A Few Things Ill Considered

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Another week of Climate Instability News

Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years

July 25, 2010

• Note, Chuckles, Surrender, COP16+, BASIC Group, CEM, Asian Adaptation, Anthropocene
• Warm Lakes, Oxygen, Subsidies, Post CRU, Anderegg, Monckton's Shame, Pepsigate
• Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
• Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Land Grabs, GMOs, Food Production
• Hurricanes, Monsoon, GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures, Tipping Points, State of the Oceans, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Wacky Weather, Wildfires, Corals, Acidification, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
• Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Adaptation
• Journals, Other Docs , Misc. Science, Stephen Schneider, Curry, IOP, Santer
• Kyoto, UN, Carbon Trade, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
• International Politics: Law & Activism, Polls, Water Politics & Business, Software
• National Politics: America, BP Disaster, Water Shortages, NCS, Cuccinelli
• Obama, USAdmin, Congress, Climate Bill, Lobbyists
• Britain, Europe, Australian Election, Australia, India, China, South America
• Canada, Offshore Drilling, G20 Policing, Tar Sands Report Destroyed
• Pipeline, Green Convention, ReThink Alberta, BC, Tar Sands, Sask
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Media, Books, Video, Podcasts, Courts, Betting
• Energy, Fracking, Wind, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Grid, Cars, Gee Whiz, Energy Storage
• Business, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Exxon Lied, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

Note: Once again I am offline due to phone line difficulties, this time since Saturday. MTS is sending a repairman today, but I don't know for sure when this will go up. Coverage is slightly truncated, and next week may be as well.

It's always nice to start with a laugh:

• 2010/07/22: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) Maladaptation
• 2010/07/22: AFTIC: 100 climate deniers go into a bar
• 2010/07/18: MTobis: (cartooon - Roberts) Funnies

  In the American congress, Obama and the Democrats gave up on trying to pass an effective climate and energy bill. This will have immediate international ramifications:

• 2010/07/23: QuarkSoup: The Surrender on Climate Change
• 2010/07/23: Guardian(UK): US Senate drops bill to cap carbon emissions
• 2010/07/23: TCoE: Ditto what Dave Roberts said about the climate bill train wreck
• 2010/07/23: IJISH: (Digression) The US Senate 'Energy' Bill makes my blood boil
• 2010/07/23: SolveClimate: Congress Punts on Clean Energy Standards, Again -- Fearing loss of jobs, renewable energy industry says delay is "beyond comprehension"
• 2010/07/23: LFF: No we can't: Obama and Senate Democrats give up on climate bill
• 2010/07/23: ClimateP: The White House lamely blames environmentalists for climate bill failure
• 2010/07/22: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Senate Obstructionism Leads to Abject Failure on Energy and Climate
• 2010/07/22: ScienceInsider: Reid Says Climate Bill Dead in Senate
• 2010/07/22: NYT: Democrats Call Off Climate Bill Effort
• 2010/07/23: TreeHugger: The 7 Things That Killed the Climate Bill
• 2010/07/22: EarthTimes: US Senate postpones climate action for lack of support
• 2010/07/22: EarthTimes: US Senate delays climate action, plans smaller Gulf oil bill
• 2010/07/22: ENS: 60 Vote Rule Keeps Climate Change Bill Off Senate Floor
• 2010/07/22: NYT: Climate Bill Out With a Whimper
  On Thursday, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, abandoned the fight for meaningful energy and climate legislation. The Republicans -- surprise -- had been fiercely obstructionist. But the Democratic leaders let them get away with it, as did the White House.
• 2010/07/22: Grist: On the death of the climate bill
• 2010/07/22: CSM: Harry Reid: Senate will abandon cap-and-trade energy reform
• 2010/07/23: TWM: Blame where blame is due...What's become of the Senate energy bill is a profound disappointment...
• 2010/07/23: BBC: US Senate will not pass a full climate bill
  The US Senate will not pass a full climate bill in its current session, majority leader Harry Reid has said. Mr Reid acknowledged on Thursday that Democrats pushing for a bill could not muster the required number of votes. Instead, he plans to introduce more limited legislation that would boost energy efficiency in vehicles and crack down on offshore oil exploration. The news is a major blow to prospects of achieving a new global deal on climate change through the UN talks.
• 2010/07/22: Google:AP: Senate Democrats abandon comprehensive energy bill
• 2010/07/22: CBC: Democrats drop CO2-capping energy bill -- Senators blame 'terribly disappointing' lack of Republican support
  U.S. Senate Democrats are giving up on plans to pass an energy bill that caps emissions of carbon dioxide, saying Republicans refuse to support the measure. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said no Republican was willing to back a comprehensive energy bill, a development he called "terribly disappointing."

Looking ahead to COP16 and future international climate negotiations:

• 2010/07/23: SolveClimate: Could New UN Voting Rules Salvage Global Deal on Climate Change? Three avenues to break the gridlock
• 2010/07/21: Guardian(UK): UN in fresh bid to salvage international deal on climate change
• 2010/07/19: TerraDaily: Most vulnerable nations pledge climate action
  Six countries [Antigua and Barbuda, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, the Maldives, the Marshall Islands and Samoa] seen as most threatened by rising sea levels have vowed to cut their carbon emissions as a gesture of their commitment to fight global warming, the Maldivian government said Monday.

The BASIC Group is meeting this weekend in Rio:

• 2010/07/22: IndiaTimes: No hope of any climate treaty in Mexico: [Indian Environment Minister Jairam] Ramesh
  New Delhi: As it joins BASIC members for another round of two-day consultations this weekend, India has said it does not hope of any treaty in Mexico in December as rich nations are yet to fulfil their promise of doling out fund and technology to poor countries. "I don't expect any agreement at Cancun this December as the developed nations have so far failed to keep their promise of fund release made last year at Copenhagen to the developing countries for meeting climate actions. "If they continue to adopt same strategy, I can say that the fate of any treaty will remain uncertain even in next two-three years," Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told PTI.

They smell like the Major Emitters Forum, but they call themselves Clean Energy Ministers:

• 2010/07/21: PhysOrg: Nations pledge clean energy amid treaty stalemate
• 2010/07/20: NYT:GW: Energy Ministers Endorse Clean-Tech Measures, Back CCS Group [CEM]
• 2010/07/20: ENS: First Clean Energy Ministerial Builds Global Low Carbon Future
• 2010/07/21: EarthTimes: Energy ministers tout green power, cost-cutting efficiency
• 2010/07/20: Grist: Major nations pledge to improve energy efficiency
• 2010/07/19: NYT:GW: World's Top Energy Officials Start Search for Clean-Tech Cash
• 2010/07/19: Yahoo:AFP: World warned energy path unsustainable at US talks
• 2010/07/19: Grist: Energy ministers meet in U.S. to discuss clean energy

  A group of Asian Nations had an adaptation chatfest:

• 2010/07/21: JapanTimes: Talks target adapting to warming
  Environmental officials and researchers from 17 Asia-Pacific countries and international organizations on Tuesday began a three-day seminar here on global warming with a focus on adaptation to climate change. About 50 participants from countries that include China and Indonesia, as well as from the U.N. Development Program, will share their information and experiences and discuss how to cooperate toward curbing global warming at the 19th Asia-Pacific Seminar on Climate Change, officials said.

An Anthropocene sighting:

• 2010/07/19: KSJT: Discovery, NYTimes, USAToday etc: Anthropocene is really really here now, thanks to our CO2 and all...

  There are reports from around the world of unusual lake water warming:

• 2010/07/23: DetNews: Great Lakes warm up, could hit record highs
• 2010/07/21: TerraDaily: Africa's Lake Tanganyika warmest in 1,500 years
• 2010/07/23: PhysOrg: Heat wave warms frigid Baltic Sea waters
  A heat wave searing the Baltic region has warmed the usually frigid waters of the Baltic Sea to temperatures usually seen in more tropical climes, experts said Friday.

Here's a story to give pause:

• 2010/07/21: NewScientist: O2h no! Is our oxygen running out?

  Subsidies, tax exemptions, loan guarantees & grants weave a difficult to penetrate web:

• 2010/07/22: TEC: A Repeal of Fossil Fuel Subsidies is Long Overdue
• 2010/07/21: EurActiv: Commission proposes phasing out coal subsidies
  Europe's unprofitable coal mines will have to be shut down within the next four years before state subsidies are halted, the European Commission said yesterday (20 July).
• 2010/07/21: EUO: Subsidised coal mines to be closed in 2014
• 2010/07/21: BBC: Loss-making coal mines across the EU will have to close over the next four years, the European Commission says

  Post CRU theft, controversy & inquiry:

• 2010/07/19: GreenGrok: WSJ Caught in the Pit of Climategate
• 2010/07/22: BBC: Climate study funding at Norfolk university suspended
  Scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have had funding of $200,000 (£131,000) suspended by the US government in a row over e-mails. The US Department of Energy (DoE) said it had not decided whether to reinstate the long-standing funding after the so-called ClimateGate affair. Climate sceptics alleged leaked e-mails undermined the integrity of UEA's Climatic Research Unit (CRU). The UEA confirmed the DoE has held off funding despite the unit being cleared.
• 2010/07/19: NAS: "Climategate": A Different Perspective by Kerry Emanuel
• 2010/07/21: ClimateP: Kerry Emanuel calls Climategate "the latest in a series of coordinated, politically motivated attacks that represent an aggravated assault on scholarship"
• 2010/07/21: ClimateP: The Atlantic's Clive Crook needs to retract his libelous misinformation and apologize to Michael Mann
• 2010/07/20: NatureTGB: The Bering Sea Project: Thoughts on Climategate
• 2010/07/19: SF Gate: 'Climategate' fallout may impact legislation
• 2010/07/19: SwissInfo: Climate scientists still trying to restore trust -- Stolen data damaged the IPCC's reputation
  There are doubts climate scientists will regain their credibility, despite a series of recently published reports clearing them of exaggerating the effects of global warming.

The Anderegg paper is still getting batted around:

• 2010/07/23: DM:SRK: 'Doubters' of Climate Change Lack Scientific Expertise

  And the Monckton vs. Abraham kafuffle:

• 2010/07/23: CCP: John Abraham's takedown of Monckton's gibberish receives more press
• 2010/07/21: MGS: I am John Abraham
• 2010/07/20: JQuiggin: Support John Abraham

  Late comments on Pepsigate:

• 2010/07/21: NatureN: Advertising link causes blogger strike -- Scientists abandon high-profile blog platform after 'Pepsi incident'
• 2010/07/19: BAtC: A Farewell to Scienceblogs: the Changing Science Blogging Ecosystem

  The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:

• 2010/07/23: TerraDaily: Arctic Voyage Illuminating Ocean Optics
• 2010/07/22: ASI: Sea ice extent update 18: under pressure
• 2010/07/22: CCP: Jakobshavn Isbræ thinning and breaking up further upstream, outflow speed now double at 15 km per year
• 2010/07/22: CCP: The Zwally Effect: new evidence of its broader application to Greenland's ice sheet melting and glacier outflows
• 2010/07/21: ASI: Animation 8: Kangerdlugssuaq Glacier
• 2010/07/20: BWeek: Arctic Ice 'Melting Fast,' May Reach All-Time Low, Russia Says
• 2010/07/20: DWWSJ: North of 60 Again- Greetings from Greenland!
• 2010/07/20: MTobis: Greenland Eemian Ice Core Nears Completion
• 2010/07/19: ASI: Sea ice extent update 17: crescendino

  That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:

• 2010/07/19: CDreams: Methane Seeps, Tipping Points Feared as Congress Sleepwalks -- Dangerous Methane Seeping from Siberian Seabeds
• 2010/07/21: CCP: Dangerous Methane Seeping from Siberian Seabeds by Gary Houser: Shakhova and Semiletov warn that it is "highly possible for abrupt release at any time. That may cause a 12 time increase of modern atmospheric methane burden with consequent catastrophic greenhouse warming."

  As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

• 2010/07/21: BBC: Native Alaskans say oil drilling threatens way of life
• 2010/07/20: NOAANews: NOAA Ship Fairweather Maps Aid Shipping Through Bering Straits -- New multi-year effort to update charts of priority Arctic regions
• 2010/07/19: CBC: Arctic research linked to sovereignty push -- 'Science is going to be the key to all this'
  The flagship of the Canadian Coast Guard was preparing to leave St. John's Monday for a scientific mission connected to the country's Arctic sovereignty. The icebreaker Louis St. Laurent will be undertaking a mission over the next four months that will include a team of scientists, including biologists, oceanographers and hydrologists. Apart from projects that include ice, water and plankton testing, the mission is also connected to ensuring that the Arctic will be part of Canada in years to come. "We're basically surveying the ocean bottom, and Canada will be submitting its data to the World Court to decide areas that we'll have jurisdiction to down the road," said Capt. Marc Rothwell...

While in Antarctica:

• 2010/07/23: PhysOrg: Antarctica Traced from Space
  Antarctica may not be the world's largest landmass -- it's the fifth-largest continent -- but resting on top of that land is the world's largest ice sheet. That ice holds more than 60 percent of Earth's fresh water and carries the potential to significantly raise sea level. The continent is losing ice to the sea, and scientists want to know how much.

The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2010/07/23: TreeHugger: Imported Cattle Threaten African Livestock Diversity & Continent's Food Supply
• 2010/07/20: Google:CP: UN humanitarian chief: 10 million in Africa's drought-stricken Sahel hungry, need help
• 2010/07/20: TerraDaily: Climate change choices will shapeshift the world: report
  Global efforts to beat back chronic hunger and disease afflicting more than a billion people could come to naught unless merged with the fight against climate change, says a [UK govt.] report [The Future Climate for Development] released Tuesday.
• 2010/07/21: CCurrents: "The Food Bubble: How Wall Street Starved Millions And Got Away With It"
• 2010/07/20: CNN: U.N.: African nations face food crisis
  People in four African countries are facing malnutrition after a drought last year - The coming weeks will be difficult for Niger, Chad, Mali and Mauritania - The drought left a weak harvest, the coming rainy season will make transportation difficult
• 2010/07/20: UN: UN agency [WFP] stepping up operations to feed millions of hungry people in Niger
• 2010/07/20: Eureka: Experts warn rapid losses of Africa's native livestock threaten continent's food supply

  The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

• 2010/07/23: NatureTGB: Biofuels can boost African food production, [FARA] study finds
• 2010/07/23: Eureka: [Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa & CAMCO International] Report finds bioenergy production can expand across Africa without displacing food

  So, are these land grabs Colonialism V2.0?

• 2010/07/20: Guardian(UK): Mongolia: How the winter of 'white death' devastated nomads' way of life
  Herders leave the steppe after losing a fifth of their livestock. Now foreign firms are to exploit Mongolia's vast resources

Regarding genetic modification of food plants:

• 2010/07/23: Grist: Norman Borlaug's grandddaughter says hunger is a production problem --- and GMOs are the answer
• 2010/07/19: CCurrents: GM Wheat Yields 48-56 % Less In Field Experiments

  And how are we going to feed 9 billion?

• 2010/07/23: PhysOrg: Introducing Cornucopia, the food printer
• 2010/07/23: HuffPo: Why Factory Farms Threaten Your Health
• 2010/07/19: CCurrents: The Emergence Of Localism
• 2010/07/19: CCurrents: Calling All Future-Eaters
• 2010/07/21: ISN: Feast or Famine? How to feed a burgeoning population
• 2010/07/20: EnergyBulletin: Permaculture ethics: Why permaculture is different
• 2010/07/15: CDreams: Revenge of the Weeds
• 2010/07/20: NewScientist: Veggieworld: Why eating greens won't save the planet
• 2010/07/19: EnergyBulletin: Learning from the Ancients

  Typhoon Chantu spun up in the South China Sea and zapped China::

• 2010/07/23: EarthTimes: Two dead after Typhoon Chantu hits Hong Kong
• 2010/07/22: Eureka: Final instruments on NASA climate/weather satellite integrated
  The last of five instruments slated to fly on the upcoming NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) climate and weather satellite have been successfully integrated, according to NASA officials. The polar-orbiting satellite is scheduled to launch in late 2011.
• 2010/07/22: Eureka: GOES-13 sees Tropical Depression 3 form in the Atlantic: Bahamas, Florida under warnings
• 2010/07/22: Eureka: NASA infrared imagery shows Chanthu weakening after landfall in southeastern China
• 2010/07/23: CBC: Typhoon Chanthu lashes southern China -- Typhoon kills 3 before weakening
• 2010/07/22: PlanetArk: Tropical Storm [Chantu] Heads To China As Flood Toll Hits 700
• 2010/07/21: Eureka: NASA satellites tracking rain-packed Tropical Storm Chanthu as it heads toward China
• 2010/07/22: CBC: Typhoon [Chanthu] hits southern China
• 2010/07/21: EarthTimes: Hong Kong issues typhoon warning
• 2010/07/20: Eureka: NASA infrared image of Tropical Storm Chanthu shows convection missing on west side

  In the Atlantic, Tropical storm Bonnie zinged Florida and faded before getting to the BP disaster site:

• 2010/07/23: Guardian(UK): Tropical storm Bonnie forces BP to suspend relief well drilling
• 2010/07/23: CNN: Bonnie weakens to tropical depression, enters Gulf
  Storm is moving from Florida into the Gulf of Mexico - A tropical storm warning remains along parts of the northern Gulf coast - The storm could strengthen as it moves through the Gulf of Mexico - Louisiana declares an emergency as Bonnie approaches
• 2010/07/23: NatureTGB: Tropical Storm Bonnie scuppers Deepwater well kill
• 2010/07/23: Wunderground: Bonnie makes landfall in South Florida
• 2010/07/23: Wunderground: Tropical Storm Bonnie Makes Her Debut
• 2010/07/23: EarthTimes: Tropical storm Bonnie takes aim at oil spill
• 2010/07/23: Eureka: GOES-13 sees new Tropical Storm Bonnie raining on south Florida
• 2010/07/22: CSM: Tropical storm Bonnie: A two-week delay in Gulf oil spill cleanup?
• 2010/07/23: BBC: Workers on ships at the site of the Gulf of Mexico BP oil spill are making final preparations to leave as Tropical Storm Bonnie nears
• 2010/07/22: Wunderground: TD 3 growing more organized
• 2010/07/22: CNN: Tropical Depression 3 heads for south Florida and the Bahamas
• 2010/07/22: PhysOrg: GOES-13 sees Tropical Depression 3 form in the Atlantic: Bahamas, Florida under warnings
• 2010/07/22: Wunderground: Tropical Depression Three forms
• 2010/07/21: Eureka: NASA satellites see System 97L serve up a soaking
• 2010/07/22: BBC: BP workers in the Gulf of Mexico have stopped drilling a relief well and are preparing to evacuate the oil spill site as a tropical depression nears
• 2010/07/22: CBC: BP effort at well site threatened by tropical storm -- Work on plugging well put on hold
• 2010/07/21: Wunderground: 97L gets disrupted by Hispaniola
• 2010/07/21: EarthTimes: Storm over Caribbean of growing concern in oil spill efforts
• 2010/07/20: Wunderground: 97L a threat to become a tropical depression on Wednesday

  While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

• 2010/07/23: EarthTimes: Philippines still searching for 45 missing due to typhoon [Conson], 111 dead
• 2010/07/21: PhysOrg: Supercomputer reproduces a cyclone's birth, may boost forecasting
• 2010/07/21: PlanetArk: [Private weather forecaster WSI Corp] Cuts U.S. Hurricane Forecast To 19 Named Storms
• 2010/07/20: EarthTimes: Typhoon Conson's death toll rises to 76 in Philippines
• 2010/07/19: EarthTimes: Typhoon Conson leaves one dead, 27 missing in Vietnam

  As for the Monsoon:

• 2010/07/22: EarthTimes: Monsoon wreaks havoc in eastern Nepal

  As for GHGs:

• 2010/07/20: Grist: Global CO2 emissions fall in 2009, but the past decade still sees rapid emissions growth
• 2010/07/21: Eureka: Researchers: EPA should recognize environmental impact of protecting foreign oil -- Military's greenhouse gas emissions are relevant to US fuel policies, University of Nebraska authors say

  And in the carbon cycle:

• 2010/07/22: CBC: Ice-free Arctic unlikely to sink much CO2
• 2010/07/22: NatureN: Arctic Ocean full up with carbon dioxide -- Loss of sea ice is unlikely to enable Arctic waters to mop up more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
• 2010/07/21: Eureka: Warmer climate entails increased release of carbon dioxide by inland lakes

  As for the temperature record:

• 2010/07/23: SkeptiSci: Assessing global surface temperature reconstructions by Ned
• 2010/07/22: CCP: NASA: Land Surface Temperatures, early July 2010
• 2010/07/22: NewScientist:SSS: Record-breaking heat does not 'prove' global warming
• 2010/07/21: ENS: June Global Temperatures Warmest on Record
• 2010/07/21: TEC: How Much Warmer?
• 2010/07/21: TCoE: It's hot out there, and the NOAA has the pix to prove it
• 2010/07/21: Grist: First half of 2010 is the hottest ever, but is climate change to blame?
• 2010/07/19: CCurrents: June, April To June, And Year-To-Date Global Temperatures Are Warmest On Record
• 2010/07/20: ClimateP: How hot is it? Masters reports nine countries have smashed all-time temperature records, "making 2010 the year with the most national extreme heat records."
• 2010/07/20: MongaBay: June was the 304th month in a row above average temperatures
• 2010/07/20: PlanetArk: Europe Set For Warmer Than Normal Summer: WSI
• 2010/07/19: CSM: June was the hottest on record, says NOAA
• 2010/07/19: PlanetArk: World simmers in hottest year so far
• 2010/07/19: TreeHugger: June 2010 Was Hottest on Record, NOAA Data Shows - Year-to-Date Has Also Been Warmest
• 2010/07/19: Wunderground: Russia records its hottest temperature in history; 97L forms near Puerto Rico
• 2010/07/19: PeakEnergy: June Shatters Average Global Temperature Records (Again)

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

• 2010/07/22: Globalist: The Global Warming Tipping Point
  How much more can temperatures rise before global warming sets into motion a dangerous chain reaction that will be impossible to reverse? And what steps can the global community take to mitigate the dangers posed by manmade climate change before it's too late? William Antholis and Strobe Talbott, authors of "Fast Forward," explore.

And the State of the Oceans:

• 2010/07/22: Reuters: Scientists dig deep into ocean warming conundrum
• 2010/07/21: Guardian(UK): British seas: More fish, cleaner and greater biodiversity, says DEFRA

  Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

• 2010/07/21: NatureTGB: Satellites measure the world's trees
• 2010/07/20: PhysOrg: Scientists receive first CryoSat-2 data
• 2010/07/20: CCP: A-Train of satellites studies aerosols, trace gases, radiative budget, heat exchanges between surface, atmosphere and space

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2010/07/23: PhysOrg: Warming climate means harsher smog season for California
• 2010/07/22: Grist: Unexpected consquence of climate change: animals getting horny
• 2010/07/23: BBC: Satellite spies vast algal bloom in Baltic Sea
  A satellite image has revealed the scale of a vast algal bloom spreading in the Baltic Sea. The potentially toxic bloom, covering 377,000 sq km, could pose a risk to marine life in the region, warn scientists. They added that a lack of wind and prolonged high temperatures had triggered the largest bloom since 2005. The affected area stretches from Finland in the north to parts of Germany and Poland in the south.
• 2010/07/21: NewScientist: Baby boomer marmots fatten up with climate change
• 2010/07/21: NatureN: Marmots fatten up on climate change -- Rodent population boom linked to bigger bellies and longer summers
• 2010/07/21: SciNow: ScienceShot: Marmots Thrive on Climate Change
• 2010/07/21: NPR: Poison Ivy Growing Faster, More Virulent [due to rising carbon dioxide levels and forest disruption]
• 2010/07/21: Eureka: Climate change causes larger, more plentiful marmots, study shows
• 2010/07/21: Eureka: Mountain marmots made bigger by climate change, says new study
• 2010/07/19: PhysOrg: How does climate change affect ferns and fog on the forest floor?
• 2010/07/19: NatureN: Report maps perils of warming -- Degree-by-degree breakdown of climate effects published
• 2010/07/19: JFleck: California's Early Snowmelt
• 2010/07/19: GMU: When Climate Change Becomes a Health Issue, Are People More Likely To Listen?

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2010/07/23: Guardian(UK): Amazon deforestation in dramatic decline, official [Brazilian environment agency] figures show
• 2010/07/23: NRDC:SwitchBoard: A Casualty of Global Warming Moves Closer to Protection -- USFWS says protecting the whitebark pine under the Endangered Species Act "may be warranted."
• 2010/07/21: LA Times:GS: White-bark pine ravaged throughout Yellowstone
• 2010/07/21: NatureTGB: Satellites measure the world's trees
• 2010/07/22: MongaBay: Scientists sound warning on forest carbon payment scheme [REDD]
• 2010/07/21: TEC: Recent Widespread Tree Growth Decline Despite Increasing Atmospheric CO2
• 2010/07/22: TEC: Sustainable livelihoods in the Amazon
• 2010/07/21: Guardian(UK): UK-imported animal feed blamed for rainforest destruction
• 2010/07/21: TreeHugger: NASA Creates World's First Global Forest Map Using Lasers
• 2010/07/20: Eureka: First-of-its-kind map details the height of the globe's forests
• 2010/07/20: NatureN: Amazon drought raises research doubts -- Studies highlight uncertainties over effects of climate change
• 2010/07/20: TEC: Deep in the Amazon, learning to like fossil fuels
• 2010/07/19: PlanetArk: Britons urged to count trees to fight climate change
  London's Natural History Museum is urging the public to record trees in parks, streets and gardens as part of a three-year survey to uncover how climate change is affecting the environment.
• 2010/07/19: TDC: New conservation model emerges in Canada's boreal
  A unprecedented effort to set aside huge swathes of Canada's boreal forest prompts all sides to rethink development goals. And for the first time some of the components have climate change mitigation as a key objective.
• 2010/07/19: TEC: Can Brazil save the Amazon?

  Yes we have no wacky weather, except:

• 2010/07/23: CBC: North Battleford declares storm emergency -- Intense hail leaves homes flooded
• 2010/07/18: CBC: 2 hurt in southern Que. thunderstorm, tornado

  As for heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2010/07/23: TerraDaily: Wildfire Prevention Pays Big Dividends In Florida
• 2010/07/23: EarthTimes: Lisbon region forest fire under control
• 2010/07/22: EarthTimes: Forest fire spreading toward Lisbon's outskirts
• 2010/07/22: PlanetArk: Russia Swelters In Heatwave, Many Crops Destroyed
• 2010/07/22: EarthTimes: Five die as heat wave sweeps Japan
• 2010/07/22: EarthTimes: Heat wave sweeps Japan
• 2010/07/20: TerraDaily: Over 70 drown in single day in Russian heatwave: official
• 2010/07/20: Reuters: Kansas heat wave has killed 2,000 cattle: state
  The intense heat and humidity that blanketed central Kansas since late last week have killed more than 2,000 cattle and one state official called the heat-related losses the worst in his 17 years on the job.

Corals are dying:

• 2010/07/23: Maribo: Widespread coral bleaching over the past year
• 2010/07/22: MongaBay: Coral reefs doomed by climate change
• 2010/07/22: EarthTimes: Malaysia closes diving spots to protect coral
• 2010/07/21: MongaBay: Amazing reefs: how corals 'hear', an interview with Steve Simpson
• 2010/07/21: ABC(Au): Coral fossils give researchers Great Barrier Reef insight
  A group of international scientists say they have discovered what the Great Barrier Reef looked like thousands of years ago.
• 2010/07/19: TCoE: The coral is dying, the Great Lakes are heating up
• 2010/07/18: Telegraph(UK): Coral reefs suffer mass bleaching
  Coral reefs are suffering widespread damage in what is set to be one of the worst years ever for the delicate and beautiful habitats.
• 2010/07/19: TreeHugger: Coral Species in Red Sea Barely Growing, Thanks to Global Warming

  Acidification is changing the oceans:

• 2010/07/22: SciNow: Marine Creatures Survived Ancient Ocean Acidification
• 2010/07/20: Olympian: Acidic water no surprise to shellfish growers

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2010/07/22: EconView: Receding Glaciers of the Greater Himalaya

  Sea levels are rising:

• 2010/07/03: NPR: Biologist Warns Of Danger From Rising Sea Levels
• 2010/07/22: DelawareOnline: Sea level rise could doom Delaware resources -- Report details risks from predicted climate change
• 2010/07/20: ABC(Au): Wollongong Council has begun a series of public information sessions to explain its new coastal study into the impacts of sea level rises
• 2010/07/18: SciAm: Sea Level Rise Swamps Islands -- The seas are already overlapping islands and coasts from Panama to India. [podcast]

  As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

• 2010/07/23: CBC: Pakistan floods kill 30
• 2010/07/23: CBC: China's Three Gorges Dam water at record high
  Record-high water levels at China's massive Three Gorges Dam have called into question Beijing's claims that the world's largest hydroelectric project has capacity to withstand a massive flood.
• 2010/07/22: EarthTimes: Torrential showers, floods kill 32 in Pakistan
• 2010/07/21: TWTB: Flooding in China
• 2010/07/21: EarthTimes: China flood toll hits 700 dead, 350 missing; 8 million evacuated
• 2010/07/21: CBC: China flooding death toll hits 701
• 2010/07/21: WpgSun: China flood death toll reaches 700
• 2010/07/20: EarthTimes: Record flood peak hits China's Three Gorges dam
• 2010/07/20: BBC: Torrential rain causes floods across Merseyside
• 2010/07/20: CBC: Floods test China's Three Gorges Dam
• 2010/07/19: EarthTimes: Three Gorges dam braces for flood peak, dozens more dead
• 2010/07/19: EarthTimes: Landslides leave eight dead, 57 missing in China; flood risk rises

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2010/07/23: REA: High Speed Rail: Manufacturers Race to Secure Contracts from $8 Billion U.S. Government Pie
• 2010/07/22: CalcRisk: DOT: Miles Driven increase slightly in May
• 2010/07/21: Grist: London builds bike 'superhighways' with groundbreaking blue paint
• 2010/07/21: KSJT: Washington Post: A high speed rail story that, hurrah, has some context to ease US envy
• 2010/07/21: PeakEnergy: Blimps could replace aircraft in freight transport?
• 2010/07/19: AlterNet: The Bicycle's Big Comeback: Why Two-Wheelers Are Key for Reducing Oil Dependence
• 2010/07/20: Telegraph(UK): Double dip in the Baltic [Dry Index]

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

• 2010/07/22: TEC: First Passive House Retrofit in Nation
• 2010/07/19: EnergyBulletin: Good News from the Department of Energy
• 2010/07/19: TreeHugger: The South Gets its First Certified Passive House

  As for carbon sequestration:

• 2010/07/22: PhysOrg: German power plant testing CO2-scrubbing algae
  Swedish energy group Vattenfall said it had launched a major pilot project Thursday using algae to absorb greenhouse gas emissions from a coal-fired power plant in [the Lausitz mining region of] eastern Germany.
• 2010/07/21: TStar: Canada pumps $2.2M into project that pumps U.S. carbon into oil field
• 2010/07/20: PhysOrg: Demonstration project to store CO2 underground in China
  CSIRO (Australia) is partnering with China United Coalbed Methane Corporation Limited (CUCBM) on a A$10 million joint demonstration project that will store 2000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) underground in the Shanxi Province and extract methane for use as an energy source. The project will focus on advancing enhanced coal bed methane (ECBM) recovery and providing a pathway to adoption for near zero emissions technology from coal-fired power.
• 2010/07/20: CBC: Ottawa pumps more cash into carbon sequestration
• 2010/07/19: PeakEnergy: Carbon capture? Not in my yard

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2010/07/21: SolveClimate: DOE Buildings to Get Cool Roofs that Reflect Heat Back into Space
• 2010/07/21: ClimateP: Cool roofs save money, save energy, cut pollution and directly reduce warming!
• 2010/07/21: NewScientist: An evil atmosphere is forming around geoengineering
• 2010/07/21: AFTIC: Regional climate response to solar-radiation management
• 2010/07/21: TerraDaily: Cool Roofs Can Offset Carbon Dioxide Emissions And Mitigate Global Warming
• 2010/07/21: ENS: Cooling the Country One Roof at a Time
• 2010/07/19: NBF: Global Model Confirms: Cool Roofs Can Offset Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Mitigate Global Warming
• 2010/07/19: SciAm: Is the cure (geoengineering) worse than the disease (global warming)?
• 2010/07/19: EconView: Will Geoengineering Make Things Better or Worse?
• 2010/07/18: NatureN: Geoengineering can't please everyone -- Adding aerosols to the atmosphere will not counter global warming in all regions
• 2010/07/18: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Regional climate response to solar-radiation management by Katharine L. Ricke et al.
• 2010/07/19: DM:80B: Study: Geoengineering Can't Adjust Earth's Thermostat to Everyone's Liking
• 2010/07/18: NewScientist: Geoengineering fix won't suit everyone
• 2010/07/19: LBL: Global Model Confirms: Cool Roofs Can Offset Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Mitigate Global Warming

  While on the adaptation front:

• 2010/07/20: GMANews: Adaptation critical in fight vs climate change - CCC

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2010/07/23: CP: Mid-Tertiary paleoenvironments in Thailand: pollen evidence by P. Sepulchre et al.
• 2010/07/22: CP: Influence of solar variability, CO2 and orbital forcing between 1000 and 1850 AD in the IPSLCM4 model by J. Servonnat et al.
• 2010/07/21: CPD: A new interpretation of the two-step ?18O signal at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary by M. Tigchelaar et al.
• 2010/07/22: ACP: Estimating the maritime component of aerosol optical depth and its dependency on surface wind speed using satellite data by Y. Lehahn et al.
• 2010/07/20: ACP: Modeling the regional impact of ship emissions on NOx and ozone levels over the Eastern Atlantic and Western Europe using ship plume parameterization by P. Huszar et al.
• 2010/07/19: ACP: Estimated impact of black carbon deposition during pre-monsoon season from Nepal Climate Observatory -- Pyramid data and snow albedo changes over Himalayan glaciers by T. J. Yasunari et al.
• 2010/07/22: ACPD: Comparison of global inventories of monthly CO emissions derived from remotely sensed data by D. Stroppiana et al.
• 2010/07/21: ACPD: Variability of aerosol vertical distribution in the Sahel by O. Cavalieri et al.
• 2010/07/20: ACPD: Dynamics of the Antarctic and Arctic mesosphere and lower thermosphere - Part 1: Mean winds by D. J. Sandford et al.
• 2010/07/20: ACPD: Attribution of stratospheric ozone trends to chemistry and transport: a modelling study by G. Kiesewetter et al.
• 2010/07/20: ACPD: Relating tropical ocean clouds to moist processes using water vapor isotope measurements by J. Lee et al.
• 2010/07/11: Nature:GeoSci: (Letter ab$) Patterns of Indian Ocean sea-level change in a warming climate by Weiqing Han et al.
• 2010/07/22: ACS:JPC: (ab$) A New Solar Carbon Capture Process: Solar Thermal Electrochemical Photo (STEP) Carbon Capture by Stuart Licht et al.
• 2010/07/21: Wiley:ConservationBiology: (ab$) The Impending Peak and Decline of Petroleum Production: an Underestimated Challenge for Conservation of Ecological Integrity by Bálint Czúcz et al.
• 2010/07/20: PNAS: [ab$] Experimental demonstration of the importance of competition under disturbance by Cyrille Violle et al.
• 2010/07/20: PNAS: [ab$] Replenishment of fish populations is threatened by ocean acidification by Philip L. Munday et al.
• 2010/07/20: PNAS: [Letter$] Reply to Taboada and Anadón: Critique of sea-level rise study invalid by Martin Vermeer & Stefan Rahmstorf
• 2010/07/20: PNAS: [Letter$] Critique of the methods used to project global sea-level rise from global temperature by Fernando González Taboada & Ricardo Anadón
• 2010/07/19: TCD: arameterising the grounding line in ice sheet models by R. M. Gladstone et al.
• 2010/07/19: TCD: Rapid changes of the ice mass configuration in the dynamic Diablotins ice cave - Fribourg Prealps, Switzerland by S. Morard et al.
• 2010/07/18: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Regional climate response to solar-radiation management by Katharine L. Ricke et al.
• 2010/07/16: GRL: (ab$) Recent loss of floating ice and the consequent sea level contribution by Andrew Shepherd et al.
• 2007/07/19: GRL: (ab$) Impact of instantaneous sea ice removal in a coupled general circulation model by D. Schröder & W. M. Connolley

  And other significant documents:

• 2010/07/19: TCoE: [link to 1 meg pdf] Doc alert: GAO on coal plants and CCS
• 2010/07/21: TCoE: Doc alert: NRDC on Water Risk

  As for miscellaneous science:

• 2010/07/22: SEasterbrook: A portable climate model
• 2010/07/23: SkeptiSci: The nature of authority by Graham Wayne
• 2010/07/20: Eureka: Temperature constancy appears key to tropical biodiversity -- New paper answers longstanding scientific question about cause of tropics' stunning biodiversity
• 2010/07/20: SciDaily: New Methodology Improves Winter Climate Forecasting
• 2010/07/19: JQuiggin: Economists and climate change

  Stephen Schneider, In Memoriam:

• 2010/07/20: GreenGrok: Climate Scientist Steve Schneider Passes
• 2010/07/22: ScienceInsider: As Climate Bill Falters, Steve Schneider Might Have Counseled Optimism
• 2010/07/21: Guardian(UK): Stephen Schneider obituary -- Pioneering climate change scientist who fought for informed public engagement
• 2010/07/22: NRDC:SwitchBoard: In Praise of Steve Schneider
• 2010/07/22: AFTIC: Stephen Schneider in 1979 [video]
• 2010/07/21: NatureTGB: An interview with climatologist Stephen Schneider [at COP15]
• 2010/07/20: BBC:RB: Scientist leaves behind a climate of abuse
• 2010/07/20: PSinclair: Schneider-Is the Science Settled?
• 2010/07/20: ClimateSight: Stephen Schneider - Rest in Peace
• 2010/07/20: HotTopic: Stephen Schneider 1945-2010
• 2010/07/20: SolveClimate: A Final Word: Stephen Schneider, Climate Scientist and Warrior, 1945-2010 (VIDEO)
• 2010/07/20: CCP: Stephen Schneider will be greatly missed
• 2010/07/20: KSJT: Many obits after Stephen Schneider, climate scientist, policy consultant, and campaigner dies on the job
• 2010/07/20: ABC(Au): Nobel Prize-winning climate change researcher Stephen Schneider has died at the age of 65
• 2010/07/20: ClimateShifts: Stanford climate scientist Steve Schneider passes away at age 65
• 2010/07/19: NatureTGB: Stanford climatologist Stephen Schneider dies at 65
• 2010/07/19: ScienceInsider: Climate Scientist-Activist Stephen Schneider Has Died
• 2010/07/20: MTobis: Steve Schneider
• 2010/07/19: TDC: Opinion: Today the world lost a great man by Benjamin D. Santer
  We honor Steve Schneider by caring about the strange and beautiful planet on which we live, by protecting its climate, and by ensuring that our policymakers do not fall asleep at the wheel.
• 2010/07/19: TDC: Stanford climate scientist Steve Schneider dead at 65
• 2010/07/20: UCSUSA: UCS Marks Passing of Scientist Stephen Schneider
• 2010/07/20: TreeHugger: Noted Climate Scientist Stephen H. Schneider Passes
• 2010/07/20: TP:WR: In Memoriam: Stephen Schneider
• 2010/07/19: QuarkSoup: On Stephen Schneider
• 2010/07/19: MoD: Today a great man died far before his time
• 2010/07/19: MTobis: Schneider, 1979
• 2010/07/19: RealClimate: A Eulogy to Stephen Schneider
• 2010/07/19: QuarkSoup: Breaking News: Stephen Schneider has died
• 2010/07/19: ClassM: Stephen Schneider 1945-2010
• 2010/07/19: TWTB: Stephen Schneider: 1945-2010
• 2010/07/19: ClimateP: Remembering Stephen Schneider
• 2010/07/19: Mercury: Stanford climate scientist Stephen Schneider dies at 65

  Regarding Judy Curry:

• 2010/07/22: ERabett: Judy, Judy, Judy

  Regarding the IOP:

• 2010/07/22: Stoat: IOP (oh no not again)
• 2010/07/21: BCLSB: IOP Sees Errors Of Its Ways

  Benjamin Santer spotlight:

• 2010/07/21: Grist: Spotlight: Benjamin Santer -- Climate scene investigator

  Meanwhile on the Kyoto front:

• 2010/07/22: BizGreen: Mind the gap: UN sets out Kyoto plan B
• 2010/07/22: BBerg: United Nations Proposes Stopgaps as Global Talks Fail to Renew Kyoto Pact
• 2010/07/22: EurActiv: UN lists post-Kyoto options if no climate deal
• 2010/07/22: PlanetArk: U.N. Lists Kyoto Plan B Options If No Climate Deal
• 2010/07/21: Guardian(UK): UN lists Kyoto 'plan B' options if climate talks fail
  Existing carbon caps may be extended to 2013, and number of countries needed for deal may be lowered
• 2010/07/21: TEC: What Happens to Kyoto After 2012?

  While at the UN:

• 2010/07/23: SolveClimate: Could New UN Voting Rules Salvage Global Deal on Climate Change? Three avenues to break the gridlock
• 2010/07/23: People's Daily: New UN climate chief [Christiana Figueres] urges governments to do more to face climate change
• 2010/07/19: Guardian(UK): IPCC warns its scientists to avoid the media
  IPCC head ­Rajendra Pachauri says the UN panel's next report must make sure "errors of any kind are completely eliminated"
• 2010/07/19: BBerg: UN CO2 Regulators Juggle Conflicts of Interest in Debate on Future Supply
  Some United Nations-overseen regulators of the world's second-biggest carbon market need to resolve conflicts of interest as they debate on the supply of emission credits from industrial-gas projects next week. The Clean Development Mechanism executive board, which oversees the market, is deciding how to regulate projects that destroy hydrofluorocarbon-23, the potent greenhouse gas that is a byproduct of chemical-refrigerant making. Greenhouse gas credits from HFC-23 projects make up about half the supply of offsets in the UN program, which can be used for compliance in the European Union market, the world's biggest. Three of the 10-member board and three of the 10 alternates who stand in for them when absent should abstain from votes on HFC-23 because of the conflicts, CDM Watch, the Bonn-based environmental lobby group, said July 16. They include representatives of China, India, Netherlands, U.K., Japan and Norway, the lobby group said in an e-mailed statement. That's because some of those nations buy the credits and some sell.
• 2010/07/19: eTaiwanNews: Climate-aid tax on shipping & aviation weighed by U.N. [UN CFG]

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2010/07/23: HuffPo: China to Start Carbon Trading While U.S. Senate Fiddles Around
• 2010/07/22: CPositive: China embraces emissions trading
• 2010/07/22: ChinaDaily: Carbon trading in pipeline
  The country is set to begin domestic carbon trading programs during its 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015) to help it meet its 2020 carbon intensity target. The decision was made at a closed-door meeting chaired by Xie Zhenhua, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), and attended by officials from related ministries, enterprises, environmental exchanges and think tanks, a participant told China Daily on Wednesday on condition of anonymity.
• 2010/07/22: TreeHugger: China to Establish Domestic Carbon Trading Program By 2015
• 2010/07/19: PlanetArk: Africa looks to vast forests for carbon credit

  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:

• 2010/07/22: ScienceInsider: Yale Prof: Cap and Trade Got Ditched ... Because Voters Didn't Know What It Was
• 2010/07/23: TEC: Time to Bury Cap and Trade and Plan Anew
• 2010/07/22: TreeHugger: Setting a Price on Carbon Will Help US End Oil Addiction - Not Just Combat Climate Change
• 2010/07/22: GG&G: I agree with Leonard and Stavins: A price on carbon is the only honest way of dealing with climate change

  The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world:

• 2010/07/22: BBC: G20: No charges over Ian Tomlinson demo death
  A police officer who was filmed pushing a man to the ground during the G20 protests will not face charges over his death. Ian Tomlinson, 47, died after being caught up in the clashes on 1 April 2009 in the City of London. Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer said there was no prospect of conviction because experts could not agree on how Mr Tomlinson died. Mr Tomlinson's son Paul King described the decision as "outrageous". The officer who was filmed pushing Mr Tomlinson has been named as Pc Simon Harwood from the Metropolitan Police territorial support group.
• 2010/07/20: NatureN: Animal rights 'terror' law challenged -- Targeted researchers support the legislation, despite free-speech concerns
  A tough but rarely invoked US law intended to protect researchers from violent and threatening animal-rights activists has stumbled out of the starting gate: last week, a judge dismissed the first prosecution under the law. The decision comes on top of evidence that the legislation has done little to deter illegal incidents, and concerns that it risks restricting free speech.

Polls! We have polls!

• 2010/07/20: IJISH: Are we ascribing too much power to climate 'skeptics'? 74% of people believe globe warming, not 50%
• 2010/07/19: AutoBG: Let Them Drill: Poll shows 73% of Americans oppose ban on offshore drilling (or does it?)

  Regarding Water Politics and Business:

• 2010/07/23: GreenGrok: On Water, Drought and Death
• 2010/07/21: EmbassyMag: Canada must support the right to water [Barlow]
• 2010/07/22: CCP: Global temperature rise of 4 °C: effect on water availability
• 2010/07/22: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Does Running Out Of Water Explain Why a Few Degrees Matter?
• 2010/07/21: ENS: Risk of Water Scarcity Increasing for 1,100 U.S. Counties
• 2010/07/21: CCP: NRDC: U.S. Current Water Demands Are Not Sustainable
• 2010/07/21: ClimateP: One-third of US counties face increased risk of climate-induced water shortage and drought
• 2010/07/21: TreeHugger: How Desalination Works
• 2010/07/21: TreeHugger: Court Ruling: Botswana Bushmen Denied Access to Water
• 2010/07/20: NYT: Water Dispute Increases India-Pakistan Tension
• 2010/07/19: Guardian(UK): Kabul faces severe water crisis
  Report says Afghan city and region will need six times more water by 2050, as Oxfam warns of violence over scarce resource
• 2010/07/19: TerraDaily: Turkey, Turkish Cypriots sign water pipeline deal
• 2010/07/18: JFleck: Is desal one lesson of Australia's "big dry"?
• 2010/07/19: TreeHugger: Battle Over Nile River Ownership Threatens One of World's Largest Wetlands
• 2010/07/16: Change: How Half the World Could Grow Thirsty At China's Whim

  As for SW tools:

• 2010/07/19: SkeptiSci: Skeptical Science now an Android app

  And on the American political front:

• 2010/07/23: Grist: State and EPA climate action become key as Senate gives up
• 2010/07/23: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Making Climate Progress with the Tools We Already Have
• 2010/07/23: NRDC:SwitchBoard: A Casualty of Global Warming Moves Closer to Protection -- USFWS says protecting the whitebark pine under the Endangered Species Act "may be warranted."
• 2010/07/23: WorldChanging: The Next US Climate Strategy: Celebrate the EPA
• 2010/07/22: Guardian(UK): While the world burns
• 2010/07/21: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Forward or Backward on Global Warming?
• 2010/07/22: TreeHugger: Setting a Price on Carbon Will Help US End Oil Addiction - Not Just Combat Climate Change
• 2010/07/21: ENS: Risk of Water Scarcity Increasing for 1,100 U.S. Counties
• 2010/07/21: BDL: David Leonhardt on the Disfunctional U.S. Government and the Global Climate
• 2010/07/20: Yahoo:AP: Vt. legislative panel releases revised nuke report
• 2010/07/21: PhysOrg: Study ties climate uncertainties to economies of US states
  A climate-change study at Sandia National Laboratories that models the near-term effects of declining rainfall in each of the 48 U.S. continental states makes clear the economic toll that could occur unless an appropriate amount of initial investment -- a kind of upfront insurance payment -- is made to forestall much larger economic problems down the road.
• 2010/07/20: NRDC:SwitchBoard: The real cost of the corn ethanol tax credit (VEETC)
• 2010/07/21: TreeHugger: Don't Forget Home Star: The Green Bill Everyone Can Agree On
• 2010/07/20: RawStory: Oliver Stone: US should nationalize oil resources
• 2010/07/19: SolveClimate: National Research Council Report Underscores the Urgency of CO2 Emmisions Reductions -- Policy changes made today may not be felt for generations, report says
• 2010/07/19: ClimateP: Big oil showdown in California: Economists agree, don't block AB 32!
• 2010/07/20: Grist: Accept more poison to get less carbon? Kill this crazy idea NOW
• 2010/07/19: SolveClimate: Biofuels Industry Blames Washington for Holding Back Cellulosic Ethanol
• 2010/07/19: SolveClimate: National Resource Council Report Underscores the Urgency of CO2 Emmisions Reductions -- Policy changes made today may not be felt for generations, report says
• 2010/07/19: UCSUSA: Top Economists Agree: Blocking State's Clean Energy Law Will Be Costly -- Berkeley Economist Says AB 32 Spurs Innovation and Job Creation
• 2010/07/19: UCSUSA: The Most Expensive Thing We Can Do is Nothing -- Top Economists Agree: Blocking California's Clean Energy Law Will Be Costly
• 2010/07/16: AlterNet: The U.S. Needs a New Energy Policy ... Now

  The BP disaster continues to twist American politics:

• 2010/07/23: Guardian(UK): Deepwater Horizon alarms were switched off...
• 2010/07/23: Yahoo:AFP: BP accused of trying to silence science on spill
  The head of the American Association of Professors accused BP Friday of trying to buy the silence of scientists and academics to protect itself after the Gulf oil spill, in a BBC interview. "This is really one huge corporation trying to buy faculty silence in a comprehensive way," said Cary Nelson. BP is facing lawsuits after the oil spill, which has destroyed the livelihoods of many people along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. A copy of a contract offered to scientists by BP, which the BBC said it had obtained, said scientists are not allowed to publish the research they do for the oil giant. They are also not allowed to speak about the data for at least three years or until the government gives final approval for the company's restoration plan for the whole of the Gulf, said the British broadcaster.
• 2010/07/23: OilChange: US Government "Sock-Puppet" for BP Over Dispersants
• 2010/07/20: DemNow: EPA Whistleblower Accuses Agency of Covering Up Effects of Dispersant in BP Oil Spill Cleanup
• 2010/07/22: DJID: BP Oil Poisons the Gulf of Mexico's Food Chain
• 2010/07/20: Yahoo:AFP: US oil spill could destroy 100,000 jobs: experts

  The NRDC reports the USA is going to get zapped by water shortages if they're not careful:

• 2010/07/20: ScienceInsider: Zooming In on Future Water Shortages
• 2010/07/20: CVBT: Parched California: Severe water shortages loom
  More than one out three U.S. counties face water shortages - Central Valley will be among hardest hit
• 2010/07/21: TreeHugger: Higher Water Shortage Risks in One Third of US Counties Due to Climate Change: NRDC Report
• 2010/07/22: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Does Running Out Of Water Explain Why a Few Degrees Matter?
• 2010/07/21: ENS: Risk of Water Scarcity Increasing for 1,100 U.S. Counties
• 2010/07/21: CCP: NRDC: U.S. Current Water Demands Are Not Sustainable
• 2010/07/21: ClimateP: One-third of US counties face increased risk of climate-induced water shortage and drought

  The US is groping its way toward a National Climate Service:

• 2010/07/22: TerraDaily: U.S. agency to look at climate change
  The Obama administration's planned national climate service will equip decision-makers with hard facts about long-term environmental changes instead of long-term research, the service's provisional director said.
  [...]
  The NOAA Climate Service is be online this fall or winter, the agency said.
• 2010/07/23: PhysOrg: Report calls for coordinated information on climate change
  A comprehensive national response to climate change should be informed by reliable data coordinated through climate services and a greenhouse gas monitoring and management system to provide timely information tailored to decision makers at all levels, says a report by the National Research Council. The report recommends several mechanisms for improving communication about climate science and responses and calls for a systematic framework for making and evaluating decisions about how to effectively manage the risks posed by climate change.
• 2010/07/22: NAS: Reliable information and better communication needed to guide U.S. response to climate change

  The Cuccinelli saga rolls on:

• 2010/07/22: ERabett: And so it drags on -- UVa has responded yet again to the VA Attorney General...

  The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2010/07/22: ClimateP: The failed presidency of Barack Obama, Part 1
• 2010/07/22: TCoE: Dueling train wrecks
• 2010/07/21: RS: Climate Bill, R.I.P. -- Instead of taking the fight to big polluters, President Obama has put global warming on the back burner
• 2010/07/22: Grist: ObamaNation -- The failed presidency of Barack Obama
• 2010/07/21: TreeHugger: Could Obama Help Sell Energy Reform Even If He Wanted To?
• 2010/07/21: AutoBG: Business groups ask President Obama to set up electric vehicle task force
• 2010/07/19: ScienceInsider: Obama's National Ocean Policy
• 2010/07/20: TreeHugger: Obama Creates National Ocean Council to Oversee Protection of Our Oceans, Coasts & Great Lakes
• 2010/07/19: CSM: How Obama wants to protect oceans: White House unveils new plan
• 2010/07/19: LA Times: Obama to launch ocean initiative

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2010/07/23: ClimateP: The White House lamely blames environmentalists for climate bill failure
• 2010/07/23: NRDC:SwitchBoard: EPA Is Right to Rate Tar Sands Pipeline Assessment as "Inadequate"
• 2010/07/22: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Lowest rating from EPA for tar sands oil pipeline assessment
• 2010/07/22: ClimateP: EPA slams State Department tar sands pipeline study
• 2010/07/21: ScienceInsider: U.S. Energy Research 2011 Funding Outlook Decent as ARPA-E Cashes In
• 2010/07/22: WpgFP: U.S. environmental agency questions need for cross-border oilsands pipeline
• 2010/07/21: SciDaily: Military Greenhouse Gas Emissions: EPA Should Recognize Environmental Impact of Protecting Foreign Oil, Researchers Urge
• 2010/07/22: CanWest: U.S. urged to cancel plans for Alberta pipeline over climate fears
  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is urging the Obama administration to put the brakes on a proposed pipeline linking Alberta's oilsands industry with American refineries because of its potential impact on global warming. In a newly released letter to the U.S. State Department, EPA officials suggested that, if approved, the $12-billion Keystone XL project, proposed by TransCanada, would bring oil into the country with a much higher environmental footprint than the average crude oil now being refined.
• 2010/07/20: PlanetArk: U.S. Issues First Shallow-Water Drilling Permit
• 2010/07/20: PlanetArk: Oil Sands Producers Must Cut Emissions: U.S. Envoy [David Jacobson]
• 2010/07/20: NRDC:SwitchBoard: EPA's RFS accounting shows corn ethanol today is worse than gasoline
• 2010/07/20: TEC: Paint it White: Energy Sec. Chu Directs DOE to Install Cool Roofs
• 2010/07/19: NRDC:SwitchBoard: New National Policy Gives Hope for the Future of the Great Lakes
• 2010/07/19: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Finally Some Good News for Our Seas: President to Create National Ocean Policy

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2010/07/22: Grist: Senate PACE bill adds to pressure to restore clean-energy program
• 2010/07/22: UCSUSA: Senate Has Absolute Responsibility to Address Climate Change
• 2010/07/22: SolveClimate: Senators of Tiny West Virginia Hold Big Influence Over Climate Law
• 2010/07/22: PlanetArk: Senate Panel Backs More Electric Cars, Solar
• 2010/07/21: AutoBG: Senate panel approves $3.6B for electric vehicles
• 2010/07/20: Grist: Fate of PACE clean-energy programs about to become clearer
• 2010/07/21: ScienceInsider: Senate Panel Backs Budget Increases for NSF, NASA
• 2010/07/20: TP: Lieberman: Utilities Want A 'Breather' From Letting People Breathe
• 2010/07/20: NYT: Overcome by Heat and Inertia
• 2010/07/20: Grist: New W.Va. senator [Carte Goodwin] won't help climate bill -- and maybe nothing else will either
• 2010/07/19: TEC: House Looks to Save PACE Solar; Senate Gambles on Climate Bill
• 2010/07/19: QuarkSoup: And If Emissions Aren't Capped, Senator?

  The future climate bill defines a battleline:

• 2010/07/22: TheHill:e2W: Draft green-industry outline may help climate talks
  While Senate Democrats have punted for now on a bill to cut power plant carbon emissions, a small band of environmental groups and utility companies have forged a tentative deal that could help revive the measure down the road. The draft proposal -- dated July 19 and circulating on Capitol Hill -- would block key EPA greenhouse gas regulations in exchange for the imposition of new emissions limits.
• 2010/07/23: BBerg: Kerry Says Democrats May Take Up Broad Climate Legislation After Election
• 2010/07/22: Grist: Plan B? The climate bill's dead. Really dead
• 2010/07/23: DemNow: As Senate Dems Give Up on Climate Bill, What Does the Future Hold for US Energy Policy?
• 2010/07/22: TWM: Left with no choice, Dems to push 'narrow' energy bill...
• 2010/07/22: TP:WR: In Sweltering DC, Political 'Reality' Trumps Actual Reality Again
• 2010/07/22: C-a-S: What Now? [Democrats Abandon Sweeping Energy]
• 2010/07/22: EnergyBulletin: Dems Roll Over, Abandon Climate Bill. Will Citizenry Follow Suit?
• 2010/07/22: LA Times: Senate Democrats scale back on energy bill
• 2010/07/22: Google:AFP: Democrats put US climate change legislation plans on hold
• 2010/07/22: Google:AP: Senate Democrats abandon comprehensive energy bill
• 2010/07/22: CBC: Democrats drop CO2-capping energy bill -- Senators blame 'terribly disappointing' lack of Republican support
  U.S. Senate Democrats are giving up on plans to pass an energy bill that caps emissions of carbon dioxide, saying Republicans refuse to support the measure. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said no Republican was willing to back a comprehensive energy bill, a development he called "terribly disappointing."
• 2010/07/21: TheHill:e2W: Key environmentalists ok with delay on climate bill until fall??
• 2010/07/22: PlanetArk: Senator Reid Seeking Consensus On Climate Bill
• 2010/07/20: BBerg: Reid Struggling With Energy Bill Deadline, Democrats Say
• 2010/07/20: TheHill:e2W: Administration officials and utility executives meet to salvage climate bill
• 2010/07/18: Reuters: Republicans oppose broad US energy bill-McConnell
• 2010/07/19: TreeHugger: Meet the New 4-Part Climate Bill
• 2010/07/19: REA: In Light of the Gulf Spill: Why We Need Climate Legislation

  What are the lobbyists pushing?

• 2010/07/23: DemNow: Three of Every Four Oil & Gas Lobbyists Worked for Federal Government
• 2010/07/22: OilChange: 75 Per Cent of Oil Lobbyists Worked for Government
• 2010/07/20: TheHill:e2W: Industries use airwaves to attack low-carbon fuel mandate
  A broad coalition of oil, trucking, airline, manufacturing and other companies Tuesday will roll out a two-week advertising campaign accusing senators of hurting consumers and jobs if they lower the greenhouse gas content of fuels
• 2010/07/20: CSM: Climate policy wars: Electricity utilities in coal powered states
• 2010/07/19: Grist: Clean energy legislation is 'America's mission,' says retired military chief
• 2010/07/19: TWM: Why won't Fox News air a veterans' group's [energy/climate] ad?...

  While in the UK:

• 2010/07/22: Guardian(UK): Whitehall's green efforts saving taxpayers £70m a year, watchdog says
• 2010/07/22: BBC: The UK government is to stop funding the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC), its independent environmental watchdog and advisory body
• 2010/07/21: PlanetArk: 7,500 UK Firms Face Fines Under CO2 Scheme: WSP
• 2010/07/21: DerSpiegel: A Game of Atomic Poker -- Britain's Nuclear Renaissance in Doubt under New Government
  Britain's previous government had visions of a nuclear renaissance for the country. But the new energy minister in London is an atomic energy opponent and utility companies, including two based in Germany, fear he may derail their plans.
• 2010/07/20: NatureN: UK government warned over 'catastrophic' cuts -- Royal Society predicts 'game over' for British science
• 2010/07/19: Guardian(UK): UK warned not to abandon low-carbon technology drive
  Technology to deliver renewable energy, electric cars and efficient homes risks falling into a 'valley of death' and will never reach the market without government support, [Committee on Climate Change (CCC)] report warns
• 2010/07/19: Guardian(UK): Funding cuts will finish Britain's clean energy race
• 2010/07/19: BizGreen: CBI calls for global aviation emissions trading scheme -- Business group voices concerns over government plans for new per-plane duty
• 2010/07/19: NatureN: UK may miss out on 'critical opportunities to build a green economy' - CCC
• 2010/07/19: IBTimes: Labour Party signifies climate change as key in elections
  The election campaign fever in Australia is starting to heat up as declarations of key campaign platforms are being revealed.
• 2010/07/19: BBC: UK 'must accelerate' on low-carbon road
  The UK risks being left behind in the low-carbon future unless government spending is first protected and then increased, say advisers. The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) report comes days after the coalition announced £34m cuts to investments in offshore wind, geothermal and biofuels. The committee warns that other countries are spending much more.
• 2010/07/19: Guardian(UK): Britain trails China in dash to low-carbon economy, warns Tim Yeo

  And in Europe:

• 2010/07/23: EurActiv: Commission gives 1.4bn euros to ITER nuclear fusion project
• 2010/07/23: Eureka: CO2 reduction policies in Spain strengthen the services sector
• 2010/07/22: EUO: EU farm payments likely to be capped under reform
• 2010/07/22: BBC: Germans hot and bothered by sizzling trains [air-conditioning breakdowns]
• 2010/07/21: EurActiv: Commission proposes phasing out coal subsidies
  Europe's unprofitable coal mines will have to be shut down within the next four years before state subsidies are halted, the European Commission said yesterday (20 July).
• 2010/07/21: EUO: Commission plugs [ITER] nuclear fusion funding hole with EU research cash
• 2010/07/21: EUO: Subsidised coal mines to be closed in 2014
• 2010/07/21: EarthTimes: [EU Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard Interview] Climate change:Debate is going to get hotter within EU
• 2010/07/21: BBC: Loss-making coal mines across the EU will have to close over the next four years, the European Commission says
• 2010/07/21: BBC: EU boosts hi-tech research budget
  The EU has announced 6.4bn euros (£5.4bn) of funding for scientific research and innovation next year - a 12% increase on this year's allocation. The programme is aimed at creating more than 165,000 jobs and developing "a more competitive and greener Europe", the European Commission says. The focus is on tackling climate change, energy projects, food security, health and Europe's ageing population.
• 2010/07/20: BBerg: German Industry Profits May Be Reduced by CO2 Emissions Costs, FTD Reports
• 2010/07/20: ABC(Au): Bjork leads protest against Iceland energy sale
  Icelandic singer Bjork, known for her political activism, has urged parliament to review the planned sale of a local geothermal energy company, saying the deal could harm Iceland's interests.
• 2010/07/20: PlanetArk: Bjork Leads Protest Against Iceland Energy Sale
• 2010/07/20: ScienceInsider: European Bureaucrats Raid Research, Ag Funds to Pay for [ITER] Fusion Reactor
• 2010/07/20: EarthTimes: EU proposes four-year phase-out of unprofitable coal mines
  Brussels - The European Union's executive on Tuesday proposed that member states phase out subsidies to loss-making coal mines so that they close within four years. EU states handed out 1.3 billion euros (1.7 billion dollars) in 2008 alone to keep unprofitable coal mines producing. The mines are often key providers of jobs in poor areas, but the EU is committed to switching its economy away from polluting fuels, including coal.
• 2010/07/19: EurActiv: Future of EU farm policy debated in Brussels

  Meanwhile in Australia, the election is front and centre:

• 2010/07/24: ABC(Au): Gillard pledges cash for clunkers scheme
• 2010/07/23: ABC(Au): Gillard defends climate change 'gobfest'
  Julia Gillard has defended her plans for a new climate change "citizens' assembly" amid claims it is nothing but a "community gobfest" designed to pave the way for the introduction of a carbon tax.
• 2010/07/23: ABC(Au): Gillard heckled at climate policy launch
  Prime Minister Julia Gillard faced a small but vocal group of protesters as she launched Labor's climate change policy at the University of Queensland in Brisbane this morning.
• 2010/07/23: ABC(Au): Climate panel a 'cynical delaying tactic'
  Green groups have labelled Prime Minister Julia Gillard's latest climate change policy insulting.
• 2010/07/23: PlanetArk: Australia PM: To Act On Climate When Economy Ready
• 2010/07/23: Grist: Protests as Australian PM delays climate action
• 2010/07/23: JQuiggin: Non-policy or anti-policy
  My column in yesterday's Fin (over the fold) advocating agreement between Labor and the Greens on a short-term carbon price was rendered obsolete almost immediately by Julia Gillard's speech... Gillard's non-policy represents a failure of leadership.
• 2010/07/23: Reuters: Australia PM again delays emissions trading
  Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard reaffirmed on Friday a delay in introducing a price for carbon pollution, angering environmentalists, scientists and business ahead of her bid to secure re-election.
• 2010/07/23: EarthTimes: Australia shirks setting a price on carbon
  Sydney - Australia will not bring in carbon trading until other major polluters do and even then only if there is popular support within the country for putting a price on carbon. Prime Minister Julia Gillard, in remarks Friday, reiterated the policy of Kevin Rudd, the party leader she deposed last month. "This means I will act when the Australian economy is ready and when the Australian people are ready," the prime minister said. Gillard, who is seeking a second three-year term for her Labor government at an August 21 parliamentary election, had helped persuade Rudd to abandon plans for carbon trading after the failure of the Copenhagen climate conference in December. The prime minister also rejected calls from the Greens to impose a carbon levy as an interim measure until a carbon trading was introduced.
• 2010/07/21: PeakEnergy: Australian Election On The Way
• 2010/07/20: ABC(Au): Population, water key election issues: QFF [Queensland Farmers Federation]

  Elsewhere in Australia:

• 2010/07/23: ABC(Au): New research into electric cars
  The slow take-up of electric vehicles in Australia is to be tackled by a new research collaboration just announced at the University of New South Wales.
• 2010/07/22: ABC(Au): Gillard to unveil new climate measures
  Prime Minister Julia Gillard is set to unveil the ALP's new climate change policy today, two and half months after the Federal Government decided to shelve its emissions trading scheme. [The ABC understands Ms Gillard will outline plans to set up a committee of scientists to advise the Government on climate change.]
• 2010/07/22: ABC(Au): Former Coalition leader Malcolm Turnbull has admitted he does not think his party's climate change policy is ideal while campaigning in Brisbane
• 2010/07/22: ABC(Au): The Greens have introduced a bill to State Parliament to provide a more generous scheme for South Australians investing in renewable energy
• 2010/07/22: REA: State of Victoria to Establish Solar FIT
• 2010/07/21: ABC(Au): Money to tackle worst locust plague in decades
  The New South Wales Premier Kristina Keneally has announced a plan worth 18 million dollars to tackle an upcoming locust plague which is expected to be the worst in 30 years.
• 2010/07/21: ABC(Au): New solar plants for Victoria
  The Victorian Government will build up to 10 large scale solar energy plants in the next 10 years. Premier John Brumby made the announcement at a solar test plant at Bridgewater near Bendigo this morning. Mr Brumby says solar projects will provide around five percent of Victoria's energy needs by 2020.
• 2010/07/21: ABC(Au): WWF says marginals back carbon trading
  A new Galaxy poll of four marginal Queensland seats has found support for an emissions trading scheme (ETS) continues to grow.
• 2010/07/20: ABC(Au): Wollongong Council has begun a series of public information sessions to explain its new coastal study into the impacts of sea level rises
• 2010/07/19: ABC(Au): Digging deep for future [geothermal] power
• 2010/07/19: ABC(Au): Marine tourism operators complacent on climate change: survey
  Queensland marine park tourism operators have been asked to consider the impact climate change will have on the Great Barrier Reef. The results of a survey of the tourism operators will be presented at workshops in Airlie Beach in north Queensland and Cairns in the state's far north this week. The workshops will look at the predicted change in weather patterns and how businesses can become carbon neutral. Col McKenzie from the Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators says while most people surveyed were aware of the potential impact of climate change, a surprising number are not prepared.

And in the Indian subcontinent:

• 2010/07/22: NRDC:SwitchBoard: India joins leading economies in clean energy commitments

  While in China:

• 2010/07/23: Guardian(UK): China's search for greener values
  In his new book, When a Billion Chinese Jump, Jonathan Watts tells the story of an unfolding ecological crisis as seen from the ground. Here, he talks to Sam Geall about its economic and cultural implications
• 2010/07/21: NBF: China Plans to spend 5 Trillion Yuan on CLean Energy Projects This Decade
• 2010/07/22: Grist: China's now a leader in the good, the bad, and the ugly
• 2010/07/21: EnergyBulletin: China's oil grab
• 2010/07/20: BBC: China 'leapfrogs US to become biggest energy user'
• 2010/07/20: NatureTGB: China denies claim it is now largest energy consumer
• 2010/07/20: Yahoo:AFP: China rejects world's number one energy user title
  China on Tuesday rejected an assessment from the International Energy Agency that it had surpassed the United States to become the world's top energy consumer, calling the data "unreliable".
• 2010/07/19: CBC: China passes U.S. as top energy consumer
  For the first time in more than a century, a country other than the United States consumed more energy than any other nation, as China grabbed the top spot last year. Citing data from the International Energy Agency, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday that China was the world's most voracious consumer of energy in 2009. China consumed 2,252 million tonnes of "oil equivalent" last year, topping the U.S. tally of 2,170 tonnes by roughly four per cent. Oil equivalent is the term the IEA uses to bring all forms of energy into a comparable form, including crude oil, nuclear, coal, natural gas, hydroelectricity, wind and solar power.

And South America:

• 2010/07/23: TEC: Brazil's climate guy is green but blue

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

• 2010/07/20: CanWest: 'Greening' of Canada not working -- Survey ofscientists, bureaucrats say policies fall short
  More than three out of four leading Canadian bureaucrats, scientists and industry leaders believe the Harper government is missing the boat on "greening" the economy and adopting the wrong policies to address climate change, according to a new international study. The survey of 5,109 senior stakeholders from key sectors in government, industry and academia was conducted by McAllister Opinion Research and is one of the largest studies of its kind to assess the opinions of leading government and professional experts. Out of 4,282 Canadian experts who participated in the survey, which also included U.S. and European experts, 77 per cent rated Canada's efforts at addressing climate change as poor or very poor, while 75 per cent had the same opinion about the country's performance in developing a green economy.
• 2010/07/22: PostMedia: Canada a top 10 country for green infrastructure
  Canada remains among the top 10 most attractive countries for renewable-energy infrastructure investment, according to a report released Wednesday by Ernst and Young. Canada hung on to ninth spot in the 27-country survey despite the planned termination of Ottawa's ecoenergy tax-credit program and cuts by Ontario to the rates it pays solar energy producers, said Stephen Lewis, leader of the accounting firm's renewable energy practice.
• 2010/07/21: TStar: Canada pumps $2.2M into project that pumps U.S. carbon into oil field
  Canada is pumping more money into a fledgling, cross-border, greenhouse-gas project. Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis says the government is spending an additional $2.2 million on a so-called "carbon sequestration" project that straddles the Saskatchewan-North Dakota border. That brings the total Canadian contribution to $15.2 million, with the United States announcing it will kick in another $3 million. The project uses underground pipes to feed greenhouse gases from a coal gasification facility in Beulah, N.D., to oil fields in Weyburn, Sask.
• 2010/07/20: CBC: Ottawa pumps more cash into carbon sequestration

  Questions and debate about offshore and Arctic drilling continue:

• 2010/07/23: CanWest: Storms, ice would deter oil-spill response plan -- Chevron leading consortium of oil companies drilling Canada's deepest underwater well
  The oil company drilling the deepest underwater well in Canadian history has warned regulators that sea ice and fierce storms in the North Atlantic could hinder its ability to clean up a major spill and drill a relief well to plug the leak, newly released documents show.
• 2010/07/23: CanWest:P&N: How oil companies would clean up a big spill off Canada's East Coast
• 2010/07/22: CBC: Some Chevron oil spill plan details kept secret
  Information about how Chevron Canada would launch an emergency response to an oil spill in deep waters off Newfoundland has been made public, although a regulator has withheld details the company wants to keep confidential. Chevron Canada raised the ire of environmental groups in May when it proceeded with plans to explore for oil in an area called the Orphan Basin, north of the Grand Banks, soon after the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. CBC News asked for and obtained documents from the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board about spill response plans at different operations east of Newfoundland. The documents show that Chevron has a management plan in place to respond to a spill at the area where it is working, more than two kilometres below the ocean surface. Chevron says none of the oil would reach the shoreline, but where the oil would go is a mystery. The CNLOPB -- a joint regulatory board owned by the federal and Newfoundland and Labrador governments -- has redacted information about oil spill trajectories.
• 2010/07/21: BBC: Native Alaskans say oil drilling threatens way of life
• 2010/07/19: CBC: Gulf of St. Lawrence drilling moratorium sought

  The G20 policing controversy continues:

• 2010/07/23: CBC: Multiple G20 reviews panned by ex-police monitor
  Having four different bodies all conduct reviews into the policing of the G20 protests will leave key questions unaddressed and will confuse the public, says a former chair of the Toronto Police Services Board. Speaking to CBC's Metro Morning, Susan Eng called for better co-ordination from the agencies that are conducting the reviews. "I don't think that the many sets of eyes is the answer. I think that an organized set of eyes might be a better answer," she said.
• 2010/07/23: TStar: Security operation or political theatre?
• 2010/07/23: TStar: No substitutes for full inquiry
• 2010/07/23: TStar: Make our police more accountable -- Mass G20 arrests showed how easy it is to abuse power of 'preventive detention'
• 2010/07/23: CBC: Watchdog will investigate G20 police
• 2010/07/20: EnergyBulletin: Oil, civil liberties, and the G20 Summit in Toronto

  That destroyed Tar Sands Report is still a sore point:

• 2010/07/19: DeSmogBlog: Bombshell: Canadian Gov't Committee Tears Up Critical Tar Sands Report

  The pipeline issue is still hot. Both Keystone XL & Gateway:

• 2010/07/23: NRDC:SwitchBoard: EPA Is Right to Rate Tar Sands Pipeline Assessment as "Inadequate"
• 2010/07/22: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Lowest rating from EPA for tar sands oil pipeline assessment
• 2010/07/22: ClimateP: EPA slams State Department tar sands pipeline study
• 2010/07/22: WpgFP: U.S. environmental agency questions need for cross-border oilsands pipeline
• 2010/07/22: CanWest: U.S. urged to cancel plans for Alberta pipeline over climate fears
  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is urging the Obama administration to put the brakes on a proposed pipeline linking Alberta's oilsands industry with American refineries because of its potential impact on global warming. In a newly released letter to the U.S. State Department, EPA officials suggested that, if approved, the $12-billion Keystone XL project, proposed by TransCanada, would bring oil into the country with a much higher environmental footprint than the average crude oil now being refined.
• 2010/07/19: MediaCoop: Unist'ot'en leadership takes to the streets to assert their rights and stop the Enbridge pipeline [Gateway Pipeline to bring tar sands oil to the coast of BC]

  The Green Party leadership convention is approaching:

• 2010/07/19: TheSpec: Race to challenge Green leader launched in Guelph
• 2010/07/19: G&M: Elizabeth May denies her job is up for grabs

  That ReThink Alberta PR campaign in the states continues to bug the tar sand lobby:

• 2010/07/22: SolveClimate: Oil Sands Ad Campaign Touches Energy Security Raw Nerve -- Furor provokes comments from Alberta Premier and U.S. Ambassador on key oil supply debate
• 2010/07/20: TStar: Oilsands backlash hits Alberta
  The anti-oilsands campaigns south of the border have really revved up over the past few weeks. And it doesn't look as though they are about to stop any time soon. In early June in Bellingham, Wash., just across the B.C. border, the city council voted 7-0 in favour of a resolution to reconsider what sort of fuel Bellingham buys for its fleet vehicles. The resolution fingers "high carbon fuels such as those derived from the Canadian Tar Sands" as the kinds of fuels that should be replaced. The resolution is largely symbolic, since the city of 76,000 is locked into its current fuel supply contract until 2015, but it highlights the spreading political pressure on oilsands producers and the Alberta government.

BC has more than energy to fight about:

• 2010/07/22: CanWest: Pine beetle will cost 11,000 jobs in B.C. communities: study
  The ravages of the mountain pine beetle epidemic that peaked in 2005 will be felt for years, and forestry-dependent communities without a diverse economy will undergo a population drain, a new report states. In its latest Economic Analysis of British Columbia newsletter, Central 1 Credit Union forecasts that over the next two decades, the forestry supported population in the B.C. Interior districts affected by the epidemic will decline by 28,700 people, and occupied housing will fall by 11,500 units. By 2028, forestry jobs in harvesting, silviculture and processing will decline by 11,250 compared to the pre-infestation period, with a further loss of 9,500 indirect jobs. During this period, it is estimated that the sustainable forestry yield in the province's 21 timber supply areas will fall by 13.2 million cubic metres or 33.5 per cent from 2000 levels.

Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2010/07/21: CanWest: Oilsands are cleaner, Tories counter -- Federal government uses global green energy conference to respond to critics
  The Harper government is using an international clean-energy conference to correct what it describes as misleading attacks against Canada's oilsands industry, Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis said Tuesday.
• 2010/07/20: BBerg: Oil Sands Rising as BP Spill Casts Palls Over Future of Deepwater Drilling
• 2010/07/20: PlanetArk: Tar Sands Producers Must Cut Emissions: U.S. Envoy [David Jacobson]
• 2010/07/20: G&M: 'Greater scrutiny' seen for energy projects in wake of Gulf spill
  Foreign interest in Alberta oil sands is unlikely to diminish, U.S. energy specialist [IHS-CERA] predicts

In Saskatchewan, Brad Wall is dealing with flooded farms and poor finances:

• 2010/07/20: BuckDog: Sask Premier Wall Sure Picked A Bad Time To Abandon $800 Million in Equalization Payments From Ottawa
• 2010/07/19: CBC: Saskatchewan growth cut by rain -- Floods dampen GDP by 1.1 points, TD estimates

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

• 2010/07/21: CCurrents: The Other Tragedy by Fidel Castro
• 2010/07/19: CCurrents: Life vs. 'Expediency': Thoughts On Soylent Green
• 2010/07/20: ClimateShifts: Our Future World: CSIRO research of megatrends, megashocks & future scenarios
• 2010/07/14: AlterNet: Dance, Don't Drive: How to Live In Tune With the Planet
• 2010/07/18: EnergyBulletin: Sustainability: from excess to aesthetics

  And in the Transition movement:

• 2010/07/19: CCurrents: Transition Towns: Local Networking For Global Sustainability?

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

• 2010/07/21: AlterNet: Conservatives Exploiting Health Care to Deprive Poor Women of Access to Abortion
• 2010/07/21: AlterNet: Anti-Immigrant Hard-liners Try to Co-Opt Environmental Movement

  As for how the media handles the science of climatology:

• 2010/07/21: ClimateP: The Atlantic's Clive Crook needs to retract his libelous misinformation and apologize to Michael Mann
• 2010/07/19: ClimateP: More on the nutty move by The New Republic to install misinformer Manzi as 'in-house critic'
• 2010/07/19: DeSmogBlog: Canadian journalism: sublime; ridiculous -- The Post gets one right; the Globe chooses cowardice over context
• 2010/07/19: TWM: Why won't Fox News air a veterans' group's [energy/climate] ad?...

  Regarding the quality of blogospheric discussion:

• 2010/07/19: CNN: News sites reining in nasty user comments
  The Buffalo News plans to discontinue anonymous user comments on its website - A Massachusetts paper requires commenters to register with a credit card number - Registration tied to social media profiles helps raise the level of discourse, some say - Some experts fear that anonymity protects irresponsible or even dangerous commenters

Here is something for your library:

• 2010/07/22: Grist: Running dry on the Colorado [Book Excerpt] _Running Dry_ by Jonathan Waterman
• 2010/07/22: HotTopic: [Book Review] _Climate Conflict: How global warming threatens security and what to do about it_ by Jeffrey Mazo
• 2010/07/19: TCoE: [Book Review] _A World Without Ice_ by Henry Pollock
• 2010/07/18: ClimateSight: [Book Plug] _Snowball Earth_ by Gabrielle Walker

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2010/07/22: EnergyBulletin: Climate documentary "The Age of Stupid" -- free online viewing
• 2010/07/22: PeterSinclair: Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan on the Greenhouse Effect [video]
• 2010/07/20: CCP: VOTEVETS YouTube video: ret. Brigadier General Steven Anderson comes out against oil, backs clean energy legislation, warns of the dangers to our national security of our addiction to fossil fuels
• 2010/07/20: ClimateP: Video ad: General in Iraq under Petraeus on urgent need to pass climate and clean energy jobs bill
• 2010/07/19: DM:BA: That Mitchell look

  As for podcasts:

• 2010/07/20: MoD: Irregular Climate Episode 8

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2010/07/22: SBO: Oregon joins greenhouse gas lawsuit
  Oregon has joined 12 other states in support of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency decision to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from large industrial sources.
• 2010/07/21: Yahoo:Reuters: Judge refuses to reinstate first oil drill ban
• 2010/07/21: ENS: Court Stops Oil and Gas Drilling in Alaska's Lease Sale 193
• 2010/07/20: WVGazette: Coal industry sues EPA, Corps of Engineers over permit crackdown
• 2010/07/21: PlanetArk: Coal Companies Sue EPA Over Mine Permit Delays
• 2010/07/20: Yahoo:AP: Judge refuses to withdraw from drilling ban case
  A federal judge who overturned the Obama administration's initial six-month moratorium on deepwater oil drilling has refused to disqualify himself from the case. Several environmental groups had asked U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman to withdraw from the case because of his investments in several oil and gas companies. Feldman refused in an order issued Friday and posted Monday.

Among the non-members of Gamblers Anonymous:

• 2010/07/18: Stoat: Sea ice: throwing in the towel?

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

• 2010/07/22: OilDrum: Revisiting the Fake Fire Brigade Part 2: Biomass - A Panacea?
• 2010/07/21: Grist: How to make energy programs work better (for free!)
• 2010/07/21: OilDrum: The 3-part view of power generation [Base, intermediate & peak load]
• 2010/07/20: EurActiv: Ocean energy wants place in EU's energy future
  Wave and tidal energy could provide 15% of Europe's energy needs by 2050, the industry estimates, calling for support measures to realise its potential. The European Ocean Energy Association (EU-OEA) last week (15 July) published a 2050 roadmap for ocean energy, highlighting the major potential of energy produced from the flow of waves and tides or the thermal and salinity gradients of oceans and seas. The report estimated that installed ocean energy could reach 3.6 GW by 2030 and leap to nearly 188 GW by mid-century.
• 2010/07/19: RigZone: Today's Trends: Middle East Remains Home to Most Proven Reserves
• 2010/07/20: Guardian(UK): Helsinki data centre to heat homes
  Water warmed while cooling a server centre installed in a cathedral bomb shelter will go on to heat 500 homes
• 2010/07/20: REA: US Geothermal Signs US $30M Construction Deal
• 2010/07/20: REA: Nevada's Geothermal Industry Worth US $22.5B in 30 Years
• 2010/07/19: NewScientist: Green machine: A salty solution for power generation
• 2010/07/19: PhysOrg: New catalyst for hydrogen fuel cells resists CO contamination
• 2010/07/19: OilDrum: Lloyd's Sustainable Energy Security White Paper - Some hits; some misses
• 2010/07/19: REA: University of Nebraska Study Reveals Hidden Costs of Oil

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

• 2010/07/23: PhysOrg: EPA hears from gas drillers, angry Pa. residents
  Federal researchers studying a natural gas drilling technique that involves blasting chemical-laced water into the ground got an earful from residents who say it's poisoning them and killing their animals and from industry experts who say it's being unfairly demonized.
• 2010/07/23: AlterNet: Exposing the Natural Gas Industry's Attempt to Silence Its Critics
• 2010/07/22: PhysOrg: Hundreds to attend EPA hearing on Pa. gas drilling
  Hundreds of people are expected to attend a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hearing in southwestern Pennsylvania on a controversial natural gas drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking."
• 2010/07/21: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Hydraulic fracturing "difficult to predict"
• 2010/07/21: CSM: Could shale deposits bring mid-Atlantic states $2 trillion?
• 2010/07/21: EnergyBulletin: Interview with Art Berman - Part 1
• 2010/07/21: PhysOrg: EPA takes new look at gas drilling, water issues
• 2010/07/20: SolveClimate: Congressional Members Intensify Hydraulic Fracking Probe
  House committee orders 10 U.S. energy giants to disclose toxic chemicals and water disposal practices used in hydraulic fracturing by Aug. 6

The answer my friend...:

• 2010/07/22: PlanetArk: Vestas Wins Record 570 MW California Turbine Order
• 2010/07/22: TreeHugger: Massive New Wind Project Moves The Ball In California
• 2010/07/21: REA: European Offshore Wind Heading Record Year

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2010/07/23: REA: SunPower & Solar Ventures To Build 11.1-MW of PV [in the Piedmont region of Italy]
• 2010/07/23: REA: The Rise of CIGS -- Finally?
• 2010/07/22: PeakEnergy: Spain - A Solar Thermal Powerhouse
• 2010/07/21: REA: Here Comes the Sun: Ten Million Solar Rooftops
• 2010/07/19: SciDaily: Breakthrough in Thin-Film Solar Cells: New Insights Into the Indium/Gallium Puzzle

  On the coal front:

• 2010/07/22: DerSpiegel: Black Future -- The World's Ever-Increasing Hunger for Coal
  Coal-fired power stations are a major producer of the greenhouse gas CO2, but there is no alternative to the fuel in the near future. Energy companies are hoping that carbon capture and storage technologies may be the answer, but many local residents don't want CO2 stored under their backyards.

Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2010/07/22 NYT:CW: The Race to Make Fuel Out of Algae Poses Risks as Well as Benefits
• 2010/07/22: UN: UN agency [FAO & IFAD] highlights potential of jatropha plant as energy source for the poor
• 2010/07/22: PlanetArk: German Firm [Sued-Chemi] To Produce Bioethanol From Straw
• 2010/07/21: NatGeo: Ethanol Future Looking for More Fuel -- Policymakers await next-generation fuels, while industry waits for policy
• 2010/07/22: TreeHugger: World's First Flight Powered by 100% Algae Biofuels Completed
• 2010/07/21: SolveClimate: Metalloproteins? Breakthrough Could Speed Algae-Based Fuel Research -- Mimicry of newly discovered chemical processes in microbes opens new possibilities
• 2010/07/21: PhysOrg: Nanotech coatings produce 20 times more electricity from sewage
  Engineers at Oregon State University have made a significant advance toward producing electricity from sewage, by the use of new coatings on the anodes of microbial electrochemical cells that increased the electricity production about 20 times.
• 2010/07/20: NRDC:SwitchBoard: New study shows eliminating corn ethanol subsidy will save $6 billion and have little impact on U.S. ethanol production
• 2010/07/19: LLNL: Drilling down to the nanometer depths of leaves for biofuels
• 2010/07/18: CGT: Biomass power plants wary of EPA carbon accounting

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2010/07/23: EurActiv: Commission gives 1.4bn euros to ITER nuclear fusion project
• 2010/07/20: NBF: A US DOE Roadmap for Nuclear Energy and Uranium Through 2100
• 2010/07/20: NBF: 2010 Redbook Report on Uranium Sees Conventional Supplies Lasting 100 Years or More
• 2010/07/21: NBF: Uranium Prediction by CRU and China Starts its 65 Megawatt Fast Reactor
• 2010/07/21: EUO: Commission plugs [ITER] nuclear fusion funding hole with EU research cash
• 2010/07/21: TEC: Nuclear News Roundup for July 21, 2010
• 2010/07/20: NatureTGB: EU research funds to prop up costly fusion reactor
• 2010/07/19: TEC: B&W and Bechtel form small modular reactor alliance

  Yes we have peak everything:

• 2010/07/23: EnergyBulletin: It's a race to failure between rogue states and global oil output
• 2010/07/22: EnergyBulletin: Oil production during deleveraging
• 2010/07/21: OilDrum: What do we do without all of the things that are made from petroleum?
• 2010/07/20: EnergyBulletin: Smart Decline in Post-Carbon Cities
• 2010/07/20: EnergyBulletin: Projection of world fossil fuel production with supply and demand interactions (paper excerpt)
• 2010/07/20: PeakEnergy: New [Australian] Lithium Mine Announced
• 2010/07/19: PeakEnergy: Nitrogen and Phosphorus: The Future of Toilet Design Hangs in the Balance

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2010/07/19: BBerg: NYC Heads to Hottest July Ever, Taxing Power Grid
• 2010/07/19: TEC: Smart Grid (R)evolutions We'd Like to See
• 2010/07/19: SF Gate: Grid sets electric cars' green standard
• 2010/07/17: Oregonian: Too much of a good thing: Growth in wind power makes life difficult for grid managers
  [...]
  During the last three years, the building boom spawned by green energy mandates in Oregon, Washington and California doubled the generation capacity of wind farms in the region. By 2013, it's expected to double again. That seems like great news. Plenty of carbon-free energy with no fuel costs. Jobs. Property taxes. In the real world, however, the pace and geographic concentration of wind development, coupled with wild swings in its output, are overwhelming the region's electrical grid and outstripping its ability to use the power or send it elsewhere. In theory, better coordination of the balkanized grid operations around the west could help solve the problem, reducing costs, eliminating bottlenecks and solving scheduling conflicts that plague the system today. In practice, however, those efforts have often stalled at the planning stage -- the victim of risk-averse engineers, utility managers or public utility customers worried about seeing their rates increase. It's not a new problem. But the renewables explosion, and pressure to reduce carbon emissions, is forcing the transmission issue to center stage now.

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

• 2010/07/23: CanWest: Hybrid gas-electric cars fail to deliver savings, says B.C. study
  Only one of the 16 hybrid gas-electric cars on the market in B.C. delivered substantial savings over its gasoline-only equivalent, a B.C. Automobile Association study has found.
• 2010/07/22: Oregonian: Zero to 60 mph in less than 3 seconds -- White Zombie electric dragster makes believers out of fossil fuel hot-rodders
  John Wayland runs a political machine on 12 lithium polymer batteries. It's a 1972 Datsun called "White Zombie," and it's one of the fastest street legal electric cars in the world. It's been clocked doing zero to 60 mph in 2.95 seconds. It's walloped Corvettes, Camaros and 600-horsepower Vipers in quarter-mile drag races using lead-acid batteries.
• 2010/07/21: AutoBG: Nissan says "no exceptions" to charger installation fees
• 2010/07/20: NRDC:SwitchBoard: NYC Jump-Starts Electric Car Project
• 2010/07/20: AutoBG: Automotive X-Prize: Finals Stage begins, Edison2 remains only team that can win mainstream class, $5 million
• 2010/07/19: NBF: Honda will have a Plug in Hybrid and an All-Electric Car in 2013 and Other Japanese Hybrid Sports Cars and Electric Cars
• 2010/07/20: BBC: Honda sets 2012 electric car date -- Honda is to start selling electric cars in the US and Japan in 2012

  This week in the Gee Whiz File:

• 2010/07/22: ACS:JPC: (ab$) A New Solar Carbon Capture Process: Solar Thermal Electrochemical Photo (STEP) Carbon Capture by Stuart Licht et al.
• 2010/07/22: NBF: Solar Thermal Electrochemical Photo (STEP) Carbon Capture could Reduce Atmospheric CO2 to Pre-industrial Levels in Ten Years
• 2010/07/22: PhysOrg: Solar-powered process could decrease carbon dioxide to pre-industrial levels in 10 years
  By using the sun's visible light and heat to power an electrolysis cell that captures and converts carbon dioxide from the air, a new technique could impressively clean the atmosphere and produce fuel feedstock at the same time. The key advantage of the new solar carbon capture process is that it simultaneously uses the solar visible and solar thermal components, whereas the latter is usually regarded as detrimental due to the degradation that heat causes to photovoltaic materials. However, the new method uses the sun's heat to convert more solar energy into carbon than either photovoltaic or solar thermal processes alone. The new process, called Solar Thermal Electrochemical Photo (STEP) carbon capture, was recently suggested theoretically by a team of scientists from George Washington University and Howard University, both in Washington, DC. Now, in a paper just published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, the scientists have experimentally demonstrated the STEP process for the first time.

As for Energy Storage:

• 2010/07/22: SolveClimate: Breakthrough Solar Plant Stores Energy for Days
  Molten salt at plant in Sicily absorbs solar heat directly, stores it at a higher temperature, and allows use of traditional turbines
• 2010/07/21: AutoBG: DOE estimates 100-mile automotive batteries will cost just $5,000 in 2020

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

• 2010/07/21: PlanetArk: Google To Use Wind Energy To Power Data Centers
• 2010/07/20: Grist: Google Energy's big green power purchase

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

• 2010/07/23: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for July 23...
• 2010/07/22: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for July 22...
• 2010/07/21: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for July 21...
• 2010/07/20: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for July 20...
• 2010/07/19: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for July 19...

  Other lists:

• 2010/07/18: TCoE: Catching up via link farm

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2010/07/23: AFTIC: Inhofe's alternate reality
• 2010/07/22: BRitholtz: Global Warming Denial, Part 96
• 2010/07/22: IJISH: climatechange101.ca created by FoS's Len Maier; IoP disbands Energy Sub-group
• 2010/07/21: SMandia: Fred Singer is a lot like George Costanza
• 2010/07/22: ClimateP: Pro-pollution, anti-science Koch Industries takes credit for the 'spontaneous' tea parties: We're glad we 'helped stimulate' them
• 2010/07/22: MTobis: Pilfered Emails, Bogus Scandals
• 2010/07/22: RealClimate: The Montford Delusion
• 2010/07/21: TerraDaily: Nigeria's oil spills dwarf gulf disaster
• 2010/07/22: LA Times: You can't explain away climate change -- Some hold that global warming stopped in 1998, but scientists know better
• 2010/07/21: IJISH: Friends of Science employs fly-by-night tactics, turns around to accuse climate scientists of fraud
• 2010/07/21: DeSmogBlog: Climatechange101.ca - Another "friend" of science?
• 2010/07/20: SkeptiSci: 3 levels of cherry picking in a single argument
• 2010/07/20: SkeptiSci: Rebutting skeptic arguments in a single line
• 2010/07/18: AlterNet: Big Oil Makes War on the Planet
• 2010/07/19: CCP: Monckton is classic narcissist
• 2010/07/17: BBickmore: The Monckton Files: WUWT Can't Stand to Have Monckton's Claims Questioned

  Well surprise, surprise! It seems Exxon lied about no longer funding climate denial:

• 2010/07/23: CCP: Exposed: Exxon funding climate denial. Yes, again
• 2010/07/20: ClimateP: ExxonMobil gave $1.5M to climate disinformation groups last year, breaking its pledge to stop funding denial machine
• 2010/07/20: NewsCorp: Exxon still aids climate sceptics
  One of the world's largest oil companies has broken its pledge to stop funding groups that promote scepticism about man-made climate change. ExxonMobil gave almost £stg 1 million ($1.75m) last year toorganisations that campaigned against controls on greenhouse gas emissions. Several made outspoken attacks on climate scientists at the University of East Anglia and argued that their leaked emails showed the dangers of global warming had been grossly exaggerated.
• 2010/07/20: PeakEnergy: Exxon still funding climate sceptics
• 2010/07/19: DeSmogBlog: ExxonMobil Gave $1.5M to Climate Denier Groups Last Year, Breaking Its Pledge To Stop Funding Denial Machine

  Meanwhile in the 'clean coal' saga:

• 2010/07/19: ClimateP: GAO: No "Clean Coal" Technology Without Price on Carbon Pollution

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2010/07/23: HotTopic: Technology advances, politicians hold back
• 2010/07/23: HuffPo: Sow the Seeds of Long-Term Growth
• 2010/07/22: MoD: The climate consensus visualized, part 2
• 2010/07/22: BRitholtz: Grantham: Everything You Need to Know About Global Warming in 5 Minutes
• 2010/07/22: MoD: Quote of the day [Kerry Emanuel]
• 2010/07/22: APSmith: More climate change basics part 2
• 2010/07/22: SkeptiSci: What do you get when you put 100 climate scientists in a room?
• 2010/07/21: MoD: It's not about saving the planet
• 2010/07/21: Grist: Putting climate criticism where it belongs
• 2010/07/21: BNC: Climate change basics II -- impacts on ice, rain and seas
• 2010/07/20: ClassM: The Earth will survive
• 2010/07/18: Tamino: What's Up?

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

• Asia Society: Rivers of Ice
• VHEMT: The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement
• BBickmore: Anti-Climate Change Extremism in Utah
• USPIRG: U.S. Public Interest Research Group - Global Warming
• Pembina: Ecological Fiscal Reform (EFR)
• Fire Ecology
• Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast [Draft of a textbook by David Archer]
• The Yes Men
• Argo [world ocean temperature and salinity collection project]
• UNL: Drought Monitor
• BOM: The South Pacific Sea Level & Climate Monitoring Project
• Climate Progress
• LE: Lomborg Errors
• CDP: Carbon Disclosure Project

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.

"...Obama's legacy -- and indeed the legacy of all 21st century presidents, starting with George W. Bush -- will be determined primarily by whether we avert catastrophic climate change..." -Joe Romm

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