Graham Readfearn

1 week ago | theguardian.com | Graham Readfearn

Peter Dutton’s plan to build less renewable energy and keep Australia’s coal plants running longer has overestimated the reliability of ageing generators and could lead to major electricity shortages, according to a new analysis. The Coalition has pledged to put taxpayer-funded nuclear reactors at seven sites around Australia and has pointed to modelling by Frontier Economics that shows the country’s ageing coal fleet would need to take up the slack in electricity generation while they are built.

1 week ago | theguardian.com | Camilla Hannan |Lisa Favazzo |Shelley Hepworth |Graham Readfearn |Aston Brown |Sanjana Jose

Maria Matthes, a lifelong koala conservationist, says loss of habitat and the climate crisis have threatened the endangered species in eastern New South Wales. Almost 2m hectares of forests suitable for koalas have been destroyed since 2011. They are one of more than 2,000 Australian species listed as under threat in what scientists are calling an extinction crisis

1 week ago | theguardian.com | Graham Readfearn

Nearly 2m hectares of forests suitable for endangered koalas have been destroyed since the iconic species was declared a threatened species in 2011, according to analysis for Guardian Australia. The scale of habitat destruction in Queensland and New South Wales – states in which the koala is formally recognised as being at risk of extinction – has continued despite political promises it would be protected.

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Michael Kalenderian |Lisa Favazzo |Graham Readfearn |Sanjana Jose |Miles Martignoni |Shelley Hepworth

Josh Bowell worries his kids may never see a wild yellow-bellied glider, one of the 2,000 Australian species listed as under threat. As scientists warn of an extinction crisis, the tradie is one of the passionate people protecting wildlife in his corner of south-east Queensland

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Graham Readfearn

Australia’s most skilled aerial mammal, the yellow-bellied glider, is on an “inexorable slide” to extinction as global heating creates more extreme bushfires that are robbing the species of the food and tree hollows it relies on to survive. Thanks to large parachutes of skin stretching from their wrists to their ankles, yellow-bellied gliders can travel up to 140 metres in a single jump, the furthest of any Australian mammal, including the larger and better known endangered greater glider.