Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Campaigners say consumption such as travel, gifts and food are destroying planet and the meaning of Christmas Whether out of poverty or virtue, many of us spend much of the year reining in our appetites to save our pennies and our health. But at Christmas many of us put our worries aside and go wild in an orgy of lavish gifting, extensive travel and a gluttonous feeding frenzy. This carnival of consumption has a cost: not just to our wallets and our waistlines, but also to the climate. Continue reading...

Government to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars but will relax rules that force firms to sell more electric vehicles every year Business live – latest updates The British car industry has welcomed government proposals that could allow Toyota Prius-style hybrids to continue to be sold in the UK after 2030, as part of a package of measures to ease regulations on carmakers. The UK government published details on Christmas Eve of a consultation on which cars should be allowed on sale after 2030 – when sales of new petrol and diesel cars will be banned – as well as on how it will relax rules that force manufacturers to sell more electric cars every year. Continue reading...

From the Flask glacier to King George Island, intrepid researchers expect good cheer, snow and penguins Many of us will not get a white Christmas this year, but a group of scientists are guaranteed one while carrying out research on the Antarctic peninsula. While ice and good cheer are expected, their yuletide activities will be very different from those back home. Dr Kate Winter, of Northumbria University, and colleagues will be deploying instruments on Flask glacier to study the way that meltwater affects how quickly glaciers flow into the ocean. Continue reading...

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. El Salvador became the first country in the world to ban all forms of metals mining in 2017. Bukele, who took office in 2019, has called the ban absurd. Continue reading...