Joe Biden

Climate Change, News & Comments, Policy & Strategy November 18, 2020

Biden’s election is good news for the climate. But what comes next?

Few images captured the mood of climate activists last week more vividly than a video posted to Twitter of Christiana Figueres, one of the architects…

Articles Policy & Strategy

Sorry for raising the bar too high

“I don’t think science knows” – Donald Trump’s response to a scientist’s suggestion that climate change had a crucial role in this August’s West Coast fires. The scheme is proven, and the 45th president of the United States of America…

Articles Coal Policy & Strategy

Big in Japan

Japan’s energy policy made headlines in July, when the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced plans to phase out older, inefficient coal plants, along with changes to its criteria for lending to overseas coal projects. These developments were seen…

Articles Climate Change

Partying with CO2

Do you fall for fall celebrations? Do they evoke fond memories? Do you look forward to goblins and other Halloween trick-or-treaters and even gobbling up sweet treats yourself? Are you looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with your family? On the…

Articles Last Exit

Kelenföld

Hidden in Budapest’s 9th district lies the Kelenföld Power Station. Built in 1912, after few years it became Hungary’s largest coal power plant and one the most advanced in Central Europe. The plant experienced several extensions and additions. The most…

Articles Sustainability

What is environmental racism?

Poisoned tap water in Flint, Michigan. Toxic waste dumps in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. A town in China where 80% of children have been poisoned by old computer parts. What do these things have in common? All are examples…

Articles Coal Sustainability

The big Muddy River’s long, turbulent relationship with coal

Southern Illinois has been coal country for quite some time. Men first mined coal there in 1810, when they took the black rock from outcroppings along the bluffs of the Big Muddy River. They’d load it onto a flatboat and…

Articles Climate Change Vanishing Point

These African World Heritage Sites are under threat from climate change

Very few academics or policy makers are talking about the impact of climate change on heritage. Yet heritage is essential for social wellbeing, for identity creation, for safeguarding traditional knowledge and livelihoods and for sustainable development. The conversations taking place…

Articles Renewables

Why green energy finally makes economic sense

Renewable energy experts have long hoped that solar and wind power would someday become the cheapest way to generate electricity, allowing the world to shift away from fossil fuel. That day has now arrived, much sooner than expected, says Faaiqa…

Articles Biomass Policy & Strategy Renewables

South Korea subsidizing biomass so heavily that wind and solar are being crowded out of the market

The government of South Korea is subsidizing the development of biomass power so heavily that it’s hindering the adoption of renewable energy technologies like solar and wind, new research finds. South Korea adopted a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) policy in…

Articles Climate Change Policy & Strategy

Nothing as it seems

One of the most unexpected gifts of the Covid-19 lockdown: after nearly half a century the Himalayan peaks are visible from Nepal’s Kathmandu valley, 200 km away. Those mountains are an unprecedented sight for young people, and a forgotten one…

The Lost Bayou: Grand Bayou

Grand Bayou, LA. At one time, it was a lively community of close-knit families, until they were forced to leave. ©2020. Garde Voir Ci magazine. Nicholls State University Department of Mass Communication.

World Rainforest Day

Rainforests cover only 2 percent of the planet’s surface area but are responsible for more than 25% of all Western medicine and house more than 50% of the world’s plant and animal species.