Breaking Waves: Ocean News

A landmark report reveals that the world must change the way it produces food to avoid a biodiversity collapse Conservation comebacks for wild tigers, tuna and green​ sea turtles prove that global nature loss can be reversed, ​scientists have said. ​But a report warns food production must be the next ​“positive tipping point​” if the world is to avert biodiversity collapse. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) analysed nearly 36,000 animal populations and more than 5,000 species, producing the largest ever database of vertebrate wildlife. Scientists found populations had declined by an average of 73% since 1970, showing that “nature continues to be degraded at an alarming scale”, with “no sign of losses slowing”. Continue reading...

Chinstrap penguins on Zavodovski Island in Antarctica down by two-thirds since 2011, probably due to climate crisis The world’s largest penguin colony has declined by two-thirds since 2011, most likely because of the climate crisis, a study has revealed. Scientists said the rapid demise of chinstrap penguins on Zavodovski, the northernmost of the South Sandwich Islands in Antarctica, increased the risk of a wider ecosystem collapse. Continue reading...

Pennon slashes dividend and launches £550m cash call ‘to drive improved outcomes for customers and communities’ Burnham, take note: water shareholders have their uses The owner of embattled South West Water has slashed its dividend and launched a cash call to investors as it attempts to fund infrastructure investment, days after it was hit by a record £7.9m fine for hundreds of sewage spills. London-listed Pennon said on Wednesday it would tap investors for £550m, as part of a £1bn investment “to drive improved outcomes for customers and communities”. Continue reading...

A farm labor contractor exposed laborers on H-2A agricultural visas to heat-related health hazards, but is still bringing hundreds of migrant farm workers to North Carolina It was 4pm and 90F (32C) when Carlos Vargas Moreno and other farm workers set out to weed a watermelon field in Goldsboro, North Carolina, on 19 July 2022. The work day had begun at 7am and included two 15-minute breaks and a one-hour lunch eaten outdoors. The heat index – what the temperature feels like to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature – was 98.3F. It was the kind of day that a heat safety app created by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh) defined as “hazardous” for outdoor workers. Continue reading...