From wildflower retreats and Novid rooms to locking yourself in a disabled toilet, hospital staff reveal where they go when they need a moment’s peace
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/04/2024 - 01:00
07/04/2024 - 00:00
It is no coincidence that ever more extreme politics has come at a time of ever more extreme weather
A disrupted climate and diminished natural world are widening the dividing lines of ideological debate. Left unchecked, this will undermine democracy.
That may not be the first thing on the minds of British voters as they go to the polls on Thursday. It is probably also a minority view in the rest of Europe or the US, where people are too much in the thick of a polycrisis to consider anything outside politics and economics as usual. But from a distance, in my case from the Amazon rainforest, there is a very different explanation for the tremors being witnessed in the old world and the new.
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07/03/2024 - 22:00
A study of the sea cow population in the South Pacific islands is urgently needed, say experts, as numbers fall dramatically
On a bright spring day, the sun dances over the water of Havannah Bay on the island of Efate in Vanuatu. Below the surface, pockets of seagrass that can just about be seen from the shoreline, sway in the current. It’s here, if they are lucky, that onlookers may spot a dugong bobbing in the shallow water, orbiting the seagrass meadows they feed on.
“It’s wonderful seeing them swimming by and grazing off the seagrass in front of the resort,” says Greg Pechan, the owner of a local hotel, the Havannah, which sits at the tip of the bay. Pointing out beyond the jetty that stretches into the Pacific Ocean, he says Vanuatu’s sea life is a big attraction for visitors to the Melanesian country.
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07/03/2024 - 12:40
Thompson fire near Oroville destroys homes and vehicles as state simmers in brutal and potentially historic heatwave
Thousands of homes are under threat from a raging wildfire that erupted in northern California on Tuesday, as the state simmers in a brutal and potentially historic heatwave.
Roughly 28,000 residents have been forced to evacuate as the Thompson fire quickly swept across more than 3,500 acres (1,416 hectares) near the city of Oroville, about an hour outside Sacramento, California’s capital.
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07/03/2024 - 10:00
The entrepreneur claims agency exaggerated the costs of the Coalition plan despite it using best-case scenario South Korea as the benchmark
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High-profile entrepreneur Dick Smith entered the ongoing radioactive debate on nuclear energy this week, accusing government agencies of misleading ministers over the costs of reactors and the practicalities of renewables.
But Smith’s complaints about what the Australian Energy Market Operator’s plan for the future of the grid says, or how CSIRO calculated the costs of nuclear, are themselves misleading.
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07/03/2024 - 10:00
Exclusive: Ageing, flood-prone rail line carrying the city’s waste to landfill increasingly vulnerable to disruptions, experts say
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Sydney is fast running out of landfill and an “emerging weak link” in the plan for how the city manages solid waste in the future could see uncollected garbage left piling up at hospitals and other businesses, experts warn.
Sydney has increasingly been sending its waste out of the city and its dwindling landfill capacities have long been acknowledged by the industry and relevant authorities. Some experts estimate Sydney will no longer be able to bury any of its own rubbish within city limits from as early as 2028.
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07/03/2024 - 08:17
More plans afoot for compostable food use, says head gardener, as tournament commits to wildlife ‘net gain’ by 2030
Rain or shine – usually more of the former – Wimbledon’s stunning floral displays always manage to dazzle.
For those hoping to give their gardens an SW19-inspired transformation, the tournament’s secret has finally been revealed: coffee grounds from the staff room.
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07/03/2024 - 08:00
Light pollution acts as ‘midnight fridge’, drawing in young fish, then predators, according to tests in French Polynesia
Artificial light shining from coastlines around the world is acting like “a midnight fridge” full of tasty snacks, threatening young fish who can be drawn to it and who are then eaten by predators also attracted by the brightness, according to a study.
It has long been established that light pollution hampers people’s ability to see the night sky and harms migrating birds, insects and other animals. But its impact on marine ecosystems has rarely been taken into account, said Jules Schligler, the lead author of the study at the international coral ecosystem research centre in Mo’orea, French Polynesia.
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07/03/2024 - 06:28
Next government urged to have a proper plan for food security, as UK’s climate becomes more unpredictable
UK fruit and vegetable production has plummeted as farms have been hit by extreme weather.
The country suffered the wettest 18 months since records began across the 2023-24 growing year, leaving soil waterlogged and some farms totally underwater. The impact on harvests has been disastrous. Data from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs shows that year-on-year vegetable yields decreased by 4.9% to 2.2m tonnes in 2023, and the production volumes of fruit decreased by 12% to 585,000 tonnes.
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07/03/2024 - 06:21
Homes flattened, apocalyptic scenes and at least four dead as St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada try to recover
This should have been a week of celebration in the Caribbean country of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG). The annual Vincy Mas carnival, which attracts thousands of tourists, had advertised a packed schedule of costume parades, soca competitions, and beauty pageants.
Instead, the Vincentian population is reeling from what the country’s prime minister has described as the “utter devastation” wrought by Hurricane Beryl, which ravaged the multi-island country and its eastern Caribbean neighbour Grenada.
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