Communities in the middle of new national forest to show how housebuilding can be delivered alongside nature
A new set of forest towns will be built in the area between Oxford and Cambridge, nestled in the middle of a new national forest.
After facing anger from nature groups over the deregulation in the upcoming planning bill, ministers are trying to demonstrate that mass housebuilding can be delivered in conjunction with new nature. The government has promised to plant millions of trees to boost England’s nature.
Continue reading...
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
11/04/2025 - 15:15
Eisbach wave in the Bavarian city had been a surfing magnet for decades but disappeared after a recent cleanup
The “mother of all river waves” in a German canal that is often credited as the birthplace of freshwater surfing has mysteriously disappeared after decades of flowing smoothly, leaving enthusiasts dumbfounded.
The famous stationary wave in the southern city of Munich is known as the Eisbach, or “ice brook”, for its frigid temperatures, and has become a pilgrimage site for surfers worldwide.
Continue reading...
11/04/2025 - 14:01
Exclusive: Chancellor hopes to save up to £170 from average bill but industry insiders say move would be ‘disastrous’
Prospect of breaking 50-year income tax taboo shows scale of Reeves’s challenge
Rachel Reeves is considering slashing funding for more energy efficient homes to pay for a reduction in energy bills, sources have told the Guardian, as the chancellor looks for ways to ease the cost of living in this month’s budget.
Reeves is finalising a multibillion pound energy support package that is likely to cut taxes and green levies from people’s bills as she looks to save as much as £170 from the average bill.
Continue reading...
11/04/2025 - 09:00
Scientists are only beginning to grasp the scale of the issue and understand what impact the tree frogs may have on the islands’ rare wildlife
On the way to her office at the Charles Darwin research station, biologist Miriam San José crouches down near a shallow pond shrouded by vegetation and reaches deep into the foliage, pulling out a small green plastic box recorder.
She left it there overnight to capture the infamous croaks of a Fowler’s snouted treefrog (Scinax quinquefasciatus), known to Galápagos scientists as an invasive threat, with repercussions researchers are only beginning to grasp.
Continue reading...
10/31/2025 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 01 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00160-3
Human activities in coastal and marine regions increasingly generate inter-sectoral conflicts, emphasizing the need of effective spatial planning. India’s marine ecosystems, which sustain millions of livelihoods, are under mounting pressure from overexploitation, climate change and competing human uses. To address these challenges, developing a robust marine spatial planning framework is essential for both conservation and sustainable ocean use. Puducherry, with high recreational potential, serves as a pilot site for such an initiative, aiming to balancing stakeholder interests and needs, strengthening coastal resilience, and promoting a sustainable blue economy.
10/30/2025 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 31 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00153-2
Distant-water fleets, local consequences: lessons from a case study in Liberia
World Ocean Explorer Wins Gold Medal Serious Simulation Award from Serious Play Annual International Competition
10/26/2023 - 14:35
For Immediate Release October 19, 2023
Sedgwick, Maine USA World Ocean Explorer, a 3D virtual aquarium and educational simulation, was recently cited for excellence, winning a Gold Medal Award in the 2023 International Serious Play Awards Program.
World Ocean Explorer is an innovative 3D virtual aquarium designed for educational exploration of the world’s oceans. With interactive exhibits and a lobby space, visitors can immerse themselves in realistic marine environments, including a DEEP SEA exhibit funded by Schmidt Ocean Institute, showcasing unprecedented deep-sea discoveries off Australia. Targeted at 3rd graders and beyond, this immersive experience offers a range of perspectives on the ocean environment and can be explored through guided tours or user-controlled interfaces. Visit DEEP SEA at worldoceanexplorer.org/deep-sea-aquarium.html.
Serious Play Conference brings together professionals who are exploring the use of game-based learning, sharing their experience, and working together to shape the future of training and education. For more information on Serious Play Award Program visit seriousplayconf.com/international-serious-play-award-programs.
World Ocean Explorer is a transformative virtual aquarium designed to deepen understanding of the world ocean and amplify connection for young people worldwide. Organized around the principles of Ocean Literacy and the Next Gen Science Standards, World Ocean Explorer brings the wonder and knowledge of ocean species and systems to students in formal and informal classrooms, absolutely free to anyone with a good Internet connection. As an advocate for the ocean through communications, World Ocean Observatory believes there is no better investment in the future of the sustainable ocean than through a new approach to educational engagement that excites, informs, and motivates students to explore the wonders of our marine world and to understand the pervasive connection and implication for our future, inherent in the protection and conservation of all aspects of our ocean world.
World Ocean Explorer presents an astonishing 3-dimensional simulated aquarium visit, organized to reveal the wonders of undersea life, with layers of detailed data and information to augment the emotional connection made to the astonishing beauty and complexity of the dynamic ocean. Within each of the virtual exhibits, students visit exemplary theme-based sites with myriad opportunities to understand the larger perspectives of scientific knowledge as organized and visualized to dramatize the impact and change on ocean life as a result of natural and human-generated events. Through immersion among displays, mixed media and 3D models, the experience of an aquarium visit will be brought into classrooms or home school environments as a free, accessible, always available opportunity for teaching and learning. All of this will be available to a world audience without physical limitation or cost. World Ocean Explorer, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, receives support from the Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation, Visual Solutions Lab, the Climate Change Institute, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, and The Fram Museum Oslo. To learn more about the current and future exhibits of World Ocean Explorer, visit worldoceanexplorer.org.
media contact
Trisha Badger, Managing Director, World Ocean Observatory | [email protected] +12077011069
Read more »
