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The post How to Maximize Your Bonus Winnings Tangandewa Site appeared first on HAMBACHFOREST.

termasuk dalam sektor hiburan daring seperti SEXYGEMING. Dalam beberapa tahun terakhir, tren ini menunjukkan peningkatan signifikan, didorong oleh kemajuan teknologi serta perubahan perilaku pengguna yang semakin mengutamakan kecepatan dan keamanan dalam mengakses layanan.

Berdasarkan pengamatan di lapangan, para pemain kini tidak lagi hanya mencari hiburan semata. Mereka mulai selektif dalam memilih platform yang mampu memberikan pengalaman stabil, respons cepat, dan perlindungan data yang terjamin. Hal ini menjadi faktor penting yang mendorong kompetisi antar penyedia layanan semakin ketat.

Dari sisi, banyak pengguna mengaku lebih nyaman menggunakan platform yang memiliki tampilan sederhana namun responsif. Akses yang cepat tanpa hambatan teknis menjadi nilai tambah utama. Selain itu, fitur navigasi yang jelas membantu pemain menghemat waktu saat mencari permainan favorit mereka.

Dalam aspek, para pengembang platform SEXYGEMING terus berinovasi dengan menghadirkan sistem yang lebih canggih. Mereka memanfaatkan teknologi enkripsi serta optimalisasi server agar mampu menangani lonjakan pengguna tanpa mengorbankan performa. Keahlian ini terlihat dari kemampuan platform dalam menjaga kestabilan layanan, bahkan saat jam sibuk.

Sementara itu, juga semakin terlihat melalui kehadiran platform-platform yang telah dikenal luas oleh komunitas pemain. Reputasi yang baik biasanya dibangun dari konsistensi layanan, transparansi sistem, serta dukungan pelanggan yang responsif. Pemain cenderung memilih layanan yang sudah memiliki rekam jejak jelas dibandingkan yang belum terbukti.

Di sisi lain, faktor menjadi kunci utama dalam pertumbuhan industri ini. Pemain kini lebih waspada terhadap risiko keamanan digital. Oleh karena itu, mereka lebih memilih platform yang menyediakan sistem perlindungan data, metode transaksi aman, serta kebijakan privasi yang transparan. Kepercayaan ini tidak terbentuk secara instan, melainkan melalui pengalaman penggunaan yang positif secara berkelanjutan.

Menariknya, tren terbaru menunjukkan bahwa akses melalui perangkat mobile semakin mendominasi. Kemudahan bermain kapan saja dan di mana saja membuat pemain lebih aktif. Hal ini mendorong penyedia layanan untuk terus mengoptimalkan versi mobile agar tetap ringan, cepat, dan aman digunakan.

Dengan semua perkembangan ini, industri SEXYGEMING diprediksi akan terus tumbuh dalam beberapa tahun ke depan. Namun, pemain tetap perlu bijak dalam memilih platform. Akses cepat memang penting, tetapi keamanan dan kepercayaan harus tetap menjadi prioritas utama.

Sebagai penutup, perubahan perilaku pemain telah mendorong industri ini ke arah yang lebih profesional dan kompetitif. Platform yang mampu menjawab kebutuhan akan kecepatan dan keamanan akan bertahan, sementara yang tidak mampu beradaptasi perlahan akan ditinggalkan.

Academics and trade unions can do great research together, to the benefit of both sides. This special symposium of articles discusses how to do it right.

Promising Practices in Scholar-Union Collaboration

The symposium is published open-access in the leading Canadian journal Relations Industrielles / Industrial Relations. It contains 2 parts:

1. The 2025 JD Woods lecture presented by Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford at the 2025 meetings of the Canadian Industrial Relations Association.
2. Three case studies of excellent union-scholar collaboration, presented at a panel organized at the 2025 conference of the Canadian Association of Work and Labour Studies.

The symposium explores ingredients of sustained, productive, respectful scholar-union collaborations: including transparency, ethics, respect for constraints each side faces, and recognition that workers and their unions are a vulnerable community (not ‘lab rats’ to be studied).

The productive and mutual collaborations covered in the case studies are:

1. Pat Armstrong (York University) and Michael Hurley (Ontario Council of Hospital Unions/CUPE): years of joint research on conditions for health workers.
2. Sean Tucker (University of Regina) and Kevin Bittman (Unifor Local 594) on sustained research on the struggles of refinery workers.
3. Johanna Weststar (Western University) and Jakin Vela, PhD (International Game Developers Association, IGDA) on union organizing in non-standard employment.

These three collaborations all embody the mutual, respectful trust- and relationship-building that is vital to successful, productive, ethical joint research.

This symposium will be a lasting resource for both grad students & young scholars seeking to build experience and contacts in the field of trade union studies, and for trade unionists wondering how evidence-based research from IR scholars could strengthen their campaigns.

Many thanks to all those scholars for using their resources & knowledge to help empower the unions they study. Many thanks to all those unionists for making space for this important joint research. And many thanks to Fred Wilson for co-sponsoring the whole project.

Please see the full symposium here.

The post Symposium on Promising Practices in Scholar-Union Collaboration: Lessons for Building Effective Research Partnerships appeared first on Centre for Future Work.

Image: The handcart, equipped with a sail. Photo by Kris De Decker.

The human-powered handcart is the oldest of vehicles, and it will likely be the last one around in the future. Of all vehicles, it’s the cheapest and least complex to build and use. It offers a large advantage over carrying a load on your back or dragging it over the ground - the even older concept of the sled. On the other hand, the handcart is cheaper and easier to use than the animal-powered cart. Oxen and donkeys eat more than humans, and they have their own will, which can work against the driver.

Like any other wheeled vehicle, the handcart requires roads to drive on. This infrastructure has not always been available anywhere or at any time in history. For example, in medieval Europe, porters and pack animals were more common than handcarts because of poor roads. 1 In the West, the handcart only reached its heyday during the first decades of the Industrial Revolution, when it connected fast-growing cities to train stations and harbors. In China, on the other hand, the handcart was the backbone of the transport network for millennia. 2

Of all vehicles, the handcart is the cheapest and least complex to build and use.

There are still many human-powered carts in modern society: strollers, grocery carts, roller suitcases, and various utility and folding carts. However, these modern carts are to their predecessors what birds are to dinosaurs. They are small, often with very small wheels, and we use them for very short distances, usually inside buildings. In contrast, old-fashioned handcarts were often large and had big wheels, and they were pushed or pulled on roads and over longer distances. Many crafts and professions had their own type of handcart.

Image: Low-tech Magazine's handcart. Photo by Kris De Decker. Why I need a handcart

People still use large handcarts in so-called “developing countries”. However, they can be just as useful again in the large cities of the industrialized world, as I can testify after using one for a couple of months. Last autumn, I received an internship application from Kozimo, who studies at the Design Academy Eindhoven. In his application, Kozimo sent a video of a large handcart he made, which he was driving on the streets of Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

I have always dreamt of a handcart. I have never owned a car, and the only times I miss one are when I have to move stuff, something which has become increasingly common lately. Consequently, I proposed to Kozimo to build a handcart for me.

Now, I can no longer imagine living without it. I have used the vehicle to move houses and offices, pick up materials and objects I bought online, new or second-hand, and transport workshop and event materials (bike generators, solar panels, solar ovens, books, sound systems). I have done the same for friends. During these trips, I often took home materials, furniture, or objects that I found for free on the streets of Barcelona.

Image: Kozimo and Kris De Decker with Low-tech Magazine's handcart, halfway through a 30 km trip along the coast of Spain. Photo by Linda Osusky.

Unlike a van or a car, my handcart doesn’t need gasoline, electricity, or batteries, making it entirely independent from energy infrastructures. Neither do I need to pay taxes and insurance. The handcart is a very democratic vehicle. It allows anyone to carry a load wherever they want, while older, less affordable cars and vans are no longer allowed to enter city centers due to the installation of Low Emission Zones.

A handcart doesn’t need gasoline, electricity, or batteries, making it entirely independent from energy infrastructures.

It would make a lot of sense to offer vehicles like this at community centers, where they are available for all neighbors to use when needed. Few people would need a handcart each day, and communal use would solve the parking problem. Although our handcart can also be parked vertically, it won’t fit in most apartments.

Description of the handcart

This article will not explain in detail how to build a handcart. We want to do that another time with a simpler handcart model, because the vehicle we present in this article is not one that most people can make themselves. You need good woodworking and metalworking skills, and in fact, two people made the handcart.

Kozimo designed and built the whole structure from wood, while Guilhem Senges - visual artist and one of my neighbors - designed and made several essential reinforcements from metal; the wheels, the brakes, and the handlebars are all connected to the wood structure with custom-made iron parts.

Image: Detail of the handcart, showing the underside of the vehicle. Photo by Kris De Decker. THIS ONE OR THE NEXT ONE. --> Image: The underside of the handcart. Photo by Kris De Decker. Image: Detail of the handcart, showing the underside of the vehicle. Photo by Kris De Decker. --> Images: The front and back of the handcart. Photos by Kris De Decker. Image: The lights are mounted in coconuts. Photo by Kris De Decker. Load weight and volume

Low-tech Magazine’s handcart is 250 cm long and 100 cm wide, while the platform itself measures 210 by 85 cm. Assuming a load height of 50 cm, the cargo volume is roughly 1.55 m3 (37 cubic feet or 1050 liters). That’s two to four times the typical trunk space in a European car. We have transported cargo that is wider or longer than the cart: a large heated table measuring 140x140cm, and several loads of wooden beams, each three meters long.

The load weight is limited by the wheels, which come from a wheelchair. They can support up to 150 kg. 3 The cart itself weighs 32 kg, so the practical maximum cargo weight is about 120 kg. The loading platform consists of slats with gaps between them, making it easy to secure various types of cargo.

Images: The handcart with various cargoes. Upper left: a 6m2 wooden floor and a chest. Upper right: 3-meter-long wood beams. Below: A heated table ready for transport. It drives itself!

Over the past few months, we’ve learned that people have many misconceptions about handcarts. For example, you may think that pushing a handcart takes a lot of effort, perhaps based on your experience pushing supermarket carts through parking lots or pulling heavy suitcases through city centers (which is how I moved stuff before I had a handcart).

However, using the handcart can be so effortless - even when it’s heavily loaded - that it feels like you are not pushing at all. Once in motion, you can often guide it with one hand, and it sometimes feels like the cart is pulling you forward. It’s no exaggeration to say that pushing the handcart with a 100 kg load is more comfortable than walking while carrying a 10 kg heavy backpack.

Using the handcart can be so effortless - even when it’s heavily loaded - that it feels like you are not pushing at all.

There are several reasons for this light operation, rooted in physics. Each vehicle has to overcome three forces: rolling resistance, air resistance, and gravity. Air resistance is negligible at walking speed, meaning that a handcart user on flat terrain mainly needs to overcome rolling resistance. That’s the friction between wheels and road surface, a factor that’s largely independent of speed.

In contrast, air resistance increases with the square of speed. A cyclist, going at 15-20 km/h, already spends more effort overcoming air resistance than overcoming rolling resistance, which is the same in both cases because both vehicles have similar wheels. In short, the handcart’s low speed minimizes air resistance, while its narrow wheels minimize rolling resistance.

Image: Driving the handcart. Photo by Linda Osusky.

Second, accelerating a vehicle requires more energy than maintaining a constant speed. You only need to sustain momentum, not build it. Our handcart is pushed by a person walking, so the effort to accelerate lasts no longer than one or two seconds. In contrast, a cyclist takes much longer to reach cruise speed, and because of the higher air resistance, it takes more effort to sustain that speed. If the handcart is heavily loaded, it also gains significant kinetic energy, even at low speed. That explains why it sometimes feels like the cart is pulling you forward - because it actually is.

Finally, our wheels are much larger than those used on modern pushcarts. That makes for comfortable driving on asphalt and sidewalks, which are not as smooth as airport or supermarket floors. Large wheels increase air resistance, but because of our low speed, that doesn’t matter.

Handcarts and gravity

However, an effortless ride requires two conditions: flat terrain and a well-balanced load. Both involve the third force any vehicle must overcome: gravity.

Balancing the handcart: distributing the load

A two-wheeled cart becomes heavy and difficult to use when too much weight is placed on the front or back. Consequently, you need to load the vehicle so that the weight is equal on both sides of the wheels. That’s easy to check: the cart should remain in a horizontal position for several seconds without you touching it. If there’s just one piece of cargo, place it above the center of the wheels. If there are more things to carry, the total weight should be divided equally over the two sides. Finetuning the balance often involves moving a backpack from the front to the back of the cart, or vice versa.

You need to load the vehicle so that the weight is equal on both sides of the wheels.

A two-wheeled cart also needs additional support to keep it horizontal when parked, for instance, when loading or unloading cargo. Otherwise, the cart may suddenly flip to the other side. Our handcart carries four support beams, two on each side. When the cart is moving, they are in a horizontal position. When the cart is parked, we remove one or more beams and place them in a vertical position. Each beam can be set to a different length, allowing us to stabilize the cart on uneven terrain. We tighten the beams with screws.

Image: The handcart is parked with four supporting legs. Photo by Kris De Decker. Image: Detail of the supporting beam holder. Photo by Kris De Decker.

Many people have asked us why we didn’t build a four-wheeled cart that wouldn’t need to be balanced. However, four wheels would double the rolling resistance and thus the effort required to push the cart. Furthermore, a four-wheeled cart is less maneuverable and more difficult to drive on uneven terrain. You also need to get two extra wheels, and you need to build a steering mechanism. Throughout history, the two-wheeled handcart (or one-wheeled handcart in the case of China) was much more common than the four-wheeled cart. 1

Going uphill: you need help

An effortless ride also requires more or less flat terrain, which is what you get here in many parts of Barcelona. If you go up a steep slope, you suddenly feel the weight of the cart and its cargo. Climbing with a heavily loaded cart can be as strenuous as running up stairs or cycling at top speed. People tell us we should put an electric motor on the cart, and that’s perfectly possible.

However, we found a simpler solution: if necessary, we ask for help from another person. Our handlebars are wide enough for two or even three people to push together, which makes going uphill a lot easier. Adding an electric motor and a battery would significantly increase the vehicle’s weight, and it only makes sense if you regularly have to climb hills.

Going downhill: brakes

Going downhill, you have to counter gravity forces to prevent the handcart from hurling down a slope, which would be very dangerous. Rather than pushing the cart, you’ll have to pull it back instead. Here, cyclists have all the advantage, as they can use gravity to its full benefit during a descent.

We made going downhill a lot easier by adding bicycle brakes. In combination with the large wheels, the brakes also allow the handcart to be taken down sidewalk curbs or even stairs without damaging it. They double as a hand brake as well, by tightening two lashing straps around them. That allows leaving the cart unattended on a slope or in high winds.

Image: The brakes. Photo by Kris De Decker. Handcarts go on the sidewalk

Many people assume that handcarts go on the road, with the cars, or on the cycling path. That’s not the case: you use it on the sidewalk. Legally, handcart users are in a similar position to other pedestrians pushing a smaller handcart, such as a stroller. The only difference is that, when they are forced onto the road because there’s no sidewalk or it’s blocked, handcart users should walk on the right side of the road, while other pedestrians should walk on the left. For now, the police have stopped us only once, and they were just curious.

Legally, handcart users are in a similar position to other pedestrians pushing a smaller handcart, such as a stroller.

We could find no traffic laws that limit the size of a handcart, at least not in the handful of countries we researched, including Spain. However, in practice, there are clear limits. If your vehicle is wider than the space between traffic bollards that keep cars out of pedestrian streets, all pedestrian zones will become inaccessible to you. You should also take into account other obstacles on the sidewalk, such as building scaffolding. Consequently, it’s rarely practical to build a handcart more than one meter wide.

Barcelona has very wide sidewalks in most of the city. We rarely have to share the road with cars or cyclists. Of course, that’s not the case in every city, and then the use of a handcart becomes less attractive. Using a handcart on the road or cyclepath is rather dangerous because other vehicles are much faster.

Image: Kozimo pushes the handcart through a narrow walkway. Photo by Kris De Decker. Respecting other pedestrians

Driving a large handcart on the sidewalk demands your full attention. You don’t want to hit any infrastructure, and you surely don’t want to hit someone’s legs. You need to drive it with respect for other pedestrians and their pets (some dogs start barking at the vehicle). In general, the handcart is very safe to use because it travels at a very low speed. That makes accidents less likely in the first place and less impactful if they do happen. You also have a very good overview of your vehicle, much better than for a car or a bicycle. As long as you keep your eyes on the handcart, you are unlikely to hit anything or anyone.

However, our handcart is so silent that people don’t hear it coming. We added a bicycle bell to warn people, but we hope to find a better tune in the future: every vehicle needs its own type of sound. We also need a bell for oncoming pedestrians who are watching their phones while walking and expect others to make space. With the handcart, we cannot always make that space. Our handcart has front and rear lights as well, wired to a USB power bank mounted underneath the platform. Lights are very helpful on sidewalks, both day and night, as they make the vehicle more visible. Furthermore, lights are essential if you need to move onto the road after dark.

Images: Kris De Decker drives the handcart through Barcelona. Photos by Guillaume Lion.

Even in Barcelona, sidewalks can get crowded, and a busy sidewalk will slow down the vehicle considerably. With little chance to overtake someone, we tend to get stuck behind the slowest walkers.

A handcart is not a difficult vehicle to drive, but nowadays people in industrialized societies have no experience with it. Apart from driving it attentively, you also need to be careful when rounding blind corners (take the turn as wide as possible) and when you leave a garage or any other type of exit (pull rather than push the cart). By the time you see oncoming traffic, you already have 2 meters of your handcart on the road or around the corner.

Why not a bike trailer?

Almost everyone who sees the handcart for the first time asks the same question: how do you attach it to a bicycle? You don’t. You push it while walking. When we say that, there follows a silence. Pushing a handcart seems like one step too far back, even for people committed to living more sustainably. Why would you push a handcart if you could just as well use a much faster bike trailer, or a cargo bike?

In fact, there are several practical reasons to opt for a handcart rather than a bike trailer, and we have already mentioned many of them. First, a handcart lets you go anywhere a pedestrian can, while cyclists often need to get off their bikes and push them - just like a handcart. A handcart is also more agile. For example, although the cart is 2.5 meters long, it takes just two seconds and little space to turn it around and walk in the opposite direction from where you came from.

Why would you push a handcart if you could just as well use a much faster bike trailer, or a cargo bike?

A handcart can be built larger than a bike trailer as well. Although it’s perfectly possible to build a bike trailer the size of our handcart, its higher speed would pose much greater risk of accidents and damage, both to the cart and to other road users. As a bike trailer, it would also need to be made sturdier, and it would need a more elaborate mechanism to operate the brakes.

All this does not mean that bike trailers are a bad idea. We have used the handcart mainly for trips between 5 and 10 km, which comes down to one to two hours of walking. For longer distances, the bike trailer has the obvious advantage of speed. If you need to cover 40 km, you would need to travel eight hours with a handcart, compared to just two hours with a bike trailer.

Image: Guilhem Senges, who built the vehicle's metal parts, pushes the handcart to a welding job a few streets up in the neighborhood. The merits of slow travel

However, when people ask us why we don’t use it as a bike trailer, we can also answer differently: why the rush? Deciding to travel with the slowest vehicle possible is subversive because it questions values we take for granted in the modern world, such as speed and utility.

To many people, walking a handcart seems like a waste of time, but our experience is exactly the opposite. Every trip is an adventure, and we always look forward to using it again. It’s a pleasure to drive the vehicle, more like steering a boat than driving a land vehicle. It’s easy to chat with other pedestrians, who tend to be very curious about our vehicle. Consequently, the trip takes even longer.

To many people, walking a handcart seems like a waste of time, but our experience is exactly the opposite.

Driving a handcart feels entirely different from using any other mode of transport. When people are walking, they usually cannot carry much with them, either in terms of weight or volume. In contrast, the handcart allows you to walk with a lot of stuff close at hand: drinks, food, a sound system, books, extra clothes. Furthermore, you have a large platform, which allows you to rest and invite others to do the same. It becomes a vehicle for wandering and roaming, and for connecting to other people.

Image: It's a pleasure to drive the vehicle, more like steering a boat than driving a land vehicle. Model: Rocío Sánchez. Photo by Kris De Decker. Image: The handcart with rain protection. Photo by Kris De Decker. Handcart Accessories

Once the handcart proved its utility as a cargo vehicle, Kozimo began designing and building additional structures to expand its uses. These objects make use of the slatted platform or the support beam design. Unfortunately, Kozimo’s internship ended before we could test all these extensions, but the little experience we gained by now shows that the handcart can be much more than just a cargo vehicle.

Passenger seat

The first, and perhaps most powerful addition, is a foldable seat. While our handcart can be - and usually is - operated by only one person, it’s ideally handled by two people, especially for longer voyages. Thanks to the seat, one person can push the cart while the other one rests in the vehicle.

As long as the road is flat, the extra weight of the passenger does not significantly increase the effort to push the cart. Consequently, two people can travel faster or farther in a single day. When climbing hills or bridges, the passenger gets off the seat. If necessary, he or she also helps to push the cart.

One person can push the cart while the other one rests in the vehicle, increasing the distance that two people can travel in a day.

An extra pair of eyes on the road is also handy. The seat can be put in two positions, so that both the passenger and the driver are either looking in the same direction or facing each other, which makes it easier to talk and allows the passenger to serve as the rear-view mirror.

We used the seat on a 30 km day trip along the coast of Catalunya, Spain, moving stuff from my old place to my new place. For one person, this would have been an exhausting trip. However, there were several people on the way there, and two people on the way back. The fact that we could rest from time to time - without stopping - made a great difference, especially on the way back. An extra person also proved useful when unexpected obstacles arose. For example, there was a bridge under repair, which forced us to carry the cart down the rocks, over the beach, and up the rocks again.

Image: A foldable seat on the slatted platform. Photo by Kris De Decker. Image: Kozimo drives the handcart along the coast. Linda Osusky is filming while resting in the seat. Photo by Kris De Decker. Images: Carrying the handcart over the rocks. Photos by Linda Osusky. Digital nomad office

As a second addition, we combined the seat with a work table that doubles as a solar power plant, resulting in a digital nomad office. The table fits onto the sides of the handcart and slides back and forth. The solar panel can be in a horizontal position or at various tilted angles. It can charge a laptop or any other device requiring up to 100 watts of power.

If you’re two people traveling, one person can work at the table while the other drives. If you’re alone, you can wheel the vehicle to the nearest park or beach, set up the four support legs, and work all day. In 2016, I took my home office off the grid with solar panels on the window sills. 4 Ten years later, both the office and the solar panels have become mobile.

Images: Digital nomad office. Photos by Kris De Decker. Image: Digital nomad office. Photo by Kris De Decker. Renewable power plant

Although we built only one solar panel support structure, the handcart platform is large enough to support a total of four 100-watt solar panels. That would provide us with 400 watts of solar power for a concert or emergency power, for example. The handcart can also transport the two bike generators Low-tech Magazine has in Barcelona. 5Consequently, the cart enables us to quickly provide power within a radius of several kilometers, at any time of the day. The handcart could also be wheeled into a sunny spot during the day, charging a battery bank to power a household during the night and in bad weather.

Mobile home

If you want to get back home the same day, the handcart’s range is roughly 40-80 km (8-16 hours of walking, back and forth). However, at least in my case, nobody obliges me to come back home the same day. I could use the handcart for longer voyages, especially since it offers me a place to sleep.

The four supporting legs that make loading and unloading the cart more practical can also be used to turn the vehicle into a bed. After Kozimo went back to the Netherlands, I bought a foldable mattress that fits neatly on the platform. During a trip, I can store the other cargo under the cart at night. Alternatively, I could push a passenger who’s lying in the bed, turning the vehicle into an adult version of a baby stroller.

Images: A foldable sleeping mattress on the handcart. Photos by Kris De Decker. Image: A mosquito net covers the handcart with a sleeping mattress. Photo by Kris De Decker.

Kozimo also made four supporting legs that are almost two meters long. I can use them to erect a tent around the bed, and cover the structure with modern tent materials, wool blankets, or a mosquito net. The large poles can also dry laundry. Furthermore, I could use the supporting legs in various combinations to convert the cart into a podium, expo stand, market stand, or a cinema or presentation screen.

The seat, table, solar panel, sleeping mattress, and longer poles can all be carried on the handcart simultaneously, leaving ample space for other luggage. That means that I could potentially work, live, and travel in the vehicle, turning it into a nomadic home. It fits somewhere between the tiny house on wheels, the tipi, and the homeless shack. Rents got very expensive in Barcelona, so I may as well give it a try.

Image: The handcart is packed for a longer trip. Photo by Kris De Decker. Sailing and roller skating the handcart

Finally, Kozimo made a small sail for the handcart to help pull a heavy load in a good wind; the vehicle is sometimes used along the coast. Of course, we got the inspiration from the use of sails on the historical Chinese wheelbarrow. For a longer trip, the sail fits on the cart, so I could use it whenever the opportunity arises.

Images: The handcart with a 1m2 sail. Model: Iris De Decker. Photos by Kris De Decker.

We could increase the speed of the handcart by using a larger sail, and combining it with roller blades, inline skates, or a skateboard. In that case, the cart would pull the driver in good winds. It’s also possible to push the cart while using roller blades, inline skates, or an electric unicycle, without a sail. For now, we did a first small test on flat terrain using inline skates, with very good results. If you would take enough cargo, the kinetic energy of a skate-powered handcart would regularly pull you forward even without a sail.

The higher speeds of these configurations obviously introduce more risk and, most likely, trouble with the police. Higher speeds require ample space, free of pedestrians. That almost always pushes the handcart on the road, between the cars, as most cycle paths are not wide enough. However, it shows that sustainable vehicles could take many different forms if only we would give them the space to flourish. There are more than enough roads suitable for sailing and roller-skating handcarts; we need to empty them of cars and vans.

Images: Julia Steketee drives the handcart on online skates. Photos by Kris De Decker.

• Handcart design and construction: Kozimo, Guilhem Senges.
• Photos: Kris De Decker, Linda Osusky, Guillaume Lion.
• Special thanks to: AkashaHub Barcelona, Carmen Tanaka, Gaston Quispe Castros, Linda Osusky, Guillaume Lion, Rocío Sánchez, Iris De Decker, Lili-Roos Noeyens, Julia Steketee, Tim Rudolph, Guilherme Maglio, Selcen Küçüküstel.
• Marie Verdeil and Roel Roscam Abbing contributed to the selection of images.

1. Bulliet, Richard W. The wheel: inventions and reinventions. Columbia University Press, 2016. ↩︎ ↩︎

2. How to downsize a transport network: The Chinese wheelbarrow, Kris De Decker, Low-tech Magazine, 2011. https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2011/12/how-to-downsize-a-transport-network-the-chinese-wheelbarrow/ ↩︎

3. You could build a handcart with stronger wheels, either heavy-duty wheelchair wheels (available up to 350 kg) or cargo-bike wheels. However, stronger wheels are likely wider, which increases rolling resistance. It would also become more difficult to push these heavier loads up a steep incline. ↩︎

4. How to get your apartment off-the-grid, Kris De Decker, Low-tech Magazine, 2016. https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2016/05/how-to-get-your-apartment-off-the-grid/ ↩︎

5. How to build a practical household bike generator, Kris De Decker & Marie Verdeil, Low-tech Magazine, 2022. https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2022/03/how-to-build-a-practical-household-bike-generator/ ↩︎

Ilka Vega is the executive for economic and environmental justice at United Women in Faith, the largest denominational faith organisation for women in the United States.

For climate justice advocates around the globe, many of the United States’ environmental policies have felt dangerous. In this moment, Earth Day might feel sobering as we acknowledge the gravity of these dangers. However, we cannot allow bad actors at the national level to shake our spirit. Instead, we can harness the energy of Earth Day and mobilize our communities for change.

Of course, while local action is powerful, it is against a backdrop of rollbacks to environmental protections. In 2026, the current US administration has continued on its track of undermining climate action, taking us back decades on efforts to mitigate and adapt to the escalating climate crisis.

In January, the US withdrew from several international climate organizations and treaties, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement. In February, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) repealed the Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding, which will make it more difficult to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants.

More destructive weather extremes

Climate change is not a future threat – it is affecting people right now. And it is not an abstract concept. We have seen its impact in tangible ways.

In 2025, the mainland United States experienced the fourth hottest year on record. In February of this year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported an average surface temperature 2.12° F higher than the 20th-century average.

Tornadoes, tropical cyclones, floods and other natural disasters devastated communities around the world, and have been growing more frequent and destructive due to climate change. Frontline communities disproportionately suffer these effects. Women and children are most likely to be displaced and are more likely to suffer gender-based violence when natural disasters and weather emergencies occur.

• Apr 14, 2026 Politics Türkiye sets COP31 dates and appoints Australian cattle farmer as youth champion In an open letter, Murat Kurum gives details of the October Pacific pre-COP and the November COP31 leaders’ summit in the Turkish city of Antalya Read more
• Apr 15, 2026 Comment Fossil Free Zones can be on-ramps to the clean energy transition Oil and gas blocks overlap with a fifth of forests in the Amazon, Congo Basin and SE Asia – policies are needed to transition away from fossil fuels and halt deforestation together Read more

As climate change devastates communities, it is important that we take practical steps to prevent future harm. We can work with each other to encourage new practices, even without the support of powerful people. Our force can have an impact on communities beyond our imaginations. I have seen this in action, from my own neighborhood to organizations across the US and around the world.

Communities resisting the old and building the new

For example, last year in Texas, people from all walks of life came together to protest the toxicity of fossil fuels in front of oil and gas CEOs. In Oak Flat Arizona, an Apache stronghold is still resisting a destructive copper mine project despite setbacks that threaten to shatter their sacred lands.

One woman in La Mesa, California led efforts to engage nearby school districts in discussions about joining the EPA’s Clean School Bus program. In the wake of hurricanes, First Grace United Methodist Church in New Orleans used their solar panels to offer relief through charging and cooling for neighbors experiencing power outages.

Q&A: Look beyond Trump for the full story on US climate action, says university dean

In Marange, Zimbabwe, Environmental Buddies Zimbabwe installed energy-efficient stoves in their community. A project with similar goals, Eco-Green Gold in Bolgatanga, Ghana trained 40 women to produce charcoal from grass as an eco-friendly alternative to wood-based charcoal. They both are creating opportunities for their neighbors while reducing deforestation and promoting renewable energy.

Shared responsibility for a cleaner, safer planet

These communities have shown that we all have a responsibility to fight for a cleaner, healthier and safer Earth. That responsibility does not end when the government is not doing enough; rather, it becomes imperative that we boost our efforts.

Although there is only so much we can do about the actions of a powerful government and wealthy corporations, we can influence what happens in our own communities – and that influence matters.

Individual actions build powerful movements; change must always begin at the local level. When we see people around the world organizing and taking direct action, we realize the true scale of what is possible. Every effort, no matter how small, becomes part of a larger movement that cannot be ignored.

We hold onto the unwavering belief that we can still turn the tide on climate change – and it is that hope that drives every step of our work toward a better, sustainable future.

The post Earth Day is an opportunity for communities to show the way on climate action appeared first on Climate Home News.

By Andrew Ha & Tallulah Shepard

California is facing significant challenges in addressing both housing affordability and climate related vulnerabilities. These urgent issues are more related than many realize, and to effectively overcome these challenges for a more resilient future, we must collaborate across these issue areas. However, the people most dedicated to working on housing and climate often work in separate rooms, speak different languages, and occasionally find themselves on opposite sides of the same fight. Common Ground exists to change that. These big challenges require bold action but the pace of the change means there is a real risk of advocates talking past each other.

In the Winter 2025-26 Common Ground Learning Series, the Alliance for Housing and Climate Solutions (AHCS) brought together over 250 housing and environmental advocates across five sessions to do exactly the opposite—discussing and engaging with each other. Here’s what we learned.

The rules are finally changing — but are they changing in the right way?

For decades, California’s housing shortage has been exacerbated by a thicket of regulations that make infill development slow, expensive, and legally risky. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) has long been both a vital environmental protection and, critics argue, a tool easily weaponized to delay or kill housing near transit and jobs. 

In 2025, the state legislature moved faster than it had in years. Two major CEQA reform bills, AB 130 and SB

131, cleared with Governor Newsom’s support, creating new exemptions for infill housing and advanced manufacturing. Our session with Zack Subin from the Terner Center helped situate these changes in a longer arc: California has been gradually shifting away from sprawl toward urban infill and transit-oriented development, but the pace still falls well short of what people actually need. While there is no clear consensus on exactly the size of our housing shortage, organizations like the California Housing Partnership found that we are facing a 1.3 million affordable housing deficit. 

The reforms were met with a mix of enthusiasm and apprehension in the Common Ground discussion. AB 130’s targeted infill housing exemption landed relatively well. SB 131 prompted harder questions. Some participants worried it was too deferential to manufacturing interests and too vague about habitat protections.

UC Berkeley Professor Eric Biber offered one path forward: “So there are ways you could resolve this by doing some mapping. You could determine that within a certain core area, we’re going to prove that there are no wetlands and habitat to worry about. And then outside of that core area, you can take an exception if you do a site evaluation on those issues… You’d want to do careful upfront mapping because there’s going to be things you’ll carve out.”

It became clear through the session that a lot remains unknown. In this uncertainty, cities have already begun to receive new AB 130 development applications while policy advocates continue to propose new cleanup bills. What is known is that these CEQA reforms mark a pivotal, albeit controversial, shift in changing the housing landscape of California.

Climate risk isn't coming. It's here, and it's reshaping where and how we can build.

Header photo credit: Fire in the Hills by CALfire Flickr/CC-BY-NC

Wildfire has changed the calculus of homeownership in California in ways that would have seemed extreme just five years ago. Insurance companies are now charging steep premiums and, in many cases, simply not renewing high-risk policies, leaving homeowners exposed and entire communities questioning their long-term viability. Siew Gee Lim from Milliman pointed out that overall nonrenewal rates roughly doubled in California over the last five years due to increased wildfire risk. 

This creates a real paradox for housing advocates: we need to build more, but we also need to build smarter. Common Ground’s session on wildfire and insurance didn’t just surface the scale of the problem. It pointed toward emerging solutions. New wildfire modeling practices, combined with community mitigation efforts, clearer standards, and new public-private partnerships, may be opening a path toward a more stable and competitive insurance market.

The broader lesson is: you cannot build resilient, affordable communities without confronting where and how you build. 

The hidden costs of housing aren't hidden anymore.

Reducing the cost of housing isn’t just about zoning or permitting. It’s about every fee, every remediation requirement, and every financing gap that stacks up before a single unit is built. Speakers from CA YIMBY and Prosperity California pushed this conversation into uncomfortable but necessary territory.

Brownfield development—meaning building on formerly industrial or contaminated land—represents a major opportunity to add housing in urban areas without displacing green space or wildlife. But it comes with real environmental justice stakes: remediation has to be done right, and future residents, who are often lower-income, shouldn’t bear the health burden of a cleanup that wasn’t done right. 

Impact fees generated some of the liveliest debate. These are charges levied on new development to fund public infrastructure like parks, schools, and utilities. In theory, they make sense. In practice, participants questioned whether they had become too burdensome and whether the costs were being distributed fairly.

Aaron Eckhouse of CA YIMBY put it plainly: “I love parks — but if we’re placing the entire burden of funding our park system and the growing park needs of the entire community specifically on new housing, we’re going to get less new housing. And that new housing that we get is going to be more expensive.”

That’s not an argument against parks. It’s an argument for honest accounting about who pays for them.

You can't get anywhere without transit, and transit is in trouble.

If there’s one session that felt like a wake-up call, it was the one on public transit. The Bay Area’s transit agencies are facing a genuine fiscal cliff: pandemic-era federal relief funds are running out, ridership hasn’t fully recovered across many systems, and the funding mechanisms meant to sustain these agencies were designed for a different era. A conservative estimate from SPUR and the Connect Bay Area campaign cites a $793 million deficit for the 4 major Bay Area transit agencies

in the coming year. For BART alone, that would be $350 million or approximately 30% of their operating budget.

This might seem tangential to housing and climate work. It isn’t. Transit-oriented development only works if the transit actually works. Greenhouse gas reductions depend on people having real alternatives to driving. And the communities most dependent on public transit, lower-income residents, seniors, and people with disabilities, are the same communities most at risk from both the housing crisis and climate change.

Common Ground doesn’t resolve these issues. But bringing the people working on them into the same room and clearly naming the stakes is how you start to galvanize action.

California isn’t short on people who care about getting this right. What we’re short on is time and the kind of alignment that turns good intentions into policy that actually moves. 

CEQA is being rewritten, the insurance market is destabilizing, and transit agencies are facing an existential funding gap. These aren’t abstract problems. They’re being decided now, and the outcomes will shape the state for a generation. 

Common Ground exists because we believe the people working on housing and climate are stronger together and because the hardest conversations are worth having out loud, in the same room, with people who might push back.

Missed the sessions? Check them out here.

The post Learning to Find Common Ground Together appeared first on Greenbelt Alliance.

 by Adm Chris Barrie & Ian Dunlop, first published at The Sydney Morning Herald 

Camels flee a burning oil well during the first Gulf War, Kuwait, 
1991. Photo: Steve McCurry
Just as the war on Iran dents oil production, drives up petrol prices and ricochets around the global economy, Thursday’s fire at the Geelong oil refineries causes even more domestic pain. The disturbing energy vista only heightens the need for a far faster transition to renewables and widespread electrification.

The fragility of fossil fuel supply lines and our reliance on them is now obvious, yet the newly released defence strategy downplays the strategic consequences of Australia’s fossil fuel dependence. The strategy fails to fully recognise how Australia’s expanding coal and gas exports are perpetuating a cycle of fossil fuel addiction, undermining our long-term security and claims to regional leadership.

Australia faces a profoundly altered security environment, shaped by the convergence of climate disruption and risks of nuclear escalation, but the defence strategy by the government flinches from the strategic clarity we urgently need. Focusing on the immediate period and current preoccupations and downplaying bigger threats in the future is poor strategic thinking. In reality, this is not a strategy. Rather, as so often before, it is a short-term tactical response to current events.

Many Pacific and Asian partners have long described climate change as their central security threat. But it has been sidelined by our government, yet again. What is missing is an acceptance that extreme climate impacts, geopolitical tension, authoritarianism and disinformation, along with the existence of large nuclear arsenals, form a single, interconnected security risk environment – and that these elements can reinforce one another in dangerous ways, leading to systemic breakdown.

So, we need a national security strategy to deal with these issues properly. The solutions to this crisis require a big-picture response from our government.

Yes, it is oil, but also the urea and ammonia that come from oil refining, and higher transport and agriculture costs that heighten global food insecurity and inflation. There is helium from Qatar, necessary in chip-making and medical imaging. And sulphuric acid, which is essential in critical minerals extraction. This is a security threat on many levels.

Energy security is inseparable from national security because modern economies and military capability depend on reliable energy supplies. But up to 10 per cent of global greenhouse emissions come from the military sector if war and conflicts are included. Australia imports around 90 per cent of its refined fuel, leaving the whole economy strategically vulnerable. Australia’s fuel reserves remain well below our international commitments, increasing disruption exposure. Australians would be shocked at how quickly our military would run out of fuel, especially in northern Australia, if the north–south transport routes were cut by extreme rain and flooding in a defence emergency.

Global oil supply shocks have historically been triggered by wars and geopolitical crises, demonstrating how quickly energy security can deteriorate. It happened with Suez in 1956, the big oil shock after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, and again in wars between Iraq and Iran, two wars on Iraq, and now the war on Iran. If the Middle East was not an oil hub, most of these wars would not have happened.

Geopolitical tensions, driven in part by authoritarian governments, are obviously rising, increasing the likelihood of further oil supply disruptions. And climate change is now a driver of social conflict and war globally.

Food shortages, water stress and extreme heat have already contributed to social breakdown across the Middle East and North Africa, including Syria. As global warming intensifies, competition for water, food and resources, including oil will further increase the risks of insecurity and war. And the conflicts themselves add dramatically to climate change with increased military and reconstruction emissions. These risks are all connected. Continuing fossil fuel dependence, let alone the government’s current support for expansion, intensifies climate change impacts, creating a growing threat to Australia’s economic and national security.

The continuing reliance on imported fossil fuels in these circumstances is a gamble rather than a viable long-term strategy. Securing Australia’s energy system through rapid renewable deployment and electrification is a strategic necessity, not just an environmental goal. As we currently stand, In the event of a major long-term disruption to global oil supply, Australia would struggle to maintain essential services and economic stability. Australia has had decades of warning and opportunity to address fuel vulnerability, but both major political parties failed to act.

The government’s current policies are too slow and contradictory, relying on long-term targets that do not address immediate risks and short-term climate threats to regional stability, such as the forthcoming Super El Niño. The opposition remains in climate denial, undermining progress by promoting misinformation about renewable energy and defending the fossil fuel economy. This has created a bipartisan failure characterised by delay on one side and obstruction on the other.

A rapid transition to domestically produced renewable energy would improve Australia’s energy security. Electrification would significantly reduce reliance on imported oil. Already China with its electric vehicles has become the single biggest source of new cars and utes for Australia.

Australia’s transport system can be electrified. That’s what miners like Fortescue are already doing, as well as building self-reliant renewable energy supplies. Expanding renewable power and strengthening domestic energy systems would increase economic resilience and stability. The economic imperative is clear: renewable electricity is cheaper than coal and gas generators. Electric cars are much cheaper to charge than petrol or diesel vehicles. Australia possesses exceptional renewable energy resources, giving it a natural advantage. Short-term politics and ideology have meant that Australia failed to capitalise on these advantages fast enough, thereby diminishing our security in multiple ways.

We must now embrace the sustainable future we see, rather than defending the unsustainable past.

Chris Barrie is a former chief of the Australian Defence Force. Ian Dunlop is formerly a senior international oil and gas executive and ex-chair of the Australian Coal Association.

Nurses at University Medical Center New Orleans (UMCNO) in Louisiana today gave notice to their employer, LCMC Health, that they will hold an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike for five days starting May 1, 2026. This notice follows a ULP charge against UMCNO filed with the National Labor Relations Board on Monday, April 20, charging the hospital’s management has spent more than two years intentionally dragging out and frustrating negotiations through bad-faith bargaining.

This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters

In brief: 

• Multiple studies have found that tropical cyclones are becoming stronger worldwide. 
• New so-called attribution studies have linked increased wind speeds to human-caused ocean warming. 
• In the future, scientists expect an increase in the proportion of Category 4 and Category 5 tropical cyclones.

The dangers posed by one of humanity's greatest scourges – the tropical cyclone – are being significantly increased by human-caused global warming. In fact, one of the more confident predictions about how climate change will affect these great storms — which we will refer to by their Atlantic name when they reach winds of 74 mph (119 km/hr) or greater, the hurricane —  is that the winds of the strongest ones will get stronger. But how much stronger? Are we already seeing this happening? And how do scientists know? 

Spotty data 

People began collecting high-quality, satellite-based global tropical cyclone data only around 1982. The relatively poor quality and short length of the global hurricane database, combined with the natural high variability in hurricanes, make ironclad scientific statements on how climate change is affecting hurricanes difficult. In their Global Warming and Hurricanes explainer, scientists at NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory wrote, "it is premature to conclude with high confidence that human-caused increases in greenhouse gases have caused a change in past Atlantic basin hurricane activity that is outside the range of natural variability." Statements like this are often used by climate deniers to downplay climate change risks.

That said, scientists do understand the basics. Hurricanes are heat engines that take heat energy out of the ocean and convert it to the kinetic energy of their winds. A hotter ocean will allow hurricanes to grow more powerful, assuming that the other factors that support intensification, including low wind shear and a moist atmosphere, are present. 

And there is already evidence that the strongest storms are getting stronger. For example, a July 2025 analysis found that human-caused climate change increased the intensity of 2024's Atlantic hurricanes by 3%-12%. This may seem trivial, but a 5% increase in hurricane winds yields about a 50% increase in damage: Hurricane damage increases exponentially with an increase in winds (see NOAA's damage multiplier table in Fig. 3)

For 2024's devastating Hurricane Helene, another study found an 11% increase in winds because of climate change, accounting for 44% of the $81 billion in damage caused by Helene.

An increase in Cat 5 storms globally

High-quality satellite-based data shows an increase in the number of Category 5 storms. Of the 217 Cat 5s globally during the 44-year period 1982 to 2025, 59% occurred in the last half of the period (Fig. 1), and there has been an increase in the number of Cat 5s since accurate global satellite data became available in 1982 (and technically, this is statistically significant at better than the 1% level – meaning that this is a real trend and not random variability). And if we look at the strongest tropical cyclones by ocean basin since 1980 (Fig. 2), the records for nine out of 11 of these ocean basins were set in the last half of the 46-year period ending in 2025.

Figure 1. Category 5 storms globally, 1982-2025. The blue line shows a linear increasing trend, which is statistically significant at better than the 1% level.

Figure 2. Strongest tropical cyclones by ocean basin, 1980-2026, using ratings from NHC and JTWC. Background image credit: Robert Rhode.

Five studies showing tropical cyclones are already getting stronger

According to a 2020 paper by MIT scientist Kerry Emanuel, Evidence that hurricanes are getting stronger, global warming should cause an increase in the probability of encountering major tropical cyclone wind speeds (Cat 3 and stronger) of about 7.5% per decade. This finding mirrors the most often-cited study showing that the strongest hurricanes are already getting stronger – a 2020 paper, Global increase in major tropical cyclone exceedance probability over the past four decades. Based on a review of six-hour data points of hurricane strength collected from 1979 to 2017, the study found that the fraction of major hurricane data points increased by 10%. This increase was greatest in the Atlantic, where major hurricanes data points comprised 40% of all hurricanes data points in the most recent 20-year period they studied, compared to 23% during the prior 20 years.

At least four other studies have since also observed that tropical cyclones are getting stronger globally:

• A 2026 paper, Weak self-induced cooling of tropical cyclones amid fast sea surface warming, found that from 1992-2021, Cat 1+ hurricanes globally intensified by 3.9 mph (6.3 km/h) over the 30-year period.
• A 2026 paper, Shortened intensification duration offsets the increase of tropical cyclone lifetime maximum intensity, found from 1982-2023, Cat 3+ hurricanes globally intensified by 8.8 mph (14 km/h) over the 42-year period.
• A 2022 paper, Ocean currents show global intensification of weak tropical cyclones, found that tropical cyclones below hurricane strength strengthened by four mph (6 km/h) per decade over the period 1991-2020, based on ocean current measurements.
• A 2020 paper, Continued Increases in the Intensity of Strong Tropical Cyclones, found from 2007-2019, winds of Cat 1+ hurricanes globally were 4% higher than those from the prior 26 years, when considering the strongest 25%, 10%, and 5% of storms. In the Atlantic, the strength of the strongest 5% of hurricanes increased by about 5%.

Figure 3. Damage multiplier for hurricane winds compared to a minimal Category 1 hurricane with 75 mph winds. The difference in damage potential between each Saffir-Simpson category is roughly a factor of four. (Image credit: NOAA)

Model predictions for the future: a global 5% increase in intensity for 2°C more global warming

A 2020 review paper by 11 hurricane scientists, Tropical Cyclones and Climate Change Assessment: Part II: Projected Response to Anthropogenic Warming, summarized dozens of modeling studies on how hurricanes would respond to 2 degrees Celsius of global warming, relative to 1986-2005 conditions. (Because Earth has been warming at about 0.2 degree Celsius per decade, we've already seen about 0.6 degree Celsius of that 2-degree warming.) Globally, in the higher-resolution studies, the median projected increase in lifetime maximum surface wind speeds was about 5%, and the increase in the proportion of tropical cyclones reaching Category 4-5 levels was +13%. For the Atlantic, the 52 models evaluated showed about a 3% increase in lifetime maximum surface wind speed.

New studies evaluate the influence of climate change on hurricanes 

Still in their infancy, attribution studies examining specific hurricanes are now being performed in near real time. These studies evaluate the degree to which climate change influenced a given weather event. 

For example, human-caused climate change increased Hurricane Melissa’s peak sustained wind speeds by 7% (11 mph, or 18 km/h), making 34% of its damages attributable to climate change, according to researchers at the Imperial College of London. Melissa made landfall in Jamaica in October 2025 as the strongest landfalling hurricane on record, with sustained winds of 185 mph (300 km/h). In a separate report, the researchers found that the winds of Category 4 Hurricane Beryl of July 2024 were increased by 10 mph (16 km/h) – a 7% increase – as the storm brushed Jamaica.

World Weather Attribution, an international scientific group, released a report showing that the winds of Florida's 2024 Hurricane Milton increased by about 11 mph (18 km/h), or 10%, as a result of climate change, a conclusion echoed by researchers at the Imperial College of London, who studied the same storm independently. 

A third organization, France-based climatameter.org, also performs attribution studies shortly after extreme events occur. They found that human-caused climate change could have increased the winds of Hurricane Ian (2022) by 6 mph (10 km/h), Hurricane Beryl (2024) by 5.6 mph (9 km/h), Hurricane Helene (2024) by 3 mph (5 km/h), and Hurricane Melissa (2025) by 5 mph (8 km/h).

A 2024 paper, Human-caused ocean warming has intensified recent hurricanes, found that between 2019 and 2023, the maximum sustained winds of Atlantic hurricanes were, on average, 19 mph (31 km/h) higher because of human-caused ocean warming. A parallel report by Climate Central, a nonprofit scientific research organization, applied the techniques developed in the paper to the 2024 hurricane season, finding that climate change increased maximum wind speeds for all 11 Atlantic hurricanes in 2024 by nine to 28 mph (14-45 km/h).

Figure 4. Change in wind speed for the 11 Atlantic hurricanes of 2024 from human-warmed ocean temperatures (revised version from July 2025). (Image credit: Climate Central)

However, these approaches looked only at how warmer oceans alone influenced storm strength. Rising atmospheric temperatures and moisture can make the tropical atmosphere more stable, counteracting the intensity increase computed using sea surface temperatures alone. 

In an email, the lead author of that study, Daniel Gilford of Climate Central, said that an improved method taking this effect into account had been developed, and using this method, "I expect the 2019-2023 estimates to be about 50% lower, though the amount of damping will vary from storm to storm." 

In July 2025, Climate Central used this improved method for the hurricanes of 2024, resulting in climate change-driven intensification estimates (Fig. 4) that were about 50% lower than their original estimates. Below is their revised table, published in July 2025, showing a human-caused intensity increase ranging from 3%-12% for 2024's Atlantic hurricanes:

Hurricane Maximum intensity Increase in maximum intensity  Beryl 165 mph 5 mph Debby 80 mph 5 mph Ernesto 100 mph 8 mph Francine 90 mph 7 mph Helene 140 mph 10 mph Isaac 105 mph 12 mph Kirk 145 mph 6 mph Leslie 105 mph 6 mph Milton 175 mph 8 mph Oscar 80 mph 3 mph Rafael 120 mph 14 mph Climate change expected to generate more "Cat 6" superstrength hurricanes

A paper published in 2024 by hurricane scientists Michael Wehner and James Kossin, The growing inadequacy of an open-ended Saffir – Simpson hurricane wind scale in a warming world, argued that we now need a “Category 6” rating for hurricanes with winds of 193 mph (311 km/h) or greater, because global warming is expected to cause significant increases in maximum potential intensity. The study found that if the climate warms by 2 degrees Celsius (3.6°F) above preindustrial levels – which could happen by midcentury – the risk of such a Category 6 storm in the Gulf of Mexico would double (Fig. 5).

Figure 5. Change in days where the tropical cyclone potential intensity exceeds the Category 6 threshold for 2°C of global warming above preindustrial levels. (Image credit: Wehner and Kossin, 2024, The growing inadequacy of an open-ended Saffir – Simpson hurricane wind scale in a warming world, PNAS, February 5, 2024, 121 (7) e2308901121,https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2308901121, CC BY)

Scientists expect an increase in the proportion of Cat 4 and Cat 5 tropical cyclones

One of the first analyses documenting an apparent global increase in Category 4 and 5 hurricane frequency was published in September 2005, less than a month after catastrophic Hurricane Katrina. Interest in the topic has been keen ever since. Because there are many more Cat 4 and 5 storms than Cat 5 storms alone, there is a higher potential for a change to be deemed statistically significant.

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, published in 2021, says: “The proportion of intense tropical cyclones (Category 4-5) and peak wind speeds of the most intense tropical cyclones are projected to increase at the global scale with increasing global warming (high confidence).”

Preliminary evidence suggests this shift may already be occurring. A 2022 paper, Trends in Global Tropical Cyclone Activity: 1990–2021, found a 2%/decade increase in the percentage of global hurricanes reaching Cat 4 or Cat 5 strength (Fig. 6). The increase was highest in the Atlantic basin, with a 5% per decade increase.

Figure 6. The percentage of global hurricane-strength tropical cyclones reaching Cat 4 or Cat 5 strength since 1982 has been increasing, according to ratings by NHC and JTWC. The blue linear trend line is statistically significant at better than the 1% level – meaning that this is a real trend and not random variability.

In a 2019 review paper by 11 hurricane scientists, Tropical Cyclones and Climate Change Assessment: Part I. Detection and Attribution, eight of 11 authors concluded that the balance of evidence suggests that human-caused climate change contributed to the detectable increase in the global average intensity of global hurricanes since the early 1980s. All 11 authors agreed that the balance of evidence suggests that the proportion of all hurricanes reaching Category 4 to 5 strength has increased in recent years; eight of 11 authors concluded that the balance of evidence suggests that human-caused climate change contributed.

A preprint of a 2025 paper that is under review and has not yet been published, Oceanic Warming Has Lengthened Intense Tropical Cyclone Seasons Globally, found that since 1980, the length of the Cat 4 and Cat 5 hurricane season globally has increased by nine to 14 days per decade. The lengthening is characterized by a late end to the season in the Atlantic and an early onset in most of the other ocean basins.

However, though the proportion of Cat 4 and Cat 5 hurricanes globally has increased, the total number did not see an increase between 1990 and 2021, according to a 2022 paper, Trends in Global Tropical Cyclone Activity: 1990–2021. One potential reason: a more La Niña-like base climate state from 1990 to 2021, which suppressed tropical cyclone activity in the North and South Pacific – the most active ocean basins for tropical cyclones. As a result, a reduction in the total number of hurricanes of all categories globally occurred (though the Atlantic saw an increase in activity).

Our other posts in this series

• Will climate change bring more major hurricane landfalls to the U.S.? (2026)
• The emerging danger of post-hurricane heat waves (2026)
• The future of Atlantic hurricane tracks (2026)
• Climate change strengthened Hurricane Melissa, making the storm’s winds stronger and the damage worse (2025)
• Climate change behind 36% of damage inflicted by Typhoon Ragasa in China (2025)
• Climate change brings more rapidly intensifying hurricanes; NOAA cuts makes forecasting them harder (2025)
• Human-caused ocean warming intensified recent hurricanes, including all 11 Atlantic hurricanes in 2024 (2024)
• Without climate change, Hurricane Milton would have hit as a Cat 2, not a Cat 3 (2024)
• Four ways climate change likely made Hurricane Helene worse (2024)
• Does the Saffir-Simpson Scale for hurricanes need a Category 6? (2024)
• Hotter ocean temperatures from global warming likely increased Idalia’s destructive power by at least 40-50% (2023)
• How sea level rise contributes to billions in extra damage during hurricanes (2022)
• Warming climate makes extreme hurricane rains more likely for Puerto Rico (2022)
• Why are there so many Atlantic named storms? Five possible explanations. (2021)

Bob Henson contributed to this post.

This article first appeared on Yale Climate Connections and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. //

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following the Trump administration’s decision to invoke the Defense Production Act to subsidize fossil fuel expansion under the guise of an “energy emergency”, Mar Zepeda, Legislative Director for CJA, issued the following statement: 

“This decision is not a solution to the rising costs, climate disasters, and public health challenges communities are facing. Rather, this is a continuation of false proclamations designed to lock the United States into deeper fossil fuel dependence while maintaining a system that profits from pollution and extraction. 

This action builds on a broader pattern of public giveaways to an already profitable industry, including billions in federal subsidies that shift financial risk away from corporations and onto taxpayers. At a time when the U.S. is already one of the world’s largest fossil fuel producers, doubling down on oil, gas, and coal will not deliver energy security or affordability. It will instead entrench price volatility, delay the transition to stable, community-centered clean energy, and deepen the climate crisis.

At its core, this is about the continued consolidation of wealth and power. By invoking emergency authorities to fast-track fossil fuel expansion, the administration is sidelining public input, weakening accountability, and concentrating decision-making in the hands of corporate actors. This undermines democratic governance and strips communities of their right to shape their own energy futures.

From an environmental justice perspective, the impacts are stark. These investments will concentrate pollution in frontline and low-income communities that are already overburdened, increasing risks to public health while driving up economic costs. At the same time, they deepen global inequities, locking countries into cycles of fossil fuel dependence, volatility, and debt.

Fossil fuel corporations are not passive in this system. They actively shape and defend it, using financial and legal tools to protect profits and limit democratic decision-making.

This is not energy security. It is wealth consolidation at the expense of communities and the planet. A just energy future requires investing in community-led solutions that reduce pollution, lower costs, and protect the health and self-determination of all people.”

                                                            ###

The post CJA Condemns Trump Administration’s Use of the Defense Production Act to Expand Fossil Fuels appeared first on Climate Justice Alliance.

Metro and Caltrans are planning a $4B+ highway expansion mega-project that would widen 15 miles of the 605 Freeway, plus several adjacent stretches of the 5, 10, 60, and 105 Freeways Read more.

Redrock Report: Earth Week Edition

Happy Earth Week! Here at SUWA we remain laser-focused on defending Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument from congressional attacks. But this week we’re also celebrating the power of our collective action, which is fueled by our love for this magnificent landscape.

Please continue to speak out for Utah’s wild places in any way you can, and if you live in Utah, see below for some local opportunities to support the Protect Wild Utah movement, celebrate Earth Day, and help shape a better future through civic engagement. Thanks for all you do!

Latest Updates on Grand Staircase-Escalante and the Congressional Review Act

Boundary Waters Suffers Major Blow, Grand Staircase-Escalante Could Be Next

 

First, the bad news. Last week, the U.S. Senate voted 50-49 to pass H.J. Res. 140, which overturns the 20-year mining ban in the headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota, the most visited wilderness area in America. As you know, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument faces a similar threat (undoing of the monument management plan) using the same legislative tool: the Congressional Review Act (CRA). If this obscure law can be weaponized against public lands in Minnesota and Utah, it can happen anywhere in the country.

“Today is a tragic day for the Boundary Waters and all who care about stewarding public lands and wilderness,” said SUWA Executive Director Scott Braden in a recent press statement. “Using the Congressional Review Act to undo protections is a short-sighted mistake—whether it’s the Boundary Waters or Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Congress should stop attacking cherished public lands.”

Our work to protect Grand Staircase-Escalante is unwavering—and now with more clarity than ever before. You’ve heard us say this before and it remains true: SUWA has never backed down from a hard fight, and we’re not going to start now.

Photo © Dave Freeman

Outcry Grows Over Misuse of CRA

 

The good news is that there is widespread and growing opposition to use of the CRA against Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. We’ve seen statements, letters, and resolutions from the Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition; the Navajo Utah Commission; local businesses; outdoor companies; faith leaders; the town of Boulder, UT; and more than 125 local, state, and national organizations (a compilation can be found here). Meanwhile, the Salt Lake Tribune, Grand Junction Sentinel, Idaho Statesman, and Durango Herald have all editorialized in support of the monument. 

Your Involvement Remains Critical

We know we’ve been asking a lot of you lately, but now is not the time to let up. If you’ve emailed or called your members of Congress, please encourage friends and family to do the same. Write or call again yourself, submit a letter to the editor, meet with your elected officials, view and share our Grand Staircase-Escalante StoryMap, or create artwork celebrating the monument and send it to loveforgse@suwa.org. No matter where you live, our Grassroots Organizing Team can help you find the most effective ways to take action. Click here to learn more.

Live in Utah? Get Involved Locally

 

Attend a Candidate Debate for Utah’s New 1st Congressional District

Utah’s elected officials at the federal Level—our senators and representatives—have the power to determine what happens on our treasured public lands. With new maps being used for U.S. House races this November, your vote in the congressional elections could matter more than ever. If you live in the new 1st District (which covers most, but not all, of Salt Lake County), we encourage you to join SUWA and our partners at Stewardship Utah for a 1st District Candidate Debate in Salt Lake City this Wednesday, April 22 (Earth Day) from 6:00 – 8:30 pm. Click here to learn more and RSVP.

Take Part in a Clean-Up Day on the Navajo Nation

Join us on Saturday, April 25 for a trash clean-up on the Navajo Nation! SUWA is partnering with C 4Ever Green to show care for the natural world this Earth Week. Meet us at the Red Mesa Chapter House (155 Red Mesa Rd #35, Montezuma Creek, Utah) at 8:30 am. We’ll spend the morning cleaning up and share a meal together in the afternoon. A group of us will be camping out in the Bluff area the night before. Email Mimi (mimi@suwa.org) or Nicole (nicole@suwa.org) for more information and to let us know you’re coming. Carpooling is encouraged.

Participate in the Earth Action Rally at the State Capitol

On Sunday, April 26, from 1:30 – 3:30 pm, Salt Lake Valley residents will gather on the Utah State Capitol steps for this year’s Earth Action Rally: Our Power, Our Planet. Local issues on this year’s agenda include air quality, the shrinking Great Salt Lake, nuclear energy, data centers, and more. Come listen to speakers, chat with local nonprofits, enjoy musical performances, and connect with your community to create change. 

Act Locally, Give Locally

 

This year, communities across Utah are coming together for UTAHGIVES—a 24-hour celebration of generosity that puts the spotlight on nonprofits doing the essential work that makes this state stronger. Across Utah, from Logan to Moab to St. George, people are supporting what they love and showing up for the places and organizations that matter to them. SUWA is proud to be part of this community event on Thursday, April 30!

Early giving is already open. From now through April 30, please visit our our UTAHGIVES page and make your gift. Then tell a friend! Every donation, whatever the size, is a direct investment in the Protect Wild Utah movement. Thank you!

The post April 2026 Redrock Report appeared first on Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

It is with great sadness that we report the death of one of our founder members, Noel Braymer. He left this life on Saturday, April 18, at his family home in Dublin, Ireland, after some years of struggle with dementia. Noel was born March 22, 1952, in Pasadena California, the fourth of five children. He […]

By Thomas Homer-Dixon and Christopher Collins

The version of record of this op-ed appeared in The New Republic

The world is in crisis right now, but the summer is shaping up to be much worse—for reasons beyond every country’s control, including America’s.

President Trump’s war on Iran is the cause of the current crisis. Iran’s retaliatory closure of the Strait of Hormuz to most trade has caused oil and natural gas prices to skyrocket, forcing countries to find creative ways to cut energy demand, and caused a fertilizer shortage that is certain to reduce crop yields around the world while also increasing the costs of agricultural goods. All of this comes as economic growth has slowed globally and governments have amassed record levels of debt.

And then, in a couple of months, we’ll likely have El Niño to contend with too. Welcome to the polycrisis.

That term, which was coined back in the 1970s, has gained popularity in recent years—thanks in part to Columbia professor Adam Tooze. Popularly, it’s sometimes seen as shorthand for “a lot of bad things happening all at once,” but that misses its real meaning. A true polycrisis is not a pile-up of unrelated calamities. Rather, it occurs when separate crises in different systems become entangled, feeding off each other and producing damage greater than the sum of their parts.

Consider fertilizer. The Persian Gulf region is a major producer of it, and roughly one-third of the world’s seaborne fertilizer trade passes through the Strait of Hormuz. Moreover, both natural gas and sulfur are critical inputs for fertilizer production, and Persian Gulf supplies of these commodities have also been cut off. This has caused fertilizer plants in South Asia to shut down, while China, one of the world’s largest fertilizer suppliers, has restricted exports to protect its domestic market.

So global fertilizer prices are surging, just as the spring planting season begins across the northern hemisphere. Around the world, governments are scrambling to secure fertilizer supplies and concerns are growing about food security in developing countries and rising grocery prices in wealthier ones. Farmers have been advised to expect tighter supply and margin pressures. In the U.S, this has already resulted in the lowest planting of spring wheat since 1970.

Now add weather. Forecasts predict that 2026 will be one of the hottest years on record, as the concentration of human-made greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continues to rise. Extreme heat accelerates moisture evaporation from soil, aggravates droughts, and reduces crop yields. Worse, there’s an 80 percent chance that an El Niño will develop this year, altering global rainfall patterns and triggering droughts in some regions and floods in others. NASA estimates that El Niño harms crop yields on at least a quarter of the world’s farmland. And there is a 25 percent chance this will be a “super” El Niño, intense enough to cause globally catastrophic extreme weather.

Research shows a strong El Niño can have an impact on global food supplies that causes six million children to go hungry. But these calculations do not include a global fertilizer shortage. Climate stress with adequate fertilizer is challenging. Climate stress without it is an entirely different order of crisis.

Unfortunately, these two crises are largely locked in, and there is little we can do in the short term to prevent their collision during the 2026 growing season. Even if the Strait of Hormuz reopened tomorrow, it would take time to restore global supply chains. The seeds of the polycrisis have already been planted, both literally and figuratively.

Yet food is only one system facing a shock. The Iran war is upending global energy markets, driving inflation, and lowering economic growth around the world. And this is all occurring at a time when many countries are still burdened by record levels of public debt left over from the pandemic, something the International Monetary Fund has termed “the fiscal version of long COVID.”

Research shows that food price shocks can act as a “threat multiplier,” transforming existing political dissatisfaction into widespread violent uprisings. As evidence, a global food price crisis in 2007–08 and a similar spike in food prices in 2010–11 caused riots and political instability in many countries.

The pressures building this summer are broader than what we’ve seen in the past, and the political and humanitarian consequences will be severe. Our institutions were not built to manage interrelated crises. Defense ministries watch the Strait of Hormuz, agriculture departments track fertilizer prices, climate agencies issue El Niño bulletins, and Treasury officials supervise debt levels. Each institution monitors and tries to manage crises in a single system, but nobody is tasked with modeling and mitigating the consequences when apparently distinct crises converge.

An effective response demands an integrated playbook. Contingency plans for this summer’s harvests need to simultaneously account for fertilizer shortages and extreme weather. International coordination should extend to fertilizer allocation, not just oil reserves. A planned United Nations fertilizer coordination initiative is a strong start, but developing countries also need urgent help diversifying their fertilizer import supply chains. Humanitarian organizations must prepare for dramatically elevated demand for food aid, and donors need to mobilize now—not after the harvests fail.

In the longer term, the world’s multilateral system needs standing capacity to monitor how crises in different domains interact, so that we stop being repeatedly blindsided by cascading crises that careful analysis could have anticipated. This is what polycrisis analysis seeks to address. The goal is not to replace specialists but to develop the tools and foster the conversations that track risk interactions across silos before containable shocks compound into systemic breakdowns.

None of this is happening at the required pace. Around the world, farmers are preparing to plant while facing both drought forecasts and disrupted supplies of fuel and fertilizer. They’re on the front lines of this polycrisis right now, but soon we all may be embroiled in it.

Read the article in The New Republic The post Cascade researchers warn of “bad-to-worse” crises in The New Republic appeared first on Cascade Institute.

6 reasons to reject the bad House farm bill Anthony Lacey April 21, 2026

Next week, House lawmakers will vote on the farm bill, which sets food and farm policy. 

The partisan House farm bill proposed by Agriculture Committee Republicans would fail to help family farmers, lock in historic cuts to the nation’s biggest anti-hunger program, cut regenerative agriculture programs, weaken safeguards against pesticides, and roll back animal welfare and other environmental protections. 

It would also do nothing to address food prices or food safety or support healthy diets – priority issues – or protect the people who feed us. No wonder groups fighting to support family farms, hungry people, farm and food workers, public health and farm animals are united in their opposition. 

The farm bill has not been renewed since 2018 and may not be reconsidered until 2032 or later. The upcoming debate over the bill is a rare opportunity to push for resetting policies that currently mostly benefit the largest, most successful farm businesses and do little or nothing for the rest of us. 

A good farm bill would ensure that family farmers are supported and that hungry people have enough to eat, that we invest in regenerative agriculture, protect the people who feed us, and ensure that food is safe, healthy and affordable. 

A bad farm bill, like the House Republicans’ plan, would enshrine the status quo. 

Here are six reasons members of Congress should reject the bad bill that will be considered next week. The bill:

1. Fails to feed hungry people. Last year, the Republican Congress passed the biggest cut ever to anti-hunger programs, but the partisan House farm bill does nothing to help people struggling simply to have enough to eat. 
2. Fails family farms. More than 100,000 family farms have gone out of business in recent years, and President Donald Trump’s tariffs and wars have made farm inputs more expensive, worsening the problem. But the partisan House farm bill will do nothing to help our family farms, including those owned by young farmers.
3. Cuts regenerative agriculture funding. Regenerative agriculture programs help farmers adopt practices like cover crops – popular Agriculture Department programs that are badly oversubscribed. But the partisan House farm bill would cut these programs’ funding for farmers by more than $1 billion.
4. Weakens pesticide protections. Pesticides can threaten our health, especially our children’s health. But the partisan House farm bill would repeal local pesticide protections, especially safeguards near schools and parks. It would also grant legal immunity to pesticide companies.
5. Weakens animal welfare protections. State laws ensure that farm animals are raised humanely. But the partisan House farm bill would repeal state farm animal welfare laws. 
6. Does nothing to address food prices or food safety. The partisan House bill takes no action to address food prices and food safety, support healthy diets or protect the people who feed us. It also fails to fund access to healthy food. 

Areas of Focus Food Farming & Agriculture Pesticides Authors Scott Faber April 21, 2026

View of the sound walls around Chevron’s Bishop well pad from only a mile away at Galeton Elementary’s playground in May 2025.

What do toxic geysers and shiny new playgrounds have in common? The sensible answer is: Nothing. But in the rural community of Galeton, Colorado, both serve as a reminder of the impacts that the oil and gas industry can have on communities.

In August 2025, Galeton Elementary celebrated the opening of a new playground donated by Chevron, which, through its subsidiaries Noble Energy and PDC Energy, owns many of the well pads in the surrounding area. From the promotional video, it would appear that the residents and schoolchildren of Galeton were merely the lucky recipients of an act of corporate benevolence. However, this video lacks some important context:

In April 2025, a well at Chevron’s Bishop well pad located about a mile from Galeton Elementary suffered a critical failure and a blowout occurred. This blowout resulted in plumes of dangerous airborne pollutants like benzene that were detected miles away from the well, and a geyser of well fluids that lasted for days, blanketing homes and the nearby elementary school in toxic compounds. Over one million gallons of fluids spewed over a 1.5 mile radius from the well, contaminating soil and surfaces, including the previous playground at Galeton Elementary. Homes were evacuated, families have been displaced, and cleanup and remediation is predicted to continue through 2030.

Photos of cleanup efforts at a home adjacent to the Bishop well pad in May 2025

In other words, what that video does not tell you is that the new playground at Galeton Elementary is the result of ongoing cleanup efforts from one of the worst “spills” in Colorado’s history. 

It is a good thing that Chevron rebuilt the school’s playground after the disaster. But, it should not be used to excuse or distract from the harm that was done to those whose lives were upended.

$1.5M Fine: a significant sum, a meager penalty

Colorado’s Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) recently fined Chevron $1.5 million dollars for the incident, much of which will be used to bolster enforcement efforts at ECMC. In addition, Chevron is responsible for covering the costs of ongoing cleanup and remediation efforts. 

This is one of the largest fines the ECMC has ever levied against an operator. It is a significant sum, and ensuring that some of those funds go towards improving state enforcement efforts is an important goal.

However, $1.5 million dollars is still a meager penalty for a multinational corporation that reported $2.8 billion in earnings in the last quarter. To put that in perspective, the fine represents five ten-thousandths of a percent (0.0005%) of those quarterly earnings. At that rate, Chevron could easily afford thousands of such fines without seeing even a dent in their finances.

The fine is not nothing. The fine is a start. Now, the ECMC must ensure that Chevron’s cleanup efforts are conducted properly and must also do everything in its power to ensure that operators take measures to prevent similar incidents from occurring elsewhere. 

More importantly, the fine, the cleanup efforts, and the brand new playground do not diminish the harm done to those displaced, those exposed to harmful pollutants, and to the environment. Companies like Chevron have the money to buy goodwill, but we should not let them cover up the impacts the oil and gas industry has on communities like Galeton.

We must ensure that the oil and gas industry is not allowed to continue to mislead communities. And, in Galeton, this truth remains: 

Even after the cleanup has concluded, schoolchildren at Galeton Elementary will be able to see the Bishop well pad on the horizon from their new playstructure. That is, when the air is not dangerous to breathe and visibility greatly reduced due to persistent smog fueled by Front Range oil and gas activities.

The post A “Good Neighbor” with a Toxic Legacy appeared first on Earthworks.

The fossil fuel crisis triggered by the Iran war should push nations to speed up their shift towards clean energy and break their dependence on volatile sources, energy and climate ministers said on Tuesday.

Murat Kurum, Türkiye’s climate minister and COP31 president, said the crisis was yet another demonstration that fossil fuels cannot guarantee energy security, making it crucial for countries to diversify by investing in renewable energy.

“We know that relying solely on fossil fuels means walking towards volatility, insecurity and climate collapse,” he told fellow ministers at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, an annual gathering in Berlin that traditionally opens the global climate diplomacy calendar.

Ministers from more than 30 countries, along with United Nations representatives, are meeting until Wednesday to lay the groundwork for a deal to accelerate climate action at COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye.

They will debate how to ramp up efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, mobilise climate finance amid shrinking international aid budgets, and leverage a strained multilateral system to deliver results.

Fossil fuels not the answer

The gathering is taking place in the shadow of what some energy analysts have described as the largest oil and gas supply disruption in history. The conflict in the Middle East has sent oil and gas prices soaring, with growing ripple effects on food production and industrial manufacturing.

Australia’s escalating fuel crisis meant the country’s energy minister Chris Bowen, who will also be in charge of COP31 negotiations, cancelled his trip to the Berlin summit. Joining by videolink, he said the crisis is a “unique opportunity” to underline the message that “energy reliability, energy sovereignty and energy security are entirely in keeping with strong decarbonisation”.

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“Doubling down on fossil fuels is not the answer to this crisis,” he added. “Wind cannot be subject to a sanction, the sun cannot be interrupted by a blockade. These are all reliable forms of energy, which must be supported by storage”.

Electrification is a “megatrend”

Echoing Bowen’s remarks, Germany’s climate minister Carsten Schneider said the current crisis will be “an accelerator [of the energy transition] because it will help many people understand and realise how dependent we are on fossil fuels”.

He added that “electrification is turning into a global megatrend” but called for more discussion on how to ensure that industry and transport become less reliant on oil and gas across the world.

At last year’s climate talks, countries failed to agree to start a process to draft a global plan to shift away from oil, coal and gas. But the Brazilian COP30 presidency is taking it upon itself to deliver this roadmap before the summit in Antalya.

Discussions are expected to kick into higher gear at the first-ever conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels due to start at the end of this week in Colombia. COP30 president André Corrêa do Lago has said the roadmap should be published in September.

Clear plans needed

Addressing the Petersberg summit, the head of the United Nations António Guterres said that transition roadmaps can help countries manage urgent choices during the ongoing fuel crisis while advancing a just transition to a clean and secure energy future.

“We must respond to the energy crisis without deepening the climate crisis,” he added. “Short-term measures must not lock in long-term fossil fuel dependence and expansion”.

The ministers argued that, despite the US withdrawal from international climate diplomacy under President Trump, other countries remained committed to working together to tackle the climate crisis.

But Türkiye’s Kurum scolded the more than 40 governments that have not yet published their national climate plans, more than a year after the official UN deadline. These are mostly smaller nations, but the group of laggards also includes Vietnam, Argentina and Egypt.

“We will ensure that countries fulfil the fundamental requirements of the COP,” he said, adding that his team is working intensely with the UN to ensure these plans – known as nationally determined contributions – are submitted.

“Without diagnosis, you can’t treat”, he said.

The post Fossil fuel crisis offers chance to speed up energy transition, ministers say appeared first on Climate Home News.

New research by 350.org shows that on top of soaring energy bills, fossil fuels cost households an additional $12 trillion a year in taxpayer handouts, health impacts and extreme weather damage – equivalent to a $23 million a minute “gift to Big Oil” that costs each person on Earth $1,400 per year.

In the report “Out of Pocket: How Fossil Fuels are Draining Households and Economies,” 350.org recalculated IMF estimates on fossil fuel subsidies, uncovering what fossil fuels actually cost society and what governments spend to keep production flowing. These hidden costs – totalling $12 trillion annually [1] – are “silently siphoning trillions away from household budgets and draining state coffers” while a handful of big corporations make windfall profits from the war in South West Asia.

The report highlights that:

• Fossil fuels cause $9.3 trillion per year in climate damages and air pollution, higher than IMF estimates.[2] These are social costs that the fossil fuel industry should be charged with but pay nothing for, and which the public shoulders through taxes and out of pocket payments.
• The $4.1 trillion annual climate undervaluation [3] could finance more than 5,900 gigawatts of new solar capacity — enough to power every home in Africa, South Asia and Latin America combined.
• The $12 trillion owed by the fossil fuel industry annually in avoided costs is more than 100 times total global climate finance — or the money the world has committed to help countries respond to the climate crisis.
• In the first 50 days of the war, over $150 billion has been siphoned from ordinary people to oil and gas companies due to soaring energy prices alone. [4]

As decision-makers from over 50 countries gather for the first international conference on a fossil fuel phase-out in Santa Marta, Colombia this week, 350.org said that leaders have an unprecedented opportunity to put the world on the right path. “Decades of delay have turned every oil price spike into a household emergency and every climate‑fuelled disaster into another withdrawal from the savings of the world’s poorest communities,” the group said.

350.org is calling on governments to:

• Tax fossil fuel windfall and corporate excess profits to channel the revenues directly into lowering people’s energy bills.
• End fossil fuel subsidies and replace them with targeted household support; and invest public money in cheaper, reliable renewables that bring bills down for good.
• Protect families and businesses from future price shocks by ending fossil fuel expansion and building affordable 100% renewable energy.

Using case studies from Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, the report also highlights how an alternative energy system is already being shaped. From community‑owned grids, Indigenous‑led wind projects, subnational 100% renewable commitments, and regional subsidy reforms, the great power shift from fossil fuels to people‑centered renewables has already begun.

Bill McKibben, climate activist and 350.org founder said:

“A building El Niño means 2026 and 2027 will set new global temperature records, and that will offer yet more chaos, and yet more reminders that it is the poorest people on earth who must bear most of the cost of this ongoing tragedy. We have a narrow path out of these crises, and that path has been illuminated by the bombs from this misbegotten war. It would be a waste and a sin not to seize this moment.”

Anne Jellema, 350.org Chief Executive said:

“The economic case for fossil fuels has not just weakened, it has collapsed. Climate chaos and volatile oil prices have pushed ordinary people to a breaking point: unable to afford food, transport, housing or healthcare. Leaders must acknowledge the real costs of fossil fuels and redirect public money where it belongs — into making clean energy a right, not a privilege.”

Hala Kilani, Head of Energy Diplomacy, REN21 said:

“Renewables are not controlled by a few fossil fuel exporting countries. It is abundant, distributed, and affordable. It can stabilize costs and be deployed locally, empowering communities rather than concentrating power. It is a peace, development, and justice solution. It’s high time we transition to reliable, affordable renewable energy.”

Hilda Flavia Nakabuye, Founder of Fridays for Future Uganda said:

“African families are paying for fossil fuels three times over: through taxes, through rising living costs, and through worsening climate disasters. The fossil fuel system is not a distant global issue; it is something people experience in their daily lives. Public resources are being drained to support this system, while wealth is extracted and exported. We must ensure that polluters pay for the damage they have caused to our communities over generations. We must shift investment towards a system that reduces costs for households, strengthens resilience, and prioritizes the people.

Jan Rosenow, Professor of Energy and Climate Policy at Oxford University said:

“This crisis is a stark reminder of just how risky it is to rely on fossil fuels, with around 80 percent of global energy still coming from them and driving the instability we see today. We should be focusing on long-term solutions rather than applying short-term sticking plasters to a much deeper problem. Price volatility is not a flaw in the fossil fuel system; it is a built-in feature. The real question is not what the energy transition will cost us, but what it will cost if we fail to act.”

Muhammad Mustafa Amjad, Program Manager for Renewables First Pakistan said:

“The system is structured in such a way that fossil fuels continue to benefit, even as cleaner and cheaper alternatives become available. Pakistan has imported less fossil fuel but ended up paying more, which shows how deeply flawed the system is. We learned how to build an energy system around fossil fuels, and now we must learn how to build one around renewables. This transition is no longer just about economic growth; it is about human survival.Solar energy is not only a source of clean power, but also a driver of economic stability.”

Executive summary of the report

Full report

Notes to Editor:

[1] (a) ~$11.4 trillion in underpriced fossil fuel costs — including explicit government subsidies, climate damages, air pollution, and road externalities — recalculated from IMF data using peer-reviewed US EPA damage models; plus (b) ~$700 billion in production-side support to fossil fuel producers tracked by the OECD across 52 countries.

[2] The IMF’s climate damage figure rests on a carbon price — US$85 per tonne of CO2 — that represents the cheapest possible price to keep warming below 2°C, not the actual damage fossil fuels cause. Using the peer-reviewed damage models that now underpin the US Environmental Protection Agency’s official social cost of carbon, 350.org recalculated those figures for 186 countries.

[3] Social costs of fossil fuels not accounted for by IMF estimates, as calculated by 350.org

[4] This 350.org analysis calculates the losses from price spikes using weighted oil and gas price averages for the period, combined with global consumption levels. It does not yet include wider knock-on effects such as inflation, decline in economic outputs and unemployment.