Breaking Waves: Ocean News

The Guardian view on chemical pollution: the UK can’t ignore the risks from PFAS | Editorial

admin — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 18:47:48 +0000

Efforts by the plastics industry to thwart regulation come from a familiar playbook

Could Keir Starmer’s AI dream derail his own green energy promise?

admin — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 18:09:03 +0000

As PM pins hopes on AI, what effect will building energy-hungry datacentres have on Labour’s clean power pledge?

Keir Starmer this week launched a plan to bring a 20-fold increase in the amount of artificial intelligence (AI) computing power under public control by 2030.

Great Barrier Reef fish evidence suggests shifts in major global biodiversity patterns

admin — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 17:52:47 +0000

Life on the Great Barrier Reef is undergoing big changes in the face of climate change and other human-caused pressures, a new study reveals. From food security to controlling seaweed and even making sand for beaches, reef fish are a hugely important part of marine ecosystems providing a range of benefits to humans and coral reef ecosystems. New research reveals significant transformations in fish communities on the Great Barrier Reef, the World's largest coral reef ecosystem.

Climate activists who target artworks ‘using Suffragette tactics’, says artist

admin — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 16:53:04 +0000

Alex Margo Arden says ‘symbolic damage’ helped force public conversation about climate crisis

Protesters who targeted paintings to raise awareness of the climate crisis were using an “effective” tactic also used by the Suffragettes, according to an artist whose new show focuses on recent attacks on high-profile artworks.

Alex Margo Arden, whose exhibition, Safety Curtain, opens this week at Auto Italia in east London, said the “symbolic damage” caused to the images, which were protected by glass, helped force a public conversation about the climate crisis.

‘Assume the worst’: fears rise that LA drinking water could be contaminated

admin — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 16:47:44 +0000

Growing concern that toxic chemicals released by wildfires can get into damaged drinking water systems

As fires continue to burn across Los Angeles, several utilities have declared their drinking water unsafe until extensive testing can prove otherwise.

A warmer, drier climate means wildfires are getting worse, and encroaching on cities – with devastating impact. Toxic chemicals from those burns can get into damaged drinking water systems, and even filtering or boiling won’t help, experts say.

Private school run in south London linked to 27% rise in air pollution

admin — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 16:07:31 +0000

Campaigners say pollution levels in street in Herne Hill were far higher when private schools were open

Parents driving children to private schools is associated with a 27% increase in air pollution and congestion in a south London street, according to campaigners who are calling for private schools to make greater use of sustainable transport.

Chemicals in sewage sludge fertilizer used on farms pose cancer risk, EPA says

admin — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 15:45:33 +0000

Environmental Protection Agency officials warn of toxic PFAS found in sewage often spread on pasture

Harmful chemicals in sewage sludge spread on pasture as fertilizer pose a risk to people who regularly consume milk, beef and other products from those farms, in some cases raising cancer risk “several orders of magnitude” above what the Environmental Protection Agency considers acceptable, federal officials announced on Tuesday.

No 10 blocks beaver release plan as officials view it as ’Tory legacy’

admin — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 14:00:54 +0000

Exclusive: Natural England furious that years of work has been undone, with minister urged to push policy through

Downing Street has blocked plans to release wild beavers in England because officials view it as a “Tory legacy”, the Guardian can reveal.

UK bans German pork products after foot-and-mouth outbreak near Berlin

admin — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 13:26:09 +0000

Ham, gammon, bacon, salami and some dairy products banned after Germany’s first reported case in nearly 40 years

Britain has banned the import of German ham, bacon and salami as well as many other meat and dairy products after a case of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed on the outskirts of Berlin last week.

The government said that while there were no cases of the livestock disease in Britain, the ban would help stop it spreading and protect British farmers and their livelihoods.

Revealed: US hazardous waste is sent to Mexico – where a ‘toxic cocktail’ of pollution emerges

admin — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 12:00:27 +0000

A Guardian and Quinto Elemento Lab investigation finds very high levels of lead and arsenic in homes near a factory processing US toxic waste

Leer en español en Quinto Elemento Lab

Raquel Villarreal lives in a bright-yellow house in Mexico’s Monterrey metropolitan area with her family and nine cats. Here, the emergency medicine doctor has raised three daughters, one of whom died at the age of 14.