Carcinogens entering waterways from 25,000 road outflows are not monitored or regulated by Environment Agency, committee hears
Toxic, carcinogenic pollution that pours from 25,000 road outflows into rivers in England is being ignored by politicians and regulators, MPs have been told.
Road runoff containing toxic particles from tyres and brakes, and pollution from fuel and oil spills – which washes into rivers after rainfall – can devastate aquatic life and, by increasing toxicity, reduce the overall health of waterways. It is responsible for 18% of the reason all rivers fail to meet good ecological and chemical standards.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
09/04/2025 - 04:00
As powerful forces push back against green forces, it is little surprise that many of us feel dismay. Climate scientists do, too. But together we can take action to challenge the prevailing apathy
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Last year, I stood in front of a black-clad skinhead as he shook a fist full of rings thick enough to double as a knuckle-duster. Flecks of spit flew into my face as he railed against the green agenda of the last German government.
Until recently, it would have felt bizarre to talk to protesters at a neo-Nazi-linked rally about climate change or hear them rant unprompted about heat pumps. But far-right parties have entered the political mainstream, and their scathing tirades against “woke” green rules are energising their base.
Join George Monbiot and special guests on 16 September for a special climate assembly to discuss the growing and dramatic political and corporate threats to the planet. Book tickets – in person or livestream
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09/04/2025 - 02:00
The country’s fisheries and the health of its seas still rely on a method practised for nearly 1,000 years – catching skipjack tuna one fish at a time
Photographs and video by Ibrahim Bassam
At 3.04am, most of the residents of the northern Maldivian island village of Kanditheemu are fast asleep. Only the faint sound of waves lapping against anchored boats and the crunch of sand under weathered sandals breaks the silence. Carrying buckets and small bags, 14 fishers emerge and move quietly towards the harbour, crossing a narrow wooden plank to board a 24-metre-long dhoni boat named Mas Vaali.
For captain Ibrahim Hamid, 61, this routine has been the same for decades: rise before dawn, steer a dhoni across the Indian Ocean, and oversee a crew hauling in silvery skipjack tuna using single poles and lines – in a process that is often unchanged from how they fished as boys.
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09/04/2025 - 00:00
Scientists say ozone is warming Earth by 40% more than expected but that repair is still right thing to do
The repair of the Earth’s ozone layer has been a success, but a new study reveals a downside: ozone is warming the planet up to 40% more than originally anticipated.
Bill Collins from the University of Reading and his colleagues used a computer model to project the amount of warming associated with changes in ozone between 2015 and 2050, taking into account changes in humidity, clouds and surface reflectivity. If we continue to implement the air pollution controls mandated by the Montreal protocol in 1987 their results, which are published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, suggest that the healing of the ozone layer will create more warming, cancelling out most of the climate benefits from stopping production of ozone destroying chemicals such as CFCs and HCFCs.
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09/03/2025 - 23:00
Wildfires were 30% more intense than would have been expected without global heating, scientists say
The extreme weather that fuelled “astonishing” blazes across Spain and Portugal last month was made 40 times more likely by climate breakdown, early analysis suggests.
The deadly wildfires, which torched 500,000 hectares (1.2m acres) of the Iberian peninsula in a matter of weeks, were also 30% more intense than scientists would have expected in a world without climate change, according to researchers from the World Weather Attribution network.
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09/03/2025 - 23:00
Review says ministers have only ‘small chance’ of wiping out bovine tuberculosis by 2038 without more investment
Labour can end the badger cull but only with a Covid-19 style focus on testing and vaccinating, the author of a government-commissioned report has said.
Ministerial plans to stop the shooting of the animals can be achieved but at a cost to the Treasury, the report warns.
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09/03/2025 - 06:30
US schools were built for a cooler climate that no longer exists. Now they face record-high temperatures
As schools are returning to session following one of the hottest summers ever recorded, districts are faced with a new problem: how to handle increasingly extreme heatwaves, both in and outside the classroom.
Unbearably hot days are no longer just a summer problem. In the US districts from the north-east to the mountain west to the deep south are shortening days, delaying openings, and reworking calendars as temperatures spike during August and September, the typical back-to-school months.
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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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