(By Juan Cole) Denmark is now getting 43% of its power from renewable energy (mainly wind and biomass). It is thus on track to meet its ambitious goal of 70% renewables by 2020. DeutscheWelle explains how Denmark is getting community buy-in for the onshore turbines. Residents get lower electricity prices when there are turbines in […]
Fossil Fuel Subsidies Cost some $2 Trillion Annually, According To IMF
Originally published on RenewEconomy.By Sophie Vorrath Science informs us about the environmental cost of our global fossil fuel habit – the IPCC recently reported that CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes contributed…
The Cost of Repression: Turkey on May Day
(By Emma Sinclair-Webb @esinclairwebb ) With a reported 39,000 police officers and 50 water cannon vehicles, plentiful supplies of teargas, and a complete shutdown of the public transport system in the city, the Turkish government succeeded once again in banning the celebration of May 1 in Istanbul’s Taksim Square. With streets leading to the […]
It’s Not about Hamas: Decrying Palestinian Unity
(By Gregory Harms) Aside from the occasional cross-border violence between Gaza and Israel, Hamas, which governs the coastal strip, has received little attention in the press over the last few years. Because of their recent agreement with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s government in the West Bank, the subject is receiving increased treatment. The story, however, […]
This Land is their Land, it isn’t Your Land: Growing inequality in a Declining Empire
(By Peter van Buren via Tomdispatch.com) As America’s new economy starts to look more like the old economy of the Great Depression, the divide between rich and poor, those who have made it and those who never will, seems to grow ever starker. I know. I’ve seen it firsthand. Once upon a time, I worked […]
Top 10 Attacks on US Embassies in Republican Administrations that Lindsey Graham doesn’t Care about
(By Juan Cole) The Republicans in Congress keep beating the dead horse of Benghazi. Now they have sprung a briefing memo for Susan Rice, based on CIA talking points. I shows that the briefing hewed to the CIA line of the time, which was that the Benghazi disturbances were copy cats of those in Cairo, […]
Why Oklahoma’s Botched Execution is an Argument for ending Death Penalty
Yet more evidence that the death penalty is cruel and inhumane arrived today at 8:00PM from the state of Oklahoma. Charles Warner, convicted of raping and murdering an 11-month-old girl, found his execution stayed today after the attempted execution…
The PLO-Hamas Unity Agreement: an Opportunity for the United States and Israel
(By Joel Migdal) The unity agreement announced last week between Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization drew swift, negative reactions from Israel, including suspending its participation in the U.S.-sponsored peace talks. Israel said flatly it would not negotiate with a team that included those dedicated to its destruction. The response by the United States to […]
On how the Death of Turkish Democracy this Year wasn’t exactly Clickbait
(By Ola Claësson) I can’t help being surprised of how little that has been reported in the foreign media about the development in Turkey after the local elections. Before the Gezi protests less than one year ago, Turkey was perceived as a promising, developing democracy. But now, the country has embarked on a path in […]