Climate Crisis

By Morgiane Noel, Trinity College Dublin | – Researchers have tried for decades to find a relevant legal status for people forced to flee their homes as a result of floods, droughts and storms – calamities which climate change promises to make more severe and commonplace – as well as appropriate laws which might ensure […]

Climate Crisis

Corporations are using Trade Treaties to handcuff Efforts to save the Planet from Climate Emergency

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus) – The global economy hit a new milestone in 2022 by surpassing $100 trillion. This expansion, which has experienced only the occasional setback such as the 2020 COVID shutdowns, has been accelerated by trade. The world trade volume experienced 4,300 percent growth from 1950 to 2021, an average 4 percent […]

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 […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Change Impacts could Cost Germany up to Nearly $1 Trillion by 2050

Clean Energy Wire

By Carolina Kyllmann | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – The consequences of climate change could cost Germany up to 900 billion euros by 2050, found a report by the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW), the Institute of Economic Structures Research (GWS) and consultancy Prognos AG. More frequent extreme weather events such as […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Emergency: Intense Downpours, Flash Floods will Increasingly Strike Britain

The Conversation

By Elizabeth Kendon, University of Bristol | – (The Conversation) – In July 2021, Kew in London experienced a month’s rain in just three hours. Across the city, tube lines were suspended and stations closed as London experienced its wettest day in decades and flash floods broke out. Just under two weeks later, it happened […]

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

Climate Crisis

Greening from the Bottom: Look to the Cities for new Climate Solutions

The Conversation

By Christof Brandtner, EM Lyon Business School | – (The Conversation) – A little over three months after the COP27 climate summit in Sharm-el-Sheikh drew to a close, the global community is no closer to finding a solution to the problem of climate change. The most-attended climate change conference to date has left observers frustrated […]

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 […]