Breaking Waves: Ocean News

The Project hopes competition will raise big money for underfunded organisations working to protect beloved species Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Tense competition is brewing between the greater glider and the koala in Australia’s marsupial of the year vote but there are hopes a silky-tailed species that “mates themselves to death” could win over voters and maybe even save it from heading towards extinction. Network Ten’s The Project launched the competition in collaboration with organisations and charities that work with or help preserve the habitat of marsupials, many of them endangered, in a bid to raise funds for them. Continue reading...

Under the Tories, non-violent climate protesters were jailed for up to five years – and there is little sign that Labour will change tack Linda Lakhdhir is the legal director of Climate Rights International In December 2023 when Stephen Gingell was sentenced to six months in prison for slow marching for half an hour on the Holloway Road in north London, the sentence was considered shocking. Unfortunately, it is far from the exception. In fact, my organisation, Climate Rights International, has spent the past eight months looking into restrictions on climate protests among western democracies and has found that the UK – mostly under the Conservatives – has introduced some of the harshest anti-protest legislation in recent years. You may remember Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker, who were sentenced to multi-year prison sentences in April 2023 for climbing the cables of the Queen Elizabeth II bridge to object to new oil, gas and coal projects. The three-year sentence imposed on Trowland was, at the time, the longest ever for a climate protest in the UK. But, it has since been surpassed. In July, in a case that made international headlines, five fossil-fuel protesters were sentenced to four- and five-year sentences after participating in a Zoom call about staging climate protests on the M25. Linda Lakhdhir is the legal director of Climate Rights International Continue reading...

The source of new renewable energy is also a battleground over China’s cheap exports of panels that has split US firms The Biden administration touts solar energy as one of its big success stories, a booming new industry that is curbing the effects of the climate crisis and creating high-paying jobs across the country. But the more complicated truth is that the United States is mired in a long-running trade war with China, which is flooding the market with artificially cheap solar panels that carry an uncomfortably large carbon footprint and threaten to obliterate the domestic industry. The price of solar panels has plummeted 50% over the past year, largely, industry insiders say, because of deliberate Chinese overproduction of key components and a game of international cat-and-mouse over trade rules often likened to a game of “Whac-A-Mole”. As different sets of rules get established, Chinese companies have proved adept at moving their manufacturing plants to other countries, in south-east Asia, and shifting strategies to work around US tariffs and other deterrent measures. This article was amended on 10 September 2014. An earlier version incorrectly stated that this year’s RE+ took place in Las Vegas, Nevada. Continue reading...

We Own It says 31% of water bills went on shareholder payouts and company debts in last financial year, while the same percentage of 2024 remains Tuesday is the day water bills will start servicing debt and paying shareholders rather than fixing leaks and ending the sewage scandal, campaigners have said, dubbing it “cost of water privatisation day”. The public services campaign group We Own It has shared analysis from the University of Greenwich that reveals roughly 31% of money collected from water bills goes towards shareholders and paying off debts. Last financial year, an average of 11% of revenue was spent on dividends and 20% went towards servicing debts, while as of 10 September 31% of 2024 remains. This article was amended on 10 September 2024 to remove a quote incorrectly attributed to Chris Weston, the chief executive of Thames Water. Continue reading...