Government urged to ratify UN convention in order to protect undersea areas like shipwrecks and now-submerged First Nations heritage sites
The underwater world – from shipwrecks with human remains inside to First Nations sites that are tens of thousands of years old – needs better protection, a parliamentary committee has found.
Pirates have targeted second world war shipwrecks for scrap metal, looters have been trophy hunting in sunken boats and the bodies of drowned sailors have been disturbed in the process. Technological advancements mean Australia’s underwater cultural heritage is more vulnerable than ever, the committee heard.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
03/20/2023 - 09:00
03/20/2023 - 08:00
Since 1992, the IPCC has highlighted rising greenhouse gases, marking their ‘widespread and unprecedented’ impacts by 2014
IPCC report delivers ‘final warning’
Analysis: Humanity at the crossroads
We were warned. From the “certainty” of rising greenhouse gas emissions in 1992 to “widespread” and “unprecedented” impacts on humanity by 2014, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been the beacon of climate science for the world.
There were earlier warnings. Even oil giants such as ExxonMobil made predictions in the 1970s and 1980s for global heating that proved “breathtakingly” accurate – before embarking on decades of damaging denial.
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03/20/2023 - 08:00
IPCC report says only swift and drastic action can avert irrevocable damage to world
Analysis: Humanity at the crossroads
Timeline: The IPCC’s reports
Scientists have delivered a “final warning” on the climate crisis, as rising greenhouse gas emissions push the world to the brink of irrevocable damage that only swift and drastic action can avert.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), made up of the world’s leading climate scientists, set out the final part of its mammoth sixth assessment report on Monday.
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03/20/2023 - 04:51
Majority in teal seats of Mackellar and Goldstein – and Labor’s Moreton and Bennelong – also say industry should not use offsets for emissions
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The majority of voters in several metropolitan areas support stopping new coal and gas projects and believe industrial polluters should not be able to use carbon offsets for all their greenhouse gas emissions, according to new polling.
The progressive thinktank the Australia Institute commissioned uComms to poll more than 800 residents in each of two “teal” electorates – Mackellar and Goldstein – and the Labor-held seats of Moreton Bennelong and Sydney.
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03/20/2023 - 03:30
Residents in industry-choked Randolph renew efforts to block the power company’s plans near their fragile town
A handful of weary residents gathered at the windowless Randolph church to mull over the latest effort by an electric utility to expand its power station – a polluting gas-fired plant next door to the community that the state regulator has blocked on environmental and health grounds.
Randolph is a historic Black community in central Arizona flanked by railroads and heavy hazardous industries, a small dusty place where residents are exposed to some of the worst air quality in the state while lacking basic amenities like fire hydrants, trash collection and healthcare.
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03/20/2023 - 03:20
Ofwat says new powers will be used if firms fail to reach performance and environmental goals
The UK water regulator is to use new powers to block companies from shareholder payouts if they fail to hit performance and environmental targets.
Ofwat, which in December heavily criticised some of the country’s biggest suppliers over the size of dividend payments relative to their financial performance, said the new rules would also mean water companies would “maintain a higher level of overall financial health”.
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03/20/2023 - 01:30
As the war in Ukraine sent natural gas prices skyrocketing, liquid natural gas (LNG) plants are springing up all along the fragile Gulf Coast – seriously harming not just local communities but the world’s ability to keep the entire climate crisis at bay
About 30 miles south of New Orleans, a construction site visible from space is rising. Sandwiched between the Mississippi River and disappearing wetlands, the 256-hectare (632-acre) site is visited by a stream of tipper trucks and concrete mixers that stir up dust on Louisiana 23, the state highway that goes down to Venice, the last spot of land before the river’s water flows into the Gulf of Mexico.
The wetlands protect the area from hurricane surge and provide critical habitat for fisheries. But when completed in 2025, the construction site here will host a series of tanks and pipes designed for one purpose: to supercool natural gas into liquid form, so it can be transported on giant tankers to sell around the world to the highest bidder.
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03/19/2023 - 19:57
Tune into this special episode of the Sea Change Podcast to celebrate the spring equinox with Jenna, Portland Poets Society, and a sea of poetry! A special thanks to the contributors from the Portland Poets Society community and beyond for sharing their wisdom and art with us.
03/19/2023 - 06:00
Fiame Naomi Mata’afa pleads for action before landmark IPCC report is expected to issue ‘final warning’
What is the IPCC report and why does it matter?
The world must step back from the brink of climate disaster to save the people of the Pacific from obliteration, the prime minister of Samoa has urged.
On the eve of a landmark report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is expected to deliver a scientific “final warning” on the climate emergency, Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, Samoa’s prime minister, issued a desperate plea for action.
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03/19/2023 - 04:15
Electric utilities spent billions after 2014’s polar vortex to ensure power plants and the grid could handle extreme cold, but this winter it still wasn’t enough
The warnings to residents in the south-east US came right before Christmas: delay washing clothes or running the dishwasher, and curb hot water use until the bitterly cold temperatures eased up.
It still wasn’t enough for two of the nation’s largest electric utilities.
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