Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Authorities warn more fatalities expected as a year’s worth of rain falls on Bahía Blanca in eight hours Rescue teams in Argentina are searching for two girls, aged one and five, who were swept away by severe floods that ripped through Buenos Aires province, killing at least 16 people. A year’s worth of rain fell on the city of Bahía Blanca and the town of Cerri on Friday, rapidly inundating neighbourhoods and destroying homes, bridges and roads. The rainfall – 400mm (15.7in) recorded in just eight hours – was more than twice the city’s previous record of 175mm (6.8in) set in 1930. Continue reading...

Chris Wright signals abandonment of Biden’s ‘irrational, quasi-religious’ climate policies at industry conference The world needs more planet-heating fossil fuel, not less, Donald Trump’s newly appointed energy secretary, Chris Wright, told oil and gas bigwigs on Monday. “We are unabashedly pursuing a policy of more American energy production and infrastructure, not less,” he said in the opening plenary talk of CERAWeek, a swanky annual conference in Houston, Texas, led by the financial firm S&P Global. Continue reading...

Regional voters are often stereotyped so I propose a new demographic category ahead of the election: conservative, uncommitted rural voters with environmental sympathies Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter Recently, an arborist operating in my town in remote north-western Australia put out a public statement. He found it necessary, given the number of queries he had received, to explain his reasons for cutting down native vegetation. It sounds like the start of a joke, but what this contractor’s earnest explanation illustrates is how in tune regional voters can be with their environs. Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter Continue reading...

They prefer to carry branches in their teeth, like dogs. And when they swim, they hold their front paws to their chests, like a severe governess in a Victorian novel The heads of beavers, large rodents known for building dams, are their own kind of highly complex dam structure, with various retractable walls that let water in or keep it out. They can close valves in their nostrils and ears and a special membrane over their eyes; their epiglottis, the flap that stops water entering the lungs, is inside their nose instead of their throat; they use their tongue to shield their throats from water; and their lips to shield their mouths – their lips can close behind their front teeth. Their teeth are rust-orange, because they are strengthened with iron. Their back feet are webbed like a duck’s; on land, their front feet act like hands, digging, grasping and carrying things from the riverbed to the surface – rocks, for example, tucked under their chins and cradled by their arms. When they swim, they do so while holding their front paws to their chests, like a severe governess in a Victorian novel, or a child pretending to be a rabbit. They prefer to carry branches in their teeth, like dogs. The biggest beavers weigh 50kg. As boats will sometimes lie along the shore, with part of them on land and part in water, and just as there [...] the beaver sets himself when he means war, so did that squalid beast lie on the margin of stone that serves as border for the sand. Continue reading...