Rain expected to batter parts of Qld and northern NSW, with major flood warnings for Bremer River and Warrill Creek, and Logan River south of Brisbane
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Authorities are warning more rain is expected to hit battered parts of Queensland and northern New South Wales on Tuesday, as ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred causes flooding in inland communities west of Brisbane.
The city of Ipswich narrowly avoided severe flooding overnight, after the Bremer River peaked mere centimetres below the “major” flood level.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
03/10/2025 - 16:29
03/10/2025 - 14:00
Researchers say problem could increase number of people at risk of starvation by 400m in next two decades
The pollution of the planet by microplastics is significantly cutting food supplies by damaging the ability of plants to photosynthesise, according to a new assessment.
The analysis estimates that between 4% and 14% of the world’s staple crops of wheat, rice and maize is being lost due to the pervasive particles. It could get even worse, the scientists said, as more microplastics pour into the environment.
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03/10/2025 - 13:05
Authorities warn more fatalities expected as a year’s worth of rain falls on Bahía Blanca in eight hours
Rescue teams in Argentina are searching for two girls, aged one and five, who were swept away by severe floods that ripped through Buenos Aires province, killing at least 16 people.
A year’s worth of rain fell on the city of Bahía Blanca and the town of Cerri on Friday, rapidly inundating neighbourhoods and destroying homes, bridges and roads. The rainfall – 400mm (15.7in) recorded in just eight hours – was more than twice the city’s previous record of 175mm (6.8in) set in 1930.
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03/10/2025 - 11:17
Chris Wright signals abandonment of Biden’s ‘irrational, quasi-religious’ climate policies at industry conference
The world needs more planet-heating fossil fuel, not less, Donald Trump’s newly appointed energy secretary, Chris Wright, told oil and gas bigwigs on Monday.
“We are unabashedly pursuing a policy of more American energy production and infrastructure, not less,” he said in the opening plenary talk of CERAWeek, a swanky annual conference in Houston, Texas, led by the financial firm S&P Global.
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03/10/2025 - 09:00
Laura Leaf had a sick possum for company when she spent three nights in a spare room at Mallory Wilson’s Nerang home
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Laura Leaf, a rescued koala, was the last surgery of the day at Currumbin wildlife hospital, just hours before its doors were due to close to ride out Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
But after undergoing emergency abdominal surgery on Wednesday, Laura Leaf needed round-the-clock care – and the Gold Coast hospital’s intensive care unit was about to be shut.
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03/10/2025 - 09:00
Regional voters are often stereotyped so I propose a new demographic category ahead of the election: conservative, uncommitted rural voters with environmental sympathies
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Recently, an arborist operating in my town in remote north-western Australia put out a public statement. He found it necessary, given the number of queries he had received, to explain his reasons for cutting down native vegetation.
It sounds like the start of a joke, but what this contractor’s earnest explanation illustrates is how in tune regional voters can be with their environs.
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03/10/2025 - 09:00
Number of animals affected by neurological toxin increases in past week as experts warn of impact from climate crisis
The number of marine mammals in California affected by a neurological toxin from algae has surged in the past week, in what could be another deadly year for animals such as sea lions, seals, dolphins and larger whales.
According to the Marine Mammal Care Center, a rescue facility based in Sausalito, California, the facility is treating more than 30 animals affected by a toxic algal bloom, with eight animals admitted on Wednesday. The algae bloom off the California coast has been on the rise in recent years, producing a neurological toxin called domoic acid.
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03/10/2025 - 09:00
They prefer to carry branches in their teeth, like dogs. And when they swim, they hold their front paws to their chests, like a severe governess in a Victorian novel
The heads of beavers, large rodents known for building dams, are their own kind of highly complex dam structure, with various retractable walls that let water in or keep it out. They can close valves in their nostrils and ears and a special membrane over their eyes; their epiglottis, the flap that stops water entering the lungs, is inside their nose instead of their throat; they use their tongue to shield their throats from water; and their lips to shield their mouths – their lips can close behind their front teeth. Their teeth are rust-orange, because they are strengthened with iron.
Their back feet are webbed like a duck’s; on land, their front feet act like hands, digging, grasping and carrying things from the riverbed to the surface – rocks, for example, tucked under their chins and cradled by their arms. When they swim, they do so while holding their front paws to their chests, like a severe governess in a Victorian novel, or a child pretending to be a rabbit. They prefer to carry branches in their teeth, like dogs. The biggest beavers weigh 50kg.
As boats will sometimes lie along the shore,
with part of them on land and part in water,
and just as there [...]
the beaver sets himself when he means war,
so did that squalid beast lie on the margin
of stone that serves as border for the sand.
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03/10/2025 - 06:00
Biodiversity is great in theory, but there are reasons to fend off invasive species and the knock-on effect of their presence
Britain would be a wasteland if it weren’t for immigration. Fifteen thousand years ago, most of the country was buried a kilometre deep in ice – not ideal conditions for life. That all changed as we moved out of the last ice age into the current, milder climate phase. The ice sheets retreated, leaving an empty landscape for anything with the wherewithal to seize the opportunity and move in. Tens of thousands of species did, mainly heading north from the European continent to which Britain was then joined. The result was a native biota where almost every species is an immigrant. Our ancestors were among them.
Immigration is a natural process, but it’s one that has been fundamentally changed thanks to humanity’s wanderlust. As we’ve moved around the world we have taken many other species along with us – some deliberately, some accidentally – to areas they couldn’t have reached without our assistance. These include many of the most familiar denizens of the British countryside. Grey squirrel, ring-necked parakeet, horse chestnut, rhododendron – none of these would be in Britain if they hadn’t been brought by people. They are what ecologists call aliens. Anywhere people live you’ll also find aliens.
Tim Blackburn is professor of invasion biology at University College London and author of The Jewel Box: How Moths Illuminate Nature’s Hidden Rules
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03/10/2025 - 05:48
Rainfall in Bahía Blanca led to 10 deaths, swept away vehicles, destroyed bridges and left areas underwater
The city of Bahía Blanca in Argentina had a new rainfall record on Friday, after a recent heatwave. More than 400mm (15.7in) of rain was recorded in just eight hours, more than twice the city’s previous record of 175mm set in 1930, and roughly equivalent to a year’s worth of rainfall.
The heatwave primed the atmosphere for heavy rainfall by creating high instability and raising humidity levels. Then on Friday, as a cold front swept across the region, this warm moist air was able to rise, cool and rapidly condense, leading to severe thunderstorms across the region. As the front then continued northwards towards Buenos Aires over the weekend, further severe storms were triggered, containing heavy rain, hail and strong gusts.
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