It is the most extracted solid material on Earth – but this extraction can threaten ecosystems and livelihoods
Malé is one of the world’s most overcrowded cities, but it faces double pressure. As well as a growing population, the capital of the Maldives is also threatened by rising sea levels. Owing to climate breakdown, its living space is shrinking.
So the justification for a land reclamation project seemed clear. Take sand from elsewhere in the archipelago and use it to build up the land available for Malé’s people. What could go wrong? After all, it’s only sand, right?
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
05/12/2026 - 05:00
05/12/2026 - 04:59
With some long-awaited sanity on housing and taxes, including CGT and negative gearing changes, it’s one of the most important for good – but will still leave some out in the cold
Federal budget 2026 LIVE updates: Australia government budget announcement and speech – latest news
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This year’s budget is an odd affair. So much had been leaked and dropped to the media that there are barely any surprises. But that does not mean it does not live up to the billing of being ambitious – basically killing off the capital gains tax 50% discount is a huge deal.
The lack of changes on gas tax, an absence of increased assistance for the unemployed and renters, and cuts to the NDIS, however, show that this is still a government where ambition is not in surplus.
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05/12/2026 - 04:00
Cockrow Bridge in Surrey will open in the coming weeks to provide wildlife, including lizards and insects, with the ability to move between fragmented habitats
When James Herd moved near to Wisley Common 17 years ago, the heathland nature reserve was teeming with wildlife. “I’d take the dog around the common in spring and summer, and every few hundred metres I’d hear the rustle of a lizard in the undergrowth – and I’d see adders,” he says.
But over the past decade, the Surrey Wildlife Trust’s director of reserves management, who oversees the internationally important habitat, has seen that wildlife become depleted.
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05/12/2026 - 00:16
State and federal energy ministers say investments in new renewable energy and storage should ‘fully offset’ new datacentres’ energy needs
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Power hungry datacentres that are growing to meet the demands of artificial intelligence could be forced to invest in enough new solar and wind generation to completely cover their electricity needs.
State and federal energy ministers agreed at a meeting last week that datacentres across the country should “fully offset” their electricity demand through investments in new renewable generation and energy storage.
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05/11/2026 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 12 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s44183-026-00200-6
Deep differences: expanding the marine social sciences and humanities into the deep ocean
05/11/2026 - 19:50
Move comes as administration seeks to boost drilling, logging, mining and grazing on taxpayer-owned land
The interior department is canceling a rule that put conservation on equal footing with development, as Donald Trump’s administration eases restrictions on industries and seeks to boost drilling, logging, mining and grazing on taxpayer-owned land.
The 2024 rule adopted under Joe Biden was meant to refocus the interior department’s Bureau of Land Management, which oversees about 10% of land in the US. It allowed public property to be leased for restoration in the same way that oil companies lease land for drilling.
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05/10/2026 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 11 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s44183-026-00202-4
Offshore wind farms reshape ocean stratification and productivity differently in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea
05/08/2026 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 09 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s44183-026-00206-0
A persistent gap remains in climate governance: ocean dynamics, despite shaping the pace and expression of climate risk, are still weakly integrated into its core mechanisms. COP30 brought this limitation into focus. Its final decision text omitted the ocean entirely, even as record ocean heat content, intensifying marine heatwaves and accelerating sea-level rise defined the physical reality of 2024–2025. This omission is striking given that COP30 simultaneously delivered the strongest ocean-related initiatives ever presented at a UN climate conference. This reflects not a lack of ambition, but a structural weakness: the UNFCCC system lacks the mechanisms needed to integrate ocean science into core decision-making, including standardized indicators, systematic reporting and institutional continuity. Addressing this requires embedding ocean indicators into reporting and Global Stocktake processes, strengthening coordination across climate and ocean policy, and anchoring emerging initiatives within the UNFCCC framework.
05/04/2026 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 05 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s44183-026-00204-2
The ocean crisis demands a new kind of science
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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