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Big news for Australian EV market, as Nissan confirms delivery of next-gen LEAF will happen in the "next fiscal year."

Australian company AMOG wins EU grant to test its “floating pendulum” wave power technology at a marine energy testing site in Cornwall, UK.

Following a generally stable end to 2017, forecasts suggesting the LRET will be met by 2020 have drawn a mixed reaction in the LGC market across January.

In first of three articles on electricity network tariff reform, we look at Tariff Structure Statements, and why you should care about them.

A study modelling how dinosaurs spread worldwide shows they may have been a victim of their own success.

The entrepreneur will attempt to fly the world's most powerful rocket with his own Tesla as payload.

Australian bees have so far avoided the 'colony collapse' devastating hives around the world, but there's growing pressure for a ban on certain insecticides blamed for bee deaths. Caroline Hauxwell, Associate Professor, Queensland University of Technology Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Public should be given a greater say on development plans, experts say

Environmental lawyers and academics have called for a comprehensive rethink on how Australia’s natural landscapes are protected, warning that short-term politics is infecting decision-making and suggesting that the public be given a greater say on development plans.

The Australian Panel of Experts on Environmental Law has launched a blueprint for a new generation of environment laws and the creation of independent agencies with the power and authority to ensure they are enforced. The panel of 14 senior legal figures says this is motivated by the need to systematically address ecological challenges including falling biodiversity, the degradation of productive rural land, the intensification of coastal and city development and the threat of climate change.

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Series of measures includes reducing plastic in its own-brand packaging by 10% – but does not go as far as cutting it out altogether

Asda has become the latest supermarket to join the war against plastic by pledging to reduce it “wherever” it can, including slashing the amount in its own-brand packaging by 10% in the next 12 months.

In a series of measures, Asda promised to scrap 5p carrier bags in all stores by the end of the year, switch 2.4m plastic straws used in its cafes to paper and introduce reusable drinks cups in its shops and cafes by the end of 2019.

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A fossil preserved in amber for 100 million years is shaking up ideas about the evolution of spiders.

Decades ago, the late writer and critic Naomi Lewis spent hours on the streets rescuing birds tangled in nylon thread. She should have been a warning sign of the horrors to come

Not knowing what to do with myself and my bad temper in my 30s, I went to a creative writing class at City Lit, a London-based adult-education college. The teacher looked odd – about 70, she was always dressed in black, her hair was grey and a little wild and she seemed to have dusted her face in flour, some of which speckled her black clothes.

But there was something magical about Naomi Lewis. She was full of enthusiasm, thrilled by the efforts of her class. She would sit at the end of our square of tables, always cheery, and call out excitedly: “So good! So much of interest!”

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Esmond Martin, whose groundbreaking investigations contributed to the fight against elephant poaching, died after being stabbed at his home in Nairobi

A world-renowned ivory investigator whose detailed reports contributed to the fight against elephant poaching and the illegal wildlife trade has been killed at his home in Kenya, police said on Monday.

Esmond Martin, 75, died after being stabbed at his house in the Nairobi suburb of Langata on Sunday afternoon.

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Plastic is destroying our oceans, yet big corporations are still being given money to produce cheap plastic. It’s time for polluters to pay for the damage they cause

A six-year-old boy, Harrison Forsyth, provided us with a much needed wake-up call last week. He called on the boss of Aldi to protect our oceans:

“Dear boss of Aldi, I have watched this programme called Blue Planet 2 and I have seen that the plastic in the sea is making the animals sick and die.

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Coalition pressures Queensland government to back Aurizon proposal to build rail link

Labor has inched closer to resolving its stance on the controversial Adani coalmine as the federal resources minister, Matt Canavan, declared he was looking at alternatives to open up the Queensland coal basin and “get these jobs going”.

With federal parliament resuming for the new political year on Monday, the shadow cabinet was expected to discuss policy options on Adani after the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, toughened his rhetoric substantially against the north Queensland mine.

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There's yet more disagreement over the Murray Darling basin plan.

Peers use evidence-free anecdotes and cabbie hearsay to claim cycle lanes cause congestion – shouldn’t we demand a higher standard?

• House of Lords peers criticised for ‘propagating bike lane myths’

A number of peers have attempted to defend unsubstantiated claims that cycle lanes cause congestion and air pollution, apparently echoing anecdotal evidence from their own observations, taxi drivers and the rightwing press. These claims tend to go unchallenged and are allowed to shape the political debate – but this has to stop.

In a House of Lords debate on air pollution on 15 January, the prominent scientist and Labour peer Lord Robert Winston questioned the government over journey times for motor traffic before and after cycle lane construction, saying idling or slow-moving engines pollute more at slow speeds.

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The incidence of 'wind turbine syndrome' in countries that don't speak English is low, Simon Chapman says.

Large filter feeders, such as baleen whales and basking sharks, could be particularly at risk from ingesting the tiny plastic particles, say scientists

Whales, some sharks and other marine species such as rays are increasingly at risk from microplastics in the oceans, a new study suggests.

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5 February 1918 The sap is running, forcing on new life. In the withy bed the hares in couples, weeks before their proverbial date for madness, dodge round the clumps, while a ‘joyous clamour’ rises from the mere

The gay cock chaffinch, in smart, nuptial garments, rattles out repeated challenges to a distant rival, who strives to answer in as sprightly terms; it began to sing here three days ago at least. The blackbird this morning pipes airs and variations with such skill and finish that we can hardly realise that he has only just begun to sing.

The spring-like weather, which has brought out the semi-wild snowdrops in a Cheshire wood, has dotted the yellow crocuses about our gardens, awakened the sleepy bees and sent them to the winter aconites, has stirred their blood.

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Ilkley, West Yorkshire: The Cow and the Calf have become monuments to our longing to anchor ourselves in the world

On the horizons surrounding Wharfedale, snow, sky and space are warring in spectacular ways; white clouds roll over the white moors like billows of steam, vaporising the distinction between both, and the sun occasionally provides episodes of dazzling icy brightness. Winter’s sorcery has turned Rombald’s Moor into a convincing impression of blizzard-swept Arctic tundra a few miles from the middle of Bradford. Undeterred, the weekend visitors are out in force around the great millstone grit forms of the Cow and Calf above Ilkley.

Like many of the tors, outcrops and escarpments dotting the gritstone Pennines, this imposing crag and its smaller counterpart together act as a natural gathering point for the surrounding civilisation. Climbers climb them; children instinctively recognise them as venues for play; adults stride to the lip of boulders and strike noble poses for phone cameras. Spend any time people-watching at the nearby Brimham Rocks, Almscliffe Crag or the Chevin and see further evidence of how we are innately drawn towards wild rock formations.

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