By Deina Abdelkader | – Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who promoted the religious and political influence of the Iranian regime across the Middle East with covert military operations, was an important figure in the Iranian government. But that’s not the only reason his targeted killing by the United States has elicited explosive grief and outrage in […]
We Can Do it: In 10 Years, even Tory Britain Dumped Coal and went to 21% Wind
By Grant Wilson, Iain Staffell and Noah Godfrey | – In 2010, Great Britain generated 75% of its electricity from coal and natural gas. But by the end of the decade*, these fossil fuels accounted for just 40%, with coal generation collapsing from the decade’s peak of 41% in 2012 to under 2% in 2019. […]
Trump’s Twitter threat to destroy Iran’s cultural sites was a historic mistake
By David J. Wasserstein | – Be careful of the company you keep. In a threat delivered over Twitter on Jan. 4, U.S. President Donald Trump said that he is prepared to “HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD” culturally important targets in Iran should the country retaliate for the American killing of its top general. […]
US-Iran War Drums Show the Perils in Trump’s Policy of going it Alone
By Klaus W. Larres | – President Donald Trump’s policy toward Iran is in deep crisis. The president’s approach has the support neither of America’s allies nor of its strategic rivals, China and Russia. And his policy – made even more confrontational by the shooting of a high-ranking Iranian official – has boxed him into […]
Top Five Countries that will Present Foreign Policy Challenges in 2020
By Catesby Holmes | – Where will the world’s attention turn in 2020? The United States’ impeachment trial of Donald Trump and the United Kingdom’s long-awaited Brexit are sure bets. And after the U.S. military withdrawal from northern Syria in October, Bashar al-Assad may well win his civil war this year. Many other countries will […]
Top 3 Practical Solutions to our Most Pressing Environmental Crises
By Jennifer Weeks | – From climate change to omnipresent plastic waste, 2019 delivered a lot of discouraging environmental news. Several special reports this year from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change documented how global warming is altering the planet’s lands, forests, oceans and frozen regions. Another U.N. report warned that the Earth is losing […]
Battle at the Border: Asylum, Citizenship and the Right to Live in the United States
By Aviva Rutkin | – Who gets to live in the United States? It’s a contentious question, particularly as the Trump administration works to limit entry to the U.S., through policies like 2017’s travel ban, as well as increased use of detention centers. Meanwhile, others continue their fight to keep the borders open. As I […]
Climate Crisis: It isn’t just Sea Level Rise, it is the Coastal Floods it Brings
By James Renwick | – I saw an article claiming that “king tides” will increase in frequency as sea level rises. I am sceptical. What is the physics behind such a claim and how is it related to climate change? My understanding is that a king tide is a purely tidal effect, related to Moon, […]
Climate Crisis and Carbon: Six Positive Developments in 2019
By Heather Alberro, Dénes Csala, Hannah Cloke, Marc Hudson, Mark Maslin, and Richard Hodgkins | – The climate breakdown continues. Over the past year, The Conversation has covered fires in the Amazon, melting glaciers in the Andes and Greenland, record CO₂ emissions, and temperatures so hot they’re pushing the human body to its thermal limits. […]