Group participates in previously unthinkable mile-long swim after US made key progress to clean polluted rivers
Hundreds of people plunged into the Chicago River’s chilly waters on Sunday as part of the first organized swim in the river for nearly 100 years, a previously unthinkable act in what was once one of the most befouled waterways in the world.
About 300 people, some wearing wetsuits, jumped into the Chicago River for a mile-long looping swim on an early, overcast midwest morning, a feat made possible by the often unseen but crucial progress the US has made in the past half century in cleaning its rivers of toxic pollution.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
09/21/2025 - 10:24
09/20/2025 - 23:05
Queensland Nationals senator tells Cpac conference ‘last rites being administered’ and praises Andrew Hastie for threat to quit frontbench over policy
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Nationals senator Matt Canavan has claimed the Coalition is “on the cusp of walking away from net zero”, urging Sussan Ley to campaign against the emissions reduction target by taking inspiration from Peter Dutton’s opposition to the Indigenous voice referendum.
The conservative political conference Cpac has heaped more pressure on Ley to dump the climate target, with a host of rightwing Liberal and National politicians calling for the 2050 aspiration – agreed by the former Coalition prime minister Scott Morrison – to be scrapped immediately.
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09/20/2025 - 19:45
Insects are essential for ecosystems, but mounting evidence suggests many populations are collapsing under modern pressures. A new study used cutting-edge genomic techniques on museum specimens to track centuries of ant biodiversity across Fiji. The results reveal that nearly 80% of native ants are in decline, with losses intensifying in the past few hundred years as human activities expanded.
‘It’s resurrection’: 1,000-year-old seeds could grow ancient plants in England’s ice-age ghost ponds
09/20/2025 - 00:00
An expert team are resurrecting ice age ponds and finding rare species returning from a ‘perfect time capsule’
If you glanced into a green field and saw a yellow digger tearing into the turf, you might assume it was another site for new houses. But the two circle-shaped scars of dark soil on a Norfolk pasture are ghost ponds being brought back to life by an innovative and cheap form of nature restoration.
“It looks awful now. ‘What have they done? It’s a disaster!’” says Carl Sayer, a professor of geography at UCL, who is dancing with glee around the bleak-looking, freshly dug hole. “The colonisation is so quick. Within a year, it is full of water plants. Within two years, it looks like it’s been there forever. It’s a spectacular recovery, and you’re truly recovering ancient assemblages of plants.”
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09/19/2025 - 13:34
Officials say deaths from Vibrio vulnificus exceeding average amid warning over climate-linked case increase
Five people in Louisiana have died in 2025 from a flesh-eating bacterium found in warm coastal waters, substantially exceeding the annual average on such deaths, state officials have said.
Those who had died from contracting Vibrio vulnificus as of Wednesday were among at least 26 to be infected with the bacterium, with each case resulting in hospitalization, according to Louisiana’s department of health. Most of those cases – 85% – involved wounds being exposed to seawater, and 92% of the infected had one underlying health condition, the health department said.
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09/19/2025 - 10:00
The scale of the government’s ambition heightens the stakes for all sides of politics and will probably determine how Albanese’s second term plays out
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Back in January 2021, when Australia was stuck in the warped reality of the pandemic, Anthony Albanese reshuffled Labor’s shadow cabinet in a bid to shore up support for his leadership.
Mark Butler, Albanese’s close ally and left faction heavyweight, had agreed to move out of the climate and energy portfolio, in a bid to stop bloodletting over whether Labor’s emissions policies were too ambitious and turning off voters. Albanese moved Chris Bowen into the role, charging the senior right faction member with reframing the debate from an environmental issue to one of economic reform.
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09/19/2025 - 07:00
Researchers mapping how red squirrels would fare under climate breakdown scenarios found ‘a natural ability to adapt’
Red squirrels are thriving on the Isle of Wight where they have enough food and a suitable habitat to support a population that could almost double, a study has found.
Using climate models, the researchers mapped how the red squirrel population would fare under different climate breakdown scenarios such as temperature changes and low levels of rainfall, finding no direct impact on their survivability and “a natural ability to adapt to a range of climatic conditions”.
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09/19/2025 - 05:30
Exclusive: Officials say they have been told to do as little as legally possible to prevent approvals for housebuilding in England
The Environment Agency has been told by ministers to wave through planning applications in England with minimal resistance as part of a regulatory shakeup designed to increase economic growth and plug the government’s financial hole.
Officials at the agency say they have been told to do as little as legally possible to prevent housing applications from being approved and the government has drafted in senior advisers from the housing department to speed up the process.
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09/19/2025 - 04:21
Research which began with conversations round a campfire and went on to examine 7m gene variants shows how people survive with little water and a meat-rich diet
A collaboration between African and American researchers and a community living in one of the most hostile landscapes of northern Kenya has uncovered key genetic adaptations that explain how pastoralist people have been able to thrive in the region.
Underlying the population’s abilities to live in Turkana, a place defined by extreme heat, water scarcity and limited vegetation, has been hundreds of years of natural selection, according to a study published in Science.
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09/19/2025 - 02:28
Liberal leader later clarifies she doesn’t support setting targets while in opposition
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The Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, has indicated the Coalition won’t set a 2030 or 2035 climate target unless they return to government, saying her colleagues didn’t back locking in an emissions goal while they remained in opposition.
It came as Ley had to clean up her own error, claiming she “misspoke” after initially saying her party “don’t believe in setting targets at all from opposition or from government”. She later clarified she only meant in opposition, prompting ridicule from Anthony Albanese who claimed the opposition “changes its policies from hour to hour”.
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