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Queensland turns to jet-fuel and imports from NSW wind farm as soaring temperatures pushed demand to a new peak, and its big coal generators wilted in the heat. Fortunately, it also had heaps of rooftop solar.

Labor, Greens and environment groups call for urgent review of funding for species conservation

• ‘Absolute scandal’: how does restoring a ship help endangered species?
  

Labor has accused the federal government of overstating its spending on threatened species projects and the Greens have called for an urgent auditor general’s review of all threatened species expenditure by the Department of the Environment and Energy.

It comes after the Guardian revealed the government was claiming projects such as heritage building works at the Old Melbourne Gaol and the Polly Woodside – an old cargo ship in Melbourne’s CBD – had benefits for threatened animals and plants that are unlikely to occur at those sites.

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Quantum computing has taken a step forward with the recent development of a silicon-based programmable quantum processor.

The federal government considered prosecuting Adani's potential environmental negligence over the history of its Australian CEO. Samantha Hepburn, Director of the Centre for Energy and Natural Resources Law, Deakin Law School, Deakin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Alibaba rolls out a system that analyses pig squeals and coughs to improve pork production.

Shellfish reefs, formed by oysters or mussels in or near estuaries, have declined by up 99% since British colonisation

Marine scientists are lobbying the federal government to ensure protection for Australia’s most endangered – but least known – ocean ecosystem.

Shellfish reefs, formed by millions of oysters or mussels clustering together in or near the mouths of estuaries, have declined by up 99% since British colonisation.

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Climate change and industrial-scale fishing is impacting the krill population with a potentially disastrous impact on larger predators, say scientists

• First images of creatures from Antarctic depths revealed

The Antarctic, one of the world’s last great wildernesses and home to animals such as whales, penguins and leopard seals, is being threatened by the plight of an animal just a few centimetres long, according to scientists.

Researchers and environmental campaigners warn that a combination of climate change and industrial-scale fishing is threatening the krill population in Antarctic waters, with a potentially disastrous impact on larger predators.

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A scientist says the search for alien intelligence has been hit by a shortage of computer hardware.

With over 1,800 plant and animal species endangered, Australia faces a new extinction crisis. Can we reverse this disturbing trend?

In 1996, Osvaldo Wuaru and his family arrived on the outskirts of the vast Munduruku Amazon Territory with a crucial mission: set up a village to hold back the invasion of pariwat (non-indigenous) gold miners. Twenty-one years later, it has all but failed, reports Climate Home News

Named Watch Post (the Portuguese acronym is PV), the village has been swallowed by the heavy equipment of hundreds of illegal gold miners (called garimpeiros). What was once a few huts hidden in the Amazon forest now resembles a bombed battlefield.

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German photographer Tobias Friedrich has been named this year’s winner for his ‘perfectly lit and composed’ panorama of a wreck off the coast of Egypt, while British winner Grant Thomas captured a couple of affectionate swans

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Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: The one-step-forward-two-steps-back dance between winter and spring had time yet but many of the animals and plants had not

Overnight snow left anonymous gifts. Frost and a chill wind through the trees hardened what remained of the snowfall as the weather moved on, to leave a scattering of unopened envelopes. Snow on fungi: there was something very symbolic about these two kinds of ephemeral structures. The Armilaria fungi living in the rotten stump of a tree may have been what killed it. The fruiting bodies of russet flesh that bloomed from fibrous mycelium, forming a circuit between tree cells and a kind of organic afterlife in the soil, were now holding a frozen package of snow.

After days of sogginess with bright moments, the return of snow felt revenant. It was too clear and pure, even in its fleetingness. In Among the Summer Snows, Christopher Nicholson talked about the literary obsession with the whiteness of snow and quoted Shakespeare when Juliet declares that Romeo “wilt lie upon the wings of night/ Whiter than new snow on a raven’s back”. Love transcends death, or something.

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The problem in Australia's energy market is that – uniquely in the world – we have separate rule making and operating statutory bodies. Only one of them is based in reality.

Equis Energy to begin construction of 127MW solar farm in South Australia, and looks to add 111MW stage 2 and 100MWh of battery storage.

The brain cells are working overtime at the headquarters of network owners, grid operators, generators, and regulators. Thanks to battery storage, Australia's electricity grid is about to make the leap from analogue to digital, and everyone is scrambling to keep up.

UN draft report says missing 1.5C warming target will multiply hunger, migration and conflict, but staying under will require unprecedented global cooperation.

Carnegie Clean Energy subsidiary Energy Made Clean wins tender to build 5MW solar farm on former rubbish dump, in the former coal hub of Newcastle.

The state government refuses to provide an environmental licence to allow New Hope to expand mining to the Darling Downs

The Queensland government has accepted a landmark land and environment court ruling from last year and refused to provide an environmental licence to the New Acland coalmine extension.

Following the longest case in the court’s history, a judge last year recommended against New Hope’s plans to expand the mine into prime agricultural land on Queensland’s Darling Downs, primarily over concerns about impacts on groundwater supplies, but also on air quality and noise.

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Perth, unlike Cape Town, faces no prospect of its tapwater running out. But other problems lurk beneath the surface, as the city's drying climate puts increasing pressure on irrigation and wetlands. Don McFarlane, Adjunct professor, University of Western Australia Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

After some regulatory and technical hurdles, 120MW Yarranlea Solar Farm will go ahead under new owners, Risen Energy.