'Alternative' energy and less energy

A critique of degrowth

29/11/22

Author:

David Schwartzman

Link:

Ecosocialist responses to “degrowth” analysis and proposals have ranged from full support to total rejection. The author of the following critical commentary is an emeritus professor of biology at Howard University, and co-author of The Earth is Not for Sale (World Scientific, 2019). We encourage respectful responses in the comments, and hope to publish other views in future.

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'Alternative' energy and less energy

The renewable energy transition is failing

29/11/22

Author:

Richard Heinberg

Link:

Canadian Dimension

A large white rooftop covered in solar panels. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

Nov. 22, 2022

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'Alternative' energy and less energy

The Dirty Dozen: ‘Carbon bombs’ threaten to blow up Canada’s climate commitments

23/11/22

Author:

Nicholas Gottlieb, graphics by Elysse Deveaux

Link:

Ricochet Media

The Dirty Dozen: ‘Carbon bombs’ threaten to blow up Canada’s climate commitments

Website Editor: A great summary of Canada's fossil fuels situation and politics in this article.

Nov. 22, 2022

Canada wants to be the last country producing fossil fuels, even if it kills us

COP27 is over. The UN summit took one big step forward on climate justice with the creation of a loss and damage fund for the most impacted nations, while taking two enormous steps backwards by failing to call for a phaseout of all fossil fuels.

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'Alternative' energy and less energy

The Final Doubling

08/11/22

Author:

Richard Heinberg

Link:

Resilience

Teaser photo credit: Today, bitcoin mining companies dedicate facilities to housing and operating large amounts of high-performance mining hardware. By Marco Krohn – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40495567

Nov. 3, 2022

This essay is dedicated to the memory of Herman Daly, the father of ecological economics, who began writing about the absurdity of perpetual economic growth in the 1970s; Herman died on October 28 at age 84.

Politicians and economists talk glowingly about growth. They want our cities and GDP to grow. Jobs, profits, companies, and industries all should grow; if they don’t, there’s something wrong, and we must identify the problem and fix it. Yet few discuss doubling time, even though it’s an essential concept for understanding growth.

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'Alternative' energy and less energy

Industry Carbon-Capture Steamroller Could Crush BC First Nations

26/10/22

Author:

Donald Gutstein

Link:

The Tyee

Saskatchewan’s Boundary Dam 3 carbon capture and storage facility is one of three major CCS projects in Canada, and has consistently failed to meet its targets. Photo from SaskPower.

Oct. 26, 2022

Corporations, the province and allies like the Fraser Institute are pushing ahead with a flawed alternative to greener energy.

Big Oil and supportive governments have stalled action on climate change for so long that, as the clock ticks toward catastrophe, one of the last hopes is the expensive and unproven technology of carbon capture and storage, or CCS.

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'Alternative' energy and less energy

Energy transition and post-growth scenarios

13/10/22

Author:

Óscar Carpintero, Jaime Nieto

Link:

Resilience

photo credit: Vauban, Freiburg, a sustainable model district. By Claire7373Andrewglaser – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2637411

An informative but not comforting article--recent studies from Spain showing that a) the transition to "green" energy will be much more problematic than most expect, b) the possibility for a future for humanity will require an end to "growth", and c) what is required cannot be accomplished under capitalism.

-- Gene McGuckin

Oct. 6, 2022

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'Alternative' energy and less energy

Wood from B.C. forests is being burned for electricity billed as green — but critics say that's deceptive

13/10/22

Author:

Lyndsay Duncombe, Harvey Cashore, Lynette Fortune

Link:

CBC News

Oct. 6, 2022

Pellets from virgin forests fuel the U.K.'s Drax Power Station, backed by politicians and subsidies

From the highway just south of Prince George, B.C., you can see the logs, thousands of them, piled neatly in rows.

They were cut from trees in old growth and primary forests in the province's Interior.

This timber won't be used to build homes or furniture, or even to make paper. These logs will be ground and compressed into tiny pellets, shipped to Europe and Asia and burned to produce fuel for electricity.

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'Alternative' energy and less energy