Green Energy

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – President Obama spoke on Monday on his plan to use the Environmental Protection Agency to pressure states to close high-carbon power plants and reduce CO2 emissions by 32% below 2005 levels by 2030. The US Supreme Court has ruled that carbon dioxide is a form of […]

Acidification of Oceans

Are the Courts the next decisive Arena of Climate Activism?

contributors

By Emily Schwartz Greco | (Foreign Policy in Focus/ Otherwords) People from Seattle to Fiji are filing lawsuits over global warming — and they just might have a case. Climate action is finally gaining ground in Washington. No, not that Washington. Following their victory in a Seattle court, eight children are pressing Washington State’s Department […]

Acidification of Oceans

While Americans obsess about ISIL, Rest of World Fears Global Warming

contributors

By Thalif Deen | (Inter Press Service) | – – UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – The world at large is apparently divided over what constitutes the biggest single threat to human kind: the devastation caused by climate change or the unbridled terror unleashed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)? Severe flooding is one […]

Climate Change

Ten Easy Steps to save the World: 96% of needed CO2 Emissions Reduction Possible by 2030

contributors

By Kitty Stapp | (Inter Press Service) | – – NEW YORK (IPS) – Up to 96 percent of the emissions reductions needed by 2030 to keep global warming below a critical threshold of two degrees C [3.6 degrees F.] could be achieved through a series of 10 steps, says a new report released by […]

Climate Change

Dirty Energy vs. Clean Power The Past Battles the Future at Seneca Lake

contributors

By Ellen Cantarow | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – Let’s amend the famous line from Joni Mitchell’s “Yellow Taxi” to fit this moment in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. There, Big Energy seems determined to turn paradise, if not into a parking lot, then into a massive storage area for fracked natural gas. […]

Christianity

As Glaciers Melt in Ecuador, Pope Francis challenges Technocrats, touts “Keeping” the Environment

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Pope Francis continues to preach environmentalism as he addresses crowds in Latin America, a challenging message in poor countries where over-exploitation of natural resources is a constant temptation. These are also countries and populations, however, most at risk from pollution and the ravages of climate change. […]

Civil Rights

Your Fourth of July and My Fourth of July

Juan Cole

Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Revised for the 2010s: Your Fourth of July is invasions and wars. My Fourth of July is the pure sunbeam of peace. Yours is the Confederate flag and nostalgia for the hierarchies of slavery. Mine is ‘all men are created equal.’ Yours is kowtowing to billionaires in […]

Climate Change

In first, Court orders Dutch gov’t to protect citizens from climate change

contributors

The Tree | – – The Dutch government has put its citizens in danger by failing to address greenhouse gas emissions, a court [has] ruled . . . In a landmark verdict, the judge said the government “must do more to avert the imminent danger caused by climate change” and ordered it to reduce CO2 […]

Acidification of Oceans

5 Radical Takeaways from the Pope’s Letter on Climate

contributors

By Janet Redman | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | – – Francis recognizes that there’s no way to stop climate change without confronting the way the world does business. That’s huge. Pope Francis just released an “encyclical,” a letter meant to serve as a guide to understanding our personal relationship to some of the most […]