Environment

Jared Anderson at Breaking Energy writes of technologies for solar power storage that allow the energy generated by the sun to be released at night: “a US-based company will jump ahead of the competition next year with its molten salt storage technique. “This technology at this size would leap-frog us into [energy] storage leaders,” Solar […]

Energy

Top 10 Ways the US is the Most Corrupt Country in the World

Juan Cole

Those ratings that castigate Afghanistan and some other poor countries as hopelessly “corrupt” always imply that the United States is not corrupt. VOA reports : While it is true that you don’t typically have to bribe your postman to deliver the mail in the US, in many key ways America’s political and financial practices make […]

Energy

Americans are 5% of World Population, consume 1/4 of its Energy (infographic)

Juan Cole

Source: InternationalBusinessGuide.org

Africa

Kenya’s KTN outshines American Media in Climate Change Coverage: 2013 among 10 Hottest Years since 1850

Juan Cole

Kenya’s KTN television news reports on the Warsaw Climate Conference and on a new report by the World Meteorological Organization showing that 2013 is one of the 10 hottest years since 1850. What struck me is how professional and straightforward the KTN report is. It accurately represents the WMO report and shows its representatives presenting […]

Energy

Planet Tahrir: The Coming Mass Demonstrations against Climate Change (Klare)

Juan Cole

Michael T. Klare writes at Tomdispatch.com: A week after the most powerful “super typhoon” ever recorded pummeled the Philippines, killing thousands in a single province, and three weeks after the northern Chinese city of Harbin suffered a devastating “airpocalypse,” suffocating the city with coal-plant pollution, government leaders beware! Although individual events like these cannot be […]

al-Qaeda

Our Gasoline thirst fuels Mideast Fundamentalism, Violence – EVs are the Answer

Juan Cole

The Greater Middle East has much of the proven oil and natural gas reserves in the world, and it is those hydrocarbon resources that give the region its central position in US policy. But the dependence by the US and its allies on petroleum is promoting a disturbing religious fanaticism and authoritarianism in the Muslim […]

Energy

“Off the Charts”: Deadliest Storm in History Kills 1200, Displaces Millions in Philippines

Juan Cole

ABC News reports on Super-Typhoon Haiyan, which is now estimated to have killed at least 1200 in the Philippines, and which forced millions from their homes, with winds of 195 miles per hour and gusts of over 200 miles per hour. Other storms have been larger and killed many more (mainly because they stuck around […]

Energy

Record High Warming Gases in Atmosphere: Earth Losing Race Against Time (McCauley)

Juan Cole

Lauren McCauley writes at Commondreams.org The amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in our atmosphere reached a record high in 2012, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), continuing an upward and accelerating trend which, according to report authors, spells "devastating consequences" for the future of the planet. According to WMO's annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, between […]

Energy

Dear Press: Stop Enthusing About Habitable Planets until People like Va.’s Cuccinelli Stop Destroying this One

Juan Cole

The issue of habitable planets, earth’s own disastrous climate change, and Virginia politics don’t intersect every day. But today they do, and that does not reflect well on the human species or its prospects. Bear with me. NASA’s now-idle Kepler telescope’s earlier search for habitable planets in the universe from time to time generates breathless […]