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The Most Shocking Climate News of 2026

Do CounterPunch, 4 de agosto 2026
Por Robert Hunziker


Image by Casey Horner.

The UK Green Party’s former leader Caroline Lucas recently nailed the Labor Party for “burying the most explosive report” of the year by UK military and intelligence sources. The concealed report warns “that the global collapse of ecosystems poses grave threats to the UK’s security and food supply within as little as five years.” (Source: As Europe Burns, a Climate Cover-Up Continues, The Nation, July 30, 2026)

“The UK ‘has no future’ if it cannot ‘restore the natural world on which we rely for our food, water, and clean air,’ said Chris Hinchliff, who is among the members of Parliament pressing the government to release the full report, rather than a shorter, redacted version. Even that version, which was obtained by The Guardian’s Fiona Harvey, ‘paints a devastating picture of severe food shortages, price rises, migration, political destabilization, and possible war, resulting from the collapse of ecosystems, fueled by the human-induced climate crisis and over-exploitation,” Ibid.

Global collapse of ecosystems, if realized, if in fact it truly happens within five years, is certain to create havoc throughout the world, but no governments, other than this leak of a high-ranking report, has suggested to the public the risks of collapse of ecosystems leading to food shortages with panic and fighting. Why not?

After all, it was only a few months ago that an esteemed panel of UK scientists held a public forum, i.e., UK National Emergency Briefing d/d November 27, 2025, that essentially spelled out the same problem with powerful evidence of near-term collapse of some ecosystems. Why don’t the nations of the world confront the causes and inform the public as soon as possible? In five years, it’ll be too late to inform anybody. The only way to get the public onside to help fight this scourge is to explain the issue to the public and requests they embrace efforts to mitigate.

Spain’s PM recently declared a “climate emergency,” with scorching fires consuming much of the countryside for the second year in a row. PM Pedro Sanchez called on political parties “across the ideological spectrum ‘to reach an agreement, a State pact, (and) to address the climate emergency,” Ibid.

Throughout the EU extreme heat is sucking soils dry and destroying agricultural crops. In America, nearly 50% of the Lower States are in some level of drought. The Rocky Mountain “water towers for the Southwest” experienced dreadfully scattered snowfall and the entire Colorado River Complex that feeds water to 40 million people is broken, Lakes Mead and Powell, the two largest reservoirs in the United States, are at dangerously low levels. The emergency recognized by PM Sanchez is “everywhere as an emergency.” Spain is not alone.

But governments throughout the world are too timid to be effective and thus seduce their constituencies by greenwashing or ignoring reality often in concert with media. They can’t face the truth because they don’t have any good answers or they’re paid off to ignore the truth, to hide it from the public. Sadly, politics are for sale to the highest bidders that could care less about public welfare. If they truly cared, problems like this would already be addressed.

Which is good reason for people to rise up against incompetent leaders. The world is infested with them. For example, “Aides to former Labour prime minister Keir Starmer twice quashed plans to release the UK report… allegedly for fear that the climate-denying Reform UK Party would attack Labour for putting climate concerns ahead of the cost of living,” Ibid. How bloody stupid is that?

“Climate denial persists in the UK media as well: Even as wildfires scorched Europe, the front page of the Rupert Murdoch–owned The Times of London featured a rant against the net-zero emissions goal that scientists say is essential to preserving a livable planet,” Ibid. Oh please, this is beyond stupidity. It’s something worse than stupidity.

This kind of behavi0r by weak-kneed leaders is sickening. It’s insulting to the public. It’s a crime against humanity to fail to tell the truth accompanied by outrageously blatant failure to search for answers, mitigation measures, exploring whatever can be done to protect citizens but alas, at the end of the day, failing to protect them.

This failure of leadership in the world started in earnest for all to see when 195 nations agreed at Paris 2015 that CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels, oil, gas, and coal cause global warming, and they all agreed to cut these harmful emissions. Today, less than a handful of those original 195 nations will even come close to meeting their obligations. They have failed. The public deserves to know the truth about their failure, and why it unintentionally but ridiculously promotes excessive global heat throughout the planet today.

It’s even worse than that, according to The Nation, most news outlets across Europe are not reporting the “influence of climate change driving the massive fires.” But they are providing images of people having fun on the beach with massive fires raging in the distant background. Oh please!

The Most Shocking Aspect: The Public Knows

“Covering Climate Now’s 89 Percent Project spotlights the reality that 80 to 89 percent of the world’s people want their governments to take stronger climate action. In this summer of smoke and fire, the public is waiting for their politicians and their press to respond. ‘Voters are much more tuned into this than most of our [elected] representatives are,’ author George Monbiot said on the UK’s Channel 4. ‘And indeed than most of the media is,” Ibid.

That’s 80-89% of the world’s people want their governments to take stronger climate action. But ever since WWII, the United States has been the world leader in many respects, especially militarily. It is the only country with military in 80 countries with 750 individual bases. No nation is in such a favorable position to assist the world in fighting battles. Yet, the U.S. is promoting fossil fuels that assist excessive heat whilst ignoring fierce battles against climate-induced wildfires throughout the world. Hmm.


Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

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