Environmental disasters have plagued the water body for decades. Now the region is thrust in the global spotlight
The enormous semi-enclosed bay, its waters flanked by the Florida and Yucatán peninsulas and partially blockaded by Cuba, has been called the Golfo de México for centuries, a name that first appeared on a world map in 1550. And for centuries the name bothered no one.
Thomas Jefferson used the name without shame, even as he, Donald Trump-like, imagined dominating nearby nations. If the US could take Cuba, Jefferson wrote in 1823, it would control the “Gulf of Mexico and the countries and isthmus bordering on it”. Country music stars, no less than founding fathers, liked the romance of the place. Tracy Lawrence dreams of a Gulf of Mexico filled with whiskey. Johnny Cash wanted to dump his blues down in the Gulf.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
02/03/2025 - 11:21
02/03/2025 - 11:06
Crevasses increasing in size and depth in response to climate breakdown, Durham University researchers find
The Greenland ice sheet – the second largest body of ice in the world – is cracking more rapidly than ever before as a response to climate breakdown, a study has found.
Researchers used 8,000 three-dimensional surface maps from high-resolution commercial satellite imagery to assess the evolution of cracks in the surface of the ice sheet between 2016 and 2021.
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02/03/2025 - 11:00
Research looking at tissue from postmortems between 1997 and 2024 finds upward trend in contamination
The exponential rise in microplastic pollution over the past 50 years may be reflected in increasing contamination in human brains, according to a new study.
It found a rising trend in micro- and nanoplastics in brain tissue from dozens of postmortems carried out between 1997 and 2024. The researchers also found the tiny particles in liver and kidney samples.
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02/03/2025 - 10:00
US government would be prohibited from ever mandating lead pipe replacement or lowering lead limits in water
Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration are attempting to repeal the Biden administration’s groundbreaking rules that require all the country’s lead pipes to be replaced over the next 13 years and lower the limit on lead in water.
Environmentalists expressed alarm about the moves, which, if successful, would in effect prohibit the government from ever requiring lead line replacement in the future, or lowering lead limits.
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02/03/2025 - 09:00
Manatees don’t have incisors or canines, only ‘cheek teeth’. No hair, only whiskers. Algae growing on their backs. Everything is gentle
A manatee looks like every animal I have ever tried to make with play-dough: roll a big piece into a sausage, flatten a bit on either side with your forefingers, and a bit at the end with your thumb. Hey presto. A manatee also happens to be the grey of all Play-Dough colours mixed together.
Imagine eating lettuce underwater: the crunch, the squelch. Reading about manatees, I finally give in and look up what the word “prehensile” actually means, as in a giraffe’s prehensile tongue, a monkey’s prehensile tail, a manatee’s prehensile lips. What could these things have in common, you wonder, for 25 years. Then it is time to find out.
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02/03/2025 - 09:00
Opposition leader claims a 44% cost reduction compared with Labor’s plan would be passed onto Australian household bills, but not everyone agrees
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Energy experts have rubbished claims by Peter Dutton that his plan to slow the rollout of renewable energy while waiting more than a decade for taxpayer-funded nuclear plants could bring down electricity bills in the short term.
Dutton said if there was “a 44% reduction in the model of delivering an energy system, you would expect a 44% reduction, or of that order, being passed through in energy bill relief”.
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02/03/2025 - 08:09
They can be joyful and important social spaces, but a new generation of customers runs a mile from the shelves of plastic and chemicals
When I first heard that garden centres are facing a wave of closures, I immediately thought of the one around the corner from where I live. On a recent Wednesday afternoon, the car park was full and the cafe was bustling with people my parents’ age and older, chatting over milky coffees and slices of cake. The retired ladies who talk to me in the gym changing room love to come here for a jacket potato after their aquafit class.
Yet, as I stepped through the automatic doors, the plants weren’t immediately visible. First, I had to pass a bright deli counter, an area filled with homeware and crockery, shelves of fragrant toiletries, and a section of children’s toys before anything remotely connected to gardening came into view. I waded through gloves, power tools, pesticides and outdoor furniture, and then, finally, I found the annual bedding plants and potted shrubs. Here, all was quiet. The gardening section was quite unlike the busy cafe; I was alone but for one member of staff.
Claire Ratinon is an organic food grower and writer
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02/03/2025 - 07:00
The peer-reviewed study detected microplastics in 180 of 182 samples comprising five types of fish and pink shrimp
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Microplastics contamination is widespread in seafood sampled in a recent study, adding to growing evidence of the dangerous substances’ ubiquity in the nation’s food system, and a growing threat to human health.
The peer-reviewed study detected microplastics in 99%, or 180 out of 182, samples of seafood either bought at the store or from a fishing boat in Oregon. The highest levels were found in shrimp.
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02/03/2025 - 06:00
Critics say Trump is using every presidential power possible against clean power in sharp turn after Biden investments created jobs
For several years, Republicans accused Joe Biden of waging a “war on energy” even as the Untied States drilled more oil and gas than at any time in its history. Now, a more tangible assault is gathering pace under Donald Trump – aimed squarely at wind, solar and other cleaner forms of power.
In the first two weeks of his return as president, Trump has, like his first term, issued orders to open up more American land and waters for fossil fuel extraction and started the process to yank the US from the Paris climate agreement. “We will drill, baby drill,” said Trump, who has promised to cut energy and electricity prices in half within 18 months.
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02/03/2025 - 05:00
The cacophony around me seemed to drown out my daily worries until a writing retreat showed me there was a better way
I’ve lived in South Korea for more than a decade, but it’s only recently that I discovered just how loud it is here. The bing-bong when someone presses the “stop” button on the city bus, and the accompanying sing-songy announcements in Korean, the beeps of riders scanning their transit cards to board or depart; soju-drunk office workers loudly singing off-tune through neighbourhood alleyways; obnoxiously loud K-pop music blaring out of storefronts; and songs that seem to change key at record rates as delivery motorbikes speed out of range.
In reality, I have relied on there being near-constant cacophony around me for the whole of my adult life. Without realising it, background noise became a kind of comfort to me, making me feel less alone. It started after university when I was barely scraping together a living, working jobs I didn’t want to be doing. I would soothe my loneliness and isolation in the evenings by playing endless hours of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit just for the ambient sound – the comfort of Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler bringing criminals of the worst kind to justice.
Krissi Driver is a writer based in South Korea
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