Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Revealed: how a San Francisco navy lab became a hub for human radiation experiments

admin — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 19:00:02 +0000

Operations at a cold war lab exposed at least 1,073 people to radiation. Risks to the nearby communities persist

Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point is a special report by the San Francisco Public Press, an independent non-profit news organization focused on accountability, equity and the environment.

In September 1956, Cpl Eldridge Jones found himself atop a sunbaked roof at an old army camp about an hour outside San Francisco, shoveling radioactive dirt.

Inheritance tax on farms should be delayed to avoid unfairness, says thinktank

admin — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 17:49:07 +0000

IFS suggests gifts of land before a certain date could be tax-free so that elderly farmers would not be caught out

Ministers should give farmers an inheritance tax holiday for the next few years, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said as it warned that government changes to agricultural taxes risked treating some landowners unfairly.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, announced in her budget last month that farmers with a business worth more than £1m could be subjected to 20% inheritance tax, prompting a tractor protest outside parliament.

Cop29 deal fails to consider inflation so is not tripling of target, economists say

admin — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 17:22:19 +0000

Experts say financial movements mean poor nations will in effect get billions less in value from £300bn pledge

A failure to factor in inflation means the $300bn (£240bn) climate finance deal agreed at Cop29 is not the tripling of pledges that has been claimed, economists have said.

Here’s what I learned at Cop29. Rows aside, an unstoppable transition to clean energy is happening | Ed Miliband

admin — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 16:31:19 +0000

Britain wanted much better outcomes on many issues, but seeing the ambition at the conference gives me hope for the future

The climate crisis is all around us. And the world is not moving nearly fast enough. In that context, the Cop process for climate negotiations feels frustratingly slow. Yet it is the best mechanism for multilateral action we have, so we have to use it to do everything we can to speed up action.

I'm glad we got a deal at Cop29 – but western nations stood in the way of a much better one | Mukhtar Babayev

admin — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 14:00:47 +0000

My negotiating team tried in vain to push up support for the global south. Lessons must be learned before the next summit in Brazil

PFAS and microplastics become more toxic when combined, research shows

admin — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 14:00:46 +0000

Study detects synergistic effect making substances more dangerous, raising alarm since humans are exposed to both

Few human-made substances are as individually ubiquitous and dangerous as PFAS and microplastics, and when they join forces there is a synergistic effect that makes them even more toxic and pernicious, new research suggests.

UK will seek global coalition for climate action, says Ed Miliband as Cop29 ends

admin — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 14:00:45 +0000

UK energy secretary played key role in $300bn deal for developing countries, branded a ‘betrayal’ by critics

Mukhtar Babayev: I’m glad we got a deal at Cop29

The UK will seek a global coalition to push for climate action after a fractious end to UN climate talks in Azerbaijan, the UK energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has pledged.

‘I feel guilty and angry’: the captain turned campaigner trying to keep cruise ships at bay

admin — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 12:00:39 +0000

After spending most of his life on commercial vessels, Guillaume Picard is now fighting to keep these vast liners out of the French port of Marseille

Drugs, hormones and excrement: the polluting pig mega-farms supplying pork to the world

admin — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 11:00:39 +0000

Mexico is a leading international pork producer, but Yucatán residents say the waste oozing from hundreds of enormous hog farms is destroying the environment

The stink of excrement was the first thing the residents of Sitilpech noticed when the farm opened in 2017. It hung over the colourful one-storey homes and kitchen gardens in the Maya town in Yucatán, and has never left. Next, the trees stopped bearing fruit, their leaves instead covered with black spots. Then, the water from the vast, porous aquifer emerged from the well with a horrible, overwhelming stench.

Largest great white shark ever caught in Queensland control program was pregnant with four pups

admin — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 08:54:16 +0000

Female almost the length of a shipping container was found dead on a drumline in August, primary industries department has revealed

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The largest great white shark ever caught in Queensland’s shark control program died while pregnant with four pups, the primary industries department has revealed.