Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Plastics in everyday objects may disrupt sleep in same way as caffeine, study finds

admin — Fri, 09 May 2025 13:15:03 +0000

Findings show for first time how plastic chemicals throw off the body’s internal clock by up to 17 minutes

Chemicals in everyday plastics may disrupt the body’s natural 24-hour sleep-wake cycle and circadian rhythm in a way similar to coffee, which increases the risk of sleep disorders, diabetes, immune problems and cancer, new in vitro research shows.

‘Stealing joy’: the sadness and symbolism of the crime at Sycamore Gap

admin — Fri, 09 May 2025 09:49:26 +0000

Many saw the beloved tree that Adam Carruthers and Daniel Graham cut down as a part of north-east England’s DNA

“It was just a tree,” said a mystified Adam Carruthers, one of the two men who illegally cut down the tree at Sycamore Gap in the early hours of a stormy night nearly two years ago. “It was almost as if someone had been murdered.”

Two men found guilty of ‘mindless, moronic’ felling of Sycamore Gap tree

admin — Fri, 09 May 2025 09:46:52 +0000

Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, found to have criminally damaged tree and Hadrian’s Wall

‘Stealing joy’: the sadness and symbolism of the crime at Sycamore Gap

Two friends who embarked on a “moronic mission” to fell the Sycamore Gap tree with a chainsaw have been found guilty of “mindless” criminal damage.

Midsummer butterflies spotted early in Britain after sunny spring

admin — Fri, 09 May 2025 09:04:57 +0000

Scientists fear early emerging insects may fall out of sync with pathogens, predators or availability of food

Midsummer butterflies are on the wing in early May after a sunny spring prompted one of the most advanced seasons for Britain’s Lepidoptera on record.

European and British soils seriously degraded by intensive farming

admin — Fri, 09 May 2025 08:00:53 +0000

Experts found 60% of the EU’s agricultural soils had been degraded, with about 40% similarly damaged in the UK

More than 60% of the EU’s agricultural soils are degraded due to intensive agriculture, with similar damage to about 40% of British soils, a report has found.

Experts from the Save Soil initiative said nourishing and restoring agricultural soils could reduce the impact of the climate crisis and provide protection against the worsening extremes of weather, as well as the food shortages and price rises likely to accompany them.

Week in wildlife: A rare chameleon, friendly starlings and hot buffaloes

admin — Fri, 09 May 2025 06:00:51 +0000

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

If illegal logging starts again, Liberia could lose more than its beloved pygmy hippos | Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

admin — Fri, 09 May 2025 05:00:50 +0000

About 270,000 people died in Liberia’s timber trade-fuelled civil war. I helped to rebuild and protect its forests. Now Europe is threatening to undermine all our hard work

It is sad when a ruthless military dictator funds his government by destroying ecologically important rainforest, logging tropical trees and displacing and robbing the people who live in and depend on the forests for their livelihoods and culture.

This happened in my country, Liberia.

Sadiq Khan to announce plans to build houses on London green belt

admin — Fri, 09 May 2025 04:00:50 +0000

Mayor to make major policy shift and say scale of housing crisis requires breaking taboo

Sadiq Khan is announcing plans to build on parts of London’s green belt, in a dramatic shift in housing policy aimed at tackling “the most profound housing crisis in the capital’s history”.

In a major speech on Friday, the mayor of London is expected to say the scale of the challenge, which could need about 1m new homes built in the next decade, requires a break from longstanding taboos.

Helmeted honeyeaters return to Cardinia in Victoria for first time since 1983’s Ash Wednesday bushfires

admin — Fri, 09 May 2025 02:20:42 +0000

Healesville sanctuary releases 21 critically endangered birds in hopes a new wild population will thrive

For the first time in 42 years, critically endangered helmeted honeyeaters have returned to Cardinia in south-east Victoria, where they were found until the Ash Wednesday bushfires in 1983.

Australia’s clean energy industry has just survived a near-death experience. Where to from here? | Kane Thornton

admin — Fri, 09 May 2025 01:03:11 +0000

Voters have spoken with clarity. We want a renewable-powered future