Environment

Middle East is getting drier because of climate change, impelling people to replace lost rain water with underground fossil or aquifer water that cannot be replaced. From 2003-2009, enough of this aquifer water was permanently drained off to meet the needs of 100 million people. Some Middle East specialists are afraid that wars over water […]

Environment

Global Warming has doubled the Risk of More Hurricane Katrinas (McCauley)

Juan Cole

Lauren McCauley writes at Commondreams : Warming global temperatures have doubled the risk of "Katrina magnitude events," says a new study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. By analyzing the dramatic and sudden increase in water levels—or storm surges—which occur as a result of fierce hurricane winds and low […]

Energy

Our Coal addiction is Killing Us

Juan Cole

Documentary on what the 600 coal plants in the US are doing to our health and well-being. The government should announce a crash program to close them all by 2023 and replace them with green energy. If it won’t municipalities (your city) should go into the business of solar and wind electricity generation itself. The […]

Arab World

UAE Launches 100 Megawatt Solar Energy Plant, Largest in Mideast

Juan Cole

Although the Gulf makes its way in life by selling petroleum, countries like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates don’t engage in that sordid game of the American rich, of climate-change denial. The emirs are in no doubt about its dangers to their region and the need to use their current wealth to move to […]

Environment

Can we Get the Media to Report Climate Change? (Bill Moyers Video)

Juan Cole

Bill Moyers interviews a prominent scientist on what can be done to bring climate change back into the media discussion: The blurb: “Encore: Ending the Silence on Climate Change March 15, 2013 Remember climate change? The issue barely comes up with any substance in our current political dialogue. But bringing climate change back into our […]

Energy

Japan on the Anniversary of Fukushima: Anger, Protests and Hope

Juan Cole

On the two-year anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, 40,000 people rallied in downtown Tokyo against the current conservative government’s plans to start back up Japan’s nuclear reactors. Asahi Shimbun reports that it may take 40 years to decommission the four reactors there. Some 60 percent of Fukushima residents have no hope of returning home for […]

Environment

Why there will be Masses in the Streets Protesting Climate Change (Engelhardt)

Juan Cole

Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch.com: Two Sundays ago, I traveled to the nation’s capital to attend what was billed as “the largest climate rally in history” and I haven’t been able to get the experience — or a question that haunted me — out of my mind. Where was everybody? First, though, the obvious weather […]

Energy

First, Shut down all the Coal Plants: AEP forced to Shutter Engines of Climate Change, Mercury Poisoning (Chamberlain)

Juan Cole

Jacob Chamberlain writes at Common Dreams In a victory for advocates of clean air and water, energy giant American Electric Power will now be shutting down three coal-fired power plants and significantly reducing air pollution at 13 others across the Midwest and Southern United States. American Electric Power’s generating station in Rockport, Indiana (Reuters) The […]

Environment

Can Solar Energy save India’s Taj Mahal?

Juan Cole

The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh says that it wants to develop Agra as a solar city in part so as to save the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal, a Moghul monument built to commemorate the Indian queen Mumtaz Mahall by her grief-stricken widower, Emperor Shahjahan, was completed in the middle of the 1600s and […]