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British progressives have suffered major setbacks in recent years, in both public opinion and court rulings. Was a backlash inevitable, and are new tactics needed?

Inside a coffin-like glass box lies the figure of a man, his face streaked with scarlet paint. Above it a video plays on loop, showing the afternoon in June 2020 when an exuberant crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters yanked this statue of the 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston from its plinth near Bristol harbour and rolled it triumphantly into the water. Five years on from that cathartic execution, the graffiti-smeared statue occupies the far end of the exhibition on protest at the city’s M Shed museum, in a thicket of placards left behind by the departing crowd. Their slogans – “Silence is violence”; “Racism is a dangerous pandemic too” – evoke the radicalism of a summer that already feels oddly consigned to history, when frustration erupted on to the streets but never quite seemed to be channelled into lasting change.

The museum leads visitors to Colston via older stories of resistance figures, once considered shockingly radical but now celebrated without question: Theresa Garnett, the suffragette who brandished a horsewhip at Winston Churchill at Bristol Temple Meads station, or the heroes of the 1963 Bristol bus boycott, who walked to work in protest against the bus company’s refusal to hire black drivers (and helped pave the way for the 1965 Race Relations Act). But the legacy of protests at the modern end of the gallery, where the statue lies sandwiched between exhibits on Extinction Rebellion and Occupy, remains, for now, more contested.

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Albanese’s commitment to the climate crisis appears too often to be built on the idea that being better than the Coalition is enough – but that’s not how it works

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Fans of naked political cynicism have had plenty to cheer of late. Those hoping for something more from their elected leaders – a bit of principle and coherency, say – have had no shortage of reasons to lament what Michael Stipe once called the downhill slide into abysmal.

In Australia, there is cynicism right through the Albanese government’s proposed approval of a 45-year life extension for one of the world’s biggest gas developments.

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Exclusive: In the first legal challenge to the plan, top climate lawyers claim the government relies too heavily on forestry and failed to consult the public

Hundreds of top environment lawyers are suing the New Zealand government over what they say is its “dangerously inadequate” plan to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050.

It is the first time the country’s emissions reduction plan has faced litigation, and the lawyers believe it is the first case globally that challenges the use of forestry to offset emissions.

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An unusual lawsuit in Texas claims investment firms illegally conspired to fight climate change. On Monday, a judge heard arguments to dismiss the case.

Sea surface temperatures in 2024 broke records and about a quarter of the world’s oceans are experiencing temperatures that qualify as a marine heat wave.

Leeds councillor, who made headlines by intervening in 2024 riots, says climate crisis and cost of living affect all races and classes

A Green councillor who intervened to stop rioters and received death threats for vocal support for Gaza is running to replace Zack Polanski as deputy leader of the party.

Mothin Ali, of Gipton and Harehills ward in Leeds – a former Labour stronghold – said he wanted to champion working-class communities, challenge the idea of the Greens as a “middle-class party” and ensure it represents “a diverse Britain increasingly threatened by the far right”.

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In seas around the world pH levels are falling – and scientists are increasingly frustrated that the problem is not being taken seriously enough

Read more: ‘Ticking timebomb’: sea acidity has reached critical levels, threatening entire ecosystems – study

On a clear day at Plymouth marina you can see across the harbour out past Drake’s Island – named after the city’s most famous son, Francis Drake – to the Channel. It’s quite often possible to see an abundance of marine vessels, from navy ships and passenger ferries to small fishing boats and yachts. What you might not spot from this distance is a large yellow buoy bobbing up and down in the water about six miles off the coast.

This data buoy – L4 – is one of a number belonging to Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML), a research centre in Devon dedicated to marine science. On a pleasantly calm May morning, Prof James Fishwick, PML’s head of marine technology and autonomy, is on top of the buoy checking it for weather and other damage. “This particular buoy is one of the most sophisticated in the world,” he says as he climbs the ladder to the top. “It’s decked out with instruments and sensors able to measure everything from temperature, to salinity, dissolved oxygen, light and acidity levels.”

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Ocean acidification has already crossed a crucial threshold for planetary health, scientists say in unexpected finding

• More on this story: How the ‘evil twin’ of the climate crisis is threatening our oceans

The world’s oceans are in worse health than realised, scientists have said today, as they warn that a key measurement shows we are “running out of time” to protect marine ecosystems.

Ocean acidification, often called the “evil twin” of the climate crisis, is caused when carbon dioxide is rapidly absorbed by the ocean, where it reacts with water molecules leading to a fall in the pH level of the seawater. It damages coral reefs and other ocean habitats and, in extreme cases, can dissolve the shells of marine creatures.

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In Cedartown, Ga., a solar recycling company’s plan to hire 1,200 people could be upended by Republicans in Congress.

NGO says Afghan capital’s 7 million people face existential crisis that world needs urgently to address

Kabul could become the first modern city to completely run out of water, experts have warned.

Water levels within Kabul’s aquifers have dropped by up to 30 metres over the past decade owing to rapid urbanisation and climate breakdown, according to a report by the NGO Mercy Corps.

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Environmental lawyer Cormac Cullinan lauded for his work to establish continent’s legal status to protect its interests

Cormac Cullinan has a dream. A dream, he says, that will “change how humanity sees, understands and relates to Antarctica”. The vast frozen continent – home to emperor and Adélie penguins, leopard and Ross seals, and feeding grounds for orcas, beaked whales and albatrosses – should be recognised as an autonomous legal entity “at least equivalent to a country”, says the environmental lawyer.

And this week that dream became one step closer to reality as judges awarded Cullinan the Shackleton medal for the protection of the polar regions.

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Environmental groups had opposed expanding a Montana mine previously caught up in allegations of cocaine trafficking and the faked kidnapping of an executive.

Usually alive with colour and fish, Ningaloo reef and the Rowley Shoals now look as though they are ‘painted white’ as temperatures rise

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The Rowley Shoals are on many a diver’s bucket list. The three coral atolls, hundreds of kilometres off the Western Australian coastline, are teeming with pristine coral gardens that for a long time, unlike many of the world’s reefs, had escaped the ravages of global heating.

“I’ve seen a fair bit of death and destruction, but Rowley Shoals was always the place that was still standing,” says Dr James Gilmour, a research scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

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From acknowledging big emotions to finding ways to make climate action fun, it’s important to start where your kids are

• Change by Degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprint

• Got a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at changebydegrees@theguardian.com

Although it’s unfair, it’s young people (and the generations to come) who will have to deal with fallout from the climate crisis. So how do you talk to young people about living sustainably and raise knowledgeable kids who care about the future of the planet?

Here are some tips for engaging the next generation on the environment meaningfully.

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Exclusive: Friends of the Earth tells Keir Starmer any major green cuts by Rachel Reeves will be challenged

• UK politics live – latest updates

If the decisions the UK government makes in its upcoming spending review are not in line with the net zero climate target it risks being taken to court again, campaigners have said.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, will set out her spending review for the rest of this parliament on Wednesday. Amid continuing economic uncertainty and Labour’s promise to boost defence spending, many departments are facing deep cuts to dearly held commitments.

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Plans for Sizewell C and other coastal sites continue even as existing defences become more vulnerable to storm surges

There seems to be an inability among politicians to take in what scientists are telling us about the consequences of the climate crisis. Perhaps the most glaring example relates to the Guardian’s latest report on sea level rise, which said that whatever we do now, the rise will have devastating consequences for coastal communities, causing millions of people to migrate to higher ground. Greenland and the west Antarctic ice caps are doomed to melt.

Even in countries that do take cutting carbon emissions seriously, such as the UK, governments do not seem to have accepted that the prediction about sea level rise means policies must adapt to damage that has already been done. The coastline of the North Sea is a classic example. Stretches of England’s east coast both in and south of Yorkshire are eroding, and large areas are close to or at sea level already. A storm surge coinciding with a high tide, like the one that killed hundreds in 1953, may be a rarity, but each year a similar event becomes more likely to overwhelm the existing sea defences. And yet the government is still talking about building nuclear power stations with a 150-year lifespan on this coast, notably Sizewell C, and small modular reactors on other sites. Future generations may wonder why scientists’ warnings were so easily ignored.

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Tess McClure reports on a landslide in Switzerland that left one person missing and destroyed a village

The Swiss village of Blatten was wiped out in seconds. A glacier collapsed above the village on 28 May, triggering a landslide. The 300 residents had been evacuated a week earlier, but a 64-year-old man who is believed to have stayed is missing.

Tess McClure, the Guardian’s commissioning editor for the Age of Extinction, reported on the aftermath.

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A plume of dust is affecting air quality in Florida and may reach other Southern states soon. Here’s what we know about the potential health effects.

Poaching rates dropped by more than half in African reserves where veterinarians removed the animals’ horns, which are in high demand in some parts of Asia.

Region is experiencing an unusually warm spring, raising concerns of fierce wildfire season amid limited resources

Unusually warm springtime temperatures have contributed to rapid reductions in snowpacks across the western US that rival the fastest rates on record, increasing concerns around wildfire season.

The rapid snowmelt, in addition to reduced staffing and budget constraints initiated by the Trump administration, has set the stage for a particularly dangerous season across the west, according to an analysis of publicly available data by the Guardian and interviews with experts in the region.

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