The Great Barrier Reef just experienced its worst summer on record, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced last month that the world is undergoing a global mass coral bleaching event — the fourth since the late 1990s — impacting at least 53 countries.

Seven months after an El Niño associated with hotter and drier weather got under way, conditions have returned to neutral.Should a La Niña get under way later this year it would be the fourth such event in the past five years. Such a sequence – of three La Niñas followed by an El Niño and La Niña...

It’s not just the Great Barrier Reef that’s going through coral bleaching, the world is experiencing its second major coral bleaching event in 10 years, with reef systems from Australia to Florida teetering on the brink of disaster following months of record-breaking ocean heat.

New data shows the Great Barrier Reef has suffered through its worst-ever heat stress with more than 80% of reefs enduring dangerous levels of heating (more than four Degree Heating Weeks), as scientists grapple to quantify the irreparable, cumulative damage from repeated such events.

Angela Telupe watched her backyard flood as a king tide tightened its grip on the main island of Tuvalu. Tuvalu Meteorological Service data and communication officer Simoea Tiute said the February king tide was the worst she had seen in her life in Tuvalu. The flooding came as Tuvalu considered the...

The International Energy Agency’s Global Methane Tracker has revealed that large methane plumes from leaky fossil fuel infrastructure jumped by 50 per cent in 2023 compared with 2022. However, the International Energy Agency is optimistic that new satellites will help improve monitoring and...

Scientists fear excessive ocean heat – which is bleaching corals in parts of the Great Barrier Reef – is now hitting the world’s most southern coral reef at the World Heritage-listed Lord Howe island. There are also concerns ocean temperatures are reaching dangerous levels for corals at Australia’s...

Experts say east coast humpback whale population has reached record numbers, as tourism boomsBeneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean off Australia's east coast, record numbers of humpback whales are making their way south on their annual migration journey. After commercial whaling from the late...

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Australia has become one of the first in the world to sign a legally binding, landmark biodiversity pact for the high seas which addresses an astonishing lack of protection for parts of the ocean that lie over 200 nautical miles offshore. Greenpeace CEO David Ritter has praised this development but...