The Guardian Climate Change

An array of biologically engineered food and drink could help to solve ethical and environmental concerns

Dogs and cats in the UK are expected to become the first in Europe to be given cultivated meat, a product grown from chicken cells in the laboratory. The pet food promises to alleviate some of the ethical and environmental dilemmas faced by animal lovers. An array of lab-grown dishes, from “cell coffee” to lab-grown oyster meat, could be coming to human plates in the near future.

Donald Trump after the Pennsylvania rally shooting, the global IT outage, Rwanda’s general election and England’s Harry Kane at Euro 2024: the last seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Michel Forst, UN special rapporteur, joins growing chorus of voices criticising jail terms handed to five defendants

The lengthy multi-year sentences handed to Just Stop Oil activists are “not acceptable in a democracy”, a UN special rapporteur has said, as the government faced growing pressure to reverse the previous administration’s “hardline anti-protest” approach.

Michel Forst, the UN special rapporteur for environmental defenders, joined a growing chorus of voices condemning the sentences handed down to the five defendants for planning non-violent protests on the M25.

These protesters are shouting ‘fire’ while the world burns. A society that locks them up cannot be called democratic

There’s a crisis in our prisons. Keir Starmer says it is “shocking”. Our jails are so full, police chiefs are warning it may soon be impossible to maintain even the most basic law and order. So here’s a radical proposal. Let’s stop locking up our truth tellers. The people who are shouting “fire” because there’s a fire. When they see we’re not moving fast enough and that the flames are getting higher, they know their responsibility is to shout out the message louder. Because they care. You probably know who we mean.

These people might be annoying. They might give you an earache. We might wish they would tone it down. But in a democratic society, they do not belong in prison. We need to be listening to them, not locking them up.

Chris Packham is a naturalist, environmental and animal welfare campaigner, author and television presenter on BBC Two’s Springwatch

Dale Vince is a green energy industrialist and campaigner and a Labour party donor

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Thousands have joined American Climate Corps, a new federal program that links young people with jobs in green energy and conservation

Did you ever imagine spending a year restoring paths along the Appalachian Trail? Developing community gardens on a Caribbean island? Or helping neighbors electrify their homes?

This summer, thousands of people in the US joined the American Climate Corps (ACC), a new federal program that connects young people with jobs in conservation, climate adaptation and green energy.

‘Nominating Biden is a recipe for electing Trump,’ says founder of Climate Defiance, while other groups stay quiet

Some climate campaigners are heaping further pressure on Joe Biden to drop out of the US presidential election, with activists staging a protest outside the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters on Friday to demand the US president stand aside.

Several dozen protesters are planning to blockade the DNC in Washington on Friday morning to call for a freeze on Biden’s nomination, in favor of another candidate who could prevent Donald Trump becoming president and tearing up Biden’s climate policies.

As heatwaves hit the US, farm workers struggle to wear PPE. The country now faces its biggest human outbreak

Extreme heat may be a crucial factor behind the biggest bird flu outbreak in humans in the US as officials continue to track the virus’ spread.

A heatwave in Colorado likely caused personal protective equipment not to work correctly for workers culling poultry infected with H5N1, a highly pathogenic bird flu. Four people have tested positive for H5N1 and a fifth is also expected to have their case confirmed as bird flu, officials said this week.

Does that cloud have a silver lining or is it something else?

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Shorten says last CFMEU Labor donation was over two years ago

Earlier on the Today Show, the NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, was asked about the CFMEU and said that the last donation received by the Labor party from them was more than two years ago.

We’ve said that we’re suspending all donations from the CFMEU. In fact, we’ve suspended the CFMEU from the Labor party … The last donations were over two years ago. We’ve taken the action to stop any financial relations with the CFMEU.

I want to make clear there is zero tolerance for anyone who tried to subvert the demerit and penalty system. This taskforce will help ensure the penalties apply to all road users.

Friends of the Earth says older people and young children are most at risk in heat-vulnerable neighbourhoods

Inadequate climate protections mean at least 6 million lives are at risk from extreme heat in England, an analysis has found.

A report by the campaign group Friends of the Earth found older people and young children were the most high-risk groups for heatwaves, with 1.7 million under-5s and 4.3 million people over 65 living in the most heat-vulnerable neighbourhoods in England.

Marathon Petroleum predecessor warned of potential for ‘social and economic calamities’ in decades-old publication

The corporate predecessor to America’s largest refiner of oil, Marathon Petroleum, explained in a company periodical nearly 50 years ago that global temperature rise potentially linked to “industrial expansion” could one day cause “widespread starvation and other social and economic calamities”.

This decades-old description of climate breakdown is from a 1977 issue of the magazine Marathon World and is attributed in the article by an unnamed author to several experts including a scientist working for a top US agency.

It’s July! It should be all about picnics and ice-creams, not plastic rain ponchos. I have officially lost my joie de vivre

That’s it, I’m calling it: this is the worst summer ever. Despite the fact we are currently seeing a fleeting glimpse of sun, the weather has been notably dismal. The Met Office says it could be the coldest summer of the past 24 years. Last week, it started raining inside our bedroom as well as outside, and, after days and days of cold and wet weather, that felt like the final straw. This is my Sad girl summer. Having never before suffered from seasonal affective disorder, I have officially lost my joie de vivre. And I know I’m not alone. Moaning about the weather may be an Olympic sport for the British, but this feels different. During social interactions people seem too listless and despondent to even have a proper whinge. They just shake their heads, sadly, while staring at their shoes. This can’t go on. Can it?

Well, apparently it can, with some predictions saying we will be enduring this autumnal chill until, well, actual autumn. The thought of entering winter without having fully charged up on sunshine fills me with a looming sense of horror. Having grown up in the mountains of north Wales, I have an abnormally high tolerance for rain. I’m basically a bog witch comprised of 60% water and 40% lichen. I can spend days indoors and not get cabin fever. Saying that, wet Welsh weather is partly why I moved south. My dad, who is visiting at the moment, treats London as if it’s the Costa del Sol. Look at everyone eating outdoors, like Spaniards! But though the sun may be shining as I write this, we know the drill by now: it peeks out for just long enough to remind us that it exists, before retreating behind another heavy, grey cloud fecund with rain. Emergency-poncho-clad tourists haunt the streets like plasticky ghosts.

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist and author

Scientists say government’s approach to emissions cutting is ‘high risk’ and reliant on ‘immature technologies’

New Zealand’s ambitious plan to reach net zero emissions by 2050 is at risk of being derailed, as the government backslides on climate policies, new figures show.

In 2019, the Labour government passed landmark climate legislation, committing the nation to reducing its carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 and meeting its commitments under the Paris climate accords. It requires future governments to detail how New Zealand will meet its greenhouse gas targets on the way to a carbon-neutral future.

Fourteen attorneys general petition federal emergency officials as millions in US under excessive heat advisories

Fourteen state attorneys general are urging the federal government to declare extreme heat and wildfire smoke major disasters. The petition comes as millions of people in the south and north-east face excessive heat advisories, and large swaths of the western US and Canada battle ongoing wildfires.

“The likelihood of high-severity extreme heat and wildfire smoke events is increasing due in part to climate change,” wrote the Arizona attorney general, Kris Mayes, in a letter submitted to the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Tuesday. “We urge Fema to update its regulations to prepare for this hotter, smokier future.”

Labour government recognises ‘urgency of climate challenge’ but presents measures as way to also cut cost of living

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Planning changes, investment in infrastructure, a new national green energy company, a crackdown on water companies and more public transport – although Keir Starmer did not dwell on the green aspects of his legislative programme the environment was front and centre in nine bills that will have far-reaching effects.

In the words read by the king (though written by ministers), the new Labour government “recognises the urgency of the global climate challenge and the new job opportunities that can come from leading the development of the technologies of the future”. But importantly, these measures were presented as ways to reduce the cost of living, a key focus of Labour’s environmental commitments in the run-up to the general election.

Regulators approve Meatly pet product, cultivated chicken made from growing cells

Lab-grown pet food is to hit UK shelves as Britain becomes the first country in Europe to approve cultivated meat.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have approved the product from the company Meatly.

Footage shows severe flooding across Toronto after the Canadian city was hit by three big storms in recent days. The Canadian rapper Drake shared a video on Instagram appearing to show parts of his home submerged in flood water. Authorities say the storm left 167,000 people without power and several flights were delayed or cancelled. At least 14 people were rescued

Review says capital needs new reservoir, better flood defences and ‘heat plan’ for vulnerable people

Londoners who concrete over their gardens should be charged for doing so and given incentives to remove paving, a report to the mayor has recommended.

The city also needs a new reservoir, improved flood defences, and a “heat plan” to protect vulnerable residents from the increased risk of heatwaves, the report on the impact of the climate crisis has found.

Fair Work Commission’s Murray Furlong appointed as administrator of construction union. Follow the day’s news live

Tim Ayres flags ‘proportionate’ federal response to CFMEU

A Labor senator says that federal intervention into alleged criminal behaviour within the CFMEU will be effective and proportionate, AAP reports.

Tony and the team in there are doing the careful work of making sure that the government’s response is effective, well-weighted and effective.

While I don’t forecast the debates in terms of the national executive, we have received these requests from the premiers, we will act upon them, and we’ll act in accordance with the requests from the premiers.

We’re very blessed in this country. We don’t have a gun culture, we don’t have a history of political violence, we don’t at this point in time – thank God – have the fragmentation and polarisation that sadly exists in America to quite the same extent.

So look, can you rule these things out? Of course not. Do I expect it? Well, maybe some time in the next 100 or 200 years, sure. Almost anything could happen in that period of time. But is is imminent? I doubt it very much.

Authorities asked residents of small, rural community to leave, nearly a year after deadliest US wildfire struck in Maui

Firefighters have contained a wind-swept wildfire that was threatening about 200 homes on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, nearly a year after an explosive blaze killed more than a hundred people on nearby Maui.

Residents of about 200 homes in a small, rural community on Kauai were told to evacuate on Monday, as firefighters worked to stop the spread of a fire between Hanapepe and Kaumakani.