Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Pollution aside, the problem with expanding Heathrow lies in the disruption and delay inevitable in such a complex project Get ready for another season of that interminable saga, Heathrow’s third runway. There was a lull during the Covid pandemic when the airport’s owners, despite winning permission from the supreme court in 2020 to submit a planning application, cooled their jets while they waited for passenger numbers to recover. Now the whole thing is back, courtesy of Rachel Reeves. The chancellor is reported to be preparing to use a speech next week to declare support for a third runway at Heathrow alongside wider airport expansion in the south-east. The best form of airport expansion is none at all, environmentalists (some of them in the cabinet) will argue, but it looks as if Reeves has dismissed those objections in the name of economic growth. A £1.1bn investment in Stansted, to enable it to grow its annual capacity from 29 million passengers to 43 million, was welcomed by the government last year. Continue reading...

Gusts could peak at 70mph (113km/h) along the coast and 100mph (160km/h) in the mountains and foothills Winds picked up on Tuesday in southern California and at least a couple of new wildfires broke out as firefighters remained on alert in extreme fire weather, two weeks after major blazes started, two of them still burning, in the Los Angeles area. The fresh high winds – that are coming amid still bone-dry conditions – mark the end of a break in dangerous high fire-risk conditions that have allowed the beleaguered city’s firefighters to largely contain the disastrous blazes that have burnt thousands of homes. The fires have killed at least 27 people and destroyed more than 14,000 structures since they broke out during fierce winds on 7 January. Continue reading...

Artisanal shellfish farmers face ruinous losses but money meant to help is going to the powerful fishing industry, say critics Early on a warm September morning in southern Italy, Giovanni Nicandro sets out from the port of Taranto in his small boat. Summoning his courage, the mussel farmer inspects his year’s work – only to find them all dead, a sight that almost brings him to tears. “We have many problems,” he says. “The problems start as soon as we open our eyes in the morning.” The loss is total – not only for Nicandro but also for Taranto’s 400 other mussel farmers, after a combination of pollution and rising sea temperatures devastated their harvest. Continue reading...

President tells crowd that US ‘will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity’ What executive orders did Trump sign on day one? Donald Trump took aim at federal support for the sale of electric vehicles (EVs) on Monday, amid a flurry of promised executive orders on his first day back in the White House. “The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity,” Trump said during a ceremony at Capitol One Arena, where he signed a raft of executive orders before a roaring crowd. Trump embraces role of demagogue, claims to be ‘peacemaker’ – follow inauguration updates as it happened Factchecking Trump’s speech Elon Musk appears to make back-to-back fascist salutes Activists ask: is there any point in mass protest? Continue reading...