In a sunlit recreation room in suburban Australia, residents of an aged care facility sip tea and settle into their seats as the scenery begins to move. Outside the “windows,” snow capped peaks rise in the French Alps, fields roll past in the English countryside and red desert unfurls across Central Australia. No one has left the building. Instead, technology has brought the journey to them. As long journeys and even short outings become difficult for many older people, immer

After decades of steep decline, the eastern migratory monarch butterfly is showing a rare sign of recovery. New scientific surveys by WWF-Mexico and its partners indicate that the population increased by an estimated 64% during the butterfly’s most recent hibernation season, offering cautious hope for one of the world’s most iconic species. The monarch population’s increase was measured not by counting individual butterflies, but by tracking how much forest they occupied in

After two years of campaigning, Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) campaigners advocating to fix whistleblower protection within the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) to protect those who report wrongdoing have gained a significant win. In April, the Federal Parliament united to pass initial priority amendments to the NDIS Act , which they had developed together with Greens Senator Jordan Steele-John. The Albanese Government has also committed to consulting on more comp

What began as an ordinary recreational dive off the coast of far‑north Queensland by a mother and her daughter has become a striking reminder that the Great Barrier Reef still holds surprises. The pair, participating in a citizen science survey, say they have identified what may be the largest known coral colony on Earth — a living structure stretching more than 100 metres across the seafloor. The discovery was made by Sophie Kalkowski‑Pope and her mother, Jan Pope, while th

As fighting in the Middle East continues to play havoc with global energy markets, Australia faces a stark choice about its energy future: move rapidly to becoming an electrostate dominated by home-generated, affordable and plentiful renewable energy and battery storage, or cling to exporting and importing coal, oil and gas. Australia’s Energy Vulnerability Comes Into Focus As one of the world’s largest exporters of coal and gas primarily to Asia where countries are actively

When Banish first appeared eight years ago, it was less a business than the journey of one person’s frustration with what to do with her waste. Banish’s Sydney-based founder Lottie Dalziel was searching for clear information about sustainable living and ways to convert that knowledge into action. What began as an attempt to fill a gap in Australia’s limited and flawed recycling landscape has grown into a movement reshaping how thousands of households and companies — like Et

The world’s — and Australia’s — uncomfortable exposure to imported oil is no longer an abstract risk. As Israel‑U.S. strikes on Iran continue leading to a much broader regional conflict, we now face oil price spikes and even the prospect of running out of oil due to trade route disruption. With a fifth of the world’s oil supply jeopardised by a single chokepoint – the Strait of Hormuz – the sensible response is to get off imported oil. Faster electrification powered by dom

A major gas exploration proposal for the Southern Ocean has become the fifth proposal of its kind to be rejected by the offshore regulator since 2012, after sustained opposition from south-west Victorian communities and environmental organisations.