Pausing changes to Construction Code, establishment of ‘strike team’ within environment department and use of AI in planning among reforms
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The Albanese government has promised to cut red tape and fast track environmental approvals for new homes in an effort to address Australia’s housing crisis.
On Saturday, the government announced plans to pause further residential changes to the National Construction Code and to streamline the assessment of more than 26,000 homes under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
08/23/2025 - 07:30
08/23/2025 - 07:00
Toxic ‘forever chemicals’ were found at a level 10 times higher than people who did not work in contaminated zone
New research shows alarming levels of Pfas in the blood of people living or working near a US air force base responsible for polluting drinking water with high levels of the dangerous “forever chemicals”, a new state regulatory report has found.
The levels are high enough in those who lived and worked near the Cannon air force base in Curry county to raise health concerns – about 10 times above the levels of those in the region who did not work in the contaminated zone. The pollution stems from a type of Pfas-laden firefighting foam the military has used across the nation, and the types of compounds found at high levels in participants’ blood were also commonly used in foam.
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08/23/2025 - 06:00
Leading researcher forecasts ‘beginning of the age of non-tourism’ despite industry returning to pre-pandemic highs
It was a prediction nobody wanted to hear. On the main stage of the world’s biggest tourism fair, Stefan Gössling, a leading researcher in sustainable transport, had just calmly announced the looming death of the holiday industry.
“We have already entered the beginning of the age of non-tourism,” said Gössling, to an uneasy audience of travel agencies, car rental companies, cruise operators and hoteliers.
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08/23/2025 - 05:00
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08/23/2025 - 04:33
A new study reveals that the majority of Earth’s species stem from a few evolutionary explosions, where new traits or habitats sparked rapid diversification. From flowers to birds, these bursts explain most of the planet’s biodiversity.
08/22/2025 - 21:49
More than 20 places across New South Wales have already surpassed their highest August rain on record
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More than 20 places across New South Wales have already surpassed their highest August rain on record, with more than a week left of the month to go.
Upper Allyn township, in the Hunter, has already recorded its highest August rain in 38 years, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. As of 9am Friday, the town had received 277mm of rain, exceeding the previous record of 202mm, which was set back in 1987. The average for August was 46mm.
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08/22/2025 - 19:02
Flames and a tower of smoke rose above an automotive supply company 50 miles north-east of Baton Rouge
An explosion and fire on Friday at an automotive supply company in south-east Louisiana sent flames into the air and a tower of thick black smoke billowing above rural communities, forcing nearby residents and an elementary school to evacuate.
Officials said no injuries had been reported in the fire at Smitty’s Supply just north of the town of Roseland, but that everyone living within a one-mile (1.6km) radius must evacuate. Roseland, which is home to about 1,100 people, is roughly 50 miles (80km) north-east of Baton Rouge.
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08/22/2025 - 13:28
Multiple fires have ignited this week with searing heat expected to last days and extend to Pacific north-west
Multiple wildfires have ignited across California as the state continues to scorch in a multi-day heatwave that is expected to last through the weekend.
The largest this week, named the Pickett fire, exploded in size on Thursday as it burned in a remote area of Napa county, and covered more than 3,200 acres (850 hectares) by Friday afternoon. Evacuation orders and warnings have been issued on Thursday for hundreds of residents around Calistoga, a small city in the region known for its wine, as firefighters faced challenging conditions, working through dangerously high temperatures and rugged terrain. The fire’s perimeter is just 5% contained.
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World Ocean Explorer Wins Gold Medal Serious Simulation Award from Serious Play Annual International Competition
10/26/2023 - 14:35
For Immediate Release October 19, 2023
Sedgwick, Maine USA World Ocean Explorer, a 3D virtual aquarium and educational simulation, was recently cited for excellence, winning a Gold Medal Award in the 2023 International Serious Play Awards Program.
World Ocean Explorer is an innovative 3D virtual aquarium designed for educational exploration of the world’s oceans. With interactive exhibits and a lobby space, visitors can immerse themselves in realistic marine environments, including a DEEP SEA exhibit funded by Schmidt Ocean Institute, showcasing unprecedented deep-sea discoveries off Australia. Targeted at 3rd graders and beyond, this immersive experience offers a range of perspectives on the ocean environment and can be explored through guided tours or user-controlled interfaces. Visit DEEP SEA at worldoceanexplorer.org/deep-sea-aquarium.html.
Serious Play Conference brings together professionals who are exploring the use of game-based learning, sharing their experience, and working together to shape the future of training and education. For more information on Serious Play Award Program visit seriousplayconf.com/international-serious-play-award-programs.
World Ocean Explorer is a transformative virtual aquarium designed to deepen understanding of the world ocean and amplify connection for young people worldwide. Organized around the principles of Ocean Literacy and the Next Gen Science Standards, World Ocean Explorer brings the wonder and knowledge of ocean species and systems to students in formal and informal classrooms, absolutely free to anyone with a good Internet connection. As an advocate for the ocean through communications, World Ocean Observatory believes there is no better investment in the future of the sustainable ocean than through a new approach to educational engagement that excites, informs, and motivates students to explore the wonders of our marine world and to understand the pervasive connection and implication for our future, inherent in the protection and conservation of all aspects of our ocean world.
World Ocean Explorer presents an astonishing 3-dimensional simulated aquarium visit, organized to reveal the wonders of undersea life, with layers of detailed data and information to augment the emotional connection made to the astonishing beauty and complexity of the dynamic ocean. Within each of the virtual exhibits, students visit exemplary theme-based sites with myriad opportunities to understand the larger perspectives of scientific knowledge as organized and visualized to dramatize the impact and change on ocean life as a result of natural and human-generated events. Through immersion among displays, mixed media and 3D models, the experience of an aquarium visit will be brought into classrooms or home school environments as a free, accessible, always available opportunity for teaching and learning. All of this will be available to a world audience without physical limitation or cost. World Ocean Explorer, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, receives support from the Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation, Visual Solutions Lab, the Climate Change Institute, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, and The Fram Museum Oslo. To learn more about the current and future exhibits of World Ocean Explorer, visit worldoceanexplorer.org.
media contact
Trisha Badger, Managing Director, World Ocean Observatory | director@thew2o.net +12077011069
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