Breaking Waves: Ocean News

‘A poor man’s rainforest’: why we need to stop treating soil like dirt
04/16/2021 - 00:00
The mysterious world under our feet is under threat. Protecting it is as vital as tackling the climate crisis, scientists warn Hidden under our feet is a miniature landscape made up of tunnels, caves and decaying matter. Soil is where a quarter of the species on our planet are believed to live and in this dark, quiet, damp world, death feeds life. Rotting leaves, fruits, plants and organisms are folded into the soil and burped out as something new. Good soil structure provides many nooks and crannies that house organisms, which, in turn, create an environment that suits them, directly altering – and improving – the structure of soil. Like a collective of tiny chemists, they keep soils healthy and productive by passing nutrients between them, either by collaborating or killing each other. Continue reading...
Read more »
‘Single-use plastics’ to be phased out in Australia from 2025 include plastic utensils and straws
04/15/2021 - 17:00
National agreement on items covered by ban should provide businesses with certainty and ease consumer confusion Plastic cutlery and straws are among the types of single-use plastics to be phased out in Australia from 2025 under a plan to reduce plastic waste. A national meeting of environment ministers on Thursday confirmed the phase-out would cover eight types of “problematic and unnecessary” plastic waste: lightweight plastic bags; plastic misleadingly labelled “degradable”; plastic utensils and stirrers; plastic straws; polystyrene food containers; polystyrene consumer goods packaging; and microbeads in personal care products. Continue reading...
Read more »
Modelling ancient Antarctic ice sheets helps us see future of global warming
04/15/2021 - 16:05
In order to get a sense of what our future may hold, scientists have been looking to the deep past. Now, new research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which combines climate, ice sheet and vegetation model simulations with a suite of different climatic and geologic scenarios, opens the clearest window yet into the deep history of the Antarctic ice sheet and what our planetary future might hold.
Read more »
Man sentenced for shooting protected elephant seal dead on California coast
04/15/2021 - 13:13
Jordan Gerbich, 30, will serve three months in federal prison and pay a $1,000 fine for killing the animal A man has been sentenced to three months in federal prison for shooting a protected northern elephant seal to death on the central California coast. Armed with a .45-caliber handgun and a flashlight, on the night of 2 September 2019 Jordan Gerbich, 30, opened fire on an elephant seal at a popular viewing area where the giant aquatic mammals haul out along the shore near the Monterey Bay national marine sanctuary. The elephant seal was discovered the following morning with a bullet wound to the head and its tail fins cut off, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Continue reading...
Read more »
Whitest-ever paint could help cool heating Earth, study shows
04/15/2021 - 13:00
New paint reflects 98% of sunlight as well as radiating infrared heat into space, reducing need for air conditioning The whitest-ever paint has been produced by academic researchers, with the aim of boosting the cooling of buildings and tackling the climate crisis. The new paint reflects 98% of sunlight as well as radiating infrared heat through the atmosphere into space. In tests, it cooled surfaces by 4.5C below the ambient temperature, even in strong sunlight. The researchers said the paint could be on the market in one or two years. Continue reading...
Read more »
Jurassic Coast cliff collapses in biggest UK rockfall for 60 years
04/15/2021 - 07:59
People urged to stay away from Dorset beach with council expecting more unstable cliff face to fall A huge section of a cliff on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset has collapsed on to a beach below and into the sea in the biggest UK rockfall in 60 years. The rockfall happened just west of the south coast seaside town of Weymouth and Dorset council said more cliff was expected to be lost, with people being urged to stay away from the area. Parts of the coastal path were cordoned off. Continue reading...
Read more »
Shell calls on investors to vote for its new climate strategy
04/15/2021 - 07:58
Shareholder activists say cleaner energy transition fails to meet Paris climate goals and they will put rival scheme to oil firm’s AGM Royal Dutch Shell has urged investors to vote for its strategy to shift the business towards cleaner energy sources, despite warnings that the plan does not go far enough to meet the Paris climate agreement goals. The oil company set out its energy transition plan before its annual shareholder meeting in May, when investors will be able to take part in an advisory vote on Shell’s climate plans for the first time. The vote will not be binding. Continue reading...
Read more »
€500,000 set aside to save Rome’s pine trees from deadly parasite
04/15/2021 - 07:39
President of surrounding Lazio region says pine tortoise scale problem requires immediate action The battle is on to save Rome’s umbrella pine trees – as much a part of the landscape of the Italian capital as its ancient monuments – from a deadly parasite. The trees, which offer respite from Rome’s summer heat, have become infested with pine tortoise scale, insects originally from North America that are capable of killing pines in two to three years. Continue reading...
Read more »
How Texas’s zombie oil wells are creating an environmental disaster zone
04/15/2021 - 05:00
Thousands of abandoned oil wells dot the Permian Basin in west Texas and New Mexico, endangering humans and wildlife. With oil costs plummeting, they’re likely to proliferate. Who is going to cover the cleanup costs? When Laura Briggs and her husband finally found their dream home in west Texas, they knew they’d be sharing space with the oil industry. The Pecos county ranch’s previous owner, local attorney Windel “Hoot” Gibson, died there when a rickety old pumpjack teetered over and fell on top of him. But sharing 900 acres with a handful of old oil wells seemed like a fair trade for a spacious ranch where the Briggs family could raise four kids and a mess of farm animals. The property is smack dab in the middle of the Permian Basin, an ancient, dried-up sea that streaks across Texas and New Mexico and is the most productive oil field in the United States. Approximately 3m barrels of the Permian’s monthly crude production happens in Pecos county; there is an oil or gas well for roughly every two people here. Continue reading...
Read more »
Amazon’s warehouse boom linked to health hazards in America’s most polluted region
04/15/2021 - 05:00
Research shows warehouses, which have proliferated in California’s Inland Empire, bring pollution that disproportionately affects people of color Amazon has dramatically expanded its warehouses in southern California in the past year, part of an effort to speed up deliveries during the pandemic’s online shopping boom. Continue reading...
Read more »
Syndicate content