theSIGNAL ENVIRONMENT
13 August 2026
"In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks."
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Environment

Humpback whales reclaim Rio's waters after near-extinction

Once hunted almost to oblivion off Brazil's coast, humpback whales are returning to bays they left centuries ago — and Rio de Janeiro is watching in astonishment.

At sunrise, the Boaventura II slips out of Rio de Janeiro harbour and heads past the Cagarras Islands — rocky outcrops barely three miles from Ipanema beach. Within minutes of the passengers gathering at the bow, someone shouts a direction, and a pod of bottlenose dolphins appears. Then two columns of vapour hang in the still air: humpback whales, surfacing to breathe before arching their flukes and sliding back beneath the South Atlantic. For skipper Theo Andrade, co-founder of the tour agency ROC Sail, the scene is one he has been building towards for years.

"You can't put a price on this show," he says. "It's pure magic." What makes these sightings remarkable is not simply their beauty but their location. Humpbacks have long migrated along the Brazilian coast between June and November, moving from feeding grounds around South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands toward the warmer, shallower waters of the Abrolhos Bank in the north-east, where they breed.

But this year, one whale has been spotted inside Guanabara Bay — the enclosed urban inlet at Rio's heart — at least 18 times, a first in recorded history. Scientists believe the animals may be reclaiming territory that was stripped from them by industrial and artisanal hunting documented as far back as 1780. Luciane dos Santos, a 53-year-old who runs a drinks wholesaler in Rio, took a day away from work on the chance of seeing one. She ended up watching six humpbacks.

"I'm amazed at how a 50-tonne animal can perform such a beautiful leap that leaves everyone spellbound," she said afterwards.

Photo: dhk / Unsplash
Passengers aboard the Boaventura II scan Rio's South Atlantic waters for surfacing humpback whales at dawn.
Discuss
  • Why might a humpback whale entering an urban bay like Guanabara be considered scientifically significant?
  • What does the return of humpback whales suggest about the long-term effectiveness of wildlife protection laws?
  • How could whale-watching tourism both help and potentially harm the whales it depends on?
Environment

Heat Pumps That Cool Homes, Too

When the outdoor temperature in Maidenhead, England, hit 35°C this summer, Andrew Ingram's living room held steady at 21°C — not through air conditioning, but through a heat pump running in reverse. Rather than burning fuel to generate warmth, heat pumps move thermal energy between spaces, and that same mechanism can extract heat from indoors and expel it outside. The Ingrams paid roughly £1,700 for the cooling component of an £18,600 system installed in 2023.…
  • Should governments make heat-pump grants available to renters, not just homeowners?
Environment

Ten urgent climate policies for Britain's government

After a summer of record heat, wildfires, hosepipe bans, and thousands of premature deaths, a group of experts has outlined ten emergency measures for the Burnham government to consider. Two proposals stand out for their scale. Rejecting new drilling licences for the Jackdaw and Rosebank North Sea fields would signal a genuine break from fossil fuels; the UK Energy Research Council has already stated that North Sea expansion offers no real protection against fuel price shocks. A sharply increased windfall tax on oil majors could also generate substantial revenue for adaptation.…
  • Should governments tax oil-company profits to fund climate adaptation measures?
"
I'm amazed at how a 50-tonne animal can perform such a beautiful leap that leaves everyone spellbound.
Luciane dos Santos, business owner and whale-watcher, Rio de Janeiro
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theSIGNAL IN THE LAB
1VOCABULARY
flukesartisanal
spellboundreboundwindfall tax
thermal energyearly adopters
2GRAMMAR FOCUS
Causative have/get — have something done
Use 'have/get + object + past participle' to describe an action arranged or commissioned by the subject but carried out by someone else. For example: 'She had the system installed last year.'
installed · checked · granted · generated · tested · surveyed · approved
  1. The Ingrams had their heat pump by a specialist contractor in 2023.
  2. Thousands of households hope to get their boiler upgrade applications before the scheme closes.
  3. ROC Sail had the waters around the Cagarras Islands for whale activity before launching their tours.
  4. The government could get substantial revenue by raising the windfall tax on oil companies.
  5. Scientists want to have the whale's behaviour inside Guanabara Bay over several more migration seasons.
  6. Andrew Ingram had the cooling component of his system as part of the full £18,600 installation.
3PHRASAL VERBS
Match the phrasal verb (1–6) to its closest definition (A–F). All six appear in today's articles.
  1. 1. slip out
  2. 2. head past
  3. 3. stand out
  4. 4. pull back
  5. 5. point to
4CRITICAL THINKING
The articles describe both a wildlife conservation success story and a continuing failure to address the root causes of climate change. To what extent do you think positive environmental news stories — like the return of humpback whales — risk making the public feel that the crisis is already being solved, reducing pressure on governments to act more boldly on issues like North Sea drilling or household emissions?
5CREATIVE · HEADLINES
Write a headline for the humpback whale story in each of the following styles. One line each, no explanation:
  • TABLOID NEWSPAPER
  • LUXURY MAGAZINE
  • ACTIVIST BLOG
6WRITING
Using evidence from all three articles, argue either for or against the following claim: 'Individual consumer choices — such as buying a heat pump or taking a whale-watching trip — are a distraction from the systemic policy changes that the climate crisis actually demands.'
7DEGREES OF EXTREMITY
Complete each ladder from mild to strong. Fill in the missing word or phrase from the articles or your own knowledge.
  • warm→→
  • concerned→→
  • decrease→→
  • unusual→→
  • profit→→
  • grant→→
8SPEAKING
  1. How does a heat pump's cooling mechanism actually differ from air conditioning?
  2. Which of the ten climate policies sounds most realistic to you personally?
  3. Could whale tourism ever replace fishing income for coastal communities?
  4. Are windfall taxes on oil firms ultimately passed back to consumers?