Breaking Waves: Ocean News

More of England expected to enter drought status after hottest June on record

admin — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 15:05:55 +0000

Up to five areas could enter drought status and more hosepipe bans expected after three heatwaves and lack of rain

As many as five areas of England are expected to go into drought this summer after the hottest June since records began in 1884.

Three heatwaves, which tend to increase water consumption, combined with a lack of rain means that large swathes of England are heading towards drought status and the damage to the environment that entails.

About 1,500 tarantulas found hidden in cake boxes at German airport

admin — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 15:05:14 +0000

Customs officials at Cologne Bonn airport tipped off by ‘noticeable smell’ that did not resemble confectionary

Arachnophobes beware: customs officials have released photos from a seizure of roughly 1,500 young tarantulas found inside plastic containers that were hidden in chocolate sponge cake boxes shipped to an airport in western Germany.

Trump promised to lower energy costs – his tax bill will raise them for people in red states the most

admin — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 14:00:11 +0000

Household energy bills in some Republican-leaning states could rise by more than $600 every year, analysis of the so-called ‘big, beautiful bill’ finds

The cost of electricity is poised to surge across the US in the wake of Republican legislation that takes an axe to cheap renewable energy, with people in states who voted for Donald Trump last year to be hardest hit by the increase in bills.

Woman who withheld council tax in climate protest faces losing home

admin — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 11:49:20 +0000

Jane McCarthy, who has terminal cancer, withheld payments for three years in protest at Buckinghamshire council’s fossil fuel investments

A woman who withheld council tax payments for three years in protest at her local authority’s continued investment in fossil fuels fears losing her home.

Thames Water announces hosepipe ban as dry weather depletes reservoirs

admin — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 11:40:33 +0000

Restrictions to come into effect in Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Wiltshire from 22 July

Thames Water has announced a hosepipe ban as a record dry spring and summer has severely reduced water supplies.

Households in Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Wiltshire will be banned from using hosepipes to wash cars or water gardens from Tuesday 22 July.

A deadly 1987 flood foreshadowed the Texas disaster. Survivors ask, ‘why didn’t we learn?’

admin — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 11:00:07 +0000

The Fourth of July tragedy was described as something no one could have seen coming. But in ‘flash flood alley’, an eerily similar event 40 years ago holds important lessons

The rain was pouring down in Texas in the early morning hours of 17 July 1987. James Moore, a reporter for a local NBC news station, was stationed in Austin when his editors called and told him to grab his camera operator and head to Kerrville, a Hill Country town about 100 miles (160km) away. They had heard reports of flash flooding on the Guadalupe River.

Monday briefing: The ‘toxic cocktail’ of climate denial, federal cuts and the Texas floods

admin — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 05:47:38 +0000

In today’s newsletter: Amid at least 129 deaths and billions of dollars of damage, there has been little reckoning about the part global heating and cuts to public services may have played in the disaster

Good morning. The death toll from the catastrophic floods in Texas has climbed to 129, including at least 27 children and counsellors at Camp Mystic in Kerr County.

Killer in the nest: how young storks are being strangled by plastic

admin — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 05:00:05 +0000

Researchers in Europe found everyday plastics, especially farmers’ baler twine, being used by the birds as a building material and entangling their young. It is a problem that affects other species too, say experts in the US, UK and Argentina

On a late spring morning in the farmlands of southern Portugal, Dr Marta Acácio set her ladder against a tree and began to climb. Four metres up, she reached the giant white stork nest that was her goal. She knew from telescopic camera shots there was a healthy looking chick inside – and now she wanted to ring it.

Ed Miliband to tell MPs who reject net zero policies they are betraying future generations

admin — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 05:00:04 +0000

Exclusive: Energy secretary’s ‘radical truth-telling’ comes as Reform plans net zero bonfire and Tories also ditch targets

‘Profound concern’ as scientists say extreme heat ‘now the norm’ in UK

‘Profound concern’ as scientists say extreme heat ‘now the norm’ in UK

admin — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 05:00:04 +0000

Increasing frequency of heatwaves and flooding raises fears over health, infrastructure and how society functions

Ed Miliband to tell MPs who reject net zero policies they are betraying future generations

Record-breaking extreme weather is the new norm in the UK, scientists have said, showing that the country is firmly in the grip of the climate crisis.