Breaking Waves: Ocean News

This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our Cop28 coverage here My colleague Nina Lakhani has more on yesterday’s loss and damage agreement. As the second day gets under way, the president of the G77 plus China group – the bloc of 135 developing countries which played a key role in yesterday’s historic resolution on operationalising the loss and damage fund – said the decision sent a clear political message. “It was a milestone in terms of creating a positive mood for the very, very complex process on the GST [global stock take] that we had ahead of us now. But the fund needs to be filled up. The pledges announced were a welcome sign, but they were just pledges and must materialise as soon as possible. And we expect much, much more because of the impact of loss and damage in developing countries,” said ambassador Pedro Pedroso of Cuba. Continue reading...

In another first, this month’s episode of The Ocean Decade Show comes to you from on board the R/V Falkor as it’s undertaking an ultra fine-scale seafloor mapping expedition in the hydrothermal vent fields of the Eastern Galapágos Spreading Center. One of the members of this groundbreaking (or should we say, ground-mapping!) team is Dr. Cherisse Du Preez, a deep-sea explorer and marine biologist who works for Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Dr. Du Preez has been part of several endorsed UN Ocean Decade Actions and during this episode, we’ll dig into her penchant for exploration, the importance of working alongside Canadian First Nations tribal nations for her work, and the broader role Canada has been playing to ensure a successful Ocean Decade. 

Strongest overhaul of rules in over three decades will cost billions as Biden administration moves to prevent public health crises Most US cities would have to replace lead water pipes within 10 years under strict new rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency as the Biden administration moves to reduce lead in drinking water and prevent public health crises like the ones in Flint, Michigan, and, earlier, in Washington DC. Millions of people consume drinking water from lead pipes and the agency said tighter standards would improve IQ scores in children and reduce high blood pressure and heart disease in adults. It is the strongest overhaul of lead rules in more than three decades, and will cost billions of dollars. Pulling it off will require overcoming enormous practical and financial obstacles. Continue reading...

There's a species of ant that is so rare, only a handful of records exist from across the entire eastern United States. North Carolina State University researcher Michelle Kirchner not only found these ants in the Triangle region of North Carolina, she is the first to document an entire colony for scientists, taxonomists and ant-thusiasts everywhere. It is the first time males of the species have been collected or photographed.