Breaking Waves: Ocean News

From rural buses to solar panels, our Green agenda has been transformative. Yet, vested interests and big polluters helped to poison the well of public thinking Eamon Ryan was Irish Green party leader from 2011 to 2024 Ireland’s Green party went into government in 2020 determined to bring Ireland from laggard to leader on the climate crisis. Public opinion was with us, and we won more than 7% of the national vote. This mandate allowed us to negotiate a coalition agreement with Ireland’s two large centrist parties that was recognised by European Green colleagues as one of the greenest deals they had seen. Over the past four and a half years we worked flat out to implement that programme. I think most independent experts would say the impact has been transformational. Last year Ireland’s emissions fell 6.8%, despite having one of Europe’s fastest growing economies and record population growth. The Greens switched spending in favour of public transport, cycling and walking. We rolled out a new rural bus service every week, while cutting young people’s fares by 60%. Passenger numbers took off immediately and we are only at the start of the transformation. A pipeline of big new projects is coming through our planning system, ready to go. Eamon Ryan served as the minister for the environment and transport in Ireland’s outgoing coalition government and was Green party leader from 2011 to 2024 Continue reading...

Pesticide Action Network analysis of government testing data finds chemicals linked to cancer and harmful to bees Imported food has been found to have residues of 48 pesticides that have not been approved for use by British farmers, including chemicals linked to cancer and imidacloprid, which is harmful to bees, analysis shows. Pesticide Action Network (PAN) went through UK government testing data, comparing the results for pesticide tests on imported and domestically produced food. They found there were residues of 46 cancer-linked pesticides in imported produce, compared with 19 in food of UK origin.. Importers include the EU, Peru, Thailand, Turkey and the US. Continue reading...

US Fish and Wildlife Service extends protections to ‘iconic’ insects, who experts say may not survive climate crisis The US Fish and Wildlife Service announced a decision on Tuesday to extend federal protections to monarch butterflies after years of warnings from environmentalists that populations are shrinking and the beloved pollinator may not survive the climate crisis. Officials plans to add the butterfly to the threatened species list by the end of next year following an extensive public comment period. Continue reading...

Fast-growing and small-seeded tree species are dominating Brazilian forests in regions with high levels of deforestation and degradation, a new study shows. This has potential implications for the ecosystem services these forests provide, including the ability of these 'disturbed' forests to absorb and store carbon. This is because these 'winning' species grow fast but die young, as their stems and branches are far less dense than the slow growing tree species they replace. Wildlife species adapted to consuming and dispersing the large seeds of tree species that are being lost in human-modified landscapes may also be affected by these shifts.