Breaking Waves: Ocean News

My grandmother’s orchard stopped me in my tracks, and I only have to read the word to feel the shade of those trees Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email My grandmother had a small orchard in her garden in Johannesburg. It was a few plum and peach trees, and very shady. The leaves of the plum trees were purpley-green, almost black, and the ground was covered with the pits of decayed peaches, so that when I ran barefoot across the sunny garden with its dry grass, and into the orchard, I was forced to stop; it was like running over hard pebbles. And when I stood still, it was dark and smelled like rotting fruit. There were gnats hovering near the ground. I lifted my foot and looked at the hard folds on the peach pit. My shadow stopped at the orchard’s border, it could not cross. An orchard is a place where you tame trees, or try to. To plant one is an act of hope, the belief that home will mean abundance, that it is good to put down roots. “These trees came to stay,” is how Richard Wilbur opens his poem Young Orchard. the shadows of long pines down trackless slopes, the shadows of glass-faced towers down evening streets, the shadow of a frail plant on a city sill— Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads battalions of starlings waging peaceful cries, bearing the net higher, covering this world like the vines of an orchard, or a mother drawing the trembling gauze over the trembling eyes of a child fluttering to sleep; it was the light Do you have an animal, insect or other subject you feel is worthy of appearing in this very serious column? Email [email protected] Continue reading...

Read more from My DIY climate hack, a new series on everyday people’s creative solutions to the climate crisis Neil Wiesblott, 69, swapped bustling Los Angeles for a quiet island off the coast of Seattle more than 30 years ago and never looked back. Among Vashon Island’s many charming features, perhaps its most beloved is a vast “tool library” that lends out more than a thousand items to residents for DIY projects and home improvements – from saws to ladders to power washers. Established nearly a decade ago, the library is believed to be the largest rural tool library in the US. These libraries have been around since the 1940s but have taken on new relevance in an age of mass production and hyper-consumption. With an estimated 80 such libraries across the country, the Vashon tool library where Neil volunteers is part of a growing movement that’s helping people live more sustainably while fostering a sense of community. Continue reading...

Opponents of bills argue ‘offramp’ to keep gas or coal plants running will be triggered if energy-heavy centers are built Michigan Democrats are poised to pass legislation aimed at attracting big-tech data centers, but opponents say the bills would destroy nation-leading climate laws the same legislators approved in November because the centers consume massive amounts of electricity. The November climate bills included an “offramp” that would keep gas or coal plants running if renewable sources could not handle the energy grid’s load, and the stipulation would almost certainly be triggered, opponents say. Continue reading...

Campaigners have written to broadcasters expressing concern that climate is not a more prominent discussion topic The climate crisis must be discussed as a key priority in the TV debates between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, say green groups. A number of NGOs have written to the TV networks expected to host the live debates, the first of which is on Tuesday at 9pm on ITV. Continue reading...