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.
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.