A Few Things Ill Considered

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Another week of Climate Disruption News

October 25, 2009

• Chuckle, Copenhagen, Indian Dance, India & China, South Asia, Obama & Jintao, MEF, WFC, IDoCA, Superfreeks
• Bottom Line, Cosmic Rays, Cosmic Rays & Trees, Plans, Searchinger et al., 4 Degrees, Planetary Boundaries
• Melting Arctic, Antarctica
• Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production
• Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Paleoclimate, ENSO, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Corals, Climate Refugees, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering
• Journals, Other Docs , Misc. Science, Pielke, Tingley/Huybers, Smil
• Kyoto, UN, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
• International Politics, Security, Law & Activism
• America, Obama, Congress, Britain, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Africa, South America, Canada
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Media, Books, Video, Courts
• Energy, Fracking, Wind, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Business
• Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

Laugh. I dare ya:

• 2009/10/19: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Easter Island revisited
• 2009/10/23: ClimateP: (cartoon - Lukovich) That Wolf Will Come Back to Bite You
• 2009/10/20: Grist: Let's bounce -- Yes Men chase Sen. Arlen Specter in Survivaball suits
• 2009/10/20: OilDrum: Hubbert's Peak - John Kinhart's Comic

  On the road to Copenhagen:

• 2009/10/24: TerraDaily: Rich-poor divide could be Copenhagen climate 'deal-breaker'
• 2009/10/23: Guardian(UK): US coal stands in way of Copenhagen
  It's not India and China that threaten the success of a new climate change treaty, but senators of coal-producing US states
• 2009/10/23: UN: Climate change talks must include focus on adequate housing, says UN expert
• 2009/10/23: NatureCF: Countdown to Copenhagen
• 2009/10/22: Grist: Indian Prime Minister says green technology should be shared
• 2009/10/22: Thaindian: Four agreements essential for successful Copenhagen treaty: UN climate chief [UNFCCC head, Yvo de Boer]
  [...] "clear and ambitious emissions reduction targets from industrialised countries" was the first of four musts
  [...] The second was "clarity on what major developing countries ... will do to limit the growth of their emissions"
  [...] Adequate financing from industrialised countries to help developing nations adapt to climate change and mitigate their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions was the third
  [...] The fourth was "clarity on the the institutional mechanism" that will govern the finances.
  [...] If any of these "inter-related" issues did not work out, the Copenhagen summit should be "considered a failure", de Boer said.
• 2009/10/23: G&M: Ottawa dashes hope for climate treaty in Copenhagen -- Best possible outcome of climate talks is smoother path to later deal, Prentice says
• 2009/10/23: CJR: "Fix the Climate, or the Kid Gets It" -- MoJo's Copenhagen issue shoots for the big picture
• 2009/10/21: DerSpiegel: 'You Need Two to Tango' -- Pessimism Abounds as Copenhagen Climate Talks Near
• 2009/10/24: BBC: Copenhagen 'backup' group meets
  Legislators from 16 major economies will meet on Saturday to seek consensus on a raft of climate-related policies ahead of December talks in Copenhagen. The 120 delegates believe that the policies could address 70% of the emissions cuts necessary before 2020. A consensus, if reached, could ensure the policies are put into practice regardless of the outcome of the landmark climate talks in December. The group will present its results to the Danish PM who will host the talks. The delegates will include a number of MEPs and former UK Foreign Office head Lord Michael Jay alongside people holding in climate- and environment-related posts in 16 nations. The meeting has been organised by the Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment (GLOBE).
• 2009/10/23: AlterNet: Confused About All the Climate Talk and the Copenhagen Summit? Here's the Skinny: Five Things You Should Know
• 2009/10/15: Ecologist: China's 'carbon intensity' commitment means nothing
  There's been plenty of excitement over China and India's pledges to reduce the 'carbon intensity' of their economies. But without absolute limits, this is just business as usual
• 2009/10/22: CBC: Climate change won't stop progress: India's PM
  The world's poor nations will not sacrifice their development in negotiations for a new climate change deal, says Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The issue of how to share the burden of fighting global warming has divided the developing and industrialized worlds as they prepare to negotiate a replacement to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol at a December summit in Copenhagen
• 2009/10/22: EurActiv: Russian 'hot air' threatens UN climate deal
  The European Union is wondering what to do with billions of unused pollution credits accumulated by Russia, Ukraine and other former communist states of Eastern Europe under the Kyoto Protocol as lawmakers worry about the continuity of the carbon market beyond 2012.
• 2009/10/22: KSJT: Reuters: Just one day's big-picture, pre-Copenhagen news. Five stories.
• 2009/10/22: COP15: Europe takes the lead with ambitious climate targets
  EU sends a "clear message" to the world, offering up to 95 percent emissions cut by 2050 if a deal is reached in Copenhagen
• 2009/10/22: EarthTimes: Technology and its diffusion key to meeting climate change: [Indian PM Manmohan] Singh
• 2009/10/22: Reuters: India PM seeks global hub for clean-tech research
  India's prime minister on Thursday called for a global center to coordinate research on clean-energy technology, saying innovations should be viewed as "public goods" that poorer countries could afford. Transferring clean energy technologies is a key issue being negotiated as part of a broader global pact to fight climate change that the United Nations hopes will be agreed in Copenhagen in December. Developing nations say wealthy states have grown prosperous by fuelling their economies with polluting oil, coal and natural gas and that they should help poorer states grow with finance and clean-energy technology to curb the pace of climate change. But rich countries fear losing competitiveness with any dilution of intellectual property rights (IPR) for innovations.
• 2009/10/21: EUO: EU firms up negotiating position ahead of [COP15] climate meeting
• 2009/10/21: NatureN: Time running out for climate talks -- Rift between developed and developing nations might be too great
• 2009/10/21: NatureCF: Copenhagen: advice for negotiators
• 2009/10/20: NYT: As Time Runs Short for Global Climate Treaty, Nations May Settle for Interim Steps
• 2009/10/20: NatureCF: Still an 'uphill battle' to Copenhagen
• 2009/10/20: Grist: U.N. official expects no climate treaty at Copenhagen
• 2009/10/20: COP15: De Boer: No fully fledged treaty in Copenhagen
  "We have to focus on what can realistically be done," says UN top climate change official Yvo de Boer. He does not believe in "a fully fledged new international treaty" in Copenhagen.
• 2009/10/20: COP15: Rich countries might ease demands
  Negotiations on a new climate treaty seem to focus less on long-term greenhouse gas reductions by 2050 -- in order to build a consensus around a deal.
• 2009/10/20: FTimes: Emissions demands eased
  Developed countries are preparing to relent on their demand that developing countries agree to long-term cuts in greenhouse gas emissions in a concession that could form the basis of a global deal on climate change.
• 2009/10/20: ChinaDaily: It's make or break time for climate deal
  As the countdown to the Copenhagen climate change summit is ticking, a mounting stalemate may doom a final international treaty to cope with global warming beyond 2012. "It's certainly possible that there won't be a deal in Copenhagen," US climate change envoy Todd Stern bluntly told Britain's Channel Four television over the weekend. "This is a tough negotiation" to replace the Kyoto Protocol which expires at the end of 2012. This pessimistic message may be leverage for the US to further increase its bargaining position and pressure big developing economies such as China to accept higher emissions-cut goals as the international community pushes to clinch a deal at the Copenhagen summit, now less than 50 days away. Fingering-pointing between the industrialized countries and developing bloc still dominates the negotiations: The former committed to far smaller than expected greenhouse gas emissions cuts, while the latter is unwilling to take binding reductions.
• 2009/10/19: FTimes: Concession raises hopes for climate deal
  Developed countries are preparing to relent on their demand that developing countries agree to long-term cuts in greenhouse gas emissions in a concession that could form the basis of a global deal on climate change.
• 2009/10/19: Guardian(UK): India's complex game of carbon trade-offs
• 2009/10/19: CSM: Copenhagen: A new global deal for sustainable development?
  There are nine planetary boundaries that should be respected in order to reduce risking the self-regulating capacity of the planet. The environmental conference is only a first step.
• 2009/10/20: Guardian(UK): Climate change pact 'remains in the balance', says [UK E&CC Secretary] Ed Miliband
• 2009/10/19: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen climate change talks are last chance, says Gordon Brown [MEF or UK]
• 2009/10/19: NatureTGB: In Quotes: Road to Copenhagen
• 2009/10/19: SolveClimate: Making Sure Uncle Sam is Dressed for Copenhagen
• 2009/10/19: TheAge: Illusions on the edge of a precipice
  The climate crisis is not a negotiable issue and politicians must start paying attention to science. Can we expect decent climate policy when most of the decision-making elite are ignorant of the real scientific imperatives, or believe they can negotiate with the laws of physics and chemistry? The answer is bleak, judging by the lead-up talks to the climate summit in Copenhagen in December. The conference is slated to sign a new global deal on greenhouse gas reductions, but key players expect failure. British climate economist Lord Nicholas Stern and former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan are among luminaries now saying that no deal is better than a bad deal, while European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso warns: "If we don't sort this out, it risks becoming the longest and most global suicide note in history."

The Indian PM and Environment Minister did a little dance:

• 2009/10/23: WSJ:EnvCap: India Returns to Hardline Stance on Climate Change Talks
• 2009/10/22: COP15: Indian environment minister backs out, but leaves the door ajar
  Jairam Ramesh pedals back after this week's self made trouble. UN and Western officials consider the Indian environment minister's outspoken behavior as an attempt to lay the ground for a potential compromise in Copenhagen.
• 2009/10/21: COP15: Indian environment minister is put in his place
  After internal disagreements, the Indian prime minister officially denounces his environment minister.
• 2009/10/20: COP15: New signals from India?
  A confidential letter from the Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh (above) to the Prime Minister suggests a U-turn in the nation's climate policy.
• 2009/10/20: IndiaTimes: Congress [party] distances itself from shift on climate stand
• 2009/10/19: Reuters: Minister seeks unconditional CO2 curbs for India
  India's environment minister has urged the prime minister to take on carbon emission reductions under a new global deal without insisting on finance and technology from rich nations, a report said on Monday. The Times of India said Jairam Ramesh wrote to Manmohan Singh last week outlining a shift in India's traditional position in global climate negotiations.
• 2009/10/19: IndiaTimes: [Indian Environment minister] Jairam [Ramesh] for major shift at climate talks
  India seems to have begun to shuffle its feet in the climate change negotiations. Environment minister Jairam Ramesh, in a confidential letter to the PM, has suggested that India junk the Kyoto Protocol, delink itself from G77 -- the 131-member bloc of developing nations -- and take on greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments under a new deal without any counter guarantee of finances and technology. This proposal comes just after he wrote to the PM suggesting India permit strict external scrutiny -- just as is done under IMF and WTO -- of the mitigation measures it takes at its own cost.

Then China and India signed a climate pact:

• 2009/10/23: COP15: Chinese-Indian plan seen as smart move
  The prospect of an Asian climate agreement puts pressure on industrialized countries to deliver at the UN conference in Copenhagen, most experts believe.
• 2009/10/22: Guardian(UK): China and India agree to cooperate on climate change policy
• 2009/10/21: FTimes: China-India deal to resist carbon caps
  India and China struck an agreement on Wednesday to co-ordinate efforts to combat climate change that has at its core demands that the developed world take the lead in cutting global carbon emissions. Both countries are resisting acceptance of binding cuts or caps to their carbon emissions, arguing that they will unfairly curb their development. They insist that the developed world should take responsibility for the damage it has inflicted on the planet.
• 2009/10/21: BizGreen: India and China ink climate pact, as Copenhagen speculation rumbles on -- Countries agree to form unified front at Copenhagen Summit
• 2009/10/22: TreeHugger: India and China Create Alternative Climate Treaty
• 2009/10/21: BBC: India-China climate change deal
• 2009/10/21: COP15: India and China sign major agreement on combating climate change
• 2009/10/21: BBerg: China, India Sign Climate Change Cooperation Accord
• 2009/10/21: EarthTimes: India, China sign pact to fight climate change
  New Delhi - India and China Wednesday signed an agreement to cooperate on ways to fight climate change and pledged to set up a group to exchange views concerning international negotiations on climate change, a news report said. India's Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh and Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission, signed the agreement, the PTI news agency reported.

A meeting of South Asian environment ministers decided Kyoto was just fine:

• 2009/10/21: Google:AP: 8 South Asian nations resist binding emission cuts
  Eight South Asian countries have agreed they can't be part of any climate change deal that sets legally binding limits on their emissions, an Indian official said Tuesday. India, Pakistan and six other nations will present a coordinated stance at a key global meeting in Copenhagen in December to stick with the Kyoto Protocol, agreed in 1997, Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said after a two-day meeting of regional environment ministers.
• 2009/10/20: Xinhuanet: South Asian nations to stick to Kyoto Protocol guidelines: India

  Obama and Jintao had a (telephone) chat:

• 2009/10/21: EarthTimes: US, Chinese presidents vow to make climate change talks succeed
• 2009/10/21: Reuters: Climate cooperation to help ties, Hu tells Obama

  The Major Emitters Meeting in London wrapped up with no resolution:

• 2009/10/19: NatureN: Major economies meeting struggles with climate -- Many hurdles remain on the road to Copenhagen summit in December
• 2009/10/20: COP15: No miracles in London
  The two-day meeting in the Major Economies Forum in London ended without news on binding commitments to fight global warming.
• 2009/10/19: BBC: Climate treaty now 'more do-able'
  Agreeing a new global climate treaty looks more "do-able" after London talks between the big-emitting nations, UK Climate Secretary Ed Miliband has said. Talks between 17 countries producing about 80% of global emissions ended with a call for more funds to help poor nations adapt to climate change.
• 2009/10/19: COP15: Gordon Brown to world leaders: Come to Copenhagen
  17 major economies finish their climate discussions at the Major Economies Forum meeting in London today. The British Prime Minister urges world leaders to attend the UN climate conference in Copenhagen.
• 2009/10/18: BBerg: Climate Policies Won't Limit Warming to 2 Degrees, U.S. [Todd Stern] Says
  Current policies to fight climate change in China, India, the U.S. and other major carbon-dioxide emitters aren't enough to limit global temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), a U.S. envoy said. Major developing countries are moving in the right direction to contain global warming, Todd Stern, the U.S. delegate to a 17-nation conference on limiting climate change, told reporters today in London. Even so, the trend in greenhouse gas emissions is still too high, Stern said. "Where they are right now is almost certainly not enough, if you're talking about getting toward a place that's in the vicinity of holding the temperature increase to 2 degrees," Stern said. China, India, South Africa and the U.S. are among nations that need to step up the pace of action, he said.
• 2009/10/18: Yahoo:Reuters: U.S., Britain say global climate deal possible
• 2009/10/18: TerraDaily: World economies hold climate talks in London
• 2009/10/19: TreeHugger: UK Prime Minister Cribs From Bill McKibben - Says Climate Catastrophe Assured Without COP15 Agreement
• 2009/10/19: EarthTimes: Britain's Brown warns of climate 'catastrophe' ahead of talks
• 2009/10/19: OilChange: [UK PM Gordon] Brown: "For the planet there is no Plan B"
• 2009/10/19: Reuters: Leaders must broker climate deal in person: Britain
  World leaders must intervene to rescue flagging climate talks by brokering in person a deal to combat global warming in Copenhagen in December, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday. Brown is one of the few leaders of the major economies who has announced plans to go to the U.N.-led December 7-18 conference, which is supposed agree curbs on greenhouse gas emissions and how to help poor countries cope with climate change. "Success at Copenhagen is still within reach. But if we falter, the earth itself will be at risk," Brown told representatives of 17 of the world's main polluting nations, gathered in London.
• 2009/10/19: Times(UK): Brown warns of 'catastrophe' without Copenhagen climate deal
• 2009/10/19: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen climate talks are last chance, says Gordon Brown

  The World Forestry Congress went down in Buenos Aires:

• WFC 2009 - World Forestry Congress
• 2009/10/20: TreeHugger: WFC 2009: Zero Deforestation by 2020 a Utopia; Net Deforestation Reduction, not that Much
• 2009/10/19: EarthTimes: World Forestry Congress starts in Buenos Aires
  The World Forestry Congress on Monday began debating in Buenos Aires the vital importance of woodlands in relation to hot topics like food security and climate change. The 13th meeting of the congress was officially kicked off late Sunday under the slogan, Forestry in Development: A Vital Balance.

Saturnday October 24th was the International Day of Climate Action:

• 2009/10/25: NYT: Campaign Against Emissions Picks Number
• 2009/10/25: EarthTimes: Activists swim, climb, spell 350 for climate action
• 2009/10/24: TP:WR: 350 Islands Being Hung Out To Drown
• 2009/10/23: Guardian(UK): Groups use 350's big day to fight cap-and-trade...International day of climate action on Saturday...
• 2009/10/23: Guardian(UK): 350 -- the most important number on the planet. We just need to get the politicians to listen to the scientists
• 2009/10/23: Guardian(UK): London Eye rally one of 4,600 climate actions for 350 campaign
• 2009/10/24: CBC: Westerners rally for environment -- Climate change rallies also held in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Flin Flon, Banff, Lethbridge
• 2009/10/23: ScienceInsider: Bill McKibben: "Physics and Chemistry Have Stated Their Bottom Line"
• 2009/10/24: ABC(Au): Climate change activists rally with umbrellas
• 2009/10/24: ABC(Au): Australia kicks off world climate change rally
• 2009/10/23: TreeHugger: Good Morning New Zealand! First Images From International Day of Climate Action
• 2009/10/24: PeakEnergy: 350: Climate activists begin day of action
• 2009/10/23: SolveClimate: International Day of Climate Action Spreads Across 179 Countries
• 2009/10/22: CCurrents: 350 PPM CO2: The Uppere Limit Of Human Habitats
• 2009/10/24: CBC: Australians kick off world climate change rallies
• 2009/10/24: CanWest: Harper faces pressure to be green in Copenhagen
  Canada must choose between working with other countries to come up with pact or saving its own economy Vancouverites are sending a people-power message today: They expect strong action by Canada at a UN climate change conference in Copenhagen. The event at the Cambie Bridge is being organized by a green-minded group, Bridge to a Cool Climate, as part of the larger International Day of Climate Action.
• 2009/10/23: HotTopic: 4500 ways in 174 countries to send a 350 message
• 2009/10/23: DemNow: Amidst Uncertainty on US Role in Upcoming Climate Talks, 350.org Holds International Climate Action Day in 170 Nations
• 2009/10/22: TDC: A day built around a data point goes viral -- Saturday 24 October as an international day of action
• 2009/10/22: OilChange: Get Ready to Join 350 -- Saturday's International day of climate action
• 2009/10/22: AlterNet: Take Action on Oct. 24: Join One of the Largest Global Protests in the Fight Against Climate Change

  SuperFreakonomics is still getting free publicity:

• 2009/10/25: PeakEnergy: SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling?
• 2009/10/23: NYT:PK: Contrarianism without consequences
• 2009/10/23: Guardian(UK): Freakonomics without the facts
  Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner's bogus claims on climate change have riled up scientists. Maybe that was the point
• 2009/10/23: BSD: Superfreaks latest defense: they weren't answering the most important question about climate change
• 2009/10/22: CrTimber: Rules for Contrarians: 1. Don't whine. That is all [Superfreek]
• 2009/10/24: Deltoid: What Do Superfreakonomics And Senator Inhofe Have In Common?
• 2009/10/21: C411: When Books Collide: Sloppy 'Superfreakonomics' Meets its Match in Lucid 'Climate for Change'
• 2009/10/20: QuarkSoup: Another Meaningless Dust-up
• 2009/10/20: EnvEcon: Climate progress vs Freakonomics (only about 5500 words)
• 2009/10/21: EnvEcon: The data doesn't lie? The negative reviews of the SuperFreakonomics climate chapter keep coming in.
• 2009/10/19: GreenFyre: Superfreakonomic-expialidocious "I did not deny climate change with that woman!"
• 2009/10/20: ClimateP: Nathan Myhrvold jumps the shark -- and jumps ship on Levitt and Dubner (on their blog!)...
• 2009/10/20: DM:CCM: SuperFreakonomics: Laughing All the Way to the Bank
• 2009/10/21: FAIR: Climate Change Chapter Is Not the First Fakery From Freakonomics
• 2009/10/20: TP:WR: Answers For Delong About The SuperFreaks, Part Two: 'Global Cooling' And 'Economic Suicide'
• 2009/10/20: ClimateP: Bloomberg interview of Dubner and Caldeira backs up my reporting on error-riddled Superfreakonomics. Dubner is baffled that Caldeira "doesn't believe geoengineering can work without cutting emissions."
• 2009/10/19: BSD: Superfreaking lame response on global cooling issue
• 2009/10/19: ERabett: Food Fight
  Well, Ethon said so. Such joy, first the Supercalifragiliciousfeakonomics Climate Pie breaks out all over...and then...[PFC]
• 2009/10/17: LaaE: Fail: Superfreakonomics
• 2009/10/20: Deltoid: Underwhelming response from Superfreakonomics authors
• 2009/10/20: BBerg: Freakonomics Guys Flunk Science of Climate Change
• 2009/10/20: TP:WR: Answers For DeLong About The SuperFreaks, Part One
• 2009/10/19: KP: Is it super freaky?
• 2009/10/19: ClimateP: Anatomy of a debunking: Caldeira says Superfreakonomics is "damaging to me because it is an inaccurate portrayal of me" and filled with "many" misleading statements. Dubner continues to make false statements, parroted by Pielke and Morano. DeLong urges authors to "abjectly apologize" for the chapter.
• 2009/10/18: ClimateP: Part 5: Error-riddled Superfreakonomics claims Caldeira's "research tells him that carbon dioxide is not the right villain." Caldeira updates his website to read "Carbon dioxide is the right villain."
• 2009/10/19: JQuiggin: The Importance of Being Earnest: How Superfreakonomics killed contrarianism
• 2009/10/19: TreeHugger: SuperFreakonomics Screws Up Climate Change
• 2009/10/18: RealClimate: Why Levitt and Dubner like geo-engineering and why they are wrong
• 2009/10/18: TLC: Getting it Badly Wrong on Climate Change -- Levitt and Dubner @ Superfreakonomics are abit taken aback at the reaction they've gotten...
• 2009/10/18: EnvEcon: Freakonomics is freaking out!
• 2009/10/18: NYT:PK: Superfreakingmeta

  And on the Bottom Line:

• 2009/10/20: BBerg: Nations Leave 91% of Green Stimulus Funds Unspent
  The U.S., China and major economies around the world are still holding about 91 percent of the $177 billion in stimulus money promised for clean-energy development because most projects haven't been evaluated, a report showed. Administrative hurdles remain for the majority of developers, with just 9 percent of the total funds having been disbursed from economic-stimulus programs designed to pull economies out of recession, according to the study by New Energy Finance, a London-based consulting firm.
• 2009/10/20: Yale360: The Economic Case for Slashing Carbon Emissions
• 2009/10/19: Eureka: Shifting the world to 100 percent clean, renewable energy as early as 2030 -- here are the numbers [Jacobson & Delucchi]

  Tweak:

• 2009/10/22: TWTB: Nope, cosmic rays still not driving global warming, continued
• 2009/10/21: TWTB: Nope, cosmic rays still not driving global warming

  Speaking of cosmic rays, here is puzzle that needs elucidation:

• 2009/10/19: BBC: Cosmic pattern to UK tree growth
  The growth of British trees appears to follow a cosmic pattern, with trees growing faster when high levels of cosmic radiation arrive from space.

What is needed, what is planned & what is done...:

• 2009/10/22: Reuters: New Survey Finds US and 37 Other Countries Demand More Aggressive Climate Change Action than Congress or Copenhagen Envision

  Searchinger et al. reported on a critical but fixable accounting error in climate laws:

• 2009/10/23: Science: (ab$) Climate Change: Fixing a Critical Climate Accounting Error by Timothy D. Searchinger et al.
• 2009/10/22: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Ecologists to the rescue -- "fixing a critical climate accounting error"
• 2009/10/22: NN: Accounting Error Undermines Climate Change Laws -- Loophole encourages deforestation as carbon caps tighten -- but is fixable, study finds
• 2009/10/22: WSJ:EnvCap: They'd Shoot Trees, Wouldn't They? Climate Laws Encourage Deforestation, Scientists Say
• 2009/10/22: CBC: Kyoto biofuels flaw threatens forests: scientists
  A group of climate scientists says the Kyoto Protocol has a critical flaw in the way it calculates carbon emissions from biofuels that could undermine the treaty's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. There is an important, but fixable, error in the way that carbon dioxide emissions from biofuels are exempted from carbon caps, says an article by 13 experts in climate change and land use that goes online this week in Science Express. This exemption is present in the carbon accounting in the Kyoto Protocol, as well as the European Union's cap-and-trade law and the U.S. Clean Energy and Security Act.
• 2009/10/22: PhysOrg: Climate scientists uncover major accounting flaw in Kyoto Protocol, other climate legislation
  A team of 13 prominent scientists and land-use experts has identified an important but fixable error in legal accounting rules for bioenergy that could, if uncorrected, undermine efforts to reduce greenhouse gases by encouraging deforestation.

WWF released a report on energy, economics & deadlines:

• 2009/10/22: NewScientist: Adopt green tech by 2014 to avert climate calamity
• 2009/10/22: NBF: WWF Funds Another Biased Climate Change Report Based on Crude and Incorrect Spreadsheet Calculations
• 2009/10/19: WWF: Deadlines loom for creating new economy to avoid climate catastrophe
• 2009/10/19: ABC(Au): Five years to save world from climate change, says WWF
  A new report has given world leaders a deadline of 2014 to embrace a low-carbon economy or see the planet hit a "point of no return".

That projected 4C degree temperature rise has shaken people:

• 2009/10/22: Guardian(UK): Science Museum unveils climate change map showing impact of 4C rise

  Noted in passsing:

• 2009/10/19: CCP: Andrew Glikson: Planetary Boundaries (CO2 equivalent of 460 ppm has been surpassed

  The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:

• 2009/10/23: COP15: Warming continues to affect far north
  Warming temperatures continue in the polar north, changing wind patterns, melting sea ice and glaciers and affecting ocean and land life, a new report [NOAA Arctic report card] says
• 2009/10/23: CCP: NOAA: 2009 Arctic Report Card for Greenland
• 2009/10/23: CCP: NOAA: Arctic Report Card -- Update for 2009
• 2009/10/22: STimes: Update: Warming continues to affect far north -- Global warming is messing with the planet's thermostat
• 2009/10/22: SolveClimate: Remote Arctic Lake Begins to Heat Up 4,000 Years Early
• 2009/10/11: NPT: Melting Permafrost May Help Explain Why Many Denali National Park Wetlands Are Drying Up
• 2009/10/21: Stoat: Arctic to be 'ice-free in summer'?
• 2009/10/19: MongaBay: Arctic lake undergoing unprecedented changes due to warming
• 2009/10/19: PhysOrg: As Greenland melts
• 2009/10/19: Eureka: Arctic lake sediments show warming, unique ecological changes in recent decades

  While in Antarctica:

• 2009/10/22: GreenGrok: Ice Update: Not So Fast Antarctica
• 2009/10/21: PhysOrg: Researchers to study hidden lakes beneath West Antarctic ice sheet
• 2009/10/21: MGS: Antarctic Snow and Ice
• 2009/10/19: NatureTGB: Operation Ice Bridge: Mission Antarctica is go! [a series of missions to measure Antarctic ice]
• 2009/10/19: Eureka: West Antarctic ice sheet may not be losing ice as fast as once thought
  New ground measurements made by the West Antarctic GPS Network (WAGN) project, composed of researchers from The University of Texas at Austin, The Ohio State University, and The University of Memphis, suggest the rate of ice loss of the West Antarctic ice sheet has been slightly overestimated. "Our work suggests that while West Antarctica is still losing significant amounts of ice, the loss appears to be slightly slower than some recent estimates," said Ian Dalziel, lead principal investigator for WAGN. "So the take home message is that Antarctica is contributing to rising sea levels. It is the rate that is unclear."

The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2009/10/22: TP:MY: Famine in Ethiopia
• 2009/10/22: Yahoo:Reuters: Ethiopia appeals for food aid for 6.2 million
• 2009/10/23: CBC: N. Korea regime to blame for food crisis: UN
  More than one-third of North Korea's people go hungry as a result of the country's oppressive regime and a shortfall in foreign aid, a United Nations rights envoy said on Thursday.
• 2009/10/22: BBC: N Korea food shortage 'desperate'
  A UN rights expert says the food situation in North Korea is desperate, with aid from the World Food Programme reaching only one-third of the hungry. A drop in international aid means that only 2m people are being helped.
• 2009/10/22: UN: Ethiopia faces large food shortfall for over 6 million drought victims - UN
• 2009/10/22: BBC: Ethiopia asks for urgent food aid
  The Ethiopian government has asked the international community for emergency food aid for 6.2 million people.
• 2009/10/22: BBC: Hunger stalks Ethiopia once again
  Dying crops are giving greater urgency to Ethiopia's battle to make its people less vulnerable to hunger - 25 years after the 1984 famine that killed an estimated one million people.
• 2009/10/22: CBC: Ethiopia appeals for urgent food aid
  Ethiopia says it needs emergency food aid for 6.2 million people because of a prolonged drought. Mitiku Kassa, Ethiopia's state minister for agriculture and rural development, appealed Thursday for more than $121 million. The UN's World Food Programme, which provides food aid to drought-stricken countries, said it is facing a shortfall of $90 million worth of food for Ethiopia this year.
• 2009/10/21: Guardian(UK): Uganda food crisis undermining efforts to fight HIV/Aids
• 2009/10/20: UN: Top UN official to survey food aid operation in storm-battered Philippines
• 2009/10/20: SolveClimate: Desertification Threatens Food Security and Climate

  The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

• 2009/10/25: SciDaily: Biofuel Displacing Food Crops May Have Bigger Carbon Impact Than Thought
• 2009/10/22: PlanetArk: Brazil Drivers Ditch Biofuel Over High Sugar Costs

  And how are we going to feed 9 billion?

• 2009/10/23: TerraDaily: Protein helps plants survive drought
• 2009/10/22: EnergyBulletin: Sustainable Agriculture Whitepaper (excerpt)
• 2009/10/22: FAO: FAO Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission to Tajikistan
• 2009/10/20: FAO: Global platform for food security revitalized -- Member countries agree to reform Committee on World Food Security
• 2009/10/23: FAO: "Toolbox" to aid in promoting right to food -- Five-volume set provides governments and civil society with "how-to" guidelines
• 2009/10/23: UN: UN launches 'toolbox' to help nations ensure access to food as basic human right
• 2009/10/23: SciDaily: Scientists Reveals Secrets Of Drought Resistance
• 2009/10/13: Ecologist: How the Government could easily fix our food chain
  Our growing demand for cheap feed to produce cheap meat is exacting a terrible human and environmental price. But the solutions are clear, and are within our reach
• 2009/10/20: CNN: Greenpeace protests genetically modified corn in Mexico
  Mexico last week approved two applications to grow genetically modified corn - Greenpeace, other environmentalists say the altered crops could ruin native corn Government says modified crops are an experiment, will be isolated from other fields - Studies show transgenic corn has already contaminated some Mexican corn fields
• 2009/10/21: ScienceInsider: Royal Society Report Backs GM Crops, Other Measures to Boost Food Production
• 2009/10/21: KSJT: Telegraph, Reuters, BBC, etc: Royal Academy urges gene-modified crop use. Some enviros still scowling at such an idea...
• 2009/10/21: BBC: UK urged to lead on future food
  The UK should plough £2bn ($3.3bn) into crop research to help stave off world hunger, says the Royal Society. It says the world's growing population means food production will have to rise by about 50% in 40 years and the UK can lead the research needed. Approaches it endorses include genetic modification, improved irrigation and systems of growing crops together that reduce the impact of diseases.
• 2009/10/21: Guardian(UK): GM research is needed urgently to avoid food crisis, says Royal Society
• 2009/10/19: EurActiv: UN wants tripling of agricultural development aid
• 2009/10/19: EurActiv: Bill Gates sets eye on 'next green revolution'
  As preparations for the world summit on food security next month speed up, Bill Gates, the billionaire founder of software giant Microsoft, is urging governments, donors, researchers, farmer groups and environmentalists to overcome "ideological" divisions about technological solutions to increase agricultural productivity in Africa. The fight to end hunger is being hurt by environmentalists who insist that genetically modified (GM) crops cannot be used in Africa, Gates said on Thursday (15 October).

Typhoon Lupit zigged and zagged north east of the Philippines:

• 2009/10/24: PhysOrg: Philippines breathing easier as Typhoon Lupit turns north
• 2009/10/24: PhysOrg: NASA satellite still sees heavy rainfall in Tropical Storm Neki
• 2009/10/23: Wunderground: The Atlantic is quiet; Typhoon Lupit spares the Philippines
• 2009/10/24: EarthTimes: Storm Lupit spares northern Philippines, heads towards Japan
• 2009/10/23: CBC: Typhoon Lupit toys with battered Filipino coast
  Living up to its name, Typhoon Lupit -- meaning cruel in Filipino -- zigzagged around the rain-soaked northern Philippines on Friday, keeping weary residents on edge and forecasters guessing about its next move.
• 2009/10/22: Wunderground: Western Caribbean disturbance less organized; Typhoon Lupit may spare Philippines
• 2009/10/22: EarthTimes: Typhoon Lupit brings strong winds, rains to Philippines
• 2009/10/20: PhysOrg: Luzon expecting a Lupit landfall
• 2009/10/21: Wunderground: Western Caribbean disturabance 94L bringing heavy rains; Lupit's path uncertain
• 2009/10/21: EarthTimes: Powerful typhoon [Lupit] slows down as it nears northern Philippines
• 2009/10/19: TerraDaily: Philippines on high alert ahead of Typhoon Lupit
• 2009/10/20: Wunderground: Western Caribbean disturbance 94L organizing; Rick wanes; Lupit still dangerous
• 2009/10/20: EarthTimes: Evacuations start in Philippines as powerful typhoon [Lupit] nears
• 2009/10/19: CBC: Philippines braces for Typhoon Lupit

  Hurricane Rick roared up and died on cooler waters:

• 2009/10/20: PhysOrg: Tropical Storm Rick's center expected to pass south of the Baja
• 2009/10/21: PlanetArk: Tropical Storm Rick Kills Second Person, Winds Calm
• 2009/10/21: CBC: Tropical storm Rick bears down on Mexico
• 2009/10/19: EarthTimes: One death in Mexico due to Hurricane Rick - Summary
• 2009/10/19: Wunderground: Rick weakens; Lupit headed to the Philippines; Western Caribbean brewing a storm?
• 2009/10/18: Wunderground: Super Hurricane Rick the 2nd strongest hurricane ever recorded in Eastern Pacific
• 2009/10/19: NASA: NASA's TRMM Satellite Sees Two Dangerous Storms in the Pacific Ocean: Lupit and Rick
• 2009/10/19: CBC: Hurricane Rick continues to weaken off Mexico

  While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

• 2009/10/24: Wunderground: The Atlantic is quiet...
• 2009/10/23: NASA: NASA Satellite Still Sees Heavy Rainfall in Tropical Storm Neki
• 2009/10/20: PhysOrg: TRMM sees some heavy rains in Neki as it heads toward Johnston Island
• 2009/10/20: TerraDaily: Death toll from Philippine storms [Ketsana & Parma] nears 1,000: govt
• 2009/10/19: Eureka: 2 NASA satellites see Tropical Storm Neki form in the Central Pacific
• 2009/10/18: PhysOrg: Pacific El Nino equals Atlantic hurricane calm: experts

  As for GHGs:

• 2009/10/22: PhysOrg: Treaty to limit CO2 should be followed by similar limits on other greenhouse pollutants
• 2009/10/23: PhysOrg: NASA Researchers Explore Lightning's NOx-ious Impact on Pollution, Climate
• 2009/10/21: Google:AFP: Industrialised nations' CO2 emissions rose [1%] in 2007: UN
• 2009/10/21: BBerg: Greenhouse-Gas Output Rose 1% in Industrialized Nations in 2007
• 2009/10/21: Guardian(UK): Let us equip you with the right tool to help you fight climate change -- Our carbon calculator...
• 2009/10/21: UN: Greenhouse gas emissions from industrialized nations continue to rise, UN reports
• 2009/10/20: ERabett: SO2 Stinks

  And the temperature record:

• 2009/10/21: ClimateSight: Weather is Weird
• 2009/10/20: HotTopic: ...Keep out of the kitchen
• 2009/10/19: PhysOrg: Arctic lake sediments show warming, unique ecological changes in recent decades

  While in the paleoclimate:

• 2009/10/25: SciDaily: Arctic Sediments Show That 20th Century Warming Is Unlike Natural Variation
• 2009/10/22: PhysOrg: Seafloor Fossils Provide Clues on Climate Change [250 mya]
• 2009/10/23: FuturePundit: 15 Million Years Since Atmospheric CO2 So High
• 2009/10/24: CBC:Q&Q: (mp3/ogg) Human Footprints in the Mud -- Drilling for sediment cores -- Dr. John Smol interview
• 2009/10/23: TreeHugger: Forget Natural Variation: New Arctic Sediment Samples Show 20th Century Warming Unlike Past Events
• 2009/10/19: UB: Arctic Sediments Show That 20th Century Warming Is Unlike Natural Variation
• 2009/10/22: SMU: Ethiopia 27 million years ago had higher rainfall, warmer soil
• 2009/10/18: MongaBay: Present day tropical plant families survived in warmer, wetter tropics 58 million years ago
• 2009/10/18: ClimateP: Science: CO2 levels haven't been this high for 15 million years, when it was 5° to 10°F warmer and seas were 75 to 120 feet higher...

  On the ENSO front:

• 2009/10/18: QuarkSoup: Routine El Nino causes Unexceptionally High Temps
• 2009/10/19: KSJT: West coast press etc: Maybe this year El Niño will kick the drought out

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2009/10/24: ERabett: When the ice melts
• 2009/10/21: NatureN: Climate: When the ice melts
  Deep in the Himalayas, the disappearance of glaciers is threatening the kingdom of Bhutan. Anjali Nayar trekked through the mountains to see how the country is adapting to a warming world.
• 2009/10/21: Eureka: Glacial melting may release pollutants in the environment

  Sea levels are rising:

• 2009/10/22: CCP: Gordon Hamilton, leading researcher on sea level rise from Greenland's melting ice sheet says higher waters coming
• 2009/10/19: Eureka: As Greenland melts -- In 2007 alone, it lost volume equivalent to draining San Francisco Bay every week

  Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

• 2009/10/21: ESA: Final look at ESA's SMOS and Proba-2 satellites
• 2009/10/20: UN: UN helps launch forest monitoring [via satellite] system to tackle climate change

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2009/10/23: UN: UN official visits Uganda's ground zero of climate change and humanitarian woes
• 2009/10/22: CBC: 'Dead-zone' microbe measures ocean health
  Canadian and U.S. researchers have mapped the genome of a microbe that lives in ocean "dead zones," areas of low-oxygen water that are expanding because of climate change.
• 2009/10/21: UN: Seal the Deal: Climate change could stem global tourism, UN cautions
• 2009/10/20: Guardian(UK): Climate change in Russia's Arctic tundra: 'Our reindeer go hungry. There isn't enough pasture'
  For 1,000 years the indigenous Nenets people have herded their reindeer along the Yamal peninsula. But their survival in this remote region of north-west Siberia is under serious threat from climate change as Russia's ancient permafrost melts
• 2009/10/20: Guardian(UK): Impact of climate change on Nenet tribespeople of Siberia (20 pictures)
• 2009/10/19: EnergyBulletin: The Oceans are Coming
• 2009/10/19: Grist: Trouble with chicks -- Where the Sahara meets the Atlantic
• 2009/10/19: TreeHugger: Rising Temps Mean Malarial Mosquitos Infecting People on Mount Kenya (Video)
• 2009/10/18: Eureka: [CSIRO] Study predicts seabed response to climate change

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2009/10/22: TerraDaily: 36 football fields deforested each minute: WWF
• 2009/10/23: GreenGrok: Where Have All the Forests Gone - Bioenergy's Legacy?
• 2009/10/21: MongaBay: Logged forests support biodiversity after 15 years of rehabilitation, but not if turned into plantations
• 2009/10/21: PlanetArk: Standard Bank Poised To Launch $230 Million Forest Fund
  South Africa's Standard Bank is close to launching a A$250 million ($230 million) forestry fund in Australia, aimed at selling carbon offsets to companies, in what is believed to be the largest fund of its kind so far. It will focus on companies that will need to meet emissions reduction targets under carbon trading laws awaiting approval by the Australian Senate, said Singapore-based William Pazos, global head of origination and finance at Standard Bank.
• 2009/10/21: COP15: Nations promise to fight deforestation
  Two new international initiatives have been taken to reduce deforestation that is responsible for almost 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. South America, Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay have announced a joint plan to establish protected zones in the vast Atlantic Forest as part of an effort to halt deforestation by 2020. [...] Tuesday, the World Bank said that Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Morocco, Nepal and Romania will join donor nations Australia, Denmark, Norway, Britain and the United States to combat climate change by better managing forestry resources under The Forest Investment Program (FIP).
• 2009/10/21: TDC: Forest's death brings higher temps, researchers suspect
  Forests of dead beetle-kill could be speeding regional climate change, increasing temperatures and decreasing rainfalls across the American West.
• 2009/10/21: Yahoo:AP: 3 S.American nations promise to halt deforestation
  Three South American nations announced a joint plan Tuesday to establish protected zones in the vast Atlantic Forest as part of an effort to halt deforestation by 2020. Speaking at the World Forestry Congress, representatives of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay said their governments are committed to achieving "net zero deforestation" -- meaning their total amount of forest land would remain stable by that date.
• 2009/10/21: CPositive: Leaps forward in satellite forest monitoring
  Efforts to tackle deforestation and develop a robust REDD mechanism have received a double boost this week with two initiatives aimed at enhancing the monitoring of forests from space. The UN food agency has announced it will make available satellite imaging free to developing countries to underpin avoided deforestation efforts while a partnership of governments and space agencies announces a new system to produce comprehensive annual assessments of global forest changes. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) together with the State University of South Dakota, US Geological Survey and EU Joint Research Center will make available an existing database of accessible, high-resolution satellite data to forest nations. The system can offer data for 13,000 locations worldwide and tools that the FAO says will make it easy for governments to get a handle on the status of their forests. An emerging REDD mechanism being negotiated at the UN is struggling to overcome many challenges including how to credibly measure, report and verify forest carbon emissions across many developing nations.
• 2009/10/20: UN: UN helps launch forest monitoring system to tackle climate change
  A new and free way to monitor the size and health of forests through satellite data and help curb greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation has been launched by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and its partners. "Never before have data of this kind been provided directly to users in developing countries," said FAO Director General Jacques Diouf. "Monitoring will be cheaper, more accurate and transparent for countries that want to participate in reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation."
• 2009/10/19: WWF: Halt to forest loss a key to stabilising climate
• 2009/10/19: Eureka: Carbon-offsetting and conservation can both be winners in rainforest
• 2009/10/20: LA Times: Forest study sees upside of climate change
  Warmer temperatures may spur tree growth in some regions of the Pacific Northwest, which could mean reduced carbon in the air, researchers say
• 2009/10/19: Grist: Report: Forest conservation can be as reliable as other ways of reducing pollution
• 2009/10/19: OSU: Global warming may spur increased growth in Pacific Northwest forests

  Corals are dying:

• 2009/10/22: Eureka: The white stuff: Marine lab team seeks to understand coral bleaching
• 2009/10/21: HotTopic: The cost of losing coral: no drop in the ocean
• 2009/10/19: NewScientist: We will be billions of dollars poorer when coral dies

  Climate refugees are becoming an issue:

• 2009/10/25: LA Times: Fleeing drought in the Horn of Africa
  A new kind of refugee has arrived: Those forced from their home regions not by war or persecution, but by the climate. A Kenyan camp is bursting with the displaced, some of whom share their stories.
• 2009/10/23: TerraDaily: African leaders adopt landmark refugee convention
• 2009/10/23: Grist: African leaders adopt landmark refugee convention
  African leaders on Friday adopted a convention -- billed as the first of its kind worldwide -- on the protection of the 17 million people on the continent who have fled their homes. The convention, which is legally binding, requires member states to provide special assistance for displaced people with special needs, including the elderly, and calls for the prevention of forced displacement. The summit also took into account the effects of climate change as a major cause of human displacement.
• 2009/10/19: TerraDaily: Start planning for refugees from Pacific warming: scientist
  Pacific islands in danger of being obliterated by rising sea levels should seek aid for relocation at a crunch UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, a Fiji-based scientist said. "By 2100, I don't see how many islands will be habitable," professor Patrick Nunn, a climate change researcher at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji said ahead of the opening of a regional climate change conference Monday. Nunn is chairing the Pacific Climate Change Roundtable meeting in the Marshall Islands capital Majuro, where 14 Pacific countries and territories are devising their strategy for the December conference.
• 2009/10/19: ManilaBulletin: Scarcity fueling mass migration
  A predicted rapid rise in global population to 8 billion by 2030 is set to unleash a "perfect storm" of food shortages, scarce water and energy crises that would fuel mass migration, conflict and unrest, British scientists have warned. "There are dramatic problems out there, particularly with water and food but energy also, and they are all intimately connected," said Professor John Beddington, the British government's chief scientist. "You can't think about dealing with one without considering the others," he said. "We must deal with all of these together. We head into a perfect storm by 2030 because all of these things are operating on the same timeframe."
• 2009/10/19: SolveClimate: The Third Rail of Climate Change: Climate Refugees

  As for heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2009/10/20: TerraDaily: Australia warns of harsh summer as residents flee fire
• 2009/10/20: PeakEnergy: Powerline Maintenance And Bushfires
• 2009/10/19: Guardian(UK): Spanish wetlands shrouded in smoke as overfarming dries out peat
  National park which was once a 'paradise' now on fire and churning out tonnes of CO2
• 2009/10/19: EarthTimes: Residents battle forest fires on Australia's east coast
• 2009/10/18: CBC: Australian wildfires spark state of emergency

  On the water front [floods & droughts]:

• 2009/10/23: Guardian(UK): Ravaged by drought, Madagascar feels the full effect of climate change
  A 10% increase in temperature and a 10% decrease in rainfall sees Indian Ocean island struggle to feed its children
• 2009/10/20: TerraDaily: Mexicans told to cherish water as family -- "The water is like your family, protect it!"
• 2009/10/22: EarthTimes: Environmentally protected wetlands drying up in Spain
• 2009/10/22: EarthTimes: After the drought, the deluge: Kenya braces for flooding
• 2009/10/21: BBC: China moves 330,000 in water plan
  China has begun to resettle 330,000 people to make way for a project to divert water from the south of the country to the north, state media say. People in Henan and Hubei provinces are being moved out of the way of a canal from the Yangtze River to Beijing, Xinhua news agency said. When completed, three routes will carry water from southern, central and western China to the arid north. The $62bn (£42bn) project is already four years behind schedule.
• 2009/10/20: MongaBay: Kenya's pain, part two: decades of wildlife decline exacerbated by drought

  Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2009/10/25: Guardian(UK): Deep freeze 'arks' to save coral reefs
  Researchers fear coral reefs won't survive next 50 years, so cryogenic plans are laid to rebuild them
• 2009/10/20: FAO: Global forest monitoring to help mitigate climate change -- Emissions from deforestation and forest degradation must be reduced
• 2009/10/18: CSM: Global warming: Indians decide to make their own glaciers
• 2009/10/22: NYT: To Cut Global Warming, Swedes Study Their Plates [Carbon labelling]

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2009/10/23: PhysOrg: Biofuel for commercial flights by 2010: IATA
• 2009/10/22: BBC: US airlines have reported mixed fortunes between July and September...
  Delta lost $161m, US Airways lost $80m, American Airline's parent company AMR lost $359m, JetBlue made $15m, Continental and the parent company of AirTran Airways positive unspecified...
• 2009/10/22: BBC: Harrabin's Notes: Scooting green
  BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin reports on how a push toward electric scooters in one Chinese city could be a bellwether for a global revolution.

While in the endless quest for zero energy, sustainable buildings and practical codes:

• 2009/10/22: PlanetArk: Enterprise To Raise $4 Billion For Green Housing
• 2009/10/22: SciDaily: Urban Growth Versus Global Warming
• 2009/10/21: BBC: Harrabin's Notes: Green tower
  BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin reports on the tower block under construction in China which could lead the way in green building technology.

And on the carbon sequestration front:

• 2009/10/24: Australian: New hope for viable clean coal projects
  An unpublished government study has raised hopes that Australia will be able to develop commercially viable clean coal projects because prospective underground storage sites are close to power generation plants.
• 2009/10/23: BCLSB: Senator Elaine McCoy On Carbon Sequestration
• 2009/10/22: Hullabaloos: CCS Sticker Shock
• 2009/10/21: GTM: GE to Participate in World's Biggest Carbon Capture Project
  Gorgon is a natural gas project off Western Australia. The 3.3 million tons of carbon dioxide that will get released will be put in a very deep hole.
• 2009/10/20: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Carbon Capture & Sequestration in China: Ripe for the Picking
• 2009/10/20: G&M: On a cost basis, carbon-capture projects are madness
  The small reductions gained by staggering per-tonne costs illustrate what every independent analyst knows: The Harper government's 20-per-cent reduction target will not be met
• 2009/10/19: TreeHugger: Carbon Capture Is "Essential" for Developing World, And Still a Pipe Dream

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2009/10/21: Yale360: Geoengineering the Planet: The Possibilities and the Pitfalls
  Interfering with the Earth's climate system to counteract global warming is a controversial concept. But in an interview with Yale Environment 360, climate scientist Ken Caldeira talks about why he believes the world needs to better understand which geoengineering schemes might work and which are fantasy -- or worse.
• 2009/10/21: Maribo: On Geoengineering
• 2009/10/22: TerraDaily: Prospects Of A Geoengineered World
• 2009/10/21: Guardian(UK): Geo-engineering: just a sticking plaster for the planet?
• 2009/10/19: SciAM:Obs: Geoengineering wars: another scientist teases out surprising effect of global deforestation

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2009/10/23: AGWObserver: Papers on models vs. observations
• 2009/10/20: NERC:NORA: Changes and patterns in biologically relevant temperatures in Europe 1941-2000 by T.H. Sparks et al.
• 2009/10/23: NERC:NORA: Understanding Antarctica - 50 years of British Scientific Monitoring (1959-2009) by Kevin Hughes & Jamie Oliver
• 2009/10/22: CP: Antarctic ice-sheet response to atmospheric CO2 and insolation in the Middle Miocene by P. M. Langebroek et al.
• 2009/10/19: CP: Terrestrial climate variability and seasonality changes in the Mediterranean region between 15 000 and 4000 years BP deduced from marine pollen records by I. Dormoy et al.
• 2009/10/21: CPD: Contribution of oceanic and vegetation feedbacks to Holocene climate change in Central and Eastern Asia by A. Dallmeyer et al.
• 2009/10/23: ACP: Now you see it, now you don't: Impact of temporary closures of a coal-fired power plant on air quality in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area by D. A. Jaffe & D. R. Reidmiller
• 2009/10/23: ACP: Properties of the average distribution of equatorial Kelvin waves investigated with the GROGRAT ray tracer by M. Ern et al.
• 2009/10/23: ACPD: Aerosol direct radiative forcing during Sahara dust intrusions in the central Mediterranean by M. R. Perrone et al.
• 2009/10/23: ACPD: Impact of energetic particle precipitation on stratospheric polar constituents: an assessment using MIPAS data monitoring and assimilation by A. Robichaud et al.
• 2009/10/23: ACPD: Regional-scale geostatistical inverse modeling of North American CO2 fluxes: a synthetic data study by S. M. Gourdji et al.
• 2009/10/22: ACPD: Sulfur cycle and sulfate radiative forcing simulated from a coupled global climate-chemistry model by I.-C. Tsai et al.
• 2009/10/23: Science: (ab$) Climate Change: Fixing a Critical Climate Accounting Error by Timothy D. Searchinger et al.
• 2009/10/22: Science: (ab$) Indirect Emissions from Biofuels: How Important? by Jerry M. Melillo et al.
• 2009/10/20: TC: Quantifying changes and trends in glacier area and volume in the Austrian Ötztal Alps (1969-1997-2006) by J. Abermann et al.
• 2009/10/20: AGWObserver: Papers on aerosol forcing observations
• 2009/10/20: ACP: A new transport mechanism of biomass burning from Indochina as identified by modeling studies by C.-Y. Lin et al.
• 2009/10/21: ACP: Characterization of methane retrievals from the IASI space-borne sounder by A. Razavi et al.
• 2009/10/20: ACP: Patterns of North African dust transport over the Atlantic: winter vs. summer, based on CALIPSO first year data by Y. Ben-Ami et al.
• 2009/10/20: ACPD: Particle formation in the Arctic free troposphere during the ASTAR 2004 campaign: a case study on the influence of vertical motion on the binary homogeneous nucleation of H2SO4/H2O by F. Khosrawi et al.
• 2009/10/20: ACPD: Atmospheric electric field anomalies associated with solar flare/coronal mass ejection events and solar energetic charged particle "Ground Level Events" by E. A. Kasatkina et al.
• 2009/10/20: PNAS: Trade-offs and synergies between carbon storage and livelihood benefits from forest commons by Ashwini Chhatre & Arun Agrawal
• 2009/10/20: PNAS: Transient dwarfism of soil fauna during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum by Jon J. Smith et al.
• 2009/10/20: PNAS: [Letter$] Reply to Jongschaap et al.: The water footprint of Jatropha curcas under poor growing conditions by Arjen Y. Hoekstra et al.
• 2009/10/20: ApJ: Testing the link between terrestrial climate change and galactic spiral arm transit by Andrew C. Overholt et al.
• 2009/10/21: CPD: Comment on "Using multiple observationally-based constraints to estimate climate sensitivity" by J. D. Annan and J. C. Hargreaves, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L06704, doi:10.1029/2005GL025259, 2006 by S. V. Henriksson et al.

  And other significant documents:

• 2009/10/07: GAO: [link to 946k pdf] Climate Change Adaptation: Information on Selected Federal Efforts To Adapt To a Changing Climate...

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

• 2009/10/21: PhysOrg: Scientists Develop New Method to Quantify Climate Modeling Uncertainty

  The Pielke fan clubbe, alas:

• 2009/10/23: ERabett: Going from step 3 to 4
• 2009/10/21: ERabett: Roger vs. Roger, a game any bunny can play
• 2009/10/22: Deltoid: Pielke Pity Party

  Regarding Tingley/Huybers:

• 2009/10/22: QuarkSoup: There's Still a Blade
• 2009/10/22: QuarkSoup: More on this New Result [Tingley/Huybers paper]
• 2009/10/24: TStar: The hockey stick theory still scores

  Smil comment:

• 2009/10/19: DeepClimate: Vaclav Smil on climate change: "No global warming in past ten years"

  Meanwhile on the Kyoto front:

• 2009/10/23: Reuters: Investment risks could maim Kyoto emissions scheme [CDM]
• 2009/10/21: Reuters: Carbon scheme [Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)] reform may get lost in Copenhagen

  At the UN:

• 2009/10/22: UN: Insurance industry can propel transition to 'green' economy - UN

  On the carbon trading front:

• 2009/10/20: IndiaTimes: Pessimism on climate deal hangs over carbon market
  The uncertain outcome of December's climate summit in Copenhagen is hanging over the carbon market, denting confidence in the future of emissions trading, market participants said at a conference on Tuesday.

The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

• 2009/10/14: ArtGoldhammer: A carbon tax for France? Encore un effort!
• 2009/10/21: WSJ:EnvCap: Taiwan: Choosing Carbon Taxes Over Carbon Tariffs
• 2009/10/19: EarthTimes: Taiwan plans energy tax starting in 2011

  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:

• 2009/10/21: Stoat: Bad policy will boil the planet?
• 2009/10/21: PhysOrg: Professor calculates a cooler planet
• 2009/10/20: Guardian(UK): Combating climate change costs money
  Forget the unfair system of carbon credits. Poorer countries need financial help to the annual tune of $200bn

Meanwhile on the international political front:

• 2009/10/23: EUO: New EU-US energy council to be set up early November

  As for GW & security:

• 2009/10/21: SolveClimate: Dangers of Climate Change: Lack of Water Can Lead to War

  The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world as nations scramble to deal with climate change:

• 2009/10/20: IPSNews: Canada: [Alberta] Govt Threatens Tar Sands Activists with Anti-Terror Laws
  The provincial government in Alberta, Canada is threatening to unleash its counterterrorism plan if activists continue using civil disobedience to protest the tar sands, Canada's fastest source of greenhouse gas emissions.
• 2009/10/20: Grist: Coalfield uprising leads to arrests at W.Va. gov's office
• 2009/10/19: ABC(Au): Climate protesters storm power station [UK's Ratcliffe on Soar facility]
• 2009/10/18: Guardian(UK): Protesters arrested after clashes at Ratcliffe power plant
  Police arrested 52 climate change protesters after clashes outside the Ratcliffe coal-fired power station in Nottinghamshire at the weekend.

And on the American political front:

• 2009/10/21: OregonLive: Trick or treat for climate change
  U.S. government leadership will be critical to clinching a substantive deal in Copenhagen, but the Senate has not finalized any climate legislation, which essentially ties the hands of U.S. negotiators. Oil, gas and coal interests are spending $300,000 a day lobbying the government. The moment of climate-change truth is upon us, and the professional deniers are up to their old tricks.
• 2009/10/23: WaPo: We can afford to save the planet
• 2009/10/23: STimes: High-speed rail advocates say $8B is just a start
  Communities and companies seeking to build high-speed rail systems haven't yet received the $8 billion in stimulus money the Obama administration promised for the projects, and already they want more - a lot more.
• 2009/10/22: DemNow: University of Alaska Scientist Rick Steiner Loses Federal Grant Funding After Criticizing Oil Industry
• 2009/10/22: Reuters: Prepare for climate change, U.S. [GAO] report warns W.House
• 2009/10/22: ScienceInsider: Texas = Energy Efficient? [ACEEE]
• 2009/10/21: NRDC:SwitchBoard: U.S. Offshore Wind Development Stymied Once Again
• 2009/10/22: WSJ:EnvCap: California Dreaming: Is Energy Efficiency Really That Easy?
• 2009/10/22: EconView: "The United States has Proved to be the Biggest Laggard in the World"
• 2009/10/22: DailyStar: King coal's climate policy: Will the US prove to be the world's last holdout?
• 2009/10/21: ClimateP: GOP Rep. from district where civil rights workers were lynched talks about shooting "tree-hugging Democrats"; Pennsylvania state lawmaker says veterans who support climate change legislation are "traitors."
• 2009/10/20: TP: Pennsylvania state lawmaker [State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R)]: Veterans who support climate change legislation are 'traitors.'
• 2009/10/20: GreenGrok: Converging on a Climate Agreement
• 2009/10/20: Grist: Coalfield uprising leads to arrests at W.Va. gov's office
• 2009/10/19: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Is Efficiency's Low Hanging Fruit Too Sour for Florida's Public Service Commission?
• 2009/10/19: WWI: United States Under Pressure to Protect Tropical Forests
• 2009/10/18: SolveClimate: Could This Tiny Mountain Mammal [Pika] Force the US To Fight Climate Change?

  Pew released a poll on global warming that raised a lot of comment:

• 2009/10/23: PhysOrg: Poll: US belief in global warming is cooling
• 2009/10/22: Grist: [Pew] Poll finds sharp rise in global warming skepticism
• 2009/10/23: Grist: What does the Pew poll mean?
• 2009/10/23: WorldChanging: Climate Poll: Hike in Skepticism; Support for Cap and Trade
• 2009/10/23: DeSmogBlog: New Pew Center Poll Confirms The Effects of Climate Confusion Campaign
• 2009/10/24: CCP: James Hrynyshyn: Explaining plummeting belief in anthropogenic climate change
• 2009/10/22: SeattlePI: [Pew] Poll: Americans' belief in global warming cools
• 2009/10/22: Guardian(UK): Number of Americans who believe in climate change drops, survey shows
  Only 57% of Americans feel that the planet's atmosphere is warming, a fall from 77% two years ago
• 2009/10/22: Pew: Fewer Americans See Solid Evidence of Global Warming -- Modest Support for "Cap and Trade" Policy
• 2009/10/22: ScienceInsider: Lost in Translation: Climate Science Not Sinking in [Pew poll]
• 2009/10/22: WSJ:EnvCap: Survey Says: Americans Not Worried About Global Warming

  The NRC released a report documenting some hidden costs of fossil fuels:

• 2009/10/22: ClimateP: NRC: Burning fossil fuels costs the U.S. $120 billion a year -- not counting mercury or climate impacts!
• 2009/10/24: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Americans are Dying to Support our Fossil Fuel Habit
• 2009/10/20: FuturePundit: Large External Costs For Fossil Fuels Usage
• 2009/10/24: OilChange: The $120 Billion Hidden Cost of Our Addiction
• 2009/10/22: AfterGutenberg: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production
• 2009/10/22: TP:WR: [NRC] Report: Burning Coal And Oil Kills 20,000 Americans A Year
• 2009/10/21: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Beware the 'Hidden' Costs of Dirty Fuels
• 2009/10/21: SolveClimate: Aging Coal Plants Carry High Hidden Costs, Particularly to Health [NRC Report]
• 2009/10/20: Grist: [NRC] Report finds massive hidden energy costs, mostly from coal
• 2009/10/20: WSJ:EnvCap: The Hidden, $120 Billion Cost of America's Energy Mix
• 2009/10/19: NYT: Fossil Fuels' Hidden Cost Is in Billions, Study Says
  Burning fossil fuels costs the United States about $120 billion a year in health costs, mostly because of thousands of premature deaths from air pollution, the National Academy of Sciences reported in a study issued Monday.
• 2009/10/20: BBerg: Coal's Environmental Damage Costs U.S. $62 Billion
  Burning coal to generate electricity in the U.S. causes about $62 billion a year in 'hidden costs' for environmental damage, not including expenses related to global warming, the National Academy of Sciences said. The cost was part of $120 billion the group identified as total damages from the use of energy in 2005, according to a report the academy's National Research Council issued today. The study was requested by Congress as part of 2005 energy legislation.
• 2009/10/19: TreeHugger: Coal Plants Do $62 Billion of Damage a Year to US Environment
• 2009/10/19: Eureka: Report examines hidden costs of energy production and use

  The Chamber of Commerce controversy rolls on:

• 2009/10/22: NRDC:SwitchBoard: More Questions about the US Chamber's Membership Number Claim
• 2009/10/21: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Climate Denier Numero Uno [Blankenship] to the Rescue of the US Chamber!
• 2009/10/21: DeSmogBlog: US Chamber's Long History of Killing Clean Energy Policy
• 2009/10/20: DeSmogBlog: Mohawk Paper Joins Chamber of Commerce Exodus
• 2009/10/20: WaPo: Rift between Obama and Chamber of Commerce widening
• 2009/10/20: PRNewsWire: Mohawk Fine Papers Resigns from U.S. Chamber of Commerce Over Climate Policy
• 2009/10/20: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Another Firm Bails on the US Chamber's Extreme Climate Stance
• 2009/10/20: NRDC:SwitchBoard: US Chamber's Influence and Credibility on the Decline

  And the Chamber of Commerce had a run-in with the Yes Men:

• 2009/10/21: GreenFyre: US Chamber of Commerce Punks the Yes Men
• 2009/10/19: MoJo: A Yes Man Talks About the Chamber Prank
• 2009/10/20: TPMM: Sound and Fury From the Chamber, Signifying Nothing?
• 2009/10/21: LeDaro: Good "Yes men"
• 2009/10/19: Grist: Chamber plays the fool in Yes Men hoax
• 2009/10/20: OilChange: The Yes Men Prank US Chamber of Commerce on Climate
• 2009/10/19: TPMM: Yes Men, Activist Group [Avaaz Action Factory], Teamed Up On Chamber Hoax
• 2009/10/19: MoJo: The Yes Men Punk the Chamber
• 2009/10/19: TP: Climate Spoof Forces Chamber To Decry 'Public Relations Hoaxes'
• 2009/10/20: DemNow: The Yes Men Pull Off Prank Claiming US Chamber of Commerce Had Changed Its Stance on Climate Change
• 2009/10/19: Guardian(UK): US Chamber of Commerce falls victim to 'fraud' over climate hoax
  Environmental activists held spoof press conference announcing U-turn in the organisation's stance on climate legislation
• 2009/10/19: TreeHugger: In Hoax, Avaaz Has Chamber Flipping Its Position, Now Supporting Climate Action
• 2009/10/19: WSJ:EnvCap: Punked: Chamber of Commerce Says It Was Victim of Climate-Policy Hoax

  The Obama administration is still undoing Bush's regulation changes:

• 2009/10/21: NASDAQ: US EPA Plans To Rescind Another Bush-Era Environmental Rule

  The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2009/10/25: Guardian(UK): Barack Obama in new global warming fight -- Stonewalling by opponents means key legislation is unlikely to be in place by Copenhagen summit
• 2009/10/23: Grist: Obama says 'It's hard to say' why critics of clean energy accuse him of socialism
• 2009/10/23: COP15: Obama ought to do a lot more
  The US President has so far "not put his weight behind" a proposed Senate climate bill, says Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
• 2009/10/23: EarthTimes: Obama sees 'convergence' on climate action in US
• 2009/10/20: GP(USA): Greenpeace Analysis has a Strong Message for President Obama
• 2009/10/23: BostonGlobe: Mr. Obama, be tough on climate change [McKibben]
• 2009/10/21: SolveClimate: Greenpeace Warns Obama: Congress is Undermining the Clean Energy Future
• 2009/10/22: TP:WR: Obama Plants Monsanto And CropLife Officials In Key Agriculture Posts
• 2009/10/21: OilChange: Drilling in the Arctic? Yes We Can...

  Obama's MIT speech on friday got a flurry of coverage:

• 2009/10/23: WhiteHouse: (transcript) Remarks by the President Challenging Americans to Lead the Global Economy in Clean Energy -- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Massachusetts
• 2009/10/23: NatureTGB: Obama's energy speech at MIT -- low in substance, high in inspiration
• 2009/10/23: ClimateP: Obama at MIT...
• 2009/10/23: NewScientist: Obama says US in global race to develop clean energy [MIT]
• 2009/10/23: Grist: Obama energy speech contains few policy specifics, but shapes forward-looking narrative
• 2009/10/23: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Obama at MIT: The Nation that Leads in Clean Energy Will Lead the Global Economy
• 2009/10/23: CSW: President Obama at MIT calls down those who make cynical claims about climate change
• 2009/10/23: NYT: Obama Presses Case for Renewable Energy [at MIT]
• 2009/10/23: WSJ:EnvCap: Obama: Lots of Clean-Energy Talk [at MIT], Little on Climate
• 2009/10/23: TechRev: Obama Offers Hope for Climate Bill -- Speaking at MIT, Obama countered recent statements from his administration that climate legislation is bogged down
• 2009/10/24: WaPo: Obama urges Congress to pass climate bill -- President emphasizes economic benefits of stalled legislation
• 2009/10/23: CBC: Obama pushes for U.S. energy leadership
  U.S. President Barack Obama said he wants the United States emerge on top in the "peaceful competition" to become the world leader in new energy technology. "Countries on every corner of this Earth now recognize that energy supplies are growing scarcer, energy demands are growing larger and rising energy use imperils the planet we will leave to future generations," Obama said Friday in a speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.
• 2009/10/21: NYT:CW: Obama to Give Senate Climate Bill a Push With MIT Speech

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2009/10/25: LA Times: White House confronts the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
  The group has long been a powerful player in Washington. But the Obama White House is critical of the group's positions and seeks to develop its own pipeline to the business world.
• 2009/10/23: KSJT: LA Times, AP, NYTimes: Polar bears get designated habitat. Now what?
• 2009/10/23: PlanetArk: U.S. Maps Protected Alaska Habitat For Polar Bears
• 2009/10/23: NatureTGB: US moves to protect polar bear habitat
• 2009/10/23: Reuters: EPA to cut toxic emissions at power plants
• 2009/10/22: SolveClimate: US Government Still Promoting Use of Coal Ash on Crops
• 2009/10/23: WaPo: EPA proposal to cut Great Lakes ship emissions stirs the waters
• 2009/10/22: ADN: Obama administration declares polar bear habitat 'critical' -- 'Critical Habitat': Area covers coast and part of Chukchi Sea.
• 2009/10/22: NRDC:SwitchBoard: In An Important Step, U.S. Designates Polar Bear Critical Habitat
• 2009/10/22: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Salazar's Cleans Up Bush-Era Cronyism in Dirty Oil-Shale Program
• 2009/10/22: OilDrum: Dr. Chu, Dr. Aleklett, and the Price of Oil
• 2009/10/20: Guardian(UK): US gives Shell green light for offshore oil drilling in the Arctic
  Conservationists say the decision by the Obama administration to allow drilling in the Beaufort Sea repeats Bush era mistakes
• 2009/10/19: Grist: Will EPA veto or regulate the plunder of Appalachia?
• 2009/10/19: NPR: Top Official [EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson]: 'The EPA Is Back On The Job'

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2009/10/25: ClimateP: Beck escalates feud with Lindsey Graham: "I'm going to stick with the angry people"; Pence, chair of House GOP Conference, sides with Beck
• 2009/10/25: WaPo: Senate's climate bill a bit more ambitious -- Early version would cap carbon allowance prices -- and deficit
• 2009/10/23: NYT:GW: GOP Senators Object to Including Global Warming in NEPA Regs
• 2009/10/23: Guardian(UK): US coal stands in way of Copenhagen
  It's not India and China that threaten the success of a new climate change treaty, but senators of coal-producing US states
• 2009/10/23: CSW: Federal climate change adaptation strategy needed, say Rep. Markey, hearing witnesses, GAO report
• 2009/10/23: WaPo: SC's Graham: Energy, warming policies go together
• 2009/10/22: ClimateP: GOP proposes to cut solar technology funding and the clean energy jobs it would bring
• 2009/10/21: ClimateP: E&E News: "At least 67 senators are in play" on climate bill; Murkowski open to voting for "cap and trade"
• 2009/10/21: TreeHugger: GOP Rep [Gregg Harper (R-Miss.)]: "We Hunt Liberal, Tree-Hugging Democrats"
• 2009/10/20: HillHeat: Senate Watch: Corker, Inhofe, Murkowski
• 2009/10/20: NYT:CW: On Road to 60 Votes for Climate Bill, Senate Swells With [24] Fence Sitters
• 2009/10/19: ScienceInsider: Congress to Explore Geoengineering Next Month [Nov 5]

  Kerry-Boxer aka CEJAPA defines a battleline:

• 2009/10/25: SolveClimate: The Case for Letting Climate Legislation Evolve
• 2009/10/25: NYT: Senate Global Warming Bill Is Seeking to Cushion the Impact on Industry
• 2009/10/23: PlanetArk: White House Encouraged By Climate Bill Progress
• 2009/10/24: ClimateP: Boxer releases Chairman's mark of Senate clean energy bill; EPA releases economic analysis finding cost to U.S. households of under $10 a month, bill consistent with global effort to stabilize at 2°C warming
• 2009/10/23: Grist: Confusion in the Senate regarding allowance allocation [Stavins]
• 2009/10/24: HillHeat: Boxer Releases Chairman's Mark, Preliminary EPA Analysis of Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S. 1733)
• 2009/10/23: EnvEcon: The law of unintended consequences and Waxman-Markey
• 2009/10/22: EnvEcon: The only thing to fear about free allocation ...Rob Stavins on cap-and-trade in the U.S. Senate
• 2009/10/20: GP(USA): Business as Usual -- A Report to the President on Pending Federal Climate Legislation (ACES & CEJAPA)
• 2009/10/23: AfterGutenberg: Five Points of Maximum Danger [in Markey-Waxman]
• 2009/10/22: PlanetArk: U.S. Climate Bill Prospects
• 2009/10/22: G&M: Are oil sands in crosshairs of Obama plan?
  Cap-and-trade legislation could pose serious problems for producers as U.S. spends billions to end reliance on 'dirty' oil The Obama administration is determined to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions - with or without passage of the climate-change legislation now before Congress - and the Canadian oil sands could be in the crosshairs, a prominent Democratic adviser says. The U.S. climate-change debate is about to heat up as the Senate begins debating legislation that would create a national cap-and-trade system and President Barack Obama prepares to travel to China and India next month in pursuit of a global climate deal in December at a meeting in Copenhagen. The administration has served notice to opponents of the climate-change bill that, without legislation, the Environmental Protection Agency will regulate emissions. That threat represents "a bold shot across the bow" of opponents in Congress and in the U.S. business community, who are gearing up to fight the legislation, John Podesta, the former head of Mr. Obama's transition team, told a conference in Ottawa yesterday. After leaving the conference, he met with Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff. "The status quo is not the alternative" to legislation, said Mr. Podesta, who now advises the Obama team on energy and the environment. "Aggressive regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency is in the offing if the Senate can't get its act together and act."
• 2009/10/19: NYT: Energy Firms Find No Unity on Climate Bill

  18 US scientific organizations published a letter supporting CEJAPA/ACES:

• 2009/10/21: Maribo: Letter from 18 US scientific organizations supporting the US climate bill
• 2009/10/22: CCP: AAAS: 18 leading scientific organizations send letter to all U.S. senators confirming AGW and serious climate change problems looming in the near future
• 2009/10/21: DWWSJ: A Letter You Should Read
• 2009/10/21: ScienceInsider: Eighteen Top Science Groups to Congress: Cut U.S. Carbon Emissions
• 2009/10/21: TWTB: Eighteen of the US's top science organizations urge Congress to reduce emissions
• 2009/10/21: ClimateP: 18 leading scientific organizations send letter to Senators...

  What are the lobbyists pushing?

• 2009/10/23: ClimateP: Hunters and anglers rally for climate bill -- they see first-hand the impact of human-caused global warming
• 2009/10/24: MoJo: Betting the Farm -- Think the ag lobby -- with so much to lose from global warming -- might want to help pass a climate bill? Don't be silly.
• 2009/10/20: PlanetArk: U.S. Hunters, Anglers Lobby For Climate Bill
• 2009/10/20: HoustonChronicle: Big oil presses issue of climate bills' cost
• 2009/10/19: NRDC:SwitchBoard: US Chamber Quadruples Lobbying Activities; Sets Single-Quarter Record for Lobbying Congress
  Third quarter lobby disclosure reports are in and the US Chamber of Commerce reports spending $34,690,000 during the 3rd quarter of 2009. That's more than quadruple its 2nd quarter lobbying spending and more than triple its 1st quarter lobbying spending. The $34,690,000 expenditure is largest amount ever spent on lobbying in a single quarter since electronic records were established in 1999.
• 2009/10/19: COP15: US energy sector lobbying at full speed
  The US energy sector lobbied for the value of 200 million dollars during the first six month of 2009. The "furious" lobbying shows that the industry expects climate legislation to become real, says observer.
• 2009/10/19: AutoBG: Kansas newspapers calls for end to ethanol subsidy

  While in the UK:

• 2009/10/23: BBC: Energy reports 'a waste of time'
  A former Tomorrow's World presenter has branded new energy reports "insane" after purpose-built 'eco homes' were given a low efficiency rating. Lindsey Fallow said Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) were made using a "glorified spread sheet" and did not recognise advanced technologies.
• 2009/10/22: COP15: Britain publishes doomsday climate vision
  Two British Cabinet ministers showed off a doomsday vision of disappearing cities and rising seas on Thursday, part of an effort to push nations to strike a new pact on curbing emissions of CO2. Foreign Secretary David Miliband and his brother, Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband, published an online map detailing the predicted impact of a 4 degrees Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit) rise in global temperatures.
• 2009/10/21: Guardian(UK): Ministers accused of 'misleading' public over emissions success
• 2009/10/21: Times(UK): Government climate change figures 'are misleading'
• 2009/10/21: BBC: 'Scary' UK climate ad faces probe
  A £6m government ad warning about climate change is to be investigated by watchdogs over claims it is misleading and too "scary" for children. The Advertising Standards Authority has received 357 complaints about the Department of Energy and Climate Change's "bedtime stories" ad. The ad aims to make adults feel guilty about the impact their carbon emissions are having on their children's future. It is being used to promote DECC's Act on CO2 carbon reduction initiative. The minute-long ad, which launched on 9 October, features a father telling his daughter a bedtime story about "a very very strange" world with "horrible consequences" for children. It then goes on to show streets and houses underwater, with cartoon animals and people drowning and a jagged-tooth monster in the sky, representing global warming.
• 2009/10/21: BBC: A public inquiry has re-opened into plans for nine wind turbines in west Devon, four years after they were first proposed
• 2009/10/20: Guardian(UK): Our nuclear tragedy by Jonathon Porritt
  The idea that a few new reactors can solve climate change is attractive -- and completely unrealistic
• 2009/10/20: Guardian(UK): Alistair Darling to call for EU fund to help poor nations cut emissions
• 2009/10/19: Guardian(UK): Landfill sites may be used to dump radioactive waste
  Government poised to allow nuclear power generators to put atomic waste in ordinary sites to cut cost of decommissioning old reactors
• 2009/10/19: Guardian(UK): I'd choose nuclear power over a climate crash. But will the government grow up and clean its mess up?
• 2009/10/19: Guardian(UK): Families face nuclear tax on power bills -- Industry promised subsidy if market price fails to encourage new plants
  Consumers will have to pay nuclear tax on energy bills to subsidise the construction of new nuclear reactors. Photograph: Karen Beard Government officials have drawn up secret plans to tax electricity consumers to subsidise the construction of the UK's first new nuclear reactors for more than 20 years, the Guardian has learned.
• 2009/10/19: Guardian(UK): Nuclear power: The consumer always pays
• 2009/10/19: Guardian(UK): Nuclear power: A bung by any other name
  The details are of course shocking, but the broad thrust of our story today on the government's secret plans to subsidise nuclear power is also sadly unsurprising. The history of atomic power has always been one of huge costs overruns, massive government bailouts and the running problem of what to do with the toxic waste -- in other words, it is the history of taxpayers handing over cash to giant nuclear companies.
• 2009/10/19: Guardian(UK): 'Britain an ideal location for new nuclear power'
  Citizen Hunt, a minister in the Department of Energy and Climate Change, gives his verdict on Britain's nuclear power projects
• 2009/10/18: Guardian(UK): Protesters arrested after clashes at Ratcliffe power plant
  Police arrested 52 climate change protesters after clashes outside the Ratcliffe coal-fired power station in Nottinghamshire at the weekend.

And in Europe:

• 2009/10/23: EarthTimes: Brussels to propose emissions standards for vans
• 2009/10/22: Guardian(UK): Europe lags behind with a sleight of hand on emissions targets
  Europe's carbon reduction targets are not nearly as tough as they seem and will not provide the impetus for serious policy change or investment
• 2009/10/22: EurActiv: EU ministers set emissions targets for ships, planes
  EU environment ministers yesterday (21 October) said the new climate agreement to be reached in Copenhagen should correct an important omission in the Kyoto Protocol by tackling continuously rising emissions from planes and ships. The Environment Council prepared the ground for next week's European summit, which is to settle the major outstanding issue of financing climate efforts in developing countries after finance ministers were unable to reach agreement earlier this week (EurActiv 21/10/09). The conclusions set as a basis for negotiations with international partners a 10% emissions reduction target for the aviation sector by 2020 compared to 2005. The maritime sector would have to cut emissions by 20%.
• 2009/10/22: COP15: Europe takes the lead with ambitious climate targets
  EU sends a "clear message" to the world, offering up to 95 percent emissions cut by 2050 if a deal is reached in Copenhagen
• 2009/10/21: Guardian(UK): Europe offers to cut emissions 95% by 2050 if deal reached at Copenhagen -- EU sends 'clear message' to the world with ambitious target
• 2009/10/21: EurActiv: EU to develop indicators for eco-efficient economy
  EU environment ministers have asked the European Commission to develop robust indicators to measure the bloc's progress towards an eco-efficient economy, a concept that will be at the core of the revised Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs, to be agreed upon next spring. The requestPdf external follows the recent adoption of a Commission roadmapexternal for developing new environmental and social indicators to measure the real prosperity and wellbeing of nations beyond traditional GDP.
• 2009/10/21: EurActiv: Poland blocks EU climate funding decision
• 2009/10/21: EUO: EU firms up negotiating position ahead of [COP15] climate meeting
• 2009/10/21: EUO: Ministers fail to agree on climate financing
• 2009/10/21: NatureCF: Mixed start for Europe's climate super week
• 2009/10/21: EarthTimes: Analysis: Bid or bluff as the EU plays climate-change poker?
• 2009/10/21: COP15: EU agreement to curb CO2 emissions from planes and ships
  European environment ministers have agreed to cut global emissions by 10 percent from planes and 20 percent from ships.
• 2009/10/20: EuVoice: EU fails to agree on climate adaptation aid
• 2009/10/21: EarthTimes: EU shelves 150-billion-dollar row to set out climate stall
• 2009/10/21: EarthTimes: EU approves watered-down proposals on climate change
• 2009/10/21: EarthTimes: EU targets worldwide emissions limits on ships, airlines
• 2009/10/21: EarthTimes: Billions of euros in the balance in EU East-West emissions row
  Luxembourg - Billions of euros' worth of greenhouse-gas emission permits hung in the balance Wednesday as environment ministers from Eastern and Western Europe fought to break the European Union's deadlock on climate change. Eastern members are fighting for the right to sell the permits, awarded to them by the Kyoto Protocol. But Western states say that using the permits would destroy efforts to stop global warming.
• 2009/10/20: TerraDaily: Climate leads trio of unravelling EU deals
• 2009/10/20: EarthTimes:EU finance ministers fail to reach deal on climate funding
• 2009/10/20: EarthTimes: EU presidency pushes for 2050 climate pledge
• 2009/10/19: EUO: Former communist states improve in green energy
• 2009/10/18: SwissInfo: "Nuclear cent" could finance renewable energy
  Nuclear power stations should help to finance renewable energy sources if they make greater profits than originally expected, the Swiss energy minister believes.

Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2009/10/25: ABC(Au): ETS demands 'a crazy wishlist'
  The Climate Institute has condemned the Federal Opposition's proposed changes to the Government's emissions trading scheme.
• 2009/10/22: ABC(Au): Investors demand end to emissions trading handouts
  Some of Australia's largest institutional investors have criticised the Opposition's amendments to the Government's emissions trading scheme. The Investor Group on Climate Change includes AMP and Goldman Sachs. The investors say the proposed changes would compensate, or exclude, too many sectors of the economy. They argue this could defeat the purpose of the scheme to find the cheapest and most efficient way to cut greenhouse pollution.
• 2009/10/22: ABC(Au): Secret $200k nuclear dump contract criticised
  The Greens are criticising the Federal Government for keeping secret a contract with traditional owners about a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory.
• 2009/10/22: ABC(Au): The Mayor of the Latrobe City Council, Lisa Price, says she will ask the Federal Government to fund a study into how an emissions trading scheme (ETS) will affect the Latrobe Valley
• 2009/10/22: ABC(Au): ETS bill back in Parliament
  The Federal Government has reintroduced the emissions trading scheme bill to the Lower House of Parliament, in an early step towards a double dissolution election. The Senate rejected the bills three months ago and the Government has left open the option of calling an election if the Upper House votes them down a second time.
• 2009/10/21: ABC(Au): Councils want ETS compo
  Councils in Queensland coal mining districts have formed an alliance to lobby the Federal Government for compensation for any losses caused by an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). The councils, including Isaac, Central Highlands and Whitsunday, are concerned an ETS could cause a downturn in business.
• 2009/10/20: ABC(Au): Academic says ETS changes too expensive
  A University of Wollongong academic [Professor of Accounting and Finance, Brian Andrew] has described the Federal Opposition's proposed amendments to the Government's emissions trading scheme (ETS) as too expensive.
• 2009/10/20: ABC(Au): Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce has criticised the National Farmers Federation (NFF) for urging the party to pass an amended emissions trading scheme (ETS)
• 2009/10/20: ABC(Au): Report urges carbon capture focus
  The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists says areas such as south-east South Australia will be crucial to a reduction in Australia's carbon emissions. The group's report on Optimising Terrestrial Carbon, says Australia must focus on capturing carbon and storing it in vegetation and soil, if it is to meet its 2020 carbon reduction targets.
• 2009/10/20: ABC(Au): Liberal MP rubbishes human link to climate change
  Federal Liberal MP Dennis Jensen says the cause of climate change is still in dispute and has attacked environmentalists as "anti-democratic alarmists". Dr Jensen, who has spoken out previously on the issue, has also called for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to be disbanded. His comments come as the Coalition struggles with internal division on climate change policy.
• 2009/10/19: ABC(Au): Soil key to Australia's carbon future
  The Opposition may want agriculture excluded from the ETS, but the nation's top climate scientists are calling on the Federal Government to include soil and vegetation in Australia's emissions trading scheme. A report released by the Wentworth group of scientists says that unless this is done, it will be "next to impossible" to achieve the emissions cuts needed to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
• 2009/10/19: ABC(Au): Opposition urged to reveal climate costing
  The Government is calling on the Opposition to reveal how much its proposed changes to the emissions trading scheme (ETS) will cost. And it wants a commitment from the Coalition that it will vote on the legislation by the end of the year.
• 2009/10/19: ABC(Au): Climate protesters storm power station [UK's Ratcliffe on Soar facility]
• 2009/10/19: ABC(Au): Turnbull resigned to climate change rebellion
  Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull says he accepts that some Opposition MPs may cross the floor to vote against the emissions trading scheme regardless of the final Coalition position.
• 2009/10/19: PeakEnergy: Major parties are polluting the climate change message
• 2009/10/19: BBerg: Wong to Re-Submit Carbon Law to Australian Parliament This Week
  Australia will reintroduce carbon reduction laws into parliament on Oct. 22, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said, after the opposition proposed changes, including increased compensation for coal-fired power stations. "We'll be introducing this legislation into the House on Thursday," Wong told ABC radio today, a transcript from her office shows. Upper-house senators blocked the bill in August. The lower-house may vote on the reintroduced legislation in the week starting Nov. 16, Wong said.
• 2009/10/19: Reuters: Australians [in New South Wales allowed] to fortify coast homes against climate

  And in New Zealand:

• 2009/10/25: HotTopic: Finding better words
• 2009/10/22: HotTopic: Telling porkies to Parliament (first reprise)

  While elsewhere in Asia:

• 2009/10/23: PlanetArk: ASEAN Gearing Up To Be Global Green Auto Hub

  In Africa:

• 2009/10/23: UNEP: AMCEN Climate Change Talks Enter Decisive Week to Finalize Position Before Copenhagen
  Delegates and high-level experts from some 150 African countries, who participated in the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, are finalizing efforts today to consolidate and map out the region's position ahead of the climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in December.
• 2009/10/23: COP15: Africa afraid of being taken hostage
  Highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, Africa badly needs an agreement in Copenhagen. But an agreement could become so weak, that it would be better to walk away, some analysts say.
• 2009/10/19: UN: Last African gathering before Copenhagen climate summit kicks off

  And South America:

• 2009/10/19: Reuters: Brazil seeks climate target for all Amazon nations

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

• 2009/10/25: OSun: Critics rip Kyoto failure -- Inactivity on climate change turning Canada into international laughing stock
• 2009/10/23: G&M: Ottawa dashes hope for climate treaty in Copenhagen -- Best possible outcome of climate talks is smoother path to later deal, Prentice says
• 2009/10/21: CanWest: Ottawa is cutting off public input into climate-change policy -- All Canadians and their offspring have a massive stake in this debate
  Environment Minister Jim Prentice recently appeared in these pages arguing that Canada is fully engaged in addressing climate change ("Canada is doing its part to fight climate change," Opinion, Oct. 19). If that's true, it's too bad he hasn't let the Canadian people in on it. We commissioned a poll last summer asking Canadians several questions about global warming and Canada's response to it. The biggest consensus we found was on the question of whether Canada's system of carbon cuts should be worked out in the open or behind closed doors. Not surprisingly, more than 70 per cent favoured working it out in the open. But, transparency is the opposite of what we are now getting. Instead, Prentice has been meeting behind closed doors with industry to consult about the shape of a cap and trade plan for Canada. He has also met behind closed doors with the premiers. Nothing gets written down. Nothing gets disclosed.
• 2009/10/19: AD: On false reports [Shorter Jim Prentice (funny)]
• 2009/10/19: CanWest: Canada is doing its part to fight climate change - minister [Prentice]

  The Liberals are not supporting the NDP sponsored climate change accountability act [Bill C-311]:

• 2009/10/21: AD: I stand corrected -- So much for my expectation that the Libs would at least want to be seen doing what they could to pass the NDP's Climate Change Accountability Act...
• 2009/10/21: POGGE: Um, what? Liberals snub NDP climate-change bill
• 2009/10/21: CBC: Liberals snub NDP climate-change bill
  Federal Liberals say they won't support the NDP in its effort to push a private member's climate-change bill through the House of Commons on Wednesday. The proposed legislation, called Bill C-311, the climate change accountability act, sets strict targets for greenhouse gas emissions and is currently being considered by a House environment committee.
• 2009/10/19: CBC: Layton wants climate bill sped up
  NDP Leader Jack Layton says a private-member's climate-change bill is being delayed to stall its passage before a key United Nations climate-change conference in Copenhagen in December. Bill C-311, the climate change accountability act, which sets strict targets for greenhouse gas emissions, has passed through two readings in the House of Commons since it was introduced by NDP member of Parliament Bruce Hyer.

In BC, post election adjustments are ongoing:

• 2009/10/21: CanWest: Costly push for carbon neutrality comes at time of penny pinching for schools
  School trustees say they're staggered by a government directive to report all carbon emissions next year using software that is expensive and labour-intensive at a time when they're also being told to pinch pennies.
• 2009/10/16: CanWest: Controversy heats up as cities look to incinerators
  Groups argue over whether benefits of green technology outweigh the possible health effects associated with burning garbage

Ontario has it's Green Energy Act, now comes the implementation:

• 2009/10/23: TStar: Province freezes Great Lakes [wind] energy proposals -- Flood of applications prompts provincial review `to ensure proper processes in place'
• 2009/10/23: CleanBreak: Applications to develop offshore wind on Great Lakes overwhelms ministry
• 2009/10/23: CBC: Wind turbine research set for Lake Ontario
  Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources has approved the first step in a controversial plan that could put dozens of wind turbines in Lake Ontario, just off the Toronto shoreline.

Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2009/10/23: BCLSB: Senator Elaine McCoy On Carbon Sequestration
• 2009/10/22: G&M: Are oil sands in crosshairs of Obama plan?
• 2009/10/20: IPSNews: Canada: [Alberta] Govt Threatens Tar Sands Activists with Anti-Terror Laws
  The provincial government in Alberta, Canada is threatening to unleash its counterterrorism plan if activists continue using civil disobedience to protest the tar sands, Canada's fastest source of greenhouse gas emissions.
• 2009/10/20: G&M: On a cost basis, carbon-capture projects are madness
  The small reductions gained by staggering per-tonne costs illustrate what every independent analyst knows: The Harper government's 20-per-cent reduction target will not be met
• 2009/10/19: CanWest: Oilsands get 'disproportionate' bad rap: Doer -- New envoy to U.S. lends reputation as climate change leader to debate
  Canada's new ambassador to the United States said Alberta's oil-sands are facing a "disproportionate amount" of criticism in the climate-change debate -- arguing North America risks missing "the big picture" on global warming if Canadian oil is singled out as the chief carbon emissions culprit. "One of the concerns that I have is that it represents so little of the emissions in North America. It's getting a disproportionate amount of chatter," Gary Doer said in an interview Sunday. "The question is: How much does the oilsands represent as a percentage of emissions in North America? It's a very small amount. If we don't deal with all sources of emissions, we are not going to have a solution that's comprehensive." Doer, 61, will take up his duties as Canada's envoy in Washington today after a decade-long tenure as premier of Manitoba.

As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

• 2009/10/24: Runesmith: Three Perspectives on the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference [Prentice, Dion & Bigda]
• 2009/10/24: CanWest: Harper faces pressure to be green in Copenhagen
  Canada must choose between working with other countries to come up with pact or saving its own economy Vancouverites are sending a people-power message today: They expect strong action by Canada at a UN climate change conference in Copenhagen. The event at the Cambie Bridge is being organized by a green-minded group, Bridge to a Cool Climate, as part of the larger International Day of Climate Action.
• 2009/10/21: BuckDog: Questions About The Arctic That George W. Bush Won't Be Asked In Saskatoon Today
• 2009/10/21: CanWest: Inuit want say on renaming Northwest Passage -- New title should reflect history of use, occupation over the centuries, group argues
  Despite initial indications the planned renaming of the Northwest Passage to the "Canadian Northwest Passage" would have clear sailing through the House of Commons, the idea may be facing rough waters after all. A major Inuit organization has raised concerns about the proposed symbolic boost to Canada's Arctic sovereignty, arguing any new name should "reflect the history of Inuit use and occupation of the waters in question for thousands of years,"...
• 2009/10/18: DeSmogBlog: Pity Rex Murphy. At this point, he has no place to go

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

• 2009/10/23: NYT:CW: New School of Thought Brings Energy to 'the Dismal Science'
• 2009/10/24: OilDrum: NY Times Reports on Biophysical Economics Conference in Syracuse
• 2009/10/23: PeakEnergy: New School of Thought [Biophysical Economics] Brings Energy to 'the Dismal Science'
• 2009/10/23: SciAm: Does Economics Violate the Laws of Physics?
  The financial crisis and subsequent global recession have led to much soul-searching among economists, the vast majority of whom never saw it coming. But were their assumptions and models wrong only because of minor errors or because today's dominant economic thinking violates the laws of physics? A small but growing group of academics believe the latter is true, and they are out to prove it. These thinkers say that the neoclassical mantra of constant economic growth is ignoring the world's diminishing supply of energy at humanity's peril, failing to take account of the principle of net energy return on investment. They hope that a set of theories they call "biophysical economics" will improve upon neoclassical theory, or even replace it altogether. But even this nascent field finds itself divided, as evidenced by the vigorous and candid back-and-forth debate last week over where to go next. One camp says its models prove the world is headed toward a dramatic economic collapse as energy scarcity takes hold, while another camp believes there is still time to turn the ship around. Still, all biophysical economists see only very bleak prospects for the future of modern civilization, putting a whole new spin on the phrase "the dismal science."
• 2009/10/19: NEF: UK could save money with radical plan to tackle climate change and inequality [The Great Transition]
• 2009/10/19: BBC: A tale of how it turned out right
  Western governments, including the UK's, are desperate to restore the global economy along "business as usual" lines. But, argues Andrew Simms, that is a short-sighted approach; a radical, green-tinged redevelopment would bring much bigger environmental, social and economic benefits. "If the only navigation system you have keeps directing you over a cliff, it's time to reprogram it" If someone offered you a plan that would get rich countries on to a radical path of deep, immediate carbon cuts to tackle climate change and also solved a great swathe of social problems, would you take it? A team of scientists and economists at the New Economics Foundation (nef) has come up with one. It's called The Great Transition. It provides a blueprint - or rather, a greenprint - for how the UK can make a step-change in delivering quality of life for all, whilst living within our collective environmental means. What may shock some people is that it will do this even as the UK economy stops growing in a conventional economic manner and GDP falls significantly.

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

• 2009/10/25: Guardian(UK): Fewer British babies would mean a fairer planet -- It's not the growing number of people in poverty who are causing climate change, it's the rich
• 2009/10/15: MillerMcCune: Let's Try Cap-and-Trade on Babies
• 2009/10/21: DotEarth: Thought Experiments on Birth and Death
• 2009/10/21: BBC: The population of the UK will rise from 61m to 71.6m by 2033 if current trends in growth continue, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said
• 2009/10/19: CanEast: Our biggest environmental challenge
• 2009/10/19: AlterNet: Going Green Means Having Fewer Kids

  As for how the media handles the science:

• 2009/10/20: KSJT: Reuters, NYTimes: Such a difference in a fossil energy report's handling
• 2009/10/19: ClimateP: Media stunner: Columbia suspends Environmental Journalism Program even though "our graduates have done well in their careers."
• 2009/10/20: ClimateP: What makes a news story? A boy not in a balloon -- or a genuinely ballooning effort to achieve 350 ppm?
• 2009/10/20: DM:CCM: Columbia Journalism School Cuts Environmental Journalism!
• 2009/10/20: TreeHugger: How the Media Takes Us All On a Climate Treaty Roller Coaster Ride
• 2009/10/19: Guardian(UK): The BBC should report climate change facts rather than political spin [Stefan Rahmstorf]
• 2009/10/18: GreenFyre: Hudson's choice
• 2009/10/18: MongaBay: TV worthless when it comes to knowledge about global warming
• 2009/10/18: CCP: David Lewis comments on Dot Earth to Andrew Revkin about blatant "fudging" (word replacement? lying?) in quoting Vicky Pope of Britain's Met Office

  Those who have not experienced the "two minute hate" sessions of American talk radio may be shocked and appalled:

• 2009/10/20: CJR: Limbaugh Suggests NYT's Revkin Should "Kill Himself"
• 2009/10/22: KSJT: NPR: A scornful Rush Limbaugh suggests to NYTimes reporter Revkin he ought just kill himself
• 2009/10/21: Guardian(UK): Rush Limbaugh goes the extra mile in rant about New York Times reporter
  Shock jock turns on Andy Revkin after his comments on population and greenhouse gas emissions
• 2009/10/20: ClimateP: Limbaugh to NY Times environment reporter Revkin: "Why don't you just go kill yourself?"
• 2009/10/21: CSW: Limbaugh to Revkin: Die
• 2009/10/20: DeSmogBlog: Update: Revkin repsonds to Rush Limbaugh's Ridiculous Comments
• 2009/10/20: DeSmogBlog: Rush Limbaugh Out of Control, asks NY Times Reporter Andy Revkin to "just go kill yourself."
• 2009/10/21: RawStory: Rush Limbaugh tells environmental reporter [Revkin] to kill himself

  Here is something for your library:

• 2009/10/22: EnergyBulletin: [Book Review] _Power from the Sun_ by Dan Chiras, with Robert Aram and Kurt Nelson
• 2009/10/22: Grist: Blockbuster new book exposes anatomy of denial [Book Review] _Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming_ by Jim Hoggan & Richard Littlemore
• 2009/10/21: CSW: Climate Cover-Up: New book by the DeSmogBlog team is a take-down of the denial machine
• 2009/10/19: RealClimate: Climate Cover-Up: A (Brief) Review
• 2009/10/19: DM:CCM: [Book Plug] _A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions_ by Katharine Hayhoe & Andrew Farley

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2009/10/19: NatureCF: The Two-Degree Target film on YouTube
• 2009/10/18: CSW: Recommended: Acid Test, a film about the threat of ocean acidification, available online

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2009/10/20: QuarkSoup: A Very Bad Idea
• 2009/10/20: BizGreen: High Court blocks legal action against "dirty" RBS investments -- Green groups vow to seek an appeal after judge blocks request for Judicial Review
• 2009/10/20: Guardian(UK): Why we're taking the Treasury to court
• 2009/10/20: WarmingLaw: Nuisance Case Update: A Victory for Katrina Victims; a Defeat for Alaskan Villagers
• 2009/10/19: NYT:GW: Courts Follow Landmark 2nd Circuit Ruling With 2 Greenhouse Gas Decisions
  Less than a month after a federal appeals court in New York issued a historic ruling regarding citizen and government enforcement of greenhouse gas emissions, decisions in two similar cases have come down. Their divergent results could have immediate implications for future climate change lawsuits.
• 2009/10/20: NYT: [NY] City Awarded $105 Million in Exxon Mobil Lawsuit
• 2009/10/19: WSJ:EnvCap: So Sue 'Em: Circuit Court Says Katrina Victims Can Sue Over Global-Warming Damages

  Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:

• 2009/10/25: NewScientist: How to turn pig poo into green power
• 2009/10/25: MillerMcCune: Snagging Free-Range Solar Power in Space Is An Option -- Floating solar cells far above Earth and beaming the energy to the grid has shifted from loony to funded
• 2009/10/25: BNC: TCASE 5: Ocean power I -- Pelamis
• 2009/10/23: ABC(Au): Geothermal company Geodynamics has left open the time line for the commissioning of its one megawatt trial power plant at Innamincka in South Australia's far north-east
• 2009/10/23: PeakEnergy: Oceanlinx commission final demonstration wave power plant
• 2009/10/22: DerSpiegel: An Ecotopia for Climate Protection -- Samso Island Is Face of Danish Green Revolution
• 2009/10/23: BBC: Oil price rises above [US]$81 level
• 2009/10/22: TreeHugger: Hydropower Not Likely Under New Climate Future
• 2009/10/22: Eureka: [Sandia] 'Perspectives on Energy Policy' report now available
  Energy leaders call for independent energy council, recommend outcomes and values-based policies The United States should create a high-level independent council to analyze and communicate critical issues to energy policymakers and the public, a group of 27 leaders in academia, government, and the private sector recommends in a new report.
• 2009/10/21: Reuters: Hydropower industry braces for glacier-free future
• 2009/10/22: BNC: Danish fairy tales -- what can we learn?
• 2009/10/21: LA Times: Palmdale parking lots to double as power plants
  The city is allowing shopping centers and business parks to install small wind turbines atop light towers in parking lots. A 17-turbine plot is already in the works at Sam's Club.
• 2009/10/21: PeakEnergy: Shifting the world to 100 percent clean, renewable energy as early as 2030 -- here are the numbers
• 2009/10/21: CBC: Oil surges above $80 -- Rises for 8th straight day
• 2009/10/20: Guardian(UK): Yamal peninsula: The world's biggest gas reserves
  Large-scale exploration of Earth's biggest gas reserves would release millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and threaten local nomadic herders and ecosystems
• 2009/10/20: BBC: The price of oil breached $80 a barrel on Tuesday, a new high for the year...
• 2009/10/18: Eureka: U of C chemists discover recipe to design a better type of fuel cell -- New formula helps increase the efficiency and decrease the cost
• 2009/10/19: OilDrum: Comments on Scientific American's "Squeezing more oil from the ground"
• 2009/10/18: OilDrum: Abqaiq Revisited - Some Geological Analysis of Potential Saudi Depletion
• 2009/10/18: OilDrum: Reserves and Production: A Simple Example (based on Abqaiq in Saudi Arabia)
• 2009/10/18: BNC: TCASE 4: Energy system build rates and material inputs
• 2009/10/19: BBC: Oil price hits new high for 2009 [US$79.05/b]

  The issue of fracking keeps coming up:

• 2009/10/22: NBF: What is the Future of Shale Gas?
• 2009/10/23: ProPublica: New York City Hints at Anti-Drilling Stance

  The answer my friend...:

• 2009/10/24: NewScientist: Stealthy wind turbines aim to disappear from radar screens
• 2009/10/22: EnvFin: US stimulus money boosts wind power
• 2009/10/23: BBC: 'Stealth' wind turbine deployed
  A wind turbine blade that absorbs radar signals has been demonstrated at a wind farm in eastern England. Wind turbines confuse aviation radar signals, making aircraft in wind farms' vicinities difficult to track. Defence firm Qinetiq and turbine manufacturing firm Vestas are developing "stealth turbines", with radar-absorbing materials and coatings. The five-year effort may help many wind farm projects that are on hold because of so-called "radar clutter" concerns.
• 2009/10/21: ProPublica: Stimulus Powers Wind Power Industry
• 2009/10/21: EnergyBulletin: Wind powered factories: history (and future) of industrial windmills
• 2009/10/21: WSJ:EnvCap: Wind Power: U.S. Wind Energy Installations Booming, Thanks to Stimulus
• 2009/10/20: ClimateP: U.S. wind energy industry installed 1,649 MW in third quarter, more than Q2 and Q308

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2009/10/23: PhysOrg: Sharp Develops Solar Cell with World's Highest Conversion Efficiency of 35.8%
• 2009/10/24: PhysOrg: Largest solar panel plant in US rises in Fla.
• 2009/10/21: FuturePundit: Solar Power Cost Decline Steeper
• 2009/10/21: FuturePundit: Electric Utilities Embrace Solar Power
• 2009/10/21: JQuiggin: Solar sums [Aus solar thermal]
• 2009/10/21: Eureka: Installed cost of solar photovoltaic systems in the US fell in 2008
  Researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) released a new study on the installed costs of solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems in the U.S., showing that the average cost of these systems declined by more than 30 percent from 1998 to 2008. Within the last year of this period, costs fell by more than 4 percent.
• 2009/10/19: PlanetArk: Solar Companies Defend Accounting Practices
• 2009/10/18: Eureka: Major advance in organic solar cells -- Gains in speed, quality and current over conventional production techniques hold promise for both research and commercial production

  The arithmetic of coal carbon is striking home:

• 2009/10/23: NRDC:SwitchBoard: The Air Force Gets It
• 2009/10/22: PlanetArk: Why A Coal Guy is Going Green
• 2009/10/21: NJN: Linden council nixes deal with coal plant project
• 2009/10/20: TreeHugger: Know Your Energy: The 5 States That Supply 73% of US Coal
• 2009/10/19: GSA: U.S. Coal Peak Production: Point and counterpoint

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2009/10/22: Reuters: Advanced biofuels will stoke global warming -study
• 2009/10/16: UNEP: Towards sustainable production and use of resources: Assessing Biofuels
• 2009/10/23: EEN: Reports damn emission reduction potential of biofuels
• 2009/10/23: NatureTGB: Biofuel woes -- Two papers in Science yesterday have poured cold water on the promise of second generation biofuels
• 2009/10/24: NatureCF: Biofuel woes
• 2009/10/23: ABC(Au): Biofuels 'worse than petrol' for climate
  A new generation of biofuels, meant to be a low-carbon alternative, will on average emit more carbon dioxide over the next few decades than burning petrol, according to a study published in the journal Science.
• 2009/10/23: PlanetArk: Advanced Biofuels Will Stoke Global Warming: Study
• 2009/10/23: Grist: Corn-based meat and ethanol: burning the planet to a crisp
• 2009/10/23: Maribo: Carbon consequences of the biofuels land use cascade
• 2009/10/22: FuturePundit: Biofuel Crops Seen Contributing To Global Warming
• 2009/10/24: Time: Tallying Biofuels' Real Environmental Cost
  [...] Are biofuels really green? A pair of new studies in the Oct. 22 issue of Science damningly demonstrate that the answer is no, at least not the way we currently create and use them.
• 2009/10/22: PhysOrg: Algae may be secret weapon in climate change war [as biofuel]
• 2009/10/22: PhysOrg: Scientist shines laser light on methane in pursuit of clean fuel
• 2009/10/22: PhysOrg: Researchers make key step towards turning methane gas into [methanol] liquid fuel
• 2009/10/22: PlanetArk: Brazil Drivers Ditch Biofuel Over High Sugar Costs

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2009/10/24: DerSpiegel: The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone -- 'I Physically Felt the Radioactivity'
  The Chernobyl disaster happened over two decades ago, but its effects continue to be as present as ever. German photographer Rüdiger Lubricht spent months documenting what has been left behind in the exclusion zone which now surrounds the stricken reactor. In an interview with seen.by, he talks about his experiences.
• 2009/10/20: Guardian(UK): Our nuclear tragedy by Jonathon Porritt
  The idea that a few new reactors can solve climate change is attractive -- and completely unrealistic
• 2009/10/20: PeakEnergy: A Nuclear Power Renaissance? ...the poor economics of nuclear power...
• 2009/10/19: Guardian(UK): Landfill sites may be used to dump radioactive waste
  Government poised to allow nuclear power generators to put atomic waste in ordinary sites to cut cost of decommissioning old reactors
• 2009/10/18: NBF: Correcting Amory Lovins Again
  Amory Lovins wrote an article on Grist primarily making the case that nuclear power is not economic and has a 30+ page pdf on the "Four Myths of Nuclear" This will be the first of a few articles where I show where Lovins is wrong.
• 2009/10/18: SlashDot: A Step Closer To Cheap Nuclear Fusion

  Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

• 2009/10/21: OilDrum: U.S. Peak Oil Conference Conflicted Amidst The Oil Recession
  [...] does peak oil and energy decline mean great profits for modernizing industry, or is peak oil the beginning of huge changes in lifestyle toward sustainability after societal collapse?

More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2009/10/22: Grist: Renewables are inevitable, transmission is optional
• 2009/10/19: Grist: A little heresy on transmission

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2009/10/22: EnvFin: IEA members "not on track" on energy efficiency
• 2009/10/22: PhysOrg: Lighter, cheaper, LED light bulbs are starting to enter the marketplace
• 2009/10/22: WSJ:EnvCap: California Dreaming: Is Energy Efficiency Really That Easy?
• 2009/10/22: ACEEE: Recession not dimming states' growing focus on energy efficiency as "first fuel"...
• 2009/10/21: ClimateP: Northwest states project efficiency measures could meet 85% of new electricity demand through 2030
• 2009/10/19: NYT: Energy Star Appliances May Not All Be Efficient, Audit Finds

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

• 2009/10/23: BBC: British car production fell 16.1% [to 119,616] in September compared with a year earlier...
• 2009/10/22: TreeHugger: Nissan's New Lithium-Ion Hybrid to be Sold as Fuga in Japan (2010), Infiniti M35 in U.S. (2011)
• 2009/10/22: AutoBG: How can EEStor be valued at $1.5 billion?
• 2009/10/22: AutoBG: Honda CEO: People will embrace fuel cells when they realize battery limits
• 2009/10/21: PhysOrg: Ultracapacitors Make City Buses Cheaper, Greener
• 2009/10/20: NYT: As Hybrid Buses Get Cheaper, Cities Fill Their Fleets
• 2009/10/21: TreeHugger: What Will It Take to Get EVs on the Road (Really)?
• 2009/10/21: TreeHugger: J1772 Standard for Charging Electric Cars Should be Adopted Soon
• 2009/10/20: NYT: Fill It Up With Electricity, Please -- Electric cars are coming in big numbers for the first time. Again.
• 2009/10/19: Reuters: Electric cars don't deserve halo yet: study
  Electric cars will not be dramatically cleaner than autos powered by fossil fuels until they rely less on electricity produced from conventional coal-fired power plants, scientists said on Monday.
• 2009/10/20: TreeHugger: Nissan and Sumitomo will Give a Second Life to Electric Car Batteries
• 2009/10/20: WSJ:EnvCap: A New Leaf: Nissan's Recycling Plan for Cheaper Electric Cars
• 2009/10/20: BBC: Harrabin's Notes: Electric promise
  Roger Harrabin reports on the Chinese car maker BYD, which is about to release a vehicle capable of revolutionising the world of motoring, if its claims prove correct.
• 2009/10/20: BBC: Chinese annual car production has topped 10 million for the first time...
• 2009/10/19: TechRev: Next Stop: Ultracapacitor Buses -- A U.S.-Chinese venture is out to prove the benefits of quick-charge buses
• 2009/10/19: PlanetArk: Exiled China Tycoon In U.S. Clean Vehicle Plan
  Yang Rong, a Chinese automobile tycoon who fled the country after being accused of economic crimes, said he plans three multi-billion-dollar U.S. plants to make 3 million clean-technology vehicles per year by 2017.
• 2009/10/19: TStar: Hamilton: Race is on to build a better electric-car battery [EEStor]
• 2009/10/19: TreeHugger: USEPA & NHTSA To Propose New Efficiency _Metrics_ For Electric & Hybrid Vehicles
• 2009/10/19: PeakEnergy: Next Stop: Ultracapacitor Buses
• 2009/10/19: AutoBG: Report: [3] Michigan universities returning their electrical vehicles because of poor performance
• 2009/10/19: AutoBG: Greenlings: Why can't Americans have good, small diesels?

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

• 2009/10/24: TheAge: It's high time our leaders got the lead out on climate
  James Cameron is seated at the conference table in his company's swish offices beside the Thames [...] with the Copenhagen summit just around the corner, this Anglo-Australian is not in the mood to mince words: ''One of my difficulties is that Australian business people that call themselves business leaders are simply protecting the status quo and protecting the value they have in the high-carbon economy," he says in his perfectly modulated lawyer's voice. "They do this as if there are no alternatives, as if they can't afford to make the change. I don't think that is leadership, that is cowardly."
• 2009/10/21: Grist: Climate Corps interns save Fortune 500 firms $54 million

  Joe Romm posts a daily list of top energy and climate stories:

• 2009/10/23: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for October 23...
• 2009/10/22: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for October 22...
• 2009/10/21: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for October 21...
• 2009/10/20: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for October 20...
• 2009/10/19: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for October 19...

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2009/10/24: ERabett: The arrogance of physicists
• 2009/10/24: ClimateP: DeLong and Deltoid: "The thing about a Roger Pielke Jr. train wreck is that you just can't look away." Plus Roger's must-read post that Rabett called "The great Pielke meltdown."
• 2009/10/24: AFTIC: How to talk to crakar - point 4
• 2009/10/23: AFTIC: How to talk to crakar - point 3
• 2009/10/22: AFTIC: How to talk to crakar - point 2
• 2009/10/21: AFTIC: How to talk to crakar - point 1
• 2009/10/19: MGS: Sound and Fury at WUWT
• 2009/10/21: Tyee: Why Are Oddballs Like This Guy Winning?
• 2009/10/18: QuarkSoup: Did Hansen "Fudge" Data?
• 2009/10/23: Rabble: Climate-change deniers spread misinformation
• 2009/10/22: TP: Inhofe's climate change-denying Copenhagen 'truth squad' expands to a 'truth squad of three.'
• 2009/10/22: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Big Oil Pleads for Energy Evolution, Not Revolution
• 2009/10/21: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Southern Company Lobbyists Form New Front Group: CEIP [Cost of Energy Information Project]
• 2009/10/20: JKB: dr Tom van der Hoeven needs to do his homework first, then talk
• 2009/10/21: BCLSB: Renowned Water Witch Tells Maldives' President: Don't Worry About Global Warming
• 2009/10/20: Guardian(UK): Monckton's circus of climate change denial arrives in cloud cuckoo land
  Communists who piled out of the Berlin Wall and into the green movement have taken over -- in Citizen Monckton's mind
• 2009/10/20: ABC(Au): Liberal MP rubbishes human link to climate change
  Federal Liberal MP Dennis Jensen says the cause of climate change is still in dispute and has attacked environmentalists as "anti-democratic alarmists". Dr Jensen, who has spoken out previously on the issue, has also called for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to be disbanded. His comments come as the Coalition struggles with internal division on climate change policy.
• 2009/10/19: Deltoid: I must be psychic
• 2009/10/18: DeSmogBlog: Pity Rex Murphy. At this point, he has no place to go
• 2009/10/18: GreenFyre: Hudson's choice

  Meanwhile in the 'clean coal' saga:

• 2009/10/21: SolveClimate: Aging Coal Plants Carry High Hidden Costs, Particularly to Health [NRC Report]
• 2009/10/21: BBC: Carbon cut award for coal company
  A South Yorkshire-based coal company has won an award for reducing its carbon footprint by 45%. UK Coal was given the Carbon Trust Standard after cutting its emissions over three years.
• 2009/10/19: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Mountaintop Mining Reclamation: A Big, Flat Lie

  Then there was the miscellaneous news and commentary:

• 2009/10/16: Crikey: Hamilton: How to deal with climate change grief
• 2009/10/06: WarSocialism: America 2.0!
• 2009/10/24: OilDrum: America 2.0 by Jay Hanson
• 2009/10/23: GreenFyre: Zen and the art of planetary maintenance II: Impossible love
• 2009/10/24: GreenFyre: The Woody Guthrie Award for A Thinking Blogger
• 2009/10/24: AlterNet: McKibben Versus Hedges' Clash of Worldviews: How Do We Solve the Environmental Crisis?
• 2009/10/22: Grist: Greens have finally got the Big Mo [aura of inevitability]
• 2009/10/21: Grist: Bill Gates reveals support for GMO ag
• 2009/10/21: NatureTGB: Quotes of the day climate special
• 2009/10/21: KSJT: WBUR Boston: Lovins, Brand, McKibben in a greener-yes-but-how? discussion
• 2009/10/20: ERabett: Two Questions [Lindzen & Powell]
• 2009/10/20: MTobis: Political Theater or Just Plain Delusion?
• 2009/10/20: EurActiv: Regulators claim role in combating climate change
  The climate change imperative has radically changed the energy regulation environment, shooting up the priority list alongside energy security and fuel poverty, EurActiv heard yesterday (19 October) at the fourth World Forum on Energy Regulation in Athens. While regulation was previously aimed at securing competitive markets, the challenge now is to cut emissions from the power sector cost-effectively in anticipation of climate legislation, participants in the three-day conference said.
• 2009/10/20: DeSmogBlog: Jim Hoggan and Climate Cover Cover Up on Amy Goodman's Democracy Now!
• 2009/10/19: DeSmogBlog: Climate Cover Up Picking Up Steam Online and in the News
• 2009/10/20: Maribo: The message or the messenger
• 2009/10/17: OregonLive: How to stop doubting and love the climate models
• 2009/10/20: DemNow: PR Executive James Hoggan on "Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming"

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

• Wiki: Rossby wave
• Wiki: Kelvin wave
• EEN: Energy Efficiency News
• Nitrogen News
• PAGASA - Philippines Climate
• World Wide Views on Global Warming
• Nature: Destination Copenhagen
• DECC: Act on Copenhagen
• Sandia: Publications
• GEO: Group On Earth Observations
• WFC 2009 - World Forestry Congress
• Caldeira Lab

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.

<regards>
-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.

"There are going to be those who make cynical claims that contradict the overwhelming scientific evidence when it comes to climate change, claims whose only purpose is to defeat or delay the change that we know is necessary. So we're going to have to work on those folks." -Barack Obama, Oct 23, 2009 MIT speech

• Global Warming Links
• Global Warming News Archive
• Energy
• Energy News
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• H.E. Taylor (homepage)