"How Satire Can Be Misunderstood and Its Impact on Climate Change"

Picture your regular evening. Probably you are coming home after a work shift, a class, or a fun night with friends. You are ready to get some rest and soon start a new day, and, of course, as a person living in our modern society affected by technologies, you are checking your social media. However, instead of funny pictures of your friends or videos of cute kittens on your Instagram feed, you see a shocking post “The Great Barrier Reef is Dead. ” Naturally, you will be stunned by the news, but what is going to be your first action? Are you going to share it with your friend on social media? Or will you use the Google search to verify this terrible statement? Millions of people faced this exact situation in 2016 when travel and food writer Rowan Jacobsen published the idea that the Great Barrier Reef is dead in an outdoor recreational US magazine called Outside.

The Great Barrier Reef is a complex living ecosystem that plays

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by Yuliia Heleveria

Cherkasy, Ukraine

a huge role in the Australian economy and politics. This beautiful natural miracle was definitely affected by climate change and people’s consumeristic and predominant actions. However, we still have time to take needed steps, apply proper changes and save this unique natural component and famous tourist destination.

“The Great Barrier Reef of Australia passed away in 2016 after a long illness. It was 25 million years old, ” wrote Rowan Jacobsen in his article that soon went viral and created misunderstanding among people worldwide. Supported by the pictures of dead and bleached corals, the news created panic and readers started to believe in the reef’s obituary. A lot of newspapers worldwide either supported the news and declared the reef dead or tried to prove Jacobsen wrong, which created even more debate and dragged more attention to the “dying” barrier reef. Australian authorities and scientists hurried to reassure people worldwide that the Great Barrier Reef is still alive, even though it was affected by 2016 global warming and bleaching events. A lot of businesses and job positions in Australia were affected, and some of them ended their existence because of the decrease of tourists and belief of people in these terrible events. Therefore, the main reason for misleading and misunderstanding of information was created by the use of satire by Jacobsen.

Based on the study by Media International Australia, satire is not

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by Yuliia Heleveria

Cherkasy, Ukraine

Satire crosses a fragile line of protection.

the best method to represent a climate change problem and create interest for people to deal with it. The article “Is the Great Barrier Reef Dead? Satire, Death, and Environmental Communication” was published in 2022 by Kerrie FoxwellNorton and Claire Konkes in Australia. Usually, humor is not understood, because the audience of the article where it is used might not have a basic understanding of the background of environmental information. While using humor as a method of communicating a problem with his audience, Jacobsen uses a frame of “deadness” of the reef to get emotional appeal and blame the politicians for making no effort to protect our environment and stop climate change. In the author’s opinion, he thought that people would imagine what will happen if the actions against climate change are not taken worldwide and especially in Australia soon. However, for the audience of this article there was drawn a conclusion that we need to care, but there is nothing to be done, because everything is already dead. Satire crosses a fragile line of protection and urge for changes with death and

by Yuliia Heleveria

Cherkasy, Ukraine destruction.

All things considered, satire is an excellent way to get people’s attention worldwide to a climate issue as it is considered by Kerrie Foxwell-Norton and Claire Konkes.

“We ask, what could it mean to infer, even satirically, the death of the Reef? Satire clearly has a place in the political domain: satire can provide a corrective to mainstream news coverage; help promote active audience engagement; serve a community-building function;, and, in some cases, act as a vehicle for persuasion, ” the two authors of the study by Media International Australia stated. With the use of Google Trends, we can explore and analyze how many times people searched the phrase “Is the Great Barrier Reef dead?” over the period of 10 years. The graph represents the number of searches over the time period from 2010 to 2020. As we can see, a distinct peak occurred in October 2016, which is the same time when Jacobsen’s obituary was published. The study shows that

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even though the confusion is created and lots of people gained the wrong understanding of the events connected to the Great Barrier Reef, the issue of bleaching and dying corals recieved lots of attention. However, with the use of Google Trends we cannot know the amount of people who actually believed in the article published in Outside, so a lot of people could have used Google Search to confirm the information, and they do not necessarily need to believe in the obituary of the Great Barrier Reef.

The use of satire and hyperbole in relation to the “dead Great Barrier Reef” was first used in the 1967 campaign “Save the Reef” in response to the government intention to mine a little-known coral atoll called Ellison Reef which was assumed to be dead by some public figures. During the campaign to save the reef, divers went to find evidence and prove that the reef is alive and is a complex community. As a result, the mining insight was rejected and Ellison Reef was saved from using it as a source of limestone for people. In contrast to Jacobsen's use of satire, the campaign “Save the Reef” used humor to represent the significance and beauty of the reef. People cannot have that much influence on the living structure to extract resources for their own benefit. However, Jacobson’s perception is showing that we killed the reef instead of focusing on how this structure is worth saving. Moreover, as it is relevant to our current environment, climate change and coral bleaching is a fragile theme that people are worried about and the fear for the environment is constant. An attempt to engage the audience can be misunderstood.

In 2022, the Great Barrier Reef was affected by global warming and bleaching events, but not as mortally as Rowan Jacobsen presented it six years ago. Based on the study by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority completed in 2022, 91% of corals on the reef are affected by the mass bleaching events. Supported by

the recent surveys, the environmental conditions triggering bleaching events are soon going to stop, but to completely indicate if there will be greater death or survival rate among the corals, the new study has to be held in summer of 2023. There is still a chance to make a difference and save the coral reefs. Our actions right now determine the chances of having a

by Yuliia Heleveria

Cherkasy, Ukraine

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healthy environment in the next decades.

The misguided belief in a dead reef can create a change in politics and the approach to resolving climate change issues is the main thought of Kerrie Foxwell-Norton and Claire Konkes, which I totally support. The satire played the main role of creating misunderstanding, because the unsuccessful attempt to use emotional appeal as a way of communication with the audience created the image of a dead Great Barrier Reef and impossibility to improve the influence of climate change on it. Rowan Jacobsen’s article created debate and confusion among the people around the world and, moreover, this confusion was supported by other news all over the globe such as Murdoch’s Sun newspaper and the Huffington Post. Jacobsen's message of urgency of taking actions to save our planet and the Great Barrier Reef was misunderstood in the era of bias in digital media, and his audience lacked the knowledge of climate change in order to make proper conclusions and understand the humor. Satire can definitely have the appeal of gaining interest and attention from people to deal with modern environmental issues, but it can be misinterpreted as hyperbolic and apocalyptic. Humor raises awareness, changes behaviors, and makes us think differently about our

by Yuliia Heleveria

Cherkasy, Ukraine relationship with nature. On the other hand, it can be shocking and impactful. The satire used by Jacobsen harmed local businesses, created confusion in the audience, and delayed such urgently needed changes to save the Great Barrier Reef and the rest of the world from the climate catastrophe.

Works Cited/Image Credits:

Foxwell-Norton, Kerrie; Konkes, Claire. 2022 “Is the Great Barrier Reef dead? Satire, death and environmental communication. ” Media International Australia 184 (1) 106-121: doi.org/10.1177/1329878X211055852

Australian Government. 2022. “Reef health. ”

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. https://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/the-reef/reefhealth.

Anderson, Michaela. 2018. “Corals Before and

After.

” Digital image. The Daily Chomp. https://gatornews.org/15711/opinion/thegreat-barrier-reef-is-dying/.

Jacobsen, Rowan. 2016. “Dead Corals. ” Digital

image. Outside. https://www.outsideonline.com/outdooradventure/environment/obituary-greatbarrier-reef-25-million-bc-2016/.

News Text Area. 2022.

“The Great Barrier Reef 2022” . Digital image. News Text Area. https://newstextarea.com/great-barrierreef-losing-color/.