Breaking Waves: Ocean News

New research shows that many wildlife species in the U.S., like the endangered giant kangaroo rat, will face much more frequent and severe droughts in the future. By 2050-2080, year-long droughts could happen almost five times as often, and three-year droughts almost seven times as often compared to past decades. These changes will require animals to adapt significantly. Scientists have identified areas with high biodiversity and high risk that can help managers focus attention for conservation efforts. The southwestern U.S. is a critical area where many species will be more affected by increased droughts.

Top adviser says vessels that sank and ran aground are part of aged fleet that will continue to cause large-scale damage Ukraine has called on the international community to take action against Russia’s sanctions-busting oil fleet, after an ageing tanker sank in the Black Sea, causing a major environmental disaster. The Russian cargo ship, Volgoneft-212, broke in half during a heavy storm off the coast of occupied Crimea on Sunday. A second tanker, Volgoneft-239, got into difficulties in the same area. It eventually ran aground near the port of Taman at the south end of the Kerch strait. Continue reading...

It is probably wrong to touch, even gently, these creatures. But even now I find it difficult to resist In her book Theatres of Glass, Rebecca Stott writes about the Victorian craze for home aquariums – which swept London in the 1850s, with people taking animals from the seaside and making miniature rock pools at home in large glass enclosures or pie dishes. The craze did not last long; people didn’t have a way to oxygenate the water and most of what they collected died. But among the people who loved the idea that you could create a rock pool at home was Mary Ann Evans – who wrote as George Eliot. She and her partner, the philosopher and critic George Henry Lewes, spent two summers hunting sea anemones in the town of Ilfracombe, where they were “absolutely fascinated” by what they saw, Stott says. Commenting on how difficult they found it at first to spot the anemones they had been told were as “plenty as blackberries”, Eliot wrote that it is “characteristic enough of the wide difference there is between having eyes and seeing”. Lewes, meanwhile, wrote in an article for the Westminster Review: We must always remember the great drama which is incessantly acted out in every drop of water, on every inch of earth. Then and only then do we realise the mighty complexity, the infinite splendour of nature. Then and only then do we feel how full of life, varied, intricate, marvellous, world within world, yet nowhere without space to move is this single planet, on the crust of which we stand and look out into shoreless space peopled by myriads of other planets, larger, if not more wonderful than ours. Viciously, then, I lock my door. The gas-fire breathes. The wind outside Ushers in evening rain. Once more Uncontradicting solitude Supports me on its giant palm; And like a sea-anemone Or simple snail, there cautiously Unfolds, emerges, what I am. At nights birds hammered my unborn child’s heart to strength, each strike bringing bones and spine to glow, her lungs pestled loud as the sea I was raised a sea anemone among women who cursed their hearts out, Helen Sullivan is a Guardian journalist. She is writing a book for Scribner Australia Do you have an animal, insect or other subject you’d like to see profiled by this columnist? Email helen.sullivan@theguardian.com Continue reading...

Peter Dutton’s path ‘would be an absolute failure’ in decarbonising the electricity sector and meeting Australia’s emission targets, analyst says Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Australia would emit far more climate pollution – more than 1.7bn extra tonnes of carbon dioxide – between now and 2050 under the Coalition’s nuclear-focused plan than under Labor’s renewable energy dominated policy, analysts say. The opposition last week released modelling of its “coal-to-nuclear” plan that would slow the rollout of renewable energy and batteries and instead rely on more fossil fuel generation until a nuclear industry could be developed, mostly after 2040. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...