Breaking Waves: Ocean News

A study of Yorkshire’s rivers is helping scientists understand the impact everyday pollutants are having on waterways – and the results are sobering Photographs by Christopher Thomond Rivers carry more than just water through Britain’s landscapes. A hidden cocktail of chemicals seeps out of farmland, passes undetected through sewage treatment works, and drains off the roads into the country’s rivers. Normally these chemicals flow through unreported, silently restructuring ecosystems as they go, but now, UK scientists are building a map of what lies within – and the damage it may be causing. Trailing down the centre of Britain is one river whose chemical makeup scientists know better than any other. The Foss threads its way through North Yorkshire’s forestry plantations, patchworked arable land and small hamlets, before descending into the city of York, passing roads and car parks, gardens replacing farmland. Along the course of its 20-mile (32km) length, the chemical fingerprints of modern life accumulate. Continue reading...

Campaign has raised more than £114m since 1965 to protect sites such as Wembury Point in Devon Wembury Point has a colourful history. During the 20th century it was transformed from a farm into a bustling holiday camp and then converted into a military radar station and Royal Navy gunnery. But the last 20 years have been a little gentler as it has returned to nature, a haven for rare flora and fauna and a hugely popular spot for walkers, wild swimmers and rock-poolers. Continue reading...

New ecocide bill in Scottish parliament aims to criminalise environmental destruction in line with EU directive Company directors who cause severe or reckless damage to nature could face jail terms or hefty fines under a bill that aims to criminalise environmental destruction in Scotland. The proposed law, which would be the first of its kind in the UK, is designed to put a class of environment offences known as ecocide on a similar legal footing to other grave crimes such as murder. Continue reading...

One person missing and Blatten devastated after huge cloud of ice and rubble inundates evacuated town A huge section of a glacier in the Swiss Alps has broken off, causing a deluge of ice, mud and rock to bury most of a village evacuated earlier this month due to the risk of a rockslide. Drone footage broadcast by Swiss national broadcaster SRF showed a vast plain of mud and soil completely covering part of the village of Blatten, the river running through it and the wooded sides of the surrounding valley. Continue reading...