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How John McCain's Great Barrier Reef comments could change hearts and minds.

“I think climate change is real,” John McCain said.

Sen. John McCain at the United States Studies Centre in Sydney. Photo by Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images.

On May 30, the 80-year-old Republican senator visited the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, Australia. While there, he spoke at length about many issues, including Russia and recent White House scandals. He took time to speak about climate change as well, The Guardian reported.


"I think that one of the great tragedies of our lives is that the Great Barrier Reef is dying [and] the environmental consequences of that," McCain said. He voiced his support for the U.S. staying in the 2015 Paris climate agreement to try to mitigate climate change.

"If we don't address this issue, I am very much afraid about what the world is going to look like for our children and grandchildren."

McCain's comments are more important now than ever — the reef is not doing well.

The Great Barrier Reef stretches for more than 1,200 miles. Coral bleaching caused largely by climate change has damaged 91% of it since 1998. Image from Ho/AFP/Getty Images

On May 24, The Guardian reported that experts told Australian governments they may need to revise their plans for the reef. It is no longer feasible, they said, to stick to the Reef 2050 Long Term Sustainability Plan's goals to improve the reef's overall health. Instead, the government should focus on just maintaining its "ecological function."

Coral reefs around the world are under stress from a number of factors, such as overfishing and bleaching caused by climate change.

We need voices on both sides of the aisle talking about not just the reef, but our planet's future.

A safe, clean, and stable environment is not a partisan issue. It's something we all want, and the concern over climate change in the U.S. is at a three-decade high.

That's why it can be frustrating to see the government come to loggerheads over and over again — and why McCain's words are important. As Vox's David Roberts wrote, the most important factor in building bipartisan support isn't clever arguments — it's outspoken leaders. McCain hasn't always been an environmental lion (he recently voted to repeal a stream protection rule, for instance), but those simple words — "I think climate change is real" — matter.

There are many more conservative voices — such as Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Florida) — who are also speaking.

Curbelo represents Florida's 26th district, which sits at the state's southern tip and includes part of America's own barrier reef, which, unfortunately, has also been taking a few hits lately.

When leaders speak up, people listen.

We need immediate, bipartisan action if we're going to head off the worst effects of climate change. Hopefully, more leaders will come forward and take a stand.

A pitbull stares at the window, looking for the mailman.


Dogs are naturally driven by a sense of purpose and a need for belonging, which are all part of their instinctual pack behavior. When a dog has a job to do, it taps into its needs for structure, purpose, and the feeling of contributing to its pack, which in a domestic setting translates to its human family.

But let’s be honest: In a traditional domestic setting, dogs have fewer chores they can do as they would on a farm or as part of a rescue unit. A doggy mom in Vancouver Island, Canada had fun with her dog’s purposeful uselessness by sharing the 5 “chores” her pitbull-Lab mix does around the house.

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Representative Image from Canva

Let's not curse any more children with bad names, shall we?

Some parents have no trouble giving their children perfectly unique, very meaningful names that won’t go on to ruin their adulthood. But others…well…they get an A for effort, but might want to consider hiring a baby name professional.

Things of course get even more complicated when one parent becomes attached to a name that they’re partner finds completely off-putting. It almost always leads to a squabble, because the more one parent is against the name, the more the other parent will go to bat for it.

This seemed to be the case for one soon-to-be mom on the Reddit AITA forum recently. Apparently, she was second-guessing her vehement reaction to her husband’s, ahem, avant garde baby name for their daughter, which she called “the worst name ever.”

But honestly, when you hear this name, I think you’ll agree she was totally in the right.

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An English doctor named Edward Jenner took incredible risks to try to rid his world of smallpox. Because of his efforts and the efforts of scientists like him, the only thing between deadly diseases like the ones below and extinction are people who refuse to vaccinate their kids. Don't be that parent.

Unfortunately, because of the misinformation from the anti-vaccination movement, some of these diseases have trended up in a really bad way over the past several years.

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Going on a cruise can be an incredible getaway from the stresses of life on the mainland. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t an element of danger when living on a ship 200-plus feet high, traveling up to 35 miles per hour and subject to the whims of the sea.

An average of about 19 people go overboard every year, and only around 28% survive. Cruise ship lawyer Spencer Aronfeld explained the phenomenon in a viral TikTok video, in which he also revealed the secret code the crew uses when tragedy happens.

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Kudos to the heroes who had 90 seconds to save lives in the Key Bridge collapse

The loss of 6 lives is tragic, but the dispatch recording shows it could have been so much worse.

Representative image by Gustavo Fring/Pexels

The workers who responded to the Dali's mayday call saved lives with their quick response.

As more details of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore emerge, it's becoming more apparent how much worse this catastrophe could have been.

Just minutes before 1:30am on March 26, shortly after leaving port in Baltimore Harbor, a cargo ship named Dali lost power and control of its steering, sending it careening into a structural pillar on Key Bridge. The crew of the Dali issued a mayday call at 1:26am to alert authorities of the power failure, giving responders crucial moments to prepare for a potential collision. Just 90 seconds later, the ship hit a pylon, triggering a total collapse of the 1.6-mile bridge into the Patapsco River.

Dispatch audio of those moments shows the calm professionalism and quick actions that limited the loss of life in an unexpected situation where every second counted.

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Yale's pep band had to miss the NCAA tournament. University of Idaho said, 'We got you.'

In an act of true sportsmanship, the Vandal band learned Yale's fight song, wore their gear and cheered them on.

Courtesy of University of Idaho

The Idaho Vandals answered the call when Yale needed a pep band.

Yale University and the University of Idaho could not be more different. Ivy League vs. state school. East Coast vs. Pacific Northwest. City vs. farm town. But in the first two rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament, extenuating circumstances brought them together as one, with the Bulldogs and the Vandals becoming the "Vandogs" for a weekend.

When Yale made it to the March Madness tournament, members of the school's pep band had already committed to other travel plans during spring break. They couldn't gather enough members to make the trek across the country to Spokane, Washington, so the Yale Bulldogs were left without their fight song unless other arrangements could be made.

When University of Idaho athletic band director Spencer Martin got wind of the need less than a week before Yale's game against Auburn, he sent out a message to his band members asking if anyone would be interested in stepping in. The response was a wave of immediate yeses, so Martin got to work arranging instruments and the students dedicated themselves to learning Yale's fight song and other traditional Yale pep songs.

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