State attorneys general argue $1bn deal to terminate major offshore wind lease off the coast of New York is unlawful
Six states sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over its decision to cancel of a major offshore wind lease off the coast of New York.
In March, federal officials announced they would pay nearly $1bn in taxpayer dollars to French energy firm TotalEnergies in exchange for the company killing plans to erect two offshore windfarms off New York and North Carolina. TotalEnergies agreed to terminate the projects and pledged not to develop any new offshore wind projects in the United States, while investing hundreds of millions of dollars in oil and gas projects.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
06/02/2026 - 09:22
06/02/2026 - 09:00
Investigation reveals regulator let firms off the hook on cleanup bonds despite backlog that will take decades to clear
When Christiaan van Woudenberg moved to Erie, Colorado, in 2007, he never imagined he would become an anti-fracking activist. He simply thought he was buying his dream home – a four-bedroom with a panoramic mountain view, 30 minutes north of downtown Denver.
Then, in 2014, the drilling started. Oil and gas rigs sprang up, some just 800ft (240m) from his bedroom window. The dream turned to nightmare: loud noises rumbled all night long, and the air stank like exhaust. Neighbors started getting headaches and nosebleeds, and van Woudenberg developed new respiratory issues. He kept his windows shut and worried about his daughters going outside.
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06/02/2026 - 08:30
Novel forms of CO2 removal must expand at ‘highly ambitious rates’ if world is to limit global heating to 1.5C, says study
Humanity must suck carbon out of the atmosphere with new technologies even faster than the breakneck speed with which it has deployed solar panels if it is to limit global heating to 1.5C, a report has found.
Novel forms of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) must grow at “highly ambitious rates” to bridge the gap between what governments have pledged to clean up and what is needed to comply with the Paris climate agreement, according to researchers. They said the next five years were critical to establishing the technologies’ role in limiting climate damages.
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06/02/2026 - 07:01
Wetter weather expected to bring surge of slugs out of hiding, just as strawberries experience bumper early crop
Entomologists in England are expecting a surge in slugs coming out of hiding to munch the nation’s strawberry plants after weeks of sun followed by wetter weather has caused a bumper crop.
The Royal Horticultural Society is bracing for a surge in inquiries from its 625,000 members, who write in with their garden gripes. Workers at the RHS have also noticed a spate of slugs in the charity’s gardens, including Wisley in Surrey.
Slugs love a young, vulnerable seedling, so transplant sturdy plantlets grown in pots. These can then be given some protection with cloches.
The leaf-munching creatures are excellent for compost heaps as they get rid of dead and decaying matter, helping turn your waste into lovely compost. So why not go out with a torch on a mild evening while the weather is damp, and hand pick slugs into a container? These can then be placed either into a compost heap, where they can feast on all your garden waste, or near less vulnerable plants.
Some gardeners do strategic planting, making sure to put plants slugs find delicious near their favourite plants so these are eaten instead.
Why not dig a pond to encourage frogs, which will do slug elimination for you without the guilt of setting down poison pellets or drowning them in beer. It’s better for the ecosystem, too.
Encourage birds with a bird feeder – especially during spring when the young can be fed with a juicy snail.
Raking over soil and removing fallen leaves during winter can allow birds to eat slug eggs that have been exposed.
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06/02/2026 - 03:00
Scientists believe they may now have found the cause of Fair Isle’s pollution – and warn that it should be ringing alarm bells in other coastal areas
When the wind picks up on Fair Isle, Britain’s most remote inhabited island, puffs of seafoam start to drift across fields like tumbleweed. The pale yellow blobs are ubiquitous enough to hold their own place in the island’s mythology: known as the butter churned by a local troll, Lukki Minni.
“When the Atlantic gets going, foam covers the whole island,” says Tommy Hyndman, an artist who moved to the Fair Isle from upstate New York two decades ago. “Your windows get caked and your plants all die from the salt.”
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06/02/2026 - 02:00
UN agency predicts phenomenon that supercharges weather extremes has 80% chance of forming before September
The world must prepare for the imminent return of El Niño and the supercharged weather extremes it brings, the UN has warned.
The powerful natural weather pattern, which raises global temperatures and worsens some rainfall, has an 80% chance of forming before September and a 90% chance before November, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday.
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06/01/2026 - 18:01
Net zero industry accounts for more than a million jobs and benefits whole country, according to CBI Economics
More than a million jobs, higher wages, nearly half a trillion pounds in investment in the pipeline – the UK’s green economy is powering ahead, according to research by the country’s leading business organisation.
The net zero economy, which is worth more than £100bn a year, benefits all of the UK, according to the CBI Economics analysis commissioned by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit thinktank, despite critics who want to abolish the UK’s net zero targets.
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06/01/2026 - 11:35
Our wildlife series Young Country Diary is looking for articles written by children, about their summer encounters with nature
Once again, the Young Country Diary series is open for submissions! Every three months we ask you to send us an article written by a child aged 8-14.
The article needs to be about a recent encounter they’ve had with nature – whether it’s a nesting bird, a beetle on the move, a field full of flowers.
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06/01/2026 - 07:55
Letting nature take over at a former dairy farm has resulted in a surge of species in just three years
Three years of rewilding on a former dairy farm in east Somerset have led to the number of recorded bird species soaring from 67 to 94, butterfly species rising from 11 to 24 and small mammals growing in number.
Heal Somerset, the first site acquired by the charity Heal Rewilding, has produced a state of nature report mirroring a national survey by environmental charities that has tracked the decline in nature.
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06/01/2026 - 04:00
Seasonal wardens and netted fences are helping protect the rare ground-nesting birds that arrive each spring on the UK’s shores
On Ross Sands in Northumberland, a little tern has caught sight of a group of people and is sprinting across the beach. “It wants us to follow it,” says Andrew Craggs, senior manager at Lindisfarne national nature reserve. “It’s a diversionary thing – it’s got a scrape and it wants to take us away because it thinks we’re predators.”
Craggs is no predator, and he’s not after the scrape – a small pit the ground-nesting bird has dug into the sand to lay its eggs. He is a guardian of these little birds, as well as more than 3,500 hectares (8,600 acres) of sand dunes, saltmarsh and mudflats that make up this tranquil nature reserve perched on the tip of England’s north-east coast.
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