Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – About 10% of the electricity generated in the US comes from wind installations. It isn’t nearly enough, either to fight the climate crisis or just to improve people’s health. It has now become clear that the people who get lung cancer but do not smoke are living near coal-fired power […]
Archives for December 2022
G20 still paying Billions in Fossil Fuel Subsidies
By Catherine Early | – ( China Dialogue) – The Group of 20 is an intergovernmental forum of 19 countries and the European Union. These include most of the world’s largest economies, including those of many developing nations, and together account for over 80% of world GDP. Subsidies to the sector had fallen to $147bn […]
Historical Reasons that Turkey is the pivot point between Russia and the US on Ukraine War
By Georgios Giannakopoulos, City, University of London | – (The Conversation) – The war in Ukraine has put Turkey into the geopolitical spotlight. One of Nato’s earliest member states, with a special relationship with Russia, Turkey is attempting to balance its competing interests, as well as increasing its own influence. Meanwhile, Turkey is in the […]
In Turkey, Social Media Platforms become Complicit in censoring Media and Freedom of Speech
By Arzu Geybullayeva | – ( Global Voices ) – Metin Cihan is a Turkish journalist who has long been engaged in exposing corruption among government officials. On July 17, 2022, Twitter restricted his Twitter account on the grounds that the journalist shared private information, even though none of the information he shared was private. […]
Israel: Defying Biden, Netanyahu allows extremist Religious Zionists to rule over West Bank Palestinians
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that that Binyamin Netanyahu’s far right Likud Party concluded a coalition agreement with the extremist right-wing Religious Zionism bloc on Thursday, defying the warnings by the Biden administration that unilateral Israeli steps in the Palestinian West Bank would harm security between Washington and Tel […]
We Can’t Afford NOT to Have a Wealth Tax
By Jack Metzgar | – ( Inequality.org) – Every time I hear that we as a nation cannot afford something — whether that might be assuring non-toxic water in Jackson and Flint or universal pre-K or an industrial policy with teeth — I have wondered how many dollars a national wealth tax might yield. So […]
Tumultuous First Year for Germany’s Government may start Energy Transition Push
Benjamin Wehrmann | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – One year after taking over Germany’s government, chancellor Olaf Scholz’s “traffic light” coalition [so called because his Social Democratic Party (SPD) is symbolized by red, the center-right Free Democrats (FDP) are yellow, and the Green Party is, well, green], the looks back at some turbulent […]
Given their Enormous Windfall Profits, Oil Companies are not paying Enough for their Environmental Damage
By Robert (Bob) L. Ascah, University of Alberta | – At the end of the third quarter reporting season in October, the Big Four oilsands producers continued to report record profit levels. Collectively, Cenovus, CNRL, Imperial Oil and Suncor earned $5.8 billion in the third quarter and $23.1 billion in the first nine months of […]
Yemen: Ukraine War, boosting Wheat Prices, has increased Food Insecurity and Acute Malnutrition for Children
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Russia’s War on Ukraine has added to global inflation along many dimensions, including higher gasoline and fossil gas prices. It has also affected the price of wheat, since Ukraine and Russia used to be responsible for 9% and 19% of global wheat exports. Although wheat shortages of the magnitude that […]