Another Week of GW News, June 1, 2008

Sipping from the internet firehose...

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Information Overflow is Pattern Recognition

June 1, 2008

• Top Stories:Buckets, US CCSP, Methane, CDM Doubts, Nagris
• Melting Arctic, Ilulissat Meeting, CBD, Pricy Fuel, The 1700
• Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production
• Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Feedbacks, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Wacky Weather, Tornadoes, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering
• Journals, Misc. Science, Hansen
• Kyoto, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
• Politics:G8, Biofuel Trade War? America, Britain, Europe, Australia, Canada
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books
• Energy, Cold Fusion, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Efficiency, Cars
• Carbon Lobby, The Usual, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

The temperature record 1945-1955 looks to be due for revision:

• 2008/05/29: Nature: [Letter] A large discontinuity in the mid-twentieth century in observed global-mean surface temperature by David W. J. Thompson et al.
• 2008/05/29: CCurrents: Case Against Climate Change Discredited By Study
• 2008/05/30: Atmoz: Zeroth Order Corrections to Temperature Record [buckets]
• 2008/05/30: BCLSB: Climate Anomaly Caused By Buckets Of Water!
• 2008/05/30: DeSmogBlog: Skeptics' Longest, Strongest Argument Kicks the Bucket
• 2008/05/29: NatureCF: Post-World War II cooling a mirage
• 2008/05/29: JEB: Oops
• 2008/05/29: BBC: Ships rewrite temperature record - Global temperatures did not dip sharply in the 1940s as the conventional graph shows, scientists believe
• 2008/05/28: NatureN: Climate anomaly is an artefact - Glitch in the twentieth-century climate record is explained.
• 2008/05/29: ABC(Au): 1945 phantom world cooling linked to ship errors
• 2008/05/28: NewScientist: Buckets to blame for wartime temperature blip

  Under a court order, the Bush administration has released its US CCSP report four years late:

• 2008/05/: US CCSP: (links to sectional pdfs) The effects of climate change on agriculture, land resources, water resources, and biodiversity in the United States - Final Report, Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.3
• 2008/05/28: UCAR: CCSP Sythesis & Assessment Product 4.3 (SAP 4.3)
• 2008/05/31: EconBrowser: What the Administration Considered Too Dangerous to Release for Four Years
• 2008/05/29: ABC(US): Under Fire, White House Releases Report About Global Warming - Overdue Report Reveals Serious Health Consequences
• 2008/05/30: MongaBay: Bush Administration: global warming is real and a threat to the U.S. economy
• 2008/05/30: GristMill: Bush administration climate report ... at last - Overdue federal report acknowledges climate-change realities
• 2008/05/30: CSW: Bush administration has run out the clock on climate change assessment and action
• 2008/05/29: CSW: Government report provides strong evidence U.S. endangered by climate change impacts
• 2008/05/29: CSW: New climate report counters Bush administration record of denial, disinformation, cover-up and delay
• 2008/05/30: ENN: Climate assessment forced by court order
• 2008/05/30: LA Times: White House report backs climate change warnings - After a court order and four years late, Bush administration scientists issue an assessment.
• 2008/05/30: TP:WonkRoom: White House Report: Human Activity Is "Most Likely Responsible For Global Warming"
• 2008/05/30: NYT: Under Pressure, White House Issues Climate Change Report
• 2008/05/28: NYT: New Climate Report Foresees Big Changes
• 2008/05/29: DotEarth: White House: Poor Face Health Risks from Warming
• 2008/05/29: PhysOrg: White House issues climate report 4 years late
• 2008/05/29: MTobis: New National Assessment
• 2008/05/29: WSJ:EnvCap: White House [US CCSP]: Humans "Very Likely" Causing Warming
• 2008/05/28: NYT: New [USCCSP] Climate Report Foresees Big Changes

  The methane belch is back:

• 2008/05/28: TerraDaily: Melting of methane ice triggered long-ago warming surge: study
• 2008/05/30: KSJT: AFP, Riverside Press-Enterprise, not much else: In Nature, a warning of potential Arctic methane timebomb
• 2008/05/28: PhysOrg: Large methane release could cause abrupt climate change as happened 635 million years ago
• 2008/05/28: Eureka: Large methane release could cause abrupt climate change as happened 635 million years ago
  UCR-led research team says methane-triggered global warming ended last 'snowball' ice age; dramatically reorganized Earth system
• 2008/05/28: NSF: Methane Release Could Cause Abrupt, Far-Reaching Climate Change - Parallel to catastrophic event of 635 million years ago
• 2008/05/27: PhysOrg: Looking at methane sources in the right light

  A study has cast a major pillar of Kyoto in doubt:

• 2008/05/27: SMH: Billions in emissions funding 'wasted'
• 2008/05/26: ENN: Billions wasted on UN climate programme
• 2008/05/26: Guardian(UK): Billions wasted on UN climate programme - Energy firms routinely abusing carbon offset fund, US studies claim
  Billions of pounds are being wasted in paying industries in developing countries to reduce climate change emissions, according to two analyses of the UN's carbon offsetting programme.
  Leading academics and watchdog groups allege that the UN's main offset fund is being routinely abused by chemical, wind, gas and hydro companies who are claiming emission reduction credits for projects that should not qualify. The result is that no genuine pollution cuts are being made, undermining assurances by the UK government and others that carbon markets are dramatically reducing greenhouse gases, the researchers say.
  The criticism centres on the UN's clean development mechanism (CDM), an international system established by the Kyoto process that allows rich countries to meet emissions targets by funding clean energy projects in developing nations. [...]
  A working paper from two senior Stanford University academics examined more than 3,000 projects applying for or already granted up to $10bn of credits from the UN's CDM funds over the next four years, and concluded that the majority should not be considered for assistance. "They would be built anyway," says David Victor, law professor at the Californian university. "It looks like between one and two thirds of all the total CDM offsets do not represent actual emission cuts."

The news from Myanmar, post Nagris, remains scarce & dismal:

• 2008/05/31: AFP: Myanmar junta under new pressure over cyclone victims
  Myanmar's junta Saturday came under renewed international pressure from rights groups and the US defence chief who said its slow response to the cyclone disaster had cost "tens of thousands of lives."
• 2008/05/30: NYT: Myanmar Starts Mass Evictions
  Myanmar's junta started evicting destitute families from government-run cyclone relief centers on Friday, apparently fearing the 'tented villages' might become permanent.
• 2008/05/28: TerraDaily: International aid reaches one million people in Myanmar: UN
• 2008/05/27: UN: Top UN relief official says funding conference for Myanmar cyclone a 'success'
• 2008/05/26: DerSpiegel: First German Aid Workers Let into Burma
• 2008/05/25: SwissInfo: ICRC chief blasts Myanmar junta
  The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross has condemned Myanmar's military regime for stonewalling aid to its country's beleaguered citizens.
• 2008/05/25: VoxEU: Help for the Burmese people
  The Burmese victims of Cyclone Nargis are tragically neglected by their terrible government and also suffering from insufficient international attention. We might help them by aiding private organisations already on the ground in Myanmar. Cyclone Nargis, which hit Myanmar on the second of May, killed at least 78,000 people and left 56,000 missing (according to official Burmese reports). The United Nations estimates that between 1.5 and 2 million inhabitants of the Irrawaddy delta were affected by the cyclone and are presently homeless and without basic resources. In reality, it is practically impossible to get an accurate account of the extent of the disaster, in part because the government does not allow reporting by any outside source and in part because information on the region was very incomplete even before the cyclone. In particular there have been no recent censuses in the region, a very fertile delta where many people settled in the last decades.
• 2008/05/26: CBC: First foreign aid workers arrive in Burma's cyclone zone after UN chief negotiates access

  The Arctic melt continues to get a lot of attention:

• 2008/05/30: NewScientist: Should all Arctic species be red-listed?
• 2008/05/28: SlashDot: Polar Robots to Explore the Arctic
• 2008/05/25: TreeHugger: The Great Arctic Ice Cap Break-Up: Scientists Discover Network of Cracks on Ward Hunt

  There was a big (closed) meeting in Ilulissat, Greenland this week:

• 2008/05/28: Guardian(UK): Closed-door Arctic deal denounced as 'carve-up'
• 2008/06/01: TreeHugger: U.N. to Mediate Arctic Dispute: "Carve-Up" Deal in the Works?
• 2008/05/30: NatureCF: Meeting heads off Arctic oil disputes
• 2008/05/29: TWM: Warming to The Law of the Sea via the Arctic?
• 2008/05/27: Telegraph(UK): Oil crisis triggers fevered scramble for the world's seabed
• 2008/05/29: CanWest: Arctic G5 vow to freeze out international legal regime - Canada signs on for ambitious plans
  An Arctic Ocean summit aimed at easing territorial tensions among the five nations bordering the northern sea -- including Canada -- appeared to evolve yesterday into something more substantial: a kind of Arctic G5 with ambitious plans for overseeing polar oil and mineral exploration, maritime security, transportation and environmental regulation. "The Arctic Ocean stands at the threshold of significant changes," the countries' Ilulissat Declaration stated. [...] Chief among the goals laid out in the declaration was to block any "new comprehensive international legal regime to govern the Arctic Ocean" -- a clear shot across the bow of some European politicians and other Arctic observers who see the region as a largely unspoiled seascape best governed, like Antarctica, as an international trust.
• 2008/05/28: BBC: Trying to head off an Arctic 'gold rush'
  Five states bordering on the potentially energy-rich Arctic Ocean have met in Greenland in an attempt to head off a new "gold rush" in the high north
• 2008/05/29: Guardian(UK): Arctic declaration denounced as territorial 'carve up' - Denmark, Canada, Russia, Norway and US in talks - Environmentalists seek anti-drilling treaty
• 2008/05/27: Yahoo: Arctic powers hold summit in Greenland
• 2008/05/28: Independent(UK): Last-ditch bid to avert Arctic free-for-all
• 2008/05/28: AFP: Summit seeks accord on Arctic sovereignty
  Ministers from the five countries [Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia & United States] bordering the Arctic Ocean met Wednesday in [Ilulissat] Greenland to try and thrash out competing territorial claims in the oil- and gas-rich region.
• 2008/05/28: CanWest: Melting glacier looming over Arctic Ocean summit - UN World Heritage Site [Ilulissat, Greenland] playing host to meeting over vaunted oil riches
• 2008/05/27: OilChange: The Seabed Scramble
• 2008/05/27: CBC: Canada to reaffirm sovereignty over High Arctic waters at conference
• 2008/05/27: G&M: Ottawa plans huge claim to resource-rich Arctic seabed
  As five countries meet to sort out jurisdiction to the continental shelf, Canada eyeing area the size of three Prairie provinces [about 1.8-million square kilometres]
• 2008/05/27: DerSpiegel: Black gold under the ice - The Race for the Arctic Seabed Arrives in Greenland
  A number of countries want the oil that might lie beneath the floor of the Arctic Ocean. Five of them are meeting this week to establish some ground rules for the land grab.
• 2008/05/26: NatPo: Greenland summit to discuss carve-up of Arctic
• 2008/05/26: CanWest: Canada turns to science to support Arctic claim - Researchers say ocean floor study could link Arctic seafloor to continental shelf, writes Randy Boswell

  The Convention on Biological Diversity conference agreed to a moratorium on ocean fertilization projects:

• 2008/05/30: Reuters: U.N. talks halt plans for oceans absorb CO2
  Nearly 200 countries agreed on Friday to a moratorium on projects to fight climate change by adding nutrients to the seas to spur growth of carbon-absorbing algae. The surprise deal followed 12 days of haggling at the U.N.'s Convention on Biological Diversity conference where Australia, Brazil and China had opposed until the last minute, halting the controversial plans for "ocean fertilization".
• 2008/05/30: DeSmogBlog: UN Deep-Sixes Algae Seeding Scam

  Around the world, various advocacy groups are protesting the high price of fuel, after ignoring the issues of peak oil and GHGs for decades. Watch for falling governments, reduced taxes, hobbled green policies and fuel shortages:

• 2008/05/29: TheAge: Fuel price debate ignores real issue [Peak Oil]
• 2008/05/28: G&M: Fuel protests herald grim times for European green policy
• 2008/05/29: EUO: EU leaders unsure how to handle fuel crisis
• 2008/05/29: JQuiggin: Carbon taxes and fuel prices
• 2008/05/28: ABC(Au): Waking from the dream
  For most of us, the oil default is sudden, unexpected and deeply inconvenient. The busy free-ranging lives celebrated by neoliberalism are threatened.
• 2008/05/27: WSJ:EnvCap: Economy, Stupid: High Energy Prices Sock U.S. Climate Bill

  Yes we have another list:

• 2008/05/30: GristMill: Checking it twice - More than 1,700 scientists and economists call for deep cuts in U.S. emissions
• 2008/05/29: Guardian(UK): Scientists call on US to heavily cut carbon emissions
  A unique collection of 1,700 leading scientists today called on the US government to take the lead in fighting global warming. Citing the "unprecedented and unanticipated" effects of global warming, the scientists, including six Nobel prize winners, issued a letter calling for an immediate reduction in US carbon emissions.
• 2008/05/30: Guardian(UK): Act on climate change, [1700] top scientists warn US
• 2008/05/29: UCSUSA: Top U.S. Scientists and Economists Call For Swift, Deep Cuts In Global Warming Pollution
• 2008/05/29: DeSmogBlog: 1,700 Scientists and Economists Call For Immediate Action on Greenhouse Gas Reductions

  The food crisis remains a top story:

• 2008/05/30: UN: Ban welcomes $1.2 billion from World Bank to fight food crisis
• 2008/05/30: CCurrents: Bush, Toilet-Scientists And 'Heavy-Eating' Indians!
• 2008/05/31: Xinhuanet: FAO urges to reactivate agriculture due to world food crisis
• 2008/05/31: BBC: Clashes at Nairobi food protest - Kenyan police have fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of people demonstrating against the soaring cost of food
• 2008/05/30: Guardian(UK): Burning food: why oil is the real villain in the food crisis
• 2008/05/30: Guardian(UK): More wealth, more meat. How China's rise spells trouble ...rising demand for meat from a growing middle class is destabilising world food prices
• 2008/05/29: UN: Food prices will remain high over next decade, UN [FAO & OECD] report says
• 2008/05/29: BBC: The World Bank is to offer immediate financial help to countries worst hit by sharp rises in food prices as part of a $1.2bn (£608m) assistance package
• 2008/05/29: BBC: UN warns about higher food costs
  Higher food prices may be here to stay as demand from developing countries and production costs rise, says an influential report. A report by the UN's Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the body for rich nations, the OECD, said prices will fall, but only gradually. It said the current price spike was higher than previous records, partly due to bad weather ruining crops. But factors, such as rising biofuel demand, will keep future costs high. The FAO said speculators were also to blame for volatile commodity markets.
• 2008/05/29: AFP: World Bank creates 1.2 bln dollar food crisis fund
• 2008/05/29: Guardian(UK): Global food crisis - Families struggling as bills begin to bite
• 2008/05/29: Guardian(UK): Global food crisis - Soaring cost of oil felt at the checkout
• 2008/05/28: FAO: High food prices - supporting the poor and re-launching agriculture - June Summit on food security offers historic chance to address world food challenges
• 2008/05/28: UN: Further sharp increases in global food prices 'likely' - UN [FAO] report
• 2008/05/28: NYT: The Rich Get Hungrier by Amartya Sen
• 2008/05/28: Guardian(UK): From producers to consumers: how rice farmers face catastrophe [in the Philippines]
• 2008/05/17: IWPR: Central Asia Sees Lean Year Ahead
  Plague of locusts, water shortages and rising food prices conspire against a region where life is tough at the best of times.
• 2008/05/27: WaPo: Rising Prices Hit Home For Food Stamp Recipients
• 2008/05/27: Guardian(UK): World food crisis - Crisis talks on global food prices - Summit in Rome next week
• 2008/05/23: IPSNews: Food Security Requires New Approach to Water
• 2008/05/24: FinPo: The hungry planet - Is fertilizer the 'most important business on Earth?'

  Preliminary to the upcoming High Level Conference on Food Security in Rome this June 3-5, Latin American & Caribbean countries got together to discuss their options:

• 2008/05/31: Xinhuanet: Latin American, Caribbean countries gather on food crisis
• 2008/05/30: BBC: Food crisis talks set to begin
  Envoys from 26 Latin American and Caribbean countries meet on Friday to discuss the rising cost of food and draw up a united policy for the region. The talks in Caracas, Venezuela, mark the beginning of a week of meetings on the issue, leading up to a three-day UN food crisis summit in Rome on Tuesday

The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

• 2008/05/30: NYT: Food Report Criticizes Biofuel Policies
• 2008/05/31: Australian: Push for ethanol hits grain supplies
• 2008/05/30: CanWest: Biofuel demand to keep food costs high: [UNFAO & OECD] study

  And just how are we going to feed 9 billion?

• 2008/05/31: PeakEnergy: Smells Like Guano To Me - Living With the Fertiliser Cartels
• 2008/05/31: CPunch: It Will Take a Lot More Than Gardening to Fix Our Food System - Broken Agriculture
• 2008/05/29: CCurrents: Peak Food And Peak Water
• 2008/05/30: EnergyBulletin: It will take a lot more than gardening to fix our food system
• 2008/05/31: Guardian(UK): Greener and leaner - how the west could stave off disaster
• 2008/05/30: GristMill: One hundred percent whole-wheat troubles - WSJ: 'Fungus strain menaces global wheat crop'
• 2008/05/30: GristMill: Industrial ag-onistes - The WSJ on fertilizer markets so manipulated, they might make a Saudi prince blush
• 2008/05/28: KSJT: AP, Wall St. Journal: Fed. budget woes and a dangerous new wheat pathogen on the march
• 2008/05/27: PhysOrg: Research budgets cut amid food crisis, wheat worry
• 2008/05/27: TreeHugger: Peak Fertilizer, Chopping Trees for Lack of Labor
• 2008/05/27: Times(UK): Energy giants smell windfall - Sulphur price soars on fertiliser demand

  Alma crossed into the Atlantic & became Arthur, while Nakri blew across the western Pacific unreported:

• 2008/06/01: CNN: Atlantic season's first storm moves across Yucatan
  Storm forecast to dump up to 15 inches in southeastern Mexico - Storm makes landfall at the Belize-Mexico border - Tropical storm warnings for Belize and Mexico's Caribbean coastline - Tropical Storm Arthur not expected to become hurricane
• 2008/06/01: Wunderground: The hurricane season of 2008 rings in with gender-confused Arthur
• 2008/05/31: CNN: Atlantic season's 1st tropical storm forms near Belize
• 2008/05/31: Intersection:CCM: Atlantic Hurricane Season Starts a Day Early
• 2008/05/31: Wunderground: Alma's remains could become a Gulf of Mexico tropical depression
• 2008/05/31: Xinhuanet: Tropical storm Alma kills 3 in Nicaragua
• 2008/05/30: Wunderground: Alma dies without causing a major disaster; tornadoes rip Midwest
• 2008/05/29: Wunderground: Alma nears hurricane strength, takes aim at Nicaragua; major tornado outbreak today
• 2008/05/29: Yahoo: Tropical Storm Alma lashes Central America [from the eastern Pacific]

  And elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

• 2008/05/31: PhysOrg: Hurricane season outlooks of little use [says Craig Fugate, director of emergency management for Florida]
• 2008/05/27: BBC: Drone planes research hurricanes - As the hurricane season takes off in the US so too will drone planes which will fly into the eye of the storms

  Meanwhile GHGs are still going up:

• 2008/05/30: ClimateP: Nobel laureate Rowland agrees with Climate Progress [1000 ppm]
• 2008/05/30: QuarkSoup: latest CO2 level
• 2008/05/29: WorldChanging: The Geography of America's Carbon Footprint
• 2008/05/29: DotEarth: Nobel Winner [F. Sherwood Rowland]: CO2 going to 1,000 Parts Per Million

  As for the temperature record:

• 2008/05/28: Atmoz: Spatial Inhomogeneities in the Satellite Temperature Record

  Yes we have feedbacks:

• 2008/05/29: ClimateP: Tundra 3: Forests and fires foster feedbacks

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2008/05/26: PhysOrg: Melting glaciers may release DDT and contaminate Antarctic environment

  Sea levels are rising:

• 2008/05/28: TLC: Not That It Matters

  Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

• 2008/05/27: NASA: Satellites Illuminate Pollution's Influence On Clouds

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2008/05/29: TLC: One In Eight
• 2008/05/29: ENN: Warming seen depleting Great Lakes even more
• 2008/05/29: SeattlePI: Global Warming: Heck of a scare
• 2008/05/28: KSJT: AP: More detail on the report of acidic waters rising off N. America's west coast
• 2008/05/28: ABC(Au): Global warming to shorten ski season: CSIRO
• 2008/05/28: TerraDaily: Pacific Coast Turning More Acidic
• 2008/05/27: CBC: Federal scientists probe decline of B.C. salmon runs
• 2008/05/28: SMH: Rapid rise in ocean acidity brings fears for marine life
• 2008/05/27: TerraDaily: Ocean Acidification - Another Undesired Side Effect Of Fossil Fuel-Burning
• 2008/05/26: SciDaily: Climate Change Does Double-whammy To Animals In Seasonal Environments
• 2008/05/27: PeakEnergy: Future Scenarios: Peak Oil And Climate Change
• 2008/05/26: Guardian(UK): Merlot from Yorkshire, Hampshire too hot to make wine: expert's prediction for 2080

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2008/05/31: NewScientist: Tropical forests axed in favour of palm oil [in Indonesia & Malaysia]
• 2008/05/30: ABC(Au): Strzelecki deal - The State Government has signed a multi-million dollar deal to save Victoria's Strzelecki Rainforest
• 2008/05/30: Eureka: Forest canopies help determine natural fertilization rates - Scientists clarify controls on boreal nitrogen resource that dictates long-term forest productivity
• 2008/05/28: IPSNews: Nature Cannot Absorb This Growth [Amazon]
• 2008/05/28: MongaBay: Forest carbon credits could help development in Congo: Interview with Nadine Laporte, remote sensing expert
• 2008/05/27: TerraDaily: Brazil's new environment minister to tackle fears over Amazon
• 2008/05/27: ABC(Au): PNG scientist warns against harvesting mangrove forests
• 2008/05/27: ABC(Au): Expanding biofuel farms could damage ecosystems: WWF
• 2008/05/27: TerraDaily: The Amazon for sale for 50 bln dollars? Not in Brazil's book
• 2008/05/26: BBC: WWF urges Brazil biofuel projects
  New protected areas must be created to prevent environmental damage from the expansion of Brazilian sugar cane, the Worldwide Fund for Nature has said
• 2008/05/25: TLC: Environment vs Business [in the Amazon]

  Yes we have no wacky weather, except:

• 2008/05/31: NYT: Farewell, Fair Weather
  We are now firmly ensconced in the Age of Extreme Weather. According to the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, there have been more than four times as many weather-related disasters in the last 30 years than in the previous 75 years.

Meanwhile in tornado alley:

• 2008/05/31: BBC: Diary from the eye of the storm - chasing storms through "Tornado Alley"
• 2008/05/28: Wunderground: Parkersburg tornado an EF-5; major flooding in Central America likely from 90E
• 2008/05/28: CNN: 2008 could set records for tornado deaths
  Death toll from tornadoes in 2008 is already 110; average is 62 for a whole year - 2008 fatalities already highest in a decade, with the year less than half over - Numbers of tornadoes also above average in early months of this year - Deadliest year since organized records began is 1953, with 519 deaths
• 2008/05/28: KSJT: AP, etc: US on pace for a record tornado year. Scientists don't know why.
• 2008/05/27: PhysOrg: US on track to break record for tornadoes
• 2008/05/28: Guardian(UK): Iowa tornado rated state's strongest in 32 years [F5]
• 2008/05/27: Wunderground: The tornado season of 2008: climate change to blame? And, tropical update
• 2008/05/26: ABC(US): 8 Dead in Memorial Day Weekend Twisters - Violent Weather Hits Iowa, Minnesota Towns, Killing 8; More Tornadoes Possible
• 2008/05/26: CNN: Midwest tornadoes kill 7, including toddler
  Iowa governor says more than 400 homes damaged in Parkersburg - Rescue teams assess damage in areas hit by Sunday tornadoes - Authorities say six people died in Iowa towns of Parkersburg and New Hartford - Hugo, Minnesota, twister kills toddler, injures nine others
• 2008/05/27: AP: Iowa town measures the loss after deadly tornado
• 2008/05/26: Wunderground: Killer tornadoes rip Iowa, and Minnesota; tropical depression possible late this week
• 2008/05/25: Wunderground: Killer tornadoes smash Iowa and Minnesota
• 2008/05/26: BBC: Storms kill eight in central US
  Tornadoes and severe thunderstorms have swept through central parts of the United States, killing at least eight people and destroying many homes.
• 2008/05/26: CBC: Warnings issued as Midwest cleans up from deadly storms

  As for wild fires:

• 2008/05/29: CBC: Manitoba fires force 1,600 from homes
• 2008/05/28: TerraDaily: Scorched Earth Millenium Map Shows Fire Scars
• 2008/05/28: TreeHugger: A Scorched Earth Shows its "Fire Scars"
• 2008/05/27: CBS: California Wildfire Near Full Containment - Favorable Weather Conditions Help Firefighters Battle The 4,200-Acre Blaze

  And speaking of floods & droughts:

• 2008/05/29: Guardian(UK): Water shortages and drought are the next scourge, warns US group
• 2008/06/01: SMH: Flooding wreaks havoc
  Italy has declared a state of emergency in the country's north after flooding and mudslides left at least four people, including an infant, dead in heavy rains that have also hit Belgium, Britain, France and Germany.
• 2008/05/30: ENN: Is water becoming 'the new oil'?
• 2008/05/31: CPunch: Will There be Water Riots? [as Sacramento goes dry]
• 2008/05/30: Tamino: Drought in Australia
• 2008/05/29: TreeHugger: The Rains Came To Atlanta This Spring: Lake Lanier Slowly Fills
• 2008/05/29: Wunderground: Major flooding disaster in Central America possible; severe weather outbreak today
• 2008/05/29: ENN: Water shortages and drought are the next scourge, warns US group
• 2008/05/28: PeakEnergy: Record Dry May In Sydney
• 2008/05/27: TerraDaily: Understanding Autumn Rain Decline In South East Australia
  Fluctuations in sea-surface temperatures to the north of Australia and changes in atmospheric circulation patterns over the sub-tropical Indian Ocean have been identified as key factors leading to declining rainfalls in south-eastern Australia since 1950.
• 2008/05/27: SciDaily: Understanding Autumn Rain Decline In SE Australia
• 2008/05/27: People's Daily: Death toll of torrential rains, hail rises to 23 in Chinese provinces
• 2008/05/26: ENN: Spain's drought a glimpse of our [UK] future?

  Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2008/05/27: SciDaily: New System Which Eliminates Carbon Dioxide Emissions Through Microalgae Under Development [CENIT CO2 project]
• 2008/05/27: Guardian(UK): Travelling light: fashion adjusts to demands of climate change

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2008/05/30: UN: Transport sector must lead in the climate change fight, UN official [Yvo de Boer, UNFCCC head] says
• 2008/05/28: BWeek: You Think Flying Is Bad Now...
  Something has to give as airlines adjust to $130 oil and brace for a record yearly loss. Not all of the majors will survive
• 2008/05/30: USAToday: Ridership is up, but fuel costs strain transit agencies
  High gas prices are pushing more people onto buses and subways, straining transit agencies trying to meet the demand
• 2008/05/27: Rabble: Highway expansion as fast lane to climate change
• 2008/05/28: ClimateP: U.S. driving down 11 Billion miles in March, the sharpest drop in history
• 2008/05/28: AutoBG: Airlines raise prices to cover rising cost of fuel
• 2008/05/28: SMH: New jets aim for a green sky future
• 2008/05/26: CNN: As gas goes up, driving goes down
  March figures show steepest decline in driving since 1942 - Compared with last year, drivers have logged 11 billion fewer miles, the DOT says - Americans planned to drive less over Memorial Day weekend, AAA reports - Public transportation ridership on rise, in part because of gas prices, group says
• 2008/05/27: NYT: Soaring Fuel Prices Take a Withering Toll on Truckers
• 2008/05/26: Times(UK): Fuel suppliers demand airlines pay cash in advance
• 2008/05/25: Guardian(UK): Fuel costs kill off a US airline every week

  While in the endless quest for sustainable building codes:

• 2008/05/27: ABC(Au): Builders urged to join green boom
  The Green Building Council of Australia says the construction industry can play a pivotal role in reducing greenhouse emissions. The Council says more developers and tenants are demanding buildings meet environmental standards

As for carbon sequestration:

• 2008/05/26: CanWest: Study examines underground carbon dioxide storage in northeastern B.C.
  The province's largest greenhouse-gas emitter said Monday it is working on a plan to capture and store a million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, two kilometres below the ground near Fort Nelson. Aided by a $3.4-million provincial government grant, Spectra Energy Transmission said it is undertaking a $12.1-million feasibility study to find out if deep saltwater reservoirs in the Fort Nelson area can be used for long-term carbon storage.

Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2008/05/31: BBC: Giant trees 'to clear excess CO2'
  The scientist who coined the term "global warming" in the 1970s has proposed a radical solution to the problem of climate change. Wallace Broecker advocated millions of "carbon scrubbers" - giant artificial trees to pull CO2 from the air. Dr Broecker told the Hay literary festival in Powys: "We've got an extremely serious problem. He added: "It's a race against time and we are just sort of crawling along at a slow pace." He said some 20 million of the scrubbing devices would be required to capture all the CO2 currently produced in the US.
• 2008/05/28: FuturePundit: Climate Engineering Proposals Seen As Cutting Global Rainfall
• 2008/05/31: TreeHugger: Scientist [Klaus Lackner] Claims Air Capture Device Can Scrub CO2 Out of the Air
• 2008/05/27: OTF: Who Decides? Who gets to determine the "right" climate for the Earth?
• 2008/05/31: Guardian(UK): Could US scientist's 'CO2 catcher' help to slow warming?
• 2008/05/29: ClimateP: Science: Geo-engineering scheme damages the ozone layer
• 2008/05/29: Guardian(UK): Geoengineering - Can the ecohackers save us?
• 2008/05/27: PhysOrg: Geoengineering could slow down the global water cycle
• 2008/05/27: Eureka: Geoengineering could slow down the global water cycle

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2008/05/29: TCD: Lessons from the short history of ice sheet model intercomparison by E. Bueler
• 2008/05/30: ACPD: Observations of the mesospheric semi-annual oscillation (MSAO) in water vapour by Odin/SMR by S. Lossow et al.
• 2008/05/29: ACPD: Methane spectroscopy in the near infrared and its implication on atmospheric retrievals by C. Frankenberg et al.
• 2008/05/31: CL: (abs) Is oil palm agriculture really destroying tropical biodiversity? by Lian Pin Koh & David S. Wilcove
• 2008/05/30: CP: A bi-proxy reconstruction of Fontainebleau (France) growing season temperature from A.D. 1596 to 2000 by N. Etien et al.
• 2008/05/28: CPD: Forced and internal modes of variability of the East Asian summer monsoon by J. Liu et al.
• 2008/05/29: TCD: Diagnosing the extreme surface melt event over southwestern Greenland in 2007 by M. Tedesco et al.
• 2008/05/28: ACPD: Measurement of black carbon at Syowa station, Antarctica: seasonal variation, transport processes and pathways by K. Hara et al.
• 2008/05/28: ACPD: Cloud and surface classification using SCIAMACHY polarization measurement devices by W. A. Lotz et al.
• 2008/05/27: ACPD: Nitric acid in the stratosphere based on Odin observations from 2001 to 2007 - Part 2: High-altitude polar enhancements by Y. J. Orsolini et al.
• 2008/05/27: ACPD: Nitric acid in the stratosphere based on Odin observations from 2001 to 2007 - Part 1: A global climatology by J. Urban et al.
• 2008/05/26: ACPD: Long-term field performance of a tunable diode laser absorption spectrometer for analysis of carbon isotopes of CO2 in forest air by S. M. Schaeffer et al.
• 2008/05/29: Nature: [Letter] A large discontinuity in the mid-twentieth century in observed global-mean surface temperature by David W. J. Thompson et al.
• 2008/05/27: PNAS: Simultaneous observations of aerosol/cloud/albedo interactions with three stacked unmanned aerial vehicles by G. C. Roberts et al.

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

• 2008/05/30: SciDaily: Apparent Problem With Global Warming Climate Models Resolved
• 2008/05/27: QuarkSoup: Flops
• 2008/05/27: NatureCF: Blowing in the wind
• 2008/05/27: Atmoz: Comparing the time series of the major climate metrics
• 2008/05/27: Tamino: PDO: the Pacific Decadal Oscillation
• 2008/05/27: TerraDaily: EARLINET - European Research For Climatic Change Analysis
  [...] As regards atmospheric physics's knowedge and its possible effects on climatic change, research groups from all Europe have developed the project EARLINET-ASOS (European Aerosol Research Lidar Network: Advanced Sustainable Observation System). 25 laboratories, located in 12 European countries, carry out weekly measures simultaneously to obtain indispensable data for the carrying out of climatic studies: the analysis of the presence in the atmosphere of aerosol's particles and the determination of its origin.
• 2008/05/26: PhysOrg: Warm winds comfort climate change models: study

  More Hansen:

• 2008/05/31: WorldChanging: How to Get Off Coal - Hansen
• 2008/05/29: AfterGutenberg: How to get off Coal
• 2008/05/29: ClimateP: Dear Governor Greenwash...

  The Pielke fan clubbe seems to be dying:

• 2008/05/25: ClimateP: The End of Nature -- at least for me [PFC & media]

  Meanwhile on the Kyoto front:

• 2008/05/28: Guardian(UK): Through scrutiny and vetting we'll avoid abuses of the carbon market
  Within four years our Kyoto initiative will have reduced emissions by 2 billion tonnes, says Yvo de Boer
• 2008/05/26: FTimes: Chinese reap biggest Kyoto rewards
• 2008/05/27: FPB: Climate change's big winner

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2008/05/30: PhysOrg: Montreal carbon gases exchange up and running
• 2008/05/30: NEN: Emissions Trading: Boom? Waste?
• 2008/05/30: CTV: Montreal exchange for emissions trading opens
  The Montreal Climate Exchange began trading carbon emission credits on Friday, less than two years before many Canadian industries have to start cutting their greenhouse gas emissions. The exchange will allow industries that do not yet have the technology to begin cutting emissions to buy carbon credits so they can meet government-mandated targets.
• 2008/05/26: FTimes: US emissions trading waits for Bush to go
  The departure from office of US President George W. Bush will give a "very promising" outlook to international talks on global warming and the $64bn market in greenhouse gas emissions, said the United Nations' top official on climate change [Yvo de Boer, UNFCCC executive secretary]
• 2008/05/26: ThinkP: Cap-and-trade investors eagerly await Bush's departure

  The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

• 2008/06/01: BCLSB: High Gas Prices: The Natural Carbon Tax?
• 2008/05/27: Rabble: The carbon tax conundrum - For its proponents, the carbon tax is part of the microeconomic market utopia idealized by believers in efficient markets

  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:

• 2008/06/01: TStar: Cap-and-trade or a carbon tax?
• 2008/05/30: Forbes: Why Cap-And-Trade Won't Work [Peak natgas]
• 2008/05/30: PEF: Carbon taxes and cap-and-trade redux

  There was a lot of chatter about the G8 meeting last weekend:

• 2008/05/28: CarbonFinance: G8 environment ministers push for 50% emission cuts by 2050
  Politicians attending the G8 environment ministers meeting in Kobe, Japan, have reaffirmed their will to adopt stringent greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions of 50% or more by 2050, but set no actual targets.
• 2008/05/30: TreeHugger: Getting the G8 to Square Up to the Climate Crisis
• 2008/05/29: NatureCF: Scientists call on G8 for stricter targets
• 2008/05/27: Yomiuri: Midterm goal differences aired at G-8
• 2008/05/26: TerraDaily: G8 ministers pledge 'strong will' on climate amid doubts
• 2008/05/27: OilChange: G8: Halve Emissions by 2050
• 2008/05/26: STimes: Agreement on 2020 emissions target eludes G8 ministers
• 2008/05/26: ABC(Au): G8 environment ministers call for 2050 emissions goal
• 2008/05/26: PhysOrg: G8 ministers endorse greenhouse gas cuts by 2050
• 2008/05/26: ENN: G8 environment ministers: halve emissions by 2050
• 2008/05/26: AFP: G8 ministers pledge 'strong will' on climate amid doubts

  This might liven things up in the international scene:

• 2008/05/26: Guardian(UK): Brussels trade war with US looms over biofuel - European commissioners back dumping allegations

  And on the American political front:

• 2008/05/30: GristMill: Florida faces unfavorable tide - New report calls for climate action, but not everyone's listening
• 2008/05/30: RegisterGuard: The EPA on a short leash - The White House altered Johnson's stance on waiver
• 2008/05/28: BostonGlobe: Markey unveils sweeping global warming bill
• 2008/05/28: ClimateP: Eco-Gingrich says, "Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay More."
• 2008/05/28: ClimateP: White House Rebuked over EPA Waiver
  The White House put Stephen Johnson in charge of the EPA in 2005, and he has given the U.S. an anti-regulation, anti-science, anti-law approach to the health of our nation and planet. The White House and its fixer at the EPA are increasingly being sued by the states and challenged by Congress for failure to follow the law.
• 2008/05/28: DotEarth: "The Tragic Lag Between What We Know and What We Do" [US pol]
• 2008/05/28: GristMill: On your Markey - Rep. Ed Markey unveils ambitious new climate legislation
• 2008/05/28: AbqJournal: Nature Conservancy Climate Report
• 2008/05/28: DeSmogBlog: New website: Zap a Climate Security Act Lobbyist!
• 2008/05/28: WSJ:EnvCap: Climate Two-Step: Markey Presents Tougher Emissions Plan
• 2008/05/28: STimes: A step in the right direction on national climate policy
• 2008/05/28: STimes: Cantwell, Inslee focus on increasing acidity of oceans at Seattle hearing [US pol]
• 2008/05/27: GristMill: Different worlds - Well-informed Republicans are not concerned about climate change

  The USDA came out with another unsettling climate change report:

• 2008/05/27: SLTrib: USDA on global warming - Climate report adds more gloom
• 2008/05/28: Guardian(UK): US south-west warned of dire climate challenges
• 2008/05/29: Guardian(UK): Climate change threat to US crops and water
• 2008/05/28: MongaBay: Climate change will cause significant disruptions to U.S. agriculture says Fed study
• 2008/05/28: PhysOrg: Fed report says climate change risks crops, water
• 2008/05/28: SeattlePI: Get used to high food costs, water shortages - Climate report offers a dire look at next 50 years in U.S.

  They're still arguing over which climate bill Bush will veto:

• 2008/05/31: GristMill: FOE pas - Friends of the Earth not all that jazzed about Lieberman-Warner
• 2008/05/31: GristMill: Lieberman-Warner gets corporate support - Industry & green groups join up to back climate bill
• 2008/05/30: CJR: Flogging a 'Dead' Climate Bill - Why the press must cover Lieberman-Warner as if it had legs
• 2008/05/30: CNN: Chances dim for climate-change legislation
  Business coalition splinters, and without widespread corporate support, the bill headed to the Senate is almost certainly doomed.
• 2008/05/29: ClimateP: [Former UK PM, Tony] Blair: Symbolic vote on Boxer-Lieberman-Warner matters to the world
• 2008/05/29: HillHeat: Club for Growth, Environmental Defense Action Fund, Launch Dueling Lieberman-Warner Campaigns
• 2008/05/27: ClimateP: Boxer bill update: Probably no U.S. CO2 emissions cut until after 2025
• 2008/05/27: GristMill: Growth industry - Club for Growth starts campaign to derail Lieberman-Warner
• 2008/05/28: ScienceP: The Price of Planetary Gambling - Critics of Climate Legislation Could Use a New Calculator
• 2008/05/26: ClimateP: Would Boxer's bill cut CO2 emissions by 2020?
• 2008/05/27: ENN: [US] Senate set to take up climate change debate [L-W]
• 2008/05/27: CDreams: One World: Hidden Nuclear Handout Seen in [L-W] Climate Bill

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

• 2008/05/30: GristMill: 'We're the Saudi Arabia of coal' - Obama & Clinton shill for coal in Montana
• 2008/05/30: GristMill: The first 100 days - Obama says climate and energy would be top priorities at start of his admin
• 2008/05/29: ClimateP: Will media keep parroting McCain's climate doubletalk even as he starts parroting Bush
• 2008/05/29: WSJ:EnvCap: Too Hot? McCain, Clinton, Likely to Skip Senate Climate Vote
• 2008/05/28: RegisterGuard: McCain due global warming credit
  It took a Republican president, Richard Nixon, to go to China. Perhaps Republican presidential candidate John McCain's proclamation in Portland that global warming is real and urgent will similarly overcome the right-left divide and make it acceptable for everyone to embrace the need to solve the climate crisis.
• 2008/05/29: ThinkP: Despite Claims Of Being A "Leader" On The Issue, McCain Plans To Skip Vote On Landmark Climate Change Bill
• 2008/05/27: GristMill: Climate and service - Obama's commencement speech calls for service to the country, planet on climate front
• 2008/05/27: RReich: Why McCain's "Cap-and-Trade" Won't Work Nearly as Well as Obama's
• 2008/05/27: GristMill: Call to service - Obama calls for clean energy activists in commencement speech

  The Gore-apalooza is still bopping along:

• 2008/05/30: Guardian(UK): Opera tribute not too inconvenient for Gore
• 2008/05/29: TreeHugger: Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth To Be Staged As Opera

  While in the UK:

• 2008/06/01: Guardian(UK): The environment must stay at the heart of policy
• 2008/06/01: Guardian(UK): Now is not the time to abandon our ambition to be green
• 2008/05/31: Guardian(UK): Thousands stage carnival protest against Heathrow expansion
• 2008/05/31: PhysOrg: Thousands gather to protest Heathrow expansion
• 2008/05/31: DailyIndia: Heathrow expansion plan draws huge protest
• 2008/05/31: Guardian(UK): 'Life in prison? Bring it on' - Plane Stupid's 'Westminster Five' say their Commons protest put Heathrow's third runway in doubt
• 2008/05/26: BBC: MPs back personal carbon credits
  The government should go ahead with a system of personal "carbon credits" to meet emissions targets, MPs have said. The Environmental Audit Committee said the scheme would be more effective than taxes for cutting carbon emissions. Under the scheme people would be given an annual carbon limit for fuel and energy use - which they could exceed by buying credits from those who use less
• 2008/05/26: Guardian(UK): [Letters] Lack of action on climate change is criminal

  Change is in the air:

• 2008/05/29: Guardian(UK): UK power giant says energy industry on the brink of radical change
  Britain's second biggest gas and electricity supplier, Scottish and Southern Energy, warned today the industry stood on the brink of radical change. Centralised fossil fuel fired generation would have to give way to a combination of energy efficiency and diversity of generation.
• 2008/05/28: AFP: British PM warns of global oil 'shock' as fuel price protests spread

  And in Europe:

• 2008/05/29: BBC: New EU states want CO2 revision - Hungary is spearheading a push by several new EU member states to get the EU's CO2 emission targets recalculated.
• 2008/05/28: EUO: Eastern EU states table alternative [lower] CO2 targets
• 2008/05/28: EUO: CO2 car advert rules threaten press freedom, media giants say
• 2008/05/28: Guardian(UK): EU backs early start for airline carbon trading
• 2008/05/27: EUO: MEPs vote to include airlines in emissions scheme earlier
• 2008/05/27: EUO: Commission cool on Sarkozy fuel tax cap proposal
• 2008/05/27: DerSpiegel: Sarkozy launches dawn offensive - 'Oui' to the 35-Hour Week and 'Non' to VAT on Fuel

  Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2008/06/01: ABC(Au): [Tasmanian Premier David] Bartlett pushes carbon agenda
• 2008/05/29: ABC(Au): Councils focus on climate change
• 2008/05/29: ABC(Au): Tourism industry warned to plan for climate change
• 2008/05/29: SMH: Councils demand sea-level rise data
  The prospects for waterfront properties in NSW are "stark", say experts addressing a local government conference today on sea-level rises due to global warming. Governments are planning for rises of up to a metre by the end of this century. That would flood tens of thousands of properties along Australia's east coast. Councils have asked the State Government to reveal its interim projections for rising sea levels until 2100 so they can assess development applications properly and plan measures for coastal areas and estuaries.

Canadian minority neocon PM Harper made a quick tour of Europe to demonstrate how out of it he is:

• 2008/05/28: Google:CP: Harper boasts of Canadian environmental record at UN conference
• 2008/05/29: TStar: Harper defends Canada's environmental record
• 2008/05/27: G&M: Harper meets Sarkozy on climate change
• 2008/05/28: RandomNoise: [Satire] PM Touts Our Green Record OR How the PM is Preparing for Life After Power
  [...] Following the PM's speech the international delegates promptly broke out into a chorus of laughter. Harper was also praised afterwards for showing a sense of humour despite his reputation for being stiff
• 2008/05/28: CBC: Canada serious about environment, Harper tells skeptical Europe
• 2008/05/28: CTV: Harper pushes climate change agenda in Germany
• 2008/05/28: TStar: Harper praises Canada's green record
• 2008/05/27: CBC: Harper set to talk climate on whirlwind European tour
• 2008/05/27: ChronicleHerald: Groups pan PM's tour on climate change
  Prime Minister Stephen Harper's whirlwind trip aimed at swaying European leaders to his climate change agenda has drawn scorn from environmentalists who give it little chance of success. Harper begins the tour today with the aim of bringing onside world leaders opposed to Canada's stance in advance of the economic summit of G8 nations this summer.

Discussion of the Liberal's unreleased carbon tax plan remains heated:

• 2008/05/31: CanWest: 'Big idea' worth the risk for unpopular Dion
• 2008/05/30: Maribo: The time to discuss a carbon tax
• 2008/05/30: WpgFP: Oil-rich premiers warn about evils of carbon tax
• 2008/05/28: BaDH: Carbon tax meltdown: Dion increasingly isolated; consensus building around Layton's cap-and-trade plan
• 2008/05/28: TStar: [Ontario] Premier [Dalton McGuinty] rejects Dion's plan for carbon tax
  McGuinty prefers 'cap-and-trade' system over federal Liberal leader's controversial proposal
• 2008/05/27: CanWest: Mr. Dion's carbon gambit
  For too long, Canada's big federal parties have been all but indistinguishable in their mushy environmental policy. At long last, that might be changing. Stephane Dion's decision to propose a carbon tax might prove to be politically foolhardy, but at least it gives voters a line in the sand, a way to distinguish his Liberals from the Conservatives. Taxing carbon emissions is mentioned in every informed discussion about possible solutions to climate change. It is worthy of being a wedge issue in the next election.
• 2008/05/25: NEN: Canada's carbon tax: suicide? good sense? a dream?
• 2008/05/26: ScottsDiatribe: Carbon tax idea seemingly gaining support across Canada
• 2008/05/26: BCLSB: Canadians and Carbon Taxes
• 2008/05/26: CTV: Green leader blasts NDP on carbon tax stance
• 2008/05/26: CanWest: Majority favours carbon tax - Poll shows support for climate change plan
• 2008/05/26: HillTimes: Dion needs 'third party validators,' says Nanos
  Pollster Nik Nanos says Grit Leader Stéphane Dion needs more endorsements from a wide variety of stakeholders for carbon tax to fly.

The Western premiers conference gave rise to several stories:

• 2008/05/30: CBC: Western premiers back carbon-capture plan - Agreement on how to battle greenhouse gases doesn't include carbon tax
• 2008/05/30: G&M: Premiers bypass Ottawa on U.S. Arctic policies
• 2008/05/28: NatPo: Divisions over climate change loom at [3 day Prince Albert] Western [province] meeting - Stelmach, Wall are isolated on global warming

  The Tories are continuing their biofuel plan:

• 2008/05/30: G&M: A lobby machine that runs on ethanol
• 2008/05/29: CanWest: Bill lets Ottawa require biofuels in gasoline
  Aim is to boost production capacity by demanding gas contain five per cent renewable fuel content by 2010
• 2008/05/26: TStar: Ethanol bill needs rethink

  What do you suppose Baird will say when US policy changes?

• 2008/05/29: BBerg: Canada's Baird Says EU Climate Change Plan Lacks U.S. Backing

  BC is still wrangling over their climate plan:

• 2008/05/29: CBC: Victoria group to pool rebate to combat climate change
  At the end of June, every B.C. resident will receive a $100 Climate Action Dividend from the provincial government, which aims to encourage British Columbians to adopt a greener lifestyle...
• 2008/05/29: CanWest: Campbell evasive about his pricey climate secretariat
• 2008/05/29: CBC: [BC] Carbon tax and election spending bills to be pushed through by end of Thursday
• 2008/05/28: CanWest: Industry wants more carbon tax cash - Leaders say B.C. levy starting July 1 detrimental to business
  Facing a half-billion-dollar hit from British Columbia's looming new carbon tax, the province's major industrial players are banding together in hopes of convincing the government to return more of the revenue-neutral tax to corporations. Representatives from the mining, cement, forestry and smelting industries will travel Friday to Victoria for the latest in a series of meetings with the province's climate-change secretariat.

The tricky & difficult question of the tar sands looms:

• 2008/05/27: PRWatch: Duck and Cover [tarsands]
• 2008/05/30: EdSun: Oil rumblings ahead of U.S. election [dirty tarsands oil & ctax]
• 2008/05/28: OilChange: WWF Says Halt Canadian Oil Sale
• 2008/05/27: ClimateP: Time gushes over boys with toys

  And then there is the miscellaneous Canadiana:

• 2008/06/01: CanWest: Climate change is hot topic at meeting of municipalities
  Layton attacks Tories for cutting corporate taxes instead of channelling money into public transit
• 2008/05/31: LFPress: Quebec, Ontario to talk details [of an interprovincial carbon trading system aimed at reducing greenhouse gases]
• 2008/05/30: CanWest: Climate policies mustn't hurt economy: PM - Harper calls for increased use of nuclear power as green alternative
• 2008/05/29: CanWest: NDP unveils environmental policy - Party opposes carbon tax supported by Liberals and Greens
• 2008/05/28: BuckDog: The NDP's Cap and Trade Plan - Now We're Talking!
• 2008/05/26: POGGE: If the only tool you have is a hammer...[Pembina poll]
• 2008/05/25: BuckDog: Elizabeth May Lets Multi-Nationals Off The Hook With Windfall Oil Profits - Joins With Libs To Tax Average Canadians!
• 2008/05/26: CBC: Nuclear location decision expected next month [Ontario]

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

• 2008/05/29: MongaBay: Environmental damage costs $4.8 trillion annually
• 2008/05/29: FTimes: Uncomfortable truths for a new world of them and us
• 2008/05/30: NakedCapitalism: From Imperialists to Third World?
• 2008/05/29: BBC: Nature loss 'to hurt global poor'
  Damage to forests, rivers, marine life and other aspects of nature could halve living standards for the world's poor, a major report has concluded. Current rates of natural decline might reduce global GDP by about 7% by 2050. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) review is modelled on the Stern Review of climate change. It will be released at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting in Bonn, where 60 leaders have pledged to halt deforestation by 2020.
• 2008/05/29: AFP: Ecosystem damage costs trillions per year: study ["The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity"]
• 2008/05/27: EconView: Socially Unacceptable Externalities
• 2008/05/27: TreeHugger: Peak Everything: Eight Things We Are Running Out Of And Why

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

• 2008/05/29: DeSmogBlog: Book cites population growth as key driver of global warming

  Apocalypso anyone?

• 2008/05/29: GristMill: Green skies are the new black - Two scientists offer a grim preview of where humanity is headed
• 2008/05/26: EnergyBulletin: North America's Amish community: least likely to be devastated by collapse

  As for how the media handles the science of climatology:

• 2008/05/26: BtP: Non Action on Global Warming: Can We Make NYT Reporters read the NYT?

  Here is something for your library:

• 2008/05/: WWI: [Book Plug] _More: Population, Nature, and What Women Want_ by Robert Engelman

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

• 2008/06/01: PeakEnergy: Green Crude [algae, Sapphire]
• 2008/06/01: PeakEnergy: Newsweek: The Coming Energy Wars
• 2008/06/01: PeakEnergy: An Interview with Hermann Scheer
• 2008/06/01: AutoBG: Former Saudi Aramco executive says oil reserves claims wrong
• 2008/05/31: ABC(Au): Company scraps wind farm plans [along the Molonglo Ridge, south-east of Queanbeyan]
• 2008/05/29: FuturePundit: Big Oil Producers Cut Exports In 2007
• 2008/05/29: EnvFin: Wind power firms predict five-fold growth over the next decade
• 2008/05/31: CCurrents: How The Oil Crisis Has Hit The World
• 2008/05/29: DerSpiegel: Europe's Energy Crisis - Skyrocketing Oil Prices Threaten Prosperity
• 2008/05/31: Independent(UK): Shocked! How the oil crisis has hit the world
• 2008/05/30: CNN: How to harvest solar power? Beam it down from space!
  Concept to beam solar power from satellites gains new global momentum - Massive satellites would beam solar energy back to ground-based receivers - Pentagon study says could be used for military operations, developing nations
• 2008/05/30: ABC(Au): Geothermal energy prospects heat up
• 2008/05/30: NEN: Milestone for tide energy
• 2008/05/30: PeakEnergy: GeoDynamics Update [geothermal]
• 2008/05/30: PeakEnergy: Smaller And Smarter
• 2008/05/30: NakedCapitalism: Doubts About Oil Demand
• 2008/05/29: EnergyBulletin: The peak oil crisis: speculation, subsidies & megacities
• 2008/05/29: TheBigPicture: Oil Exporters Are Unable To Keep Up With Demand
• 2008/05/28: TreeHugger: Norwegian Wind Power Could Become Europe's Battery
• 2008/05/27: HindustanTimes: Russia worried as oil production slides
• 2008/05/28: NEN: Wind goes to work for South Africa
• 2008/05/15: TheInquisitiveMind: The New Peak Oil: Peak Demand
• 2008/05/27: ABC(Au): Rising oil prices push consumers off-grid
• 2008/05/26: PhysOrg: Scalable wind turbine might fit on your roof
• 2008/05/27: EnergyDaily: USA Geothermal Forms Exploration Joint Venture In Nevada
• 2008/05/26: OilDrum: What If Gas Cost $100 a Gallon?
• 2008/05/27: WSJ:EnvCap: Premium Juice: Power-Plant Construction Costs Rise
• 2008/05/27: CSM: Fuel prices' toll on U.S. economy -- A $10 increase in the price of a barrel of oil can lower GDP by about 0.2 percent
• 2008/05/27: Cryptome: China Vehicle Fuel Shortage - gas and diesel oil is very low
• 2008/05/27: NakedCapitalism: Soros: Skyrocketing Oil Prices a Bubble
• 2008/05/23: Scitizen: Will the Rate-of-Conversion Problem Derail Alternative Energy?
• 2008/05/26: PeakEnergy: Engineered Geothermal Power
• 2008/05/25: Telegraph(UK): $100-plus oil will be here for years as China motors ahead
• 2008/05/25: TheAge: Bad oil on new crisis: this is only round one
• 2008/05/25: Guardian(UK): IEA probes fears that oil will run out - Inquiry will examine 'narrow margin' in 2012
• 2008/05/25: DallasNews: T. Boone Pickens' prediction: Oil production is reaching its peak

  Yes, we have a new cold fusion report:

• 2008/05/27: PhysOrg: Physicist Claims First Real Demonstration of Cold Fusion
• 2008/05/23: PhysicsWorld: Cold-fusion demonstration "a success"
• 2008/05/24: GizMondo: Scientist Creates Cold Fusion For the First Time In Decades
• 2008/05/26: BCLSB: And Yoshiaki Arata Shall Save Us All...

  Meanwhile among the solar afficionados:

• 2008/05/28: FuturePundit: Titanium Oxide Crystals For Photovoltaics
• 2008/05/31: PeakEnergy: Elon Musk: Most Of World's Power from Solar By 2040
• 2008/05/29: EnvFin: Masdar plunges $2 billion into solar PV market
• 2008/05/29: NEN: France to grow solar big and fast
• 2008/05/29: ABC(Au): UQ makes solar-power 'breakthrough' [growing titanium oxide crystals, but commercially availability is up to 10 years away]
• 2008/05/25: CanWest: Bet on Moore's Law to capture sunshine and change our world
• 2008/05/28: NEN: Moore's law and solar growth
• 2008/05/26: Eureka: Researchers demonstrate 'avalanche effect' in solar cells
• 2008/05/27: NEN: Solar for Canada's economy
• 2008/05/27: PeakEnergy: What Do Google, Chevron and Goldman Sachs have in common? [CSP]
• 2008/05/27: AfterGutenberg: Lead Selenide Nano Crystals
• 2008/05/26: PhysOrg: Researchers demonstrate 'avalanche effect' in solar cells
• 2008/05/26: GristMill: Solar land use: less than coal - Nevada Solar one is a better and smaller neighbor than a coal mine
• 2008/05/26: NEN: Duke buys more sun [16 megawatts in North Carolina]
• 2008/05/23: BBerg: Google, Chevron Build Mirrors in Desert to Beat Coal With Solar
  Along a dusty two-lane highway in California's Mojave Desert, 550,000 mirrors point skyward to make steam for electricity. Google Inc., Chevron Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are betting this energy will become cheaper than coal.

The arithmetic of coal carbon is striking home:

• 2008/05/30: GristMill: Leaving behind coal codependence - Humanity's fate is not tied to coal's
• 2008/05/30: GristMill: Coal: looks kinda hot, but only because America is wearing beer goggles - Heinberg raises doubts about coal reserves
• 2008/05/29: QuarkSoup: NY Times on Coal
• 2008/05/30: DeSmogBlog: Clean Coal's Costs Put It On Life Support!
• 2008/05/30: NYT: Mounting Costs Slow the Push for Clean Coal
• 2008/05/28: GristMill: Coal in Europe - The enemy of the human race is set to wipe out Europe's meager emissions gains
• 2008/05/28: WSJ:EnvCap: Clean Coal: Hype or Hard Slog?
• 2008/05/27: GristMill: Lobbying for the enemy of the human race

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2008/05/31: AutoBG: Biofuels to make up 3 percent of Latin America's energy needs [by 2018]
• 2008/05/30: GristMill: Slave ethanol? Amnesty International: forced labor in Brazil's sugarcane fields
• 2008/05/26: FuturePundit: Tad Patzek Interview On Biomass Energy Problems
• 2008/05/28: PRWatch: GMA [Grocery Manufacturers Association] Is Fueling the Ethanol Backlash
• 2008/05/27: GristMill: Gonna wash that orangutan right out of my hair - New website shows which shampoos, foods kill lovable primates
• 2008/05/27: BBerg: U.S. Ethanol Isn't Up to Brazilian Smackdown
• 2008/05/27: Eureka: Some biofuels might do more harm than good to the environment, study finds
• 2008/05/27: IaState: Iowa State researchers use fungus to improve corn-to-ethanol process
• 2008/05/26: AfterGutenberg: Verified Sustainable Ethanol
• 2008/05/27: NewsTrib: [Washington] State biodiesel plant struggles - Grays Harbor facility delays expansion
• 2008/05/26: PhysOrg: Rice in your gas tank: Boosting biofuel production from rice straw
• 2008/05/24: ArsTechnica: Biofuels: moving beyond food crops

  Amory Lovins put his finger on a vital nuclear fact:

• 2008/05/30: WorldChanging: Missing the Market Meltdown
  Capitalists have already scuttled Patrick Moore's claimed nuclear revival. New U.S. subsidies of about $13 billion per plant (roughly a plant's capital cost) haven't lured Wall Street to invest. Instead, the decentralized competitors to nuclear power that Moore derides are making more global electricity than nuclear plants are, and are growing 20 to 40 times faster.
  In 2007, decentralized renewables worldwide attracted $71 billion in private capital. Nuclear got zero. Why? Economics.

Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

• 2008/05/28: NEN: IEA on Oil: Yikes!

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2008/06/01: TreeHugger: It's The Efficiency, Stupid: New York Times Gets It Right This Time
• 2008/05/31: PeakEnergy: Are We Smart Enough To Break the Efficiency Gridlock?
• 2008/05/30: SlashDot: DoE Announces 'L Prize' For Solid-State Lighting

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

• 2008/05/28: TreeHugger: New Car by Hybrid Technologies: 220+ MPG, Hybrid and Electric Versions
• 2008/05/27: TreeHugger: Toyota Prius Hybrid: 1 Million Served
• 2008/05/27: AutoBG: Meeting new CAFE regs will cost Detroit double what it costs the Japanese
• 2008/05/27: AutoBG: Should Lamborghini get an exemption from emissions standards?
• 2008/05/27: AutoBG: Toyota announces plans for new NiMH battery plant
• 2008/05/27: AfterGutenberg: Unidirectional carbon fiber
• 2008/05/26: AutoBG: No $30K Chevy Volt without Congress' help

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2008/06/01: JEB: Corbyn's May forecast
• 2008/05/27: PRWatch: Coal Front Group Feels the Heat
• 2008/05/30: ClimateP: Krauthammer's strange denier talk points, Part 1: Newton's laws were "overthrown"
• 2008/05/30: BSD: Debating against climate dishonesty
• 2008/05/30: MTobis: Vaclav Klaus's Error
• 2008/05/30: Deltoid: Roy Spencer says that if you don't admit that environmentalists are guilty of genocide then you are like a Holocaust denier
• 2008/05/29: QuarkSoup: Henry Payne
• 2008/05/28: QuarkSoup: Exactly backwards
• 2008/05/27: IWeek: Global Warming Skeptics Plot 'Carbon Belch Day'
• 2008/05/26: DeSmogBlog: Fred Singer's Nobel Prize Winning Sham
• 2008/05/25: ClimateP: Freeman Dyson and his amazing, incredible "genetically engineered carbon-eating trees"

  The Exxon shareholder's meeting gave rise to several stories:

• 2008/05/29: EnvFin: Exxon resists challenges on climate, governance
• 2008/05/29: WaPo: Rebuffing The Rockefellers
• 2008/05/28: FinPo: Exxon Mobil CEO takes aim at environmentalists
• 2008/05/28: Guardian(UK): Exxon to cut funding to climate change denial groups [again]
• 2008/05/28: Guardian(UK): Exxon shareholders fail to show strong support for green mandates
• 2008/05/29: Guardian(UK): Exxon investors reject green initiatives
• 2008/05/27: CNN: Exxon investors nix Rockefeller proposals
  Push to split chairman and CEO roles and make the energy heavyweight more environmentally friendly is defeated.
• 2008/05/28: Deltoid: Exxon stops funding misrepresentation of global warming science. Again.
• 2008/05/27: DeSmogBlog: Is Exxon backing away from climate change deniers?
• 2008/05/23: Reuters: Exxon again cuts funds for climate change skeptics
• 2008/05/27: GP:ExxonSecrets: Exxon finally admits denialists cause problems
• 2008/05/28: OilChange: Exxon Admits Sceptics "Divert Attention" from Action on Climate
• 2008/05/27: MTobis: Change at Exxon

  Joe has put his finger on a vital factor driving much denial:

• 2008/06/01: ClimateP: Krauthammer, Part 2: The real reason conservatives don't believe in climate science
  [...] Most conservatives cannot abide the solution to global warming -- strong government regulations and a government-led effort to accelerate clean energy technologies into the market.

Then there was the usual news and commentary:

• 2008/05/30: Stoat: Interesting times
• 2008/05/30: Guardian(UK): 'False optimism' climate warning
• 2008/05/28: MTobis: Better Explanations?
• 2008/05/28: NatureCF: Google Earth warms
• 2008/05/19: Wired:Sci: Counterpoint: Dangers of Focusing Solely on Climate Change
• 2008/05/19: Wired:Sci: Inconvenient Truths: Get Ready to Rethink What It Means to Be Green
• 2008/05/28: WorldChanging: The Real Green Heretics
• 2008/05/27: C411: New Report: Staggering Cost of Doing Nothing
• 2008/05/27: AutoBG: Flintstones arrested at EU protest over CO2 regulations
• 2008/05/27: Guardian(UK): We have gone mad, Your Majesty, and only you can cure our affliction - An open letter to King Abdaullah of Saudi Arabia from George Monbiot
• 2008/05/26: ENN: Study Cites High Cost of Global Warming, Says Action Would Be Cheaper
• 2008/05/25: WaPo: Wake Up, America. We're Driving Toward Disaster. [Kunstler]
• 2008/05/25: EnergyBulletin: Co-founder of sustainable design movement illuminates our uncertain futures

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

• Wiki: United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
• IFAP: International Federation of Agricultural Producers
• UN: United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
• L-Prize - Bright Tomorrow Lighting Prizes
• Grass Fire - Real Impact Online
• CBD: Convention on Biological Diversity
• RAN: The Problem with Palm Oil
• NSIDC: Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis
• NOAA: TAFB Forecasts
• Future Scenarios
• CTW: Carbon Trade Watch
• PEARL: Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Laboratory
• Stefan Rahmstorf - List of Publications
• GCI: Global Commons Institute
• EDGAR: Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research

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.

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

"You can lie to me and you can lie to yourself, but you can't lie to mother nature." -Khalihari

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