Sustainable Living
From 16 to 22 November, Australians are invited to step outside, photograph the beetles, spiders, snails and worms living close by, and share them with scientists through iNaturalist. All it takes is a phone and a little curiosity.
For more uplifting stories from the earth to the sea.
On a family farm in Rio de Janeiro state, the Lockes have planted more than a million native seedlings since 2001. Into that growing forest came the lowland tapir, missing from the state for more than a century, and now its striped calves are being born free.
At the southern tip of mainland South America, Rewilding Chile has signed to give a further 22,333 hectares to the people of Chile. It brings the national park on its way at Cape Froward to about 183,000 hectares of subantarctic forest, peatland and coast.
Science had not recorded the Bangka slow loris since the early 1930s. A rescue team on its home island had been caring for them all along, more than 90 since 2015, and a new paper has put the little primate with the big round eyes back on the map.
In India's north east, a limestone plateau holds an estimated 2,000 caves, and about 100 local young people have trained to guide visitors through them. At Mawmluh Cave there are no electric lights, just torches and guides who know every turn.
A Melbourne textile recycler has won Best in Class at the 2026 Australian Good Design Awards for a signboard made entirely from old clothes and fabric. Here is how to send them yours.
Next Sunday a crew of six women, led by a CERN science communicator and including a European Space Agency reserve astronaut, sets out across the Atlantic with a floating laboratory on board. Here is how to follow them all the way to Saint Lucia.
Six young broad headed snakes, born at Aussie Ark, went home to a sandstone ridge near Nowra in May, under rocks made just for them. Months on, at least four of them are doing well, a world first for their kind.
After years in the soil sipping sap from tree roots, Sydney's cicadas are climbing out on warm evenings, slipping free of their shells and starting the song of summer.
In India's north east, a limestone plateau holds an estimated 2,000 caves, and about 100 local young people have trained to guide visitors through them. At Mawmluh Cave there are no electric lights, just torches and guides who know every turn.
Six young broad headed snakes, born at Aussie Ark, went home to a sandstone ridge near Nowra in May, under rocks made just for them. Months on, at least four of them are doing well, a world first for their kind.
Between Brazil and Ghana, right on the Equator, a valley close to a thousand kilometres long had never been seen by human eyes. In September a Brazilian led team sailed out to lower a robot into it, and found gardens.
Australia Zoo's Wildlife Hospital began as a tribute to Steve Irwin's mother, Lyn. This spring one of its koalas arrived after a ten hour drive with the mother of the vet who runs it.
On a family farm in Rio de Janeiro state, the Lockes have planted more than a million native seedlings since 2001. Into that growing forest came the lowland tapir, missing from the state for more than a century, and now its striped calves are being born free.
At the southern tip of mainland South America, Rewilding Chile has signed to give a further 22,333 hectares to the people of Chile. It brings the national park on its way at Cape Froward to about 183,000 hectares of subantarctic forest, peatland and coast.
Science had not recorded the Bangka slow loris since the early 1930s. A rescue team on its home island had been caring for them all along, more than 90 since 2015, and a new paper has put the little primate with the big round eyes back on the map.
In India's north east, a limestone plateau holds an estimated 2,000 caves, and about 100 local young people have trained to guide visitors through them. At Mawmluh Cave there are no electric lights, just torches and guides who know every turn.
A Melbourne textile recycler has won Best in Class at the 2026 Australian Good Design Awards for a signboard made entirely from old clothes and fabric. Here is how to send them yours.
In the Fassifern Valley, two machines are picking weeds out of carrot and onion rows one plant at a time, one with a tiny targeted spray, the other with light alone. Growers designed the trials themselves.
On a family farm in Rio de Janeiro state, the Lockes have planted more than a million native seedlings since 2001. Into that growing forest came the lowland tapir, missing from the state for more than a century, and now its striped calves are being born free.
At the southern tip of mainland South America, Rewilding Chile has signed to give a further 22,333 hectares to the people of Chile. It brings the national park on its way at Cape Froward to about 183,000 hectares of subantarctic forest, peatland and coast.
More than 25,000 people in over 50 countries gave to bring a heart shaped Northumberland estate into the care of two wildlife charities. Curlews, red squirrels and merlins already live there, and it sits at the heart of a planned 40 mile corridor for nature.
Next Sunday a crew of six women, led by a CERN science communicator and including a European Space Agency reserve astronaut, sets out across the Atlantic with a floating laboratory on board. Here is how to follow them all the way to Saint Lucia.
Boats on the ramps at Gordons Bay, a bubbling spa bath at Giles, fairy wrens dancing on the Cape Banks headland, and a float in Yarra Bay at the end. Six special places down one stretch of coast.
Four hundred stone steps below the Garut road, a Sundanese village of exactly one hundred and three thatched houses has turned down electricity, turned down an escalator, and this year closed its gate to visitors for three months so the land and the customs could breathe.
We would love you to pass our stories along. Send one to someone who wants to feel uplifted today, because hope grows when it is shared. And if our stories brighten your week, you are very welcome to support us. It is what keeps the whole thing running.
