Climate Crisis

As Climate Emergency Shakes Iran, Government Attacks, arrests Water Protesters at Isfahan, wounding 3

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – After two weeks of protests by thousands of farmers in the dry riverbed of the historic Zayandeh Rud river in Isfahan, the police have struck back. According to AFP, thousands of people gathered to protest on Friday, when the police attacked them with bird shot and tear gas. Three were […]

Climate Crisis

Will Germany’s New Climate Super Minister Robert Habeck Super Charge the Clean Energy Transition?

Clean Energy Wire

By Sören Amelang | – ( Clean Energy Wire) – As Germany’s first climate “super minister”, Green politician Robert Habeck will play a key role in fulfilling the future government’s promise to get the country on a path compatible with the 1.5°C global warming limit. The widely popular party co-leader must oversee the translation of […]

Climate Crisis

Electric cars aren’t enough to hit climate targets: we need to develop better public transport too

The Conversation

By Vera O’Riordan | – Transport is responsible for 24% of energy-related carbon emissions worldwide. Half of those emissions are from carrying goods and services, and the other half are from carrying people from A to B – also known as “passenger transport”. Passenger transport has a huge impact on our surroundings, and it’s one […]

Climate Crisis

Germany to Get Green Party Ministry of Economy, Energy and Climate in boost for President Biden

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Germany’s environmentalist Green Party, led by two popular politicians, nearly doubled its seats in parliament to become a swing party for the formation of a new government coalition. Their prospects were boosted when the center-left Social Democrats narrowly beat the conservative Christian Democrats in number of seats in the September […]

Climate Crisis

Whether Gov’ts like it or not, Coal Plants are doomed by Cheap Solar and Wind Power

The Conversation

By James Ha and Alison Reeve | The international climate summit in Glasgow aimed to “consign coal power to history”. But while some major coal-consuming countries have agreed to phase out the fossil fuel in the 2030s, Australia is not one of them. Under its recently released plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, the […]

Climate Crisis

Mars Attacks Earth! And we’re the Martians in this Picture

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com) – Who knew that Martians, inside monstrous tripodal machines taller than many buildings, actually ululated, that they made eerily haunting “ulla, ulla, ulla, ulla” sounds? Well, let me tell you that they do — or rather did when they were devastating London. I know that because I recently reread H.G. Wells’s 1898 novel […]

Climate Crisis

Despite 5.1 bn Tons of deadly annual CO2 Emissions, 39% of Americans Think US is Doing a Good Job on Climate

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus) – We all think that climate change is somebody else’s problem. We have to be persuaded otherwise. There is an astonishing statistic in a Pew research study released in 2020 on perceptions of how different countries handled COVID-19. Only 15 percent of people in a dozen countries around the world […]

Climate Crisis

Forget the Hype about Cutting Methane — Carbon Dioxide is the Real Enemy

The Conversation

By Michelle Cain | – Leading an alliance of more than 100 countries, US President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have launched the Global Methane Pledge – an agreement to cut methane emissions by 30% between 2020 and 2030. Methane is a greenhouse gas which has caused about 0.5°C of […]

Climate Crisis

In First for major Industrial State, South Australia generates more Electricity from Solar on Sunday than it Can Use

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Giles Parkinson at Renew Economy reports that for several hours on Sunday, November 21, the huge state of South Australia (which is has an area bigger than Texas) generated more electricity than it needed, mostly from rooftop solar. This is the first time we’ve seen a gigawatt-scale grid go upside […]