Breaking Waves: Ocean News

07/10/2025 - 10:00
Native Australian fish is important for fresh water ecosystems as they are a food source for bigger fish and birds such as pelicans, cormorants and gulls Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Residents from the New South Wales central west town of Lake Cargelligo first started to notice fish dying in their local lake two weeks ago. Since then, officials have estimated thousands of bony herring, a native Australian fish, have perished. They suspect a drop in water temperature at the lake has triggered what is known as “winter die off”. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...
07/10/2025 - 10:00
President raised $239m for inauguration – more than previous three inaugural committees took in combined The fossil fuel industry poured more than $19m into Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, accounting for nearly 8% of all donations it raised, a new analysis shows, raising concerns about White House’s relationship with big oil. The president raised a stunning $239m for his inauguration – more than the previous three inaugural committees took in combined and more than double the previous record – according to data published by the US Federal Election Commission (FEC). The oil and gas sector made a significant contribution to that overall number, found the international environmental and human rights organization Global Witness. Continue reading...
07/10/2025 - 09:04
Campaigners say Ofwat ‘subservient to industry and its rampaging pursuit of profit’ after illegal sewage discharges South West Water has agreed to pay a £24m penalty for illegal sewage discharges into the environment from its treatment works. The regulator for the water and wastewater sector in England and Wales, Ofwat, says the company, which has 1.8 million customers in Cornwall, Devon, the Isles of Scilly and parts of Dorset and Somerset, is being penalised for dumping sewage in breach of its legal permit conditions. Continue reading...
07/10/2025 - 08:00
Scottish Water boss says average Scot uses 40% more water than people in Yorkshire partly due to mistaken belief water is abundant in Scotland Scottish households are being urged to cut back heavily on their water use and instead treat it as a precious resource due to the growing threat to supplies from climate heating. Alex Plant, the chief executive of Scottish Water, said the average Scot used 40% more water than consumers in Yorkshire, partly because there was a widespread but mistaken assumption that water was abundant in Scotland. Continue reading...
07/10/2025 - 08:00
Guardian makes legally mandated gold standard report widely available after administration deleted website The future of the US government’s premier climate crisis report is perilously uncertain after the Trump administration deleted the website that housed the periodic, legally mandated assessments that have been produced by scientists over the past two decades. Five national climate assessments have been compiled since 2000 by researchers across a dozen US government agencies and outside scientists, providing a gold standard report to city and state officials, as well as the general public, of global heating and its impacts upon human health, agriculture, water supplies, air pollution and other aspects of American life. Continue reading...
07/10/2025 - 07:47
Terms like ‘deglobalisation’ have become commonplace, but what we need is true multilateralism. Erecting walls won’t bring us peace and prosperity Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is the president of Brazil The year 2025 should be a time of celebration, marking eight decades of the United Nations’ existence. But it risks going down in history as the year when the international order built since 1945 collapsed. The cracks had long been visible. Since the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the intervention in Libya and the war in Ukraine, some permanent members of the security council have trivialised the illegal use of force. The failure to act vis-a-vis the genocide in Gaza represents a denial of the most basic values of humanity. The inability to overcome differences is fuelling a new escalation of violence in the Middle East, the latest chapter of which includes the attack on Iran. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is the president of Brazil Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
07/10/2025 - 06:59
Dr Christina Propst apologized after Blue Fish Pediatrics said she was ‘no longer an employee’ because of post A pediatrician who is no longer working for a chain of clinics affiliated with a prominent Houston hospital system after a social media post that wished voters in a Donald Trump-supporting county of central Texas “get what they voted for” amid flash flooding that killed nearly 120 – including many children – has publicly apologized. “I speak to you as a mother, a neighbor, a pediatrician, and a human being who is deeply sorry,” Dr Christina Propst wrote after Blue Fish Pediatrics announced on Sunday she was no longer an employee there because of a social media post that the clinic said did “not reflect the value, standards or mission” of the chain. “I take full responsibility for a social media comment I made before we knew that so many precious lives were lost to the terrible tragedy in central Texas. Continue reading...
07/10/2025 - 06:00
High levels of Pfas stemming from the base have tainted water, damaged crops and poisoned cows in the area The state of New Mexico is suing the US air force over its refusal to comply with orders to address extremely high levels of Pfas pollution stemming from its base, which has tainted drinking water for tens of thousands of people, damaged crops and poisoned dairy cows. Though the military acknowledges Pfas-laden firefighting foam from Cannon air force base is the source of a four mile chemical plume in the aquifer below Clovis, New Mexico, it has refused to comply with most state orders to address the issue. Continue reading...
07/10/2025 - 05:44
Critics say change in biodiversity protections would harm environmental recovery and make scheme ineffective Plans to weaken environmental regulations for small housebuilders would allow developers in England to build on an area the size of the Yorkshire Dales in the next 10 years without replacing the nature they destroy, according to analysis. Labour wants to remove the requirement for small housebuilders – those whose sites are under a hectare (2.5 acres) – to replace the nature they destroy under existing rules known as biodiversity net gain. Continue reading...
07/10/2025 - 04:30
There’s no shortage of ideas for how to make air travel greener. But it has to start within the industry – and with workers George Hibberd appears alongside fellow pilot Todd Smith in the Guardian documentary Guilt Trip I love flying. I’ve wanted to be a pilot since I was young. I grew up in Chichester, West Sussex, under a flight path used by Gatwick airport planes, and used to watch as they traversed the sky. In 2019, once I had qualified as an airline pilot, I began working for easyJet. Aviation connected me to my extended family in Canada, exposed me to different cultures and gave me an unforgettable career. But in November 2022, I handed over my airport ID card for the last time. I had grown increasingly anxious about the effect that our industry was having on the planet and, deep down, I knew that my concern for the climate crisis meant being an airline pilot was damaging my mental health. Despite no longer working in the industry, my love of aviation has driven me to protect our ability to fly for future generations. It inspires me to address the uncomfortable realities and decisions our industry now faces. Everyone knows that aviation has a gigantic emissions problem. In 2022, the UK’s domestic and international flights produced 29.6m tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions, accounting for about 7% of total UK greenhouse gas emissions. This is projected to increase to 11% by 2030, because while other sectors are decarbonising, aviation emissions will remain stable or even increase. Continue reading...