Green Energy

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 […]

Christians

Pope to Developed World: Greed is Causing Climate Change, Inequality

contributors

Jon Queally, staff writer | ( Commondreams.org ) | – – Leader of Catholic Church says the richest owe the poorest a ‘great social debt’ for creating the climate crisis, ignoring warnings of its dangers, and refusing to act ‘The climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all,’ reads Pope Francis’ […]

Climate Change

Europe to reach 20% Renewable Energy Goal by 2020 & You’ll Never Guess How

contributors

Euractiv | – – [ N.B. 13% of US electricity is from renewables, including hydro; almost no transportation is powered by renewables.] While most EU member countries are on track to meet the EU’s binding 2020 targets on renewable energy, France, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands and the UK all need to step up their efforts, […]

Climate Change

Pharrell Williams to G7: Green Energy is a Jobs Issue for unemployed Youth

contributors

Pharrell Williams | (The Guardian Video) | – – “Pharrell WIlliams, the Grammy award-winning artist makes an impassioned plea for green jobs to be put at the top of the agenda at the Paris COP 21 summit, saying that there is a unique opportunity to create a green economy.” The Guardian: “Pharrell Williams: climate change […]

Acidification of Oceans

How each State in the Union can have 100% Green Energy by 2050: The Stanford Plan

contributors

By Bjorn Carey | ( Stanford News Service) | – –