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Exclusive: documents show Katrina Hodgkinson changed plan to allow irrigators to extract 32% more after industry ramped up its lobbying

A water-sharing plan for the Barwon-Darling was altered by the former New South Wales minister for primary industries, Katrina Hodgkinson, even though public consultations on the draft plan had ended and her bureaucrats had already submitted a draft for her to sign.

The changes made it more favourable to irrigators and delivered valuable additional water during low flows. According to some modelling it may have increased legal extractions by irrigators by 32%.

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Marbled crayfish have developed the ability to self-clone – and now a million-strong crustacean army exists in waters stretching from Europe to Japan

Name: Marbled crayfish. Marmorkrebs in German.

Age: Potentially infinite.

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Genome study finds the invasive clonal freshwater crayfish is descended from a single female and reproduces without males

A voracious pest that mutated in a German aquarium and is marching around the world without the need for sexual reproduction may sound like science fiction, but a genetic study has revealed that a rapidly spreading all-female army of crayfish is descended from a single female and reproduces without any males.

The clonal freshwater crayfish is regarded as an invasive species which threatens endemic wild species, but its success may help scientists better understand how cancer spreads.

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Indonesian authorities say male orangutan was found with 130 airgun pellets and machete wounds in the second known killing this year

The body of a Borneo orangutan has been found riddled with some 130 airgun pellets, Indonesian authorities have said, the second known killing this year.

The male orangutan, which also showed signs of machete wounds, was found by villagers in Borneo’s East Kutai district this week, police said, adding that an autopsy had been carried out.

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Scientists put a face to Cheddar Man, Britain's oldest complete skeleton from 10,000 years ago.

In a sixth year of consecutive growth, organic sales rose by 6% to a record £2.2bn, driven largely by independent outlets and home deliveries

Sales of organic food and drink in the UK rose by 6% last year to a record £2.2bn, fuelled by strong growth through independent outlets and home delivery which outpaced sales in rival supermarkets.

Almost 30% of all organic sales now take place online or on the high street, according to a new report from Soil Association, the trade body which licenses organic products and promotes organic farming.

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As the scale of plastic pollution in the world's oceans becomes ever more apparent, could bottle deposit schemes help turn the tide?

Longterm decline is blamed on loss of hedgerows and insect prey but urban hedgehogs may offer a glimmer of hope, says a new report

The number of hedgehogs living in the British countryside has plummeted by more than half since 2000, according to a new report.

The popular but prickly character topped a vote in 2013 to nominate a national species for Britain, but it has suffered as hedgerows are lost and the invertebrates it feasts on diminish. However, the survey offers a glimmer of hope as losses in towns and cities appear to have slowed and the numbers patrolling nighttime gardens may be increasing.

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Photographer Sean Gallagher has set up a new Instagram feed called Everyday Extinction. Featuring work from 25 wildlife photographers, photojournalists and scientists, the project aims to highlight species extinction and celebrate biodiversity

• Warning: this gallery contains some graphic images

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Case brought by group from Hunter Valley town, which it says has been devastated by Peabody Energy’s Wilpinjong mine

In what is described as a landmark case, a New South Wales court will be asked to overturn a decision to extend the life of a coalmine on the grounds the state government failed to properly consider the impact on the climate.

The case is brought by a community group from the tiny Hunter Valley village of Wollar, which it says has been devastated by the development and gradual expansion of the Wilpinjong coalmine over the past decade.

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Most of us lack the expertise to evaluate climate science, but there are ways anyone can spot a badly reasoned argument. Peter Ellerton, Lecturer in Critical Thinking, Director of the UQ Critical Thinking Project, The University of Queensland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Redflow has today received in Australia the first battery electrode stacks made by its new Thailand facility.

Having brought 2017 to a close on a comparatively stable note, the VEEC market began 2018 in a far more spectacular fashion. ESC market has also started in a positive frame of mind.

Tasmania's Liberal government promises to boost state energy security with $200k solar and battery storage "microgrid," if re-elected.

With water storages running low, residents of Cape Town get drinking water in the early morning from a mountain spring collection point.

AGL have paid penalties totalling $60,000 in response to infringement notices issued by the Australian Energy Regulator (AER).

ICYMI, there's a red Tesla Roadster flying through space, on a billion-year elliptic Mars orbit. Why? Well that's just how Elon Musk rolls.

Windlab's 100MW, $200m Lakeland Wind Farm set to be built south of Cooktown in Queensland, after winning state government approval.

Tilt Renewables to build another SA big battery, next to new solar farm and existing Snowtown windfarm, and a 300MW/1350MWh pumped hydro project near Adelaide.

As Day Zero looms and the South African city gets set to run out of water, experts say lessons learned during Melbourne’s brush with a similar fate may help avert a global crisis

In December 2017, Seona Candy drove through the vineyards of the Franschhoek Valley near Cape Town towards the banks of the Sonderend river. In the late 1970s, the waterway was dammed to create the biggest reservoir in South Africa’s Western Cape. Behind the thick walls of the Theewaterskloof dam lay the capacity to hold 480 million cubic metres of water, nearly half of Cape Town’s water supply.

“When I got there, it was mostly dust,” Candy says.

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