Breaking Waves: Ocean News

‘Reusable’ is now a selling point for products that should, inherently, be reusable to begin with – and we’re buying it I used to keep a plastic bag of plastic bags under my kitchen sink. Like the water in the pipes above, around which they accumulated, it seemed I had bags in unlimited supply. A few years ago, when my city enacted a plastic bag ban, the collection started waning. Now, I treasure the once ubiquitous sacks, doling them out judiciously for use as diaper pail liners and stewards of wet bathing suits, while down the hall, at the back of my coat closet, another mass is metastasizing: totes upon totes upon totes. They’re often referred to as reusable tote bags. And that sounds perfectly normal. But it shouldn’t. Imagine saying “reusable backpack” or “reusable shoes”. Most things were never intended to be used just once – not until several decades ago, when plastics ushered in an era in which everyday goods were designed, marketed and sold for exactly that: one, single use. Continue reading...

Harris, who had previously urged fracking ban, plans to highlight climate contrast between Democrats and Trump Kamala Harris will not seek to ban fracking if she becomes US president, campaign officials have confirmed, with the de facto Democratic nominee expected to focus instead on aggressively promoting the stark contrast on the climate crisis between Joe Biden’s administration and Donald Trump. Harris had previously, as a candidate for the 2020 presidential nomination, vowed to ban fracking, as well as back a Green New Deal, a progressive resolution to shift the US to 100% renewable energy, and new government dietary guidelines to encourage people to reduce their meat eating. Continue reading...

Researchers call for immediate action to reduce methane emissions and avert dangerous escalation in climate crisis Global emissions of methane, a powerful planet-heating gas, are “rising rapidly” at the fastest rate in decades, requiring immediate action to help avert a dangerous escalation in the climate crisis, a new study has warned. Methane emissions are responsible for half of the global heating already experienced, have been climbing significantly since around 2006 and will continue to grow throughout the rest of the 2020s unless new steps are taken to curb this pollution, concludes the new paper. The research is authored by more than a dozen scientists from around the world and published on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Report finds 13 member states generated more energy from wind and solar power than coal and gas for first time in 2024 Wind turbines and solar panels have overtaken fossil fuels to generate 30% of the European Union’s electricity in the first half of the year, a report has found. Power generation from burning coal, oil and gas fell 17% in the first six months of 2024 compared with the same period the year before, according to climate thinktank Ember. It found the continued shift away from polluting fuels has led to a one-third drop in the sector’s emissions since the first half of 2022. Continue reading...