Breaking Waves: Ocean News

California lake so green with algae it’s visible from space, says Nasa

admin — Fri, 31 May 2024 18:32:31 +0000

Bright hue of Clear Lake, state’s largest freshwater basin, may have been caused by cyanobacteria and other phytoplankton

California’s largest freshwater lake has turned bright green due to algae blooms so intense they are visible from space, Nasa has announced, sharing satellite images from mid-May.

The photographs showed that “bright green swirls were visible across most of the lake’s area”, the space agency said, and may have been caused by cyanobacteria, commonly known as blue-green algae, as well as other kinds of phytoplankton.

‘Game-changing’: Vermont becomes first state to require big oil to pay for climate damages

admin — Fri, 31 May 2024 17:47:27 +0000

Climate Superfund Act compels oil companies to pay potentially billions of dollars for climate impacts caused by their emissions

Vermont has become the first state to enact a law holding oil firms financially responsible for climate damages, after the Republican governor, Phil Scott, allowed it to pass without his signature late on Thursday.

Texas sees snowploughs in May as ‘DVD-sized’ hailstones strike state

admin — Fri, 31 May 2024 16:14:24 +0000

Western Texas briefly looked like a ‘winter wonderland’ amid dramatic temperature drop and hailstorm

Just as people start bringing out their shorts for the start of summer, one Texas town had to reach for something rarely seen in late May: a snowplough.

Parts of the state saw a dramatic 50F temperature drop on Wednesday thanks to a giant dump of hail, some “DVD-sized”. The storm made western Texas look, briefly, like a winter wonderland.

Starmer admits he flew by private jet to clean energy jobs rally in Scotland

admin — Fri, 31 May 2024 12:08:58 +0000

Labour leader says it was ‘most efficient form of transport’ from Wales and party has offset the carbon

Keir Starmer has admitted he used a private jet to travel to a campaign rally in Scotland where he promised to create “tens of thousands” of clean energy jobs with a new publicly owned energy company in the country.

New US rules aim to crack down on toxic air pollution by steelmakers

admin — Fri, 31 May 2024 12:00:05 +0000

Rules target contaminants such as mercury, benzene and lead released by coke ovens used by facilities to burn coal

New Environmental Protection Agency rules aim to crack down on toxic air pollution from US steelmakers by limiting pollutants such as mercury, benzene and lead that have long poisoned the air in neighborhoods surrounding the plants.

Mushroom-growing boom could cause biodiversity crisis, warn UK experts

admin — Fri, 31 May 2024 11:16:45 +0000

RHS fears non-native fungi could alter microbiology of soil when grown in gardens or disposed of in compost heaps

A boom in the popularity of mushroom-growing at home could lead to a biodiversity disaster, UK garden experts have warned.

There has been a rise in the number of people growing mushrooms in their gardens, and this year, the RHS Chelsea flower show’s plant of the year award included a mushroom – the tarragon oyster mushroom, thought to be found only in the British Isles – in its shortlist for the first time, despite it being a fungus, not a plant.

Endangered penguin chicks hatched at Chester zoo named after plants

admin — Fri, 31 May 2024 09:14:57 +0000

Zoo welcomes 11 Humboldt chicks, its highest number in a decade, including Thistle and Daffodil

In previous years Chester zoo’s new penguin chicks have been named after crisps – Frazzle, Wotsit – and local football club owners – Ryan, Rob – but the names p … p … p … picked this year are notably less frivolous.

‘Largest ever’ NSW coalmine plan will put pressure on state’s net zero target, watchdog says

admin — Fri, 31 May 2024 08:10:31 +0000

EPA says proposal to keep Hunter Valley Operations mines going to 2050 would release almost 30m tonnes of CO2

Week in wildlife – in pictures: playful baby lemurs, kingfisher tug-of-war and a beautiful bee-eater

admin — Fri, 31 May 2024 07:00:32 +0000

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

Market value of carbon offsets drops 61%, report finds

admin — Fri, 31 May 2024 06:00:31 +0000

Negative scientific and press reports on the efficacy of carbon credit projects has led to a ‘direct pullback in buyer investment’

The market for carbon offsets shrank dramatically last year, falling from $1.9bn (£1.5bn) in 2022 to $723m in 2023, a new report has found. The drop came after a series of scientific and media reports found many offsetting schemes do nothing to mitigate the climate crisis and biodiversity loss.