Another Week of GW News, May 25, 2008

By illconsidered on May 26, 2008.

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:Nargis, Knutson, Permafrost, Melting Arctic, Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production
Hurricanes, Halong, GHG Stats, Feedbacks, Paleoclimate, Sea Levels, Satellites, DSCOVR
Impacts, Acidification, Forests, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts
Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering
Journals, Misc. Science, Pielke, Broecker
Kyoto-2, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
Politics:G8 Meeting, America, Britain, Europe, Australia, Canada
Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Courts
Energy, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Efficiency, Cars, Business, Greenwashing
Carbon Lobby, The Usual, Useful Links
Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

Cue the dark laughter:

2008/05/25: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) I Bought A New Car...
There are few reporters in Myanmar, so most of the stories are tangential:
2008/05/24: AFP: After deal, aid groups wait for access to Myanmar
2008/05/23: BBwoB: The Cyclone Story (Local witness)
2008/05/22: UN: Ban Ki-moon visits cyclone-devastated areas in Myanmar
2008/05/23: BBC: Burma 'to let in all aid workers'
Burma's top leader has agreed to let all foreign aid workers into the country for relief work in cyclone-hit areas, UN head Ban Ki-moon has said. [...] But correspondents say Burma has a record of withdrawing promises made to the UN.
2008/05/22: BBC: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has arrived in cyclone-hit Burma to tour the devastated Irrawaddy Delta and meet military ruler Gen Than Shwe
2008/05/22: AFP: UN's Ban tours Myanmar disaster area
2008/05/21: Xinhuanet: Myanmar reiterates support for ASEAN-led mechanism for cyclone recovery
2008/05/19: DerSpiegel: The Silence of Bogalay -- Thousands of corpses are floating in Burma's Irrawaddy Delta...
2008/05/19: CBC: Burma eases foreign aid restrictions [via ASEAN]
2008/05/19: AFP: Three days of mourning in Myanmar, ASEAN to lead cyclone aid effort
2008/05/19: BBC: Burma neighbours in cyclone talks
The Association of South East Asian Nation (ASEAN) is due to hold urgent talks to discuss ways of helping Burma's cyclone victims. Foreign ministers meeting in Singapore hope that Burma's military junta - who has so far blocked most of the foreign aid - might accept the ASEAN help

A study by Knutson et al. predicted fewer hurricanes, kicking off a minor storm:

2008/05/18: NatureGeoSci: (ab$) Simulated reduction in Atlantic hurricane frequency under twenty-first-century warming conditions by Thomas R. Knutson et al.
2008/05/18: RealClimate: Climate Change and Tropical Cyclones (Yet Again)
2008/05/21: Wunderground: The future of wind shear: will it decrease the number of hurricanes?
2008/05/20: SciDaily: Global Warming Has Little Impact In Tropical Storm And Hurricane Numbers, NOAA Reports
2008/05/19: NOAANews: NOAA Model Projects Fewer, But More Intense Hurricanes Late This Century - Greenhouse Gases Have Little Impact in Tropical Storm and Hurricane Numbers
2008/05/19: NatureN: Climate change 'to make Atlantic hurricanes rarer'
Increasing frequency of storms in past 25 years may not continue, although average severity may grow.
2008/05/19: NatureCF: Hurricanes and global warming....the latest chapter
2008/05/19: KSJT: AP, Houston Chronicle, etc: Another report saying warming does NOT mean more hurricanes. But maybe more of the worst ones?
2008/05/18: MongaBay: Global warming will produce fewer hurricanes
2008/05/19: DotEarth: Warming and Storms, Uncertainty and Ethics
2008/05/19: PhysOrg: Study says global warming not worsening hurricanes
2008/05/18: Yahoo: Atlantic cyclones may decrease as globe warms: study
2008/05/19: QuarkSoup: Few Hurricanes with Global Warming
2008/05/19: BBC: 'Fewer hurricanes' as world warms
Hurricanes and tropical storms will become less frequent by the end of the century as a result of climate change, US researchers [Knutson] have suggested. But the scientists added their data also showed that there would be a "modest increase" in the intensity of these extreme weather events. The findings are at odds with some other studies, which forecast a greater number of hurricanes in a warmer world

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.

"Physics has 3 laws that explain 97% of everything while economics has 97 laws that explain 3% of everything." -anon

Another Week of GW News, May 25, 2008

Sipping from the internet firehose...

Cue the dark laughter:

There are few reporters in Myanmar, so most of the stories are tangential:

A study by Knutson et al. predicted fewer hurricanes, kicking off a minor storm:

Damocles sword is back courtesy of the melting permafrost:

The Arctic melt continues to get a lot of attention:

Doing nothing is not a climate plan:

The food crisis remains a top story:

The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

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

Tropical storm Halong raised a ruckus in the Philippines:

Otherwise in the hurricane wars, we have had predictions, retrospectives and studies:

Meanwhile GHGs are still going up:

Yes we have feedbacks:

While in the paleoclimate:

Sea levels are rising:

Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

The campaign to uncover DSCOVR [Deep Space Climate Observatory] rolls on:

More GW impacts are being seen:

A report on acidification kicked up a flurry:

And then there are the world's forests:

Meanwhile in tornado alley:

As for wild fires:

And speaking of floods & droughts:

Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

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:

Meanwhile in the journals:

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

The Pielke fan clubbe is still breathing...:

A Wallace Broecker interview:

Meanwhile on the Kyoto-2 front:

And on the carbon trading front:

The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

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

Meanwhile on the international political front, the G8 environment ministers met in Kobe, Japan:

And on the American political front:

In the Kansas coal saga:

The fight to ensure tax credits for renewables:

They're still arguing over which climate bill Bush will veto:

The EPA is still a focus of contempt & investigation:

The Polar Bears & the suits:

One hears a lot about the campaign(s), not much about climate:

While in the UK:

And in Europe:

The EU Common Agricultural Policy allegedly came under review:

In Italy, a move back to nuclear power?

Meanwhile in Australia:

The solar means test shock is still echoing:

In Canada, minority neocon PM Harper, continues his do-nothing policy:

Discussion of the Liberal's unreleased carbon tax plan is heated:

BC is still wrangling over their climate plan:

The tricky & difficult question of the tar sands looms:

And then there is the miscellaneous Canadiana:

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

IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology] raised its head once again:

Apocalypso anyone?

As for how the media handles the science of climatology:

Here is something for your library:

Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

Developing a new energy infrastructure is a fundamental challenge of the current generation:

Meanwhile among the solar afficionados:

The arithmetic of coal carbon is striking home:

Biofuel bickering abounds:

The nuclear energy controversy continues:

Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:

The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:

The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

Then there was the usual news and commentary:

And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:

Low Key Plug

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