Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Report reveals financial support promised by rich nations for adaptation measures is well behind the pace that is needed Flows of money to help poor countries cope with the climate crisis have been flat or falling since 2022, despite growing impacts from extreme weather and warnings from scientists that global heating may be accelerating. A new UN report has revealed that financial support for adaptation – which includes measures such as stronger infrastructure, early warning systems, flood protection and drought-resilient irrigation – is woefully short of what is needed and far behind even the inadequate promises that rich countries signed up to in 2021 in recognition of their far greater responsibility for the crisis. Continue reading...

Researchers find the birds’ guano feeds algal blooms that absorb significantly more solar energy Penguin poo is making the Antarctic snow melt faster, a study shows. As temperatures rise, penguins are waddling closer to the south pole, with potential for this previously unrecognised phenomenon to affect a wider area. Snow algae are tiny single-celled plants that make a home in some of the coldest places on Earth. When nutrients are scarce, the algae produces red pigments to protect itself from the sun and slow growth. Continue reading...

Mink farms are the perfect petri dishes for deadly flu strains to emerge. Yet officials appear to be protecting business interests over human lives Could this be ground zero? Could it be the spot where the next pandemic begins? It’s certainly a candidate, not least because the chain of events that could trigger a plague far worse than Covid-19 looks like the opening sequence of a disaster movie. A really bad disaster movie, in which the levels of carelessness and turpitude defy belief. A report by the investigative news service ProPublica reveals that bird flu has been raging in a mink farm in Utah since August, and it appears next to nothing has been done by public officials. In 2023, I warned in the Guardian that mink farms could scarcely be better designed to generate lethal plagues. This is for three reasons: mink are fed on the offcuts of chickens, cows and other farm animals, in which new viral variants often develop; mink readily host both avian and human flu viruses, which can then exchange genetic material, turning a bird disease into a human one; and mink possess extremely high “zoonotic potential” – the ability to infect animals of other species, including human beings. George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Nations in the group fare worse than others, with funding for nature projects especially hard hit even as climate crisis intensifies global need The UK government has slashed overseas aid to Commonwealth countries, the Guardian can reveal, in contrast to the warm words for the group from King Charles and the prime minister, Andy Burnham, this week. Amid sharp cuts in the UK’s aid budget overall, the Commonwealth has fared poorly, an analysis of the most recent and projected aid figures, seen by the Guardian, has shown. Continue reading...