Environment

By Thalif Deen | – UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – Was the four-year-old military conflict in Syria, which has claimed the lives of over 200,000 people, mostly civilians, triggered at least in part by climate change? A new study by Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory says “a record drought that ravaged Syria in 2006-2010 was likely […]

Energy

Earth’s Fate: The Obama Administration, Shell, and Drilling the Arctic

contributors

By Subhankar Banerjee | (Tomdispatch.com) – Here’s a Jeopardy!-style question for you: “Eight different species of whales can be seen in these two American seas.” Unless you’re an Iñupiaq, a marine biologist, or an Arctic enthusiast like me, it’s a pretty good guess that you can’t tell me what those seas are or what those […]

Apartheid

Gaza’s Food Insecurity made even worse by Environmental Damage of Israel’s War, Blockade

contributors

By Mel Frykberg BEIT LAHIYA, Northern Gaza Strip (IPS) – Extensive damage to Gaza’s environment as a result of the Israeli blockade and its devastating military campaign against the coastal territory during last year’s war from July to August, is negatively affecting the health of Gazans, especially their food security. Safa Subha and three-year-old Rahat […]

Climate Change

It’s Climate Change: Under-30s have never seen a Month cooler than 20th Century Average

contributors

Richard B Rood, University of Michigan | (The Conversation) – If you’re younger than 30, you’ve never experienced a month in which the average surface temperature of the Earth was below average. Each month, the US National Climatic Data Center calculates Earth’s average surface temperature using temperature measurements that cover the Earth’s surface. Then, another […]

Climate Change

Antarctic Ice Melt Red Flag – Scientist: It’s “going way faster than anyone had thought”

contributors

Associated Press | – “From the ground in this extreme northern part of Antarctica, spectacularly white and blinding ice seems to extend forever. What can’t be seen is the battle raging underfoot to re-shape Earth. Water is eating away at the Antarctic ice. ” AP: “The Big Melt: Antarctica’s Retreating Ice ”

Climate Change

Kenya Nomads strap Donkeys with Solar Panels for Mobile Batteries

contributors

K24TV | – “Shepherds in Kajiado county have devised an ingenious way of ensuring that that they make full use of the solar power in the county. The residents strap donkeys with solar panels and batteries, which continue charging as the animals graze to later use them to light their Manyattas at night.” K24TV: “Herders […]

Climate Change

President Obama vetoes Keystone pipeline bill

contributors

RT | — As promised, US President Barack Obama has vetoed a bill from Congress which will halt construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. Defying the wishes of the Republican-led House and Senate, the president on Tuesday rejected the years-in-the-making would-be legislation that sought to pave the way for a 1,179-mile pipeline to carry […]

Climate Change

Renewable Energy skyrocketing, From Solar Mosques to Wave-Powered Naval Bases

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Here are some of the green energy good news stories of the past few weeks: 1. China put in a massive 21 gigawatts of new wind power in 2014, half of all the wind power installed in the entire world that year and four times as much as […]

Climate Change

Surprise: Noted Climate Change Denialist Secretly Took Oil Co. Payouts

contributors

By Nadia Prupis | (Commondreams.org) A prominent climate change denier and researcher quietly took more than $1.2 million in payouts from the energy industry, including the Koch brothers and other oil lobbyists, for the past 14 years, newly released documents have shown. Wei-Hock “Willie” Soon, a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, accumulated a […]