Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Theodore Roosevelt protected swathes of land, while Trump has lifted protections from more than 86m acres Donald Trump will attend a ribbon cutting for the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library on Wednesday, touting the legacy of a president his own administration is attempting to destroy, critics say. While in office from 1901 to 1909, Roosevelt established five new national parks, protected swaths of land and passed legislation enabling himself and future presidents to proclaim historic landmarks and other objects of historic or scientific interest in federal ownership as national monuments. Continue reading...

The class politics of extreme heat are very real and very dangerous – but that doesn’t stop the billionaire press from peddling its agenda Every time you think the idiocy has hit rock bottom, it discovers a new level. It turns out there’s an even deeper hole you can dig for yourself than climate-science denial: heat-stress denial. Across the billionaire press last week, columnists and leader writers minimised the health impacts of the heatwave, particularly in schools. Expect more of this next week, when temperatures are forecast to soar again. An editorial in the Telegraph (which represents the newspaper’s view) titled “Hot weather alarmism treats the public like children” maintained that “unlike in the seventies, when people were largely trusted to look after themselves, officialdom now feels the need to lecture the public about the risks of hot weather at every opportunity”. Extreme heat warnings are issued and weather maps are “painted in an alarming red”. Outrageous! Instead of issuing warnings, the government should just trust people to “take the appropriate precautions”. We should all “learn to live” with it. Quite right too: whatever happened to the bulldog spirit of ignorance and needless death? Cricket, warm beer, excess mortality: these are the markers of national character. Continue reading...

Study reveals extreme heat causes sharp drop with knock-on effect for pollination of food crops in following years We know heatwaves have serious health consequences for humans, but what about other species? A study has shown they severely diminish bees’ fertility, with significant implications for the pollination of food crops in the following years. Prof James Gilbert of the University of Hull his and colleagues simulated a three-day UK heatwave in the lab and measured its effect on solitary red mason bees, compared with those kept under control conditions of an ordinary summer. Continue reading...

Nine of the group stage games played in severe heat, analysis finds, as union points to lessons for the whole sport Nine matches in the World Cup group stage were played amid potentially dangerous heat and humidity, a Guardian analysis shows, as the global players’ union Fifpro warned that heat would have to “play a bigger part” in the sport’s future scheduling decisions. The findings come as probably record-breaking heat and humidity will hit the midwest and eastern US this week and could make conditions even more challenging for players and fans at some games. Continue reading...