Breaking Waves: Ocean News

A casual walk through an Ithaca cemetery led to the discovery of a gigantic hidden bee population — roughly 5.5 million ground-nesting bees packed beneath the soil. Scientists believe it may be one of the largest bee aggregations ever documented and say the insects are crucial pollinators for apple orchards and other crops. The bees have likely lived there for more than 100 years, thriving in the cemetery’s undisturbed sandy soil.

Investigators are still searching for what caused the recent deaths of a mother and her calf, but conservationists say the animal’s shrinking habitat may be the first place to look The two elephants were found dead in the Indonesian province of Bengkulu, in an area of “production forest” in southern Sumatra. The mother and her calf were lying side by side with their tusks still intact. Unlikely to be poachers, the cause of their deaths – and that of a tiger nearby – at the end of April is still being investigated but conservationists say this is not an isolated case. It is estimated that seven wild elephants have died in Bengkulu since 2018. Continue reading...

Be more strident and ambitious, take on economic inequality, and progressive voters will reward you as they have the UK’s Greens Tarik Abou-Chadi is a professor of European politics at the University of Oxford European Green parties have been through a phase of stagnation and crisis in recent years. Long gone seem the days of the “green wave” across Europe. Back in 2019, Green parties secured their best-ever result in the European parliament elections, with 74 seats. In the same year, Green parties also scored record results in Switzerland, Belgium and Austria. Shortly after, they were part of governing coalitions in Finland, Germany, Ireland and Austria. But more recently, there has been much discussion of a “greenlash”: a backlash against climate policies and other green projects throughout Europe. Across the continent, Green parties dropped out of nearly all government coalitions, and these parties’ recent election results have often failed to meet expectations. With apparently declining enthusiasm for the climate movement, and the decreasing salience of climate breakdown at the ballot box, Green parties are debating how to turn their fortunes around. Tarik Abou-Chadi is a professor of European politics at the University of Oxford Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Nature groups urge people to avoid unauthorised areas to protect birds during nesting season Nature groups have pleaded with swimmers to give wildlife a wide berth after dozens of people swam in a nature pond on Hampstead Heath among nests of baby birds. Swans and their 12-day-old cygnets were disturbed by hordes of splashing revellers in the north London park on Monday as London reached record 35C temperatures. In one video, a swan was seen poking an unhatched egg with its beak after it fell into the water during the chaos. Continue reading...