Asia

( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Richer countries haven’t met their $100 billion promise to help poorer countries move beyond fossil fuels. Where’s the money going to come from? By John Feffer | November 30, 2022 To keep the planet from overheating, there’s just so much more carbon that humans can pump into the […]

China

A Letter to President Joe Biden: About that pledge you Made of “Diplomacy First”

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment) – Dear Joe, Remember the mid-March snowball fight with some boys in our 8th grade class at St Helena’s School in Wilmington, Delaware? The snow was wet and made for hard, icy snowballs, so I hid my young sister Monica behind a parked car. You joined me against the […]

China

What If the U.S. and China Really Cooperated on Climate Change? Imagining a Necessary Future

Michael T. Klare

( Tomdispatch.com) – As President Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping arrived on the resort island of Bali, Indonesia, for their November 14th “summit,” relations between their two countries were on a hair-raising downward spiral, with tensions over Taiwan nearing the boiling point. Diplomats hoped, at best, for a modest reduction in tensions, which, […]

Afghanistan

How the Bush “War on Terror” Fed US White Nationalism and brought the Terror Home

Andrea Mazzarino

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Recently, an agent of the Department of Homeland Security called me and started asking questions about a childhood acquaintance being investigated for extremism. I put him off. My feelings about this were, to say the least, complex. As a military spouse of 10 years and someone who has long written about […]

China

Deaf to History’s Questions: A Tale of Two Elizabeths, One Joe, One Donald, and Us

Andrew J. Bacevich

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Britons mourned the recent passing of Queen Elizabeth II, and understandably so. The outpouring of affection for their long-serving monarch was more than commendable, it was touching. Yet count me among those mystified that so many Americans also professed to care. With all due respect to Queen Latifah, we decided way […]

Batteries

China’s Decarbonization Miracle: “We are Witnessing a Fundamental Change in its Electricity Mix”

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus) – When it comes to a global clean energy transition, China is both part of the problem and part of the solution. On the problem side, China is the largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world by a rather wide margin. In 2020, China was responsible for a little […]

China

Death Knell for Big Carbon? Globally, All New Electricity Demand was Met by Renewables in first 1/2 of ’22, with Fossil Fuels Flat

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In the first half of 2022, there was no increase in the world’s use of fossil fuels, and all new electricity demand was met by renewables. The world is nearing a tipping point, estimated by the International Energy Agency to come in 2025, after which all new electricity demand will […]

Afghanistan

A Different World is Possible: From Yemen War to Afghan Starvation, Our Tragedies are Exacerbated by Letting the US Military-Industrial Complex Run Wild

Peter G. Prontzos

Vancouver (Special to Informed Comment) – Right now, we have more than enough knowledge, wealth, and the capacity to create a just and prosperous world, but we are nowhere near realizing this dream. One reason is that we are constantly told about so-called “scarcities”, and how expensive it would be actually to help people and […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan: International Criminal Court to Resume its Inquiry on War Crimes, but Will it Stop with the Taliban?

Human Rights Watch

( Human Rights Watch ) – (The Hague) – The International Criminal Court (ICC) should address grave international crimes committed by all sides when it continues its investigation into the situation in Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch said today. On October 31, 2022, ICC judges announced that the investigation by the Office of the Prosecutor into […]