Reality check: Great Barrier Reef Not in Peril

News stories suggesting “the Great Barrier Reef — the aquatic wonder off Australia’s coast — is in grave peril” are highly deceptive, explains Bjorn Lomborg in The Wall Street Journal .

“Australian scientists have meticulously tracked the reef’s coral cover since 1986”; the data show it “began declining” in 2001, and by 2012 “had shrunk to less than half its original cover” — yet then “it rebounded spectacularly.”

“By 2021 coral cover was higher than it had been since measurements began,” and growth kept up through 2024.

Yes, “new data show that coral cover has dropped” this last year, but “large year-to-year variations are typical.”

“Cover across the entire reef is still higher than in 2021,” and “all the highest years are in the

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