South Australian law on single-use plastic packaging coming into force on 1 September will ban polyethylene containers known as shoyu-tai in Japan
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They have been a familiar sight at takeaway sushi shops around the world for decades but it could be the beginning of the end for fish-shaped soy sauce dispensers.
South Australia will be the first place in the world to ban them under a wider ban on single-use plastics that comes into force on 1 September.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
08/30/2025 - 19:00
08/30/2025 - 19:00
A painterly, macro view of a cauliflower soft coral by Ross Gudgeon has taken out top prize in the Australian Geographic nature photographer of the year competition. ‘This is an exceptional photograph that skews perception and leaves us questioning reality,” the judges said. ‘Giving us a unique perspective on coral. There’s nothing fake here, but still we ponder, is this nature or a painting?’ An exhibition is on now at the South Australian Museum
The week around the world in 20 pictures
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08/30/2025 - 17:38
Conservative leader says it is ‘absurd’ to shift away from fossil fuels and leave ‘vital resources untapped’
The Conservative party will aim to “maximise extraction” of oil and gas in the North Sea if it wins power, Kemi Badenoch is expected to announce.
Badenoch will use a speech in Aberdeen in the coming days to set out her plans to extract as much oil and gas as possible instead of shifting away from fossil fuels, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
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08/30/2025 - 15:00
Exclusive: Ambitious target would increase the country’s chance of winning rights to host Cop31 in 2026, Christiana Figueres says
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A former UN climate chief has urged the Australian government to set a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of at least a 75% cut by 2035, backing calls from a group of more than 350 businesses that it would be better for the economy than a lower goal.
The intervention by Christiana Figueres, an architect of the 2015 Paris agreement when she was the executive secretary of the UN framework convention on climate change, comes before discussions about Australia’s commitment, due to be announced next month.
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08/30/2025 - 10:00
Roughly $400,000 in the $1m budget was for public awareness – but those funds were recently ‘zeroed out’
When a team of scientists embarked two years ago on a $1m landmark study of Iowa’s persistent water-quality problems, they knew that the findings would be important to share. High cancer rates amid the state’s inability to stem the tide of pollutants flowing into rivers and lakes was a growing public concern.
But now, after the completed study pointed to agricultural pollution as a significant source of the key US farm state’s water problems, public officials have quietly stripped funding from plans to promote the study findings, according to sources involved in the project.
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08/30/2025 - 05:00
Climate.gov, which went dark this summer, to be revived by volunteers as climate.us with expanded mission
Earlier this summer, access to climate.gov – one of the most widely used portals of climate information on the internet – was thwarted by the Trump administration, and its production team was fired in the process.
The website offered years’ worth of accessibly written material on climate science. The site is technically still online but has been intentionally buried by the team of political appointees who now run the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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08/30/2025 - 00:00
Toxic algae cases in Northern Ireland’s Lough Neagh have tripled since last year, as local fishers’ incomes plummet
The UK’s largest lake, Lough Neagh, is on course to record its worst year of potentially toxic algal blooms to date, as rescue plans remain deadlocked.
As a ban on eel-fishing in the lake is extended yet again, with local fishers’ incomes falling by 60% since 2023, there have so far this year been 139 detections of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) growths recorded at the lough and its surrounding watercourses, according to a government pollution tracker. This is more than treble the number for the same point in 2024 (45). The data covers the 400 sq km freshwater lough, its tributaries, and smaller peripheral bodies of water, including Portmore Lough and Lough Gullion.
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08/29/2025 - 10:00
Environment minister says scientific evidence did not convince government that remote island qualified
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Australia’s environment minister, Murray Watt, has backed the creation of “no-go zones” where development will be banned in some places under a revamped nature law, but said Tasmania’s remote Robbins Island – the site of a contentious windfarm proposal – does not qualify.
Watt this week said the Albanese government would accelerate its plan to overhaul the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act so that legislation was introduced to parliament this year, sooner than previously suggested.
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08/29/2025 - 09:00
Transforming bare and compacted soil in vineyards can boost numbers of important invertebrate, say advocates
Vineyards are generally the most inhospitable of landscapes for the humble earthworm; the soil beneath vines is usually kept bare and compacted by machinery.
But scientists and winemakers have been exploring ways to turn vineyards into havens for worms.
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08/29/2025 - 06:55
Ross Greer and Gillian Mackay, elected after 12.7% turnout, also vow to campaign on higher taxation of rich
UK politics live – latest updates
The new leaders of the Scottish Greens, Ross Greer and Gillian Mackay, have promised to campaign for a universal income, free bus travel and higher taxation on the rich after winning a muted election contest.
Greer and Mackay, who were both backbench MSPs at Holyrood, were appointed co-leaders of the Scottish Greens after a noticeably low turnout of 12.7% – only 950 of the party’s 7,500 members voted after a low-key summer campaign.
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