Another Week of GW News, March 8, 2009

Sipping from the internet firehose...

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Another week of Climate Disruption News

Information overload is pattern recognition

March 8, 2009

• Top Stories:Capitol Coal Protest, Patterns, Green Cars, Recession, Open Access
• Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica, Methane, Pseudoscience, The Pipeline, Daylight Saving, Late Comments
• Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production
• Hurricanes, GHGs, Carbon Cycle, ENSO, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Wacky Weather, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Adaptation
• Journals, Misc. Science, Pielke
• Kyoto-2, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
• Politics:International, Security, America, Britain, Europe, Australia, China, Canada
• Ecological Economics, Media, Video, Courts
• Energy, Wind, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Business, Greenwashing
• Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

Here's a wee chuckle for ye:

• 2009/03/07: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Still nothing to fear...
• 2009/03/06: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) News Corpse
• 2009/03/04: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Holiday on Ice
• 2009/03/03: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Birds of Prey
• 2009/03/02: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Summer of Rage

  The Capitol coal protest went down this week:

• 2009/03/03: AfterGutenberg: Avoiding Our Carbon Induced Catastrophe
• 2009/03/04: QuarkSoup: Capitol coal march movement
• 2009/03/03: KSJT: Lots of Ink: Anti-coal, anti-global warming protestors gather in DC to shout and shiver while the snowflakes swirl
• 2009/03/02: GristMill: A Capitol offense -- Thousands protest against coal in front of D.C.'s Capitol Power Plant
• 2009/03/02: GristMill: Kicking Congress' ash -- Snow doesn't dampen turnout for anti-coal rally in D.C.
• 2009/03/02: GristMill: Signs of the times -- Photos of climate and coal protests in D.C.
• 2009/03/02: Google:AP: Thousands rally for legislation on climate change
• 2009/03/02: AFTIC: Power Shift 09 and Capital Climate Action
• 2009/03/03: OilChange: "We don't want the world to boil, no coal, no oil!"
• 2009/03/02: Guardian(UK): Power Shift grows into a socially inclusive climate protest
• 2009/03/02: NatureCF: Where else would Daryl Hannah and Jim Hansen walk arm-in-arm?
• 2009/03/02: ClimateP: Power Shift: A Day of youth climate protest in DC
• 2009/03/01: GristMill: Powering ahead -- Kids go crazy for the great taste of climate policy!
• 2009/03/02: MongaBay: Largest US protest on climate change today
• 2009/03/02: PhysOrg: Capitol power plant dims clean energy hopes
• 2009/03/02: Google:AP: Protest puts spotlight on Congress' power plant
• 2009/03/02: OilChange: As the politicians talk, its a day of Direct Action against Coal
• 2009/03/02: NEN: Powershift
• 2009/03/02: TP:WonkRoom: On Day Of Youth Climate Protest, Extreme Weather Grips Nation
• 2009/03/02: AlterNet: Live from DC: Thousands Converge for Capitol Climate Action Against Dirty Coal

  This strikes me as an emerging pattern. We'll see if it grows...:

• 2009/03/08: Guardian(UK): This is not youthful rebellion. We see the catastrophe ahead
  Climate change has provoked a war between the generations. Younger members of the government need to choose their side

And while we're considering fundamental patterns, Dyer [in _Climate Wars_] fingers this factor as the root of the US left-right split over climate disruption:

• 2009/03/05: FuturePundit: Global Warming Fears Translate Into Tax Increases

  Four major international agencies are promoting the development of 'green' cars:

• 2009/03/05: EurActiv: Climate goals urged in car rescue plans
  Four international agencies, including the UN and IEA, have teamed up to promote the development of a global car fleet that runs on 50% less fuel by 2050, stabilising greenhouse gas emissions worldwide in the process. The '50 by 50' Global Fuel Economy Initiative was launched yesterday (4 March) in Geneva by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Transport Forum (ITF) and the FIA Foundation.
• 2009/03/04: Guardian(UK): Halve emissions from cars by 2050, auto industry told
  Consortium claims '50 by 50' initiative could save equivalent of half EU's current C0² emissions
• 2009/03/04: BBC: The motor industry has been urged to halve CO2 emissions from cars by 2050 by four leading international agencies

  Several people have raised the question of how the global recession is going to impact climate solutions:

• 2009/03/05: ENN: Climate change won't wait for recession's end -- Delaying measures to reduce emissions is economically unsound
• 2009/03/03: GWWatch: Financial crisis equals breathing space on climate
• 2009/03/03: ABC(Au): The Federal Government's climate change adviser Ross Garnaut says the global financial crisis is no reason to delay the start of the emissions trading scheme
• 2009/03/03: IPSNews: "Climate Change Does Not Wait For Recessions" [Africa]

  Yet more Open Access:

• 2009/03/02: TreeHugger: NEON [National Ecological Network Observatory] Project Encourages Open Access to High Tech Environmental Data [by 2016]
• Free Science News
• Free Science Sources

  The Arctic melt continues to get a lot of attention:

• 2009/03/06: BBC: Arctic diary: Explorers' ice quest
  A team of polar explorers has travelled to the Arctic in a bid to discover how quickly the sea-ice is melting and how long it might take for the ocean to become ice-free in summers. Pen Hadow, Ann Daniels and Martin Hartley will be using a mobile radar unit to record an accurate measurement of ice thickness as they trek more than 1,000km to the North Pole.
• 2009/03/03: NCM: IPCC Sea Ice Forecasts
• 2009/03/06: APOV: Say Goodbye To Those Polar Bears ...
• 2009/03/06: CanWest: Arctic ice: gone by 2013? 'Astounded how fast changes are taking place,' Université Laval polar expert says
  The Arctic is warming up so quickly that the region's sea ice cover in summer could vanish as early as 2013, decades earlier than some had predicted, a leading polar expert said yesterday. Warwick Vincent, director of the Centre for Northern Studies at Université Laval in Quebec City, said recent data on the ice cover "appear to be tracking the most pessimistic of the models," which call for an ice free summer in 2013. The year "2013 is starting to look as though it is a lot more reasonable as a prediction. But each year we've been wrong - each year we're finding that it's a little bit faster than expected," he said.
• 2009/03/05: Reuters: Arctic summer ice could vanish by 2013, expert says
  The Arctic is warming up so quickly that the region's sea ice cover in summer could vanish as early as 2013, decades earlier than some had predicted, a leading polar expert said on Thursday. Warwick Vincent, director of the Centre for Northern Studies at Laval University in Quebec, said recent data on the ice cover "appear to be tracking the most pessimistic of the models", which call for an ice free summer in 2013. The year "2013 is starting to look as though it is a lot more reasonable as a prediction. But each year we've been wrong -- each year we're finding that it's a little bit faster than expected," he told Reuters.
• 2009/03/04: Guardian(UK): Terrifying night for Arctic explorers
  Pen Hadow's Catlin Arctic Survey team had to make a rapid exit after the ice around their tent began to crack up
• 2009/03/04: ClimateP: The International Polar Year: "Arctic sea ice will probably not recover"
• 2009/03/02: Guardian(UK): Catlin Arctic survey touches down on the ice
  After a delayed start, Pen Hadow's team finally reach the drop-off point for their expedition to the north pole
• 2009/02/28: MTobis: The First Tipping Point
  The first major threshhold of irreversible climate change seems to have been crossed. Things are probably never going back to "normal" in the Arctic. This may have large consequences.
• 2009/03/01: CBC: 3 British explorers begin survey of Arctic sea-ice cap

  As for the geopolitics of polar resources:

• 2009/03/06: YO&GN: Oil Industry Eyes the Arctic
• 2009/03/06: RigZone: Chile, Argentina Lawmakers Stake Antarctic Claim
• 2009/03/: PS: The North Pole in Peril

  While in Antarctica:

• 2009/03/03: McClatchyDC: Antarctica is heating up fast, researcher, other scientists warn

  Oh look! There's Damocles sword!

• 2009/03/06: TreeHugger: Why Yes, Methane Bubbling Up From a Frozen Lake Can Be Lit on Fire
• 2009/03/05: NatureCC: A sleeping giant?
  As the planet warms, vast stores of methane -- a potent greenhouse gas -- could be released from frozen deposits on land and under the ocean. Amanda Leigh Mascarelli reports on the race to understand a ticking time bomb.
• 2009/03/05: NatureCF: A sleeping giant? [Arctic methane]

  Rob Grumbine draws a distinction and I plug a page of my own:

• 2009/03/06: MGS: Nonscience and pseudoscience
• How's yer crap detector?

  Barry Brook asks a good question:

• 2009/03/06: BNC: How much warming in the pipeline? Part II -- it's as tricky as ABC

  So does daylight saving time save any energy?

• 2009/03/07: ClimateP: Daylight saving saves as much energy as daylight
• 2009/03/06: GristMill: Green leap forward? Does daylight savings cut energy use? Don't lose sleep over the question

  There's still some noise arising from the Will & WaPo nonsense:

• 2009/03/07: ERabett: Not Eli's thing -- Eli has managed to avoid pretty much the entire George Will blowup.
• 2009/03/08: Deltoid: George Will lies like a rug
• 2009/03/06: CCP: Noam Chomsky Excavates the George Will Memory Hole...
• 2009/03/05: Stoat: We're number 1!All the George Will nonsense has had one good result - "The Myth of the 1970s Global Cooling Scientific Consensus Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Vol. 89 Iss. 9 " is up at number one in the AMS [download] charts.
• 2009/03/03: DeSmogBlog: The Arctic Sea Ice is Melting - no matter how bad George Will doesn't want it to
• 2009/03/03: Guardian(UK): George Will in the hot seat -- The conservative columnist distorts the evidence on climate change - and the Washington Post's standards go extinct
• 2009/03/03: Guardian(UK): We all make mistakes but Washington Post's George Will just won't admit his
  Climate change deniers are quick to seize on scientists' mistakes - but their own nonsense just gets repeated time after time
• 2009/03/02: FAIR: More Hot Air from George Will -- Columnist defends errors in climate change column
• 2009/02/28: Loom: Ice, Ice Baby: When Fact-Checking Is Not Fact-Checking
• 2009/03/02: KSJT: A furious assault in the blogosphere, by the big media guns of climate change worry, on George Will
• 2009/03/02: Denialism: WaPo's ombudsman just doesn't get it
• 2009/02/18: FAIR: Noam Chomsky Excavates the George Will Memory Hole

  Late coverage of the lobbyist story:

• 2009/02/25: PRWatch: Global Warming Fills Lobbyists' Coffers
• 2009/03/06: WSJ:EnvCap: Revenue Rumble: Following the Money in the Climate Change Debate

  The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2009/03/05: RawStory: After government retaliation, over 1 million face starvation in Sudan
• 2009/03/05: CNN: Record 31.8 million on food stamps -- Government shows increase of 700,000 food stamp recipients in a single month.
• 2009/03/02: Nogger: Wheat Output In Russia/Ukraine Seen Sharply Lower In 2009
  Wheat output in Ukraine will decline by 29.7% to 18.2mmt in 2009, according to the International Grains Council.
• 2009/02/09: MS: Catastrophic Fall in 2009 Global Food Production
• 2009/02/27: Infarmation: Crop farmers under pressure
  The area sown to crops this year in south eastern [Australian] states could be cut by half because of continuing dry conditions...
• 2009/03/02: Google:AP: Farmers worry as parts of Texas are driest in US

  The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

• 2009/03/03: TreeHugger: Leaving Land Unfarmed Better Than Using it to Make Corn Ethanol For Emissions Reductions
• 2009/03/02: Eureka: Study critiques corn-for-ethanol's carbon footprint

  And how are we going to feed 9 billion?

• 2009/03/05: Guardian(UK): China to plough extra 20% into agricultural production amid fears that climate change will spark food crisis
• 2009/03/03: HartfordAdvocate: The Party's Over -- Why not grow some of your own food?
• 2009/03/04: ABC(Au): Climate change 'may' offer grain grower boost
  New research is suggesting climate change could have an upside for grain growers. The work being carried out in Horsham is testing the effect increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will have on grain production. The trials involve the Department of Primary Industries, the University of Melbourne and the Grains Research and Development Corporation. Researchers are growing grain and simulating the CO2 levels expected by 2050, while varying the amount of water and nitrogen available.
• 2009/03/03: DotEarth: A Call for Resilient Farms in Warming World
• 2009/03/02: PhysOrg: Doubling a gene in corn results in giant biomass
• 2009/03/01: AmericanChronicle: Lugar Calls for Deeper Understanding of Food Shortage Challenges

  Hamish is blowing around the SW Pacific, but otherwise it has been quiet:

• 2009/03/06: Wunderground: NOAA Hurricane Hunters update
• 2009/03/05: Wunderground: Postcards from IHC, Part II: remote pressure measurements
• 2009/03/04: Wunderground: Postcards from the Interdepartmental Hurricane Conference, Part I: WISDOM

  As for GHGs:

• 2009/03/06: Reuters: Has recession trimmed CO2 output? We'll know by 2010
• 2009/03/04: Reuters: Rich nations revise up greenhouse gas problem [changing 1990 levels]
• 2009/03/04: GristMill: Feeling gassy? Greenhouse-gas emissions continue to grow in the U.S.
  [...] In the absence of a national program to cap and reduce the amount of planet-warming gases we're pumping into the atmosphere, U.S. emissions continued to grow in 2007. [...] Emissions grew 17.1 percent from 1990 to 2007...

And in the carbon cycle:

• 2009/03/02: GreenGrok: Are We Dining on a Carbon Sink?
• 2009/03/04: TerraDaily: Wenchuan Earthquake Mudslides Emit Greenhouse Gas
• 2009/03/02: Eureka: Wenchuan earthquake mudslides emit greenhouse gas

  While on the ENSO front:

• 2009/03/05: NOAA:NCEP: El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion
  Synopsis: La Niña is expected to gradually weaken with increasing chances (greater than 50%) for ENSO-neutral conditions during the Northern Hemisphere Spring.

Glaciers are melting:

• 2009/03/03: IRIN: UGANDA: Rising temperatures threatening livelihoods
  The ice caps on the Rwenzori Mountains along Uganda's western border have receded significantly in the past century and could disappear completely in the next few years, experts said. "The results of recent mapping are alarming," Philip Gwage, assistant commissioner in charge of meteorology in the ministry of water and environment, said. "Over the last 100 years, the total glacier area has dropped from 650ha in 1906 to a mere 108ha in 2005. At this rate the Rwenzori will be completely [devoid] of glaciers by 2025."
• 2009/03/03: ClimateP: Another climate impact coming faster than predicted: Glacier National Park to go glacier-free a decade early

  Sea levels are rising:

• 2009/03/08: Guardian(UK): Scientists to issue stark warning over dramatic new sea level figures
  Rising sea levels pose a far bigger eco threat than previously thought. This week's climate change conference in Copenhagen will sound an alarm over new floodings - enough to swamp Bangladesh, Florida, the Norfolk Broads and the Thames estuary
• 2009/03/04: Europa: Icecaps send shivers through climatologists
  Just how much is the sea set to rise over the coming century? Nobody can say for sure at present. However, worrying signs are multiplying at our planet's two poles.
• 2009/03/04: PhysOrg: Mediterranean Sea level could rise by 61 cm
• 2009/03/03: ENN: Mediterranean Sea Level Could Rise By over 2 feet
• 2009/03/01: ERabett: Whose problem? How global sea levels would rise if the WAIS collapsed

  Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

• 2009/03/03: USGS: Designed for 3 years, 'workhorse' [LandSat] satellite completes 25 [years]
• 2009/03/03: NatureCF: NASA's next challenge [Post OCO]

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2009/03/06: SciDaily: Climate Change Hurting Hares: White Snowshoe Hares Can't Hide On Brown Earth
• 2009/03/04: Yahoo: Climate change bad news for most birds: [PloS One] study
• 2009/03/05: SciDaily: Tropical Lizards Can't Take The Heat Of Climate Warming
• 2009/03/04: MongaBay: Climate change could devastate lizards in the tropics
• 2009/03/04: BBC: Climate 'hitting Europe's birds' -- Climate change is already having an impact on European bird species, according to British scientists
• 2009/03/01: SeedDaily: UN report warns fishing industry on climate change
• 2009/03/03: Eureka: Eugene-Springfield face Upper Willamette climate threats -- Scientists urge planning now to curb risks to human health, buildings and the Oregon region's ecology
• 2009/03/03: Scotsman: Birds of Scotland risk wipeout as warming drives them north
• 2009/03/02: Google:AFP: UN report warns fishing industry on climate change
• 2009/03/02: EarthTimes: UN: World fisheries need to prepare for climate change
• 2009/03/02: ENN: Med Nations Top EU's Climate Change Risk List

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2009/03/02: Tyee: Suzuki: Planting Trees Good, But No Global Warming Fix -- Foundation responds to Tyee story, gives view on forests and carbon offsets.
• 2009/03/06: NatureCF: Tropical forests: From sink to source?
• 2009/03/06: TreeHugger: Vicious Cycle: Drought Threatens Amazon Forest, Speeds Global Warming
• 2009/03/06: CCurrents: Revenge Of The Rainforest
• 2009/03/05: CBC: Drought in Amazon rainforest caused massive carbon release: study
• 2009/03/06: Independent(UK): Revenge of the rainforest
  The Amazon has long been the lungs of the world. But now comes dramatic evidence that we cannot rely on it in the fight against climate change
• 2009/03/06: SMH: Wildlife on the attack as Indonesia backs logging
  The Indonesian Government has approved a big increase in logging of its tropical forests, a decision that will lead to a rise in carbon emissions and, most likely, lead to further deadly attacks on villagers by tigers and elephants. The end of a 14-month moratorium on logging comes amid a spate of macabre maulings of Indonesians by animals struggling to survive in their dwindling habitats.
• 2009/03/05: NatureN: Climate change crisis for rainforests -- Drought could turn carbon sinks into sources.
• 2009/03/05: NewScientist: Parts of Amazon close to tipping point
• 2009/03/05: PhysOrg: Amazon carbon sink threatened by drought
• 2009/03/05: Eureka: Statement by Sandy Andelman, co-author of 'Drought sensitivity of the Amazon Rainforest'
• 2009/03/05: Eureka: Amazon carbon sink threatened by drought
• 2009/03/05: Reuters: Amazon's 2005 drought created huge CO2 emissions

  Yes we have no wacky weather, except:

• 2009/03/06: BSD: Climate change is changing rain/snow mix in winter floods
• 2009/03/05: EarthTimes: Winds wreak havoc, cause injuries in Spain
• 2009/03/05: EarthTimes: Late snowfalls in Britain bring chaos to roads and rail

  What to make of extreme weather?

• 2009/03/05: ClimateP: Why do the deniers try to shout down any talk of a link between climate change and extreme weather?
• 2009/03/05: MGS: Weather will still happen
• 2009/03/05: DeSmogBlog: Hot or Not? Making Sense of Climate Variability

  We have heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2009/03/07: EarthTimes: Californian arsonist convicted of murder in five [wildfire] deaths
• 2009/03/04: TerraDaily: Worst of Australian wildfire season declared over
• 2009/03/04: SMH: Victoria survives the big blow - fires contained
• 2009/03/02: ClimateP: Global Boiling: Australia's Hellish Black Saturday Of Extreme Fire
• 2009/03/02: TerraDaily: Millions warned as Australia braces for renewed fire threat
• 2009/03/01: TP:WonkRoom: Global Boiling: Australia's Black Saturday Of Extreme Fire
• 2009/03/02: BBerg: Australians Told to Flee as Gales Threaten New Blazes

  As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

• 2009/03/08: Guardian(UK): [Argentinian] Ranchers sell up as pampas turn to dust
• 2009/03/07: SMH: End to drought only hope for Snowy
• 2009/02/07: MS: Texas Drought Conditions Becoming Historic
• 2009/03/04: BBC: California struggles with drought
  California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency because of severe drought after three dry winters left reservoirs at their lowest levels since 1992.
• 2009/03/03: JFleck: Crying Drought
• 2009/03/02: TreeHugger: South Asian Monsoon Rains Could Be Delayed, Decrease In Intensity Due to Climate Change
• 2009/03/02: EarthTimes: Drought declared in 25 Thai provinces
• 2009/02/28: Mercury: A tiny town in the Central Valley [California] prepares for [drought] 'Armageddon'

  Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2009/03/04: EarthTimes: Hon Hai, IBM agree to deploy carbon-emissions technology

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2009/03/05: EurActiv: Carbon footprint of new TGV [French high speed rail] lines under scrutiny
• 2009/03/04: Guardian(UK): Airlines that break emission rules could have planes seized

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

• 2009/03/05: ABC(Au): ACT kitted out to tackle home energy efficiency
  Canberrans will now have access to Home Energy Action Kits which will help improve household energy efficiency. The announcement comes after the Green Building Council of Australia told the Legislative Assembly that energy efficient buildings are the key to meeting greenhouse gas targets.
• 2009/03/05: GristMill: Button 'er up -- Canada, U.K. push green-building regs
• 2009/03/04: TreeHugger: Green Buildings: One Standard to Rule Them All

  As for carbon sequestration:

• 2009/03/05: ABC(Au): Carbon-storing charcoal shows promise, but more work needed
  A form of charcoal that promises to be a highly effective method of carbon storage needs three to five years more research before Australian farmers could start using it, a leading researcher says. Dr Evelyn Krull of CSIRO Land and Water has written a report on biochar - pellets of stable carbon made from burning biomass, without oxygen, in a controlled process called pyrolysis. As well as sequestering carbon emissions, it is believed biochar pellets can be used by farmers to improve soil fertility, water-holding capacity and crop production.
• 2009/03/05: TreeHugger: Cool New Interactive Carbon Capture & Storage Maps Launched
• 2009/02/24: LDEO: Geologists Map Rocks to Soak CO2 From Air -- 6,000 Square Miles in U.S. Might Turn Emissions to Harmless Solids
• 2009/02/26: Guardian(UK): Carbon capture won't work until 2030, says energy boss
  Sam Laidlaw, chief executive of Centrica, has warned that coal plants fitted with carbon capture storage (CCS) equipment are unlikely to be ready to make big cuts in Britain's emissions before 2030. The country's geology is not suited to the technology, which is expensive and unproven, he said. This meant it would take "at least 15 years and probably closer to 20 years" before companies were in a position to deploy the technology on a large scale.
• 2009/03/02: TreeHugger: Wyoming - the New Carbon Sequestration Capital

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2009/03/04: BBC: Big problems need big solutions
  Climate change is a massive problem that needs big and bold solutions, says Professor Tim Lenton. In this week's Green Room, he outlines the reasons why "geo-engineering" projects, such as reflecting sunlight back into space, could help win the battle against dangerous climate change.
• 2009/03/01: Guardian(UK): The dangers of geo-engineering

  While on the adaptation front:

• 2009/03/07: BBC: Adapting to climate change in Archangel
  Changing temperatures mean the hardy people of northern Russia are having to adapt, but they are not yet sure to what...
• 2009/03/01: Times(UK): Villagers weather climate change
• 2009/03/02: ThanhNienNews: Netherlands to help with climate change impacts

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2009/03/05: ACP: Operational climate monitoring from space: the EUMETSAT Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM-SAF) by J. Schulz et al.
• 2009/03/05: ACPD: Taklimakan dust aerosol radiative heating derived from CALIPSO observations using the Fu-Liou radiation model with CERES constraints by J. Huang et al.
• 2009/02/18: GRL: (ab$) Vegetation-atmosphere-soil nutrient feedbacks in the Amazon for different deforestation scenarios by Mônica Carneiro Alves Senna et al.
• 2009/03/06: CP: Late Glacial to Holocene environments in the present-day coldest region of the Northern Hemisphere inferred from a pollen record of Lake Billyakh, Verkhoyansk Mts, NE Siberia by S. Müller et al.
• 2009/03/06: CP: Millennial-scale climatic variability between 340 000 and 270 000 years ago in SW Europe: evidence from a NW Iberian margin pollen sequence by S. Desprat et al.
• 2009/03/05: CP: How did Marine Isotope Stage 3 and Last Glacial Maximum climates differ? -- Perspectives from equilibrium simulations by C. J. Van Meerbeeck et al.
• 2009/03/04: CPD: Uncertainties in modeling CH4 emissions from northern wetlands in glacial climates: effect of hydrological model and CH4 model structure by C. Berrittella & J. van Huissteden
• 2009/03/04: CPD: Putting the rise of the Inca Empire within a climatic and land management context by A. J. Chepstow-Lusty et al.
• 2009/03/04: TCD: Glacier volume response time and its links to climate and topography based on a conceptual model of glacier hypsometry by S. C. B. Raper & R. J. Braithwaite
• 2009/03/05: PLoS One: An Indicator of the Impact of Climatic Change on European Bird Populations by Richard D. Gregory et al.
• 2009/02/24: USGS: [abstract & link to 11.1meg pdf] Mapping the Mineral Resource Base for Mineral Carbon-Dioxide Sequestration in the Conterminous United States by S.C. Krevor et al.
• 2009/03/04: GreenGrok: Upstream, Downstream, or Midstream -- Where to Place the Cap? [optimal]
• 2009/03/04: ACP: The Tropical Tropopause Layer 1960-2100 by A. Gettelman et al.
• 2009/03/03: ACP: An analytical inversion method for determining regional and global emissions of greenhouse gases: Sensitivity studies and application to halocarbons by A. Stohl ey al.
• 2009/03/02: ACPD: Accurate satellite-derived estimates of the tropospheric ozone impact on the global radiation budget by J. Joiner et al.
• 2009/03/02: ACPD: The climatic effects of the direct injection of water vapour into the stratosphere by large volcanic eruptions by M. M. Joshi & G. S. Jones
• 2009/03/03: PNAS: Genomic basis for stimulated respiration by plants growing under elevated carbon dioxide by Andrew D. B. Leakey et al.
• 2009/03/03: PNAS: Absolute humidity modulates influenza survival, transmission, and seasonality by Jeffrey Shaman & Melvin Kohn
• 2009/03/: NAP: _Restructuring Federal Climate Research to Meet the Challenges of Climate Change_ by Committee on Strategic Advice on the U.S. Climate Change Science Program; National Research Council

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

• 2009/03/03: NewScientist: Ancient supernovae may be recorded in Antarctic ice

  The Pielke fan clubbe put in an appearance:

• 2009/03/04: ERabett: What did Gore say?
• 2009/03/03: ClimateP: Pielke in Nature: "Clearly, since 1970 climate change ... has shaped the disaster loss record."
• 2009/03/03: AFTIC: Roger has really lost the plot (again)

  Meanwhile on the Kyoto-2 front:

• 2009/03/06: EarthTimes: [US Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton eyes climate targets for developing lands in Copenhagen
• 2009/03/06: EUO: EU and US vow to use crisis for green new deal -- The US and EU are on the same page about climate change, according to Ms Clinton
• 2009/03/04: CCurrents: Copenhagen And Beyond: Climate Change Is An Emergency
• 2009/03/04: Reuters: Rich nations revise up greenhouse gas problem [changing 1990 levels]
• 2009/03/04: Guardian(UK): Obama must pass climate laws ahead of Copenhagen, Danish minister [Connie Hedegaard] warns
  The US needs to set an example to developing countries if significant progress is to be made at the Copenhagen summit, Denmark's climate minister warns
• 2009/03/03: EuropeanVoice: EU wants other countries to set emissions targets
• 2009/03/02: DotEarth: Hard Paths to Treaty, U.S. Law on Climate

  While at the UN:

• 2009/03/06: UN: UN official [UNFCCC head, Yvo de Boer] 'encouraged' by new US stance on reaching climate change pact

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2009/03/04: Guardian(UK): Turner adds voice to calls for a 'floor price' on carbon permits
  Chairman of the UK's Committee on Climate Change adds an influential voice to calls for a minimum price for carbon pollution permits

The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

• 2009/03/02: GristMill: Carbon tax on steroids -- Some perspective on tax-and-dividend and a better alternative

  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:

• 2009/03/06: ObsidianWings: Don't Give Away Carbon Permits
• 2009/03/08: Guardian(UK): Carbon trade wrong, says former chief executive of BP, Browne
• 2009/03/06: Forbes: A Carbon Tax Is Better Than Cap-And-Trade -- Tricky question: How will Republicans react?
• 2009/03/05: HuffPo: The Inevitable Solution to Climate Change [cap and dividend]
• 2009/03/05: GristMill: Cap-and-trade on steroids -- More perspectives on tax/auction revenue allocation
• 2009/03/04: NEN: Cap-and-trade, the lessons learned

  Meanwhile on the international political front:

• 2009/03/06: WaPo: Europe Advises U.S. Officials on Climate
  A clutch of leading international climate officials and negotiators who descended on Washington this week to press the United States for action on global warming say they got a clear message from the Obama administration and key lawmakers: The question now is not whether the nation will act, but how.
• 2009/03/04: Yahoo: Washington new center of global warming battle
• 2009/03/04: Yahoo: Brown: US must lead on economy, climate change

  As for GW & security:

• 2009/03/03: AlterNet: Our Worst Enemies Aren't Terrorists: Rethinking National Security on a Sinking Planet

  And on the American political front:

• 2009/03/06: Forbes: A Carbon Tax Is Better Than Cap-And-Trade -- Tricky question: How will Republicans react?
• 2009/03/06: AutoBG: California Air Resources Board proposes Low Carbon Fuel Standard
• 2009/03/06: SF Gate: State emissions proposal quickly attacked
  A proposed state regulation designed to promote alternative fuels and cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars drew fire Thursday from ethanol producers, who say the rules discriminate against them.
• 2009/03/05: CSW: Plans are underway to create a National Climate Service - But what does that mean, exactly?
• 2009/03/04: ClimateP: Eruptions of know-nothingism from conservative savior Bobby Jindal
• 2009/03/04: ClimateP: Hill conservatives reject all 3 climate strategies and embrace Rush Limbaugh -- what does that radicalism mean for Obama, progressives, and humanity?
• 2009/03/04: GristMill: What's the alternative? [US energy pol]
• 2009/03/04: ClimateP: A New Military Mission: Clean Energy
• 2009/03/02: GristMill: Frum the gamma quadrant -- Why cap-and-trade requires that Bangladesh evict radical Islamists
• 2009/03/02: DeSmogBlog: Right Wing think tank sets target on Washington State cap and trade

  The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2009/03/06: Guardian(UK): US ethanol producers urge Obama to up ethanol content of motor fuels
• 2009/03/06: ClimateP: Must Read: The Economist slams "The illusion of clean coal" as Congress, Obama seek to revive Futuregen
• 2009/03/05: BizWeek: Obama's Cap-and-Trade Plan
  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is gearing up to rally coal-state politicians to alter the President's plan to control carbon emissions
• 2009/03/06: WSJ:EnvCap: Green Grow: Expediting Obama's Green Plan
• 2009/03/04: WSJ:EnvCap: Hope on Ice: The White House Gets Real on Climate Change
• 2009/03/04: Guardian(UK): Obama must pass climate laws ahead of Copenhagen, Danish minister [Connie Hedegaard] warns
  The US needs to set an example to developing countries if significant progress is to be made at the Copenhagen summit, Denmark's climate minister warns
• 2009/03/04: NewScientist: Obama goes 'all in' for science
• 2009/03/03: FTimes: Obama's chance to lead the green recovery by Joseph Stiglitz and Nicholas Stern
• 2009/03/02: WorldChanging: Obama's Grid: New Electricity Transmission System Coming Soon
• 2009/03/01: Statesman: Obama's signals on climate raising hopes for new treaty

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2009/03/05: WarmingLaw: EPA Holds Hearing on CA Waiver, Automakers Stay Home (to Work on Their Lawsuits)
• 2009/03/06: SF Gate: State renews push for tougher emission rules
  California's top environmental officials appeared at an Environmental Protection Agency hearing Thursday to urge President Obama to make good on his election-year pledge to approve the state's aggressive greenhouse gas rules for vehicles.
• 2009/03/04: USAToday: EPA considers tougher auto emissions rules
• 2009/03/04: Reuters: US Treasury secretary attacks oil, gas tax breaks
  U.S. oil and natural gas producing companies should not receive federal subsidies in the form of tax breaks because their businesses contribute to global warming, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Congress on Wednesday.
• 2009/03/04: TP:WonkRoom: Clinton-Gore Technology Advisers Kalil And Kohlenberger Join Obama White House Staff
• 2009/03/04: KSJT: Houston Press: EPA's Energy Star green city awards aren't all as they might appear. Not in Houston for sure...
• 2009/03/03: WSJ: U.S. Climate Official [Todd Stern] Urges Congress To Curb Greenhouse-Gas Emissions
• 2009/03/03: GristMill: Comment is free (at least on Thursday) -- EPA to host public hearing on the California waiver
• 2009/03/03: GristMill: Just when I thought I was out ... WaPo confirms influence of Obama's top economic advisers; climate policy suffers
• 2009/03/03: GristMill: Surrogate fail -- Obama's team shows it's unprepared to defend his cap-and-trade proposal
• 2009/03/02: NatureTGB: NASA chief coming soon?

  The Obama administration is still undoing Bush's midnight regulation changes:

• 2009/03/06: PhysOrg: Senate clears way to reverse polar bear rule
  The Senate has cleared the way for the Obama administration to reverse a rule saying that greenhouse gases cannot be restricted in an effort to protect polar bears from global warming. The rule was issued in the waning days of George W. Bush's presidency.
• 2009/03/03: Guardian(UK): Obama reverses Bush decision on endangered species act
• 2009/03/03: NatureTGB: Endangered species rules rolled back
• 2009/03/03: CBC: Obama reinstates U.S. endangered species rules

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2009/03/06: GristMill: Markey's got a Goo thing going -- NRDC climate guy to advise the global warming select committee
• 2009/03/05: GristMill: Notable quotable -- Surrendering in advance: just how the Democrats roll
• 2009/03/05: NYT: Senate leader says energy, climate bills will be combined
  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) confirmed today that he will package energy and global warming measures together into one large bill for consideration later this year, a decision that should put to rest questions about whether Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill have different strategies for one of President Obama's top agenda items. Reid gave only a one-word answer -- "yes" -- when asked whether he planned to wrap a cap-and-trade bill together with separate bills establishing a nationwide renewable electricity standard (RES) and promotion of a modernized grid that can improve energy efficiency, reliability and renewable energy management.
• 2009/03/06: TreeHugger: Harry Reid's New Green Transmission Bill Would Spur Alternative Energy Growth
• 2009/03/05: Reuters: Total-auction U.S. climate bill unlikely: lawmaker [Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)]
• 2009/03/05: ClimateP: Swing-vote Snowe on Reid 'mega-bill' strategy: "You give people plenty of reasons to vote against this" by combining energy and climate legislation
• 2009/03/05: GristMill: A whole renew ballgame -- What are the chances of passing a renewable electricity standard this year?
• 2009/03/04: ClimateP: Sen. Bingaman doubts "the votes are there this year to pass" a bill like Boxer-Lieberman-Warner
• 2009/03/01: ClimateP: House abandons rip-offset purchase. Now can it abandon them in a climate bill?
• 2009/03/02: TreeHugger: Congress Gives Up on Going Carbon Neutral -- Green the Capitol program abandoned

  Someone in the Senate has a hold on the Holdren and Lubchenco appointments:

• 2009/03/06: ClimateP: Sen. Menendez has no hold on Holdren or Lubchenco -- but others do, so action is still needed
• 2009/03/03: QA: Obstructing Science in the Senate - Only You Can Stop It
• 2009/03/04: QA: Science in the Senate: It's Not Just Menendez; Full Court Press Badly Needed.
• 2009/03/03: QuestionableAuthority: "Holds" on NOAA Administrator & Science Advisor Confirmations. Call Senators Now.
• 2009/03/03: TP:WonkRoom: Menendez Blocks Obama's Scientists Over Unrelated, 'Deeply Offensive' Cuba Policies
• 2009/03/03: ClimateP: Help free John Holdren and Jane Lubchenco [holds]
• 2009/03/04: CSW: Update on the Senate hold on confirming Holdren and Lubchenco
• 2009/03/04: Intersection:CCM: The "Holds" Scandal Worsens: Speak Out!
• 2009/03/03: GristMill: Bob and weave -- Sen. Menendez holds up science appointees to get leverage on Cuba policy
• 2009/03/03: CSW: Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) delays confirmation of John Holdren and Jane Lubchenco
• 2009/03/03: WaPo: Nominations on Hold For 2 Top Science Posts -- Votes on Physicist and Marine Biologist Halted by N.J. Senator in Unrelated Fight
• 2009/03/03: Intersection:CCM: The Latest Outrage: Holds on Holdren, Lubchencho

  Late comment on the budget:

• 2009/03/06: CSM: Nuclear waste dogs US energy policy
  Yucca Mountain was supposed to be where the highly toxic material was sent. But Obama's energy budget leaves it out.
• 2009/03/03: GristMill: Some implications of Obama's carbon budget -- $80b per year in carbon revenue to go to clean energy, tax payer rebates
• 2009/03/03: GristMill: Nuh-uh Yucca -- Obama budget proposal would cut off funding for Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump
• 2009/03/01: GristMill: Cap-and-trade in context -- Don't treat the budget like a bill
• 2009/03/01: GristMill: Obama's budget, IV -- Carbon policy = tax cut

  A group of environmental organizations has banded together to lobby the Obama administration:

• 2009/03/07: CSW: National Call to Action on Global Warming reflects rising expectations under President Obama
• 2009/03/06: GristMill: Green line in the sand -- 50 green and civic groups roll out tough climate principles -- National Call to Action on Global Warming

  The Gore-apalooza is still bopping along:

• 2009/03/05: WSJ:EnvCap: A Heated Exchange: Al Gore Confronts His Critic(s)
• 2009/03/05: ABC(Au): Gore group backs creation of .eco domain
• 2009/03/02: ClimateP: Unstaining Al Gore's good name 2: He is not "guilty of inaccuracies and overstatements" and is owed a correction and apology by the New York Times
• 2009/03/02: ClimateP: Unstaining Al Gore's good name, Part 1: The NYT's false "guilty of inaccuracies and overstatements" charge began with a false charge by Pielke

  While in the UK:

• 2009/03/06: Guardian(UK): New green strategy could create 400,000 jobs
  [UK Climate Change Secretary, Ed] Miliband outlines plans for low-carbon economy - Coal and nuclear energy will be key to future
• 2009/03/04: Guardian(UK): Turner adds voice to calls for a 'floor price' on carbon permits
  Chairman of the UK's Committee on Climate Change adds an influential voice to calls for a minimum price for carbon pollution permits
• 2009/03/03: Guardian(UK): Climate change protest disrupts flights at Aberdeen airport -- Nine members of campaign group Plane Stupid cut through perimeter fence
• 2009/03/03: Guardian(UK): Poodle urges US to act on climate change
• 2009/03/02: Guardian(UK): Decision on new coal-fired plant delayed again

  This story reminds me of that quote from Meacher:

• 2009/03/04: Guardian(UK): Industry leaders denying climate change, says UK science minister
  Lord Drayson says there is an urgent need to restate the scientific evidence for global warming and calls for companies to focus on their environmental obligations Senior figures in the manufacturing industry do not accept that human activities are driving global warming or that action needs to be taken to prepare for its effects, the UK government's science minister said today . Lord Drayson said recent discussions with leaders in the car industry and other businesses had left him "shocked" at the number of climate change deniers among senior industrialists. Of those who acknowledged that global temperatures were rising, many blamed it on variations in the sun's activity.
• "The other thing which I think is very important is vested interests. Who wants to keep the world the way it is? The oil industry; the chemical industry; the food industry; the car industry; the airline industry. These are very powerful. Who rules Britain? Not parliament." -Michael Meacher, Former Minister of State for the Environment, Privy Counsellor and UK Member of Parliament

  Funny how the police (in Britain & elsewhere) have so much difficulty differentiating between subversion and lawful political dissent:

• 2009/03/06: Guardian(UK): Caught on film and stored on database: how police keep tabs on activists
  Police footage obtained by the Guardian has revealed the crude monitoring methods deployed across the country against protesters, thousands of whom have their personal details stored on criminal intelligence systems for up to seven years
• 2009/03/06: Guardian(UK): Revealed: police databank on thousands of protesters -- Films and details of campaigners and journalists may breach Human Rights Act
• 2009/03/02: PeakEnergy: Why protesters are now stalkers

  Prince of darkness slimed!

• 2009/03/06: Times(UK): Protester throws green custard in the face of Peter Mandelson and walks away
• 2009/03/06: Guardian(UK): Police to investigate green custard attack on Mandelson
  Detectives to make inquiries after business secretary calls action by Plane Stupid activist an 'adolescent protest'
• 2009/03/06: Guardian(UK): 'I decided to make some custard, colour it green, and show how slimy I think he is' -- Activist explains why she attacked Peter Mandelson
• 2009/03/06: Xinhuanet: Protester throws green custard on Mandelson ahead of low carbon summit
  British Business Secretary Peter Mandelson got green custard covered over his face on Friday as a protester showed her anger over what she considered government's thoughtless moves on environment. Mandelson was custard-hit when he arrived at the opening of a low carbon economy summit in London. Leila Deen, the protester from environmental group Plane Stupid, told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that her move was motivated in Mandelson's involvement in the government's decision to approve a third runway at Heathrow Airport, which activists fear would greatly affect the climate. "It's not right that someone like Peter Mandelson can stand up and talk about being green," she said.

And in Europe:

• 2009/03/05: NatureTGB: Make wind power, not cars [Swedish trade minister Maud Olofsson tells Saab]
• 2009/03/03: FTimes: EU split on carbon capture intensifies
• 2009/03/03: EUO: EU ministers shirk third-world climate finance
• 2009/03/03: EurActiv: Ministers pass the buck on climate financing
  Environment ministers failed yesterday (2 March) to hammer out an EU position for global climate talks, passing the buck on funding to finance ministers expected to meet next Tuesday (10 March) in Brussels.
• 2009/03/03: NYT: Europeans urge Obama to adopt medium-term climate targets
• 2009/03/02: Reuters: EU inches towards climate funding for poor nations
• 2009/03/02: SwissInfo: Green energy promoters seek financial boost -- Environmentalists have called on parliament to increase efforts to promote renewable energy resources

  Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2009/03/08: ABC(Au): Nationals Senator Ron Boswell says he will be arguing for the Coalition to vote against the Government's emissions trading scheme
• 2009/03/05: HeraldSun: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's green pledge was all hot air
  When Kevin Rudd took to a UN stage in Bali, 2007, to announced he would ratify the Kyoto Protocol, it was a moment that received rapturous applause. But the only thing that vanished in the year that followed the PM's grand gesture was the Federal Government's credibility on tackling global warming...
• 2009/03/05: ABC(Au): Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the contraction in economic growth is no reason to delay the start of a carbon emissions trading scheme
• 2009/03/04: LiveNews(Au): We have 'breathing space' on climate: [Ross] Garnaut
  The economic crisis has bought Australia at least two years of "breathing space" in the fight against climate change, according to climate adviser Ross Garnaut. The crisis has clamped down on industry and production, which has put a lid on greenhouse gas emissions.
• 2009/03/03: GWWatch: Financial crisis equals breathing space on climate
• 2009/03/03: ABC(Au): The Federal Government's climate change adviser Ross Garnaut says the global financial crisis is no reason to delay the start of the emissions trading scheme
• 2009/03/03: ABC(Au): The Federal Opposition has accused the Government of copying part of its idea to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
• 2009/03/03: ABC(Au): A number of representatives from Shoalhaven council are attending a conference in Perth to learn about the effects of climate change on planning in coastal areas
• 2009/03/03: ABC(Au): $32 million program to research soil carbon storage
  Nine research programs across the country will begin looking at effective ways to store carbon in soil in a bid to reduce emissions.
• 2009/03/03: SMH: Electricity watchdog blasted over coal-fired plan
  The Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, has criticised the electricity industry's federal watchdog, accusing it of giving the go-ahead to a billion dollar plan that will boost investment in polluting coal-fired power stations, increase electricity bills for residents and seriously undermine her green vision for the city unveiled last year. Clover Moore plans to organise city mayors from across Australia to write to the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, calling for the watchdog, the Australian Energy Regulator, to take into account plans to reduce the nation's greenhouse gas emissions by reforming the electricity network. This includes strategies by city mayors to radically reshape the electricity network in the capital cities by improving energy efficiency and using more renewable energy from local green power generators in buildings and city blocks. "While the Federal Government is talking about plans to move towards a sustainable future, their own Australian Energy Regulator is moving in the opposite direction," she said.
• 2009/03/02: ABC(Au): The Queensland Farmers Federation (QFF) says it will distribute a guide to help farmers deal with climate change
• 2009/03/02: ABC(Au): Green groups rally for higher emissions reductions
  More than 60 climate action groups are urging the Federal Government to raise carbon emission reduction targets. The groups have joined forces in a letter to Climate Change Minister Penny Wong, which says the planned targets are appallingly low. The Government has committed to reducing carbon emissions by between 5 and 15 per cent of 2000 levels by 2020.
• 2009/03/02: ABC(Au): Emissions trading spells disaster for farmers: MP
  The Federal Member for Barker, Patrick Secker, say the Government's emissions trading scheme will be devastating for farmers, even with exemptions.
• 2009/03/02: SMH: Carbon plan has green setbacks
  The future of the national renewable energy program GreenPower is in doubt after big energy companies warned it might not be viable under the Federal Government's planned emissions trading scheme.

And in China:

• 2009/03/05: Reuters: China clings to clean-up amid economic woes
  Grappling with slowing growth and a rising tide of unemployment, China is still pushing for cleaner development and may step up efforts to tackle climate change, the country's top economic planner said on Thursday. Experiments with a cap-and-trade emissions trading system for air pollutants, more spending on technology to tackle global warming and another round of shutdowns at outdated power plants and factories are all on the agenda for 2009.
• 2009/03/06: DerSpiegel: Grim New Report -- China's Greenhouse Gas Emissions Threaten to Double
• 2009/03/02: Guardian(UK): China plans 59 reservoirs to collect meltwater from its shrinking glaciers -- Major project for Xinjiang province amid concerns over future water supply

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

• 2009/03/07: CanWest: Canada puts the squeeze on science
  Experts warn research lacks adequate funding and the government a coherent vision. While the U.S. invests heavily in science as an key part of its economic revival, Canada is spending less and putting scientists out of work...
• 2009/03/05: OttawaSun: Tories vow to get mean on green abusers
  The Conservative government is promising to crack down on environmental criminals by upping fines, going after company profits and hiring more enforcement officers. The pledges are part of the new environmental enforcement bill, which Environment Minister Jim Prentice tabled yesterday. "The legislation ... reinforces our position that those who break the law will be punished to the full extent of the law," said Prentice. The bill would amend nine separate environmental laws, including the Canada National Parks Act and the Canada Wildlife Act, pulling them under one catch-all law for environmental crime.
• 2009/03/02: CtC: Cabinet Minister Blows His Top -- Poor form, Mr. Goodyear, very poor form.
• 2009/03/02: DawgsBlawg: Maybe a "time out," Minister? [Goodyear]
• 2009/03/02: APOV: Reloaded: The State Of Science In Harper Land
• 2009/03/02: G&M: Researchers fear 'stagnation' under Tories

  Environment minister Jim Prentice is dancing as fast as he can for a continental strategy to save Harper & co.:

• 2009/03/04: CanWest: Canada, U.S. to co-ordinate carbon-reduction projects -- Prentice says work to take aim at emissions from coal-fired plants, oilsands
• 2009/03/03: Impolitical: The Environment Minister goes to Washington and the tarsands don't come up
• 2009/03/03: CBC: Prentice meets U.S. legislators on energy, climate change
• 2009/03/03: CanWest: Oil sands lost in U.S. talks: critics -- 'Clean energy dialogue' ignores Alberta industry, focuses on coal
• 2009/03/03: TStar: Canada, U.S. share climate goals, Prentice says
  Environment minister meets with Obama officials as anti-oil sands campaigners gather in Washington. Canada's environment minister is putting a brave face on a new round of climate talks in the U.S. capital as a wave of anti-oil sands environmentalists push the Obama administration to take a hard-line on the carbon-heavy Alberta resource.
• 2009/03/02: DeSmogBlog: Canada Expects to Sell George W. Bush's Climate Plan to President Obama
• 2009/03/02: HillTimes: Canada 'twiddles its thumbs' waiting for an American-made climate strategy: environmentalists
  Obama shows 'real leadership' on environment, but Canada is stuck in a holding pattern
• 2009/03/02: G&M: Prentice hits Washington, with cap (and trade) in hand
  The Harper government is facing growing threats of environment-based protectionism from the U.S. as President Barack Obama moves forward aggressively with a climate-change plan that conservative critics are already blasting as a de facto, economy-wide carbon tax. Canadian federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice lands in Washington today to pursue the Canada-U.S. co-operation on energy and the environment that was promised when the new President visited Ottawa two weeks ago. In meetings with top administration officials, Mr. Prentice will push Canada's proposal for a continental system of emission caps and market-based permit trading that would align Canada's regulatory system with that of our largest trading partner.

As for Iggy's new found tarsands policy:

• 2009/03/05: Canoe: Stelmach lauds federal Liberals
• 2009/03/04: Canoe: Stelmach 'pleased' with Ignatieff's support of the oilsands

  Canadians are fond of elephant & mouse comparisons:

• 2009/03/02: Tyee: Where's Our Global Warming Protest? Americans are marching on their capital today. Canadians, have a donut
• 2009/03/07: TStar: Obama's doomed carbon plan should please Ottawa
  U.S. President Barack Obama's climate change plan is, by his country's standards, a dreamy wish list. His cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would be tougher than any tried or contemplated elsewhere. But Obama, despite sky-high popularity and the Democrats' strong grip on the Congress, isn't likely to get what he's seeking. Which would be good news for our federal government -- no need to distinguish any longer between Conservatives and Liberals on this issue -- and some of our industries. Not so good, though, for anyone concerned about climate change. Even Obama's plan wouldn't come close to the emission cuts scientists say are essential by 2020. And what's likely to emerge from the American policy brawl is far less.

Ontario is wrestling with its energy policy:

• 2009/03/03: TStar: No future for wind in Ontario -- Need for support from gas-powered plants means it's also not even very green
• 2009/03/02: Rabble: Peter Tabuns: Green jobs key to Ontario's future

  Positioning prior to the coming election continues in BC:

• 2009/03/08: CanWest: NDP at battle stations -- James expects tough fight to 'take back B.C.'
  With 66 days left to election day, NDP leader Carole James issued a rallying call yesterday to "take back B.C."

Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2009/03/06: Rabble: Snake oil sales are down [Tar sands, US-Can pol]
• 2009/03/06: CanWest: Birds die in places other than in Alta. oilsands: MP [Brian Jean (Conservative - Fort McMurray-Athabasca)]
• 2009/03/05: G&M: Stelmach fires back against oil sands critics
• 2009/03/04: CBC: Proposed Arctic gas pipelines would benefit industry: Stelmach
• 2009/03/04: TStar: Most Canadians OK with oilsands: poll
  Most Canadians outside Quebec have made their peace with Alberta's polluting money-spinning oilsands, new poll numbers suggest. Fifty-seven per cent of respondents in The Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey said there are more benefits than drawbacks to the oilsands, while 35 per cent reported the reverse. A majority of those surveyed in every province except Quebec supported the benefits, with Alberta leading at 70 per cent.
• 2009/03/03: CBC: Hearings studying impact of oilsands on water systems to restart
• 2009/03/02: TStar: Oil sands exposé deserves more energetic response
• 2009/03/02: TStar: Harper rolls dice to play oil sands 'wild card'
  Canada's oil and gas sector is a crucial engine of our economy and isn't going away, so any technologies that help reduce or capture emissions are both welcome and necessary. But can these technologies help us right now, particularly to justify rapid expansion of oil-sands projects? And, taken alone, are they enough? Don't bet on it. Climate expert James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, got it right earlier this month when he called the oil sands a climate-change "wild card" that shouldn't be played. "You just can't do it, that's what politicians and international leaders have got to understand." Canada, however, is playing that card. It's gambling that technology will make sure the house wins. But here's the rub: Prime Minister Stephen Harper is delusional if he believes that capturing carbon dioxide from coal plants and oil-sands operations and storing it underground is going to have a material impact on reducing greenhouse-gases over the next decade, let alone the next two decades. Not because the technology doesn't work or isn't safe, which is still up for debate, but because it's too expensive and risky to deploy on the scale that's required.

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

• 2009/03/07: Maribo: The great disruption
• 2009/03/02: GristMill: Economics > pricing -- One last foray into the economics discussion
• 2009/02/26: AlterNet: "Consumerism" Is Dead -- Can Obama Lead Us to a Downscaled Lifestyle?

  As for how the media handles the science of climatology:

• 2009/03/04: CJRD: Globe Kills Health/Science Section, Keeps Staff
• 2009/03/06: KSJT: Columbia Journalism Review: Boston Globe axes science section. So far, the jobs remain. (and similar from the Columbus Dispatch...)
• 2009/03/05: MTobis: Centrism is a Pose
• 2009/03/03: BSD: NY Times getting its share of climate flubs in too
• 2009/03/03: JQuiggin: Cherry-picking OK at Washington Post
• 2009/03/01: MGS: The 20 links game -- The Washington Post's standards of truth are...
• 2009/03/01: DeSmogBlog: Ethical Limbo at the Washington Post

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2009/03/02: Guardian(UK): Age of Stupid -- Climate change disaster film aims to save planet from destruction

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2009/03/04: WarmingLaw: CA Waiver Update: California v. EPA Held in Abeyance in D.C. Circuit [pending the outcome of the new administration's formal review]

  Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:

• 2009/03/08: SciDaily: Environmentally-friendly Energy: Sunlight Turns Carbon Dioxide To Methane
• 2009/03/06: ObsidianWings: Renewable Energy Standards
• 2009/03/05: FuturePundit: All-Liquid Batteries One Third The Cost
• 2009/03/06: PhysOrg: Liquid Battery Offers Promising Solar Energy Storage Technique
  One of the biggest challenges currently facing large-scale solar energy technology is finding an effective way to store the energy, which is essential for using the electricity at night or on cloudy days. Recently, researchers from MIT have designed a new kind of battery that, unlike conventional batteries, is made of all-liquid active materials.
• 2009/03/05: EnvFin: Clean energy investment too low - analysts
  Investment in clean energy is currently far short of levels necessary to avert dangerous climate change, and the economic downturn is likely to exacerbate the problem, according to analysis company New Energy Finance (NEF).
• 2009/03/01: AfterGutenberg: Ocean Power Only on the Left Coast?
• 2009/03/05: PhysOrg: Natural gas as answer to oil decline could lead to catastrophe, says leading expert
• 2009/03/04: Reuters: U.S. Energy Dept to fund $84 million for geothermal energy
• 2009/03/05: NEN: Geothermal joins the new energies that beat coal or soon will
• 2009/02/27: HamptonRoads: Virginia Natural Gas to add $7 fee to offset drop in usage

  The answer my friend...:

• 2009/03/06: TreeHugger: Offshore Wind Power in Great Lakes Touted as Untapped Resource
• 2009/03/02: TreeHugger: Kalamazoo CC Offers First Wind Turbine Installer Training in US
• 2009/03/01: LA Times: Wind-power industry seeks trained workforce
• 2009/03/02: WSJ:EnvCap: Wind Power: Subsidies Are Nice, But Strong Winds Are Nicer

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2009/03/06: GristMill: Shine on -- L.A. solar not dead, regardless of final vote on ballot measure
• 2009/03/06: SciDaily: Converting Solar Light To Electricity: Silicon-free Photoelectric Module Integrates Easily
• 2009/03/05: CNN: Energy-gobbling city home to biggest solar roof
  Atlantic City convention center has largest single-roof solar-panel array in the U.S. - City and state officials were to commemorate the array at a ceremony Thursday - The 13,321 photovoltaic panels will produce about one-fourth of the building's energy - Panels could save the city's convention authority $4.4 million over 20 years
• 2009/03/05: Eureka: Sunlight turns carbon dioxide to methane
  Dual catalysts may be the key to efficiently turning carbon dioxide and water vapor into methane and other hydrocarbons using titania nanotubes and solar power, according to Penn State researchers.
• 2009/03/04: Reuters: Cheaper solar seen spurring demand, hitting producers
• 2009/03/04: GristMill: A concentrating solar breakthrough -- Sheer number of solar advancements suggests that cheap solar electricity is coming soon
• 2009/03/04: GristMill: No solar for smog city -- Los Angelenos narrowly reject city-wide solar plan
• 2009/03/02: GristMill: Sold out in nine minutes -- Berkeley's program to finance solar systems through property tax assessments is off to great start
• 2009/03/03: SciDaily: Ultimate In 'Green' Energy: Plants Inspire New Generation Of Solar Cells
  The ability of plants to turn sunlight into energy through photosynthesis has been successfully mimicked by scientists at the University of Southampton to produce a new generation of solar cells.
• 2009/03/02: GristMill: Sunny days in Cali -- A closer look at PG&E's immensely promising solar proposal
• 2009/03/02: TreeHugger: Gainesville, Florida Solar Power Feed-In Tariff Program Maxed Out Before It Begins

  The arithmetic of coal carbon is striking home:

• 2009/03/05: TP:WonkRoom: Report: 'Yes We Can' Move Away From Coal In The Southeast
• 2009/03/04: EnergyBulletin: How much coal is out there?

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2009/03/05: EnvEcon: The Biofuels Myth?
• 2009/03/05: AlaiNet: Bloom fades for agrofuels
• 2009/03/04: Eureka: Cellulosic biofuel technology will generate low-cost green fuel, says major study
• 2009/03/01: Yahoo: Asia's biofuel dreams shelved as crude oil tumbles

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2009/03/05: FuturePundit: Nuclear Reactor Could Operate 200 Years On Same Fuel

  Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

• 2009/03/07: EnergyBulletin: The peak oil economic depression has arrived
• 2009/03/05: EnergyBulletin: The Peak Oil Crisis: Oil in the Great Recession
• 2009/03/03: OilDrum: Saudi Arabia's Crude Oil Production Peaked in 2005

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2009/03/06: GreenGrok: The New Smart Grid: 21st Century Tech for the 21st Century
• 2009/03/04: GristMill: Grids and grids -- A smart grid, yes. A new national grid, no.
• 2009/03/04: GristMill: The two grids, part one -- There are two ways of improving the electrical grid, each with its own politics and challenges
• 2009/03/03: KP: A smart grid is a transactive grid (Part 2 of 5)
• 2009/03/02: KP: Smart grid technology, economics, and policy (Part 1 of 5)

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2009/03/06: NEN: Efficiency -- the new energy superhero & the cheapest cleanest energy of them all
• 2009/03/05: UMich: PowerNap plan could save 75 percent of data center energy
• 2009/03/05: WSJ:EnvCap: Can More Efficiency Solve Energy Woes?
• 2009/03/02: EnergyBulletin: Rethinking Energy: conservation, curtailment, cfficiency and appropriate technology

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

• 2009/03/06: AutoBG: Think advances U.S. plans, will sell full-speed City car in mid-2010
• 2009/03/06: PhysOrg: Singapore-made biofuel to run cars in Europe, North America
• 2009/03/06: AutoBG: EVI's all-electric trucks for the U.S. market unveiled in Chicago
• 2009/03/05: PhysOrg: Tucson closer to having network of electric-car chargers
• 2009/03/05: AutoBG: German car sales rise 21 percent; UK to launch vehicle scrappage plan?
• 2009/03/05: BBC: UK car sales 22% lower last month
  Sales of new cars in February were 22% lower than a year earlier, the latest industry figures have shown. The number of new UK registrations in February was 54,359, down from 69,610 the year before, said the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
• 2009/03/03: CalcRisk: GM Sales off 53%, Toyota Off 40%
• 2009/03/03: CalcRisk: Transportation: Record Idle Ships, Trucking Tonnage Increases Slightly
• 2009/03/03: CalcRisk: Ford U.S. Sales Down 46.3% in February
• 2009/03/03: NakedCapitalism: Ford Feb Sales Fall 48%, Toyota's 40%; Poor Industry Sales Likely to Make Bailouts More Costly
• 2009/03/03: BBerg: U.S. Auto-Sales Rate Falls to 27-Year Low, Led by GM
• 2009/03/03: GEA: GM Leads the Way with a 53% Sales Plunge
• 2009/03/03: GEA: Ford Sales Decline 48%, Toyota 32%, Honda 21%, Nissan 35%
• 2009/03/03: BRitholtz: Vehicle Sales Halve
• 2009/03/04: ClimateP: CMU study suggests GM has wildly oversized the batteries in the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid
• 2009/03/03: NatForum: Electric vehicles - why we need them
  We need electric vehicles because we can no longer afford the cost of fossil fuels, oil dependency, or the pollution produced by vehicles which use fossil fuels.
• 2009/03/03: NEN: Will there be batteries to drive the electric car revolution? [Lithium]
• 2009/03/02: CalcRisk: Vehicle Sales in January
  Total auto and truck sales in the U.S. were below 10 million (SAAR) for the first time since 1982
• 2009/03/02: TradeMarkets: U.S. vehicles sales to keep on falling: CIBC World Markets report
• 2009/03/02: BBC: Sales of new vehicles in Japan fell by almost a third in February as consumers continued to shun big, expensive items, new figures reveal
• 2009/03/02: AutoBG: Report: 32.7 million electric cars by 2015

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

• 2009/03/04: MongaBay: Clean energy investment moving too slow to avoid irreversible climate change

  Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:

• 2009/03/04: AfterGutenberg: Greenwashing the Same Old Buggy Whips

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2009/03/08: MTobis: Morano is Out; I'm Still Hanging In
• 2009/03/06: GristMill: But The Onion already does fake news...Inhofe's resident media agitator leaving to start a new climate-skeptic website
• 2009/03/06: PRWatch: The Monkeys and Their Organ Grinders
• 2009/03/04: PRWatch: Profiling the Global Warming Skeptics
• 2009/03/06: GristMill: A roomful of cynics -- A look at the non-experts speaking at Heartland Institute's denialist sideshow
• 2009/03/06: DeSmogBlog: Marc Morano Jumps the Sinking Inhofe Ship
• 2009/03/04: TWTB: William Happer wants to party like it's 79,999,999 (BC)
• 2009/03/03: TWTB: "Honest Broker" at Prometheus attacks Hansen over claim he never makes
• 2009/03/06: TP:WonkRoom: After His Climate Denial Machine Is Exposed, Marc Morano Will Leave Senate Post
• 2009/03/06: TP:WonkRoom: Coal Front Group Plans $20 Million Online Media Blitz For 'Shaping Public Attitudes'
• 2009/03/05: ClimateP: Why do the deniers try to shout down any talk of a link between climate change and extreme weather?
• 2009/03/05: AFTIC: And all shall know his name: Michael Tobis mocked by Glenn Beck
• 2009/03/04: MTobis: For the second day in a row Mark Morano has issued a press release from...
• 2009/03/05: DeSmogBlog: CEI Coal Booster Says Greenhouse Gas is Good For You
• 2009/03/05: DeSmogBlog: Coal Industry Spin Doctor Joe Lucas Refuses to Admit Coal Contributes to Global Warming
• 2009/03/05: BBerg: Carbon Trading Will Delay Greenhouse-Gas Reductions, Exxon Says
• 2009/03/04: Guardian(UK): Climate change creationists
  Climate change creationists is a more accurate way to describe those who deny evidence that human-induced global warming is occurring
• 2009/03/04: Guardian(UK): Industry leaders denying climate change, says UK science minister
  Lord Drayson says there is an urgent need to restate the scientific evidence for global warming and calls for companies to focus on their environmental obligations Senior figures in the manufacturing industry do not accept that human activities are driving global warming or that action needs to be taken to prepare for its effects, the UK government's science minister said today . Lord Drayson said recent discussions with leaders in the car industry and other businesses had left him "shocked" at the number of climate change deniers among senior industrialists. Of those who acknowledged that global temperatures were rising, many blamed it on variations in the sun's activity.
• 2009/03/04: GristMill: An ACCCE up his sleeve -- 'Clean coal' flack won't say whether coal contributes to global warming
• 2009/03/03: ERabett: Peer Review -- Lots of folks are following the Roger Pielke/Andy Revkin/Joe Romm/Michael Tobis Goreathon...
• 2009/03/03: MTobis: Roger makes his point
• 2009/03/03: Guardian(UK): We must shake off this inertia to keep sea level rises to a minimum [by Stefan Rahmstorf]
  Björn Lomborg's claim that sea levels are not rising faster than predicted are unfounded and used by those wanting to downplay climate change
• 2009/03/02: DeSmogBlog: The Heartland Institute and the Academy of Tobacco Studies
• 2009/03/02: DeSmogBlog: Lorne Gunter could help save CanWest Global
• 2009/03/02: TP:WonkRoom: Inhofe Staffer Marc Morano On Deadly Snow Storm: 'HA! HA! HA!'
• 2009/03/02: ThingsBreak: New study shows cosmic rays cause global warming!
  Or more accurately, once again, the evidence has been examined and falls decidedly short.
• 2009/03/02: GristMill: A hog in a tuxedo is still a hog -- NAIOP releases disinformation study downplaying building efficiency
• 2009/03/02: DeSmogBlog: Right Wing think tank sets target on Washington State cap and trade
• 2009/03/02: ERabett: The Honest Broker and the Yellow Pages
• 2009/03/02: BCLSB: Gunter On Ice

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2009/02/25: CarbonEquity: Global warming is a global emergency
• 2009/03/06: UN: African youth reach Kilimanjaro's summit to highlight climate change - UN
• 2009/03/06: MTobis: Why "In It for the Gold"
• 2009/03/06: OilChange: The Third Climate Protest of the Week...
• 2009/03/04: OilChange: Another Day, Another Climate Protest
• 2009/03/04: KSJT: LA Times: Methane and Innovation, plus a tangent on both...
• 2009/03/04: GristMill: A dirty lie -- Waterkeeper Alliance unveils anti-coal campaign
• 2009/03/04: GristMill: Why we are going quietly nuts -- Lessons from cognitive dissonance theory for U.S. environmentalists
• 2009/03/03: Stoat: Weird stuff from Romm
• 2009/03/04: Maribo: Making a list of scientists and checking it twice
• 2009/03/03: NatureCF: Wanted: Citizen climate scientists (shared Nobel Prize not guaranteed)
• 2009/03/03: TreeHugger: Carbon Footprint Barcodes on the Horizon?
• 2009/03/03: AlterNet: A New Epoch for Environmentalism: Massive Climate Change Action Proves a Turning Point
• 2009/03/01: GristMill: [Dessler] Why you should believe the IPCC, part 134,992,653 -- The ideological tensions inside the IPCC gives its reports alarming credibility
• 2009/03/01: USAToday: Scientists urged to step to plate on climate politics
• 2009/03/01: Stoat: Bad meets evil
• 2009/03/02: Intersection:CCM: I'm Annoyed at the Arctic Climate Research Center
• 2009/03/01: OilDrum: What Do We Tell Our Children?

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

• CO2 Now
• Carbon Equity
• Wiki: Timeline of glaciation
• Wiki: Marine isotope stage
• Bellona: Carbon Capture & Storage
• Questionable Authority
• UCopenhagen: Climate Change Congress [March 10-12]
• Wiki: Stratospheric sulfur aerosols
• TEC: Total Environment Centre
• PMESIP: Passive Microwave Earth Science Information Partner
• Global Outlook for Ice and Snow
• IIGCC: Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change
• QuarkSoup

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.

"As the planet's energy, food and water resources dwindle, an effort to control human population becomes essential. The subject will be avoided with ever more sanctimonious blindness. Better that hundreds of millions slowly starve to death than birth control be rationally discussed in public places." -C.K. Michaelson

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