Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Grand Canyon Lodge consumed by two wildfires that have burned more than 45,000 acres in area The historic Grand Canyon Lodge on the monument’s North Rim has been destroyed by a fast-moving wildfire, the park said on Sunday. The blaze has forced officials to close access to that area for the season. The Grand Canyon Lodge, the only lodging inside the park at the North Rim, was consumed by the flames, park superintendent Ed Keable told park residents, staff and others in a meeting Sunday morning. He said the visitor center, the gas station, a waste water treatment plant, an administrative building and some employee housing also were lost. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Translocation and deaths of seven out of 13 koalas in April, with some showing signs of septicaemia, not made public by state government Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast An attempt by the New South Wales government to reintroduce koalas to a forest in the state’s far south has failed after more than half of the moved animals died, including two with signs of septicaemia, and the remaining marsupials were taken into care. The translocation and deaths of seven out of 13 koalas in April were not made public by the government, prompting questions about whether something went wrong with the project and calls from the NSW Greens for a review. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...

Yes, temperatures are rising. But more and more AC means more and more CO2 – and then more and more global heating. Let’s have some long-term thinking instead It’s way too hot. I’m cowering inside, curtains drawn, pale limbs clammily exposed, the sound of my overheated laptop fan drowning out the sound of an ancient, feeble desk fan. If it gets any hotter, I’ll stagger to my air-conditioned car and drive to the air-conditioned supermarket to stand in its chilly aisles, shamelessly fanning myself over the ravaged ice-cream cabinet in the freezer aisle. I’ve even become nostalgic for the summer when I shared an office with a man who insisted on having the AC set to 17C, meaning I had to wear a cardigan to work in August. Ah, air conditioning, the dream. Or the nightmare? Welcome to appliance culture wars, 2025 edition. You may recall, in 2023, the US debated whether induction hobs were a communist plot; then last year Republicans tried, in all apparent seriousness, to pass the Liberty in Laundry and Refrigerator Freedom acts. This year has already featured Donald Trump pledging to “make America’s showers great again” (low water pressure means it takes 15 minutes to wet his “beautiful hair”) and now France is grappling with Marine Le Pen declaring herself its AC champion. Continue reading...

Residents of Alabama’s Lowndes county are still fighting for basic sanitation after Trump’s DoJ canceled a landmark Biden-era agreement Thelma and Willie Perryman spend most days out front of their family trailer in rural Alabama, shooting the breeze while enjoying the birdsong – and making sure their three-year-old grandson doesn’t wander into the sewage-sodden back yard. They used to barbecue on the back porch looking out at the woods on their land until a couple of years back when the contaminated wastewater seeping out from a leaky old pipe got simply unbearable. Willie, 71, ripped out the sinking porch as branches began falling off a towering old hickory tree which is now completely dead and at risk of toppling. Continue reading...