Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Ford writes off $1.9bn as it cancels plans for all-electric large SUV in US

admin — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 15:59:22 +0000

Carmaker opts to produce hybrid version due to profitability concerns, citing pressure from Chinese EV competition

Ford has written off $1.9bn as it cancelled plans for an all-electric large SUV in the US, opting to produce a hybrid version instead in the latest sign of western carmakers struggling to make profitable electric cars.

One of UK’s largest and rarest spider species making a comeback, says RSPB

admin — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 15:54:19 +0000

Marsh restorations allowing populations of fen raft spider, which can be up to 7cm long, to recover

One of the rarest and largest species of spider in the UK is said to be making a comeback on nature reserves.

After facing near extinction over the last century, the UK’s population of fen raft spiders is steadily increasing, and numbers are at a record high this year, according to the conservation charity RSPB.

Lead found in tap water of Los Angeles community after residents raised alarm for years

admin — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 14:00:09 +0000

Exclusive: researchers tested water across Watts and found lead, after people struggled to draw attention to ‘overarching neglect’

A new report has found elevated lead levels in tap water across Watts, a south Los Angeles community that has faced decades of environmental racism, including in the drinking water of multiple public housing developments.

Researchers working with the Better Watts Initiative, a community environmental group, tested tap water at sites across the neighbourhood, and found lead, a neurotoxic metal, at or above US government limits.

Sudanese farm grows connection in Minnesota amid conflict at home

admin — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 13:00:02 +0000

Volunteers come to share stories and labor. They leave with vegetables, war news and a shared sense of identity

On a recent Sunday, instructions in Arabic and English filled the air on a quiet street in New Hope, Minnesota. Every weekend, a group of Sudanese American professionals and students come to the half-acre space nestled near a distribution warehouse about 20 minutes north of Minneapolis. Their goal: to farm, and to do it together.

Microplastics are infiltrating brain tissue, studies show: ‘There’s nowhere left untouched’

admin — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 13:00:01 +0000

Twenty-four brain samples collected in early 2024 measured on average about 0.5% plastic by weight

A growing body of scientific evidence shows that microplastics are accumulating in critical human organs, including the brain, leading researchers to call for more urgent actions to rein in plastic pollution.

Studies have detected tiny shards and specks of plastics in human lungs, placentas, reproductive organs, livers, kidneys, knee and elbow joints, blood vessels and bone marrow.

Oil firms and dark money fund push by Republican states to block climate laws

admin — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 11:00:08 +0000

Association of attorneys general has received millions from Koch Industries, fossil fuel lobby and fund linked to billionaire Leonard Leo

A powerful group that boasts 28 Republican attorneys general, including many who have sided with oil and gas firms to block states seeking compensation for weather disasters caused by climate change, has raked in millions of dollars from fossil fuel giants and a dark money fund tied to Federalist Society co-chair, Leonard Leo.

Privatised water firms are imperilling our health and poisoning our rivers. Act now: flood the streets with rage | Feargal Sharkey

admin — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 09:00:06 +0000

It is time to say this privatisation zealotry has been a disaster. March with us and let ministers know – enough is enough

You’ve been lied to, you’ve been misled, you’ve been extorted, you’ve been cheated, and you’ve been abused. For the last 35 years, you have been subject to nothing more than possibly the greatest organised ripoff perpetrated on the British people, and you have had little in return apart from greed, profiteering, financial engineering, political failure and regulatory incompetency. You’ve been had.

The livestock lobby is waging war on ‘lab-grown meat’. This is why we can’t let them win | George Monbiot

admin — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 07:00:03 +0000

These new proteins could be our best hope of averting catastrophe. But governments are trying to have them banned

Sweden to kill 20% of its brown bears in annual hunt

admin — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 04:00:49 +0000

Conservationists say the number of hunting licences granted is too high and condemn it as ‘pure trophy hunting’

Sweden has issued licences to kill 20% of its brown bear population in the country’s annual bear hunt, which begins today, despite concerns from conservationists.

Huge NT solar farm backed by Mike Cannon-Brookes gets environmental approval

admin — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 03:07:18 +0000

Go-ahead given for first stage of $30bn SunCable project, which minister says will be ‘transformational’ for Northern Territory