Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Mushroom-growing boom could cause biodiversity crisis, warn UK experts

admin — Fri, 31 May 2024 11:16:45 +0000

RHS fears non-native fungi could alter microbiology of soil when grown in gardens or disposed of in compost heaps

A boom in the popularity of mushroom-growing at home could lead to a biodiversity disaster, UK garden experts have warned.

There has been a rise in the number of people growing mushrooms in their gardens, and this year, the RHS Chelsea flower show’s plant of the year award included a mushroom – the tarragon oyster mushroom, thought to be found only in the British Isles – in its shortlist for the first time, despite it being a fungus, not a plant.

Endangered penguin chicks hatched at Chester zoo named after plants

admin — Fri, 31 May 2024 09:14:57 +0000

Zoo welcomes 11 Humboldt chicks, its highest number in a decade, including Thistle and Daffodil

In previous years Chester zoo’s new penguin chicks have been named after crisps – Frazzle, Wotsit – and local football club owners – Ryan, Rob – but the names p … p … p … picked this year are notably less frivolous.

‘Largest ever’ NSW coalmine plan will put pressure on state’s net zero target, watchdog says

admin — Fri, 31 May 2024 08:10:31 +0000

EPA says proposal to keep Hunter Valley Operations mines going to 2050 would release almost 30m tonnes of CO2

Week in wildlife – in pictures: playful baby lemurs, kingfisher tug-of-war and a beautiful bee-eater

admin — Fri, 31 May 2024 07:00:32 +0000

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

Bids for bathing water status in England paused in blow for river cleanups

admin — Fri, 31 May 2024 06:00:31 +0000

Campaigners suspect block on new applications for at least two years was imposed to limit burden on water firms

The government has suspended all applications for bathing water status in waterways, delaying the cleanup of rivers and coastal waters for at least two years.

River campaigners fear the block on new applications to create bathing water areas, which are regularly tested for water quality, has been introduced to stop water companies facing huge resource implications to tackle poor water quality in new bathing areas.

Market value of carbon offsets drops 61%, report finds

admin — Fri, 31 May 2024 06:00:31 +0000

Negative scientific and press reports on the efficacy of carbon credit projects has led to a ‘direct pullback in buyer investment’

The market for carbon offsets shrank dramatically last year, falling from $1.9bn (£1.5bn) in 2022 to $723m in 2023, a new report has found. The drop came after a series of scientific and media reports found many offsetting schemes do nothing to mitigate the climate crisis and biodiversity loss.

India’s ‘sinking island’ looks to election for survival – in pictures

admin — Fri, 31 May 2024 06:00:30 +0000

For many on Ghoramara, the general election is about the climate crisis and survival. The island, 150km south of Kolkata and named the ‘sinking island’ by the media, has lost nearly half its area to soil erosion in the past two decades and could disappear if a solution is not found.

Cleaner air in West Midlands could prevent 2,000 deaths a year, study finds

admin — Fri, 31 May 2024 05:00:31 +0000

Meeting WHO guidelines would avoid many cases of diseases and save the NHS millions, research shows

A study has revealed that cleaning up the air in the West Midlands could prevent the early deaths of about 2,000 people a year.

A traits-based approach to assess aquaculture’s contributions to food, climate change, and biodiversity goals

admin — Fri, 31 May 2024 04:00:00 +0000

npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 31 May 2024; doi:10.1038/s44183-024-00065-7

A traits-based approach to assess aquaculture’s contributions to food, climate change, and biodiversity goals

People are altering decomposition rates in waterways

admin — Thu, 30 May 2024 22:21:19 +0000

Humans may be accelerating the rate at which organic matter decomposes in rivers and streams on a global scale, according to a new study. That could pose a threat to biodiversity in waterways around the world and increase the amount of carbon in Earth's atmosphere, potentially exacerbating climate change. The study is the first to combine a global experiment and predictive modeling to illustrate how human impacts to waterways may contribute to the global climate crisis.