Elephant conservation is a major priority in southern Africa, but habitat loss and urbanization mean the far-ranging pachyderms are increasingly restricted to protected areas like game reserves. The risk? Contained populations could become genetically isolated over time, making elephants more vulnerable to disease and environmental change.
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
08/06/2024 - 12:13
To protect the Amazon and support the wellbeing of its people, its economy needs to shift from environmentally harmful production to a model built around the diversity of indigenous and rural communities, and standing forests.
08/06/2024 - 10:00
Ageing correctional centers and the people within are threatened by floods, extreme heat, and building collapses due to snowfall and thawing permafrost
Over millions of years, glaciers slid across what is now northern Juneau, forming the craggy valleys and alluvial plains of south-east Alaska. Then about 200 years ago, when these glaciers shrank amid rising global temperatures, meltwater flowed downstream, depositing loose, silty soil along bodies of water like Lemon Creek.
In 1969, the state chose to build a prison on this flat land – despite an assessment that the glacial deposits would be “poor … material” for the building’s foundation.
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08/06/2024 - 10:00
The number of species recognised as threatened with extinction rises by 13 and now stands at 2,224
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Another 13 animals and plants have been added to Australia’s list of threatened species, sparking renewed calls for the federal government to quickly overhaul the country’s nature laws.
The species newly listed as at risk include the pig-nosed turtle (listed as vulnerable), the Dalhousie catfish (critically endangered), Pugh’s sphagnum frog (endangered) and the Coffs Harbour Fontainea, a rainforest tree (critically endangered). Other species are freshwater fish, lizards, flowering shrubs, a daisy and an orchid species.
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08/06/2024 - 09:00
More than half classed as very toxic, toxic or harmful to aquatic life, with 20 categorised as ‘substances of very high concern’
Almost 500 different chemicals, some of which are banned, have been found in various mixtures across all 171 river and groundwater catchments tested in England in 2024, according to data from the Environment Agency, analysed by the Guardian and Watershed Investigations.
More than half of them are classified as very toxic, toxic or harmful to aquatic life, according to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), and a banned, carcinogenic “forever chemical” was among 20 “substances of very high concern” found.
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08/06/2024 - 07:36
The penalties reflect the failings of the Environment Agency and Ofwat as much as the water companies
Behind the record fines announced by Ofwat for the routine dumping of sewage into rivers and seas by three water companies, there is a voiceless victim, one that does not sit in boardrooms, or get a chance to count dividends. It is our rivers and coastal waters, subjected to years of continuous pollution under the noses of the regulators, which are suffering.
In all likelihood the £168m penalties for the already struggling Thames Water, Yorkshire Water and Northumbrian Water will be followed by fines for the remaining eight water and sewerage companies, all of whom Ofwat is investigating over failure to treat sewage according to the law.
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08/06/2024 - 06:00
Firm moves ore through land without telling tribal leaders as mine resurfaces painful legacy of nuclear development
A coalition of hundreds of environmental activists, Navajo and Havasupai tribal members are protesting the transportation of uranium ore through the Navajo Nation, as a newly opened mine near the Grand Canyon resurfaces a painful legacy of nuclear development.
Located just seven miles south of the famous national park, the controversial Pinyon Plain mine is one of the first uranium mines to open in years as the United States works to boost its nuclear arsenal and energy supply.
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08/06/2024 - 01:47
Ofwat to penalise Thames, Northumbrian and Yorkshire for ‘catalogue of failure’ over illegal discharges
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Thames, Yorkshire and Northumbrian Water will be fined a record £168m between them for a “catalogue of failure” over illegal sewage discharges into rivers and the sea after the industry regulator’s biggest ever investigation.
The water regulator for England and Wales, Ofwat, has proposed penalties of £104m for Thames, £47m for Yorkshire and £17m for Northumbrian for failing to manage their wastewater treatment works and networks, including their operation of storm overflows. It said it was the first of more crackdowns to come.
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08/06/2024 - 01:42
The environmental regulator has a history of backing fossil fuels – that is why its preliminary view on Woodside’s Browse project is extraordinary
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The news that the Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority is likely to recommend that a massive gas export development off the state’s north-west shouldn’t go ahead is remarkable, but shouldn’t be.
We don’t know much about what the EPA told Woodside Energy in February about its Browse project off the state’s Kimberley coast. All we have is a line that WAtoday extracted from the EPA – that it had formed a “preliminary view” that the proposal was “unacceptable”.
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08/06/2024 - 00:56
Newcastle doctor Dave Hogbin named as man killed by 4.9-metre crocodile near Cooktown
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The wife of a man who was killed by a 4.9-metre crocodile in far north Queensland has said his last act was to save her life and stop her from being pulled into the water too.
Human remains were located inside a crocodile at Cooktown in an extensive search for a man who went missing at the weekend. Queensland police said a formal identification process was under way and a report would be prepared for the coroner, but the remains were believed to be those of a missing 40-year-old New South Wales man.
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