Energy

Michael E. Mann on the impact of climate change on industry:

Our Coal addiction is Killing Us

Documentary on what the 600 coal plants in the US are doing to our health and well-being. The government should announce a crash program to close them all by 2023 and replace them with green energy. If it won’t municipalities (your city) should go into the business of solar and wind electricity generation itself. The […]

Arab World

UAE Launches 100 Megawatt Solar Energy Plant, Largest in Mideast

Juan Cole

Although the Gulf makes its way in life by selling petroleum, countries like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates don’t engage in that sordid game of the American rich, of climate-change denial. The emirs are in no doubt about its dangers to their region and the need to use their current wealth to move to […]

Energy

Japan on the Anniversary of Fukushima: Anger, Protests and Hope

Juan Cole

On the two-year anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, 40,000 people rallied in downtown Tokyo against the current conservative government’s plans to start back up Japan’s nuclear reactors. Asahi Shimbun reports that it may take 40 years to decommission the four reactors there. Some 60 percent of Fukushima residents have no hope of returning home for […]

Energy

First, Shut down all the Coal Plants: AEP forced to Shutter Engines of Climate Change, Mercury Poisoning (Chamberlain)

Juan Cole

Jacob Chamberlain writes at Common Dreams In a victory for advocates of clean air and water, energy giant American Electric Power will now be shutting down three coal-fired power plants and significantly reducing air pollution at 13 others across the Midwest and Southern United States. American Electric Power’s generating station in Rockport, Indiana (Reuters) The […]

Energy

Holding Obama’s Feet to the Fire: Protest against Climate Change Draws Thousands to Washington

Juan Cole

The ‘Forward on Climate’ protest drew some 40,000 demonstrators to Washington, DC, on Sunday. Although the press tended to cast it as mainly a rally against the Keystone XL pipeline project, which would allow export of Canadian oil produced from tar sands via the Gulf of Mexico, the rally was against policies that accelerate climate […]

Energy

Will Obama Stand up to the Keystone XL Pipeline & Climate-Destroying Tar Sands? (Klare)

Juan Cole

Michael T. Klare writes at Tomdispatch.com: Presidential decisions often turn out to be far less significant than imagined, but every now and then what a president decides actually determines how the world turns. Such is the case with the Keystone XL pipeline, which, if built, is slated to bring some of the “dirtiest,” carbon-rich oil […]

Energy

Stop the Great Coal Export Conspiracy! (Greenpeace)

Juan Cole

Greenpeace USA explains: Big Coal plans to get around Environmental Protection Agency restrictions on toxic emissions by just shipping the coal abroad to countries that don’t care about the environment. And, they’re planning to use taxpayer money to do it. For the Greenpeace anti-coal campaign click on this site

Energy

Anti-Mercury UN Minimata Convention Approved in Geneva: Impact on Coal?

Juan Cole

140 nations meeting in Geneva have concluded an accord to limit mercury emissions, which must now be ratified by individual nations. It has implications for coal-fired power plants, among the most serious contributors to mercury pollution, as well as cement factories The treaty also seeks an end to mercury use in thermometers and batteries, and […]