Energy

Germany: Löwenbräu, other Beer Brands to be Made with Wind and Solar as Russian Gas Turns Unreliable

By Hannah Naylor | – inFranken.de / Süddeutsche Zeitung ( Clean Energy Wire ) – Bavarian breweries concerned about possible gas shortages are developing contingency plans to avoid a complete halt of beer production, reports regional news website inFranken.de. Munich breweries are considering switching to other energy sources, such as oil or renewables, but these […]

Climate Crisis

Why Britain’s 104°F (40°C) Heatwave was made many Times more Likely by Humans burning Fossil Fuels

The Conversation

By Ben Clark, University of Oxford; Friederike Otto, Imperial College London; and Luke Harrington, University of Waikato | – (The Conversation) – Every heatwave occurring today is made more likely and intense by human-caused climate change. Early estimates by the UK Met Office suggest that days over 40°C [104°F] have become ten times more likely […]

Climate Crisis

The Enduring Tyranny of Oil: War, Inflation, and Soaring World Temperatures

Michael T. Klare

( Tomdispatch.com ) – It may seem hard to believe, but only 15 years ago many of us were talking confidently about “peak oil” — the moment of maximum global oil output after which, with world reserves dwindling, its use would begin an irreversible decline. Then along came hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and the very […]

Climate Crisis

Are New Mexico’s Megafires so extreme they Mark a New era? Welcome to the Pyrocene

William deBuys

By William deBuys | – ( Tomdispatch.org) – Firefighters don’t normally allude to early English epics, but in a briefing on the massive Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire in northern New Mexico, a top field chief said, “It’s like Beowulf: it’s not the thing you fear, it is the mother of the thing you fear.” He […]

Climate Crisis

Biden, Speaking of “Climate Emergency” and National Security, Pledges Executive Orders to Combat Global Heating

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that he would use executive orders and appeal to emergency measures in addressing what he caled the “climate crisis,” deploying among other tools the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). He announced, “And in the coming weeks, I’m going to use the power I have […]

Climate Crisis

The Climate Emergency grounds the Royal Air Force in UK, more Effectively than any Terrorist

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – We will probably overshoot the UN goal of limiting extra global heating from the climate emergency to 2.7 degrees F. (1.5C), but Mother Nature is telling us that even just our current 1.8 to 2.16 (1C – 1.2C) degrees F. increase since 1850 is already enough to do major damage […]

Food Security

How Morocco Could use its Solar Energy and abundant Phosphorous to Feed the World and Offset Russia

The Conversation

By Michaël Tanchum, Universidad de Navarra | – Morocco has a large fertiliser industry with huge production capacity and international reach. It is one of the world’s top four fertiliser exporters following Russia, China and Canada. Fertilisers tend to divide into three main categories; nitrogen fertilisers, phosphorus fertilisers, potassium fertilisers. In 2020 the fertiliser market […]

Germany

Germany’s renewables output climbs to 49% of power demand in first half of 2022

Benjamin Wehrmann

( Clean Energy Wire ) – Renewables provided nearly half of Germany’s electricity in the first six months of 2022, according to preliminary data released by energy industry association BDEW and research institute ZSW. Solar panels, wind turbines, biogas plants and other installations covered 49 percent of electricity demand, six percentage points more than during […]

Climate Crisis

694 Milllion tons of Rare Earth Metals, Essential to Wind Turbines and EVs, found in Türkiye

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The green energy revolution so far is dependent on certain raw materials, including silicon for solar panels and lithium for lithium-ion batteries. Another group of such primary materials is rare earth minerals, essential to wind turbines. The largest producer of them is China, but Russia, Vietnam and Brazil also have […]