The magnificent apex predator of the night, forced out of forests into urban landscapes, now confronts yet another silent killer: rat poison
Australian bird of the year 2025: nominate your favourite now
The air was crisp and the grass still wet with dew when I came upon what looked like a crime scene at my local park. The victim’s entrails were laid out in a neat line: a tiny intact kidney at one end and a small, bloodied mandible at the other, linked by a long string of intestines. Bandicoot remains? No, the fur looked more like possum.
I had found leftovers from the previous night’s dinner, and the diner was one of Australia’s apex predators, the powerful owl. Like some kind of bush bandit, it hunts at night, swooping silently before returning to the treetops to dismember and devour its hapless prey.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
09/18/2025 - 10:00
09/18/2025 - 07:00
Whiting residents worried after facility, which has had multiple problems, shut down temporarily after rain
It was the biggest news story around the midwest as the Labor Day weekend approached earlier this month: the unexpected surging price of fuel at the gas station.
But for residents of Whiting, Indiana, petroleum has been presenting an altogether bigger problem.
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09/18/2025 - 07:00
Some 450 events are planned across the US this Sunday to celebrate growth of solar power and energy efficiency
As the Trump administration wages an all-out assault on climate protections and renewable energy, activists are gearing up for demonstrations this Sunday to hype up solar power and energy efficiency.
The national “day of action”, called Sun Day, will be spearheaded by veteran climate activist Bill McKibben.
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09/18/2025 - 05:53
Think Bill Gates is fixing the climate crisis? Not if you follow the money. While he funds green innovation and talks about cutting emissions, Gates also invests in dirty industries such as coal, oil and private jets. In this episode, Neelam Tailor exposes how one of the world’s most powerful climate voices is betting on both sides of the crisis – and making a lot of money in the process
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09/18/2025 - 04:28
Six experts respond to Labor’s plans for agriculture, resources, the built environment, industry, transport and energy. What did it get right and what more needs to be done?
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The 62-70% emissions target is a slap in the face to the people growing Australia’s food. It is nothing short of betrayal to farmers around the country and the generations who come after us. The climate chaos described in Australia’s first Climate Risk Assessment is not inevitable, but with a weak target like this it pushes us towards a future no one wants or deserves.
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09/18/2025 - 04:27
Exclusive: Residents of western Sydney and outer suburbs of Melbourne are at particular risk of high temperatures, data shows
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As the federal government warns the climate crisis will increase heat-related deaths, with the impact disproportionately borne by the already vulnerable, data obtained exclusively by Guardian Australia shows the parts of Australia’s major cities that are most vulnerable to heat.
The new measure, called the Heat Vulnerability Index and compiled by researchers at RMIT, combines temperature readings from satellites, with data on populations particularly susceptible to heat (such as older Australians and those with disabilities), the built environment and green space, and socioeconomic factors like income and education.
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09/18/2025 - 03:00
On a tiny Italian island, scientists conducted a radical experiment to see if the bees were causing their wild cousins to decline
Off the coast of Tuscany is a tiny island in the shape of a crescent moon. An hour from mainland Italy, Giannutri has just two beaches for boats to dock. In summer, hundreds of tourists flock there, hiking to the red and white lighthouse on its southern tip before diving into the clear waters. In winter, its population dwindles to 10. The island’s rocky ridges are coated with thickets of rosemary and juniper, and in warmer months the air is sweetened by flowers and the gentle hum of bees.
“Residents are people who like fishing, or being alone, or who have retired. Everyone has their story,” says Leonardo Dapporto, associate professor at the University of Florence.
Giannutri island’s remote location made it a perfect open-air laboratory for the bee experiments. Photographs: Giuseppe Nucci
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09/18/2025 - 02:41
‘Heartbreaking’ drone footage has captured the moment a mother and calf became trapped. Four humpbacks have been snared in recent days
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A whale entangled in a shark net about five days ago with her calf is yet to be fully freed, two of four humpback whales to be entangled in shark nets off the coast of Queensland in recent days.
Dr Olaf Meynecke, who researches marine mammals at Griffith University, said humpback whales were caught in shark nets every year, but this was the first time involving four whales trapped at the same time.
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09/18/2025 - 01:00
The people of Johnshaven have watched the sea edge closer and closer. Preserving the path is key to protecting their community
Photographs by Murdo MacLeod
When Charis Duthie moved to Johnshaven with her husband in 1984, she could cycle along the coastal path out of the village. Now, she meets a dead end where the sea has snatched the land and is instead greeted with a big red warning sign of what is to come: Danger Coastal Erosion.
“You can see gardens that were there and now they’re gone,” she says.
Johnshaven, on Scotland’s North Sea coast, will attract more visitors if it has a well maintained coastal path
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09/18/2025 - 01:00
Increasingly erratic water cycle is creating food scarcity, rising prices, conflict and migration, says UN agency
Only a third of the world’s river basins experienced normal conditions last year as the climate crisis drove extremes of drought and flood, sometimes both in the same region.
The increasingly erratic water cycle is creating big problems for societies and governments and causing billions of dollars in damage, scientists warned.
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