Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Fiji ant study provides new evidence of insects’ decline on remote islands

admin — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 18:00:13 +0000

DNA analysis of endemic specimens in museums finds 79% of ant populations in Pacific archipelago are shrinking

Island-dwelling insects have not been spared the ravages of humanity that have pushed so many of their invertebrate kin into freefall around the world, new research on Fijian ant populations has found.

Rome mayor’s claim of swimmable Tiber in five years met with scepticism

admin — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 17:07:33 +0000

Experts unconvinced by Roberto Gualtieri’s mooted timescale for river to be reopened for public bathing

Rome hopes to welcome swimmers back to the River Tiber within five years, the city’s mayor has announced, drawing inspiration from Paris, where the Seine was reopened for public bathing this summer for the first time in a century.

During a visit on Thursday to the Osaka Expo in Japan, Roberto Gualtieri said a working group had been set up to study the feasibility of the clean-up project.

Spanish schools to teach pupils how to cope with climate crisis disasters

admin — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 14:23:30 +0000

Children as young as three will have lessons on wildfires and flooding under 10-point emergency response plan

Spanish children will be taught how to respond to floods, wildfires, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in a drive to help prepare them for the growing impact of the climate emergency.

Reform council to ‘rescind’ climate emergency declaration

admin — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 14:15:49 +0000

Kent council condemned by opposition parties, which say county is ‘at the forefront of climate impacts’

Plans by Reform UK to “rescind” the declaration of a climate emergency at one of the English county councils it now controls have been condemned by opposition parties.

Hundreds of local authorities across Britain have made the declarations, which serve as acknowledgments that they need to act on the causes and impacts of climate change and are linked to efforts to achieve net zero targets.

‘A last resort’: is culling foxes the only way to save Britain’s vanishing curlews?

admin — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 13:07:22 +0000

Keeping predator numbers down may be last hope for the ground-nesting birds – but critics say real problem is farming practices

Should we be organising mass culls of foxes and crows in the UK in order to save the plummeting numbers of curlews? That is the argument put forward by certain bird conservation groups.

Streets submerged in Indonesia after deadly floods – video

admin — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 12:53:13 +0000

Fifteen people are dead and 100 missing as Indonesia reels from floods caused by extreme rainfall. Rescuers search for survivors after at least 112 neighbourhoods were submerged by rising rivers. Torrential rain began on Monday, causing flooding and landslides in Bali and East Nusa Tenggara province. As river levels returned to normal on Thursday, authorities worked to clear streets of mud and debris

Flash floods in Indonesia leave at least 15 people dead and 10 missing

‘It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet’: striped bass in a Canadian river are gobbling up all the salmon. Is a mass cull the answer?

admin — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 10:00:51 +0000

Whether to kill one species to save another has split biologists, anglers and Indigenous communities in the Miramichi

Photographs by Brittany Crossman

Green energy entrepreneur calls on UK to subsidise North Sea oil and gas firms

admin — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 09:58:07 +0000

Dale Vince urges ministers to ‘optimise’ resources in fossil fuel basin to help smooth transition to renewables

One of Britain’s leading green industrialists has called on the government to offer subsidies to North Sea oil companies to help support a “just transition” to renewables.

Hedgehog highways could become requirement for new buildings

admin — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 05:00:23 +0000

Lords amend planning bill to include protections for wild animals, including bird-safe glass and swift bricks

Hedgehog highways and bird-safe glass could become requirements for all new buildings as members of the House of Lords push through amendments to the government’s planning bill.

Sydney Water failed to properly test before declaring ‘no known Pfas hotspots’ in catchments, inquiry finds

admin — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 04:07:19 +0000

More attention needs to be given to rapidly evolving issue of contamination of waterways with ‘forever chemicals’, committee’s chair says

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