Should Australia be forced to sign onto the Kyoto Protocol because of threats to its Great Barrier Reef from global warming?  Well that’s the claim of some Kyoto proponents, who claim that because the reef is protected as a U.N. World Heritage Site, Australia has no choice but to join. But according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, any so-called “bleaching” of coral reefs that took place over the past decade had little or nothing to do with carbon dioxide emissions, but rather, was likely the effect of natural El Nino induced ocean warming.  Since a comprehensive report has shown that of the reefs that were affected, some 40 percent are recovering quite well, it appears there’s little cause for pushing Australia further down under over Kyoto.