unless you have a boat and then, you are in dangerous waters that have claimed many shipwreks from few ships. There are no McDonalds or KFC stores. A fairly fast motor boat takes several hours to get there in good weather. When you do get there and conditions permit, if you have not learned SCUBA, you see little else excpt blue ocean and breaking waves. The beauty can be deeper than snorkel permits. And there really is great beauty as shown in many excellent photographs taken with modern gear that finally can do a good job with colour balances and so on.
        It is one of my life regrets that now, I shall never make it in person.
        Geoff S

        211

        • #
          Hasbeen

          Geoff Sherrington you must have abysmal ability to organise, getting to the reef is as easy as falling off a log.

          I used to take an average of 850 people a week to the outer reef from the Whitsunday area. There were similar operations operating from Townsville & Cairns, with a large number of smaller operations up & down the coast.

          There are any number of people who will take you sight seeing or fishing out there for a day, a few days or a couple of weeks, & the cost is not much more than a stay at an island or mainland resort.

          Anyone who really wanted to see the reef, & didn’t, did nor really care enough to get off their but. 10 minutes an the net will have the boat & plane tickets booked. It is that easy.

          60

          • #
            old cocky

            Not necessarily the best customer relations pitch, but there do seem to be a number of companies offering day trips to the outer reef.

            That’s certainly something to consider for a holiday next dry season.

            10

    • #
      wal1957

      97%…shock, horror!
      Lies! Misinformation!
      Where is Jos’ hockey stick?

      Ever heard of sarcasm Peter?

      210

    • #

      It was the same 97% figure that the UN used for the Climate Alarmism hoax (so called scientists and all that rubbish).

      Except this time the 97% is a positive for good and the truth.

      170

    • #
      David Maddison

      It’s interesting to do a Goolag search trends search for the use of the term “97%”. I have set the link for a worldwide trends search since 2004, the earliest it will go.

      https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=97%25&hl=en

      Interpretations?

      121

      • #
        David Maddison

        The top searches for this term come from:

        Belarus
        Australia
        US
        NZ
        Phillipines
        Kazakhstan
        Canada
        UK
        Singapore
        Ireland

        Very strange…

        131

    • #
      el+gordo

      ‘ … impressive ability to recover …’

      A few natural variables have encouraged the GBR to adapt or die. At the last glacial max it must have been under extreme pressure.

      111

      • #
        Mike Jonas

        At the last glacial max, the GBR as we know it did not exist. The whole area was above sea level. The GBR as we know it has disappeared and reappeared many times over the last few million years.

        160

    • #
      Graham Richards

      97% of Australians don’t know the Great Barrier Reef is in record good health for the simple reason the MSM, with the exception of Sky News don’t tell them. The rest of the MSM & politicians say the opposite and because the public can’t easily go 80km offshore to see for themselves, the Warmist mob feel secure that the secrets won’t leak to significant sectors of the public. Thus the BS wins thru.

      The public is slowly getting wise to their propaganda but “ slowly “ is no longer enough.
      Wake up people!!

      220

    • #

      But! But! “97% of scientists say” Peter! Don’t you know anything?

      Yes! We are all doomed. Record heatwaves – “97% of scientists say”! Oops! Now it’s record snowfalls in the Northern Hemisphere – “97% of scientists say”! (All ‘unprecedented’, of course!)

      Hmmmm ….. I wonder what ‘The Climate Council’ says? Hmmmm ….. It will have an ‘expert’ who might be able to counteract this propaganda about The Great Barrier Reef being in good health. Oh, no! We can’t have that!

      And, oh dear! Newspapers like ‘The Pravda-by-the-Yarra’, ‘The Socialist Moaning Herald’, ‘The Graudian’, etc., and of course ‘Their ABC’ and SBS won’t have anything worthwhile reporting – apart from that horrible Ukrainian aggression against peaceful Russia!!! And then there’s the unprovoked attack on Israel’s peaceful neighbours in Gaza ….. Oh dear: We can’t have that now – someone might be offended ….!

      90

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        When the American Meteorological Society (AMS) surveyed its 7,000 members in 2012, it receiving 1,862 responses. Of those, only 52% said they thought global warming over the 20th century had happened and was mostly man-made (i.e. 968 or 13.8% of overall scientists interested in the weather).
        And how many scientists are in the World esp. in Russia, China, India Japan etc. who don’t seem to interest the media?
        As I recently emailed my local paper (and probably got sent to the bin) “Take this like a football survey; 97% of Power supporters may think their team will win the League in the coming year. A smaller number of Crows supporters might not agree, and a lot of supporters of other team would dispute the proposition. Supporters of other codes may not even know, or care about voting, such as about 1,500,000 world-wide scientists, much as those in Russia, China, Japan etc. who don’t agree and influence their politicians”.

        50

    • #
      Philip

      Your naivety and pigheaded stupidity makes me despair. Well, not yours, of that I couldn’t care less, but the fact many people are as dumb as you makes me despair.

      133

    • #
      Ronin

      This ‘97%’ figure plucked from thin air seems the ‘go to’ quote.

      20

  • #

    It’s frustrating that the MSM doesn’t pick up this type of good news and run with it. We just have to keep on doing these before-and-after checks of the wild predictions and publishing them. Sooner or later the tide of public awareness will turn.

    390

  • #
    Jennifer Marohasy

    Thanks so much Jo for posting about this.

    It was great to get Rowan Dean out to see some corals, and we did find THE coral that had featured in The Guardian. :-).

    If you only have 2 minutes, the trailer to the film has a lot of information even though it is only 2 minutes and is here:
    https://vimeo.com/889619238

    The film that Jo links to in the above post is 15 minutes, watch with a friend, share if you can:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RUPG0_ZQFQ

    581

    • #
      David Maddison

      Jennifer, I don’t know if it happens to other people but for me, the Vimeo video freezes after a few seconds although the audio continues.

      40

    • #
      John B

      Thank you and your team for your field studies on the GBR, Jennifer.
      As any geoscientist knows, you follow up aerial surveys with ground studies.
      As one of my favorite Australian geologists, the late Prof Sam Carey, said:

      Really new trails are rarely blazed in the great academies. The confining walls of conformist dogma are too dominating. To think originally, you must go forth into the wilderness.

      210

    • #

      Gladly posted both videos on my forum in the Earth section thank you for your hard work bringing this up to the public.

      40

  • #
    Greg in NZ

    Jason ‘who cares’ Taylor employed Cox Architecture to build a greenhouse on the GBR? Did I read all that right? This is the same ‘conservationist’ who plonked the four horsemen in the River Thames (known as the river *Isis* in olden times)? I’ve never heard of this artiste before, yet I’m starting to wonder if he is part of the problem

    Ironically, or as is to be expected, the NZ govt representative overseeing yet another review of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi is appropriately named Judge Coxhead. Methinks the game is rigged.

    [Was this underwater folly actually completed? If so, perhaps swells generated by TC Jasper will do a little ‘creative accounting’ on this House of Hubris]

    240

    • #

      No doubt the usual suspects are rubbing their hands over the approach of TC Jasper, but some will stay away from the NE for the next week or so. Current track is anywhere from Cooktown to Mackay, so we have some tying down to do.

      101

      • #
        GlenM

        I had to fly up to Bowen yesterday to secure my house but it seems that we may be out of the firing line. WE could do with some rain though.

        101

  • #
  • #
    Neville

    It’s wonderful to see the real health of the GBR and you have to shudder at the BILLIONS of $ that has been WASTED over the years on all their BS and FRAUD.
    Dr Peter Ridd is a hero and seems to be handling all the kicks in the guts he’s received over the years and is bouncing back.
    But very few so called educated people have any idea of the GBR’s health and some of these ignorant fools still want to BELIEVE the worst.
    One idiot on TV even quoted the Obama loony for his best reference about the reef’s health. I mean that source of “evidence” is right down there at the very bottom of cocky’s cage. IOW full of SH-T.

    310

    • #
      GlenM

      Everything about the reef has been discussed – from its splendour to its other side of destruction and waste. People think that agricultural runoff is a big danger: wrong! Nature is never in serene balance as some people think and nothing stays the same – though it will inevitably return to one state or another at some point. I recall one place where Dugong were plentiful browsing on sea grass – but there is no sea grass there now due to sand covering the pasture. A big rain event will change that and the mangroves and sea grass will return.

      110

    • #
      Bruce

      All those Billions?

      Follow the money; it is ALL about the “spillage”.

      40

  • #
    Lawrie

    Its a pity that Twiggy doesn’t spend some of his billions on telling Australians the good news rather than trying to scam them out of even more dollars. Cannon-Brookes and his Teal groupies could do the same. The next Coalition government could also conduct an education campaign but would they?

    270

    • #
      Philip

      It is the wealthy who are now the problem. Im currently staying in Mosman, Steggleland, and all these people are now Greens, whereas once they were just wealthy. They used to be the keel of the ship, holding it steady as far left radicals tried to create revolutions, unable to against the force of the steady keel. But now the keel is corrupted. Gone mad with the idea the ecosystems are at tipping point.

      It’s a huge political shift in Australia. A return to the turbulence of when Free Traders of Reid and Protectionists of Deakin had to shift to join forces against the new Labor party and its radical socialist elements. And then when Billy Hughes, loyal to the Empire, shifted from Labor to form The Nationalist Party with capitalist businessmen like Stanley Melbourne Bruce.

      Is Poindexter Dutton up to such a transformation? Can he set sails to catch the new breeze like those men who shaped our nation did?

      90

  • #
    Penguinite

    Now let’s see AU Tourism pick this video up and broadcast it to the world! And, James Cook University, GBRA bury your heads in shame!

    270

  • #
    David Maddison

    The fundamental issue herE is that warmists are what I would call for lack of a better word, “staticists”.

    Like many primitive or uneducated peoples, they fundamentally don’t believe in natural variation of the climate, the ecosystem or the planet itself. In the past, within recorded history, there have been periods of both wonderful warmth and miserable cold.

    Civilisations have thrived during the naturally warm periods of the Minoan, Egyptian, Roman and Medieval eras.

    Plus, we are coming to the very end of a rare interglacial. As the world cools, it will be impossible for civilisation to survive without coal, gas and nuclear power stations (and real hydro where possible, not SH2).

    The idea that the earth and universe is static is a very primitive one and articulated by Aristotle in “In the Heavens” 350BCE.

    http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/heavens.1.i.html

    For in the whole range of time past, so far as our inherited records reach, no change appears to have taken place either in the whole scheme of the outermost heaven or in any of its proper parts.

    It is only in the last 100 years or so that the ideas of Alfred Wegener (1880-1930), a real climatologist, geologist, geophysicist, meteorologist and polar researcher came to be accepted that the earth is not static. Among other ideas he conceived of continental drift which led to plate tectonics.

    However, as early as 1840 Louis Agassiz (1807-1873) hypothesised that much of North America was once buried under glacial ice up to 3km deep and that climate must change.

    Milutin Milanković (1879-1958) also discovered natural cycles in the climate.

    Warmists have to do a lot of catching up with modern thinking.

    330

  • #
    David Maddison

    If warmists acknowledge this natural cycle of the reef they will say it was the beneficial outcome of us destroying our electricity supply and economy and we just have to destroy more of it to reach Unicornitopia.

    200

  • #
    David Maddison

    One of the reasons warmist “researchers” love the reef is that “climate catastrophe research” (sic) provides for them taxpayer-funded adventure holidays to exotic locations. Similarly for Antarctica, rain forests, tropical islands, etc..

    240

  • #
    David Maddison

    Coral bleaching and recovery should not be interpreted as either bad news or good news. It’s just part of the natural cycle of life on the reef.

    240

    • #
      Forrest Gardener

      David I agree that coral bleaching and recovery is just part of the natural cycle.

      The clear evidence that there is a natural cycle is the good news.

      180

    • #
      Ross

      It’s a natural cycle, but more importantly it a cycle that really has only been discovered in more recent times. Before about the 1960’s no-one could have given a hoot, because the GBR was relatively remote and hard to access.

      90

    • #
      Kalm Keith

      That’s a great set David; covered so many points.

      Could I add that there’s one other state of Teality besides ” Unicornitopia” ; it could be part of an existential duality with Monocornitopia playing an equal part. The mono implies both the singularity of the teel-think and its monotonous drone like nature.

      Unicornitopia: a state of blissful, unending compliance.

      20

  • #

    In reply to Peter. I offer the observation that in ecological systems such as forests, grasslands, floodplains, domestic gardens and even …. coral reefs, there is the phenomenon of Pioneer Species. These are the species that most rapidly recover after a major stress to the system. Once recovery is under way these species are gradually replaced by longer living and more diverse species. Thus the ecosysten returns to its longer term profile.
    It’s a natural sequence repeated on coral reefs over and over again as they have struggled with, and adapted to, the enormous stress of some 120 metres of sea level rise over the recent several thousand years of the current interglacial.

    280

  • #
    Coochin Kid

    It is all because (reef regeneration) Malcolme Turnbull put all that money into saving the reef
    thank you Malcolme (sarc)

    150

    • #
      David Maddison

      I would like to see a full forensic audit of that $444 million of hard-earned tax payer cash he gave to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, much to their surprise.

      331

      • #

        You will get such an Audit at the same time that the billions upon billions of A$ that are paid to the Aboriginal ‘Industry’ each year get an Audit.

        Which is NEVER.

        250

      • #
        Honk R Smith

        I’m coming to the opinion, far too late in life, that it’s all about the grift.

        Here in the US, we just had a squad of the Ivy League Uni Presidents, all women, testifying before Congress about antisemitism on campus.
        Yawn … the real story was the U of Penn prez, appeared to confirm that Joe Biden was paid near one million dollars for an ‘honorary’ position.*
        https://www.wionews.com/world/professor-joe-biden-was-paid-1-million-for-never-teaching-a-class-by-university-of-pennsylvania-report-551892

        Maybe our problem is that we look at The Big Pile of Money … and ask ourselves the wrong question.

        *(Hysterical, fact checks were all about Joe apparently claiming “I was a full professor at Penn State” …
        all dealing with the accuracy of the title with no mention of the pay check … if I were paid million bucks for nothing, I would feel full too.)

        How many years have we been complaining about The Big Pile of Money?
        As the pile grows ever bigger.

        ‘Thar’s gold in them thar halls of government. And I have come to save puppies and grandmas from White Supremacists and Insurrectionists.’

        100

  • #
    Neville

    Jo Nova had a thorough coverage of TC Yasi back in 2011 and included Dr Nott’s and other scientists studies of the pounding of the GBR over many thousands of years.
    Today we are living in a quiet period for Aussie region TC activity and there’s also been a lower trend over the last 50 years.
    Dr Nott showed that the last SUPER Cyclone hit the QLD coast and GBR in about 1820 and the damage now would be very severe if that cyclone hit today.
    The greatest loss of life was in 1899 and about 350 to 400 lost their lives.
    Today we’re lucky because the sea level is about 1.5 metres lower than the Holocene optimum 4,000 to 5,000 years ago.
    Here’s the link to Jo’s informative 2011 story and with many references.

    https://joannenova.com.au/2011/02/yasi-is-a-monster-but-not-an-unusual-one/

    160

  • #
    STJOHNOFGRAFTON

    Perhaps the dreadful bleaching of coral is down to legerdemain.
    Removing Colour From Coral Photographs To Mislead The Public
    Written by Jennifer Marohasy:
    https://principia-scientific.com/removing-colour-from-coral-photographs-to-mislead-the-public/

    120

    • #
      David Maddison

      You know how Leftist “science” works.

      If the data doesnt fit the Official Narrative, it means the data is wrong and has to be altered.

      Just like how Australia’s Bureau of Meterology “homogenises” historic temperature data to cool the past and warm the present plus failed to alter measurement techniques or algorithms for the changeover from analogue to digital thermometer (reported on these pages).

      160

      • #
        PeterPetrum

        Tony Heller is currently publishing a series of videos on YouTube which shows in graphic detail how NASA and, particularly, NOAA, have been altering data of earlier temperatures, fabricating temperatures in existing stations and even inventing temperatures from stations that do not exist to show a warming trend in the US where the actual trend is cooling over the last 100 years or so. How on earth do they get away with it and why do some sections of the media who are not totally left not pick up stories like this.

        https://youtu.be/AIgfzAgYDjE?si=ii670uqBE0SPLlJU

        160

        • #
          David Maddison

          Thanks Peter. Great videos. Should be compulsory viewing for all politicians and other climate alarmists.

          It’s insulting to see Goolag/YouTube appending their UN “advisory” to Tony’s and similar videos about how “climate change” is real and caused by “human activities”.

          70

    • #
      Forrest Gardener

      Indeed. The inclusion of the colour scale on the photo above is sound scientific practice.

      90

  • #
    David Maddison

    That “greenhouse” “artwork” is already installed.

    You know the artwork is nonsense when it has to use woke buzz phrases like:

    https://www.moua.com.au/visit/coral-greenhouse

    a fresh and immersive perspective on the Great Barrier Reef and its ecology by exploring marine science, coral gardening, art, and architecture.

    Follow the money trail:

    https://www.triplem.com.au/story/southern-hemispheres-first-underwater-museum-planned-for-townsville-112006

    4 October 2018

    The project has received a $2 million State Government grant on top of $800,000 raised through corporate partnerships with Sealink, Morris Foundation, Billabong Sanctuary, Gleeson Family, Pacific Marine and Port of Townsville. The MOUA Board is currently seeking an additional $5 million towards the project.

    I’m not sure if they got the extra $5 million they were requesting as per the last sentence.

    80

  • #
    David Maddison

    Relevant quote from The Matrix:

    You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.

    110

  • #
    Philip

    And so, what is the problem if the reef did die?

    50

    • #
      el+gordo

      The GBR is a wonder of the world and in our best interest to preserve it

      Coral cores provide paleo climate history which is of immense value. For example, around 31,000 years ago sea level sharply dropped by 40 metres and then gradually fell to the Last Glacial Maximum at 20,000 years BP.

      A geomagnetic excursion is clearly in the frame for the initial sea level fall.

      Another point of interest is that the Younger Dryas had no impact on the Southern Hemisphere, temperatures on the GBR were similar to now. This appears to give strength to the cosmic impact theory.

      52

      • #
        el+gordo

        A geomagnetic excursion is not in the frame.

        ‘There’s no evidence that Earth’s climate has been significantly impacted by the last three magnetic field excursions, nor by any excursion event within at least the last 2.8 million years.’ (NASA)

        40

        • #
          Bruce

          The “magnetic” poles are CONSTANTLY wandering about.

          Look at any REAL map / nav. chart for further details.

          Complete polar reversals are “regular” events. This was set in stone, literally, and mapped in detail by US Navy geomagnetic surveys of vast swathes of seabed, in the late 1950s

          “Catastrophism” rules.

          Interesting mental exercise:

          Consider that the Australasian Plate upon which many of us reside, long ago broke off Gondwanaland, which was more-or-less centered on Antarctica. Oz is steadily moving NNW.

          Any rock-doctors out there ever plotted this movement against the locations of extinct and active volcanoes in Oz and Un Zud”. “common hot-spot” activity?

          WHEN did the GBR first arise and how many times has it been seriously affected by rising and falling sea-levels AND continental shelf levels. IF the GBR started a lot further South, it had to be in relatively warmish water and with regular decent sunlight.

          Has anyone plotted coral cores against any of the several KNOWN mega-disasters involving chains of volcanoes blotting out the sunlight for TEARS? Krakatau was a relative “tiddler” but it managed do alter / destroy crops and grazing across the planet for YEARS. See also the somewhat more energetic Toba and Tambora, before it.

          Then consider the odd Australian “mega-volcano”. Check out the entire NSW Norther Rivers district. The welded “ash” from that extends out past Ipswich, in Queensland.

          Why did the Australian “Inland Sea” go away? Anything to do with the entire continent going walkies? A visit to the Lark Quarry “Dinosaur Stampede” ar4ea neat Winton is rather thought-provoking.

          50

          • #
            el+gordo

            Mount Takahe in Antarctica brought the world out of glacial times (17,700 years BP) and it spewed stuff into the stratosphere for 200 years which upset the ozone.

            https://theconversation.com/two-centuries-of-continuous-volcanic-eruption-may-have-triggered-the-end-of-the-ice-age-83420

            The GBR was badly effected around 31,000 years BP when sea level fell sharply, which suggests volcanic activity may have been involved, but not necessarily.

            Sea level fell dramatically in 1300 AD and it must have had a detrimental impact on the GBR. I’ll check out the possible suspects and get back.

            00

          • #
            Graeme No.3

            Un Zud isn’t on the Australia plate but their own – mostly underwater.

            The northern rivers had volcanos quite a long while ago about 100 million.
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_volcanoes_in_Australia

            Queensland has had lots of eruptions for millions of years, possibly due to their politics.
            Mt. Canobolas, Cargelligo and Dubbo were 12-15 million years ago
            Snowy Mountains about 17-22 million years ago (so wrong timing for a hot spot)
            South Australia’s volcanoes are the youngest in Australia, and erupted within the memory of local Indigenous peoples. They are all in the Limestone Coast region, in the Mount Burr Range. They are considered dormant rather than extinct. Mt. Gambier 4,500 years ago. The only active volcanos are on Heard and McQuarrie islands, although if I remember Ian Plimer the last one in Australia was in 1967 offshore from Mt.Gambier (where some Greenies want to site wind farms) but it wasn’t much and only noticed sometime later.

            30

            • #
              Bruce

              Good point about Un Zud: I am obviously a machinist / fitter, (retired), NOT a rock-doctor.

              That said, there IS “movement at the station”. We are on a slow ride to invade the Himalayas; shoving Sumatra out of the way in the process. Interesting that Krakatau is precisely at the “hinge-point of Java and Sumatra.

              By the diagrams I have recently seen, the Kiwis are close to the South-East boundary of the Indo-Australian plate, which may contribute to their other name; “The Shaky Islands”.

              Then there are the several Antarctic volcanoes, aside from Mt. Erebus of Air New Zealand notoriety.

              00

          • #
            el+gordo

            Samalas on the island of Lombok erupted in 1257 AD and it was truly huge, so that is one of the candidates, but there were a couple more near the end of the 13th century which ushered the world into the LIA.

            10

    • #
      David of Cooyal in Oz

      I guess that’d depend on the cause.
      And if its death preceded or followed the death of the human race.
      There’d probably be a lot of academic papers along the way.
      Cheers
      Dave B

      60

  • #
    Ross

    What really saddens me, is the debasement of science that has occurred over the last 30 years. If you think of the great benefits that science has achieved for the human race over the previous 150 years and see how the ” brand” is being trashed by pseudoscientists like these reef researchers ( I use that term loosely ), it’s really infuriating. Not only the reef scientists, but the climate scientologists and more recently the COVIDian epidemiologists over the last 4 years. I suppose it’s lucky for them that the bulk of society are science illiterate and that for the GBR there are relatively few end users to actually call out their ridiculous alarmist predictions. Peter Ridd is a bloody Aussie hero, as far as I am concerned.

    140

    • #
      Philip

      How to destroy a society,

      Make art ugly
      Make God a joke
      Set women against men
      Make children hate their ancestors
      Make science into a political debate

      (I copied and edited this, not original)

      181

  • #
    John Lowry

    I agree, I live in Townsville and I am not new to snorkelling on the reef. I was on John Brewer Reef in September, it looks good.

    140

  • #

    Though alarmists are losing the head,
    John Brewer reef is anything but dead,
    With its colourful coral,
    Spread like bouquets floral,
    Where parrot fish swim and are fed.

    140

  • #
    Ireneusz Palmowski

    Jasper is approaching northern Australia along 15 degrees S. It will now accelerate as the high moves away over New Zealand.
    https://i.ibb.co/8cPvd8X/mimictpw-ausf-latest.gif

    80

  • #
    Ireneusz Palmowski

    A cooler Coral Sea is conducive to algae growth, as it is now. Jasper will not raise the surface temperature, but will cause favorable sea movements.
    https://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/data_current/5km/v3.1_op/daily/png/ct5km_hs_v3.1_seel_current.png

    60

  • #
    Old Goat

    Its all about money . Try getting money for research on the GBR without mentioning “Climate Change” . James Cook University would lose “donors” and “sponsors” if it tried and I would bet that they (the donors) ponied up for the legal bill for the Peter Ridd case . Anything or anyone can be bought or alternatively cancelled if you have enough money . 97% of the public are gullible…

    120

  • #
    Zigmaster

    The 3% who know the reef is fine must either read this blog or watch the Outsiders.. What is so disgraceful is that in order to maintain the false narrative of the reefs demise they have destroyed a massive Sunshine Coast tourist industry.
    It was always a nonsense that coral is threatened by a couple of degrees of warming having survived millennia with temperature changes of 10 degrees +.
    I believe that the question of the barrier reef and its health could be resolved to a large extent if the tourist industry took a class action for billions of dollars against the individuals and governments that perpetrated these lies. The whole global warming cabal has to go on trial at some stage for its crimes against humanity.

    130

    • #
      el+gordo

      ‘… the individuals and governments that perpetrated these lies.’

      They’ll fall back on the Nuremberg defence, the UN told us to do it.

      We need to get the MSM to look at climate change evidence dispassionately, recognising that natural variables bleach corals and CO2 has no part to play.

      70

      • #
        Greg in NZ

        They crucified the last bloke who stood up to the Scribes and Pharisees –

        Barry Young (Winston Smith)
        Donald Trump
        Peter Ridd
        John Lennon
        Malcolm X
        J C (Julius Caesar?)

        50

  • #
    David Maddison

    Rudyard Kipling quote:

    The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is hard business. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

    70

  • #
    David Maddison

    I tried to post a link to this website on YouTube in response to one of Tony Heller’s latest videos about data tampering at NASA/NOAA to cool the past and warm the present and my comment was about how “our” very own BoM was doing the same and the AI bot at YT deleted it.

    Here is the link that was deemed too terrifying and dangerous to post.

    https://joannenova.com.au/2014/08/the-heat-is-on-bureau-of-meteorology-altering-climate-figures-the-australian/

    I reposted my comment but just used the words of the title of the article which people can use Goolag to find.

    40

  • #
    Penguinite

    BOB Blackout Bowen believes the world is on a dangerous course. The Climate Change Minister says more effort is needed to change the world’s ‘dangerous course’ on global warming and more money to assist vulnerable nations.
    Therein lies the crux of this and all Warmist Cultists. MORE MONEY AND CONTROL OF YOU AND YOURS!

    60

  • #
    David Maddison

    I THINK WE NEED TO REVISIT HOW WE DEAL WITH THE ANTHROPOGENIC GLOBAL WARMING FRAUD.

    By pointing out that the data on which the fraud is based comes from fraudulent data from NASA/NOAA, BoM and presumably European agencies as documented by Tony Heller for the US, Jo Nova and Jennifer Marohasy for Australia etc..

    70

  • #
    David Maddison

    Who does Australia have “representing” it at the COP28 Klimate Krisis Klown party?

    50

  • #
    Geoff Sherrington

    In earlier times, when there was a social problem to correct, more people would actually do something.
    These days, folk seem to think that some words on social media or on a blog like Jo’s is doing justice.
    Wrong. It is not enough to ruminate here about Malcolm’s GBR millions gobsmacker.
    You have to identify the person or department who has the answer, then contact them, asking questions. This can require patience and persistence.
    My employer would commonly take dubious people like some federal government ministers, through the court system. Even up to the full bench of the high court, expensive.
    At the moment, we are 3 weeks away from year 2024. That is election year USA, in November. A President Trump anticipating a second term could be seeking new policies for announcing on Day One of the new job. Last time, he withdrew USA from actions under the Paris Agreement.
    Such actions have enormous influence on Australian policies. We should help him with suggestions until he feels a groundswell. For example, I am a bit of a hard liner for common sense, so I will suggest that USA withdraws from the United Nations.
    That might affect Australia and our beautiful Great Barrier Reef.
    Just do it. Geoff S

    91