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.

The weekend meeting was unprecedented, showing that officials from the highest levels of government recognise the suffering, and risk to health, the trade poses.

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.

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.

Waves of "ferocious" thunderstorms are expected to lash NSW on Monday, with flash flooding, heavy downpours and "giant hail" likely to hit large parts of Central and Northern New South Wales.

The UN chief launched a scathing attack on world leaders after delegates at a climate conference in Bonn couldn’t even agree on an agenda for the meeting.

A rare, extended period of large surf is pummelling the NSW coastline and while most people are staying well clear, a few surfers are cashing in.

The odds are good for a wet winter, prolonging the sodden autumn on the east coast, but bringing relief for the drought-stricken inland.

Melbourne is freezing and Brisbane is boiling in a tale of two weather extremes on Australia's east coast.

Women are on the front lines of the global climate crisis, making up 80 per cent of the 21.5 million people displaced every year by climate-related events.

The NSW government prepared sweeping climate change policies to decarbonise the state's economy only to have the plans shelved.

Thai veterinarians removed 915 coins from a 25-year-old sea turtle which had been swallowing items thrown into her pool for good luck, eventually limiting her ability to swim.

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.

Drone vision of great white shark lurking near unsuspecting surfers emerges

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

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

So much for axing the tax: a growing crisis in the electricity market has led to wholesale power prices more than doubling in a year, and rising to at least twice what they were under the controversial Labor-Greens carbon price.

A year 12 student implores politicians and fellow citizens to tackle climate change - and seize the economic opportunities of renewable energy.

Former US vice-president Al Gore is now one of the world's highest-profile climate change campaigners and has inspired a legion of climate mentors both here and abroad.

A child has been struck by lightning at a beach near Shellharbour and taken by police escort to Westmead Children’s hospital.