Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Serious pollution incidents by English water companies rose 60% last year

admin — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 08:27:47 +0000

Environment Agency records 75 serious incidents among total of 2,800, with Thames Water being worst offender

Serious pollution incidents by water companies were up 60% last year compared with the year before, data has revealed.

These incidents are the most environmentally damaging and indicate that the sewage spill or other pollution incident has a serious, extensive or persistent impact on the environment, people or property. They could, for example, result in mass fish deaths in rivers.

Gas flaring created 389m tonnes of carbon pollution last year, report finds

admin — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 08:23:18 +0000

Rules to prevent ‘enormous waste’ of fuel are seen as weak and poorly enforced and firms have little incentive to stop

The fossil fuel industry pumped an extra 389m tonnes of carbon pollution into the atmosphere last year by needlessly flaring gas, a World Bank report has found, in an “enormous waste” of fuel that heats the planet by about as much as the country of France.

Week in wildlife: a hedgehog’s afternoon tea, royal cygnets and a snarling wolf

admin — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 06:00:45 +0000

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

‘Keeping us hooked on fossil fuels’: how can we negotiate with autocracies on the climate crisis?

admin — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 05:00:44 +0000

The bulk of global greenhouse gas emissions come from countries that are not democratic, and many big oil and gas exporters are also authoritarian

The big emitters: which countries are holding back climate action and why?

When it comes to the climate crisis, how do you negotiate with an autocracy?

150 million years old and critically endangered: assassin spider stalks its prey – video

admin — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 00:00:36 +0000

The Kangaroo Island assassin spider’s only known home is in the north-west of the island off the coast of South Australia, where it hides out in moist clumps of leaf litter. As parts of Kangaroo Island – still recovering from the black summer bushfires – suffer through near-record drought, scientists say an invasive plant root disease is drying out the Jurassic-era spider's habitat even further

Britons urged to count butterfly numbers amid hopes of ‘outstanding’ summer

admin — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 23:01:34 +0000

Big Butterfly Count asks volunteers to spend 15 minutes in local green space with big recovery expected after 2024’s dramatic decline

People are being urged to help measure the scale of Britain’s butterfly bounceback after last summer’s dramatic decline with this year’s launch of the world’s biggest insect survey.

Shooting of bear that swam to tiny Canadian island frustrates First Nations

admin — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 17:53:25 +0000

Indigenous groups had offered to rehome grizzly nicknamed Tex who was killed without authorization

The journey of Tex, a young grizzly bear that gripped public attention in Canada after swimming to a tiny populated island, came to a violent end this week after he was shot and killed without authorization, despite plans by Indigenous groups to relocate him.

These dogs are trained to sniff out an invasive insect—and they're shockingly good at it

admin — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 15:02:40 +0000

Dogs trained by everyday pet owners are proving to be surprisingly powerful allies in the fight against the invasive spotted lanternfly. In a groundbreaking study, citizen scientists taught their dogs to sniff out the pests’ hard-to-spot egg masses with impressive accuracy. The initiative not only taps into the huge community of recreational scent-detection dog enthusiasts, but also opens a promising new front in protecting agriculture. And it doesn’t stop there—these canine teams are now sniffing out vineyard diseases too, hinting at a whole new future of four-legged fieldwork.

How Trump’s anti-immigrant policies could collapse the US food industry – visualized

admin — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 15:00:24 +0000

The president is threatening to deport essential farm workers, grocery clerks and food delivery drivers. But without them, shelves could go empty and prices could soar

The Trump administration’s assault on immigrants is starting to hit the American food supply.

Rodent wars: US city where ground squirrels outnumber people fights back

admin — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 14:37:59 +0000

Residents of Minot, North Dakota, exasperated by proliferation of furry foot-long neighbors

The Richardson’s ground squirrel weighs less than a pound, is about a foot long and is native to the northern Plains.

The little creature also is a ferocious tunneler, and it’s exasperating the people of Minot, North Dakota, where it’s burrowing everywhere from vacant lots to the middle of town, and growing more plentiful over the past two decades.