Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of

unchanging truth.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

Seven years ago, the news was grim.

National Geographic reported that, quote,

half of the Great Barrier Reef is dead because of climate change.

The Guardian, solemnly pronounced Great Barrier Reef at terminal stage,

and the Washington Post agreed the Great Barrier Reef is dying their headline said

by now given the alarm in those headlines Australia's most famous national

treasure is surely beyond repair, isn't it?

Well, no, according to an Australian Institute of Marine Science report from last summer,

and I quote, the reef has rebounded.

After successive years of cooler temperatures brought by Leninga, hard corals have recovered significant

grounds, said the report, reaching record high levels in 2022 across two-thirds of the reef.

Despite these many funerals held by so many media outlets for the world's largest

living structure, the report marveled at the reefs and I quote here,

impressive ability to recover from widespread disturbances.

Though scientists caution that the coral isn't in the clear yet,

it is still very much alive.

Now I doubt the same can all be said here for the public's investment

in the reef after all the funeral

pronouncements. How many aspiring marine scientists just called it quits five

...