Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Climate action is something the vast majority of Britons agree on. But even the Greens are blocking the vital infrastructure we need to electrify Britain Katie White is the Labour MP for Leeds North West and minister for climate in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero Strip away the politics, and the climate crisis debate isn’t complicated. We’re changing the planet in ways that are “damaging and dangerous”, and every country will be affected. “No one can opt out.” Those quotes might sound as if they came from a leftwing Scandinavian leader, but they are, in fact, from Margaret Thatcher. Speaking to the UN general assembly in 1989, Britain’s then prime minister tore into world leaders and warned that there was “no good squabbling over who is responsible or who should pay”. Katie White is the Labour MP for Leeds North West and a minister for climate in the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

In the UK capital, Bomb Crater Pond is full of wildlife, while scientists studying land obliterated by recent Russian blasts 1,500 miles away have seen ‘how quickly nature begins to heal itself’ In February 1945, towards the end of the second world war, a German V2 rocket struck Walthamstow Marshes in east London. The explosion tore a crater into the marshland. Left untouched, it slowly filled with water, sediment … and life. Today, this wartime scar has become a thriving pond. “It’s small but it really punches above its weight,” says Luke Boyle, a ranger for the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, as he kneels at the edge to examine aquatic plants sprouting their early spring shoots. “We can’t manage the hydrology here, so it is actually a vital part of the ecosystem – it supports a range of plants, insects and amphibians, more than you might expect,” he says. Continue reading...

Wastewater from nearly 40,000 people and businesses pumped straight into sea as territory still has no treatment plant Raw sewage from nearly 40,000 people and businesses is being pumped straight into the sea because the British overseas territory of Gibraltar does not have, and has never had, a wastewater treatment plant. For decades, untreated sewage has poured into the Mediterranean from the southern tip of the peninsula at Europa Point, where the government of Gibraltar says there are “high levels of natural dispersion”. Continue reading...

Group that worked with AOC and Bernie Sanders seeks to counter claim that climate policy is politically toxic Americans do not care about the climate crisis, only economic issues: that’s the message some wonks have put forth in the past year, as the Trump administration has dismantled environmental protections. But the shift away from climate is misguided, an influential group of progressives is arguing. “The climate crisis is a core driver of the cost-of-living crisis and instability we see across the economy,” says a new policy platform from left-leaning thinktank Climate and Community Institute (CCI). Continue reading...