Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Nearly three-quarters of England’s woods inaccessible to public, study finds

admin — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 05:00:41 +0000

Exclusive: Campaigners call for government to introduce right-to-roam bill that allows people to walk around their local woodlands

Nearly three-quarters of England’s woods are off-limits to the public, buried government documents show.

The study by Forest Research, which is a government-funded quango, found that 73% of English woodland is publicly inaccessible.

Mining’s toxic timebomb: dams full of poisonous waste are dotted around the world. What happens when they burst?

admin — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 05:00:41 +0000

While tailings dams are meant to last for ever, extreme weather events are making many unstable – with devastating consequences for nature and humans

As soon as the barrier broke, a flood of poison brought death to the river. Gushing through the fragile wall built to hold back mining waste in Zambia’s copper belt in February 2025, more than 50m cubic litres of acid and heavy metals poured into the Chambishi stream – a tributary of the Kafue River, the country’s longest waterway.

EPA chief met with Bayer CEO over supreme court fight, agency records show

admin — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 13:10:31 +0000

Top US regulators met with Bill Anderson to discuss ‘supreme court action’ over glyphosate weed killer

Top US regulators met with Bill Anderson, Bayer’s CEO, last year to discuss “litigation” issues – including “supreme court action” over its glyphosate weed killer – just months before the Trump administration took a series of steps to boost Bayer’s case at the high court, internal government records show.

Republican farm bill criticized as agribusiness giveaway: ‘Pesticide industry wishlist’

admin — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 13:00:23 +0000

Advocates say bill weakens safety reviews, boosts industry influence and shields pesticide makers from legal liability

London, San Francisco and Beijing achieve ‘remarkable reductions’ in air pollution

admin — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 09:00:13 +0000

Cycle lanes, electric cars and other interventions have helped 19 global cities slash levels of pollutants by more than 20%

London, San Francisco and Beijing are among 19 global cities that have achieved “remarkable reductions” in air pollution, analysis has found, having slashed levels of two airway-aggravating pollutants by more than 20% since 2010.

The analysis found interventions such as cycle lanes, uptake of electric cars and restrictions on polluting vehicles had helped to drive the improvements.

‘The last frontier’: how red globules of nickel ore are suffocating an island’s precious wilderness

admin — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 05:00:12 +0000

In the race to meet the demands of the energy transition, biodiversity hotspots such as Palawan in the Philippines are being increasingly mined for critical elements

How nature is being sacrificed for mining across the world – a data visualisation

Quit fossil fuels to stem deadly floods in Brazil’s coffee heartland, say scientists

admin — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 03:01:06 +0000

Global heating linked to rising risk of extreme rain that causes devastating landslides and rising coffee prices

The record floods that have brought death and destruction to the heartland of Brazil’s coffee industry are expected to intensify if people continue to burn fossil fuels, analysis has shown.

Queensland floods: police believe bodies found are those of missing backpackers

admin — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 23:02:12 +0000

Two international tourists travelling to flood-ravaged North Burnett region from Brisbane thought to be first flood-related deaths

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Australian governments subsidising fossil fuel use by more than $30,000 a minute, analysis finds

admin — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:00:51 +0000

Australia Institute data finds state and federal subsidies for coal, gas and oil products increased 10% in past year, growing at a faster pace than funding to NDIS

How Toronto's snow mountains hide a toxic secret – video

admin — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 11:57:14 +0000

The Guardian reporter Leyland Cecco visits an almost 100ft-tall snow mountain, one of six created in Toronto to store all the snow cleared from roads and paths across the city.

Toronto has spent more than C$1bn dollars over a decade to successfully re-naturalise the mouth of the Don River. But this is at risk because the salt contained in the snow mountains is likely to end up in water systems, causing an 'ecological crisis'.