University of Queensland modelling warns of ‘grim future’ for corals once global temperatures cross threshold * Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here The Great Barrier Reef will undergo “rapid coral decline” until 2050 but could recover if global heating is kept below 2C, according to the most detailed modelling so far of the future of the world’s biggest coral reef. The finding contradicts a widely held view that the decline of the oceanic gem would become irreversible as global temperatures rise above 1.5C, with one report last month suggesting the world’s tropical corals had already reached a tipping point of long-term decline. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter Continue reading...

Private briefings confirmed how Labor intends to deal with some contentious elements of rewritten Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act Labor has confirmed the climate impact of fossil fuel projects still won’t be considered before they are approved under a revamp of federal nature laws, with the Greens labelling the government’s plan “worse than the status-quo”. The Greens, opposition and select environment and business groups have been briefed on parts of the long-awaited re-write of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Epbc) Act ahead of its introduction to parliament in the upcoming sitting fortnight. Continue reading...

Secretary Cosplay can add art theft to her resume.

The majority did not just greenlight an especially odious immigration policy without any explanation; it did so in a case in which the government defied the district court—twice—with no consequence.