Breaking Waves: Ocean News

06/15/2025 - 05:00
Miccosukee Tribe partners with Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation to safeguard lands as part of ‘moral obligation’ Almost two centuries ago, Native American tribe members sought the protection of Florida’s Everglades during the Seminole wars as they hid from government forces seeking to banish them to Indian territories that later became Oklahoma. Now, as the Trump administration continues its wholesale slashing of federal funding from conservation projects, the Miccosukee Tribe is stepping up to fulfill what it sees as a “moral obligation” to return the favor. Continue reading...
06/15/2025 - 01:06
Underground fungi may be one of Earth s most powerful and overlooked allies in the fight against climate change, yet most of them remain unknown to science. Known only by DNA, these "dark taxa" make up a shocking 83% of ectomycorrhizal species fungi that help forests store carbon and thrive. Their hotspots lie in tropical forests and other underfunded regions. Without names, they re invisible to conservation efforts. But scientists are urging more DNA sequencing and global collaboration to bring these critical organisms into the light before their habitats, or the fungi themselves, disappear forever.
06/15/2025 - 01:00
Bord na Móna, which was once a peat extraction company, has now committed to one of the largest peatland restoration projects ever undertaken, targeting 33,000 hectares in over 80 bogs with the hope of reducing carbon emissions and increasing biodiversity. But many households still continue to cut turf, relying on it for heating as have previous generations Continue reading...
06/15/2025 - 01:00
Richard Tice says voters will turn on government unless energy bills fall A useful enemy? Why Tories and Reform are calling net zero policy into question Labour will back down on its policies aimed at achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions, the deputy leader of the Reform has predicted. Richard Tice, the energy spokesperson for Reform and MP for Boston and Skegness, told the Guardian his party would withdraw from the 2015 Paris agreement that tries to limit global heating to 1.5C. Continue reading...
06/14/2025 - 23:07
Nonbinding vote at state conference sends strong signal to state and federal Nationals leaders Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The New South Wales Nationals have voted to abandon Australia’s commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 at the party’s weekend state conference in Coffs Harbour, increasing pressure on the federal Nationals leader, David Littleproud, to follow suit. Attendees at the conference said the motion, moved by the Tweed state electorate council, passed easily with 60 to 65% support, after vigorous debate for nearly an hour among the 300-odd delegates. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...
06/14/2025 - 15:00
Among the dead in the internationally significant wetland are estuarine snails, shore crabs, baby flounder and ‘a thick stew of polychaete worms’ Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast When South Australia’s algal bloom arrived in the Coorong, it stained the water like strong tea before turning it into a slurry of dead worms. Many had hoped the storm in late May would break up the bloom of Karenia mikimotoi algae, which has killed more than 200 different marine species. Instead, high tides swept the algae into the Coorong, an internationally significant Ramsar wetland at the mouth of the Murray River. Continue reading...
06/14/2025 - 11:19
A University of Queensland-led project has developed a tool to standardise genetic testing of koala populations, providing a significant boost to conservation and recovery efforts.
06/14/2025 - 11:19
Ten thousand years after mastodons disappeared, scientists have unearthed powerful fossil evidence proving these elephant cousins were vital seed spreaders for large-fruited trees in South America. Using dental wear, isotope analysis, and fossilized plant residue, researchers confirmed that mastodons regularly consumed fruit supporting a decades-old theory that many tropical plants evolved alongside giant animals. The extinction of these megafauna left a permanent ecological void, with some plants now teetering on the edge of extinction. Their story isn t just prehistoric it s a warning for today s conservation efforts.
06/14/2025 - 01:00
A slew of global leaders met in the south of France to discuss the future of the oceans. There was ‘momentum’ and ‘enthusiasm’, but there were critical voices too The sea, the great unifier, is man’s only hope … and we are all in the same boat.” So said Jacques Cousteau, the French explorer, oceanographer and pioneering film-maker, who notably pivoted from merely sharing his underwater world to sounding the alarm over its destruction. Half a century later, David Attenborough, a year shy of his 100th birthday, followed Cousteau’s trajectory. In the naturalist’s acclaimed new film, Ocean, which highlights the destructive fishing practice of bottom trawling, he says he has come to the realisation that the “most important place on Earth is not on land but at sea”. Continue reading...