Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Tech billionaire relying on ‘false binary’ with call to focus less on emissions and more on aid for poor, experts say A new memo on the climate crisis from Bill Gates relies on “straw man” arguments about the threat to humanity and “false dichotomies” between spending on climate or aid for the poor, some climate scientists say. Published last week, the tech billionaire’s 17-page missive called for a “strategic pivot” away from focusing on slashing emissions and towards preventing poverty and suffering. It was quickly picked up by some on the right, including Donald Trump, who hailed it as a much-needed backpedaling on climate efforts. Continue reading...

Winds of Melissa’s strength are now five times more frequent due to the climate crisis, research says Every aspect of Hurricane Melissa, the most powerful storm ever to hit Jamaica, was worsened by the climate crisis, a team of scientists has found. Melissa caused widespread devastation when it crunched into Jamaica as a category five hurricane on October 28, with winds up up to 185mph. Continue reading...

After it was found most offsets did not represent real carbon reductions, the money dried up. But successful schemes such as Kasigau in Kenya now face a stark future Solomon Morris Makau checks the fallen tree for snakes before he wraps a tape measure around the trunk. The early morning sun is overwhelming in the dryland forests of the Kasigau corridor, which separates the east and west Tsavo national parks in southern Kenya. Two guards keep watch for elephants and lions. There is little sign of green among the sprawling acacias, which stand silently in their punishing wait for the end of the dry season. Despite the threat from puff adders, Makau and his team have a job to do: measure the trees and shrubs in this 50 sq metre area to calculate their growth and change in carbon stock. “This one is lying dead,” says Makau, of one of the trees pushed over by elephants – but tens of thousands around it are still alive, stretching out in the distance as far as the eye can see. Solomon Morris Makau, right, leads a team of environmental technicians in gathering bio data from natural vegetation Continue reading...

This stunning timelapse shows the 'biggest' supermoon of 2025 lighting up the sky over Sydney on Wednesday evening, shining brightly as it rose above Bondi beach. The moon is considered a supermoon when it is closer to the Earth than usual, making it look much larger. The drama is partly due to something called the moon illusion, which makes the moon appear larger when it is close to the horizon and we have other objects to gauge it against Glowing September supermoon lights up the sky – in pictures Continue reading...