Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Brazil asks UN to ditch proposed levy on global shipping

admin — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 06:00:28 +0000

Those supporting the deal hope it will raise billions to help poor countries deal with climate breakdown

Brazil has asked the UN to throw out plans for a new levy on global shipping that would raise funds to fight the climate crisis, despite playing host to the next UN climate summit.

Protesters target Tesla showrooms in US over Elon Musk’s government cost-cutting

admin — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 12:37:26 +0000

Demonstrations across the US against tycoon’s ties to Trump highlight potential risks to firm’s reputation and sales

Protesters gathered outside Tesla dealerships across the US on Saturday in response to Elon Musk’s efforts to shred government spending under the president, Donald Trump.

Groups of demonstrators up to 100-strong gathered outside the electric carmaker’s showrooms in cities including New York, Seattle, Kansas City and across California. Organisers said the protests took place in dozens of locations.

The LA fires burned down a thriving Black community. Residents are afraid of being ‘erased’

admin — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 12:00:11 +0000

The Eaton fire destroyed nearly half of the Black households in Altadena, wiping out businesses and wealth

A memorial service early this month for three Black victims of the Eaton fire was marked by simmering anger at Donald Trump’s choice not to visit Altadena, a suburb with a historic Black community disproportionately affected by the disaster.

It’s one of many decisions that have left residents of Altadena, a racially and economically diverse suburb of Los Angeles, worried about political and financial neglect in the aftermath of the fires.

‘It is going to be terrible’: a senior in Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ prepares for Trump’s dismantling of hard-won environmental progress

admin — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 12:00:10 +0000

Robert Taylor recently lost his wife to a long-term illness he linked to chemicals produced by a nearby plant, and now the Trump administration is preparing to scrap pollution reforms in the area

It is only February and already Robert Taylor is facing his second seismic life event of the year.

Both are wrapped in grief and angst, tied indelibly to the land that surrounds his home in the community of Reserve, Louisiana.

‘Everything we had floated away’: Hurricane Helene survivors help each other as disinformation swirls

admin — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 12:00:09 +0000

Mountain communities in southern Appalachia begin rebuilding after climate crisis-fueled disaster

It’s hard to picture what Barnardsville looked like before Hurricane Helene converted the calm creek that meanders through this North Carolina mountain into a roaring river that engulfed the community.

More than 50 homes including an entire trailer park were destroyed when Ivy Creek flooded in late September after three days of unprecedented rainfall and hurricane-force winds uprooted thousands of trees – and this close-knit community’s sense of safety.

DeSantis urged to declare emergency over toxic red tide algae off Florida coast

admin — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 11:00:08 +0000

Harmful algae bloom off south-west coast blamed for deaths of marine life and poses threat to beaches

A tale of two suckers: Donald Trump’s plastic straws and Keir Starmer | Stewart Lee

admin — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 10:00:03 +0000

The US president has scrapped paper straws because they allegedly ‘explode’ – a bit like the PM’s reputation if he keeps refusing to confront him on the big issues

It’s difficult to know whether to set any store by Donald Trump’s bleak and yet also often banal pronouncements, which read as if handfuls of offensive concepts have been tossed into the air by a monkey, read out in whatever order they landed and then made policy. Until it’s clear they can’t work. At which point, the monkey must toss again.

Cat person or dog person? It’s which animal we loathe that matters in the end | Andrew Anthony

admin — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 19:00:48 +0000

A councillor’s alleged attempt to blow up a bird-prowling moggie reveals the pet-loving divide runs deep

Sydney’s archaic sewerage system a ‘significant’ source of microplastic pollution into the sea

admin — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 19:00:46 +0000

Malabar wastewater plant discharges 5.4bn to 120bn microplastic particles each day, CSIRO report says, prompting calls for more advanced treatment processes

Waitrose to stop selling suffocated farmed prawns, as campaigners say they feel pain

admin — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 16:41:36 +0000

As the supermarket vows to introduce electrical stunning for its farmed prawns, campaigners call on others to follow suit

They are a popular staple for office lunches, barbecues and takeaways, but prawns often suffer an unpleasant death before reaching our plates.

Animal rights campaigners say billions of prawns farmed each year deserve better welfare protection and are targeting what they describe as “atrocious” practices of “eyestalk ablation” and suffocation in ice slurry.