Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Zoos Victoria wildlife detection dogs uncovered the ‘bloody gorgeous’ reptiles in return for treats and cuddles Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here Wildlife detection dogs successfully sniffed out 13 critically endangered earless dragons in previously unknown burrows in Melbourne’s west, after a training program launched by Zoos Victoria in 2023. The Victorian grassland earless dragon – Australia’s most imperilled reptile – had not been seen for 50 years and was thought extinct before its remarkable rediscovery on privately owned grassland in 2023. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter Continue reading...

The government’s promise to slash the cost of household batteries should be welcomed – it could drive a change that benefits everyone who uses the power grid Election 2025 live update: Australia’s federal election campaign Want to get this in your inbox when it publishes? Sign up for the Clear Air Australia newsletter here It’s taken years to get here, but Labor’s election pledge to make household batteries cheaper is a significant step forward that should cut climate pollution and limit power price rises. While it has been criticised by some as a subsidy for the wealthy, it could drive a change that benefits everyone who uses the power grid, and not just those who can afford to put an energy storage unit in their garage. Labor’s promise is that from July it will cut the cost of a typical household battery by about $4,000, or 30%. The discount will be delivered through a long-running small-scale renewable energy scheme that has helped make rooftop solar panels and hot water systems affordable for more people. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter Adam Morton is Guardian Australia’s climate and environment editor Continue reading...

Charity crowdfunding initial sum to build £750,000 facility on Bodmin Moor to study overlooked but biodiverse natural habitat Europe’s first research station for the study of Atlantic temperate rainforest is set to be built beside an ancient wood in Cornwall. The Thousand Year Trust charity is crowdfunding an initial amount to build the £750,000 facility, which will enable students and academics to study this historically overlooked but biodiverse natural habitat. Continue reading...

We do not have the luxury of rejecting solutions before we have thoroughly investigated their risks, trade-offs and feasibility As a lifelong scientist, I have always believed that if something is possible, we can find a way to achieve it. And yet, one of the starkest realities we now face is that the world is failing to meet its climate goals. Last year marked a historic and deeply troubling threshold: for the first time, global temperatures exceeded 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Without drastic and immediate climate action, this breach will not be temporary. The consequences – rising sea levels, extreme weather and devastating loss of biodiversity – are no longer projections for the distant future. They are happening now, affecting millions of lives, and likely to cause trillions in damages in decades to come. But we must think beyond our immediate horizons. When I read The Iliad, I am reminded that it was written 2,800 years ago. I often wonder: in another 2,800 years, what will people – if humanity as we know it still exists – read about our time? Will they see us as the generation that failed to act or one that made the choices necessary to safeguard the planet for the future? Continue reading...