'A bit of a hopeful pipe-dream'

Peter Hannam   The Great Barrier Reef, one of the world's natural wonders, is unlikely to recover fully from the huge bleaching event.

MAY 31

The environment: Great Barrier grief in a climate of bitter tears

Our leaders' 'head to head' was the dullest show on earth.

The Great Barrier Reef report the government can't hide from the media

Latika Bourke   Your personally curated news with six things you need to know before you get going.

'One of the most productive autumns'

Peter Hannam   Fire authorities have made the most of the unusually dry end to autumn to as much triple their hazard-reduction burning.

'It's a huge wake up call'

Peter Hannam   Research reveals more than one-third of the coral reefs of the central and northern regions of the Great Barrier Reef died in the bleaching event earlier this year

'The mining boom will never end: coal is forever'

Peter Hannam   Is the state banking on extracting increasing amounts of coal for another 40 years?

Banks told to look at climate risks in mortgages

Clancy Yeates   Lenders should look at their exposure to property under threat from climate change, new report says.

CSIRO dismantles climate science group as pressure mounts on Marshall

Peter Hannam   CSIRO's deep cuts to its science programs have come under fresh criticism with the head of a global network of monitoring stations warning Australia will lose key researchers that will dent the country's ability to manage future climate change.

Australia cut from UN climate report

Peter Hannam   The Turnbull government intervened to excise references to Australia in a United Nations report on the risk of climate change to sites including the Great Barrier Reef in a move dubbed by one of the report's reviewer as "disgusting".

Comments 79

El Nino officially comes to end

Peter Hannam   After a year of driving global temperatures to unprecedented warmth, the giant El Nino weather event in the Pacific is officially over, raising hopes that drought-hit regions may be in for some relief in Australia and elsewhere.

Man charged with animal cruelty after Princess the cat is left paralysed

Matt Carr   A man has been charged over an alleged attack on a cat that had just given birth to a litter of kittens, leaving it paralysed, in the state's Hunter region earlier this month.

Gorilla death: Ohio boy's mother says 'accident happen' as anger mounts

Ginny McCabe   Animal lovers mobilised on Monday as outrage mounted over the Cincinnati Zoo's killing of a gorilla to rescue a 4-year-old boy who fell into the animal's enclosure.

North Queensland man bitten by snake under his pillow

A north Queensland man has been bitten by a metre-long snake curled up under a pillow on his bed.

Reef needs Murray Darling Basin-style funds boost: conservationists

Tony Moore   The Great Barrier Reef deserves a "billion dollar" funding rescue package like the $10 billion promised in 2008 to revitalise the Murray Darling Basin, conservation groups said on Monday.

Comments 19

Winter is coming Canberra

Natasha Boddy   Canberrans could be forgiven for thinking winter arrived early this year as they woke to a blanket of fog and frost on Monday.

Winter sets in for Sydney as temperature drops below zero

Lucy Cormack   Winter has arrived, bringing record negative temperatures to some parts of the city.

Outrage after gorilla Harambe killed to save boy at Ohio zoo

Barbara Goldberg   The killing of a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo has triggered outrage and questions about safety, but zoo officials called the decision tough but necessary .

Comments 66

US zoo shoots gorilla dead to save boy

A 180 kilogram male gorilla in a US zoo has been shot dead after grabbing a three-year-old boy who fell into the ape exhibit moat.

Opinions split on irradiation food labelling

Stephen Jeffery   While most industry groups and corporations are supportive of removing labelling, all but one of the private citizen submissions was against the idea.

Dogs destined for the soup bowl, now rescued by US charity

Choe Sang-Hun   On a farm nestled between tree-covered hills, in a valley south-east of Seoul, Gong In-young, raised dogs for their meat. Locked up in steel cages their entire lives, the animals are fed with discarded food Gong, 55, collects from restaurants in nearby towns until they are ready to be sold to the slaughterhouse - 200 to 300 each year.

Sydney and much of Australia caught in a hot spell

Peter Hannam   May and autumn will come close to being a record warm ones for Sydney, the state and the rest of Australia as the giant El Nino added a hot overlay to temperatures that are rising in the background here and in most parts of the world.

Intruding marine vegetation to drastically change Antarctica's ecosystem

James Hall   Drifting marine plants and animals provide a drastic threat to the survival of Antarctica's rare and delicate ecosystem.

Korean words, straight from the elephant's mouth

Russell Goldman   There's an elephant at a zoo outside Seoul that speaks Korean.

A cold and wet weekend ahead for Canberra

It's been an unseasonably warm autumn, but it can't last forever.

Hunt 'not aware' of political ties

Peter Hannam   The lead author of a consultants' report hailed by Environment Minister Greg Hunt as supporting the government's climate policies is a current member of the Liberal Party and a former candidate for the federal seat of Sydney.

French raise doubt about future of Victoria's Hazelwood coal plant

Adam Morton   The French government has thrown fresh doubt over the future of the Hazelwood brown coal power station, signalling the owner will close or sell the greenhouse-intensive Victorian plant.

Sharks have personalities - just like us

Bridie Smith   Not all sharks share the sinister aggression of the great white that terrorised beachgoers in the 1970s classic Jaws.

Huge swarm of bees chases woman's car

A swarm of 20,000 bees has targeted a woman's car for 24 hours, possibly in pursuit of a queen bee trapped inside. 

'Stoned' sheep go on 'psychotic rampage' after eating cannabis plants

Sheep are feared to have gone on a "psychotic rampage" after eating cannabis plants dumped in a Welsh village.

Rain is always the snow 'killer'

Peter Hannam   Expect more precipitation on the mountaintops - but will it be the right stuff?

Reef 'stuffed' if we don't act: expert

Amy Remeikis   "If we carry on as we are with poor water quality, we are stuffed with a capital S."