Latest green news
Flights, ferries suspended after Sydney storms
Liam Phillips and Glenda Kwek 7:30pm Sydney has been hit by a severe storm front this evening which swept up from the south towards the CBD. Heavy rain and wind have hit right on peak hour, but the worst has now passed. Below is our coverage of how the afternoon weather hit, and the consequences.
Sydney set for a wet and windy afternoon
10:14am Sydney is in for a wet and windy peak hour, while coastal areas face the risk of a storm surge this evening, Weatherzone says.
'It's gone, everything's gone': third time unlucky for tragic Bill
MEGAN LEVY 10:20am His house was incinerated in the Black Saturday bushfires, then he suffered an aneurysm from which doctors feared he would never recover. Today, his house is under water.
Bats return despite Sydney sound warning
8:52am A destructive colony of flying foxes has returned to Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens despite a raucous effort to scare them off.
Canberra spared worst as wild weather batters south coast
Hamish Boland-Rudder 5:04pm It might not always be ideal being more than two hours from the pristine beaches of the south coast, but in today's case, that distance is what will shelter Canberra from the worst of a wild storm front that has pushed through Australia's far south east overnight.
More than a month's rain in a day
Vince Chadwick 3:55pm Flooding, power blackouts, storm damage and road closures throughout eastern Victoria.
TVs and computers to skip the tip and start a new life
Carolyn Webb Where do old TVs and computers go once they've played their last rerun of I Dream of Jeannie?
Assault of audio gets bats the hell out of gardens
Tim Barlass ON A wing and a prayer, the Royal Botanic Gardens last night finally launched its attempt to evict flying foxes from their roosts among its heritage-listed trees.
Weather warning for a wet, windy, wild one today
Kim Arlington The weather forecast for today is ''quite messy''. It may not be a formal meteorological term, but you get the picture.
Carbon tax is here to stay, says Combet
LENORE TAYLOR LABOR would never use its votes to help an Abbott government repeal the carbon tax, meaning the Coalition would probably have to go to a double dissolution election to abolish it and the tax would operate well into a first term, the Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet, vowed yesterday.
Going greenbusters: environmental savings rejuvenate community
Katrina Lobley WITH a flourish, John Caley whips out his water bill. The Newtown father of three points to the graph illustrating usage: it shows nil consumption for the previous quarter.
Spreading parasite affects more cattle herds
Kelly Burke A parasite believed to be costing the cattle industry $30 million a year is now endemic in Australia.
UN reef fears prompt promise of ports rethink
David Wroe QUEENSLAND will take a fresh look at how many new ports it needs along its coastline to accommodate the coal boom in the wake of a damning United Nations report into the threats to the Great Barrier Reef.
TVs and computers to skip the tip and start a new life
Carolyn Webb Where do old TVs and computers go once they've played their last rerun of I Dream of Jeannie?
Botanic Gardens bats given their marching orders
Tim Barlass On a wing and a prayer the Royal Botanic Gardens tonight finally launched its attempt to evict flying foxes from their roosts among its heritage-listed trees.
Botanic Gardens bats get marching orders today
Loud industrial noise and banging sounds will be played at Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens from today to scare off a colony of 5000 flying foxes.
Vegetarians less likely to get heart disease: nutritionist
Stephanie Gardiner Tell your friends you're swapping beef for broccoli, pork for pumpkin and lamb for legumes, and it's likely you'll be inundated with health warnings.
Strong winds and heavy rain on the way
NSW has just had its gloomiest, wettest and coldest weekend of the year and now the sunshine is taking over, but only briefly.
Vegetarian diet healthy: medical study
Australian doctors are being assured their patients will benefit if they adopt a diet that's free of meat.
Low blow: flood watch as stormy system deepens
MEGAN LEVY Victoria is facing a day of wild weather, with heavy rain and strong winds forecast to batter much of the southern half of the state.
Miners seek to quell reef fears
DANIEL HURST A mining industry lobby group has denied the Great Barrier Reef will become a “coal superhighway”, amid fallout from a United Nations report warning about the future of the World Heritage site.
Qld port plans irk Burke
David Wroe Environment Minister steps up war of words with state over environmental regulation.
Venus fly-by a glimpse of history
Bridie Smith Venus to appear as tiny black disc on the sun's surface - and it won't happen again until December 2117.
Canberra, Queensland square off over protection of reef
David Wroe THE federal Environment Minister has expressed concern about the number and scale of proposed Queensland port developments flowing from the coal boom as he stepped up his war of words with the state over environmental regulation.
Sydney's wettest, coldest first weekend of winter in decades
Sydney has had its wettest, coldest and gloomiest first weekend of winter in 23 years.
Positive need for a nurturing role
COSIMA MARRINER Romilly Madew believes consumers can preserve the planet and save money at the same time.
Feds cannot reject NSW recreational shooting plan
RACHEL BROWNE THE federal Environment Minister, Tony Burke, has condemned the O'Farrell government's decision to allow recreational shooting in NSW national parks, but says he is unable to stop it.
Premier ignores reef concerns
Stephanie Peatling, Rachel Browne THE Queensland Premier, Campbell Newman, will not stop development in and around the Great Barrier Reef, despite a United Nations report warning the reef's survival is under threat.
Green fatigue
COSIMA MARRINER While consumers are losing interest in the environmental impact of daily living, the corporate world is increasingly exploring how sustainable projects can make good business sense.
Dumped: Rio's odious garbage mountain reborn as new energy source
ONE of the world's largest open-air landfills, a vast, seaside mountain of trash where thousands of people have made a living sorting through the debris by hand, is closing this weekend after 34 years in putrid service.
Agony of full-metal jacket
Steve Dow Despite a man-made alternative, the bears of Asia continue to suffer for their bile.
Under pressure: UNESCO's report card on GBR
Under pressure: UNESCO's report card on GBR
UNESCO report scathing of Great Barrier Reef management
STEPHANIE PEATLING UNESCO warns Australia the World Heritage Great Barrier Reef could be listed as 'threatened' unless a new appraoch is adopted for coastal development.
Good times reignite the water wars
Rivers are flowing again, but so is the friction over water rights among states and between farmers and conservationists, writes David Humphries.
Advice warns of dangers of shooting in parks
SEAN NICHOLLS THE introduction of recreational hunting in national parks is likely to jeopardise public safety and drive out other users, according to confidential documents that raise questions about the state government's decision to open the areas to licensed shooters.
Farmers hope hunting plan will curb feral animal problem
Rachel Olding, Emma Oberg FARMERS crippled by the scourge of feral animals have thrown their support behind the state government's proposal to allow hunting in national parks.
Links to land weather ravages of time
Dig deep and the cultural links of NSW Aborigines emerge, writes Debra Jopson.
Winter arrives - with a chill in the air
Stephanie Gardiner Cold cold cold, wet wet wet.
Storms hit ahead of sunny long weekend
Rhianna King The last day of autumn may have stolen winter’s thunder with a wet storm hitting the city yesterday afternoon.
Falls to become a national treasure
Megan Doherty Momentum is building to have Ginninderra Falls and its surrounds embraced by a new cross-border national park.
Wet start to winter looms
Sydney likely to get more rain in the coming few days than it did for all of May.
Cold start to winter follows rainy May
Cold and windy weather will herald the beginning of winter in Melbourne tomorrow, following on from the city's wettest May in 12 years.
It was THIS big! Monster tuna no fishy tale
Annie Davis If this was one of the ones John West rejected, it must have been a very, very long time ago.
Premier's park hunting backdown the price of power sale
SEAN NICHOLLS National parks in NSW will be opened up to recreational hunters as part of a deal between the Shooters and Fishers Party and the government to ensure passage of its electricity privatisation bill.
Spooked rare cockatoos fly away from Taronga Zoo
Glenda Kwek Taronga Zoo is calling on the public to help find three rare red-tailed black cockatoos after they were spooked by four sea eagles during a bird show
Former Japanese PM calls for end to nuclear power
Martin Fackler TOKYO: In an unusually stark warning, Japan's prime minister during last year's nuclear crisis has told a parliamentary inquiry the country should discard nuclear power as too dangerous, saying the Fukushima accident had pushed Japan to the brink of ''national collapse.''
Airline blames carbon tax for axing of routes
David Wroe A regional airline operating out of Canberra has cited the carbon tax as a 'major factor' in its decision to axe two of its regular routes in favour of the more lucrative charter business catering to the resources boom.
Call to rein in wind farm construction
John Thistleton Michelle Edwards no longer canters her race horses on her Cullerin Ranges grazing land east of Gunning.
Sleepy town tops state for road kill
Adam Carey Heathcote's soil is famous for yielding some of the state's best shiraz, but sadly it isn't so much big reds the locals have been polishing off lately, but big greys.
Radioactive bluefin tuna cross Pacific
Bluefin tuna have carried radioactive contamination that leaked from Japan's crippled nuclear plant to the shores of the United States, almost 10,000 kilometres away.
Soaking for east coast
Parts of the east coast have been getting a soaking as showers become more widespread and heavy in places, bringing the most rainfall in a month.
Drink makers blow their tops on deposit plan
Matthew Moore THE soft drink and alcohol industries have begun a national campaign to head off growing moves for an Australia-wide scheme where consumers pay a 10¢ refundable deposit on all drinks containers.
River ultimatum to states: with or without you
David Wroe, Adam Morton and Tom Arup Water Minister Tony Burke has vowed to press ahead with a plan to rescue the ailing Murray-Darling river system this year even if it means brushing aside states that refuse to sign up.
Burke may go it alone in plan to save river system
David Wroe Water Minister Tony Burke has vowed to press ahead with a plan to rescue the ailing Murray-Darling river system this year, even if it means brushing aside states that refuse to sign up.
Parallels between seal and kangaroo slaughter: Canadian lawyer
Steve Jacobs The slaughter of kangaroos in Australia is going largely unnoticed when compared with Canada's widely condemned annual seal hunt, a prominent Canadian animal rights lawyer says.
Dance moves make Wimmera farmer a raining champion
Darren Gray Peter Taylor did a rain dance last Tuesday. Less than three days later, steady rain started falling on his roof.
Cane growers expect a sweet harvest
Things looking up for nation's sugarcane farmers after two seasons marked by floods and a cyclone.
Call for comment reveals cracks in new free-range egg label plan
Alexandra Smith THE introduction of a controversial new definition of free-range eggs could be delayed after the consumer watchdog decided to call for public comments on the standard, which animal welfare and consumer groups strongly oppose.
Fisheries scientists snapper happy on the job
Darren Gray 'Detection curtain' set up to record movements of one of Port Phillip Bay's most prized fish.
Cull protesters jump fence after shots heard
Stephanie Anderson Protests against the ACT government's controversial culling of more than 2000 kangaroos continued last night with activists jumping fences into nature reserves after reportedly hearing gun shots.