Australia & Oceania

"Indonesia plans to close its eastern island of Komodo to the public next year in a bid to conserve rare Komodo dragons, the largest living species of lizard, a provincial official said on Tuesday."

"Researchers have found high levels of radiation in giant clams near the Central Pacific site where the United States entombed waste from nuclear testing almost four decades ago, raising concerns the contamination is spreading from the dump site’s tainted groundwater into the ocean and the food chain."

"The Koala is, to all intents and purposes, already extinct. The Australian Koala Foundation has confirmed that, with only 80,000 members of the species left in the wild there isn’t enough to support a new generation."

"Australia’s ban on super-sized industrial fishing boats is far too narrow and places local fisheries under threat, environmentalists have said."

"Feral felines are driving the country’s native species to extinction. Now a massive culling is underway to preserve what’s left of the wild."

"Tourists to Indonesia will likely be barred from the popular Komodo Island in January 2020 — a decision seemingly impelled by recent reports of Komodo dragons being stolen and smuggled overseas, potentially for dubious medicinal purposes, according to local media."

"For millenniums, ecosystems have withstood fires, floods, heat waves, drought and even disease by adapting and rebuilding their biodiverse communitiesBut according to new research, there is a limit to what even the largest and most resilient places can stand, and climate change is testing that limit by repeatedly disturbing one of the earth’s most precious habitats: the Great Barrier Reef."