Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Utility bills could rise as Trump’s EPA to end Energy Star program, experts warn

admin — Wed, 07 May 2025 15:19:22 +0000

Reported closure of program for home appliances comes amid president’s hatred of water-conserving showers

US customers could face higher energy bills, experts have warned, amid reports that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to end the Energy Star program whose blue labels have certified energy efficiency on home appliances for more than 30 years.

Sea pigs, icefish and trilobites: Antarctica’s mysterious marine life – in pictures

admin — Wed, 07 May 2025 15:00:50 +0000

Characterised by darkness and cold temperatures, the extreme environment of Antarctica’s deep sea is largely unexplored. Now, after a special marine science voyage, a team aboard Australia’s national icebreaker, RSV Nuyina, has collected some remarkable species from the waters around the Denman Glacier

Read more about RSV Nuyina’s crucial mission to Antarctica

Ethical super fund says QBE ‘not joining the dots’ between fossil fuel projects and rising premiums

admin — Wed, 07 May 2025 15:00:49 +0000

Australian Ethical, which holds $56m worth of QBE shares, calls on insurer to overhaul its policies which allow it to underwrite oil and gas projects without restriction ahead of AGM

Inside the Chornobyl exclusion zone – in pictures

admin — Wed, 07 May 2025 13:46:23 +0000

A Russian drone attack has inflicted tens of millions of pounds of damage to the site of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, according to experts. The photographer Julia Kochetova has gained access to the area

US renewable energy has tripled in a decade – but almost $8bn in projects now face cuts

admin — Wed, 07 May 2025 13:00:46 +0000

Political uncertainty under Trump has dampened the market, even as red states see a boom in renewable energy

‘A cemetery of trees’: vast green expanses turned to dust as loggers plunder South America’s Gran Chaco

admin — Wed, 07 May 2025 13:00:45 +0000

Jaguars, giant armadillos and ocelots among species threatened by shrinking habitat in one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world

In the Gran Chaco forest, vast green expanses – home to jaguars, giant armadillos and howler monkeys – have turned to fields of dust. The forest once brimmed with life, says Bashe Nuhem, a member of the Indigenous Qom community, but then came a road, and soon after that logging companies. “It was an invasion. Loggers came without any consultation and families moved away. Those that stayed were left with only a cemetery of trees,” she says.

Reform’s green energy assault in Lincolnshire ‘puts 12,200 jobs at risk’

admin — Wed, 07 May 2025 13:00:28 +0000

Party intends to block projects despite net zero industries contributing nearly £1bn to local economy, analysis shows

UK politics live – latest updates

Reform UK’s plans to obstruct green energy projects in Lincolnshire put at risk almost £1bn in local investment and more than 12,000 jobs, analysis suggests.

Real-world geoengineering experiments revealed by UK agency

admin — Wed, 07 May 2025 10:42:58 +0000

Trials will test ways to block sunlight and slow climate crisis that threatens to trigger catastrophic tipping points

Real-world geoengineering experiments spanning the globe from the Arctic to the Great Barrier Reef are being funded by the UK government. They will test sun-reflecting particles in the stratosphere, brightening reflective clouds using sprays of seawater and pumping water on to sea ice to thicken it.

‘It’s like putting a whale in a blender’: the rise of deadly ship collisions in Chile

admin — Wed, 07 May 2025 10:00:11 +0000

On average, five fatal whale strikes occur in the country’s waters each year, the highest in the world – and just a fraction of the total number killed, say researchers

Photographs by Francis Pérez

The memory of a blue whale gliding past his small boat haunts Patricio Ortiz. A deep wound disfigured the cetacean’s giant body – a big chunk had been ripped from its dorsal fin. Cargo ships are the only adversary capable of inflicting such harm on a blue whale, he says.

“Nothing can be done when they’re up against those floating monsters.”

New reports tell us cattle and sheep farming can be sustainable – don’t believe them, it’s all bull | George Monbiot

admin — Wed, 07 May 2025 09:53:06 +0000

Feeding the world sustainably is an incredibly complex challenge, yet some people are trying to sell us a bucolic fairytale