As conflict in Iran sends prices soaring, fossil fuel companies are seeing extraordinary gains – but the crisis may also accelerate the shift towards clean energy• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereA friend of mine was recently left in tears after filling up the car she relies on to drive to work. Thanks to the US-Israeli attacks on Iran, prices at the pumps have soared. She wasn’t sure how her family was going to make it to the next paycheck.It is a personal story and a distressing one, but the big picture is truly obscene. Fossil fuel companies are raking in monstrous, unearned war profits taken from the pockets of people like you, me, my friend, and any of us who fills up a vehicle or pays an energy bill.UK ‘built for climate that no longer exists’ and needs urgent changes to survive global heating, report warnsRainforests pushed to breaking point by new demands for resources, report says‘Should we leave them to die?’ The battle over how to save orangutans from the curse of palm oil Continue reading...

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/21/big-oils-war-profits-may-have-a-silver-lining-after-all