Another Week of GW News, August 2, 2009

Sipping from the internet firehose...

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Sipping from the internet firehose...

August 2, 2009

• McKinsey Report, WPO Poll, Nile Basin Conf., G2 Conf., Bonner & Assoc., Cash4Clunkers, Dire Projections
• Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics, Xcel Perversity, Bangladesh conf., Jellyfish, Late Comments
• Food Crisis, Food Production
• Hurricanes, Monsoon, GHGs, Temperatures, Paleoclimate, ENSO, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Climate Refugees, Desertification, Wacky Weather, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts
• Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering
• Journals, Misc. Science, Svensmark, McLean, Pielke
• Kyoto-2, UN, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
• Politics:Security, Law & Activism, America, Obama, Britain, Europe, Australia, India, China, Asia, Russia, Canada
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Video, Courts
• Energy, Price of Oil, Wind, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Grid, Cars, Business, Greenwashing, Insurance
• Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

As they are wont to do, McKinsey dropped a startling report into the US climate/energy wrangle:

• 2009/07/30: EnvFin: Energy efficiency offers $680 billion boost to US economy -- McKinsey
• 2009/07/30: WorldChanging: Energy Efficiency Gains in U.S. Could Cut Sharply Energy Use, Study Says
• 2009/07/30: PlanetArk: Energy Efficiency Could Save U.S. $600 Billion
• 2009/07/29: NYT:GreenInc: McKinsey Report Cites $1.2 Trillion in Potential Savings From Energy Efficiency
• 2009/07/29: NYT: Efficiency Drive Could Cut Energy Use 23% by 2020, [McKinsey] Study Finds
  The biggest opportunity to improve the nation's energy situation is a major investment program to make homes and businesses more efficient, according to a study released Wednesday by the consulting firm McKinsey. An investment of $520 billion in improvements like sealing ducts and replacing inefficient appliances could produce $1.2 trillion in savings on energy bills through 2020, the study found. The report said such a program, if carried out over the next decade, could cut the country's projected energy use in 2020 by about 23 percent, a savings that would be "greater than the total of energy consumption of Canada," Ken Ostrowski, a senior partner in McKinsey's Atlanta office, said at a forum in Washington on Wednesday. It would also more than offset the growth in energy use that would be expected otherwise.
• 2009/07/29: ClimateP: McKinsey must-read: U.S. can meet entire 2020 emissions target with efficiency and cogeneration while lowering the nation's energy bill $700 billion!
• 2009/07/29: WSJ:EnvCap: Get Smart: McKinsey Tallies $700 Billion Gain from Energy Efficiency

  World Public Opinion did a 40 nation poll on climate change:

• 2009/07/29: WPO: Publics Want More Government Action on Climate Change: Global Poll
• 2009/07/31: DeSmogBlog: World Public Opinion Urges Action on Climate Change
• 2009/07/30: SolveClimate: Poll: US Trails Just About Everyone In Prioritizing Climate Change [WPO]
• 2009/07/30: Guardian(UK): Global poll finds 73% want higher priority for climate change
• 2009/07/29: Grist: Citizens want their leaders to make climate a higher priority, new [WPO] poll finds
• 2009/07/30: DeSmogBlog: Americans, Iraqis, Palestinians Biggest Yawners on Climate Change
• 2009/07/29: Guardian(UK): Which countries believe in climate change? A new poll shows different attitudes to climate change around the globe

  The Nile Basin countries had a conference on water:

• 2009/07/30: TerraDaily: Egypt blocks Nile water deal
• 2009/07/28: TerraDaily: Nile countries delay water sharing pact for six months
  Water ministers from Nile Basin countries on Tuesday delayed signing a water-sharing pact already rejected by Egypt and Sudan, who oppose any reduction in their traditional quotas. Ministers from nine Nile Basin countries and Eritrea, which had observer status at the four-day meeting held in the Egyptian Mediterranean city of Alexandria, put off finalising the treaty for six months.
• 2009/07/29: EarthTimes: Nile Basin countries outline 1.4 billion dollars in joint projects
  Water resource ministers from countries in the Nile River Basin on Wednesday outlined 24 joint projects worth 1.4 billion dollars at the close of a four-day meeting in Egypt. Egypt's Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohammed Nasr al-Din Allam told the official Middle East News Agency that the projects would seek to use water from the Nile more efficiently for agriculture and reduce wastage by 95 per cent.
• 2009/07/28: PlanetArk: Egypt says historic Nile River rights not negotiable

  The US & China, aka G2, had a confab in Washington. Everyone smiled for the cameras:

• 2009/07/28: DotEarth: China and U.S. Pledge Climate Teamwork
• 2009/07/28: Reuters: U.S. and China sign memorandum on climate change
• 2009/07/29: LA Times: U.S., China end talks with smiles but no progress on climate change
  President Obama is pushing for an agreement by December, but China resists committing to limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Chinese officials also express deep concern over the U.S. budget deficit.
• 2009/07/29: BBerg: China, U.S. Renew Commitment on Global Climate Change Treaty
• 2009/07/28: PlanetArk: Factbox - Comparison of US, China climate efforts
• 2009/07/27: TerraDaily: US, China upbeat on climate treaty: US envoy
• 2009/07/27: Grist: Obama tells China the "ravages of climate change" demand cooperation
• 2009/07/26: Google:AFP: US, China set for top-level 'dialogue'
• 2009/07/27: WSJ:EnvCap: Obama: Cooperation with China Key to Avoid 'Ravages' of Climate Change
• 2009/07/27: LA Times: U.S.-China talks to focus on global economy, environmental policy
  The meeting is likely to highlight Beijing's unease about its U.S. bond holdings, Washington's desire to reduce China's reliance on exports and the need to reach consensus on tackling climate change.

It looks like these shenanigans could blow up into a scandal:

• 2009/07/31: Wonkette: Lobbyists Now Writing Fake Letters To Congressmen From Blacks And Mexicans, Telling Them Not To Vote For Things
• 2009/08/01: ClimateP: DC lobbying firm forged anti-Waxman-Markey letters from minority groups to Rep. Perriello (D-VA) -- former employee says firm "Just got caught this time"
• 2009/08/01: CDP: Investigation into forged letters planned
• 2009/07/31: TreeHugger: Forged Letters Urging Opposition to Climate Bill Sent to Virginia Congressman by Lobbyists
• 2009/08/01: NYT: Letters on Climate Bill Were Forged
• 2009/07/31: GreenFyre: Climate lying and fraud moves from science to politics
• 2009/07/31: CDP: Forged letters to congressman anger local groups
• 2009/07/31: TAP: Lobbyist Hardball on Cap-and-Trade: Forging Letters from the NAACP
• 2009/07/31: TPMM: Lobby Firm Sent Forged Climate Change Letter To Congressman
• 2009/07/31: TPMM: Bonner Responds: Forged Letters Were Sent By "Temporary Employee"
• 2009/07/31: TPMM: Congress To Probe Forged Climate Change Letters
• 2009/07/31: TPMM: Former Employee: Bonner "Just Got Caught This Time"
• 2009/07/31: TP: NAACP-Forgery Group, Bonner & Associates, Has A Decades-Long History Of Astroturf Tactics
• 2009/07/31: Grist: Lobby firm forges anti-climate-bill letters from Hispanic group and NAACP
• 2009/07/31: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Sleazy tactics and dirty money pollute the climate debate
• 2009/07/31: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Climate Bill Scams: Exposing Bonner's Blame-the-Temp Forgery Lie
• 2009/07/31: NRDC:SwitchBoard: NAACP Condemns Bonner's Dirty Tricks
• 2009/07/31: DailyKos: Forgeries to Distort Climate Change Debate?
• 2009/07/31: MTobis: John Kerry: Fraudulent Letters Advocate Delay
• 2009/07/31: WSJ:EnvCap: Fake Out: Forged Letters Urged Congressman to Vote Against Climate Bill
• 2009/07/31: SolveClimate: Congressman Received At least 6 Forged Letters Claiming Local Groups Oppose ACES

  As happened in Germany, the American Cash for Clunkers program demonstrated nothing succeeds like excess:

• 2009/08/02: OilDrum: Sacred Cows for Clunkers?
• 2009/08/02: AutoBG: Cash for Clunkers "Back on the Road," but is it for real?
• 2009/07/31: CNN: Dealers warned off Cash for Clunkers -- Auto dealers' association advises members to play it safe and avoid Cash for Clunkers deals this weekend
• 2009/07/31: AutoBG: Report: House approves $2 billion more for Cash for Clunkers, Senate votes next week
• 2009/07/31: MiamiHerald: Cash for clunkers' future has buyers, car dealers confused
• 2009/07/31: CalcRisk: More Cash for More Clunkers
• 2009/07/31: Guardian(UK): US 'cash for clunkers' scheme extended after $1bn runs out
• 2009/07/31: TreeHugger: Cash For Clunkers Breaks Its Bank in Less Than One Week (UPDATED)
• 2009/07/31: OilDrum: "Cash for Clunkers" Retrospective
• 2009/07/31: WSJ:EnvCap: Cash for Cash for Clunkers: Will That Mean Tougher Environmental Rules, Too?
• 2009/07/31: AutoBG: Cash For Clunkers good through today, at least; White House looking for $2b more for CARS
• 2009/07/31: BBerg: Auto 'Clunkers' Offer in Doubt After Going Through $1 Billion
• 2009/07/31: TP:WR: House GOP: 'Cash For Clunkers' Is Wildly Popular, Proving That Government 'Can't Run' Programs
• 2009/07/31: BBC: The US House of Representatives has approved an extra $2bn of funding for the Car Allowance Rebate System
• 2009/07/31: CBC: 'Cash for clunkers' sells out in 1 week
• 2009/07/30: KC: House approves $2B more for 'cash for clunkers'
• 2009/07/30: CalcRisk: Auto: Cash-for-Clunkers to be Suspended
• 2009/07/30: Freep: Cash-for-clunkers program may be suspended
• 2009/07/29: AutoBG: Where the fiasco is at today, a Cash for Clunkers update
• 2009/07/30: AutoBG: Report: 9 of Top 10 clunkers being traded in are large trucks

  Yes we have dire predictions:

• 2009/08/02: Scotsman: Scientists claim planet is heading for 'irreversible' climate change by 2040
• 2009/07/31: ABC(Au): Current emissions targets won't stop climate change: ANU
  Australian National University (ANU) research shows current international carbon emissions targets will not rein in climate change at the levels that countries are predicting.
• 2009/07/29: CCP: Sharon Begley, Newsweek: Climate-change calculus -- Why it's even worse than we feared
• 2009/07/28: CCurrents: World Will Warm Faster Than Predicted In Next Five Years
• 2009/07/28: ClimateP: Another major study predicts rapid warming over next few years -- nearly 0.3°F by 2014
• 2009/07/28: TreeHugger: Next Five Years Will Warm Faster Than Predicted, Scientists Say
• 2009/07/27: Guardian(UK): World will warm faster than predicted in next five years, study warns

  The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:

• 2009/07/31: WorldChanging: Arctic Tundra Undergoing Major Changes As it Warms, Studies Show
• 2009/07/31: OBM: Urban Heat Island Effect is Ruining the Arctic
• 2009/07/31: DailyMail: In pictures: How global warming is changing the face of the northern hemisphere
• 2009/07/29: DotEarth: Views on an Opening Arctic Ocean
• 2009/07/29: CCP: Subglacial hydrology, basal lubrification, glacier acceleration
• 2009/07/27: ERW: Study examines feedback mechanism that may be hastening Greenland ice-sheet melt
• 2009/07/28: CCP: Asa Rennermalm: Study examines feedback mechanism thatmay be hastening Greenland ice-sheet melt
• 2009/07/28: TStar: Arctic's 'canary in a coal mine'
• 2009/07/27: CCP: Jakobshavn Glacier's floating tongue breaking up...

  Oh look, there's that spectral Damoclean sword again:

• 2009/07/29: Reuters: Arctic tundra hotter, boosts global warming: expert
• 2009/07/29: Yahoo: Sub-Arctic timebomb: warming speeds CO2 release from soil
• 2009/07/31: PlanetArk: Arctic Tundra Hotter, Boosts Global Warming: Expert
• 2009/07/29: Google:AFP: Sub-Arctic timebomb: warming speeds CO2 release from soil
• 2009/07/30: CanWest: Arctic tundra hotter, boosting global warming: B.C. expert
  Regions of Arctic tundra around the world are heating up very rapidly, releasing more greenhouse gases than predicted and boosting the process of global warming, a leading expert said on Wednesday. Professor Greg Henry of the University of British Columbia also said higher temperatures meant larger plants were starting to spread across the tundra, which is usually covered by small shrubs, grasses and lichen. The thicker plant cover means the region is getting darker and absorbing more heat.
• 2009/07/27: Guardian(UK): US satellites reveal true extent of melting polar ice (4 pictures)

  As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

• 2009/07/29: NYT:CW: U.S. Pushes for Law of the Sea Ratification as New Arctic Mapping Project Begins
  The Obama administration is in talks with the Senate to craft a plan to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, a top State Department official said yesterday. [...] The Law of the Sea, which took effect in 1994, governs navigation rights and addresses species protection and other environmental issues. But as the Arctic has warmed and demand has grown for oil and gas, the aspect of the treaty that has received the most attention is language that allows member nations to apply to extract oil, gas and mineral deposits beyond a 200-mile exclusive economic zone. The requisite is that a country show that its continental slope extends beyond that point. The treaty provision has inspired an Arctic land grab, with Russia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and other countries racing to snap up portions of a seabed that the U.S. Geological Survey estimates holds 13 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and 30 percent of its undiscovered natural gas.
• 2009/07/29: CanWest: Arctic mapping uncovers fissures in U.S., Canadian land claims -- United effort could lead to new conflicts over rich seabed
• 2009/07/29: SlashDot: Northern Sea Route Through Arctic Becomes a Reality [NE Passage]
• 2009/07/28: DotEarth: Era of Trans-Arctic Shipping Nigh
• 2009/07/29: G&M: Battle for the Arctic -- Icebreakers to map uncharted waters
• 2009/07/29: CBC: Arctic seabed mapping renewed
• 2009/07/27: ChronicleHerald: Danish military plans raise fears of northern conflict

  Here is a curious bit of perversity:

• 2009/07/31: FC: Solar Users Are Freeloaders, Says Xcel Energy
• 2009/07/30: WSJ:EnvCap: Xcel to Solar Users: Pay Up!
  It feels awfully virtuous to put photovoltaic panels on the roof and watch the electricity meter run backwards. But Xcel Energy is warning solar customers in Colorado not to be quite so smug. After all, their systems only work because they're connected to the same creaky power grid that the rest of us rely on. That infrastructure is pricey to maintain. And Xcel believes that solar customers aren't paying their fair share. So Xcel has asked state regulators for permission to impose a new fee on all customers who install solar systems after April 2010. The fee would be pegged to the home's peak electricity consumption.

The Bangladesh meeting of Asian nations barely received a whisper:

• 2009/07/27: EarthTimes: Poor nations meet in Bangladesh to seek common climate strategy

  Here's one of those reports I would like to see replicated:

• 2009/07/30: TreeHugger: Jellyfish Changing the Ocean's Temperature...by Stirring It??

  Late comment on the cloud feedback story:

• 2009/07/28: TWTB: Provisional evidence for positive cloud feedback
• 2009/07/27: GreenGrok: We Don't Know Clouds After All

  Late coverage of carbon tariffs:

• 2009/07/30: Reuters: Are Carbon Tariffs a Good Idea?
• 2009/07/28: EurActiv: Carbon tariffs falling out of favour as trade war looms
  A majority of European countries are reluctant to pick up on current debates in France and the United States about carbon tariffs designed to fend off competition from countries which have not committed to reducing emissions, for fear of triggering a green trade war
• 2009/07/28: ENN: European Nations Wary on Environmental Protectionism

  The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2009/07/31: FAO: FAO initiates debate on declaration for World Summit on Food Security -- Calls for eradication of hunger by 2025 and for more investment in agriculture
• 2009/07/30: FAO: Saudi Arabia to fund FAO World Food Security Summit -- November meeting to discuss eradication of hunger
• 2009/07/30: DerSpiegel: The New Colonialism -- Foreign Investors Snap Up African Farmland
  Governments and investment funds are buying up farmland in Africa and Asia to grow food -- a profitable business, with a growing global population and rapidly rising prices. The high-stakes game of real-life Monopoly is leading to a modern colonialism to which many poor countries submit out of necessity.
• 2009/07/31: TreeHugger: The Oil Intensity Of Food
• 2009/07/31: BBC: Report highlights hunger in India
  India is emerging as the world centre of hunger and malnutrition, a report by Indian campaign group, the Navdanya Trust, says. The trust says that there are more than 200 million people - or one-in-four Indians - going without enough to eat. The prominent environmentalist Vandana Shiva, who runs the trust, said there were now more hungry people in India than in sub-Saharan Africa.
• 2009/07/30: UN: Budget shortfall threatens UN's ability to feed millions worldwide
• 2009/07/30: PlanetArk: World Falling Short On Emergency Food Aid: U.N. Body
• 2009/07/27: PhysOrg: Late-blight fungus ruining crops in 13 states
  A fungus that caused the infamous 1840s Irish potato famine has hit this summer's commercial and homegrown tomato crop in 13 states, putting farmers and agricultural experts on edge. "It's a big threat," said Andy Wyenandt, an assistant extension specialist at Rutgers University. "This could have a real impact on commercial growers." The fungus, phytophthora infestans, causes a late blight that quickly kills affected plants. Its spores can spread easily on the wind from one homeowner's garden to the next and on to commercial fields.

And how are we going to feed 9 billion?

• 2009/07/31: EnergyBulletin: Good Farming Was More Advanced A Hundred Years Ago
• 2009/07/30: Eureka: Afghanistan prepares itself to resist deadly plant plague that threatens food security in region
  Scientists report successes in overcoming a virulent form of stem rust; call for speed in scaling up systems for multiplying, distributing rust-resistant seeds to farmers
• 2009/07/27: EconView: Update to "A Breakthrough in the Fight against Hunger"
• 2009/07/26: EconView: "A Breakthrough in the Fight against Hunger" [Jeff Sachs on G-8's $20bn initiative on smallholder agriculture]
• 2009/07/27: OilDrum: Peak Oil And World Food Supplies

  Lana stalked unreported across the NE Pacific, but it was otherwise quiet:

• 2009/07/31: Wunderground: August hurricane outlook
• 2009/07/29: TPMCafe: How New Orleans Copes
• 2009/07/29: Wunderground: Late-starting hurricane seasons
• 2009/07/27: WorldChanging: How Local Rebuilding Efforts are Working in New Orleans

  And in the Monsoon:

• 2009/07/31: BBC: Uncertainties surround future monsoons
  It is almost halfway through the rainy season, and the monsoon in many parts of South Asia continues to remain unreliable. In some places it has been crippling weak, while in others it has been devastatingly intense. There are places reeling from drought, yet at the same time there are areas that have been hit by torrential rains, triggering floods and landslides in a very short span of time. This has made the lives of millions of people difficult and has left them increasingly worried for the future. Very little of the arable land is irrigated, and local populations depend on monsoon rainfall for agriculture.
• 2009/07/28: TerraDaily: Bangladeshi capital flooded by record July monsoon
  Rickshaws and cars ploughed through waist-high water in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka on Tuesday as the city received its biggest rainfall in a single July day for 60 years. In the six hours after 01:00 am (1800 GMT Monday), 290 millimetres (11.42 inches) of rain fell, according to officials. "It's the highest single day of rain in July since 1949," said Dhaka meteorologist Ayesha Khatun, adding that more downpours were forecast.

As for GHGs:

• 2009/07/31: PhysOrg: Methods for monitoring CO2 emissions have limitations, inadequate for international climate treaty
• 2009/07/31: Eureka: Methods for monitoring CO2 emissions have limitations, inadequate for international climate treaty
• 2009/07/31: WSJ:EnvCap:Scientists to NASA: We Need A Reliable Way to Track Global Emissions
• 2009/07/30: NatureCF: Warming speeds carbon release from peat
• 2009/07/28: CommonTragedies: Solving one type of knowledge problem [GHGs]
• 2009/07/28: Guardian(UK): China's three biggest power firms emit more carbon than Britain, says report
• 2009/07/27: NRDC:SwitchBoard: A Super Solution for Super Greenhouse Gases [use Montreal Protocol on HFCs]

  And the temperature record:

• 2009/08/01: MTobis: Hottest Month Ever in Austin TX
• 2009/07/28: Maribo: The link between heat waves and global warming
• 2009/07/28: AFTIC: So when will we get a new temperature record?
• 2009/07/28: CCP: Rising ocean temperatures near worst-case IPCC 2007 predictions

  While in the paleoclimate:

• 2009/08/01: SciDaily: Middle Miocene Oxygen Minimum Zone Expansion Offshore West Africa: Evidence For Global Cooling Precursor Events [14-16 mya]
• 2009/07/29: Eureka: Scientists discover Amazon river is 11 million years old
• 2009/07/28: SciDaily: Major Arctic Sea-ice Formed Earlier Than Thought [46 mya]
• 2009/07/27: KSJT: Honolulu Star-Bulletin : The local man who found the confusing heat and CO2 signals from the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum

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

• 2009/07/27: MTobis: Hope for Texas: Moderate to Large El Nino

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2009/07/29: BBC: Bolivia's Indians feel the heat -- Mount Illimani glaciers

  Sea levels are rising:

• 2009/07/30: SolveClimate: International Opportunism Thwarting Rescue of Island Nations from Rising Seas
• 2009/07/28: NatureCF: Sea level rise: not so fast
• 2009/07/27: Yahoo: Climate change: New study backs UN panel on ocean rise
• 2009/07/27: TheAge: Climate change 'threatens' Pacific isles
• 2009/07/26: Eureka: New predictions for sea level rise

  Meanwhile in earth orbit:

• 2009/07/29: Eureka: NASA and NOAA'S GOES-14 satellite takes first full disk image

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2009/08/02: SciDaily: Climate Change: Animals Need Time To Adapt To New Habitats And Survive
• 2009/08/02: HotTopic: Saving island lives
• 2009/07/31: KSJT: LA Times: Warmer weather may have helped the Inca make an empire. But careful what you call the change in the weather...
• 2009/07/31: PhysOrg: Rodent size linked to human population and climate change
• 2009/07/30: ABC(Au): Alps face snow loss threat: research
  A researcher is predicting a 96 per cent decrease in the amount of snow in Victoria's alpine areas, in 60 years. Associate Professor Catherine Pickering says the alpine region is one of Australia's areas most threatened by climate change.
• 2009/07/30: ABC(Au): Concern over vanishing snow
  An alpine ecologist [National Parks and Wildlife Service scientist, Ken Green] says a long term-decline in the amount of snow in the New South Wales Snowy Mountains has seen the disappearance of year-round snow patches.
• 2009/07/29: CoralCOE: Humans "damaging the oceans"
• 2009/07/29: StLToday: Climate change may have big impact on Missouri, the Midwest
  If greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase at current rates over the next few decades, St. Louis could face heat waves every other year like the one that killed hundreds of people in Chicago in 1995, according to a climate-change analysis released Tuesday. The report, conducted for the Union of Concerned Scientists, paints a gloomy outlook for the state of Missouri, one of four Midwestern states the group analyzed.
• 2009/07/27: Oxfam(Au): The future is here: new report on climate change in the Pacific highlights need for action now
• 2009/07/27: PhysOrg: Warmer environment means shorter lives for cold-blooded animals
• 2009/07/27: NewScientist: Hotter weather fed growth of Incan empire
• 2009/07/26: PhysOrg: Global warming may impede eelgrass growth

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2009/07/29: USGS: Large Trees Declining in Yosemite
• 2009/07/31: NatureTGB: A fly in the forest-saving ointment - July 30, 2009
  Proposals for compensating developing countries for curbing deforestation via the international carbon market risk neglecting biodiversity hotspots, two leading scientific organizations jointly declared today. The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) and the Society for Tropical Ecology (GTÃ), which met this week in Marburg, Germany, issued "The Marburg Declaration", highlighting "the urgent need to maximize biodiversity conservation in forest carbon-trading". Deforestation gives a serious one-two punch to the climate: not only does it negate the carbon dioxide trees take in from the atmosphere, but it also releases stored carbon when trees are burned or chopped down and left to rot.
• 2009/07/29: NatureN: Deforestation emissions on the rise -- Amazon study suggests denser forest yields will mean more carbon release
• 2009/07/29: PhysOrg: Large trees declining in Yosemite
• 2009/07/27: DotEarth: Can Roads and Rain Forests Co-Exist?
• 2009/07/27: HotTopic: Tall trees

  Climate refugees are becoming an issue:

• 2009/07/30: SolveClimate: International Opportunism Thwarting Rescue of Island Nations from Rising Seas
• 2009/07/29: TheAge: First climate refugees start move to new island home -- Carteret Island climate change refugees to Bougainville
• 2009/07/27: ABC(Au): A new report says climate change could produce 75 million refugees in the Asia Pacific region in the next 40 years
• 2009/07/27: EarthTimes: Climate report warns of 75 million Asia-Pacific refugees

  Desertification looms as a threat:

• 2009/07/30: DM:80B: Is the Fertile Crescent Turning Into a Dust Bowl?
• 2009/07/30: LA Times: Iraq in throes of environmental catastrophe, experts say
  Now-frequent dust storms are just one sign of the man-made damage that has taken the country from Middle East breadbasket to dust bowl, they say.
• 2009/07/27: NewScientist: Fertile Crescent 'will disappear this century'

  Yes we have no wacky weather, except:

• 2009/08/01: CBC: Camrose, Alta., stage collapse leaves 1 dead, 15 injured

  We have heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2009/08/02: BBC: Fires rage across Canary island
  A huge forest fire is out of control on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, forcing the evacuation of up to 4,000 people, including tourists.
• 2009/07/27: FAO: The wildland fire problem -- An integrated approach to reduce fire losses
• 2009/08/01: EarthTimes: 4,000 evacuated as forest fire sweeps across La Palma in Canaries
• 2009/08/01: CBC: Lillooet wildfire less than 1 kilometre from town -- Premier issues B.C. backcountry warning
• 2009/07/31: CBC: B.C. facing extreme fire danger, premier warns -- Evacuation alert issued to thousand of Lillooet residents
• 2009/07/31: CBC: Lightning sparks 21 wildfires in dry Yukon
• 2009/07/30: ClimateP: Climate change expected to sharply increase Western wildfire burn area -- as much as 175% by the 2050s
• 2009/07/30: NewScientist: Alaska's biggest tundra fire sparks climate warning
• 2009/07/30: CBC: Dozens of fires burn B.C. forests
• 2009/07/29: KSJT: Western US press: This year's SW wildfire season could be wild
• 2009/07/29: TreeHugger: Frightening Forecast for US: Hot, Dry, and 3.66 Million Acres Will Burn Over Next 6 Months
• 2009/07/29: TreeHugger: Increasing Temps Will Burn Up the Western US - Rocky Mountain Forest Fires Could Nearly Triple by 2050
• 2009/07/29: EarthTimes: Spanish wildfires claim another fatality
• 2009/07/28: Eureka: Scientists expect wildfires to increase as climate warms in the coming decades
• 2009/07/28: CBC: B.C. heat wave gets worse
• 2009/07/28: PhysOrg: Wildfires set to increase 50 percent by 2050
• 2009/07/27: ULeeds: Wildfires set to increase 50% by 2050
• 2009/07/27: NYT:GW: Researchers Project Intense Fire Season in the West
• 2009/07/26: TerraDaily: Mediterranean rim battles to contain wildfires
• 2009/07/27: EarthTimes: Wildfires prompt more evacuations in Spain
• 2009/07/27: CBC: Lillooet fire burning uncontrolled
  A 1,000-hectare wildfire burning out of control within sight of Lillooet in the southwest of B.C. has forced the evacuation of two homes. Fire officials said there are 13 helicopters and 57 firefighters working to extinguish the Mount McLean fire northeast of Seton Lake, but the blaze was completely uncontained on Monday morning.

As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

• 2009/08/02: EarthTimes: Floods leave thousands homeless in eastern India
• 2009/08/01: TreeHugger: Black Sea Floods a Not-So-Natural Disaster
• 2009/08/01: BBC: Praying for rain -- Starvation looms for farmers in eastern India
• 2009/07/31: TerraDaily: Heavy rains flood Shanghai: state media
• 2009/07/30: TerraDaily: Torrential rain in China kills 66 since June
• 2009/07/30: ENN: Rich Nations Vulnerable to Water Disasters
• 2009/07/29: CBC: Ottawa flooding leaves residents frustrated
  Many streets in Ottawa's west end were still lined with debris Wednesday after heavy rain over the weekend forced residents to clear out their flooded basements. Dundegan Drive in Kanata was one of the heaviest hit in the flooding, which has residents working side by side as they clean up both their basements and their neighbourhood. Steve Robinson, who grew up on Dundegan Drive, said he spent this week helping his parents and brother clean up the mess in their respective homes. "All they keep saying is 100-year storm, 100-year storm," Robinson said, saying that many residents are dealing with the damage without much help from the city.
• 2009/07/26: IslandPacket: Where will Beaufort County get its water over the next 50 years?
  With persistent drought and neighboring states threatening the supply of local water sources, the Beaufort-Jasper Water & Sewer Authority is assessing how it will provide water service over the next 50 years. The authority began the project about a year ago because the Savannah River basin has been in a drought for 10 years, said general manager Dean Moss. Water levels of three South Carolina reservoirs, intended to replenish depleting supplies, have dropped each year. Last year, levels in Hartwell, Russell and Thurmond lakes nearly reached bottom, something that hasn't happened since they were built in 1954, Moss said. Beaufort and Jasper counties depend on the Savannah River as a primary source of drinking water. So do others.
• 2009/07/28: Guardian(UK): Colorado river running on empty by 2050
• 2009/07/28: PlanetArk: Water crisis uproots Syrian farmers
• 2009/07/27: TerraDaily: Death toll in torrential rain in China rises to 38: state media
• 2009/07/28: Yahoo: Bangladesh capital sees biggest rain in 53 years
  The heaviest rain in 53 years battered Bangladesh's capital Tuesday, leaving at least six people dead and stranding thousands in their swamped homes. The national weather office said 13 inches (33.3 centimeters) of rain fell in 12 hours in Dhaka, an overcrowded city of about 10 million people -- the most in a single day since 1956.
• 2009/07/28: EarthTimes: 11 killed as torrential rains cripple Delhi
• 2009/07/27: EarthTimes: Flash floods kill at least 22 in China's Sichuan province
• 2009/07/27: NewScientist: Fertile Crescent 'will disappear this century' [water]

  On the mitigation front, consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2009/08/02: Guardian(UK): Don't let the defeatists and cynics talk down Britain's need for speed [high-speed rail]
• 2009/07/31: BBC: British Airways makes £148m loss
• 2009/07/29: CanWest: Part One -- A decade of debate chugs on
  A new debate is emerging among Canadians about whether high-speed passenger trains are the answer to rising oil prices, traffic congestion, airport delays and environmental concerns. Governments currently running massive deficits will have to decide whether a multibillion-dollar investment of public money in passenger trains that top 300 km/h - and their supporting infrastructure - can become either a silver bullet or a white elephant for the most heavily populated regions of the country.
• 2009/07/30: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Transit Wins Big in New California Poll!
• 2009/07/28: BRitholtz: Which Are the Credible Industry Trade Groups? [tonnage graph 2005-2009]
• 2009/07/27: CalcRisk: Truck Tonnage Index Declined 2.4 Percent in June
• 2009/07/27: PlanetArk: Electric Bicycles Ride Green Demand In Japan

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

• 2009/07/29: Grist: The amazing promise and many challenges of passivhaus construction
• 2009/07/29: PhysOrg: Going net zero -- for effect; special home will produce as much energy as it uses
  Michael Yannell's ComEd bill is almost surely less than yours. Yannell, 44, lives in a new Chicago home that is designed to be net zero energy, which means it will produce as much energy than it consumes -- or more. The $1.6 million, 2,675-square-foot house is the first of its kind in Chicago
• 2009/07/27: Reuters: Report: Why We Need the Climate Bill's Building Code

  As for carbon sequestration:

• 2009/08/: Spectrum: Where Europe Buries Carbon -- Europe leads the way in carbon capture and storage
• 2009/07/31: BBerg: Carbon Capture Needs Decade of Subsidy, Harvard Researcher Says
• 2009/07/30: KSJT: Guardian, Fin. Times: Numbyism stalls a CO2-burying pilot plant in Germany
• 2009/07/29: DM:80B: Much-Ballyhooed [Vattenfall] Carbon Capture Plant Hasn't Stored a Thing
• 2009/07/29: Guardian(UK): Not under our backyard, say Germans, in blow to CO2 [CCS] plans
• 2009/07/29: ClimateP: CCS shocker: "German carbon capture plan has ended with CO2 being pumped directly into the atmosphere"
• 2009/07/28: NatureTGB: Carbon capture creaks forward, still costly
  New reports, but same old message from the carbon capture and storage (CCS) crowd: high costs and regulatory uncertainty still hamper the technology reaching commercial scale.
• 2009/07/28: PlanetArk:UK pins climate race hopes on carbon capture pilot -- Oxycoal clean coal test facility in Renfrew, Scotland
• 2009/07/28: JFleck: Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: The Puzzling Politics of Air Capture
• 2009/07/28: SolveClimate: Can 'Carbon Farming' Limit the Environmental Impact of Beef Production?
• 2009/07/28: FTimes: The carbon-capture challenge [in EU]
• 2009/07/28: WBCSD: UK pins climate race hopes on carbon capture pilot
• 2009/07/26: CTV: Carbon capture technology to be a big investment
  The federal and Alberta governments may have to invest between $1 and $3 billion per year after 2015 to turn the business of capturing carbon into a viable commercial technology. A report by the Alberta Carbon Capture and Storage Development Council suggests that energy prices could rise as consumers shoulder "a large share of the burden" of the costs of the technology. But the council, headed by the former president of Syncrude, Jim Carter, concludes that investment in cleaner energy production will help contribute to the province's prosperity.

Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2009/07/: Atlantic: Re-Engineering the Earth
• 2009/07/30: KSJT: The Atlantic: Here's a tip: geoengineering the climate is CHEAP. Ah, but dangerous, a little bit dumb perhaps...
• 2009/07/30: TreeHugger: Arguments Against White Roofs in Northern Cities are Specious
• 2009/07/30: PeakEnergy: Geoengineering Gets A Boost
• 2009/07/27: Wunderground: Bill Gates takes on hurricanes

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2009/07/31: ACPD: Information-based mid-upper tropospheric methane derived from Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and its validation by X. Xiong et al.
• 2009/07/29: CP: Central African biomes and forest succession stages derived from modern pollen data and plant functional types by J. Lebamba et al.
• 2009/07/30: CPD: Holocene trends in the foraminifer record from the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean by C. Andersson et al.
• 2009/07/29: CPD: The importance of paleoclimate modelling for improving predictions of future climate change by J. C. Hargreaves & J. D. Annan
• 2009/07/28: CPD: Orbital modulation of millennial-scale climate variability in an earth system model of intermediate complexity by T. Friedrich et al.
• 2009/07/27: CPD: Anomalously high Arabian Sea productivity conditions during MIS 13 by M. Ziegler et al.
• 2009/07/29: ACP: Asian emissions in 2006 for the NASA INTEX-B mission by Q. Zhang et al.
• 2009/07/29: ACPD: Attribution of ozone radiative forcing trend to individual NOx sources by K. Dahlmann et al.
• 2009/07/28: PNAS: Accelerating loss of seagrasses across the globe threatens coastal ecosystems by Michelle Waycott et al.
• 2009/07/28: PNAS: Population increase and environmental deterioration correspond with microlithic innovations in South Asia ca. 35,000 years ago by Michael Petraglia et al.
• 2009/07/28: PNAS: Physical and biogeochemical modulation of ocean acidification in the central North Pacific by John E. Dore et al.
• 2009/07/28: PNAS: A changing ocean seen with clarity by Peter G. Brewer

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

• 2009/07/31: PhysOrg: Researchers create drought conditions to unearth solutions
• 2009/07/30: NatureCF: How to heat a forest... or at least, a part of one
• 2009/07/29: Eureka: Douglas-fir, geoducks make strange bedfellows in studying climate change

  Svensmark is back with another cosmic ray paper:

• 2009/08/01: GRL: (ab$) Cosmic ray decreases affect atmospheric aerosols and clouds by Henrik Svensmark et al.
• 2009/08/01: RealClimate: Still not convincing [Svensmark]
• 2009/08/01: PhysOrg: Cosmic meddling with the clouds by seven-day magic [Svensmark]

  Regarding McLean et al.:

• 2009/07/27: JEB: Editorial standards at AGU journals
• 2009/07/27: MGS: How not to analyze climate data
• 2009/07/30: DeepClimate: Is ENSO "responsible for recent global warming?" No.
• 2009/07/28: Deltoid: Ahh McLean, you've done it again
• 2009/07/26: CCP: Real Climate's Gavin Schmidt responds to comment by John McLean, concerning the atrocious paper: McLean et al., JGR, 2009

  Pielke, alas:

• 2009/07/31: Guardian(UK): The folly of 'magical solutions' for targeting carbon emissions
  Setting unattainable emissions targets such as in the UK is not a policy -- it's an act of wishful thinking, argues one political scientist.
• 2009/07/28: ClimateP: The fantastical falsehoods of Roger Pielke, Jr., Part 143

  Meanwhile on the road to Copenhagen:

• 2009/07/31: Grist: India says it wants a climate change pact at Copenhagen
• 2009/07/29: Reuters: China says rich nation CO2 cuts key to Copenhagen
• 2009/07/30: IndiaTimes: No change in stand on climate change: PM
  Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India's accepting that global temperature should not exceed two degrees celsius was a possible threshold guiding global action and is "entirely in line" with country's stated position on global warming. "India has not changed its stand on climate change and the declaration at the Major Economic Forum (MEF) adopted at L'Aquila, Italy, is not a declaration of its climate change policy," he said in the Lok Sabha while replying to a debate.
• 2009/07/29: Reuters: China says wants climate deal this year -UN's Ban
• 2009/07/30: Xinhuanet: U.S. has to lead the fight for a clean, green world
  Much of what happens at the Copenhagen climate change conference in December depends on the U.S. and China. Their active collaboration will not only raise the odds of securing a treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, but also could provide a meaningful way to arrest rising global temperatures. Yet climate talks between the two countries present contrasting pictures, one discouraging, the other hopeful. The two countries' negotiators remain deadlocked with their polarized stances. The developed countries - particularly the U.S.- still refuse to take responsibility for the greenhouse gases (GHGs) they have emitted throughout history.
• 2009/07/29: EarthTimes: Poor nations seek 95-per-cent emission cuts by 2050

  While at the UN:

• 2009/07/29: UN: Ban to visit Arctic ice rim in latest push for action on climate change
• 2009/07/29: DotEarth: U.N. Chief Poleward Bound
• 2009/07/26: UN: Ban sees first-hand impact of climate change in Mongolia
• 2009/07/26: Google:AFP: UN chief talks climate change with Mongolian leaders

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2009/07/31: PlanetArk: UK {Says} Responds To French Carbon Trade Tax Fraud
• 2009/07/31: FTimes:ES: Carbon credits hit by carousel fraud

  The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

• 2009/07/29: EurActiv: France set for uphill battle on carbon tax
  France should aim to introduce a tax on carbon dioxide emissions by 2010 to help fight global climate change, a panel advising the government said on 28 July. The plan has already drawn fire from intensive fuel users such as farmers and fishermen.
• 2009/07/29: PlanetArk: France Faces Internal Fight Over Carbon 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:

• 2009/07/31: TreeHugger: Carbon Gold Promote Strict Regulations With World's First Biochar Methodology
• 2009/07/26: NEN: [EU] Emissions trading, a flawed but fixable cap&trade solution

  As for Global Warming & security:

• 2009/07/30: OpenDem: A new security paradigm: the military-climate link
  Many leading military analysts in the United States are increasingly alert to the link between security and climate change. If they can only expand their view of whose security is at risk, the policy consequences could be immense.

The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world as nations scramble to deal with climate change:

• 2009/07/28: Guardian(UK): Being green is no crime [Big Green Gathering]
  What, exactly, do the council and police fear about a gathering of musicians, poets, healers and environmentalists?
• 2009/07/28: NewInt:TEB: 'A blatant act of political sabotage' -- Cancellation of the Big Green Gathering
• 2009/07/27: Guardian(UK): What's going on in the Big Green tent?
  Some suspect foul play in the last-minute cancellation of the Big Green Gathering, but the Vestas protest might get an unexpected boost instead

And on the American political front:

• 2009/08/02: JQuiggin: Sane Republican hunt
• 2009/07/28: C411: Three Governors: Climate Policy Can Create Jobs
• 2009/08/01: TreeHugger: How Californians Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Global Warming
• 2009/07/31: Grist: taking a gander at clean energy -- Michigan to [Governor Jennifer] Granholm: We want clean energy
• 2009/07/30: TP:WR: California Republicans Will Use Any Excuse Other Than Climate Change To Explain Drought
• 2009/07/30: ENN: Californians' Cooling on Global Warming
• 2009/07/28: TNA: Actions Taken Over The Next Decade To Demonstrate And Deploy Key Technologies Will Determine U.S. Energy Future
• 2009/07/29: ScienceInsider: America Needs Large-Scale Energy Experiments, Academy Say
• 2009/07/28: DeSmogBlog: Bush White House was Willfully Blind to Arctic Ice Melt
• 2009/07/26: SacBee: Energy firms help pay for state regulators' far-flung trips
• 2009/07/27: Freep: Michigan Dems urge more energy from renewable resources
  A group of state House Democrats and environmental organizations called today for a tripling of the mandate on Michigan utilities to produce energy from renewable resources, a move they said will create jobs in wind, solar and other alternative energy industries. The centerpiece of a package of proposed legislation promoted by the group calls for an increase in the renewable portfolio standard from 10% in 2015 to 30% in 2025.
• 2009/07/28: TreeHugger: Shocking Report: California Climate Leaders' Trips Around the World Paid for by Big Oil, Utilities
• 2009/07/27: ClimateP: Politico's anonymous sources slam Barbara Boxer's "abrasive personal style" because she understands climate science and fights to avert catastrophe
• 2009/07/27: ClimateP: Will America lose the clean-energy race? Only if we listen to the disinformers of The Breakthrough Institute
• 2009/07/27: Grist: Is the proposed clean energy agency a dirty deal for taxpayers and the environment?
• 2009/07/27: SF Gate: Will America lose the clean-energy race?

  The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2009/07/30: DotEarth: How Many D's in Obama's Energy Pledge?
• 2009/07/27: NEN: Obama move makes clear what efficiency means

  And the actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2009/07/29: EarthTimes: US to loan more than 30 billion dollars for renewable energy
• 2009/07/28: AutoBG: Report: EPA ratings changes shift some "clunkers" out of cash range
• 2009/07/29: WaPo: USEC Denied Loan Guarantees -- CEO Assails Obama After Energy Dept. Says Project Is Unready [US pol = admin]
• 2009/07/28: Grist: Obama admin should bring defense and climate funding into balance, argues a new report
• 2009/07/28: CNN: Clunker confusion: MPG figures
  Some car shoppers find that the fuel economy for their old cars has suddenly improved - making them ineligible for Cash for Clunkers.
• 2009/07/27: Grist: Small changes at EPA could have big environmental impacts
• 2009/07/28: WSJ:EnvCap: Really Green Fuel: The EPA Opens the Door to Algae
• 2009/07/26: NewsTrib: Companies line up to join electric-car battery industry -- Grants: Feds offer $2 billion jump-start
  The Energy Department is getting ready to hand out about $2 billion in grants to create a domestic industry for electric-car batteries, and 122 companies are scrambling to get pieces. The companies range from small niche firms to giants such as Dow Chemical and Johnson Controls. All are promising a combination of innovation and ability to deliver new products on a commercial scale to prevent the United States from trading dependence on foreign oil or reliance on foreign-made batteries.
• 2009/07/27: SolveClimate: Chu Revs Up DOE Loan Process That Was Slow, Costly Under Bush
• 2009/07/27: TP: Obama administration reveals evidence of global warming kept secret under Bush

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2009/07/31: Grist: Can climate legislation survive the Senate Ag Committee's embrace?
• 2009/08/01: Kentucky: U.S. House approves money for battery research center
• 2009/07/30: ClimateP: The only way to win the clean energy race is to pass the clean energy bill
• 2009/07/30: GreenGrok: On the Climate Bill Fence: Why Sen. Bayh Jumped On
• 2009/07/29: HillHeat: Senate Watch: Baucus, Conrad, Dorgan, Inhofe, Johanns, McCain, Rockefeller
• 2009/07/29: Reuters: U.S. Senate climate bill to have tough market controls
• 2009/07/29: Reuters: Green states to get few rewards in U.S. climate bill
• 2009/07/29: PlanetArk: U.S. Senator Delays Brazil Envoy Nominee Over Ethanol
  A Republican senator threatened on Tuesday to delay approval of President Barack Obama's choice of ambassador to Brazil because the nominee advocated ending a U.S. tariff on ethanol imports
• 2009/07/29: WSJ:EnvCap: Ethanol Battles: What Does Iowa Have to Do With the Ambassador to Brazil?
• 2009/07/29: SolveClimate: Senate's Clean Energy Deployment Plan: A Nuclear Slush Fund in the Making?
• 2009/07/28: McClatchyDC: Florida senators push more funding for hurricane research
• 2009/07/27: ClimateP: Looks like no Senate vote on climate and clean energy bill until at least November -- thank goodness!
• 2009/07/27: JE: What Sarah Palin got wrong about energy by Barbara Boxer and John F. Kerry
• 2009/07/27: CSM: A carbon protection racket
  The Waxman-Markey bill's 'international offsets' amount to paying polluting countries not to pollute
• 2009/07/27: TreeHugger: Just Getting a Climate Bill Out of Committee by December a Good Start: Sen. John Kerry

  What are the lobbyists pushing?

• 2009/07/31: ClimateP: Lobbyist Dick Armey's Gospel of Pollution (GOP): 'As an article of Faith,' it is 'pretentious' to believe in global warming
• 2009/07/31: TreeHugger: Exxon Spends More on Lobbying than Entire Clean Energy Industry Combined
• 2009/07/30: DeSmogBlog: Koch Industries Funding Anti-Climate Agenda, and Now Democratic Senators
• 2009/07/30: TP:WR: California Republicans Will Use Any Excuse Other Than Climate Change To Explain Drought
• 2009/07/31: TP: Lobbyist Dick Armey's Pollution Gospel: 'As An Article Of Faith,' It Is 'Pretentious' To Believe In Global Warming
• 2009/07/29: DeSmogBlog: Look Who Larry Craig Is Playing Footsie with Now!
• 2009/07/27: PRWatch: Shining a Light on U.S. Power Utility Lobbyists

  While in the UK:

• 2009/07/30: Guardian(UK): London to plant 2m trees by 2025, says mayor's office
• 2009/07/30: Guardian(UK): How do you solve a problem like the Nimbys?
  The familiar pattern of wind farm objections, Nimby protests, planning difficulties, and investment set backs have returned to the UK this week.
• 2009/07/28: Guardian(UK): Latest protest leaves climate strategy twisting in the wind
  From Shetland to the Isle of Wight, feelings run high as plans to transform the UK into a low-carbon economy hit further trouble
• 2009/07/27: Guardian(UK): Climate Camp to return to London for annual August protest
• 2009/07/27: PlanetArk: UK "Carbon Budgets" Seen As Model For Others
• 2009/07/27: BBC: Porritt parting shot at ministers
  The government has been accused of failing to develop a green economy for the 21st Century by its own outgoing adviser on sustainable development. Sir Jonathon Porritt, who left his role at the weekend, criticised ministers on the environment and social justice, and for failing to protect UK prosperity. He told the BBC the biggest problems were in the Treasury, business and transport departments. The government said it had a "strong record" on environmental policies.

The Vestas occupation continues:

• 2009/08/01: Guardian(UK): 88 months and counting
  Is the Vesta case merely a symbolic blip, or something more interesting? Dim hope can be found in this dismal affair
• 2009/08/01: BBC: Vestas sit-in workers' 'starved' claim
  A union has complained to police over claims that workers occupying a wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight are having their human rights breached. Protesters have been staging a sit-in at the Vestas turbine blade factory in Newport over plans to axe 625 jobs. Union bosses accused the firm of trying to "starve" the workers out by restricting access to food and drink. A rally has been held outside the factory, the latest in a series of events staged to support them. The factory was due to close on Friday but is now set to shut on 10 August.
• 2009/07/30: WSWS: Threat of eviction remains over Vestas occupation
• 2009/07/30: Guardian(UK): Supporters of Vestas workers break into factory to deliver food -- Accuse the company of trying to starve the men into submission
• 2009/07/28: BBC: Turbine 'sit-in' workers sacked
• 2009/07/28: Guardian(UK): Protesters at Vestas Wind Systems plant fired by food parcel

  And in Europe:

• 2009/07/31: EurActiv: EU R&D efforts hampered by 'eco-religion'
• 2009/07/31: EurActiv: Carbon labelling finds favour with Europeans
  An overwhelming majority of Europeans would like to see their purchases tagged with a label stating the total amount of greenhouse gases emitted during a product's lifetime, a new Eurobarometer survey found.
• 2009/07/31: PlanetArk: Greek Hunters Take Dim View Of Solar Energy Scheme
• 2009/07/30: EurActiv: EU mulls extending green criteria beyond biofuels
  The European Commission has begun consultations on tackling indirect land-use change caused by agro-fuel production, floating the idea that such criteria could be applied more generally to a range of other agricultural commodities. The EU's new Renewable Energy Directive obliges member states to ensure that 10% of their transport fuel comes from renewable sources, including biofuels, by 2020. The goal was aimed at contributing towards the bloc's climate goals, but questions have been raised about the unintended consequences of replacing large forested areas and food production with energy crops. To address this issue, the directive requires the Commission to present a report by the end of 2010 on how such "indirect land-use changes" impact on greenhouse gases and whether they should be tackled.
• 2009/07/29: EurActiv: France set for uphill battle on carbon tax
  France should aim to introduce a tax on carbon dioxide emissions by 2010 to help fight global climate change, a panel advising the government said on 28 July. The plan has already drawn fire from intensive fuel users such as farmers and fishermen.
• 2009/07/28: EurActiv: EU launches reflection on future green policies
  The European Union needs to reconcile its growth and jobs objectives with long-term environmental goals, says the European Commission in a report taking stock of the bloc's decade-old sustainable development strategy
• 2009/07/27: EurActiv: EU mulls climate billions for developing countries
• 2009/07/26: Google:AFP: Developing nations may have to wait on climate aid: EU presidency

  Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2009/08/02: ABC(Au): Govt seizes on ANU climate change report
  The Federal Government says a study backs its warning World Heritage-listed sites including the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu National Park and the Sydney Opera House are threatened by climate change. The Australian National University's study, commissioned by the Government, looks at the impact of climate change on 17 World Heritage-listed sites.
• 2009/07/31: SMH: Single-desk carbon trade 'could earn billions'
  The former Australian of the year Tim Flannery has proposed a single Australian Government trading desk -- similar to the former wheat desk -- to sell carbon credits to the United States. The government-operated desk could ensure Australia up to 10 per cent of the 1 billion tonnes of carbon offsets the US would buy offshore a year if legislation to establish a US emissions trading scheme passes the US Senate later this year, he said.
• 2009/07/30: ABC(Au): The Federal Opposition says Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has overstated the number of new positions involved in his 'green jobs' plan
• 2009/07/30: ABC(Au): Environmental groups are outraged the West Australian Government has all but given the green light to the proposed $50 billion Gorgon gas project on Barrow Island, off the Pilbara coast
• 2009/07/30: PhysOrg: Australian PM vows to create 50,000 'green' jobs
• 2009/07/29: ABC(Au): The introduction of a National Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme could increase rates in the Corangamite Shire by almost 5 per cent [says council's environmental services coordinator, Lyall Bond]
• 2009/07/29: ABC(Au): Legal advice sought over rooftop turbines
  The owner of a building in Hobart's CBD is taking legal advice over a council decision to reject a rooftop wind turbine project.
• 2009/07/29: ABC(Au): Renewable energy focus for Great South Coast
  A plan is being created to help turn the Great South Coast into a national hub for renewable energy projects.
• 2009/07/29: ABC(Au): Greenhouse worry from mine plan, says ACF
  The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) says the South Australian Government should approve BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam mining expansion only if the company pledges to use 100 per cent renewable energy. The ACF says the current expansion plan would increase South Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 12 per cent by 2021.
• 2009/07/28: ABC(Au): Race hots up for low emission coal power plant
  Another power company has entered the race to build the world's first low emission coal power plant in Queensland. The global corporation GE has formed a consortium to build a 400 megawatt plant near Wandoan on the western Darling Downs in the state's southern region by 2015. It plans to capture and store 90 per cent of the carbon emissions underground.
• 2009/07/28: ABC(Au): Coal industry urges fair emissions scheme
  The coal industry has taken out full page newspaper advertisements today calling for fair and consistent treatment in the development of an emissions trading scheme.
• 2009/07/28: ABC(Au): Emissions scheme 'critical to agriculture'
  There is a warning the future of Australian agriculture hinges on the Federal Government's carbon pollution reduction scheme. The outgoing president of the New South Wales Farmers Association, Jock Laurie, says he believes the legislation will have a huge impact on the country's food production levels.
• 2009/07/28: ABC(Au): ACT could lead nation on climate change: expert
  A top climate change scientist says the ACT could be a model for how Australian communities can mitigate and adapt to climate change. Professor Will Steffen says the depth of expertise at the Australian National University (ANU) should be harnessed to help Canberra become more environmentally sustainable.
• 2009/07/28: Reuters: Australia mulling more coal support in carbon plans
• 2009/07/27: ABC(Au): Wong turns up heat on Coalition
  The Federal Opposition may have blinked in the stand-off over emissions trading but the Government is not yet ready to cut it any slack. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says the Government is not prepared to delay a vote on the issue after the Coalition outlined its nine principles for negotiating over the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has promised to bring his party with him if the Government is willing to make the changes to the legislation. But details about the amendments have not been provided, and with the first vote on the scheme expected in mid-August, time is running out. "The Government has always been prepared to negotiate with the Opposition to pass this legislation through the Senate," Senator Wong said. "But for us to do that, Mr Turnbull has to get a position that is supported by his party room and he has to put forward what he says the Opposition would need in terms of changes to the bill to pass the legislation. "He simply hasn't done that."
• 2009/07/28: ABC(Au): Windfarm developer to safeguard Monaro environment
  A company planning to build a windfarm on the New South Wales Monaro has committed to conserving the area's fragile environment if it gets approval. Wind Prospect C-W-P says it's made modifications to its Boco Rock Wind Farm proposal including the height and number of towers it plans to build.
• 2009/07/27: ABC(Au): The Environment Centre says the Northern Territory Government's new rebate on energy-efficient items will help households reduce their energy use and save money on power
• 2009/07/27: ABC(Au): Act now on climate change or pay later: expert
  The Climate Change Institute in Canberra has warned that Australia must think beyond the emissions trading scheme, if it wants to have an impact on global warming. Climate change experts are meeting at a summit at the Australian National University to discuss Australia's response to the threat of global warming. As the Federal Government and Opposition battle it out over the detail of an ETS, Climate Change Institute director Will Steffen is advising Australians to embrace the renewable energy technologies that are available now, rather than wait for advances in the field. "What we need to do is start getting the emissions trajectory down as soon as we can, the longer we wait to do this, the more we run the risk, the science says, of crossing some of these tipping elements of triggering some abrupt changes," he said.
• 2009/07/27: PlanetArk: Australian Carbon Plan Divides Opposition Parties

  UNFCCC head, Yvo De Boer surprised a few Australians with this statement:

• 2009/07/31: ABC(Au): Emissions trading can wait: UN
• 2009/07/31: ABC(Au): Heat on Australia-Pacific climate change talks
  Australia's commitment to an emissions target is important to international negotiations leading up to the Copenhagen climate talks, says the head of the United Nations (UN) climate agency. The UN's Yvo de Boer, on his way to Australia to meet Pacific leaders at their annual forum meeting in Cairns next week, says it would benefit Pacific countries to work with Australia in negotiating a global climate deal.

And in India:

• 2009/07/31: TreeHugger: India to Spend $200 Million on Forest Conservation & Preservation - All For Carbon Storage
• 2009/07/31: Reuters: India to assess climate gain; pump millions in forests
• 2009/07/30: PlanetArk: India Seeks Help Building Low-CO2 Future
• 2009/07/29: TreeHugger: India's National Solar Mission Details Leaked - 20GW by 2020, 3 Mil. Homes With Solar-Powered Lighting, More
• 2009/07/26: ERabett: Posturing -- Eli has been asked to respond to recent posturing by various Indian officials and non-officials about their government climate change policy.

  While in China:

• 2009/07/30: EnvFin: China steps up solar, wind support
• 2009/07/31: TP:WR: China's Coal Power Sector: Larger, But Also More Efficient
• 2009/07/28: TreeHugger: China's Coal-Burning Cost the Environment $13 Billion Last Year

  And elsewhere in Asia:

• 2009/07/27: TerraDaily: Bangladesh plans to spend billions fighting climate change
• 2009/07/28: TreeHugger: Bangladesh Wants $4 Billion From Wealthy Countries for Climate Change Adaptation Projects

  In Russia:

• 2009/07/27: Grist: Why some Russians look forward to global warming
• 2009/07/27: NYT: Spotlight on Russia's Role in Climate Control

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

• 2009/07/29: OSun: Carbon cap an inevitability

  With great fanfare the Tories announced a northern strategy that is mostly a rehash of previous announcements:

• 2009/08/01: TStar: Bring urgency to Arctic plans
• 2009/07/31: G&M: It's an Arctic policy worth building on
• 2009/07/28: CBC: Arctic expert questions Canada's northern strategy
  The federal government's new strategy for Canada's North may be a case of political posturing, at least one Arctic sovereignty expert has suggested. The Northern Strategy, released on Sunday, promises to assert Canada's sovereignty over its resource-rich Arctic lands and waters, while addressing the need for jobs, housing and a clean environment in the region. But Michael Byers, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia, said the strategy offered little in the way of new initiatives and announcements.
• 2009/07/29: CanWest: Strategy map 'leaves out' Inuit communities
  The head of Canada's national Inuit organization has slammed the design of a map - released with fanfare this week by three federal ministers as part of a report showcasing the Conservative government's Arctic strategy - that "leaves out" the Inuit communities of northern Quebec and Labrador.

Oh look. Just what we need. Jingoistic chest thumping:

• 2009/07/31: CBC: Arctic borders will be defended: MacKay
• 2009/07/31: TStar: [Defence Minister, Peter] MacKay vows to defend Arctic sovereignty

  Otherwise in the Arctic:

• 2009/07/31: CanWest: Tories pushed to reinstate Arctic envoy post
• 2009/07/28: TStar: Canada to fortify its claim in Arctic
  Canada will wave the flag in the Arctic this summer with a show of force, a high-profile political visit and some dogged undersea research it hopes will help lay claim to new areas of untapped oil and gas. Canada and the United States today will discuss ambitious plans to jointly map vast sections of the Arctic seabed, a process to help each nation's sovereignty claims. Next month, two icebreakers, one from each country, will begin their work in the western Arctic using sonar and seismic measurements to plumb and map the undersea depths.

A push for high-speed rail and a government that hates cooperative solutions equals...?:

• 2009/07/29: CanWest: Part One -- A decade of debate chugs on
  A new debate is emerging among Canadians about whether high-speed passenger trains are the answer to rising oil prices, traffic congestion, airport delays and environmental concerns. Governments currently running massive deficits will have to decide whether a multibillion-dollar investment of public money in passenger trains that top 300 km/h - and their supporting infrastructure - can become either a silver bullet or a white elephant for the most heavily populated regions of the country.
• 2009/07/30: TStar: Riding a slow train to high-speed rail -- Investment now will be a springboard for Via to deliver faster passenger service in the future

  In BC, the Campbell government got a poke in the eye from the B.C. Utilities Commission:

• 2009/07/30: PlanetArk: British Columbia Still Committed To Green Power
  British Columbia is still committed to promoting clean energy projects despite taking a blow on Tuesday from its own power utility regulator, the Canadian province's energy minister said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday.
• 2009/07/28: Reuters: Canada green power stocks fall on surprise ruling [in BC]
• 2009/07/29: G&M: Green Premier's agenda hits snag as energy plan rejected -- Commission says British Columbia government's initiative not in public interest
  The British Columbia government's energy plan and the future of new renewable-power projects in the province have been shaken by a ruling from the B.C. Utilities Commission. After hearings that lasted almost a year, the commission has rejected BC Hydro's long-term acquisition plan as "not in the public interest" and has refused to endorse its push for clean energy. The government's clean -- or green -- energy plan has been a key initiative pursued by Premier Gordon Campbell and was a major issue in the May election. The ruling could call into question the viability of the B.C. government's policy of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 33 per cent below 2007 levels by 2020. That promise, and a long term goal of an 80 per cent reduction by 2050, was put into law last year with passage of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act. Some analysts say the ruling -- which shocked the government and the stock market -- indicates B.C. has been over-estimating the amount of power the province needs in order to justify the development of independent power projects.

Ontario is still haggling over nukes:

• 2009/08/01: CanWest: Ontario 'scratching its head' over nuclear plan -- One high-profile project on hold, another scrapped
• 2009/07/31: CanWest: Nuclear summer
  The much-heralded nuclear "renaissance" appears to have stalled this summer, at least temporarily -- not because of unsettled questions over the disposal of radioactive waste, or fear of nuclear accidents, but because the costs of building new reactors is proving prohibitive.
• 2009/07/27: CleanBreak: Lower demand: Nuclear renaissance being pushed aside in favour of refurbs, uprating

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2009/07/31: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Visiting a Boreal Village: Life Downstream from Tar Sands Oil
• 2009/07/31: CanWest: Stelmach warns Ottawa not to be emission 'boy scouts'
  Premier Ed Stelmach is cautioning Ottawa against being "boy scouts" on climate change, suggesting Canada's plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions should reflect whatever strategy the United States adopts. Speaking in Calgary on Thursday, Stelmach noted climate change will be on the agenda when premiers gather in Regina next week for the annual Council of the Federation meeting. The federal government has pledged to consult provinces on the stance it will take to a key UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December, where political leaders from around the world will gather to build a road map to succeed the Kyoto accord.
• 2009/07/31: CanWest: Alberta set to benefit from finite cap on greenhouse gases
• 2009/07/30: NRDC:SwitchBoard: America's Other Foreign Oil: Seeing Canada's Tar Sands Up Close
• 2009/07/29: TreeHugger: Young Climate Activists Call On Clinton to Stop Tar Sands Pipeline
• 2009/07/27: DaveBerta: carbon capture: this public relations facade is a pricey piece of unicorn science
• 2009/07/26: CTV: Carbon capture technology to be a big investment
  The federal and Alberta governments may have to invest between $1 and $3 billion per year after 2015 to turn the business of capturing carbon into a viable commercial technology. A report by the Alberta Carbon Capture and Storage Development Council suggests that energy prices could rise as consumers shoulder "a large share of the burden" of the costs of the technology. But the council, headed by the former president of Syncrude, Jim Carter, concludes that investment in cleaner energy production will help contribute to the province's prosperity.

As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

• 2009/07/30: EnergyBulletin: Is Canada becoming a petrostate?
• 2009/07/30: CBC: Polar Continental Shelf Program celebrates 51 years
• 2009/07/30: SolveClimate: A Case for Electric Cars in Carbon-Heavy Canada

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

• 2009/08/01: OilDrum: Equating Economics, Energy, and Growth

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

• 2009/08/02: Guardian(UK): India pays couples to put off having children
  [...] India is searching for a way of restricting the size of families as the battle over scarce resources grows. The country's population stands at 1.2 billion and is expected to reach 1.53 billion by 2050. But increasing pressure on resources means that there is barely enough water and food to go round.
• 2009/07/30: ACLU: Senate Committee Votes To End Funding For Failed Abstinence-Only Programs -- Bill Puts Teens' Health Above Politics And Ideology, Says ACLU
• 2009/07/31: DotEarth: What's the Right Number of Americans?
• 2009/07/31: PhysOrg: RU-486 abortion drug to be allowed in Italy
• 2009/07/30: CBC: 13 million abortions a year reported in China
• 2009/07/29: SciAm: Does Population Growth Impact Climate Change?
  Does the rate at which people are reproducing need to be controlled to save the environment?
• 2009/07/27: Guardian(UK): These denialogues don't care if their own children end up with syphilis
  US conservatives can add teenage pregnancies and STDs to climate change and all the other things they love to disavow

Apocalypso anyone?

• 2009/07/30: CCurrents: Gaia Wizard [Lovelock] Sets Doomsday Time Bomb
• 2009/07/29: ISIS: Why Civilisations Collapse
• 2009/07/28: MTobis: End Times Thinking and the Locavore Fallacy

  As for how the media handles the science of climatology:

• 2009/07/29: CJR: (E)mission Impossible? Blogs, Web sites provide climate policy analysis lacking elsewhere
• 2009/07/31: CJR: Fuel for Thought -- Once credulous, biofuels coverage grows skeptical
• 2009/07/31: KSJT: The Nation: What to give your friends and acquaintances to read if they ask what's up with science writing anyway?
• 2009/07/30: KSJT: Toronto Star: First multimedia journalist, a Pulitzer laureate, to get the Arctic as a fulltimes news beat
• 2009/07/27: ClimateP: Tilting at windmills: When life makes you lemonade, Kate Galbraith and the NY Times give you lemons

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2009/07/26: Reuters: New U.S. film shows [Yes Men] pranksters battling companies [in The Yes Men Save the World]

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2009/07/31: BBerg: Alcoa Razes Rain Forest in Court Case Led by Brazil Prosecutor
• 2009/07/27: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Dangerous, Dirty, and Done for: Suits Should Help the Sun Set on Dirty Coal Plants in Chicago
  [...] a coalition of Illinois health and environmental groups have notified Midwest Generation, LLC of their intent go to court to force the plants to clean up or shut down. No more excuses. Citizens Against Ruining the Environment, The Environmental Law and Policy Center, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), The Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago and Sierra Club, filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue today, the first step in a Clean Air Act citizen suit.
• 2009/07/28: WarmingLaw: Dispute Over Georgia's Longleaf Power Plant Raises "Bonanza" Issues

  Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:

• 2009/08/01: TreeHugger: US Energy Consumption - What Does It All Mean?
• 2009/07/31: Grist: EEStor CEO says game-changing energy storage device coming by 2010
• 2009/07/31: SolveClimate: World Bank Puts Hydropower Back Into Favor, NGOs Do Not
• 2009/07/30: COP15: The Coming Global Energy Revolution by Fatih Birol, IEA Chief Economist
  Humanity's future, to say nothing of its prosperity, will depend on how the world tackles two central energy challenges: securing reliable supplies of affordable energy, and switching to efficient low-carbon energy.
• 2009/07/30: NewScientist: Glass leaf 'sweats' to generate electricity
• 2009/07/29: ENN: The shale revolution -- natural gas
• 2009/07/30: NEN: Fortune and new energy
• 2009/07/30: WSJ:EnvCap: Big Oil: Demand Is Dismal, And So Are Earnings
• 2009/07/28: TNA: Actions Taken Over The Next Decade To Demonstrate And Deploy Key Technologies Will Determine U.S. Energy Future
• 2009/07/29: ScienceInsider: America Needs Large-Scale Energy Experiments, Academy Say
• 2009/07/29: RigZone: Marcellus Shale's Estimated Nat. Gas Yield Rises to Nearly 500 Tcf
  New calculations show the Appalachian Basin's Marcellus Shale formation could yield enough natural gas to supply all U.S. needs for nearly two decades -- dramatically more than previous estimates. Penn State University geosciences professor Terry Engelder projects nearly 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas could be produced from the entire formation, which is found in portions of five states, including most of Pennsylvania. Engelder published his latest estimate in the August issue of Fort Worth Oil and Gas Basin magazine.
• 2009/07/29: AutoBG: EEStor information overload (not a typo) in leaked interview with CEO Dick Weir
• 2009/07/28: OilDrum: [Review] A Preliminary Investigation of Energy Return on Energy Investment for Global Oil and Gas Production by Nate Gagnon, Charles Hall and Lysle Brinker
• 2009/07/27: NYT: A Quest for Batteries to Alter the Energy Equation
• 2009/07/27: Guardian(UK): Greenpeace study finds oil companies may be doomed
  Environmental activist network argues that the oil industry might be approaching a tipping point from fall in the price, advances in technology and policies on climate change
• 2009/07/27: Eureka: Mines could provide geothermal energy
• 2009/07/27: CNN: Is the ocean Florida's untapped energy source?
  Scientists researching turbines that turn ocean currents into electricity - Turbines could generate power for up to 7 million homes in fuel-starved Florida - Project aims to develop 20-kilowatt underwater turbine by spring 2010 - Scientists unsure how the technology would affect marine wildlife
• 2009/07/27: NBF: Nuclear and Geothermal Updates

  Regarding the price of oil:

• 2009/07/31: BBC: Chevron, the second largest oil company in the US, has posted a big fall in quarterly profits...
• 2009/07/31: BBC: Price of oil bounces back sharply
  Sharply higher global stocks have pushed oil prices higher, clawing back almost all of Wednesday's big falls. US light crude was up $3.66, or almost 6%, to $67.01 a barrel, while London Brent was ahead by $3.68, at $70.21. US light crude slumped $3.88 on Wednesday after figures showed a rise in US oil stockpiles, indicating too much supply in relation to demand. Renewed confidence in stock markets, sparked by a series of encouraging corporate results, caused the rebound.
• 2009/07/30: G&M: Taking Stock -- No confusion on where oil price is headed -- Henry Groppe
• 2009/07/30: FTimes:ES: It's all about Saudi Arabia and IEA stats: Contrarian oil watcher Henry Groppe
• 2009/07/30: BBC: Oil firms see big fall in profits
  Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil have both reported a big fall in quarterly profits, due to the sharp decline in oil prices since mid-2008. April-to-June profits at Anglo-Dutch group Shell slumped 70% from a year earlier to $2.3bn (£1.4bn). Exxon's profits for the same period declined 66% to $3.95bn.
• 2009/07/30: CBC: Petro-Canada earnings drop [to $77 million, down from $1.5 billion a year ago]
• 2009/07/29: NYT: Call to Curb Speculators in Energy
• 2009/07/28: RawStory: CFTC: Speculators caused 2008 oil price crisis
• 2009/07/28: Reuters: Factbox-Oil production cost estimates by country
  The cost of pumping a barrel of oil out of the ground depends on a variety of factors, including the size and accesibility of the field.
  [...]
  Oilfields...................Estimated Production
  /source........................Costs ($ 2008)
  Mideast/N.Africa oilfields.........6 - 28
  Other conventional oilfields.......6 - 39
  CO2 enhanced oil recovery.........30 - 80
  Deep/ultra-deep-water oilfields...32 - 65
  Enhanced oil recovery.............32 - 82
  Arctic oilfields..................32 - 100
  Heavy oil/bitumen.................32 - 68
  Oil shales........................52 - 113
  Gas to liquids....................38 - 113
  Coal to liquids...................60 - 113
• 2009/07/26: OilDrum: Oil: the Market is the Manipulation

  The answer my friend...:

• 2009/07/30: EnvFin: US wind energy expansion slows
• 2009/07/30: PhysOrg: Pakistan island [Kharochhan] puts wind-power to work
• 2009/07/29: Grist: Wind: still enough to save the world
• 2009/07/28: ClimateP: Even with economic headwind, U.S. still adds 4,000 MW of new wind -- and a dozen new factories
• 2009/07/29: NEN: Wind -- so big it won't fail
  Summary: The AWEA 2nd Quarter 2009 Market Report has been interpreted in the media as success and failure, with foreboding and celebration, and in many shades between.
• 2009/07/28: SolveClimate: Alta Wind Farm, America's Largest Wind Power Project, Blows Closer
• 2009/07/27: Guardian(UK): Kenya to build Africa's biggest windfarm

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2009/07/28: TechRev: Cheaper Solar Thermal Power
  A simpler design could reduce the cost of solar power generated by concentrating sunlight on Stirling engines
• 2009/07/31: TreeHugger: Army Plans 500 MW of Solar Power at Fort Irwin by 2022
• 2009/07/29: Eureka: NIST scientists study how to stack the deck for organic solar power
• 2009/07/29: TreeHugger: New Jersey Approves 80 MW PSE&G Solar4All Program - Doubles State's Solar Power Capacity
• 2009/07/28: WSJ:EnvCap: Solar Power: The Silver Lining to Plunging Silicon Prices
• 2009/07/28: WSJ:EnvCap: Desert Sun: Acciona Wants in on Desertec Solar Project
• 2009/07/27: TreeHugger: Italy to Get Another Gigantic Rooftop Solar Power Array - 15 Megawatts

  The arithmetic of coal carbon is striking home:

• 2009/07/30: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Defending Dolly from Big Coal Bullies
• 2009/07/28: Grist: West Virginia, Kentucky miners boycott Tennessee over proposed mountaintop removal restrictions
• 2009/07/27: TP:WR: Don Blankenship Proposes New Foreign Policy: Coalocracy

  Meanwhile in the clean coal saga:

• 2009/07/29: NRDC:SwitchBoard: TVA Could Have Prevented Tennessee Coal Ash Disaster, Report Finds
• 2009/07/29: TreeHugger: Report Reveals: TVA was Warned of Ash Spill Danger 23 Years Ago
• 2009/07/27: Grist: Coal is the enemy of the human race, pant-wetting terror edition -- Blackout: Heinberg on dwindling coal reserves and the siren song of "clean coal"

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2009/07/27: TechRev: A Biofuel Process to Replace All Fossil Fuels
  A startup [Joule Biotechnologies] unveils a high-yield process for making fuel from carbon dioxide and sunlight
• 2009/07/30: TreeHugger: New Biodiesel Plant Nearly Doubles California's Refining Capacity
• 2009/07/29: EurActiv: Big oil eyes algae to solve biofuel problems
  Oil giants such as Shell and ExxonMobil are pouring millions of research funding into algae in the hope that the technology can solve environmental problems associated with intensive crop cultivation for biofuels. Raffaello Garofalo, executive director of the European Algae Biomass Association (EABA), outlines the potential and challenges of algae in an interview with EurActiv.
• 2009/07/28: PeakEnergy: A Biofuel Process to Replace All Fossil Fuels [genmod algae]
• 2009/07/27: PlanetArk: Global Biofuel Market To Top One-Quarter Trillion [piastres, no doubt]

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2009/07/31: TechRev: A New Approach to Fusion -- A startup [General Fusion] snags funding to start early work on a low-budget test reactor
• 2009/07/31: SolveClimate: Nuclear Plans Set Off Alarm Bells For Moody's Credit Ratings
• 2009/07/30: Grist: Financial Meltdown -- Nuclear plans hurting power companies' credit ratings
• 2009/07/29: PlanetArk: USEC Scraps Uranium Plant, Mulls Options

  Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

• 2009/07/27: TCE: Oil is Peaking But Not Because of Speculation

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2009/07/28: WaPo: 'Smart Grid' Raises Security Concerns
• 2009/07/28: NEN: FERC outlines, approves smart grid
• 2009/07/27: PlanetArk: U.S. Electric Grid Needs Major Overhaul: Utility
  The U.S. electric grid is outdated and needs a major overhaul if it is to carry electricity generated by renewable energy sources, a senior official with Southern California Edison told Congress on Thursday. The Obama administration has called for doubling the amount of U.S. electricity produced by renewable sources, such as wind and solar power, during the next three years to reduce greenhouse emissions that cause global warming. However, a so-called "smart" grid will be needed to transmit those power supplies from where they are generated in remote areas to consumers and businesses in cities.
• 2009/07/27: Cryptome: FERC - Smart Grid Policy; Final Rule
• 2009/07/24: Cryptome: Third Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Interim Roadmap Public Workshop

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

• 2009/08/02: PhysOrg: Nissan rolls out electric car at new headquarters
• 2009/08/01: AutoBG: 2010 Nissan Leaf electric car: In person, in depth -- and U.S. bound
• 2009/07/30: EurActiv: Inventors look to crack electric car conundrum
  Researchers grappling with the problem of developing the most fuel-efficient electric cars are using micro-jet turbine engines and 'supercapacity' batteries to help energy-conscious consumers drive further. Companies from Europe, Japan and Israel believe on-board chargers and high-powered battery technology could give them an edge in the race to produce a commercially viable electric car -- and investors are beginning to buy into the idea.
• 2009/07/30: SolveClimate: A Case for Electric Cars in Carbon-Heavy Canada
• 2009/07/28: Grist: On EV street -- Tesla speeds past financial troubles, opens retail stores across country
• 2009/07/29: BBC: Woes continue for world carmakers
  Carmakers PSA Peugeot Citroen, Daimler and Nissan have all reported big losses in the face of continuing declines in global vehicles sales. Peugeot, France's biggest car firm, made a net loss of 962m euros ($1.4bn; £830m) between January and June. A year ago it reported a profit of 733m euros. Daimler, the owner of Mercedes-Benz, made a net loss of 1bn euros in the April to June quarter. Meanwhile, Nissan's quarterly loss totalled 16.5bn yen ($170m; £104m). Honda also reported results on Wednesday. Although it avoided a quarterly loss, its profits fell 96%.
• 2009/07/27: TreeHugger: Nissan Wants Electric Cars to Charge Up While You Drive
• 2009/07/27: CBC: Nissan electric car unveiled

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

• 2009/07/27: PlanetArk: Companies Keen On Green When Profits Benefit Early
  Companies are taking a selective approach to reducing their impact on the environment, moving slowly on bigger investments while embracing strategies like energy efficiency and waste reduction that quickly lift profits. As concerns over global warming grow, the number of firms announcing plans to become "greener" have proliferated, with previous laggards now racing to catch up.

Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:

• 2009/08/01: ClimateP: "A Fuel-Belching Nascar Track Has Big Plans for Solar Power" -- Greenwashing or not?

  Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:

• 2009/07/31: NYT:CW: British Insurers Prepare for 'Worst Case' Climate Impacts; Americans Mostly Don't
• 2009/07/30: EnvFin: 2009 disasters hit well-insured in US and Europe
  Natural catastrophes took far fewer lives than usual in the first half of 2009, but insured losses were above the 10-year average, according to Munich Re.
• 2009/07/30: BizGreen: Insurers blame climate change for rising costs
• 2009/07/29: Guardian(UK): Global warming pushes up building insurance costs

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

• 2009/07/31: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for July 31st, 2009: DOE puts up $30 billion in clean energy loan guarantees; World's biggest factory for making towers for wind power gives hope to Colorado steel town
• 2009/07/30: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for July 30th, 2009: China shuts 7500 small coal-fired plants; NZ apples shipped to EU generate own weight in CO2
• 2009/07/29: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for July 29, 2009: U.S. can cut half its transportation emissions by 2050; A plan to cut carbon emissions from deforestation
• 2009/07/28: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for July 28th: China's three biggest power firms emit more carbon than Britain; A.D. Little: "I think we will reach peak oil demand in the middle of the next decade."
• 2009/07/27: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for July 27th: The Fertile Crescent, cradle of civilization, "will disappear this century"; new signs of solar industry revival

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2009/07/31: Deltoid: The AGW denialists rules for discussion
• 2009/08/01: MTobis: Entitlement to Your Own Facts
• 2009/08/01: JQuiggin: Birthers and sceptics
• 2009/08/01: MoD: The 4 denialists rules for discussion
• 2009/08/01: LarvatusProdeo: The rules
• 2009/08/01: TreeHugger: Beck on the Apollo Alliance: "Talk Me Out of the Crazy Tree"
• 2009/07/30: ERabett: As predicted...an editorial by Rudy Baum in C&E News...
• 2009/07/30: MTobis: Denialist Backlash vs Rudy Baum
• 2009/07/31: BCLSB: Morano's Latest Climate Change Dissenter: Scientist Or Garbage Man?
• 2009/07/31: DeSmogBlog: Rex Murphy: The Titanic didn't arrive - No story here!
• 2009/07/31: TreeHugger: Exxon Spends More on Lobbying than Entire Clean Energy Industry Combined
• 2009/07/30: DeSmogBlog: Koch Industries Funding Anti-Climate Agenda, and Now Democratic Senators
• 2009/07/30: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Behind the Wing-Nut Attacks on Clean Energy
• 2009/07/31: BCLSB: Business Insider's Climate Change Denier Top 10
• 2009/07/29: MoD: Confirmation I made the right decision
• 2009/03/04: MoD: Why I accept the scientific consensus on global warming, and what would change my mind
• 2009/07/29: KSJT: LA Times: A columnist wonders whether Al Gore's head might be defrostable 100 years from now - to comment on a new hole in Arizona
• 2009/07/29: Grist: Why I LIke to Do Battle With the Deniers -- The climate science fight club
• 2009/07/28: ERabett: Krammis -- Eli has been mining Gerhard Krimms contribution to arXiv...the surface temperature of the moon...
• 2009/07/29: TreeHugger: Sen. Inhofe to Congress: Oil and Gas Don't Pollute (VIDEO)
• 2009/07/28: GreenGrok: Global Warming Trash Talk or Cherry-pickin' Time
• 2009/07/28: ClimateP: Inhofe: Oil and gas don't cause pollution
• 2009/07/28: JQuiggin: Delusion central
• 2009/07/27: WVGazette:CT: Inside coal industry meeting: Global warming just a scare
• 2009/07/28: JKB: Dutch climate skeptical organisations pt 2 : De Groene Rekenkamer (intro)
• 2009/07/27: TP: Inhofe: Oil And Gas Usage Doesn't Create Any Pollution
• 2009/07/26: JKB: Climate change skeptical organisations in the low countries. Part 1 : Stichting Meer Vrijheid
• 2009/07/27: BCLSB: Mark Steyn--Science Or Stupid?

  Mr. Watts has been distinguishing himself:

• 2009/07/31: BSD: Watts Up with abusing DMCA takedown actions
• 2009/07/29: TWTB: Videobreak: The video that denialist Watts tried to get pulled from YouTube
• 2009/07/31: GreenFyre: Act III Scene 1: But but (from the Watts)
• 2009/07/31: NEN: Climate Crock Challenged -- Climate Crock Anthony Watts Scrubs YouTube Video
• 2009/07/30: Guardian(UK): Guardian covers Anthony Watts' hypocrisy
• 2009/07/29: ClimateP: The video that Anthony Watts does not want you to see: The Climate Denial "Crock of the Week"
• 2009/07/29: Deltoid: Anthony Watts' abuse of the DMCA
• 2009/07/28: DeSmogBlog: Climate Crock of the Week: What's Up with Anthony Watts [take 2]
• 2009/07/29: JKB: The video Anthony Watts wanted to be censored
• 2009/07/27: DeSmogBlog: Climate Crock Anthony Watts Scrubs YouTube Video
• 2009/07/27: BCLSB: Anthony Watts Panics

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2009/07/29: FuturePundit: Global Warming And Personal Responsibility
• 2009/07/30: Grist: A walk through the week's climate news -- The Climate Post: Big hopes for Al G.
• 2009/07/29: SciAm: Stumbling Over Data: Mistakes Fuel Climate-Warming Skeptics -- Do minor errors erode public support on climate issues?
• 2009/07/30: EnergyBulletin: The Sixth Extinction
• 2009/07/30: ClimateP: Earth Journalism Network sponsors worldwide contest for 15 young environmental journalists for a free trip to Copenhagen to cover the COP15 talks [media]
• 2009/07/29: Grist: Gideon Rachman: Inability to prevent mass suffering and death a "dilemma for climate activists"
• 2009/07/30: SciDaily: Andean Salars: Reflections Of Earth And Climate History
• 2009/07/30: HotTopic: Ice concentrates ministerial minds
• 2009/07/29: Grist: Is hindsight 20/20? Learning from past civilizations
• 2009/07/29: SlashDot: Noctilucent Clouds Likely Caused By Shuttle Launches
• 2009/07/27: SlashDot: Should Copyright of Academic Works Be Abolished?
• 2009/07/26: ClimateP: Turns out humans are not like slowly boiling frogs ... we are like slowly boiling brainless frogs
• 2009/07/26: ClimateP: James Fallows, Physics for Future Presidents, Al Gore, blogging journalists, and what will become of hockey sticks on an ice-free planet?

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

• Navdanya
• COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009
• Google Groups - geoengineering
• USANPN: USA National Phenology Network
• EJ: Earthjustice: Environmental Law: Because the Earth Needs a Good Lawyer
• EnviroMedia Greenwashing Index
• Wiki: Flow Battery
• EPI: Eco-Economy Indicators: Trends to Track
• Congressional Budget Office - Director's Blog
• Andris Piebalgs' blog [European Energy Commissioner with responsibility for shaping European Union (EU) energy policy]
• Wiki: Rossby wave

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

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