Breaking Waves: Ocean News

07/24/2024 - 16:02
Father says Grace Rohloff, 20, lost footing about three-quarters into 400ft cables descent and slid down mountain A father-daughter hike that began with an Arizona college student checking off a bucket list item ended tragically when she was killed after falling down Yosemite’s Half Dome earlier this month. Grace Rohloff, a 20-year-old hiker, and her father, Jonathan Rohloff, were descending the cables at Yosemite’s summit when she slipped and fell on 13 July, as reported by SFGate. The 14- to 16-mile round-trip hike to Half Dome is known for its difficulty and requires hikers to obtain permits in advance. Continue reading...
07/24/2024 - 10:57
Data shows that the global surface air temperature reached 62.87F compared with 62.76F on Sunday. World temperature reached the hottest levels ever measured on Monday, beating the record that was set just one day before, data suggests. Provisional data published on Wednesday by the Copernicus Climate Change Service, which holds data that stretches back to 1940, shows that the global surface air temperature reached 62.87F (17.15C), compared with 62.76F (17.09C) on Sunday. Continue reading...
07/24/2024 - 10:28
Researchers uncover ‘remarkable new way in which trees provide a vital climate service’ by reducing emissions Microbes in the bark of trees play a vital role in removing methane from the atmosphere, scientists have discovered. The greenhouse gas is a product of agriculture and the burning of fossil fuels and is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide. However, it remains in the atmosphere for a shorter time. Continue reading...
07/24/2024 - 10:00
No country has ever in history produced as much oil and gas as the US does now and Louisiana is ground zero ‘Inexcusable’: should climate hypocrites get the petrostates label? Revealed: wealthy western countries lead in global oil and gas expansion To witness how the United States has become the world’s unchallenged oil and gas behemoth is to contemplate the scene from John Allaire’s home, situated on a small spit of coastal land on the fraying, pancake-flat western flank of Louisiana. Allaire’s looming neighbor, barely a mile east across a ship channel that has been pushed into the Gulf of Mexico, is a hulking liquified natural gas (or LNG) plant, served by leviathan ships shuttling its chilled cargo overseas. Another such terminal lies a few miles to the west, yet another to the north. The theme continues even in Allaire’s seaward vista – alongside a boneyard of old oil rigs, a new floating offshore LNG platform is in the works. Continue reading...
07/24/2024 - 10:00
Krusatodon kirtlingtonensis, which lived 166m years ago, ‘a piece of the puzzle’ explaining mammals’ success The remains of a diminutive mouse-like creature that lived 166m years ago could help answer one of biology’s biggest questions of why mammals have become so successful, fossil experts say. Krusatodon kirtlingtonensis belongs to the immediate predecessors of mammals and lived alongside the dinosaurs during the middle Jurassic age. But while it was originally known only from individual teeth, researchers have now reported two partial skeletons. Continue reading...
07/24/2024 - 08:00
The country has long been the world’s biggest market – but the government’s interest is more geopolitical than environmental When Kenzi, an advertising worker in Shanghai, bought an electric vehicle in November she wasn’t even thinking about the environmental benefits. She had read Elon Musk’s biography and thought the Tesla 3 looked good. She also knew that if she bought an EV she could bypass the long wait and cost of getting licence plates, which are rationed by the government. “It’s not easy to get a licence plate in Shanghai, but you get a licence for free when you buy an EV,” she said. Continue reading...
07/24/2024 - 06:24
UK’s biggest airport served almost 40m passengers in first half of 2024, straining its system ‘to the maximum’ Heathrow is preparing to announce a fresh blueprint for a third runway for the Labour government’s approval as record passenger numbers “strain its system to the maximum”. The UK’s biggest airport served almost 40 million passengers in the first half of 2024, culminating in its busiest day ever on 30 June. Continue reading...
07/24/2024 - 05:12
Exclusive: UK campaigners say it is ‘unacceptable’ no nature assessments were made on bee-killing Cruiser SB The Conservative government did not carry out a legally required assessment of how greenlighting the use of a banned pesticide, described as a “death blow to wildlife”, would affect some of the most important nature sites, documents have revealed. The previous government gave emergency approval this year for sugar beet farmers to use Cruiser SB for the fourth year in a row. Continue reading...
07/24/2024 - 05:00
The US and the UK among countries with low dependence on fossil fuels criticized for ‘hypocrisy’ on climate pledges ‘Inexcusable’: should climate hypocrites get the petrostates label? The US’s quiet rise to the world’s biggest fossil fuel state A surge in new oil and gas exploration in 2024 threatens to unleash nearly 12bn tonnes of planet-heating emissions, with the world’s wealthiest countries – such as the US and the UK – leading a stampede of fossil fuel expansion in spite of their climate commitments, new data shared exclusively with the Guardian reveals. The new oil and gas field licences forecast to be awarded across the world this year are on track to generate the highest level of emissions since those issued in 2018, as heatwaves, wildfires, drought and floods cause death and destruction globally, according to analysis of industry data by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). Continue reading...
07/24/2024 - 04:50
Crown estate reward for Dan Labbad comes amid doubling of profits on back of offshore wind developments King Charles’s property management company has given its chief executive a pay increase of almost 20% after tripling his pay packet over the previous three years. The crown estate, the royals’ ancient portfolio of land and property across England and Wales that includes the seabed around its coasts, paid Dan Labbad almost £1.9m for the last financial year amid a rise in profits powered by offshore wind developments. Continue reading...