The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act changes are an improvement, but the rush to pass them was purely political
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We should start at the beginning in assessing the Labor-Greens deal to revamp Australia’s national environment law. And the beginning is that, ideally, you would not start from here.
Despite its name, the 1999 Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act was designed under John Howard to allow developments to go ahead, usually with conditions attached that may limit the damage to nature.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
11/27/2025 - 01:29
11/27/2025 - 01:00
A boom in places offering petting sessions is linked to a rise in the illegal movement of exotic and endangered species, say experts
The second floor of an unassuming office building in central Bangkok is a strange place to encounter the world’s largest rodent. Yet here, inside a small enclosure with a shallow pool, three capybaras are at the disposal of dozens of paying customers – all clamouring for a selfie. As people eagerly thrust leafy snacks toward the nonchalant-looking animals, few seem to consider the underlying peculiarity: how, exactly, did this South American rodent end up more than 10,000 miles from home, in a bustling Asian metropolis?
Capybara cafes have been cropping up across the continent in recent years, driven by the animal’s growing internet fame. The semi-aquatic animals feature in more than 600,000 TikTok posts. In Bangkok, cafe customers pay 400 baht (£9.40) for a 30-minute petting session with them, along with a few meerkats and Chinese bamboo rats. Doors are open 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
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11/27/2025 - 01:00
Treasury says concession could be worth £30m next year and then £70m annually until 2030
Budget calculator: find out if you are better or worse off
Rachel Reeves has eased inheritance tax on agricultural property after pressure from farmers.
As the chancellor made her budget speech on Wednesday, the Treasury announced changes it said could save farmers and business owners £30m next year when passing on property and £70m a year in the following four years. Farmers, who had driven tractors up to the doors of parliament, were protesting outside at the same time.
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11/26/2025 - 22:44
The minister says quick approvals can happen while protecting the environment, but my experience tells me that haste brings unintended consequences
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I got a text from a biodiversity advocate around midday on Thursday asking me: are you glad, or sad?
I wasn’t sure how to reply.
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11/26/2025 - 19:37
Queensland supreme court orders Pennings, a campaigner against the Carmichael coalmine, not to seek to acquire Adani’s confidential information
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The Indian mining company Adani has agreed to end its marathon legal pursuit of the environmental activist Ben Pennings.
Pennings declared victory on Thursday, after the Queensland supreme court signed off on orders on Wednesday, ending the five-and-a-half-year court battle. The order requires Pennings not to seek to acquire Adani’s confidential information or to ask others to do so, but the company has dropped a demand for payment of damages which at one stage stood at $600m.
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11/26/2025 - 17:18
Swimmers aged in their 20s bitten by shark at Kylies beach in Crowdy Bay early on Thursday morning, with woman dying at the scene
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A woman has died after a “large bull shark” attacked her and a man on the New South Wales mid-north coast at Kylies beach.
The pair, both aged in their 20s, were swimming together at the beach at Crowdy Bay on Thursday morning when they were bitten, police said.
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11/26/2025 - 14:00
A record 39,000 birds are overwintering on Wallasea island wetlands thanks to soil transported from London tunnels
Almost 40,000 birds have made their home on a nature reserve created using soil from tunnel excavations for the Elizabeth line.
Three million tonnes of earth were transported from London to Wallasea island in Essex and used to lift the ground level and make wetlands.
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11/26/2025 - 11:12
Strategy paper released with budget allows new oil and gas projects to move ahead if they are linked to existing fields
Comment: Labour is still in a muddle on North Sea oil and gas
The government has ruled out new North Sea oil and gas exploration or lower taxes for fossil fuel companies as it struggles to protect workers from the industry’s collapse.
In a strategy paper, Ed Miliband confirmed the crackdown on new North Sea exploration – although the energy secretary will still allow new offshore fossil fuel projects to move ahead as long as they are linked to existing fields.
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11/26/2025 - 11:00
Exclusive: Former US secretary of state calls for more demanding steps from Australia as it takes over presidency of next year’s UN climate summit
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Australia’s government, which will preside over the next UN climate summit, should gather the world’s 25 biggest greenhouse gas emitting countries and push them to draw up a roadmap to end the era of fossil fuels, former US secretary of state John Kerry has said.
Only by “hard-nosed” confrontation with fossil fuel producers, and reducing their consumption in major economies, would the world be able to tackle the climate crisis, he said.
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11/26/2025 - 11:00
The Mohana of Pakistan’s Sindh province once thrived on the lake but pollution and drought have caused the fragile ecosystem to collapse, along with their way of life
At the mouth of Lake Manchar, gentle lapping disturbs the silence. A small boat cuts through the water, propelled by a bamboo pole scraping the muddy bottom of the canal.
Bashir Ahmed manoeuvres his frail craft with agility. His slender boat is more than just a means of transport. It is the legacy of a people who live to the rhythm of water: the Mohana. They have lived for generations on the waters of Lake Manchar in Sindh province, a vast freshwater mirror covering nearly 250 sq km. The lake, once the largest in Pakistan, was long an oasis of life. Now, it is dying.
Bashir Ahmed in his boat on the lake, next to simple huts built on top of the right bank outfall drain
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