Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Labour has left farmers facing agriculture budget ‘cliff edge’, says NFU

admin — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 15:29:49 +0000

Union says members being ‘kept up at night’ over failure to commit to continue payments at current rate

Farmers are facing a “cliff edge” as the Labour government refuses to commit to maintaining the agriculture budget, the president of the National Farmers’ Union has said.

Colombia gives assurances over UN biodiversity summit after rebels’ threat

admin — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 14:55:58 +0000

Organisers working to ensure safe environment for attenders in October after guerrillas’ warning of disruption

Colombian authorities have insisted it will be safe to attend a UN biodiversity summit in Cali later this year, after a dissident rebel group threatened to disrupt the event.

This week Central General Staff (EMC), a guerrilla faction that rejected the country’s 2016 peace agreement, said the UN nature summit Cop16 would “fail”, in a post on X addressed to the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro.

Five Just Stop Oil activists receive record sentences for planning to block M25

admin — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 14:37:32 +0000

Campaigners receive longest ever sentences for non-violent protest after being convicted of conspiracy to cause public nuisance

Five supporters of the Just Stop Oil climate campaign who conspired to cause gridlock on London’s orbital motorway have been sentenced to lengthy jail terms.

US oil company ran 1977 article predicting climate crisis could cause starvation

admin — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 12:00:34 +0000

Marathon Petroleum predecessor warned of potential for ‘social and economic calamities’ in decades-old publication

The corporate predecessor to America’s largest refiner of oil, Marathon Petroleum, explained in a company periodical nearly 50 years ago that global temperature rise potentially linked to “industrial expansion” could one day cause “widespread starvation and other social and economic calamities”.

What links Lady Gaga, Obama and Hitler? How famous people can give new species a bad name

admin — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 11:00:33 +0000

Some scientists want to stop naming new species after public figures, especially as it can threaten an animal’s survival, but others say it can be a helpful conservation tool

When Lady Gaga held a Q&A on Reddit for a 2014 album release, there was one question that took the botany world by storm: what’s it like to have a genus of ferns named after you? “Pretty cool,” she responded, “especially since it’s an asexual fern.”

How to solve a mass stranding: what caused 77 healthy whales to die on a Scottish beach?

admin — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 06:00:26 +0000

A team of scientists are trying to find the cause of what is becoming an increasingly common event – and the answer may be hidden deep in the whales’ skulls

A mass stranding last week that led to the deaths of 77 pilot whales on the Orkney island of Sanday was the largest ever recorded of the species on British shores. Initially, 12 of the animals at Tresness beach were still alive – but sadly did not survive.

‘People think they’ll smell but they don’t’: building homes from mushroom waste and weeds

admin — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 05:00:26 +0000

A sustainable project aims to repurpose encroacher bush to create building blocks to solve Namibia’s housing crisis

“People think the house would smell because the blocks are made of all-natural products, but it doesn’t smell,” says Kristine Haukongo. “Sometimes, there is a small touch of wood, but otherwise it’s completely odourless.”

New Zealand will fail to meet 2050 net zero targets, data shows, after climate policies scrapped

admin — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 05:00:20 +0000

Scientists say government’s approach to emissions cutting is ‘high risk’ and reliant on ‘immature technologies’

New Zealand’s ambitious plan to reach net zero emissions by 2050 is at risk of being derailed, as the government backslides on climate policies, new figures show.

Renewables caught in misinformation crossfire from Australia’s nuclear cheerleaders | Graham Readfearn

admin — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 00:00:19 +0000

Those pushing the nuclear option are making some questionable claims about the capacity of renewable energy

The most endangered fish are the least studied

admin — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 20:24:02 +0000

The most threatened reef fishes are also the most overlooked by scientists and the general public. Scientists measured the level of human interest in 2,408 species of marine reef fish and found that the attention of the scientific community is attracted by the commercial value more than the ecological value of the fishes. The public, on the other hand, is primarily influenced by the aesthetic characteristics of certain species, such as the red lionfish (Pterois volitans) and the mandarinfish (Synchiropus splendidus).