Environment

Over half of Turkey’s Electricity now comes from Renewables as it seeks to Escape Energy Dependence on Russia

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Turkiye is finally making strides toward a renewable grid. In the first half of 2024, according to the energy think tank Ember, over half (53%) of Turkiye’s electricity was generated by renewables. In the first two quarters of the previous year, 2023, that figure was only 44%. Moreover, the percentage […]

Artificial Intelligence

A.I. may kill us All, but not the Way you Think

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – The conventional Artificial Intelligence doomsday scenario runs like this. A robot acquires sentience and decides for some reason that it wants to rule the world. It hacks into computer systems to shut down everything from banking and hospitals to nuclear power. Or it takes over a factory to […]

Featured

China and the Slowing Petroleum Market: EVs displaced 1.5 mn. Barrels per Day in 2024

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The International Energy Agency signaled last week that the rate of increase in world petroleum demand fell in the second quarter of 2024 to an 18-month low. The increased demand was only 710,000 barrels a day. The world used 102.04 million barrels per day of petroleum as of May. That […]

Climate Crisis

New Labour Government in UK Unleashes Onshore Wind, with 61% of British Electricity now Low-Carbon

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The new Labour government in Britain last week took steps to remove the ban on onshore wind farms instituted by the Conservative government, which made it possible for such projects to be forestalled even by a single objection. Gavin McGuire at Reuters reported that for the first time this winter, […]

Agriculture

Farmers turn to Solar Panels to shade Crops, Save Water and generate Power

Cronkite News Arizona PBS

By Amaia J. Gavica/Cronkite News ( Cronkite News ) – WASHINGTON – For 31 straight days last summer, temperatures in Phoenix hit or topped 110 degrees, the longest such streak ever. That searing Arizona heat dehydrates crops and evaporates water the state needs to conserve. Creating shade is one way to combat the problem. By […]

Climate Crisis

Water Shortage: Was Iran’s late President Raisi a Martyr to Climate Change?

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Tarique Niazi | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died on May 19 while returning from a ceremony to inaugurate a hydropower project in a remote corner of northwestern Iran. Why would a head of state brave the hazardous conditions of unseasonal blizzards in a mountainous region to […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Crisis sees rise in illegal Water Markets in the Middle East

The Conversation

By Christian Klassert, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ and Samer Talozi, Jordan University for Science and Technology | – (The Conversation) – In Jordan’s cities, green tanker trucks supplying water are a common sight. The average Jordanian only receives one and a half days of access to piped water per week. When taps run dry, […]

Arctic

Global Heating: Alaska’s Top-Heavy Glaciers are Melting, approaching an Irreversible Tipping Point

The Conversation

By Bethan Davies, Newcastle University | – (The Conversation) – The melting of one of North America’s largest icefields has accelerated and could soon reach an irreversible tipping point. That’s the conclusion of new research colleagues and I have published on the Juneau Icefield, which straddles the Alaska-Canada border near the Alaskan capital of Juneau. […]

Climate Crisis

Solar Power is about to Leave Nuclear and all other Energy Sources in the Dust

The Conversation

By Peter Martin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University | – (The Conversation) – Opposition leader Peter Dutton might have been hoping for an endorsement from economists for his plan to take Australian nuclear. He shouldn’t expect one from The Economist. The Economist is a British weekly news magazine that has reported on […]