Environment

IEA: Peak Fossil Fuels will come in 2025, as Renewables are Turbo-Charged by Russia-Ukraine War and Energy Crisis

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Fatih Birol, among the world’s foremost energy economists, has a new report at the International Energy Agency, which he directs. In it, he argues that recent developments such as the Ukraine War energy crisis are good news for low-carbon energy such as wind and solar and bad news for fossil […]

Climate Crisis

Ukraine is Perfect for Wind Power, which would Help it and Europe Escape Russian Fossil Gas Blackmail

Dave Bradley

Buffalo, NY (Special to Informed Comment) – Until recently, the reasons for Europeans to switch the sourcing of electricity from coal, methane (“natural”) gas and nuclear reactors were the usual – climate sanity, sea level rise, ocean acidification (via CO2), and fossil fuel resource depletion. In addition, nuclear energy provokes eternal worries about the safety […]

Climate Crisis

The Fossil Free Research Movement is taking Universities by Storm

Waging Nonviolence

By Nick Engelfried | – ( Waging Nonviolence ) – When over 40 Cambridge students and academics occupied the elite U.K. university’s BP Institute earlier this year, they were escalating one of the newest, fastest-growing campaigns focused on dissociating higher education institutions from fossil fuels. For just over an hour, activists from the grassroots initiative […]

Climate Crisis

Solar Panels are the Cheapest Energy in World History, but they Can be Even more Efficient and Inexpensive

The Conversation

By Renate Egan, UNSW Sydney | – The cost of turning sunlight into electricity has fallen more than 90% over the last decade. Solar is now the cheapest form of newly built energy generation. Job done? Not quite. Right now, solar works well at cost-competitive prices and can help us cut emissions significantly. But with […]

China

One City in China Plans More Offshore Wind Capacity by 2030 than the Entire United States

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Shenzhen Daily reports that the city of Chaozhou in China’s southern Guangdong Province is planning the world’s largest offshore wind farm, at 43.3 gigawatts. The United States has almost no offshore wind now, but the Biden Administration has a goal of 30 gigawatts by 2030 and the Interior Department […]

Climate Crisis

On Turning 70 in a Graying, Climate-threatened World where Christians and Muslims must learn to Understand Each Other

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A daily column is inevitably personal, even if the focus is, as with Informed Comment, on current events. Today I’m going to reflect, not so much on my turning 70 as on the world I confront through these old eyes, and how my experiences help me cope with it and […]

Climate Crisis

‘Just Stop Oil’s’ Tomato Juice on van Gogh: Do Radical Protests actually Backfire or do they Raise Consciousness?

The Conversation

By Colin Davis, University of Bristol | – Members of the protest group Just Stop Oil recently threw soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in the National Gallery in London. The action once again triggered debate about what kinds of protest are most effective. After a quick clean of the glass, the painting was back on […]

Inequality

The U.S. Never Banned Asbestos. These Workers Are Paying the Price

ProPublica

By Kathleen McGrory and Neil Bedi, photography by Rich-Joseph Facun, graphics by Haisam Hussein | – Co-published with NPR News ( ProPublica ) – Henry Saenz remembers when he first learned what even the tiniest bit of asbestos could do to his body. He was working at a chemical plant where employees used the mineral […]

Climate Crisis

Tax Cuts for the Rich, Fracking and Harsh Discipline undid UK’s Liz Truss, in Warning to Conservative Parties Everywhere

Farhang Jahanpour

Oxford (Special to Informed Comment) – The British Prime Minister Liz Truss was forced to step down on Thursday 20th October only after 44 days in office, making her tenure the shortest in British history. It is important to point out that she was elected by only 81,326 Tory members and not by nearly 50 […]