Jeopardy’s Great Barrier Reef Gaffe

On Jeopardy January 25, 2022, the final clue in the category of Sea Life was, “In 2018, National Geographic reported that half of this was dead, ‘akin to a forest fire after a devastating fire.’”

All three contestants correctly answered the Great Barrier Reef.

This was day 40 of Amy Schneider’s dominant performance watched by almost ten million people.

The long-running syndicated show sat comfortably as the highest-rated non-sports program across broadcast and cable television during her record run.

So, almost ten million folks heard that the Great Barrier Reef was half dead in 2018!

Shame on Jeopardy researchers for not doing their homework! They totally did not get the facts correct

The best data on the Great Barrier Reef coral cover is provided by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), which has been measuring over 100 reefs every year since 1986.

AIMS data show that coral cover fluctuates dramatically with time but at present, the amount of coral on the reef is at record high levels.

This is a record-high, despite all the doom stories by reef science and management institutions and Jeopardy spreading this falsehood to ten million people. ¹

References

1. Peter Ridd, “Record coral cover of Great Barrier Reef shames climate alarmists, media,” The Australian, July 23, 2021 (paywall)

Read more at CFP