Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Climate change target of 2C is ‘dead’, says renowned climate scientist

admin — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 17:31:22 +0000

Prof James Hansen says pace of global heating has been significantly underestimated though other scientists disagree

The pace of global heating has been significantly underestimated, according to renowned climate scientist Prof James Hansen, who said the international 2C target is “dead”.

A new analysis by Hansen and colleagues concludes that both the impact of recent cuts in sun-blocking shipping pollution, which has raised temperatures, and the sensitivity of the climate to increasing fossil fuels emissions are greater than thought.

Ed Miliband emerges from his bunker to bask in Labour backbench love | John Crace

admin — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 17:19:12 +0000

Deprived of Rachel Reeves’s affections, the energy secretary revelled in playing climate crisis hero to her villain

He lives!

Temperatures at north pole 20C above average and beyond ice melting point

admin — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 16:39:31 +0000

Scientists say unusually mild temperatures linked to low-pressure system over Iceland directing strong flow of warm air towards north pole

Temperatures at the north pole soared more than 20C above average on Sunday, crossing the threshold for ice to melt.

Temperatures north of Svalbard in Norway had already risen to 18C hotter than the 1991–2020 average on Saturday, according to models from weather agencies in Europe and the US, with actual temperatures close to water’s melting point of 0C. By Sunday, the temperature anomaly had risen to more than 20C.

Monarch butterfly numbers plummet in US west coast winter habitats

admin — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 15:09:34 +0000

Just 9,119 were counted in 2024 – down 96% on previous year and second-lowest mark in nearly three decades

The number of monarch butterflies spending the winter in the western United States has dropped to its second-lowest mark in nearly three decades as pesticides, diminishing habitat and the climate crisis take their toll on the beloved pollinator.

DNA of rare mussels found in River Seine raises hopes Paris clean-up is working

admin — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 14:46:10 +0000

Scientists taking samples from city’s river did not expect to find presence of under-threat molluscs

Traces of rare mussels sensitive to pollution and thought to be on the point of extinction in France have been discovered in the Seine in Paris, raising hopes that efforts to clean up the river that bisects the French capital might be succeeding.

Donald Trump Jr accused of killing protected bird in Venice lagoon

admin — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 12:05:37 +0000

Video posted online is said to show Trump Jr with a ruddy shelduck while on hunting trip

Donald Trump Jr has been accused of killing a protected duck while hunting in the Venice lagoon.

Vehicle tyres found to be biggest source of nanoplastics in the high Alps

admin — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 10:35:33 +0000

Mountaineers now scaling more peaks for first global study of nanoplastics, which can enter lungs and bloodstream

Particles from vehicle tyre wear are the biggest source of nanoplastic pollution in the high Alps, a pioneering project has revealed.

Expert mountaineers teamed up with scientists to collect contamination-free samples and are now scaling peaks to produce the first global assessment of nanoplastics, which are easily carried around the world by winds.

The last fragments of ancient Irish rainforests may face a new threat … trees

admin — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 06:00:15 +0000

As commercial monocultures increase, ecologists are calling for the remaining splinters of native woodland to be identified, protected - and expanded

Photographs by Rob Stothard

“This could almost be part of Lapland, up here,” says retired researcher John Spence, approaching a clearing in the Correl Glen nature reserve in Fermanagh, near Northern Ireland’s land border with the county of Leitrim. “You could make a Nordic movie here and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”

Norway rules out fish farm ban despite ‘existential threat’ to wild salmon

admin — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 05:00:14 +0000

Open-net farms to continue despite numbers of wild fish halving as minister looks for ‘acceptable’ pollution levels

Norway’s environment minister has ruled out a ban on open-net fish farming at sea despite acknowledging that the wild North Atlantic salmon is under “existential threat”.

US Senate confirms fracking CEO Chris Wright to be Trump’s energy secretary

admin — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 00:21:36 +0000

Liberty Energy executive, who has called climate change activists alarmist, confirmed in vote of 59-38

The US Senate on Monday confirmed Chris Wright, a fracking executive, to be Donald Trump’s energy secretary.

The vote was 59-38.