Climate scientists say that the world is continuing to warm, despite brief respite in record breaking temperatures
Earth’s string of 13 straight months with a new average heat record came to an end this past July as the natural El Niño climate pattern ebbed, the European climate agency Copernicus announced on Wednesday.
But July 2024’s average heat just missed surpassing last year’s July, and scientists said the end of the record-breaking streak changes nothing about the threat posed by the climate crisis.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
08/08/2024 - 13:38
08/08/2024 - 13:19
Nuclear site awaits sentencing over breaches that it admitted could have threatened national security
Sellafield has apologised after pleading guilty to criminal charges relating to a string of cybersecurity failings at Britain’s most hazardous nuclear site, which it admitted could have threatened national security.
Among the failings at the vast nuclear waste dump in Cumbria was the discovery that 75% of its computer servers were vulnerable to cyber-attacks, Westminster magistrates court in London heard.
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08/08/2024 - 10:27
Devastation in Brazil wetlands was made at least four times more likely by fossil fuel use and deforestation, scientists say
The devastating wildfires that tore through the world’s biggest tropical wetland, Brazil’s Pantanal, in June were made at least four times more likely and 40% more intense by human-caused climate disruption, a study has found.
Charred corpses of monkeys, caimans and snakes have been left in the aftermath of the blaze, which burned 440,000 hectares (1.1m acres) and is thought to have killed millions of animals and countless more plants, insects and fungi.
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08/08/2024 - 10:00
Exclusive: Victorian Environment Protection Authority launches ‘proactive program’ to investigate potential risks from recycled soil fill
Asbestos found in recycled soil at more than half NSW waste facilities
Victoria’s environment watchdog has launched a compliance blitz of waste facilities that produce cheap landscaping soil after a Guardian Australia investigation revealed systemic problems with similar recycled products in New South Wales.
The Victorian Environment Protection Authority (EPA) said it had begun “a proactive program looking at recovered fines” – the cheap soil or sand substitute made from construction and demolition waste residues after larger recyclable materials are removed.
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08/08/2024 - 09:42
Juneau residents clear sodden homes after lake dammed by Mendenhall Glacier gives way in what is now yearly event
Residents in Alaska’s capital cleared out waterlogged homes on Wednesday after a lake dammed by the picturesque Mendenhall Glacier gave way, causing the worst flooding in Juneau yet from what has become a yearly phenomenon.
At least 100 homes and some businesses were damaged by rapidly rising floodwaters that crested early on Tuesday, according to initial estimates. In some areas, cars floated in chest-high water as people scrambled to evacuate. The waters receded by Wednesday, and the river level was falling.
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08/08/2024 - 08:00
Volunteers are helping save baby sea turtles as the endangered species’ favourite nesting spots come under pressure from development, poaching and tourists
Photographs by Thilina Kaluthotage
It’s a sweltering night on the western coast of Sri Lanka, and on Mount Lavinia beach there’s an unusual flurry of activity. Several young people in orange hi-vis vests are squatting in a circle, digging in the sand in the semi-darkness.
The team of volunteers is patrolling a popular tourist beach on the outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital, scouting for turtle nesting sites. Finding the nests can involve a bit of detective work.
Turtle volunteers at a nesting site on Colombo’s Mount Lavinia beach. ‘Sometimes we dig holes on the beach to look for the eggs’
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08/08/2024 - 07:29
UN says a global ‘backlash’ against climate action is being stoked by fossil fuel companies
Fossil fuel companies are running “a massive mis- and disinformation campaign” so that countries will slow down the adoption of renewable energy and the speed with which they “transition away” from a carbon-intensive economy, the UN has said.
Selwin Hart, the assistant secretary general of the UN, said that talk of a global “backlash” against climate action was being stoked by the fossil fuel industry, in an effort to persuade world leaders to delay emissions-cutting policies. The perception among many political observers of a rejection of climate policies was a result of this campaign, rather than reflecting the reality of what people think, he added.
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08/08/2024 - 05:55
A year after the fire some try to rebuild life in the city known as the ‘ninth Hawaiian island’ – as temperatures top 117F
Remedios Ramos moved into her newly built, sand-colored Las Vegas home during a blistering week in July, when temperatures topped 117F. Inside her air-conditioned living room, a shiny grandfather clock, its price tag still attached, chimed every half hour. “I like it here,” Ramos said, glancing around at her pristine surroundings: brand new reclining chairs, a glossy dining set, a television still in its box.
“But,” she sighed, scrunching her face, “I like it better back home, in Hawaii.”
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08/06/2024 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 07 August 2024; doi:10.1038/s44183-024-00076-4
Buckley and Cooper’s1 estimates of surfing’s economic contributions via enhanced mental health were extrapolated from national park visitation. We extend their argument by distinguishing benefits from green and blue spaces, and the particularities of surfing, both as therapy and recreation. Personal Wellbeing Index scores reveal improved outcomes among Australian surfers, compared to the national population. These diverse well-being effects highlight the value of surfing as an ocean-based ecosystem service.
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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