Latest environment news

Old land clearing on a property near Cobar in central western NSW, an area with limited on-ground vegetation data.

Losing the plot: how native vegetation mapping went feral

Peter Hannam 4:00 PM   A simmering dispute over native vegetation mapping in NSW is set to come a head this year as the Baird government prepares to overhaul its biodiversity protection laws.

Cover-up claim over native vegetation mapping

Satellite imagery can only get you so far when it comes to mapping vegetation on the ground.

Peter Hannam 4:00 PM   A bitter row over how to map NSW's precious natural habitat has split the state's environment ministry, prompting accusations of millions of dollars of waste, opaque funding processes and the cover-up of a damning internal report.

Hurricanes, havoc and the hottest December ever

Hurricane Alex forms in the central Atlantic - a rarity in January.

Peter Hannam 9:26 PM   Sydneysiders got down to cleaning up their damaged properties on Friday after destructive winds accompanying a sudden cool change broke up the 40-degree heat a day earlier.

Marine protected areas around the world failing to support corals and fish

Ninety per cent of the world's coral reefs don't have adequate protection, a study has found.

Lucy Cormack 10:36 AM   Marine protected areas all around the world are designed to .... and yet they are failing to protect most of the evolutionary diversity of the world's coral and fish, a new study has found.

Abbott 'destroyed' confidence in renewable energy market

The renewable energy industry's outlook is still clouded in Australia.

Peter Hannam 9:44 AM   Investment in large-scale renewable energy in Australia remains stagnant two years after the Abbott government began a review of the sector, according to an annual survey by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

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Power sector carbon emissions jumped 3.8 million tonnes in 2015: report

Power sector emissions are rising, making carbon goals harder to hit.

Peter Hannam   Australia's greenhouse gases from its power sector jumped by 3.8 million tonnes in 2015, as emissions from the industry continued to increase after the end of the carbon price.

ACT RSPCA conducted 15 successful animal cruelty prosecutions in 2015

RSPCA ACT chief executive Tammy Ven Dange: There is a renewed focus on the core mission, the prevention of animal cruelty.

David Ellery 11:30 PM   ACT RSPCA CEO says there is a renewed focus on the prevention of animal cruelty.

Solar and wind just did the unthinkable

2015 should have been a rough year for clean energy such as solar. But the opposite was true.

Tom Randall 11:20 AM   The world is now adding more power capacity from renewables every year than from coal, natural gas, and oil combined.

Sydney weather: wet day ahead as city mops up after destructive storms

Storm clouds gather over Sydney on Thursday.

Megan Levy 9:22 AM   Sydney is in for another wet and windy day on Friday as the clean-up continues after destructive storms tore through the city, felling large trees and powerlines, crushing cars and cutting power to thousands of homes on Thursday afternoon.

Sydney sweltered but then came the rain

A man died when a falling tree crushed a car at Emu Plains.

Rachel Olding, Nick Ralston   It was a day which saw tops of 39.2 degrees in the city and 40.7 in the west, and ended dramatically with severe thunderstorm warnings across the west.

Flash flood watch for Queanbeyan and Molonglo rivers

Dr David Poland leaves his flood-affected surgery in Morisset Street, Queanbeyan, during the 2010 flood.

Clare Sibthorpe   The Bureau of Meteorology has warned of possible flash flooding in the Queanbeyan and Molonglo rivers on Friday.

Sydney weather live blog: Thunderstorms hit after big heat

A tree has fallen on a car in Emu Plains, killing a male passenger and leaving the female driver critical.

Rachel Olding and Lisa Visentin  

Man killed as severe thunderstorms hit city's west

Dog days of summer across much of south-eastern Australia.

Lucy Cormack, Sarah Muller, Lisa Visentin   A man is dead and a woman in a critical condition after a tree fell onto a car at Emu Plains in Sydney's west during Thursdays's storm.

Flash flood warning for Queanbeyan

Dr David Poland leaves his flood affected surgery in in Morisset Street, Queanbeyan, during the 2010 flood

Queanbeyan and Molonglo rivers have been issued a severe weather warning and remain on flood watch.

Photographer captures kangaroos with dead companion

Hervey Bay photographer Evan Switzer captured a kangaroo mourning the loss of its mate in the wild.

Kim Stephens   Scene plays out as male cradles his dead mate and joey looks on.

Kangaroo photos show lust, not love: expert

Images of a kangaroo "Cradling" the head of its dead mate are not what they appear to be, mammalogist Mark Eldridge says.

Kim Stephens   Fairytale of kangaroo apparently mourning its mate is just that, a fairytale, expert says.

Sydney weather: Think it's hot? The worst is yet to come

Beachgoers got an early start at Coogee Beach before a predicted 38-degree day in Sydney.

Lucy Cormack   Sydney may be scorching right now, but be warned - the worst is yet to come.

Goanna found with arrow in body is third animal to be shot in a week

The injured goanna undergoing treatment at a specialist veterinary clinic.

Lucy Cormack   A goanna was found fighting for its life with an arrow through its body in Lake Macquarie on Wednesday afternoon.

Handling the heat in the concrete jungle

Parramatta feels the heat: Western Sydney's geography and lack of sea breeze makes it hotter than its eastern counterparts.

Lucy Cormack   One part of Sydney will feel Thursday's heat the most.

Mercury a chance to nudge 40 degrees if sea breezes fail

Dog days of summer across much of south-eastern Australia.

Peter Hannam   Sydney is in for another scorcher on Thursday with the potential for 40 degrees over much of the city ahead of a gusty cool change from the south.

Canberra weather: Capital swelters through first heatwave of 2016

Rosie Hyett of Melbourne cools off in the Fujiko Nakaya Fog sculpture at the National Gallery of Australia.

Alexandra Back   Temperatures in Canberra reached 38.5 degrees as the region's first heatwave of the year peaked on Wednesday.

Greenhouse gas rise delaying next ice age, scientists say

An ice cave on the Svinafellsjokull Glacier in Iceland.

Peter Hannam   The Earth is in the midst of an usually long spell between ice ages and the build-up of carbon dioxide emissions through the burning of fossil fuels may postpone the next glaciation event by at much as 100,000 years, according to new climate research.

Massive spill a 'danger to human health'

Peabody's Wambo open-cut coal mine in the Hunter Valley.

Peter Hannam   Environmental regulators are demanding coal mining giant Peabody Energy explain how a dam wall at a Hunter Valley mine collapsed amid heavy rain and the company took a week to report the incident.

Mysterious mass deaths of Alaskan birds an ominous sign

Guy Runco, director of the Bird Treatment and Learning Centre, releases a common murre near the Anchorage small boat harbour in Anchorage last week.

Joby Warrick   Tens of thousands of dead birds are washing up on the beaches of Alaska's Prince William Sound, an unexplained mass die-off that some experts say may be related to the changing climate.

Your dog knows how you're feeling

New research has shown that dogs use vocal and facial cues to understand human emotions.

Sarah Muller   You may not be able to teach an old dog new tricks, but they can read your face and voice to interpret how you're feeling.

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Environmentalists and farmers call for virus to rid Australia of carp

Carp circle in Sullivans Creek at the Australian National University. The presence of carp is a major cause of the decline in native fish numbers.

Tom Arup   A virus that kills invasive carp should be used in Australia rivers to rid them of the invasive species, a unique coalition of fishers, farmers and enivronmentslists have declared.

CSG waste-water pond leaked during commissioning

A coal seam gas construction site in the Pilliga Forest near Narrabri.

Peter Hannam   One of Santos' four waste water holding ponds near Narrabri leaked briefly during its commissioning phase but none of the water leached into the environment, the company says.

Sydney crowing over Canberra chook show coup

Two of the birds entered in the Royal Canberra National Poultry Show in 2015.

John Thistleton   Sydney show officials crowing over Canberra champion chook coup.

Summer heat builds across southern Australia as El Nino passes peak

Cooling off: another scorcher ahead for inland NSW.

Peter Hannam   Most of NSW will climb into the 40s on Wednesday, sending fire danger ratings to severe in places, with little relief until a southerly buster arrives late the following day.

Why Greenland's ice sheets are melting faster

James Balog rappels into Survey Canyon on Greenland Ice Sheet philippa hawker story about glacier film chasing ice

Lucy Cormack   Greenland's ice sheet is melting at increasing speeds, and at some times more than others. The answer lies in the clouds.