Breaking Waves: Ocean News

East Anglian farms breach environment regulations 700 times in seven years

admin — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 06:00:31 +0000

Freedom of information data reveals violations on intensive poultry and pig farms

Industrial-scale livestock farms across East Anglia have breached environmental regulations more than 700 times in the past seven years, freedom of information (FoI) data has revealed.

The farms across Norfolk and Suffolk are among the largest in the country. Pig and poultry farming is concentrated in the region and 28% of England’s pig population was farmed in the area in 2023.

It seems the end of everything is upon us. Is no one coming to our rescue. How about … the molluscs?! | First Dog on the Moon

admin — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 05:33:24 +0000

Did you know molluscs protect the citizens of Poland from water pollution? It’s true!

Doge staffers enter Noaa headquarters and incite reports of cuts and threats

admin — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 01:11:36 +0000

Members reportedly sought access to IT systems at agency that Project 2025 has called ‘harmful to US prosperity’

Staffers with Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) reportedly entered the headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) in Silver Spring, Maryland, and the Department of Commerce in Washington DC today, inciting concerns of downsizing at the agency.

Minister promises to spend £250m to top up England’s flood defences

admin — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 22:30:20 +0000

Labour pledges to protect 66,500 more properties, criticising previous Tory efforts

Ministers are topping up flood defence investment in England to a “record” £2.65bn, after accusing the previous government of “putting lives at risk” by under-spending.

An extra £250m is being pledged on top of the £2.4bn previously announced, to shore up defences and protect an extra 66,500 properties from flooding over a two-year period, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.

Labour facing defeat in vote to ban green energy investments tied to Uyghur exploitation

admin — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 18:32:30 +0000

Exclusive: cross-party backing likely for amendment to GB Energy bill aiming to block solar panels made by forced labour

The government is facing defeat next week over a move to guarantee that companies using forced labour do not drive the UK’s green energy transition.

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have thrown their weight behind an amendment by the cross-bench peer David Alton to the Great British Energy bill, which is making its way through the House of Lords.

New study assesses impact of agricultural research investments on biodiversity, land use

admin — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 18:18:59 +0000

New, groundbreaking research shows how, at a local scale, agricultural research and development led to improved crop varieties that resulted in global benefits to the environment and food system sustainability.

Climate change target of 2C is ‘dead’, says renowned climate scientist

admin — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 17:31:22 +0000

Prof James Hansen says pace of global heating has been significantly underestimated, though other scientists disagree

The pace of global heating has been significantly underestimated, according to renowned climate scientist Prof James Hansen, who said the international 2C target is “dead”.

A new analysis by Hansen and colleagues concludes that both the impact of recent cuts in sun-blocking shipping pollution, which has raised temperatures, and the sensitivity of the climate to increasing fossil fuels emissions are greater than thought.

Ed Miliband emerges from his bunker to bask in Labour backbench love | John Crace

admin — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 17:19:12 +0000

Deprived of Rachel Reeves’s affections, the energy secretary revelled in playing climate crisis hero to her villain

He lives!

They seek him here! They seek him there! For the last 10 days or so, Ed Miliband has been the Invisible Man. A large number of the cabinet were in Oxfordshire for Rachel Reeves’s growth speech last Wednesday. Ed was not.

Temperatures at north pole 20C above average and beyond ice melting point

admin — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 16:39:31 +0000

Scientists say unusually mild temperatures linked to low-pressure system over Iceland directing strong flow of warm air towards north pole

Temperatures at the north pole soared more than 20C above average on Sunday, crossing the threshold for ice to melt.

Temperatures north of Svalbard in Norway had already risen to 18C hotter than the 1991–2020 average on Saturday, according to models from weather agencies in Europe and the US, with actual temperatures close to ice’s melting point of 0C. By Sunday, the temperature anomaly had risen to more than 20C.

Monarch butterfly numbers plummet in US west coast winter habitats

admin — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 15:09:34 +0000

Just 9,119 were counted in 2024 – down 96% on previous year and second-lowest mark in nearly three decades

The number of monarch butterflies spending the winter in the western United States has dropped to its second-lowest mark in nearly three decades as pesticides, diminishing habitat and the climate crisis take their toll on the beloved pollinator.