Climate Change

By Michael T. Klare | Tomdispatch.com | — Around the world, carbon-based fuels are under attack. Increasingly grim economic pressures, growing popular resistance, and the efforts of government regulators have all shocked the energy industry. Oil prices are falling, colleges and universities are divesting from their carbon stocks, voters are instituting curbs on hydro-fracking, and […]

Climate Change

Why was 2014 Hottest Year on Record? The Humans did it

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — A Japanese team has confirmed that 2014 was the hottest year on record. Moreover, ten of the warmest years have occurred since 1998. What the scientists are measuring is that average temperature of the earth’s surface, including the oceans, throughout the world. Thus, the cold winter in North […]

Climate Change

Obama will Veto Keystone XL Pipeline, Stopping 110 mn tons of CO2 Annually

contributors

Cenk Uygur | (The Young Turks) — “The White House announced Tuesday afternoon that President Obama plans to veto a newly introduced pro-Keystone XL bill if it passes the Senate, the Associated Press reports. Senators John Hoeven, R-North Dakota, and Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, introduced a bill on the Senate floor Tuesday that would immediately […]

Climate Change

As 2014 declared Warmest Year, Watch where World’s CO2 Comes From

contributors

Vox | — “A new high-resolution computer model created by NASA shows carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas driving global warming, as you’ve never seen it before.” Vox: “A visual tour of the world’s CO2 emissions”

Climate Change

Scotland: World’s Largest Tidal Power Project Begins Construction

contributors

STV | — STV (Scottish TV) reports, “Construction work on the world’s largest tidal energy project is set to begin… The 269-turbine installation, which is expected to power 175,000 homes, will be built in the Inner Sound of the Pentland Firth. Construction is expected to begin at the Ness of Quoys near the village of […]

Climate Change

Wind supplied 98% of Scotland’s household Power in 2014 and other Amazing Green Energy Stories

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — Some 41% of the electricity consumed in Scotland annually is for households, while industrial and other facilities use the other 59%. With regard to the households, i.e. domestic energy consumption, Scotland’s wind turbines generated enough to cover 98% of it in 2014. In addition, in some months of […]

Climate Change

“Even a 10 percent loss of Antarctica’s ice would cause catastrophic flooding of coastal cities”

contributors

NOVA | (PBS) — “Almost three miles of ice buries most of Antarctica, cloaking a continent half again as large as the United States. But when an Antarctic ice shelf the size of Manhattan collapsed in less than a month in 2002, it shocked scientists and raised the alarming possibility that Antarctica may be headed […]

Climate Change

Did Drought and Climate Change cause Middle Eastern States to Collapse in 2014?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — The Middle East, from North Africa to Afghanistan, has seen an unusual number of governments collapse in recent years. Libya, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen have abruptly become something akin to failed states, and masses overthrew dictators in Egypt and Tunisia. It is unclear how strong the Afghanistan state […]

Climate Change

Year 6 of the Climate Activism Revolution

contributors

By Rebecca Solnit | (Tomdispatch.com) It was the most thrilling bureaucratic document I’ve ever seen for just one reason: it was dated the 21st day of the month of Thermidor in the Year Six. Written in sepia ink on heavy paper, it recorded an ordinary land auction in France in what we would call the […]