GST Original Articles

By Ted Trainer / 13 March 2022
gnd_sandaoc.jpg In view of the attention Green New Deal proposals have received there has been very little concern to assess its technical feasibility. It involves two major technical claims, firstly that renewable energy can sustain present societies at a relatively low cost, and secondly that economy can be decoupled from resource consumption and environmental impact. The validity of these assumptions is often taken for granted. Robert Pollin is unusual in... Read more
By Robert Hunziker / 05 March 2022
gw.jpg The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has issued its direst warning of all-time: “Climate breakdown is accelerating rapidly.” Additionally, they readily admit to overly conservative predictions: “Many impacts will be more severe than originally predicted.” (Source: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Working Group II Sixth Assessment Report, 2022) The crowning blow of this heavy-hitting report is a chilling statement: “There... Read more
By Brian Tokar / 03 March 2022
Since the heyday of technological determinism in the 1960s, many authors have written eloquently about how developments in technology are more typically the outcome of particular social and economic arrangements. Some contributions that have significantly shaped my own thinking include:             • Lewis Mumford’s observation that inventions like glass and steam engines were first developed for mainly ornamental and ceremonial purposes (opening heavy temple doors in the latter case),... Read more
By Henry Robertson / 01 March 2022
farm_couple.jpg No one knows what the world will be like in 2050 as a result of the worsening climate. My scenario suggests that the worst effects will not be directly caused by climate change but by human-created conditions that make our supposedly mighty civilization fragile. These conditions include excessive extraction, production, consumption and waste from a growth-driven consumer economy; long, vulnerable supply lines dangerously designed for just-in-... Read more

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More Reading Recommended by GST

By Alice Swift / 03 September 2022
[Editor's note: Ende Felande translates roughly as "here and no farther".] endegelande.jpg Since 2015, Ende Gelände has predominantly targeted brown coal in Germany which along with other groups like the Hambacher Forest occupation succeeded in pushing for a coal phase-out in Germany. However the new Social Democrat and Green Party coalition government have... Read more
By Vijay Prashad / 03 September 2022
prashad.jpg The United States has been far and away the largest producer of carbon dioxide emissions since 1750. The main carbon emitters were all colonial powers, namely the US, Europe, Canada, and Australia, which, despite consisting of roughly one tenth of the global population, have together accounted for more than half of cumulative global emissions. Carbon... Read more
By Prabir Purkayastha / 31 August 2022
purkcrop.png It defies logic why the Russians themselves would shell a plant which, by all accounts, is under their control. All the evidence so far supports Russia’s claim that Ukraine shelled the plant and the transmission lines. And if, as Ukraine claims, Russia has positioned heavy military equipment within the plant, it should be a simple matter for Ukraine... Read more
By Joshua Frank / 27 August 2022
frank.jpg  Geothermal, like hydroelectric dams, is often cited as a renewable energy source, since the technology harnesses heat from the earth to produce electricity, which in theory is endless. Even so, large geothermal plants consume a lot of land and spit out a lot of water. The Dixie Meadows project, which was proposed in Nevada, was one such “green” energy... Read more
By Anthony Rogers-Wright / 24 August 2022
ira.jpg This, to me, is a fair inquiry. If a Republican introduced a piece of legislation that included opening up 600 million acres of oil and gas leasing in the Gulf of Mexico, dedicated billions of dollars to unproven “false climate solutions” like so called carbon capture and sequestration, extended the life of aging nuclear power plants, allowed for... Read more

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