A new smartphone app allows users to check Auckland's air quality at any given time.

A researcher says it's embarrassing our country hasn't yet made the move.

COMMENT: New Zealand clean and green? Try mean and short-sighted.

Houses dot an empty landscape, standing as reminders of a village that existed before the Japan earthquake.

Watercare contractors have cleared a blockage in a sewagesewerage pipe which caused an overflow into the Wairau Stream at Milford

Britons are dying because of the Volkswagen emission scandal with dozens killed from fumes travelling across the North Sea from Germany

COMMENT: Moral implications seem a bridge too far in decisions on management of key resource, opines Rachel Stewart.

In "clean, green New Zealand" just 72 per cent of rivers, streams and lakes are considered safe for swimming and it will remain that way for a while.

COMMENT: The Environment Minister's promise to make 90 per cent of rivers swimmable by 2040 is a cynical sleight of hand, writes Gen Toop from Greenpeace.

The dramatic, kilometres-deep canyons that lie hidden beneath our waves need protection from human pollution and damage, scientists say.

COMMENT: Aucklanders are a hypocritical bunch. We pollute our precious inner harbour beaches, we have to drive for hours seeking somewhere to relax.

The state of our rivers and lakes has predictably come under intensified focus this summer, as Kiwis head to their favourite watering holes.

Nails, staples and glass are being left on the beach from fires lit from pellets. Photo/George Novak 220117gn05bop.JPG After finding

EXCLUSIVE: Water bills in the country's largest city may have to rise to stop raw sewage flowing into Auckland Harbour almost every time it rains.

Swimming has been banned at 10 Auckland beaches this summer because of worsening pollution from human and animal wastes.

Aucklanders have been waiting a long time for the day they will no longer see health warnings appear on some of their beaches after heavy rain.

Experts warn we shouldn't swim at any beach in the Auckland region after heavy rain. Simon Collins finds out why.

Fed up with severe smog, Chinese tourists are swarming abroad to countries with "clean air" on their latest travel trend: "lung cleansing" tours.

In the second of a five part series on Auckland's big blue backyard, science reporter Jamie Morton talks to seabird expert Dr Brendon Dunphy.

COMMENT: Reliable as clockwork, and right on cue, DairyNZ stepped up to the microphone and shot themselves in the head.

COMMENT: Dairy industry could take a leaf out of Boag's manual and admit to 'casual pollution' of our waterways.

A controversial Greenpeace TV ad has been given the green light after the dairy industry attempted to shut it down.

The domes, manufactured by MetaSpace Air Dome Corp uses filtration systems to keep the air inside pollution-free.

A Lord of the Rings actor who now works as a tour guide operator has slammed New Zealand's "clean, green" image.

Fewer than half of councils have enough staff trained to respond to marine oil spills.

About half a dozen online retailers are selling "pure, hand-bottled, pollution-free, oxygen-rich air from New Zealand" to people in China's smoggy northern cities.

Taranaki Iwi and environmental groups are bitterly disappointed. "The failings of our government and the failings of DOC especially, means we have to go out and fight these corporations off". Made with funding from NZ On Air.

Stopping the flow of pollutants into urban Whangarei's 6000 stormwater traps and planting trees along the waterways could all help

COMMENT: Scientists have taken phytoremediation one step further by combining it with nanobionics - the process of modifying biology with engineering.

What's lurking beneath the surface in the Wellington Harbour?