By lifting their gaze to the treetops rather than poking around on the ground, researchers discovered eight new species of masked bees.
Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Nauru, Lionel Aingimea, toast after reestablishing diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Andrea Verdelli/EPA
From the cuscus with the fancy coat, to the wallaby often sporting a single white glove, a wide variety of life evolved on island homes in the south-west Pacific.
An Australian warship is seen off the coast of Papua New Guinea in 2018.
Ness Kerton/AFP via Getty Images
Big resorts, cruise ships and visitor numbers are all up for debate across the Pacific, but economic pressure may test how post-pandemic reality lives up to the sustainability rhetoric.
If you aren’t a fan of holiday shopping, you aren’t alone.
Dave Einsel/Getty Images
As part of the nation’s massive wartime mobilization effort, millions of Americans, for the first time, traveled abroad – where many had their first encounters with the marine predators.
Simon Lamb, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington and Timothy Stern, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
New research confirms that massive plumes of buoyant hot rock once rose from near the Earth’s core to the surface and triggered vast volcanic eruptions - and that New Zealand sits on top of one.
The Indonesian president outlined four major steps to improve the relationship, two of which were quite unexpected.
In this October 2011 photo, members of the Royal New Zealand defense force pump sea water into holding tanks ready to be used by the desalination plant in Funafuti, Tuvalu, South Pacific. The atolls of Tuvalu are at grave risk due to rising sea levels and contaminated ground water.
AP Photo/Alastair Grant
A recent ruling by the UN’s Human Rights Committee recognized that climate refugees do exist, and acknowledged a legal basis for protecting them when their lives are threatened by climate change.
The South Pacific was rocked by two nearly simultaneous earthquakes and a devastating tsunami.
AAP Image/Tamara McLean
A devastating quake and tsunami in the Pacific Ocean prompted a new kind of post-disaster research. Ten years on, we need these lessons to prepare for a precarious future.
An atoll in the Republic of Kiribati, an island nation in the South Pacific that’s in danger of disappearing due to climate change.
(Shutterstock)
Island nations composed of low-lying atolls are at risk of being wiped out by rising sea levels in the era of climate change. Yet the international community is doing next to nothing to help them.
High tide at Nukatoa Island, in the Takuu Atoll, Papua New Guinea.
Richard Moyle
Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s historic visit to Vanuatu is centred around security. This fits a pattern shifting the focus from development to militarisation in Australia’s Pacific foreign policy.
Election winner, former coup leader, Josaia Voreq “Frank” Bainimarama, speaking at a climate change conference in Germany in November 2017.
Ronald Wittek/EPA
The reports are speculative at best, but that hasn’t stopped a torrent of over-wrought commentary on Chinese military expansion and the potential threat to Australia.
Looks like paradise – but how did the first people get there?
Global Environment Facility
Researchers ran computer simulations that take into account environmental variability and geographical setting to investigate how early explorers made it to these tiny, remote islands in the Pacific.
Tropical Cyclone Winston nears Fiji on February 20, 2016.
NASA Goddard Rapid Response/NOAA
Cyclone Winston produced wind speeds of around 300 km per hour, making it one of the strongest storms to make landfall.
Vanuatu has a well-co-ordinated disaster response system but limited material resources. Medical support is needed when a disaster like Cyclone Pam strikes.
EPA/UNICEF
The people of Vanuatu have always had to cope with extreme weather events, but natural disasters on the scale of Cyclone Pam test their strengths and leave areas of vulnerability exposed.
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University