Extreme Heat

Kalamazoo, MI (Special to Informed Comment) – Many are rightly celebrating a resurgence of liberalism as the Free World rallies against Putin’s war of choice. We honor brave Ukrainians fighting for freedom. Pride surges for democratic governments incurring great costs, with skillful and cooperative leadership countering immense and unjustified harm to innocents and arrogant violation […]

Climate Crisis

White House OMB: Climate Crisis to cost US $2 trillion Each and Every Year in 8 Decades

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Timothy Gardner at Reuters has gotten an advance look at a White House Office of Management and Budget document that concludes that by the end of this century, when Olivia Rodrigo would be 100 if she has the long life we wish for her, the annual cost of the climate […]

Climate Crisis

Even Oil-Rich UAE admits its Green Energy saved it nearly $200 billion, as it builds World’s Largest Solar Farm

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Even the energy minister of the United Arab Emirates, the world’s eighth largest oil producer, has admitted that the steps so far taken in the small Gulf country toward green energy have saved it $191 billion. The UAE gets about 7% of its electricity from solar panels, saving on the […]

Arab World

Climate Crisis: Middle East is Heating up Twice as Fast as Global Average

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Christoph Duenwald et al. at the International Monetary Fund have a new report out that finds that temperatures in the Middle East and Central Asia have already risen by 2.7 degrees F. (1.5C) over the past century, at a rate twice as fast as that of the rest of the […]

Climate Crisis

Combined, Green Sources generated 38% of global Electricity in 2021, for 1st Time Exceeding Coal

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Ember energy analysis shop, which prioritizes ending the use of coal to combat the climate emergency, has issued a new report on where we stand with green energy. Among their important findings is that all low-carbon sources of energy were responsible for 38% of the world’s electricity last year, […]

Climate Crisis

The Costs of (Another) War: When We Could Be Fighting Climate Change

Tomdispatch

By Andrea Mazzarino | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – What do a six-year-old in the United States and an 85-year-old in Russia have in common besides being on opposite sides of a war? They’re both feeling the strain of a warming planet. “Is the earth going to get so hot that we can’t survive?” my […]

Bangladesh

Will the Climate Crisis Cause the Next Great Global Conflict?

Jason Miklian

Oslo (Special to Informed Comment) – In November 1970 the Great Bhola Cyclone smashed into the southern coast of what is now Bangladesh, killing 500,000 people. It wasn’t just the deadliest storm in human history — it knocked over the first domino in a political chain reaction that brought the world to the brink of […]

Climate Crisis

Stanford U. Electricity now 100% Green, with Savings of $ .5 Billion; Why aren’t more Universities in Forefront of Climate Battle?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Chelci Adami of the Stanford Report writes that Stanford University has transitioned to 100% renewable electricity. The Stanford Solar Generating Station #2 went online in mid-March, adding 63 megawatts to the university’s electricity supply. The campus had completed a previous 54-megawatt solar installation in 2016, and the new facility has […]

Climate Crisis

There’s No Better Time to Buy an Electric Car and Kick Our Oil Addiction

Sonali Kolhatkar

( Otherwords.org ) – Long used to cheap gas at the pump, Americans are experiencing serious sticker shock these days. News headlines link this sharp increase to Russia’s war on Ukraine. But that assumes oil companies have no control over the price of oil — that high prices stem “naturally” from things like the war […]