The sky’s the limit
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
10/15/2025 - 21:28
Perennial runner up finally claims the crown in the biennial Guardian/BirdLife Australia poll, ahead of Baudin’s black cockatoo and gang-gang cockatoo
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The tawny frogmouth has been named Australia’s 2025 bird of the year, after taking second place in the biennial Guardian/BirdLife Australia poll three times running.
More than 310,000 votes were cast after polling opened on 6 October and the tawny led the charge from the start, despite being hotly and persistently pursued by two cockatoos: the Baudin’s black cockatoo and the ever-popular gang-gang.
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10/15/2025 - 19:51
This blog is now closed
Tawny frogmouth named 2025 Australian bird of the year winner
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Heads up: the livestream ceremony is just a few minutes away from launch! You’ll be able to watch it here on the Guardian blog, as well as on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Links to come very shortly …
Top 10 spotlight: the bush stone-curlew
Dopey, anxious and adorable. They never seem to be in a sensible location, or quite sure of how they got there. And they scream like banshees.
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10/15/2025 - 18:01
Greenhouse gases from wildfires at sixth highest level on record after blazes in large areas of the Americas and Africa
Carbon emissions from extreme wildfires increased by 9% last year to reach the sixth highest level on record.
Intense fast-spreading fires devastated huge swathes of South America’s rainforests, dry forests and wetlands and decimated Canada’s northern forests, pushing up the levels of damaging greenhouse gases.
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10/15/2025 - 16:22
Plaintiffs had ‘overwhelming evidence’ of climate crisis but a court injunction would be ‘unworkable’, ruling says
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by young climate activists that aimed to halt Donald Trump’s pro-fossil fuel executive orders.
The dismissal by US district judge Dana Christensen on Wednesday came after 22 plaintiffs, ages seven to 25 and from five states, sought to block three of the president’s executive orders, including those declaring a “national energy emergency” and seeking to “unleash American energy” – as well as one aimed at “reinvigorating” the US’s production of coal.
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10/15/2025 - 10:00
Researchers say carbon emissions change in Queensland tropical rainforests may have global climate implications
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Australian tropical rainforest trees have become the first in the world to switch from being a carbon sink to an emissions source due to increasingly extreme temperatures and drier conditions.
The change, which applies to the trees’ trunks and branches but not the roots system, began about 25 years ago, according to new research published in Nature.
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10/15/2025 - 09:00
Weevils, spores, slime mold and cells are in extreme closeup for the 51st anniversary of the Nikon Small World competition. For more than five decades, the award has brought scientific wonders under the microscope, with scientists, artists and enthusiasts from 77 countries contributing 1,925 photo entries this year alone. Judges have arrived at this stunning top 20
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10/15/2025 - 09:00
Will the tawny frogmouth finally take the top perch? Could conservationist backing propel Baudin’s black cockatoo to the skies? Or will the gang-gang gang prove triumphant when the winner is unveiled on Thursday afternoon?
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The wait is over. The votes – all 313,000 of them – are in.
The winner of Guardian/BirdLife Australia’s Australian bird of the year for 2025 will be crowned on Thursday.
Tawny frogmouth
Baudin’s black cockatoo
Gang-gang cockatoo
Willie wagtail
Bush stone-curlew
Southern emu-wren
Laughing kookaburra
Little penguin
Spotted pardalote
Wedge-tailed eagle
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10/15/2025 - 06:38
CO2 in air hit new high last year, with scientists concerned natural land and ocean carbon sinks are weakening
Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere soared by a record amount in 2024 to hit another high, UN data shows, deepening the climate crisis that is already taking lives and livelihoods across the world.
Scientists are worried that the natural land and ocean “sinks” that remove CO2 from the air are weakening as a result of global heating, which could form a vicious circle and drive temperatures up even faster.
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10/15/2025 - 05:33
Chancellor accused of removing environmental protections to win short-term growth and save her budget
UK politics live – latest updates
Last-minute changes to the government’s planning bill have sparked a furious backlash from nature groups who have mounted an attack on the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, over her plans to remove environmental protections.
The changes to the legislation come as it enters its final stages before being signed into law.
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