Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM) will be president-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Department of the Interior. She is the first Native American to head the department, and her appointment is full of ironies. The Department, formed in 1849, includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs and has a long history […]
- Africa (249)
- Asia (1,251)
- Australasia (35)
- Authoritarianism (387)
- Canada (8)
- Culture (563)
- Economy (1,059)
- Agriculture (3)
- Banking (67)
- Carbon Footprint (6)
- Corporations (54)
- Cryptocurrency (2)
- Debt (21)
- Degrowth (1)
- Democratic Socialism (20)
- Demographic Decline (1)
- Development (26)
- Downward Mobility (1)
- Employment (118)
- Food Insecurity (21)
- Homelessness (16)
- Industry (5)
- Inequality (426)
- Inflation (5)
- infrastructure (10)
- Insurance (1)
- Investment (92)
- Market Crash (10)
- Middle Class (61)
- Monopolies (8)
- Neoliberalism (204)
- Plutocracy (627)
- Poverty (207)
- Poverty (14)
- Regulation (3)
- Retirement (1)
- Sanctions (4)
- Tariffs (1)
- Taxes (37)
- Technology (3)
- Trade (116)
- Weapons sales (7)
- Education (179)
- Energy (1,745)
- Batteries (52)
- Coal (139)
- Electricity Cost (2)
- Fossil Fuels (328)
- Fracking (50)
- Geothermal (7)
- Green ammonia (5)
- Green Energy (420)
- Green Hydrogen (8)
- Heat Pumps (6)
- Hydroelectric (1)
- Hydroelectric (15)
- Mining (1)
- Natural Gas (107)
- Nuclear Energy (159)
- Petroleum (300)
- Power Grid (12)
- Pumped Hydro (6)
- Solar Energy (419)
- Tar Sands (13)
- Wave Energy (9)
- wind energy (345)
- Environment (2,701)
- Climate Change (1,660)
- Acidification of Oceans (54)
- Agriculture (26)
- Biodiversity (13)
- Climate Refugees (4)
- CO2 (127)
- Dehydration (5)
- Denialism (149)
- Desalinization (4)
- Desertification (160)
- Divestment (2)
- Dust Storms (6)
- Environmental Investment (1)
- Extreme Heat (393)
- Extreme Weather (298)
- Flooding (138)
- Food Supply (3)
- Forests (18)
- Green New Deal (41)
- Green Recycling (2)
- Greenwashing (3)
- Mass Extinction (62)
- Methane (20)
- Net Carbon Zerio (8)
- Nitrous Oxide (2)
- Rainforests (19)
- Rivers (12)
- Sea Level (338)
- Soil Carbon Release (14)
- Super Storms (265)
- wildfires (240)
- Wood Buildings (1)
- Climate Crisis (1,337)
- Drought (295)
- Ecology (1)
- Ecology (10)
- Environmentalism (393)
- Green Transportation (255)
- Ice Melt (139)
- Invasive Species (2)
- Islands (1)
- Oceans (103)
- Oil Spills (8)
- Pollution (233)
- Water (96)
- wildlife (21)
- Climate Change (1,660)
- Europe (1,382)
- Featured (4,205)
- Haiti (1)
- Health (704)
- History (362)
- Human Rights (1,614)
- Apartheid (263)
- censorship (313)
- Death Penalty (30)
- Disappeared (3)
- Displaced and Refugees (580)
- Food Insecurity (30)
- Gay rights (29)
- Genocide (61)
- Human Rights Watch (90)
- Indigenous Rights (1)
- Migrants (4)
- privacy (21)
- Rights (90)
- Slavery and Trafficking (16)
- Starvation (4)
- Torture (102)
- Trans Rights (3)
- Transgender Rights (4)
- Unlawful Imprisonment (105)
- Unlwful Killing (80)
- War Crimes (418)
- War Rape (9)
- International Politics and Economy (2,115)
- Arms Sales (73)
- BRICS (3)
- Corruption (268)
- Crime (132)
- Democracy (333)
- Dissent (441)
- Domestic Terrorism (15)
- Drones (113)
- G20 (1)
- Guns (9)
- Hacking (8)
- Immigration (4)
- Immigration (21)
- Islamophobia (383)
- Migrants (2)
- military (125)
- nationalism (117)
- NATO (37)
- Neocolonialism (1)
- Peace (143)
- Policing (2)
- Politics (307)
- Politics&Culture (21)
- Propaganda (13)
- Smuggling (1)
- Juan Cole (270)
- Latin America (102)
- media (485)
- Middle East (9,951)
- Arab World (5,294)
- Iran (1,344)
- Israel (954)
- Israel/ Palestine (3,608)
- Israel/Palestine (9)
- Kurds (294)
- Red Sea (1)
- Turkey (598)
- Turkiye (125)
- Patriarchy (10)
- racism (470)
- religion (1,512)
- robots (3)
- Romance (1)
- science (172)
- Secular (West) (9)
- Secularism (30)
- Spirituality (22)
- Statelessness (15)
- Stranded Assets (1)
- Surveillance (280)
- Terrorism (1,096)
- Tolerance (6)
- Uncategorized (8,082)
- United Nations (177)
- Urbanization (4)
- US Foreign Policy (1,366)
- US politics (5,440)
- Anti-War Movement (13)
- Campaign Finance (31)
- Censors (22)
- Central Intelligence Agency (63)
- Charity (1)
- Civil Rights (96)
- Congress (80)
- Conspiracy Theories (23)
- Constitution (404)
- Courts (15)
- crime (12)
- Democratic Party (975)
- Democratic Socialists of America (22)
- Domestic Terrorism (20)
- Drone Warfare (27)
- Espionage (124)
- Ethnicities (391)
- Far Right (396)
- FBI (48)
- Foreign Policy (204)
- Gay Rights (17)
- Guns (97)
- Immigration (246)
- Israel Lobbies (130)
- Marijuana (4)
- Militarization (274)
- National Security State (477)
- Native Americans (40)
- Nuclear arsenal (7)
- penitentiaries (6)
- Pentagon (571)
- Police (43)
- prison reform (9)
- Private Prisons (2)
- Progressive Politics (13)
- Puerto Rico (30)
- Religious Right (15)
- Reproductive Choice (68)
- Republican Party (3,052)
- Supreme Court (133)
- Voter suppression (36)
- Whistleblowers (7)
- Xenophobia (9)
- Veterans (35)
- Voting Rights (16)
- War (617)
- White Supremacists (236)
- wikileaks (8)
- women (566)
- workers (233)
- Writing (5)
- Youth (215)
Featured
Solar just made Banks write off a $1 bn. Australian Coal Plant as Worthless; What’s in Your Retirement Portfolio?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Daniel Mercer at the Australian Broadcasting Company reports that the newest coal-fired power plant in the country, the 10-year-old, nearly $1 bn. USD Bluewater facility, has been written off as worthless by its investors. Southwestern Australia has so much cheap solar energy that the coal plant’s prospects cratered, especially once […]
Greening America: Can Biden’s new Team of Buttigieg and Granholm save us from the Climate Crisis?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Washington Post is reporting that Joe Biden will make Pete Buttigieg his secretary of transportation and Jennifer Granholm his secretary of energy. This is very good news for climate policy. Energy is perhaps the most important portfolio in the Biden cabinet, since it is key to greening America and […]
Iran’s Pres. Rouhani to Biden: We will Fulfill our Nuclear Obligations on Day One if you Return to 2015 Deal
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iranian president Hassan Rouhani was asked Tuesday in an interview with a state-owned news outlet under what conditions Iran would return to the 2015 nuclear deal with the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council (P5), including the U.S., plus Germany (+1) He replied, “A thing we are saying […]
Pandemic Failure, Vaccine Success Indict American Monopoly Capitalism
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The contrast between the unprecedented failure of the United States to deal successfully with the coronavirus pandemic, and the success of pharmaceutical companies in coming up with effective vaccines in record time is bittersweet. The reason for the difference is that no one could make any money on mitigating the […]
No, Joseph Epstein, Doctors aren’t only Physicians, and Jill Biden earned her Title: Use It
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Essayist and writer Joseph Epstein took a shot at incoming First Lady Jill Biden at the Wall Street Journal on Saturday. In his op ed, the former editor of The American Scholar urged her to stop having herself referred to as “Dr. Jill Biden” on the grounds, he said, that […]
How Biden could save $437 Bn, create millions of Jobs, by Reversing Trump Tariffs on Solar Panels
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Michelle Lewis at Electrek discusses a new study that finds hundreds of billions of dollars in savings and millions of jobs created if the US can power a quarter of its households with rooftop solar. Australia already gets 5% of its electricity from rooftop solar, and some states, such as […]
How US Sanctions have Contributed to the 50K Dead of Coronavirus In Iran
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The US financial and trade blockade of Iran, which has strangled its economy, has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s coronavirus response. Nick Paton Walsh, Jo Shelley, Ramin Mostaghim and Scott McWhinnie at CNN did a great story on this heartrending travesty. They write, ‘Retired teacher Khalif Farahani […]
Ritual Coup: Republicans hope that by Performing a One-Party State, they will one Day Achieve it
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Today’s Republican Party is one big denial of reality. If it were only that, however, it would merely be madness. Rather, the denial of reality is a form of ultimate power-seeking. In the bizarre mental world of Republicans, Joe Biden lost the presidential race. Some 75% of them tell pollsters […]