Breaking Waves: Ocean News

01/19/2025 - 15:39
Anthony Albanese to announce green aluminium production credit scheme. Follow today’s news live Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The deputy prime minister Richard Marles is speaking with ABC RN about the hostage deal and ceasefire in the Middle East, describing this as “very positive and very constructive in the context of the tragedy that we have watched unfold over the last 15 months”. It is a wonderful thing to see hostages reunited with their families. It is also, obviously, wonderful to be seeing the beginning of humanitarian assistance start to flow into Gaza, and there’s clearly a long way to go in terms of the rebuilding of Gaza. Australia [will] continue to lend our voice to the promotion of peace, to seeing this arrangement fulfilled, and to seeing the return of all the hostages, and to seeing the rebuilding of Gaza. Australians rely on local bank branches and no amount of corporate spin from banks can deny that fact … The removal of branches and ATMs are designed to boost profits while reducing services. The absence of minimum standards allows banks to cut services on a whim with no regard to local needs or preferences. Logan Central was announced to staff on 3 January and will close on 7 February Werribee, VIC – announced in late 2024 and will close on 13 February Newtown, NSW- to close on 19 February Bella Vista, NSW- to close on 20 February Applecross, WA- to close on 27 February Moonee Ponds, VIC- to close on 27 February Richmond, VIC- to close on 27 February Docklands, VIC- to close on 27 February Hampton, VIC- to close on 27 February Rockdale, NSW- to close on 27 February Caloundra, Qld- to close on 27 February Carindale, Qld- to close on 27 February Elanora, Qld- to close on 27 February Sherwood, Qld- to close on 27 February Springwood, Qld- to close on 27 February Toowong, Qld- to close on 27 February Continue reading...
01/19/2025 - 09:58
Exclusive: Restoration fund in England could be ‘siphoned off’ to be used for general government spending, not repairing rivers Rachel Reeves’s Treasury is looking to keep millions of pounds levied on polluting water companies in fines that were meant to be earmarked for sewage cleanup, the Guardian has learned. The £11m water restoration fund was announced before the election last year, with projects bidding for the cash to improve waterways and repair damage done by sewage pollution in areas where fines have been imposed. Continue reading...
01/19/2025 - 06:00
Volunteers who leave water in the desert describe rising fears of vigilantes and climate peril It was a blustery day in the Sonoran desert as a group of humanitarian aid volunteers hiked through a vast dusty canyon to leave gallons of bottled water and canned beans in locations where exhausted migrants could find them. Empty plastic bottles, rusty cans and footprints heading north were among the signs of human activity strewn between the towering saguaro and senita cacti, in an isolated section of the Organ Pipe Cactus national monument – about 20 miles (32km) north of the US-Mexico border. Continue reading...
01/19/2025 - 00:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 19 January 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-024-00101-6 Offshore wind energy: assessing trace element inputs and the risks for co-location of aquaculture
01/18/2025 - 20:40
Shifting responsibility to consumers minimises the role of energy industry and policymakers, University of Sydney research suggests Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast It’s not unusual to see individuals championed as heroes of climate action, with their efforts to install rooftop solar and buy electric cars promoted as pivotal in the fight to save the planet. Hero figures can motivate others to follow suit, but a University of Sydney study suggests the way the energy sector shapes this narrative sets individuals up to fail. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...
01/18/2025 - 14:00
Sifting for bottles together never gets old – it’s the idea that something so fragile could have survived for so long in one piece and in one place My family and I have a weird hobby. We like to dig for old bottles. It’s something we stumbled upon, quite literally, one soggy weekend. On a visit to the family farm, we were exploring a shady gully below the house, where an occasional creek meandered down the hill. One of the kids tripped on a jutting ridge in the mud. Dug up and sluiced out, the object revealed itself to be a round, honey-hued medicine bottle. Continue reading...
01/18/2025 - 12:00
United Utilities has dropped legal fight to block access to data on the discharge of treated sewage in Lake District The water company United Utilities has conceded defeat in its legal battle to block public access to data on treated sewage it is discharging into Windermere in the Lake District. Company officials initially claimed that data from phosphorus monitors at a main sewage treatment works at the lake was not environmental information. The company also wanted to block access to data from Cunsey Beck, a site of special scientific interest, which flows into Windermere. Continue reading...
01/18/2025 - 11:47
Mexican officials ordered facility to shut down after report on very high levels of pollutants in surrounding neighborhood Revealed: US hazardous waste is sent to Mexico – where a ‘toxic cocktail’ of pollution emerges Authorities ordered the shutdown of a Mexican recycling plant that processes hazardous waste exported from the US, after an investigation by the Guardian and Quinto Elemento Lab that revealed heavy metals contamination in nearby homes and schools. The federal agency described the closure as “temporary”, and said it would conduct an inspection lasting several days that would verify the factory’s compliance with environmental regulations. Days earlier, a state government agency said it had identified problems with the plant’s emissions control equipment. Continue reading...
01/18/2025 - 11:00
Environmentalists are braced for new construction on the president’s signature border wall – and the damage that would wreak During Donald Trump’s first presidential term, he began an ambitious and costly border militarization program, including the construction of over 450 miles of wall that severed wildlife corridors and fragmented ecosystems in some of the country’s most remote and biodiverse regions. With his second inauguration on Monday, environmentalists are bracing for any new phase of construction that could exacerbate the ecological toll of the border wall. “It’s an absolute travesty and a disaster for border wildlife,” said Margaret Wilder, a human-environment geographer and political ecologist at the University of Arizona, regarding the environmental impact of the existing border wall and the prospect of renewed construction. She said the wall harmed efforts “after many decades of binational cooperation between the US and Mexico to protect this fragile and biodiverse region. I don’t think Americans realize what is at stake.” Continue reading...
01/18/2025 - 09:00
Oil and gas firms have given more than $75m to Trump’s campaign and stand to benefit from his ‘drill, baby drill’ plan As Joe Biden warns in his farewell address as president that “an oligarchy is taking shape in America”, a new report reveals that US fossil fuel billionaires’ wealth increased by 15% over the past nine months. Some of those wealthy figures will be at parties in DC celebrating Trump’s inauguration on Monday and expecting further rewards for his “drill, baby, drill” energy agenda. The report from the research group Climate Accountability Research Project (Carp) comes just days ahead of climate denier Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration, which oil and gas representatives and Trump donors plan to celebrate at a swanky industry party in Washington DC. Continue reading...