We’re in the middle of a sixth mass extinction, and this will be the first one—and possibly the last—we will witness as human beings.
Earth: Game Over?
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renewable energy
A Roadmap for Survival
The latest UN report on addressing climate change reflects a strong Western bias, but it’s the most comprehensive tool we’ve got.
The World Bank’s Waste of Energy
Expanding energy access makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is using a failed scheme — like carbon trading — to pay for it.
Climate Change and the Asia Pivot
The real “pivot to Asia” should be towards decarbonization, a more equitable distribution of wealth, and a commitment to fight climate change.
Electrifying Africa–But at What Cost to Africans?
As children throughout the United States head back to school, it’s a good time to remember that schoolchildren throughout Africa often attend schools with no electricity. In areas that do have the utility, frequent power outages are a constant reminder of the need for...
Defense Braces for a Bad Decade
The unthinkable has happened. Sequestration — automatic cuts falling equally on the defense and nondefense parts of the budget — is now in effect. And whatever the results of political maneuvering in the weeks and months to come, “The defense industry,” as a recent article in Politico put it, “isbracing for a bad decade … Senior Republicans on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees acknowledge a shrinking military is inevitable as the U.S. withdraws from Afghanistan after more than a decade of war.”
Scraping the Bottom
We are all trust fund babies living off the wealth of our ancestors. I’m not talking Mommy and Daddy. I’m talking Barney. That cuddly T-Rex and all his dinosaur friends, along with those giant ferns and tiny trilobites, died millions of years ago only to become, very gradually, the energy that fuels our modern life. Until very recently, in geologic time at least, the earth held virtually all of that powerful carbon in a lockbox. “You can’t touch this buried treasure until you come of age,” the earth told humanity.
IT Systems Are Just as Important to Flow of Oil as Straits of Hormuz
Hackers may soon cause massive disruptions in the oil industry.
Oil or Terrorism: Which Motivates U.S. Policy More?
Among the batch of classified diplomatic cables recently released by the controversial whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, several have highlighted the vast extent of the financial infrastructure of Islamist terrorism sponsored by key U.S. allies in the ongoing “War on Terror.”
Swords Into Solar Panels
Is there another way to create jobs in Owego? I submit that there is.