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 Global Warming News
Sipping from the Internet Firehose...
December 12, 2010
- Chuckles, COP15, COP16 Grind, COP16 Deal, COP17, Cablegate, Winter, AGU, Pakistan
- Bottom Line, Subsidies, WB, IEC, Thermodynamics, CSRRT, Cook, CCPI
- Melting Arctic, Megafauna, Greenland, Antarctica
- Food Crisis, Global Crop Diversity Trust Project, GMOs, Food Production
- Hurricanes, GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures, Feedbacks
- Clouds, Paleoclimate, ENSO, Solar, Climate Sensitivity
- Impacts, Forests, Wildfires, Corals, Acidification
- Glaciers, Sea Levels, GW Deluges, Floods & Droughts
- Mitigation, REDD, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration
- Journals, Other Docs , Misc. Science, Hansen, Thompson, Wegman
- UN, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
- International Politics: Misc., Energy Race, Security, Law & Activism, Activism, Polls, H2O Biz
- National Politics: America, BP Disaster, Ethanol, Imbroglio, WCI
- Blankenship, USAdmin, Congress, Lobbyists, Al Gore
- Britain, Europe, Australia, Murray-Darling, China, Russia
- Canada, Post G20, Marin, Offshore Drilling, Vaughan, Lobbying, Cancun, Pipelines
- Post Igor, Lancaster, BC, Tar Sands, Sask, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, North, Canadiana
- Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Video, Courts
- Energy, Fracking, Wind, Solar, FITs, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes
- Peak Oil, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Gee Whiz, Energy Storage
- Greenwashing, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
- Shameless Self Promotion, .sig
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- 2010/12/11: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Whispering Fire on a Crowded Planet
- 2010/12/05: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Burning the Candle
- 2010/12/11: CCP: The Greening of Koch Industries -- Sic!
- 2010/12/11: CCP: Yes Men strike again! This time it's Koch Industries -- with a press release saying the Koch will no longer contribute to climate change denial groups
- 2010/12/10: UCSUSA: (cartoon - Keefe) The Special Committee...
- 2010/12/09: ClimateP: (cartoon - Davies) Official Global Warming Debunking Tool
- 2010/12/09: RealClimate: A brief history of knowledge about Antarctic temperatures
- 2010/12/08: XKCD: (cartoon - xkcd) Weather Radar
- 2010/12/07: ParliamAntHill: (cartoon - Sadlemyer) Ombudsman Slams G20 Police Rule
- 2010/12/05: SMandia: Global Warming: Santa Claus Out of Business
Looking back at Copenhagen:
- 2010/12/09: WiC: How the US and China colluded to undermine Copenhagen climate summit
- 2010/12/01: Th!nk: Climate Cablegate: Lowering Expectations at Copenhagen
- 2010/12/05: WtD: Cablegate: governments aware of COP15 failure before talks
Cancun: The Grind:
- UNFCCC: The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, 29 November - 10 December 2010
- COP 16, United Nations Climate Change Conference, Cancún, Quintana Roo
- 2010/12/12: TStar: UN climate talks: Who gives a damn? [David Suzuki]
- 2010/12/07: UNEP: Emissions Gap Report handover to Government of Mexico
- 2010/12/09: UNEP: Two European Countries Announce More Fast-Track Climate Funding in Cancun
- 2010/12/11: ClimateP: Calderon on climate talks: "As we're squabbling, the plane is going down."
- 2010/12/11: ABC(Au): Cancun talks consider 'deep cuts' on emissions
The world's climate negotiators have considered "deep cuts" in emissions to hold back climate change as part of a package that would pave the way for billions of dollars in aid to poor countries. - 2010/11/04: TckTckTck: Cartagena Dialogue meets in Costa Rica for a constructive dialogue on climate negotiations
With less than a month to go before COP16 in Cancun, it's deeply encouraging to see countries starting to come together for serious climate discussions. A great example of this is the Cartagena Dialogue for Progressive Action, a collection of countries committed to identify a path forward towards an ambitious, comprehensive and legally-binding climate change regime under the UNFCCC.
[...]
Members of the Cartagena Dialogue include, among others: Antigua & Barbuda, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, European Commission, France, Germany, Ghana, Indonesia, Malawi, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mexico (as incoming COP President), Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Peru, Rwanda, Samoa, Spain, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, UK, Uruguay. - 2010/12/10: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Draft Negotiating Text at Climate Negotiation in Mexico Strikes Right Balance to Move Forward
- 2010/12/10: ENS: Kyoto Protocol Splits Nations at Tense Cancun Climate Talks
- 2010/12/10: DerSpiegel: Inside the Chain-Link Fence -- UN Climate Summit Needs an Overhaul
- 2010/12/10: DerSpiegel: Photo Gallery: Hot Air in Cancun [17 pix]
- 2010/12/10: DerSpiegel: Interview with Mexican Foreign Minister -- EU and US Should 'Offer More' on Climate Protection
The president of the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa, spoke with Spiegel Online about why she believes this round of talks will be better than Copenhagen and how industrialized nations need to take on more leadership. - 2010/12/10: EnergyBulletin: Cloistered climate talks
- 2010/12/10: Guardian(UK): Cancún climate change summit: Friday as it happened
- 2010/12/10: Guardian(UK): Cancún climate change conference: We must end energy apartheid
- 2010/12/10: Guardian(UK): Cancún climate change summit: How Africa's voice has been hijacked
- 2010/12/10: Guardian(UK): Cancún climate change summit: Week two in [30] pictures
- 2010/12/10: Guardian(UK): Cancún climate change summit: Chris Huhne says progress has been made
- 2010/12/10: Guardian(UK): Deadlock over Kyoto means Cancún talks have little to show after two weeks
- 2010/12/10: EurActiv: Cancún summit delegates battle clock for climate deal
- 2010/12/10: EurActiv: Cancún close to funding deal on CO2 storage
- 2010/12/10: Guardian(UK): Cancún climate change conference: Russia will not renew Kyoto protocol
- 2010/12/09: SolveClimate: Island Nations Plead for Their Lives as World Dawdles at Climate Talks
- 2010/12/10: SolveClimate: Modest Climate Deal within Reach in Upbeat Cancún Talks
- 2010/12/10: ClimateP: Cancun: What will our climate legacy be?
- 2010/12/10: ClimateP: Cancun's emerging focus on clean energy deployment
- 2010/12/10: ClimateP: Cancun climate finance agreement likely focused on organizing a fund, not raising the money
- 2010/12/11: ABC(Au): UN climate talks enter crunch time
With just hours to go until climate talks in Cancun are due to finish, there is little sign of agreement, with some countries preparing to keep negotiating through the night. - 2010/12/10: ABC(Au): One of the big sticking points at the climate summit in Cancun is how best to distribute the $30 billion promised under the Copenhagen Accord
- 2010/12/10: ABC(Au): Cancun climate talks deadlocked
- 2010/12/10: ABC(Au): Climate Change Minister Greg Combet has told a high-level session of global talks in Cancun that the credibility of the UN process is in danger if progress is not made
- 2010/12/10: NewScientist: Climate talks: secret texts, deadlocks and who's to blame [Pearce]/A>
- 2010/12/10: PlanetArk: Ex-Official: U.N. Must Change Tack In Climate Talks
- 2010/12/10: Grist: Cancun climate talks hit crunch time
- 2010/12/10: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Cancun Climate Talks on last day of negotiations: establishing the Global Climate Fund
- 2010/12/09: NatureTGB: As Cancun rumbles on, a closer look at the deforestation text
- 2010/12/10: TreeHugger: Sierra Club Calls on Leaders at COP16 to Pull Their Heads Out of the Sand
- 2010/12/10: EarthTimes: Bolivia's lofty goals to combat climate change include end of wars
- 2010/12/10: EarthTimes: UN climate summit on 'knife's edge' entering final day
- 2010/12/10: EarthTimes: Confronting climate change: Cancun shifts to adaptation
- 2010/12/10: EarthTimes: 'Horse trading' at UN climate summit to close deal
- 2010/12/09: Reuters: Kyoto impasse still blocks U.N. climate talks: India
- 2010/12/10: Reuters: Mexico pushes for deal as climate talks near close
Mexico scrambled to break an impasse between rich and poor nations over future cuts in greenhouse gas emissions on Friday as 190-nation climate talks went down to the wire.- 2010/12/10: OilDrum: Electricity price differences between countries
- 2010/12/09: TEC: Posturing Accelerates in the Waning Hours of Cancún
- 2010/12/09: TEC: COP-out 16
- 2010/12/09: TEC: Guns, Garbage and Gas: A Sampling of COP16 Side Events
- 2010/12/10: TEC: Cancun: A tale of two cities
- 2010/12/10: OilChange: Zombies, Car-Crashes and Life-Support...[cop16]
- 2010/12/10: DemNow: China Faces International Criticism at Nobel Ceremony in Oslo and Climate Talks in Cancún
- 2010/12/10: DemNow: Guardian Reporter John Vidal: With Climate Talks on Verge of Collapse "You Could Argue that America Has Done Very Well Out of This"
- 2010/12/09: DemNow: Prominent Indigenous Environmental Leader Tom Goldtooth Blocked from U.N. Climate Talks
- 2010/12/10: BBC: UN climate deal hopes in Mexico look bleak
- 2010/12/10: CCP: Japan shocks world by refusing to inscribe its emission targets under a new Kyoto Protocol commitment period, stunning negotiators, leaving a huge cloud over the summit
- 2010/12/10: CCP: Deborah Phelan: Bangladesh & COP16: "real people don't live underwater"
- 2010/12/10: IndiaTimes: 'We can't shut door on talks'
In a dramatic move that will alter India's climate change policy irrevocably, [Indian environment minister] Jairam Ramesh, speaking at the ministerial summit at Cancun, said India was willing to commit to legally binding commitments as part of an international climate deal.- 2010/12/10: HotTopic: Coates in Cancún: Down to the wire
- 2010/12/10: HotTopic: NZYD in Cancun: hope remains
- 2010/12/09: Wunderground:RR: Cancun and News - Again
- 2010/12/09: ClimateP: Cancun news: The dirty fight against clean energy
- 2010/12/09: Guardian(UK): Cancún climate change summit: Leaked documents reveal alternative deal
- 2010/12/09: Guardian(UK): Cancún forests deal is 'wrapped up and ready to move' -- or is it?
- 2010/12/09: Guardian(UK): Cancún offers us all a chance to shape the planet's future
- 2010/12/09: Guardian(UK): Cancún climate talks risk becoming a 'car crash', says Chris Huhne
Problems are being caused by division between rich and poor countries on Kyoto protocol, says environment secretary- 2010/12/09: HotTopic: Coates in Cancún: ministers on the job
- 2010/12/09: SolveClimate: Technology Transfer Deal Likely in Cancun, but Nitty Gritty Missing
Still up in the air are critical elements: how financing will flow, who will govern the scheme and intellectual property rights- 2010/12/09: SolveClimate: Cancún: From Mangrove Paradise to Polluted Megasprawl
At risk is the whole Mesoamerican reef system, which stretches 625 miles down the Yucatan pensinsula towards Honduras- 2010/12/09: PhysOrg: Bolivian says climate talks may commit 'ecocide'
Bolivia's President Evo Morales, addressing a U.N. climate conference with modest goals, said Thursday that governments will be committing "ecocide" if they fail to act decisively to halt global warming.- 2010/12/08: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Early Morning Wake-up Call for Ministers from the Mexican Presidency at COP 16 Climate Talks
- 2010/12/08: NatureTGB: Dispute over carbon offsets continues in Cancun
- 2010/12/07: NatureTGB: Cancun talks rumble on amid mixed messages
- 2010/12/08: BWeek: Climate Pact 'Unrealistic,' Former U.S. Officials Say
- 2010/12/09: People's Daily: Cancun conference sets up new groups to speed up negotiation
- 2010/12/09: Reuters: UN climate talks seek to avert damaging failure
- 2010/12/09: EarthTimes: [Interview Rebecca Harms] EU Greens: Climate talks at Kindergarten level
The parliamentary leader for Greens in the European Parliament, Rebecca Harms, says the climate talks in Cancun are "depressing" and have fallen to a level of childish argument. "It's like in Kindergarten, the way things are going," she said in an interview with the German Press Agency dpa. Most of the talks have deteriorated to the level of the motto: "If you do this, then I want that." "All scientific findings have been presented 57 times, all the political issues at least 157 times," Harms remarked in frustration. One can adjourn proceedings one time in Cancun, but not a second time, she said. The lack of progress in nearly two weeks of meetings throws an ever darker shadow over next year's meeting in Durban, South Africa - and over the hope of a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.- 2010/12/09: EarthTimes: Where's the EU? Bloc takes passive role in Cancun summit
- 2010/12/09: EarthTimes: Morales asks to save Kyoto Protocol, create global climate court
- 2010/12/09: EarthTimes: EU rejects as 'absurd' suggestions it is dooming Kyoto Protocol
- 2010/12/09: EarthTimes: UN climate talks at a 'crossroads,' South Africa's Zuma says
- 2010/12/09: EarthTimes: Analysis: Ghost of Kyoto past: Treaty row could doom Cancun talks
- 2010/12/09: EarthTimes: Brazil's climate envoy [Luiz Figueiredo] sees possible way through Kyoto minefield
- 2010/12/08: ENS: Cancun High-Level Talks Heat Up Over Climate Financing
- 2010/12/08: TEC: [link to 184k pdf] Latest Negotiating Document Released in Cancún
- 2010/12/09: BBC: Tough carbon cuts 'key' to climate funding
Rich nations must cut carbon emissions further in order to raise $100bn (£60bn) per year needed to help poorer nations deal with climate change, Norway's prime minister has said. Jens Stoltenberg led a UN-commissioned task force that explored ways to raise the sum, agreed by most nations at the Copenhagen summit as a target for 2020. Current emission targets will not raise the sums necessary, he told BBC News.- 2010/12/08: BBC: Unlikely marriage powers ahead
No-one here really wants to be doom-laden about it, but it's a reality that more and more are having to face: the UN climate process could be grinding to a halt.- 2010/12/09: CCP: In Cancun, world leaders call for quick action on forests
- 2010/12/09: CCP: Call for a Fair Global Climate Fund at Cancún Climate Conference COP16
- 2010/12/08: Guardian(UK): Cancún climate summit: Ban Ki-moon urges nations to reach modest deal
- 2010/12/08: Guardian(UK): Cancún climate change summit: Campaigners share their views
- 2010/12/08: Guardian(UK): Cancún climate change conference: indigenous voices gather strength
- 2010/12/08: Guardian(UK): Seeing REDD in Cancún -- Because developed countries need a token 'win' at the climate talks, Cancún will approve a ruinous forest protection scam
- 2010/12/08: Guardian(UK): Cancún climate change summit: Japan defiant in face of diplomatic pressure
- 2010/12/08: UN: Climate change financing will benefit all, UN chief tells Cancún meeting
- 2010/12/08: Guardian(UK): Big business backs deforestation deal
- 2010/12/08: ABC(Au): Fresh hopes for Cancun climate deal
- 2010/12/08: PhysOrg: Cancun delegates debate climate fund: Who pays?
Should airline passengers pay a small tax to help out? How about global money dealers? Or perhaps governments should take what they spend subsidizing gasoline prices and put it toward the climate cause.- 2010/12/08: Reuters: China denies softening on emissions stance
Chinese diplomat says no shift on binding target - No proposal yet on oversight of developing countries- 2010/12/08: M&G(Za): UN chief warns world failing on climate
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned on Tuesday that the world was missing its last chance to control climate change, appealing to nations at talks in Mexico to ramp up progress.- 2010/12/08: People's Daily: UN chief calls for deals on forests, technology, financing
- 2010/12/08: EarthTimes: Ecuador's President Correa appeals to rich countries on climate
- 2010/12/08: EarthTimes: EU sees 'no progress' on critical issues in Cancun climate talks
- 2010/12/08: EarthTimes: Time for 'political will' at UN climate change summit
- 2010/12/08: EarthTimes: German environment minister [Norbert Roettgen] expects tough road in Cancun
- 2010/12/06: OpenDem: After Cancún: shifting climate gears
The loss of momentum in climate diplomacy reflects deep flaws in the way campaigners understand and frame climate change in relation to people's lives and interests. There is both challenge and opportunity here, says Andrew Pendleton.- 2010/12/08: DemocracyNow: Youth Activists Protest Exclusion from U.N. Climate Summit in Cancún
- 2010/12/08: DemocracyNow: "Countries Least Responsible for Climate Change are the Ones Most Threatened by It": Island States Urge Binding Emissions Cuts at U.N. Climate Summit
- 2010/12/07: DemocracyNow: Bill McKibben: Climate Talks So Weakened by U.S., Major Polluters that Walkout Could Be Good News for Planet
- 2010/12/06: DemocracyNow: Pressing the Silence: At the U.N. Climate Change Conference, the Media Center is Oddly Quiet
- 2010/12/06: DemocracyNow: Small Farmers Gather for Alternative Global Forum on Climate Change and Social Justice
- 2010/12/06: DemocracyNow: Climate Talks in Jeopardy as Industrialized Nations Threaten Kyoto Protocol
- 2010/12/08: DerSpiegel: Chu in Cancun -- US Energy Secretary Plays Climate Activist
- 2010/12/08: DerSpiegel: Cancun Climate Summit -- Can Rainforests Be Saved With Cash Injections?
Protecting the world's rainforests is a central issue at this month's Climate Change Conference in Cancun. Huge sums are to be offered to countries that protect their forests. However, experts fear that these rewards could be misused, and that they could actually promote deforestation.- 2010/12/07: G&M: Kyoto impasse could torpedo climate talks, U.S. warns
- 2010/12/08: TMoS: Could China Call America's (and our own) Bluff?
What if China did a complete 180 and agreed to legally binding greenhouse gas emission cuts including international monitoring and verification? Don't laugh, they might just do that at Cancun. Are the Chinese calling our bluff? The U.S. and its faithful lapdog, a.k.a. the Harper government, have been dragging their heels on serious emissions cuts, hiding behind the argument that we need a binding agreement with the developing nations (i.e. China and India) first.- 2010/12/07: BBC: Ministers have begun talks at the UN climate summit in Cancun, Mexico, amid warnings that time is running out to curb climate change
- 2010/12/07: Guardian(UK): The peasant view of Cancún talks: 'They want to turn the air into a commodity'
- 2010/12/07: Guardian(UK): China on path to redemption in Cancún
- 2010/12/07: EurActiv: Chinese pledge raises hopes of climate compromise
- 2010/12/07: UN: In Cancún, UN chief makes impassioned plea for global agreement on climate change
- 2010/12/07: SolveClimate: Ideological Foes Assail UN Forest Scheme from Two Sides
Still, REDD maintains broad support from rich and poor nations and could be one of few agreements to emerge from the climate talks- 2010/12/07: SolveClimate: Is China on a Path to Redemption in Cancún?
- 2010/12/07: ABC(Au): Big guns arrive at Cancun climate talks
The climate change meeting in Cancun is entering the high-level stage, with heads of state and environment ministers arriving in the holiday city.- 2010/12/07: ABC(Au): China is prepared to make its voluntary carbon emissions target part of a binding United Nations resolution, a senior negotiator said
- 2010/12/07: PlanetArk: China Says Can Make Voluntary CO2 Curbs "Binding"
- 2010/12/07: PlanetArk: U.N. Talks To Delay CO2 Market Deal For Forests: EU
- 2010/12/07: Grist: Cancun climate talks surmount key stumbling block [verification]
- 2010/12/07: Reuters: Solving Kyoto row said key to unlock Cancun deal
Resolving a dispute between rich and poor nations over cuts in greenhouse gas emissions is key to unblocking progress on all issues at U.N. climate talks in Mexico, a senior official said on Tuesday.- 2010/12/07: People's Daily: BASIC nations say three issues non-negotiable at Cancun climate talks
The so-called BASIC countries -- Brazil, South Africa, India and China -- said Monday that they would not support a deal until a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol had been settled, a fast-track climate change fund had been materialized and a basic agreement had been reached on technology transfer.- 2010/12/07: BWeek: China, India, Brazil Push U.S. for Deeper Greenhouse Gas Cuts
China, India, Brazil and South Africa said the U.S. must pledge deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to help make progress in United Nations climate talks, sharpening divisions between rich and poor countries on how to combat global warming.- 2010/12/06: TerraDaily: Climate talks eye deforestation pact
- 2010/12/07: EarthTimes: Ban Ki Moon heads to Cancun to support talks
- 2010/12/07: EarthTimes: Analysis: Can Cancun eclipse Copenhagen? Climate summit in final stage
- 2010/12/07: SwissInfo: Major sticking points still beset Cancun summit
- 2010/12/06: AlterNet: The Skinny on Cancun: What's Happening at the International Climate Meeting and What's at Stake?
- 2010/12/07: CCP: In Cancún, Youth Score Major Policy Victory on Climate Education and Engagement (Article 6 of the Convention)
- 2010/12/06: Guardian(UK): Cancún climate change talks: Richard Branson calls for global carbon taxes
- 2010/12/06: Guardian(UK): What Cancún can take from California
- 2010/12/06: Guardian(UK): Cancún summit: Rich countries accused over £30bn climate aid promise
India's environment minister says delays in payments could wreck the prospects for advancing a global deal- 2010/12/06: Reuters: Richard Branson to Climate Negotiators: Get Off Your Butts!
The headline is actually the PG version. On Saturday night, at the World Climate Summit, the high-flying entrepreneur behind the Virgin Group, Richard Branson, delivered a message to the negotiators at the U.N.'s climate change meeting, COP 16, in Cancun, Mexico, which continues this week: "ust do it, for God's sake. Get off your a**es and get on with it."/A>- 2010/12/07: CCP: Canadian Youth at UN Climate Talks in Cancún Call to End Offshore Drilling and Tanker Expansion
- 2010/12/06: Yahoo:Reuters: Britain, Brazil to seek end to Kyoto climate impasse
- 2010/12/05 SolveClimate: Climate Deal Failure Could Devastate World's Poor, IPCC Chief [Pachauri] says
- 2010/12/06: ClimateP: Cancun news update: High stakes, glimmers of hope -- Climate Power Couples Take Charge
- 2010/12/06: ClimateP: As Cancun climate talks plod along, the world copes with Hell and High Water [impax]
- 2010/12/06: PlanetArk: China Hopes For "Positive Results" At Climate Talks
- 2010/12/06: PlanetArk: Forest Projects Inch Forward Despite Climate Talks Logjam
- 2010/12/05: TerraDaily: Progress seen on climate talks but disputes linger
- 2010/12/06: EarthTimes: Second week of UN climate talks open with cautious optimism
- 2010/12/04: Spectrum: Coal and Cancun
To first approximation, the political struggle over climate policy can be reduced to the future of coal. The Cancun climate talks are going nowhere because of a stalemate between the United States and China, which each account for about a quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. China gets about three quarters of it electricity from coal, the United States close to half, and neither country is willing to confront its coal industry head-on.
Countries like the UK and Germany, which have been systematically winding down their coal industries, have cut their greenhouse gas emissions sharply and are inclined to stick with the Kyoto formula--first the industrial countries reduce their emissions, then the developing countries. That principle of "differentiated responsibilities" is considered sacrosanct in the Third World. But the United States wants the fastest developing countries, China in particular, to join the industrial in emissions cuts.
That in essence is why Cancun is deadlocked, just as Copenhagen was this time last year.- 2010/12/06: OilChange: "Gracias Por Nada" Canada
- 2010/12/06: BBC: Nature talks see mood of compromise emerge
- 2010/12/06: BBC: Nations 'rewriting climate plan'
The UN's former top climate official Yvo de Boer has accused developing countries, such as India and China, of trying to rewrite the Bali Action Plan. He says this confuses negotiations between more than 190 nations that have started this week in Cancun, Mexico.- 2010/12/05: AlterNet: If Cancun Climate Talks Falter, Blame the US
- 2010/12/06: PostMedia: Cancun protesters take aim at environment minister Rob Renner -- Sarcastic ad campaign targets Renner
- 2010/12/05: G&M: Canada gets ready to walk away from Kyoto Protocol
- 2010/12/06: HotTopic: "She took me half the way there..."
Cancun: The Deal:
- 2010/12/12: EUO: Cancun climate deal restores faith in UN process
Negotiators have reached an agreement at UN climate talks in Cancun, Mexico. Although far from the legally binding deal on carbon emission cuts called for by campaigners, officials argue progress in a number of areas has restored faith in the UN multi-lateral process and laid the groundwork for a more conclusive agreement in South Africa next December.- 2010/12/11: Grist: The Cancun Compacts: Nations of world choose hope in face of climate crisis
- 2010/12/11: PWCCC: Bolivia Decries Adoption of Copenhagen Accord II Without Consensus
- 2010/12/11: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Cancun Agreements: A Foundation from which to build greater international action on global warming
- 2010/12/12: WaPo: 193 nations sign climate-change package
- 2010/12/12: Reuters: Climate talks end with modest steps, no Kyoto deal
The world's governments agreed on Saturday to modest steps to combat climate change and to give more money to poor countries, but they put off until next year tough decisions on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.- 2010/12/11: EarthTimes: Merkel calls Cancun climate deal a 'step forward'
- 2010/12/11: BBerg: Climate Talks Back $100 Billion Aid Fund, Forest Protection; No Kyoto Deal
- 2010/12/11: ClimateShifts: Cancun climate talks reach 'historic deal'
- 2010/12/11: Guardian(UK): Cancún climate conference: Hopes grow for deal
- 2010/12/11: Guardian(UK): Cancún climate change summit: The deal LIVE
- 2010/12/11: Guardian(UK): Cancún climate change summit: Deal is reached
- 2010/12/11: Guardian(UK): Deal is reached at Cancún summit
- 2010/12/11: Guardian(UK): Bolivia's defiant leader sets radical tone at Cancún climate talks
Evo Morales is drawing on an indigenous vision to challenge western positions on rising temperatures- 2010/12/12: Guardian(UK): A muted cheer for the Cancún agreement
Too many issues were left unresolved for the talks to be deemed an unqualified success. But progress was undoubtedly made- 2010/12/11: CBS: U.N. Conference Adopts Modest Climate Deal
- 2010/12/11: UNDispatch: Cancun Conference a Success In Spite of Oil Company Efforts
- 2010/12/11: UN: UN officials hail climate change deal reached at Cancún conference
- 2010/12/11: al Jazeera: Climate deal reached in Cancun
Delegates hail last-minute accord at Mexico summit, but agreement fails to set specific targets for reducing emissions.- 2010/12/12: HotTopic: Coates in Cancún: agreement a good outcome
- 2010/12/11: TCoE: Is "Cancun" Spanish for "BAU"?
- 2010/12/11: KlimaZwiebel: Cancún: the return of the global capacity to act?
- 2010/12/11: SolveClimate: Climate Talks End With Modest Deal and Standing Ovation
"Cancún has done its job," UN climate chief Christiana Figueres said of the 41-page deal. "The beacon of hope has been reignited."- 2010/12/11: ClimateP: What do you think of the 'Cancun Agreements'?
- 2010/12/11: ClimateP: The Cancun Compromise
- 2010/12/11: ClimateP: The Cancun Compacts: Nations of world choose hope in face of climate crisis
- 2010/12/11: ABC(Au): Cancun climate talks reach 'historic deal'
After an all-night session of the UN climate talks in Cancun, countries have reached a deal that commits all major economies to greenhouse gas cuts.- 2010/12/11: NewScientist: Cancún success may be skin deep [Pearce]
- 2010/12/11: PhysOrg: UN climate meeting OKs Green Fund in new accord
- 2010/12/11: Grist: Cancun climate breakthrough: It's not perfect, but it's a deal
- 2010/12/11: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Final Results at the Cancun Climate Talks: Clear Progress on Climate Finance
- 2010/12/11: NRDC:SwitchBoard: New international agreement to fight climate change found spirit for consensus in Cartagena Dialogue countries
- 2010/12/11: NRDC:SwitchBoard: China and U.S. Played Key Roles in Reaching Cancun Agreements
- 2010/12/11: NRDC:SwitchBoard: After two weeks of negotiations, countries - and the process - emerge from Cancun with progress, transparency and a path forward on addressing climate change
- 2010/12/10: NRDC:SwitchBoard: With no time to lose: new text at climate talks reveals possible compromise on Global Climate Fund
- 2010/12/11: NatureTGB: Climate negotiators reach "balanced" agreement in Cancun
- 2010/12/10: NatureTGB: Cancun goes down to the wire
- 2010/12/11: EarthTimes: Bolivia's Morales vows to keep up fight for the environment
- 2010/12/11: HindustanTimes: BASIC nations 'very happy' with Cancun texts: [Indian environment minister Jairam] Ramesh
- 2010/12/11: UCSUSA: UNFCCC Takes Modest Steps Forward in Cancun, but Hardest Work Yet to Be Done
- 2010/12/11: CNN: Cancun delegates reach climate change deal
U.S. President Barack Obama praises conclusion of the Cancun climate conference - Bolivia claims rich nations "bullied" other countries into accepting the deal - The UN's chief negotiator says the deal "reignited" hope in talks - The agreement includes plans for a fund to help developing nations- 2010/12/11: Xinhuanet: Mexican president hails climate deal at Cancun conference
- 2010/12/11: Yahoo:AFP: Global climate fund set up in Cancun deal
Global talks on climate change on Saturday set up a new fund to manage billions of dollars in aid to poor nations in a hard-fought package that turned the page on the bitter Copenhagen summit.- 2010/12/11: NewKerala: UN summit OKs compromise climate deal
World governments Saturday approved a compromise deal that helps tackle the growing threat of climate change and sets the stage for a global climate treaty some time in the future.- 2010/12/11: NYT: Climate Talks End With Modest Deal on Emissions
- 2010/12/11: Yahoo:Reuters: Climate talks end with modest steps but no Kyoto deal
The world's governments agreed on Saturday to modest steps to combat climate change and give more money to poor countries, but they put off until next year tough decisions on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The deal includes setting up a Green Climate Fund to give $100 billion a year in aid for poor nations by 2020, measures to protect tropical forests and ways to share clean energy technologies. Ending a marathon session of talks in the Mexican beach resort of Cancun, almost 200 countries also set a target of limiting a rise in average world temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) over pre-industrial times. There was, however, no major progress on how to extend the Kyoto Protocol, which obliges almost 40 rich nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions.- 2010/12/11: TreeHugger: Cancun Climate Agreement Saves UN Process But Not The Climate
- 2010/12/11: EarthTimes: UN climate summit walks fine line for balanced deal
- 2010/12/11: EarthTimes: Bolivia versus the rest of the world
- 2010/12/11: EarthTimes: Cancun: The main points
- 2010/12/11: EarthTimes: UN summit seals compromise climate deal; Bolivia objects
- 2010/12/11: EarthTimes: Major powers back UN climate deal; Bolivia opposed
- 2010/12/11: EarthTimes: Bolivia isolated in opposing climate summit compromise
- 2010/12/11: EarthTimes: Maldives backs climate summit deal
- 2010/12/11: ENS: Cancun Climate Deal Puts UN Process Back on Track
- 2010/12/11: PI: Leading experts respond to outcome of UN climate talks in Cancun
- 2010/12/11: GP:EM: Final statements from delegations-- til 4:25 AM
- 2010/12/11: BCLSB: A Deal in Cancun
- 2010/12/11: DerSpiegel: Relief at Modest Progress -- Cancun Talks Reach Global Climate Deal
It is a triumph for Mexico and a step forward in the fight against global warming: the Cancun climate conference reached a compromise in a dramatic conclusion to negotiations on Saturday. The deal preserves the UN's leadership in climate talks. But the compromises reached were modest.- 2010/12/11: Reuters: Factbox: Draft climate texts at Cancun talks
Following are details of draft texts at U.N. climate talks in Cancun, Mexico, seeking to end a standoff between rich and poor nations about slowing global warming.- 2010/12/11: Reuters: Instant View: Cancun climate talks reach deal
Following are reactions after 190-nation climate talks in Cancun, Mexico, agreed to a package of measures on Saturday to combat global warming after two weeks of talks but put off many of the hard decisions until 2011.- 2010/12/11: Reuters: Snap Analysis: Climate talks win lifeline, but may sink in 2012
A new deal among 190 nations to slow climate change throws a lifeline to U.N.-led talks but they will still struggle to find a deal extending the Kyoto Protocol for cutting carbon emissions beyond 2012.- 2010/12/11: Inquirer(Ph): Nations set up global climate fund
- 2010/12/11: Independent(UK): Global warming deal hopes revived after Cancun agreement
- 2010/12/11: Reuters: Climate talks end with steps to fight global warming
Almost 200 countries agreed on Saturday to modest steps to combat climate change, including a fund to help poor nations, but they put off tough decisions on cutting greenhouse gas emissions until next year.- 2010/12/11: Economist: A surprising success -- The Cancún conference has beaten expectations by producing new, if modest, agreements
- 2010/12/11: BBC: UN climate change talks in Cancun agree a deal
- 2010/12/11: CBC: Cancun climate talks end with modest steps
Looking ahead to Durban:
- 2010/12/11: WaPo: Analysis: On climate, the [GOP] elephant that's ignored
- 2010/12/09: DemNow: Greenpeace: Climate Justice Movement Must Intensify Efforts Ahead of 2011 Climate Talks in South Africa
The Cablegate revelations just keep on comin':
- 2010/12/06: PWCCC: Pablo Solon Responds to Secret U.S. Manipulation of Climate Talks Revealed in WikiLeaks Cable
- 2010/12/10: CNN: WikiLeaks: Cables reveal pessimism in climate change talks
EU Council president "angry" that Europe was pushed out of Copenhagen talks - Brazilian president blamed the United States for "too little" action - Dutch official was skeptical the conference could work- 2010/12/10: TreeHugger: Wikileaks Reveals Shell Oil has Agents Installed in Nigerian Government
- 2010/12/09: CCurrents: Cable: Shell 'Infiltrated' Nigeria
- 2010/12/10: DerSpiegel: The Nigeria Report -- A Cesspool of Corruption and Crime in the Niger Delta
The leaked US diplomatic cables reveal just what multinational oil companies are up against in the Niger Delta. Security forces are ineffective and involved in dubious oil deals. The government demands millions in bribes. Even university students have earned pocket money by working as kidnappers.- 2010/12/10: Guardian(UK): US embassy cables: Vatican promises to use its influence to back Copenhagen climate deal
- 2010/12/09: DemNow: Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa on WikiLeaks, the September Coup, U.S. Denial of Climate Funding, and Controversial Forest Scheme REDD
- 2010/11/30: BNet: Wikileaks: What the Chevron-Kazak Cellphone Row Reveals About Big Oil Overseas
- 2010/12/09: Grist: Wikileaks: U.S. turned the pope into its enforcer on Copenhagen climate talks
- 2010/12/08: Guardian(UK): WikiLeaks climate change cables: the unanswered questions
With the US and its counterparts frequently portrayed in an unflattering light in the cables and reluctant to talk, can you help get the answers to the questions raised?- 2010/12/09: OilChange: Nigeria: "Shell has access to everything"
- 2010/12/08: Telegraph(UK): WikiLeaks: oil deal executive [in Kazakhstan] 'was paid £46,000 a month'
A British executive overseeing a lucrative oil deal was paid nearly £50,000 a month, according to cables obtained by WikiLeaks.- 2010/12/08: Guardian(UK): US embassy cables: Shell says 'we have people in all relevant Nigerian ministries'
- 2010/12/08: Guardian(UK): US embassy cables: Shell seeks to share Nigeria intelligence
- 2010/12/08: Guardian(UK): WikiLeaks cables: Shell's grip on Nigerian state revealed
US embassy cables reveal top executive's claims that company 'knows everything' about key decisions in government ministries- 2010/12/08: EUO: Hedegaard hits back after US cables suggest climate skulduggery
The EU's top climate official has blasted WikiLeaks releases as one-sided and misleading after leaked cables suggested Europe and the US used money and pressure tactics to secure developing nation support for the Copenhagen Accord- 2010/12/08: PlanetArk: U.S. Blocked Iran Candidate Election On U.N. Climate Body:Cables
- 2010/12/08: Rabble: Wikileaks reveals U.S. 'dirty business' at climate change talks
- 2010/12/07: DemocracyNow: Guardian Environment Editor John Vidal on WikiLeaks Cables and U.S. Manipulation of Climate Talks
- 2010/12/07: DemocracyNow: Democracy Now! Questions Chief E.U. Climate Negotiator about WikiLeaks Cables
- 2010/12/07: DemocracyNow: U.S. Climate Envoy Refuses to Answer Democracy Now!'s Questions on WikiLeaks Cables' Account of Summit Manipulation
- 2010/12/06: DemocracyNow: Pablo Solón Responds to Secret U.S. Manipulation of Climate Talks Revealed in WikiLeaks Cable
- 2010/12/08: DerSpiegel: Copenhagen Climate Cables -- The US and China Joined Forces Against Europe
Last year's climate summit in Copenhagen was a political disaster. Leaked US diplomatic cables now show why the summit failed so spectacularly. The dispatches reveal that the US and China, the world's top two polluters, joined forces to stymie every attempt by European nations to reach agreement.- 2010/12/08: DerSpiegel: 'Key Foreign Policy Issue' -- US Attempts to Influence World Climate Body
If you don't play, we won't pay. That seems to be the US message to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change when it comes to key personnel decisions, according to one of the newly leaked dispatches. The State Department, the document seems to indicate, leaned on a financial lever to get its way.- 2010/12/08: OilChange: Canada's Secret "Sensitivities" over Tar Sands
- 2010/12/07: Enviralment: Wikileaks Cables Reveal U.S. Interest in Canadian Energy Assets
- 2010/12/07: Guardian(UK): WikiLeaks climate change cables: what do you think?
- 2010/12/08: CCurrents: Cancun, Climate Change And WikiLeaks
- 2010/12/07: IJISH: (Digression) US climate envoy cyber-attacked by .pdf file in Jun 2009: Guardian re Wikileaks
- 2010/12/07: WikiLeaks: Cable 09OTTAWA64, SCENESETTER FOR THE PRESIDENT'S TRIP TO OTTAWA
[...]¶6. (C) Canadians wish that more Americans would recognize that Canada is the largest source of imported energy for the U.S. (including for both oil and natural gas), although there is also keen sensitivity over the higher environmental footprint of oil from western Canada's oil sands and concern about the implications for Canada of your energetic calls to develop renewable energies and reduce our reliance on imported oil. Canada is also rich in hydroelectric power, has similar objectives for developing renewables, and is working strenuously to improve the environmental impact of production from the oil sands and to expand its own wind Qproduction from the oil sands and to expand its own wind power capacity.
[...]¶8. (C) Although the climate change issue has largely been the province of the official opposition Liberal Party, the Conservative government now seeks to set in place measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and advocates a coordinated policy with the U.S. on expanded efforts to protect our shared environment. They hope and expect this will be a central theme of your visit.
OTTAWA 00000064 002 OF 002¶9. (C) Arctic sovereignty is a motherhood-and-apple-pie issue for Canadians of all political persuasions, and they are deeply suspicious of assertions by the U.S. (and most other concerned nations) that the Northwest Passage is a strait for international navigation, not Canada's territorial sea. The new Arctic policy issued at the end of the Bush Administration, which reasserted our views on the Northwest Passage and emphasized cooperation among Arctic nations, has re-ignited these suspicions.
- 2010/12/06: TerraDaily: WikiLeaks adds twist to climate hopes
- 2010/12/07: FOE: WikiLeaks Reveals State Department Discord Over U.S. Support for Canadian Tar Sands Oil Program
- 2010/12/07: TreeHugger: Wikileaks Reveals Hushed Concern Over Tar Sands Oil in US State Dept.
- 2010/12/06: Guardian(UK): WikiLeaks cables: US pressured UN climate chief to bar Iranian from job
Rajendra Pachauri denies helping Washington block scientist from senior post on intergovernmental climate body- 2010/12/06: Guardian(UK): US embassy cables: Brazil considers US plan to block election of Iranian climate scientist
- 2010/12/06: Guardian(UK): US embassy cables: Norway supports US plan to block election of Iranian climate scientist
- 2010/12/06: Guardian(UK): US envoy [Todd Stern] rejects suggestion that America bribed countries to sign up to the Copenhagen Accord
- 2010/12/06: EUO: Cablegate: EU and US try to outwit poor countries on climate
- 2010/12/06: WikiLeaks: Cable 10BRUSSELS186, CLIMATE: PERSHING AND HEDEGAARD COMMIT TO CLOSE
- 2010/12/06: Guardian(UK): US embassy cables: US lobbied Rajendra Pachauri to help them block appointment of Iranian scientist
- 2010/12/06: SolveClimate: WikiLeaks: More U.S. Climate Shenanigans
Rajendra Pachauri denies helping Washington block Iranian scientist from senior post on intergovernmental climate body- 2010/12/06: KSJT: Guardian: Wikileaks's latest cable trove and US climate diplomacy
- 2010/12/06: NatureTGB: Wikileaks cables suggest US blocked Iranian scientist from UN climate panel chair
- 2010/12/06: JQuiggin: New media, old media, older media
- 2010/12/01: Th!nk: Climate Cablegate: Lowering Expectations at Copenhagen
- 2010/12/05: WtD: Cablegate: governments aware of COP15 failure before talks
Regarding Europe's wintery weather:
- 2010/12/12: CCP: James Hansen et al.: Global Temperature and Europe's Frigid Air
- 2010/12/10: DerSpiegel: The Big Chill -- Snow Keeps Falling, Traffic Chaos Continues
While avid skiers and romantics celebrate what looks likely to be a White Christmas, travelers around Europe have been trapped in traffic jams, slow-moving trains and airports. Happily for the latter, weather reports indicate rising temperatures this weekend.- 2010/12/07: CSW: "Warm Arctic - Cold Continents"
- 2010/12/06: TerraDaily: Sub-zero weather kills another 13 in Central Europe
The AGU annual meeting starts Monday:
- 2010 AGU Fall Meeting 13-17 December
- 2010/12/12: SMandia: Presentation at AGU Meeting
An Emerging Ethic of Responsibility: A Case Study for Engaging the Public by S. A. Mandia & J. A. Abraham- 2010/12/10: USGS: USGS Science at American Geophysical Union Conference, San Francisco, December 13-17
Pakistan is still dealing with last summer's monsoon floods:
- 2010/12/11: CDreams: Floodwaters Still Washing Away Lives in Pakistan
The world has moved on from the disaster, but in villages and camps the horror is still unfolding- 2010/12/09: NewScientist:Pakistan floods released [3000 tonnes of] stored toxic chemicals
- 2010/12/07: CCP: Deborah Phelan: Pakistan: Climate = a Human Problem
- 2010/12/07: UN: Urgent funds needed as winter, polio compound Pakistan flood emergency - UN
- 2010/12/07: EarthTimes: UNICEF says crisis far from over for Pakistani flood-hit children
And on the Bottom Line:
- 2010/12/08: Pew: Global Clean Power: A $2.3 Trillion Opportunity
- 2010/12/09: TreeHugger: What Is Nature Worth? (Video)
- 2010/12/08: Guardian(UK): Global investment in renewables to total $1.7 trillion by 2020
- 2010/12/06: SolveClimate: Nicholas Stern Charts A 'Green' Industrial Revolution
On the sidelines of UN climate talks, leaders deliver big vision on how to beat climate change and poverty togetherWho's getting the subsidies?
- 2010/12/10: EarthTimes: Germany gets final EU nod to extend coal subsidies to 2018
What are the global financial institutions up to?
- 2010/12/09: DemNow: Commodifying Wildlife? World Bank Launches Market Scheme for Endangered Species
- 2010/12/08: PlanetArk: World Bank Chief To Launch Carbon Market Fund
- 2010/12/08: OilChange: Global Climate Fund In, World Bank Out
- 2010/12/07: ClimateP: World Bank makes a play for climate finance role
Another facet of a global push to an International Ecological Court?
- 2010/12/06: DemocracyNow: Former Irish President Mary Robinson Calls for Global Climate Justice Fund
- 2010/12/06: EarthTimes: Activist wants polluters on trial for crimes against humanity
Explicating the laws of thermodynamics...:
- 2010/12/07: TSoD: Things Climate Science has Totally Missed? - Convection
A CSRRT Alert:
- 2010/12/11: SMandia: Roy Spencer Steps Outside Protocol to Attack Scientist
- 2010/12/11: CCP: Scott Mandia: Roy Spencer steps outside protocol to attack scientist
- 2010/12/10: ScienceInsider: Science Criticized in Cancún for Timing of Paper on Cloud Feedback
John Cook and friends continue their counterpoint articles:
- 2010/12/09: SkeptiSci: Ice data made cooler
GermanWatch released their Climate Change Performance Index 2011 this week:
- 2010/12/06: GermanWatch: [links to several pdfs] Climate Change Performance Index 2011 -- A comparison of the 57 top CO2 emitting nations
- 2010/12/06: PI:B: Why Canada is still at the back of the pack on climate
- 2010/12/06: CBC: Canada among top climate-change culprits: report -- Germanwatch rates Brazil among best environment-improving countries
Canada is the fourth worst out of 57 countries evaluated for their performances in helping halt climate change, according to a report released Monday. Saudia Arabia, followed by Kazakhstan and Australia, respectively, are the worst performers in the sixth annual index released by the research organization Germanwatch at the United Nations' climate change conference in Cancun, Mexico. - 2010/12/09: QuarkSoup: Arctic Sea Ice (Extent) Again at a Minimum
- 2010/12/07: CCP: NSIDC: Arctic Sea Ice Report
- 2010/12/06: ClimateP: Arctic Death Spiral 2010: Navy's oceanographer tells Congress, "the volume of ice as of last September has never been lower...in the last several thousand years"
As for the charismatic megafauna:
- 2010/12/08: CSW: Arctic seals listed as threatened by climate change; polar bears get critical habitat designation
- 2010/12/10: CBC: Nunavut rips U.S. move on ringed seals
- 2010/12/07: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Polar Bears: When is an endangered species endangered?
- 2010/12/06: NatureTGB: Climate change spurs bid to put seals on endangered list
The pattern of Greenland's melting:
- 2010/12/10: TreeHugger: Greenland Ice Sheet Melt Caused By Short-Term Extreme Weather Not Gradual Temperature Rise
- 2010/12/09: NewScientist: Greenland's ice has secret weapon against melting
Greenland's vast ice sheets are proving surprisingly resilient. That means the glaciers will melt only slowly as the climate warms, provided it does so steadily. However, wild changes in the weather could make them melt much faster. - 2010/12/08: UBC: Greenland ice sheet flow driven by short-term weather extremes, not gradual warming: UBC research
While in Antarctica:
- 2010/12/10: NatureTGB: Research trip to the Antarctic: Penguins at risk
- 2010/12/09: NatureTGB: Research trip to the Antarctic: Gliding in the Southern Ocean
- 2010/12/08: NatureTGB: Research trip to the Antarctic: Tracking giant petrels
- 2010/12/09: ERabett: Melting hopes
- 2010/12/09: RealClimate: A brief history of knowledge about Antarctic temperatures
- 2010/12/07: NatureTGB: Research trip to the Antarctic: Probing ocean acidification
The food crisis is ongoing:
- FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
- 2010/12/06: WFP: Climate Change: A Fact Of Life For The World's Hungry
- 2010/12/07: FAO: Import dependence, water scarcity challenge food security in Near East
- 2010/12/10: EnergyBulletin: Feeding a larger population on a warmer planet
- 2010/12/07: CSM: (gfx) Population Adjusted Food Stmaps Participation - Total Unemployment Rate (U6)
- 2010/12/09: EconView: Unemployment and Food Stamps
- 2010/12/02: USDA: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP aka food stamps]
- 2010/12/07: Guardian(UK): India's battle against hunger beset by problems of delivery and corruption
Malnutrition in India is on the rise, despite nutrition rehabilitation centres and ration shops - 2010/12/07: PhysOrg: Economist: Climate change could reshape crop agriculture
- 2010/12/06: ABC(Au): More plague locusts reported in Melbourne
- 2010/12/06: EarthTimes: Record rain hits Australian grain harvests
The Global Crop Diversity Trust has initiated a project to collect wild seed stock:
- 2010/12/10: BBC: Wild food crop relatives to be 'rescued'
Scientists have announced a plan to collect and store the wild plant relatives of essential food crops, including wheat, rice, and potatoes. The project, co-ordinated by the Global Crop Diversity Trust, will collect and catalogue seeds from across the globe. The aim is to safeguard valuable genetic traits that the wild plants contain, which could be bred into crops to make them more hardy and versatile. This could help secure food supplies in the face of a changing climate. - 2010/12/10: PhysOrg: Adapting agriculture to climate change: New global search to save endangered crop wild relatives
The Global Crop Diversity Trust today announced a major global search to systematically find, gather, catalogue, use, and save the wild relatives of wheat, rice, beans, potato, barley, lentils, chickpea, and other essential food crops, in order to help protect global food supplies against the imminent threat of climate change, and strengthen future food security. - 2010/12/10: NatureTGB: Searching for wild relatives -- A global search to gather and save the wild relatives of essential food crops such as wheat, barley and rice is underway
Regarding the genetic modification of food:
- 2010/12/08: FAO: Countries meet to boost Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources -- Ground-breaking benefit-sharing fund will help conserve and utilize threatened plant species
- 2010/12/08: UN: UN-backed meeting on plant genetic resources opens in Rome
Representatives from more than 60 countries gathered in Rome today for a United Nations-backed meeting to promote the international treaty considered essential for the conservation and use of the world's threatened plant genetic resources. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources was adopted by the Conference of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2001 to facilitate international cooperation and the fair exchange of genetic resources. The treaty's Benefit-sharing Fund (BSF) was created to support poor farmers in developing countries to conserve and adapt to climate change the most important food crops. - 2010/12/09: EarthTimes: EU receives one-million-strong petition against GM crops
And how are we going to feed 9 billion?
- 2010/12/10: WFP: Bolivian Village Cooks Up "Super Food" For Babies
- 2010/12/10: FAO: Enhancing food security in Central America -- Italy funds regional agricultural project for four countries
- 2010/12/10: Tyee: Building up the 'Grain Chain' -- Local farmers are giving antique machines new life to help supply a growing demand for BC wheat
- 2010/12/07: AlterNet: Should Food Stamps Be Used for Soda?
- 2010/12/09: NatureN: Evolution of potato blight pathogen traced -- Lethal genes behind the nineteenth-century Irish famine pinned down
- 2010/12/09: AlterNet: Holy Shit: The Secret Behind Creating Truly Sustainable Food
- 2010/12/07: UN: Investing in agriculture key to reducing Near East's reliance on food imports - UN official
- 2010/11/30: AlterNet: [US] Factory Farms Decreasing in Number, But Increasing in Size: 20 Percent Growth in 5 Years
Just one numbered storm this week, with few comments:
- 2010/12/09: Wunderground: CSU and TSR predict an extremely active 2011 Atlantic hurricane season
- 2010/12/07: Eureka: NASA satellites see heavy rainfall and displaced thunderstorms in System 94B [near India]
As for GHGs:
- 2010/12/08: UNEP: [link to 2.5 meg pdf] Emissions Gap Report
- 2010/12/07: UNEP: Emissions Gap Report handover to Government of Mexico
- 2010/12/11: MTobis: Emissions vs concentrations
- 2010/12/08: NewScientist: Climate pledges are 9 gigatonnes short [Pearce]
- 2010/12/08: TreeHugger: Gap Between National Emission Reduction Pledges & What's Needed Is Wide - And Not Narrowing
- 2010/12/07: Mtobis: Another Rare Occasion
- 2010/12/06: RealClimate: Losing time, not buying time
Control of methane, soot, and other short-lived climate-forcing agents has often been described as a cheap way to "buy time" to get carbon dioxide emissions under control. But is it really? - 2010/12/06: TerraDaily: Neglected Greenhouse Gas Discovered By Atmosphere Chemists -- Anaesthetics Isoflurane, Sevoflurane & Desflurane
And in the carbon cycle:
- 2010/12/10: HotTopic: Bloomin' marvellous [phytoplankton]
- 2010/12/06: NOC: Measuring air-sea exchange of carbon dioxide in the open ocean
As for the temperature record:
- 2010/12/11: QuarkSoup: Climate Stuff
- 2010/12/10: CCP: Arctic and Antarctic GISS Surface Temperature Analysis for November 2010
- 2010/12/10: PSinclair: NASA: 2010 Warmest Year on Record
- 2010/12/10: CCP: 1950-2010 Temperature Anomalies
- 2010/12/10: ClimateP: NASA: Hottest November on record, 2010 likely hottest year on record globally -- despite deepest solar minimum in a century
- 2010/12/10: SciNow: NASA: 2010 Meteorological Year Warmest Ever
- 2010/12/10: DM:BA: "The world is getting warmer"
Lots of fun in feedbacks this week:
- 2010/12/07: FuturePundit: Plant Growth Negative Feedback On CO2 Warming
- 2010/12/09: ClimateP: Major Science study: Observations confirm "the short-term cloud feedback is likely positive"
- 2010/12/09: RealClimate: Feedback on Cloud Feedback
- 2010/12/07: Eureka: 'Greener' climate prediction shows plants slow warming
- 2010/12/07: PhysOrg: 'Greener' climate prediction shows plants slow warming
A new NASA computer modeling effort has found that additional growth of plants and trees in a world with doubled atmospheric carbon dioxide levels would create a new negative feedback -- a cooling effect -- in the Earth's climate system that could work to reduce future global warming. - 2010/12/05: SciDaily: Northern Wildfires Threaten Runaway Climate Change, Study Reveals
Climate change is causing wildfires to burn more fiercely, pumping more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than previously thought... - 2010/12/09: PhysOrg: Cloud 'feedback' affects global climate and warming, study says (w/ Video)
- 2010/12/09: PhysOrg: Scientists begin 5-month study of cloud life cycles
- 2010/12/09: SciNews: Clouds warm things up -- Satellite data put hard numbers on key player in climate
While in the paleoclimate:
- 2010/12/06: SciNow: Did Climate Change Drive Prehistoric Culture Change?
While on the ENSO front:
- 2010/12/09: NOAA:NCEP: El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion
Synopsis: La Niña is expected to last at least into the Northern Hemisphere spring 2011. - 2010/12/02: SciDaily: El Nino: Better Understanding of Long-Term Changes in Climate System
Regarding the solar hypothesis:
- 2010/12/08: CCentral: The Sun is Getting Restless
- 2010/12/08: Eureka: Changes in solar activity affect local climate
Regarding Climate Sensitivity:
- 2010/12/12: SkeptiSci: An Even Cloudier Outlook for Low Climate Sensitivity
More GW impacts are being seen:
- 2010/12/12: SciDaily: Tigers and Polar Bears Are Highly Vulnerable to Environmental Change
- 2010/12/07: SciAm: Humans are more at risk from diseases as biodiversity disappears
- 2010/12/10: TerraDaily: Widespread Suffering If Further Climate Change Not Forestalled
- 2010/12/09: PlanetArk: Blue Tongue, Blight, Beetles Pester A Warmer World
- 2010/12/09: UMich: Ice-age reptile extinctions provide a glimpse of likely responses to human-caused climate change
- 2010/12/02: OSU: Climate scientist warns world of widespread suffering if further climate change is not forestalled.
- 2010/12/07: WtD: Canary in the coal mine: Australia's summer of locusts, floods, heatwaves and drought
- 2010/12/06: Maribo: Art and the impacts of global change
- 2010/12/06: UN: Climate change effects on South America depicted graphically in UN report
- 2010/12/02: NatGeo: Global Warming Burning Lakes? Rising water temperatures threaten water quality, species survival
And then there are the world's forests:
- 2010/12/09: UCSUSA: World Needs to Restore and Expand Tropical Forests to Combat Climate Change, New Report Finds
- 2010/12/07: TreeHugger: Carbon Emissions From Deforestation Revised Down
- 2010/12/07: EarthTimes: India's forest protection laws start getting teeth
- 2010/12/06: NewScientist: Deforestation 'not so important for climate change' [Pearce]
- 2010/12/06: Guardian(UK): Climate change threat to tropical forests 'greater than suspected'
Met Office Hadley Centre warns of drought risk and role of deforestation in global warming - 2010/12/10: CBC: Climate change, wildfires in vicious cycle
Northern wildfires and climate change are fuelling each other, a new study shows. "Increasing temperatures ... [are] going to result in increasing fire in both Alaska and Canada," says Merritt Turetsky, lead author of the study published this week in Nature Geoscience. "This results then, according to our data, in more greenhouse gas emissions, which then feeds back to climate warming through the greenhouse effect." - 2010/12/08: CCP: David Easterling: Heat waves may "become norm" by 2100
- 2010/12/08: UFZ: Scientists: The fire in Israel is a typical example of climate change effects in the Mediterranean
- 2010/12/07: IdiotTracker: . . . and speaking of forest fires
- 2010/12/06: PlanetArk: Grassland Fire In Southwest China Kills 22: Report
- 2010/12/05: EarthTimes: More than 100 wild fires in Lebanon after hot, dry spell
- 2010/12/05: Guardian(UK): Israeli forest fires under control as government faces criticism over disaster
Israeli ministers accused of funding ultra-orthodox causes rather than fire service... - 2010/12/07: Guardian(UK): Coral reefs 'could disappear in our children's lifetime'
- 2010/12/07: ClimateP: Veron: The end is in sight for the world's coral reefs
- 2010/12/06: TerraDaily: Mexicans fear climate change threat to massive reef
- 2010/12/07: Yale360: Is the End in Sight for The World's Coral Reefs?
It is a difficult idea to fathom. But the science is clear: Unless we change the way we live, the Earth's coral reefs will be utterly destroyed within our children's lifetimes. - 2010/12/07: TreeHugger: Corals Reefs Will Be Wiped Out By 2050, Expert Says
- 2010/12/07: Eureka: Conditioning reefs for the future
In a world first, a new 'state-of-the-art' climate change experimental facility has been completed at the University of Queensland's Heron Island Research Station on the Great Barrier Reef - 2010/12/07: PhysOrg: Undersea methane could be contributor to increased ocean acidity, researchers find
- 2010/12/06: SciDevNet: Ocean acidification threatens fisheries, says UNEP
Glaciers are melting:
- 2010/12/07: UNEP: Glaciers in South America and Alaska melting faster than those in Europe, says new UNEP report
- 2010/12/07: SpaceDaily: Glaciers melting fastest in South America, Alaska: UN
- 2010/12/09: OSU: Time running out to save climate record held in unique Eastern European Alps glacier
A preliminary look at an ice field atop the highest mountain in the eastern European Alps suggests that the glacier may hold records of ancient climate extending back as much as a thousand years. Researchers warn, however, that the record may soon be lost as global warming takes its toll on these high-altitude sites, according to a new study in the Journal of Glaciology. - 2010/12/08: PlanetArk: Melting Glaciers Threaten Floods In Himalayas, Andes
- 2010/12/08: CCurrents: Himalayan Glaciers Melting At Alarming Rates
- 2010/12/07: UNEP: Mountain Glaciers and Climate Change Report
Sea levels are rising:
- 2010/12/06: HuffPo: Marshall Islands' Climate Change Dilemma: If It Vanishes Beneath Rising Sea Levels, Is It Still A Nation?
- 2010/12/07: CCP: J. D. Stanford et al., Global and Planetary Change, Sea-level probability for the last deglaciation: A statistical analysis of far-field records
These global warming deluges aka 100, 200, 500 year storms are happening frequently:
- 2010/12/07: CCP: Lloyd of London's Whitepaper on Extreme Rainfall: change is most significant for days of extreme rainfall over 40 mm, which recorded a 900% increase
As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:
- 2010/12/11: CBC: Panama mudslide devastates Winnipeg man
A Winnipeg man living in Panama suffered a tragic loss when a mudslide there killed four family members. The mudslide hit the coastal town of Portobelo on Wednesday, following several days of intense rain. - 2010/12/10: UN: UN agencies in Colombia allocate funds for flood emergency response
- 2010/12/09: CBC: Australia declares emergency in flood areas
Australia's attorney general declared 45 communities along the country's east coast disaster areas Friday, following weeks of drenching rains that have submerged homes, destroyed crops and killed four people. After years of drought, December's heavy rains have brought misery to the region. Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate their homes, and officials have been scrambling to pluck stranded motorists from cars and surround vulnerable homes and businesses with sandbags. - 2010/12/10: ABC(Au): Disaster zones declared across eastern Australia
Thirty-five council areas in New South Wales and Queensland have been declared natural disaster zones with more areas likely to be announced as floodwaters continue to rise, prompting more evacuations. - 2010/12/09: EarthTimes: Australia battles worst floods in decades
- 2010/12/09: EarthTimes: Eight killed in rains, Panama Canal shut down
- 2010/12/08: BBC: Panama Canal shut by heavy rains
- 2010/12/07: Guardian(UK): The shifting river that is making Uganda smaller
- 2010/12/08: EarthTimes: More flooding in southern Spain
- 2010/12/07: EarthTimes: Flooding forces evacuation of hundreds in Spain
- 2010/12/07: EarthTimes: Dozens evacuated after heavy flooding in Spain
- 2010/12/06: TerraDaily: Thousands evacuated, stranded by Australian floods
- 2010/12/06: Wunderground: Heaviest rains in Colombia's history trigger deadly landslide; 145 dead or missing
- 2010/12/06: EarthTimes: Record rain hits Australian grain harvests
- 2010/12/06: BBC: NATO joins Albania rescue effort after Balkan floods
- 2010/12/06: BBerg: Australia Floods Damage Crops, Disrupt Coal Output
- 2010/12/05: BBC: Dozens feared buried in Colombia landslide
At least 50 people are feared to have been buried by a landslide in the Colombian city of Medellin.
[...]
Landslides are common in the Colombian Andes region - the latest was triggered by the heaviest rains in the country in four decades. - 2010/12/05: BBC: Albania 'hit by worst floods in living memory'
More than 12,000 people have now been moved from their homes in north-western Albania following days of heavy rain. - 2010/12/10: KSJT: Yale e360: The fuss about biochar as planetary savior -- or at least part of the cavalry troop
- 2010/12/09: Yale360: Refilling the Carbon Sink: Biochar's Potential and Pitfalls
The idea of creating biochar by burning organic waste in oxygen-free chambers -- and then burying it -- is being touted as a way to cool the planet. But while it already is being produced on a small scale, biochar's proponents and detractors are sharply divided over whether it can help slow global warming. - 2010/12/09: DemNow: Is REDD the New Green? Indigenous Groups Resist Carbon Market-Based Forestry Scheme to Offset Emissions
- 2010/12/09: CCP: Civil Society supports growing rejection of carbon trading to finance REDD
- 2010/12/07: SolveClimate: Ideological Foes Assail UN Forest Scheme from Two Sides
Still, REDD maintains broad support from rich and poor nations and could be one of few agreements to emerge from the climate talks - 2010/12/07: WorldAgroForestry: Climate Negotiators and REDD Supporters Not Seeing the Landscape Through the Trees, Say Agroforestry Researchers
Carbon Leakage and Emission Displacement Will Haunt REDD's Effectiveness Unless Programs and Forest Definitions Are More Inclusive and Comprehensive - 2010/12/06: Grist: REDD between the lines -- Indonesia's billion-dollar climate experiment
Consider transportation & GHG production:
- 2010/12/10: TreeHugger: Carbon-Neutral Sail-Powered Cargo Ships Scheduled to Return to European Waters in 2012
- 2010/12/06: CalcRisk: AAR: November Rail Traffic shows "mixed progress"
- 2010/12/05: Guardian(UK): Ocean-going ships to get ratings on energy efficiency
Richard Branson sets up free internet database detailing vessels' engine size and CO2 emissions - 2010/12/06: BBC: Shipping to steer cleaner carbon course
Ships could be charged different fees to dock depending on how much carbon they emit, according to ideas being discussed at the UN climate summit. The government of Papua New Guinea is considering the plan, and is hoping other nations may become involved. The Carbon War Room, co-founded by Sir Richard Branson, has launched an online tool grading 60,000 commercial vessels according to their emissions. Shipping contributes about 1Gt of CO2 each year, more than the entire UK. Currently shipping fuels are exempt from national carbon accounts, which has caused much head-scratching about how their emissions could be curbed. - 2010/12/10: TEC: Over One Billion Served: USGBC, LEED Hits Square-Foot Landmark, Keep Rolling
As for carbon sequestration:
- 2010/12/07: SolveClimate: Study Charts How Underground CO2 Can Leach Metals into Water
- 2010/12/07: Eureka: Carbon capture and storage technologies could provide a new green industry for the UK
Meanwhile in the journals:
- 2010/12/10: ACP: Analysis of SAGE II ozone of the middle and upper stratosphere for its response to a decadal-scale forcing by E. Remsberg & G. Lingenfelser
- 2010/12/10: ACP: Stratocumulus cloud thickening beneath layers of absorbing smoke aerosol by E. M. Wilcox
- 2010/12/10: ACP: Reconciliation of measurements of hygroscopic growth and critical supersaturation of aerosol particles in central Germany by M. Irwin et al.
- 2010/12/10: ACP: Global fire emissions and the contribution of deforestation, savanna, forest, agricultural, and peat fires (1997-2009) by G. R. van der Werf et al.
- 2010/12/10: ACPD: Spatial distribution of the source-receptor relationship of sulfur in Northeast Asia by M. Kajino et al.
- 2010/12/08: OSD: On the freshening of the northwestern Weddell Sea continental shelf by H. H. Hellmer et al.
- 2010/12/10: TC: The influence of changes in glacier extent and surface elevation on modeled mass balance by F. Paul
- 2010/12/08: TC: Influence of the Tungurahua eruption on the ice core records of Chimborazo, Ecuador by P. Ginot et al.
- 2010/12/08: TCD: Ice-stream response to ocean tides and the form of the basal sliding law by G. H. Gudmundsson
- 2010/12/10: TCD: Dust from the dark region in the western ablation zone of the Greenland ice sheet by I. G. M. Wientjes et al.
- 2010/12/11: Geology: Rainforest collapse triggered Carboniferous tetrapod diversification in Euramerica by Sarda Sahney et al.
- 2010/12/05: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Recent acceleration of biomass burning and carbon losses in Alaskan forests and peatlands by Merritt R. Turetsky et al.
- 2010/12/09: CPD: Uncertainties modelling CH4 emissions from northern wetlands in glacial climates: the role of vegetation by C. Berrittella & J. Van Huissteden
- 2010/12/10: AGWObserver: Papers on lake effect and climate
- 2010/12/09: ACP: Present and future impact of aircraft, road traffic and shipping emissions on global tropospheric ozone by B. Koffi et al.
- 2010/12/09: ACP: Light-absorbing impurities in Arctic snow by S. J. Doherty et al.
- 2010/12/08: ACP: Impact of different definitions of clear-sky flux on the determination of longwave cloud radiative forcing: NICAM simulation results by B. J. Sohn et al.
- 2010/12/08: ACP: Quantifying transport into the Arctic lowermost stratosphere by A. Werner et al.
- 2010/12/08: ACP: Chemical composition and aerosol size distribution of the middle mountain range in the Nepal Himalayas during the 2009 pre-monsoon season by P. Shrestha et al.
- 2010/12/07: ACP: Major components of atmospheric organic aerosol in southern California as determined by hourly measurements of source marker compounds by B. J. Williams et al.
- 2010/12/07: ACP: Smoke injection heights from agricultural burning in Eastern Europe as seen by CALIPSO by V. Amiridis et al.
- 2010/12/06: ACP: Characterization of high-resolution aerosol mass spectra of primary organic aerosol emissions from Chinese cooking and biomass burning by L.-Y. He et al.
- 2010/12/06: ACP: Diurnal variations of humidity and ice water content in the tropical upper troposphere by P. Eriksson et al.
- 2010/12/09: ACPD: Seasonal cycle, size dependencies, and source analyses of aerosol optical properties at the SMEAR II measurement station in Hyytiälä, Finland by A. Virkkula et al.
- 2010/12/09: ACPD: Enhancements of gravity wave amplitudes at midlatitudes during sudden stratospheric warmings in 2008 by T. Flury et al.
- 2010/12/09: ACPD: Sources of carbonaceous aerosol in the Amazon Basin by S. Gilardoni et al.
- 2010/12/07: ACPD: Water uptake of biomass burning aerosol at sub- and supersaturated conditions: closure studies and implications for the role of organics by U. Dusek et al.
- 2010/12/06: ACPD: Comparison of ambient aerosol extinction coefficients obtained from in-situ, MAX-DOAS and LIDAR measurements at Cabauw by P. Zieger et al.
- 2010/12/08: Nature: (ab$) Glaciology: Greenland's glacial basics by Martin P. Lüthi
- 2010/12/08: Nature: (ab$) Ice-sheet acceleration driven by melt supply variability by Christian Schoof
- 2010/12/09: GRL: (ab$) Quantifying the negative feedback of vegetation to greenhouse warming: A modeling approach by L. Bounoua et al.
- 2010/12/07: PNAS: (abs) Using return on investment to maximize conservation effectiveness in Argentine grasslands by William Murdoch et al.
- 2010/12/07: PNAS: (ab$) Forest transitions, trade, and the global displacement of land use by Patrick Meyfroidt et al.
- 2010/12/07: PNAS: (abs) National housing and impervious surface scenarios for integrated climate impact assessments by Britta G. Bierwagen et al.
- 2010/12/06: AGWObserver: New research from last week 48/2010
- 2010/12/05: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Recent acceleration of biomass burning and carbon losses in Alaskan forests and peatlands by Merritt R. Turetsky et al.
- 2010/12/03: Science: (ab$) Dynamical Response of the Tropical Pacific Ocean to Solar Forcing During the Early Holocene by Thomas M. Marchitto et al.
And other significant documents:
- 2010/12/09: PI: [link to 436k pdf] Renewable Energy: FIT for Cities
- 2010/12/08: UNEP: [link to 2.5 meg pdf] Emissions Gap Report
- 2010/12/08: TEC: [link to 184k pdf] Latest Negotiating Document Released in Cancún
- 2010/12/06: GermanWatch: [links to several pdfs] Climate Change Performance Index 2011 -- A comparison of the 57 top CO2 emitting nations
- 2010/12/07: OO: [link to 47.1 meg pdf] Ombudsman finds G20 regulation of "dubious legality"; Citizens unfairly trapped by secret expansion of police powers
- 2010/12/06: PI: [link to 242k pdf] Evaluation of the Government of Canada's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Policies
- 2010/12/08: PI: [link to 459k pdf] Recommendations for British Columbia's Proposed Cap-and-Trade Regulations
As for miscellaneous science:
- 2010/12/07: SciDaily: Duelling Dipoles: In Search of a New Theory of Photosynthetic Energy Transfer
Chemists of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich have refuted a basic postulate of Förster theory, which describes energy transfers between pigment molecules, such as those that underlie photosynthesis. A revised version of the theory could have an impact on the design of optical computers and improve the efficiency of solar cells. - 2010/12/07: Grist: What are future economists learning about climate?
- 2010/12/06: MTobis: Blame it on Fidel
Regarding Hansen:
- 2010/12/09: CCurrents: China Can Slow Global Warming If The US Won't by James Hansen
- 2010/12/09: EnergyBulletin: China can slow global warming if the US won't by James Hansen
Regarding Lonnie Thompson:
- 2010/12/10: HotTopic: Clear and present danger: Lonnie Thompson on the message in the ice
- 2010/12/08: CCP: Climate Change: The Evidence and Our Options by Lonnie G. Thompson
- 2010/12/08: CCP: Lonnie Thompson' new paper: humanity is in deep trouble -- The Ice Man Warneth
Regarding Wegman:
- 2010/12/09: GreenFyre: The other Wegman ironies
While at the UN:
- 2010/12/08: CCP: Brad Johnson: Rajendra Pachauri on the how the best scientists from the world over are working for free for the IPCC
- 2010/12/05: ClimateP: Pachauri debunks right-wing myths about IPCC
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:
- 2010/12/10: TreeHugger: Carbon Trading is Far From Perfect, But What's the Alternative?
- 2010/12/09: DemNow: Offsetting Emissions or Pollution Profiteering? Debating the Surge of Cap-and-Trade Carbon Market
- 2010/12/09: JQuiggin: A tender model for carbon pricing
- 2010/12/09: BBerg: Japan Adviser Proposes $6.3 Trillion Carbon Market
Meanwhile on the international political front:
- 2010/12/07: Xinhuanet: Chinese renewable energy firms encouraged to invest in U.S. market
The energy race between China and the USA is on, or is it?
- 2010/12/09: PlanetArk: China To Lead World In Innovation By 2020: Survey
- 2010/12/09: DM:CCM: We Just Keep Falling Behind in Clean Energy
- 2010/12/09: WtD: Decline and fall: in the US they're building Noah's Ark, in China they're building the future
As for GW, energy & water security:
- 2010/12/11: NYT: Why We Might Fight, 2011 Edition
- 2010/12/08: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Major U.S. Businesses and Military Leaders call for climate investments for national security and economic reasons
- 2010/12/08: EnergyBulletin: Climate change and regime longevity in the DPRK (North Korea)
The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world:
- 2010/12/07: OO: [link to 47.1 meg pdf] Ombudsman finds G20 regulation of "dubious legality"; Citizens unfairly trapped by secret expansion of police powers
- 2010/12/08: SWRWN: Caught in the Act [Marin report]
- 2010/12/06: ABC(Au): Police arrest 69 at power station protest
Police have condemned the actions of environmentalists charged during a protest at the Bayswater Power Station in the Upper Hunter over the weekend. - 2010/12/08: Rabble: Demanding climate justice from Cancun to Toronto
- 2010/12/06: TCoE: It's the urgency, stupid
- 2010/12/06: PlanetArk: Climate Activists Shut Down Australian Coal Conveyor
Polls! We have polls!
- 2010/12/08: TreeHugger: 80% of UK Farmers Want Solar Roofs by 2013
Regarding Water Politics and Business:
- 2010/12/11: JFleck: River Beat Weekly Report: What's 169,000 Acre Feet Among Friends?
- 2010/12/10: NRDC:SwitchBoard: A Water Agenda for Governor Brown - Improving Floodplain Management
- 2010/12/06: USGS: Biofuels and Buffelgrass, Urban Water and Mangroves
- 2010/12/10: JFleck: Who Was "Winters"?
- 2010/12/11: National(AE): Water is the greatest gift in the desert
- 2010/12/09: JFleck: On Windmills and Domestic Wells
- 2010/12/08: NCTimes: Warming climate may dry up water supplies -- Coastkeeper forum explores future of San Diego County water
- 2010/12/08: JFleck: Didion on Water
- 2010/12/07: UN: Water adaptation strategies urgently needed to counter glacier shrinkage - UN official
And on the American political front:
- 2010/12/11: NRDC:SwitchBoard: NY Becomes First State to Impose a Moratorium on Hydraulic Fracturing
- 2010/12/06: RRapier: How the RFA Wastes Your Tax Dollars -- Part I: How Much is a Job Worth?
- 2010/12/08: RRapier: How the RFA Wastes Your Tax Dollars -- Part II: Blatant Dishonesty and a Debate Challenge
- 2010/12/10: TWM: Wisconsin, Ohio reject funds for high-speed rail...
- 2010/12/08: TEC: The Road to Clean Energy Leadership: Baby Steps or Bold Leaps
- 2010/12/09: SacBee: Report minimizes fears on California climate cap-and-trade system
- 2010/12/08: Grist: Solar developers race clock as sun sets on lucrative incentives
- 2010/12/08: TreeHugger: Smart Meter Opt-Out Bill Introduced In California
- 2010/12/08: TreeHugger: New Mexico to Reduce CO2 Emissions 25% Below 1990 Levels
- 2010/12/08: TreeHugger: Bangladesh Minister to GOP: Climate Change is a Reality (Video)
- 2010/12/08: DeSmogBlog: Still Awaiting Our Global Warming "Scopes Trial"
- 2010/12/07: CCP: Bangladesh Minister for Environment responds to GOP: 'We Are Struggling With The Impacts Of Climate Change' -- says Inhofe's words on climate change are dangerously false
- 2010/12/07: REA: Maryland Citizens Want Offshore Wind
- 2010/12/05: Oregonian: Giant Alberta-bound oil-sands shipments stall in Idaho as opposition mounts
- 2010/12/06: Missoulian: Oilfield megaloads will exceed Idaho bridge's weight limit
- 2010/12/06: ClimateP: Last chance for clean energy action?
- 2010/12/06: MongaBay: US most vulnerable to climate change among world's wealthy nations
- 2010/12/05: TP:WR: Scientists Fight Inhofe Attack On Climate Fund
The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:
- 2010/12/10: DesDes: Serious offshore drilling incidents on the rise -- 'People can forget to be afraid'
- 2010/12/10: MTobis: Safety Consciousness in the Oil Business
- 2010/12/09: PlanetArk: Inept Moves Preceded BP Spill: U.S. Panel Co-Chair
- 2010/12/09: TreeHugger: FDA Underestimating Gulf Residents' Carcinogen Exposure From Eating Seafood: NRDC
- 2010/12/09: PeakEnergy: Montara Oil Spill: "A failure of sensible oilfield practice"
- 2010/12/08: NRDC:SwitchBoard: 4 Jumbo Shrimp vs. 56-- What Seafood Consumption Really Looks Like in the Gulf
- 2010/12/07: ClimateP: Who knew smoking was this dangerous? Halliburton Worker on Smoke Break Missed BP Well Data
- 2010/12/03: ABC(US): Submarine Dive Finds Oil, Dead Sea Life at Bottom of Gulf of Mexico
- 2010/12/07: ProPublica: Oil Spill Investigators Say Access to Data Is Being Blocked
- 2010/12/06: NRDC:SwitchBoard: A holiday season of hope and fear in the oily Gulf
The ethanol debate continues:
- 2010/12/10: TEC: New U.S. Tax Legislation Set to Include Extensions to Renewable Cash Grants and Ethanol Subsidies
- 2010/12/09: Reuters: Tax bill to extend 45-cent ethanol credit one year: sources
- 2010/12/10: PlanetArk: [Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC)] Democratic Leader Calls For Ethanol In Tax Bill
- 2010/12/09: NRDC:SwitchBoard: From all corners: Congress shouldn't waste dollars on ethanol or cut support for clean energy
- 2010/12/09: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Editorials make case against corn ethanol subsidies, industry can't get all it wishes for anymore
- 2010/12/08: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Corn ethanol industry reads the tea leaves and sees defeat
- 2010/12/07: OilDrum: Cellulosic Ethanol Reality Begins to Set In
- 2010/12/06: SolveClimate: Bipartisan Groups Want to End Ethanol Subsidy and Save Taxpayers Billions
An almost amusing little imbroglio:
- 2010/12/10: DM:CCM: Sarewitz: Don't Make More Republicans Science Friendly, Make More Scientists Republican!
- 2010/12/09: CIP: Republican Scientists
- 2010/12/09: KSJT: Slate: Democratic scientists accused of pushing Dem agenda
- 2010/12/08: Slate: Most scientists in this country are Democrats. That's a problem.
- 2010/12/09: ScienceInsider: 'A Democratic Society Needs Republican Scientists'
Western Climate Initiative is struggling:
- 2010/12/09: Grist: States of the art -- Regional cap-and-trade advances
- 2010/12/06: HCN: Western Climate Initiative moves forward, smaller than imagined -- The toxic politics of cap-and-trade
Mr. Blankenship has retired:
- 2010/11/29: RS: Don Blankenship: The Dark Lord of Coal Country
- 2010/12/06: CJR: Can Rolling Stone Claim Blankenship's Scalp?
- 2010/12/07: WVGazette:CT: Blankenship gets $12 million retirement package
- 2010/12/07: TreeHugger: Unscrupulous Coal Baron Wanted for Immediate Hire
- 2010/12/06: DeSmogBlog: Want To Be The Next CEO of Massey Energy As Don Blankenship Retires?
- 2010/12/06: NYT: Under Fire Since Explosion, Mining [Massey Energy] C.E.O. [Don Blankenship] Quits
- 2010/12/05: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Don Blankenship, we hardly knew ye
The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:
- 2010/12/10: C411: Economic Benefits from EPA's Power Plant Pollution Rule -- New Report
- 2010/12/09: ProPublica: Some Appointees to Oil and Gas Commission Are Industry Execs, Lobbyists
- 2010/12/10: PlanetArk: EPA Regulations May Shut 50,000 MW Of Coal Plants: Brattle [Group]
- 2010/12/09: PlanetArk: EPA Postpones Smog Rule Until July
- 2010/12/08: Grist: Is EPA running scared from the incoming Republican Congress?
- 2010/12/07: EPA: EPA Issues an Imminent and Substantial Endangerment Order to Protect Drinking Water in Southern Parker County [Texas]
- 2010/12/08: NRDC:SwitchBoard: EPA takes emergency action in Texas; drinking water contamination is related to natural gas operations
- 2010/12/08: TEC: What scientific information or data does the Department of Interior intend to rely upon in fracking policy actions?
- 2010/12/07: ClimateP: How EPA plans to reduce electric utility pollution in the face of industry obstruction and misinformation
- 2010/12/06: CSW: MacCracken federal court Declaration defending EPA Endangerment Finding
As for what is going on in Congress:
- 2010/12/11: ProPublica: New House Chairmen to Scrutinize Fed, Roll Back FinReg, Call on EPA to 'Stand Down'
- 2010/12/10: CCP: Blackened Pork: Liquid Coal Subsidies Sneak into Senate Tax Bill
- 2010/12/10: CCP: Josh Voorhees: Energy and Environment Subcommittee split in the works - Energy extenders snag a ride on Senate tax deal - E&C Dems brace for cuts
- 2010/12/10: ClimateP: Dawn of the brain-dead House: Politico reports GOP stuffing Energy and Commerce with 'Climate Zombies'
- 2010/12/09: Grist: Clean energy grants extended for a year; still a dumb way to do things
- 2010/12/10: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Still time for Congress to do better on corn ethanol subsidies and save billions
- 2010/12/09: UCSUSA: UCS Challenges New Committee Chairs to Reverse Antagonistic Climate Science Positions
- 2010/12/09: BBickmore: Orrin Hatch on Hypothesis and Proof
- 2010/12/09: ClimateP: Incoming House Science Chair Ralph Hall: "We have some real challenges; we have the global warming or global freezing"
- 2010/12/09: ClimateP: Benin to GOP deniers: "We are crushed by the impact of climate change"
- 2010/12/08: NatureTGB: Republican leadership nominates committee chairs for US House
- 2010/12/07: TheHill: Upton wins Energy and Commerce gavel
House Republican leaders on Tuesday selected Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) to be the next chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee... - 2010/12/08: SolveClimate: Outgoing Rep. Bob Inglis Still Touting Revenue Neutral Carbon Tax
He's trying to convince bona fide conservative Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., to reintroduce the carbon tax measure they co-sponsored - 2010/12/08: Grist: Time to move like the wind to save clean energy by Rep. Ed Markey
- 2010/12/08: Reuters: [Rep. Fred] Upton (R-Mich) backed for House energy panel chair
Representative Fred Upton was chosen by a Republican organizing panel on Tuesday to become the next chairman of the House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee, considered one of the most power panels in the U.S. Congress. - 2010/12/07: TEC: Republican Fred Upton Wins Energy and Commerce Committee Gavel
What are the lobbyists pushing?
- 2010/12/08: TheHill:e2W: Oil industry launches campaign to promote Canadian oil sand imports
The oil industry is planning early next year to counter a massive effort by environmental groups to block Canadian oil-sand imports into the United States. The American Petroleum Institute, the powerful oil and natural-gas industry trade group, said Wednesday it will launch an advertising campaign and "grassroots outreach" effort in January that will focus on "the benefits of oil sands to U.S. consumers." - 2010/12/08: CCP: Angry local chambers shun U.S. Chamber of Commerce over its partisan attack ads during last election -- Angry member groups shun Chamber
- 2010/12/08: ClimateP: Backlash from U.S. Chamber's right-wing, pro-pollution ads: More local Chambers plan to end membership
The Gore-apalooza is still bopping along:
- 2010/12/08: ClimateP: The truthiness of Proofiness: Charles Seife's new book gets it wrong on Gore and the media laps it up
- 2010/12/06: DM:CV: Is Al Gore Responsible for Destroying the Planet?
While in the UK:
- 2010/12/09: Economist: Clean and green, for a price -- Britain can have clean energy or cheap energy, but not both
- 2010/12/11: BBC: David Cameron praises new climate change deal
- 2010/12/10: Guardian(UK): Meet the youth climate leaders -- Here are some of the young activists at work in the UK fighting to stop the injustice of climate change
- 2010/12/09: Guardian(UK): Carbon capture coal firm Powerfuel calls in administrators
Powerfuel £635m short of money required for CCS scheme - Owner of Hatfield coal mine put up for sale - 2010/12/09: TreeHugger: Climate Skeptic Anti-Tax Politician [Roger Helmer, UK MEP] Funds Billboards with Tax Money
- 2010/12/08: Guardian(UK): Labour rejects claim Huhne may have to abandon climate talks for tuition fees vote
- 2010/12/08: Guardian(UK): Chris Huhne to stay in Cancún despite Commons vote on tuition fees
- 2010/12/07: NYT:CW: Britain Aims for Radical Power Market Reform in Push for Low-Carbon Energy
- 2010/12/08: BBC: Tuition fees vote may make Huhne leave climate talks
- 2010/12/07: Guardian(UK): Committee on Climate Change advises UK to cut emissions 60% by 2030
- 2010/12/07: NewScientist: UK should cut emissions by 60 per cent by 2030 [says the Committee on Climate Change (CCC)]
- 2010/12/07: BBC: Bosses of the UK's leading energy companies have told a committee of MPs that bills are likely to rise in years to come
- 2010/12/06: BBC: UK power sector 'needs overhaul'
The UK needs to revolutionise the power industry to meet its climate change laws, according to a report by the government's climate advisers. The Climate Change Committee says the current free-market system to deliver new power supplies is not working now, and will not work in the future. It suggests a new hybrid system where government dictates the amount of clean power that's needed. It then gets private firms to bid to provide it. The government has responded positively to the report, and will publish its own ideas on energy reform next week. - 2010/12/11: Reuters: Climate deal makes bigger EU CO2 cut more likely: UK
A climate deal in Mexico on Saturday would make it more likely that the European Union would shift to a tougher greenhouse gas emissions target, Britain's energy and climate secretary said. - 2010/12/10: PVTech: Czech Senate approves [retroactive] 26% solar tax, breaks investor confidence
- 2010/12/09: Reuters: Analysis: EU biofuels squeezed by green doubts, tight budgets
The European Union's biofuels industry looks set to struggle to attract funds to expand with a challenging investment climate made more difficult by complex questions about the sector's environmental credentials. - 2010/12/10: EarthTimes: EU says 'state the obvious': Emissions pledges not enough
- 2010/12/10: EarthTimes: Germany gets final EU nod to extend coal subsidies to 2018
- 2010/12/10: BBC: Coal-to-gas power shift 'to cut energy costs'
- 2010/12/09: PlanetArk: EU Coal Nations Near Victory In Subsidies Fight
- 2010/12/07: EurActiv: EU shifts energy policy focus to consumers' bills
- 2010/12/07: ESF: It's time for Europe to step up research in the Polar Regions
- 2010/12/06: EurActiv: EU countries launch North Sea electricity grid
Ten European countries, including Norway, have agreed to develop an offshore electricity grid at the North Sea, in a bold move that promoters say will give Europe the possibility of tapping into an even bigger source of energy than the Middle East's oil capacity. Ministers from all the ten 'North Seas Countries' signed of a 'Memorandum of Understanding' on Friday (3 December) to develop an offshore electricity grid seen as a major step forward for a single European market for electricity. - 2010/12/06: EurActiv: Regions call for 'bottom-up' solutions to climate change
This anti-GMO petition is turning into a dog-and-pony-show with bureaucrats trying to dream up new ways to say No:
- 2010/12/10: EUO: EU receives anti-GMO petition amid raging legal battle
Environmental groups Greenpeace and Avaaz have handed the European Commission a petition with the signatures of over one million EU citizens, calling for a ban on GMO crops until a new scientific body is set up to assess their impact. Behind the scenes however, a battle is raging over the document's eligibility under the EU's new citizens' initiative procedure (ECI). - 2010/12/09: EarthTimes: EU receives one-million-strong petition against GM crops
Meanwhile in Australia:
- 2010/12/12: ABC(Au): The Federal Government and environment groups say the outcome of climate talks in Cancun, paves the way for Australia to introduce a carbon price as soon as possible
- 2010/12/11: ClimateShifts: The real climate change challenge.
- 2010/12/10: ABC(Au): Rockhampton to host UN climate change trade talks
United Nations' trade officials will gather in central Queensland early next year to talk about the impact of climate change on international trade. - 2010/12/10: ABC(Au): Disaster zones declared across eastern Australia
Thirty-five council areas in New South Wales and Queensland have been declared natural disaster zones with more areas likely to be announced as floodwaters continue to rise, prompting more evacuations. - 2010/12/09: ABC(Au): 'Passive' Australia urged to step up in Cancun
Australia is coming under pressure at the Cancun climate talks to take a harder line with its allies in order to ensure the opportunity for progress is not missed. - 2010/12/09: ABC(Au): Queensland could become 'international leader in solar power'
The State Government says a new report shows Queensland's solar resource is comparable to the best in the world. - 2010/12/09: PeakEnergy: Montara Oil Spill: "A failure of sensible oilfield practice"
- 2010/12/08: ABC(Au): Windfarm meeting called 'lopsided'
There are concerns a wind farm workshop on the Monaro in the State's south east failed to address all sides of the contentious issue. Organisers say there was a positive response from the 100-strong crowd at this week's meeting at Cooma. Alan Gillespie-Jones from Bombala is a solicitor specialising in commercial leases and says the discussion was designed to support the wind farm industry. He says key arguments are being ignored. - 2010/12/08: OilDrum: Montara Oil Spill: "A failure of sensible oilfield practice"
The Murray-Darling Basin Plan controversy continues:
- 2010/12/12: ABC(Au): Irrigators say Federal politicians need to play a greater role in finalising a plan to restore the Murray-Darling river system
- 2010/12/10: JQuiggin: Billions down the drain
- 2010/12/09: CCP: Plan to save Australian river system runs aground as Michael Taylor, chair of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority resigns
- 2010/12/09: ABC(Au): Opposition pushes for release of Basin advice
The Federal Opposition says the Government needs to release all the legal advice at the centre of a dispute over the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. - 2010/12/09: ABC(Au): Major flooding expected on Tumut River
State Water says it is yet to be informed how much water Snowy Hydro is releasing into the already overflowing Blowering Dam near Tumut. - 2010/12/07: ABC(Au): Resignation won't stop basin reforms: Burke
The Federal Government says its plan to restore the health of the Murray-Darling Basin remains on track, despite the shock resignation of Basin Authority boss Mike Taylor. Prime Minister Julia Gillard says a new chairman will be appointed and work on the plan to save the Murray-Darling Basin will continue. Water Minister Tony Burke says a difference of opinion over the Water Act led to Mr Taylor tendering his resignation. - 2010/12/07: ABC(Au): Basin boss a government 'whipping boy'
The Victorian Farmers' Federation (VFF) says the chairman of the Murray Darling Basin Authority has been made a 'whipping boy' for the Federal Government. Mike Taylor has announced he will resign from the position next month after being heavily criticised for his proposal to cut irrigation water entitlements in the basin. - 2010/12/07: ABC(Au): Murray-Darling Basin Authority chairman Mike Taylor has resigned just two months after the authority's release of the controversial plan to restore the health of the ailing river system
- 2010/12/07: NatureN: River chief resigns -- Plan to save Australian river system runs aground.
The challenge of balancing human needs for water with those of the environment has come to a head in Australia's ailing Murray-Darling river system, where an ambitious plan to restore the ecosystem was thrown into turmoil on 7 December after the leader of the scheme resigned. Michael Taylor, chairman of the government-appointed Murray-Darling Basin Authority, announced he was stepping down just 2 months after releasing a draft plan for water management that prompted protests from the region's farmers, but which was largely backed by many of Australia's environmental scientists. Covering 1 million square kilometres in southeastern Australia, the Murray-Darling basin is a vital agricultural region, containing rich wetland habitats and around 50 endangered species of birds and mammals. But decades of poor water management and drought have left ecosystems in crisis and many farmers short of water. - 2010/12/09: ENS: China Threatens Deliberate Release of Potent Greenhouse Gas
China has answered efforts to ban credits from industrial gas projects in the European carbon market by threatening to release potent greenhouse gases into the atmosphere unless developed nations pay what environmental groups are calling a "climate ransom." - 2010/12/06: G&M: China world's best hope, worst fear regarding climate crisis
- 2010/12/06: TreeHugger: China to Hit 500 GW of Renewable Power by 2020
And in the Middle East:
- 2010/12/06: Yahoo:AFP: Saudi wants nuclear power 'soon': US official
Saudi Arabia plans to be producing nuclear power within 10 years, a senior US trade official said here Monday. - 2010/12/07: PlanetArk: Russia's Putin Says Wind Turbines Kill Birds
In Canada, minority neocon PM Harper, continues his do-nothing policy:
- 2010/12/06: PI: Pembina reacts as Canada again ranks near last on climate change performance index
- 2010/12/06: PI: [link to 242k pdf] Evaluation of the Government of Canada's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Policies
- 2010/12/11: G&M: Climate-change reputation in tatters? Try blustering
A theory of sports suggests that a good offence is the best defence. It's a theory the Harper government has put into practice all week around the environment. - 2010/12/08: EmbassyMag: Conservatives keep departmental climate work under the radar
While individual departments are taking the issue seriously, lack of political leadership means they are working in silos. - 2010/12/10: PostMedia: Climate ranks down Canada's global priority list: BBC poll
- 2010/12/06: PI:B: Why Canada is still at the back of the pack on climate
- 2010/12/06: CBC: Canada among top climate-change culprits: report -- Germanwatch rates Brazil among best environment-improving countries
Canada is the fourth worst out of 57 countries evaluated for their performances in helping halt climate change, according to a report released Monday. Saudia Arabia, followed by Kazakhstan and Australia, respectively, are the worst performers in the sixth annual index released by the research organization Germanwatch at the United Nations' climate change conference in Cancun, Mexico. - 2010/12/06: PostMedia: Climate action no threat to oilsands, Tories told -- Policies won't significantly harm Canadian oil industry
Senior bureaucrats have told Environment Minister John Baird and the Harper government that stringent international climate-change policies are no threat to Alberta's oilsands industry, Postmedia News has learned. In internal briefing notes, officials from Environment Canada said that aggressive policies from the state of California are in fact consistent with Canada's existing global-warming pollution goals. The documents, released through access-to-information legislation, were based on an analysis of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, which was announced by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Jan. 9, 2007. It set a goal of reducing the carbon intensity of fuels in the state's passenger-vehicle fleet by at least 10 per cent by 2020. Although the Canadian government actively and secretly lobbied against this and other international climate policies, arguing they could harm companies in Alberta's oilsands sector, Baird was told the California plan would not have a significant impact on the Canadian petroleum industry. - 2010/12/11: OrwellsBastard: Some real prizes we've got here
- 2010/12/09: MediaCoop: No surprise: G20 cams *not* down!
- 2010/12/11: G&M: Ontario police watchdog [SIU] under investigation
The civilian watchdog group investigating allegations of police abuse in Toronto and Ottawa is under investigation by the province's Ombudsman as critics question whether it has the teeth required to expose wrongdoing. The Special Investigations Unit -- Ontario's civilian police watchdog -- finds itself at the forefront of public attention. It is the lead body looking into allegations that Toronto Police officers went too far during the June G20 protests. - 2010/12/10: CBC: New website asks users to rate police
- 2010/12/10: PaiD: Dalton McGuinty and The Smoking Gun
- 2010/12/08: CBC: Toronto police chief won't resign over G20
- 2010/12/08: OrwellsBastard: Blair needs to go, but that's only the beginning
- 2010/12/08: TStar: Beaten protester urges chief to seek out responsible officers
- 2010/12/08: TStar: Make it right, Chief Blair
There are recognizable faces. There are identifiable names.
And that should make quick work of holding at least a few brutalizing police officers to account for their despicable conduct during the G20 Summit protests. - 2010/12/07: OO: [link to 47.1 meg pdf] Ombudsman finds G20 regulation of "dubious legality"; Citizens unfairly trapped by secret expansion of police powers
- 2010/12/08: SWRWN: Caught in the Act [Marin report]
- 2010/12/07: MediaCoop: Ontario Ombudsman says G20 conditions "amounted to Martial Law" -- Report has harsh words for police and fence law
- 2010/12/08: KCairo: R.I.P. Charter of Rights and Freedoms. . . .
I am amazed by the relative silence on the blogoshere concerning the Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin's report concerning events at the G20. This is an amazing report. I have never seen anything like it in Canadian politics. Not only did Mr. Marin say that the law used by the Government to control the population is illegal but he said that this led to the most extensive violation of human rights in Canadian history! This is huge! The Government of Ontario secretly enacted an illegal and unconstitutional law which in Marin's exact words lead to "a massive compromise in civil liberties." What was particularly disturbing was the suggestion that the Toronto Police were so out of control that the OPP and the RCMP were attempting to distance themselves from them. Really! A police force so full of violent impulses that the RCMP is afraid of them??!! That is truly frightening. This report and the failure of any level of government to respond to it, clearly demonstrates that we are caught in a police state and that the charter has been so dramatically compromised that it has lost all meaning. - 2010/12/07: G&M: G20 report unflattering to Toronto Police Chief
Amid all of André Marin's hyperbole, someone else's words are the most damning thing to be found in the Ontario Ombudsman's G20 report. The Toronto Police Service "has made many public mistakes over the last 72 hours," one Ontario Provincial Police officer wrote to another during the controversial crackdown on protesters during last June's international summit. "The public has largely supported police security operations for G20. What is not supported is the actions by TPS and the inconsistencies of answers they continue to provide..." - 2010/12/08: TStar: G20 summit probe: A bad law that bred illegality
- 2010/12/08: OSun: G20 leaders fail massively
- 2010/12/07: TStar: Ombudsman charges G20 secret law was 'illegal'
- 2010/12/07: PaiD: The Ombudsman's Report on the G20
- 2010/12/07: CBC: G20 police powers report expected
Ontario's ombudsman is set to release his report into how the province quietly passed a regulation that police used to exercise heightened powers in and around the G20 security perimeter. Andre Marin will table the report examining the rule at 1 p.m. Tuesday. Regulation 233/10, passed by the Ontario cabinet on June 2 without debate, designated the G20 security fence and the area within it a public work, bringing it under the purview of the Public Works Protection Act. As a result, police were asking those near the security perimeter to identify themselves and state their purpose for being there. Anyone who failed to provide identification or explain why they were near the security zone could be searched and arrested. Penalties included up to two months in jail and a $500 fine. The temporary rule expired June 28, the day after the two-day meeting of world leaders in downtown Toronto concluded. - 2010/12/10: CBC: N.L. offshore platform possible: Husky
Husky Energy is considering adding a Hibernia-style concrete structure on the White Rose oilfield hundreds of kilometres east of Newfoundland. - 2010/12/07: GC:OAG: 2010 Fall Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development
- 2010/12/07: PI: Pembina reacts to Environment Commissioner's report -- Federal government is failing to adequately monitor and report on water
- 2010/12/10: TreeHugger: Canada NOT PREPARED for Major Oil Spill, Environment Commissioner Warns
- 2010/12/08: PlanetArk: Canada Couldn't Handle Big Oil Spill: Watchdog [Environment Commissioner Scott Vaughan]
- 2010/12/07: CBC: Federal lab not testing for oilsands chemicals
For years, development of the Alberta oilsands has been plagued by controversy over whether the project is releasing deadly chemicals into the vast Athabasca River system. Fortunately, the federal Environment Department operates a permanent laboratory on the Athabasca, downstream from the oilsands, and has been testing the water quality of the river for more than two decades. Unfortunately, the lab has never tested for chemicals from the oilsands. Environment Commissioner Scott Vaughan made the rather stunning revelation Tuesday in a scathing report on the government's overall water-quality testing programs. - 2010/12/07: G&M: Harper government lax on climate change issues, report says
The federal government has failed to develop a plan to help Canadians adapt to the potentially devastating impacts of climate change, Canada's Environment Commissioner says in a new report that admonishes the government for its lack of leadership around environmental issues. The Canadian government acknowledged 20 years ago that climate-change impacts will pose serious threats to Canada, Scott Vaughan said after releasing the report on Tuesday. But, said Mr. Vaughan, the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Ottawa has never established clear priorities or taken concrete action to deal with the anticipated effects, including severe storms in the Atlantic region, extreme heat through Central Canada and extended drought on the Prairies. - 2010/12/07: TSun: Commish slams feds on environment
Federal Environment Commissioner Scott Vaughan slammed the government Tuesday for not collecting enough information about environmental threats and having no plans to deal with those threats. Vaughan says Canada isn't ready to respond to a major oil spill, doesn't properly monitor water quality and isn't ready to respond to climate change's severe weather impacts. In a report released Tuesday morning, Vaughan says the government is weak on a range of issues, including going without a plan to deal with climate change. - 2010/12/07: CBC: Ottawa unprepared for major oil spill: audit
The federal government is unprepared to respond to a major oil spill in Canada's waters, despite the coast guard receiving an average of at least one spill reported every day, according to the federal environmental auditor. The audit presented Tuesday by Environment and Sustainable Development Commissioner Scott Vaughan also concludes the government does not have the right information to deal with climate change and environmental protection. Vaughan's audit found that the coast guard has not done a national risk assessment of oil spills from ships since 2000, and that its national emergency response plan is out of date. - 2010/12/09: Tyee: 'I Was Disappointed With the Canadians'
When Canadian officials lobby against lower fuel carbon standards south of the border, they play for keeps. Ask a bruised Wisconsin scientist. - 2010/12/07: Tyee: Canada's Fight to Stop States From Lowering Fuel Carbon Levels
How Alberta, Ottawa and oil sands corporations are teaming to oppose climate change laws across America. First in a multi-part series. - 2010/12/08: Tyee: Mission: Make Americans Love Alberta's Oil Sands
Billions ride on a well-fueled campaign to win US citizen support for bitumen pipelines and processing in their country. - 2010/12/11: NUPGE: Another Fossil of the Day award for Baird in Cancun
- 2010/12/10: CBC: Canada would honour climate deal: Harper
- 2010/12/10: PostMedia: Baird reverses climate stance with provinces -- Environment minister uses world summit to reset position
One week after singling out provinces for doing more talk than action to fight climate change, Environment Minister John Baird used the world stage at the United Nations climate change summit to praise them for showing leadership. "Non-emissions electricity generation is bountiful in Quebec, Newfoundland, Ontario and Manitoba and is an important part of the solution in North America," Baird said in Canada's national address to delegates at the summit. - 2010/12/10: G&M: Canada urges leaders to sidestep Kyoto and engage U.S. on climate
- 2010/12/09: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Time to build not to destroy: who is Canada actually representing in the climate negotiations?
- 2010/12/09: CBC: China needs 'more action' on emissions: Baird
- 2010/12/07: CBC: [Quebec Premier Jean] Charest slams Canada's climate policy in Cancun
- 2010/12/07: CBC: Cancun climate talks to hear [Baird] Canada's message
- 2010/12/07: PostMedia: Kyoto is dead -- Our government deserves credit for saying what everyone else is thinking
When federal Environment Minister John Baird arrives in Cancun, Mexico, for the annual United Nations climate summit, he and his counterparts from around the world likely will agree to bury the Kyoto accords. But this will be a mere formality: Kyoto has been dead for years. It's just that world leaders and UN officials have refused to acknowledge its passing. - 2010/12/06: OilChange: "Gracias Por Nada" Canada
- 2010/12/06: PostMedia: Cancun protesters take aim at environment minister Rob Renner -- Sarcastic ad campaign targets Renner
- 2010/12/05: G&M: Canada gets ready to walk away from Kyoto Protocol
- 2010/12/06: CBC: Ad mocks Alta. oilsands at UN climate meeting
An ad in a Mexican daily newspaper on Monday mocks Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner's attendance at the United Nations conference on climate change. A Canadian environmental group designed and paid for the ad, which features a grinning Renner wearing a sombrero. Under the photo, a fake oil association thanks the minister for keeping oil flowing from the oilsands. Renner is in Cancun to defend the oilsands at the International Climate Conference and to talk with other countries about carbon capture and storage. - 2010/12/05: CCCdn: Baird's Cancun Position: "All Oars in Water -- Except for Canada's"
The battle over the Keystone XL and Northern Gateway pipelines [tied to the tar sands] rages on:
- 2010/12/08: CBC: [Keystone XL] Pipeline opponents urge Clinton to order new study
- 2009/05/29: DogwoodInitiative: Propaganda pipeline -- The recently created 'Northern Gateway Alliance' is Enbridge 'astroturf'
Enbridge is footing the bill for a northern advocacy group to generate community support for its proposed $4.5-billion project The recently-formed Northern Gateway Alliance which is advocating support for Enbridge's $4.5 billion pipeline through northern B.C. is the brainchild of Enbridge and is being bankrolled by the company, The Citizen has learned. - 2010/12/07: CBC: B.C. oil tanker ban motion passes in Commons -- Resolution non-binding, likely to be ignored
- 2010/12/07: DeSmogBlog: Canada Votes to Ban Tar Sands Oil Tankers off BC Coast; Enbridge Front Group Exposed
- 2010/12/07: TMoS: BC Oil Tanker Ban - a Good Start
- 2010/12/06: DeSmogBlog: New Ad Asks President Obama To Stop Keystone XL Tar Sands Oil Pipeline
- 2010/12/06: NRDC:SwitchBoard: What better time to say no to new tar sands pipeline than during the international climate negotiations?
- 2010/12/06: TreeHugger: Ad Campaign Asks Obama to Stop 2,000 Mile Tar Sands [Direct XL] Pipeline
And in the post-Igor blues:
- 2010/12/10: CBC: Some Hurricane Igor victims get no money
Residents in a Mount Pearl, N.L., neighbourhood say they aren't being treated fairly when they ask for compensation for flood damage caused by Hurricane Igor. - 2010/12/08: ChronicleHerald: Ottawa opens Arctic to miners -- Prospectors can now make claims on pristine, once-protected area
The federal government is facing a lawsuit after quietly opening a vast tract of a once-protected Arctic wilderness to mining claims. Ottawa's move shocked northern aboriginals and environmentalists, and land-claim negotiators say the decision to no longer bar prospectors from a pristine and much-loved part of the Northwest Territories endangers the entire plan for protected areas in the Eastern Arctic. - 2010/12/07: PostMedia: Environment groups praise Canada's creation of Arctic sanctuary
- 2010/12/06: CBC: Lancaster Sound to be conservation area
With Campbell and James both going, BC politics is in a tailspin:
- 2010/12/08: PI:B: Sex, drugs and . . . cap-and-trade?
- 2010/12/08: PI: [link to 459k pdf] Recommendations for British Columbia's Proposed Cap-and-Trade Regulations
- 2010/12/10: Rabble: Winds of change in B.C. politics?
- 2010/12/09: CBC: West Coast oil exploration not on B.C. agenda
- 2010/12/08: BCLocalNews: Benefits of community's carbon offset program showing up in Saanich
- 2010/12/06: CBC: Carole James resigns as B.C. NDP leader
Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:
- 2010/12/10: PI:B: Rules optional for oilsands' toxic tailings lakes
- 2010/12/09: PI: Tailings regulations all bark, no bite
The Energy Resources Conservation Board has declared it has the power to exempt oilsands operators from meeting its regulatory standards, a move environmental groups say is indicative of the board's toothless tailings pond management. - 2010/12/10: DeSmogBlog: Part Two: The Paradox of Canada's Tar Sands and America's Drive to Substantially Decarbonize Energy
- 2010/12/09: CBC: Alta. First Nations want veto over oilsands -- Say treaties give them right to act when industrial overuse has violated rights
- 2010/12/09: TreeHugger: Greenpeace and Sierra Club Attack Greenwash Ads From Oil Sands Industry
- 2010/12/09: DeSmogBlog: The Paradox of Canada's Tar Sands and America's Drive to Substantially Decarbonize Energy
- 2010/12/08: OilChange: Canada's Secret "Sensitivities" over Tar Sands
- 2010/12/07: Enviralment: Wikileaks Cables Reveal U.S. Interest in Canadian Energy Assets
- 2010/12/07: CBC: Federal lab not testing for oilsands chemicals
For years, development of the Alberta oilsands has been plagued by controversy over whether the project is releasing deadly chemicals into the vast Athabasca River system. Fortunately, the federal Environment Department operates a permanent laboratory on the Athabasca, downstream from the oilsands, and has been testing the water quality of the river for more than two decades. Unfortunately, the lab has never tested for chemicals from the oilsands. Environment Commissioner Scott Vaughan made the rather stunning revelation Tuesday in a scathing report on the government's overall water-quality testing programs. - 2010/12/08: PostMedia: Anti-oilsands campaign could fuel support for Enbridge [Northern Gateway] plan
An ad campaign launched Tuesday that asks U.S. President Barack Obama to shun the oilsands runs the risk of fuelling support for a controversial pipeline and port in B.C. -- to enable exports to Asia. This, of course, is not what environmentalists behind the campaign have in mind. They're against any such B.C. proposal. But that could be the result of their efforts. - 2010/12/07: SciNews: Heavier crudes, heavier footprints -- Transition to viscous feedstocks is upping greenhouse-gas emissions associated with liquid fuels
- 2010/12/07: FOE: WikiLeaks Reveals State Department Discord Over U.S. Support for Canadian Tar Sands Oil Program
- 2010/12/07: TreeHugger: Wikileaks Reveals Hushed Concern Over Tar Sands Oil in US State Dept.
- 2010/12/05: Oregonian: Giant Alberta-bound oil-sands shipments stall in Idaho as opposition mounts
- 2010/12/06: G&M: Oil sands players join forces on tailings cleanup
- 2010/12/06: Missoulian: Oilfield megaloads will exceed Idaho bridge's weight limit
- 2010/12/06: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Message from the north: It is past time for a public debate on tar sands and climate
In Saskatchewan:
- 2010/12/10: CBC: Sask. delays 'clean coal' power -- Full-scale carbon-capture and storage facility waiting on regulatory details
Saskatchewan's power company says it needs more information from the federal government before it decides whether to move ahead with a so-called clean coal project. SaskPower, a provincial Crown corporation, announced Friday that it will rebuild its aging Unit 3 at the coal-fired Boundary Dam power plant near Estevan, Sask. The company said a decision on a fully integrated carbon-capture and storage facility will have to wait until it gets more details on emissions regulations from Ottawa. - 2010/12/09: CBC: Sask. to clarify definition of 'strategic resource'
And Manitoba:
- 2010/12/10: CBC: Flooding creates emergency in rural Manitoba
Ontario has it's Green Energy Act, now comes the implementation:
- 2010/12/08: TEC: Ontario could see enormous economic benefits pursuing offshore wind in Great Lakes
While in la Belle Province:
- 2010/12/10: CBC: Que. flood victims want action on erosion -- Storm, high tides wash away roads and damage waterfront homes
- 2010/12/09: CBC: St. Lawrence flood relief coming from Que. -- Hundreds of homes damaged by high tides, storm
In the North:
- 2010/12/10: CBC: Nunavut rips U.S. move on ringed seals
The Nunavut government says it will fight a proposal by the United States to add ringed seals to its list of endangered species. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced last week that it wants to list ringed seals found in the Arctic Basin and the North Atlantic as a "threatened" species under that country's Endangered Species Act. - 2010/12/09: CBC: Polar bears invade Nunavut areas
Wildlife officers in central Nunavut have had to take the unusual step of killing several polar bears that have come too close to communities like Rankin Inlet, where one animal was spotted two blocks from the elementary school.
[...]
Johanne Coutu-Autut, a Nunavut government wildlife officer in Rankin Inlet, said she has been fielding calls about bear sightings at all hours of the day. Coutu-Autut said a late start to winter is to blame. The bears would normally be wandering far out on the sea ice by now, but the late formation of the ice this year has forced them onto land. - 2010/12/06: G&M: Renewable-energy policy, more incentives urged
The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:
- 2010/12/08: EnergyBulletin: Rethinking resilience
- 2010/12/08: EnergyBulletin: The peak oil crisis: the future of government
- 2010/12/04: RecordNet: Growth can't continue forever in finite world
- 2010/12/06: ABC(Au):TDU: And so this is Christmas
IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology] raised its head once again:
- 2010/12/05: G&M: Ted Turner urges global one-child policy to save planet
Apocalypso anyone?
- 2010/12/06: EnergyBulletin: Taking down America: four scenarios for the end of the American Century by 2025
As for how the media handles the science of climatology:
- 2010/12/12: Deltoid: The Australian's War on Science 54: selective quotations
- 2010/12/10: ABC(Au):TDU: University backs Posetti: a test of academic dual identity
- 2010/12/08: RegretTheError: Crunks 2010: The Year in Media Errors and Corrections
- 2010/12/09: JQuiggin: Canberra University stands up for academic freedom
- 2010/12/08: Guardian(UK): David Rose's climate science writing shows he has not learned from previous mistakes
Articles in the Daily Mail show the same uncritical reliance on dodgy sources that caused David Rose's catastrophic mistakes about Iraq - 2010/12/08: CCP: George Monbiot: David "No Credibility" Rose's climate science writing shows he has not learned from previous mistakes
- 2010/12/08: ClimateP: David Rose destroys his credibility and the Daily Mail's with error-riddled climate science reporting
- 2010/12/08: Deltoid: Rosegate: Rose does to data what he does to scientists
- 2010/12/06: ClimateP: NY Times reposts Inhofe's gleeful disinformation --- with no balance at all
- 2010/12/05: QuarkSoup: Christopher Booker Has No Shame
- 2010/12/05: Deltoid: The Australian's War on Science 53: Graham Lloyd's passion
- 2010/12/05: ClimateP: Long wrong Joe Bastardi cooks the books to smear NSIDC. Time for Accuweather to fire him.
National Snow & Ice Data Center explains Bastardi can't read graphs and "is unclear as to how standardized anomalies are derived" - 2010/12/09: PeakEnergy: A US Oil Production High?
- 2010/12/09: SAR: #10344 -- Maybe we're simply not equipped to deal with these things.
[...]
Psst! Pass It On: Under the headline "North America: The new energy kingdom" The Globe and Mail quoted the American Petroleum Institute as reporting that the US produced more crude oil in October 2010 than ever before. The Globe was only repeating an earlier errant report in the Oil & Gas Journal article. The problem is that API never made such a silly claim. Actually, factually, October 2010's production was 5,567,000 bpd and the all time high was October 1970 at 10,013,000- some 40 years ago. - 2010/12/12: PSinclair: Revenge of the Electric Car -- Movie Trailer
- 2010/12/10: TreeHugger: Climate Scientist Takes on Big Oil Stooge in Congress (Video)
- 2010/12/10: AutoBG: The Revenge of the Electric Car trailer is here!
- 2010/12/09: PSinclair: Richard Alley: Birth of a Brainy Internet Icon
- 2010/12/09: CSW: Ben Santer debunks Pat Michaels
- 2010/12/08: MTobis: Eye-Opening Videos
- 2010/12/08: ClimateP: Video: Ben Santer eviscerates Pat Michaels
- 2010/12/08: PSinclair: More Ben Santer
- 2010/12/08: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Video Blog 4: Crunch time in the Global Warming Negotiations in Mexico
- 2010/12/08: PSinclair: Did Ben Santer finally Beat the Crap out of Pat Michaels? You Decide.
- 2010/12/07: TCoE: How could you not cry?
- 2010/12/07: PSinclair: Meet the Anti Christ
- 2010/12/07: ClimateP: Video: How to explain Milankovitch cycles to an anti-science Congressman in 30 seconds
- 2010/12/07: TreeHugger: Poor Farmers Around the World Already Coping with Climate Change (Video)
- 2010/12/06: PSinclair: More Climate Testimony: Richard Alley and Ben Santer
- 2010/12/06: SkeptiSci: How to explain Milankovitch cycles to a hostile Congressman in 30 seconds
Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:
- 2010/12/10: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Court Gives Green Light to EPA Carbon Pollution Standards, Rejects Polluters' and Climate-Deniers' Claims
- 2010/12/10: ENS: Court Allows EPA's Regulation of Greenhouse Gases to Proceed
A federal appeals court today rejected a motion by several industry groups and states opposed to climate regulation for a partial stay of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's planned regulation of greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied all the pending motions to stay EPA's regulations of greenhouse gases, some of which are scheduled to take effect on January 2, 2011. - 2010/12/09: PlanetArk: Florida Sues EPA Over New Water Pollution Controls
- 2010/12/08: CCP: Supreme Court to hear case brought by nation's biggest carbon polluters (Duke Energy, Southern Co., Xcel Energy and American Electric Power) against the Audubon Society of New Hampshire, the Open Space Institute, and the Open Space Conservancy in New York
- 2010/12/07: BBC: Nigeria has filed charges against former US Vice-President Dick Cheney over a scandal involving a former subsidiary of Halliburton energy firm
- 2010/12/07: DM:80B: Supreme Court to Decide: Is Global Warming a "Public Nuisance"?
- 2010/12/06: ENS: Indigenous Peruvians Win Right to Sue Occidental Petroleum in U.S. Court
Indigenous plaintiffs from the Peruvian Amazon won their appeal today in a human rights and environmental contamination lawsuit against U.S. oil giant Occidental Petroleum, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the case should be heard in Los Angeles, where the oil company is headquartered.
A district court judge had previously ruled that the case should be litigated in Peru, but the Ninth Circuit disagreed, allowing the plaintiffs to proceed in U.S. federal court. - 2010/12/06: ClimateP: Supreme Court to hear 'nuisance' case against nation's biggest carbon polluters [Conn vs AEP]
- 2010/12/06: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Supreme Court to Hear Case Against Nation's Biggest Carbon Polluters [Conn vs AEP]
- 2010/12/06: CSW: MacCracken federal court Declaration defending EPA Endangerment Finding
- 2010/12/06: TEC: Supreme Court to Hear Case Against Nation's Biggest Carbon Polluters [Connecticut vs American Electric Power]
Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:
- 2010/12/11: EarthTimes: OPEC ministers leave output ceiling unchanged
- 2010/12/10: NBF: US oil and gas proven reserve increased in 2009
- 2010/12/10: PlanetArk: El Paso Pipeline Ruptures West Of Houston
- 2010/12/10: TreeHugger: The True Cost of Powering a Light Bulb for a Year
- 2010/12/07: NBF: OECD report compares nuclear, gas, coal, solar and wind costs
- 2010/12/10: NBF: US Energy generation additions in 2010 were mostly coal and natural gas
- 2010/12/10: BBC: Oil demand rises on global economic recovery, says IEA
- 2010/12/10: BBC: Coal-to-gas power shift 'to cut energy costs'
Switching from coal to gas power could save European nations 450bn euros ($596bn; £377bn) in the next two decades and cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a group of gas firms says. European coal-fired power stations emit 70% more CO2 than modern gas plants, the European Gas Advocacy Forum said. Gradually replacing coal power stations with gas could help Europe cut CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050, it said. - 2010/12/10: CBC: Global oil demand forecast raised
The International Energy Agency on Friday raised its forecast for global oil demand, citing stronger-than-expected consumption in North America and emerging Asian countries, especially China. Global demand in 2011 should hit 88.8 million barrels a day, 260,000 daily barrels more than previously expected, the agency said. The IEA also raised its estimate of 2010 consumption to 87.4 million barrels a day, up 130,000 daily barrels from its previous projection. - 2010/12/08: EconBrowser: Worrying about oil prices
- 2010/12/08: CNet: G-20 determines world's energy fate, says report
- 2010/12/09: ClimateP: Brown to Green: Clean energy on spoiled land
- 2010/12/08: REA: The True Cost of Renewable Energy
- 2010/12/09: BNC: Idea: financing large capital cost electricity projects without raising rates
- 2010/12/07: SF Gate: Renewable power is heating up fast in California
- 2010/12/07: CCP: Clean energy needs to capture peoples' imaginations, not just their intellects: Is Clean Energy Ready to Take On the Fossil Fuel Industry?
- 2010/12/07: Grist: How can clean electrons compete with dirty electrons?
- 2010/12/07: SciNews: Heavier crudes, heavier footprints -- Transition to viscous feedstocks is upping greenhouse-gas emissions associated with liquid fuels
- 2010/12/07: DeSmogBlog: Dirty Energy Is Playing Full Contact So Is Cleantech Ready To Do The Same?
- 2010/12/06: PostMedia: Look for oil price between $80 to $100 per barrel in 2011 - Peter Tertzakian
- 2010/12/01: DM: The End of Easy Oil
- 2010/12/06: OilDrum: Review of the Western Wind and Solar Integration Study (WWSIS) by NREL and GE Energy
- 2010/12/05: NBF: China has over 200 gigawatts of hydropower now and targets 325 Gigawatts for 2015 and 390 gigawatts for 2020
Hey! Let's contaminate the aquifer for thousands of years! It'll be a fracking gas!
- 2010/12/11: NRDC:SwitchBoard: NY Becomes First State to Impose a Moratorium on Hydraulic Fracturing
- 2010/12/08: ProPublica: EPA Says Gas Drilling in Texas Contaminated Water and Presents 'Threat of Explosion'
- 2010/12/09: GreenGrok: Nat Gas Update: As Reserves Rise, A Bubble or Two Is Burst in Fracking Efforts
- 2010/12/07: EPA: EPA Issues an Imminent and Substantial Endangerment Order to Protect Drinking Water in Southern Parker County [Texas]
- 2010/12/09: TEC: EPA acts on a natural gas drilling groundwater case
- 2010/12/08: TEC: Worse than Coal?
- 2010/12/06: ProPublica: Beyond Fracking: Experts Challenge Safety of Exploratory Wells, Vertical Drilling
The answer my friend...:
- 2010/12/09: ENS: Michigan Sets Wind Turbine Manufacturing in Motion
- 2010/12/08: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Deepwater Wind Submits Plans to DOI for America's Largest Offshore Wind Farm
- 2010/12/08: Yahoo:AP: Massive wind power project proposed for RI
A renewable energy company has proposed what it says would be the largest offshore wind farm in the United States: a 200-turbine, 1,000-megawatt project off the coast of Rhode Island that would provide power to multiple states along the East Coast. Deepwater Wind LCC, which recently moved its headquarters from New Jersey to Providence, says the turbines would be far enough offshore as to be barely visible from land and would be located in the ocean waters of Rhode Island Sound. - 2010/12/09: TreeHugger: Proposed Rhode Island Offshore Wind Farm Jumps To 1,000 MW
- 2010/12/08: NRDC:SwitchBoard: EPA takes emergency action in Texas; drinking water contamination is related to natural gas operations
- 2010/12/08: REA: Wind Power Market Strong, Bankable and Global
- 2010/12/06: TreeHugger: We Could Have 10 MW Wind Turbines by 2011 and 15 MW Turbines by 2020
Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:
- 2010/12/09: TreeHugger: Special Light-Absorbing Layer Makes Polymer Solar Cells 20% More Efficient
- 2010/12/08: PhysOrg: S.Korea's OCI announces solar panel expansion plan
OCI, South Korea's leading manufacturer of polysilicon used in solar panel cells, Wednesday announced plans to spend 1.88 trillion won (1.65 billion dollars) over the next two years to expand output. - 2010/12/08: Grist: Solar developers race clock as sun sets on lucrative incentives
- 2010/12/06: Grist: Fantastic solar plastic breakthrough [8.3% efficiency, organic]
- 2010/12/06: Reuters: Germany to add record 8 GW of solar power in 2010
- 2010/12/06: TreeHugger: China's Largest Solar Panel Maker Expect Sales to Climb 20% in 2011
- 2010/12/06: REA: America's Largest PV Power Plant Is Now Live -- 48-MW Copper Mountain Solar Facility
Feed-In-Tariffs are being variously implemented around the world:
- 2010/12/09: PI: [link to 436k pdf] Renewable Energy: FIT for Cities
- 2010/12/08: ClimateP: Deploying clean energy in developing countries through innovative feed-in tariffs
On the coal front:
- 2010/12/12: OSun: Old king coal may be on the rebound
- 2010/12/09: CCP: Brattle [Group] paints grim picture for coal, predicting up to 67 GW in plant retirements
- 2010/12/07: ClimateShifts: A single coal mine that will add 1 ppm CO2 to the atmosphere
- 2010/12/04: Spectrum: Coal and Cancun
To first approximation, the political struggle over climate policy can be reduced to the future of coal. The Cancun climate talks are going nowhere because of a stalemate between the United States and China, which each account for about a quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. China gets about three quarters of it electricity from coal, the United States close to half, and neither country is willing to confront its coal industry head-on.
Countries like the UK and Germany, which have been systematically winding down their coal industries, have cut their greenhouse gas emissions sharply and are inclined to stick with the Kyoto formula--first the industrial countries reduce their emissions, then the developing countries. That principle of "differentiated responsibilities" is considered sacrosanct in the Third World. But the United States wants the fastest developing countries, China in particular, to join the industrial in emissions cuts.
That in essence is why Cancun is deadlocked, just as Copenhagen was this time last year. - 2010/12/07: OilDrum: Cellulosic Ethanol Reality Begins to Set In
The nuclear energy controversy continues:
- 2010/12/10: TEC: Money flows for nuclear energy
- 2010/12/09: TEC: Exelon gives up in struggle against antinuclear, pro-natural gas activists - will close Oyster Creek at least 10 years prematurely
- 2010/12/07: EnergyBulletin: Why oil shortages may make nuclear a less viable option
- 2010/12/06: BNC: Monthly Argument debate: climate change -- is nuclear power the answer?
- 2010/12/05: JFleck: Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: Nuke Costs Rising
Yes we have peak everything:
- 2010/12/09: CCurrents: The Peak Oil Crisis: The Future Of Government
- 2010/12/09: TreeHugger: Is "Peak Fertilizer" Nearer Than We Think? New Report Fuels Concern
- 2010/12/09: TEC: Ulrich Decher - Fitting wind onto the electricity grid
- 2010/12/06: TreeHugger: "Peak Fertilizer" To Make Manure A Valuable Commodity
More people are talking about the electrical grid:
- 2010/12/08: TreeHugger: Smart Meter Opt-Out Bill Introduced In California
- 2010/12/06: EurActiv: EU countries launch North Sea electricity grid
Ten European countries, including Norway, have agreed to develop an offshore electricity grid at the North Sea, in a bold move that promoters say will give Europe the possibility of tapping into an even bigger source of energy than the Middle East's oil capacity. Ministers from all the ten 'North Seas Countries' signed of a 'Memorandum of Understanding' on Friday (3 December) to develop an offshore electricity grid seen as a major step forward for a single European market for electricity. - 2010/12/10: USAToday: Efficient lighting could save U.S. $9 billion annually
Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:
- 2010/12/12: PeakEnergy: Toyota Adopts Tesla Laptop Battery Strategy for Electric Cars
- 2010/12/06: FuturePundit: Steven Chu: 5 Years To Competitive Electric Cars
- 2010/12/08: FuturePundit: Electric Delivery Trucks Seen As Cost Effective
- 2010/12/11: SF Gate: Redwood City man to get first Nissan Leaf
- 2010/12/10: SolveClimate: Hydrogen Bus Launched on London Tourist Route
- 2010/12/07: NYT: Ford Starts to Ship an Electric Delivery Van
- 2010/12/07: TreeHugger: Electric Cars to be Competitive with Gas Cars in About 5 Years, Says Steven Chu
This week in the Gee Whiz File:
- 2010/12/09: PhysOrg: Hybrid energy harvesting device developed for generating electricity from heat and light
As for Energy Storage:
- 2010/12/08: TechRev: An Energy Boost for Ultracapacitors
An alternative to batteries gets an advance from tiny, crumpled sheets of graphene, whose electrodes can store more charge because they have larger surface areas. - 2010/12/09: PhysOrg: Better batteries from the bottom up
Rice University researchers have moved a step closer to creating robust, three-dimensional microbatteries that would charge faster and hold other advantages over conventional lithium-ion batteries. They could power new generations of remote sensors, display screens, smart cards, flexible electronics and biomedical devices. - 2010/12/09: DemNow: After Touting Sustainability, Walmart Chair Rob Walton Refuses to Answer on Company's Record in Local Communities
- 2010/12/09: TreeHugger: Greenpeace and Sierra Club Attack Greenwash Ads From Oil Sands Industry
Joe Romm posts a daily list of top energy and climate stories:
- 2010/12/11: ClimateP: Weekend News Update...
- 2010/12/09: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for December 9...
- 2010/12/08: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for December 8...
- 2010/12/07: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for December 7...
- 2010/12/06: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for December 6...
Other (weekly) lists:
- 2010/12/10: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Climate, Energy and Environment News from Latin America: 6.12-10.12
- 2010/12/09: ClimateSight: Just Links for Now...[lists]
- 2010/12/09: Grist: The Climate Post: Some progress in Cancun climate talks, but mostly a morass of competing interests
- 2010/12/10: NRDC:SwitchBoard: China vows voluntary, non-binding carbon cuts and other China environmental news
- 2010/12/08: NRDC:SwitchBoard: India Climate Change and Energy News - Week of November 28 to December 4, 2010
The carbon lobby are up to the usual:
- 2010/12/11: CCP: The Greening of Koch Industries -- Sic!
- 2010/12/11: CCP: Yes Men strike again! This time it's Koch Industries -- with a press release saying the Koch will no longer contribute to climate change denial groups
- 2010/12/11: AlterNet: 5 Awards For the World's Most Heinous Climate Villains
- 2010/12/10: ScienceInsider: Science Criticized in Cancún for Timing of Paper on Cloud Feedback
- 2010/12/09: QuarkSoup: Consensus, or Not?
- 2010/12/09: GreenFyre: *New* *Improved* Climate Skeptic List Fraud
- 2010/12/09: Tamino: Hide the Incline with the "Rank Trick"
- 2010/12/09: TCoE: Deniers on parade, again
- 2010/12/08: HotTopic: Monckton goes bananas
- 2010/12/08: CCP: Who funds Europe's climate change deniers? What European "think" tanks are funding U.S. deniers?
- 2010/12/08: TEC: Doc alert: The Scientific Guide to Global Warming Skepticism
- 2010/12/07: Guardian(UK): Monckton crashes Cancún business lunch -- is asked to leave
- 2010/12/07: BBickmore: The Monckton Files: Pot, Meet Kettle
- 2010/12/07: TreeHugger: Lord Monckton Crashes Climate Business Lunch [and gets ejected]
- 2010/12/06: OilChange: Saro-Wiwa Was Framed, New Evidence Shows
- 2010/12/05: ERabett: Manners - The Creature from the Pielkesphere has been nattering on...
Meanwhile in the 'clean coal' saga:
- 2010/12/09: Grist: New report shows dirty coal doing even more damage than you thought
As for climate miscellanea:
- 2010/12/11: ClimateShifts: The real climate change challenge.
- 2010/12/11: CBC:Q&Q: Wildfires Burn Deep & Rainforests and the Rise of Reptiles
- 2010/12/10: MTobis: Things that Backfire for Scientists
- 2010/12/09: TWTB: Game changer, or hot air?
- 2010/12/09: NewScientist: Brazilian farmers are unlikely climate heroes [Pearce]
- 2010/12/08: CCD: Qatar world cup 2022: a colossal wreck- boundless and bare
- 2010/12/08: HotTopic: Every little bit hurts
- 2010/12/06: EnergyBulletin: Maude Barlow: Read me my environmental rights
- 2010/12/08: SkeptiSci: The Scientific Guide to Global Warming Skepticism
- 2010/12/07: CCP: Coal, Climate And Confusion
- 2010/12/07: CCP: Evan Kopelson: The Biggest Obstacles to a Climate Deal are Overwhelm and Emotional Disconnect
- 2010/12/07: OilChange: "Yet another red flag being raised"
- 2010/12/06: RealClimate: The AGU Q & A Service -- Open for Business
And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:
- Carbon Free Voting
- 2010 AGU Fall Meeting 13-17 December
- GP: Elizabeth May's blog
- Global Crop Diversity Trust
- CTW: Check The Weather
- WWF Climate Blog
- FOE: Friends of the Earth
- Climate Shifts
- HillHeat - Science Policy Legislation Action
- It's Getting Hot In Here - Dispatches from the Youth Climate Movement
- ACP: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics - Recent Final Revised Papers
- ACPD: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics - Papers in Open Discussion
- TCD: The Cryosphere - Papers in Open Discussion
- HYDE: The History Database of the Global Environment
It's always nice to start with a chuckle:
The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:
Clouds are one of the major uncertainties in climate. Much research revolves around them:
As for heatwaves and wild fires:
Corals are dying:
Acidification is changing the oceans:
Elsewhere on the mitigation front:
Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation has somehow seemed chimeric:
While in the endless quest for zero energy, sustainable buildings and practical codes:
What are the activists up to?
And in Europe:
While in China:
And Russia:
The G20 controversy lingers:
Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin released a scathing report on G20 policing:
Questions and debate about offshore and Arctic drilling continue:
The Environment Commissioner brought in a devastating report on Tory inaction:
About that lobbying the Tories say they're not doing:
As for Canada at Cancun:
Here is some typical Tory behaviour: make a big spash with positive news while surreptitiously slipping in the bad news:
As for miscellaneous Canadiana:
A notable error:
And for your film & video enjoyment:
Biofuel bickering abounds:
And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:
Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:
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(which includes some quotations), 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.
"...the new world trade system was explained to me. It is a system with rules designed by corporations, run by corporations, for the benefit of corporations. Its rules exclude almost any feedback from any other sector of society. Most of its meetings are closed even to the press (no information flow, no feedback). It forces nations into positive loops 'racing to the bottom,' competing with each other to weaken environmental and social safeguards in order to attract investment and trade. It's a recipe for unleashing 'success to the successful' loops, until they generate enormous accumulations of power and huge centralized planning systems that will destroy themselves..." -Donella Meadows
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