The Great Barrier Reef.
One of the world's natural
wonders.
But there's trouble just below
the surface.
"95 percent of the Northern
Great Barrier Reef
is severely bleached."
"The scale of this unnatural
disaster is so big--"
Coral bleaching. Scientists
claim it's killing hundreds of
miles of the reef.
But then again, UNESCO recently
voted not to add the reef to its
list of
endangered sites.
To understand the bleaching, I
spoke to one of Australia's
foremost reef experts, Terry
Hughes.
"It killed two thirds of the
corals for 500 miles.
As global warming is gathering
pace, 
we're seeing more and more of
these bleaching events outside
of El Niño conditions."
So, El Niño. 
"Yeah, so El Niño--"
So it's the Mexicans' fault. 
"No, it's nothing to do with the
Mexicans."
Sounds very Mexican.
"Right."
Alright, even if the Mexicans
were innocent, which they're not
the reef was clearly in trouble.
So I hoped to learn what the
government was doing about it
and I spoke to the man who
represents the reef's home
district.
Queensland Senator, Malcolm
Roberts.
What type of condition is the
reef in right now?
"The reef is in great shape,
it's as good as it's ever been,
it's in fantastic shape."
Scientists have told me that the
bleaching happens. You're not a
scientist-- 
"I am actually a scientist."
You are?
"Do you know what a scientist
is?"
Ah, I'm gotta hazard a guess
it's a person who knows about
science
in some type of academic way?
"A scientist is someone who
follows the scientific process."
Oh!
And listen to him science-ing
away. 
"Carbon dioxide is not a
pollutant, how can it be when it
is a completey natural product
that is odorless, colorless,
tasteless, 
and essential for all life on
this planet?"
In fact, Roberts thinks all
scientists are in on the 
same lie about CO2 and global
warming.
But why?
"Well if you listen to them, in
a longer interview, quite often
at the end
Jim, they'll say something like,
'but we really need to learn
more'
and that's a quick way of
saying, give me another grand."
Ah-hah! How could I have been so
naive? 
I forgot Newton's first law.
'Money, money, all those
dollars-that's what make them
bitches holler.'
And while humble fossil fuel
industry executives
bravely lobby the UN to keep the
reef off the endangered list, 
these opportunists were cruising
over the reef in their
private helicopters. Because to
them, 
all that white coral looks like
a whole lot of greed.
You get millions of dollars in
grants. Are you just a shill for
Big Education?
"The statement that I'm in this
research business to make money
is ridiculous."
Why is it that all you
scientists are lying about this?
And you can tell me, because,
I'm a scientist.
And this scientific shakedown
reaches far beyond Australia.
Reputable news sources and
informed politicians everywhere 
have been calling out Big
Science cash grabs.
"The Paris Accord. We're gonna
be paying billions and billions
and billions of dollars. And
nobody even knows where the
money is going to."
"The days, we have a hot day and
we're wanting to blame it on
coal or oil."
"Coal is not some nasty, dirty,
pollutant!"
"So everything that I can see in
front of me on top of you is a
direct result of coal mining."
I'm a result of coal mining?
"What you're wearing, what
you're using, what you're
writing on."
Leather?
"Well, you see, you use metal to
kill cows."
I wanna ask you this question. 
Is there anything that coal
can't do?
"Yeah, nothing--so many
things--"
Cause the way you're talking
about it, I wanna f-ck it.
(Laughs)
I did wanna f-ck coal.
"Well, look what I've got here."
And lucky for me, cause it just
so happens
that Senator Roberts supports
building a coal-shipping channel
right through the Great Barrier
Reef. 
Turns out I misjudged the
Senator. 
He's clearly an expert. He even
debunked global warming with one
simple explanation.
"I've been shown bullsh-t graphs
showing a temperature increase.
What's happened is, those graphs
have been manipulated to show
that."
Exactly! Want another example?
Big Science will tell you that
US Grant funding has actually
gone down since 2010.
They'd even show you this
bullsh-t graph as proof. 
But analyze that data in a
different way, and those
reef-hugging fat cats
are doing just fine. 
But the nerd mafia wouldn't give
up without a fight.
When they heard I was sniffing
around, they took me out on
their private yacht
trying to convince me that the
reef was dying.
I spoke to Malcolm Roberts,
who's a scientist, 
and he told me that the reef
isn't dying.
Are you calling him a liar?
"In this particular case, yes.
But, don't take his word for it.
Go underwater. See it for
yourself."
 
Alright, Malcolm and UNESCO say
the reef isn't in danger.
I'll just do a quick check. 
Hmm...bound to be a few dead
bits here and there.
Perfectly normal. I'll just swim
around a bit and have a look at
the--ah sh-t!
That's dead too!
Okay, yep, that looks...
dead.
But that's, mm, yep, dead.
Dead. 
Dead.
Also dead!
Totally bleached.
Completely f-ckin' dead.
It was a coral graveyard.
Just maybe there's a chance that
science...is right?
That's when I realized, 
you should only look at both
sides of an issue,
when one side
is not totally full of shi-t. 
Aw, wait! There's a little bit
that's alive!
Ah, f-ck. That's algae. 
Well, anyway, the Good Barrier
Reef. 
 
