Breaking Waves: Ocean News

University of Cambridge research suggests living collections have collectively reached peak capacity Botanic gardens around the world are failing to conserve the rarest and most threatened species growing in their living collections because they are running out of space, according to research from the University of Cambridge. Researchers analysed a century’s worth of records from 50 botanic gardens and arboreta, collectively growing half-a-million plants, to see how the world’s living plant collections have changed since 1921. Continue reading...

Ethical trade body could ‘offer solutions’ in advising government on protecting workers, says Eleanor Harrison Fairtrade could help tackle exploitation in UK factories and farms – as well as those in developing countries – the incoming boss of the ethical trade body has said. Eleanor Harrison, who in March takes the reins of the group behind the Fairtrade mark which appears on products in shops, has said it could “offer solutions” in advising the UK government on protecting workers. Continue reading...

Gigantic wall of ice moves slowly from Antarctica on potential collision course with wildlife breeding ground The world’s largest iceberg – a behemoth more than twice the size of London – is drifting toward a remote island where scientists say it could run aground and threaten penguins and seals. The gigantic wall of ice is moving slowly from Antarctica on a potential collision course with South Georgia, a crucial wildlife breeding ground. Continue reading...

Rachel Reeves flies back from Davos to lead a revival of the aviation perennial. Labour hated the idea before, but growth won’t grow itself, will it? How can people say we can’t build anything in this country any more? Listen: our parliament is literally falling down, has caught fire 45 times in the past decade alone, and is going to take tens of billions of investment just to get it in the same postcode as fit-for-purpose – a fact which has now been kicked down the road for actual decades by successive cohorts of MPs who can’t handle being the ones to face reality, even though they are actually walking around in it every day. So don’t you dare tell me we don’t build things. We build the best damn metaphors in the world. Another thing we might be building, perhaps in our own inimitable style, is a third runway at Heathrow. This is the heavy hint dropped by chancellor Rachel Reeves at Davos this week, which – if realised – could open the gate to the Labour Upside Down. Half of the cabinet hate it, half of them love it. Imagine Tony Blair but in asphalt. Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...