Feeding birds from flat surfaces such as tables could be contributing to spread of finch trichomonosis, says charity
The RSPB has withdrawn flat bird feeders from sale on its website amid warnings they could be spreading deadly diseases to finches.
The charity has said feeding birds from flat surfaces such as tables could be contributing to the spread of illnesses such as finch trichomonosis, which has been blamed for the plummeting greenfinch population.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
01/08/2025 - 09:00
Exclusive: England and Wales proposals expected to follow Scottish consultation amid fears British farmers are being undercut
Ministers may lift a ban introduced during the BSE crisis on the use of animal remains in feed for farmed chickens and pigs over fears that foreign producers are undercutting British farmers.
A consultation on permitting the use of processed animal protein (PAP) from poultry, pigs and insects has opened in Scotland, and it is understood that proposals will be made for England and Wales in the coming months.
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01/08/2025 - 08:41
Lawsuit challenges the federal government’s December 2024 decision to add restrictions to offer of drilling leases
The US state of Alaska has sued the Biden administration for what it calls violations of a congressional directive to allow oil and gas development in a portion of the federal Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
The federal lawsuit in the US district court in Alaska filed on Monday challenges the federal government’s December 2024 decision to add restrictions to an offer of oil and gas drilling leases in an area known as the coastal plain.
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01/08/2025 - 07:17
Bulk of funds for electric vehicle firm relate to government’s plug-in car grant, analysis finds
Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company has received almost £200m in grants from the UK government since 2016, according to analysis.
Tesla, which is run by the tech billionaire who has become increasingly vocal about the UK government, has received £191m from Westminster through grants, according to Tussell, which analyses public contract data.
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01/08/2025 - 07:00
Exodus from target-setting group is attempt to head off ‘anti-woke’ attacks from rightwing politicians, say analysts
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The six biggest banks in the US have all quit the global banking industry’s net zero target-setting group, with the imminent inauguration of Donald Trump as president expected to bring political backlash against climate action.
JP Morgan is the latest to withdraw from the UN-sponsored net zero banking alliance (NZBA), following Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs. All six have left since the start of December.
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01/08/2025 - 06:02
Marauding gangs and political unrest since October’s polls have driven thousands of Mozambicans across the border into Malawi, despite its drought, food and fuel shortages
On a sunny Saturday afternoon, Manase Madia, 50, shows his Mozambican identity card. Once a sign of pride, he does not know what to believe in any more. Over the past few weeks he has seen houses being burned down, and shops and businesses looted, including his own. He now fears for his family, which has scattered in fear.
At a community ground where officials are processing new arrivals before being transferred to a shelter, Madia is one of about 13,000 people who have crossed into Malawi in the past two months, seeking refuge from post-election violence in Mozambique. The arrival of the refugees, albeit in smaller numbers, is reminiscent for people here of the civil war when almost a million Mozambicans sought refuge in the neighbouring southern African nation in the 1980s and early 1990s.
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01/08/2025 - 05:00
The tiny nation of Niue has raised £3m selling sponsorship of its marine protected area at just over £100 for a square kilometre
Niue, also known as the Rock of Polynesia, is one of the tiniest island states in the world. It takes a mere two hours to drive around it, giving views of its rugged limestone cliffs and occasional sandy coves. These coves give way to caves and chasms, once used for storage, burial sites and even as living spaces. But perhaps what visitors seek most are its crystal clear waters, home to spinner dolphins, eels, grey reef sharks, sea snakes and humpback whales.
Now the island is engaged in an innovative plan to try to conserve these vast and pristine territorial waters. The scheme, which has been running for a year, involves selling off sponsorship of the ocean surrounding the island to individuals or companies for NZ$250 (£116) a square kilometre. So far, it has raised NZ$7m, nearly halfway to its target.
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01/08/2025 - 05:00
These tiny organisms matter. They have been used to map dark matter and improve transport networks, and they’re living all around us
A few years ago, I started looking at the underside of logs and it changed my life. I found a secret carnival of the most bodacious and interesting organisms I had ever seen. Bubbles of candy-pink gloss on stilts (Comatricha nigra), bunches of rainbow iridescence on toffee strings (Badhamia utricularis), bouffants of raspberry parfait (Arcyria denudata) – and those are just a few that have appeared on bits of wood in our urban garden.
Slime moulds, or myxomycetes, spend part of their life cycle as what are known as fruiting bodies – which look a bit like tiny mushrooms, hence why they were once classified as fungi (they’re actually in the kingdom Protista). Often you will find them, at this stage, in a colony – or, well, I’d suggest galaxy, sweetshop or funfair would be more accurate for a collective noun.
Lucy Jones is the author of Matrescence, Losing Eden and The Nature Seed
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01/08/2025 - 02:32
Hadi Nazari, 23, found after going missing two weeks ago, discovered two muesli bars at a hut while lost, police say
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A 23-year-old hiker missing since Boxing Day in the remote Kosciuszko national park has been found alive.
Hadi Nazari stumbled into the path of a group of hikers at about 3.15pm on Wednesday, on the circuit walk near Blue Lake, police said.
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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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