Climate Crisis

California Milestone: State for First Time briefly Generates 103% of its Electricity from Renewables

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On one day in May, Lauren Sommer at NPR reported, California ran for several hours on 103% renewable electricity, which means it generated enough electricity from wind, solar, hydro, geothermal and battery to fulfill the entire needs of the state plus to be able to export a bit to neighboring […]

Climate Change

Lessons in Activism: How Australia’s expanding environmental Movement is breaking the Climate Action Deadlock in Politics

The Conversation

By Robyn Gulliver, The University of Queensland | – The federal election saw voters’ growing concern about Australia’s laggardly response to climate change finally addressed, with teal independents garnering seats in Liberal heartland and record votes for Greens candidates. But what caused this seismic shift in Australia’s political landscape? And why now? We believe the […]

Climate Crisis

German Economy & Climate Minister’s visit to Israel & Palestine focused on Renewable Tech not just Replacing Russian Natural Gas

Clean Energy Wire

By Kerstine Appunn | – Germany’s economy and climate minister has arrived in Israel for talks about bilateral energy cooperation, with a focus on developing renewable energies rather than short-term deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to replace shipments from Russia, German public broadcasters ZDF and ARD reported. Israel has large natural gas reserves but […]

Climate Crisis

Biden just declared Heat Pumps and Solar Panels essential to National Defense – here’s why and the Challenges Ahead

The Conversation

By Daniel Cohan, Rice University | – Solar panels, heat pumps and hydrogen are all building blocks of a clean energy economy. But are they truly “essential to the national defense”? President Joe Biden proclaimed that they are in early June when he authorized using the Defense Production Act to ramp up their production in […]

Climate Crisis

European Parliament bans New Gasoline Cars in 13 Years for 449 Million People, to fight Climate Emergency and Russia

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Margaux Otter at L’Obs reports that on Wednesday, the European Parliament voted to ban the sale of new internal combustion engine (ICE) automobiles by 2035, only thirteen years from now. It is an epochal vote that aims at completely re-configuring the automobile industry in the 27-member European Union, with its […]

Climate Crisis

‘Open Your Hearts’: The Movements Taking Climate Action Where Leaders and Media Won’t

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Donna Katzin and William Minter | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – Media, politicians, and policymakers tend to focus on the most visible issues. The attention the war in Ukraine has received in the first half of 2022, for example, is unrivaled in the United States at least since the shock of 9/11 […]

Antarctica

Ice world: Antarctica’s riskiest glacier is under assault from below and losing its grip

The Conversation

By Ted Scambos, University of Colorado Boulder | – Flying over Antarctica, it’s hard to see what all the fuss is about. Like a gigantic wedding cake, the frosting of snow on top of the world’s largest ice sheet looks smooth and unblemished, beautiful and perfectly white. Little swirls of snow dunes cover the surface. […]

Climate Crisis

Biden’s Green New Deal: 100 Gigawatts of New Solar, in Biggest Energy Program since FDR’s TVA

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Biden just launched a series of executive orders and other measures for solar energy that have the potential to be the biggest energy initiatives by any president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, on whose watch the Hoover Dam and the Tennessee Valley Authority came into being. The Hoover Dam produces […]

Batteries

It is now Cheaper to Switch from Coal directly to Wind and Solar than to Natural Gas

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Matthew Gray at Transition Zero writes that it is now cheaper in North America and Europe to switch from coal plants directly to wind, solar, battery renewable energy sources than it is to switch to methane (“natural”) gas. TZ figures transition costs in expenditure of carbon dioxide, and finds that […]