Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Minns government waited on federal approval of carbon credit scheme before proceeding with long-awaited great koala national park Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A long-promised New South Wales great koala national parkis set to go ahead after the Albanese government greenlit the state to receive hundreds of millions of dollars for protecting native forests previously earmarked for logging. The assistant climate change minister, Josh Wilson, said the government had approved a regulatory change that allowed state governments to earn carbon credits by storing carbon dioxide in native forests on public land. Continue reading...

Climate crisis is on show every day when sportspeople do their thing and the rest of us suffer on the sofa or in the stands Nothing sharpens the distinction between professional athletes and the rest of us like a week of truly hot weather. While we’re apologetically crying off long‑in‑the-diary engagements – so sorry, just can’t face it in this weather – elite sportspeople are blinking the rivulets of sweat out of their eyes while squinting under a hot and heavy helmet, then doing 22-yard sprints with a couple of kilos of padding strapped to their legs. As one of nature’s non-athletes, I speak not only with admiration but with genuine wonder. My experience of the past week has been working out how not to do things, or, if forced, doing them half‑heartedly because, you know, I haven’t slept. My friends and I message each other the latest innovations in fan strategy (“Apparently putting a frozen bottle of water in front of it helps”) and talk about our journeys on public transport as if we’ve just survived the Somme. Continue reading...

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...

Conservationists emphasise importance of protecting nesting sites used by ‘strongly faithful’ red-listed species Migratory swifts loyally return every year to their nests in buildings, according to a study, underlining the importance of providing the endangered birds with hollow nesting bricks if traditional nest sites are lost to renovations. The swift, which is on the red list of conservation concern, is one of Britain’s most threatened species, having declined in number by 70% since 1995 because of the loss of nesting sites, often when old buildings are re-roofed or given better insulation. While Scotland this year made the installation of swift bricks – a simple hollow brick – a legal requirement in new buildings, the government in England has repeatedly refused to oblige builders to include a £35 swift brick in every new home. Continue reading...