Contemporary mining disasters echo the devastation caused by Victoria’s gold fields. Victorians campaigned for some of the world’s first laws against industrial pollution.
Steller sea lions in the eastern Pacific are an Endangered Species Act success story.
David B. Ledig/USFWS
The Trump administration is changing implementation of the Endangered Species Act in ways that conservationists say would reduce protection for some of America’s most threatened wildlife.
Current environment laws are manifestly failing Australian animals.
A polar bear crosses ice In Alaska’s Chukchi Sea area, where a recent court ruling bars the Trump administration from greenlighting offshore drilling.
NOAA/OER/Hidden Ocean 2016:The Chukchi Borderlands
Can presidents undo decisions by their predecessors to protect federal lands from development? A recent court ruling on offshore drilling says no, and could also affect contested lands in Utah.
The WA Environmental Defenders Office was a crucial part of the legal fight against the James Price Point gas hub proposal.
Nigel Gaunt/AAP
For more than 30 years, Environmental Defenders Offices around the country have worked to help people take legal action on environmental issues. They’ve notched some big wins along the way.
A worker marks timber logs at a concession area in Sarawak, Malaysia. Rainforest logging in Asia feeds much of the world’s thirst for timber.
AP Photo/Vincent Thian
In a global economy, passing laws to conserve forests, fisheries or other natural resources can simply shift demand for those goods to other countries or regions where they aren’t as well protected.
A favourite argument of coal proponents is the idea that if their mine is knocked back, someone else will simply dig up coal elsewhere.
Mister Mackenzie/Wikimedia Commons
A NSW court’s decision to rule out a coalmine on the basis of climate change could signal a turning of the tide in an arena where environmental litigants have previously struggled to gain traction.
Data gathered from EPA reports, staffers and retirees show the Trump administration has brought fewer environmental enforcement actions to conclusion and deferred more to states.
At least 30 tourism developments have been proposed for Tasmania’s World Heritage-listed wilderness.
Newly revealed documents show the Commonwealth government approved a controversial tourism plan for Tasmania’s World Heritage wilderness without assessing it against federal conservation legislation.
What drives companies to be green? Women, it turns out, are the key. New research shows that firms with a more balanced mix of women and men in the boardroom receive fewer environmental lawsuits.
Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., speaks about EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and the state of the EPA during a protest on April 25, 2018, in Washington.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
After two years of turmoil at the EPA in the 1980s, President Reagan hit the reset button, choosing a Republican who supported environmental protection to head the agency.
Smog alert in Cleveland, Ohio, July 20, 1973.
USEPA
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt wants to change the grounds for setting US air pollution targets. An environmental lawyer explains why Pruitt’s approach misreads the law and could roll back decades of gains.
You can see koalas at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast, but the city council has won a planning battle to preserve their wild population too.
Dave Hunt/AAP
Local planning rules have prevailed in a long-running dispute over a proposed Gold Coast quarry that threatened the amenity of nearby residents and koalas.
A streamlined NEPA review of replacing New York’s Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River, which would normally take 3-5 years, was completed in 1.5 years.
Jim Henderson
Do environmental reviews delay large-scale projects? The Trump administration says yes, but studies show that these reviews lead to better results and can even save time and money.
The parliamentary climate is not always conducive to smart decisions.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Peter C. Doherty, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
Scientific problems require evidence-led solutions. A new proposal to create a federal environmental decision-making body would take some of the politics out of climate policy.
Australia is one of very few countries that does not recognise the right to a healthy environment.
Jordan Davis
Fifty years after a major oil spill in Santa Barbara helped launch the environmental movement, Californians strongly oppose the Trump administration’s push to expand offshore drilling.