Breaking Waves: Ocean News

A proposed federal law would wipe out existing state laws that prevent farm animal brutality and the spread of disease Many animals raised for meat in the US spend their lives in spaces barely bigger than their own bodies. Pregnant pigs are held in gestation crates so small they can only sit, stand or lie down in them. Chickens are packed into battery cages so crowded they often can’t extend their wings. And calves raised for veal are packed into crates without enough room to turn around. While these conditions are part of what makes factory-farmed meat so cheap in the US, a growing number of consumers are rejecting these brutal practices, with more than a dozen states even enacting their own laws to ban them. But a new proposal in Congress would reverse these advances in animal welfare, threatening to upend years of work – and victories – by animal rights activists, farmers and food safety advocates. Continue reading...

There is nothing Australians like more than running over living things in their car Sign up here to get an email whenever First Dog cartoons are published Get all your needs met at the First Dog shop if what you need is First Dog merchandise and prints Continue reading...

IEA says firms are announcing more projects but waiting for government support before investing The global push for clean hydrogen is being held back by rising costs and “lagging” policy support from governments, a report has found. Announcements of low-emission hydrogen projects are rapidly expanding but developers are waiting for government support before investing in them, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The report found hydrogen made through processes that are clean or less polluting account for less than 1% of the gas’s total production and use. Continue reading...

Critics decry lack of political will in Serbian capital to clean polluted air that residents say they can ‘feel and taste’ When the Yugoslav prime minister Džemal Bijedić promised to clean the country’s air at a conference in Belgrade in 1974, a reporter from the New York Times wrote that there was little hope of early relief for the city’s residents, who felt the pollution was getting worse. “The choking, sulphurous atmosphere of Belgrade and several other major Yugoslav cities reddens eyes, shreds nylon stockings and ruins pianissimo passages in the concert hall because of the nearly continuous coughing it causes in audiences,” the writer said. Half a century later, residents of Belgrade are still holding their breath. “I have asthma and it’s killing me,” says Dejan, 40, a graffiti artist and MC who runs a paint shop in the industrial Palilula district. “It’s not smog, man, it’s a black fog. You cannot see.” Continue reading...