Breaking Waves: Ocean News

09/13/2024 - 09:07
Legislation makes it illegal to advertise fossil fuel products and services with a high carbon footprint The Hague has become the first city in the world to pass a law banning advertisements promoting fossil fuel products and climate-busting services. Legislation passed on Thursday spells the end of publicly and privately funded advertising for petrol and diesel, aviation and cruise ships in the streets of the Dutch city, including on billboards and bus shelters. It takes effect from the start of next year. Continue reading...
09/13/2024 - 09:00
Survivors of the 2023 massacre in Half Moon Bay, California, were moved from dilapidated sheds to subsidized housing but struggle with a sense of security and normalcy Just a short car ride from the famous crescent shoreline of Half Moon Bay, the California beach town best known for big wave surf contests, a gravel road off Highway 1 leads to a cluster of ramshackle sheds and trailers. For years, few people knew about the dozens of farmworkers who lived in them, growing fresh gourmet mushrooms to deliver to grocery stores and restaurants across the state. Continue reading...
09/13/2024 - 06:30
The image of huge, glorious landscapes, where wildlife runs free under the protection of the state, is far from reality England’s national parks overseen by ‘bloated’, mostly white male boards What do you think of when you think of a national park? Is it a wide area of glorious natural beauty, where wildlife runs free under the protection of the state? Or is it a wide area mostly farmed by private landowners, in which nature is faring worse than outside its boundaries, and largely off-limits to the public? In England, the reality is the latter, and this matters. The country is one of the most nature-depleted nations in the world, in the bottom 10% of nations for biodiversity. “Nature is in freefall in our national parks,” says Dr Rose O’Neill, the chief executive of the Campaign for National Parks (CNP). Continue reading...
09/13/2024 - 04:36
Court rules against West Cumbria Mining’s fossil fuel development in Whitehaven The UK’s first new deep coalmine in 30 years will not be allowed to go ahead after a ruling in the high court. On Friday morning, Justice Holgate ruled that plans to build the facility in Whitehaven, Cumbria, would not proceed, in what campaigners called a “victory for the environment”. The headline and body text of this article were updated on 13 September 2024 to clarify that the Cumbria development would have been the UK’s first new deep coalmine, rather than its first new coalmine of any kind, in 30 years. Continue reading...
09/09/2024 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 10 September 2024; doi:10.1038/s44183-024-00071-9 Integrating the multiple perspectives of people and nature in place-based marine spatial planning
09/08/2024 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 09 September 2024; doi:10.1038/s44183-024-00077-3 Changing circulations challenge the sustainability of cold water mass and associated ecosystem under climate change
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   |   director@thew2o.net +12077011069
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