Graham Readfearn

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Lisa Cox |Graham Readfearn

A common agricultural pesticide caused the mass deaths of 200 little corellas across Newcastle in March, the New South Wales environment watchdog has confirmed. The Environment Protection Authority said toxicology tests had detected the presence of barley grain and the pesticide fenitrothion in all the deceased birds. Fenitrothion is a pesticide commonly used in agriculture to control insect pests.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Graham Readfearn

Australian energy company Woodside will spend $18bn on a new liquified natural gas (LNG) project in the US that one advocacy group said would add 1.6bn tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over its 40-year life. Climate advocates said the announcement, made the week before Woodside’s annual general meeting, would put further pressure on the company after a major rebuke from shareholders last year over its emissions plan.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Graham Readfearn

Labor’s campaign spokesperson, frontbencher Jason Clare, claimed on Monday that CSIRO had put a $600bn price tag on the Coalition’s plans to build taxpayer-funded nuclear reactors at seven sites. “Have a look at the work that the CSIRO has done that proves that this will cost $600bn. It won’t turn a light on for 20 years. It’ll only produce about 4% of the energy that Australia is going to need,” Clare told ABC Radio National.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Ben Smee |Graham Readfearn

The only regular meeting of Australia’s Saltbush Club takes place most Thursday evenings at a golf club in Five Dock, in Sydney’s inner west. The group’s founding members – a collection of the country’s most prominent and avid global heating deniers – include Gina Rinehart, the former Queensland premier Campbell Newman, former Business Council of Australia head Hugh Morgan, and Coalition MP Colin Boyce. At Five Dock, the crowd is mostly old and mostly white. They sometimes host contrarian speakers.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Graham Readfearn

The world’s coral reefs have been pushed into “uncharted territory” by the worst global bleaching event on record that has now hit more than 80% of the planet’s reefs, scientists have warned. Reefs in at least 82 countries and territories have been exposed to enough heat to turn corals white since the global event started in January 2023, the latest data from the US government’s Coral Reef Watch shows.