Breaking Waves: Ocean News

05/17/2025 - 00:00
Familia Torres has been making wine in Catalonia since 1870, but says it may have to move to higher altitudes in 30 years’ time A leading European winemaker has warned it may have to abandon its ancestral lands in Catalonia in 30 years’ time because climate change could make traditional growing areas too dry and hot. Familia Torres is already installing irrigation at its vineyards in Spain and California and is planting vines on land at higher altitudes as it tries to adapt to more extreme conditions. Continue reading...
05/16/2025 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 17 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00118-5 Lessons learned from Thailand’s largest youth-led marine restoration initiative highlight how to enable future environmental stewardship efforts. Local and hands-on approaches can help drive effective climate solutions. Immersive and educational conservation experiences can empower local communities, foster collective awareness, and build individual accountability to restore degrading ecosystems. This multidimensional land-to-sea approach can serve as a guidebook for other youth to spearhead multi-habitat restoration and conservation efforts worldwide.
05/16/2025 - 12:12
Rebekah Shaman, of Protect Brockwell Park, took action against Lambeth council over number of large-scale events A campaigner who argued that music festivals held in a south London park unfairly cut off large sections of the space and made it a “mud bath” has won a court case that could result in events being banned there this summer. The Protect Brockwell Park (PBP) group, which includes the actor Mark Rylance, complained about walls being erected in the park, and noise and environmental damage, leading to a tense debate about the use of public space, nimbyism and the importance of summer cultural events. Continue reading...
05/16/2025 - 10:42
Firm prosecuted after unapproved material in tanks led to flakes and powder entering drinking water of 1.3m people Anglian Water has been fined a record £1.42m for contaminating the water supply. The company, which covers the east of England, received the fine at Northampton crown court after a prosecution brought by the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) for failures that affected 1.3 million people. Continue reading...
05/16/2025 - 10:00
Some have speculated there is a link, but it’s too soon to say, one expert says, with toxicology results expected to reveal more soon Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Shark sightings and strandings are unusually high across South Australia amid a prolonged toxic algal bloom, but scientists say it’s too soon to link to recent shark incidents. On Thursday, a swimmer was bitten by a shark at Port Noarlunga beach, 30km south of Adelaide’s CBD, one of a rising number of reported sharks swimming closer to shore – with some washing up dead on beaches. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...
05/16/2025 - 10:00
Parks, trees and green spaces are critical to kids’ health and wellbeing, but in many cities, residents have unequal access On a recent Saturday morning at Washington Elementary Stem magnet school in Pasadena, California, a group of volunteers and staffers from Amigos de los Rios hauled soil for a new pollinator garden of native plants that support local habitats such as those for butterflies, hummingbirds and bees. They also filled up 37 planter beds that will grow fresh veggies such as carrots and sweet potatoes for students to eat. Before the local non-profit began this work, the Title I school – which is primarily attended by Latino and Black students from low-income households – had been largely paved, lacked trees and had one wooden playhouse that kids would patiently wait their turn to play inside to take refuge from the sun. Continue reading...
05/16/2025 - 06:00
Researchers call for investment in ‘circular solutions’ as consumption rises faster than growth in population Global recycling rates are failing to keep pace with a culture focused on infinite economic growth and consumerism, with the proportion of recycled materials re-entering supply chains falling for the eighth year running, according to a new report. Only 6.9% of the 106bn tonnes of materials used annually by the global economy came from recycled sources, a 2.2 percentage point drop since 2015, researchers from the Circle Economy thinktank found. Continue reading...
05/16/2025 - 03:06
Murray Watt is also considering ditching the ‘nature positive’ title for Labor’s overhaul of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Legislating a federal environment protection agency is a “very high and immediate” priority for the re-elected Labor government, new minister Murray Watt has said, signalling he wants nature laws passed quickly to avoid another drawn-out political fight. In an early statement of intent, Watt will next week travel to Western Australia where he intends to meet face to face with the premier, Roger Cook, and mining industry leaders whose lobbying helped sink the proposed EPA in the previous term. Continue reading...
05/16/2025 - 01:00
The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
05/16/2025 - 00:01
In Melbourne, 14C was the forecast maximum for Saturday, with a high chance of showers, the BoM says Australia news live: latest politics updates Get Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as an email Winter is coming for south-eastern Australia this weekend, with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting rain, hail and even snow for some parts of the country. In New South Wales, wet and windy conditions could see a “really rough end to the weekend”, Miriam Bradbury, a senior meteorologist at the bureau, said. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter Continue reading...