News for September, 2026
Welcome to another month of what's going on with this weird and wonderful planet of ours. One thing that sticks out is the number of species in the news, both for coming and going. It therefore seemed apt to lead with the eerie meeting depicted in the winner of Australian Geographic's Nature Photography award for 2026.
Environment
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'Ethereal Encounter' A swordfish and turtle off the Pilbara coast. Matt Deakin's winning entry for the 2026 Australian Geographic Nature Photography award |
The Ugly
- Australia's new Environmental Protection Agency is not off to a good start: approving a coal mine extension to 2055
- Chemical regulations have been eased in the UK. The decision is being challenged.
- Australian government shelves plans for packaging standards cutting plastic waste.
- Under Trump's aggressive ostrich stance, NOAA recently announced it would no longer release the annual Arctic Report Card. Fortunately, others will.
The Bad
- A concerning number of wildlife setbacks:
- One in nine migratory bird species are threatened with extinction
- Dugong numbers in the Gulf of Carpentaria have halved
- Koalas in Victoria are also in bad shape
- Grey whales are starving as the Arctic warms
- ... lack of food may be why southern right whales are breeding more slowly
- more casualties of the SA algal bloom: lampreys and sea dragons
- Norfolk Island owls may be too inbred to survive
- A northern summer of heat waves and wildfires has not helped air quality.
- Considering what fire ants are capable of, it is bizarre that the Federal Government needs any urging to continue funding their eradication.
The Good
- A well preserved feather, found in the most unlikely of places: fossilised dinosaur poo.
- Despite the above list, some species are doing better than expected:
- Salmon have rapidly reclaimed upper reaches of the Klamath River following dam decommissioning and rewilding.
- Thirty years after they were fished out, cod stocks are suddenly recovering.
- A new cat species has been identified in Bolivia.
- Two new species of stick insect in Queensland
- Little crocodiles: but are they at risk?
- Good news: 14,000 tagged bogong moths have gone missing.
- Sighting a night parrot chick brings tears of joy to indigenous rangers.
Climate
Many images might be used to portray just how savage the Northern Summer has been. The one below was taken on an Austrian glacier at an altitude of just under 3000 meters, and a little more under than it would have been a year ago. Meanwhile the average sea surface temperatures are a staggering one degree above the long term average. Most of that is due to the record breaking El Nino event, still growing.
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| An Austrian glacier lost 6 meters of ice last summer (photo: A Linsbauer) |
The Ugly
- As a finale to the Northern Hemisphere's hottest Summer on record, Trump repeals the last of Biden's greenhouse emission requirements
- Having recently featured the late Exxon CEO Lee Raymond's contributions to climate change denial, we should not forget what Rupert Murdoch has helped achieve.
- A winning policy for Australia? Some years ago, my local Liberal MP told us of how (using a choice of words I found convincing) she was focussed on getting the party to commit to a tepid policy of 'Net Zero by 2050'. She succeeded, but has since passed away, and the Liberals are now vowing to 'take a chainsaw' to climate action.
The Bad
- The El Nino system currently developing looks set to be the strongest on record. (it is already driving the highest mean Sea Surface temperatures ever recorded for this time of year.)
- Just entering Spring, and Australia is already experiencing bushfires in Queensland and Tasmania, while the ski industry officially closed the season a month early.
- Meanwhile, showing how complicated local weather systems can make the picture, PNG is experiencing severe frosts and crop damage.
- $855 billion: the projected cost of sea level rise to Australia this century.
- According to the UN Environment Report, the 1.5 degree limit on global warming targetted by the Paris Accords is slipping out of reach. That doesn't mean we give up.
The Good
- Bucking the trend: reduced oil use has caused China's emissions to fall by 1% in the second quarter of this year.
- MethaneSAT is no longer operating, but the science of detecting methane emissions from space continues to develop, and...
- ... now it knows about them, Turkmenistan is starting to tackle its methane leaks.
Energy
The Ugly
- Clean natural gas: the bridging fuel aiding the transition to renewables? No! This message was propaganda crafted by the fossil fuel industry. Here's how they sold it.
- How Woodside's Browse project avoids coverage by Australia's climate pollution laws.
- Author and environmental reporter George Monbiot has summarised the capitalist process as a cycle of boom, bust, and quit. The latter phase is on full display as owners of an exhausted coal mine shut it down and walk away, without any rehabilitation effort.
The Bad
- The move away from oil and other fossil fuels is going to stress countries reliant on the revenue. It may lead to conflict.
- There's talking, and there's walking. How brave is Albanese willing to be on climate action, when coal projects are lining up for reapproval?
The Good
- Africa installed solar panels capable of delivering 17GW in FY 2026
- Disinformation about energy solutions is becoming as widespread as disinformation about climate change. Fortunately, there are organisations fighting back.
- Australia's evening peak gas demand has fallen by 70% over the past year.
- Popular in Europe and perfect for flats, plug-in 'balcony' solar panels are set to be legalised in Australia.
- Sometimes it's hard to keep up. As some express doubts about Australia's ability to achieve its 2030 target of 82% energy derived from renewables, it has already reached 80%.
Health
The Ugly
- Ectopic pregnancies are non-viable and *have* to be aborted. However, abortion bans in the US are delaying diagnosis, and have led to a 100% increase in maternal deaths.
- How Trump is forcing hospitals to end gender affirming care for minors. (a complicated issue well beyond Trump's ability to grasp)
The Bad
- DRC's Ebola outbreak now exceeds 6,000 cases, with 3,000 deaths.
- Fiji declares an HIV emergency.
The Good
- Strategies for providing sustainable service models for rural health care. (ie how to keep GPs in the bush)
- A blood test promises early detection of pancreatic cancer.
- Have you heard that we now have two brains? While the news has been a source of some humorous observations, that is not quite the point. What has been discovered is that our brains form and grow together from two separate parts of the embryo. This has ramifications for growing stem cells from various brain structures.
Resistance
There is some argument over the number of people actually taken by ICE in Minnesota during Operation Metro Surge. 11,000 or only 4,000? The fact that it is measured in thousands is the real point here.
And then there are the other states...
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commemorating the 11,000 people taken by ICE during the 2025 Minnesota surge. |
The Ugly
- Operation Metro Surge may be over, but ICE are continuing to terrorise communities in Maryland, Vermont, New Jersey, and Queens.
- Statements from people interred at ICE detention facility, Burlington
- Having removed the temporary protection status of Haitians, Trump is now going after 170,000 Salvadorians.
- The US Navy has now killed 227 people in boat strikes. It should be noted that, even if these people were guilty as claimed, drug trafficking does not carry the death penalty.
- In the UK, the utterance of two words can now get even pensioners charged with terrorism offences. Turning up with your blackshirt buddies to monster a channel port? Not so much.
- Trump rejects disaster appeals from four states. Democrat, of couse.
- Having now blocked several of Trump's grotesque and self-serving executive orders, many US judges are starting to express fears for their personal safety.
The Bad
- An independent report on the SLAPP case brought against Greenpeace finds that justice was not served.
- The mid-term battles are in full swing, and as clean as they get in any civil war. Trump's proposed ban on mail-in voting has now been blocked by two judges. However, the Supreme Court has just voted 6-3 (of course) to permit the use of an expanded immigration database to detect voting by non-citizens (and possibly quite a few actual citizens as well)
The Good
- Trump's attempt at muzzling the White House Press Pool by banning the networks he doesn't like backfired, with the entire pool ceasing to cover him. (Trump's bans were unconstitutional, and a judge has ordered the affected crews to be readmitted, although there appears to be a certain reluctance to do so.)
- While Trump hasn't yet outlawed climate related work (incidentally a goal stated by Pauline Hanson when she was elected senator), he has made it very hard to perform. This organisation is helping people find it.
- Light remains a powerful disinfectant, as in... illegal voting is so rampant, according to Trump, that 17,000 invalid ballots were lodged in Nevada alone. Actually... make that 185, or maybe even... zero?
Housing
The news this month emulates that line from Chernobyl: "Not great. Not terrible."
The Bad
- The lack of infrastructure planning for uncontrolled outward residential growth catches up eventually.
- Related: fire services are not keeping up with outer suburbs.
- The options facing life long renters at retirement are not great
- With a national housing shortage, the building industry should be thriving rather than going under. What gives?
- Victorians almost had the right to work from home, but the legislation has been deferred until after the state election.
The Good
- This US report is a technical read, but the Executive Summary does highlight the multiplier effect a good housing strategy has on a local economy and environment
- A good housing strategy has to be more than just creating high density accommodation.
Transport
The Ugly
- Georgia has invested heavily in EV manufacturing and renewables. Trump is not making it easy to persevere.
The Bad
- Privatisation is blamed for the poor state of Victorian roads.
- In switching from ICE to EVs, plug in hybrids are not a clean bridging option, emitting six times more than advertised.
The Good
- Australians bought more EVs than ICE vehicles last month
- How EV owners can benefit from Australia's 'solar sharer' scheme.
- Access to EV charging has been a barrier, particularly when there is no driveway. This Volts program discusses one solution to that.
- How the rise of EVs have reduced pollution levels in London over the last decade. (Personal aside - what struck me about a visit to London in 2011 was the road traffic mix: predominantly buses, taxis, and 'Barclays' bikes!)
- World's largest electric vessel arrives in Uruguay, having been transported from its construction yard in... Tasmania.
- Cities of Bendigo and Geelong are being urged to look at light rail options
Plaigue
My opinion remains: AI is an excuse to drive the building of data centres that create a demand for fossil fuels.
The Ugly
- NT's push to become a global data centre hub accused of merely creating an artificial market for gas from the Beetaloo Basin.
- Australia is considering legislation requiring providers of social media to allow users to consciously 'opt into' the algorithmic feeds by which information of choice is pumped rather than search . The US government is not happy.
The Bad
- As data centres boom, Victoria's renewable power supplies will struggle to supply them. (Perhaps we're approaching this the wrong way?)
- It is notable that the very developers of AI have suddenly started voicing concerns about AI being an existential threat to humanity. It is also notable that the concerns are vague on specifics. Cory Doctorow breaks down what it might mean. (The real threat is the load the accompanying data centres place on the environment)
The Good
- Sydney University staff and students stage a walkout in protest at the pervasive use of AI in curricular activities
- Victoria places restrictions on data centre construction: requiring energy sourced from renewables, and minimum distances from residences.
- Are less demanding data centres even possible? Maybe it is.
