The global climate phenomenon has triggered devastating infernos in the ape’s Indonesian heartlands, with long-term effects on the animals still unknown
The mother’s hands were peeling from walking on the torched ground. Her eight-month-old baby, which clung to her side, was dehydrated and thin. The pair, named Mama Abu and Abu (“ash” in Indonesian), were found in an oil palm subsidiary estate, rescuers say.
The orangutan pair were saved last month from wildfires that are devouring Indonesia’s forests and peatland, unleashing thick smog, and destroying the habitat of some of the planet’s most vulnerable species.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
09/30/2026 - 22:00
09/30/2026 - 22:00
There is no greater treachery than this failure to face up to the climate crisis. How can we now fend off despair?
The Independent Planning Commission’s published reasons for approving the largest coalmine in New South Wales history in the context of mounting death, disaster and despair brought on by global heating reads like a hostage statement.
In its decision, the commission accepts that the extension of the Hunter Valley Operations’ mine for a further 19 years – resulting 809m tonnes of greenhouse gas pollution – will materially worsen global warming. The panel members cite CSIRO’s finding that climate change is having a growing effect on the lives and livelihoods of all Australians and that the severity of that impact “will depend on the speed at which global greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced”. They reject the idea that keeping HVO’s coal in the ground would make no difference to global warming.
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09/30/2026 - 18:01
Simple deterrents can slash the number of razorbills and guillemots being trapped underwater, two-year study shows
Bird-shaped kites and a floating scarecrow are being tested to try to stop endangered seabirds drowning in fishing nets.
Every year an estimated 95,000 diving birds, including razorbills and guillemots, are accidentally caught in nets off European coasts.
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09/30/2026 - 12:37
Sunday’s general election is too close to call, with the incumbent president facing the son of the man who attempted a coup against him
Sunday’s election in Brazil could hardly be a clearer-cut choice – nor a closer call. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, is neck and neck in the polls with Flávio Bolsonaro, the son and champion of the jailed far-right former president Jair. Mr Bolsonaro senior is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup to “annihilate” democracy after losing the last election.
Brazil is Latin America’s largest democracy, but military dictatorship is in its recent past. Mr Bolsonaro wants to free his father and those who rioted in his support in 2023. The senator has campaigned as a less crass and temperamental version of his father, but he is no less extreme. For many on both sides, this is a vote against a man they detest more than an endorsement of their own candidate. Most voters disapprove of both men.
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09/30/2026 - 11:24
Developing North Sea fields does not contradict net zero goals, according to Simone Rossi
New oil and gas projects are a “no-brainer” that pose “no contradiction” to the net zero agenda, according to the head of EDF Energy.
Simone Rossi has joined a string of renewables leaders in making the case for more North Sea production as the government prepares to decide on two projects there.
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09/30/2026 - 10:00
Images of gliding king penguins, a sugar thief rosella and a bin brush turkey are among the winning and shortlisted photos in this year’s prize. Funds raised by the competition support bird conservation programs in Australia
Australia’s best photos the month – September 2026
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09/30/2026 - 08:50
Environment Agency warns residents of 6m at-risk properties to prepare for wet and windy three months ahead
More than two million people in England are unaware their properties are at risk of flooding, as the UK braces for a wet and stormy start to the winter, according to the Environment Agency.
Experts say the next three months are more likely than usual to be wet and windy – due to a combination of large-scale weather patterns and the “subtle” impact of a supercharged El Niño – increasing the risk of flooding.
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09/30/2026 - 06:58
Study says UK-based banks provided $8.3bn in coal financing in four years, with Barclays and HSBC leading rise
UK banks are Europe’s biggest financial backers of the global coal industry, providing billions of pounds in funding for the climate-wrecking fossil fuel in the past four years, according to a report.
The study found UK-based banks had provided $8.3bn (£6.2bn) in coal financing since Cop26 in Glasgow in 2021, when global leaders pledged to “phase down” coal use. This compared with $4.9bn from German banks and $3.4bn from French banks over the same period.
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09/30/2026 - 06:00
Wave nearing southern California expected to reach San Francisco Bay Area by October as it crawls toward Alaska
Communities across California are rushing to prepare for the imminent arrival of the so-called “Kelvin wave”, a massive underwater band of warm water threatening to inundate swaths of the vast North American shoreline.
The wave is nearing southern California and expected to reach the San Francisco Bay Area by early October, as it crawls toward Alaska. Waters could rise by a foot along the California coast, according to scientists, who have warned that this could dramatically double the 8-12in rise in sea levels already caused by climate change over the last century.
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09/30/2026 - 05:00
Insects provide protection, sanitation and even shelter to vertebrates, making them a priority for conservation efforts
For many vertebrates, insects are more than a food source. As “little things that run the world”, insects provide critical functions such as protection, sanitation and shelter across ecosystems, according to a new study.
The study, published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity on Wednesday, sheds light on the various ways insects support vertebrates, ranging from birds and bats to reptiles, amphibians and mammals.
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