Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Shoppers in England bought 437m carrier bags last year as online food shops replace supermarket trips Plastic bag sales have risen for the first time in 10 years on the back of the so-called Ocado effect as online food shops and ultra-fast deliveries replace supermarket trips. Shoppers in England bought 437m single-use plastic carrier bags last year, compared with 407m the year before, a rise of 7%, according to data from Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Continue reading...

The president’s fossil-fuel obsession can’t stop global progress, writes the former Environmental Protection Agency head Over the past decade, the United States has turned technologies into tools that strengthened our economy, delivered good-paying union jobs, cleaned up our air and water, conserved our precious natural resources, and saved families money all across our country. Yet now the country is choosing to cede that leadership, letting China dominate and control the clean-energy market across the world. It’s no surprise that people are scratching their heads, wondering what happened. Our president is obsessed with fossil fuels. He wants to resuscitate what everyone knows is a dying coal sector while turning a blind eye to the health, environmental, and economic downsides of the climate crisis. Coupled with inconsistent threats of increased tariffs against virtually all our allies, he has isolated the US and amplified threats to global security. Gina McCarthy is the managing co-chair of America Is All In, former White House national climate adviser and 13th US EPA administrator Continue reading...

Exclusive: Charity says footage shows fish being struck repeatedly and at least one child taking part in killing fish Animal welfare campaigners allege that a “harrowing series of welfare abuses” have taken place at one of England’s oldest working trout farms in a tourist hotspot in the Cotswolds, including the participation of children in killing fish. Animal Equality UK, a charity that works to end cruelty to farmed animals, has released video footage that it claims shows fish being repeatedly beaten with batons, mishandled and left to suffocate by untrained members of the public including a child at Bibury trout farm in Gloucestershire. Continue reading...

Clear majority backs restarting Maanshan reactor but doesn’t reach legal threshold, as president says nuclear power may be reconsidered if it becomes safe A referendum to push for the reopening of Taiwan’s last nuclear plant has failed to reach the legal threshold to be valid, though the president said the island could return to the technology in the future if safety standards improved. The plebiscite on Saturday, backed by the opposition, asked whether the Maanshan power plant should be reopened if it was “confirmed” there were no safety issues. The plant was closed in May as the government shifts to renewables and liquefied natural gas. Continue reading...