(Note: due to blockages in the intertubes, this week's installment is late. Apologies to all whose week ground to a halt while anxiously waiting...)
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
Another week of Climate Disruption News
Information overload is pattern recognition
August 29, 2010
- Chuckles, COP15, COP16+, COP15 Cash, Overshoot, Thermosphere, The Question, Pakistan
- Bottom Line, Subsidies, Cook, IAC Leak, Post CRU, Anderegg
- Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica
- Food Crisis, Land Grabs, GMOs, Food Production
- Hurricanes, Monsoon, Temperatures, Feedbacks, Aerosols, Clouds, Paleoclimate
- ENSO, Solar, Satellites
- Impacts, Forests, Desertification, Extreme Weather, Tornadoes, Wildfires
- Corals, Acidification, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
- REDD, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Adaptation
- Journals, Other Docs , Misc. Science, Hansen, Schneider
- UN, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
- International Politics: Misc., Security, Law & Activism, Activism, Software
- National Politics: America, BP Disaster, 2010 Election, PACE
- Obama, USAdmin, Congress, Climate Bill, Lobbyists, Al Gore
- Britain, Europe, Australia, Australian Election, India, China, Asia, Middle East, Russia, South America
- Canada, Arctic Tour, G20 Policing, Greens, Pipelines, ReThink Alberta
- BC, Tar Sands, Sask, Ontario, Quebec, Maritimes, Canadiana
- Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Courts
- Energy, AER, Fracking, Wind, Solar, Feed-In-Tariffs, Coal
- Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Grid, Cars, Gee Whiz, Energy Storage
- Business, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
- Shameless Self Promotion, .sig
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- 2010/08/27: CF:TI: (cartoon - Roberts) Cracking Codes
- 2010/08/26: CF:TI: (cartoon - Roberts) Public engagement
- 2010/08/25: CF:TI: (cartoon - Roberts) Manchester Inaction Plan
- 2010/08/27: Slate: (cartoon - Jones) In Coochie's Court
- 2010/08/23: ClimateSight: (cartoons - Judge, Anderson) The Best Cartoons Ever
And for those who enjoy challenging Poe's Law:
- 2010/08/27: Wonkette: Never-Ending Recession Makes Americans Kill Their Pets, Quit Having Babies
- 2010/08/25: AFTIC: Adaptation 101
A look back at COP15:
- 2010/08/29: SolveClimate: Chinese Climate Negotiator Provides Candid Take on What Happened in Copenhagen
If emissions increase "I say, 'So what?' The people have a right to a better life." - 2010/08/26: UNDispatch: Flooding, Fires, and Climate Finance: This Week in International Climate Negotiations
After the experience of Gleneagles, announcements of Copenhagen Accord funding are being greeted skeptically:
- 2010/08/27: PlanetArk: Analysis: Climate Aid Reaches $30 Billion Goal, But Is It New?
Aid promises from rich nations to help poor countries slow global warming are reaching the $30 billion goal agreed in Copenhagen but analysts say much of that is old funding dressed up as new pledges. - 2010/08/24: MongaBay: $28 billion pledged by rich nations to fight climate change
More comment on Earth Overshoot Day 2010:
- 2010/08/25: BLongstaff: Earth Overshoot Day arrives a month earlier
- 2010/08/23: ClimateShifts: Running into ecological debt -- Earth Overshoot Day 2010 [August 21st]
- 2010/08/22: Guardian(UK): We've gone into the ecological red
On 21 August our environmental resource budget ran out. Now we're living beyond the planet's means to support us - 2010/08/25: GRL: (ab$) Anomalously low solar extreme-ultraviolet irradiance and thermospheric density during solar minimum by Stanley C. Solomon et al.
- 2010/08/26: Eureka: Shrinking atmospheric layer linked to low levels of solar radiation -- Large changes in the sun's energy output may drive fluctuations in Earth's outer atmosphere
- 2010/08/26: PhysOrg: Shrinking [thermosphere] atmospheric layer linked to low levels of solar radiation
The Question, asked by Michael and many others, continues to disturb:
- 2010/08/25: NewScientist: Time to blame climate change for extreme weather?
- 2010/08/24: ChinaDaily: Crazy climates will continue the rest of 2010
- 2010/08/23: NatJo: Is Climate Change Causing Wild Weather?
- 2010/08/22: DesMoinesRegister: Weather-related disasters: The new normal?
People have noticed that "100-year floods" seem to be soaking Iowa every couple of years lately. If there was any doubt that we are living through an extraordinary era in the Earth's history, this extraordinary year should dispel it. When what is supposed to happen on average once a century begins to happen every other year, something has changed. Welcome to post-climate-change Iowa. - 2010/08/23: HotTopic: Tumbling dice
The Pakistan disaster is ongoing:
- 2010/08/29: EarthTimes: Floods submerge Pakistani town as workers try to save another
- 2010/08/28: CBS: Another Levee Breach Threatens S. Pakistan City
Thousands Flee for Higher Ground as Floodwaters Swamp City of Thatta; 8 Million Pakistanis in Need of Aid - 2010/08/28: CNN: More deaths feared in Pakistan as flood waters recede
- 2010/08/28: WFP: Pakistan: Family Waits By Roadside For Floods To Recede
- 2010/08/28: CCurrents: Another 500,000 Flee Indus Breaches Taliban Threaten Aid Workers; Global Warming Implicated
- 2010/08/28: BBC: Fears for Pakistani town after new flood levee breaches
Officials in southern Pakistan are battling to save the town of Thatta, where the raging Indus river has breached more of its levees. - 2010/08/28: CBC: Pakistan levee breach threatens historic city [Thatta]
Floodwaters broke through the levees protecting a southern Pakistani city again on Saturday, prompting more than 175,000 people to leave their homes in search of higher ground. The evacuation of roughly 70 per cent of Thatta's population began overnight after the latest levee breach, caused by the Indus river overflowing its banks in Sindh province. The river is raging at 40 times its normal volume. - 2010/08/27: DerSpiegel: Photo Essay -- The Faces of Pakistan's Catastrophe [23 pix]
- 2010/08/27: CNN: U.N.: Flooding displaces 1 million more in Pakistan
UN official says a "colossal disaster is getting worse" - About 1 million additional people have been displaced in Sindh province, the UN says - Authorities have ordered evacuations in the Indus River delta - 2010/08/27: UN: UN reports more Pakistanis in need of help as unrelenting floods spread
- 2010/08/27: GlobalPost: Pakistan floods reveal climate change fallout -- Analysis: Flooding illustrates the political and economic repercussions of a warming climate
- 2010/08/26: TerraDaily: UN vows Pakistan relief despite threats
- 2010/08/26: TerraDaily: Misery for Pakistan village [Bilawalpur] cut off by flood
- 2010/08/27: EarthTimes: Surging floods force Pakistan to evacuate another town
- 2010/08/27: BBC: Pakistan floods prompt mass evacuations in south
Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis have been ordered to evacuate their homes as flood waters threaten several cities in the south of the country. - 2010/08/27: CBC: Pakistan floods displace 1 million in south
- 2010/08/26: UN: UN steps up flood relief in Pakistan as number of people affected tops 17 million
- 2010/08/26: CCP: Pakistan's Climate Change Floods, Seen From Above
- 2010/08/25: TerraDaily: Pakistan warns of new floods as UN says 800,000 cut off
- 2010/08/26: EarthTimes: Up to 350,000 affected by fresh floods in Pakistan
- 2010/08/26: BBC: UN reviews security after Pakistani Taliban 'threat'
The UN is reviewing security measures for its aid workers in Pakistan, after a warning of new threats from the Pakistani Taliban. A US official said militants planned to attack foreigners delivering aid to the millions of people affected by the devastating floods in the country. - 2010/08/26: BBC: Pakistan's rulers face criticism over the flood crisis, but the army - tarnished by its role in government and by military offensives - has boosted its image...
- 2010/08/26: BBC: Pakistan floods: 'The worst is yet to come'
- 2010/08/26: CBC: Pakistan aid workers threatened by Taliban
The United Nations says it's reviewing security measures for its aid workers helping with flood relief efforts in Pakistan. The move comes after a warning from the U.S. that Taliban insurgents are planning to attack foreigners there. The sense from Washington is that the threat is both serious and credible. - 2010/08/25: BBC: The Pakistani Taliban are planning to attack foreigners helping with flood relief efforts in the country, a senior US official has warned
- 2010/08/25: UN: UN refugee agency seeks $120 million to shelter flood-hit Pakistanis
- 2010/08/25: EarthTimes: Floods threaten Bhutto's native town; UN warns of food shortage
- 2010/08/24: EarthTimes: UN: Helicopters needed to reach 800,000 people trapped by floods
- 2010/08/25: DerSpiegel: In the Shelter of Hope -- Sadness and Elation for Pakistan's Flood Survivors
Many of the flood victims in Pakistan have lost everything, and thousands have fled to emergency shelters in schools in the city of Multan. They are traumatized and desperate -- but they have found hope in the story of a young orphan who found new parents in the midst of the chaos. - 2010/08/25: BBC: Pakistanis flee new monsoon floods in south
- 2010/08/25: DVoice: Washington Orders Shahbaz Airbase Saved -- Not Pakistan's Flood Victims
- 2010/08/24: Guardian(UK): Deluges after the deluge
Catastrophic floods in Pakistan are likely to recur as global warming combines with El Niño - 2010/08/23: UN: Thousands displaced as massive floods in Pakistan spread to the south -- UN
- 2010/08/24: EarthTimes: Flooded Pakistan holds meeting to address growing health concerns
- 2010/08/23: SwissInfo: Pakistan flood aid failing the needy
In the worst-hit areas of Pakistan's flooding, aid is not reaching many people who have been left homeless and without drinking water and food. - 2010/08/24: BBC: Pakistan facing 'serious' threat of epidemic disease
- 2010/08/24: BBC: Pakistan flood survivors refused aid at relief camps
- 2010/08/24: BBC: Pakistan floods: 'Desperate for doctors'?
Eyewitnesses in three areas affected by the floods in Pakistan describe the lack of food, water and medical help that is fuelling fears of a growing public health disaster in the country - 2010/08/24: CBC: Pakistan flood recovery years away: President [Asif Ali Zardari]
- 2010/08/23: SkeptiSci: Pakistan flood: many more will die unless more aid is delivered quickly
- 2010/08/23: EarthTimes: EU flood aid to Pakistan tops 250 million dollars, Brussels says
- 2010/08/23: BBC: The UN in Pakistan has described the humanitarian situation caused by the flood disaster as critical
- 2010/08/22: BBC: Chaos as crowds flee Pakistan flood town
Tens of thousands of people are fleeing their homes in Sindh Province as the floodwaters engulf yet more villages and towns. - 2010/08/23: BBC: Pakistan floods: Painfully slow progress of aid effort
- 2010/08/23: BBC: In Pictures: The struggle to survive Pakistan floods
- 2010/08/23: CBC: Pakistan floods move seaward as more die
- 2010/08/22: PSinclair: Pakistan -- Snapshot of the Global Future
- 2010/08/22: BBC: Senior UN official attacks response to Pakistan floods
A senior United Nations official has called on the global community to urgently step up its response to the floods that have struck Pakistan. Louis-George Arsenault, director of emergency operations for the UNICEF in New York, described the lack of support as "quite extraordinary". The humanitarian crisis was the largest "in decades", he warned. - 2010/08/22: TCoE: Helping and learning from Pakistan
And on the Bottom Line:
- 2010/08/27: Grist: Fires could cost Russia $300 billion in forest loss
- 2010/08/26: Yahoo:AFP: Fires cost Russia '300 billion dollars' in deforestation
Subsidies, tax exemptions, loan guarantees & grants weave a difficult to penetrate web:
- 2010/08/28: AlterNet: 10 Ways Your Taxes Pay For Environmental Devastation
John Cook and friends continue their Basic Version updates:
- 2010/08/29: SkeptiSci: Human CO2: Peddling Myths About The Carbon Cycle
- 2010/08/28: SkeptiSci: Why we can trust the surface temperature record
- 2010/08/27: SkeptiSci: Comparing volcanic CO2 to human CO2
- 2010/08/26: SkeptiSci: Can humans affect global climate?
- 2010/08/26: SkeptiSci: Climate Models: Learning From History Rather Than Repeating It
- 2010/08/25: SkeptiSci: Arctic sea ice... take 2
- 2010/08/24: SkeptiSci: Station drop-off: How many thermometers do you need to take a temperature?
- 2010/08/23: SkeptiSci: Arctic Sea Ice: Why Do Skeptics Think in Only Two Dimensions?
- 2010/08/22: SkeptiSci: Weather vs Climate: Watch the waves, miss the turning of the tides
- 2010/08/22: SkeptiSci: Medieval Warm Period: rhetoric vs science
Parts of the IAC report coming Monday have been leaked:
- 2010/08/23: Reuters: Experts urge faster and more relevant U.N. climate reports
Post CRU theft, controversy & inquiry:
- 2010/08/27: EarthTimes: Climategate aftermath: UN-mandated [IAC] review to appear Monday
- 2010/08/25: PI:Climate: Allegations against climate science continue to unravel
- 2010/08/27: CCurrents: Rajendra Pachauri Innocent Of Financial Misdealings But Smears Will Continue
- 2010/08/27: IJISH: E-mail exchanges with two people from climate 'skeptic' O'Sullivan's mass mailing list
- 2010/08/26: UCSUSA: Independent Panel [IAC] to Issue Recommendations for Improving U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Reports
- 2010/08/26: ClimateShifts: KPMG review finds IPCC chief Pachauri innocent -- UK Telegraph apologizes
- 2010/08/26: WtD: Still not sorry: head of IPCC cleared of fraud allegations, gets apology but denier calls it bullshit
- 2010/08/27: HotTopic: Report clears IPCC head Pachauri, UK paper apologises
- 2010/08/26: Guardian(UK): Rajendra Pachauri cleared of financial misdealings
- 2010/08/26: SolveClimate: IPCC Head Pachauri's Financial Dealings Spotless, Review Concludes
Independent review by KPMG finds no evidence for claims that the chairman of the UN's climate panel abused his position for financial gain - 2010/08/26: ClimateP: KPMG review finds IPCC chief Pachauri innocent of financial misdealings or conflict of interest, UK Telegraph apologizes for smearing him
- 2010/08/21: Telegraph(UK): Dr Pachauri - Apology
On 20 December 2009 we published an article about Dr Pachauri and his business interests. It was not intended to suggest that Dr Pachauri was corrupt or abusing his position ... - 2010/08/26: NatureTGB: Pachauri cleared of financial wrongdoing
- 2010/08/26: Guardian(UK): Rajendra Pachauri innocent of financial misdealings but smears will continue
A review of the IPCC chairman's financial relationships reveals a scrupulously honest man has been much maligned - 2010/08/26: Deltoid: Northgate: another retraction
- 2010/08/26: Monbiot: The Smearing of an Innocent man
- 2010/08/26: DeSmogBlog: Monbiot hits back at the Sunday Telegraph Pachauri Fabrication [in Dec. 2009]
- 2010/08/23: BCLSB: CRU Hack: Sifting Through The Ashes
Late Comment on Anderegg et al.:
- 2010/08/26: EconBrowser: A quantitative assessment of the scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change
The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:
- 2010/08/28: ClimateP: Arctic sea ice volume heads toward record low as Northwest Passage melts free fourth year in a row
- 2010/08/27: DWWSJ: Northwest Passage Opens (4th consecutive year)
- 2010/08/27: TreeHugger: Northwest And Northeast Passages Are Open
- 2010/08/25: ASI: Race to Fram Strait 2
- 2010/08/25: PhysOrg: Russian gas tanker forges Arctic passage to China
A Russian gas tanker is this month making a historic voyage across the famed Northeast passage as receding ice opens up an elusive trade route from Asia to the West sought for centuries by explorers. - 2010/08/24: CBC: Huge ice chunk breaks off [the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf on] Ellesmere Island
A large parcel of ice has fractured from a massive ice shelf on Ellesmere Island, marking the third known case of Arctic ice loss this summer alone. The chunk of ice, which scientists estimate is roughly the size of Bermuda, broke away from the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf on the island's northern coast around Aug. 18, according to NASA satellite imagery. At 40 metres thick, the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf is estimated to be 3,000 to 5,000 years old, jutting off the island like an extension of the land. - 2010/08/25: ASI: Animation 14: Canadian Archipelago
- 2010/08/24: ASI: Sailing through the ice
- 2010/08/24: AFTIC: Great video on Arctic sea ice
- 2010/08/23: ASI: Sea ice extent update 26: do I hear a fat lady?
- 2010/08/23: DM:BA: Enormous glacier calves in largest Arctic event seen in 48 years
As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:
- 2010/08/27: CBC: Cairn Arctic energy find 'not commercial' yet
Cairn Energy's discovery of a working hydrocarbon system below the seafloor off Greenland's coast does not necessarily mean the find will be commercially viable, the company says. - 2010/08/25: OilChange: It's as if Deepwater Never Happened...
- 2010/08/26: CBC: BP won't drill off Greenland coast
- 2010/08/25: Guardian(UK): BP frozen out of Arctic oil drilling race
- 2010/08/25: SolveClimate: Greenlanders Eager to Be New Deepwater Oil Frontier -- Cairn Energy's gas find sparks hopes that Greenland can ditch its reliance on fishing and tourism
- 2010/08/24: VCStar: Greenland gas find fuels environmental worries
- 2010/08/24: NatureTGB: No oil found off Greenland ... yet
Tensions in the Arctic are rising again after a Scottish company confirmed indications of oil off the coast of Greenland. Cairn Energy has not struck oil, but it says its "first well in Greenland provides early indication of working hydrocarbon system". - 2010/08/23: EarthTimes: Danish navy stops Greenpeace ship
- 2010/08/23: ENS: Protest Ship in the Arctic; Superglue, Chains and Oil at the Bank
- 2010/08/24: BBC: Cairn Energy has discovered gas off the coast of Greenland, a sign that could lead to a possible oil discovery
- 2010/08/24: CBC: Greenland offshore drilling finds oil or gas -- Greenpeace says sensitive environment threatened
- 2010/08/23: Guardian(UK): Danish warship blocks Greenpeace Arctic oil protest
The Danish navy has warned that the Esperanza will be boarded by armed personnel if it breaches the exclusion zone
A Greenpeace ship protesting against deep sea drilling by a British oil firm in the Arctic has been confronted by a Danish warship, and its captain threatened with arrest. The Danish navy has warned Greenpeace that the Esperanza will be boarded by armed personnel if it breaches a 500-metre exclusion zone around two wells drilled off Greenland by the Edinburgh-based oil firm Cairn Energy. - 2010/08/23: Stoat: Accelerated warming of the Southern Ocean and its impacts on the hydrological cycle and sea ice?
The food crisis is ongoing:
- 2010/08/27: NYT: Drought in Russia Ripples Beyond the Wheat Fields
Early reports from Russia's harvest indicate that yields of wheat and barley are down sharply, as predicted after a major drought here this summer that has helped send global wheat prices up sharply since June.
[...]
On Friday, wheat for delivery in December was trading on the Chicago Board of Trade for $6.95 a bushel -- up more than 40 percent from its low in June before the drought but down from its high of $8.68 on Aug. 6 after Russian announced an export ban. - 2010/08/27: CSM: Russia grain export ban benefits US farmers, sparks talk on climate change
- 2010/08/25: GreenGrok: As the World Warms: How Goes It In the Rice Paddies?
- 2010/08/27: ClimateP: The Coming Food Crisis: Global food security is stretched to the breaking point, and Russia's fires and Pakistan's floods are making a bad situation worse
- 2010/08/27: TreeHugger: Russian Heatwave's Effect on Agriculture a Sign of Things to Come Elsewhere?
- 2010/08/25: SeedDaily: Food prices soar in Russia after drought
- 2010/08/23: SciAm: How Will Climate Change Impact Bread? Part 2
Warming temperatures will exacerbate crop-destructive events, ranging from fires to floods... - 2010/08/23: BBC: Aid agency warns of 'double disaster' for Niger
Niger has been hit by a double disaster as recent floods compound an existing food crisis, a UK aid agency warned. - 2010/08/24: DemNow: Report: Global Food Security and Sovereignty Threatened by Corporate and Government "Land Grabs" in Poor Countries
GMOs receive a steady round of press releases:
- 2010/08/25: Eureka: Study predicts massive impact of drought tolerant maize in Africa
And how are we going to feed 9 billion?
- 2010/08/27: Grist: War-era food posters: Wacky, well-meaning, and still relevant [slideshow]
- 2010/08/27: DerSpiegel: Smart Tractors -- Improving Crop Yields One Plant at a Time
It used to be that farmers were concerned about the health of their fields as a whole. New technologies now enable them to care for plants on an individual basis. From fighting fungus to adjusting soil acidity, smart tractors can do it all. - 2010/08/26: BBC: Wheat genome may help tackle food shortages
UK scientists have released draft sequences of the wheat genome, which they think could make a vital contribution to securing global food supplies. - 2010/08/26: EurActiv: EU researchers make tuna stock breakthrough...a natural method for extracting mass quantities of bluefin tuna eggs...
- 2010/08/26: NatureTGB: GM salmon may be on US menus in 18 months
- 2010/08/25: SciNow: Has Wheat Peaked?
[...] the genetic improvements that have increased wheat yields year after year may have hit a wall, according to new research. That could present new challenges to farmers and policymakers trying to find ways to feed a growing world population that shows no signs of plateauing. - 2010/08/26: BBC: Food figures need a pinch of salt
The idea that the world needs to double its food production by 2050 in order to feed a growing population is wrong, says Isobel Tomlinson from the Soil Association. In this week's Green Room, she says the misuse of data could be used to allow even greater intensification of the global agricultural industry. - 2010/08/25: PhysOrg: Growing drought-tolerant crops inching forward
- 2010/08/25: TreeHugger: Is Industrial Monoculture the Real Path to Sustainable Farming?
- 2010/08/23: SwissInfo: Swiss plan to produce sustainable food supply
Switzerland will continue efforts to improve food security and defeat hunger around the world, although it remains a "Herculean task". That is how Micheline Calmy-Rey, the Swiss foreign minister, described the need to feed the nine to ten billion people projected to populate the planet by 2050. - 2010/08/24: DemNow: Largest Egg Recall in US History Brings Renewed Attention to Dangers of Industrial Farming
- 2010/08/24: DemNow: David Kirby on "The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy and Poultry Farms on Humans and the Environment"
- 2010/08/23: Eureka: AgriLife research identifies wheat streak resistance gene -- Molecular markers can help reduce new wheat variety development time
- 2010/08/23: Eureka: Plants give up some deep secrets of drought resistance
- 2010/08/22: BizInsider: Get Ready For A Monster Battle Over Potash And The Future Of The Global Food Supply
The oceans woke up all around the world this week:
- 2010/08/28: Wunderground: Earl a threat to the Lesser Antilles; Danielle misses Bermuda; 97L organizing
- 2010/08/27: EarthTimes: Danielle becomes mighty hurricane over the Atlantic
- 2010/08/28: TGBeaver: Hurricane Danielle, Tropical Storm Earl and Invest 97L
- 2010/08/27: Wunderground: Danielle a Cat 4; Earl more organized; Northwest Passage opens for 4th year in a row
- 2010/08/27: CBC: Hurricane Danielle becomes Category 4 storm
- 2010/08/25: TerraDaily: Frank becomes a hurricane in Pacific, veers away from Mexico
- 2010/08/26: Wunderground: Danielle steams towards Bermuda; Earl organizing over eastern Atlantic
- 2010/08/25: EarthTimes: Frank becomes hurricane off Mexico's Pacific coast
- 2010/08/25: CNN: [Tropical] Storm [Frank] leaves 4 dead, 30,000 affected in Mexico, government says
Tropical Storm Frank, which caused the fatalities, became a hurricane Wednesday - The deaths occurred in southern Mexico's Oaxaca state - Two mudslides were responsible for the four deaths - 2010/08/25: Wunderground: Little change to Danielle; TD 7 forms; flood waters peak in southern Pakistan
- 2010/08/25: EarthTimes: Four dead, 10 missing as tropical storm Mindulle hits Vietnam
- 2010/08/24: PlanetArk: Tropical Storm [Mindulle] To Lash South China And To Bring More Rain
- 2010/08/24: Wunderground: Danielle a hurricane; TD 7 forming off coast of Africa
- 2010/08/24: EarthTimes: Vietnam braces for Tropical Storm Mindulle
- 2010/08/24: Eureka: NASA satellites see Tropical Storm Frank powering back up near Mexico
- 2010/08/24: Eureka: NASA satellite sees Tropical Storm Mindulle make landfall in Vietnam
- 2010/08/24: Eureka: Danielle now a Category 2 hurricane, NASA satellites working in high gear
- 2010/08/24: CSM: Hurricane Danielle forms in Atlantic, Earl on her heels
- 2010/08/23: Reuters: Danielle strengthens into Atlantic hurricane
- 2010/08/23: DWWSJ: Tropics Are Heating Up
- 2010/08/22: TerraDaily: Tropical storm Danielle forms in Atlantic
- 2010/08/23: Wunderground: Danielle forms; extreme heat record for Palestine; south Pakistan flooding worsens
- 2010/08/23: EarthTimes: Tropical storm Frank threatens to become hurricane off Mexico
- 2010/08/23: CBC: Tropical storm Frank over the Pacific
While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:
- 2010/08/29: CNN: Katrina: 5 years later - Then and Now
- 2010/08/27: NatureTGB: Evaluating Katrina's impact on science
- 2010/08/28: CCurrents: How A Hero in New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina Was Arrested, Labeled A Terrorist And Imprisoned
- 2010/08/26: UN: Bangladesh: UN agencies offer relief to families still displaced by cyclone [Aila]
- 2010/08/23: Eureka: 'Legacy of Katrina' report details impact of stalled recovery on mental health status of children
60 percent of children -- as many as 20,000 -- displaced by Katrina either have serious emotional disorders, behavioral issues or are experiencing significant housing instability - 2010/08/28: EarthTimes: Nine die in Nepal flood and mudslides, hundreds displaced
- 2010/08/25: EarthTimes: 29 die in heavy [monsoon] rains, thunderstorms across India
- 2010/08/25: EarthTimes: Six killed, hundreds displaced as monsoon wreaks havoc in Nepal
- 2010/08/23: IndiaToday: Flood alert in Delhi, 500 evacuated
As for the temperature record:
- 2010/08/28: TimesHerald: Numbers confirm it: Summer was a scorcher
- 2010/08/27: ChronicleHerald: Canada headed for warmest year yet -- First half of year 3.5 degrees higher than normal
- 2010/08/25: MGS: Were the 70s cold?
- 2010/08/25: SEasterbrook: Data Challenges in Creating a new Surface Temperature Record
Yes we have feedbacks:
- 2010/08/23: CColose: Climate Feedbacks: Part 1
Aerosols are making their presence felt:
- 2010/08/26: TerraDaily: Engineering The Skies
Clouds are one of the major uncertainties in climate. Much research revolves around them:
- 2010/05/30: TSoD: Clouds and Water Vapor -- Part One
- 2010/08/24: TSoD: Clouds and Water Vapor -- Part Two
While in the paleoclimate:
- 2010/08/28: SMH: NZ seabed samples clue to global warming
The fossil record from oceans around New Zealand shows a sudden discharge of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere at the end of the last ice age, raising the possibility that a similar process may occur as a result of global warming, researchers say. - 2010/08/27: CCP: Upper-ocean-to-atmosphere radiocarbon offsets imply fast deglacial carbon dioxide release by Kathryn A. Rose et al., Nature 466 (2010)
- 2010/08/27: CCP: Tom Guilderson: results suggest that there was a release of very 'old' or low 14/12CO2 from the deep ocean to the atmosphere during the end of the last ice age...
- 2010/08/26: LLNL: Large CO2 release speeds up ice age melting
- 2010/08/23: TerraDaily: Oxygen 'oases' led to all life on Earth
- 2010/08/25: Eureka: Rutgers researchers find a 'great fizz' of carbon dioxide at the end of the last ice age -- Relevance for geo-engineers: What fizzed once, can fizz again
- 2010/08/24: PhysOrg: New study shows how giant tortoises, alligators thrived in High Arctic 50 million years ago
- 2010/08/22: SciDaily: Ancient Microbes Responsible for Breathing Life Into Ocean 'Deserts' [2 bya]
While on the ENSO front:
- 2010/07/24: GRL: (ab$) Increasing intensity of El Niño in the central-equatorial Pacific by Tong Lee & Michael J. McPhaden
- 2010/08/27: SciDaily: El Niños Are Growing Stronger, NASA/NOAA Study Finds
- 2010/08/27: LA Times: El NiEl Niño is intensifying, report says
The weather pattern has doubled in intensity and warmth and shifted westward [over several decades], according to scientists. Fluctuations could have a "worldwide impact on climate patterns." - 2010/08/25: NOAANews: NASA/NOAA Study Finds El Niños Growing Stronger
- 2010/08/25: NASA:JPL: NASA/NOAA Study Finds El Niños are Growing Stronger
A relatively new type of El Niño, which has its warmest waters in the central-equatorial Pacific Ocean, rather than in the eastern-equatorial Pacific, is becoming more common and progressively stronger, according to a new study by NASA and NOAA. The research may improve our understanding of the relationship between El Niños and climate change, and has potentially significant implications for long-term weather forecasting. - 2010/08/28: APOD: Hole in the Sun
Meanwhile in near earth orbit:
- 2010/08/27: SciDaily: Ten Years Flying in Formation: The Legendary Cluster Quartet
- 2010/08/27: SciDaily: Metop-A Completes 20,000th Orbit
- 2010/08/24: NatureTGB: Hope for ESA's Gravity Mission [GOCE]
- 2010/08/23: PhysOrg: European [GOCE] science satellite hit by glitch
More GW impacts are being seen:
- 2010/08/27: Guardian(UK): Coffee threatened by [coffee berry borer] beetles in a warming world
- 2010/08/26: GreenGrok: As the World Warms II: How Goes It With the Land's Biosphere?
- 2010/08/27: TreeHugger: Global Warming-Loving Beetle Threatens World's Coffee Supply
- 2010/08/25: NYT:CW: New Yorkers Begin to See How Much They Have to Lose From Climate Change
- 2010/08/25: Xinhuanet: Interview [Grinia Avalos of Peru's Meteorology and Hydrology National Service]: Climate change impacts ecosystems, social life in poor nations
- 2010/08/24: UFlorida: UF study shows carnivore species shrank during global warming event
- 2010/08/22: SMandia: Climate Change Impact on Oceans & Shallow Seas
And then there are the world's forests:
- 2010/08/29: TreeHugger: James Cameron Hits the Amazon To Stop the Belo Monte Dam (Video)
- 2010/08/29: McClatchyDC: From outer space, a new dilemma for old-growth forests
- 2010/08/27: GreenGrok: Statistically Speaking: Blowing in the Wind
- 2010/08/27: EarthTimes: Lula approves [Belo Monte] dam on [Amazon] river despite protests
- 2010/08/26: BBC: Brazil government gives go-ahead for huge [Belo Monte] Amazon dam
Brazil's government has given the formal go-ahead for the building on a tributary of the Amazon of the world's third biggest hydroelectric dam. After several failed legal challenges, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed the contract for the Belo Monte dam with the Norte Energia consortium. - 2010/08/24: NatureN: Claims of growth in India's forests 'misleading' -- The country's native forests are disappearing at an alarming rate, says a new study
- 2010/08/24: DM:GnXp: Decline in forest cover
Desertification looms as a threat:
- 2010/08/23: PlanetArk: Mauritania Plants Trees To Hold Back Desert
This week in extreme weather:
- 2010/08/27: NatureN: Cold empties Bolivian rivers of fish -- Antarctic cold snap kills millions of aquatic animals in the Amazon
- 2010/08/26: CSW: International research group works to analyze weather extremes in real time
- 2010/08/23: MTobis: "Super-Extreme" Weather in Indonesia
A rare phenomenon in Brazil:
- 2010/08/25: DM:BA: A tornado made of fire. Seriously.
- 2010/08/25: CSM: Fire tornado caught on film in Brazil, want to make your own? (VIDEO)
As for heatwaves and wild fires:
- 2010/08/25: Eureka: Fuel treatments reduce wildfire severity, tree mortality in Washington forests
- 2010/08/26: LA Times: Southern California heat wave spawns wild weather
As temperatures and surf remain high, lightning storms spark several brush fires inland. Downed power lines in Lake Elsinore briefly trap 11 passengers in a bus. - 2010/08/25: LA Times: With heat wave comes wildfire and high surf
- 2010/08/24: USAToday: Calif. faces another day of record-breaking heat
- 2010/08/24: EarthTimes: Wildfire still out of control on [Ibiza] Spanish holiday island
- 2010/08/24: EarthTimes: Wildfire devours 400 hectares on Spanish holiday island [Ibiza]
- 2010/08/23: KY3: Wildfires continue across Arkansas
- 2010/08/23: EarthTimes: Wildfire ravages Spanish holiday island of Ibiza
- 2010/08/23: CBC: B.C. wildfires slowed by cool weather
Corals are dying:
- 2010/08/27: ClimateShifts: Massive Coral Mortality Following Bleaching in Indonesia
- 2010/08/25: Maribo: A year of extreme weather: Is more bleaching to come in the Caribbean?
- 2010/08/25: ABC(Au): Infant coral mortality as high as 90pc: researchers
Researchers in north Queensland have found infant coral face a number of dangers when they first settle on a reef. Australian and French scientists studied and counted the survival in minute and juvenile corals in French Polynesian waters. - 2010/08/23: ClimateShifts: Global Change and the World's Coral Reefs [video]
Acidification is changing the oceans:
- 2010/08/22: FuturePundit: Ocean Acidification Due To CO2 Emissions
- 2010/08/28: SkeptiSci: Ocean acidification threatens entire marine food chains
- 2010/08/26: TerraDaily: Limiting Ocean Acidification Under Global Change
- 2010/08/26: TreeHugger: New Research Shows Bleak Future for Life in Acidic Oceans By Century's End
- 2010/08/25: ClassM: Oceanic acidification: just the facts
- 2010/08/25: SciDaily: Acidifying Oceans Spell Bleak Marine Biological Future 'by End of Century', Mediterranean Research Finds
Glaciers are melting:
- 2010/08/25: USGS: Glaciers Retreating in Asia -- Could Impact Water Supplies for Millions and Cause Flood Conditions
- 2010/08/25: USAToday: Asia's glaciers in retreat, could signal crop failure and flooding in the future
- 2010/08/25: DerSpiegel: Mudslide Danger on Mont Blanc -- Subglacial Lake Threatens Alpine Community
Engineers are beginning a delicate operation to drain a huge lake under a glacier on Mont Blanc. If it bursts, it could trigger a giant mudslide that would threaten thousands of people in the valley below. - 2010/08/25: BBC: France drains lake under Mont Blanc glacier
- 2010/08/23: ABC(Au): NZ glacier sheds 50m tonnes of ice
- 2010/08/23: DM:BA: Enormous glacier calves in largest Arctic event seen in 48 years
Sea levels are rising:
- 2010/08/23: NYT:CW: If a Country Sinks Beneath the Sea, Is It Still a Country?
- 2010/08/23: ABC(Au): Euro Council backs sea level rise policy
And speaking of floods & droughts:
- 2010/08/27: EarthTimes: Eleven killed in landslides and floods in Turkey
- 2010/08/27: BBC: Twelve dead in northern Turkey landslides
At least 12 people have died in landslides in northern Turkey after torrential rain, officials say. - 2010/08/25: VOA: China's Heavy Rains Blamed on Unusual Climate Patterns
- 2010/08/26: EarthTimes: 21 killed in Afghanistan flash floods
- 2010/08/26: EarthTimes: Eleven die in latest Nepal landsides and flooding
- 2010/08/24: TerraDaily: Drought likely hit Philippine growth, says official
- 2010/08/23: TerraDaily: Drought costs Russia one billion dollars in crop losses
- 2010/08/24: CBC: China halts Three Gorges Dam shipping due to flood
Authorities have halted shipping through China's massive Three Gorges Dam on the upper reaches of the Yangtze river because the dam will experience another flood peak Tuesday. - 2010/08/22: EarthTimes: At least 12 dead in heavy rains in Nicaragua
Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation has somehow seemed chimeric:
- 2010/08/24: TerraDaily: Malaysia activists hail Norway's blacklisting of timber firm
Malaysian activists on Tuesday applauded a decision by Norway's state pension fund to blacklist timber firm Samling Global, which is accused of rampant environmental destruction in Borneo. - 2010/08/25: TreeHugger: REDD to Offer No Net Emission Reductions in Indonesia - Too Many Forested Areas Omitted by Government
- 2010/08/24: Reuters: Indonesia project boosts global forest CO2 market
Likely to be first fully validated REDD project under VCS - Approval of methodology boost for REDD projects - 2010/08/25: CalcRisk: ATA: "Truck freight tonnage has essentially gone sideways since April 2010"
- 2010/08/24: Grist: Why our railways suck (in two graphs)
- 2010/08/23: TreeHugger: Is the Electrification of Transportation a Good Thing? (Part 2)
- 2010/08/23: AutoBG: API: Demand for gas drops .03% for July, while overall petroleum usage climbs 3.8%
- 2010/08/23: CalcRisk: DOT: Vehicle Miles driven increase in June
While in the endless quest for zero energy, sustainable buildings and practical codes:
- 2010/08/23: Grist: Isolated green buildings won't save the planet, TEDsters argue
- 2010/08/24: NRDC:SwitchBoard: How LEED-ND works, step-by-step - evaluating a low-carbon development
- 2010/08/24: TreeHugger: How Should We Really Measure Green Building?
As for carbon sequestration:
- 2010/08/24: TEC: FutureGen Switches Tracks
Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:
- 2010/08/25: KSJT: Could geoengineering scale back the pace of sea level rise?
- 2010/08/24: BBC: Geoengineering 'not a solution' to sea-level rise
- 2010/08/24: SciNow: Can Geoengineering Halt Sea-Level Rise?
- 2010/08/24: DM:80B: Geoengineering Could Slow -- But Not Stop -- Sea Level Rise
- 2010/08/24: Eureka: Geo-engineering and sea-level rise over the 21st century
- 2010/08/23: SciAm: All-out geoengineering still would not stop sea level rise
- 2010/08/23: NewScientist: Geoengineering won't undo sea levels rises
- 2010/08/23: NatureN: Geoengineering won't curb sea-level rise -- Space mirrors and 'volcanic' blasts are not an easy fix for the rise in sea levels
While on the adaptation front:
- 2010/08/27: ClimateP: Real adaptation is as politically tough as real mitigation, but much more expensive and not as vital
- 2010/08/26: CSW: America's Climate Choices -- Webinar on Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change
Meanwhile in the journals:
- 2010/08/23: NERC:NORA: How do polar marine ecosystems respond to rapid climate change? by Oscar Schofield et al.
- 2010/08/23: NERC:NORA: Evidence for elevated alkalinity in the glacial Southern Ocean by R.E.M. Rickaby et al.
- 2010/08/23: NERC:NORA: The deuterium excess records of EPICA Dome C and Dronning Maud Land ice cores (East Antarctica) by B. Stenni et al.
- 2010/08/23: NERC:NORA: Modelling the impact of ocean warming on melting and water masses of ice shelves in the Eastern Weddell Sea by Malte Thoma et al.
- 2010/08/24: NERC:NORA: Phytoplankton and light limitation in the Southern Ocean: Learning from high-nutrient high-chlorophyll areas by Hugh Venables & C. Mark Moore
- 2010/08/24: NERC:NORA: Relationship between variability of the semidiurnal tide in the Northern Hemisphere mesosphere and quasi-stationary planetary waves throughout the global middle atmosphere by X. Xu et al.
- 2010/08/24: NERC:NORA: Interhemispheric coupling, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and warm Antarctic interglacials by P. B. Holden et al.
- 2010/08/24: NERC:NORA: Climate control of terrestrial carbon exchange across biomes and continents by Chuixiang Yi et multi al.
- 2010/08/27: ACP: Studying an effect of salt powder seeding used for precipitation enhancement from convective clouds by A. S. Drofa et al.
- 2010/08/27: ACP: Optical extinction by upper tropospheric/stratospheric aerosols and clouds: GOMOS observations for the period 2002-2008 by F. Vanhellemont et al.
- 2010/08/27: ACP: Particle formation and growth at five rural and urban sites by C.-H. Jeong et al.
- 2010/08/27: ACP: Modelling surface ozone during the 2003 heat-wave in the UK by M. Vieno et al.
- 2010/08/27: ACPD: Investigating the sensitivity of high-resolution mesoscale models to microphysical parameters by the use of polarimetric radar observations by R. Ferretti et al.
- 2010/08/27: ACPD: Tropical deep convection and its impact on composition in global and mesoscale models - Part 2: Tracer transport by C. R. Hoyle et al.
- 2010/08/27: ACPD: A subsiding regional forest fire aerosol layer at Whistler, BC: implications for interpretation of mountaintop chemistry observations by I. G. Mc Kendry et al.
- 2010/08/27: TCD: Parameterization for subgrid-scale motion of ice-shelf calving-fronts by T. Albrecht et al.
- 2010/08/27: TCD: Some fundamentals of handheld snow surface thermography by C. Shea & B. Jamieson
- 2010/08/26: TCD: Isotope hydrological studies on the perennial ice deposit of Saarhalle, Mammuthöhle, Dachstein Mts, Austria by Z. Kern et al.
- 2010/08/25: TCD: Interplay between linear, dissipative and permanently critical mechanical processes in Arctic sea ice by A. Chmel et al.
- 2010/08/25: TCD: Permafrost and surface energy balance of a polygonal tundra site in Northern Siberia - Part 2: Winter by M. Langer et al.
- 2010/08/27: CP: Variations in mid-latitude North Atlantic surface water properties during the mid-Brunhes (MIS 9-14) and their implications for the thermohaline circulation by A. H. L. Voelker et al.
- 2010/08/24: CP: Climate change and the demise of Minoan civilization by A. A. Tsonis et al.
- 2010/08/27: AGWObserver: Papers on permafrost thawing
- 2010/08/25: GRL: (ab$) Anomalously low solar extreme-ultraviolet irradiance and thermospheric density during solar minimum by Stanley C. Solomon et al.
- 2010/08/25: ACP: Transport timescales and tracer properties in the extratropical UTLS by P. Hoor et al.
- 2010/08/25: ACP: HFC-23 (CHF3) emission trend response to HCFC-22 (CHClF2) production and recent HFC-23 emission abatement measures by B. R. Miller et al.
- 2010/08/24: ACP: A new method for deriving aerosol solar radiative forcing and its first application within MILAGRO/INTEX-B by K. S. Schmidt et al.
- 2010/08/24: ACP: Vertical structure of Antarctic tropospheric ozone depletion events: characteristics and broader implications by A. E. Jones et al.
- 2010/08/26: ACPD: Modelling deep convection and its impacts on the tropical tropopause layer by J. S. Hosking et al.
- 2010/08/26: ACPD: An analysis of the Collection 5 MODIS over-ocean aerosol optical depth product for its implication in aerosol assimilation by Y. Shi et al.
- 2010/08/25: ACPD: Ancient versus modern mineral dust transported to high-altitude Alpine glaciers evidences Saharan sources and atmospheric circulation changes by F. Thevenon et al.
- 2010/08/24: ACPD: Modelling day-time concentrations of biogenic volatile organic compounds in a boreal forest canopy by H. K. Lappalainen et al.
- 2010/08/24: ACPD: Particle concentration and flux dynamics in the atmospheric boundary layer as the indicator of formation mechanism by J. Lauros et al.
- 2010/08/24: ACPD: Time-resolved measurements of black carbon light absorption enhancement in urban and near-urban locations of Southern Ontario, Canada by T. W. Chan et al.
- 2010/08/26: AGWObserver: Papers on Rossby wave breaking
- 2010/09/: CropScience: (abs) Genetic Improvement in Winter Wheat Yields in the Great Plains of North America, 1959-2008 by Robert A. Graybosch & C. James Peterson
- 2010/07/24: GRL: (ab$) Increasing intensity of El Niño in the central-equatorial Pacific by Tong Lee & Michael J. McPhaden
- 2010/08/24: PNAS: (abs) Influence of climate on malaria transmission depends on daily temperature variation by Krijn P. Paaijmans et al.
- 2010/08/24: PNAS: (ab$) Polar front shift and atmospheric CO2 during the glacial maximum of the Early Paleozoic Icehouse by Thijs R. A. Vandenbroucke et al.
- 2010/08/24: PNAS: (abs) Quantifying uncertainty in climate change science through empirical information theory by Andrew J. Majda & Boris Gershgorin
- 2010/07/23: Science: (ab$) Calcareous Nannoplankton Response to Surface-Water Acidification Around Oceanic Anoxic Event 1a by Elisabetta Erba et al.
- 2010/08/26: Nature: [Letter$] Upper-ocean-to-atmosphere radiocarbon offsets imply fast deglacial carbon dioxide release by Kathryn A. Rose et al.
- 2010/08/24: OS: Seasonal cycles of surface layer salinity in the Pacific Ocean by F. M. Bingham et al.
- 2010/08/24: OSD: Tracers confirm downward mixing of Tyrrhenian Sea upper waters associated with the Eastern Mediterranean Transient by W. Roether & J. E. Lupton
- 2010/08/23: TC: Assessing high altitude glacier thickness, volume and area changes using field, GIS and remote sensing techniques: the case of Nevado Coropuna (Peru) by P. Peduzzi et al.
- 2010/08/23: TCD: Application of ground penetrating radar (GPR) in Alpine ice caves by H. Hausmann & M. Behm
- 2010/08/20: PNAS: (ab$) Efficacy of geoengineering to limit 21st century sea-level rise by J. C. Moore et al.
And other significant documents:
- 2010/08/27: PI: [link to 2.2 meg pdf] Oil Sands Environmental Coalition [OSEC] submission against Total Joslyn North Mine Application
- 2010/08/24: DemNow: [link to 3.7 meg pdf] Report: Global Food Security and Sovereignty Threatened by Corporate and Government "Land Grabs" in Poor Countries
As for miscellaneous science:
- 2010/08/24: JEB: More on the multi-model mean
- 2010/08/26: EurActiv: Wanted: EU chief scientist
- 2010/08/26: SEasterbrook: On the Uses and Abuses of Infrastructural Inversion
- 2010/08/24: LFB: New Plant Paradigms (Part IIX: Manufacturing Plants)
- 2010/08/24: RWER: Academic publishing is changing
- 2010/08/24: ClassM: Worst graph ever
- 2010/08/23: MTobis: Is Anthropogenic Forcing Quasi-Linear?
- 2010/08/24: JEB: Mathematical and Statistical Approaches to Climate Modelling and Prediction
More Hansen:
- 2010/08/26: CCurrents: Am I An Activist For Caring About My Grandchildren's Future? I Guess I Am
- 2010/08/27: TreeHugger: Only Public Grassroots Activism Will Force Governments to Act on Climate: Dr James Hansen
- 2010/08/26: Guardian(UK): Am I an activist for caring about my grandchildren's future? I guess I am by James Hansen
- 2010/08/26: ClimateP: Hansen on why he became an activist: "Our planet is close to climate tipping points" and it is "clear that needed actions will happen only if the public, somehow, becomes forcefully involved."
- 2010/08/26: Stoat: Jastrow, Nierenberg and Seitz vs Hansen
- 2010/08/25: CCP: Activist by James Hansen -- Stabilizing climate is a moral issue
- 2010/08/24: SkeptiSci: Hansen etal hit a Climate Home Run -- in 1981 by muoncounter
Ehrlich on Schneider:
- 2010/08/23: CSW: Ehrlich on Schneider: Being a scientist doesn't relieve one of the obligations of a citizen
While at the UN:
- 2010/08/23: UN: UN environment agency stresses that Nigerian oil assessment is not yet complete
- 2010/08/24: OilChange: Nigeria: Independent Figures Dispute UN's Findings
- 2010/08/23: TreeHugger: Royal Dutch Shell Exonerated By UN Report, Bought and Paid For By Shell
- 2010/08/22: Guardian(UK): Outrage at UN decision to exonerate Shell for oil pollution in Niger delta
And on the carbon trading front:
- 2010/08/26: PlanetArk: Australia Firm Signs Congo Carbon Offsets Deal
- 2010/08/26: EurActiv: EU to restrict credits from [HFC-23] industrial gas projects in ETS
- 2010/08/25: CNA: Carbon trading could start to gain traction in region: experts
- 2010/08/25: Yahoo:Reuters: EU sees limit on industrial projects in CO2 scheme
The European Union's top climate official proposed on Wednesday new limits on the use of carbon offsets from industrial gas projects, under fire by green groups, in the EU's emissions trading scheme after 2012. "The Clean Development Mechanism has been successful in some aspects but has also given rise to criticism, e.g. with regard to environmental integrity," said Connie Hedegaard, Commissioner for Climate Action, in a statement. "As a first step towards a more advanced carbon market the CDM therefore needs a major overhaul." - 2010/08/25: Guardian(UK): Poorer nations hit with 'exorbitant' consultancy fees for carbon offset projects
Nepalese government has paid a Norwegian consultancy 150,000 euros (£123,000) to get UN certification for biogas projects - 2010/08/25: Reuters: U.N. carbon funding key for China clean coal developers
Chinese developers say USC requires CDM to be viable - Technology already mature, costs falling, says World Bank
Developers of clean-coal power plants in China fear for the viability of their projects after a U.N. carbon-credit scheme denied funding for a similar plant in India at the end of July. They said "ultra-supercritical" (USC) power stations would struggle without funds earned through the U.N.-backed Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) that lets rich countries invest in clean energy projects in developing countries. In return, investors earn tradeable carbon offsets known as certified emission reductions or CERs CEREZ0. - 2010/08/24: BizGreen: Carbon traders demand EU action to restore ebbing market confidence
- 2010/08/24: EurActiv: UN halts carbon credits to Chinese HFC plants
- 2010/08/23: Reuters: World Bank defends controversial HFC carbon-cut plants
The World Bank has defended its investment in chemical plants accused by green groups of raising production of greenhouse gas HFC-23 with the aim of incinerating it to get extra carbon offsets worth millions of dollars. - 2010/08/23: PlanetArk: U.N. Panel To Review CER Request From 5th HFC Plant
The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:
- 2010/08/26: AutoBG: Would a carbon tax help or hurt the auto industry?
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:
- 2010/08/24: TEC: If Politicians Really Want 'Clean Coal,' a Price on Carbon is Necessary, Task Force Finds
Meanwhile on the international political front:
- 2010/08/29: GlobalTimes: China, Japan agree to enhance dialogue on climate change, energy-saving
As for GW, energy & security:
- 2010/08/27: CCurrents: Climate-Related Security Predictions Coming True In Pakistan
- 2010/08/26: IPSNews: Climate-related Security Predictions Coming True in Pakistan
Analysts have been warning for several years that the impacts of climate change directly relate to the national security of the U.S. and other countries, but the link has never been so clear as it is today in northwest Pakistan. The security implications of climate change first got official U.S. government attention this February, in the Quadrennial Defence Review, a four-yearly report from the Pentagon on the direction of national security strategy. Noting rising sea levels, water shortages, melting Arctic ice, and extreme weather events, the review said that "while climate change alone does not cause conflict, it may act as an accelerant of instability or conflict, placing a burden to respond on civilian institutions and militaries around the world." These implications had been discussed by other experts much earlier. Most notable was a 2007 report from the think tank Center for a New American Security (CNAS), which found that, when compared to other national security challenge, climate change "may represent a great or a greater" test. Their conclusions, however, were based on scenarios and exercises. In Pakistan, where unprecedented floods have killed 1,500 people and displaced millions more, those scenarios are now reality. - 2010/08/29: HotTopic: Time to ring some changes
- 2010/08/27: Guardian(UK): 'Phantom' oil slick was a smear against Climate Camp
No wonder Climate Camp does not trust the media when the police dupe reporters into regurgitating unfounded rumours - 2010/08/25: Guardian(UK): Nine Plane Stupid activists fined for Aberdeen airport stunt
- 2010/08/25: Guardian(UK): Yes, we broke the law as climate change activists. And this is why
- 2010/08/24: BBC: Five climate change activists have come before Edinburgh Sheriff Court over the Royal Bank of Scotland protests
- 2010/08/24: Guardian(UK): Police arrest 12 Climate Camp protesters
Lothian and Borders police have arrested 12 campaigners during protests against the Royal Bank of Scotland's tar sands funding - 2010/08/23: BBC: Police arrest 12 activists in climate change protest
Climate change activists have been arrested after protests at the RBS headquarters in Edinburgh spread to different parts of the city. - 2010/08/27: CCurrents: Beyond Oil: Activism And Politics [McKibben]
- 2010/08/26: Guardian(UK): Climate activism: is the trial more important than the protest?
- 2010/08/26: Guardian(UK): Climate Camp is restricting free speech
- 2010/08/24: Guardian(UK): Twitter backfires for Climate Camp
- 2010/08/23: Scostsman: Eco-warriors target RBS as climate protests begin in Edinburgh
- 2010/08/23: Guardian(UK): Climate Camp day of action -- as it happened
As for SW tools:
- 2010/08/24: SEasterbrook: Climate Change: A Software Grand Challenge
And on the American political front:
- 2010/08/27: LA Times: California energy panel promises millions to ethanol firm founded by Schwarzenegger ally
- 2010/08/27: Mercury: Green goal line in sight: 33 percent renewable electricity bill nearing key votes
As the final days of the 2010 legislative session wind down in Sacramento, a Silicon Valley lawmaker is pushing to give California the most far-reaching mandate for renewable energy in the United States. - 2010/08/27: BSD: Climate regulation is all about next year's budget
- 2010/08/25: UCSUSA: Texas Oil Companies Fund Ballot Measure to Block CA Clean Energy Law
- 2010/08/25: ClimateP: Stop Prop 23: The 'fact sheet' vs. the facts
- 2010/08/25: Grist: Anti-Prop 23 campaign taps out-of-state donors
- 2010/08/25: NRDC:SwitchBoard: New NRDC fact sheet shows how moving beyond corn ethanol means more investment and more jobs in more states
- 2010/08/25: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Kentucky musicians vote with their feet against dirty coal
The BP disaster continues to roil US politics:
- 2010/08/26: CCurrents: Fish Kills Worry Gulf Scientists, Fishers, Environmentalists
- 2010/08/25: PRWatch: Playing Hide and Seek With [BP's gulf] Oil
- 2010/08/26: DVoice: America's Gulf: Updating the Greatest Ever Environmental Crime
- 2010/08/26: CJR: The Oil Plume Paradox -- Coverage of various studies engenders frustration
- 2010/08/27: KSJT: CJR's Observatory: Those "dueling" papers on the oil plume
- 2010/08/27: PlanetArk: U.S. Urged To Ensure Deepwater Drilling Safety
- 2010/08/25: WashingtonsBlog: Gulf Chemist: Mercenaries Hired By BP Are Now Applying Toxic Dispersant - at Night and In an Uncontrolled Manner - Which BP Says It No Longer Uses
- 2010/08/24: NYT: A Gulf Science Blackout
The Deepwater Horizon blowout may be capped and the surface oil slick dispersed, but the scientists' job has just begun: hundreds of us are working in and around the gulf to determine the long-term environmental impact of the drilling disaster. Although we are all doing needed research, we're not receiving equal money or access to the affected sites. Those working for BP or the federal government's Natural Resource Damage Assessment program are being given the bulk of the resources, while independent researchers are shoved aside. The problem is that researchers for BP and the government are being kept quiet, and their data is unavailable to the rest of the community. When damages to the gulf are assessed in court or Congress, there might not be enough objective data to make a fair judgment. Transparency is vital to successful science: researchers must subject their proposals to the scrutiny of colleagues, and publications require peer review. When it comes to field research, scientists need equal access to the same sites to test competing hypotheses. But BP, which controls access to the Deepwater Horizon site and vast stretches of the water around it, seems unconcerned about those principles. - 2010/08/25: EarthTimes: Study: Gulf oil plume may be degrading faster than expected
- 2010/08/25: CCurrents: America's Gulf: Greatest Ever Environmental Crime
- 2010/08/24: Yahoo: BP's 'nightmare well' engineer refuses to testify
- 2010/08/23: CPunch: The Gulf Crisis is Not Over -- Slow Violence and the BP Coverups
- 2010/08/24: SolveClimate: Oil Spill Troubles Multiply Within Vietnamese Fishing Community
- 2010/08/23: NYT:GW: White House, Critics Reach Stalemate in Dispute Over Oil Budget in Gulf
- 2010/08/24: ABC(Au): Thousands of dead fish found at Mississippi's mouth
- 2010/08/24: PlanetArk: U.S. Officials Saw Drilling Ban Costing Jobs: Report
Senior U.S. officials expected the deepwater drilling ban to cost about 23,000 jobs and hold up $10.2 billion in investments... - 2010/08/23: DemNow: Scientist Accuses Obama Administration and BP of Underestimating Amount of Oil Left in Gulf of Mexico
- 2010/08/23: DemNow: Fishing Industry in Gulf Still Worried About Levels of Toxins in the Water and the Impact on Marine Life
So how do you figure the 2010 elections will crack up?
- 2010/08/28: WaPo: W.Va. governor wins Dem primary for US Senate
Popular Gov. Joe Manchin won the Democratic nomination Saturday and will face GOP primary winner and wealthy businessman John Raese in the race to fill the Senate seat vacated by the late Robert C. Byrd. - 2010/08/25: TP: Leading AK GOP U.S. Senate Candidate Joe Miller: 'We Haven't Heard There's Man-Made Global Warming'
- 2010/08/24: Grist: In Alaska, climate change skeptic leads GOP race for Senate
- 2010/08/24: TP: New Mexico GOP Candidates Are Global Warming Deniers
- 2010/08/23: TP:WR: New Mexico GOP Candidates Deny Global Warming Reality
The PACE saga rolls on with no relief:
- 2010/08/27: Grist: PACE in the hole -- Fannie regulator digs in on clean-energy opposition
The Obama chatter is nonstop:
- 2010/08/26: SameFacts: THIS is why progressives are ticked at Obama
- 2010/08/27: Grist: Change we don't need -- Obama turns an even lighter shade of green
- 2010/08/27: Grist: Remember that massive clean-energy bill Obama signed?
- 2010/08/25: ScienceInsider: Clean Energy Technologies Dominate Obama's View of Innovation
- 2010/08/25: TEC: White House Report: Stimulus Driving Clean Energy Innovation, Manufacturing, Markets -- But What Comes Next?
- 2010/08/23: TreeHugger: Does Obama Really Support Sustainable Agriculture?
The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:
- 2010/08/27: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Coal Waste Regulation -- Utilities Trying to Avoid Regulating their Toxic Wastes by Misdirection
- 2010/08/27: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Obama Administration Sides with Polluters in Key Global Warming Case
- 2010/08/26: WaPo: Obama administration sides with utilities in Supreme Court case about climate change
- 2010/08/26: SolveClimate: Biomass Industry Wants New Boiler Rules from EPA -- Proposed regs are already having a 'chilling effect' on new projects, industry says
- 2010/08/26: ClimateP: Anatomy of a bad decision: Obama's embrace of offshore drilling was made by limiting scientific and environmental input
- 2010/08/26: ClimateP: First Energy Regional Innovation Cluster announced [by DOE]
- 2010/08/25: NYT:GW: With Hill Hopes for Climate Bill Dashed, Advocates Circle Wagons at EPA
- 2010/08/23: PlanetArk: U.S. Farmers Oppose EPA's Proposed Dust Standard
- 2010/08/23: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Foul air from oil and gas operations -- tell your story to the EPA
As for what is going on in Congress:
- 2010/08/25: HillHeat: Waxman and Stupak Demand BP Detail Scope Of Advertising Campaign
The future climate bill defines a battleline:
- 2010/08/27: CCurrents: Could This Be A Crime? U.S. Climate Bill Is Dead While So Much Life On Our Earth Continues To Perish
- 2010/08/16: HuffPo: Death by Growth: What the Climate-Bill Autopsies Missed
- 2010/08/27: CCurrents: Death By Growth
- 2010/08/24: Grist: Wonder why climate bills stall in the Senate? Follow the money
What are the lobbyists pushing?
- 2010/08/25: DM:BA: Union of Concerned Scientists launches global warming ad campaign
- 2010/08/23: BWeek: Clean coal group [ACCCE] spends $616,144 on 2Q lobbying
- 2010/08/23: DeSmogBlog: Oil & Gas Industries Spent Record $175 Million Lobbying Against Climate Action
- 2010/08/21: Google:AP: Chamber emerges as formidable political force
At times subtle, at times loud, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is spending record amounts on lobbying and in election battlegrounds, elbowing into the nation's politics in unprecedented ways for the business community. The country's largest business lobby has pledged to spend $75 million in this year's elections. That's on top of a lobbying effort that already has cost the organization nearly $190 million since Barack Obama became president in January 2009. Those numbers alone, together with what chamber officials say is a network of online backers that can amplify the pro-business message, give the group clout as a virtual third party and a powerful voice in what laws are made and who's elected to write them. - 2010/08/23: EnergyBoom: Al Gore: Climate Bill Failure Costing U.S. Billions
While in the UK:
- 2010/08/27: Guardian(UK): 'Phantom' oil slick was a smear against Climate Camp
No wonder Climate Camp does not trust the media when the police dupe reporters into regurgitating unfounded rumours - 2010/08/27: PeakEnergy: Will wind farms pick up the tab for new nuclear in the UK?
And in Europe:
- 2010/08/27: PlanetArk: Merkel Seeks More From Utilities For Renewables
German utilities should make more of a contribution toward encouraging the development of renewable energy in addition to paying a planned nuclear fuel tax, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday. - 2010/08/26: EurActiv: EU to restrict credits from [HFC-23] industrial gas projects in ETS
- 2010/08/25: Yahoo:Reuters: EU sees limit on industrial projects in CO2 scheme
- 2010/08/25: EurActiv: Consumers in dark as light bulb phase-out continues
As the EU's phase-out of energy-guzzling light bulbs prepares to move into a second phase in September, consumer organisations are calling for an education campaign and a better disposal system. - 2010/08/25: EurActiv: UK, Germany to settle bank levy plan in Brussels
Upcoming talks between EU ministers will seek to calm fears that banks will face double taxation as countries begin to adopt anti-crisis plans. - 2010/08/25: EurActiv: Poland's power plans worry environmentalists
- 2010/08/25: PlanetArk: Poland's [coal] Power Plans Worry Environmentalists
- 2010/08/25: PlanetArk: Germany's Merkel Rejects Calls To Drop Nuclear Tax
- 2010/08/23: EarthTimes: EU flood aid to Pakistan tops 250 million dollars, Brussels says
- 2010/08/23: EarthTimes: German government weighs extra charge on nuclear energy firms
Meanwhile in Australia:
- 2010/08/29: ABC(Au): Tasmania's climate change hit list -- A new report shows alpine regions and coastal areas will be Tasmania's first casualties of climate change
- 2010/08/27: ABC(Au):TDU: Adversarial and aggressive Abbott stumbles
- 2010/08/27: ABC(Au):TDU: The missing party in Australian politics
- 2010/08/26: Guardian(UK): Australian Capital Territory to pass tough carbon cutting laws
- 2010/08/26: Reuters: Australia's capital sets 40 pct carbon cut law
The government of an Australian territory said on Thursday it will enact tough carbon cutting laws, a step that comes after a national election that punished the ruling Labor party over lack of action on climate change. The Australian Capital Territory, which includes the capital Canberra also ruled by Labor, said its Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Bill 2010 would set a target of cutting carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels. The cut would rise to 80 percent by 2050, with the aim of the territory of nearly 400,000 people becoming carbon neutral by 2060. - 2010/08/25: ABC(Au): A survey has found 90 per cent of Geraldton Greenough residents want immediate action on climate change, including the implementation of initiatives at a local level
- 2010/08/25: ABC(Au): Popular solar bonus scheme to be reviewed
The New South Wales Government will review its Solar Bonus Scheme after a faster than expected take up of the incentives to encourage renewable energy. - 2010/08/24: Reuters: Plan Seeks 100 Pct Renewable Energy in Australia in Ten Years
The tipping point for climate change, after which many of its most destructive effects will become irreversible, strongly suggests that atmospheric CO2 must be reduced from its current level of 390 ppm to "well below 350 ppm" significantly closer to pre-industrial concentrations of 285 ppm," according to a recent report by Beyond Zero Emissions, an Australian nonprofit organization. - 2010/08/23: ABC(Au): Euro Council backs sea level rise policy
A shire council on the New South Wales far south coast has applauded the State Government for its new Coastal Planning Guidelines. - 2010/08/29: AdelaideNow: Climate change action delays cost Labor election - says a new poll by the Climate Institute
Labor could have won two extra seats and perhaps the election had it not deferred its carbon pollution reduction scheme (CPRS), a new poll suggests. - 2010/08/26: ABC(Au):TDU: The green tide
- 2010/08/23: ABC(Au):TDU: Don't panic. This might just work
- 2010/08/22: ABC(Au):TDU: Indecision 2010: independents reign supreme
- 2010/08/27: BFCB: Nailbiter in Australia -- if only this happened in Canada
- 2010/08/26: JQuiggin: Rural Lawmakers Hold Key in Australian Election
- 2010/08/26: PeakEnergy: Australia entering a new political dimension?
- 2010/08/25: PlanetArk: Analysis: Australia's "Green" Poll May Accelerate Climate Action
Australia could accelerate action on climate change, possibly resurrecting an emissions trading scheme, after independent and Greens MPs won the balance of power in elections that left a hung parliament. - 2010/08/25: AFTIC: Monbiot.com » Right and Wrong
- 2010/08/24: CCurrents: Major Elephant In The Room Issues Ignored In Australian Elections
- 2010/08/24: CCurrents: Australia: Labor And Liberal Vie To Form Minority Government
- 2010/08/25: SMH: Revolution of the thinking voter turns politics green
Sorry but I'm not convinced a hung parliament is a terrible thing. It may end up being a good thing. I see it as the revolt of thinking voters against an election campaign that was aimed almost exclusively at unthinking voters. Labor's been given an almighty kick in the pants but there was no enthusiastic embrace of the Liberals, whose campaign was almost completely negative. The parties should take it as a warning that if they want to win sufficient votes to form government in their own right next time, they should offer more sensible policies and arguments. The big winner is the emerging third party, the Greens. Labor's share of the primary vote fell by almost 5 percentage points but the Coalition's share rose by only about 1.4 percentage points, with the Greens' share up by 3.6 points. - 2010/08/24: Crikey: Pearse: Greens should let this government fall and learn
- 2010/08/23: Crikey:Rooted: Australia's second climate change election
- 2010/08/25: WtD: It's about climate change stupid: the Australian election is a major blow to the denial movement
Quite a few commentators have stated what was obvious to voters, but some how eluded the major parties. Climate change is a real issue to Australians. In ignoring it both the Liberal and Labor parties got punished at the ballot box. - 2010/08/24: PeakEnergy: What does the hung parliament mean for climate policy?
- 2010/08/23: NatureN: Australia's electorate sends climate-change message -- Swing towards Greens in federal election puts global warming back in the spotlight
- 2010/08/23: JQuiggin: The miracle of democracy? ...a Labor government depending on Green votes...
- 2010/08/23: TreeHugger: The Greens Are The Only Winner From Australia's Federal Election
- 2010/08/23: PeakEnergy: Australian Election results In Hung Parliament
- 2010/08/23: CBC: Australian election limbo continues
While in the Indian subcontinent:
- 2010/08/28: CCurrents: National Food Security Mission Should Be Linked With The Proposed National Food Security Act
- 2010/08/25: BBC: India parliament passes civil nuclear power bill
India's lower house of parliament has approved a law that opens its nuclear power market to private investment. It enables foreign firms to build reactors to supply India's enormous atomic energy market, worth an estimated $150bn (£97bn). MPs approved the bill only after the government agreed to triple the amount of compensation for accidents. The bill is part of a landmark deal with the US in 2008 which granted India access to foreign nuclear technology. - 2010/08/25: People's Daily: China to lift installed hydropower capacity by 50% ...to 300 million kilowatts by 2015 from the current 200 million...
- 2010/08/25: SMH: Left standing by China's bullet trains
The building of Sydney's new trains is a sideshow on the Chinese factory floor, writes John Garnaut in Changchun. Three years ago China had planned to lay 13,000 kilometres of high-speed railway by 2020, which would be more than the rest of the world combined. Then the global financial crisis intruded and Beijing brought that 2020 deadline forward by eight years, while redefining ''high speed'' to mostly mean faster than 350 km/h, rather than 250. China's bullet train project is as ambitious and potentially nation-changing as the 19th century railways that opened up the US. Already it has created millions of jobs, pushing up wages for the country's long-struggling workers, and sucked in tens of millions of tonnes of Australian iron ore to produce the high-tensile steel for tunnels, bridges and track. - 2010/08/23: PlanetArk: China Plans Charging Standards For Electric Cars: Report
Elsewhere in Asia:
- 2010/08/26: Yahoo:AFP: Indonesia seeks huge payout for oil spill [in the Timor Sea known as the Montara spill, from August 21 to November 3, 2009]
Indonesia is seeking more than a billion dollars' compensation for environmental damage from an oil spill at a Thai-run rig off Australia's northwest coast, a report said Thursday. Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi said the claim was for more than 1.1 billion dollars. - 2010/08/26: SolveClimate: Geopolitics Complicates Solutions to Turkey's Soaring Energy Demand
Clean energy sector faces development challenges as Turkey becomes a hub of energy exchange between Asia and Europe - 2010/08/27: CSM: Climate change: Will Russian heat wave prompt serious action from Moscow?
- 2010/08/26: BBC: Medvedev suspends motorway project over forest concerns
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the suspension of controversial plans to build a new motorway through a forest outside Moscow. Mr Medvedev said construction of the road from the capital to St Petersburg, via the Khimki forest, would be halted until a public hearing had been held. - 2010/08/24: ClimateShifts: Russia's Agony a "Wake-Up Call" to the World
- 2010/08/23: TerraDaily: German scientist hands Putin frosty climate rebuke
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin queried Monday whether man was to blame for climate change on a visit to the remote Russian Arctic, only to find himself bluntly contradicted by a German scientist
[...]
A German female scientist working at the station however showed no fear in making her opinion clear to the Russian strongman. "The burning of various kinds of fuel has a far greater effect on climate than these methane emissions," said Inken Preuss quoted by Russian news agencies. "Climate change has never happened like now and mankind is making a large impact," she added. - 2010/08/25: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Recent focus on false energy choices overlooks Chile's clean energy potential
- 2010/08/23: ScienceInsider: Brazilian Oil Royalties to Fund Energy, Climate Research
In Canada, minority neocon PM Harper, continues his do-nothing policy:
- 2010/08/23: PostMedia: Budget cuts compromise weather data, report warns -- Loss affects monitoring of global warming
Sustained cuts to Environment Canada weather-service programs have compromised the government's ability to assess climate change and left it with a "profoundly disturbing" quality of information in its data network, says an internal government report. The stinging assessment, obtained through a freedom-of-information request, suggests Canada's climate network infrastructure is getting progressively worse and no longer meets international guidelines. - 2010/08/28: TStar: Arctic trip 'nation building,' not politics, Harper says
Resolute, Nunavut - It was like a scene from central casting.
There was Prime Minister Stephen Harper standing on a pan of ice in the Arctic Ocean, next to a navy diver who had just emerged from the chilly waters. In the background was the Canadian Coast Guard ship Henry Larsen, her bright red-hued hull contrasting sharply with the white floes that dotted the waters.
Overhead screamed a military transport jet doing double duty as an airborne tanker, flanked by two CF-18 fighters.
As photo ops go, they rarely get more elaborate.
That's become the script of Harper's annual summer sojourns through Canada's north... - 2010/08/27: CBC: New protected Arctic marine area: PM
Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Thursday that the federal government is creating the first marine protected area in the Arctic. About 1,800 square kilometres in three separate areas of the Mackenzie River Delta and estuary in the Beaufort Sea are being set aside. - 2010/08/25: EmbassyMag: New Arctic policy involves 'good cop-bad cop' strategy -- But mixed message could create confusion, experts say
- 2010/08/25: MSimon: Stephen Harper and the War on Russia
- 2010/08/25: NatureN: Canada picks site for Arctic research station -- Cambridge Bay location offers a wealth of opportunities for studying the far north
- 2010/08/25: CBC: Icebreaker budget posing challenges for navy
National Defence has reserved the right to build fewer of the Conservative government's vaunted Arctic offshore patrol ships in order to stay within the project's $3.1-billion budget envelope, according to federal documents. - 2010/08/25: G&M: 'Caustic' Tory spin on jets sours relations with Russia, MP says
It is unhelpful to Arctic diplomacy for the Conservative government to create an international furor when the Russians conduct routine flights near Canadian territory, the opposition charges. "The Russian flights have been going on for a long time and then all of a sudden on a day when they needed a diversion, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence created a caustic international relations uproar by chastising the Russians," Liberal MP Larry Bagnell told a news conference Wednesday. Canada is trying to work with Russia to determine international borders, Mr. Bagnell said. "How are we going to work with a country we have just chastised for not even coming into our airspace?" - 2010/08/24: BBC: Canada to open new Arctic station at Cambridge Bay
- 2010/08/24: CBC: Arctic research station site chosen -- Nunavut community of Cambridge Bay beats out Resolute Bay, Pond Inlet
- 2010/08/23: B-O: How pointless has this "Arctic sovereignty" push become?
- 2010/08/23: CBC: Harper begins Arctic sovereignty tour
The G20 policing issue grinds on:
- 2010/08/25: MediaCoop: G20 in the courts -- Political battle continues with mass appearances of G20 defendants
- 2010/08/28: Rabble: The G20's symbolic violence
This week's mass processing inside (and outside) a Toronto courthouse helped clarify June's Jailapalooza festival during the G20, the largest mass arrest in our history. Of 1,100 detained, all but 227 had the charges dropped or were never charged. Most had no links to burning police cars or battered bank machines. They were picked up while protesting peacefully or looking on. - 2010/08/26: CBC: More G20 vandal suspects sought
- 2010/08/23: Rabble:KK: G8/G20 Communique: Report back from Monday August 23, 2010 G20 court hearings
- 2010/08/25: BCLSB: The Toronto G20, Boiled Down
- 2010/08/25: CBC: G20 charges withdrawn against 58
- 2010/08/23: Thwaps: G-20 Anatomy
- 2010/08/23: CBC: G20 court appearances begin for hundreds
- 2010/08/23: TStar: Dozens of G20 charges dropped at hearings
Several dozen of the 300 people facing charges for alleged criminal acts during the G20 summit had their charges withdrawn Monday. One young woman high-fived a friend before bolting from the courtroom after hearing the news. Christopher Miller, who was charged with mischief under $5,000, said he was happy it was withdrawn but feels the process was "ridiculous." He was arrested on June 29 -- two days after the summit -- for writing "Shame on You" in charcoal on a sidewalk outside police headquarters. - 2010/08/24: JBS: Green Party Unity
- 2010/08/22: CBC: Greens' top priority: Commons seat for leader
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May says she will run in the next federal election in a riding where she has a better chance of winning, with the party making a Commons seat its top priority. - 2010/08/23: G&M: May B.C. bound after defending leadership challenge
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May is headed back to British Columbia after successfully defending herself against a challenge to her leadership. Greens who attended a convention this weekend at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre voted 73.4 per cent in favour of changing the party's constitution to eliminate a requirement that a leadership race be held this year. Ms. May's leadership also received an endorsement of support from 85 per cent of the members of her party. - 2010/08/26: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Michigan Oil Spill and World's Dirtiest Oil: why lie?
- 2010/08/26: CBC: Enbridge's Suncor pipeline to cost $370M
Calgary-based pipeline company Enbridge said Thursday it will build a $370-million pipeline to connect a Suncor Energy oilsands plant to Enbridge's system in the oilsands region of northern Alberta. The 95-kilometre Wood Buffalo pipeline will run parallel to the Athabasca line that Suncor currently uses and will carry increased production from the oilsands. It is expected to be in service by the middle of 2013. - 2010/08/24: CBC: Enbridge's Bakken system to expand -- Costs will total $580M
Calgary-based pipeline company Enbridge Inc. announced Tuesday plans to expand its pipeline system from the prolific Bakken and Three Forks crude oil formations. The expansion will increase capacity by 145,000 barrels per day from the formations, which are located in an area that includes parts of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, North Dakota and Montana. - 2010/08/28: Canoe: Gap, Levi join oilsands boycott
- 2010/08/27: CBC: U.S. businesses join anti-oilsands campaign
- 2010/08/27: ChronicleHerald: Four U.S. companies join 'financial war' on oilsands
Another four major U.S. companies are joining the move to either avoid or completely boycott fuel produced from Alberta's oilsands. Walgreens, which has 7,500 drugstores across America, is switching fuel suppliers for its delivery trucks to those that don't make gas from oilsands crude. "We found that it was a relatively simple process of surveying our vendors, seeing which ones may have tar sands oil sourcing and simply avoiding those vendors," said Walgreen's spokesman Michael Polzin. "We are in that process right now." The Gap, Timberland and Levi Strauss have all told their transportation contractors that they will either give preference to those who avoid the oilsands or have asked them what they're doing to eliminate those fuels. The move adds to growing international economic pressure on the oilsands industry and the Alberta government to reduce its environmental impact. - 2010/08/23: Tyee: Economist Calculates BC Hydro on Path to Ruin -- Five 'vectors' spell doom for once-solid Crown corporation. Blame Campbell's energy policies.
- 2010/08/23: Straight: B.C. parks system not ready for climate change, auditor general finds
Also in BC, this year the Fraser River sockeye salmon run is bountiful:
- 2010/08/28: CBC: B.C. sockeye run to hit 30 million
- Cohen Commission -- Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River
- 2010/08/25: CBC: Massive sockeye salmon run hits Fraser River
Fishermen at the mouth of B.C.'s Fraser River are preparing for one of the biggest runs of sockeye salmon in nearly 100 years, but it's unclear what will happen to all the unexpected fish. On Tuesday, the Pacific Salmon Commission announced it expects as many as 25 million fish will return to the Fraser this season. That's the largest return since 1913 and more than double what was forecast just a few weeks ago. - 2010/07/22: SOE: Videos: Experts on Health Conditions in Fort Chipewyan
- 2010/08/24: Tyee: The Mordor Diaries: Rolling into Fort McMurray -- In which our reporter visits the slice of suburbia next to Canada's famously toxic, tarry moonscape
- 2010/08/25: Tyee: The Mordor Diaries: 'Are You Going to Slam Our City?' -- In which our reporter is made to feel complicit in a media conspiracy against Fort McMurray
- 2010/08/26: Tyee: The Mordor Diaries: Among the Oil Sands Tourists -- In which our reporter pays $36.75 for a Suncor bus tour of the vast pits, and peruses the gift shop
- 2010/08/25: OSW: When it comes to enforcing its regulations, is the ERCB more bark than bite?
- 2010/08/27: PI: Environmental groups challenge Syncrude tailings plan approvals -- ERCB [Energy Resources Conservation Board] acted contrary to the law in approving plans, groups say
- 2010/08/27: PI: Oil Sands Environmental Coalition calls on panel to reject Total oil sands mine application
- 2010/08/26: TheBullet: Whatever It Takes: Protecting the Tar Sands, Protecting Capitalism
- 2010/08/28: GritChik: The Other Oil Disaster
- 2010/08/26: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Michigan Oil Spill and World's Dirtiest Oil: why lie?
- 2010/08/24: SolveClimate: Government Faulted for Poor Protection of Freshwater Resources in TarSands Region
One critic calls it "one of the most incompetent monitoring programs I've ever seen"
Contention within Canada's House of Commons over regulating the environmental impact of oil sands mining broke out into the open last week with the release of a report critical of the government's weak stance on protecting freshwater resources from severe contamination. "In the final analysis, the story of the oil sands' relationship to water is very much a tale of denial by interested parties -- private-sector and governmental -- of the potential negative consequences the industry might be having on (water)," the report, written by Liberal members of the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development, said. - 2010/08/24: PostMedia: Oilsands proposal draws protest -- Joslyn North mine. Total E&P makes green promises
A battle is brewing over a proposed oilsands project by a French-based company that has drawn more than two dozen opponents from Canada, the U.S. and France at today's deadline for submissions to a joint federal-provincial environmental review panel. While a wide range of environmental and faith-based groups, including an Anglican bishop from Atlantic Canada, are urging the panel to reject the Joslyn North Mine project in Alberta, officials from Total E&P Canada Ltd. say they are committed to managing their project's ecological footprint and working with conservation groups to find the best options available. - 2010/08/27: PostMedia: Privatizing potash was a costly mistake [Erin Weir]
The greatest tragedy in BHP Billiton's $38.6-billion (U.S.) bid for the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (PCS) is that the Government of Saskatchewan previously sold PCS for just $630 million. This privatization was the worst fiscal decision in the province's history and has been aggravated by subsequent royalty giveaways to private potash companies. PCS was created in 1975 as a provincial Crown corporation. The Saskatchewan government privatized it in 1989, selling all of its shares by 1994. - 2010/08/28: BuckDog: The Re-Education of Saskatchewan's Premier Brad Wall
- 2010/08/27: AD: The costs of privatization
- 2010/08/27: CBC: Sask. premier fears for potash consortium
Premier Brad Wall is talking tougher in the debate over the future of Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, saying any federal approval of the sale should include conditions to protect the province's interests. Earlier this month, Australian mining giant BHP Billiton made a $38.6-million US hostile takeover bid for the Saskatoon-based fertilizer company, prompting the government to say it is looking at its options. Now, Wall is elaborating on the province's position, saying Saskatchewan people own the potash in Saskatchewan's mines and conditions need to be attached to any sale. - 2010/08/22: BizInsider: Get Ready For A Monster Battle Over Potash And The Future Of The Global Food Supply
Ontario has it's Green Energy Act, now comes the implementation:
- 2010/08/26: CleanBreak: Ontario solar installations to surpass 600 MW in 2012: iSuppi
- 2010/08/26: CleanBreak: OPG initiates switch from coal to biomass at Atikokan generating station. Is it a good move for the climate?
While in la Belle Province:
- 2010/08/27: CBC: Quebec lithium mine aims to cash in on boom
A long-dormant lithium mine in northern Quebec could soon roar back into action as the increasing popularity of electric cars has caused a spike in demand for the metal that helps power them. The name of the nearby city translates as "valley of gold," but for 10 years beginning in 1955, Sullivan Mines operated a lithium mine just north of Val-d'Or, Que. - 2010/08/25: CBC: Shale gas drilling worries some Quebecers
Shale gas exploration along the banks of Quebec's fertile St. Lawrence River has worried residents, town leaders and environmentalists, who say projects to extract the natural resource are forging ahead in a regulatory vacuum. - 2010/08/28: CleanBreak: Nova Scotia, historically a coal-addicted province, is in renewable rehab
- 2010/08/23: TStar: Nova Scotia joins Canada's green energy club
- 2010/08/24: CBC: Feds tapped for $375M on subsea link: report
The governments of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador have asked the federal government to spend $375 million on a controversial proposal to run an underwater power cable between the two provinces, a published report says. The Halifax Chronicle-Herald reported the governments asked for $375 million from a federal fund that supports public-private projects. Premier Danny Williams disclosed the proposal this month, while lashing out against what he called interference from the government of Quebec over the application. - 2010/08/23: POGGE: A profoundly disturbing quality of information
The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:
- 2010/08/26: CCurrents: The Simple Future Beyond Oil: The Convergence Of Our Economic And Ecological Futures And The Importance Of Change
- 2010/08/24: EnergyBulletin: The simple future beyond oil: The convergence of our economic and ecological futures and the importance of change
- 2010/08/27: RRapier: It's the Oil, Stupid
- 2010/08/27: RWER: The relation between oil prices and economic activity
- 2010/08/25: OilDrum: Biodiesel, Biochar & Biodiversity in Costa Rica -- An Example of Small-Scale, Locally-Appropriate Action
IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology] raised its head once again:
- 2010/08/28: CNN: U.S. birth rate falls for second year in midst of recession
- 2010/08/22: FuturePundit: Indian Government Paying To Delay Childbirths
Apocalypso anyone?
- 2010/08/26: OilDrum: Things Fall Apart: Complexity, Supply Chains, Infrastructure & Collapse Revisited
- 2010/08/23: EnergyBulletin: How will our decline & fall proceed?
As for how the media handles the science of climatology:
- 2010/08/29: TCoE: Revkin's flaming train wreck, Lou's change of plans
- 2010/08/28: SEasterbrook: When did ignorance become a badge of honour for journalists?
- 2010/08/26: ClimateSight: 10 Tips for Journalists Writing about Climate Change
Here is something for your library:
- 2010/08/25: AlterNet: Global Warming Deniers Aren't "Experts" At All: It's Time for a New View of Science
[Book Excerpt] _Merchants of Doubt_ by Naomi Oreskes and Erik m. Conway - 2010/08/23: CUP: [Book Page] _Fixing the Sky: The Checkered History of Weather and Climate Control_ by James Rodger Fleming
And for your film & video enjoyment:
- 2010/08/29: CCP: Peter Sinclair's latest Climate Denial Crock of the in Week: "The Earth Is Carbon-Starved Crock"
- 2010/08/28: CCP: Heidi Cullen on The Colbert Report discusses her book, "The Weather of the Future"
- 2010/08/26: PSinclair: The "Earth is Carbon Starved" Crock
- 2010/08/26: ClassM: Heidi "Weather of the future" Cullen on Stephen Colbert [video]
Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:
- 2010/08/25: PlanetArk: Chevron Fights Potentially Historic Damages Case
A run-down court building that also houses the local casino in this Amazon jungle town is the unlikely venue for the largest environmental damages lawsuit ever tried. On the first floor, people play for pennies in The Mirage bingo and slot machine parlor. Three stories up, in Sucumbios provincial court, the stakes are $27 billion. That's what local farmers and indigenous tribes want from U.S. oil giant Chevron Corp to fund cleanup of areas they say were polluted with faulty drilling practices in the 1970s and '80s. - 2010/08/25: CSW: U.S. Chamber of Commerce again challenges legality of EPA greenhouse gas regulation
- 2010/08/25: TreeHugger: If We Can Attribute Natural Disasters to Climate Change, Who Could Victims Sue for Damages?
A lot of people were upset when the Obama Administration pulled this little maneuver:
- 2010/08/25: WarmingLaw: Global Warming Nuisance Suits Headed to the Supreme Court?
- 2010/08/27: TEC: Obama Urges Supreme Court to Vacate Global Warming Nuisance Ruling, Frustrates Enviros
- 2010/08/27: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Obama Administration Sides with Polluters in Key Global Warming Case
- 2010/08/26: WaPo: Obama administration sides with utilities in Supreme Court case about climate change
The Obama administration sided with major utility companies in a Supreme Court case about climate change on Thursday, angering environmentalists who say that the administration's broad argument could hurt their ability to force reductions in greenhouse gas emissions or even to bring other lawsuits. Administration officials said the Environmental Protection Agency's regulatory moves to restrain carbon dioxide emissions made the lawsuit unnecessary, and the acting solicitor general asked the Supreme Court to return the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. But environmentalists said that the administration had talked about - but not imposed - limits on emissions from existing power plants. Moreover, environmental groups said, the government's brief went beyond that, employing arguments that threatened to undercut a basis for legal action that have been used for a century, since Georgia sued over damage a Tennessee copper smelter was inflicting on Georgia's forests. "We're very angry and very disappointed that they would take this tack," said David Doniger, policy director of the climate center at the Natural Resources Defense Council. - 2010/08/26: TP:WR: DOJ Asks SCOTUS To Vacate Environmental Victory Against Greenhouse Gas Emitters
- 2010/08/26: ClimateP: Justice Department asks Supreme Court to vacate environmental victory against greenhouse gas emitters
Another day, another in a long line of mesmerizingly message-muddying moves by the Obama administration on the environment. - 2010/08/25: NYT:GW: Obama Admin Urges Supreme Court to Vacate Greenhouse Gas 'Nuisance' Ruling
The Obama administration has urged the Supreme Court to toss out an appeals court decision that would allow lawsuits against major emitters for their contributions to global warming, stunning environmentalists who see the case as a powerful prod on climate change. In the case, AEP v. Connecticut, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with a coalition of states, environmental groups and New York City. The decision, handed down last year, said they could proceed with a lawsuit that seeks to force several of the nation's largest coal-fired utilities to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The defendants -- American Electric Power Co. Inc., Duke Energy Corp., Southern Co. and Xcel Energy Inc. -- filed a petition for review with the Supreme Court earlier this month, asking the court to reject the argument that greenhouse gas emissions can be addressed through "public nuisance" lawsuits (Greenwire, Aug. 4). In a brief ... filed yesterday on behalf of the Tennessee Valley Authority, acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal agreed with the defendants, saying that U.S. EPA's newly finalized regulations on greenhouse gases have displaced that type of common-law claim. Katyal urged the court to vacate the decision and remand the case to the 2nd Circuit for further proceedings, this time taking into account the administration's push to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. - 2010/08/24: FuturePundit: Nobelist: Wind, Solar As Biggest Future Energy Sources
- 2010/08/27: TEC: Geothermal Power Turns 50, Where is it Now?
- 2010/08/27: TEC: Why Conservatives Are Bad on Energy: It's All About the Costs
- 2010/08/26: HotTopic: Ramping up renewables
- 2010/08/25: CSM: Americans using less energy, thanks to recession, technology [LLNL]
- 2010/08/23: REA: Utility-Scale Geothermal Turns 50
- 2010/08/24: NewScientist: Green machine: Wave power line jacks into the grid
- 2010/08/24: Grist: A global shift to renewable energy: But will it be fast enough? by Lester Brown
- 2010/08/24: TreeHugger: 2009 Snapshot of U.S. Energy Use by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- 2010/08/24: TreeHugger: Making the Global Shift to Renewable Energy by Lester Brown
- 2010/08/24: Eureka: Can the world be powered mainly by solar and wind energy?
- 2010/08/23: LLNL: Americans using less energy, more renewables [energy flow chart]
- 2010/08/23: EnergyBulletin: Major reports point to oil supply turmoil and price volatility
- 2010/08/23: Grist: Gloom alert: Fossil fuels and climate change still suck
- 2010/08/23: Eureka: 200-fold boost in fuel cell efficiency advances 'personalized energy systems'
The US DOE produced their Annual Energy Review this week
- 2010/08/26: TEC: Looking Back to Look Ahead: USDOE Annual Energy Review
- EIA: Annual Energy Review (AER)
Hey! Let's contaminate the aquifer for thousands of years! It'll be a fracking gas!
- 2010/08/28: ProPublica: What You Need to Know About Hydrofracking
- 2010/08/25: CBC: Shale gas drilling worries some Quebecers
- 2010/08/24: Google:AFP: US mounts global push for shale gas
The United States has offered to help major economies such as China and India develop shale gas, a rapidly growing sector in North America which US officials bill as a clean alternative. Twenty nations held two days of talks in Washington in first-of-a-kind shale gas talks initiated by the United States, where some forecast that shale -- a miniscule presence a decade ago -- could dominate the gas market by 2030. - 2010/08/23: SolveClimate: Wyoming Survey Points to High Incidence of 'Fracking' Related Health Problems
The answer my friend...:
- 2010/08/26: NYT: Wind Turbine Projects Run Into [radar] Resistance
- 2010/08/26: BizGreeen: Scotland throws down gauntlet in battle to become offshore wind hub
Scotland could emerge as one of the world's leading developers of offshore wind energy within the next decade, according to a new report that predicts the industry has the potential to create up to 28,000 jobs by 2020. - 2010/08/25: IdahoStatesman: Huge wind project breaks new ground for Idaho -- A $500 million array of turbines will be able to power about 40,000 homes
- 2010/08/24: PeakEnergy: Scotland bids to host world's first floating windfarm
Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:
- 2010/08/27: DM:80B: California Pushes Ahead With Massive Solar Thermal Projects
- 2010/08/27: TreeHugger: 1.25 Gigawatts of Solar Thermal Power Approved in California in Past Two Days Will Double US Capacity
- 2010/08/27: REA: World's Largest Solar Cell Manufacturing Plant Underway [in Taiwan]
- 2010/08/26: SF Gate: Big California solar energy push moves forward
- 2010/08/25: REA: Abu Dhabi To Build 100 MW CSP Plant
- 2010/08/25: REA: Largest Solar PV Project in New Mexico Finished
The largest solar PV array in New Mexico was unveiled this week. The 1.1 MW project was installed on a parking structure at the Bell Group headquarters in Albuquerque. - 2010/08/24: TreeHugger: Self-Cleaning Solar Panels From Mars Find Their Way to Earth
- 2010/08/24: TEC: New Tech - 'Dust buster' cleans up solar's act -- without water
- 2010/08/24: TEC: Canada's Largest Solar Rooftop, Case Study Part Three
- 2010/08/24: REA: Optimizing MW Output in Utility Scale PV Plants
- 2010/08/24: REA: New CIGS Solar Cell Efficiency Record
- 2010/08/23: AutoBG: Solar parking lot with electric car charging stations opens in Tennessee
Feed-In-Tariffs are being variously implemented around the world:
- 2010/08/27: SusBiz: California Proposes Feed-in Tariff PIlot Program for Renewables
- 2010/08/28: TEC: The Pitfalls of Feed-In Tariffs
- 2010/08/25: Guardian(UK): British Gas launches solar panels scheme with '£1k a year profit' claim
- 2010/08/26: REA: Next-Generation Feed-in Tariff for California? CPUC Pilot Program Opens New Market Opportunity for Mid-Sized PV Development
- 2010/08/25: BBerg: Britons Buy Record Solar Installations After Subsidy Change, FT Reports
On the coal front:
- 2010/08/28: IPSNews: Coal Plants Under Fire
Controversial plans to build the Barrancones thermoelectric plant near a protected area in the northern Chilean region of Coquimbo were cancelled Friday, but not before reviving the debate on other projects for polluting coal-fired power stations. - 2010/08/27: SolveClimate: Banks Toughen Lending Rules to Coal, PNC & UBS Still Bucking the Trend
Two banks take heat for continuing to fund Massey Energy and mountaintop removal mining - 2010/08/27: LA Times: California energy panel promises millions to ethanol firm founded by Schwarzenegger ally
- 2010/08/27: Reuters: Pond scum seen lucrative in Argentine biofuels push
- 2010/08/27: AutoBG: Byproduct use makes corn ethanol a net energy gain, water use still ignored
- 2010/08/27: ABC(Au): Future oil prices will determine whether a biofuels industry can succeed in Australia, experts say
- 2010/08/27: BBC: 'Biofuel cells' could power gadgets with energy drinks
Battery-like "biofuel cells" could in the future run on an energy drink or even vegetable oil, says a researcher. - 2010/08/25: SolveClimate: Yet Another Biofuel Hopeful Goes Public, Bets on Isobutanol -- Gevo's "drop-in" alternative to petroleum-based products is still derived from food plants
- 2010/08/25: SolveClimate: Report Offers Roadmap to Cleaner Biofuels from Non-Food Sources -- Almost 200 corn ethanol refineries across the country, but still not a single cellulosic ethanol plant
- 2010/08/25: PlanetArk: Brazil Taps Small Farmers For Biofuels Campaign
- 2010/08/23: NBF: Challenges in scaling up biofuels infrastructure
The nuclear energy controversy continues:
- 2010/08/28: EarthTimes: Experts warn against long-term extension for German nuclear plants
- 2010/08/27: People's Daily: China's nuclear power capacity to see 7-fold increase in next 10 years
- 2010/08/25: TP:WR: The Nuclear Industry Needs A Cap On Carbon To Survive
- 2010/08/25: BNC: Pebble Bed Advanced High Temperature Reactor at UC Berkeley -- low cost nuclear?
- 2010/08/23: NBF: Russia's Fast Neutron Reactor Plans
Yes we have peak everything:
- 2010/08/29: BNC: Peak Oil Discussion
- 2010/08/27: EnergyBulletin: Plotting the coming oil shock
- 2010/08/27: OilDrum: How limited global oil supply may affect climate change policies
- 2010/08/27: PostMedia: Peak oil: two words to worry about
The crisis would be so severe, we wouldn't be able to run our tractors, heat our homes or drive our cars - 2010/08/25: TreeHugger: Peak Oil Alarm Raised By Secret Government Talks
- 2010/08/24: JFleck: Rutledge on Climate Change and Peak Stuff
- 2010/08/23: TEC: About that whole "peak oil" silliness...
- 2010/08/23: SlashDot: Why the World Is Running Out of Helium
More people are talking about the electrical grid:
- 2010/08/27: Grist: California's smart meter fears
- 2010/08/23: TEC: The Smart Grid -- It's For More than Electrons
Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:
- 2010/08/27: CleanBreak: Mitsubishi's i-MiEV an ideal inner city electric car
- 2010/08/26: AutoBG: Study: China to gain top spot in electric vehicle sales by 2015; U.S. will remain hybrid haven
- 2010/08/24: AutoBG: Well-to-wheel emissions of plug-in-hybrids will be all over the map
This week in the Gee Whiz File:
- 2010/08/26: SciAm: Harness lightning for energy, thanks to high humidity?
- 2010/08/27: BBC: Scheme to 'pull electricity from the air' sparks debate
As for Energy Storage:
- 2010/08/23: CleanBreak: ZENN distances itself from EEStor in latest earnings report
- 2010/08/25: E2T: Energy Storage Market Report: 26.6% Annual Growth in the U.S.
- 2010/08/24: TreeHugger: More Pumped Hydro Storage Could Help Wind & Solar Power
- 2010/08/24: NBF: Progress to Rechargeable Lithium Ion Batteries that Can Woven into Clothing
The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:
- 2010/08/29: Guardian(UK): Good Companies Guide: easing the planet's growing pains will help business to profit
Joe Romm posts a daily list of top energy and climate stories:
- 2010/08/27: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for August 27...
- 2010/08/26: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for August 26...
- 2010/08/25: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for August 25...
- 2010/08/24: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for August 24...
- 2010/08/23: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for August 23...
Other (weekly) lists:
- 2010/08/27: NRDC:SwitchBoard: India Climate Change and Energy News - Week of August 17, 2010 to August 23, 2010
- 2010/08/27: Stoat: Kinks
- 2010/08/26: Grist: A walk through the week's climate news -- The Climate Post: Primaries move GOP to the right (on climate)
The carbon lobby are up to the usual:
- 2010/08/28: BBickmore: The Monckton Files: High Priest of the Church of Monckton
- 2010/08/28: BBickmore: The Monckton Files: Pink Portcullis Update
- 2010/08/28: CCurrents: How Much Proof Do The Global Warming Deniers Need?
Everything the climate scientists said would happen - with their pesky graphs and studies and computers - is coming to pass. This is proving the hottest year ever. - 2010/08/27: WtD: Herald Sun War on Science #8: It's snowing, so climate change is a hoax!
- 2010/08/27: CCP: Koch Industries spends 48 million dollars in funding of Climate Change Denial and subverting democracy in America
- 2010/08/27: TP:WR: Koch Industries Tells Its 80,000 Employees: Global Warming Is A Hoax
- 2010/08/26: TWTB: William Nierenberg, Merchant of Doubt
- 2010/08/25: UCSUSA: Texas Oil Companies Fund Ballot Measure to Block CA Clean Energy Law
- 2010/08/25: DemNow: The New Yorker: Billionaire Brothers Charles & David Koch Have Quietly Given More Than $100 Million to Right-Wing Causes
- 2010/08/23: HuffPo: Koch Brothers Called Out for Waging War Against Obama
- 2010/08/25: CCP: Koch Brothers Called Out for Waging War Against Obama
- 2010/08/25: Stoat: Nierenberg vs Oreskes, round 2 (or maybe 3; I lose track)
- 2010/08/25: QuarkSoup: The Cameron Problem
- 2010/08/26: WtD: Should we boycott companies that fund climate change denial? (Pssst, that's a yes...)
- 2010/08/25: CCP: Greenpeace: Koch Industries Secretly Funding the Climate Denial Machine
- 2010/08/25: TP: TP's Lee Fang Discusses The 'Kochtopus' Network On Countdown
- 2010/08/24: TP:WR: The New Climate Denier Fad: Ocean Acidification Denial
- 2010/08/24: DeSmogBlog: Fool Me Once: Thorough - and devastating - explanations
- 2010/08/23: OilChange: From Brazil to Nigeria, Shell Fights Pollution Allegations
- 2010/08/23: QuarkSoup: Why Won't People Listen to Liars
- 2010/08/23: NewYorker: Covert Operations -- The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama
- 2010/08/23: CCP: Jane Mayer, The NewYorker: The billionaire Koch brothers who are waging an evil, covert war against Obama and clean energy
- 2010/08/23: Guardian(UK): For deniers, politics beats the science. Handouts beat both
- 2010/08/23: ClimateP: One of many ways climate disinformers mislead
- 2010/08/22: Deltoid: The Church of Monckton
- 2010/08/22: IJISH: (Digression) Oh, the irony: John McLean's 'exposé' of IPCC does many of the things it rails against
Meanwhile in the 'clean coal' saga:
- 2010/08/29: Reuters: China coal drive will not end health risks: report
China's drive to promote clean coal technology is unlikely to reduce significantly the health risks of extracting what remains the dirtiest of fossil fuels, environmental group Greenpeace said. - 2010/08/27: DeSmogBlog: Toxic Coal Ash Threatens At Least 137 Sites In 34 States
- 2010/08/26: WVGazette:CT: New report documents more coal ash contamination
- 2010/08/27: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Coal Waste Regulation -- Utilities Trying to Avoid Regulating their Toxic Wastes by Misdirection
- 2010/08/27: TreeHugger: 39 More Toxic Coal Ash Sites Found to Contaminate US Water Supply With Arsenic & Heavy Metals
As for climate miscellanea:
- 2010/08/29: TSoD: Clouds and Water Vapor - Part One - Responses
- 2010/08/28: IJISH: (Digression) If people "are simply ignoring basic facts and basic reasoning", what can we do?
- 2010/08/28: AGWObserver: Article page
- 2010/08/27: ChrisColose: Adding up the Greenhouse Effect: Attributing the contributions
- 2010/08/27: Guardian(UK): How James Lovelock introduced Gaia to an unsuspecting world
- 2010/08/26: MTobis: Quote of the Week, Elaborated
- 2010/08/26: Grist: Does anyone take science seriously?
- 2010/08/25: AFTIC: Quote mining 101 [KK Tobis Curry]
- 2010/08/24: LFR: Good for James Cameron. Calls anti-earthers 'swine'.
- 2010/08/24: HotTopic: Keep right on to the end of the road
- 2010/08/23: Tamino: Anthropogenic Global Cooling
- 2010/08/23: Monbiot: Right and Wrong
And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:
- WRI: News
- Climate Story Tellers
- Cohen Commission -- Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River
- AK: Ice Cores: A Window into Climate History
Three kilometers below the Antarctic's surface Earth's climate history is written in ice. Eric Wolff, leader of the British Antarctic Survey's Chemistry and Past Climate team, explains how to decipher the ultimate time capsule. - ACE: Attribution of Climate Events
- NOAA: Coral Reef Watch Satellite Monitoring
- NASA:JPL: Ocean Surface Topography from Space
- EIA: Annual Energy Review (AER)
- BBC: Pakistan Floods
- David Holmgren: Permaculture Vision and Innovation
- Early Warning -- Risks to Global Civilization
- TPL: She Wonk
- Wiki: Milankovitch cycles
- CRED: Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters
- The Lippard Blog
- Wiki: Criticism of the IPCC AR4
- Wiki: Climate sensitivity
Here's a chuckle for ya:
Looking ahead to COP16 and future international climate negotiations:
The shrinking of the thermosphere has been linked to the unusually inactive solar minimum:
While in Antarctica:
So, are these land grabs Colonialism V2.0?
And on the Monsoon front:
Regarding the solar hypothesis:
Consider transportation & GHG production:
The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world:
What are the activists up to?
The Gore-apalooza is still bopping along:
And while they're examining the entrails of the election, they're still trying to get a government together:
And in China:
In the Middle East:
And in Russia:
And South America:
The Tories staged their yearly Arctic tour this week:
The Greens convention sure didn't get much media coverage:
Pipelines [Keystone XL & Gateway] are still an issue:
The 'ReThink Alberta' anti-tarsands campaign is gathering steam:
BC is still wrangling over energy:
Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:
In Saskatchewan the reality of being severely ripped off is being confronted:
In the Maritimes:
As for miscellaneous Canadiana:
Developing a new energy infrastructure is a fundamental challenge of the current generation:
Biofuel bickering abounds:
Low Key Plug
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>
P.S. Recent postings can be found in the week archive and the ancient postings can be accessed here, which should open to this.
"Fear grows best when sown in fields of ignorance, while science, rationality, and education are the greatest weapons modern societies have against irrational fear." -Peter Gleick
Physical Science
Environment
