However, the science of coral bleaching now reports it is changes in the sun’s insolation that primarily drives bleaching by increasing ROS production during photosynthesis along with solar heating. If global warming alone is causing coral bleaching and rising coral deaths, we would expect a steady decline in coral cover as CO2 rises. However, changes in coral cover have oscillated as we would expect from the El Nino oscillation. After recent El Nino-related massive bleaching events impacted nearly 90% of Australia’s corals, in 2022 the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) reported the highest levels of coral cover across two-thirds of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) in over 36 years (graphic D).