“More than 34,000 dead marine animals have been logged (on beaches) – while, of course, far more have gone unobserved.” The true death toll - silent and unseen - is billions of marine animals and plants. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

61 leafy seadragons, 604 Port Jackson sharks: logging the grim tally of death in South Australia’s algal bloom

Experts say data reported by beachgoers is ‘hugely useful’ after a slow official response to disaster

theguardian.com

New research from The Australia Institute shows that 26 out of Australia’s 37 universities have financial links to fossil fuel companies.

One of three coal exporting ports - on The Best-Managed World-Heritage-listed Coral Reef in the World.

Glencore, a company that's expanding a massive coal mine in Queensland, Australia, is going to destroy a massive amount of koala habitat - and plans to buy 'koala offsets' to claim they've undone that damage www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Climate models since the 1970s nailed it—most predicted global warming almost exactly as it happened.

Official vague statement released in May 2024. We knew by then that billions of corals were dead or dying due to extreme heat stress in Jan-March. www.theguardian.com/environment/... The Australian government stayed silent for another 14 months, until after an election & more fossil fuel permits.

Last week we learned the Great Barrier Reef has suffered some of the worst bleaching in history This week, Ningaloo, another 🇦🇺 icon is experiencing catastrophic coral loss These are national treasures. We must take strong action on climate to save them. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...

'Hope spot' to 'skeletons': Ningaloo's 'catastrophic' event

In Western Australia, the damage to coral reefs including the World Heritage-listed Ningaloo has eclipsed any previous bleaching events.

abc.net.au

Concerning reports the unreleased National Climate Risk Assessment is “dire” and “diabolical”. It maps what the people & places we love stand to lose from climate change. We should know this before the govt sets our 2035 emissions target Release it now. www.afr.com/policy/energ...

Labor keeps ‘dire’ climate report under wraps

The government has delayed the release of a “shocking” assessment of global warming’s effect on the economy, just weeks before its 2035 target decision.

afr.com

The oil industry's Alliance to End Plastic Waste was created to "change the conversation – away from short-term simplistic bans of plastic," documents reveal unearthed.greenpeace.org/2024/11/20/a...

Companies behind campaign to ‘end plastic waste’ produced 1,000 times more plastic than it cleaned up

The Alliance to End Plastic Waste spent five years clearing up the amount of plastic its key oil and chemical members produce in two days

unearthed.greenpeace.org

You haven’t been paying attention if you’re surprised that Ningaloo Reef is affected (again) by climate change. “Unprecedented Mass Bleaching and Loss of Coral across 12° of Latitude in Western Australia in 2010–11”. journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘It was our hope spot’: scientists heartbroken as pristine coral gardens hit by Western Australia’s worst bleaching event

Usually alive with colour and fish, Ningaloo reef and the Rowley Showls now look as though they are ‘painted white’ as temperatures rise

theguardian.com

If the Great Barrier Reef had a voice, it would be screaming 😱 Picture shows a 500yr old bleached coral, clinging to life - off Heron island, April 2024.

Guardian Environment@environment.theguardian.com · 12mo ago

‘If the reef had a voice, it would sing’: could legal personhood help the Great Barrier Reef?

Enjoyed speaking to Ethan Hamilton @ Law Society Journal about how the ICJ Advisory Opinion on Climate Change will shape Australia’s obligations to our Pacific neighbours, particularly as one of the largest exporters of fossil fuels in the world. lsj.com.au/articles/int...

International ruling highlights Australia’s climate obligations to Pacific neighbours - Law Society Journal

A ruling in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has highlighted Australia’s obligation to smaller nations affected by climate change and could open the country...

lsj.com.au

The recent ICJ Advisory Opinion on climate has been cited for the first time in a climate litigation case in South Africa, challenging the approval of an oil project. thegreenconnection.org.za/wp-content/u...

Mass mortality of corals throughout the Great Barrier Reef in 2024 has been hidden from the public since late last year, with this exception - published last December: www.voanews.com/a/surveys-sh...

Surveys show widespread Great Barrier Reef coral loss

Researchers say warming oceans threaten world’s reefs

voanews.com

Damian Carrington@dpcarrington.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Great Barrier Reef suffers biggest annual drop in live coral since 1980s after devastating coral bleaching - Researchers warn reef may reach tipping point where coral cannot recover enough between major events #climatecrisis Story by @readfearn.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Law Society Journal: “The appointment of envoys might appear to the cynical as reactionary measures to public demand for action….” lsj.com.au/articles/the...

The role and remit of special envoys - Law Society Journal

A special envoy is employed on a temporary basis to advise and advocate on a specific cause.

lsj.com.au

Terry Hughes@profterryhughes.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Australia: The political appointment of “Special Envoy to the Great Barrier Reef” has been quietly scrapped. And nobody actually noticed. thenightly.com.au/politics/aar...

Australia: The political appointment of “Special Envoy to the Great Barrier Reef” has been quietly scrapped. And nobody actually noticed. thenightly.com.au/politics/aar...

Jobs for the ‘voys: MPs caught between Cabinet and backbench

The fastest-growing parliamentary jobs are special envoys, who occupy a twilight zone between minister and backbencher. Their responsibilities are vague.

thenightly.com.au

Interesting article on mobility of early career researchers, and the barriers they face. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

How researcher visa curbs threaten science careers

Anti-immigration sentiment is fuelling a drive to slash international student and worker numbers, but at what cost to researchers and countries leading the charge?

nature.com

″⁣Following the consideration of rigorous scientific and other advice, a proposed decision to approve the North West Shelf gas development has been made”. Of course, ‘consideration’ actually means ‘dismissal’.

The Sydney Morning Herald (unofficial)@smhaustralia.nzcow.com · 12mo ago

📢 The west-coast reef has largely escaped the curse of coral bleaching that has blighted the Great Barrier Reef. This year, that’s changed.

True, you can feed aquarium corals with brine shrimp. But how do you feed billions of surviving wild corals in an area the size of 70 million football fields?

William Taylor@williamtaylor100.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Scientists are hunting for "super corals" and exploring nutritional supplements to boost resilience. Can these efforts save the Great Barrier Reef? #GreatBarrierReef #CoralReefs

AFP fact check: “Pour sauver la Barrière de Corail, le monde doit rapidement réduire les émissions de gaz à effet de serre", appelle moi. Culling a few starfish won’t climate-proof coral reefs. factuel.afp.com/doc.afp.com....

The image of dying corals comes from Lizard Island in 2016, not 2024. Here’s a comparison of coral mortality in the northern Great Barrier Reef in 2016 and 2024.

Andrej Matisak@matisaksk.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Australia's Great Barrier Reef sees record coral loss p.dw.com/p/4ya0K?maca... #Australia

The middle region of the Great Barrier Reef was under-sampled in 2024 surveys - only 3 reefs between Cairns and Townsville. theconversation.com/worlds-bigge...

The media (and annual reports) tend to focus on single catastrophic climate events. Yes, the 2024 coral bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef was terrible. But it’s the cumulative impacts of recurring disasters that matters in the longer term. www.smh.com.au/environment/...

More than half the corals of the far north Great Barrier Reef dead: official

Half the corals in reefs off the far north Queensland coast killed by bleaching, says Marine Park Authority official.

smh.com.au

Terry Hughes@profterryhughes.bsky.social · 12mo ago

“Parts” So far, 98% of the Great Barrier Reef has experienced coral bleaching at least once in 2016, 2017, 2020’ 2022, 2024 and 2025. In 2016, 51% of corals died in the northern third of the Reef - an even bigger loss there than in 2024. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Mike Hudema Water temperatures around Australia's Great Barrier Reef were the warmest they've been in over 400 years this year, according to new research. Scientists say the reef is facing "catastrophic damage." No time to waste. ActOnClimate

“Parts” So far, 98% of the Great Barrier Reef has experienced coral bleaching at least once in 2016, 2017, 2020’ 2022, 2024 and 2025. In 2016, 51% of corals died in the northern third of the Reef - an even bigger loss there than in 2024. www.cell.com/current-biol...

CNN@cnn.com · 12mo ago

Parts of Australia's iconic Great Barrier Reef, famed for its stunning colors and biodiversity, suffered the biggest decline of coral on record last year after a marine heatwave bleached vast swathes of hard coral, a new report has found. cnn.it/3HcO6S8

In a rosy new assessment, the Australian government reports there is currently no coral bleaching - in mid-winter. And despite all the evidence, “The Authority’s starfish Control Program…. is a demonstrated effective tool in protecting coral and supporting the health and resilience of the Reef”

Beware of computer simulations that present their results as facts instead of untested predictions. news.uq.edu.au/2025-07-crow...

Crown-of-thorns control boosts coral growth in a warming world

Work to combat coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish across the Great Barrier Reef is working even under increasing environmental pressures.

news.uq.edu.au

Another compromised research institute in Australia, captured by the fossil fuel industry. visit.museum.wa.gov.au/learn/news-s...

WA Museum extends marine research collaboration with Woodside Energy | Western Australian Museum

A long-standing research collaboration to understand and conserve Western Australia’s marine biodiversity has been extended for a further five years to enable marine research to continue in areas of e...

visit.museum.wa.gov.au

In June 2024 UNESCO urged Australia “to MAKE PUBLIC the extent of coral death as soon as possible”. But there was an election in the way, and government scientists were gagged until 18 months after the 2024 die-off began.

Guardian Australia@australia.theguardian.com · last yr.

Great Barrier Reef suffers biggest annual drop in live coral since 1980s after devastating coral bleaching

20 years ago we concluded that "Florida's coral reefs are already halfway to ecological extinction" www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1... The timing for being "proactive" - i.e. to tackle a problem BEFORE it gets out of hand - has long past. Importing corals is about as "reactive" as you could imagine.

Are U.S. Coral Reefs on the Slippery Slope to Slime?

Coral reefs [HN1] provide ecosystem goods and services worth more than $375 billion to the global economy each year (1). Yet, worldwide, reefs are in decline [HN2] (1–4). Examination of the history of...

science.org

Iliana Baums@ibaums.bsky.social · last yr.

Proactive assisted gene flow for Caribbean corals in an era of rapid coral reef decline | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...