The pandemic and harsh laws suffocated climate movements as we knew them. Get ready for a new kind of action
On 21 April 2019, I was on Waterloo Bridge in London with my younger siblings. Around us were planters full of flowers where there were once cars, and people singing. This was the spring iteration of Extinction Rebellion, when four bridges in London were held by protesters. My siblings, then 14, had been going out on school strike inspired by Greta Thunberg, and wanted to see her speak.
We were there for less than a day, but the occupations of bridges and other blockades lasted for 11 days. Tens of thousands of people mobilised in the UK that spring. An estimated 500,000 people were affected by the shutdowns the movement imposed on central London’s road networks, and more than 1,000 protesters were arrested in what was then an official part of XR’s strategy.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
Extinction Rebellion may have gone quiet, but climate protest will come roaring back | Oliver Haynes
05/20/2025 - 05:00
05/20/2025 - 04:00
Rising oceans will force millions away from coasts even if global temperature rise remains below 1.5C, analysis finds
Sea level rise will become unmanageable at just 1.5C of global heating and lead to “catastrophic inland migration”, the scientists behind a new study have warned. This scenario may unfold even if the average level of heating over the last decade of 1.2C continues into the future.
The loss of ice from the giant Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets has quadrupled since the 1990s due to the climate crisis and is now the principal driver of sea level rise.
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Researchers puzzled as baby whales spotted in unexpected places along Australia’s ‘humpback highway’
05/20/2025 - 03:34
Newborns seen in colder waters as far south as Tasmania, indicating breeding and migration more complex than thought
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Baby humpback whales are turning up in unexpected places.
In Australia, humpback mums were assumed to travel north to give birth in warmer, tropical waters – like the Great Barrier Reef – before migrating south with their calves along the “humpback highway” to feed in waters off Antarctica.
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05/19/2025 - 20:25
It remains unclear why the monkeys, filmed on a Panamanian island, were taking the babies from another species
Scientists have spotted surprising evidence of what they describe as monkey kidnappings while reviewing video footage from a small Panamanian island. Capuchin monkeys were seen carrying at least 11 howler babies between 2022 and 2023.
“This was very much a shocking finding,” said Zoë Goldsborough, a behavioural ecologist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany. “We’ve not seen anything like this in the animal kingdom.”
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05/19/2025 - 20:21
Scientists have spotted surprising evidence of what they describe as monkey kidnappings while reviewing video footage from a small Panamanian island. Capuchin monkeys were seen carrying at least 11 howler babies between 2022 and 2023. The footage showed the capuchins walking and pounding their stone tools with baby howlers on their backs. But cameras did not capture the moments of abduction, which scientists said likely happened up in the trees, where howlers spend most of their time
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05/19/2025 - 18:01
University of Reading report says conflicts including war in Ukraine among 12 most pressing threats to pollinator
War zones, microplastics and street lights are among the emerging threats to the bee population, according to scientists.
Bee experts have drawn up a list of the 12 most pressing threats to the pollinator over the next decade, published in a report, Emerging Threats and Opportunities for Conservation of Global Pollinators, by the University of Reading.
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05/19/2025 - 17:37
Researchers are deploying sniffing dogs to combat spread of leaf-hopping pests that can damage trees and fruit crops
The spotted lanternfly, a leaf-hopping invasive pest first detected in the US a decade ago, has steadily spread across the East coast and into the midwest with little getting in its way.
But now researchers are deploying a new weapon to slow its advance: specially trained dogs with the ability to sniff out the winged insect’s eggs before they hatch.
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05/19/2025 - 13:02
Report finds Nestlé used purification treatments that were unauthorised for natural mineral water
France’s lucrative mineral water industry is under scrutiny after a report by the senate found the French government had covered up a scandal over illegal filtering treatments of premium brands.
At the heart of the report, released on Monday, is France’s world-famous fizzy water, Perrier. Obtained from a source in southern France and traditionally served on ice with a slice of lemon, Perrier has long been long known as the “champagne of table waters”.
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05/19/2025 - 12:10
New research has revealed that high densities of European honey bees could be harming Australian native bees' 'fitness' by reducing their reproductive success and altering key traits linked to survival.
05/19/2025 - 11:00
Introduced bees could be harming native species and risk driving them to extinction, researchers say
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Scientists have recommended limits on urban beekeeping after a peer-reviewed study found introduced honeybees could be harming Australian native bees and risked driving them to extinction.
The Australian research, published in Frontiers in Bee Science, found native bees living in areas with high densities of introduced honeybees had fewer female offspring and a higher death rate in their first year of life.
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