An image of a magnificent frigatebird silhouetted against a total solar eclipse by Canadian photographer Liron Gertsman was chosen from more than 25,000 images as the grand prize-winner in 2025’s largest bird photography competition. Young bird photographer of the year was awarded to Tomasz Michalski
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
09/30/2025 - 10:00
09/30/2025 - 10:00
Hours before the shutdown, NPS staff began preparations to close down some parts of popular US public lands
On Tuesday evening, in the final hours before the US government shutdown, the National Park Service (NPS) began preparations to close down parts of popular public lands across the country – while trails and other open-access areas remain open.
The guidance for park leaders in advance of the federal shutdown had been uncertain as the impasse loomed, raising fears that the parks could be forced to stay open without anyone to staff them.
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09/30/2025 - 10:00
Poll finds One Nation’s primary vote has doubled to 13% since the May federal election
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Australian voters have backed the level of ambition of the Albanese government’s 2035 emissions reduction target, with just 13% wanting Labor to pursue steeper pollution cuts this decade.
But fewer than a third of voters believe the country is likely to achieve the new target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions between 62% and 70% from 2005 levels.
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09/30/2025 - 03:27
In the name of ‘pragmatism’, green measures are being ditched, net zero derided. Be very clear: without slashing emissions we are in deep, deep trouble
The hope that followed the signing of the Paris climate agreement in 2016 has long gone as the global community has failed utterly to rein in emissions, which – barring a small pandemic-induced blip in 2020 – have headed remorselessly upwards ever since. And there is little sign of this changing anytime soon. Indeed, as global heating has accelerated over the past few years, instead of trying harder, the world is turning its back on measures to tackle the climate crisis.
In the UK, Labour is considering the approval of two major new oilfields in the North Sea – Rosebank and Jackdaw – with both Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves reported to be backing the proposals, which would lock in reliance on fossil fuels at the expense of renewables. Alongside this, instead of the government introducing measures to reduce aviation emissions, such as a frequent-flyer levy and the taxing of aviation fuels, a Heathrow expansion has been greenlit and, just last week, a second runway at Gatwick.
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09/30/2025 - 02:00
Some experts think a few sharks may be responsible for a disproportionate number of attacks. Should they be hunted down?
First was the French tourist, killed while swimming off Saint-Martin in December 2020. The manager of a nearby water sports club raced out in a dinghy to help, only to find her lifeless body floating face down, a gaping wound where part of her right thigh should have been. Then, a month later, another victim. Several Caribbean islands away, a woman snorkelling off St Kitts and Nevis was badly bitten on her left leg by a shark. Fortunately, she survived.
Soon after the fatal incident in December, Eric Clua, a marine biologist at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, got a phone call. Island nations often ask for his help after a shark bite, he says, “because I am actually presenting a new vision … I say, ‘You don’t have a problem with sharks, you have a problem with one shark.’”
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09/30/2025 - 00:00
Gas derived from farm waste can meet only 18% of current gas demand by 2050, despite claims of fossil fuel lobbyists, study finds
Gas derived from farm waste will never be an alternative to the widespread adoption of heat pumps, research shows, despite the claims of fossil fuel lobbyists.
Biomethane, which comes mainly from “digesting” manure, sewage and other organic waste, has been touted as a low-carbon substitute for fossil fuel gas, for use in home heating. Proponents say it would be less disruptive than ripping out the UK’s current gas infrastructure and installing heat pumps.
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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
09/29/2025 - 20:00
The billionaire’s last three cases are part of a growing global list from fossil fuel companies against government decisions to reduce carbon emissions
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Despite the Australian billionaire Clive Palmer’s self-proclaimed patriotism through the Trumpet of Patriots party, he has registered his mining company, Zeph Investments, in Singapore and claimed to be a Singaporean investor. He then used foreign investor rights in two trade agreements with Singapore to sue the Australian government for a total of about $420bn in four separate cases before an international investment tribunal.
Palmer’s first claim was for $300bn after he lost a high court appeal against a Western Australian government decision to refuse an iron ore mining licence. The last three claims for a total of $120bn are because a Queensland court refused his coal mining licence and a licence for a coal-fired power plant for environmental reasons, including increased carbon emissions.
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09/29/2025 - 19:01
Capitals from London to Tokyo need urgent action to protect people from deadly high temperatures, analysts say
The world’s biggest capital cities are now sweltering under 25% more extremely hot days each year than in the 1990s, an analysis has found. Without urgent action to protect millions of people from high temperatures, more and more will suffer in the dangerous conditions, analysts said.
From Washington DC and Madrid to Tokyo and Beijing, the analysis shows a marked rise in hot days as the climate crisis intensifies. Overall, the assessment by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), found the number of days above 35C in 43 of the world’s most populous capital cities rose from an average of 1,062 a year from 1994-2003 to 1,335 from 2015-2024.
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09/29/2025 - 13:18
White House allocating 13.1m acres of public land to coal mining, which has been on rapid decline over past 30 years
The White House will open 13.1m acres (5.3m hectares) of public land to coal mining while providing $625m for coal-fired power plants, the Trump administration has announced.
The efforts came as part of a suite of initiatives from the Department of the Interior, Department of Energy, and Environmental Protection Agency, aimed at reviving the flagging coal sector. Coal, the most polluting and costly fossil fuel, has been on a rapid decline over the past 30 years, with the US halving its production between 2008 and 2023, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
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