Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Charity praises effort to stop Ramsgate’s Pie Factory Music closing but calls for more youth services in coastal towns The last remaining youth centre in one of England’s most deprived coastal places has been saved from being sold after a long campaign by the charity that has for 13 years called it home. In November the Guardian revealed how the centre in Ramsgate on the Kent coast was facing being auctioned off by Kent county council, despite an independent report that estimated the centre was saving the council more than £500,000 a year in costs, including for services in mental health, youth justice and social care. Continue reading...

On a recent trip to Lake Geneva in Switzerland, biodiversity reporter Phoebe Weston witnessed the impact of one of the planet’s most potent invasive species, the quagga mussel. In just a decade the mollusc, originally from the Ponto-Caspian region of the Black Sea, has caused irreversible change beneath the surface of the picturesque lake. While ecologists believe invasive species play a major role in more than 60% of plant and animal extinctions, stopping them in their tracks is almost impossible. Phoebe tells Madeleine Finlay how invasive species spread, how conservationists are trying combat them and why some think a radical new approach is needed. ‘It’s an open invasion’: how millions of quagga mussels changed Lake Geneva for ever Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

Industry bigger than all but seven world economies, and accounts for more than third of China’s economic growth China’s clean energy industries drove more than 90% of the country’s investment growth last year, making the sectors bigger than all but seven of the world’s economies, a new analysis has shown. For the second time in three years, the report showed the manufacture, installation and export of batteries, electric cars, solar, wind and related technologies accounted for more than a third of China’s economic growth. Continue reading...

Only 180 bats survived intense heat in South Australian town, including 34 babies that carers say face months of recovery Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A colony of about 1,000 flying foxes in a South Australian town has been shattered by the intense heat that gripped south-eastern Australia last week, with more than 80% of the camp at Naracoorte wiped out. “It’s a devastating loss of numbers,” said Judith Bemmer, a carer at Bat Rescue SA. Among the surviving 180 animals, about 34 underweight and dehydrated babies were rescued, and would face months of recovery. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter Continue reading...