Another Week of GW News, December 2, 2007

By illconsidered on December 3, 2007.

Sipping from the internet firehose...

This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H.E.Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup

(skip to bottom)

Top Stories, Bali Anticipation, Bali Communique
McKinsey & Co., UNDP Human Development Report, Scenarios, Oxfam, SPM
Hurricanes, GHG Stats, Temperatures, la Nina, Glaciers, WAIS, Satellites, LIMA
Impacts, Forests, Corals, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts, Food vs. Biofuel
Mitigation, Transportation, Housing, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Adaptation
Journals, Misc. Science, POGO, Hansen, Eric Steig's Question, WMC, PFC
Kyoto, Carbon Trade, The Future IPCC, Carbon Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
International Politics, America, Britain, Europe, Australia, China, Canada
Ecological Economics, Media, Books, Video, Courts
Energy, European Supergrid, Google, THAI, Solar, Coal, Biofuel
Nukes, Peak Oil, Cars, Business, Greenwashing, Insurance, Carbon Lobby
The Usual, Useful Links
Shameless Self Promotion
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Here's a chuckle for ye:

2007/11/26: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) The Conveniences of Our Lifestyle
The big story of the week has to be anticipation of the Bali conference starting tomorrow:
2007/12/03: ABC(Au): Bali welcomes climate change representatives
2007/12/02: PhysOrg: Indonesia Hosting Global Warming Talks
2007/12/01: GristMill: Injustice - The 100 most vulnerable nations have contributed least to climate change
2007/12/02: ENN: Bali talks to seek global climate deal in 2009
2007/12/02: ENN: India to tell West to shoulder climate change burden [Bali]
2007/12/02: Yahoo: Bali talks to seek global climate deal in 2009
2007/12/02: CCurrents: Poverty Sucks, The Earth And The Soul [Bali]
2007/12/02: Xinhuanet: UNFCCC: "Common but differentiated responsibilities" to play important role
2007/12/02: Xinhuanet: Dress code changed to fit Bali climate change meeting's aura
2007/12/02: Xinhuanet: Indonesia ready for UN climate change conference
2007/12/02: Xinhuanet: Roadmap on new climate change regime, a challenging task
Worldwide efforts on tackling the worsening global warming issue will go into top gear here on Monday, with the opening of the 13th session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Over 180 countries, represented by some 10,000 delegates, will take part in the conference on Dec. 3-14 in Bali, a resort island of Indonesia. The main purpose of the meeting is to begin negotiations for a new climate change regime to replace the 1997 Kyoto protocol, which expires in 2012
2007/12/02: Guardian(UK): Bali's road map for planet's survival
2007/12/01: SMH: Emissions road map a crucial mission - It's crunch time in the fight against climate change - and Bali may present our final hope...
2007/11/30: Guardian(UK): Q&A: Bali climate change conference
2007/11/28: MongaBay: Hope in Bali: the December Meetings on Climate Change
2007/11/30: TruthOut: Bali: Now the Rich Must Pay [Stern]
2007/11/30: GristMill: Bali eve - Delegates of all stripes prepare for the trip to Bali
2007/11/30: C411: What We're Doing in Bali Next Week
2007/11/30: TerraDaily: In Bali The Other USA Will Be With The World
Looking ahead to the U.N. Climate Change Conference that begins next week, a diverse chorus of elected officials and citizens are speaking out to assure the international community that Americans are moving global warming solutions forward, despite the lack of White House leadership
2007/11/30: DeSmogBlog: UN Warns Poor Countries Face "Adaptation Apartheid"
2007/11/30: ENN: China wary on international climate goals
2007/11/30: Yahoo: Bush clings to anti-Kyoto stance ahead of climate talks
2007/11/30: Guardian(UK): Climate chief calls for 80% cuts in greenhouse gas
2007/11/30: Guardian(UK): Bali: now the rich must pay by Nicholas Stern
2007/11/29: ABC(Au): Rich should pay for climate change: Brazil
2007/11/29: ENN: Japan to propose new climate forum with U.S., China
Japan wants to involve China and the United States in talks over a new pact on climate change by launching a working group that will bring together all countries, including the major emitters that oppose existing plans. The foreign ministry said on Thursday that Japan would propose forming such a group at a meeting in Bali, Indonesia, next month to discuss long-term climate targets, research and development of emission-reducing technology and other issues
2007/11/29: Eureka: Having the climate cake and eating it, too
2007/11/29: Yahoo: U.S. officials plan only talk at UN meet
U.S. officials intend to push at next week's United Nations climate conference for a framework for further negotiations and said Wednesday they will make no commitment to specific reductions in greenhouse gas emissions
2007/11/29: CSM: Bali climate summit: a test of the world's resolve
At next week's meeting in Indonesia, more than 100 nations will gather to work on a new emissions pact
2007/11/26: QuarkSoup: Bali Carbon Footprint
2007/11/26: WaPo: Climate Obstacles Ahead
2007/11/26: ENN: India and EU to push trade and climate at [Bali] summit
2007/11/26: AFP: Before Bali, Merkel calls on EU partners to keep pledges
150 global companies signed a pre-Bali communique calling for binding cuts in GHG emissions:
2007/12/01: TMoS: 150 Big Fat Pinkos Sign Bali Communique
2007/11/30: ThinkP: Top businesses demand action on global warming
2007/11/30: WaPo: 150 Global Firms Seek Mandatory Cuts in Greenhouse Gas Emissions
2007/11/30: Guardian(UK): Global business leaders call for climate change pact
2007/11/29: GristMill: Somebody didn't get the environment vs. economy memo - Over 150 companies worldwide sign climate petition in advance of Bali
2007/12/01: GWWatch: World's big companies want clear climate outcomes from Bali
2007/11/30: DeSmogBlog: White House Ignoring Big Business Push For Mandatory Carbon Caps
2007/11/30: DeSmogBlog: 150 Multinational Corporations Fess Up to Greenwishing
2007/11/29: Yahoo: Business leaders seek action on warming
2007/11/30: OilChange: Business Leaders Call for Climate Action
2007/11/29: EnvFin: More climate change regulation needed, says global business
2007/11/30: BBC: Business call for plan on climate
Global businesses have called for a legally binding and comprehensive international deal on climate change. A binding agreement on emissions reductions would encourage business to invest in low-carbon technologies, a statement from 150 businesses said. The statement - backed by Prince Charles - will be sent to environment ministers and heads of state ahead of talks in Bali on climate change. Nokia, Tesco, Lloyds TSB and Nike are among the 150 firms that made the call. The signatories represent companies from Europe, the US, China and Australia

A McKinsey & Co. report on low cost ways to cut emissions generated a wave of excitement:

2007/12/02: TreeHugger: Negative Cost Opportunities Could Help U.S. Slash 28% of Emissions
2007/11/30: KSJT: NYTimes: Hey, America! Biz consultants say cut greenhouse gases a lot, make money (a lot of that too)
2007/11/30: GristMill: It can be done - McKinsey & Co. on how to reduce greenhouse gases
2007/11/30: ClimateP: McKinsey: Fighting climate change is affordable
2007/11/30: NYT: Study Details How U.S. Could Cut 28% of Greenhouse Gases
2007/11/29: C411: Study Finds Plenty of Low-Cost Ways to Cut Emissions
The UNDP released a Human Development Report:
2007/11/29: NatureCF: Climate change "will undermine poverty progress" [HDR]
2007/11/: UNDP:HDR: Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world
2007/11/29: HillHeat: UN Human Development Report: Less Than a Decade to Change Course
2007/11/27: UNDP: Climate change threatens unprecedented human development reversals - UNDP report
2007/11/27: Google:CP: UN report criticizes Canada, other rich countries on climate change
2007/11/28: Yahoo: Tackling climate change to cost 1.6 percent of GDP: UN
Climate change could have apocalyptic consequences for the world's poor and tackling it will require cuts in greenhouse gases costing 1.6 percent of global annual GDP, the UN Development Program said in a report Tuesday. Entitled "The Struggle Against Climate Change," the UNDP report paints an alarming picture of the climate change problem and urges richer countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050, with cuts of 30 percent by 2020. The proposed reductions in emissions are "stringent but affordable," the report said. Between now and 2030, the average annual cost would amount to 1.6 percent of global GDP, said the report to be presented Tuesday at a ceremony attended by UNDP chief Kemal Dervis and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
2007/11/27: Guardian(UK): 10 years to change our ways, warns UN report
2007/11/27: Yahoo: Poor in need of help from global warming
Floods, droughts and other climate disasters will rob millions of children of the decent meals and schools they need unless rich nations pony up $86 billion by 2015 to help the poor adapt to global warming, an expert panel warned Tuesday. The U.S. government needs to cover $40 billion of that spending, which will "strengthen the capacity of vulnerable people" to cope with climate-related risks, according to the report commissioned by the U.N. Development Program. The nearly 400-page Human Development Report comes just a week before the world's nations convene in Indonesia to negotiate a new climate treaty. It adds a dire economic perspective to previous U.N. scientific findings that carbon and other heat-trapping "greenhouse gas" emissions must stabilize by 2015 and then decline. Without the money, the panel found, a warmer world "could stall and then reverse human development" in the countries where 2.6 billion people live on $2 a day or less

Low Key Plug

My first novel Water was published in Canada May, 2007. The American release was in October. An Introductionto the novel is available, along with the Unpublished Forewordand the Launch Talk. An overview of my writing is available here.

-het

P.S. Recent postings can be found in the week archive and the ancient postings can be accessed here, which should open to this.

"The problem of climate change involves a fundamental failure of markets: those who damage others by emitting greenhouse gases generally do not pay." -Sir Nicholas Stern

Another Week of GW News, December 2, 2007

Sipping from the internet firehose...

Here's a chuckle for ye:

The big story of the week has to be anticipation of the Bali conference starting tomorrow:

150 global companies signed a pre-Bali communique calling for binding cuts in GHG emissions:

A McKinsey & Co. report on low cost ways to cut emissions generated a wave of excitement:

The UNDP released a Human Development Report:

How's your crystal ball?

Late comment on the Oxfam report:

Late comment on the SPM:

In the hurricane wars, Hagibis & Mitag smashed the Philippines:

Rebuilding after Sidr is going to take awhile:

In the Atlantic, the 2007 season came to a quiet end:

And then there was the ongoing research:

Meanwhile GHGs are still going up:

As for the temperature record:

While on the la Nina front:

Glaciers are melting:

As for the WAIS:

Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

A consortium has released a mosaic map of Antarctic:

DHS wants Orwellian security on NASA scientists:

More GW impacts are being seen:

And then there are the world's forests:

Corals are dying:

We have heatwaves and wild fires:

And speaking of floods & droughts:

The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

And the troubling matter of falling food production is not going away:

Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

Can you say one dimensional folly?

As for transportation & GHG production:

While in the endless quest for sustainable building codes:

As for carbon sequestration:

Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

While on the adaptation front:

Meanwhile in the journals:

Before we get into politics, there was some science done:

A proposal for a global ocean monitoring system has been put forward:

Hansen wrote an essay, "Averting Our Eyes," that ruffled some feathers:

In reviewing _Six Degrees_ by Mark Lynas, Eric Steig asks a killer question:

WMC is absconding to Cambridge, something to do with software:

It is my sad duty to announce the reincarnation of the Pielke Fan Club:

Meanwhile on the Kyoto front:

There is a lot of work to do. Why are people wondering about the future role of the IPCC?

While on the emissions trading front:

The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

The debate over the optimal strategy [carbon trading, carbon offsets and/or a carbon tax] to use in dealing with GHGs continues:

Meanwhile on the international political front:

And on the American political front:

As for the climate change, energy bill(s):

Elsewhere in the tragedy of contradictory desires:

US coal companies are feeling the heat & reacting:

Meanwhile the coal companies have sponsored both the Democratic & Republican TV debates:

After RGGI & WCI, we have the MidWest:

The 2008 campaign is not making much climate news:

The Gore-apalooza is still bopping along:

While in the UK:

Does Gordon understand that contradictory policies fail?

And in Europe:

Meanwhile in Australia:

The new Rudd government has been making policy announcements:

You can't get there from here quickly; Yes you can:

While in China:

In Canada, minority neocon PM Harper, came in for a lot of criticism for his Commonwealth shenanigans:

Heaven only knows what will happen in Bali:

Meanwhile there is all the usual politicking:

On another one of those late Friday afternoon announcements, the Conservatives whispered they have signed GNEP (without releasing the terms):

Still the tricky question of the tar sands looms:

The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:

As for how the media handles the science of climatology:

Here is something for your library:

And for your film & video enjoyment:

Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:

An interesting proposal for a European supergrid tied to Africa:

Google is pushing research in renewable energy:

Toe-to-Heel Air Injection, a new system of tar sand oil recovery, is being touted:

Meanwhile among the solar afficionados:

The arithmetic of coal carbon is striking home: