Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Biggest study of its kind provides insights into bats’ evolution – a potential gamechanger for research into treating viruses and cancer in humans In the northern forests of the Congo-Brazzaville, as the sun slips away, a distinctive honking fills the dusky sky. Every evening, thousands of hammer-headed fruit bats depart their daytime roosts in search of mates, calling out through large, box-shaped snouts that give the flying mammals the appearance of a winged moose. Here, along the Congo River, scientists have been collecting DNA swabs and tissue samples from the bats for years, working deep into the night in spacesuit-like protective gear. Those hard-won samples are now among the thousands of specimens gathered from bats across the world that have helped to reshape what we know about the bat family tree. Continue reading...

Author Russell Warfield argues the Green leader’s brand of politics is not new but has evolved in the party over time Watermelons: the term used to describe the members of the Green party of England and Wales who are green on the outside and red on the inside. People in this faction are environmentalists but bleed socialist ideologies. Of the roughly 160,000 people who have flocked to the party since Zack Polanski became leader last year, most are thought to be in this camp, drawn to a political space on the left that they see as vacated by the Labour party. Continue reading...

There is hope in solar power. As the UN meets, we are urging leaders to pursue a clear goal: clean energy for all by 2030 Our message to global leaders: we need solar power everywhere by the decade’s end As climate experts from around the world gather in New York for their annual week of talking through the world’s deepest dilemma, the vibes are mostly bad. Though 2026 seems likely to set a new global temperature record (and 2027, as El Niño gathers steam, is almost certain to break it), and though the planet has careened from one climate disaster to another (European heatwaves that killed tens of thousands, a Nepali flood that wiped out entire communities), and though scientists warn that we’re reaching precisely the global tipping points they’ve long feared (the new research on the faltering great currents of the Atlantic should send a literal chill up your spine), there’s a distinct lack of political momentum. The path forward is difficult, but the way is clear. We want solar for everyone, everywhere, before the decade is out. We know that standing up to the powerful can be scary. But if there is one thing that unites us, it is that we live beneath the same sun. That unity is our strength, and we must use it to act now. Bill McKibben is the Schumann distinguished scholar at Middlebury College. He is the founder of Third Act, organizing people over 60 for progressive change Continue reading...

As the UN gathers, signatories from Bernie Sanders to Yeb Saño issue an open letter calling for clean power for all The climate fight has one great ally. You just can’t look at it directly 
We the undersigned write this letter out of great fear and great hope. Over the last few months, we’ve seen the world set ablaze by both war and warming. From the conflict in Iran, which has claimed thousands of lives and disrupted billions more, to the series of ever worsening climate disasters, from wildfires in Europe to collapsing glaciers in Nepal, the world seems to be falling apart exactly when it needs to be coming together. Continue reading...