Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Why unpaid US school lunch debt can prompt a call to child welfare services

admin — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 17:00:46 +0000

Around the US, policies empower school staff to view an unpaid food tab as proof of possible abuse

Earlier this year, administrators at South Mebane elementary in North Carolina sparked outrage – and a rushed community fundraising effort – after they issued a terse warning to parents in a school newsletter: students with lunch debt would not be allowed to attend an upcoming dance.

10 children drew their favourite sea creatures. Then Australia’s leading artists responded – in pictures

admin — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 15:00:49 +0000

Ken Done, Jonathan Zawada, Blak Douglas and more created their own companion pieces to kids’ works celebrating sharks and rays – and they’re on display at the Australian Museum now

‘Australia’s next rabbit plague’: calls for feral deer in Victoria to be considered a pest instead of wildlife

admin — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 15:00:48 +0000

Victoria is home to perhaps the largest population and the only mainland state with ‘legislative relic’ of protections

A baby pygmy hippo named Moo Deng: she is all we want to look at | Helen Sullivan

admin — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 15:00:45 +0000

In West Africa, Pygmy hippos are said to carry a diamond in their mouths, which they use to light their way through the forest

The thing to know about the pygmy hippopotamus named Moo Deng is that she is angry, but also she is sweet. In photographs, she is often blurry and at all times, she is shiny. She secretes something known as “blood sweat” which is actually her sunscreen.

Coalition’s nuclear power plan will add $665 to average power bill a year, report warns

admin — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 15:00:44 +0000

Opposition disputes costings in study and accuses authors of cherrypicking ‘worst-case scenario projects’ from around the world

Sweden cuts tax on flying despite admitting it would increase emissions

admin — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 13:30:09 +0000

Campaigners criticise decision to scrap tax introduced in 2018 amid rise of ‘flight shame’ movement

Campaigners have accused the Swedish government of doing “everything in its power to stop climate action” after it cut a tax on flying, despite admitting that it would increase emissions.

The flight tax, aimed at cutting pollution from aviation, was introduced in 2018, amid the rise of the “flight shame” (flygskam) movement popularised by Greta Thunberg.

Car industry calls for shift in EU emissions targets amid slowing EV sales

admin — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 12:48:24 +0000

Automotive lobby group warns ‘multibillion-euro fines’ will punish manufacturers without relaxation of rules

Europe’s car industry has called for the relaxation of EU emissions targets after sales of electric cars stalled further in August, adding to growing political pressure that threatens to slow the transition away from fossil fuels.

Phase out urban wood burners in UK to protect children’s health, say doctors

admin — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 12:10:26 +0000

Measure one of a number that Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health says will help curb air pollution

Wood burners in urban family homes should be phased out to protect children’s health, leading paediatricians have said.

A new position statement from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) calls for tougher government action to curb air pollution.

Two missing and 1,000 evacuated as Storm Boris devastates northern Italy

admin — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 11:24:00 +0000

Meloni government accused of lacking will to confront climate crisis as floods cause havoc in Emilia-Romagna

Two people are missing and about 1,000 people have been evacuated from their homes after devastating floods and landslides hit the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, prompting accusations that Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government lacks the will to confront the climate crisis.

I’ve studied geopolitics all my life: climate breakdown is a bigger threat than China and Russia | Anatol Lieven

admin — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 11:00:18 +0000

‘Risk’ analyses largely ignore the dangers of the climate crisis. Unless we wake up to them, they will soon outweigh all others

The Irish sea captain who in 1751 discovered the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (Amoc) – closely connected with, though not identical to, the Gulf Stream – found a practical use for it: he used the frigid deeper water to cool his wine.