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Unregistered high-speed motorcycles are illegal, but a deceptive and widespread marketing tactic has tricked families into purchasing the dangerous vehicles, with deadly results, and fooled lawmakers into pushing laws that would make streets even less safe.

Gabriel Nacato, 17, died last week in New York City after a crash with an SUV while riding his Deepower e-moto. The vehicle’s top speed of 30 miles per hour is illegal in New York, but the uncle who purchased the wheels for Nacato told the media he had no idea. It’s hard to blame him: Deepower’s website advertises the e-moto as an e-bike — a common practice for misleading and endangering consumers.

An illegal e-moto by Tuttio advertised as an “Electric Bike” with a top speed of 46+ mph. Click to expand.

Deepower’s deception is not anomalous. Days before Nacato’s death, a 14-year-old died in Seattle after his e-moto plummeted down a set of stairs. Another 14-year-old outside of Chicago met the same fate.

The deaths come as manufacturers continue to dodge basic safety requirements. Several popular brands design their bikes with a speed cap override, or operate above legal limits by default. Many of these companies target their advertising towards children and teenagers, even though their products can reach speeds up to 50 mph. They list the vehicles as e-bikes, misleading consumers on the risks and legality of their products.

E-moto manufacturer Tuttio Sport markets its illegal, 50 mph-capped bikes to children.

Thrill-seeking youth and well-meaning family members aren’t the only targets of the e-moto scam. Lawmakers are getting duped, too.

In January, New Jersey’s then-Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill requiring e-bike riders to possess a drivers’ license, registration and, in some cases, insurance. The bill went after legal e-bike users — not the illegal e-moto market.

“The final bill places unnecessary and burdensome restrictions on low-speed e-bikes while leaving higher-risk vehicles like electric mopeds and motorcycles without additional regulations,” PeopleForBikes said in a statement.

New Jersey’s convoluted series of requirements that restrict and deter e-biking. Click for full-size version. Photo: New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission

California legislators introduced a similar bill one month later. Their proposed statute, which would have required riders of most e-bikes to register their bike and attach a license plate, has stalled in committee. Separately, the state’s attorney general advised consumers to be wary of falsely advertised e-motos, and emphasized the danger to children in particular.

“California should focus on regulating, educating, and enforcing laws against deceptive advertising and illegal use of e-motos, rather than creating new barriers for people riding legal e-bikes,” statewide bike advocacy organization CalBike said in a statement.

States vary in how they define e-bikes, compounding consumer uncertainty over what is and is not legal. Some states classify e-bikes as bicycles. Others define them as car-like vehicles. All but eight states and Washington, D.C. follow a three-class system based on speed and wattage. Most states cap unlicensed e-bikes at 28 mph, designating anything faster an e-moto. And without meeting stricter safety rules such as registration, a license, and a helmet, those e-motos are illegal.

Federal officials are beginning to take note of the good, the bad and the outright scapegoating. In March, a bipartisan group of House representatives introduced the Safe SPEEDS Act, which would codify a federal e-bike class system and prohibit merchants from marketing e-motos as e-bikes.

If passed, the bill would empower regulators to curb the illegal e-moto market and keep consumers safe — without punishing law-abiding e-bike riders.

Recommended New Calif. Legislation, Backed by Bike Safety Groups, Proposed to Regulate E-Motos/E-Bikes Damien Newton February 23, 2026

Its sponsors urged regulatory action in a letter sent to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission last month.

“While e-bikes remain an affordable and essential mode of transportation for millions of Americans, federal safety rules have struggled to keep pace with a rapidly evolving marketplace,” the letter said. “Bad actors abuse regulatory loopholes to sell electronic motorcycle-like vehicles to consumers as if they were ordinary e-bikes.”

Amidst Republican-led attacks on bike and pedestrian safety, other members of Congress may be less eager to shield safe alternatives to cars and follow the New Jersey route.

Scapegoating, however, is not an effective legislative strategy. Restricting low-speed, legal e-bikes will not stop e-moto riders from dying in the street. Addressing the illegal, deceptive, and dangerous e-moto market will.

• Flock license plate readers are useful in enforcing traffic laws, but they can also be traffic safety hazards. Some cameras are just a couple of feet from the road, perched atop black metal poles that are hard to see and a lack a breakaway plate allowing them to easily snap when hit by a car. And they’re rarely inspected by city or state transportation officials. (The Guardian)
• Transit agencies are boosting their own ridership by developing land around stations, which has the added benefit of creating more housing where residents don’t need expensive cars. (Metro Magazine)
• The Trump administration’s isolationism is leaving the U.S. behind other countries that are rapidly adopting electric vehicles, according to climate activist Bill McKibben. (New Yorker)
• An Amtrak restructuring could create conflicts within the agency and does not address its biggest problem, funding. (Trains)
• Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Ayanna Presley introduced a bill allocating $25 billion to help transit agencies go fare-free, but some would prefer to spend that money on improving service. (Boston Globe; paywall)
• Not even Dulles officials think the Washington, D.C. airport needs the 32,000-space parking garage President Trump is proposing, especially since it’s now on a D.C. Metro line. (NOTUS)
• Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson is pitching a proposed small tax hike to fund transit as an affordability measure, pointing to the high cost of owning a car.
• Nashville is rolling out more raised crosswalks and concrete dividers protecting bike and scooter lanes as part of its Choose How You Move initiative. (Axios)
• Oklahoma City is an example of a booming city that’s trying to deal with growth by expanding transit rather than highways. (Streetsblog USA)
• A Wayne County, Michigan transit tax referendum looked like it would pass easily Tuesday night. (Detroit Free Press)
• Honolulu Civil Beat reported on a dangerous crosswalk, and lo and behold, the Hawaii DOT actually fixed it!
• To accommodate increased ridership after going fare-free, Iowa City is building a new $20 million transit center. (Press-Citizen)
• Some rural counties in Alabama still have more dirt roads than paved ones, but the state ignores them because not many people live there. (Alabama Political Reporter)
• Business Insider has some tips for traveling overnight on Amtrak.

Nurses at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine are staging an emergency protest Wednesday, Aug. 5 to demand the immediate release of an RN colleague who is being detained by ICE despite the fact that she is legally authorized to live and work in the country while she waits for her asylum case from Zambia to be processed.

The assessment of the climate impact of expansion at the Horse Hill oil site in Surrey contains “multiple errors and misleading and irrelevant information”, campaigners said today.

The Weald Action Group, which won a landmark Supreme Court ruling on greenhouse gas emissions, said the assessment, submitted by the developer, made “spurious claims” and failed to comply with the latest guidance.

The flaws led to the “false conclusion” that the climate impact was “not significant”, the group said. It added:

“This is incorrect and must be disregarded”.

Horse Hill oil site near Redhill, Surrey. Photo: Weald Action Group

Weald Action Group (WAG) has called for evidence that the assessment was written by an appropriately qualified practitioner”.

The assessment estimated that four new production wells and extraction of more than 600,000 tonnes of oil over 20 years, would result in more than two million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. But it stated that the emissions would not be “significant for the climate”.

Kirsty Clough, of WAG, said:

“The oil company’s assessment of greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts is fundamentally flawed. Had they done the job properly, they could not have avoided concluding that the effects on the climate would be highly significant. The Council cannot grant permission on the basis of such a deficient assessment.”

In its response to Surrey County Council, submitted today, WAG said:

“The technical competency of the consultant who prepared the assessment of climate significance is in question.”

The document was apparently prepared by an air quality consultant.

WAG said the job requires “a broad knowledge of UK climate mitigation policy, in the context of international obligations, to be able form a judgement of significance”.

It said:

“We question whether an air quality consultant would have the relevant technical skills and expertise … to undertake a robust GHG [greenhouse gas] and climate impact assessment.”

It added:

“A lack of competency is observative in the numerous shortcomings and inaccuracies.

“In particular, the author has failed to draw on relevant available guidance, policy and scientific evidence”.

WAG said:

“We urge Surrey County Council to raise the issue of technical competency with the applicant. Specifically they should be required to provide evidence that the assessment was written by an ‘appropriately qualified practitioner’.

“Multiple flaws”

The climate assessment focussed on the emissions resulting from burning Horse Hill oil, known as downstream or scope 3 emissions. The Supreme Court ruling now requires these emissions to be taken into account when deciding fossil fuel proposals.

WAG said its analysis found the Horse Hill assessment was “flawed in multiple ways”.

The group said the assessment failed to comply with:

• new government guidance on assessing the effects of downstream scope 3 emissions
• Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017
• Institute of Sustainability & Environmental Professionals’ Guide to assessing greenhouse gas emissions

WAG said the assessment failed to regard the government guidance as a material planning consideration, even though a developer and climate expert agreed in a separate project that it should be.

The Horse Hill assessment also failed to describe the state of the climate, WAG said.

Scientists have forecast that the maximum amount of carbon we can emit and stay within the legal limit of 1.5C temperature rise is 130-170 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2). This volume of CO2 will be breached in a few years, the group said.

It added:

[This] “conceals the true state of the climate and how little time, if any, we have left to prevent global average temperature rise exceeding the 1.5C limit.”

WAG said the assessment further failed to assess the actual impact of 2 million tonnes of greenhouse gases on, for example, human health, biodiversity, land, soil water, air and climate. This is required by the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations, it said.

There were also “multiple errors and misleading and irrelevant information” about projected UK oil production and demand and global energy and climate scenarios, WAG said.

It said the assessment implied that new domestic oil production was needed to meet a shortfall in demand up to 2050 and to bolster energy security.

WAG said this “presents a false picture of future oil demand and its relationship to domestic production and shows a lack of understanding of energy markets”.

There was also a “spurious” claim, WAG said, that oil from Horse Hill would substitute for imported oil, which may have a higher carbon intensity.

WAG said no evidence had been provided and the claim should be disregarded:

It said the assessment made unfounded claims that oil from Horse Hill would remain in the UK, even though more than 80% of domestically produced oil and gas is exported. The group said:

“There is no guarantee that oil from Horse Hill will remain and be used within the UK.”

The assessment failed to place Horse Hill greenhouse gas emissions in a global cumulative context of all current and approved fossil fuel projects, WAG said. An estimate in 2022 forecast the emissions from these projects amounted to 936 gigatonnes of CO2.

The group said:

“The significance of the scope 3 emissions arising from the Horse Hill development should … have been assessed relative to the available space in the remaining 1.5C aligned global carbon budget, once the emissions from existing and committed fossil fuel projects (the cumulative effect) have been accounted for. The developer has failed to do this.”

WAG added:

“There is no space in the rapidly dwindling 1.5C global carbon budget for any new fossil fuel developments, and a massive excess of emissions from existing oil, gas and coal infrastructure which will now need to close before the end of its economic life.

“Any emissions from the Horse Hill oilfield development will be additional, cumulative and hence contribute to the further exceedance of the 1.5C global carbon budget.

“On this basis, the scope 3 emissions arising from the Horse Hill development must be deemed significant in terms of their climate impact.”

• Weald Action Group said it would be submitting further objections, including on seismicity and earthquake risk.

By Macy Brigham-Hill, DC Campaign Intern, Chesapeake Climate Action Network

Growing up in the Nation’s Capitol, I spent my summers climbing trees, exploring Rock Creek Park, playing sports, going to the Zoo, camps and playgrounds, and spending almost all of my time outside. Today, those summers are being reshaped by extreme heat. Heat advisories, cancellations, and warnings to stay indoors are frequent experiences for children and families in D.C. Now, as a rising college senior, I feel frustration for kids like my younger sister, whose summers are being threatened and changed by climate change. As extreme heat worsens, we will continue to witness its negative impacts on people’s physical and mental health and overall well-being.

This Fourth of July marked the hottest in D.C. history, surpassing the record in 1919, with temperatures over 100°F. The city issued an extreme heat warning as the heat index was expected to reach 105-115°F in many areas. While high humidity increases the risk of heat-related illness, consistently high temperatures throughout the day produced life-threatening conditions for residents partaking in outdoor plans and events.

On the National Mall, celebrations were cut short due to the dangerous temperatures. D.C. Fire and EMS reported 96 patient contacts and 40 patient transports. People were seen lying on the ground and on stretchers with ice, as they were loaded into ambulances. A total of 603 people received first aid in one day.

High temperatures and humidity are the deadliest extreme weather events worldwide, with thousands of people dying from heat each year in the U.S. alone. A Virginia study on extreme heat, when projected nationally, estimates that heat-related hospital visits and illness cost approximately $1 billion in health care costs each summer. Extreme heat is also particularly dangerous in cities like D.C., due to the urban heat-island effect, which happens when pavement, buildings, and other hard surfaces absorb and trap heat instead of cooling down. This means majority Black and Brown communities, which often have less tree cover, more asphalt, fewer parks, and more development shaped by decades of unequal urban planning, can be about 17 degrees hotter than others on the same day. Neighborhoods such as Ivy City, Trinidad, and the Navy Yard have faced some of the city’s highest heat risks, making extreme heat a public health emergency and an issue of environmental justice.

Extreme heat also places intense strain on public infrastructure and essential resources that residents depend on. Heatwaves overwhelm the U.S. grid, leading to cancellations and delays. During the July heatwave, PJM, our regional grid manager, issued a federal alert to cut electricity consumption across its territory, which impacted all D.C. residents and resulted in higher AC bills and even blackouts. Amtrak also stated that trains would run at reduced speeds and people could experience delays throughout the day. D.C. summers have always been hot, but climate change is making extreme heatwaves more frequent, intense, and dangerous.

National Research Council. 2026. Attribution of Extreme Weather and Climate Events and Their Impacts.  DC and Beyond: Scientists Link Extreme Heatwaves to Climate Change

World Weather Attribution (WWA), an international network of scientists, conducts rapid studies of extreme events to determine the influence of climate change. A recent article by WWA analyzed this heatwave and determined that the combination of heat and humidity experienced in early July would have been virtually impossible without climate change.

These kinds of attribution studies are becoming more crucial in lawsuits focused on holding fossil fuel companies financially responsible for climate-related damages. Researchers can even trace aspects of these damages to specific emission sources and fossil fuel companies that are responsible for the largest share of emissions.

What We’re Doing: Make Polluters Pay Campaign

D.C. residents are already paying the price of climate change in higher utility bills, increased hospital visits, and strains on public systems that families rely on, particularly in minority, overburdened, and underserved communities. CCAN Action Fund’s Make Polluters Pay campaign aims to take the burden off of taxpayers and put it on the shoulders of the largest, most polluting fossil fuel companies. Climate change could cost every D.C. resident born in 2024 an extra $500,000 to 1 million over their lifetime. Meanwhile, in the same year, the largest fossil-fuel emitters’ profits totaled more than $102,000,000,000.

In June, the D.C. Council passed the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Study Amendment Act to kickstart a study to determine the total financial cost of climate change on D.C. and how exactly extreme weather impacts the city. The results would help guide investments towards heatwave relief, flood protection, and public infrastructure and transportation improvements and so much more. Sign the Make Polluters Pay petition to make sure the biggest fossil fuel companies cover the costs of climate change-related extreme weather damages.

Sign the Petition to Make Polluters Pay!

About the author: Macy Brigham-Hill (she/her) is the DC Campaign Intern for summer 2026. In her role, she supports the DC team by assisting with community outreach, organizing, and coalition-building to advance campaign goals. She is a rising senior at Tulane University, where she is working towards a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies and Sociology, with a minor in Climate Change: Science and Practice.

Macy’s passion for environmental advocacy began at a young age, shaped by her love of nature and animals. She hopes to pursue a career in environmental policy, advocacy, and research, working at the intersection of climate adaptation and mitigation within communities most vulnerable to climate impacts.

The post DC Summers Are Getting More Extreme and Expensive – Who’s Responsible? appeared first on Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

EWG evaluation of food chemicals: ADA rcoleman August 4, 2026 David Andrews, Ph.D. Sydney Evans, MPH Dayna de Montagnac, MPH Tasha Stoiber, Ph.D. Jump to: What is ADA and why is it added to foods? Where is ADA found in foods? What is the regulatory status of ADA? Are foods containing ADA ultra-processed? Is ADA allowed in organic foods? What are the potential health harms associated with ADA? Uncertainties/where more research is needed More details about ADA Cited resources August 4, 2026 EWG’s recommendation

Azodicarbonamide, also known as ADA, is an ingredient of concern. EWG suggests limiting consumption of foods containing this ingredient.

Experimental studies have demonstrated that baking bread made with ADA-treated flour results in the formation of SEM, which has been the focus of toxicological concern because laboratory and animal studies have suggested carcinogenic and genotoxic potential.

Science analysis

What is ADA and why is it added to foods?

ADA is a dough strengthener and flour bleaching agent. It is used to improve the texture of dough and brighten the appearance of flour.

Where is ADA found in foods?

ADA is typically found in breads, deli sandwiches and frozen appetizers. 

ADA is used in 60 of the 172,081 foods added to EWG’s Food Scores between 2023 and 2025, demonstrating that ADA is now used in only a small fraction of newly introduced food products. 

Top 15 food and drink categories organized by supermarket shelf Image

Source: EWG’s Food Scores. Product Label created between 2023-01-01 and 2025-10-22.

What is the regulatory status of ADA?

The European Union never authorized ADA as a food additive but did allow it as a blowing agent (a substance that helps create foam) in food-contact plastics. In 2004, the EU prohibited the use of ADA in jar seals and gaskets intended for food contact because of concerns about the formation of SEM during heat sterilization. 

A European Food Safety Authority panel concluded after review of commissioned research that SEM shows weak carcinogenic activity in lab animals and weak genotoxicity in vitro, but newer studies showed a lack of genotoxicity. The new information reduced concerns and the panel concluded the risk to human health was low, but the ban remains. 

Because of toxicity concerns, ADA is also banned as a food additive in Brazil, China, India and New Zealand.

ADA is regulated as an approved direct food additive in 1962 and permitted for use in the U.S. up to 45 parts per million in cereal flour and as dough conditioner in bread.

In 2026, the Food and Drug Administration launched a formal post-market safety assessment of ADA. The agency opened a public request for data targeting current use levels, dietary exposures and the presence of its toxic decomposition byproducts, such as semicarbazide and urethane, in the food supply.

Are foods containing ADA ultra-processed?

As an industrially synthesized ingredient, ADA is classified as an ultra-processed ingredient in the NOVA framework. (Monteiro et al., 2019). 

Is ADA allowed in organic foods?

Under Department of Agriculture organic standards, synthetic substances, such as ADA, are prohibited in certified organic foods. 

What are the potential health harms associated with ADA?

Health concerns about ADA arise mainly because of the byproducts that form when it breaks down, especially during heating.

During dough preparation and baking, ADA breaks down into several compounds, including biurea, semicarbazide (SEM), ammonia and isocyanates. Experimental studies have demonstrated that baking bread made with ADA-treated flour results in the formation of SEM (Noonan et al., 2008). Laboratory and animal studies have raised toxicological concerns about SEM because they suggest it has carcinogenic and genotoxic potential (Kumari et al., 2026). 

The formation of SEM during baking and other high-temperature food processing was first characterized in experimental studies of ADA-treated flour and bread (Noonan et al., 2008; Becalski et al., 2004). In a 2016 survey of over 250 products, the FDA found levels of SEM can vary widely. The agency found that many products fell into a median range, between 100 and 400 parts per billion (ppb) but maximum outliers reached as high as 767 ppb for biscuits and 1,490 ppb for French and Vienna breads (FDA 2016).

SEM has produced tumors in mice and demonstrated DNA-damaging activity in mechanistic studies. Although in vivo genotoxicity findings are inconsistent, the combination of carcinogenicity and genotoxic potential raises concerns (EFSA 2005; Hirakawa 2003).

A rodent study found SEM to have hormone-disrupting properties, altering testosterone regulation in male and female rats (Maranghi et al., 2009). SEM has also shown it can harm the reproductive system, affecting sperm maturation in male mice even at low doses (Tian et al., 2014). Animal studies have shown the metabolite may also damage other organs, such as the heart, liver and kidneys (Tian et al., 2014; Olofinnade et al., 2020).

Baking foods with ADA can produce small amounts of urethane, or ethyl carbamate. This process contaminant forms when ethanol from yeast fermentation reacts with cyanate or carbamoyl-containing compounds, which can be derived from ADA's direct breakdown products like isocyanic acid. Urethane is a Group 2A probable human carcinogen (Abt et al., 2021). 

Repeated exposure to ADA led to dose-dependent decreases in weight and food consumption, oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation in rats (Olafinnade et al., 2020). Oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation can cause cellular and DNA damage and are implicated in numerous diseases. 

The breakdown to SEM is a concern for both foods and contact materials containing ADA, specifically in gaskets used in lids for glass baby food jars (Nepalia et al 2017). 

Uncertainties/where more research is needed

Although experimental studies suggest that ADA and its breakdown products may contribute to oxidative stress, inflammation, DNA damage, reproductive toxicity, and alterations to the gut microbiome, the available evidence is derived largely from in vitro and animal studies, and important data gaps remain (Lieshchova et al., 2023). The long-term health effects of chronic dietary ADA exposure in humans also remain poorly characterized (Kumari et al., 2026). 

More details about ADA

ADA was used as a foaming agent in the production of plastic gaskets in glass jars. When its metabolite semicarbazide was found to contaminate foods in glass containers, including baby food, the EU banned its use in food contact materials. Under market pressure, brands have phased it out in global markets, although it is still technically allowed in lids in the U.S. 

Whole Foods Market prohibits ADA in products sold in its stores. Aldi and Walmart have policies restricting ADA in many or all of their private-label food products. Panera and Subway removed ADA from their bread products in 2014. 

ADA is also used in foamed plastics, such as those used to make yoga mats.

Cited resources

Global health and regulatory agencies

• EFSA Panel on Food Additives, Flavourings, Processing Aids and Materials in Contact with Food, 2005. Opinion of the Scientific Panel on food additives, flavourings, processing aids and materials in contact with food (AFC) related to Semicarbazide in food. EFSA Journal 2005; 3(6):219, 141 pp. doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2005.219 
• International Agency for Research on Cancer. (1983). Some food additives, feed additives and naturally occurring substances. https://publications.iarc.fr/Book-And-Report-Series/Iarc-Monographs-On-The-Evaluation-Of-Carcinogenic-Risks-To-Humans/Some-Food-Additives-Feed-Additives-And-Naturally-Occurring-Substances-1983 

Comprehensive reviews and frameworks

• Abt, E., Incorvati, V., Posnick Robin, L. and Redan, B.W., 2021. Occurrence of Ethyl Carbamate in Foods and Beverages: Review of the Formation Mechanisms, Advances in Analytical Methods, and Mitigation Strategies. Journal of Food Protection, 84(12), pp. 2195-2212 https://doi.org/10.4315/JFP-21-219. 
• Kumari, D., Janmeda, P., & Singh, D. (2026). From food additive to health hazard? A review of azodicarbonamide, potassium bromate, and monosodium glutamate with in-silico toxicity analysis. Food Chemistry Advances, 10, 101239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.focha.2026.101239. 
• Monteiro, C.A., Cannon, G., Levy, R.B., Moubarac, J., Louzada, M.L., Rauber, F., Khandpur, N., Cediel, G., Neri, D., Martinez-Steele, E., Baraldi, L.G., & Jaime, P.C. (2019). Ultra-processed foods: what they are and how to identify them. Public Health Nutrition, 22(5), 936–941. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1368980018003762.
• Nepalia, A., Singh, A., Mathur, N., & Pareek, S. (2017). Baby foods can also have toxic side effects: A review. Asian Journal of Science and Technology, 8(3), 4386-4393.
• Tian, W., Sang, Y., & Wang, X. (2014). Semicarbazide – from state-of-the-art analytical methods and exposure to toxicity: a review. Food Additives & Contaminants Part A, 31(11), 1850–1860. https://doi.org/10.1080/19440049.2014.953012. 

Legislation

• Commission Directive 2004/1/EC of 6 January 2004 amending Directive 2002/72/EC as regards the suspension of the use of azodicarbonamide as blowing agent, Official Journal of the European Union, L 7/45. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2004:007:0045:0046:EN:PDF.

Specific health impact studies

• Becalski A, Lau BP-Y, Lewis D, Seaman SW. (2004). Semicarbazide Formation in Azodicarbonamide-Treated Flour: A Model Study. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 52(18), 5730–5734. doi: 10.1021/jf0495385
• Food and Drug Administration, 2016. Exposure Estimate for Semicarbazide from the Use of Azodicarbonamide in Bread for the U.S. Population. (Presented at the 251st National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, March 15, 2016). https://www.fda.gov/media/97444/download.  
• Hirakawa K, Midorikawa K, Oikawa S, Kawanishi S. (2003). Carcinogenic semicarbazide induces sequence-specific DNA damage through the generation of reactive oxygen species and the derived organic radicals. Mutation Research/Fundamental and Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis. 2003;536(1–2):91–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1383-5718(03)00030-5 
• Lieshchova, M., Logvinova, V., Bilan, M., Bohomaz, A., & Brygadyrenko, V. (2023). Effect of azodicarbonamide on rats with a high-fat hypercaloric diet. Acta Fytotechnica et Zootechnica, 26(1), 15-27. https://doi.org/10.15414/afz.2023.26.01.15-27. 
• Maranghi, F., Tassinari, R., Marcoccia, D., Altieri, I., Catone, T., De Angelis, G., Testai, E., Mastrangelo, S., Evandri, M. G., Bolle, P., & Lorenzetti, S. (2009). The food contaminant semicarbazide acts as an endocrine disrupter: Evidence from an integrated in vivo/in vitro approach. Chemico-Biological Interactions, 183(1), 40-48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbi.2009.09.016. 
• Olofinnade, A.T., Onaolapo, A.Y., Onaolapo, O.J., Olowe, O.A., & Adeyeba, O.A. (2020b). Food-added azodicarbonamide alters hematological parameters, antioxidant status and biochemical/histomorphological indices of liver and kidney injury in rats. Journal of Basic and Clinical Physiology and Pharmacology, 32(2), 39-50. https://doi.org/10.1515/jbcpp-2019-0341. 

This is a re-post from By the Numbers by Hannah Ritchie

Over the last week, this chart of wildfire burn in Europe has been doing the rounds on social media and traditional media outlets. Carbon Brief goes through some of this coverage here.

The underlying narrative is that Europe is having its lowest wildfire year on record, which is quite at odds with the huge wildfires we see from France and Spain on the news.

But this data and the media headlines are not as contradictory as they first appear.

The wildfire data we present on Our World in Data comes from the Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS). This uses satellite imagery, which doesn’t distinguish, for example, between forest fires and large-scale burning of agricultural land, grasslands, or savannah.

Its aggregate category “Europe” includes Russia. On OWID, we also have predefined regions across our datasets, and Russia falls under “Europe”.

Russia, as a country, is split between Europe and Asia. Most of its landmass lies in Asia, but most of its population is on the European side. Since most of our datasets, from poverty and inequality, to health, education, energy consumption and access to resources, are about human activity and outcomes, assigning Russia to Europe usually makes more sense. That’s not so much the case for the few metrics — like wildfires — that concern land mass.

As Russia is big, the European numbers are heavily influenced by what’s happening there. This is something that’s true of aggregate wildfire data more broadly. The global numbers are heavily influenced by what’s happening in Africa, for example.

It can be true that the world is having a low wildfire year, while Europe is having a high one. Or that Europe is having a low wildfire year, and particular countries within Europe are battling huge outbreaks. There is no inconsistency there.

To provide more regional insight, we added an entity called “Europe (excluding Russia)” and already had one for the “European Union (27)”.

What does the European data look like if we remove Russia?

It’s no longer the lowest wildfire year on record, but still fairly quiet for this time of year. Russia is not the only explanation.

What if we look at the European Union?

It is higher again, with a particular uptick in the last week. It’s around 40% higher than the median year since 2012, and the 5th highest in that record.

At Our World in Data we use GWIS as our main source, since we want the global picture. But Europe also has the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). It stretches back to 2006, and tries to filter out agricultural burning to focus on forest fires.

Its data has the EU running at its 2nd highest level for this time of year.

Underneath this trend from either source is a stark regional split. Many countries in Western Europe are having a bad wildfire year. Those in the Balkans and Southern Europe, a comparatively quiet one.1

The bar chart below shows how wildfire burn at this stage of the year compares to the median over the past 15 years. A figure of 2 means it’s twice as high as the median; 0.3 means wildfire burn is around one-third.

Countries such as France, Spain, Germany, and Portugal are well above the average for this time of year. But countries such as Romania, Greece, and Croatia are well below.

For France, it’s not just that wildfire burn is higher than usual. It’s seeing record-breaking fires for this time of the year. You can see this in the panel chart below.

Compare that to Greece, where wildfires are tracking for their lowest levels since 2012.

This matters for the aggregate European, or EU, figures.

Let’s take that same chart, but make the y-axis scale the same across all countries. Some countries simply contribute far more to the total than others. France is breaking records — which obviously matters a lot for its national figures — but it doesn’t have a huge impact on the region’s overall numbers. A really big year in Portugal, Italy, Romania or Spain does make a big difference. But the relatively high year in Spain is “offset” by a low year for Romania.

That’s really the point: some countries are having really severe wildfire outbreaks, affecting huge population centres and landscapes. That France is struggling this summer is not a lie or just media hype. It can also be true that others offset this with quiet years in the regional totals.

The anomaly in France this year is even clearer when we look at the weekly wildfire burn. The spike you see in the chart below was far higher than any other week in France’s record since 2012. The speed and intensity of wildfire outbreaks is arguably more important for the impact on communities than just the total area burned.

What about global wildfires this year?

What if we zoom out to look at data across all regions?

Here they are, with the y-axis scales the same. It really is a low year for wildfires globally. Most of that is explained by low wildfire burn in Africa. A lot of Africa’s wildfires are about agricultural burning, and fires on grasslands and savannahs. South America is also having a quiet year, so far.

Europe and North America, in particular, have little bearing on the global total, simply because they’re so small. Europe without Russia has even less so.

 

1 Much of the burning in the Balkans is related to agricultural land practices, which differ from how people think about forest fires.

Dirty Dozen™ food chemicals: ADA Iris Myers August 4, 2026 EWG’s recommendation

Avoid or limit foods containing azodicarbonamide, or ADA.

ADA breaks down during baking into several compounds, including semicarbazide, or SEM. Laboratory and animal studies suggest SEM may damage genetic material or cause cancer. 

What is ADA?

ADA is a dough strengthener and flour bleaching agent. It is used to improve the texture of dough and brighten the appearance of flour.

Outside of the food industry, it’s used as a chemical foaming agent for the foam rubber in yoga mats.

Which foods contain ADA?

ADA is typically found in bread, deli sandwiches and frozen appetizers.

Look for ADA in product ingredient lists, usually below or next to the Nutrition Facts panel, on the back of the package. It may also appear as “azodicarbonamide.”

How is ADA regulated?

The Food and Drug Administration is responsible for overseeing food additives and other ingredients. ADA is allowed for use in food at up to 45 parts per million in cereal flour and dough conditioner in bread. 

In 2026, the FDA began a new safety review of ADA, requesting public input on current use levels, dietary exposures and the presence of toxic breakdown byproducts like SEM and urethane in the food supply. EWG submitted comments to the FDA on ADA, citing potential health concerns in urging the agency to ban its use in food. 

The European Union never authorized ADA as a food additive, though it did allow it in food-contact plastics. The EU banned ADA from all food contact materials in 2004 over the potential carcinogenicity of SEM, which forms during high-heat sterilization of glass jars. 

A later European Food Safety Authority review found newer studies showed ADA did not harm genetic material and concluded the risk to human health was low. But the ban remains in place. 

ADA is also banned as a food additive in Brazil, China, India and New Zealand because of toxicity concerns.

In the U.S., ADA is prohibited in food certified as organic under Agriculture Department standards, which bar synthetic substances.

What does the science say about ADA?

The metabolite SEM forms when ADA is used in flour and bread during baking and other high-heat food processing – a finding first documented in the mid-2000s. In a 2016 survey of more than 250 products, the FDA found SEM levels vary widely across foods.

SEM has caused tumors in mice and shows some evidence of potential DNA harm. While the DNA-damaging effects aren’t consistent across all studies, the combination of cancer-causing and DNA-harming potential may be cause for concern.

One animal study found SEM interfered with testosterone regulation in both male and female rats. Another found it can impair the male reproductive system, affecting sperm in mice even at low doses. Animal studies have also linked SEM exposure to potential damage in other organs, including the heart, liver and kidneys.

Find out more

Learn more about recommendations relating to ADA – and the full EWG Dirty Dozen™ list of food chemicals – on EWG’s research page.

EWG’s Food Scores provides ratings for more than 150,000 foods and drinks based on nutrition, ingredients and processing concerns. Food Scores flags unhealthy ultra-processed foods to help you identify alternatives.

EWG’s free, searchable Skin Deep® cosmetic database helps to identify harmful chemicals in personal care and beauty products. EWG Verified® products meet EWG’s strictest criteria for ingredient transparency and health.

And the Healthy Living app lets you take these tools with you on the go.

Areas of Focus Food Ultra-Processed Foods Food Chemicals Authors Sarah Reinhardt, MPH, RDN Dayna de Montagnac, MPH August 5, 2026

In the middle of a hot afternoon, between the glistening ocean and pristine white sands, I walk my wagon along the shoreline. Within the wagon is my umbrella, beach chair, binoculars, a camera, a...

The conversation around data centers in Eastern Kentucky has rapidly picked up pace since we first wrote about them in November 2025 and looked at the Kentucky General Assembly’s proposals in March of this year. To help our community members and local leaders better understand the landscape, we have compiled the resource list below. This list includes Eastern Kentucky counties with current data center moratoriums, resources from partner organizations, notable projects, and feedback from elected officials. 

Mountain Association believes in community-led, transparent data center development that recognizes the importance of community benefits agreements between developers and local government. 

In-depth resources about data center development and impact: 

Data Center Development Considerations for Kentucky Communities [Blueprint Kentucky] 

The Rapid Growth of Data Centers [Kentucky Conservation Committee] 

See where data center developers are looking to build in Kentucky [Kentucky Lantern] 

Data centers in Kentucky: Resources & Information [Kentucky Resources Council] 

The largest two electrical providers in the region’s pages on data centers: 

East Kentucky Power Cooperative: Data Centers 

Kentucky Power: Data Centers Help Support Long-Term Affordability 

As of August 2026, ten out of fifty-four Appalachian counties in Kentucky have passed data center moratoriums. 

Adair | Six-month halt on data centers in effect in City of Columbia [July 8, 2026] 

Bell | Bell County passes data center moratorium, halting construction for 2 years [July 2, 2026] 

Boyd | Boyd County freezes new data centers for six months, but EastPark project is exempt [July 10, 2026] 

Edmonson | Edmonson County Fiscal Court Enacts One-Year Moratorium on New Data Centers, AI Facilities, and Crypto Mining Operations [June 8, 2026] 

Greenup | Greenup County places moratorium on data centers — Hall on TeraWulf, not included in the pause: ‘We would not do anything to harm this county’ [July 17, 2026] 

Laurel | London City Council passes 2-year data center moratorium [August 3, 2026] 

Letcher | County orders two-year halt on data centers [July 22, 2026] 

Metcalfe | Data Center Moratorium Passed [July 27, 2026] 

Nicholas | The Court approved a one-year moratorium on data centers and windmills in Nicholas County [July 10, 2026] 

Russell | Update from Mayor Simpson Regarding Data Center Moratorium in Russell [July 10, 2026] 

Notable Projects: 

Boyd County: TeraWulf announces plans to build data center in Boyd County, Kentucky [WCHS / May 27, 2026] 

Boyd/Greenup County: Kentucky’s biggest data center project to date eyes former steel mill [Courier Journal / July 22, 2206] 

Letcher County: Eastern KY officials sign secretive deal with data center venture to explore off-grid power [Herald Leader / July 16, 2026] 

Pike County: City leaders evaluating proposed data center in Pikeville, Ky. [WCHS / June 23, 2026] 

News related to the Kentucky General Assembly’s and data centers:  

OPINION: KENTUCKY CAN LEAD ON DATA CENTERSWITHOUT LEAVING COMMUNITIES BEHIND [Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers (R-Manchester) / August 3, 2026] 

Is Kentucky About to Give Billions in Tax Breaks to Data Centers? [KyPolicy / July 23, 2026] 

The post Data Center Resources for Kentuckians appeared first on Mountain Association.

To help fight rising militarism and advocate for strong public services and peace, use these resources as organizing tools to start conversations and spread the word: fund public services, not war!

The post RESOURCES: Fund public services, not war! first appeared on Spring.

By Benito Müller, Anju Sharma, Jen Allan, Matthias Roesti and Luis Gomez-Echeverri.

Every November, tens of thousands of people descend on the world’s annual UN climate conference. Presidents and prime ministers, negotiators, business executives, campaigners, journalists, celebrities and lobbyists converge on one city for two frenetic weeks, all convinced they need to be there.

Everyone with a stake in climate action feels they must be present. Any suggestion of a smaller, more focused conference is quickly met with concerns about exclusion. But it is time to ask an uncomfortable question: has the fear of missing out (FOMO) become one of the biggest obstacles to effective international climate cooperation?

The story in numbers

When governments first met under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the 1990s, the annual Conferences of the Parties (COPs) attracted only a few thousand participants. Even the Kyoto conference, which produced the first legally binding emissions agreement, hosted fewer than 10,000 people.

Since then, analysis by ecbi reveals a striking trend: after each major treaty COP, the participation at the next COP approximately doubled (see chart below).

Why?

Part of the answer is success. As climate change has risen up the political and economic agenda, more actors quite rightly want to engage. But our analysis reveals that a less acknowledged force is also driving the spikes in participation: FOMO.

As more heads of state attended, ministers concluded they had to be there too. As ministers arrived in greater numbers, government delegations expanded. Businesses, investors, researchers, campaigners, journalists, city leaders and philanthropies reached the same conclusion: if everyone important is going to COP, we cannot afford to stay away.

The result is a self-reinforcing cycle. The larger COP becomes, the more indispensable attendance appears, because presence signals relevance.

Source: Müller, B., J. Allan, M. Roesti and L. Gomez-Echeverri, 2024 UPDATE Quo Vadis COP? Future Arrangements for Intergovernmental Meetings under the UNFCCC – Settled and Fit for Purpose, Oxford, OCP/ecbi, December 2024

The negotiating community has barely grown

The headline attendance figures tell only part of the story. At COP28, more than 42,000 Party badges were issued to official national delegations. However, only 1,581 delegates had also attended the technical negotiating session in Bonn just five months earlier. Fewer than 4% of Party delegates formed the core negotiating community.

This core negotiating community has remained remarkably stable: across the five COPs since Paris, between roughly 1,300 and 1,600 delegates consistently attended both the June negotiating session and the annual COP.

The negotiating community has not become twenty times larger, but the COP has.

One COP, three different events

Today’s COP has, in fact, evolved into three very different events rolled into one.

The first is the formal negotiating session, where governments agree rules, guidance and decisions under the Convention and the Paris Agreement.

The second is a global political summit, where leaders announce initiatives and demonstrate political commitment.

The third is a vast climate expo, where businesses, cities, researchers, financial institutions and civil society showcase solutions, build partnerships and engage the public.

Each of them serves a valuable purpose, but the problem is that they have become bundled together by historical accident rather than institutional design.

Comment: The UN climate process was built for negotiation – now it must support implementation

Bigger is not always better

The consequences of “mega-COPs” are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

The countries most vulnerable to climate change are increasingly less able to host COPs and thus lose the ability to have their voices properly heard. Hosting a modern COP now requires enormous financial resources, extensive security operations and accommodation capacity that many countries simply do not possess. Even wealthier nations have become more reluctant to take on the burden.

Inside the venue, size creates its own inefficiencies. Climate negotiations often advance through informal conversations: a chance meeting in a corridor, a discussion over coffee, an impromptu conversation between delegates who discover common ground. Those opportunities become rarer when participants spend hours navigating enormous venues and crowded security checkpoints.

Comment: COP presidencies should focus less on climate policy, more on global politics

Observer access is constrained by overcrowding. National delegations increasingly include large numbers of non-government participants, sometimes outnumbering officials from government ministries. Meanwhile, businesses, campaigners and journalists compete with negotiators for the same space and attention.

The very scale of the event also creates a reputational problem. A gathering of 60,000 or more people inevitably creates expectations of dramatic political breakthroughs every year. Yet much of today’s climate diplomacy involves steady, technical progress. When those quieter achievements are judged against the expectations generated by a mega-event, disappointment in the UN climate change process becomes almost inevitable.

Time to unbundle

Not everything must happen in the same place at the same time. Negotiations, political leadership and implementation partnerships each deserve their own space. They should become separate events.

Routine governing body sessions, involving the roughly 5,000 participants directly engaged in the formal process, could be held in Bonn, where the UN climate secretariat is based. Political summits could be convened separately when leaders’ intervention is genuinely needed. Climate expos could continue to rotate with the COP Presidency, providing dedicated opportunities for businesses, investors, cities, researchers and civil society to showcase solutions and forge partnerships.

Such an approach would strengthen, not weaken, participation. Negotiators would benefit from a more focused and effective working environment. Host countries would face a far more manageable logistical and financial challenge. Climate-vulnerable countries would once again have a realistic opportunity to host key meetings and shape the global agenda. Businesses, investors, cities and civil society would gain greater visibility by engaging in forums designed for partnership, innovation and implementation, rather than competing with formal negotiations for space and attention.

Comment: Not another COP-out: We must rewrite the rules of the UN climate talks

Today’s mega-COPs evolved incrementally, one seemingly sensible decision at a time, until their sheer scale began to undermine many of the objectives they were intended to serve. The fear of missing out now risks becoming one of the biggest barriers to the reforms needed to make the process more effective.

The greatest fear now is not missing out on the next COP, but missing the opportunity to redesign the process so it can deliver on its ultimate purpose: tackling the climate crisis.

Benito Müller is managing director of Oxford Climate Policy and director of the European Capacity Building Initiative (ecbi).

Anju Sharma is a climate policy specialist with Oxford Climate Policy.

Jen Allan is a senior Lecturer at Cardiff University and strategic advisor at the International Institute for Sustainable Development. 

Matthias Roesti is a postdoctoral researcher studying the political economy of climate change at the University of Pennsylvania’s Environmental Politics Lab.

Luis Gomez-Echeverri is a former senior staff member with UNDP and UNFCCC and currently an emeritus research scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, working at the intersection of climate and development.

The post Is FOMO undermining climate diplomacy? appeared first on Climate Home News.

Organized by the Netzwerk für Kommunalismus

30 July, 2026
Eleanor Finley, Ph.D.

Twenty years ago today, the world said goodbye to one of its most important visionary thinkers, Murray Bookchin. I was asked here today to share about Murray’s contributions to today’s social movements and how his work resonates with young people. That theme raises some topics that are probably obvious to folks who would come to an event like this: the Rojava Revolution in Northern Syria or municipalismo in Southern Europe. However, rather than giving another overview of these well-known movements, I want to focus on the latter part of this question on the meaning of his work today and in the future.

It is true that the political philosophy of confederal direct democracy that Bookchin helped author is quietly spreading across the world. Where I live in the United States, people’s assemblies and similar formations like neighborhood or tenants’ unions inspired by Bookchin are coordinating support for families hunted by ICE, resisting the implementation of “FLOCK” street camera surveillance systems, and responding to climate emergencies. These formations are not easy to find online, in part because they focus on real, face-to-face relationships between neighbors. In this way, they are really taking Bookchin seriously.

Bookchin is also leaving his mark on more managerial and reform-minded movements, which are now increasingly acknowledging the value of local action. Progressive parties and campaigns in cities like New York City, Seattle, and Washington, DC are prioritizing public investment, regulation, and service provisioning at the city level. In this context, Bookchin reminds us that localism is more than just a means to an end. As he wrote in his piece The Forms of Freedom in 1968, “The assembly and community cannot be legislated or decreed into existence.” Freedom cannot be legislated from above.

Despite the great importance of communalist politics, I believe that perhaps the most salient contribution Bookchin’s work makes today for young people is providing a compelling defense of humanity. Young people today will endure climate-induced social, economic, and political dislocations that nearly everyone from previous generations has found unimaginable.

The same young people are experiencing an unprecedented collapse of critical thinking, attention spans, and logical coherence because of addictive algorithmic echnology. For twenty years, tech firms have forced their addictive products into schools, homes, restaurants, and everywhere in between. We are seeing the cumulative effect of this unregulated onslaught today, with universities inundated with young people who cannot compose a paragraph or analyze a simple text. Just a few days ago, we learned that AI companies are rapidly purchasing the world’s inventory of rare and out-of-print books in order to feed them to their databases and destroy them. The message is clear: the frontline of struggle has moved onto the terrain of the human mind and imagination.

Bookchin’s philosophy drives away the mist. It reminds us that the human mind will never be inferior to some corporate product. When you look back on his writing from the 1980s, for all of its flaws, he is like a Sarah Connor about to face the proverbial Terminator; grim, but determined. His weapons were arguments and reasons why humanity matters – not simply on moral grounds, but ecological grounds – not simply for economic liberation but for liberation of all life on Earth.

Through Murray’s writing, young people are able to converse with a singular mind who had the intelligence and courage to assert the impossible and fight the unthinkable. And when they do this, they gain courage. That is what I see among my students at the Institute for Social Ecology, the readers of my book Practicing Social Ecology, and the courageous activists organizing assemblies in their hometowns.

They know that the unthinkable has already arrived. Many begin their lives from a place of hopelessness and resignation. But through social ecology, through Murray’s and our work, they come to better understand their own historical agency. His work shines a rare light on the fact that there is not only a capitalist world worth fighting against, but also a genuinely liberated world worth fighting toward. There is nothing more precious than that for the young people of our time.

The post Remarks delivered to the International tribute to Murray Bookchin on the 20th anniversary of his death appeared first on Institute for Social Ecology.

Today, in a partisan split, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance Todd Blanche’s nomination for Attorney General on Tuesday, setting the stage for a floor vote to confirm him to the post.

In response, Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert issued the following statement:

“There is a single barrier left to the confirmation of Trump crony Todd Blanche: the Senate floor.

“Senators must urgently do the right thing and block Blanche. The consequences of inaction here are crystal clear. If we make Todd Blanche America’s lawyer at the head of the Justice Department, we are accepting a man who has been tasked with implementing Donald Trump’s revenge agenda.

“A man placed by Trump in this role only because the previous head of the DOJ wasn’t implementing his corrupt personal prosecutions fast enough.

“A man who rubberstamped the corrupt IRS deal that Trump made with himself to shield all the Trumps and their businesses, not only from enforcement of any taxes they may have dodged or any fines or payments they may owe to American taxpayers, but from ‘any and all’ related consequences for violating any federal criminal or civil law.

“A man who led the Epstein cover-up. Who was dismissive and negligent toward trafficking victims despite the nation’s intense outrage at Epstein’s crimes and in the face of these women’s ongoing advocacy to make clear how his horrific actions have impacted their lives.

“And it doesn’t stop there., A vote for Blanche is also literally a blank check to give money to January 6th insurrectionists or other cronies, whether through a revived slush fund or directly from the Judgement Fund. We have seen him act in this manner as recently as last week, when he facilitated a 7-figure settlement for a pardoned abortion clinic protester.

“We know exactly what type of Attorney General Mr. Blanche will be: Corrupt, toadying, and focused on one goal: defense of Donald J. Trump. It is a matter of morality, Senators of both parties must stand in his way and block his confirmation on the floor.”

¡Chino García, Presente!
By Dan Chodorkoff

A hero has passed. Carlos “Chino” García died Friday, July 24th. Chino was a teacher, a leader, and an
inspiration to generations of activists on New York’s Lower East Side. He and Bimbo Rivas coined the
name Loisaida for their neighborhood. He was a force to be reckoned with. At age 16 he became
warlord for the Cheyennes, a Lower East Side street gang, but by the time he was 18 he had moved out
of gang life to found The Real Great Society, a grassroots organization dedicated to helping his
community. He went on to co-found CHARAS, a community development organization that helped to
spark the sweat equity urban homesteading movement, in which collectives seized abandoned buildings,
initially as squatters, and using their own labor, rehabbed the buildings into low income tenants co-
operatives some of which demonstrated the first urban application of solar energy. They were taught to
build domes by Buckminster Fuller. CHARAS also built numerous community gardens, a cultural plaza
(La Plaza Cultural), a neighborhood recycling center, and in 1974 they took over a school that had been
abandoned by the city and created CHARAS/El Bohio, a community center that served the neighborhood
until it was auctioned off by Rudy Giuliani, leading to a twenty year battle to regain the space for
community use.

Chino was tireless in his work to create an effective counterforce to the city bureaucracy, organizing quarterly “town meetings” where activists marshaled their forces to oppose the city’s redevelopment plans for their neighborhood, counterposing alternatives that focused on open space, community controlled housing, and ecological approaches to energy and food production. He was amazing organizer who was able to rally people around him and, using a combination of protest, direct action, and political organizing achieved great things, His work had a transformational impact on Loisaida, in terms of both the physical and cultural environment. His community meant everything to Chino, who was known to many as the “Mayor” of Loisaida. His generosity was legendary. He would walk through Tompkins Square Park checking to see that unhoused folk were alright, often providing them with a place to stay if they needed one. He battled police brutality and corrupt politicians , He was always there for others when they needed help, and his positivity and energy sustained the movement through difficult times. From the mid-1980’s on much of the movement’s energy was devoted to anti-gentrification work where, once again, Chino took a leadership role

He was great friend of the ISE for over 50 years. We began to work together in 1974. The ISE was deeply involved in alternative technologies like solar and wind power as well as ecological agriculture and aquaculture. We were approached by Chino to help provide technical assistance for some of their projects. A strong relationship developed and over the years we sent brigades of students to assist with CHARAS projects in New York, and Chino and others came to Vermont to help us build domes and teach us about their approach to community organizing. It was a truly reciprocal relationship based in mutual respect and affection. We were lucky to have Chino agree to serve on our Board; unfortunately he became ill shortly after joining. He struggled for many years with congestive heart failure, spending the last several years of his life in and out of hospitals and rehab centers, but he never lost his optimism and his sense of hope, with which he continued to inspire others, even from his hospital bed. Chino will be sorely missed by his community, those of us at the ISE, and his many friends from around the world. La lucha continua. Chino, rest in peace and power.

The post Remembering our friend and comrade Carlos “Chino” Garcia appeared first on Institute for Social Ecology.

Another day, another threat to America’s public lands and Utah’s wild places. The Trump administration is now undertaking a sweeping review of existing policies on the management of designated wilderness, wilderness study areas, and wilderness-quality lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. These policies provide crucial protection and clear management direction for millions of acres of public land across the nation, including more than 7 million acres of BLM-managed land in Utah.

The Interior Department is accepting public comments through Friday, August 14. Tell the Department to uphold existing policies protecting wilderness and wilderness-quality lands.

You can probably guess why this is happening. True to the Trump administration’s pattern of anti-conservation initiatives and actions, the review is intended to reduce management requirements and weaken protections for designated wilderness and other wilderness-quality lands, clearing the way for increased extraction, development, and expanded off-road vehicle use on some of the nation’s remaining wild public lands. In Utah, this includes spectacular landscapes at the heart of redrock country—places like Fisher Towers, Grand Gulch, White Canyon, Robbers Roost, and the Vermillion Cliffs.

While the Trump administration is fixated on sacrificing our remaining wild places to corporate interests and destructive uses, they underestimate the importance and value of these places to the American public. The desire to see these wild public lands protected crosses political boundaries.

Wilderness and wilderness-quality lands are some of the most cherished places for families to camp, hike, sightsee, hunt, and fish. They provide clean air and water, critical habitat for wildlife, and endless opportunities for rejuvenation and human-powered recreation. For all of these reasons and more, it’s crucial that we manage our last wild landscapes in a way that preserves their wilderness character for future generations.

Click here to submit your comments by the August 14 deadline

The post Take Action to Protect Wilderness and Wilderness-Quality Lands appeared first on Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

Socialists call for workers to have control over how society is run. Marx said it best: “Democracy is the road to socialism.” In that vein,...

The post Tobias Lütke’s hatred of democracy shows why we need more of it first appeared on Spring.

Today, Republicans on the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary voted to advance Todd Blanche’s nomination to be U.S. Attorney General to the full Senate.

Stand Up America’s Managing Director of Policy & Political Affairs, Brett Edkins, issued the following statement on Blanche’s confirmation:

“Every Senate Judiciary Republican just endorsed Todd Blanche’s extreme agenda for the Department of Justice: politically motivated prosecutions of the president’s perceived enemies, defending and giving taxpayer-funded settlements to January 6th insurrectionists, burying the Epstein files, and shielding Trump and his family from the IRS.

“Now it’s up to the full Senate. Are there still Republicans willing to stand up to the president—willing to say they’re against weaponizing the Justice Department, against shielding Trump and his family from accountability, and against protecting predators in the Epstein files? The Senate doesn’t need unanimous courage to block Blanche—it needs a few Republicans willing to put country over party.”

This article How creativity — and children — have kept Albania’s revolution alive was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

It was on the third day of the revolution that the mood changed. Once again, many thousands of Albanians had descended on Tirana’s central square after work. Once again, the speeches and banners were focused on stopping a wild and legally protected coastline from being razed for a luxury resort. But this time the vibe was tense. Some people had entered the crowd who were angry, screaming abuses and trying to set fire to the placards. 

Ilir Kaso, an artist and lecturer at Tirana University of Arts, stood nearby with his two daughters, aged 11 and seven. “My daughters were very frightened. My youngest asked to leave the protest, and so we did,” recalled Kaso. But as they emerged from the crowd, they found themselves facing what Kaso describes as “the flamingo group,” a collection of a hundred or so protesters wielding pink flamingo banners and a few pink polystyrene flamingos on poles. “‘Papa look, flamingos, let’s go there,’ said my youngest, and immediately I understood what we had to do.”

The flamingo group was a loose coalition of artists and environmental activists based in Tirana. The partnership had first formed more than a decade earlier under the banner of “Friends of Vjosa,” a movement to stop one of Europe’s last wild rivers from being splintered by 45 hydroelectric dams. Kaso became a part of what proved to be a very successful campaign. It birthed Europe’s first Wild River National Park, and on a personal level, it transformed Kaso’s art, pulling him away from abstraction and towards nature. He and his wife named their first daughter after the river.

When trucks and bulldozers suddenly rolled into a protected part of the river’s delta in late April, and started fencing off a large section of the coastline, the coalition quickly remobilized, meeting in person and via WhatsApp groups to work out how to stop the destruction. Kaso attended the first small protests along the fence line, photographing the flattening of ancient sand dunes where turtles nested, and the laying of concrete over wetlands that host hundreds of migratory bird species, many of them endangered.

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Kaso had followed but not posted in the WhatsApp debate over which bird should be the symbol of their campaign. The environmental activists wanted one of the more threatened species to be made prominent — the Dalmatian pelican, the Northern lapwing — but the artists had decided on the flamingo, an easily recognizable bird with an iconic color and shape. After seeing how the bird had become a refuge for his frightened children, Kaso quickly started tapping out a message in the chat.

“I wrote about what happened and how we could create somewhere stationary, a shelter where we flamingos can stay all together and bring in the children, to protect them but also to expand the good vibes,” he said. “Because children have such good energy, they don’t have doubts or traumas like us. And we cannot wait for this protest to be damaged and become violent. This bad energy is going to destroy everything. We have to fight this with good energy, but by going out of the crowd.”

Kaso had experience setting up a shelter like this. During the pandemic he had helped to open and run a community school for his daughters and other young children in his area. The experience had a profound effect on how he taught his art students. After the pandemic, he rejected rigid lesson plans and formulas to be more curious and open to their ideas. “The children taught me a lot,” he said with a smile.

The artists and activists in the WhatsApp chat immediately embraced Kaso’s idea. Not only was there a shared fear of violence derailing this uprising, but the surging size of the crowds was clearly straining families. Every evening, between the speeches on the square, messages were going out over the microphone about lost children who needed to be found. On the chat, artists started offering to bring coloring pens and run drawing sessions. The next day, 20 feet of paper was laid out beside the Pyramid of Tirana, a tree-lined landmark between the square where protesters gathered and the prime minister’s office that they marched to. It was instantly flooded with grateful parents and curious children.

The Children’s Corner during an evening of protest, Tirana, July 2026. (Trivet)

The Children’s Corner, as it is now called, has become an established feature of the revolution, entertaining children for approximately three hours every evening. On busy days, more than a hundred children will sit on the ground drawing their favorite birds, singing into megaphones, or playing with flamingo placards, while a dozen adults strive to monitor activities. It has become a hub not just for families but the flamingo group itself, who use the space to synchronize their chants, strategize about their movements, and pass out their pink foam placards to fellow revolutionaries.

Kaso describes the Children’s Corner as the sun of the protest, always radiating with light, fun and good vibes. And the flamingo group has taken on the role of dispersing those vibes to the rest of the protest. When a speech has been particularly aggressive or divisive, a flamingo parade will take flight, weaving into the crowd, and then chanting, drumming and dancing to relieve the tension. Then they will return to the Children’s Corner to recharge.

“The Children’s Corner is very important for keeping this protest peaceful,” Kaso said. “I think it is our most important weapon, like a Trojan horse, against the people who want to end this protest and make it a mess. It means the police cannot throw their gas and create aggressive situations. Also for the people — we are telling them we are here with our children and our families, so we have to be careful.” 

The space has triggered an outpouring of generous donations, though much has had to be turned away. Food from strangers was considered too risky, while taking money might give the impression this was a commercial childcare service. But offers of more coloring pens and art materials have always been readily accepted.

Not everyone has welcomed the corner though. Some have accused it of diluting the revolution, of reducing it to a kind of theater, while nationalist groups have taken exception to anything connected to the flamingos, screaming “we are eagles!” (Albania is literally called “land of the eagles” in Albanian, and its flag features a double-headed black eagle.) On particularly busy days, Kaso and other volunteers have had to form human chains to stop the surging crowds from accidentally trampling the children. But each time there has been a confrontation or danger, the corner community of flamingos and parents have collectively stepped in to diffuse it.

After some 60 days of continuous protest, featuring many hundreds of thousands of Albanians packed within a few square blocks, there has been remarkably little violence. Some eggs were thrown at the cars of politicians as they entered the nearby parliament building, and some windows were broken at a local police station after six egg-throwers were pepper-sprayed, arrested and held there before being released. 

With the help of art materials and studio space from NGOs and private donors, many hundreds of pink foam flamingo banners have been produced and handed out. In the city, they’ve started to function like a pride flag, a marker stuck outside bars and cafés to show solidarity with the revolution. “Most of the time we connect revolution to war and destruction and going back,” Kaso said, “but this is a big lesson for us about how we can think about a revolution. And the children are the most important part to teach us this.”

Corporate aggression backfires

Besjana Guri is tired. She started our interview by getting a date wrong by a decade and then laughing. The environmental activist has attended every day of the revolution so far, using a projector to screen rousing flamingo-themed videos on the wall of the prime minister’s office. “If you ever think of not going once, you feel you are betraying the protest. You have to go,” she said.

Guri co-led the award-winning campaign that turned the river Vjosa into a national park, and a year ago she founded Lumi (which means river in Albanian), a small organization focused on empowering women and children to protect their local environment. Two days before the Vjosa’s delta was turned into a construction site, Guri had been meeting with women in the nearby village of Zvërnec to discuss the threat to the region and organize a response.

The real flamingos, enjoying the shallow lagoons of Vjosa-Narta. (PPNEA)

The delta region where the Vjosa River meets the Adriatic Sea is mesmerizingly beautiful — a delicate tapestry of salt marshes, lagoons and forests. Known as Vjosa-Narta, the government awarded the coastal area full protection status in 2017. But over the last decade, as Prime Minister Edi Rama has cemented his grip over Albania’s politics, that protection has been stripped back and caveated to the point of being meaningless. 

In 2018, Vjosa-Narta’s protected status was downgraded to allow an old military base within it to become a (still unfinished) airport. “The airport was the tip of the iceberg,” said Xhemal Xherri, a project manager at Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania, or PPNEA. “We always knew that somehow this airport would bring resorts to the area.”

Then in 2024, the law enforcing the protection was amended to allow the government to essentially overrule it if an opportunity was lucrative enough. A month later, Jared Kushner, son-in-law of the U.S. president, shared designs on Instagram for a huge luxury development along the coastline. Then in January of this year, the villagers in Zvërnec found themselves under virtual house arrest while Ivanka Trump, Kushner’s wife, toured the area with a troupe of architects, business associates and security guards.

But when the trucks rolled into Vjosa-Narta in late April, it was still a shock. Albanian law required public consultations, an environmental assessment and various government permits to be awarded before construction could begin. The law no longer appeared to matter. Within a week, a coalition of environmental organizations had sent representatives to document the damage as access roads were crudely carved into the pristine coastline. A week after that came the first protest. 

By the time Guri and a hundred other activists and villagers had converged on the vast construction site, it had been enclosed by a fence which ran right into the sea. Watching them from the other side of the fence was one elderly security guard, and a few bored police officers. The men eventually agreed to open a gate and let the protesters inspect some of the damage. “They thought we were just ecoactivists, we were harmless,” Guri remembered.

Before the protest finished, some villagers insisted on toppling over a small section of the fence — a symbol of their disgust. For them, this was not just about land destruction but land ownership. Their community had lived on this coast for generations, yet the land had been sold to Kushner by a Florida-based real estate mogul with links to cocaine-trafficking and document forgery. Some families had spent 20 years in court battling over the ownership of the land, and despite there being no legal resolution, they were suddenly being denied access to it. For now though, the fence was flimsy. It could be pushed over using body weight alone. 

When the protesters returned the next Saturday, the fence and the whole mood was different. Now the barrier was concrete-based, and topped with thick curls of barbed wire. Looking through it were dozens of muscular private security guards, dressed all in black, faces obscured by sunglasses, baseball caps and masks. As the protesters marched along the fence they were shadowed by a column of police officers. “The feeling was not good,” Guri said. “It felt like there were terrorists here, people who wanted to scare and intimidate us.”

The first protest by the fenced-off construction site at Vjosa-Narta in May. (PPNEA)

It was during the protest on the third Saturday that the intimidation turned to violence. The protesters had marched along the barrier to the beach, and with the tide low, an area of sand had been exposed that was blocked only by barbed wire. A lone villager ignored the warnings of the guards and carefully stepped over it. He was instantly pounced upon by the men in black, who wrestled him to the ground, punched him in the face and dragged him away by his arms across the beach. Another masked guard then fired pepper spray into the angry crowd, blinding both the protesters and the strangely passive line of police officers between them.

Guri was not able to attend the protest that day, but like hundreds of thousands of others, she watched a video of the assault on social media a few hours later. “Everyone that saw that moment, it was really a feeling that they were the ones being dragged,” she said, her eyes closed. Online, the video was being paired with rallying songs and nationalist poetry, and it was spreading like wildfire, well beyond the networks of activists, artists and villagers who were attending the protests. By the next day, a poster was circulating alongside it, headlined “Albania is not for sale!” It called for a protest in Tirana’s central square at 6 p.m. that evening.

Kaso arrived at the protest early so he could take photographs as people arrived. “I was physically trembling when I saw this huge group of people approaching,” he recalled. “It was amazing. A mix of responsibility and euphoria. A feeling that another chapter is coming. I never imagined all these years of fighting for nature and the river could be so helpful.” Guri was late, after spending her Sunday in a village outside Tirana, then hitting heavy traffic. “When I got there, I saw — I cannot count how many people. But for sure 600 people and more. I haven’t seen a bigger protest in the last 10 years for an environmental issue,” she said.

Guri was so inspired she later spoke to the crowd: “I said it took us 10 years to protect the Vjosa river and finalize the national park, but if we continue like this, we will only need 10 days to cancel this project and save the Narta.” With the speeches wrapped up, and the protest coming to an end, a chant built up among the crowd: “See you tomorrow, tomorrow more.” The template for a revolution had been set. 

The flamingo group brings the prime minister a concrete birthday cake in Tirana in July. The sign on the top: “Long Prison Sentence For You!” (Trivet)

“The protest kept growing every day. For the first few weeks it was only growing. Not only ecoactivists but all types of people. And the majority was young people,” Guri said. “They came with banners and funny memes and interesting quotes. Then we added the element of the flamingos. That’s when the creativity began, and the creativity has really kept this protest alive.”

Building an anti-corruption revolution

Xhemal Xherri of PPNEA, along with all the activists I’ve spoken to, is adamant that the Flamingo Revolution has no leaders, that it is a spontaneous and amorphous movement featuring a patchwork of groups unified by a love of nature. The closest it comes to forming an agenda is when the crowd cheers or jeers after a speech. But PPNEA has been quietly instrumental in preparing the soil from which this revolution has bloomed, and building the relationships that could lead to its eventual success.

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PPNEA was the country’s first environmental organization, established as it was transitioning away from communist dictatorship in 1991. The group took the government to court over irregularities in the airport construction contracts (the case is ongoing), and has been organizing protests against the exploitation of Vjosa-Narta for years. As Albania’s politicians were voting in the law change that meant Kushner’s luxury resorts could turn from CGI dream to reality, a hundred PPNEA activists were protesting outside parliament to condemn them.

The day before the first protest outside the construction site, for which PPNEA brought in bus-loads of Tirana-based activists, the organization invited a delegation of EU diplomats to witness the destruction firsthand. A month later, a PPNEA representative was in Strasbourg, France as the European Parliament voted in a resolution condemning the change to Albania’s law on protected areas, and making its repeal a non-negotiable condition of Albania’s accession to the EU. 

Six Green members of the European Parliament then attended the protests in Tirana at the end of June, making stridently pro-revolution speeches that were adored by the crowds. Just days earlier, Prime Minister Rama had explained to a Euronews journalist how officials in his government were “fanatics of the EU faith” who would do “whatever it takes” to gain membership. The country has been seeking candidature and tirelessly negotiating its way into the bloc since 2009. 

Despite this powerful endorsement from the EU, the fanatical Rama has not softened his stance on the protesters. From the beginning he has dismissed their concerns as delusional, the product of a coordinated online disinformation campaign by Iran, which he claims has simultaneously targeted both Albania and Israel as the two countries deepen their diplomatic ties.

But for Xherri, the reason social media algorithms have been promoting the Flamingo Revolution is not because of foreign interference, but simply because everybody in the capital is going to the square and posting about it. This includes many Albanian social media influencers, who have been privately requesting briefings from PPNEA on Vjosa-Narta, and amplifying the organization’s posts to new audiences.

A flamingo parade moves through the crowd dispensing positive vibes in Tirana in July. (Trivet)

Construction of the resort has been quietly paused, and the barbed wire fence has been removed, but so far the government has conceded nothing. Even if Rama were to repeal the law change that triggered this revolt, and consign Kushner’s project to the dustbin of history, it is unlikely to be enough to placate the people now surging through the city every evening. As the crowds have grown, so too have their demands. Today the protesters are just as likely to chant for both Rama and the leader of the opposition to be put in jail for corruption, as they are to call for nature to be protected. 

Over the last few weeks, the numbers out protesting have stabilized, with a few thousand marching each week night, and the crowds ballooning again at the weekends, especially now that Albania’s sizable diaspora is returning to be a part of the revolution. The activists I talk to are all confident that the government will eventually yield, and the law will be repealed. 

But when it comes to winning wider political changes, Kaso references a so far isolated incident, early in the revolution, where a group of protesters spontaneously marched out of the city and blocked a highway leading to the country’s main airport for several hours. 

“The people have shown the prime minister how this protest can be escalated. Maybe one or two hundred people, which is nothing for this protest, could block the entrance of the highway which connects the city to the airport, and stay there for 24 hours, which is going to be a big loss for travel companies,” he said. “​​I don’t want to see everything escalate in a dangerous way, but if necessary we don’t only have to be creative in aesthetic ways — with posters and colors and children. We can do it in other ways.”

For now though, the flamingo group are continuing to power this protest with pink placards, good vibes and children drawing their favorite birds. And no matter what happens next, Kaso is happy. “For me the revolution has already been successful,” he said. “It’s already changed a lot. If tomorrow we are not going in the road anymore, I know very well that life in Albania is not going to be the same.”

This article How creativity — and children — have kept Albania’s revolution alive was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

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Heatwaves are becoming more likely and more intense due to climate change, impacting sources of power generation around the world as they work to meet increased demand.

When temperatures soared past 40C in parts of Europe in June and July 2026, nuclear reactors shuttered, gas plants’ efficiency fell, wind speeds dropped and electricity networks sagged.

Yet, while all types of electricity generation are affected variously by extreme heat, some commentators are quick to point the finger at “intermittent” wind and solar, while downplaying the impact on sources such as gas or nuclear power.

Extreme heat also drives up electricity demand, as people turn on air conditioning and fridges work harder. 

For example, in France, daily electricity demand rose by almost 20% during a two-week heatwave in June 2026. 

This often leads to an increase in power prices, as generation strains and demand rises, putting a premium on electricity. 

Below, Carbon Brief – amid a slew of misleading claims – explains how key power sources cope with extreme heat. 

• Nuclear
• Gas
• Wind
• Solar
• Storage

Nuclear

The impact of heatwaves on nuclear power generation is well documented, with a plethora of headlines often accompanying record temperatures in nations that rely on the technology. 

For example, around 70% of electricity is generated by nuclear power in France, leaving it vulnerable to the impacts of heatwaves. 

During the July 2026 heatwave, three of France’s 57 nuclear reactors had to shut down. Generation was reduced at another seven, causing an almost 9% dip in power production. 

(This is a well-known phenomenon – France has seen reductions in nuclear generation due to heatwaves in 2003, 2006, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2025.)

A similar story is true across various countries in Europe. Low river levels on the Danube have hit nuclear reactors in Romania and Hungary this summer, while a Swiss nuclear reactor shuttered due to high river temperatures.

It is nuclear plants using river water to cool their reactors that are most significantly affected by heatwaves and droughts. These make up 14% of the global fleet. Around 60 of the world’s 440 reactors use once-through river cooling, of which eight are in France.

Nuclear power plants use fission to generate heat, which is used to create steam. This steam spins the blades of a turbine that is connected to a generator to create electricity. 

Following this process, the water is cooled to allow it to be recycled back through the system as steam again. Nuclear power plants generally use water from rivers or the sea to help cool and condense this steam. 

As such, when water temperatures rise due to a heatwave, their cooling capacity is reduced and the overall efficiency of the nuclear power station is affected. Similarly, if there is less water available due to drought, they cannot be cooled as effectively. 

Michael Tadrous, a researcher at McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business in Canada, tells Carbon Brief that the “impact [of heatwaves] is real, but it is far smaller than many headlines suggest” and that the “effect [of heat] is gradual”. He adds: 

“Warmer intake water makes a reactor slightly less efficient. [But] even an extreme 15C rise in cooling-water temperature would cost a large reactor only about 6% of its output. 

“The real pressure point during a heatwave is usually legal rather than technical. Plants return their cooling water to the river a few degrees warmer than they drew it and the law limits how warm that water may be in order to protect aquatic life.” 

Henry Preston, a spokesperson for the industry body the World Nuclear Association, adds that reactor shutdowns due to high river temperatures are “typically an automatic response to comply with regulations to protect local ecosystems, rather than a technological fault”.

He notes that in some extreme heatwaves, these regulations are waived given the “essential need for electricity and taking a proportional approach to climate risks”. 

While nuclear power plants can generally return to standard operation quickly if they have been affected by high water temperatures, drought can cause a more significant impact. 

Preston tells Carbon Brief: 

“In contrast to high river temperatures, which can quickly return to acceptable levels once a heatwave passes, low river levels can persist for much longer, if drought conditions continue. As a result, low water levels may have a more prolonged impact on plant operations than elevated water temperatures.”

This is set to be the case in the current European drought, where multiple reactors in Hungary and Romania have shut down or reduced their output due to low water levels.

The Danube is not expected to return to normal water levels for “days or even weeks as no significant rainfall is forecast”, reported the Associated Press on 3 August 2026. It said this was “push[ing] some countries in eastern Europe to the brink of energy emergency”.

According to data company Montel, on Monday 3 August, around 2.44GW or 40% of south-east Europe’s nuclear capacity was offline due to drought in the Danube.

Similarly, on Monday, as much as 12% of the French nuclear fleet was offline due to heat-related reasons, although that had been expected to drop to 7% by Tuesday. 

While heatwaves and drought can produce significant short-term effects, their impact on the availability of nuclear power across a full year is generally minimal. 

On average, heatwaves cut annual nuclear generation by 0.6% between 2003 and 2022, according to a recent study that Tadrous co-authored.

He adds that, across the whole period studied, the only time a national nuclear fleet lost more than 1% of its nuclear power over a year to heat- and drought-related curtailments was France in 2003, which lost 1.3%. 

According to an article in Forbes, for every additional degree Celsius in temperature, a nuclear power plant loses around 0.6-1% in cycle efficiency. 

However, nuclear power’s exposure to heatwaves can prove particularly challenging given the large capacity of individual plants and the central role it plays in certain nations’ energy systems. 

For example, Romania’s only nuclear power plant, at Cernavodă, is responsible for 20% of the nation’s electricity generation. Therefore, the impact of low river levels in the Danube is having a particularly acute impact on Romania’s energy security.

To minimise the impact on both energy security and costs, governments and nuclear companies are looking at a range of solutions to adapt to heatwaves.

For example, French nuclear-plant operator EDF is looking at additional cooling towers for its sites that are the most exposed to the impacts of a warming climate, reported Bloomberg recently.

Tadrous says the nuclear power industry is already adapting to heatwaves that are “more frequent and more intense”, adding:  

“France’s river-cooled fleet lost 5.5 terawatt hours (TWh) of output to the 2003 heatwave. By 2022, one of the most severe heat-and-drought summers on record, losses had fallen to 0.5TWh, a reduction of roughly 90%, as utilities upgraded cooling systems, refined operating practices and scheduled maintenance around periods of extreme heat.” 

There remain challenges for adapting nuclear power – and the wider electricity systems in which it sits – to heatwaves. However, Tadrous notes that this is less about “technical feasibility than of economic prioritisation and timely implementation”. 

Gas

Gas power plants have a reputation for being reliable and able to switch on at any moment, sometimes referred to as “firm, dispatchable” capacity.

Yet, as a type of thermal generation, they are subject to many of the same stresses during heatwaves as nuclear power. 

An article by the science advocacy organisation Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) notes that the “purported ability of gas plants to be available at all times to generate electricity, particularly when the grid needs it most, is increasingly under scrutiny” due to heatwaves.

As a matter of physics, the efficiency of gas power plants drops as temperatures rise. At 40C, a gas-fired power station can expect its capacity to be reduced by 13% and its efficiency by 7% compared to when running at 20C, according to Electric Insights. 

Dr Iain Staffell, associate professor in sustainable energy at Imperial College London, tells Carbon Brief: 

“Simple gas turbines (the kind which turn on rapidly to meet peak demand) are hit harder [than solar, for example], with their power output falling by about 10% per 10C.”

(He adds that the transmission system struggles more than electricity generation during high temperature. Power line capacity can fall by up to 16% for a 10C rise in temperature, according to a report for the UK government.)

Several types of gas power plants require cooling as part of their process, including gas steam and combined cycle turbines (CCGTs). They usually rely on nearby bodies of water for this. 

Additionally, as the UCS article notes, hot air has a lower density than cool air. As gas CCGTs rely on burning a mix of gas and air, this lower density means air takes up more space, leaving less room for gas. 

Ultimately, this means that when the air is hot, gas power plants cannot generate as much electricity as normal. 

These effects are not just theoretical. For example, across two nights in August 2020, there were rolling blackouts in California, US, as demand exceeded supply amid a heatwave.

While a number of factors contributed to the blackouts, gas plants made up around 79% of the capacity that dropped off the system on 14 August and a similar share the following day.

Amid record-breaking heat in summer 2026, gas power plants have also seen their capacity cut in the UK, France and other countries.

Dr Staffell adds that gas power stations are thought of as “reliable, because of the way we use them” in the UK. 

Whereas  wind and solar are usually used to the maximum extent possible, he says that on average, only around 40% of the gas fleet is in use at any one time. As such, even if the efficiency of one gas power plant is affected by high temperatures, “we have a lot of slack to call on more of them to run”. He adds: 

“The issue is less that they can’t deliver, but we have to pay through the nose to persuade more to turn on at critical times, adding to sky-high energy bills.”

Wind

The impact of heatwaves on wind generation is less direct than for other technologies. 

However, wind speeds often drop during heatwaves, which tend to build during periods of sustained high pressure into extreme events such as “heat domes”. 

Dr Staffell, explains to Carbon Brief: 

“The very hottest days tend to create heat domes with very low wind speeds, which directly reduces the output that windfarms can produce. Air is also less dense the hotter it is, so it carries less energy within it, so there is a double impact on wind turbines.”

High temperatures are linked to low wind speeds across three-quarters of the globe, according to one recent study, looking at data from 1980 to 2023. 

The study found that, as a result, across Australia, northern Asia and Europe, wind power decreased by an average of 30-50% during heatwaves. 

This is inconsistent globally, however, with the Amazon, the Great Plains in North America and central Africa actually seeing a slight increase in wind during high temperatures.

As such, while the effect of heatwaves on wind generation is less direct than other generation technologies, it can have a significant impact. 

In the UK in June 2026, wind generation fell to around 15% of the electricity mix due to low wind speeds, from an average for the month of about 30%, according to Octopus. 

Low wind generation during this period was a key feature of the strain on the grid experienced during this time – in particular, as demand rose amid record-high temperatures. 

On Wednesday 24 June, for example, the National Electricity System Operator (Neso) had to pay high prices to balance supply and demand. This included paying as much as £1,400 a megawatt-hour to secure around 1.7 gigawatts (GW) of imported power, nearly 20 times the average price for electricity in June 2025. 

A Neso spokesperson said in a statement: “This is due to the impact of extremely high temperatures affecting Great Britain and the continent, and low wind.”

While reduced wind generation is common during a heatwave, it is not generally viewed as a concern for energy system operators. This is due to wind following well-established seasonal patterns – it generates less power in summer than in winter – as well as being complementary to other renewable technologies, such as solar. 

Dr Chris Rosslowe, senior energy analyst for Europe at Ember, tells Carbon Brief: 

“Power systems are less reliant on wind power in the summer months and its lower-than-average output is already expected and planned for. Heatwaves often bring still, but clear conditions, highlighting the benefit of wind and solar as a duo – poor conditions for one often mean good conditions for the other.”

As such, wind power remains one of very few technologies considered “resilient” to heatwaves by the UK government.

However, this did not stop the anti-renewables Daily Mail from attempting to blame the technology for strain on the UK grid on 24 June 2026, despite its own article acknowledging that gas plants had also been forced to cut their output by 2.5GW on the day.

Solar

Another common claim seen in the media is that solar “struggles” during heatwaves, with high temperatures pushing down the technology’s efficiency. 

Yet heatwaves tend to coincide with long, cloudless days, when solar generation is reliably above average – despite the impact of high temperatures.

While hot weather does reduce the efficiency of solar cells, the effect is relatively modest – and widely understood. Each 1C of temperature rise reduces output by around 0.4-0.5%, according to a recent study. 

This is in line with an evidence review for the UK government, which suggests the performance of solar panels falls by 0.2-0.5% for every degree of heat above 25C.

Generally, however, this effect is easily outweighed by high sunlight hours during hot spells. For example, across a four-day heatwave in the UK in June 2026, solar generated 484 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity – a 46% increase over the same period a week earlier.  

Similar generation highs were seen across Europe, amid record temperatures and dangerous heat that was pushing people towards the use of air conditioning. 

Solar generated a record 52TWh across the EU in June 2026, beating the high set just the month before of 47TWh. 

In fact, solar – especially when combined with battery storage – is a complementary technology to air conditioning, given their similar seasonal patterns. Over the course of the day, demand from air conditioning and generation from solar also marry up well. 

Dr Rosslowe says: 

“Solar, battery storage and air conditioning are a highly complementary trio of technologies during heatwaves. There’s a high overlap between solar output and demand from AC.”

For example, on the hottest day of the year so far in Great Britain (the island grid serving England, Wales and Scotland), on 26 June 2026, solar surged to 13.9GW in the middle of the afternoon, as demand also hit its highest point, as shown in the chart below. 

Generation on the 26 June in Great Britain, highlighting the match between solar power (yellow) and the demand profile for electricity (blue line). Source: Neso.

Across June 2026, homes with solar panels generated the equivalent of five hours of “free” self-supplied air conditioning, according to recent analysis.  

Despite the impact of heat on solar efficiency, the technology is, therefore, well placed to bolster energy systems during heatwaves. 

Indeed, as Dr Rosslowe tells Carbon Brief, solar suppresses power prices during daylight hours. But, even though it is predictable, there are still challenges around managing the dip in solar generation as the evening sets in. This is often compounded because it coincides with the usual evening increase in demand. 

Dr Rosslowe explains: 

“Problems arise when the sun goes down, but demand for cooling remains high. In the early evening hours, when gas power typically ramps up to replace solar, we have seen prices spike to extreme levels, made worse by high international gas prices.”

Storage

Energy storage systems are increasingly key to managing the impact of heatwaves on electricity systems. 

The category of technologies is dominated by batteries, with more than 108GW of battery storage added in 2025 alone, according to the International Energy Agency. 

Already, batteries have been used to take advantage of surges in solar generation during the daytime, amid high summer temperatures. 

This is particularly useful to meet evening peaks in electricity demand, as well as the need for air conditioning overnight when temperatures do not fall. 

In a statement, Pawel Czyzak , Europe programme director at Ember, said: 

“Heatwaves will not go away – they will only get more severe in the future. Solutions that can help mitigate their impacts, such as battery storage, interconnection, demand flexibility and dynamic tariffs, should become a key part of grid planning and power market design.”

However, batteries are not without their challenges during heatwaves. Battery performance also decreases as temperatures exceed their optimal level. 

Additionally, high temperatures can accelerate the degradation of components in lithium-ion batteries, which dominate the sector. 

Analysis for the UK government found that prolonged operation at very high temperatures could – at least in theory – “overwhelm” the cooling systems built into batteries, “posing risks such as thermal runaway and explosions”. However, it noted that in practice, these cooling systems are “routinely” designed to handle temperatures of up to 45C.

(The analysis added that “developers and manufacturers have a strong understanding of risk to [battery storage systems] from high temperature and mitigate risks through regular maintenance, design improvements, and passive cooling strategies”.)

Other storage technologies also face challenges during heatwaves. For example, pumped hydro storage can be significantly impacted by drought.

Australia – which now has 4.3GW of large-scale battery storage capacity – saw its fleet of batteries and pumped hydro storage tested at the beginning of 2026, amid the most severe heatwave in years. 

Temperatures above 40C posed “challenges” to storage technologies, reported Energy Storage News, which explained that their output and operating times were reduced by the increased need for their cooling systems to operate. 

Despite these challenges, the use of battery storage is helping to spread the ability of renewables to meet electricity demand during heatwaves. For example, a combination of solar and battery energy storage “kept the lights on” in California amid a heatwave in 2024. 

By storing abundant power during the day, it can be discharged during evening peaks, helping to minimise generation constraints and thereby keep power prices down. 

Dr Rosslowe says: 

“The extreme price spikes that we witness during heatwaves are a blaring signal for more power system flexibility. That could come from battery storage, demand response, or increased interconnection between countries or regions.”

Related Chart: The rise, fall and rise of UK nuclear power over eight decades 13.06.2025 Energy UK spending review 2025: Key climate and energy announcements 11.06.2025 Nuclear Q&A: How China is using nuclear power to reduce its carbon emissions 14.08.2023 China policy The Carbon Brief Profile: Russia 22.09.2022 Coal

The post Factcheck: How nuclear, gas, wind and solar power are affected during heatwaves appeared first on Carbon Brief.