Climate Change

(By Michael T. Klare) Listening to President Obama’s State of the Union address, it would have been easy to conclude that we were slowly but surely gaining in the war on climate change. “Our energy policy is creating jobs and leading to a cleaner, safer planet,” the president said. “Over the past eight years, the […]

Climate Change

Planet, Oceans Burning Up: There is no “Pause” in Global Warming

contributors

(By Jon Queally) Climate change has not hit a "speed bump." The planet's temperature is not remaining steady and it certainly isn't cooling. Earth, especially its ocean, are heating up… and rapidly. Those are the findings and the consensus of the global scientific community. And a new study shows that the detectable slowdown of global […]

Africa

Big Green Energy is Remaking Africa and Asia

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) A significant part of the population of Africa and Asia at present has no access to electricity, and in some countries those deprived amount to as much as 80 percent of the population. That is true in Ethiopia, for instance. Demand for electricity will therefore grow enormously in Africa and Asia over […]

Climate Change

Let’s See: Major Droughts in Drying West; Fracking a Water Hog and Causes Drought…

contributors

(By Jon Queally) Almost half (47%) of all U.S. wells are being developed in regions with high to extremely high water stress. This means that more than 80 percent of the annual available water is already allocated to municipal, industrial and agricultural users in these regions. The irony of fracking: It destroys the natural resource […]

Climate Change

McKibben: Crunch Time for Obama on Keystone XL

Juan Cole

Bill Moyers interviews environmental activist Bill McKibben on the choice facing President Obama on the Keystone XL pipeline: McKibben argues that stopping the pipeline is a necessary first step to stopping the dirty tar sands industry and saving the climate. McKibben’s web site is 350.org

Climate Change

Iceland: Major Green Energy Breakthrough using Magma for Geothermal

Juan Cole

(Via CleanTechnica) First Magma-Enhanced Geothermal System In The World Developed In Iceland (via Clean Technica) The first “magma-enhanced” geothermal system in the world — the IDDP-1 well at Krafla — has proven to be a great success, based on the first scientific reports on the project, which are now starting to be released. The well, […]

Barack Obama

Dear President Obama: Tar Sands & Keystone XL are more Dangerous than an Iranian Atomic Bomb

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) Dear President Obama: You have said repeatedly that if negotiations with Iran do not limit its nuclear enrichment activities solely to peaceful uses, i.e. production of fuel for energy plants, that you would be willing to go to war with that country to ensure that it does not develop an atomic bomb. […]

Climate Change

How the Media Missed the Story of the Millennium: One Climate Blockbuster after Another

contributors

(By Tom Englehardt) Here’s the scoop: When it comes to climate change, there is no “story,” not in the normal news sense anyway. The fact that 97% of scientists who have weighed in on the issue believe that climate change is a human-caused phenomenon is not a story. That only one of 9,137 peer-reviewed papers […]

Climate Change

Dirty Fuel Corporations to American Public: Frack You!

contributors

(By Ellen Cantarow) For the past several years, I’ve been writing about what happens when big oil and gas corporations drill where people live. “Fracking” — high-volume hydraulic fracturing, which extracts oil and methane from deep shale — has become my beat. My interviewees live in Pennsylvania’s shale-gas fields; among Wisconsin’s hills, where corporations have […]