Mayor urges people to exercise utmost caution as weather service says situation around Mediterranean is critical
More than 15,000 residents of Marseille confined to their homes have been allowed out after a wildfire on the outskirts of France’s second city was brought under control, but officials have warned the country faces an exceptionally high-risk summer.
Fanned by gale-force winds and kindled by parched vegetation, several fires have burned swathes of southern France in recent days, including Tuesday’s just north of the port city. The weather service has said the weeks ahead could be critical.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/09/2025 - 07:07
07/09/2025 - 07:00
Greenery, shade and swimming spots won’t solve the climate crisis, but they’re becoming ever more critical
Three years ago, in Zurich for the first time, I crossed a bridge over the Limmat River and saw people floating down it in rubber rings on their way home from work, some casually holding beers. The Limmat is so clear that it almost begs you not only to jump in, but to drink it.
Paris’s Canal Saint-Martin has never produced either desire in me – but sweltering in last week’s 38C heat, I wanted to close my eyes, pretend it was the Limmat, and leap. Others weren’t so hesitant; there was a line of people going up one of the footbridges over the canal waiting for their turn to jump, dive, backflip or just belly-flop into the water.
Alexander Hurst is a Guardian Europe columnist
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07/09/2025 - 05:13
Regulator and government accused of colluding with water industry to dump potentially toxic waste without oversight
Millions of tonnes of toxic sewage sludge spread on UK farmland every year
‘A Trojan horse’: how toxic sewage sludge became a threat to the future of British farming
An Environment Agency (EA) insider has broken ranks to expose what they describe as a “deliberate and ongoing cover-up” of the public health and environmental dangers of spreading sewage sludge on farmland.
They accuse the regulator and government of colluding with water companies for years to facilitate the dumping of waste under the guise of soil enrichment – without oversight, transparency or testing.
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07/09/2025 - 05:00
With less congestion, less carbon pollution, less accidents, could it be a model for other US cities? Six months in, environmentalists say yes
It has faced threats and lawsuits and even had its death proclaimed by Donald Trump as he startlingly depicted himself as a king in a social media post. But New York City’s congestion charge scheme for cars has now survived its first six months, producing perhaps the fastest ever environmental improvement from any policy in US history.
New York vaulted into a global group of cities – such as London, Singapore and Stockholm – that charge cars for entering their traffic-clogged metropolitan hearts but also ushered in a measure that was unknown to Americans and initially unpopular with commuters, and was confronted by a new Trump administration determined to tear it down.
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07/08/2025 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 09 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00139-0
Human-wildlife coexistence through the lens of fishermen’s knowledge and lived experience
07/08/2025 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 09 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00145-2
The rapidly expanding offshore wind energy industry presents an unprecedented opportunity to collect valuable data on protected marine species, particularly the endangered North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis), through required Protected Species Observer (PSO) programs. PSO data, gathered during industry activities by trained biologists in often remote and challenging offshore environments, can fill critical knowledge gaps regarding species distribution, occurrence, and interactions with development, informing conservation and management strategies. While challenges remain regarding data accessibility, standardization, and integration, ongoing initiatives by agencies like the US National Marine Fisheries Service and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management coupled with existing data-sharing efforts and open-source platforms, offer pathways to maximize the value of PSO data. Realizing this potential requires collaborative partnerships between industry, agencies, researchers, and other stakeholders to establish centralized, publicly accessible databases with standardized protocols and adequate funding for data management. Successfully leveraging PSO data will significantly enhance our understanding of marine species and contribute to their conservation in the face of increasing offshore development.
07/08/2025 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 09 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00135-4
Unequal competition: the fate of domestic fisheries facing distant water fishing in the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean
07/07/2025 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 08 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00136-3
Identifying climate refugia and bright spots for highly mobile species
World Ocean Explorer Wins Gold Medal Serious Simulation Award from Serious Play Annual International Competition
10/26/2023 - 14:35
For Immediate Release October 19, 2023
Sedgwick, Maine USA World Ocean Explorer, a 3D virtual aquarium and educational simulation, was recently cited for excellence, winning a Gold Medal Award in the 2023 International Serious Play Awards Program.
World Ocean Explorer is an innovative 3D virtual aquarium designed for educational exploration of the world’s oceans. With interactive exhibits and a lobby space, visitors can immerse themselves in realistic marine environments, including a DEEP SEA exhibit funded by Schmidt Ocean Institute, showcasing unprecedented deep-sea discoveries off Australia. Targeted at 3rd graders and beyond, this immersive experience offers a range of perspectives on the ocean environment and can be explored through guided tours or user-controlled interfaces. Visit DEEP SEA at worldoceanexplorer.org/deep-sea-aquarium.html.
Serious Play Conference brings together professionals who are exploring the use of game-based learning, sharing their experience, and working together to shape the future of training and education. For more information on Serious Play Award Program visit seriousplayconf.com/international-serious-play-award-programs.
World Ocean Explorer is a transformative virtual aquarium designed to deepen understanding of the world ocean and amplify connection for young people worldwide. Organized around the principles of Ocean Literacy and the Next Gen Science Standards, World Ocean Explorer brings the wonder and knowledge of ocean species and systems to students in formal and informal classrooms, absolutely free to anyone with a good Internet connection. As an advocate for the ocean through communications, World Ocean Observatory believes there is no better investment in the future of the sustainable ocean than through a new approach to educational engagement that excites, informs, and motivates students to explore the wonders of our marine world and to understand the pervasive connection and implication for our future, inherent in the protection and conservation of all aspects of our ocean world.
World Ocean Explorer presents an astonishing 3-dimensional simulated aquarium visit, organized to reveal the wonders of undersea life, with layers of detailed data and information to augment the emotional connection made to the astonishing beauty and complexity of the dynamic ocean. Within each of the virtual exhibits, students visit exemplary theme-based sites with myriad opportunities to understand the larger perspectives of scientific knowledge as organized and visualized to dramatize the impact and change on ocean life as a result of natural and human-generated events. Through immersion among displays, mixed media and 3D models, the experience of an aquarium visit will be brought into classrooms or home school environments as a free, accessible, always available opportunity for teaching and learning. All of this will be available to a world audience without physical limitation or cost. World Ocean Explorer, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, receives support from the Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation, Visual Solutions Lab, the Climate Change Institute, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, and The Fram Museum Oslo. To learn more about the current and future exhibits of World Ocean Explorer, visit worldoceanexplorer.org.
media contact
Trisha Badger, Managing Director, World Ocean Observatory | director@thew2o.net +12077011069
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