Solar power on a cloudy day

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.


Who says solar panels need sunshine?

Not the Dutch government. In fact, despite the fact that sunny days are not especially common in the Netherlands, the Dutch are planning to transform their medieval-era parliament building in The Hague into a solar powered center of power, according to a recent NEWS FOR CHANGE report.

Recent Must Reads

10/25 – Sing along with Mr. Torture

10/24 – Running on empty

10/21- Russian church rides the rails

10/20 – Eco-Christianity in the Rockies

The practicality of the plan is a little suspect: The capital gets an average of 131 days of rainfall per year and surely more cloudy days on top of that.

Solar energy makes sense for a country with half its landmass below sea level in a time when the globe is warming and the polar ice caps melting. But the country’s intentions may be more political than environmental. Though government officials deny any correlation, the solar annoucement comes just weeks before a November UN conference on climate change and a month after Greenpeace activists placed solar panels on an adjacent building.

Owned by no one—except you.

We just keep seeing it happen: Newsrooms owned by billionaires and corporations are spinning their own narratives, overwriting the truth, following only stories that keep them in the pocket of those with even more power.

Not here. We’re not owned by anyone. We’re not part of any cult that demands our allegiance to a bottom line. We’ve spoken up and spoken out while other newsrooms changed their stories—or cut them altogether—to keep the C suite happy.

Our mission is to find the truth and amplify it. That’s why we’re independent, nonprofit, and, crucially, funded by readers. The investigations on our website will always be free to read, watch, and listen to, but our newsroom is powered by readers who pitch in what they can so we can keep asking the hard questions.

Can you chip in today?

Owned by no one—except you.

We just keep seeing it happen: Newsrooms owned by billionaires and corporations are spinning their own narratives, overwriting the truth, following only stories that keep them in the pocket of those with even more power.

Not here. We’re not owned by anyone. We’re not part of any cult that demands our allegiance to a bottom line. We’ve spoken up and spoken out while other newsrooms changed their stories—or cut them altogether—to keep the C suite happy.

Our mission is to find the truth and amplify it. That’s why we’re independent, nonprofit, and, crucially, funded by readers. The investigations on our website will always be free to read, watch, and listen to, but our newsroom is powered by readers who pitch in what they can so we can keep asking the hard questions.

Can you chip in today?

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

INDEPENDENT. BECAUSE OF YOU.

Mother Jones has no billionaires calling the shots—just readers like you making fearless reporting possible

Donate