Another Week of GW News, September 13, 2009

Sipping from the internet firehose...

skip to bottom

Another week of Climate Disruption News

Logging the Onset of the Bottleneck Years

September 13, 2009

• Chuckle, NorthEast Passage, Post et al., Nicholas Stern, WCC, Manila Conference
• Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica, Tariffs & Taxes, Walker et al., Magnetosphere, Late Comments
• Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production
• Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Aerosols, Paleoclimate, ENSO, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Corals, Wacky Weather, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering
• Journals, Misc. Science, Helm
• Kyoto-2, UN, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
• Politics: Security & GW, Law & Activism
• America, Obama, Britain, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, India, China, Japan, Asia, Africa, Canada
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Video, Courts
• Energy, Wind, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Business, Greenwashing
• Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

Laugh. I dare ya:

• 2009/09/11: uComics: (cartoon - Wiley) Lobbyists Beware
• 2009/09/08: Onion: Thousands Of Abandoned, Foreclosed Homes Threatened By Florida Hurricane
• 2009/09/10: uComics: (cartoon - Rall) Exit Interview: Van Jones

  Two German ships made the NorthEast Passage:

• 2009/09/12: Independent(UK): A triumph for man, a disaster for mankind
  Two ships are finishing the first commercial navigation of the fabled North-east Passage. It is an epic moment -- but also a vivid sign of climate change in the Arctic
• 2009/09/12: Reuters: German ships successfully make "Arctic Passage"
• 2009/09/11: BBC: German ships blaze Arctic trail
  Two German merchant ships are sailing from Asia to Europe via Russia's Arctic coast, having negotiated the once impassable North East Passage. This route is usually frozen but rising temperatures in the region caused by global warming have melted much of the ice allowing large ships to go through. The North East passage has tempted mariners for hundreds of years.
• 2009/09/11: NYT: Arctic Shortcut Beckons Shippers as Ice Thaws
• 2009/09/11: KSJT: AP, NYTimes, etc: Two German ships show that the Northern Route through the Arctic works. (But don't book anything urgent through it)

  The Post et al. article on the repercussions of GW across the Arctic raised a lot of comment:

• 2009/09/11: Science: (ab$) Ecological Dynamics Across the Arctic Associated with Recent Climate Change by Eric Post et al.
• 2009/09/11: CCP: Eric Post et al., Science, Vol. 325, 2009: Ecological dynamics across the Arctic associated with recent climate change
• 2009/09/10: SciAm: The Climate's Warm Future Is Now in the Arctic -- A new survey reveals just how far and how fast global warming is altering the Arctic
• 2009/09/11: CBC: Arctic warming effects spread: study
  Arctic warming is affecting plants, birds, animals and insects as ice melts and the growing season changes, scientists report in a new review of the many impacts climate change is having on the far north. As the global climate changes, the Arctic Circle has been warming faster than other regions and scientists have documented a series of effects on wildlife in the region. Indeed, just last week researchers reported that the Arctic is warmer than it's been in 2,000 years, even though it should be cooling because of changes in the Earth's orbit that cause the region to get less direct sunlight. "The Arctic as we know it may soon be a thing of the past," Eric Post, an associate professor of biology at Penn State University, said in a statement.
• 2009/09/10: PhysOrg: Dramatic biological responses to global warming in the Arctic
• 2009/09/10: Eureka: IPY follow-up requires year-round research on Arctic and global warming
• 2009/09/10: Eureka: Dramatic biological responses to global warming in the Arctic
  "The Arctic as we know it may soon be a thing of the past," says Eric Post, associate professor of biology at Penn State University.

Nicholas Stern delivered some straight talk in Beijing; after endorsing 350:

• 2009/09/13: HotTopic: Stern words in Beijing
• 2009/09/12: ClimateP: Nicholas Stern: "There are many parts of China where emissions intensity and emissions per capita are looking much like some of the richer countries."
• 2009/09/11: Guardian(UK): Stern: Rich nations will have to forget about growth to stop climate change
  Economic expansion cannot be achieved forever if greenhouse gases are to be curbed, warns the leading economist and author of the UK's government's report on climate change
• 2009/09/11: WSJ:EnvCap: Stern Truths: Some Parts of China Have Western-Style Emissions
• 2009/09/09: ClimateP: Nicholas Stern, world's top climate economist, endorses 350 ppm as "a very sensible long-term target."
• 2009/09/09: SolveClimate: Nicholas Stern Latest Climate Expert to Endorse 350 ppm Limit

  Late comment on the WCC:

• 2009/09/10: CSW: New Global Framework for Climate Services should strengthen preparedness [WCC]
• 2009/09/09: RealClimate: Climate Services
• 2009/09/08: IPSNews: Climate Change: Survival Means Anticipating and Adapting
  Imagine being able to know months in advance when and where floods or droughts may occur. That is what over 150 countries participating in the third World Climate Conference, which concluded last Friday in Geneva, pledged to achieve through the creation of a Global Framework for Climate Services

There was an Asian green industry conference in Manila:

• 2009/09/11: EarthTimes: Rich nations urged to help more in fighting climate change
  Manila - Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Friday urged rich nations to help poor countries meet the challenges of climate change. Her appeal came at the end of a three-day international conference on green industry, which was attended by ministers and officials from 22 Asian countries. "We call on all developed countries ... to table their firm post-Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gas targets, taking into account ideals set by the international scientific community," Arroyo told attendees at the UN-sponsored conference in Manila.
• 2009/09/09: EarthTimes: Asian green industry conference kicks off in Philippines

  The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:

• 2009/09/08: Tamino: Arctic Sunlight
• 2009/09/10: Tamino: Arctic Stations
• 2009/09/11: Tamino: Arctic Analysis
• 2009/09/10: CNN: The changing face of the Arctic
  New study on Arctic changing temperatures finds dramatic changes to region - Conducted during Fourth International Polar Year that ended in 2008 - Some animals and plant life benefiting from rising temperatures - Dramatic decline in sea ice threatening iconic species like polar bear
• 2009/09/10: PhysOrg: Greenland's melt mystery unfolds, at glacial pace
• 2009/09/11: DM:80B: When Arctic Sea Ice Melts, Shippers Win and Walruses Lose
• 2009/09/11: TreeHugger: Global Warming has Opened the World's Next Suez Canal [in the Arctic]
• 2009/09/10: UAF:IAB: UA scientists seek new emphases in Arctic climate change research
• 2009/09/11: UHelsinki: The change in Arctic nature foreshadows the global environment of the future
• 2009/09/11: CCP: [transcript] Glaciologist Marco Tedesco talks about Greenland and Antarctica on the Science Show
• 2009/09/10: CanWest: Arctic meltdown above average again
  The Arctic sea ice has retreated to the third-lowest level in recorded history - the fourth time in the past five years that the annual summer meltdown has been far greater than average. Since satellite measurements began in 1979, the summer thaw has left an average of about 7 million square kilometres of the polar ice cover by mid-September. But the ice has already diminished this year to less than 5.3 million square kilometres, with a week or two of melting left to go.
• 2009/09/09: ClimateP: NSIDC: Arctic sea ice extent falls below 2005 minimum, now third lowest on record
• 2009/09/08: KSJT: AP: Up on the Arctic Shore a village tells the world, via wind turbines, what it thinks of the rest of us
• 2009/09/08: DotEarth: Oil Fields and Arctic Ecology
• 2009/09/08: CCP: NSIDC August 2009: Arctic Amplification
• 2009/09/08: CBC: Tuktoyaktuk on front line of climate change

  A spectral Damocles sword hangs overhead:

• 2009/09/08: MongaBay: Russia's plan to mine peatlands for energy could release 113 gigatons of carbon
• 2009/09/06: G&M: 'Bubbling cauldrons of gas'
  Unimaginable quantities of methane -- a greenhouse gas 20 to 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide -- are stored underground in the Arctic. Some of it is leaking out

As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

• 2009/09/10: DerSpiegel: The Arctic Monopoly -- Taking Stock of North Pole Riches
  Oil and natural gas are luring the major powers to the Arctic. The new Great Game includes Russia, the US, Canada and other countries competing for natural resources around the North Pole. More information is available today than ever before about the location and abundance of the region's riches.
• 2009/09/11: DotEarth: Welcome to Earth's 'New' Ocean: The Arctic
• 2009/09/11: TStar: Scientists scale new heights underwater -- Mountain and volcano found at Arctic sea floor
  Breaking through heavy polar ice, a joint mission of Canadian and American scientists has explored unseen areas of Canada's Arctic sea floor, including what looks like an undersea mountain and volcano buried in thick sediment. A joint mission by mapping teams aboard the Canadian Coast Guard's CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent and the U.S. Coast Guard's USCGC Healy in the high Arctic gathered some 40 per cent more data than expected, scientists said by satellite phone from the ships today.
• 2009/09/10: CBC: Arctic ocean mapping mission wraps up
  Researchers aboard Canadian and American icebreakers are nearing the end of their Arctic survey mission and are reporting some interesting findings, including undersea volcanoes. The two countries are conducting their second joint mapping expedition to explore largely unknown parts of the Canada Basin, north of the Beaufort Sea, gathering data on the continental shelf to bolster sovereignty claims. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Healy and the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Louis St. Laurent will return to port in about a week. A similar mission took place last summer.

While in Antarctica:

• 2009/09/10: PhysOrg: CU-Boulder Unmanned Aircraft Buzz Over Gigantic Holes in Antarctic Sea Ice

  Regarding the Carbon Tariff, Carbon Tax and imports issue:

• 2009/09/10: Reuters: Climate deal should not drive jobs offshore -U.N.
• 2009/09/10: FTimes: Sarkozy calls for carbon tax on imports
  Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, renewed his call for a European carbon tax on imports to the bloc on Thursday as he unveiled details of a new charge on fossil fuel products in France. "I will not accept a system ... that imports products from countries that don't respect the rules [on carbon emission reductions]," he said in a speech to factory workers in the eastern Ain region of France. "We need to impose a carbon tax at [Europe's] borders. I will lead that battle."

Walker et al. have pointed out a wee problem:

• 2009/09/11: Science: (ab$) Looming Global-Scale Failures and Missing Institutions by Brian Walker et al.
• 2009/09/11: MTobis: Looming Global-Scale Failures and Missing Institutions
• 2009/09/11: CoralCOE: Man-made crises 'outrunning our ability to deal with them', scientists warn

  A surprise in the magnetosphere:

• 2009/09/09: Eureka: Scientists discover surprise in Earth's upper atmosphere -- a previously unknown basic mode of energy transfer from the solar wind to the Earth's magnetosphere

  Late comment on the G20:

• 2009/09/07: EurActiv: Climate change funding talks stall at G20

  The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2009/09/08: WFP: WFP Speeds Food To West African Flood Victims
• 2009/09/11: WFP: Drought-Stricken Kenyans Struggle For One Meal A Day
• 2009/09/11: UN: Food insecurity in Somalia expected to worsen in coming months, UN warns
• 2009/09/11: UN: Hunger crisis in Guatemala draws mounting concern from UN food agency
• 2009/09/10: BBC: India in the grip of a sugar crisis
  India, the world's largest consumer of sugar, is facing a crisis because of a massive fall in domestic production and a sharp increase in the price of raw sugar worldwide.
• 2009/09/10: UN: Food shortages in Guatemala threaten hundreds of thousands, warns UN agency
• 2009/09/09: CNN: Guatemala declares calamity as food crisis grows
  Declaration will make it easier to get food to those in need, president says - President Alvaro Colom says Guatemala welcomes aid from international community - Guatemala has highest rate of malnutrition in Latin America, U.N. says - Colom blames food problems on drought, global warming, economic crisis
• 2009/09/09: G&M: Starving in silence
  With no machines and all the livestock eaten, quiet lingers in rural areas of [North Korea] nation where 8.7 million face hunger
• 2009/09/09: BBC: Guatemala declares hunger crisis
  Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom has declared a "state of public calamity" to try to mobilise funding to tackle severe food shortages in the country. Officials say 54,000 families living in an area prone to extreme weather are in a critical situation. So far this year, some 25 children are believed to have died of hunger. [...] The worst affected areas are in what is known as the "dry corridor" in the east of the country. Some 54,000 families there are suffering severe food shortages, after the failure of their crops of corn and beans. Authorities say a further 300,000 people in this region could also be heading for shortages of food this year.
• 2009/09/07: SeedDaily: Feeding the world: which countries are most at risk?
• 2009/09/08: TreeHugger: Mexico's Water Shortage Turning Into Food Crisis
• 2009/09/08: AllAfrica: IRIN: Zimbabwe: The Goal in 2010 is Food Security
  The government, NGOs and donor countries in Zimbabwe are rushing to distribute agricultural inputs ahead of the summer rains, but ending donor dependency and returning to food security in 2010 will still be a close-run thing, analysts told IRIN. In the first quarter of 2009 nearly seven million Zimbabweans relied on emergency food aid; initial forecasts by aid agencies are that about 2.8 million people will require food assistance in the last few months leading up to the April 2010 harvest. The unavailability of agricultural inputs like seed and fertilizer during Zimbabwe's economic implosion, as well as unseasonal dry spells, made the country - once known as the breadbasket of southern Africa - dependent on food aid to stave off starvation for several years.
• 2009/09/07: SolveClimate: Corn and Soy -- Crops that Feed the World -- Face Steep Drop Off As Climate Changes

  The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

• 2009/09/06: Reuters: China imports of U.S. DDGS [Distillers' Dried Grains with Solubles] surge; drought hits crop
  China's imports of U.S. DDGS, a by-product of corn ethanol, have surged and the pace is expected to remain strong this year as long as U.S. corn prices remain significantly below that of Chinese corn, industry officials said. China's own corn production has suffered from the most severe drought in half a century, while the United States is expecting its largest ever corn harvest this year, they said.

And how are we going to feed 9 billion?

• 2009/09/11: IRIN: In Brief: Invest more in irrigation to boost food security, urge experts
• 2009/09/07: FAO: Food treasures of the wild in peril
• 2009/09/11: PhysOrg: Top wheat experts call for scaling up efforts to combat Ug99 and other wheat rusts
• 2009/09/10: AlterNet: Michael Pollan: People Are Finally Talking About Food, and You Can Thank Wendell Berry for That
• 2009/09/08: Grist: The Contrarian's Dilemma -- James McWilliams' over-hyped and undercooked anti-locavore polemic
• 2009/09/08: Grist: Globalization threatens indigenous foods, says U.N. agency
• 2009/09/08: AlterNet: When Cocaine and Monsanto's Pesticide Collide, the War on Drugs Becomes a Genetically-Modified War on Science [food]
• 2009/09/08: Guardian(UK): Elimination of food waste could lift 1bn out of hunger, say campaigners
• 2009/09/04: CNN: Feeding the future: Saving agricultural biodiversity
  New multi-million global fund to preserve agricultural biodiversity - Importance highlighted by previous food crises and famines - U.S. has lost 90 percent of fruit and vegetable varieties in last 100 years
• 2009/09/08: TreeHugger: Why GMO Foods Have Failed at Producing Healthy Food for More People
• 2009/09/08: SolveClimate: Scientists Warn International Seed Laws Are Stifling Crop Diversity
  Powerful seed companies and government subsidies are weakening crop diversity and may be destroying some of the very keys to future climate adaptation, a group of researchers warns as the World Seed Conference opens today in Rome.
• 2009/09/07: ProMedMail: Wheat streak mosaic virus - USA: (ND) increase
• 2009/09/07: PhysOrg: Farmers warned to get ready as climate change threatens crops
  Even if global temperatures rise slowly, climate change could slash the yields of some of the world's most important crops almost in half, according to a new study co-authored by an N.C. State University scientist.
• 2009/09/07: Eureka: Half of the fish consumed globally is now raised on farms, study finds

  Several storms blew around the Pacific with little coverage:

• 2009/09/13: EarthTimes: Tropical storms leave 17 dead or missing in Philippines
• 2009/09/10: CBC: Hurricanes Fred and Linda lose steam
• 2009/09/10: NASA: NASA Microwave Image Sees Eyewall Opening in Hurricane Linda

  Fred blew up in the Atlantic without making landfall:

• 2009/09/13: Wunderground: Fred is dead; the Atlantic is quiet
• 2009/09/12: Wunderground: Fred dying; no immediate danger areas in the Atlantic
• 2009/09/11: CBC: Hurricane Fred losing strength
• 2009/09/09: SciNow: Larger Hurricanes Kick Up More Twisters
• 2009/09/10: Wunderground: Fred fading; halfway point of hurricane season reached
• 2009/09/09: CSM: Hurricane Fred veers off. Why the US has been spared so far.
  A surprise El Niño effect is disabling oncoming storms from the east and could make 2009 the first quiet hurricane season in years.
• 2009/09/09: Wunderground: Fred rapidly intensifies; new wunderground storm surge section launched
• 2009/09/09: CBC: Fred becomes Category 3 hurricane
• 2009/09/08: Wunderground: Fred is born; storm surge survival misconceptions

  While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

• 2009/09/11: CBS: Where Are the Hurricanes?
  As Fred Weakens to a Tropical Storm, Forecasters Attribute Dud of a Season So Far to a Weak El Nino
• 2009/09/11: NatureTGB: A year after Ike, Texas school on the upswing
• 2009/09/11: Wunderground: Outlook for the remainder of hurricane season
• 2009/09/08: JapanTimes: Super typhoons in store as seas warm
• 2009/09/08: GaTech: Tornado Threat Increases as Gulf Hurricanes Get Larger

  As for GHGs:

• 2009/09/11: Guardian(UK): CO2 is not the only cause of climate change by Achim Steiner
• 2009/09/11: PhysOrg: Australia overtakes US as biggest [per capita] polluter: report
• 2009/09/08: PEF: It's a small world after all

  In the temperature record:

• 2009/09/10: NOAANews: Summer Temperature Below Average for U.S.

  Aerosols are making their presence felt:

• 2009/09/09: NOAANews: Climate Effects of Atmospheric Haze a Little Less... Hazy

  The hazards of UV due to ozone depletion are rising:

• 2009/09/09: NatureCF: Sunburnt Southern Hemisphere in 2095
• 2009/09/06: CanWest: Ultraviolet radiation will rise 20 per cent, climate scientists warn
  Climate change will so dramatically impact Earth's atmosphere that there could be a 20 per cent increase in the amount of harmful ultraviolet radiation hitting some parts of the planet, scientists are warning. As temperatures climb in coming decades, there will be marked changes in the circulation of the upper atmosphere and distribution of the ozone protecting Earth from the sun's potent ultraviolet radiation, University of Toronto researchers Theodore Shepherd and Michaela Hegglin reported Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience. While the Northern Hemisphere should benefit, they report, southern parts of the planet could experience much higher levels of ultraviolet radiation, which can trigger biological changes and lead to cancer. The changes to the "ozone budget and the ultraviolet index" could be so profound that "air quality, and human and ecosystem health" could all be impacted, they say.
• 2009/09/06: BrisbaneTimes: Climate change boosts ultraviolet risk
  Climate change will disrupt Earth's precious ozone layer, boosting ultraviolet (UV) radiation in the deep southern hemisphere and reducing UV in far northern latitudes, a study warns.

While in the paleoclimate:

• 2009/09/10: PhysOrg: More oxygen -- colder climate
  Everybody talks about CO2 and other greenhouse gases as causes of global warming and the large climate changes we are currently experiencing. But what about the atmospheric and oceanic oxygen content? Which role does oxygen content play in global warming?
• 2009/09/09: NatureN: Chromium isotopes track oxygen's rise -- Early debut for essential gas was followed by an unexpected dip.
• 2009/09/09: SciInsider: Atmospheric rollercoaster followed Great Oxidation Event -- Ancient minerals hint that oxygen levels rose, then fell sharply before rising permanently

  While on the ENSO front:

• 2009/09/10: NOAA:NCEP: El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion
  Synopsis: El Niño is expected to strengthen and last through the Northern Hemisphere winter 2009-2010.
• 2009/09/11: KSJT: Wires, etc: El Niño is, after all, perking up for this winter
• 2009/09/10: ClimateP: NOAA: "El Niño is expected to strengthen and last through the Northern Hemisphere winter 2009-2010"

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2009/09/08: SciAlert: Stemming the rising tide
  From Spizbergen in the Arctic to Charcot Island off the Antarctic coast, more than 150,000 glaciers are melting. They are doing so much quicker than predicted by the Intergovernmental Committee on Climate Change in 2007. Even the Greenland and West Antarctica ice sheets, until recently thought invulnerable to global warming, have begun melting and showing signs of collapse. The melting of the west Antarctic ice shelf and the Greenland ice cap alone would increase sea levels. The effect on sea level by the melting of mountain glaciers and other land-based ice and snow in the Andes, Rocky Mountains, European ranges, the Hindu Kush and Himalayas has not been fully calculated but, combined, this melting of land based snow and ice has the potential to raise sea levels by at least 2-3m by mid century.
• 2009/09/06: IPSNews: South America: Glaciers - Going, Going...Gone?
  South America is perhaps most often associated with the Amazon jungle, the world's largest tropical rainforest. But along its western edge, from Ecuador to southern Chile and Argentina, it also harbours huge glaciers which are rapidly melting due to global warming. The 18,000-year-old Chacaltaya glacier in the Bolivian Andes disappeared in August. Experts had forecast that it would survive until 2015, but it melted sooner than predicted, and what used to be famed as the world's highest ski run, 5,300 metres above sea level, is now a boulder-strewn slope with a few patches of ice near the top.

Sea levels are rising:

• 2009/09/11: CCP: Boston and New York are "directly in the path" of sea level rise
• 2009/09/10: HotTopic: More than a metre
• 2009/09/07: BBC: Seas 'threaten 20m in Bangladesh'
  Up to 20 million people in low-lying Bangladesh are at risk from rising sea levels in the coming decades, according to new research. Scientists predict that salty water could reach far inland, making it hard to cultivate staple foods like rice.

That East Coast sea level story is leading to Gulf Stream wonderments:

• 2009/09/13: PeakEnergy: Gulf Stream Weakening?
• 2009/09/11: CCP: Gulf Stream slows down and sea levels rise two feet higher than predicted this summer in U.S. East

  Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

• 2009/09/09: ESA: ESA campaign reveals glimpse of future Sentinel-3 imagery

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2009/09/09: USGS: Opting Out of Migration: As Climate Warms, Arctic-Nesting Geese Elect to Winter in Alaska Instead of Mexico
• 2009/09/09: PhysOrg: Global warming causes outbreak of rare algae associated with corals, study finds
• 2009/09/10: PhysOrg: Early spring time for Edinburgh? Study predicts effect of global warming on spring flowers
• 2009/09/10: Times(UK): North Sea cod 'doomed by climate change'
• 2009/09/10: Guardian(UK): Gardens of 2050: January cherry blossom and winter buttercup blooms
• 2009/09/10: KSJT: AP, Alaska NPR: With sea free of ice, walruses mothers and young hauling out on polar beaches
• 2009/09/09: ADN: Thousands of walrus haul out onshore as Arctic ice retreats
• 2009/09/09: Guardian(UK): US considers adding Pacific walrus to endangered species list
  Shrinking summer ice from climate change and oil exploration among the threats facing the Pacific walrus
• 2009/09/09: KSJT: Globe and Mail: Canada's coastal bears may have starved to death as salmon runs dwindle
• 2009/09/09: Eureka: River flow and temperature limit trout numbers
• 2009/09/08: Eureka: Arctic oil: A boon for nest predators

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2009/09/11: BBC: Could land law stoke Amazon conflict?
• 2009/09/11: Eureka: Energy consumption makes Spanish forestry unsustainable
• 2009/09/09: TerraDaily: Kenya appeals for 400 mln dollars to save largest forest
• 2009/09/10: Eureka: Oil and wildlife don't mix in Ecuador's Eden
• 2009/09/09: Independent(UK): British energy firm in the dock over Amazon project -- Exploration of remote Peruvian region could spell disaster for hitherto uncontacted tribespeople
• 2009/09/09: UN: UN backs Kenyan appeal for $81 million to restore critical forest area
• 2009/09/08: MongaBay: Concerns over deforestation may drive new approach to cattle ranching in the Amazon
• 2009/09/08: PlanetArk: Indonesia Needs To Refine Forest-CO2 Rules: Lawyers

  Corals are dying:

• 2009/09/06: TreeHugger: Coral Reefs in Danger? Climate Champ to the Rescue

  Yes we have no wacky weather, except:

• 2009/09/08: TerraDaily: Freak 'tornado' kills 16 in Argentina, Brazil
  A violent storm described as a freak "tornado" shredded hundreds of houses and killed at least 16 people in the southern part of South America on Tuesday, officials said. Northern Argentina and southern Brazil, and the small countries of Uruguay and Paraguay wedged between them, were hit by a fierce atmospheric mass packing rain, hail and winds over 120 kilometers (70 miles) per hour. In northeastern Argentina, 10 people died, including seven children, authorities said. More than 50 others were injured, and trees and power lines were toppled in the towns of Santa Rosa, Tobuna and Pozo Azul, said Ricardo Veselka Corrales, head of the local civil defense office. Witnesses and local media described the storm as a tornado. Meteorologists were wary...
• 2009/09/08: BBC: Fourteen dead in S America storm -- A fierce storm has killed at least 14 people in northern Argentina and southern Brazil

  As for heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2009/09/12: CNN: Fallen California firefighters remembered at memorial -- Capt. Ted Hall and firefighter Specialist Arnie Quinones died on August 30
• 2009/09/10: ABC(Au): Australia has a new national warning system for this summer's bushfires, when the worst days will be declared "catastrophic" or "code red"
• 2009/09/09: CNN: California wildfire more than twice the size of Sacramento
  Station fire now double the size of Sacramento, fire officials say - $150,000 reward offered for info leading to person(s) responsible for fatal blaze - Station fire is California's eighth-largest since 1932, forestry officials say
• 2009/09/08: TerraDaily: Italian forest fire rages on Genoa outskirts: official
• 2009/09/08: SciDaily: Pollution From California Wildfires Spreads Across The United States
• 2009/09/08: KSJT: PBS, LATimes, etc: The science angle on the big Station Fire ... habitat lost, climate change at work, forestry practices in spotlight...
• 2009/09/07: SciAlert: Expect a bushfire warning and you can expect disaster
  A persistent complaint from victims of the Black Saturday bushfires was that they had "received no warning". Over and again we heard statements like this: "There was no fire anywhere, but the next thing, we had fire all around us. There was no word of warning, and we never stood a chance."
• 2009/09/08: CBC: Mop-up follows record B.C. fire season

  And speaking of floods & droughts:

• 2009/09/13: BBC: Drying up -- Why the world famous Dead Sea is rapidly shrinking -- Israel mourns the dying Dead Sea
  The Middle East is famously a place of paradoxes, and perhaps the oddest paradox of all is this: the Dead Sea is dying. Edward Stourton, who has been to Israel to investigate, has found the Dead Sea is now shrinking at a terrifying speed with the sea level dropping by more than three feet a year.
• 2009/09/13: Guardian(UK): The last nomads: drought drives Kenya's herders to the brink
  In the isolated border lands between Kenya and Somalia, families have always clung to a precarious existence. Now a decade of droughts has tested their endurance
• 2009/09/08: FAO: India: About half of Indian districts face drought: 278 districts in 11 states have been declared as drought-hit
• 2009/09/12: TStar: Parched: first of two parts -- India: Dying of thirst
  Pollution and an exploding population are drying the subcontinent as never before. Experts warn the problem may only have just begun
• 2009/09/12: G&M: Kenyan farmers watch their livelihoods - and food supply - disappear -- Climate change is believed to be at the heart of the region's droughts
• 2009/09/11: Guardian(UK): Surge of seawater drives Iraqis from their homes in the south
• 2009/09/11: CBC: Heavy rain has Turkey braced for more flooding
• 2009/09/11: UN: UN appeals for $18 million to assist flood victims in Burkina Faso
• 2009/09/10: UN: UN helps Kenya prepare for potential floods due to El Niño
• 2009/09/10: UN: Around 88,000 people displaced by floods in Burkina Faso, UN reports
• 2009/09/10: TerraDaily: [Guatemalan] President [Alvaro Colom] declares 'public calamity' as drought, famine worsen
• 2009/09/09: TerraDaily: 31 dead as record floods deluge Istanbul
• 2009/09/10: EarthTimes: Eight still missing after lethal floods in Turkey [31 dead]
• 2009/09/09: NYT: Flooding Kills at Least 31 in Turkey
• 2009/09/10: Guardian(UK): It will take an international effort to solve Iraq's water crisis
  A reconstruction effort to match the 20 years of destruction should be a top priority
• 2009/09/09: Guardian(UK): At least 20 killed as sudden floods sweep Istanbul
• 2009/09/09: ABC(Au): International experts view lower Murray plight
  International water experts are making a boat trip in South Australia's lower Murray region today to see first-hand the plight of the drought-affected lower lakes and Coorong wetlands. About 30 Australian and international water conference delegates are on the field trip, which is part of their five-day meeting in the area to assess emerging climate change effects on key river systems globally.
• 2009/09/09: JFleck: How Dry Southern California?
• 2009/09/08: TerraDaily: Turkish And African Floods Claim Many Lives
• 2009/09/09: EarthTimes: At least 30 dead in further flooding in Turkey - Summary
• 2009/09/09: EarthTimes: At least 11 dead in overnight flooding in Turkey
• 2009/09/09: RawStory: 31 dead as record floods deluge Istanbul
• 2009/09/09: BBC: Turks swept away in flash floods
  At least 23 people have been killed and a number of others are missing after flash floods in north-west Turkey.
• 2009/09/09: CBC: Flash flooding kills 20 in Istanbul
• 2009/09/08: CNN: West Africa flooding affects 600,000, U.N. reports
  U.N. begins distributing food to tens of thousands of homeless flood victims - U.N. says 159 have died due to flooding; key infrastructure damaged - Waterborne diseases like cholera are a concern, U.N. official says - "It is always the poor and vulnerable who suffer the most from floods," official says
• 2009/09/08: UN: Floods affect 600,000 people across West Africa, UN reports
• 2009/09/08: EarthTimes: Five dead from storm in Turkey
• 2009/09/08: EarthTimes: UN: Nearly 600,000 affected by West Africa floods
• 2009/09/06: NYT: Drought Hinders Austin Tourist Stop, and Salamanders Too
• 2009/09/07: NYT: Lush Land Dries Up, Withering Kenya's Hopes
• 2009/09/07: LA Times: Mexico water shortage becomes crisis amid drought
  Crops are wilting in the countryside, and the capital's water shortage has turned dire as Mexico grapples with its worst drought in more than half a century.
• 2009/09/06: MTobis: Saying Things Twice
• 2009/09/07: EarthTimes: Aid efforts under way to help flood victims in West Africa
• 2009/09/06: EarthTimes: Around 350,000 displaced by flooding in West and Central Africa

  Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2009/09/11: Guardian(UK): Aboriginal fire management cuts CO2 in Australia
• 2009/09/08: Guardian(UK): Biochar is a good tool for climate mitigation
• 2009/09/08: Xinhuanet: Climate change mitigation offers growth chances: UN report
• 2009/09/08: TreeHugger: Restoring Ecosystems Biggest Untapped Ally in Fighting Climate Change, New Report Says

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2009/09/10: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Streetcars are popping up all over!
• 2009/09/09: BBC: Cities urge high-speed rail link
  A £34bn high-speed rail network planned from London to Scotland should connect to similar lines already in Europe, city officials have said. Leaders from 11 UK cities have backed plans which would cut journey times.

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

• 2009/09/13: PeakEnergy: GE's Net-zero energy house
• 2009/09/10: SolveClimate: How Green Retrofits Could Save the World
• 2009/09/11: CBC: Geothermal heating, cooling for new Charlottetown hotel
• 2009/09/09: SF Gate: Green buildings standard seen as flawed

  As for carbon sequestration:

• 2009/09/07: PeakEnergy: CCS: The planet-saver that's still just a pipe dream

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2009/09/12: NewScientist: Better world: Find out if we can cool the planet

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2009/09/10: AGWObserver: Papers on global cloud cover trends
• 2009/09/11: AGWObserver: Papers on climate predictions of 1970's
• 2009/09/11: TCD: An efficient regional energy-moisture balance model for simulation of the Greenland ice sheet response to climate change by A. Robinson et al.
• 2009/09/11: ACP: Land use change suppresses precipitation by W. Junkermann et al.
• 2009/09/11: ACPD: Methane and nitrous oxide emissions in The Netherlands: ambient measurements support the national inventories by S. van der Laan et al.
• 2009/09/10: ACPD: AMALi - the Airborne Mobile Aerosol Lidar for Arctic research by I. S. Stachlewska et al.
• 2009/09/10: ACPD: Regional-scale correlation between CO2 fire emissions, burned areas, and mid-tropospheric CO2 daily variations over southern Africa by A. Chédin et al.
• 2009/09/11: Science: (ab$) Ecological Dynamics Across the Arctic Associated with Recent Climate Change by Eric Post et al.
• 2009/09/11: CP: Rapid climatic variability in the west Mediterranean during the last 25 000 years from high resolution pollen data by N. Combourieu Nebout et al.
• 2009/09/11: CP: Changes in atmospheric variability in a glacial climate and the impacts on proxy data: a model intercomparison by F. S. R. Pausata et al.
• 2009/09/07: CPD: Using data assimilation to study extratropical Northern Hemisphere climate over the last millennium by M. Widmann et al.
• 2009/09/11: Science: (ab$) Looming Global-Scale Failures and Missing Institutions by Brian Walker et al.
• 2009/09/08: TCD: Simulation of the specific surface area of snow using a one-dimensional physical snowpack model: implementation and evaluation for subarctic snow in Alaska by H. W. Jacobi et al.
• 2009/09/04: GRL: (ab$) Recent changes in freezing level heights in the Tropics with implications for the deglacierization of high mountain regions by Raymond S. Bradley et al.
• 2009/08/19: CC: Irrigated afforestation of the Sahara and Australian Outback to end global warming by Leonard Ornstein et al.
• 2009/09/08: AGWObserver: Papers on the MWP as Global Event
• 2009/09/09: ACP: Limb scatter ozone retrieval from 10 to 60 km using a multiplicative algebraic reconstruction technique by D. A. Degenstein et al.
• 2009/09/09: ACP: Comparison of a global-climate model simulation to a cloud-system resolving model simulation for long-term thin stratocumulus clouds by S. S. Lee et al.
• 2009/09/08: ACP: IASI temperature and water vapor retrievals -- error assessment and validation by N. Pougatchev et al.
• 2009/09/09: ACPD: Increase of upper troposphere/lower stratosphere wave baroclinicity during the second half of the 20th century by J. M. Castanheira et al.
• 2009/09/09: ACPD: Lagrangian mixing in an axisymmetric hurricane model by B. Rutherford et al.
• 2009/09/09: ACPD: Modeling the transport of very short-lived substances into the tropical upper troposphere and lower stratosphere by J. Aschmann et al.
• 2009/09/: ACEEE: (ab$) Energy Efficiency in the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009: Impacts of Current Provisions and Opportunities to Enhance the Legislation by Rachel Gold et al.
• 2009/09/03: GRL: (ab$) Variability in tornado frequency associated with U.S. landfalling tropical cyclones by James I. Belanger et al.
• 2009/09/09: CCP: A.R. Ganguly et al., PNAS 2009, Higher trends but larger uncertainty and geographic variability in 21st century temperature and heat waves

  And other significant documents:

• 2009/09/04: ETCGroup: [link to 120k pdf] The Royal Society's Report on Geoengineering the Climate: Geoengineering or Geopiracy?

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

• 2009/09/12: Guardian(UK): Peer review is flawed but the best we've got by Ben Goldacre
• 2009/09/09: MBARI: New robot [Benthic Rover] travels across the seafloor to monitor the impact of climate change on deep-sea ecosystems
• 2009/09/08: NOAANews: NOAA's Powerful New Supercomputers Boost U.S. Weather Forecasts
• 2009/09/09: PhysOrg: New robot [Benthic Rover] travels across the seafloor to monitor the impact of climate change on deep-sea ecosystems
• 2009/09/08: NatureTGB: Peer review reviewed
• 2009/09/08: PhysOrg: Using microbes for the quick clean up of dirty oil

  Dieter Helm interview:

• 2009/09/07: NatureCF: Interview: Dieter Helm

  Meanwhile on the road to Copenhagen:

• 2009/09/10: Time: Behind India's Intransigence on Climate-Change Talks
• 2009/09/10: EnvFin: EU reveals financing proposal for Copenhagen summit
• 2009/09/10: CCurrents: Global Climate Change Summit: Bumpy Road To Copenhagen
• 2009/09/11: PlanetArk: S.Korea Not Optimistic About Copenhagen Meeting
• 2009/09/11: Grist: India says not a disaster if Copenhagen climate talks fail
  India's environment minister said the country will not agree to binding emission targets and that it would not be a disaster if global climate change talks in December fail. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said India could not compromise on its domestic commitments by agreeing to binding emissions cuts, which it has rejected on the grounds that they hamper economic growth.
• 2009/09/10: PlanetArk: Global Climate Deal Only 50:50 Chance: Flannery
• 2009/09/10: Yahoo:Reuters: September U.N. summit [in NYC] seen key to climate deal
• 2009/09/10: TerraDaily: UN climate talks could fail, EU ministers warn
• 2009/09/11: NYT: Nations Remain Divided on Global Warming Policy, U.S. Negotiator [Todd Stern] Says
• 2009/09/09: Grist: Japan election a shot in the arm for climate talks
• 2009/09/09: Forbes:Reuters: Brazil says US climate goal unacceptable
  Brazil's Environment Minister Carlos Minc said Wednesday that U.S. targets for greenhouse gas emissions are unacceptably weak...
• 2009/09/08: Reuters: Prospects for UN climate deal brighter-[UNFCCC head, Yvo] de Boer
• 2009/09/09: Xinhuanet: China reiterates developed countries should massively cut greenhouse gas emissions
• 2009/09/08: Reuters: Climate treaty hinges on China and India: Denmark
• 2009/09/08: TerraDaily: Denmark to help Maldives attend climate talks: minister
• 2009/09/08: TerraDaily: Time to negotiate seriously on climate: European powers
• 2009/09/09: OilChange: Aviation Emissions "Should be Capped at Copenhagen"
• 2009/09/04: DerSpiegel: German Climate Adviser -- 'Industrialized Nations Are Facing CO2 Insolvency'
  In a SPIEGEL ONLINE interview, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, the German government's climate protection adviser, argues that drastic measures must be taken in order to prevent a catastrophe. He is proposing the creation of a CO2 budget for every person on the planet, regardless whether they live in Berlin or Beijing.
• 2009/09/08: WaPo: Developing World's Energy Needs Set Stage for Fight [at Copenhagen]
• 2009/09/08: Guardian(UK): A green deal for rich and poor nations by Helen Clark
• 2009/09/07: TerraDaily: Japanese carbon cut may change UN climate poker
• 2009/09/08: Rabble: The road to Copenhagen going off the cliff
• 2009/09/08: BBC: Climate deal is 'in the balance'
  Prospects for reaching a new global deal on climate change are "in the balance", according to UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband. There is a "real chance" that December's UN summit in Copenhagen will not reach agreement, he said. Mr Miliband was briefing reporters prior to a whirlwind tour of European capitals aimed at stepping up EU diplomacy on the Copenhagen process.
• 2009/09/07: TreeHugger: Japan Steps Up Its Greenhouse Gas Pledge. Will the U.S. Step Up Now, Too?

  While at the UN:

• 2009/09/10: UN: Fight against climate change enters UN official's [Rajendra Pachauri] daily life
  Criss-crossing the globe to make the case for the need to combat global warming means that Rajendra K. Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), must find other ways to halt the damage being done to the planet.
• 2009/09/10: UN: Carbon credit scheme could propel action on climate change -- UN
• 2009/09/08: Guardian(UK): UN conference to hear about News of the World tree-planting push -- Seeds for Schools campaign aims to get schools in the UK to plant 1 million trees
• 2009/09/08: PlanetArk: EU Proposes U.N. War Chest For Climate Funds

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2009/09/09: BBerg: CO2 Auction Prices Set to Fall Amid Senate Delays [RGGI]
• 2009/09/09: WSJ:EnvCap: RGGI Bar: How Low Can You Go?
• 2009/09/08: Guardian(UK): Personal carbon trading: the next step in tackling carbon emissions?

  The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

• 2009/09/13: NewScientist: Better world: Tax carbon and give the money to the people
• 2009/09/11: NatureN: France unveils carbon tax -- Nature talks to climatologist Jean Jouzel about the plans
• 2009/09/10: Guardian(UK): Sarkozy launches carbon tax to help 'save the human race'
• 2009/09/10: MongaBay: France announces 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:

• 2009/09/10: WSJ:EnvCap: Cap-and-Trade: Recipe for Disaster, Economist [Joseph Mason] Says
• 2009/09/10: SolveClimate: Friends of the Earth: Why It's 'Suicide to Base Our Future on Offsets'

  As for GW & security:

• 2009/09/11: ClimateP: Operation Free: Defending America from the threat of climate change
• 2009/09/11: TP:WR: Operation Free: Defending America From The Threat Of Climate Change
• 2009/09/09: Guardian(UK): NATO's green self-interest
  NATO suddenly appears exercised about the state of the planet -- but fighting climate change may not be its sole motivation

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

• 2009/09/11: SolveClimate: Aussie Activists Target World's Most-Polluting Coal Plant [Latrobe Valley]
• 2009/09/13: ABC(Au): 22 arrested at power station protest
  Victorian police have arrested 22 climate change protesters at a Latrobe Valley power station today. Hundreds of activists have marched through police roadblocks at the Hazelwood power station, demanding it be shut down.
• 2009/09/11: CCP: Blowpipes thwart Borneo's biofuel kings
  Hundreds of Borneo tribes men armed with blowpipes are blockading roads in protest against companies they accuse of destroying their rainforests to grow oil palms for 'green' biofuel, cooking oil, soap and margarine. The confrontation is taking place in the endangered forests of the Malaysian state of Sarawak, where members of the Penan tribe have existed for centuries as nomadic hunter-gatherers living on fish, wild animals and plants.

And on the American political front:

• 2009/09/13: ClimateP: Radical, racist signs featured at 9/12 march on DC -- and one vindicating my birther-denier link
• 2009/09/11: WarmingLaw: Supreme Court Justices Say the Darnedest Things [US pol]
• 2009/09/08: NYT:GW: RFK Jr., Enviros Clash Over Mojave Solar Proposal
  [...] [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] is at the center of a nasty dispute among environmental groups, energy developers and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) over the future of federal lands in the sun-soaked Mojave Desert. The Mojave's 22,000 square miles straddle California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah. Given its elevation, heat, aridity and proximity to population centers on the California coast, the region is viewed by many as the ideal venue in North America for building a new generation of large solar-thermal power plants, especially in a state where utilities are required to get 20 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2010 and likely 33 percent by 2020. Among the leaders in a group of aggressive solar prospectors is an Oakland-based company called BrightSource Energy Inc., which has been making a splash lately for its plans to build 2.6 gigawatts of power for California's investor-owned utilities, much of it to be located -- on paper, at least -- in the Mojave Desert. But some California-based activists are worried that solar developers like BrightSource are getting a free pass in a headlong rush to build clean energy and capitalize on federal stimulus dollars now available for such projects. These activists have enlisted Feinstein to push for the declaration of a national monument in the desert and intend to unveil legislation with the senator in September that would apparently protect 1 million acres in the eastern Mojave to limit development. Enter Kennedy, who calls the national monument, as it is likely to be drawn, a bad idea. To Kennedy, the instinct to protect local ecosystems has collided with the goals of a progressive national energy policy.
• 2009/09/11: NYT:CW: One City Flirts With Lowering Its Defenses in a Stormy Future
  New Bedford, Mass. -- A hurricane barrier stretches 3 1/2 miles here, for years breaking storm-driven waves at a yawning river mouth as seas surge toward the smelly scallop fleet and old houses on the hill. Now the snaking structure also threatens to break the bank. The city says it can't afford to inspect its part of the system, a move that could push the federal government to decertify the entire barrier. Without the probing checkup, officials won't know if the guts of the fortification -- like swinging steel street gates and the earthen interior of the ocean-cutting levees -- would stand up to rising sea levels and future hurricanes, which many scientists believe are strengthening. More flooding could occur. A severe storm hasn't spun onto the southern coast of Massachusetts in decades, softening the memories of sunken trawlers and drowned streets.
• 2009/09/11: Reuters: California struggles with renewable energy goal
• 2009/09/11: WFP: Green Jobs-Green New York Act passes Senate
  Bill to fund energy efficiency improvements to one million homes and businesses awaits governor's expected signature
• 2009/09/09: GreenGrok: Weird Political Science
• 2009/09/10: ClimateP: 100 clean energy jobs at closed auto plant? Looks good to Michigan
• 2009/09/10: ClimateP: Clean Energy Works launches: New grassroots effort unites faith, labor, veterans, environmental, sportsmen, business, youth, farm, and community groups to fight for for clean air, clean water, clean energy job bill
• 2009/09/10: TreeHugger: Offshore Wind Power Group Promotes Interstate Collaboration to Jumpstart US Development
• 2009/09/10: DeSmogBlog: New Report Urges U.S. To Avoid Reliance on International Carbon Offsets
• 2009/09/08: CSW: Peter Gleick on "New McCarthyism: Fear of science and the war on rationality"
• 2009/09/08: ClimateP: Duke's Jim Rogers: "Green jobs put people to work, achieve long-term cost savings and ease demand on limited resources... Performing every job in a more sustainable manner, however, must begin with a mandate from leaders..."
• 2009/09/08: Oregonian: Stimulus money to train scientists to store carbon to fight global warming
• 2009/09/08: ClimateP: Fox News blurts out its agenda: "Now that Jones has resigned, we need to follow through... First, stop cap-and-trade, which could send these groups trillions," and then put "the whole corrupt 'green jobs' concept outside the bounds of the political mainstream."

  I haven't seen much about this yet, but I expect the noise level will rise:

• 2009/09/11: PlanetArk: White House, Oil, Gas Industry Spar Over Taxes [tax breaks, subsidies etc]
• 2009/09/11: WSJ:EnvCap: Team Obama: U.S. Invests Too Much in Oil and Gas

  The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2009/09/11: UNDispatch: Obama Plans 2 1/2 days at the UN
• 2009/09/10: ClimateP: Obama to speak at U.N. special session on global warming; Todd Stern testifies "Nothing the U.S. can do is more important for the international negotiation process than passing robust, comprehensive clean energy legislation as soon as possible... President Obama and the Secretary of State, along with our entire Administration, are committed to action on this issue."
• 2009/09/11: TreeHugger: Obama to Give First Big Climate Change Speech [at end of Sept.]
• 2009/09/09: ClimateP: Sure Obama ended the Bush depression, cut taxes for 98% of working families, and jumpstarted the shift to a clean energy economy with a $100 billion in stimulus funds -- but what has the green FDR done lately?
• 2009/09/09: PhysOrg: Wind power: Obama's promises just hot air so far
  President Barack Obama is still at least a year away from seeing wind turbines take root anywhere off the U.S. coast, even though his administration has promised to make offshore wind a priority, and even though developers are lining up to string wind farms up and down the Atlantic seaboard. The administration, delayed by controversy and red tape, has made "clean energy" one of its top policy pushes but has yet to grant a single permit for wind or solar development on public land, onshore or off. Administration officials say the first solar permits won't come until at least next year, and that the first offshore wind farm is also likely a year or two away.
• 2009/09/09: WaPo: Environmental Groups Wait to See Definitive Action From Obama
• 2009/09/08: ClimateP: In Labor Day speech, Obama says we must build "an America where energy reform creates green jobs that can never be outsourced and that finally frees America from the grip of foreign oil" -- attacks the "status quo" special interests who want to "do nothing."
• 2009/09/02: WaPo:CWG: Obama Needs to Give a Climate Speech - ASAP
• 2009/09/06: ClimateP: Can Obama deliver health and energy security with a half (assed) message?

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2009/09/11: GreenGrok: EPA's Latest Coal Waste Installment: More Ponds. Less Worry?
• 2009/09/11: Grist: EPA says pending mountaintop-removal permits would violate Clean Water Act
• 2009/09/11: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Obama Administration Comes out in Support of Key International Provisions in Climate Bill
• 2009/09/10: ClimateP: EIA: Clean air, clean water, clean energy jobs bill would make America more energy independent, cutting U.S. foreign oil bill $650 billion through 2030, saving $5,600 per household
• 2009/09/09: TP:WR: Pollution-Powered Blanche Lincoln Takes Over Agriculture Committee
• 2009/09/09: Reuters: [US Interior Secretary Ken] Salazar says U.S. climate bill high on agenda

  Van Jones' resignation has come in for a lot of comment:

• 2009/09/09: TP: Beck's Character Assassination Campaign Against Van Jones Was Fueled By AFP's Efforts To Kill Green Jobs
• 2009/09/09: DeSmogBlog: The Right Wing Attack Machine Behind the Van Jones Affair
• 2009/09/08: Guardian(UK): The toxicity of truth
  The fall of Van Jones is an example of the White House failing to innoculate itself against the rage of the paranoid right
• 2009/09/08: HillHeat: White House Green Jobs Advisor Van Jones Resigns
• 2009/09/08: DemNow: White House Environmental Adviser Van Jones Resigns Citing "Vicious Smear Campaign Against Me"
• 2009/09/07: OLJ: Obama Has fed his Green Jones to King CONG
• 2009/09/08: AlterNet: Big Business's Hidden Hand in the Smear Job on Van Jones

  The Obama EPA has made a gesture towards stopping MTR: Mountaintop Removal. We'll see if they mean it:

• 2009/09/11: Grist: EPA says pending mountaintop-removal permits would likely violate Clean Water Act
• 2009/09/11: SolveClimate: EPA Requesting Closer Review of 79 Mountaintop Mining Permits
• 2009/09/11: Guardian(UK): White House action puts on hold dozens of mountaintop mining projects
• 2009/09/11: NRDC:SwitchBoard: EPA Puts Brakes on Mountaintop Removal
• 2009/09/11: TreeHugger: EPA Reviews Permits for 79 Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining Operations
• 2009/09/09: Grist: A moment of truth for Appalachia, Obama and EPA on mountaintop removal coal mining
• 2009/09/09: ClimateP: EPA blocks permit for giant mountaintop removal mine
• 2009/09/09: NRDC:SwitchBoard: EPA Steps in to Stop Massive Mountaintop Removal Permit
• 2009/09/09: TP: EPA blocks permit for giant mountaintop removal mine

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2009/09/12: ClimateP: Much ado about not much: New Ag Chairwoman may not change Senate dynamic on climate bill push
• 2009/09/11: Grist: Is Sen. Baucus of Montana standing in the way of swift, strong climate action?
• 2009/09/12: Tamino: Conservative Republican [John Warner]
• 2009/09/11: MoJo: The Melting Climate Change Deadline -- Has cap-and-trade legislation stalled in the Senate?
• 2009/09/11: HillHeat: Senate Watch: Boxer, Brown, Chambliss, Durbin, Feingold, Grassley, Johanns, Lincoln, Nelson, Rockefeller
• 2009/09/10: GreenGrok: On the Climate Bill Fence: Senator Dick Lugar
• 2009/09/10: TreeHugger: Sen. Blanche Lincoln Takes Over Agriculture Committee: Bad News for Climate Bill, Good News for Big Ag?
• 2009/09/10: NewScientist: Revealed: how Congress members sound off about science
• 2009/09/08: SolveClimate: [US] Senate Returns with No Clear Plan for Climate Bill Allowances

  And the Senate version of Waxman-Markey?

• 2009/09/11: NRDC:SwitchBoard: More good news for climate protection: Study finds benefits swamp the costs
• 2009/09/11: TreeHugger: Climate Bill Will Save Each US Household $5,600 Due to Reduced Oil Imports: EIA
• 2009/09/10: Economist: The cap-and-trade bill -- Waiting for the other shoe to drop
• 2009/09/10: TP:WR: Waxman-Markey Creates $1.5 Trillion In Benefits
• 2009/09/09: WSJ:EnvCap: Nukes Will Be Part of Senate Energy Bill, Boxer Says
• 2009/09/09: NewScientist: Success of US climate bill hinges on health care reform
• 2009/09/08 WisBusiness: Feingold: Cap-and-trade bill could hurt Wisconsin
• 2009/09/08: WSJ:EnvCap: Waxman-Markey: Benefits Far Outweigh Costs, New [CPI] Study Finds
• 2009/09/06: NYT: Natural Gas Hits a Roadblock in New Energy Bill
  The natural gas industry has enjoyed something of a winning streak in recent years. It found gigantic new reserves, low prices are encouraging utilities to substitute gas for coal, and cities are switching to buses fueled by natural gas. But its luck has run out in Washington, where the industry is having trouble making its case to Congress as it writes an energy bill to tackle global warming. For all its pronouncements that gas could be used to replace aging, inefficient coal-fired power plants -- and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the process -- lawmakers from coal-producing states appear committed to keeping coal as the nation's primary producer of power.
• 2009/09/07: TreeHugger: Natural Gas Getting Boxed Out of Climate Bill

  What are the lobbyists pushing?

• 2009/09/08: WaPo: [Clean Energy Works] Coalition Launches Campaign to Pass Climate Bill
• 2009/09/09: WashingtonIndependent: Broad New Coalition Aims to Keep Climate Bill on the Radar This Fall
• 2009/09/07: Grist: Climate and dirty-energy groups were busy over summer vacation

  While in the UK:

• 2009/09/09: CFO: Aviation emissions should drop to 2005 levels by 2050 - UK body
  Global aviation emissions must be included in any climate deal agreed at Copenhagen, a key body advising the UK government has said. In a letter to the UK's environment and transport ministries, likely to feed into the government's negotiating position for the UN talks in the Danish capital in December, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) said greenhouse gas emissions from flights could increase in the short to medium term, to be offset by reductions in other sectors. But emissions from the aviation sector should be capped and reduced to 2005 levels by 2050. If left unchecked, the CCC warned, flights could account for 15-20% of all carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2050, up from an estimated 1.9-2.4% today
.
• 2009/09/12: Guardian(UK): Plan for energy co-ops to cut fuel bills by 20%
• 2009/09/11: TreeHugger: UK Faces Blackouts by 2016 Due to Lack of Clean Energy
• 2009/09/10: BBC: The British public has become more sceptical about climate change over the last five years, according to a survey
• 2009/09/11: BBC: UK 'could face blackouts by 2016'
  The government's new energy adviser says the UK could face blackouts by 2016 because green energy is not coming on stream fast enough. Ministers have previously denied that the UK is heading for an energy gap. But David MacKay, who takes up his post at the Department of Energy on 1 October, says that the public keep objecting to energy projects. This, he says, is creating a huge problem, which could turn out the lights.
• 2009/09/10: EurActiv: Miliband calls for EU 'environmental union' on climate
  In an exclusive commentary for EurActiv, UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband calls on EU leaders to show more ambition in their efforts to close a new UN-sponsored climate treaty this December and suggests that EU countries embark on a new "environmental union".
• 2009/09/10: NewStatesman: Emission impossible?
  Ed Miliband will need all the political skills he can muster to get a deal in Copenhagen
• 2009/09/10: BBC: Ministry push for low-carbon cars
  The UK must develop the world's leading ultra-low carbon vehicle (LCV) industry, according to Science Minister Lord Drayson
• 2009/09/10: Guardian(UK): Flight of fancy shot down
  The thoroughly independent committee on climate change has ministers running for cover with a call for higher taxes on air passengers
• 2009/09/09: Guardian(UK): Cost of air travel 'must rise to deter people from flying'
  Government advisory body on climate change says ticket prices should rise to ensure emissions fall to 2005 levels
• 2009/09/09: Guardian(UK): No immediate increase in flight taxes, transport secretary says
  Lord Adonis defends third Heathrow runway and rejects additional levy to dissuade passengers from air travel
• 2009/09/09: Guardian(UK): Ministers urged to cap aviation emissions to meet carbon targets
• 2009/09/09: BBC: Cities urge high-speed rail link
  A £34bn high-speed rail network planned from London to Scotland should connect to similar lines already in Europe, city officials have said. Leaders from 11 UK cities have backed plans which would cut journey times.
• 2009/09/08: BBC: [UK] Greens set sights on Westminster
• 2009/09/08: BBC: Planes 'to reset climate targets'
  The UK may have to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 90% by 2050 so the aviation sector can continue to grow. That is the warning from the government's official climate advisers, the Climate Change Committee (CCC).
• 2009/09/08: Guardian(UK): UK lined up to be Europe's carbon [storage] capital -- Storage of carbon dioxide could bring in £5bn a year, say scientists
• 2009/09/08: UNDispatch: Brothers Miliband take the climate show on the road
• 2009/09/07: Guardian(UK): [UK foreign secretary] David Miliband sets out to shock on global warming tour

  And in Europe:

• 2009/09/10: EnvFin: France unveils carbon dioxide tax
• 2009/09/10: EnvFin: Disruption feared over Norway-Sweden green power plans
  The Norwegian and Swedish governments have agreed to create a unified green certificate market, reviving a long-stalled proposal. But a leading broker has warned that the plan -- if not carefully implemented -- could lead to disruption in Sweden's green power market. On Monday, the two governments announced that, from 2012, Norway would link up with Sweden's existing el-cert market, which is designed to boost renewable energy consumption by 25TWh a year by 2020, compared with consumption in 2002. Details on how the tie-up will operate are yet to be elaborated...
• 2009/09/10: DerSpiegel: The World From Berlin -- German Nuclear Scandal is 'Hair-Raising and Unforgivable'
  Fresh allegations about government misconduct involving a controversial nuclear waste storage facility at Gorleben have rekindled political debate about atomic energy in Germany, just weeks before the country goes to the polls. Media commentators speculate that the issue could affect the national election.
• 2009/09/11: EurActiv: Commission unveils first climate aid blueprint
  The EU could offer 2-15 billion euros a year to help developing countries fight climate change and adapt to its predicted devastating consequences, the European Commission said yesterday (10 September).
• 2009/09/11: EUO:Digger: Copenhagen climb-down
  A general scaling-down of ambition in tackling global heating is taking place ahead of the COP-15 -- the Fifteenth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in Copenhagen in December.
• 2009/09/11: EUO: EU criticised for 'inadequate' climate fund
• 2009/09/11: EarthTimes: European foreign ministers weigh into climate debate
• 2009/09/09: PressEurop: Global Warming -- The 100 billion euro plan
• 2009/09/11: NYT: Europe Tamps Down Expectations on Climate Funds
• 2009/09/10: Guardian(UK): Schellnhuber: developed countries are 'carbon insolvent'
  Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Germany's climate adviser and respected physicist, shares his stark but simple view of how much CO2 we can emit by 2050.
• 2009/09/10: Guardian(UK): Europe must pay 15bn euros in climate aid, says top environment official
  Rich countries should pay 100bn euros a year by 2020 to cover the cost of climate change in developing countries, and the EU should contribute up to 15bn euros, says [EU environment commissioner] Stavros Dimas
• 2009/09/11: ABC(Au): Sarkozy launches green tax plan
  French President Nicolas Sarkozy has launched plans for a carbon tax to encourage industry and households to cut energy consumption. The levy, initially set at 17 euros ($29) per tonne of carbon dioxide emissions, will translate into a rise in the price of fuel for cars, domestic heating and factories.
• 2009/09/10: PhysOrg: EU to step up efforts for new global climate pact
• 2009/09/09: NYT: More in Europe Look to Carbon Tax to Curb Emissions
• 2009/09/10: EarthTimes: EU presents 100-billion-euro climate change bill - Summary
• 2009/09/10: EarthTimes: France to impose carbon tax in 2010, Sarkozy says - Summary
• 2009/09/10: BBC: France set to impose carbon tax
  French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced plans for a new carbon tax aimed at combating global warming. The tax will be introduced next year and will cover the use of oil, gas and coal, he said. The new tax will be 17 euros (£15) per tonne of emitted carbon dioxide (CO2). It will be phased in gradually. It will apply to households as well as enterprises, but not to the heavy industries and power firms included in the EU's emissions trading scheme. Most electricity in France - excluded from the new carbon tax - is nuclear generated.
• 2009/09/10: BBC: The European Commission says the EU should provide $2-15bn each year to help poor countries protect themselves against impacts of climate change
• 2009/09/09: EurActiv: Greens urge resource efficiency boost
  Europe needs political courage to put resource productivity at the forefront of its post-Lisbon Strategy vision as China and the US are becoming the "big movers" in the ecological modernisation of the global economy, the Greens said yesterday (8 September).
• 2009/09/09: EurActiv: EU cuts funding plan for post-Kyoto climate deal
  The European Union has scaled back plans to give billions of euros to poor countries to persuade them to help battle climate change, putting pressure on developing nations to raise their own contributions to a post-Kyoto agreement later this year. Funding from rich nations to the developing world has emerged as the main stumbling block to progress in climate negotiations ahead of international talks in Copenhagen in December.
• 2009/09/09: NatureTGB: Europe offers (some) climate aid / UK calls for action
• 2009/09/08: EurActiv: EU ready to shoulder a quarter of global climate funding
• 2009/09/08: EurActiv: Nordic green power certificate becomes reality
• 2009/09/07: EurActiv: Barroso's green industrial agenda fails to impress
  The EU will embark on a radical decarbonisation of its transport and electricity sectors to retain leadership on climate change in the run-up to 2020, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said as he outlined the EU executive's priorities for the next five years. But environmentalists remain sceptical.
• 2009/09/07: EurActiv: Economist slams EU climate policy as ineffective
  The EU's climate legislation risks turning into a "grossly distorting and expensive policy" unless it is seriously revamped, a leading British academic has warned. In a paper released on 3 September by the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford, Professor Dieter Helm argued that the EU's climate change and energy package is little more than "a politically neat but economically inefficient set of targets". The design of the package is "inevitably flawed", Helm wrote. It is "based on carbon production, not consumption, thereby sidestepping Europe's responsibilities towards the developing world," the paper argued.
• 2009/09/07: EurActiv: EU chief: 'Energy and climate are today's coal and steel'
  European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, who is running for a second term at the EU executive's helm, likened EU policies to address climate change and improve energy security to the coal and steel community, which paved the way for European reconciliation after the Second World War.

Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2009/09/13: ABC(Au): 22 arrested at power station protest
  Victorian police have arrested 22 climate change protesters at a Latrobe Valley power station today. Hundreds of activists have marched through police roadblocks at the Hazelwood power station, demanding it be shut down.
• 2009/09/13: ABC(Au): Queensland's Coordinator-General has signed off on the Traveston Crossing Dam proposal for the state's south-east, more than three years after project was announced
• 2009/09/12: ABC(Au): Robertson won't tackle greenhouse gases: [NSW] Opposition
  The New South Wales Opposition says the decision to give John Robertson responsibility for energy and environment spells the end of meaningful efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. The former Unions NSW boss and anti-electricity privatisation campaigner was handed responsibility of managing the sale of electricity assets as well as climate change in yesterday's reshuffle.
• 2009/09/11: ABC(Au): The Hobart City Council is set to block a second set of wind turbines in the city
• 2009/09/11: ABC(Au): An environment company on the New South Wales far south coast says the wind farm planning process is scaring-off south-east councils
• 2009/09/11: ABC(Au): Wind farm project cancelled
  Yankalilla Council says many in the local community are relieved that a wind farm project will not proceed at Myponga, south of Adelaide.
• 2009/09/10: PlanetArk: Australian Miners See Clean Coal Carbon Answer
  The Australian government should scrap its proposed carbon trading scheme and concentrate on clean coal technology to cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to the country's mining sector.
• 2009/09/11: EarthTimes: Australia overtakes US as worst per-capita carbon-dioxide polluter
• 2009/09/11: SolveClimate: Aussie Activists Target World's Most-Polluting Coal Plant [Latrobe Valley]
• 2009/09/10: ABC(Au): An Australian wind farm developer says the growth of wind-generated power could stall unless there is policy support after the renewable energy target is met
• 2009/09/10: ABC(Au): The organisation behind a solar park in Ballarat [Central Victoria Solar City] says it has not been affected by the recent turmoil in the solar power industry
• 2009/09/10: ABC(Au): The proponent of a $200 million renewable energy development in the Upper Hunter Valley has told a state parliamentary inquiry into rural wind farms that criticism of the project is unwarranted
• 2009/09/09: ABC(Au): The West Australian Government will introduce a permanent winter sprinkler ban starting next year
• 2009/09/09: ABC(Au): The Loddon Shire believes it is powerless to help [Solar Systems] a solar power company whose Bridgewater workers have been stood down without pay
• 2009/09/09: ABC(Au): Vic Govt 'failing' solar industry
  The Victorian Opposition has accused the Government of failing to properly support the state's solar power industry. A $420 million solar plant near Mildura, in the north-west, is now in jeopardy, after the company behind the project, Solar Systems, was placed into voluntary administration.
• 2009/09/08: ABC(Au): Riverland councils met yesterday at a climate change seminar to discuss how they can reduce their carbon footprint
• 2009/09/08: ABC(Au): The South Australian Government has refused to vary major development approval of a wind farm proposed for the Myponga-Sellicks Hill area
• 2009/09/08: ABC(Au): Solar power surge in south-east Queensland
  Energex says Queenslanders should be realistic about energy savings when purchasing solar panels for the home. It follows complaints from consumers their electricity bills did not change or in some cases increased after installing the panels.
• 2009/09/08: ABC(Au): Coal-fired power stations 'should be scrapped'
  The New South Wales Government has been urged to scrap plans for a new coal-fired power station in the Upper Hunter because carbon capture and storage will not be ready for decades.
• 2009/09/08: JQuiggin: Improving the CPRS [aka Aus ETS]
• 2009/09/08: PeakEnergy: Tasmania's Green Dream
• 2009/09/07: SciAlert: Expect a bushfire warning and you can expect disaster
  A persistent complaint from victims of the Black Saturday bushfires was that they had "received no warning". Over and again we heard statements like this: "There was no fire anywhere, but the next thing, we had fire all around us. There was no word of warning, and we never stood a chance."

And in New Zealand:

• 2009/09/11: PlanetArk: NZ Needs All-Inclusive Carbon Scheme: Minister [Climate Change Minister Nick Smith]
• 2009/09/11: HotTopic: [NZ Labour leader Phil] Goff balks at the task

  While in India:

• 2009/09/11: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Is Global Warming A "Slow-Motion Disaster?" Not for India
• 2009/09/10: Time: Behind India's Intransigence on Climate-Change Talks
• 2009/09/12: TStar: Parched: first of two parts -- India: Dying of thirst
  Pollution and an exploding population are drying the subcontinent as never before. Experts warn the problem may only have just begun
• 2009/09/09: BBerg: India May Need $1.1 Trillion to Slow Emissions, McKinsey Says
• 2009/09/09: TerraDaily: Drought-hit Indian farmers sell wives to pay debts
• 2009/09/09: WWI: India Could Halve Emissions Growth, But at A Cost, Study Finds
• 2009/09/08: PlanetArk: India To Set Industry Efficiency Targets By December, 2010

  And China:

• 2009/09/11: PlanetArk: Wind Could Meet China's Electricity Demands: Study
• 2009/09/11: CCP: China's Buying The World!

  In Japan:

• 2009/09/09: Grist: Japan election a shot in the arm for climate talks
• 2009/09/07: MongaBay: Japan throws down gauntlet, vows to cut greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2020
• 2009/09/07: NYT: Japan's Next Premier Vows to Cut Emissions Sharply
• 2009/09/07: Guardian(UK): Japan's new prime minister promises ambitious greenhouse gas cuts
  Yukio Hatoyama seeks to reduce CO2 emissions by 25% below 1990 levels by 2020
• 2009/09/07: ClimateP: Japan's new prime minister promises to slash CO2 25% below 1990 levels by 2020 ... with domestic emissions trading, clean energy subsidies
• 2009/09/07: Reuters: Japan PM-elect backs 25 percent greenhouse gas cut
• 2009/09/07: TreeHugger: Japan Steps Up Its Greenhouse Gas Pledge. Will the U.S. Step Up Now, Too?
• 2009/09/07: EarthTimes: Japan's new government seeks deeper cuts in greenhouse gases -- 25% by 2020 from 1990 levels
• 2009/09/07: BBC: Japan vows big climate change cut
  Japan's next leader has promised a big cut in greenhouse gas emissions, saying he will aim for a 25% reduction by 2020 compared with 1990 levels. Democratic Party leader Yukio Hatoyama is due to take over as prime minister on 16 September, after a resounding election victory in August. His predecessor, Taro Aso, had pledged cuts of only 8%. Mr Hatoyama said the plan was dependent on other nations agreeing targets at December's climate talks in Copenhagen.

And elsewhere in Asia:

• 2009/09/10: PlanetArk: South Korean Industry Wants Weaker Emissions Target
• 2009/09/08: CBC: Taiwan's premier [Liu Chao-shiuan] steps down
  Wu Den-yih, Taiwan's new premier speaks during a news conference at the Nationalist (KMT) headquarters in Taipei on Monday.Wu Den-yih, Taiwan's new premier speaks during a news conference at the Nationalist (KMT) headquarters in Taipei on Monday. (Pichi Chuang/Reuters)Taiwan's Premier Liu Chao-shiuan officially stepped down Tuesday, a move that is expected to help quell public anger over the government's handling of a deadly typhoon [Morakot] last month. He is being replaced with Wu Den-yih, a China-savvy party official. Many residents were angered by what they said was President Ma Ying-jeou's slow response to Typhoon Morakot.

While in Africa:

• 2009/09/10: Grist: Economic growth tops cutting carbon emissions, South Africa says

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

• 2009/09/10: Maribo: Canada: Five years, three elections, and still no climate policy
• 2009/09/11: Maribo: The problem with an intensity-based target for the oil sands

  Regarding the always fun federal-provincial relations:

• 2009/09/11: TStar: Premiers win climate pledge
  Federal greenhouse-gas plan won't favour Alberta, environment minister assures Ontario, Quebec Ottawa has assured Ontario and Quebec that the new federal climate-change plan will not impose undue hardship on their economies by favouring Alberta's high-polluting oil sands. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Quebec Premier Jean Charest said yesterday that Environment Minister Jim Prentice has privately told them the upcoming federal scheme to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions would be fair to their provinces.
• 2009/09/09: TStar: Will Ontario lose in Ottawa's [climate] plan?
  Federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice is scheduled to visit Queen's Park today to pitch the provincial government on Ottawa's climate change plans. He may get a cool reception. While Prentice's plans have been kept under wraps during his cross-country consultations, word has begun to leak out. And what has emerged isn't pretty. Essentially, as the Star's Allan Woods and Tanya Talaga reported on Saturday, Prentice would allow expansion of Alberta's tar sands -- and the inevitable increase in greenhouse gas emissions that would accompany such development. But since Canada will have to agree to an overall cut in emissions -- at the insistence of the United States and our other major trading partners - someone else will have to pick up the slack. That someone else is industry in Ontario and Quebec.
• 2009/09/10: TStar: Climate tops agenda for McGuinty, Charest -- Premiers meet amid fears Ottawa's emissions plan will favour Alberta

  In BC, Campbell is weaseling out on his carbon neutrality promise:

• 2009/09/11: G&M: Murky target for B.C.'s 'great goal' of carbon neutrality
  Plans to move toward energy efficiency are being placed on the back burner in many places
• 2009/09/11: G&M: Climate goal eased for B.C.'s public sector
  In a sharp turnaround, minister suggests agencies will now have another two years to shrink their carbon footprint B.C.'s Minister for Climate Action has granted the province's public sector an extra two years to meet carbon-emission targets. As more than 150 public-sector agencies scramble to achieve a carbon-neutral footprint by next year, John Yap said in an interview that he is not worried about the challenges they face because they have until 2012 to meet their targets. It's a dramatic departure from the policy enshrined in legislation in 2007, which was repeated just weeks ago in a government report. The government's website yesterday still stated that B.C.'s public sector "will be completely carbon-neutral" by 2010.

In Saskatchewan, Wall is still pushing nukes:

• 2009/09/10: ETP: Saskie bloggers concerned about the Wall regime's nuke-and-nuke-only rush
• 2009/09/09: BuckDog: Sask. Party Government Has Rejected All Other Options For Future Energy Needs In Favour Of Nuclear Power Generation

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

• 2009/09/03: EDF(Ca): Early Closure of [Ontario] Coal Plants Opens the Way for More Green Energy and Community Power

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2009/09/10: PRWatch: Front Group Defends Tar Sands as "North American Energy"
• 2009/09/10: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Tar sands raises sticky issues as Canadian Prime Minister meets with President Obama
• 2009/09/07: TMoS: If We Don't Take It, They [China] Will - America's Tar Sands Conundrum

  As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

• 2009/09/10: CleanBreak: SDTC [Sustainable Development Technology Canada] dishes out another $54 million toward demonstration of Canadian cleantech
• 2009/09/08: CanWest: Canada failure shows expectations unrealistic at climate summit: think-tank [CFR]
• 2009/09/07: CBC: Northern premiers back military, climate measures

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

• 2009/09/11: EnergyBulletin: The Mistakes Economists Make
• 2009/09/11: NewScientist: Better world: Redefine the bottom line
• 2009/09/10: BRitholtz: Where Will Growth Come From?
• 2009/09/09: EnergyBulletin: Marshall Auerback: "Many years of economic stagnation" interview: excerpt
• 2009/09/09: OilDrum: Joseph Tainter - Human Resource Use: Timing and Implications for Sustainability
• 2009/09/07: HotTopic: Down to the Wire

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

• 2009/09/11: WorldChanging: Defusing The Population Bomb -- Study suggests family planning is one of the lowest-cost ways to reduce CO2
• 2009/09/09: Telegraph(UK): 'Contraception cheapest way to combat climate change'
  Contraception is almost five times cheaper as a means of preventing climate change than conventional green technologies, according to research by the London School of Economics.
• 2009/09/09: TreeHugger: Contraception Five Times Less Expensive Than Low-Carbon Technology in Combatting Climate Change

  Apocalypso anyone?

• 2009/09/10: CCurrents: Nature Bats Last
• 2009/09/11: OLJ: We've become our own predators

  As for how the media handles the science of climatology:

• 2009/09/09: Eureka: Science and media disconnect? Maybe not, says a new study
• 2009/09/06: Maribo: Communicating climate change in an unscientific world

  While activists search for effective communication techniques:

• 2009/09/09: CJR: Research, Not Relations...Why scientists should leave communications to the pros
• 2009/09/09: Guardian(UK): Fear is not the best motivator
  It's easy enough to scare people about climate change. But there are other ways to capture imaginations and create momentum

And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2009/09/11: Grist: New film 'Earth Days' takes a sometimes-devastating look at the history of environmental activism

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2009/09/11: LA Times: Stricter vehicle emissions rules are targeted
  A lawsuit challenges President Obama's efforts to further limit greenhouse gas emissions by seeking to block the waiver the EPA gave California under the Clean Air Act.
• 2009/09/11: STimes: Car dealers appeal ruling on California emissions
  Auto dealers and business leaders on Thursday appealed a decision by the Environmental Protection Agency that allowed California to establish the nation's first greenhouse gas standards for cars and trucks, setting the stage for a potential attempt to block the global warming rules.

Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:

• 2009/09/11: Grist: How much energy does the U.S. waste?
• 2009/09/12: JQuiggin: The race for a low carbon economy: A form guide
• 2009/09/12: BBC: Venezuela finds vast gas reserve
  President Hugo Chavez has announced the discovery of a vast gas field off the coast of Venezuela. The find - estimated at 7 to 8 trillion cubic feet, about five times what Spain uses in a year - was made with the Spanish energy company Repsol. Mr Chavez announced the find while in Spain during a tour of Europe and Asia.
• 2009/09/10: PlanetArk: [Italy's biggest renewable energy company,] Enel Green Power Sees Growth Ahead
• 2009/09/11: OilDrum: If We Can't Get Oil from Mexico . . .
• 2009/09/11: BBC: UK 'could face blackouts by 2016'
  The government's new energy adviser says the UK could face blackouts by 2016 because green energy is not coming on stream fast enough. Ministers have previously denied that the UK is heading for an energy gap. But David MacKay, who takes up his post at the Department of Energy on 1 October, says that the public keep objecting to energy projects. This, he says, is creating a huge problem, which could turn out the lights.
• 2009/09/10: NewScientist: Trees could be the ultimate in green power
• 2009/09/10: TreeHugger: Trend Watch: US Electricity Use Falls Significantly - What Will It Mean?
• 2009/09/10: BBC: US oil firm Chevron has signed $60bn (£36bn) worth of deals to supply natural gas to Japan and South Korea from its Gorgon project in Australia
• 2009/09/10: CBC: Energy body [IEA] increases oil demand forecast [to 84.5 mb/d]
• 2009/09/09: ClimateP: Huge wind and ocean energy project planned for offshore North Carolina
• 2009/09/09: DotEarth: The (Not So) Hidden Costs of Crude
• 2009/09/09: EarthTimes: Volkswagen plan would rev up power for apartments
• 2009/09/07: DerSpiegel: The Future of Energy -- A Power Station in Your Basement
  Green-energy provider Lichtblick and German automaker Volkswagen are joining forces and promising to stir up the energy market with an unusual plan. Instead of relying on massive energy facilities, the average consumer may soon have a miniature power station in their basement.
• 2009/09/08: PhysOrg: Carbonized TiO2 nanotubes with semimetallic properties increase the efficiency of methanol fuel cells
• 2009/09/08: PhysOrg: Making geothermal more productive
• 2009/09/08: PhysOrg: U.S. energy demand on the decline due to population migration [to the more moderate West and Southwest]
• 2009/09/08: UWNews: Electrical circuit runs entirely off power in trees
• 2009/09/07: PhysOrg: Making more efficient fuel cells...with bacteria in microbial fuel cells
• 2009/09/07: SciDaily: US Energy Use Drops In 2008
• 2009/09/07: PeakEnergy: Mitsubishi, IHI to Join $21 Bln Space Solar Project

  Here is a fundamental economic contradiction:

• 2009/09/10: NYT:GW: Rising Temps Melt Electric Utilities' Business Models
  A national push to curb greenhouse gas emissions and promote clean energy technologies is creating an unusual business challenge for electric utilities. Success means selling less of their product.
• 2009/08/25: NewsWeek: Taking a Dim View of Solar Energy -- Who could possibly be against homeowners using solar panels to power their homes? Utility companies.
• 2009/09/07: TreeHugger: Trend Watch: Utilities Showing Teeth To Rooftop Solar Advocates

  The answer my friend...:

• 2009/09/11: PhysOrg: Winds of change
  Wind farms can be self-sustaining, concluded two Northeastern finance professors in a recent journal article. A few measures to increase productivity and decrease equipment costs could reduce the current dependence on government subsidies and incentives designed to make wind farms viable.
• 2009/09/11: PlanetArk: Wind Could Meet China's Electricity Demands: Study
• 2009/09/10: CBC: Wind power prescribed for China's energy needs
• 2009/09/10: Eureka: Environmental scientists estimate that China could meet its entire future energy needs by wind alone -- Study suggests that wind is ecologically and economically practical and could reduce CO2 emissions
• 2009/09/09: WSJ:EnvCap: Spanish Fly: Iberdrola Raises $2 Billion for U.S. Clean-Energy Investment
• 2009/09/08: PhysOrg: Key issues for the future of wind energy
• 2009/09/08: BBC: Floating challenge for offshore wind turbine -- World's first full-size floating wind turbine is unveiled
  [...] Statoil has constructed the world's first full-scale floating wind turbine a couple of hours by catamaran from the oil town Stavanger...

Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2009/09/12: SciNow: New Solar Cell Design Serves Up Seconds
• 2009/09/10: TreeHugger: BrightSource & Bechtel Partner for 440 MW of Solar Thermal Power Plants [in California]
• 2009/09/10: Cornell: Carbon nanotubes could make efficient solar cells
• 2009/09/10: BNC: Solar realities and transmission costs -- addendum
• 2009/09/09: Reuters: Google plans new mirror for cheaper solar [thermal] power
• 2009/09/08: PhysOrg: Solar cell shipments in Japan hit record high in April-June
  Demand for solar cells has been growing rapidly in Japan with a record generating capacity of 83,260 kilowatts shipped to the domestic market between April and June, up 82.5 percent from the same quarter last year, a private-sector survey showed Sunday.
• 2009/09/09: SolveClimate: Move Over, Silicon: Thin-Film Pioneer First Solar To Be 2009 Leader
• 2009/09/08: TreeHugger: World's Biggest Solar Plant will Power 3 Million Homes [First Solar in China]
• 2009/09/08: TreeHugger: Recession Could Cut Solar Industry in Half by 2010
• 2009/09/08: PeakEnergy: [Solar power company] Solar Systems collapses
• 2009/09/08: WSJ:EnvCap: First Solar To Build 2-Gigawatt Solar Power Plant in [Inner Mongolia] China
• 2009/09/07: PhysOrg: Cheaper Solar Power's Time Has Come
  Solar power manufacturers in the US are cutting prices to shift their stock, the government is chipping in with tax credits, and innovative leasing or financing arrangements spreading payments over up to 20 years are being introduced. All of which makes solar power much more affordable than before.
• 2009/09/07: PhysOrg: Solar Roadways Awarded DOT Contract to Pave Roads with Solar Cells
• 2009/09/07: PlanetArk: Solyndra starts 2nd solar panel plant construction

  The arithmetic of coal carbon is striking home:

• 2009/09/12: TreeHugger: Coal Plant-Emitted Uranium Linked To Birth Defects In Punjab India Cities
• 2009/09/07: PeakEnergy: The Coal Nightmare

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2009/09/13: SciDaily: New Sources Of Biofuel To Take Pressure Off Traditional Crops
  "Salt-loving algae could be the key to the successful development of biofuels as well as being an efficient means of recycling atmospheric carbon dioxide," Professor John Cushman of the University of Nevada told the Society for General Microbiology meeting at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Sept. 10.
• 2009/09/06: IR^2: Biofuel Niches [third of a three-part series]
• 2009/09/09: IR^2: The First Commercial Cellulosic Ethanol Plant in the U.S.
• 2009/09/09: BioEnergyBiz: IFC suspends funding for palm oil sector after critical review
  The World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC) has stopped investing in palm oil projects pending the development of a new strategy to address environmental and social practices associated with the material.
• 2009/09/11: CCP: Blowpipes thwart Borneo's biofuel kings
  Hundreds of Borneo tribes men armed with blowpipes are blockading roads in protest against companies they accuse of destroying their rainforests to grow oil palms for 'green' biofuel, cooking oil, soap and margarine. The confrontation is taking place in the endangered forests of the Malaysian state of Sarawak, where members of the Penan tribe have existed for centuries as nomadic hunter-gatherers living on fish, wild animals and plants.
• 2009/09/10: OilDrum: Renewable Fuel Contenders
• 2009/09/10: CBC: Manitoba to mandate biodiesel blends

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2009/09/10: DerSpiegel: The World From Berlin -- German Nuclear Scandal is 'Hair-Raising and Unforgivable'
  Fresh allegations about government misconduct involving a controversial nuclear waste storage facility at Gorleben have rekindled political debate about atomic energy in Germany, just weeks before the country goes to the polls. Media commentators speculate that the issue could affect the national election.
• 2009/09/08: Deltoid: Nuclear Power
• 2009/09/08: OilDrum: The Future of Nuclear Energy: Facts and Fiction Part III: How (un)reliable are the Red Book Uranium Resource Data?
• 2009/09/07: BNC: Is Our Future Nuclear?

  Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

• 2009/09/12: OilDrum: CERA Say World Has Peaked, Buffett Calls Capitalism a Ponzi Scheme
• 2009/09/11: BBerg: Total CEO Expects Higher Crude Prices, Supply Squeeze in 2014
  Total SA Chief Executive Officer Christophe de Margerie said oil will probably rise to more than $145 a barrel on concern supplies may fall short as soon as 2014. "We are running the risk of another oil crisis when demand outstrips supply around 2014 or 2015," de Margerie told Le Parisien newspaper, according to spokesman Paul Floren. "There won't be enough oil and gas by the middle of the next decade."
• 2009/09/10: EnergyBulletin: Peak Oil - Economy and Climate on the path down from the peak
• 2009/09/07: EnergyBulletin: Interview with Bob Hirsch - The Stonewalling of Peak Oil

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2009/09/11: NewScientist: How to short-circuit the US power grid
• 2009/09/08: G&M: Technology for Tomorrow - Smart grid, smart future
  Work is already under way on bringing the electrical system, which is largely unchanged since its inception a century ago, into the information age

And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2009/09/08: ClimateP: Waste Not, Watt Not: Energy efficiency cuts pollution while lowering energy bills -- that's why it's a core strategy of the climate and clean energy bill

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

• 2009/09/12: PeakEnergy: Iran Gets its First Electric Car
• 2009/09/11: AutoBG: Freightliner and Enova to develop all-electric truck chassis
• 2009/09/11: AutoBG: Samsung and Bosch to put $409 million into SB LiMotive battery plant
• 2009/09/10: PlanetArk: Germany Sets Up Agency To Boost Electric Cars
• 2009/09/11: SolveClimate: Automakers Try New PR Spin to Bring Hydrogen Cars Back from the Almost Dead
• 2009/09/09: Grist: Wheego joins the ranks of electric car startups
• 2009/09/10: TreeHugger: New Electric Motor is 50% Smaller but has 2x More Torque (!)
• 2009/09/10: TreeHugger: Toyota Reveals Details About Plug-In Prius Concept (Lithium-Ion Batteries!)
• 2009/09/09: BRitholtz: The New Auto Industry Breakdown [nice graphic]
• 2009/09/08: AutoBG: Report: Honda hybrid Freed Minivan coming in two years, pure electric vehicle by 2015
• 2009/09/07: SolveClimate: U.S. Postal Service Could Deliver America the Electric Car
• 2009/09/07: PlanetArk: Eyeing Battery Afterlife, Nissan Holds Tight to LEAF Leasing
• 2009/09/07: PlanetArk: Mitsubishi, Peugeot ink tie-up on electric cars
• 2009/09/07: AutoBG: The economics of electric vehicles and end-of-life battery use

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

• 2009/09/08: GreenGrok: Cash for Crappers

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

• 2009/09/11: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Verizon Rolls Over: Company Apologizes for Sponsoring Climate-Denier Rally
• 2009/09/12: TreeHugger: Verizon Apologizes for Sponsoring Climate-Denier Rally
• 2009/09/06: Guardian(UK): Company fights climate change ruling by employment tribunal

  Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:

• 2009/09/09: Guardian(UK): 'Sustainable' palm oil campaign banned by ASA
  Advertorial claimed that controversial oil business was 'green answer' and was important to alleviating poverty

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

• 2009/09/11: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for September 11: New York City braces for risk of higher seas; EU environment chief sees 100% chance of deal in Copenhagen
• 2009/09/10: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for September 10: Nukes will be part of Senate energy bill, Boxer says
• 2009/09/09: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for September 9th: Salazar says U.S. climate bill remains high on agenda; Boxer vows to introduce bill by month's end; First Solar to build 2000 Megawatt plant in China
• 2009/09/08: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for September 8: China is the world leader in solar hot water heating; Japan climate pledge conditional on China, India

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2009/09/12: GreenFyre: DenialDepot challenges Poe's Law
• 2009/09/13: Tamino: Reply to Lucy Skywalker
• 2009/09/07: Tyee: Global Warming's New Scopes Monkey Trial -- As economy crumbles, US Chamber of Commerce will 'put climate science on trial'
• 2009/09/08: QuarkSoup: No Cooling [Peter Sinclair video of Pat Michaels]
• 2009/09/12: TWTB: Moving the Overton Window
• 2009/09/10: TWTB: Of moles and whacking: "Climate models didn't predict this lack of warming"
• 2009/09/11: TWTB: Of Moles and Whacking: "Mojib Latif predicted two decades of cooling"
• 2009/09/10: ERabett: The Morano Mumble Jumble
• 2009/09/11: MTobis: Speaking of "Skeptic"
• 2009/09/10: TP: Global warming skeptic John Stossel to join Fox News
• 2009/09/10: NRDC:SwitchBoard: NAM/ACCF: Distorting their own distorted analysis of climate legislation
• 2009/09/10: Reuters: Is Chevron scared of "Crude" the movie?
• 2009/09/10: TWTB: The Land of Make Believe
• 2009/09/09: ClimateP: ACCCE takes on water: Alstom quits scandal-ridden coal industry front group, joining Duke and Alcoa .. time for GE and Caterpillar to jump ship, too
• 2009/09/09: TreeHugger: The 8 Dirtiest Tricks Played by Foes of Clean Energy Reform
• 2009/09/09: NYT:GW: Another Company [Alstom Power] Leaves 'Mixed Messaging' Coal Alliance [ACCCE]
• 2009/09/09: HotTopic: Ask not for whom the Bellamy tolls...
• 2009/09/09: DetNews: Benefits of cap and trade legislation too costly
• 2009/09/08: Guardian(UK): We must prevent the US Chamber of Commerce from putting climate change 'on trial'
  The world's largest not-for-profit business federation is trying every trick in the lobbyist's handbook to scupper the legislative progress of the US cap and trade bill
• 2009/09/08: ClimateP: Duke Energy wants big rate increases for its new NC coal plant. Here's what Durham ratepayers should do
• 2009/09/08: ERabett: Now that you have pen in hand [Morano]
• 2009/09/08: HotTopic: Pocket calculator
• 2009/09/07: Guardian(UK): Astroturfing: A question of trust
  The practice of astroturfing -- faking support for a product or cause -- is on the rise on and offline. But how can it be stamped out?

A plague of Moranos...?

• 2009/09/07: ERabett: Taking part -- Andrew Freedman who posts on the Capital Weather Gang has been visited by a plague of Moranos
• 2009/09/02: WaPo:CWG: Response to Climate Depot's Distortions
• 2009/09/02: WaPo:CWG: Obama Needs to Give a Climate Speech - ASAP
• 2009/09/08: Mtobis: Please Support Andrew Feedman!

  Meanwhile in the 'clean coal' saga:

• 2009/09/11: ClimateP: Dirty coal group's 14th forgery impersonated American veterans. Real vets support strong efforts to action on climate and clean energy -- as does GOP Senator John Warner, former Armed Services Committee chair
• 2009/09/10: TP: Dirty coal group's 14th forgery impersonated American veterans
• 2009/09/10: TPMM: Yet Another Forged Climate Change Letter From Bonner
• 2009/09/10: EPA: Coal Ash Survey Results -- Responses From Electric Utilities to EPA Information Request Letter
• 2009/09/10: HuffPo: Federal Survey Finds Coal Ash Sites In 35 States
  The toxic leftovers from burning coal for power are sitting in nearly 600 sites in 35 states, according to a federal survey released Tuesday.
• 2009/09/09: Guardian(UK): Keep them free to be sick and breathe bad air
• 2009/09/07: ClimateP: General Electric fights for change from the inside ... of a scandal-ridden coal industry front group! [ACCCE]
• 2009/09/07: ABC(Au): Clean coal: Miracle or mirage?
  Clean-coal technology has been touted as the great hope for battling climate change, but governments have talked big about it and delivered little for much of the past decade.

As for climate miscellanea:

• 2009/09/12: MTobis: The Unsettled Science
• 2009/09/10: MGS: Climate and Computer Science
• 2009/09/08: MGS: What fields are relevant? [for climatologists]
• 2009/09/02: Nation: Cornucopia Blues
• 2009/09/10: Grist: A walk through the week's climate news -- The Climate Post: Congress Returns, Teen Saves World
• 2009/09/11: DeSmogBlog: There Will Be Bells - the Global Climate Wake-Up Call [on Sept. 21st]
• 2009/09/10: NatureCF: High Altitude
• 2009/09/10: MTobis: BS detection resources
• 2009/09/10: TreeHugger: 2009 Finalists for Climate Change Solution Green Challenge
• 2009/09/08: CSM: Why are they calling it 'climate change' now?
• 2009/09/09: TreeHugger: 'Climate Change' Predates 'Global Warming' By Decades - Semantic Shift Wasn't Until 1980s
• 2009/09/08: Guardian(UK): Will we establish a green religion? If the Tim Nicholson judgment is upheld, environmentalism will be entitled to the same protections as religion [courts]
• 2009/09/08: UNDispatch: A snapshot of the Climate landscape in two articles
• 2009/09/08: TreeHugger: 'Global Cooling' Exhibit Still on Display at the Smithsonian
• 2009/09/07: EnvEcon: An update from Nordhaus
• 2009/09/08: BBC: Last chance to change our behaviour
  There is growing awareness of the damage we are doing to the planet and the natural resources on which we depend, says David Hillyard. Yet, he argues in this week's Green Room, we still carry on along the same track regardless, refusing to make much-needed changes to our behaviour.
• 2009/09/07: ClimateP: Labor Day, 2029: When the global Ponzi scheme collapses, the only jobs left will be green ... but what should you study now to be employable then?
• 2009/09/07: ABC(Au): Warm winter cuts greenhouse emissions
• 2009/09/07: NewScientist: Climate change: no Eden, no apocalypse
• 2009/09/07: MTobis: Try Again; Your Objective Opinion Was Too Subjective

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

• Wiki: Ramsar Convention
• Operation Noah
• WaPo:CWG: Capital Weather Gang
• TEEB: The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity
• World Seed Conference 2009
• Science Alert: Australia & NZ Science News
• David W. Orr
• Gateway to the UN System's Work on Climate Change
• NSIDC:SOTC: Glaciers
• NSIDC: World Glacier Inventory [information for over 67,000 glaciers worldwide]
• Wiki: Global Nuclear Energy Partnership
• US DOE: GNEP: Global Nuclear Energy Partnership
• Wind-Works by Paul Gipe
• UNFCCC: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
• Skeptical Science: Examining Global Warming Skepticism

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.

"Historically we have treated the ocean in two strange ways at the same time --- as a pantry and a toilet." -Steve Palumbi

• Global Warming Links
• Global Warming News Archive
• Energy
• Energy News
• Environmental Issues
• ---
• H.E. Taylor (homepage)