From crab monitoring and bear patrols to rescue operations, the watchmen are the official eyes and ears of indigenous communities
It’s Delaney Mack’s first time pulling crab traps and she is unsure what to do. Mack, the newest member of the Nuxalk Guardian Watchmen, has had months of training for the multifaceted job, which might on any given day include rescuing a kayaker, taking ocean samples or monitoring a logging operation. But winching crabs up 100ft from the sea floor was not in the manual.
Soon, however, the four-person operation is humming along. The crab survey is a vital part of their work as guardians of this Indigenous territory in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It was started more than 15 years ago in response to heavy commercial crab fishing in an area where the federal government had done little independent monitoring to determine if a fishery was sustainable.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
05/30/2024 - 02:00
05/30/2024 - 01:35
Government of Christopher Luxon has made sweeping cuts to climate projects in its first budget, with no new significant environmental investments
The New Zealand government has been accused of waging a “war on nature” after it announced sweeping cuts to climate action projects, while making no significant new investments in environmental protection or climate crisis-related policy.
In its 2024/25 budget, handed down on Thursday, the rightwing coalition announced spending on law and order, education, health and a series of tax cuts, as the country struggles with inflation and cost-of-living pressures.
Māori knowledge-based approaches to agricultural emissions reduction
Community-based renewable energy schemes
The Climate Change Commission
External and internal specialists who supply evidence and data on environmental monitoring and science
Freshwater policy initiatives
Native forest planting
Development of a circular economy, relating to recycling and reuse
Jobs for Nature, a programme creating jobs to benefit the environment
Reducing biosecurity monitoring
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05/29/2024 - 13:48
Research that looked at 53 million births says Black and Hispanic mothers and those in lower socioeconomic groups most at risk
Heatwaves increase rates of preterm births, which can lead to poorer health outcomes for babies and impact their long-term health, a new study found.
Black and Hispanic mothers, as well as those in lower socioeconomic groups, are particularly at risk of delivering early following heat waves.
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05/29/2024 - 13:41
Researchers involved in cataloguing the world's plant species are hunting for answers as to what makes some groups of plants so successful. One of their major goals is to predict more accurately which lineages of flowering plants -- some of which are of huge importance to people and to ecosystems -- are at a greater risk from global climate change.
05/29/2024 - 13:40
Sticks and stones aren't enough to thwart biological attraction, but sometimes those are the only tools available to pastoralists trying to prevent wildlife from eloping with their livestock. A new study brings awareness to both the human impacts of these encounters -- ranging from economic loss to death -- and conservation concerns for the wild animals that are often endangered.
05/29/2024 - 13:29
Researchers, in partnership with the city of Los Angeles, have developed the urban association index to help identify how well or poorly individual wildlife species are doing in the city. The researchers found unexpected pockets of biodiversity deep in the city, but they say it will still be a challenge to elevate Los Angeles' overall level of biodiversity.
05/29/2024 - 10:12
It’s not just pommes frites. Beef bourguignon, avocado and foie gras will also be unavailable
Name: french fries.
Age: invented about 300 years ago, ironically in Belgium.
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05/29/2024 - 10:00
New study published in Cell Reports Sustainability finds emission reductions provided $249bn of climate and health benefits
By increasing its use of renewable energy, the US has not only slashed its planet-warming emissions but also improved its air quality, yielding hundreds of billions of dollars of benefits, a new report has found.
The study, published in Cell Reports Sustainability on Wednesday and based on publicly available data, focuses on uptick of renewable energy in the US from 2019 to 2022.
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Leading Australian labs retested landscape products for waste companies after contamination findings
05/29/2024 - 10:00
Exclusive: Five facilities named in documents tabled in NSW parliament defend practices, as independent experts question whether testing system is failing consumers
Recycling fill sold in Sydney stores tests positive for asbestos
Big waste companies broke rules on testing for contamination
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Facilities belonging to some of the leading commercial laboratory companies in Australia were among those that retested samples of landscaping products at the request of their waste company clients, after initial tests found contamination not compliant with New South Wales laws.
Guardian Australia revealed earlier this year the testing regime meant to limit toxic chemicals in landscaping material known as “recovered fines” had been compromised by the practice of waste companies asking private laboratories to retest samples until they passed.
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05/29/2024 - 08:48
Global industry ‘in crisis’ as fears about Brazilian harvest help push wholesale prices to record highs
Orange juice makers are considering turning to alternative fruits such as mandarins as wholesale prices have “gone bananas” amid fears of poor harvests in Brazil.
Prices of orange juice reached a new high of $4.95 (£3.88) a lb on commodity markets this week after growers in the main orange producing areas of Brazil said they were expecting the harvest to be 24% down on last year at 232m 40.8kg boxes – worse than the 15% fall previously predicted.
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