Climate Crisis

Global heating from CO2 breaks Himalayan Glacier, floods sweep away Scores, destroy Hydroelectric Plant

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A huge chunk of the Nanda Devi glacier in the Himalayas broke off Sunday morning, melting and crashing down on villages around Joshimath in India’s Uttarakhand state, leaving nine dead and 140 unaccounted for. The turbulent grey deluge of water, ice and rocks slammed into two hydro-electric plants, destroying one […]

Climate Crisis

How Defeating the Planet-Killing Keystone XL Oil Pipeline built a Bolder, Savvier Climate Movement

Waging Nonviolence

By Nick Engelfried | ( Waging Nonviolence) – When President Biden rescinded a crucial permit for the Keystone XL pipeline last week, it marked the culmination of one of the longest, highest-profile campaigns in the North American climate movement. The opposition to Keystone XL included large environmental organizations, grassroots climate activist networks, Nebraska farmers, Texas […]

Climate Crisis

Greta Thunberg effect: people familiar with young climate activist may be more likely to act

The Conversation

By Anandita Sabherwal and Sander van der Linden | – She was declared Time magazine’s person of the year in the same month that Donald Trump told her to “work on her anger management issues”. Greta Thunberg has attracted international attention since her lone demonstration outside the Swedish Parliament in August 2018. Her “school strike […]

Climate Crisis

Biden’s Green Energy Plans are just Market Wisdom: Norway’s Investment Fund just Dumped $6 Bn. in Oil Stocks

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Some have questioned how realistic Biden’s plans are to move the US rapidly off fossil fuels. In fact, it is the fossil fuels that are unrealistic. Burning petroleum and coal are bad for everyone’s health and destined to make earth swelteringly hot, with lots of climate catastrophes and extreme weather. […]

Climate Crisis

Scientists: Earth is substantially hotter than at any time during past 12,000 Years; entire Holocene was Cool

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Our human civilization, with agriculture is only about 10,000 years old. It started in the Middle East in the Neolithic. An ice age began about 3 million years ago, and we are still in it inasmuch as Antarctica is covered with ice as is the North Pole, Greenland and the […]

Climate Crisis

All Hands on Deck: Biden plans to fight climate change in a way no U.S. president has done before

The Conversation

By Bill Ritter Jr. | – Joe Biden is preparing to deal with climate change in a way no U.S. president has done before – by mobilizing his entire administration to take on the challenge from every angle in a strategic, integrated way. The strategy is evident in the people Biden has chosen for his […]

Climate Crisis

President Biden, We can do this too: Europe generates more electricity with Renewables than Fossil Fuels for First Time

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A new report from Ember and Agora Energiewende finds that in 2020, the 27 countries of the European Union generated more electricity with renewables (wind, solar, hydro) than with fossil fuels (coal and natural gas). The growth in renewables has all come from wind and solar. These two increased by […]

Climate Crisis

The first thing we do, let’s kill all the Coal Plants: How Joe Biden can save the Planet

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – My title is from William Shakespeare’s Henry the VI. In the original, Dick “the Butcher” is speaking of ways to overthrow the king and improve the country, and he suggests killing all the lawyers first. Nowadays, carbon dioxide is the thing preventing us from improving the country. President Biden has […]

Climate Crisis

With Yellen at Treasury, Can we Finally get a Progressive Carbon Tax?

The Conversation

By Rachel Kyte | – Janet Yellen is poised to be the next U.S. Treasury secretary, and her inbox will require every ounce of her vast experience to pilot the economy through a daunting confluence of challenges. How the U.S. manages the economic recovery from COVID-19, the financial risks from climate change and inequality together […]