The cacophony around me seemed to drown out my daily worries until a writing retreat showed me there was a better way
I’ve lived in South Korea for more than a decade, but it’s only recently that I discovered just how loud it is here. The bing-bong when someone presses the “stop” button on the city bus, and the accompanying sing-songy announcements in Korean, the beeps of riders scanning their transit cards to board or depart; soju-drunk office workers loudly singing off-tune through neighbourhood alleyways; obnoxiously loud K-pop music blaring out of storefronts; and songs that seem to change key at record rates as delivery motorbikes speed out of range.
In reality, I have relied on there being near-constant cacophony around me for the whole of my adult life. Without realising it, background noise became a kind of comfort to me, making me feel less alone. It started after university when I was barely scraping together a living, working jobs I didn’t want to be doing. I would soothe my loneliness and isolation in the evenings by playing endless hours of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit just for the ambient sound – the comfort of Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler bringing criminals of the worst kind to justice.
Krissi Driver is a writer based in South Korea
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
02/03/2025 - 05:00
02/03/2025 - 01:00
Greenpeace co-director responds to report finding fewer than one in 20 working in sector identifies as non-white
Environmental organisations “are still very white, especially at the top”, the co-director of Greenpeace has said as research showed little to no improvement in the ethnic diversity of their workforces.
Areeba Hamid’s comments came as the third annual racial action on the climate emergency (Race) report into diversity among environmental charities found fewer than one in 20 of those working in the sector identified as people of colour or as other racial or ethnic minority groups.
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02/03/2025 - 00:24
Authorities say there is 'more significant rain to come' in north Queensland, amid warnings to residents not to return to flooded homes. Dams and river catchments from Mackay to Cairns remain swollen from a week of heavy rain, which has dumped more than 1.2 metres at some locations. More than 400 people – mostly in Townsville, Ingham and Cardwell – are in evacuation shelters after being advised on Sunday to flee
North Queensland floods: hundreds evacuated, dozens rescued as 1.2m of rain dumped in some areas
Queensland floods: authorities ready for ‘likelihood of more flooding’ – video
Heatwave warning as ‘intensely hot’ weather continues in south-eastern Australia
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02/03/2025 - 00:00
An innovative mission on the Welsh border, funded by an anonymous private investor, has begun work to create a ‘permanent human settlement’ under the sea
Down an easy-to-miss turnoff on the A48 just outside Chepstow on the Welsh border, the gentle rumble of trucks, cranes and people at work mixes with birdsong in what is an otherwise peaceful rural setting. It is a crisp and sunny winter morning when I visit and, at first glance, the site appears to be little more than prefab containers and a car park. Yet, behind the scenes a group of men and women with expertise in diving, marine biology, technology, finance, construction and manufacturing are building something extraordinary. They have come together with a single mission statement: to make humans aquatic.
Their project is called Deep (not The Deep) and the site was chosen after a global search for the perfect location to build and test underwater accommodation, which the project founders say will enable them to establish a “permanent human presence” under the sea from 2027.
Phil Short, research diving and training lead at Deep, outside the full-scale replica of the subsea sentinel habitat under construction at a site on the Welsh border. Photograph: Mark Griffiths/the Observer
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02/03/2025 - 00:00
Across the globe, vast swathes of land are being left to be reclaimed by nature. To see what could be coming, look to Bulgaria. By Tess McClure. Read by Sara Lynam
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02/02/2025 - 20:55
Robert Keldoulis and his investment firm Keldoulis Investments poured $1.1m into the fundraising vehicle last year
A major Climate 200 backer has again topped the latest list of political donors, new figures reveal, as the Albanese government attempts to pass sweeping laws to curb big money in politics.
Share trader Robert Keldoulis and his investment firm Keldoulis Investments Pty Limited donated a combined $1.1m to the fundraising vehicle in 2023-24, according to figures published by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) on Monday.
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02/02/2025 - 20:35
Some tropical lows are stalling, dumping huge volumes of rain – and climate change is playing a role
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Record-breaking floods across north Queensland have turned deadly, with one woman drowning while being rescued on Sunday. And the flood waters were still rising, with rain set to continue.
With reports of up to one metre of rainfall in parts of north-east Queensland, the heaviest rain has fallen between Lucinda to Townsville in northern Queensland as the Bureau of Meteorology warns the big wet will continue for days.
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This article originally appeared in the Conversation. Steve Turton is an adjunct professor of environmental geography at CQUniversity Australia
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02/02/2025 - 19:51
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Antoinette Lattouf concedes some of her social media posts on Israel-Gaza ‘may be’ considered controversial
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Labor names sites of more study hubs for regional uni students
The federal government has announced the sites of 10 additional study hubs, which operate to improve university accessibility to students living in regional Australia.
Bringing university closer to where you live will encourage more people who otherwise might decide not to go to university at all to give it a crack.
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02/02/2025 - 19:01
Group of Darwin’s frogs threatened by chytrid fungus thrive in specially built room that mimics their natural habitat
Dozens of endangered froglets have been born at London zoo after conservationists launched an emergency mission to rescue members of the species from a remote national park in Chile.
Researchers rushed to Tantauco Park on the southern tip of Chiloé Island after tests confirmed that the lethal chytrid fungus had reached the nature reserve and threatened to wipe out some of the last remaining populations of Darwin’s frogs.
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02/02/2025 - 10:16
Exclusive: National Fire Chiefs Council says firefighters’ ability to respond is at risk as it calls for preventive action
The UK is not prepared for the impact of climate breakdown, fire chiefs have said, as they called on the government to take urgent action to protect communities.
The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) said the ability of fire services to tackle weather-related emergencies was at risk, despite them often being the primary frontline response to major weather events including flooding, fires caused by heatwaves, and storm-related emergencies, all of which are becoming more common.
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