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2016 is likely to be the first year in recorded history in which levels of CO2 in the atmosphere remain above the symbolically important threshold of 400 parts per million.

Environmental artist J Henry Fair captures the beauty and destruction of industrial sites to illustrate the hidden impacts of the things we buy – the polluted air, destroyed habitats and the invisible carbon heating the planet

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John Vidal takes to the skies with US photographer J Henry Fair on an aerial toxic tour of south Wales

The small Cessna plane banks steeply and J Henry Fair of Charleston, South Carolina, hangs his camera out of the small window to film straight down the chimneys of the Lafarge Tarmac cement plant in Aberthaw, south Wales.

“Man, look at the gunk coming out of that guy. He’s burning rubber as fuel! That’s really environmental, huh?” he shouts as the 25-knot, force six wind whips off the sea and tosses the light aircraft around.

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A selection of prizewinning images from the Take a View 2016 photography awards

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The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder David Papps today announced his intention to redirect oxygenated water through Murray Irrigation infrastructure to create local refuges for endangered Murray Cod and Murray cray and other native fish...

Car industry successfully lobbied for loopholes to dilute EU laws limiting toxic particulates emissions for new cars, the Guardian has learned

New European cars with petrol engines will be allowed to overshoot a limit on toxic particulates emissions by 50% under a draft EU regulation backed by the UK and most other EU states.

Campaigners say that a simple €25 (£22) filter could drastically cut the pollution, but the Guardian has learned that car-makers have instead mounted a successful push for loopholes and legislative delay.

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Barnack Hills and Holes, Cambridgeshire The quarrying has left a strange, toy landscape of ridges and valleys not a kilometre square. Nature has taken it back

Hills and Holes. A name like that, it had to be a manufactured place for kids and dog walkers, I thought. On hearing what locals called it – Hills and Hollows – I decided to look closer at the funny space on the edge of this village near Stamford.

Turns out it was manufactured, but not by anyone we knew. The place with the playground name once built cathedrals. A Jurassic seabed turned medieval quarry, its limestone was used in the extravagant churches of Ely and Peterborough. Now it’s a meadow, and important again.

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An innovative high tech South Australian firm will use $50,000 in State Government funding to develop ground breaking technology.

Gas prices are still way head of last year, while Genex underlines economics of its big solar project.

The low-profile Australian group Sunrise Project hits back at coal lobby after being criticised over funding sources shown in hacked US Democratic emails

The head of a usually quiet environmental group in Australia has hit back against News Corp and coal lobby attacks after hacked emails revealed it was partly funded from overseas.

Two emails forwarded to Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta – and published by WikiLeaks – show that one of the funders of the Sunrise Project is a large US-based charitable trust, the Sandler Foundation.

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Dyesol will work with the CSIRO to continue their development of perovskite solar technology.

The sale of Ausgrid has been hailed in many quarters, but consumers have little to celebrate. The price locks in "gold plating" and may lead to higher fixed charges as more consumers turn to solar and storage and the networks look to protect their revenue streams.

A software platform that mines data and uses machine learning to boost household energy efficiency has taken out top honours at Energy Hack 2016 – a two-day energy and technology brainstorm held in Melbourne over the weekend.

French newspaper says sources confirm Hazelwood brown coal generator will close in April, if not before.

Utility company Engie say no decision has been made regarding the future of Australia’s most polluting coal-fired power plant despite reports in Les Echos

French utility Engie has decided to close down Victoria’s coal-fired Hazelwood power station – Australia’s most polluting – at a meeting between the board and executives last week, according to a report in the French newspaper Les Echos.

However the company told Guardian Australia that no decision had been taken so far regarding the future of the plant.

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Battery storage is probably already economic in Australia if the number are done right. But government are receiving out of date advice, and that's making for bad policy.

Adelaide unveils latest zero-carbon strategy, to install 40 electric vehicle charging stations by end 2017 and subsidise installation of private EV charge points.

Arachnophobes, look away now. Footage has emerged from Queensland, Australia, that appears to show an oversized huntsman spider with a dead mouse in its clutches. The vision was shot by Jason Womal, who explained on Facebook that he was about to leave for work in the early hours of the morning when a neighbour asked if he wanted ‘to see something cool’. His video has been viewed more than 5.7m times in the 32 hours since he posted it. File it under ‘only in Australia ... ’

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Attack on beach between Suffolk Park and Broken Head in northern NSW follows a weekend protest against plan to install shark nets in the area

A man has escaped a run-in with a shark on the New South Wales north coast with just a few teeth marks on his thigh.

He was taken to Byron Bay hospital by a friend about 7.30am after suffering the bite while surfing on a beach between Suffolk Park and Broken Head on Monday morning.

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Press Association study suggests flood protection funding formula tilts system towards richer households and areas

The system for allocating taxpayers’ money to flood defence schemes favours protecting wealthy families and those in the south-east, analysis suggests.

The government has said it applies a strict economic formula to deciding where funding should be spent. But an investigation by the Press Association reveals the methods to determine where funding goes focus on the value of assets protected – which could tilt the system towards richer households and those in parts of the country where house prices are higher.

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