Scientists pay, literally, for Great Barrier Reef crisis publicity

‘Climate Council pays for full-page advert as expert says the Courier Mail, Queensland’s biggest newspaper, is not covering coral bleaching properly’

The advertisement as paid for
 by the Climate Council

Scientists say they are fed up with Queensland’s biggest newspaper not covering the worst bleaching event to hit the Great Barrier Reef, so have taken out a full page ad to get the message out.

The ad comes as a survey revealed 93% of the Great Barrier Reef was affected by the bleaching. That finding motivated the Queensland government to call on the federal government to convene an urgent meeting of the nation’s environment ministers to talk about measures to address climate change in light of bleaching.

Organised by the Climate Council, the full page ad in the Courier Mail on Thursday contains an open letter signed by 56 scientists.

“One of the reasons we placed the ad in the Courier Mail was that we’ve seen very little coverage of the coral bleaching event in that paper and in fact there was a front-page story that said the coral bleaching event had been wildly exaggerated,” said Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, director of the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland and one of the signatories of the letter.

The letter explains that it is the worst bleaching event in its history, and that it is being driven by climate change.

Read The Guardian story - “Scientists resort to advertising to get Great Barrier Reef crisis in Queensland paper.”