Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Teen counselors and rookie rescue swimmer save dozens in Texas camp flood

admin — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 16:56:26 +0000

At least 27 people died at Camp Mystic, but survivors credit coast guard swimmer and young staff with saving lives

A US coast guard rescue swimmer on his first rescue mission as well as teenage counselors who helped shepherd cold and wet young campers to safety have been credited with saving dozens of lives at a flood-ravaged Christian summer camp on the banks of Texas’s Guadalupe River.

Marseille airport cancels all flights as wildfire encroaches on city

admin — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 15:50:28 +0000

Authorities urge residents to stay indoors and say more than 700 firefighters battling blaze

A fast-moving wildfire fanned by gale-force winds has been raging on the outskirts of France’s second-largest city, Marseille, officials said, as firefighters around the Mediterranean battle blazes sparked by an intense heatwave.

“The fire is on the fringes of Marseille,” the regional prefect, Georges-François Leclerc, told reporters on Tuesday, adding that the blaze was not yet stable or contained, but the situation appeared to be “under control”.

Time for some straight talking on the cost of clean energy. It isn’t a free lunch | Nils Pratley

admin — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 15:30:24 +0000

UK ministers should update the public on the outlook for bills as the price of overhauling the system is adding up

‘Serious risk to life’: scenic Isle of Wight road could fall into sea, councillor warns

admin — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 13:40:08 +0000

Military Road on island’s south is threatened by erosion, with some parts now less than 5 metres from steep cliffs

It is considered one of the most scenic routes in the UK, an 11-mile stretch of road that skirts the coastal cliffs and enjoys sweeping views of the Channel.

The problem is that Military Road on the southern coast of the Isle of Wight is getting just a little too close to those plunging cliffs for comfort.

‘Like fly-tipping’: ministers ignoring pleas to cut sludge fertiliser use

admin — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 13:00:22 +0000

Exclusive: Defra warned three years ago of farmland contamination by water firms’ sewage-derived product

Government ministers have ignored Environment Agency pleas to tighten rules on the use of sludge fertiliser for three years, despite the regulator having said that water company attitudes towards the substance are “akin to fly-tipping on to agricultural land”, it can be revealed.

Sludge, sometimes referred to as biosolids, is a byproduct of the sewage treatment process that is sold by water companies to farmers as a low-cost fertiliser.

‘If you hear your town is scum all the time that sinks in’: the young people in Blackpool refusing to be written off

admin — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 13:00:21 +0000

The seaside resort has become a byword for coastal deprivation but its youth say there’s a world of creativity bubbling under the surface

Photographs by Polly Braden

Michael knows exactly how he feels about his home town of Blackpool. “It’s just brilliant,” he says. Walking along the beachfront past people soaking up the sunshine on benches and kids playing in the sand overlooked by Blackpool Tower, he throws out his arms with a huge grin.

Inside RFK Jr’s conflicted attempt to rid America of junk food

admin — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 10:00:40 +0000

‘Maha’ promised to tackle ultra-processed foods – but is it hijacking the food movement instead?

Over the space of the last year, Robert F Kennedy Jr. has made the term “ultra-processed foods” something of a household phrase.

Once a term only used by nutritionists and food policy researchers to describe the most processed foods in the supply chain (think: chips and sodas, packaged bread, microwave dinners and even some yogurts), ultra-processing has become a calling card of the “Make America Healthy Again” (“Maha”) movement.

Did National Weather Service cuts lead to the Texas flood disaster? We don’t know | Rebecca Solnit

admin — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 10:00:38 +0000

We all need to be careful about how we get information and reach conclusions – especially now

Why exactly so many people drowned in the terrible Independence Day floods that swept through Texas’s Hill Country will probably have multiple explanations that take a while to obtain. But it’s 2025, and people want answers immediately, and lots of people seized on stories blaming the National Weather Service (NWS).

‘Could become a death spiral’: scientists discover what’s driving record die-offs of US honeybees

admin — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 10:00:37 +0000

Experts scrambling to understand losses in hives across the country are finally identifying the culprits. And the damage to farmed bees is a sign of trouble for wild bees too

Bret Adee is one of the largest beekeepers in the US, with 2 billion bees across 55,000 hives. The business has been in his family since the 1930s, and sends truckloads of bees across the country from South Dakota, pollinating crops such as almonds, onions, watermelons and cucumbers.

Deadly floods could be new normal as Trump guts federal agencies, experts warn

admin — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 09:00:32 +0000

Trump’s ‘cuts and chaos’ to agencies are opposite of what’s needed for era of worsening weather disasters, experts say

The deadly Texas floods could signal a new norm in the US, as Donald Trump and his allies dismantle crucial federal agencies that help states prepare and respond to extreme weather and other hazards, experts warn.