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Te promised outcomes of reform – cheaper and more reliable electricity, competitive markets and rational investment decisions – are further away than ever.

Warm weather ensured Arctic sea ice hit its lowest extent ever recorded for February.

Australia’s population growth and economic activity continue to pose major environmental challenges, according to a comprehensive five-yearly stocktake of the country’s environmental health.

The federal government’s State of the Environment 2016 report (prepared by a group of independent experts, which I chaired), released today, predicts that population growth and economic development will be the main drivers of environmental problems such as land-use change, habitat destruction, invasive species, and climate change.

These main pressures are broadly the same as those listed in the first ever State of the Environment report in 1996.

Yet since the last report in 2011, there have been some improvements in the state and trend of parts of the Australian environment. Our heritage (built, natural, and cultural) and marine environments are generally in good condition, as is the Australian Antarctic Territory. However, the Great Barrier Reef was affected significantly by Cyclone Yasi in 2011 and record high sea surface temperatures in 2015-16, resulting in extensive coral bleaching and die-off, particularly across the northern regions.

Pressures and changes

The new report shows that some individual pressures on the environment have eased since the 2011 report, such as those associated with air quality, poor agricultural practices and commercial offshore fishing, as well as oil and gas exploration and production in Australia’s marine environment.

During the same time, however, other pressures have increased, including those associated with coal mining and the coal-seam gas industry, habitat fragmentation and degradation, invasive species, litter in our coastal and marine environments, and greater traffic volumes in our capital cities.

Climate change is an increasingly important and pervasive pressure on all aspects of the Australian environment. It is altering the structure and function of natural ecosystems, and affecting heritage, economic activity and human well-being.

We continue to lose agricultural lands through urban encroachment. Over the past five years land-clearing rates stabilised in all states and territories except Queensland, where the rate of clearing increased.

Coastal waterways are threatened by pollutants, including microplastics and nanoparticles, which are largely unregulated and their effects poorly understood.

Since 2011, the coast has experienced several extreme weather events, including cyclones, heatwaves and floods. Climate-related pressures of sea level rise, more frequent severe storms, and subsequent erosion and recession of the shoreline are expected to become increasingly significant for coastal regions in the future.

Population growth in our major cities, along with Australia’s reliance on private cars, is leading to greater traffic volumes, which increase traffic congestion and delays as well as pollution.

Australia’s biodiversity is continuing to decline, with some exceptions, and new approaches are needed to prevent accelerating decline in many species. Since 2011, the list of nationally threatened species and ecological communities has lengthened, with the addition of 30 new ecological communities, and 44 animal and 5 plant species. Two species have been reported as probably extinct: the Bramble Cay melomys and the Christmas Island forest skink.

What’s more, because climate change will increase the existing threats, the capacity of the environment to adapt to climate change will be improved if other existing threats are addressed or ameliorated.

Grounds for optimism

For some parts of the Australian environment, at least, effective policy and management have contributed to improved outcomes for the environment and people.

Since 2011, Australia’s conservation estate has increased in size. The National Reserve System has grown significantly, largely through the addition of new Indigenous Protected Areas.

Early indications are that environmental watering in the Murray–Darling Basin, driven by the 2012 Murray–Darling Basin Plan, along with the effects of natural floods, have contributed to ecological benefits.

The formation of the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority in 2012 has resulted in greater focus on industry compliance and increased levels of preparedness for unplanned events.

Technology is also changing the way in which environmental managers and policy-makers can access and use information to support decision-making and environmental management.

The new digital platform for the State of the Environment has delivered improved transparency and access to environmental data, making it more accessible to decision makers (including the private sector) and the public, but there remain data gaps to be filled.

There have been significant improvements in knowledge about the environment. In recent years, citizen science has expanded, resulting in improved observations of the environment that, in turn, provides knowledge to support more effective management.

However, we need to accelerate the process of improving environmental information, data and analysis between government, the private sector and civil society. The move towards a national system of environmental economic accounts is a promising development.

Challenges ahead

It is clear that some parts of Australia’s environment are not yet being managed sustainably, including invasive species and litter in our coastal and marine environments. There are several key challenges to the effective management of the Australian environment, including:

• Lack of a national policy establishing a clear vision for the long-term protection and sustainable management of our environment

• Poor collaboration and coordination of policies, decisions and management arrangements across sectors and between both public and private sector managers

• Insufficient resources for environmental management and restoration, and a lack of understanding of cumulative impacts.

State of the Environment 2016 is fundamentally different from its predecessors – with innovations that make it interactive and easier to track change over time.

Its consistent format provides environment policy makers and hands-on environmental managers with better visibility of changes, vital to understanding the condition of our environment and making informed decisions about its future.

It is grounded in the best available information and analysis, and builds on 20 years of experience in national reporting on the environment.

Meeting these challenges will require integrated policies and actions that address both the drivers of environmental change and their associated pressures.

Meeting this challenge will require scientists, governments, communities and businesses to all work together, and there are promising moves in this direction. For example, the Reef Life Survey brings together scientists, managers and citizen scientists to monitor shallow-reef biodiversity in nearly 90 locations around Australia. The appointment of a Threatened Species Commissioner in July 2014 is also helping to bring a national, collaborative focus to conservation efforts to address the growing number of native species in Australia facing extinction. Such efforts need to be encouraged and expanded.

William Jackson receives funding from the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy as Chief Author of Australia State of the Environment 2016.

Simple tips to avoid inhaling air from traffic and other common sources of pollution.

There are fewer than 30 such animals left in Africa after Satao II was apparently shot.

Exclusive: State of the Environment report says heritage and economic activity are being affected and the disadvantaged will be worst hit

Josh Frydenberg: bright spots, but much more to do

An independent review of the state of Australia’s environment has found the impacts of climate change are increasing and some of the changes could be irreversible.

The latest State of the Environment report, a scientific snapshot across nine areas released by the federal government every five years, says climate change is altering the structure and function of natural ecosystems in Australia, and is affecting heritage, economic activity and human wellbeing.

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Please don’t give people an excuse for not making every effort to change behaviours that contribute to air pollution (Omega-3 supplements could guard against air pollution, 4 March). Millions of car drivers can cut air pollution right now by reducing their car use. Driving a car is antisocial in the extreme: it negatively impacts on thousands of lives and there are few places (if any) to escape the toxic waste that car drivers (their cars couldn’t do it without them) spew out from the moment they turn the key in the ignition to the moment they turn it off. One of the most troubling aspects of the human intellect is our ability to rationalise and reason away the most irrational and unreasonable and destructive behaviours. Car drivers are brilliant at it.
Jo Whateley
Sheffield

• It appears that may be true for mice and may yet prove to be so for humans. However, bearing in mind that around a quarter of all car journeys are for less than one mile and that car engines are significantly more polluting when the engine is cold, wouldn’t it be more immediately effective and expedient if far more people simply left their cars behind and walked?
Bill White
Leeds

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The Star Trek actor takes you on a fact-fuelled cosmic journey to the mysterious Red Planet.

Omsin, a green sea turtle, is recovering in Bangkok after surgery to remove over 900 coins from her stomach on Monday. She was brought to Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn university for medical attention by Thai naval personnel who noticed the struggling turtle in Sriracha. A CT scan found that Omsin (“piggy-bank” in English) was carrying a 5kg metal mass inside her, later found during surgery to be coins. It is likely Omsin was swallowing coins thrown into her pond in her hometown. She is expected to make a full recovery

More than 900 coins removed from turtle’s stomach in Thailand

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Three UK-based scientists who have studied the brain’s reward centre win a prestigious prize worth 1m euros.

A collapse in the use of coal has driven UK carbon emissions down to levels barely seen since the Victorian era, new figures show.

Twenty-five-year-old green sea turtle nicknamed Bank swallowed money thrown into her pool by tourists seeking good luck

Tossing coins into a fountain to bring good luck is a popular superstition, but the practice brought misery to a sea turtle in Thailand from which vets have removed 915 coins.

Vets in Bangkok operated on Monday on the 25-year-old female green sea turtle nicknamed Bank, whose indigestible diet was the result of tourists seeking good fortune by tossing coins into her pool over many years in the eastern town of Sri Racha.

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Ditching dirty coal benefiting environment as gas and renewables increase their share in electricity generation

The UK’s carbon dioxide emissions have fallen to their lowest level since the 19th century as coal use continues to plummet, analysis suggests.

Emissions of the major greenhouse gas fell almost 6% year-on-year in 2016, after the use of coal for electricity more than halved to record lows, according to the Carbon Brief website, which reports on climate science and energy policy.

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Toxic air, unsafe water and and lack of sanitation causing the deaths of 1.7 million children under five every year

Pollution is responsible for one in four deaths among all children under five, according to new World Health Organisation reports, with toxic air, unsafe water and and lack of sanitation the leading causes.

The reports found polluted environments cause the deaths of 1.7 million children every year, but that many of the deaths could be prevented by interventions already known to work, such as providing cleaner cooking fuels to prevent indoor air pollution.

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Tax hike on solar-installed properties to affect 821 state schools in England and Wales, research suggests

New research suggests schools in England and Wales which have solar panels installed will be landed with a £1.8m bill because of business rate changes that have been branded ludicrous and nonsensical.

More than 1,000 schools installed solar power in recent years to address climate change, educate pupils and provide a crucial new revenue stream to help squeezed budgets.

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There’s broad support for climate policies in every state and county, but Americans view global warming as a distant problem

The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication published the findings of its 2016 survey on American public opinion about climate change. The results are interesting – in some ways confusing – and yet they reveal surprisingly broad support for action to address climate change. The Yale team created a tool with which the results can be broken down by state, congressional district, or county to drill down into the geographic differences in Americans’ climate beliefs.

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Farmers like fixing their own equipment, but rules imposed by big corporations are making it impossible. Now this small showdown could have a big impact

There are corn and soy fields as far as the eye can see around Kyle Schwarting’s home in Ceresco, Nebraska. The 36-year-old farmer lives on a small plot of land peppered with large agricultural machines including tractors, planters and a combine harvester.

Parked up in front of his house is a bright read 27-ton Case tractor which has tracks instead of wheels. It’s worth about $250,000, and there’s a problem with it: an in-cab alarm sounds at ten-minute intervals to alert him to a faulty hydraulic connector he never needs to use.

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IBM wants to open out quantum computing to the business community and increase usage for programmers.

Berserk beasts, trashed crops, vengeful villagers: tales of ‘conflict’ come thick and fast as humans and elephants are forced into closer contact. But does it have to be war? Across Asia and Africa, there are hints of how we might live in peace

While I was working on this article, two people were killed by wild elephants near my home in south India. Mary Leena, a middle-aged woman, was rushing to church for an early morning service. At an intersection, she came face to face with a huge male elephant as it turned the corner. Both panicked; the elephant swung his trunk out, and she was thrown into a wall. She was rushed to the hospital, but died on the way.

Three weeks later, a lorry driver on a national highway heard someone calling for help. He found an old lady in the tea bushes, badly injured. She was walking along the road, encountered wild elephants, and was thrown into the bushes. She too died shortly after.

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Haverah Park, North Yorkshire It is an unglamorous fringeland of rush pasture and white moor, yet nature finds a use for it

Neglect has left the wooden barrack-like building looking gaunt and frankly sinister. A sky of torn clouds, a sea of rough, rust-coloured pasture, a few knotty hawthorns and some lonely telegraph poles complete the Yorkshire Gothic ambience; it could be a backdrop to a horror film.

Yet this is Doug Simpson’s preferred patch for a wander. Best known for overseeing the successful reintroduction of red kites to Yorkshire, he looks at this windswept, indefinite area of “unofficial countryside” in Haverah Park, near Harrogate, through the eyes of an ornithologist.

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