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Another Week of Climate Disruption News

November 15, 2009

• Chuckle, Copenhagen, APEC, France & Brazil, WSFS, Montreal Protocol, Merida Message, Front Line Nations, Polls
• Younger Dryas, Himalayan Glaciers, Williams & Zabel, Bottom Line, CSIRO, Amazon, CO2 Forcing, Superfree, G20
• Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
• Food Crisis, Land Grabs, Food Production
• Hurricanes, GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures, Aerosols, Paleoclimate
• ENSO, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Ocean Currents, NASA/JPL Suit
• Impacts, Forests, Climate Refugees, Wacky Weather, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering
• Journals, Misc. Science, Pielke, Hansen
• Kyoto, UN, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Tobin Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy, Carbon Labelling
• International Politics, Security, Law & Activism
• America, Obama, Congress, Britain, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, India, China, Asia, Africa, South America, Canada
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Courts
• Energy, IEA-WEO, 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

More in the black humour vein:

• 2009/11/14: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) A Piece of cake? Looking forward to a caring, sharing Copenhagen?
• 2009/11/14: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Easter Bunnies in Colour
• 2009/11/12: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Cat-astrophe?
• 2009/11/09: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Imagine my surprise
• 2009/11/11: MTobis: Nice Throbgoblin's Pieces

  Discouragement, Disgust, and Hope battle on the road to Copenhagen:

• 2009/11/15: EarthTimes: Danish premier urges consensus ahead of climate talks
• 2009/11/15: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen climate summit hopes fade as Obama backs postponement
  US supports delaying difficult decisions on emissions targets -- Copenhagen summit to concentrate on political deal
• 2009/11/14: ETP: "Harper will only go to climate conference if other leaders do"
• 2009/11/13: UNEP: Friday 13th! Seal the Deal!: Let's Make Our Own Climate Luck
• 2009/11/12: QuarkSoup: NY Times on Climate Talks
• 2009/11/08: C&C: Climate Talks on the Road to Nowhere
• 2009/11/13: Guardian(UK): World leaders 'must not use recession to delay action on climate change'
• 2009/11/13: Guardian(UK): Barack Obama's trip to China expected to set the tone for talks in Copenhagen
• 2009/11/13: NatureCF: Countdown to Copenhagen
• 2009/11/13: ClimateP: Ban Ki-moon climate deputy says Copenhagen deal may take two stage approach; Outline of bipartisan Kerry, Lieberman, Graham proposal likely beforehand
• 2009/11/13: PlanetArk: Ethiopia PM [Meles Zenawi]: World Not Serious On Climate Change
• 2009/11/13: TreeHugger: 10 Points [from WWF] to Remember for a Successful COP15 Agreement
  
  1. Legally Binding Framework
  2. Peak Carbon Emissions Before 2017
  3. Emissions 40% Below 1990 Levels by 2020 for Industrialized Nations
  4. Emissions 30% Below Business-as-Usual by 2020 for Developing Nations
  5. Zero Net Emissions From Deforestation
  6. Immediate Adaptation Action
  7. $160 Billion Annually For Developing Countries for Climate Mitigation
  8. Strengthen & Facilitate Technology Transfer
  9. Transparent Oversight of Compliance, Funding
  10. Transparent & Comparable Standards For Carbon Markets, Etc.
• 2009/11/13: Grist: Letter From Europe -- From hopeful climate to climate of despair
• 2009/11/13: COP15: UN looks at COP15.5 option
  Acknowledging that the COP15 conference in Copenhagen this December is not likely to produce a final agreement on climate change, an extra summit in spring 2010 is considered, UN official reveals.
• 2009/11/13: COP15: US set at damage control
  Trying to avoid "having Copenhagen failure laid at its doorstep", the US administration is reported to be considering patching up a limited short-term climate deal.
• 2009/11/04: CPI: Toward a Stalemate in Copenhagen -- How Industry Pressures and National Agendas Dim Prospects for a Climate Treaty
• 2009/11/12: Reuters: Climate pact text not fit for approval yet
  The current negotiating text for a global climate agreement is not fit to be approved yet, the head of the European Commission's environment department Karl Falkenberg told Reuters Insider TV on Thursday.
• 2009/11/13: BSD: Arguments against per-capita emission limits are arguments that support massive HFC-23 releases by developing countries
• 2009/11/13: Xinhuanet: UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon encourages world leaders to accept [Danish] invitation to climate summit
• 2009/11/13: WaPo: U.S. weighs backing interim international climate agreement -- Smaller-scale approach seen as first step toward full pact
  Less than a month before negotiators will meet in Copenhagen with the lofty goal of crafting a deal to curb global greenhouse gas emissions, the Obama administration is considering endorsing a limited short-term climate pact and deferring more ambitious action until next year. The scaled-back strategy is driven largely by the realities of domestic politics: The administration is hampered in making an international deal because Congress has not passed climate legislation. So any global pact would be postponed until next year when it would be constrained by whatever domestic climate legislation Congress enacts.
• 2009/11/13: SolveClimate: Long Way to Go Before Climate Treaty Lifts Cleantech Sector
• 2009/11/12: Reuters: U.N. official [Janos Pasztor] says leaders want fast climate deal [by mid-2010]
• 2009/11/12: Guardian(UK): Gordon Brown to attend Copenhagen climate change conference
• 2009/11/12: UN: Ban encourages world leaders to accept Denmark's invite to UN climate summit
• 2009/11/11: TEC: Pondering Copenfloppen
• 2009/11/12: Grist: Climate change rings church's chimes
  The World Council of Churches on Thursday called on churches around the world to ring their bells 350 times during the Copenhagen climate change summit on Dec. 13 as a call to action on global warming.
• 2009/11/12: Xinhuanet: China to push for "fair" Copenhagen outcome on climate change: FM [Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi]
• 2009/11/11: Google:AFP: Washington eyes compromise at Copenhagen talks
• 2009/11/12: BBerg: [Ethiopian PM] Meles [ Zenawi] Unites 52 Nations to Exert Clout at UN Summit
• 2009/11/12: EarthTimes: Denmark invites 192 state, government heads to UN climate talks
• 2009/11/12: ENN: Denmark Invites 191 Leaders to U.N. Climate Summit
• 2009/11/12: Reuters: Denmark invites 191 leaders to U.N. climate summit
• 2009/11/12: WSJ:EnvCap: Protect Clean-Tech Innovation [ie. intellectual property] in Copenhagen, Says Chamber of Commerce's Energy Arm
• 2009/11/11: NYT:GW: Clinton Calls Climate Talks in Copenhagen a 'Steppingstone'
• 2009/11/11: Yahoo:AFP: Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina says failure not acceptable in Copenhagen
• 2009/11/09: CCurrents: Climate Change Realism And Hope - A Path To Success At Copenhagen
• 2009/11/10: SciAm: What Would Failure at Copenhagen Mean for Climate Change?
  The planet's quickening pace toward irreversible climate change grows far more dire if world leaders fail to find a way to stem emissions this December, experts warn.
• 2009/11/10: DerSpiegel: December Climate Summit -- Obama Considers Attending Copenhagen After All
• 2009/11/11: UN: Seal the Deal: Invasive species pose huge threat to ecosystems, UN says
• 2009/11/10: Grist: Merkel threatens no-show at Copenhagen climate talks
  German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday she would only attend the Copenhagen climate conference in December if the U.S., China, and India first make clear their negotiating positions.
• 2009/11/11: Grist: U.S. pushes for compromise in Copenhagen climate talks
• 2009/11/11: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Talking with Ban Ki-Moon about His Hopes for Copenhagen
• 2009/11/11: LA Times: No time to waste on climate change, [IEA] report declares
  Less than a month before the Copenhagen summit on climate change, the International Energy Agency says that governments must act now to avoid catastrophic results.
• 2009/11/10: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen climate change summit: The issues
• 2009/11/10: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen climate talks: Time to change, no time to waste
  Next month, 192 countries will meet to set targets on carbon emissions. The summit will pit the developed world against the developing world in a last-ditch bid to limit warming to 2C
• 2009/11/10: Guardian(UK): Latin America must cut emissions too
  Middle-income countries are threatening the climate change deal they need by opposing mandatory cuts on principle
• 2009/11/10: NatureN: End of the road for Copenhagen? Expectations are dropping as December's UN climate talks get closer
• 2009/11/10: NatureCF: Countdown to Copenhagen
• 2009/11/10: ClimateP: Obama will go to Copenhagen -- if he can seal a deal
• 2009/11/09: ClimateP: Road to Copenhagen, Part 6: Tragedy of the commons vs. action by the uncommon
• 2009/11/10: COP15: Lula: Obama and Hu Jintao must come
  The Brazilian President Lula da Silva urges the presidents from the US and China to attend the UN climate conference. The conference needs the presence of heads of state or government to get down to decision making, he says
• 2009/11/09: TerraDaily: Copenhagen climate treaty in danger
• 2009/11/10: SolveClimate: Road to Copenhagen: Money-Changers in Democracy's Temple
• 2009/11/08: TerraDaily: US to seek climate framework, not legal pact: experts
• 2009/11/08: SolveClimate: Road to Copenhagen: Audacious Leadership vs. Nattering Nabobs of Negativism

  The APEC meeting in Singapore this weekend surprised no one:

• 2009/11/15: ABC(Au): Rudd plays down APEC climate backdown
  Asia Pacific leaders have issued watered down climate change goals, but ambitious economic and trade aims, in their final statement after the summit of APEC leaders in Singapore.
• 2009/11/14: ERabett: As expected [apec]
• 2009/11/15: EarthTimes: APEC leaders fail to give targets for emission cuts
• 2009/11/15: CNN: APEC leaders reject climate deal possibility
• 2009/11/14: Maribo: World Leaders Agree to Delay Climate Change Deal [apec]
• 2009/11/15: CanWest: APEC summit ends with trade agreement, no climate deal -- Leaders of Pacific Rim nations agreed Sunday on "a new growth paradigm"...
• 2009/11/14: NYT: Leaders Agree to Delay a Deal on Climate Change
• 2009/11/15: ABC(Au): APEC leaders dilute carbon targets
• 2009/11/11: Reuters: Climate takes back seat at APEC

  France and Brazil announce a joint climate position that may shake things up:

• 2009/11/15: ABC(Au): France, Brazil announce common climate goals
• 2009/11/15: EarthTimes: French, Brazilian leaders stake out joint climate position
• 2009/11/14: Google:AFP: France, Brazil unveil policy for climate conference: Sarkozy
• 2009/11/14: BBC: Brazil and France in climate deal
  Brazil and France have agreed a common position on fighting global warming before next month's UN climate change conference in Copenhagen. They will pursue the goal of reducing industrialised nations' emissions to 50% below 1990 levels by 2050. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced the move in Paris.

A World Summit on Food Security starts Monday:

• 2009/11/13: FAO: World Summit on Food Security opens Monday -- Over 60 heads of State and Government are planning to attend

  The Montreal Protocol extension meeting was unproductive:

• 2009/11/13: PlanetArk: "Super Greenhouse Gas" [HFC] Deal Fails
• 2009/11/11: SolveClimate: Failure of 'Super Greenhouse Gas' [HFC] Deal Raises Stakes in Copenhagen
• 2009/11/09: NatureCF: Montreal delegates hold off on HFC amendment
• 2009/11/08: NRDC:SwitchBoard: HFC-Busters... Who You Gonna Call?

  The World Wilderness Congress meeting in Mexico this week released the Merida Message:

• 2009/11/11: MongaBay: Declaration calls for more wilderness protected areas to combat global warming
  Meeting this week in Merida, Mexico, the 9th World Wilderness Congress (WILD9) has released a declaration that calls for increasing wilderness protections in an effort to mitigate climate change.

A pre-Copenhagen meeting of poor, vulnerable states released a stark demand:

• 2009/11/10: TreeHugger: Front-Line Climate Change Nations Stake Out Positions: 1.5°C Temp Rise, 350ppm, Request 1.5% GDP Aid
• 2009/11/10: MongaBay: Nations vulnerable to global warming present demands: carbon levels below 350ppm and billions in aid
• 2009/11/11: COP15: Maldives fails to convince fellow vulnerable states to go "carbon neutral"
  Some of the world's most vulnerable countries dismiss the idea of shifting completely from fossil fuel to renewable energy.
• 2009/11/11: SolveClimate: Poor Nations Issue 'Save Kyoto Protocol' Plea in Lead-Up to Copenhagen
• 2009/11/11: BBC: Poor nations vow low-carbon path
  Poor countries considered vulnerable to climate change have pledged to embark on moves to a low-carbon future, and challenge richer states to match them.
• 2009/11/10: SolveClimate: Nations Threatened by Climate Change Call on Developed World to Give 1.5% of GDP
• 2009/11/09: TreeHugger: Like Arriving at an Earthquake with a Dustpan & Brush - Climate Financing Utterly Lacking Says Maldives Pres.
• 2009/11/09: BBC: Maldives anger at climate inertia
  The president of the Maldives [Mohamed Nasheed] has strongly criticised the world's rich countries for doing too little to stem climate change.

Polls, we have polls:

• 2009/11/11: Yahoo:AFP: US, China under fire on climate: poll
• 2009/11/11: WPO: As Hu Jin Tao, Obama Prepare to Meet, World Public Gives China, US Low Marks on Climate Change
• 2009/11/15: PhysOrg: Climate change not man-made, say majority of Britons: poll
  Less than half of Britons believes that human activity is to blame for global warming, according to a poll carried out for The Times newspaper and published on Saturday. Only 41 percent accept as an established scientific fact that global warming is taking place and is largely man-made. Almost a third, or 32 percent, believe that the link is not yet proved; eight percent say it is environmentalist propaganda to blame man and 15 percent believe the world is not warming. Only slightly more than a quarter (28 percent) think climate change is the most serious problem that the world faces.
• 2009/11/15: ABC(Au): Majority want tougher emissions targets: Greens
  The Greens have released an opinion poll which says the majority of voters want the Government to adopt tougher targets for cutting greenhouse gases. The Galaxy poll says 54 per cent of people support at least an unconditional 25 per cent reduction in emissions by 2020. The Government says it will commit to that target only if the rest of the world agrees.
• 2009/11/11: ABC(Au): Locals 'conscious' of climate change impact
  A survey covering the Illawarra, the Shoalhaven and the Southern Highlands has found 62 per cent of those polled believe climate change will have a direct impact on their lives in the next 20 years.
• 2009/11/09: ClimateP: Voters in Ohio, Michigan and Missouri overwhelmingly support action on clean energy and global warming
• 2009/11/09: BBC: Free market flawed, says survey
  Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a new BBC poll has found widespread dissatisfaction with free-market capitalism. In the global poll for the BBC World Service, only 11% of those questioned across 27 countries said that it was working well. Most thought regulation and reform of the capitalist system were necessary.

A report that the THC shutdown before the Younger Dryas took just months has triggered some surprise:

• 2009/11/15: Times(UK): Climate change catastrophe took just months
  Six months is all it took to flip Europe's climate from warm and sunny into the last ice age, researchers have found. They have discovered that the northern hemisphere was plunged into a big freeze 12,800 years ago by a sudden slowdown of the Gulf Stream that allowed ice to spread hundreds of miles southwards from the Arctic. Previous research had suggested the change might have taken place over a longer period -- perhaps about 10 years.
• 2009/11/12: FuturePundit: Younger Dryas Mini Ice Age Started Quickly
• 2009/11/11: NewScientist: [Younger Dryas] Mini ice age took hold of Europe in months

  In India, a ministry discussion paper on Himalayan glaciers raised more than a few feathers:

• 2009/11/10: CCurrents: Pachauri Slams India's Glaciers Report
• 2009/11/10: CCurrents: Himalayan Blunder: The Perils Of Denying Glacier Melting
• 2009/11/10: Stoat: India 'arrogant' to deny global warming link to melting glaciers?
• 2009/11/10: EarthTimes: Indian study [errr discussion paper] challenges global view on Himalayan glacial melt
• 2009/11/10: Maribo: Himalayan glaciers and the virtue of reading beyond the headline
• 2009/11/09: Guardian(UK): India 'arrogant' to deny global warming link to melting glaciers
  IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri accuses Indian environment ministry of 'arrogance' for its report claiming there is no evidence that climate change has shrunk Himalayan glaciers
• 2009/11/08: Telegraph(India): Experts dispute glacier fear in Himalayas
  Glaciers in the Himalayas are shrinking, but there is no evidence to suggest that global warming has enhanced the loss of glacial ice in this region, a review paper to be released by the government tomorrow has said. The paper has combined archived data from the Geological Survey of India from the early 20th century with a series of observations from academic institutions to question grim forecasts predicting the looming demise of Himalayan glaciers.

There was a rustle over the US EPA restricting two of their lawyers from arguing against Cap & Trade in their name:

• 2009/11/12: DemNow: Defying Gov't Censorship, EPA Attorneys [Laurie Williams & Allan Zabel] Speak Out Against White House-Backed Climate Change Proposal "Cap and Trade"
• 2009/11/10: KSJT: WSJournal, NYTimes, blogs & more blogs: EPA gets tough on two of its lawyers for public attack on cap and trade climate bill
• 2009/11/09: CSW: PEER: EPA orders employees to remove YouTube video critical of cap-and-trade climate policy
• 2009/11/09: WSJ:EnvCap: Gagged? EPA Clamps Down on Couple Critical of Cap-and-Trade

  And on the Bottom Line:

• 2009/11/14: TreeHugger: Study Shows Investing in Nature More Valuable than Gold (Literally)
• 2009/11/11: CFO: IEA puts $500bn a year cost on Copenhagen failure
• 2009/11/13: MongaBay: Countries that invest in conservation will see higher financial returns, argues report [TEEB: The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity Initiative]
• 2009/11/13: PhysOrg: How much is nature worth?
  How much is nature worth? £1 billion? £100 billion? £1 trillion? The loss of our forests and biodiversity in general could cost us between £1.2-2.8 trillion a year, according to Pavan Sukhdev, who is giving this year's Annual Science Lecture at the Natural History Museum on Monday.
• 2009/11/09: TPMCafe: "Financial Transactions Tax" Comes before "Value-Added Tax"
• 2009/11/13: BBC: Big profit from nature protection
  Money invested in protecting nature can bring huge financial returns, according to a major investigation into the costs and benefits of the natural world. It says money ploughed into protecting wetlands, coral reefs and forests can bring a hundredfold return on capital. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity study (TEEB) is backed by the UN and countries including the UK. The project's leader says governments should act on its findings at next month's UN climate summit. TEEB is the first attempt to evaluate the economic value of "ecosystem services" - things that parts of the natural world do for free, such as purifying drinking water or protecting coasts from storms - on a systematic and global basis.
• 2009/11/12: EurActiv: IEA urges low-carbon energy investments
• 2009/11/10: TreeHugger: $500 Billion Per Year More = How Much It'll Cost Us to Keep Delaying Climate Change Action Beyond 2010
• 2009/11/10: Reuters: Cost of extra year's climate inaction $500 billion: IEA

  CSIRO seems to have dealt with their censorship accusation:

• 2009/11/13: NatureN: Australian agency moves to calm climate row -- Researcher will be allowed to publish his paper after making 'tiny' changes.
• 2009/11/09: NatureCF: Australian agency denies gagging climate researchers

  I've got a big grain of salt for these Brazilian Gov't announcements about the Amazon. The last couple have been debunked by satellite data within months:

• 2009/11/13: KSJT: Guardian, Chr. Sci. Monitor, Wires, etc: Brazil's forest ministers say Amazon burning, clearing is plummeting...
• 2009/11/12: BBC: Amazon deforestation 'record low'
  The level of deforestation in the Amazon has dropped by 45% and is the lowest on record since monitoring began 21 years ago, Brazil's government says. According to the latest annual figures, just over 7,000 sq km was destroyed between July 2008 and August 2009.
• 2009/11/13: EarthTimes: Deforestation in Amazon falls to lowest level in 20 years
• 2009/11/13: Guardian(UK): Brazil celebrates 45% reduction in Amazon deforestation
  A police offensive and the global economic crisis have combined to produce the largest fall in more than 20 years

A nice tutorial on CO2 forcing:

• 2009/11/12: CC&G: Understanding the Science of CO2's Role in Climate Change: 1 - Introduction

  The Superfreaks are still getting some press:

• 2009/11/14: ClimateP: Superfreakonomics coauthor replies to "scathing review" by Elizabeth Kolbert...
• 2009/11/12: ERabett: The Final Word on Dubner and Levitt
• 2009/11/12: TWTB: Superfreaks and Charlie Rose
• 2009/11/09: ClimateP: Is Superfreakonomics author Levitt again denying the 'unequivocal' scientific evidence for global warming?...
• 2009/11/09: TreeHugger: SuperFreakonomics is 'Horseshit': Elizabeth Kolbert
• 2009/11/09: TWTB: Betsy Kolbert spanks the Superfreaks

  Late comment on G20:

• 2009/11/08: Yahoo:AFP: Climate finance hits snag before key UN summit
  The G20 talked big but delivered little on climate finance, campaigners said Sunday, as the clock ticks down to the UN's key Copenhagen summit in just one month's time.

The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:

• 2009/11/13: UNDispatch: Bye bye Greenland
• 2009/11/13: MTobis: Arctic Sea Ice
• 2009/11/13: DerSpiegel: A Warming Arctic -- Greenland's Ice Sheet Melting Faster than Ever
• 2009/11/14: CCP: Michiel van den Broeke et al., Science 326, Partitioning Recent Greenland Mass Loss
• 2009/11/14: CCP: Greenland's mass loss increases to 0.75 mm per year of sea level rise, a 50% increase over period before 2006
• 2009/11/13: CCurrents: Greenland Ice Loss 'Accelerating'
• 2009/11/13: NatureCF: Greenland ice and Himalayan glaciers: What's going on?
• 2009/11/13: KSJT: Plenty of ink for the daily climate drear: Greenland is melting faster, US's highs outnumber its lows and it's not the stock market we're talkin'
• 2009/11/12: Reuters: Greenland ice loss accelerating: study
• 2009/11/12: BBC: Greenland ice loss 'accelerating'
  The Greenland ice sheet is losing its mass faster than in previous years and making an increasing contribution to sea level rise, a study has confirmed.
• 2009/11/12: PhysOrg: Greenland ice cap melting faster than ever
  Satellite observations and a state-of-the art regional atmospheric model have independently confirmed that the Greenland ice sheet is loosing mass at an accelerating rate, reports a new study in Science.
• 2009/11/12: Eureka: Greenland ice cap melting faster than ever
  Satellite observations and a state-of-the art regional atmospheric model have independently confirmed that the Greenland ice sheet is losing mass at an accelerating rate, reports a new study in Science
• 2009/11/11: KSJT: Toronto Star: In the far north where people rely on wildlife for subsistence, polar bear hunters worry
• 2009/11/10: CCP: Extraordinary September Arctic sea ice reductions and their relationships with storm behavior over 1979-2008
• 2009/11/08: ClimateP: Arctic ice reaches historic seasonal low; "We are almost out of multiyear sea ice in the northern hemisphere."
• 2009/11/09: AFTIC: CCW - 2009 Sea Ice update
• 2009/11/09: SciDaily: Changing Arctic Affecting Air, Ocean, And Everything In Between

  Note the headline spin over the same agency text:

• 2009/11/12: IOL: Sceptics anger Arctic scientists
• 2009/11/11: TerraDaily: Arctic scientists deflated by climate change sceptics

  That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:

• 2009/11/12: RealClimate: It's all about me (thane)!
• 2009/11/09: FDN-M: Permafrost's future in Alaska looks poor, but the forecast isn't all bad
  Alaska will probably see most of its surface permafrost vanish by the end of this century, but researchers believe vast areas of frozen soil will remain deeper underground even as air temperatures increase.

As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

• 2009/11/15: CanWest: Cold Call -- Security specialist says nuclear sub's northern exposure sends a message that Canada should heed: Take Arctic claims seriously
  The recent surfacing of a U.S. submarine near the North Pole and an increase in military activity in the Arctic this year should send a warning to the Canadian government that other nations are serious about boosting their presence in the resource-rich region, says a specialist on Canada's northern security. [...] Rob Huebert, an Arctic specialist with the University of Calgary, said the Texas is the third U.S. submarine to visit the region so far this year. Earlier this year, five Russian submarines were operating around the North Pole during test firings of missiles, he added.

While in Antarctica:

• 2009/11/14: CCP: Antarctic iceberg on walkabout toward Australia
• 2009/11/12: PhysOrg: Giant Antarctic iceberg heads towards N.Zealand: experts
• 2009/11/09: CCP: Mass balance of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
• 2009/11/09: RealClimate: Is Pine Island Glacier the Weak Underbelly of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet?
• 2009/11/09: Eureka: Antarctica glacier retreat creates new carbon dioxide store

  The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2009/11/10: FAO: Poorest countries still suffer from high food prices -- Thirty-one food insecure nations need emergency assistance
• 2009/11/09: FAO: Crop Prospects and Food Situation
• 2009/11/13: CCurrents: Almost 200 Million Children Undernourished In Poor Countries
• 2009/11/12: UN: UNICEF urges immediate action to tackle food shortages in Southern Sudan
• 2009/11/13: PlanetArk: India's Food Dilemma: High Prices Or Shortages
• 2009/11/11: CCurrents: The Links Between Food Security And Climate Change
• 2009/11/11: BBC: Poor nutrition 'stunting growth'
  Poor child nutrition still causes major problems in the developing world - despite some progress, experts say. A third of deaths in children under five in those countries are linked to poor diet, a report by Unicef suggests. It also reveals 195m children - one in three - have stunted growth, even though rates have fallen since 1990.
• 2009/11/11: PhysOrg: Crops and Weeds: Climate Change's First Responders
• 2009/11/11: PhysOrg: UN says hunger stunts some 200 million children
• 2009/11/10: SeedDaily: Cereal production to fall in Sahel: regional committee
  The cereal crop will decline sharply in Chad, Niger and Mauritania in 2009-2010 because of drought, the permanent Inter-state Committee to Fight Drought in the Sahel (CILSS) announced Tuesday.
• 2009/11/10: BBC: El Salvador facing food shortage
  About 10,000 people in El Salvador are in need of food aid after devastating floods washed away crops
• 2009/11/10: UN: Millions of poor across Africa set to suffer deepening food crisis, warns [FAO] UN report
• 2009/11/10: UN: UN rushes aid to flood victims in El Salvador
• 2009/11/08: MongaBay: Hunting across Southeast Asia weakens forests' survival, An interview with Richard Corlett
• 2009/11/09: CalcRisk: WalMart: Quote of the Night

  So, are these land grabs Colonialism V2?:

• 2009/11/11: EnergyBulletin: The great global land grab

  And how are we going to feed 9 billion?

• 2009/11/13: FAO: World Summit on Food Security opens Monday -- Over 60 heads of State and Government are planning to attend
• 2009/11/11: UN: Battle against hunger can be won with right policies, says UN report
• 2009/11/11: Grist: Feed the world sustainably by 2050? Yes, we can!
• 2009/11/11: PlanetArk: Timeline [1701-1970]: Ground-Breaking Moments In Global Agriculture
• 2009/11/11: PlanetArk: The Fight Over The Future Of Food
• 2009/11/10: Grist: The Copenhagen Conference on food security [Lester Brown]
• 2009/11/09: UN: Head of UN agency applauds China-Africa forum's commitment on food security
• 2009/11/08: EMBL: Drought resistance explained -- Structural study at EMBL reveals how plants respond to water shortages
• 2009/11/09: AlterNet: Despite Censorship By Beef Magnate, Michael Pollan Spreads Message About the Real Price of Cheap Food

  In the hurricane wars, Phyan zapped the west coast of India. Unreported Anja is still out at sea:

• 2009/11/13: Eureka: Cyclone Phyan raining on Tibet after breaking a record in India
• 2009/11/12: EarthTimes: Seven killed, 100 missing after Cyclone Phyan crosses western India
• 2009/11/11: CBC: Cyclone Phyan heads for India's west coast
• 2009/11/11: EarthTimes: Cyclone Phyan threatens Mumbai, India's western coast
• 2009/11/11: EarthTimes: Cyclone Phyan weakens while crossing India's western coast
• 2009/11/11: BBC: Cyclone [Phyan] threatens western India
  A large cyclone is heading towards the western Indian states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, weather experts warn.
• 2009/11/10: Eureka: NASA sees high thunderstorms in newly formed Tropical Cyclone 4A near India

  Tropical storm Ida waltzed through the Caribbean:

• 2009/11/13: Eureka: Satellite imagery confirms Ida's low is finally moving away from the east coast
• 2009/11/13: PhysOrg: Former Ida a huge rainmaker, causing flooding in the Mid-Atlantic
• 2009/11/12: PhysOrg: Ida now a coastal low assaulting the Mid-Atlantic
• 2009/11/10: TerraDaily: Ida not directly behind deadly Salvador floods: experts
• 2009/11/11: Wunderground: Ida's remnants pounding North and South Carolina; El Salvador flooding toll at 160
• 2009/11/10: Wunderground: Ida pulls its punch; El Salvador floods kill 130
• 2009/11/10: CBC: Ida downgraded to tropical depression
• 2009/11/09: CNN: Ida bears down on Gulf Coast
  States of emergency declared for Florida, Louisiana, Alabama - Floodwaters reported in one Alabama town - Ida weakens to a tropical storm with 70 mph winds - Ida expected to bring heavy rain to southeast U.S.
• 2009/11/09: PlanetArk: Hurricane Ida Aims For Gulf Of Mexico Oil Fields
• 2009/11/09: Wunderground: Ida not weakening; spreading heavy rains inland
• 2009/11/09: Wunderground: Ida weakens to a tropical storm; tropical disturbance 96E kills 124 in El Salvador
• 2009/11/09: ENN: Hurricane Ida Approaches US Gulf Coast
• 2009/11/09: Eureka: NASA satellites make a movie and get rainfall, wind info on Ida
• 2009/11/09: Eureka: NASA's TRMM Satellite sees most of Ida's heaviest rain stayed off coasts
• 2009/11/09: NASA: NASA Satellites See Ida Spreading Out Before Landfall
• 2009/11/09: Reuters: Ida weakens to tropical storm in U.S. Gulf
  Ida weakened to a tropical storm as it churned toward oil and gas facilities in the Gulf of Mexico and was forecast to hit the U.S. Gulf Coast early on Tuesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Monday. Ida was expected to come ashore somewhere between Louisiana and Florida. At its earlier hurricane strength, Ida triggered floods and mudslides that killed 124 people in El Salvador.
• 2009/11/09: CBC: Ida weakens to tropical storm

  While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

• 2009/11/10: PhysOrg: Noise Evidence Could Expand Hurricane Record
  As sea-surface temperatures rise across the globe, some scientists believe that hurricane frequency and intensity may increase. A fresh technique offers promise to generate new data from long-dead storms, which could improve researchers' forecasts and make them more accurate.
• 2009/11/09: BBerg: Typhoon Mirinae Kills 123 in Vietnam as Floods Sweep Homes Away

  As for GHGs:

• 2009/11/12: PlanetArk: Japan Greenhouse Emissions Fell 6.2% Last Year
• 2009/11/09: Reuters: As nations haggle over CO2 cuts, measurement is tough

  And in the carbon cycle:

• 2009/11/13: DerSpiegel: CO2 and Carbon Sinks -- How Nature Helps Cancel Out Humanity's Sins
• 2009/11/12: GreenGrok: Small Underwater Changes May Be Big Deal for Life Everywhere [P-N-C cycles]
• 2009/11/11: COP15: Study: The Earth absorbs increasing amounts of CO2
  Despite new knowledge, don't rely on Nature to provide a free service, soaking up waste carbon, the author of controversial new study says.
• 2009/11/10: PhysOrg: Controversial new climate change results
  New data show that the balance between the airborne and the absorbed fraction of CO2 has stayed approximately constant since 1850, despite emissions of CO2 having risen from about 2 billion tons a year in 1850 to 35 billion tons a year now. This suggests that terrestrial ecosystems and the oceans have a much greater capacity to absorb CO2 than had been previously expected.

As for the temperature record:

• 2009/11/09: QuarkSoup: Hadley: 4th warmest Sept ever
• 2009/11/12: TreeHugger: US Temperatures: Yup, Still Rising
• 2009/11/11: NOAANews: NOAA: U.S. Posts Third Coolest-Highest Precipitation for October on Record

  A study comparing the incidence of new high vs low temperature records in the USA over the last 50 years:

• 2009/11/14: ClimateP: Record high temperatures far outpace record lows across U.S.
• UCAR: [gfx] Record US High & Low Temperatures by the decade 1950-2000
• 2009/11/12: MTobis: Deficit of Record Cold, Surfeit of Inexpertise
• 2009/11/13: TreeHugger: US Record High Temperatures Double Record Lows Over Past Decade
• 2009/11/13: DWWSJ: Mother Nature's Two For One Sale on Record Highs
• 2009/11/12: UCAR: Record High Temperatures Far Outpace Record Lows Across U.S.
• 2009/11/12: Eureka: Record highs far outpace record lows across US -- Daily record high temperatures occurred twice as often as record lows over past decade
• 2009/11/12: IoD: Record high and low temps: An interesting trend
  A fascinating paper about to be published in Geophysical Review Letters compares the number of record highs and lows at temperature stations across the U.S. since the 1940s. The authors found that we're getting more record highs and fewer record lows...

Aerosols are making their presence felt:

• 2009/11/13: Time: Black Carbon: An Overlooked Climate Factor
• 2009/11/10: ESA: Climate studies to benefit from 12 years of satellite aerosol data [GlobAerosol project]
• 2009/11/09: TreeHugger: Smog Could Cause 2.5°C+ Warming, Even With Strong Global Climate Deal

  And in the paleoclimate:

• 2009/11/11: Eureka: Earth's early ocean cooled more than a billion years earlier than thought: Stanford study
• 2009/11/10: Eureka: Central Africa's tropical Congo Basin was arid, treeless in Late Jurassic -- Geochemical analysis of rare ancient soil produces new paleoclimate data
• 2009/11/10: PhysOrg: Cave study links climate change to California droughts

  While on the ENSO front:

• 2009/11/13: PhysOrg: El Nino Picking Up Steam
  The latest image from the U.S./French Jason-2 satellite finds a strong wave of warm water heading toward the Americas, fueling El Nino.
• 2009/11/09: ClimateP: El Niño-driven sea surface temperatures still soaring. Hottest decade poised to get even hotter

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2009/11/15: ENN: Bolivian [Chacaltaya] glacier 'disappearing'
• 2009/11/13: Yahoo:AFP: Warming brings early demise to Bolivian glacier

  Sea levels are rising:

• 2009/11/15: Mercury(Au): Bad tidings in climate report
  Almost 12,000 Tasmanian homes are at risk of flooding from rising sea levels before the turn of the century.
• 2009/11/14: ABC(Au): 250,000 homes 'at risk' from rising seas
  A new report has warned that up to 250,000 homes around Australia will be inundated due to climate change by the turn of the century. The Federal Government report titled Climate Risks to Australia is the most comprehensive assessment to date, taking into account a projected 1.1-metre rise in sea level and an increasing risk of extreme weather events like tidal and storm surges. Up to $63 billion worth of residential property faces inundation, as well as 120 ports, some airports - including Brisbane and Sydney - and 1,800 bridges.
• 2009/11/11: NYT:GW: New Army Corps Policy Forces Project Designers to Consider Rising Seas
• 2009/11/10: Guardian(UK): Environment Agency calls for flood defences to protect 900,000 properties [in England and Wales]
  The number of homes and businesses at highest risk could rise by 60% by 2035, warns the agency in its five-year strategy
• 2009/11/10: NatureN: Global warming won't affect all deltas -- Rising sea levels could submerge Mississippi Delta but leave other systems intact
• 2009/11/10: CCP: M. D. Palmer, S. A. Good, K. Haines, N. A. Rayner & P. A. Stott, GRL 36 (2009), A new perspective on warming of the global oceans
• 2009/11/10: CCP: S. Jevrejeva, A. Grinsted & J. C. Moore, GRL 36 (2009), Anthropogenic forcing dominates sea level rise since 1850
• 2009/11/09: CCP: How well is Argo able to observe global ocean changes?
• 2009/11/09: CCP: Long-term mean sea level change
• 2009/11/09: BBC: W Australia sea level rising fast
  New figures have revealed that sea levels along the coast of Western Australia are rising at a rate double that of the world average. Statistics from Australia's National Tidal Centre show levels have increased by 8.6mm a year off the coast of the state capital Perth. That compares to a global average of just over 3mm.

As for ocean currents:

• 2009/11/12: SolveClimate: Tipping Points: How Arctic Warming Could Chill Western Europe
• 2009/11/11: CCP: How stable is the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)?
• 2009/11/10: CCP: A. Laurian et al., GRL 36 (2009), Global surface cooling: The atmospheric fast feedback response to a collapse of the thermohaline circulation

  The Obama administration has asked the USSC to overturn the appeals court ruling against the (over extensive?) NASA JPL background checks:

• 2009/11/09: FAS:SN: Govt Petitions Supreme Court on Background Investigations
  Last year, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory thought they had successfully rebuffed a controversial government attempt to impose new background investigations on JPL employees under NASA's interpretation of President Bush's Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12. A federal appeals court concurred (pdf) with the scientists that the new investigations into employee personal histories were intrusive, "open ended," and not "narrowly tailored" to meet legitimate government interests. The court granted a preliminary injunction exempting the scientists from the investigations into their personal backgrounds. But last week, Obama Administration Solicitor General Elena Kagan petitioned (pdf) the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court ruling in favor of the scientists. That ruling, she argued, was legally in error and "casts a constitutional cloud on the background-check process."

More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2009/11/15: Times(UK): Global warming threatens to rob Italy of pasta
• 2009/11/10: EurActiv: Climate change 'playing havoc' with health systems
  Global warming has brought an increase in heat-related deaths, food poisoning and tick-borne diseases, but flu pandemics may decline as temperatures rise, according to Jan Semenza, scientific advisor at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
• 2009/11/12: PhysOrg: Warming drives off Cape Cod's namesake, other fish
• 2009/11/12: TreeHugger: Dhaka, Manila & Jakarta Worst Climate-Affected Asian Mega-Cities - Hits Closer to Home Than You Might Think
• 2009/11/12: CCP: J. Nye et al., Changing spatial distribution of fish stocks in relation to climate and population size on the Northeast United States continental shelf
• 2009/11/12: CCP: Federal study shows fish species moving toward more northern waters away from Cape Cod
• 2009/11/11: BBC: Yangtze 'facing climate threat'
  The Yangtze river basin is being increasingly affected by extreme weather and its ecosystems are under threat, [WWF] environmentalists say.
• 2009/11/10: Guardian(UK): A terrifying vision of a world devastated by climate change
  In Gabura [Bangladesh] global warming is a bleak reality as villagers face rising sea levels, failed crops and devastating cyclones
• 2009/11/10: Guardian(UK): Yangtze delta warned to prepare for effects of climate change
• 2009/11/10: NatureTGB: Are koalas endangered?
• 2009/11/10: BBC: Koalas 'could face extinction'
  Australia's koalas could be wiped out within 30 years unless urgent action is taken to halt a decline in population, according to researchers. They say development, climate change and bushfires have all combined to send the numbers of wild koalas plummeting.
• 2009/11/09: MongaBay: Global warming threatens desert life

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2009/11/13: Grist: Greenpeace calls on world leaders to stop rainforest destruction
• 2009/11/14: CCP: A. Montenegro et al., Glob. Planet. Change, 2009, Net carbon drawdown of small scale afforestation from satellite observations
• 2009/11/13: NewScientist: Trees in far north provide biggest climate benefit
• 2009/11/13: PlanetArk: Boreal Forests Store Carbon, Need Help: Canada Study
• 2009/11/12: SolveClimate: Want to Save the Amazon? Try Looking Closer to Home
• 2009/11/12: ClimateP: Boreal Forests: The Carbon the World Forgot
• 2009/11/12: MongaBay: New report: boreal forests contain more carbon than tropical forest per hectare
• 2009/11/12: TreeHugger: Boreal Forests Store Twice as Much Carbon as Tropical - So Why Aren't We Doing More to Protect Them?
• 2009/11/11: CanWest: Canada's boreal forest top-rated carbon warehouse
• 2009/11/11: CBC: Boreal forests ignored in climate change fight

  Climate refugees are becoming an issue:

• 2009/11/09: COP15: UN chief: Migration adds pressure for climate deal

  Yes we have no wacky weather, except:

• 2009/11/14: BBC: Winds of up to 100mph (160km/h) have hit parts of the UK as a storm moves across Wales and southern England
• 2009/11/13: BBC: Heavy rain and high winds have caused flooding in parts of southern England, with a weekend of storms forecast

  On the heatwave and wild fire front:

• 2009/11/14: BNC: Two years, three record heat waves in southeastern Australia
• 2009/11/12: KSJT: Los Angeles Times: That big blaze north of LA and across Mount Wilson? It's not out. Fires can be like that.

  As for disruptions of the hydrological cycle [floods & droughts]:

• 2009/11/10: FuturePundit: California Droughts When Planet Warms?
• 2009/11/12: Grist: Peru slum goes cutting edge as 'fog catcher'
• 2009/11/12: Yahoo:AP: Bolivia: Lake Titicaca at dangerously low levels
• 2009/11/11: TerraDaily: 20 die in Tanzania floods: officials
• 2009/11/11: CCP: J. Oster, I. P. Montañe, W. D. Sharp & K. M. Cooper, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., Late Pleistocene California droughts during deglaciation and Arctic warming
• 2009/11/11: CCP: Jessica Oster et al., Cave stalagmite ring study links ancient California droughts to warming in the Arctic
• 2009/11/10: CCP: NOAA: Report on October 2009 in the Contiguous States -- Precipitation Highlights [h2o]
• 2009/11/10: CBC: Indian landslide kills at least 42
  A landslide touched off by heavy seasonal rain killed at least 39 people in a hilly region of southern India, an official said on Tuesday.
• 2009/11/09: MoJo: The New Dust Bowl -- In the 1930s, Okies saw California's Central Valley as a Garden of Eden. Now it's dying of thirst
• 2009/11/09: EarthTimes: 15 people die in flooding in southern Thailand
• 2009/11/09: EarthTimes: Two dead, thousands evacuated as Malaysian floodwaters rise
• 2009/11/09: EarthTimes: Gone with the rain: 130 dead in El Salvador
• 2009/11/09: BBC: Desperate search in El Salvador
  Soldiers and civilians in the small Salvadorean town of Verapaz have been frantically searching debris left by a landslide for missing people. [...] Officially the death toll across El Salvador after days of heavy rainstorms stands at at least 130 people.
• 2009/11/08: CBC: El Salvador flooding death toll rises to 124
• 2009/11/09: CBC: Indonesian landslides [after torrential rains] kill at least 14
• 2009/11/09: Guardian(UK): Nearly 100 die as storm hits El Salvador -- At least 60 missing after floods and mud slides

  Note that several articles incorrectly attributed the El Salvadorian flooding to Ida, when TD 96E was the culprit:

• 2009/11/10: TerraDaily: Floods, landslides kill 152 in El Salvador
• 2009/11/10: TerraDaily: Ida not directly behind deadly Salvador floods: experts
• 2009/11/09: Wunderground: Ida weakens to a tropical storm; tropical disturbance 96E kills 124 in El Salvador
• 2009/11/09: BBC: Scores die in El Salvador floods
  At least 124 people have been killed in El Salvador by flooding and landslides following days of heavy rain, the government says. [...] Ida, which passed to the east of El Salvador three days ago, is not thought to have directly caused the severe rains.

Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2009/11/10: GaTech: Reducing Greenhouse Gases May Not Be Enough to Slow Climate Change [deforestation and urbanization]
• 2009/11/10: MillerMcCune: A Rock That Helps Out In a Hard Place
  If only some incredibly common rock would just sit around and suck up carbon dioxide all day. Oh, there is one. Why aren't we excited about it? Peridotite is a mineral that slowly absorbs carbon from the atmosphere. It's received little attention, but could make a big impact on combating global warming.

Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2009/11/13: PhysOrg: Netherlands to levy 'green' road tax by the kilometre
  The Dutch government said Friday it wants to introduce a "green" road tax by the kilometre from 2012 aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 10 percent and halving congestion.
• 2009/11/10: FuturePundit: Cars Join Into Virtual Trains In EU Research Project
• 2009/11/12: NBF: Long Trucks and Road Trains
• 2009/11/12: CalcRisk: Rail Traffic Declines Slightly in October [down 15.3% from October 2008, 0.3% from September 2009]
• 2009/11/12: PlanetArk: U.S. Trucking Feeling Pressure From Greener Trains
• 2009/11/11: ClimateP: Maryland county draws a "car-free blueprint for growth"
• 2009/11/09: BBC: 'Road trains' get ready to roll -- Road trains that link vehicles together using wireless sensors could soon be on European roads

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

• 2009/11/10: TreeHugger: 1,000,000 Energy Star Home Owners Can't Be Wrong

  And on the carbon sequestration front:

• 2009/11/13: Grist: Cleaning up after the enemy of the human race -- Is "we're going to burn the coal anyway" a good argument for carbon sequestration?
• 2009/11/12: LBL: Berkeley Lab and China's Peking University forge ties on carbon capture and storage research
• 2009/11/11: Guardian(UK): Beneath the waves: the future of carbon capture and storage
• 2009/11/09: Guardian(UK): UK carbon capture competition 'dead on its feet' says expert
  Professor Stuart Hazeldine warns only Scottish Power can deliver carbon capture and storage within the government's timetable.

Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2009/11/13: CBC:Current: [3 parts, mp3] What's at Stake in Copenhagen? 2009 Nobel Prize for Economics & Geo-Engineering
• 2009/11/12: TDC: The escape route
  Failure to confront hard decisions about emissions puts humanity in a box. But we have a way out. Call in the geoengineers.
• 2009/11/09: NewYorker: Hosed -- Is there a quick fix for the climate?

  Will they blame they geoengineers?

• 2009/11/13: EarthTimes: Snow death toll hits 40 in northern China
• 2009/11/13: BBC: In China, heavy snowfall has led to the deaths of 38 people in road accidents and collapsed buildings, state-run media have reported
• 2009/11/12: BizInsider: Man-Made Blizzard Paralyzes Beijing
• 2009/11/13: CBC: Early winter storms kill 40 in China
  Unusually early snow storms in north-central China have claimed 40 lives, caused thousands of buildings to collapse and destroyed almost 200,000 hectares of winter crops, the country's Civil Affairs Ministry said Friday. Nineteen of the deaths resulted from traffic accidents related to the storms, which began Nov. 9, the ministry said in a statement on its website.
• 2009/11/12: PlanetArk: China's Big Coal Province Disrupted By Snow
• 2009/11/11: COP15: China eases drought with artificial rain
  By spraying clouds with doses of the chemical silver iodide, China has brought rain to drought-stricken provinces -- and early snowstorms to Beijing.
• 2009/11/11: Yahoo:AFP: Playing with weather stirs debate in China
  Chinese scientists artificially induced the second major snowstorm to wreak havoc in Beijing this season, state media said, reigniting debate over the practice of tinkering with Mother Nature.

Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2009/11/13: AGWObserver: Papers on the iris hypothesis of Lindzen
• 2009/11/12: NERC:NORA: The UK Environmental Change Network: Emerging trends in the composition of plant and animal communities and the physical environment by M.D. Morecroft et al.
• 2009/11/13: TCD: Response of the ice cap Hardangerjøkulen in southern Norway to the 20th and 21st century climates by R. H. Giesen & J. Oerlemans
• 2009/11/12: ACPD: Effect of hygroscopic seeding on warm rain clouds -- numerical study using a hybrid cloud microphysical model by N. Kuba & M. Murakami
• 2009/11/12: ACPD: On the roles of circulation and aerosols in the decline of mist and dense fog in Europe over the last 30 years by G. J. van Oldenborgh et al.
• 2009/11/11: CP: The importance of Northern Peatlands in global carbon systems during the Holocene by Y. Wang et al.
• 2009/11/13: CPD: Winter and summer blocking variability in the North Atlantic region -- evidence from long-term observational and proxy data from southwestern Greenland by N. Rimbu & G. Lohmann
• 2009/11/13: Science: (ab$) Partitioning Recent Greenland Mass Loss by Michiel van den Broeke et al.
• 2009/11/12: NASA:GISS: (abs) Improved attribution of climate forcing to emissions by D.T. Shindell et al.
• 2009/11/11: AGWObserver: Papers on carbon cycle feedback
• 2009/11/08: AGWObserver: Papers on glacier melting
• 2009/11/11: ACP: An elevated large-scale dust veil from the Taklimakan Desert: Intercontinental transport and three-dimensional structure as captured by CALIPSO and regional and global models by K. Yumimoto et al.
• 2009/11/11: ACPD: Impact of solar radiation on aerosol-cloud interactions in thin stratocumulus clouds by S. S. Lee & J. E. Penner
• 2009/11/09: ACPD: Interpretation of Aura satellite observations of CO and aerosol index related to the December 2006 Australia fires by M. Luo et al.

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

• 2009/11/13: SciDaily: Professor To Predict Weather On Mars
• 2009/11/11: RealClimate: Muddying the peer-reviewed literature
• 2009/11/12: Eureka: How much water does the ocean have? Geodesy researchers observe the mass distribution of the oceans
• 2009/11/11: PhysOrg: NOAA deploys new 'smart buoy' off Annapolis
• 2009/11/10: IAState: Iowa State scientist develops lab machine to study glacial sliding related to rising sea levels
• 2009/11/08: MTobis: Cybernetics of Climate - Slides

  The Pielke fan clubbe, alas:

• 2009/11/12: Stoat: Oh dear oh dear oh dear oh dear oh dear

  Hansen:

• 2009/11/10: CCP: Dr. James Hansen rallies and testifies for 100% clean electricity in Massachusetts
• 2009/11/10: CCP: James Hansen speaks

  Meanwhile on the Kyoto front:

• 2009/11/11: SolveClimate: Poor Nations Issue 'Save Kyoto Protocol' Plea in Lead-Up to Copenhagen

  While at the UN:

• 2009/11/11: UN: Ban calls on US to put full weight behind agreeing new climate change treaty
• 2009/11/11: MongaBay: UN singles out US as the most important nation for global warming negotiations
• 2009/11/09: UN: Ahead of Washington visit, Ban expresses belief in climate change talks

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2009/11/13: ClimateP: Europe to easily beat Kyoto target -- looks like the European Trading System has worked after all
• 2009/11/13: TreeHugger: Cap and Trade Works: Europe to Hit Kyoto Targets with Ease
• 2009/11/12: Grist: How carbon markets work in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative
• 2009/11/09: PlanetArk: EU Carbon Futures Slide As Crude Weakens
• 2009/11/09: EarthTimes: Poland to sell surplus CO2 emission rights to Spain

  The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

• 2009/11/13: EurActiv: Business says EU carbon tax proposal premature
  European Commission plans to introduce minimum EU-wide CO2 tax rates could be "counter-productive" at this stage as member states have not had enough time to implement measures to cut emissions from sectors that do not participate in emissions trading, according to European businesses. National measures are more suitable for reducing emissions from sectors that fall outside of the EU's emissions trading scheme (ETS; see EurActiv LinksDossier) than EU-wide carbon taxes, BusinessEurope, an umbrella organisation for European businesses, told the Commission.

It's notable that several heavy league politicos are suggesting the dreaded Tobin tax:

• 2009/11/09: TPMCafe: "Financial Transactions Tax" Comes before "Value-Added Tax"
• 2009/11/09: Guardian(UK): Gordon Brown in secret push to sell 'Tobin tax' to City
• 2009/11/09: Guardian(UK): Gordon Brown is right: rich western banks should pay for the developing world to go green
  A global tax on banking transactions would curb speculation and the proceeds could break the deadlock on Copenhagen climate talks

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:

• 2009/11/09: BNC: Fee-and-dividend is superior to cap-and-trade for effective carbon emissions reductions

  Will carbon labelling work?

• 2009/11/10: BBC: S Korea joins carbon label scheme
  South Korea has become the latest nation to adopt an international standard on carbon labelling. The country is the world's ninth largest emitter of carbon dioxide, and exports $91bn (£55bn) of consumer products around the globe each year. South Korea introduced a carbon labelling in 2009, and plans to adopt the international standard by 2011. The scheme builds on a system that was launched in 2007, and developed and pioneered by the UK's Carbon Trust.

Meanwhile on the international political front:

• 2009/11/11: EUO: EU-Russia summit to focus on climate and energy
• 2009/11/09: COP15: Greenland wants to stay outside a climate agreement
  The world's largest island is fighting to remain outside a climate agreement if it impedes development. A special arrangement for overseas countries and territories would accommodate a possible solution to Greenland's dilemma.
• 2009/11/09: COP15: Japan and China sign major green agreements
  China and Japan have signed an agreement to deepen cooperation in tackling environmental change and the economic downturn. The Japanese Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry seized the opportunity and urged China to make an "international commitment" to cut emissions.

As for GW & security:

• 2009/11/08: CSW: Report from a conference on Climate Change, State Resilience and Global Security

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

• 2009/11/12: Guardian(UK): The Seattle activists' coming of age in Cophenhagen will be very disobedient

  And on the American political front:

• 2009/11/13: TexasObs: Coal Star State
  While America turns away from dirty energy, Texas could soon have 12 new coal-fired power plants. What gives?
• 2009/11/13: OilDrum: The US stimulus and "green jobs" for wind energy
• 2009/11/12: ClimateP: USGBC jobs finds "Green building to support nearly 8 million U.S. jobs over next 4 years"
• 2009/11/12: Grist: Wyoming uber alles -- How 7.4% of Americans can block humanity's efforts to save itself
• 2009/11/11: NYT:GW: New Army Corps Policy Forces Project Designers to Consider Rising Seas
• 2009/11/11: CSW: US Global Change Research Program: Budget reporting impedes meaningful oversight
• 2009/11/10: NRDC:SwitchBoard: ACCCE Forges Claim of Vet Groups Support for Coal
• 2009/11/10: HuffPo: You Can't Say "Sorry" When Millions Die from Your Mistake
• 2009/11/10: GreenFyre: The End of Reason
• 2009/11/09: ClimateP: Voters in Ohio, Michigan and Missouri overwhelmingly support action on clean energy and global warming
• 2009/11/09: PhysOrg: Making Climate Forecasts More Useful to [US] Farmers
• 2009/11/09: NRDC:SwitchBoard: If the Green Economy Is Coming, America Must Start Leading Now
• 2009/11/08: NewsTrib: Oceans give warning signs about climate -- NOAA left out of recommended members of policy council

  A sign of the level to which US politics has sunk:

• 2009/11/10: TreeHugger: Will the Climate Bill Grant Obama the Powers of a Dictator?

  The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2009/11/12: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Obama's Trip to China: a New Interest in Clean Tech and a New Spirit of Cooperation
• 2009/11/11: Google:AFP: Obama in 11th-hour climate bid with China, India
• 2009/11/10: DerSpiegel: December Climate Summit -- Obama Considers Attending Copenhagen After All
• 2009/11/09: Reuters: Obama will go to Copenhagen to clinch deal
• 2009/11/10: Guardian(UK): Barack Obama will go to Copenhagen if he can clinch climate deal

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2009/11/13: COP15: US set at damage control
  Trying to avoid "having Copenhagen failure laid at its doorstep", the US administration is reported to be considering patching up a limited short-term climate deal.
• 2009/11/13: TreeHugger: US Considers Scaled-Back Climate Deal - Congressional Inaction Holds Up Global Commitment
• 2009/11/13: EarthTimes: [Hillary] Clinton: Legally-binding treaty unlikely in Copenhagen talks
• 2009/11/13: WaPo: U.S. weighs backing interim international climate agreement -- Smaller-scale approach seen as first step toward full pact
  Less than a month before negotiators will meet in Copenhagen with the lofty goal of crafting a deal to curb global greenhouse gas emissions, the Obama administration is considering endorsing a limited short-term climate pact and deferring more ambitious action until next year. The scaled-back strategy is driven largely by the realities of domestic politics: The administration is hampered in making an international deal because Congress has not passed climate legislation. So any global pact would be postponed until next year when it would be constrained by whatever domestic climate legislation Congress enacts.
• 2009/11/12: RN&R: U.S. Interior Dept. changes stance on climate -- [U.S. Rep.] Dean Heller (R-Nev)objects to a federal program to help Nevada with its cheat grass problem
• 2009/11/12: SolveClimate: DOE Hydropower Funding Upgrades Dams Rather Than Building New
• 2009/11/10: WarmingLaw: EPA Sends Final Proposal of Endangerment Finding to the White House
• 2009/11/10: Grist: Where there's a will ... Can EPA regulations on CO2 be blocked?
• 2009/11/09: SolveClimate: EPA Sends Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding to White House for Final Review
• 2009/11/09: CSW: EPA sends endangerment finding on greenhouse gases to White House for final approval
• 2009/11/09: WSJ:EnvCap: Climate Fight: EPA Sends Global Warming [endangerment] Finding to White House
• 2009/11/09: Reuters: EPA C02 endangerment finding to White House
• 2009/11/09: ClimateP: EPA sends C02 endangerment finding to White House
• 2009/11/09: PhysOrg: Scientists seek safe carbon dioxide storage for 'greener' power generation (w/ Video)
  The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced plans to fund research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Engineering on technologies that would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the capture and permanent safe storage, or sequestration, of carbon dioxide (CO2). The project is in collaboration with Southern Company, the parent company of Alabama Power.
• 2009/11/09: SolveClimate: ARPA-E Bets on Disruptive Technology Synthesizing Fuel from Bacteria
• 2009/11/08: NBF: ARPA E Renewable Power Projects
• 2009/11/08: NBF: ARPA-E Carbon Capture Projects
• 2009/11/09: FAS:SN: Govt Petitions Supreme Court on Background Investigations
  Last year, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory thought they had successfully rebuffed a controversial government attempt to impose new background investigations on JPL employees under NASA's interpretation of President Bush's Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12. A federal appeals court concurred (pdf) with the scientists that the new investigations into employee personal histories were intrusive, "open ended," and not "narrowly tailored" to meet legitimate government interests. The court granted a preliminary injunction exempting the scientists from the investigations into their personal backgrounds. But last week, Obama Administration Solicitor General Elena Kagan petitioned (pdf) the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court ruling in favor of the scientists. That ruling, she argued, was legally in error and "casts a constitutional cloud on the background-check process."

As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2009/11/12: Grist: Fourteen Democratic senators stick up for coal
• 2009/11/12: HillHeat: Senate Watch, Slowing Progress: Baucus, Harkin, Kerry, Lieberman, Lugar
• 2009/11/10: HillHeat: Senate Watch: Baucus, Kerry, Menendez
• 2009/11/09: HillHeat: Senate Watch: Baucus, Chambliss, Graham, Gregg, Harkin, Murkowski, Nelson, Rockefeller, Specter
• 2009/11/13: WSJ:EnvCap: Giveaways: Fight Over Carbon-Emission Permits Comes to Senate [14 coal state senators]
• 2009/11/12: Reuters: Senators seek tweaks in carbon permit plans -- 14 coal state Senators want a free lunch for their coal company sponsors
• 2009/11/12: TP:WR: Fourteen Democratic Senators Stick Up For Coal
• 2009/11/12: TreeHugger: Sen. Graham Censured [by the South Carolina's Charleston County Republicans] for Climate Stance
• 2009/11/10: ClimateP: Must-see video of Sen. Kerry grilling AEI's Kenneth Green: "You just can't just throw that stuff out there."
• 2009/11/10: SolveClimate: Baucus Committed to 'Balanced' Climate Legislation; Kerry Takes Think Tanks to Task
• 2009/11/11: TreeHugger: John Kerry Skewers Climate Change Denying 'Scholar' (VIDEO)
• 2009/11/10: ClimateP: Inhofe vs. Kerry
• 2009/11/09: MoJo: Congress, Climate Cheapskate

  Kerry-Boxer aka CEJAPA defines a battleline:

• 2009/11/11: USNWR: Climate Change Bill's Murky Battleground: Assumptions and Statistics -- Democrats push ahead without GOP, now hurry up and wait
• 2009/11/14: Yahoo:AFP: Nuclear energy high on Senate's climate agenda
• 2009/11/13: ClimateP: Climate bill would be a boon to farmers
• 2009/11/12: COP15: Coal state Democrats slow US climate bill
  Hopes are fading for US legislation on climate change to be adopted ahead of December's UN conference
• 2009/11/10: ClimateP: Baucus supports a climate bill and knows it will pass Congress, but Senate Finance Committee calls on polluter lobbyists to attack clean energy yet again
• 2009/11/09: WSJ:EnvCap: What's Next for the Climate Bill?
• 2009/11/08: NYT: No Clear Map for Democrats on Path to New Energy Plan
• 2009/11/08: LA Times: Climate change bill is in trouble

  These apparently contradictory statements appear to turn on the issue of timing:

• 2009/11/06: ClimateP: Sen. Baucus (D-MT): "There's no doubt that this Congress is going to pass climate change legislation."
• 2009/11/11: WSJ: Climate Bill Likely on the Shelf For Rest of the Year
  [...]
  "It's common understanding that climate-change legislation will not be brought up on the Senate floor and pass the Senate this year," Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus said on the sidelines of a caucus lunch.

What are the lobbyists pushing?

• 2009/11/13: NYT:CW: NAM [US National Association of Manufacturers] Speaks Softly on Climate -- Does It Carry a Big Stick?
• 2009/11/10: HuffPo: Energy Lobbyists Seek Support From Veterans
• 2009/11/10: TP: In 'Act of Despicable Hubris,' ACCCE Exploits Veterans Groups To Push Dirty Energy Agenda
• 2009/11/09: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Decoding the US Chamber's Climate Position

  The Gore-apalooza is still bopping along:

• 2009/11/14: SunSentinel: Gore heckled at climate speech
  Former Vice President Al Gore's global-warming speech Saturday night at Mizner Park drew about a thousand attendees, as well as more than 200 loud protesters. Stationed outside the Mizner Park Amphitheater, the protesters jeered at Gore as he took the podium and at those walking into the open-air venue to listen to the speech.
• 2009/11/12: TreeHugger: Al Gore Rocks Greenbuild
• 2009/11/11: SF Gate: Al Gore crusades against global warming

  While in the UK:

• 2009/11/13: ScienceInsider: U.K. Engineering Body [IMechE] Calls for Aggressive Efforts to Cut Emissions
• 2009/11/13: BBC: UK climate targets 'unachievable' [says IMechE]
  UK government plans to make carbon emission cuts of 80% by 2050 are physically impossible to achieve, according to a new analysis. The Institution of Mechanical Engineers says there is not enough time or capacity to build the wind turbines and extra nuclear power stations required. Under current plans, the targets will not be met until 2100, it argues.
• 2009/11/12: Guardian(UK): Britain's renewable energy targets are 'physically impossible', says [IMechE] study
• 2009/11/11: Guardian(UK): Energy entrepreneurs can plug the gap in our power supplies
  If we are serious about meeting climate targets we must open the energy market to support independent project developers
• 2009/11/11: KSJT: UK Press Mostly: Britain designated ten best spots for new nuclear plants (mostly where old ones already are)
• 2009/11/10: Guardian(UK): Environment Agency calls for flood defences to protect 900,000 properties [in England and Wales]
  The number of homes and businesses at highest risk could rise by 60% by 2035, warns the agency in its five-year strategy
• 2009/11/10: Guardian(UK): Green home makeover will cost up to £15,000, says climate watchdog chief
• 2009/11/10: BBC: 3.6m 'miss out on energy savings'
  As many as 3.6m people in the UK are missing out on savings to their energy bills because they are not claiming insulation grants, a report suggests
• 2009/11/09: Guardian(UK): UK carbon capture competition 'dead on its feet' says expert
  Professor Stuart Hazeldine warns only Scottish Power can deliver carbon capture and storage within the government's timetable.
• 2009/11/09: Guardian(UK): Ed Miliband paves way for most ambitious fleet of nuclear reactors in Europe
  Eleven sites for nuclear reactors announced as part of UK energy strategy that includes 'clean coal' and wind power
• 2009/11/09: Guardian(UK): Nuclear power: A blow to the cheap coal option
• 2009/11/09: NatureTGB: British government launches nuclear (PR) attack!
• 2009/11/09: COP15: New generations of UK power stations are rapidly on their way
  The transition to a low-carbon economy may imply new UK nuclear power stations as early as 2017.
• 2009/11/09: BBC: The government has approved 10 sites in England and Wales for new nuclear power stations, most of them on the sites of existing plants

  A poll in the UK showed some startling (to me, at least) results:

• 2009/11/15: PhysOrg: Climate change not man-made, say majority of Britons: poll
  Less than half of Britons believes that human activity is to blame for global warming, according to a poll carried out for The Times newspaper and published on Saturday. Only 41 percent accept as an established scientific fact that global warming is taking place and is largely man-made. Almost a third, or 32 percent, believe that the link is not yet proved; eight percent say it is environmentalist propaganda to blame man and 15 percent believe the world is not warming. Only slightly more than a quarter (28 percent) think climate change is the most serious problem that the world faces.

And in Europe:

• 2009/11/13: PhysOrg: Netherlands to levy 'green' road tax by the kilometre
  The Dutch government said Friday it wants to introduce a "green" road tax by the kilometre from 2012 aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 10 percent and halving congestion.
• 2009/11/12: EnvFin: EU "well on track" to meet Kyoto target
• 2009/11/13: EurActiv: Business says EU carbon tax proposal premature
  European Commission plans to introduce minimum EU-wide CO2 tax rates could be "counter-productive" at this stage as member states have not had enough time to implement measures to cut emissions from sectors that do not participate in emissions trading, according to European businesses. National measures are more suitable for reducing emissions from sectors that fall outside of the EU's emissions trading scheme (ETS; see EurActiv LinksDossier) than EU-wide carbon taxes, BusinessEurope, an umbrella organisation for European businesses, told the Commission.
• 2009/11/13: EurActiv: Power firms unveil low-carbon electricity 'choices'
  Europe's electricity companies have published a new report setting out a number of scnearios for shifting Europe's electricity supply towards a carbon-neutral path by 2050. The 'Power Choices' study was presented to MEPs, NGOs and industry groups in the European Parliament this week (10 November) as world leaders gear up for next month's Copenhagen climate summit. However, the report was dismissed by the renewable energy lobby, which said it failed to tackle climate change. It also came under heavy fire from Green MEP Claude Turmes, who accused the electricity industry of seeking to undermine new legislation designed to stimulate use of renewables.
• 2009/11/13: EurActiv: EU on track to meet Kyoto targets
• 2009/11/13: PlanetArk: Austria Lags As EU 15 Over-Achieves On Climate
• 2009/11/13: COP15: Climate heroes: Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Sweden
  Five European countries have already reduced their domestic emissions below their Kyoto Protocol obligations. Jointly the EU is well on track to fulfil its commitments by Kyoto target year 2012.
• 2009/11/13: TreeHugger: Cap and Trade Works: Europe to Hit Kyoto Targets with Ease
• 2009/11/13: EUO: EU on track to meet Kyoto targets using controversial offsets
• 2009/11/12: EarthTimes: Spain and Italy head EU's Kyoto blacklist

  Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2009/11/15: ABC(Au): The WA Farmers Federation has welcomed a move by the Federal Government to exclude farmers from the emissions trading scheme
• 2009/11/16: ABC(Au): Opposition not sold on ETS agriculture backflip
  The Federal Government's concession to the Opposition to exclude agriculture from an emissions trading scheme (ETS) has failed to win over the Liberal and National parties.
• 2009/11/15: ABC(Au): Rudd looking for good-faith ETS negotiations
  Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says he is willing to give ground on the Opposition's demands for agriculture's exclusion from the government's carbon pollution reduction scheme, the CPRS. Mr Rudd says he does not yet know how close the Government is to getting the CPRS through the Senate, because the Opposition has not responded to the Government's proposals.
• 2009/11/15: ABC(Au): The National Farmers Federation (NFF) says it is encouraged by the Federal Government's decision to exclude agriculture from the emissions trading scheme
• 2009/11/15: ABC(Au): Majority want tougher emissions targets: Greens
  The Greens have released an opinion poll which says the majority of voters want the Government to adopt tougher targets for cutting greenhouse gases. The Galaxy poll says 54 per cent of people support at least an unconditional 25 per cent reduction in emissions by 2020. The Government says it will commit to that target only if the rest of the world agrees.
• 2009/11/15: JQuiggin: Fruit loops
• 2009/11/15: ABC(Au): The Federal Government has agreed to exempt farmers from an emissions cap in its carbon trading scheme, in a backflip aimed at winning the support of the Opposition
• 2009/11/14: ABC(Au): Wong denies sea level scare campaign
  Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has denied claims she is mounting a fear campaign to pressure the Opposition into a carbon trading deal.
• 2009/11/14: ABC(Au): 250,000 homes 'at risk' from rising seas
  A new report has warned that up to 250,000 homes around Australia will be inundated due to climate change by the turn of the century. The Federal Government report titled Climate Risks to Australia is the most comprehensive assessment to date, taking into account a projected 1.1-metre rise in sea level and an increasing risk of extreme weather events like tidal and storm surges. Up to $63 billion worth of residential property faces inundation, as well as 120 ports, some airports - including Brisbane and Sydney - and 1,800 bridges.
• 2009/11/12: BBerg: Rudd Says Collaboration Key to Tackle Climate Change
  
Collaboration and partnership are key to tackling climate change, which is a fundamental threat to humanity, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said. "There is a need for collaboration unprecedented in human history," Rudd told reporters in New Delhi today. "There is a group of people who deny the science, the reality of climate change. They are the enemies of us all."
• 2009/11/11: ABC(Au): Locals 'conscious' of climate change impact
  A survey covering the Illawarra, the Shoalhaven and the Southern Highlands has found 62 per cent of those polled believe climate change will have a direct impact on their lives in the next 20 years.
• 2009/11/10: ABC(Au): Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop says she does not believe the majority of MPs in the Coalition party room are climate change sceptics
• 2009/11/10: ABC(Au): Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has called on Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull to condemn comments made by Liberal senators who question whether people are causing climate change
• 2009/11/10: ABC(Au): Clean coal unviable, says Macfarlane
  The Federal Government has defended carbon capture and storage technology as a viable option for Australia to cut its emissions. The Opposition's emissions trading spokesman, Ian Macfarlane, says clean coal technology has passed Australia by and will probably never work.
• 2009/11/10: ABC(Au): The New South Wales Government has reversed its policy on solar power - meaning households with solar energy systems will soon be paid for all of the electricity they generate
• 2009/11/10: ABC(Au): Drought-proofing plan put to PM
  The Prime Minister's water advisers are set to examine the feasibility of multi-million dollar plans to drought-proof central west New South Wales.
• 2009/11/11: PlanetArk: Australian Government: Carbon Deal Will Be Difficult
  Forging a political deal on Australia's carbon trade laws will be difficult after a new round of opposition infighting, the government said on Tuesday, casting fresh doubts on whether parliament will endorse the plan. The government is in talks with the opposition over changes to the carbon trade bills aimed at ending a political deadlock in the upper house Senate, with the government keen to pass the laws before December's global climate talks in Copenhagen. But Climate Change Minister Penny Wong on Tuesday questioned whether the opposition could honor any agreement on the bills after a series of senior opposition lawmakers said a majority in the party does not believe in human-induced global warming.
• 2009/11/10: ClimateShifts: Australian PM Kevin Rudd; climate change hero [Lowy Institute speech]
• 2009/11/09: ABC(Au): Coalition MPs deny man-made climate change
  The Liberal Leader in the Senate, Nick Minchin, says a majority of his colleagues do not believe humans are causing climate change.
• 2009/11/09: ABC(Au): ACT considers electric car fleet
• 2009/11/09: ABC(Au): [Australian FM Wayne] Swan at odds with EU on climate funding
  Wayne Swan maintains it's not the place of finance ministers to make the final decision on funding. The G20 finance ministers meeting in Scotland over the weekend did not come up with any solid plans for how to help the developing world meet the demands of a new climate change deal.
• 2009/11/09: ABC(Au): Climate discontent feeds Coalition division
  The Federal Opposition has admitted it will lose most of its leverage to negotiate with the Government over the emissions trading scheme if it does not strike a deal within the next four weeks.
• 2009/11/09: ABC(Au): Wave plant tipped to be renewable energy drawcard
  The Glenelg Shire Mayor, Geoff White, says a new wave-power generator in the region will help attract more renewable energy projects. Victorian Wave Partners will build a 19 megawatt wave power plant near Portland.

New Zealand is another country afflicted by conservative denial:

• 2009/11/13: HotTopic: As you sow... (aka the "bugger" moment)
  And so it begins: the rest of the world is starting to notice the major disconnect between New Zealand's much advertised "clean and green" image and the National-led government's piecemeal demolition of sensible climate policy
• 2009/11/12: Guardian(UK): New Zealand was a friend to Middle Earth, but it's no friend of the earth
  Lord of the Rings country trades on its natural beauty, but emissions have risen 22% since it signed up to Kyoto
• 2009/11/12: HotTopic: National's ETS: the kids can pay
• 2009/11/09: BizGreen: New Zealand court blows over plan for Southern Hemisphere's largest wind farm
  Industry fears that controversial decision could set worrying precedent for future wind energy projects
A plan to develop an NZ$2bn (US$1.4bn, £0.83bn), 630MW wind farm in southern New Zealand has been quashed in a potentially landmark ruling by the country's Environment Court, on the grounds that it would ruin the surrounding landscape.

While in the Indian subcontinent:

• 2009/11/11: NRDC:SwitchBoard: News on India Climate Change and Energy

  And China:

• 2009/11/13: BBerg: China's Drive to Cut Greenhouse Gases Faces U.S., EU Critics
• 2009/11/12: IndiaExpress: China impetus on climate likely during Obama visit
• 2009/11/12: COP15: China's low-carbon path outlined [by CCICED]
• 2009/11/12: ChinaDaily: Emissions goal mulled for first time
  China should aim to reduce its carbon intensity by 4 or 5 percent year-on-year if it is to achieve its goal of low-carbon development by 2050, says a leading environmental think tank [China Council of International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED)]

Elsewhere in Asia:

• 2009/11/13: PlanetArk: Asia Governors Endorse U.N. Forest Carbon Scheme
  Six provincial governors from Indonesia, Laos and the Philippines on Thursday backed an expanded U.N. scheme aimed at protecting and conserving forests in return for carbon credits. In a joint statement after a meeting on the sidelines of an annual gathering of Asia-Pacific leaders, the governors said the scheme, called REDD+, held the promise of boosting livelihoods for local communities, a key step in curbing deforestation. But fair distribution of wealth was key.
• 2009/11/12: TreeHugger: Dhaka, Manila & Jakarta Worst Climate-Affected Asian Mega-Cities - Hits Closer to Home Than You Might Think
• 2009/11/09: Xinhuanet: ASEAN chief hopes Asia as agent of change for climate

  While in Africa:

• 2009/11/12: BBerg: [Ethiopian PM] Meles [ Zenawi] Unites 52 Nations to Exert Clout at UN Summit

  And South America:

• 2009/11/14: ABC(Au): Brazil unveils ambitious emissions target -- Brazil is offering to cut its carbon emissions by a third by the year 2020
• 2009/11/14: EarthTimes: Brazil aims to reduce CO2 emissions by almost 40 per cent
• 2009/11/14: BBC: Brazil proposes carbon cut target
  The Brazilian government has announced that it aims to achieve a reduction of at least 36% on its carbon emissions by the year 2020. If it meets its pledge, greenhouse gas emissions would be near 1994 levels. The proposal, which is not a binding target, was revealed in advance of the major UN summit on climate change to be held in Copenhagen in December. Brazil hopes to put pressure on richer nations to declare their intentions and break the deadlock in the negotiations.
• 2009/11/13: ScienceInsider: Brazil Announces Ambitious Plan to Slow Down Greenhouse Emissions
• 2009/11/10: Guardian(UK): Brazil pledges deep emission cuts in 'political gesture' to rich nations
  Brazil will take proposals for voluntary reductions of 38-42% by 2020 to the Copenhagen climate change conference next month, chief of staff says

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

• 2009/11/14: ETP: "Harper will only go to climate conference if other leaders do"
• 2009/11/14: CarsonsPost: Canadian hypocracy: warming while insisting others cool
• 2009/11/14: CBC: Harper urges climate rules for all countries
• 2009/11/14: CTV: Climate change an 'international priority' Harper says
  The international community must work together on a climate-change deal to "reduce the risk to the planet," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Saturday, but both developed and emerging economic powers must be on board so that some countries do not benefit economically while others suffer.
• 2009/11/14: TStar: Harper to be no-show at global climate summit
  Prime Minister Stephen Harper's jet-setting fall tour won't include a stop at a global climate change summit in Copenhagen next month. Harper landed in Singapore Friday and will also visit India, China and South Korea in the next month. But he has turned down an invitation from the Danish government to attend the much-anticipated climate summit in the Danish capital and rebuffed United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who said attendance by world leaders will be crucial for breaking the impasse in negotiations.

In a mildly amusing little sideshow, Jim Prentice declined to appear on a David Suzuki radio show:

• 2009/11/13: CanWest: Minister Prentice sidesteps showdown with Suzuki
  As the most middle-of-the-road federal cabinet minister, Jim Prentice was never apprehensive about appearing on CBC. But the environment minister turned down an invitation to appear Friday morning on CBC radio's flagship show The Current for a very good reason: a hostile host. That would be David Suzuki, the wildly successful environmental crusader and perennial alarm-ringer, who has seen the end of the world coming under a variety of climate-change scenarios. I've heard over-the-top speeches where the well-paid Suzuki demonizes Alberta's energy sector with such sputtering gusto, Ontario convention delegates were squirming uncomfortably in their seats as they contemplated flights home aboard oilsandsfuelled jets. But this jolly green giant's timing couldn't be worse to host a high-profile CBC show as an undeniable opponent of the government's environmental policies, or lack thereof.
• 2009/11/13: CBC:Current: [3 parts, mp3] What's at Stake in Copenhagen? 2009 Nobel Prize for Economics & Geo-Engineering

  In Manitoba:

• 2009/11/14: WpgFP: High hopes for wind die down -- St. Joseph turbine project delayed, nine others shelved
  Manitoba's green-energy projects are sucking wind compared to other provinces and companies that develop and service wind farms are starting to take their business elsewhere. While Manitoba's newest wind farm, a 300-megawatt project near St. Joseph, is mired in delays and nine more proposed projects have been shelved, Ontario has launched a radical program aimed at fast-tracking turbines. "Things are kind of at a sad standstill in Manitoba," said Justin Rangooni, a policy expert at the Canadian Wind Energy Association. "There's a lot of frustration. Developers are simply giving up."

Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2009/11/13: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Rebranding the Rebranding...tar sands are dirty whatever you call them
• 2009/11/13: Google:AFP: Canada's tar sands are the future of oil production: Total
• 2009/11/13: CBC: Suncor to expand oilsands project -- 'Officially restarts growth of the oilsands'
• 2009/11/12: OilChange: Debunking the Tar Sands Propaganda
• 2009/11/11: CanWest: World needs Canada's dirty oil: report -- Policy-makers must also consider security concerns
  The world needs Canada's so-called dirty oil, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday, even as it called on leaders to make decisive moves to slash greenhouse gas emissions at a United Nations-sponsored negotiating session next month.
• 2009/11/09: G&M: Big Oil makes case for carbon-capture subsidies [for tar sands]
  But companies unable to forge consensus on the best way to proceed with emissions reduction
  Canada's oil sands companies say they must adopt expensive carbon-capture-and-storage technology to meet environmental challenges, but will require major government subsidies to do so for at least the next decade. While carbon-capture-and-storage (CCS) will be expensive, the industry defends it as being competitive with wind power and biofuels in terms of the cost per tonne for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• 2009/11/09: TStar: Why should Ontario pony up for Alberta's exploits? [ie. pay for their CCS]
• 2009/11/13: CBC: Alberta lifts ban on sour gas projects -- Ban was imposed after court ruling

  As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

• 2009/11/13: PlanetArk: Canada Biofuels Sector Seeks Bigger Fuel Mandate

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

• 2009/11/09: OilDrum: Scientific American's Path to Sustainability: Let's Think about the Details

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

• 2009/11/10: AlterNet: 9 Silly Things People Say When They Hear You Don't Want Kids (And Ways to Counter Them)

  Apocalypso anyone?

• 2009/11/14: CBC:Q&Q: [mp3] Nazca Demise

  As for how the media handles the science of climatology:

• 2009/11/13: Guardian(UK): Should climate deniers be allowed to speak on the Today programme?
  Had the BBC done its research, Ian Plimer's falsehoods would not been allowed to pass unchallenged
• 2009/11/11: Guardian(UK): Are global warming and deforestation too scary for Sesame Street?
• 2009/11/10: MTobis: Very Slow News
• 2009/11/09: ClimateP: Memo to PBS's NewsHour: You can do better than "carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas thought to contribute to global climate change."
• 2009/11/09: PRWatch: Newsweek Is Neck Deep in Oil & Conflicts

  While activists search for effective communication techniques:

• 2009/11/11: ClimateShifts: Supermodels take it off for climate change

  Regarding the quality of blogosphere discussion:

• 2009/11/12: Stoat: Revisionism with Romm

  Here is something for your library:

• 2009/11/13: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Clean Energy Common Sense - the Little Book about Global Warming, What We Can Do About, and Why We Should
• 2009/11/13: NRDC:SwitchBoard: New book 'Green Community' defines and illustrates sustainable neighborhoods, towns, cities

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2009/11/13: Tyee: 'Collapse' [video review & commentary]

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2009/11/11: WarmingLaw: Kivalina Appealed to the Ninth Circuit [Native Village of Kivalina v. Exxon Corp, seeking damages related to climate change]
• 2009/11/10: Grist: Lawsuit accuses Virginia power company of poisoning Dominican community with toxic coal ash
• 2009/11/10: WarmingLaw: Only Slightly Off-Topic: The U.S. Chamber Sues the 'Yes Men'
• 2009/11/09: WarmingLaw: EPA Moves to Dismiss Chamber of Commerce/NADA Lawsuit on Standing Grounds

  Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:

• 2009/11/09: REA: Clean-Energy Wish List: Six Federal Policy Actions To Ensure U.S. Leadership
• 2009/11/14: CCurrents: The Fallacy Of Alternative Energy
• 2009/11/13: EnergyBulletin: The IEA and World Oil Supply Projections
• 2009/11/13: PhysOrg: The Future in Two Words: Ionic Liquids
• 2009/11/12: BBC: 'God's gift' to Brazil? [Tupi oil field]
• 2009/11/12: EnergyBulletin: The Oil Situation Is Really Bad
• 2009/11/12: OilDrum: A New Geopolitical Jevons Paradox? A Look at Non-OECD Oil Demand
• 2009/11/12: PeakEnergy: We need to go cold turkey to kick our addiction to oil
• 2009/11/12: BendBulletin: Geothermal - just add water -- But just how much water will be needed to create power near Newberry is unknown
• 2009/11/12: BizInsider: Decline In Alaskan Crude Production Threatens Entire US Oil Infrastructure
• 2009/11/11: CCurrents: The Choice Ahead: Entrenched Fossil Fuel Dependence Or Climate Change Management
• 2009/11/12: BBC: Storm blamed for Brazil power cut
  A severe storm has been blamed for widespread power cuts in Brazil which lasted more than five hours, the government said. The strong winds, heavy rain and lightning brought down a power line in Brazil, cutting two other lines and ultimately shutting Itaipu dam. In the worst blackout to hit Brazil in years, up to a fifth of the population was left without power on Tuesday. Neighbouring Paraguay was also briefly left in the dark.
• 2009/11/11: Reuters: Cuba orders extreme measures to cut energy use
• 2009/11/11: Guardian(UK): The future of oil
  New market dynamics created by climate change, geological and geopolitical pressures will transform our hydrocarbon economies...
• 2009/11/11: ClimateP: Why solar energy trumps coal power...
• 2009/11/11: WSJ:EnvCap: Power Shift: Winners and Losers In the Energy Future, From the IEA
• 2009/11/10: PhysOrg: Hydrogen milestone moves energy independence one step forward
• 2009/11/09: PlanetArk: Ocean Power Wins Grant For Australian Wave Project
• 2009/11/09: Grist: Intermittency and you -- Do we need nuclear and coal plants for baseload power?
• 2009/11/09: Yale360: Australia Invests in World's First Utility-Scale Wave Power Project

  The IEA released its World Energy Outlook this week:

• 2009/11/10: EnergyBulletin: [IEA's] World Energy Outlook 2009 - (press release and excerpt)
• 2009/11/10: IEA: World Energy Outlook 2009
• 2009/11/10: NatureTGB: IEA: something for everybody in the 2009 outlook
• 2009/11/11: PlanetArk: Energy Demand To Rise Rapidly If No CO2 Deal: IEA
• 2009/11/10: COP15: IEA Report: Challenge enormous - must be met
  Tackling climate change and enhancing energy security require a massive decarbonization of the energy system, a report from the International Energy Agency concludes. It's possible to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius, and the challenge must be met, says IEA.
• 2009/11/10: Reuters: [Fatih Birol interview] - Climate deal to prevent doubling of energy bills-IEA
  A climate change deal is needed not just to ward off global warming, but to ensure a shift from increasingly costly fossil fuels that could lead to a doubling of energy bills, the IEA's chief economist said on Tuesday
• 2009/11/10: EarthTimes: Energy agency urges radical action to fight climate change
• 2009/11/10: WSJ:EnvCap: Current Energy Plans 'Unsustainable,' IEA Says in New Outlook
• 2009/11/10: FTimes:ES: Fossil fuel use must peak by 2020, warns IEA

  Natural gas and fracking are getting more attention:

• 2009/11/15: OilDrum: Horizontal Wells and Gas Shales
• 2009/11/14: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Two more cases of groundwater contamination in Pennsylvania: benzene, arsenic and mercury
• 2009/11/10: DemNow: Watchdog: New York State Regulation of Natural Gas Wells Has Been "Woefully Insufficient for Decades."
• 2009/11/13: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Big Crowd Turns Out For State Hearings On Industrial Gas Drilling In New York
• 2009/11/12: EnergyBulletin: Umbrage in the Gas Patch
• 2009/11/11: ProPublica: New Yorkers Tell DEC: 'No Fracking Way'
• 2009/11/10: ProPublica: Congress Tells EPA to Study Hydraulic Fracturing
• 2009/11/09: ProPublica: Is New York's Marcellus Shale Too Hot to Handle?
  Fluids made up of a combination of naturally occurring water from the shale formation and drilling mud are pumped into a lined retaining area behind the drilling rig on a farm in Houston, Pa., in October 2008. New York state is currently holding a public comment period for an environmental review of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale. (Keith Srakocic/AP Photo) As New York gears up for a massive expansion of gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, state officials have made a potentially troubling discovery about the wastewater created by the process: It's radioactive. And they have yet to say how they'll deal with it.
• 2009/11/08: BBC: All change as [natural] gas reserves soar [fracking]

  The answer my friend...:

• 2009/11/14: WpgFP: High hopes for wind die down -- St. Joseph turbine project delayed, nine others shelved
  Manitoba's green-energy projects are sucking wind compared to other provinces and companies that develop and service wind farms are starting to take their business elsewhere. While Manitoba's newest wind farm, a 300-megawatt project near St. Joseph, is mired in delays and nine more proposed projects have been shelved, Ontario has launched a radical program aimed at fast-tracking turbines. "Things are kind of at a sad standstill in Manitoba," said Justin Rangooni, a policy expert at the Canadian Wind Energy Association. "There's a lot of frustration. Developers are simply giving up."
• 2009/11/10: WSJ:EnvCap: Paging Don Quixote: Spain's New Wind-Power Record [more than half its electricity from wind farms]
• 2009/11/09: PeakEnergy: Spain's windfarms set new national record for electricity generation

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2009/11/13: AutoBG: SEAT starts installing solar panels on Martorell [Spain] factory roof
• 2009/11/13: REA: Incentives, Falling Cost and Rising Demand in China's PV Market
• 2009/11/12: EnvFin: US to boost solar manufacturing with tax credits
• 2009/11/13: SciDaily: New Nanowires May Contribute To Highly Efficient Solar Cells
• 2009/11/12: SacBee: New solar panel promises cheaper power [Solyndra]
• 2009/11/11: NatureTGB: Solar in Europe under threat from cadmium ban
• 2009/11/09: PhysOrg: Solar Cells with LEDs Provide Inexpensive Lighting
  Of the 1.5 billion people in developing countries who do not have electricity, many rely on kerosene lamps for light after the sun goes down. But now, researchers from Denmark have designed an LED lamp that runs on solar cells, which costs less than one-quarter of the annual cost of using kerosene lighting. The solar-LED lamps are expected to last at least a year, making them an affordable alternative to kerosene.
• 2009/11/09: USAToday: SolarCity aims to make solar power more affordable [leasing plan]

  On the coal front:

• 2009/11/15: TStar: High stakes in Appalachia as greens battle Big Coal
• 2009/11/15: Guardian(UK): Scientists hope to turn coal into clean energy
• 2009/11/13: BBerg: Massey Energy Gets $50 Million Jury Verdict Overturned Again
• 2009/11/11: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining 101

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2009/11/15: PeakEnergy: Biofuels Aren't Really Green
• 2009/11/13: PlanetArk: Canada Biofuels Sector Seeks Bigger Fuel Mandate
• 2009/11/09: PhysOrg: Wet ethanol production process yields more ethanol and more co-products

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2009/11/14: NewsWeek: Could This Lump Power the Planet? [fusion]
• 2009/11/13: NBF: World Nuclear Power in 2009
• 2009/11/14: NBF: Britain Planning to Have Ten New Nuclear reactors by 2018 and China Prepares to Independently Build Six AP1000 Reactors
• 2009/11/11: OilChange: The "Corporate Killer" that is Nuclear Power
• 2009/11/10: ABC(Au): The British Government has announced a massive expansion of the country's nuclear energy capabilities
• 2009/11/10: OilDrum: The Future of Nuclear Energy: Facts and Fiction - Part IV: Energy from Breeder Reactors and from Fusion?
• 2009/11/10: BNC: Follow Britain's nuclear lead
• 2009/11/09: TreeHugger: Britain to Build More Nuclear Power Plants - And Despoil the Namibian Desert in the Process
• 2009/11/09: BBC: Nuclear fast-track plans unveiled -- Plans for fast-tracking a new generation of nuclear power stations are to be announced by the government

  Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

• 2009/11/10: EnergyBulletin: Matthew Simmons: "Global crude oil peaked in 2005" (interview)
• 2009/11/10: EnergyBulletin: The Peak of the Oil Age - The Uppsala World Energy Outlook
• 2009/11/09: TreeHugger: Five Hundred Oil-Industry Geologists Vote on Peak Oil
• 2009/11/09: OilDrum: Geologists Vote that Peak Oil is a Concern
• 2009/11/08: Courant: End Of Cheap Oil, End Of Road For Ruinous Lifestyle
  [...] Sooner or later, cheap oil will be over. Then what?

Also on the peak oil front, a big conspiracy grabbed attention:

• 2009/11/10: CCurrents: Key Oil Figures Were Distorted By US Pressure, Says Whistleblower
• 2009/11/12: AlterNet: Whistleblowers Say Oil Reserve Numbers Deliberately Inflated to Avoid Panic, Appease the US
• 2009/11/10: Guardian(UK): Too fearful to publicise peak oil reality
  The economic establishment accepts the world soon won't be able to meet energy demands, but wants to keep quiet about it
• 2009/11/10: CBC: Looming oil crunch played down: IEA whistleblower -- International Energy Agency accused of bowing to U.S. pressure
• 2009/11/10: EnergyBulletin: Comments on Guardian article: "Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower"
• 2009/11/10: OilDrum: Guardian Raises Questions about Past IEA Forecasts of World Oil; New IEA Forecast is Out - With a Lower Forecast
• 2009/11/10: PeakEnergy: Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower
• 2009/11/10: OilChange: US Distorts IEA's Oil Figures
• 2009/11/09: Reuters: IEA "whistleblower" says peak oil nearing: report
• 2009/11/09: Guardian(UK): Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower -- Watchdog's estimates of reserves inflated says top official
  The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying. The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves.

More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2009/11/11: IdahoStatesman: 'Smart grid' technology gives you power over your power costs -- A 'smart grid' grant will give consumers and Idaho Power Co. tools to boost efficiency.

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2009/11/15: SolveClimate: Energy-Efficiency Rules for TVs Could Spark an OLED Boom
• 2009/11/12: TreeHugger: GE Ships US's First Smart Appliance [a water heater], But Is It Pointless?
• 2009/11/09: GreenGrok: Lovins Sees Bright, Efficient Future

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

• 2009/11/13: OilChange: Electric Vehicles May Increase CO2 [depending on how the electricity is generated]
• 2009/11/13: AutoBG: Greenlings: Why does mileage drop in winter?
• 2009/11/13: AutoBG: Nissan CEO is bullish for Leaf's success, says million plug-ins by 2015 is an easy goal
• 2009/11/13: CBC: [Canadian] New car sales up in September -- Up 1.2% over August 2009, Down 7.5% over September 2008
• 2009/11/12: ClimateP: Should electric cars be intentionally made noisier?
• 2009/11/12: PhysOrg: Electric cars need government support: Nissan-Renault CEO
• 2009/11/12: WaPo: Tiny car [Tata Nano] has big potential
• 2009/11/12: AutoBG: ETA [UK Environmental Transport Association] says plug-in cars could "speed climate change" unless we get off coal
• 2009/11/10: ClimateP: Can't teach an old car company new tricks -- not even when it's under new management
• 2009/11/09: NewScientist: Super-efficient cars racing to win the X prize [100 mpg]
• 2009/11/09: PlanetArk: Chrysler Dismantles Electric Car Plans Under Fiat

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

• 2009/11/12: ClimateP: CEOs of Aspen Skiing Company and The North Face: "Climate change threatens our livelihoods ... and yours"

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

• 2009/11/13: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming New for November 13...
• 2009/11/12: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News...
• 2009/11/10: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News...
• 2009/11/09: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for Noverber 9...

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2009/11/15: JQuiggin: Fruit loops
• 2009/11/15: Guardian(UK): The Real Global Warming Disaster by Christopher Booker
  Considerable effort has gone into Christopher Booker's definitive manual for sceptics. Shame he's talking bunk, says Philip Ball
• 2009/11/11: Seppo: Climate change deniers are sissy compared to Stephen Colbert!
• 2009/11/12: QuarkSoup: How Skeptics Lie
• 2009/11/12: QuarkSoup: Comment on debate with Tim Ball
• 2009/11/13: CJR: Plimer, "Balance as Bias" Back in Climate Coverage
• 2009/11/12: PRWatch: Ian Plimer's Mining Connections
• 2009/11/12: Deltoid: Plimer calls his critics "rent-seekers"
• 2009/11/12: D.O: On water, climate change, Lomborg, and getting your facts right
• 2009/11/12: DeepClimate: Understanding climate with the Fraser Institute and Michael Chernoff
• 2009/11/12: TWTB: Delayed.Oscillator fisks Lomborg so you don't have to
• 2009/11/13: GreenFyre: George Will, low hanging fruitcake?
• 2009/11/12: CSW: Climate change: Kids get it, Rush Limbaugh and other denialists don't
• 2009/11/12: CSW: Lou Dobbs and global warming: Two stories
• 2009/11/10: DeSmogBlog: Friends of Science Ads Are Wrong and Should Be Pulled
• 2009/11/10: HuffPo: Energy Lobbyists Seek Support From Veterans
• 2009/11/10: TP: In 'Act of Despicable Hubris,' ACCCE Exploits Veterans Groups To Push Dirty Energy Agenda
• 2009/11/11: MoD: Lying "Friends of Science" are no friends of mine
• 2009/11/10: CEPR: Massive Defense Spending Leads to Job Loss
• 2009/11/10: IoD: George Will gets something right
• 2009/11/08: Deltoid: The Australian's War on Science 41
• 2009/11/09: PRWatch: Hill & Knowlton's Carbon Two-Step
• 2009/11/09: PRWatch: Old Consultant Welcomes New Sucker [nuke PR]

  The denier petition to the APS rejected and aftermath:

• 2009/11/14: Stoat: What we learn from the APS revision
• 2009/11/13: ERabett: John Mashey and Arthur Smith were right (and Eli wrong)
• 2009/11/14: GreenFyre: Only 0.45% of Physicists sign Denier Petition [APS]
• 2009/11/12: NatureTGB: Physicists firm on climate change [APS]
• 2009/11/12: Deltoid: Global Warming Skeptics score own goal [APS petition]
• 2009/11/11: ERabett: The American Physical Society Stays Real
• 2009/11/11: DeSmogBlog: Another Silly Climate Petition Exposed
• 2009/11/10: ScienceInsider: APS Council Rejects Bid to Soften Society Statement on Global Warming

  Meanwhile in the 'clean coal' saga:

• 2009/11/14: IJI: You are in a twisting little maze of think-tanks, all different: a new interesting finding
• 2009/11/12: Grist: Child Labor, Coal Ash, Coal Slurry -- Big Coal and child victims
• 2009/11/13: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Coal Ash: A Clear and Present Danger
• 2009/11/10: ScienceInsider: The New Carbon Protest: Refusing to Live in Coal-Powered Dorm
• 2009/11/10: Grist: Lawsuit accuses Virginia power company of poisoning Dominican community with toxic coal ash

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2009/11/15: NewScientist: How reputation could save the Earth
• 2009/11/14: Stoat: Whom should I attack?
• 2009/11/11: RStone: Climate Rage -- The only way to stop global warming is for rich nations to pay for the damage they've done - or face the consequences
• 2009/11/15: HotTopic: Rage against the machine
• 2009/11/14: NewScientist: Ray Mears: We'll struggle to survive climate change
• 2009/11/14: SciDaily: Green Heating and Cooling Technology Turns Carbon from Eco-Villain to Hero
• 2009/11/14: GreenFyre: Have you stopped debating your climate science?
• 2009/11/13: GreenGrok: Another Volcano, Another Cold Snap
• 2009/11/13: TDC: 'New' economy rolls forward
• 2009/11/13: MoD: Quote of the day [Tobis]
• 2009/11/10: BBC: From the space race to human race
  Forty years on from humans reaching the Moon, it is time for another epochal moment in history, says John Manoochehri. In this week's Green Room, he calls for us to recapture the spirit that took us into space and use that energy to save the planet.
  [...]
  Vision and feel-good are big parts of making change happen. But a great idea did not put men on the Moon 40 years ago; a vast, risky, people-driven and hugely uneconomic undertaking did.
  Right now, the sustainability movement is heading for a monumental reality check, within the decade, as governments, businesses and people realise that the contemporary hullaballoo is built on no such undertaking.
• 2009/11/11: CCurrents: Can We Handle The Truth?
• 2009/11/10: Grist: We have met the deniers, and they are us
• 2009/11/10: ClimateShifts: Who has the nuttiest national politicians?
• 2009/11/10: EnergyBulletin: Can we handle the truth?
• 2009/11/10: TreeHugger: Discovery News Launches as a Dedicated Destination for the Latest in Science and Technology
• 2009/11/10: PeakEnergy: The Utopian Kim Stanley Robinson
• 2009/11/08: BSD: In lieu of an actual climate change post, I'll just quote myself
• 2009/11/09: Stoat: Yet more snarking
• 2009/11/09: SolveClimate: Businesses Tap into Social Networking Site to Strategize Away Carbon Emissions
• 2009/11/09: GreenFyre: Climate change Bytes and Blogs VII
• 2009/11/09: CanWest: World youth will have to lead the way to climate change

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

• Tar Sands Watch
• C&C: Climate and Capitalism
• Oxford Geoengineering
• Nature: Destination Copenhagen
• Wiki: Dobson unit
• IIED: International Institute for Environment and Development
• 2009/11/10: IEA: World Energy Outlook 2009
• Discovery News
• StephenSchneider: Climate Change
• New Scientist
• Science Daily
• Eureka Alert
• CDIAC CO2 Info Analysis Centre
• Real Climate
• Wikipedia: Global warming
• WGMS: World Glacier Monitoring Service
• BAS: The British Antarctic Survey

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.

"We still have a climate crisis, an economic crisis and a national security crisis ... they are united by the thread of dependence on carbon-based fuel, you pull that thread and the crises unravel." -Al Gore

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