theSIGNAL ENVIRONMENT
12 November 2026
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it."
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Environment

"The Dinosaurs Did Not Have a Lobby"

At Cop31, UN chief António Guterres accused the fossil fuel industry of blocking change, even as leaders of the biggest polluters stayed away.

When António Guterres reached for a dinosaur metaphor on the third day of Cop31, he was making a point about power, not prehistory. "Fossil fuels must go the way of the dinosaurs," the UN Secretary-General told the leaders' summit. "And that won't happen on its own. The dinosaurs did not have a lobby.

Fossil fuels do." He called on governments to commit to a firm phase-out rather than merely hint at one, and urged the world to "kick the habit" of what he called a fossil-fuel addiction. Never shy of a pun, he added that it was "make or bake time". The speech carried extra weight because it is among his last major climate addresses before his term ends.

It also arrived in a room that was only partly full. According to reports from the summit, the leaders attending represent less than one-fifth of global CO2 emissions, which means the countries with the most influence over the outcome are largely absent from the stage. Those who did speak offered different diagnoses. Brazil's recently re-elected president, Lula, lamented that geopolitical attention has swung from climate towards defence, insisting that "Brazil is back" in the fight for a healthy planet.

Turkey's leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, blamed "greed" for an existential crisis.

Photo: Robert Lukeman / Unsplash
António Guterres addresses world leaders at the Cop31 summit, urging a faster end to fossil fuels.
Discuss
  • Guterres said fossil fuels will not disappear on their own. What forces, besides lobbying, keep an industry alive after its case weakens?
  • Leaders representing under one-fifth of emissions attended Cop31. Does a summit still matter when major polluters are absent?
  • Lula said global attention has shifted from climate to defence. Can countries realistically prioritise both, or must one lose out?
Environment

Britain's £12bn Wind Bet Meets Gasfield Backlash

A single £12bn cheque, from Germany's RWE and America's KKR, will fund two wind farms off Norfolk generating 2.8 gigawatts, enough for roughly three million homes. Power is promised by 2030, with 2,300 supply-chain jobs yearly but only 100 permanent ones. The timing is awkward. Prime Minister Andy Burnham heads to Cop31 in Turkey days after approving the Jackdaw gasfield.…
  • Can record wind investment really offset approving a new North Sea gasfield?
Environment

Bird Flu Pushes Elephant Seals Toward Extinction Risk

Seabirds called brown skuas reached South Georgia in 2023 carrying H5N1. By 2025, more than 53,000 female southern elephant seals had died there, on an island hosting over half of the species' breeding population. In April, the IUCN raised the species from "least concern" to "vulnerable", the first listing driven explicitly by bird flu.…
  • If H5N1 can devastate Antarctic seals, which other remote species might already be vanishing unnoticed?
"
The dinosaurs did not have a lobby, but fossil fuels do.
António Guterres, UN Secretary-General
GLOBAL · Environment
‘A new age of climate extremes’: Earth accumulating heat at accelerating rate
ASIA · Environment
‘I’m surrounded by millions of people but I could still die from the heat’ – This is climate breakdown
AMERICAS · Environment
Revealed: how a UK firm is spearheading growth in trade of US fracked ethane
OCEANIA · Environment
How do you broker UN climate talks when your own country is a big coal and gas exporter? Chris Bowen is about to find out
theSIGNAL IN THE LAB
1VOCABULARY
phase-outlobby
multilateralismdurablevulnerable
reclassificationundetected
2GRAMMAR FOCUS
Third conditional — hypothetical past
Use if + past perfect in the if-clause and would/wouldn't + have + past participle in the main clause to talk about imaginary past situations and their imagined results. Both clauses refer to the past, so the real outcome was different.
had · hadn't · would · wouldn't · have · been · attended
  1. If leaders from the biggest emitting countries attended the summit, the Secretary-General's speech might have carried even more weight.
  2. If the dinosaurs had had a lobby, they have disappeared so completely, as Guterres joked.
  3. Governments might have agreed a firm phase-out if fossil-fuel lobbies been so powerful.
  4. If brown skuas hadn't brought H5N1 to South Georgia in 2023, so many elephant seals have died.
  5. The IUCN wouldn't have raised the species to "vulnerable" if bird flu caused such devastating losses.
  6. If scientists had spotted the outbreak earlier, they would have able to warn conservationists before the death toll climbed.
3DEPENDENT PREPOSITIONS
Complete each phrase with the correct preposition. All from today’s articles.
  1. Guterres urged governments to commit ___ a firm phase-out of fossil fuels.
  2. Erdoğan blamed "greed" ___ an existential crisis.
  3. Lula lamented that attention has swung ___ climate towards defence.
  4. The IUCN raised the species ___ "least concern" to "vulnerable".
  5. Scientists suspect other species are suffering ___ detection.
4CRITICAL THINKING
Wind farms promise 2,300 supply-chain jobs a year but only 100 permanent ones, while the bird flu story shows how little we know about damage happening far from public view. When we judge whether an environmental project is a success, whose interests and which kinds of evidence should count most: short-term jobs, long-term employment, or ecological effects we may not yet be able to measure?
5CREATIVE · HEADLINES
Write a headline for the top story in each of the following styles. One line each, no explanation:
  • TABLOID NEWSPAPER
  • LUXURY MAGAZINE
  • ACTIVIST BLOG
6WRITING
Imagine you are a scientist working on South Georgia who has just seen the first signs of H5N1 among the elephant seals. Write a short, urgent email (about 120 words) to a government minister explaining what you have observed and what action you are requesting.
7DEGREES OF EXTREMITY
Complete each ladder from mild to strong.
  • The government is reluctant to commit to a phase-out.→→
  • The summit was a bit disappointing.→→
  • Several species are in a worrying situation.→→
  • The outbreak has had a noticeable effect on seal numbers.→→
  • Critics are unhappy with the gasfield decision.→→
  • Europe experienced some unpleasantly hot weather.→→
8SPEAKING
  1. Which is harder to quit: a personal habit or an economy's dependence on oil?
  2. Should leaders who skip climate summits face diplomatic or economic consequences?
  3. How much can ordinary people achieve by changing their own lifestyle choices?
  4. Would you rather your country led on climate action or protected jobs first?