Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Nurses fainting in ‘inhumane’ conditions due to extreme heat, union warns

admin — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 23:01:42 +0000

RCN calls for more air conditioners as Burnham faces pressure to recognise urgency of adaptation to climate crisis

Nurses are collapsing during shifts amid “inhumane and impossible” conditions caused by extreme heat, their union has warned, as Andy Burnham promised to grapple with “the bigger questions” of climate adaptation.

Amid growing pressure from Labour backbenches to fully acknowledge the urgency of adaptation measures as the climate crisis bites, Burnham said he was for now focusing on the immediate crises caused by an ongoing summer of extreme heat.

EJ Swift wins the 2026 Arthur C Clarke award for science fiction

admin — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 20:00:38 +0000

The writer – who was also shortlisted in 2023 – has won the prize for her book When There Are Wolves Again, a speculative work of eco-fiction set in near-future Britain

A novel about rewilding and climate activism in Britain has been named this year’s winner of the Arthur C Clarke award for science fiction.

When There Are Wolves Again by EJ Swift is an “ambitious study in the power of long-term hope in the face of climate breakdown”, said the award’s director, Tom Hunter.

Trump administration pulls support for annual Arctic environmental report

admin — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 18:17:51 +0000

Move by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is latest government rollback of climate science activity

Greenland forces Trump-linked US oil firm to delay drilling

admin — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 18:00:41 +0000

US envoy had claimed Americans could be extracting crude by as early as next year

Greenland authorities have forced a US oil company connected to Donald Trump to postpone drilling wells in the Arctic territory, defying claims by the US president’s envoy that Americans could be extracting crude by next year.

Coalition plan to scrap energy rules for new houses condemned as ‘cost-of-living timebomb’

admin — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 15:00:32 +0000

Proposal to cut building costs by scrapping the construction code would increase bills for the poorest households, critics say

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Burnham to consider ban on disposable barbecues as wildfires rage in UK

admin — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 14:20:10 +0000

PM to look at imposing restriction on devices in public spaces, though campaigners fear it does not go far enough

The government will look at banning disposable barbecues as wildfires continue to rage across the UK, Andy Burnham has said.

Disposable barbecues have been the cause of a number of serious fires over the last few years, but campaigners were critical of the prime minister’s failure to link those fires more broadly to the climate crisis.

Too many holes! Why badgers are digging up Britain’s lovingly maintained golf courses

admin — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 14:04:38 +0000

Thanks to the drought, these black-and-white beauties are struggling to catch worms in the rock-hard earth. But there’s still good foraging on well-watered fairways and greens

Name: Badgers.

Age: European badgers live for five to eight years in the wild. They have been in the UK, where this story is set, for half to three-quarters of a million years.

Powerful storms in US midwest leave three dead and 800,000 without power

admin — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 13:11:21 +0000

Winds of more than 80mph, severe flooding and tornadoes swept through Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Kentucky

Powerful storms swept across ⁠the midwest on Tuesday, leaving three dead and more than 800,000 without power in four states as winds gusts of more than 80mph (130km/h) tore down trees and power lines.

⁠In Indiana, a four-year-old child died after a tree fell on his ⁠home in Geneva Township and a person died in a suspected weather-related house explosion in Portage, a city about 30 miles south-east of Chicago.

Top chefs find grouse in short supply as wildfires add to heat over shoots

admin — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 12:19:57 +0000

As London restaurants say wild birds are smaller and fewer this year, experts say countryside should not be ‘playground for bloodsports’

Every year on 12 August, fans of traditional British cuisine flock to plush restaurants in Mayfair to dine on grouse served with bread sauce and game chips. But those hoping to find the small wild birds, sourced from the UK’s moorlands, may be disappointed.

Wildfires have been raging on moors across the UK, burning habitats and incinerating wildlife, after record-breaking heat turned the landscape into a tinderbox.

Humpbacks return to Rio: the whales are back from the brink of extinction – but will tourism help or hinder?

admin — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 12:00:28 +0000

The gigantic aquatic acrobats are exciting Brazil’s tourists as numbers recover from whaling. But some marine biologists question how booming tourism and conservation can coexist

The anticipation is palpable onboard the Boaventura II as the yacht sets off from Rio de Janeiro at sunrise. Once beyond the Cagarras Islands, rocky outcrops just three miles off Ipanema beach, the group gathers at the bow and starts scanning the horizon.