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The future of a retired brown coal power plant in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley paints a neat picture of the current state of Australia's energy debate: enshrine fossil fuels, or embrace the new energy future?

With state elections looming, those concerned about climate change should know one thing: How will states lead on climate change in 2018?

Ocean acidification poses an increasing threat to the sediments that form the framework of coral reefs - within around 30 years, these carbonate sands may no longer be able to form. Bradley Eyre, Professor of Biogeochemistry, Director of the Centre for Coastal Biogeochemistry, Southern Cross University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Contrary to the traditional view of them as brutes, it turns out that Neanderthals enjoyed making art.

Data gathered from more than 70,000 vessels shows commercial fishing now covers a greater surface area than agriculture

More than half the world’s oceans are being fished by industrial vessels, new research reveals.

The maps based on feedback from more than 70,000 vessels show commercial fishing covers a greater surface area than agriculture, and will raise fresh questions about the health of oceans and sustainability of trawler fishing.

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A single mutation in an immunity gene may explain why bats can carry deadly viruses and not get sick.

The US rocket company puts up two satellites to test technologies for a broadband mega-constellation.

A novel deal with donors including Leonardo DiCaprio turned public debt into conservation funding.

An innovative exchange of sovereign debt for marine conservation, backed by the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, could pave the way to saving large swaths of the world’s oceans

The tropical island nation of Seychelles is to create two huge new marine parks in return for a large amount of its national debt being written off, in the first scheme of its kind in the world.

The novel financial engineering, effectively swapping debt for dolphins and other marine life, aims to throw a lifeline to corals, tuna and turtles being caught in a storm of overfishing and climate change. If it works, it will also secure the economic future of the nation, which depends entirely on tourism and fishing. With other ocean states lining up to follow, the approach could transform large swaths of the planet’s troubled seas.

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A call for continued efforts to protect our water and our Earth

One year after the closing of the camp at the Standing Rock Reservation, Standing Rock is everywhere. Our collective water has been assaulted for many generations to the possible point of no return.

Our Elders foretold of a Black Snake and how the Water of Life — “Mni Woc’oni,” which is our first medicine — would be affected if we did not stop this oncoming disaster. Mni Woc’oni is part of our creation story, and the same story that exists in many creation stories around Mother Earth.

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Think about how much rubbish you accumulate in 24 hours: food-wrappers, drink bottles, and other assorted rubbish.

Sandy, Bedfordshire: These grit peckers are masters of last-minute escapology. But not always

Twice every day, soon after dawn and a little before dusk, wood pigeons come down on country roads to feed. Not for them the tyre-stamped carcasses that are peeled off the asphalt by crow beaks. Pigeons are grit peckers, heads down like chickens in a yard. They gobble up tiny stones to act as so many grinding pestles in the mortar of their digestive tract.

While crows have adapted to life in the fast lane with cunning and calculating judgment, wood pigeons are masters of last-minute escapology. But not always. Last autumn, I noticed one standing in the middle of a straight, wood-edged road, head lowered, picking away at the ground. I drove on, slowed and waited for it to fly. It flew all right: just a few metres in front of the car it gave a tiny hop that brought it just above the bumper. I heard a soft thud and then, through an explosion of down, a grey bundle smacked against the windscreen, after which I looked in the rear-view mirror to see the poor bird’s body cartwheeling off towards the verge. Weeks later, I was still picking out pale feathers that had wedged firmly on impact in the radiator grill.

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Labor frontbencher says party must ‘get the policy mechanisms right’ over Carmichael coalmine

Anthony Albanese says Labor should not single out existing projects, like the Adani coalmine, that have already gone through approval processes “and then retrospectively change existing laws, which would have ramifications across the board”.

The Labor frontbencher has effectively ruled out Labor overhauling the Environmental Protection Biodiversity and Conversation Act as part of a strategy to boost legal options of killing the controversial Queensland coal project.

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Traditional scale used goes only to five but strength and intensity of storms is increasing, says scientists

The increasing strength, intensity and duration of tropical cyclones has climate scientists questioning whether a new classification needs to be created: a category-six storm.

The Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale currently runs in severity from one to five, with five describing near-total destruction.

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The ESB needs to go back to the drawing board and have another go at its National Energy Guarantee. They doesn’t understand what a bad solution they have proposed.

Jay Weatherill goes all-in for renewable energy, saying the state election is an effective referendum on the technology and a loss will be used to stop renewable developments in other states. Plus: His comments on AEMO, Tesla, the Coalition and Nick Xenophon.

The public consultation period for assessment for ongoing export accreditation will be open from 23 February until 29 March 2018.

The public consultation period for assessment for ongoing export accreditation will be open from 23 February until 29 March 2018.

Herbert Smith Freehills has advised Ararat Wind Farm (AWF) on its entry into two innovative corporate power purchase agreements with Flow Power, a Melbourne based electricity retailer.

From the oil that makes your petrol, to car parts, to the groceries and other things in your weekly shop, retail consumerism is driving a boom in the amount of noise in the world's oceans. Andrew J. Wright, Marine Mammal Researcher, Fisheries and Oceans Canada Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.