Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Queensland supreme court orders Pennings, a campaigner against the Carmichael coalmine, not to seek to acquire Adani’s confidential information Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The Indian mining company Adani has agreed to end its marathon legal pursuit of the environmental activist Ben Pennings. Pennings declared victory on Thursday, after the Queensland supreme court signed off on orders on Wednesday, ending the five-and-a-half-year court battle. The order requires Pennings not to seek to acquire Adani’s confidential information or to ask others to do so, but the company has dropped a demand for payment of damages which at one stage stood at $600m. Continue reading...

A record 39,000 birds are overwintering on Wallasea island wetlands thanks to soil transported from London tunnels Almost 40,000 birds have made their home on a nature reserve created using soil from tunnel excavations for the Elizabeth line. Three million tonnes of earth were transported from London to Wallasea island in Essex and used to lift the ground level and make wetlands. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Former US secretary of state calls for more demanding steps from Australia as it takes over presidency of next year’s UN climate summit Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Australia’s government, which will preside over the next UN climate summit, should gather the world’s 25 biggest greenhouse gas emitting countries and push them to draw up a roadmap to end the era of fossil fuels, former US secretary of state John Kerry has said. Only by “hard-nosed” confrontation with fossil fuel producers, and reducing their consumption in major economies, would the world be able to tackle the climate crisis, he said. Continue reading...

EPA had previously said rule reducing fine particle matter from vehicles and industrial sources could prevent thousands of premature deaths a year The Trump administration is seeking to abandon a rule that sets tough standards for deadly soot pollution, arguing that the Biden administration did not have authority to set the tighter standard on pollution from tailpipes, smokestacks and other industrial sources. The action follows moves by the administration last week to weaken federal rules protecting millions of acres of wetlands and streams and roll back protections for imperiled species and the places they live. In a separate action, the interior department proposed new oil drilling off the California and Florida coasts for the first time in decades, advancing a project that critics say could harm coastal communities and ecosystems. Continue reading...