Climate Change

By Susan Lee | (The Conversation) | – – Ten years ago in the United Arab Emirates, a new settlement was started from scratch, with the aim of becoming “the world’s most sustainable city”. Masdar City was designed to be zero-carbon and zero-waste, home to a population of 40,000 people, with an additional 50,000 commuters, […]

Climate Change

Is the Native American pipeline resistance in N. Dakota about climate justice?

contributors

By Kyle Powys Whyte | (The Conversation) | – – Over the past months, hundreds of indigenous persons and their allies have gathered near the crossing of the Missouri and Cannon Ball rivers in the ancestral territories of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. Using nonviolent means, their goal is to stop the building of the […]

Authoritarianism

Endangering the Planet: Populist New Right opposes Climate Action as much as Immigration

contributors

By Michael T. Klare | ( Tomdispatch.com | – – In a year of record-setting heat on a blistered globe, with fast-warming oceans, fast-melting ice caps, and fast-rising sea levels, ratification of the December 2015 Paris climate summit agreement — already endorsed by most nations — should be a complete no-brainer. That it isn’t tells […]

China

Most US Networks slight coverage as US & China join Paris Climate Accord in key Turning Point

contributors

By Guy Dinmore | (Inter Press Service) | – – HONOLULU, Hawaii (IPS) – The world’s super-polluters – the United States and China – have formally joined the Paris Agreement on climate change in a symbolic show of unity. At a ceremony in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, where China is hosting a summit […]

Climate Change

Pope: Pollution, Carbon Emissions a Sin & Global Warming to harm the Poor

contributors

By Nika Knight, staff writer | (Commondreams.org) | – – Humans are turning the planet into a ‘polluted wasteland full of debris, desolation, and filth,’ says Pope Francis “The world’s poor, though least responsible for climate change, are most vulnerable and already suffering its impact,” Pope Francis said. Pope Francis on Thursday put forth an […]

Climate Change

Trump, the Big Easy, and the Environment

contributors

By Arlie Russell Hochschild | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – [This essay has been adapted from Arlie Hochschild’s new book, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right (The New Press), which will be published on September 6th.] Sometimes you have to go a long, long way to discover truths […]

Climate Change

In Boon for EVs, Solar Panels, California will roll back CO2 Emissions to 40% Below 1990

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The California legislature worked on a carbon dioxide emissions reduction bill for a year, and is finally sending it to the governor for his signature. It is one of the more ambitious pieces of CO2 legislation by any US state, more resembling policies of the European […]

Africa

Climate Change Terror as Deserts Bury 2/3s of African Lands

contributors

By Baher Kamal | (Inter Press Service) | – – ROME, (IPS) – Two-thirds of the African continent is already desert or dry-lands. But while this vast extension of the second largest continent on Earth after Asia is “vital” for agriculture and food production, nearly three-fourths of it is estimated to be degraded to varying […]

Climate Change

Iowa could go 100% Green with Wind in only 14 years, w/ Few Birds Killed, Mr. Trump

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Iowa gets 31% of its electricity from wind turbines, the highest percentage in the nation (though Texas generates more than twice as many megawatts from wind). But you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet. Some Iowa planners think that in only 14 years Iowa will be able to […]