Author: Derrick Lester

Even on a gloomy morning, you can still see the supply boats waiting for crews to go offshore in line with their engines idling along Aberdeen’s waterfront. In its last act, it doesn’t appear to be an industry. However, if you speak with nearly anyone involved in UK energy policy today, the main point of contention is that data, not boats, is at issue. Since the late 1960s, the North Sea has been producing gas and oil; production peaked in 1999. Production had dropped to about a fifth of its peak level by last year. Approximately 93% of the recoverable…

A strange phenomenon is currently occurring along the equator, but most people won’t notice it unless they work with satellite data. The height of the Pacific Ocean has increased. Not everywhere, but in a long, warm area close to the equator, a satellite known as Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich has been surreptitiously recording sea surface elevations that, to be honest, seem a little strange. Whether California is prepared or not, that bump in the ocean is El Niño making its presence known. The official development of El Niño conditions was confirmed by NOAA earlier this month, and forecasters are now placing…

When something significant is taking place just out of sight, a certain kind of silence descends upon a zoo enclosure. That silence has a name at Hampshire’s Marwell Wildlife. Her name is Zaya, and she gave birth early on Wednesday, May 20, somewhere inside a dark cubbing box that no one can actually see into—not even her keepers. In a way, it’s a strange kind of news story because the main fact is still up for debate. Marwell has not disclosed Zaya’s cub count. They can’t just yet. The team has opted to rely on something more traditional: watching, listening,…

At the heart of ocean science at the moment is a subtle irony. Never before has the ocean been observed so intently. Satellites sweep the surface every few hours, research vessels collect samples by the crate, buoys bob across all major currents, and Argo floats drift through the water column taking readings every ten days. Ocean data collection is at its peak in terms of volume. However, when you ask a marine ecologist when a particular dataset will be available in a published, usable format, they frequently wince and say, “It depends.” It frequently takes years for biological samples taken…

The dispute over deep-sea mining has been one of those diplomatic standoffs that doesn’t immediately make the front pages; it’s been quiet, technical, and all of a sudden impossible to ignore. A pause or moratorium on mining the ocean floor has been endorsed by forty-three governments, a number that has continued to rise this year virtually unnoticed by anyone outside the conservation community. After Malawi’s earlier action, Kenya and Madagascar joined the Our Ocean Conference, and the math began to resemble a real geopolitical split rather than a fringe campaign. The G20 is directly affected by the split. A few…

As is often the case, the announcement was made quietly. Early in June, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared that El Niño conditions had officially begun in the tropical Pacific. The 0.5°C-above-average threshold that scientists use to signal the start of the event has been crossed by sea surface temperatures. That sentence hardly makes sense to most people. However, it triggers a kind of controlled alarm for climate researchers, agricultural planners, and humanitarian organizations—the kind where everyone knew it was coming but hoped it wouldn’t arrive quite so soon. This time, the arrival itself is not unusual. The…

On Friday night, State Highway 35 was once more closed. The area between Hicks Bay and Te Araroa became inaccessible to through traffic by 10 p.m., with a Saturday reopening scheduled for 8 a.m., subject, as usual, to what the weather left behind and what engineers discovered in the morning light. Anyone who lives on or close to the East Cape has grown accustomed to this rhythm. It’s almost routine now, which is a warning sign in and of itself. A road closure shouldn’t feel normal, particularly if it affects the only dependable land connection in a remote coastal community.…

Not even three weeks have passed since the previous heatwave, and here we are once more. London, the South East, East Anglia, and the South West are all covered by amber heat health alerts in southern and eastern England. On Friday, the temperature will rise to 30°C; on Sunday, it will reach 32°C; on Monday or Tuesday, it may even reach 34°C in some places. This is beginning to feel like a truly different kind of June for a nation where summer heat has historically meant a courteous 22C and an excuse to purchase a portable fan. The amber alerts…

One of the planet’s most biologically rich locations is the Aleutian Trench. It was just made available for leasing in Washington. In the North Pacific, humpback whales, Steller sea lions, and short-tailed albatrosses navigate some of the world’s most productive waters, cold-water corals grow in the dark at pressures that would crush an unprotected human body, and the ocean floor drops more than 25,000 feet. It is far away, mostly uncharted, and, as of early 2026, the federal government is considering it for its first-ever seabed mineral leasing sale. This past February, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management formally requested…

The deep ocean has a subtle, unnerving quality. The real thing, not the Hollywood version with its glowing fish and razor-sharp teeth. It is cold, always dark, and almost devoid of the nutrients necessary for most life. You wouldn’t expect anyone to construct a house there, much less one that is thousands of square kilometers in size. Nevertheless, you would discover gardens if you could manage to descend 800 meters below the surface off the coast of Brazil. Massive, expansive gardens of sponges, filtering seawater while sitting in complete darkness, seemingly since the time of the dinosaurs. Depending on who…