Environment

Despite Hawks Seeking new Cold War, the US and China can only Confront Climate Emergency by Cooperating

( China Dialogue ) – They say don’t mess with Texas, but Mother Nature didn’t get the memo. A surprise winter storm killed at least 111 people in March, when rolling blackouts left several million Texans without power for several freezing days. Their misery came just a few years after Hurricane Harvey put a US$125 […]

China

New Wind and Solar up 50% globally in 2020, as China beats US by over 4 to 1

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The new report on 2020 by the International Renewable Energy Agency reveals that the world’s renewable energy generation capacity increased by an astonishing 10.3% in 2020 despite the global economic slowdown during the coronavirus pandemic. It beats the previous record for an annual increase in this sector by a healthy […]

Climate Crisis

How Persistent Student Organizing Forced the University of Michigan to Divest from Fossil Fuels

Waging Nonviolence

By Jonathan Morris | – ( Waging Nonviolence ) – Last month, the University of Michigan became the latest to accept the obvious — that investing in the destruction of society is fundamentally counter to the mission of higher education. With its endowment of $14.2 billion, Michigan now becomes one of the largest public universities […]

Environmentalism

Young Indigenous organizers are taking the fight against oil pipelines to Biden

Waging Nonviolence

( Waging Nonviolence)- Hundreds of people rallied in front of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers headquarters in Washington, D.C. on April 1 to deliver 400,000 petition signatures calling on the Biden administration to stop a pair of major oil pipelines threatening Indigenous nations’ land and water. “We as Indigenous people are done being silenced,” […]

Climate Crisis

“Unimaginable Amounts of Water”: Human-Made Global Heating in Danger of “Uncorking” Massive Antarctic Glaciers, causing Sea Level Rise

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A new article in Geophysical Research Letters found that four times as much of the Antarctic ices shelves would melt under a scenario where we heat the earth by 7.2 degrees F. (4 degrees C.) as opposed to the current Paris Climate Treaty goals of 1.5 degrees C. or at […]

Climate Crisis

Technology innovation gives government leverage to drive down CO2 emissions fast – here’s how

The Conversation

By Jessika E. Trancik | – To avert the worst effects of climate change, global greenhouse gas emissions should fall at faster rates than they have risen for over a century. Economies must essentially turn on a dime and then move quickly toward a carbon-free future. In the U.S., the Biden-Harris administration has recommitted the […]

Climate Crisis

Greening Earth and creating Jobs, Biden to slash Fossil Fuel Subsidies and Extend Wind, Solar Credits

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Reuters reports that President Biden intends to slash tax subsidies for fossil fuels like coal and petroleum and to use taxes instead to encourage renewable energy. Since jobs in the coal industry are plummeting, and since job growth in renewable electricity is over 3 percent a year, Biden’s plans will […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Change: Ocean Layer Mixing has slowed 6 times Faster than Scientists Feared, Endangering Sea Life

The Conversation

By Phil Hosegood | – If you’ve ever been seasick, “stable” may be the last word you associate with the ocean. But as global temperatures rise, the world’s oceans are technically becoming more stable. When scientists talk about ocean stability, they refer to how much the different layers of the sea mix with each other. […]

Climate Crisis

Why Activists have Launched a Fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty

China Dialogue

By Isabella Kaminski | – ( China Dialogue ) A fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty (FFNPT) initiative was formally launched last September by a coalition of academics, lawyers and activists. It’s modelled on the landmark UN Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons agreed in the 1960s, and is built around the same three pillars: non-proliferation, […]