Sipping from the internet firehose...
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
Another week of Climate Disruption News
September 27, 2009
- Chuckle, Climate Week, UN Summit, G20, CGI, Copenhagen, Bangkok, UNCCD, Subsidies
- Bottom Line, Planetary Boundaries, IceSat, UNEP, Overshoot
- Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
- Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production
- Hurricanes, GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures, Ozone, Paleoclimate ENSO, Glaciers, Satellites
- Impacts, Forests, Climate Refugees, Dust Storm, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts
- Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Adaptation
- Journals, Misc. Science, Interviews
- UN, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy, Politics:International, Security
- America, Obama, Britain, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, India, China, Japan, Asia, Africa, Canada
- Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, 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
- 2009/09/24: ClimateP: (cartoon) Toles on the boiling frog
- 2009/09/23: uComics: (cartoon - Danziger) Translation of the Global Warming Summit
- 2009/09/22: NRDC:SwitchBoard: (cartoon - Hart) For all the drama queens...
And in the almost funny file -- Yes Men, Onion & Fake Obama:
- 2009/09/22: Onion: Nadir Of Western Civilization To Be Reached This Friday At 3:32 P.M.
- 2009/09/22: PRWatch: New York Post Suspends Climate Skepticism ... For Just a Moment
- 2009/09/25: ClimateP: SurvivaBalls Take Manhattan -- and Pittsburgh
- 2009/09/24: Grist: SurvivaBall: Your individual climate-change adaptation strategy
- 2009/09/23: USNWR: Say 'Yes' to the SurvivaBall
- 2009/09/11: YesMen: Halliburton Solves Global Warming [with a SurvivaBall]
- 2009/09/24: TP:WR: SurvivaBalls Take Manhattan
- 2009/09/22: Guardian(UK): Climate Week kicks off with warning from hoax New York Post
- 2009/09/22: SolveClimate: Climate Week Kicks Off With Phony NY Post Screaming: 'We're Screwed'
- 2009/09/22: HotTopic: "We're screwed" -- New York tabloid bites climate bullet
- 2009/09/22: AlterNet: Yes Men Hoax: "Special Edition" of NY Post Warns of Climate Change Threat
- 2009/09/21: MongaBay: Fake Obama makes climate change top priority
- 2009/09/21: Grist: Yes Men pranksters make fake New York Post about real climate emergency
- 2009/09/21: DM:DB: Fake New York Post on Climate Change: "We're Screwed"
- 2009/09/21: TreeHugger: On Climate Change 'We're Screwed'! - The Yes Men Spoof New York Post
It was Climate Week:
- 2009/09/24: Time: Has China Really Gotten Serious About Climate Change?
- 2009/09/25: NatureCF: Climate summits underwhelming, say leaders
- 2009/09/25: TreeHugger: Climate Week Was One Big Expectation Management Exercise... And Call to Grassroots Action
- 2009/09/23: Time: A Wind Shift Coming in the Global-Warming Debate?
- 2009/09/23: Grist: China steals Cimate Week spotlight, but U.S. still in the hot seat
- 2009/09/23: BBC: Climate change - where the centre leads
This week sees a series of meetings that could create the right conditions for achieving a new global treaty on climate change. In the Green Room this week, three senior political figures from Latin America - Jose Maria Figueres, Juan Mayr and Marina Silva - argue that middle-income nations such as theirs are leading the way. "The industrialised world has failed to cut its own emissions sufficiently to grant either moral authority or practical advantage in this discussion" - 2009/09/21: Grist: Some Rays of Hope for Global Efforts -- Important week for global warming
- 2009/09/21: Guardian(UK): Climate Week kicks off in New York with bigwigs and big hopes
- 2009/09/21: NatureTGB: Mixed signals as 'Climate Week' kicks off
- 2009/09/20: Grist: Climate Week kicks off in New York with bigwigs and big hopes
- 2009/09/21: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Important Week for Global Warming...Some Rays of Hope for Global Efforts
- 2009/09/20: TerraDaily: UN meet, G20 to serve as hot house for climate talks
- 2009/09/21: DeSmogBlog: Climate Week: Raise Your Hopes; Lower Your Expectations
- 2009/09/21: EarthTimes: Climate week starts in New York to back up UN summit
- 2009/09/21: CDP: Carbon Disclosure Project 2009 Reports launched at New York Climate Week
The very diplomatic UN summit:
- 2009/09/24: CDreams: Obama on Climate: Is He Even Trying? Judging from the UN speech, I am starting to doubt it.
- 2009/09/24: Grist: Seizing the opportunity: reflections from the U.N. Climate Summit
- 2009/09/24: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Kicking the Coal Habit -- Another Reason Why China Will Adopt a Carbon Intensity Reduction Target
- 2009/09/24: USAToday: Text: Obama's U.N. speech on climate change
- 2009/09/24: Guardian(UK): Climate change needs US leadership
At the G20 summit, Obama must go beyond his UN climate speech and fully commit to leading the climate change fight - 2009/09/23: CNN: Commentary [by Timothy E. Wirth, President of the United Nations Foundation]: Real progress on climate change
Timothy Wirth: U.N. secretary-general called climate change summit - He says some have despaired about lack of global agreement - He says planned Copenhagen meeting has sparked genuine progress - Wirth: Nations are making strides on renewable energy, carbon reduction - 2009/09/24: ABC(Au): Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has used his speech to the United Nations to hammer home his previous calls for action on global economic reform and climate change
- 2009/09/24: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Seizing the Opportunity: Reflections from the UN Climate Summit
- 2009/09/24: Reuters: Hu's carbon commitment marks new era for China
- 2009/09/23: BBC: The former Cuban President Fidel Castro has praised US President Barack Obama's speech before the UN General Assembly for its words on climate change
- 2009/09/23: EurActiv: Climate summit yields no progress on CO2 targets
- 2009/09/23: UN: Financing vital for poor nations to combat climate change, European Union tells UN
- 2009/09/23: NatureN: Climate summit fails to address key challenges -- Lack of progress threatens global deal
- 2009/09/23: KSJT: Lots of Ink: At UN, world leaders talk big on climate change hopes and dreams.
- 2009/09/23: ClimateP: Are Chinese emissions pledges a game changer for Senate action?
- 2009/09/23: ABC(Au): China's historic shift on climate change
Analysts say China's emissions reduction announcement has huge implications for international consensus on dealing with global warming. - 2009/09/23: CSW: CSW director Rick Piltz interview on UN Climate Summit: "We're very far from where we need to be"
- 2009/09/22: ERabett: As Eli was saying
- 2009/09/23: Reuters: China and U.S. try to jumpstart U.N. climate talks
- 2009/09/23: Times(UK): President Hu Jintao commits China to carbon-cutting deal
- 2009/09/23: WaPo: Nations Appear Headed Toward Independent Climate Goals
- 2009/09/23: EarthTimes: Analysis: Obama flat, China mixed, Japan wins at UN climate summit
- 2009/09/23: WorldChanging: World Leaders Spare Details at Climate Summit
- 2009/09/23: TreeHugger: Obama's UN Climate Speech Lacked Details to Lead World Forward: Bill McKibben
- 2009/09/23: DeSmogBlog: Canadian ENGO Reaction: Suzuki and Pembina Weigh in on Climate Summit
- 2009/09/22: DeSmogBlog: UN Climate Summit: Flickers of Hope, but the Building is Still Burning
- 2009/09/23: Reuters: China makes landmark pledge to curb CO2 emissions
- 2009/09/23: WSJ:EnvCap: What Was Missing from Obama's Climate Speech? Nuclear Power
- 2009/09/22: OBMB: Diplomatic Unease On The Menu At UN Climate Talks
- 2009/09/23: CCurrents: No Agreement Between Major Powers On Carbon Emissions
- 2009/09/22: IPSNews: Japan, China Pledge to Act on Climate Change
When the one-day summit meeting on climate change ended late Tuesday, only Japan and China were singled out for their concrete commitments to battle one of the world's biggest environmental challenges. Asked for an assessment of the summit, David Waskow, spokesperson for Oxfam International, told IPS: "Everyone played nice at the climate summit tea party, but only Japan and China showed up with cake." - 2009/09/22: DerSpiegel: US Stance on Climate Change -- Yes We Can -- But Not Yet
- 2009/09/23: TStar: China steps up as climate change leader
- 2009/09/23: BBC: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says a one-day climate change summit in New York has given fresh impetus to efforts to tackle global warming
- 2009/09/23: Guardian(UK): UN climate summit: Leaders take small steps towards action on climate change
- 2009/09/22: Guardian(UK): China makes its first commitment to climate change targets
- 2009/09/22: Guardian(UK): Q&A: New York climate summit
- 2009/09/22: Guardian(UK): China takes first step towards climate deal by commiting to carbon target
- 2009/09/22: Guardian(UK): China's climate pledge is more terminology than substance
- 2009/09/22: Guardian(UK): Small change from Obama
President Obama's best efforts before the UN special session on climate change couldn't disguise the lack of US commitment - 2009/09/22: Guardian(UK): China announces pledge to curb carbon emissions
- 2009/09/22: CNN: Leaders to focus on climate change at summit
World leaders to converge in New York to focus on climate change - Negotiations for a global pact have stalled, gathering aims at jump-start talks - Goal is to limit temperature rise to within 2 °F above that before industrial revolution - Leaders expected to discuss how climate change affects energy, food security, trade - 2009/09/22: CNN: Climate change proposal [REDD] would revolutionize value of forests
World leaders gather at the United Nations for special climate change summit - Treaty based on finding that destroying tropical forests adds to global warming - With proposed provision, stored carbon dioxide in forests could be bought and sold - Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation provision has critics - 2009/09/22: CNN: Chinese president pledges steps to combat climate change
Hu Jintao says China will cut emissions, increase reliance on clean energy sources - President outlines some steps but provides no firm target for reducing emissions - Hu urges U.S., other industrial powers to make largest reductions - China will increase forest cover by 150,000 square miles, Hu says - 2009/09/22: UNDispatch: Obama's Climate Change Speech at at the United Nations
- 2009/09/22: UNDispatch: A turning point for China? [UN meet]
- 2009/09/22: UN: Ban exhorts world leaders to accelerate action on climate change
- 2009/09/22: UN: World leaders demonstrated energy, dynamism on climate change, says Ban
- 2009/09/22: KSJT: AP, Reuters: Obama, Hu make their big climate speeches at the UN
- 2009/09/22: UN: 2009 Summit on Climate Change - Statements
- 2009/09/22: DotEarth: Obama Speaks on Climate at the U.N.
- 2009/09/22: ClimateP: Obama tells UN: "The security and stability of each nation and all peoples -- our prosperity, our health, our safety -- are in jeopardy,"...
- 2009/09/23: ABC(Au): UN chief Ban Ki-moon has opened a climate summit of around 100 leaders, warning that failure to reach a new treaty this year on fighting global warming would be morally inexcusable
- 2009/09/22: ABC(Au): Climate change negligence will lead to 'benign genocide'
An alliance of the world's small island states have issued a joint plea to global leaders to take drastic measures to combat climate change or be complicit in what they say is "benign genocide". Leaders from the island states of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas have met in New York ahead of the UN summit of world leaders on climate change. The islands have issued a communique in which they have demanded global financing for adaptation and mitigation. - 2009/09/23: ABC(Au): China has used the United Nations summit on climate change in New York to deliver a pledge to curb the growth of its carbon dioxide emissions, as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called for a "grand bargain" on climate change
- 2009/09/22: Grist: China pledges to curb emission growth by 'notable margin'
- 2009/09/22: Grist: Obama gives his first real climate speech -- really
- 2009/09/22: Grist: Obama's climate speech to the U.N.
- 2009/09/22: NRDC:SwitchBoard: President Obama Calls for Action on Climate at the UN
- 2009/09/22: CSW: Pres. Obama at UN Climate Summit talks the right talk...but will the US walk the right walk?
- 2009/09/21: CSW: Obama in UN Climate Summit speech should talk about climate change impacts and the risks of inaction
- 2009/09/21: FTimes: Scientific consensus over dire consequences
- 2009/09/21: FTimes: Ban Ki Moon: 'Seal the deal' battlecry to secure legacy
- 2009/09/21: TerraDaily: Islands warn of extinction at UN climate week
- 2009/09/22: TreeHugger: China Will Cap Emissions Intensity: Your Move, U.S.
- 2009/09/22: EarthTimes: World leaders commit to tackling climate change at UN summit - Summary
- 2009/09/22: EarthTimes: US and China commit to tackling climate change at UN summit
- 2009/09/22: EarthTimes: Hu: China working to lower emissions, but rich countries must help
- 2009/09/22: EarthTimes: US committed to curbing climate change, Obama tells UN
- 2009/09/22: EarthTimes: UN seeks political momentum as climate-change summit opens
- 2009/09/21: Yahoo: Global businesses demand ambitious new climate deal
A coalition of more than 500 international companies on Tuesday urged rich countries to commit to "immediate and deep" cuts in greenhouse gas emissions at U.N. climate talks to help combat global warming. - 2009/09/22: SciDaily: Current Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions Pledges Leave Climate Targets In The Red, Analysis Finds
Total greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions currently proposed by industrialized countries fall short of the pathway to reaching a 2 degree target as referred to by the UNFCCC Kyoto Protocol negotiating group, despite the fact that the cost of meeting these pledges is much lower than anticipated, according to a new study. The study by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) states that by 2020, total GHG emissions of industrialized (Annex I) countries would decline by between only 5% and 17%, relative to 1990, depending on the conditions associated with the pledges. The aggregate proposal falls short of the 25-40% range referred to by negotiating Parties in 2007. - 2009/09/22: WSJ:EnvCap: At the Summit: Obama, Hu Lay Out Climate Visions at UN
- 2009/09/22: NYT:CW: China's President Hu Jintao to Unveil 'Suite' of Voluntary Emissions Targets
- 2009/09/22: LA Times: Obama addresses U.N. climate summit, warns of 'irreversible catastrophe'
- 2009/09/22: G&M: China vows 'practical steps' on climate change
At the U.N.'s highest-level conference yet on climate change, China on Tuesday pledged ambitious plans to plant enough forest to cover an area the size of Norway and use 15 per cent of its energy from renewable sources within a decade. Chinese President Hu Jintao also promised "determined and practical steps" to boost its nuclear energy, improve energy efficiency and reduce "by a notable margin" the growth rate of its carbon pollution as measured against economic growth. - 2009/09/22: WaPo: At U.N., Obama Calls Global Warming Threat 'Urgent'
- 2009/09/22: Reuters: UN seeks to spur climate talks;Obama,Hu to speak
- 2009/09/21: Reuters: Small island nations urge rich to limit warming
- 2009/09/22: TP:WR: Text Of Obama's Remarks To The United Nations On Climate Change: 'The Time We Have To Reverse This Tide Is Running Out'
- 2009/09/22: BBC: China vows climate change action
China will increase efforts to improve energy efficiency and curb the rise in CO2 emissions, President Hu Jintao has told a UN climate summit in New York. Mr Hu gave no details... - 2009/09/22: BBC: Global firms seek climate deal
A group of more than 500 international companies has urged the United Nations to agree a strong new climate deal to help combat global warming. The group called for "immediate and deep" cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, as world leaders meet at the UN in New York for climate change talks. The companies are members of the Prince of Wales's Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change. - 2009/09/21: FTimes: US-EU rift clouds climate summit
- 2009/09/21: Guardian(UK): China and India expected to seize initiative at New York climate talks
- 2009/09/22: ABC(Au): UN chief ups ante on eve of climate talks
United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has told world leaders that they have a moral imperative to sign a new agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in December. - 2009/09/21: OilChange: Obama Attacked Over "Ambition Gap" on Climate
- 2009/09/21: Reuters: Q+A-China's Hu to present climate plan to U.N.
- 2009/09/21: EarthTimes: Obama and Hu, first timers at UN with ideas to fix climate change
The G20 meeting went down in Pittsburg:
- 2009/09/26: SMH: G20 Final Communique: Energy and climate change
- 2009/09/25: PittsburghSummit: Leaders' Statement: The Pittsburgh Summit
- 2009/09/25: FTimes: Full G20 communiqué
- 2009/09/26: FTimes: Scepticism over G20 pledge of new era
- 2009/09/25: Grist: G20 cans fossil-fuel subsidies, but fails to make other climate-conserving moves
- 2009/09/26: TerraDaily: Climate groups dismayed by G20's lack of interest
- 2009/09/25: DeSmogBlog: G20 Summit Outcome: Pembina Reacts (with a wince)
- 2009/09/26: EarthTimes: Climate change dominates G20 lunch, but no financing deal
- 2009/09/26: EarthTimes: Leaders agree to phase out fossil-fuel subsidies
World leaders have agreed to phase out 300 billion dollars worth of fossil-fuel subsidies as part of a plan to reduce global warming, US President Barack Obama announced Friday at the conclusion of the Group of 20 summit. Obama said the plan is designed to help move away from polluting sources of energy and bring the world into the "21st-century energy economy." - 2009/09/22: TPI: Pembina Reacts: How Will Canada Answer President Obama's Call for Climate Change Action?
[...] Canada is increasingly viewed as a laggard in both greenhouse gas emission reductions and investment, and support for a transition to clean energy. - 2009/09/25: TPI: Pembina Reacts: G20 Summit Outcome
- 2009/09/25: Guardian(UK): Barack Obama plays down the need to finalise a deal on climate change
- 2009/09/25: Grist: G20 needs to advance the global agenda on climate change
- 2009/09/25: Reuters: G20 agrees to phase out fossil fuel subsidies-draft
The Group of 20 will agree to phase out subsidies on oil and other fossil fuels in the "medium term," but will not set a firm timetable for the move aimed at combating global warming, a draft statement said. The G20 will also intensify efforts to reach a U.N. deal on climate change later this year, said the draft communique obtained by Reuters at a G20 summit in Pittsburgh. The leaders will ask their finance ministers to come up with a range of options for climate finance -- payments from rich countries to poor countries dealing with global warming -- at their next meeting. The final version of the communique will be issued by the leaders at the end of their two-day meeting on Friday. - 2009/09/26: Yahoo:Time: G20 Leaders Agree, Broadly, on Climate Change
- 2009/09/27: OilDrum: Debt/Resource Thought Experiment: How Would YOU Craft G20 Policy?
- 2009/09/24: Grist: Greenpeace kicks off anti-G20 protests in 'city of bridges'
- 2009/09/24: SolveClimate: Climate Financing Vital to G20 Meeting Success, But Increasingly Pushed Aside
- 2009/09/24: BBC: Leaders gathering for G20 summit
World leaders are meeting in the US city of Pittsburgh later as the two-day G20 summit gets under way. Economic stability, financial regulation, climate change and bankers' bonuses are set to top the agenda. - 2009/09/23: Guardian(UK): Protesters welcome G20 leaders in Pittsburgh (18 pictures)
- 2009/09/23: Grist: U.S. pushes G20 to cut fossil-fuel subsidies
- 2009/09/21: TerraDaily: Emerging world looks for climate cash at G20
- 2009/09/21: CSM: Ahead of G20, climate change deadlock kicks up a flurry of proposals
Japan, Australia, and Britain offered plans and urged action Monday to overcome divisions -- mainly between rich and developing nations -- and forge a global pact to cut emissions. - 2009/09/20: IGHIH: From the Front Lines of the G20: A Global Climate Wake-Up Call
The Clinton Global Initiative went down this week mostly unremarked:
- 2009/09/26: TreeHugger: The Clinton Global Initiative 2009: The Week's Green Highlights
- 2009/09/24: TP:WR: GE CEO Immelt: Government Has To Play A 'Key Role' In Clean Energy Investments
And on the road to Copenhagen:
- 2009/09/26: TreeHugger: REDD Copenhagen Countdown - North-South Agreement in Place, Immediate Need for Countries' Financial Commitment & Higher Targets
- 2009/09/25: UN: Ahead of Copenhagen talks, small island nations sound alarm at UN on climate change
- 2009/09/24: Economist: Paying to save trees -- Last gasp for the forest
A new climate treaty could provide a highly effective way to reduce carbon emissions by paying people to not cut down forests - 2009/09/27: CShifts: The Road to Copenhagen Part 3: seeking commitment from the G20
- 2009/09/26: TP: Poised For Progress At The U.N. Climate Summit In Copenhagen
- 2009/09/25: ABC(Au): Cash for overseas forests key to climate deal
Leading biologist Dr Tom Lovejoy says Australia must be prepared to help protect forests in poorer countries while negotiating for a new international climate agreement. - 2009/09/24: PlanetArk: Factbox: The Science Spurring Talks On A U.N. Climate Pact
- 2009/09/24: PlanetArk: Q+A: How Do We Get From Kyoto To Copenhagen?
- 2009/09/24: PlanetArk: Scenarios: Possible Outcomes Of Copenhagen Climate Talks
- 2009/09/24: PlanetArk: U.N. Climate Summit Dims Hopes For Copenhagen Pact
- 2009/09/23: DemNow: With Copenhagen Summit Approaching, Leading Polluters US and China Undercut Hopes of Substantial Pollution Cuts
- 2009/09/23: Guardian(UK): China and India are leading the way. Yes, I'm optimistic [Nicholas Stern]
- 2009/09/23: NewScientist: Omens are worsening for Copenhagen climate talks
- 2009/09/23: Grist: HSBC team outlines possible post-Kyoto compromise [The Emperor, the Nightingale and the Phoenix]
- 2009/09/23: TreeHugger: Are China and U.S. Really Headed For a Copenhagen Deadlock?
- 2009/09/23: DerSpiegel: The World from Berlin -- Chances of Climate Success in Copenhagen 'Headed Toward Zero'
- 2009/09/22: DotEarth: 'Generation E' Speaks to Leaders on Climate, Again
- 2009/09/21: DotEarth: Gap Holds Between Climate Stances of Rich and Poor
- 2009/09/22: ClimateP: Myth vs. reality on international climate negotiations
- 2009/09/22: Telegraph(UK): Nicholas Stern suggests new way out of Copenhagen deadlock
Nicholas Stern, the former World Bank economist, outlines his plan to break the deadlock over climate change negotiations ahead of a key United Nations summit in Copenhagen - 2009/09/21: DVoice: Copenhagen: Turning Point or More of the Same Old Same Old?
- 2009/09/22: CBC: Climate change plan needs teamwork: Obama -- Meeting aims to build momentum for December's Copenhagen conference
- 2009/09/22: G&M: Climate change crack-up?
As world leaders gather to discuss climate change at the United Nations and the G20, the Europeans have begun to finger the United States as the bad guy. Noting that the Americans have been refusing to sign up to internationally binding carbon emission targets, EU officials are also unhappy that Congress is unlikely to enact legislation in time for December's Copenhagen conference. - 2009/09/21: Guardian(UK): Guyana is a model of forest protection that could solve the climate crisis
A Copenhagen deal must enable countries like ours to generate an income by conserving forests rather than cutting them down - 2009/09/20: Reuters: Australia plans Copenhagen climate pact compromise
Developing economies shouldn't be locked into carbon lowering targets under a new global climate pact, Australia said on Monday, outlining a deal it hopes will avert failure at make-or-break talks in Copenhagen. The plan by the world's biggest per-capita carbon polluter would give India and China flexibility to lower emissions through a "national schedule," potentially taking some of the heat from near-gridlocked talks between rich and developing countries. - 2009/09/26: PhysOrg: Climate talks resume in Bangkok with deal in doubt
- 2009/09/25: Europa: Climate change: Bangkok meeting must make decisive progress towards ambitious global deal
- 2009/09/25: BangkokPost: Climate change talks likely to be heated -- Suwit hopes for break in emissions impasse
Heated debates between industrialised and developing countries over greenhouse gas emission cuts are expected to dominate the 12-day climate change talks which start in Bangkok on Monday, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti says. - 2009/09/26: Yahoo:AFP: Nearly 70 percent of Argentine forests lost in a century
- 2009/09/23: Eureka: First global scientific [UNCCD] conference supporting UN efforts to curb desertification opens in Argentina
Scientists gather in Buenos Aires to find a way forward for agriculture in vast dry areas, where the poor are most vulnerable to land degradation and climate change - 2009/09/25: FTimes: An idea whose time has come
As addictions go, the world's addiction to fossil fuels is a killer. US President Barack Obama has a big idea on how to help the world kick the habit: the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies globally, amounting to over $300bn every year. - 2009/09/25: NEN: Obama calls for end to old energy cheat -- worldwide end of fossil fuel subsidies
- 2009/09/25: WSJ:EnvCap: No Free Lunch: The G-20's Case Against Fossil-Fuel Subsidies
- 2009/09/25: OilChange: FT: Ending subsidies is "An idea whose time has come"
- 2009/09/24: OilChange: Ending Subsidies or Shifting Blame?
- 2009/09/22: Grist: Fossil fuel subsidies dwarf clean energy subsidies; Obama wants to eliminate them
- 2009/09/23: WaPo: Obama wants worldwide end of fossil fuel subsidies
President Barack Obama is calling on the world to end massive government subsidies that encourage the use of fossil fuels blamed for global warming. The president, who is set to host the G-20 economic summit opening Thursday in Pittsburgh, will propose a gradual elimination, with the time frame to be determined, according to White House officials. "Later this week, I will work with my colleagues at the G-20 to phase out fossil fuel subsidies so that we can better address our climate challenge," Obama said Tuesday at the United Nations global warming summit. - 2009/09/21: MongaBay: US subsidies of oil and coal more than double the subsidies of renewable energy
And on the Bottom Line:
- 2009/09/22: Guardian(UK): Fixing the climate won't come cheap
- 2009/09/21: Guardian(UK): Costs of climate change deal would drop with truly global agreement, says report
Climate Group says full collaboration between rich and poor countries would help reduce costs of reaching carbon targets - 2009/09/20: EconView: The Response to Climate Change "Can Be Gradual...and Affordable"
The Planetary Boundaries argument appears to rewrap 'tipping points':
- 2009/09/24: Nature: A safe operating space for humanity by Johan Rockström et multi al.
- Nature: Planetary Boundaries - Special
- 2009/09/23: NatureCF: Planetary boundaries
Despite the apparent stress that humanity is causing to the Earth system, defining sustainable limits for our own existence has proved to be something of an intractable problem. But what if we could define global sustainability numerically? - 2009/09/24: DM:80B: 9 Eco Rules Humans Shouldn't Break If We Want to Survive
- 2009/09/23: WorldChanging: Planetary Boundaries and The Failure of Environmentalism
- 2009/09/24: CCP: Crossing planetary boundaries (irreversible tipping points, or points of no return as James Hansen calls them), Nature study by Rockstrom et al.
- 2009/09/24: CoralCOE: Scientists call for humanity to 'set safe boundaries to the damage'
- 2009/09/23: Reuters: Earth needs users' guide to protect it from people
- 2009/09/22: Grist: Scientists identify "safe operating space for humanity" in seminal Nature study
NASA's Icesat reports Arctic and Antarctic glaciers are thinning dramatically:
- 2009/09/24: PhysOrg: NASA Ice Satellite Maps Profound Polar Thinning
- 2009/09/26: TWTB: Greenland and Antarctic ice sheet decay
- 2009/09/24: NatureTGB: Ice-sheets fading faster
- 2009/09/24: NatureCF: ICESat's eye on runaway glaciers
- 2009/09/24: KSJT: Wires, dailies, etc: Laser readings show Greenland, Antarctic ice caps thinning fast, heading for the sea
Glaciers don't lie. At least, glaciologists like to say that when asked whether global warming is a fluke, a fad, or the door to a changed planet. NASA 's ICESat orbiter with its laser altimeter has revealed a remarkable speed-up in the shrinkage of ice cover on Greenland and Antarctica. - 2009/09/24: Independent(UK): Ancient glaciers are disappearing faster than ever -- Satellite laser measurements show change in environment for the first time
- 2009/09/24: CCP: H.D. Pritchard, RJ. Arthern, D.G. Vaughan & L.A. Edwards, Nature, September 23, 2009: Extensive dynamic thinning on the margins of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets
- 2009/09/23: BAS: Lasers from space show thinning of Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets
- 2009/09/23: Reuters: Antarctic coastal ice thinning surprises experts
- 2009/09/24: BBC: Greenland and parts of Antarctica are losing large volumes of ice to the oceans as their glaciers get thinner, a NASA satellite has revealed
- 2009/09/23: CBC: Polar ice sheets melting into sea: [BAS] study
- 2009/09/23: Guardian(UK): Thinning glaciers driving polar ice loss, satellite survey finds
Satellite survey of Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets reveals extensive network of rapidly thinning glaciers that is driving ice loss in the regions - 2009/09/23: MongaBay: Satellite lasers show melting of Greenland, Antarctic worse than expected
- 2009/09/23: Eureka: Lasers from space show thinning of Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets
The most comprehensive picture of the rapidly thinning glaciers along the coastline of both the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets has been created using satellite lasers. The findings are an important step forward in the quest to make more accurate predictions for future sea level rise. Reporting this week in the journal Nature researchers from British Antarctic Survey and the University of Bristol describe how analysis of millions of NASA satellite measurements* from both of these vast ice sheets shows that the most profound ice loss is a result of glaciers speeding up where they flow into the sea. The authors conclude that this 'dynamic thinning' of glaciers now reaches all latitudes in Greenland, has intensified on key Antarctic coastlines, is penetrating far into the ice sheets' interior and is spreading as ice shelves thin by ocean-driven melt. Ice shelf collapse has triggered particularly strong thinning that has endured for decades. - 2009/09/24: UNEP: [link to 4.6 meg pdf & subsections] Climate Change Science Compendium 2009
- 2009/09/24: UNEP: Impacts of Climate Change Coming Faster and Sooner: New Science Report Underlines Urgency for Governments to Seal the Deal in Copenhagen
- 2009/09/25: KSJT: AP, Wash. Post: A study sort of says a four degree celsius warming likely no matter what, almost. (And -- the chance we're in a short cooling spell)
- 2009/09/25: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Six Degrees of Earth Frying Like Bacon
- 2009/09/25: CSW: UNEP Climate Change Science Compendium 2009: Impacts of Climate Change Coming Faster and Sooner
- 2009/09/24: Telegraph(UK): Climate change accelerating -- UNEP
Climate change is happening faster than previously thought, according to a new report from the UN Environment Programme. - 2009/09/24: Reuters: Droughts, melts signal climate change quickening: U.N. [UNEP]
- 2009/09/25: CCP: UNEP: Climate Change Science Compendium 2009
- 2009/09/25: WaPo: New [UNEP] Analysis Brings Dire Forecast Of 6.3-Degree [F] Temperature Increase
We are now in overshoot:
- 2009/09/25: NEF: The Consumption Explosion: The third UK Interdependence Report
- 2009/09/25: NEF: World enters 'ecological debt' on 25 September
- 2009/09/25: GFN: September 25 is Earth Overshoot Day
- 2009/09/25: BBC: Recession barely dents 'eco-debt'
The recession has had little impact on humanity's over-consumption of resources, says a report. The New Economics Foundation (Nef) calculates the day each year when the world goes into "ecological debt." This is the date by which humanity has used the quantity of natural resources that ought to last an entire year if used at a sustainable rate. This year, "ecological debt day" falls on 25 September - just one day later than in 2008. - 2009/09/25: Guardian(UK): World consumption plunges planet into 'ecological debt', says leading thinktank
Consumption exceeds Earth's annual 'biocapacity' today amid warnings of dependence on overseas food and energy Rich consumers are still voraciously gobbling up the world's resources, despite the worst recession in a generation, with their appetite pushing the planet into "ecological debt" from today , according to a report by think-tank the new economics foundation. This "ecological debt day" marks the point in the year when consumption around the world exceeds the Earth's annual "biocapacity" -- so for the remainder of the year, we will be eating into environmental resources that will not be replaced, according to nef's calculations. Andrew Simms, nef's director, said the deep recession had delayed this "ecological debt day" by only 24 hours compared with last year, when it fell on 24 September. He warned that as G20 leaders gather in Pittsburgh to discuss global finance, there is a risk that the world economy will be kick-started again, without learning the lessons of the "consumption explosion". - 2009/09/23: PhysOrg: Warming ocean melts Greenland glaciers
- 2009/09/20: CNN: Sailing the Northwest Passage: mission accomplished
Crew of Silent Sound complete the Northwest Passage, heading for Halifax - Crew have faced dangerous ice bergs and waves up to 8 meters high - Arctic communities at a crossroads, directly and indirectly from climate change - 2009/09/20: CNN: Greenland's frozen landscape warming up
CNN traveled with Greenpeace to Greenland on their study of the region - Flow of Helheim Glacier has sped up dramatically in last decade - Research of warming water in Sermilik Fjord points to higher sea-level rise - 2009/09/21: CCP: Crustal deformation due to ice mass unloading at Jakobshavn Isbrae, Greenland, measured with ERS/Envisat/Radarsat SAR interferometry
That Damocles sword still hangs overhead:
- 2009/09/25: NOAANews: Unusual Arctic Warmth, Tropical Wetness Likely Cause for Methane Increase
As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:
- 2009/09/25: CanWest: Canada signs on to Arctic shipping alerts -- Initiative seen as boost to sovereignty
Canada plans to bolster its presence in Arctic waters -- and by extension, its sovereignty over the region -- after agreeing to join Russia and Norway in providing weather and shipping alerts in the rapidly melting region. The move is part of a new maritime-safety initiative headed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and two other United Nations bodies. The Arctic Ocean safety system, to come into effect in 2011, was announced Thursday by the WMO, the International Maritime Organization and the International Hydrographic Organization. - 2009/09/25: Time: Fast Antarctic Ice: Go, Speed Glacier, Go!
- 2009/09/23: Reuters: Antarctic coastal ice thinning surprises experts
The food crisis is ongoing:
- 2009/09/24: Economist: East Africa's drought -- A catastrophe is looming
Governments are at their wits' end to keep their hungry people alive - 2009/09/21: FAO: Escalating hunger in Eastern Africa -- Drought spells grim outlook for 2009 crops - El Niño could compound crisis
- 2009/09/23: FAO: 2050: A third more mouths to feed -- Food production will have to increase by 70 percent - FAO convenes high-level expert forum
- 2009/09/23: RawStory: World will need 70 percent more food in 2050: FAO
- 2009/09/21: Time: For the World's Hungry, the Recession Is Far from Over
- 2009/09/24: BBC: UN warns over East Africa hunger
More than 20 million people in the Horn of Africa need food aid because of two years of poor rainfall, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) says. - 2009/09/24: Guardian(UK): Loss of soil threatens food production, UK government warns
- 2009/09/22: GreenGrok: Warmer Climate May Depress Crop Yields
- 2009/09/24: PlanetArk: World Food Output Must Rise 70 Percent By 2050: FAO
- 2009/09/21: UN: Drought and conflict aggravate hunger in East Africa, warns UN food agency
- 2009/09/21: EarthTimes: UN: Drought spells grim outlook for crops in East Africa
The conflict between biofuel and food persists:
- 2009/09/24: BBC: S Korea agrees Tanzania land deal
South Korea says it has agreed to develop farmland in Tanzania - the latest in a series of such deals between rich and poor nations. Korean officials say 1,000 sq km (386 sq miles) will be developed - half for local farmers, half to produce processed goods for South Korea. Seoul also signed a deal last year to lease a vast area of Madagascar. Rich countries have increasingly sought farmland in poorer nations to help shore up food supplies. Countries such as China, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Kuwait are short of arable land and have been seeking agricultural investments in Africa. - 2009/09/25: WFP: Food Multinationals Join Forces To Fight Hunger
- 2009/09/25: FAO: 2050: Increased investment in agricultural research essential -- Producing more food will largely depend on increasing crop yields, not farming more land
- 2009/09/26: NewsWeek: So Shall You Reap
Many farming communities think global warming won't hurt them. They're wrong. You might think a little global warming is good for farming. Longer, warmer growing seasons and more carbon dioxide (CO2) -- what plant wouldn't love that? The agricultural industry basically takes that stance. But global warming's effects on agriculture would actually be quite complicated -- and mostly not for the better. - 2009/09/25: UN: Global corporate giants join forces with UN food agency to end hunger
- 2009/09/25: TreeHugger: Dear Big Ag: World Hunger Is Not for Sale
- 2009/09/22: FTeP: Implications of Climate Change on Food Crops
- 2009/09/26: GG&G: Implications of Climate Change on Food Crops
- 2009/09/24: UN: Royalties from next Bob Dylan album to help UN scheme to feed hungry children
Music fans who buy a copy of the upcoming Christmas album by the renowned United States singer-songwriter Bob Dylan will also be giving a helping hand to hungry children around the globe after the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced today that royalties from the album will be donated to its school meals initiative. - 2009/09/24: BBC: Health check for England's soil
As the government publishes its strategy on how to keep England's soils healthy, the BBC's environment correspondent Sarah Mukherjee has been to talk to one farmer in the Fens. - 2009/09/15: ClimateTasmania: It's time we honoured our permaculture prophets
Modern permaculture was born in Tasmania. The climate challenge and peak oil have brought its great benefits into sharp focus. It's past time that Tasmanians picked up some permaculture habits. - 2009/09/23: OilDrum: Energetics of cultivation: draft animals vs. combustion engines and the Haber process
- 2009/09/22: SolveClimate: Organic Farming Yields Far Better Crop Resistance and Resiliance
In the Pacific Ketsana slammed the Phillipines:
- 2009/09/26: CBC: 40 killed in Philippines storm [Ketsana]
- 2009/09/26: CNN: At least 50 dead in Philippines from tropical storm flooding
At least 50 are dead in Philippines in flooding from Tropical Storm Ketsana - 5,000 rescued without boats, another 3,688 rescued with boats, official says - In all, 41,205 people sought refuge in 92 evacuation centers, official says - Downpours approach record of 341 mm (13.4 inches) between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. - 2009/09/26: BBC: Dozens dead in Philippine floods
At least 40 people have been killed and thousands more evacuated as floods caused by heavy rain brought chaos to the Philippines, officials say. One town is said to be completely under water. Power has been cut off to parts of the capital, Manila, where hundreds of people are trapped on rooftops. The government has declared a calamity, allowing access to emergency funds. - 2009/09/27: CNN: Dozens dead as flooding engulfs Manila
Up to 300,000 people may be displaced, Red Cross official says - Government begins massive relief operations following deadly floods - More than 75 are dead in Philippines in flooding from Tropical Storm Ketsana - 2009/09/27: EarthTimes: Death toll nears 100 from tropical storm [Ketsana] in Philippines
- 2009/09/27: EarthTimes: Death toll reaches 80 from tropical storm [Ketsana] in Philippines
- 2009/09/27: BBC: Philippines battles flood chaos
A massive rescue operation is under way in the Philippines where at least 73 people are confirmed to have been killed in the wake of torrential rains. Tropical Storm Ketsana triggered the worst flooding in decades in the capital Manila and nearby provinces. - 2009/09/27: CBC: At least 51 die in Philippine flooding -- Tropical storm [Ketsana] causes worst floods in decades
While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:
- 2009/09/26: Wunderground: Tropical Depression Eight no threat to land
- 2009/09/22: Clemson: Hurricane frequency is up but not their strength, say Clemson researchers
- 2009/09/21: Wunderground: Quiet in the Atlantic; lessons learned from Hurricane Hugo's storm surge
As for GHGs:
- 2009/09/25: TreeHugger: We Should Focus on Global Emission Totals, Not National Percentage Reductions: Nicky Stern
- 2009/09/24: NewScientist: Greenhouse effect all in chemical bonds
- 2009/09/22: TerraDaily: Climate talks: The wrangle over emissions yardsticks [Total emissions, per capita emissions & carbon intensity]
- 2009/09/23: Eureka: Denver to Barcelona: Global cities and greenhouse gas emissions
- 2009/09/21: BBerg: World Needs Carbon Limit of 35 Billion Tons By 2030, [Nicholas] Stern Says
- 2009/09/22: SciDaily: Current Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions Pledges Leave Climate Targets In The Red, Analysis Finds
Total greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions currently proposed by industrialized countries fall short of the pathway to reaching a 2 degree target as referred to by the UNFCCC Kyoto Protocol negotiating group, despite the fact that the cost of meeting these pledges is much lower than anticipated, according to a new study. The study by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) states that by 2020, total GHG emissions of industrialized (Annex I) countries would decline by between only 5% and 17%, relative to 1990, depending on the conditions associated with the pledges. The aggregate proposal falls short of the 25-40% range referred to by negotiating Parties in 2007. - 2009/09/21: NYT: Emissions of CO2 Set for Best Drop in 40 Years
- 2009/09/21: FTimes: World recession results in steep fall in greenhouse gas emissions
- 2009/09/21: KSJT: Financial Times etc.: World CO2 emissions in unprecedented decline. Is it just the economy?
- 2009/09/21: ABC(Au): New figures suggest the economic downturn has led to the biggest fall in carbon emissions in more than three decades
- 2009/09/21: NewScientist: Fair carbon means no carbon for rich countries
[...] The new analysis is based on the idea that each person on the planet has the right to the same carbon footprint. - 2009/09/21: TreeHugger: US Carbon Emissions Down 9% Over Last Two Years
- 2009/09/20: WaPo: On Energy, We're Finally Walking the Walk by Lester R. Brown
- 2009/09/21: CDP: Carbon Disclosure Project 2009 Reports launched at New York Climate Week
- 2009/09/21: BBC: Recession and policies cut carbon
The global recession and a range of government policies are likely to bring the biggest annual fall in the world's carbon dioxide emissions in 40 years. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that global CO2 emissions will fall by more than 2% during 2009. - 2009/09/27: SciDaily: Climate Change Mitigation Strategies Ignore Carbon Cycling Processes Of Inland Waters, Scientists Say
- 2009/09/21: PhysOrg: Google Earth Application Maps Carbon's Course
- 2009/09/21: PhysOrg: Is nitrogen the new carbon?
Regarding the temperature:
- 2009/09/21: ClimateSight: More Records Threatened...
As for the ozone layer:
- 2009/09/23: ABC(Au): Australian scientists say the ozone hole is shrinking and that it could close completely by the end of the century...
- 2009/09/21: ESA: Ozone layer depletion levelling off
- 2009/09/21: CBC: Satellites show ozone depletion levelling off
While in the paleoclimate:
- 2009/09/24: SwissInfo: Man "not to blame" for early carbon emissions
The question over who -- or what -- caused an increase in CO2 emissions thousands of years ago has dogged climatologists for years. Now Swiss scientists have an answer. Some researchers have argued that ancient farmers could be to blame for a noticeable rise in greenhouse gases 6,500 years ago as they cleared primordial lands for agriculture. As it turns out, man had nothing to do with it, scientists argue in Thursday's issue of Nature. - 2009/09/23: SciNow: Preindustrial People Had Little Effect on Atmospheric Carbon Levels
And on the el Niño/la Niña [ENSO] front:
- 2009/09/25: TerraDaily: El Nino shift could boost hurricanes, intensify drought: study
- 2009/09/24: ABC(Au): El Nino-Modoki pattern to change weather again
A climate change expert says a predicted shift in El Nino ocean warming patterns will make northern Australian monsoons more intense. - 2009/09/24: Eureka: North meets south? Glaciers move together in far-flung regions -- Study links climate fluctuations in north with tropics
- 2009/09/24: Eureka: Peruvian glacial retreats linked to European events of Little Ice Age
- 2009/09/23: CCP: by Scoop at Unique Post: Stunning views of glaciers from space
Meanwhile in near earth orbit:
- 2009/09/21: USGS: Landsat Plays Key Role in Water-Use Maps
More GW impacts are being seen:
- 2009/09/26: UN: Climate and economic crises taking heavy toll on Caribbean, leaders tell UN
- 2009/09/26: ClimateP: A Sea Change: Imagine a World without Fish -- ocean acidification film...
- 2009/09/27: Guardian(UK): Dust storms spread deadly diseases worldwide
- 2009/09/23: ClimateSight: Overlap
- 2009/09/23: Guardian(UK): Climate change is killing our people
UN leaders should know: climate change is destroying my village in Uganda -- flooding our homes and ruining our crops - 2009/09/23: NewScientist: Climate change may trigger earthquakes and volcanoes
- 2009/09/23: PhysOrg: Woody plants adapted to past climate change more slowly than herbs
- 2009/09/23: Eureka: Global warming may dent El Niño's protective shield from Atlantic hurricanes, increase droughts
- 2009/09/22: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Doctors Demand Climate Change Action to Avert "Global Health Catastrophe"
- 2009/09/21: PlanetArk: Mosquito-Borne African [chikungunya] Virus A New Threat To West
And then there are the world's forests:
- 2009/09/23: FAO: REDD: North-South Agreement for New Emissions Reduction Mechanism -- High level event on forests and climate change supports emissions reduction mechanism
- 2009/09/26: TreeHugger: SAD Fate In Store For Rocky Mountain Aspens?
- 2009/09/23: TerraDaily: Plumes of smoke and fear of eviction in Kenya's Mau forest
- 2009/09/25: SolveClimate: Putting a Value on Preserving Forests, Not Clearing Them
- 2009/09/26: Yahoo:AFP: Nearly 70 percent of Argentine forests lost in a century
- 2009/09/24: Guardian(UK): Q&A: REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation)
- 2009/09/24: Guardian(UK): Guyana could certainly use forest protection cash - but not under false pretences
Unlike in Brazil and Indonesia, there is no pressure to turn the rainforests of Guyana into farmland - 2009/09/24: MongaBay: Will tropical trees survive climate change?, an interview with Kenneth J. Feeley
- 2009/09/23: PlanetArk: Ecuador Would Protect Oil-Rich Rainforest For Cash
- 2009/09/23: TreeHugger: Ecuador Says Show Me the Money, Or the Rainforest Gets It
- 2009/09/23: Eureka: Tennessee foresters helping to return chestnuts to American forests
- 2009/09/23: Reuters: Forests fight back as Indonesia tackles illegal palm oil
- 2009/09/22: CBC: B.C. pine beetle plague may be near end: minister
After more than a decade of devastation, B.C.'s Forests Minister says the plague of the Pine Beetle may finally be over. "If you look across the province of British Columbia now, the pine beetle is really on the decline. Unfortunately, that's as a result of it running out of food at this point," minister Pat Bell told reporters at the legislature in Victoria Tuesday. The pine beetle infestation has ravaged nearly 25 per cent of B.C.'s pine trees, turning vast swaths of once-green forests into a rusty brown. - 2009/09/22: UN: Global campaign reaches goal of seven billion new trees, says UN agency [UNEP]
- 2009/09/22: CanWest: Pine beetle epidemic is over: B.C. minister
The mountain pine beetle epidemic is over, B.C. forests minister declared Monday. But it's not because the beetles have been defeated. Rather, they have run out of trees, and that heralds a whole new set of problems, Pat Bell told the Vancouver Board of Trade. - 2009/09/21: MongaBay: Fashion labels drop APP [Asia Pulp and Paper] after party highlights the plight of Indonesian forests
- 2009/09/21: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Protecting the Rainforests: Sending out an SOS on behalf of the world's tropical forests
Climate refugees are becoming an issue:
- 2009/09/26: UN: Bangladesh, at UN, urges greater support for 'climate migrants'
- 2009/09/22: Reuters: Natural disasters displacing millions - U.N. study
Floods, storms, drought and other climate-related natural disasters drove 20 million people from their homes last year, nearly four times as many as were displaced by conflicts, a new U.N. report said on Tuesday. The study tried to quantify for the first time the number of people forced to flee their homes because of climate change. Global warming is increasing the frequency and intensity of storms and otherwise altering weather patterns, so disasters are now "an extremely significant driver of forced displacement globally", it said. - 2009/09/21: Grist: Morocco's beaches may become launching point for climate refugees
Yes we have no wacky weather, except for the odd dust storm:
- 2009/09/24: Maribo: Dust storm in Australia
- 2009/09/25: EarthTimes: Australian red dust flies 2,160 kilometres to New Zealand
- 2009/09/24: BBC: Huge clean-up after Sydney storm
Australia has been clearing up after its worst dust storm in seven decades, which smothered Sydney and brought transport to a standstill. - 2009/09/24: ClimateP: Dust Bowl-ification hits Eastern Australia -- next stop the U.S. Southwest. Anti-scientific WattsUpWithThat says it has "nothing to do with the dreaded Climate Change" and "has an unappreciated benefit"!
- 2009/09/24: PlanetArk: Q+A: Is Australia's Dust Storm Linked To Climate Change?
- 2009/09/23: TP:WR: Global Boiling: A Drop In A Bucket, Dust On The Scales
- 2009/09/23: CBC: Australia hit by worst dust storms in 70 years -- Dust from Outback casts Sydney under eerie orange glow
- 2009/09/23: NatureTGB: Aussie dust storm photos, videos and science
- 2009/09/23: ABC(Au): Dust storm 'started 12 months ago'
The spectacular dust storm that swept through much of eastern Australia on Wednesday may have had its origins 12 months ago, an Australian expert says. - 2009/09/22: Deltoid: Sydney or Mars?
- 2009/09/23: SMH: Global warning: Sydney dust storm just the beginning
- 2009/09/23: Wunderground: Massive duststorm chokes eastern Australia; Atlanta floods ease
- 2009/09/23: EarthTimes: Interview: Meteorology expert [Leonard Barrie, WMO head of research]: Sydney dust storm result of drought
- 2009/09/23: Reuters: Dust storm blankets Sydney as drought bites
- 2009/09/23: PeakEnergy: Sydney Dust Storm
- 2009/09/23: RawStory: Huge dust storm blankets eastern Australia
- 2009/09/23: DerSpiegel: Picture This -- The Dust Down Under
- 2009/09/22: CBC: Australia hit by worst dust storms in 70 years -- Dust from Outback casts Sydney under eerie orange glow
- 2009/09/23: G&M: Australian dust storm causes chaos -- Pall of red blown in from the Outback...
- 2009/09/23: BBC: Dust storm sweeps East Australia [weird weather]
A huge cloud of red dust driven by gale force winds has been choking Australia's biggest city, Sydney. Residents have described scenes from a Hollywood disaster movie after waking to an eerie dawn. - 2009/09/25: Tyee: As BC Burns, Many Towns Lack Fire Protection Plans -- Local officials say they need more staff, money and legal assurances to do the job
- 2009/09/25: CBC: California wildfire nearly contained
- 2009/09/24: CNN: Hot, dry conditions feed California wildfire
Eight firefighters injured, $3.4 million spent, officials say - Blaze nearly doubled overnight, but is 40 percent contained, officials say - Fire that has burned 16,000 acres began in mulch pile, investigators determine - Forecast calls for high around 90 degrees, 30 percent humidity - 2009/09/24: CBC: California fire threatens homes, agriculture
Fire crews have launched heavy air attacks to halt the spread of a Southern California wildfire that has chewed through more than 645 square kilometres of bone-dry brush, threatening hundreds of homes. Firefighters focused early Thursday on the fire's eastern and western flanks just north of Moorpark, about 65 kilometres northwest of downtown Los Angeles. The fire was 40 per cent contained late Wednesday and is expected to be fully contained by Saturday. - 2009/09/24: CBC: Bush fire forces 75 B.C. residents from homes
A fast-growing wildfire near the town of Clinton, B.C., has forced about 75 residents from their homes and prompted officials to declare a state of emergency. - 2009/09/23: CNN: California fire began in mulch pile, investigators say
Fire that has burned nearly 10,000 acres began in mulch pile, officials say - Arson is a possible cause of Guiberson Fire, official tells reporters - CalFire official says he hopes blaze can be contained by Saturday morning - Four firefighters treated for smoke and heat-related injuries, released from hospital - 2009/09/22: Stoat: Wildfires and global warming
- 2009/09/23: CBC: California wildfire prompts state of emergency
- 2009/09/21: KSJT: Pasadena Star News: That fire around Mount Wilson still burning, and wotta picture
And speaking of floods & droughts:
- 2009/09/24: USGS: Atlanta Flooding Sets New Records
- 2009/09/25: SMH: Water wars forecast as feeding India's hungry leaves the land thirsty
Farmers who can no longer irrigate fear nothing will be left to drink, writes Matt Wade. India is destined for water wars, one of its leading environmentalists has concluded after studying the effects of modern agriculture for more than 20 years. "In a decade India could look like Darfur in Sudan," says Dr Vandana Shiva, a nuclear physicist turned environmental activist. "When you run out of water it's a recipe for killing. Water really makes people so desperate." - 2009/09/26: TreeHugger: Safe Water and Easy Transport: ROSS Emergency Filter and Carrier
- 2009/09/25: JFleck: Stationarity Really, Most Sincerely Dead
- 2009/09/23: TerraDaily: Water-short Iraq faces new peril: the sea
- 2009/09/23: TerraDaily: India heading for worst drought since 1972: weather data
- 2009/09/27: NewScientist: River deltas are sinking, thanks to us
- 2009/09/27: PhysOrg: Nearly 70 percent of Argentine forests lost in a century
- 2009/09/27: SciDaily: Heavier Rainstorms Ahead Due To Global Climate Change, Study Predicts
- 2009/09/24: CCP: USGS: Atlanta Flooding Sets New Records
- 2009/09/24: CSM: Atlanta flood: remnants of hurricane Fred are to blame
Once a Category 3 hurricane, Fred had been sheared off by El Niño-spawned air currents. But the storm then traveled nearly 2,000 miles and combined with another weather system to produce 20 inches of rain. - 2009/09/24: CSM: Atlanta flood: After drought, residents caught by surprise
The lesson from the Atlanta flood is that many Americans are unprepared for disaster. Nationally, about 30 percent of storm victims live outside 100-year flood zones. - 2009/09/24: ABC(Au): Droughts and flooding rains to intensify
A new breed of El Nino [called El Nino-Modoki] is on the rise, causing more intense monsoons over northern Australia, says a climate scientist. - 2009/09/24: WWW: Are The Southeast USA Floods Climate Change Related??
- 2009/09/23: CNN: Blame prolonged rains -- not big storms -- for Atlanta flood
Eight days of rain contributed to flooding in Atlanta - The outcome looks like the result of a tropical storm -- but it's not - Soils are saturated to the point that water has nowhere to go - 2009/09/23: CNN: Mother recalls night flood changed everything
Flash flood rips family home off foundation and leaves 2-year-old boy dead - Mother clings to tree for six hours, clasping her other son to her chest - A serene creek was transformed into an 18-foot-deep torrent - A community rallies around the family, trying to make sense of it all - 2009/09/23: UN: UN steps up relief efforts for 600,000 flood victims in West Africa
- 2009/09/23: UN: Urgent resources needed to feed Ethiopians stricken by drought, warns UN
- 2009/09/22: SciNow: In Race With the Sea, River Deltas Falling Behind
- 2009/09/23: ClimateP: Hell and High Water hits Georgia
- 2009/09/22: Guardian(UK): Six Flags theme park under water as flooding hammers Atlanta (6 pictures)
- 2009/09/22: CBC: Flood death toll hits 9 in U.S. southeast
- 2009/09/22: CNN: Recalling Katrina, few at Georgia shelter complain
Man describing shelter: "In terms of hospitality, nothing beats this place." - Homeowners rescued in rafts worry what is left of their homes - Days of unrelenting rain have flooded areas in and near Atlanta, Georgia - 2009/09/22: CNN: Flood dangers not over for Georgia
Georgia death toll rises to 8; most caught in cars in floodwaters, governor says - Five people swept away by floodwaters on Tuesday commute, later rescued - Those killed Monday in Georgia flooding include 2-year-old swept from father's arms - Governor declares state of emergency in 17 hardest-hit counties - 2009/09/22: Wunderground: Heavy rains kill seven in Georgia
- 2009/09/22: BBC: Deadly floods hit south-east US
Floods set off by torrential rain are now known to have left at least eight people dead in the south-eastern US, including seven in Georgia - 2009/09/22: Yahoo: Southeast floods block highways; toll rises to 8
- 2009/09/21: CNN: Floods kill 4 in rain-soaked Atlanta area
At least four others missing in Georgia; one presumed dead in Tennessee - At high school near Atlanta, standing water keeps students from leaving - 300 people in Trion, Georgia, evacuate homes amid fears levee might fail - Hundreds of roads are closed, official says; schools closed in at least four counties - 2009/09/20: TerraDaily: Turkey agrees to up Euphrates flow to Iraq: Baghdad
Turkey has agreed to up the flow of water along the Euphrates river to Iraq for a month, Baghdad said Saturday, amid tensions between the two sides over distribution of the precious commodity. The agreement came after talks in Istanbul involving Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and Turkish Environment Minister Veysel Eroglu, following a months-long war of words between Baghdad and Ankara. - 2009/09/20: Eureka: World's river deltas sinking due to human activity, says new study led by CU-Boulder -- 24 of world's 33 major deltas sinking, 85 percent have experienced severe flooding recently
- 2009/09/21: BBC: 'Millions at risk' as deltas sink
Most of the world's major river deltas are sinking, increasing the flood risk faced by hundreds of millions of people, scientists report. - 2009/09/21: BBC: Kenya hit by killer drought
Elsewhere on the mitigation front:
- 2009/09/26: SciDaily: 'Green' Roofs Could Help Put Lid On Global Warming
- 2009/09/23: PhysOrg: 'Green' roofs may help put lid on global warming
- 2009/09/23: TreeHugger: Waste Reduction and Recycling Can Cut CO2 by 345 Million Tons Year
- 2009/09/23: Eureka: 'Green' roofs may help put lid on global warming
- 2009/09/22: PlanetArk: Biotechnology Could Cut C02 Sharply - [WWF] Report
Consider transportation & GHG production:
- 2009/09/25: CalcRisk: Truck Tonnage Index Increased [2.1%] in August
- 2009/09/25: WSJ:EnvCap: Au Contrail: Aviation's Uphill Battle to Curb Emissions
- 2009/09/23: Guardian(UK): Shipping bodies back cap and trade scheme to cut emissions
Proposal from five countries would cut emissions from the shipping industry, which accounts for nearly 3% of the world's man-made greenhouse gases - 2009/09/23: TreeHugger: Congestion Charge Cuts Waiting Time 50% and CO2 by 18% in Stockholm
- 2009/09/23: DerSpiegel: 'Like Ferraris on Dirt Roads' -- German High Speed Trains to Link Moscow with St. Petersburg
High-speed German trains will soon be traveling between Moscow and St. Petersburg. But they won't be able to go as fast as they do elsewhere because money hasn't been put into improving the rails they run on. In that sense, it reflects the situation in Germany, where the high-speed rail network is woefully underdeveloped. - 2009/09/23: CalcRisk: DOT: Vehicle Miles increase in July
- 2009/09/22: NakedCapitalism: Railroad Traffic Decline Accelerates (Withering Green Shoot Watch) [-19.8% for YoY Week 36]
- 2009/09/22: OilChange: Airlines Preempt Copenhagen by Pledging to Halve CO2
- 2009/09/22: BBC: Trains in Spain signal the future
- 2009/09/22: BBC: Airlines plan 'to cut emissions'
- 2009/09/21: Guardian(UK): Airlines vow to halve carbon emissions by 2050 -- Industry will offer cut at climate change summit to avoid tougher action
While in the endless quest for sustainable, zero energy buildings and practical codes:
- 2009/09/22: CleanBreak: Canadian property association pledges to cut energy use in office buildings in half by 2015
- 2009/09/27: Scotsman: Home insulation project to ease global warming heading for meltdown
- 2009/09/23: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Green Building: A Critical Climate Solution Spreads across China
- 2009/09/21: Eureka: Building energy efficiency programs in Europe and Australia -- Offer important lessons for the United States, [RAND] study finds
And on the carbon sequestration front:
- 2009/09/25: NatureCF: Sizing up carbon capture and storage
- 2009/09/23: CBC: Carbon capture called 'sheer folly' -- Says it's too early to adopt technology
A report released Wednesday dismisses a technology that is a cornerstone of Canada's climate change policy as "sheer folly." The report, written by Edmonton Journal columnist Graham Thomson for the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto, concludes investing in carbon capture is currently too risky as neither the proper science nor the proper laws are in place. - 2009/09/22: SciAm: Burying Climate Change: Efforts Begin to Sequester Carbon Dioxide from Power Plants
West Virginia hosts the world's first power plant to inject some of its CO2 emissions underground for permanent storage - 2009/09/23: SciDaily: Cleaner Coal Plants May Use Pressurized Combustion System To Capture Carbon Dioxide
Researchers at MIT have shown the benefits of a new approach toward eliminating carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions at coal-burning power plants. Their system, called pressurized oxy-fuel combustion, provides a way of separating all of the carbon-dioxide emissions produced by the burning of coal, in the form of a concentrated, pressurized liquid stream. This allows for carbon dioxide sequestration: the liquid CO2 stream can be injected into geological formations deep enough to prevent their escape into the atmosphere - 2009/09/21: NYT: Refitted to Bury Emissions, Plant Draws Attention
New Haven, W.Va. - Poking out of the ground near the smokestacks of the Mountaineer power plant here are two wells that look much like those that draw natural gas to the surface. But these are about to do something new: inject [15 to 30% of] a power plant's carbon dioxide into the earth - 2009/09/22: Gather: Afforestation - bringing life into the deserts
- 2009/09/24: EpochTimes: Painting the City White, Literally
- 2009/09/25: AlterNet: Geo-Engineering Could Save the Planet ... and in the Process Sacrifice the World
- 2009/09/23: Scitizen: Geoengineering the climate : science, governance and uncertainty
Earlier this month, the Royal Society of the UK issued a report entitled "Geoengineering the climate : science, governance and uncertainty". Ken Caldeira, the director of the Caldeira Lab at the Carnegie Institution in the U.S. and a member of the working group involved in producing this report, answers Scitizen's questions. - 2009/09/23: PhysOrg: Expert [David Keith]: Lift taboo on Earth engineering
The effects of climate change are so uncertain and potentially long-lasting that policymakers should begin examining options that include geoengineering, an area that has so far been off-limits, according to a former Harvard researcher who is now a professor at the University of Calgary, Canada. - 2009/09/18: CPunch: Geo-Engineering Could Save the Planet ... and Sacrifice the World in the Process -- Hacking the Sky
- 2009/09/20: Guardian(UK): Such drastic climate therapy [geoengineering] could make things worse by James Lovelock
While on the adaptation front:
- 2009/09/23: CCP: Dutch help California's Bay Area plan for sea level rise
Meanwhile in the journals:
- 2009/09/24: ACP: Impact of dust aerosols on the radiative budget, surface heat fluxes, heating rate profiles and convective activity over West Africa during March 2006 by M. Mallet et al.
- 2009/09/25: ACPD: A 15 year record of high-frequency, in situ measurements of hydrogen at Mace Head, Ireland by A. Grant et al.
- 2009/09/24: ACPD: Global estimates of CO sources with high resolution by adjoint inversion of multiple satellite datasets (MOPITT, AIRS, SCIAMACHY, TES) by M. Kopacz et al.
- 2009/09/24: ACPD: Chirality and origin of atmospheric humic-like substances by I. Salma et al.
- 2009/09/21: AGWObserver: Papers on global surface temperature
- 2009/09/23: AGWObserver: Papers on ocean acidification
- 2009/09/25: AGWObserver: Papers on laboratory measurements of CO2 absorption properties
- 2009/09/23: CPD: A unified proxy for ENSO and PDO variability since 1650 by S. McGregor et al.
- 2009/09/22: CPD: The reconstruction of paleo wind directions for the Eifel region (Central Europe) during the period 40.3-12.9 ka BP by S. Dietrich & K. Seelos
- 2009/09/25: Science: (ab$) Why Capture CO2 from the Atmosphere? by David W. Keith
- 2009/09/25: Science: (ab$) China Grapples With A Burning Question by Josh Fenn
- 2009/09/25: Science: (ab$) Onshore Geologic Storage of CO2 by Franklin M. Orr, Jr.
- 2009/09/23: Nature: [Letter$] Extensive dynamic thinning on the margins of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets by Hamish D. Pritchard et al.
- 2009/09/23: ACP: Nitric acid in the stratosphere based on Odin observations from 2001 to 2009 - Part 2: High-altitude polar enhancements by Y. J. Orsolini et al.
- 2009/09/22: ACP: Dust events in Beijing, China (2004-2006): comparison of ground-based measurements with columnar integrated observations by Z. J. Wu et al.
- 2009/09/21: ACP: Physical properties of High Arctic tropospheric particles during winter by L. Bourdages et al.
- 2009/09/23: ACPD: A semi-analytical solution for the mean wind profile in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer: the convective case by L. Buligon et al.
- 2009/09/23: ACPD: n overview of the SCOUT-AMMA stratospheric aircraft, balloons and sondes campaign in West Africa, August 2006: rationale, roadmap and highlights by F. Cairo et al.
- 2009/09/22: ACPD: Estimates of biomass burning emissions in tropical Asia based on satellite-derived data by D. Chang & Y. Song
- 2009/09/24: Nature: A safe operating space for humanity by Johan Rockström et multi al.
- 2009/09/24: Nature: [Letter$] Stable isotope constraints on Holocene carbon cycle changes from an Antarctic ice core by Joachim Elsig et al.
- 2009/09/22: PNAS: Forest transition in Vietnam and displacement of deforestation abroad by Patrick Meyfroidt & Eric F. Lambin
- 2009/09/22: PNAS: Setting cumulative emissions targets to reduce the risk of dangerous climate change by Kirsten Zickfeld et al.
- 2009/09/22: PNAS: Long-term natural variability and 20th century climate change by Kyle L. Swanson et al.
- 2009/09/22: PNAS: [Letter$] Overlook agricultural research at our peril by Daniel R. Bush
- 2009/09/22: PNAS: [Letter$] Reply to Leuzinger et al.: Drought-induced tree mortality temperature sensitivity requires pressing forward with best available science by Henry D. Adams et al.
- 2009/09/22: PNAS: [Letter$] Poor methodology for predicting large-scale tree die-off by Sebastian Leuzinger et al.
And other significant documents:
- G&M:MunkCentre: [2.5meg pdf] Burying Carbon Dioxide in Underground Saline Aquifers: Political Folly or Climate Change Fix? by Graham Thomson
- 2009/09/24: UNEP: [link to 4.6 meg pdf & subsections] Climate Change Science Compendium 2009
Before we get into politics, there was some science done:
- Oxford: 4 Degrees International Climate Conference (28-30 Sept 2009, Oxford, UK)
- 2009/09/21: PhysOrg: UF devising new model to test hurricane's effects on utilities statewide
- 2009/09/22: PhysOrg: UA developing network to improve weather forecasting [COSMOS: COsmic-ray Soil Moisture Observing System]
Several interviews:
- 2009/09/25: ScienceInsider: An Insider Conversation: China, India, and the Illusion of Safety [Stephen Schneider & Keya Chatterjee]
- 2009/09/25: MongaBay: Could agroforestry solve the biodiversity crisis and address poverty?, an interview with Shonil Bhagwat
- 2009/09/25: DemNow: Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai: If US Moves Forward on Climate Change, Rest of World Will Follow
Meanwhile at the UN:
- 2009/09/24: UN: UN maritime chief calls on world leaders to agree on global warming treaty
No one is immune to the impact of climate change, the head of the United Nations maritime agency warned today in a message urging world leaders to reach agreement at an international conference aimed at firming up an effective greenhouse gas reduction pact in December. "Mankind is on the horns of a dilemma," stressed Efthimios Mitropoulos, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). - 2009/09/22: UN: Failure on climate change not an option, Ban tells business leaders
- 2009/09/22: UN: UN endeavours to ensure that children have a say in climate change moves
- 2009/09/21: CBC: China could lead climate change fight: UN chief
And on the carbon trading front:
- 2009/09/23: CFO: Carbon fund assets reach $16 billion
- 2009/09/25: PlanetArk: Carbon Fund Assets Up 25 Percent To $16 Billion In 2009
- 2009/09/23: Reuters: China, BlueNext form standard to build CO2 market
A French emissions exchange and a Chinese group are forming a carbon market standard for China, marking a step toward a voluntary system to limit greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and forestry in the world's top emitter. - 2009/09/21: EurActiv: EU lists industries exempted from carbon trading
Experts from the 27-member bloc agreed on a list of industries ranging from plastics manufacturing to iron and food processing that will be largely exempted from CO2 trading after 2013 for fears that their inclusion would move production abroad. National experts agreed on a list of 164 sectors deemed to be at risk of relocating their activities to foreign countries that have not adopted greenhouse gas emission restrictions similar to the EU's. The threat is dubbed "carbon leakage" because industries and their related polluting emissions would simply move abroad without any benefit for the environment. The list, covering the most carbon-intensive industries such as steel, cement and chemicals, represents 77% of the total manufacturing emissions under the EU's emissions trading scheme (EU ETS). These will continue to get a higher share of their emission allowances (EUAs) for free after the EU ETS has been revamped in 2013, after which date the power sector in the EU-15 will be obliged to pay for all its permits. - 2009/09/23: BBerg: Caterpillar, FedEx Favor Carbon Tax Over Cap-and-Trade Measure
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:
- 2009/09/24: Belfer: Can Countries Cut Carbon Emissions Without Hurting Economic Growth? by Robert Stavins
Meanwhile on the international political front:
- 2009/09/24: Guardian(UK): Fidel Castro unites with Barack Obama in the fight against climate change
- 2009/09/22: PlanetArk: U.S. Leadership Needed On Doha, Climate Change: EU
- 2009/09/21: FTimes: EU sees US as biggest obstacle on climate
As for GW & security:
- 2009/09/25: PeakEnergy: CNA Report On Energy Security
And on the American political front:
- 2009/09/26: ClimateP: Honey, I shrunk the GOP, Part 3: RNC Chair Steele withdraws support for Rep. Kirk over his vote on climate and clean energy bill
- 2009/09/25: TP: RNC Chairman Steele Withdraws Support For Rep. Kirk Over His Cap-And-Trade Vote
- 2009/09/26: SF Gate: Top state emitters of greenhouse gases face fees
- 2009/09/26: CSW: Krugman in NYTimes: The campaign against saving the planet rests mainly on lies
- 2009/09/21: C411: Polls: House Members Gained Strength by Supporting Climate Bill
- 2009/09/25: ABC(Au): California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says he is ready to put his star power to work for President Barack Obama on the environment when his own term ends next year
- 2009/09/25: PlanetArk: Schwarzenegger: Ready To Work For Obama, Go Green
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is ready to put his star power to work for President Barack Obama on the environment when his own term ends next year, the former movie actor said on Thursday. Republican Schwarzenegger is arguably the biggest environmentalist in his party and razzed Washington, which is struggling to pass climate change legislation and prepare for international talks, for wrangling with other countries over global warming goals rather than setting an example. "Did we say China, you go first with human rights, and we will follow you? No. We led," he said in an address at the Commonwealth Club lauding his state's climate change plan, which is the most aggressive in the nation. - 2009/09/25: UMich: U.S. needs nearly $200 million more on climate-related health research
- 2009/09/24: Reuters: California sets biggest energy efficiency plan
California said it had approved the most aggressive energy efficiency plan among U.S. states on Thursday, earmarking $3.1 billion to retrofit homes and other programs that will cut power needs equivalent to three medium-sized power plants. Conservation and efficiency have become national buzzwords as the economy has failed, since such investments have some of the quickest paybacks of any in 'green' industries. - 2009/09/25: LA Times: New California rules allow timber firms to sell carbon credits
Environmental groups criticize the Schwarzenegger-backed changes, which allow the companies to benefit from the fight against global warming while continuing to clear-cut forests. - 2009/09/25: SF Gate: $3 billion effort to cut state energy use
California energy regulators on Thursday approved spending $3.1 billion over the next three years to cut the amount of electricity used in the state, potentially saving as much power as the output of three power plants. - 2009/09/25: EconView: Paul Krugman: It's Easy Being Green
- 2009/09/23: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Dimock, Pennsylvania: A community paying the price many times over for under-regulated natural gas production [fracking]
- 2009/09/23: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Debunking the "Spanish Jobs Study": 8 Inconvenient Truths You Should Know About
- 2009/09/23: AspenDN: Climate skeptics a challenge for water planners
- 2009/09/23: TreeHugger: California Releases Proposal for Tightened TV Efficiency Standards, Manufacturers Grumble
- 2009/09/21: ClimateP: Federal court says states may sue utilities over GHGs. NY AG Cuomo: "This is a game-changing decision for New York and other states, reaffirming our right to take direct action against global warming pollution from power plants."
- 2009/09/20: ClimateP: Congressional Budget Office and Politifact debunk Glenn Beck's 'lies': Clean energy economy costs only a postage stamp a day
- 2009/09/21: ClimateP: The Clean-Energy Investment Agenda
- 2009/09/21: WarmingLaw: If You Can't Say Something Helpful, Don't Say Anything At All
- 2009/09/20: SF Gate: California plans to levy greenhouse gas fees
More than a year after Bay Area air pollution regulators became the first in the nation to charge businesses for pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the program has raked in close to $1.7 million. And as early as this week, the state may follow suit by imposing similar fees on large California polluters as part of an ongoing effort to cut greenhouse gases 20 percent by 2020. The proposed program from the California Air Resources Board and the fledgling regional effort are designed to use the fees to pay for measuring, monitoring and studying the emissions blamed for global climate change. - 2009/09/22: C411: PG&E Leaves the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over Climate
- 2009/09/26: TreeHugger: Another One Jumps From The Chamber Pot: New Mexico Utility [PNM] Leaving US Chamber Of Commerce
- 2009/09/22: PRWatch: U.S. Chamber of Commerce Downsized
- 2009/09/25: BSD: Chamber of Commerce - leave it or fix it?
- 2009/09/25: NYT:GreenInc: Chamber of Commerce Departures Continue
- 2009/09/24: ClimateP: Will last company to leave the Chamber's Boardroom please turn off the lights!
- 2009/09/24: Grist: Corporations call off the old green battle, but Chamber of Commerce soldiers on
- 2009/09/24: NRDC:SwitchBoard: PNM Resources To Sever Chamber Ties Altogether
- 2009/09/24: DeSmogBlog: PNM Resources Leaves U.S. Chamber Board, Slams Stance On Climate
- 2009/09/23: NRDC:SwitchBoard: PNM Resources Quits US Chamber Board
- 2009/09/23: ScienceInsider: Power Company [PG&E] Alleges Business Lobby [USCoC] Trying to "Distort" Climate Findings
- 2009/09/23: NYT: Utility Quits Alliance Over Climate Change
Amid a growing split in the business community over climate policy, Pacific Gas and Electric, a major California utility, is withdrawing from the United States Chamber of Commerce, citing "fundamental differences" with the chamber's approach to global warming. - 2009/09/22: DeSmogBlog: PG&E Quits U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Nike Fed Up Too
- 2009/09/22: TP: Pacific Gas & Electric Company Leaves U.S. Chamber of Commerce Over Its Global Warming Denialism
- 2009/09/22: ClimateP: PG&E Corp. quits US Chamber Of Commerce's "extreme position on climate change."
- 2009/09/22: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Straight from PGE: Irreconcilable Differences
- 2009/09/22: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Pacific, Gas & Electric, Nike are quitting the US Chamber of Commerce -- PGE, Nike Fed Up With US Chamber
- 2009/09/22: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Tied to the Rails: US Chamber President Tom Donohue and Union Pacific (part II)
The Obama chatter is nonstop:
- 2009/09/25: EurActiv: US official: We have a backup plan if climate bill fails
President Barack Obama is drawing up a 'Plan B' to regulate greenhouse gases if the US Senate fails to pass legislation needed to mandate the new administration to negotiate an international climate treaty at crunch talks in December, a senior official said yesterday (24 September). - 2009/09/24: USAToday: Text: Obama's U.N. speech on climate change
- 2009/09/23: BBerg: Obama's Ability to Deliver Climate Law Questioned
- 2009/09/23: Guardian(UK): Obama to press G20 leaders to cut fossil fuel subsidies that benefit big business
- 2009/09/23: PlanetArk: Analyst View[s]: Obama Urges Swift Action On Global Warming
- 2009/09/23: WSJ:EnvCap: What Was Missing from Obama's Climate Speech? Nuclear Power
- 2009/09/23: TreeHugger: Obama's UN Climate Speech Lacked Details to Lead World Forward: Bill McKibben
- 2009/09/23: TP: Rove And Hannity: By Calling For Action On Climate Change, Obama Is Taking A 'Jab At America'
- 2009/09/23: OilChange: Obama: Global Leader or World Leader Pretend?
- 2009/09/23: BBerg: Obama's Ability to Deliver Climate Law Questioned
- 2009/09/22: Grist: Obama gives his first real climate speech -- really
- 2009/09/22: Grist: Obama's climate speech to the U.N.
- 2009/09/22: NRDC:SwitchBoard: President Obama Calls for Action on Climate at the UN
- 2009/09/22: TP:WR: Text Of Obama's Remarks To The United Nations On Climate Change: 'The Time We Have To Reverse This Tide Is Running Out'
- 2009/09/22: Guardian(UK): Obama the impotent
The disappointment with Barack Obama is tangible -- on climate change and financial reform Europe leads while the US lags - 2009/09/21: PlanetArk: Everest "Memento" For Obama To Show Climate Change Impact
- 2009/09/21: OilChange: Obama Attacked Over "Ambition Gap" on Climate
- 2009/09/20: Guardian(UK): Barack Obama to renew US climate change commitment at UN summit
The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:
- 2009/09/23: C411: EPA Sets Requirements for Big Polluters to Disclose Their Annual Emissions
- 2009/09/25: TreeHugger: Hillary Clinton Announces Obama's New Global Food Security Initiative (VIDEO)
- 2009/09/25: ENN: Greenhouse Gas Reporting Requirements Finalized
- 2009/09/22: EPA: EPA Finalizes the Nation's First Greenhouse Gas Reporting System/Monitoring to begin in 2010
- 2009/09/22: EPA: Final Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Rule
- 2009/09/23: ScienceInsider: Meet Obama's Head Energy Research Gambler [Arun Majumdar at ARPA-E]
- 2009/09/23: ClimateP: Lauded by industry groups, opposed by Murkowski, EPA announces new carbon pollution reporting rule
- 2009/09/23: PlanetArk: Electricity Costs Should Move To Reflect Demand: [U.S. Energy Secretary Steven] Chu
- 2009/09/23: PlanetArk: U.S. Awards $550 Million In Renewable Energy Grants
- 2009/09/23: PlanetArk: U.S. To Track Greenhouse Gases For First Time
- 2009/09/23: TreeHugger: Fisker Gets Half-Billion Dollars (!) Loan from Department of Energy
- 2009/09/22: OMBWatch: Greenhouse Gas Registry Finalized
- 2009/09/23: Kentucky: EPA says state must re-evaluate power plant
State regulators must take another look at the permit they granted for a new unit at a coal-fired power plant near Maysville that began operating last spring, the federal Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday. The permit granted to East Kentucky Power Cooperative's Spurlock No. 4 unit lacks the hazardous air pollution emission limits required by the Clean Air Act, the agency said. - 2009/09/23: NYT: Big Polluters Told to Report Emissions
The Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday that it would require the nation's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases to start tracking their emission levels on Jan. 1 and report them to the government. The E.P.A. said the reporting would cover roughly 85 percent of the greenhouse-gas emissions in the United States linked to global warming. The new rules would require 10,000 industrial sites and suppliers of petroleum products to submit the data beginning in 2011. Suppliers of fossil fuels will be asked to estimate how much carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases are emitted when the fuels are burned by businesses and consumers in buildings and cars, the agency said. - 2009/09/21: WSJ:EnvCap: Steven Chu: Americans Are Like 'Teenage Kids' When It Comes to Energy
- 2009/09/21: NYT:GW: Clean-Tech Progress More Important Than U.N. Climate Treaty -- DOE Chief [Energy Secretary Steven Chu]
- 2009/09/21: NatureTGB: High-risk energy research agency gets a leader [ARPA-E: Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy]
- 2009/09/21: WaPo: Audit Finds Waste in 'Green' Projects -- Energy Dept. Acknowledges Problems With Outsourcing, Need for Oversight
As for what is going on in Congress:
- 2009/09/23: REA: Solar is the Bridge to Our Future by Rep, Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona)
- 2009/09/25: TP: New Orleans newspaper takes Rep. Steve King to task for his 'heartless' contempt of Katrina victims
- 2009/09/25: ScienceInsider: Climate Skirmishes Stalk Environmental Spending Bill
- 2009/09/25: SolveClimate: Senators Argue Over Murkowski Bid to Block EPA Action on Climate Change
- 2009/09/24: ClimateP: Murkowski amendment to undermine the Clean Air Act is dead -- for now. Feinstein says "we can't afford to bury our heads in the sand on climate change."
- 2009/09/24: ClimateP: Ex-Sen. Warner (R-Va) criticizes Murkowski's Amendment to delay action on climate
- 2009/09/24: Grist: Sen. Jeff Bingaman answers Grist's questions on the climate bill [VIDEO]
- 2009/09/24: WSJ:EnvCap: Less Awkward: Senators Backtrack on Plans to Rein in EPA
- 2009/09/23: BBerg: Republicans Attempt to Block U.S. Agency's CO2 Rules
- 2009/09/23: NatureTGB: To report, or not to report: EPA emissions reporting up in the air
- 2009/09/23: NRDC:SwitchBoard: What About the Other Energy Bill?
- 2009/09/23: HillHeat: Senate Watch, Moving Slowly: Barrasso, Baucus, Boxer, Durbin, Kerry, McCain, Reid
- 2009/09/23: HillHeat: Senate Watch, Senate Under Pressure: Cardin, Carper, Durbin, Inhofe, Kerry, Lautenberg, Lugar, McCain, Murkowski, Nelson, Warner, Whitehouse
- 2009/09/23: HillHeat: Senate Watch, China: Bayh, Bond, Boxer, Graham, Kaufman, Kerry, Lieberman, McCain
- 2009/09/23 TP:WR: Senator [David Vitter (R-LA)] Of Katrina-Ravaged Louisiana Tries To Block Climate Change Response Centers
- 2009/09/22: ClimateP: [Senator Lisa] Murkowski (R-Alaska) calls for tougher energy bill: "Climate legislation must have more immediate environmental benefits" than Waxman-Markey!
- 2009/09/21: TP: Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) proposes amendment to cripple EPA power to curb global warming
- 2009/09/22: TP: Rep. Steve King (R-IA): The 'best vote' I ever cast in Congress was opposing Katrina relief
- 2009/09/18: PolitiFact: [Senator Lamar] Alexander (R-Tenn.) claims that cap-and-trade will cost consumer $1,761 a year [False]
- 2009/09/21: ClimateP: Lisa Murkowski proposes to fiddle while Alaska burns
- 2009/09/21: Grist: Sen. Jeff Merkley answers Grist's questions on Senate climate bill
- 2009/09/21: NYT:CW: Boxer Readies for Climate Bill Introduction, Mid-Oct. Markup
The Senate climate debate has largely been in standby mode since June, but Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) is ready to kick-start the process with the release next week of a draft bill. Sources off Capitol Hill say they expect Boxer to start legislative hearings during the week of Oct. 5, with a tentative markup penciled in for the week of Oct. 12. - 2009/09/21: TP:WR: [Senator] Lisa Murkowski's (R-Alaska) Bid To Become A Climate Outlaw
Wrangling over the Senate version of Waxman-Markey continues:
- 2009/09/26: TreeHugger: Get Ready: Senate Climate Bill To Drop This Week
- 2009/09/25: Yahoo:Reuters: Senate Democrats to unveil climate bill Sept 30
- 2009/09/24: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Nicholas Institute Study Finds ACES Will Yield Gains for U.S. Farmers
- 2009/09/23: ClimateP: Are Chinese emissions pledges a game changer for Senate action?
- 2009/09/22: ClimateP: Boxer (D-CA) readies for climate bill introduction, Mid-Oct. markup...
- 2009/09/21: NRDC:SwitchBoard: CBO Analysis: Clean Energy for Less
What are the lobbyists pushing?
- 2009/09/23: DeSmogBlog: ACCCE Coal Lobby Targeting Key Democrats In Senate Climate Debate
- 2009/09/23: SolveClimate: Deutsche Bank: Absence of US Clean Energy Policy Will Send Global Capital Elsewhere
- 2009/09/22: TreeHugger: Wind Turbine Makers Lobby U.S. for Green Energy Mandates
- 2009/09/22: WSJ:EnvCap: Wind Power: Turbine Makers Clamor for Renewable Standards Too
The Gore-apalooza is still bopping along:
- 2009/09/23: TreeHugger: The Next Innovation Al Gore Most Wants to See--You May Be Surprised
- 2009/09/22: Reuters: Storing CO2 in soil should be on U.N. agenda: Gore
While in the UK:
- 2009/09/24: BBC: Bid to protect England's top soil
A strategy to protect the health of England's soils and ensure they continue to store carbon dioxide, will be published by the government later. Experts say good soil not only produces strong crops, but is an effective store of carbon, and can reduce flooding by absorbing rain and river water. - 2009/09/23: Guardian(UK): [Letters] Flights of fancy over airline emissions
- 2009/09/22: Guardian(UK): Ryanair and easyJet back industry pledge to halve emissions
British Airways chief, Willie Walsh, says the industry can meet the 2050 target through a emissions trading scheme and improvements in aviation technology - 2009/09/22: Guardian(UK): Willie Walsh's greenwash
Offsetting, green planes, biofuels -- they won't solve airlines' carbon problem. There is an answer, but they don't want to know - 2009/09/21: BBC: Climate deal in peril, says Brown
The climate deal planned for Copenhagen in 10 weeks' time is in grave danger of failure, the prime minister has said. Gordon Brown has become the first world leader to offer to go to the Danish capital to help seal the deal. - 2009/09/20: Guardian(UK): Gordon Brown urges world leaders to attend Copenhagen climate change talks
Extra effort needed to end climate talks deadlock -- Negotiations are so slow 'deal is in grave danger' - 2009/09/24: EnvFin: Germany's CDU could ditch feed-in tariffs, build new nukes
Germany's Christian Democrat parties are likely to reduce the role of renewable energy feed-in tariffs and build new nuclear capacity if they win this weekend's federal election. - 2009/09/24: Guardian(UK): EU says rich states must pay up to save climate agreement
José Manuel Barroso outlines what is needed for an agreement on global warming at Copenhagen - 2009/09/24: EurActiv: Can the EU pave the way for electric cars?
- 2009/09/23: Guardian(UK): Sarkozy's big idea to save the world from global warming: another conference
- 2009/09/23: EUO: Sarkozy proposes extra climate summit ahead of Copenhagen
- 2009/09/21: EarthTimes: Norway mulls more emission cuts to secure climate deal
- 2009/09/20: Reuters: EU's Barroso warns climate talks in dangerous state
A ruling from the European Court of First Instance on Poland, Estonia & the ETS is raising questions:
- 2009/09/25: EUO: Commission says Poland, Estonia cannot issue more carbon allowances
- 2009/09/25: PlanetArk: Poland Faces Risk Asking For More CO2 Permits
- 2009/09/24: Google:AFP: Poland can't issue more polluting permits despite court win: EU
- 2009/09/24: Times(UK): European carbon trading market takes hit
- 2009/09/24: BBC: EU in tussle over CO2 emissions
The European Commission is considering pursuing a legal fight with the EU's top court over management of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). On Wednesday the European Court of First Instance annulled commission decisions which sought to cut the CO2 emissions quotas of Poland and Estonia. The court defended the right of EU states to set their own CO2 quotas. - 2009/09/23: EurActiv: Court decision threatens to unravel Europe's carbon market
- 2009/09/23: EUO: EU court slaps down Brussels attempts to lower eastern CO2 emissions
- 2009/09/23: DerSpiegel: 'A Fatal Development' -- Energy Expert Ridicules German Court Ruling [against coal-fired power plant in Datteln]
Meanwhile in Australia:
- 2009/09/25: ABC(Au): Flower power fights Port Augusta station
Organisers of a 'climate camp' at Port Augusta this week say they will be delivering 350 flowers to the local power station tomorrow as part of a demand for the coal-burning plant to be shut down. It represents the maximum level for a safe climate of 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere - 2009/09/25: ABC(Au): Tasmania's rock lobster industry says it is not concerned by a report that calls on the fishery to adjust to climate change conditions
- 2009/09/24: ABC(Au): Hunter mining giant Xstrata is warning it will lobby for free permits under the Federal Government's emissions trading scheme if open-cut mines are not treated fairly
- 2009/09/24: ABC(Au): Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has used his speech to the United Nations to hammer home his previous calls for action on global economic reform and climate change
- 2009/09/24: ABC(Au): Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has shot back a letter in reply to an emissions trading ultimatum from Climate Change Minister Penny Wong
- 2009/09/24: ABC(Au): Wine industry tackling climate issues
- 2009/09/22: ClimateTasmania: Politicians on climate: a failure of wit, will and imagination
- 2009/09/23: ABC(Au): Wong hits Turnbull with emissions trade deadline
The Federal Government has issued an ultimatum to the Opposition in a bid to break the deadlock over its stalled emissions trading legislation. - 2009/09/24: ABC(Au): 'Radioactive dust storm threat' if mine goes ahead
An Academy Award-nominated documentary maker claims the red dust dumped onto east coast cities yesterday is a reason to be concerned about BHP Billiton's proposal to turn South Australia's Olympic Dam uranium mine into an open-cut mine. - 2009/09/22: ABC(Au): Government ministers are playing down the threat of a double dissolution election on emissions trading, as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd prepares for high-level climate change talks in New York
- 2009/09/23: ABC(Au): Double dissolution 'won't scare' Opposition
The threat of an early election over the Federal Government's emissions trading scheme (ETS) has sparked more friction within Coalition ranks. - 2009/09/22: ABC(Au): Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan says northern Australia will be important in the nation's future food production, despite a new CSIRO report highlighting the region's water limitations
- 2009/09/21: ABC(Au): Climate plan will fail, says Brown
Greens leader Bob Brown has slammed the Government's new plan to reach an international agreement on climate change as a "race to the bottom" that has "failure written all over it". The Government has proposed giving developing countries more flexibility to gradually reduce emissions instead of being bound by a target. - 2009/09/22: ABC(Au): Former Australian of the Year Tim Flannery has endorsed the Federal Government's "more flexible approach" in getting developing countries to agree to a global position on emissions
- 2009/09/21: ABC(Au): Rudd changes tune on climate bill
Government insiders in Canberra are ramping up talk of a possible double dissolution election to be fought on emissions trading. The Senate voted down the Government's emissions trading bill in August and if the same thing happens when the bill returns in November, it could be used to trigger a double dissolution. - 2009/09/21: ABC(Au): The Federal Government has suggested a compromise proposal that it hopes will make agreement at the Copenhagen global climate change talks in December more likely
- 2009/09/21: ABC(Au): Forty of the world's leading scientists have signed an open letter calling on political leaders to take tougher action on climate change
- 2009/09/21: ABC(Au): Prime Minister Kevin Rudd started the second day of his visit to the US by catching up with former US president Bill Clinton over breakfast
- 2009/09/21: ABC(Au): Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says he is not prepared to delay consideration of the Government's emissions trading scheme legislation despite conceding a global agreement remains some way off
And in New Zealand:
- 2009/09/26: HotTopic: Self-interested, myopic hot-air
- 2009/09/24: Reuters: New Zealand's new carbon laws set for safe passage
- 2009/09/21: HotTopic: National's nine ways to stuff up: Oram on climate policy in NZ
While in India:
- 2009/09/25: SMH: Water wars forecast as feeding India's hungry leaves the land thirsty
Farmers who can no longer irrigate fear nothing will be left to drink, writes Matt Wade. India is destined for water wars, one of its leading environmentalists has concluded after studying the effects of modern agriculture for more than 20 years. "In a decade India could look like Darfur in Sudan," says Dr Vandana Shiva, a nuclear physicist turned environmental activist. "When you run out of water it's a recipe for killing. Water really makes people so desperate." - 2009/09/25: SolveClimate: Coal Mine Near Tiger Preserve a Test for India's Climate Action Plan
- 2009/09/20: Guardian(UK): Environmentalist [Subhas Dutta] who wants to unite India's greens to meet UK counterparts
And China:
- 2009/09/23: ScienceInsider: Three Answers and Three Questions on China and Climate
- 2009/09/20: FTimes: China 'to lead on climate change curbs' by 2020
While in Japan:
- 2009/09/22: JapanTimes: Japan's new climate initiative raises hopes
- 2009/09/21: ClimateP: Japan's carbon cuts may include offsets
- 2009/09/20: Reuters: Japan to propose green technology, funding: minister
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will unveil a plan to support developing countries in technology and funding to fight climate change at a U.N. meeting this week, Japan's environment minister [Sakihito Ozawa] said on Sunday. - 2009/09/24: UN: China, Republic of Korea emerging as global 'green' leaders - UN agency
- 2009/09/24: PlanetArk: South Korea To Announce Emissions Targets This Year
- 2009/09/24: BBC: UN 'inaction' in Nepal climate struggle
A crucial plan to help Nepal cope with the impact of climate change is at risk because of the alleged failure of the UN to recruit the necessary staff, reports BBC Nepali's Navin Singh Khadka. - 2009/09/25: BBC: Africa's burning charcoal problem
In Canada, minority neocon PM Harper, continues his do-nothing policy:
- 2009/09/25: G&M: Canada and climate change: Nothing gets done, fingers get pointed
Global warming simply is not an issue on which Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants to expend one ounce of political capital. The Liberals' lame record doesn't excuse the Conservatives' part in our national shame - 2009/09/24: TStar: U.K. journal [Lancet] slams Canada on climate
Canada is caught in a leadership void as it lags behind other countries on world poverty and climate change, says the editor of the influential British medical journal The Lancet. Ottawa's foot-dragging is part of a "catastrophic" global failure to act, Dr. Richard Horton said yesterday as his call for Canada to step up was published online. - 2009/09/24: CanWest: Provinces, states criticize Harper's climate-change plan
The numbers won't add up in the Harper government's proposed climate-change plan unless it fixes flaws that jeopardize the plan's credibility, say some of North America's largest provincial and state governments. The Western Climate Initiative - a coalition of governments that includes Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba and California - says a draft version of a federal "offsets" system for rewarding green practices must be revised to prevent businesses from profiting from actions that don't actually reduce the amount of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. - 2009/09/23: G&M: A climate-change election?
- 2009/09/22: Far-n-Wide: Canada Not Impressed With China Adopting Canada's Approach to Climate Change
Harper skipped the UN summit and went to a donut shop, which tells you what neocons think of the UN:
- 2009/09/24: Section15: Harper chooses donuts over the planet
- 2009/09/24: OBMB: Where's
WaldoHarper? - 2009/09/24: TStar: Obama shines, Harper absent
- 2009/09/22: Hullabaloos: Mr. Harper MIA on Climate Change
- 2009/09/22: MRayner: WTF? Harper ditches Summit on Climate Change!
- 2009/09/22: DtPB: Harper Continues to Not Give a Toss About Climate Change
Rajendra Pachauri called on Canada to do more:
- 2009/09/21: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Lead climate treaty scientist [IPCC head, Rajendra Pachauri] calls on Canada to put tar sands development on hold
- 2009/09/21: CanWest: 'Canada should be doing much more' on climate change, expert [IPCC head, Rajendra Pachauri] says
Canada should be doing much more to tackle climate change, and consider closing down the oilsands projects in northern Alberta, the head of an international scientific panel on climate change said Monday. Canada should follow the European Union, which has pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, said Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In contrast, Canada's plan is to only cut emissions by 20 per cent below 2006 levels by 2020, a target that many scientific and environmental observers say is far too low. Canada's greenhouse gas emissions climbed 26 per cent between 1990 and 2006. "In the last couple of years, I'm afraid, Canada has not been seen as sitting at the table," Pachauri said in an interview in Montreal on Monday. "I think Canada should be doing much more." - 2009/09/25: CanWest: Political friction rises as Canada clashes with U. S. over energy
At last count, besieged federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice was confronted by 28 American states or U. S. cities which have drawn a line in the oil-soaked sands of northern Alberta, vowing to reduce or eliminate Canada's "dirty oil" from their fuel supply. And that's not even his biggest American headache. That's reserved for two dozen states that have declared Canadian hydroelectricity unacceptable as a "renewable" energy source to help meet new cleaner standards as they rush to encourage homegrown alternatives to coal-fired power. On the horizon -- if a massive energy bill in the U. S. Senate passes as written -- is a White House that has the power to impose unilateral carbon tariffs on Canadian imports which fail to meet its green litmus test. Cleaning up the act between Canada's major oil export market and America's top energy supplier -- without sacrificing quality of life or hurting the economy -- has opened a Pandora's Box of political friction points along the border. - 2009/09/25: BuckDog: The Way Iggy-Libs Are Treating Dion Says A Lot About The Current Leadership Of The Liberal Party
In BC, post election adjustments are ongoing:
- 2009/09/21: Tyee: Time to Get 'Wacky' Again: The Northwest Transmission Line -- Did Campbell green light an all too familiar boondoggle?
- 2009/09/23: Tyee: Gov't Buries Fact that Logging Blows Our Emissions Target
Forest emissions push CO2 77 per cent higher than BC's official numbers say. We need a plan. - 2009/09/24: BCLocalNews: Residents rally to push for climate change action
Cowichanians went global with Monday's protest demands for legislative action by Ottawa on climate change. About 100 locals joined NDP MP Jean Crowder at Duncan's city square in ordering Prime Minister Stephen Harper to pass proposed Bill 311, the Climate Change Accountability Act. "Tell the federal government to get off its duff," urged Crowder. "There's no reason to stall it." - 2009/09/23: CCurrents: Climate Change And The 2010 Olympics
- 2009/09/21: G&M: Does B.C.'s new power line fall short of being green?
Ontario has it's Green Energy Act, now comes the implementation:
- 2009/09/22: CleanBreak: Ontario commits $2.3 billion over three years to grid upgrades, expansion
- 2009/09/25: Grist: Ontario launches comprehensive system of feed-in tariffs
- 2009/09/25: CBC: $5.4M wind turbine project blows Windsor's way
A U.S. wind turbine manufacturer has announced a $5.4-million deal to begin production in Windsor, Ont. Michigan-based WindTronics will produce small residential and commercial turbines at the former Innovatech Seating Systems plant on Sprucewood Avenue on the city's west side. It will also conduct research and development. The Ontario government will contribute $2.7 million to help WindTronics establish its Windsor operations. WindTronics will invest the balance. The company hopes to create 174 jobs at the plant by 2012, but WindTronics president Reg Adams said there will also be "work in the installation process." - 2009/09/24: CBC: Ont. gives green energy price guarantee
- 2009/09/22: CBC: Solar panel ban on farmland will cost Ontario: group [Canadian Solar Industries Association]
- 2009/09/22: TStar: Ontario bets billions on wind power
Province plans a massive boost to its electricity grid -- a move that would put the province among North America's green leaders Ontario's power grid is getting a $2.3 billion makeover as part of an ambitious, three-year effort to create 20,000 jobs and bring more green electricity to homes and businesses across the province. - 2009/09/26: CanWest: U. S. Climate debate why America needs more Canada -- Open the pipelines, let the good times gush
- 2009/09/23: CBC: Carbon capture called 'sheer folly' -- Says it's too early to adopt technology
A report released Wednesday dismisses a technology that is a cornerstone of Canada's climate change policy as "sheer folly." The report, written by Edmonton Journal columnist Graham Thomson for the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto, concludes investing in carbon capture is currently too risky as neither the proper science nor the proper laws are in place. - 2009/09/22: EnergyBulletin: Environmental Impacts of Oil Sands Development in Alberta
- 2009/09/22: OilDrum: Environmental Impacts of Oil Sands Development in Alberta
- 2009/09/20: DeSmogBlog: Edelman Oilsands Advice - Embarrassing and Wrong
As for miscellaneous Canadiana:
- 2009/09/21: DeSmogBlog: Who's that guy standing next to Wolverine? [Charest]
- 2009/09/22: WpgFP: Wind farm out of breath -- St. Joseph project uncertain after firm liquidated
Manitoba's new wind farm -- Canada's biggest -- is facing more delays because its original financial backer is broke, and national wind advocates say the recession has cramped the booming wind industry. Babcock & Brown, the Australian investment firm that was financing the new wind farm, is being liquidated by creditors and has sold off its North American wind power division, including Manitoba's project, to an American investment firm. Construction on the 300-megawatt wind farm near St. Joseph is already a year behind schedule and it's not clear when work will start. - 2009/09/22: TStar: Canadian voters conflicted on carbon
The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:
- 2009/09/24: Guardian(UK): Stop capitalism defining human nature
- 2009/09/24: PeakEnergy: It's the ecosystem, stupid
- 2009/09/23: SolveClimate: Without Functioning Ecosystem, There Is No Economic Growth
- 2009/09/22: DerSpiegel: The Cult of GDP -- Can Economies Function without Growth?
Faith in unlimited growth has been shaken since the start of the financial crisis. Some economists are already questioning the wisdom of the more-is-more philosophy, with its emphasis on constantly rising economic output. But just how important is growth to an economy, and does it actually make people any happier? - 2009/09/22: DerSpiegel: Beyond GDP -- Economists Search for New Definition of Well-Being
GDP may be an extremely useful economic indicator, but it ignores many factors important to the well-being of a society, such as health care or life expectancy. Economists like the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz are now trying to come up with a new, broader definition of prosperity. - 2009/09/26: NewScientist: Population: Technology will save us [says techno-optimist Jesse Ausubel]
- 2009/09/25: NewScientist: Population: Enough of us now [Paul Ehrlich & Anne Ehrlich]
- 2009/09/27: NewScientist: Population: Overconsumption is the real problem
- 2009/09/24: NewScientist: Contraceptives to help poor cope with climate change
- 2009/09/21: Yahoo:AFP: Population growth driving climate change, poverty: [Royal Society] experts
- 2009/09/21: KSJT: AP, Brit Press, LA Times: Lancet proposes we fight climate change with condoms
Apocalypso anyone?
- 2009/09/25: TP:WR: Scientists: Political 'Reality' Will Lead To Climate Catastrophe
- 2009/09/23: Independent(UK): Collapse or survive: the stark choice facing our species
As for how the media handles the science of climatology:
- 2009/09/24: Maribo: Framing climate policy
- 2009/09/25: CSW: Wash Post credits new denialist propaganda with "reviving the debate" on climate change cause
- 2009/09/24: CSW: Most US media coverage of UN Climate Summit underplayed message of why the need for action is urgent
- 2009/09/25: DeepClimate: NYT's Andy Revkin backtracks (but not nearly enough)
- 2009/09/23: KSJT: NYTimes: On that plateau in global temperature and, at AP: Maybe so but the warm ocean is still melting Greenland's glacial hem
- 2009/09/23: ClimateP: NYT's Green Inc. blog wins worst headline of the day [Inhofe Pans Obama Climate Speech]
- 2009/09/22: ClimateP: NYT's Revkin pushes global cooling myth (again!) and repeats outright misinformation
- 2009/09/20: ClimateP: Newsweek gets duped by Big Oil -- for real -- in worst Big Media story of the year
- 2009/09/21: Grist: Treasury memo hysteria shows media incapable of screening out junk
While activists search for effective communication techniques:
- 2009/09/22: MillerMcCune: Buy 'Climate Change' -- Now With Added Warming Power
Overcoming inertia on climate change is unlikely to take place through the time-honored methods of hectoring and lecturing. Perhaps a little salesmanship and psychology is called for. - 2009/09/21: Grist: Thousands send Global Climate Wake-Up Call to world leaders, leave messages
- 2009/09/21: CBC: 'Flash mobs' send world's politicians climate wake-up call
- 2009/09/21: Guardian(UK): Global burning: could a phrase save us from catastrophic climate change?
The term 'ozone hole' was effective in banning CFCs. A similarly imprecise but emotive phrase could focus minds on the climate - 2009/09/21: Grist: Flash mobs barrage Obama and other world leaders with calls for climate action
- 2009/09/20: MTobis: The Crux ... on communicating science
Here is something for your library:
- 2009/09/25: TreeHugger: [Book Review] _What's the Worst That Could Happen? A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate_ by Greg Craven
- 2009/09/22: OilDrum: [Book Review] _Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil_ by Peter Maass
And for your film & video enjoyment:
- 2009/09/25: NatureCF: Google Earth launches climate change tours
- 2009/09/24: Wunderground: The Age of Stupid--a movie review
- 2009/09/21: DotEarth: Are We Living in 'The Age of Stupid'?
It's been a busy week in the courts:
- 2009/09/25: CDreams: Activist's 'Necessity' Defense May Get the Boot
A federal judge is expected to hear arguments Friday detailing why environmental activist Timothy DeChristopher should be allowed or prohibited from presenting evidence he acted out of "necessity" when he deliberately bid on and won oil and gas leases he couldn't pay for as part of a protest. - 2009/09/25: ABC(Au): Court adjourns [until November] Greenpeace coal terminal protest case
Court cases against environmental lobby group Greenpeace and several of its activists have been adjourned. Last month, Greenpeace protesters targeted two coal export terminals in north Queensland, near Bowen and Mackay, to protest against the Federal Government's climate change policy - 2009/09/25: ABC(Au): Greenpeace's first Australian court date
- 2009/09/25: Yahoo:AP: Judge averse to global warming trial in Utah case
A federal judge said Friday he's reluctant to put global warming on trial in the case of a Utah college student charged with disrupting a federal oil and gas lease auction for parcels near several national parks. U.S. District Judge Dee Benson gave attorneys for Tim DeChristopher a month to file briefs saying why they should be allowed claim he was acting in the interest of the greater good. - 2009/09/23: Reuters: Chevron takes Ecuador fight to trade arbitrators
In the EU, the European Court of First Instance annulled Commission decisions on Polish & Estonian CO2 quotas:
- 2009/09/24: PlanetArk: EU Court Ruling Adds Carbon Trade Uncertainty
- 2009/09/24: EarthTimes: EU's emissions targets are 'non-negotiable,' commission says
The European Union's limits on emissions of greenhouse gases are "not negotiable," a spokeswoman for the bloc's executive said Thursday, the day after the European Court struck down the limits for Estonia and Poland. National limits on the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2, the gas most linked with global warming) are "set and are normally not negotiable," European Commission spokeswoman Barbara Helfferich told journalists in Brussels. Her comment came a day after the European Court in Luxembourg annulled the commission's proposed caps on industrial emissions in Poland and Estonia, saying that the Brussels-based executive did not have the right to overrule national governments. - 2009/09/24: BBC: EU in tussle over CO2 emissions
The European Commission is considering pursuing a legal fight with the EU's top court over management of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). On Wednesday the European Court of First Instance annulled commission decisions which sought to cut the CO2 emissions quotas of Poland and Estonia. The court defended the right of EU states to set their own CO2 quotas. - 2009/09/23: EurActiv: Court decision threatens to unravel Europe's carbon market
- 2009/09/23: EUO: EU court slaps down Brussels attempts to lower eastern CO2 emissions
- 2009/09/23: EarthTimes: EU court scraps Brussels cap on Polish, Estonian emissions [EU pol & courts]
The European Union's executive was wrong to impose a tight cap on industrial greenhouse gas emissions in Poland and Estonia and will have to scrap the limits it sought to impose, the EU's court in Luxembourg ruled Wednesday. The two separate judgements comes at a critical time in EU climate talks, as rich and poor member states are grappling over the question of how they should fund the fight against climate change and how much each of them should pay. - 2009/09/24: WarmingLaw: Why the Second Circuit Nuisance Case [Connecticut v. AEP] Brings Good News, And Bad (Part II)
- 2009/09/23: Grist: The courts weigh in: states win critical round in fight to slow global warming [Connecticut v. American Electric Power]
- 2009/09/23: WarmingLaw: Why the Second Circuit "Nuisance" Case [Connecticut v. American Electric Power] Brings Good News, And Bad (Part I)
- 2009/09/21: ClimateP: Federal court says states may sue utilities over GHGs. NY AG Cuomo: "This is a game-changing decision for New York and other states, reaffirming our right to take direct action against global warming pollution from power plants."
- 2009/09/21: Grist: Connecticut v. AEP: Public nuisance ruling may boost chances of EPA CO2 regulations
- 2009/09/21: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Court Holds Power Companies Accountable for Their Carbon Pollution
In a landmark ruling, the federal court of appeals in New York ruled today in favor of states and private land trusts that had sued America's largest global warming polluters to curb their emissions. The case is called State of Connecticut v. American Electric Power Co., and the long-awaited ruling was issued today by a panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. (One judge was appointed by the elder President Bush; the other by the younger.) The appeals court ruled that five large electric power companies can be sued in federal court because the 650 million tons of carbon dioxide they emit each year are contributing to rising temperatures and a host of damaging impacts in other states, including heat waves, smog episodes, droughts and forest fires. The case was brought by the attorneys general of eight states and one city (CT, NY, CA, IA, NJ, RI, VT, WI and NYC) and by two private land trusts. The case will now go back to the federal district court in New York City for trial. - 2009/09/22: WarmingLaw: Second Circuit Confirms Global Warming is a Public Nuisance: Landmark Ruling Should Prod Congress/EPA to Act
Developing a new energy infrastructure is a fundamental challenge of the current generation:
- 2009/09/23: CleanBreak: 1-MW tidal turbine to be submerged this fall in Bay of Fundy
- 2009/09/24: BBC: Oil price slumps on supply data
Oil prices have fallen sharply as weak US home sales data and high US oil inventories prompted doubts about a potential recovery in fuel demand. US light, sweet crude fell $3.08 to $65.89 a barrel while London Brent crude slipped $3.17 to $64.82. - 2009/09/23: FTimes:ES: Finding new oil gets ever more expensive
- 2009/09/25: PlanetArk: BP Exec [Lamar McKay] Touts Natural Gas To Cut U.S. CO2 Emissions
- 2009/09/25: PlanetArk: Solazyme [Inc.] Bags U.S. Navy Contract For Green Jet Fuel
- 2009/09/24: AutoBG: GM shows off fifth-generation fuel cell stack, hopes to commercialize unit by 2015
- 2009/09/27: PeakEnergy: Oil Industry Sets a Brisk Pace of New Discoveries?
- 2009/09/23: NYT: Oil Industry Sets a Brisk Pace of New Discoveries
- 2009/09/27: BNC: Thinking critically about sustainable energy (TCASE) 1: Prologue
- 2009/09/24: TreeHugger: Three Turbine Types To Be Tested in Bay of Fundy
- 2009/09/24: AlterNet: Our Oil Addiction Is About to Make Life a Lot Nastier [Klare]
- 2009/09/23: CCurrents: The Era Of Xtreme Energy by Michael T. Klare
- 2009/09/21: EnergyBulletin: Commentary: Mission Critical: Can Shale Gas Save the World?
The answer my friend...:
- 2009/09/23: TechRev: GE Grabs Gearless Wind Turbines -- New direct-drive turbines promise to lower the cost of offshore wind energy
- 2009/09/25: CBC: Slowing wind farm blades reduces bat deaths
- 2009/09/24: PlanetArk: German Army Stops Wind Turbines As Security Threat
- 2009/09/23: PlanetArk: Denmark's Vestas To Sign Deal With Kenyan Wind Firm [LTWP: Lake Turkana Wind Power]
- 2009/09/23: PlanetArk: Factbox: Key Facts About Wind Power In Canada
- 2009/09/22: TreeHugger: Wind Turbine Makers Lobby U.S. for Green Energy Mandates
- 2009/09/22: WSJ:EnvCap: Clean-Energy Grants: Iberdrola Wins Big, Again
When it comes to clean-energy grants from the U.S. government, it's déjà vu all over again. That is, Spain's Iberdrola was again the big winner in the second round of government grants for wind farms: Iberdrola scooped up $251 million of the $550 million awarded today. The grants cover three Iberdrola wind farms in Iowa, Texas, and Missouri. - 2009/09/22: WpgFP: Wind farm out of breath -- St. Joseph project uncertain after firm liquidated
Manitoba's new wind farm -- Canada's biggest -- is facing more delays because its original financial backer is broke, and national wind advocates say the recession has cramped the booming wind industry. Babcock & Brown, the Australian investment firm that was financing the new wind farm, is being liquidated by creditors and has sold off its North American wind power division, including Manitoba's project, to an American investment firm. Construction on the 300-megawatt wind farm near St. Joseph is already a year behind schedule and it's not clear when work will start. - 2009/09/21: PlanetArk: Economy, policies energizing Canada's wind sector
Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:
- 2009/09/26: PeakEnergy: Plugging Into the Sun
- 2009/09/25: DallasNews: Houston to get state's largest solar plant
NRG Energy Inc. will build the state's largest solar array in Houston and sell all of the power it makes to the city. NRG plans to spend $40 million to build a 10-megawatt solar plant on land near a natural gas plant that the company operates, NRG and the city said Thursday in a news release. That is one small and expensive power plant. But building one of the first such plants in Texas allows NRG to study the technology and decide whether to install more solar arrays. - 2009/09/27: NYT: Solar Power, Without All Those Panels [BIPV]
- 2009/09/27: PeakEnergy: Abengoa's PS20 solar plant opens [in Spain]
- 2009/09/24: OilDrum: Passive Solar Design Overview - Part 5: Distribution, Ventilation, and Cooling
- 2009/09/24: WSJ:EnvCap: Solar Power: Finally, A Reason to Invest Says HSBC
- 2009/09/23: PhysOrg: Natural Fusion: Solar-powered home designed for 'realities of life'
- 2009/09/22: PlanetArk: Applied Materials Sees Solar Unit Profit In 2010
- 2009/09/22: PhysOrg: IMEC presents large area solar cells with 18.4% conversion efficiency, featuring Cu-plated contacts
- 2009/09/22: PhysOrg: IMEC unveils promising mechanically-stacked GaAs/Ge multijunction solar cell
At the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference (Hamburg, Germany), IMEC presents a mechanically-stacked GaAs/Ge multijunction solar cell. This is the first promising demonstrator of IMEC's novel technology to produce mechanically stacked, high-efficiency multijunction solar cells, aiming at efficiencies above 40%. - 2009/09/22: SciDaily: Large Area Solar Cells With 18.4% Conversion Efficiency, Featuring Cu-plated Contacts
- 2009/09/22: SolveClimate: Desert Solar: A Surge in Investor Appetite Warranted
- 2009/09/21: Inhabitat: Carbon Nanotubes Could Create Better Solar Cells
The arithmetic of coal carbon is striking home:
- 2009/09/22: AfterGutenberg: The Hansen Test
- 2009/09/23: Guardian(UK): Spending crisis could put brake on clean coal project
- 2009/09/21: ScienceInsider: Should the U.S. Build Its Next Coal Plants Underground?
- 2009/09/21: KSJT: Casper Star-Tribune: In Wyoming, big companies aiming to build nation's first coal plant that buries its carbon dioxide
Biofuel bickering abounds:
- 2009/09/23: SolveClimate: Next-Gen Biofuels No Better for Gulf's 'Dead Zone' than Old-School Corn
- 2009/09/22: PhysOrg: Biofuel from Corn Stover
How much corn crop residue, or stover, can be removed for biofuels without harming soil? An Agricultural Research Service (ARS) study of a 10-mile circle around the University of Minnesota's Morris campus offers some clues - 2009/09/21: SciNow: Biofuels Not So Friendly to Gulf of Mexico
The nuclear energy controversy continues:
- 2009/09/26: CBC: AECL says N.B. [Point Lepreau] reactor delay now 16 months
- 2009/09/24: NYT: U.S. Panel Shifts Focus to Reusing Nuclear Fuel
- 2009/09/22: EarthTimes: Last East German reactor is hauled away
This week we have peak oil and peak lithium:
- 2009/09/25: OilDrum: Peak Oil Not a Problem According to NY Times; Scientific American - Our Response on the Financial Aspects
- 2009/09/21: Harpers: Six Questions for Peter Maass on the Violent Twilight of Oil
- 2009/09/21: PeakEnergy: The Great Lithium Rush?
More people are talking about the electrical grid:
- 2009/09/22: TreeHugger: IBM Proves Smart Grid Reduces Energy Use By At Least 15%, Reveals Key to Success
And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:
- 2009/09/24: Reuters: California sets biggest energy efficiency plan
California said it had approved the most aggressive energy efficiency plan among U.S. states on Thursday, earmarking $3.1 billion to retrofit homes and other programs that will cut power needs equivalent to three medium-sized power plants. Conservation and efficiency have become national buzzwords as the economy has failed, since such investments have some of the quickest paybacks of any in 'green' industries. - 2009/09/23: TechRev: Longer-Running Electric-Car Batteries -- Silicon-nanotube electrodes may enable lithium-ion batteries to store 10 times more charge
- 2009/09/25: PhysOrg: Power grid chief touts electric-car payback
U.S. power grid chief Jon Wellinghoff is touting the long-term cost savings of electric cars, saying the vehicles could earn $1,500 a year in paybacks for their owners when their batteries are connected to the power grid. - 2009/09/25: PlanetArk: Ghosn, Immelt See Future For Electric Cars
- 2009/09/25: PeakEnergy: Inhabitat First Electric Vehicle Charging Corridor Installed Between SF and LA
- 2009/09/25: BBC: The number of new cars made in the UK fell 31.5% in August from the same month a year earlier, industry figures have shown
- 2009/09/25: BBC: GM to develop Indian electric car
US carmaker General Motors (GM) has said it is to develop a small cheap electric car for India. The carmaker will develop the model in partnership with India's Reva Electric Car Company, and said it expected production to begin next year. - 2009/09/24: PhysOrg: Japan's Honda unveils futuristic unicyle
- 2009/09/24: TreeHugger: Electric Cars for All: REVA and GM India to Join Forces
- 2009/09/23: AutoBG: Aston Martin dismisses fully electric cars, calls for fuel cells instead
- 2009/09/23: KSJT: SF Chronicle: Two electric car makers show the power of government money, and of private enterprise spunk
- 2009/09/23: PhysOrg: Introducing the Brabus High Voltage Car
- 2009/09/23: PhysOrg: Increasing Electric Car Battery Performance
Researchers have found that by replacing conventional graphite electrodes with silicon nanotube electrodes, lithium-ion batteries can store 10 times more charge. - 2009/09/23: WaPo: The Deadly Silence of the Electric Car -- Automakers Propose Adding Some Artificial Vroom to Alert Pedestrians
- 2009/09/21: GulfTimes: The age of electric vehicles is upon us [Jeffrey Sachs]
The key to climate change control lies in improved technology. We need to find new ways to produce and use energy, meet our food needs, transport ourselves, and heat and cool our homes that will allow us to cut back on oil, gas, coal, nitrogen-based fertiliser, and other sources of the climate-changing greenhouse gases - 2009/09/22: TreeHugger: The Inside Scoop on Renault's New Electric Cars
- 2009/09/22: TreeHugger: SolarCity Announces Sun-Powered EV Fast-Charging Stations in California
- 2009/09/21: BizInsider: September Car Sales Expected to Be Lowest Of The Year
- 2009/09/21: Guardian(UK): Electric cars are driving the transition to sustainable technologies
- 2009/09/20: AutoBG: Unseen benefit: Underwriters Laboratories working on standards for electric car batteries
Cash-for-Clunkers (aka Scrappage) Plans are being legislated and argued around the world:
- 2009/09/25: AutoBG: Top Ten "green" cars that met their fate during Cash for Clunkers
- 2009/09/23: AutoBG: Unintended Consequences Bite Again: C4C won't save fuel?
- 2009/09/23: AutoBG: Cars.com survey says public wants more Cash for Clunkers. Well, of course they do.
The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:
- 2009/09/24: EnvFin: Economy fails to derail CDP response
Dire economic conditions did not dissuade companies from voluntarily disclosing climate change risks and mitigation strategies, as a record number of top corporations replied to an annual survey conducted by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) - 2009/09/23: TreeHugger: Big Business Wants 85% CO2 Cuts: Now Who Do We Blame?
- 2009/09/22: MongaBay: 500 global business leaders call for 50-85% cut in emissions by 2050
- 2009/09/22: Grist: Inside Newsweek's new green corporate rankings
- 2009/09/21: EurActiv: HSBC: World climate business revenue $2 trln by 2020
Global revenues from climate-related businesses such as energy efficiency rose by 75% in 2008 to $530 billion and could exceed $2 trillion by 2020, HSBC Global Research estimated on Friday (18 September). - 2009/09/21: PhysOrg: Uncertain climate regulations -- why corporations still invest
- 2009/09/21: TreeHugger: HP Announces Commitment to Reduce GHGs by 40% by 2011
- 2009/09/21: SolveClimate: Majority of Top Businesses Now Set Emissions Targets, But Still Seek Global Policy Direction
- 2009/09/21: NewsWeek: The Greenest Big Companies in America
- 2009/09/21: WaPo: Firms Start to See Climate Change as Barrier to Profit
Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:
- 2009/09/24: Guardian(UK): ConocoPhillips' opposition to US climate bill is devious and dishonest
The green mission statements made by the US energy firm amount to nothing when it dirties its hands with tar sands and campaigns against Obama's climate bill - 2009/09/25: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for September 25: Schwarzenegger says he's ready to work for Obama; Clean-energy jobs starts bidding wars among states
- 2009/09/24: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for September 24: India weighing emissions curbs; Buildings offer emission-cutting projects that pay for themselves
- 2009/09/23: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for September 23: Smart meters cut energy use 20%, avoiding need for new fossil generation
- 2009/09/22: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for September 22...
- 2009/09/21: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for September 21st: Obama to shift focus as climate talks approach
The carbon lobby are up to the usual:
- 2009/09/25: SF Gate: How to talk to complete idiots -- Three basic options. Choose wisely, lest you go totally insane
- 2009/09/26: ERabett: Motivated Reasoning
- 2009/09/26: DeSmogBlog: Climate Denial Crock of the Week/All Wet on Sea level remixed
- 2009/09/25: DeepClimate: John Broder of NYT looks at Carlin 'suppression' by EPA
- 2009/09/24: Grist: Climate Denial Crock of the Week -- All wet on sea level rise - the remix [Sinclair video]
- 2009/09/25: NYT: Behind the Furor Over a Climate Change Skeptic
- 2009/09/27: Deltoid: A birthday card for Andrew Bolt
- 2009/09/25: HotTopic: The biased leading the blind
- 2009/09/25: WaPo: New Groups Revive the Debate Over Causes of Climate Change
- 2009/09/22: Reuters: U.N. climate meeting was propaganda: Czech president [Vaclav Klaus]
- 2009/09/25: TP: Inhofe on why global warming isn't real: 'God's still up there. We're going through these cycles.'
- 2009/09/24: BCLSB: Deniers On Tour!
- 2009/09/23: DemNow: With Copenhagen Summit Approaching, Leading Polluters US and China Undercut Hopes of Substantial Pollution Cuts
- 2009/09/23: MoJo: The Inhofe Climate Skeptic Roadshow
- 2009/09/23: Guardian(UK): Spectator's new editor fails to tell a straight story
Fraser Nelson and his columnist Rod Liddle add some bile and abuse to the Ian Plimer debate - 2009/09/22: Grist: "It's too expensive to price carbon," the entrenched interests like to say
- 2009/09/23: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Debunking the "Spanish Jobs Study": 8 Inconvenient Truths You Should Know About
- 2009/09/22: ERabett: Magical Solutions Anyone?
- 2009/09/23: Deltoid: John Mashey recommends "Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming"
- 2009/09/22: DeSmogBlog: Friends of Science Lurking Behind Monckton
- 2009/09/22: DeepClimate: Friends of Science behind Monckton's Magical Mystery Tour
- 2009/09/22: MongaBay: Hummer owners view themselves as morally upright
- 2009/09/22: DeSmogBlog: Climate Week: Denial Never Sleeps
- 2009/09/20: ClimateP: Congressional Budget Office and Politifact debunk Glenn Beck's 'lies': Clean energy economy costs only a postage stamp a day
- 2009/09/21: NewScientist: Climate myths: Any cooling disproves global warming
- 2009/09/21: DeSmogBlog: Monckton "Apocalypse" to Contaminate Canada
- 2009/09/21: Eureka: Hummer owners claim moral high ground to excuse overconsumption
Hummer drivers believe they are defending America's frontier lifestyle against anti-American critics, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research - 2009/09/21: Deltoid: Chris Mooney finds out that Marohasy does not tell the truth
As for climate miscellanea:
- 2009/09/26: BBS: Carbon as garbage - a new way to frame CO2 buildup
- 2009/09/24: EnvFin: Climate revenues soar -- but renewables snag HSBC index
- 2009/09/24: CJR: Sidebar: The New Energy Beat -- Our Web-only list of the energy sites journalists need to know
- 2009/09/24: Grist: A walk through the week's climate news -- The Climate Post: Climate change blamed for New York midtown traffic
- 2009/09/25: DWWSJ: Tons of Climate News- None Good
- 2009/09/12: Ecolonomics: The "green-Prometheans" -- better, but still a futile gesture?
We've got problems -- and across society people are trying to advance ideas to avoid eco-catastrophe, but what many of these solutions cannot or will not address is the present structure of the human ecosystem that's creating much of the impact. - 2009/09/25: JQuiggin: Uncertainty and climate change
- 2009/09/20: ChronicleHerald: Don't despair -- get out there and do something
- 2009/09/22: DotEarth: Can Leaders Act as Public Climate Runs Hot or Cool?
- 2009/09/22: Maribo: An argument for climate policy
- 2009/09/24: BNC: A necessary interlude -- what can you expect from BNC in the future?
- 2009/09/23: CCurrents: Mobilizing The Masses In Defense Of The Planet: Change You Can Act For
- 2009/09/22: Guardian(UK): Climate talks jargon buster
- 2009/09/21: BSD: Adding geologic weathering cycles to a wiki climate article
And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:
- The Pembina Institute: Advancing Sustainable Energy Solutions
- Survivaball Inc.
- Oxford: 4 Degrees International Climate Conference (28-30 Sept 2009, Oxford, UK)
- Climate Shifts
- FTeP: Food Tech ePerspective
- Climate Interactive
- UNEP: News Centre
- Climate Tasmania
- Nature: Planetary Boundaries - Special
- The Copenhagen Communiqué on Climate Change
- The Yes Men's fake New York Post
- 2009 Summit on Climate Change
- 2009 Summit on Climate Change
- Wiki: Long-term effects of global warming
It's always nice to start with a larf:
No rest for the wicked. A new climate meeting starts Monday in Bangkok:
The UNCCD conference went down in Argentina:
The issue of subsidies is still in play. We'll see if the G20 mean it:
The UNEP says the IPCC seriously underestimated warming:
The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:
While in Antarctica:
And how are we going to feed 9 billion?
And in the carbon cycle:
Glaciers are melting:
As for heatwaves and wild fires:
Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:
The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:
Defections from the Chamber of Commerce over global warming policy are becoming downright embarassing:
And in Europe:
And elsewhere in Asia:
While in Africa:
In the always 'interesting' matter of Canada-US relations:
So what are the Liberals doing?
Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:
IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology] raised its head once again:
In the USA, the Second Circuit ruled on the Connecticut v. American Electric Power case:
Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:
Joe Romm posts a daily list of top energy and climate stories:
Low Key Plug
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.
<regards>
P.S. Recent postings can be found in the week archive and the ancient postings can be accessed here, which should open to this.
"In America, electric cars have the same cachet as golf carts." -Jay Leno
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