They can be joyful and important social spaces, but a new generation of customers runs a mile from the shelves of plastic and chemicals
When I first heard that garden centres are facing a wave of closures, I immediately thought of the one around the corner from where I live. On a recent Wednesday afternoon, the car park was full and the cafe was bustling with people my parents’ age and older, chatting over milky coffees and slices of cake. The retired ladies who talk to me in the gym changing room love to come here for a jacket potato after their aquafit class.
Yet, as I stepped through the automatic doors, the plants weren’t immediately visible. First, I had to pass a bright deli counter, an area filled with homeware and crockery, shelves of fragrant toiletries, and a section of children’s toys before anything remotely connected to gardening came into view. I waded through gloves, power tools, pesticides and outdoor furniture, and then, finally, I found the annual bedding plants and potted shrubs. Here, all was quiet. The gardening section was quite unlike the busy cafe; I was alone but for one member of staff.
Claire Ratinon is an organic food grower and writer
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
02/03/2025 - 08:09
02/03/2025 - 07:00
The peer-reviewed study detected microplastics in 180 of 182 samples comprising five types of fish and pink shrimp
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Microplastics contamination is widespread in seafood sampled in a recent study, adding to growing evidence of the dangerous substances’ ubiquity in the nation’s food system, and a growing threat to human health.
The peer-reviewed study detected microplastics in 99%, or 180 out of 182, samples of seafood either bought at the store or from a fishing boat in Oregon. The highest levels were found in shrimp.
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02/03/2025 - 06:00
Critics say Trump is using every presidential power possible against clean power in sharp turn after Biden investments created jobs
For several years, Republicans accused Joe Biden of waging a “war on energy” even as the Untied States drilled more oil and gas than at any time in its history. Now, a more tangible assault is gathering pace under Donald Trump – aimed squarely at wind, solar and other cleaner forms of power.
In the first two weeks of his return as president, Trump has, like his first term, issued orders to open up more American land and waters for fossil fuel extraction and started the process to yank the US from the Paris climate agreement. “We will drill, baby drill,” said Trump, who has promised to cut energy and electricity prices in half within 18 months.
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02/03/2025 - 05:00
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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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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