Another Week of GW News, March 2, 2009

Sipping from the internet firehose...

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Another week of Climate Disruption News

Sipping from the internet firehose...

March 1, 2009

• Top Stories:PowerShift, OCO, Smith et al., Barker et al., Ocean Circulation, Economy, Blogostorm
• Melting Arctic, International Polar Year, Arctic Geopolitics, Antarctica, Earth Hour, Monsoons, Aerosols, Grumbine, Brooks
• Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production
• Hurricanes, GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Feedbacks, Paleoclimate, Glaciers, DSCOVR
• Impacts, Forests, Climate Refugees, Wacky Weather, Tornadoes, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts
• Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Adaptation
• Journals, Misc. Science, Pielke
• Kyoto, Kyoto-2, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
• Politics: International, America, Britain, Europe, Australia, China, Ecuador, Canada
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Video, Courts
• Energy, Wind, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Grid, Cars, Greenwashing, Insurance
• Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

Why is most GW humour black humour?

• 2009/02/28: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Glass half empty
• 2009/02/26: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) The Age of Enlightentertainment
• 2009/02/26: uComics: (cartoon - Auth) The Fire Next Time
• 2009/02/25: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Levelling the Land
• 2009/02/24: AFTIC: (cartoon - Adams) Final retribution?

  The PowerShift conference and a March on the Washington DC Capitol coal plant is drawing a lot of attention:

• Student Environmental Action Coalition
• Capitol Climate Action
• Power Shift 2009
• Energy Action Coalition
• 2008/12/12: YesMag: Call for Mass Civil Disobedience Against Coal by Bill McKibben and Wendell Berry
• 2009/02/27: AfterGutenberg: Hansen Heeds the Call of Our Story
• 2009/02/27: AlterNet: Powershift: Action this Weekend Mobilizes Youth and Green Energy Activists
• 2009/02/27: Guardian(UK): Capitol Hill coal power plant targeted by environmentalists
• 2009/02/27: GristMill: Power for the people -- Anti-coal campaign gets some good news, but battle is far from won
• 2009/02/27: GristMill: See you in jail: It's not symbolism when you live in D.C. -- Why I'm joining 2,000 people for a global warming mass arrest on Monday [Mike Tidwell]
• 2009/02/26: TP:WonkRoom: Reid, Pelosi Call For End To Coal At U.S. Capitol Power Plant
• 2009/02/26: Guardian(UK): Power Shift climate protest gathers momentum in Washington
• 2009/02/26: McClatchyDC: Congressional leaders: Capitol Power Plant should stop coal use
• 2009/02/26: ClimateP: Pelosi and Reid: No more coal for Capitol Power Plant
• 2009/02/26: ClimateP: Is it time for civil disobedience at coal plants? Would you get arrested to help save a livable climate? Here's your chance Monday in DC.
• 2009/02/26: DemNow: Power Shift: Youth Climate Activists Swarm D.C. for Weekend of Organizing, Lobbying and Protest
• 2009/02/24: AlterNet: Bill McKibben: Why I'm Planning to Get Arrested on Monday (and You Should, Too)
• 2009/02/23: Guardian(UK): Why I'll get arrested to stop the burning of coal [Bill McKibben]

  The fairing on NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite did not open and it crashed into the Antarctic ocean. Much lamentation ensued:

• 2009/02/26: NatureN: Climate researchers in a spin after satellite loss -- Orbiting Carbon Observatory crash sets back post-Kyoto emissions monitoring
• 2009/02/25: GristMill: Now what? Advances in climate science took a nosedive in NASA satellite crash
• 2009/02/25: GreenGrok: 'Missing Sink' Finder Goes Missing Near the Antarctic
• 2009/02/25: KSJT: AP, Climate Wire, etc: More on that crashed CO2 mission...
• 2009/02/25: RealClimate: It's wrong to wish on space hardware
• 2009/02/24: Guardian(UK): Nasa's CO2 satellite crashes into Antarctic ocean
• 2009/02/24: CNN: NASA satellite crashes minutes after launch
  Satellite crashed into ocean near Antarctica minutes after launch, NASA says - $273 million project was intended to study effect of greenhouse gases - NASA: Investigators will probe why fairing failed to separate from rocket
• 2009/02/24: NatureN: Satellite to monitor carbon sinks sinks -- Orbiting Carbon Observatory crashes into sea
• 2009/02/24: NatureCF: NASA's carbon dioxide detector lost
• 2009/02/24: KSJT: Wires, lots of etc: Splash, and a much-needed CO2 mission suffers maddening launch failure
• 2009/02/25: ABC(Au): NASA launches satellite, satellite plunges into sea
• 2009/02/25: ABC(Au): NASA tries, fails to launch climate satellite
• 2009/02/24: NewScientist: CO2-tracking satellite crashes after lift-off
• 2009/02/24: PhysOrg: NASA satellite mission to monitor carbon dioxide fails
• 2009/02/24: TreeHugger: NASA's First CO2-Monitoring Satellite Crashes Into the Sea
• 2009/02/24: EarthTimes: NASA's carbon dioxide satellite fails at launch
• 2009/02/24: TP:WonkRoom: Carbon Monitoring Satellite Is Lost During Launch
• 2009/02/24: People's Daily: NASA says CO2 satellite crashes after troubled launch
• 2009/02/24: BBC: Failure hits NASA's 'CO2 hunter'
  NASA's first dedicated mission to measure carbon dioxide from space has failed following a rocket malfunction. Officials said the fairing - the part of the rocket which covers the satellite on top of the launcher - did not separate properly. Data indicates the spacecraft crashed into the ocean near Antarctica
• 2009/02/24: CBC: NASA global warming satellite [OCO] lands in ocean after launch
• 2009/02/24: BBerg: Satellite to Study Global-Warming Gases Lost in Space
• 2009/02/24: NASA: NASA's Launch Of Carbon-Seeking Satellite is Unsuccessful
• 2009/02/24: BBC: US 'CO2 hunter' [OCO] set for lift-off
• 2009/02/23: NewScientist: [OCO] Satellite to pinpoint sources and sinks of CO2

  A paper by Smith et al. pointing out the conservatism of the IPCC AR4 has raised eyebrows:

• 2009/02/25: PNAS: Assessing dangerous climate change through an update of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) "reasons for concern" by Joel B. Smith et al.
• 2009/02/27: CCP: J.B. Smith, Stephen H. Schneider, M. Oppenheimer et al., Assessing dangerous climate change through an update of the IPCC "reasons for concern"
• 2009/02/24: CCP: S. H. Schneider et al., Assessing Dangerous Climate Change through an Update of the IPCC 'Reasons for Concern'
• 2009/02/25: KSJT: AP: Most media yawn. A PNAS study says it'll take even less warming than IPCC said to mess things up
• 2009/02/24: ABC(Au): Another report says climate change risk underestimated
  The risk posed to mankind and the environment by even small changes in average global temperatures is much higher than believed even a few years ago, a study said. [Fussel et al.]
• 2009/02/23: PhysOrg: Lower increases in global temps could lead to greater impacts than previously thought, study finds
  A new study by scientists updating some of the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2001 Third Assessment Report finds that even a lower level of increase in average global temperatures due to greenhouse gas emissions could cause significant problems in five key areas of global concern.
• 2009/02/23: STimes: Global warming danger threat increased
  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated that the risk of increased severe weather would rise with a global average temperature increase of between 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit and 3.6 degrees above 1990 levels. The National Climatic Data Center currently reports that global temperatures have risen 0.22 degree since 1990. Now, researchers report that "increases in drought, heat waves and floods are projected in many regions and would have adverse impacts, including increased water stress, wildfire frequency and flood risks starting at less than (1.8 degrees) of additional warming above 1990 levels."

A paper by Barker et al. links the hemispheres during abrupt climate change:

• 2009/02/26: Nature: (ab$) Interhemispheric Atlantic seesaw response during the last deglaciation by Stephen Barker et al.
• 2009/02/25: PhysOrg: Oceanic seesaw links Northern and Southern hemisphere during abrupt climate change
• 2009/02/24: Eureka: Oceanic seesaw links Northern and Southern hemisphere during abrupt climate change
  Very large and abrupt changes in temperature recorded over Greenland and across the North Atlantic during the last Ice Age were actually global in extent, according to an international team of researchers led by Cardiff University. New research, published in the journal Nature today, supports the idea that changes in ocean circulation within the Atlantic played a central role in abrupt climate change on a global scale.

A worrisome report out of the IPY:

• 2009/02/25: TreeHugger: We're Beginning to See Hints That Ocean Circulation is Changing: International Polar Year Director

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

• 2009/02/25: GristMill: Why solving the climate crisis will increase GDP -- Higher productivity and lower health costs outweigh additional spending
• 2009/02/24: Guardian(UK): Great clean-up - can economic rescue plans also save planet?
• 2009/02/24: Guardian(UK): Opportunities that are too good to miss [Nicholas Stern & Alex Bowen]
  We are facing two global crises, one economic and one planetary. We cannot afford to choose to focus on one but not the other: we can act effectively and simultaneously on both fronts. Governments can commit over the next few months to public spending plans that make sound economic sense, both by stimulating economic recovery and by laying the foundations for sustainable low-carbon growth.

I regret to report that the blogostorm over G. Will's denial article(s) has continued:

• 2009/02/27: MediaMatters: Ombudsman Alexander faults Wash. Post editors, Will in global warming column controversy
• 2009/02/28: GESN: WashPost Ombudsman steps up and steps in it...Plus another Will fabrication...
• 2009/02/28: ClimateP: The Post ombudsman whitewashes George Will's columns, the editors, and his own role
• 2009/02/28: Deltoid: WaPo ombudsman agrees that Will's sea ice claim was wrong, doesn't suggest a correction
• 2009/02/26: HuffPo: George Will, Washington Post Mount Defense Of Widely Debunked Editorial
• 2009/02/27: HuffPo: Facts Are Stubborn Things: George Will and Climate Change by U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.)
• 2009/02/28: MTobis: More on George Will
• 2009/02/28: RealClimate: What George Will should have written
• 2009/02/28: DeSmogBlog: George Will and Journalistic Malpractice
• 2009/02/27: TP:WonkRoom: John Kerry Challenges George Will: Let's Debate Your Recycled 'Errors Of Fact'
• 2009/02/28: AngryBear: 500,000=1,000,000 ? The debate continues. [will]
• 2009/02/27: CCP: Mark Serreze (NSIDC) weighs in on George F. Will 's distortion of facts on Arctic sea ice extent 1979 and 2009
• 2009/02/27: ClimateP: In a blunder reminiscent of Janet Cooke scandal, the Washington Post lets George Will reassert all his climate falsehoods plus some new ones
• 2009/02/27: BSD: Will sashays again through the Post's multilevel fact checking
• 2009/02/26: BSD: Science believers!! It is time to eat asparagus and march on the Washington Post!!!
• 2009/02/24: SciProg: The George Will Scandal -- Climate Change, The Washington Post, and the Death of Newspapers
• 2009/02/27: TWTB: George Will and The Washington Post - Reputations gone up in smoke over global warming denialism
• 2009/02/27: AFTIC: Things Break takes down George Will's latest
• 2009/02/26: Stoat: "Will" I be able to think of a witty title for this post?
• 2009/02/27: Deltoid: Washington Post decides that George Will is entitled to his own facts
• 2009/02/27: Intersection:CCM: My Email to Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post
• 2009/02/26: Intersection:CCM: George Will Lies; His Editor Does Nothing
• 2009/02/27: DeSmogBlog: George Will's Big Climate Change Adventure
• 2009/02/27: DotEarth: Experts: Big Flaw in Will's Ice Assertions
• 2009/02/26: Loom: George Will: Locked In Ice!
• 2009/02/27: Loom: Unchecked Ice: A Saga in Five Chapters
  I guess I don't understand editorial pages. The laws of physics must be different there.
• 2009/02/27: TPMM: Hiatt: Will Challenging Climate Change Consensus Is "Healthy"
• 2009/02/24: FramingScience: In the Clamor Over George Will, Pundits Win But Public Loses
• 2009/02/24: MediaMatters: Will's climate change column sparks outrage in environmental community
• 2009/02/26: CJR: The George Will Affair
  Post stands by climate column despite widespread criticism; clamor spills over to The New York Times
• 2009/02/26: MediaMatters: Lashing out at critics, George Will spreads more falsehoods in new global warming column
• 2009/02/27: TP:WonkRoom: Washington Post's Fred Hiatt Defines George Will's Lies As 'Inferences'
• 2009/02/25: CCP: George F. Will's Dishonesty Explained in Detail by A. Siegel of The Huffington Post -- good job!
• 2009/02/26: JQuiggin: Recycling in a digital world
• 2009/02/26: TPMM: In New Column, Will Sticks To His Guns On Global Warming
• 2009/02/25: Intersection:CCM: George Will, the Washington Post, and the Death of Newspapers
• 2009/02/24: Intersection:CCM: George Will: He Isn't Even Phoning It In, He's Cutting and Pasting
• 2009/02/23: ThinkP: When will the Washington Post issue a correction for George Will's error-filled global warming denial column?
• 2009/02/23: TP:WonkRoom: Wonk Room Report: The Washington Post Should Correct George Will's Column
• 2009/02/23: TP:WonkRoom: George Will's 'Global Cooling' Column Is Almost Old Enough To Vote
• 2009/02/22: TP:WonkRoom: A Suggested Correction For Will's 'Dark Green Doomsayers' Column
• 2009/02/23: CrTimber: Washington Post: Opinions on shape of earth differ

  The Arctic melt continues to get a lot of attention:

• 2009/02/28: CCP: NSIDC Arctic Sea Ice Extent Graph February 26, 2009 -- Near-real-time data now available
• 2009/02/24: Yale360: [Julienne Stroeve Interview] Tracking the Fallout Of the Arctic's Vanishing Sea Ice
• 2009/02/26: NatureCF: How to Kill an Ice Sheet
• 2009/02/25: TerraDaily: Scientists find bigger than expected polar ice melt
• 2009/02/26: EarthTimes: Polar people are 'canary in the mine' of climate change
• 2009/02/25: Google:AFP: Scientists find bigger than expected polar ice melt
• 2009/02/25: ENN: Polar Research Reveals New Evidence Of Global Environmental Change
• 2009/02/25: Yahoo: Scientists find bigger than expected polar ice melt

  Mad dogs and Englishmen etc.:

• 2009/03/01: PhysOrg: British team trek to North Pole to measure sea ice
• 2009/03/01: BBC: Explorers begin epic Arctic trek
  A British team has begun a gruelling trek to the North Pole to discover how quickly the Arctic sea-ice is melting. Renowned Arctic explorer Pen Hadow and two companions were dropped onto the ice by plane some 1,700km (670 miles) north of Canada on Saturday night. During their 1,000km journey, they plan to take measurements of the thickness of the ice. It will be the most detailed survey of its kind this season, and should be completed in late May.
• 2009/02/26: Guardian(UK): Arctic explorers prepare to leave for climate survey expedition
  Pen Hadow and his team are embarking on a three-month Arctic expedition that will see them endure temperatures as low as -90C, drag sleds of up to 120kg and face threats including polar bears attacks

Late coverage of the faulty sensor story:

• 2009/02/23: PeakEnergy: Arctic Sea Ice Underestimated Due to Faulty Sensor

  International Polar Year came to a close giving rise to many reports:

• 2009/02/24: IPY: Observations indicate a warming of permafrost regions across the Northern Hemisphere
• 2009/02/25: IPY: Polar research reveals new evidence of global environmental change
• 2009/02/26: ABC(Au): Polar ice melting faster than expected: report
  Icecaps around the North and South poles are melting faster and in a more widespread manner than expected, raising sea levels and fuelling climate change, a major scientific survey has showed. The International Polar Year survey found that warming in the Antarctic is "much more widespread than was thought", while Arctic sea ice is diminishing and the melting of Greenland's ice cover is accelerating.
• 2009/02/25: UN: International Polar Year spurs critical research on global warming - UN agency
• 2009/02/25: BBC: Polar Year 'hailed as a success'
  Scientists and policymakers marked the official end of the International Polar Year (IPY) on Wednesday at the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva. The 60-country, $1.2bn (£830m) effort has seen knowledge about the poles - and their influence on the rest of the planet - increase hugely.

As for the geopolitics of the Arctic resources:

• 2009/03/01: CanWest: Arctic tensions heat up -- Nordic nations might form military alliance
• 2009/02/18: CanWest: Law must decide Arctic ownership: Russia
• 2009/02/23: Reuters: Russian general says watching Arctic militarization
• 2009/02/24: CanWest: Arctic hot in more ways than one -- Possible shipping lane revives sovereignty issue
• 2009/02/23: Reuters: Russian general says watching Arctic militarization

  While in Antarctica:

• 2009/02/24: IPY: International Team Confirms an Alps-like Mountain Range Exists under the East Antarctic Ice Sheet
• 2009/02/26: KSJT: Lots of Ink: Huge Int'l program says Antarctic glaciers speeding up. Sea level forecasts may need upward revision
• 2009/02/26: Yahoo: Ice in east Antarctica a bigger threat long term
• 2009/02/25: PhysOrg: Study: Antarctic glaciers slipping swiftly seaward
• 2009/02/25: Yahoo: Antarctic glaciers melting faster than thought
• 2009/02/25: G&M: Antarctic glaciers slipping swiftly seaward: study
• 2009/02/25: BBC: 'Ghost peaks' mapped under ice
  Scientists have completed their mission to map one of the most extraordinary mountain ranges on Earth. The Gamburtsevs are a set of peaks equal in size to the European Alps, but they are hidden deep under the ice in the middle of the Antarctic continent.
• 2009/02/25: CBC: Antarctic ice melt more widespread than first thought: scientists
  Antarctic glaciers are melting faster than previously thought, which could lead to an unprecedented rise in sea levels, scientists said Wednesday. A report by thousands of scientists for the 2007-2008 International Polar Year concluded that the western part of the continent is warming up, not just the Antarctic Peninsula. Previously most of the warming was thought to occur on the narrow stretch pointing toward South America, said Colin Summerhayes, executive director of the Britain-based Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research and a member of International Polar Year's steering committee. Satellite data and automated weather stations indicate "the warming we see in the peninsula also extends all the way down to what is called west Antarctica," he told the Associated Press. "That's unusual and unexpected."
• 2009/02/24: NatureN: Antarctica's impossible peaks come into view -- Major polar project yields panorama of hidden mountains
• 2009/02/24: NewScientist: Alpine mountain range revealed beneath Antarctic ice
• 2009/02/24: Eureka: US-led international research team confirms Alps-like mountain range exists [in Antarctica]

  Earth Hour is coming up:

• 2009/02/23: SMH: Big names join climate change push [Earth Hour]

  A study reports climate change could influence monsoon dynamics:

• 2009/02/27: PhysOrg: Study projects weakened monsoon season in South Asia
  The South Asian summer monsoon - critical to agriculture in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan - could be weakened and delayed due to rising temperatures in the future, according to a recent climate modeling study. A Purdue University research group found that climate change could influence monsoon dynamics and cause less summer precipitation, a delay in the start of monsoon season and longer breaks between the rainy periods. Noah Diffenbaugh, whose research group led the study, said the summer monsoon affects water resources, agriculture, economics, ecosystems and human health throughout South Asia.

As for particulates:

• 2009/02/27: TerraDaily: SKoreans buy air purifiers amid "yellow dust" warning
• 2009/02/27: BBerg: Commercial Shipping Exhaust Offsets CO2 Climate-Warming Effect
• 2009/02/24: NatureCF: Untangling aerosol effects
• 2009/02/23: ENN: Aerosols May Have High Impact On Rainfall, Climate Change

  Rob Grumbine continues his [answering questions] education project:

• 2009/02/22: MGS: Ice core project

  Barry Brooks points to an available education resource:

• 2009/02/25: BNC: Climate futures

  Late coverage of the Australian Day of Mourning:

• 2009/02/25: WSWS: Australia: Few attend Rudd's much-hyped "National Day of Mourning"
• 2009/02/22: TerraDaily: Rudd says Australia will rise from 'ashes of despair'

  Oh Look! It's Damocles sword. Again:

• 2009/02/22: LA Times: Bubbles of warming, beneath the ice
  As permafrost thaws in the Arctic, huge pockets of methane -- a potent greenhouse gas -- could be released into the atmosphere. Experts are only beginning to understand how disastrous that could be.

The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2009/02/25: FAO: Bumper rice harvest could bring down consumer prices -- But economic slowdown will affect the poor and their access to basic foods
• 2009/02/: FAO: Crop Prospects and Food Situation
• 2009/02/25: UN: Bumper rice harvests could bring down prices but poor may not benefit, warns UN
• 2009/02/24: IPSNews: No Quick Fix for Malnutrition and Hunger
  Almost five million children under the age of five die of malnutrition every year in the developing world. Food aid -- which mainly contains nutrient-poor carbohydrates - does little to address the absence of a diverse diet that would prevent the condition.
• 2009/02/23: UN: Food, climate and financial crises threaten sustainable development goals - UN official

  The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

• 2009/02/25: Maribo: Fuelling the future
• 2009/02/14: Science:Findings: Fill 'Er Up With Rainforest
• 2009/02/23: GristMill: Biofuel roundup -- Biosphere still being fed to our cars, threatening rainforests

  And how are we going to feed 9 billion?

• 2009/02/28: NewScientist: Website to dish the dirt on foods
• 2009/02/27: ColoState: United Nations and Colorado State University pair up to develop land degradation strategy
• 2009/02/27: Eureka: Understanding natural crop defenses
• 2009/02/27: BBerg: Argentina Weighs Plan to Take Control of Grain Trade
• 2009/02/26: Eureka: Global seed vault marks 1-year anniversary with 4-ton shipment of critical food crops
  With new evidence warning climate change threatens food production, scientists gather in Svalbard to discuss crop diversity and the vault's role in averting agricultural disaster
• 2009/02/25: Reuters: World lags in breeding climate-proof crops: experts
• 2009/02/26: BBC: More seeds for 'doomsday vault'
  Almost 90,000 food crop seed samples have arrived at the "doomsday vault" in the Arctic Circle, as part of its first anniversary celebrations. The four-tonne shipment takes the number of seeds stored in the frozen repository to more than 20 million. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, built 130m (426ft) inside a mountain, aims to protect the world's food crop species against natural and human disasters. The £5m ($7m) facility took 12 months to build and opened in February 2008.
• 2009/02/25: PhysOrg: Soil carbon storage is not always influenced by tillage practices
• 2009/02/24: Xinhuanet: Food, climate, financial crises threaten sustainable development goals: top UN official
• 2009/02/24: CSIRO: Saving wheat crops worldwide
  CSIRO Plant Industry scientists and international collaborators have discovered the key to overcoming three major cereal diseases, which in epidemic years cost wheat growers worldwide in excess of AUS$7.8 billion.
• 2009/02/19: MoJo: Michael Pollan Fixes Dinner
• 2009/02/24: BBC: Getting an appetite for biotechnology
  A growing population and climate change is going to make it difficult to meet the demand for food in the coming years, says German MEP Jorgo Chatzimarkakis. In this week's Green Room, he argues that we must embrace the solutions offered by biotechnology if we are going to feed the planet.

It's been relatively quiet again this week:

• 2009/02/27: RigZone: Apache Halts Australian Production Ahead of Possible Cyclone
• 2009/02/26: RigZone: Cyclone Brews Off Australian Oil, Mining Region
• 2009/02/26: PhysOrg: Study Finds 'Pre-Existing Condition' Fueled Killer Cyclone
  Scientists at the National Taiwan University, Taipei; and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., used data from satellite altimeters, measurements of ocean depth and temperature and an ocean model to analyze the ocean conditions present at the time of the catastrophic storm. Nargis intensified from a relatively weak category 1 storm to a category 4 monster during its final 24 hours before making landfall on May 2, 2008.

After Katrina the US Army Corps of Engineers came in for a lot of criticism for the state of the levees. Now it would seem to be systemic. Something else for Obama to fix:

• 2009/02/23: USAToday: Army Corps cracks down on flunking levees
  More than 100 levees in 16 states flunked maintenance inspections in the last two years and are so neglected that they could fail to stem a major flood, records from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers show. The 114 levees received "unacceptable" maintenance ratings in corps inspections, meaning their deficiencies are so severe that it can be "reasonably foreseen" that they will not perform properly in a major flood, according to the records, which were requested by USA TODAY. As a result, the corps is advising state and local levee authorities that the levees no longer qualify for federal rehabilitation aid if damaged by floodwaters. People who rely on the levees should "be aware that there is reason for concern," says Tammy Conforti, head of the corps' levee safety program. The corps built most of the levees and turned them over to state and local governments, which were supposed to maintain them.

Meanwhile GHGs are still going up:

• 2009/02/26: AFTIC: Democracy Now! - Greenhouse Emissions Rising at Unexpected Rate
• 2009/02/25: Reuters: CO2 rise in atmosphere accelerates in 2008 [to 2.2ppm/year from 1.8ppm/year]
• 2009/02/26: DemNow: Member of UN Environment Panel [Chris Field] Warns Greenhouse Emissions Rising at Alarming, Unexpected Rate
• 2009/02/26: SMH: It's a gas, gas, gas but no laughing matter [animal CH4]
• 2009/02/25: SMH: Emission impossible: the sad truth
• 2009/02/23: Guardian(UK): Will the recession cut our CO2 emissions?

  And in the carbon cycle:

• 2009/02/27: ABC(Au): Bushfires that scorched Victoria have released millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide and a top scientist says bushfires could become a growing source of carbon pollution as the planet warms
• 2009/02/26: Reuters: Australia fires release huge amount of CO2
• 2009/02/24: McClatchyDC: Carbon emissions will last for millennia, expert says
• 2009/02/24: McClatchyDC: Carbon dioxide emissions could last millenniums, expert says

  As for the temperature record...
  Let's see, how do you want to spin this?
  2008 was the coolest year since 2000
  2008 is the ninth warmest year 1880
  The 10 warmest years on record have all occurred between 1997 and 2008:

• 2009/02/24: TerraDaily: 2008 Was Earth's Coolest Year Since 2000
• 2009/02/23: Wunderground: January 2009: 7th warmest January on record
• 2009/02/23: Eureka: 2008 was Earth's coolest year since 2000
  Climatologists at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City have found that 2008 was the coolest year since 2000. The GISS analysis also showed that 2008 is the ninth warmest year since continuous instrumental records were started in 1880. The ten warmest years on record have all occurred between 1997 and 2008.

Yes we have feedbacks:

• 2009/02/25: AFTIC: Validating water vapour feedbacks
• 2009/02/23: SciDaily: Ocean Less Effective At Absorbing Carbon Dioxide Emitted By Human Activity

  While in the paleoclimate:

• 2009/02/26: Purdue: Prehistoric global cooling caused by CO2, research finds [35 mya]
• 2009/02/26: Eureka: CO2 drop and global cooling caused Antarctic glacier to form [34 mya]
• 2009/02/25: PhysOrg: Stalagmites in Northeast Brazilian Caves Confirm 9,000-Year Model of Diminishing Rainfall
• 2009/02/23: ArxivBlog: First evidence of a supernova in an ice core

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2009/02/28: PeakEnergy: Climate change lays waste to Spain's glaciers
• 2009/02/26: SciDaily: Ice Declining Faster Than Expected In Both Arctic And Antarctic Glaciers
• 2009/02/24: EarthTimes: Glaciers disappearing from Spanish Pyrenees
• 2009/02/24: Guardian(UK): Climate change lays waste to Spain's glaciers -- Spain loses 90% of its glaciers thanks to global warming, threatening drought as rivers dry up

  The campaign to uncover DSCOVR [Deep Space Climate Observatory] rolls on:

• 2009/02/26: DeSmogBlog: DSCOVR Finally to Fly?

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2009/03/01: Guardian(UK): Britain's birds facing extinction as climate change leaves them with nowhere to go
• 2009/02/27: SciAm: Risks of Global Warming Rising: Is It Too Late to Reverse Course? The negative impacts of climate change are beginning to appear--and we may soon cross a threshold of significant damage
• 2009/02/27: Wunderground: Weather and mortality
• 2009/02/26: UN: Maldives: climate change threatens right to housing, says UN expert
• 2009/02/27: ABC(Au): Marine researchers monitoring green sea turtle hatchlings at Heron Island off Gladstone in central Queensland say hot weather could see the threatened species become extinct
• 2009/02/26: SciDaily: Birds' [northward] Movements Reveal Climate Change In Action
• 2009/02/25: PhysOrg: British butterfly reveals role of habitat for species responding to climate change
• 2009/02/25: PhysOrg: Birds Move North with Climate Change
• 2009/02/25: Eureka: Study analyzes 2006 California heat wave's substantial effect on morbidity
  Elevated emergency department visits and hospitalizations reported; an understanding of vulnerabilities can lead to better preparedness for future
• 2009/02/24: ABC(Au): Study reveals climate change may boost dieback spread
  A two-year study by the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) has shone new light on the spread of the plant disease dieback in forests along Western Australia's south coast.
• 2009/02/24: TreeHugger: Some Plants Will (Maybe) Benefit from Global Warming, But...
• 2009/02/24: ABC(Au): Warmer NZ 'facing redback [spider] explosion'

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2009/02/27: UN: Planted forests increasingly critical to future wood supplies, says UN agency
• 2009/02/27: TerraDaily: Seeing The Forest And The Trees Helps Cut Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
• 2009/02/26: PhysOrg: Study finds hemlock trees dying rapidly, affecting forest carbon cycle
• 2009/02/26: TerraDaily: African Forests Out Of Balance
• 2009/02/26: TerraDaily: Atmospheric Scientists Trace The Human Role In Indonesian Forest Fires
• 2009/02/24: NewScientist: Humans turning Indonesian rainforest into a tinderbox
• 2009/02/23: GreenGrok: Pulse of the Planet: Good News From Africa - Tropical Forests Inhale
• 2009/02/22: Eureka: Atmospheric scientists trace the human role in Indonesian forest fires

  Climate refugees are becoming an issue:

• 2009/02/23: KSJT: Washington Post: Climate change refugees, already? Plus more WaPost science news.
• 2009/02/23: PhysOrg: Mass migrations and war: Dire climate scenario
• 2009/02/23: WaPo: Climate Fears Are Driving 'Ecomigration' Across Globe
  Adam Fier recently sold his home, got rid of his car and pulled his twin 6-year-old girls out of elementary school in Montgomery County. He and his wife packed the family's belongings and moved to New Zealand -- a place they had never visited or seen before, and where they have no family or professional connections. Among the top reasons: global warming. Halfway around the world, the president of Kiribati, a Pacific nation of low-lying islands, said last week that his country is exploring ways to move all its 100,000 citizens to a new homeland because of fears that a steadily rising ocean will make the islands uninhabitable. The two men are at contrasting poles of a phenomenon that threatens to reshape economies, politics and cultures across the planet. By choice or necessity, millions of "ecomigrants" -- most of them poor and desperate -- are on the move in search of more habitable living space.

Yes we have no wacky weather, except:

• 2009/02/24: CBC: 'Snow bomb' brings record snowfall across New Brunswick

  Tornadoes in Alabama:

• 2009/02/28: WSFA: Storm Damage Reports -- National Weather Service reports say 3 tornados touchdown in East Alabama today

  We have heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2009/02/27: EarthTimes: Australian state on alert as fire threat intensifies
• 2009/02/26: Eureka: Why California should consider Australia's 'prepare, stay and defend' wildfire policy
• 2009/02/26: WpgFP: Australians brace for worsening wildfire weather
• 2009/02/24: TerraDaily: Australian wildfire danger looms for months: officials
• 2009/02/25: WorldChanging: Aussie Firefighters Connect the Dots
• 2009/02/25: EarthTimes: Official blames climate change for early Vietnam heatwave
• 2009/02/24: SMH: New fire puts historic resort town at risk
  A bushfire in central Victoria, fanned by a strong southerly change, is threatening the outskirts of the historic resort town of Daylesford. The threat comes after two firefighters were injured and a house and fire engine destroyed in the Dandenong Ranges.
• 2009/02/23: SciDaily: Australia Wildfires Extract A Heavy Toll In Lives, Land
• 2009/02/23: BBC: Deadly Australian bushfires flare
  More Australian residents have been forced to flee their homes as renewed bushfires destroyed at least one house and injured three firefighters. Strong winds and searing temperatures are said to be driving flames towards towns to the east and north-west of Victoria's state capital, Melbourne. The new threat came as the death toll from the fires which ravaged the state two weeks ago increased to 210.
• 2009/02/23: WpgFP: Scores of Australians flee new wildfire flare-ups

  And speaking of floods & droughts:

• 2009/02/27: TerraDaily: Schwarzenegger declares California drought emergency
• 2009/02/28: AbqJournal: A Dry Start to 2009
• 2009/02/28: BBC: California in drought emergency
  California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency because of a severe drought. The governor said the drought was having "a devastating impact" on people, the economy and environment. He urged the state's cities and towns to cut water consumption by 20%, or face the prospect of compulsory cuts.
• 2009/02/26: Guardian(UK): Water 'more important than oil' businesses told -- Looming water crisis could unravel world economy without radical action, investors told
• 2009/02/25: TerraDaily: Floods, landslides kill six in Indonesia: officials
• 2009/02/26: SMH: Grave future for gum trees
  River red gums, some hundreds of years old, are dying in vast numbers in the central NSW wetlands of the Lachlan River with one large delta experiencing a 85 per cent mortality rate in the past 12 years, a new study has found. Professor Richard Kingsford and Jessica Armstrong, of the University of NSW, blame the crisis in large part on the long history of irrigation in the region, combined with drought and climate change. The annual flows of water reaching the Booligal wetlands from the town of Forbes have fallen 50 per cent over the past century. In the past 25 years, the number of large floods drenching the wetlands, a nationally recognised water-bird colony, have also halved, the study concludes.
• 2009/02/26: Guardian(UK): Droughts 'may lay waste' to parts of US
• 2009/02/24: LA Times: California's dry future -- The state may experience a water shortage this year. Residents have no choice but to use less and pay more for it.
• 2009/02/23: BBC: Drought sucks life from Argentina's farms
  A long-running drought, the worst in 50 years, has exacted a heavy toll and even a brief break in the weather in some areas was unlikely to alleviate the situation.
• 2009/02/20: Time:AP: Drought to Cut Off Federal Water to CA Farms
  Federal water managers said Friday that they plan to cut off water, at least temporarily, to thousands of California farms as a result of the deepening drought gripping the state. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials said parched reservoirs and patchy rainfall this year were forcing them to completely stop surface water deliveries for at least a two-week period beginning March 1.
• 2009/02/21: Reuters: California farms lose main water source to drought
  California's main source of irrigation water is expected to go dry this year for most of its growers due to drought, idling at least 60,000 workers and up to 1 million acres of farmland, federal officials and experts said on Friday. The zero allocation for most of the farmers who buy water from the federally managed Central Valley Project was declared as California water officials repeated their plans to cut amounts supplied from a separate state-run water system to 15 percent of normal. The drought-forced cutbacks are a huge blow to thousands of farmers in the Central Valley, which produces over half of the fruit, vegetables and nuts grown in the United States. Higher prices are likely for a wide range of crops as a result.
• 2009/02/21: NYT: In Parched Argentina, Worries Over Economy Grow

  On the mitigation front, consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2009/02/27: GristMill: Why not medium-speed rail?
• 2009/02/27: Guardian(UK): Driving to disaster -- With carbon emissions from cars soaring, we need a worldwide 50% fuel economy improvement by 2050 [Achim Steiner]
• 2009/02/27: NatureTGB: Sailing on a sulfurous sea [marine emissions]
• 2009/02/26: NOAANews: Maritime Shipping Makes Hefty Contribution to Harmful Air Pollution
• 2009/02/26: TreeHugger: Commercial Shipping Particle Air Pollution = Half of That From All the Cars in the World
• 2009/02/25: IHT: Letter from America: Ignoring trains puts U.S. on the wrong track
• 2009/02/24: PeakEnergy: Commuters Surge Onto Sydney Public Transport
• 2009/01/13: AlterNet: Let's Get Get Those Freight Trucks Off the Road and Put America Back on Tracks

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

• 2009/02/23: PhysOrg: Many Tricks Can Save Electricity
  The electric bill this winter is more than a car payment, and you've decided to take action. But if you're not well-schooled, it's best to take some advice from the pros before stalking heat-saving products up and down the aisles of your favorite home supply store. Don't hesitate; insulate
• 2009/02/23: TreeHugger: Crossway Zero Carbon Home Brings Back the Timbrel Vault
• 2009/02/23: TreeHugger: What is a Zero Carbon Home?
• 2009/02/20: Building(UK): CPA blasts energy firms on insulation failure
  The chief executive of the Construction Products Association is to write to Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, accusing the government of failing to ensure the widespread installation of extra insulation Michael Ankers says the industry has invested in extra manpower to help meet energy suppliers' target to cut emissions by more than 150 million tonnes by 2011. But Andrew Warren, director of the Association for the Conservation of Energy, says energy companies have only been insulating 575,000 cavity walls a year, rather than the 950,000 the government had expected.

As for carbon sequestration:

• 2009/02/27: REA: Making the Case for Carbon Capture and Storage
• 2009/02/25: Guardian(UK): Carbon capture storage around the world
  No CCS plants have yet been built but...
• 2009/02/25: QuarkSoup: Carbon Sequestration

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2009/02/28: FA: The Geoengineering Option -- A Last Resort Against Global Warming?
• 2009/02/27: WSJ:EnvCap: Rogue Shades: Geoengineering and the Climate Fight
• 2009/02/26: PF: Hacking the planet: The only climate solution left?
• 2009/02/25: NewScientist: Hacking the planet: The only climate solution left?
• 2009/02/22: GristMill: Geoengineering what? [China cloud seeding snow]
• 2009/02/23: AFTIC: Iron fertilization: Too good to be true?

  While on the adaptation front:

• 2009/02/25: NatureN: How to adapt to climate change -- Saleemul Huq talks about transforming the way countries respond to the climate challenge

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2009/02/26: ACPD: Eddy covariance methane measurements at a Ponderosa pine plantation in California by C. J. P. P. Smeets et al.
• 2009/02/26: ACPD: Discriminating low frequency components from long range persistent fluctuations in daily atmospheric temperature variability by M. Lanfredi et al.
• 2009/02/27: CPD: Terrestrial climate variability and seasonality changes in the Mediterranean region between 15000 and 4000 years BP deduced from marine pollen records by I. Dormoy et al.
• 2009/02/24: CPD: Rapid climatic variability in the west Mediterranean during the last 25 000 years from high resolution pollen data by N. Combourieu Nebout et al.
• 2009/02/24: CPD: Mechanisms and time scales of glacial inception simulated with an Earth system model of intermediate complexity by R. Calov et al.
• 2009/02/24: CPD: Individual and combined effects of ice sheets and precession on [marine isotope stage 13] MIS-13 climate by Q. Z. Yin et al.
• 2009/02/24: CPD: The influence of the circulation on surface temperature and precipitation patterns over Europe by P. D. Jones & D. H. Lister
• 2009/02/23: CPD: High resolution cyclostratigraphy of the early Eocene -- new insights into the origin of the Cenozoic cooling trend by T. Westerhold & U. Röhl
• 2009/02/25: PNAS: Assessing dangerous climate change through an update of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) "reasons for concern" by Joel B. Smith et al.
• 2009/02/24: TCD: Increased rate of acceleration on Pine Island Glacier strongly coupled to changes in gravitational driving stress by J. B. T. Scott et al.
• 2009/02/26: Nature: (ab$) Interhemispheric Atlantic seesaw response during the last deglaciation by Stephen Barker et al.
• 2009/02/23: ACP: Physical interpretation of the spectral radiative signature in the transition zone between cloud-free and cloudy regions by J. C. Chiu et al.
• 2009/02/23: ACPD: Impact of prescribed SSTs on climatologies and long-term trends in CCM simulations by H. Garny et al.
• 2009/02/19: Arxiv: An Antarctic ice core recording both supernovae and solar cycles by Yuko Motizuki et al.

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

• 2009/03/01: JEB: That MIT report in full
• 2009/02/25: MIT:GC: Probabilistic Forecast for 21st Century Climate Based on Uncertainties in Emissions (without Policy) and Climate Parameters by A.P. Sokolov et al.
• 2009/02/25: NCM: S09, MM07 and Spatial Autocorrelation
• 2009/02/25: GristMill: [Dessler] Looking for validation -- The problem with climate-model criticism
• 2009/02/23: ClimateP: M.I.T. joins climate realists, doubles its projection of global warming by 2100 to 5.1°C
• 2009/02/23: WaPo:CWG: MIT Group Increases Global Warming Projections -- Report: High odds of warming over 5°C (9°F) if no action
• 2009/02/23: DeSmogBlog: New MIT research finds inaction on global warming will cost us 5 degrees Celsius

  The Pielke fan clubbe, alas:

• 2009/02/27: MTobis: Who Framed Roger Pielke?

  Meanwhile on the Kyoto front:

• 2009/02/22: GristMill: Is Kyoto working? Two encouraging signs that global climate treaties might be having the intended effect

  And on the Kyoto-2 front:

• 2009/02/25: Nation: A Global Green Deal
• 2009/02/27: Yahoo: World faces last chance to avoid fatal warming: EU [Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas]
• 2009/02/26: Yahoo: Rich-nation 2020 greenhouse gas cuts seen at 15 percent
• 2009/02/25: EurActiv: EU signals end of 'free lunches' on climate finance
  China and India must play their full part in fighting climate change and accept that programmes financed by the West to modernise their industries will only come in return for making genuine efforts at home, warns the EU's chief climate negotiator in an interview with EurActiv.
• 2009/02/24: WorldChanging: Key Questions At Copenhagen
• 2009/02/23: BizMirror(Ph): Racing against time: 2009 'crucial' year for climate-change action
• 2009/02/24: Guardian(UK): China's growth is no figleaf for the real source of CO2 emissions: the UK
  China is blamed for soaring carbon emissions and used as an excuse for the west to do nothing on climate change -- when in fact we are exporting our emissions there
• 2009/02/23: Guardian(UK): China's increasing carbon emissions blamed on manufacturing for west
• 2009/02/23: Guardian(UK): West blamed for rapid increase in China's CO2 -- Consumer exports behind 15% of emissions - study

  While at the UN:

• 2009/02/22: IndiaTimes: Delhi Metro gets UN certificate for preventing carbon emission

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2009/02/25: CFO: Carbon market value set to shrink in '09 -- Point Carbon
  The value of the global carbon market is set to shrink by a third this year, according to estimates from analysis firm Point Carbon. Volumes are set to rise 20% against 2008 levels, but this marks a slow-down from previous growth rates.
• 2009/02/26: EnvFin: Cat bond market set to bounce back
  French insurance company Scor sold a $200 million catastrophe (cat) bond last week, ending the six-month hiatus in cat bond issuance caused by the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the general malaise in financial markets.
• 2009/02/27: CommonTragedies: RGGI in a federal context
• 2009/02/25: Tyee: How the Carbon Casino Pits Ecologist Against Ecologist
• 2009/02/23: Guardian(UK): A collapsing carbon market makes mega-pollution cheap
  Europe's system to edge up the cost of emissions and boost green energy has backfired. There isn't much time to rescue it

The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

• 2009/02/21: FuturePundit: Carbon Taxes Very Unpopular In United States
• 2009/02/26: AngryBear: The Republican Leadership Declines 'Pigou Club' Membership

  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:

• 2009/02/28: Stoat: Hansen on cap-n-trade vs carbon tax
• 2009/02/25: Intersection:CCM: The Coming Cap and Trade Debate
• 2009/02/24: Guardian(UK): [Letters] Carbon tax and emissions trading

  Meanwhile on the international political front:

• 2009/02/26: Yahoo: Climate change: chance for US-China cooperation
• 2009/02/27: NewScientist: 'Green' funding for coal power plants [by World Bank's Clean Technology Fund] criticised
• 2009/02/25: AfriqueJet: Donors to help developing countries adapt to climate change
  More than 150 representatives of donor agencies, international non-governmental organisations and research institutes have joined forces to establish the Global Initiative on Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change, to help the world's poorest communities adapt to climate change. The initiative was announced Wednesday at the Third International Conference on Community Based Adaptation, which is taking place in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The donors and NGOs have pledged to promote adaptation at the community level as an urgent response to the threat of climate change and to generate about the best approaches to adaptation, a statement issued from Dhaka stated.
• 2009/02/25: CphPost: [Dutch Climate Minister Connie] Hedegaard talks climate with US governors

  And on the American political front:

• 2009/02/28: Reuters: Calif. declares drought emergency, mulls rationing
• 2009/02/26: GristMill: Van Hollen at ya -- Van Hollen to introduce cap-and-dividend bill
• 2009/02/27: WarmingLaw: Kansas Update: State Legislature Has an Energizer Bunny-Esque Quality to It
• 2009/02/27: NYT: $25 Billion to Promote Electric Cars Is Untouched [since 2007]
• 2009/02/25: KansasCity: Coal-fired power plants back on Kansas Legislature's agenda
• 2009/02/26: Kentucky: 100 houses to get energy-saving features
• 2009/02/26: ClimateP: The "Reality Campaign" has terrific new Mad Men, the Coen brothers, but they still don't have a coherent message
• 2009/02/26: GristMill: Jacked of all trades -- Washington State's cap-and-trade legislation gutted by Senate committee
• 2009/02/26: PhysOrg: Calif. regulators target tech industry emissions
• 2009/02/26: CSW: Public comment period closing for US gov't report on climate change impacts in the US
• 2009/02/26: Eureka: Federal climate change research program should realign focus to both understandstand climate change and inform response strategies
• 2009/02/25: NYT: Economic Crisis Complicates California's Goals on Climate
• 2009/02/26: NYT: Preparing for a Flood of Energy Efficiency Spending
• 2009/02/25: Freep: [Michigan Department of Environmental Quality] DEQ: Power plants must explore coal alternatives
• 2009/02/26: AngryBear: The Republican Leadership Declines 'Pigou Club' Membership
• 2009/02/25: ClimateP: Schwarzenegger proposes one-stop permitting for CA transmission, renewables
• 2009/02/24: GristMill: Notable Quotable -- Let's mend, not end, ag subsidies
• 2009/02/25: TreeHugger: Bush EPA's Standards for Pollutants Found to be "Contrary to Law"
• 2009/02/25: TreeHugger: Bobby Jindal's Made Up Maglev Train to Disney Land, and Other Ungreen Response Speech Blunders
• 2009/02/24: DVoice: The Conflict Between America's Energy Needs and Climate Change
  President Obama Visits Canada Amid a Heated Debate Over Tar Sands
• 2009/02/24: NatureTGB: On climate, major US players agree to agree
• 2009/02/23: ClimateP: Bill Clinton: We must embrace clean energy or we will "end vast prospects of civilization for our grandchildren"
• 2009/02/23: GristMill: Liberal democrats desert climate in droves -- Understanding polling in terms of core vs. general public
• 2009/01/29: AzStarNet: Brewer might halt not-yet-in-effect AZ 'clean-car' rules
• 2009/02/23: AutoBG: Arizona's new governor [Jan Brewer (R)] may abandon California greenhouse gas rules

  The Centre for Public Integrity issued a report on the explosive growth of climate lobbyists in DC:

• CPI: The Climate Change Lobby - A Center for Public Integrity Investigation
• 2009/02/24: CPI: The Climate Change Lobby Explosion -- Will Thousands of Lobbyists Imperil Action on Global Warming?
• 2009/02/26: ClimateP: Four climate lobbyists for every member of Congress
• 2009/02/26: DotEarth: Lobbyists Flock to Climate Issue
• 2009/02/26: TreeHugger: Report: Now 4 Climate Change Lobbyists for Every Member of Congress
• 2009/02/26: DemNow: Study Finds Unprecedented Growth in Climate Change Lobbying
• 2009/02/25: TP:WonkRoom: Pollution Industry Dominates Climate Change Lobbying

  The Obama administration is still trying to rein in Bush's midnight regulation changes:

• 2009/02/24: NYT: Environmentalists Advance on Emissions
  The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for the Environmental Protection Agency to issue new regulations on emissions of mercury, lead, arsenic and other pollutants from the nation's coal-fired power plants. Environmental groups hailed the action as a final blow to Bush administration efforts to frustrate tight regulation of the emissions, but any new Obama administration rules may draw their own court challenges.

The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2009/02/25: C411: Obama Asks Congress for Cap on Carbon Pollution
• 2009/02/24: Guardian(UK): Climate change timetable slips as Obama backtracks on 2008 deadline
• 2009/02/24: GristMill: The transition continues -- Obama names additional appointments in environmental posts
• 2009/02/23: GristMill: Score one for sustainable food -- Obama taps a real reformer, Kathleen Merrigan, for deputy USDA secretary
• 2009/02/24: Reuters: Climate bill this year or next: White House
  The White House signaled on Monday it could wait until 2010 for major climate change legislation to move through Congress as long as it fulfilled President Barack Obama's criteria for tackling global warming. When asked when the president wished to see movement on a climate bill, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs left a time frame wide open.
• 2009/02/23: ClimateP: If Obama stops dirty coal, as he must, what will replace it? Part 2: An intro to biomass cofiring
• 2009/02/23: ClimateP: Obama sticks by cap and trade -- and plans to return most revenues back to the public (duh)

  On Tuesday, Obama addressed a joint session of Congress:

• 2009/02/26: TerraDaily: After Obama appeal, Congress renews efforts on climate change
• 2009/02/24: TerraDaily: Obama calls for carbon cap legislation
• 2009/02/24: ClimateP: Obama tells nation "It begins with energy. We know the country that harnesses the power of clean, renewable energy will lead the 21st century." Asks Congress for "market-based cap on carbon"
• 2009/02/24: GristMill: 'It begins with energy' -- Obama puts climate and energy atop his priorities list in his first address to Congress
• 2009/02/25: Reuters: Obama seeks US carbon emissions cap, clean energy
• 2009/02/25: Yahoo: Obama calls for carbon cap legislation
• 2009/02/25: NEN: New energy wires for Obama goals
• 2009/02/25: OilChange: Great Rhetoric Versus Political Reality
• 2009/02/25: SeattlePI: Obama blends candor with American can-do
• 2009/02/25: Guardian(UK): Obama focuses on green economy in speech before Congress

  On Thursday, Obama brought down his 2010 budget. Much fun ensued:

• 2009/03/01: GristMill: Obama's budget, IV -- Carbon policy = tax cut
• 2009/02/26: GristMill: Obama's budget, III -- What percentage of auction revenue is rebated?
• 2009/02/26: GristMill: Obama's budget, II -- Cap-and-trade rebates to taxpayers favor efficiency over equity
• 2009/02/26: GristMill: Obama's budget, I -- The projected revenue from cap-and-trade auctions is strikingly low
• 2009/02/26: GristMill: O'budget -- Obama's first budget includes green spending and anticipated revenues from a climate plan
• 2009/02/27: BBerg: Obama May Have To Give Away 70% of Carbon Credits, Merrill Says
• 2009/02/27: BaltimoreSun: 'Cap-and-trade' unusually detailed in budget -- Plan is meant to reduce total 2020 emissions to 20% below 2005 levels
• 2009/02/27: FRR: Why the Obama climate change plan won't work
• 2009/02/28: NYT: Obama's Greenhouse Gas Gamble
  In proposing mandatory caps on the greenhouse gases linked to global warming and a system for auctioning permits to companies that emit them, President Obama is taking on a huge political and economic challenge. Business lobbies and many Republicans raised loud objections to the cap-and-trade program Mr. Obama proposed as part of his budget this week, saying the plan amounted to a gigantic and permanent tax on oil, electricity and manufactured goods, a shock they said the country could not handle during economic distress. Green groups and supportive members of Congress applauded, saying the proposal was long overdue after eight years of inaction on climate change under President George W. Bush. The costs, they said, would not begin to bite until at least 2012.
• 2009/02/27: GristMill: Switching subsidies -- The president's budget hints at a coming battle over one kind of ag subsidy
• 2009/02/26: Yahoo: Polluters pay in Obama's 'green' budget
• 2009/02/26: Yahoo: Obama budget proposes shift to green energy
• 2009/02/27: OilChange: Obama Targets $30 Billion Oil and Gas Subsidies
• 2009/02/27: TP:WonkRoom: Obama's Energy Budget Begins To Repair Bush's Toxic Legacy
• 2009/02/27: OLJ: Obama's excellent atomic omission
• 2009/02/26: ClimateP: The first sustainable budget in U.S. history: Obama invests in clean energy, projects cap-and-trade revenue, seeks repeal of fossil industry subsidies
• 2009/02/26: WaPo: Budget Expects Revenue From Limits on Emissions
• 2009/02/26: CSW: Climate change and sustainable energy in President Obama's proposed FY 2010 budget
• 2009/02/26: Intersection:CCM: Obama Writes Cap and Trade Revenues into the Federal Budget
• 2009/02/26: WSJ:EnvCap: Shifting Gears: Obama Budget Favors Renewables, Hurts Oil
• 2009/02/26: NYT: Editorial -- Mr. Obama's Energy Future
• 2009/02/25: Intersection:CCM: The Coming Cap and Trade Debate

  I wonder how the Sebelius appointment will affect the Kansas coal plant saga:

• 2009/03/01: BBC: US President Barack Obama has chosen Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius to be his Secretary of Health and Human Services, White House officials say

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2009/02/27: LA Times: Administration blocks more Bush-era oil shale development leases
  Interior Secretary Ken Salazar cancels what he calls a 'headlong rush' to develop in the Mountain West. He also announces more research-only leases in the region.
• 2009/02/27: DenverPost: [Rep. Mike] Coffman (R-Col.) blasts Salazar's decision on oil-shale leases
• 2009/02/25: GristMill: None shale pass -- Salazar withdraws leases for oil shale development
• 2009/02/25: KSJT: Washington Post: Maybe EPA will put whole nation on California's delayed auto emission caps
• 2009/02/22: CNN:DJ: US Climate Czar: CO2 Regulation Ruling To Come Soon
• 2009/02/23: IHT: Ending a climate of inertia
  Less than a month into the job, Lisa Jackson, the new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has already engineered an astonishing turnaround. She has pledged to reverse or review Bush administration directives that had slowed the government's response to global warming and has brought a new sense of urgency to an issue that President George W. Bush treated indifferently.
• 2009/02/23: AutoBG: EPA looking into regulating CO2 for the first time ever; national auto emissions standard coming?

  While in Congress:

• 2009/02/26: TP:WonkRoom: Reid, Pelosi Call For End To Coal At U.S. Capitol Power Plant
• 2009/02/26: NYT: Sen. Boxer plots to thwart GOP filibuster on climate bill
• 2009/02/25: ClimateP: Reid: Cap and trade bill is third in line
• 2009/02/25: GristMill: Ask and ye shall receive -- Congress starts to outline how they'll meet Obama's directive on climate and energy legislation
• 2009/02/25: Reuters: Battle lines drawn in Capitol Hill climate debate
• 2009/02/25: NYT: Turf War Looms Over Climate Bill
  Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Ways and Means Committee vs. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee
• 2009/02/25: ClimateP: Can the House get its act together on climate legislation?
• 2009/02/24: GreenGrok: Start Counting the Votes for a Climate Bill
• 2009/02/23: GristMill: What the FERC -- Reid to introduce a new bill granting more authority to feds for electricity transmission
• 2009/02/24: WaPo: U.S. May Set Greenhouse Gas Standard for Cars
  The Obama administration is considering establishing national rules for regulating greenhouse gas emissions for automobiles, according to White House officials, a move backed by both auto manufacturers and some environmentalists. For weeks, administration officials have been meeting with car companies as well as green groups and representatives from California -- which is awaiting word on whether it will receive a federal waiver to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles -- to try to broker a deal on the issue. On Sunday, Carol M. Browner, assistant to the president for energy and climate, said she and others backed the idea of a single standard for cars and trucks. "The hope across the administration is that we can have a unified national policy when it comes to cleaner vehicles," Browner said at the Western Governors' Association meeting in Washington.

And there were still some comments about the stimulus bill:

• 2009/02/28: TreeHugger: Will Stimulus be Enough to Bring High-Speed Rail to America?
• 2009/02/25: Wunderground: Stimulus bill includes big money for science
• 2009/02/24: AlterNet: How You Can Green Your Home and Cash in on Stimulus Money

  Joe Romm asks a good question:

• 2009/02/27: ClimateP: On climate, how should progressives respond to the conservative strategy of "obstruct and delay"

  The Gore-apalooza is still bopping along:

• 2009/02/23: DotEarth: Gore Pulls Slide of Disaster Trends

  While in the UK:

• 2009/02/26: EnvFin: UK government steps into carbon neutrality minefield [in proposing a definition]
• 2009/02/27: Guardian(UK): These fossil fools -- Labour's preference for market principles and big companies betrays its low-carbon rhetoric
• 2009/02/27: Guardian(UK): Summer of rage? It's a figment of febrile imaginations
  Senior police officers are trying to frighten people off protesting about climate change, says Kevin Smith
• 2009/02/25: Guardian(UK): My summer of carbon rage -- The iniquities of emissions trading will bring thousands of protesters to the climate camp in the City of London
• 2009/02/26: Guardian(UK): Miliband denies clash over 'clean coal'
  The climate change secretary [Ed Miliband] confirmed yesterday that he was "hopeful" more than one "clean coal" power station would be piloted, despite the government running a competition to fund only a single demonstration plant.
• 2009/02/25: Guardian(UK): Ministers considering stringent measures to clean up coal power
• 2009/02/23: Guardian(UK): Squabbling derails greenhouse gas efforts, says ex-minister
  Britain's efforts to cut carbon emissions have been hampered by government infighting and a reluctance to stand up to industry, according to the UK's former climate change minister. Elliot Morley, head of the new energy and climate change select committee, said tensions between different government departments had undermined moves to cut greenhouse gas pollution. Policies to cut carbon and help the environment were dismissed inside Whitehall as "idealistic and not giving enough attention to the pragmatic needs of industry", he said.

And in Europe:

• 2009/02/27: EurActiv: EU debates emission cuts for rich nations
  Environment ministers from the 27-member bloc will meet on Monday (2 March) to fine-tune the EU's position ahead of international climate negotiations for the period after 2012. But views differ as to how the world's richest countries should contribute, with member states at odds over criteria such as GDP and population size.
• 2009/02/25: Time: Denmark's Wind of Change
• 2009/02/24: Reuters: Germany says green jobs will shorten recession
• 2009/02/23: Guardian(UK): A collapsing carbon market makes mega-pollution cheap
  Europe's system to edge up the cost of emissions and boost green energy has backfired. There isn't much time to rescue it

Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2009/03/01: ABC(Au): Govt ignoring its own green initiatives, Hunt says
  The Federal Opposition says the Government has been too slow off the mark on several of its environmental policies. Opposition spokesman for climate change Greg Hunt says solar panels and rainwater tanks promised in last year's Budget have failed to materialise, and insulation for rental homes promised 18 months ago has not been delivered either. Mr Hunt says the community is disappointed.
• 2009/02/27: ABC(Au): Bega solar farm study close to completion
• 2009/02/26: ABC(Au): A new survey has found Australians are willing to pay towards tackling climate change, but don't want to pay enough to match reduction targets
• 2009/02/25: SMH: Emission impossible: the sad truth
• 2009/02/23: ABC(Au): A New South Wales far south coast council says it has already planning for the impact of a rise in sea levels on coastal communities
• 2009/02/23: BCLSB: Australian Climate Sceptics Launch World's 1st Denialist Political Party
• 2009/02/23: TheAge: Tensions boil over on climate change
  Tensions over climate change have boiled over, with an angry Nationals senator berating a senior public servant during a parliamentary hearing.
• 2009/02/23: SMH: Greens push solar tariff

  The tussle over the Aus-ETS carries on:

• 2009/02/26: Reuters: Pressure builds to delay Australian carbon trading
• 2009/02/27: SMH: Adviser [AIG] seeks emissions scheme delay
• 2009/02/27: ABC(Au): Wong rejects call for ETS delay
  Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has rejected the Australian Industry Group's (AIG) call for the emissions trading scheme to be delayed until at least 2012.
• 2009/02/27: ABC(Au): Business 'not ready' for ETS
  A major business group says many companies will not be ready for the proposed emissions trading scheme (ETS) by next year's planned start date. The Australian Industry Group (AIG) wants the Government to delay the introduction of the scheme by two years.
• 2009/02/23: TheAge: Scrap the emissions trading scheme [AUS=ETS]
• 2009/02/25: SMH: Lobbyists' emissions prove harder to curb
  To say the lobbying efforts of business, industry and environment groups about the emissions trading scheme have been intense would be the definition of an understatement. Even the head of the Department of Climate Change, Martin Parkinson, seems stunned by the amount of meetings, phone calls, reports and wining and dining done by business and environment groups to bolster their various positions. In one briefing last year he said it had reached the level of "sanctioned hysteria".
• 2009/02/24: ABC(Au): Riverina Greens back emissions scheme inquiry
  The secretary of the Riverina Greens says he supports an inquiry into carbon emissions trading, but has questioned the delay it might cause.
• 2009/02/24: ABC(Au): BlueScope Steel has warned the Federal Government's planned emissions trading scheme will reduce its competitiveness
• 2009/02/24: Australian: MPs in attack of nerves over climate change
  Demands from Opposition MPs that Australia's proposed emissions trading scheme be shelved because of the global financial crisis have overshadowed growing unrest in government ranks about climate change policy. As pressure on Malcolm Turnbull over the issue escalated yesterday, Kevin Rudd renewed his pledge to introduce an ETS amid tension among some of his key political allies in the Labor Party's NSW Right faction who fear the scheme will be political poison and cost jobs. The backbench nervousness emerged yesterday after the Opposition Leader said on Sunday he would deliver policies for carbon emission reductions greater than those proposed by the Prime Minister, who intends to begin an ETS next year.
• 2009/02/24: JQuiggin: Taking Penny Wong at her word
• 2009/02/24: SMH: Coalition pins its great green hope on carbon trio
  The coalition's "green carbon initiative" is a three-pronged policy that aims to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by making buildings more energy efficient, having faith in clean coal and burying greenhouse pollution with a process known as biochar.
• 2009/02/24: SMH: Emission options a side issue, says Joyce
  Malcolm Turnbull's decision to examine other options to an emissions trading scheme - including a carbon tax - was a side issue to the main debate, the National's Senate leader Barnaby Joyce said yesterday. Senator Joyce told the Herald that while Mr Turnbull was entitled to explore other avenues, the only policy the Opposition needed to worry about between now and the next election was the Rudd Government's scheme.
• 2009/02/24: SMH: Oddest of bedfellows will at least raise the heat
  One inquiry. Two agendas. The Greens and the Coalition have formed an unlikely alliance to plan a Senate inquiry into Labor's emissions trading scheme. Last week Labor scrapped a House of Representatives inquiry it commissioned only a week before to examine the choice of emissions trading as the central policy to reduce carbon pollution. It was designed to provide political support. The Opposition, and some in Government - including ministers - thought it was a vehicle for Labor to delay, change or weasel out of its scheme as the global crunch worsened. The perception grew, so Labor canned the inquiry. Malcolm Turnbull has revived it, but the difference is that it will be conducted by the Senate, which Labor does not control.
• 2009/02/23: ABC(Au): Wong 'confused' on emissions scheme [says Greens leader Bob Brown]
  The political bickering over the Government's proposed emissions trading system is continuing, with Labor, the Greens and the Nationals all trading blows this morning. The Greens and the Oppositon have combined forces to set up a Senate inquiry to examine the scheme just days after the Government dumped its own inquiry with both now calling for higher cuts to emissions.
• 2009/02/24: ABC(Au): Climate change chief rejects ETS job fears
  The head of the Federal Government's Climate Change Department has defended the planned emissions trading scheme against claims it will lead to massive jobs cuts. Opposition's emissions trading spokesman, Andrew Robb, says the Government's plan will hurt the economy, saying it will "cost jobs and kill investment." But Dr Martin Parkinson from the Department of Climate Change has told a Senate estimates hearing that because some businesses will be given compensation, the prospect of job losses is small.
• 2009/02/23: ABC(Au): Minchin accuses ABC of carbon pollution bias
  Liberal Senator Nick Minchin has accused the ABC of bias for referring to carbon dioxide emissions as carbon pollution. The Federal Government has labelled its emissions trading scheme as the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.
• 2009/02/23: ABC(Au): Greens move for wider ETS inquiry
  The Greens have moved to broaden a proposed Coalition-backed Senate inquiry into the Government's emissions trading scheme (ETS). Last week the Government dumped its own inquiry into the scheme after Treasurer Wayne Swan claimed it had become politicised. But today Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull announced he would be seeking to have the inquiry, with the same terms of reference, resurrected in the Senate.
• 2009/02/23: ABC(Au): Turnbull launches carbon trade gamble
  Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull is upping the ante in the row over carbon trading, backing tougher emissions cuts than the Government while bidding to launch a Senate enquiry into the much-criticised emissions trading scheme (ETS).
• 2009/02/23: ABC(Au): Wong denies ETS will undermine household cuts
  Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has defended the Government's proposed emissions trading scheme, after the Greens said it would make household emissions cuts meaningless
• 2009/02/23: SMH: Get real, Wong tells greens
  The Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong, has attacked the policy demands of the Greens and conservation groups as economically destructive and environmentally irresponsible because they would drive jobs and pollution offshore. Senator Wong delivered the salvo as Malcolm Turnbull gave notice that the Opposition would formally examine other ways to reduce climate change by having the Senate reinstitute an inquiry into the emissions trading scheme today. Labor scrapped the inquiry last week after it was interpreted as an excuse to look for ways to delay or water down its ETS.

While in China:

• 2009/02/26: PlanetArk: McKinsey Maps Out China's Options For Going Green
• 2009/02/23: Guardian(UK): China's increasing carbon emissions blamed on manufacturing for west
• 2009/02/23: Guardian(UK): West blamed for rapid increase in China's CO2 -- Consumer exports behind 15% of emissions - study

  And in Ecuador:

• 2009/02/24: AGW: Correa ends oils exploration in Yasuni National Park
• 2009/02/16: SOS Yasuni: Ecuador Decree Keeps Oil Companies at Bay

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

• 2009/02/25: TStar: 'There was no cover-up' of nuclear reactor leak
  The head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission [Michael Binder] said he did not feel compelled to alert the public about a nuclear reactor leak last year and was surprised by the attention it received.
• 2009/02/25: CanWest: Nuclear-safety official 'caught by surprise' at interest in Chalk River reactor leaks
• 2009/02/25: G&M: Ottawa urged to sell controlling interest in AECL
• 2009/02/23: CBC: Weather data collection in North 'sparse,' federal audit finds
  A federal audit released this month raises questions about the reliability of Environment Canada's weather data collection in Canada's North. The audit report, prepared by federal Environment and Sustainable Development Commissioner Scott Vaughan's office, said the weather service has no way of telling if its warnings nationwide for severe weather events, like tornadoes and blizzards, are accurate. In the North in particular, Environment Canada relies on an inadequate system for checking on weather patterns, as well as obtaining what information it can from airplane pilots and U.S. sources.

The attitudes and policies of Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff are raising questions:

• 2009/02/28: BCLSB: Some Distance Emerges...between Harper and Iggy on Carbon Trading
• 2009/02/28: TStar: Dion's carbon tax plan was a vote loser, Ignatieff says
  Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff speaks to the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce Feb. 27, 2009. The Liberals are trying to make inroads in the West. 'You've got to work with the grain of Canadians and not against them,' Liberal leader tells Albertans Michael Ignatieff used an appearance in Alberta to slam his predecessor's carbon tax plan as the new Liberal leader opened his party's latest attempt to win back the West.
• 2009/02/26: BCLSB: Iggy On The Tar Sands
• 2009/02/26: POGGE: Is that supposed to make me feel better?
• 2009/02/26: CanWest: Ignatieff defends tarsands -- National Geographic article sparks furore in Commons

  Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty introduced his Green Energy and Green Economy Act to much comment:

• 2009/03/01: CanWest: McGuinty's mighty wind -- The premier's new green energy plan is just a badly planned distraction from Ontario's worsening economic outlook
• 2009/02/25: REA: Ontario Unveils Green Energy and Green Economy Act, 2009
• 2009/02/27: Rabble: A turbine in every yard
• 2009/02/26: G&M: How green was my wind turbine
• 2009/02/25: GristMill: Green energy, eh? Green Energy Act introduced to Ontario's provincial parliament; feed-in tariffs key mechanism
• 2009/02/25: TStar: 50,000 green jobs 'a tall order' -- Utilities are struggling to replace retiring staff
• 2009/02/25: CanWest: Green energy proposal has critics seeing red -- Economic downturn a 'terrible time' for McGuinty to introduce measures
• 2009/02/25: CanWest: An energy plan that won't help [Dalton McGuinty's new Green Energy Act for Ontario]
• 2009/02/25: TSun: Grits grow green and mean -- Solar power, wind farms and energy audits for all are coming -- and you better like it
• 2009/02/22: CleanBreak: Ontario aims to set continental standard with Green Energy Act
• 2009/02/23: CBC: Ontario promising new jobs for truckers, engineers with Green Energy Act
• 2009/02/24: CBC: McGuinty defends mandatory energy audits

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2009/02/28: TreeHugger: National Geographic Slams Tar Sands -- Canadian Politicians Pissed
• 2009/02/28: CanWest: Ottawa wades into oilsands debate
  The House of Commons environment committee is wading into a raging public relations war over the Alberta oilsands with a study of the industry's impact on water resources. The MP who proposed the study is Montreal-area Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia. In an interview, he said he assured Conservative MPs - sensitive about an industry in the heart of their political bastion - that the study "is not about a witch hunt" in a sector of the energy industry that some environmentalists are campaigning to have shut down. He said hearings expected to begin Thursday are aimed at reconciling conflicting reports linking oilsands operations to damage and risk to the vast, connected water basins of the Athabasca and Mackenzie rivers - the source of one fifth of Canada's fresh water.
• 2009/02/27: TStar: Carbon capture no silver bullet for tar sands
  Carbon storage technology has limited potential to trap emissions from Western Canada's oil-sands facilities. -- Only a small portion of greenhouse gases could be sequestered Keep smoking kids. We need the tax revenue. Trust us, we will cure cancer by the time you get it. So goes our national political leaders' myopic view of the tar sands. The argument from tar-sands defenders in both the Conservative and Liberal ranks can be fairly summarized as follows: "We know this is bad for us but we have faith that a technological fix called carbon capture and storage will make everything better."
• 2009/02/26: OilChange: [British bank, the Co-operative] Funds Tar Sands Legal Challenge
• 2009/02/26: CanWest: Tarsands spread a turning point?
• 2009/02/26: CanWest: Canada needs the tar sands
• 2009/02/26: CanWest: Tarsands will never get a fair shake
• 2009/02/26: Guardian(UK): Indigenous people in legal challenge against oil firms over tar sand project
  Canada's Beaver Lake Cree Nation group say their traditional way of life is being devastated by the rush to extract oil from vast tar sand fields
• 2009/02/25: CanWest: 'Baby-seal moment' for the tarsands
  It opens to a three-page aerial spread of pristine boreal forest dotted with lakes beaming through the trees as a luminescent robin-egg blue. This is the "before" picture. Flip over the fold-out at the front of this month's National Geographic magazine and you're confronted by the "after" photo, a ground zero of environmental devastation, with sickly grey ponds bisected by slick roadways prowled by mammoth trucks carrying now-discounted black gold. This photo shoot for the magazine's influential global audience is described as the "baby-seal moment" for Alberta's tarsands, a public relations hell equal to a seal pup's skull-clubbing death that no amount of damage control can overcome, no matter how reasoned the argument.
• 2009/02/24: G&M: Tarsands 'dark satanic mills:' magazine
• 2009/02/24: G&M: Wake up, Alberta - Obama's going for the hard cap on emissions
• 2009/02/23: TreeHugger: It's Time to Nuke the Tar Sands!
• 2009/02/23: AGRDT: Obama and Harper analyzed: time for a "clean energy dialogue"

  An Aussie's plea to Canada:

• 2009/02/23: TStar: An Aussie's plea to Canada: Help fight global warming [Arwen Birch]
  The recent bushfires in Australia that claimed more than 200 lives were not merely random natural disasters or the sole fault of pyromaniacs, lightning or fallen power cables. They were forecast by climate scientists' years earlier and are the result of a changing climate that is likely to get worse in the future.

As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

• 2009/02/28: G&M: Canadians won't quit on the environment
  Even in the worst of economic times, as job losses mount and gloomy headlines dominate, Canadians have not abandoned their concern for the environment, which was their top policy priority before the financial crisis took hold last autumn. A new poll conducted for the Dominion Institute by Ipsos Reid shows Canadians are split on whether the need to stimulate the economy trumps environmental concerns. Just under half of Canadians say serious action on climate change must wait until after the recession, while 57 per cent say Canada should take action on climate change right now, even if it means higher deficits.
• 2009/02/27: CBC: [City of Edmonton] Council considers $100M plan for bike lanes and trails
  A new report proposes the City of Edmonton spend $100 million to create a network of multi-use trails and bicycle lanes. Coun. Don Iveson said the plan would take Edmonton from a somewhat bike-friendly city to a very bike-friendly city. "So that more citizens can enjoy cycling as a legitimate transportation choice," he said. The plan would be rolled out, in three phases, over the next 10 years.
• 2009/02/24: CanWest: Energy security first
  Re: Put the brakes on the tar sands, Jan. 19.
  James Hansen's excellent opinion article on the tar sands focused on two dangers: carbon emissions and damage to our Boreal forest. He might include a third danger, largely overlooked in the tar sands debate. In November 2007, the National Energy Board delivered its worrisome prognosis for the future of Canada's natural gas. The report states that "increasing demand and gradually declining production reduces the net exports to zero by 2028 (after which) Canada becomes a net gas importer, reliant on LNG (liquified natural gas) imports." The report goes on to predict that "Canadian natural gas production is expected to decline by almost 40 per cent by the end of 2030."
• 2009/02/25: WpgFP: Oil's not well in Canada
• 2009/02/23: CBC: Building high Arctic study station in Nunavut 'logical': researcher

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

• 2009/02/26: MObjectivist: Recipe for Disaster -- The limits of easy oil availability clearly caused the massive economic downturn that started last year
• 2009/02/27: EnergyBulletin: Hidden errors in interpreting resource problems and daily news
• 2009/02/24: RAvent: Green Fights
• 2009/02/24: EnvEcon: Environmental Economics vs Environmentalism
• 2009/02/23: GristMill: Rhetorical diseconomies of scale -- Some thoughts on economists and climate and so forth

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

• 2009/02/28: AFTIC: Global Population Speak Out
• 2009/02/28: Guardian(UK): An uncomfortable truth -- As the planet's resources dwindle, a debate on population control is needed more than ever
• 2009/02/27: PerthNow: Humans facing population cull if temps rise 4C in next 100 years
• 2009/02/26: Guardian(UK): Cutting consumption is more important than limiting population
  Population growth is but one factor contributing to pressures on resources and environmental damage. So why is it a hobby horse for so many?
• 2009/02/23: TP:WonkRoom: [Fred] Barnes: When Bristol Palin Said That Abstinence 'Is Not Realistic At All,' She Meant That It 'Actually Is Realistic'
• 2009/02/23: AlterNet: Bristol Palin's Truth Telling on Teen Pregnancy Sets Right-Wingers Sputtering

  Apocalypso anyone?

• 2009/02/27: LFB: I Don't Want To Live in a Post-Apocalyptic World
• 2009/02/26: EnergyBulletin: Sacred Demise: By Carolyn Baker: Book Foreword By Sarah Anne Edwards, Ph.D.
• 2009/02/25: NewScientist: How to survive the coming century

  As for how the media handles the science of climatology:

• 2009/02/28: TP:WonkRoom: The NYT's Coverage Of Climate In The 1970s Was A Megaphone For Science, Not 'Global Cooling' Alarmism
• 2009/02/28: ThinkP: Coal-sponsored CNN rejects anti-coal ad.
• 2009/02/24: MGS: Science and media
• 2009/02/25: ENN: Climate Change Is Not Taken Seriously Because Media Is Not Highlighting Its Significance, Expert Says
• 2009/02/25: Eureka: Media coverage affects perceptions of climate change
• 2009/02/24: KSJT: NYTimes Sci Times: A call out on political-agenda climate science; science as jobs-maker ; wave-gliding, surgeons in awful places, etc. [Tierney PFC]
• 2009/02/24: ClimateP: John Tierney makes up stuff, just like George Will -- does the New York Times also employ several know/do-nothing fact checkers?
• 2009/02/22: ClimateP: Is the New York Times coverage of global warming fatally flawed?
• 2009/02/23: JQuiggin: Washington Post: Opinions differ on shape of earth
• 2009/02/23: TerraDaily: Mass Media Often Failing In Its Coverage Of Global Warming

  Revkin of the Times went off the rails this week:

• 2009/02/26: Intersection:CCM: Sadly, False Balance in the New York Times
• 2009/02/25: CProgress: NYT's Revkin embraces false balance, equates Will's active disinformation with Gore's effort to understand and communicate climate realism
• 2009/02/25: NYT:DotEarth: Gore, Will, Climate and Complexity
• 2009/02/25: NYT: [Revkin] In Climate Debate, Exaggeration Is a Pitfall
• 2009/02/25: MTobis: Revkin Beyond the Pale
• 2009/02/25: TP:WonkRoom: The New York Times Attacks Gore For Trusting The New York Times

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2009/02/26: Guardian(UK): Age of Stupid -- Climate change drama aims for world's most ecofriendly premiere

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2009/02/25: WarmingLaw: Environmental Groups Take Case Against Virginia Coal-Fired Power Plant to State Supreme Court
• 2009/02/25: TreeHugger: Bush EPA's Standards for Pollutants Found to be "Contrary to Law"
• 2009/02/22: CSW: New Climate Law Institute to launch multipronged legal attack on causes of climate change

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

• 2009/02/27: FoT: Hydrogen Produced from Aluminum and Water
• 2009/02/27: ZNet: Let the Clean Energy Revolution Begin
• 2009/02/27: Eureka: Intelligent use of the Earth's heat -- Enhanced geothermal energy using modern research methods
• 2009/02/27: Ecologist: The future of energy is renewable
• 2009/02/27: BBerg: Shell Says Hurricane-[Ike] Damaged Platform to Resume Output in April
• 2009/02/26: Google:AP: Power shortages get worse in Central Asia
• 2009/02/26: AutoBG: Greg Blencoe finds 20 great hydrogen news items
• 2009/02/23: LA Times: 'Green' energy needs a big leap -- Experts say scientific breakthroughs are the key to making renewable power sources cheap and easy to use.
• 2009/02/25: PhysOrg: Discovering the secret code behind photosynthesis
• 2009/02/25: PhysOrg: The sun is a star when it comes to sustainable energy
• 2009/02/25: Yahoo: Space Solar Power Crowd Bets on Obama
• 2009/02/24: PeakEnergy: Cheap Hydrogen from Scraps
• 2009/02/24: EnergyBulletin: The conservation imperative: energy limits to growth and the path to sustainability - part II
• 2009/02/23: CSM: Raise the price of gas to $4 -- before the next oil crunch -- A price floor would help wean America off oil

  The answer my friend...:

• 2009/02/26: TreeHugger: 6.4 Gigawatts of Offshore Wind Farms Slated for Scotland
• 2009/02/25: EarthTimes: Airtricity to build Netherlands' largest wind turbine park
• 2009/02/23: PhysOrg: Electricity systems can cope with large-scale wind power
  Research by TU Delft, Netherlands, proves that Dutch power stations are able to cope at any time in the future with variations in demand for electricity and supply of wind power, as long as use is made of up-to-date wind forecasts. PhD candidate Bart Ummels also demonstrates that there is no need for energy storage facilities.

Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2009/02/24: FuturePundit: Large Solar Thermal Electric Plant In Spain
• 2009/02/24: FuturePundit: Cheaper Concentrating Solar For Photovoltaics
• 2009/02/27: TreeHugger: First Solar: Our Solar Panel Manufacturing Costs Are Now Below $1 Per Watt
• 2009/02/24: CCP: First Solar claims $1-a-Watt 'industry milestone' for its photovoltaic cells
• 2009/02/24: ClimateP: Solar panel prices to fall by up to 40 per cent by year end
• 2009/02/24: PhysOrg: Japan may force utilities to buy surplus domestic solar power
• 2009/02/24: TreeHugger: 500 MW of Solar Power Plants in California, Southwest to be Developed by NRG Energy & eSolar
• 2009/02/22: CleanBreak: Morgan Solar improves low-profile concentrator design
• 2009/02/24: SMH: New solar cells you can bank on
• 2009/02/21: Yahoo: Tokyo Electric to build solar plant in California: report
• 2009/02/22: Oregonian: China's solar boom could dim Oregon's efforts
  With cheap labor and rapid production, China's promise of solar rooftops at bargain-basement prices casts a shadow over Oregon's ambition of becoming a world leader in alternative energy

The arithmetic of coal carbon is striking home:

• 2009/02/28: GristMill: Celebrate 24,000 dead Americans! Authors of economic collapse advise us to stick with coal
• 2009/02/27: LA Times: Coen brothers' TV ad ridicules 'clean coal'
• 2009/02/27: Guardian(UK): Coal industry falls into the pits
• 2009/02/27: ClimateP: More small battles won in war on coal -- but trouble looms behind enemy lines
• 2009/02/26: USAToday: Concerns over ash pond pollution grows

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2009/02/28: IR^2: More Reality Checks for Algal Biodiesel
• 2009/02/24: NEN: Obama admin, Sierra club, big oil see better biofuels maturing

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2009/02/28: IR^2: The Nuclear Comeback
• 2009/02/26: WSJ:EnvCap: Nuclear Waste: Yucca Mountain's Scrapped, So What Now?

  Yes we have multiple peaks:

• 2009/02/26: FCNP: The Peak Oil Crisis: A Turning Point?
• 2009/02/24: OilDrum: Are Reserves of the Largest US Coal Field Overstated by 50%?

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2009/03/01: PeakEnergy: Inching Toward a Smarter Grid
• 2009/02/27: GreenGrok: Powering Our 21st Century Lives With a 19th Century Design
• 2009/02/24: TreeHugger: How to Get New Renewable Energy Projects on the National Grid
• 2009/02/24: TreeHugger: China To Invest $36.5 Billion to Upgrade Electric Grid
• 2009/02/23: Yahoo: Federal officials debate placement of power grid
• 2009/02/23: NEN: New energy wires, the plan

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

• 2009/03/01: PhysOrg: Bolivia pins hopes on lithium, electric vehicles
• 2009/02/28: PeakEnergy: Toyota's bioplastic car
• 2009/02/24: FuturePundit: Real World Plug-In Hybrids Disapppoint On Efficiency
• 2009/02/28: WorldChanging: Project Get Ready Aims to Create Electric Vehicle Revolution
• 2009/02/28: TreeHugger: GM Volt Versus Toyota Prius: Which Design Type Will Be More Effective At Reducing Stack & Tailpipe Emissions, And Energy Consumption?
• 2009/02/26: DerSpiegel: Small Car Sales Boom in Germany amid Automaker Crisis
• 2009/02/27: NYT: $25 Billion to Promote Electric Cars Is Untouched [since 2007]
• 2009/02/27: AngryBear: What do You do With a Bunch of Unsold Cars?
• 2009/02/26: TreeHugger: Small Cars Are Big in Canada
• 2009/02/26: OilDrum: Costs and environmental impacts of electric cars
• 2009/02/26: AP: GM posts $9.6B 4Q loss, burns through $6.2B cash
• 2009/02/24: NewsObserver: Raleigh to install plug-in stations for hybrids
• 2009/02/25: BBC: Japan carmakers' output plummets
  Leading Japanese carmakers have reported a significant drop in their global output as the downturn bites. Toyota Motor said worldwide production of all its brands fell 39.1% in January from a year earlier, the biggest percentage drop on record. Honda Motor reported a 33.5% drop, the biggest since 1999, while Nissan Motor's global output declined 54%. Separately, official figures showed that Japanese car exports fell 69% in January from a year earlier. Total Japanese exports plummeted almost 46% in January. Toyota's exports fell 56.2%, Honda's exports dropped 46.3% and Nissan's plummeted 62.1%.
• 2009/02/23: People's Daily: China-made electric cars to enter US market
  Shandong Baoya Vehicle Co., Ltd. received orders from the US this year for the purchase of 4,800 electric cars.
• 2009/02/23: ClimateP: Pickens embraces electric vehicles, predicts $140 oil by 2011
• 2009/02/23: G&M: Economic crisis bodes well for electric cars

  Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:

• 2009/02/28: PRWatch: Connaughton's New Job: Greenwashing Constellation [Energy corp.]
• 2009/02/26: Guardian(UK): Greenwash: Why 'clean coal' is the ultimate climate change oxymoron
• 2009/02/24: OilChange: Nuclear Spin Doctors Win As Greens Go Pro-Nukes
• 2009/02/23: WorldChanging: Will Green Jobs Become the New Greenwash?

  Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:

• 2009/02/26: EnvFin: Climate change raises spectre of insurance market failure
  Climate change increases the possibility of the failure of insurance markets, according to a Chartered Insurance Institute report, which cites the need for better measures of market robustness. Extreme weather events present the most obvious risk to insurers, says the Coping with climate change: risks and opportunities for insurers report, but global warming may already be compounding catastrophe losses by 2% a year, it warns.
• 2009/02/24: CommonTragedies: Like a good neighbor

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2009/02/26: JEB: Much ado about nothing
• 2009/02/27: Guardian(UK): Climate change: The semantics of denial
  They claim they're sceptics -- but when any explanation will do as long as it backs their theories, 'climate change deniers' is the only term good enough
• 2009/02/27: HuffPo: CO2 Famine: Exxon-Paid Scientist Says Earth Is Short On Greenhouse Gases
• 2009/02/26: AFTIC: Speak of the Devil...
• 2009/02/25: QuarkSoup: Horner
• 2009/02/26: DeSmogBlog: The Big Money behind Americans for Prosperity [Koch]
• 2009/02/26: BCLSB: Same Old Same Old, The Japanese Edition
• 2009/02/25: Guardian(UK): Christopher Booker's wilful climate change ignorance gathers pace
  Telegraph hack piles on the pressure to remain the nation's foremost and most ill-informed climate change sceptic
• 2009/02/25: BSD: Tierney and Pielke Jr.'s wild exaggerations about Holdren and Hansen
• 2009/02/24: ClimateP: Hansen vs. Christy, Round 2
• 2009/02/08: BartVerheggen: Who to believe?
• 2009/02/23: ERabett: The ten signs of denialism
• 2009/02/22: DeSmogBlog: Skeptics Need to Chill About Global Cooling
• 2009/02/24: DeSmogBlog: Research on the "sponsors" behind the Heartland's New York Climate Change Conference
• 2009/02/23: BCLSB: Australian Climate Sceptics Launch World's 1st Denialist Political Party

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2009/02/28: ClimateP: The Action Distraction
• 2009/02/26: EnvFin: Recession sends climate down the corporate agenda - EIU [Economist Intelligence Unit]
• 2009/02/26: ERabett: Mom Rabett's Climate Change Primer
• 2009/02/26: DotEarth: Why 2007 I.P.C.C. Report Lacked 'Embers'
• 2009/02/26: NEN: The climate change business
• 2009/02/25: BNC: Climate futures [education resource]
• 2009/02/26: Guardian(UK): I don't buy economists' case for fighting climate change
  The orthodox rationale fails to chime with most people's ethical motivation for action to save the environment
• 2009/02/25: UN: African youth to climb Kilimanjaro, joining UN campaign for climate change
• 2009/02/24: PhysOrg: Green IT not helping climate change
• 2009/02/25: ENN: Saving the oceans: 'Mission Possible'
• 2009/02/24: NatureTGB: Who Needs the Cold Facts?
• 2009/02/23: GristMill: Google Earth first -- Search giant plans to devote more IT expertise to energy issues
• 2009/02/25: Far-n-Wide: It Is What It Is
• 2009/02/23: DotEarth: Climate 'Embers' Burning Brighter

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

• FoT: Future of Things
• Discover Magazine - The Loom
• CCP: Climate Change: The Next Generation
• IPY: International Polar Year
• Student Environmental Action Coalition
• Capitol Climate Action
• Power Shift 2009
• Energy Action Coalition
• CPI: The Climate Change Lobby - A Center for Public Integrity Investigation
• AGW: Another Green World
• SOS Yasuni
• BartV: Our Changing Climate
• NASA: Orbiting Carbon Observatory Mission
• Science:Findings (blog)
• WaPo:CWG: Capital Weather Gang

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.

"Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful." -George E. P. Box

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