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Despite what the Turnbull government says, coal has no place in Australia's future energy mix – for three basic reasons.

Queensland's new draft land-clearing laws aim to put the brakes on years of environmental destruction. But the bill contains several loopholes that are likely to stymie progress. Anita J Cosgrove, Senior Research Assistant in the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, The University of Queensland April Reside, Researcher, Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, The University of Queensland James Watson, Professor, The University of Queensland Martine Maron, ARC Future Fellow and Associate Professor of Environmental Management, The University of Queensland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

As the fight against plastic pollution gains momentum, firms are tackling the issue in different ways.

In the first of our Future of Work series, we look at how new tech could change our working lives.

If the NEG could get one thing right, you might think it would be a signal for new investment in "dispatchable" capacity. But Tesla and Genex, the leading developers of battery storage and pumped hydro projects, say it could do the opposite.

Particle pollution increases as the wind slows down and chilly weather prompts the lighting of more wood fires

The last days of the “beast from the east” cold spell caused air pollution problems across large parts of the UK, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. Within the UK particle pollution reached between five and 10 on the UK government’s 10-point scale over parts of south Wales and areas of England south of a Merseyside to Tyneside line, except the far south-west.

Pollution from industry, traffic and home wood and coal burning can stay in the air for a week or up to 10 days. This means that pollution emitted in one part of Europe can cause problems hundreds of miles away. If the wind slows down then particle pollution can build up over a whole region.

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Australia's contribution to plastic pollution is just a drop in the ocean compared to the amount of rubbish coming from the developing world.

Most of Australia's plants and animals are found nowhere else on Earth. This remarkable biodiversity requires a bolder, brighter conservation vision. Euan Ritchie, Associate Professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Deakin University Bek Christensen, Vice-President, Ecological Society of Australia, Queensland University of Technology Bill Bateman, Senior Lecturer, Curtin University Dale Nimmo, Associate professor/ARC DECRA fellow, Charles Sturt University Don Driscoll, Professor in Terrestrial Ecology, Deakin University Grant Wardell-Johnson, Associate Professor, Environmental Biology, Curtin University Noel D Preece, Adjunct Principal Research Fellow at Charles Darwin and, James Cook University Sarah Luxton, PhD Candidate, Curtin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

New evidence from Kenya suggests that local climate change drove early human innovation.

Only one target shark caught in NSW nets in two months, while 55 other marine creatures killed or trapped

Shark nets on the New South Wales north coast have caught just a single target shark in the past two months, while continuing to trap or kill dolphins, turtles, and protected marine life.

A single bull shark was caught in the nets around Ballina in January and February, while 55 other animals were either killed or trapped.

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$10 million loan from SA Government to help Sanjeev Gupta steal crown of "world's biggest lithium ion battery" from Tesla's Elon Musk.

Academics and environmental campaigners from the Beyond Extinction Economics (BEE) network say challenging questions about confronting the risk to global biodiversity were left unanswered by a recent Guardian briefing article

Damian Carrington are to be congratulated on a wide-ranging and informative article on the urgency and scale of the current global threat to biodiversity and the Guardian (What is biodiversity and why does it matter to us?, theguardian.com, 12 March). However, we of the Beyond Extinction Economics (BEE) network have reservations about the article’s diagnosis of its causes, and proposals for addressing the crisis.

First, to say “we” or “human activity” is responsible for biodiversity loss sidesteps the more serious challenge of identifying the specific socio-cultural, and, more centrally, economic drivers of destruction. Second, to slip easily from population rises to industrial development, housing and farming as the causes of the destruction of wild areas evades critical questions about what sort of industry, producing what sort of consumer goods and what kind of farming and food distribution system – let alone questions as to who has the power to decide and who gets to consume and who doesn’t.

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More than 170,000 acres of protected countryside in the south-east face risk of drilling

More than 170,000 acres of protected countryside, including national park land, in the south-east of England are at risk from a new wave of oil drilling, environmental campaigners have warned.

Under threat are areas of outstanding natural beauty in the Weald, which runs between the north and south downs, and the South Downs national park, Greenpeace said.

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Tesla says National Energy Guarantee needs to be much more ambitious, and the Energy Security Board needs to catch up with technologies like battery storage.

New Mexico is a battleground in the fight over once public waterways, sparking fears it could set a national precedent

As Scott Carpenter and a few friends paddled down the Pecos river in New Mexico last May, taking advantage of spring run-off, the lead boater yelled out and made a swirling hand motion over his head in the universal signal to pull over to shore. The paddlers eddied out in time to avoid running straight through three strings of barbed wire obstructing the river.

Swinging in the wind, the sign hanging from the fence read “PRIVATE PROPERTY: No Trespassing”.

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How Stephen Hawking used his recognition to highlight challenges and existential threats for humanity.

For the first time ever, scientists in Antarctica have attached a camera to a minke – one of the most poorly understood of all the whale species.  The camera (attached with suction cups) slid down the side of the animal – but stayed attached – providing remarkable video of the way it feeds.

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Electrolux wants to power its only remaining Australian factory with a combination of 2.5MW of solar PV and 500kW battery storage.

Unprecedented joint inquiry by four committees of MPs demands polluters pay for air pollution causing ‘national health emergency’

The car industry must pay millions of pounds towards solving the UK’s toxic air crisis under the “polluter pays” principle, according to an unprecedented joint inquiry by four committees of MPs.

The MPs call the poisonous air that causes 40,000 early deaths a year a “national health emergency” and are scathing about the government’s clean air plans. These judged illegal three times in the high court, with the latest plan condemned as “woefully inadequate” by city leaders and “inexcusable” by doctors.

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Crook, County Durham: starving birds lose their inhibitions if apples are available in gardens

The steep climb from the start of the Deerness Valley Way follows the route of an old rope-worked incline where, a century ago, a stationary engine on the hilltop hauled railway wagons up from Bankfoot coke works. Today it was hard work hauling ourselves up the hill, with every footstep sinking into thawing snow that was still knee-deep in places.

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