Battle to define the Anthropocene Epoch reignites.

Extract from ABC News

By science reporter Jacinta Bowler

• ABC Science

• Topic:Geology

about 2 hours ago

The Ivy Mike test, where the first hydrogen thermonuclear device detonated, is argued by some geoscientists to be the start of a new geological epoch. (Supplied: US National Nuclear Security Administration)

In short:

Anthropocene is a popular term for the current time in history but is not an official geological age.

A proposal put forward by a group of scientists in 2024 to declare when the epoch started was rejected. 

What's next:

The scientists said the decision was flawed and voting should be opened up more widely.

In 1952 the first full-yield test of a hydrogen bomb erupted not far from Naoero, mushroom cloud billowing above the Pacific Ocean.

That first test, and many more, spread plutonium-239 and -240 around the world marking the moment Earth entered a new era of humanity known as the Anthropocene. 

At least that's according to a group of scientists who have spent years trying to pin down a date.

Georg Schäfer, a geoanthropologist, from the Max Planck Institute said that the Anthropocene moves from the period when "agriculture, cities, and human culture developed" into an era of "industrialised humanity".

"The particular strength of the Anthropocene is that it brings the many crises of the present into a single analytical frame," Dr Schäfer said.

"From coral reefs dying to microplastic pollution, climate change and forever chemicals."

But while the term has been used in popular culture for more than two decades, the Anthropocene is not an official geological epoch. 

Crawford Lake in Canada was rejected as the "global boundary stratotype section and point" of the Anthropocene in 2024.  (Flickr: Sean Marshall, CC BY-NC 2.0)

In 2024, a team of international scientists — the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) — put forward evidence that the transition to a new epoch lay under the sludge at the bottom of a Canadian lake.

But the proposal was rejected by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), the peak global geosciences body, which decides what is an epoch and what is not.

"Whether it meets the criteria is not for us to judge," Dr Schäfer, an AWG member said.

"But … the evaluation by the geological institutions left too many questions open about serious procedural flaws. 

"The 2024 vote was supposed to settle the scientific status of the Anthropocene. Instead, the opaque process created confusion."

The researchers have just released a new commentary, published today in the journal Earth's Future, calling for an independent review of the IUGS's process, and for the release of more records. 

"It is perfectly possible that the full record would show the process was sounder than it looks from the outside, that’s a perfectly fine outcome," Dr Schäfer said. 

"This closed-door approach undermines the IUGS's own authority at a moment when society depends on sound environmental science more than ever."

Why do epochs matter?

Scott Mooney, a geographer at the University of New South Wales who was not involved in the working group, said understanding when humanity's fingerprint on Earth started was a "really big question".

Currently, according to the IUGS, we are in the Holocene epoch, which started 11,700 years ago at the end of the last glacial maximum.

This period is characterised by warmer temperatures, megafauna going extinct, and humans moving from hunter-gatherer societies to farming.

This boundary between the current Holocene and the previous epoch, the Pleistocene can be seen in an ice core from the Greenland ice sheet.

Ice cores have been used as golden spikes for certain epochs. (Supplied: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Ludovic Brucker)

There are dozens of these boundary markers, known as global boundary stratotype section and point or "golden spikes", around the world.

The AWG selected Crawford Lake in Canada as the "golden spike" for the start of the Anthropocene, highlighting the plutonium from nuclear testing as part of a sediment core at the location.

There was supporting evidence from 11 other sites worldwide, including Flinders Reef in Queensland. 

But the IUGS resoundingly rejected the proposal.

"The outcome was a decisive rejection of the Anthropocene proposal: four votes in favour; 12 votes against; and three abstentions," they wrote in a statement at the time.

"It is clear from the comments that were made during the course of the discussion period, that many were unconvinced by the arguments in the AWG proposal, and their misgivings are clearly reflected in the decisive nature of the voting outcome."

Vote exposes rift between scientists

According to Helen Bostock, an oceanographer at the University of Queensland, the voting process felt "incredibly rushed". 

Professor Bostock is a member of an IUGS subcommittee and voted on the proposal. 

She was one of the four people who voted in the Anthropocene's favour, but says she felt they were "kept out of the loop" for the process. 

"It was like, here's the information, you must vote by next week," she said. 

She said there was a "rift" between different fields of geology —  those who worked in hard rocks, and those who worked in softer rocks, and this likely was spilling over to issues such as the Anthropocene proposal. 

"There's some of these old-school geologists who still think that it's too soon, [that it] needs to be a decent length of time before you can actually say something changed in the past,"

Professor Bostock said.

"Some of us are working on the sediments that show these human activities are having an impact on our environment. There's really no denying it when you can actually measure it and see it in your samples."

The golden spike at Enorama Creek in South Australia's Flinders Ranges which marks the boundary of the Ediacaran Period — from 635 million years ago to 542 million years ago. (Flickr: James St. John, CC BY 2.0)

Professor Bostock said that if the Anthropocene proposal was to be resubmitted, a fairer way to adjudicate would be a "broad vote" from the larger discipline rather than a small group. 

"I think that would give us a much better representative, instead of a committee that might be biased in one way or another, depending on who's sitting on that committee."

Dr Mooney broadly agreed with the working group's argument about why Anthropocene should be formalised as an epoch.

"It really does highlight the impact that humanity is having on Earth," he said. 

"The really good point [the group] makes is that the Anthropocene is out there — it's not just geoscientists that use [the term] — it's everyone."

EV sales double in Australia as one in four new cars now electric.

 Extract from ABC News

By climate reporter Nathan Morris

• Topic:Electric Vehicles

17 hours ago

Electric cars have become mainstream in Australia, which has been lagging in the uptake of the technology. (Reuters: Stella Qiu)

An electric car is being sold every 100 seconds in Australia, but there is still a long road ahead to decarbonise the country's transport sector, according to the Electric Vehicle Council.

The 10th anniversary edition of the annual State of Electric Vehicles Report shows how EVs have become mainstream within a decade, making up one in four new cars sold.

Sales have more than doubled within a year and last month, EVs outsold petrol and diesel cars for the first time.

"EVs are being taken up as a cost of living measure by households across Australia," Julie Delvecchio, CEO of the Electric Vehicle Council, said.

Owning an EV is no longer a luxury reserved for well-heeled inner-city dwellers as electric cars come close to price parity with petrol versions. Some are now selling for under $20,000.

Electric cars are no longer more expensive than petrol cars, with some models selling under $20,000. (Facebook: Electric Vehicle Council)

This year's sales boom is being driven by suburban commuters, with the highest EV uptake in Tarneit, about 30 kilometres west of Melbourne.

"It's very much an average Australian suburb with people who have mortgages in the six to seven hundred thousands," Aman Gaur, the EVC's Head of Legal, Policy and Advocacy, said.

"They rely on their cars, they do not have access to three forms of public transport outside their front door, and for them, the sensible economic choice is to get into an EV."

Australians now have access to nearly 200 electric models, and incentives such as the fringe benefit tax exemption have helped to drive uptake.

The beginning of the conflict with Iran in February and the subsequent disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has seen fuel prices to surge this year, helping to further push the number of EVs currently on the road to more than 600,000.

"Australia is an island at the end of a long fuel supply chain, holding weeks' worth of reserves and importing almost all of its fuel," the Electric Vehicle Council (EVC) report said.

"Every car that plugs in instead of filling up is a permanent upgrade to our energy security."

Long road to meet climate goals

While 2026 may well become a turning point for passenger EVs, reaching Australia's climate targets will require a revolution in the national fleet.

There are about 21 million cars on Australian roads, and EVs make up just 3 per cent compared to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.

"While the doubling of EV uptake over the last year is great news, Australia needs to maintain this momentum to be on track to reach its climate targets," Helen Rowe, the transport lead at the Monash University's Climateworks Centre, said.

The EVC report notes that Australia's EV uptake is not on track to meet the emission reduction targets of 43 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, and 62 to 70 per cent by 2035.

"That 2035 target requires 5 million battery electric cars on the road by the middle of the next decade—a significant increase in pace from the current trajectory," the EVC's report said.

All consumers to pay for EV chargers

A bitter fight is brewing between EV charging companies and poles-and-wires companies, and now a regulator has weighed in.

The other hurdle is charging infrastructure; it's increasing, but not quite keeping pace, according to the EVC's Aman Gaur.

"We do need to have a coordinated charging plan that will help Australians have confidence that they can get out onto the roads and charge either their car or their truck or their van," he said.

Addicted to diesel

Per capita, Australia uses more diesel than the US, China and Saudi Arabia.

And the biggest user of diesel is the transport and freight sector, which has barely started to electrify.

That's not because there are no electric trucks; while still more expensive, there are a growing number of options.

"China, the undisputed leader on truck electrification, saw monthly sales breach 50 per cent in December 2025 and already appears advanced in meeting its new 2030 target for 40 per cent heavy electric truck sales," The EVC report said.

Most freight operators in Australia are small businesses, running on very tight margins, and according to the EVC's Aman Gaur, the cost of switching to electric trucks was still prohibitive.

"There aren't enough financial incentives to get small mum and dad operators to make the switch to electric, which means that Australia is still importing diesel and our economy is still reliant on those imports," he said.

The EVC report called Australia a "global laggard" when it came to adopting electric trucks, with heavy vehicle rules such as road weight limits "complex and notoriously difficult to reform."

"With almost zero policy support and no dedicated charging infrastructure to speak of, electric trucks are yet to hit even 1 per cent of total truck sales.

"This contrasts with European markets and New Zealand, where strong freight electrification policies are moving heavy EVs beyond the 'early adopter' cohort to everyday trucking fleets.

"Electrifying Australia's heavy freight vehicles is the biggest unseized opportunity in Australia's energy transition."

Scientists to use Adavale Basin fossils to unlock secrets of giant fish.

Extract from ABC News

By Crispian Yeomans

• ABC Western Qld

• Topic:Palaeontology

15 hours ago

An artist impression of an ancient reef similar to what has been discovered under the Australian outback. (Supplied: Flinders University/Brian Choo)

In short:

A deep-drilling exploration of an ancient basin has uncovered fossilised corals, trilobites and unseen rock combinations.

Scientists will use samples to determine how ancient Devonian-era fish grew so big.

What's next?

The fossils will help scientists understand the seabed's history, but geologists did not find a salt layer they were looking for.

For millions of years, outback Queensland has hidden an ancient coral reef deep beneath its surface.

Scientists hope the discovery of ammonite, coral and fern fossils, as well as a kilometre-long solid rock core, could help unravel marine mysteries dating back more than 325 million years.

Geologists from Geoscience Australia found the specimens after drilling a 3-kilometre-deep hole in western Queensland to collect hundreds of rock and groundwater samples from the ancient Adavale Basin.

Experts say the fossils offer insight into life in the Devonian era, when the world was warmer, sea levels were higher and the reef now buried beneath outback Queensland teemed with marine life.

"Often we hear about things that are found at the surface," said Espen Knutsen, a senior curator from the Queensland Museum.

"But they might forget about all the stuff that's still hundreds of metres underground."

Reef fossils extracted, but no salt

Geoscience Australia drilled to a depth three times the height of the world's tallest skyscraper as part of a $30.9 million project about 63 kilometres south-east of Blackall in western Queensland.

It was meant to find eastern Australia's only known rock salt deposit, the Boree Salt layer, which geologists had hoped could be turned into an underground hydrogen battery.

But Geoscience Australia's Mitchell Bouma said the deposit was not there — at least not in form.

Instead, the agency found fossilised corals, sea sponges, ammonites and trilobites, providing fresh evidence of a "relatively rich reef ecosystem" buried underneath Australia.

"We did not find any salt, but we did intercept other types of evaporative rocks, [which] are formed by the evaporation of a highly saline lake or cut-off ocean," Mr Bouma said.

"What this really means is that the halite rock salt was there but was dissolved from this location somewhere around 325 to 370 million years ago."

Unravelling the secrets of giant fish

Some of the specimens have attracted international attention, including rocks that could help explain why prehistoric fish grew so big.

Geologist Geoffrey Gilleaudeau from George Mason University in the United States visited Australia in July to inspect some of the limestone samples.

Geoscience Australia has retrieved rock core samples from the Adavale Basin. (Supplied: Geoscience Australia)

He said larger fish and animals needed more oxygen, and he wanted to investigate whether the Adavale Basin fossils were evidence of a major rise in ocean oxygen levels, as previously detected in North America.

"We're trying to see if that's a global signal, and that's why we're looking at another place which is very, very far away in the Adavale Basin in Queensland," Dr Gilleaudeau said.

Why are geologists drilling so far underground?

Scientists hope to find salt caverns older than the dinosaurs to solve Australia’s green energy storage problem.

Dr Knutsen said little was known about the ancient reefs buried underneath Australia.

In 2007, a Geological Survey of Queensland report found a "rich, varied and largely undescribed" fossil record of corals, molluscs and algae in the Bury Limestone under outback Queensland.

Dr Knutsen said most of those fossils were only ever surfaced by mining companies or during deep-earth exploration.

"Who knows what we might be able to find if we could really, really just sort of dig through and see what kind of fossils it preserved?" he said.

Blue Hills' legacy endures in rural and regional Australia 50 years after radio series ended.

Extract from ABC News

By Cassandra Hough

• By Alana Calvert

• ABC Rural

• Topic:Anniversaries

12 hours ago

Miss Buzzacott (Dorothy Dunkley), the Gordons' nosey parker neighbour, gives Mandy (Pat Crocker) and Trixie (actor unidentified) unwelcome advice on how to make a cake. (ABC archives)

In short:

Blue Hills the ABC radio drama series was broadcast for 27 years across Australia.

September 30 this year marks 50 years since it ended.

Author and playwright Gwen Meredith wrote all 5,975 episodes solo. 

It's been 50 years since the iconic theme music for the Blue Hills drama swelled on ABC radio for the last time.

At the time, the show was Australia's longest-running serial radio drama, broadcast from February 1949 until September 1976.

Blue Hills told the stories of the rural families who lived in the fictional town of "Tanimbla".

The cast of the ABC radio drama Blue Hills relaxing on the verandah, from left: Queenie Ashton as Lee Gordon, Nigel Lovell as Bruce, Patricia Crocker as Mandy and Morris Unicomb as Terry. (ABC archives)

Throughout the 1950s, former ABC broadcaster Ian Doyle said "one in two radios in Australia were listening to the Country Hour and Blue Hills" at 1pm.

"It was compulsory listening for people in regional Australia," he told SA Country Hour's Cassandra Hough.

"You couldn't go into a country store in the 50s and expect to be served between 1 and 1:15.

"Anybody selling insurance and knocking on the door in regional Australia, of course, the door wasn't answered. You had to sit and listen to Blue Hills because everything was so compelling."

Former ABC broadcaster and executive producer Ian Doyle (far left) says Blue Hills was an institution for Australian radio. (ABC Rural: Drew Radford)

Lorraine Greenfield grew up on an isolated station in South Australia's north and the ABC was the only radio station the family could tune in to.

"My mother was an absolute devotee of Blue Hills and after I was married, my father-in-law was also a big fan and very strict, so at 1pm everything stopped," Mrs Greenfield said.

"I felt sorry for the stock agents who travelled three or four hours to see him only to be told he couldn't speak until Blue Hills was over.

"He carried that through until the end of Blue Hills.

"It was a very sad day when it ended, I still think about Blue Hills."

'Rural propaganda' 

In the mid 1940s, author and playwright Gwen Meredith had been tasked with writing a radio series to encourage returning World War Two servicemen to "grow better crops and increase production".

That show, The Lawsons, would be the genesis for Blue Hills.

Blue Hills was the successor series to The Lawsons, a daily radio serial broadcast by the ABC from February 1944 to February 1949. (ABC archives)

"It was a piece of rural propaganda, one way or the other," Mr Doyle said, adding that the ABC's rural department went to great lengths to make sure the show gave an accurate depiction of climate, crops and harvest times as well as new innovations in the farming sector.

"[It was an] attempt to try and improve the production of Australian farmers … [its] connection with the rural department was fundamental and important and she had to be across a whole lot of material to ensure that she got it right."

The Blue Hills cast recording in studio in the 1950s, from left: Vivian Edwards, Charles McCallum, Nellie Lamport, Rupert Chance, Gwen Plumb, unidentified. (ABC archives)

In an old interview, Ms Meredith recalled how the ABC's rural department wanted the show to have as much farming information as possible and this was met with some resistance from the drama department.

"[They] said, 'It'll only ruin the story. It'll all bog [it] down. And I had to run a middle course," she said.

Reflecting the real regional Australia

In the nearly three decades Blue Hills ran, Mr Doyle said she "effectively" wrote 70 novels. 

Blue Hills cast members: Mandy (played by Pat Crocker) and her young brother Terry (Morris Unicomb). (ABC archives)

"It was an institution in Australian radio … The Hills was not just about what was happening on the farm, it also dealt with lots of other issues as well."

At the show's height in the 1950s, the White Australia Policy was in effect, as was the Assimilation Policy for First Nations people, as well as segregation and state protection acts. 

Against this backdrop, Ms Meredith had written an episode where a relative had a baby with an Indigenous person to try and better reflect Australia's multiracial identity.

"That caused enormous controversy, but she wanted to introduce the idea of the fact that there was multiracial involvement in Australia, and she pushed it as far as she could go," Mr Doyle said.

In other episodes, she was accused by politicians of being "anti-government" by featuring characters commenting on how high interest rates were or how hard it was to get a job.

Blue Hills actors during a studio broadcast in May 1962, from left: Myrna Dodd as Jackie Macarthur, Ethel Lang as Meg Macarthur and Tom Farley as Jim Macarthur. (ABC archives)

"Which was what was happening in regional Australia at the time. The government at the time said … 'She shouldn't be saying those things'," Mr Doyle said.

"Well, she hadn't thought about the politics of it. She's just saying that's what they were talking about in regional Australia."

The writer, who died in 2006 at the age of 98, was the sole writer for all 5,975 episodes.

Russia launches major attack on Ukraine's energy grid as winter looms, seven killed.

Extract from ABC News

• Topic:Unrest, Conflict and War

3 hours ago

Russia carried out strikes across Kyiv and many other cities across Ukraine. (Reuters: Gleb Garanich)

In short:

Russia has carried out its heaviest wave of attacks on Ukraine's energy grid in months, ahead of what is expected to be a bitterly cold winter for many in the war-torn country.

At least seven people were killed in the strikes, which followed days of drone attacks on Kyiv.

Emergency power cuts were in operation, causing some tram services in Kyiv to be suspended.

Russia has unleashed a widely anticipated air campaign against Ukraine's energy grid, hitting power facilities and infrastructure around Kyiv and other regions in the heaviest combined attack on energy sites in months.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, while visiting the eastern front on Wednesday, said seven people, including a child, were killed in the attacks.

It followed days of intensifying drone barrages primarily on the capital, a prelude to what many Ukrainians expect to be a winter of attacks intended to plunge cities into cold and darkness.

Ukraine's state power grid operator Ukrenergo said it had imposed its first emergency power cuts since spring as a result of the attack in Kyiv and three surrounding regions.

Kyiv authorities said the strikes damaged a key power plant and other energy facilities around the capital.

The attacks on a Kyiv power plant threw smoke across the Ukrainian capital's skyline. (Reuters: Gleb Garanich)

Russian attacks last winter, which brought record-low temperatures, ravaged power and heating systems, forcing Ukrainians to adapt to dire circumstances.

Some of the capital's tram and trolleybus services ground to a halt due to the outages on Wednesday, local time, as people headed home from work.

"Russia has escalated to massive strikes on energy infrastructure," Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi said on X after the attacks overnight.

"Since summer, there's barely been a day without an attack on our energy infrastructure. But a combined strike of this scale hasn't happened since the end of last heating season."

12-hour air-raid alert

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said energy infrastructure in Kyiv and the surrounding area was the main target of an onslaught that included nearly 190 drones and ballistic missiles. The air force said it had downed 5 missiles and 155 drones.

A child was among the seven dead across Ukraine, Mr Zelenskyy said, with critical infrastructure coming under attack in five regions. Other damage was reported in another five regions, he added.

Russia has been exploiting a shortage of Ukrainian interceptors by launching nightly missile salvos. (Reuters: Valentyn Ogirenko)

Russia said its forces had struck power plants in the Kyiv region, an industrial complex in Odesa region, and port infrastructure in Ismail in the southwest.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said debris had been found at a Western embassy, but offered no further details. The overnight attack triggered a more than 12-hour air-raid alert.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described Wednesday's attack by Russia as a "deliberate" distraction from its grinding battlefield offensive in eastern Ukraine, which has slowed since last year.

Ukrainian state weather forecasters say they expect freezing temperatures at night in Kyiv in the coming days.

Reuters

Fossil fuel giants behind hundreds of programs targeting Australian children.

 Extract from ABC News

By climate reporter Nathan Morris

• Topic:Climate Change

30 minutes ago

Fossil fuel companies spend millions on a range of science programs and teaching resources. (Supplied: CommsDeclare/Glencore Coal)

In short:

A teaching schedule was disrupted and students were invited to "drill for oil" by an industry-backed education program sponsored by major fossil fuel companies.

A recent investigation found oil and gas companies have spent tens of millions of dollars on educational partnerships.

What's next?

It's one example in a broader debate about corporate influence in educational settings, with calls for greater scrutiny of industry-backed material in schools.

Alison Holt had never heard of the Energy Club before she was told they would be taking over her science class.

At the time, she was teaching at Busselton Senior High School in Western Australia when she realised the series of incursions would disrupt her teaching schedule.

"I was told probably a day or two before because, you know, you've got to plan ahead very tightly being a science teacher," Ms Holt said.

"Without any consultation and any permission from the parents, we had three hours taken out of our very tight curriculum time.

"So that's nearly a week of science gone."

Former Busselton Senior High School teacher Alison Holt. (Supplied: Alison Holt)

Ms Holt recalled asking her head of department about what the program involved.

"They said, 'Oh, they just come in and, you know, talk about mining and, you know, the petrochemical industry', and immediately my hair went up on the back of my neck."

'A sustainable future' rebrand

Until 2021, the not-for-profit Energy Club WA used to be called The Petroleum Club of WA, and the initiative offered at Alison Holt's school was its Next Generation Energy Program, which has been running since 1991.

Woodside Energy and Exxon Mobil are just two of the major oil and gas companies the Energy Club lists as sponsors.

The course involves industry professionals volunteering time to deliver three lessons with a focus on "energy literacy" and career opportunities.

"We invite our valued sponsors to leverage the Next Generation Schools Program," its flyer states.

"By supporting our established initiative, you can maximise impact by pooling resources … save on development costs, and strengthen community ties through our well-connected framework."

A presentation about natural gas is part of the Next Generation Energy Program. (Supplied: Energy Club WA)

In March 2021, the non-profit decided "to rebrand and move forward as Energy Club WA so that the brand reflects the continued promise of connecting people with energy for a sustainable future".

But as the incursion got under way at the Busselton school, Ms Holt said what she observed seemed inconsistent with that message.

In one activity, the presenters used bread, chocolate spread and sprinkles to simulate how exploration drilling works.

"He'd put Nutella on one piece of bread, then he'd put sprinkles on the next piece, and he'd just make this big four- or five-layer sandwich," she explained.

Students were then invited up to "drill for oil" using plastic straws pushed down through the layers of bread.

A chemical engineer from BP delivering the Next Generation Energy Program at a school in 2023. (Facebook: Armadale Senior High School)

Ms Holt also had concerns about the way the presentations framed the role of gas.

"He spoke about … the different sectors where energy was needed, how it was provided, and then talked about how gas was the answer, you know, in the transition to renewable energy," she said.

After the first of the three sessions, Ms Holt asked whether renewable energy would also be part of the program.

"They just said, 'Oh, don't worry, in our final hour, we touch on renewables',"

she said.

In a statement, Energy Club WA general manager Kate McCarthy said its educational program was reviewed by participating schools to ensure the content was appropriate.

"The classroom teacher is always present during the presentation, and the teacher and school are engaged for feedback on the program and its contents at each visit," she said.

According to the annual report, more than 1,800 students participated in the Next Generation Energy Program in 2025. (Supplied: Energy Club WA )

Mentors for the program were a mix of volunteers and those still working in the industry.

"Sponsors of the Next Generation schools program do not contribute to the committee to develop or review the contents of the program," Ms McCarthy said.

"Energy Club WA has 20 participating schools for 2026."

Design your own carbon capture solution

The Energy Club was one of at least 260 educational programs in Australia sponsored by fossil fuel companies identified in a report by climate advocacy group Comms Declare.

"Our investigation found there is an unacceptable amount of marketing to children in the very places where they should be able to trust the information they're getting," founder Belinda Noble said.

The June 2026 report highlighted a Queensland Museum program sponsored by Shell QGC that invited participants to "draw a diagram of your new carbon capture and storage solution".

Community members protesting outside Queensland Museum in May 2026. (Supplied: CommsDeclare)

Queensland Museum confirmed that some Shell QGC-branded "professional development" materials had been "retired".

Another project with broad access to Australian schools was the Teacher Earth Science Education Programme (TESEP) in Victoria, also sponsored by several coal companies.

One of its teacher resources included a unit on "greening coal", a phrase that critics argue suggests the climate impact of burning coal could be remedied.

"We would say when a company goes building trusted emotional connections with children in institutional environments, we think that can only be described as petro-grooming," Ms Noble said.

Participants in a regional basketball program supported through a Santos partnership. (Supplied: CommsDeclare/Santos)

Comms Declare's investigation found that resources giants including BHP, Chevron, Woodside, Glencore and Shell had disclosed close to $55 million in funding across just six programs and partnerships.

TESEP's website also listed renewable energy and critical minerals companies, and chair Jill Stevens rejected the suggestion the organisation was captured by industry.

"Our educational material is scientifically accurate and is not influenced by our partners,"

she said.

"Our industry partners are fully disclosed to all participants in our professional development."

Industry-sponsored teaching resources

Another industry-backed not-for-profit is Australian Earth Science Education (AusEarthEd), which develops science resources and programs for schools.

In its 2025 annual report it stated that 71 per cent of its funding came from the energy sector, and four of nine board members were employed by resources companies.

Fossil fuel majors are listed on the Supporters page of the AusEarthEd website. (Supplied: AusEarthEd)

One Woodside-sponsored teaching resource carries the company's logo and includes a graphic of a large shoe print over the Earth, labelled "carbon".

"While we often think that greenhouse gas emissions are only from industrial activities, we all contribute to the global carbon footprint," the material reads.

Woodside operates the North West Shelf project, a project the WA Environmental Protection Authority said if unabated would emit 385 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Child and adolescent psychiatrist Cybele Dey said focusing on the carbon footprint of young people could downplay the role of governments and companies.

"Individual responsibility is not realistic," Dr Dey said.

"Also, it is a real intergenerational betrayal to be saying that a child who has much less autonomy, much less power, didn't cause the problem, somehow is responsible for this really major problem."

Woodside is also involved with in-school educational programs. (Supplied: CommsDeclare/Woodside Energy)

A Woodside spokesperson said it "encourages our employees to contribute to the community".

"We are proud that many of our people choose to volunteer their time and expertise by serving on boards of charities and not-for-profit organisations in their personal capacity and not as Woodside representatives," the spokesperson said.

"The involvement with AusEarthEd is no exception."

AusEarthEd CEO Joanne Watkins said the organisation provided "much-needed resources to schools".

"These partnerships have no influence over the materials provided to students," she said.

Training teachers for 'multiplier effect'

The Comms Declare report also noted instances whereby organisations funded by resources companies were providing accredited professional development for teachers.

For $55, one TESEP professional development course included two nights' accommodation, a field trip, a $100 fuel allowance and free teaching resources.

A 2023 article in the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, a resource industry peak body, said the TESEP program aimed to create "well-informed, enthusiastic teachers", with a "multiplier effect" reaching tens of thousands of students.

Images of TESEP workshops and events from the program's 2025 annual report. (Supplied: TESEP)

Eve Mayes is a researcher at Deakin University, studying curriculum, teaching and corporate influence in schools. She said industry-backed education programs could shape how students learn about climate change and the energy transition.

"There have been long-standing partnerships with education communities with particular fossil fuel companies," she said.

"I think what big corporates are getting out of that is, in a sense, to purchase social licence.

"And at times that might be it, but that also might influence … how particular topic areas are taught," Dr Mayes said.

Calls for greater scrutiny

Following the release of the Comms Declare investigation, in June 2026 Greens senator Steph Hodgins-May moved a Senate motion to refer the issue to the Environment and Communications References Committee for inquiry.

The motion was unsuccessful, but Ms Noble said the debate in parliament was a first.

"While the motion did not receive enough support to establish an inquiry, the historic debate marks an important step towards greater scrutiny of fossil fuel industry involvement in childhood settings," she said in a recent statement.

The Santos Foundation supports early childhood education in Papua New Guinea. (Supplied: CommsDeclare/Santos Foundation)

For parents like Phoebe Howe, the concern is not just what the report found, but how much remains hidden from families.

"No-one can tell us as parents exactly how many millions of children are being targeted by these big coal and gas companies, where or how often," she said.

"Parents don't have the time to go out and be researching themselves exactly where and how fossil fuel companies … might be trying to influence their kids."