Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Environmental groups are sounding the alarm over plans that threaten a desert spring that’s home to rare fish and turtles and sacred to the O’odham people Quitobaquito Springs in south-west Arizona has been called a biological wonderland with few equals. The springs are an oasis in the vast Sonoran desert along the US-Mexico border, held sacred by the O’odham people, who call it A’al Vaipia. Here, water flows out of an aquifer at the bottom of a hill, runs along a short concrete channel and collects in a pond. Continue reading...

‘Unpredictable’ blaze forces evacuation of holiday spot Cap Ferret and Spain declares emergency over fires near Madrid Europe live – latest updates More than 80,000 people have fled huge wildfires in Spain and France as Madrid declared a national emergency and French authorities ordered the total evacuation, by land and sea, of one of the country’s best-known holiday spots. Authorities in south-west France ordered the Cap Ferret peninsula on the Atlantic coast to be evacuated “village by village” in the face of an “intense, highly unpredictable” wildfire that has burned through more than 12,500 hectares (30,900 acres) of forest. Continue reading...

French evacuees using hundreds of mobilised boats or the only road linking the area with the mainland as evacuation also ordered in areas near Spanish capital Over in France, it’s not just the south-west that gets affected, but the country’s south-east regions are also being hard hit, AFP noted. Dozens of fires flared up and are being fanned by the mistral wind around the historic village of Cotignac – officials saying around 25 houses had been destroyed since Tuesday. Continue reading...

Reporting from some of the poorest seaside towns revealed how young people have been left isolated – but remain resilient and full of hope If you were asked to summon up images of the coastline of England and Wales, you might think of sunny days, buckets, spades and carefree holidays. But for many young people growing up by the sea, decades of evidence tell a very different story. For them, rather than a picture-perfect horizon full of hope, the sea has become a boundary that swallows up opportunity. With a 73% decline in funding for youth services in England over the past 12 years, and a lack of opportunities that has led to nearly 1 million 16- to 24-year-olds not in work, education or training (Neet), the situation for young people, especially in places of deprivation, has never seemed more desperate. Continue reading...