Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A new study commissioned by the UK private electric utility Drax and carried out by professors at Imperial College London has confirmed that in the first quarter of this year, wind turbines in Britain generated more electricity than did fossil gas plants. This is the first time the UK got […]
Archives for May 2023
New wind turbine installations in Germany grow almost 50% in early 2023
Clean Energy Wire / Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung ( Clean Energy Wire ) – Germany installed 128 new wind turbines with a total capacity of 0.6 gigawatts (GW) between January and April 2023, an increase in the growth rate of 46 percent compared to the same period in the year before, according to figures by the […]
President Erdogan has Wrecked Turkey’s Economy – So What Next?
By Gulcin Ozkan, King’s College London | – (The Conversation) – Turkey’s 2023 election is one of the most significant in its hundred-year history. After years of currency crashes, vanishing foreign currency reserves and surging inflation, rethinking economic policy will be a top priority for whoever is sworn in after the vote on May 14. […]
Tunisia: Move to Dismantle Country’s Largest Opposition Party
( Human Rights Watch ) – (Tunis) – Tunisian authorities have intensified their attack on opponents of President Kais Saied’s 2021 power grab, moving to neutralize the country’s largest political party, Ennahda, Human Rights Watch said today. Since December 2022, the Tunisian government has arrested at least 17 current or former members of the party, […]
Good Climate News: New EPA Rule would make Fossil Fuel Plants cut Emissions 90% by 2040
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Michael S. Regan, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, announced on Thursday the most ambitious limits on how much carbon dioxide and other pollutants coal and gas-fired power plants can emit. The plants will have to cut their carbon dioxide emissions by 90% between 2035 and 2040. The new […]
The Nakba at 75 – Palestinians’ Struggle to get Recognition for their Catastrophe
By Maha Nassar, University of Arizona | – On May 15, 2023, the United Nations will stage a high-level special meeting to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Nakba – the mass displacement of around 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland in 1948. It is the first time that the international body has commemorated the date, […]
Gaza and the Illegal Israeli use of Sanctions as a Tool for Collective Punishment
Dr Mustafa Fetouri MFetouri International humanitarian law derived from the Geneva Convention of 1949 and the 1977 Protocols, states clearly that no person should be punished for any actions he did not commit. This principle applies to all individuals, including prisoners of war, ethnic groups and the wider civilian population. It is supposed […]
Who will Inherit the Earth? The Rise of AI and the Human Future (?)
( Tomdispatch.com ) – After almost 79 years on this beleaguered planet, let me say one thing: this can’t end well. Really, it can’t. And no, I’m not talking about the most obvious issues ranging from the war in Ukraine to the climate disaster. What I have in mind is that latest, greatest human invention: […]
Long Beach Plans a 400-Acre Facility for Floating Offshore Wind Turbines, Largest in World
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – City News Service reports that Long Beach is planning a 400-acre facility to manufacture and install offshore floating wind turbines off the coast of California. The port has many advantages in this regard, being a deep water port with a federal sea breaker. Each of the wind towers it plans […]