Breaking Waves: Ocean News

09/26/2024 - 07:52
Forecasters warn that storm, one of the most powerful to hit the US this year, could create a ‘nightmare’ Tell us: have you been affected by Hurricane Helene? Hurricane Helene strengthened to a catastrophic category 4 storm as it barreled toward Florida’s Gulf coast, making it one of the most powerful storms to hit the US this year. The storm is expected to make landfall on Thursday night. Forecasters warn the enormous storm could create a “nightmare” scenario, with a potentially life-threatening storm surge that could reach 15-20ft (4.6-6.1 meters) in the Big Bend area of Florida’s Panhandle region. Continue reading...
09/26/2024 - 05:00
Lobbyists and lawmakers have coordinated to enact new laws that increase criminal penalties for peaceful protests ‘Fear and intimidation’: how peaceful anti-pipeline protesters were hit with criminal and civil charges Fossil fuel lobbyists coordinated with lawmakers behind the scenes and across state lines to push and shape laws that are escalating a crackdown on peaceful protests against oil and gas expansion, a new Guardian investigation reveals. Records obtained by the Guardian show that lobbyists working for major North American oil and gas companies were key architects of anti-protest laws that increase penalties and could lead to non-violent environmental and climate activists being imprisoned up to 10 years. Continue reading...
09/26/2024 - 05:00
It’s that time of year when homes fill with hairy eight-legged monsters. At least they keep the flies under control … It is giant spider season and I am delighted. As someone who is ravaged by flying insects all summer, I welcome these eight-legged death machines into my home with open arms. Speckle-backed Tegeneria? Be my guest! I would far rather something that looks like an animated tomato stalk occasionally scuttled across my curtain than be beset by a swarm of fruit flies, bluebottles or midges. I have even heard that spiders might eat clothes moths, although I think for them to have a significant impact on numbers I would have to lean even further into my Miss Havisham alter ego and stroll around bedecked by webs. I wasn’t always this way. As a child, I was as terrified of spiders as I am today by droughts and unfiled tax returns. I would watch in amazed horror as my country-born mother picked up arachnids the size and heft of dogs and calmly threw them out the window. There were whole cupboards I refused to open for fear of spiders. Once, after accidentally walking into a web during a game of hide and seek, I actually vomited at the thought of a spider being close to my skin (they found me quite quickly after that). Continue reading...
09/26/2024 - 04:57
On my return to the UK from Brazil I’ve seen how northern latitudes are behaving like the equatorial margins Returning to British suburbia from the Brazilian Amazon is always disconcerting, but it has been doubly weird in the past few days because the London commuter belt has been inundated with volumes of rain that normally belong in the tropics. Mini-tornadoes, flash floods and the dumping of a month’s worth of rain in a single day have flooded transport hubs, high street pubs, and the shrubs of semidetached homes. Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough! It isn’t fit for humans now, Continue reading...
09/26/2024 - 04:49
Roland Cherry, from Warwickshire, sustained severe bite wounds after being mauled by animal during safari A man narrowly survived after being dragged to the bottom of a river and “thrown through the air like a rag doll” when he was attacked by hippo while canoeing on holiday in Zambia. Roland Cherry, who was on a five-week holiday through southern Africa with his wife, Shirley, sustained severe bite wounds across his body, including a 25cm (10in) wound to his abdomen, as well as a thigh injury and dislocated shoulder in the attack. Continue reading...
09/26/2024 - 04:32
Lilly, an 8.5-metre tall puppet designed to help children talk about the environment, provokes mixed response They say it is rude to comment on a baby’s appearance but that has not stopped the residents of Rochdale, who awoke on Wednesday to a “freaky” new arrival. Lilly, an 8.5-metre tall puppet designed to help children talk about the environment, went on display in the town centre to a somewhat bewildered response. Continue reading...
09/22/2024 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 23 September 2024; doi:10.1038/s44183-024-00078-2 Rethinking sustainability of marine fisheries for a fast-changing planet
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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