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Some previously rare illnesses are becoming epidemics in some bird populations, scientists say

Garden bird feeders are contributing to the spread of serious diseases among wild birds, scientists have warned, causing previously rare illnesses to become epidemics in some populations.

Poor garden feeder hygiene, droppings accumulations and stale food are promoting the transmission of illnesses between garden birds as the animals repeatedly congregate in the same location, coming into contact with species they would not usually interact with in the wild.

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Following his shocking photographs of dead albatross chicks and the diet of plastic that killed them, Chris Jordan’s new film is a call to action to repair our broken relationship with planet Earth

We are living in a plastic age and the solutions may seem glaringly obvious, so why aren’t all 7.6 billion of us already doing things differently? Shocking statistics don’t guarantee effective change. So what’s the alternative? American photographer and filmmaker Chris Jordan believes the focus should be on forcing people to have a stronger emotional engagement with the problems plastic causes. His famous photographs of dead albatross chicks and the colourful plastic they have ingested serve as a blunt reminder that the planet is in a state of emergency.

While making his feature-length film Albatross, Jordan considered Picasso’s approach: “The role of the artist is to respect you, help you connect more deeply, and then leave it up to you to decide how to behave.”

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16 March 1918: lighted by early sunshine, the great willows show the first extended view of spring

Surrey, March 14
Great willows, tall and broad almost as beeches, stand about the lane which leads from the river bank up to the scarred downs. Lighted by early sunshine they show the first extended view of spring. Long, delicate branches droop yards. All are golden-green; they fill the eye with new colour as they wave in a strong wind, while larks soar toward the sky and a chaffinch sings lightly on the straggling bramble. This, too, is speckled with young shoots; the quicks are budded on their southern side; lords and ladies away in the spinney have leaves that lap across hazel roots where the woodman has been at work; even the moss upon felled ash trees is fresher. Flowers are more abundant on the primroses; these last keep their bloom a long time. A clump marked in a quiet corner of the wood in mid-February still bears the same flowers – intervening frosts have scarcely touched the edge of their petals.

Related: 100 years ago: Rabbits burrow into willow tree

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Rooftop solar reaches 2GW mark in Queensland, but latest monthly installations sees NSW pipping sunshine state as biggest market in February.

Digestion of plastic into much smaller fragments ‘doesn’t necessarily help pollution’, Australian researchers say

A world-first study by Australian researchers has found that krill can digest certain forms of microplastic into smaller – but no less pervasive – fragments.

The study, published in Nature Communications journal on Friday, found that Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, can break down 31.5 micron polyethylene balls into fragments less than one micron in diameter.

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Monash University is delighted to announce that Ms Chloe Munro AO has accepted the role of Professorial Fellow at Monash University.

More than one-third of SA wholesale electricity costs over summer came from price spikes in less than 1% of the time. They pushed overall costs up by 50%.

Right wing politicians and media pushing trumped up figures to call for reduction in rooftop solar incentives in a campaign reminiscent of the "$100 lamb roast."

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What happens to a town that has been abandoned for seven years after a nuclear meltdown? Greenpeace took former residents and a 360-degree camera into the radiation zone north of Fukushima to mark the anniversary of the disaster. The Fukushima Daiichi plant was damaged by a tsunami triggered by a magnitude-9 earthquake on the afternoon of 11 March 2011. The tsunami killed almost 19,000 people along the north-east coast of Japan and forced more than 150,000 others living near the plant to flee radiation. Some of the evacuated neighbourhoods are still deemed too dangerous for former residents to go back.

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If COAG gets behind AEMO's Integrated System Plan, instead of the NEG, Australia may yet manage the transition to a low-carbon economy in a way we can be proud of.

Brisbane based EV fast charger manufacturer Tritium sets up office in Netherlands, to capture greater share of booming European EV market.

Carnegie Clean Energy negotiates plans for 10MW solar farm, with up to 10MWh battery storage, in an industrial estate in south-western W.A.

Join a feral fox hunt in Western Australia; a monster saltwater croc goes to school; we head off on a camel beach safari; and volunteers harvest the hops at Van Dieman Brewing.

Green groups welcome proposed changes to land-clearing law but there are still reasons to doubt they are enough to halt the crisis

Last week, the Queensland government tabled a highly anticipated bill seeking to implement its promise to “end broadscale clearing in Queensland”.

Queensland is responsible for more tree clearing than the rest of the country combined, so making good on that promise would go a long way to halting Australia’s growing land clearing crisis.

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A new Community Power Bank scheme led by WA utility Western Power will allow local solar homes to store their excess generation in a shared battery.

Mount Alexander Shire to install 14.5kW solar PV on heritage listed visitor centre building, as part of zero carbon 2025 goal.

To stay up, the bird must overcome gravity with a force called 'lift'. Simon Griffith, Professor of Avian Behavioural Ecology, Macquarie University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Startup claims to automatically switch smart-meter users three times a year and save them £300

A device that plugs into a home broadband router and automatically switches supplier when cheaper deals become available is set to revolutionise the home energy market.

The launch of Labrador comes as more and more people are changing their energy companies.

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Researchers in Texas aim to create robots that can cope with our messy world.

What happens to a town that has been abandoned for seven years after a nuclear meltdown? Greenpeace took former residents and a 360-degree camera into the radiation zone north of Fukushima to mark the anniversary of the disaster. The Fukushima Daiichi plant was damaged by a tsunami triggered by a magnitude-9 earthquake on the afternoon of 11 March 2011. The tsunami killed almost 19,000 people along the north-east coast of Japan and forced more than 150,000 others living near the plant to flee radiation. Some of the evacuated neighbourhoods are still deemed too dangerous for former residents to go back.

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