Another Week of GW News, July 12, 2009

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Another week of Climate Disruption News

July 12, 2009

• Chuckle, Top Stories:G8, MEF, Oxfam, Greenland Group, Carbon Tariffs, Biodiesel Tariffs, Princeton Plan
• Melting Arctic, Antarctica, Tropical Zone Expanding, Pew Survey, 2009 State of the Future Report, Aerosols, Sol
• Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production
• Hurricanes, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures, Paleoclimate, ENSO, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Corals, Climate Refugees, Tornadoes, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering
• Journals, Misc. Science, Misc. Interviews, Hansen
• Kyoto-2, UN, Millenium Development Goals, Carbon Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
• Politics:International, America, Obama, Britain, Europe, Australia, India, China, Asia, Russia, Canada
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Courts
• Energy, Oil Prices, Wind, Pickens' Plan, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Grid, Efficiency
• Cars, Business, Greenwashing, Insurance, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

Live and direct from the laugh damnit department:

• 2009/07/11: SeattlePI: (cartoon - Horsey) G8 & MEF Diplomacy
• 2009/07/10: uComics: (cartoon - Auth) We'd Love To Help, But...
• 2009/07/09: Seppo: (cartoon - Leinonen) No Coal Today!

  Big meetings this week. The MEF disagreed. The G8 declared victory & went home. First the G8:

• 2009/07/12: PlanetArk: Small Island Nations Demand More Emissions Cuts
• 2009/07/10: CBS: Half Measures On Climate Action -- Nice Words Out Of The G8, But Now Comes The Hard Part [Kim Carstensen]
• 2009/07/09: ZCC: Canada Agrees to 2 Degrees (But Already Backtracking)
• 2009/07/08: Maribo: Climate change deal from the G8 summit?
• 2009/07/10: Maribo: Mixing mitigation and adaptation at the G8 summit
• 2009/07/10: CanWest: Canada snubs G8 emissions target -- Summit Sets 80%; 70% reduction by 2050 'realistic,' Prentice says
• 2009/07/11: CCurrents: G8 Failure Means Climate Genocide For Developing World
• 2009/07/11: AmericaBlog: Developing countries ask G8 for more emissions cuts, sooner
• 2009/07/09: DerSpiegel: Putting the Brakes on Global Warming -- G-8 States Agree to Two-Degree Limit
  The leaders of the G-8 states, who are meeting in L'Aquila in Italy, have agreed to try to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius. But whether China and India will play along remains to be seen.
• 2009/07/10: Guardian(UK): Developing countries urge G8 to impose 40% emissions cut by 2020
  Diplomat says developing nations 'will commit once they have certainty that developed countries are commiting themselves'
• 2009/07/10: PlanetArk: G8 Summit To Pledge $15 Billion To Boost Food Supply
• 2009/07/10: PlanetArk: Obama, Rudd News Conference On Environment
• 2009/07/10: PlanetArk: Q+A: How Is Italy G8 Summit Measuring Up Against Aims?
• 2009/07/10: PlanetArk: G8 Makes Scant Progress To Copenhagen Climate Pact
• 2009/07/10: Grist: Climate tango at G8 meeting bodes ill for Copenhagen deal
• 2009/07/10: CommonTragedies: So, the G8 meeting WAS interesting
• 2009/07/09: Reuters: G8 makes scant progress to Copenhagen climate pact
• 2009/07/09: Google:AFP: Climate tango in L'Aquila bodes ill for Copenhagen deal
• 2009/07/10: EurActiv: G8 2050 climate pledge fails to convince
• 2009/07/09: TerraDaily: 'Historic consensus' at G8 on climate change
• 2009/07/10: EarthTimes: Small island states criticize 2-degree climate cap
• 2009/07/10: AzStarNet: Differences between rich, poor on global warming are laid bare
• 2009/07/10: TreeHugger: What's Your Country's Climate Target?
• 2009/07/10: ENN: Climate Talks End With Meager Promises
• 2009/07/10: BBC: G8 pledges to boost food supplies
  Leaders of the G8 developed nations have pledged $20bn (£12bn) for efforts to boost food supplies to the hungry, on the final day of a summit in Italy.
• 2009/07/09: BBC: World powers accept warming limit
  Developed and developing nations have agreed that global temperatures should not rise more than 2C above 1900 levels, a G8 summit declaration says.
• 2009/07/09: TStar: Obama vows change on climate -- U.S. commitment to carbon reduction seen as big step, but Canada elusive on targets, Harper backs Obama plan to boost food security in developing nations
• 2009/07/09: Guardian(UK): G8 summit: Barack Obama says world can close the carbon emissions gap
• 2009/07/09: Guardian(UK): G8: World leaders fail to agree specific target for climate cuts in L'Aquila
• 2009/07/09: CNN: Obama: Leaders will work together on climate
  U.S. President Barack Obama: Leaders will work together on climate change - At Italy summit, leaders pledge to slash greenhouse gas emissions - Leaders pledge aim to achieve a 50 percent reduction in global emissions by 2050 - Meeting takes place in heart of quake zone where about 300 people died
• 2009/07/09: EUO: G8 agrees climate targets but wider deal unlikely
• 2009/07/09: NatureN: G8 leaders fail to agree on carbon cuts before 2050 -- Summit declaration says 2 °C warming must be avoided.
• 2009/07/09: ABC(Au): Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has welcomed a G8 leaders' agreement to tackle global warming, as a Government report shows the effect on Australia will be worse than first thought
• 2009/07/09: DotEarth: The Two-Degree Solution
• 2009/07/09: PlanetArk: Factbox: G8 Summit To Set 2 Degrees Celsius Global Warming Goal
• 2009/07/08: Grist: Climate talks should not focus on China and India at Africa's expense
• 2009/07/08: RealClimate: Two degrees
• 2009/07/08: Reuters: G8 agrees to limit global warming; China, India resist
• 2009/07/09: Xinhuanet: G5 urges West to fund poor countries to adapt to global warming
• 2009/07/08: TerraDaily: G8 emissions cut target 'unacceptable': Medvedev aide
• 2009/07/09: TreeHugger: UN Secretary General Rebukes G8 Nations for Weak Climate Change Commitments
• 2009/07/09: EarthTimes: World leaders say 2-degree climate cap approved
• 2009/07/07: NewScientist:SSS: G8 emissions pledge is 'scientifically illiterate'
• 2009/07/08: Yahoo:AFP: G8 emissions cut target 'unacceptable': Medvedev aide
  A target set by the G8 for developed countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050 is unacceptable for Russia, President Dmitry Medvedev's top economic aide said Wednesday. "For us the 80 percent figure is unacceptable and likely unattainable," Arkady Dvorkovich told reporters. "We won't sacrifice economic growth for the sake of emission reduction," he added.
• 2009/07/09: WSJ:EnvCap: Derailed: Is There A Better Way to Tackle Climate Change? [G8]
• 2009/07/09: OilChange: G8 Cooks Up a Good Political Fudge
• 2009/07/09: WaPo: Group of 8 Agrees On a Ceiling for Temperature Rise -- Broader Carbon Proposal Is Rejected
• 2009/07/09: BBC: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has criticised leaders of the G8 industrial nations for failing to make deeper commitments to combat climate change
• 2009/07/09: CBC: G8's climate change plan unfair, says UN chief
  UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon criticized the G8's plan on climate change Thursday, calling it unfair because it doesn't help developing countries to fully cut their own emissions. Ban suggested the G8 come up with a way to finance poorer nations to help them change their polluting growth pattern and adapt to the effects of global warming. "The policies that they have stated so far are not enough, not sufficient enough," Ban said on the sidelines of the G-8 summit. "This is the science. We must work according to the science. This is politically and morally imperative and a historic responsibility for the leaders for the future of humanity, even for the future of planet Earth."
• 2009/07/08: CanWest: G8 vows 'ambitious' greenhouse emissions plan
• 2009/07/09: G&M: Target found in G8's climate-change fight
  Leaders of the world's eight foremost industrialized economies have established an aggressive new marker in the battle against climate change: holding the global temperature to a two-degree-Celsius increase. To get there, the leaders agreed that the world's 32 industrialized nations should slash their greenhouse-gas emissions 80 per cent by 2050, though they did not agree on the base year from which the cuts would be made.
• 2009/07/09: CTV: UN chief criticizes G8 climate change plan
• 2009/07/09: Times(UK): G8 leaders claim historic break through on new deal to tackle global warming
• 2009/07/09: BBC: G8 set new global warming targets
  Leaders of the G8 leading industrial countries have agreed to try to limit global warming to just 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial levels by 2050. The summit, in the Italian city of L'Aquila, also set tough new targets for carbon emissions considered necessary to achieve the goal. Developed nations are to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, to allow a global 50% reduction by the same date. Analysts say there is no indication of how the targets, or costs, will be met.
• 2009/07/08: Guardian(UK): G8 agrees to climate targets despite differences with developing nations
• 2009/07/08: Guardian(UK): Barack Obama pushes for climate change deal between G8 and developing countries
• 2009/07/09: ABC(Au): G8 leaders set 2-degree warming target
• 2009/07/08: Grist: Major polluters water down climate targets at G8 talks
• 2009/07/08: NYT: G-8 Nations Fail to Agree on Plan to Fight Climate Change
• 2009/07/08: Reuters: G8 agrees to limit global warming; China, India resist
• 2009/07/07: Reuters: G8 struggles to persuade China, India on climate
• 2009/07/08: TreeHugger: Big Climate Change Fail: Major Nations Fail to Agree to 50% Emission Cuts by 2050
• 2009/07/08: EarthTimes: G8 leaders approve climate change compromise
  L'Aquila, Italy - Group of Eight (G8) leaders Wednesday made a strong bid to prevent catastrophic changes to the planet's climate by calling for global warming to be limited to within 2 degrees centigrade above their pre-industrial levels. "The 2 degrees are now our common basis," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, attending the meeting as chair of the European Union, said this was "the first time that the G8 agrees on this 2-degrees issue." To reach this objective, heads of state and government from some of the world's biggest polluters said they would try to cut their emissions by 80 per cent below their 1990 levels by 2050. But in a sign of lingering concerns over the cost of fighting global warming, these targets were not set in stone, with draft conclusions stating that the baseline for such cuts would be "1990 or more recent years." The leaders also failed to set a firm deadline for when global emissions should peak.
• 2009/07/08: EarthTimes: G8 to agree watered-down climate goals
• 2009/07/08: EarthTimes: G8 agrees climate-change limit of 2 degrees C
• 2009/07/08: NYT: Despite Shift on Climate by U.S., Europe Is Wary
• 2009/07/07: EurActiv: EU seeks two degrees Celsius pact at G8
• 2009/07/07: Guardian(UK): A new take on Kyoto
  Obama faces major challenges on carbon emissions at the G8 -- but the best solution is a new, global system of regulation
• 2009/07/06: TerraDaily: UN chief Ban to press G8 leaders on climate, Africa aid
• 2009/07/06: TerraDaily: Climate change: G8 summit boosts pressure for pact
• 2009/07/07: EarthTimes: India blames developed world for slowdown, climate change
• 2009/07/06: NatureTGB: G8 leaders meet to talk climate targets
• 2009/07/07: PlanetArk: EU's Barroso Seeks Two Degrees Celsius Pact at G8
• 2009/07/07: PlanetArk: Factbox: Participants and Agenda of G8 Summit in Italy
• 2009/07/07: PlanetArk: Binding Limits For all on Emissions, Canada Urges
• 2009/07/07: PlanetArk: Major Nations Should Set Clear 2050 CO2 Cuts: UN
• 2009/07/07: PlanetArk: Europeans Seek G8 Pledge to Halve Greenhouse Gas
• 2009/07/05: Grist: Denmark's Hedegaard urges G8 to push ahead on climate talks
• 2009/07/05: Xinhuanet: Italy G8 summit key to global efforts on climate change
• 2009/07/06: EarthTimes: Scientists urge G8 to take 'strong' action on climate change
• 2009/07/06: EarthTimes: Global companies urge government leaders to "Let the clean economy begin"
• 2009/07/06: ENN: Let clean economy begin, global companies urge government leaders
• 2009/07/06: Yahoo: Leading International Climate Scientists Call on World Leaders for Global Emissions Peak by 2020
• 2009/07/05: BBC: G8 set to tackle hunger in Africa
  On Wednesday, 8 July, world leaders will gather in the earthquake-devastated town of L'Aquila in Italy for the G8 summit hosted by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. He will be joined by US President Barack Obama, who is also visiting Moscow and will be flying on to Ghana.
• 2009/07/06: BBC: G8 leaders to set emissions goals
  Leaders of G8 nations are to set a target to cut greenhouse gases by 80% by 2050, the BBC understands. They will also call for any human-induced temperature rise to be held below 2 degrees Celsius...
• 2009/07/05: Guardian(UK): The G8 must lead on emissions reduction [John Houghton]
  The G8 summit in Italy next week is an opportunity for the rich world to unite in cutting emissions and protecting the world's poor
• 2009/07/06: CBC: Climate change may spur chronic hunger, Oxfam says
  Chronic hunger may be "the defining human tragedy of this century," as climate change causes growing seasons to shift, crops to fail, and storms and droughts to ravage fields, an advocacy group said. Oxfam International released a report Monday as leaders of the Group of Eight wealthiest nations prepare to meet in Italy this week, with an agenda to include both food security and climate change.

And the MEF:

• 2009/07/10: WaPo: Nations Agree To Curb Emissions -- Rift Remains Between Poor, Rich Countries
  Leaders of the world's major economies on Thursday formally embraced limiting the rise in the Earth's average temperatures but declined to set numerical targets for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. The declaration by the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, a group of 17 countries that account for nearly four-fifths of the world's greenhouse-gas production, reflects a tension between developed and developing countries that is hampering efforts to combat climate change, even as many scientists say the need to address it is becoming more urgent.
• 2009/07/09: Guardian(UK): (draft text) Declaration of the leaders of the major economies forum on energy and climate
• 2009/07/09: UN: Proposed climate change measures insufficient, Ban tells major economies
• 2009/07/09: NatureCF: Bridging the divide between developed and developing nations
• 2009/07/10: ABC(Au): Rudd takes centre stage in climate talks
  US President Barack Obama has used a press conference with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to announce the creation of a new global partnership to drive the development of clean energy technologies to help fight global warming. Speaking at the 17-nation Major Economies Forum in Italy, Mr Obama said the partnership aimed to double the amount of investment in research and development needed to make alternative technologies viable. The focal point of the partnership will be Australia's Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute.
• 2009/07/09: PlanetArk: Snap Analysis: Major Economies Disappoint On Climate
• 2009/07/08: TerraDaily: Major polluters water down climate warming ambitions
• 2009/07/09: EarthTimes: UN chief says G8, MEF deal on climate change 'not sufficient'
• 2009/07/09: NYT: Poorer Nations Reject a Target on Emission Cut
  The world's biggest developing nations, led by China and India, refused Wednesday to commit to specific goals for slashing heat-trapping gases by 2050, undercutting the drive to build a global consensus by the end of this year to reverse the threat of climate change.
• 2009/07/08: UNDispatch: Two cannot be the only number to fight climate change
• 2009/07/08: Reuters: Major nations drop goal of halving C02 by 2050: draft
  Major nations failed to agree on Wednesday to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, in a setback to efforts to secure a new U.N. climate pact. Talks involving officials from the 17-nation Major Economies Forum (MEF), whose members account for about 80 percent of global gas emissions, broke down overnight after China and India opposed any mention of the target, a source familiar with the talks told Reuters.

Oxfam et al. came out with an inspirational report for the G8 just before the confab:

• 2009/07/07: Oxford(UK): (577k pdf) How to Get Climate Policy Back on Course
• 2009/07/08: EmbassyMag: Bleak Future Looms, G8 Urged To Act
  Oxfam and other NGOs bring out a thorough and disturbing report that pleads for this week's G8 to take immediate climate change action.
• 2009/07/07: NatureTGB: Oxfam makes its point to G8
• 2009/07/06: Oxford(UK): Japan is the 'real world' model for climate policy
  A report from a worldwide consortium of research institutes led by Oxford and the London School of Economics and Political Science argues that climate policy needs to focus on improving energy efficiency and decarbonising the energy supply, as opposed to setting emissions targets.
• 2009/07/07: LSE: Research institutes publish plan to rescue climate policy from imminent failure -- How to Get Climate Policy Back on Course
• 2009/07/07: BBC: 'Time to ditch climate policies'
  An international group of academics is urging world leaders to abandon their current policies on climate change. The authors of How to Get Climate Policy Back on Course say the strategy based on overall emissions cuts has failed and will continue to fail. They want G8 nations and emerging economies to focus on an approach based on improving energy efficiency and decarbonising energy supply.

The Greenland group had a suggestion:

• 2009/07/07: FTimes: Greenland group urges immediate cut in greenhouse gases
  Rich countries must agree to cut greenhouse gases with immediate effect, ensuring emissions do not rise when economic output picks up, according to an influential group of government ministers. The group - which included senior government representatives from the US, Europe, India, Japan, Australia, Russia and several developing countries - also urged that global emissions should peak by 2020. Achieving that would most likely require large emerging economies such as China and India to cap their emissions from that point. The group met in Greenland last week under the banner of the Greenland Dialogue, a Danish initiative to push forward climate change talks ahead of the conference in Copenhagen this December at which a successor to the Kyoto protocol will be negotiated. China was notably absent.
• 2009/07/06: Guardian(UK): We must generate political momentum on climate debate by Minister for Climate Change and Energy Joan Ruddock
  UN negotiations on a global climate deal in Copenhagen are crucial -- that's why I travelled to Greenland to discuss the challenges facing us

The carbon tariffs in Waxman-Markey still came in for comment:

• 2009/07/08: FTimes: Senators attack carbon tax proposals on US imports
  Senior Democrat senators said on Wednesday they would change a provision that imposes carbon taxes on imports following warnings that the clause in the House's cap-and-trade bill could spark a global trade war.
• 2009/07/08: RollCall: Unions Set Their Sights on Climate Change Bill
  Organized labor this week is warning Senate Democrats not to renege on trade protections included in House climate change legislation that would buffer domestic manufacturers from cheap consumer products made in China and elsewhere.
• 2009/07/06: ClimateP: Krugman vs. Obama on border adjustments in the climate bill
• 2009/07/06: PlanetArk: China Says "Carbon Tariffs" Proposals Breach WTO Rules
• 2009/07/06: PlanetArk: U.S. Carbon Tariffs, Still Long Way Off, Draw Asia Ire

  Speaking of tariffs:

• 2009/07/07: BBerg: EU Hits U.S. Biodiesel Makers With Five-Year Tariffs
  The European Union imposed five-year tariffs on U.S. biodiesel to help EU producers counter American subsidies and price undercutting, a step that may stoke trans- Atlantic trade tensions. The duties punish U.S. manufacturers of biodiesel, a type of biofuel made from vegetable oils and animal fats for use in diesel engines, for receiving government aid and selling in the EU below cost. The companies targeted include Archer Daniels Midland Co., the world's largest grain processor, and Cargill Inc., the biggest U.S. agricultural company. "This is all about protecting vested agricultural interests on both sides," said Christian Egenhofer, a researcher at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels. "Governments are not in control."

The Princeton Plan got a mixed reaction:

• 2009/07/07: BSD: Focusing on super-polluters sounds fine to me
• 2009/07/09: ENN: Comment on: Princeton Plan Emerges as the Robin Hood of National Emissions Policy
• 2009/07/07: Grist: Researchers float plan to target individual carbon emitters
• 2009/07/06: Reuters: New climate strategy: track the world's wealthiest
• 2009/07/07: TreeHugger: Focus on Rich People of All Nations First: New Carbon Emission Reduction Method Proposed
• 2009/07/06: SciAm: Who's to Blame? Making Poor Nations Share the Cost of Fighting Climate Change
  A proposal to set international carbon-reduction targets based on the distribution of one billion "high emitters" in both developed and developing countries
• 2009/07/06: Eureka: New Princeton method may help allocate carbon emissions responsibility among nations
• 2009/07/06: Google:AFP: Plan floated to target individual carbon emitters
• 2009/07/06: TDC: Solving the climate dilemma one billion emitters at a time
• 2009/07/06: Eureka: A Capping Scheme
• 2009/07/06: EconView: "Half of the World's Emissions Came from Just 700 Million People"

  The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:

• 2009/07/07: QuarkSoup: Arctic Sea Ice decreasing in Volume
• 2009/07/10: CNN: Sailing the Northwest Passage: Dutch Harbor and the Bering Sea -- Team aims to discover how climate change has affected Arctic and Inuit people
• 2009/07/09: KSJT: e360: Are polar bears in trouble? Yes but which ones? And can the rest eat berries and goose eggs anyway?
• 2009/07/09: TerraDaily: Satellite Survey Reveals Dramatic Arctic Sea-Ice Thinning
• 2009/07/09: TWTB: Summer sea ice has vanished in the Arctic!
• 2009/07/08: CCP: Petermann Glacier, Greenland, July 8, 2009: Melt Lakes and Moulins
• 2009/07/08: CCP: NASA's JPL ICESat Supplementary Data, Kwok et al.
• 2009/07/08: Guardian(UK): NASA satellites reveal extent of Arctic sea ice loss
• 2009/07/08: NatureTGB: A thinner Arctic for bears and ice
• 2009/07/08: KSJT: Wires, Bloomberg, NYT-DotEarth: The Arctic's sea ice just keeps thinning...
• 2009/07/08: DotEarth: [Q&A with Ron Kwok & Jay Zwally] More on Thinning Arctic Sea Ice
• 2009/07/07: DotEarth: Thin Ice the Norm in Warming Arctic
• 2009/07/08: NewScientist: Warming arctic could teem with life by 2030
• 2009/07/07: PhysOrg: New NASA Satellite Survey Reveals Dramatic Arctic Sea Ice Thinning
• 2009/07/08: TreeHugger: NASA Confirms Dramatic Thinning of Arctic Sea Ice - Multi-Year Ice Area the Size of Alaska Lost
• 2009/07/08: ENN: NASA Satellite Survey Reveals Dramatic Arctic Sea Ice Thinning measurements of winter sea ice thickness over Arctic Ocean, 2004 and 2008
• 2009/07/07: CCP: NASA's JPL: New NASA ICESat Satellite Survey Reveals Dramatic Arctic Sea Ice Thinning
• 2009/07/08: TTH: NASA satellite data reveals dramatically thinning Arctic ice
• 2009/07/07: CNN: Polar blog: 'There's something afoot in the Arctic'
  Scientists on board "Arctic Sunrise" are charting impact of climate change - Started a three-month expedition on June 10 to waters around Greenland - Experienced polar explorer Eric Philips is providing safety advice for the crew - Philips: "I sense there is something afoot that I don't much like"
• 2009/07/07: ClimateP: NSIDC: Arctic "melt season in high gear"
• 2009/07/07: HotTopic: The thin ice of a new day [Arctic]

  While in Antarctica:

• 2009/07/07: ABC(Au): Shrinking glaciers watched from afar
  Satellite imagery is providing a clearer picture of the impact of climate change on a sub-Antarctic Heard Island.
• 2009/07/06: CCP: Peter Barrett, Tim Naish: Antarctica melting faster than expected -- Antarctica melting faster than expected

  The tropical zone is expanding:

• 2009/07/06: TerraDaily: Tropical zone expanding due to climate change: study
• 2009/07/07: NZHerald: Deadly warning as tropics advance
• 2009/07/06: ABC(Au): Sydney's climate to "become like Brisbane's"
• 2009/07/06: PhysOrg: Tropical zone expanding due to climate change: study
• 2009/07/05: CCP: Julian P. Sachs et al., Nature Geoscience, June 2009: Southward movement of the Pacific intertropical convergence zone AD 1400-1850
• 2009/07/06: Google:AFP: Tropics expanding due to climate change: study
  Climate change is rapidly expanding the size of the world's tropical zone, threatening to bring disease and drought to heavily populated areas, an Australian study has found. Researchers at James Cook University concluded the tropics had widened by up to 500 kilometres (310 miles) in the past 25 years after examining 70 peer-reviewed scientific articles. They looked at findings from long-term satellite measurements, weather balloon data, climate models and sea temperature studies to determine how global warming was impacting on the tropical zone.

There was another one of those discouraging US public opinion polls:

• 2009/07/11: SlashDot: Study Highlights Gap Between Views of Scientists and the Public [Pew]
• 2009/07/10: NatureTGB: US public likes science; doesn't agree with scientists
• 2009/07/10: KSJT: Wires, CSMonitor, USA Today, NYT, etc: A survey on public view of science finds no surprises at all. Most people love - or at least admire - science. Most people also don't know much about it.
• 2009/07/10: DM:CCM: Some Reactions to the Pew/AAAS Report
• 2009/07/09: PewResearchCenter: Public Praises Science; Scientists Fault Public, Media -- Scientific Achievements Less Prominent Than a Decade Ago
• 2009/07/10: Yahoo: Americans value science, but not all of it: [Pew] survey
• 2009/07/09: Guardian(UK): Most Americans don't believe humans responsible for climate change, study finds
  In contrast, scientists overwhelmingly believe global warming is caused by human activity

Here's something cheery to look forward to:

• 2009/07/12: Independent(UK): The planet's future: Climate change 'will cause civilisation to collapse'
  Authoritative new study sets out a grim vision of shortages and violence -- but amid all the gloom, there is some hope too The report praises the web, which it singles out as 'the most powerful force for globalisation, democratisation, economic growth, and education in history' An effort on the scale of the Apollo mission that sent men to the Moon is needed if humanity is to have a fighting chance of surviving the ravages of climate change. The stakes are high, as, without sustainable growth, "billions of people will be condemned to poverty and much of civilisation will collapse". This is the stark warning from the biggest single report to look at the future of the planet -- obtained by The Independent on Sunday ahead of its official publication next month. Backed by a diverse range of leading organisations such as Unesco, the World Bank, the US army and the Rockefeller Foundation, the 2009 State of the Future report runs to 6,700 pages and draws on contributions from 2,700 experts around the globe. Its findings are described by Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the UN, as providing "invaluable insights into the future for the United Nations, its member states, and civil society". The impact of the global recession is a key theme, with researchers warning that global clean energy, food availability, poverty and the growth of democracy around the world are at "risk of getting worse due to the recession". The report adds: "Too many greedy and deceitful decisions led to a world recession and demonstrated the international interdependence of economics and ethics."

Aspects of aerosols:

• 2009/07/09: SciDaily: Saharan Dust Storms Linked To Enigmatic Fertilizer Plankton In Ocean
• 2009/07/09: SciDaily: Some Particles Cool Climate, Others Add To Global Warming

  The solar cycle:

• 2009/07/08: KSJT: LiveScience: SUNSPOTS! We have 'em large and all is right in heaven again.

  The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2009/07/07: CCurrents: Exiling Hunger From Every Home
• 2009/07/07: Grist: Rethinking food production for a world of 8 billion
• 2009/07/07: TreeHugger: What It Looks Like When the Water Crisis Slaps You In The Face - Less Food
• 2009/07/06: CBC: Climate change may spur chronic hunger, Oxfam says
• 2009/07/06: UN: Economic and food crises threaten recent development gains -- UN report
• 2009/07/06: ABC(Au): Oxfam says climate-related hunger will become a problem around the world if there is not immediate work to deal with environmental issues
• 2009/07/05: SeedDaily: Spanish vintners look to higher ground amid climate change
• 2009/07/06: LA Times: Despair flows as fields go dry and unemployment rises
  San Joaquin Valley farms are laying off workers and letting fields lie fallow as their water ration falls. Water built the semi-arid San Joaquin Valley into an agricultural powerhouse. Drought and irrigation battles now threaten to turn huge swaths of it into a dust bowl.
• 2009/07/: MR: Food Wars
• 2009/07/05: CCP: South Korea pays zero for leasing one-half of Madagascar's arable land for 99 years
• 2009/07/06: CBC: Climate change may spur chronic hunger, Oxfam says
  Chronic hunger may be "the defining human tragedy of this century," as climate change causes growing seasons to shift, crops to fail, and storms and droughts to ravage fields, an advocacy group said. Oxfam International released a report Monday as leaders of the Group of Eight wealthiest nations prepare to meet in Italy this week, with an agenda to include both food security and climate change.
• 2009/07/05: Guardian(UK): Poor face more hunger as climate change leads to crop failure, says Oxfam
• 2009/07/06: FTimes: The world must learn to live and farm sustainably by Japanese PM, Taro Aso

  The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

• 2009/04/: CBO: The Impact of Ethanol Use on Food Prices and Greenhouse-Gas Emissions
• 2009/07/06: AgWeek: Corn ethanol has little effect on food prices
  A new report from the Congressional Budget Office confirms what hundreds of economists and industry experts have stated for months: Using corn for ethanol has little impact on the price of food. Rather, the main culprits driving the higher cost of food are energy costs, excessive unregulated speculation in the commodities future market and a weak dollar. The CBO analysis says ethanol was only responsible for 0.5 percent to 0.8 percent of the rise in food prices.

And how are we going to feed 9 billion?

• 2009/07/10: EurActiv: G8 leaders pledge 14 billion euros for food security
• 2009/07/10: UN: Helping world's hungry also promotes peace and stability -- Ban
• 2009/07/10: TreeHugger: Scientists Make Progress on Salt-Tolerant GM Crops
• 2009/07/10: SciDaily: Database On Tiny Plant Will Help Scientists Create Better Crops, Biofuels and Medicines
• 2009/07/09: CanWest: Feds step up fight against crop-eating fungus
  Should Ug99 reach the world's breadbaskets, it would cause widespread famine: Officials
  The federal government said Thursday it will spend $13 million to support a worldwide scientific effort to stop a destructive fungus that threatens to wipe out 80 per cent of the world's wheat crop.
• 2009/07/09: PlanetArk: G8 Food Security Plan Timely-World Bank's Zoellick
• 2009/07/08: CSM: Where rich countries are buying farmland -- Saudi Arabia has cut several deals, most recently in Tanzania
• 2009/07/08: CSM: G8: Does world need new rules on food security?
  As rich countries snap up farmland in developing world, calls grow for regulation to prevent what many see as neocolonial behavior.
• 2009/07/07: Eureka: Scientists closer to developing salt-tolerant crops
  An international team of scientists has developed salt-tolerant plants using a new type of genetic modification (GM), bringing salt-tolerant cereal crops a step closer to reality. The research team -- based at the University of Adelaide's Waite Campus in Australia -- has used a new GM technique to contain salt in parts of the plant where it does less damage. Salinity affects agriculture worldwide, which means the results of this research could impact on world food production and security.
• 2009/07/03: SeedDaily: GMO corn: France rejects report by EU food agency

  Unreported Blanca & Carlos blew around the NE Pacific and Soudelor, the NW Pacific, while elsewhere:

• 2009/07/08: Wunderground: Modiki El Niños and Atlantic hurricane activity
• 2009/07/07: PhysOrg: Scientists analyze Hurricane Ike's effects on waterways, fish contamination

  In the carbon cycle:

• 2009/07/09: Eureka: Ozone, nitrogen change the way rising CO2 affects Earth's water

  As for the temperature record:

• 2009/07/10: NOAANews: NOAA: U.S. Temperature and Precipitation Near-Average for June

  While in the paleoclimate:

• 2009/07/11: SciDaily: Down Under Dinosaur Burrow Discovery Provides Climate Change Clues
• 2009/07/09: Eureka: Arctic climate under greenhouse conditions in the Late Cretaceous [65-100 mya]
• 2009/07/08: NatureCF: The greening of the pre-Cambrian
• 2009/07/07: SciNow: Did an Ancient Volcano Freeze Earth?
• 2009/07/08: NewScientist: Was ancient Earth a green planet?
• 2009/07/08: SciDaily: Amazon River Is 11 Million Years Old, Drilling Study Finds
• 2009/07/08: Eureka: Explosive growth of life on Earth fueled by early greening of planet
• 2009/07/06: SciDaily: Ancient Supervolcano's Eruption Caused Decade Of Severe Winters
  Previous studies have suggested that Indonesia's Toba supervolcano, when it erupted about 74,000 years ago, triggered a 1,000-year episode of ice sheet advance, and also may have produced a short-lived "volcanic winter," which drastically reduced the human population at the time.

On the el Niño/la Niña [ENSO] front:

• 2009/07/12: Guardian(UK): Wild weather in the year ahead, scientists predict -- as the start of the global "El Niño" phenomenon exacerbates the impact of global warming
• 2009/07/09: NOAA:NCEP: El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion
  Synopsis: El Niño conditions will continue to develop and are expected to last through the Northern Hemisphere Winter 2009-2010.
• 2009/07/09: CBC: El Niño returns to Pacific Ocean: U.S. scientists
• 2009/07/09: NOAANews: El Niño Arrives; Expected to Persist through Winter 2009-10
• 2009/07/09: ClimateP: NOAA says "El Niño arrives; Expected to Persist through Winter 2009-10" -- and that means record temperatures are coming and this will be the hottest decade on record
• 2009/07/09: PhysOrg: 'El Nino' arrives in Pacific for a months-long stay
• 2009/07/07: Reuters: Emerging El Nino set to drive up carbon emissions
  Across the globe an emerging El Nino weather pattern threatens to cause droughts and floods and trigger a spike in planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from burning forests. El Nino is a warming of tropical Pacific waters that affects wind circulation patterns. Its effects on the global climate vary from one event to the next. Trying to predict how El Nino will be affected by global warming is a major challenge, scientists say, although data shows El Ninos have become more frequent and more intense over the past three decades. The last event was in 2006.

Glaciers are melting:

• 2009/07/09: SciDaily: Ice Volume Of Switzerland's Glaciers Calculated

  Sea levels are rising:

• 2009/07/05: CCP: M.D. Blum, H.H. Roberts, Nature Geoscience, June 2009: Drowning of the Mississippi Delta due to insufficient sediment supply and global sea-level rise

  And in near earth orbit:

• 2009/07/10: NASA: GOES-O Satellite Reaches Orbit and Renamed GOES-14

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2009/07/12: PlanetArk: Indian Monsoon Among Risks From Rapid Climate Change
• 2009/07/10: UNDispatch: What climate change looks like--Dengue Fever
• 2009/07/10: UNDispatch: This is what climate change looks like (II)
• 2009/07/10: ClimateP: Climate change helps spread dengue fever in 28 states
• 2009/07/09: PhysOrg: Global warming impacting Greenlanders' daily lives
• 2009/07/09: BBC: Jellyfish swarms flourish in heat -- Marine experts have blamed hot summer weather for large numbers of jellyfish appearing in waters around Scotland
• 2009/07/08: CBC: Caribou numbers show dramatic drop
  The wildlife board that manages the Beverly caribou herd says the once-massive herd continues to show a massive decline in numbers. The Beverly herd, which roams the tundra from northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan and well into the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, once numbered about 276,000. Fourteen years ago, there were almost 6,000 females in the herd. Last year's calving ground survey showed only 93 females. This year, there was less than half that number.
• 2009/07/08: TreeHugger: Climate Change too Abstract For You? Dengue Fever Could Spread to 28 U.S. States
• 2009/07/07: OSun: Polar bear populations shrinking from declining sea ice: report
• 2009/07/06: NYT: Some See Beetle Attacks on Western Forests as a Natural Event
• 2009/07/06: DotEarth: More Polar Bear Populations in Decline
• 2009/07/05: ERabett: As the world wobbles

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2009/07/12: SciDaily: Forest Fire Prevention Efforts Could Lessen Carbon Sequestration, Add To Greenhouse Warming
• 2009/07/07: TWM: Big REDD
  Right now, there's more money to be made cutting tropical forests down than leaving them standing. Environmental policymakers are trying to reverse that equation.
• 2009/07/09: BBC: Project to 'grow carbon sinks'
  Ambitious plans to grow 24 million trees to soak up carbon dioxide and restore the rainforest have got underway in Ghana. The first million seedlings are being planted in a pilot scheme in an area that has been heavily logged in recent years.
• 2009/07/08: Eureka: Forest fire prevention efforts will lessen carbon sequestration, add to greenhouse warming

  Corals are dying:

• 2009/07/07: CBC: Coral reefs face extinction within 50 years: experts
• 2009/07/07: ENN: Great Barrier Reef will be gone in 20 years, says Charlie Veron, former chief scientist of the Australian Institute of Marine Science
• 2009/07/07: OilChange: Coral Reefs Are "On Death Row"
• 2009/07/06: NatureCF: Rewind emissions to save reefs
• 2009/07/07: PlanetArk: Reefs Could Perish by End of Century, Experts Warn
• 2009/07/06: SciDaily: Coral Reefs Exposed To Imminent Destruction From Climate Change

  Climate refugees are becoming an issue:

• 2009/07/08: ThanhNienNews: Climate change may displace millions in Mekong Delta: report
  Climate change impacts will force the displacement and migration of large populations in Vietnam, particularly the Mekong Delta, international experts reckon.
• 2009/07/08: Eureka: US-Mexico border wall could threaten wildlife species
• 2009/07/06: TreeHugger: Melting Ice Could Lead to Massive Waves of Climate Refugees

  As for tornadoes:

• 2009/07/10: CBC: Tornado kills 2 at Ontario resort -- 1 missing
• 2009/07/10: CBC: Apparent tornado kills 2 at Ontario resort

  Regarding heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2009/07/07: Nebraska: Extreme Heat Claims 4,000 Cattle
• 2009/07/07: CBC: Storm sparks 20 B.C. forest fires
• 2009/07/06: AlterNet: Wildfires Are Linked to Global Warming -- But Media Obscure the Relationship

  As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

• 2009/07/12: ENN: Declining Aral Sea: Satellite Images Highlight Dramatic Retreat
• 2009/07/12: SciDaily: Declining Aral Sea: Satellite Images Highlight Dramatic Retreat
• 2009/07/12: DesertSun: Lima: Desert city in need of water
• 2009/07/09: USGS: [Executive Summary] Groundwater Availability of the Central Valley Aquifer, California by Claudia C. Faunt, editor
• 2009/07/11: USGS: Groundwater Availability Detailed in California's Central Valley
• 2009/07/10: BNC: Climate update -- ongoing decline in South-East Australian rainfall
• 2009/07/06: NCHMF(Vn): VietNam: Floods kill seven people in northern mountainous provinces
• 2009/07/05: CMA: South China rains kill 20, force 700,000 from homes
• 2009/07/06: BOM: Drought Statement -- Very dry first half of the year for parts of southeast Australia
• 2009/07/08: StarTelegram: 'Once-in-a-century' drought sending campers indoors and stunting crops
  North Texas has had average rainfall this year, and three "cool" days this week felt like Christmas in July. But don't tell your friends in Central and South Texas, because they are feeling hot, parched and bothered. A "once-in-a-century" drought is baking a big swath of Texas, says John Nielsen-Gammon, state climatologist and a professor at Texas A&M University.The drought is "zeroing out" crops and forcing ranchers to liquidate their herds.
• 2009/07/10: UNDispatch: Flooding in Benin
• 2009/07/10: Yahoo: Eastern Aral Sea has shrunk by 80% since 2006: ESA
• 2009/07/10: BBC: Nairobi water 'stolen for farms'
  Authorities in Kenya's capital say they have unearthed a syndicate stealing the city's water to irrigate farms. Nairobi City Council says nearly half the capital's water was being diverted by dealers working with officials at the water distribution department.
• 2009/07/09: ABC(Au): Study suggests dry spells here to stay
  The author of a new climate study commissioned by the Federal Government says people in southern parts of Australia can expect the dry weather in many areas to continue indefinitely. The study by Australian National University (ANU) professor Will Steffen looked at scientific papers published since the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change's last major report in 2007. He found there is growing evidence that prolonged dry spells in certain parts of Australia are linked to climate change rather than nature.
• 2009/07/08: TerraDaily: Mumbai facing water cuts as lakes run dry
• 2009/07/07: TP:WonkRoom: Global Boiling Means More Billion-Dollar Droughts For Farmers
• 2009/07/08: PlanetArk: Benin Declares State of Emergency Over Floods
• 2009/07/07: BBC: Mumbai faces acute water shortage
  The authorities in the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) have reduced water supplies by 30% as it faces one of the worst water shortages in its history.
• 2009/07/06: SBJ: Valley farmers to receive more water
  Central Valley farmers will receive an additional 100,000 acre-feet as part of a water loan to deal with the three-year drought plaguing the state.
• 2009/07/04: Statesman: Central Texas -- Farmers 'can't shake' extended drought effects
• 2009/07/06: CBC: Flood-stricken Manitobans to get $40M aid
• 2009/07/07: PlanetArk: Vietnam Flood toll Rises to 22; More Rain to Come
• 2009/07/06: PlanetArk: Vietnam Northern Floods Kill 15, Dozen Missing
• 2009/07/06: PlanetArk: Chinese Floods Kill 15, Displace 550,000
• 2009/07/06: TerraDaily: Torrential rain in China leaves at least 20 dead: state media
• 2009/07/06: EarthTimes: Death toll rises to 75, another 13 missing in south China floods
• 2009/07/06: EarthTimes: Flash floods leave at least 38 dead or missing in Vietnam
• 2009/07/06: Guardian(UK): Devastation in Zambia as climate change brings early flooding

  Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2009/07/06: WalesNews: Welsh scientists unlock secrets of carbon capture from the Amazon [biochar]
• 2009/07/06: SolveClimate: Land Use Offers Valuable Solutions for Protecting the Climate
• 2009/07/06: AlterNet: Meatless Mondays: Do Something Good for the Earth and Your Health

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2009/07/11: PeakEnergy: A Solar Powered Cargo Ship?
• 2009/07/10: PlanetArk: Shipping Industry To Feel Heat Over CO2 Emissions
• 2009/07/10: TreeHugger: Bus Rapid Transit Featured in the New York Times

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

• 2009/07/10: TreeHugger: Passive Design Goes Mainstream With The "Marken Passive LEED Platinum Home"
• 2009/07/08: EurActiv: Obstacles pile up for EU's 'green buildings' law
• 2009/07/07: NEN: Big Green Buildings
  Summary: Increasingly, buildings that show 'green' credentials are more successful in an ever more competitive commercial real estate marketplace. Owners and tenants are discovering that money spent for efficiency retrofits saves on power and water and attracts customers and tenants without compromising aesthetics.

As for carbon sequestration:

• 2009/07/11: Reuters: Clean-coal project gains government support
  The Taylorville Energy Center, a proposed clean-coal project to be built in Illinois, expects to obtain a federal loan guarantee of nearly $2.6 billion after being selected by the U.S. Department of Energy for final term-sheet negotiations, the developers said on Friday. Taylorville, a hybrid integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant, will produce 525 to 550 megawatts of electricity along with substitute natural gas. The plant will also capture and store at least 50 percent of its carbon dioxide emissions, reducing emissions to levels more like that of natural gas-fired plants.
• 2009/07/10: FTimes:ES: Stern appointment boosts CCS - and Australia's government
• 2009/07/09: PhysOrg: Synthetic Tree Captures Carbon 1,000 Faster Than Real Trees [Lackner]
• 2009/07/09: BBerg: Greenland May Mandate Carbon Capture, Petroleum Chief Says
• 2009/07/08: ABC(Au): A$10m Latrobe Valley carbon capture plant opens
  International Power has officially opened its carbon capture and storage demonstration plant at its Hazelwood power station in the Latrobe Valley, in Victoria's south-east.

Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2009/07/11: TreeHugger: Bill Gates Infected By Geoengineering Virus, Patents Hurricane Mitigation Devices For Gulf Of Mexico
• 2009/07/09: TFlash: One force of nature vs. another: Bill Gates tries to stop hurricanes
  Recent patent filings have shown Bill Gates and his friends exploring subjects as diverse as electromagnetic engines and beer kegs. Now they're thinking even bigger -- trying to stop hurricanes. Microsoft's chairman is among the inventors listed on a new batch of patent applications that propose using large fleets of vessels to suppress hurricanes through various methods of mixing warm water from the surface of the ocean with colder water at greater depths. The idea is to decrease the surface temperature, reducing or eliminating the heat-driven condensation that fuels the giant storms.
• 2009/07/06: Guardian(UK): Just add lime (to the sea) -- the latest plan to cut CO2 emissions -- Project 'could turn back clock' on carbon dioxide

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2009/07/10: ACP: Accurate satellite-derived estimates of the tropospheric ozone impact on the global radiation budget by J. Joiner et al.
• 2009/07/09: ACPD: An updated analysis of the attribution of stratospheric ozone and temperature changes to changes in ozone-depleting substances and well-mixed greenhouse gases by A. I. Jonsson et al.
• 2009/07/10: CP: Investigating the evolution of major Northern Hemisphere ice sheets during the last glacial-interglacial cycle by S. Bonelli et al.
• 2009/07/06: CP: High resolution cyclostratigraphy of the early Eocene -- new insights into the origin of the Cenozoic cooling trend by T. Westerhold & U. Röhl
• 2009/07/06: CPD: Northern high-latitude climate change between the mid and late Holocene -- Part 1: Proxy data evidence by H. S. Sundqvist et al
• 2009/06/23: CD: Unprecedented low twentieth century winter sea ice extent in the Western Nordic Seas since A.D. 1200 by M. Macias Fauria et al.
• 2009/07/07: ACP: Middle atmospheric water vapour and dynamics in the vicinity of the polar vortex during the Hygrosonde-2 campaign by S. Lossow et al.
• 2009/07/07: ACP: Aerosol composition of the tropical upper troposphere by K. D. Froyd et al.
• 2009/07/08: ACPD: The impact of dust on sulfate aerosol, CN and CCN during an East Asian dust storm by P. T. Manktelow et al.
• 2009/07/07: ACPD: Planetary wave activity in the Arctic and Antarctic lower stratospheres during 2007 and 2008 by S. P. Alexander & M. G. Shepherd
• 2009/07/07: PNAS: (ab$) The current refugial rainforests of Sundaland are unrepresentative of their biogeographic past and highly vulnerable to disturbance by Charles H. Cannon et al.
• 2009/07/07: PNAS: (ab$) Contingencies and compounded rare perturbations dictate sudden distributional shifts during periods of gradual climate change by Christopher D. G. Harley & Robert T. Paine
• 2009/07/07: PNAS: (ab$) Translocation experiments with butterflies reveal limits to enhancement of poleward populations under climate change by Shannon L. Pelini et al.
• 2009/07/07: PNAS: The large contribution of projected HFC emissions to future climate forcing by Guus J. M. Velders et al.
• 2009/07/07: PNAS: Global potential for wind-generated electricity by Xi Lu et al.
• 2009/07/07: JGR: (ab$) Thinning and volume loss of the Arctic Ocean sea ice cover: 2003-2008 by R. Kwok et al.

  And other significant documents:

• 2009/07/09: USGS: [Executive Summary] Groundwater Availability of the Central Valley Aquifer, California by Claudia C. Faunt, editor
• 2009/07/09: CCP: [link to 4.7 meg pdf] Australian Dept. of Climate Change report: Faster Change & More Serious Risks by Will Steffen
• 2009/07/07: Oxford(UK): (577k pdf) How to Get Climate Policy Back on Course
• 2009/04/: CBO: The Impact of Ethanol Use on Food Prices and Greenhouse-Gas Emissions

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

• 2009/07/06: JEB: Who named the Maunder Minimum?
• 2009/07/07: PhysOrg: Science adopts a new definition of seawater [to make climate projections more accurate]

  Misc interviews:

• 2009/07/09: NatureCF: Interview: Lonnie Thompson [alpine glaciologist]
• 2009/07/09: CCP: Gavin Schmidt of Real Climate -- The Edge Interview of June 29, 2009
• 2009/07/07: DerSpiegel: Climate change and sea level rise -- 'The Greenland Ice Sheet Is an Awakening Giant'
  Leading glacier expert Andreas Peter Ahlstrom talks to SPIEGEL ONLINE about Greenland's melting ice sheets, global sea-level rise and why limiting global warming is non-negotiable.
• 2009/07/06: Guardian(UK): Gavin Schmidt: a climatologist trying to give out the right signals amid the noise

  More Hansen:

• 2009/07/10: SolveClimate: G8 Failure Reflects Congress' Failure to Write Effective Climate Policy by James Hansen
• 2009/07/09: HuffPo: Dr. James Hansen: G-8 Failure Reflects U.S. Failure on Climate Change

  Meanwhile on the road to Copenhagen:

• 2009/07/10: LOE: Mired in the Mud on the Road to Copenhagen
• 2009/07/09: Reuters: G8 makes scant progress to Copenhagen climate pact
• 2009/07/09: Google:AFP: Climate tango in L'Aquila bodes ill for Copenhagen deal
• 2009/07/09: Guardian(UK): Unlocking progress on climate change -- To tackle climate change, the international community needs to adopt a better way of calculating emission reductions
• 2009/07/09: Guardian(UK): Why it would be naive to abandon emissions negotiation at Copenhagen
• 2009/07/09: PlanetArk: Copenhagen Climate Deal Depends On U.S.: Analyst
• 2009/07/09: SolveClimate: Global Deal on Climate-Warming HFCs Hinges on Secret White House Policy
• 2009/07/06: TerraDaily: Climate: no 'Plan B' for Copenhagen summit, says Danish minister
  Denmark's Minister for Climate Connie Hedegaard said here Friday there was no "Plan B" if negotiations broke down for an ambitious climate accord at a December world summit in Copenhagen.

And at the UN:

• 2009/07/09: TreeHugger: UN Secretary General Rebukes G8 Nations for Weak Climate Change Commitments
• 2009/07/09: EarthTimes: UN chief says G8, MEF deal on climate change 'not sufficient'
• 2009/07/08: EarthTimes: World leaders to meet for climate, UN debates in September
  The United Nations on Wednesday released a list of world leaders scheduled to attend the General Assembly in September, which is shaping up to be the largest such gathering at a UN conference. When the UN General Assembly opens its 64th annual session on September 23 in New York, a total of 28 presidents are to speak on the first day, many of them first timers. The list includes US President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Libyan President Muammar al Gaddafi. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will speak on September 24.
• 2009/07/09: BBC: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has criticised leaders of the G8 industrial nations for failing to make deeper commitments to combat climate change
• 2009/07/07: CCurrents: The Climate Imperative by Rajendra Kumar Pachauri
• 2009/07/06: Reuters: Major nations should set clear 2050 CO2 cuts: UN
• 2009/07/06: Guardian(UK): My message to G8 leaders by Ban Ki-moon
  The summit in Italy is the start of a crucial 12 months. Political co-operation is no longer a mere nicety, but a necessity

The troubled Millenium Development Goals came in for some comment:

• 2009/07/08: UNDispatch: Easterly's pessimism on the MDGs
• 2009/07/06: UNDispatch: Economic crisis threatening progress on MDGs
• 2009/07/06: NYU:AidWatch: The Tragedy of the Millennium Development Goals

  The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

• 2009/07/06: EnvEcon: All environmental economists don't strongly favor a carbon tax
• 2009/07/06: FTimes: How Obama could introduce a petrol tax

  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:

• 2009/07/09: EnvEcon: Trade with Cap'n Trade
• 2009/07/08: GreenGrok: Cap and Trade Part 6: Emission Allowances
• 2009/07/06: Guardian(UK): Bright sparks

  Meanwhile on the international political front:

• 2009/07/07: DerSpiegel: Treading Water -- How the US Is Blocking Progress on Climate Change
  As the predictions for global warming get more and more alarming, talks on a worldwide climate treaty have stalled -- largely due to the United States. The G-8 summit in L'Aquila, which begins Wednesday, is likely to generate little more than the usual platitudes.

And on the American political front:

• 2009/07/12: PlanetArk: Cap-and-Trade Support Hinges on Economy: Survey
• 2009/07/09: Grist: State budget crisis could be key to climate change
• 2009/07/09: Grist: Energy industry sways Congress with misleading data
• 2009/07/10: Grist: Deliberate misinformation: Making saving money sound bad
• 2009/07/09: Guardian(UK): Greenpeace activists scale Mount Rushmore in global warming protest
• 2009/07/08: ClimateP: Honey, I shrunk the GOP, Part 2: Opposing clean energy hurts GOP - Mellman
• 2009/07/09: Grist: Jeb Bush still skeptical about climate change
• 2009/07/08: ClimateP: U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- or Echo Chamber of Horrors?
• 2009/07/08: TreeHugger: Pro-Coal Thugs Crash Peaceful Anti-Coal Event in West Virginia - This is Getting Ugly (Video)
• 2009/07/08: Eureka: Report shows the power of US cities to mitigate climate change and steps they need to take to adapt
  CDP / ICLEI report details greenhouse gas emissions and climate protection actions of 18 US cities
• 2009/07/07: Atlantic: The Elusive Green Economy
• 2009/07/06: Grist: Mountaintop removal defenders disrupt July 4th music festival in West Virginia
• 2009/07/06: TreeHugger: Common Eco-Myth: The Whole United States is Dependent on Coal
• 2009/07/06: LA Times: California solar-power subsidy program approaches its limit
  A bill seeks to quadruple the amount of electricity consumers with roof panels may sell. The solar industry pushes to pass it. PG & E, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric oppose

Who do you think sets these prices?:

• 2009/07/05: KC: With new charge, saving electricity could end up costing Missourians
  Some Missouri residents and businesses soon could see a new charge on their electric bills -- a fee for using less energy. Though it might seem illogical, the new energy efficiency charge has support from utilities, most lawmakers, the governor, environmentalists and even the state's official utility consumer advocate. The charge covers the cost of utilities' efforts to promote energy efficiency and cut power use. The assumption is that charging consumers for those initiatives ultimately will cost less than charging them to build the new power plants that will be needed if electricity use isn't curtailed.

The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2009/07/09: UNDispatch: Obama at major emitters meeting
• 2009/07/09: Guardian(UK): Obama science adviser [John Holdren] insists talks with China will not bypass UN process
• 2009/07/09: TreeHugger: President Obama, Please Live Up to Your Climate Change Rhetoric & Truly Lead!
• 2009/07/08: Guardian(UK): Obama makes nuclear compromise to pass clean energy bill
• 2009/07/08: DotEarth: Can Obama Keep Pledge to Lead on Climate?
• 2009/07/08: BBerg: Obama Faces Discord in Debut as Climate-Change Leader
• 2009/07/08: PlanetArk: Obama Needs to Engage GOP on Climate Bill: Expert
• 2009/07/07: Grist: What is Obama's international climate strategy?

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2009/07/10: NatureTGB: DOE offers cash for renewables
• 2009/07/10: PlanetArk: U.S. Makes $3 Billion Available For Renewable Energy
• 2009/07/10: ScienceInsider: [Dr. Marcia] McNutt Named to Lead U.S. Geological Survey
• 2009/07/10: KSJT: San Jose Mercury News: Monterey-based ocean scientist [Dr. Marcia McNutt] named to run U. S. Geological Survey
• 2009/07/10: TreeHugger: NOAA Head Jane Lubchenco Speaks Her Mind on Climate Change, Stopping Overfishing, More
• 2009/07/09: NYT:GreenInc: Funding Rules to Aid Renewables Unveiled
  The Treasury and the Energy Department today unveiled long-awaited new rules under which the government will pay up to 30 percent of the cost of renewable energy projects.
• 2009/07/09: Yale360: Jane Lubchenco on Restoring Science To U.S. Climate Policy
• 2009/07/09: NYT:GW: 'Solar Energy Zone' Concept Laudable but Flawed, Critics Say
• 2009/07/09: USAToday: Obama administration makes $3B available for renewable energy
• 2009/07/10: AlterNet: Does a Senior Obama Official Have Unseemly Ties to Notorious Human Rights Abuser Chevron?
• 2009/07/09: NatureTGB: Holdren meets the Brits
• 2009/07/09: SolveClimate: Obama's Farm Team Heads For Rural America: The New Energy Heartland?
• 2009/07/09: BBC: US hopes to lead climate debate
  The US is moving toward leading the climate change debate, rather than lagging behind, according to President Obama's chief scientific advisor. In his first international interview since taking the post, Dr John Holdren told the BBC that he wanted to take the politics out of scientific advice.
• 2009/07/07: Reuters: A dollar a day could keep climate change away: EPA
• 2009/07/07: REA: Edison Electric Institute Expo: Secretary Chu Describes Life in a Carbon-constrained World
• 2009/07/07: BBC: US may limit energy speculation
  A US regulator is to hold hearings to decide whether it should clamp down on speculation in the energy market. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) imposes limits on trading positions in agricultural commodities but not on oil or gas. Gary Gensler, who took over as CFTC chairman in May, wants to look into why commodities are treated differently. The hearings are being seen as part of the Obama administration's attempts to stabilise financial markets. They will take place in July and August.
• 2009/07/08: PlanetArk: Climate Bill Won't Work Without Farm Role: USDA
• 2009/07/07: Grist: EPA attorneys criticize Obama nominee [to head the environment division of the Department of Justice, Ignacia Moreno]
• 2009/07/07: SolveClimate: White House, Job Creation Keys to a Stronger Renewable Energy Standard

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2009/07/09: UNDispatch: Member of Congress [Rep. Blaine Luetkemeymer (R-Missouri)] introduces bill to cut U.S. funding for IPCC
• 2009/07/09: Grist: GOP Sen. Bond thinks climate policy is just too confusing
• 2009/07/09: Grist: Carbon trading: Worthy of Feinstein's ire?
• 2009/07/08: US House: [Congressman Blaine] Luetkemeyer (R-Missouri) Bill Would Save Taxpayers $12.5 Million, Denies Funding for UN's Junk Science
• 2009/07/09: CommonTragedies: Senate Debate vs. House Debate
• 2009/07/08: TreeHugger: Report: Republicans Lied - and Continue to Lie - About Climate Bill
• 2009/07/08: Politico: Henry Waxman: GOP "rooting against" USA

  The climate/energy bill has moved into the Senate:

• 2009/07/11: TP:WonkRoom: Senate GOP Plan To Fearmonger About Cost Of Clean Energy For Food
• 2009/07/11: McClatchyDC: Boxer faces 'challenge of a lifetime' on climate change bill
• 2009/07/10: McClatchyDC: Climate plan's backers have tougher audience in Senate
• 2009/07/10: GreenGrok: On the Climate Bill Fence: What Undecided Senators Are Thinking
• 2009/07/10: TreeHugger: Senate Puts Off Climate Bill Until Fall - Due to a "Firestorm of Opposition" from Americans?
• 2009/07/10: TreeHugger: Corn State Senators Want to Shove Ethanol Down Our Throats, Whether We Like It Or Not
• 2009/07/09: Guardian(UK): Senate Democrats push back deadline on Obama climate change agenda
• 2009/06/26: WaEx: Pelosi buys off agri-business to advance climate bill
  What began as a liberal crusade to slow manmade global warming is increasingly becoming a porkfest for well-connected corporations.
• 2009/07/09: NatureTGB: Climate bill hits its first snag in the US Senate -- Barbara Boxer delays the first round of votes on a climate bill until September
• 2009/07/09: ClimateP: Senate EPW panel won't take up climate bill until September - Boxer
• 2009/07/08: Grist: MoveOn calls on Senate to preserve Clean Air Act in climate bill
• 2009/07/09: TreeHugger: And We're Taking a Break... Senate Won't Take Action on Climate Bill Until September
• 2009/07/09: Reuters: Obama's drive for climate change bill delayed
• 2009/07/09: ThinkP: Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo): I'm Going To Make 'My Friends On The Left Very Unhappy' On Clean Energy Legislation
• 2009/07/08: WNR: Byrd Blasts 'Cap and Trade' -- Senior W.Va. senator stands firmly behind coal
• 2009/07/08: ClimateP: The epic battle for the Senate, Part 1: What we can learn from the House vote.
• 2009/07/07: Grist: Nuclear + Cap-and-Trade = Bipartisan Climate Bill?
• 2009/07/08: TreeHugger: And We're Off: Senate Gets Busy on Climate Bill
• 2009/07/08: NYT:CW: Gov. Barbour Dives, Once More, Into the Climate Fray
• 2009/07/08: NYT:CW: Senate Democrats Begin Drawing Road Map to 60 Votes on Climate Bill
• 2009/07/07: SolveClimate: Senate Starts Climate Talks with Questions about Nuclear, Ag
• 2009/07/07: ThinkP: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): Climate deniers are taken seriously only at ExxonMobil and in the Senate
• 2009/07/08: AlterNet: The New Energy Bill May Create a 'Super Lobby' of Powerful Opposition
• 2009/07/07: ClimateP: Barbour utterly misquotes McKinsey -- which believes climate action is low-cost -- and tries to scare public with wildly implausible Chinese scheme to manipulate the emissions market
• 2009/07/07: ClimateP: Sanders (I-VT): "I believe we can produce a significant fraction of the country's energy with solar thermal," Udall (D-NM): "When you put a price on carbon you are helping nuclear power"
• 2009/07/07: ClimateP: Boxer (D-CA) smacks down Crapo (R-ID), Carper (D-DE) says nuclear (which he supports) is "not cheap" and "the cleanest most affordable energy, is the energy we never use."
• 2009/07/07: ClimateP: [Senator] Lamar Alexander (R-TN) calls nuclear "the cheap clean energy solution," renews GOP call for 100 new nukes, which would cost some $1 trillion
• 2009/07/06: TP:WonkRoom: Dirty Energy Lobbyist-Turned-Governor Haley Barbour To Champion 'Do Nothing' Stance Before Senate
• 2009/07/06: ClimateP: Mississippi burning -- and flooding: Haley Barbour to be remembered as man who gave his state 90°F temps 5 months a year plus countless Katrinas?
• 2009/07/06: Grist: Senate panel to kick off climate hearings on Tuesday
• 2009/07/07: EarthTimes: US Senate takes up landmark climate bill for first time
• 2009/07/07: WSJ:EnvCap: Climate Fight: The Senate Tackles Global Warming Bill
• 2009/07/07: WaPo: Push and Pull in Senate May Recast Climate Bill -- Dealings Could Erode Ecological Aims
• 2009/07/06: NYT:GW: Coal Industry Sees Life or Death in Senate Climate Debate
• 2009/07/06: LA Times: Climate battle moves to the Senate
  Obama faces calls for more concessions, including offshore drilling, in global warming legislation.

They're still talking about the House version of Waxman-Markey:

• 2009/07/10: SameFacts: With friends like these...
  I guess we can stop telling fairy tales about the climate change bill improving in the Senate. To the contrary, the corn/agriculture/ethanol Democrats, having thrown the science under the bus in the House, are preparing to back up and run over it again, just to be sure.
• 2009/07/10: Grist: Revised and updated: Things I love -- and hate -- about Waxman-Markey
• 2009/07/11: CSpin: Waxman-Markey an ok bill
• 2009/07/09: CCurrents: Obama's Cap And Trade Carbon Emissions Bill - A Stealth Scheme To License Pollution And Fraud
• 2009/07/08: Reuters: Shell says U.S. oil refiners need more CO2 permits
• 2009/07/10: ClimateP: Hansen mostly recycles myths in his mostly pointless attack on U.S. climate action
• 2009/07/10: JFleck: Who Believes What?
• 2009/07/05: ClimateP: A true American hero, Tom Perriello (D-VA), on Waxman-Markey: "The Republicans may win some seats because of this vote, but they can't regain their souls for demagoguing the issue."
• 2009/07/06: BostonGlobe: Turning baby steps into long strides in warming fight
  [...] When first introduced, the [Waxman-Markey] bill plotted a course consistent with what science tells us is needed to avoid catastrophe: a course toward lower emissions and a new clean economy. But legislators doing the bidding of coal interests (mining companies and power plant owners), big agribusiness, and their allies held the bill hostage, extracting major concessions in exchange for support - damaging and diluting the bill.

The Gore-apalooza is still bopping along:

• 2009/07/12: ABC(Au): Gore says Aust could boost global climate deal
  Climate Change campaigner Al Gore says he is still optimistic an agreement to reduce carbon emissions can be finalised at global climate talks later this year in Denmark. At the G8 leaders meeting in Italy, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told his Danish counterpart that he fears the talks are not on track for a deal. Speaking at a conference in Melbourne, Mr Gore said he was confident that a substantial agreement can be reached. "I choose to be very optimistic," he said. [...] Mr Gore says Australia would boost the chances if it sets up an emissions trading scheme before this year's copenhagen climate talks.
• 2009/07/11: ABC(Au): Youth [Powershift] climate summit kicks off in Sydney
  Up to 1,500 young people are converging on Sydney today for a two-day national climate change summit. The Powershift summit will bring hundreds of teenagers and young adults together to learn political campaign strategies for addressing climate change.
• 2009/07/09: ABC(Au): Sale paediatrician Dr Jo McCubbin has been chosen from about 2,000 Australians to join Al Gore's climate project summit in Melbourne this weekend
• 2009/07/08: OilChange: Gore Invokes Spirit of Churchill to Fight Climate Change
• 2009/07/07: NatureCF: Big Al speaks on climate (and neuroscience)
• 2009/07/08: PlanetArk: Gore Says Climate Deal Needs More Public Pressure
• 2009/07/07: Times(UK): Al Gore likens fight against climate change to battle with Nazis

  While in the UK:

• 2009/07/12: BBC: Households which contribute electricity to the National Grid are to receive payments under a new government scheme
• 2009/07/12: Guardian(UK): Ecotowns to get go-ahead despite local opposition
• 2009/07/08: OpenLeft: [UK] Emissions Reduction Targets Miss The Point
• 2009/07/06: BBC: Home energy saving pays its way
  Despite almost universal awareness of the threat posed by climate change, households are still left feeling powerless to act, says Paul King. In this week's Green Room, he sets out his vision that he believes would kick-start a "refurbishment revolution".

And in Europe:

• 2009/07/09: Time: Nuclear-Power Debate Reignites in Germany [ahead of the fall election]
• 2009/07/06: Reuters: EU's Barroso seeks two degrees Celsius pact at G8
• 2009/07/06: EurActiv: Sweden introduces climate labelling for food
• 2009/07/06: EUO: Brussels hoping for climate commitment at G8
• 2009/07/06: PlanetArk: EU Seen Meeting Renewable Fuel Targets With Blends
• 2009/07/06: EarthTimes:EU sticks to climate change goals ahead of G8 summit

  Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2009/07/12: ABC(Au): Leading environmentalist Tim Flannery has echoed the Prime Minister's reservations over the likelihood of a sucessful outcome at the Copenhagen climate talks later this year
• 2009/07/12: ABC(Au): Victorian power company TRUenergy says it is slashing spending on long-term maintenance of its coal-fired power station because of the Federal Government's proposed emissions trading scheme
• 2009/07/12: ABC(Au): A senior government minister [Chris Bowen] has defended Prime Minister Kevin Rudd over his pessimistic remarks about the global climate talks in Copenhagen later this year
• 2009/07/11: ABC(Au): Rudd denies hiding climate talks scepticism
  Prime Minister Kevin Rudd insists he is not trying to hide his pessimism over groundwork laid for important climate change talks in Copenhagen this December.
• 2009/07/11: ABC(Au): Caught on tape: Rudd's climate pessimism
  Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has told his Danish counterpart he fears the Copenhagen climate change conference in December will not be a success. The conversation was taped by a cameraman as the two leaders were discussing the issue of climate change on the sidelines of the G8 conference in Italy. Mr Rudd was filmed telling his Danish counterpart that negotiations for an agreement were not on track and that he was "quite worried about it". Mr Rudd had previously warned there were challenges ahead but publicly was not so pessimistic. Later he added he had to remain hopeful but time is running out. "As I said I'm very realistic about it," he said. "The clock is ticking and time is running out." He urged leaders of all countries to get behind the Copenhagen process warning the consequences of failure would be disastrous.
• 2009/07/10: ABC(Au): Council grants solar park planning permit
  Ballarat has moved a step closer to hosting a solar park, with the Ballarat City Council granting the project a planning permit. The Central Victoria Solar City Project wants to build a solar park near the Ballarat Airport and another at Bendigo.
• 2009/07/10: ABC(Au): G8 leaders 'should have done better' on carbon cuts [says Greens Leader Bob Brown]
• 2009/07/09: Grist: Australia's real climate on climate change
• 2009/07/08: ClimateP: What's going down, Down Under?
• 2009/07/08: ABC(Au): The City of Perth is hoping to offset carbon emissions from its car parking business by planting 85,000 trees in the great southern region
• 2009/07/07: ABC(Au): Wagga keen to cut carbon footprint
  The Wagga Wagga City Council is looking to make changes to prepare for a carbon pollution reduction scheme due to start in 2011.
• 2009/07/06: ABC(Au): Academic urges greater climate change focus
  A professor at James Cook University in north Queensland says more research is needed into climate change, after a study revealed the Earth's tropical zone is expanding at a rapid pace. The study looked at data dating back to the 1970s and shows drought is becoming more common in the south, while the north is expected to see an increase in rainfall. Professor Steve Turton says it is important Australia has the necessary infrastructure to cope with the changes and carbon emissions are curbed, or future generations will suffer.
• 2009/07/06: ABC(Au): Bega MP pushes for biomass power stations
  The Member for Bega Andrew Constance on the New South Wales Far South Coast says Australia is lagging behind other countries in its use of biomass power generation.

And in India:

• 2009/07/07: EarthTimes: India blames developed world for slowdown, climate change
• 2009/07/07: BBerg: India Says Developed Nations Are Responsible for Climate Change

  While in China:

• 2009/07/07: EurActiv: China to expand nuclear power in new energy strategy
• 2009/07/07: People's Daily: China's first of 7 mega wind farms ready to start rolling [ie. construction]
• 2009/07/06: NBF: China Targets 15% Energy from Solar and Wind by 2020

  Elsewhere in Asia:

• 2009/07/06: TerraDaily: Indonesia to clean up timber exports
• 2009/07/06: PlanetArk: South Korea To Raise $1.6 Billion For Green Industries

  And in Russia:

• 2009/07/08: TerraDaily: G8 emissions cut target 'unacceptable': Medvedev aide
• 2009/07/08: Yahoo:AFP: G8 emissions cut target 'unacceptable': Medvedev aide
  A target set by the G8 for developed countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050 is unacceptable for Russia, President Dmitry Medvedev's top economic aide said Wednesday. "For us the 80 percent figure is unacceptable and likely unattainable," Arkady Dvorkovich told reporters. "We won't sacrifice economic growth for the sake of emission reduction," he added.

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

• 2009/07/11: CanWest: Harper criticized for snubbing alternative energy group
  The Harper Conservatives are compromising Canada's future economic prosperity by snubbing a new international organization devoted to alternative energy sources, say climate change advocates. Canada is one of the only developed countries and one of two G8 countries - Russia is the other - to take a pass on joining the new International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), a joint effort by Germany, Spain and Denmark that was founded earlier this year. Canada sent no representative or observer to IRENA's founding conference in Bonn, Germany, this past January, which was attended by observers of 120 countries. Since then, IRENA's membership has grown to 136 countries; the U.S. signed on two weeks ago.
• 2009/07/09: LFPress: Feds won't change polar bear strategy
  The federal government will not change its strategy for polar bears despite a recent international report suggesting the Arctic predator is increasingly threatened.
• 2009/07/09: CanWest: Time for Harper to take action on greenhouse gas emissions
  Instead of trying to shift blame, PM should address Canada's poor climate change record
• 2009/07/08: G&M: On climate change, Ottawa's still emitting hot air
• 2009/07/07: WesternGrit: Harper "Stands Up" - Against The Global Environment...
• 2009/07/07: CanWest: Canada blows post-oil economic opportunities
  There was a time when politicians claimed Canada would become a world leader in clean, green technologies -- that our educated workforce, abundant resources and entrepreneurial spirit, coupled with inspired government policy, would revitalize our economy and help save the planet. No one talks that way anymore. How could they, with straight faces? We have ceded leadership on climate change to U.S. President Barack Obama and, to a lesser extent, the Europeans. Other countries will profit from the inevitable revolution in manufacturing, energy production and lifestyle choices that a green economy will bring. Not Canada. We'll tag along, buying products designed and manufactured elsewhere.
• 2009/07/06: TStar: Signs of progress on climate change
  [...] Canada's Conservative government, for one, is unabashedly taking its cue from Congress. Indeed, after dragging his feet on climate change during the Bush era, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is lining up behind President Barack Obama on the issue. Instead of just following, Harper could offer some leadership. But he is loathe to spend any political capital on climate change lest he offend Alberta's powerful oilsands lobby. Unlike other world leaders, from Europe to Australia, Harper's preference has been to attack bold proposals -- such as the carbon tax that he smeared during the last federal election -- while grudgingly agreeing to meeker initiatives.

Harper made himself a joke at the G8 meeting:

• 2009/07/10: TMoS: This is Rich. The Guy Who Took a Dump on Canada's Kyoto Commitments Calls other G8 Members Slackers
• 2009/07/09: ZCC: Canada Agrees to 2 Degrees (But Already Backtracking)
• 2009/07/10: CanWest: Canada snubs G8 emissions target -- Summit Sets 80%; 70% reduction by 2050 'realistic,' Prentice says
• 2009/07/09: BBerg: Prentice Says Canada Won't Match G-8 Emission Cuts
  Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice said his country won't be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as much as other developed nations, citing Canada's cold climate and reliance on energy production. Prentice, speaking to reporters in L'Aquila, Italy, said Canada won't change its emission plans even after the country signed on to a Group of Eight pledge for stronger cuts.
• 2009/07/09: HamiltonSpectator: Prentice: Canada won't meet G8 climate targets
  Less than 24 hours after Prime Minister Stephen Harper praised the G8 for its latest climate-change targets, his environment minister said those targets are "aspirational" and that Canada will not meet them.
• 2009/07/10: CanWest: Canada sticks to global warming targets despite G8 agreement
  The Canadian government refused Thursday to adjust its battle plan against global warming even though its objectives fall short of the new commitment from the G8 group of industrialized countries to slash greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century.
• 2009/07/10: CanWest: Canada a G8 'bad boy' -- Won't change emission targets despite agreement reached at summit
  The Canadian government refused Thursday to adjust its battle plan against global warming even though its objectives fall short of the new commitment from the G8 group of industrialized countries to slash greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century. That made Canada one of the targets for criticism...
• 2009/07/09: CanWest: Canada refuses to change global warming targets at G8
• 2009/07/09: Yahoo: Canada says G8 climate target 'aspirational,' no need to change policy
• 2009/07/09: LA&M: Aspirational Prevarication
• 2009/07/09: Impolitical: It's all so aspirational
  The Harper government inspires us again! In fact, it's all just so very aspirational: "Canada says G8 climate target 'aspirational,' no need to change policy."
• 2009/07/08: Impolitical: Politics behind PM's sudden backing of 2-degree goal at G8 summit?
• 2009/07/07: TMoS: Stephen Harper - Enemy of the State?
  I don't know if this is true but Avaaz.org is claiming that Stephen Harper intends to try to derail the global warming initiative at this week's G8 summit.

The Liberals didn't have much to say:

• 2009/07/10: CanWest: Going too slow on high-speed rail [by Joe Volpe Liberal MP for Eglinton-Lawrence]
  Canada is at a critical juncture. The recession has left hundreds of factories sitting empty and hundreds of thousands of workers sitting at home, not knowing what future lies ahead for their families. Added to this, the major issue before the recession hit -- the environment -- has not just gone away because we are not talking as much about it. Every day, we are exhausting our oil reserves, and the impact of an oil economy is slowly, but persistently, making our planet inhospitable. But one project can at once lift our recessed economy and propel us forward into the economy of tomorrow: a multi-modal intercity high-speed rail network.

And neither did the NDP:

• 2009/07/05: CBC: [Federal NDP Leader, Jack] Layton seeks immediate farm drought aid

  Late comment on the G8 scorecard:

• 2009/07/08: CanWest: Canada dead last on climate change -- We can no longer use the U.S. as an excuse for inaction

  In BC, adjustments after the election are ongoing:

• 2009/07/06: Tyee: In Kaslo, a Big No to River Power -- More than 1,000 turn out to oppose Kootenay project
• 2009/07/07: Tyee: Carbon Tax Hike Booed: Poll -- Most in BC, except in Vancouver, are opposed to the increase.
• 2009/07/09: CBC: Vancouver charges ahead with electric-car plug-ins
• 2009/07/06: CBC: Vancouver condos in electric car charging flap

  Ontario has it's Green Energy Act, now comes the implementation:

• 2009/07/09: Rabble: Reactor relief
  Chalk this up as one of those big "I told you so" moments for the anti-nuke lobby and a symbol of the shifting power dynamics in energy politics unfolding on both sides of the border. Energy Minister George Smitherman announced on June 29 that the cost of building two new reactors at Darlington was officially billions too high to consider without a federal bailout.
• 2009/07/06: G&M: Stalled nuclear purchase won't cause Ontario blackout

  In Saskatchewan the big question is "Nukes?"

• 2009/07/10: BuckDog: Premier Brad Wall Prepared To Lose Hundreds Of Millions Just To Open The Door To Nuclear Reactor In Saskatchewan
• 2009/07/09: CBC: Nuclear critics suspect hidden agenda in Sask. medical isotope plan

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2009/07/08: CanWest: Alberta First Nation gets anti-oilsands help from U.K. co-op
  A consumer co-operative based in the United Kingdom is joining a small First Nations community in Alberta in its fight to stop the expansion of oilsands development in the province. The Co-operative Group, a Manchester-based bank, says it will continue to support the 900-member Beaver Lake Cree Nation in Lac La Biche as it prepares to take on the Alberta and Canadian governments in a lawsuit.

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

• 2009/07/11: OilDrum: Is Sustainable Development sustainable?
• 2009/07/10: CCurrents: So, Who Needs Corporations, Anyhow?
• 2009/07/09: EnergyBulletin: The radical hypothesis
• 2009/07/09: Belfer: Is Benefit-Cost Analysis Helpful for Environmental Regulation?
• 2009/07/06: CanWest: The Wealthy World at its 'oil break point'
• 2009/07/06: AlterNet: 10 Commandments of the Anti-Christ: Mysterious "Guidestones" Madden Conspiracy Theorists and Christian Fundamentalists
• 2009/07/05: EnergyBulletin: A brief ecological manifesto

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

• 2009/07/11: CCurrents: Society, Politics, And The Overpopulation Problem
• 2009/07/01: NYT:PK: The Malthusian insult
• 2009/07/09: LA Times: Pharmacists can't refuse Plan B pill, appeals court says
  A pharmacy owner and workers had sued Washington state to block a requirement that they stock and sell the 'morning after' contraceptive.
• 2009/07/08: SeattlePI: Abortion pill used in a quarter of US abortions

  Apocalypso anyone?

• 2009/07/11: NVR: The end is coming, but not because of climate change
  [...] The combined crises of overpopulation, resource depletion and economic collapse at the current levels are too great for any complex industrial civilization to survive. As the global economy contracts, less wealth is spread around among more people lowering the standard of living. The wealthier the nation, the more it is affected. No country will be as hurt than the United States. Since few realize this awful reality is barreling toward, few will be prepared to do anything about it. At first, I expect there'll be resource and currency wars to maintain the status quo, but soon we won't be able to afford them.
• 2009/07/07: AfterGutenberg: Buy, Bye, Gaia, hate to sea you go
• 2009/07/07: AlterNet: The Dark Side of Climate Change: It's Already Too Late, Cap and Trade Is a Scam, and Only the Few Will Survive [Lovelock]

  As for how the media handles the science of climatology:

• 2009/07/11: BtP: Ben Stein Has Not Heard of Global Warming
• 2009/07/09: Guardian(UK): Spectator recycles climate rubbish published by sceptic
  Ian Plimer's work of climate fiction is riddled with schoolboy errors the Spectator appears prepared to believe
• 2009/07/08: Eureka: Media tend to doomsay when addressing environmental issues
• 2009/07/07: KSJT: Enthusiastic science Journalism is all over, say reports from the World Conference. Things are not altogether horrid, it seems.
• 2009/07/06: SkepticBlog: The New Journalism
• 2009/07/06: KSJT: RealClimate: Not news, but useful reminder that cumulative science publication and science journalism are very different beasts
• 2009/07/06: AlterNet: Wildfires Are Linked to Global Warming -- But Media Obscure the Relationship

  While activists search for effective communication techniques:

• 2009/07/01: Guardian(UK): The best adverts to save the planet (27 pictures)

  Here is something for your library:

• 2009/07/08: RealClimate: [Book Review] _Unscientific America_ by Chris Mooney & Sheril Kirshenbaum
• 2009/07/06: Wunderground: [Book Review] _Island in a Storm_ by Dr. Abby Sallenger

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2009/07/10: NEN: A fight for new energy transmission
• 2009/07/10: SolveClimate: Groups Sue to Shift Bush Admin's Western Power Line Routes
• 2009/07/08: DeSmogBlog: U.S. Auto Industry Finally Succumbs to Inevitable Defeat on California Emissions Standards
• 2009/07/06: WarmingLaw: Update on California Auto Emissions Standards: Auto Industry Drops Some of Its Preemption Lawsuits. (Oh, and California Finally Gets Its Waiver)

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

• 2009/07/09: PeakEnergy: Colorado School of Mines professor says he was threatened with firing over hydraulic fracturing comments
• 2009/07/09: IR^2: Technical Feasibility is the Easy Part [energy]
• 2009/07/10: NewScientist: Rival designs race to harness ocean energy
• 2009/07/10: WSJ:EnvCap: Power Play: HSBC on the Coming Carnage in Power Generation
• 2009/07/08: Grist: Coal-nundrum and Ex-gas-peration
• 2009/07/08: PeakEnergy: A 200-MW Tidal Energy Project For Canada
• 2009/07/08: CleanTech: Blue Energy Canada rolls in $500M for tidal power
  Auckland, New Zealand's World Energy Research signs joint agreement to fund the development of Blue Energy Canada's first 200-megawatt commercial tidal power project.
• 2009/07/06: JSO: 7% electric rate increase proposed -- We Energies blames decline in sales amid recession
  As consumers and businesses scale back during the worst economic slump in decades, We Energies says it must ask for more. The deepening recession is slowing sales of electricity more than projected, so the Milwaukee utility is asking the state Public Service Commission for a bigger rate increase to cover the gap.
• 2009/07/08: AfterGutenberg: Fossil Fooled, Nuke Duped, and Now Texas Gas[sed]?
• 2009/07/07: ClimateP: The Clean-Energy Debate Guide
• 2009/07/07: TreeHugger: Canadian 200 MW Commercial Tidal Power Project Announced
• 2009/07/06: HNN: Why Jimmy Carter's Malaise Speech Is More Relevant than Ever

  What the price of oil is doing & what the forecasts are:

• 2009/07/10: BBerg: Oil Caps the Biggest Weekly Fall Since January on Demand Drop
• 2009/07/10: WSJ:EnvCap: Oil Prices: Rising Supplies Help Explain Plunging Crude
• 2009/07/10: BBC: Crude oil price falls below $60
• 2009/07/09: CNN: Oil steadies at $60
• 2009/07/08: BBerg: Oil in Downtrend, May Fall to $50: Technical Analysis
• 2009/07/08: CBC: Oil slides under $62 US
• 2009/07/07: Telegraph(UK): Oil prices: is there a spike on the horizon?

  The answer my friend...:

• 2009/07/11: WaPo: Wind Projects at a Standstill -- Despite Washington's Enthusiasm, Recession and New Regulations Slow Firms
• 2009/07/09: BizGreen: New reports debunk wind energy myths
  Two new studies show the grid can cope with wind variability and micro-wind turbines can deliver significant carbon savings
• 2009/07/09: BBC: Study pinpoints UK wind hotspots
• 2009/07/06: PhysOrg: Wind power may have its own environmental problems
• 2009/07/06: TreeHugger: Massive 40 GW Three Gorges of Wind Power Project to Start Construction
• 2009/07/03: BBerg: Wind-Turbine Orders Fell 50% in First Half of 2009, MAKE [Consulting] Says
• 2009/07/06: OilDrum: High altitude wind power: an era of abundance?
• 2009/07/06: WSJ:EnvCap: Wind Power: China's Massive -- and Cheap -- Bet on Wind Farms

  Der Pickens' Plan ist kaput:

• 2009/07/10: OilDrum: Problems for the Pickens' Plan
• 2009/07/08: CNN: Oil baron T. Boone Pickens' wind farm project hits doldrums
  T. Boone Pickens shelves plans for building world's largest wind farm - Pampa Wind Project in Texas Panhandle was to have powered 1.3 million homes - Pickens says transmission issues, capital markets make project unfeasible - In 2008, United States became world's leading provider of wind power
• 2009/07/08: Guardian(UK): Texas tycoon Pickens scraps $10bn windfarm plan
• 2009/07/07: TreeHugger: Pickens Plans For Texas Wind Farm Scaled Way Back

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2009/07/12: HonoluluAdvertiser: Solar program a success, with 50,000 units installed [solar hot water]
• 2009/07/11: TreeHugger: Xerocoat Invisible Coating That Makes Solar Panels 3-5% More Efficient
• 2009/07/11: SciDaily: Inexpensive Solar Cells: Low-cost Solution Processing Method Developed For CIGS-based Solar Cells
• 2009/07/10: SolveClimate: Solar Update: Cheap as Fossil Fuels by 2020 in Most Markets
• 2009/07/06: REA: Solar quickly approaching grid parity
  Solar module prices are falling so fast that solar may be able to cost-effectively compete with fossil fuels within a matter of months. The latest bit of news confirming astounding price drops was from China's LDK Solar. LDK is a producer of the main component of solar modules (wafers). While their second quarter guidance showed a boost in shipments, it also lowered their revenue expectations, translating into a cost per watt of ~$1.
• 2009/07/10: CanWest: Solar panel makers ready for a boom
  Solar panel makers from California to China are gearing up to capture a slice of the growing U. S. market for utility-scale solar power plants, but just a handful of players [First Solar Inc. and SunPower Corp. & Suntech Power Holdings] are expected to snap up most of the business.
• 2009/07/08: CleanTech: Taiwan opens doors to global solar market
• 2009/07/08: SF Gate: S.F. solar power rebate use quadruples in 2008
  The economic recession hasn't stopped eco-conscious San Franciscans from installing solar panels on the rooftops of their homes and businesses - with some financial help from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. In the first year of GoSolarSF, a rebate program that started in July 2008, 850 households, businesses and nonprofits applied to participate in the program. That compares with 200 who installed solar panels during the previous year.
• 2009/07/09: STimes: World's largest solar plant may be built in Cle Elum
  The sunny, Central Washington town of Cle Elum could be the site of the world's largest solar power plant, if Washington company Teanaway Solar Reserve makes good on plans announced today.
• 2009/07/09: PhysOrg: Nanopillars Promise Cheap, Efficient, Flexible Solar Cells
• 2009/07/09: SolveClimate: Another Perk for Desertec [Sahara] Solar Project: 240,000 New German Jobs
• 2009/07/08: KSJT: NYTimes Greenwire: A solar cell cost breakthrough?
• 2009/07/08: NEN: Concentrating PhotoVoltaics [CPV]
  Summary: Concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) technology is a hybrid of 2 familiar solar energy concepts. The most widely recognized and developed concentrating solar energy technologies use mirrors to concentrate the sun's heat, on a solar power plant (SPP) scale. The familiar rooftop solar systems use solar photovoltaic (PV) panels to transform the sun's light into electricity. The hybrid concentrating PV concept uses a small, highly efficient mirror-lens system to concentrate the sun's light on a small, highly efficient PV panel and transform the sun's light into electricity with a very high degree of efficiency. CPV is a new variation that could improve the cost-effectiveness of solar power plants but has yet to prove itself.
• 2009/07/07: TreeHugger: Making Solar Panels Sustainably: Niagara Falls To Power New Solarworks Plant
• 2009/07/07: TreeHugger: Brazil to Build Solar-Powered Charging Stations for Electric Vehicles
• 2009/07/07: Eureka: Low-cost solution processing method developed for CIGS-based solar cells -- The method could provide an answer to a manufacturing issue
• 2009/07/06: SciAm: Hybrid Solar Cells Shine -- Utilities betting more on "concentrating photovoltaic cells"
• 2009/07/07: WSJ:EnvCap: The Shining: Solar Power, Grid Parity, and the Cost of Power
• 2009/07/06: ClimateP: CSP: It's all done with mirrors
• 2009/07/06: TechRev: Nanopillar Solar Cells -- A new solar-cell design could cut costs and is suitable for large-scale flexible panels.
  Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have made a new kind of solar cell by growing an array of upright nanoscale pillars on aluminum foil. They make bendable solar cells by encapsulating the entire cell inside a transparent, rubbery polymer. The design, the researchers suggest, could lead to solar cells that cost less than conventional silicon photovoltaics. [...] The solar cells are made of uniform 500-nanometer-high pillars of cadmium sulfide embedded in a thin film of cadmium telluride. ...the cells have an efficiency of about 6 percent...
• 2009/07/06: TreeHugger: Nanopillar Solar Panels Could Cost 10x Less than Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells
• 2009/07/06: NEN: Solar Consolidation
  Summary: One thing is usually true in recessions and is especially true in this recession: Only the strong survive. In the solar panel manufacturing industry, that means 3 names are likely to emerge from 2009-10 as the dominant players: First Solar Inc and SunPower Corp in the U.S. and Suntech Power Holdings of China.

The arithmetic of coal carbon is striking home:

• 2009/07/11: TreeHugger: Sierra Club Stops 100th Coal Plant
• 2009/07/10: NYT:GW: Los Angeles' 'Coal Free' Vow Scuttles Utah Power-Plant Expansion
• 2009/07/10: TreeHugger: LA Vows to be Coal-Free by 2020 - Can it be Done?
• 2009/07/09: SolveClimate: Sierra Club Chalks Up 100th Victory in Fight to Stop New Coal-Fired Power Plants
• 2009/07/09: KSJT: Reuters, Salt Lake Trib, NYTimes: LA says it won't use coal power, and a new plant planned in Utah gets unplanned
• 2009/07/09: TreeHugger: Coal State Electric Bills Rising 7% To 100% - Even Without Cap & Trade
• 2009/07/08: DeSmogBlog: Valley of Death for Big Coal?
• 2009/07/07: Grist: How much CO2 do our nation's coal and gas plants actually produce?

  And in the clean coal saga:

• 2009/07/06: GreenGrok: Update: Where Is the Coal Ash Waste Going?

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2009/07/07: IR^2: Cello: A Lesson in Due Diligence
• 2009/07/09: EnvFin: Banks slammed for involvement in palm oil fund-raising
• 2009/07/09: CBC: Enviromentalists decry clearcutting to produce biomass fuel
• 2009/07/07: E2T: Cello Energy Leaves 50M-Gallon Gap in Feds' Ethanol Targets
• 2009/07/06: TreeHugger: Rainforest Destroying Palm Oil Hiding in Far More Products Than Previously Thought
• 2009/07/06: EBD: Bankrupt Ethanol Plants for Sale

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2009/07/09: Time: Nuclear-Power Debate Reignites in Germany [ahead of the fall election]
• 2009/07/10: TreeHugger: Just What We Needed: Russia Building Another Floating Nuclear Power Plant
• 2009/07/09: NYT:GreenInc: Russians Plan Floating Nuclear Plants
• 2009/07/08: BBC: Nuclear dawn delayed in Finland
  When it is finished, Finland's Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) nuclear reactor will be the biggest the world has ever seen, the excavation site alone is the size of 55 football fields. It was to have been a pilot project for bigger, better, cleaner, Generation III reactors, which would lead the charge back to nuclear power in a continent which had gone cold on atomic energy after the accidents at Chernobyl and Thee Mile Island. But hopes of an early nuclear dawn on the Baltic coast are fading - the May start up date came and went and the OL3 is now not expected to begin pumping out electricity until 2012 - three years later than planned and about $2.4bn dollars (1.7bn euros) over budget.
• 2009/07/06: ClimateP: France imports UK electricity as summer heatwave puts a third of its nukes out of action

  Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

• 2009/07/12: VoltaireNet: Peak Oil's 1st anniversary -- Richard Heinberg: "We Have Reached The Global Limits To Growth"
• 2009/07/05: FuturePundit: 1999 Oil Production Model [by Richard Duncan & Walter Youngquist] Pretty Accurate So Far
• 2009/07/07: OilDrum: Peak Oil Update - July 2009: Production Forecasts and EIA Oil Production Numbers
• 2009/07/07: BBerg: Repsol Says Global Oil Reserves Will Cover 40 Years of Needs
• 2009/07/06: GulfTimes: Oil reserves 'sufficient for 42 years'
  The world has enough oil reserves for 42 years at current production rates, says a new report The proven global oil reserves of 1,258bn barrels, excluding Canadian oil sands, are enough for 42 years at the 2008 production rates, a BP review said. On the same basis, global gas reserves are sufficient for 60 years and coal 122 years, the 2009 BP Statistical Review of World Energy said.
• 2009/07/06: OilDrum: Encircling the peak of world oil production - an evaluation
• 2009/07/05: EnergyBulletin: The peak oil debate

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2009/07/08: TreeHugger: What Exactly Is A Smart Grid?
• 2009/07/06: APC: Wisconsin wind power progress stalls because of outdated transmission system
• 2009/07/06: SolveClimate: Smart Grid: Digging The Foundations

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2009/07/05: NYT: Incandescent Bulbs Return to the Cutting Edge

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

• 2009/07/11: FuturePundit: A Look At Zero S Electric Motorcycle
• 2009/07/11: AutoBG: True Electric converts Saab 9-3 to electric drive, gets impressive numbers
• 2009/07/10: CNN: Betting big - and small - on electric cars
  Nissan, GM and Ford are wagering in the high-stakes game of electric driving, but it's too soon to tell whose hand will be a winner.
• 2009/07/10: NEN: Plug in vehicle progress tracker
• 2009/07/10: AutoBG: Continental gets innovation prize for its new production lithium battery
• 2009/07/09: AutoBG: Swedish heatwave prompts recall of thousands of flex fuel Volvos
• 2009/07/09: BBC: China car sales continue to soar
  Car sales in China rose 48% in June from a year ago, boosted by government incentives and the continuing resilience of the country's economy. Sales hit 872,900 vehicles last month, the biggest increase since February 2006, said the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Chinese car sales are continuing to benefit from cuts in sales tax, and subsidies to trade in older vehicles.
• 2009/07/08: ClimateP: Ford expects 10% to 25% of fleet to be electric by 2020, Toyota plans up to 30,000 plug-ins in 2012, GM to "do the heavy lifting" to help Obama meet goal of one million plug-ins by 2015.

  Cash-for-Clunkers, aka Scrappage, Plans are being legislated and argued around the world:

• 2009/07/10: PlanetArk: "Cash for Clunkers" Wins Over U.S. Drivers, Dealers
• 2009/07/10: AutoBG: Spain announces electric vehicle rebates of up to 7,000 euros per car

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

• 2009/07/09: MongaBay: Credit Suisse, UBS, BNP Paribas to help finance cutting of rainforests for palm oil, say NGOs
• 2009/07/06: EarthTimes: Global companies urge government leaders to "Let the clean economy begin"
• 2009/07/06: ENN: Let clean economy begin, global companies urge government leaders

  Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:

• 2009/07/09: Guardian(UK): Greenwash: The Responsible Business Awards defy parody
  The self-congratulatory masters of greenwash gathered to applaud one other with an audacity that defies belief

Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:

• 2009/07/09: NYT:CW: The Climate for Climate-Related Insurance at AIG Turns Bleak

  Joe Romm posts a daily list of top energy and climate stories:

• 2009/07/11: ClimateP: Dust-Bowl-ification News for July 11: 'Once-in-a-century' Texas drought stunting crops; Drought twice as likely to lead to mental health problems
• 2009/07/10: ClimateP: Energy and Environmental News for July 10th: L.A.'s "coal free" vow scuttles Utah power-plant expansion; Climate targets around the world
• 2009/07/09: ClimateP: Energy and global warming news for July 9th: Tokyo subway flooring converts commuter footfalls into electricity; Shell demands more CO2 permits for oil refineries
• 2009/07/08: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for July 8th: Low-cost alternative to silicon for solar cells discovered; Major emitters fail to agree on plan to fight climate change
• 2009/07/07: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for July 7th: Power plant sulfur emissions plummet 24% ahead of 2010 regulations; Coral reefs face imminent destruction from climate change
• 2009/07/06: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for July 6th: "The incandescent bulb is turning into a case study of the way government mandates can spur innovation"; seasonal shifts starving millions of the world's poorest

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2009/07/11: GreenFyre: Climate Denier Crock Catch Up
• 2009/07/09: JEB: More Exxon shenanigans
• 2009/07/07: GreenFyre: Carlin Lives! Funnier than ever
• 2009/07/07: PRWatch: Skeptic Overboard [Marohasy]
• 2009/07/08: Reuters: Shell says U.S. oil refiners need more CO2 permits
• 2009/07/09: Grist: Energy industry sways Congress with misleading data
• 2009/07/10: Grist: Deliberate misinformation: Making saving money sound bad
• 2009/07/10: DeSmogBlog: George Monbiot's Troll Problem (and Ours)
• 2009/07/10: DeSmogBlog: Global Warming Deniers Part Ways: Australian Institute of Public Affairs Says Goodbye to Jennifer Marohasy
• 2009/07/10: Guardian(UK): Just a load of hot air
  A book denying that climate change is man-made has been greeted with derision by experts. So why, wonders George Monbiot, has the Spectator swallowed the line so enthusiastically?
• 2009/07/09: ClimateP: Lomborg's main argument has collapsed
• 2009/07/09: Grist: Jeb Bush still skeptical about climate change
• 2009/07/09: RealClimate: Monbiot on Plimer
• 2009/07/08: Guardian(UK): Climate denial 'astroturfers' should stop hiding behind pseudonyms online
  To stop oil, coal and electricity companies inserting their views into the media by stealth, we need to make blog commenters accountable
• 2009/07/08: MoD: The self-contradictions of Marc Morano
• 2009/07/07: ClimateP: Must-read NOAA paper smacks down the deniers: Q: "Is there any question that surface temperatures in the United States have been rising rapidly during the last 50 years?" A: "None at all."
• 2009/07/08: ClimateP: U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- or Echo Chamber of Horrors?
• 2009/07/07: AFTIC: Breaking news from Marc Morano
• 2009/07/07: ERabett: The best of the worst
• 2009/07/04: CChange: ExxonMobil continuing to fund climate sceptic groups - Commentary
  [...] Now that we all know so much, climate-change denialism is tantamount to something worse than Holocaust Denial. Can someone please suggest a good label for being an enemy of all life?
• 2009/07/07: NatureN: Beyond petroleum? BP's chief chemist talks about balancing the company's commitment to renewable energies with profit
• 2009/07/07: Deltoid: Just how bad is Chilingar's latest paper?
• 2009/07/07: RealClimate: Science at the bleating edge
• 2009/07/06: MoD: Did the EPA really silence a dissenting report on global warming?
• 2009/07/07: TWM: Logic only Inhofe could love...
• 2009/07/05: RealityCheck: [F.S.] Singer Resigns from Environmental Geology Board
• 2009/07/05: MoD: The folly of believing in a warming conspiracy
• 2009/07/: SF Gate:HRheingold: Crap Detection 101

  I expect this will become a denier talking point:

• 2009/07/07: CBC: Polar bear expert barred from meeting over climate views

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2009/07/09: ERabett: Eli Rabett's Simple Plan to Save the World (Part II)
• 2009/07/10: Maribo: The challenge of agreeing on degrees
• 2009/07/11: HotTopic: A deep sigh of relief...
• 2009/07/10: BSD: Reasons to adopt climate-obstructing blogs
• 2009/07/09: NatureCF: Time to shift gears on climate policy? Maybe not.
• 2009/07/09: CommonTragedies: Desalination and Climate Change
• 2009/07/09: TP:WonkRoom: 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger': Climate Activism, Daft Punk Style
• 2009/07/07: ERabett: Winter at Summit Camp
• 2009/07/07: ERabett: Say it ain't so Rudy
• 2009/07/08: GWWatch: Climate changlings news
• 2009/07/08: SolveClimate: Greenpeace Activists Take Over 4 Power Plants in G8 Protest
• 2009/07/07: OpenLeft: The Progressive Failure to Engage the Grassroots on Climate Change
• 2009/07/02: ZNet: Politics-as-Usual While the Planet Burns
• 2009/07/07: EnergyBulletin: Imagining the impossible
• 2009/07/07: NatureCF: Climate equity with an economic twist
• 2009/07/07: DotEarth: More Ideas for Breaking the Climate Deadlock
• 2009/07/07: UncommonGround: Climate policy
• 2009/07/06: KSJT: Eco Grab Bag: Stories of green innovation and enterprise
• 2009/07/06: RealClimate: Science at the bleeding edge
• 2009/07/06: OilChange: Can politicians really tackle the greatest peril to humanity?
• 2009/07/08: Tamino: Vapor Lock

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

• ZCC: Zero Carbon Canada
• NCHMF(Vn): Vietnamese National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting
• CMA: China Meteorological Administration
• PMIP: Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project
• CT: Clean Tech News
• Plug-In Vehicle Tracker: What's Coming, When
• IPCC Fourth Assessment Report - Working Group III Report "Mitigation of Climate Change"
• IPCC Fourth Assessment Report - Working Group II Report "Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability"
• IPCC Fourth Assessment Report - Working Group I Report "The Physical Science Basis"
• Wiki: North Atlantic oscillation
• SolveClimate - Chronicle for a New America
• Common Tragedies - Thoughts on Environmental Economics

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.

"We must work according to the science. This is politically and morally imperative and a historic responsibility for the leaders for the future of humanity, even for the future of planet Earth." -UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

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