The decline of the coal export industry could come even faster than expected, and we need to do more to manage the economic risks
The year is winding down and for some Australians that means thinking about Christmas or the beach. For others, it will mean considering how they will cope with the next heatwave or bushfire. Already, two states have been burning.
The least bold prediction for the summer is that temperature records will tumble. It’s what happens when temperatures are on average 1.5C hotter than a little over a century ago.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
12/09/2025 - 18:26
12/09/2025 - 18:20
The 550lb bear living under Ken Johnson’s home for two weeks is unmoved by ‘lure’, with caramel and cherry smells
A hefty 550lb black bear has laid claim to the crawl space under an Altadena home, marking the latest in a series of bear incursions into the Los Angeles community.
On 25 November, homeowner Ken Johnson noticed the bear leaving the crawl space and later contacted California’s department of fish and wildlife for assistance removing it from below his home. Despite sweet-scented lures and ammonia-towels, the bear has remained in place for more than two weeks.
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12/09/2025 - 13:49
Weak regulation is to blame for disastrous failures in relation to pollution. But there are solutions if people get behind them
A study suggesting that as many as 168m light-up Christmas ornaments and similar items could be thrown out in a single year, in the UK, is concerning if not surprising in light of longstanding challenges around recycling rates and waste reduction. Even if the actual figure is lower, there is no question that battery-powered and electrical toys, lights and gifts are proliferating as never before. Despite a great deal of commentary aimed at dialling down consumption over the festive season, especially surplus packaging and rubbish, strings of disposable lights and flashing figures have gained in popularity. Homes, front gardens and shopping streets grow sparklier by the year.
Batteries and electrical devices present particular difficulties when it comes to disposal, because they cause fires. But they are just one part of a more general problem of excessive waste – and weak regulatory oversight. British plastic waste exports rose by 5% in 2024 to nearly 600,000 tonnes. A new report on plastics from the Pew Charitable Trusts warns that global production is expected to rise by 52% by 2040 – to 680m tonnes – outstripping the capacity of waste management systems around the world.
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12/09/2025 - 13:03
Green light intended to limit amount consumers pay for windfarms to turn off during periods of high generation
Three major UK electricity “superhighways” could move ahead sooner than expected to help limit the amount that households pay for windfarms to turn off during periods of high power generation.
Current grid bottlenecks mean there is not enough capacity to transport the abundance of electricity generated in periods of strong winds to areas where energy demand is highest.
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12/09/2025 - 10:16
Federal judge declared January executive order unlawful, ruling in favor of a coalition of state attorneys general
A federal judge on Monday struck down Donald Trump’s executive order blocking wind energy projects, saying the effort to halt virtually all leasing of windfarms on federal lands and waters was “arbitrary and capricious” and violated US law.
Judge Patti Saris of the US district court for the district of Massachusetts vacated Trump’s 20 January executive order blocking wind energy projects and declared it unlawful.
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12/09/2025 - 08:01
Market operator says capital cost of infrastructure under optimal path would be $128bn in today’s dollars, but price of delay is even higher
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The capacity of Australia’s main electricity grid will need to triple by 2050 – including a fivefold expansion of large-scale wind, solar and storage – under the most likely development path, the national energy market operator says.
The estimate is included in the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) draft “integrated system plan” for the national electricity market, the power grid that connects the five eastern states and the ACT.
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12/09/2025 - 04:00
UN GEO report says ending this harm key to global transformation required ‘before collapse becomes inevitable’
The unsustainable production of food and fossil fuels causes $5bn (£3.8bn) of environmental damage per hour, according to a major UN report.
Ending this harm was a key part of the global transformation of governance, economics and finance required “before collapse becomes inevitable”, the experts said.
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12/09/2025 - 03:00
Consumers spent £1.7bn on festive lighting last year and much of it is treated as disposable
UK households have thrown away an estimated 168m light-up Christmas items and other “fast-tech” gifts over the past year, a study suggests.
The research by the non-profit group Material Focus found about £1.7bn was spent last year on Christmas lighting, including 39m sets of fairy lights.
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12/09/2025 - 01:00
‘Destructive’ marine heatwaves driving loss of microalgae that feed coral, says Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network
Caribbean reefs have half as much hard coral now as they did in 1980, a study has found.
The 48% decrease in coral cover has been driven by climate breakdown, specifically marine heatwaves. They affect the microalgae that feed coral, making them toxic and forcing the coral to expel them.
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12/09/2025 - 00:00
Tapanuli orangutans survive only in Indonesia’s Sumatran rainforest where a mine expansion will cut through their home. Yet the mining company says the alternative will be worse
A small brown line snakes its way through the rainforest in northern Sumatra, carving 300 metres through dense patches of meranti trees, oak and mahua. Picked up by satellites, the access road – though modest now – will soon extend 2km to connect with the Tor Ulu Ala pit, an expansion site of Indonesia’s Martabe mine. The road will help to unlock valuable deposits of gold, worth billions of dollars in today’s booming market. But such wealth could come at a steep cost to wildlife and biodiversity: the extinction of the world’s rarest ape, the Tapanuli orangutan.
The network of access roads planned for this swath of tropical rainforest will cut through habitat critical to the survival of the orangutans, scientists say. The Tapanuli (Pongo tapanuliensis), unique to Indonesia, was only discovered by scientists to be a separate species in 2017 – distinct from the Sumatran and Bornean apes. Today, there are fewer than 800 Tapanulis left in an area that covers as little as 2.5% of their historical range. All are found in Sumatra’s fragile Batang Toru ecosystem, bordered on its south-west flank by the Martabe mine, which began operations in 2012.
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