Breaking Waves: Ocean News

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.

Crucial UN nature talks are about to reopen in Rome – but will enough countries turn up?

admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 07:00:33 +0000

After last year’s Cop16 biodiversity talks in Cali left key issues unresolved, the extra summit will attempt to seek consensus, especially over funding

Global talks to halt the loss of nature will reopen today in Rome, amid “loss of trust” in the United Nations-led process and concerns that countries will not turn up for the meeting. Delegates are due to meet at Cop16, the UN’s biodiversity conference, to discuss global targets to stop nature loss by 2030.

Tuesday briefing: Farmers prepare to give minister chilly reception as Labour seeks to mend fences over inheritance tax

admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 06:53:05 +0000

In today’s newsletter: The government is refusing to back down over its changes to inheritance tax breaks for farmers – here’s why the issue is still rumbling on

Good morning. It’s a time-honoured tradition: the minister arriving to speak to a conference hall full of people who absolutely hate him, and getting roundly pilloried as he sticks to the government line. Today, it might be the environment secretary Steve Reed’s turn. His adversaries: a large number of implacably angry farmers.

UK’s seasonal farm worker scheme to be extended for five years

admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 06:00:33 +0000

Environment secretary will hope move can reset relations with farmers after inheritance tax row

The environment secretary, Steve Reed, is to announce a five-year extension of the seasonal farm worker scheme in an attempt to reset relations with farmers after fury over inheritance tax.

Dartmoor wild boar sightings prompt suspicions of guerrilla rewilding

admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 06:00:31 +0000

Dog walker’s close encounter prompts debate over whether the animals, once native to UK, should remain

Sightings of wild boar on Dartmoor have raised suspicions a guerrilla rewilder has been releasing them – and prompted a debate over whether they should be allowed to remain.

Videos of a group of boar on the moors in Devon were posted online earlier this month, and a dog walker has recently complained of a close encounter with one of them, which frightened his pet.

Most conservation funds go to large vertebrates at expense of ‘neglected’ species

admin — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 20:00:19 +0000

Study shows funding bias towards animals like rhino while other endangered species including amphibians and algae disregarded

Most global conservation funds go to larger, charismatic animals, leaving critically important but less fashionable species deprived, a 25-year study has revealed.

Scientists have found that of the $1.963bn allocated to projects worldwide, 82.9% was assigned to vertebrates. Plants and invertebrates each accounted for 6.6% of the funding, while fungi and algae were barely represented at less than 0.2%.