Will the Great Barrier Reef Survive?

Description

Doubting the Doomed Reef Scenario

Are we about to lose the Reef?

The dominant narrative with regard to this question seems to be that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is exquisitely delicate and fragile, severely under threat of dying. This belief holds that the Reef’s extinction could happen within just a few short years or decades.

This view is widely expressed by scientists, politicians, lobbyists, the media, and members of the public at large.

This book explores a different thesis. Far from being fragile, could the coral reefs of the Great Barrier Reef, and the other reefs of Australia’s waters, be more resilient than we think? Could they be resilient and robust, robust in the extreme?

Coral is an ancient and persistent life form which has outlasted the dinosaurs by a long shot. It preceded the emergence of human life by hundreds of millions of years.

So why should it now be regarded as so vulnerable?

Is the Reef doomed or is the Fragile Reef Hypothesis implausible?