02 Jun 2026
Photo by Jacob Fryer Standing in a harbourmaster’s office on the Danish island of Bornholm, Tom Nielsen surveys walls lined with sepia photographs of a busier era. “We used to have 55 boats at one time, and now we have one left,” he told BBC Future. “You could walk across the harbour from one fishing […]
06 May 2026
Image description: an underwater seagrass meadow. A warning from “underwater forests” New research has found that sewage and agricultural pollution in rivers is having an “alarming” impact on marine invertebrate life in Britain’s seagrass meadows. The study, carried out by Project Seagrass and Swansea University, examined 16 sites along the British coastline affected to […]
20 Jan 2026
Photo by Catherine Breslin Scientists have revealed that floating algae blooms are expanding worldwide, with artificial intelligence analysis uncovering a potential regime shift from a macroalgae-poor ocean to a macroalgae-rich ocean. Researchers at the University of South Florida and NOAA used AI to scan 1.2 million satellite images and found blooms are expanding across the ocean. […]
19 Jan 2021
The increased use of renewable electricity across the European Union has not only reduced pressures linked to climate change, but also to air and water pollution (particulate matter formation, eutrophication and acidification), according to a European Environment Agency (EEA) briefing published today (14 Jan). More targeted actions can help minimise the negative environmental effects of […]
07 Oct 2020
Pollution from farming increases massively from a planned surge dairy farming plan. Guardian ‘Ireland is experiencing a water pollution crisis. A lack of investment in managing sewage is part of the story: half of urban wastewater treatment plants don’t meet minimum EU standards, while raw sewage from 77,000 people across Ireland flows into the environment every day. […]
07 Oct 2020
Pollution from farming increases massively from a planned surge dairy farming plan. Guardian ‘Ireland is experiencing a water pollution crisis. A lack of investment in managing sewage is part of the story: half of urban wastewater treatment plants don’t meet minimum EU standards, while raw sewage from 77,000 people across Ireland flows into the environment every day. […]
07 Oct 2020
Guardian: River pollution leads to Welsh demand for halt to intensive chicken farms ‘Pea soup’ algal blooms in River Wye cited as example of damage to habitats as coalition calls for moratorium on planning permission. As rivers in Wales deteriorate and fill with pollution, a coalition of groups has called for a moratorium on planning approval for […]
12 Sep 2019
Climate change is expected to alter water quality in rivers, but where and when this may happen is uncertain. This report describes a study of projected response in the amount of algal plant growth (phytoplankton biomass). Increasing algal growth is one of the ecological manifestations of eutrophication in slow flowing rivers, where the water starts […]
