Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Aphids plaguing UK gardens in warm spring weather, says RHS

admin — Sat, 10 May 2025 06:00:46 +0000

Sap-sucking insects top list of queries to gardening charity after causing significant harm to plants

Aphids are plaguing gardeners this spring due to the warm weather, with higher numbers of the rose-killing bugs expected to thrive in the UK as a result of climate breakdown.

The sap-sucking insects have topped the ranking of gardener queries to the Royal Horticultural Society, with many of its 600,000 members having complained of dozens of aphids on their acers, roses and honeysuckle plants.

First fossil evidence of endangered tropical tree discovered

admin — Fri, 09 May 2025 17:22:16 +0000

Scientists have discovered fossil evidence of an endangered, living tropical tree species. The unprecedented find was made in Brunei, a country on the large island of Borneo, and reveals a critical piece of the ancient history of Asia's rainforests, highlighting the urgent need for conservation in the region, according to researchers.

Heat and land use: Bees suffer in particular

admin — Fri, 09 May 2025 16:21:13 +0000

In a new study, researchers are investigating the interaction of major global change drivers on insects.

Plastics in everyday objects may disrupt sleep in same way as caffeine, study finds

admin — Fri, 09 May 2025 13:15:03 +0000

Findings show for first time how plastic chemicals throw off the body’s internal clock by up to 17 minutes

Chemicals in everyday plastics may disrupt the body’s natural 24-hour sleep-wake cycle and circadian rhythm in a way similar to coffee, which increases the risk of sleep disorders, diabetes, immune problems and cancer, new in vitro research shows.

‘Stealing joy’: the sadness and symbolism of the crime at Sycamore Gap

admin — Fri, 09 May 2025 09:49:26 +0000

Many saw the beloved tree that Adam Carruthers and Daniel Graham cut down as a part of north-east England’s DNA

“It was just a tree,” said a mystified Adam Carruthers, one of the two men who illegally cut down the tree at Sycamore Gap in the early hours of a stormy night nearly two years ago. “It was almost as if someone had been murdered.”

Two men found guilty of ‘mindless, moronic’ felling of Sycamore Gap tree

admin — Fri, 09 May 2025 09:46:52 +0000

Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, found to have criminally damaged tree and Hadrian’s Wall

‘Stealing joy’: the sadness and symbolism of the crime at Sycamore Gap

Two friends who embarked on a “moronic mission” to fell the Sycamore Gap tree with a chainsaw have been found guilty of “mindless” criminal damage.

Midsummer butterflies spotted early in Britain after sunny spring

admin — Fri, 09 May 2025 09:04:57 +0000

Scientists fear early emerging insects may fall out of sync with pathogens, predators or availability of food

Midsummer butterflies are on the wing in early May after a sunny spring prompted one of the most advanced seasons for Britain’s Lepidoptera on record.

European and British soils seriously degraded by intensive farming

admin — Fri, 09 May 2025 08:00:53 +0000

Experts found 60% of the EU’s agricultural soils had been degraded, with about 40% similarly damaged in the UK

More than 60% of the EU’s agricultural soils are degraded due to intensive agriculture, with similar damage to about 40% of British soils, a report has found.

Experts from the Save Soil initiative said nourishing and restoring agricultural soils could reduce the impact of the climate crisis and provide protection against the worsening extremes of weather, as well as the food shortages and price rises likely to accompany them.

Week in wildlife: A rare chameleon, friendly starlings and hot buffaloes

admin — Fri, 09 May 2025 06:00:51 +0000

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

If illegal logging starts again, Liberia could lose more than its beloved pygmy hippos | Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

admin — Fri, 09 May 2025 05:00:50 +0000

About 270,000 people died in Liberia’s timber trade-fuelled civil war. I helped to rebuild and protect its forests. Now Europe is threatening to undermine all our hard work

It is sad when a ruthless military dictator funds his government by destroying ecologically important rainforest, logging tropical trees and displacing and robbing the people who live in and depend on the forests for their livelihoods and culture.

This happened in my country, Liberia.