Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Fossil fuel companies get direct email line to Trump for exemption requests

admin — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 20:19:33 +0000

EPA sets up email address where ‘regulated community’ can request exemption to evade air pollution rules

Donald Trump’s administration has offered fossil fuel companies an extraordinary opportunity to evade air pollution rules by simply emailing the US president to ask him to exempt them.

‘The nation is watching’: sewage dumps in Windermere must end, says activist

admin — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 15:00:23 +0000

Ministers urged to do more after United Utilities discharged raw sewage into Unesco site for 6,327 hours last year

Celebrated by William Wordsworth, Windermere has long epitomised the natural timeless beauty of the Lake District, with millions of tourists drawn to the shores that inspired the poet. But today England’s biggest lake is, some campaigners say, a shadow of its 19th century self: its waters blighted by algae and its wildlife threatened by pollution, in a symbol of all that is wrong with the privatised water industry.

Labor’s grassroots environmental group dismayed by rushed bill protecting salmon industry

admin — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 14:00:27 +0000

The Labor Environment Action Network says it won’t ‘sugar coat’ its reaction after working ‘so hard’ on obtaining commitment for EPA

Small but feisty: the clever cuttlefish that changes colour to bedazzle predators

admin — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 14:00:24 +0000

The flamboyant cuttlefish flashes patterns and psychedelic colours and waves its arms in a hypnotic display

US wine importers and bars nervously wait for tariff decision: ‘It’s a sad situation’

admin — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 14:00:23 +0000

Many importers halt shipments on chance White House makes good on threat of 200% markup on European goods

As the threat of exorbitant US tariffs on European alcohol imports looms, a warehouse in the French port city of Le Havre awaits a delivery of more than 1,000 cases of wine from a dozen boutique wineries across the country.

First days of spring in London – in pictures

admin — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 12:44:30 +0000

As life starts to return to the capital’s parks and woodlands, photographer Sarah Lee has been capturing daffodils and budding plants, walkers, buskers and joggers out in the sunshine. She says: ‘Everything feels so dark right now, it’s good to know the light is coming back’

How countries cheat their net zero carbon targets – video

admin — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 11:54:28 +0000

Net zero is a target that countries should be striving for to stop the climate crisis. But beyond the buzzword, it is a complex scientific concept – and if we get it wrong, the planet will keep heating.

Biodiversity and environment reporter Patrick Greenfield explains how a loophole in the 2015 Paris climate agreement allows countries to cheat their net zero targets through creative accounting, and how scientists want us to fix it

US could see return of acid rain due to Trump’s rollbacks, says scientist who discovered it

admin — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 11:30:18 +0000

Gene Likens, who first identified acidic rainwater in 1960s, said the Trump administration’s ‘rollbacks are alarming’

The US could be plunged back into an era of toxic acid rain, an environmental problem thought to have been solved decades ago, due to the Donald Trump administration’s rollback of pollution protections, the scientist who discovered the existence of acid rain in North America has warned.

Just Stop Oil to ‘hang up the hi-vis’ after three years of climate action

admin — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 11:25:43 +0000

Final gathering in April will mark end of street protests although campaign to continue ‘in courts and prisons’

Supporters of the climate group Just Stop Oil have announced that, after three years of disruptive protests, they are ending their campaign of civil resistance.

Hannah Hunt, whose speech on Valentine’s Day 2022 marked the beginning of the campaign, made the announcement outside Downing Street in London on Thursday.

Nearly 4m hours of raw sewage dumped in England’s waters last year

admin — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 10:57:46 +0000

Duration of spills by water companies up on previous year, in data described by environment secretary as ‘disgraceful’

Raw sewage was discharged into rivers and coastal waters in England for almost 4m hours last year, with waterways that have the highest environmental protections subjected to days of pollution.

Data released by the Environment Agency on Thursday revealed water companies discharged untreated effluent for 3.62m hours, a slight increase on last year.