Report finds 13 member states generated more energy from wind and solar power than coal and gas for first time in 2024
Wind turbines and solar panels have overtaken fossil fuels to generate 30% of the European Union’s electricity in the first half of the year, a report has found.
Power generation from burning coal, oil and gas fell 17% in the first six months of 2024 compared with the same period the year before, according to climate thinktank Ember. It found the continued shift away from polluting fuels has led to a one-third drop in the sector’s emissions since the first half of 2022.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/29/2024 - 23:00
07/29/2024 - 16:33
Climate-driven shifts in California's biodiversity call for innovation and continued environmental stewardfship, says a new study. California's 30x30 Initiative and efforts to harmonize biodiversity with renewable energy are promising steps, while wildfire strategies need to further adapt.
07/29/2024 - 14:31
As blazes spew smoke across western US, research shows it may be worse for brain health than other types of pollution
A new US study has found that wildfire smoke may be worse for brain health than other types of air pollution and even increase the risk of dementia.
The findings, reported on Monday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Philadelphia, come as millions spent the weekend under air quality warnings from wildfires spewing smoke across the western US, including a huge wildfire in California that has grown to more than 360,000 acres.
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07/29/2024 - 10:00
Though 2,300 people in the US died from heat-related illness in 2023, workers await robust protection laws
On 23 June, Shae Parker had to leave her shift early at a gas station in Columbia, South Carolina, to go to the emergency room due to heat exhaustion; she wasn’t paid for missing the rest of her shift. The air conditioning at her work has been on the fritz for weeks, she said, and her station heats up easily as the sun beams through its large windows.
“I got nauseated, overheated, lightheaded,” she said. “We don’t have free water, we don’t have a water level on the soda machine, the ice machine is broken, so we have to buy water. The last few weeks it’s been extremely hot. It’s very hard to breathe when you’re lightheaded and experiencing dizziness. The fatigue is like 10 times worse because your body is completely drained. I had to get two bags of fluid from being dehydrated even though I was drinking water.”
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07/29/2024 - 07:31
Regulator for Great Britain also appoints Elexon to lead local flexibility markets
Business live – latest updates
Ofgem is pushing ahead with plans to make it easier for British homeowners to reap the benefits of using electric car chargers and heat pumps at non-peak times, as the grid becomes more reliant on wind and solar power.
The energy regulator for Great Britain has put forward proposals to encourage flexible electricity use in the home by creating a single register in which flexibility service providers (FSPs) can access more markets and better rates for owners of energy assets such as EV chargers and battery storage systems.
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07/25/2024 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 26 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s44183-024-00075-5
The deep ocean is increasingly featured in climate solution discussions. An emerging narrative suggests that marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) is essential to meet global climate targets. The argument made is similar to claims that deep-seabed mining (DSM) is necessary to enable widespread electrification, in that both are framed as helping to address climate change. We compare the structure and history of these narratives, highlighting that while potential negative impacts on marine life have emerged as a central feature in debates about DSM, environmental and social risks associated with mCDR are yet to receive similar recognition. In light of this comparison, we argue that potential harm needs to be further emphasized in considerations of deploying mCDR.
07/23/2024 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 24 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s44183-024-00072-8
With ecosystem services (ES) vital for human wellbeing1, the protection of nature is a human rights matter. We outline how recent advances in international human rights law should inform a revamp of how precaution is applied within environmental decision-making. Critically, precautionary decision-making must evolve to make use of best-available evidence, including novel ES research approaches, to assess ‘foreseeable’ harms to all aspects of human wellbeing that are protected as human rights.
World Ocean Explorer Wins Gold Medal Serious Simulation Award from Serious Play Annual International Competition
10/26/2023 - 14:35
For Immediate Release October 19, 2023
Sedgwick, Maine USA World Ocean Explorer, a 3D virtual aquarium and educational simulation, was recently cited for excellence, winning a Gold Medal Award in the 2023 International Serious Play Awards Program.
World Ocean Explorer is an innovative 3D virtual aquarium designed for educational exploration of the world’s oceans. With interactive exhibits and a lobby space, visitors can immerse themselves in realistic marine environments, including a DEEP SEA exhibit funded by Schmidt Ocean Institute, showcasing unprecedented deep-sea discoveries off Australia. Targeted at 3rd graders and beyond, this immersive experience offers a range of perspectives on the ocean environment and can be explored through guided tours or user-controlled interfaces. Visit DEEP SEA at worldoceanexplorer.org/deep-sea-aquarium.html.
Serious Play Conference brings together professionals who are exploring the use of game-based learning, sharing their experience, and working together to shape the future of training and education. For more information on Serious Play Award Program visit seriousplayconf.com/international-serious-play-award-programs.
World Ocean Explorer is a transformative virtual aquarium designed to deepen understanding of the world ocean and amplify connection for young people worldwide. Organized around the principles of Ocean Literacy and the Next Gen Science Standards, World Ocean Explorer brings the wonder and knowledge of ocean species and systems to students in formal and informal classrooms, absolutely free to anyone with a good Internet connection. As an advocate for the ocean through communications, World Ocean Observatory believes there is no better investment in the future of the sustainable ocean than through a new approach to educational engagement that excites, informs, and motivates students to explore the wonders of our marine world and to understand the pervasive connection and implication for our future, inherent in the protection and conservation of all aspects of our ocean world.
World Ocean Explorer presents an astonishing 3-dimensional simulated aquarium visit, organized to reveal the wonders of undersea life, with layers of detailed data and information to augment the emotional connection made to the astonishing beauty and complexity of the dynamic ocean. Within each of the virtual exhibits, students visit exemplary theme-based sites with myriad opportunities to understand the larger perspectives of scientific knowledge as organized and visualized to dramatize the impact and change on ocean life as a result of natural and human-generated events. Through immersion among displays, mixed media and 3D models, the experience of an aquarium visit will be brought into classrooms or home school environments as a free, accessible, always available opportunity for teaching and learning. All of this will be available to a world audience without physical limitation or cost. World Ocean Explorer, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, receives support from the Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation, Visual Solutions Lab, the Climate Change Institute, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, and The Fram Museum Oslo. To learn more about the current and future exhibits of World Ocean Explorer, visit worldoceanexplorer.org.
media contact
Trisha Badger, Managing Director, World Ocean Observatory | director@thew2o.net +12077011069
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