A Few Things Ill Considered

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Another week of Climate Instability News

Sipping from the internet firehose...

May 9, 2010

• Chuckles, COP15 Leak, Bonn, COP16, Cochabamba, IPCC Review, EPO, Rabett, Beck
• Bottom Line, Carbon Tariffs, Per Capita Quotas, Open Letter, Post CRU
• Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica
• Food Crisis, Colony Collapse, Land Grabs, IP Issues, Food Production
• Hurricanes, GHGs, Nitrogen Cycle, Temperatures, Aerosols, Ozone
• Paleoclimate, ENSO, Tipping Points, Ocean Currents, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Climate Refugees, Wacky Weather, Tornadoes
• Corals, Acidification, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Transportation, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Adaptation
• Journals, Other Docs , Misc. Science, Halpern, Lovelock, Curry, Wegman
• Kyoto, UN, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
• International Politics: Misc., Security, Polls, Water Politics & Business
• National Politics: America, Massey, Cuccinelli, Obama, USAdmin
• Scientists Testimony, Congress, Climate Bill, Lobbyists, Al Gore
• Britain, Europe, Australia, India, China, Africa
• Canada, Pre-G20, G20 Abortion, Prentice in Contempt?, Prentice PR, Privatizing Candu
• EcoEnergy, Bill C-311, Arctic Oil Spill, SD Tech Fund, BC, Tar Sands, Ontario, Maritimes, Canadiana
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Courts
• Energy, Fracking, Wind, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Energy Storage
• Insurance, Greenwashing, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

Live and direct from the laugh, it's funny, damnit department:

• 2010/05/08: TCoE: (cartoon - Thompson) Proximal and root causes of the US' oil mess
• 2010/05/07: QuarkSoup: Despair Ware
• 2010/05/06: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) Energy Bill
• 2010/05/05: uComics: (cartoon - Wiley) Please Stop Yelling...
• 2010/05/02: DawgsBlawg: Michael Mann: "Vehement suspicion of heresy"

  The Copenhagen leak:

• 2010/05/05: DerSpiegel: The Copenhagen Protocol -- How China and India Sabotaged the UN Climate Summit
  What really went on at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen? Secret recordings obtained by SPIEGEL reveal how China and India prevented an agreement on tackling climate change at the crucial meeting. The powerless Europeans were forced to look on as the agreement failed.
  At some point his patience was at an end, as depleted as the oxygen in the small conference room. He could no longer keep still, not even for a second.
  The words suddenly burst out of French President Nicolas Sarkozy: "I say this with all due respect and in all friendship." Everyone in the room, which included two dozen heads of state, knew that he meant precisely the opposite of what he was saying. "With all due respect to China," the French president continued, speaking in French.
  The West, Sarkozy said, had pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent. "And in return, China, which will soon be the biggest economic power in the world, says to the world: Commitments apply to you, but not to us."
  Sarkozy, gaining momentum, then said: "This is utterly unacceptable!" And then the French president stoked the diplomatic conflict even further when he said: "This is about the essentials, and one has to react to this hypocrisy!"
  A hush came over the room. Even the mobile phones stopped ringing. It was Friday, Dec. 18, 2009, at about 4 p.m. That was the moment when the world leaders meeting in Copenhagen abandoned their efforts to save the world.
• 2010/05/05: DerSpiegel: The Copenhagen Protocol -- How China and India Sabotaged the UN Climate Summit
  Part 2: 'We Need Some More Time'
• 2010/05/05: DerSpiegel: The Copenhagen Protocol -- How China and India Sabotaged the UN Climate Summit
  Part 3: Obama Stabs the Europeans in the Back
• 2010/05/07: Guardian(UK): Secret Copenhagen recording reveals resistance from China and India
  Der Spiegel captures standoff between Obama, Sarkozy, Brown and Merkel and developing country negotiators
• 2010/05/05: TerraDaily: Leaked tapes reveal leaders' climate fight
  Leaked tapes have revealed how European and U.S. leaders clashed with counterparts from India and China during the dramatic final hours of the failed U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen. German news magazine Der Spiegel published transcripts of leaked audiotapes that reveal how U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy faced off with negotiators from India and China during a closed-door meeting of 25 leaders on the final day of the Copenhagen summit.
• 2010/05/02: DerSpiegel: Photo Gallery: The Failure of Copenhagen [10 pix]
• 2010/05/03: EUO: Leaked tapes show EU leaders' frustration at climate summit
  Leaked tapes from the failed climate summit in Copenhagen published in German weekly Der Spiegel have documented a deeper rift between France, Germany and the US and China and India than previously thought. The tapes were recorded "accidentally" on 18 December 2009, during a meeting of 25 leaders, including Germany's Angela Merkel, France's Nicolas Sarkozy, US President Barack Obama and the representatives of China and India, Der Spiegel reports. Angela Merkel expressed her frustration at India's representative who refused to commit to precise overall CO2 emission reduction figures. "Then you don't want anything legally binding!" she said, only to be countered by the Indian side: "Why do you make presumptions? That is not fair!" When she presented Europe's demand to have a commitment for a global reduction of 50 percent in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, China's negotiator intervened abruptly and said: "Thank you for all your proposals. We've already said we cannot accept the long-term goal of 50 percent." At that point, French President Nicolas Sarkozy jumped in. "With all due respect and friendship for China," he said, the West had already committed itself to an 80 percent reduction by the mid-century mark. "And China, who will soon be the biggest economy in the world, now tells the world 'these engagements are for you, not for us.' This is unacceptable. One has to react to this hypocrisy," he scoffed.
• 2010/05/03: TCoE: What really happened at Copenhagen
  It now seems that we don't have to rely on reports from people who were in the room at Copenhagen -- we have recordings.

Another meeting in Bonn to no avail:

• 2010/05/07: IPSNews: Small Islands Urge Action at UN Oceans Meet
  Faced with rising sea levels, dying coral reefs and decreasing fish stocks, small island developing states (SIDS) are feeling the effects of ocean decline, and they want wealthier countries to do more to ensure the survival of the world's seas and other waterways.
• 2010/05/06: TEC: "Petersberg Climate Dialogue" wraps up in Bonn, Germany
• 2010/05/04: Yahoo:AP: Germany, Mexico call climate meeting helpful
• 2010/05/04: Grist: 'Ice broken' at Bonn climate meeting, but progress glacial
• 2010/05/04: EarthTimes: Climate officials admit 'no treaty' likely at summit
• 2010/05/04: EarthTimes: Officials downbeat at world climate conference in Germany
• 2010/05/04: SF Gate: U.N. climate chief lowers treaty expectations
• 2010/05/04: CBC: [Bonn] Climate meeting has 'broken the ice': Germany -- 'A contribution to making success possible'
• 2010/05/02: Google:AFP: 'Trust' lacking in stalled climate talks: Merkel, Calderon
• 2010/05/03: People's Daily: Germany, Mexico co-host high-level climate dialogue
• 2010/05/01: IndiaTimes: 45 nations Bonn-homie over climate talks
• 2010/05/02: EarthTimes: Germany and Mexico vow to revive failed global-warming talks
  Bonn,Germany - Germany and Mexico vowed Sunday to revive a stalled pact to halt global warming, opening a three-day informal conference in Bonn for officials from 45 key nations. President Felipe Calderon of Mexico said in Bonn the world had to escape the trap of thinking it faced a yes-no choice between fighting global warming or fighting global poverty.
• 2010/04/30: TerraDaily: Ministers huddle in bid to jump-start climate talks
  More than three dozen environment ministers are to meet near Bonn, Germany this weekend in a bid to revive global climate talks left mangled and moribund after the UN summit in Copenhagen.

Looking ahead to COP16 and future international climate negotiations:

• 2010/05/08: Reuters: China says new global climate deal still far away
  At a conference of ministers and environmental organizations in Beijing, Xie Zhenhua, also vice-chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission, said all sides needed to "strengthen trust" and "deepen cooperation" in order to achieve positive results at the next global climate change meeting in Cancun, Mexico at the end of this year. "Climate change negotiations have already made gradual progress, but there is still a relatively long way to go to reach a legally binding agreement," Xie said.
• 2010/05/06: IndiaTimes: India toughens stand in runup to Mexico
  India has made one of the strongest and most elaborate formal submissions in recent times for the climate change negotiations, hardening its stance ahead of a hectic six months of talks leading to the key meeting in Mexico in November. Taking a position strongly contrasting with that of the US, India has pointed out that the Copenhagen Accord is not to be treated as the basis of a negotiating text unless it is agreed and adopted by all the parties and that it should be used to facilitate the formal UN talks on Kyoto Protocol and a long-term agreement.
• 2010/05/05: EarthTimes: US climate action in balance; world watches nervously
  Washington - From illegal immigration to oil spills and mining disasters, a series of unrelated events in recent weeks have conspired to put climate legislation in the United States on life support. The stalled debate has far-reaching ramifications. World climate negotiators have acknowledged that a new global treaty, to curb the greenhouse-gas emissions blamed for global warming, is unlikely to be finalized this year. A chief reason is the US Senate's inaction. For climate activists, the delay couldn't have come at a worse time. The same week that supporters celebrated the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, negotiations on an overhaul of US climate policy appeared to be unravelling in the Senate. Talks between three key senators on a bipartisan bill were put on hold. Lindsey Graham, the lone Republican involved in the months-long negotiations, pulled out just two days before the three senators were to unveil their compromise.
• 2010/05/03: TerraDaily: Climate: focus on actions not treaty, says UN official
• 2010/05/02: ChinaPost(Tw): Tuvalu PM pessimistic on climate summit
  Taipei, Taiwan -- Tuvalu Prime Minister Apisai Ielemia said Saturday that he is not optimistic about signing a deal at this year's United Nations climate change summit that would require countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. "I cannot see a legally binding agreement being signed in Mexico at the end of this year. Things are moving a little bit too slow," Ielemia told CNA in an interview on the sidelines of a regional climate change conference in Taipei.
• 2010/05/02: CNA: Climate talks in Copenhagen not a failure, but a chance for minds to meet, says MM Lee
  The climate change talks held in Copenhagen last year weren't a complete failure but a chance for minds to meet, said Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew. But Mr Lee does not think much will come out from the next round of talks to be held in Cancun, as long as countries like the US, China and India keep to their stand on the issue.
• 2010/05/03: EarthTimes: UN's de Boer remains optimistic on climate change talks
• 2010/05/03: PhysOrg: UN: No comprehensive climate deal this year
  Outgoing U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer shot down expectations of a climate treaty this year, saying Monday that a major U.N. conference in December would yield only a "first answer" on curbing greenhouse gases.
• 2010/05/03: CBC: UN: No comprehensive climate deal this year
  Outgoing United Nations climate chief Yvo de Boer shot down expectations of a climate treaty this year, saying Monday that a major UN conference in December would yield only a "first answer" on curbing greenhouse gases.

Post Cochabamba:

• 2010/05/07: Mercury: Bolivian movement pushes for role in climate talks
  Bolivia's president pressed for a greater role Friday for developing nations in global climate talks and deep cuts in rich nations' greenhouse gases, presenting U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with an alternative climate declaration. The Cochabamba declaration was the fruit of an alternative climate conference uniting 35,000 people including indigenous, environmental and social leaders in Bolivia last month.

The IAC named an IPCC Review Committee:

• IAC: Review of the IPCC
• 2010/05/05: CSW: InterAcademy Council Names IPCC Review Committee
• 2010/05/04: PlanetArk: Former Princeton Head [Harold Shapiro] To Review U.N. Climate Panel
  A former president of Princeton University will lead a review of the U.N. panel of climate scientists after errors in a 2007 report used as a guide for fighting global warming, science academies said on Monday. Economist Harold Shapiro, 74, will chair the 12-member committee that is due to report by August 30 on the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
• 2010/05/04: IAC: InterAcademy Council Names IPCC Review Committee

  The EPO in Munich is setting up an extensive, free global database of 600,000 clean-energy patents:

• 2010/05/04: NatureN: Green patents corralled
  Driven by efforts to curb fossil-fuel use and concerns about the security of energy supplies, the number of applications for renewable-energy patents is booming. But the patents are scattered across many databases, in different formats that are not readily searchable, leading to a lack of clarity over who owns specific energy-technology patents, and in which regions. This is not only holding up technological progress, it has also become a sticking point in international climate-treaty negotiations. So, in a bid to better inform scientists, businesses and policy-makers, the European Patent Office (EPO) in Munich, Germany, has developed an extensive, free global database of 600,000 clean-energy patents. [...] The database launches in June...

Eli is having altogether too much fun:

• 2010/05/08: ERabett: Gavin Schmidt can retire Part I - The EPA sticks it to Steckis
• 2010/05/03: ERabett: This is the Environmental Protection Agency, Division of Answering Ignorant Questions from Belligerent Know-it-alls, Climate Sector. Can I help you?
• 2010/05/02: ERabett: Eli can Retire Part XI - A bunch of denial denied

  Now Coby is playing "spot the bug":

• 2010/05/04: AFTIC: What's wrong with this graph?

  And on the Bottom Line:

• 2010/05/03: UNEP: From Global Green New Deal to Global Green Recovery
• 2010/05/05: MTobis: Trust in [economics] Models

  Carbon Tariffs still have people on edge:

• 2010/05/03: PlanetArk: Carbon Tariffs On Imports Risk Trade War: EU Study

  Per capita CO2 quotas are back:

• 2010/05/06: IndiaExp: India wants spotlight on per capita emissions
  Ahead of the next round of climate talks in Germany in June, India is trying to bring the emphasis back on per capita emissions, something that was rather muted in the outcome of the Copenhagen climate change conference last year.
• 2010/05/04: TCoE: The harsh math of CO2

  255 scientists wrote an open letter _Climate Change and the Integrity of Science_:

• 2010/05/07: Science: [Letter] Climate Change and the Integrity of Science
• 2010/05/08: MoD: Climate Change and the Integrity of Science
• 2010/05/08: SkeptiSci: Climate Change and the Integrity of Science: a letter to Science
• 2010/05/07: CSW: Letter from 255 National Academy members on Climate Change and the Integrity of Science
• 2010/05/06: HuffPo: Climate Change and the Integrity of Science by Peter H. Gleick
• 2010/05/07: ClassM: Clarion call for and end to attacks on climatologists
• 2010/05/06: ClimateSight: A Must-Read Letter to Science
• 2010/05/06: MongaBay: 255 scientists: 'deeply disturbed' by 'political assaults on scientists'
• 2010/05/06: ClimateP: 255 National Academy of Sciences members, including 11 Nobel laureates, defend climate science integrity
• 2010/05/07: PlanetArk: Scientists decry 'assaults' on climate research
• 2010/05/07: KSJT: Telegraph, Time Mag, etc: Hundreds of scientists say, in Science, to cut it out already with this Climategate canard
• 2010/05/07: AFTIC: Climate Change and the Integrity of Science
• 2010/05/07: Deltoid: 255 members of the Natianal Academy of Sciences oppose war on science
• 2010/05/07: Time: Still Under Attack, Climate Scientists Fight Back
• 2010/05/07: DM:CCM: Scientists Speak Out on Climate Science and Its Enemies
• 2010/05/07: DeSmogBlog: NAS Scientists: Stop the McCarthy-ist Attacks on Climate Researchers
• 2010/05/07: CanWest: Stop politicizing climate change, 250 prominent scientists write -- Open letter urges deniers to cease personal attacks
  More than 250 prominent scientists, including 11 Nobel laureates, are calling on climate-change "deniers" to cease their personal and political attacks and focus on the facts. "There is compelling, comprehensive, and consistent objective evidence that humans are changing the climate in ways that threaten our societies and the ecosystems on which we depend," the scientists say in an open letter published today in the journal Science. They call for an end to "McCarthy-like" threats "based on innuendo and guilt by association, the harassment of scientists by politicians seeking distractions to avoid taking action, and the outright lies being spread about them."
• 2010/05/06: DWWSJ: Returning To The Age of Galileo?
• 2010/05/06: MTobis: The Whole Thing [Open Letter] Climate Change and the Integrity of Science
• 2010/05/06: Guardian(UK): Open letter: Climate change and the integrity of science
  Full text of an open letter from 255 members of the US National Academy of Sciences in defence of climate research
• 2010/05/06: Guardian(UK): Leading scientists condemn 'political assaults' on climate researchers
  Open letter defends the integrity of climate science and hits out at recent attacks driven by 'special interests or dogma'
• 2010/05/06: CBC: Climate change science sound: researchers
• 2010/05/07: ABC(Au): Climate debate derailed: scientists
  Two-hundred-and-fifty scientists have signed an open letter saying they are deeply disturbed by the recent escalation in attacks on climate scientists, saying political action has been derailed. The letter, published in the journal Science, says the recent attacks on climate researchers are being run by special interests and the debate must address the compelling evidence of climate change.
• 2010/05/06: Eureka: 255 members of the National Academy of Sciences defend climate science integrity -- Science journal publishes letter supporting accuracy of climate science

  Post CRU theft, controversy & inquiry:

• 2010/05/07: MTobis: TIME on CRU for Keith Kloor
• 2010/05/06: MoD: It's OK, if you are a climate change denier, Part 2
• 2010/05/03: BCLSB: Cops Question Canadian Denier Steve McIntyre
• 2010/05/03: IGBP: IGBP statement of support for IPCC

  The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:

• 2010/05/07: QuarkSoup: Arctic Sea Ice Update
• 2010/05/06: DeSmogBlog: Freak April Rain Showers Hit Canadian Arctic
• 2010/05/04: GreenGrok: Hot Times in the Arctic
• 2010/05/03: HotTopic: Ah, I see you have the Wishart that goes "ping"
• 2010/05/03: SkeptiSci: Rain in the Canadian High Arctic in April?

  As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

• 2010/05/07: CanWest: Arctic Council needs policy role: diplomat -- Co-operation is guiding principle, Norwegian says
  The Arctic Council wants to play a greater role in developing joint international policies for its eight member nations, says Else Berit Eikeland, Norway's ambassador to Canada. Since 1996, the Arctic Council - which includes Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Russia and the United States - has served mainly as a high-level forum to advance circumpolar co-operation, to protect the Arctic environment, and to promote the economic, social and cultural health of its members. But discussions are under way to strengthen the role of the Arctic Council in international policy making, Eikeland said Wednesday at a polar shipping conference in Montreal.
• 2010/05/06: LA Times: What if an oil spill happened at an Arctic well?
  Environmental groups oppose a plan to drill three exploration wells, saying harsh conditions could make an accident much worse.
• 2010/05/06: CSM: Arctic drilling opponents gain momentum from Gulf oil spill
• 2010/05/04: WorldChanging: Preparing for an Ice-Free Arctic: Part 3 - Charting Political Waters
• 2010/05/03: WorldChanging: Preparing for an Ice-Free Arctic: Part 2 - The Commercial Lure of Melting Ice
• 2010/04/30: WorldChanging: Preparing for an Ice-Free Arctic: Part 1 - China's Growing Interest in the Thawing North
• 2010/05/05: CBC: Delay Arctic drilling hearings, energy board urged -- Wait for results of Louisiana spill investigation, companies, N.W.T. government say
  The National Energy Board is being asked by some oil companies, the Northwest Territories government and other interested parties to postpone upcoming hearings on Beafort Sea drilling in light of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The board has been reviewing its Same Season Relief Well Capability Policy, which requires companies to drill a relief well in the same season that they're drilling in their main well in order to relieve pressure on the main well in the event of a blowout [in]. The board is slated to hold hearings on the issue early next month in Inuvik, N.W.T.
• 2010/05/03: ClassM: If you think the BP spill is bad....
• 2010/05/03: PlanetArk: Arctic Border Deal May Extend Norway's Oil Boom

  While in Antarctica:

• 2010/05/05: HotTopic: Down to the sea
• 2010/05/04: PhysOrg: Ocean Drilling Expedition off Antarctica May Predict Ice Sheet's Response to Warmer Global Temperatures
• 2010/05/04: Guardian(UK): Climatologist Ellen Mosley-Thompson on warming in Antarctica
  Earlier this year, climatologist Ellen Mosley-Thompson led an expedition to drill into glacial ice on the Antarctic Peninsula, one of the world's fastest-warming regions. Here, she describes what it's like working in the world's swiftly melting ice zones
• 2010/05/04: Yale360: Unlocking Secrets from the Ice In a Rapidly Warming [Antarctic] Region
• 2010/05/03: PlanetArk: Antarctic Wind Farm Reduces Bases' Reliance On Diesel

  The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2010/05/07: Reuters: Food-stamp tally nears 40 million, sets record
  Nearly 40 million Americans received food stamps -- the latest in an ever-higher string of record enrollment that dates from December 2008 and the U.S. recession, according to a government update.
• 2010/05/07: Afrik: Worldwide hunger on the rise
  Hunger numbers are rising as the developing world continues to deal with the compounding effects of a global financial crisis and a global food crisis, warns the executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Josette Sheeran.
• 2010/05/06: FAO: African food security needs urgent, undivided attention -- Focus on investment, smallholders and family farming
• 2010/05/07: UN: UN aid chief highlights ills caused by drought in Niger, conflict in DR Congo
• 2010/05/06: EnergyBulletin: Can we feed a "Big Australia"?
• 2010/05/06: UN: UN official shines spotlight on hunger and malnutrition in Africa
• 2010/05/05: NYT:CW: Warmer Nights Threaten India's Rice Production
• 2010/05/03: CCurrents: Feeding India Is Becoming A Difficult Task
• 2010/05/04: UN: Without new funding UN will run out of food for nearly 500,000 hungry Yemenis

  Colony Collapse is back:

• 2010/05/03: AlterNet: Bee Catastrophe: 1/3 of Colonies Died This Winter, Threatening Massive Ecological Catastrophe
• 2010/05/02: Guardian(UK): Fears for crops as shock figures from America show scale of bee catastrophe
  The world may be on the brink of biological disaster after news that a third of US bee colonies did not survive the winter
• 2010/05/02: TCoE: Bees, food, and you
• 2007/05/02: GNN: Please Lord, not the bees

  So, are these land grabs Colonialism V2.0?

• 2010/05/04: GRAIN: The World Bank in the hot seat
• 2010/05/07: CDreams: The World Bank in the Hot Seat Over Land Grabbing

  Look out! the IP Rentiers are coming!

• 2010/05/07: TJN: Food Sovereignty [Fact Sheet]
  The Canada-E.U. Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement negotiations are based on commitments to place corporate rights before social and economic justice, democratic control, and ecological sustainability. Negotiations are progressing quickly and with little public scrutiny until now.
• 2010/05/07: POGGE: All your seed are belong to us redux
• 2010/05/01: AgLaw: Living on Earth: Round-Up Ready Alfalfa
• 2010/05/03: TreeHugger: Monsanto Takes Fight To Control Your Food To Supreme Court

  And how are we going to feed 9 billion?

• 2010/05/07: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Farmers aren't the only ones who should be concerned about "superweeds" and the diminishing potency of a popular herbicide
• 2010/04/23: IPTV: Pollan and Hurst Debate the Future of Agriculture
• 2010/05/05: DailyMail(UK): Organic farms 'produce less than HALF as much food as conventional ones'
• 2010/05/07: PlanetArk: Can drip irrigation break Africa's hunger cycles?
• 2010/05/07: PlanetArk: UN food agency urges Africa to invest in farming
• 2010/05/07: PeakEnergy: Superweeds
• 2010/05/06: ClimateShifts: 16% of worlds mangrove species at elevated risk of extinction: No Mangrove -- No Fish
• 2010/05/06: Life(Dk): Leading international climate change experts focus on how to build food security in the face of climate change
  Climate and agricultural researchers, policy makers, donors, and development agencies, both governmental and non-governmental, from all over the world have just met in Nairobi for a one-day conference, 'Building Food Security in the Face of Climate Change'. The conference was an important part of a big international Mega Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). The programme's secretariat is based at LIFE- Faculty of Life Sciences at University of Copenhagen. Climate change represents an immediate and unprecedented threat to the food security of hundreds of millions of people who depend on small-scale agriculture and natural resource management for their livelihoods. At the same time, agriculture and forestry also contributes to climate change, by intensifying greenhouse gas emissions and altering the land surface.
• 2010/05/06: USDA:ARS: ARS Scientists in North Dakota Help Improve Potato Storage Capabilities
• 2010/05/05: PhysOrg: Sugarcane farming practices contribute to global warming
• 2010/05/05: SeedDaily: Reducing Fossil Energy Use On The Farm
• 2010/05/04: EurActiv: Paper reveals EU plan to boost GM crop cultivation
• 2010/05/04: UN: UN calls on Africa to enhance agriculture in face of climate change
• 2010/05/04: TreeHugger: Vertical Farms Aren't Going to Solve Our Food Problems
• 2010/05/03: NYT: Farmers Cope With Roundup-Resistant Weeds
• 2010/05/03: Eureka: Reducing fossil energy use on the farm -- The impacts of low-external-input cropping systems on energy and yield
• 2010/05/03: AlterNet: Why Planting Farms in Skyscrapers Won't Solve Our Food Problems

  Again there were no cyclones, but there was some (mostly bad) news:

• 2010/05/07: JKSPH: Hardship and Human Right Violations Continue among Burma Cyclone [Nargis] Survivors
• 2010/05/07: Wunderground: How oil might affect a hurricane
• 2010/05/04: BBerg: Hurricane Forecasters See Worst Looming in 2010 Atlantic Season
  The 2010 Atlantic hurricane season may rival some of the worst in history as meteorological conditions mirror 2005, the record-breaking year that spawned New Orleans- wrecking Katrina, forecasters say. The El Nino warming in the Pacific is fading and rain is keeping dust down in Africa, cutting off two phenomena that help retard Atlantic hurricane formation. Perhaps most significantly, sea temperatures from the Cape Verde Islands to the Caribbean, where the storms usually develop, are above normal and reaching records in some areas. "We have only seen that in three previous seasons, 2005, 1958 and 1969, and all three of those years had five major hurricanes," said Jeff Masters, co-founder of Weather Underground Inc. "I am definitely thinking that this is going to be a severe hurricane season."
• 2010/05/04: PhysOrg: Super-typhoon global frequency could increase tenfold by 2100: Japanese researchers
  The frequency of violent typhoons whose winds exceed 194 kph (120.5 mph) could increase about tenfold by the end of this century due to the continuing trend of global warming, a team of Japanese government scientists has concluded. The prediction was made by a research group at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.

As for GHGs:

• 2010/05/09: NRDC:SwitchBoard: HFCs: Is This the Year to Curb these Super Greenhouse Gases?
• 2010/05/06: Reuters: North America seeks agreement on tough greenhouse gas [HFCs]
• 2010/05/05: Reuters: U.S. carbon emissions fell record 7 percent in 2009: EIA
  U.S. emissions of the main greenhouse gas from fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas fell a record 7 percent in 2009 due to the recession and more efficient use of fuels, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.
• 2010/05/05: EarthTimes: US carbon-dioxide emissions dropped record 7 per cent in 2009
• 2010/05/06: ENN: US Cut Its CO2 Emissions by 7 Percent Last Year
• 2010/05/05: ClimateP: EIA Stunner: Energy-related CO2 emissions are now down nearly 10% from 2005 levels...

  In the Nitrogen cycle:

• 2010/05/03: PhysOrg: Large amounts of nitrogen stored beneath selected agricultural areas
  Large amounts of nitrogen are stored in the soils of agricultural areas in Nebraska and Maryland, according to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Once in the soil, nitrogen can be converted to nitrate, which can readily move to groundwater.

As for the temperature record:

• 2010/05/07: NOAANews: Above-Normal Temperatures and Below-Normal Precipitation in April
• 2010/05/07: CSW: NOAA's Tom Karl explains temperature data supporting conclusion: 'global warming is unequivocal'
• 2010/05/07: Eureka: 42,226 daily temperature readings, and counting -- A rare 114-year record, kept by generations, logs changing climate
• 2010/05/06: KSJT: Wall Street Journal: Is that old weather station reliable? Scientists say yes. Who would YOU call for another opinion?
• 2010/05/03: TEC: Global Temperature Continues to Rise: A Primer on Climate Baseline Instability

  Aerosols are making their presence felt:

• 2010/05/07: PhysOrg: Researchers Work to Better Understand How Soot Emissions Impact Global Warming
• 2010/05/04: SolveClimate: Research Questions Value of Cutting Black Carbon as a Global Warming Solution -- Indirect Cloud Effects Can Cause Cooling Effect, Study Suggests
• 2010/05/03: SolveClimate: Research Questions Value of Cutting Black Carbon as a Global Warming Solution -- Indirect Cloud Effects Can Cause Cooling Effect, Study Suggests

  How's the ozone layer doing?:

• 2010/05/06: MoJo: Our Lucky Ozone Escape -- A chance decision kept ozone depletion from wrecking the planet
• 2010/05/06: DM:80B: Why the Ozone Hole Prompted Global Action -- and Why Climate Change Hasn't

  While in the paleoclimate:

• 2010/05/06: Eureka: Ancient leaves help researchers understand future climate
• 2010/05/05: PhysOrg: Climate change and mountain building led to mammal diversity patterns
• 2010/05/04: TerraDaily: Research Shows Part Of Alaska Inundated By Ancient Megafloods

  While on the ENSO front:

• 2010/05/06: NOAA:NCEP: El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion
  Synopsis: A transition to ENSO-neutral conditions is expected by June 2010, which will continue into the Northern Hemisphere summer 2010
• 2010/05/07: PlanetArk: U.S. NOAA says chance of La Nina hitting in 2010

  The cliff, aka tipping points, aka planetary boundaries, put in an appearance:

• 2010/05/06: EnergyBulletin: Odds of cooking the grandkids
• 2010/05/05: TerraDaily: Researchers Find Future Temperatures Could Exceed Livable Limits
• 2010/05/04: CCP: S. C. Sherwood & M Huber, PNAS, An adaptability limit to climate change due to heat stress
• 2010/05/04: PhysOrg: Researchers find future temperatures could exceed livable limits
  Reasonable worst-case scenarios for global warming could lead to deadly temperatures for humans in coming centuries, according to research findings from Purdue University and the University of New South Wales, Australia.

As for ocean currents:

• 2010/05/06: TreeHugger: What's the Gulf Loop Current and How Could it Spread the BP Oil Spill to Florida and Beyond?
• 2010/05/03: CCP: Fukamachi et al., Deep ccean current found near Kerguelen Plateau

  Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

• 2010/05/06: NatureTGB: Rogue radio signals sully soil [SMOS] satellite's sensing
• 2010/05/05: KSJT: BBC: A satellite [SMOS] keeps on measuring Earth's watery cycles, despite rogue radios and other interference
• 2010/05/05: BBC: [SMOS] Water mission fights interference
  Europe's Smos spacecraft is returning valuable new data on the way water is cycled around the globe, despite experiencing continued interference. The satellite was launched in November to track changes in the wetness of soils and the saltiness of the oceans using a three-armed microwave antenna. Its detailed maps will soon begin flowing to the scientific community. But in some parts of the world, Smos is still being blinded by radar networks, and even TV and radio links. The radio frequency interference (RFI) is a frustration for the mission team. The part of the electromagnetic spectrum in which Smos sees the planet is supposed to be reserved for Earth observation.
• 2010/05/04: PhysOrg: Wide-eyed Proba-V will track global vegetation daily
  The small but powerful camera of ESA's Proba-V mission can fit on a single laboratory table for testing. But when it reaches orbit, this compact sensor will deliver a daily overview of virtually all vegetation growth across Earth. [...] "One of our main objectives is to get the new sensor in orbit by mid-2012"

More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2010/05/08: ClimateP: NOAA: "North American snow cover for April 2010 was the smallest on record." Go figure!
• 2010/05/07: TreeHugger: British Summer Arrives 18 Days Sooner Than It Did Half a Century Ago
• 2010/05/06: Guardian(UK): British summer is coming earlier each year, study finds
  Scientists say onset of British summer has become increasingly early in the last 50 years, consistent with global warming
• 2010/05/06: PhysOrg: Sheffield experts prove British summer is advancing
  The onset of summer in England has been advancing since the mid 1950s, research from a pair of University of Sheffield geographers has shown.
• 2010/05/06: ClimateShifts: 16% of worlds mangrove species at elevated risk of extinction: No Mangrove -- No Fish
• 2010/05/06: CharlotteObserver: Report warns of global warming costs -- Health problems require agencies to take all-hands-on-deck approach, expert says
• 2010/05/06: SciDaily: British Summer Is Advancing, Experts Show
• 2010/05/05: Eureka: Stream water study detects thawing permafrost
• 2010/05/04: PhysOrg: River declines now causing havoc in birdlife in [Macquarie Marshes] Australia
• 2010/05/03: Eureka: CO2 effects on plants increases global warming

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2010/05/04: FuturePundit: 50% Amazon Shrinkage By 2050?
• 2010/05/04: TreeHugger: Half the Amazon Could be Lost by 2050, Says Study
• 2010/05/07: PhysOrg: Deforestation failure sounds climate alarm
  Australia's failure to accurately measure and predict emissions from deforestation, and the difficulty it has had in reducing deforestation, should send a warning signal to the world, according to a study from The Australian National University.
• 2010/05/06: ABC(Au): Deforestation targets a bad example: expert
  A new academic report claims Australia's high reduction targets for deforestation emissions set a poor example for developing countries. Measuring deforestation emissions requires precise satellite monitoring that produces irregular data. The Australian National University (ANU) study says if a wealthy nation like Australia cannot accurately measure the emissions then developing countries face a tough task to monitor and control their own.
• 2010/05/05: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Climate change endangers whitebark pine in western Canada
• 2010/05/04: BBC: Seeing REDD over forest peoples
  By the end of this year, governments may have finalised arrangements for preserving developing countries' forests under the UN climate convention. But, argues Arun Agrawal, forests used to belong to people - and people are being left out of the equation.
• 2010/05/04: PhysOrg: Trees tell of shifting world
  Trees from the Harvard Forest to the Amazon rainforest are experiencing changing climactic conditions, with rising temperatures potentially making tropical trees a significant source of carbon dioxide
• 2010/05/04: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Illegal Logging in Indonesia: Environmental, Economic, & Social Costs Outlined in a New Report

  Climate refugees are becoming an issue:

• 2010/05/04: EurActiv: Climate refugees set to raise legal issues
  Intensifying climate change is going to lead to more people being displaced in the poorest areas of the world, requiring new responses to immigration, a group of researchers has warned. A transatlantic study team set up by the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) published the first results of its research into climate-induced migration in Brussels last week (30 April), stressing that climate change is going to create a growing new group of immigrants. The worst impacts will be felt in the poorest parts of the world where people are already vulnerable, they warned. Separating the impact of climate change from other factors driving immigration is difficult, the researchers said. They identified drought and desertification, rising sea levels, competition for natural resources and intensifying acute natural disasters such as cyclones as main climate scenarios likely to affect immigration in future.

Yes we have no wacky weather, except:

• 2010/05/08: CNN: Severe storm kills 54 in India
  Authorities confirm 29 deaths in Uttar Pradesh, 25 in neighboring Bihar - Many deaths blamed on lightning strikes, falling trees - Violent storm last month killed at least 122 people in eastern India
• 2010/05/07: TerraDaily: At least 58 killed in southern China storms

  Tornadoes in China this week:

• 2010/05/06: TerraDaily: 39 dead as tornado, storms hit southern China
• 2010/05/06: TerraDaily: 23 dead, more than 160 injured in China tornado: state media
• 2010/05/05: CSM: Scientists launch VORTEX2: largest ever tornado study

  Corals are dying:

• 2010/05/05: PhysOrg: New study sheds light on corals' susceptibility to temperature change

  Acidification is changing the oceans:

• 2010/05/03: TCoE: McKibben on the invisible oil slick

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2010/05/03: BBC: Uganda's highest ice cap splits
  The ice cap on Uganda's highest peak has split because of global warming, Uganda's Wildlife Authority (UWA) says. The glacier is located at an altitude of 5,109m (16,763ft) in the Rwenzori mountain range, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. The authorities say a crevasse has blocked access to the Margherita summit - the third-highest peak in Africa, and a popular destination with climbers. Scientists say glaciers in the Rwenzori range could disappear within 20 years.

Sea levels are rising:

• 2010/05/09: Yahoo:AFP: Rising sea levels threaten Taiwan
• 2010/05/05: PhysOrg: Rising seas, raising hopes
  By the end of this century, sea levels in the Netherlands may rise more than 4 feet, a troubling prospect in a country where 70 percent of GNP is produced in protected areas that are below sea level.

As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

• 2010/05/08: IndiaTimes: Dust storm, heavy rains kill 34 in UP, Bihar
• 2010/05/07: JFleck: River Beat: It Could Be Worse
• 2010/05/07: PhysOrg: Water levels down in Canada's Saint Lawrence seaway
  Seasonal water levels in the Saint Lawrence seaway -- a major North American shipping corridor -- have reached their lowest point in 40 years, the Quebec hydro center warned Friday. This follows one of the warmest Canadian winters on record, in which very little snow fell.
• 2010/05/06: USGS: High Flows in Tennessee Rivers Estimated
• 2010/05/07: CBC: B.C. issues drought warning for Interior
• 2010/05/07: Grist: As Nashville floods recede, an opportunity emerges
• 2010/05/05: TerraDaily: Drought hits Zimbabwe rural population hard
• 2010/05/07: BBC: Fresh floods in north Afghanistan
  Fresh floods caused by heavy rains have hit northern Afghanistan, after a week of flooding across the country in which at least 65 people died. Western provinces have been worst hit by the deluge over the past few days, Afghan authorities told the BBC. Thousands of families have been affected as mud homes were damaged or demolished and swathes of agricultural land destroyed.
• 2010/05/06: CNN: Storm death toll at 31 as [Tennessee] floodwaters recede
• 2010/05/06: CCP: USGS estimates river flows for Tennessee floods of May 1-2, 2010
• 2010/05/06: UCSUSA: Heavy Flooding in Nashville and Global Warming: Is There a Connection?
• 2010/05/05: TerraDaily: Two dead in Riyadh floods
• 2010/05/05: PlanetArk: Flooding Causes Power Outages In Nashville
• 2010/05/04: JFleck: G.K. Gilbert and the changing Great Salt Lake
• 2010/05/04: NYT:GW: As Weather Tracks With Climate Scientists' Grim Forecasts, an African Nation Is Awash in Misery
• 2010/05/05: BBC: Botswana fights Okavango flooding
  Twenty villages in Botswana have been evacuated after the Okavango River burst its banks. Water in the river, which starts in Angola, passes through Namibia and empties into Botswana's Okavango swamp, has reached unprecedented levels.
• 2010/05/04: BBC: Receding floodwater in Nashville, Tennessee, is likely to reveal more dead from weekend rainstorms that have killed at least 29, officials say
• 2010/05/04: CNN: Flooded Nashville faces long recovery
  Cumberland River begins to recede in Nashville - Music City institutions among buildings flooded - Naval facility outside Memphis hit by floodwaters - Nashville residents had little time to prepare for flash flooding
• 2010/05/04: CCP: Flooding from record rains kills 11 in Tennessee; USGS decides to shut down 17 of 94 streamflow gauges in Tennessee!!!
• 2010/05/04: ClimateP: AP: Calling deadly Tennessee superstorm an "unprecedented rain event" did "not capture the magnitude"
• 2010/05/04: PlanetArk: Flooding Hits Tennessee, Nearby States
• 2010/05/03: TerraDaily: Heavy rains, hail spark floods in Riyadh
• 2010/05/04: TreeHugger: No More Baptisms in the Jordan River - Expected to Run Dry by 2011
• 2010/05/04: Wunderground: Flooding death toll in Southeast U.S. floods rises to 24; oil slick moving little
• 2010/05/04: EarthTimes: At least 19 dead after floods hit US South
• 2010/05/04: CBC: Death toll in U.S. storms nears 30 [in Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee]
• 2010/05/03: MTobis: Cumberland Blues
• 2010/05/03: CNN: At least 19 dead as storms pound Southeast
  Latest fatality discovered Monday morning in Nashville, mayor's office says - Cumberland River is expected to crest at 11 feet above flood stage in Nashville - At least 19 dead after storms in Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky - Storms delay flights at Atlanta airport; heavy rain moves through north Georgia
• 2010/05/03: ABC(Au): Jordan River could die by next year
  The once mighty Jordan River, where Christians believe Jesus was baptised, is now little more than a polluted stream that could die next year unless the decay is halted, environmentalists say.
• 2010/05/03: TerraDaily: Jordan River could die by 2011: report
• 2010/05/03: Wunderground: Flooding from record rains kills 11 in Tennessee; oil spill update
• 2010/05/03: EarthTimes: At least 11 dead after floods hit US state of Tennessee
• 2010/05/03: BBC: Severe storms and flooding have claimed the lives of at least 15 people in the US states of Tennessee and Mississippi
• 2010/05/02: CBC: 15 die in Tennessee, Mississippi storms
  At least 11 people were killed in Tennessee and four in northern Mississippi by a line of storms that brought heavy rain and tornadoes to the region over the weekend. More rain and storms swept the region Sunday as emergency officials in Tennessee sought help from the state's Army National Guard, and urged people to stay off roads and interstate highways that had turned into raging rivers.
• 2010/05/02: DWWSJ: Amazing Flood Event In Tennessee. Climate Related??

  Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2010/05/03: Purdue: NASA, Purdue study offers recipe for global warming-free industrial materials
• 2010/05/04: Eureka: Scientists outline strategy to limit global warming -- Efforts range from 'Herculean' to achievable
• 2010/05/03: PhysOrg: UCSD researchers outline strategy to limit global warming
• 2010/05/03: TerraDaily: A Roadmap For The Only Practical Way To Preserve The Planet
  The United States could completely stop emissions of carbon dioxide from coal-fired electric power plants -- a crucial step for controlling global warming -- within 20 years by using technology that already exists or could be commercially available within a decade.

As for transportation & GHG production:

• 2010/05/05: Grist: Does 'sustainable transportation' mean better cars or fewer cars?

  As for carbon sequestration:

• 2010/05/04: CCentral: Could a Recent [Economides] CCS Study Really Be Right?
• 2010/05/04: Guardian(UK): Massive capacity for CO2 storage exists in the UK
• 2010/05/02: Reuters: Norway delays Mongstad Carbon Capture and Storage project
  Norway said it would delay the decision to finance a top carbon capture project to 2014, after the life of the present parliament, in a major setback for a technology seen as key to mitigate climate change.

Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2010/05/08: Times(UK): Bill Gates pays for 'artificial' clouds to beat greenhouse gases
  The first trials of controversial sunshielding technology are being planned after the United Nations failed to secure agreement on cutting greenhouse gases. Bill Gates, the Microsoft billionaire, is funding research into machines to suck up ten tonnes of seawater every second and spray it upwards. This would seed vast banks of white clouds to reflect the Sun's rays away from Earth.
• 2010/05/07: GoogleG:CI: [Science Letter$] Shifting the Debate on Geoengineering
• 2010/05/03: ACP: Enhancement of marine cloud albedo via controlled sea spray injections: a global model study of the influence of emission rates, microphysics and transport by H. Korhonen et al.
• 2010/05/03: CSM: Should geoengineering be used to address global warming?
• 2010/05/03: CSM: Geoengineering schemes: pros and cons
• 2010/05/03: NewScientist: Laser creates clouds over Germany
• 2010/05/02: NatureN: Rain-making lasers could trigger showers on demand -- Lasers that stimulate condensation may help to induce rain artificially

  While on the adaptation front:

• 2010/05/04: FAO: Climate change threat to Africa -- Adaptation a priority

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2010/05/08: AGWObserver: Papers on halocarbon concentrations in the atmosphere
• 2010/05/08: IJMPB: (ab$) Comment on "Falsification of the Atmospheric CO2 Greenhouse Effects Within the Frame of Physics" by Joshua B. Halpern et al.
• 2010/05/05: NERC:NORA: Ice sheet advance, dynamics, and decay configurations : evidence from West Central Scotland by Andrew Finlayson et al.
• 2010/05/06: NERC:NORA: Modeling the Effects of Climate Change on the Supply of Inorganic Nitrogen by Karen Moore et al.
• 2010/05/07: ACP: Optimal estimation retrieval of aerosol microphysical properties from SAGE~II satellite observations in the volcanically unperturbed lower stratosphere by D. Wurl et al.
• 2010/05/07: ACP: A case study of dust aerosol radiative properties over Lanzhou, China by L. Zhang et al.
• 2010/05/07: ACPD: Aerosol fluxes and dynamics within and above a tropical rainforest in South-East Asia by J. D. Whitehead et al.
• 2010/05/07: TC: Monitoring ice shelf velocities from repeat MODIS and Landsat data - a method study on the Larsen~C ice shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, and 10 other ice shelves around Antarctica by T. Haug et al.
• 2010/05/06: OS: Long term trends in the sea surface temperature of the Black Sea by G. I. Shapiro et al.
• 2010/05/02: arXiv: The FuturIcT Knowledge Accelerator: Unleashing the Power of Information for a Sustainable Future by Dirk Helbing
• 2010/04/22: EcologyLetters: (ab$) Scale matters: the impact of organic farming on biodiversity at different spatial scales by Doreen Gabriel et al.
• 2010/05/07: CP: A simple mixing explanation for late Pleistocene changes in the Pacific-South Atlantic benthic C13 gradient by L. E. Lisiecki
• 2010/05/05: CP: Patterns of millennial variability over the last 500 ka by M. Siddall et al.
• 2010/05/04: CP: Vegetation response to the "African Humid Period" termination in Central Cameroon (7° N) -- new pollen insight from Lake Mbalang by A. Vincens et al.
• 2010/05/06: ACP: Hygroscopicity and chemical composition of Antarctic sub-micrometre aerosol particles and observations of new particle formation by E. Asmi et al.
• 2010/05/06: ACP: Chemical characterisation of iron in dust and biomass burning aerosols during AMMA-SOP0/DABEX: implication for iron solubility by R. Paris et al.
• 2010/05/06: ACP: Detection of dust aerosol by combining CALIPSO active lidar and passive IIR measurements by B. Chen et al.
• 2010/05/06: ACP: Impact of brown and clear carbon on light absorption enhancement, single scatter albedo and absorption wavelength dependence of black carbon by D. A. Lack & C. D. Cappa
• 2010/05/03: ACP: Carbon source/sink information provided by column CO2 measurements from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory by D. F. Baker et al.
• 2010/05/03: ACP: Enhancement of marine cloud albedo via controlled sea spray injections: a global model study of the influence of emission rates, microphysics and transport by H. Korhonen et al.
• 2010/05/03: ACPD: Diurnal variations of humidity and ice water content in the tropical upper troposphere by P. Eriksson et al.
• 2010/05/03: ACPD: Multi-model assessment of stratospheric ozone return dates and ozone recovery in CCMVal-2 models by V. Eyring et al.
• 2010/05/03: ACPD: Pathways of PFOA to the Arctic: variabilities and contributions of oceanic currents and atmospheric transport and chemistry sources by I. Stemmler & G. Lammel
• 2010/05/06: ACS: Can the U.S. phase out coal's greenhouse gas emissions by 2030? by Kellyn Betts
• 2010/05/04: PNAS: Global analysis of gene activity during Arabidopsis seed development and identification of seed-specific transcription factors by Brandon H. Le et al.
• 2010/05/04: PNAS: Ecological processes can synchronize marine population dynamics over continental scales by Tarik C. Gouhier et al.
• 2010/05/04: PNAS: Responses of terrestrial ecosystems and carbon budgets to current and future environmental variability by David Medvigy et al.
• 2010/05/04: PNAS: Linking global climate and temperature variability to widespread amphibian declines putatively caused by disease by Jason R. Rohr & Thomas R. Raffel
• 2010/05/04: PNAS: Bounded uncertainty and climate change economics by Christopher J. Costello et al.
• 2010/05/04: PNAS: Role of macroscopic particles in deep-sea oxygen consumption by Alexander B. Bochdansky et al.
• 2010/05/04: PNAS: The Copenhagen Accord for limiting global warming: Criteria, constraints, and available avenues by Veerabhadran Ramanathan & Yangyang Xu

  And other significant documents:

• 2010/05/05: DOE:EIA: [link to 804k pdf] U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions in 2009: A Retrospective Review

  As for miscellaneous science:

• 2010/05/07: Eureka: How does ice flow? Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute present first results of a new measurement method in Antarctica
• 2010/05/07: Eureka: GOCE satellite determines gravitational force in the Himalayas -- TUM researchers present initial data from successful ESA mission
• 2010/05/05: APSmith: Can you spot the real scientist?
• 2010/05/04: JEB: EGU2010 live!

  This Halpern et al. reply to Gerlich & Tscheusner is bound to raise a lot of comment:

• 2010/05/08: IJMPB: (ab$) Comment on "Falsification of the Atmospheric CO2 Greenhouse Effects Within the Frame of Physics" by Joshua B. Halpern et al.
• 2010/05/08: ERabett: Unto us a paper is given, unto us a refutation is born [G&T Gerlich & Tscheusner]
• 2010/05/08: Stoat: Comment on "Falsification of the Atmospheric CO2 Greenhouse Effects Within the Frame of Physics"
• 2010/05/08: CC: Comment on "Falsification of the Atmospheric CO2 Greenhouse Effects Within the Frame of Physics"

  More Lovelock:

• 2010/05/05: TreeHugger: Lovelock Tells BBC That Mankind Cannot Save Gaia

  More Curry:

• 2010/05/02: AFTIC: Fighting different battles

  More Wegman:

• 2010/05/02: Stoat: Wegman again

  Meanwhile on the Kyoto front:

• 2010/05/04: PlanetArk: Kyoto Risks Collapse; U.N. Urges Government Action
• 2010/05/03: Yahoo:AFP: Kyoto Protocol in jeopardy: UN climate chief

  While at the UN:

• 2010/05/07: UN: Climate change tops UN chief's talks with Bolivian President [Evo Morales Ayma]
• 2010/05/07: Eureka: UN report stresses the need to provide access to clean energy to the world's poor
• 2010/05/06: Guardian(UK): South African tourism minister favourite to replace Yvo de Boer
• 2010/05/06: UN: World must tackle over-consumption of energy, resources, UN panel chair warns
• 2010/05/04: TerraDaily: Shortlist for UN climate chief down to two: diplomat
  Only two of 11 official candidates to succeed outgoing UN climate chief Yvo de Boer of the Netherlands are still in the running, a diplomat said Tuesday. The choice has boiled down to climate negotiator Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica and South African Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk, he said on the margins of a meeting of some three dozen environment ministers.

And on the carbon trading front:

• 2010/05/06: PlanetArk: EU Carbon Prices Recover, Close Above 16 Euros
• 2010/05/06: PlanetArk: U.N. Forecasts Less Than 1 Bln Kyoto Offsets By 2012
  A United Nations agency on Wednesday cut its forecast for pre-2012 Kyoto Protocol carbon offsets, estimating for the first time that less than 1 billion tonnes will come to market before the climate pact expires. "Due to the medium issuance in March (11.4 million) and in April (9.9 million), our projection for the amount of (Certified Emissions Reductions) to be available by the end of 2012 decreased a little from 1,035 million to 992 million," the UNEP Risoe Center said on its website.
• 2010/05/05: PlanetArk: [Australian] Westpac [bank] Targets NZ Foresters In Carbon Trade
• 2010/05/05: EarthTimes: Czechs sell emission permits to Japanese firm [Mitsui]
• 2010/05/03: NYT: Sale of Chicago Climate Exchange to ICE Reinforces Weak Carbon Market
• 2010/05/03: EUO: Anti-fraud investigators swoop on EU emissions traders
  Traders involved in Europe's flagship climate change programme, the Emissions Trading System - some of whom work at Germany's biggest banks and energy firms - were the focus of a series of raids and arrests by British and German prosecutors in part of a massive pan-European crackdown on CO2-credit VAT fraud.
• 2010/05/03: PlanetArk: Germany Arrests 4 In CO2 Probe, 50 More Suspects

  The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

• 2010/05/04: TStar: Time to revisit the dreaded carbon tax
• 2010/05/02: RE&U: Could we finally get a Pigou Tax on gasoline now?

  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:

• 2010/05/07: Grist: Cap-and-dividend: the worst possible way to regulate GHG emissions
• 2010/05/05: TCoE: Carbon indulgences

  Meanwhile on the international political front:

• 2010/05/06: Guardian(UK): UK firm's Falklands oil find sparks mix of hopes and fears

  As for GW, energy & security:

• 2010/05/07: TEC: Arguing the link between Climate Change and Security
• 2010/05/03: C-a-S: Climate Wars
• 2010/05/05: TEC: A Debate About the Relevence of 'Climate Security'
• 2010/05/04: TerraDaily: Water-Related Conflicts Set To Escalate

  Polls! We have polls!

• 2010/05/07: ArkansasNews: Majority of Arkansans believe global warming unproven, poll finds

  Regarding Water Politics and Business:

• 2010/05/04: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Water Economics 1 -- Price Shapes Demand

  And on the American political front:

• 2010/05/09: ClimateP: FL panhandle GOP no longer supports 'drill baby drill'
• 2010/05/08: NRDC:SwitchBoard: After 2 Carbon Disasters in 1 Month, Time for Clean Energy
• 2010/05/07: EnergyBulletin: Another Wake-Up Call for the World's Biggest Oil Junkie
• 2010/05/07: Guardian(UK): How to sell green energy
  Linking oil dependency with US national security is an effective tactic to win public support for clean energy reform
• 2010/05/07: PhysOrg: Prop. 16 protects energy utilities' monopoly status, says report
  An independent analysis of Proposition 16 finds that it would protect the monopoly status of investor-owned energy utilities and block the development of publicly-owned electric power companies. The June 8 ballot initiative could also slow the development of renewable energy, says the paper released by the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment. Prop. 16 would amend the California Constitution to require the support of two-thirds of the voters in a local election before a city government could create or expand public power service. Prop. 16 is sponsored and heavily underwritten by the utility Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), which has aggressively opposed the creation of public providers of retail energy.
• 2010/05/06: TEC: America's Carbon Addiction: This Is An Intervention
• 2010/05/07: AutoBG: Video: Schwarzenegger promises "Hydrogen Highway" efforts will continue
• 2010/05/05: NewScientist: Republicans won't be nudged into cutting home energy
  It was hailed as a breakthrough in the fight to cut carbon emissions. In 2007, researchers found that heavy electricity users cut their consumption after being told that they used more energy than their neighbours. Almost a million US households have since received similar feedback and have cut electricity use by an average of 2.5 per cent. But a new study has identified a wrinkle in the plan: the feedback only seems to work with liberals. Conservatives tend to ignore it. Some even respond by using more energy.
• 2010/05/04: BillingsGazette: Farmers ponder climate measures
  Montana's major farm groups aren't warming to federal climate change legislation, but a small group of independents say environmental changes will put them out of business if nothing is done.
• 2010/05/04: SolveClimate: States Prepare to Rise to CO2 Challenge as Senate Climate Bill Collapses
• 2010/05/03: Mercury: Opponents of California global warming law [AB 32] turn in signatures for November measure
  Setting up what is expected to be a multimillion-dollar political battle between oil companies and Silicon Valley tech leaders, opponents of California's landmark global warming law turned in about 800,000 signatures Monday for a November ballot measure to suspend the law.
• 2010/05/04: Guardian(UK): States prepare to rise to CO2 challenge as Senate climate bill collapses
• 2010/05/04: Reuters: California may vote to freeze landmark climate law
  Organizers of a California ballot measure that would suspend the state's landmark climate change law, possibly for years, said on Monday they had enough signatures to qualify it for the November ballot.
• 2010/05/03: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Which Would You Choose: Offshore Wind or Offshore Oil?

  Regarding Massey:

• 2010/05/03: BBerg: FBI Probe of Massey Coal Is Said to Focus on Possible Bribery
• 2010/05/06: BBerg: Massey CEO Denies His Management Style Led to Fatal Blast, Won't Step Down

  Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli is out to make a name for himself, as what is not certain:

• 2010/05/09: WaPo: U-Va. urged to fight subpoena of climate scientist's documents
  Academics from across the country are rallying against a subpoena issued by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II seeking documents related to the work of a former University of Virginia climate scientist, even as the university says it is preparing to comply with Cuccinelli's request. Cuccinelli (R) issued the civil investigative demand to the university last month for all documents related to five grant applications made by Michael Mann, a climate-change expert who joined Penn State in 2005. Cuccinelli also sought all e-mails between Mann and 39 other scientists as well as any correspondence between Mann and research assistants, secretaries or administrative staff with whom he worked from 1999 until he left the university. In a statement Thursday night, a spokeswoman for the university said the school is "required by law to comply." She said that the university received an extension from the original deadline and that documents are now due July 26.
• 2010/05/06: UNDispatch: Michael Mann-hunt Continues
• 2010/05/08: HamptonRoads: ODU professors balk at Cuccinelli's climate request
  Nineteen Old Dominion University professors on Friday joined a rising tide of opposition to state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's request for documents involving a former climate-change researcher at the University of Virginia. In a statement, they said Cuccinelli's actions "echo some of the worst offenses of the McCarthy era," referring to Joseph McCarthy, a U.S. senator from Wisconsin who sought to uncover Communists in the '50s. The attorney general, they wrote, should "cease and desist from this and further 'witch hunts' driven by partisan political agendas that waste valuable state resources in a difficult economy."
• 2010/05/08: JKB: The republican war on reality : a new McCarthy era?
• 2010/05/08: SF Gate: Climate scientists decry 'political assaults'
• 2010/05/07: ClimateP: WashPost: University of Virginia should fight AG Cuccinelli's faulty investigation of Michael Mann
• 2010/05/07: NatureTGB: 'Stop McCarthy-like attacks on climate science'
• 2010/05/07: DM:CCM: Washington Post Editorial Page Condemns Cuccinelli
• 2010/05/07: UCSUSA: VA Attorney General's Misguided Investigation
• 2010/05/06: HotTopic: Misuse of political office: science under attack
• 2010/05/06: MoD: The climate witch hunt
• 2010/05/05: CSW: Free the Cuccinelli 40: Virginia AG demands e-mails of Michael Mann and 39 other scientists
• 2010/05/06: MTobis: Coochie and the Witch Hunt
• 2010/05/04: Slate: Suing Science -- Virginia's Ken Cuccinelli's dangerous suit against climate change
• 2010/05/06: DM:CCM: Dahlia Lithwick Trashes Cuccinelli's Attack on Climate Research
• 2010/05/04: BSD: Even skeptics see the VA Atty General as another McCarthy
• 2010/05/05: KSJT: The Hook, Slate, USA Today: Is a climate science witch hunt unfolding in Virginia? Michael Mann might say so
• 2010/05/04: ScienceInsider: Virginia Official Wades Into U.K. Climate Investigation
• 2010/05/03: TPMM: Cuccinelli Targets 'Climate-Gate' Scientist
• 2010/05/04: TPMM: Cuccinelli Probe Of Climate Scientist Blasted As 'Witch Hunt'
• 2010/05/03: NatureTGB: Mann targeted again, this time by the state (of Virginia)
• 2010/05/04: WaPo: State attorney general demands ex-professor's files from University of Virginia
  Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II is demanding that the University of Virginia turn over a broad range of documents from a former professor to determine whether he defrauded taxpayers as he sought grants for global warming research. The civil investigative demand asks for all data and materials presented by former professor Michael Mann when he applied for five research grants from the university. It also gives the school until May 27 to produce all correspondence or e-mails between Mann and 39 other scientists since 1999. The actions by Cuccinelli (R) -- who has sued the federal government over its regulation of greenhouse gases and has become a leading national voice in alleging that scientists have skewed data to show evidence the Earth is warming -- were cheered by those on the right, who have long targeted Mann as a leading proponent of the theory. Mann, who works at Penn State, was one of the authors of the "hockey stick" graph, a study that used a variety of data, including tree rings, to chart climate change. His research showed a rapid recent increase in the Earth's temperature.
• 2010/05/04: DM:CCM: Cuccinelli Fishing Expedition Makes the Washington Post
• 2010/05/04: DM:BA: Deniers abuse power to attack climate scientists [Cuccinelli]
• 2010/05/04: UCSUSA: VA Attorney General Cuccinelli Harasses Climate Scientist -- UCS Calls for Him to Rescind His 'Misguided' Investigation
• 2010/05/04: TreeHugger: Virginia Attorney General Conducts Witch Hunt to Keep Climate Gate Alive
• 2010/05/04: TP: Cuccinelli ditches censored lapel pins, blames the media for making them a 'distraction.'
• 2010/05/03: Timpanogos: Cuccinelli Witch Project
• 2010/05/02: DM:CCM: The Virginia AG's Attack on Climate Scientists
• 2010/05/03: SST: [Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli] A Prude in Richmond - Ridiculous

  The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2010/05/04: ClimateP: Is Obama blowing his best chance to shift the debate from the dirty, unsafe energy of the 19th century to the clean, safe energy of the 21st century?
• 2010/05/02: Grist: One thing Graham is right about: Obama
  [...]
  What has become clear, to Graham and anyone else paying attention, is that Obama is not going to do an all-out push. If nothing else, his response to the Gulf oil disaster has made that clear. If he was looking for an opportunity to drive home the clean energy message, this was it -- the Katrina of fossil fuels. Yet all he's done is blandly reaffirm his support for offshore drilling. I haven't heard a word about clean energy alternatives or, God forbid, efficiency, which if pursued seriously could save more oil than offshore rigs could produce, at a net savings rather than a cost, and with the added bonus feature of not occasionally leaking out and destroying entire American ecosystems and industries. Only Obama could have given climate clear, top priority, and that's the only way it could have passed. But he sat by passively...

The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2010/05/07: NYT:GW: EPA Backed Off 'Hazardous' Label for Coal Ash After White House Review
  U.S. EPA's proposed regulation of coal ash as a hazardous waste was changed at the White House to give equal standing to an alternative favored by the coal industry and coal-burning electric utilities. The Obama administration is now considering two competing rules for regulating the ash that contains toxins that include arsenic, lead and mercury. The first would set binding federal disposal requirements for the ash, and the second would label the ash nonhazardous and leave enforcement to the states (E&ENews PM, May 4). EPA released the two-headed proposal Tuesday for public comments. But there was just one rule proposal that EPA sent to the White House's Office of Management and Budget last October and that would have labeled coal ash a hazardous waste, documents released yesterday show. EPA said then that compliance with the hazardous-waste regulations would be more expensive but that costs would be outweighed by health and environmental benefits. EPA wrote then that "maintaining a [nonhazardous] approach would not be protective of human and the environment." What changed in the six months that the proposal was in OMB's hands? Says EPA: Its administrator, Lisa Jackson, changed her mind about the hazardous-waste designation.
• 2010/05/07: E2Tech: DOE Picks eSolar, Abengoa, Others for $62M in Solar Funds
• 2010/05/09: BBC: The US homeland security secretary has been touring Nashville, which, along with other areas in the American South, was hit by flooding this week
• 2010/05/07: NOAANews: Dr. Larry Robinson Confirmed as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• 2010/05/07: CJR: EPA Officials Demand Anonymity -- "Hush-hush" conference calls anger reporters
  Twice in the last three months, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ordered reporters not to name the agency officials participating in media conference calls, frustrating a number of the journalists involved. The latest incident happened Tuesday, when the EPA arranged a teleconference in order to discuss a long-awaited plan to regulate coal ash, a byproduct of burning coal for electricity that contains toxic chemicals like arsenic, lead, and mercury.
• 2010/05/06: GreenGrok: Did EPA Use Oil Spill to Keep Coal Ash Ruling Under the Radar?
• 2010/05/06: ClimateP: CBO analysis of clean energy legislation ignores benefits
• 2010/05/07: TEC: DOE, USDA Back Biomass Research And Development Initiative
• 2010/05/06: Grist: EPA proposes two options for coal ash oversight
• 2010/05/06: ScienceInsider: NEON [National Ecological Observatory Network] Gets Final Approval, Awaits Money to Start Construction
• 2010/05/05: SolveClimate: EPA's First Federal Coal Ash Regs Garner Qualified Praise from Advocates
• 2010/05/05: NRDC:SwitchBoard: EPA Hedges on Hazardous Coal Ash
• 2010/05/04: EPA: EPA Announces Plans to Regulate Coal Ash / Agency proposals would address risks of unsafe coal ash disposal, while supporting safe forms of beneficial use
• 2010/05/05: TEC: EPA Proposes Regulatory Options for Coal Ash
• 2010/05/03: TheHill:e2W: [Interior Secretary Ken] Salazar: Pulling back on Gulf of Mexico oil production would have a 'huge' economic impact
• 2010/05/03: PhysOrg: Fuel-producing Geobacter receives support from new research grant
  Last week, the US Department of Energy awarded $106 million to 37 projects to support the development of advanced energy technologies. One of the promising projects is Geobacter, named after a bacterial species that uses electric current to convert carbon dioxide into transportation fuels such as butanol. Led by microbiologist Derek Lovley and colleagues from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, the project received an initial $1 million research grant to expand its research.

Scientists testified in a House Committee:

• 2010/05/08: CSW: At House hearing, prominent scientists reaffirm climate science's broad knowledge, urgency to act
• 2010/05/07: SolveClimate: Eminent U.S. Climate Researchers Stand United on Science, Policy Action
  Selection of Lord Monckton to testify before Congress 'sad' and 'embarrassing,' lawmaker says
  [...]
  Director of the department of global ecology at the Carnegie Institution, Chris Field noted that the consensus reports of the IPCC are considered conservative and do not include potential hazards posed by sudden sea level rise and carbon release from ecosystems.
• 2010/05/05: DeSmogBlog: GOP Chooses Lord "Hitler Youth" Monckton as Expert Witness on Climate Change Science
• 2010/05/05: UCSUSA: Scientists to Testify before Congress on Climate Science Tomorrow

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2010/05/07: ClimateP: House passes Home Star -- One step closer to a clean energy future
• 2010/05/06: Grist: Home Star energy retrofit bill passes House; is backed by broad coalition; rules
• 2010/05/07: ScienceInsider: House Member [Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga)] Sees NSF as a 60-Year Mistake
• 2010/05/07: WaPo: 'Cash for Caulkers' program offers rebates for green homeowners
  The House approved a new economic stimulus bill Thursday that could lead to thousands of dollars in "Cash for Caulkers" rebates for homeowners who renovate their homes with better insulation and energy-saving windows and doors. The Home Star bill, which passed 246 to 161, would authorize $5.7 billion over two years for a program that supporters, mostly Democrats, said would have the added benefits of invigorating the slumping construction industry and making the Earth a little cleaner.
• 2010/05/06: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Sen. Byrd Questions Role of Coal
• 2010/05/05: SundayGazetteMail: Byrd calls for re-examination of state's relationship with coal

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

• 2010/05/07: Grist: Cap-and-dividend: the worst possible way to regulate GHG emissions
• 2010/05/07: Reuters: White House says time right for climate bill
  The White House said on Friday the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico showed the need for climate change and energy legislation, dismissing calls from a Republican backer of the bill to hold off.
• 2010/05/07: TPMDC: Kerry And Lieberman Rolling Out Climate And Energy Bill Wednesday
  Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said in a statement today that passing a climate and energy bill this year is "impossible" after the Gulf oil spill and the Democrats' new push on immigration reform. Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) apparently weren't listening. Kerry and Lieberman released a statement today announcing their plan to roll out a climate and energy bill on Wednesday.
• 2010/05/07: PhysOrg: Small investors could be big losers under federal climate change legislation
  Small investors could be big losers if a greenhouse gas reduction plan known as cap and trade becomes law and accounting standards for carbon credits have not been established, according to a new study released today by a University of California, Davis, professor.
• 2010/05/07: Grist: Key U.S. senator: climate bill progress impossible
  A key U.S. senator said Friday that action on legislation to fight climate change was "impossible" for now because of fierce new opposition to offshore drilling after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. "I believe it would be wise to pause the process and reassess where we stand," Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said, pouring cold water on predictions that he would eventually support the bill.
• 2010/05/06: Grist: With a climate bill still stalled in the Senate, leaders need to get leading
• 2010/05/05: NYT:GW: Senate Cap-And-Trade Bill Coming Out Next Week -- Boxer
• 2010/05/05: Yahoo:AFP: Kerry pledges US climate bill with industry
  US Senator John Kerry pledged Wednesday to move soon on legislation to battle climate change and to bring aboard industry...
• 2010/05/04: NatJo: Lieberman: Drilling Still Part Of Energy Bill
• 2010/05/04: TheHill:e2W: Lieberman: Pushing climate bill without Sen. Graham is 'an open question'
• 2010/05/05: TWM: The spill, the Congress, and the climate bill....
• 2010/05/03: TDC: Groups with divergent political and social agendas find room to agree on climate and energy policy

  What are the lobbyists pushing?

• 2010/05/04: NYT: Automakers Seek to Delay Ethanol Blending Raise
  Citing new test data, the auto industry says the federal government's plan to raise the amount of ethanol mixed into gasoline will damage cars and increase the amount of pollution they emit. The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to issue a rule in the next few weeks that would permit oil companies to increase the percentage of ethanol in automotive fuel to 15 percent, up from the current level of 10 percent, so they can meet E.P.A. quotas for renewable fuels. Automakers have opposed the change since the E.P.A. first signaled it last year. But now the industry says it has conducted tests that confirm the higher-ethanol blend will cause problems in many cars.

The Gore-apalooza is still bopping along:

• 2010/05/09: HotTopic: Gore makes a connection [CO2 spill]

  While in the UK:

• 2010/05/07: Guardian(UK): EU drops energy regulations that could have shut Drax
  Emissions targets delayed until 2019 to avoid energy crunch -- Environmental groups angry at reprieve for Drax Pressure from the British government and energy companies has encouraged the European Union to drop new regulations that could have led to the closure of Drax and other heavily polluting coal-fired power stations within six years. The sector was facing tougher emissions targets but has been given an extra three years' grace period to 2019 after Britain argued it faced an "energy crunch" before large-scale wind farms and nuclear stations came on stream closer to 2020.

Oh yeah, there was an election too:

• 2010/05/07: EUO: UK election produces no clear result
• 2010/05/07: BWeek: U.K. Green Party Wins First Commons Seat in Brighton
• 2010/05/04: ClimateP: U.K. conservatives say drill, baby, drill

  And in Europe:

• 2010/05/07: PlanetArk: Germany approves solar power incentive cuts
  Germany's Bundestag lower house of parliament approved on Thursday controversial cuts for solar power incentives to take effect from July. Solar subsidies for rooftop installed solar power will see a one-off cut of 16 percent, while most open-field installations will be cut by 15 percent. Support for farmland solar systems is to be scrapped completely from July.
• 2010/05/07: PlanetArk: Europe development agencies to launch climate fund
• 2010/05/06: JKB: Belgium's fifth national communication on Climate Change
• 2010/05/06: EurActiv: EU urged to consider social impact of climate policies
  EU climate policies must be adjusted to ensure that they do not hit the poorest households hardest, according to a group of climate change and social justice experts.
• 2010/05/05: GreenBiz: 500 European Cities Pledge 20 Percent CO2 Cut
• 2010/05/05: EurActiv: Farmers defend strong CAP [Common Agricultural Policy] in face of new challenges
  EU farmers' lobby Copa-Cogeca said yesterday (4 May) that farmers and cooperatives are ready to contribute to the provision of environmental and rural public goods provided that the right incentives are put in place.
• 2010/05/05: EurActiv: Mayors to receive extra EU cash for energy projects
  European Commission President José Manuel Barroso yesterday (4 May) pledged to divert unused EU stimulus cash into a fund to help regions and cities become more energy efficient. "About time," said EU mayors meeting in Brussels.
• 2010/05/05: EUO: EU to re-use 115 million euros on urban CO2 reduction
• 2010/05/05: PlanetArk: Vans, Light Trucks Face Speed Limiters In EU: Draft
• 2010/05/05: PlanetArk: French Wind Sector Fears It Will Be Blown Away
• 2010/05/05: PlanetArk: Italy 2010 Solar Goal Tough But Reachable: Industry
  Italy's goal of doubling solar power capacity in 2010 is tough due to red tape and grid link-up problems but reachable as operators race to get projects started before cuts in financial incentives, the head of an industry body said on Tuesday. Italy, Europe's second-fastest growing solar market, plans to add 1,300 megawatts of photovoltaic (PV) systems in 2010 to reach an overall installed capacity of some 2,500 MW this year.
• 2010/05/04: Reuters: Some 500 EU cities pledge to cut CO2 emissions
• 2010/05/04: EurActiv: France's new green bill inspired by EU texts
  As the French parliament starts to examine a second wave of national laws aimed at boosting sustainable development, EurActiv.fr looks back at a number of EU texts that inspired the new bill.
• 2010/05/04: EurActiv: Paper reveals EU plan to boost GM crop cultivation
  Europe faces a major overhaul of the way it deals with genetically modified (GM) crops, after the European Commission sparked controversy with new plans to circumvent its cumbersome legislative review process. The EU executive wants to let national governments decide whether or not to grow genetically-modified crops without a long drawn-out review of the bloc's current GM legislation, an initial impact assessment seen by Reuters showed. Details of the plan, which would open the door to widespread GM cultivation in Europe, provoked a furious reaction from environmentalists already angry at the EU executive's decision to approve the commercial growing of a GM potato in March (EurActiv 03/03/10). But the plan will be a boost to biotech companies in the EU, where blockages in the current approval system have confined commercial growing to less than 100,000 hectares across the 27-nation bloc.
• 2010/05/04: AutoBG: Environmental group [Deutsche Umwelthilfe] says supporting electric vehicles is a waste of government money
• 2010/05/03: EurActiv: Electric cars push needs 'careful thinking' [Lew Fulton, senior transport energy specialist at the IEA]
• 2010/05/03: EurActiv: Brussels to argue for 30% CO2 reduction target
  The economic slump has cut the cost of meeting the EU's current 2020 emission reduction target by nearly a third, making a move to a 30% cut affordable, according to a draft European Commission communication seen by EurActiv.
• 2010/05/02: Google:AFP: Europe should cut CO2 output by 30%: German [environment] minister [Norbert Rottgen]
• 2010/05/03: CBC: Germany wants 1 million electric cars by 2020

  Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2010/05/08: GWWatch: Limber up for the pre-election backflip season
• 2010/05/08: DVoice: A Planet on the Backburner
  The mothballing of Australia's CPRS, a scheme at best symbolic in nature, heralds the success of the massive anti-climate science disinformation campaign waged on the pages of the conservative media.
• 2010/05/07: ABC(Au): The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) has upheld the Moyne council's rejection of a wind farm at The Sisters, north-west of Terang
• 2010/05/07: ABC(Au): Heyfield holds climate change forum
• 2010/05/07: SMH: Delay on emissions trading will cost Australia dearly, warns PM's top adviser
  The chief scientist, Penny Sackett, says Australia is moving too slowly to bring its greenhouse gas emissions under control, exposing the nation to high risks and financial costs, after the federal government's decision to shelve its emissions trading scheme. The warning came as a leading Chinese government adviser criticised Australia's lack of action on climate change, saying the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, had reduced the chance that the world could curb global warming before it was too late.
• 2010/05/06: ABC(Au): A report examining the risks of climate change in Indigenous communities says rising sea levels will reduce traditional food sources in Kakadu National Park
• 2010/05/07: ABC(Au): Industry in limbo without energy targets, says Greens
  The Greens say they are concerned the Government has not yet included the changes to the renewable energy target in its Senate schedule.
• 2010/05/06: ABC(Au): Australia among top 10 environmental offenders
• 2010/05/06: ABC(Au): Deforestation targets a bad example: expert
  A new academic report claims Australia's high reduction targets for deforestation emissions set a poor example for developing countries. Measuring deforestation emissions requires precise satellite monitoring that produces irregular data. The Australian National University (ANU) study says if a wealthy nation like Australia cannot accurately measure the emissions then developing countries face a tough task to monitor and control their own.
• 2010/05/04: Crikey: Clean energy sector bets everything on RET [Renewable Energy Target] legislation after demise of CPRS [Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme aka Aus-ETS]
• 2010/05/05: ABC(Au): Communities get climate change study say
  The chief executive of the Berri Barmera Council says a study on climate change is aimed at helping councils tackle the present and future impacts on the Riverland and Mallee region.
• 2010/05/05: ABC(Au): Climate change report highlights Indigenous health risks
• 2010/05/04: WaPo: Australia gov't polls down after climate law delay

  And in the Indian subcontinent:

• 2010/05/09: TheHindu: 'Alarmist' Home Ministry straining ties: Jairam
  Beijing: Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh on Saturday said "alarmist" and "paranoid" policies of the Home Ministry towards Chinese companies and projects in India were threatening to derail the post-Copenhagen warming of ties between the neighbours. Mr. Ramesh, in Beijing to attend an international conference on climate change, also said he had faced some opposition from a "suspicious" security and defence establishment in India on taking forward climate co-operation with China, indicating that opinion was sharply divided in the Indian government on how to engage with China.

While in China:

• 2010/05/06: NYT: China's Energy Use Threatens Goals on Warming
• 2010/05/06: PhysOrg: China leads Asia's push into green technology: UN
• 2010/05/06: AutoBG: Daimler CEO says there's not enough oil for China, country has no choice but to adopt EVs
• 2010/05/05: TEC: China Removes Import Duties on Wind and Hydro Equipment
• 2010/05/05: DerSpiegel: Harmony and Ambition -- China's Cut-Throat Railway Revolution
• 2010/05/04: EnergyBulletin: China's coal bubble...and how it will deflate U.S. efforts to develop "clean coal"

  While in Africa:

• 2010/05/04: AllAfrica: TIA: China in $400 Million Power Plant Deal
  Zimbabwe has signed a $400-million agreement with China's Sinohydro to expand its Kariba hydro electricity plant, reports Reuters. The Zimbabwe Power Company says Sinohydro would add two 150 megawatt units at Kariba. The country generates a total of 940 MW from its Hwange thermal plant and Kariba, against the peak demand of 2 500 MW.

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

• 2010/05/05: BriarPatch: The battle for the atmosphere: Is Canada's climate change obstruction tantamount to neo-colonialism?
• 2010/05/06: CanWest: Government hears calls for climate-change reform from both sides of Atlantic -- MPs re-adopt legislation killed by 2008 election
  The Conservative government was urged to fight climate change on both sides of the Atlantic on Wednesday through separate votes in both the Canadian and European parliaments. In the House of Commons, MPs adopted a new version of the climate-change accountability legislation that had reached the Senate in 2008, but died on the order paper when Prime Minister Stephen Harper called an election that fall. Meanwhile, European Union politicians expressed concerns about the "impact of the extraction of oilsand(s) in Canada on the global environment," noting that the high level of greenhouse-gas emissions during the production process poses a threat to biodiversity.
• 2010/05/05: TMoS: Euros Tell Harper - Quit Stalling on Climate Change
• 2010/05/05: CBC: EU head urges Canada to act on climate change -- Global bank tax also on Barroso's mind heading into meeting with Harper
  Canada shouldn't keep waiting for the rest of the world to act on climate change before making its own changes, the president of the European Union Commission said Wednesday in advance of a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Brussels.
• 2010/05/04: CanWest: Canada missing boat on green energy: report -- Failure to match other countries' investments has cost economy thousands of jobs

  Prepatory to the G20 meeting in TO this summer, a series of meeting has been held, except...:

• 2010/05/05: EmbassyMag: Lack of G8 environment ministers' meeting 'abnormal,' say critics
  The Conservative government's decision not to host an environment ministers' meeting ahead of the G8 summit in June has infuriated critics and environmental groups, who say Canada broke with tradition and missed a good opportunity to show a commitment to battle climate change.

The G20 abortion issue is blowing up in the Tories' faces:

• 2010/05/05: CBC: Women's group cuts 'ideological': MPs
  Opposition parties say the Conservative government has recently cut federal funding to more than a dozen women's groups because the organizations don't share Prime Minister Stephen Harper's ideology and dare to criticize his policies.
• 2010/05/07: CBC: Tory G8 abortion stance unjust: journal [The Lancet]
• 2010/05/05: EmbassyMag: Politicizing, undermining gender equality
  How is it that a G8 program to promote the health of women and children in poor countries, a goal which every serious person would support, has become such a divisive discussion in Canada?
  [...]
  The gender equality and women's rights focus of our international co-operation and foreign policy is slipping away. It's been happening slowly and quietly, but with devastating impact.
• 2010/05/07: G&M: Top medical journal chides Harper on abortion funding
  An editorial in The Lancet says it's "hypocritical and unjust" that Canada get in the way of abortions abroad when Canadian women can have them at home
• 2010/05/05: CBC: Women's group cuts 'ideological': MPs
  Opposition parties say the Conservative government has recently cut federal funding to more than a dozen women's groups because the organizations don't share Prime Minister Stephen Harper's ideology and dare to criticize his policies.
• 2010/05/06: CanEast:DG: 24 women's groups lose funding
  The number of women's groups cut off from federal funding has swelled to two dozen, fuelling opposition charges the Harper government is punishing those who dare to criticize its policies.
• 2010/05/05: TStar: What's behind 'shut the f--- up'
  Sen. Nancy Ruth's "Shut the f--- up" warning this week to international aid advocates was loud and clear, albeit unparliamentary. Her message: if they wanted more government funding, they would have to stop criticizing the Conservatives' stance on abortion. "If you push it (the criticism), there will be more backlash." But it is wrong to suggest, as the opposition Liberals have, that she was delivering the message on behalf of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Yes, Ruth, sister of former lieutenant-governor Hal Jackman, is a Conservative and sits in Harper's caucus. But she is her own woman, and she was clearly trying to provide friendly advice to the aid community, not threatening them at Harper's behest. That being said, her warning was nonetheless instructive. For it tells us how Harper's Ottawa has evolved into a political culture of fear and loathing, where frank talk is discouraged and, indeed, punished
• 2010/05/04: CBC: 'No change' on abortion policy: CIDA
  The head of the Canadian International Development Agency says her agency's policy hasn't changed, despite the federal government's position that Canada will not fund any maternal health initiatives that involve abortion. Speaking to a parliamentary committee in Ottawa on Tuesday, Margaret Biggs restated the government's position that it will focus on nutrition and strengthening health-care systems in the developing world with its G8 maternal health initiative. When Liberal foreign affairs critics Bob Rae asked Biggs to clarify the government's latest stand on the G8 initiative, Biggs responded that the plan rules out any funding for abortion-related activities. But she added that CIDA's overall policy remains the same: it will continue to provide funds to countries where abortion is legal, and it will continue to fund agencies and aid groups that provide referrals for abortion.
• 2010/05/04: CBC: Ruth's abortion comment 'intimidation': MPs
  Opposition MPs say Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth's advice to women's groups to "shut the f--k up" about the government's maternal health initiative shows the "culture of intimidation" created by the prime minister.
• 2010/05/04: SSM: The Last Thing We Should be Doing is to 'Shut the Fuck Up!'... The Disappearing Red Tories, and Why Are Senators so Useless?
• 2010/05/04: CBC: Women's aid group loses federal funding -- Executive director of Match International blames politics for decision
  An Ottawa-based aid organization that supports women's rights in the developing world has had all its federal funding cut. Match International has relied on government funding for 34 years to support programs that help women gain leadership skills and start their own businesses in countries such as Ghana, Mali and Tanzania.
• 2010/05/04: TStar: Aid groups advised to 'shut the f--- up' on abortion -- Conservative senator warns aid groups backlash could get worse

  Environment Minister Jim Prentice at risk of contempt of Parliament due to his inaction:

• 2010/05/07: THW: In Contempt, Again [Prentice]
• 2010/05/06: G&M: Environment backlog puts Jim Prentice at risk of contempt charge
  With department in arrears on reports to Parliament, Liberal MP threatens to call minister on carpet for 'flagrant failure' Environment Minister Jim Prentice might find himself in contempt of Parliament if his department doesn't clear a backlog of late annual reports. Liberal MP Derek Lee said Mr. Prentice has until next month to get Environment Canada to deliver four years of overdue documents. If the reports don't arrive soon, Mr. Lee will ask Parliament to find Mr. Prentice in contempt. "I'd go to the floor of the House and say that this is a flagrant failure," he said Thursday.

Oh but he has time to do PR work for the tar sands:

• 2010/05/08: DeSmogBlog: Prentice to the World: I Told You So! Tar Sands Extraction is Less Badder Than Offshore Drilling!
• 2010/05/08: G&M: Oil sands less risky than offshore drilling, Prentice says -- Gulf spill disaster highlights safety of Alberta resources, Environment Minister says

  Conservative political philosophy 101: When in doubt, privatize something:

• 2010/05/04: CanWest: Ottawa getting out of reactor business -- Selling entire stake in Candu; Struggling nuclear industry has cost taxpayers $1.74 billion since 2006

  And they're still talking about the Tories killing the EcoEnergy program:

• 2010/05/03: CleanBreak: Why killing of EcoEnergy Retrofit program is foolish

  The Opposition is pushing the Climate Change Accountability Act aka Bill C-311 through parliament:

• 2010/05/08: CleanBreak: Federal opposition parties closer to forcing government's hand on climate
• 2010/05/05: CoC: Parliament's vote for Bill C-311 an important step toward climate justice, says Council of Canadians
• 2010/05/05: TEC: Federal opposition parties closer to forcing government's hand on climate [with the Climate Change Accountability Act aka Bill C-311]

  It looks like the Coast Guard doesn't trust Harper's invocations:

• 2010/05/03: CBC: Offshore spill won't happen to Canada: PM
• 2010/05/03: CBC: Arctic oil spill response training planned
  The Canadian Coast Guard plans to offer oil spill response training in Resolute, Nunavut, this summer, as concerns grow about the risks of oil slicks in the Arctic. The training will take place in August during Operation Nanook, the Canadian Forces' annual summer Arctic sovereignty exercise.
• 2010/05/07: CanWest: Slippery on oil -- Canadian government's assurances on offshore drilling have a hollow ring
• 2010/05/05: CBC: Delay Arctic drilling hearings, energy board urged -- Wait for results of Louisiana spill investigation, companies, N.W.T. government say
  The National Energy Board is being asked by some oil companies, the Northwest Territories government and other interested parties to postpone upcoming hearings on Beafort Sea drilling in light of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The board has been reviewing its Same Season Relief Well Capability Policy, which requires companies to drill a relief well in the same season that they're drilling in their main well in order to relieve pressure on the main well in the event of a blowout [in]. The board is slated to hold hearings on the issue early next month in Inuvik, N.W.T.

The SD Tech Fund is almost broke:

• 2010/05/06: CBC: Federal clean-tech fund running out: think-tank
  A federal fund that invests in new clean technologies is running out of money, an Ottawa think-tank warns. Sustainable Development Technology Canada's SD Tech Fund started in 2001 with $550 million to help companies develop and demonstrate technological solutions to address climate change and air, water and soil quality issues. As of February, the fund said it had already awarded $464 million to 183 clean technology projects. "They're basically at the point where that money is almost exhausted...they need to be recapitalized," said Alex Wood, senior director of Sustainable Prosperity. The network, based at the University of Ottawa, researches economic policies to encourage environmental sustainability.

After Site C, BC's wrangling over energy is getting serious:

• 2010/05/06: Tyee: Clean Energy Act Drops Public Consult on Projects -- Site C dam and private river power proposals exempted from public hearings
• 2010/05/06: Dominion: Signs of a Long Road for BC Climate Campaigners -- Gateway Program covers fertile land with a freeway
• 2010/05/04: Tyee: BC Charts a 'Clean Tech' Future, but Is the Map Right?

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2010/05/06: SOE: Power Struggle Over Alberta's Oil Sands
• 2010/05/06: Telegraph(UK): Power struggle over Canada's 'dirty oil' sands
  The normally dull [Shell] company AGM has become an unlikely battleground as green-minded pension fund members take on the energy giants exploiting the controversial tar sands of western Canada.
• 2010/05/05: OilChange: Tar Sands Lobby Tries to Exploit Spill
• 2010/05/04: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Tar sands oil undermines green jobs in U.S. and Canada
• 2010/05/04: NRDC:SwitchBoard: The Other Oil Disaster: Cancer and Canada's Tar Sands

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

• 2010/05/04: CanWest: Cars and trucks remain biggest energy users -- Twice as much demand for fuel as for electricity, says report
  Conservation efforts in Ontario need to shift to cars and trucks, which are collectively the single biggest users of energy in the province, says the environment commissioner. Gord Miller says so much attention has been paid to energy use at home that transportation has largely been forgotten. With fuel prices sure to rise, Miller says government and industry should consider expanding rail transit.

In the Maritimes:

• 2010/05/06: CBC: Cost stalls renewable-energy bids in P.E.I.
  Prince Edward Island has officially put on hold renewable-energy projects promising 130 megawatts because all the proposals are too costly. Six companies made submissions in February to build the projects, mostly for wind development. They were assessed by Maritime Electric, the province's main electricity supplier. Energy Minister Richard Brown announced in the legislature Wednesday they've all been rejected because the electricity costs were too high. "We have a wind farm on Prince Edward Island. We know what [cost] we can produce wind for," said Brown.

As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

• 2010/05/04: TStar: Time to revisit the dreaded carbon tax
• 2010/05/04: CBC: Talisman's Amazon exploration opposed by elders -- Indigenous people fear pollution
  Three Achuar indigenous leaders from the northern Peruvian Amazon will take their message again to the annual shareholders meeting of Calgary-based Talisman Energy on Wednesday, telling the company not to develop its properties there. Talisman will drill an oil exploration well this year in the 1.9 million hectares of land it has rights to in the Maranon River basin.
• 2010/05/04: CBC: Venerable Canadian oil firm goes solar
  One of Canada's first oil companies has started a solar division in an effort to move away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy. Van Tuyl and Fairbank Inc. launched the Solarware section at its Petrolia, Ont., store Saturday.

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

• 2010/05/05: Tyee: The Degrowth Movement Is Growing -- More than 300 people gathered in Vancouver to envision a healthy society without an expanding economy
• 2010/05/06: UN: World must tackle over-consumption of energy, resources, UN panel chair warns
• 2010/05/04: DVoice: The Folly of Beginning a Work Before We Count the Cost -- Anarcho-Primitivism in Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe [ecoecon]

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

• 2010/05/08: BBC: 50 years of a sometimes bitter pill
  It is 50 years since the pill was first approved as a contraceptive, finally divorcing sex from pregnancy. But half a century on, our relationship with the tablet credited with revolutionising women's lives is not always an easy one.
• 2010/05/07: AlterNet: The Pill Turns 50: Its Surprising Effects on Population, and the Risks It Poses to Our Water Supply
• 2010/05/06: AlterNet: My Mother's Day Gift to the Planet: Not Having Kids
• 2010/05/03: CCurrents: Population Overshoot Is Determined By Food Overproduction

  Apocalypso anyone?

• 2010/05/09: BNC: Venus syndrome -- the Claron's despair
• 2010/05/07: CCurrents: Odds Of Cooking The Grandkids

  As for how the media handles the science of climatology:

• 2010/05/05: PRWatch: NY Times Fails to Disclose Crucial Information About Conservation "Expert"
• 2010/05/06: KSJT: NYTimes, Blogosphere: Who needs sci journalists? Well, we do -- but more scientists are going straight to the web
• 2010/05/06: KSJT: Science Daily: Beware press releases masquerading as news -- read until the kicker
• 2010/05/06: TreeHugger: This Ad Was "Too Confusing" for Fox News (Video)
• 2010/05/04: KSJT: The Climate Desk -- a consortium goes into business, if free is any way to run a business.
• 2010/05/04: TreeHugger: George Will, Wrong On The Environment. Again.

  DeepClimate is doing an evisceration of Lawrence Solomon:

• 2010/05/09: DeepClimate: National Post's Lawrence Solomon touts global cooling, part 2: Meandering towards Maunder
• 2010/05/05: DeepClimate: National Post's Lawrence Solomon touts global cooling, part 1: Hiding the decline in Arctic sea ice

  Don't you just love this kind of manipulation?
  Consider: Traumatic event occurs. Advocates predict crisis will ensure their desired goal. Example:

• 2010/05/05: TEC: Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV): BP spill could help Senate pass energy bill and climate bill
• 2010/05/04: Grist: Pundits: Oil spill makes climate bill less likely

  Here is something for your library:

• 2010/05/09: ClimateP: [Book Review] Ian McEwan's 'Solar' is not very illuminating
• 2010/05/06: CCurrents: [Book Review] _The End of the Long Summer: Why We Must Remake Our Civilization to Survive on a Volatile Earth_ by Dianne Dumanoski
• 2010/05/07: TAP: The Ultimate Sunblock [Book Review] _How to Cool the Planet: Geoengineering and the Audacious Quest to Fix Earth's Climate_ by Jeff Goodell
• 2010/05/06: EnergyBulletin: [Book Review] _The Biochar Debate: Charcoal's Potential to Reverse Climate Change and Build Soil Fertility_ by James Bruges
• 2010/05/06: C-a-S: The Climate Security Conundrum [Book Author Interview] _Climate Conflict: How global warming threatens security and what to do about it_ by Jeffrey Mazo
• 2010/05/04: HotTopic: [Book Review] _Life in the Hothouse: How a Living Planet Survives Climate Change_ by Melanie Lenart
• 2010/05/04: RealClimate: [Book Review] _Solar_ by Ian McEwan

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2010/05/08: HotTopic: Intermittent but reliable [Sinclair video]
• 2010/05/07: ClimateP: Wind power: Clean energy solution of the month [Sinclair Video]

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2010/05/07: WaPo: [Five environmental] Groups sue over BLM plan allowing Wyoming drilling
• 2010/05/03: SolveClimate: Georgia Judge Rules Against 2 Controversial Nuclear Reactors -- Too Premature to Talk of Ruling's Impact, Says Public Service Commission
• 2010/05/02: ENS: Lawsuits Take Aim at America's First Offshore Wind Farm
  A stack of lawsuits is piling up against the federal government in response to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's April 28 decision to approve the Cape Wind project, America's first offshore wind farm.
• 2010/05/01: AgLaw: Living on Earth: Round-Up Ready Alfalfa
• 2010/05/03: TreeHugger: Monsanto Takes Fight To Control Your Food To Supreme Court
• 2010/04/27: MSNBC: Justices get first taste of biotech crops -- Monsanto appeals ruling that ordered tougher USDA review

  Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:

• 2010/05/08: PeakEnergy: Hot Rocks need Cold Hard Cash
• 2010/05/07: Rabble: British Petroleum announces more than $6 billion in profits
• 2010/05/07: EnergyBulletin: Another Wake-Up Call for the World's Biggest Oil Junkie
• 2010/05/07: Guardian(UK): How to sell green energy
  Linking oil dependency with US national security is an effective tactic to win public support for clean energy reform
• 2010/05/07: NewScientist: Bugs will give us free power while cleaning our sewage
• 2010/05/07: PhysOrg: Team Harnessing Power of Photosynthesis To Make 'Green' Fuel
• 2010/05/06: TEC: America's Carbon Addiction: This Is An Intervention
• 2010/05/05: G&M: Oil disaster may prove tipping point for world oil production
• 2010/05/06: Guardian(UK): Could CO2 be the green fuel powering tomorrow's cars?
• 2010/05/06: CNN: 'Underwater kite' aims to turn energy tide
  New tidal-energy device "Deep Green" aims to keep energy supplies afloat - Underwater kite has recently received new financial backing and will begin tests in 2011 - Device spans 12 meters and will be tethered to the ocean floor
• 2010/05/06: NYT:CW: China Farm Gets Shocking Amount of Power From Cow Poop
• 2010/04/27: RiskMag: Saudi Arabia global oil exports to wane post-2010
  Saudi Arabia's long-standing status as a swing producer of crude oil could be drawing to a close according to the head of national oil company Saudi Aramco. Global oil exports from Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer alongside Russia, will start to wane in the coming years as domestic demand surges and spare capacity drops, warned Khalid al-Falih, chief executive officer of Saudi Aramco in a speech published on the company's website.
• 2010/05/05: TruthOut: Slick Operator: The BP I've Known Too Well
• 2010/05/05: PhysOrg: Oil's hidden costs visible, but will it matter?
• 2010/05/05: OilDrum: John Hofmeister: Our Energy Predicament Viewed from an Oil Company's Perspective
• 2010/05/05: PeakEnergy: World's largest geothermal turbine in NZ
• 2010/05/05: CCurrents: Gooey Black Corporate Greed
• 2010/05/04: DVoice: This Oil Ride
• 2010/05/03: FP: Back to Petroleum
  Thanks to the unfolding catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, the public is finally seeing through BP's decade-long greenwashing campaign.
• 2010/05/04: NBF: Air Force Research Support Thermowave Power
• 2010/05/03: MongaBay: US emissions from coal could be stopped in 20 years
• 2010/05/03: PhysOrg: Environmentally safe fuel cells may emerge from new research [thermopower wave using carbon nanotubes]
• 2010/05/03: ACS: Creating Fuel From Water -- Sustainable Energy: New materials aim to improve the path to dihydrogen
• 2010/05/03: PeakEnergy: The Biggest Failure in Energy is Thinking Bigger Is Better: Biochar Entrepreneur Jason Aramburu

  Hey! Let's contaminate the aquifer for thousands of years! It'll be a fracking gas!

• 2010/05/04: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Pennsylvania's Natural Gas Regulators Starting to Smell the Coffee?

  The answer my friend...:

• 2010/05/07 CNet: Cape Wind finds buyer for offshore wind power
• 2010/05/08: TreeHugger: Utility Agrees to Buy Cape Wind Energy, Another Step For Nation's First Offshore Windfarm
• 2010/05/07: PhysOrg: Bladeless wind turbine inspired by Tesla
  A bladeless wind turbine whose only rotating component is a turbine/driveshaft could generate power at a cost comparable to coal-fired power plants, according to its developers at Solar Aero. The New Hampshire-based company recently announced its patent on the Fuller wind turbine, which is an improvement on a patent issued to Nikola Tesla in 1913.
• 2010/05/07: UCSUSA: Long-term Power Purchase Agreement between National Grid and Cape Wind Puts Northeast a Step Closer to Cleaner Energy Production
• 2010/05/04: PlanetArk: Google Invests $38.8 Million In Two Wind Farms
• 2010/05/04: TreeHugger: Updating Radar Systems Gives Big US & UK Wind Farms the Air Force Stamp of Approval
• 2010/05/02: ClimateShifts: Breaking News: Large Air Spill at Wind Farm. No threats reported. Some claim to enjoy the breeze.

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2010/05/07: PhysOrg: Silicon nanohole solar cells aim to make photovoltaics cost-competitive
• 2010/05/06: Oregonian: SolarWorld plans to add 350 Hillsboro jobs
• 2010/05/05: PeakEnergy: Bringing Utility-Scale Solar Power to the Grid
• 2010/05/03: ABC(Au): Mid West 'ideal' for mega solar plant
  A renewable energy development company has revealed plans for a major solar energy project in Western Australia's Mid West. Mid West Energy is proposing to build a 200 megawatt solar thermal plant near Perenjori.
• 2010/05/03: EarthTimes: ADB to lend 70 million dollars for Thailand solar plant

  On the coal front:

• 2010/05/07: WJTV: Massey Plans To Restart 3 W.Va. Surface Coal Mines
• 2010/05/06: BBerg: Massey CEO Denies His Management Style Led to Fatal Blast, Won't Step Down
• 2010/05/04: TEC: JP Morgan Chase's coal problem

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2010/05/07: AutoBG: Report: Test shows raising ethanol blend to E15 could damage engines
• 2010/05/06: TEC: Is Camelina the Next Jatropha?
• 2010/05/05: DVoice: GM Biofuels: Another Planned Disaster
• 2010/05/03: PhysOrg: Purdue analysis cuts ethanol greenhouse gas emission estimates [10%]
• 2010/05/04: PhysOrg: Maryland researchers turn poplar trees into biofuel

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2010/05/08: PhysOrg: Tainted nuke plant water reaches major NJ aquifer
• 2010/05/08: PeakEnergy: Tainted Nuclear Power Plant Water Reaches Major New Jersey Aquifer
• 2010/05/06: Reuters: Progress ups Levy nuclear plant costs [$17.2 billion to $22.5 billion], delays start [until 2021]
• 2010/05/07: NatureTGB: Japan fires up its fast breeder
• 2010/05/06: PhysOrg: Brazil to build new nuclear reactor: report
• 2010/05/06: NatureN: New director floated for international fusion reactor -- Second management change in recent months for ITER
• 2010/05/06: ScienceInsider: Japan Restarts Troubled Breeder Reactor
• 2010/05/06: JQuiggin: Nuclear power: the last post
• 2010/05/06: EarthTimes: Japan restarts controversial [fast-breeder] nuclear reactor
• 2010/05/05: SolveClimate: Some [US] States Push For New Nuclear Reactors, With Little Success
• 2010/05/04: NPDaily: Malaysia aims to have nuclear power plant by 2021
• 2010/05/05: EarthTimes: Japan restarts fast breeder amid safety, security fears
• 2010/05/03: Reuters: Climate change sparks nuclear power revival - IAEA
• 2010/05/04: EarthTimes: Malaysia approves plans for first nuclear power plant [to begin operations in 2021]
• 2010/05/03: TEC: An informed public is key to acceptance of nuclear energy

  Yes we have peak everything:

• 2010/05/07: SolveClimate: Policy and Rhetoric Ignore Real Limits of Nation's Coal Reserves -- There Is Far Less Recoverable Coal Than People Think
• 2010/05/07: AlterNet: Will Peak Oil Turn Flying into Something Only Rich People Can Afford?
• 2010/05/06: OilDrum: Possible Responses to Peak Oil: Some Lessons from the Past
• 2010/05/05: EnergyBulletin: Let the hollow media optimism sound a warning
• 2010/05/03: EnergyBulletin: Optimism versus reality in peak oil media battle
• 2010/05/03: EnergyBulletin: The Next Oil Price Shock
• 05/02: EnergyBulletin: The peak of oil production is passed

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2010/05/02: FuturePundit: US National Electric Power Grid Fight
• 2010/05/05: GreenGrok: The Smart Grid Is a Happening Thing
• 2010/05/05: TreeHugger: Smart Grid Will Be Bigger Than the Internet, Says Cisco (Video)
• 2010/05/03: NBF: Superpower Inc Targets Tenfold Improvement in Superconducting Wire Performance

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2010/05/07: STimes: Devices that check your electrical use can be checked out of the library
• 2010/05/06: TreeHugger: What The Heck is OLET Technology, and Will It Replace OLEDs?
• 2010/05/04: Reuters: Calif utilities dinged over energy efficiency goal
  California's investor-owned utilities were rebuked on Tuesday for failing to reach energy efficiency goals over a three-year period, putting them at risk for penalty payments.

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

• 2010/05/07: Grist: In the age of electric cars, who pays for highways?
• 2010/05/06: FuturePundit: Big Truck Fuel Efficiency Improvements Possible
• 2010/05/08: PeakEnergy: A $25k Chinese electric car for 2011
• 2010/05/07: EnergyBulletin: The status quo of electric cars: better batteries, same range
• 2010/05/07: NYT:CW: Will Lithium-Air Battery Rescue Electric Car Drivers From 'Range Anxiety'?
• 2010/05/06: AutoBG: Wayne State University adds nation's first graduate engineering program for electric vehicles
• 2010/05/06: AutoBG: Nissan breaks ground on UK battery plant, will produce Leafs by 2013
• 2010/05/05: AutoBG: Hybrid sales rose again in April, still trail overall industry growth
• 2010/05/03: USAToday: Trucks drive 20% [yoy] increase in April vehicle sales
• 2010/05/03: CBC: April car sales soar
• 2010/05/03: CalcRisk: General Motors: Sales up 6.4% compared to April 2009
  ...GM April U.S. sales up 6.4% to 183,997 vehicles
  [...]
  ...Ford U.S. April sales jump 24.7% to 167,542 units
  ...Chrysler U.S. April sales increase 25%
  ...Toyota U.S. April sales up 24.4% to 157,439 units

As for Energy Storage:

• 2010/05/08: AutoBG: New battery charger is supposedly really fast - from 0 to 50 percent in just 3 minutes
• 2010/05/05: Fraunhofer: Storing green electricity as natural gas
• 2010/05/05: AutoBG: Report: Nissan Leaf battery pack costs only £6,000 ($9,000) or $375/kWh!

  Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:

• 2010/05/06: TerraDaily: Swiss Re insurance profits dampened by disaster damage
  Swiss Re, one of the world's biggest reinsurers, on Thursday reported a surge in first quarter profit although its results were dampened by losses from Chile's earthquake and European storm Xynthia.

Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:

• 2010/05/05: DeSmogBlog: Offshore Drilling Industry Has Its Own 'Conservation Organization'
• 2010/05/05: CBC: 'Greenwashing' can hinder clean-tech efforts
• 2010/05/04: MoJo: BP's Slick Greenwashing -- The petroleum giant tried to sell itself as a green industry leader. That was just an oily tactic.
• 2010/05/03: Crikey: BP now slicker than ever

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

• 2010/05/07: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for May 7...
• 2010/05/06: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for May 6...
• 2010/05/05: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for May 5...
• 2010/05/04: ClimateP: Energy and Environmental News for May 4...
• 2010/05/03: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for May 3...

  Other (weekly) lists:

• 2010/05/07: Grist: A Walk Through the Week's Climate News -- The Climate Post: The empiricist strikes back

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2010/05/09: HotTopic: An open letter to climate sceptics
• 2010/05/06: SkeptiSci: Kung-fu Climate
• 2010/05/06: NRDC:SwitchBoard: U.S. House Committee to Hear from the Lord Haw-Haw of Climate Science
• 2010/05/06: ClimateShifts: And who is this "Lord" Monckton you ask?
• 2010/05/06: ClimateShifts: US house to hold climate change hearing today, Christopher Monkton will appear as a witness for the defense (really)
• 2010/05/05: Deltoid: Oregon Petition and the right [agnotology]
• 2010/05/04: Deltoid: Plimer busted by Media Watch
• 2010/05/04: TMoS: For People Too Stupid to Understand Evolution
  You can thank Monsanto, creator of the herbicide RoundUp, for dispelling your doubts. The agricultural use of RoundUp has caused the evolution of super weeds resistant to the herbicide...
• 2010/05/03: ABC(Au):TDU: Evidence is overrated when you're a conspiracy theorist
• 2010/05/03: JQuiggin: The Oregon Petition: A case study in agnotology
• 2010/05/03: Deltoid: Wegman and Black Helicopters
• 2010/05/03: Deltoid: Global Warming conspiracy theories

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2010/05/07: MGS: Still kicking
• 2010/05/06: TEC: What's in a name?
• 2010/05/06: TEC: World Energy Renews Contract With Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiativee
• 2010/05/05: NewScientist: Designing leaves for a warmer, crowded world
• 2010/05/04: MTobis: 1 Science 2 Science Red Science Blue Science
• 2010/05/04: TWTB: Falling on Dilemma's Two Horns
• 2010/05/04: NewScientist: Green machine: Generating more light than heat
• 2010/05/04: Grist: 'End of Oil' author warns enviros not to exploit Gulf oil spill
  Paul Roberts, author of the influential 2004 book The End of Oil, cautions that we can't expect the end of oil spills any time soon. Environmentalists are using the ongoing Gulf of Mexico disaster to argue for a permanent stop to offshore drilling, but reality check: the U.S. is decades away from shedding its reliance on oil, says Roberts, even if we do everything right
• 2010/05/04: Grist: Corn industry brazenly turns Gulf disaster into marketing opportunity
• 2010/05/03: Grist: Why do peak oilers and climate changers not get along better?
• 2010/05/03: APSmith: A place to discuss climate physics

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

• GRAIN: Genetic Resources Action International
• FarmLandGrab: Food crisis and the global land grab
• NewCarbon Economy
• NEON: National Ecological Observatory Network
• IAC: Review of the IPCC
• CPF: Climate Physics Forums
• ENS: Environment News Service
• Scientific Blogging
• Wiki: Rossby wave
• Wiki: Kelvin wave

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 laws of physics trump the laws of any Holy Text, ethical system or left-wing manifesto. If we want to survive, we will have to play by nature's rules, not ours." - Tim Murray

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