Breaking Waves: Ocean News

07/14/2024 - 08:53
Over 245 million Americans are expected to experience 90F temperatures early this week, with some as high as 105F A heatwave that impacted the US west coast over the past week is now moving east into the midwest and south-east, as millions of Americans have been under a heat alert at some point in the past week. “Numerous near record-tying/breaking high temperatures are possible over the central High Plains and Southeast Sunday, and along much of the East Coast by Monday,” reported the National Weather Service. Continue reading...
07/14/2024 - 08:00
From Marine Tondelier to Mélanie Vogel, they are whip-smart, articulate and unafraid to show emotion. It’s astonishing to feel so inspired by politicians ‘I really like these angry green women,” a French friend said recently, as the assembly elections approached. It’s a funny phrase, redolent of She-Hulk, but I knew exactly what – and whom – she meant. It’s impossible to overstate my crush on Marine Tondelier, the French Green party leader. Tondelier has been a revelation in the past few feverish, fretful weeks; she has cut through French politics like a hot knife through butter. Forensically, forcefully articulate and unafraid to show her emotions, she is “cash”, as the French say – frank, funny and down-to-earth. Continue reading...
07/14/2024 - 06:00
A subclass of PFAS has been found near manufacturing plants and landfills, and in remote regions of the world Toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” used in lithium ion batteries essential to the clean energy transition present a dangerous source of chemical pollution that new research finds threatens the environment and human health as the nascent industry scales up. The multipronged, peer-reviewed study zeroed in on a little-researched and unregulated subclass of PFAS called bis-FASI that are used in lithium ion batteries. Continue reading...
07/14/2024 - 00:00
Campaigners warn of same ‘tragic events’ as in River Wye if planners ignore pollution risks of intensive production The chicken industry is facing calls to halt the expansion of intensive production in the River Severn catchment, with campaigners warning that the river is at risk from the same pollution that has blighted the River Wye. An outcry over the ecological plight of the Wye has effectively halted the proliferation of intensive poultry units across the catchment. Campaigners say that the pollution threat is being transported “from one catchment to the other”. Continue reading...
07/13/2024 - 15:00
Letter urges environment minister to investigate alleged breaches at Doongmabulla Springs Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast There is growing concern that a culturally significant and nationally important wetland is under threat from Adani’s controversial coalmine in Queensland, with an Indigenous group demanding the government investigate alleged breaches of the conditions that protect the site. Scientists say drops in water levels in bores around the Doongmabulla Springs have been detected hundreds of times since mining started, and allege hydrocarbons associated with coal have been found in bores and the springs themselves. Continue reading...
07/13/2024 - 13:14
Ed Miliband sets new rules on solar panels and approves three giant solar farms as Labour seeks to end years of Tory inaction Keir Starmer’s Labour government unveils plans for a “rooftop revolution” today that will see millions more homes fitted with solar panels in order to bring down domestic energy bills and tackle the climate crisis. The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, also took the hugely controversial decision this weekend to approve three massive solar farms in the east of England that had been blocked by Tory ministers. Continue reading...
07/13/2024 - 09:28
Johannes-Harm Hovinga has to take painkillers to complete 20-day artistic protest at Museum Arnhem Every day for the last two weeks, Johannes-Harm Hovinga has sat at a raised table in Museum Arnhem, using a two-hole page puncher to systematically perforate the 7,705-page sixth assessment report produced by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He has printed it out on coloured paper and the result is a vibrant heap piling up at the artist’s feet. Continue reading...
07/13/2024 - 09:00
Experts say devastating hurricane so early in season is ‘big wake-up call’ – and predict even more powerful storms The poignancy was unmistakable: prognosticators at Colorado State University amended their already miserable seasonal tropical cyclone forecast on Monday precisely as Hurricane Beryl was filling Houston’s streets with floodwater and knocking out power to more than 2m homes and businesses. “A likely harbinger of a hyperactive season” was how CSU researchers characterized Beryl, which set numerous records on the way to its Texas landfall, including the earliest category 5 hurricane, strongest ever June storm, and most powerful to strike the southern Windward Islands. Continue reading...
07/13/2024 - 07:28
Campaigners welcome ‘seismic shift’ and urge museum bosses to review links with other fossil fuel sponsors The Science Museum has been forced to cut ties with oil giant Equinor over its sponsor’s environmental record, the Observer can reveal. Equinor has sponsored the museum’s interactive “WonderLab” since 2016, but the relationship is now coming to close, a move that will be seen as a major victory for climate change campaigners. Continue reading...
07/13/2024 - 04:00
Southern Water says it wants to protect rare chalk streams, but campaigners say it could pollute the Solent A proposed £1.2bn scheme to recycle effluent from the sewage system and turn it in to drinking water has been criticised as a threat to the environment and a potential costly “white elephant”. Southern Water wants to treat effluent – wastewater from the sewage system – at a plant at Havant in Hampshire and pipe it into a nearby spring-fed reservoir to boost water supplies during droughts. The scheme would ensure less water is extracted from two rare chalk streams: the Rivers Test and Itchen. Continue reading...