Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Running in America’s worst air: ‘like binging on a carton of cigarettes’

admin — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 12:00:14 +0000

For a writer and runner in Denver, Colorado, the city’s severe air pollution creates a daily dilemma: do something you love, or risk your health?

Outdoor runners have always had a lot of data to juggle: their pace, heart-rate, mileage, route, calories, weather and much more. Though in recent years there’s been a new, considerably more ominous data point for alfresco athletes to monitor: the Air Quality Index (AQI).

Are some of your household products killing insects and wildlife?

admin — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 12:00:13 +0000

Flea treatments for dogs, ant killer, washing-up liquid and herbicides may be partly to blame for decline in UK

Insect numbers are in freefall and most people know that pesticide use in agriculture is partly to blame.

But many domestic products including flea treatments for dogs, ant killer applications, washing-up liquid and herbicides can also contribute to the problem.

US landfills are major source of toxic PFAS pollution, study finds

admin — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 12:00:13 +0000

New research shows toxic ‘forever chemicals’ gas may escape landfills and threaten the environment

Toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” that leach from landfills into groundwater are among the major pollution sources in the US, and remain a problem for which officials have yet to find an effective solution.

Excess memes and ‘reply all’ emails are bad for climate, researcher warns

admin — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 11:47:54 +0000

Most data stored on power-hungry servers is used once then never looked at again

When “I can has cheezburger?” became one of the first internet memes to blow our minds, it’s unlikely that anyone worried about how much energy it would use up.

‘It’s torture’: brutal heat broils Texas prisons, killing dozens of inmates

admin — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 11:00:14 +0000

Legal action aims to force criminal justice department to air condition prisons, where 85,000 are at risk of heat illnesses

Week in wildlife – in pictures: a soggy robin, a breaching whale and a coyote on the hunt

admin — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 07:00:20 +0000

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

Wildlife boosted by England’s nature-friendly farming schemes, study finds

admin — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 06:00:19 +0000

Areas where farmers provide good habitats show notable increase in butterflies, bees, bats and breeding birds

Butterflies, bees and bats are among the wildlife being boosted by England’s nature-friendly farming schemes, new government research has found.

Birds were among the chief beneficiaries of the strategy, particularly ones that largely feed on invertebrates. An average of 25% more breeding birds were found in areas with more eco-friendly schemes.

Biomass power station produced four times emissions of UK coal plant, says report

admin — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 05:00:18 +0000

Drax received £22bn in subsidies despite being UK’s largest emitter in 2023, though company rejects ‘flawed’ research

The Drax power station was responsible for four times more carbon emissions than the UK’s last remaining coal-fired plant last year, despite taking more than £0.5bn in clean-energy subsidies in 2023, according to a report.

The North Yorkshire power plant, which burns wood pellets imported from North America to generate electricity, was revealed as Britain’s single largest carbon emitter in 2023 by a report from the climate thinktank Ember.

Conservationist fears NSW logging will drive frog named after him to extinction

admin — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 02:33:42 +0000

Dailan Pugh says protecting the endangered species, only identified in 2004 ‘is not rocket science’

What lies beneath: the growing threat to the hidden network of cables that power the internet

admin — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 23:55:12 +0000

Last month large parts of Tonga were left without internet when an undersea cable was broken. It’s a scenario that is far more common than is understood

It was the opening days of 2022, in the aftermath of a huge volcanic eruption, when Tonga went dark. The underwater eruption – 1,000 times more powerful than the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima – sent tsunami waves across Tonga’s nearby archipelago and blanketed the island’s white coral sands in ash.