Records of koala admissions to veterinary hospitals in South East Queensland shows euthanasia was the most common outcome.
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
09/09/2024 - 18:01
Latin America was the most deadly region in which to defend ecosystems from mining and deforestation, with Indigenous people among half the dead
At least 196 people were killed last year for defending the environment, with more than a third of killings taking place in Colombia, new figures show.
From campaigners who spoke out against mining projects to Indigenous communities targeted by organised crime groups, an environmental defender was killed every other day in 2023, according to a new report by the NGO Global Witness.
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09/09/2024 - 14:00
Living microbes that cause disease in humans and host antibiotic-resistance genes carried 1,200 miles
Microbes that cause disease in humans can travel thousands of miles on high-level winds, scientists have revealed for the first time.
The winds studied carried a surprising diversity of bacteria and fungi, including known pathogens and, some with genes for resistance to multiple antibiotics. Some of the microbes were shown to be alive – in other words, they had survived the long journey and were able to replicate.
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09/09/2024 - 13:30
Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa want international criminal court to class environmental destruction as crime alongside genocide
Three developing countries have taken the first steps towards transforming the world’s response to climate breakdown and environmental destruction by making ecocide a punishable criminal offence.
In a submission to the international criminal court on Monday, they propose a change in the rules to recognise “ecocide” as a crime alongside genocide and war crimes.
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09/09/2024 - 10:00
Eels use tail-first technique to back up digestive tract of fish towards oesophagus before coming out of gills
It sounds like the plot of a horror movie – a predator swallows its prey only for the creature to burst out of its captor’s body. But it seems Japanese eels do just that.
Scientists in Japan have discovered that when swallowed by a dark sleeper fish, the eels can escape.
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09/09/2024 - 10:00
The last time the National Farmers’ Federation marched on Canberra politicians were carefully controlled. This time the agenda looks more useful for politicians than farmers
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In country circles, WhatsApp groups and emails have been pinging. As Tuesday dawns on the first rally endorsed by the National Farmers’ Federation since 1985, there has been a bit of chat about its merits.
The 1985 rally descended on the Hawke government. It numbered 40,000 to 45,000 people and was duplicated at some state parliaments. In Victoria, according to the journalist Martin Flanagan, 30,000 people protested, holding placards such as “farmer the new poor”, “Agricultural Income Deficiency Syndrome” and, my personal favourite, “wife home working”.
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09/09/2024 - 09:21
Animal rights groups had claimed beluga named Hvaldimir, which was found dead last month, had been shot
A beluga whale that rose to fame in Norway after its unusual harness prompted suspicions that the creature was trained by Russia as a spy died after a stick became stuck in its mouth, police have said.
The lifeless body of the whale, named Hvaldimir – a combination of the Norwegian word for whale and the first name of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin – was found floating in the sea on 31 August by a father and son fishing in Risavika Bay, southern Norway.
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09/09/2024 - 07:26
Chongqing authorities say cloud seeding to break heatwave did not cause winds that sent laundry flying
It was the talk of the town. After the authorities sought to break a long-running heatwave in Chongqing by using cloud-seeding missiles to artificially bring rain, the Chinese megacity was blasted by an unusual weather event – an underwear storm.
Termed “the 9/2 Chongqing underwear crisis”, an unexpected windstorm on Monday brought gusts of up to 76mph (122km/h), scattering people’s laundry from balconies on the city’s high-rises. Douyin, China’s sister app to TikTok, was filled with videos of pants and bras flying through the skies, landing in the street and snagging on trees.
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09/09/2024 - 06:00
Louisianans say a major accident at a sprawling Marathon refinery caused health issues. The company insists there were ‘no offsite impacts’
At 8.04am on 25 August last year, Darnell Alboudoor watched a plume of black smoke blanketing the sky and rolling in the direction of her family home.
A stench like burning oil filled the air on that piping hot summer morning, as Alboudoor, 54, looked in the direction of the sprawling petroleum refinery, which sat a few hundred feet from her back yard. She called 911.
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09/09/2024 - 05:00
Solar power could enable 400 million Africans without water to tap into groundwater aquifers. However, we must ensure smaller projects do not lose out in the rush for new technology
It’s a truly dreadful irony: for many of the 400 million people in sub-Saharan Africa who lack access to even a basic water supply, there is likely to be a significant reserve in aquifers sitting just a few metres below their feet.
Groundwater – the water stored in small spaces and fractures in rocks – makes up nearly 99% of all of the unfrozen fresh water on the planet. Across the African continent, the volume of water stored underground is estimated to be 20 times the amount held in lakes and reservoirs.
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