Breaking Waves: Ocean News

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.

By studying polar bears they get a better understanding of what is happening in this part of the Arctic environment. The bears roam over large distances and, being apex predators, provide lots of information about what is happening lower in the food chain and across different Arctic species.

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%.

US fossil fuel industry campaigns to kill policies that ban gas in new buildings

admin — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 19:09:35 +0000

Oil and gas interests coordinate campaign to stop local and state policies, putting climate at risk, new report shows

Oil and gas interests have waged a coordinated campaign to kill pro-electrification policies that ban gas connections in new buildings, putting the climate at risk, according to a new report.

Since 2019, utilities and fossil fuel trade groups, including the American Gas Association (AGA) and National Propane Gas Association (NPGA), have worked together to successfully thwart various local and state efforts.

Sellafield nuclear site plans cuts as chief says £2.8bn funding ‘not enough’

admin — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 15:02:23 +0000

Exclusive: Union concerned over safety as site’s bosses say budget does not cover work planned

Sellafield has said nearly £3bn in new funding is “not enough” and bosses are now examining swingeing cuts, prompting fears over jobs and safety at the vast nuclear waste dump.

The Cumbrian nuclear site, which is home to the world’s largest store of plutonium, was last week awarded £2.8bn for the next financial year, the bulk of the total of just over £4bn funds allotted to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, a taxpayer-owned and funded quango.

BP expected to scrap renewables target in shift back to fossil fuels

admin — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 14:39:46 +0000

Goal of increasing renewable energy generation 20-fold to be ditched, shareholders to be told this week

BP is expected to ditch a target to ramp up renewable energy generation by 2030 as part of a shift back towards fossil fuels when it presents its strategy to investors this week.

The chief executive, Murray Auchincloss, is poised to tell shareholders that the oil and gas company is scrapping its target to increase renewable generation 20-fold between 2019 and 2030 to 50 gigawatts, Reuters reported.

LA’s urban farmers pledge to rebuild and replant ‘even more than ever before’ after devastating wildfires

admin — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 14:00:10 +0000

The January blazes wiped out a thriving communal food pathway unique to the Altadena neighborhood, but farmers are starting to plan for its renewal