Environment

Game-Changer: Tiny Islands of Vanuatu Convince UN to seek Int’l Court Ruling on Harms of Climate Emergency

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Vanuatu, a set of South Pacific islands, is not what you would call a prominent international player. The small country of a little over 300,000 people has nevertheless made history, according to UN News. It presented a resolution to the UN General Assembly asking the UN’s International Court of Justice […]

Climate Crisis

Netherlands becomes European Leader in Solar Power Per Capita, with 500K Panels on Lakes, Reservoirs and Seas

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Solar panels are like magic, turning sunshine into electricity. They are, however, relatively bulky. We own our own home and have 16 of them on our roof, but renters have often complained to me that it isn’t so easy in an apartment building. There is also a danger that they […]

Climate Crisis

IPCC’s Conservative Nature masks true Scale of Action needed to avert Catastrophic Climate Change

The Conversation

By Kevin Anderson, University of Manchester | – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) synthesis report recently landed with an authoritative thump, giving voice to hundreds of scientists endeavouring to understand the unfolding calamity of global heating. What’s changed since the last one in 2014? Well, we’ve dumped an additional third of a trillion […]

Climate Crisis

German Electric Car exports rise more than 65 percent in 2022

Clean Energy Wire

By Edgar Meza | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – German exports of electric cars rose more than 65 percent last year to some 500,000 units valued at 24.2 billion euros, statistical office (Destatis) reports. While foreign trade of electric vehicles is growing in significance, combustion-engine automobiles still accounted for the majority of German […]

Climate Crisis

IPCC report: We’re in Deep Trouble on Climate Emergency, and Don’t Have Much Time to Act

The Conversation

By Frank Jotzo, Australian National University and Mark Howden, Australian National University | – The world is in deep trouble on climate change, but if we really put our shoulder to the wheel we can turn things around. Loosely, that’s the essence of today’s report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC […]

Climate Crisis

Prophecies, Then and Now: My Life at World’s End

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Indulge me for a moment. This is how “The Prophecy” in my 1962 high school yearbook began. It was written by some of my classmates in the year we graduated from Friends Seminary in New York City. “Being an historian, I am jotting down these notes out of habit, but what I […]

Climate Crisis

Calls for a ‘Green’ Ramadan revive Islam’s long Tradition of Sustainability and Care for the Planet

The Conversation

By Noorzehra Zaidi, University of Maryland, Baltimore County | – For many Muslims breaking fast in mosques around the world this Ramadan, something will be missing: plastics. The communal experience of iftars – the after-sunset meal that brings people of the faith together during the holy month starting on March 22, 2023 – often necessitates […]

Arab World

On World Water Day: By 2036, 18 of World’s Water-Scarce Countries will be in Middle East

Middle East Monitor

Elif Selin Calik CalikSelin ( Middle East Monitor ) – The Middle East may have an abundance of oil and gas, but it has very few natural water sources. This is fast becoming a source of tension. According to three UN Secretaries-General, water may well be the cause of future conflict […]

Oceans

“Plasticosis:” Seabirds that swallow Plastic Waste have Diseased, Scarred Stomachs

The Conversation

By Matthew Savoca, Stanford University | – As a conservation biologist who studies plastic ingestion by marine wildlife, I can count on the same question whenever I present research: “How does plastic affect the animals that eat it?” This is one of the biggest questions in this field, and the verdict is still out. However, […]