Another Week of GW News, October 5, 2008

By illconsidered on October 6, 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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October 5, 2008

Top Stories:Ecuador, Google, Energy Plan, Ocean Acidification, Bailout, Hadley, Sunspots, Melting Arctic
Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production
Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperature Record, Paleoclimate, Sea Levels, Satellites
Impacts, Forests, Brazil & Amazon, Floods & Droughts
Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Adaptation
Journals, Misc. Science
Kyoto-2, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
Politics:International, America, Britain, Europe, Australia, Vietnam, China, Canada
Ecological Economics, Apocalypso, Media, Books
Energy, Hurricane & Cost Impacts, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Efficiency, Cars, Business, Greenwashing
Carbon Lobby, The Usual, Useful Links
Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

In the Atlantic, Kyle and Laura made a fuss, but otherwise it was mainly cleaning up & counting the dead:

2008/10/04: PhysOrg: Beaches once thick with birds quiet thanks to Ike
2008/10/04: Wunderground: Western Caribbean disturbance moving over the Yucatan
2008/10/03: CDreams: Ike: The Silent Storm
[...] In the dark of the night 45, 000 homes were destroyed and millions of residents lost electricity, water, and roofs. Then Ike turned north, leaving hundreds of thousands more Americans without power in a 200 mile wide swath from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes. [...] The Media was not allowed to film people being rescued from rooftops in Texas. They were prohibited from flying over the small towns and beaches isolated by flooding and decimated by the hurricane. Local press raged about the conditions, then fell silent in a game of play-nice hoping to be allowed at least limited access. Not once did the national press report this suspension of the first amendment. The sound of black hawk helicopters could be heard for miles.
2008/10/04: BBC: 793 people in Haiti were killed in four major storms which devastated the country in August and September, officials have said
2008/10/03: Wunderground: Western Caribbean disturbance flares up
2008/10/02: CNN: 300 people still missing since Ike hit Texas
First organized search to take place about three weeks after storm hit - Desperate family, friends frustrated with search delay, lack of information - Pastor says destroyed town riddled with unsearched piles of debris - Woman can't rest until she hears or sees her sister, two young nephews
2008/10/01: Wunderground: Laura dying; tropics look quiet
2008/09/28: HoustonChronicle: Two weeks after Ike, more than 400 are still missing
2008/09/30: Wunderground: Laura headed north; Western Caribbean worth watching
2008/09/29: Wunderground: Kyle pulls its punch; Laura forms
2008/09/29: BBC: Rare hurricane hits east Canada
Hurricane Kyle has made landfall in eastern Canada, the country's hurricane service reports. It struck near Yarmouth on the southern tip of Nova Scotia province, before being downgraded to a tropical storm. There are no reports of damages.

While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

2008/10/02: Wunderground: October hurricane season outlook
2008/10/01: TerraDaily: Busy October hurricane period is forecast
2008/10/01: CSM: Slow recovery for Burma's cyclone victims -- Aid trickles in, but locals struggle to find food before winter's harvest
2008/10/01: AFP: October hurricane-watch should be active: forecasters
Meanwhile GHGs are still going up:
2008/10/02: EnvFin: [Spanish oil and gas company] Repsol's emissions rise as production increases
2008/10/02: PhysOrg: Emissions rising faster this decade than last
2008/09/26: CSIRO: Emissions rising faster this decade than last
The latest figures on the global carbon budget to be released in Washington and Paris today indicate a four-fold increase in growth rate of human-generated carbon dioxide emissions since 2000
2008/09/30: TerraDaily: Growth In The Global Carbon Budget
2008/09/29: C411: Carbon Dioxide Emissions Up 3 Percent in 2007
As for the temperature record:
2008/09/29: ABC(Au): Europe warming faster than world average: study
2008/09/29: DotEarth: Europe Is Getting Warmer Faster, Report Says
While in the paleoclimate:
2008/10/03: Eureka: Gas from the past gives scientists new insights into climate and the oceans
2008/09/30: Eureka: Canada's shores saved animals from devastating climate change -- University of Calgary researchers solve mystery of massive global extinction event 252 million years ago
2008/09/30: Kiel: The green Sahara, a desert in bloom
Sea levels are rising:
2008/10/05: News(Au): Sinking Tuvualu wants our help as ocean levels rise
2008/10/01: PeakEnergy: Australia urged to evacuate sinking Pacific islands
Meanwhile in near earth orbit:
2008/09/30: PhysOrg: An accurate picture of ice loss in Greenland [GRACE]
2008/09/30: Delft: An accurate picture of ice loss in Greenland [GRACE]
2008/09/30: BBC: Virgin Galactic is to look at carrying scientific instruments on board one of its space tourism vehicles to gather data on climate change
More GW impacts are being seen:
2008/10/03: SciAm: Climate change may be sparking new and bigger "dead zones" -- Climate change seems to be starving some waters of oxygen
2008/10/02: EurActiv: Study highlights 'massive health savings' of stricter climate policies
2008/10/01: PhysOrg: Experts warn species in peril from climate change
Climate change threatens to kill off up to a third of the planet's species by the end of the century if urgent action isn't taken to restore fragile ecosystems, protect endangered animals and manage growth, scientists warned Wednesday as a wildlife summit opened.
2008/10/01: NewsTrib: High mountain meadows at Rainier melt away -- Warming trend encourages tree invasion
2008/09/29: TerraDaily: Climate change: Floods, drought, mosquito disease aim at Europe
2008/09/29: Reuters: Ocean "dead zones" spread, fish more at risk: study
2008/09/29: PhysOrg: Climate change: Floods, drought, mosquito disease aim at Europe
2008/09/29: PhysOrg: Climate Change Alters Base of Tahoe Food Web
UC Davis researchers at Lake Tahoe this week published the first evidence that climate change alters the makeup of tiny plant communities called algae, which are the very foundation of the web of life in freshwater lakes. Other scientists had predicted that climate change would reduce the overall amount, or biovolume, of an important algae group called diatoms. However, the UC Davis researchers found that the warming of the lake changed not the overall biovolume but rather the relative populations of various diatom species.
2008/09/29: ENN: Cool Summer, Warm Future: Extreme Heat Days Increase For Southern California
2008/09/29: SciDaily: Warming Of 4 Degrees Celsius Depressed Plant Growth And Reduced Land Carbon Absorption
2008/09/29: SciDaily: Cool Summer, Warm Future: Extreme Heat Days Increase For Southern California
2008/09/28: Reuters: Europe warms fast: Med drier, north ever wetter
And then there are the world's forests:
2008/10/01: GristMill: Amazon deforestation surges -- Bad news for climate change
2008/10/01: PeakEnergy: The Arc Of Deforestation
Brazil had a Pogo moment:
2008/10/03: CSM: Brazil's worst logger: the government? A new governmental report lists Brazil's land reform agency as the biggest culprit for illegal logging of Amazon rain forests
2008/09/29: CNN: Amazon forest destruction speeding up, officials say
Brazil officials say 292 square miles of Amazon forest was destroyed in August - That's more than three times the area destroyed in August 2007 - Deforestation rate had been slowing down in previous three years
2008/09/30: NatureTGB: Brazil has met the Amazon's enemy...
2008/09/30: ABC(Au): Brazil names Amazon's worst illegal loggers
Brazil's Environment Department has released a list of the country's 100 worst illegal loggers as deforestation in the Amazon continues to increase. Minister Carlos Minc says he will take legal action against all 100 illegal loggers cited in his department's report. At the top of that list, however, is another Brazilian government department, the Institute of Colonisation and Agrarian Reform, known as INCRA.
2008/09/30: TreeHugger: The Enemy is Ourselves: Worst Illegal Amazonian Loggers Revealed by Brazilian Environment Minister
2008/09/30: BBC: Brazil government 'worst logger'
Brazil's government has been named as the worst illegal logger of Amazon forests by one of its own departments. The Environment Ministry has drawn up a list of the 100 worst offenders and says all of them will be charged. Topping the list was the Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra), a government department which distributes land to the poor. The revelation came after an official report revealed that deforestation in the Amazon region was gathering pace. The six largest deforested areas since 2005 all belonged to Incra, Environment Minister Carlos Minc said. In total 550,000 acres of the world's largest rainforest was destroyed on those six properties. Greenpeace has accused Incra officials of illegally handing over rainforest to logging companies and creating fake settlements to skirt environmental regulations. But Incra's president, Rolf Hackbart, said all the areas cited by Mr Minc as being deforested by his department were areas legally settled between 1995 and 2002.

As for hydrological cycle disruption [floods & droughts]:

2008/10/05: Guardian(UK): Britain's rivers could run dry -- Flows in Severn and Mersey might drop by up to 80 per cent by 2050, experts warn
2008/10/04: CBC: 9 killed in Nicaragua flooding -- Victims swept away in swollen rivers
2008/10/03: EarthTimes: Rain leaves 10 dead, great damage in Nicaragua
2008/10/02: CBC: Sahara floods kill 30 in Algeria
2008/10/02: WpgSun: Flash floods cause deaths in Algerian Sahara -- 29 die, dozens hurt in flash floods driven by heavy rains
2008/09/30: TerraDaily: Nine dead in Vietnam floods: report
2008/09/29: Eureka: Water table depth tied to droughts -- Will there be another "dust bowl" in the Great Plains similar to the one that swept the region in the 1930s?
Elsewhere on the mitigation front:
2008/10/01: Eureka: Green coffee-growing practices buffer climate-change impacts
Consider transportation & GHG production:
2008/10/01: CanWest: Not since 1999 have Canadians driven so little
2008/10/01: AutoBG: Americans continue to drive less for 9th straight month
While in the endless quest for sustainable building codes:
2008/10/01: SacBee: Governor [Arnold Schwarzenegger] signs anti-sprawl bill
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a landmark bill Tuesday to discourage sprawl in future decades, completing a deal among environmentalists, homebuilders and local governments on the final day of bill signing. Senate Bill 375, by Democratic Sen. Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento, will push California communities to consider climate change impacts of development in regional planning, with an emphasis on reducing car travel. Environmentalists and other proponents feared the bill was in trouble as Schwarzenegger officials raised transportation and business concerns last week. But the Republican governor ultimately embraced SB 375 as a "first in the nation" effort to link land-use planning and greenhouse-gas reductions.
2008/10/01: WSJ:EnvCap: Hasta la Vista, Sprawl: California Passes "Smart Growth" Bill
As for carbon sequestration:
2008/10/02: NGEB: Carbon capture and storage is an end-of-pipe dream
2008/10/01: EnergyBulletin: Delay and Fail
2008/09/29: ClimateP: Is coal with carbon capture and storage a core climate solution?
A CO2 scrubbing technique looks promising until one checks the fine print:
2008/09/30: CBC: Calgary team shows how to scrub CO2 from the air
2008/09/29: FuturePundit: Low Cost Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Removal Looks Possible[pulled from a comment by Bruce Dunn - het]
The research group has investigated capturing CO2 using a solution of sodium hydroxide and a reaction tower. The sodium hydroxide is either sprayed into the air, or trickled over a packing, while air is moved through the column with fans. The quoted 100 KWhr of electricity to capture 1 ton of CO2 is only the electricity needed to power the fans and pumps to run the tower. The resulting sodium carbonate solution must then be regenerated to NaOH with the release of CO2. This is the real energy intensive phase. They have examined reactions involving either CaOH or a sodium tri-titanate. Either reaction sequence involves heating solid chemicals to about 850 C and then adding large amounts of energy at that temperature to release the CO2. Their estimate of energy requirements for the sodium tri-titanate procedure is 3 GJ per ton of CO2, which translates into an additional 833 KWhr (note however that this is thermal energy, not electricity). Finally, energy is required to compress CO2 and move it to wherever it is to be stored underground.
2008/09/30: SciDaily: Global Warming Fix? Carbon Dioxide Captured Directly From Air With Simple Machine
2008/09/29: Eureka: Carbon dioxide 'scrubber' captures greenhouse gases [directly from the air]
Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:
2008/10/03: ERW: Geoengineering: a real solution to the climate change problem?
2008/10/03: GGE: UN General Assembly moving to constrain research on Ocean Iron Fertilization [OIF]
While on the adaptation front:
2008/09/30: BBC: To what climate are we adapting?
Moves to adapt our society for a changing climate may have focused rather too much on long-term scenarios and not enough on how to cope with weather and short-term variability, argues Mike Hulme. He says the past two British summers show the dangers of this overemphasis on laudable long-sightedness.

Meanwhile in the journals:

2008/10/02: ACP: Direct SW aerosol radiative forcing over Portugal by D. Santos et al.
2008/10/02: ACPD: Exploring the relation between aerosol optical depth and PM2.5 at Cabauw, the Netherlands by M. Schaap et al.
2008/10/01: CPD: Two millennia of climate variability in the Central Mediterranean by C. Taricco et al.
2008/10/01: CPD: Strong asymmetry of hemispheric climates during MIS-13 inferred from correlating China loess and Antarctica ice records by Z. T. Guo et al.
2008/10/01: CPD: A nonlinear method for detecting climate mutation: a case study for summer climate change in China by S. Q. Wan et al.
2008/09/29: CPD: Exploring the climatic impact of the continental vegetation on the Mezosoic atmospheric CO2 and climate history by Y. Donnadieu et al.
2008/10/01: TC: Landsat-derived glacier inventory for Jotunheimen, Norway, and deduced glacier changes since the 1930s by L. M. Andreassen et al.
2008/09/29: ACP: Effects of urban pollution on UV spectral irradiances by R. L. McKenzie et al.
2008/09/30: ACPD: Intensification of tropical cyclones in the GFS model by J. C. MarÃn et al.
2008/09/29: ACPD: Severe ozone air pollution in the Persian Gulf region by J. Lelieveld et al.
2008/09/29: ACPD: Large surface radiative forcing from surface-based ice crystal events measured in the High Arctic at Eureka by G. Lesins et al.
2008/09/30: PNAS: Opening the climate envelope reveals no macroscale associations with climate in European birds by Colin M. Beale et al.
2008/09/30: PNAS: The "fire stick farming" hypothesis: Australian Aboriginal foraging strategies, biodiversity, and anthropogenic fire mosaics by R. Bliege Bird et al.
Before we get into politics, there was some science done:
2008/10/03: PhysOrg: Discovery of a type of aerosols from Sahara [iberulite] which will be useful to study climate change
Meanwhile on the Kyoto-2 front:
2008/10/03: Guardian(UK): How to make the cap fit
The UN meeting at Copenhagen next year should focus on limiting the carbon emissions from a single sector first - the power producers

And on the carbon trading front:

2008/09/27: CBC:Q&Q: The Quirks & Quarks Carbon Quiz -- Carbon Pricing
The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:
2008/09/30: WSJ:EnvCap: Emissions Impossible: Norway Taxes Carbon, Emissions Rise
2008/09/30: EnvEcon: The tax simply isn't high enough
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:
2008/10/02: TreeHugger: Why Pricing Carbon Isn't Enough
2008/09/29: WSJ:EnvCap: Capping Carbon: Northeast Utilities Pay to Pollute, But Does That Matter?
While on the international political front:
2008/09/29: DailyIndia: EU, India reiterate commitment to cooperate on energy, clean development and climate change
And on the American political front:
2008/10/04: ClimateP: Moderate Senate Dems build 'Gang of 16? to influence cap-and-trade bill
2008/10/03: ENN: Houston [City] taking on global warming
2008/10/03: GristMill: Train check -- $13 billion Amtrak bill heads to Bush's desk
2008/10/03: GristMill: A principled approach -- 152 reps call for future climate bills to be strong and fair
2008/10/03: LA Times: A charged debate over [California] Prop. 7 renewable energy plan
The measure would require utilities in the state to get half their power from renewable energy by 2025. Foes say it would actually hamper electricity production from alternate sources.
2008/10/02: TP:WonkRoom: [US] Representatives Announce Legislative Principles To 'Save The Planet From Calamitous Global Warming'
2008/10/02: NatureTGB: [Conrad Lautenbacher,] Head of US climate agency [NOAA] announces resignation
2008/10/02: ClimateP: Cheney still pushing hard to gut our energy and environmental regulations
2008/10/02: ClimateP: U.S. Conference of Mayors' Green Jobs report: 4.2 million new green jobs possible
2008/10/02: CSM: States lead on scrubbing carbon -- Their efforts may be timid, but they show enterprise compared to Washington.
2008/10/01: ClimateP: Senate adds energy tax package to bailout bill
2008/10/01: GristMill: The tail wagging the Blue Dogs -- Senate adds renewable-energy tax credits to bailout, to chagrin of moderate House Dems
2008/10/01: GristMill: Show-me the renewables -- Missourians to vote on renewable energy ballot initiative in November
2008/10/01: HillHeat: Senate Tacks Tax Extenders Onto Bailout Bill
2008/10/01: ENN: Cali. Governor signs laws on sprawl and water supplies but vetoes smog-fighting port cargo fee
2008/09/30: ClimateP: Hope fading for tax extenders - Baucus
2008/09/29: GristMill: Lame duck and cover -- Congress still hasn't resolved their issues on renewable tax credit extensions
2008/09/30: CSW: Inspectors General Reform Act strengthens federal agency watchdogs
2008/09/30: CSW: Sierra: On staffing to restore integrity to the environmental and public lands agencies
2008/09/30: LA Times: The green bubble bursts -- Amid the energy crisis, Democrats are losing the high ground on the environment to a GOP that is pushing oil drilling
2008/09/29: GristMill: You know the drill -- Congress looks set to let offshore and oil shale moratoriums expire
2008/09/29: HillHeat: Fate Of Renewable Tax Credits Still In Doubt
2008/09/27: PostIndependent: Dems fail to extend oil shale moratorium -- Effort to prohibit BLM from issuing final regulations stalls
2008/09/29: SF Gate: California took on energy crisis, now it faces water crisis
2008/09/29: NGE: Lipstick on an energy pig
One hears a lot about the campaigns, not so much about their climate & energy policies:
2008/10/03: ENN: Does climate change's cause matter? Not to Palin
2008/10/03: CCC: US presidential race: Is there a green candidate?
2008/09/30: IR^2: Revisiting Palin
2008/10/03: ClimateP: Is the Biden-Obama position on clean 'clean coal' a mistake?
2008/10/02: ClimateP: Palin in debate STILL gets global warming backwards and repeats Big Energy Lie twice
2008/10/03: DotEarth: Biden, Palin, CO2 Caps, 'Clean Coal'
2008/10/03: GristMill: The coal truth -- Biden questioner says 'clean coal' doesn't exist
2008/10/02: TP:WonkRoom: On Energy, Exxon Advises Palin, Palin Advises McCain
2008/10/02: CNN: Palin to play ball with Big Oil
2008/10/01: GreenPeace: Sarah Palin, Polar Bears and Exxon Junk Science
2008/10/02: CSW: In V-P debate, ask Biden and Palin for science and policy views on human-driven global warming
2008/10/02: TreeHugger: Note to Sarah Palin: The Cause of Global Warming Does Matter
2008/09/30: DeSmogBlog: Sarah Palin puts polar bears on thin ice
2008/09/30: Guardian(UK): Palin fought safeguards for polar bears with studies by climate change sceptics
2008/10/02: Guardian(UK): Revealed: oil-funded research in Palin's campaign against protection for polar bear
Paper authored by known climate change sceptics - Governor suing over threatened species ruling
2008/10/01: ClimateP: The scariest thing John McCain has ever said
2008/09/30: ClimateP: Palin on CBS: "I'm not going to solely blame all of man's activities on changes in climate." Seriously.
2008/10/01: DotEarth: Palin and Couric on Climate
2008/09/30: FactCheck: Not Coming Clean on Coal -- A McCain-Palin ad claims the Obama-Biden ticket opposes clean coal. Not true.
2008/10/01: TP:WonkRoom: McCain's Confusing Coal Criticisms
2008/10/01: TP:WonkRoom: Palin, McCain's Energy Czar: 'Weaning Ourselves' Off Of Oil By Using More
2008/10/01: ThinkP: Palin On Whether Global Warming Is Man-Made: 'Kinda Doesn't Matter'
2008/09/30: GristMill: McOops -- McCain claims U.S. has 'the world's largest oil reserves'
2008/09/29: GristMill: Prez dispenser -- A roundup of news on the presidential election
2008/09/30: TreeHugger: It's Still a Dirty Business: McCain v. Obama on Clean Coal
2008/09/29: TP:WonkRoom: McCain Confuses Coal With 'Clean Coal' In New Attack Ads
2008/09/29: GristMill: Be mine -- McCain campaign releases contrived ads promoting coal
2008/09/29: GristMill: McCain't -- Why the party that wrecked America can't fix it
2008/09/28: GristMill: The double-talk express -- In presidential debate, McCain misleads on nuclear power
The GOP has recycled Shellenberger & Norhaus:
2008/10/01: ClimateP: "We have argued for five years now that efforts to build the clean energy economy needed to be centrally defined around energy independence not global warming."
2008/09/30: ClimateP: Shellenberger and Nordhaus go after Obama by recycling GOP talking points
2008/09/30: EconView: Another Bursting Bubble?
Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenbergers say Democrats "must break once and for all from green orthodoxy"

Late comment on RGGI:

2008/10/02: CSW: Regional CO2 cap-and-trade program (RGGI) is launched: how will auction revenues be spent?
2008/09/30: EnvEcon: The RGGI price of CO2
2008/09/30: NEN: 1st emissions auction in U.S., a view of things to come
2008/09/29: NewScientist: Carbon-trading scheme gets underway in US
Late coverage of the Governator's upcoming climate conference:
2008/09/29: ENN: California invites countries to carbon cap meeting
The Gore-apalooza is still bopping along:
2008/09/28: TP:WonkRoom: Al Gore: 'Clean Coal's Like Healthy Cigarettes'
While in the UK:
2008/10/03: Guardian(UK): MPs tipped to call for greater cut in UK emissions
2008/10/02: BBC: The number of households in fuel poverty in the UK rose to 3.5 million in 2006, one million more than in 2005, government figures show
2008/10/02: BBC: UK urged to fund climate project [Kopernikus]
The UK government has been urged to fund the next stage of a major European programme to monitor the effects of global climate change from space. The trade body UKspace made the call ahead of a key ministerial meeting. Britain entered Kopernikus, the world's biggest environmental monitoring project, at a quarter of the funding level preferred by industry. UK companies are understood to have lost out on lucrative contracts as a result. The programme will combine data from state-of-the-art satellites and hundreds of other sources to provide an accurate understanding of the land, oceans and atmosphere.
2008/09/30: Guardian(UK): UK's renewable energy efforts 'ineffective' -- Britain ranked 31st of 35 in terms of cheap power
The Brown government has created a new Department for Energy and Climate Change:
2008/10/04: inel: Oil & Gas UK welcomes new Dept. for Energy and Climate Change
2008/10/03: Guardian(UK): Ed Miliband named as head of new climate and energy department
2008/10/04: Guardian(UK): Debutant Miliband brings clout to new department
2008/10/03: inel: New UK Dept. for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) under Miliband
2008/10/03: BBC: Greens welcome new climate dept
Green groups have welcomed the creation of a new energy and climate department in Gordon Brown's government reshuffle. Ed Miliband will head the new department, and will join his elder brother David around the Cabinet table. Previously, the UK's energy policy and climate strategy has been divided between two separate government teams.

While in Europe:

2008/10/01: DerSpiegel: 'They Shouldn't Act As if their Primary Concern Were Climate Protection' [German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel interview]
2008/10/03: NewScientist: Economic turmoil could scupper EU climate plans
2008/10/02: EurActiv: Brussels slaps massive fines on 'mafia' of energy majors
2008/10/01: AutoBG: France wants to phase in CO2 limits between 2012 and 2015
2008/09/30: FTimes: Pressure on for a nuclear renaissance [in Germany]
2008/09/30: EarthTimes: Big coal plant wins clearance in Germany, Greens angry
2008/09/29: NewScientist: Europe should spend now to avoid climate catastrophes
And in Australia:
2008/10/03: ABC(Au): Govt's climate change modelling 'flawed, outdated'
Senator Brown says the modelling is biased towards the fossil fuel industries. The Greens have rubbished the Federal Government's highly anticipated economic modelling on climate change. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong and Treasurer Wayne Swan yesterday released some of the Treasury Department's modelling. The figures include population, technology and trade estimates. Greens leader Bob Brown says base load solar power is ignored in favour of carbon capture and storage technology which is not yet available. "Treasury is too locked into old mould of what it thinks will be cheap oil and clean coal and neither of those are solidly foreseeable options," he said. "This is modelling is bias towards the old polluting fossil fuel industries.
2008/10/03: PeakEnergy: Can Australia Be A Green Superpower?
2008/10/01: ABC(Au): Wong promises emissions trading help
Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says the Federal Government recognises the importance of assisting heavily intensive industries under an emissions trading scheme.
2008/10/01: ABC(Au): Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett has unveiled a $3 million solar technology centre in Alice Springs
2008/09/30: RadioAustralia: Australia's emission target to be announced at year's end
Australia's climate change minister Penny Wong says the government won't announce its mid-range emission reduction target until the end of the year. Climate change advisor Professor Ross Garnaut released his final report today. He's stuck to his recommendation for an emissions cut of 10 per cent by 2020, saying that should increase to 25 per cent if international cooperation is achieved. Senator Wong has welcomed Professor Garnaut's findings, but wouldn't say if they'd be implemented.
2008/09/30: ABC(Au): Govt urged to adopt 25pc emissions cut
Greens Senator Bob Brown says the Government must push for a 25 per cent cut in its emissions and take a tougher stance on global cuts at next year's climate change meeting.
2008/09/30: ABC(Au): NSW illegally logging forests: report
The Federal Government has received a report that claims New South Wales is illegally logging river red gum forests. The National Parks Association's report on internationally recognised wetlands on the Riverina says logging has intensified since the river red gums were listed on the international Ramsar convention.
2008/09/29: ABC(Au): Survey finds [Australian] priorities shifting from environment to economy
2008/09/29: ABC(Au): Hazelwood 'not viable' under emissions trading scheme
International Power says the Hazelwood power station in the Latrobe Valley may not be viable when an emissions trading scheme is introduced.
2008/09/29: ABC(Au): Lemon powered climate change torch on way to Darwin
2008/09/29: ABC(Au): Scientists push PM for 25pc emissions cut [by 2020]
Kangaroo on the menu?
2008/10/03: ABC(Au): Eating kangaroos could reduce emissions
2008/10/02: ABC(Au): MP attacks climate change recommendations
There are claims a recommendation to slash sheep and cattle numbers by almost a third would hurt central western New South Wales region farmers. The Member for Calare says the suggestion has been made by the Federal Government's climate change adviser. Professor Ross Garnaut wants livestock numbers reduced by 30 per cent by 2020 to meet the Government's emissions target. However, the federal Nationals' MP John Cobb says Professor Garnaut does not understand agriculture.
2008/10/01: ABC(Au): Kangaroo option not serious: NFF
The National Farmers Federation (NFF) says calls for the kangaroo industry to take over other traditional sources of red meat are not a serious option in tackling climate change.
2008/10/02: ABC(Au): Roo industry supports Garnaut push for farming
The kangaroo industry says the idea for more native animals to be harvested to help respond to climate change is a vote of confidence in the sector. Professor Ross Garnaut's final report on climate change has suggested that reducing sheep and cattle numbers and replacing them with 175 million farmed kangaroos would help to dramatically reduce emissions. John Kelly from the Kangaroo Industry Association says it is a sound concept.
2008/09/29: SMH: Don't go soft on climate, PM warned
In a move that will test the Rudd Government's climate credentials, Australia's leading climate scientists have written an open letter to the Prime Minister urging him to impose deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions and back a tough global agreement that will avoid dangerous climate change. The 16 scientists, who all worked with the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, warn "there is no time to lose" and call on Mr Rudd to slash Australia's emissions by at least 25 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020. Their intervention comes on the eve of tomorrow's final report by the Government's climate change adviser, Ross Garnaut, and challenges one of his central findings. Professor Garnaut has already advised Mr Rudd to make a slower start to cutting emissions - 10 per cent by 2020 - even though he recognises the risk of weaker targets globally.
2008/09/29: SMH: Hip pocket a bigger worry than climate
Fear about the outlook for the economy and jobs have overtaken climate change as the top foreign policy concerns for Australians, according to a new poll to be released today. The Lowy Institute survey also found that 51 per cent were not confident in the Rudd Government's ability to deal with climate change and people were less convinced about the need to take immediate action to tackle the future effects of global warming. Those favouring action dropped from 68 per cent to 60 per cent. Climate change fell from the top priority in the last survey in 2006 to rank fifth this year, with the number of people listing it as very important falling from 75 per cent to 66 per cent. Protecting jobs was judged by 79 per cent to be very important, up 4 points, while strengthening the economy rose from 60 per cent to 70 per cent. "Concern over economic issues has risen at the expense of the environment," said the institute's executive director, Allan Gyngell. But when people were asked about perceived threats over the next 10 years, the top concern was the increasing scarcity of water, followed by global warming and international terrorism.

They're still wrangling over the Garnaut report:

2008/10/02: GristMill: Garnaut pain, no gain? Australia's Garnaut Report gets usual reactions from usual suspects
2008/10/02: ABC(Au): Nationals question climate change report
The New South Wales Nationals have criticised the Garnaut report on climate change, saying it is too heavily reliant on an emission trading scheme instead of agriculturally-based solutions.
2008/09/30: Forbes:AP: Australian adviser backs deep greenhouse gas cuts
2008/10/01: ABC(Au): Garnaut rejects compensation calls from electricity providers
The Federal Government's climate change adviser Ross Garnaut has rejected arguments for electricity generators to be compensated for the introduction of an emissions trading scheme. Professor Garnaut says the system would work best if all carbon permits are sold.
2008/10/01: ABC(Au): Garnaut defends scenario-based emissions cut targets
Climate change economist Ross Garnaut says he is not giving the Federal Government a 'political out' by advising it to consider several emissions reduction targets.
2008/10/01: ABC(Au): Garnaut fall-out: 'NSW must phase out coal power'
2008/10/01: ABC(Au): Welfare groups back Garnaut report plan
Welfare groups are urging the Federal Government to help low income earners make their houses more energy efficient.
2008/09/30: ABC(Au): Global emissions agreement essential: Garnaut
2008/09/30: OilDrum: Letter to Garnaut: Implications of Oil Production Decline
2008/10/01: PeakEnergy: The Biggest Loser? ...the final release of the Garnaut report...
2008/09/30: SMH: Don't be deluded: Garnaut
Australia must help craft a new international climate change deal that imposes realistic, binding commitments because "we can't afford another Kyoto", Professor Ross Garnaut says. The Federal Government's chief adviser on climate change delivers the final volume of his report to the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, at 9.30 this morning, with the warning that "I am putting a pin in the delusion" that an ambitious agreement is possible.
2008/09/30: ABC(Au): Garnaut to deliver final climate change report
While in Vietnam:
2008/09/29: ENN: Vietnam: Heeding Climate Change Warnings
And in China:
2008/10/02: NatureCF: Clouding the Blue Skies
2008/10/02: ENN: Trade and climate policies must be linked post-2012
Emissions from China's export industry are everyone's responsibility -- future trade and climate policy must be linked, says Glen Peters.

In Canada, most of the news focusses on the Oct. 14th election, with the economy garnering the most attention:

2008/10/03: DeSmogBlog: Stephen Harper's Right Hand Man [Guy Giorno] Helped Organize Anti-Kyoto Astroturf Group
2008/10/02: OilChange: Canada: The "Boring" Election that Matters
2008/10/01: TStar: Environmentalists aim to defeat Tories -- 'If you want real action on climate change, do not vote Conservative,' Greenpeace leader says
2008/09/30: TSun: Duncan disses Dion's Green Shift carbon plan
Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan inadvertently threw cold water on his federal Liberal cousin Stephane Dion's carbon tax plan yesterday. "One of the things that I think would be a mistake right now is massive shifts in tax burden at a time when there's uncertainty," Duncan said yesterday after the release of the Ontario Economic Accounts. The federal Liberal leader's Green Shift plan would tax polluters and energy users, and use the revenue to cut personal income taxes.
2008/09/30: TStar: Green leader rogue element in debates
2008/10/04: SKarr: Top climate scientist supports strategic voting
2008/09/29: DeSmogBlog: Greens back away from strategic voting - sort of
2008/09/29: CBC: Use gas tax to pay for public transit: Layton
Wrangling over the BC climate plan continues:
2008/09/30: G&M: The carbon tax has come back to haunt B.C.'s Liberals
The idea of a carbon tax to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is dying politically in the place where it was born: British Columbia. The provincial tax's growing unpopularity is threatening Liberal Premier Gordon Campbell's grip on power, while the very notion of a federal carbon tax, even if offset by lower personal income taxes, is crippling the federal Liberal Party in the province. According to a late-August survey by Angus Reid Strategies, just 19 per cent of British Columbians believe a carbon tax is the "best way to curb climate change," compared to 73 per cent who disagree. Curiously, 54 per cent think "putting a price on greenhouse emissions is a good idea." By all means act, but don't do anything to me, seems to be the prevailing view. Instead, three-quarters of British Columbians think the government should "exclusively" target large industrial emitters.

The tricky & difficult question of the tar sands looms:

2008/10/03: ChronicleHerald: Auditor slams climate change plan
Alberta's highly touted climate-change plan is based on unsupported projections and may end up wasting taxpayers' money, auditor general Fred Dunn reported Thursday. Dunn says the plan relies heavily on technology that has yet to be developed, so there's no way to know how much greenhouse-gas emissions will be reduced.
2008/10/01: G&M: Oil sands safe from U.S. law, advocates say
Environmentalists claim victory as Canadian officials fail to weaken legislation that limits Washington's fuel choices U.S. environmentalists have declared another victory in their efforts to protect legislation that threatens Canada's booming oil sands, but oil sands advocates say there is no triumph to celebrate. The legislation in question bans the U.S. government and its agencies from buying alternative fuels that produce more greenhouse gases than conventional fuels. Environmentalists have argued vociferously that this includes fuel refined from oil from the oil sands, or tar sands, as they call them.
2008/10/01: BCLSB: America Will Green Our Tar Sands
2008/09/29: OilChange: Section 526: Canadian paper wonders if its "all bark no bite?"
[...] Since it was passed nine months ago, the Canadian government has complained that Section 526 discriminates against its dirty fuel from Alberta. The Government was said to have undertaken a last-ditch effort to get Section 526 repealed in the last few weeks, but they failed.

As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

2008/10/03: CBC: Ottawa committee says no to backyard wind turbine
An Ottawa man can't erect a wind turbine in his backyard after a municipal committee refused to grant him exceptions to city bylaws that bar the device.
2008/09/30: CBC: Moncton landfill plans to convert methane gas into power
The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:
2008/10/04: CCurrents: The Killing Horizon: Capitalism At The Expense Of All Life
2008/10/02: OTF: Long-Run vs. Long-Lag -- All distant problems are not created equally.
2008/10/03: AngryBear: What's Wrong with Economic Theory as Presented to the Public?
2008/10/01: CCurrents: Food And Markets: A Crisis Of Faith
In the wake of a food crisis that gripped the media's attention during the summer of 2008, a new set of questions is beginning to surface. As analysts predict that the era of cheap resources is finally over, that the food emergency is no blip but a situation that could last indefinitely, the international community is being forced to re-examine the basic direction of world development. Could it be that the interlinked crises in food, energy and financial markets indicate the commencement of a terminal decline in the export-led, free market development model that has defined the past few decades of globalisation?
2008/09/30: PeakEnergy: Does thinking globally require unpleasant action locally?
Apocalypso anyone?
2008/10/01: WWeek: Richard Leakey -- It's the end of the world as we know it, at least, according to this paleoanthropologist-activist-amputee.
2008/09/29: CCurrents: After The Oil Crash: Evolution Of The Hill Folk
As for how the media handles the science of climatology:
2008/10/02: Guardian(UK): The battle caused by Climate Wars
Our BBC documentary was right to cover the whole debate, even if the scientific consensus is that global warming is a reality
2008/09/30: ClimateP: Why scientists aren't more persuasive, Part 1
Here is something for your library:
2008/09/29: DeSmogBlog: Canadian Science Book Crosses Boldly into Politics [Book Plug] _Keeping Our Cool_ by Dr. Andrew Weaver
Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:
2008/10/03: UN: World Bank's funding of renewable and efficient energy projects up 87 per cent
2008/10/01: IR^2: Five Reasons Oil is Headed to $250
2008/10/02: EnvFin: IEA finds renewable energy policies lacking
2008/10/03: TreeHugger: Shoshone Nation Drills Down on Geothermal Power, 100 MW Plant Planned
2008/10/02: GristMill: Step one: Subsidize us -- Business association lays out recommendations for energy policy
2008/10/01: NGE: The U.S. Faces Serious Risks of Brownouts or Blackouts in 2009, Study Warns
2008/10/01: NBF: Promising thermoelectric project goal 20% improvement in fuel efficiency for cars [boost diesel car to 57% efficiency]
2008/10/01: TreeHugger: 50% of Electricity Must Come From Renewables by 2050 to Avert Global Warming: IEA
2008/10/01: TreeHugger: Clean Tech Investing At Record High
2008/10/01: WMTW: State Experiencing Wood Pellet Shortage
2008/10/01: BBC: Wind turbines pose less of a risk to farmland birds than previously thought, a study has concluded
2008/09/30: TreeHugger: 530 Gigawatts of Geothermal Power Waits to be Tapped: US Geological Survey
2008/09/30: BBerg: Oil Drops Most in 17 Years in Quarter on Economy Woes
2008/09/30: NEN: Big boom in small wind -- Small wind turbines are big business in the U.S. and getting bigger
2008/09/30: PeakEnergy: Scottish Power to lead the surge towards tidal power
2008/09/30: WSJ:EnvCap: Big Business: U.S. Chamber of Commerce Details Energy Blueprint
2008/09/30: OilChange: IEA: "Urgent Action" Needed on Renewables
2008/09/29: NEN: Oregon looks to ocean for new energy
2008/09/29: PeakEnergy: A Nation Powered By Waves
The energy impacts of Ike & Gustav continue to be felt:
2008/10/01: Reuters: Return of US refineries slower than hoped-[US energy secretary, Sam] Bodman
2008/09/30: Reuters: Severe fuel shortage grips parts of US southeast
As for the impacts of high energy costs:
2008/10/02: BBC: The number of households in fuel poverty in the UK rose to 3.5 million in 2006, one million more than in 2005, government figures show
Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:
2008/10/02: FuturePundit: Solar Power Faces Environmentalist Opposition
2008/10/04: TreeHugger: Solar Roof Brings Vatican Closer to Becoming World's First Carbon-Neutral State
2008/10/04: IR^2: The Solar Stage is Set
2008/10/02: ClimateP: Sharp to boost thin film solar capacity 6-fold to 6000 MW by 2014, U.S. hits snooze button
2008/10/02: GreenWombat: China's solar giant [SunTech] makes U.S. move
2008/10/01: PhysOrg: Sharp Launches Mass Production of 2nd-Generation Thin-Film Solar Cells
2008/10/01: GristMill: Attention Catholics
2008/10/01: TreeHugger: SkyFuel Making Solar 25% Cheaper
2008/09/29: PhysOrg: Madagascar: solar power ends dark age for rural clinics
2008/09/30: PeakEnergy: Solar Panels In Japan
2008/09/29: PhysOrg: Solar water heaters growing in power-hungry Burkina Faso
The arithmetic of coal carbon is striking home:
2008/10/04: TreeHugger: Evidence That Taxpayer Subsidies For "Sub-Prime Coal" Not Welcome In Indiana: 'Promote Renewables First' [US energy pol]
Biofuel bickering abounds:
2008/10/04: CBC:Q&Q: Pond Scum Power
2008/10/03: PhysOrg: Which grass is greener to power the bioenergy era?
2008/10/02: Eureka: Mandate for biofuels production requires science-based policy and global perspective
2008/10/02: Eureka: Thinking it through: Scientists call for policy to guide biofuels industry toward sustainability
2008/10/02: Eureka: Experts agree: Environmental standards needed for biofuels
2008/09/30: SEFE: Biofuels surge slows in Southeast
The nuclear energy controversy continues:
2008/10/04: EnergyBulletin: Nuclear electricity: Alternating between hope and fear
2008/10/03: NatureCF: Nuclear energy: falling out of favour?
2008/09/29: PRWatch: Radioactive Grassroots
2008/09/29: NatureTGB: Agency set up to guard nuclear materials
Yes we have a peak oil sighting:
2008/10/04: EnergyBulletin: On the edge of the abyss
2008/10/03: EnergyBulletin: Peak Oil and Worldwide Economic Recession Soften Oil Prices: Lull Before the Storm
2008/10/02: IPSNews: Companies Scramble for Ever-Scarcer Resources
As humanity runs out of oil and minerals, the extraction of previously untouched deposits suddenly pays off -- financially. But experts warn that it will likely further accelerate climate change and seriously damage the environment.

And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

2008/10/03: GristMill: Very serious study of where the Titanic's deck chairs should go -- CFL study argues against a mandate to switch from incandescents
2008/10/02: KSJT: CBC, Wall St. Journal, etc: on CFLs Mercury, and public health
2008/10/02: NGEB: The first fuel
2008/10/02: NGEB: Conserving what we have
2008/10/01: TreeHugger: Toshiba Creates Better White LEDs With New Breakthrough
2008/10/01: Eureka: Are we trading energy conservation for toxic air emissions?
2008/09/30: TreeHugger: Smart Meters Hitting Everywhere - Even In Idaho
2008/09/29: ClimateP: An excellent report on energy efficiency
Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:
2008/10/03: PhysOrg: Electric vehicles spark at Paris car show
2008/10/03: AutoBG: Maxwell will bring BOOSTCAP [ultracapacitor] line to public transportation expo
2008/10/02: PhysOrg: CSIRO's UltraBattery goes global in the auto sector
2008/10/02: EconBrowser: Auto sales deteriorate further
2008/10/01: TheBigPicture: Auto Sales Tank
2008/10/01: Reuters: Auto sales plunge as credit crunch hits -- 26% drop in industry-wide auto sales
2008/10/01: CalcRisk: Ford: Sales Decline 34.6% in September
2008/10/01: CBC: Electric cars legalized in Vancouver
2008/09/29: ClimateP: Has GM overdesigned the Volt: Is a 40-mile all electric range too much?
2008/09/29: AutoBG: Chrysler: Half of all cars electric by 2020
The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:
2008/10/04: GristMill: Shortages to the left of me, shortages to the right -- Demand for green products exceeds supply
2008/10/02: EnvFin: Clean-tech venture capital bucks market -- for now
2008/10/03: ClimateP: Despite market downturn, cleantech venture investment hits record $2.6B in 3rd quarter
Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:
2008/10/01: GristMill: 'No one cares more about the environment than oil companies' -- Colbert parodies Big Oil greenwashing
2008/10/01: TP:WonkRoom: Colbert Parodies Big Oil's Greenwashing Propaganda
The carbon lobby are up to the usual:
2008/10/05: BCLSB: Not Yet FREEPED
2008/10/02: PRWatch: Coal Burners Invest in Environmental Journalism
2008/10/02: PRWatch: Energy Front Group Calls for Investigation of Environmentalists
2008/10/02: GWWatch: Oreskes outs Nierenberg
2008/10/01: GristMill: Gore, shmore! Vaclav Klaus is coming to town -- Who's the ultimate climate-denying, Anti-Gore superstar?
2008/10/01: Atmoz: Stormy October say Hurricane "Experts"
SkepticalScience: Global warming on other planets in the solar system
SkepticalScience: Solar activity & climate: is the sun causing global warming?
2008/09/30: ClimateP: Study: Sun's contribution to recent warming is "negligible"
2008/09/30: Deltoid: Monckton demands that Mann, Bradley and Hughes be put on trial for genocide
2008/09/29: Atmoz: Last Word on Oreskes, Chicken Little
2008/09/29: inel: Reincarnation of WGGWCC08 conference 14-18 November 2008
2008/09/28: inel: Monckton's 'fairness complaint' against Earth: The Climate Wars
2008/09/29: Stoat: JASON arrives [Oreskes & Nierenberg]
2008/09/28: Stoat: Ho ho
2008/09/28: Deltoid: Monckton: "as if I was some potty peer"
Then there was the usual news and commentary:
2008/10/02: PostCarbon: Bursting Bubbles
2008/10/03: NatureCF: A challenging political climate
2008/10/03: WaPo: On the Sunny Beaches of Brazil, A Perplexing Inrush of Penguins
2008/10/03: KSJT: Washington Post: The whole story on those penguins washing up in Rio
2008/10/03: inel: Schneider's personal prescription for climate policies in sequenced steps
2008/10/01: WarmingLaw: Reframing the Debate on Global Warming
2008/10/02: MTobis: Asking the Right Questions -- Herman Daly's keynote to the AMS workshop on Federal Climate Policy
2008/10/01: GroovyGreen: Future Scenarios
2008/10/01: NewScientist: Microwave factory to act as carbon sink
2008/10/01: GristMill: Why you don't let things get to the crisis point -- The moral argument for curbing climate change
2008/09/29: Guardian(UK): Mobile phones to track carbon footprint
2008/09/28: Stoat: Abrupt climate change is a potential menace that hasn't received much attention
And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:
GHGOnline -- Greenhouse Gas News
Future Scenarios
DeSmogBlog: Election Center
SkepticalScience
UCalgary: David Keith's site on: Direct capture of CO2 from ambient air
UNEP: Global Deserts Outlook
CMOS: Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society
ACS: A Concerned Scientist - Concerned About the Assaults on Science
NASA: CloudSat
CommonsBlog
Charles Komanoff - Fossil Fuels and Earth's Climate
EcoEco: Ecological Economics - A Cross-Disciplinary Conversation
Wiki: Global warming
PSU: Michael Mann articles
Global Warming Art
TreeHugger

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.

"We're running the planet like a company in liquidation." -Al Gore

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Another Week of GW News, October 5, 2008

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October 5, 2008

Eureka! An angry cartoonist!:

Ecuador has changed their constitution granting rights to nature:

Google has announced a $4.4 trillion energy plan:

Ocean Acidification Conference and some stories:

As the oceans become more acidic, they better conduct sound. Who knew?:

The credit crunch, the bailout and the energy - climate struggle implications:

Another dire study from Hadley:

The Sunspot wondering goes on:

Real Climate pointed out a recent survey of scientists:

Late comment on Arctic methane:

The Arctic melt continues to get a lot of attention:

The food crisis remains a top story:

The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

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

Most of the action was in the Western Pacific with Higos, Jangmi & Mekkhala:

In the Atlantic, Kyle and Laura made a fuss, but otherwise it was mainly cleaning up & counting the dead:

While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

Meanwhile GHGs are still going up:

As for the temperature record:

While in the paleoclimate:

Sea levels are rising:

Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

More GW impacts are being seen:

And then there are the world's forests:

Brazil had a Pogo moment:

As for hydrological cycle disruption [floods & droughts]:

Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

Consider transportation & GHG production:

While in the endless quest for sustainable building codes:

As for carbon sequestration:

A CO2 scrubbing technique looks promising until one checks the fine print:

Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

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 carbon trading front:

The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

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:

While on the international political front:

And on the American political front:

One hears a lot about the campaigns, not so much about their climate & energy policies:

The GOP has recycled Shellenberger & Norhaus:

Late comment on RGGI:

Late coverage of the Governator's upcoming climate conference:

The Gore-apalooza is still bopping along:

While in the UK:

The Brown government has created a new Department for Energy and Climate Change:

While in Europe:

And in Australia:

Kangaroo on the menu?

They're still wrangling over the Garnaut report:

While in Vietnam:

And in China:

In Canada, most of the news focusses on the Oct. 14th election, with the economy garnering the most attention:

Wrangling over the BC climate plan continues:

The tricky & difficult question of the tar sands looms:

As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

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

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:

The energy impacts of Ike & Gustav continue to be felt:

As for the impacts of high energy costs:

Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

The arithmetic of coal carbon is striking home:

Biofuel bickering abounds:

The nuclear energy controversy continues:

Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

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

The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:

The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

Then there was the usual news and commentary:

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