THE thick blanket of red dust that settled on Sydney last month caused the harbour to bloom.

HUMANITY risks causing catastrophic and irreversible environmental damage by crossing "nine planetary boundaries", scientists have warned.

THE company behind the proposed $2 billion coal-to-fertiliser plant in the Latrobe Valley will push the project to detailed design stage after successful trials in Germany. Latrobe Fertilisers, a subsidiary of Australian Energy Company, aims to use low-emissions technology to produce nitrogen-rich fertiliser urea from Latrobe Valley brown coal.

"It's clear there would be immense value in improved monitoring close to communities in those areas." Hunter New England Health population physician David Durrheim says more information is needed about the concentrations to which communities are exposed to poisonous nitrogen oxides in the Upper Hunter and Lake Macquarie .

THOUSANDS of tonnes of poisonous oxides of nitrogen are being pumped into the air over the Upper Hunter and Lake Macquarie despite warnings about their health effects.