Advocates warn firings and funding freezes already risk poisoning drinking water and decimating fish population
Donald Trump’s and Elon Musk’s attacks on federal agencies and funding freezes will be “cataclysmic” for the environment of the sensitive Great Lakes region if not reversed, industry and environmental advocates in the region warn.
Initial actions taken since Trump returned to the White House in January – and put Musk in charge of slashing the federal government – already risk poisoning drinking water, decimating fish populations, and risking the jobs and health of tens of millions of people who rely on the lake system, they add.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
03/18/2025 - 09:00
03/18/2025 - 07:00
Some of the caves I dive in are hundreds of thousands of years old and the marine life is unique. But they can be very dangerous places
Cave diving is like swimming through the history of the planet. There are remains of both humans and animals but also stalactites and stalagmites. These cannot form when the cave is flooded, so you can see when parts of it were submerged and when it was dry.
Yet when I’m in a cave, time does not tick. There is no natural light, so the cave looks the same, whether it’s midday or midnight. If you cave dive without the right training, equipment and mindset, it can be a very dangerous place. I have a very meditative focus when I’m down there. I live in the now. I cannot think about anything else but what is happening in the cave. I find that very soothing and relaxing.
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03/18/2025 - 07:00
Witnessing near-miss roadkill on a daily basis makes me wonder if we can be better neighbors to wildlife
Heart racing, I hold my breath and brace to witness the impact.
The spindly fawn crosses first, tottering its way across the two-lane artery that borders my house. I watch a truck approaching in the opposite direction and wait for it to slow down. Will it?
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03/18/2025 - 06:20
Deal will restrict fishing near colonies on Robben Island and Bird Island for 10 years, after long debate between industry and conservationists
Efforts to stop the critically endangered African penguin from going extinct took a step forward on Tuesday after South African conservationists and fishing industry groups reached a legal settlement on no-fishing zones around six of the penguins’ major breeding colonies.
Sardine and anchovy fishing will not be allowed for 12 miles (20km) around the penguin colony off Cape Town on Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, and Bird Island, across the bay from Gqeberha, also known as Port Elizabeth. There will be more limited closures around four other colonies, according to a court order formalising the agreement.
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03/18/2025 - 06:19
Work and pensions secretary says Benefits crackdown will save £5bn by 2030 but disability charities say cuts are ‘immoral’. This live blog is closed
Q: Why have you changed your mind on this?
Badenoch says she has not changed her mind. As a member of the government, she abided by collective responsibility. She says in government she regularly questioned the case for net zero.
The person who’s been consistent in all this is me.
I’m not going to pretend that I won’t have critics … This is politics. Being a politician is about being criticised.
What I’m asking people to do is listen to what I’m saying. I am not doing what all the other parties are doing. We are changing the way we do things.
That’s not how it works. You can’t just pull [a date] out of the air. And what we did was pick a target and then start thinking of how to get there.
We need to start thinking about it in a different way. How does this impact families? How is business going to help us deliver? And that’s what the policy commissions are going to do.
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03/18/2025 - 02:00
Flying lobsters, cuttlefish ink and stargazy pie … Jon Tonks got on his kayak to spend 18 months photographing the incredible fishing communities around England’s south-west coast
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03/18/2025 - 02:00
Charity says thousands of signs on capital’s estates deter children from being active, and is covering some of them up
A campaign to bring down thousands of “no ball games” signs across London – and eventually across the UK – has launched with a “more ball games” takeover on a Lambeth housing estate.
The new signs, which show basketball hoops, were designed by the inequality charity London Sport, working with the advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi, and are being put over “no ball games” signs on the Mursell estate in Stockwell with support from Lambeth council.
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03/18/2025 - 02:00
Ana Toni also criticises the UK’s plans to slash overseas aid to fund defence spending
Countries looking to boost their national security through rearmament or increased defence spending must also bolster their climate efforts or face more wars in the future, one of the leaders of the next UN climate summit has warned.
Some countries could decide to include climate spending in their defence budgets, suggested Ana Toni, Brazil’s chief executive of the Cop30 summit.
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‘Heartbreaking’: poisoning suspected after mass deaths of more than 200 little corellas in Newcastle
03/18/2025 - 01:26
Hunter Wildlife Rescue started receiving numerous reports of sick and dead birds on Monday, centred on the suburbs Hamilton and Carrington
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New South Wales authorities are calling for the public’s help as it investigates the suspected poisoning and mass deaths of more than 200 little corellas across multiple Newcastle suburbs.
The NSW Environment Protection Authority said it was interrogating pesticide misuse as the possible cause of the “serious incident”, based on its observations and advice from local veterinarians.
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03/18/2025 - 01:00
Exclusive: Almost 300,000 hours of raw effluent poured into waterways, figures show, up from 196,000 in 2023
A record 50% more raw sewage was discharged into rivers in England by Thames Water last year compared with the previous 12 months, data seen by the Guardian reveals.
Thames, the largest of the privatised water companies, which is teetering on the verge of collapse with debts of £19bn, was responsible for almost 300,000 hours of raw sewage pouring into waterways in 2024 from its ageing sewage works, according to the data. This compares with 196,414 hours of raw effluent dumped in 2023.
The Amersham balancing tanks in Buckinghamshire, which are supposed to safely store excess sewage after heavy rain, discharged 4,842 hours of raw sewage in 2024.
Amersham was the scene of the longest unbroken individual discharge, when the equivalent of 154 days of raw sewage spilled into the River Misbourne, a chalk stream, last year.
Marlborough sewage treatment works dumped raw sewage for 2,786 hours.
At the Chesham sewage treatment works there were 2,681 hours of sewage discharges.
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