Breaking Waves: Ocean News

02/14/2025 - 10:38
The former Police drummer Stewart Copeland, with the help of the British naturalist Martyn Stewart, has produced Wild Concerto, a ‘collaboration between nature and music’. The album fuses sounds of nature, such as the call of Arctic terns and the howling of wolves, with traditional instruments. Stewart hailed the environmental theme of the work, explaining that most of the species represented were endangered ‘The synergy is amazing’: Stewart Copeland album fuses nature and music Continue reading...
02/14/2025 - 09:22
Developers must now offset damage to nature by achieving a 10% biodiversity net gain – but is buying up pockets of land and rewilding them the answer? To most people driving through the waterlogged fields of West Sussex, a patch of muddy land dotted with scrubby trees would not warrant a second glance. But this former farmland is being given a new lease of life as part of a government scheme to boost wildlife. Ardingly habitat bank is one of the pilot sites for the biodiversity net gain (BNG) scheme. Under legislation that came into force in February 2024, new roads, houses and other building projects must achieve a 10% net gain in biodiversity if nature is damaged on a site. So if a forest is bulldozed to make way for a block of flats, the developer must recreate a similar habitat, plus 10%. Continue reading...
02/14/2025 - 06:04
Exclusive: Firms outnumber green groups at environmental talks, with related events sponsored by fossil fuel companies Aviation industry delegates outnumbered those from green groups by 10 to one at the previous conference of the UN’s committee on aviation environmental protection (CAEP), an analysis has found. Other recent meetings held by CAEP’s parent body, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), were sponsored by large fossil fuel companies and airlines, including Saudi Aramco and Etihad. Critics accuse the ICAO of having been captured by the industry, resulting in slow efforts to tackle the climate crisis by reducing the carbon emissions from aircraft. Continue reading...
02/14/2025 - 06:00
It’s not just eggs, but coffee, orange juice and bacon, making life especially hard for diners, bakeries and brunch spots Most menu items at the popular Philadelphia breakfast chain Green Eggs Cafe are – true to its name – made with eggs. Its co-owner Stephen Slaughter said that about 90% of its dishes depend on eggs, ticking off a short list: “Our French toast, our pancake batters, our hollandaise sauce, obviously eggs and omelets.” So when his vendors started charging $8 for a dozen eggs, all six Green Egg Cafe locations felt the pinch. Continue reading...
02/14/2025 - 05:00
No, it isn’t a leftwing plot, it’s a proposal I authored for the Conservatives in 2021. And it could be brilliantly transformative for England Last week saw the launch of what could be – if done right – the most important political policy in a generation. You may not have heard about the new land use framework, but if you did hear something, chances are it wasn’t good. “National suicide!” declared the shadow farming minister, Robbie Moore, who described the policy for good measure as “food lunacy”. I should confess that I am the original author of this lunacy. It was one of the key recommendations of the 2021 National Food Strategy – an independent review I was commissioned to write by the then Tory government. The purpose of the land use framework was – is – sane enough. It is intended to inform and streamline planning decisions and steer other government incentives, to ensure that areas of land are used in ways they are naturally well suited to. Continue reading...
02/11/2025 - 00:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 11 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00106-9 A framework for just seascape restoration
World Ocean Explorer Wins Gold Medal Serious Simulation Award from Serious Play Annual International Competition
10/26/2023 - 14:35
For Immediate Release October 19, 2023 Sedgwick, Maine USA World Ocean Explorer, a 3D virtual aquarium and educational simulation, was recently cited for excellence, winning a Gold Medal Award in the 2023 International Serious Play Awards Program. World Ocean Explorer is an innovative 3D virtual aquarium designed for educational exploration of the world’s oceans. With interactive exhibits and a lobby space, visitors can immerse themselves in realistic marine environments, including a DEEP SEA exhibit funded by Schmidt Ocean Institute, showcasing unprecedented deep-sea discoveries off Australia. Targeted at 3rd graders and beyond, this immersive experience offers a range of perspectives on the ocean environment and can be explored through guided tours or user-controlled interfaces. Visit DEEP SEA at worldoceanexplorer.org/deep-sea-aquarium.html. Serious Play Conference brings together professionals who are exploring the use of game-based learning, sharing their experience, and working together to shape the future of training and education. For more information on Serious Play Award Program visit seriousplayconf.com/international-serious-play-award-programs. World Ocean Explorer is a transformative virtual aquarium designed to deepen understanding of the world ocean and amplify connection for young people worldwide. Organized around the principles of Ocean Literacy and the Next Gen Science Standards, World Ocean Explorer brings the wonder and knowledge of ocean species and systems to students in formal and informal classrooms, absolutely free to anyone with a good Internet connection. As an advocate for the ocean through communications, World Ocean Observatory believes there is no better investment in the future of the sustainable ocean than through a new approach to educational engagement that excites, informs, and motivates students to explore the wonders of our marine world and to understand the pervasive connection and implication for our future, inherent in the protection and conservation of all aspects of our ocean world. World Ocean Explorer presents an astonishing 3-dimensional simulated aquarium visit, organized to reveal the wonders of undersea life, with layers of detailed data and information to augment the emotional connection made to the astonishing beauty and complexity of the dynamic ocean. Within each of the virtual exhibits, students visit exemplary theme-based sites with myriad opportunities to understand the larger perspectives of scientific knowledge as organized and visualized to dramatize the impact and change on ocean life as a result of natural and human-generated events. Through immersion among displays, mixed media and 3D models, the experience of an aquarium visit will be brought into classrooms or home school environments as a free, accessible, always available opportunity for teaching and learning. All of this will be available to a world audience without physical limitation or cost. World Ocean Explorer, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, receives support from the Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation, Visual Solutions Lab, the Climate Change Institute, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, and The Fram Museum Oslo. To learn more about the current and future exhibits of World Ocean Explorer, visit worldoceanexplorer.org. media contact Trisha Badger, Managing Director, World Ocean Observatory   |   [email protected] +12077011069
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