This week, Outside Magazine got a lot of people's attention when it published an obituary of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The piece was unabashedly grandiose. It was jarring. It turned an expanse of underwater habitats into your late neighbor down the street. And it was moving. 

But right away, critics lashed out at the piece. The Huffington Post published a rebuttal titled "Great Barrier Reef Obituary Goes Viral, To The Horror Of Scientists". CNN matter-of-factly assured readers "The Great Barrier Reef is not actually dead." 

In fact, 22 percent of the coral in the reef died in a massive bleaching this year. But while the rest of the reef is very much endangered, the majority of the Great Barrier Reef is hanging on, which is crucial because there is still time to save it.