Environmentalism

Despite Hawks Seeking new Cold War, the US and China can only Confront Climate Emergency by Cooperating

( China Dialogue ) – They say don’t mess with Texas, but Mother Nature didn’t get the memo. A surprise winter storm killed at least 111 people in March, when rolling blackouts left several million Texans without power for several freezing days. Their misery came just a few years after Hurricane Harvey put a US$125 […]

China

New Wind and Solar up 50% globally in 2020, as China beats US by over 4 to 1

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The new report on 2020 by the International Renewable Energy Agency reveals that the world’s renewable energy generation capacity increased by an astonishing 10.3% in 2020 despite the global economic slowdown during the coronavirus pandemic. It beats the previous record for an annual increase in this sector by a healthy […]

Climate Crisis

How Persistent Student Organizing Forced the University of Michigan to Divest from Fossil Fuels

Waging Nonviolence

By Jonathan Morris | – ( Waging Nonviolence ) – Last month, the University of Michigan became the latest to accept the obvious — that investing in the destruction of society is fundamentally counter to the mission of higher education. With its endowment of $14.2 billion, Michigan now becomes one of the largest public universities […]

Environmentalism

Young Indigenous organizers are taking the fight against oil pipelines to Biden

Waging Nonviolence

( Waging Nonviolence)- Hundreds of people rallied in front of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers headquarters in Washington, D.C. on April 1 to deliver 400,000 petition signatures calling on the Biden administration to stop a pair of major oil pipelines threatening Indigenous nations’ land and water. “We as Indigenous people are done being silenced,” […]

Climate Crisis

Why Activists have Launched a Fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty

China Dialogue

By Isabella Kaminski | – ( China Dialogue ) A fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty (FFNPT) initiative was formally launched last September by a coalition of academics, lawyers and activists. It’s modelled on the landmark UN Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons agreed in the 1960s, and is built around the same three pillars: non-proliferation, […]

Climate Crisis

Antarctica’s ice shelves are trembling as Earth heats, threatening Sea Level Rise unless we Act Now

The Conversation

By Ella Gilbert | – Images of colossal chunks of ice plunging into the sea accompany almost every news story about climate change. It can often make the problem seem remote, as if the effects of rising global temperatures are playing out elsewhere. But the break-up of the world’s vast reservoirs of frozen water – […]

Climate Crisis

As Biden seeks 30 gigawatts in Offshore Wind, Report shows this source could Generate all US Electricity

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Biden has announced an enormous offshore wind corridor. So report Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis at WaPo. I wrote earlier this month about the 84-turbine Vineyard Wind project off Massachusetts, which has just been permitted, which will generate 800 megawatts. Biden wants to generate nearly 40 times as much […]

Climate Crisis

German Greens come out against Russian Gas Pipeline: “It ought not to Exist”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Germany’s Green Party has come out strongly against the Nord Stream II Baltic natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. The pipeline’s construction is already advanced. Der Tagesspiegel reports, “Green Party leader Annalena Baerbock warned that the pipeline would undermine European sovereignty and pose an obstacle to a common European […]

Climate Crisis

German Scientists: Without Drastic Climate Action, World could be headed to Dangerous 7.2° F. extra Heating

Benjamin Wehrmann

By Benjamin Wehrmann | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – Current emissions reduction efforts around the world are insufficient to limit global warming to up to 2 degrees Celsius in line with the Paris Climate Agreement, Germany’s Meteorological Service (DWD) has said. Despite globally reduced mobility and depressed industrial production due to the coronavirus […]