Prof Christian Downie points to the Business Council of Australia and News Corp newspapers as examples of deliberate obstruction
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Political and media attacks on renewable energy and climate action in Australia in recent months have come “out of the climate obstruction playbook” that has been honed over decades around the world by fossil fuel interests.
Prof Christian Downie, an Australian researcher, says he has studied techniques used by business groups and lobbyists all over the world which are now being seen in Australia.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
10/07/2025 - 09:00
10/07/2025 - 06:28
Exclusive: Luis Vayas Valdivieso says he is quitting for personal and professional reasons after reports of pressure behind the scenes
The chair of stalled UN plastics treaty talks, Luis Vayas Valdivieso, is preparing to step down, after accounts of behind-the-scenes pressure from the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep).
The move will be announced at a UN meeting on Tuesday, with an official announcement expected by Thursday. Vayas Valdivieso confirmed in an interview with the Guardian that he was resigning and said: “There have been some challenges in the process.”
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10/07/2025 - 04:00
Scientists find 10% chance that similar events to the ‘unheard of’ temperatures in 2023 could occur each year
The unprecedented marine heatwave of 2023 was in line with climate modelling, research shows, as scientists warn such events will become more frequent.
The “unheard of” heatwave off the UK and Irish coasts during a summer of 40C temperatures raised concerns that fish, shellfish and kelp would not be able to survive.
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10/07/2025 - 03:53
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young called environment department bureaucrats ‘weak’ - though later withdrew the remark
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Australian government officials are investigating whether a coal mining company is putting threatened greater gliders and koalas at risk by illegally clearing bushland in central Queensland without approval under federal law.
The revelation came in a fiery Senate estimates hearing in which the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young criticised the Albanese government for not doing more to stop the clearing and described environment department bureaucrats as “weak” – an allegation she later withdrew.
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10/06/2025 - 23:00
Young people in Whitehaven on England’s north-west coast rely on the power plant for everything from jobs to civic investment. But for those who see their future elsewhere, options can be limited
Share your experiences of living in a coastal town
Photographs by Polly Braden
It is a rainy Thursday in Whitehaven on the north-west coast of England, but the seafront is buzzing with activity. This Saturday is Harbour Fest, a day of music, performance and activities. An array of colourful street food vendors are already setting up.
It’s unusual to see such excitement on the seafront, says 18-year-old Lacey Ritson. Growing up, Lacey and her friends would gravitate to picturesque Saint Bees along the coast or the nearby Lake District if they wanted to spend time by the water. And sometimes, she says, “we’d sit by the river and look at people, guessing who worked at Sellafield – like, ‘they’ve got a nice car – they’re from Sellafield’”.
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10/06/2025 - 23:00
National Trust gardeners expect vivid hues and bountiful fungi, nuts and berries thanks to recent weather conditions
The season of mists and mellow fruitfulness is likely to be particularly vivid this year, with the combination of a sun-drenched summer and rainy September causing excellent conditions for autumn colour in many of the UK’s loveliest gardens.
Experts at the National Trust are predicting a long, gradual wave of reds and yellows, the warm conditions meaning annuals and herbaceous perennials are having a second flush, adding to the bright palette.
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10/06/2025 - 20:34
Ambler Road project, approved in Trump’s first term but blocked by Biden, would harm Native tribes and wildlife
Donald Trump on Monday ordered the approval of a proposed 211-mile road through an Alaska wilderness to allow mining of copper, cobalt, gold and other minerals.
The long-debated Ambler Road project was approved in the US president’s first term, but was later blocked by the Biden administration after an analysis determined the project would threaten caribou and other wildlife and harm Alaska Indigenous tribes that rely on hunting and fishing.
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09/29/2025 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 30 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00152-3
Restoration and management of an Indigenous aquaculture system helps mitigate climate change impacts to estuarine fisheries
World Ocean Explorer Wins Gold Medal Serious Simulation Award from Serious Play Annual International Competition
10/26/2023 - 14:35
For Immediate Release October 19, 2023
Sedgwick, Maine USA World Ocean Explorer, a 3D virtual aquarium and educational simulation, was recently cited for excellence, winning a Gold Medal Award in the 2023 International Serious Play Awards Program.
World Ocean Explorer is an innovative 3D virtual aquarium designed for educational exploration of the world’s oceans. With interactive exhibits and a lobby space, visitors can immerse themselves in realistic marine environments, including a DEEP SEA exhibit funded by Schmidt Ocean Institute, showcasing unprecedented deep-sea discoveries off Australia. Targeted at 3rd graders and beyond, this immersive experience offers a range of perspectives on the ocean environment and can be explored through guided tours or user-controlled interfaces. Visit DEEP SEA at worldoceanexplorer.org/deep-sea-aquarium.html.
Serious Play Conference brings together professionals who are exploring the use of game-based learning, sharing their experience, and working together to shape the future of training and education. For more information on Serious Play Award Program visit seriousplayconf.com/international-serious-play-award-programs.
World Ocean Explorer is a transformative virtual aquarium designed to deepen understanding of the world ocean and amplify connection for young people worldwide. Organized around the principles of Ocean Literacy and the Next Gen Science Standards, World Ocean Explorer brings the wonder and knowledge of ocean species and systems to students in formal and informal classrooms, absolutely free to anyone with a good Internet connection. As an advocate for the ocean through communications, World Ocean Observatory believes there is no better investment in the future of the sustainable ocean than through a new approach to educational engagement that excites, informs, and motivates students to explore the wonders of our marine world and to understand the pervasive connection and implication for our future, inherent in the protection and conservation of all aspects of our ocean world.
World Ocean Explorer presents an astonishing 3-dimensional simulated aquarium visit, organized to reveal the wonders of undersea life, with layers of detailed data and information to augment the emotional connection made to the astonishing beauty and complexity of the dynamic ocean. Within each of the virtual exhibits, students visit exemplary theme-based sites with myriad opportunities to understand the larger perspectives of scientific knowledge as organized and visualized to dramatize the impact and change on ocean life as a result of natural and human-generated events. Through immersion among displays, mixed media and 3D models, the experience of an aquarium visit will be brought into classrooms or home school environments as a free, accessible, always available opportunity for teaching and learning. All of this will be available to a world audience without physical limitation or cost. World Ocean Explorer, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, receives support from the Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation, Visual Solutions Lab, the Climate Change Institute, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, and The Fram Museum Oslo. To learn more about the current and future exhibits of World Ocean Explorer, visit worldoceanexplorer.org.
media contact
Trisha Badger, Managing Director, World Ocean Observatory | director@thew2o.net +12077011069
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