Greenpeace says PM has ‘swallowed industry spin whole’ after plans unveiled to expand in England and Wales
Keir Starmer has channelled his inner Donald Trump and promised to “build, baby, build” in his push for more nuclear power stations, despite warnings from environmental groups about the industry’s record for soaring costs and long delays.
A day after the prime minister unveiled his plans to revamp planning rules to bring in a series of small modular reactors (SMRs) across England and Wales, Greenpeace said Starmer had “swallowed the nuclear industry spin whole”, and Friends of the Earth described the plans as “overblown, costly hype”.
Continue reading...
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
02/06/2025 - 12:30
02/06/2025 - 12:10
Conservation groups say policy would allow Doug Burgum to redraw boundaries of protected areas to boost fossil fuels
The US interior department has raised fears among conservationist groups about how national monuments will be affected in its transformation to support the Trump administration’s pro-fossil fuel agenda.
A review from Trump’s pick for interior secretary, Doug Burgum, released on his first full day in the position on Monday, instructs federal officials to reverse Biden-era regulations on oil and gas industries and boost drilling.
Continue reading...
02/06/2025 - 11:52
Middlewick Ranges in Colchester considered to be of national importance for nightingales and acid grassland
A council is proposing to remove the second-best place for nightingales in the UK from its local plan for 1,000 new homes, in a win for community campaigners and environmentalists.
Middlewick Ranges, a former Ministry of Defence firing range on the southern edge of Colchester, is set to be dropped from the city council’s allocated housing sites after councillors heeded a growing array of ecological evidence highlighting its national importance for nature.
Continue reading...
02/06/2025 - 11:51
On almost every level the chancellor’s decision to expand the London airport looks naive, if not foolish
For 20 years, politicians, industry leaders and campaigners have fought in courts, parliament and public meetings over the idea of building a new runway for Heathrow. For some, a third runway would not only boost passenger numbers at the airport but would be a symbol of the country’s determination to seek economic regeneration. For others, it would demonstrate, in vivid terms, our complete failure to understand the grim, global threat posed by further increasing carbon emissions.
Last week, Rachel Reeves chose to enter the fray. Remarkably, for a supposed green chancellor, she elected to back the project and seek the expansion of Heathrow to raise its annual passenger capacity by 50% to about 140 million. “A third runway at Heathrow would unlock further growth, boost investment, increase exports and make the UK more open and more connected,” she claimed. It was a bold move. It is unlikely history will view it as a sensible or justifiable one, however. On almost every level – political, local or environmental – her decision looks naive, if not foolish.
Continue reading...
02/06/2025 - 07:21
Concerns raised as $10bn Bezos Earth Fund halts funding for Science Based Targets initiative, which monitors companies’ decarbonisation
Jeff Bezos’s $10bn climate and biodiversity fund has halted its funding of one of the world’s most important climate certification organisations, amid broader concerns US billionaires are “bowing down to Trump” and his anti-climate action rhetoric.
The Bezos Earth Fund has stopped its support for the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), an international body that assesses if companies are decarbonising in line with the Paris agreement. Earth Fund had been one of two core funders of the SBTi, with the Ikea Foundation: the two accounted for 61% of its total funding last year. Earth Fund’s decision was first reported by the FT.
Continue reading...
02/06/2025 - 06:27
Even brief exposure to particulate matter found to impede selective attention and emotional recognition
A person’s ability to focus on everyday tasks is affected by short-term exposure to air pollution, a study has found.
Researchers analysed data from cognitive tests completed by 26 participants before and after they were exposed either to high levels of particulate matter (PM) using smoke from a candle, or clean air for an hour.
Continue reading...
02/06/2025 - 06:00
New EPA administrator Lee Zeldin’s pillars pledge to help auto industry and have no mention of the climate crisis
A new and starkly different vision for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been outlined by the Trump administration – one that involves mass staff cuts, an influx of industry lobbyists and, unusually, the promotion of artificial intelligence as a key agency priority.
A set of five “pillars” issued by new EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, to guide the agency, set up under President Richard Nixon in 1970 to protect US public health and the environment, does include one referencing “clean land, air and water for every American”.
Continue reading...
02/05/2025 - 00:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 05 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00104-x
Major data gaps and recommendations in monitoring regulations of activities in EU marine protected areas
World Ocean Explorer Wins Gold Medal Serious Simulation Award from Serious Play Annual International Competition
10/26/2023 - 14:35
For Immediate Release October 19, 2023
Sedgwick, Maine USA World Ocean Explorer, a 3D virtual aquarium and educational simulation, was recently cited for excellence, winning a Gold Medal Award in the 2023 International Serious Play Awards Program.
World Ocean Explorer is an innovative 3D virtual aquarium designed for educational exploration of the world’s oceans. With interactive exhibits and a lobby space, visitors can immerse themselves in realistic marine environments, including a DEEP SEA exhibit funded by Schmidt Ocean Institute, showcasing unprecedented deep-sea discoveries off Australia. Targeted at 3rd graders and beyond, this immersive experience offers a range of perspectives on the ocean environment and can be explored through guided tours or user-controlled interfaces. Visit DEEP SEA at worldoceanexplorer.org/deep-sea-aquarium.html.
Serious Play Conference brings together professionals who are exploring the use of game-based learning, sharing their experience, and working together to shape the future of training and education. For more information on Serious Play Award Program visit seriousplayconf.com/international-serious-play-award-programs.
World Ocean Explorer is a transformative virtual aquarium designed to deepen understanding of the world ocean and amplify connection for young people worldwide. Organized around the principles of Ocean Literacy and the Next Gen Science Standards, World Ocean Explorer brings the wonder and knowledge of ocean species and systems to students in formal and informal classrooms, absolutely free to anyone with a good Internet connection. As an advocate for the ocean through communications, World Ocean Observatory believes there is no better investment in the future of the sustainable ocean than through a new approach to educational engagement that excites, informs, and motivates students to explore the wonders of our marine world and to understand the pervasive connection and implication for our future, inherent in the protection and conservation of all aspects of our ocean world.
World Ocean Explorer presents an astonishing 3-dimensional simulated aquarium visit, organized to reveal the wonders of undersea life, with layers of detailed data and information to augment the emotional connection made to the astonishing beauty and complexity of the dynamic ocean. Within each of the virtual exhibits, students visit exemplary theme-based sites with myriad opportunities to understand the larger perspectives of scientific knowledge as organized and visualized to dramatize the impact and change on ocean life as a result of natural and human-generated events. Through immersion among displays, mixed media and 3D models, the experience of an aquarium visit will be brought into classrooms or home school environments as a free, accessible, always available opportunity for teaching and learning. All of this will be available to a world audience without physical limitation or cost. World Ocean Explorer, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, receives support from the Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation, Visual Solutions Lab, the Climate Change Institute, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, and The Fram Museum Oslo. To learn more about the current and future exhibits of World Ocean Explorer, visit worldoceanexplorer.org.
media contact
Trisha Badger, Managing Director, World Ocean Observatory | [email protected] +12077011069
Read more »
