The world’s warm water corals, including at the Ningaloo Reef in WA, are under pressure of dieback from global warming. In short: The latest Global Tipping Points Report suggests the world’s coral reefs are at risk of mass dieback. More than 80 per cent of coral reefs worldwide have bleached in a marine heatwave in the past two years. What’s next? …

Palau’s idyllic waters hide an experiment that scientists hope will save the world’s reefs from climate change-induced collapse. At an outer reef, ceramic cribs are holding thousands of baby corals growing underwater. They’re “super corals”, selectively bred to survive hotter ocean temperatures. Star-shaped ceramic devices holding baby corals were planted last month on a section of reef damaged by a …

The long-term health projections for the Great Barrier Reef remain mixed, with reefs between Proserpine and Cape York – a distance of about 1600 km up the Queensland coast by car – losing nearly 30 per cent of coral cover in 2024. Despite the finding, researchers have said there are positive signs of reef resilience*. The Australian Institute of Marine …

Until now, many of Western Australia’s most pristine coral reefs have avoided the worst bleaching brought by marine heatwaves. But their luck has now run out. The state’s longest lasting, largest and most intense underwater heatwave has hammered them. The unusual heat began late last year off the northwest coast, before spreading south, eventually affecting seas along more than 1,500km …

Underneath a clear, summer sky, amid the screeching chorus of cicadas, koala experts track through bushland around a large water-supply dam on the New South Wales Mid North Coast. It does not take long to spot a koala nestled in the treetops. Thermal drone surveys have revealed the Bootawa Dam site, near Taree, is home to one of the state’s …

The world has already warmed 1.49 degrees Celsius because of humans compared to pre-industrial levels, according to a new study of carbon dioxide content in Antarctic ice cores. Research published today in Nature Geoscience said when compared to a pre-1700 baseline, the planet reached the temperature increase at the end of 2023. The figure is higher than globally accepted estimates of about …

The most important health check in years warns the Great Barrier Reef’s prospects are “very poor” despite the government pouring millions of dollars into programs to help it cope with climate change and other threats. The Great Barrier Reef Outlook Report was released with little fanfare on Friday afternoon,  minus commentary from the federal government. The five-yearly report is a …

Global heating will drive billions of people out of the “climate niche” in which humanity has flourished for millennia, a study has estimated, exposing them to unprecedented temperatures and extreme weather. The world is on track for 2.7C of heating with current action plans and this would mean 2 billion people experiencing average annual temperatures above 29C by 2030, a …

Australia’s weather is influenced by many climate drivers. El Niño and La Niña have perhaps the strongest influence on year-to-year climate variability in Australia. They are a part of a natural cycle known as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and are associated with a sustained period (many months) of warming (El Niño) or cooling (La Niña) in the central and eastern tropical Pacific. The ENSO …

Finance has taken centre stage at the COP27 climate talks, with UN experts publishing a list of projects worth $US120 billion ($185 billion) that investors can back to help poorer countries cut emissions and adapt to global warming. A $US3 billion water transfer project between Lesotho and Botswana and a $US10 million plan to improve the public water system in …