Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Sheldon Whitehouse adds auto giant to investigation after US president claimed CEO requests changes to regulations As the Trump administration prepares to overturn the rule underpinning virtually all US climate regulations, a Senate committee is investigating whether the US’s second-largest automaker lobbied for the rollback. In September, the Senate environment and public works committee launched investigations into two dozen oil companies, thinktanks, law firms and trade associations, focused on how the companies may have persuaded the White House to initiate the repeal of the 2009 endangerment finding. Now, the committee, chaired by the Rhode Island senator Sheldon Whitehouse, is expanding the investigation to include Ford Motor Company. Continue reading...

Cash, gold, mercury and firearms seized in operations in Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname Police and prosecutors from Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname have arrested nearly 200 people in their first joint cross-border operation targeting illegal gold mining in the Amazon region, authorities said. The operation was backed by Interpol, the EU and Dutch police specialising in environmental crime. It involved more than 24,500 checks on vehicles and people across remote border areas and led to the seizure of cash, unprocessed gold, mercury, firearms, drugs and mining equipment, Interpol said. Continue reading...

Extreme heat ‘is getting worse and whether we like it or not … there’s ultimately a limit to what we can actually physically cope with,’ scientist says Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Human-caused global heating made the intense heatwave that affected much of Australia in early January five times more likely, new analysis suggests. The heatwave earlier this month was the most severe since the 2019-20 black summer, with temperatures over 40C in Melbourne and Sydney, even hotter conditions in regional Victoria and New South Wales, and extreme heat also affecting Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania. Continue reading...

Described by one researcher as looking ‘already dead’, the enigmatic creatures are one of the least understood species on the planet It looks more like a worn sock than a fearsome predator. It moves slower than an escalator. By most accounts, it is a clumsy and near-sightless relic drifting in the twilight waters of the Arctic, lazily searching for food scraps. The Greenland shark, an animal one researcher (lovingly) said, “looks like it’s already dead”, is also one of the least understood, biologically enigmatic species on the planet. Continue reading...