Energy

The Black Hole of Depressions: Doing nothing about Climate Emergency could cost more than all the Wealth in the World

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A study in Nature Communications has found that if you add in variability to calculations of the impact of climate change, the upper range of the damage it could do to property is $563 trillion.* That is in the worst case scenario where the world does virtually nothing to stop […]

Australia

South Australia first to be 100% Solar-Powered, as Solar becomes Cheapest form of Energy

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The state of South Australia is the future. For one hour, on October 11, all of its electricity was generated by solar power, the first time this feat was achieved by any major jurisdiction in the world. So reports Richard Davies of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. October is a spring […]

Climate Crisis

Big Oil’s Funeral: Pure Electric Car Purchases in Germany skyrocket 260%

Juan Cole

By Sören Amelang | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – A record number of car buyers in Germany have opted for electric vehicles in September. The number of new purely electric vehicles rose to 21,188 last month, an increase of 260 percent compared to a year ago, the country’s Federal Motor Transport Authority KBA […]

Climate Crisis

A clear Choice on Climate: Trump wants to Wreck the Planet; Biden has taken strides toward a Green Vision

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump doesn’t get climate change or the ways to combat it. He is a greedy, venal person, and I presume he is encouraged in his obscurantism by some sort of business interest in the oil and gas industry, or backing by them with campaign dollars. Or perhaps he just, by […]

Democratic Party

At Townhall, Biden Promises Big Green Infrastructure and Jobs: Spain’s Example Suggests he is Right

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In his townhall on Thursday evening, Joe Biden pointed to the way infrastructural investments in green energy will help the economy. He said, according to the ABC transcript, “For example, we’re going to invest a great deal of that money into infrastructure. And into green infrastructure. We’re going to put […]

Climate Crisis

Kamala Harris’s best Zingers and Pence’s worst Lies

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Pence-Harris debate was what disagreements among normal people might look like, as opposed to the weird behavior of Trump in the first presidential debate. While pundits are saying that it lacked fireworks, that is not true if you define fireworks as policy disagreement as opposed to mud wrestling. The […]

Canada

Free at Last! How my Electric Car let me Escape the clutches of Big Carbon and Mideast Oil Dictatorships

Richard Foltz

Montreal (Special to Informed Comment) – As someone who regularly teaches courses on both Middle Eastern and environmental subjects, I have long been keenly aware of the double implications of participating in an economy that simultaneously destroys the planet while supporting human rights-abusing dictatorships. From the moment the first electric vehicles hit the market I […]

Climate Crisis

How ExxonMobil’s plan to Surge its CO2 output is Like Trump’s plan to Deal with the Coronavirus

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump made a mad dash to escape his hospital room at Walter Reed, browbeating his military physicians into letting him go while he was pumped full of a cocktail of potions that included euphoria- and delusion-inducing steroids. His lungs laboring with broken glass syndrome, he vaulted up the stairs to […]

Armenia

War for Oil, again? Why are Russia and Turkey intervening in the Azerbaijan-Armenia Clashes?

Nikola Mikovic

Belgrade (Special to Informed Comment) – Clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh threaten to destabilize the Caucasus. Turkey and Russia – the major foreign actors in this proxy conflict – are still not directly involved in bloodshed that erupted on September 27, although Ankara openly supports Baku by providing full […]