Wednesday, August 12, 2015

With Wind Prices At A Record Low, Is The Clean Energy Revolution Upon Us?

CC News Letter 12 August - With Wind Prices At A Record Low, Is The Clean Energy Revolution Upon Us?

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Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org


With Wind Prices  At A Record Low,  Is The Clean Energy  Revolution Upon Us?
By Lauren McCauley

http://www.countercurrents.org/mccauley120815.htm

With the amount of wind-generated power in the United States reaching record highs and its cost dropping to new lows, two Department of Energy reports released Monday suggest that the renewable energy revolution might be upon us


The U.S. Is Now #2 Worldwide In Wind Power With 66 GW
By Michael Graham Richard

http://www.countercurrents.org/richard120815.htm

Lately, most of the attention in the clean energy sector has been directed at solar, and for good reason. We're literally in the middle of an energy revolution, and I believe that solar will take over the world over the coming decades. But wind power keep chugging along, with prices falling over time - though not as dramatically as solar - and installed capacity going up. Every new turbine that goes up will keep producing clean power for decades to come at very little cost (basic maintenance, no fuel costs unlike fossil fuel power plants). In a manner of speaking, we are planting the seeds of tomorrow's greener future


COP 21: The No Hope Climate Summit
By Alex Scrivener

http://www.countercurrents.org/scrivener120815.htm

Climate change is already hitting the world's poorest people hardest and it needs to be stopped. The responsibility for the climate crisis lies squarely on the shoulders of the rich, whose consumption and greed has driven us to the brink of disaster. This makes it a problem of social and economic justice. Some groups consider the upcoming Paris climate summit to be the answer. The bad news is that the Paris Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) won't work because it will not be dealing with the underlying problem – the unfair economic system that puts the interest of fossil fuel addicted corporations above those of the people


Risk, Climate Change, And Black Swans
By John Atcheson

http://www.countercurrents.org/atcheson120815.htm

The amount of energy we're trapping with greenhouse gasses is equivalent to setting off 400,000 Hiroshima-sized nuclear bombs per day, each day, 365 days per year


How Economic Growth Fails
By Gail Tverberg

http://www.countercurrents.org/tverberg120815.htm

The economy operates within a finite world, so at some point, a problem of diminishing returns develops. In other words, it takes more and more effort (human labor and use of resources) to produce a given quantity of oil or food, or fresh water, or other desirable products. The problem of slowing economic growth is very closely related to the question: How can the limits we are reaching be expected to play out in a finite world? Many people imagine that we will "run out" of some necessary resource, such as oil, but I see the situation differently. Let me explain a few issues that may not be obvious


Palestine: One State For All or Final Zionist Ethnic Cleansing?
By Alan Hart

http://www.countercurrents.org/hart120815.htm

I think there is a much more likely scenario. To prevent the Palestinians becoming the majority in the territory between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and thus to kill even the most remote prospect of a one state solution, Israel's leaders resort to a final round of ethnic cleansing


Why Was A Palestinian Toddler Burned To Death?
By Nizar Visram

http://www.countercurrents.org/visram120815.htm

The murder of Ali Dawabsheh should be regarded within the context of Israeli society where Palestinian babies are routinely called a "demographic threat," and where many Israelis ecstatically rejoice their slaughter. Such society cannot claim innocence and cannot be "shocked" when settlers torch to death a Palestinian toddler. Today, more than ever, it is important for all who care about justice to declare that we are all Palestinians


The Social Cost of Capitalism
By Paul Craig Roberts

http://www.countercurrents.org/roberts120815.htm

Currently 3 million gallons of toxic waste water from a Colorado mine has escaped and is working its way down two rivers into Utah and Lake Powell. At least seven city water systems dependent on the rivers have been shut down. The waste was left by private enterprise, and the waste was accidentally released by the Environmental Protection Agency, which might be true or might be a coverup for the mine. If the Lake Powell reservoir ends up polluted, it is likely that the cost of the mine imposed on third parties exceeds the total value of the mine's output over its entire life


Where Did The Antiwar Movement Go?
By Tom Engelhardt

http://www.countercurrents.org/engelhardt120815.htm

What It Means When You Kill People On the Other Side of the Planet and No One Notices


US vs China In Djibouti
By Thomas C. Mountain

http://www.countercurrents.org/mountain120815.htm

Djibouti, home to the only US permanent military presence in Africa, has recently notified the American military that they have to vacate Obock, a small secondary base which will see the installation of some 10,000 Chinese troops in their place. The announcement, made the day after US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Djibouti last May is deeply worrying for Pax Americana


Nobel Peace Laureates Endorse Violence
By Robert J. Burrowes

http://www.countercurrents.org/burrowes120815.htm

In a recent letter to US President Barack Obama twelve Nobel Peace laureates declared their support for the long history of US elite violence against Native Americans and enslaved Africans, as well as the US imperial violence around the world that has butchered tens of millions of people over the past 200 years. See 'US: An End to Torture: Twelve Nobel Peace Prize laureates write to President Barack Obama asking the US to close the dark chapter on torture once and for all. Obama responds'


Immigrants, Xenophobia And Racism In America
By Jon Kofas

http://www.countercurrents.org/kofas120815.htm

Undocumented workers are not so much an issue about economics but rightwing populist and often racist politics. Throughout history immigrant labor had very solid benefits to the US economy and society and informed critics know this to be the case. Nevertheless, politicians and the media present the immigrant issue as a problem in the economy, though after 9/11 they link it to terrorism. Some rightwing analysts link undocumented workers who are nothing more than economic refugees to security and by implication terrorism, although there is no empirical evidence of such linkage. The following excerpt is typical of how rightwing analysts are using terrorism to instill fear in politicians and the public when it comes to undocumented workers


The Iran Non Deal
By David Anderson

http://www.countercurrents.org/anderson120815.htm

A very dangerous game is being played by certain members of the American Jewish community. They are throwing their weight against the President in consort with those of the powerful anti-Obama Christian evangelical far right


Dear Mr. Narayanmurthy, Stay Away From Nukes!
By Anuj Wankhede

http://www.countercurrents.org/wankhede120815.htm

Look at renewables and energy efficiency. Think out of the box and society Sir, as you once thought for Infosys. Please get the bigger picture clear about energy and climate issues cleared in your own mind first before rushing into such debates. And finally Sir, if you can come up with a credible solution to the radioactive nuclear waste issue, you might even get a Nobel Prize. And while you may ponder about that, please also figure out a way so that nuclear proliferation and weapons are not deployed using these reactors as a front


Kashmir Tourism In Correct Perspective
By Mohammad Ashraf

http://www.countercurrents.org/ashraf120815.htm

Tourism obsession bordering on paranoia of some people requires putting the Tourism scenario of Kashmir in a realistic and correct perspective


Flag of Paradox In Kashmir
By Sazzad Hussain

http://www.countercurrents.org/hussain120815.htm

The spurt in Kashmir valley of waving anti-India flags by separatist has been on since the formation of the PDP-BJP government in the state. It has increased following the initiatives by Chief Minister Mufti Mohd. Sayed to bring back the separatists to the mainstream as promised in his poll campaigns. This policy of Sayed will continue as the separatists had a role in holding the assembly polls peacefully. But the anti-Indian forces in the valley are taking advantage of this policy and waving the flags of Pakistan and IS in every Fridays while demonstrating against India. The weaving of the Pakistani flag in Kashmir valley is nothing new, but that of IS in recent times is a matter of great concern. But above all the waving of the Palestinian flag there seems paradoxical so far as the problem of Kashmir vis-à-vis the west Asian conflict is concerned


Cold Blooded Murder of A Couple By (CRPF/SOG)
Security Forces In Kandhamal, Odisha
Fact Finding Report

http://www.countercurrents.org/ffr120815.htm

Joint Fact Finding Report on Killing of Innocent Couple in Pangalpadar (Kotagada), Kandhamal, Odisha


States And Other Agencies Must Unsign Their MoUs With Illegal And Illegitimate
UIDAI And Submit Their Comments On Human DNA Profiling Bill
By Gopal Krishna

http://www.countercurrents.org/krishna120815.htm

Taking note of the recent Supreme Court order it is high time states and other agencies unsigned the MoUs they have signed with illegal and illegitimate Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). To begin with states ruled by opposition parties should pave the way instead of waiting for the court to tell them. Countries where rule of law prevails, MoUs are subservient to law of the land
Pl see my blogs;


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