Research comparing Adirondack mountain lakes in New York suggests foot traffic is significant source of pollution
Hiking shoes and outdoor gear are likely a significant source of microplastic pollution in the wilderness, new research that checked for the pernicious material in several Adirondack mountain lakes in upstate New York suggests.
Researchers measured microplastic levels in two lakes that are the among highest sources of water for the Hudson River – one that sees heavy foot traffic from hikers, and another lake that is far away from a path and rarely touched by human activity.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
10/13/2025 - 07:00
10/13/2025 - 05:17
Lord Stern says fossil-fuelled growth is futile as the damage it causes ends in economic self-destruction
Investment in climate action is the economic growth story of the 21st century, while growth fuelled by fossil fuels is futile because the damage it causes ends in self-destruction, the economist Nicholas Stern has said.
The plummeting costs of clean technologies, from renewable energy to electric cars, plus the healthier and more productive societies they enable, meant investments could simultaneously tackle the climate crisis and faltering economic growth, and bring millions of people out of poverty, he said.
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10/13/2025 - 04:00
Scientists have examined the $16.5bn project’s climate impact and found it could expose more than half a million people to unprecedented heat
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Greenhouse emissions linked to a gas field being developed by Australian fossil fuel company Woodside could lead to the death of at least 480 people and expose more than half a million to unprecedented heat, new research suggests.
Scientists from six universities have examined the climate impact of the $16.5bn Scarborough project, which is expected to start production off the northern Western Australian coast next year and could result in 876m tonnes of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere over three decades.
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10/13/2025 - 00:02
Birdwatching: everyone's doing it (we think)! But how exactly do you start? Is it really the cure-all to gen Z and millennial woes? BirdLife's Sean Dooley and comedian Geraldine Hickey show Guardian Australia's Matilda Boseley the ins and outs of birdwatching - just in time for the 2025 bird of the year
Which Australian birds are the peoples' choice? Matilda Boseley finds out - video
Going extinct ‘right under our noses’: the quiet plight of Australia’s rarest bird of prey
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10/12/2025 - 23:04
Farmers praised the move, but scientists and opposition parties criticised it as ‘weak’ and ‘unambitious’
Environmental campaigners have accused New Zealand’s government of “full-blown climate denial” after it slashed targets for reducing emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.
New Zealand’s right-leaning coalition government outlined plans on Sunday to reduce methane emissions by between 14 and 24% by 2050, compared to 2017 levels.
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10/12/2025 - 23:00
The volcanic island of Surtsey emerged in the 1960s, and scientists say studying its development offers hope for damaged ecosystems worldwide
The crew of the Ísleifur II had just finished casting their nets off the coast of southern Iceland when they realised something was wrong. In the early morning gloom in November 1963, a dark mass filled the sky over the Atlantic Ocean. They rushed to the radio, thinking that another fishing vessel was burning at sea, but no boats in the area were in distress.
Then, their trawler began to drift unexpectedly, unnerving the crew further. The cook scrambled to wake the captain, thinking they were being pulled into a whirlpool. Finally, through binoculars, they spotted columns of ash bursting from the water and realised what was going on: a volcano was erupting in the ocean below.
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10/12/2025 - 23:00
Europe and Brazil have a rare opportunity, unimpeded by the US, to make a success of Cop30 – and reshape the world order
The climate crisis, Donald Trump told the UN last month, is “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world”. With these words the US president rejected the international scientific consensus and evidence that we can all check daily with a basic thermometer. He has also announced he is withdrawing the US from the Paris climate agreement, signed in 2015 by 195 UN countries. The US joins an axis of deniers including Yemen, Iran and Libya, countries that signed the agreement but never ratified it.
Paradoxically, Trump’s reversal provides an opportunity for others to advance the climate agenda: to sketch out the blueprint of a possible new world order without the US, even if Washington was the architect of the old one.
Francesco Grillo is a visiting fellow at the European University Institute, Florence, and director of the thinktank Vision
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10/12/2025 - 23:00
People urged to savour sights, sounds and smells of the season as poll shows a disconnect during darker months
There may be a bite in the wind and the nights are certainly drawing in but a conservation charity and a television wildlife champion have launched a campaign aimed at getting more people connecting with nature in the autumn and winter months.
The National Trust is launching a “Wild Senses” campaign on the back of the new BBC series Hamza’s Hidden Wild Isles in which the wildlife expert and camera operator Hamza Yassin celebrates the UK’s seasons and encourages viewers to notice, appreciate and reconnect to wildlife everywhere.
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10/12/2025 - 18:01
A 2% blend of low-carbon gas injected into gas grid to fuel Brigg power station in North Lincolnshire is a UK first
Energy companies have injected green hydrogen into Britain’s gas grid and used the low-carbon gas to generate electricity, in a landmark development for the UK’s climate ambitions.
For the first time in the UK, a 2% blend of green hydrogen was injected into the gas grid and blended with traditional gas to fuel the Brigg power station in North Lincolnshire which generated electricity for the power system.
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10/12/2025 - 18:00
Unless global heating is reduced to 1.2C ‘as fast as possible’, warm water coral reefs will not remain ‘at any meaningful scale’, a report by 160 scientists from 23 countries warns
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The earth has reached its first catastrophic tipping point linked to greenhouse gas emissions, with warm water coral reefs now facing a long-term decline and risking the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people, according to a new report.
The report from scientists and conservationists warns the world is also “on the brink” of reaching other tipping points, including the dieback of the Amazon, the collapse of major ocean currents and the loss of ice sheets.
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