Opposition says Labor’s national vehicle emission standard is ‘poorly designed’, despite data showing uptick in green vehicle sales
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Australia’s love-hate relationship with fuel-guzzling utes and SUVs is now a looming election issue, after the Coalition indicated it may rethink Labor’s vehicle emission standard.
On Tuesday the shadow transport minister, Bridget McKenzie, called Labor’s vehicle emission standard “poorly designed” and said the Coalition will have “more to say” about it when the opposition releases its own transport policy before the election.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
03/25/2025 - 09:00
03/25/2025 - 09:00
Bombylius major, the thieving, deceiving, fluffy flying narwhal-like insect, that is a harbinger of spring
Hundreds of nominations for invertebrate of the year whittled down to 10
Everybody loves bees. But these bumbling pollinators are ten a penny. How about a pollinator who twerks? A pollinator with a bum-bag for storing sand? A pollinator that pretends it’s a bee but actually looks far cooler? A pollinator with a dark side?
All hail the dark-edged bee-fly (Bombylius major), a beautiful insect that’s been likened to a fluffy flying narwhal. An insect whose arrival in the skies of temperate Europe, North America and parts of Asia signifies that spring is here.
Between 24 March and 2 April, we will be profiling a shortlist of 10 of the invertebrates chosen by readers and selected by our wildlife writers from more than 2,500 nominations. The voting for our 2025 invertebrate of the year will run from midday on Wednesday 2 April until midday on Friday 4 April.
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03/25/2025 - 07:00
Panther Minerals set to start exploring Elim’s land as Trump seeks to expand drilling and resource extraction in Alaska
For generations, the people of Elim have subsisted off the forests and waters of north-west Alaska: hunting caribou and bearded seals in the late winter, gathering bird eggs and wild greens from the tundra in early spring, and fishing the salmon run in the late summer.
The Iñupiat community of 350 people lives on one of the state’s most productive and biodiverse fisheries, an inlet of the Bering Sea called the Norton Sound. They refer to their land as Munaaquestevut, or “the one who cares for us”.
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03/25/2025 - 07:00
As the climate heats up, Grenada’s beaches have become swamped with rotting sargassum. But biotech can turn it into fuel, fertiliser and plastic
Photographs by Haron Forteau
It is hard to describe the putrid stench of the decaying sargassum seaweed blanketing miles of shoreline in Soubise, a fishing village in Grenada. The pungent odour wafts into passing vehicles, persisting long after they have left the Caribbean island’s coves, where the ocean has deposited masses of the seaweed, which turns red then black as it rots.
Many residents of Soubise, one of the areas worst affected, say they have learned to live with the problem, which has plagued the island, and others like it, for years. Last week scientists in Florida said they thought they had identified a weather phenomenon in 2009 as the “tipping point” of the problem, which they said is caused by shifting winds churning up the ocean and bringing deepwater nutrient concentrations to the surface.
Lindon Marast says the seaweed clogs the engine of his boat
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03/25/2025 - 06:06
Lib Dems to urge government to control sale of products containing chemicals that kill wildlife such as fish and birds
The use of toxic flea treatments for pets should be tightly restricted, the Liberal Democrats will say in parliament on Tuesday, as the chemicals kill wildlife including fish and birds.
The government is coming under pressure to control the sale of pet flea treatments containing neonicotinoids, after it effectively announced a ban on the chemicals in pesticides on farms. However, the sale of the flea treatments to pet owners is still unregulated.
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03/25/2025 - 05:00
Every bee is precious, and as the weather gets more erratic I’m growing concerned about the effect it is having on their wellbeing
Read about our invertebrate of the year competition here
Photographs by Kate Medley
I’m an only child and grew up in the US in a time when children were free-range. My parents would open the door in the morning and say, “come back for meals.” I would disappear into the forest and wetlands. I loved the constant stories around me that I didn’t understand: the stories of animals.
When I was about seven there was a litter of kittens in the house, and a board crushed one of the kittens. The vet examined her mouth and said, “she’s not going to make it”, and minutes later she died in his hands. I couldn’t understand how he knew that – I wanted that superpower to understand animals, and that is why I wanted to become a vet. I got a degree and have been working as an environmental health scientist for more than 25 years.
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03/25/2025 - 05:00
US Department of Agriculture calls in university to help study decline as Trump administration staff cuts sting
Honeybee deaths have hit record highs in the US, with the unprecedented loss of colonies pushing many beekeepers close to ruin as scientists scramble to identify the main cause of the huge declines.
Commercial beekeepers have reported losing more than 60% of their colonies, on average, over the winter, according to an ongoing Project Apis m. survey that covers more than two-thirds of America’s managed bees.
We’re running our invertebrate of the year competition again! Between March 24 to April 2, we’ll be profiling a shortlist of ten invertebrates which were chosen by readers and selected by our wildlife writers from over 2500 nominations. The voting will open at midday on Wednesday April 2 until midday Friday April 4, with the winner to be announced on Monday April 7.
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03/24/2025 - 21:03
Environment minister defends ‘balanced and sensible’ changes amid questions of how ‘rushed legislation’ would work
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The Albanese government’s new bill to protect Tasmanian salmon farming has passed the lower house, despite experts warning it could stop communities challenging other decisions, including coal and gas developments, and may not even be effective in its principal aim.
Labor’s changes to amend the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act sailed through the House of Representatives on Tuesday evening, with 111 votes in favour and 14 votes in opposition, and were due to be dealt with in the upper house on Wednesday.
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03/20/2025 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 21 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00108-7
Strengthening the seascape of global environmental assessments to support ocean sustainability
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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