Around the world, climate-sceptic parties are exploiting floods and fires to make political capital. Without urgent changes, this deadly spiral will continue
Recent unprecedented heatwaves in the UK may have killed thousands of people. Children are suffering in overheating schools. NHS trusts are straining under record-breaking demand. This all comes after climate extremes have even affected national security, with three of Britain’s five worst harvests coming since 2020, impairing food security.
This is what life looks like in the “adaptation gap”.
Laurie Laybourn is executive director of the Strategic Climate Risks Initiative
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/14/2026 - 11:51
07/14/2026 - 09:23
Campaigners criticise C of E for failing to show moral leadership as one of country’s biggest landowners
The Church of England has voted against plans to restore 30% of its land for nature, with campaigners criticising its failure to show moral leadership.
The C of E owns about 42,500 hectares (105,000 acres) of land, making it one of England’s biggest landowners. Currently just 3.5% of its land is used for nature restoration.
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07/14/2026 - 09:01
GenCost report contradicts parties’ claims about abandoning emissions target, and finds nuclear would be most expensive way to generate power
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Claims by the Coalition and One Nation that abandoning a net zero climate target would bring down power prices are contradicted in a new CSIRO report on the costs of generating electricity.
Generation costs will probably rise after 2030 regardless of Australia’s policy on net zero, according to the CSIRO’s annual GenCost report, but prices should then stabilise at levels below recent price spikes.
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07/14/2026 - 09:00
El Niño climate phenomenon heating waters off Mexico but incidents with humans remain a rarity
California is set to see one of its sharkiest summers in a decade, with large numbers of juvenile great whites already on a reverse vacation from the warm waters of Mexico to cooler pastures along the western United States.
The marine predator has become more common along the west coast in recent years, with stories of surfers seeing underwater behemoths closer to shore and scientists saying swimmers and ocean-lovers alike are probably already sharing their favorite beaches with great whites, whether they know it or not.
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07/14/2026 - 06:17
Covert footage obtained by the Guardian shows how crime networks are using front souvenir shops to hide a booming wildlife trade targeted at a new influx of Chinese tourists
The shop is dark and deserted. Though the door is open, there is clearly no expectation of any customers walking in off the street. Visits are likely by appointment and from a specific clientele. This shop is part of an organised crime network. What is being sold is highly illegal and incredibly unethical.
Anyone wandering in would see large bags of specialist tea, local coffee, trinkets and cigarettes on the shelves. But the photographs of wild animals adorning the walls offer a clue to what is truly for sale here.
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07/14/2026 - 06:00
Chinese tourism is booming in Laos and the illegal wildlife trade is booming with it. Pangolin scales, rhino horn and elephant ivory are all being sold at secret shops and restaurants as a new high-speed rail line brings millions of visitors to the country. Working with Chinese activists, the Guardian goes undercover to investigate the criminal networks profiting from this trade and to reveal how wildlife trafficking is pushing the critically endangered pangolin ever closer to extinction
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07/14/2026 - 02:27
Ofwat says repeated errors led to ‘real disruption and hardship for residents and businesses across many years’
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South East Water will pay £30.5m after a series of supply interruptions, customer failings and for breaching its licence, regulator Ofwat has said.
The watchdog said the redress package concludes three investigations into the supplier and includes a previously proposed £22m fine for water supply failures between 2020 and 2023 affecting more than 286,000 people.
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07/14/2026 - 01:00
As the rights of nature are increasingly being recognised, the Scottish Association for Marine Science is the latest organisation to make the ocean a trustee
In a boardroom in an office building in Oban, a picturesque town on the west coast of Scotland, trustees attending meetings have long been able to see the breaking waves of the Atlantic through the windows. But since last month, the ocean has also been present in the room, with an unusual new initiative ensuring that it now has a say on decisions shaping the future of the 140-year-old Scottish Association for Marine Science (Sams).
Sams was set up during the Scottish Enlightenment, a time of growing interest in oceanography when nature was seen as something to be dominated and exploited.
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07/14/2026 - 01:00
From scientific tricks to stop turtle traffickers to stranded seals and displaced workers, these images all scooped prizes at this year’s Earth Photo awards
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07/14/2026 - 00:00
Exclusive: Analysis of nearly 2,500 articles finds almost three-quarters made no reference to global heating
Most of the UK media stories about the record-breaking heatwave that struck in June failed to mention the climate crisis, analysis has found.
Nearly 2,500 articles about the extreme heat – when temperatures topped 37C, a record for the time of year – appeared in the UK’s nine main national daily media publications. But nearly three-quarters of them – about 72% – left out any mention of global heating or the climate, according to the analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU).
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