DNA analysis of endemic specimens in museums finds 79% of ant populations in Pacific archipelago are shrinking
Island-dwelling insects have not been spared the ravages of humanity that have pushed so many of their invertebrate kin into freefall around the world, new research on Fijian ant populations has found.
Hundreds of thousands of insect species have been lost over the past 150 years and it is believed the world is now losing between 1% and 2.5% a year of its remaining insect biomass – a decline so steep that many entomologists say we are living through an “insect apocalypse”. Yet long-term data for individual insect populations is sparse and patchy.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
09/11/2025 - 13:00
09/11/2025 - 12:07
Experts unconvinced by Roberto Gualtieri’s mooted timescale for river to be reopened for public bathing
Rome hopes to welcome swimmers back to the River Tiber within five years, the city’s mayor has announced, drawing inspiration from Paris, where the Seine was reopened for public bathing this summer for the first time in a century.
During a visit on Thursday to the Osaka Expo in Japan, Roberto Gualtieri said a working group had been set up to study the feasibility of the clean-up project.
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09/11/2025 - 09:23
Children as young as three will have lessons on wildfires and flooding under 10-point emergency response plan
Spanish children will be taught how to respond to floods, wildfires, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in a drive to help prepare them for the growing impact of the climate emergency.
The plan was unveiled on Thursday after a summer of forest fires killed four people and less than a year after catastrophic floods claimed more than 220 lives in eastern parts of the country.
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09/11/2025 - 09:15
Kent council condemned by opposition parties, which say county is ‘at the forefront of climate impacts’
Plans by Reform UK to “rescind” the declaration of a climate emergency at one of the English county councils it now controls have been condemned by opposition parties.
Hundreds of local authorities across Britain have made the declarations, which serve as acknowledgments that they need to act on the causes and impacts of climate change and are linked to efforts to achieve net zero targets.
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09/11/2025 - 08:07
Keeping predator numbers down may be last hope for the ground-nesting birds – but critics say real problem is farming practices
Should we be organising mass culls of foxes and crows in the UK in order to save the plummeting numbers of curlews? That is the argument put forward by certain bird conservation groups.
The curlew, one of Britain’s most charismatic birds, with its curved beaks and distinctive call, has been disappearing from the countryside, declining by 60% in 25 years. It is just one of a number of ground-nesting birds that is vanishing – research has found that ground nesters are 86% more likely to decline than birds with other nesting strategies.
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09/11/2025 - 07:53
Fifteen people are dead and 100 missing as Indonesia reels from floods caused by extreme rainfall. Rescuers search for survivors after at least 112 neighbourhoods were submerged by rising rivers. Torrential rain began on Monday, causing flooding and landslides in Bali and East Nusa Tenggara province. As river levels returned to normal on Thursday, authorities worked to clear streets of mud and debris
Flash floods in Indonesia leave at least 15 people dead and 10 missing
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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 | [email protected] +12077011069
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