A Few Things Ill Considered

skip to bottom

Information overload is pattern recognition

December 20, 2009

• Chuckles, Copenhagen, COP15 Dailies, Copenhagen Accord, COP15 Rhetoric, COP15 Demos, COP15 REDD
• 550 ppm Leak, +2C Impact, AGU, Bottom Line, Carbon Tariffs, Open Access, Sunspots, CRU
• Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica
• Food Crisis, Food Production
• Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Aerosols, Paleoclimate, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Climate Refugees, Wacky Weather, Tornadoes, Wildfires
• Acidification, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
• Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Adaptation
• Journals, Other Docs , Misc. Science, Hansen, Svensmark
• Kyoto, UN, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
• International Politics, Security, Law & Activism, Religioso, Polls
• America, Obama, Congress, Britain, Europe, Australia, China, Middle East, Russia, South America, Canada
• Ecological Economics, Apocalypso, Media, Courts, Betting
• Energy, Fracking, Wind, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Greenwashing
• Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

Merry Friggin' Christmas! Here's Your Lump Of Coal! Ho Ho Ho!

• 2009/12/20: uComics: (cartoon - Auth) GW & Diplomacy
• 2009/12/19: Seppo: (cartoon - Seppo) Fossil fueled filibusters
• 2009/12/19: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Gort and Klaatu's Climate Let-Down
• 2009/12/19: uComics: (cartoon - Rall) Global Warming?!
• 2009/12/19: Guardian(UK): (cartoon - Rowson) Copenhagen global climate deal falls short of expectations
• 2009/12/18: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) More Baubles, Bangles and Beads
• 2009/12/18: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Festive Greetings from Throbgoblins International
• 2009/12/18: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) Thunderous Applause
• 2009/12/18: SeattlePI: (cartoon - Horsey) Atlas contemplates the fractious Copenhagen climate change conference
• 2009/12/16: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Whiff-Waff
• 2009/12/16: ClimateP: (cartoon - Roberts) U.S.-China climate smackdown...
• 2009/12/15: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Frank's Shovel, and Day 8 update
• 2009/12/15: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) Dear Copenhagen...
• 2009/12/13: CCP: (cartoon - Sheneman) Climate change is a hoax...or is IT!

  Sigh...I suppose now I need a category for unintentional humour:

• 2009/12/18: France24:AFP: Copenhagen 'must consider oil producers' interests'
  Saudi Arabia's oil minister called on Friday for any resolution taken at the climate summit in Copenhagen that could affect oil demand to include measures that "reduce the effects" on oil producers.

And have yourself a merry little solstice:

• USNO: Equinoxes, Solstices, Perihelion, and Aphelion, 2000-2020
• 2009/12/20: APOD: Tutulemma: Solar Eclipse Analemma

  The big news this week was Copenhagen:

• 2009/12/20: JEB: COP-out
• 2009/12/19: Yahoo:AFP: Climate scientists underwhelmed by Copenhagen Accord
  Top climate scientists said Saturday that the eleventh-hour political deal hammered out at UN talks in Copenhagen falls perilously short of what is needed to stave off catastrophic global warming. What many had hoped would be a planet-saving treaty locking major economies into strong commitments to shrink their carbon footprints came out as a three-page political accord with key numbers yet to be filled in.
• 2009/12/20: ClimateShifts: Copenhagen: Once a treaty, now an accord
• 2009/12/20: ABC(Au): The Australian Government has slammed "radical nations" which refused to back a new international deal on climate change, after the Copenhagen summit wrapped up without a legally binding agreement
• 2009/12/20: DeSmogBlog: Our Politicians Failed Us in Copenhagen and Will Soon Regret It
• 2009/12/19: Grist: An unwelcome lesson in power politics
• 2009/12/19: Grist: Copenhagen deal pushed through amid condemnation, disappointment
• 2009/12/19: Grist: Copenhagen outcome: a real climate catastrophe
• 2009/12/19: ClimateShifts: "Low targets, goals dropped: Copenhagen ends in failure"
• 2009/12/19: NYT: A Grudging Accord in Climate Talks
• 2009/12/19: HotTopic: Copenhagen closes: too little, too late
• 2009/12/20: Guardian(UK): China blamed as anger mounts over climate deal -- Beijing accused over emissions cuts - Campaigners say accord 'a disaster'
• 2009/12/20: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen: The last-ditch drama that saved the deal from collapse
• 2009/12/20: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen: The key players and how they rated
  The agreement brokered by Barack Obama has faced international criticism from all sides, but most participants are already back home trying to portray it as a national political victory
• 2009/12/19: UNDispatch: Day 13 in Copenhagen: "Not Fair, Not Ambitious, Not Binding"
• 2009/12/19: NatureCF: Copenhagen: If you put it in the hands of leaders...
• 2009/12/19: ABC(Au): Don't undersell Copenhagen deal: Flannery
  Leading Australian environmental scientist Tim Flannery says he is happy with the outcome of the Copenhagen climate change negotiations.
• 2009/12/19: NewScientist: Copenhagen climate talks break down, head for failure
• 2009/12/19: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Copenhagen Accord: Breakdown or Breakthrough?
• 2009/12/19: NRDC:SwitchBoard: The Road from Copenhagen Leads to the U.S. Senate
• 2009/12/19: JQuiggin: Glass half-full department
• 2009/12/18: EurActiv: Kyoto pact in the balance in UN climate endgame
• 2009/12/18: EurActiv: EU 'disappointed' by Chinese, US climate pledges
• 2009/12/18: EUO: Climate deal comes down to US and China
• 2009/12/18: EUO: Compromise climate deal emerging in Copenhagen
• 2009/12/18: UN: Ban entreats leaders to seal climate deal on final day of Copenhagen talks
• 2009/12/18: NatureTGB: Copenhagen: the final countdown
• 2009/12/18: NatureCF: Copenhagen: The leaders speak
• 2009/12/18: NatureCF: Copenhagen: 'It's anybody's guess.'
• 2009/12/18: ScienceInsider: Obama's Speech in Copenhagen: Right at China
• 2009/12/18: KSJT: E&E Greenwire, for instance: Copenhagen talks are talk, talk, talk with no agreement yet...
• 2009/12/18: MongaBay: Bolivia's President blames capitalism for global warming
• 2009/12/18: ABC(Au): Copenhagen: Prime Ministerial Disneyland
• 2009/12/19: ABC(Au): Non-binding climate deal struck at Copenhagen
• 2009/12/19: ABC(Au): Copenhagen climate talks run overtime
• 2009/12/18: NewScientist: Copenhagen diaries: Capitalist gods and socialist tantrums
• 2009/12/18: NewScientist:SSS: Copenhagen diaries: ... and then there were four
• 2009/12/18: PhysOrg: Diplomatic frenzy at final day of UN climate talks
• 2009/12/18: PlanetArk: Brazil Blocking Expansion Of Carbon Finance: Source [cop15]
• 2009/12/18: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Overtime in Copenhagen--We Are Not Done Yet
• 2009/12/18: COP15: Chávez felt excluded
  Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez criticized the UN climate conference for "a real lack of transparency", speaking on behalf of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas. President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela took the floor at the plenary, Friday afternoon, and accused US President Barack Obama of behaving like an emperor "who comes in during the middle of the night --- and cooks up a document that we will not accept, we will never accept". Chávez underlined that "all countries are equal". He stressed that he would not accept that some countries prepared a text for a climate deal and just "slipped [it] under the door" to be signed by the others. He said he had heard of the existence of such a text, but "we don't know the paper" and then continued by accusing the conference of "a real lack of transparency".
• 2009/12/18: COP15: World leaders beginning to leave
• 2009/12/18: TStar: Obama scrambles at summit, but frustration shows -- 'Big problems' remain with negotiations, France's Sarkozy says, pointing finger at India and China
• 2009/12/18: DeSmogBlog: Obama Mania Enlivens the COP Corps
• 2009/12/17: DeSmogBlog: Did Fairness Lead Us Here?
• 2009/12/18: EarthTimes: Russia sharply criticizes organization of climate summit
• 2009/12/18: EarthTimes: EU sticks to demands on deeper emissions cuts
• 2009/12/18: EarthTimes: Mini-summit targets minimalist climate deal
• 2009/12/18: EarthTimes: Top leaders head back into crunch climate mini-summit
• 2009/12/18: EarthTimes: Climate change mini-summit participants [list]
• 2009/12/18: EarthTimes: Climate talks hang in the balance, Obama warns
• 2009/12/18: WSJ:EnvCap: Copenhagen Blues: A Last Desperate Push at Climate Summit
• 2009/12/18: WSJ:EnvCap: Obama's Copenhagen Speech: Some Reactions
• 2009/12/18: OilChange: It's looking like a COP Out
• 2009/12/18: SolveClimate: Obama Proposes 3-Part Copenhagen 'Bottom Line' as Talks Reach Crisis Point -- Chinese Premier Skips Obama Meeting with 18 World Leaders
• 2009/12/18: CCP: Obama In Copenhagen, December 18, 2009: No Final Climate Deal To Present To World Leaders
• 2009/12/18: CCP: Obama as White Knight: Naked Ambition at COP15: NGO representatives and media members have responded to a live telecast of the President's utterly disappointing speech with loudly derisive grunts, moans and hisses
• 2009/12/18: BBC: World leaders are locked in talks as they attempt to deliver a last-minute deal at the Copenhagen climate summit
• 2009/12/17: BBC: Fight to control climate fund
  The deadlock over who should cut carbon emissions and by how much may be dominating the headlines here in Copenhagen but behind the scenes an equally big issue is being thrashed out. It's a fight for control of the massive new fund that will challenge our changing climate. So far there has been no agreement regarding how this money should be managed and where it should be channelled as negotiating bodies from the developed and developing worlds hold fast to their polarised positions.
• 2009/12/18: CBC: Climate summit 'hangs in the balance'
• 2009/12/18: CBC: Climate summit protests prompt UN access review
• 2009/12/18: CCD: Carbon supplicants on the Copenhagen pilgrimage
  George Marshall argues that the carefully stage managed involvement of civil society in Copenhagen fails to speak in any meaningful way to the people who really hold the balance of power.
• 2009/12/18: UN: European countries endorse UN-backed pact on tropical timber
• 2009/12/17: Tyee: Copenhagen Meltdown -- Angry frustration is boiling over in the city where NGOs and developing countries see no deal in sight
• 2009/12/19: COP15: In final push, wrestling over climate deal
• 2009/12/18: TDC: One planet, different universes
  All eyes in Copenhagen were on China and President Barack Obama Friday night, but no event captured the discord, mistrust and distance separating all sides at these climate talks than a pair of press conferences held simultaneously at the Bella Center earlier in the afternoon. In the main room, refusing to cede the stage to other dignitaries, Venezuela' Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's Juan Evo Morales railed against the developed world's inability to accept responsibility for previous emissions obligations and the role it has played in warming the atmosphere. (link to UN video) Across the hall, five Republican members of the U.S. House denounced the notion that humans could change the climate and expressed relief at the prospect of failure here.
• 2009/12/19: TerraDaily: Fury erupts at UN climate talks
• 2009/12/19: TreeHugger: COP15 Wraps Up, Opinions Fly, and it Could All Be Written in Glowing Fungi
• 2009/12/19: TreeHugger: Deal and No Deal: What the Hell Happened at Copenhagen
• 2009/12/19: EarthTimes: UN climate summit ends with 'work to do'
• 2009/12/19: EarthTimes: Copenhagen unveils the new world order - the G2
  Copenhagen - One hundred and twenty people are invited to a meeting. Thirty of them sit down and talk. Just two of them take the key decision. Welcome to the new world order, where the United States and China conduct the choir, a clutch of old and rising powers sing the key solos, and the rest of the world joins in the chorus.
• 2009/12/19: HotTopic: Behind the scenes in Copenhagen: historic COP out
• 2009/12/17: EnvFin: Political posturing rises as Copenhagen talks near end
• 2009/12/17: REA: From Copenhagen: Renewable Energy Gets Boost as Climate Talks Stall
• 2009/12/19: CCurrents: Copenhagen Ends In Failure
• 2009/12/19: CCurrents: Why Copenhagen Failed
  To anybody interested in the future of the earth's climate, the conclusion of the Copenhagen conference represents either colossal disappointment or profound rage. The financial pledges-- if honored-- that rich nations made to poor nations will do nothing to combat global warming. The few climate related agreements that were made were of zero substance, especially when compared to what the situation demanded.
• 2009/12/18: CCurrents: Over 100 Countries Call For A Decrease By 1.5 Degrees In Copenhagen
• 2009/12/19: Rabble:AK: X marks the Copenhagen deal [where the total emission target for 2020 will be filled in]
• 2009/12/15: PRWatch: The Story behind COP15, G77, Klimaforum09 and the Tired Ambassador
• 2009/12/18: PRWatch: COP15, Ways to Get More Specific for Change
• 2009/12/17: PRWatch: Deal or No Deal at COP15?
• 2009/12/18: BBerg: Global Warming Treaty Likely to Be Delayed Past 2010
  United Nations climate envoys may drop a plan to complete a binding global-warming agreement by the end of 2010, as two weeks of talks in Copenhagen overran their deadline with no framework to forge a treaty. A draft accord prepared in the Danish capital omitted a requirement that nations adopt "one or more legal instruments" to fight global warming during a UN meeting planned in Mexico City in November. The 2010 limit was in an earlier draft today. "The big obstacle is the gap between developed and developing countries; We're playing ping-pong," Haimoude Ould Ahmed, a senator from Mauritania, said in an interview in Copenhagen.
• 2009/12/19: Far-n-Wide: Copout-hagen
• 2009/12/18: PRWatch: Will Copenhagen Resuscitate Carbon Capture and Storage?
• 2009/12/18: TP:WR: Text Of President Obama's Address To Copenhagen: 'There Is No Time To Waste'
• 2009/12/19: DerSpiegel: Failure in Copenhagen -- Gunning Full Throttle into the Greenhouse
  What a disaster. The climate summit in Copenhagen has failed because of the hardball politicking of the United States, China and several other countries -- and because people just can't seem to fathom how catastrophic climate change will be. They probably won't have long to wait before things become a bit clearer.
• 2009/12/17: DerSpiegel: What about Climate Refugees? Efforts to Help the Displaced Bog Down in Copenhagen
• 2009/12/19: DerSpiegel: Merkel Speaks Out over Summit -- 'We Experienced a Self-Confident China'
  German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she expected more out of the global climate summit in Copenhagen. Speaking early Saturday, the German leader had no qualms about identifying China as one of the major hindrances to a global deal. Germany is now expected to organize the next interim climate meeting for mid-2010.
• 2009/12/18: DerSpiegel: Making a Splash at Copenhagen -- Climate Victims Lead the Charge on Tackling Global Warming
  While the bigger industrialized nations have wrangled over cutting CO2 emissions, smaller states have attempted to make their mark at Copenhagen. Ethiopia is hoping to export renewable energy, South Korea has founded a Global Green Growth Institute and even Bangladesh has set ambitious targets.
• 2009/12/17: DerSpiegel: Stalling in Copenhagen -- Chimerica Against the World
  China and the United States are playing a decisive role in Copenhagen. Both major powers are accusing each other of doing too little to stop the climate disaster. Europeans and developing nations are demanding the two agree to greater reductions in CO2 emissions. Will 'Chimerica' derail a real deal in Copenhagen?
• 2009/12/15: AlterNet: Copenhagen Is Not Just About Climate Change -- It's About the What Kind of People We Want to Be
• 2009/12/19: CanWest: Copenhagen anti-climax
• 2009/12/19: G&M: At Copenhagen, they avoided the worst but did not achieve the best
• 2009/12/18: Belfer: Chaos and Uncertainty in Copenhagen?
• 2009/12/18: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen climate change summit - final day live blog
• 2009/12/18: Guardian(UK): Gutless, yes. But the planet's future is no priority of ours
  While Copenhagen may fall far short of the deal we need, leaders know voters are not prepared to change their lifestyle
• 2009/12/19: Guardian(UK): What was agreed at Copenhagen -- and what was left out
• 2009/12/19: Guardian(UK): Rich and poor countries blame each other for failure of Copenhagen deal
• 2009/12/19: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen summiteers talked for two weeks -- then the deadline passed
• 2009/12/19: Guardian(UK): Obama emerges from climate talks with slender pact and bruised stature
• 2009/12/18: Guardian(UK): Barack Obama's speech disappoints and fuels frustration at Copenhagen
• 2009/12/18: Guardian(UK): Low targets, goals dropped: Copenhagen ends in failure
• 2009/12/18: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen climate summit: World leaders work into small hours to forge face-saving text
• 2009/12/18: Guardian(UK): Obama offers Copenhagen little hope
• 2009/12/18: Guardian(UK): UN asks leaders to stay overnight in Copenhagen
• 2009/12/18: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen climate summit: Five possible scenarios for our future climate
• 2009/12/18: Guardian(UK): China 'will honour commitments' regardless of Copenhagen outcome [Wen Jiabao says]
• 2009/12/18: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen summit: The final stages in the game
• 2009/12/18: Guardian(UK): Hopes for strong deal at Copenhagen appear slim as stumbling blocks remain
• 2009/12/18: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen heading for meltdown as stalemate continues over emission cuts
• 2009/12/18: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen negotiators bicker and filibuster while the biosphere burns -- George Monbiot despairs at the chaotic, disastrous denouement of a chaotic and disastrous climate summit
• 2009/12/17: Guardian(UK): China transforms balance of power in Copenhagen's negotiating halls
• 2009/12/17: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen diary: US in typo shock and 'red zone' extended to journalists
• 2009/12/17: Guardian(UK): Chances of a meaningful Copenhagen deal fading, negotiators say
• 2009/12/17: EurActiv: At the forefront of climate action, regions ask for clear signals
  Regions and local government have asked for the "right signals" from world leaders in Copenhagen so that they can kick-start the policies and investments needed to make the switch to a low-carbon economy. Speaking to EurActiv on the margins of the climate summit taking place in the Danish capital, Luc Van Brande, president of the Committee of the Regions, an EU consultative body, said regions needed a clear legal framework but also the financial tools to act. His statement was echoed by Michele Sabban, president of the Assembly of European Regions. "It is up to the regions and the local authorities to implement the commitments taken. For that to happen, a multi-level partnership is needed," she said.
• 2009/12/17: EurActiv: Climate treaty offers chance of 'social cohesion'
  Drawing up a new global climate treaty provides an opportunity to create social cohesion by sharing low-carbon technologies between rich and poor countries, Jacqueline McGlade, executive director of the European Environment Agency (EEA), told EurActiv in an interview.
• 2009/12/17: EurActiv: Poor nations push for 'new world order' in Copenhagen
  An attempt by developing and emerging countries to create "a new world order" in which Western industrialised nations are no longer dominant is threatening to scupper an agreement on climate change in Copenhagen, warned EU delegates. EurActiv reports from the Danish capital. As more than 130 world leaders arrive in Copenhagen for the final two days of the UN climate conference - US President Barack Obama is due to arrive tomorrow (18 December) - negotiators have warned that the risk of failure has never been higher.
• 2009/12/17: EUO:TD: Copenhagen: facing failure
• 2009/12/17: EUO: Africa lowers climate cash demands to boost Copenhagen deal chances
• 2009/12/17: EUO: Stalemate in Copenhagen as climate talks enter final stretch
• 2009/12/17: UN: New climate change deal in sight, Ban says as Copenhagen talks near end
• 2009/12/18: PlanetArk: Factbox: Which Leaders Didn't Make It To Copenhagen?
• 2009/12/18: PlanetArk: Factbox: Main Issues, Progress In Copenhagen Climate Talks
• 2009/12/18: PlanetArk: Factbox: What CEOs Want From Copenhagen
• 2009/12/18: PlanetArk: Factbox: Who Is Giving What At Copenhagen Climate Talks?
• 2009/12/18: PlanetArk: Factbox: Quotes From Copenhagen Climate Talks
• 2009/12/16: Grist: What's under construction in Copenhagen?
• 2009/12/17: Grist: Is the 'climate debt' discussion helpful?
• 2009/12/17: Grist: Leaders fear climate summit may end in failure
• 2009/12/17: Grist: Obama science adviser John Holdren on U.S. strategy in Copenhagen
• 2009/12/17: Grist: 3 degrees of scandal -- 'This entire conference is an elaborate sham' [McKibben]
• 2009/12/17: NRDC:SwitchBoard: China and U.S. Start Moving the Copenhagen Chess Pieces
• 2009/12/17: COP15: Kyoto proponents win first round
  After the climate conference agreed on the procedure for further negotiations, the Danish hosts re-launched UN climate talks on Thursday. A British newspaper calls it a "victory for the developing world." The Copenhagen negotiations broke the deadlock on Thursday and are now moving forward on a two-track basis that maintains the integrity of the Kyoto protocol.
• 2009/12/17: COP15: Sarkozy: Failure in Copenhagen would be a catastrophe
• 2009/12/16: Reuters: Climate deal on ships and planes seen slipping away
  Climate negotiators warned on Wednesday they may miss the opportunity to cap emissions from shipping and aviation and so miss out on billions of dollars in taxation to help poor countries cope with climate change.
• 2009/12/17: TreeHugger: 24, 24, 24 Hours to Go at COP15 & Where Are We Heading?
• 2009/12/17: EarthTimes: India willing to do more, says Singh as he heads for Copenhagen
• 2009/12/17: EarthTimes: Impasse at UN climate talks with 48 hours to go
• 2009/12/17: EarthTimes: China objects to Denmark's draft climate text
• 2009/12/17: EarthTimes: EU calls for world power-brokers' summit in Copenhagen
• 2009/12/17: EarthTimes:Ahmadinejad says nuclear energy key to combat climate change
• 2009/12/17: EarthTimes: Copenhagen talks return to climate details
• 2009/12/17: EarthTimes: US piles pressure on China as climate talks flounder
• 2009/12/17: WSJ:EnvCap: Norway Laments Climate Conference Struggles
  [...] "This feels like we're close to losing a major historic opportunity," said Norway's Environment Minister Erik Solheim in an interview...
• 2009/12/17: WSJ:EnvCap: No Love for Clean Coal in Copenhagen
• 2009/12/17: WSJ:EnvCap: U.S. Offers Climate Aid for Poor Countries, But With Strings
• 2009/12/17: WSJ:EnvCap: China Sees No Deal In Copenhagen -- Can expectations ... get any lower?
• 2009/12/17: OilChange: China: "Virtually no Possibility" of Climate Deal
• 2009/12/16: SolveClimate: UN: Next 24 Hours 'Critical' for Global Warming Pact -- Security Lockdown Coming as 115 World Leaders Descend on Denmark
• 2009/12/17: SolveClimate: Deal-Breaking Splits Remain over Global Warming Temperature Target -- 3 Degrees on the Table; Africa Calls $100B U.S. Offer Insufficient
• 2009/12/17: CCurrents: New Climate Deal May Have To Wait
• 2009/12/17: TP:WR: Copenhagen, Day Eleven: Collisions Of Science And Politics
• 2009/12/17: TP:WR: Copenhagen Diary: It's Easy To Beat Down A Few Thousand People
• 2009/12/17: TP:WR: Copenhagen Dispatch: It's Time To Secure The Future From The Climate Threat
• 2009/12/16: TP:WR: Copenhagen Day Ten: Pressure Increases For A Fair, Ambitious, And Binding Deal
• 2009/12/17: BBC: Climate summit solves key issues
  A deal at the UN climate summit looks more likely following a frantic day of behind the scenes diplomacy. China signalled concessions on monitoring of emission curbs, and the US said it would commit money for developing countries. Leaders are likely to have big choices to make when they meet on Friday. However, a leaked document from the UN climate convention indicates the best deal likely here will not keep the temperature rise below 2C (3.6F). Even if countries implement their biggest pledges, a rise of 3C (5.4F) is indicated, it concluded.
• 2009/12/17: BBC: Climate talks at the crossroads
• 2009/12/16: BBC: The road to a low carbon future [COP15]
• 2009/12/17: BBC: Climate deal cannot ignore rainforests
  Delegates at the Copenhagen summit cannot afford to leave the world's rainforests outside of a global climate agreement, says Daniel Murdiyarso [senior scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research]. In this week's Green Room, he sets out how plans to make the vital ecosystems worth more alive than dead are developing.
• 2009/12/17: CBC: World leaders push for climate deal
• 2009/12/16: EnergyBulletin: A Personal Report from Ben Brangwyn at COP15
• 2009/12/16: BBC: Climate talks resuming after row
  Formal negotiations have reopened at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen after a delay of nine hours. The hold-up was caused by wrangles over the texts to be used as the basis for the talks. Beneath the dispute lies a long-running accusation from developing countries that the Danish hosts are trying to sideline their concerns.
• 2009/12/17: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen: World leaders 'face public fury' if agreement proves impossible
• 2009/12/16: Guardian(UK): Evo Morales stuns Copenhagen with demand to limit temperature rise to 1C
• 2009/12/16: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen summit veering towards farce, warns Ed Miliband
• 2009/12/16: EurActiv: Copenhagen stumbles over climate aid to poor
• 2009/12/16: EurActiv: Climate summit struggles to overcome targets row
• 2009/12/16: EUO: Archbishop Tutu: Rich nations 'condemning Africa to incineration'
• 2009/12/16: UN: Ban lays out remaining hurdles in climate talks in Copenhagen
• 2009/12/16: NatureTGB: Copenhagen in quotes
• 2009/12/16: NatureCF: Copenhagen: 'They are heading into that zombie state'
• 2009/12/16: KSJT: Chaos in Copenhagen: On the streets, in the news, all is smoke and shouting, tugging and pulling
• 2009/12/16: MongaBay: Is the US sinking climate change talks at Copenhagen?
• 2009/12/16: MongaBay: Climate change protestors vowing 'people's assembly' beaten back with batons, tear gas in Copenhagen
• 2009/12/16: ClimateP: Snow in Copenhagen: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
• 2009/12/16: ClimateP: China in Copenhagen, Day 9: The Big Elephant in the Room - MRV [measurable, reportable & verifiable]
• 2009/12/17: ABC(Au): Two days to go, little progress at Copenhagen
• 2009/12/16: ABC(Au): Police thwart march on climate summit
  Danish police have fired tear gas and arrested more than 100 activists who tried to descend on the global climate change summit in Copenhagen.
• 2009/12/17: ABC(Au): Sinking countries beg for climate agreement
  Small island states have used the Copenhagen meeting to issue a final, desperate plea for help, with Tuvalu likening the state of the negotiations to the Titanic - a ship sinking fast.
• 2009/12/16: ABC(Au): Rich-poor divide halts climate deal
• 2009/12/16: NewScientist: Loopholes in climate deal could render it useless
• 2009/12/16: NewScientist: Copenhagen talks shift gears
• 2009/12/16: HillHeat: Climate Action Network Protests Exclusion of Friends of the Earth, Avaaz From Copenhagen Talks
• 2009/12/16: PhysOrg: Unique 'Climate One Stop' Web Site Unveiled in Copenhagen
• 2009/12/16: COP15: Key issues at Copenhagen climate talks
• 2009/12/16: COP15: De Boer: "Unexpected stop" in negotiations
• 2009/12/15: BNN: New BASIC bloc becomes reality
  With environment ministers of Brazil, South Africa, India and China sharing a podium at the climate summit here Tuesday, the new 'BASIC bloc is now a basic reality', according to India's Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh. In a move that did not go down well with representatives of smaller developing countries, the BASIC bloc came up with a joint statement on where it wants the Copenhagen summit to go. Though the statement did not say anything that the Group of 77 and China have been saying, its separate release indicated a break with the G77 plus China group, a diplomat from Bangladesh told IANS.
• 2009/12/16: TreeHugger: Friends of The Earth Banned From COP15
• 2009/12/16: TreeHugger: All or Nothing: A Look at the Copenhagen Endgame
• 2009/12/15: DeSmogBlog: Civil society frozen in Copenhagen
• 2009/12/16: EarthTimes: World leaders address fraught climate summit
• 2009/12/16: EarthTimes: Chaos and deadlock mar climate summit
• 2009/12/16: EarthTimes: Total of 119 world leaders expected to climate talks
• 2009/12/16: EarthTimes: Negotiators struggle to overcome climate talks deadlock
• 2009/12/16: WSJ:EnvCap: Climate Deal May 'Have to Wait,' Finnish President Says
• 2009/12/16: OilChange: Three Days to Secure a FAB Deal
• 2009/12/16: SolveClimate: Civil Society Groups Squeezed Out of Climate Talks in Final Days
• 2009/12/16: WaPo: At climate talks, key decisions unresolved
• 2009/12/16: GWWatch: COP15 Copenhagen -- What the...
• 2009/12/16: TP:WR: Al Gore Exhorts Leaders To Preserve The 'Glories Of This Beautiful Earth' For The Next Generation
• 2009/12/15: TP:WR: Copenhagen Day Nine: Signs Of Leadership Before The Leaders Arrive
• 2009/12/16: DerSpiegel: Climate Countdown -- Protesters Fail in Attempt to Storm Copenhagen Talks
  Anti-climate change activists attempted to raid the Copenhagen climate summit on Wednesday, but were held back by Danish police. Critique over the authorities' heavy-handed ways is on the rise.
• 2009/12/16: DerSpiegel: Global Warring -- Failure Looming at Copenhagen Climate Summit
  With just three days of negotiations remaining at the climate change summit in Copenhagen, fears are growing that the conference could end in failure. Neither the US nor China are budging, and the showdown between the rich and the poor could end in a stalemate.
• 2009/12/16: BBC: Climate talks leave Russia cold
• 2009/12/16: HotTopic: Behind the scenes in Copenhagen: 2
• 2009/12/15: Independent(UK): Mark Lynas: 'At this rate, Copenhagen will be a disaster'
• 2009/12/16: BBC: Environment ministers are holding talks at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen...
• 2009/12/15: Guardian(UK): Rich-poor deadlock in Copenhagen
  Developed nations are trying to water down their emission commitments -- no wonder the rest of the world is angry
• 2009/12/15: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen: Only the numbers count -- and they add up to hell on earth [McKibben]
• 2009/12/15: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen diary: Obama upset the Norwegians, and now it's the Danes
  Day nine: US president will not attend gala dinner hosted by Denmark's Queen Margrethe
• 2009/12/15: EUO: Climate summit organisation in disarray
• 2009/12/15: Guardian(UK): Can we halt runaway climate change? Not likely
  A lot depends on what world leaders decide in Copenhagen in the next few days, but it will be hard to avoid a 2C rise
• 2009/12/15: NatureTGB: Copenhagen in quotes
• 2009/12/15: NatureCF: Copenhagen: more chaos and disagreement
• 2009/12/15: NatureCF: If this is UN efficiency...
• 2009/12/15: NatureCF: Copenhagen: Moving forward, destination unknown
• 2009/12/15: KSJT: NYTimes in Copenhagen: Impasse. BBC's blogger supreme says that'd be dreadful (and asks why are skeptics nearly always men?)
• 2009/12/14: GreenGrok: Copenhagen Climate Primer
• 2009/12/15: MongaBay: "Nature does not negotiate," warns UN head on arrival in Copenhagen
• 2009/12/15: ClimateP: Coming to Copenhagen commits Obama to getting the bipartisan climate and clean energy bill passed
• 2009/12/15: ABC(Au): Copenhagen negotiator accuses Rudd of lying
  The chief negotiator for China and the small African nations at Copenhagen has accused Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of lying to the Australian people about his position on climate change. Lumumba Di-Aping, who represents China and the G77 group of small countries, was speaking as the talks remained deadlocked...
• 2009/12/15: Grist: Copenhagen cops cast pall over the city
• 2009/12/15: Grist: Silicon Valley to Copenhagen: It's OK to fail, if you do it right
• 2009/12/15: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Copenhagen Week One Wrap-Up
• 2009/12/15: COP15: Developing world threatens battle on drafts
  African countries, Brazil, China, South Africa and India say they have produced a default proposal to be used only if rich countries try to shortcut UN-led negotiations in Copenhagen.
• 2009/12/15: COP15: UN conference gearing up for make-or-break finale
• 2009/12/15: DM:CCM: Dire Reports from Copenhagen -- About Conference Access
• 2009/12/14: FTimes: Rich nations step up pressure on Beijing
• 2009/12/14: TerraDaily: Australian PM warns Copenhagen talks face 'failure'
• 2009/12/15: EarthTimes: Appeals for consensus at divided climate conference
  Copenhagen - The hosts of a global climate change conference in Copenhagen appealed for consensus Tuesday amid concerns that key United Nations talks may be heading for failure. "The time for unreasonable demands and pressure on your negotiating partners is over. The time for consensus has arrive," said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
• 2009/12/15: EarthTimes: High-level climate change talks formally opened
• 2009/12/15: EarthTimes: World leaders arrive for Copenhagen climate summit
• 2009/12/15: EarthTimes: US defends its emissions cut offer in Copenhagen
• 2009/12/15: EarthTimes: Developing countries must 'give more'at Copenhagen, Indonesia says
• 2009/12/15: EarthTimes: Monsanto awarded 'Angry Mermaid' lobbying prize
• 2009/12/15: EarthTimes: Mistrust and lack of progress lamented at climate talks
• 2009/12/15: EarthTimes: Background: Twin-track negotiations at Copenhagen climate summit
• 2009/12/15: COP15: Carbon capture is put on hold
  As some countries have reservations on carbon capture and storage (CCS) the emerging technology will not be added to the UN-backed carbon reducing mechanisms here in Copenhagen.
• 2009/12/15: WSJ:EnvCap: China: Nations Must Honor Kyoto Commitments
• 2009/12/15: WSJ:EnvCap: Copenhagen: What Are the Prospects for a Climate Accord?
• 2009/12/15: WSJ:EnvCap: China's Climate Envoy Criticizes Rich Nations' 'Empty Promises'
• 2009/12/15: CCP: Copenhagen: Canadian youth outraged at Canadian government lying about their future
• 2009/12/15: CCP: David Rovics, Report from Cop-enhagen -- Danish police and Christiania, windmills and water cannons
• 2009/12/15: CCP: Danish Police Raid Christiania: More Mass Arrests in Copenhagen
• 2009/12/15: CCP: Danish police have teargassed climate activists in Copenhagen after a debate organized by Climate Justice Action
• 2009/12/14: SF Gate: Tense atmosphere clouds climate talks
• 2009/12/15: NewInt:TEB: Observer at the apocalypse [COP15]
• 2009/12/14: Rabble: Climate zombies and the Copenhagen blues
• 2009/12/15: BBerg: New York, Toronto, Copenhagen Want 'Ambitious'
  Mayors from New York, Toronto, Buenos Aires and Copenhagen led city leaders in signing a resolution calling for "an ambitious and empowering deal" on carbon-dioxide emissions cuts. More than 80 mayors are in the Danish capital this week for a meeting running parallel to the United Nations climate summit. They planned to exchange experiences on the challenges posed by public transportation, waste management, heating, and promoting solar and wind energy.
• 2009/12/14: TP:WR: Copenhagen, Day Eight: Church Bells, Closed Doors And Acid Oceans
• 2009/12/15: BBC: The high-level segment at the UN climate summit has opened, with UN chief Ban Ki-moon telling nations to "seal a deal" on climate change
• 2009/12/15: CBC: UN head chides countries at Copenhagen "stop pointing fingers"
• 2009/12/14: SolveClimate: Tech Transfer Stymied by Lack of Climate Funding from Rich -- DOE's Latest Financing Plan Just a Drop in the Bucket
• 2009/12/14: NYT: China and U.S. Hit Strident Impasse at Climate Talks
  China and the United States were at an impasse on Monday at the United Nations climate change conference here over how compliance with any treaty could be monitored and verified. China, which last month for the first time publicly announced a target for reducing the rate of growth of its greenhouse gas emissions, is refusing to accept any kind of international monitoring of its emissions levels, according to negotiators and observers here. The United States is insisting that without stringent verification of China's actions, it cannot support any deal. The stalemate came on a day of public and private brinkmanship as the talks moved into their second and final week.
• 2009/12/15: G&M: The political hurdles of climate change -- In the real world beyond Copenhagen, it's internal bickering over emissions that's the deal-breaker
• 2009/12/14: DemNow: Indian Environmentalist Vandana Shiva: "It Is Time for the US to Stop Seeing Itself as a Donor and Recognizing Itself as a Polluter, a Polluter who Must Pay"
• 2009/12/14: EnergyBulletin: How to Break the Climate Stalemate Between the Global South and the North
• 2009/12/15: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen climate change talks stall
• 2009/12/14: Guardian(UK): The Copenhagen conference means life or death for the Maldives [Lynas]
• 2009/12/14: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen talks stall as African bloc accuses UN of trying to kill Kyoto
• 2009/12/14: EurActiv: Business lobby split at UN climate talks
  Industry has struggled to sway UN climate talks in Copenhagen because of a remote negotiating process and a lobby split between climate policy winners and losers, executives said on Friday (11 December).
• 2009/12/14: EnergyBulletin: Degrowth Seminar, Copenhagen Klimaforum09
• 2009/12/14: EUO: Climate talks almost derailed by bad faith between rich and poor
• 2009/12/14: UN: It's now or never in bid to curb climate change, Ban warns
• 2009/12/14: UN: UN gathers experts to help strengthen agriculture in poor nations, tackle food shortages
• 2009/12/14: NatureTGB: Copenhagen round up
• 2009/12/14: ClimateP: Why U.S. businesses want strong climate action in Copenhagen
• 2009/12/15: ABC(Au): Australia 'trying to kill Kyoto'
  Developing nations have staged a two-hour walkout at the Copenhagen climate talks, accusing the developed world, led by the European Union, Australia and Japan, of pushing to "kill the Kyoto Protocol".
• 2009/12/14: ABC(Au): Developing nations stage climate summit walkout
• 2009/12/13: Grist: Final week of Copenhagen, and the last act is not clear
• 2009/12/14: Grist: Walkout heightens fear of failure for climate marathon
• 2009/12/14: Grist: Who wants what at the climate talks? Copenhagen talks are a four-corner fight
• 2009/12/14: Grist: What should we watch for during the climate summit's final days?
• 2009/12/13: Grist: Letter from Europe -- All or nothing: a look at the Copenhagen endgame
• 2009/12/14: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Heading into the second week of Copenhagen ... the arc of the negotiations
• 2009/12/14: COP15: India sets Tuesday night deadline
  When the first heads of state arrive at Copenhagen on Wednesday, they must have an agreed text to look at, says India's Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh.
• 2009/12/14: COP15: COP15 quietly addressing other half of the emissions problem
• 2009/12/14: IndiaTimes: Copenhagen climate talks suspended in Africa-led protest
• 2009/12/14: WorldChanging: Why U.S. Businesses Want Strong Climate Action in Copenhagen
• 2009/12/14: EarthTimes: Ban: Stop posturing and blaming at climate summit
• 2009/12/14: EarthTimes: Africans return to climate change table
• 2009/12/14: EarthTimes: Russia: more consideration for developing world at climate talks
• 2009/12/14: EarthTimes: Climate negotiations suspended amid African fury
• 2009/12/14: WSJ:EnvCap: Copenhagen Walkout: Poor Countries Bail on Climate Talks
• 2009/12/14: OilChange: "We are getting close to midnight" [COP15]
• 2009/12/14: Reuters: African protest hits U.N. climate talks in last week
• 2009/12/14: SolveClimate: Arrival of 110+ Heads of Government to Turn Climate Talks into Climate Summit
• 2009/12/14: CCP: Oxfam: African countries pulled the emergency cord in Copenhagen today as rich countries reluctance to discuss binding emissions reductions brought chaos to the negotiations
• 2009/12/14: CCP: NGOs raise concerns about the COP Presidency's efforts to create a parallel 'unofficial' negotiating process -- in the margins of the UN
• 2009/12/14: HuffPo: Copenhagen Climate Talks SUSPENDED, In Chaos, As Countries Walk Out Of The Conference
• 2009/12/14: CSM: Counting the lobbyists at the climate talks
• 2009/12/12: PRWatch: Polluters Pose as Saviors at Copenhagen
• 2009/12/14: PRWatch: "There Is No Planet 'B'"
• 2009/12/14: Times(UK): Copenhagen stalls decision on catastrophic climate change for six years
  The key decision on preventing catastrophic climate change will be delayed for up to six years if the Copenhagen summit delivers a compromise deal which ignores advice from the UN's science body. World leaders will not agree on the emissions cuts recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and are likely instead to commit to reviewing them in 2015 or 2016.
• 2009/12/14: News(Au): Developing nations walk out of climate talks
• 2009/12/14: WaPo: U.S. unveils plan to rev up clean technology in poor nations -- Nations pledge funds to make renewable energy more accessible
• 2009/12/13: TP: Tuvalu representative: The fate of my country rests in the hands of the U.S. Senate
• 2009/12/14: TP:WR: Bill McKibben At Copenhagen: I Went To Church And Cried. Then I Got Back To Work
• 2009/12/14: BBC: Copenhagen climate talks resume
  Talks at the UN climate summit resumed on Monday afternoon after protests from developing nations forced a suspension. But talks have been limited to informal consultations on procedural issues, notably developing countries' demands for more time on the Kyoto Protocol. The G77-China bloc, speaking for developing countries, said the Danish hosts had violated democratic process.
• 2009/12/14: CBC: Developing nations return to climate change talks: EU
• 2009/12/13: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen summit: How major blocs have fared and what they want
• 2009/12/13: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen diary: Su Wei and Jorgen Manniche
• 2009/12/13: Guardian(UK): Poor nations threaten climate deal showdown at Copenhagen summit

  The Daily Reports:

• 2009/12/17: ClimateP: China in Copenhagen, Day 10 & 11: Of Chickens and Eggs
• 2009/12/18: IISD:ENB: Copenhagen Highlights - Thursday, 17 December 2009
• 2009/12/17: IISD:ENB: Copenhagen Highlights - Wednesday, 16 December 2009
• 2009/12/16: IISD:ENB: Copenhagen Highlights - Tuesday, 15 December 2009
• 2009/12/15: IISD:ENB: Copenhagen Highlights - Monday, 14 December 2009
• 2009/12/18 NatJo:CI: Need-To-Know Memo, Dec. 18
• 2009/12/17: NatJo:CI: Need-To-Know Memo, Dec. 17
• 2009/12/16: NatJo:CI: Need-To-Know Memo, Dec. 16
• 2009/12/16: NatJo:CI: Need-To-Know Memo, Dec. 16
• 2009/12/15: NatJo:CI: Need-To-Know Memo, Dec. 15
• 2009/12/14: NatJo:CI: Need-To-Know Memo, Dec. 14
• 2009/12/19 BBC:RB: COP15: (No) Hopenhagen?
• 2009/12/18: BBC:RB: COP15: Deal or no deal?
• 2009/12/18: BBC:RB: COP15: First draft of Copenhagen's political declaration
• 2009/12/18: BBC:RB: COP15: Saving the planet or saving face?
• 2009/12/18: BBC:RB: COP15: 'Nothing new' in Obama's speech
• 2009/12/17: BBC:RB: COP15: Tumbling towards a deal
• 2009/12/17: BBC:RB: COP15: Breaking a deal
• 2009/12/16: BBC:RB: COP15: Titanic nears the harbour
• 2009/12/15: BBC:RB: COP15: Climate 'scepticism' and questions about sex
• 2009/12/14: BBC:RB: COP15: Lockouts and walk-outs
• 2009/12/14: BBC:RB: COP15: Still squabbling over form
• 2009/12/14: NEF: Day 8 - Walking away is not an option
• 2009/12/15: NEF: Day 9 - Ministers make a head start to overcome remaining obstacles
• 2009/12/17: NEF: Day 10 - It's a question of "all or nothing" now
• 2009/12/17: NEF: Day 11 - negotiations finally begin, but is it too little too late?

  The Final Draft? aka the Copenhagen Discord:

• 2009/12/19: UNFCCC: [163k pdf] Copenhagen Accord
• 2009/12/19: CSW: Text of the Copenhagen Accord
• 2009/12/19: Guardian(UK): [160k pdf] Copenhagen Accord
• 2009/12/18: CCurrents: [160k pdf] Copenhagen Accord
• 2009/12/18: WaPo: [link to 294k pdf] Copenhagen Accord (4.30pm draft)
• 2009/12/18: Grist: Text of the not-yet-final climate deal
• 2009/12/20: BBC: Asian giants hail Copenhagen deal
  Asian giants China and Indonesia have hailed the Copenhagen UN climate summit outcome, despite its cool reception from aid agencies and campaigners. Beijing's foreign minister said it was a new beginning, and Indonesia's leader said he was pleased with the result. Earlier, US President Barack Obama defended the accord he helped broker with China and other main powers. The non-binding pact, called the Copenhagen Accord, was not adopted by consensus at the summit in Denmark. Instead, after two weeks of frantic negotiations, the 193-nation conference ended on Saturday with delegates merely taking note of the deal.
• 2009/12/19: TS:QuarkSoup: Copenhagen: Mere Disappointment, or Big Disappointment?
• 2009/12/19: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen closes with weak deal that poor threaten to reject -- Non-binding accord limits temperature rises but includes no emissions targets
• 2009/12/19: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen reaction: delegates speak
• 2009/12/19: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen: Key questions on climate deal
  Amid the chaos and confusion of frantic negotiations on the final night of the summit, what kind of deal actually emerged?
• 2009/12/19: EarthTimes: Copenhagen deal 'not acceptable': S.Africa's opposition, activists
• 2009/12/19: SolveClimate: Conference of Parties 'Takes Note Of' Copenhagen Accord -- Recognized, But Not Officially Adopted
• 2009/12/19: CCP: Jeffrey Allen, OneClimate.net: Why I would sign the Copenhagen Accord
• 2009/12/19: TP:WR: The Copenhagen Accord Is Significant Progress, But We're Not Done Yet
• 2009/12/19: TreeHugger: COP15 In a Nutshell: We've Agreed Not to Do Anything Meaningful at This Time, Maybe Later
• 2009/12/19: Independent(UK): The truths Copenhagen ignored -- The politicians have chosen low taxes and oil money today over survival tomorrow
• 2009/12/19: CCP: UNFCCC Press Release: Copenhagen United Nations Climate Change Conference ends with political agreement to cap temperature rise, reduce emissions and raise finance
• 2009/12/19: SolveClimate: Obama's Copenhagen Pact Unravels -- Sudan, Venezuela, Tuvalu Upset with Process and Targets
• 2009/12/19: CCP: Climate Shame: Copenhagen agreement fails UN processes and the planet
• 2009/12/18: CCP: Climate deal announced in Copenhagen, but falls short of expectations. Obama bursts into uninvited meeting between China, Brazil, India
• 2009/12/19: CCurrents: Climate Deal Not Accepted By All, But Copenhagen Conference Makes It 'Operational'
• 2009/12/19: CCurrents: The Truths Copenhagen Ignored
  So that's it. The world's worst polluters -- the people who are drastically altering the climate -- gathered here in Copenhagen to announce they were going to carry on cooking, in defiance of all the scientific warnings. They didn't seal the deal; they sealed the coffin for the world's low-lying islands, its glaciers, its North Pole, and millions of lives. Those of us who watched this conference with open eyes aren't surprised. Every day, practical, intelligent solutions that would cut our emissions of warming gases have been offered by scientists, developing countries and protesters -- and they have been systematically vetoed by the governments of North America and Europe.
• 2009/12/19: Guardian(UK): Failure at such a grand level means we have to act locally
• 2009/12/18: CSM: Copenhagen summit: Major powers broker compromise voluntary climate pact
• 2009/12/19: CSM: Copenhagen accord: 'essential beginning' to some, shaky foundation to others
• 2009/12/19: NYT: Many Goals Remain Unmet in 5 Nations' Climate Deal
• 2009/12/18: BuckDog: COP 15 ... A Political Compromise Dressed Up As A Deal?
• 2009/12/19: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen climate conference: The grim meaning of 'meaningful'
• 2009/12/19: BBC: UN says Copenhagen deal 'a start'
  UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed a US-backed climate deal in Copenhagen as an "essential beginning". But he said the accord, reached with key nations including China and Brazil, must be made legally binding next year. After intense wrangling, delegates passed a motion simply taking note of the deal, without formally adopting it.
• 2009/12/19: AlterNet: Copenhagen Talks End With Agreement, But No Binding Deal: So, How Screwed Are We?
• 2009/12/18: TStar: Copenhagen deal not binding -- Obama hails 'breakthrough' agreement, others not as positive as leaders begin to depart from 12-day summit
• 2009/12/19: EarthTimes: Analysis: The Copenhagen Accord - worth the paper it came on?
• 2009/12/19: EarthTimes: Compromise deal 'good' for developing nations, India says
• 2009/12/19: EarthTimes: World gives Copenhagen climate deal the thumbs down
• 2009/12/19: EarthTimes: German scientists disappointed at Copenhagen climate deal
• 2009/12/19: EarthTimes: UN climate deal scrapes through, marks 'beginning'
• 2009/12/19: EarthTimes: Deadlock cleared as UN climate talks 'take note' of accord
• 2009/12/19: EarthTimes: Marathon UN climate plenary session adjourns
• 2009/12/19: EarthTimes: World reaches minimalist deal on climate change
• 2009/12/19: DeSmogBlog: COP15 "Deal" - Not Fair, Not Ambitious, Not Binding
• 2009/12/18: EarthTimes: G77 chief rejects climate deal
• 2009/12/19: Reuters: U.N. climate talks end with bare minimum agreement
  U.N. climate talks ended with a bare-minimum agreement on Saturday when delegates "noted" an accord struck by the United States, China and other emerging powers that falls far short of the conference's original goals.
• 2009/12/19: NewScientist: Copenhagen chaos sets world on track for 3.5 ?C
• 2009/12/19: al Jazeera: Climate agreement sparks anger
  Five countries have reached a non-binding agreement at the Copenhagen climate change summit, but leaders from developing countries have reacted angrily to the deal. Five countries, including the US and China, forged the agreement on Friday following a day of frenzied talks at the 193-nation global warming summit in Denmark.
• 2009/12/19: COP15: A Copenhagen Accord it is
• 2009/12/19: CBC: Climate talks end with sketchy deal
• 2009/12/18: CBS: Climate Accord: Much Left to do
• 2009/12/19: CNN: U.N. chief: Climate change deal reached
• 2009/12/19: EurActiv: EU looks beyond 'weak' Copenhagen climate deal
  After two weeks of extenuating talks, world leaders delivered an agreement in Copenhagen that left Europeans disappointed as it failed to commit rich and poor countries to any greenhouse gas emissions reductions. EurActiv reports from the Danish capital. The face-saving deal, dubbed the "Copenhagen AccordPdf external ," failed to bring a binding agreement on tackling climate change, which Europeans said they expected before the UN conference opened.
• 2009/12/19: UN: Climate change deal marks an 'essential beginning,' Ban says
• 2009/12/19: NatureN: Copenhagen accord emerges -- Climate agreement is seen as a small, but necessary, step forward
• 2009/12/19: ABC(Au): UN climate talks in Copenhagen have avoided a total collapse by skirting bitter opposition from several nations to acknowledge a deal championed by US President Barack Obama and five emerging economies, including China
• 2009/12/19: ABC(Au): Future not for sale: climate deal rejected
  Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has praised the outcome of the Copenhagen climate summit, but some developing nations have attacked the agreement and are refusing to support it.
• 2009/12/18: RawStory: Copenhagen agreement called 'meaningless' and 'shameful'
• 2009/12/18: HuffPo: Meaningful Agreement: Obama Says 'A First Step' Climate Deal Has Been Reached In Copenhagen
• 2009/12/18: CNN: Obama announces climate change deal with China, other nations
  President announces "meaningful and unprecedented" climate change accord - Obama met with leaders of India, China, Brazil, South Africa to set "mitigation target" - Nonbinding deal is a target of limiting warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius - Obama: Emissions targets "will not be by themselves sufficient" to meet long-term goals
• 2009/12/18: WB: Non-Binding "Sham Agreement" Reached At Copenhagen. "Rich Countries ... Sought to Bribe and Bully Developing Nations"
• 2009/12/19: BBC: Key powers in climate compromise
  Key states have reached what they call a "meaningful agreement" at the Copenhagen climate summit. Five nations, including China and the US, reached a deal on a number of issues, such as a recognition to limit temperatures rises to less than 2C. US President Barack Obama said it would be a foundation for global action but there was "much further to go". However, the deal could be rejected as a number of nations expressed "dissatisfaction" with the contents.
• 2009/12/18: Grist: Climate activists declare Copenhagen agreement a disaster
• 2009/12/18: MongaBay: Agreement reached in Copenhagen, although 'not sufficient to combat the threat of climate change'
• 2009/12/18: NewScientist: Leaked Copenhagen draft suggests a win for China
• 2009/12/18: COP15: New draft for Copenhagen deal
  In a newly written draft named the 'Copenhagen Accord' a 2010-deadline for reaching a legally binding climate treaty has been dropped...
• 2009/12/18: COP15: US, China, India and South Africa reach deal
• 2009/12/18: WaPo: World leaders reach deal on climate change in Copenhagen
  President Obama said Friday night that an international deal to combat climate change had been reached, but "it is going to be very hard, and it's going to take some time" to get to a legally binding treaty.
  [...]
  The deal appeared to fall short of even modest expectations for the summit.
• 2009/12/18: TerraDaily: Climate: draft political accord readied for world leaders
• 2009/12/18: TreeHugger: Copenhagen FAIL
  Obama is announcing a "meaningful" climate deal. But the document's only meaning is "let's keep discussing."
• 2009/12/18: DeSmogBlog: Leaked final draft of Copenhagen treaty declaration
• 2009/12/18: EarthTimes: Leaders discuss new climate draft
• 2009/12/18: EarthTimes: Extracts of climate summit working draft
• 2009/12/18: WSJ:EnvCap: Copenhagen Blues? White House Announces 'Meaningful Agreement'
• 2009/12/18: Reuters: Obama reaches climate deal with emerging powers
• 2009/12/18: CCP: Leaked final draft of Copenhagen treaty declaration [text]
• 2009/12/18: BBC: Key states in Copenhagen have reached a "meaningful agreement" in climate change talks, a US official says
• 2009/12/18: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen draft text reveals deal is still out of reach
• 2009/12/18: Guardian(UK): Analysis: Copenhagen draft text -- Weak on figures and targets, developing nations say in response to latest draft Copenhagen text
• 2009/12/17: Guardian(UK): Victory for developing nations as rich countries abandon effort to kill off Kyoto
• 2009/12/17: NatureTGB: Copenhagen round up
• 2009/12/17: NatureCF: Copenhagen: History of mistrust mires talks
• 2009/12/17: ScienceInsider: Status of the Copenhagen Talks, in a Nutshell
  From international law expert Dan Bodansky, writing from the conference:

  ... it appears increasingly likely that the conference outcome will be a short political declaration largely devoid of substance, and a procedural decision to continue the "process," such as it is.

• 2009/12/17: MongaBay: US moves talks forward in Copenhagen with pledge of 100 billion fund, now it's China's turn
• 2009/12/17: ClimateP: Copenhagen: a climate commitment roundup
• 2009/12/18: ABC(Au): Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says he is still hopeful that an agreement can be reached in Copenhagen, but a pessimistic tone is creeping in to what other world leaders are saying as they arrive in the Danish capital
• 2009/12/17: ABC(Au): China has told participants in the UN climate change talks that it sees no possibility of achieving an operational accord this week, an official involved in the Copenhagen talks says
• 2009/12/17: ABC(Au): Rudd leans on Tuvalu over warming limit
  Tuvalu Prime Minister Apisai Ielemia says Australia is pressuring him to drop his demand for global warming to be limited to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.
• 2009/12/16: EurActiv: Carbon capture ruled out of UN clean projects list

  Snappy rhetoric alert: X deal is worse/better than Y deal:

• 2009/12/18: CCurrents: Better To Have No Deal Than One That Spells Catastrophe
• 2009/12/18: ABC(Au): Imperfect deal better than no deal: Obama
• 2009/12/17: Grist: 'Empty' climate deal worse than no deal, says White House
• 2009/12/17: Grist: John Kerry on whether a weak climate deal is better than no deal at all
• 2009/12/17: Grist: Tim Wirth says imperfect deal at Copenhagen better than no deal
• 2009/12/17: Guardian(UK): Better to have no deal at Copenhagen than one that spells catastrophe

  Demonstrations:

• 2009/12/17: Guardian(UK): Activists reveal tactics used by police to 'decapitate' Copenhagen climate protests
• 2009/12/17: EarthTimes:Activists breach security prior to state dinner
• 2009/12/17: EarthTimes: Avalanche of protests bury climate talk hosts Denmark
• 2009/12/16: EarthTimes: Police block protesters from storming climate venue
• 2009/12/16: NYT: Police Beat Back Massed Climate Protesters
• 2009/12/16: CBC: Police detain protesters at climate summit
  Turmoil erupted Wednesday both inside and outside of the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen. Police used batons and tear gas to break up demonstrations meant to disrupt the conference. A police spokesman said about 230 activists were detained after they tried to get through the security perimeter around the Bella Centre, the suburban site where the conference is being held. Protesters had said they wanted to take over the conference and turn it into a "people's assembly."
• 2009/12/15: Guardian(UK): Why co-operate with Copenhagen cops?
  Few of us fought back against policing at the Copenhagen protests, but mass repression requires mass resistance
• 2009/12/15: Guardian(UK): High-profile activist's arrest fuels fears of police crackdown in Copenhagen
  Climate Justice Action spokesman [Tadzio Mueller] to face charges, as Danish police prepare for mass protests at Copenhagen's Bella centre
• 2009/12/15: EurActiv: 'Civil unrest' warning as Copenhagen draws to a close
  Civil unrest and human rights litigation cases are likely to increase in the coming years unless heads of state and government show political leadership to stop climate change, said Mary Robinson, a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former Irish president, in an interview with EurActiv.
• 2009/12/14: DemNow: Using Controversial Law, Danish Police Preemptively Arrest Over 1,000 Protesters
• 2009/12/14: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen's policing by design [Klein]
  The Danish need for control is a real problem at the climate talks, where protesters should be able to connect with delegates
• 2009/12/14: EarthTimes: Police arrest 17 at latest climate protest in Copenhagen
• 2009/12/13: CBC: 200 arrested during Copenhagen climate meeting -- Most of the nearly 1,000 arrested Saturday have been released
• 2009/12/13: Guardian(UK): Protests in Copenhagen: Rights groups press for inquiry into police tactics

  The state of the forests and REDD are a major issue:

• 2009/12/18: ScienceInsider: Could a Deeper Shade of REDD Close the Carbon Gap?
• 2009/12/18: ScienceInsider: Could a Deeper Shade of REDD Close the Carbon Gap?
• 2009/12/17: SolveClimate: REDD Forestry Deal Close, But May Not Have Money to Pay for It -- No Money, No Solid Targets for Ending Deforestation
• 2009/12/18: SolveClimate: Google, Cisco Offer Answers to REDD's Verification Question -- Forest Monitoring Apps Put Technology to Work Saving Rainforests
• 2009/12/17: MongaBay: Uninhabited tropical island paradise seeks REDD funding to save it from loggers
• 2009/12/16: Runesmith: Making forest preservation worth more than forest destruction
• 2009/12/16: COP15: Countries pledge billions to protect rainforests
  The US, Australia, France, Japan, Norway and Britain will make 3.5 billion US dollars available for developing countries that produce ambitious plans to slow and eventually reverse deforestation.
• 2009/12/13: NatureCF: Copenhagen: REDD all over, lofty goals, lesser ambitions

  The leaked report -- 550 ppm and +3C average global temperature rise:

• 2009/12/18: ABC(Au): 3C rise 'would see countries disappear'
  Greenpeace China says it is shocked by revelations the combined commitments made in the lead-up to Copenhagen will lead to a global temperature rise of three degrees. A leaked report by the United Nations has cast a dark shadow over any final accord made at the climate change summit.
• 2009/12/18: Grist: What to make of second leaked U.N. doc and its sanctioned 3C rise in global temp?
• 2009/12/17: CCP: Leaked Annex I document means 550 ppm and 3 degrees of temperature rise...
• 2009/12/17: Telegraph(UK): Copenhagen climate conference: Leaked UN document shows deal could still lead to catastrophic global warming
  A leaked UN document emerged that shows the current proposals for a deal at Copenhagen will 'put at risk the very viability of our civilisation on Earth'.
• 2009/12/17: Scotsman: Scientists warn of 30ft rise in sea level due to 2C of global warming
• 2009/12/18: ABC(Au): A UN report leaked from the Copenhagen climate talks suggests that global temperatures will rise by an average of 3 degrees Celsius even if all the emissions cuts offered so far are implemented
• 2009/12/17: Grist: 3 degrees of scandal -- 'This entire conference is an elaborate sham' [McKibben]
• 2009/12/17: COP15: Emissions pledges do not match needs
  Emissions cuts offered so far at the Copenhagen summit will lead to global temperatures rising by an average of three degrees, a confidential UN analysis obtained by The Guardian reveals.
• 2009/12/17: Guardian(UK): Leaked UN report shows cuts offered at Copenhagen would lead to 3C rise
  UN secretariat initial draft shows gap of up to 4.2 gigatonnes of CO2 between present pledges and cuts required to limit rise to 2C
• 2009/12/17: DeSmogBlog: Leaked climate talks text makes disturbing conclusions
  [...]
  "Unless the remaining gap of around 1.9 to 4.2 Gt is closed and Parties commit themselves to strong action prior and after 2020, global emissions will remain on an unsustainable pathway that could lead to concentrations equal or above 550ppm with the related temperature raise around 3 degrees Celsius."

Another of those unsettling studies -- +2°C of global warming will have greater impact than realized:

• 2009/12/16: CCP: Sebastian H. Mernild: Is 'Tipping Point' for the Greenland Ice Sheet approaching?
• 2009/12/16: CCP: Earth's polar ice sheets vulnerable to even moderate global warming: An additional 2°C of global warming could commit the planet to 6-9 meters (20-30 feet) of long-term sea level rise
• 2009/12/17: CanWest: Two-degree temperature rise could flood wide areas of planet, study says
  A team of geophysicists is warning that the massive polar ice sheets are even more vulnerable to global warming than previously believed, and could trigger a sea level rise of six to nine metres. The scientists from Princeton and Harvard universities say that just two degrees Celsius of global warming, which is now widely expected to occur in coming decades, could be enough to commit the planet to inundation.
• 2009/12/16: Eureka: Study: Earth's polar ice sheets vulnerable to even moderate global warming -- An additional 2 degrees of global warming could commit the planet
  A new analysis of the geological record of the Earth's sea level, carried out by scientists at Princeton and Harvard universities and published in the Dec. 16 issue of Nature, employs a novel statistical approach that reveals the planet's polar ice sheets are vulnerable to large-scale melting even under moderate global warming scenarios. Such melting would lead to a large and relatively rapid rise in global sea level. According to the analysis, an additional 2 degrees of global warming could commit the planet to 6 to 9 meters (20 to 30 feet) of long-term sea level rise.
• 2009/12/16: Guardian(UK): IPCC forecasts 9m sea-level rise if temperatures meet 2C threshold
• 2009/12/16: Maribo: 2C or not 2C: Copenhagen and global temperature threshold (Part II)
• 2009/12/14: Maribo: 2C or not 2C: Copenhagen and global temperature threshold (Part 1)
• 2009/12/15: Guardian(UK): Can we halt runaway climate change? Not likely
  A lot depends on what world leaders decide in Copenhagen in the next few days, but it will be hard to avoid a 2C rise

The AGU held its annual meeting in San Francisco this week:

• 2009/12/18: NatureCF: AGU 2009: Humidity more than heat cause of vanishing glaciers
• 2009/12/18: NatureCF: AGU 2009:Mann hits back at 'climategate' hackers
• 2009/12/18: KSJT: A busy newsroom -- and press release blizzard -- from geophysical meeting in SF [agu]
• 2009/12/18: CC: Richard Alley at AGU 2009: The Biggest Control Knob
• 2009/12/16: ERabett: Open Letter to the Climate Science Community: As spoken at the AGU 2009 Fall Meeting
• 2009/12/16: MTobis: Richard Alley Talk
• 2009/12/19: MTobis: Photo Essay: A Scientific Congress
• 2009/12/16: NatureTGB: If it's December, it's the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union
• 2009/12/16: NatureCF: AGU 2009: Putting on AIRS at AGU
• 2009/12/16: KSJT: NYTimes, etc: Meanwhile at the AGU -- some real climate science news, and more
• 2009/12/16: PhysOrg: NASA Calculates a Carbon Budget for California
• 2009/12/15: NatureCF: AGU 2009: Capeless superheroes and rumbling shorelines
• 2009/12/15: NatureCF: AGU 2009: Food for thought
• 2009/12/15: SciNews: Irrigation draining California groundwater at 'unsustainable' pace -- The GRACE satellites have tracked water movement from the Central Valley since 2003
• 2009/12/14: RealClimate: AGU Fall 2009

  And on the Bottom Line:

• 2009/12/17: BBC: Fight to control climate fund
  The deadlock over who should cut carbon emissions and by how much may be dominating the headlines here in Copenhagen but behind the scenes an equally big issue is being thrashed out. It's a fight for control of the massive new fund that will challenge our changing climate. So far there has been no agreement regarding how this money should be managed and where it should be channelled as negotiating bodies from the developed and developing worlds hold fast to their polarised positions.
• 2009/12/19: VoxEU: Assessing the economics of stringent climate policies: The risk of selection bias by Massimo Tavoni & Richard S.J. Tol
  A review of the estimates of climate policy costs produces biased estimates for the more ambitious objectives -- such as those compatible with the 2°C of the EU and the G8 -- since only the most optimistic results are reported for such targets. This column shows that unbiased estimates predict highly variable costs for the most difficult scenarios.
• 2009/12/17: MoD: The costs of climate mitigation
• 2009/12/17: G&M: Clinton warns of 'deal breaker' on $100-billion climate pact
  U.S. Secretary of State warns U.S. will back down on financing pledge unless China, others commit to transparency in reporting greenhouse gas emissions
• 2009/12/17: CCurrents: Copenhagen: The Price Of The Atmosphere
• 2009/12/14: CCurrents: Recent And Current Economic Costs Of Climate Change To Australia
• 2009/12/15: NatureTGB: King calls for climate role at Bank of England
• 2009/12/14: VoxEU: Identifying a fair deal on climate change by Nancy Birdsall et al.
  Over a billion people live without basic electricity. This column calculates the emissions required to make basic energy services available to all and to grant developing countries' citizens future access to energy services equal to those enjoyed by rich countries' citizens at comparable stages of development. These calculations imply some very stark, very different implications for burden sharing. Moreover, they mean that meeting aggregate global emissions targets without sacrificing developing countries basic energy needs will require revolutionary improvements in the technology.
• 2009/12/15: VoxEU: Three centuries of climatic variation and the world income distribution by John C. Bluedorn et al.
  Hot countries tend to be poorer. This column uses the cross-century, cross-country variation in climatic temperatures to estimate the effects of historic temperature upon current incomes. The negative relationship between current temperature and income appears due to temperature variations in the 18th and 19th centuries. That suggests that the consequences of climate change may be felt for a very long time.
• 2009/12/15: EconView: "Financing the Fight against Climate Change" [Stavins, Soros]
• 2009/12/14: Belfer: Only Private Sector Can Meet Finance Demands of Developing Countries

  Carbon Tariffs have people on edge:

• 2009/12/18: NYT: Danger to Free Trade Seen in Climate Talks
• 2009/12/18: WSJ:EnvCap: Carbon Tariffs: Rep. Levin Dishes On Obama, India in Copenhagen

  Another chance to plug my hobby horse -- Open Access!

• 2009/12/18: ASmith: Open Access - my comment on the federal OSTP blog
• Free Science News
• Free Science Sources

  Sunspots debunked again:

• 2009/12/16: KSJT: UK news blip: Sunspot cycles debunked (they say) as climate change cause
• 2009/12/14: Independent(UK): Sunspots do not cause climate change, say scientists -- Key claim of global warming sceptics debunked

  The CRU email theft is still getting some attention:

• 2009/12/18: NatureN: Reaffirming climate science
  The conclusion that our planet is warming thanks to human activity must not be forgotten amid discussion of research ethics, say climatologists Hans von Storch and Myles Allen.
• 2009/12/18: RealClimate: More independent views: Myles Allen and Ben Santer [on swifthack]
• 2009/12/18: RealClimate: Kim Cobb's view [of swifthack]
• 2009/12/17: Yale360: The CRU E-mails: What is Really There?
• 2009/12/17: Tamino: Message from Santer
• 2009/12/14: Tyee: How Science Blew the 'Climategate' Attack -- Global warming is still fact, but a bumbling response helped deniers cloud the public's understanding
• 2009/12/17: Deltoid: Russian analysis confirms 20th century CRU temperatures
• 2009/12/17: BCLSB: Some Things Require No Translation
• 2009/12/17: SolveClimate: Hacked E-Mails Controversy Irrelevant in Copenhagen -- Attendees 'Astonished' by Gullibility of American Public to Skeptics' Campaign
• 2009/12/16: TWTB: Climate "skeptics" are anything but: "Russia" vs. CRU edition
• 2009/12/14: CSM: Climategate, global warming, and the tree rings divergence problem
  Much discussion of the Climategate e-mails has centered on "tricking" tree ring data that may not confirm global warming. What's the divergence of data all about and does it really confirm cooling instead of warming?
• 2009/12/16: DeSmogBlog: ClimateSpin: Using the Stolen Emails to Cripple Policy
• 2009/12/16: DeSmogBlog: Emails: The "decline" comes out of hiding
• 2009/12/16: GreenFyre: CRUde Hack smörgåsbord
• 2009/12/15: CSW: Setting the record straight on stolen e-mail: Associated Press, FactCheck.org, and other sources
• 2009/12/15: CSW: Setting the record straight on stolen e-mail: Nature, AAAS, AMS, Union of Concerned Scientists
• 2009/12/15: JFleck: Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: E-Mails Don't Put Water in the Colorado River [drought]
• 2009/12/15: RealClimate: Are the CRU data "suspect"? An objective assessment.
• 2009/12/15: TWTB: How's that "smoking gun" working out for you?
• 2009/12/14: ScienceInsider: AP on Hacked E-mails: "Science Not Faked, But Not Pretty"
• 2009/12/13: ClimateP: Must read AP analysis of stolen emails: An "exhaustive review"...
• 2009/12/13: ABC(Au): Climategate - again?
• 2009/12/14: NewScientist: Deniergate: Turning the tables on climate sceptics
• 2009/12/14: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Reason Prevails Over Stolen Emails
• 2009/12/13: DeSmogBlog: AP Review: Science not pretty, but not faked [cru]
• 2009/12/14: DWWSJ: UK Scientists Affirm Climate Science
• 2009/12/14: Skeptico: Climategate or Deniergate?
• 2009/12/14: AlterNet: U.S. Business Interests Suspected in 'Fabricated' Climate Scandal
• 2009/12/13: Section15: SwiftHack / ClimateGate: I'm calling BS on 'expert' McIntyre
• 2009/12/13: DeSmogBlog: McIntyre: Misrepresenting the stolen emails
  DeepClimate has nailed ClimateAudit's Stephen McIntyre cold in the clearly intentional misrepresentation of the stolen East Anglia emails.

The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:

• 2009/12/19: TStar: Something's rotten under the Arctic cap
• 2009/12/17: NatureCF: AGU 2009: Getting to the bottom of [Greenland's] glacial melting
• 2009/12/16: CCP: Ian Howat, AGU 2009: Complex relationship between Greenland's supraglacial meltwater drainage and fast-moving outlet glaciers
• 2009/12/16: SciDaily: Greenland Glaciers: Water Flowing Beneath Ice Plays More Complex Role
• 2009/12/15: Wunderground: Why Southeast Greenland's glaciers have slown down since 2005
• 2009/12/15: SciDaily: Portions of Arctic Coastline Eroding, No End in Sight, Says New Study
  The northern coastline of Alaska midway between Point Barrow and Prudhoe Bay is eroding by up to one-third the length of a football field annually because of a "triple whammy" of declining sea ice, warming seawater and increased wave activity, according to new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder.
• 2009/12/15: OSU: Greenland Glaciers: What Lies Beneath -- Researchers learning more about how water beneath glaciers contributes to ice loss
• 2009/12/13: MoD: Arctic sea ice albedo tipping point not as close as previously feared, multi-year ice rotting away

  As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

• 2009/12/14: CBC: Make Arctic vessels register in Canada: report
  All foreign ships that enter Canada's Arctic waters should report to Canadian authorities, according to a new Senate committee report. The report by the Senate's standing committee on fisheries and oceans, released Monday, concludes that foreign vessels in Canadian Arctic waters -- regardless of their size -- should be required to register with the Canadian Coast Guard's Arctic marine traffic system, known as NORDREG.

While in Antarctica:

• 2009/12/18: DWWSJ: WAIS-The Most Remote Science Station On Earth (and perhaps the most critical)
• 2009/12/18: BBC: Data to expose 'ghost mountains' -- the Gamburtsevs in Antarctica
• 2009/12/19: DWWSJ: Ice Cores and Copenhagen- The Connection [WAIS]
• 2009/12/17: BAS: New pictures reveal rich Antarctic marine life in area of rapid climate change
• 2009/12/17: NatureTGB: Picture post: weird scenes from the Antarctic oceans
• 2009/12/17: PhysOrg: New pictures reveal rich Antarctic marine life in area of rapid climate change
• 2009/12/14: PhysOrg: 'Monster' iceberg shedding hundreds of offshoots
  An island-sized iceberg is breaking up as it drifts closer to Australia, producing hundreds of smaller slabs spread over a massive area of ocean, experts said Monday. The 140-square-kilometre (54-square-mile) block of ice, known as B17B, was seen some 1,700 kilometres (1,054 miles) south-southwest of Australia's western coast on December 9, prompting a maritime alert for vessels in the area.

The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2009/12/16: CCurrents: Peak Oil, Peak Food
• 2009/12/13: Guardian(UK): Why Britain faces a bleak future of food shortages
  Britain faces a 'perfect storm' of water shortage and lack of food, says the government's chief scientist, and climate change and crop and animal diseases will add to future woes. Science is now striving to find solutions
• 2009/12/16: CBC: Thousands flock to Trafalgar Square for free food
• 2009/12/14: UN: UN gathers experts to help strengthen agriculture in poor nations, tackle food shortages
• 2009/12/14: Eureka: Global warming could significantly impact US wine and corn production, Stanford scientists say

  And how are we going to feed 9 billion?

• 2009/12/17: PeakEnergy: Monsanto seed business role revealed
  [...] Confidential contracts detailing Monsanto Co.'s business practices reveal how the world's biggest seed developer is squeezing competitors, controlling smaller seed companies and protecting its dominance over the multibillion-dollar market for genetically altered crops, an Associated Press investigation has found. With Monsanto's patented genes being inserted into roughly 95 percent of all soybeans and 80 percent of all corn grown in the U.S., the company also is using its wide reach to control the ability of new biotech firms to get wide distribution for their products, according to a review of several Monsanto licensing agreements and dozens of interviews with seed industry participants, agriculture and legal experts.
• 2009/12/19: Guardian(UK): GM wheat is on its way
  Five years after scrapping its trials, Monsanto calculates that the time is now ripe for GM wheat to make a comeback
• 2009/12/15: PhysOrg: Cloning plants from seeds
  Wageningen geneticists (The Netherlands) are developing a method to replicate the parents of a chosen plant. Known as 'reverse breeding', this will have a big impact for the breeding industry.
• 2009/12/13: PhysOrg: Newly identified enzymes help plants sense elevated CO2 and could lead to water-wise crops
  Biologists have identified plant enzymes that may help to engineer plants that take advantage of elevated carbon dioxide to use water more efficiently. The finding could help to engineer crops that take advantage of rising greenhouse gases.
• 2009/12/14: ClimateShifts: The Future of Marine Fish Resources
• 2009/12/14: SciDaily: Food Industry Faulted for Pushing High-Calorie, Low-Nutrient Products

  Tropical Cyclone Laurence hugged the coast of North West Australia:

• 2009/12/17: Eureka: Laurence still causing warnings and watches in northern west Australia -- NASA's Terra Satellite sees Laurence weaken
• 2009/12/16: Eureka: Tropical Cyclone Laurence menaces Northern Australia
• 2009/12/16: PhysOrg: Tropical Cyclone Laurence menaces Northern Australia
• 2009/12/15: NASA: Laurence Made Landfall in Western Australia
• 2009/12/14: Eureka: Tropical Storm Laurence set for second Australian landfall

  While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

• 2009/12/14: Eureka: TRMM sees 05B winding down off the Sri Lanka coast
• 2009/12/14: Eureka: Tropical Cyclone Mick forms quickly, hits Fiji in the southwestern Pacific

  As for GHGs:

• 2009/12/18: CCP: Eliminating hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) could deliver reductions of up to 170 billion tons of CO2e over the next 40 years at a total cost of $4 billion
• 2009/12/13: FuturePundit: CO2 Emissions Up 29% Since 2000
• 2009/12/15: GTM: NASA Releases New CO2 Data, Refutes Conventional Wisdom
• 2009/12/15: NASA:JPL: NASA Outlines Recent Breakthroughs in Greenhouse Gas Research
• 2009/12/15: PhysOrg: NASA Outlines Recent Breakthroughs in Greenhouse Gas Research
  Researchers studying carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas and a key driver of global climate change, now have a new tool at their disposal: daily global measurements of carbon dioxide in a key part of our atmosphere. The data are courtesy of the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft.
• 2009/12/15: Grist: How to cut U.S. CO2 emissions by 20 percent ... tomorrow -- Natural gas as a near-term CO2 mitigation strategy
• 2009/12/14: SolveClimate: U.S. CO2 Emissions to Rise 8.7% by 2035 Unless Government Acts -- EIA Projections Show Oil Flattens Out; Biofuels Get a Bump
• 2009/12/14: ABC(Au): Australia accused of cooking carbon books
  The Australian Government has been accused of accounting fraud in the reporting of its carbon emissions. By ignoring a massive rise in polluting gases from the agricultural and forestry industries, Australia has managed to make its overall emissions seem much lower than they actually are. Under the Kyoto Protocol, Australia is allowed to increase carbon emissions by 8 per cent compared to 1990 levels. But figures supplied to the United Nations earlier this year show that between 1990 and 2007, Australia's real carbon emissions actually rose by 82 per cent.
• 2009/12/14: SciDaily: New Approach to Emissions Makes Climate and Air Quality Models More Accurate, Major Study Finds
• 2009/12/13: MTobis: CO2 in Earth's History

  And the 'base level year' game:

• 2009/12/15: PI: Ottawa plays foul with number game
  Eric Reguly, The Globe and Mail, December 10, 2009--The Harper Conservatives like to think they have healthy, hands-off approach to business: Let the markets weed out the good from the bad. It's a nice philosophy. It's also one that's conveniently ignored by the Tories when they see fit. Case in point: At the stroke of a pen in the lead-up to the Copenhagen summit on climate change, the government's fiddling with one number, and one number only, instantly created a new list of potential industrial winners and losers. The number in question is 1990 - the base year for reporting carbon emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. The government changed to 2006, to serve as the new base year for any post-Kyoto treaty. When Canada drones on about its pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 - an impressive figure, it seems - it's talking about a 20-per-cent reduction from three years ago, not 19 years ago. Canada's emissions have been soaring and it's easier to cut from a high level than a low level.

Regarding the temperature record:

• 2009/12/78: ClimateP: NASA reports hottest November on record, 2009 poised to be second hottest year, Hansen predicts better than 50% chance 2010 will set new record
• 2009/12/17: Wunderground: November 2009 was warmest or 4th warmest on record, say NASA and NOAA
• 2009/12/15: TS:QuarkSoup: Last Month Broke a Temperature Record
• 2009/12/15: Tamino: How Long?

  Aerosols are making their presence felt:

• 2009/12/18: PeakEnergy: Black Carbon
• 2009/12/16: FuturePundit: Soot Pollution Melting Glaciers
• 2009/12/17: SolveClimate: Ice Core Samples Reveal Black Soot Threatening Tibetan Glaciers -- Earth's 'Third Pole' Melting at Alarming Pace
• 2009/12/14: Eureka: New study turns up the heat on soot's role in Himalayan warming
• 2009/12/14: Eureka: Black carbon deposits on Himalayan ice threaten Earth's 'Third Pole'

  A potential volcanic factor?

• 2009/12/17: TerraDaily: Major eruption for Philippines' Mayon likely: volcanologists

  While in the paleoclimate:

• 2009/12/17: BBC: Sea rises 'clue' in sunken world
  A unique discovery of submerged man-made structures on the seabed off Orkney could help find solutions to rising sea levels, experts have said.
• 2009/12/15: 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.
• 2009/12/15: PhysOrg: Hypoxia increases as climate warms
  A new study of Pacific Ocean sediments off the coast of Chile has found that offshore waters experienced systematic oxygen depletion during the rapid warming of the Antarctic following the last "glacial maximum" period 20,000 years ago.
• 2009/12/15: Eureka: From greenhouse to icehouse -- reconstructing the environment of the Voring Plateau
• 2009/12/14: NewScientist: Our atmosphere came from outer space
• 2009/12/14: Eureka: Kansas scientists probe mysterious possible comet strikes on Earth

  Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

• 2009/12/15: NatureN: Satellites beam in biomass estimates -- Additional detail could help bring woodland into a future climate treaty
• 2009/12/15: PhysOrg: NASA's AIM Satellite and Models are Unlocking the Secrets of Mysterious 'Night-Shining' Clouds
• 2009/12/15: Eureka: NASA tech zooms in on water and land -- Earlier, more accurate river flow predictions possible

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2009/12/18: UN: UN disaster teams reach 1,000th deployment
• 2009/12/18: PhysOrg: African leaf-eating monkeys are 'likely to be wiped out' by climate change
• 2009/12/18: PlanetArk: Moderate Global Warming To Wipe Out Many Species
• 2009/12/18: SciDaily: Mammals May Be Nearly Half Way Toward Mass Extinction
• 2009/12/19: SF Gate: Earth on track for epic die-off, scientists say
  If the course of human history is any model, then the wheels are already turning on Earth's sixth mass extinction, thanks to habitat destruction, pollution and now global warming, a scientific analysis of millions of years of data revealed Friday. The study of the fossil and archaeological record over the past 30 million years by UC Berkeley and Penn State University researchers shows that between 15 and 42 percent of the mammals in North America disappeared after humans arrived. That means North American mammals are well on the way - perhaps as much as half way - to a level of extinction comparable to other epic die-offs, like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs.
• 2009/12/15: WMO: 55 million people affected by extreme weather disasters in 2009
• 2009/12/17: DerSpiegel: Feeling the Heat -- Climate Change Has Become a Reality for Germany
  For Germans global warming is no longer just about stranded polar bears and dying coral reefs. These days, millions of people are feeling the heat of climate change at home. The effects are becoming more drastic and rapid.
• 2009/12/18: AlterNet: 8 Things We Love That Climate Change Will Force Us to Kiss Good-Bye
• 2009/12/17: Eureka: Study shows loss of 15-42 percent of mammals in North America -- Mammals may be nearly half way toward mass extinction
  If the planet is headed for another mass extinction like the previous five, each of which wiped out more than 75 percent of all species on the planet, then North American mammals are one-fifth to one-half the way there, according to a University of California, Berkeley, and Pennsylvania State University analysis. Many scientists warn that the perfect storm of global warming and environmental degradation -- both the result of human activity is leading to a sixth mass extinction equal to the "Big Five" that have occurred over the past 450 million years, the last of which killed off the dinosaurs 68 million years ago.
• 2009/12/16: Eureka: Warming climate chills Sonoran Desert's spring flowers -- Global warming is giving a boost to Sonoran Desert plants that have an edge during cold weather...
• 2009/12/15: CSM: Squid invasions signal changes in the Pacific Ocean
  In the Pacific, jumbo squid have moved to new waters, signaling changes in the ocean, scientists observe.
• 2009/12/15: ABC(Au): Queensland species most threatened by climate change
  A report has found koalas, leatherback turtles and clown fish are among species under threat from climate change
• 2009/12/15: PlanetArk: Natural Disasters At Decade Low In 2009-UN Report
  The world this year suffered the fewest number of natural disasters in a decade, but floods, droughts and other extreme weather continued to account for most of the deaths and economic losses, according to a United Nations report released on Monday. There were 245 natural disasters recorded this year, down from the decade high of 434 in 2005, said the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. The figures were released mid-way through an international climate conference in which 192 nations hope to nail down new firm targets for reducing carbon pollution, which is blamed for a long-term trend in more extreme weather. Of the 245 disasters, 224 were weather-related and accounted for 7,0000 deaths out of the 8,900, according to the preliminary figures. The weather-related deaths, which exclude geological events such as earthquakes and volcanoes, caused $15 billion in damages, out of a total of $19 billion, the report said.
• 2009/12/14: UN: Majority of disaster deaths in 2009 climate-related, says UN
• 2009/12/14: MongaBay: Photos: ten beloved species threatened by global warming
• 2009/12/14: ABC(Au): Koalas at risk of climate change extinction: study
  Climate change threatens the survival of dozens of animal species from the emperor penguin to Australia's koalas, according to a report released at the UN climate summit.
• 2009/12/14: TreeHugger: The Wildlife Conservation Society Connects the Dots between Climate Change and Species Decline
• 2009/12/14: EarthTimes: Study: Koala, arctic fox among species at risk from climate change
• 2009/12/14: Eureka: Global warming could significantly impact US wine and corn production, Stanford scientists say
• 2009/12/14: CSM: Global warming: Are these the Top 10 species most at risk?

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2009/12/18: MongaBay: New tropical wood substitute could save rainforests worldwide
• 2009/12/17: NatGeo: Amazon Losing "Flying Rivers," Ability to Curb Warming
  The Amazon's "flying rivers" -- humid air currents that deliver water to the vast rain forest -- may be ebbing, which could have dire consequences for the region's ability to help curb global warming, an expert said this week at the Copenhagen climate conference.
• 2009/12/18: UN: European countries endorse UN-backed pact on tropical timber
• 2009/12/17: ScienceInsider: As Forest Deal Nears, New Index Maps Profit Potential in Trees
• 2009/12/16: TS:QuarkSoup: How to Diet Without Really Dieting
• 2009/12/16: PlanetArk: Forest-CO2 scheme needs cash to save species -study
• 2009/12/15: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Protecting the Boreal: A scientific call to focus on the 'other' forest carbon
• 2009/12/14: ScienceInsider: Fighting Deforestation Could Imperil Some Ecosystems, Study Finds
• 2009/12/14: PlanetArk: Amazon Projects Undercut Brazil's New Green Path
  [...]
  Brazil reversed years of opposition to greenhouse gas targets this year, saying it intended to reduce Amazon deforestation by 80 percent and curb projected 2020 greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent. "They talk about reducing deforestation and boosting controls but they invest in these mega-projects," said Israel Vale, director at the Kaninde environmental advocacy group in Porto Velho, capital of Rondonia.
  "The rhetoric doesn't fully match reality," he said.
  President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a pragmatic former factory worker, has acknowledged the importance of tackling climate change and the heavy contribution that destruction of the forest makes to carbon emissions. But he has consistently backed infrastructure projects in the Amazon and hits out at foreigners he says want to preserve the forest like a park, ignoring the needs of its inhabitants.
• 2009/12/14: SciDaily: Innovative Plan [Yasuní-ITT Initiative] To Save Rainforest, Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

  Climate refugees are becoming an issue:

• 2009/12/18: UN: Record number of people make perilous journey to Yemen, UN reports
  Fleeing conflict, poverty and drought, more than 74,000 people -- a record number -- from the Horn of Africa risked their lives this year to make the treacherous journey across the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea to begin their lives anew in Yemen, the United Nations refugee agency said today. This figure is up a staggering 50 per cent from the 50,000 arrivals last year, Andrej Mahecic, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told reporters in Geneva.
• 2009/12/17: DerSpiegel: What about Climate Refugees? Efforts to Help the Displaced Bog Down in Copenhagen
• 2009/12/19: RawStory: World must prepare for climate migration, IOM warns
• 2009/12/16: UN: Climate change driving displacement, says UN refugee chief

  Yes we have no wacky weather, except:

• 2009/12/19: TerraDaily: Winter snows cause travel chaos in Europe
• 2009/12/19: CBC: Major snowstorm hits eastern U.S.

  A note on tornadoes:

• 2009/12/14: NOAANews: Winter, Nighttime Tornadoes Pose Greatest Risk, National Weather Service Warns -- Know Your Risk, Have a NOAA Weather Radio

  As for heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2009/12/17: EarthTimes: Forest fires rage in south-eastern Australia

  The oceans are becoming more acidic:

• 2009/12/18: PhysOrg: Acid oceans: the 'evil twin' of climate change
• 2009/12/14: UN: Oceans acidifying rapidly due to carbon dioxide emissions, says UN-backed study
• 2009/12/14: BBC: UK warns on 'acidifying oceans'
  Acidification of the oceans is a major threat to marine life and humanity's food supply, Hilary Benn is to warn as the UN climate summit resumes.

Glaciers are melting:

• 2009/12/17: SolveClimate: Ice Core Samples Reveal Black Soot Threatening Tibetan Glaciers -- Earth's 'Third Pole' Melting at Alarming Pace
• 2009/12/14: PhysOrg: Low-cost temperature sensors, tennis balls to monitor mountain snowpack
• 2009/12/14: PhysOrg: Sunshine speeded 1940s Swiss glacier melt: scientists
• 2009/12/14: CCP: James Hansen: Survival of Tibetan Glaciers
• 2009/12/13: NYT: In Bolivia, Water and Ice Tell of Climate Change

  Sea levels are rising:

• 2009/12/18: Reuters: Threat of rising seas looms over coastal Africa
• 2009/12/19: CCurrents: Sea Level Rise May Exceed Worst Expectations
• 2009/12/17: MongaBay: Catastrophic sea level rise could occur with only two degrees Celsius warming
• 2009/12/16: CCP: R. E. Kopp et al., Nature 462 (2009), Probabilistic assessment of sea level during the last interglacial stage
• 2009/12/16: NatureN: Sea level rise may exceed worst expectations -- Seas were nearly 10 metres higher than now in previous interglacial period
• 2009/12/14: MongaBay: Sea levels set to rise more than expected due to 'deeply surprising' Greenland melt

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

• 2009/12/18: NRDC:SwitchBoard: NASA Report Reveals California Is Drawing Too Much Out of Its Groundwater Account
• 2009/12/17: TerraDaily: EU gives 50 milion euros to Horn of Africa drought victims
• 2009/12/15: WMO: Experts agree on a universal drought index to cope with climate risks
• 2009/12/17: KSJT: NYTimes: One reporter, huge Toxic Waters project, Part 6 : Legal water not always clean or safe
• 2009/12/17: PeakEnergy: Sun-Assisted Desalination
• 2009/12/20: BBC: India's wettest place 'lacks water'
  Once the world's wettest places, Cherrapunji is getting up to 20% less rain every year - and is suffering water shortages. Residents say their heavenly abode in the clouds is hotter and drier than ever before - and they blame it on global warming. Cherrapunji - or Sohra in the local Khasi language - is located in the West Khasi Hills of India's north-eastern state of Meghalaya.
• 2009/12/17: AlterNet: Al Gore: A Billion People's Water at Risk From Melting Ice
• 2009/12/16: JFleck: Drought and Politics in Ecuador
• 2009/12/16: Eureka: Lost water of the Napa Valley vineyards -- Stanford researchers on how irrigation water slips away and how to stanch the flow
• 2009/12/15: EnergyBulletin: GAO study: Energy-Water Nexus of Biofuels
• 2009/12/15: SF Gate: Pumping depletes Central Valley water, data show
  Drought, curtailed water exports from the delta and overzealous well pumping during the past six years have depleted Central Valley aquifers by enough to fill Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the nation, according to new satellite data from NASA. The findings echo a similar report by the U.S. Geological Survey this year and underscore the precarious nature of California's water supply and the long-term risks to the agriculture industry, which produces 8 percent of the country's food.
• 2009/12/15: BBC: [GRACE] Satellites weigh California water
  NASA satellites have weighed the water lost by the US State of California's heartland since 2003. The Sacramento and San Joaquin River Basins which support the highly productive Central Valley have shed over 30 cubic km of water in that time.

On the mitigation front, consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2009/12/18: CalcRisk: LA Area Port Traffic in November
• 2009/12/16: Reuters: Climate deal on ships and planes seen slipping away
  Climate negotiators warned on Wednesday they may miss the opportunity to cap emissions from shipping and aviation and so miss out on billions of dollars in taxation to help poor countries cope with climate change.
• 2009/12/15: BBC: Ships tracked with smart software
  Monitoring of global shipping movements could help container vessels burn less fuel and speed up turnaround in port.
• 2009/12/15: CBC: Airlines to lose $5.6B US in 2010: IATA -- Small recovery in air traffic predicted
  The global airline industry will lose $5.6 billion US in 2010, an industry group predicted Tuesday. The International Air Transport Association described low revenues and rising costs as a "continuing disaster" for world airlines, despite some recovery in passenger and cargo traffic. It estimates its 240 member airlines have already lost $49 billion since 2000 and repeated its prediction that industry losses this year will add up to $11 billion.
• 2009/12/15: NRDC:SwitchBoard: New Group of Airlines Deserves Coal in its Stocking
  The Air Transport Association (ATA) announced today that a group of mainly U.S. airlines have signed an MOU to purchase fuels derived from coal -- so called "coal to liquids", liquid coal, or CTL for short.

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

• 2009/12/15: PhysOrg: Home heating efficiencies offer 'hat trick' of savings: study
  Improving the energy efficiency of Maryland homes heated by natural gas would generate a "hat trick" of economic and environmental benefits over the next 10 years, including more than 80,000 new jobs, savings of hundreds of dollars in average heating bills and a nine percent reduction in residential carbon emissions, concludes a new study by the University of Maryland Center for Integrative Environmental Research (CIER).
• 2009/12/15: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Obama Touts Insulation as 'Sexy'

  And on the carbon sequestration front:

• 2009/12/18: PRWatch: Will Copenhagen Resuscitate Carbon Capture and Storage?
• 2009/12/19: NatJo: Investing In CCS by Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W. Va.)
  Coal got some troubling news out of Copenhagen over the last few days as it appears that clean coal technology will not be eligible under the UN's Clean Development Mechanism.
• 2009/12/16: EurActiv: Carbon capture ruled out of UN clean projects list
• 2009/12/14: MTobis: Carbon Sequestration Validation
• 2009/12/15: COP15: Carbon capture is put on hold
  As some countries have reservations on carbon capture and storage (CCS) the emerging technology will not be added to the UN-backed carbon reducing mechanisms here in Copenhagen.

Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2009/12/18: Wired:DR: Military Science: Hack Stormy Skies to Lord over Lightning
• 2009/12/15: ERW: Saving Greenland's ice by geoengineering
• 2009/12/14: MoJo: Copenhagen: Geoengineering's Big Break?
• 2009/12/15: AlterNet: Will Copenhagen Lead to Radical Climate Experiments?
• 2009/12/14: DM:CCM: Russian Scientists Field Test Geoengineering

  While on the adaptation front:

• 2009/12/15: EnergyBulletin: Transitional demands
• 2009/12/14: PlanetArk: Indian Farmers [in Uttar Pradesh] Adapt To Shifting Weather Patterns

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2009/12/18: ERL: (ab$) Geoengineering by cloud seeding: influence on sea ice and climate system by Philip J Rasch et al.
• 2009/12/15: CP: Warm Paleocene/Eocene climate as simulated in ECHAM5/MPI-OM by M. Heinemann et al.
• 2009/12/17: CPD: Interhemispheric coupling and warm Antarctic interglacials by P. B. Holden et al.
• 2009/12/19: AGWObserver: Papers on the divergence problem [tree-rings]
• 2009/12/17: AGWObserver: Papers on climate feedback
• 2009/12/19: NERC:NORA: The impact of climate change on the yield and quality of Saaz hops in the Czech Republic by Martin Mozny et al.
• 2009/12/16: NERC:NORA: A new approach to detecting vegetation and land-use change using high-resolution lipid biomarker records in stalagmites by Alison J. Blyth et al.
• 2009/12/16: NERC:NORA: Testing palaeo-environmental proxies in Jurassic belemnites: Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca, Na/Ca, delta 18O and delta 13C by J.M. McArthur et al.
• 2009/12/16: NERC:NORA: Tethyan oceanic currents and climate gradients 300 m.y. ago by L. Angiolini et al.
• 2009/12/18: TC: The annual surface energy budget of a high-arctic permafrost site on Svalbard, Norway by S. Westermann et al.
• 2009/12/18: ACPD: Characterization of Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) CO2 for carbon cycle science by S. S. Kulawik et al.
• 2009/12/15: ACP: Aerosol number fluxes over the Amazon rain forest during the wet season by L. Ahlm et al.
• 2009/12/15: ACP: Methane and nitrous oxide emissions in The Netherlands: ambient measurements support the national inventories by S. van der Laan et al.
• 2009/12/15: ACP: Diagnostics of the Tropical Tropopause Layer from in-situ observations and CCM data by E. Palazzi et al.
• 2009/12/15: ACPD: Dust storms come to central and southwestern China, too: implications from a major dust event in Chongqing by Q. Zhao et al.
• 2009/12/15: ACPD: A comparison of dry and wet season aerosol number fluxes over the Amazon rain forest by L. Ahlm et al.
• 2009/12/15: ACPD: Cirrus cloud radiative effect on surface-level shortwave and longwave irradiances at regional and global scale by J.-C. Dupont et al.
• 2009/12/14: AGWObserver: Papers on CO2 emissions from volcanoes
• 2009/12/15: PNAS: Phytoplankton, not allochthonous carbon, sustains herbivorous zooplankton production by Michael T. Brett et al.
• 2009/12/15: PNAS: Derivation of burn scar depths and estimation of carbon emissions with LIDAR in Indonesian peatlands by Uwe Ballhorn et al.
• 2009/12/15: PNAS: The diffusion of maize to the southwestern United States and its impact by William L. Merrill et al.
• 2009/12/15: PNAS: [Letter$] The hydroxypropionate pathway of CO2 fixation: Fait accompli by F. Robert Tabita

  And other significant documents:

• 2009/12/19: UNFCCC: [163k pdf] Copenhagen Accord
• 2009/12/19: Guardian(UK): [160k pdf] Copenhagen Accord
• 2009/12/18: CCurrents: [160k pdf] Copenhagen Accord
• 2009/12/18: WaPo: [link to 294k pdf] Copenhagen Accord (4.30pm draft)
• 2009/12/17: SEI: [link to 1.1 meg pdf] A Copenhagen Prognosis: towards a safe climate future
  This report presents a concise diagnosis of the state of the biosphere and observed trends and offers a treatment plan that is consistent with a 2°C warming threshold, equity and economic development.

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

• 2009/12/17: SciDaily: Pollution Alters Isolated Thunderstorms: Wind Shear Strength Determines Whether Pollution Swells or Saps Storms
• 2009/12/20: SciDaily: Nocturnal Wind Maximum Mapped for First Time
• 2009/12/16: ERabett: Patience wears thing. It's time to move on
• 2009/12/16: BBC: Christmas baubles on icy mission
  Tiny orange balls made from Christmas tree baubles could shed new light on how Greenland's Ice Sheet will respond to a warming world.

Hansen:

• 2009/12/18: RealClimate: Jim Hansen's opinion [on the state of the surface temperature]
• 2009/12/17: CCP: The Temperature of Science by James Hansen
• 2009/12/17: CCP: As usual, James Hansen is right again: Earth's response to COv(2) underestimated

  Svensmark:

• 2009/12/13: DeSmogBlog: Copendenier Henrik Svensmark collapses on Danish TV

  Meanwhile on the Kyoto front:

• 2009/12/17: Guardian(UK): Victory for developing nations as rich countries abandon effort to kill off Kyoto
• 2009/12/15: TerraDaily: 'Death of Kyoto would be death of Africa': AU
• 2009/12/15: WSJ:EnvCap: China: Nations Must Honor Kyoto Commitments

  While at the UN:

• 2009/12/19: TS:QuarkSoup: Why We Can't Trust UN Hype

  The Future meetings: South Africa will host the 17th UN climate conference, Mexico will host COP16 and...:

• 2009/12/18: ABC(Au): South Korea to host 2012 climate talks

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2009/12/15: PlanetArk: EU Carbon Scheme Is Supporting Clean Energy Shift: NEF [New Energy Finance]
• 2009/12/15: PlanetArk: Russia Says No Plans To Sell Kyoto Carbon Rights
• 2009/12/14: G&M: Emissions trading market at a standstill
  As world leaders meet in Copenhagen, carbon futures trading schemes in North America are idling

The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

• 2009/12/15: CNN: How to fight global warming: Smart taxes

  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:

• 2009/12/15: SolveClimate: California's Cap-and-Trade Plan Shies Away from Free Permits -- 'Auctioning Has Advantages Over Free Allocation in Almost Every Respect'
• 2009/12/15: DemNow: Cap & Trade: A Critical Look at Carbon Trading
• 2009/12/14: PlanetArk: Closed UK Steel Plant To Get 2010 CO2 Permits: Government

  Meanwhile on the international political front:

• 2009/12/18: EurActiv: Brazil warns EU on biofuel sustainability
  EU rules for calculating indirect land-use changes caused by biofuel production would not be legitimate without an internationally-accepted methodology, a group of developing countries has told the European Commission. The warning was sent to Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs on 15 December, questioning the EU executive's quest for a methodology to account for greenhouse gas emissions that result from converting forests or farmland to energy crops. The signatories range from Brazil and Argentina to Indonesia and Mozambique, which are all biofuel-producing nations. They have been keeping a close eye on EU developments as any European regulation could impact on their export products.
• 2009/12/19: EarthTimes: Copenhagen unveils the new world order - the G2
  Copenhagen - One hundred and twenty people are invited to a meeting. Thirty of them sit down and talk. Just two of them take the key decision. Welcome to the new world order, where the United States and China conduct the choir, a clutch of old and rising powers sing the key solos, and the rest of the world joins in the chorus.
• 2009/12/17: DerSpiegel: Stalling in Copenhagen -- Chimerica Against the World
  China and the United States are playing a decisive role in Copenhagen. Both major powers are accusing each other of doing too little to stop the climate disaster. Europeans and developing nations are demanding the two agree to greater reductions in CO2 emissions. Will 'Chimerica' derail a real deal in Copenhagen?
• 2009/12/17: Guardian(UK): China transforms balance of power in Copenhagen's negotiating halls
• 2009/12/20: TerraDaily: China becomes quiet climate kingmaker
• 2009/12/19: Guardian(UK): China ended up as a useful scapegoat
  This was not the result China wanted. China's intention was to be seen as a good guy in this historical climate conference. That is, a good guy, but not yet the leader. The foundations had all been there -- the domestic revolution in clean energy; intensive negotiations with all the major players, especially the US, over the past year; the big announcement of its targets on emission growth 10 days ahead of Copenhagen; the setting-up of the first-ever China Communication and News Centre. However, two things caught China by surprise.
• 2009/12/18: SolveClimate: Island Nation [Micronesia], Citing Climate Change Threat, Goes After Czech Coal Plant
• 2009/12/18: CCurrents: The Moment Of Truth by Fidel Castro
• 2009/12/18: CCurrents: No Delay At Copenhagen by Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
• 2009/12/17: ABC(Au): Rudd leans on Tuvalu over warming limit
  Tuvalu Prime Minister Apisai Ielemia says Australia is pressuring him to drop his demand for global warming to be limited to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.
• 2009/12/15: WpgFP: Manitoba, Australian state to co-operate on climate change
  Manitoba and the state of South Australia have reached agreement to co-operate on climate-change adaption and water management. The arrangement was announced this morning from the international conference on climate change in Copenhagen. Premier Greg Selinger is leading a Manitoba delegation to the conference.

As for GW & security:

• 2009/12/17: SciDaily: Climate Change Does Not Always Lead to Conflict
• 2009/12/14: NPR: Pentagon, CIA Eye New Threat: Climate Change

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

• 2009/12/20: ABC(Au): 23 arrested after coal train protest
  More than 20 people have been arrested after climate change protesters blocked rail lines leading to Australia's biggest coal export facility.
• 2009/12/20: ABC(Au): Protesters dragged off coal train tracks
  Police have started dragging climate change protesters from the rail line leading to Australia's biggest coal export facility.
• 2009/12/15: ABC(Au): Climate activists scale Opera House
• 2009/12/14: DemNow: Using Controversial Law, Danish Police Preemptively Arrest Over 1,000 Protesters
• 2009/12/13: Guardian(UK): Protests in Copenhagen: Rights groups press for inquiry into police tactics

  Among the world's religions:

• 2009/12/15: Reuters: Rich nations must assume environmental duties: pope
  Industrialized nations must recognize their responsibility for the environmental crisis, shed their consumerism and embrace more sober lifestyles, Pope Benedict said on Tuesday. The pope's call for more environmental commitments came in his message for the Roman Catholic Church's annual World Day of Peace, to be marked on Jan 1 and whose theme is "If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation." The message is traditionally sent to heads of state, government and international organizations and its importance this year is more significant because its release coincided with the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen.

Polls! We have polls!

• 2009/12/18: ClimateP: Public Opinion Stunner: WashPost-ABC Poll Finds Strong Support for Global Warming Reductions Despite Relentless Big Oil and Anti-Science Attacks
• 2009/12/19: Google:AP: AP Poll: Most see climate change as serious
• 2009/12/16: PlanetArk: Fewer Americans Worried By Climate Change: [Zogby] Survey
• 2009/12/15: SF Gate: Poll: Action on climate will heat up economy, jobs
• 2009/12/15: Guardian(UK): Three in four UK voters believe climate change is important problem - poll
• 2009/12/15: ClimateP: Overwhelming US Public Support for Global Warming Action - Poll
• 2009/12/15: Grist: Poll Confirms Americans Believe Economy, Jobs Helped By Pollution Reduction -- Overwhelming U.S. public support for global warming action
• 2009/12/15: COP15: Poll: Action on climate will boost US economy
  More Americans believe steps taken to reduce global warming pollution will help the US economy than say such measures will hurt it.
• 2009/12/15: PeakEnergy: Renewables trounce nuclear in Newspoll

  And on the American political front:

• 2009/12/18: MoD: Quote of the Day [Kerry]
• 2009/12/19: NRDC:SwitchBoard: The Road from Copenhagen Leads to the U.S. Senate
• 2009/12/18: TDC: One planet, different universes
  All eyes in Copenhagen were on China and President Barack Obama Friday night, but no event captured the discord, mistrust and distance separating all sides at these climate talks than a pair of press conferences held simultaneously at the Bella Center earlier in the afternoon. In the main room, refusing to cede the stage to other dignitaries, Venezuela' Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's Juan Evo Morales railed against the developed world's inability to accept responsibility for previous emissions obligations and the role it has played in warming the atmosphere... Across the hall, five Republican members of the U.S. House denounced the notion that humans could change the climate and expressed relief at the prospect of failure here.
• 2009/12/18: TP: After 'Truth Squad' Fizzles, Der Spiegel Reporter Tells Inhofe: 'You're Ridiculous'
• 2009/12/19: TP: Gingrich Can't Make Up His Mind On CO2 Emissions
• 2009/12/18: EconView: "Sachs: The Need for Open Process"
• 2009/12/17: DeSmogBlog: U.S. Chamber of Commerce declared a "Global Warming Crime Scene"
• 2009/12/17: DeSmogBlog: Inhofe's 3 hour island tour to Copenhagen
• 2009/12/17: CCP: Daily Kos: No One Is Going To Save You Fools
• 2009/12/17: TP: Greenpeace Protesters Declare U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Headquarters A 'Climate Crime Scene'
• 2009/12/16: ScienceInsider: Could the Senate Ever Ratify an International Climate Treaty? Sixty-Seven Votes, Not Sixty, Might Be the Real Challenge
• 2009/12/16: CSW: Two whistleblowers who exposed misconduct further endangering Katrina victims are honored today
• 2009/12/16: OilDrum: American Freedom from Oil: A Bipartisan Pipedream
• 2009/12/16: PeakEnergy: US left behind in technological race to fight climate change
• 2009/12/15: SolveClimate: California's Cap-and-Trade Plan Shies Away from Free Permits -- 'Auctioning Has Advantages Over Free Allocation in Almost Every Respect'
• 2009/12/15: TP: Schwarzenegger on Palin's global warming stance: Take her 'with a grain of salt.'
• 2009/12/14: Guardian(UK): US left behind in technological race to fight climate change
• 2009/12/14: SciDaily: Action on Climate Change Compatible With Long-Term U.S. Economic Growth

  The EPA CO2 endangerment ruling is a hot button issue:

• 2009/12/18: WarmingLaw: GOP Legislators Endanger the Endangerment Finding
• 2009/12/17: NatJo:CI: GOP Seeks To 'Rein In' EPA On [CO2 endangerment] Finding
• 2009/12/15: ADN: Murkowski tries again to limit EPA rules on greenhouse gas -- Court told agency to study danger, act if necessary.
  Her first attempt failed, but on Monday Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, moved again to try to halt the Environmental Protection Agency's movement toward regulating the emission of greenhouse gases.

The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2009/12/18: Grist: McKibben uninspired by Obama
• 2009/12/19: CCurrents: With Climate Agreement, Obama Guts Progressive Values
• 2009/12/18: CCurrents: Obama Disappoints The World
• 2009/12/18: CCurrents: Obama's Damp Squib
• 2009/12/19: GAB: Obama's Billions, all smoke and mirrors
• 2009/12/18: TP:WR: Text Of President Obama's Address To Copenhagen: 'There Is No Time To Waste'
• 2009/12/19: Guardian(UK): Obama emerges from climate talks with slender pact and bruised stature
• 2009/12/18: Guardian(UK): Barack Obama's speech disappoints and fuels frustration at Copenhagen
• 2009/12/16: CSM: White House proposes tax credits for clean energy
• 2009/12/19: Grist: Flawed climate accord may help Obama at home
• 2009/12/20: HillHeat: White House Press Gaggle on the Copenhagen Accord Negotiations
• 2009/12/19: NYT: Obama, Denied Full Victory on 2 Issues, Takes Validation
• 2009/12/19: TP: Obama Establishes Copenhagen Accord, But We're Not Done Yet
• 2009/12/19: Guardian(UK): Obama is handcuffed by the political mess at home
• 2009/12/16: ScienceInsider: What He'll Bring in the Spring: The President's Climate Pledges and the U.S. Senate
• 2009/12/16: ScienceInsider: What Can Obama Truly Deliver? Depends on "The Climate in the Senate"
• 2009/12/15: DerSpiegel: The Green Dream -- Can Obama Stop America's Gas-Guzzling Ways?
  Never before has a US government been as serious in its warnings against the dangers of climate change as the Obama administration. But Americans are divided: Half of them regard climate protection policies as socialist, and half want to save the world. Can Obama make America go green?
• 2009/12/15: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Obama Touts Insulation as 'Sexy'

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2009/12/17: Grist: Obama Interior Department surrenders to the coal interests
• 2009/12/17: NRDC:SwitchBoard: EPA Postpones Promised Coal Ash Regs
• 2009/12/16: GreenGrok: Coal Ash Verdict on 'Hazardous' Designation Due Soon
• 2009/12/17: ClimateP: Biden announces $5 billion expansion of Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit
• 2009/12/14: Guardian(UK): Steven Chu pledges $350m clean tech fund to sweeten deal at Copenhagen
• 2009/12/13: CSW: David Michaels, author of Doubt Is Their Product on anti-regulatory assault on science, to head OSHA

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2009/12/16: SciNow: Climate in the Senate; Cuts to U.K. Science
• 2009/12/14: NatureN: Budget win for climate probe [OCO2] -- NASA gets cash to replace a failed carbon-emissions observatory, but concerns remain over future funding
• 2009/12/13: TP: Tuvalu representative: The fate of my country rests in the hands of the U.S. Senate
• 2009/12/14: TP: 'Smokey Joe' Barton: Global Warming 'Is A Net Benefit To Mankind'

  Kerry-Boxer aka CEJAPA defines a battleline:

• 2009/12/17: ClimateP: CBO Stunner: Kerry-Boxer Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act cuts the deficit
• 2009/12/18: PlanetArk: Factbox: Comparison Of U.S. Plans To Cap Carbon
• 2009/12/16: WSJ:EnvCap: John Kerry: Copenhagen Summit Can Make or Break U.S. Climate Bill
• 2009/12/13: ClimateP: Cantwell, Collins join bipartisan call for market-based carbon pricing to achieve shrinking cap on carbon
• 2009/12/14: PlanetArk: Two U.S. Senators [Cantwell-Collins] Unveil Alternative Climate Bill
• 2009/12/13: Grist: Turns out brevity is the soul of inadequacy -- What to make of the Cantwell/Collins CLEAR Act
• 2009/12/14: Grist: Defending the Cantwell/Collins CLEAR Act
• 2009/12/14: Grist: Why Cantwell-Collins is best -- and how it just might win

  What are the lobbyists pushing?

• 2009/12/15: CPI: Meet the Lobbies: Carbon Traders
• 2009/12/15: SolveClimate: In Letter to Obama, Leading US Businesses Call for Leadership at Copenhagen -- Nike, Dow Chemical, Microsoft, PG&E Among 28 Signers
• 2009/12/14: DeSmogBlog: The Rear Guard: 1,100 Lobbyists Wait to Block Copenhagen Success

  The Gore-apalooza is still bopping along:

• 2009/12/17: AlterNet: Al Gore: A Billion People's Water at Risk From Melting Ice
• 2009/12/16: TP: Gore: Tell The Senate To Pass Climate Change Legislation By Earth Day 2010
• 2009/12/15: ClimateP: Gore Derangement Syndrome

  While in the UK:

• 2009/12/18: Guardian(UK): Gordon Brown hints at 'plan B' if Copenhagen talks remain unresolved
• 2009/12/16: SciNow: Climate in the Senate; Cuts to U.K. Science
• 2009/12/16: Guardian(UK): BNP document proves the far right is at home with climate change denial
  'Sensational 40-page briefing paper' quotes Monckton, Plimer, Morano, Lindzen, Booker, Klaus -- and Goebbels
• 2009/12/15: NatureTGB: King calls for climate role at Bank of England
• 2009/12/14: Guardian(UK): Bank of England urged to give climate scientist a warm welcome
  Citizen David King, former chief scientific adviser to the government, says the Treasury is not doing enough to promote a green economy.

And in Europe:

• 2009/12/18: EurActiv: Carbon capture to win EU funding before renewables
• 2009/12/16: DerSpiegel: Germany's Experience -- How Effective Are Renewables, Really?
• 2009/12/15: NBF: France Will Spend One Billion Euro on Next Generation Nuclear Reactor
• 2009/12/14: EurActiv: Turn climate action into Apollo mission, says leading MEP

  Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2009/12/20: ABC(Au): Abbott still wants 'big ETS debate' with Rudd
• 2009/12/18: ABC(Au): The Northern Territory Government has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent by 2050
• 2009/12/18: ABC(Au): [Northern Territory] Climate policy unveiled but Greens unhappy
  The Northern Territory Government says it will cut four million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 under its new climate change policy. The Government says it will reduce carbon emissions by capping the rate of land clearing in the Territory, which it says is about 10,000 hectares over a five year average.
• 2009/12/19: ABC(Au): Hunger strike farmer not going anywhere
• 2009/12/17: ABC(Au): Hockey backtracks on ETS stance
  Federal Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey appears to be backing away from his previous support for Australia to have an emissions trading scheme.
• 2009/12/17: ABC(Au): Nationals' Senator Barnaby Joyce has offered his support to [Peter Spencer] a grazier on a hunger strike in protest against land rights
• 2009/12/14: CCurrents: Recent And Current Economic Costs Of Climate Change To Australia
• 2009/12/16: ABC(Au): Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has challenged Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to an early election on climate change...
• 2009/12/16: ABC(Au): The Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre in Alice Springs says city dwellers have a lot to learn from central Australian residents about coping with climate change
• 2009/12/16: ABC(Au): Farmer starves in protest against land use rules
  A New South Wales farmer from the Monaro region near Canberra is entering day 25 of a hunger strike in protest against state laws which lock up farming land for carbon capture and storage. Peter Spencer is camped in a wind tower on his Shannons Flat property near Cooma, an hour south from Canberra, in a protest against laws which stop him clearing native vegetation on his farm.
• 2009/12/15: ABC(Au): Queensland, California join forces to explore carbon storage
  Queensland Climate Change Minister Kate Jones says she has joined premiers, first ministers and governors from around the world in signing an agreement to reduce carbon emissions on a state level.
• 2009/12/14: ABC(Au): [South Australia's Opposition Leader, Isobel] Redmond no longer 'climate sceptic'
• 2009/12/14: ABC(Au): Opposition climate plan 'a magic pudding'
  Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has stepped up his attack on the Federal Opposition over climate change policy, as he departed for the UN talks in Copenhagen.
• 2009/12/14: ABC(Au): Funding boost for geothermal project
  Torrens Energy has received a $7 million federal grant for its geothermal energy project at Parachilna, south of Leigh Creek.
• 2009/12/14: ABC(Au): $7m to target geothermal efforts
  A company exploring for geothermal resources in south-west Victoria has welcomed a $7 million funding commitment from the Federal Government. Hot Rock wants to establish a geothermal power plant at Koroit, near Warrnambool.
• 2009/12/14: ABC(Au): The Queensland Government has announced that the ZeroGen Clean Coal Plant planned for the state's central region has been declared a 'significant' project
• 2009/12/14: ABC(Au): Australia accused of cooking carbon books
  The Australian Government has been accused of accounting fraud in the reporting of its carbon emissions. By ignoring a massive rise in polluting gases from the agricultural and forestry industries, Australia has managed to make its overall emissions seem much lower than they actually are. Under the Kyoto Protocol, Australia is allowed to increase carbon emissions by 8 per cent compared to 1990 levels. But figures supplied to the United Nations earlier this year show that between 1990 and 2007, Australia's real carbon emissions actually rose by 82 per cent.
• 2009/12/14: ABC(Au): Climate change fears tipped to boost hinterland house prices
  A property researcher is predicting a rapid rise in Queensland's Sunshine Coast hinterland property prices in the next 10 years.
• 2009/12/14: ABC(Au): Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says claims that large emissions cuts could be made by changing land use rules shows Australia does not need an emissions trading scheme

  And in China:

• 2009/12/14: BBC: Carbon giant China seeks green future - as it burns more and more coal
• 2009/12/14: BBC: Turkmenistan-China gas link opens -- China's President Hu Jintao has opened a new pipeline that will deliver gas from Turkmenistan to his country.

  In the Middle East:

• 2009/12/19: TreeHugger: 'Just Talk' from Turkey at Copenhagen, Activists Say

  And Russia:

• 2009/12/16: BBC: Climate talks leave Russia cold

  While in South America:

• 2009/12/16: JFleck: Drought and Politics in Ecuador

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

• 2009/12/18: BCLSB: Quick Notes On The KAIROS Funding Cuts
• 2009/12/18: DeSmogBlog: Canada: ... and back home in Denierville
• 2009/12/19: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Canada to Species at Risk: Marine Mammals Need Not Apply
• 2009/12/19: BCLSB: Alberta Government On KAIROS
• 2009/12/19: LFPress: PM messed up on climate, detainees
  Not that long ago a piano- playing Stephen Harper bestrode his world like a colossus. Now here he is, rocked yet again by a pair of issues that do not want to stay dead, no matter how often or how hard he tries to kill them.
• 2009/12/19: G&M: Canada's strategy: Promise now, implement later
  Delays in climate-change regulations, intended to match U.S. policy, are expected to add to cost and logistical effort Canadians will still have a lengthy wait before Ottawa rolls out its climate change plan, despite a tentative political accord at the Copenhagen summit. The delays will make it more difficult, and potentially more costly, for Canada to meet its target to reduce emissions by 20 per cent from 2006 levels by 2020.
• 2009/12/16: SOE: Protesters Occupy PM Stephen Harper's Office Demanding 'Climate Justice'
• 2009/12/15: CBC: Prentice won't rule out oilsands emission breaks
  The Conservative government has not ruled out giving special breaks to oilsands companies when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, Environment Minister Jim Prentice acknowledged Tuesday. Prentice's comments came in response to draft documents obtained by CBC News that suggest the Tories want to harmonize their approach to cutting greenhouse gases with that of the United States and have considered allowing weaker targets for the oil and gas sector.
• 2009/12/15: BCLSB: Kim Campbell Strikes Back!
• 2009/12/15: DeSmogBlog: Canadian Climate Plan: All Public Relations; No Policy
• 2009/12/15: CCP: Canada: Tories pondering much weaker emission targets for oil and gas
• 2009/12/15: CCP: Secret Cap-and-Trade proposal: Canada has no intention of meeting 2020 emissions target; Leaked cabinet documents show government plan for massive increase in oil and gas emissions by 2020
• 2009/12/15: PI: Ottawa plays foul with number game [base level year game]
  Eric Reguly, The Globe and Mail, December 10, 2009--The Harper Conservatives like to think they have healthy, hands-off approach to business: Let the markets weed out the good from the bad. It's a nice philosophy. It's also one that's conveniently ignored by the Tories when they see fit. Case in point: At the stroke of a pen in the lead-up to the Copenhagen summit on climate change, the government's fiddling with one number, and one number only, instantly created a new list of potential industrial winners and losers. The number in question is 1990 - the base year for reporting carbon emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. The government changed to 2006, to serve as the new base year for any post-Kyoto treaty. When Canada drones on about its pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 - an impressive figure, it seems - it's talking about a 20-per-cent reduction from three years ago, not 19 years ago. Canada's emissions have been soaring and it's easier to cut from a high level than a low level.
• 2009/12/15: CBC: Climate-change skeptics gain from Ottawa funding
  The federal government has been funding an asbestos lobby group that promotes the work of prominent climate-change skeptics. The revelation comes as Canada's delegation struggles to avoid being cast as the villain at the Copenhagen climate conference, and environmentalists are urging the government to stop financing the group.
• 2009/12/14: CanWest: Canada ranks poorly in climate change study [by Germanwatch]
  Energy-intensive economy, high per capita consumption among reasons for low placement Canada ranks just ahead of Saudi Arabia when it comes to progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, says an annual climate change performance report looking at 57 high-emitting countries.
• 2009/12/14: HillTimes: Feds have yet to pass any climate change legislation
  Canada needs its own made-in-Canada policy, and it shouldn't follow the U.S., says former Grit environment minister David Anderson.

Canada in Copenhagen:

• 2009/12/18: DeSmogBlog: Canada Dismissed as a Player at COP15 Talks
• 2009/12/18: BCLSB: Our PM In Copenhagen
• 2009/12/18: G&M: Prentice delivers Canada's unpopular position
  Harper leaves it to his Environment Minister to present plenary session with little in the way of specifics or commitments
• 2009/12/18: CBC: Canada tagged as 'Fossil of the Year'
  A coalition of environmental groups at the Copenhagen climate change conference gave its "Fossil of the Year" award to Canada on Friday. The citation called Canada "the absolute worst country at the talks."
• 2009/12/17: ScottsDiatribe: Well, Harper's being consistent here anyhow
• 2009/12/17: Tyee: The Ugly Canadian -- Nine ways we are ruining our once enviable reputation in the world
• 2009/12/19: DeSmogBlog: Canada Demoted from "Honest Broker" to "Lunch Date"
• 2009/12/16: EmbassyMag: Do provinces undercut climate negotiations?
  Sub-national governments with tougher Copenhagen targets make negotiations harder for federal counterparts, say experts.
• 2009/12/19: LFPress: Meltdown -- Dithering Canada faces chaos
  For much of the Copenhagen talks on climate change the Canadian government acted as if it thought a weak agreement or none at all would serve Canada's economic interests better. It is wrong.
• 2009/12/18: Yahoo:CP: Harper leaves Copenhagen as climate talks end in confusion
• 2009/12/18: Canoe: Canada 'very comfortable' with climate-change deal
• 2009/12/18: TGBeaver: Pariah State
• 2009/12/18: FotD: Climate Shame As Canada Named "Colossal Fossil"
• 2009/12/18: CD: The Ugly Canadian
• 2009/12/18: CCCdn: Canada tagged as "Fossil of the Year" as climate summit "hangs in the balance" - CBC News
• 2009/12/18: Impolitical: The steak grilling theory of international relations, busted again
• 2009/12/18: TGBeaver: Colossal Fossil of the Year "very comfortable" with waiting on the US
• 2009/12/18: MSimon: Stephen Harper and the Colossal Fossil
• 2009/12/17: DeSmogBlog: Canada's humiliation continues
• 2009/12/16: Straight: At Copenhagen, Canada cannot put the tar sands ahead of the environment
• 2009/12/17: G&M: Harper lays low in Copenhagen
  With Canada staking out unpopular ground, PM opts not to address plenary session during his first day at UN climate-change summit
• 2009/12/16: OSun: Environmental awards on tap for [Canadian cities and provinces] Canada
• 2009/12/16: TStar: Canada's a joke at climate talks
• 2009/12/15: IoD: It's all about the optics
• 2009/12/15: NewInt:TEB: Blame Canada!
• 2009/12/15: CanWest: Canadian delegation's worst enemy is itself
• 2009/12/14: DeSmogBlog: US Secretary Chu Embarrassed to be Seen with a Canadian?
• 2009/12/13: G&M: Quebec and Ontario take aim at Ottawa on climate change -- Provinces unimpressed by modest emission-reduction targets discussed at Copenhagen
• 2009/12/14: TStar: Canadian split [Quebec-Ottawa] seen in Copenhagen

  The Yes Men ran a number on the Harpercons:

• 2009/12/15: TStar: Hoax slices through Canadian spin on warming -- Elaborate stunt forces Ottawa to deny a plan for Canada to radically cut greenhouse gases
• 2009/12/14: G&M: Environment Canada hit by 'damn clever' climate stunt
  Canada is red-faced at the Copenhagen climate-change conference as a result of a spoof news release purporting to be from Environment Canada announcing Canada was bringing in bold new emissions reduction targets. The authentic-looking release, which was announced on a fake Jim Prentice Twitter account, caught many observers off guard and a fake story about it landed on a fake Wall Street Journal website - all an elaborate ruse to embarrass Canada, which is being considered the "dirty-old man" of the conference for its intransigence on negotiating better targets.
• 2009/12/14: CBC:KO'M: Copenhagen-anigans: If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery ...
  ... parody is quite the opposite, as our embattled environment minister discovered this morning when he discovered that an alternate twitterverse version of himself had announced, on Canada's behalf, an "ambitious plan for a new climate change framework that answers vital concerns voiced by developing nations" that would "strict new emissions-reductions guidelines for Canada and fast-tracks financing for vulnerable countries beginning in 2010."
• 2009/12/14: IoD: Canada thrust into Copenhagen spotlight by spoof report carried by spoof WSJ
• 2009/12/14: CBC: Fake releases claim Canada changed climate stance
• 2009/12/14: DeSmogBlog: Canada Commits to 40% Emission Cuts! NOT
• 2009/12/14: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen spoof shames Canada on the truth about its emissions
• 2009/12/14: BCLSB: Edmonton Radio Station Pranked By Climate Hoaxers?

  Note the effort to Manufacture the illusion of Consent:

• 2009/12/14: TStar:COP15: U.S. snubs Canada
  Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice just finished his press conference and he dismissed the hoax press releases, saying "I am here to negotiate." The Minister's press people distributed a release for a photo-op of U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Prentice to occur shortly after the press conference, outside of the offices of the U.S. delegation. I showed up there and noticed Steve Kelly, Prentice's chief of staff, having a raised voice exchange with a member from the U.S. delegation. The problem was the U.S. delegation hadn't given the green light for a photo-op, just for closed bilateral meeting between the two. Over the course of 10 minutes, Kelly repeatedly asked the U.S. delegation official to reconsider, to which the U.S. delegation official replied, negative. When Kelly asked for this to be taken up the chain of command, the U.S. delegation official replied "it came from pretty high up. It's not going to happen." The U.S. official said he didn't understand why the photograph was so important, to which Kelly replied "we were carpetbagged this morning by (environmental non-governmental organizations) with a false press release, I gotta change the story."

About that "Made in Canada" policy:

• 2009/12/19: POGGE: I must have misheard the part about a "Made in Canada" policy
• 2009/12/16: WpgFP: Provinces, U.S. call nation's shots
  "WHO speaks for Canada?" Apply former prime minister Pierre Elliott Tru­deau's famous question to today's con­joined issues of climate change and energy policy and the answer wouldn't be the federal government. It would be a bizarre com­bination of the U.S. and the provinces. Ottawa has ceded its policy-making responsibility to set overall national targets for greenhouse gas reductions to U.S. President Barack Obama's administration. Following America's lead, Canada has pledged to reduce emissions by 20 per cent from 2006 levels by 2020, considerably less than Europe's pledge of 20 per cent from 1990 levels.

Aboriginal groups are experiencing global warming first hand:

• 2009/12/20: OSun: Chief [Shawn Atleo] enlists in climate fight -- Assembly of First Nations boss says Natives know global warming impact
• 2009/12/15: CBC: Climate change costly for Inuit: study [by McGill geographer, James Ford]
• 2009/12/16: CBC: Indigenous groups push for progress at climate summit

  The Tories are proceeding to sell off Candu:

• 2009/12/17: CBC: Candu reactor division to be sold
  The federal government is selling off its commercial Candu reactor division, Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt announced on Thursday.
• 2009/12/17: G&M: Ottawa putting CANDU reactor division up for sale
  Natural Resources minister [Lisa Raitt] confirms government is inviting investors to submit bids, move won't affect Chalk River facility

Fun in Saskatchewan...

• 2009/12/19: BuckDog: Exactly WHY Did Saskatchewan's Environment Minister Travel To Copenhagen??

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2009/12/18: CanWest: [Alberta Premier Ed] Stelmach fires back at Ontario, Quebec -- Ad campaign touts Alberta's green efforts
• 2009/12/19: G&M: Battle for the oil sands
  Across Alberta, companies have spent years developing new technologies that promise cheaper, greener production. In the next few months, some will move from the lab to the field in critical tests that could radically reshape the industry.
• 2009/12/19: CanWest: Chinese oilsands takeover bid under review -- Investment law says big deals must represent 'net benefit' for Canada
  The Harper government is quietly reviewing the $1.9-billion investment by a state-owned Chinese oil company in two oilsands projects, more than a month after the deal was originally supposed to close. In an exclusive interview on Friday, Industry Minister Tony Clement confirmed that the government is reviewing PetroChina's proposal to buy a 60-per-cent stake in two projects in northern Alberta planned by Athabasca Oil Sands. Following its announcement Aug. 31, the deal was hailed as a major endorsement by foreign investors in the oilsands, as well as a sign that China could be prepared to ramp up its investment in such projects, after lukewarm interest in recent years. At the time, the acquisition was expected to be completed Oct. 31, and company officials said they did not anticipate much objection from the federal government.
• 2009/12/19: ChronicleHerald: Albertans feeling hurt by climate criticism
• 2009/12/16: CanWest: Alberta preparing itself for financial ramification of cap-and-trade system
  On the heels of federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice musing about climate plan breaks for Canada's expanding oil and gas sector, Alberta says it is lobbying for firm limits on how much money can flow out of the province under any eventual North American-wide cap-and-trade system. "As long as there's limits on the amount of funds that would flow into an open market, I think we could live with that," Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner said. "There's been talk all along to the degree of which we would participate in a North American or national market."
• 2009/12/14: CorpWatch: The Enbridge Oil Sands Gamble [Nikiforuk]
• 2009/12/15: CBC: Prentice won't rule out oilsands emission breaks
  The Conservative government has not ruled out giving special breaks to oilsands companies when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, Environment Minister Jim Prentice acknowledged Tuesday. Prentice's comments came in response to draft documents obtained by CBC News that suggest the Tories want to harmonize their approach to cutting greenhouse gases with that of the United States and have considered allowing weaker targets for the oil and gas sector.
• 2009/12/14: CBC: No moratorium on Alberta nuclear plants, minister says
  Energy Minister Mel Knight said Monday there will be no moratorium on nuclear energy plants in Alberta. Energy Minister Mel Knight said Monday there will be no moratorium on nuclear energy plants in Alberta. (CBC)Alberta will not stand in the way of the construction of nuclear power plants, Energy Minister Mel Knight said Monday, following the release of a telephone survey that suggests 45 per cent of Albertans want nuclear plants approved on a case-by-case basis.
• 2009/12/14: EnergyBulletin: Canadian Oil Sands Misses Unrealistic Projection -- Issues Another
• 2009/12/14: CD: Tar Sands Shut Down - Listen up Harper!
• 2009/12/14: DeSmogBlog: Document shows Canada removing emission restrictions
• 2009/12/14: CBC: Tories mulled weaker oil-gas emission targets: documents
• 2009/12/13: SOE: Time to Better Probe Fort Chipewyan

  As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

• 2009/12/18: CBC: Lack of coal buyer stalls [Cape Breton's Donkin] mine

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

• 2009/12/16: Rabble: Climate change and the limits of growth
• 2009/12/17: OilDrum: Can We Redefine Prosperity? - Herman Daly - Towards a Steady State Economy
• 2009/12/20: OilDrum: Project For A Revolution In Philadelphia
• 2009/12/14: Guardian(UK): This is bigger than climate change. It is a battle to redefine humanity [George Monbiot]
  It's hard for a species used to ever-expanding frontiers, but survival depends on accepting we live within limits

Apocalypso anyone?

• 2009/12/17: EnergyBulletin: The Political Ecology of Collapse, Part Two: Weishaupt's Fallacy
• 2009/12/14: CCurrents: The Human Ecology of Collapse -- Part One: Failure Is The Only Option

  As for how the media handles the science of climatology:

• 2009/12/14: FAIR: Calling Science 'the Left' Is Not Advocating for Science
• 2009/12/16: CJR: Copenhagen Watch: Bipolar Coverage Disorder? With each announcement, media shift between optimism and pessimism
• 2009/12/17: CJR: Covering Copenhagen: A Day in the Life -- A reporter acclimates to the climate summit
• 2009/12/15: PRWatch: Who'd Pay for Rupert Murdoch's Climate Change Skepticism?
• 2009/12/17: CCurrents: Global Warming, The U.S. Media, And The Impending Catastrophe
• 2009/12/15: NatureN: From climate news to classroom views [Revkin interview]
• 2009/12/15: ClimateP: Gore Derangement Syndrome
• 2009/12/15: DM:CCM: Another Death Knell for Science Journalism -- From Natalie Angier
• 2009/12/14: CSW: Andy Revkin's Last Day at The New York Times: December 21
• 2009/12/14: DM:CCM: Fox News Presents a Classic "He Said, She Said: on Climate Science
• 2009/12/13: TP: Fox's 'Fair And Balanced' Debate: 'Does Climate Change Exist?'

  Remember framing?

• 2009/12/13: MTobis: Farewell to Framing
• 2009/12/15: MTobis: My Nisbet Gripe, Cont'd

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2009/12/16: NatureTGB: Whales at centre of new Arctic drilling row
• 2009/12/16: WarmingLaw: Surprise! CEI Plans to Sue the EPA over the Endangerment Finding
• 2009/12/15: ChicagoTrib: Alaska whalers, environmental groups sue to block proposed 2010 Beaufort Sea oil drilling
• 2009/12/15: BBC: Swiss geologist in quakes trial
  The head of a geothermal energy company has gone on trial in Switzerland accused of damaging property by triggering earthquakes. Markus Haering's company had been working with the authorities in Basel to try to convert the heat in deep-seated rocks into electricity. But the project was suspended in 2006 when drilling triggered the quakes. They caused no injuries but led to $9m (£5.54m) of damage. Mr Haering denies deliberately damaging property. The project was shut down permanently last week after a government study found that similar quakes caused by the project would lead to millions of dollars worth of damage each year.

Among the non-members of Gamblers Anonymous:

• 2009/12/16: BSD: Does Gore's speech mean I'm out $333??????

  Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:

• 2009/12/17: PhysOrg: How to spur energy storage innovations
• 2009/12/17: REA: From Copenhagen: Renewable Energy Gets Boost as Climate Talks Stall
• 2009/12/17: TreeHugger: Interactive Tool Shows Shocking Global Energy Consumption Growth Between 1980 and 2007
• 2009/12/14: CCurrents: Real Solutions To The Energy And Climate Crises
• 2009/12/14: DOE:EIA: EIA Energy Outlook Projects Moderate Growth in U.S. Energy Consumption, Greater Use of Renewables, and Reduced Oil and Natural Gas Imports
• 2009/12/16: OilDrum: American Freedom from Oil: A Bipartisan Pipedream
• 2009/12/16: PeakEnergy: US left behind in technological race to fight climate change
• 2009/12/16: WSJ:EnvCap: The Naughty Aughties: Energy Prices, Even Natural Gas, Soar In Last Decade
• 2009/12/16: DerSpiegel: Germany's Experience -- How Effective Are Renewables, Really?
• 2009/12/15: KSJT: Bend Bulletin - So Basel and The Geysers got the shakes? Geothermal company's going after some hot rock in a volcanic swelling
• 2009/12/15: ABC(Au): China throws weight behind alternative energy
• 2009/12/15: Grist: How to cut U.S. CO2 emissions by 20 percent ... tomorrow -- Natural gas as a near-term CO2 mitigation strategy
• 2009/12/14: ABC(Au): Funding boost for geothermal project
  Torrens Energy has received a $7 million federal grant for its geothermal energy project at Parachilna, south of Leigh Creek.
• 2009/12/14: ABC(Au): $7m to target geothermal efforts
  A company exploring for geothermal resources in south-west Victoria has welcomed a $7 million funding commitment from the Federal Government. Hot Rock wants to establish a geothermal power plant at Koroit, near Warrnambool.
• 2009/12/14: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Friends of Coal vs. Friends of Wood
• 2009/12/14: DM:80B: Bad News for Geothermal Energy: Two Major Projects [in California & Switzerland] Bite the Dust

  On the fracking front, Exxon's US$41 billion purchase of XTO Energy shook things up:

• 2009/12/16: WSJ:EnvCap: Frack Attack: Will Congress Kill the Exxon-XTO merger?
• 2009/12/17: DallasNews: Exxon can void deal to buy XTO Energy if [fracking] drilling method is restricted
  Natural-gas producers have been fighting an effort to increase regulation of the drilling technique that is widely used in North Texas' Barnett Shale. Now they have a new ally in the fight: Exxon Mobil Corp. Exxon says it could void its $41 billion deal to buy Fort Worth-based XTO Energy if Congress passes a law that would make hydraulic fracturing illegal or "commercially impracticable." The exit clause is included in a merger document Exxon filed this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
• 2009/12/15: BWeek: Natural Gas: New Environmental Rules Could Cloud Prospects
  Concerns about the impact of methods used to extract gas from shale deposits could lead to tough restrictions -- and crimp output for some producers
• 2009/12/16: ClimateP: Game changer, Part 8: ExxonMobil's $41 billion XTO deal -- A big bet on unconventional natural gas AND on climate change
• 2009/12/15: ProPublica: Colorado Towns Take Extra Measures to Protect Their Water From Gas Drilling
• 2009/12/15: BBerg: Big Oil Seen in 'Race to the Altar' After Exxon Deal
  Exxon Mobil Corp.'s $30 billion purchase of XTO Energy Inc., the largest U.S. petroleum takeover since 2006, may signal a wave of acquisitions as major producers seek to tap growing gas and oil output from shale formations. Irving, Texas-based Exxon announced its deal yesterday, saying it plans to make XTO, the largest natural-gas producer in the U.S., the centerpiece of its global expansion in shale developments. XTO is among companies that drove a surge in U.S. fuel output by exploiting so-called shale plays, where rock formations are fractured with water and sand to make gas flow.
• 2009/12/15: OilChange: Its Business As Usual for Exxon
• 2009/12/14: ProPublica: Underused Drilling Practices Could Avoid Pollution
• 2009/12/14: Guardian(UK): Exxon Mobil moves into natural gas with $41bn buyout of XTO Energy
• 2009/12/14: TreeHugger: Speed Saves: Fastest Way To Low-Carbon Electricity Is To Hit The [Natural] Gas Pedal
• 2009/12/14: WSJ:EnvCap: Shale Game: Exxon's $31 Billion Bet on Natural Gas

  The answer my friend...:

• 2009/12/16: CBC: Giant wind turbines pose no health risk: study -- Critics insist turbines can have 'devastating impacts'
  Noise and vibration from giant wind turbines may be annoying but pose no risk to human health, an industry-funded study has found. The study was financed by the Canadian and American wind energy associations, which asked an international panel of medical, scientific, acoustic and audiological experts to review all published research on the potential health impacts of wind turbines. Critics -- who maintain the electricity-generating turbines disrupt the sleep and even the heart rhythms of those who live near them -- aren't convinced. They dismiss the study as worthless, industry-financed spin.
• 2009/12/15: TreeHugger: Wind Turbine Syndrome: It's All In Your Head

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2009/12/18: PhysOrg: Hot Electrons Could Double Solar Cell Power Efficiency
• 2009/12/18: TreeHugger: Who Says Solar is Hurting? Schott Solar Now Hiring
• 2009/12/19: PeakEnergy: Hot Electrons
• 2009/12/16: PhysOrg: Toward home-brewed electricity with 'personalized solar energy'

  On the coal front:

• 2009/12/18: CBC: Lack of coal buyer stalls [Cape Breton's Donkin] mine
• 2009/12/19: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Coal Miners Revile Mountaintop Removal
• 2009/12/17: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Lessons Learned from Last Year's TVA Coal Ash Spill
• 2009/12/15: CCP: San Juan Coal Company put on notice by Sierra Club
  Farmington, NM: The Sierra Club today put the San Juan Coal Company on notice for failing to properly dispose of millions of tons of toxic coal ash and scrubber sludge each year. The San Juan Coal Company has dumped more than 40 million tons of coal combustion waste containing pollutants like arsenic, lead and mercury into massive unlined pits at the San Juan Mine, about 10 miles west of Farmington. As a result of the lack of safety precautions, toxins from the coal ash have leaked into nearby waterways and wells, endangering local residents, livestock, and wildlife.

Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2009/12/18: EurActiv: Brazil warns EU on biofuel sustainability
  EU rules for calculating indirect land-use changes caused by biofuel production would not be legitimate without an internationally-accepted methodology, a group of developing countries has told the European Commission. The warning was sent to Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs on 15 December, questioning the EU executive's quest for a methodology to account for greenhouse gas emissions that result from converting forests or farmland to energy crops. The signatories range from Brazil and Argentina to Indonesia and Mozambique, which are all biofuel-producing nations. They have been keeping a close eye on EU developments as any European regulation could impact on their export products.
• 2009/12/15: EnergyBulletin: GAO study: Energy-Water Nexus of Biofuels

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2009/12/17: PeakEnergy: Nukes are stupid
• 2009/12/17: CBC: Candu reactor division to be sold
  The federal government is selling off its commercial Candu reactor division, Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt announced on Thursday.
• 2009/12/17: G&M: Ottawa putting CANDU reactor division up for sale
  Natural Resources minister [Lisa Raitt] confirms government is inviting investors to submit bids, move won't affect Chalk River facility
• 2009/12/17: BNC: A LFTR [Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor] deployment plan for Australia
• 2009/12/15: NBF: France Will Spend One Billion Euro on Next Generation Nuclear Reactor
• 2009/12/14: NBF: Uranium and Nuclear Update

  Yes we have peak everything:

• 2009/12/15: OilDrum: Proposal for a Comprehensive Analysis of Global Nonrenewable Natural Resource Scarcity
• 2009/12/15: OilDrum: A focal point for material scarcity research
• 2009/12/14: OilDrum: There is plenty of oil but . . .

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2009/12/19: PeakEnergy: Spain's variable wind and stable electricity networks

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2009/12/16: PhysOrg: Study expects rising interest in energy saving
• 2009/12/14: WSJ:EnvCap: IEA: Copenhagen Summit Must Spur Energy Efficiency

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

• 2009/12/17: AutoBG: Reinventing the (bike) wheel with the Copenhagen Wheel
• 2009/12/17: FuturePundit: Mass Production Pluggable Hybrid Cars Decades Away?
• 2009/12/19: PhysOrg: Beijing vehicles exceed four million: state media
• 2009/12/19: AutoBG: Ten realistic electric vehicle predictions for 2010
• 2009/12/15: PlanetArk: Sparks Fly As China Quarrels Over Battery-Powered Bikes
• 2009/12/15: AutoBG: GM: Volt plus EEStor could work ... if EESU worked
• 2009/12/14: NYT: Study Says Big Impact of the Plug-In Hybrid Will Be Decades Away
  Despite recent excitement about a type of electric car called a plug-in hybrid, such vehicles are unlikely to arrive in meaningful numbers for a few more decades, according to new analysis by the National Research Council.
• 2009/12/15: CBC: [Canadian] New car sales 3.5% higher in October [mom and 3.2 per cent lower yoy]
• 2009/12/14: Eureka: Ethanol-powered vehicles generate more ozone than gas-powered ones

  Cash-for-Clunkers, aka Scrappage, Plans are being legislated and argued around the world:

• 2009/12/18: BBC: Scrappage lifts UK car production
  UK car production rose by 15.7% in November compared with a year earlier, the first increase in more than a year, industry figures have shown. There were 112,948 cars made last month, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said. It put the rise down to the continuing impact of the car scrappage scheme and increased stability in major European car markets.

Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:

• 2009/12/17: PRWatch: 450 Parts Per Million of Greenwash
• 2009/12/17: Guardian(UK): Shell's promise of a bright future turns out to be yet another false dawn
• 2009/12/15: AlterNet: 12 Hilarious Corporate Attempts to Look Green

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

• 2009/12/19: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for December 18
• 2009/12/17: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for December 17...
• 2009/12/16: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for December 16...
• 2009/12/15: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for December 15th...
• 2009/12/14: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for December 14th...

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2009/12/18: ClimateP: Climatologist Michael Mann responds to Palin's anti-science op-ed -- "E-mail furor doesn't alter evidence for climate change"
• 2009/12/17: RealClimate: Please, show us your code [Svensmark et al. solar tit4tat]
• 2009/12/18: NewScientist: Sceptical climate researcher won't divulge key program
• 2009/12/17: ClimateShifts: Monbiot vs Plimer on lateline
• 2009/12/17: BSD: Joy Behar should debate Marc Morano
• 2009/12/18: AFTIC: How to bash your head against one tree so hard you can no longer see the forest
• 2009/12/18: Deltoid: Evidence doesn't seem to change Eric Raymond's mind
• 2009/12/17: MoJo: The Strange Spread of Climate Change Denial
• 2009/12/17: TerraDaily: Climate an issue for 'Hollywood elite': US senator [Inhofe]
• 2009/12/18: TWTB: Pat Michaels lying in the Wall Street Journal
• 2009/12/18: HotTopic: The cracks are showing
• 2009/12/18: ERabett: Slamming the Overton window shut
• 2009/12/18: MoJo: Republicans Thrash Climate Scientists in the Court of Public Opinion
• 2009/12/18: WSJ:EnvCap: Copenhagen: What Ever Happened to OPEC's Roar?
• 2009/12/19: CCurrents: Who's Polluting The Climate Conversation?
• 2009/12/15: PRWatch: Lessons Learned From Tobacco Control Should be Applied to Climate Policy
• 2009/12/18: TP: After 'Truth Squad' Fizzles, Der Spiegel Reporter Tells Inhofe: 'You're Ridiculous'
• 2009/12/18: Guardian(UK): Gutless, yes. But the planet's future is no priority of ours
  While Copenhagen may fall far short of the deal we need, leaders know voters are not prepared to change their lifestyle
• 2009/12/17: JQuiggin: Plimer
• 2009/12/17: DM:CCM: The Continuing, Unfortunate Effectivness of Marc Morano
• 2009/12/17: CCP: PolluterWatch.com Launches Investigative Effort to hold polluters' influence peddlers and propagandists like Patrick Michaels accountable
• 2009/12/17: CCP: Freedom of Information (FOIA) Requests for Patrick Michaels, Fred Singer, Roy Spencer, John Christy, Willie Soon, Sallie Baliunas, David Legates
• 2009/12/17: CCP: Patrick Michaels exposed! Paid climate skeptic, receives funding from Koch Industries, Cate Institute, Intermountain Rural Electric Assoc., see Exxon Secrets
• 2009/12/16: GreenFyre: 100 reasons to be appalled
• 2009/12/15: NewScientist:SSS: 50 reasons why global warming isn't natural
• 2009/12/16: Guardian(UK): BNP document proves the far right is at home with climate change denial
  'Sensational 40-page briefing paper' quotes Monckton, Plimer, Morano, Lindzen, Booker, Klaus -- and Goebbels
• 2009/12/16: Guardian(UK): Ian Plimer's volcano claims vaporise under questioning on Australian TV
• 2009/12/16: ERabett: Needy
• 2009/12/16: DeSmogBlog: Ian Plimer exposed as a fraud
• 2009/12/16: DeSmogBlog: The Copenhagen Tea Party
• 2009/12/16: CCP: James Hoggan: The Copenhagen Tea Party, Koch Industries funding of deniers
• 2009/12/15: GreenGrok: A Skeptics' Compromise Climate 'Solution'
• 2009/12/15: Deltoid: Plimer exposed as a fraud
• 2009/12/15: Deltoid: Is Monckton beyond parody?
• 2009/12/15: DeSmogBlog: Monckton lies to AP, denies he called clean energy advocates "Hitler youth"
• 2009/12/14: CCP: What really happened during Dr. Stephen Schneider's press conference in Copenhagen when Phelim McAlee began his stupid questions about the stolen CRU e-mails?
• 2009/12/15: GWWatch: Monboit vs Plimer: We've had the debate, finally
• 2009/12/14: Guardian(UK): How climate change sceptic Ian Plimer dodges valid criticism
• 2009/12/13: ClimateP: Behind the scenes with the anti-science crowd
• 2009/12/13: Section15: SwiftHack / ClimateGate: I'm calling BS on 'expert' McIntyre
• 2009/12/13: DeSmogBlog: McIntyre: Misrepresenting the stolen emails
  DeepClimate has nailed ClimateAudit's Stephen McIntyre cold in the clearly intentional misrepresentation of the stolen East Anglia emails.

For a day or two James Randi looked like a denier...:

• 2009/12/17: IoD: James Randi stands corrected. Phew, that was close
• 2009/12/17: DM:BA: Randi, skepticism, and global warming
• 2009/12/16: IoD: It wouldn't be fair to call James Randi a pseudoskeptic, but...
• 2009/12/16: CV: Data, Skepticism, Judgment [Randi]

  Remember the Wegman Report?

• 2009/12/17: DeepClimate: Wegman's ghostwriter revealed
• 2009/12/18: BCLSB: The Wegman Report: A Cut & Paste Job Written By a Denier

  Meanwhile in the 'clean coal' saga:

• 2009/12/17: WSJ:EnvCap: No Love for Clean Coal in Copenhagen

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2009/12/17: PhysOrg: Replicating Climate Change to Forecast its Effects
• 2009/12/18: Grist: A Walk Through the Week's Climate News -- The Climate Post: Rumors, intimations, and a deal
• 2009/12/19: TreeHugger: The Week in Pictures: Chaos at COP15, Decade in Review, Rescue Animals, and More (Slideshow)
• 2009/12/15: PRWatch: Rising Tides, Slow Food & Global Warming
• 2009/12/17: GreenGrok: Looking for Joy in Climateville
• 2009/12/17: Grist: Selling our future [Lester Brown]
• 2009/12/19: ERabett: Mid-Term Test, Part I
• 2009/12/16: NewScientist: Battle for climate data approaches tipping point
• 2009/12/16: Eureka: Bowman creates graphic translation of climate change data
• 2009/12/16: WSJ:EnvCap: Climate Glossary: A Guide to Copenhagen-Speak
• 2009/12/15: MTobis: 30th Anniversary of "Global Warming"
• 2009/12/15: Eureka: Climate Wizard makes large databases of climate information visual, accessible
• 2009/12/15: DWWSJ: Have You Ever Seen an Ice Ribbon?
• 2009/12/14: ESA: 'Environmental Atlas of Europe' unveiled at COP15
• 2009/12/14: PhysOrg: 'Environmental Atlas of Europe' unveiled at COP15
• 2009/12/14: KSJT: Climate News from All Over -- Not Just Copenhagen
• 2009/12/14: SolveClimate: Even 450 ppm Could Soon Be Out of Reach, PWC Warns
• 2009/12/18: TreeHugger: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to +3°C or the Year in Climate Change Politics

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

• FotD: Fossil of the Day
• NYT: Toxic Waters
• SEI: Stockholm Environment Institute
• BBSRC Food Security
• DOE:EIA: Annual Energy Outlook 2010 Early Release with Projections to 2035
• Climate Wizard
• NatJo: Copenhagen Insider
• FJH: From James Hansen (blog)
• ABS: ActionBioscience - promoting bioscience literacy
• CEO: Corporate Europe Observatory - Exposing the power of corporate lobbying in the EU
• Angry Mermaid Award
• WMO: WMO at COP 15
• NewMatilda: COP This!
• Climate Justice Action

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.

<ho ho ho happy humbug>
-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.

"Today for the first time in history, over a billion people on earth will go to bed hungry and one of the key factors is an increasingly severe and erratic climate." -Josette Sheeran, WFP Executive Director

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