Then there's the personalization and sense of VIP exclusivity; here, everything can be curated and customized, from private catamaran charters to bespoke island-hopping itineraries. Spend mornings exploring diamond-clear tidal pools and natural grottoes with a private guide, and afternoons sunbathing and snorkeling on a secluded beach reachable only by boat. While away evenings with butler-served dinners in a gleaming glass villa or snack on conch in a feet-in-the-sand 'old-BVI' boutique bolthole.
Most people assume waste issues start after Christmas, but the rise actually begins a few weeks beforehand. Parcel packaging, wrapping materials and extra food shopping create almost double the usual waste. That is when households are most at risk of these lesser known fines.
At 4:21 p.m. on Wednesday, the National Weather Service released a lake wind advisory valid from Thursday 4 p.m. until Saturday Dec. 20, at 4 a.m. for the Greater Lake Tahoe Area. The NWS Reno NV adds to expect, For Lake Tahoe, southwest winds 10 to 20 mph with gusts to 40 mph Thursday evening, increasing Friday to 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 45 mph. Waves 1 to 4 feet.
Global temperatures are set to remain alarmingly high, with 2026 predicted to be the fourth consecutive year exceeding 1.4C above pre-industrial levels, according to the Met Office. The UK's national weather service, in its annual outlook, forecasts 2026 to reach an estimated 1.46C above the 1850-1900 baseline, indicating a persistent "warming surge." While this figure sits below the record 1.55C observed in 2024, it would still rank 2026 among the four warmest years ever recorded.
On the banks of the Yukon River, after arriving by canoe only a few miles from the Canadian border, I shared some salmon with Karma Ulvi, the chief of the Native Village of Eagle in Alaska. But the fish we ate wasn't caught locally: A plane had delivered the salmon from Bristol Bay, in the southwest corner of the state, over 1,000 miles away. For the Native tribes that have lived along the Yukon for millennia, importing is the only option.
If you're of a certain generation, you might be able to trace your affinity for orcas to repeated viewings of a certain movie: the seminal 1993 film Free Willy. That movie led to a herculean effort that would eventually rope in the U.S. Air Force to rescue the movie's star, an orca named Keiko, from captivity. It also cemented the idea of orcas as intelligent, curious animals who deserve to live outside of captivity.
As the calendar turns the final pages on 2025, the information technology sector stands at a critical juncture regarding its environmental commitments. This year was not marked by technological breakthroughs solving decarbonisation, but by the decisive maturation of sustainability from a strategic differentiator into an operational and regulatory imperative. This transition involved a painful reckoning with data complexity, supply chain reality, and the sheer energy appetite of modern computing, driven primarily by the rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI).
For technology leaders, this year has been defined less by what to promise and more by how to deliver. The conversation has matured, but unevenly. Some organisations are now treating sustainability as an organisational capability, whilst others are still trying to reconcile their ambitions with fragmented systems and incomplete data. The task for 2026 will be to embed sustainability into the digital and operational fabric of business - to move decisively from strategy to systems.
One fire appears to have been caused by a spark from old power lines, the other allegedly started by an Uber driver with a fascination with flames. In the end, the Eaton and Palisades fires destroyed more than 16,000 homes, businesses and other structures and left 31 people dead. They were the second and third most destructive wildfires in California history - eclipsed only by the Camp fire that leveled the town of Paradise in 2018, destroying more than 18,000 structures and killing at least 85 people.
Nearly three years after a fire destroyed the Doral incinerator that processed about half of Miami-Dade's trash, county commissioners want to pursue building a new one in an industrial area near the Broward County line. Two teams have been competing to build a replacement facility, and both kept their hopes alive on Tuesday after commissioners voted to consider a combined proposal from the current rivals.
Most portable tanks are used with smaller or mid-range outboard motors. Ensure your tank's output matches your engine's needs. Refer to the engine and tank manuals for fuel flow, line diameter, and connector type specifications. A mismatch causes poor performance or engine starvation. Portable tanks are integrated into your fuel system, so ensure vapor and emission controls meet safety and environmental standards.
The skies were filled with a rare rose colour, which meteorologists at the Met Office have explained is due to sunlight passing through fine layers in the air, such as moisture or dust. Graham Madge, spokesperson for the Met Office, told the Daily Mail: When the sunlight comes through lots of layers, it filters out the blue and scatters it, leaving the red to come through, It's effectively a sunrise filtered through the atmosphere and through the fog, giving it that pinkish hue.
The sign outside Tom Hermes's farmyard in Perkins Township in Ohio, a short drive south of the shores of Lake Erie, proudly claims that his family have farmed the land here since 1900. Today, he raises 130 head of cattle and grows corn, wheat, grass and soybeans on 1,200 acres of land. For his family, his animals and wider business, water is life.
To identify the 20 five-billion-dollar weather disasters since 2020, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Centers for Environmental Information report, Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters (2024). The 20 events are listed in order of the estimated cost of the damages, adjusted for inflation. Two of the events are winter storms, three are wildfires, four are droughts, five are severe storms, and six are tropical cyclones.
Makeup is making the planet ugly. The beauty industry generates approximately 120 billion packaging items annually, most of which end up in landfills. Most beauty packaging is too small, made of mixed materials, or too flexible to be accepted by municipal curbside recycling programs. Compacts, lipstick tubes, mascara wands, pumps, and travel-size containers are typically not accepted at standard recycling facilities.
No water, no life, says Sheikh Nidham, a Mandaean religious leader living in the southern Iraqi city of Amarah, on the banks of the river in which he has been regularly immersed since he was a month old. Mandaeans are members of one of the oldest gnostic religions in the world. Southern Iraq has been their homeland for more than a thousand years, particularly in Maysan province. Amarah, the provincial capital, is built around the Tigris. Water is central to their faith and every major life event requires ritual purification. Marriage ceremonies begin in water, and before drawing their last breath, Mandaeans should be taken to the river for a final cleansing.
Our weekslong dry spell will end this week as a wet weather pattern will begin with spotty showers starting Tuesday afternoon. Spotty afternoon and evening showers mainly in the North Bay. But a few showers may work their way south and east of the Golden Gate before day's end. MORE: North Bay first responders, residents gear up for parade of storms It will be a light Level 1 on the exclusive ABC7 Storm Impact Scale on Wednesday morning with scattered showers.
California's Central Valley is a 400-mile long expanse, penned in by the Sierra Nevadas to the East and the Coast Ranges to the west. The flatland is composed of remarkably fertile soil, as both mountain ranges erode into and drain out through the valley via the San Francisco Bay. Before the bay was formed roughly 600,000 years ago, geological evidence suggests there was a Lake Michigan-sized inland body of water (referred to as Lake Corcoran in the literature) spanning most of the valley.
Streetsblog provides high-quality journalism and analysis for free - which is something to be celebrated in an era of paywalls. Once a year, we ask for your tax-deductible donations to support our reporters and editors as they advance the movement to end car dependency and strengthen our communities. If you already support our work, thank you! If not, can we ask for your help? Together, we can create a walkable, bikeable, equitable and enjoyable USA for all. Happy holidays from the Streetsblog team!
On Hawaii Island, Pennsylvania resident Andrew Tepper has emerged as one of the island's largest landowners, purchasing over 14,000 acres since 2021. He's also become a controversial figure, holding a Burning Man-inspired festival called "Falls on Fire" on his agricultural land in 2023 and 2024 without the proper permits. The event has raised concerns among neighbors, environmentalists and government agencies about its impacts to the community, such as increased traffic, environmental damage and fire hazards, especially with the Lahaina fire fresh in their minds.
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