Energy

“Small solar home systems bring good quality light and phone-charging to off-grid households and save them money. Yet their upfront costs render them out of reach for the people who would benefit most from them. UK-based startup Azuri has developed a pay-as-you-go interface which allows households [in Kenya and East Africa] to pay for solar […]

Energy

Tiny Cape Verde’s Push to be a World Leader in Wind Energy

Juan Cole

Finnfund explains: “The windswept islands of Cape Verde lie off West Africa, some 500 km from Senegal. They are the site of Africa’s largest wind power project, which started up in autumn 2011. Generating equipment on four of the islands will produce a greater proportion of electricity from wind than anywhere else in the world…” […]

Energy

And you Want to transport More Oil across America by rail, pipelines? Canadian Town destroyed by Railroad Oil Cars

Juan Cole

Train cars carrying petroleum became unmoored and rolled seven miles before jacknifing and exploding, inflicting heavy damage on the town of Lac Megantic in Quebec. At least 5 are dead, 40 are missing, and over a thousand were evacuated because of toxic fumes and the outbreak of fires. CBS News reports: Industrial accidents involving petroleum […]

Energy

Egypt: Fundamentalists hurl Kids from Building, Beat Them (Caution: Explicit)

Juan Cole

This video is circulating via YouTube showing two kids being hurled from what looks like a 20-feet-high parapet to the roof of an apartment building and then being beaten. The people attacking them are hard line Muslim fundamentalists; one is carrying a black al-Qaeda flag. The youths who were attacked are alleged to have been […]

Energy

GE’s ‘Brilliant’ Wind Turbines offer Cheaper Energy than Coal, Gas, & have Battery Storage

Juan Cole

GE’s Brilliant wind turbines generate electricity more cheaply than coal or gas according to Clean Technica , and have battery storage for when the wind isn’t blowing: Here’s a well-done video on the technology: The Department of Energy issued a report in December finding that building out US wind power over the next two decades […]

Energy

Critics: Obama’s Climate Plan a Day Late and a Penny Short (Lazare)

Juan Cole

President should renounce “all of the above” energy strategy and nation's reliance on dirty fossil fuels, say environmentalists – Sarah Lazare, staff writer, Commondreams Environmentalists warn that President Obama's 'climate plan'—announced Tuesday in a speech at Georgetown University—does not contain the urgency required by the fast-spiraling crisis of global warming and climate change and that […]

Domestic Surveillance

Why Correa might give Snowden Asylum: All the Horrible things the US has done to Ecuador

Juan Cole

Rafael Correa of Ecuador, who won a third term this year, has significantly improved the lives of his people, reducing poverty rates and building out infrastructure. Correa, an economist trained at the University of Illinois, has a nuanced view of the US, but he has had significant frictions with the behemoth of the North, which […]

Energy

Asia will Drown, Africa will Starve in 30 years: World Bank Report on Global Warming

Juan Cole

The World Bank report, “Turn Down the Heat,” (available in pdf form here warns of severe climate effects even if we manage to limit global warming to 2 degrees C., and a much worse fate if we go to 4 degrees C. The world is now putting 35 billion metric tons of C02 into the […]

Energy

Obama in Berlin foreshadows Coming Epic Battle against Climate Change

Juan Cole

President Obama is readying a major policy change on combating climate change. He adverted to it in his Berlin speech yesterday. In my view, this step is more important than anything else the Obama White House has undertaken. (See my argument here.) Rapid climate change driven by our dumping of billions of metric tons a […]