CANDACE BERND – Climate activists living under the constant blare of air raid sirens in Ukraine say they don’t want the United States’ fracked gas exports, and don’t want frontline communities along the U.S. Gulf Coast living with the impacts of so-called liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure to become sacrifice zones in their name. Instead, they say, they want a dramatic, wartime mobilization for a transition to clean energy.
Category: March 2022
Energy efficiency guru Amory Lovins: ‘It’s the largest, cheapest, safest, cleanest way to address the crisis’
JOHN VIDAL – Just as with the 1970s oil shocks, the problem today is not where to find energy but how to use it better, Amory Lovins says. The answer is what he calls “integrative, or whole-system, design,†a way to employ orthodox engineering to achieve radically more energy-efficient results by changing the design logic. Design, retrofitting, and efficiency, these are the answers to the climate crisis.
Commercial Defrauding of Uncle Sam—Biggest Booming Business
RALPH NADER – Corporate fraud against the U.S. government—which occurs no matter which party is in power—costs taxpayers billions of dollars per year. Neither Congress nor the White House has met this challenge of titanic corruption which should become a major campaign subject in the coming elections.
The West’s Fanaticism Over Blaming ‘Evil’ Putin Misses the Point—and an Opportunity for a Lasting Peace
ERIKA SHELBY – Pointing fingers won’t help—an attitude shift is what the world needs now.
The People of Yemen Suffer Atrocities, too
KATHY KELLY – Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said, “The people of Yemen need the same level of support and solidarity that we’ve seen for the people of Ukraine. The crisis in Europe will dramatically impact Yemenis’ access to food and fuel, making an already dire situation even worse.â€
The Inevitability, Tragedy and Opportunity in the Invasion of Ukraine
JIM GARRISON – What would it take for NATO and Russia to embrace the obvious? The only way for the current crisis to be truly solved is to create a process in and through which all the former antagonists can come together around the creation of a common security and economic zone that brings Russia together with Ukraine as partners in a larger zone of peace. It is possible.
Journalism and Truth Telling in Wartime
ROB OKUN – Brent Renaud. Marina Ovsyannikova. One a US filmmaker killed by Russian troops on March 13 while working on a documentary about refugees. The other, an editor-producer on Russian state TV’s Channel One who dramatically interrupted a news broadcast to hold aloft a sign denouncing Putin’s war. She was immediately arrested. Renaud’s senseless killing one day and Ovsyannikova’s brave action the next, unintentionally have forged a link between journalism and wartime truth telling that cannot be overstated.Â
Ukrainians took to the streets to avert a nuclear disaster. Will Americans do the same?
PAUL GUNTER and LINDA PENTZ GUNTER – The near disaster at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant shows why activists fought for decades to end these risks — and why mass action is needed once again.
Two Hundred Nobel Laureates Call for an End to the Ukraine War
NOBEL LAUREATES – Two hundred two Nobel laureates voice their support for the Ukrainian people and the free and independent state of Ukraine as it faces Russian aggression.
Worried about Nuclear War? You can actually do Something to Prevent it
FRIDA BERRIGAN – If anything good can come out of the horrific war in Ukraine, it might be a renewed movement to abolish nuclear weapons once and for all.
Stumbling into the ‘Sacrifice Trap’
DR. ANN FRISCH – Kenneth Boulding, professor, philosopher, poet, economist and peace researcher, is looking  on, almost 30 years after his death. Leaders of the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and US are locked into what Boulding called the ‘sacrifice trap’: their identities and images of who they are leave aside the realities of the real cost of war. Â
Russia’s Invasion Set to Create Weapons Industry Boom
DRU OJA JAY – The Russian Federation government’s decision to order an illegal invasion of Ukraine has created major military escalations, rapid realignments resembling a new cold war, and a bonanza for arms dealers.
Why Don’t We Treat All Refugees as Though They Were Ukrainian?
SOMALI KOLHATKAR – Masses of refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, and elsewhere have faced racially motivated hostility in Europe. Now, Ukraine’s refugee crisis is revealing Western double standards.
300,000 Russians Sign Peace Petition in 12 Hours
RUSSIAN PETITIONERS – We appeal to all sane people in Russia, on whose actions and words something depends. Become a part of the anti-war movement, speak out against the war. Do this at least in order to show the whole world that there have been, there are and there will be people in Russia who will not accept the meanness created by the authorities, who have turned the state itself and the peoples of Russia into an instrument of their crimes.
Can Iran and the U.S. Breathe Life Back Into Nuclear Deal?
PRABIR PURKAYASTHA – The possibility of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—or the Iran nuclear deal—being revived, though difficult, seems to have brightened in February 2022. The U.S. may now also believe that the potential loss of Russian natural gas and oil due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war needs to be offset by Iran returning to the global oil market.
If We Don’t Want War, We Have to Be Willing to Make Peace
ROBERT C. kOEHLER – The only thing obvious about the Russia-Ukraine-West conflict is that war will make it worse. What can all sides, working together, create to turn it into peace?