Hundreds of thousands are expected to die, millions to go hungry. This is not just about weather patterns, but about injustice
Some warnings are so grave that it is almost impossible to fully comprehend them. The descriptions of a super-sized, “Godzilla-level” El Niño already heating our planet would sound hyperbolic were they not issuing from eminent scientists. They say that the weather pattern, which occurs roughly every two to seven years, may be the strongest in at least a millennium. With its peak yet to come, the temperature rise in the Pacific Ocean has already surpassed the previous high.
The consequence will be huge amounts of heat in an atmosphere already experiencing frighteningly higher temperatures due to the human-caused climate crisis. Next year is almost certain to be the hottest on record globally, breaking this year’s record. The World Food Programme has warned that 50 million people are likely to be pushed into acute hunger. Others estimate that the extra heat from El Niño alone will cause the deaths of 450,000 people by February, from Nigeria and Indonesia to the US. That extraordinary toll is in addition to those killed by the wildfires, droughts and floods it is likely to bring – and also to deaths caused by global heating.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
09/24/2026 - 12:37
09/24/2026 - 11:00
Democrats must show links of climate shocks to ‘kitchen table’ issues, California governor says
It’s a mistake for Democratic politicians not to talk about climate change, and the reason they don’t is “because they don’t know how to talk about it”, the California governor, Gavin Newsom, said on Wednesday in an interview with the Guardian and the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now.
Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting and New York Climate Week, Newsom also predicted that the midterm elections in November would bring “the end of Donald Trump’s presidency as we know it”. To prevent Trump from stealing those elections, voters must turn out in such overwhelming numbers that he “couldn’t possibly contest” the outcome. If the US president nevertheless declares a national emergency or otherwise attempts to invalidate the results, Newsom said, then “we the people have to step up. The courts have to intervene. Congress has to do its job and stand up for the rule of law.”
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09/24/2026 - 10:40
Former Yes musician plays at sanctuary to raise awareness of animals that remain stuck in cages at ‘bile farms’
Rick Wakeman has played to all kinds of people around the globe, but he has now performed to an audience he had never encountered before – an enclosure of 150 bears.
The former Yes musician, who has gone on to have a prolific solo career, played the piano at a Vietnamese bear sanctuary.
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09/24/2026 - 10:32
Former Yes musician Rick Wakeman plays a piano concert to bears at a sanctuary in Vietnam. His concert was performed live on a Yamaha grand piano positioned in Animals Asia in the Tam Dao national park. Wakeman is trying to raise awareness of 125 animals that remain stuck in cages at ‘bile farms’ in the country
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09/24/2026 - 07:30
Senators’ report says taxpayers face higher bills after ‘bargain’ between president and major polluters
The fossil fuel industry secured an estimated $190bn in tax breaks and subsidies over the next decade after responding to Donald Trump’s pre-election call for major campaign donations, leaving American taxpayers to shoulder higher bills and public health costs associated with pollution, according to a new report.
Released on Thursday by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, ranking member of the Senate environment and public works committee, and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, the report details what the senators describe as the fossil fuel industry’s expansive influence over the Trump administration.
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09/24/2026 - 05:26
Role for Anant Ambani, son of India’s richest person, who also runs a controversial mega-zoo, met with incredulity
Newcastle University is facing a backlash from conservationists over the appointment of the heir to an Indian oil and gas fortune who runs a controversial mega-zoo as a professor of sustainability.
The university announced that Anant Ambani had been given a professorship of practice for “his work in conservation, biodiversity protection, animal welfare and environmental stewardship” and “significant contributions to advancing a more sustainable future”.
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09/24/2026 - 03:00
Known as the ‘energy bars of the sea’ the fish are a key food source for many species, but closing fisheries to allow numbers to recover would cost millions
It began on 28 July, when fishers near Saldanha Bay on the west coast of South Africa reported seeing dead sardines (also known as pilchards) floating at sea. Then, in early August, more dead sardines began washing up on beaches near Cape Town.
In the weeks that followed, similar reports came in from places across a vast area spanning 2,600km (1,600 miles) of coastline, such as Henties Bay in Namibia and Mbotyi in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.
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09/24/2026 - 01:00
Exclusive: Levy that allows almost 16,000 houses to be built on Norfolk Broads will not cover cost of mitigating environmental damage, critics say
A new levy on developers to allow almost 16,000 homes to be built in the environmentally protected Norfolk Broads has been cut by tens of thousands of pounds per house, the Guardian can reveal.
Ministers say the government’s environmental delivery plans (EDPs) were created to unblock housing growth across the country and are a “win-win” for development and nature.
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09/23/2026 - 22:00
The Eyre peninsula site is ‘precious and important’ habitats for southern emu-wren and home to 80% of the mallee whipbird population
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Conservation groups have welcomed an 11th-hour decision to protect “precious and important habitat” on South Australia’s Eyre peninsula from plans for a rocket launching facility.
The Whalers Way “orbital launch complex”, which could see as many as 42 rockets a year take off from conservation land, had already been approved under federal and state planning and environment laws.
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09/23/2026 - 16:43
Former US vice-president still has optimism for climate advocacy two decades after groundbreaking documentary
Two decades after the release of his groundbreaking documentary An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore has admitted he was surprised by the ferocious, ongoing backlash from the fossil fuel industry and its political allies. But the former US vice-president insists he still has optimism the world will confront the climate crisis.
At a New York event to mark the 20th anniversary of the release of the film and his subsequent climate advocacy work, Gore, now 78, joked: “I always say if it hadn’t been for me, we might have a big problem right now” when asked about the progress made over the past two decades.
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