Wendy Wales and Tony Lonergan’s four-year fight over MACH Energy’s Mount Pleasant coalmine went all the way to the high court

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When Wendy Wales and Tony Lonergan and a few of their neighbours in the New South Wales Hunter region decided to take on the expansion of a local coalmine, people thought they were “crazy” to engage in the David and Goliath battle.

“When we started this, people thought we were crazy – a little community group taking on a billion-dollar coal company, arguing that the climate harm from burning this coal is our problem too,” Wales says.

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Exclusive: Images show deep cuts and damage to tails and fins, as experts warn the migrating species often aren’t able to avoid a collision

Gruesome images of adult and juvenile humpback whales along Australia’s east coast with slash and gouge injuries from boat and propeller strikes highlight what experts say is a growing problem, as the population booms 60 years after the ban on whaling.

Missing tail parts, deep red lacerations and shocking injuries to the spine of a whale calf can be clearly seen on the images, gathered by WWF Australia and shared with the Guardian.

A record 157,957 new EVs were sold nationally between January and June, according to the Electric Vehicle Council

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Australians are buying electric vehicles at record levels, with sales more than doubling year on year and occurring at a rate equivalent to one EV sold every 100 seconds.

A record 157,957 EV sales occurred between January and June – an 117% increase on the same period last year, according to a new report released by the Electric Vehicle Council.

Coverage levels fall a million square kilometres short of the long-term average, with global heating likely driving losses

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Antarctica’s winter sea ice has peaked at its third-lowest level on record, falling a million square kilometres – or almost 400,000 square miles – short of the long-term average, scientists have confirmed.

Confirmation of the peak meant the four lowest years on record for the continent’s sea ice – a vital component of the planet’s climate and critical for marine life – had all occurred in the past four years.

Global heating contributes to record, with a warmer atmosphere able to hold more water, scientists say

The planet’s atmosphere held more water vapour in August than any other month on record, further increasing the risk of extreme heat and rainfall around the world, according to Europe’s climate change service.

Climate scientists said global heating was a contributor to the record because a warmer atmosphere can hold more water, and the historic El Niño in the Pacific Ocean was also likely pushing water vapour levels up.

Successful legal challenge raises questions about hundreds of floodplain harvesting licences issued by former Coalition government

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The New South Wales water regulator has cast doubt over its ability to prosecute potential water theft due to uncertainty about the validity of licences governing billions of litres of water entitlements in the state’s north.

It follows a successful legal challenge brought by a group of irrigators in the state’s north-west which found 11 floodplain harvesting licences issued by the former Coalition government were invalid.

Australia’s bird population will experience ‘large mortalities’ and risk species loss, modelling based on global outbreaks shows

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Sandwich terns are a graceful seabird known for their committed, forceful and spectacular plunging dives into the ocean to catch fish.

Thousands of the species started to fall sick across Europe in 2022 with tens of thousands dying as a lineage of the H5N1 bird flu – 2.3.4.4b – spread through the continent’s wild flocks.

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Organisation says objects consistent with ‘debris from a foreign rocket body that recently re-entered the atmosphere’

The Australian Space Agency has said the six so-called “space balls” found in north Queensland were likely from a “foreign rocket body” that had recently re-entered the atmosphere after being in orbit.

The six mysterious objects were found by the public washed ashore in the Forrest Beach area, north of Townsville, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and were suspected of containing hazardous chemicals.

Exclusive: Most of the island’s corals are likely to be species that have not been formally described by science, researcher says

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Scientists fear unique corals that fringe Australia’s remote Norfolk Island could disappear because of a triple threat of disease, El Niño and a federal government plan to dredge a neighbouring shipping channel.

A failure to manage sediment and pollution washing into bays from cattle farming, cleared land along with wastewater has been blamed for widespread disease and outbreaks of algae over the corals.

In Jamestown, Virginia, one of the most important places in American history is in a race against time from rising waters

Sean Romo stops digging the moment he sees a faint line emerge in the sandy Virginia soil.

It’s just a slight change in color, but to Romo, director of archaeology for Jamestown Rediscovery, it may be another piece of America’s origin story.

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Warming ocean temperatures mean sharks are spending more time in high-population areas, yet shark net data shows no significant changes in numbers

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Rob Harcourt is heading back from a “beautiful surf” at Bondi on a warm and sunny winter’s morning in Sydney.

But for him and many of his surfing mates, the compelling pull of the city’s world famous surf breaks has been neutered by tragedy, fear and uncertainty.

Tests taken in Western Australia suggest a second bird was also infected, but there is no evidence poultry or agriculture systems are affected

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The deadly H5N1 bird flu strain has arrived on the Australian mainland with test results confirming a migratory seabird found on the Western Australian coast was positive for the disease.

The agriculture minister, Julie Collins, confirmed a brown skua – found unwell last Sunday at Cape Le Grand national park near Esperance in southern WA had died from H5N1.

Exclusive A vast area of the Bellingshausen Sea should be covered by sea ice by now, with one expert calling the loss of ice ‘depressing’

Antarctica’s west coast is missing an area of winter sea ice the size of France, sparking concerns for threatened penguins other marine life and global sea levels.

One expert said the loss of ice in the Bellingshausen Sea was “depressing” and the failure of ice to form could have intensified a heatwave over the continent’s peninsular last week that saw daytime temperatures peak at 15.4C which is more than 20C above average.

Federal environment department says Black Mountain Energy has provided insufficient data as it seeks to drill 20 gas wells in the Kimberley region

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The federal government has repeatedly raised concerns about an American company’s bid to frack for gas in Western Australia’s Kimberley region, part of the world’s largest and most intact tropical savanna.

Texas-based Black Mountain Energy, through its subsidiary Bennett Resources, is seeking federal approval to drill 20 gas wells for its Valhalla project west of Fitzroy Crossing.

More Americans are using small solar panels in their back yards or balconies as a clean way to cut their electric bills

If you feel like your electricity bill just keeps climbing, you aren’t imagining it. Since 2020, US residential energy prices have surged by about 30%, making power the largest household energy expense behind gasoline, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

But for residents like Alex Curtis, the days of feeling powerless against rising costs are coming to an end. Curtis is waging a war on his electric bill, and his new weapon of choice is a lightweight, thin-film solar panel.

Whale first photographed off the coast of Brazil in 2003 spotted off north-east Australia in September 2025

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A humpback whale has made a 15,000km journey from Brazil to Australia, marking what researchers believe is the longest distance ever documented between sightings of an individual humpback.

The whale was first photographed in 2003 at the Abrolhos Bank, Brazil’s main humpback whale nursery, off the coast of the north-eastern state of Bahia. In September 2025, it was spotted again in Hervey Bay off the Queensland coast, representing a travel distance of about 15,100km.

Divers are installing waterproof speakers in the ocean to help pull a coral reef near Jamaica back from the brink

The northern coast of Jamaica once served as the backdrop for scenes in the James Bond thriller No Time to Die. But today, beneath those same turquoise waves, a real-life mission is unfolding: the race to pull a dying coral reef back from the brink.

However, the tools a team of divers are carrying to the seafloor are not what you would expect to find in a marine biologist’s kit. They are installing waterproof speakers at the bottom of the ocean, and the man leading the team is not a scientist.

Researchers examined trends in 10 global cities, with Sydney’s summer growing at two-and-a-half times the average

Scientist Ted Scott could feel that summers in his home state of Minnesota were not what they used to be.

With the climate crisis accelerating, Scott could feel and see the seasons changing from their usual patterns – especially summer – and he wanted to know what the data said.

Analysis of six extreme heatwaves found when temperature and humidity were accounted for, all were potentially deadly for older people

Extreme heat is already creating “non-survivable” conditions for humans in heatwaves that have killed thousands and likely many more, according to new research that warns people are more susceptible to rising temperatures than first thought.

Scientists re-examined six extreme heatwaves between 2003 and 2024 and found that when temperature, humidity and the body’s ability to stay cool were accounted for, all were potentially deadly for older people.

Water shortages and rising heat is putting pressure on beer ingredients, but US brewers and farmers are adapting

With St Patrick’s Day this week, millions of Americans are raising a glass. Beer remains the country’s most popular alcoholic drink with more than 6bn gallons consumed each year. But from water shortages to rising temperatures, the climate crisis is putting pressure on beer’s most essential ingredients.

At Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon, beer is either stacked high in warehouse rows or racing down a canning line and assembled into 12-packs. Inside the cavernous cellars, enormous 6,000-gallon tanks hold the latest batches in progress.