Another Week of GW News, September 23, 2007

This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H.E.Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's GW news roundup

(skip to bottom)

• Top Stories, IPCC WG2 2007 Report, Montreal Protocol, African Floods, Melting Arctic, Antarctica, Methane Burp
• Hurricanes, Temperatures, Glaciers, Sea Levels, el Niño, NEO
• Impacts, Tropical Rainforests, Wacky Weather, Floods & Droughts, Biofuel & Food
• Mitigation, Transportation, Architecture, Sequestration, Adaptation
• Journals, Misc. Science
• Kyoto, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
• Politics, International, Kofi's Forum, Upcoming Meetings, Security
• America, Britain, Europe, Australia, China, New Zealand, Canada
• Ecological Economics, Apocalypso, Books, Courts, Betting
• Energy, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Cars, Business, Greenwashing, Carbon Lobby
• The Usual, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion
• .sig

Here's a chuckle for ya:

• 2007/09/18: DeSmogBlog: (cartoon - Bors) Global warming theory debunked

  This is not a cartoon, but it made me laugh:

• 2007/09/20: OilChange: OZ: Howard Chased by Polar Bears

  The IPCC WG2 2007 report was finalized this week:

• 2007/09/22: CSpin: IPCC Working Group II full report released to silence
• 2007/09/19: Times(UK): Damage to the planet "is already inevitable"
• 2007/09/19: TruthOut: "Too Late to Avoid Global Warming," Say Scientists
• 2007/09/19: inel: Wake up! Full report on impacts shows adaptation is vital, mitigation too
• 2007/09/19: OilChange: IPCC: "Now We Know That It Will Affect Us"
• 2007/09/19: Guardian(UK): How climate change will affect the world
• 2007/09/18: PhysOrg: Scientist Warns of Climate Change Impact
• 2007/09/18: Guardian(UK): Grim outlook for poor countries in climate report
• 2007/09/18: NuncScio: Great news about Climate Change. Wait - did I say great? I meant horrifying.
• 2007/09/18: BBC: Making EU climate goal 'unlikely'
  The European Union's goal of keeping the global temperature rise to 2C is unlikely to be met, a leading climate researcher has warned. Professor Martin Parry told BBC News that millions, if not tens of millions, would be at increased risk to their lives from a rise above 2C (3.6F)
• 2007/09/17: BBC: Faster progress is needed to safeguard the ozone layer, according to one of the scientists who discovered the "ozone hole" over Antarctica

  The Montreal Protocol meeting had a GW angle because some refrigerants are also GHGs:

• 2007/09/22: UN: UN-backed conference ends with push to protect ozone, combat climate change
• 2007/09/23: PhysOrg: 'Historic' deal reached on cutting ozone threats
• 2007/09/23: TStar: Nations agree to speed emission cuts - Montreal agreement to end use of ozone-depleting HCFCs beats deadline by more than a decade
• 2007/09/21: NewScientist: Last ozone-destroying chemicals to be phased out
• 2007/09/22: Yahoo: Deal reached on cutting ozone-damaging emissions
• 2007/09/22: CBC: Baird hails 'historic' deal to fight ozone-destroying chemicals
• 2007/09/22: CanWest: Ozone deal hailed as blow against climate change
  The agreement will phase out production and use of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) for developed countries to 2020 from 2030 and to 2030 from 2040 for developing nations
• 2007/09/18: ClimateP: Lest We Forget Montreal
• 2007/09/17: TerraDaily: Climate talks in Montreal to take dual aim
• 2007/09/17: UN: Greenhouse gases could aggravate ozone loss and slow recovery, UN agency says
• 2007/09/17: KSJT: CBC Quirks and Quarks: The ozone-salving Montreal Protocol -- an augury for post-Kyoto?

  The US mainstream media ignored the Montreal meeting too, so this angle got no traction:

• 2007/09/17: PlanetArk: US Says its Ozone Bid Beats Kyoto on Climate Change

  Floods across central Africa are displacing millions:

• 2007/09/20: UN: Flooding hampers UN humanitarian aid efforts for refugees in Chad
• 2007/09/21: AllAfrica: Monitor: Uganda: Forecast for 2008 - Famine, Floods, Fear And Fighting
• 2007/09/21: BBC: African floods prompt aid appeal
• 2007/09/21: SMH: Toll rises as rains devastate Africa
• 2007/09/20: Guardian(UK): African deluge brings misery to 1.5m people - Nearly 200 drowned and 650,000 homes destroyed
• 2007/09/19: TruthOut: African Skies Rain Death, Destruction on Villagers
• 2007/09/19: PlanetArk: African Skies Rain Death, Destruction on Villagers
• 2007/09/19: BBC: Africa flood zones face more rain
  A million Africans already suffering from severe flooding have been warned of further misery to come with heavy rain predicted from West to East. The United Nations says 250 people have died and more than 600,000 people been made homeless across 17 countries
• 2007/09/18: PlanetArk: Fears Mount Over More Africa Rain, Floods

  The Arctic melt continues to get a lot of ink (bits?):

• 2007/09/22: ERabett: Business as usual [NSIDC animation]
• 2007/09/22: CCurrents: Ice Withdrawal 'Shatters Record'
• 2007/09/21: KSJT: Many stories, mostly short: Arctic ice hit record low (at least it's growing again now)
• 2007/09/20: GristMill: A problem of Florida-sized proportions - Arctic sea ice continues to melt at alarming rate
• 2007/09/21: TruthOut: Summer Sea Ice Melt Larger Than Texas and Alaska
• 2007/09/21: FergusB: International Polar Day
• 2007/09/21: ENN: Arctic Ice Ebbs To Record Level: Scientists
• 2007/09/20: Yahoo: Arctic ice ebbs to record level: scientists
• 2007/09/21: CDreams: SF Chronicle: Record Sea Ice Melt This Summer Larger Than Texas and Alaska
• 2007/09/21: BBC: Ice withdrawal 'shatters record' - Arctic sea ice shrank to the smallest area on record this year, US scientists have confirmed
• 2007/09/21: CBC: Melting of Arctic sea ice shatters record
• 2007/09/21: CanWest: Arctic ice at record low levels, say U.S. scientists
• 2007/09/20: PhysOrg: Arctic sea ice minimum shatters all-time record low, report University of Colorado scientists
• 2007/09/20: Maribo: The complexity of ice melt
• 2007/09/19: ERabett: It could be when, not how much -- the complexities governing sea ice extent
• 2007/09/19: TerraDaily: Greenland's Jakobshavn glacier sounds climate change alarm
• 2007/09/20: Eureka: Arctic sea ice minimum shatters all-time record low, report University of Colorado scientists
• 2007/09/19: ABC(Au): Global warming opens up Northwest Passage
• 2007/09/19: PlanetArk: Arctic Summer Ice Thickness Halves to 1 Metre
• 2007/09/19: Yahoo: Greenland's Jakobshavn glacier sounds climate change alarm
• 2007/09/18: NSU: Arctic sea ice at record low - Open waters in northern ocean highlight massive melting
• 2007/09/18: Maribo: Franklin rises from the grave [NWPassage]
• 2007/09/18: TerraDaily: Satellites Witness Lowest Arctic Ice Coverage In History
• 2007/09/18: ENN: Arctic summer ice thickness halves to 1 meter
• 2007/09/17: KSJT: Wires, etc: Northwest Passage is open
• 2007/09/17: ENN: Arctic Ocean Sea-ice Getting Thinner: New Study
• 2007/09/17: SMH: Melting ice opens up Arctic passage

  Other aspects of the melt popped up:

• 2007/09/22: GWWatch: Arctic thaw yields mammoth rewards for fossil hunters
• 2007/09/18: TruthOut: Mammoth Dung, Prehistoric Goo May Speed Warming
• 2007/09/18: PlanetArk: Mammoth Dung, Prehistoric Goo May Speed Warming
• 2007/09/17: TreeHugger: Will Melting [permafrost] Mammoth Poo Speed Up Climate Change?

  Not to mention the political machinations:

• 2007/09/21: Guardian(UK): Russia says tests back claim to Arctic ridge
• 2007/09/20: KSJT: Seattle Times: If the arctic really is melting, do we need more icebreakers? A: Yes.
• 2007/09/19: Time: Fight for the Top of the World
• 2007/09/20: BBC: Arctic seabed 'belongs to Russia'
  A Russian expedition has proved that a ridge of mountains below the Arctic Ocean is part of Russia's continental shelf, [Russian] government officials have said
• 2007/09/20: CanWest: Sovereignty over Arctic at risk - Opening up of Northwest Passage will challenge Canada's stake in North, legal expert says

  And while we're talking about ice, check out Antarctica:

• 2007/09/21: inel: NASA study on Antarctic ice melt
• 2007/09/21: PlanetArk: Australia Uses Lasers to Check Antarctic Sea Ice [thickness]
• 2007/09/20: SciDaily: Snowmelt In Antarctica Creeping Inland, Based On 20 Year Of NASA Data
• 2007/09/20: Eureka: NASA researchers find snowmelt in Antarctica creeping inland

  The methane burp is back:

• 2007/09/20: ClimateP: A methane feedback from the past strikes again [bog PETM]
• 2007/09/20: ABC(Au): Ancient British bog could hold clues to climate change
• 2007/09/19: TerraDaily: Greenhouse Earth: Methane powered runaway global warming
• 2007/09/19: Yahoo: Greenhouse Earth: Methane powered runaway global warming
• 2007/09/19: BBC: Bog helps build climate insights
  A 55-million-year-old British bog uncovered by the Channel Tunnel rail link is giving scientists insights into a ancient period of global warming. The researchers found methane released from the bogs played a major role in the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, when temperatures suddenly rose. They suggest in the journal Nature that this is likely to clarify the role of bogs in present-day global warming
• 2007/09/19: Eureka: Ancient British bog provides clue to global warming
  Analysis of sediments from a British bog suggest that methane emissions increased due to intense global warming around 55 million years ago

As for hurricanes, we had tropical depressions in the Atlantic & cyclones in the Pacific:

• 2007/09/22: Wunderground: TD 10 spawns EF-1 tornado in Florida; new disturbance a threat to Texas and Louisiana
• 2007/09/21: CBC: Louisiana, Mississippi spared as storm hits Florida
• 2007/09/21: TerraDaily: Methodology Predicts Effects Of Hurricanes On Coastal Roadways
• 2007/09/21: Wunderground: Tropical Depression Ten slowly intensifying
• 2007/09/20: Wunderground: Complicated Gulf of Mexico disturbance 93L primarily a rain threat
• 2007/09/21: PlanetArk: Hurricane Ivo Heads to Mexico, Seen Strengthening
• 2007/09/20: PlanetArk: Tropical Storm Ivo Forms in Pacific Off Mexico
• 2007/09/20: PlanetArk: Weakened Typhoon Wipha Drenches Eastern China
• 2007/09/20: BBC: At least five people have been killed and three are missing after Typhoon Wipha hit China's densely-populated eastern coast, state media says
• 2007/09/17: TerraDaily: Typhoon Wipha approaches northern Taiwan
• 2007/09/19: TerraDaily: Typhoon Wipha slams into China's east coast
• 2007/09/19: ENN: Typhoon [Wipha] to Spare Shanghai After Losing Power
• 2007/09/19: PlanetArk: Powerful Typhoon [Wipha] Targets Eastern China, Shanghai
• 2007/09/19: Guardian(UK): 'Super typhoon' [Wipha] to hit Shanghai
• 2007/09/18: CNN: 1.8 million evacuated as typhoon pounds China
  Landfall now expected south of Shanghai - Typhoon Wipha packing 165 mph wind gusts; one death reported - Storm is headed for China's densely populated coast, churning up 36-foot waves
• 2007/09/17: NatureCF: Clarity emerging on hurricanes?
• 2007/09/18: Wunderground: Florida disturbance 93L getting more organized
• 2007/09/18: Wunderground: Florida disturbance 93L may develop by Thursday; Typhoon Wipha aims at Shanghai
• 2007/09/18: ENN: Powerful typhoon [Wipha] targets eastern China
• 2007/09/18: BBC: Shanghai braced for Typhoon Wipha
  Some 200,000 people are being evacuated from China's financial hub, Shanghai, as a powerful typhoon barrels towards the country's east coast
• 2007/09/17: CCM: Global Warming and Hurricane Rapid Intensification Rates?
• 2007/09/17: Stoat: Ingrid is born; Humberto and Felix--a sign of climate change?
• 2007/09/16: TerraDaily: Typhoon [Nari] kills at least one, strands 15,000 in South Korea
• 2007/09/17: Wunderground: Ingrid dies; possible Gulf of Mexico storm this week
• 2007/09/17: PlanetArk: Tropical Storm Ingrid Fizzles in Far Atlantic
• 2007/09/17: PlanetArk: Six Dead, Four Missing as Typhoon [Nari] Hits S.Korea - Official
• 2007/09/16: ENN: Typhoon [Nari] hits S.Korea, Six dead, four missing

  Tamino did a typically erudite report on the temperature record:

• 2007/09/21: Tamino: Cheaper by the Decade - What's really happening to global temperature these days?
• 2007/09/21: Atmoz: Cheaper by the Decade II
• 2007/09/17: ClimateP: NOAA: Second warmest U.S. August ever

  Yes we have feedbacks:

• 2007/09/19: GristMill: When the heat and the humidity are in tandem - Another positive feedback loop

  While on the el Niño/la Niña [ENSO] front:

• 2007/09/20: TerraDaily: Africa floods linked to 'La Nina' weather in Pacific: UN agency
• 2007/09/21: ENN: La Nina may impact global weather into 2008

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2007/09/19: TerraDaily: In Ladakh [northern India], glacier melt raises fears of water woes

  Sea levels are rising:

• 2007/09/22: ClimateP: Amazing AP article on sea level rise
• 2007/09/23: PhysOrg: Rising Seas Likely to Flood U.S. History
• 2007/09/22: HuffPo: Rising Seas Likely to Flood U.S. History

  Remember the THC?

• 2007/09/20: FergusB: Thermohaline circulation is "very unlikely" to shut down

  Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

• 2007/09/19: SciDaily: [SeaWiFS] Satellite Paints Picture Of World's Oceans Over Last Decade
• 2007/09/21: ESA: Greeks get space-based help in wake of deadly fires
• 2007/09/19: Eureka: NASA celebrates a decade observing climate impacts on health of world's oceans [SeaWiFS]

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2007/09/23: AutoBG: Ocean CO2 levels could violate EPA guidelines by mid-century
• 2007/09/23: BBC: Further bluetongue tests at farm
  Bluetongue disease is transmitted by midges, traditionally the Culicoides imicola midge. It is passed from animal to midge, and from midge to animal, but is not transmitted from animal to animal. The virus has long blighted Africa, but in recent years has begun to spread northwards into Europe. Some scientists believe that climate change could be behind its spread, as warmer temperatures have seen the biting insects gradually move north
• 2007/09/22: BBC: First UK case of bluetongue virus
• 2007/09/23: Independent(UK): Bluetongue virus threat to UK
• 2007/09/23: Guardian(UK): Extreme weather creates fire risk for UK's beauty spots
• 2007/09/20: FuturePundit: Ocean Acidification Seen From Rising Carbon Dioxide
• 2007/09/20: SciDaily: Rising Surface Temperatures Drive Back Winter Ice In Barents Sea, Researchers Find
• 2007/09/20: Eureka: CO2 emissions could violate EPA ocean-quality standards within decades
• 2007/09/20: SciDaily: Carbon Dioxide Emissions Could Violate EPA Ocean-quality Standards Within Decades
• 2007/09/19: ABC(Au): Report considers climate change impact [in north-east Victoria]
• 2007/09/19: Denialism: Global Warming as a Threat to Global Health - Review in Nature
• 2007/09/19: C411: Dengue Fever Spreading in Texas
• 2007/09/19: PlanetArk: Western Canadian Pine Beetle Infestation Spreads
• 2007/09/18: Yahoo: Scientist warns of climate change impact [on US SouthWest]
• 2007/09/19: JapanFocus: Kicking Your Head to Get Rid of a Headache: Palm Oil and the Imminent Extinction of the Orangutan
• 2007/09/18: ABC(Au): Tropical birds face extinction as sea rises: study
• 2007/09/18: PhysOrg: Increase in atmospheric moisture tied to human activities
• 2007/09/18: SciDaily: Mortality Of Plants Could Increase By 40 Percent If Land Temperatures Increase 4 Degrees Celsius
• 2007/09/17: WaPo: Climate Change Brings Risk of More Extinctions

  And then there are the tropical rainforests:

• 2007/09/18: CSM: Amazon farmers grow grain and save the forest - McDonald's, Cargill, and The Nature Conservancy create a 'responsible' soy program
• 2007/09/22: TreeHugger: Mexico's New Generation of Female Forest Defenders
• 2007/09/20: TruthOut: "Incentives Offered to Destroy Forests"
  Instead of providing positive incentives to tropical nations to conserve their rainforests and so reduce greenhouse gases emissions, the world indirectly gives "perverse incentives" to destroy them by demanding goods produced by intensive logging, a leading environmental activist says.
• 2007/09/21: SMH: Forest nations want billions for not logging
• 2007/09/20: PlanetArk: Indonesia Wants Incentives to Halt Deforestation

  Now here is a counterintuitive report:

• 2007/09/22: TreeHugger: Strange but True: Drought Helped Green Amazon Rainforest
• 2007/09/21: Eureka: Amazon forest shows unexpected resiliency during drought

  Yes we have no wacky weather, except:

• 2007/09/23: BBC: Many missing in Bangladesh storm - About 100 Bangladeshi fishermen are feared drowned after their boats sank during a storm in the Bay of Bengal.

  We have heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2007/09/20: ABC(Au): Fire season looking ominous
  Dry conditions and the prospect of another hot summer are setting the scene for another severe bushfire season across southern Australia. The 2007 joint Australasian Fire Authorities' conference is underway in Hobart with more than 900 delegates from around the country attending. The executive officer, Naomi Brown, says climate change is playing a part in the forecasts

And speaking of floods & droughts:

• 2007/09/20: ABC(Au): Appeal to [Victorian Premier, John] Brumby as Murray water shortage worsens
  Prime Minister John Howard says the water crisis in the southern Murray-Darling Basin has worsened significantly, meaning there will be no water allocations for more irrigators. The fourth Murray-Darling Basin contingency planning report shows the crisis continues to deteriorate
• 2007/09/21: PlanetArk: Biofuels Worsen Hungary's Drought, Expert Says
• 2007/09/20: PlanetArk: Death Toll in Slovenia Floods Rises to Five
• 2007/09/18: Atmoz: More Drought in the Southeast [USA]
• 2007/09/19: ABC(Au): Drought killing Coorong ecosystem [near the mouth of the River Murray in South Australia], says scientist [David Paton]
• 2007/09/17: Atmoz: US Composite Spring Precipitation Data
• 2007/09/18: ABC(Au): No more water this year, farmers warned
  Irrigators in the New South Wales Murray Valley are being warned their current water allocations might be all they will get for the year. The latest report from the NSW Water Department says water availability in the valley has reached a historic low and is continuing to deteriorate
• 2007/09/18: JFleck: More Bad News From Down Under
• 2007/09/17: ABC(Au): Drought crisis forming as disaster, say farmers
• 2007/09/16: JFleck: Drought Map Mashup
• 2007/09/17: ArabNews: South Asia Floods Displace Millions

  The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

• 2007/09/18: CDreams: US Biofuel Production and Global Hunger: Is there a Connection? New Report Cites Need for Sustainable Production and Fair Trading Systems
• 2007/09/16: SeattlePI: Ethanol sparks food fight between corn growers and buyers
• 2007/09/12: Fox: Not so Corny: Fuel Shortages May Hurt Corn Harvesting
• 2007/09/17: Guardian(UK): Inflationary spiral could spell an end to era of cheap food
  The market is rebalancing as fields are turned over from fuel crops to biofuel

And the troubling matter of falling food production is not going away:

• 2007/09/22: EnergyBulletin: Agriculture in a post-oil economy
• 2007/09/22: CCurrents: Agriculture In A Post-Oil Economy
• 2007/09/21: Google:AFP: Drought puts Australia's food bowl at risk: PM
• 2007/09/21: ABC(Au): Murray Darling shortages could endanger crops permanently: PM
• 2007/09/19: PlanetArk: US, Euro Wheat Up as Drought Ravages Aussie Crop
• 2007/09/19: SMH: Crop estimates slashed
  The slashing of official estimates for Australia's winter crop is unlikely to push up international grain prices, analysts say. ProFarmer's Richard Koch said the world market would already have factored in an Australian wheat crop of 16-18 million tonnes. The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics has cut the winter crop forecast to 25.6 million tonnes, 30 per cent below the June estimate and 27 per cent below the five-year average, but 63 per cent above last year's crop. Wheat is expected to be 15.5 million tonnes, 28 per cent below the five-year average but 58 per cent higher than last year.
• 2007/09/18: ABC(Au): Dry spring delivers blow to wheat crop

  Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2007/09/22: GristMill: Sprawl and global warming - Land-use and development decisions are crucial in the fight against climate change, says new report
• 2007/09/18: GristMill: My backyard carbon sink - Can planting trees offset your carbon footprint?
• 2007/09/17: ERabett: Comparison of Revelle 1990 & Hansen 2007 recommendations for dealing with global climate change

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2007/09/23: TreeHugger: Food Flight! The Argument Over Flying Organic Food
• 2007/09/17: Scoop(NZ): No mana in undermining free public transport

  While in the endless quest for sustainable building codes:

• 2007/09/21: TreeHugger: AIA [American Institute of Architects] Discover A Global Warming Misunderstanding

  As for carbon sequestration:

• 2007/09/19: SciBlogging: New 'Facilitated Transport' Membrane Catches CO2 For Disposal
• 2007/09/20: SCTimes: Let's focus on control of coal
  A University of Utah study showed that annual world consumption of carbon from oil, gas and coal is 400 times the carbon sequestered by all the world's annual plant growth
• 2007/09/19: PlanetArk: Cost, Safety Fears Threaten Climate Change Remedy
  On Monday Canadian power company SaskPower withdrew its plans for a "clean coal" plant, the third such cancellation in six months on cost grounds. Working like oil production in reverse, carbon capture and storage (CCS) involves pumping the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into empty oil wells and other cavities, after trapping the gas from the waste emissions of coal-fired power plants
• 2007/09/18: PhysOrg: New carbon nanotube technology to reduce large-scale emissions
• 2007/09/18: Reuters: Cost, safety fears threaten [CCS] climate change remedy
  Cost overruns and legal and safety uncertainties could stall a new technology seen vital in the fight against climate change, and which works by burying underground the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. On Monday Canadian power company SaskPower withdrew its plans for a "clean coal" plant, the third such cancellation in six months on cost grounds. Working like oil production in reverse, carbon capture and storage (CCS) involves pumping the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into empty oil wells and other cavities, after trapping the gas from the waste emissions of coal-fired power plants. But no commercial-scale power plant uses the technology yet, and a lack of public funding plus legal doubts and safety worries are casting a shadow over mooted projects

And adaptation:

• 2007/09/17: SwissInfo: Climate early warning system launched
  The authorities have unveiled a complex monitoring tool that will enable Switzerland to better assess the impact climate change is having on the country. The new system uses a wide-ranging series of indicators detailing "subtle and often irreversible changes" to the environment over the past few decades. In a statement released on Friday, the Federal Environment Office said the unique monitoring tool includes 50 indicators. These focus on the increase of greenhouse gas emissions, the corresponding change to average annual temperatures and precipitation since the 1950s, and the impact this is having on the environment, society and economy. Some of the data highlight seemingly minor occurrences such as the early blooming of cherry trees alongside more dramatic events like the melting of glaciers

Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2007/09/21: ACP: Atmospheric radiative effects of an in situ measured Saharan dust plume and the role of large particles by S. Otto et al.
• 2007/09/18: PNAS: DNA evidence for historic population size and past ecosystem impacts of gray whales by S. Elizabeth Alter et al.

  Before we get into politics, there was some science done:

• 2007/09/17: NSU: Cooler weather favours Chinese locusts - Thousand-year record suggests global warming could temper swarms
• 2007/09/17: PhysOrg: New Method of Studying Ancient Fossils Points to Carbon Dioxide As a Driver of Global Warming

  Cum grano salis:

• 2007/09/22: BSD: Press Release: Backseat University Scientists Determine Method to Remove All Exaggerations in University Press Releases

  Now this is a study that needs verification:

• 2007/09/17: NewScientist: Cargo ship smoke trails cool the atmosphere

  More on Schwartz:

• 2007/09/18: JEB: Comment on Schwartz

  Meanwhile on the Kyoto front:

• 2007/09/17: PlanetArk: Clean Coal Plants Qualify for Kyoto Carbon Offsets
  Very efficient coal-fired power plants will be able to sell carbon offsets under the Kyoto Protocol, in an expansion of project eligibility under the carbon trading scheme, UN official Jose Miguez said

As for carbon trading:

• 2007/09/20: EnvFin: Carbon market falling short on size, credibility
• 2007/09/20: EnvFin: US carbon trade lifts Climate Exchange results

  The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

• 2007/09/19: CT: Carbon tax proposals
• 2007/09/18: NEN: Carbon Tax: An Economic Analysis

  The debate over the optimal strategy [carbon trading, carbon offsets and/or a carbon tax] to use in dealing with GHGs continues:

• 2007/09/21: ClimateP: Capping Carbon: Is Nothing Better than Something?
• 2007/09/21: GristMill: Green world unites behind auctioning carbon allowances - New U.S. Pirg report recommends 100 percent of allowances be auctioned
• 2007/09/20: TNI: Carbon Trading: the limits of free-market logic
• 2007/09/19: HillHeat: [Rep. Rick] Boucher (D-Va) vs ED [Environmental Defense] on cap-and-trade auctions
• 2007/09/17: TruthOut: One Answer to Global Warming: A New Tax [Mankiw]
• 2007/09/18: GristMill: Mankiw very much -- Conservative economists agree: Taxes rule!
• 2007/09/17: C411: Mankiw's Argument Against Cap-and-Trade
• 2007/09/17: ClimateP: Romney advisor Mankiw is confused about benefit of carbon tax vs. CAFE
• 2007/09/17: EnvEcon: Another reason for a carbon tax ... it'll lower prices!
• 2007/09/17: EnvEcon: Carbon tax vs cap-and-trade: response to Mankiw
• 2007/09/16: EnvEcon: Carbon tax vs cap-and-trade: required reading

  Meanwhile on the international political front:

• 2007/09/19: ENN: EPA Targets $2 Million to Fight Climate Change with Projects in China, Russia, Seven Other Countries
  China, Russia, Argentina, Brazil, India, Korea, Mexico, Nigeria and Ukraine will have projects funded under the auspices of the Methane to Markets Partnership, an international effort promoting near-term, cost-effective projects that capture and use methane as a clean-energy source
• 2007/09/17: PhysOrg: U.S., China sign energy agreement [to increase cooperation in energy efficiency in China]

  Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is launching an new forum in October:

• 2007/09/17: TerraDaily: Climate change tops future humanitarian challenges: Annan
• 2007/09/18: Xinhuanet: Annan to launch [Global Humanitarian] forum [on Oct. 17th] to tackle climate change, natural disasters

  The build up to next week's UN & Washington meetings took several directions:

• 2007/09/22: Maribo: A big week for the climate [UN & Wash]
• 2007/09/22: UN: UN official [UNFCCC head, Yvo De Boer] says global climate change meeting should produce call for action
• 2007/09/21: ABC(Au): Leaders urged to turn climate change talk into action [by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon]
• 2007/09/21: ENN: Developing Nation Splits May Hinder Climate Talks
• 2007/09/21: Yahoo: Developing nation splits may hinder climate talks
• 2007/09/21: OilChange: UN Chief Calls on Rich to Act
  UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that rich countries should help the poor ones deal with the challenges of development and climate change by providing the necessary funding and transferring technology
• 2007/09/14: CarbonFinance: Form or substance? The US is on a diplomatic climate change charm offensive. [Harlan Watson Interview]
• 2007/09/20: PlanetArk: Door Open for Greater US Role - UN Climate Chief [UNFCCC head Yvo de Boer]
• 2007/09/19: HillHeat: International Developments Next Week Mean Policy Briefings This Week
• 2007/09/19: PlanetArk: Ban Urges Strong Message from UN Climate Summit
• 2007/09/18: Yahoo: [U.N. Secretary General] Ban [Ki-moon] urges countries on global warming
  The science is clear and the time short, but the political will is lacking to confront global warming, the U.N. secretary-general said Tuesday. Ban Ki-moon said he hoped next Monday's "climate summit" here will help galvanize leaders to take action "before it is too late."

The GW security meme is still active:

• 2007/09/22: CSW: The Iraq war and climate change mitigation: National security and cost of action

  Live & direct from the popemobile:

• 2007/09/22: Independent(UK): Pope to make climate action a moral obligation

  And on the American political front:

• 2007/09/22: CCM: Restoring the Office of Technology Assessment
• 2007/09/20: TruthOut: The Coal Nine Yards - Coal industry asks for still more handouts, and Washington lends an ear
• 2007/09/21: GristMill: ADM's man at the USDA - USDA secretary resigns; industrial-corn man takes charge
• 2007/09/21: WarmingLaw: Rocky Mountain High (Greenhouse Solutions)
• 2007/09/17: CSW: White House science director Marburger says Earth may become "unlivable" without CO2 emissions cut
• 2007/09/18: CSW: When it comes to climate change, should we leave the FAA on auto-pilot?
• 2007/09/21: WaPo: Virginia Joins the Battle -- New goals to fight global warming get a foothold in Richmond
• 2007/09/19: ClimateP: Alan Greenspan is Very Overrated: Part I, Energy
• 2007/09/20: ClimateP: Alan Greenspan is Very Overrated: Part II, Global Warming
• 2007/09/20: WarmingLaw: Reinventing Federalism, Reinventing Environmentalism
• 2007/09/19: WarmingLaw: [California AG] Jerry Brown: Still Flying High (But Not to the Moon)
• 2007/09/19: DeSmogBlog: John Marburger, Climate Alarmist?
• 2007/09/19: CDreams: BoulderDailyCamera: Waiting For The EPA [to grant California a waiver]
• 2007/09/18: ClimateP: State renewable electricity standards create jobs while cutting pollution
• 2007/09/18: ClimateP: Karl Rove, Global Warming, and Bush's Legacy
• 2007/09/18: HillHeat: [US] Fall Legislative Outlook
• 2007/09/18: inel: Podesta to State Treasurers: help steer climate and energy policies
• 2007/09/17: CAP: Global Warming's Toll on the Economy - John D. Podesta Speaks to National Association of State Treasures
• 2007/09/17: GristMill: Tackling climate: Beltway tone-deafness edition - On subsidizing 'green' energy R&D
• 2007/09/17: GristMill: Cuomo arigato! New York attorney general subpoenas energy companies over disclosure of coal-plant risks
• 2007/09/17: WarmingLaw: Cuomo Turns up the Heat on Coal
• 2007/09/17: WarmingLaw: Federalism Works
• 2007/09/17: FergusB: Bush Govt. says "screw you" to its own people and to the rest of the world

  California's suit against the automakers has been dismissed:

• 2007/09/19: PlanetArk: Calif. Suit on Car Greenhouse Gases Dismissed
• 2007/09/19: OilChange: California Loses Car-Climate Case
• 2007/09/18: TruthOut: State's Climate Suit Tossed [Calif]
• 2007/09/18: NewScientist: Car companies avoid huge climate change payout [Calif]
• 2007/09/18: WarmingLaw: The Nuisance Ruling: Don't Believe the (Industry) Hype
• 2007/09/18: WarmingLaw: A First Take on the Nuisance Suit Dismissal
• 2007/09/18: WarmingLaw: California Nuisance Suit Tossed
• 2007/09/18: DeSmogBlog: California vs. Automakers dropped - bickering continues, greenhouse gas emissions rise
• 2007/09/18: ENN: Calif. Suit On Car Greenhouse Gases Dismissed
• 2007/09/18: Yahoo: Global warming lawsuit in Calif. tossed
• 2007/09/18: AutoBG: Judge dismisses California greenhouse nuisance lawsuit
• 2007/09/18: Xinhuanet: Calif. judge dismisses state suit against automakers
• 2007/09/18: BBC: State loses car climate-link case
  A US federal judge has dismissed a case brought by California against six leading carmakers over alleged damage caused by cars' CO2 emissions. The legal action, the first of its kind, demanded millions of dollars in compensation from General Motors, Ford, Honda, Toyota, Chrysler and Nissan. But the judge ruled that the issue of whether carmarkers were accountable was a political, not legal, matter. Officials said they were disappointed, adding they may appeal the ruling. The lawsuit, filed by California's former Attorney-General Bill Lockyer in September 2006, wanted to make the manufacturers liable for the damage he said was caused by greenhouse gas emissions from the state's estimated 32 million registered vehicles
• 2007/09/17: USAToday: [California's] Global warming suit against carmakers tossed
• 2007/09/17: Reuters: Calif. suit on car greenhouse gases dismissed
  A U.S. federal judge tossed out a lawsuit by California's attorney general on Monday seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from six automakers for damaging the state with climate-changing greenhouse gases

The EPA ignored the SCOTUS ruling and approved a new coal plant without considering GHGs:

• 2007/09/21: PlanetArk: Calif. Lawmaker Chides EPA for Approving Coal Plant
• 2007/09/19: GristMill: EPA to Supreme Court: Take a hike! EPA gives permit to new Utah coal plant; Waxman cries foul

  Rationalizing the House & Senate energy bills continues:

• 2007/09/21: GristMill: Whither the energy bill? Rep. Ed Markey looks down the road on climate and energy
• 2007/09/21: REA: First Renewable FIT Introduced in U.S.
• 2007/09/21: TruthOut: First Renewable FIT [feed-in tariff] Introduced in US

  And wrestling over a climate bill is underway:

• 2007/09/21: GristMill: Sanders-Boxer TKO - New WRI report compares climate bills
• 2007/09/21: TruthOut: Congressional Action on Climate Change
• 2007/09/20: GristMill: Greens actually change someone's mind - Greens helped convince Lieberman that auctioning permits is the way to go
• 2007/09/20: GristMill: Non-sucky cap-and-trade now a possibility? Lieberman expresses openness to auction all carbon permits
• 2007/09/20: HillHeat: U.S. PIRG: 100% Auction For All Cap and Trade
• 2007/09/19: HillHeat: Lieberman Open To 100% Auction

  A coalition of States & investors has petitioned the SEC to require climate risk disclosure:

• 2007/09/21: inel: Investors and state officials petition SEC to require climate risk disclosure
• 2007/09/20: EnvFin: US states, investors press SEC for greenhouse gas disclosure
• 2007/09/19: TruthOut: Effort to Get Companies to Disclose Climate Risk [SEC]
• 2007/09/18: WaPo: SEC Pressed to Require Climate-Risk Disclosures
• 2007/09/18: C411: Coalition Asks SEC for Climate Risk Disclosure
• 2007/09/18: DeSmogBlog: Security and Exchange Commission pressed on Climate Risk Disclosure
• 2007/09/18: ENN: Group Asks SEC To Force Climate Risk Disclosure

  The potential for drought from a depleted Ogallala aquifer looms:

• 2007/09/21: AutoBG: Ogallala Aquifer and ethanol - the potential for another Dust Bowl

  The Gore-apalooza is still bopping along:

• 2007/09/22: TreeHugger: Al Gore Tells Australians To Stand Against Outlaw Politics
• 2007/09/22: SMH: Offices more polluting than cars, says Gore
• 2007/09/20: PhysOrg: Gore: Australia should aid global climate
• 2007/09/19: EcoEarth: Gore highlights world population fears

  Let's see. Last year Al Gore declared a state of planetary emergency...:

• 2007/09/21: GristMill: Is this an emergency? Is global warming the moral equivalent of World War II?

  In the UK, the Liberal Democrats & Conservatives are releasing policies like they expect Brown to call an election:

• 2007/09/19: Guardian(UK): Lib Dems encourage firms to submit carbon reports
• 2007/09/19: Guardian(UK): [Liberal Democrat shadow transport spokeswoman, Susan] Kramer calls for £10 tax on UK domestic fliers
• 2007/09/18: Guardian(UK): [Liberal Democrat environment spokesman, Chris] Huhne plans zero-carbon Britain [by 2040]
• 2007/09/18: Stoat: Libdems plan zero-carbon Britain
• 2007/09/18: OilChange: UK: Lib Dems to Outlaw Petrol Cars by 2040
• 2007/09/17: OilChange: UK Conservative Party Report cites ending oil subsidies as a vital issue

  While in Europe:

• 2007/09/20: TerraDaily: EU New Policy Plan Targets Energy Giants
• 2007/09/19: PlanetArk: EU Plans Climate Change Pact With Poor Countries
• 2007/09/18: Yahoo: EU sets up 50 million euro fund for poor nations to fight global warming
• 2007/09/19: BBC: European energy reform unveiled - Plans have been put forward in Brussels that would open European energy markets to greater competition
• 2007/09/19: AFP: EU seeks to split up energy giants

  And in Australia:

• 2007/09/23: SMH: Costs for disputed desal plant rise [another] Aus$73m
• 2007/09/22: ABC(Au): Election campaign racks up carbon costs
• 2007/09/19: ThinkP: Australian PM Howard's Party Bans Members From Gore's Global Warming Speeches
• 2007/09/18: ABC(Au): Industry cutting emissions by 1m tonnes annually
  Australia's first mandatory greenhouse gas program for industry has cut emissions by more than one million tonnes annually. The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) industry greenhouse program began in 2002 and since then up to 600 businesses have built or modified plants and processes, to save energy and money
• 2007/09/18: ABC(Au): Climate laws will drain NSW: industry
  Renewable energy companies say jobs and technical expertise could flow out of New South Wales if legislation before State Parliament is not amended. The State Government's renewable energy target legislation does not require projects to be based in NSW
• 2007/09/18: Globe&Mail: Australians have become climate-change converts
• 2007/09/17: JQuiggin: Time for a backflip

  While in China:

• 2007/09/21: Xinhuanet: 1,000 leading Chinese enterprises ordered to meet global energy standards
• 2007/09/22: BBC: Beijing drivers ignore No Car Day

  While in New Zealand two angles:

• 2007/09/20: Yahoo: NZealand announces major scheme to tackle climate change [emissions trading]
• 2007/09/21: PlanetArk: NZ to Bring in Carbon Trading, But Still Lag Kyoto [target]

  And in Canada, Harper's minority government does as little as possible:

• 2007/09/23: Impolitical: CTV gives John Baird a free pass
• 2007/09/17: DeSmogBlog: [Cdn. Env. Min.] John Baird photoshopping a greener image

  The National Roundtable on the Environment & Economy has slammed Harper's climate plan:

• 2007/09/22: DeSmogBlog: Federal report scorns Canada's climate-change plan for exaggerating carbon cuts
• 2007/09/22: Globe&Mail: Greenhouse-gas reductions likely overestimated, panel says
• 2007/09/22: ScottsDiatribes: This is how bad the Conservatives environmental plan is...
• 2007/09/22: Far-n-Wide: Fraud
  As Stephen Harper prepares to pontificate to the world about the global warming crisis, Canada's own advisory panel exposes the ruse
• 2007/09/21: Impolitical: Steve's environmental plans get a big thumbs down [NREE]
• 2007/09/22: TStar: PM's climate plan `misleading'
  Government accused of exaggerating its proposals for cutting emissions in report by advisory panel The federal government's latest climate change plan is badly flawed and won't help Canada to hit its international climate change targets, its own advisory group says. All nine programs in the plan, unveiled last month after Parliament passed a law that ordered the government to comply with the Kyoto Protocol, won't do the job, the National Roundtable on the Environment and Economy said yesterday.
• 2007/09/21: CBC: Federal report scorns Harper's climate change plan
  The federal government's own environmental advisory body has lobbed sharp criticism at the Conservatives for their climate-change plan, accusing them of overestimating what the plan will accomplish. In a report released Friday, the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy said the government's plan is vague, uses questionable accounting methods and exaggerated greenhouse-gas cuts it would result in. The roundtable comprises leaders from business, labour, universities and environmental organizations.
• 2007/09/21: Google:CP: Federal body [NREE] accuses government of inflating its climate-change plan

  Elsewhere Harper continues his ideologically driven budgetary restraints:

• 2007/09/20: ENS: Environment Canada Budget for Wildlife, Climate Stripped Away

  That suit over the Conservatives ignoring Kyoto has gone to court:

• 2007/09/20: TCE: Canada Faces Lawsuit Over Kyoto Failure
• 2007/09/20: DeSmogBlog: Green groups sue Canadian government over Kyoto targets
• 2007/09/20: CBC: Green groups sue Tories over missed Kyoto targets
• 2007/09/20: CTV: Gov't taken to court over failure on Kyoto targets

  A Canadian National Energy Policy?:

• 2007/09/19: ROB: Energy CEOs call for national policy
  In Alberta's oil patch, the words "national energy program" are usually uttered as a curse, a reference to the ill-fated 1980s program of oil nationalization and price controls. But in a possible sign of changing times, several senior Canadian energy executives have used a gathering in London this week to make an unprecedented call for an increased federal role in their industry -- some even daring to call for Ottawa to develop a comprehensive national energy policy.

Ontario is in election mode, so the weird & wonderful is staus quo:

• 2007/09/22: AutoBG: Ontario proposes the world's first hydrogen commuter train
• 2007/09/20: GristMill: Short-sighted government chronicles - Ontario has higher capacity for renewable energy projects than the government estimates
• 2007/09/20: TStar: Missed energy opportunities

  BC is about to release its CC plan:

• 2007/09/21: CanWest: The 40-million-tonne challenge: Campbell's about to sign us all up
  Premier Gordon Campbell is scheduled to begin explaining next week how B.C. can "halt and reverse" greenhouse gas emissions by 40 million tonnes over the next dozen years. The B.C. Liberal climate action plan is to be a major topic of his address to the annual convention of the Union of B.C. Municipalities in Vancouver next week. Campbell has said next to nothing about the specifics of the plan since the February throne speech announced a goal of reducing emissions "by at least one-third below the current level by 2020." But he did define the target in one critical respect last month, when he signed on to a statement of goals as part of the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) partnership with several U.S. states and the province of Manitoba. The fine print of that agreement says that B.C.'s goal is 40 million tonnes, which amounts to considerably more than one-third of current levels, estimated at 67 million tonnes

And the tricky question of the oil sands looms:

• 2007/09/20: Tyee: The Harm the Tar Sands Will Do - The project's expected costs to our forests, water and air
• 2007/09/19: OilChange: Canada: Panel Calls for Hike in Oil Sands Royalties
• 2007/09/17: AlterNet: How Canada Went from 21st to 2nd in World's Oil Reserves [tarsands]
• 2007/09/17: OilChange: Tar Sands: Canada's "Dirty Little Secret"

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

• 2007/09/20: EcoEcon: Economic Fundamentalists v. Realists
• 2007/09/19: EESD: Carbon Tax, CAFE Standards and Cap-and-Trade: An Economist's View [Mankiw]
• 2007/09/21: GristMill: Forget the light bulbs: Part II [the merits of voluntary versus statutory responses 2 GW]

  Apocalypso anyone?:

• 2007/09/21: PlanetArk: Arctic Vault Takes Shape for World Food Crops
• 2007/09/17: TPV: In Case of Martial Law, Break Glass

  Here is something for your library:

• 2007/09/18: GristMill: Environmentalism is so not dead! [Book Review] _Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility_ by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger
• 2007/08/29: NYRB: [Book Reviews] _Citizen Gore_ by Michael Tomasky & _The Assault on Reason_ by Al Gore
• 2007/09/18: GristMill: Can anyone stop it? A review of Lomborg and Shellenberger & Nordhaus by Bill McKibben [long & detailed]

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2007/09/19: WarmingLaw: A Closer Look at the Nuisance Suit Dismissal and the Political Question Doctrine
• 2007/09/17: NEN: Big win over emissions [Vt. vs automakers]

  The betting meme opens an eye:

• 2007/09/16: Stoat: Betting on sea ice?

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

• 2007/09/18: CNN: Iceland phasing out fossil fuels for clean energy
  Iceland turning to hydrogen to power its cars, buses and fishing fleet - Professor Bragi Arnason: Iceland will be the world's first hydrogen economy - Iceland wants to eliminate its dependency on oil by 2050 - Icelandic homes, powered, heated by domestic renewable energy sources
• 2007/09/21: TreeHugger: Massachusetts School Taps into Geothermal
• 2007/09/13: Economist: Trapping sunlight - Old ways can be the best ways
• 2007/09/22: SlashDot: Future Looks Bright for Large Scale Solar Farms
• 2007/09/16: FuturePundit: Former Shell Chairman Foresees $150 Barrel Oil
• 2007/09/19: FuturePundit: Thermal Solar Stored Under Pressure For Night Usage
• 2007/09/21: Eureka: Recycling wind turbines - Making wind power really green
• 2007/09/21: Yahoo: World oil prices surge in record-breaking week
• 2007/09/21: Globe&Mail: Two barrels of oil are used for each one found. $100 oil anyone?
• 2007/09/19: SciAm: Sunny Outlook: Can Sunshine Provide All U.S. Electricity? [solar thermal]
• 2007/09/21: NEN: Solar [thermal] on verge of solving volume, storage, transmission
• 2007/09/20: PhysOrg: Study says the best energy strategies to meet the world's growing demand for electricity are green, small and local
• 2007/09/20: TreeHugger: Along The Green Horizon: Big US Electricity Price Increases
• 2007/09/20: NEN: The surprising enemies of wind
• 2007/09/20: NEN: Three steps from solar success [in Southern Arizona]
• 2007/09/19: GristMill: It's a wind that someone thinks blows ill - Rising blowback against wind power
• 2007/09/18: Yahoo: Renewable energy stocks hit
  Renewable energy and clean technology stocks hit a peak in mid-July after a stellar first half of 2007 saw the Nex index of clean energy shares gain 30.9 per cent in the first six months of the year, against increases of 6.0 per cent for the S&P 500 and 7.8 per cent for Nasdaq
• 2007/09/19: RSC: Instant insight: A bright future - how photocatalysts could provide the answer to the planet's energy crisis
• 2007/09/19: NEN: Chinese company [LDK Solar] beats silicon shortage by making it
• 2007/09/17: TruthOut: The Renewable Energy Future
• 2007/09/18: TerraDaily: Maxwell Technologies Introduces 75-Volt Ultracapacitor Module For Renewable Energy Industrial Applications
• 2007/09/18: TreeHugger: Balancing The Anti-Wind, Pro-Coal Lobbies: The Pennsylvania PennFuture Example
• 2007/09/17: PhysOrg: Nanotech could make solar energy as easy and cheap as growing grass
• 2007/09/17: PlanetArk: Solar Industry Sees Boom in Sunny Italy
• 2007/09/17: OilChange: China: Coal to Oil in 2008

  The arithmetic of coal carbon is striking home:

• 2007/09/21: FPB: Extending the reign of King Coal
• 2007/09/20: NEN: CLEAN COAL: Better than dirty coal
• 2007/09/19: BCLSB: Clean Coal Craps Out In Sask.
• 2007/09/19: TreeHugger: Oops...There's Fly-Ash In The Clean Coal Ointment
• 2007/09/19: NEN: NY A.G. investigates dirty coal for true costs
• 2007/09/16: TruthOut: New York Subpoenas Five Energy Companies
  Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York has opened an investigation of five large energy companies, questioning whether their plans to build coal-fired power plants pose undisclosed financial risks that their investors should know about
• 2007/09/18: ABC(Au): Australian clean coal technologies 'to go global'
• 2007/09/18: Maribo: Delays on clean coal

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2007/09/23: IR^2: Recent Damning Biofuel Studies
• 2007/09/23: AutoBG: Fertilizers for biofuel crops could increase greenhouse gases
• 2007/09/22: TreeHugger: But what about Laughing Gas Emissions? [biofuels]
• 2007/09/22: Times(UK): Rapeseed biofuel "produces more greenhouse gas than oil or petrol"
• 2007/09/21: PhysOrg: Biofuels could increase global warming with [N2O] laughing gas, says Nobel prize-winning chemist
• 2007/09/21: TerraDaily: Cellulose-Munching Microbe At Heart Of New Bioethanol Company
• 2007/09/20: C411: A Level-Headed Look at Ethanol and the Environment
• 2007/09/20: Eureka: Asia-Pacific nations urged to study biofuels more carefully
• 2007/09/19: SeattlePI: Energy farming worsens global warming
• 2007/09/20: TNI: Agrofuels - Another Scramble for Africa?
• 2007/09/19: TreeHugger: Mexican President Says No To Biofuels Law
• 2007/09/19: CarsonsPost: The Economics of Ethanol

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2007/09/21: Google:AFP: Nuclear energy to be key in low-carbon energy policy: Brussels

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

• 2007/09/22: AutoBG: NYT: normal, affordable electric cars don't exist
• 2007/09/18: AutoBG: 2007 hybrid sales up almost 50%

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

• 2007/09/20: Guardian(UK): Ten million reasons why business really can counter climate change
• 2007/09/20: CPunch: Carbon-Free and Still Wrecking the Planet - Why Big Business Won't Lead the Way
• 2007/09/21: ClimateP: Must Read Climate Report from Lehman Brothers
• 2007/09/19: BBC: Firms sign up for [Carbon Trust] carbon rating
  Nine leading companies including Coca-Cola and Cadbury have signed up to a scheme to measure and reduce the carbon footprint of certain products. They will measure the ecological impact of each product from the sourcing of raw materials through to disposal

Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:

• 2007/09/22: PRWatch: The Oil Industry Road Show Comes to New Jersey
• 2007/09/17: GristMill: Ecomagination and coal - As long as GE funds coal, its net impact is far from green
• 2007/09/16: GristMill: The last refuge of scoundrels? Greenwashing is getting more subtle

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2007/09/23: BCLSB: Timothy Ball Denies It All
• 2007/09/22: BCLSB: Nielson-Gammon Has Some Advice For Watts And McIntyre
• 2007/09/21: ERabett: Ethon checks out the air conditioning...[surface stations]
• 2007/09/21: BCLSB: Refuting The Tiny Denier
• 2007/09/21: DeSmogBlog: Sppinstitute: Truth in Advertising
• 2007/09/20: CSM: Global-warming skeptics: Might warming be 'normal'? Some say that today's climate change is merely part of a natural cycle
• 2007/09/20: Deltoid: The McIntyre factor
• 2007/09/19: NatureCF: Some climate change fallacies [WSJ - Akasofu]
• 2007/09/19: OilChange: Exxon Mobil Spent Record High for Lobbying
• 2007/09/19: HuffPo: The Children's Book That Has Global Warming Deniers Up in Arms
• 2007/09/18: GristMill: [Dessler] The mantle of Galileo - More on climate skepticism
• 2007/09/18: BCLSB: Gunter On Thin Ice
• 2007/09/17: GristMill: The siren song of denial - Climate change skeptics try to seduce us to inaction
• 2007/09/16: ERabett: And so it goes... [surface stations]
• 2007/09/16: Deltoid: Cherry picking confirmed
• 2007/09/17: BCLSB: Climate Skeptics On Christian Environmentalism, Redux

  Lomborg got kicked around some more:

• 2007/09/19: SeattlePI: Evidence of global warming surrounds a skeptic [Lomborg]
• 2007/09/20: TreeHugger: Climate Do-Gooders?
• 2007/09/17: ClimateP: Debunking Bjorn Lomborg - Part III, He's a Real Nowhere Man
• 2007/09/14: ASullivan: The Problem With Lomborg

  A few people had a chuckle over Michael's refusal to disclose his funding sources:

• 2007/09/20: DeSmogBlog: Climate skeptic Pat Michaels refuses court request to disclose funding sources
• 2007/09/19: CSW: Climate contrarian Pat Michaels refused to disclose funding in Vermont court case

  Now that the Arctic ice is disappearing, how many polar bears remain?

• 2007/09/17: inel: ECN claims "Polar Bears Thriving"
• 2007/09/17: Stoat: Polar Bear Numbers

  Schulte's paper has been rejected by his skeptical publisher:

• 2007/09/22: ThinkP: Anti-climate change paper rejected by journal
• 2007/09/21: Denialism: Schulte's Analysis Challenging Climate Consensus Has Been Rejected
• 2007/09/20: DeSmogBlog: Schulte's Analysis: Not Published; Not Going to Be
• 2007/09/19: ERabett: If an article in the forest is not cited does it make any noise?

  Then there was the usual news and commentary:

• 2007/09/22: CSW: CSW Director to keynote at Texas Renewable Energy Roundup & Green Living Fair
• 2007/09/23: SMH: Recycling offsets car emissions - study
• 2007/09/20: Guardian(UK): Disappearing Melting Ice Cap (12 pictures)
• 2007/09/22: ClimateP: A letter from a young reader
• 2007/09/21: ERabett: There goes another one...
• 2007/09/20: TruthOut: Coming to a Campus Near You - Focus the Nation joins schools in climate change collaboration
• 2007/09/18: CCD: Death of a thousand tips - easy tips undermine the wider message on the seriousness of climate change
• 2007/09/21: MTobis: "Can Anyone Stop It?" [McKibben]
• 2007/09/20: TerraDaily: Weather forecasting needs huge boost to tackle climate change: WMO
• 2007/09/20: Yahoo: Weather forecasting needs huge boost to tackle climate change: WMO
• 2007/09/19: CCurrents: 'Too Late To Avoid Global Warming'
• 2007/08/14: Mashable: Green Living Toolbox: 80+ Green Sites
• 2007/09/20: GoCarbonFree: Sir John Houghton interview
• 2007/09/20: MTobis: Anthropocene Geography
• 2007/09/20: OneWorld: Groups Urge New Drive to Fight Oil-Climate Crisis [Confronting the Triple Crisis]
• 2007/09/20: Yahoo: Climate change worse than feared: Australian expert [Flannery]
• 2007/09/19: ClimateP: Tom Friedman is back -- and he's pessimistic
• 2007/09/19: TerraDaily: Increase In Atmospheric Moisture Tied To Human Activities
• 2007/09/17: TruthOut: 11th Day for Global Warming Fasting
• 2007/09/18: FergusB: "Alarming" is not "alarmist" when it comes to climate change
• 2007/09/18: MTobis: Should We Stop Modeling?
• 2007/09/18: Eureka: Increase in atmospheric moisture tied to human activities
• 2007/09/18: Xinhuanet: Study: U.S. paves paradise, puts up parking lots
• 2007/09/17: inel: Natural History Museum [UK] presents The Climate Change Season
• 2007/09/17: ERabett: Hors Categorie

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

• BBC: The Asian Monsoon
• AFTIC: A Few Things Ill Considered [note change of address]
• NRCC: Nature Reports Climate Change
• CT: Common Tragedies - Thoughts on Environmental Economics
• EcoEarth: Earth News
• Carbon Trust
• EESI: Environmental and Energy Study Institute
• SPARC: Science Policy Assessment and Research on Climate
• Global Warming Factsheets
• Global Climate Change
• EESI: Environmental and Energy Study Institute Briefings
• WWF on Climate Change
• European Commission on the Environment
• Metis: Discussion and announcements on climate science policy
• The Climate Change Caucus in the US House of Representatives
• PEARL: Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Laboratory

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

PS. You can access the previous postings of this series here

"We are all used to talking about these impacts coming in the lifetimes of our children and grandchildren. Now we know that it's us." -Dr. Martin Parry

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