Breaking Waves: Ocean News

04/01/2025 - 02:58
Experts say previous economic models underestimated impact of global heating – as well as likely ‘cascading supply chain disruptions’ Economic models have systematically underestimated how global heating will affect people’s wealth, according to a new study that finds 4C warming will make the average person 40% poorer – an almost four-fold increase on some estimates. The study by Australian scientists suggests average per person GDP across the globe will be reduced by 16% even if warming is kept to 2C above pre-industrial levels. This is a much greater reduction than previous estimates, which found the reduction would be 1.4%. Continue reading...
04/01/2025 - 00:38
Inferno spread to nearby homes, trapping residents, while full extent of damage still being assessed A fireball erupted from a burst gas pipeline outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring 145 people as it burned for several hours before being extinguished. The national oil company Petronas said the blaze started at one of its gas pipelines outside Kuala Lumpur. The inferno sent flames 20 storeys high and left a huge crater near a residential neighbourhood. The health minister, Dzulkefly Ahmad, was quoted by the New Straits Times daily as saying 145 people including three children were injured. He said 67 people were still being treated at public hospitals, mostly for second and third-degree burns, while 37 others had sought treatment from clinics and private hospitals. The fire department said the fire damaged 190 houses and 148 vehicles. Continue reading...
04/01/2025 - 00:03
The flood-affected area in outback Queensland has grown to double the size of Victoria after experiencing its worst deluge in 50 years. Water broke the banks of a makeshift levee in Thargomindah in the state's south-west, forcing the evacuation of 100 residents. Stock losses are expected to be catastrophic and more rain is forecast for the coming week Outback deluge pushes Queensland towns to the brink: ‘Out here it’s drought or floods’ Rain records to fall in Queensland with Townsville to set new annual high – in April Continue reading...
03/31/2025 - 18:37
Exclusive: Moetai Brotherson fears environmental risks of controversial practice and says independence from France must not be ‘rushed’ Read more Pacific leaders: in their words French Polynesia’s president has issued a stark warning over the risks of deep-sea mining, saying it will be allowed in his territory “over my dead body” as he argues the potential for environmental damage outweighs any benefits. Moetai Brotherson’s comments to the Guardian come as countries in the Pacific and elsewhere grapple with whether to extract minerals from the sea floor. Deep-sea mining has not yet begun, but some companies and countries are exploring the practice, which could start in the coming years. Continue reading...
03/31/2025 - 18:21
A new study warns that global climate change may have a devastating effect on butterflies, turning their species-rich, mountain habitats from refuges into traps. Think of it as the 'butterfly effect' -- the idea that something as small as the flapping of a butterfly's wings can eventually lead to a major event such as a hurricane -- in reverse. The new study also suggests that a lack of comprehensive global data about insects may leave conservationists and policymakers ill-prepared to mitigate biodiversity loss from climate change for a wide range of insect species.
03/31/2025 - 12:19
Council leader says situation causing ‘harm and distress’ with 17,000 tonnes of rubbish uncollected Birmingham city council has declared a major incident over an ongoing bin strike, saying the daily blocking of depots by picket lines means vehicles are unable to pick up 17,000 tonnes of uncollected rubbish across the city. The council said it was unable to carry out its contingency plan due to striking workers blocking lorries on the picket line, and that there was now a risk to public health. Continue reading...
03/31/2025 - 10:10
You can forget the advice on disguises, secret codes and spreading propaganda by dropping leaflets in train carriages. But there is something for us all here about the need for action The SOE Syllabus was a series of lectures given to prospective secret agents in Britain during the second world war. These “lessons in ungentlemanly warfare” were released from the top secret bit of the Public Record Office (now known as the National Archive) and published as a historical curio in 2001, when my esteemed colleague John Crace picked out the sillier bits in one of his Digested Read reviews. There was a whole lecture about how to craft a disguise, in which people with sticky-out ears were advised to use glue to pin them back. But now, 24 years later, I have picked up the book with a graver purpose – just on the off-chance that if we end up having to resist a fascist state, the past might have something to offer. They won’t know everything, these ungentlemanly gentlemen, being as they didn’t have the internet. But they can’t have known nothing. Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist 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...
03/31/2025 - 07:00
Head of Riverkeeper, which helped clean up Hudson River, talks about challenges during the second Trump term Donald Trump’s push to repurpose the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) amid funding cuts and staffing losses poses a huge threat to water safety and environmental advances in one of the big environmental success stories in the US in recent decades: the clean-up of the Hudson River. Once a byword for environmental degradation, the Hudson River is now recovering, in part due to the work of Riverkeeper, a non-profit environmental organization that established a model of legal activism for water protection and inspired more than 300 programs globally. It is also where Robert F Kennedy Jr cut his teeth as an environmental lawyer, before becoming a senior member of Trump’s rightwing cabinet. Continue reading...
03/31/2025 - 07:00
Unsustainable logging is one of the global north’s best-kept secrets. We’re running out of time to stop it The world is running out of time to halt deforestation and forest degradation. Yet instead of stepping up, the United States is dismantling forest protections and undermining global progress – highlighting the dangers of global forest policy that fails to hold the wealthiest, most powerful countries accountable. Unsustainable logging is one of the global north’s best-kept secrets. Each year, millions of acres of old-growth and primary forests across North America, Europe and Australia are clearcut under the guise of “sustainable forest management”. International policy, by design, looks the other way, focusing attention instead on deforestation in the tropics. This double standard allows the world’s wealthiest nations to evade accountability for industrial logging’s catastrophic consequences. Jennifer Skene is director of global northern forests policy for the Natural Resources Defense Council Continue reading...
03/31/2025 - 06:30
We asked 18 Republicans whose districts benefit most from Biden’s IRA climate law if they back Trump’s demands Billions of dollars in clean energy spending and jobs have overwhelmingly flowed to parts of the US represented by Republican lawmakers. But these members of Congress are still largely reticent to break with Donald Trump’s demands to kill off key incentives for renewables, even as their districts bask in the rewards. The president has called for the dismantling of the Inflation Reduction Act – a sweeping bill passed by Democrats that has helped turbocharge investments in wind, solar, nuclear, batteries and electric vehicle manufacturing in the US – calling it a “giant scam”. Trump froze funding allocated under the act and has vowed to claw back grants aimed at reducing planet-heating pollution. Continue reading...