Australia has a well-earned reputation as a mining nation. Now we're moving towards mining 'off world', on the Moon.
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.
The Grand Canyon, which marks 100 years as a national park on Feb. 26, 2019, is known today as an iconic natural wonder. But early European visitors weren't impressed.
A serval captured on a camera trap at an industrial site in South Africa.
Daan Loock
A high number of carnivores have been discovered at a huge industrial site in Mpumalanga, South Africa.
After 48 hours of frantic effort, Brazilian rescue workers have called off their search for survivors at a collapsed dam in Minas Gerais state.
AP Photo/Leo Correa
Nearly 1,800 Brazilian dams are at risk of failure, according to the government. Fixing them is expensive – but ignoring aging dams can have considerable social, economic and environmental costs.
Rio Tinto’s mineral sands mine near Richards Bay, north of Durban. Plans for similar operation in the Xolobeni region south of Durban have been resisted by the local community.
Mathias Rittgerott/Rettet den Regenwald
An American coal company is suing the Canadian government over Alberta's plan to combat climate change.
Old mine sites suffer many fates, which range from simply being abandoned to being incorporated into towns or turned into an open-air museum in the case of Gwalia, Western Australia.
The industrial patterns of mining shaped many Australian towns, which found varied uses for disused mine sites. The mining boom ensures the challenges these sites present will be with us a long time.
A Xolobeni villager protesting against mine development.
Flickr/Patricia Alejandro
A massive new discovery this summer of miles of corals in deep waters off South Carolina shows how much we have yet to learn about life on the ocean floor.
The abandonment of Adani’s bespoke railway leaves it with a 200km gap to bring coal to its Abbot Point port (pictured).
AAP Image
Indian mining firm Adani has announced scaled-down plans for its planned Queensland coal mine, which it will now fund itself. But there are still many questions hanging over the project.
The green blob is metal-rich molten sulfide in an ore from the Norilsk area in Siberia, the most valuable accumulation of metals of any kind on the planet.
Steve Barnes
Rural Westerners have been stereotyped as angry ranchers who hate government. But for every gun-wielding militia member, there are many others who work collaboratively to protect what they value.
Nauru’s people are struggling in the face of environmental change.
Anja Kanngieser
Nauru is best known as a site of Australian offshore asylum detention. But everyone on the island - not just refugees - is struggling with the issue of environmental change that threatens their lives and homes.
Suncor’s base plant with upgraders in the oil sands in Fort McMurray Alta., June 13, 2017.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson)
Canada's proposed new environmental assessment law is facing heated, if not necessarily well-informed, opposition. The real question is whether it goes far enough.