As NHS told to prepare for extreme weather, strain also felt in other areas including transport and farming
NHS must prepare for annual summer heat pressures, says Yvette Cooper
The NHS has been told it must become more resilient to increasingly frequent heatwaves supercharged by the climate crisis, as the UK government puts adaptation to extreme heat high on its agenda. But what other public services are already feeling the strain?
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
08/05/2026 - 15:00
08/05/2026 - 00:00
This week, we launched our third annual vote to honour nature’s unsung heroes. The Guardian’s natural history writer – and woodlouse fanboy – Patrick Barkham answered your questions
Narethosyne asks: It’s often said that insects will outlast humanity, as they’ve managed to survive in some very inhospitable environments for millions of years. Do you think that human stupidity might actually be able to kill even the hardiest of insects off if we don’t take better care of our planet?
Patrick:
I agree we need to take much better care of the planet. However the more I learn of other invertebrate life (and I don’t know much), the more I believe that other species will survive whatever toxic horrors we unleash upon the planet. It seems more likely that we will become extinct before many other species.
We are such a strange species, so capable of goodness and so easily moved to argument and greed, but I still think we can learn to think and act for the long-term. There is a big awakening of eco-consciousness in the global north and perhaps we can belatedly re-learn the wisdom of many indigenous peoples who have lived in better balance with their fellow species.
Thanks Sprockertime, I love your question. The answer is yes!
I’ve done all kinds of fancy things for wildlife in my garden (filling in a “sunken garden” with five tonnes of chalk raised a few eyebrows in my neighbourhood) and I salute everyone who has erected bird boxes and bug hotels.
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08/01/2026 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 02 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s44183-026-00233-x
A call to action to support and safeguard ocean defenders
07/29/2026 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 30 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s44183-026-00235-9
Blue SIA: the case for social impact assessment in the blue economy
World Ocean Explorer Wins Gold Medal Serious Simulation Award from Serious Play Annual International Competition
10/26/2023 - 14:35
For Immediate Release October 19, 2023
Sedgwick, Maine USA World Ocean Explorer, a 3D virtual aquarium and educational simulation, was recently cited for excellence, winning a Gold Medal Award in the 2023 International Serious Play Awards Program.
World Ocean Explorer is an innovative 3D virtual aquarium designed for educational exploration of the world’s oceans. With interactive exhibits and a lobby space, visitors can immerse themselves in realistic marine environments, including a DEEP SEA exhibit funded by Schmidt Ocean Institute, showcasing unprecedented deep-sea discoveries off Australia. Targeted at 3rd graders and beyond, this immersive experience offers a range of perspectives on the ocean environment and can be explored through guided tours or user-controlled interfaces. Visit DEEP SEA at worldoceanexplorer.org/deep-sea-aquarium.html.
Serious Play Conference brings together professionals who are exploring the use of game-based learning, sharing their experience, and working together to shape the future of training and education. For more information on Serious Play Award Program visit seriousplayconf.com/international-serious-play-award-programs.
World Ocean Explorer is a transformative virtual aquarium designed to deepen understanding of the world ocean and amplify connection for young people worldwide. Organized around the principles of Ocean Literacy and the Next Gen Science Standards, World Ocean Explorer brings the wonder and knowledge of ocean species and systems to students in formal and informal classrooms, absolutely free to anyone with a good Internet connection. As an advocate for the ocean through communications, World Ocean Observatory believes there is no better investment in the future of the sustainable ocean than through a new approach to educational engagement that excites, informs, and motivates students to explore the wonders of our marine world and to understand the pervasive connection and implication for our future, inherent in the protection and conservation of all aspects of our ocean world.
World Ocean Explorer presents an astonishing 3-dimensional simulated aquarium visit, organized to reveal the wonders of undersea life, with layers of detailed data and information to augment the emotional connection made to the astonishing beauty and complexity of the dynamic ocean. Within each of the virtual exhibits, students visit exemplary theme-based sites with myriad opportunities to understand the larger perspectives of scientific knowledge as organized and visualized to dramatize the impact and change on ocean life as a result of natural and human-generated events. Through immersion among displays, mixed media and 3D models, the experience of an aquarium visit will be brought into classrooms or home school environments as a free, accessible, always available opportunity for teaching and learning. All of this will be available to a world audience without physical limitation or cost. World Ocean Explorer, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, receives support from the Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation, Visual Solutions Lab, the Climate Change Institute, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, and The Fram Museum Oslo. To learn more about the current and future exhibits of World Ocean Explorer, visit worldoceanexplorer.org.
media contact
Trisha Badger, Managing Director, World Ocean Observatory | director@thew2o.net +12077011069
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