In the face of increased human pressures and climate change, a team of scientists have launched a new online tool to assist marine managers and restoration experts to bolster the resilience of marine habitat-forming species. The 'Reef Adapt' initiative aims to expand the tools available to promote diverse, adaptable and resilient ecosystems.
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
10/30/2024 - 14:06
10/30/2024 - 14:00
A new study finds that up to 215 million hectares of land (an area larger than Mexico) in humid tropical regions around the world has the potential to naturally regrow. That much forest could store 23.4 gigatons of carbon over 30 years and also have a significant impact on concerns like biodiversity loss and water quality. The study showed that more than half of the area with strong potential for regrowth was in five countries: Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, China, and Colombia. A new global map the authors produced of potential regrowth areas is a boon to environmentalists worldwide hoping to advocate locally for their efforts.
10/30/2024 - 11:57
Residents describe impact of floods and downpours – with some places hit with a year’s worth of rain in just eight hours
Spanish flash floods – live updates
The gratitude that greeted Tuesday’s dawn downpours was short-lived in Utiel. When the longed-for rains finally reached the town in the drought-stricken eastern Spanish region of Valencia, they were merciless in their abundance.
“People were very happy at first because they’d been praying for rain as their lands needed water,” said Remedios, who owns a bar in Utiel. “But by 12 o’clock, this storm had really hit and we were all pretty terrified.”
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10/30/2024 - 11:37
The fuel duty freeze led to ire, but there were boosts for renewable energy investment and heat decarbonisation
So how did Rachel Reeves’ ambition to be the “green chancellor” survive contact with battle in the budget? Reactions are, honestly, mixed.
The decision to freeze fuel duty and keep the 5p cut made by the Conservatives in 2022 is attracting some fury, not least because the tax relief is estimated to have raised UK greenhouse gas emissions by 7% since 2010. Reeves has been accused of doing “completely the wrong thing” for climate by making this decision at the same time as raising the bus fare cap from £2 to £3, and rail fares by 4.6%.
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10/30/2024 - 09:00
A report by BoM and CSIRO checks ‘vital signs of Australia’s climate’ – and shows temperature trends will only worsen
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“It is a wicked problem,” says Dr Karl Braganza at the Bureau of Meteorology, after running through Australia’s latest State of the Climate report.
The effects of rising heat on land and in the oceans, coupled with rising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, are changing Australia’s climate rapidly and “flowing through to how our society, economy and other things operate”.
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10/30/2024 - 07:00
A 2022 law gave wildland firefighters with ‘presumptive cancer coverage’, but the list of ailments left out a range of cancers affecting women
Riva Duncan was overjoyed when Congress in 2022 approved better support for federal wildland firefighters during their cancer battles. As a retired fire officer of the US Forest Service (USFS), Duncan had spent years fighting for the friends and colleagues who disproportionately fell ill.
The 2022 law gave firefighters so-called “presumptive cancer coverage” – meaning they were eligible for workers compensation and the process to receive federal financial support for disability and death was streamlined. Finally, she thought, firefighters wouldn’t have to prove cancer and other illnesses, including lung and heart diseases, had derived from their hazardous and carcinogenic work to receive needed funds.
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10/30/2024 - 05:00
The environmental footprint of this holiday is frightening – here are ways to celebrate responsibly and still have fun
Halloween is just around the corner, with millions of children gearing up to put on their favorite costumes and flock to the streets for trick-or-treating. Spooky skeletons and glowing jack-o’-lanterns are adorning homes that have gone all out to celebrate a night of fright. But the truly scariest part of the holiday might just be the plastic waste left behind after the festivities end.
The environmental footprint of Halloween is staggering.
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10/30/2024 - 04:10
Soldiers aid search for dozens still missing as prime minister warns extreme weather may not be over
At least 95 people have died in eastern, central and southern Spain after torrential rains triggered the country’s deadliest floods in three decades, unleashing torrents of muddy water that surged through cities, towns and villages, trapping people in their homes, bringing down trees, and cutting off roads and railway lines.
As the search for dozens of missing people continued, motorists were urged to stay off the roads and away from swollen rivers amid warnings that the severe weather was not over and that the number of deaths could still rise.
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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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