Environment
Sustainability
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Biodiversity
NSW farmers accelerate land-clearing rates, doubling previous decade
Farmers in NSW are increasing the rate they clear land, taking advantage of looser native vegetation controls to more than double the pace of deforestation of the previous decade.
- by Peter Hannam
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Planning
Rose Bay golf course proposal 'would remove entire urban forest': planner
Royal Sydney Golf Club has put in a DA to Woollahra Council to remove 569 trees, which would decrease the canopy cover, even with its plan to plant 700 more, critics say.
- by Julie Power
Environmental protection
Bunnings ends VicForests timber contract over logging breaches
Hardware giant Bunnings has ended its timber supply contract with Victoria's state-owned logging agency.
- by Mike Foley
Water
Fight looms between Commonwealth and NSW over water-sharing plans
A dispute between NSW and the federal agency overseeing the $13 billion Murray-Darling Basin Plan is likely after the state government submitted water sharing plans that challenge how environmental flows are counted.
- by Peter Hannam
Opinion
Electric cars
'A global dirt magnet': Australia is losing out from fuel efficiency failures
The nation is missing out on electric cars the rest of the world loves.
- by Behyad Jafari
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Water
Hunt for nature's bounty turns Rye Pier into a 'chicken cemetery'
The sea floor around Rye Pier has been littered with disintegrating chicken carcasses and plastic rubbish, dropped by crowds of people fishing for migratory giant spider crabs.
- by Miki Perkins
Water
Sydney residents to pay less for water until next drought hits
Sydneysiders will pay less for their water from next month but face a price leap next time a dry spell hits, according to new usage charges.
- by Peter Hannam
Pollution
No sign of purple rain – so what turned Sydney creek a vivid mauve?
Authorities are still investigating the source and residual impact of contamination that turned a popular section of an inner city creek a bright shade of purple earlier this week.
- by Peter Hannam
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Sharks
Calls for more mitigation after 'big sharks seen' in the NSW region
The concerns come as family and friends of Rob Pedretti, the 60-year-old Queensland surfer who died from a shark bite at Kingscliff, prepare for his funeral.
- by Peter Hannam
Great Barrier Reef
Drone footage shows 64,000 green turtles migrating to Cairns rookery
Drone technology has allowed a more accurate estimation of the numbers coming to Raine Island to lay eggs.
- by Tony Moore
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Water
Clouds become water entitlements in ad hoc river plan, paper finds
Billions of dollars in water licences and infrastructure in the Murray-Darling Basin hinge on complex and opaque rules that vary greatly between rivers, researchers have found.
- by Peter Hannam