Climate crisis | The Guardian

‘Bunch of baloney’: calls grow for Cop summit reforms as countries on track to fail nature targets

Patrick Greenfield — Sat, 31 Oct 2026 12:30:06 GMT

Cop17, focused on protecting nature and restoring ecosystems, concludes on Saturday with critics saying system allows ‘one idiot’ to stall progress

Calls are growing for major reforms to UN biodiversity summits as countries fail to deliver on their promises to halt the destruction of the natural world, with governments likely on track to continue their record of never having met a target in the 34-year history of the convention.

Two weeks of negotiations at biodiversity Cop17 in Yerevan, Armenia, concluded on Saturday morning with countries vowing to redouble their efforts to meet this decade’s targets, which include commitments to protect 30% of the planet for nature, restore nearly a third of Earth’s degraded ecosystems and reform $500bn (£410bn) of environmentally damaging subsidies.

Public sector an ‘afterthought’ to North Sea oil jobs, says Unison leader

Matthew Taylor — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 13:04:03 GMT

Andrea Egan calls for same political focus on teachers, care sector and NHS and says Jackdaw decision ‘a serious misstep’

The leader of the UK’s biggest trade union has called for the same political focus to be given to NHS, education and care sector workers as there has been on those employed in North Sea oil and gas.

Andrea Egan, the general secretary of Unison, said too often public sector workers were treated as an “afterthought” by the government compared with the “massive political focus” on protecting jobs in the North Sea.

Record-breaking high tides spark chaos – and kayak commutes – across California

Gabrielle Canon in San Francisco — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 22:22:39 GMT

Seawater surges into low-lying communities from San Diego to San Francisco Bay Area, submerging streets, homes and businesses

Historic high tides have caused chaos up and down the California coast this week, as parts of the state were inundated by record-breaking water levels. Seawater surged into low-lying communities from San Diego to the San Francisco Bay Area, submerging streets, flooding homes and businesses, and jamming important transportation corridors and train routes.

Kayakers and paddleboarders could be seen gliding through typically busy thoroughfares in Marin county, north of San Francisco, on Monday and Tuesday. Several drivers had to be rescued from floating cars in the area, while cyclists who had attempted to cross the temporary lagoon that had formed quickly found themselves waist-deep. Further south, in cities such as Newport Beach, water pounded the emergency infrastructure set up to keep out the swelling sea, which seeped through berms, seawalls and sandbag blockades along the shoreline.

Trump says government to ‘terminate’ Biden-era methane emissions rules

Sara Sneath — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 14:30:29 GMT

Critics warn of climate danger as president in Texas claims change will save companies and consumers billions

Donald Trump said his administration was “terminating” Biden-era regulations holding oil and gas companies accountable for large leaks of planet-warming methane during a rally in Lubbock, Texas, on Tuesday evening.

“Tonight, I’m officially terminating Biden’s expensive and unnecessary methane regulations to save consumers and energy producers,” Trump said, lifting what he called “crippling regulations on methane that caused prices to skyrocket” for small oil and gas operators. The change would save consumers and energy producers $45bn and unlock 210m barrels of oil, he said, which is equivalent to about 10 days of US petroleum consumption.

Slovenia mourns loss of glacier on its highest peak after scorching summer

Ajit Niranjan Europe environment correspondent — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 17:08:47 GMT

Extreme heat accelerated disappearance of Triglav glacier from mountain revered as a symbol of Slovenian identity

The final ice patch has vanished from Slovenia’s Triglav glacier, the latest Alpine casualty of Europe’s scorching summer.

The once mighty ice mass lost 93% of its surface area between 1983 and 2003, shrinking to cover less than a hectare of overheated rock, but went on to surprise researchers who feared its imminent demise, clinging on to the mountain for two more decades.

Will it be AI or the climate crisis that ends humanity? We can make it neither | Adam McKay and Philip Eubanks

Adam McKay and Philip Eubanks — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 12:00:04 GMT

Both of these threats have the same roots: private entities seeking to cash in. We have the power to stand against them

A summer of extreme heat, entire villages obliterated in Nepal, a super El Niño breaking records, Exxon publicly saying we may reach 3C by 2050 – could it possibly be any worse?

How about throwing AI extinction in the mix?

The climate crisis will destroy our economies – we learned this 20 years ago. When will we act? | Fiona Harvey

Fiona Harvey — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 08:00:01 GMT

The radical Stern report showed that a low-carbon future is also good economics. But it seems that capitalism needs a reminder

Saving the only planet we have makes good economic sense. There is, after all, no money to be made on a dead Earth. There may be costs involved now, but they are worth paying to protect our children from certain destruction.

These propositions seem self-evident now. But two decades ago, mainstream economists had very different ideas. They had proved that the climate crisis would be a mere economic blip, easily absorbed by growing economies and therefore not worth spending money on. In their accounting, they considered ice caps and glaciers functionally worthless, that trees only add to GDP when they are cut down, and that a livable climate shouldn’t even merit a line on a spreadsheet.

Fiona Harvey is an environment editor at the Guardian

Britain's Be Ready campaign aims to encourage (frighten?) citizens into preparing for disaster | First Dog on the Moon

First Dog on the Moon — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 05:22:12 GMT

You’ll need food, water, plastic bags, spare stiff upper lips and a shovel

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The BoM’s temperature record keeping is under attack – again. What’s going on? | Temperature Check

Graham Readfearn — Sat, 24 Oct 2026 19:00:41 GMT

An ‘audit’ of the Bureau of Meteorology main dataset for measuring climate change claims it contains ‘widespread errors’. It doesn’t stack up

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Australia’s climate has warmed by more than 1.5C since 1910, according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s main long-term temperature data.

If you were so motivated, you might think if you could discredit this data, then you would undermine the whole climate change story and even – perhaps – the rationale for cutting Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Buy a wind-up radio – and don’t forget the chocolate: survival experts on how to prepare for an emergency

Isabelle Aron — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 15:00:17 GMT

UK government guidance says we should be ready for the unexpected, but what’s actually helpful to have at home? We ask the specialists

• The best power banks – tested

How prepared are you for an emergency? Do you have a few extra tins of beans in the cupboard, or a full-on preppers’ kit in the cellar? While no one likes to think about worst-case scenarios, you can’t have failed to notice the growing noise around being sensibly, practically ready for floods, power cuts, cyber-attacks and other events.

The government launched its Be Ready campaign in October with guidance on how to prepare for emergencies, including a list of suggested items to have at home.

‘You can see the water going down’: residents on edge as one of England’s worst-hit reservoirs dries up

Pippa Neill Environment reporter — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 09:00:49 GMT

After UK’s hottest summer on record, Ardingly near Haywards Heath is just 19% full – and next-closest reservoir is unusable due to broken treatment works

“You can see the water level at Ardingly going down and down. I don’t remember ever seeing it this low,” says Caroline Allan, a lifetime resident of Haywards Heath, the nearest town to one of England’s most depleted reservoirs.

The Ardingly reservoir, managed by South East Water and serving about 95,000 properties in and around Haywards Heath and Uckfield in Sussex, is currently 19% full.

US forces accused of ‘weaponising’ Somalia’s floods by trapping women and children in the path of El Niño

Mark Townsend in Kismayo — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 11:00:40 GMT

Exclusive: Coordinated airstrikes on territory held by al-Shabaab are driving the civilian population to find refuge alongside a river where rising water levels are a threat to safety. Is it a deliberate military strategy?

The water was rising rapidly. It had already reached Cayni Ali’s waist. Her home, five metres from the flooded River Juba in southern Somalia, never stood a chance. There was nowhere to go. Ali’s city of Jilib was under attack. Repeated airstrikes, said the mother of six, were pinning its population beside the rising river.

“The drones come all the time,” said the 27-year-old. “We hear them constantly. They kill animals, civilians. The town is big but destruction is everywhere.”

‘False autumn’: stressed trees drop leaves early after scorching English summer

Matthew Pearce — Sat, 24 Oct 2026 08:00:27 GMT

Season will be less vibrant with trees such as birches, which usually offer a striking burst of yellow leaves, already bare

Among a canvas of copper, red and purple autumn leaves on display at Wisley garden in Surrey, south-east England, one tree stands conspicuously naked.

“The birch has lost all its leaves,” says Guy Barter, the chief horticulturist at the Royal Horticultural Society. “That’s the effect of drought, so it’ll have no autumn colour this year.”