Global heating forecast to hit at least 1.8C, DNA tests to help identify Nepal flood victims, and shark drones

Good afternoon.

Global heating will reach at least 1.8C under even the most optimistic future, well beyond the Paris agreement goal of 1.5C, according to a UN report that warns every fraction of temperature rise intensifies destructive extreme weather, ecosystem loss, and island and coastal city submersion.

The report by the Nairobi-based UN Environment Programme said “there are no good outcomes above 1.5C”. Human health, water supplies, nature, cities, infrastructure and economies could all be severely damaged. Some losses would be irreversible and many communities may have to relocate.

But scientists say the world could get back to 1.5C through deep, rapid emissions cuts and removing carbon from the atmosphere through steps such as establishing vast new forests alongside, not as an alternative to, deep cuts in fossil fuel pollution.

“If you made a short list of the biggest problems that we’ve got in our society, I think the role of social media would be on that list.” – Jim Chalmers

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, says social media algorithms are one of the biggest challenges facing society today, hitting out at the business model of big platforms seeking to polarise users.

Chalmers added “our society, our social cohesion, the way that we come at big problems, including in my part of the shop, in the economy, is hampered, not helped, by the way that algorithms are dominating people’s day”.

Before a shark attacked Sydney teacher and mother Leah Stewart in June, drone surveillance was not permitted at Coogee beach because it lies directly under the flight path from Sydney airport’s east-west runway. But under a $34m initiative by the state government that out in July, 38 of Sydney’s ocean beaches, including Coogee, now receive dawn-to-dusk drone monitoring year round.

So what’s involved in flying a shark drone? Penry Buckley joined a morning of shark surveillance to find out.