Breaking Waves: Ocean News

At the Oxford farming conference there were signs the government has much to do to win back farmers’ trust Few symbols were more potent than the wooden coffin bearing the inscription “RIP British agriculture, 30th October 2024” that greeted Labour’s environment minister at the annual Oxford farming conference. It marked the date of Rachel Reeves’s first budget, when she announced plans to levy inheritance tax on farms. For the chancellor’s cabinet colleague Emma Reynolds, it underlined the anger among Britain’s farmers. Continue reading...

Advocates suing to reverse administration’s surcharge system that has led to passport checks and angry visitors A new $100 fee for foreign tourists entering US national parks has triggered chaos and frustrating waits, with staff reporting long entry lines as citizenship checks are made and irate visitors regularly ditching plans to patronize some of America’s most cherished landscapes. The new fee system, introduced by the Trump administration from 1 January, has caught many visitors and National Park Service (NPS) staff off-guard, with checks now having to be undertaken to assess nationality and tourists often turning away from entrances rather than pay the surcharge. The Guardian heard accounts of problems from several NPS staff, speaking anonymously, who work at different parks across the country. Continue reading...

We must not let geoengineering be shaped behind closed doors. Climate justice demands an inclusive approach As the world faces the challenges of the climate crisis and critical threshold levels or tipping points may be reached soon, a disputable idea is gaining momentum as a potential solution: solar geoengineering – the deliberate reflection of sunlight to cool the planet. Advocates argue it could buy us time. Critics warn of unknown risks. Some see it as a possible emergency break if temperatures spiral out of control. Others call it a dangerous distraction that undermines meaningful climate action. Research into solar geoengineering is advancing, including exploration of techniques such as stratospheric aerosol injection, which would involve spraying tiny reflective particles into the upper atmosphere to mimic the cooling effect of volcanic eruptions, and marine cloud brightening, which aims to enhance the reflectivity of low-lying marine clouds. While stratospheric aerosol injection is not being conducted, these technologies are being studied with increasing urgency in the global north. In the global south, however, they remain largely invisible to public discourse and policymaking. Continue reading...

South East Water says 6,500 households have no water due to burst mains, a month after drinking water outage Residents of Tunbridge Wells have been left without water again, just a month after a major outage. South East Water said 6,500 households have no water at all, while thousands more have “intermittent supplies”. Continue reading...