Breaking Waves: Ocean News

El Salvador overturns metals mining ban, defying environmental groups

admin — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 21:14:03 +0000

President Nayib Bukele pushed for the legislation that will grant government sole authority over mining activities

El Salvador’s legislature has overturned a seven-year-old ban on metals mining, a move that the country’s authoritarian president, Nayib Bukele, had pushed for to boost economic growth, but that environmental groups had opposed.

EPA prosecutes three companies over Sydney asbestos mulch

admin — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:00:23 +0000

Charges encompass a total of 102 alleged offences relating to 26 sites, including Rozelle parklands

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The New South Wales Environment Protection Authority is prosecuting three companies and one individual in response to its investigation into Sydney’s asbestos in mulch scandal.

Revealed: Thames Water diverted ‘cash for clean-ups’ to help pay bonuses

admin — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:00:20 +0000

Exclusive: UK’s biggest water company assessed risks before cutting back on cost of environmental work, investigation shows

Thames Water intentionally diverted millions of pounds pledged for environmental clean-ups towards other costs including bonuses and dividends, the Guardian can reveal.

The company, which serves more than 16 million customers, cut the funds after senior managers assessed the potential risks of such a move.

My sewing group makes reusable produce bags - cutting back on plastic and textile waste

admin — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:00:18 +0000

Read more from My DIY climate hack, a series on everyday people’s creative solutions to the climate crisis

Single-use plastic bags are not only wasteful, they cause serious damage to the environment and our health. Anne-Marie Bonneau, 56, is on a mission to put more reusable produce bags into the world.

Burt, the giant crocodile from Crocodile Dundee, dies aged 90

admin — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:25:05 +0000

The reptile, who later became Australia’s answer to Paul the octopus, ‘passed away peacefully’ in Darwin

Burt, the giant crocodile that featured in hit Australian comedy Crocodile Dundee, has died.

Crocosaurus Cove, an aquarium and exhibition space in Darwin, Australia, where Burt was housed, announced the news on social media, saying that the crocodile “passed away peacefully” and was “estimated to be over 90 years old”.

Gaza war victims take legal action against BP over oil supply to Israel

admin — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:00:15 +0000

Palestinians accuse UK firm of breaching human rights laws by piping oil allegedly used by Israeli army

Palestinian victims of the war in Gaza are taking legal action against BP for running a pipeline that supplies much of Israel’s crude oil.

The claimants have sent the British oil company a letter before claim, alleging it is breaching its stated commitments to human rights under international law.

Water voles bounce back in key areas but distribution across UK declines

admin — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:00:14 +0000

Exclusive: Efforts to eradicate American mink help boost population of river-residing mammal in 11 areas of country

Water voles continue to decline in their distribution across Britain but there are signs of recovery in some regions, with populations bouncing back in 11 key areas, according to a report.

The river-residing mammal, which inspired Ratty in the Wind in the Willows, has revived in number in parts of Yorkshire, Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire and East Anglia thanks to targeted conservation work.

‘If we die, we die together’: 20 years after the Boxing Day tsunami, are we better prepared?

admin — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:00:12 +0000

Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in Aceh in 2004. Now warning systems are in place, but some feel more could be done

Ghosts of the landscape: how folklore and songs are key to rewilding Finland’s reindeer

admin — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 07:00:10 +0000

For ecologists restoring the vast bogs of remote Karelia, wild reindeer are not just part of the environment but entwined with the ancient culture of the boreal forests

The Finnish folk musician Liisa Matveinen lives in a mustard-coloured house in Ilomantsi, 12 miles (20km) from the Russian border. Large books of folk songs line her walls. Sitting in her kitchen, Matveinen sings about a humble hunter going into the woods to find reindeer.

On a wing and a prayer: the hidden beauty of insect’s flight – in pictures

admin — Sat, 21 Dec 2024 17:00:22 +0000

For the past decade, the Barcelona-based visual artist Xavi Bou has devoted his work to revealing “the hidden beauty of natural movement”. His initial focus was birds; now he’s moved on to insects. In collaboration with US entomologist Adrian Smith he’s created an eye-popping series that captures – by merging multiple frames into a single image – the rhythmic flutterings of butterflies and chaotic leaps of spittlebugs and treehoppers.