A Few Things Ill Considered

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Another week of Climate Disruption News

Sipping from the internet firehose...

February 14, 2010

• Chuckles, COP15, Copenhagen Accord, UN CFG, COP16+, Rasmussen , Bolivia, IPCC
• van Ommen & Morgan, Dorale et al., US Snow, Bottom Line, Cosmic Rayz, Grumbine
• FOI as a Weapon, Swiftgating, CRU Inquiry, Myers, Greenhouse Effect, Solomon
• Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
• Food Crisis, Food Production
• Hurricanes, GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures, Abrupt CC, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Desertification, Wacky Weather, Wildfires, Corals, Acidification, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Adaptation
• Journals, Other Docs , Misc. Science, DIY Science, Jones, Christy, Cook, Pielke, Post-Normal. Explaining^2
• Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Tobin Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy, International Politics, Polls
• America, Obama, Congress, Britain, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, India, China, Japan, South America, Canada
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Courts, Betting
• Energy, Fracking, Wind, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Business
• Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

It's always nice to start with a laugh:

• 2010/02/14: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) Slush For Brains
• 2010/02/12: Wonkette: Utah Legislature Passes Non-Binding Resolution STICKIN' IT To Commie Climate Change Fairies
• 2010/02/12: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Rigorous scientific debate
• 2010/02/11: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Peaking Early
• 2010/02/11: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Who wants to be a Millionaire?
• 2010/02/08: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Poor Editorial Decision
• 2010/02/07: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) The Future is Another Country
• 2010/02/10: ERabett: Too Good To Waste

  Copenhagen post mortems:

• 2010/02/13: Australian: How the rich-poor chasm sank Copenhagen summit
• 2010/02/11: CCurrents: From CopenhagenTo Port-au-Prince
• 2010/02/09: PRWatch: Reflections on COP15, Looking Ahead to COP16
• 2010/02/12: AFTIC: Copenhagen roundup
• 2010/02/12: DeSmogBlog: China Condemns "Conniving" Canadians
• 2010/02/11: Guardian(UK): China's fears of rich nation 'climate conspiracy' at Copenhagen revealed
  'Conspiracy to divide developing world' will make future talks harder, says leaked government report
  Rich nations furthered their "conspiracy to divide the developing world" at December's UN climate summit in Copenhagen, while Canada "connived" and the EU acted "to please the United States", according to an internal document from a Chinese government thinktank obtained by the Guardian. The document, which was written in the immediate aftermath of Copenhagen but has only now come to light, provides the most candid insight yet into Chinese thinking on the fraught summit.
• 2010/02/09: BBC: Time to think small on climate change
  Copenhagen's failure to deliver a legally binding deal has created an opportunity for individuals to fill the void left by politicians, says Sir David King. In this week's Green Room, he explains how small-scale projects can move the world towards a low carbon future.
• 2010/02/05: Dominion: Collapse in Copenhagen -- Negotiations, uninvitations, and what the Accord really means

  How is the Copenhagen Accord doing?

• 2010/02/14: NewNation: India, China resist calls to back climate pact
  India and China are resisting requests to sign up for the Copenhagen Accord for fighting global warming that risks unravelling without clear support from major emitters. The two have not publicly spelt out if they want to be listed among "associates" of the Accord, announced after a meeting of leaders of emerging economies and the United States during a U.N. summit in Copenhagen in December. "This point is still under consideration," an Indian official said on Friday. Indian officials said the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat wrote a letter to New Delhi asking for a clarification of its views, "preferably" by Feb. 10. Like New Delhi, Beijing has expressed support for the Accord but stopped short of saying if it wants to be "associated". Associates will be listed at the top of the three-page text. "There is no agreement on what are the implications of these terminologies and language," an Indian official said. The accord may fall apart without them. The United States has said it is willing to be "associated" only if developed nations and "more advanced" developing nations also sign up. So far, about 80 of the 194 U.N. members have agreed.
• 2010/02/12: Guardian(UK): Carbon targets pledged at Copenhagen 'fail to keep temperature rise to 2C'
  MIT analysis shows pledges submitted to the UN falls short of reduction targets by at least 11bn tonnes of CO2
• 2010/02/11: Yahoo:CSM: India skeptical of US pledge to combat climate change
• 2010/02/10: TEC: China's Copenhagen Pledges
• 2010/02/11: BBC: Copenhagen response 'is pathetic'
  Industrialised nations have set "pathetic" targets to reduce carbon emissions, says one of India's senior negotiators at the Copenhagen summit. One of the summit's requirements was for countries to spell out by 31 January how they would cut emissions. But industrialised nations had failed to set the "truly ambitious" targets needed, Chandrashekhar Dasgupta said.
• 2010/02/10: Yahoo:AFP: US warns China against 'stillborn' climate deal
• 2010/02/09: BWeek: China Seeks to Limit 'Impact' of Copenhagen Plan, [Todd] Stern Says
• 2010/02/09: TerraDaily: US warns China against 'stillborn' climate deal
  The United States on Tuesday pressed China, India and other emerging powers to make clearer commitments to fighting climate change, warning that last year's Copenhagen Accord risked being "stillborn."
• 2010/02/10: TerraDaily: The Asia-Pacific And Kyoto: In Conflict Or Cooperation
• 2010/02/09: Reuters: U.S. climate envoy [Todd Stern] says China tepid on climate deal
• 2010/02/08: NewScientist: New UN emissions pledges still stack up to 3.5°C

  The UN has struck a Climate Financing Group to disburse Copenhagen's promised monies:

• 2010/02/12: SolveClimate: UN Launches Climate Financing Group to Disburse Billions to World's Poor
• 2010/02/12: Guardian(UK): Climate sceptics denounced by Brown as he launches climate change group
  Gordon Brown has launched a new UN climate fundraising group, and says sceptics go 'against the grain' of science
• 2010/02/12: UN: Ban unveils new high-level panel to spur action on climate change
  The leaders of the United Kingdom and Ethiopia will head up a new high-level group launched by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today, intended to mobilize financing swiftly to help developing countries combat climate change. The Copenhagen Accord reached at December's United Nations conference in the Danish capital aims to jump-start immediate action on climate change and guide negotiations on long-term action, with developing countries to be given $30 billion until 2012 and then $100 billion a year until 2020. It also includes an agreement to working towards curbing global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius and efforts to reduce or limit emissions.
• 2010/02/12: Grist: U.K.'s Gordon Brown will help lead U.N. advisory panel on climate funding
• 2010/02/12: EarthTimes: Group formed to seek climate change financing
  Prime Ministers Gordon Brown of Britain and Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia have accepted to co-chair a high level advisory group responsible for climate change financing, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Friday. "Its mission is to mobilize the financial resources for climate change pledged at the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen," Ban said in announcing the new group. He said other members will include heads of state and government, high-level officials from ministries and Central Banks, as well as experts on public finance, development and related issues. Governments from developing and developed countries will have a balanced share of responsibility in raising funds. Ban said the advisory group will develop "practical proposals" to significantly scale-up both short-term and long-term financing for mitigation and adaptation strategies in developing countries.

Looking forward to COP16 and beyond:

• 2010/02/12: EurActiv: US, India negotiators pessimistic over UN climate talks
  Persistent divergences over UN climate negotiations augur tough times ahead, US and Indian negotiators indicated at a Brussels event on Friday (11 February). Jonathan Pershing, US deputy special envoy for climate change, put the problems down to a history of fundamental disagreements about what the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) stands for. "At one end, many countries perceive this as a venue in which all issues are on the table - it's a conversation about development and about the global correction for that. At the other end, you've got a community who see this as a narrow environmental problem," he told the annual conference of the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri). While Copenhagen brought recognition that the convention can no longer be about a narrow environmental agenda, it will become a roadblock if it seeks to solve every problem, he said.
• 2010/02/11: Reuters: G20, U.N. vote reform could help climate deal -- G20, U.N. reform seen helping climate talks - U.N. seeks ideas for way forward on talks
  Climate talks by the Group of 20 and a suggested shift to majority voting for U.N. decisions could revive work on a new pact to fight global warming after the low-ambition Copenhagen summit, analysts say. The U.N. Climate Change Secretariat has asked all nations for views by Feb. 16 about how many U.N. meetings are needed in 2010 to try to build momentum for the next annual ministerial talks, in Mexico from Nov. 29 to Dec. 10. Countries are unclear what to do after Copenhagen fell short of a binding treaty urged by most nations and left the 2010 calendar almost bare. The only other planned U.N. meeting before Mexico is of bureaucrats, in Bonn from May 31-June 11.
• 2010/02/10: ScienceInsider: Top U.S. Climate Negotiator [Todd Stern]: IPCC Woes "Shouldn't" Slow Emission Efforts
• 2010/02/09: EurActiv: We can't ditch Kyoto Protocol, says Indian ambassador
  The Kyoto Protocol represents an international commitment to fulfil developed countries' historical responsibility for climate change and its elaborate compliance mechanism is difficult to replicate, the Indian ambassador to the EU, Dr. J. Bhagwati, told EurActiv in an interview. India, which was one of the leading countries framing the face-saving Copenhagen Accord on climate change last December (EurActiv 19/12/09), is convinced that replacing the protocol with another instrument would only lend credence to the suspicion that the developed countries wish to get away from their legally-binding commitments.
• 2010/02/08: NYT:CW: Legally Binding? It's So 2009
  Washington's climate policy analysts from environmental groups are quietly abandoning -- at least temporarily -- the once sacrosanct notion that nations must agree to legally binding emission targets. Several experts with ties to the Obama administration either personally or through their organizations said in recent interviews they don't view a new global treaty as likely or even desirable by the time countries meet in December for the next U.N. climate summit in Cancun, Mexico.

Danish PM Rasmussen has scheduled a new climate meeting in April:

• 2010/02/09: EarthTimes: Danish premier calls new diplomat meeting on climate change [in April]
  Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen on Tuesday said he has invited foreign diplomats in Denmark to meet in April to discuss the outcome of the recent UN climate change summit hosted in Copenhagen.

Also in April, the Bolivian alternate climate conference:

• 2010/02/09: Yahoo:AFP: Bolivia expects 5,000 foreigners at climate forum [on April 20th]

  The future of the IPCC is being discussed by more than the denyosphere:

• 2010/02/12: CCP: Seth Borenstein: Scientists seek better way to do climate report
• 2010/02/11: HotTopic: IPCC's future: babies, bathwater, or a new bath?
• 2010/02/11: MTobis: Truth, Consensus, and IPCC
• 2010/02/11: KSJT: Wires and more: In journal Nature, a laundry list of advice on how to fix or replace the IPCC
• 2010/02/10: CSM: Is it time to overhaul the IPCC?
• 2010/02/10: Guardian(UK): How to reform the IPCC
• 2010/02/10: CBC: Scientists seek better way to do climate report
• 2010/02/10: NatureCF: What next for the IPCC?
• 2010/02/10: KSJT: Guardian: How to fix the IPCC? Experts weigh in.
• 2010/02/10: PhysOrg: Scientists seek better way to do climate report [Nature report]
• 2010/02/10: CCP: IPCC Co-Chair Christopher Field discusses how to regain credibility for the science of climate change [video]
• 2010/02/09: Guardian(UK): Senior Chinese climatologist calls for reform of IPCC
  Lü Xuedu says Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a young institution that needs to strengthen its credibility
• 2010/02/08: Stoat: The IPCC: dissolve it or not?

  A paper linking precipitation in Australia and Antarctica caused a stir:

• 2010/02/07: NatureGeoSci: (ab$) Snowfall increase in coastal East Antarctica linked with southwest Western Australian drought by Tas D. van Ommen & Vin Morgan
• 2010/02/08: SciNow: Australia, Antarctica Linked by Climate
• 2010/02/10: NewScientist: Australia's rain may have moved to Antarctica
• 2010/02/08: ABC(Au): Scientists have discovered a link between the ongoing drought in the south western corner of Australia and increased snowfall in parts of Antarctica
• 2010/02/07: Yahoo:AFP: Drought in SW Australia linked to snowfall in Antarctica
  A drought that has gripped the southwestern corner of Australia since the 1970s is linked with higher snowfall in East Antarctica, a phenomenon that may be rooted in global warming, scientists reported on Sunday. Researchers Tas van Ommen and Vin Morgan of the Australian Antarctic Division said that the drought -- which has seen winter rainfall decline by 15-20 percent -- is extremely unusual when compared with the last 750 years. Hand in hand with the drought is a similarly exceptional rise in snowfall at Law Dome, an icecap on the coast of East Antarctica. The apparent reason is a "precipitation see-saw," the pair report in a paper published online by the journal Nature Geoscience.

A paper by Dorale et al. regarding rapid sea level change 81 kya caught the eye:

• 2010/02/12: Science: (ab$) Sea-Level Highstand 81,000 Years Ago in Mallorca by Jeffrey A. Dorale et al.
• 2010/02/12: Yale360: Evidence of Rapid Sea Rise Found in Coastal Cave in Mediterranean
• 2010/02/12: DerSpiegel: Under Mallorca -- Measuring Climate Change in Mediterranean Caves
  Caverns on the underside of Mallorca -- the Spanish island where Germans like to bake in the sun -- offer strange new evidence about the movement of glaciers long before the last ice age. What if glaciers melt faster than anyone has suspected?
• 2010/02/11: SciNow: Can Sea Level Rise and Fall With Lightning Speed?
• 2010/02/11: UIowa: Research challenges models of sea level change during ice-age cycles
• 2010/02/11: CBC: Cave research suggests fast-forming glaciers
  Scientists studying the history of sea levels in Spain say they've found evidence that glaciers can form and melt faster than previously thought. The research done in caves on the Spanish island of Majorca suggests that the sea level 81,000 years ago was more than a metre higher than it is today. The sea level rises when glaciers melt and falls when glaciers form. Between the last warm interval, 125,000 years ago, and the last ice age, 20,000 years ago, the sea fell by about 130 metres.
• 2010/02/11: NatureN: Sea-level records challenged -- High point 80,000 years ago may hint at flaws in ice-age theory.
  Precise measurements of sea level from Mediterranean caves have revealed that about 81,000 years ago the seas stood much higher than previously thought -- even higher than today's levels. The finding may force scientists to reconsider how Earth's large ice sheets wax and wane in response to changing climate.

Snow in the USA got a lot of attention, mainly because deniers tried to use it to disprove GW:

• 2010/02/14: PeakEnergy: Snowpocalypse
• 2010/02/13: PhysOrg: 49 states dusted with snow; Hawaii's the holdout
• 2010/02/13: Wunderground: The United States of Snow
• 2010/02/12: MTobis: A Hill of Snow [big snow]
• 2010/02/12: Wunderground: A rare Deep South snow event breaks Dallas' all-time snowfall record
• 2010/02/12: Yahoo:AFP: US climate skeptics seize on blizzard
• 2010/02/11: DWWSJ: Read This Before Asking A Meteorologist What Happened to Climate Change
• 2010/02/12: DemNow: Climate Scientist [Brenda Ekwurzel]: Record-Setting Mid-Atlantic Snowfall Linked to Global Warming
• 2010/02/11: KSJT: NYTimes, etc: News flash: Snow in NY, DC, all over the mid-Atlantic! Lots of climate change blather...
• 2010/02/11: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Digging for the truth: snowstorms and climate change
• 2010/02/10: LA Times:GS: 'Snowmaggedon' in Washington spurs climate change doubters
• 2010/02/11: TreeHugger: Daily Show Calls Out Climate Deniers Over East Coast Storm Lies
• 2010/02/11: Wunderground: Mid-Atlantic sets all-time snow records
• 2010/02/11: TP:WR: Bingaman Says Snowmaggedon 'Makes It More Challenging' To Argue Global Warming Is Dangerous
• 2010/02/10: NYT: Climate-Change Debate Is Heating Up in Deep Freeze [he said she said on snow]
• 2010/02/10: ClimateP: MSNBC's Ratigan: "These 'snowpocalypses' that have been going through DC and other extreme weather events are precisely what climate scientists have been predicting, fearing and anticipating because of global warming."
• 2010/02/10: Time: Another Blizzard: What Happened to Global Warming?
• 2010/02/10: TreeHugger: Finally, Rebuttal to 'Snow Means No Global Warming' Nonsense Aired in Mainstream Media (Video)
• 2010/02/10: Wunderground: Second ferocious Nor'easter in a week pounds U.S. East Coast
• 2010/02/10: EarthTimes: Second large snow storm in week bearing down on US Mid-Atlantic
• 2010/02/09: TP: Hannity: Snow Storms 'Seem To Contradict Al Gore's Hysterical Global Warming Theories'
• 2010/02/10: BBC: North-eastern US hit by blizzards -- Blizzards have hit cities in the north-eastern US, with government offices staying shut for a third day
• 2010/02/10: CBC: Washington, D.C., snowstorm continues
• 2010/02/09: TreeHugger: Sen. DeMint (R-SC): DC Snow Is Revenge on Gore
• 2010/02/09: TP: Inhofe's Grandchildren Build Igloo To Mock Killer Snow Storm: 'Al Gore's New Home'
• 2010/02/08: BBC: More snow expected in eastern US

  And on the Bottom Line:

• 2010/02/08: PlanetArk: Loss Of Species Hits Economy; New U.N. Goals Needed
  Losses of animal and plant species are an increasing economic threat and the world needs new goals for protecting nature after failing to achieve a 2010 U.N. target of slowing extinctions, experts said Friday. Losses of biodiversity "have increasingly dangerous consequences for human well-being, even survival for some societies," according to a summary of a 90-nation U.N. backed conference in Norway from February 1-5. The United Nations says that the world is facing the worst extinction crisis since the dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago, driven by a rising human population and spinoffs such as pollution, expanding cities and global warming.

Yet another paper disproving the cosmic ray theory:

• 2010/02/09: GRL: (ab$) Sudden cosmic ray decreases: No change of global cloud cover by J. Calogovic et al.
• 2010/02/08: GreenGrok: Galactic Cosmic Rays and Climate: Forbush Puts Kibosh on Theory

  Rob Grumbine continues his gentle education series:

• 2010/02/12: MGS: Cloud-temperature feedback

  More on the FOI laws as a weapon:

• 2010/02/11: AFTIC: The F in FOI Request stands for "Form letter"
• 2010/02/10: GreenHerring: Climate Shifts blog on UEA, FOI and death threats
• 2010/02/10: BCLSB: Climate Audit: DOS (Denial Of Service) Men
• 2010/02/09: ERabett: Clear on the Concept
• 2010/02/09: ERabett: Cthulhu Explains it All
• 2010/02/08: ERabett: Steve Had a Little List
• 2010/02/08: TPL: Interesting Note on the FOIs
• 2010/02/07: ERabett: Amoeba Gets Underfoot

  The campaign to discredit Pachauri, the IPCC and climate scientists in general continues:

• 2010/02/12: TWTB: Hoisted on their own petard
  The all out assault on climate reality continues. Anti-science front group SPPI has put together a series of attacks on RealClimate by the Pielkes and others, courtesy of Marc "Swiftboat" Morano.
• 2010/02/11: OCC: Open letter of Dutch climate scientists regarding the IPCC and the attacks on science
• 2010/02/12: KSJT: Spectator: The heroic bloggers who are hacking away at the IPCC
• 2010/02/11: ClimateShifts: There's no denying climate change scientists are being overwhelmed by the sceptics
• 2010/02/12: CSW: World Wildlife Fund statement on the IPCC and WWF's scientific work
• 2010/02/12: Stoat: Letter from Holland
• 2010/02/12: ERabett: The Low Lands [Dutch letter]
• 2010/02/12: TStar: Scientists should stick to science
• 2010/02/10: NatureCF: New climate centre email incident [Nick Stern]
• 2010/02/10: ScienceInsider: Much Ado About Spoofing; Climate Economist [Nick Stern] Has E-mail Hijacked
• 2010/02/09: OCC: McIntyre's concerted efforts to derail the science and harass scientists
• 2010/02/09: NatureTGB: New climate centre email incident -- Climate change researchers in the UK have been subjected to a new cyber-attack.
  Last month staff at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, part of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), were sent fake emails that purported to come from Nicholas Stern, the head of the institute. "The attacker did not gain access to any e-mail messages. The attack was identified very quickly by members of the school's IT security team who took steps to prevent it from causing any damage," says Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the institute.
• 2010/02/09: DM:CCM: Hitting Back Against the New War on Science
• 2010/02/09: HotTopic: Sunday Times opens another gate
• 2010/02/09: NYT: Skeptics Find Fault With U.N. Climate Panel
• 2010/02/09: FAIR: NYT and the IPCC: Little Evidence, Big Story
• 2010/02/09: CCP: Richard Black of the BBC: Distorted view through the climate gates
• 2010/02/08: MoD: Errors in the IPCC and perspective
• 2010/02/08: NatureTGB: Climate-gate, scepticism, and Pachauri's potboiler
• 2010/02/07: GreenHerring: Scientists pushing back against critics
• 2010/02/07: TPL: The Guardian on "Climate Consensus Under Strain"

  The CRU email theft got more attention this week mainly because of the UK inquiry:

• 2010/02/13: Reuters: U.N. climate panel admits Dutch sea level flaw
• 2010/02/11: ScienceInsider: And Then There Were Five: New Inquiry Into Climate Science Unit
• 2010/02/12: NatureTGB: Nature editor resigns from 'climate-gate' review
• 2010/02/11: ScienceInsider: Nature's Chief Editor Resigns From Climate Inquiry
• 2010/02/12: ABC(Au): Penn University's 'climategate' findings
• 2010/02/12: ABC(Au): Key 'climategate' scientist [Dr Michael Mann] cleared of wrongdoing
• 2010/02/12: NewScientist: Climategate inquiry stumbles on the start line
• 2010/02/11: TPL: Independent Inquiry Into Climate Emails - News
• Guardian(UK): Climate wars: The story of the hacked emails
• 2010/02/11: DeSmogBlog: Guardian Series Dissects CRU Email Theft Story
• 2010/02/11: Guardian(UK): Head of UEA inquiry to outline scope of review into hacked climate emails
• 2010/02/11: Guardian(UK): Hacked climate emails inquiry will not 'audit scientific conclusions'
• 2010/02/11: NatureCF: Head of climate-gate inquiry defends independence
• 2010/02/06: IT Networks: Hacking into the mind of the CRU climate change hacker
• 2010/02/11: BCLSB: The CRU Hack: 3 Months Later
• 2010/02/11: BBC: Climate e-mails inquiry under way
  A panel of independent experts has officially begun its inquiry into the "Climategate" affair. The experts, headed by Sir Muir Russell, will investigate how e-mails from the UK's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) appeared on the web. They will also consider if the e-mail exchanges between researchers show an attempt to manipulate or suppress data "at odds" with scientific practice. The panel hopes to present "preliminary conclusions by spring 2010".
• 2010/02/10: MoD: Climategate from the eye of the storm
• 2010/02/10: DeSmogBlog: Who Hacked the CRU?
• 2010/02/10: JQuiggin: Climategate revisited
  Now that the main charges of scientific misconduct arising from the hacking of the University of East Anglia email system have been proven false, it's possible to get a reasonably clear idea of what actually happened here. For once the widely used "X-gate" terminology is appropriate. As with Watergate, the central incident was a "third-rate burglary" conducted as part of a campaign of overt and covert harassment directed against political opponents and rewarded (at least in the short run) with political success. The core of the campaign is a network of professional lobbyists, rightwing activists and politicians, tame journalists and a handful of scientists (including some at the University of East Anglia itself) who present themselves as independent seekers after truth, but are actually in regular contact to co-ordinate their actions and talking points. The main mechanism of harassment was the misuse of Freedom of Information requests in an effort to disrupt the work of scientists, trap them into failures of compliance, and extract information that could be misrepresented as evidence of scientific misconduct. This is a long-standing tactic in the rightwing War on Science, reflected in such Orwellian pieces of legislation as the US "Data Quality Act".
• 2010/02/09: TPL: The Guardian -- Climate Scrum: Document on the CRU Emails
• 2010/02/08: Guardian(UK): Climate scientists hit out at 'sloppy' melting glaciers error
  Experts who worked on the IPCC report say the error by social and biological scientists has unfairly maligned their work

Here's a preview of the coming result:

• 2010/02/12: Guardian(UK): 'Climategate' review panellist quits after his impartiality questioned

  A pointed observation:

• 2010/02/13: ChronicleHerald: Climate change skeptics can't change reality
  'It sounds silly when you say it out loud," said Ram Myers, "but they seemed to have a notion that you could sit in Ottawa and 'make up' reality. If you could enforce a scientific consensus, that would 'be' reality." That's Ransom A. Myers, Dalhousie University's late, great and sorely missed marine biologist, talking about the federal bureaucrats who "gruesomely mangled and corrupted" the research of their own scientists, to quote an internal Fisheries and Oceans Canada report, and thus allowed three imperilled groundfish stocks to be fished almost to extinction. Myers's comment has echoed in my mind since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change began imploding in the blizzard of compromising emails that escaped from the University of East Anglia in December. That episode was followed by the disclosure that several findings in the panel's 2007 report were based on faulty evidence.

Eli on the greenhouse effect:

• 2010/02/08: ERabett: Another Try ... to explain the greenhouse effect...

  Late coverage of the Solomon paper on stratospheric water vapor:

• 2010/02/11: ERabett: Hot Water and Air
  Georg Hoffmann, writing in German on Prima Klima, has an excellent post on Susan Solomon's new paper on stratospheric water vapor.

The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:

• 2010/02/13: CanWest: Adventurer calls off Arctic trek due to 'perilous' ice conditions -- 'Pole of Inaccessibility' is greatest distance from land in northern sea
  Citing the "perilous" frailty of the polar ice cap, a British team's bid to trek from the edge of Arctic Canada to the Northern Pole of Inaccessibility -- the most remote place in the Arctic Ocean -- has been scuttled just days ahead of the planned departure from Nunavut's Ellef Ringnes Island. Warned by Environment Canada that the High Arctic is experiencing the "worst conditions" for winter ice cover in decades, the leader of the proposed 1,100-kilometre journey said making the attempt would be "foolhardy" and "endanger lives unnecessarily." It's the third time adventurer Jim McNeill has been thwarted in his quest to complete what's been called exploration's "last true world first" -- a slog to the spot in the Arctic Ocean that lies the greatest distance from any point of land. In 2003, a bout of flesh-eating disease in his ankle ended the trip. In 2006, the attempt was aborted due to disintegrating ice and equipment problems. And the latest cancellation follows last week's release of a landmark Canadian study that highlighted unprecedented expanses of open water in the polar sea and predicted ice-free summers in the central Arctic Ocean much sooner than previously forecast.
• 2010/02/11: PhysOrg: 'Supra-glacial lakes' are the focus of a new Penn State study
  Rising temperatures on the Greenland ice sheet cause the creation of large surface lakes called supra-glacial lakes. Now a Penn State geographer will investigate why these lakes form and their implications.
• 2010/02/12: CCP: Greenland's supra-glacial lakes to be studied by Penn State group led by Derrick Lampkin
• 2010/02/08: TreeHugger: Arctic Melting Triple Threat: Less Winter Ice Means More Summer Melt, It's All Happening Faster Than Thought + It's Going to Cost Us...
• 2010/02/07: CCP: Arctic ice melt alarms scientists: Local professor, Dr. David Barber, relates first-hand view of faster-than-expected change

  That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:

• 2010/02/11: EnergyBulletin: Methane Hydrates

  As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

• 2010/02/13: TStar: 'Thinking' robot to explore depths of Arctic waters -- 5,000 metres underwater, it will retrieve data to help Canada support its Arctic claim
  Through a hole cut in the High Arctic ice, Canada's latest pioneer will dive to lightless depths to fathom a mountainous undersea world unseen by human eyes. Shaped like a six-metre-long torpedo, Explorer will creep through the darkness at the speed of a briskly paddled canoe, under pressure so powerful it would crush a car into a block of steel scrap. In March, a small team of Canadian government and industry experts plans to launch the autonomous unmanned vehicle (AUV) from an ice camp north of Borden Island, in the eastern Arctic, more than 4,100 kilometres northwest of Toronto. The yellow craft will be on a critical mission to map the sea floor, at a depth of some five kilometres, as Canada rushes to compile evidence supporting its claim to a vast northern territory before a 2013 deadline.

While in Antarctica:

• 2010/02/11: Scripps: Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapse Possibly Triggered by Ocean Waves, Scripps-led Study Finds -- Extremely long waves could have initiated 2008 collapse events
• 2010/02/11: PhysOrg: Antarctic ice shelf collapse possibly triggered by ocean waves, Scripps-led study finds
• 2010/02/12: CCP: Peter Bromirski et al., Antarctic ice shelf collapse possibly triggered by ocean waves, Scripps-led study finds

  The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2010/02/14: PeakEnergy: Is There Enough Food Out There For Nine Billion People?
• 2010/02/12: Grist: Data highlights on the global food supply
• 2010/02/13: TP: Global warming is a 'nightmare' for coffee
• 2010/02/02: LA DailyNews: Demand for food 'staggering'
  The number of Los Angeles County residents seeking help from food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters skyrocketed 46 percent in the last four years as the country plunged into recession, according to a report issued Tuesday. The Los Angeles Regional Foodbank report found that the number of residents seeking food assistance grew from 674,100 in 2005 to a record 983,400 last year. The number of children receiving food assistance more than doubled from 185,000 to 393,000 in that time.
• 2010/02/12: ABC(Au): Food crisis looms, warn scientists
  A new report by Australian researchers claims far more needs to be done if we are to feed the estimated 9 billion people who will be living on the planet by 2050.
• 2010/02/12: TreeHugger: 20 Million Mongolian Cattle Could Be Dead by Spring Due to Dzud (updated)
• 2010/02/11: Reuters: Climate change affecting Kenya's coffee output
  Climate change has affected Kenyan coffee production through unpredictable rainfall patterns and excessive droughts, making crop management and disease control a nightmare, a researcher said on Thursday.
• 2010/02/10: UN: As Niger faces severe food shortages, UN and partners appeal for aid
• 2010/02/09: NYT: Hungry in America
  More Americans are going hungry in hard times and are increasingly dependent on private charity, according to a new study by Feeding America, a national network of food banks. The study found that 37 million people -- roughly one in eight Americans -- had sought emergency food assistance from the network last year, a 46 percent increase from 2006.
• 2010/02/01: FA: [link to 9.8 meg pdf] Hunger in America 2010 National Report
• 2010/02/09: CCurrents: Growing Hunger In America
• 2010/02/10: DVoice: Growing Hunger in America
  In January 2010, Feeding America (FA, formerly America's Second Harvest) released its disturbing new report on growing hunger titled, "Hunger in America 2010."
• 2010/02/09: BRitholtz: Food Stamps -- The Great Recession's Soup Lines
• 2010/02/07: TribIndia: Warming to hit wheat production in Punjab
• 2010/02/08: EarthTimes: Insects devastate Thailand's rice crop, institute says
  Bangkok - Excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides and other poor farming practices have led to an insect plague in Thailand's rice fields that was predicted to reduce yields by 30 per cent in vast areas, the International Rice Research Institute warned Monday. "This is the worst outbreak of brown planthoppers I have seen in my career since 1977," said Manit Luecha, director of the Chainat Rice Seed Center. "Most of the paddy fields - probably more than 1 million hectares - will suffer rice yield losses of more than 30 per cent," he predicted. Thailand is the world's largest rice exporter. Last year, it shipped 8.6 million tons abroad, earning the country 5 billion dollars in foreign exchange.
• 2010/02/08: AllAfrica: ZimStandard: Zimbabwe: Two Million Face Starvation As Crops Fail
  Bulawayo - Over two million Zimbabweans face starvation before the harvest season in March, a huge jump from the December figure of 1,74 million, a survey conducted by a USAid food monitoring agency has revealed. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fewsnet) said the number of Zimbabweans in need of emergency food aid now stands at 2,17 million.

And how are we going to feed 9 billion?

• 2010/02/13: TreeHugger: Why Other Countries Are Scared of GMOs and We're Not
• 2010/02/13: SciDaily: Sustainable Fisheries Needed for Global Food Security
• 2010/02/13: OilDrum: Peak soil
• 2010/02/02: HampshireChronicle(UK): Children 'believe sheep lay eggs'
  Eggs come from sheep, crisps are made of plastic and butterflies produce cheese - these are just some of the wrong answers given by children in a test of their knowledge of food sources, it was revealed. The survey of more than 1,000 school children showed that nearly two thirds struggled to identify the origins of the everyday foods they eat.
• 2010/02/11: SciNow: Fertilizer Is Acidifying Chinese Land
• 2010/02/12: PhysOrg: Finding a Secret Map to Erosion (w/ Video)
• 2010/02/11: Grist: Where your food really comes from -- Our other addiction: the tricky geopolitics of nitrogen fertilizer
• 2010/02/12: TreeHugger: China's Fertilizer Fetish Making Soils More Acidic - Up to 100 Times Worse Than Acid Rain
• 2010/02/12: SciDaily: Moderate Fertilizer Use Could Double African Banana Yields, Study Shows
• 2010/02/11: InvW: With climate change threatening food supplies, should we reconsider genetically engineered foods?
• 2010/02/11: NatureN: Acid soil threatens Chinese farms -- Overuse of fertilizers is imperilling food supply
• 2010/02/11: OilDrum: Where will our staple foods come from?
• 2010/02/11: SolveClimate: Feeding 9 Billion People -- It's a Daunting Global Challenge, Made Tougher by Climate Change
• 2010/02/10: Eureka: First member of the wheat and barley group of grasses is sequenced
• 2010/02/10: Eureka: First wild grass species and model system for energy crops sequenced
• 2010/02/09: PlanetArk: Australia's "Top End" Too Dry To Become Food Bowl
  The dream of turning Australia's tropical north into a major food bowl to replace drought-stricken southern farmlands and feed a future Asia has been shattered by a new report released on Monday. Despite a billion of liters of annual rain, the equivalent of 2,000 Sydney Harbours, northern Australia has limited water, with 65 percent of rain lost through evaporation and 20 percent in rivers, while only 15 percent recharges groundwater reserves. And climate change will make northern Australia hotter and drier by 2030, reducing water availability, said the report by the Northern Australian Land and Water Taskforce.
• 2010/01/23: Discovery: Is Genetically Modified Corn Toxic?
• 2010/02/07: Guardian(UK): Cuba plans city farms to ease economy woes -- Project launched to ring urban areas with thousands of small farms in bid to reverse agricultural decline

  A succession of cyclones, Oli, Pat and Rene, have spun up in the Central Pacific:

• 2010/02/11: EarthTimes: Pacific island sees heavy damage from battering by cyclone [Pat]

  As for GHGs:

• 2010/02/08: GWWatch: The last time CO2 levels were this high, we dragged our knuckles around
• 2010/02/05: RA: The Twin GHGs Paradox
• 2010/02/11: SkeptiSci: Is CO2 a pollutant?
• 2010/02/10: BWeek: Emissions to Rise More Slowly Through 2011, DOE Says
  Carbon dioxide emissions fell further in 2009 than first thought and may not rise as quickly as the economy grows, according to the Energy Information Administration's monthly Short-term Energy Outlook. Emissions from burning coal, oil and natural gas fell 6.3 percent in 2009, the EIA said, a revision from last month's estimate of 6.1 percent. The EIA's prediction of a 1.5 percent increase in emissions this year was unchanged. Today's prediction of a further 1.3 percent emissions increase in 2011 was lower than last month's estimate of 1.7 percent.

And in the carbon cycle:

• 2010/02/08: SeedDaily: Climate change impact of soil underestimated: study
  Finnish researchers called for a revision of climate change estimates Monday after their findings showed emissions from soil would contribute more to climate warming than previously thought. "A Finnish research group has proved that the present standard measurements underestimate the effect of climate warming on emissions from the soil," the Finnish Environment Institute said in a statement.
• 2010/02/09: CC: Isotopes and Maple Syrup

  As for the temperature record:

• 2010/02/13: Tamino: Prime Meridian
• 2010/02/11: ClimateP: Record high temperatures far outpace record lows across U.S.

  Aerosols are making their presence felt:

• 2010/02/09: TreeHugger: 90% of Himalayan Glacier Melting Caused by Aerosols & Black Carbon
• 2010/02/08: CSM: What's really causing Himalayan glaciers to melt?
  [...]
  Now, a new study by scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and NCAR, finds that human-emitted aerosols are the single major contributor to glacial melt in the Himalayas. In this case, increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide are not melting the mountain glaciers, say the authors. Particulate matter, particularly black carbon from cooking fires and coal-fired plants in India, is the real culprit.

Abrupt Climate Change put in an appearance:

• 2010/02/08: Ecology: (ab$) Regime shifts in ecological systems can occur with no warning by Alan Hastings & Derin B. Wysham
• 2010/02/09: UCDavis: Climate 'Tipping Points' May Arrive Without Warning, Says Top Forecaster
• 2010/02/09: SciDaily: Climate 'Tipping Points' May Arrive Without Warning, Says Top Forecaster
• 2010/02/10: TCoE: Infonugget: Stealth tipping points

  While in near earth orbit:

• 2010/02/09: SeedDaily: New Satellite Images Show Ag Land Cover for 2009 Crop Year

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2010/02/14: Time: How Will Global Warming Change Ecosystems?
• 2010/02/08: PhysOrg: Butterflies seek higher ground to escape warmer temperatures
  A study of beleaguered butterflies in California provides some of the best clues yet as to how other animals may react to climate change, scientists say. The unprecedented, 35-year analysis of butterfly populations in the Sierra Nevada details how several species are fleeing to higher elevations to escape warming temperatures. Those butterflies that already live on mountaintops and can't adjust to the heat have "nowhere else to go but heaven," says Arthur Shapiro, a biologist at University of California-Davis who collected the data.
• 2010/02/10: MGS: Three feet of global warming...what we should expect from climate change
• 2010/02/09: BBC: Season shifts 'alter food chains'
  Springtime in the UK is starting on average 11 days earlier than 30 years ago, causing natural food chains to become disrupted, a study suggests. Predators seem to be slower than organisms further down the food chains to respond to the seasonal shifts, according to a team of UK researchers. The findings are based on more than 25,500 records of 726 marine, terrestrial and freshwater species. The study has been published in the journal Global Change Biology.
• 2010/02/08: FTimes: Melting ice alters way of life in Iqaluit
• 2010/02/09: Guardian(UK): Earlier springs could destroy delicate balance of UK wildlife, study shows

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2010/02/08: FuturePundit: Urbanization And Exports Drive Deforestation
• 2010/02/11: EnvFin: Most firms ignore investors' forest info request
  An investor-led effort to urge companies to disclose their 'forest footprint' has published its first report, with 35 firms [out of 217] responding.
• 2010/02/11: CBC: Logging makes forests more flammable: study
  Commercial logging of moist native forests creates conditions that increase the severity and frequency of bushfires, an international study claims. The finding by Australian, Canadian and U.S. researchers is based on a review of previous studies and is published in the latest issue of the journal Conservation Letters.
• 2010/02/10: TreeHugger: Brazil's Biofuel Expansion Doesn't Directly Lead to Deforestation - But the Ranches it Displaces Do
• 2010/02/07: PhysOrg: Urban growth, farm exports drive tropical deforestation
  The biggest causes of deforestation in tropical countries are population growth in cities and agricultural exports, a finding that should shape decisions on preventing forest loss, experts said Sunday.

Desertification looms as a threat:

• 2010/02/09: FuturePundit: Subtropics In Danger Of Further Desertification
• 2010/02/10: MongaBay: Desertification threatens 38 percent of the world
• 2010/02/09: Eureka: 38 percent of world's surface in danger of desertification

  Yes we have no wacky weather, except:

• 2010/02/13: ClimateP: Must re-read statement from UK's Royal Society and Met Office on the connection between global warming and extreme weather
• 2010/02/12: TerraDaily: Rare snowfall in Rome marvels visitors, snarls traffic
• 2010/02/11: Grist: Global weirding, East Coast snow storms, and Vancouver's snow shortage

  As for heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2010/02/10: TerraDaily: Heatwave roasts Rio, kills 32 in southern Brazil
  The worst heatwave to hit Rio de Janeiro in 50 years turned the city into a pre-Carnival furnace Wednesday, and killed 32 elderly people further south, officials said.

Corals are dying:

• 2010/02/13: ClimateShifts: Warming spurs U.S. to consider ESA protection for 82 coral species
• 2010/02/12: NOAANews: NOAA to Review Status of 82 Species of Coral -- Center for Biological Diversity has asked to list corals under Endangered Species Act
• 2010/02/08: ClimateShifts: Reducing resilience of the Great Barrier Reef to increased temperature stress

  Acidification is changing the oceans:

• 2010/02/13: MTobis: The Ocean Chemistry Crisis
• 2010/02/10: TCoE: Infonugget: An upwelling crisis

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2010/02/11: Time: Glaciers: Changing at More Than a Glacial Pace
• 2010/02/12: SolveClimate: Understanding Glacier Changes: Risks Posed by Glacial Lakes, Debris Flows
• 2010/02/11: TreeHugger: Don't Oversimplify Glacier Retreating (and Advancing) Reports
• 2010/02/04: Yale360: In the Mountains of the Moon, A Trek to Africa's Last Glaciers
  The shrinking ice cap atop Mount Kilimanjaro is Africa's most famous glacier. But the continent harbors other pockets of ice, most notably in the Rwenzori Mountains of western Uganda. And as temperatures rise, the Rwenzori's tropical glaciers -- located as high as 16,500 feet -- are fast disappearing.
• 2010/02/09: SolveClimate: Understanding Glacier Changes: Elevation Matters
• 2010/02/08: TreeHugger: Historic Alaskan Glacier Melt Less Than Previously Thought... But Recent Retreat is Double the Average
• 2010/02/07: SolveClimate: Glacier Responses to Climate Change are Complex, as are the Impacts

  Sea levels are rising:

• 2010/02/12: National(UAE): Rising sea level poses threat to Seychelles
• 2010/02/11: RA: Sea Level Rise - Part 1
• 2010/02/10: SunSentinel: South Florida's floodgates vulnerable to rising sea levels
• 2010/02/10: TerraDaily: Predicting Changes In Global Sea Level
• 2010/02/10: CCP: Sea level rise data from TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, and Jason-2 through August 2009
• 2010/02/10: CBC: Prepare for rising sea levels, Halifax told
• 2010/02/08: SkeptiSci: Working out future sea level rise from the past

  As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

• 2010/02/12: PlanetArk: Water-Gulping Companies' Risk Disclosures Run Dry: Report
  Most publicly traded companies that depend on water do not adequately disclose their financial risks to droughts and future regulations, even as water scarcity problems mount, according to a report released on Thursday. The report produced by Ceres, a coalition of investors and environmentalists and Swiss Bank UBS, ranked 100 of the biggest publicly traded companies on the quality, depth and clarity of their water disclosure risks and opportunities.
• 2010/02/12: TCoE: The Great Lakes and the Energy-Water Nexus
• 2010/02/10: JFleck: Chances of Extra Water for Mead Remain Low
• 2010/02/09: EarthTimes: Avalanches in Afghanistan kill over 30, strand 1,500
• 2010/02/09: EarthTimes: Seven Afghans killed, hundreds stranded by heavy snows
• 2010/02/09: EarthTimes: Rains claim 14 lives; thousands affected in Bolivia
• 2010/02/09: CCP: Wyoming water may become more scarce with climate change
• 2010/02/09: CCP: Western Australia drought is possibly the worst for the past 750 years
• 2010/02/08: ClimateP: Massive moisture-driven extreme precipitation during warmest winter in the satellite record -- and the deniers say it disproves (!) climate science
• 2010/02/08: PlanetArk: Water At Core Of Climate Change Impacts: Experts
  The main impact of climate change will be on water supplies and the world needs to learn from past cooperation such as over the Indus or Mekong Rivers to help avert future conflicts, experts said on Sunday. Desertification, flash floods, melting glaciers, heatwaves, cyclones or water-borne diseases such as cholera are among the impacts of global warming inextricably tied to water. And competition for supplies might cause conflicts. "The main manifestations of rising temperatures...are about water," said Zafar Adeel, chair of UN-Water which coordinates work on water among 26 U.N. agencies.
• 2010/02/08: Wunderground: Heavy snowfall in a warming world
• 2010/02/08: EarthTimes: Rainstorms lash Australia's east coast

  Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2010/02/10: USAToday: Could chicken manure help curb climate change? [biochar]

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2010/02/09: CalcRisk: Rail Traffic Flat in January Compared to 2009
• 2010/02/07: AutoBG: Why conservatives should support the "good kind" of public transit

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

• 2010/02/12: GreenGrok: Cool It and Warm It With a Chameleon Roof
• 2010/02/10 AutoBG: First downtowns, and now suburbs: how cars change American geography
• 2010/02/09: NRDC:SwitchBoard: "Smaller homes, urban lifestyles and sustainable communities will shape development"

  As for carbon sequestration:

• 2010/02/08: Reuters: Caterpillar joins FutureGen clean coal alliance -- Exelon joined FutureGen in January

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2010/02/12: PlanetArk: Venezuela Tries To Make It Rain
  Venezuela is not at war with the skies but with a severe drought that has caused an electricity crisis and forced the government to resort to unconventional methods to make it rain. The government began "bombing clouds," or cloud seeding, late last year after it emerged that the country was facing a dire water shortage. Using technology borrowed from Cuba and Chile, the idea is to fire a mixture of silver iodide, dry ice and salt into vertically growing cumulonimbus clouds to encourage raindrops to join together.
• 2010/02/10: GreenGrok: The Oceans and Iron: A Quick Fix or Heavy Metal Siren Song?
• 2010/02/10: TreeHugger: Geoengineering Inspired by Volcanoes? Not if You Want to Avoid Destroying Our Lakes
• 2010/02/09: TEC: Is geoengineering inevitable?

  While on the adaptation front:

• 2010/02/12: Guardian(UK): A home from home: saving species from climate change

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2010/02/08: NERC:NORA: Systematic Metastable Atmospheric Regime Identification in a AGCM by Christian Franzke et al.
• 2010/02/09: NERC:NORA: Holocene relative sea-level change and deglaciation on Alexander Island, Antarctic Peninsula, from elevated lake deltas by S.J. Roberts et al.
• 2010/02/10: NERC:NORA: Subglacial bedforms reveal complex basal regime in a zone of paleo-ice stream convergence, Amundsen Sea embayment, West Antarctica by R. D. Larter et al.
• 2010/02/10: NERC:NORA: Mechanisms of Holocene palaeoenvironmental change in the Antarctic Peninsula region by M.J. Bentley et al.
• 2010/02/11: NERC:NORA: Climatology of short-period mesospheric gravity waves over Halley, Antarctica (76 S, 27 W) by K. Nielsen et al.
• 2010/02/11: NERC:NORA: The sources and fate of freshwater exported in the East Greenland Current by P.A. Dodd et al.
• 2010/02/11: NERC:NORA: Quasi-biennial oscillation influence on long-period planetary waves in the Antarctic upper mesosphere by Robert Hibbins et al.
• 2010/02/12: ACPD: Joint spatial variability of aerosol, clouds and rainfall in the Himalayas from satellite data by P. Shrestha & A. P. Barros
• 2010/02/12: ACPD: ransport of Saharan dust from the Bodélé Depression to the Amazon Basin: a case study by Y. Ben-Ami et al.
• 2010/02/12: ACPD: Variability and budget of CO2 in Europe: analysis of the CAATER airborne campaigns - Part 2: Comparison of CO2 vertical variability and fluxes from observations and a modeling framework by I. Xueref-Remy et al.
• 2010/02/11: TCD: An explanation for the dark region in the western melt zone of the Greenland ice sheet by I. G. M. Wientjes & J. Oerlemans
• 2010/02/11: CPD: Millennial and sub-millennial scale climatic variations recorded in polar ice cores over the last glacial period by E. Capron et al.
• 2010/02/10: CPD: Water vapour source impacts on oxygen isotope variability in tropical precipitation during Heinrich events by S. C. Lewis et al.
• 2010/02/12: Science: (ab$) Sea-Level Highstand 81,000 Years Ago in Mallorca by Jeffrey A. Dorale et al.
• 2010/01/29: GRL: (ab$) Transoceanic infragravity waves impacting Antarctic ice shelves by Peter D. Bromirski et al.
• 2010/02/11: ACPD: The 16-day wave in the Arctic and Antarctic mesosphere and lower thermosphere by K. A. Day & N. J. Mitchell
• 2010/02/09: ACPD: Biomass burning aerosol emissions from vegetation fires: particle number and mass emission factors and size distributions by S. Janhäll et al.
• 2010/02/11: ACPD: A global perspective on aerosol from low-volatility organic compounds by H. O. T. Pye & J. H. Seinfeld
• 2010/02/11: ACPD: The potential influence of Asian and African mineral dust on ice, mixed-phase and liquid water clouds by A. Wiacek et al.
• 2010/02/10: ACPD: Are there urban signatures in the tropospheric ozone column products derived from satellite measurements? by J. Kar et al.
• 2010/02/09: ACPD: Thermodynamics of climate change: generalized sensitivities by V. Lucarini et al.
• 2010/02/08: AGWObserver: Observations of anthropogenic global warming
• 2010/02/09: TC: Role of glaciers in watershed hydrology: a preliminary study of a "Himalayan catchment" by R. J. Thayyen & J. T. Gergan
• 2010/02/09: TCD: Brief communication: ikaite (CaCO3*6H2O) discovered in Arctic sea ice by G. S. Dieckmann et al.
• 2010/02/09: TCD: Modelling snowdrift sublimation on an Antarctic ice shelf by J. T. M. Lenaerts et al.
• 2010/02/09: PNAS: Phylogenetic analyses reveal the shady history of C4 grasses by Erika J. Edwards & Stephen A. Smith
• 2010/02/09: PNAS: Flow enhances photosynthesis in marine benthic autotrophs by increasing the efflux of oxygen from the organism to the water by Tali Mass et al.
• 2010/02/08: Ecology: (ab$) Regime shifts in ecological systems can occur with no warning by Alan Hastings & Derin B. Wysham
• 2010/02/09: GRL: (ab$) Sudden cosmic ray decreases: No change of global cloud cover by J. Calogovic et al.
• 2010/02/07: NatureGeoSci: (ab$) Snowfall increase in coastal East Antarctica linked with southwest Western Australian drought by Tas D. van Ommen & Vin Morgan

  And other significant documents:

• 2010/02/01: FA: [link to 9.8 meg pdf] Hunger in America 2010 National Report
• 2010/02/10: PeakOilTaskForce: [link to 687 k pdf] 2010 Peak Oil Report

  As for miscellaneous science:

• 2010/02/11: ABC(Au): Ice age coral could point to future sea levels
• 2010/02/10: Eureka: Alternative futures of a warming world -- Potential human responses to climate change will be integrated into future models of global climate

  More DIY science:

• 2010/02/10: CC&G: Tracking Climate Trends with RClimate Scripts and Links
• 2010/02/10: CC&G: RClimate Script: Arctic Sea Ice Extent Trend By Month

  Phil Jones interview:

• 2010/02/13: BBC: Q&A: Professor Phil Jones
• 2010/02/13: TPL: Phil Jones Q&A at the BBC
• 2010/02/12: BBC: Phil Jones, the professor behind the "Climategate" affair, has admitted some of his decades-old weather data was not well enough organised

  John Christy profile:

• 2010/02/14: Stoat: Death at UAH

  John Cook interview:

• 2010/02/11: AGWObserver: The Skeptical Scientist

  The Pielke fan clubbe, alas:

• 2010/02/12: ScienceInsider: Pielke Jr. on Weather vs. Climate
• 2010/02/10: ERabett: Zugzwang

  Post-Normal Science?

• 2010/02/13: TPL: Post-Normal Science or [Pseudo] Sort of Science?
• 2010/02/11: TPL: Post-Normal or a return to normal?

  Ah yes, every problem is an opportunity to explain science:

• 2010/02/12: Guardian(UK): Climate science in the spotlight may not be such a bad thing
  The recent scandals demonstrate a wide misunderstanding of climate science, and of science more generally

And on the carbon trading front:

• 2010/02/12: Reuters: European carbon scheme is a success, research says
  The European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is a success and its flaws have not harmed its basic aim of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, multi-national research showed on Friday.
• 2010/02/09: Guardian(UK): World's first personal carbon credit earns $17 cashback for one tonne of carbon dioxide
  Solar panels worth $58,000 bring couple modest return as home-owners look to DIY system of emissions trading
• 2010/02/09: BBerg: U.K. Lawmakers Call for Intervention in Carbon Market
• 2010/02/09: CPositive: EU ETS intervention call howled down
  A call by British politicians for intervention in the EU carbon market to lift the "flat-lining" price of carbon has drawn cautionary and critical responses from the government, Brussels and carbon market players.
• 2010/02/08: FTimes: Carbon markets failing, say British MPs
  The carbon markets are failing in their role of encouraging investment in cutting CO 2 emissions, MPs have concluded. The environmental audit committee has urged the government to consider other measures, such as a floor price for carbon dioxide emissions, which would provide industries with greater certainty over the price of carbon and help to ensure the system of pricing was effective. The MPs said a price of 100 euros per tonne of CO 2 could be necessary to encourage investment, compared with current prices of about 13 euros. Tim Yeo, who chairs the committee, said: "Emissions trading should be helping us to combat climate change but, at the moment, the price of carbon simply isn't high enough to make it work.
• 2010/02/08: BBerg: U.K. Lawmakers Call for Intervention in Carbon Market

  The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

• 2010/02/08: Guardian(UK): MPs propose carbon tax to boost green investment

  The Tobin tax put in an appearance:

• 2010/02/09: Guardian(UK): Richard Curtis and Bill Nighy team up in new film urging Tobin tax on bankers
• 2010/02/09: BBC: Banks [Tobin] tax 'would raise billions'
  A transaction tax on banks would raise as much as $400bn a year (£250bn; 291.2bn euros), campaigners have said. Supporters say money raised could help protect public services and jobs, fight poverty and tackle climate change. The campaign is backed by almost 50 groups, including the TUC and Oxfam, as well as big names like actor Bill Nighy and film maker Richard Curtis. In recent months governments and bankers have mooted similar plans - to insure against future banking crashes.
• 2010/02/10: Guardian(UK): Robin Hood tax [Tobin tax] offers a way to deal with our pressing problems

  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:

• 2010/02/13: Missoulian: A look at 'Cap and trade' vs. 'cap and dividend'
• 2010/02/12: TEC: Are carbon credit markets inherently prone to fraud and manipulation?

  Meanwhile on the international political front:

• 2010/02/12: CBC: B.C., 3 western states sign accords
  British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and California have signed two agreements aimed at boosting the West Coast economy and protecting the environment. The deals were signed in Vancouver at a meeting of B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire, Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California. B.C. and the three states promised to work together on issues such as energy conservation and a high-speed rail service from San Diego to Vancouver.
• 2010/02/11: BizGreen: Lords call for "calm nerves" in response to Climategate
  As Republicans suggest climate science is wrong because it is snowing in Washington, a group of British peers call on politicians and media to undertake a cool-headed assessment of climate risks

Polls! We have polls!

• 2010/02/07: Guardian(UK): Public loses faith in climate change science after leaked emails scandal

  And on the American political front:

• 2010/02/13: AlterNet: Texas Education Board Is Trying to Infuse Schoolbooks with Ultraconservative Ideology
• 2010/02/12: AlterNet: The Right's Inability to Grasp Climate Change May Be Funny, But It's Also Very Dangerous
• 2010/02/12: SlashDot: Texas Textbooks Battle Is Actually an American War
• 2010/02/12: TP:WR: Jim Inhofe's Non-Communicative Communications Director, Matt Dempsey
• 2010/02/11: MiamiHerald: A clean energy gold rush
  Of the 10 largest wind power companies in the world, the United States has one - General Electric. Of the world's 10 largest solar companies, we have two - First Solar and SunPower - but almost all their manufacturing is in Asia. Hydropower and geothermal companies are also located in the Far East. The United States, with no national goal or policy framework for clean energy, simply hasn't found a way to create a stable marketplace where large, renewable energy companies can thrive. For a nation that consumes 25 percent of the world's energy, our failure to compete is ominous, and all the more troubling because a veritable "clean energy gold rush" has begun.
• 2010/02/11: Grist: Good climate policy is responsible fiscal policy
• 2010/02/10: SolveClimate: Utah House Passes Resolution Implying Climate Change Conspiracy -- State's Scientists Get a Hostile Reception
• 2010/02/11: NYT:CW: Drive to Delay Calif. Climate Law May Be Stuck in Neutral
• 2010/02/10: ClimateP: Asked about whether he agrees with scientists that humans are changing the climate, GOP candidate for MA governor says, "I absolutely am not smart enough to believe I know the answer to that question."
• 2010/02/10: TreeHugger: Candidate for Mass. Governor [Charles Barker] "Not Smart Enough" to Know Whether or Not Climate Change is Real
• 2010/02/09: CCurrents: Take Back Your Education
  More and more people across America are waking up to the mismatch between what is taught in schools and what common sense tells us we need to know. What can you do about it?
• 2010/02/08: PhysOrg: Despite millions in tax credits, wind energy firms aren't hiring
• 2010/02/08: SolveClimate: California Launches Statewide Emissions Monitoring Program -- Closely Watched Project Will Start with Methane
• 2010/02/08: Belfer: Any Hope for Meaningful U.S. Climate Policy? A Somewhat Positive View [Stavins]
• 2010/02/08: WaPo: Mass. wind farm that Obama administration might support meets strong resistance
• 2010/02/07: TEC: The New Environment for Climate and Energy Policy
• 2010/02/08: BSD: Cal GOP candidates for governor promise not to fight climate change

  Arizona has pulled out of the WCI cap and trade plan:

• 2010/02/12: SolveClimate: Are States Shifting Away from Regional Cap-and-Trade Policies? Arizona Pulls Out of Western Cap-and-Trade Plan; Utah May Be Next
• 2010/02/11: NYT: Arizona Quits Western Cap-and-Trade Program [under Western Climate Initiative]
• 2010/02/11: AzCentral: Arizona quits Western climate endeavor -- Cutting greenhouse gases too expensive, Brewer says
  Arizona will no longer participate in a groundbreaking attempt to limit greenhouse-gas emissions across the West, a change in policy by Gov. Jan Brewer that will include a review of all the state's efforts to combat climate change. Brewer stopped short of pulling Arizona out of the multistate coalition [Western Climate Initiative] that plans to regulate greenhouse gases starting in 2012. But she made it clear in an executive order that Arizona will not endorse the emission-control plan or any program that could raise costs for consumers and businesses.

The Utah House has passed a resolution doubting climate change:

• 2010/02/12: Guardian(UK): Utah delivers vote of no confidence for 'climate alarmists'
  The US's most Republican state passes bill disputing science of climate change, claiming emissions are 'essentially harmless'
• 2010/02/12: Grist: Dispatches from the Flat Earth -- Utah solves climate change by voting it down
• 2010/02/11: TreeHugger: Utah House of Reps Passes Resolution Calling Climate Change a Conspiracy
• 2010/02/09: SLTrib: House OKs resolution doubting climate change
  A non-binding statement passed after lawmakers deleted charges of a "conspiracy" on climate data.

The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2010/02/10: CSW: Why snowstorms freak out Washington, D.C.: How snow-plowing policy is made in the nation's capital
• 2010/02/10: SolveClimate: Obama: The Making of a Clean Coal President
• 2010/02/10: TP:WR: Obama Claims We Can't Repower America With Clean Energy [in 20 years]

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2010/02/12: Grist: Obama administration celebrates clean energy investments, reaffirms support for cap-and-trade
• 2010/02/12: TreeHugger: US Offers Up 37 Million Acres for Offshore Drilling in Gulf of Mexico
• 2010/02/12: OilDrum: The Magic of Technology and the President's Biofuels Interagency Working Group
• 2010/02/11: SolveClimate: Anxious Geothermal, Solar Industries Looking to U.S. Interior for a Hand
• 2010/02/09: Grist: Obama plan would educate clean energy scientists and engineers
• 2010/02/09: MSNBC: Loan guarantees recharge nuclear debate -- As initial projects face struggles, Obama seeks to triple program

  The Obama administration has proposed setting up a National Climate Service:

• NOAA: Climate Service
• 2010/02/11: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Despite Deniers, Americans Are Asking for More Climate Science: NOAA [Climate Service] Will Deliver It
• 2010/02/09: CSW: Commerce Department proposes NOAA Climate Service
• 2010/02/09: Guardian(UK): US climate monitoring information service gets go-ahead in Washington
• 2010/02/09: ScienceInsider: NOAA Launches "Climate Services" With Website
• 2010/02/09: KSJT: AP, ClimateWire, Brit Press, etc: US forms a new Nat'l Climate Service
• 2010/02/09: SF Gate: New federal agency to monitor climate change
• 2010/02/08: NYT: A Federal Climate Service Is Created to Provide Data
• 2010/02/09: WaPo: U.S. proposes new climate service
• 2010/02/08: NOAANews: Commerce Department Proposes Establishment of NOAA Climate Service
  New office would target nation's fast-accelerating climate information needs -- NOAA launches www.climate.gov as portal for climate science and services
• 2010/02/08: NOAANews: Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco Unveil Landmark Climate.Gov Portal to Climate Information
• 2010/02/08: PhysOrg: New federal climate change agency forming
• 2010/02/08: Grist: Obama admin launches new Climate Service and climate.gov
• 2010/02/08: DM:SRK: Commerce Department Proposes Establishment of NOAA Climate Service

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2010/02/13: AlterNet: Dem Sell-out Dianne Feinstein Attempts End-Run to Hand California Water to Billionaire Farmers
• 2010/02/11: Grist: It's time for a solar revolution by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt)
• 2010/02/11: TP: McCain Backs Down To Hannity: 'I Never Quite Understood' Global Warming
• 2010/02/09: CCP: U.S. Senator James Inhofe channels Joseph McCarthy

  Kerry-Boxer, Waxman-Markey or whatever -- the future climate bill -- defines a battleline:

• 2010/02/12: Grist: Can cap and dividend cut the Congressional ice? Cantwell's climate bill gathers steam
• 2010/02/10: TEC: Another Energy Bill?
• 2010/02/10: PlanetArk: Renewables Mandate Could Even Playing Field With China
  A federal mandate for renewable electricity could ensure U.S. competitiveness with China on clean fuels and create thousands of home-grown jobs by wooing manufacturers that have been turned off by America's unsteady support for the industry, according to a new study commissioned by an alliance of 19 energy firms and trade groups.
• 2010/02/10: WaPo: Senate offers some hope for legislation to combat climate change [Cantwell-Collins]
• 2010/02/09: ClimateP: Private sector begging Congress for leadership on bipartisan climate and clean energy jobs bill
  Companies will continue punting on major infrastructure investments and the jobs they create as long as Congress dawdles
• 2010/02/08: Grist: What are the chances of a cap-and-trade system being established in the U.S. this year?

  What are the lobbyists pushing?

• 2010/02/11: Reuters: Lobbyists for US cap and trade face daunting task
  The U.S. Senate's stalled climate bill is getting a last big push from an unlikely ally -- a group of energy companies who say a carbon market will help them get financing for the next generation of energy production. But intensive lobbying by these climate bill proponents -- including heavyweights like Duke Energy, Shell Oil Co and General Electric Co -- may not be enough to counter powerful opposition and get a bill passed before the U.S. mid-term elections in November.
• 2010/02/12: Grist: New 'Repower America' ads target conservative Dem Senators on clean energy jobs
• 2010/02/12: TreeHugger: Trend Watch: Coal Lobby Attacking Rewable Energy Incentives From The State Level
• 2010/02/10: NYT:CW: Climate and Energy Issues Send Hordes to K Street
  The number of companies and organizations hiring energy lobbyists reached record levels last year as major climate legislation worked its way through Congress. More than 1,700 groups and businesses turned to K Street in 2009 for help on energy, climate and nuclear issues, a jump from 1,331 in 2008, according to new data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. The numbers constitute a more than 70 percent increase from three years ago and include companies ranging from information technology giants to steel manufacturers. In addition, many companies spent unprecedented amounts individually to get their voices heard on global warming policy with federal agencies and lawmakers.
• 2010/02/10: PlanetArk: Wind, Solar Groups Push U.S. Renewable Energy Standard
  U.S. industry executives from the wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal and biomass sectors pushed on Tuesday for a federal renewable energy standard, which they said would foster growth and create jobs.
• 2010/02/07: CPI: Lobbyists Rush to Block EPA Action on Climate Change

  The Gore-apalooza is still bopping along:

• 2010/02/12: UNDispatch: Gore Puts Senators' Feet to Fire

  While in the UK:

• 2010/02/12: FTimes: Business and banks see lack of support for green energy
  Support for low-carbon energy such as wind and nuclear power is insufficient to deliver the investment the government wants, industry leaders warned the prime minister this week. They also called on the government to help educate the public to expect higher energy prices. Chief executives and other senior managers of leading energy companies, banks and manufacturers gave their ideas for encouraging investment at a meeting in Downing Street on Monday with Gordon Brown, the prime minister, Lord Mandelson, business secretary, and Ed Miliband, energy and climate change secretary.
• 2010/02/11: BBerg: U.K. Boosts Flood Defense Spending 7% to 745 Million Pounds
• 2010/02/08: Guardian(UK): The government has the power, it could make us all pay into a green bank
• 2010/02/07: Guardian(UK): Heathrow faces threat from plan to link high-speed rail route with Birmingham
• 2010/02/07: Guardian(UK): End tax breaks for polluters to cut budget deficit, thinktank urges
  Green Alliance says £12bn could be saved by ending support for high-carbon industries such as aviation and building fewer roads

And in Europe:

• 2010/02/11: NYT: Questions About Biofuels' Environmental Costs Could Alter Europe's Policies
• 2010/02/10: EurActiv: Commission forced to scale down soil law
  Following years of negotiations, five EU member states still form a blocking minority on the European Commission's proposal for a directive on soil protection, leaving some to wonder whether the EU executive should reconsider its approach to addressing this environmental issue. Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK reiterated their opposition to the proposals after the Spanish EU Presidency's had attempted to find political agreement in the Council last week (4 February). Identification of contaminated sites remains one of the main sticking points and a sensible and cost-efficient system for their remediation is yet to be found, one diplomat told EurActiv. Meanwhile, political pressure to protect soil is mounting amid recognition of its role in capturing carbon and thus combating climate change.
• 2010/02/10: EUO: Spain pushes for common strategy on electric cars
• 2010/02/09: PhysOrg: EU ministers call for common electric car strategy
• 2010/02/10: BBerg: German Coalition Parties Agree Solar Subsidy [Feed-in Tariff] Cuts [of 16%] From June 1
• 2010/02/08: DerSpiegel: Reversing the Atomic Phase-Out -- German Minister Sparks Government Row Over Nuclear Power
  German Enivronment Minister Norbert Röttgen has caused a rift in Chancellor Angela Merkel's government by suggesting that it drop plans to extend the lifetimes of the country's 17 nuclear power stations.
• 2010/02/09: PlanetArk: Solar Sector Needs Defense To German [Feed-in Tariff] Cuts: EPIA [European Photovoltaic Industry Association]
• 2010/02/08: EurActiv: EU ministers to ignite debate on electric cars
  EU ministers will trigger a debate on an EU strategy for electric cars this week amid warnings by green groups that the electricity used to charge the vehicles could prove as polluting as the fuel engines they are supposed to replace.
• 2010/02/08: PlanetArk: Reuters "Smart" Power Key As EU Sparks Electric Car Debate
  Electric cars must be backed by "smart" power networks if they are to help the world's climate problems, environmentalists warned on Monday as European ministers prepared to debate a strategy for the sector. Industry ministers will meet on Tuesday in San Sebastian, Spain to discuss how to realign power infrastructure, equipment standards and the marketplace so that European carmakers can race ahead of rivals in Japan, China and the United States.
• 2010/02/08: SwissInfo: Climate remains top priority -- Swiss environmental policy will focus on climate change and biodiversity this year

  Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2010/02/11: ABC(Au): Turnbull crosses floor on ETS vote
  The House of Representatives has passed the Federal Government's emissions trading scheme for the third time. As expected, former Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull crossed the floor to vote with the Government. The legislation passed 79 to 57 votes.
• 2010/02/11: ABC(Au): MP says climate change debate not delivering
  The Federal Government and Coalition are under fire from an independent MP for trying to "point score" over climate change. The Member for Lyne, Rob Oakeshott, has told Parliament the ALP's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill is "dead" and the Coalition's policy is "ETS-lite". He says a critical difference between the two schemes is the Coalition's does not put a price on carbon. Mr Oakeshott says there is a choice between two emissions trading schemes, but nothing has been achieved yet.
• 2010/02/10: ABC(Au): Network echoes calls for Green Loans change
  The Gippsland Sustainability Network has joined calls for a shake-up of the Green Loans scheme. The Federal Government offered interest free loans for energy saving measures to be retro-fitted to homes. But the Greens say the the scheme has been badly administered and installers have not been supervised or accredited properly.
• 2010/02/10: ABC(Au): The Climate Institute says the Federal Government's green loans scheme has become a victim of its own success
• 2010/02/10: BBerg: Australia Solar Program Costs Rise A$850 Million, Review Says
  Australia's household solar panel program cost almost seven times as much as expected with an A$850 million ($745 million) rise in expenses as demand outstripped supply, the Australian Financial Review reported. The program, which gave rebates for the installation of solar panels, cost A$1 billion over 18 months before being cancelled, the Review said, citing government budget papers.
• 2010/02/09: UPI: Australia not living up to solar potential -- Australia missed the opportunity to become a pioneer in solar power, experts say.
  Australia Solar Energy Society Chairman John Grimes says government decisions to keep Australia locked into coal-fired power killed its early potential to build a leading solar industry, according to an article in the Brisbane Courier-Mail. As early as 1974, a summary of global solar research recognized Australia for the University of Queensland's research, notably its study on large-scale solar electricity generation. "Our golden opportunity was in the '70s," Grimes told the newspaper. "We led all solar fields but we squandered it."
• 2010/02/09: ABC(Au): The Western Australian Farmers Federation (WAFF) has been granted funding to help farmers prepare for the effects of climate change
• 2010/02/09: PlanetArk: Australia's "Top End" Too Dry To Become Food Bowl
  The dream of turning Australia's tropical north into a major food bowl to replace drought-stricken southern farmlands and feed a future Asia has been shattered by a new report released on Monday. Despite a billion of liters of annual rain, the equivalent of 2,000 Sydney Harbours, northern Australia has limited water, with 65 percent of rain lost through evaporation and 20 percent in rivers, while only 15 percent recharges groundwater reserves. And climate change will make northern Australia hotter and drier by 2030, reducing water availability, said the report by the Northern Australian Land and Water Taskforce.
• 2010/02/09: PeakEnergy: Turnbull Speaks Out (Again)
• 2010/02/09: BBerg: Australian Carbon Plan More Cost-Effective, New Energy Says
  Australia's climate-change bill, which includes plans for a carbon trading system similar to one used in Europe, is more cost-effective than an alternative proposal from the opposition, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said. The Liberal-National opposition's plan to create a fund to support emission reductions can't guarantee a specific level of cuts and offers fewer incentives to abate carbon, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said in an e-mailed statement today.
• 2010/02/08: ABC(Au): Former Liberal leader John Hewson has taken aim at Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's climate change policy, accusing him of using fear to win over voters
• 2010/02/08: ABC(Au): Former Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull has vowed to cross the floor and vote for the Government's emissions trading scheme (ETS), arguing the Opposition's alternative plan will achieve "very little" except raise taxes
• 2010/02/08: JQuiggin: Send in the clowns
  It's hard to believe that, three months ago, Australian national politics was (primarily) a contest between two broadly normal political parties.
• 2010/02/07: HeraldSun: Climate-change showdown
  Parliament is shaping up for a climate-change showdown this week as Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull go head-to-head on emissions trading. Mr Turnbull will back Labor's climate change policy in a speech today and has signalled he will cross the floor to vote with the Government.
• 2010/02/07: TEC: Australia's climate policy backlash
• 2010/02/08: PeakEnergy: What's wrong with Abbott's Climate plan?
• 2010/02/07: Reuters: Support down for Australia's Rudd, CO2 scheme -poll
• 2010/02/08: Australian: Malcolm Turnbull says he will cross floor and vote in favour of an ETS

  And in New Zealand:

• 2010/02/10: HotTopic: Egg/face interface for Hide and the climate cranks
• 2010/02/09: HotTopic: The annotated Rodney Hide: treating parliament with contempt
  How far can a Minister of the Crown go in misrepresenting the facts of a matter before he is guilty of misleading the House?

While in the Indian subcontinent:

• 2010/02/11: BBC: Copenhagen response 'is pathetic'
  Industrialised nations have set "pathetic" targets to reduce carbon emissions, says one of India's senior negotiators at the Copenhagen summit. One of the summit's requirements was for countries to spell out by 31 January how they would cut emissions. But industrialised nations had failed to set the "truly ambitious" targets needed, Chandrashekhar Dasgupta said.
• 2010/02/08: Guardian(UK): India boosts climate data contribution to IPCC
  A scientific network [Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment (INCCA)] set up recently [October 2009] by India's environment ministry will contribute formally to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the country's prime minister has announced

And in China:

• 2010/02/12: NatureN: China takes stock of environment -- Survey finds agriculture causing major damage
• 2010/02/12: DeSmogBlog: China gets it: The future belongs to low carbon industries
• 2010/02/10: Reuters: China to set up renewable energy center: report
• 2010/02/10: ChinaDaily: China draws up plans for national renewable energy center

  While in Japan:

• 2010/02/12: BBerg: Japan Plans $1.1 Billion Nuclear, Electric-Car Loans

  And South America:

• 2010/02/12: Guardian(UK): Reality of Mexico's green battle
  Felipe Calderón's fight against climate change should start at home, where pristine natural landscapes are hard to find
• 2010/02/09: BBC: Chavez declares energy emergency
  Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has signed a decree declaring an "electricity emergency" to help his government tackle power shortages. Speaking on his new radio show President Chavez said Venezuela, which depends heavily on hydropower, was facing the worst drought in 100 years.

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

• 2010/02/13: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Oh. Canada
• 2010/02/12: BLongstaff: Is this what sucking up gets us?
• 2010/02/12: DeSmogBlog: China Condemns "Conniving" Canadians
• 2010/02/11: CBC: Indigenous groups left out of Arctic leaders' summit
  Arctic indigenous groups are criticizing Canada's decision to leave them out of an upcoming meeting of Arctic nations in Quebec next month. Federal Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon recently announced that he will host a meeting of foreign ministers from the Arctic Ocean coastal countries of Norway, Russia, Denmark (which includes Greenland) and the United States on March 29 in Chelsea, Que. The Arctic leaders will discuss ways to pursue responsible economic development in the North, Cannon said in a release.
• 2010/02/10: CanWest: Water crackdown needs cash flow, Prentice told
  Environment Minister Jim Prentice has left Canadian mayors scratching their heads about his plans to crack down on water pollution without offering new funding. Prentice said Tuesday in Brockville that the government is introducing draft regulations to restrict raw sewage dumping with new national standards for municipal waste water plants.
• 2010/02/10: TStar: Questions for climate change skeptics
• 2010/02/10: G&M: Cap-and-dividend: the jolt Harper needs?
  The potential political allure of the U.S. Senate bill: Families would get a cheque in the mail every year Since the Harper government has essentially handed over most of Canada's climate-change policy to the United States, what happens there directly affects what will happen here.
  [...]
  Cap-and-trade, however, is drawing political fire in the U.S. for being complicated, a boon to Wall Street traders, and leaving companies uncertain about the price they will pay. [...]
  But now comes a new idea, or at least an amalgam of old ideas that makes it seem new, and this might break the logjam in Congress. Properly studied and adapted to different circumstances, it could provide a jolt of new thinking for the Harper government, assuming this government wishes to do any thinking about a subject it dislikes. The idea, from Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of the state of Washington, is for a cap-and-dividend system, whereby an annual cap would be placed on emissions from coal, oil and natural gas sources. The cap would gradually fall each year. The permits to pollute would be traded, with a fixed price known in advance. The bulk of the revenue from the yearly auction, however, would be returned to consumers to compensate them -- and, in some cases, to overcompensate them -- for the higher prices that fuel companies would pass on after buying the polluting credits.

Alternatives North petitioned the NEB for current information in the Mackenzie Valley pipeline estimates. The proponents said no:

• 2010/02/08: CBC: Mackenzie pipeline's numbers questioned
  A Yellowknife social justice group wants proponents of the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline to produce updated information on whether the project makes economic sense. In a notice of motion filed with the National Energy Board on Thursday, Alternatives North asked pipeline proponents to update their assessment of the natural gas market and the economic feasibility of the pipeline. The federal energy regulator has given the consortium of pipeline proponents, led by Imperial Oil, until Wednesday at noon MT to respond. Alternatives North says the pipeline consortium has been using numbers from three years ago.
• 2010/02/11: CBC: No need to update Mackenzie pipeline numbers: Imperial
  The lead proponent of the Mackenzie Gas Project says it should not have to provide an update on the economic feasibility of the proposed Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline in the Northwest Territories. Imperial Oil, which heads the consortium of companies behind the pipeline proposal, responded on Wednesday to a request from Alternatives North to release updated data on the natural gas market and the economic feasibility of the pipeline.

The Wiebo Ludwig saga plays on:

• 2010/02/14: CanWest: Oil companies seek to block activist Ludwig
  Three oilfield companies are seeking a peace bond against Wiebo Ludwig and two others that could prevent the men from going near their property.
• 2010/02/10: CBC: Ludwig search warrant cites phone records, letter to EnCana
  CBC has obtained a copy of the search warrant executed last month on Wiebo Ludwig's farm near Hythe, Alta., in connection with the investigation into the bombing of natural gas pipeline sites in B.C. RCMP arrested Ludwig on Jan. 8 and held him overnight for questioning as part of their investigation into six bombings between October 2008 and July 2009 at facilities owned by Alberta-based energy giant EnCana. They also searched Trickle Creek Farm, Ludwig's 325-hectare property in Hythe. No charges were laid, but police said the search advanced their investigation.
• 2010/02/06: Dominion: Catch and Release -- Hunt for oil patch bomber takes new twist

  More fun and games between Quebec and Ottawa:

• 2010/02/13: Canoe: Green Quebec government looking for oil sands investors
  After Quebec Premier Jean Charest publicly decried the oilsands projects last year in Copenhagen, the Quebec government is now asking entrepreneurs in the province to participate in a commercial mission in Edmonton to set up some business relationships with Alberta's oil industry. In a message destined to entrepreneurs from Quebec, the Ministry of Economic Development said "that the resumption of the oil sands development projects in Alberta" provides us with "some good business opportunities." The ministry goes on to provide a list of the projects for which Quebec companies could become suppliers such as Suncor and Husky. The mission - which happens every four years -- is coming at a time when the issue of the oilsands, and the greenhouse gases generated by this operation, is a sensitive point between Quebec and Ottawa.
• 2010/02/12: G&M: Quebec's climate change hypocrisy [Spector]
• 2010/02/09: G&M: Charest's been blowing smoke on tailpipe emissions [Spector]
  Remember that tiff last week between Jean Charest and Jim Prentice, after the federal environment minister dared to criticize Quebec for going it alone on tailpipe emission standards? In today's Journal de Quebec -- under the headline "Quebec is giving preferential treatment to obtain SUV's," Michel Hébert reports: "Since January 14, Quebec has been applying tailpipe emission standards in regard to SUV's that are tougher than California's. A few days after the regulations came into effect, GM, Ford, Chrysler, Volkswagen and Nissan met with officials of the environment ministry and further meetings are planned. In a letter sent to the ministry, the manufacturers say they are "delighted with your offer to review ways" of quickly adjusting the major elements of Quebec's regulations that differ from "those of California." Without knowing it, some 2010 models were not available in Quebec but were sold in Ontario. So, after GM refused to sell large 4 WD vehicles to Hydro Quebec because of the Quebec standards, a quiet agreement was made to exempt the Yukon, Escalade and Savana models from the regulations."

In BC, the olympics had a soggy beginning:

• 2010/02/11: ClimateP: Is that airlifted snow on your Olympic ski mountain, or is your enormous helicopter just happy to see me?
• 2010/02/10: EurActiv: Vancouver Winter Olympics pinched by climate change

  While in the maritimes:

• 2010/02/11: CBC: Eastern P.E.I. says no to wind turbines
• 2010/02/10: CBC: Prepare for rising sea levels, Halifax told
  Halifax municipal officials plan to take inventory of every property along the harbour as a new study suggests water levels could rise 73 centimetres by the next century. The study, presented to regional councillors on Tuesday, looks at the effects of climate change on the waterfront by 2100. It predicts that sea levels could rise even higher during storms and hurricanes, to 2.67 metres. Lead researcher Roger Wells said the Halifax Regional Municipality needs to understand how this can affect harbour properties, and prepare.

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

• 2010/02/12: TStar: Premier's climate guru leaves $321,000 post

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2010/02/12: TreeHugger: Whole Foods, Bed Bath & Beyond Say No Way to Alberta Tar Sands
• 2010/02/12: TStar: U.S. needs oil sands, ambassador [David Jacobson] says
  A day after two U.S. retailers boycott Alberta fuel, envoy downplays negative impact of production Two big U.S. retailers may have written off Alberta's oil sands, but the U.S. ambassador to Canada says the fuel is too important to his country to simply snub the controversial resource.
• 2010/02/10: G&M: Boycott of tar sands fuel called 'greenwashing'
  U.S. grocer Whole Foods joins campaign by environmental group ForestEthics to reduce reliance on Alberta's bitumen
• 2010/02/11: OilChange: We're All Going on a Summer Holiday ... the Tar Sands
• 2010/02/10: CBC: Corporate oilsands opposition mounts
  Two major U.S. retailers and an influential British shareholder group have rebuked Alberta's oilsands by avoiding suppliers who use oilsands-derived fuel, and putting pressure on energy titans.
• 2010/02/11: CanWest: U.S. firms stick it to tar sands
• 2010/02/08: OilChange: Now BP Faces Shareholder Revolt Over Tar Sands
• 2010/02/08: Telegraph(UK): BP faces investor revolt over Canadian oil sands project
  BP has become the second energy major to face a potential shareholder revolt over its investment in controversial Canadian oil sands.

And then there is the miscellaneous Canadiana:

• 2010/02/11: Eureka: Queen's researchers propose rethinking renewable energy strategy
  Researchers at Queen's University suggest that policy makers examine greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions implications for energy infrastructure as fossil fuel sources must be rapidly replaced by windmills, solar panels and other sources of renewable energy. Their recommendations could be used to help policy makers restructure renewable energy production in a way that will optimize greenhouse gas emission reductions.
• 2010/02/10: CBC: Xstrata to open Donkin [coal] mine [in Cape Breton]

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

• 2010/02/10: Guardian(UK): Putting a value on nature could set scene for true green economy
  Much environmental damage has been caused by the way we do business. Is there a way of changing our economic models from being part of the problem into part of the solution?
• 2010/02/09: Grist: Cheaponomics 101 -- The hidden costs and benefits of things we take for granted
• 2010/02/08: EurActiv: Business sketches path to sustainable living
  Major multinational corporations want to lead the way towards sustainability, arguing that global challenges present vast business opportunities. Sustainable living by 2050 will require "fundamental changes in governance structures, economic frameworks, business and human behaviour," notes a report presented last week at the World CEO Forum in New Delhi. The Vision 2050 - The new agenda for business report, published by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), argues that the changes are attainable and "offer tremendous business opportunities for companies to turn sustainability into strategy". They are convinced that some nine billion people can live well within the resource limits of the planet by 2050.
• 2010/02/08: OilDrum: Delusions of Finance: Where We are Headed
• 2010/02/08: PeakEnergy: Avatar and the Unabomber

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

• 2010/02/13: Guardian(UK): Climate change: calling planet birth
  Family size has become the great unmentionable of the campaign for more environmentally friendly lifestyles

Apocalypso anyone?

• 2010/02/12: CCurrents: Zero Point Of Systemic Collapse
  Aleksandr Herzen, speaking a century ago to a group of anarchists about how to overthrow the czar, reminded his listeners that it was not their job to save a dying system but to replace it...
• 2010/02/12: CSM: The Medea Hypothesis: A response to the Gaia hypothesis

  As for how the media handles the science of climatology:

• 2010/02/14: Deltoid: Daily Mail caught in another lie
• 2010/02/14: MTobis: Journalism
• 2010/02/13: ClimateP: Jeff Masters sets the record straight on Dana Milbank's column
• 2010/02/13: BSD: Sandwich theory says I should say something nice about Dana Milbank and his global warming column
• 2010/02/10: CJR: The Long View on Green -- After 40 years on the job, Joe Hebert reflects on covering energy and environment
• 2010/02/10: ClimateShifts: Graham Readfearn-Monckton slayer-resigns from the Courier Mail
• 2010/02/10: ClimateP: Revkin's DotEarth hypes disinformation posted on an anti-science website
  [...]
  From the NY Times to CBS News to the Economist to much of the British press, responsible media coverage of climate science has all but ended. I have some ideas why this has happened and what to do about it, which I'll discuss later. But one of the reasons for the collapse is the media's refusal to draw a distinction between what scientists say based on actual observations and analysis in the peer-reviewed literature and what anti-science disinformers say based on their total lack of knowledge of the science and general willingness to misrepresent the facts or make stuff up.
• 2010/02/09: ClimateP: N.Y. Times and Elisabeth Rosenthal Face Credibility Siege over Unbalanced Climate Coverage
• 2010/02/08: Grist: Four stories that should have changed the media narrative ... but didn't
• 2010/02/08: ClimateShifts: Spinning the science: Media Watch reports on the The Australian's misunderstanding of coral science
• 2010/02/09: FAIR: NYT and the IPCC: Little Evidence, Big Story
• 2010/02/08: ClimateSight: Salvaging Science Journalism
• 2010/02/08: KSJT: CJR, Framing Science: Science Journo panel at Harvard mulls climate of climate coverage. Forecast cloudy.
• 2010/02/07: CCP: Abandoning all journalistic standards, CBS libels Michael Mann based on a YouTube video -- while reporting his exoneration! [media]

  While activists search for effective communication techniques:

• 2010/02/08: ClimateP: Is progressive messaging a "massive botch"? Part 4: What went wrong in the Obama White House?

  As for scientists and communication skills:

• 2010/02/13: MTobis: Questions
• 2010/02/13: TCoE: Communicating science

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2010/02/13: BBerg: U.S. Chamber of Commerce Asks Court to Review EPA Carbon Ruling
  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the country's largest business-lobbying group, is asking a federal court to review the Obama administration's decision to declare greenhouse gases a health risk under the Clean Air Act. The Chamber's petition, filed yesterday with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, challenges the Environmental Protection Agency's ruling made in December, said Abram Olmstead, a spokesman for the Washington-based group. The EPA's decision paves the way for the agency to regulate carbon-dioxide emissions from sources such as power plants and factories. The ruling is aimed at curbing climate change and giving companies certainty in investments geared toward clean- energy technology, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has said. Opponents say the move would hurt the economy and cost jobs.
• 2010/02/13: LATimes: EPA's decision to regulate greenhouse gas emissions is challenged
  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says it will file a petition with the agency, which will probably lead to a court battle.
• 2010/02/10: NYT: Outspoken Hurricane Expert Sues Over Dismissal
  Last April, Ivor van Heerden, an internationally known hurricane expert, was told he was losing his job at Louisiana State University. He and other experts said it was because of his outspoken criticism of the federal government's flood protection of New Orleans; the university would not comment. Now Dr. van Heerden, the former deputy director of the L.S.U. Hurricane Center, is suing the university to get his job back. His lawyers filed a lawsuit in Louisiana state court on Wednesday morning, charging harassment and wrongful termination.
• 2010/02/10: CCP: Outspoken hurricane expert, Dr. van Heerden, who warned about possible Katrinas, sues Louisiana State University over dismissal
• 2010/02/09: TreeHugger: Monkeywrencher Tim DeChristopher Trial in mid-March

  And among the non-members of Gamblers Anonymous:

• 2010/02/08: JEB: More on betting

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

• 2010/02/14: NewScientist: More is merrier for wireless power supply
• 2010/02/14: OilDrum: Oil Shale, a Future Source of Oil?
• 2010/02/12: EnergyBulletin: Leading the way to a low-energy future
• 2010/02/12: BBerg: China January Power Use Gains 40% as Economy Recovers
• 2010/02/12: PhysOrg: Silicon Valley makes big push into solar and smart-grid technologies
• 2010/02/12: PlanetArk: An Oil-Less Recovery Dims The Future For Oil
• 2010/02/09: Grist: Part I: 5 Questions -- Policy fixes to unleash clean energy
• 2010/02/10: Grist: What Are the Existing Regulatory Barriers? Policy fixes to unleash clean energy, part 2
• 2010/02/11: Grist: Political Barriers to Energy Policy Reform -- Policy fixes to unleash clean energy, part 3
• 2010/02/12: OilChange: Is an "Oil-Less Recovery" On its Way?
• 2010/02/11: MiamiHerald: A clean energy gold rush
  Of the 10 largest wind power companies in the world, the United States has one - General Electric. Of the world's 10 largest solar companies, we have two - First Solar and SunPower - but almost all their manufacturing is in Asia. Hydropower and geothermal companies are also located in the Far East. The United States, with no national goal or policy framework for clean energy, simply hasn't found a way to create a stable marketplace where large, renewable energy companies can thrive. For a nation that consumes 25 percent of the world's energy, our failure to compete is ominous, and all the more troubling because a veritable "clean energy gold rush" has begun.
• 2010/02/11: EnergyBulletin: Methane Hydrates
• 2010/02/11: ABC(Au): The company [Panax Geothermal] drilling a geothermal well near Penola, in South Australia's south-east, says it is more than a quarter of the way through the project
• 2010/02/11: NewScientist: Sun-powered water splitter makes hydrogen tirelessly
  Sunlight + water = hydrogen gas, in a new technique that can convert 60 per cent of sunlight energy absorbed by an electrode into the inflammable fuel.
• 2010/02/11: PeakEnergy: Kenya Electricity Signs $1.3 Billion Geothermal Deal
• 2010/02/11: CBC: IEA hikes 2010 global oil forecast
  World oil demand will rise this year due to growing economic activity in developing countries in Asia, the International Energy Agency said Thursday as it bumped up its forecasts.
• 2010/02/10: PlanetArk: Price Ultimate Driver Of Greener Energy Use: GE
  Pricing systems that encourage households to use energy more efficiently are the best way to help consumers to protect the environment, a senior General Electric Co executive said on Tuesday. Bob Gilligan, GE's vice president of transmission and distribution, said the development of appliances that adjust their own energy use in response to signals from utility companies would be a key step in achieving this.
• 2010/02/09: EnergyBulletin: Sustainable Firewood: Recycling Atmospheric Carbon
• 2010/02/09: PhysOrg: Energy from light and water: New photocatalytic method for the clean production of hydrogen from water
• 2010/02/09: OilChange: [Ex BP CEO John] Browne Reveals All
• 2010/02/08: Reuters: Nuclear giant Areva buys solar company Ausra
  The world's largest nuclear plant builder, Areva SA, is diversifying into solar power with the aim of becoming an industry leader, as it acquires U.S.-based solar thermal player Ausra, the company said on Monday.
• 2010/02/07: OilDrum: The THAI [Toe to Heel Air Injection] process for bitumen and heavy oil
• 2010/02/08: SolveClimate: A Warning to Clean Energy Companies Eyeing China's Markets

  Fracking is back:

• 2010/02/10: Telegraph(UK): Gazprom scorns shale gas as 'danger to drinking water'
  Russia's Gazprom has attacked the idea that huge new US reserves of shale gas will harm its dominance as the world's biggest producer, warning the energy source is environmentally unsound.
• 2010/02/09: ProPublica: New Gas Drilling Rules, More Staff for Pennsylvania's Environmental Agency

  The answer my friend...:

• 2010/02/12: Grist: Norway plans the world's most powerful wind turbine [10 megawatt]
• 2010/02/11: CBC: Eastern P.E.I. says no to wind turbines
  The Prince Edward Island community of Eastern Kings is taking a stance against wind development projects, but no one representing the community is willing to talk about the details. The local council held a vote Tuesday night in response to a proposal made by PEI Green Energy Inc., which wants to install 28 turbines near East Point. There were about 100 people at the meeting, from the community which has a population of a little under 1,000.
• 2010/02/11: ABC(Au): The operators of the Waubra wind farm have bought the house of a couple who complained about the visual impact of the turbines
• 2010/02/09: PlanetArk: Siemens Wind Power Is Now No 5 Turbine Maker: CEO

  Who stands to gain from this suggestion?

• 2010/02/09: Guardian(UK): Scrap UK's wind farm plans, says Gazprom boss
  Deputy chairman of Russia's Gazprom argues plans for renewable energy are irrational and should be replaced by more gas-fired power stations

Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2010/02/10: FuturePundit: IBM Uses Cheap Materials For Solar Cells
• 2010/02/12: TreeHugger: One Block Off The Grid Gets $5 Million to Expand Its Innovative Solar Power Programs
• 2010/02/11: CSM: Reconsidering solar power
• 2010/02/11: TreeHugger: Solar Aid Plans Three-Fold Increase in Solar Development Efforts
• 2010/02/11: TechRev: Efficient Solar Cells from Cheaper Materials -- IBM researchers have greatly increased the performance of a novel thin film solar cell
• 2010/02/08: TechRev: U.S. Solar Market to Double in the Next Year -- Government incentives and lower solar prices are starting to pay off

  On the coal front:

• 2010/02/12: MongaBay: Bill Gates: ban coal and invest in clean energy technology
• 2010/02/10: CBC: Xstrata to open Donkin [coal] mine [in Cape Breton]
• 2010/02/09: Australian: China denies $US60bn coal deal with Clive Palmer's Resourcehouse
  China's largest power company has denied it has signed a $US60 billion ($69.4bn) deal with mining millionaire Clive Palmer. Mr Palmer said on the weekend his company, Resourcehouse, had signed a $US60bn, 20-year coal export contract with China Power International Development. Announcing the deal, Mr Palmer said it was Australia's biggest ever export contract and would bring Resourcehouse's giant China First thermal coalmine in Queensland a step closer to reality. But China's state-controlled Xinhua news agency has reported that China Power International Development, a unit of major power producer China Power Investment Corp, has denied the reports that it had signed a $US60bn coal-supply deal with Resourcehouse. The report said that an official from China Power International Development said what the two companies had signed was an agreement of intent, and they had not yet started price negotiations.

Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2010/02/13: TCoE: Algae jet fuel
• 2010/02/09: EnergyBulletin: The Challenge of Algal Fuel: Economic Processing of the Entire Algal Biomass
• 2010/02/09: TreeHugger: Corn Ethanol Back in the Game Under New EPA Renewable Fuel Standard Rules

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2010/02/11: TCoE: More on tritium leaks
• 2010/02/09: NYT: Leaks Trouble Nominees for Nuclear Panel
  Tritium leaks like the one that threatens the future of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant are undermining confidence in other reactors around the country, three experts nominated by President Obama to join the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday at their confirmation hearing. The leaks by themselves do not appear to have had any impact on public health, one of the three, William D. Magwood IV, told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. "The point is not that it's not hurting anyone," he said. "The point is it's showing you don't have your act together."
• 2010/02/09: Oregonian: Clean up the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and preserve its history
  Hanford still is one of the most polluted places on Earth. But it must not stay that way.
• 2010/02/10: Oregonian: Despite billions spent on cleanup, Hanford won't be clean for thousands of years
  Some radioactive contaminants at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation will threaten the Columbia River for thousands of years, a new analysis projects, despite the multibillion-dollar cleanup efforts by the federal government. The U.S. Department of Energy projections come from a new analysis of how best to clean up leaking storage tanks and manage waste at Hanford, a former nuclear weapons production site on 586 square miles next to the Columbia in southeastern Washington.
• 2010/02/09: TreeHugger: There's a New Drive for Nuclear Power, But It's Still a Financial Dead End
• 2010/02/08: ClimateP: A quarter of U.S. nuclear plants leaking
• 2010/02/08: TEC: Why Do Seemingly Sound Nuclear Projects Have Difficulty Attracting Affordable Financing?

  Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

• 2010/02/08: FuturePundit: Richard Branson: Oil Crunch In 5 Years
• 2010/02/13: PeakEnergy: Peak oil theory could become a stark reality
• 2010/02/11: CCurrents: The Coming Oil Crunch by Jeremy Leggett
• 2010/02/12: Telegraph(UK): Oil shortages by 2020 due to Western 'profligacy', says energy boss
  Drivers need to start treating oil as a scarce commodity and switch to green transport to avoid shortages by 2020, according to the chief executive of Scottish & Southern [Ian Marchant]
• 2010/02/12: PeakEnergy: The Next Crisis: Peak Oil
• 2010/02/10: Guardian(UK): Society ignores the oil crunch at its peril by Jeremy Leggett
  Warnings of a crash in oil production are no longer limited to a prescient few individuals - major British companies and oil CEOs are now sounding the alert
• 2010/02/11: PeakEnergy: The Next Crisis: Prepare for Peak Oil
• 2010/02/10: EnergyBulletin: The Oil Crunch: a wake-up call for the UK economy (report excerpt) by Industry Task Force on Peak Oil and Energy Security
• 2010/02/11: EnergyBulletin: The peak oil crisis: government in transition
• 2010/02/10: OilDrum: Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security
• 2010/02/10: OilDrum: The Release of the [UK] Industry Taskforce Report on Peak Oil and Energy Security
• 2010/02/10: OilChange: Peak Oil More an "Immediate Threat" Than Climate Change
• 2010/02/10: EcoRazzi: Richard Branson Warns Of Peak Oil In Five Years
• 2010/02/07: Guardian(UK): Branson warns that oil crunch is coming within five years
  Virgin chief and fellow business leaders call for action -- Energy crisis threatens to be more serious than credit crunch
• 2010/02/08: PeakEnergy: Branson warns that oil crunch is coming within five years

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2010/02/10: PeakEnergy: Australia: A Smart Grid World Leader?

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2010/02/10: PhysOrg: Researchers Develop Nanofiber-Based Technology to Make Energy-Efficient Lighting

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

• 2010/02/13: AutoBG: Is there real progress happening on the hydrogen highway?
• 2010/02/12: CBC: New vehicle sales rise 2.6% [mom]
  Canadian new motor vehicle sales rose 2.6 per cent in December, largely on the strength of higher sales of North American-built passenger cars, Statistics Canada reported Friday. Sales in the month totalled 128,663. Statistics Canada reported monthly sales for the year averaged around 124,000, down from about 140,000 in 2008.
• 2010/02/10 AutoBG: Eco City Vehicles reveals upcoming all-electric taxi
• 2010/02/09: AutoBG: Opel's extended business plan includes multiple electric vehicles
• 2010/02/09: AutoBG: Ferrari: Hybrids not ready, electrics won't happen; V6 engine possible
• 2010/02/09: PlanetArk: Eco City Vehicles Launches Electric London Taxi
• 2010/02/09: TreeHugger: Ford Unveils Electric Version of Transit Connect Utility Van
• 2010/02/09: BBC: Carlos Ghosn's zero emission goal
  For the head of Renault-Nissan, Carlos Ghosn, there is only one way forward for his industry. In an open and candid interview for BBC World Service's The Interview programme, he has outlined how he will be pinning the future hopes of his company in the development of the electric car.
• 2010/02/09: CBC: China maintains world lead in auto sales

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

• 2010/02/11: EnvFin: Most firms ignore investors' forest info request
  An investor-led effort to urge companies to disclose their 'forest footprint' has published its first report, with 35 firms [out of 217] responding.
• 2010/02/12: PlanetArk: Water-Gulping Companies' Risk Disclosures Run Dry: Report
  Most publicly traded companies that depend on water do not adequately disclose their financial risks to droughts and future regulations, even as water scarcity problems mount, according to a report released on Thursday. The report produced by Ceres, a coalition of investors and environmentalists and Swiss Bank UBS, ranked 100 of the biggest publicly traded companies on the quality, depth and clarity of their water disclosure risks and opportunities.
• 2010/02/11: CanWest: Canadian companies see the (green) light at Walmart summit -- CEOs told sustainability adds to bottom line
  The only reliable blueprint for sustainable business practices is a willingness to experiment and take risks, delegates to a green business summit heard Wednesday in Vancouver.

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

• 2010/02/12: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for February 12...
• 2010/02/11: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for February 11...
• 2010/02/09: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for February 9...
• 2010/02/08: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for February 8...

  Other (weekly) lists:

• 2010/02/11: Grist: A Walk Through the Week's Climate News -- The Climate Post: Snow is unequivocal

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2010/02/13: Deltoid: Bolt speechless
• 2010/02/14: Guardian(UK): [Letters] Global warming: Sceptics are putting words in my mouth
• 2010/02/13: JKB: The inconsistency in the response of the Klimatosoof's Theo Richel to the Open Letter of 55 Dutch Scientists
• 2010/02/08: PRWatch: Oil Money Funds Climate Deniers and Attacks on Climate Scientists
• 2010/02/09: DBrin: The Real Struggle Behind Climate Change - A War on Expertise
• 2010/02/11: DBrin: Distinguishing Climate "Deniers" From "Skeptics"
• 2010/02/12: TPL: A Response to Climate Change Denialism [by Richard Sommerville]
• 2010/02/12: AFTIC: The shortsightedness of using short term trends
• 2010/02/12: TWTB: Hoisted on their own petard
  The all out assault on climate reality continues. Anti-science front group SPPI has put together a series of attacks on RealClimate by the Pielkes and others, courtesy of Marc "Swiftboat" Morano.
• 2010/02/12: Stoat: Zorita scents gravy
• 2010/02/12: CSW: Deep Climate investigation of denialist and 'skeptic' attack on Hockey Stick temperature record
• 2010/02/12: TreeHugger: Is Environmentalism Socialist? Comrade, please...
• 2010/02/12: Stoat: Letter from Holland
• 2010/02/12: ERabett: The Low Lands [Dutch letter]
• 2010/02/11: TreeHugger: Glenn Beck: Not "Enough Knives on Planet Earth" for Climate Scientists to Kill Themselves With
  This one went too far. I've been unwilling touch Glenn Beck with a ten-foot pole over the last couple months--I don't know, maybe in the hopes that he'd just go away. But of course, he hasn't. And it seems like his inevitable, incoming irrelevance led him to say even more unacceptable, flagrantly offensive things.
• 2010/02/11: IoD: Why the denial camp is winning the climate wars (Part 2): they lie
  It gives me no pleasure to pass on the facts about the lack of respect for the truth shown by climate change pseudo-skeptics. But there's simply no getting around it.
• 2010/02/10: TP: Sarah Palin calls global warming studies 'snake oil science.'
• 2010/02/11: TP: Glenn Beck: 'There aren't enough knives' for 'dishonored' climate scientists to kill themselves.
• 2010/02/09: DailyKos: The Real Struggle Behind Climate Change - A War on Expertise [Brin]
• 2010/02/09: ClimateShifts: Jamie Walker's response to Media Watch
• 2010/02/10: DM:CCM: The New War on Science -- Now It's Guerilla Style
• 2010/02/10: BCLSB: A Litany Of Misquotation
• 2010/02/10: Independent(UK): Fabricated quote used to discredit climate scientist -- Sir John Houghton explains to Steve Connor how global warming sceptics have misrepresented his views
• 2010/02/10: TCoE: Lying deniers
• 2010/02/10: DeSmogBlog: PolluterHarmony: A Match Made In Washington
• 2010/02/09: TPL: Trolls, drawing and quartering, and other vexatious characters
• 2010/02/09: Deltoid: Andrew Bolt doesn't know or care what a draft is
• 2010/02/08: ClimateShifts: Christopher Monckton: yet another lie exposed
• 2010/02/09: Deltoid: Media watch on Monckton
• 2010/02/08: SacBee: Palin likens global warming studies to 'snake oil'
  Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called studies supporting global climate change a "bunch of snake oil science" Monday during a rare appearance in California, a state that has been at the forefront of environmental regulations. Palin spoke before a logging conference in Redding, a town of 90,000 about 160 miles north of the state capital. The media were barred from the event...
• 2010/02/09: BCLSB: Debunked In Under 10 Seconds
• 2010/02/08: DeSmogBlog: Wegman's Report Highly Politicized - and Fatally Flawed
• 2010/02/07: DeSmogBlog: Plagiarism? Conspiracies? Felonies? Breaking out the Wegman File
• 2010/02/09: JKB: The Inhofe 700 erratum on Belgian climatologist Luc Debontridder
• 2010/02/08: TCoE: The deniers' nasty tactics
• 2010/02/08: ClimateP: "Independent" critique of Hockey Stick revealed as fatally flawed right-wing anti-science set up
• 2010/02/07: ERabett: The Real Climate McCarthy
• 2010/02/08: Tamino: The Real Climate McCarthy
• 2010/02/08: DeepClimate: Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick, part 2: The story behind the Barton-Whitfield investigation and the Wegman Panel
• 2010/02/08: HotTopic: Treadgold and the NZ CSC: dogging a fled horse
• 2010/02/08: BNC: Monckton vs Brook debate - the video
• 2010/02/07: Independent(UK): Think-tanks take oil money and use it to fund climate deniers -- ExxonMobil cash supported concerted campaign to undermine case for man-made warming
  An orchestrated campaign is being waged against climate change science to undermine public acceptance of man-made global warming, environment experts claimed last night. The attack against scientists supportive of the idea of man-made climate change has grown in ferocity since the leak of thousands of documents on the subject from the University of East Anglia (UEA) on the eve of the Copenhagen climate summit last December. Free-market, anti-climate change think-tanks such as the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in the US and the International Policy Network in the UK have received grants totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds from the multinational energy company ExxonMobil. Both organisations have funded international seminars pulling together climate change deniers from across the globe.
• 2010/02/07: DeSmogBlog: Atlas Shrugs as Exxon Launches New Blitz of False Prophets

  Tim Lambert had a chat with VMB:

• 2010/02/13: Deltoid: Monckton Lambert debate blog round up
• 2010/02/13: JEB: Lambert v Monckton
• 2010/02/12: Deltoid: Monckton's McLuhan Moment
• 2010/02/10: BSD: Tim Lambert to debate some British denialist
• 2010/02/09: Deltoid: Ask Monckton a question
• 2010/02/07: ClimateShifts: NASA deliberately crashes CO2-sensing satellite on take-off to avoid revealing that climate change is a complete hoax
• 2010/02/08: GWWatch: AGW debate: Lord Christopher Mockington vs Timothy Lambert

  Meanwhile in the 'clean coal' saga:

• 2010/02/10: WashIndep: The Story of Coal's Dirty, Deadly Legacy
• 2010/02/09: Grist: Are utilities' plans for shoring up hazardous coal ash dams good enough?
• 2010/02/09: TCoE: Incoming! Coal ad campaign on its way

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2010/02/14: ClimateP: Launching the Climate Science Project (with your help)
• 2010/02/13: SkeptiSci: Skeptical Science housekeeping: iPhone app, comments and translations
• 2010/02/13: PeakEnergy: A Crisis of climate-change confidence
• 2010/02/13: TWTB: Skeptical Science is now an iPhone App
• 2010/02/12: ERabett: Blogrolling
• 2010/02/12: TCoE: At the speed of glaciers
• 2010/02/13: Guardian(UK): Art's lost subject
  Western culture has long positioned itself as distinct from nature. Now with climate change, argues Antony Gormley, it's time to rethink the purpose of art
• 2010/02/12: CCP: The Earth's energy imbalance since the 1980s is going into the oceans (from John Cook's Skeptical Science)
• 2010/02/12: AFTIC: I love analogies
• 2010/02/12: APSmith: The problem with heating "efficiency" (CHP critique part 2)
• 2010/02/10: SkeptiSci: Skeptical Science now an iPhone app
• 2010/02/09: G&M: Your square-jawed hero is, in fact, the scientist
  If climate-change researchers sound alarmist, it's only because they're alarmed
• 2010/02/09: PhysOrg: Better weather forecasts with a map showing atmospheric [water] vapour
• 2010/02/08: Maribo: Groundhog Day: six more weeks of climate change debates?
• 2010/02/08: Guardian(UK): The case for climate action must be remade from the ground upwards
  With the science under siege and the politics in disarray, it may fall to civil society to keep this still crucial fight alive
• 2010/02/08: CSW: How does the politicization of climate change affect public opinion?
• 2010/02/08: CSW: Climate Progress interviews Christopher Field and Michael MacCracken on climate change reality
• 2010/02/07: MTobis: What does openness in science mean?
• 2010/02/07: EnergyBulletin: Characterizing the incalculable

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

• EcoWatch Ohio - Sustainability Education, Green Initiatives, Alternative Energy
• RA: Residual Analysis
• CC&G: Climate Images
• Survival International - The movement for tribal peoples
• USDA: Geospatial Data Gateway
• USDA:NASS: Cropland Data Layer Products spanning 47 States sans Florida.
• NOAA: Climate Service
• Climatico - Independent analysis of climate policy
• Earth Times
• NASA:GISS: Surface Temperature Analysis
• NOAA News mag
• James Annan's Work Page (with list of publications)
• 2005/06/: AIP: The Discovery of Global Warming - A hypertext history
• 2005/06/: AIP: Basic Radiation Calculations
• EPICA: European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica

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

<regards>
-het

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

"The ever more intrusive realities of global warming, resource scarcity, and food insufficiency will, by the end of this century's second decade, be undeniable and, if not by 2020, then in the decades to come, have the capacity to put normal military and economic power, no matter how impressive, in the shade." - Michael Klare

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