Browsing: Environmental News

Welcome to the “Scuba Diving Environmental News” section of The Scuba News, your dedicated platform for the latest updates, initiatives, and issues concerning marine conservation and environmental stewardship in the diving community. This section covers news about ocean conservation efforts, marine protected areas, environmental research findings, and sustainable diving practices. Stay informed about threats facing marine ecosystems, such as pollution, habitat destruction, and climate change, and learn about ways to take action and make a positive impact. Whether you’re passionate about protecting marine life, preserving coral reefs, or advocating for sustainable diving practices, our environmental news keeps you informed and inspired to protect our oceans for future generations.

The battle lines are drawn — in some cases literally. On one side are those reaping massive profits from fossil fuels, determined to extract and sell as much as possible before the market dries up. On the other are those who see the amazing potential of energy conservation, renewable energy and other innovations to reduce pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, ecosystem destruction and exploitation of valuable non-renewable resources.

Seeing terms like “post-truth” and “alternative facts” gain traction in the news convinces me that politicians, media workers and readers could benefit from a refresher course in how science helps us understand the world. Reporting on science is difficult at the best of times. Trying to communicate complex ideas and distil entire studies into eye-catching headlines and brief stories can open the door to misinformation and limited understanding.

Since the 1950s, almost everything about work in the developed world has changed dramatically. Rapid technological advances continue to render many jobs obsolete. Globalization has shifted employment to parts of the world with the lowest costs and standards. Most households have gone from one income-earner to at least two. Women have fully integrated into the workforce, albeit often with less-than-equal opportunities, conditions and pay. A lot of our work is unnecessary and often destructive — depleting resources, destroying ecosystems, polluting air, water and soil, and fuelling climate change.

Three years ago, a group of City of Moncton staffers boarded a plane, bound for Winnipeg. They were on a fact-finding mission to discover if Moncton, N.B. could evolve from building traditional bathtub-like stormwater retention ponds to incorporating naturalized retention basins in neighbourhoods instead.

Aquariums have become a normal part of society, in that most of us have visited one at some point or other. The question is do they work as a good educational tool for the ocean and its creatures and do they encourage conservation? What do people take away from a visit and are aquarium’s a positive experience? Here in the UK they are a way for us all to engage with a range of tropical creatures that we might otherwise not be exposed too but does that encourage a more positive and active drive to care for them in the natural World?

For decades, scientists have warned that we’re on a dangerous path. It stems from our delusion that endless growth in population, consumption and the economy is possible and is the very purpose of society. But endless growth is not feasible in a finite biosphere. Growth is not an end but a means.

Apart from my editing duties, I also work with young people in schools and decided to try and collaborate the two things I love the most. Overnight my ‘Scuba in Schools’ project was born. An enriching program/activity for young people to get involved in. Something new and different as part of the school day to help create the next generation of young divers.

If you fly over a forest and look down, you’ll see every green tree and plant reaching to the heavens to absorb the ultimate energy source: sunlight. What a contrast when you look down on a city or town with its naked roofs, asphalt roads and concrete sidewalks, all ignoring the sun’s beneficence! Research shows we might benefit by thinking more like a forest.

“Like a living window into a continent, the Great Lakes are vibrantly visible from space. A fresh water source for millions, they are the basis of a huge ecosystem and a vital transportation route for the world. Everyone gazing thankfully on their shores needs to be a part of keeping them healthy for centuries to come. The future of the Great Lakes is the future of us all.” CHRIS A. HADFIELD Colonel, Astronaut ret’d.

The longer we delay addressing environmental problems, the more difficult it will be to resolve them. Although we’ve known about climate change and its potential impacts for a long time, and we’re seeing those impacts worsen daily, our political representatives are still approving and promoting fossil fuel infrastructure as if we had all the time in the world to slow global warming.

Thanks to you, in the past year we have celebrated numerous victories for people and the planet. We won the lengthy fight against Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline, pressured the government to ban microbeads, and protected Canada’s national parks from commercial encroachment. As 2016 has come to a close, and 2017 is now here, our team is reflecting on the this year.

How much stuff will you give and receive this holiday season? Add it to the growing pile — the 30-trillion-tonne pile. That’s how much technology and goods humans have produced, according to a study by an international team led by England’s University of Leicester. It adds up to more than all living matter on the planet, estimated at around four trillion tons.

When government biologists in Canada want to learn where caribou are, they put radio-tracking collars on some animals and monitor their movements. This gives them a rough idea of where herds are and where they travel, but it doesn’t tell them much about a caribou population’s history — travel routes before their habitat was degraded or historical feeding, breeding and calving spots.

The Canadian government has announced a ban on microbeads, and this progressive move will keep this harmful plastic pollutant out of Canada’s waterways. When products containing microbeads, such as cleansers, lotions and toothpastes, are used and rinsed down the drain, these bits of plastic — typically 1.0 millimetre or smaller in diameter — are too small to be caught by wastewater treatment facilities. Instead, they are flushed directly into lakes, rivers and streams, where they wreak havoc on wildlife. Scientists have found millions of microbeads in the Great Lakes, with the highest concentrations occurring near urban areas.

A conservation virtual running event has captured the public’s attention and turned from a solo event into a global one, with runners around the world signing up to participate.