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Why electricity is more than just a means to various ends.

Falling costs of wind and solar in Indian auctions leaves big coal plant idle and inspires government to significantly lift its renewables targets.

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: There were masses of southern marsh orchids, many of which were in the early stages of flower opening like a slow-motion firework display

The southern marsh orchids, Dactylorhiza praetermissa, are almost knee high, with apple-green leaves, thick hollow stems and a spearhead of extraordinary purple-pink, cryptically lined flowers. They have suddenly and ceremoniously materialised in the abandoned field like ambassadors from another planet. Despite their indolence, everything about them – their form, colour, identity, presence, future – is mysterious. They stand among us, splendidly alien, as if they’ve entered consciousness from a terra incognita outside our everyday experience. These are not just flowers but an event with a magenta aura.

Only last week I wandered into this field, really just a fenced-off patch of limestone quarry spoil, to check on what might be flowering. In some years there are dense colonies of common spotted orchids and one year there were dozens of bee orchids, but the larger groups of orchid never last long and some years they are few and far between. I was beginning to think this year would be a poor show until I came across a couple of big southern marsh orchids, opening from places that had been really wet all winter.

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Porsche made public their commitment to zero-emission vehicles last year, and have now officially christened their flagship electric vehicle.

First of 400 Tesla PowerPacks arrive at site of 25MW/50MWh Gannawarra Energy Storage System, to store power from 60MW solar farm.

Sydney artist Emily Parsons-Lord makes installations about the invisible: air. So how does she do it, and what can we see?

The Andrews Labor Government is backing a new energy policy centre to help drive reform, and ensure Victoria’s energy system remains reliable, affordable and increasingly sustainable.

Windlab has been awarded an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) Certificate for the construction of the Miombo Hewani Wind Farm and Transmission line project.

The red squirrel, the wildcat, and the grey long-eared bat face severe threats, a study says.

The project’s objective is to strengthen the capacity of and provide policy options to China’s key institutions and all involved stakeholders for preparing and establishing ETS on local and national levels. This includes methodological, technical, and policy advice on ETS design, infrastructure and operation, as well as capacity building. The project focuses on the exchange of experiences between Germany and China and strengthens the bilateral dialogue.

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Brumbies have a devoted following among high country locals, despite the fact that they were despised by colonial settler farmers. Their mythical status today owes a lot to cultural figures such as Banjo Paterson. Pete Minard, Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for the Study of the Inland, La Trobe University., La Trobe University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Garden warblers in fact prefer thick scrub, which is dying out in our tidy countryside

Some birds are very well named: such as the cuckoo, treecreeper and song thrush. Others, including Kentish plover, grey wagtail and garden warbler, are almost wilfully misleading.

Garden warblers are, unlike their cousin the blackcap, hardly ever found in gardens. They prefer thick scrub, a transitory habitat that is becoming harder and harder to find in our increasingly tidy countryside.

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Andrew and Jane Clifford promise to match donations in bid to stop feral cats

A $1m donation to the fight against feral cats could help to double the size of the world’s largest cat-free sanctuary or help genetically neuter cats, conservationists say.

Sydney philanthropists Andrew and Jane Clifford have pledged to match every donation made to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy up to $1m before the end of the financial year, hoping to create a $2m fund to eradicate Australia’s cat plague.

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Readers react to George Monbiot’s article on dropping meat and dairy, news about Sainsbury’s selling vegan ‘fake meats’ , and a report on meat being found in vegan and vegetarian meals

Alongside George Monbiot’s suggestion (Want to save the planet? Drop meat and dairy, 8 June), another way to reduce greenhouse gases is to stop keeping pets. It’s been calculated that an average dog has an ecological footprint twice as large as that of a large car.

Like meat-eating, pet ownership is nowadays encouraged by a vast industry; the pet insurance sector alone is said to generate more of Britain’s GDP than fishing does. The production of pet food, provision of veterinary services and breeding the creatures are big businesses, all with an interest in promoting the alleged benefits of owning a furry friend.

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With the first 500mph runs now pushed back to mid-2019, there is more time to prepare the world's first supersonic car.

EU carbon prices dropped below €15 for the first time in almost two weeks on Tuesday as a weak auction result suggested the market could struggle to absorb the wave of heightened volume ahead.

Australia’s Paris Agreement commitment is “grossly inadequate” and the target would have to be dramatically ramped up for the coal-reliant nation to do its fair share to keep climate change under control, a report found Tuesday.

How significant is the agreement signed by US President Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un for regional security?

Are we doomed to societal collapse? Not if we break the mould of ever-greater production and consumption

Enough concrete has been produced to cover the entire surface of the Earth in a layer two millimetres thick. Enough plastic has been manufactured to clingfilm it as well. We produce 4.8bn tonnes of our top five crops, plus 4.8 billion head of livestock, annually. There are 1.2bn motor vehicles, 2bn personal computers, and more mobile phones than the 7.5 billion people on Earth.

The result of all this production and consumption is a chronic, escalating, many-sided environmental crisis. From rapid climate change to species extinctions to microplastics in every ocean, these impacts are now so large that many scientists have concluded that we have entered a new human-dominated geological period called the Anthropocene.

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