What happened
Climate researchers have cautioned that the planet is closer than previously thought to a “point of no return” at which global heating accelerates beyond human control. They warn that rising temperatures risk activating interconnected climate “tipping points”, setting off self-reinforcing processes that would drive the Earth into a far hotter and more hostile state.

Who said what
Researchers involved in the latest assessment said awareness of this potential turning point remains limited among decision-makers and the public. Dr Christopher Wolf, who was part of the research team, warned that “crossing even some of the thresholds could commit the planet to a hothouse trajectory”.

At just 1.3C of global heating in recent years, “extreme weather is already taking lives and destroying livelihoods across the globe”, said Damian Carrington in The Guardian. But at 3C to 4C, “the economy and society will cease to function as we know it”, said the researchers in their assessment, which was published in the journal One Earth.

What next?
The scientists say existing climate pledges fall short and that rapid emissions cuts are needed to reduce the risk of irreversible change.

What happened
The Supreme Court has ruled that dairy-alternative manufacturer Oatly’s slogan “post-milk generation” “breaches regulations barring the use of the word ‘milk’ on non-dairy products”, said the Law Gazette. Following a long-running legal battle with industry lobby group Dairy UK, Oatly will not be able to use the slogan in marketing or packaging in the UK.

Who said what
The ruling has provided “clarity” on how dairy sector terminology can be used, said Dairy UK chief executive Judith Bryans. It brings “greater certainty” for businesses and a “clear meaning” for consumers.

But Bryan Carroll, the general manager for Oatly UK & Ireland, said the decision had created “unnecessary confusion” and resulted in an “uneven playing field for plant-based products”. He claimed that yesterday’s verdict “solely benefits Big Dairy” and was “not in the interests of the British public”.

What next?
UK regulators are now “likely to take a robust approach to so-called ‘category borrowing’ terms”, Richard May, of the legal firm Osborne Clarke, told the Law Gazette. Common marketing phrases such as “plant-based cheese” now carry a “heightened legal risk in the UK market”.

A group of engineers and scientists is planning to build a 50-mile-long underwater barrier around the melting “Doomsday glacier” in a bid to stop it collapsing into the ocean and triggering a disastrous rise in sea levels.

They can’t stop the glacier melting, but they hope to “slow the rate of ice loss, buying time as global emissions reductions take effect”, said Euronews.

Thwaites Glacier, on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, covers a vast area roughly the size of Great Britain and has earned its “Doomsday” nickname because it is so big and melting so fast. Its ice loss already accounts for about 4% of the annual rise in sea levels globally. “The glacier holds enough ice to raise global sea levels by around 65cm if it collapses completely,” said news site Interesting Engineering. To put that into context, “each centimetre of sea level rise exposes an estimated six million people worldwide to coastal flooding”.

The new project involves the construction of a flexible underwater barrier anchored into the seabed. It would be 152m tall and stretch roughly 50 miles across key parts of the seabed in front of Thwaites Glacier. The aim is to block warmer ocean currents from reaching under the glacier’s fringing shelves and causing the ice to melt.

The curtain project used to be a “fringe idea” confined to academic articles, according to The Atlantic. This kind of “geoengineering” project to “address the symptoms of climate change” rather than its causes “was a bête noire in the glaciology community”. But now more and more scientists are realising that such “targeted interventions” are “inevitable”.