Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Energy and health optimism help lift civil service morale under Labour

admin — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 07:00:50 +0000

Foreign Office and MoD among only four departments with declining morale in annual Whitehall monitor report

Civil service morale rose slightly after Labour took power in 2024, with the biggest jumps in satisfaction in the energy and health departments, an annual Whitehall monitor report will show.

The survey from the Institute for Government (IfG) thinktank, due to be published this week, found that morale rose from 60.7 to 61.2% on the civil service employee engagement index.

Flying foxes die in their thousands in worst mass-mortality event since Australia’s black summer

admin — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 06:29:35 +0000

Volunteers found thousands of dead bats at Melbourne’s Brimbank park, wildlife expert says

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Thousands of flying foxes have perished in the heatwave that scorched south-east Australia last week, the largest mass mortality event for flying foxes since black summer.

‘We want people to sit, pause, relax’: National Trust to open its libraries for public use

admin — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 05:00:48 +0000

Charity plans to make stately homes more welcoming by inviting visitors to use furniture and reading rooms

There was a time, not so long ago, when a visit to a National Trust stately home could be a staid affair and sitting on the furniture tended to be discouraged, with pine cones or teasels often placed on chairs to remind people not to perch.

Queensland braces for heavy rain and floods after ex-Tropical Cyclone Koji batters north

admin — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 23:43:46 +0000

Flood warnings in place as BoM forecasts more rain while thousands remain without power

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One person dead as PM visits bushfire-ravaged towns with 300 structures destroyed and 350,000 hectares burned

admin — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 02:57:28 +0000

Almost a dozen emergency warnings remain in place across Victoria, with state premier saying ‘we are not through the worst of this by a long way’

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Human remains found in bushfire area – as it happened

admin — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 21:36:10 +0000

This blog is now closed

One person dead as PM visits bushfire-ravaged towns with 300 structures destroyed and 350,000 hectares burned

Australia’s Cop31 chief negotiator plans to lobby petrostates on fossil fuel phaseout

admin — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 19:00:08 +0000

Exclusive: Chris Bowen says key to next UN climate summit will be ‘engagement, engagement, engagement’ with countries such as Saudi Arabia

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World’s richest 1% have already used fair share of emissions for 2026, says Oxfam

admin — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 05:00:48 +0000

Richest 1% took 10 days while wealthiest 0.1% needed just three days to exhaust annual carbon budget, study shows

The world’s richest 1% have used up their fair share of carbon emissions just 10 days into 2026, analysis has found.

Meanwhile, the richest 0.1% took just three days to exhaust their annual carbon budget, according to the research by Oxfam.

Reimagining coral reef futures

admin — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 05:00:00 +0000

npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 10 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00179-6

Reimagining coral reef futures

California is completely drought-free for the first time in 25 years

admin — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 19:15:39 +0000

Some wet years and recent winter storms have helped bring the state out of drought after years of insufficient rainfall

California is completely drought-free for the first time in a quarter of a century, a significant development in a state that endured grueling years with insufficient rainfall.