Breaking Waves: Ocean News https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org/breaking-waves/index.php en Romania promises laws to deal with brown bears as population estimate doubles https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org/breaking-wave/romania-promises-laws-deal-brown-bears-population-estimate-doubles <p>Country may be home to as many as 13,000 bears, the highest total by far in Europe outside Russia</p> <p>Romania may be home to as many as 13,000 brown bears, almost twice as many as previously thought, the country’s forestry research institute has said, as officials promised new laws to allow communities to deal with “crisis bear situations”.</p> <p>The institute’s study of 25 counties in the Carpathian mountains was the first to use DNA samples from material such as faeces and hair. Previous estimates based on prints and sightings put the bear population at less than 8,000.</p> <p><a href="https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org/breaking-wave/romania-promises-laws-deal-brown-bears-population-estimate-doubles" target="_blank">read more</a></p> Wed, 16 Apr 2025 11:32:49 +0000 admin 99630 at https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org Number of UK homes overheating soars to 80% in a decade, study finds https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org/breaking-wave/number-uk-homes-overheating-soars-80-decade-study-finds <p>Researchers say urgent action needed to inform people about risks of heatwave temperatures and adapt homes</p> <p>The number of UK homes overheating in summer quadrupled to 80% over the past decade, according to a study, with experts calling the situation a crisis.</p> <p>Heat already kills thousands of people each year in the UK and the toll will rise as the climate crisis intensifies. Urgent action is needed both to inform people on how to cope with high temperatures and to adapt homes, which are largely designed to keep heat in during the winter, the researchers said.</p> <p><a href="https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org/breaking-wave/number-uk-homes-overheating-soars-80-decade-study-finds" target="_blank">read more</a></p> Wed, 16 Apr 2025 11:28:18 +0000 admin 99631 at https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org UK government report calls for taskforce to save England’s historic trees https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org/breaking-wave/uk-government-report-calls-taskforce-save-england-s-historic-trees <p>Exclusive: Ancient oaks ‘as precious as stately homes’ could receive stronger legal safeguards under new proposals</p> <p>Ancient and culturally important trees in England could be given legal protections under plans set out in a UK government-commissioned report.</p> <p>Sentencing guidelines would be changed so those who destroy important trees would face tougher criminal penalties. Additionally, a database of such trees would be drawn up and they could be given automatic protections, with the current system of tree preservation orders strengthened to accommodate this.</p> <p><a href="https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org/breaking-wave/uk-government-report-calls-taskforce-save-england-s-historic-trees" target="_blank">read more</a></p> Wed, 16 Apr 2025 10:40:25 +0000 admin 99632 at https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org The great Mississippi tops list of most endangered rivers amid fears over Trump rollbacks https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org/breaking-wave/great-mississippi-tops-list-most-endangered-rivers-amid-fears-over-trump-rollbacks <p>Cuts to disaster agency and deregulation of fossil fuels, plus rise of water-guzzling datacentres, highlighted in new report</p> <p><a href="https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org/breaking-wave/great-mississippi-tops-list-most-endangered-rivers-amid-fears-over-trump-rollbacks" target="_blank">read more</a></p> Wed, 16 Apr 2025 10:00:07 +0000 admin 99629 at https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org Australia’s next government may be Great Barrier Reef’s last chance after sixth mass bleaching, conservationist says https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org/breaking-wave/australia-s-next-government-may-be-great-barrier-reef-s-last-chance-after-sixth-mass-b <p>Consecutive and severe bleaching is ‘fundamentally changing’ nature of reef, the International Coral Reef Society says</p> <p><a href="https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org/breaking-wave/australia-s-next-government-may-be-great-barrier-reef-s-last-chance-after-sixth-mass-b" target="_blank">read more</a></p> Wed, 16 Apr 2025 07:58:01 +0000 admin 99628 at https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org ‘Let Rome burn’: Coalition MP says allowing blackouts the only way to turn voters off renewable energy https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org/breaking-wave/let-rome-burn-coalition-mp-says-allowing-blackouts-only-way-turn-voters-renewable-ener <p><strong>Exclusive:</strong> Power outages in major cities would help build opposition to climate policies, Colin Boyce tells podcast</p> <p><a href="https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org/breaking-wave/let-rome-burn-coalition-mp-says-allowing-blackouts-only-way-turn-voters-renewable-ener" target="_blank">read more</a></p> Wed, 16 Apr 2025 06:08:42 +0000 admin 99624 at https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org Underwater Argonauts! The deep-sea scientists logging Med pollution – in pictures https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org/breaking-wave/underwater-argonauts-deep-sea-scientists-logging-med-pollution-pictures <p>Juliette Pavy’s photographs of eco expeditions bring an element of lyrical storytelling to the global impact of invisible pollutants, from the Mediterranean to the Arctic </p> <p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/apr/16/underwater-argonauts-deep-sea-scientists-med-pollution-in-pictures">Continue reading...</a></p> Wed, 16 Apr 2025 06:01:03 +0000 admin 99627 at https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org Sauntering on streets and grazing on lawns: what happens when rhinos move into town? https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org/breaking-wave/sauntering-streets-and-grazing-lawns-what-happens-when-rhinos-move-town <p>In one Nepali village, the resident rhinos are a conservation success story and attract thousands of visitors, but attacks on humans are on the rise</p> <p><a href="https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org/breaking-wave/sauntering-streets-and-grazing-lawns-what-happens-when-rhinos-move-town" target="_blank">read more</a></p> Wed, 16 Apr 2025 06:00:04 +0000 admin 99626 at https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org China to snub UK energy summit amid row over infrastructure projects https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org/breaking-wave/china-snub-uk-energy-summit-amid-row-over-infrastructure-projects <p>Exclusive: Absence of world’s biggest clean energy producer will be welcomed by US pushing oil and gas exports</p> <p>China is to snub a major UK summit on energy security next week, the Guardian has learned, amid a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/14/dont-politicise-row-over-scunthorpe-steel-plant-says-chinese-foreign-ministry">growing row over the country’s involvement in UK infrastructure projects</a>.</p> <p><a href="https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org/breaking-wave/china-snub-uk-energy-summit-amid-row-over-infrastructure-projects" target="_blank">read more</a></p> Wed, 16 Apr 2025 06:00:03 +0000 admin 99625 at https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org Resurrected pools, remnants of last ice age, attract wildlife in Norfolk https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org/breaking-wave/resurrected-pools-remnants-last-ice-age-attract-wildlife-norfolk <p>Seeds can germinate having been buried in sediments of ‘ghost ponds’ for thousands of years</p> <p>Ghosts of the ice age are being resurrected in Norfolk. When the ice sheets retreated at the end of the last ice age, mounds of ice called pingos remained underground until they thawed and the soil slumped, leaving behind shallow hollows that filled with water.</p> <p>These turned into swampy wetland habitats rich in plants and wildlife and Breckland, in Norfolk, became pocked with hundreds of these pingo pools, although many of them were later filled in for farmland and became lost.</p> <p><a href="https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org/breaking-wave/resurrected-pools-remnants-last-ice-age-attract-wildlife-norfolk" target="_blank">read more</a></p> Wed, 16 Apr 2025 05:00:03 +0000 admin 99622 at https://www.worldoceanobservatory.org