Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Selfies and surf simulators: the young cruisers driving boom in sea holidays

admin — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 07:00:05 +0000

A new generation is taking to the ocean in growing numbers – and fears over the environmental impact of cruise ships appear not to be denting their popularity

Read more in this series

This summer was the first time 31-year-old Daisie Morrison had been on a cruise when she set sail on a two-week holiday with two friends, also in their early 30s.

Uncontacted hunter-gatherers facing threat of genocide because of minerals mining, claims report

admin — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 05:00:02 +0000

Survival International says Hongana Manyawa in Indonesia are at risk but mining company says the people in ‘voluntary’ contact with workers

Uncontacted hunter-gatherers in Indonesia “are facing a severe and immediate threat of genocide” because of mining for minerals on their lands for use in electric vehicles, a report claims.

'Biodiversity is not a luxury': Connection between wealth and ecosystem health

admin — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 21:30:30 +0000

This study examines the positive correlation between an area's wealth and biodiversity, known as the 'luxury effect.' The authors present an alternative framework for understanding links between socio-economic factors and ecosystem health which emphasizes the agency of less-wealthy communities in promoting healthy ecosystems where they live.

Managing forests with smart technologies

admin — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 19:56:35 +0000

Deforestation has remained a significant issue globally, with primary forests contributing to 16 per cent of the total tree cover loss in the last two decades, driven by climate change and intensive human activity. This threatens natural resources, biodiversity, and people's quality of life. To protect forests, scientists have developed Forest 4.0, an intelligent forest data processing model integrating blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies.

Revealed: how a San Francisco navy lab became a hub for human radiation experiments

admin — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 19:00:02 +0000

Operations at a cold war lab exposed at least 1,073 people to radiation. Risks to the nearby communities persist

Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point is a special report by the San Francisco Public Press, an independent non-profit news organization focused on accountability, equity and the environment.

In September 1956, Cpl Eldridge Jones found himself atop a sunbaked roof at an old army camp about an hour outside San Francisco, shoveling radioactive dirt.

Inheritance tax on farms should be delayed to avoid unfairness, says thinktank

admin — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 17:49:07 +0000

IFS suggests gifts of land before a certain date could be tax-free so that elderly farmers would not be caught out

Ministers should give farmers an inheritance tax holiday for the next few years, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said as it warned that government changes to agricultural taxes risked treating some landowners unfairly.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, announced in her budget last month that farmers with a business worth more than £1m could be subjected to 20% inheritance tax, prompting a tractor protest outside parliament.

Cop29 deal fails to consider inflation so is not tripling of target, economists say

admin — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 17:22:19 +0000

Experts say financial movements mean poor nations will in effect get billions less in value from £300bn pledge

A failure to factor in inflation means the $300bn (£240bn) climate finance deal agreed at Cop29 is not the tripling of pledges that has been claimed, economists have said.

Here’s what I learned at Cop29. Rows aside, an unstoppable transition to clean energy is happening | Ed Miliband

admin — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 16:31:19 +0000

Britain wanted much better outcomes on many issues, but seeing the ambition at the conference gives me hope for the future

The climate crisis is all around us. And the world is not moving nearly fast enough. In that context, the Cop process for climate negotiations feels frustratingly slow. Yet it is the best mechanism for multilateral action we have, so we have to use it to do everything we can to speed up action.

I'm glad we got a deal at Cop29 – but western nations stood in the way of a much better one | Mukhtar Babayev

admin — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 14:00:47 +0000

My negotiating team tried in vain to push up support for the global south. Lessons must be learned before the next summit in Brazil

PFAS and microplastics become more toxic when combined, research shows

admin — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 14:00:46 +0000

Study detects synergistic effect making substances more dangerous, raising alarm since humans are exposed to both

Few human-made substances are as individually ubiquitous and dangerous as PFAS and microplastics, and when they join forces there is a synergistic effect that makes them even more toxic and pernicious, new research suggests.