Green New Deal

A Tipping Point for the Defeat of Fossil Fuels? How to Stop Big Energy in Its Tracks (Quite Literally)

By Richard Lachmann, Michael Schwartz and Kevin A. Young | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – As Donald Trump gave in to the demand that the transition process to the Biden years officially begin, the administration and its fossil-fuel allies doubled down on their efforts to implement destructive environmental policies that President Biden might try to […]

Climate Crisis

How Biden and Kerry could rebuild America’s global climate leadership

The Conversation

By Dolf Gielen and Morgan Bazilian | – John Kerry helped bring the world into the Paris climate agreement and expanded America’s reputation as a climate leader. That reputation is now in tatters, and President-elect Joe Biden is asking Kerry to rebuild it again – this time as U.S. climate envoy. It won’t be easy, […]

Climate Crisis

One last Time, Trump lies to the International Community about the Climate Emergency and Green Energy

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – DW gives a clip of Trump’s unhinged video rant to the G20 summit against the Paris Climate Accord on Sunday, which is being held virtually this year. Trump said, according to Kevin Liptak at CNN, “The Paris accord was not designed to save the environment, it was designed to kill […]

Climate Crisis

We only need $1.5 Trillion to meet Paris climate goals, a fraction of what Gov’ts are spending on Pandemic Relief

The Conversation

By David L. McCollum | – As of late summer, governments around the world had pledged US$12.2 trillion of relief in response to the coronavirus pandemic. That’s around 15% of global GDP, three times larger than government spending put forward during and after the 2008-2009 global financial crisis and enough for every adult in the […]

Acidification of Oceans

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

Juan Cole

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 […]

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

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 […]

Green New Deal

When the Pandemic ends, Put People and the Economy back to Work on Solar and Wind Farms and Electrified Transport

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Me. (Special to Informed Comment) – Liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans share a problematic assumption: Once the Covid—19 pandemic is reduced to the harm level of the seasonal flu the economy can return to normal levels of at least moderate growth. Liberal Democrats would be more generous in providing the relief needed to […]

Climate Crisis

Greta Thunberg and Youth to Angela Merkel: ‘Abandon Fossil Fuel Industry’

Benjamin Wehrmann

By Benjamin Wehrmann ( Clean Energy Wire) – Greta Thunberg and fellow activists have met German Chancellor Angela Merkel to exchange views on the fight against climate change. The campaigners said the 90 minute meeting’s atmosphere was friendly, but also added that “we look at the situation from different perspectives.” Merkel’s spokesman said the EU’s […]