Water quality testing by campaigners shows levels up to 27 times acceptable limit for bathing as rowers told to take precautions
Harmful E coli bacteria have been found at very high levels at Henley, days before elite rowers compete in the international regatta there.
Water quality testing in the Henley Mile, part of the regatta course outside the Oxfordshire town, has revealed mean levels of 1,213 E coli colony forming units (CFU) per 100ml of water, across 27 tests. Where E coli levels are above 900 CFU/100ml, the water quality is deemed poor, according to bathing water designations, and is a threat to public health.
Continue reading...
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
06/27/2024 - 18:01
06/27/2024 - 16:00
Paulana Lamonier started Black People Will Swim in 2019 and has since provided free and low-cost lessons to over 2,500 Black and brown people
Valerie Spears hadn’t planned on taking swim lessons when she RSVP’d to her high school reunion in New York City.
But when Spears, a 72-year-old retiree who lives in Akron, Ohio, learned about a free class in Queens, she decided to pack her bathing suit.
Top: Young swimmers and an instructor at the swimming lesson organized by BPWS on Thursday, 20 June 2024.
Above: Donna Hall, 58, and her son, Samuel De La Cruz, 11, share a tender moment. They have been taking lessons with BPWS for two years.
Continue reading...
06/27/2024 - 12:05
No one was present when sinkhole, 100ft wide and 30ft deep, suddenly collapsed field in Alton, north of St Louis
A vast sinkhole has dramatically appeared in middle of an Illinois soccer pitch that was laid above a limestone mine, just days after amateur teams stopped using the grounds for practice.
The collapse happened at Gordon Moore Park in Alton, Illinois, about 18 miles (30km) north of St Louis, Missouri, on Wednesday. The sinkhole appeared to be 100ft (30m) wide and 30ft (9m) deep. No injuries have been reported but all sports have been cancelled.
Continue reading...
06/27/2024 - 10:00
Analysis from Bloomberg New Energy Finance says even if nuclear is successfully implemented it would be ‘at least four times’ more expensive than average cost of renewables
Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast
A nuclear-powered Australian economy would result in higher-cost electricity and would “sound the death knell” for decarbonisation efforts if it distracts from renewables investment, a report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) argues.
The report comes as ANZ forecast September quarter power prices will dive as much as 30% once government rebates kick in. A separate review by the market watchdog has found household energy bills were 14% lower because of last year’s rebates.
Continue reading...
06/27/2024 - 10:00
Exclusive: Invasive Species Council demands audit of all defence sites after red imported fire ants detected at Swartz Barracks outside Queensland containment zone
Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast
Defence bases pose a “huge risk” when it comes to stopping the spread of invasive fire ants in Australia, with experts suggesting there has been “a massive surveillance failure” on the commonwealth-owned properties.
Fire ants have been detected at eight defence sites in Queensland. Seven are within the state’s 700,000-hectare fire ants containment zone, which stretches from the Gold Coast to Caboolture.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...
06/27/2024 - 09:36
Microsoft co-founder says efficiencies for technology and electricity grids will outweigh energy use by datacentres
Bill Gates has claimed that artificial intelligence will be more of a help than a hindrance in achieving climate goals, despite growing concern that an increase in new datacentres could drain green energy supplies.
The philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder told journalists that AI would enable countries to use less energy, even as they require more datacentres, by making technology and electricity grids more efficient.
Continue reading...
06/27/2024 - 09:06
Court grants temporary halt to program designed to stop ‘upwind’ states from causing pollution that flows to ‘downwind’ neighbors
US politics – follow live
Conservative bloc
Alito – Majority
Barrett – Minority
Gorsuch – Majority
Kavanaugh – Majority
Roberts – Majority
Thomas – Majority
Jackson – Minority
Kagan – Minority
Sotomayor – Minority
Continue reading...
06/27/2024 - 09:00
After being introduced to the state in the 1970s, there are now more attacks by moose than by puma and bears combined. Has the species become too successful?
One morning in the winter of 1978, a handful of state wildlife staff huddled together in the Uinta Mountains in north-eastern Utah. Deep snows coated the peaks and filled the valleys. A pair of helicopters cruised over the frozen landscape, helping those on the ground search for their prize: a cow moose in a snowy meadow.
Crouched in one of the aircraft, a man aimed his rifle: there was a sharp report, and the cow took off at a run. Within minutes her legs went wobbly as the tranquilliser in the dart took effect, and the crew landed and got to work.
Continue reading...
06/27/2024 - 09:00
Almost 15 years after federal law put free water on school menus, states still struggle with how to guarantee access
Christina Hecht remembers how water made its way into school lunch law because the process was unusually easy. Back in the mid-2000s, a researcher toured school cafeterias in California and wondered, “What are these kids to do if they want a drink of water?” said Hecht, a policy adviser at the University of California’s Nutrition Policy Institute.
At the time, 40% of the state’s schools failed to offer free water in their cafeterias. That fact eventually reached the then governor and former bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger, who moved to pass SB 1413 requiring schools to offer free, fresh water during mealtimes. Advocates then used California’s example to convince US senators working on 2010’s Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) – a federal package setting nutrition standards and food funding for public schools and childcare centers – to add drinking water to that legislation, too.
Continue reading...
06/27/2024 - 05:00
More than a third of Americans endure summers at least 1.5C hotter than the 1895 average, analysis shows
An onslaught of record-breaking heat across much of the US has provided yet another indicator of a longer-term issue – summers are progressively getting hotter for Americans in all corners of the country.
The US climate scientist Brian Brettschneider has analysed almost 130 years of federal data and it shows that from New York to Los Angeles there are hotspots where summers have got significantly hotter in that time compared with the average levels of warming brought about by the burning of fossil fuels.
Continue reading...
