Environment

Desertec and Morocco’s future as a solar and wind energy powerhouse. Or, how veiled young Moroccan Muslim women engineers are more clear-eyed about the future than Mitt Romney. “We are too dependent on petroleum imports . . .” Desertec films explains: Morocco has plans to generate 2 gigawatts of power from solar by 2020.

Energy

Extreme Oil: Costly, Dirty and Dangerous (Klare)

Juan Cole

Michael T. Klare writes at Tomdispatch.com: The New “Golden Age of Oil” That Wasn’t Forecasts of Abundance Collide with Planetary Realities By Michael T. Klare Last winter, fossil-fuel enthusiasts began trumpeting the dawn of a new “golden age of oil” that would kick-start the American economy, generate millions of new jobs, and free this country […]

Environment

Top Ten ways Corporate Food is Making us Fat and threatening our Food Supplies

Juan Cole

While it is much better than the fascisms of the Right and the Left, one of the big drawbacks of corporate democracy is that the people are often outgunned. Large corporations account for half of the national economy and pay more for lobbyists to write and pass laws in Congress favorable to themselves than they […]

Energy

Romney shills for dirty Big Coal as Obama touts Iowa Wind Power

Juan Cole

Wind energy is on a roll in the United States, having doubled since 2008 to 50 gigawatts, enough to power 13 million homes. So why is Mitt Romney bad-mouthing it in favor of dirty, world-destroying fuel like coal? Even other Republicans are annoyed at Romney about this stance, and on Tuesday President Obama had a […]

Environment

Two Ways Mitt Romney Really Will Kill lots of People

Juan Cole

Controversy is swirling about a poorly argued attack ad done by a super PAC that is pro-Obama, which accuses Mitt Romney of being responsible for throwing a family where the wife had cancer out of health insurance when he closed the company. The case seems convoluted and the argument tenuous. Romney isn’t responsible for people […]

Energy

The Collapse of the Climate Change Contrarians and the End of Coal

Juan Cole

It is not proper to speak of “climate skeptics,” since all scientists (including we social scientists) are skeptical of all data and theories every day, all the time, and are willing to change our position if enough information and analysis emerges to challenge the old paradigms. But beyond just skeptics, there are always in any […]

Energy

Top Ten Reasons Fracking won’t Last Long

Juan Cole

Proponents of natural gas fracturing and oil drilling are delirious with joy over the ability to recover shale gas, which has brought down world gas prices and made the US a major player again. Likewise, North Dakota wells are set to produce up to 800,000 barrels of oil a day soon. (Although, since the world […]

Energy

Solar Plane flies from Spain to Morocco, then into Morocco’s rugged Interior

Juan Cole

The solar-powered Solar Impulse airplane built by a Swiss concern, having flown successfully from Madrid to Rabat, has just completed a flight over the Moroccan countryside that included having to get above the Atlas mountains: This video on the earlier Europe-to-Africa passage shows the plane in flight: I like flying, but am aware that the […]

Energy

Israel, Electric Cars, and Existential Threats

Juan Cole

Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi has launched an Israeli electric car, and also arranged for four recharging stations. Israel is a perfect place for this experiment, since it is a relatively small and compact country, so the present lack of range of most electric cars (70-150 miles) may not be an issue for a lot of […]