Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Environment Agency warns residents of 6m at-risk properties to prepare for wet and windy three months ahead More than two million people in England are unaware their properties are at risk of flooding, as the UK braces for a wet and stormy start to the winter, according to the Environment Agency. Experts say the next three months are more likely than usual to be wet and windy – due to a combination of large-scale weather patterns and the “subtle” impact of a supercharged El Niño – increasing the risk of flooding. Continue reading...

Wave nearing southern California expected to reach San Francisco Bay Area by October as it crawls toward Alaska Communities across California are rushing to prepare for the imminent arrival of the so-called “Kelvin wave”, a massive underwater band of warm water threatening to inundate swaths of the vast North American shoreline. The wave is nearing southern California and expected to reach the San Francisco Bay Area by early October, as it crawls toward Alaska. Waters could rise by a foot along the California coast, according to scientists, who have warned that this could dramatically double the 8-12in rise in sea levels already caused by climate change over the last century. Continue reading...

Fish and shellfish populations were falling rapidly as scallop dredgers devastated the seabed, but local activists and small-scale fishers battled hard to protect their coastline Inside a bothy overlooking the Summer Isles, in the north-west of Scotland, the lilting tones of a traditional Gaelic duo fill a room full of musicians, storytellers, artists, local people and revellers, hung with fish-shaped lanterns and “Happy Birthday” signs. It’s no ordinary birthday. The people in the small cabin have come together, on a windy night in Achiltibuie, a string of coastal hamlets and villages north of Ullapool, to celebrate an important milestone in the community’s history: a hard-won battle to protect their waters from the ravages of scallop dredging. Continue reading...

Independent Planning Commission says climate change impacts from Hunter Valley project will be ‘outweighed’ by economic benefits Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our new political email, free app or daily news podcast The New South Wales independent planner has approved the biggest coalmine project to ever go before it, allowing mining to continue until 2045 at a Hunter Valley project described by climate groups as a “carbon bomb”. The Independent Planning Commission (IPC) has greenlit the Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) Continuation Project after a contentious assessment that drew in climate and environment groups, unions, state authorities and more than 10,000 public submissions. Continue reading...