Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Exclusive: Campaigners say proposed cut from £11.9bn over past five years to £9bn over next five years will cost lives and livelihoods The UK plans to slash its aid to poor countries stricken by the climate crisis by more than a fifth, the Guardian has learned, despite promises to increase assistance and warnings from campaigners that the move will cost lives and livelihoods. Ministers plan to cut climate finance for the developing world from £11.6bn over the past five years to £9bn in the next five. In real terms, accounting for inflation, this would represent a cut of about 40% in spending power since 2021, when the £11.6bn budget was agreed. Continue reading...

Animal Equality says two surprise inspections in three years suggests ‘embarrassingly poor’ level of scrutiny Scottish salmon farmers recorded more than 35m unexpected salmon deaths in just under three years but there were only two unannounced inspections of facilities over the same period. In December, the Scottish government’s secretary for rural affairs, Mairi Gougeon, said that there was “a really robust regulatory regime when it comes to fin-fish aquaculture” but animal welfare campaigners say the figures call that claim into question. Continue reading...

Charity praises effort to stop Ramsgate’s Pie Factory Music closing but calls for more youth services in coastal towns The last remaining youth centre in one of England’s most deprived coastal places has been saved from being sold after a long campaign by the charity that has for 13 years called it home. In November the Guardian revealed how the centre in Ramsgate on the Kent coast was facing being auctioned off by Kent county council, despite an independent report that estimated the centre was saving the council more than £500,000 a year in costs, including for services in mental health, youth justice and social care. Continue reading...

On a recent trip to Lake Geneva in Switzerland, biodiversity reporter Phoebe Weston witnessed the impact of one of the planet’s most potent invasive species, the quagga mussel. In just a decade the mollusc, originally from the Ponto-Caspian region of the Black Sea, has caused irreversible change beneath the surface of the picturesque lake. While ecologists believe invasive species play a major role in more than 60% of plant and animal extinctions, stopping them in their tracks is almost impossible. Phoebe tells Madeleine Finlay how invasive species spread, how conservationists are trying combat them and why some think a radical new approach is needed. ‘It’s an open invasion’: how millions of quagga mussels changed Lake Geneva for ever Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...