Energy

Netherlands becomes European Leader in Solar Power Per Capita, with 500K Panels on Lakes, Reservoirs and Seas

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Solar panels are like magic, turning sunshine into electricity. They are, however, relatively bulky. We own our own home and have 16 of them on our roof, but renters have often complained to me that it isn’t so easy in an apartment building. There is also a danger that they […]

Climate Crisis

Calls for a ‘Green’ Ramadan revive Islam’s long Tradition of Sustainability and Care for the Planet

The Conversation

By Noorzehra Zaidi, University of Maryland, Baltimore County | – For many Muslims breaking fast in mosques around the world this Ramadan, something will be missing: plastics. The communal experience of iftars – the after-sunset meal that brings people of the faith together during the holy month starting on March 22, 2023 – often necessitates […]

Climate Crisis

Saudi Aramco Reports Gargantuan $161 Bn in Profits, But will Electric Cars kill the Oil Market within 2 Decades?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Dan Murphy at CNBC reports that the giant Saudi Aramco oil company posted an unprecedented profit of $161 billion for 2022. The company’s CEO, Amin Nasser, commented that this was probably the biggest profit ever made in the course of one year by any private company. Murphy reports that Nasser […]

Batteries

Iran discovered to have 10% of World’s Lithium Deposits, in Good News for China’s EV Industry

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Indian Express reports from Iran’s PressTV that the country has discovered a deposit of 8.5 million tons of lithium in the Qahavand Plain of western Hamedan province. There are only 89 million tons of lithium in the world in known deposits so far, with the bulk of them in […]

Climate Crisis

How to beat the Fracking Frenzy–Lessons from the Campaign that ended it in Ireland

Waging Nonviolence

The successful Irish anti-fracking struggle offers key insights on community power building for anti-extraction movements all over the world. Jamie Gorman

Batteries

Solar power battery installations increase exponentially in Germany

Benjamin Wehrmann

( Clean Energy Wire ) – The number of household solar power storage installations has grown exponentially over the past four years, with a year-on-year growth of 52 percent in 2022, Germany’s Solar Power Association BSW Solar has said. “Half of private home owners say they would consider storing their homemade solar power,” a survey […]

Climate Crisis

Humanity put out more C02 than Ever Before last Year, but Green Energy Kept the Annual Increase Small

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – This is a bad news, good news story. Cathy Bussewitz at the Associated Press reports that carbon dioxide emissions reached an all-time high in 2022, of 36.8 gigatons. That is more CO2 spewed into the atmosphere by humanity in just one year than ever before. CO2 emissions were up nearly […]

military

How a Nuclear Power Plant Became a Tool of War: Nuclear Armageddon Games in Ukraine

Tomdispatch

By Joshua Frank | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – In 1946, Albert Einstein shot off a telegram to several hundred American leaders and politicians warning that the “unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.” Einstein’s forecast remains prescient. Nuclear calamity still knocks. Even […]

Climate Crisis

Top 6 Exciting Wind Power Developments in US, as investment in Offshore Wind Triples and Wind Generates 10% of US Electricity

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Renewable energy continues to burgeon rapidly in the United States. Here are some of the signs of a major transformation that may not always be apparent on the surface: 1. The US tripled that amount of money invested in offshore wind in 2022 to $9.8 billion, according to Kassia Micek […]