"Moore observes that in April 2016 headlines around the world screamed that the Great Barrier Reef was 93% dead, a number positively radiating sober scientific certainty.
“But the careful reader would be hard pressed to find the origin of the number 93 percent as there is no record of it other than in headlines.”
Remind you of anything?
Right.
The 97% “consensus”.
Moore also observes that the term “bleaching” conjures up images of industrially produced chlorine devastating marine life.
(And the Greenpeace decision that precipitated his departure, to demonize the chlorine so often found in bleach, and we mean demonize quite literally as “the devil’s element”, and try to get it banished from the universe even though it is vital to life and also medicine plus it’s half of salt which some people notice is very common in that “salt water” thing oceans are known for.)
But in fact the discoloration phenomenon in question has nothing to do with dumping manufactured chemicals into the ocean.
Rather, it’s a question of the inherently colourless animal “polyps” in coral reefs temporarily ejecting their symbiotic phytoplankton, a sign of stress but by no means of morbidity.
The Great Barrier Reef eventually recovered and some news outlets admitted it.
But as Moore says, most people are still convinced it is moribund.
After all, it’s a long way away and most of us couldn’t afford to go there even if travel were permitted."
