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Since 1989, the balloon industry has relied on a problematic study that claimed balloons degraded “at about the same rate as oak tree leaves” after six weeks. We put it to the test. Morgan Gilmour, Adjunct Researcher in Marine Science, University of Tasmania Jennifer Lavers, Lecturer in Marine Science, University of Tasmania Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Study finds efforts to bolster breeding ground population were successful but the good work is undone when migratory species flies north

The story of the orange-bellied parrot, a small migratory bird that breeds in Tasmania’s south-west before heading north for the colder months, holds lessons for scientists working to prevent species from reaching the brink of extinction.

In sharp decline since the 1980s, if not earlier, the bird is listed as critically endangered, with scientists warning it could be gone in three to five years.

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Australia is doing well on lifting renewables and burning less coal - but not that well, and countries with high renewables aren't building more gas.

The post A global clean energy health check in 5 charts – good, but must be better appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A federal government plan to increase soil carbon stores is a folly that misunderstands the technology. Robert Edwin White, Professor Emeritus, University of Melbourne Brian Davidson, Senior Lecturer, Department of Agriculture and Food Systems, University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Some people seem to be above the law. Those people do not include the whistleblower and his lawyer, Bernard Collaery

Timor-Leste only achieved independence in 2002. It was Asia’s poorest country and desperately needed revenue. Revenue from massive gas resources in the Timor Sea was its big hope. But it needed to negotiate a treaty with Australia on their carve-up. Australia ruthlessly exploited that fact: delays from the Australian side in negotiating a treaty for the carve-up of those resources, and repeated threats of more delays, were a constant theme of the negotiations. In November 2002 the former Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer told Timor-Leste’s prime minister, Mari Alkatiri: “We don’t have to exploit the resources. They can stay there for 20, 40, 50 years.” In late 2003 Timor-Leste requested monthly discussions. Australia claimed it could only afford two rounds a year. Poor Timor-Leste offered to fund rich Australia’s expenses. Australia didn’t accept.

Related: Witness K and the 'outrageous' spy scandal that failed to shame Australia

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A country better disposed to considerate wild camping and swimming would be a happier and healthier one

Supporters call it “wild camping”; opponents call it “fly-camping”. What both sides accept is that there has been an upsurge in the past few months, with increasing numbers of visitors pitching their tents on any bit of land they fancy. In part, this reflects the fact that official campsites have been wholly or partially closed, or are hugely oversubscribed in a summer when fewer people are going abroad. It is also cheap, at a time when many are worried about what the economic future holds. But it may also be an expression of a desire for freedom – a response to the months of lockdown that is also mirrored in the increased interest in wild swimming in lakes and rivers.

Most of the coverage of the boom in wild camping has been negative. What might be deemed amusing at the Glastonbury festival has not gone down well on Dartmoor, one of the few places in England where wild camping had previously been explicitly permitted. It has now been banned there for August and the early part of September because of a rise in antisocial behaviour, with campers dumping litter, human waste and even their tents on the moorland. Similar action has been taken in Northumberland, the Lake District and the New Forest. Even in Scotland, where camping is permitted on most unenclosed land, tensions are rising.

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Ten-year management strategy aims to combat habitat loss and dwindling wildlife in Kenya’s oldest national park

Kenya’s oldest national park, which is facing threats from habitat loss, a decline in wildlife species and government infrastructure developments, is at the centre of a fresh row over its future.

Created through a colonial proclamation in December 1946, the 45-square mile Nairobi national park is the only sanctuary in the world where wild animals roam freely next to a bustling metropolis. Its ecological health is indicative of the country’s efforts to preserve Africa’s vanishing wildlife.

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Short-term analysis of ways to save society, and indeed humanity, is useless

In a biology lesson about the bacterial growth curve, the parallels with the climate crisis were hard to miss. Stick bacteria in a test tube with food and their population will grow exponentially until, eventually, they run out of resources and kill themselves off. Even a couple of decades ago, the comparison with humanity’s predicament felt glaringly obvious; and we have not really strayed since from the inevitable path to extinction.

The hope seems to be that a big crisis might be the shock we need to change course. But we are living through the biggest global crisis for decades – and are travelling and consuming less as a result of the pandemic – yet it already seems unlikely that much will change. It’s easy enough to throw around the old adage “never waste a good crisis”. But when it comes to existential questions about the future of humanity, it has proved fairly useless.

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Recent series ignore environmental and social issues in favour of strained ‘fun’

According to TV industry media, the fast fashion brand Missguided turned down more than 500 requests from TV production companies before agreeing to allow Pulse Films into its head office in Manchester last year. The fruits of that labour, Inside Missguided: Made in Manchester, a four-part series in Channel 4’s “coveted” 10pm documentary slot, were revealed last week.

Let’s be honest, I did not enjoy the show. A more substantive archive of my distress can be found on Twitter, but the short version is that I’m disturbed that this horror show of turbo-charged consumerism was ever commissioned.

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The MV Wakashio, which spilled more than 1,000 tonnes of fuel oil off Mauritius, has split apart.

Thousands of people have been forced out of their homes by rising water levels in two Kenyan lakes.

Local residents in the Maldives have won a campaign against developers and the government who wanted to turn two islands into a luxury resort.

Scientists say the loss of millions of reptiles in Australia’s summer bushfires will have a huge impact on ecosystems and biodiversity

What should have been a damp swamp beside Victoria’s Bemm River in East Gippsland was a blackened crunchy mess when Nick Clemann arrived in early March.

“These are habitats not known for burning. To have them converted to just smouldering charcoal was pretty confronting,” says Clemann, a senior scientist for the Victorian state government’s Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research.

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As researchers, we have been shocked to find the most remote depths of the Pacific Ocean polluted by our plastic. And it will outlive us all.

Another bottle. Yet another one. We are 200km from land, in the middle of the South Pacific, and this is the third bottle we’ve found already this morning.

Everywhere is plastic.

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Andrew Barr calls for more funding to reduce environmental assessment delays, following finding that governments are failing to protect unique native species

The chief minister of the ACT, Andrew Barr, has called on the Morrison government to increase funding for agencies responsible for environmental assessments for major projects, saying budget cuts had caused delays to assessments.

Speaking in Canberra on Friday, Barr said the statutory review of Australia’s national environmental laws needed to modernise the 20-year-old Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to ensure the legislation addressed climate change.

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Battle is on to remove fuel oil from Japanese vessel the MV Wakashio as weather worsens

A Japanese bulk carrier that ran aground on a reef in Mauritius last month threatening a marine ecological disaster around the Indian Ocean island has broken apart, authorities said on Saturday.

The condition of the MV Wakashio was worsening early on Saturday and by early afternoon, it had it split, the Mauritius National Crisis Committee said.

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Permit lets Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Native American tribes kill 540 California sea lions and 176 Steller sea lions

US authorities have given wildlife managers in Washington, Oregon and Idaho permission to start killing hundreds of sea lions in the Columbia River basin in hopes of helping struggling salmon and steelhead trout.

The bulky marine mammals long ago figured out that they could feast on the migrating fish where they bottleneck at dams or where they head up tributaries to spawn.

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Busy beaches and warm, calm seas fuel sightings of lion’s manes, compasses and moons

From a “mile-long” swarm in Devon to warnings to swimmers in the Outer Hebrides, it seems jellyfish are difficult to ignore this summer.

High temperatures, calm and warm seas and packed beaches have resulted in large numbers of reports of jellyfish blooms around the UK coast, and combined with a glut of the plankton on which they feed, some are reaching record sizes, experts said.

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NSW backs four new big battery projects, and gives funding for another half dozen even bigger battery, pumped hydro and compressed air energy storage proposals.

The post NSW to fund four new big battery projects as it flicks switch on transition from coal appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A UK uncrewed ocean-going vessel provides a glimpse of the future of robotic maritime operations.