Energy

(By Juan Cole) The miserable record of the United States in tackling its deadly carbon dioxide emissions (5 billion metric tons a year) sometimes obscures how very possible it is for industrial economies to go green. Spain, a country of 47 million, was nearly at 50% renewables for electricity generation in 2013. That 50% from […]

Climate Change

Kerry may Nix Keystone XL for Global Climate Agreement

contributors

(By Tina Casey) John Kerry Throws More Cold Water On Keystone XL Pipeline (via Clean Technica) The tubes have been buzzing over a new New York Times report on Secretary of State John Kerry’s aggressive pursuit of a new global climate agreement, which has some clear implications for approval of the controversial Keystone XL tar […]

Energy

Europe Abandoning Hydrocarbons: Closing 30% of Gas, Coal Plants in Favor of Green Energy

contributors

(By Zachary Shahan) Europe’s Fossil Fuel Exit — 30% Of Fossil Fuel Power Capacity To Close By 2017, UBS Analysts Project (via Clean Technica) Following up on a Credit Suisse report stating that ~85% of US energy demand growth would come from renewables by 2025, we thought it would be good to take a look […]

Climate Change

Australia burns, swelters in Hottest Year on Record (Climate Instability Story of the Day)

contributors

(By AFP) Australia endures hottest year on record (via AFP) Australia experienced its hottest year on record in 2013, the Bureau of Meteorology said Friday, enduring the longest heatwave ever recorded Down Under as well as destructive bushfires. “2013 was Australia’s warmest year since records began in 1910,”… ITN reports

Dissent

Egyptian Military Junta Jumps the Shark, Interrogates Islamist Muppet

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) When the venerable al-Ahram newspaper, then under the control of the government of Hosni Mubarak, published the allegation during the 2011 revolution that the crowds were just coming down to Tahrir Square for KFC chicken, it was the beginning of the end of the Mubarak establishment. It might have survived being repressive, […]

Climate Change

Solar Ascendancy: Minnesota Court Ruling for Solar over Gas a Harbinger of Things to Come

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) Minnesota Judge Eric Lipman found that solar is a better deal than natural gas for Xcel Energy, permitting Geronimo Energy to construct 20 huge solar facilities worth $250 million in Xcel’s service area in that state. The amount of solar power in the state would increase by a factor of 7. The […]

Africa

Ethiopia aims to become Africa’s Green Energy Giant

Juan Cole

Ethiopia intends to increase its power generation from 2000 megawatts to 10,000 MW. That goal is not unusual for a developing country. What is distinctive is that its government wants to achieve as much as possible of this increase in power through green energy (hydro, wind, solar and geothermal). AFP reports on “Ethiopia spearheads green […]

Climate Change

Birth of Hope: Top Ten Solar Energy Stories 2013

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) The story of a doomed race who need to be saved by a messiah is on people’s minds today. It functions at a spiritual level. There is an analogous story at the physical level. Humankind is facing the biggest crisis in its 120,000-year-long existence, the physical equivalent of original sin. It is […]

Climate Change

Scotland is going 100% Green by 2020; shame on Dirty America

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) Glasgow is the city of the future, not Phoenix. Scotland has a population of about 5.3 million, a little more than the US state of Arizona. But the resemblance stops there. Arizona’s state government is backward-looking, roiled by racial politics, contemptuous of higher education, and a climate laggard, dirtying up the atmosphere […]