News for October, 2025

 

Prolonged dry spells are causing Australian rainforests to flip from carbon sink to source (- Wikimedia)

Welcome to another month of a conglomeration of news articles concerning environment and climate issues. This is by no means a complete coverage, by the way. I might start adding some links to my more frequent news sources for you, the occasional reader, to investigate for yourself.

In the meantime... 

Environment

While some nuggets of good environmental news occurred this month, the general trend is gloomy (this might have a bit to do with the Climate news which is, frankly, dire. Mind you, we're not dead yet!) 

If the environmental news is getting you down, have a numbat (-dilettante wordpress)

The Ugly

• In approving the operating extension to the NW Shelf gas project to 2070(!), it seems the Environment Minister weakened laws protecting the neighbouring rock art.
• EPBC reforms are about to be tabled in Parliament, with the usual run of back-room deals intended to gain bipartisan support. Out are the climate trigger and ministerial independence. (In fact, the legisaltion was tabled this week. It will take a few days to determine their value)
• Is the Liberal strategy to negotiating on the EPBC going to be the approach that defines 21st Century conservatism:  walk it back, and then walk away?
• War is bad for the environment, in both Gaza and the Ukraine. The *really* ugly part? It's intentional.

The Bad

• Wildfires across the world are increasing in intensity, and costing more to control. Experts warn they will soon be unstoppable.
• In recent years, polluting runoff has promoted the growth of a massive belt of seaweed, stretching across the Atlantic from West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico. It is now clearly visible from space.
• While numbers of the orange bellied parrot have been increasing of late, there are concerns that a proposed wind farm in their migratory route may pose an additional hazard to their survival.
• This has probably been so for a while, but Australia's (and Christmas Island's) only native shrew has been officially declared extinct. This brings the tally since colonisation to 39 native animals: 10% of the total.
• Following on from that gloomy snippet, the platypus is no longer found in the river where Darwin noted it, and started pondering evolution.

The Good 

• One of Australia's rarest marsupial, numbats are holding their own.
• Infiltrating their way into every living thing (including you), microplastics constitute an ever increasing threat to the health of the environment. So, this student's innovative solution is well worth celebrating.
• Another way to use oil, but ExxonMobil has just scrapped plans for a $10 billion plastics factory in Texas.
• Legal challenges are being filed against the recent approval for extending the NW shelf gas project 

Climate

This is the topic that underlies everything else, and 'Chickens Come Home' might be the good subtitle for this month. Even the good news has a somewhat 'pyrrhic' feel to it.

The Ugly

• Tail wags dog: The National Party has just voted to throw out 'net zero' policy. This places pressure on the Liberals to do the same. What this would do to their electoral standing is debatable, right wing news propaganda being what it is.
• Following the installation of Bari Weiss as CEO of CBS news, a DOGE-style staff purge has led to its once excellent climate unit being closed.

The Bad

• Emissions are peaking, and yet CO2 levels... have jumped by 4ppm this year!? This is obviously terrible news. Hopefully an aberration. A possible cause is the global extent of recent wildfires which, in 2024, burned an area greater than India!
• Major cities around the world have experienced a 25% increase in heat waves since the 1990s.
• How achievable is limiting warming to 1.5 degrees? Well, a surge in the past month has average global temperatures running at 1.3 degrees above the 1980-2010 baseline, and 1.9 degrees above pre-industrial levels, so...
• Ocean heat waves destroy coral reefs. They also clog the drains: preventing the carbon in zooplankton poo from falling to the ocean floor and out of the system.
• It's cold climate has kept Iceland mosquito free. Not any more.
• Australia's rainforests are turning to carbon sources.
• Climate tipping points are no longer a vague future threat. Coral reefs are about to be wiped out. In fact, ocean heatwaves mean that two of Florida's coral species are now functionally extinct.

The Good 

• After three years of being significantly above the long term average, global sea surface temperatures are dropping (for now) to being merely above average. (2015 levels, which were themselves anomalous at the time)

Energy

Terrible environmental news. Terrible climate news. Terrible... actually, no. This month's energy news has quite a bit of good stuff. First, though, the ugly stuff...

 The Ugly

• Spain recently suffered a substantial power outage which critics were quick to blame renewable energy for. Not so fast. 
• There are many signs that Queensland's state government is intent on emulating Trumpism. One is their plan to continue running state owned coal power station for ten years longer than originally intended.
• Anti-renewable groups feel empowered in this environment. Empowered enough to submit a paper criticising renewable power, using fictional examples generated by AI.
• It's always the middle man. In this case, it seems the distributor wished to charge the owner of a solar farm for supplying residents in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Owner is no longer supplying residents...

The Bad

• Accusations that the Australian Government's 'Future Gas Strategy' relies on distorted information
• The 'Climate Attribution' technique has been used to suggest emissions from Scarborough gas project will cause 480 deaths from heat related causes. 

The Good

• Pioneered in Australia (and nowhere near as damaging to the environment as fracking), deep drilling for geothermal energy has been attracting some interest. Enough to promote innovative drilling techniques, like microwaves.
• Spain again. This time an article on how they used renewables to cut the link between gas usage and high energy prices.
• Despite Trump's recidivism, the rest of the world is rapidly adopting renewables.
• Global energy production from renewable sources has surpassed  that from coal for the first time.
• Renewables in Africa: Ethiopian farmers use solar power to run their water pumps, while villages in Cameroon and Zambia get hooked into the solar grid.
• While the Queensland state government is planning to keep on running their coal stations , Rio Tinto (still driven more by economics more than political virtue signalling) is planning to shut down its Gladstone station six years early.
• One big stick the renewable naysayers like to wield is how much waste renewable operations  produce at the end of their life. While it's interesting this point is seldom raised when fossil fuels are discussed, it is a valid one to consider and have answered, as the Climate Council do here.
• Meanwhile, enjoy some sheep on a solar farm.

Resistance

 

Suppose they held a war and nobody came? No Kings protests in Juneau, Alaska. One of thousands (-Wikimedia)

Civil war is ugly, but that appears to be what the Trump administration is trying to provoke with its increasingly draconian operations to round up undocumented immigrants in cities across the country. However, a war requires more than one combatant, and the restraint shown by protestors to date in avoiding any violent response to the naked aggression exhibited by ICE and associated Law Enforcement is both remarkable and commendable.

Well, if the locals won't provide a war to distract from the dismemberment of the state, perhaps Venezuela will? That seems to be what the recent surge in 'extrajudicial killings' against supposed drug smugglers is trying to provoke.

The Ugly

• ICE are about apprehending and deporting illegal immigrants. They provide the same service to US citizens (170 documented cases to date)
• Spiteful: the act of detaining someone for deportation when they've just been released from jail after serving 43 years for a crime they didn't commit.
• What is this thing called 'Law'? Although the quaintly named Posse Comitatus Act explicitly forbids it, Trump officials openly discussed sending army units into Portland, Oregon. ('open' as in, yet again using social media)
• Meanwhile, the extrajudicial killings continue (although the officer in charge of operations has abruptly resigned) 
• On the eve of ending food aid for poor Americans, Trump sought admiration for his new marble coated Lincoln bathroom. He then hosted a lavish 'roaring twenties' halloween ball at Mar-a-Lago. What would Marie Antoinette have to say? (It says something about the richest state on the planet that 1 in 8 of its citizens are on a food aid program!)

The Bad

•  US Congress has outlawed Antifa as a terrorist organisation. It doesn't exist, but it turns out having a non-existent organisation to scapegoat is useful. It's been done before.
• Quackery: having announced that Tylenol causes autism, Kennedy suggests people should eat more saturated fats.  
• More quackery: Florida proposes to end all childhood vaccination programs.What are they trying to achieve?

The Good 

• The second 'No Kings' rally on October 17 drew over 7-8 million protestors across the US (plus a few in Melbourne). Notably, this includes communities which were staunchly Republican in the last election. Also notable is that no arrests of participants were reported, although there were 22 arrests of disruptors. Trump's response was to post a cruddy AI generated video, and knock down the East Wing of the White House. Mature behaviour.
• What Trump knocks down, people keep resurrecting. Like this NOAA disaster database.
• Since he can't use the army (see above), Trump has been deploying national guard units to protect ICE from protestors. A judge has temporarily blocked them from entering Chicago, and the Supreme Court has delayed making its decision on appeal.
• What are these armed force needed to quell? Frogs! 
• Two judges have ordered the US Government to continue funding the food aid programs. What that will achieve remains to be seen.

Transport

Bikes are gaining popularity in Paris. (-Wikimedia)

 Last month, the articles were about trains. This month, it's bikes. Don't confuse the two!

The Ugly

• The world was about to reach an agreement for reducing shipping emissions via a global carbon tax. Then along came Trump.
• Like gas, hybrid vehicles were supposed to be a bridge for people unsure of new technology to try out EVs. Like gas, it is beginning to look as if the manufacturers have other ideas. 

The Bad

•  Climate change is making air travel more turbulent.
• NSW councils to start fining bike hire companies for illegally parked bikes. Expect the fine to be passed on (On one hand, pick-up hire bikes make sense. On the other, a certain degree of responsibility is called for when parking.)
• An interesting (and alarming) take on cars and their place in the environment. 
• Over the last year or two, the US has experienced, not a surge in pedestrian collisions, but a surge in pedestrian collision deaths. This appears to be due to SUVs.

The Good 

•  In the last 5-10 years, Paris has morphed into a bike friendly city.
• Should you opt for a second car, or a cargo e-bike? The point isn't whether or not you should, but that you can now consider such a decision.
• Since we're on this theme, check out this drvolts podcast on the possibility of weaning ourselves from automobile dependence.

Housing 

Not much news in this section this month, but what there is tends to be good (or at least interesting)

The Good 

•  Pros and cons of living in a 'passivhaus' (well, one can dream,and even implement a few features)
• After a couple of weeks of dithering, Gov. Newsom has signed off on Californian legislation allowing more dwellings to be built near mass transit. (A landmark decision? Given the influence of the car/petrol lobbies, yes.)

Plaigue 

In which 'artificial intelligence' continues to align with 'disaster capitalism'... 

The Ugly

•  The truly ugly thing about the current AI hype is that it's setting the world up for a bubble burst that will make the GFC look tame, at a time when all the adults have been barred from the control room.

The Bad

• The energy demand of data centres has caused power prices in the US to double in the last five years.
•  Yet another study finds AI coding is massively overhyped.
• Study finds the sycophantic nature of chatbots suppresses social behaviour and promotes dependence. Humans do seem to like this sort of thing...
• ... some humans at least. Most tend to avoid using AI. Those who do use it have a predisposition to psychopathy and narcissm (which would check out with the aforementioned sycophancy) 
• Humans may not use AI directly, but popular search engines certainly do, and happily pass off other site data as their own. This is why Wikipedia has noted a concerning decline in human visitors recently.
• Much browser activity involves searches, and search engine results are increasingly AI driven. So isn't the next logical step to use a browser run by an AI? Errm... 

The Good 

• Not everybody is cooperating with supplying the energy thirst of new data centres.
• Europeans do not want data centres hijacking energy transitions
• AI powered textbooks in Korea: wildly unpopular, and have now been rolled back after four months. (matches last month's observation that children were expressing their disbelief in something with "That's AI!")