Breaking Waves: Ocean News

07/04/2025 - 03:00
Eni has filed at least six defamation suits against journalists and NGOs since 2019 in what critics say is intimidation campaign ‘Legal bullying’: global protest rights on line in Dutch court case, say activists When Antonio Tricarico was summoned to his local police station in October and told he was being investigated for defamation, he was stressed but not shocked. Months earlier, Tricarico, the director of the Italian environment NGO ReCommon, had filed a joint legal challenge against the country’s biggest oil company, Eni, which he knew had a history of using lawyers to clamp down on critics. The company had previously limited itself to civil defamation lawsuits, including against ReCommon, but in Tricarico’s case it initiated criminal proceedings over statements he had made in a television interview. Continue reading...
07/04/2025 - 01:00
The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
07/03/2025 - 19:11
Letter from workers, which EPA claims is ‘unlawful’, says agency is no longer living up to its mission The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday put on administrative leave 139 employees who signed a “declaration of dissent” about its policies, accusing them of “unlawfully undermining” the Trump administration’s agenda. In a letter made public on Monday, the employees wrote that the agency is no longer living up to its mission to protect human health and the environment. The letter represented rare public criticism from agency employees who knew they could face blowback for speaking out against a weakening of funding and federal support for climate, environmental and health science. Continue reading...
07/03/2025 - 17:28
NAACP plans to sue over massive Memphis datacenter near Black residents, who have long dealt with pollution Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI has been granted a permit to run methane gas generators at its massive datacenter in Memphis, Tennessee. The county health department approved the permit for the 15 machines late on Wednesday, a move that has sparked outcry from the local community and environmental leaders, who say the generators pollute their neighborhoods. “Our local leaders are entrusted with protecting us from corporations violating on our right to clean air, but we are witnessing their failure to do so,” said KeShaun Pearson, the director of the local environmental non-profit Memphis Community Against Pollution. Continue reading...
07/03/2025 - 16:53
Costa Rica-based inter-American court of human rights says states have obligation to respond to climate change There is a human right to a stable climate and states have a duty to protect it, a top court has ruled. Announcing the publication of a crucial advisory opinion on climate change on Thursday, Nancy Hernández López, president of the inter-American court of human rights (IACHR), said climate change carries “extraordinary risks” that are felt particularly keenly by people who are already vulnerable. Continue reading...
07/03/2025 - 13:00
Israel-based study finds that by 2050 average daily milk production could be reduced by 4% as a result of worsening heat stress Dairy production will be threatened by the increasing frequency and intensity of heatwaves, a study has found. Drawing on records from more than 130,000 cows over a period of 12 years, the researchers report that extreme heat reduces dairy cows’ ability to produce milk by 10%. Continue reading...
07/03/2025 - 12:12
Commissioner says two women were attacked by female elephant that was with a calf Two female tourists from the UK and New Zealand have been killed by an elephant while on a walking safari in a national park in Zambia, police in the southern African country have said. The Eastern Province police commissioner, Robertson Mweemba, said the victims, who he named as 68-year-old Easton Janet Taylor from the UK and 67-year-old Alison Jean Taylor from New Zealand, were attacked by a female elephant that was with a calf. Continue reading...
07/03/2025 - 09:11
Plans announced by environment secretary mean many upland farmers may be incentivised to stop farming Some farms in England could be taken entirely out of food production under plans to make more space for nature, the environment secretary has said. Speaking at the Groundswell farming festival in Hertfordshire, Steve Reed said a revamp of post-Brexit farming subsidies and a new land use plan would be aimed at increasing food production in the most productive areas and decreasing or completely removing it in the least productive. In reality, this means many upland farmers may be incentivised to stop farming. Continue reading...
07/03/2025 - 02:48
This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest report on Ukraine here: Deputy commander of Russian navy killed in strike near Ukraine frontline in Italy Due to the climate emergency, Italian seas have reached temperatures above 20C even at depths of 40 metres, according to a report released on Wednesday by Greenpeace. Continue reading...
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
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