Breaking Waves: Ocean News

A year after the Eaton fire, residents returning to Altadena confront lingering contamination and little official clarity One year on from the Eaton fire, long after the vicious winds that sent embers cascading from the San Gabriel mountains and the flames that swallowed entire streets, a shadow still hangs over Altadena. Construction on new properties is under way, and families whose homes survived the fire have begun to return. But many are grappling with an urgent question: is it safe to be here? Continue reading...

When rain falls on snow it creates a layer of ice that impedes feeding, which in turn has reduced herds’ birthrates Reindeer survive typically harsh Arctic winters by using their specially adapted hooves to scrape through the snow to nibble on the lichen and moss below. But paradoxically a warming climate is making it harder for them to reach this food, and research shows it has led to a drop in reindeer birthrates. When rain falls on snow, the snow melts and refreezes, creating layers of ice that make it more difficult for reindeer to scrape through to the fodder below. Climate records going back to 1960 show that warmer winters have resulted in more rain-on-snow events in Arctic regions. By comparing the weather data with reindeer herd birth statistics from Norway and Finland, researchers have shown that birth rates tend to drop in summers that follow winters with lots of rain-on-snow events. Continue reading...

Problem at water treatment centre left 24,000 Tunbridge Wells homes without drinking water for two weeks A failure at a water treatment centre that left tens of thousands of Kent households without water was foreseen weeks before it happened and could have been stopped, the regulator has said. Twenty-four thousand homes in the Tunbridge Wells area were without drinking water for two weeks from 30 November last year due to a failure at the Pembury water treatment centre. Continue reading...

Reflecting a small fraction of incoming sunlight to reduce global heating is not a new idea. It is time to safely experiment The world is warming fast – and our options to avoid catastrophic harm are narrowing. 2024 was the first full year more than 1.5C hotter than the 19th-century average. Emissions are still rising, with fossil fuel use expected to hit a new high in 2025. Permanent carbon removal technologies – often cited as a fix – are removing just tens of thousands of tonnes annually, almost nothing relative to the 5-10bn tonnes needed. Cutting emissions and scaling carbon removal remain essential. But they may not be enough. As suffering grows and ecosystems unravel, more people will ask: is there anything we can do to prevent these harms? The idea of reflecting a small fraction of incoming sunlight to reduce warming is not a new idea. In 1965, Lyndon B Johnson’s science advisers proposed it as the only way to cool the planet. Earth already reflects about 30% of incoming sunlight; raising that fraction slightly – say, to 31% – could strengthen the planet’s natural heat shield. But how? Continue reading...