Another Week of GW News, February 17, 2008

By illconsidered on February 18, 2008.

Sipping from the internet firehose...

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

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Top Stories:UN CC Session, Investor Summit, AAAS Annual Meeting, ZIFs
Melting Arctic, Border Jousting, Dead Zones, Earth Hour, Climate Code Red
Hurricanes, Paleoclimate, ENSO, THC
Impacts, Forests, Wacky Weather, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts, Food vs. Biofuel
Mitigation, Transportation, Shipping GHGs, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Planktos, Adaptation
Journals, Misc. Science
Kyoto-2, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
Politics: America, Britain, Europe, Australia, China, Japan, Canada
Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books
Energy, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Cars, Business, Greenwashing, Insurance
Carbon Lobby, The Usual, Useful Links
Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

Low Key Plug

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 An Introductionto the novel is available, along with the Unpublished Forewordand the Launch Talk.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

-het

P.S. Recent postings can be found in the week archive and the ancient postings can be accessed here, which should open to this.

"Time is running out. If an agreement isn't possible in the next 2, 3, or 4 years, it may be too late to prevent serious climatic consequences....Unless the negotiations can find the political will to agree on enforceable and meaningful cuts in emissions, the climate is going to degrade. That's just a fact." -Dr. Richard Somerville

Another Week of GW News, February 17, 2008

Sipping from the internet firehose...

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

The UN General Assembly held a climate session this week:

The UN sponsored the 2008 Investor Summit on Climate Risk:

Elsewhere in the business world:

The AAAS annual meeting is going down Feb 14-18:

Scientists have developed a new material [ZIF] that absorbs CO2 well. Now what are the issues involved in making it? Where do we dispose of it and how long to get it out of the lab?

The Arctic melt still gets a lot of attention:

Jousting over resources in the guise of borders and geography continues:

While in the Antarctic:

The dead zone off the west coast is intensifying:

Harvard has adopted an open-access policy:

Tamino has started a series on Principal Components Analysis:

The Earth Hour campaign is slowly picking up:

Late comment on Climate Code Red:

Late comment on the nine tipping elements:

In the hurricane wars, Ivan & Nicholas are wreaking havoc:

And then there is the usual cyclonic reports:

While in the paleoclimate:

While on the ENSO front:

The THC came up in that AAAS meeting:

More GW impacts are being seen:

And then there are the world's forests:

Yes we have no wacky weather, except:

We have heatwaves and wild fires:

And speaking of floods & droughts:

The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

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

Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

Consider transportation & GHG production:

A UN report on CO2 emissions from shipping has been leaked:

While in the endless quest for sustainable building codes:

As for carbon sequestration:

Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

Planktos ist kaput:

While on the adaptation front:

Meanwhile in the journals:

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

Meanwhile on the Kyoto-2 front:

And on the emissions trading front:

The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

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

And on the American political front:

One hears a lot about the campaign(s), not much about climate:

The Gore-apalooza is still bopping along:

While in the UK:

Note the differing spins on this report:

The LEZ is drawing comment:

The Heathrow controversy rages on inel's pages anyway:

The royal tampon has spoken:

And in Europe:

Meanwhile in Australia:

While in China:

Meanwhile in Japan:

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

The Sierra Club published their "Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way" report card this week:

GreenPeace marked Canada's Kyoto signing anniversary in a unique manner:

The BC speech from the throne went down this week clarifying little:

The tricky & difficult question of the tar sands looms:

Environmental Defence released a report on _Canada's Toxic Tar Sands_:

The Suzuki flap is being played up for all its worth:

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

How long until the concept of ecological crime is formalized?

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

Apocalypso anyone?

As for how the media handles the science of climatology:

Here is something for your library:

Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:

Meanwhile among the solar afficionados:

The arithmetic of coal carbon is striking home:

Biofuel bickering abounds:

The nuclear energy controversy continues:

Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

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

Uhh, could we see a timeline for this projection, please?

The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:

A new depth in double speak?

Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat: