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Since the 1960s, environmentalism in Australia has largely focused on defending "wilderness". yophotography/flickr, CC BY-SA

This is part of our Reimagining New South Wales (NSW) series. For this series, vice-chancellors in NSW asked a select group of early and mid-career researchers to envisage new ways to tackle old problems and identify emerging opportunities across the state.

NSW finds itself contemplating life after the mining boom.

It’s a moment of significant challenge but also an opportunity to reflect on the environmental impact of the industry at the heart of Australia’s recent economic growth – and how we can change our relationship with the land for the better.

We envisage a NSW where necessary industrial innovation is coordinated in ways that are environmentally sustainable and socially just. Critical here will be the state’s capacity to drive knowledge-led and low-carbon innovation.

But we also need to rethink the way humans relate to the environment.

The legacies of past mining enterprises and the impacts of mining waste will likely be felt for many years to come. The NSW landscape is now pockmarked by the environmental traces of the mining boom. Its social and economic effects in local communities live on – and that’s before we even get to the broader global impacts of the carbon emission from coal mines.

What values might guide our future relationship with the NSW environment?

Beyond ‘wilderness’

Since the 1960s, environmentalism in Australia has largely focused on defending “wilderness”. Conceptualising nature as a pristine place devoid of humans has underpinned the establishment of many protected areas in NSW and around the world.

While this worldview is being challenged in academia, the notion that we’ve done our bit to protect the environment and biodiversity by declaring a protected area persists in the political realm. And too often areas are declared protected without recognition of, or agreement by, the Aboriginal custodians of the land.

However, protected areas in themselves are not stemming the destruction of biodiversity, and cutting humans out of the picture altogether is not realistic nor helpful.

It is also important to remember that the majority of protected areas are marginal or “leftover areas” that were simply too hard to farm, mine or log. So congratulating ourselves on conserving one chunk of land, while intensively farming or developing another piece of land in environmentally unsustainable ways is not only unhelpful – it’s hypocritical.

A fresh approach

Instead of clinging to an old-fashioned view of “wilderness”, we should recognise that areas used intensively by humans can support significant biodiversity. We can also improve the design of these places to allow humans to better connect with their environment.

Recent work is re-valuating cities as sites of significant biodiversity. For example, studies on bee biodiversity suggest that cities may support more pollinators than was once thought.

And there is growing interest in the possibilities of urban agriculture as a source of local food production. The greening of cities brings with it huge possibilities: increased connection with nature, mental and physical health benefits and opportunities for engagement with food production.

At the same time, a move toward more sustainable agricultural practices can produce impressive yields while providing habitat for plants and animals. Production and biodiversity need to be treated in tandem in policy-making and practice, rather than presented as a binary choice.

Urban planning agencies could help by boosting the focus on creating green spaces that allow for humans to connect with nature in urban and rural environments – prioritising parks, green spaces and food production grounds close to homes and other buildings.

We could also consider a fresh approach to environmental impact assessments. Traditionally, these are written by consultants funded by developers; in the future, we could consider funding and even peer reviewing such assessments independently.

Inclusive and creative participation

We will need fresh ways to boost public participation in planning for the way humans relate to their environment.

After Hurricane Sandy hit the US in 2012, US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Rebuild By Design coalition in Northeast United States forged a collaboration between designers, researchers, community members, and government officials.

Through a series of design competitions, participants helped rebuild disaster-struck areas in ways that best suited their needs and relationships with local environments.

Sydney is collaborating with other global cities in building urban resilience, but more could be done to foster social inclusion and community participation – particularly Indigenous participation – in shaping our environments. We need to include people in the early design stages of urban planning, rather than just asking for feedback on preconceived proposals.

It won’t always be easy, but we envisage a future NSW where community participation is regarded as a vital asset rather than a problem to be overcome.

Further reading:

Reimagining NSW: how the care economy could help unclog our cities

Reimagining NSW: four ways to boost community well-being and why it matters

Reimagining NSW: how good governance strengthens democracy

Pascal Scherrer chairs the Northern Rivers Region National Parks Advisory Committee and is a member of IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas.

Emily O'Gorman receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She works for Macquarie University.

Hannah Power has received funding from the NSW State Government under the NSW State Emergency Management Program Scheme.

Matthew Kearnes receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Sandie Suchet-Pearson receives funding from the ARC.

Tanya Latty receives funding the Branco Weiss Society in Science fellowship, the Australian Research Council, Commonwealth of Australia and the City of Sydney. She participates in the Australian Pollinator Think Tank.

The Kilauea volcano’s lava looked like a smiley face but stars, craters and spiders have also resembled the popular symbol for happiness

An erupting volcano in Hawaii was all smiles last week – and no, it wasn’t a Disney animation.

The lava of Kilauea, a shield volcano on Hawaii’s biggest island, appeared to form a smiley face as it erupted. The volcano has been active since 1983, with lava emerging from the Pu‘u ‘O‘o vent. As the smile appeared, lava from the volcano reached the Pacific Ocean for the first time in three years, according to CNN.

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Temperatures, sea levels and carbon dioxide all hit milestones amid extreme weather in 2015, major international ‘state of the climate’ report finds

The world is careening towards an environment never experienced before by humans, with the temperature of the air and oceans breaking records, sea levels reaching historic highs and carbon dioxide surpassing a key milestone, a major international report has found.

Related: Anthrax outbreak triggered by climate change sickens dozens in Arctic Circle

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Yale Environment 360: By linking together networks of energy-efficient buildings, solar installations, and batteries, a growing number of companies in the US and Europe are helping utilities reduce energy demand at peak hours and supply targeted areas with renewably generated electricity

The tens of thousands of tons of natural gas that surged into the Southern California sky late last year were supposed to have fueled the region’s power plants and heated its homes. Instead, the massive leak at the Aliso Canyon storage site left California electricity providers racing to replace the lost supplies to avoid blackouts and recurring outages in the coming months.

But Los Angeles area utilities aren’t solely seeking more fossil fuels to fill the gap in natural gas. They are also turning to “virtual power plants”: sprawling networks of independent batteries, solar panels, and energy-efficient buildings that are tied together and remotely controlled by software and data systems. The goal of these virtual power plants is to collectively reduce customers’ energy demand at peak hours and provide renewable energy supplies in targeted areas. This would allow utilities to offset some of the needs for power from conventional sources and avoid disruption on the grid.

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My father, Leslie Jesch, who has died aged 90, was a leading authority on the application of solar energy and a pioneer in the development of renewables internationally, and especially across Europe.

He was born László Jesch in Budapest, the son of László Jesch, an electrical engineer and college principal, and his wife Ilona (nee Láng), who before she married had supported her large family by making the popular Hungarian food tarhonya, a sort of egg-based pasta. From the Benedictine monks who educated him he developed a deep appreciation of European history and culture, and he learned several languages.

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New EU regulation blacklists 37 non-native plant and animal species in a bid to tackle threats to native wildlife and economic losses

The north American raccoon, an Asian hornet and an American cabbage are among 37 invasive species that will be banned from being brought into the UK from Wednesday when a new EU regulation comes into effect.

The continent-wide rules now make it illegal to import, keep, breed or grow, transport, sell or use, or release into the environment without a permit the listed invasive, non-native plant and animal species. But the ban will no longer apply when then UK leaves the EU.

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If you are a farmer or migrant worker employed on a farm we’d like to hear from you

We’re interested in hearing from farmers who are concerned about the effect losing season workers from Europe could have.

If you are a seasonal worker or a farmer who employs overseas workers we’d like to hear from you. How has Brexit affected you? If you have travelled from Europe to work on a farm in the UK we’d like to hear your experiences too. You can share your stories with us by filling in the form below. We’ll use some of your contributions in our ongoing reporting.

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The man who has taken charge of UK research funding says Brexit presents scientists with an opportunity.

Greenhouse gas emissions increased slightly between 2012 and 2013, official figures show

The “carbon footprint” for the pollution caused by UK consumption has increased slightly, official figures show.

The amount of greenhouse gases linked to goods and services consumed by UK households, including emissions from the foreign manufacture of imported products, rose by 3% between 2012 and 2013, the most recent data shows.

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Two recent reports on the state of the world’s coral reefs appear to contradict each other. But which is right?

Over the last six weeks, scientists have published two major reports on coral reef resilience that appear to contradict each other. The first - “Bright spots among the world’s coral reefs” was produced by 39 scientists led by Professor Josh Cinner of James Cook University in Australia and drew on data from 6000 reef surveys from all over the world. Cinner et al concluded that those reefs that were sustainably managed had a much better chance of withstanding bleaching impacts related to global warming and periodic climate events like El Niño. The second however suggested remote coral reefs not subject to human stressors like overfishing or pollution were faring no better than those close to populated areas and that ecosystems management made no real difference to the overall health of reefs. So which is right?

“Coral reef degradation is not correlated with local human population density,” by Professor John Bruno and co-author Abel Valdivia of the University of North Carolina was published on 20 July. It suggests that contrary to prevailing scientific opinion, local pressures do not act synchronously with global stressors (most notably warming) and that their impact on reefs is negligible. According to Valdivia “Widespread arguments that coral reef degradation is mostly caused by local factors are unsupported. We found the problem is better explained by global impacts such as climate change.”

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Oscar-winning actor among 214 signatories of an open letter demanding cancellation of oil firm’s new five-year arts sponsorship deal

Hundreds of figures in the arts and science, including Oscar-winning actor Mark Rylance, artist Conrad Atkinson, composer Matthew Herbert and author Naomi Klein, have called for BP’s new five-year sponsorship deals with some of Britain’s leading cultural institutions to be cancelled.

Rylance, who is the former artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe theatre and star of Steven Spielberg’s new film The BFG, heads a list of 214 signatories to a letter in the Times claiming that BP uses art sponsorship to help develop its interests in oil extraction, which must be reduced to avoid rapid climate change.

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Telstra's chief scientist says driverless cars are coming, and that they'll force a rethink about how we design our roads.

Dramatic footage from Channel Nine shows a widening sinkhole swallowing a good portion of a back yard in Ipswich, Queensland. The house is owned by a retired couple. A century-old mine shaft has been blamed for the sudden emergence of a six- to eight-metre hole filled with water. The mayor of Ipswich, Paul Pisasale, told AAP he had assured Lyn and Ray McKay that their house would not disappear overnight and engineers were confident of fixing the sinkhole. ‘It’s an exploratory shaft that goes down about 100 metres and there’s no need to panic about a neighbourhood falling in, and we will take all the steps to get Lyn and Ray back in their house’

• The science behind sinkholes: terrifying and relatively unpredictable incidents

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South Australian government to take on networks over grid charges, meaning it is now challenging the market dominance of generators, retailers and network providers as it defends its support of wind, solar and battery storage.

Blackwater Carr, Norfolk If not wealth for cuckoos, the flowers are indisputable riches for bumblebees

As I write I have a small canvas bag of yellow-rattle seed on my desk. It bulges now like a full purse and the disk-like flattened seeds jangle a little like cash when shuggled about. In fact, if I bought it commercially, it would be the equivalent of £30, which is not bad for two hours’ work.

I find it intriguing to discover how a suite of old names once did link yellow-rattle to manmade coin. In Somerset Rhinanthus minor was known simply as “money” and in Leicestershire as “money-grass”. I love most, however, a wry Lanarkshire coinage: “gowk’s sixpences” – “cuckoo’s sixpences”. It was probably intended to suggest the idea of fool’s gold, but for me it carries a different set of associations.

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Ocean waste is a serious problem for companies emotionally and physically connected to the sea, but that connection also gives them a strong incentive to find solutions, said the founder of outdoor clothing company Finisterre in a recent Guardian debate. Here we profile some of the companies doing just that

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Newly released survey data suggests we may have dramatically underestimated the take up of battery storage in Australia.

Our cost of energy charts for battery storage suggest Tesla is now in the middle of the pack, Enphase looks relatively cheap and none of them is cheap enough.

Federal environment department says Unesco sought and was granted heavy redactions in freedom of information documents

The United Nations has tried to cover up its involvement in the Australian government’s successful attempt to have all mentions of the country removed from a report on climate change and world heritage sites, freedom of information documents show.

In May, Unesco published a report with the UN’s environment program, Unep, and the Union of Concerned Scientists about the impact of climate change on world heritage sites, which were also major tourist attractions.

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SolarCity agrees to Tesla offer of $2.6bn, but opinions are divided over Musk's plan to create a "sustainable energy and transport" powerhouse.