Breaking Waves: Ocean News

03/27/2024 - 07:57
UN Food Waste Index report also finds global food wastage is big contributor to climate crisis More than a billion meals are thrown away every day, in poor countries as well as rich ones, despite more than 730 million people living in hunger around the world. About a fifth of food is wasted, sometimes through profligacy or poor planning, sometimes from a lack of access to refrigeration or storage, according to the UN Food Waste Index report, published on Wednesday, at a global cost of about $1tn a year. Continue reading...
03/27/2024 - 07:19
Boats had been barred from landing since July 2022 owing to virus, which has ravaged populations of seabirds The puffins started arriving two weeks ago – and now there are thousands of them fizzing around in a mad frenzy. They have joined kittiwakes, guillemots, razorbills, fulmars and shags. Soon Arctic terns will arrive after their epic journey across the world from the Antarctic. This week humans arrived after a two-year ban from the Farne Islands in Northumberland, one of the UK’s most important sanctuaries for breeding seabirds. Continue reading...
03/27/2024 - 06:37
Call for environmental emergency to be declared after data reveals 105% rise in raw sewage discharges over past 12 months How polluted is your local river and which regions are worst hit? Water companies in England have faced a barrage of criticism as data revealed raw sewage was discharged for more than 3.6m hours into rivers and seas last year in a 105% increase on the previous 12 months. The scale of the discharges of untreated waste made 2023 the worst year for storm water pollution. Early data seen by the Guardian put the scale of discharges at more than 4m hours, but officials said the figures were an early estimate. Continue reading...
03/27/2024 - 06:37
IFRC and USAid staging conference to draw attention to risks and share best practice in disaster alerts and response Two of the world’s biggest aid agencies will host an inaugural global summit on extreme heat on Thursday as directors warn that the climate crisis is dramatically increasing the probability of a mass-fatality heat disaster. The conference will highlight some of the pioneering work being done, from tree-planting projects to the development of roof coverings that reduce indoor temperatures. Continue reading...
03/27/2024 - 06:00
They thought their redeveloped 19th-century building was safe – but after learning it still contained toxic levels of lead, they formed a tenants union Katy Slininger was one of dozens of residents who moved into the Lofts at the Cargill Falls Mill in Putnam, Connecticut, shortly after it opened in late 2020, enticed by the historic charm of the building and affordability of an apartment in an area with significant affordable housing shortages. The building is a redeveloped 19th-century mill that opened in 2020 after government subsidies contributed millions of dollars in grants and tax credits to its renovation and was hailed by local officials as a boon to the local economy. Continue reading...
03/27/2024 - 04:38
Retailers will have to file regular reports to UK regulator after concerns over environmental claims Business live – latest updates Asda, Asos and Boohoo must avoid making misleading claims about the green credentials of their clothes in future, after a regulatory crackdown on “greenwashing” in the fashion sector. The three retailers will have to file regular reports to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) after an investigation started in 2022 examined concerns that the companies were using vague claims to bolster their environmental credentials. Continue reading...
03/27/2024 - 03:52
Steven Miles urges authorities to enable magpie to be reunited with ‘devastated’ Gold Coast carers and its ‘best friend’, their Staffy dog Peggy Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast Queensland’s premier has thrown his support for a campaign to return an Instagram-famous magpie to its former carers and its dog best friend, after it was seized by the environment department. Gold Coast couple Juliette Wells and Reece Mortensen adopted Molly the magpie in 2020 after it fell from the nest. Continue reading...
03/27/2024 - 01:00
Natural England-backed scheme at most southerly tip of UK will nurture lichens, liverworts and wildflowers The landscape at the most southerly tip of mainland Britain is expansive and grand: rolling heath and grasslands, spectacular cliffs, crashing waves. But a recovery project funded by Natural England is focusing on unique and vital “microhabitats” found in sometimes overlooked spots on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall. Continue reading...
03/27/2024 - 01:00
Eccentric Victorian owner of Waterton Park, near Wakefield, made pioneering decisions to protect wildlife A Yorkshire parkland regarded as the world’s first nature reserve – which was created by an eccentric pioneering 19th-century environmentalist – has been given a Grade II listing. Historic England said Waterton Park, near Wakefield, was the earliest known example of a landscape designed specifically to attract and protect native wildlife. Continue reading...
03/27/2024 - 00:00
Some ‘ecologically sound’ brands contain as little as 2.7% of the eco-friendly paper alternative In the bathrooms of the ecologically conscious, bamboo toilet paper is the new bottom line – a supposedly green alternative to the bog-standard pulp-based loo roll that requires the chopping down of 1m trees a year, just to be flushed down the pan. But findings from consumer watchdog Which? will wipe away that smug feeling: samples of three out of the five of the UK’s top bamboo brands were actually made from other woods, some of them heavily implicated in deforestation. Continue reading...