Green Conservatives call for earlier UK coal power phase-out
Closing coal plants by 2023 rather than 2025 will cut carbon emissions and air pollution, and boost clean energy projects, Tory thinktank tells government The UK should close all its coal-fired power stations two years earlier than the government’s pledge of 2025, according to green Conservatives including former energy minister Lord Greg Barker. The move […]
Storm damage: two bodies recovered as Tasmania flood evacuations continue
Body of 75-year-old woman found in Tasmania and body of another woman retrieved off Bondi in Sydney during search for man washed away on Monday The body of a 75-year-old woman has been recovered from her northern Tasmanian home and another body was pulled from the ocean off Sydney’s eastern suburbs in search and rescue […]
'Let me outta here!' – amazing picture of a fish trapped inside a jellyfish
This unlucky fish came unstuck when it was ‘swallowed up’ by a roaming jellyfish in waters off Byron Bay, Australia. The shot was captured by ocean photographer Tim Samuel, who says the fish was still alive and fighting to escape. ‘It was able to propel the jellyfish forward and controlled its movement to an extent. […]
Fears grow for Launceston as Tasmanian rivers rise – rolling report
Authorities are concerned the overflowing South Esk and North Esk rivers may cause damage to Tasmania’s second city not seen since 1929. Follow all today’s developments 4.53am BST Tasmanian police have again urged people to stay away from flood water, telling local media there had already been 100 rescued – 20 by helicopter. Tasmanian premier […]
The Great Barrier Reef: a catastrophe laid bare
Australia’s natural wonder is in mortal danger. Bleaching caused by climate change has killed almost a quarter of its coral this year and many scientists believe it could be too late for the rest. Using exclusive photographs and new data, a Guardian special report investigates how the reef has been devastated – and what can […]
To save the Great Barrier Reef 'we need to start now, right now' – video
Jon Brodie from James Cook University says to give the Great Barrier Reef even a fighting chance to survive, Australia needs to spend $1bn a year for the next 10 years to improve water quality. If we don’t do that now, he says, we might need to just give up on the reef. ‘Climate change […]
Coral bleaching 'has changed the Great Barrier Reef forever' – video
Terry Hughes from James Cook University in Queensland leads a taskforce measuring the condition of the Great Barrier Reef amid a global coral bleaching event that is ‘off the scale’. ‘The kind of bleaching we’re seeing now is an entirely modern phenomenon,’ he says. ‘We’re now in a very precarious position, where every El Niño […]
As a worker on the Great Barrier Reef I'm ashamed to look my children in the eye | Justin Marshall
International film-makers are flocking to the reef to witness its degradation. The rest of the world is seeing what our government seems unwilling to admit As a marine ecologist who has been working on the Great Barrier Reef for 30 years I am today still stunned, often tearful, and ashamed to look my children in […]
Great Barrier Reef: diving in the stench of millions of rotting animals – video
Richard Vevers from the Ocean Agency had never experienced anything like the devastation he witnessed in May diving around the dead and dying coral reefs off Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef. When his team emerged from the water, he says, ‘We realised we just stank – we stank of the smell of rotting […]
Coral bleaching: 'We need to tell the truth without scaring reef tourists away' – video
Paul Crocombe from Adrenalin Dive in Townsville has been taking tourists to the Great Barrier Reef for more than 20 years. ‘We were really fortuntate this time with the coral bleaching that the majority of the mortality is a long way north of here,’ he says. With the reef in danger, he adds, accurate information […]