Cover of “The Climate Files” by Fred Pearce, first published on 27 July 2010 by Random House UK. Graphic: Random House UK

“Climategate” 10 years on: what lessons have we learned? “British climate science was subjected to huge scrutiny by the world’s best journalists and it stood up to the test”

By Robin McKie 9 November 2019 (The Guardian) – The email that appeared on Phil Jones’s computer screen in November 2009 was succinct. “Just a quick note to encourage you to shoot yourself in the head,” it said. “Don’t waste any more time. Do it today. It is truly the greatest contribution to mankind that […]

Former HSBC employees protest about unfair cuts, or “clawbacks”, to their pensions outside of the HSBC annual general meeting at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham, England, 13 April 2019. Photo: The Telegraph

“Their house is on fire”: the pension crisis sweeping the world – “We just have to explain to millennials that their parents might have to move back in with them”

By Josephine Cumbo and Robin Wigglesworth 16 November 2019 LONDON/OSLO (Financial Times) – Jan-Pieter Jansen, a 77-year-old retiree from the Netherlands, had high hopes for a worry-free retirement after having saved diligently into a pension during his working life. But Mr Jansen, a former manager in the metal industry, has been forced to reappraise his […]

Montage of photos showing Extinction Rebellion protesters in the UK demonstrations in October 2019. Photo: The Guardian

UK police seek tougher powers against Extinction Rebellion – Clampdown on climate protests sets “disturbing precedent”, says UN rights expert

By Vikram Dodd, Matthew Taylor, Damien Gayle, and Jessica Murray 19 October 2019 (The Guardian) – Government and police have held talks to strengthen public order laws to allow a tougher crackdown on future Extinction Rebellion (XR) climate demonstrations in what civil rights lawyers warn would be a “a shocking assault on the right to protest.” The […]

Scientists aligned with Extinction Rebellion gather in London, Britain to declare their support of mass civil disobedience to force governments to act on climate change, in this image obtained via social media 12 October 2019. Photo: Scientists for Extinction Rebellion / REUTERS

Scientists endorse mass civil disobedience to force climate action – “The urgency of the crisis is now so great that many scientists feel that we now have a moral duty to take radical action”

By Matthew Green 12 October 2019 LONDON (Reuters) – Almost 400 scientists have endorsed a civil disobedience campaign aimed at forcing governments to take rapid action to tackle climate change, warning that failure could inflict “incalculable human suffering.” In a joint declaration, climate scientists, physicists, biologists, engineers and others from at least 20 countries broke […]

Diagram showing an open-loop Marine Exhaust Gas Cleaning System that removes sulfur and nitrogen compounds from a ship’s engine exhaust and dumps them into the surrounding water. Graphic: Tritech Engineers

Thousands of ships fitted with “cheat devices” to divert poisonous pollution into sea – “In the North Sea and some parts of the Channel, the water quality has already been heavily degraded”

By Wil Crisp 30 September 2019 (The Independent) – Global shipping companies have spent billions rigging vessels with “cheat devices” that circumvent new environmental legislation by dumping pollution into the sea instead of the air, The Independent can reveal. More than $12bn (£9.7bn) has been spent on the devices, known as open-loop scrubbers, which extract […]

People wait outside of their stranded vehicles along Interstate 10 westbound at T.C. Jester, Thursday, 19 September 2019. The freeway is closed because of high water eastbound on the freeway from Tropical Storm Imelda. Photo: Mark Mulligan / Houston Chronicle / AP

Munich Re: Climate change and its consequences – 18 of the 20 warmest years are in the period 2001-2018

By Dr. Eberhard Faust and Ernst Rauch 8 August 2019 (Munich Re) – When temperature records are broken or major weather disasters strike, people ask whether climate change has anything to do with it. One thing is clear: individual events themselves cannot be attributed directly to climate change. One needs to look at overall trends. […]

Anti-Muslim incidents reported to Tell MAMA between 30 July 2018 and 25 August 2018. Graphic: Tell MAMA UK

Boris Johnson’s burqa comments caused surge in anti-Muslim attacks in 2018 – Abuse incidents jumped by 375 percent in the week following PM’s article

By Nazia Parveen 1 September 2019 (The Guardian) – Boris Johnson’s comments on women wearing the veil led to a surge in anti-Muslim attacks and incidents of abuse, the monitoring group Tell MAMA has said. [pdf] In its annual report, the group said two significant spikes occurred in 2018. The first, in spring, reflected the “Punish a Muslim […]

A male cycad. On 22 August 2019, Chris Kidd, the curator of Ventnor Botanic Gardens, said, “For the first time in 60 million years in the UK we’ve got a male cone and a female cone at the same time. It is a strong indicator of climate change being shown, not from empirical evidence from the scientists but by plants.” Photo: Ventnor Botanic Garden

Ancient plants set to reproduce in UK after 60 million years – “It is a strong indicator of climate change being shown, not from empirical evidence from the scientists but by plants”

By Patrick Barkham 22 August 2019 (The Guardian) – An exotic plant has produced male and female cones outdoors in Britain for what is believed to be the first time in 60 million years. Botanists say the event is a sign of global heating. Two cycads (Cycas revoluta), a type of primitive tree that dominated […]

UK maximum temperature for 28 June 2018, actual value. Graphic: Met Office

Top ten UK’s hottest years all since 2002 – None of the ten coldest years occurred after 1963

31 July 2019 (Met Office) – An updated analysis of the annual UK temperature records from the Met Office shows that since 1884 all of the UK’s ten warmest years have occurred since 2002; whereas none of the ten coldest years have occurred since 1963. These figures are further indications of a changing climate, says […]

A member of the Queen's Lifeguard marches at Horseguards as temperatures rise far above 30 Celsius in London, on 25 July 2019. Photo: Frank Augstein / AP Photo

It’s official: UK broke all-time temperature record during 2019 heat wave

LONDON, 29 July 2019 (AP) – Britain has officially had its hottest day on record. Weather agency the Met Office says the temperature reached 38.7°C (101.7°F) at Cambridge University Botanic Garden in eastern England during last week’s heat wave. The temperature was recorded Thursday and confirmed Monday after “quality control and analysis” by the Met […]

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