Tourists delighted as pinnipeds congregate at city’s Pier 39, apparently attracted by feast of anchovies
More than 1,000 sea lions have gathered at San Francisco’s Pier 39 this spring, the largest herd in at least 15 years.
Mounds of floppy, delightfully ungraceful marine mammals have plopped themselves on to rafts along the city’s pier, displaying themselves to the thousands of tourists who pass by the area each day.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
05/02/2024 - 15:57
05/02/2024 - 14:31
The global demand for palm oil -- the most widely consumed vegetable oil on the planet, in everything from instant noodles to lipstick -- is driving worldwide tropical deforestation. While many studies have shown the loss of biodiversity when rainforests are converted to oil palm plantations, researchers have now shown the far-reaching and wide-ranging disturbances to the watersheds in which such plantations occur.
05/02/2024 - 14:07
Exclusive: decision to grant licences condemned by critics as a stunt that shows Tories are ‘playing politics with climate’
Fossil fuel companies will be allowed to explore for oil and gas under offshore wind-power sites for the first time, the government will announce on Friday, in a move that campaigners said is further proof that ministers are abandoning the climate agenda.
The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), which regulates North Sea oil and gas production, will confirm that it is granting licences to about 30 companies to look for hydrocarbons on sites earmarked for future offshore windfarms.
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05/02/2024 - 11:31
Attorney and non-profit founder Julia Olson calls appeals court ruling on lawsuit filed by 21 young people ‘tragic and unjust’
A federal appeals court on Wednesday evening granted the Biden administration’s request to strike down a landmark federal youth climate case, outraging climate advocates.
“This is a tragic and unjust ruling,” said Julia Olson, attorney and founder of Our Children’s Trust, the non-profit law firm that brought the suit.
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05/02/2024 - 10:37
The alarming rates of biodiversity loss worldwide have made clear that the classical way of governing biodiversity recovery based on protected areas and programs for the protection of endangered species is not enough. To tackle this, almost 200 countries committed to the active 'mainstreaming' or integration of biodiversity targets into policies and plans across relevant sectors. However, research suggests that this has until now been largely ineffective due to non-binding commitments, vaguely formulated targets, 'add-on' biodiversity initiatives, and too few resources. 'Top down regulation is also needed,' say the authors.
05/02/2024 - 06:00
Researchers visited the Chicago Cafe to find out if it’s really 121 years old – and entered a chop suey parlor filled with memories
On a warm morning in March, a group of researchers entered an unassuming chop suey parlor in the Sacramento suburbs for a rare field trip.
The six history enthusiasts affiliated with the University of California, Davis, had gathered at the Chicago Cafe in Woodland, California, with one goal in mind: to determine the exact age of what may be the oldest Chinese restaurant in the country.
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05/02/2024 - 05:55
Rivers Trust is asking citizen scientists to record observations of local waterways on free app
People in Britain and Ireland are being asked to monitor their local rivers for pollution so a leading water charity can measure the scale of the sewage crisis.
The Rivers Trust is this week launching the Big River Watch, asking people to record observations of their local rivers on a free app. The results will be made available through an interactive dashboard, and will help the organisation, as well as individuals and communities who can all access the data, to take action to improve rivers.
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05/02/2024 - 05:00
Experts say only ‘handful of plants’ operating with the dirtiest fuel will likely survive, and only Trump and lawsuits could save them
New climate rules imposed by Joe Biden’s administration requiring huge cuts in carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants will accelerate the decline of an industry that until recently provided most of America’s power, experts say, potentially even dealing a death blow to coal in the US.
Coal, once the backbone of the US economy and feted by Donald Trump as he rose to the presidency, is being driven out of the power sector by cheaper renewables and gas and now faces an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation, finalized last week, that demands all coal plants not retiring by 2039 to slash their carbon emissions 90% within the coming decade.
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05/02/2024 - 00:00
Viruses that cause mild sniffles in humans are devastating populations of chimpanzees and gorillas. In some ape communities, it’s a bigger killer than habitat loss or poaching
There was something wrong with the chimpanzees. For weeks, a community of 205 animals in Uganda’s Kibale national park had been coughing, sneezing and looking generally miserable. But no one could say for sure what ailed them, even as the animals began to die.
Necropsies can help to identify a cause of death, but normally, the bodies of chimps are found long after decomposition has set in, if at all. So when Tony Goldberg, a US wildlife epidemiologist visiting Kibale, got word that an adult female named Stella had been found freshly dead, he knew this was a rare opportunity to look for an answer.
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05/02/2024 - 00:00
Use of enclosed combustors leaves regulators heavily reliant on oil and gas companies’ own flaring data
Oil and gas equipment intended to cut methane emissions is preventing scientists from accurately detecting greenhouse gases and pollutants, a satellite image investigation has revealed.
Energy companies operating in countries such as the US, UK, Germany and Norway appear to have installed technology that could stop researchers from identifying methane, carbon dioxide emissions and pollutants at industrial facilities involved in the disposal of unprofitable natural gas, known in the industry as flaring.
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