Water firms claim wet wipes, which shed microplastics and cause blockages, are main source of sewage pollution
Wet wipe producers should be charged to remove their pollution from England’s waterways, the author of a government review into reforming the sector has said.
Sewage has been a critical factor in the devastating pollution of our waterways, but other sources of pollution include microplastics, consumer products such as wet wipes, and the byproducts of modern manufacturing, such asPfas (“forever chemicals”), as well as fertiliser and pesticides from farming. Many of these have been linked to harmful effects on human health and the natural environment.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/26/2025 - 01:00
07/26/2025 - 01:00
The public-spirited sport of spogomi is catching on across Britain, which boasts its world champion team
Armed with gloves, metal tongs and plastic rubbish sacks, hordes of determined litter-pickers will descend on Hackney Marshes in east London this weekend.
Spogomi, a Japanese litter-picking sport, has come to the UK. Invented in 2008, it was intended as a competition to encourage people to clean up public spaces. It is now played in schools across the country as people gamify collecting rubbish.
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07/26/2025 - 00:00
New technology also helps fruit yield, while strawberry, raspberry and blackberry output has risen
British blueberries are the latest fruit to benefit from the warmest spring on record, with the harvest up by almost a quarter so far this year.
Growers say the weather has produced an early crop with more and larger berries, while new varieties can bring higher yields and better resilience. About 5,133 tonnes are expected by the end of August, up significantly from almost 4,187 tonnes by the same point last year.
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07/25/2025 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 26 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00142-5
“Our fish are not your marine biodiversity”: tensions in integrating fisheries into the BBNJ Agreement
07/25/2025 - 17:18
Two men led inquiry into 2019 debacle involving incorrect hurricane projections that tarnished federal agency’s record
Two high-ranking officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were placed on administrative leave on Friday, fueling speculation that the Trump administration was retaliating against them for actions taken during the president’s first term.
Jeff Dillen, who was serving as deputy general counsel, and Stephen Volz, who heads the agency’s satellites division, led the investigation into whether agency administrators abdicated their scientific ethics when they altered the forecast of a deadly hurricane to match statements made by the president.
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07/25/2025 - 11:17
High temperatures and humidity across north-eastern coast increase risk of heat exhaustion, illnesses and death
More than a 100 million people in the US will face dangerous conditions over the weekend as a heat dome that has scorched much of the center of the country nudges eastward.
Heat advisories were in place on Friday all across the north-eastern coast from Portland, Maine, to Wilmington, North Carolina, with the daytime heat index temperatures 10 to 15F above average in some places.
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07/25/2025 - 09:54
After efforts to make conditions better for the elusive creatures in Studland Bay, sightings are greatly increasing
The divers emerged from the water smiling with satisfaction. They had found what they were looking for in the undersea meadows off the south coast of England.
“Seahorses are tricky to spot,” said Mark Fox. “The seagrass sways and they blend into it pretty well. It helps if it’s sunny and not too choppy but you have to get your eye in. When you see them, it’s brilliant.”
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07/25/2025 - 09:00
Experts say there’s plenty of precedent both in the US and abroad for state-supported food infrastructure
When Zohran Mamdani sailed to a surprising but decisive victory in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary last month, he did so propelled by a platform laser-focused on making the country’s largest city more affordable for working people. Among his proposed policies for achieving that vision – which include free childcare and a rent freeze for tenants – is the proposal to create a network of city-owned grocery stores focused on keeping food prices low rather than on making a profit.
“Without having to pay rent or property taxes, they will reduce overhead and pass on savings to shoppers,” Mamdani said on his website. “They will buy and sell at wholesale prices, centralize warehousing and distribution, and partner with local neighborhoods on products and sourcing.”
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07/25/2025 - 06:00
Biodiversity is linked to people’s diversity, and nature lends itself to people who are different, says author Joe Harkness
When Joe Harkness received a message from a friend about macerating moth abdomens to check their genitalia to identify the species, it sparked an idea for a new book about wildlife obsessions. But over time, this developed into a completely different book: a clarion call to embrace neurodiversity in the fight against the extinction crisis.
Across Britain, 15% of people are thought to be neurodivergent. In the process of writing Neurodivergent, By Nature, Harkness discovered that an estimated 30% of conservation employees were neurodivergent. Why?
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07/25/2025 - 06:00
‘Instead of just a choral group in a chapel, now it’s a rock group in a mausoleum,’ says one unspooked supporter
Rodney Anonymous, lead singer of the punk rock band The Dead Milkmen, has performed in venues around the world. His favorite place to play live is filled with the dead at the Laurel Hill cemetery in Philadelphia, where he used to ride his bike as a kid.
The acoustics are great, and when there’s a full moon, there’s no place like it, the singer said. The band, whose songs include Punk Rock Girl and Bitchin’ Camaro, have played at the burial grounds at least five times since 2012, and have plans to appear again next year.
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