Fossil Fuels

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Consider us at the edge of the sort of epochal change not seen for centuries, even millennia. By the middle of this century, we will be living under such radically altered circumstances that the present decade, the 2020s, will undoubtedly seem like another era entirely, akin perhaps to the Middle Ages. […]

Batteries

By Blocking Green Energy, Manchin and Republicans are Siding with Russia and Endangering US National Security

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Vladimir Putin just made you poorer. Your retirement funds invested in the stock market just tanked. The cost of getting to work just spiked. US energy security is imperiled even though we don’t import petroleum or methane gas from Russia. High prices affect everyone in the world, and US allies […]

Climate Crisis

Conflict with Russia is Raising your Gasoline Bill; an Electric Car is the Answer

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Reporters pressed White House spokesperson Jen Psaki on Wednesday about the likelihood that any Russian military engagement in Ukraine will raise petroleum prices further. Ensuing US sanctions on Russia would keep some of its petroleum off the market, as has already happened to Iran, at a time when demand is […]

Climate Crisis

Not Since Charlemagne: Megadrought in US Southwest, boosted by Human CO2 emissions, is worst since 800 AD

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The megadrought in the US West has produced drier conditions as of the past year than any seen in over 1,200 years, according to a just-published article in Nature Climate Change by scientists A. Park Williams, Benjamin I. Cook and Jason E. Smerdon of UCLA. The length and intensity of […]

Climate Crisis

We need to cut Carbon, not fall for the Scam of Trying to Capture it

The Conversation

By Jason MacLean | – When the federal government released the budget in April 2021, it proposed creating a new tax credit for private firms that make investments in carbon capture, utilization and sequestration projects. But in January, shortly after the consultation period closed, more than 400 Canadian climate scientists, academics and energy system modellers […]

Climate Crisis

Youth, NGO, launch Major Lawsuit against German Gov’t for slow Climate Action in highest court

Clean Energy Wire

By Jessica Bateman | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – Young Germans supported by an environmental NGO have filed a new lawsuit with the country’s highest court to force the government to further step up its climate ambitions. Nine children and young adults, along with Environmental Action Germany (DUH), launched a constitutional complaint claiming […]

Climate Crisis

Tonga’s Volcanic Tsunami floods Capital, foreshadowing effects of Glacier Melt from our CO2

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A massive eruption in an undersea volcano, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai, 40 miles north of the South Pacific island of Tongatapu on Saturday caused a low-level tsunami and flooding on the island, the most populous in the Tonga archipelago. The tsunami spread out from there, causing one- to three-foot waves […]

Africa

The North Atlantic Put up most Heat-Trapping Gases but Africa has to Deal with the Climate Emergency

The Conversation

By Margaret Kadiri | – The UN climate summit COP26, held in November 2021, focused the world’s attention on the urgent need to tackle climate change and concluded with 197 countries agreeing to the Glasgow climate pact. But opinions on the summit’s success are polarised. We owe a profound gratitude to the developing nations – […]

Climate Crisis

We are so F*cked unless we act Now: The 7 Hottest Years on Record were the last 7 Years

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service reports that the seven hottest years on record “by a clear margin” were the past seven years. This finding underlines the way global heating is speeding up, as we put more and more heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Global temperatures fluctuate with […]