Breaking Waves: Ocean News

02/13/2025 - 07:00
Fears grow for endangered species as the US president sets about dismantling basic laws to protect them to make way for oil and gas drilling Donald Trump has already begun dismantling parts of the envied US endangered species protections in his quest to boost oil and gas drilling, in part using a panel with an ominous name: the God squad. A slew of early actions by the Trump administration has set about throwing open more land and waters for the fossil fuel industry, triggering the reversal of regulations that strengthen the Endangered Species Act, the country’s landmark 1973 conservation bill, including a rule that protects migratory birds from unintentional killing. Continue reading...
02/13/2025 - 06:00
Suppressants a ‘major’ source of toxic pollution that causes heavy-metal levels to spike in the environment The US federal government and chemical makers have long concealed the contents of pink wildfire suppressants widely spread by firefighting aircraft to contain blazes, but new test results provide alarming answers – the substances are rife with cadmium, arsenic, chromium and other toxic heavy metals. The suppressants are a “major” source of toxic pollution that causes heavy-metal levels to spike in the environment, and the products themselves contain metal levels up to 3,000 times above drinking water limits, the peer-reviewed research found. Continue reading...
02/13/2025 - 01:00
Call for means-tested grants or loans to cover upfront costs that prevent poorer households from benefiting Poorer households could cut their energy bills by a quarter if solar panels were installed on their rooftops, a report has found. However, the upfront costs mean that those who stand to benefit most from decreased energy bills are prevented from getting panels installed, according to the Resolution Foundation thinktank. Continue reading...
02/13/2025 - 01:00
Bogs and swamps are a colossal carbon store but their continued destruction would blow climate change targets The world’s peatlands are “dangerously underprotected” despite the colossal amount of climate-heating carbon dioxide already being emitted due to their destruction, a study has warned. Peatlands occupy just 3% of all land, but contain more carbon than all of the world’s forests. However, farmers and miners are draining the peatlands, releasing so much CO2 that if they were a country, they would be the fourth biggest polluter in the world after China, the US and India. Continue reading...
02/13/2025 - 00:04
The technology is new, chargers are expensive and regulations hard to navigate – but all that could soon change Our cars sit unused most of the time. If you have an electric vehicle, you might leave it charging at home or work after driving it. But there’s another step you could take. If you have a bidirectional charger, you can set it to sell power back to the grid when demand is high. Fewer than 10 people across Australia actually do this, because the technology – known as vehicle-to-grid (V2G) – is very new. To date, it only works with a single car model (Nissan Leaf) and a single charger (Wallbox Quasar 1). We’ve estimated the number of users based on sales of this charger. The chargers are expensive and there’s a thicket of regulations to navigate. Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads You originally think of it as a car you can also use to power your house. [But actually] it’s a house battery you can drive around. Continue reading...
02/12/2025 - 17:01
Researchers took a deep dive to understand why certain locations are more susceptible and attractive to invasions by non-native plants or animals, making them prime targets for these species to spread.
02/12/2025 - 15:46
Kathleen Sgamma to oversee Bureau of Land Management, agency that manages quarter-billion acres of public land Donald Trump has nominated a longtime oil and gas industry representative to oversee an agency that manages a quarter-billion acres of public land concentrated in western states. Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Colorado-based oil industry trade group Western Energy Alliance, was named Bureau of Land Management director, a position with wide influence over lands used for energy production, grazing, recreation and other purposes. An MIT graduate, Sgamma has been a leading voice for the fossil fuel industry, calling for fewer drilling restrictions on public lands that produce about 10% of US oil and gas. Continue reading...
02/12/2025 - 15:15
Global warming is producing a rapid loss of plant species -- according to estimates, roughly 600 plant species have died out since 1750 -- twice the number of animal species lost. But which species are hit hardest? And how does altered biodiversity actually affect interactions between plants? Experts have tackled these questions and, in two recent studies, presented the answers they found buried in the past: using fragments of plant genetic material (DNA) deposited in lake sediments, they were able to gain new insights into how the composition of flora changed 15,000 to 11,000 years ago during the warming at the end of the last ice age, which is considered to be the last major mass extinction event before today. This comparison can offer an inkling of what might await us in the future.
02/12/2025 - 13:49
Planting fast-growing crops, burning them, capturing the released CO2 and storing it: this is being discussed as a way to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and limit global heating to 1.5 degrees in the long term. But if this is done on land beyond existing agriculture, it endangers the stability of the biosphere. A study puts a figure on the potential of such novel 'climate plantations', also known as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). The study considered not only the carbon balance but also other planetary boundaries.
02/12/2025 - 11:53
Program is meant to help the endangered northern spotted owl – and it’s only C$5! – but rat lovers are not amused Revenge, they say, is a dish best served cold. And for an endangered owl breeding program in Canada, it’s also a dish best served dead. For the price of a coffee, spurned and disgruntled lovers can revel in the satisfaction of having a dead rat named after an ex, before it is fed to a northern spotted owl. Continue reading...