Canberrans who were sick of the sweltering heat may have found themselves hugging the doona on Tuesday morning.

The Victorian government is demanding the operator of Australia's main electricity grid explain how the state came close to losing electricity during the recent extreme heatwave to ensure NSW avoided power outages, adding to calls for a wider inquiry.

A former dog breeder from Sydney's north-west has been found guilty of animal cruelty after officers found five dead dogs in freezers on his property and others living in "grotesque" conditions.

A new wave of solar energy is about to crest and it won't just be households benefiting.

There is a mysterious hole in Lake Berryessa in California. It is not a supernatural whirlpool, a demon's mouth or a portal into hell or a fourth dimension. The creepy thing probably won't suck you into it either.

Six ocean hot spots that teem with the biggest mix of species are also getting hit hardest by global warming and industrial fishing, a study has found.

The final weekend of the Australian summer looks all set to be an absolute scorcher with Perth expecting a hot and sunny day on Saturday with the mercury rising to 40 degrees.

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation has received an email requesting a loan for a 900 megawatt coal plant with carbon capture and storage.

Brisbane-based Qantas engineers have spent the best part of the past month installing sensitive atmospheric monitoring sensors on a Hawaiian Airlines Airbus A330 in a bid to fill a major gap in global climate research.

ACT Parks and Conversation will introduce a new strain of the calicivirus and expect it will wipe out up to 40 per cent of pest rabbits.

Huge mudslides from November's earthquakes have wiped out all organisms living in the seabed of the Kaikoura Canyon, which used to be a hotbed of life.

The sodden and cool tail of February belies the record-breaking summer, with autumn also likely to be unusually warm.

Restricting the amount of greenery growing beside the state's waterways will have a detrimental effect on the environment while failing to meet its goal of reducing bushfire threats, top waterway ecosystem scientists have warned.

The state government is confident radioactive waste from 60 cow carcasses buried at a Werribee development site have not contaminated the wider area.

Australia's politicians need to ask people what energy future they want, not decide for them.

Inna Braverman hopes the Australian coastline could soon be transformed by wave converters hanging off breakwaters, jetties, wharves and piers, alongside the rods and legs of hopeful fishermen.

Drone vision of great white shark lurking near unsuspecting surfers emerges

NSW should place a cap on the amount of thermal coal it can mine and plan an orderly phase-out of the industry within a decade to do its bit to avoid catastrophic climate change, NSW Greens say.

Sydney's record-breaking weather juggernaut rolls on, with summer confirmed as the city's hottest for both days and nights over records stretching back 157 years.

Wildlife prices are tumbling in South Africa as game breeders are squeezed by restrictions imposed on trophy hunting after Cecil the lion was killed, and the worst drought on record has forced farmers to sell animals.

There's an old saying that elephants never forget. You also can say they almost never sleep.

Early warning technology being trialled in areas prone to flash floods

Violence in El Salvador has reached crisis levels in recent years.

The release of a new calicivirus strain is imminent but ACT vets are running low on the vaccine used to protect pet bunnies.

Giant spider crabs are gathering in their thousands at Blairgowrie for an annual event so impressive it's drawn David Attenborough and a Japanese film crew to document it. But few Victorians know about it.