Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Trump administration reverses decision to scrap ocean monitoring system

admin — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 19:31:44 +0000

Move to dismantle $368m sea observatory initiative faced opposition from experts and lawmakers

The Donald Trump administration has reversed its decision to dismantle a $368m deep-sea observation system following an outcry from lawmakers and ocean experts.

Heathrow third runway likely to affect health of millions nearby, official report warns

admin — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 16:19:01 +0000

Expansion could also harm access to housing, education, healthcare, open spaces and transport, analysis says

Construction of a third runway at Heathrow is likely to have significant adverse effects on the health and wellbeing of up to 3 million people living nearby, an official report has said, as the government launched the next stage of its rapid airport expansion plan.

South African men sentenced in ‘world’s largest’ rhino horn trafficking case

admin — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 16:15:31 +0000

‘Mastermind’ Dawie Groenewald given fine of 2m rand or four-year jail term almost 16 years after arrest

Two traffickers of rhino horns have been sentenced by a South African court in what police said was the world’s largest such case, partly bringing to an end an almost two-decade legal saga.

Dawie Groenewald and Tielman Erasmus had faced more than 1,700 charges ranging from illegally hunting and dehorning rhinos to racketeering and money laundering.

Showdown in the desert: the small town fending off a new California gold rush

admin — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 16:00:07 +0000

A prospecting company’s search for gold has the town of Lone Pine and Indigenous leaders on edge, as the Trump administration greenlights new projects across the American west

Lone Pine, population 1,882, lies along a stretch of California highway framed by the vast Inyo mountains and a sweeping desert landscape of sagebrush and dunes.

‘Mega-consumers’ of food and energy cost environment $5.7tn a year, study finds

admin — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 15:00:06 +0000

Top 10% generate climate and biodiversity damage bill that exceeds economies of most countries, say researchers

The environmental damage bill racked up by the highest-consuming 10% of the world’s population has reached up to $5.7tn a year – larger than the economy of every country except the US and China, a study has found.

Mega-consumers in this group are concentrated in the global north, accounting for more than half the population of the US and 40-45% of people in the EU.

Lake Tahoe residents ‘horrified’ by plans to spray cancer-linked glyphosate in public lands

admin — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 13:00:03 +0000

Federal agency to use herbicide to clear lands for replanting after 2021 Caldor fire – but public reaction to plan is fierce

Katherine Levy remembers a childhood deeply rooted in the natural offerings of Lake Tahoe – water-skiing in the summer and working as ski instructor on the surrounding snow-covered mountains during winter months.

Drax cleared after investigation into sourcing of wood pellets

admin — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 08:13:40 +0000

Generator’s shares rise as regulator finds no evidence of misleading statements about fuel’s sustainability

The City watchdog has closed an investigation into the owner of the Drax power plant after an almost 10-month review into whether the company’s sustainability claims mislead shareholders.

The Financial Conduct Authority said it had “reviewed thousands of pages” of “complex material” relating to the company’s sourcing of wood pellets for the Drax power plant in Selby, North Yorkshire, but “did not find evidence that justified any further action”.

‘The sea took everything away’: how Nigeria’s ‘Happy City’ is disappearing beneath the waves

admin — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 08:00:01 +0000

More than half of Ayetoro – a Christian utopia founded in the 1940s – has been lost to the ocean, and its remaining people are running out of options

In the early hours of 15 February 2019, the Atlantic Ocean came for Arowo Victoria’s livelihood. The 60-year-old retired midwife was asleep when neighbours began banging on her door, shouting that the sea had started covering buildings along the nearby coastline.

Cambridge experts recreate 336-year-old garden to commemorate ‘father of natural history’

admin — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000

John Ray, 17th-century botanist who coined words petal and pollen, was a tutor at Cambridge when he created his first garden

He coined the terms petal and pollen, helped to lay the foundations of modern biology and is widely regarded as the greatest English naturalist of the 17th century.

But it was while he was a young college tutor at Cambridge in the 1650s that the botanist John Ray – also known as “the father of natural history” – created his first known garden and began to systematically study plants for the first time.

These bees have nowhere to hide from extreme heat

admin — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 07:59:03 +0000

A major study of Australian native bees found that stem-nesting species may be the first to feel the impact of climate change. Unlike bees that nest underground, they have few ways to escape dangerous heat. Researchers also discovered that tropical bees are particularly vulnerable, even when they are already adapted to hot environments. The findings suggest bee behavior could be a key factor in determining which species survive a warming world.