Manager of Lough Neagh Partnership praises actions so far on lake’s algae crisis but warns of wider problems
The introduction of water rates in Northern Ireland could address crumbling wastewater infrastructure and the impact on waterways, it has been suggested.
It comes as the Stormont executive works to halt an environmental crisis at Lough Neagh, where noxious blooms of blue-green algae have covered the surface of the water across the past two summers.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
12/31/2024 - 12:54
12/31/2024 - 09:00
The president-elect said he will ‘stop the wave of frivolous litigation from environmental extremists’ but the ability to block suits will be limited, experts say
Donald Trump has promised to deregulate the energy sector, boost fossil fuels, dismantle environmental rules and otherwise attack climate progress. However, experts and advocates say that lawsuits that aim to hold the fossil fuel sector responsible for deceiving the public about the climate crisis still “have a clear path forward”.
“The overwhelming evidence of the industry’s lies and ongoing deception does not change with administrations,” said Richard Wiles, president of the non-profit Center for Climate Integrity, which tracks and supports the litigation. There are more than 30 accountability lawsuits active around the US brought by states and municipalities accusing fossil fuel interests of covering up the climate risks of their products or seeking damages for impacts. “Climate deception lawsuits against big oil have a clear path forward no matter who is in the White House.”
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12/31/2024 - 08:00
Arbor Day Foundation non-profit to plant trees in six of the worst-hit states over the next four years
Some costs of the recently ended supercharged 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, those that can be quantified at least, are astounding.
A succession of storms that ravaged large areas of the US killed at least 375 people, the most in the mainland US since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Some estimates pegged damage and economic loss at $500bn.
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12/31/2024 - 04:54
PM will have to respond to Climate Change Committee’s recommendations on future emissions cuts with drastic changes in many sectors of economy
Keir Starmer will face a key test of his claims to leadership on the climate early next year, when the UK’s statutory advisers issue their latest advice on future cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.
The independent Climate Change Committee will set out recommendations on the UK’s seventh carbon budget on 26 February. At the core of the budget will be an overall cap on emissions for the years 2038 to 2042, needed to meet the legal obligation of reaching net zero emissions in 2050.
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12/30/2024 - 21:48
Gulf province councillor says growing numbers are leaving, in what climate activist describes as a ‘humanitarian crisis’
Two years ago fisher Siri James lived on the southern coast of Papua New Guinea, in a small village near Pariva beach. But as the tides continued to rise, James was forced to move further in from the shore.
“It’s not easy moving inland, I was born and raised by the seas, I am a fisherman. I know the flow of tides and currents, I know when the wind will come strongly and when it will rain – but now I don’t understand why everything is changing,” says James, who is in his early 40s.
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12/30/2024 - 13:04
Seven local authorities in England have waste figures highlighted as government launches circular economy measures
New government data published on Monday showed that 95% of non-recycled waste in Essex is sent to landfill, as ministers launched their plans for a circular economy.
The data revealed that seven local authorities in England reported sending more than 40% of their residual waste to landfill in 2022 to 2023, with Essex county council at the top of the list.
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12/30/2024 - 09:00
Part of their body is hollow, this amplifies the sound. The longer you listen to their sound, the more they seem to sync up
Of all the languages’ words for cicada, Croatian’s might be the best: cvrčak, pronounced: tvr-chak. The sound it makes is “tvr-chi tvr-chi”. I have a Croatian friend who taught me part of a poem – Cicada – when we were in high school. It is by Vladimir Nazor, who was Croatia’s first head of state.
The first stanza includes the satisfyingly low on vowels and onomatopoeic phrase: “cvrči, cvrči cvrčak” (pronounced “tvrchi, tvrchi tvrchak”) – which translates as “chirp, chirp cicada”.
And the cicada chirps, chirps on the knot of the black spruce
Its deafening trochee, its sonorous, heavy iambic …
It is noon. – Like water, it spills out in silence.
A solar dithyramb.
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12/30/2024 - 07:00
Bumper grain crop set to weigh heavily as farmers count costs of seed, fertilizer – and effects of possible trade war
Many US midwestern grain farmers will lose money this year after reaping a bumper crop, and the outlook for their future income is bleak.
US farmers harvested some of the largest corn and soybean crops in history this year. Big harvests traditionally weigh on crop prices because of plentiful supply. And those price pressures comes at a time when costs remain persistently high to grow corn and soybeans, the US’s most valuable crops.
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12/30/2024 - 04:35
UN secretary general, António Guterres, says ‘we must exit this road to ruin’ in annual new year message
The world has endured a “decade of deadly heat”, with 2024 capping 10 years of unprecedented temperatures, the UN has said.
Delivering his annual new year message, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said the 10 hottest years on record had happened in the past decade, including 2024.
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12/30/2024 - 01:00
I wind my thread around their holes to create sculptures that connect with ageing and time
I have collected hundreds and hundreds of broken shells. I select them by holding them up to the sea, looking at the shape of them and deciding whether I want to work with them – and whether they will work with my thread.
To me, a shell that is broken is more interesting than a shell that is perfect. A broken shell has lived a life. I can see what the sea has done to it, what has happened to it on the rocks and stones. We spend so much of our lives searching for or trying to obtain perfection. But as I’ve got older, I’ve realised that perfection is unattainable – and the search isn’t worth it.
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