Breaking Waves: Ocean News

UKHSA warns of risk to people aged 65 and over as temperatures of up to 33C expected until Monday Amber heat alerts have been issued in England as the UK experiences its hottest day of the year so far, with a temperature of 32.2C recorded at Kew in west London. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) issued the warningd on Thursday, and stated there could be “a rise in deaths” across all nine English regions, with “those aged 65 and over or people with health conditions” particularly at risk as the temperature is expected to rise sharply. Continue reading...

False claims obstructing climate action, say researchers, amid calls for climate lies to be criminalised Rampant climate misinformation is turning the crisis into a catastrophe, according to the authors of a new report. It found climate action was being obstructed and delayed by false and misleading information stemming from fossil fuel companies, rightwing politicians and some nation states. The report, from the International Panel on the Information Environment (Ipie), systematically reviewed 300 studies. Continue reading...

More than 120 years after billions of the trees were wiped out, blight-proof seeds are being planted It was in New York City that a mysterious fungus was first spotted on an American chestnut, a blight that was to rapidly sweep across the eastern US, wiping out billions of the cherished trees. Now, 120 years later, there is fresh hope of a comeback for chestnuts, spurred not only by scientists but also eager New Yorkers planting blight-proof seeds in their back yards and local parks. The American chestnut was once found in vast numbers from Maine to Mississippi and known as the redwood of the east due to its prodigious size. But 4bn trees were killed off in the first half of last century by a blight introduced from Asia to which it had little defense, spread by spores carried by the wind, rain and animals. Continue reading...

Environment minister Murray Watt says the government’s thumping federal election win created a ‘very clear mandate’ to establish the EPA 2.0 and fix the nature laws Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here The latest attempt to rewrite federal environmental protection laws won’t be “credible” unless it forces decision-makers to consider climate change when assessing projects, advocates have warned, as consultation on the changes begins. Select environment groups, miners, business and farming chiefs joined the new environment minister, Murray Watt, for a roundtable in Canberra on Thursday. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter Continue reading...