The Crunch: how Ukraine drones hit Russia; marine heatwaves; and the collapse of Canada's third parties
Hello and welcome to another edition of The Crunch!
There's been so much great datavis published over the last couple of weeks, it was a real struggle to whittle down. But in this week's newsletter we've got another great political▲triangle▲ chart, an analysis of the accuracy of Asian casting in Hollywood, a visual explainer on the Ukraine drone attack on Russia, an interactive map showing the extent of marine heatwaves and how you can mislead people by being selective with the data you show.
The Greens lost three seats and their party leader in the 2025 Australian federal election, despite a relatively steady national vote. How did this happen? We took a deep dive into the Greens vote, looking at how dispersed Greens voters are across the country, why a seat redistribution affected Adam Bandt in Melbourne, and the 'three-cornered' contests between the Greens and the major parties in Brisbane.
Stick around to the end of the piece to play with our interactive preferences calculator.
Our colleagues in the US have also published this great visual guide to the Los Angeles protests. The map is particularly useful if, like us, you find it hard to tell the scale of the protests from the television coverage.
1. How accurately are Asian-Americans cast in Hollywood?
There's a lot to like in this visual essay from Dorothy Lu and Anna Li at the Pudding. It starts with a lovely comic strip explaining the inspiration for the piece, then takes a detailed look at Asian representation in cinema.
2. Ukraine drone attack
Even days after Ukraine's drone attack deep in Russian territory earlier in June, it was hard to imagine what exactly had happened.
Reuters has a great visual explainer, showing what the drones look like and how they were smuggled into Russia inside modified trucks.
3. Marine heatwaves getting more frequent and widespread
A quarter of the world's oceans experienced temperatures in 2024 that qualify as a heatwave.
Delger Erdenesanaa and climate graphics wizard Harry Stevens at the NYT have produced this interactive piece looking at how widespread marine heatwaves have become ($), with an excellent, if confronting, interactive map that shows the spread of heatwaves over time.
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The map also works really well on mobile, which you can't always say about a lot of interactive maps.
4. ▲△▲MORE TRIANGLES ▲△▲
Regular readers of the Crunch will know that we love ternary scatterplots, so we were excited to see this view of Canadian election results which shows the movement of vote share in every federal riding (these are Canadian electoral districts), from third parties to the two major parties.
The chart was made by designer Nick Abasolo, and you can read more about it here.
The New York Times on boys falling behind in kindergarten ($)
The Economist on girls falling behind in maths ($)
Our World in Data on how childhood leukemia became treatable
As The Economist's Archie Hall said, this chart posted by the UK Conservatives is the type where when you start the x axis really matters:
And so the FT's Alphaville made this excellent edit of the chart, showing how inflation was far higher – and increased far more – under the Conservatives:
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The Guardian
7 hours ago
- The Guardian
Environmentalists worry as Labor seeks consensus on new federal nature laws
A select group of environment and industry leaders will be brought together in a fresh attempt to build consensus on a long-awaited rewrite of federal nature laws, Guardian Australia can reveal. The environment minister, Murray Watt, will soon detail the next phase of consultation as he presses ahead with an ambition to enact sweeping changes to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) in the next 18 months. After the first-term Albanese government shelved proposed reforms amid lobbying from miners and the Western Australian government, Watt has restarted the process. The past failures, combined with the approval of major fossil fuel projects and the rushed passage of laws to protect Tasmania's salmon industry, have environmentalists worried about Labor's second term. But they also believe Labor's resounding election victory gives it scope to act 'quickly and boldly' to deliver serious reform. 'Australians are tired of the bush being bulldozed and burnt and elected a government that will act on nature and on climate,' the Wilderness Society's national campaigns director, Amelia Young, said. Almost five years have passed since Graeme Samuel handed his review of the EPBC Act to the then environment minister Sussan Ley, exposing how the systemic failures of successive governments had left Australia's unique species in unsustainable decline. The centrepiece of Samuel's 38 recommendations was a set of national environmental standards turning Australia's laws from a process-focused system to one focused on outcomes. Standards that deliver outcomes for the environment and reverse wildlife decline are one of the big demands of the environment movement in this term. 'You'd want to see national environmental standards stipulating places that development should be off limits, such as critical habitat or essential breeding populations,' said James Trezise, the director of the scientist-led Biodiversity Council. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton's Clear Air column as a free newsletter A suite of national environmental standards was supposed to form the third stage of Labor's Nature Positive Plan, which never saw the light of day as the government prioritised its ultimately doomed environment protection agency (EPA). The decision of Watt's predecessor, Tanya Plibersek, to split the reform into stages – starting with the federal EPA – was widely criticised as delaying the urgent task of fixing the EPBC Act. Senior Labor sources confirmed Watt was leaning toward a different route, pursuing an EPA and amendments to the EPBC Act in one package to avoid dragging out the process. Environmental organisations also want an end to the 'climate blindness' of Australia's environmental laws, an end to loopholes such as the effective exemption granted to logging under regional forest agreements, and a clearer focus on what's needed for the recovery of threatened species. Brendan Sydes, the Australian Conservation Foundation's national biodiversity policy adviser, said any reform package needed to address the 'highly discretionary' nature of the existing laws. 'Because otherwise we just continue to have a situation where people can continue to bring forward proposals that destroy threatened species habitat,' he said. The biggest point of tension between industry and environmental groups might be something the Samuel review never even recommended. Whereas Samuel advocated for a commissioner to monitor and audit the processes governments used to make environmental decisions, Labor proposed an entirely new agency that would both enforce nature laws and assess projects. Anthony Albanese offered to strip the agency of decision-making powers in a failed attempt to win the Coalition's support in the previous term. The design of the EPA 2.0 is up in the air – and will be fiercely contested. Environment groups including the Australian Conservation Foundation maintain the watchdog must have compliance and decision-making powers and be governed by an independent board. 'We need an independent regulator with responsibility for decision-making on assessments and approvals, rather than just a compliance and enforcement EPA,' Sydes said. Industry groups that represent major mining companies are staunchly opposed to such a model, instead favouring Samuel's approach. Sign up to Clear Air Australia Adam Morton brings you incisive analysis about the politics and impact of the climate crisis after newsletter promotion The Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia – whose members include BHP and Rio Tinto – argues a new federal decision-maker would add another layer of 'bureaucratic duplication' to an already lengthy and complex environmental approval process. Bran Black, the chief executive of the Business Council of Australia, said the existing laws were not working for the environment or industry. 'Australia urgently needs faster approvals for projects, so we can deliver more renewable energy projects, build more homes and access more critical minerals,' Black said. Even if he can broker agreement between environment and industry, Watt would still need to negotiate the laws through federal parliament. Labor will have two clear, distinct pathways to get legislation passed in the new Senate: deal with the Coalition or deal with the Greens. Both sides are under new leadership, with the ascension of Ley – who commissioned the Samuel review – offering Labor hope that the Coalition will adopt a more conciliatory approach. The opposition will face pressure to work with Labor from industry groups including the Minerals Council of Australia, which is desperate to sideline the Greens. The new shadow environment minister, Angie Bell, said the Coalition would 'carefully consider' any proposed reforms. 'We all want to see our outdated environmental laws fixed, but the approach of the Labor government in the previous parliament didn't get the balance right, and did not have industry or environmental groups on board,' Bell said. 'Our environmental laws must find a balance that protects the environment while not wrapping industries in unnecessary green tape.' The Greens environment spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, said the overhaul would only be 'credible' if it included an end to native logging and a 'climate trigger' – the term used to describe a mechanism to account for a project's greenhouse gas emissions in environmental assessments. The Greens dropped the climate tigger as a demand during negotiations with Plibersek, which almost ended in a deal before an intervention from Albanese killed it off. Watt's provisional approval of a 40-year extension of Woodside's North West Shelf gas plant has renewed the case for some form of trigger mechanism. Watt is also facing internal pressure to include climate 'considerations' in the nature laws after the Labor MP Jerome Laxale publicly backed the principle. Then there are grassroots Labor members, who have picked themselves up after the devastation of the collapse of the EPA proposal. Felicity Wade, the national co-convener of the Labor Environment Action Network, was confident Watt could 'walk the line', listening to business without losing sight of why the legislation existed. Wade said corporate Australia needed to 'leave its bludgeons at the door' as the process started afresh. Ending habitat loss was the 'bottom line outcome', she said, meaning that native forest logging and agricultural land clearing must be addressed in some form.
The Guardian
7 hours ago
- The Guardian
Plastics campaigners warn Australia's pledge at UN needs to be matched with ‘high ambition at home'
The federal environment minister, Murray Watt, is returning from a UN oceans conference where he pledged to curb the scourge of plastics and make good on Australia's promise to ratify a treaty to protect the high seas. The five-day meeting in Nice, France finished on Friday, and conservationists celebrated some key steps towards protecting wildlife in international waters. But on plastics, campaigners warned that Australia's drive for an international treaty needed to be matched with ambition domestically. In 2022, Australia joined a 'high ambition coalition' to push for a global treaty on plastics, but talks in December failed to produce the treaty. The treaty aims to cut the production and consumption of virgin plastics, phase out problematic plastics and introduce design rules to minimise environmental harm and make recycling and re-use easier. Cip Hamilton, the plastics campaign manager at Australian Marine Conservation Society, said attention on the treaty would now focus on talks in Geneva in August, when she would travel with Indigenous rangers from north-east Arnhem Land. That community in Australia's Northern Territory was being inundated by so-called ghost nets – discarded or lost industrial fishing gear – and other plastics washing up onshore, Hamilton said. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton's Clear Air column as a free newsletter 'There is about 250kg of plastic leaking into our environment every minute. Once it gets into the environment, it's almost impossible to get it out and it's causing devastation to our wildlife,' she said. 'We need to be enacting domestic solutions … Recycling alone won't end plastic pollution.' Jeff Angel, a leading plastics campaigner and director of the Boomerang Alliance, said Australia's desire for a global plastics treaty 'must also mean high ambition at home'. Australia had a substantial 'unfinished' agenda dealing with plastics, he said, with recycling and recovery rates stuck at just 12.5%. 'The vast majority of plastic polluting our coasts, waterways, public spaces, soil and air is generated domestically,' Angel said. While in Nice, Australia joined nine other countries, including France, the UK and Spain, in a new coalition to halt the extinction of sharks and rays. A federal government spokesperson said this would 'generate momentum for urgent, coordinated conservation efforts'. Watt told the conference Australia would expand its ocean area protected from fishing, drilling and mining to 30% by 2030. Sign up to Clear Air Australia Adam Morton brings you incisive analysis about the politics and impact of the climate crisis after newsletter promotion The Albanese government also said it would bring in legislation before the end of the year to ratify a landmark global high seas treaty it signed in 2023, and had been two decades in the making. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said enough countries had committed to ratifying the treaty that it could come into force as early as January 2026. The treaty covers the 60% of the ocean that is beyond the jurisdiction of any individual country – about 90% of the ocean by volume. Prof Tim Stephens, an international law expert at the University of Sydney, said the treaty would probably be 'very widely ratified' around the world. 'The high seas has remained an ungoverned area,' Stephens said. 'Australia has been an incredibly strong supporter of this treaty process that at several points could have fallen over. 'The high seas is an area where states have freedoms, like navigation, research and fishing, but that also means they haven't been adequately managed and protected.' The treaty – an agreement under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea – would allow for countries to nominate areas of the high seas for protection and would regulate access to marine genetic resources (which, for example, could be used in research or to develop new technologies). Stephens said the treaty would require signatories, including Australia, to assess any impacts that new activities in domestic waters, such as major fossil fuel projects, could have on the high seas. This would reinforce that members of the UN convention had obligations to protect the marine environment, he said. This would mean countries could be held to account under the treaty for protecting the high seas 'in a way we have not seen before', he added.
The Guardian
7 hours ago
- The Guardian
Minns government backs bill promoting hunting in NSW's state forests and crown land
In a back-to-the-future move, the Minns Labor government has backed a Shooters and Fishers party bill that will promote hunting in state forests and crown lands in NSW and recognise 'conservation hunting' as a legitimate tool to control feral animals. The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has thrown his support behind a proposed Conservation Hunting Council, to the horror of environmental groups which warn of a repeat of the now-defunct Game Council. The Game Council, which served as the licensing agency and regulating agency, resulted in more, not less, feral animals in public lands, particularly feral deer which came to be managed not as a pest but as a hunting species. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email One difference from the previous regulatory regime is that hunting will not be permitted in NSW national parksbut will be in state forests and crown lands with a permit. The Threatened Species council's chief executive Jack Gough said the bill would divert funding from effective control programs to hunters and would lock in state forests as 'de facto game parks and breeding grounds for pests'. The authority would effectively become 'a taxpayer-funded propaganda vehicle for the shooting lobby' that could 'undermine the social licence for effective feral animal control nationally – particularly aerial shooting and baiting', he warned. Environmental groups urged the premier to re-consider and be guided by the science, which they argue clearly demonstrates that recreational shooting is not as effective as evidence-based baiting and aerial shooting programs. But with the Coalition also likely to support the latest hunting plan, the bill looks likely to be passed when NSW parliament resumes on 24 June. The latest plan is something the Shooters and Fishers party have long pressed for. 'Recreational and conservation hunters are vital partners in controlling invasive species such as feral pigs, rabbits, foxes and wild deer in New South Wales,' Shooters MLC Robert Borsak said as he introduced the bill last week. 'Unlike sporadic and government-run management programs, which cost New South Wales millions of dollars each year, recreational and conservation hunters contribute over half a billion dollars to the New South Wales economy, mainly in regional and rural areas.' he said. Minns has also floated introducing a bounty scheme, which is also strongly supported by the Shooters. The government denies it has done a deal with the Shooters party to support other legislation, but it needs the two Shooter votes and others to pass legislation, when the Greens oppose bills. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'It is not just coincidence that this radical expansion of recreational shooting rights in NSW is being supported by the government at the same time as the Minns Labor government is trying to cut injured workers off from their compensation payments,' said Greens upper house MP Sue Higginson. The conservation hunting bill would create a new conservation hunting authority to represent the interests of hunters, make recommendations to the agriculture minister, promote research into 'game, feral and pest animal management issues' and into the benefits of hunting. It would also 'promote, develop and deliver educational courses regarding game animals'. The authority would have eight members, while seven of those would have voting rights. Four of the voting members would be nominated by hunting organisations. The bill proposes other changes, including enshrining a 'right to hunt' and recognition of hunting as a conservation management tool. It would also require managers of some public lands – primarily state forests and travelling stock reserves and excluding national parks – to consider the impact on hunters of any land management activity. James Trezise, the chief executive of the scientist-led Biodiversity Council, said evidence showed professional programs were most effective for controlling invasive species. For example, he said feral pigs had been effectively eradicated from Kangaroo Island off South Australia through a multi-year dedicated control program using professional shooters. He also pointed to the NSW government's recent efforts in the Kosciuszko national park to use all tools available, including aerial shooting, to cull thousands of feral horses, deer and pigs.
