The Guardian

In an exclusive extract from Friederike Otto’s new book, she says climate disasters result from inequality as well as fossil fuel

My research as a climate scientist is in attribution science. Together with my team, I analyse extreme weather events and answer the questions of whether, and to what extent, human-induced climate change has altered their frequency, intensity and duration.

When I first began my research, most scientists claimed that these questions couldn’t be answered. There were technical reasons for this: for a long time, researchers had no weather models capable of mapping all climate-related processes in sufficient detail. But there were other reasons that had less to do with the research itself.

Thousands go to hospital with respiratory problems after massive dust cloud blows in from Saudi Arabia

Iraq was hit by its most severe sandstorm of 2025 this week, turning skies from blue to an orange haze. Visibility dropped to less than half a mile, causing travel disruptions, with two major airports halting flights, and streets in Basra, the largest city in southern Iraq, deserted. Respiratory problems sent thousands to hospital. The storm also affected Kuwait, where wind gusts exceeded 50mph, and visibility in some areas was diminished to zero.

This massive dust cloud originated in Saudi Arabia before being blown into Iraq. While dust storms are common in Iraq, the climate crisis is expected to intensify them across the region in the future, fuelled by desertification in Saudi Arabia and Syria.

Online exhibition collects soundscapes from nature reserves and sites such as Machu Picchu and Taj Mahal

The sounds of wind turbines, rare whales and the Amazonian dawn chorus are among the noises being preserved as part of an exhibition of soundscapes found in world heritage sites.

The Sonic Heritage project is a collection of 270 sounds from 68 countries, including from famous Unesco-designated sites such as Machu Picchu and the Taj Mahal, as well as natural landscapes such as the monarch butterfly sanctuary in El Rosario, Mexico and the Colombian Amazon.

Scientists sound the alarm over substances such as arsenic and lead contaminating soils and entering food systems

About one sixth of global cropland is contaminated by toxic heavy metals, researchers have estimated, with as many as 1.4 billion people living in high-risk areas worldwide.

Approximately 14 to 17% of cropland globally – roughly 242m hectares – is contaminated by at least one toxic metal such as arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, nickel or lead, at levels that exceed agricultural and human health safety thresholds.

Exclusive: Henry Dimbleby joins farmers in voicing fears of lower standards and a poor deal for British food producers

Britain’s rural communities could be “destroyed”, the former government food tsar has said, if ministers sign a US trade deal that undercuts British farming standards.

Ministers are working on a new trade deal with the US, after previous post-Brexit attempts stalled. Unpopular agreements signed at the time with Australia and New Zealand featured tariff-free access to beef and lamb and were accused of undercutting UK farmers, who are governed by higher welfare standards than their counterparts. Australia, in a trade deal signed by Liz Truss in late 2021 that came into effect in 2023, was given bespoke sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards aimed to not be more “trade-restrictive than necessary to protect human life and health”.

As the first climate summit in the Amazon approaches, a gulf is opening between what the area’s farming lobby wants, and what the world needs

• Revealed: world’s largest meat company may break Amazon deforestation pledges again
• The life and death of a ‘laundered’ cow in the Amazon rainforest

Yellowstone in Montana may have the most romanticised cowboy culture in the world thanks to the TV drama series of the same name starring Kevin Costner. But the true home of the 21st-century cowboy is about 7,500 miles south, in what used to be the Amazon rainforest of Brazil, where the reality of raising cattle and producing beef is better characterised by depression, market pressure and vexed efforts to prevent the destruction of the land and its people.

The toll was apparent along the rutted PA 279 road in Pará state. Signs of human and environmental stress were not hard to find during the last dry season. Record drought had dried up irrigation ponds and burned pasture grass down to the roots, leaving emaciated cattle behind the fences. Exposed red soil was whipped up into dust devils as SUVs and cattle trucks sped past on their way between Xinguara and São Félix do Xingu, which is home to both the biggest herd on the planet and the fastest erasure of forest in the Amazon.

Brazilian ranchers in Pará and Rondônia say JBS can not achieve stated goal of deforestation-free cattle

• Bibles, bullets and beef: Amazon cowboy culture at odds with Brazil’s climate goals
• The life and death of a ‘laundered’ cow in the Amazon rainforest

The world’s largest meat company, JBS, looks set to break its Amazon rainforest protection promises again, according to frontline workers.

Beef production is the primary driver of deforestation, as trees are cleared to raise cattle, and scientists warn this is pushing the Amazon close to a tipping point that would accelerate its shift from a carbon sink into a carbon emitter. JBS, the Brazil-headquartered multinational that dominates the Brazilian cattle market, promised to address this with a commitment to clean up its beef supply chain in the region by the end of 2025.

Salmon is often marketed as the sustainable, healthy and eco-friendly protein choice. But what you may not realise is that most of the salmon you buy is farmed, especially if you live in the UK, because Scottish salmon producers are no longer required to tell you.

Josh Toussaint-Strauss finds out why it is important for consumers to know where their salmon comes from, and examines the gap between the marketing of farmed salmon and the reality for our health, the environmental and animal welfare

• Scottish government must do more to control salmon farming, inquiry finds

• Scottish salmon producers allowed to remove ‘farmed’ from front of packaging

• Norway rules out fish farm ban despite ‘existential threat’ to wild salmon

No breach, self-regulatory Australian Press Council rules; plus BBC embarks on big bureau expansion

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When is an undisclosed advertorial, paid for by the fossil fuel industry and splashed across the front pages of all the Murdoch tabloids, not a breach of press standards?

When the Australian Press Council rules there is nothing to see and finds no breach.

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When asked if he accepts we are already seeing the impacts of climate change, the opposition leader responded 'there's an impact', but said the real question is what Australia can do about it. Pressed further, Dutton said 'I don't know' and 'I'm not a scientist' when asked if he was willing to say 'this is climate change happening right now'.

• Dutton looks shaky as he fights Albanese to a draw at best – and he’s fast running out of chances to get ahead

The colossal squid, the heaviest invertebrate in the world, has been filmed alive in the wild for the first time since it was identified a century ago. The individual – captured on film near the South Sandwich Islands in the south Atlantic Ocean – is a baby, at just 11.8in (30cm) in length

• Live colossal squid captured on video in wild for first time ever

A young Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, the heaviest invertebrate on earth, was filmed in the Atlantic Ocean

The colossal squid, the heaviest invertebrate in the world, has been filmed alive in the wild for the first time since it was identified a century ago.

Growing up to 23ft (seven metres) long and weighing up to half a tonne, the squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, is the heaviest invertebrate on the planet. The individual captured on film near the South Sandwich Islands, in the south Atlantic Ocean, is a baby, at just 11.8in (30cm) in length.

Enfield council disputes restaurant chain’s claim 500-year-old tree in Whitewebbs Park was ‘mostly dead’

Toby Carvery has been threatened with legal action by a council over the felling of an ancient oak in a park in north London.

The restaurant chain is facing national outrage after its decision to fell the up to 500-year-old tree without warning on 3 April.

Japanese-led team grow 11g chunk of chicken – and say product could be on market in five- to 10 years

Researchers are claiming a breakthrough in lab-grown meat after producing nugget-sized chunks of chicken in a device that mimics the blood vessels that make up the circulatory system.

The approach uses fine hollow fibres to deliver oxygen and nutrients to chicken muscle cells suspended in a gel, an advance that allowed scientists to grow lumps of meat up to 2cm long and 1cm thick.

Researchers say urgent action needed to inform people about risks of heatwave temperatures and adapt homes

The number of UK homes overheating in summer quadrupled to 80% over the past decade, according to a study, with experts calling the situation a crisis.

Heat already kills thousands of people each year in the UK and the toll will rise as the climate crisis intensifies. Urgent action is needed both to inform people on how to cope with high temperatures and to adapt homes, which are largely designed to keep heat in during the winter, the researchers said.

Exclusive: Ancient oaks ‘as precious as stately homes’ could receive stronger legal safeguards under new proposals

Ancient and culturally important trees in England could be given legal protections under plans set out in a UK government-commissioned report.

Sentencing guidelines would be changed so those who destroy important trees would face tougher criminal penalties. Additionally, a database of such trees would be drawn up and they could be given automatic protections, with the current system of tree preservation orders strengthened to accommodate this.

In 2020, the 300-year-old Hunningham Oak near Leamington was felled to make way for infrastructure projects.

In 2021, the Happy Man tree in Hackney, which the previous year had won the Woodland Trust’s tree of the year contest, was felled to make way for housing development.

In 2022, a 600-year-old oak was felled in Bretton, Peterborough, which reportedly caused structural damage to nearby property.

In 2023, 16 ancient lime trees on The Walks in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, were felled to make way for a dual carriageway.

Consecutive and severe bleaching is ‘fundamentally changing’ nature of reef, the International Coral Reef Society says

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The Great Barrier Reef was hit by a sixth widespread coral bleaching event since 2016 this summer – the second time the world’s biggest coral reef has seen the phenomenon strike in back-to-back years – according to government authorities.

Scientists and conservationists reacted with dismay that widespread bleaching – driven by global heating – was becoming normalised, with one saying Australia’s next term of government may be the natural wonder’s last shot at survival.

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Juliette Pavy’s photographs of eco expeditions bring an element of lyrical storytelling to the global impact of invisible pollutants, from the Mediterranean to the Arctic

Scientists call for urban areas to be tested for contaminants and potentially cleaned before wildflowers are planted

Wildflowers could be absorbing toxic metals from soil in urban areas and passing toxins on to pollinators, a study has found.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge found that common plants including white clover and bindweed, which are vital forage for pollinators in cities, can accumulate arsenic, cadmium, chromium and lead from contaminated soils.

The sector, which had been set a target to reduce spillages by 40%, needs ‘radical reform’, campaigners say

Water companies have missed their targets to reduce pollution with 2,487 incidents recorded in 2024 – twice the limit set by the Environment Agency.

Data revealed under freedom of information law shows the companies were collectively set an Environment Agency target of a 40% reduction in pollution incidents, but instead recorded a 30% increase.