Climate Change Series

Massive storms are pumping pollution into our oceans: time to clean up our cities

Jun 07, 2016 08:20 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

The massive storms that have lashed Australias east coast over the past few days are not just a threat to lives and property, but also to our marine wildlife. The increasing urbanisation of our coastlines, and...

Solved mystery of the deep-sea mushroom just raises new questions

Jun 07, 2016 08:01 am UTC| Nature

Its not often scientists suggest theyve found an entirely new group of animals, something so different that they cant be considered as belonging to one of the main groups, such as shellfish, insects, worms, jellyfish,...

Climate Change Series

Sydney's wild weather shows home-owners are increasingly at risk

Jun 07, 2016 07:56 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

Eastern Australias wild weather has left coastal homes teetering on the brink of collapse, and has eroded beaches by up to 50m in parts of Sydney. Now the attention turns to the clean-up. There are several legal issues...

Climate Change Series

How the event that killed off the dinosaurs wiped out life in Antarctica

Jun 02, 2016 09:55 am UTC| Nature

The CretaceousPaleogene mass extinction 66m years ago was the most recent of five similar crises to have devastated life on Earth over the last 540m years. It rapidly killed off an estimated 76% of species around the...

The will of government is key to energy access...

Jun 02, 2016 09:51 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

The Bropkas meet the grid In what must surely be a first for the Conversation, I am writing this post from the village of Sakteng in remote eastern Bhutan. That I can do so is a remarkable testimony to the will of the...

In defence of zoos: how captivity helps conservation

Jun 02, 2016 09:45 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

The death of Harambe the gorilla at Cincinnati Zoo, shot to protect a child who had fallen into his cage, has caused outrage. Some of the anger has now turned from trigger-happy staff towards zoos in general. Why, some are...

Climate Change Series

The limits of intellectual reason in our understanding of the natural world

Jun 02, 2016 07:58 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

Ability to see the cultural value of wilderness boils down, in the last analysis, to a question of intellectual humility. Author and conservationist Aldo Leopold wrote these words in 1949, and they are all the more...