Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Group says case far from over after being found liable for defamation and other claims brought by energy firm A North Dakota judge has said he will order Greenpeace to pay damages expected to total $345m in connection with protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline from nearly a decade ago, a figure the environmental group contends it cannot pay. In court papers filed Tuesday, Judge James Gion said he would sign an order requiring several Greenpeace entities to pay the judgment to pipeline company Energy Transfer. He set that amount at $345m last year in a decision that reduced a jury’s damages by about half, but his latest filing did not specify a final amount. Continue reading...

Record rainfall in famously arid California park has caused a wildflower eruption nearing levels of a superbloom Death Valley and parts of southern California have erupted in wildflowers thanks to record rain that helped deliver spectacular blooms. In the famously arid national park, the rare display has covered miles of the landscape in vibrant shades of yellow and purple. Continue reading...

Fines for illegal dumping decreased over past year with only 0.2% of incidents resulting in court action Fly-tipping incidents across England have reached the highest level since current records began, with most offences continuing to involve household waste. In 2024-25, 1.26m fly-tipping incidents were recorded by local authorities, an increase of 9% on the 1.15m reported in the year before, according to data released by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Advocates often assume communities of color just don’t know any better when it comes to eating healthy I met the man I’ll call Randy Johnson 13 years ago, as I began research in South Central Los Angeles. I’m an anthropologist who explores how people think about food and use food in their everyday lives. As executive director of a large food justice organization focused on K-12 education throughout the city, Randy was a key source. He talked to me about South Central’s status as a food desert, where its majority Latinx and Black residents had little access to groceries or healthy food. A middle-aged white man, Randy told me of his work in South Central, which centered around encouraging school-age children to eat more fresh vegetables. He described South Central as a wasteland of sorts. “There is just nothing there,” he said, pointing to the common but false idea that there were no grocery stores there. He then pivoted to talking about the residents. “I see them having almost zero education when it comes to [making healthy eating choices]. They don’t know that what they’re eating is destroying them slowly. It’s just that we, as a society, have failed our citizens to educate them that they shouldn’t be buying the fries every day.” Hanna Garth is assistant professor of anthropology at Princeton University Continue reading...