Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Carbon capture and storage could make the Rosebank site compatible with UK net zero commitments – if its owners are willing to pay the price The British government must soon decide whether it should give consent to two oil and gasfields, Rosebank in the North Atlantic and Jackdaw in the North Sea. Amid both insecurity of energy supplies and deadly evidence of the climate crisis, the prime minister, Andy Burnham, is facing pressure from the oil and gas industry and unions on one side, and environmentalists on the other. Labour’s manifesto commitment not to approve new drilling licences offers little help, because the fields already have licences, granted by the previous Conservative government in 2022 and 2023. But last year, Edinburgh’s court of session ruled that the environmental impact assessments on which this decision relied were unlawful. The Conservative government had, the court ruled, failed to include the emissions generated when the oil and gas from the fields is burned. The court allowed work to continue on the fields, but a new assessment had to be done and approval sought again. Michael Jacobs is professor of political economy at the University of Sheffield and a former energy and climate change adviser to Gordon Brown when he was prime minister Continue reading...

Pair are offspring of two beavers who mysteriously arrived in Pensthorpe nature reserve near Fakenham in December Wild beaver kits have been born in Norfolk for the first time in more than 500 years. The pair of newborns are the offspring of two free-living beavers who mysteriously arrived in Pensthorpe nature reserve near Fakenham in December. Continue reading...

US agency releases plan to lease millions of hectares of seabed off the coast of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam A US government plan to lease out millions of hectares of seabed near the Mariana Trench for deep sea exploration has drawn opposition from US territories in the Pacific, as the Trump administration remains locked in a race with China for control of critical ocean minerals. On Tuesday, the Marine Mineral Administration (MMA), an agency under the US department of the interior, released a proposal to auction deep sea mining leases for 28m hectares (69m acres) of seafloor off the coast of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam. Continue reading...

Human-caused Hawk fire covers more than 15,000 acres as blaze approaches University of Nevada campus in Reno A fast-moving Nevada wildfire exploded to more than 15,000 acres (6,000 hectares) on Sunday, pushing from the Sierra foothills toward the center of Reno and urging nearly 90,000 residents to evacuate as flames threatened neighborhoods and reached the edge of the University of Nevada campus. The Hawk fire’s “GO NOW” evacuation zone had expanded to the edge of the university campus as strong, gusty winds, low humidity and dry vegetation fueled the blaze, according to Truckee Meadows Fire and Rescue in Reno. Of those urged to evacuate, 42,000 were under strict orders. An additional 45,000 people were in the evacuation warning zone, and encouraged to leave now and be prepared to stay away for several days to clear the roads for first-responders. Continue reading...