Another Week of GW News, February 22, 2009

Sipping from the internet firehose...

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Another week of Climate Disruption News

Information overload is pattern recognition

February 22, 2009

• Top Stories:Day of Mourning, Inferno & Aftermath, Inquiry, WaPo & Will
• Melting Arctic, Faulty Sensor, Arctic, Antarctica, Grumbine, Tipping Points, Open Access, MTobis, Economy, Late Comments
• Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production
• Hurricanes, GHGs, Vulcan, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures, Feedbacks, Paleoclimate, ENSO, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Climate Refugees, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Adaptation
• Journals, Misc. Science, Hansen
• Kyoto, Kyoto-2, UN, Carbon Trade, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
• Politics:International, Clinton in China, Security, America, Britain, Europe, Australia, China, Asia, Canada
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books
• Energy, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Grid, Cars, Business, Greenwashing
• Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

It's always nice to start with a chuckle:

• 2009/02/19: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Char wallahs
• 2009/02/18: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Safeguarding our way of life
• 2009/02/16: CV: Cloudy with a Chance of Satellite
• 2009/02/16: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Much ado about nothing

  Australia held a national day of mourning:

• 2009/02/22: CNN: Australia mourns victims of deadly wildfires
  Prime Minister Kevin Rudd praises the resilience of Australians - Australians lay wreaths, sing and pray in remembrance of victims - Fires have destroyed more than 1,800 homes, displaced about 7,000 people - At the height of the blazes, about three dozen separate fires were burning
• 2009/02/22: ABC(Au): Victoria bushfires: Nation honours heroes and victims
  Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has told a memorial service for the Victoria bushfire victims Black Saturday has redefined courage, given us new heroes, and vowed that every year on February 7 Australian flags would fly at half mast.
• 2009/02/22: BBC: Australia is observing a day of mourning for the victims of bushfires which swept across the state of Victoria, claiming more than 200 lives
• 2009/02/22: SMH: Australians around the world unite in day of mourning
• 2009/02/21: SMH: A day for people to put aside cynicism and finger-pointing
  Tomorrow Australians will be asked to pause for our second National Day of Mourning since the Bali bombings in 2001.

Mourn, rage, respect the dead, but realize that we are "only at the beginning of the beginning" and we may well be mourning the whole world, if we don't deal with climate change:

• 2009/02/21: SMH: Evacuation is favourite survival response
• 2009/02/21: SMH: Dirty washing? Not near the bushfires
  Steve Whan says he's had a "baptism of fire and water". It's been a big week for Whan, fresh in the job as NSW Emergency Services Minister. It must have been even more eye-opening for first-time visitors to Australia, who've had a baptism of fire, flood, sharks and, if they could bear to watch, backstabbing politics. Surely the most treacherous place on earth, this sodden, sunburnt country. But if visitors looked again they would have discovered, too, a big-hearted nation that responds to its grief with astonishing generosity; a can-do, soldier-on country whose people can cry with candour but who temper their mourning with good humour and even comic relief. Steve Nash is one of 10 volunteers with the Kinglake Country Fire Authority whose own homes burnt down while they were out saving others'. When he found his still-burning house, what did he do? He took the clothes off the line. "They were untouched," he said. "We've still got some underwear and socks. If I'd known it was going to come through I would have done a bigger load of washing." Visitors should understand that this is the quintessence of our humour. Understated. Stoic. Matter-of-fact. Downright funny and heartbreaking all at once.
• 2009/02/20: ABC(Au): The fires of climate change
  Victorian taxpayers are about to fund a full-scale royal commission into the catastrophic bushfires of February 7 in which 208 people - probably more - were burnt to death. There will be no blame. Everything will be on the table: the adequacy of prescribed preventative burning or hazard reduction; the lethal crime of arson; escape clearways; warning alarm systems; 'go or stay' risk assessment and evacuation procedures; fireproof bunkers; planning regulations; building codes; the adequacy of fire fighting resources; and the usefulness of the forest fire danger index. Submissions from everyone will be welcomed. Such is the local and national trauma and grief that the inquiry is expected to be therapeutic for those who need and want to tell their stories and those who listen to them. It may be a year to 18 months before the royal commission completes its work. It is significant to note that two stakeholder groups have already come to concluded views: the 13,000 professional firefighters of Australia and the Climate Institute, which commissions scientific research in Australia into fires and global atmospheric warming.
• 2009/02/20: ESA: Earth from Space: 'Black Saturday' bushfires
• 2009/02/20: QuarkSoup: Australian Fires
• 2009/02/19: TerraDaily: Australian wildfire death toll rises to 208: police
• 2009/02/20: WSWS: Australia: Bushfire expert exposes decades of government neglect
• 2009/02/20: SMH: Flaming insults malign greenies
  When disaster strikes on such an immense scale as it has in Victoria, debate soon turns to what went wrong and how to ensure such a tragedy never happens again. It has been disappointing to see commentators blaming "greenies" for hindering fuel reduction activities, including controlled burning. They have played this blame game before. Similar accusations were made after the 1994 bushfires in NSW, when 136 separate fires claimed four lives, razed dozens of homes and decimated several national parks.
• 2009/02/20: Guardian(UK): After the inferno
  Are bushfires inevitable - or can they be managed? When they strike again, should people flee or fight the flames? The catastrophic blazes in Australia have left its inhabitants full of questions, doubts and fears. Novelist Thomas Keneally considers the fallout
• 2009/02/19: ABC(Au): Heightened fuel loads blamed for intensity of bushfires
• 2009/02/19: SMH: Firefighter killed in action was returning a favour
  The death of the ACT firefighter David Balfour took the official toll for Victoria's bushfires to 201, but authorities say that number is unlikely to rise significantly as many of the missing are now accounted for or their remains located. Mr Balfour's widow, Celia, yesterday remembered the man she said felt duty-bound to fight fires in Victoria in recognition of those communities that came to Canberra's aid when fires ravaged the capital in 2003.
• 2009/02/19: ABC(Au): More high fire danger days predicted in ACT
  The Weather Bureau has told a Legislative Assembly inquiry that Canberra will experience a substantial increase in the number of fire danger days in coming years.
• 2009/02/18: ABC(Au): Calls for tougher laws on tree clearing in Qld
• 2009/02/17: TerraDaily: Singapore firm to fight Australia fires suit
• 2009/02/18: SMH: Fire risk will never be eliminated
• 2009/02/17: ENN: Fires and climate change prompt soul-searching in Australia
• 2009/02/17: PeakEnergy: Bushfires spark a new front in the culture wars
• 2009/02/17: CBC: Australia wildfire death toll reaches 200
• 2009/02/17: WpgSun: Australia wildfires death toll reaches 200: police
• 2009/02/17: SMH: How I survived the inferno
• 2009/02/17: SMH: Fears for safety of alleged arsonist
  The alleged arsonist Brendan James Sokaluk did not appear in the Melbourne Magistrates Court for a filing hearing yesterday amid fears for his safety. The court heard that the 39-year-old, accused of lighting the deadly Churchill blaze, may be at risk from vigilantes inside the prison system.
• 2009/02/16: Guardian(UK): Facebook users post photographs of alleged Australian bushfire arsonist
  Pictures and address of man alleged to have begun deadly blaze in Churchill area put on social networking site despite court ban
• 2009/02/16: AFTIC: RealClimate on the Australian bushfires
• 2007/09/26: ClimateInstitute: Briefing: Bushfire weather in South East Australia
• 2009/02/16: RealClimate: Bushfires and extreme heat in south-east Australia
• 2009/02/15: TerraDaily: Australian wildfire survivors suing power firm: report
  Australian wildfire survivors have launched a lawsuit against a Singapore-owned electricity firm alleging a downed power line sparked one of the blazes, it was reported Sunday. Kinglake residents are launching a class action against SP Ausnet and the Victoria state government claiming the power line set off a fire near the town that killed at least 100 people, The Age newspaper said.
• 2009/02/16: BBC: Australian arson suspect named
• 2009/02/16: SMH: A PM's tribute: genuine guts, genuine strength
  Kinglake resident Gayle Rider didn't want to shake the Prime Minister's hand yesterday. "I'm so dirty," she said apologetically. "I don't give a bugger," he said, and kissed her on the cheek.
• 2009/02/16: SMH: From the ashes, the buds of a reborn community blossom
• 2009/02/16: SMH: Distraught families seek solace in their faith, friends and community
• 2009/02/16: SMH: Flames so fierce some victims may never be found
• 2009/02/16: SMH: Victoria looks at changes to building standards
  Tough new fire planning measures - including the retro-fitting of existing homes and increasing the heat resistance of houses in fire-prone areas - could be rushed through by Victoria's Brumby Government. The fire safety measures are among planning issues to be debated by cabinet today. As attention shifts to reconstruction following the devastating fires, the Premier, John Brumby, said cabinet debate would focus on better fire safety measures in building standards.

Victorian Premier John Brumby has struck a royal commission to investigate the causes and prevention of wildfires:

• 2009/02/17: SMH: Sweeping powers given to investigators
  Justice Bernard Teague has been given unconditional discretion to investigate the causes of Victoria's devastating bushfires and report on measures to prevent similar blazes in the future. Announcing the terms of reference for the $40 million royal commission yesterday, the Victorian Premier, John Brumby, said the commission would be as broad as possible to ensure all aspects of the fire are examined.

This would normally be categorized as Denial or Media, but the bone headed uselessness of the WaPo reaction kicked off a blogostorm:

• 2009/02/22: ClimateP: The Usual Suspects
• 2009/02/22: TheLoom: You Call That Fact-Checking?
• 2009/02/20: BDL: A Problem for Everyone Who Works for the Washington Post
• 2009/02/21: BSD: The Post doesn't actually claim to have fact-checked George Will
• 2009/02/20: ThingsBreak: The Washington Post's "fact-checking" process is a disgrace
• 2009/02/19: FAIR: George Will: Bringing You Climate Disinformation Since 1992
• 2009/02/20: BDL: Fire Washington Post Ombudsman Andy Alexander This Morning
• 2009/02/20: ObsidianWings: The Washington Post's "Multi-Layer Editing Process"
• 2009/02/20: AngryBear: 500,000 = 0?
• 2009/02/20: SameFacts: Letter to the Washington Post
• 2009/02/20: ClimateP: The day DC journalism died: Washington Post is staffed with people who found ZERO mistakes in George Will's error-filled denial column
• 2009/02/20: TP:MYglesias: Washington Post Stands By Climate Change Denialism
• 2009/02/20: TWM: The Washington Post's "Multi-Layer Editing Process"
• 2009/02/19: IslandOfDoubt: George F. Will, ethics, conservatism and the future of journalism
• 2009/02/17: TPMM: Hiatt, Will, On Global Warming Misinformation: Talk To The Hand
• 2009/02/16: TheLoom: George Will: Liberated From the Burden of Fact-Checking
• 2009/02/20: ThingsBreak: Waiting for WaPo [extensive list]
• 2009/02/20: TPMM: Post Ombudsman Responds, Unconvincingly, On Will Column
• 2009/02/20: TheLoom: The Sea Ice Affair, Continued [George Will]
• 2009/02/20: Pharyngula: I wish I were a Republican, so I could just make stuff up [George Will]
• 2009/02/20: MtMB: The War on Scientific Denialism Begins to Move Beyond Scientists
• 2009/02/16: TPMM: Where There's a (George) Will There's A Way ... To Deny Global Warming
• 2009/02/20: Denialism: George Will - We must not allow his dishonesty to be ignored
• 2009/02/19: PurePoison: Being an opinion-maker means never having to say you're sorry
• 2009/02/20: Deltoid: Washington Post rejects the concept of objective facts
• 2009/02/20: Intersection:CCM: George Will is Not Entitled to His Own Facts
• 2009/02/18: Intersection:CCM: George Will: A Conservative "Intellectual"? Not.
• 2009/02/19: ThinkP: Wash. Post defends George Will's climate change denial: We 'check facts to the fullest extent possible.'
• 2009/02/19: TP:WonkRoom: Washington Post Defends George Will: The Editorial Page 'Checks Facts To The Fullest Extent Possible'
• 2009/02/18: Guardian(UK): George Will's climate howlers
  George's Will's latest column in the Washington Post affords us a fascinating insight into how certain climate change myths pass through the media unchallenged
• 2009/02/18: BSD: Where George Will got his sea ice nonsense
• 2009/02/16: BDL: George F. Will as Crank Conspiracy Theorist...
• 2009/02/16: SameFacts: Global-warming denialism as a conspiracy theory
• 2009/02/17: TP:WonkRoom: George Will Believes In Recycling
• 2009/02/16: GristMill: [Dessler] Attack of the zombies: global cooling!
• 2009/02/15: ClimateP: Is George Will the most ignorant national columnist?
• 2009/02/15: GristMill: George Will is an idiot -- Conservative columnist lies to millions of people, again, ho hum
• 2009/02/16: Denialism: The Global Warming Cranks - George Will officially in their ranks
• 2009/02/15: CSW: George Will recycles global warming disinformation talking points in Feb. 15 Washington Post column
• 2009/02/15: AbqJournal: George Will and the Global Cooling Scare
• 2009/02/16: QuarkSoup: George Will and Global Warming
• 2009/02/16: ThinkP: George Will makes up facts in his column denying global warming

  The Arctic melt continues to get a lot of attention:

• 2009/02/21: CanWest: Return of Arctic ice no sign of climate recovery: researcher
  When it comes to global warming, even the good news may not be all that great in the end. After a devastating Arctic ice melt in 2007, researchers were cautiously optimistic when the ice surface area actually grew in 2008. But University of Manitoba scientist David Barber says the growth was mostly thin, first-year ice, which is more likely to melt during the summer. The amount of thicker multi-year ice - which once covered the entire Arctic basin before it began melting - actually decreased last year, said Barber.
• 2009/02/21: CBC: Growing Arctic sea ice likely to melt, says scientist
  A University of Manitoba climate researcher says the growth of Arctic sea ice in 2008 is not cause for optimism. What scientists are seeing is mostly thin, first-year ice that is likely to melt during the summer, David Barber is quoted as saying this week in the Winnipeg Free Press. The amount of thicker multi-year ice that once covered the entire Arctic basin before it began melting decreased last year, Barber said.
• 2009/02/20: BBC: Arctic diary: Explorers' ice quest
  A team of polar explorers has travelled to the Arctic in a bid to discover how quickly the ice cap is melting and how long it be before the Arctic summer becomes ice free.
• 2009/02/20: KSJT: Guardian: Melt ponds in fresh sea ice could help explain the evermore open summertime Arctic Ocean
• 2009/02/19: SciDaily: Permafrost Is Thawing In Northern Sweden
• 2009/02/18: Guardian(UK): Melt-pools 'accelerating Arctic ice loss'
  Pools of melted ice and snow that form on the surface of the Arctic sea ice explain why it is melting faster than predicted, scientists say
• 2009/02/19: ABC(Au): Arctic ice to melt each summer: Russian experts
  A group of Russian climate experts claims that ice in the Arctic could completely melt each summer by the end of this century.
• 2009/02/18: NewScientist: Arctic's personal greenhouse turns up the heat

  I imagine we will hear a lot about this snafu:

• 2009/02/20: BBerg: Arctic Sea Ice Underestimated for Weeks Due to Faulty Sensor
• NSIDC: Arctic Sea Ice News
• UAF: Data of Sea Ice Extent
• 2009/02/19: SlashDot: Arctic Ice Extent Understated Because of "Sensor Drift"
• 2009/02/15: Guardian(UK): Global warming 'changing balance' of marine life in polar seas
  Scientists involved in the most comprehensive study of life in the oceans ever conducted have documented changes in species distribution in the polar regions as warmer oceans spur migration

As for the geopolitics of the Arctic resources:

• 2009/02/18: FinPo: Arctic sovereignty: Sheathe thy sword

  While in Antarctica:

• 2009/02/17: EarthTimes: Researchers spot huge split in Antartic ice shelf

  Rob Grumbine is continuing his education project:

• 2009/02/18: MGS: First successful numerical weather prediction

  Yes we have tipping points:

• 2009/02/16: FTimes: Global warming closing in on 'critical threshold'
  [...] "We are looking now at a future climate that's beyond anything we've considered seriously in climate model simulations," Prof [Chris] Field [of Stanford University, a senior member of the IPCC] said. [...] "There is a real risk that human-caused climate change will accelerate the release of carbon dioxide from forest and tundra ecosystems, which have been storing a lot of carbon for thousands of years," Prof Field said. "We don't want to cross a critical threshold where this massive release of carbon starts to run on autopilot."
• 2009/02/16: MongaBay: Burning rainforests, melting tundra could accelerate global warming well beyond current projections
• 2009/02/15: Google:AFP: Climate change: 'Feedback' triggers could amplify peril
• 2009/02/15: TerraDaily: Climate change: 'Feedback' triggers could amplify peril

  To transliterate an old programming aphorism, the more eyes you get running over an idea [via Open Access], the better your chance of catching errors and generating something useful:

• 2009/02/20: Eureka: Open access to scientific papers may not guarantee wide dissemination
• 2009/02/19: CBC: Poorer countries' scientists rely on free online articles: study
• Free Science News
• Free Science Sources

  Michael Tobis asked a good question:

• 2009/02/20: MTobis: Will Progress in Climatology Affect Mitigation Policy?
• 2009/02/21: AFTIC: MT on the relationship between climatology and policy

  When you're fixing the economy, could you work on the biosphere too?

• 2009/02/17: PS: A Global Green New Deal by Achim Steiner
• 2009/02/17: DemNow: Martin Khor on the Global Economic Meltdown: "We Could Have One Billion More People in the Developing World Plunging into New Poverty Because of this Crisis"
• 2009/02/17: UN: Economic stimulus package must be used to launch long-term 'green' revolution - Ban, Gore
• 2009/02/16: Reuters: UN urges G20 leaders to back "Green New Deal"
• 2009/02/16: EarthTimes: Environment experts call for urgent shift to green economy
• 2009/02/16: Guardian(UK): From crisis to opportunity
  Eco-friendly investment, greater energy efficiency and pricing reform could all aid economic recovery

Late comment on the "Economists Agree" story:

• 2009/02/19: JQuiggin: Economists agree!
• 2009/02/17: Eureka: What if New Mexico doesn't address climate change? 'Business as usual' could cost the state $3.2 billion annually -- $3,430 per household -- as of 2020
• 2009/02/17: Eureka: What if Oregonians decline to address climate change? 'Business-as-usual' would cost a minimum of $3.3 billion a year -- $1,930 per household -- in 2020
• 2009/02/16: WorldChanging: Fighting Climate Change is Cheap
• 2009/02/16: ClimateP: Voodoo economics reporting, 7: Failing to report the consensus that action is cheaper than inaction

  Late coverage of IMechE:

• 2009/02/21: NewScientist: Prepare for a climate-changed world, say engineers

  Late comment on the AAAS meeting:

• 2009/02/17: KSJT: Lots of AAAS Ink: Humankind pushing climate change faster than ever
• 2009/02/16: NatureCF: AAAS: Climate issue getting "more complicated"

  The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2009/02/18: TreeHugger: 25% Reduction in Global Food Production by 2050: Organic Agriculture Part of the Solution, UN Says
• 2009/02/17: Reuters: U.N. says food production may fall 25 percent by 2050
• 2009/02/: Grida:UNEP: [Preface & Summary in html] The Environmental Food Crisis: The Environment's Role in Averting Future Food Crises
• 2009/02/: ReliefWeb: [link to 15 meg pdf] The Environmental Food Crisis: The Environment's Role in Averting Future Food Crises
• 2009/02/19: CCurrents: Food Crisis Under The Spotlight
  Worldwide demand for food is expected to grow steadily over the next 40 years, but 25 percent of the world's food production may be lost to 'environmental breakdowns' by 2050 unless urgent action is taken. This is the message in a document presented to environment ministers from more than 140 countries meeting in Nairobi, Kenya under the auspices of the United Nations Environmental Programme Governing Council to discuss climate change and other environmental challenges.
• 2009/02/19: IHT: Newly poor swell lines at U.S. food banks
• 2009/02/20: NYT: Newly Poor Swell Lines at Food Banks
  Once a crutch for the most needy, food pantries have responded to the deepening recession by opening their doors to what Rosemary Gilmartin, who runs the Interfaith Food Pantry here, described as "the next layer of people" -- a rapidly expanding roster of child-care workers, nurse's aides, real estate agents and secretaries facing a financial crisis for the first time. Demand at food banks across the country increased by 30 percent in 2008 from the previous year, according to a survey by Feeding America, which distributes more than two billion pounds of food every year. And instead of their usual drop in customers after the holidays, many pantries in upscale suburbs this year are seeing the opposite.
• 2009/02/17: EarthTimes: UN: Climate change may intensify food crisis
• 2009/02/16: SciDaily: Climate Change And Fisheries: US Atlantic Cod Population To Drop By Half By 2050

  The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

• 2009/02/19: ClimateP: Do first generation biofuels spell doom for tropical rainforests, global climate, world's poor?

  And how are we going to feed 9 billion?

• 2009/02/18: UN: Ban highlights UN role in improving agriculture, boosting food security
• 2009/02/17: UN: 'Green revolution' can ensure enough food for entire world - UN environment agency
• 2009/02/19: CCurrents: U.N. Seeks A Green Revolution In Food
• 2009/02/19: USAToday: Recession grows interest in seeds, vegetable gardening
• 2009/02/20: NYT: Crop Scientists Say Biotechnology Seed Companies Are Thwarting Research
  Biotechnology companies are keeping university scientists from fully researching the effectiveness and environmental impact of the industry's genetically modified crops, according to an unusual complaint issued by a group of those scientists. "No truly independent research can be legally conducted on many critical questions," the scientists wrote in a statement submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency. The E.P.A. is seeking public comments for scientific meetings it will hold next week on biotech crops. The statement will probably give support to critics of biotech crops, like environmental groups, who have long complained that the crops have not been studied thoroughly enough and could have unintended health and environmental consequences. The researchers, 26 corn-insect specialists, withheld their names because they feared being cut off from research by the companies. But several of them agreed in interviews to have their names used. The problem, the scientists say, is that farmers and other buyers of genetically engineered seeds have to sign an agreement meant to ensure that growers honor company patent rights and environmental regulations. But the agreements also prohibit growing the crops for research purposes. So while university scientists can freely buy pesticides or conventional seeds for their research, they cannot do that with genetically engineered seeds. Instead, they must seek permission from the seed companies. And sometimes that permission is denied or the company insists on reviewing any findings before they can be published, they say.
• 2009/02/15: Reuters: Massive effort underway to save endangered seeds
• 2009/02/18: TerraDaily: UN unveils ambitious 'green' food programme
• 2009/02/19: Eureka: Gene to reduce wheat yield losses
  A new gene that provides resistance to a fungal disease responsible for millions of hectares of lost wheat yield has been discovered by scientists from the US and Israel
• 2009/02/19: ABC(Au): Staff shortage 'threatens' seed bank quota
  The curator for the Northern Territory Millennium Seed Bank Project says many unique Northern Territory plants will miss out on a place in the seed bank because of a lack of personnel.
• 2009/02/18: BasqueResearch: An atmosphere rich in CO2 and with high concentrations of oxygen enhances the quality of refrigerated potato
• 2009/02/15: Reuters: Deere in the crosshairs as recession hits farmers
• 2009/02/16: NatureN: Nitrogen fertilizer warning for China -- Farmers could cut use by two-thirds without lowering crop yield
• 2009/02/16: NewScientist: Less is more approach to fertiliser could boost farmers
• 2009/02/16: PhysOrg: Doomsday seed vault's stores are growing
• 2009/02/15: Eureka: One of history's biggest biological rescue efforts to save 100,000 crop varieties from extinction
  Push by Global Crop Diversity Trust is rapidly reviving ailing seed samples from 46 countries that could provide genetic traits vital to maintaining global food security

We had Hina in the South Indian ocean and Innis in the SW Pacific between Australia and New Zealand, but otherwise it was quiet on the cyclone front:

• 2009/02/18: Wunderground: Hurricane Ike: top U.S. weather story of 2008
• 2009/02/15: Eureka: Past trends in hurricane activity and inferences for the future

  Meanwhile GHGs are still going up:

• 2009/02/17: MongaBay: CO2 levels rise to a new record
• 2009/02/15: AfterGutenberg: World carbon dioxide levels jump 2.3 ppm in 2008

  The Vulcan Project made their GHG data available to Google Earth creating a useful tool and triggering much comment:

• 2009/02/22: 4SW: Google Maps allows tech-geeks to examine US sources of greenhouse gasses
• 2009/02/20: NatureCF: Vulcan minds meld with Google
• 2009/02/20: QuarkSoup: Vulcan for Google Earth
• 2009/02/19: TerraDaily: Scientists map CO2 emissions with Google Earth
• 2009/02/19: PhysOrg: Carbon dioxide map of US released on Google Earth [Vulcan Project]

  And in the carbon cycle:

• 2009/02/15: Eureka: Scientist models the mysterious travels of greenhouse gas
• 2009/02/15: Eureka: Carbon accounting from atmospheric measurements -- the aircraft perspective

  As for the temperature record:

• 2009/02/22: SciDaily: Tracking Warming Trend In Northwestern North America
• 2009/02/19: ClimateP: Unprecedented global warming in past year
• 2009/02/18: NOAANews: NOAA: Seventh Warmest January for Global Temperatures
• 2009/02/18: ClimateP: "Blame global warming" for higher temperatures -- Chief forecaster at National Meteorological Center of China
• 2009/02/05: NASA: Exceptional Australian Heat Wave
• 2009/02/16: Guardian(UK): A cold winter doesn't mean climate change isn't happening
  January and early February may have seemed very cold in the UK, but global land and ocean temperatures were higher than any year in the 20th century...
• 2009/02/16: AlterNet: Firestorms and Deep Freeze: Climate Change May Bring Both

  Yes we have feedbacks:

• 2009/02/20: JFleck: Water Vapor Feedback
• 2009/02/20: SciDaily: Water Vapor Feedback Loop Will Cause Accelerated Global Warming, Professor Warns
• 2009/02/19: PhysOrg: More reasons to hate humidity: It expands global warming, prof says
• 2009/02/19: TAMU: More Reasons To Hate Humidity
  Here's yet another reason to hate humidity: it expands global warming, says a Texas A&M University professor.
• 2009/02/17: NatureCF: New Arctic feedback: vicious peat circles
• 2009/02/15: NewScientist: Burp of Arctic laughing gas is no joke

  What is the role of ocean currents?

• 2009/02/17: NewScientist: North Atlantic is world's 'climate superpower'
• 2009/02/17: ENN: North Atlantic is world's 'climate superpower'
• 2009/02/17: SciDaily: Climate 'Flickering' Ended Last Ice Age In North Atlantic Region

  While in the paleoclimate:

• 2009/02/19: NewScientist: Ancient civilisations may have given us a carbon boost
• 2009/02/17: Yahoo: Tree rings tell of killer droughts
  Along the mountainous spine of Vietnam grow ancient conifers whose tree rings tell of droughts lasting more than a generation that helped push civilizations toward collapse, a climate change conference heard on Tuesday.

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

• 2009/02/17: WMO: No large La Niña or El Niño event expected in first half of 2009
• 2009/02/17: TerraDaily: UN weather agency says La Nina climate pattern weakening

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2009/02/22: SciDaily: Glaciers In China And Tibet Fading Fast
• 2009/02/17: TerraDaily: Andean glaciers 'could disappear': World Bank
• 2009/02/17: Google:AP: World Bank warns of climate change in Andes
  Global climate change threatens the complete disappearance of the Andes' tropical glaciers within the next 20 years, putting precious water, energy and food sources at risk, according to a World Bank report presented here Tuesday. The study says glacial retreat has already reduced by 12 percent the water supply to Peru's dry coastline, home to 60 percent of the country's population.
• 2009/02/18: PhysOrg: Andean glaciers 'could disappear': World Bank
• 2009/02/17: Yahoo: Andean glaciers 'could disappear': World Bank

  Sea levels are rising:

• 2009/02/21: SMH: Plan tells developers to weigh up years of sea change
  Every new beachside home, coastal apartment block and piece of infrastructure on the coastline of NSW would have to be re-examined under a State Government draft policy on rising sea levels. The draft document, to be released today, contains guidelines for local councils which say the impact of rising sea levels should be assessed "over the life of an asset", meaning that long-term developments would need to take sea-level rise into account for decades into the future.
• 2009/02/17: EarthTimes: Tuvalu leader worried about island state sinking under the sea
• 2009/02/16: EarthTimes: Greenland, Antarctic ice sheet melting may spur rise in sea level
• 2009/02/16: Eureka: State of the steric sea level rise, 1955-2003
• 2009/02/16: Eureka: Greenland and Antarctic ice sheet melting, rate unknown

  Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

• 2009/02/21: Guardian(UK): NASA to launch Earth's first carbon dioxide tracking satellite
  The Orbiting Carbon Observatory will map where greenhouse gas is concentrated around the world
• 2009/02/22: Guardian(UK): NASA launches carbon dioxide tracker satellite [OCO] [scheduled for Feb 24th]
• 2009/02/19: NatureCF: Interview: David Crisp [Principal Investigator for NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory]
• 2009/02/20: SciDaily: Orbiting Carbon Observatory Aims To Boost Carbon Management Options
• 2009/02/19: PhysOrg: Orbiting Carbon Observatory Set for Feb. 24 Launch
• 2009/02/15: Eureka: Using satellites to monitor climate change: Progress and challenges

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2009/02/18: USGS: Erosion Doubles Along Part of Alaska's Arctic Coast: Cultural and Historical Sites Lost
• 2009/02/19: RealClimate: Linking the climate-ecology attribution chain
• 2009/02/20: Eureka: Global warning: Hotter days, increased hospitalizations for respiratory problems
• 2009/02/20: ReliefWeb:IRIN: Global: Humanitarian costs of climate change unpredictable
• 2009/02/18: KSJT: Alaska Daily News: Coast along Beaufort Sea crumbling (and it beats the press release to the story).
• 2009/02/18: MongaBay: Climate change doubles coastal erosion in Alaska over 5-year period
• 2009/02/18: USGS: Erosion Doubles Along Part of Alaska's Arctic Coast: Cultural and Historical Sites Lost
• 2009/02/18: Eureka: Erosion rates double along portion of Alaska's coast
  [...] Changing arctic conditions may have caused these recent shifts in the rate and pattern of land loss along this coastline segment, the authors propose. The changes include declining sea ice extent, increasing summertime sea-surface temperature, rising sea level, and increases in storm power and corresponding wave action.
• 2009/02/18: TreeHugger: Climate Change to Take Bite Out of Big Apple: Sea Level Rise, Temperature Increases, Hundred Year Storms Every 15 Years
• 2009/02/17: Yahoo: NYC can expect big storms more frequently: study
• 2009/02/18: SMH: Injured wildlife fail to seek sanctuary
• 2009/02/17: BNC: Global warming strains at species interactions
• 2009/02/17: JFleck: More Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: Back on the Bird Beat
• 2009/02/17: ABC(Au): Cold comfort for reptiles in warmer world
  Commonly known as being cold-blooded and in need of sunshine, the world's fish and reptiles may be struggling to keep cool in the future.
• 2009/02/16: Eureka: Threats to biodiversity rise in the world's Mediterranean-climate regions
• 2009/02/16: ABC(Au): Study finds climate change, malaria spread link

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2009/02/21: ClimateP: Canada's Forests: Another tool to use against climate change
• 2009/02/19: FuturePundit: Tropical Forest Biomass Shrinking Or Growing?
• 2009/02/19: TerraDaily: Study: Trees absorb one-fifth of CO2 gas
• 2009/02/20: TreeHugger: African Tropical Forests Store As Much Carbon as Their Amazonian Counterparts: That Rate's Increasing Too
• 2009/02/19: Eureka: Cleaning the atmosphere of carbon: African forests out of balance
• 2009/02/18: Guardian(UK): Fifth of world carbon emissions soaked up by extra forest growth, scientists find
  Trees in the tropics are getting bigger, which means they are soaking up an extra 5bn tonnes of CO2 a year
• 2009/02/19: Guardian(UK): Bigger trees helping fight against climate change
• 2009/02/18: NatureCF: Jungle Fit!
• 2009/02/19: ABC(Au): Brisbane to plant 500,000th tree, 1.5m to go -- Brisbane's quest to become the greenest city in Australia will move a step closer to fruition today
• 2009/02/18: Eureka: One-fifth of fossil-fuel emissions absorbed by threatened forests
  Globally, tropical trees in undisturbed forest are absorbing nearly a fifth of the CO2 released by burning fossil fuels. The researchers show that remaining tropical forests remove a massive 4.8 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions from the atmosphere each year. This includes a previously unknown carbon sink in Africa, mopping up 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 each year.
• 2009/02/19: ShanghaiDaily: Trees get bigger in climate-change fight
• 2009/02/18: CBC: Tropical forests absorb almost a fifth of CO2 emissions: study
• 2009/02/16: BBC: Amazon dieback 'overstated'
  A study by a group of UK-based scientists suggests that the Amazon rainforest may be less vulnerable to severe drying as a result of global warming than previously thought. However, the scientists warn that the rapid degradation of the rainforest known as "dieback" caused by human-induced climate change remains a "distinct possibility" this century. For the first time, the scientists compared the simulations of 19 global climate models with real-life climate observations.

Climate refugees are becoming an issue:

• 2009/02/18: KSJT: Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Climate refugees. They are coming.
• 2009/02/16: BBC: African migrants drowned at sea
  Nineteen people, including an eight-year-old girl, drowned when a migrant boat capsized 20m (65ft) from shore in the Canary Islands, rescuers say

We have heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2009/02/19: UN: Heat waves and extreme drought will increase with climate change, UN agency says
• 2009/02/16: Guardian(UK): The tropics on fire: scientist's grim vision of global warming

  And speaking of floods & droughts:

• 2009/02/20: Reuters: California farms lose main water source to drought
  The main irrigation system for California farmers, the Central Valley Project, expects to halt water deliveries to most of its growers this year due to one of the worst droughts in state history, federal managers said on Friday. The zero-water allocation for most CVP users was declared by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation as California water officials repeated their plans to cut amounts supplied from a separate state-run water project to 15 percent of normal allotments.
• 2009/02/20: CBC: Spring flooding forecast for southern Manitoba
• 2009/02/20: AP: Drought to cut off federal water to California farms
• 2009/02/18: TerraDaily: Widespread floods hit Australian mines, towns
• 2009/02/19: SMH: Flooded regions declared disaster zones
  Large areas of NSW have been declared natural disaster zones after heavy rain and extensive flooding in Bourke and the Mid- North Coast, including Coffs Harbour, Bellingen and Kempsey.
• 2009/02/18: ABC(Au): Torrential rain a 'mixed blessing' for Australia
  Some of the rain that has caused floods in parts of New South Wales will flow out to sea. But the water that has inundated Queensland will slowly make its way south to the normally dry salt plain of Lake Eyre. The parched Murray-Darling Basin, though, is unlikely to benefit at all.
• 2009/02/16: TerraDaily: Six dead, 14 missing in Colombia flood
• 2009/02/18: PeakEnergy: How Dry Are We?
• 2009/02/17: Reuters: Los Angeles nears water rationing
• 2009/02/18: SMH: Deluge expected to double the flooding
• 2009/02/17: NatureTGB: China to freeze water use
• 2009/02/16: TerraDaily: Australia counts cost of fires, floods
• 2009/02/16: SciDev: South Asia's largest rivers [the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM), Indus and Helmand river basins] threatened, warns UN
• 2009/02/17: People's Daily: North China drought rings alarms to insufficient rural water supplies
• 2009/02/14: Xinhuanet: China to strengthen water control in light of shortage
  China will tighten water resources management and take measures to reduce waste to cope with worsening water shortage, Water Resources Minister Chen Lei said here Saturday. [...] China is planning to reduce water consumption per unit of GDP to 125 cubic meters by 2020, down 60 percent from now, Chen said.
• 2009/02/16: NewScientist: Parched China to slash water consumption by 60%
• 2009/02/16: SMH: Hundreds stranded, and storms head south
  Heavy rain is heading this way, with the Bureau of Meteorology warning NSW coastal dwellers to brace themselves for severe weather and possible flash flooding over the next few days. While nowhere near as catastrophic as Victoria's fires and Queensland's floods, capricious weather is set to dump heavy falls along the coast from Coffs Harbour south to the Hunter today, and the big wet is due to hit Sydney tomorrow.

Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2009/02/21: SciDaily: 'Green' Plastics Could Help Reduce Carbon Footprint
• 2009/02/19: ClimateP: What's a Climate Friendly Diet?
• 2009/02/17: GreenGrok: A Climate Fix? Not Too Cold, Not Too Hot, Just Right
• 2009/02/15: NewScientist:SSS: Deliver us from cheeseburgers
• 2009/02/16: Yahoo: Hamburgers are the Hummers of food in global warming: scientists

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2009/02/19: CalcRisk: U.S. Vehicle Miles Driven Off 3.6% in 2008
• 2009/02/19: DOT:FHWA: December 2008 Traffic Volume Trends
• 2009/02/16: QuarkSoup: Transit Ridership Up, Services Down

  While in the endless quest for zero energy, sustainable buildings and practical codes:

• 2009/02/18: PhysOrg: No furnace required: Energy-efficient 'passive houses' gaining steam

  As for carbon sequestration:

• 2009/02/20: ERabett: No fire next time
• 2009/02/19: Deltoid: Mashey on a promising new technology for carbon sequestration
• 2009/02/20: TreeHugger: Tokyo to Begin Carbon Capture & Storage Project in 2010
• 2009/02/19: GristMill: BACT to the future -- What is the 'best available control technology' for CO2 from coal plants?
• 2009/02/19: TMoS: The Myth of Carbon Sequestration
• 2009/02/15: WiredSci: Carbon Burial Research Grows as Huge Experiment Begins

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2009/02/20: SF Gate: Hashem Akbari's cool [white roof] anti-global-warming plan
• 2009/02/19: BBC: China lets it snow to end drought
• 2009/02/19: Times(UK): Beijing blanketed by snow after China seeds clouds to beat drought
• 2009/02/17: ClimateP: So much for geoengineering, 2: Ocean dead zones to expand, "remain for thousands of years"
• 2009/02/16: Telegraph(UK): Can geo-engineering rebuild the planet?
  As global warming worsens, the idea of vast projects to alter the Earth's environment is moving from fantasy to necessity.

While on the adaptation front:

• 2009/02/18: KSJT: Reuters, Telegraph: Getting too warm for those butterflies? Let's try moving them (and it worked)
• 2009/02/17: EnergyBulletin: A Response to Kathy McMahon at Peak Oil Blues
• 2009/02/17: EnergyBulletin: A response to I just dropped in to see what condition my transition was in - Part II
• 2009/02/16: EnergyBulletin: I just dropped in to see what condition my Transition was in: part 3 - rejecting survivalists?
• 2009/02/16: EnergyBulletin: I just dropped in to see what condition my Transition was in: part 2 - context
• 2009/02/16: SciAm: Can "Assisted Migration" Save Species from Global Warming?

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2009/02/: ReliefWeb: [link to 15 meg pdf] The Environmental Food Crisis: The Environment's Role in Averting Future Food Crises
• 2009/02/20: ACP: Intensification of tropical cyclones in the GFS model by J. C. MarÃn et al.
• 2009/02/19: ACP: Modelled radiative forcing of the direct aerosol effect with multi-observation evaluation by G. Myhre et al.
• 2009/02/20: CP: Strong asymmetry of hemispheric climates during MIS-13 inferred from correlating China loess and Antarctica ice records by Z. T. Guo et al.
• 2009/02/18: ACP: Cloud and surface classification using SCIAMACHY polarization measurement devices by W. A. Lotz et al.
• 2009/02/17: ACP: Asian dust outflow in the PBL and free atmosphere retrieved by NASA CALIPSO and an assimilated dust transport model by Y. Hara et al.
• 2009/02/16: ACP: Saharan dust transport and deposition towards the tropical northern Atlantic by K. Schepanski et al.
• 2009/02/16: ACP: Clear sky UV simulations for the 21st century based on ozone and temperature projections from Chemistry-Climate Models by K. Tourpali et al.
• 2009/02/16: ACP: The effects of global changes upon regional ozone pollution in the United States by J. Chen et al.
• 2009/02/16: ACP: Simulation of dust aerosol and its regional feedbacks over East Asia using a regional climate model by D. F. Zhang et al.
• 2009/02/17: ACPD: Evaluation of new secondary organic aerosol models for a case study in Mexico City by K. Dzepina et al.
• 2009/02/10: PNAS: Climate change and health costs of air emissions from biofuels and gasoline by Jason Hill et al.
• 2009/02/10: PNAS: The Indian Ocean Dipole and malaria risk in the highlands of western Kenya by Masahiro Hashizume et al.
• 2009/02/10: PNAS: Ocean acidification impairs olfactory discrimination and homing ability of a marine fish by Philip L. Munday et al.
• 2009/02/10: PNAS: Demographic models and IPCC climate projections predict the decline of an emperor penguin population by Stéphanie Jenouvrier et al.
• 2009/02/10: PNAS: Irreversible climate change due to carbon dioxide emissions by Susan Solomon et al.
• 2009/02/10: PNAS: Reply to McIntyre and McKitrick: Proxy-based temperature reconstructions are robust by Michael E. Mann et al.
• 2009/02/10: PNAS: Proxy inconsistency and other problems in millennial paleoclimate reconstructions by Stephen McIntyre & Ross McKitrick
• 2009/02/10: PNAS: Reply to Chesson et al.: Carbon stable isotopes in beef differ distinctly between corporations by Hope Jahren & Rebecca Kraft
• 2009/02/10: PNAS: American fast food isn't all corn-based by Lesley Chesson et al.

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

• 2009/02/22: JEB: Decadal prediction cage fight
• 2009/02/18: JEB: Have the sceptics taken over the asylum?
• 2009/02/19: NCM: Update to MM07 and S07 Analysis
• 2009/02/17: NCM: A look at MM07 and S09

  More Hansen:

• 2009/02/20: Guardian(UK): James Hansen's war on coal [Anti]
• 2009/02/16: ClimateP: James Hansen: "Coal is the single greatest threat to civilization and all life on our planet"
• 2009/02/16: GristMill: The sword of Damocles by James Hansen
  Will U.K.'s prime minister act to address the biggest threat to Britain's youth?
• 2009/02/16: WorldChanging: Climate Change Demands a Transformative Change in Direction by James Hansen
• 2009/02/16: PeakEnergy: James Hansen: Coal-fired power stations are death factories. Close them

  Here is another report I would like to see verified:

• 2009/02/20: TreeHugger: Researchers Say Hippy Reasons for Living Sustainably Beat Out "Hope for Future"
• 2009/02/20: Eureka: Abandon hope -- Live sustainably just because it's the right thing to do

  Meanwhile on the Kyoto front:

• 2009/02/18: TreeHugger: Kyoto Anniversary: Protest Marks Four Years of Implementation

  And on the Kyoto-2 front:

• 2009/02/21: DotEarth: 'Unforgiving Math of Accumulating Emissions'
• 2009/02/21: GristMill: Copen sleepin -- Heading to Denmark in December? Book a room now
• 2009/02/20: ABC(Au): Time running out for climate change solution
  We are 283 days away from COP 15 - the United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009 - and Australia will have to get cracking if it is going to make a worthwhile input. So will any people or organisations who are truly concerned about our common future rather than just their own. Recent history shows why.
• 2009/02/19: EarthTimes: Rasmussen: world risks 'green protectionism' if climate talks fail
• 2009/02/18: AFTIC: China and India: Just what should their CO2 responsibilities be?
• 2009/02/13: Yahoo: Japan should set mid-term emissions targets: envoy [European Commission's climate change negotiator Artur Runge-Metzger]
• 2009/02/13: Yahoo: US 'sea change' on climate talks: EU, UN
  Top UN and EU climate officials said Friday they saw a "sea change" in the United States under President Barack Obama, saying it showed a willingness to engage on global warming in their first meeting.

While at the UN:

• 2009/02/18: BBerg: UN Searches for New Employees as CO2 Projects Swell
  The United Nations is looking for project managers and carbon-market experts to approve a backlog of wind farms, industrial-gas reduction projects and other ventures to cut carbon-dioxide emissions. The UN is flooded with record numbers of clean-development mechanism, or CDM, projects, John Kilani, sustainable development mechanisms director at the UNFCCC, said. Full-time employees are needed to speed the processing of developments that aim to qualify for tradable carbon credits, he added. "We really need people who have experience in development of projects and document design," Kilani said in an interview from Bonn. "In doing this, we will be better able to cope with all the projects in the pipeline. It's difficult at the moment." Wind-farm applications, hydroelectric plants, tree-plantings and other projects that reduce carbon emissions and qualify for the UN's carbon certificates are at record levels as more companies anticipate tougher rules on emissions that contribute to global warming.
• 2009/02/13: Yahoo: UN Climate Chief [UNFCCC head, Yvo de Boer] Says Japan Must Set 'Ambitious' Goal
• 2009/02/13: Yahoo: UN climate chief [UNFCCC head, Yvo de Boer] praises new US administration

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2009/02/20: WorldChanging: Cap And Trade Works!
• 2009/02/18: CarbonFinance: Analysts credit EU ETS with helping cut emissions
• 2009/02/19: EnvFin: Carbon market speculators get caught short
• 2009/02/19: EnvFin: [Chicago Climate Futures] Exchange to list US voluntary carbon credits
• 2009/02/19: BWeek: Carbon: Europe's Lessons for the U.S.
  The economic downturn is undermining Europe's effort to cut CO2 emissions -- and particularly its four-year-old carbon-trading system
• 2009/02/16: BBerg: EU Carbon Permits Fall Near Record as UN Expects Jump in Supply

  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:

• 2009/02/19: C411: Quick References: Cap and Trade vs. Carbon Tax
• 2009/02/20: JQuiggin: An argument for emissions trading
• 2009/02/19: GristMill: I love it when you talk carbon taxes! Memo to tax sirens: Both a carbon cap and a tax can be implemented well
• 2009/02/18: Australian: We need to start emissions debate

  Meanwhile on the international political front:

• 2009/02/22: CanWest: Australia to press Harper on environmental issues -- Climate change 'a big deal,' high commissioner says
  Australia wants to join Canada and the United States in a renewed effort to combat climate change, and the new high commissioner to Ottawa intends to press this case to the Harper government. This represents an about-face for Canberra and it might be coming at just the right time based on the suddenly greening stance of Stephen Harper during his meeting with new U.S. President Barack Obama.
• 2009/02/20: Guardian(UK): Rich nations failing to meet climate aid pledges
  World's richest countries have pledged nearly $18bn to help poorer countries adapt to climate change, but less than $1bn has been disbursed
• 2009/02/18: Reuters: G20 should send clear signal on climate change-Denmark

  US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton took a trip to China:

• 2009/02/21: Yahoo: In China, Clinton focuses on global warming, but not human rights
• 2009/02/21: Far-n-Wide: Where Have I Heard This Before?
• 2009/02/21: ChinaDaily: Clinton to China: Avoid our mistakes in climate
• 2009/02/21: CBC: Clinton urges U.S., China co-operation on clean technology
  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed senior Chinese officials Saturday to co-operate on a number of issues, including the environment, the world financial crisis and security threats. After a meeting with Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Clinton spoke of a new partnership between the U.S. and China to reduce carbon emissions, a tall order since the United States is the biggest energy consumer in the world. China could be the biggest by next year, according to the International Energy Agency.
• 2009/02/20: GristMill: Prospects for climate/energy action, VIII -- The gameplan: partnership with China
• 2009/02/17: TreeHugger: Will China and the US Go Big on Climate Cooperation?

  As for GW & security:

• 2009/02/22: DenverPost: Climate may lead to global conflict -- Experts say warming and rising oceans could spur mass migrations.
  If we don't deal with climate change decisively, "what we're talking about then is extended world war," the eminent economist said. His small, elite audience Saturday had been stranded here by bad weather and was talking climate. They couldn't do much about the weather, but the climate was squarely in their hands. And so, Lord Nicholas Stern was telling them, was the potential for mass migrations setting off mass conflict. "Somehow we have to explain to people just how worrying that is," the British economic thinker said.
• 2009/02/18: TerraDaily: Analysis: Climate threatens U.S. security
• 2009/02/19: TreeHugger: Climate Change is a Top Threat to National Security, Says New Head of US Intelligence

  And on the American political front:

• 2009/02/19: NatureN: US considers a national climate service -- Programme would merge climate-change data from multiple agencies.
• 2009/02/19: NatureCF: One climate service to rule them all
• 2009/02/20: GristMill: Cap dance -- Washington State's cap-and-trade legislation passes out of committee
• 2009/02/20: USNWR: Are the Government's Energy Statistics Reliable Enough? Everyone relies on Energy Department numbers, but experts say they can be incomplete or inaccurate
• 2009/02/19: Oregonian: Coalition wants forests included in federal climate change policy
• 2009/02/19: Forbes:AP: West Virginia Governor [Joe Manchin] urges coal to support renewable energy
• 2009/02/19: CPI: Coal Ash: The Hidden Story -- How Industry and the EPA Failed To Stop a Growing Environmental Disaster
• 2009/02/20: WSWS: Clean-up costs from Tennessee coal ash disaster could top $800 million
• 2009/02/19: NewScientist: Ban on mountaintop mining overturned
• 2009/02/19: GristMill: Most heartening email of the day -- MoveOn preps for gigantic green economy campaign
• 2009/02/18: GristMill: If you're not in Kansas anymore...Will coal fight continue if governor [Kathleen Sebelius (D)] is tapped for Obama Cabinet?
• 2009/02/18: GristMill: Vapor jobs -- Big Coal's far-out proposal for an economic stimulus
• 2009/02/17: ENS: America's Climate Choices: The Process and The Summit
• 2009/02/19: ENN: Western states' climate laws: the cost of inaction
• 2009/02/19: SF Gate: California's renewable energy goals feasible
  California's goal of getting 33 percent of its electricity from the sun, the wind and other renewable sources by 2020 might be more feasible than previously thought, according to a new government report. If all the renewable power projects proposed in the state last year were built, California would easily surpass that goal, according to a report issued Wednesday by the California Public Utilities Commission. All told, those projects would generate 24,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for 18 million homes.
• 2009/02/18: SeattlePI: 'Cap and trade' emissions bill passes out of [Washington state] House committee
• 2009/02/18: KSJT: NYTimes: Governor Palin gets some respectful ink as remote Alaskan villages get wind turbines; plus, Elk feeding in Wyo.
• 2009/02/18: GristMill: New energy, meet old energy -- Politicos, Pickens hype summit in D.C. next week
• 2009/02/17: GG&G: The Effects of U.S. Agricultural Subsidies
• 2009/02/15: GristMill: A plague of Wal-Marts -- Until real middle-class wages start rising, we can't end agricultural subsidies

  A civil disobedience action is upcoming at the Washington DC coal plant:

• 2009/02/21: ClimateP: Powershift 2009 and civil disobedience at DC coal plant
• 2009/02/20: Guardian(UK): Power Shift: Global youth climate movement comes of age
  Obama's first big test on climate change - the largest eco protest in history
• 2009/02/18: DotEarth: NASA's Hansen Pushes Capitol Coal Protest
• 2009/02/19: EnergyBulletin: Why I'll get arrested to stop the burning of coal
• 2009/02/18: TreeHugger: Dr. James Hansen Calls On Americans To Join Him At The Largest Protest On Global Warming In U.S. History

  The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2009/02/19: Nieman: Nine climate questions for President Obama
• 2009/02/20: GristMill: The deep end of the Pooley -- Eric Pooley offers nine questions on climate legislation that the press ought to ask Obama
• 2009/02/20: BBerg: Obama Climate Plan May Spur Trade Row Over Company Protections
• 2009/02/20: WaPo: U.S. Has Dual Task On Climate Change -- To Sway Both Congress, Other Nations To Approve Cuts in Greenhouse Gases
• 2009/02/19: Guardian(UK): I hope Obama jumps the right way on Canada's tar sands
• 2009/02/19: ClimateP: Obama's first month: 31 days that made -- and may remake -- history
• 2009/02/18: Guardian(UK): Obama's tar sand trap by James Hansen
  The tar sands of Canada constitute a deadly threat to our planet. The US and Canada must agree not to develop them
• 2009/02/18: ClimateP: If Obama stops dirty coal, as he must, what will replace it? Part 1
• 2009/02/18: ClimateP: Memo to Obama: CCS won't make tar sands clean. Memo to all: They ain't "oil sands."
• 2009/02/18: TreeHugger: How Obama's Plan to Double Alternative Energy Will Work
• 2009/02/17: Yahoo: Obama compares oil sands to coal
• 2009/02/18: OilChange: Obama bets on unproven carbon capture "technology"

  The first actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2009/02/21: TreeHugger: Obama EPA May Regulate CO2 for the First Time Ever
• 2009/02/19: KSJT: NYTimes, Wires, WSJournal, CBS: On the EPA and regulating CO2 as a pollutant
• 2009/02/20: ClimateP: Chu creates team to distribute stimulus cash "wisely but also quickly"
• 2009/02/19: WarmingLaw: Oh Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy [EPA CO2]
• 2009/02/18: QuarkSoup: Regulating Carbon Dioxide
• 2009/02/20: AutoBG: Energy Secretary implements fast-track changes; Fisker and Tesla might benefit quickly
• 2009/02/19: USA Today: Climate change on table for Clinton in China
• 2009/02/19: TreeHugger: EPA Sues Louisiana Coal-Fired Power Plant to Install Required Pollution Controls, Seeks Civil Damages
• 2009/02/19: NYT: E.P.A. Expected to Regulate Carbon Dioxide
• 2009/02/18: NatureCF: Greenhouse gases up for a rethink at the EPA
• 2009/02/18: TreeHugger: Will the New EPA be Tougher on Coal?
• 2009/02/18: WSJ:EnvCap: Power Play: The EPA, Congress, and Carbon Emissions
• 2009/02/18: WaPo: EPA May Reverse Bush, Limit Carbon Emissions From Coal-Fired Plants
• 2009/02/17: ClimateP: Obama EPA to act on global warming emissions from new coal plants
• 2009/02/17: ClimateP: L.A. Times: "Hydrogen fuel-cell technology won't work in cars" Duh. Time for Obama and Chu to kill the program.
• 2009/02/17: GristMill: Prospects for climate/energy action, VII -- The game plan: regulating CO2 under the Clean Air Act
• 2009/02/17: GristMill: Johnson blocked again -- EPA reopens possibility of regulating CO2 from coal-fired power plants
• 2009/02/17: WarmingLaw: EPA Grants Petition to Reconsider the Johnson Memo, Latest Update to the "Bonanza" Saga
• 2009/02/17: WSJ:EnvCap: Burned, Again: EPA Boss Jackson Opens Door to Tougher Coal Rules

  As for Congress:

• 2009/02/20: ClimateP: Reid: Global warming bill on Senate floor "hopefully late this summer"
• 2009/02/20: Google:AP: Reid pushing for climate change bill
• 2009/02/19: ClimateP: Reid: Energy bill headed to the floor before spring recess
• 2009/02/19: GristMill: Blue dogs, old tricks
• 2009/02/19: EarthTimes: US could get clean energy upgrade by early summer
• 2009/02/16: WaPo: Climate Change Solutions -- Sen. Boxer is open to everything -- except what might work best

  They're still jawin' over the stimulus bill:

• 2009/02/21: AutoBG: $2 billion? Nah, more like $12.5 billion for plug-in cars in the stimulus bill
• 2009/02/18: IR^2: The Biggest Energy Bill in History
  At least according to the New York Times, if you pull out the energy-related provisions from the just passed stimulus package, the $80 billion "would amount to the biggest energy bill in history."
• 2009/02/18: BioEnergyBiz: US stimulus package provides large boost for biomass energy but little for biofuels
• 2009/02/19: EnvFin: Analyst expects CCS to surge following US stimulus package
• 2009/02/18: NYT: An $80 Billion Start
  Wrapped inside the economic stimulus package is about $80 billion in spending, loan guarantees and tax incentives aimed at promoting energy efficiency, renewable energy sources, higher-mileage cars and coal that is truly clean. As a stand-alone measure, these investments would amount to the biggest energy bill in history. As ambitious as this measure is, it should not be confused with a global warming bill. Dealing with climate change will require a much broader strategy, even larger federal investments in clean-energy technologies and an effort to put a price on greenhouse gas emissions to unlock private investment on an enormous scale. But this is a useful down payment, which could also help reduce the nation's reliance on foreign oil.
• 2009/02/17: TechRev: Stimulus Big Winner: Battery Manufacturing -- The Congressional stimulus bill could help create a new, advanced battery industry in the United States.
• 2009/02/17: GristMill: All aboard the SUPERTRAIN -- The stimulus bill provides serious money for high-speed rail
• 2009/02/16: CSW: Stimulus bill gives whistleblower rights to contractor employees, fails to protect federal workers
• 2009/02/15: CSW: Economic stimulus bill update: Funding for climate science at NASA and NOAA is retained
• 2009/02/16: TreeHugger: $60 Billion for Green in the Stimulus Bill: Where the Money Will Go

  And the upcoming climate and energy bills:

• 2009/02/19: GristMill: Battles past and future -- What does the stimulus fight portend for the climate/energy fight?

  While in the UK:

• 2009/02/22: Guardian(UK): UK is branded a 'climate criminal' over coal plans
  Campaigners in 40 countries say UK's proposed new coal power plants will undercut emission deals
• 2009/02/22: Guardian(UK): [Letters] The big issue: coal-powered energy
• 2009/02/18: Guardian(UK): Airport expansion protests set for take-off
• 2009/02/17: P&J: Scotland's future energy needs
• 2009/02/17: Guardian(UK): [Letters] Retrofitting our housing stock is the way to tackle climate change
• 2009/02/16: Guardian(UK): Hold on to your green idealism
  Leo Hickman says environmentalists must now compromise because of a backlash -- not true, there's always a backlash
• 2009/02/13: Guardian(UK): Meet the new Britain: just like the old one where green protesters are spied on -- The government is confusing peaceful protest with extremism

  And in Europe:

• 2009/02/16: EnergyBulletin: Renewable energy is major source of carbon reduction in Germany: a response to the 'Spiegel' article
• 2009/02/16: EurActiv: Lawmakers push for deforestation credits in ETS

  Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2009/02/22: SMH: 22 million more trips on public transport
  A growing number of Sydney commuters are abandoning their cars in favour of trains and buses as economic and environmental concerns bite, with experts predicting the start of a fundamental, long-term shift in travel behaviour. Sydneysiders undertook about 22 million more train and bus journeys last year than the year before, and tens of thousands of people have abandoned the two main roads into the city this year.
• 2009/02/21: ABC(Au): Economic alarms sounding for recycling industry
  For many Australians knowing that much of their household waste is used again is a comforting thought. And in the business world recycling has actually been a money spinner - until the global financial crisis and the sharp fall in commodity prices. Now it is becoming uneconomic to recycle and stockpiles are beginning to grow around the country as recyclers ponder what to do with the enormous amount of waste they could previously make some money from.
• 2009/02/21: ABC(Au): The Northern Territory Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) says it wants government and business to adopt and practice its principles on sustainable development
• 2009/02/21: SMH: Plan tells developers to weigh up years of sea change
  Every new beachside home, coastal apartment block and piece of infrastructure on the coastline of NSW would have to be re-examined under a State Government draft policy on rising sea levels. The draft document, to be released today, contains guidelines for local councils which say the impact of rising sea levels should be assessed "over the life of an asset", meaning that long-term developments would need to take sea-level rise into account for decades into the future.
• 2009/02/20: ABC(Au): Tasmania's Water Minister has released a new guide to help urban planners work out if public assets are at risk from rising sea levels
• 2009/02/19: ABC(Au): The New South Wales Government has extended rebates for solar hot water systems and rainwater tanks until 2011
• 2009/02/19: ABC(Au): Hockey, Swan trade blows on economy, climate change
• 2009/02/20: ABC(Au): Time running out for climate change solution
  We are 283 days away from COP 15 - the United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009 - and Australia will have to get cracking if it is going to make a worthwhile input. So will any people or organisations who are truly concerned about our common future rather than just their own. Recent history shows why.
• 2009/02/20: ABC(Au): Robb denies advocating carbon tax
  The Federal Opposition's emissions trading spokesman has distanced the Coalition from supporting a carbon tax.
• 2009/02/19: ABC(Au): The Federal Opposition says the Government should consider a carbon tax as a more effective way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions
• 2009/02/18: ABC(Au): Federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has not ruled out supporting a carbon tax as a way of cutting greenhouse emissions
• 2009/02/19: ABC(Au): Brisbane to plant 500,000th tree, 1.5m to go -- Brisbane's quest to become the greenest city in Australia will move a step closer to fruition today
• 2009/02/18: ABC(Au): The Greens say the South Australian Government has neglected key components of its climate change laws
• 2009/02/17: ABC(Au): The South Australian Premier, Mike Rann, says the State Government plans to change development laws so climate change is taken into account in locations where there is a bushfire risk

  There has been a tussle over the AUS-ETS:

• 2009/02/22: ABC(Au): Carbon trading bill due within weeks: Swan
  Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan says the Government remains committed to its plans for a carbon trading scheme.
• 2009/02/22: SMH: Storm brews over emissions
  Getting the climate plan through the Senate is as vital for Rudd as the GST was for Howard, writes Michelle Grattan. Suddenly, climate change has turned into Kevin Rudd's perfect storm. The issue that worked so strongly in his favour in 2007 threatens to be a political nightmare. The Prime Minister remains committed to his emissions trading scheme (ETS). But he's had to lower his aspirations: the proposed plan has very modest targets, but even so it is at risk of being sunk by a Senate divided between critics who will variously attack it for going too far and not far enough.
• 2009/02/21: SMH: Opposition hardens to climate change plan
  The future of the Government's key climate change policy was uncertain yesterday as the minister, Penny Wong, renewed her attack on the Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull, and asked him not to block it from coming into law this year.
• 2009/02/20: ABC(Au): Full steam ahead on carbon trading: Wong
  Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has moved to kill off any speculation the Government will change or delay its emissions trading scheme, amid building pressure from industry and the Opposition.
• 2009/02/20: SMH: Crash or burn as carbon plan faces collapse
  The Federal Government will pledge today to crash through on its emissions trading scheme even though the policy is in peril, as both the Coalition and the Greens harden their opposition and their supporters demand a radical overhaul. The Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong, will tell a business lunch in Sydney the global financial crisis was no excuse for backing away from implementing the scheme next year. Strategists from both the Opposition and the Greens said the Government's "our way or the highway" approach was collapsing, and without big changes the emissions scheme would not pass the Senate. The legislation will be introduced in May or June. To underscore its resolve, last night the Government scrapped a parliamentary inquiry commissioned last week to examine the scheme.
• 2009/02/19: ABC(Au): Govt 'in disarray' over scrapped ETS inquiry
  The Federal Government is coming under criticism from all other sides of politics for cancelling a parliamentary inquiry into its emissions trading scheme (ETS).
• 2009/02/19: ABC(Au): Govt wants ETS inquiry scrapped
  The Federal Government has moved to shut down debate on its emissions trading scheme (ETS) by announcing that it was discontinuing an inquiry into the scheme by the House of Representatives standing committee on economics.
• 2009/02/19: ABC(Au): Committee to report on ETS by May: Govt
  The Government has been forced to clarify its intentions on an emissions trading scheme (ETS) after confusion over whether an inquiry would delay the introduction of legislation.
• 2009/02/19: SMH: Industry to get $9b carbon cushion
  The Federal Government will spend $9 billion cushioning industry against the impact of carbon trading over the next three years. A wide range of heavy-polluting industries, from aluminium refining to tissue paper production, may be eligible for compensation if they can complete audits by May 1.
• 2009/02/19: ABC(Au): Emissions trading timetable in doubt
  Federal MP Craig Thomson has raised doubts over whether the Government will meet its own timetable for implementing an emissions trading scheme. The original timetable for the scheme's introduction called for the bills to be in front of Parliament by May and passed by June. But the Government has since referred the scheme to the House of Representatives Economics Committee, which is not due to report back until the second half of this year
• 2009/02/18: Australian: We need to start emissions debate

  And in China:

• 2009/02/19: CSM: China's pollution nightmare is now everyone's pollution nightmare
• 2009/02/21: AFTIC: China's pollution nightmare - Christian Science Monitor
• 2009/02/19: Google:AFP: China says willing to work with US on climate change
• 2009/02/19: Reuters: China says [economic] crisis won't stop its climate action

  While elsewhere in Asia:

• 2009/02/18: Guardian(UK): Indonesia reopens peatland to palm oil plantation

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

• 2009/02/21: BLongstaff: Will we ever see environmental leadership in this country?
• 2009/02/21: CanWest: NRC cuts could affect 300 positions
  The National Research Council plans to eliminate three research groups, downsize another and affect up to 300 employees, including research scientists, according to a memo from its president. The move is potentially a serious blow to Canadian innovation when the economy is already faltering, science advocates say.
• 2009/02/20: TStar: Green energy dollars wasted? Focus should be on wind and solar rather than less cost-effective biofuels, [C.D. Howe Institute] report says
• 2009/02/20: CBC: Nunavut to host High Arctic research station: [Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Chuck] Strahl
• 2009/02/17: CanWest: As climate funding dries up, our scientists are heading out
  Katrin Meissner is determined to be on the forefront of understanding the climate change affecting everything from permafrost to bird migrations. The celebrated young scientist at the University of Victoria had planned to build her career in Canada. But Ms. Meissner is packing up her young family and heading for Australia. The University of New South Wales made her an offer she couldn't refuse -- a position as a senior lecturer, research opportunities and guaranteed daycare for her one-year-old son, which was the perk that sealed the deal. "I didn't really want to leave," says Ms. Meissner, who is walking away from a coveted tenure-track position in Victoria. But she says the opportunities in Australia seem much more promising. 'Long-term it looks quite scary in Canada," says Ms. Meissner. It is a refrain heard across Canada as funding dries up at the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences, a prime source of funding for university-based projects under way from the Arctic to B.C. mountaintops.
• 2009/02/15: CTV: Prentice 'optimistic' gas project will begin soon
  Environment Minister Jim Prentice says he is "optimistic" that work on the controversial Mackenzie Gas Project, which proposes building a pipeline to deliver northern natural gas to Canadian and U.S. markets, will begin soon after numerous delays for environmental and community assessments.

Barack Obama came to Soviet Canuckistan for 7 hours last Thursday. Much ink flowed:

• 2009/02/22: EdSun: Barry O is speaking Albertans' language
• 2009/02/22: CanWest: Obama And The Tarsands -- 'Dirty oil' debate back in spotlight
• 2009/02/19: DemNow: Canadian Activists Urge Obama to Reject Environmentally Destructive Oil Extraction from Alberta's Tar Sands
• 2009/02/19: NYT: Obama Makes Overtures to Canada's Leader -- President Obama charted a delicate course with Canada on Thursday.../A>
• 2009/02/20: GreenGrok: Obama On Tar Sands - Or Should I Say Oil Sands
• 2009/02/19: NYT:GreenInc: Obama and Canada's Controversial Oil Patch
• 2009/02/19: GristMill: In tar nation -- Obama, Harper fired up to make dirty energy clean
• 2009/02/20: GristMill: Our prez went to Canada ... and all we got were 'clean energy' promises ...
• 2009/02/20: DeSmogBlog: President Obama's best strategy for Harper and Climate Change
• 2009/02/20: RigZone: Obama's Canada Visit Highlights Tar Sand Woes
• 2009/02/20: Guardian(UK): Heads in the tar sands
  Barack Obama and Stephen Harper's clean energy dialogue doesn't acknowledge that Canadian oil is a necessary evil
• 2009/02/20: OilChange: Obama Agrees: There is "No Silver Bullet"
• 2009/02/19: OilChange: Messages to Obama: There is no "Silver Bullet" Over Tar Sands
• 2009/02/18: ED: Dirty Oil Tar Sands Inconsistent with Obama's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan
• 2009/02/20: Xinhuanet: Canadian media see Obama visit a success, but lack in substance
• 2009/02/20: CanWest: Not a very green day
  Hopefully it was good manners rather than weakening resolve, but for whatever reason visiting U.S. President Barack Obama didn't offer green-minded Canadians the ringing reassurances some were looking for yesterday. The agreement between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Obama to jointly pursue clean technologies -- carbon capture and storage, a so-called smart electric grid, other unspecified techno-fixes -- sounds innocuous, if not positive. But on closer examination, it looks like an agreement to disagree. Certainly, there was little or nothing said about energy conservation, reducing reliance on Alberta's energy-intensive tarsands, or a joint North American cap and trade regime. We are used to delay and distractions from our own leaders on this file -- the litany of unfulfilled promises stretches back to Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin. Under pressure from public opinion, Harper has moved grudgingly from denial to delay, now professing concern about climate change, but is showing no noticeable hurry to address it. In fact, incredibly, he is suggesting that his government has long been keen to tackle the issue, but was thwarted by the do-nothing George W. Bush administration!
• 2009/02/19: TreeHugger: Ottawa Obamarama Update: Techno-fixes for Carbon?
• 2009/02/19: DeSmogBlog: "Clean Energy Dialogue" or Carbon Capture Shellgame?
• 2009/02/19: SF Gate: Obama should not give a pass to tar sands oil
• 2009/02/19: G&M: Obama's climate policy a positive change, Harper says
• 2009/02/19: BBC: Barack Obama, in his first foreign trip as US president, has pledged to work with Canada on energy, economic recovery and Afghanistan.
  [...] Environmental activists have urged President Obama to get tough with Canada about its massive oil sands operation which produces a high amount of greenhouse gases blamed for climate change. Mr Obama reiterated his desire to work with Canada on new technologies to capture greenhouse gases, announcing a "clean energy dialogue" between the two countries.
• 2009/02/19: BBC: The National Trust is releasing enough land for up to 1,000 allotments, on some of the most famous country estates in Britain.
  The land will be available for individuals or community groups in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. [...] BBC environment correspondent Sarah Mukherjee said it was not long ago that allotment gardening was a deeply unfashionable pursuit, with many plots abandoned, and few people willing to take them on. However, increasing consumer interest in where food comes from, combined with concerns about food miles and sustainability, has led to an allotment renaissance, our correspondent added.
• 2009/02/19: CBC: Charest hopes Obama visit sparks new climate change pact
  Quebec Premier Jean Charest is hopeful U.S. President Barack Obama's trip to Ottawa will kickstart a new, more ambitious North American plan to fight climate change. The new president is expected to discuss energy and environmental issues during his visit with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Thursday.
• 2009/02/19: CBC: PM, Obama talk trade, Afghanistan, pledge 'clean energy dialogue'
• 2009/02/19: NatPo: Could carbon tax be on the table?
• 2009/02/18: GristMill: A tar-nished image? Obama says tar-sands oil has 'big carbon footprint,' but doesn't rule out its use
• 2009/02/17: GristMill: Will Harper play Obama? Canadian PM and business groups use Obama's visit to shill for dirty tar sands oil
• 2009/02/18: TreeHugger: Obama Admits Canadian Tar Sands' Carbon Footprint a Problem (Phew...)
• 2009/02/18: DeSmogBlog: Obama, the Canada's government not worth its salt on global warming [pic]
• 2009/02/17: Yahoo: Obama compares oil sands to coal
• 2009/02/18: Reuters: Canadian protesters urge Obama to shun oil sands
• 2009/02/18: OilChange: Obama bets on unproven carbon capture "technology"
• 2009/02/18: Rabble: Obama - disappointing, but not surprising
  On the tar sands, Obama supported the Harper Conservative position that greenhouse gas emissions can be dealt with by carbon capture and storage. He said "...ultimately, I think this can be solved by technology. I think that it is possible for us to create a set of clean energy mechanisms that allow us to use things not just like oilsands, but also coal." Of course, the trouble with carbon capture for tar sands emissions is that the technology is untried and untested, does not yet exist and is not even close to being operational. The Conservative plan for carbon capture exempts all existing tar sands operations (which are already Canada's largest growing source of g.h.g.s) and will not kick in for new plants until 2018 at the earliest. Plus there's obviously lots more wrong with the tar sands besides carbon emissions, such as poisoning of downstream Cree communities; massive boreal forest destruction; unsustainable draining of the Athabasca, Slave and Mackenzie water systems; no refining in Canada; and much more.
• 2009/02/18: BCLSB: Welcome Obama, About Those Tar Sands
• 2009/02/18: AGR: Photo Post: Greenpeace in Ottawa
• 2009/02/18: CBC: Tarsands banner message to Obama taken down

  Environment Minister Jim Prentice is still playing for position:

• 2009/02/17: CBC: 'We'll work together' on greenhouse gas strategy: Prentice
  The federal government will talk with the provinces and territories as it crafts a new plan to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice said Tuesday. Meeting in Whitehorse with his provincial and territorial counterparts, Prentice said there is time to reach a plan before United Nations-led talks scheduled for Copenhagen in December.

The BC election is looming:

• 2009/02/16: Tyee: Gordo's Eco-Credibility Is Shot -- Premier strains belief on river power, sea lice.

  Ontario is struggling with its energy policy:

• 2009/02/21: TStar: Province to fast-track wind turbine projects
  Municipalities will lose the power to decide how close wind turbines can be to residential properties and environmentally sensitive areas under proposed green-energy legislation being tabled Monday. The new rules, a blow to NIMBYism, will also ensure that developers of wind and other renewable-energy projects get construction permits within six months.
• 2009/02/20: TStar: Green law to restrict location of wind turbines, [George Smitherman, Ontario Energy] Minister says

  The tricky & difficult question of the tar sands looms:

• 2009/02/18: Reuters: NASA's Hansen concerned about Canada's oil sands
• 2009/02/20: CanWest: Tarsands scare ads tough to counter
• 2009/02/19: NYT:GreenInc: Carbon Capture for the Oil Sands?
• 2009/02/19: BCLSB: RAND [Corporation] On The Tar Sands
• 2009/02/19: EdSun: Tarsands make one gruesome cover story
• 2009/02/18: Guardian(UK): Obama's tar sand trap by James Hansen
  The tar sands of Canada constitute a deadly threat to our planet. The US and Canada must agree not to develop them
• 2009/02/18: ClimateP: Memo to Obama: CCS won't make tar sands clean. Memo to all: They ain't "oil sands."
• 2009/02/17: NatGeo: Scraping Bottom -- Once considered too expensive, as well as too damaging to the land, exploitation of Alberta's oil sands is now a gamble worth billions
• 2009/02/17: CBC: Alberta First Nations place anti-tarsands ad in major U.S. paper
• 2009/02/17: WSJ:EnvCap: Exxon Opts for Oil Sands; Will Obama?
• 2009/02/16: Platts: Canada's Imperial proved reserves jump 50% on tar sands booking

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

• 2009/02/18: CCurrents: What Does Economic "Recovery" Mean On An Extreme Weather Planet?
• 2009/02/17: AlterNet: No More Band-Aid Solutions to the Financial Crisis: We Need to Build an Economy that Works by David Korten
• 2009/01/29: NYRB: Can We Transform the Auto-Industrial Society?
• 2009/02/17: TStar: Take Peak Oil seriously - it'll be here much sooner than you think
  No longer the purview of anti-social types, experts warn we must embrace a massive lifestyle change

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

• 2009/02/19: AlterNet: Bristol Palin Speaks the Truth on Fox: Abstinence 'Is Not Realistic at All'
• 2009/02/16: CCurrents: When Population Growth And Resource Availability Collide
• 2009/02/18: BBC: Is it selfish to have more than two children?
  Is having more than two children selfish? The future of the planet rarely plays a part when planning a family, but that's got to change, say environmental campaigners.
• 2009/02/17: TreeHugger: When Population Growth And Resource Availability Collide
• 2009/02/17: PeakEnergy: Could Energy Success Explode The Population Bomb?

  Apocalypso anyone?

• 2009/02/20: Westender: The end of the world? Noted Author Jared Diamond Predicts 49 Percent Chance of Civilization Collapse
• 2009/02/18: Intelligencer: Survive by turning back hands of time
• 2009/02/18: EnergyBulletin: The future is Amish, not Mad Max: interview with Bart Anderson of EB

  As for how the media handles the science of climatology:

• 2009/02/19: GristMill: Note to world: Check out independent media some time, it's pretty cool! NYT breaks story on CO2 regulations ... after two years of Grist coverage
• 2009/02/18: KSJT: Columbia Journalism Review: Overseas reporters outnumber US at AAAS meeting; and an update on how old media and new media are doing science
• 2009/02/18: TP:WonkRoom: Wire Services Uncritically Promote Fossil Industry Propaganda
• 2009/02/15: MongaBay: Mass media 'screwing up' global warming reporting says renowned climatologist [Stephen Schneider]

  Speaking of effective communication:

• 2009/02/17: DeSmogBlog: Scientists losing war of words over climate change

  Here is something for your library:

• 2009/02/21: Guardian(UK): [Book Reviews] Jim'll fix it -- Could James Lovelock really solve the earth's problems? Peter Forbes is almost convinced
  _The Vanishing Face of Gaia_ by James Lovelock
  _He Knew He Was Right: The Irrepressible Life of James Lovelock and Gaia_ by John Gribbin & Mary Gribbin

And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2009/02/20: OilDrum: Blind Spot Documentary

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

• 2009/02/16: SciAm: How Renewable Energy and Storage Solutions Stack Up
  The need to tackle global climate change and energy security makes developing alternatives to fossil fuels crucial
• 2009/02/19: KSJT: Around the World: Green energy is up, no wait it's down, no wait...
• 2009/02/19: DetNews: U.S. short on line capacity to fully use wind, solar power
• 2009/02/20: USNWR: Are the Government's Energy Statistics Reliable Enough? Everyone relies on Energy Department numbers, but experts say they can be incomplete or inaccurate
• 2009/02/20: SlashDot: Space Based Solar Power Within a Decade?
• 2009/02/19: SF Gate: California's renewable energy goals feasible
  California's goal of getting 33 percent of its electricity from the sun, the wind and other renewable sources by 2020 might be more feasible than previously thought, according to a new government report. If all the renewable power projects proposed in the state last year were built, California would easily surpass that goal, according to a report issued Wednesday by the California Public Utilities Commission. All told, those projects would generate 24,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for 18 million homes.
• 2009/02/17: WaPo: Alternative Energy Still Facing Headwinds -- Despite Obama's Support, Projects Tripped Up by Financing, Logistics
• 2009/02/17: P&J: Scotland's future energy needs
• 2009/02/17: OilChange: Economic Collapse Leads to Supply Crunch and Less Renewables
• 2009/02/16: EnergyBulletin: Renewable energy is major source of carbon reduction in Germany: a response to the 'Spiegel' article
• 2009/02/16: EurActiv: Energy savings 'driving up consumption', study warns

  It would be neat if something like this were suitable for widescale application:

• 2009/02/18: NewScientist: Sun-powered device converts CO2 into fuel
• 2009/02/16: PhysOrg: Easing Atmospheric CO2 Levels Using Nanotubes [photocatalyst] and Sunlight
  Researchers at The Pennsylvania State University have determined a way to use arrays of nanotubes in a solar-based process to convert carbon dioxide and water into methane and other hydrocarbon fuels. Their method may provide a new way to reduce carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere -- rising due to our planet's heavy use of fossil fuels -- as well as produce alternative fuels.
• 2009/02/16: BBC: The impact small wind turbines placed on homes and business could have on birds and bats is to be studied by researchers at Stirling University

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2009/02/21: PhysOrg: Tokyo Electric to build solar plant in California: report [1000 megawatts by 2010]
• 2009/02/20: FuturePundit: Long Term Solar Price Decline Trend Seen
• 2009/02/19: CNN: Solar power heats up energy possibilities
  Concentrated solar power projects in Spain leading field in that form of green energy - Potential of CSP in desert regions around the globe; more benefits than power - Plans to transform Sara ha would involve huge costs; small projects breaking through
• 2009/02/20: DO: Should we pave the desert?
  California's desert lands are in some ways a perfect fit with the renewable energy industries necessary to combat climate change. There's sun. There's wind. There's space. But without careful planning and regulation, these "climate solutions" could irrevocably damage the planet they are intended to protect.
• 2009/02/21: SlashDot: Optical Concentrator To Make Solar Power Cheaper [Morgan Solar's LSO: Light-Guide Solar Optic]
• 2009/02/19: Yahoo: Meltdown 101: Will the sun soon power our homes?
• 2009/02/19: ABC(Au): Printable solar technology 'heralds electronic revolution' -- The CSIRO is developing solar cells that can be printed out by the metre, like banknotes
• 2009/02/19: PhysOrg: Powering the future -- solar cells by the meter
• 2009/02/19: LBL: New Berkeley Lab Report Shows Significant Historical Reductions in the Installed Costs of Solar Photovoltaic Systems in the U.S. [while photovoltaic modules themselves cost about the same]
• 2009/02/17: PhysOrg: There's money to be saved in solar
• 2009/02/17: Eureka: Cheaper materials could be key to low-cost solar cells -- Availability of solar cell materials could limit large-scale deployment of photovoltaics
• 2009/02/18: PeakEnergy: Dow to sell solar power shingles
• 2009/02/16: PeakEnergy: Cutting Coal Use with Solar Thermal Power

  The arithmetic of coal carbon is striking home:

• 2009/02/19: GristMill: Coal lotta shakin' goin' on -- Anti-coal activists get a boost from Tennessee ash spill and other mishaps
• 2009/02/20: WSWS: Clean-up costs from Tennessee coal ash disaster could top $800 million
• 2009/02/17: GristMill: Life after coal: It's sooner than you think -- Investors will figure out that coal is growing scarce and too expensive
• 2009/02/16: ChinaDaily: King coal losing his power in electricity industry

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2009/02/19: UPI: Biofuels boom could destroy rainforests
• 2009/02/19: CPunch: Der Spiegel Exposes the Brazilian Ethanol Madness -- Why the Promise of Biofuels is a Lie
• 2009/02/20: NatureTGB: BP flexes cellulosic biofuel biceps
• 2009/02/18: TheStreet: BP to Produce Cellulosic Ethanol by 2012
• 2009/02/18: Google:CP: Ethanol companies run into trouble, but experts say the industry will survive
• 2009/02/19: ClimateP: Do first generation biofuels spell doom for tropical rainforests, global climate, world's poor?
• 2009/02/18: AutoBG: Let controversy reign: study says biofuels will speed up global warming
• 2009/02/14: TheIndependent: Corn, ethanol industries respond to criticism
• 2009/02/17: TreeHugger: Indonesia to Allow More Palm Oil From Peat Lands: Watch Greenhouse Gas Emissions Go Through the Roof
• 2009/02/16: UIUC: Ethanol plants no panacea for local economies, study finds
• 2009/02/16: Agronomy: Will Large Amounts of Soil Carbon be Released to the Atmosphere if Grasslands are Converted to Energy Crops?
• 2009/02/17: TechRev: Corn Ethanol: A Health Warning -- Pollutants emitted as a result of corn biofuel production could have serious impacts.

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2009/02/20: Guardian(UK): A kneejerk rejection of nuclear power is not an option
  Support of nuclear power will no doubt provoke hostile responses, but we have a duty to be as realistic as possible about how we might best prevent runaway climate change
• 2009/02/16: TreeHugger: Nuclear Fusion Redux: How Realistic Are Scientists' Plans to Build Mini-Stars on Earth?
• 2009/02/16: BBC: How to build a star on Earth

  Yes we have a peak everything:

• 2009/02/19: GreenGrok: Does the United States Need Bolivia's Lithium?
• 2009/02/19: OilDrum: How Long Before Uranium Shortages?
• 2009/02/19: EnergyBulletin: The peak oil crisis: parsing the numbers
• 2009/02/19: EnergyBulletin: Giant oil field decline rates and their influence on world oil production
• 2009/02/18: CCurrents: Peak Oil: Facts At Your Fingertips
• 2009/02/17: TStar: Take Peak Oil seriously - it'll be here much sooner than you think
  No longer the purview of anti-social types, experts warn we must embrace a massive lifestyle change
• 2009/02/17: TreeHugger: Peak Oil: So, Now It Is Official (Or Not?)
• 2009/02/17: NEN: Coal may run out sooner rather than later, wind and sun won't
• 2009/02/17: PeakEnergy: Total says oil output near peak
• 2009/02/17: EnergyBulletin: Peak oil - what do we do now? by Robert Hirsch

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2009/02/17: NYT:GreenInc: Electric Cars and a Smarter Grid
• 2009/02/15: GristMill: Lies, damned lies, and grid reliability statistics -- Grid reliability statistics look good, if you don't consider the flaws

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

• 2009/02/21: AutoBG: World's first hydrogen fuel cell tractor debuts in Italy
• 2009/02/20: CTV: Saab files for bankruptcy protection from creditors
  General Motors Corp.'s Swedish-based subsidiary Saab went into bankruptcy protection Friday so the unit can be spun off or sold by its struggling U.S. parent, officials said. The move comes after Sweden turned down GM's request for government help for Saab.
• 2009/02/19: PhysOrg: Electric car charging stations power-up in San Francisco
• 2009/02/19: Guardian(UK): Running on empty
  Fewer brands, fewer dealers, fewer workers, fewer benefits -- that's Detroit's recipe for restructuring the US auto industry
• 2009/02/18: BBC: US car giants face rocky road ahead
  If there were ever any doubts about the dire straits the US's biggest carmakers are in, then they have been swept aside by their latest rescue proposals. The US's Big Three carmakers, General Motors (GM), Chrysler and Ford, are presently fighting for their survival.
• 2009/02/17: CBC: Honda sees brisk demand for new [gas-electric] hybrid Insight
• 2009/02/16: IR^2: Electric Vehicle Update
• 2009/02/17: AutoBG: Renault says electric cars won't happen without government help

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

• 2009/02/19: EnvFin: GM, Exxon and Chevron make climate blacklist
  Nine US and Canadian companies have done such a poor job in evaluating and disclosing the impact of climate risk on their business operations that they earned a place on a 'Climate Watch List' created by investors. The companies were cited for inadequate disclosure of their carbon footprints and risks, lagging behind their industry peers in analysing the business risks created by climate change, and poor or unproductive engagement with investors about their failure to properly address risks such as emerging climate regulations. Canadian Natural Resources, Chevron, Consol Energy, Exxon Mobil, General Motors, Massey Energy, Southern Company, Standard Pacific and Ultra Petroleum were named in the list, compiled by Boston-based Ceres, a coalition of investors and environmental groups. Consol, Exxon and Massey are making their second appearances on the list.
• 2009/02/20: EurActiv: Global business groups say climate deal 'possible'
  Business organisations from across the world, including Europe, the United States, China, India and Brazil, have offered their support for a global climate change agreement at this year's UN meeting in Copenhagen.
• 2009/02/16: SciDaily: Climate Change Increasingly Impacting Investment Decisions

  Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:

• 2009/02/19: Guardian(UK): Greenwash: High price for greener bus travel
  Efforts by Stagecoach to green its bus services mean nothing unless it slashes the prices and runs its buses at full capacity
• 2009/02/17: GristMill: Green turds of desperation -- Big Coal's new campaign: choose us, not jobs and health

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2009/02/22: BCLSB: Scientists And Skeptics: We Got Lists
• 2009/02/22: TimesUnion: Oil giant tops deadbeat list -- Exxon Mobil contests $9M cleanup cost for Ogdensburg waterfront
• 2009/02/21: QuarkSoup: I Have Arrived
• 2009/02/18: Deltoid: Marohasy's dishonesty
• 2009/02/20: GWWatch: Who is fueling new Climate Sceptics political party?
• 2009/02/20: BCLSB: John Theon Deleted
• 2009/02/20: SF Gate: Investors put Chevron on 'climate watch'
• 2009/02/19: TP:WonkRoom: How Drudge Pumps The Marc Morano Jokers
• 2009/02/18: Deltoid: Frank Tipler covers up Reid Bryson's failed prediction
• 2009/02/18: DeSmogBlog: Research on Marc Morano's Climate Denier Gang
• 2009/02/17: DeSmogBlog: Former Astronaut in Bed with Big Oil?
• 2009/02/16: SameFacts: Another round of mendacity (or lunacy) on global warming
• 2009/02/17: ClimateP: Front group for polluting billionaires wastes $140K on world's dumbest global warming denier ads
• 2009/02/17: GristMill: Morano's Misinformation Machine -- Marc Morano's secret list of climate deniers
• 2009/02/17: DeSmogBlog: Marc Morano's Climate Denial Echo Machine
• 2009/02/17: TP:WonkRoom: Revealed: Marc Morano's Pack Of Climate Denial Jokers
• 2009/02/16: GreenGrok: News Flash: Astronaut Solves the Climate Problem
• 2009/02/16: QuarkSoup: Harrison Schmidt

  Considering the second study comes from the Western Business Roundtable, how much trust would you put in it?

• 2009/02/17: Oregonian: Dueling global warming studies heat up Oregon's debate
  If you're a follower of the global warming debate in Oregon, it's been a real head-spinning day: This morning, the University of Oregon's climate leadership initiative unveiled an ECONorthwest study predicting that doing nothing about global warming would cost Oregonians $1,930 per household come 2020. This afternoon, the Western Business Roundtable unveiled a Management Information Services study predicting that the main proposal in the West to do something about global warming -- a regional effort to limit carbon dioxide emissions -- would cost Oregonians $1,935 per household come 2020. In other words, the University of Oregon predicts economic trauma if we don't do something, while the Colorado-based business roundtable predicts virtually equal economic trauma if we do.
• 2009/02/17: Eureka: What if New Mexico doesn't address climate change? 'Business as usual' could cost the state $3.2 billion annually -- $3,430 per household -- as of 2020
• 2009/02/17: Eureka: What if Oregonians decline to address climate change? 'Business-as-usual' would cost a minimum of $3.3 billion a year -- $1,930 per household -- in 2020

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2009/02/21: JEB: Quiz answers
• 2009/02/21: Tamino: Ellensburg
• 2009/02/21: QuarkSoup: A Very Good Guide to Climate Change
• 2009/02/20: NYT: Changing Climate Numbers -- The 2007 [IPCC] assessment established a base line of expectation, but it is already looking outdated
• 2009/02/20: NatureCF: Curbing emissions, the old-fashioned way
• 2009/02/20: DotEarth: Roundup: CO2 Rules, Maps, Eroding Arctic
• 2009/02/20: CSW: What does it mean for me? Excellent article on regional climate assessments in "Issues in S&T"
• 2009/02/20: MTobis: New York City
• 2009/02/18: GreenGrok: Reflecting on the Night Side of the Moon
• 2009/02/17: AFTIC: Indian experts find bacteria to beat global heat
• 2009/02/17: Guardian(UK): Climate change outlook: mild
  Tales of our environmental demise are greatly exaggerated -- coal reserves are dwindling, and lower emissions will follow
• 2009/02/17: CNN: Five places to go before global warming messes them up
  Global warming may ruin many of nature's wonders - Rising sea levels could make visiting New Orleans difficult in the future - Glaciers in the Alps may melt by the middle of the century - Encouraged by warmer winters, pine beetles are ruining forests in Colorado
• 2009/02/17: BBC: Climate curbs need 'people power'
  The battle against climate change can only be won "in the hands of the many, not the few", a top scientist has said. Jacqueline McGlade, head of the European Environment Agency (EEA), warned the current approach left the public sidelined as "silent observers". Political and business leaders were not able to tackle the problem without help from ordinary people, she added.
• 2009/02/17: BBC: Climate crisis needs empowered people
• 2009/02/16: ABC(Au): Emission-free research station opens in Antarctica
• 2009/02/16: PhysOrg: NASA Study Predicted Outbreak of Deadly Virus
  An early warning system, more than a decade in development, successfully predicted the 2006-2007 outbreak of the deadly Rift Valley fever in northeast Africa, according to a new study led by NASA scientists.
• 2009/02/15: Stoat: Runaway climate change?
• 2009/02/15: Stoat: If that trend continues, says Serreze, sea ice will be -6 feet thick by 2050

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

• Wiki: Methane clathrate
• Wiki: Carbon cycle
• NSIDC: Arctic Sea Ice News
• Pure Poison
• UAF: Data of Sea Ice Extent
• NASA's Hurricane Resource Page
• BNC: Brave New Climate
• TechRev: MIT - Technology Review
• Free Public Transit
• CDLib: Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UCB
• CCR: Corporate Climate Response
• Sierra Legal -- Canada's independent legal champion for a healthy environment
• EcoGeek - Technology for the Environment
• Maribo [Simon Donner]
• NOAA: Weekly Palmer Drought Indices
• Media Matters on Global Warming: Misinformation Action Center

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.

"Given that this was the hottest day on record on top of the driest start to a year on record on top of the longest driest drought on record on top of the hottest drought on record, the implications are clear..." -BMO guy commenting on 2009 Australian bushfires

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