Trend is adding to ‘waste crisis’ owing to individual packaging and potential for unwanted items, campaigners say
The trend for Advent calendars aimed at adults is “superfluous consumerism” that adds to excessive and wasteful consumption, according to environmental groups.
While once children excitedly opened a door each day to see what festive picture lay behind it, adults can now count down the days to Christmas with calendars containing everything from luxury beauty products to instant mashed potato.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
11/22/2025 - 05:00
11/22/2025 - 00:00
National Trust begins planting the 49 ‘trees of hope’ so the illegally felled tree can live on in a positive way
Saplings from the felled Sycamore Gap tree are to be planted across the UK, including at a pit disaster site, a town still healing from the Troubles and a place which became an international symbol of peace, protest and feminism.
The National Trust said planting of 49 saplings, known as “trees of hope”, would begin on Saturday. It is hoped that the sycamore will live on in a positive, inspirational way.
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11/22/2025 - 00:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 22 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00168-9
We must integrate effective protection with scalable restoration to ensure resilient coastal ecosystems. We identify five challenges, including unequal ecosystem coverage, spatial protections that are weak or centered offshore, compartmentalized restoration efforts, and policies that are not fit for purpose, and propose actionable solutions for scaling effective marine conservation. Emphasizing underserved habitats like kelp forests and seagrasses, we call for integrated, equitable, and community-supported strategies that align with global agendas and promote future coastal ecosystems.
11/21/2025 - 18:50
UK energy secretary says UN climate talks must find way to keep proposals alive despite significant resistance
Supporters of a global phaseout of fossil fuels must find “creative” ways to keep the proposal alive, including making it voluntary rather than binding, the UK energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has said in the closing stages of the UN climate talks.
As the Cop30 summit in Brazil carried on past the Friday night deadline, the prospect of countries agreeing on the need for a roadmap to a global “transition away from fossil fuels” looked increasingly dim. A first draft of the potential outcome text from the summit had contained the formulation, but in the updated draft text produced on Friday by the Brazilian presidency it had been excised.
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11/21/2025 - 13:48
President of talks urges ministers and high-ranking officials to find common ground as conference nears its end
Cop30 live – latest updates
Climate crisis talks look likely to stretch well into the weekend in Brazil, with countries still far apart on the crucial issues of phasing out fossil fuels and cutting carbon.
The Cop30 president, André Corrêa do Lago, urged ministers and high-ranking officials from more than 190 countries to find common ground: “We need to preserve this regime [of the Paris climate agreement] with the spirit of cooperation, not in the spirit of who is going to win or is willing to lose’” he said. “Because we know if we don’t strengthen this, everyone will lose.”
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11/21/2025 - 06:53
Summit president André Corrêa do Lago issued plea to preserve Paris agreement with countries unable to reach compromise on scheduled final day
An informal stocktake plenary is now underway [see live feed at the top of the blog]. Here the presidency will update parties on the state of the negotiations.
My colleague Damian Carrington will be keeping across the main developments.
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11/21/2025 - 00:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 21 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00164-z
Emerging climate-smart governance through maritime spatial planning in northern Europe
11/19/2025 - 00:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 19 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00159-w
A machine learning-based evidence map of ocean-related options for climate change mitigation and adaptation
11/18/2025 - 00:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 18 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00162-1
Critical energy minerals face persistent shortages. Deep-sea mining offers a potential supplement but raises environmental, technical, and governance concerns. Drawing on interdisciplinary literature and policy review, this comment analyzes the resource potential and commercialization challenges of deep-sea mining. We propose five priorities: building sustainable consensus, advancing green technologies, establishing commercialization safeguards, strengthening global monitoring, and enhancing the International Seabed Authority’s capacity to foster cooperative global governance.
11/17/2025 - 00:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 17 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00158-x
Co-producing ocean plans with Indigenous and traditional knowledge holders
