Breaking Waves: Ocean News

‘We’re being treated as grifters or terrorists’: US federal workers on the fear and chaos of their firings

admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 15:00:14 +0000

An educator, archaeologist and scientist were among the thousands of government workers culled by Musk’s agency

California faces worsening drought despite recent heavy rainstorms

admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 15:00:13 +0000

Dry pattern seen among entire ‘lower basin’ of the Colorado River, including Arizona and desert cities such as Las Vegas

Dramatic rainstorms earlier this month brought more than 6in of rain to the California mountains – a full month’s worth of rain in little more than a day – but the deluge wasn’t enough to reverse a worsening drought trend that is set to intensify further in the coming weeks and months.

Farmers worried if they will make it to 2026 amid ‘cashflow crisis’, says NFU

admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 14:59:30 +0000

Union conference dominated by row over planned inheritance tax changes as farmers battle the bad weather and turbulent geopolitics

Farmers are warning of a “cashflow crisis” that has left many in the agricultural sector wondering how they will make it to the end of the year.

At the annual meeting of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) of England and Wales, its president told members that “bad policy, geopolitics and unprecedented weather” had left some sectors of UK farming “in the worst cashflow crisis ever”.

Ex-US security officials urge funding for science research to keep up with China

admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 14:40:47 +0000

Appeal from officials, including two senior figures from Trump’s first term, comes amid reports National Science Foundation’s budget will be slashed

Matt Kean says suggestion Coalition could sack him if they win election is ‘concerning threat’

admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 14:00:16 +0000

Climate Change Authority chair says his job is to provide ‘frank and fearless advice’ after he criticised opposition’s nuclear energy proposal

US officials have been absent from global climate forums during Trump 2.0

admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 13:00:11 +0000

Exclusive: The ‘deeply troubling’ move comes amid concerns US ignoring international climate ramifications

US officials have missed recent international climate forums sparking concerns about a potentially significant shift from Donald Trump’s first term, a review of meeting records and interviews with meeting attendees by the Centre for Climate Reporting and the Guardian show.

Expanding Gatwick as well as Heathrow would benefit consumers, says CAA

admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 12:28:26 +0000

Regulator says bringing emergency runway into operation would boost competition and passenger choice

Business live – latest updates

Gatwick airport’s expansion has received the backing of the UK’s aviation regulator, which argued it would bring “benefits to consumers” even with the prospect of a third runway at Heathrow.

US anti-pipeline activists say charges against them ‘meant to intimidate’

admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 12:00:11 +0000

Protesters who tried to disrupt completion of Mountain Valley pipeline to defend themselves in Virginia court

Climate activists who tried to disrupt the completion of a fossil-fuel pipeline through Appalachian forests will appear in court in Virginia on Tuesday to face serious criminal charges that they vehemently deny.

‘I know their names, what they eat’: tracking polar bears on Svalbard’s shifting icescapes

admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 09:00:35 +0000

For more than 20 years, scientists have followed the animals in Norway’s Arctic archipelago to understand how they may adapt to changing threats as the ice they depend on melts

When Rolf-Arne Ølberg is hanging out of a helicopter with a gun, he needs to be able to assess from a distance of about 10 metres the sex and approximate weight of the moving animal he is aiming at, as well as how fat or muscular it is and whether it is in any distress. Only then can he dart it with the correct amount of sedative. Luckily, he says, polar bears are “quite good anaesthetic patients”.

How scientists capture a polar bear – video

admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 08:45:13 +0000

Each spring since 2003, Jon Aars, senior scientist at the Norwegian Polar Institute, and his team have conducted an annual polar bear monitoring program on Svalbard - collaring, capturing and taking samples from as many bears as they can across several weeks.