Standing perfectly still: no progress in replacing fossil fuels for the past twenty years

15 July 2018 (Desdemona Despair) – It’s well known that human population is increasing relentlessly, with no peak in sight for at least the next century. Various projections estimate that the population will be somewhere in the neighborhood of ten to twelve billion by the year 2100 (cf. New projection shows human population could reach […]

Graph of the Day: Global economic growth and energy consumption growth, 1991-2017

By Dr. Minqi Li 28 June 2018(Peak Oil Barrel) – This figure compares the historical world economic growth rates and the primary energy consumption growth rates from 1991 to 2017. The primary energy consumption growth rate has an intercept of -0.012 at zero economic growth rate and a slope of 0.914. That is, primary energy […]

BP: Carbon emissions and coal consumption increased in 2017, reversing recent trends – “This should serve as a wake-up call for all of us”

By Spencer Dale 13 June 2018(BP) – At first blush, some of last year’s data might seem a little disappointing. Growth in overall energy demand is up; gains in energy intensity are down. Coal consumption grew for the first time in four years. And, perhaps most striking of all, carbon emissions are up after three […]

Actors were paid to support Entergy’s power plant at New Orleans City Council meetings – “They paid us to sit through the meeting and clap every time someone said something against wind and solar power”

By Michael Isaac Stein 4 May 2018 (The Lens) – Last October, about 50 people in bright orange shirts filed into City Hall for a public hearing on Entergy’s request to build a $210 million power plant in eastern New Orleans. Their shirts read, “Clean Energy. Good Jobs. Reliable Power.” The purpose of the hearing […]

U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry says moving from fossil fuels to renewables is “immoral”

By Joe Romm 8 March 2018 (ThinkProgress) – Energy Secretary Rick Perry said on Wednesday that it was “immoral” to help poor nations shift off of fossil fuels.“Look those people in the eyes that are starving and tell them you can’t have electricity,” said Perry in remarks after his big speech to the oil and […]

Andes dams twice as numerous as thought are fragmenting the Amazon, with “huge ramifications for not only the rivers of the Andean region of the Amazon, but also for the ecology of the entire Amazon basin”

By Claire Asher 28 February 2018 (Mongabay) – The scale of hydroelectric development in the Andean Amazon is far more extensive than previously thought, with numerous headwater dams fragmenting river habitats, disrupting natural systems, and affecting the lives and livelihoods of 30 million downstream Amazon basin inhabitants, according to a new study published in Science […]

Exxon plans for carbon-constrained future – In 2040, oil and natural gas continue to supply 55 percent of world energy needs

By Ed Crooks 3 February 2018 NEW YORK (Financial Times) –  ExxonMobil, the largest US energy group, has said it believes there is little risk that it will not be able to produce all of its proved oil and gas reserves, even in a world where government policies are set to limit the threat of […]

Honduras energy company executive held for murder of dam activist Berta Cáceres

3 March 2018 (BBC News) – Police in Honduras have arrested an energy company executive on suspicion of masterminding the murder of a renowned environmental activist. Berta Cáceres was shot dead inside her home exactly two years ago, on the night of 2 March 2016. She had led protests against a dam project. The arrested […]

Trump budget seeks 72 percent cut to clean energy research, underscoring preference for fossil fuels – “It shows that we’ve made no inroads in terms of convincing the administration of our value”

By Chris Mooney and Steven Mufson 1 February 2018 (The Washington Post) – The Trump administration is poised to ask Congress for deep budget cuts to the Energy Department’s renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, slashing them by 72 percent overall in fiscal 2019, according to draft budget documents obtained by The Washington Post. Many […]

What was it like to be India in a warming world in 2017?

By Aruna Chandrasekhar 29 December 2017 (The Wire) – In 2017, weather reports were bumped up to the front page because the impact of climate change was becoming more visible than ever. Devastating cyclones, thousands lost to floods and drought in South Asia, thousands more displaced, infernal heat-waves sweeping cities, air pollution stealing hundreds of […]

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