The craze for Korean culture has brought fame to the ‘women of the sea’, but not always to their benefit. Now they want to reclaim their stories to inspire a new generation
There is an episode in the Netflix drama When Life Gives You Tangerines where a woman dives into the sea and brings back a catch of abalone (sea snails), which she says will feed her family. The woman is a haenyeo. Haenyeo, or “women of the sea”, have been recorded as far back as the 17th century and are unique to the island of Jeju in South Korea, where they fish sustainably, diving time and again on a single breath to bring back shellfish and seaweed.
Yet the scene, set in the 1960s, simply wouldn’t happen today, says Myeonghyo Go, a haenyeo who lives in the village of Iho-dong on Jeju. “The seaweeds here are disappearing, and seaweed is the food for abalone. Because we don’t have the seaweeds, we don’t have abalone,” she says.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
05/15/2025 - 03:00
05/15/2025 - 00:00
Even it now admits that brick by brick, these proposals will wreck habitats. This could be Starmer’s most damaging mistake yet
The precedent is uncanny, and the failure to learn from it downright mystifying. Keir Starmer is rushing gladly towards the catastrophe Boris Johnson inflicted on himself in 2020. Had he set out to stymie Labour’s chances of re-election, he couldn’t be doing it better.
In 2020, Johnson promised “a whole new planning system” for England, which, he claimed, would promote “economic growth”. He said he wanted to see 300,000 new homes built every year. He sought to “build, build, build”, but falsely claimed that his plans were thwarted by newts, which he used as shorthand for environmental protections. He would sweep these protections away.
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05/15/2025 - 00:00
Bill would force major polluters to pay into fund for flood defences and home insulation – but has little chance of becoming law
Fossil fuel companies and their shareholders and owners of superyachts and private jets should have to pay into a fund for flood defences and home insulation, according to a private member’s bill to be launched on Thursday.
The bill is part of a broader movement by campaigners to “make polluters pay”, demanding that oil and gas companies, and those who benefit from fossil fuels, should take on more of the direct responsibility for tackling the climate crisis, rather than funding such measures from general taxation.
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05/14/2025 - 23:47
A video shows the large flightless takahē bird in hot pursuit of the tuatara – but the tables soon turn
Two of New Zealand’s most rare and beloved animals – a large flightless takahē bird and an ancient tuatara reptile – have been captured chasing and nipping at one another during a bush-floor melee.
Nick Fisentzidis, a department of conservation ranger on the pest-free Tiritiri Matangi Island near Auckland, saw the takahē attack the tuatara and quickly grabbed his phone to capture the rare footage.
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05/14/2025 - 21:39
EDO boss says Crisafulli government decision means many ‘won’t even know their rights, let alone have the chance to exercise them’
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In a move raising comparisons to the government of Campbell Newman, Queensland’s Liberal National party government is set to slash all state funding for the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO).
The decision breaches a promise by the LNP to continue funding the body made prior to winning government at the October state election.
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05/14/2025 - 18:01
Civil society groups call on government to address risk of neocolonial exploitation in its supply chain strategy
The risk of neocolonial exploitation in the global rush for critical minerals must be addressed by the government as it formulates its official supply chain strategy, say civil society campaigners.
They have said the scrabble for access is being greenwashed as wealthier economies around the world attempt to line up a host of minerals that are essential to the manufacture of hi-tech products, including cobalt, lithium and nickel.
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05/14/2025 - 14:00
Daré accepted the £10,000 prize for her latest novel, And So I Roar, the follow-up to her bestselling debut The Girl with the Louding Voice
Nigerian writer Abi Daré has won the inaugural Climate fiction prize for her novel And So I Roar, the follow-up to her bestselling debut The Girl with the Louding Voice.
Daré was announced as the winner of the £10,000 prize at a ceremony in London on Wednesday evening.
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05/14/2025 - 13:00
Dangerous indoor pollution could be tackled with air purifiers but costs are too high for many, researchers say
Toxic pollution from wildfires has infiltrated the homes of more than a billion people a year over the last two decades, according to new research.
The climate crisis is driving up the risk of wildfires by increasing heatwaves and droughts, making the issue of wildfire smoke a “pressing global issue”, scientists said.
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05/14/2025 - 12:36
Government to analyse potential benefits of new generation of reactors
Denmark is reconsidering its 40-year ban on nuclear power in a major policy shift for the renewables-heavy country.
The Danish government will analyse the potential benefits of a new generation of nuclear power technologies after banning traditional nuclear reactors in 1985, its energy minister said.
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05/14/2025 - 10:55
Government vetoes cross-party effort to protect threatened waterways from push to rip up environmental red tape
A cross-party attempt to protect England’s rare and threatened chalk streams in the government’s planning bill was rejected by Labour on Wednesday.
The attempt to give the globally rare ecosystems the strongest protections as irreplaceable habitats failed after all the Labour MPs on the parliamentary committee examining the draft law rejected an amendment containing the extra provision.
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