We Could Have Greened Half the US Electrical Grid With $2.26 Wasted on Afghan War

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/04/19/we-could-have-greened-half-us-electrical-grid-226-wasted-afghan-war

Juan Cole- 4/19/2021

The Costs of War Project at Brown University has just brought out a new report on Afghanistan. The September 11, 2001 attacks were launched from Khost and Qandahar in Afghanistan by al-Qaeda, though it is not clear that this organization of Arab expatriates informed their Taliban hosts of what they were planning. The operation involved hijacking commercial airliners and using them as massive suicide bombs. It cost $500,000 or so to pull off, and killed nearly 3,000 persons. We could have avoided our war dead in Afghanistan and our wounded warriors by just getting out in the summer of 2002, in an enormous savings to our country in blood and treasure.

New Wind and Solar Up 50% Globally in 2020

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/04/18/new-wind-and-solar-50-globally-2020-china-beats-us-over-4-1

Juan Cole- 4/18/2021

The new report on 2020 by the International Renewable Energy Agency reveals that the world's renewable energy generation capacity increased by an astonishing 10.3% in 2020 despite the global economic slowdown during the coronavirus pandemic. It beats the previous record for an annual increase in this sector by a healthy 50%.