Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Deaths in Cyprus bring overall toll on the eastern Mediterranean island and neighbouring Turkey to 12 Two people have been killed in a huge blaze in Cyprus, bringing the death toll from a series of wildfires on the eastern Mediterranean island and in neighbouring Turkey to 12 amid a brutal heatwave that has pushed temperatures to more than 44C (111F). Police said two charred bodies were found on Thursday in a burnt-out car that had been caught up in the Cyprus blaze, which began outside Limassol on Wednesday and, fanned by strong winds, rapidly engulfed a string of mountain villages north of the city. Continue reading...

Centrica keen to stem losses from North Sea Rough storage after company profits halve Britain may have lower gas stockpiles going into the winter after the owner of British Gas indicated it plans to sell its stored gas to help reduce losses at a North Sea gas storage facility. Centrica said the financial losses from its Rough gas storage business were not sustainable, meaning it would aim to sell the existing gas at the site without restocking before winter. Continue reading...

EPA said grant to provide clean water was a ‘wasteful DEI program’ as pesticide leaches into residents’ wells For decades, thousands of residents in California’s agricultural heartland couldn’t use their wells because the water was too contaminated with pesticides. In December, the Biden administration stepped in with a long-awaited $20m grant to provide clean water, improve municipal sources and relieve the region’s financial and health burden. The Trump administration just took the money away. Continue reading...

Throwing things away is bad. Buying them in the first place was probably bad, too. But the act of disposing of them at the rubbish tip is a glorious moment of relief and release A friend of mine surprised me with the vehemence of his love for something. He’s about my age, a highly successful maker of important television and avid consumer of Radio 4 and the Guardian. A keen thinker about things, he likes books and podcasts that are a little too advanced for me. All in all, he didn’t seem the type to say what he said, over a pint in our local. Furthermore, there was even a slightly glazed, far-off look in his eye when he announced, with such great feeling rising from deep in his soul: “I really love going to the dump.” It was only then that I realised I was free to admit to sharing this love. It was a moving, bonding moment between us. One love. For the dump. My dump visits had hitherto been shrouded in a mist of shame. Throwing things away is bad, not least because buying them in the first place was bad, or at least not entirely necessary, which may amount to the same thing. Also, isn’t it all an exercise in shifting the responsibility for your junk on to someone – everyone? – else? This notion that it is magically being recycled, repurposed, reused is surely a fantasy, not much more than a veneer of righteousness to help those of us who feel guilty about it to feel less guilty about it. Continue reading...