Environmentalism

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) Summer of 2016 was not only hotter than any summer on record, i.e. since 1880. We have enough proxies for global average temperature to know that it was hotter than any summer since at least 1016, when Genoa launched a campaign against Muslim Sardinia and Norway not only got […]

Climate Change

Welcome to Masdar City: the ultimate experiment in sustainable urban living

contributors

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, […]

Environmentalism

Native American Rights and Health versus Pipeline Cowboys

contributors

By Chip Ward | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – Americans who don’t live in the West may think that the historic clash of Native Americans and pioneering settlers is long past because the Indians were, after all, defeated and now drive cars, watch television, and shop at Walmart. Not so. That classic American narrative […]

Environment

5 Signs that Wind Power in the US is suddenly going Massive

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Iowa Utility Board has approved a $3 bn. MidAmerica wind farm project which will be the country’s largest, due to come on line in 2019, and which will generate enough electricity to power 800,000 homes! I looked this up, and there are only about 1.2 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Environmentalism

Florida: Politicians in Big Oil’s Pocket Beware, The People want their Solar

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Florida voters have overwhelmingly passed Amendment 4, which exempts solar panels and solar equipment from extra taxes. Before this, if someone put up solar panels on their house in Florida, as we did in Michigan, and it caused the value of the house to increase […]

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 […]