Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Endangered whale measuring 47ft washes up in Anchorage as scientists seek explanation for animal’s death An endangered fin whale that washed up near a coastal trail in Alaska’s largest city has attracted curious onlookers while biologists seek answers as to what caused the animal’s death. The carcass found over the weekend near Anchorage was 47ft (14.3 meters) long – comparable to the width of a college basketball court – and is believed to be that of a female. Barbara Mahoney, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration biologist examining the whale, told the Anchorage Daily News the whale was probaby one to three years old. Continue reading...

A new study measuring access to nature for eight major global cities found most still have inadequate canopy cover, despite access to an abundance of trees.

Exclusive: Leaders warn cost savings will lead to mass redundancies and that spaces could become ‘paper parks’ England’s national parks face a 12% real-terms cut to their budget which would lead to mass redundancies of wardens and the closure of visitor centres and other facilities, park leaders have warned. The chief executives told the Guardian that soon the spaces would become “paper parks” designated by a “brown sign on the motorway” and they will have to “turn the lights off, close the doors and put up closed signs” if the cuts go ahead. Continue reading...

An update on our progress from the Guardian’s head of sustainability The Guardian environment pledge 2024 Support urgent, independent climate journalism today Five years ago the Guardian made a pledge that we would “play a part, both in our journalism and in our own organisation, to address the climate emergency” with our first annual environment pledge. That commitment reflected our long history of environment reporting and our view that individual companies had to take greater responsibility for their impact on the natural world. We wanted to demonstrate to readers that we were taking the action that our journalism showed was so necessary, and to be transparent about our progress. Today we publish the 2024 pledge. Since then we have worked hard to measure and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, to understand our impact on nature and to share our results openly with readers. In our latest sustainability report, published last month, we show that our emissions have fallen by 43% since 2020, putting us well on track to achieve our goal of a 67% cut by 2030. Continue reading...