New Delhi, Oct. 5 -- Australia's marine scientists recently released their annual audit of the Great Barrier Reef, and it contains news you almost certainly haven't heard: coral cover held steady or increased across most of the reef. In the 40 years that scientists have systematically measured the reef, the five best years on record are the five most recent. That is the sound of a catastrophe not happening.

You haven't heard the good news because the reef has an entire public relations industry built around forecasts of its imminent demise. In 2012, researchers reported that the reef had lost half its coral since the mid-1980s and projected that cover could halve again by 2022. In 2014, The Guardian published an interactive obituary for ...