Breaking Waves: Ocean News

California governor signs law banning all plastic bags at grocery stores

admin — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 14:53:18 +0000

State had already banned thin plastic shopping bags, but new measure bans all plastic bags starting in 2026

“Paper or plastic” will no longer be a choice at grocery store checkout lines in California under a new law signed Sunday by the governor, Gavin Newsom, that bans all plastic shopping bags.

California had already banned thin plastic shopping bags at supermarkets and other stores, but shoppers could purchase bags made with a thicker plastic that purportedly made them reusable and recyclable.

California announces suit against ExxonMobil over role in plastic pollution crisis

admin — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 14:48:07 +0000

First-of-its-kind suit comes as climate experts claim that fossil fuel producers are deceiving public about plastics

California has filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against ExxonMobil for allegedly deceiving the public about the plastic pollution crisis, the state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, announced on Monday.

The announcement comes amid increasing public concern about the plastic sector’s environmental and climate impact.

Wildlife officials on Alaska island urge all residents to help find one possible rat

admin — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 13:27:26 +0000

Search for rat that may not exist is part of effort to keep invasive species off remote but ecologically diverse islands

A purported sighting of a rat wouldn’t get much attention in many places around the world.

But it caused a stir earlier this year on Alaska’s Saint Paul Island.

Six water firms in England ‘overcharged customers by up to £1.5bn’

admin — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 12:05:07 +0000

Firms underreported true scale of sewage pollution for 10 years, which allowed them to set higher bills, tribunal told

Six water companies overcharged customers between £800m and £1.5bn by “significantly or systematically” underreporting the true scale of their sewage pollution of rivers and waterways, a tribunal has heard.

Create ‘positive tipping points’ with climate mandates, governments urged

admin — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 10:26:32 +0000

Requiring key sectors to switch to clean energy by specific times could trigger benevolent cascades, report claims

In the terminology of the climate and ecological crises the phrase “tipping point” is loaded with dreadful implications.

It evokes a climate breakdown supercharged by the mass escape of methane locked in Siberian permafrost, or the great currents of the oceans smothered by freshwater melting from the Greenland ice sheet, or the Amazon turning from great rainforest to parched savannah after the felling of one too many trees.

Jane Fonda rallies disaffected young US voters: ‘Do not sit this election out’

admin — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 10:00:37 +0000

The Hollywood actor and activist backs Harris for president as she warns of climate emergency and talks Taylor Swift

Peter Dutton refuses to divulge costs of going nuclear at anticipated ‘could it work’ speech

admin — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 08:16:54 +0000

Coalition’s lack of costings and absence of detail has been seized upon by critics of Australia’s potential landmark energy shift

‘Big baby’: Melbourne aquarium’s huge 22.5kg penguin chick Pesto set to slim down after becoming viral star

admin — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 06:35:37 +0000

Sea Life Aquarium Melbourne’s nine-month-old king penguin eats 25 to 32 fish a day and outweighs both foster parents combined

Dutton says Coalition will release nuclear power plan costings 'at a time of our choosing' – video

admin — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 06:31:55 +0000

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, detailed the Coalition’s nuclear power plan in a speech in Sydney but did not announce its cost, saying it is coming 'in due course'. 'Our nuclear plan requires a significant upfront cost, and you can look at the international examples to see as much. But a whole new and vast transmission network and infrastructure won’t be needed under the plan that we’re putting forward,' Dutton said

I’m obsessed with sharks: I used to kill them, now I risk my life to film them

admin — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 06:00:30 +0000

I killed a great white when I was 18 to feed my family in Madagascar. But now I’m documenting the threat to these beautiful creatures from overfishing