Another week of GW News: October 18, 2009

Sipping from the internet firehose...

skip to bottom

Another week of Climate Disruption News

October 18, 2009

• Chuckle, Post Bangkok, Copenhagen, Caitlin, BAD, Superfreakonomics, MEF, Maldives Cabinet Meeting
• Bottom Line, NA Weather, Carbon Tariffs, Montreal Protocol, CSLF, Four Degrees
• Melting Arctic, Polar Bears, Antarctica
• Food Crisis, World Food Day, Food Production
• Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Climate Refugees, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Adaptation
• Journals, Misc. Science
• Kyoto, UN, Carbon Trade, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy, Politics: International, Security, Law & Activism
• America, Obama, Britain, Europe, Australia, South America, Canada
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Betting
• Energy, Wind, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Business, Insurance
• Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

Here's a chuckle for ya:

• 2009/10/15: Seppo: Blog Action Day Cartoons

  This is not strictly humour, but Tim's first paragraph made me laugh:

• 2009/10/16: Deltoid: Why Everything in Superfreakonomics About Global Warming Is Wrong
  I reviewed Freakonomics when it first came out and really liked it. So I was looking forward to the sequel Superfreakonomics. Unfortunately, Levitt and Dubner decided to write about global warming and have made a dreadful hash of it. The result is so wrong that it has even Joe Romm and William Connolley in agreement.

Post-Bangkok recriminations and analysis:

• 2009/10/14: CCurrents: Adopt A Negotiator By The Youth Of The World
• 2009/10/12: JakartaPost: RI expresses concern over Bangkok talks
  Indonesia expressed Sunday its concerns over lack of concrete achievements in the two-week climate change conference in Bangkok. Jakarta said the talks had been fruitless mainly because rich countries did not want to discuss their emission reduction targets though several developing countries, including Indonesia, announced voluntary cuts of 26 percent by 2020.
• 2009/10/12: IPSNews: Climate Change: Kyoto Protocol Is a Lifeline for Island Nations
  "It was a little bit scary," says Dessima Williams, describing how the two weeks of United Nations climate change negotiations ended here on Oct. 9.
• 2009/10/12: Nation(Ke): Rich nations play hide and seek in climate change deal
• 2009/10/12: M&G: Africa wants polluters to pay for climate change
• 2009/10/12: TreeHugger: Q&A: Antonio Hill, Oxfam's Climate Envoy, Sees Progress, But We Need a "Major Turnaround" [Bangkok]

  Pre-Copenhagen posturing and negotiation:

• 2009/10/18: Independent(UK): Obama envoy [Todd Stern] warns of 'no deal' summit -- Negotiations for the Copenhagen meeting are going 'too slow'
  Talks to save the world from the catastrophic effects of global warming may fail, President Obama's climate change envoy said last night. Todd Stern said pre-summit negotiations had been "too slow" and warned that it was "certainly possible" there will be no deal at December's Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen.
• 2009/10/16: Reuters: India opens door to climate deal, EU stuck
• 2009/10/17: Examiner: Copenhagen, it's not about climate change
• 2009/10/16: CanWest: Climate deal in Copenhagen unlikely: Canada
  Less than two months from key global climate-change talks, federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice says he has doubts that an agreement will be hammered out in Copenhagen.
• 2009/10/16: Guardian(UK): [UK CC&E secretary Ed] Miliband calls on rich countries to make firm offers on cutting CO2
• 2009/10/16: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen is fast approaching, but a deal seems further away
• 2009/10/16: EurActiv: EU nears tech transfer deal on climate change
  The European Union is getting closer to a deal on supporting the low-carbon development of emerging countries such as China, India and Brazil, as the global community enters the final negotiating straight before a UN climate summit in December, EurActiv has learnt.
• 2009/10/16: COP15: Extra time may be needed for an agreement
  Concurring expert views point to a global climate deal being finalized some time next year, and not at December's UN climate change conference in Copenhagen.
• 2009/10/15: Reuters: U.N. climate talks may need extra time in 2010
• 2009/10/15: Reuters: Poor nations fear empty climate deal at Copenhagen
• 2009/10/15: Reuters: Supporters say summit won't reach climate deal
• 2009/10/16: TreeHugger: What Will Happen After COP15? Three Possible Scenarios
• 2009/10/15: Guardian(UK): A fairer formula for emissions targets
  Developed and developing countries argue over their respective climate change duties. There is a way out of the deadlock
• 2009/10/15: COP15: India joins US-China consultations
• 2009/10/15: TreeHugger: On the Way to COP15: Battling an Unlevel Playing Field
• 2009/10/15: NYT: The Road to Copenhagen -- Biggest Obstacle to Global Climate Deal May Be How to Pay for It
  As world leaders struggle to hash out a new global climate deal by December, they face a hurdle perhaps more formidable than getting big polluters like the United States and China to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: how to pay for the new accord. The price tag for a new climate agreement will be a staggering $100 billion a year by 2020, many economists estimate; some put the cost at closer to $1 trillion.
• 2009/10/14: Guardian(UK): US aims for bilateral climate change deals with China and India
  Fresh commitments may breathe life back into Copenhagen deal as India prepares to announce cap and trade scheme
• 2009/10/14: EurActiv: EU countries get cold feet on raising climate goals
  As international climate change negotiations drag on, EU countries are calling for a "rigorous assessment" of what other nations are prepared to do before scaling up their own commitments, EurActiv has learned.
• 2009/10/14: TheAge: China warns Australia on world pact
  A key Chinese adviser believes the world will forge a new climate change pact at Copenhagen in part because China is recognising it can lead the world on clean technology.
• 2009/10/14: TreeHugger: What is Brazil Planning to Propose at Copenhagen?
• 2009/10/13: Reuters: China, U.S. can bridge global climate divide: group [WBCSD]
• 2009/10/13: EurActiv: Comprehensive climate deal still out of reach
  As the latest round of UN climate talks in Bangkok ended with little progress, negotiators are preparing for the Copenhagen summit in December on the assumption that not every detail will be agreed this year.
• 2009/10/13: EUO: EU warns of climate stalemate, blames Washington
  The EU's top climate negotiator, freshly back in Brussels from late-in-the-game talks in Thailand, has warned of a near stalemate in discussions. "Bangkok is still miles away from Copenhagen," Artur Runger-Metzger, Europe's chief broker at the talks, told reporters in the European capital on Monday. There was little movement surrounding the key demand of developing countries, that the industrialised north stump up some hefty cash to pay for measures to adapt to the effects of global warming and to mitigate their carbon emissions, he said. As for the third world, "Advanced developing countries need to make a meaningful commitment" to their own carbon reductions, he added.
• 2009/10/13: IndiaTimes: India not changing position on climate change, says Jairam Ramesh
• 2009/10/12: CopenhagenPost: Bangladesh project to offset climate conference emissions
• 2009/10/13: Hindu: India stand on climate change principled: Jairam Ramesh -- Minister writes to MPs setting forth India's position
• 2009/10/12: Xinhuanet: African countries will speak with one voice at Copenhagen climate summit: AU chief
• 2009/10/13: PTI: Deadlock on climate change continues
• 2009/10/12: Reuters: Climate negotiators don't meet leaders' pledges: U.N.
• 2009/10/12: UN: Gorilla protection should be a part of Copenhagen climate talks - UN official [UN Ambassador for the Year of the Gorilla Ian Redmond]
• 2009/10/12: UN: UN official spotlights gap between reality and rhetoric on climate change negotiations
  There is a large gap between the rhetoric of heads of State on commitments to reverse global warming and what their negotiators are putting on the table, a senior United Nations official said today in the wake of recent climate change talks in Bangkok, Thailand.
• 2009/10/12: COP15: Denmark's chief climate negotiator [Thomas Becker] resigns
• 2009/10/11: MTobis: Should Emissions be Allocated Per Capita?

  The Caitlin Arctic Ice survey reported this week - the media says the ice will be gone in 10, 20 and 30 years:

• 2009/10/17: ENN: Scientists Suggest New Arctic Study May Oversate Sea Ice Melting
• 2009/10/15: TerraDaily: Arctic ice cap to disappear in 20-30 years: study
• 2009/10/15: CNN: Arctic ice to vanish in summer, report says
  New report says Arctic sea ice will largely disappear in summer within a decade - Survey captured latest data on ice thickness in Northern part of Beaufort Sea - Measurements show the ice-floes surveyed were on average 1.8 meters thick - Scientists warn that Arctic ice melt is likely to set off "powerful climate feedbacks"
• 2009/10/15: KSJT: Press, more: An explorer's tale -- Arctic sea ice to be practically gone in summers in 10 yrs. This is news? And who says?
• 2009/10/15: PhysOrg: Arctic ice cap 'to disappear in future summers'
  The Arctic ice cap will disappear completely in summer months within 20 to 30 years, a polar research team said as they presented findings from an expedition led by adventurer Pen Hadow.
• 2009/10/15: Grist: Bye-bye Arctic ice cap
  The Arctic ice cap will vanish completely in summer months within 20-30 years, polar researchers said Thursday, sounding the alarm two months before a critical climate change summit in Copenhagen. It is likely to be largely ice-free during the warmer months within a decade, according to findings from an arctic expedition led by British adventurer Pen Hadow.
• 2009/10/12: DoC: Polar ice keeps melting -- at a faster and faster rate
• 2009/10/15: CCP: Pen Hadow, Peter Wadhams: The Arctic will be ice-free in summer within 20 years, research says
• 2009/10/15: CBS: Study: Arctic Ice Will Melt in 10 Years
  British Explorers [Catlin Arctic Survey] Return from North Pole with Ice Data Suggesting it Will Soon Disappear in Summer Months
• 2009/10/15: Independent(UK): Most Arctic sea ice 'gone in decade'
• 2009/10/14: CBC: North Pole summers ice-free in 10 years: researchers
• 2009/10/15: G&M: Arctic Ocean melting fast, researchers say -- In less than two decades, the ocean could be virtually ice-free all summer, British group contends
• 2009/10/14: BBC: Arctic to be 'ice-free in summer'
  The Arctic Ocean could be largely ice-free and open to shipping during the summer in as little as ten years' time, a top polar specialist has said. "It's like man is taking the lid off the northern part of the planet," said Professor Peter Wadhams, from the University of Cambridge. Professor Wadhams has been studying the Arctic ice since the 1960s. He was speaking in central London at the launch of the findings of the Catlin Arctic Survey. The expedition trekked across 435km of ice earlier this year. Led by explorer Pen Hadow, the team's measurements found that the ice-floes were on average 1.8m thick - typical of so-called "first year" ice formed during the past winter and most vulnerable to melting.
• 2009/10/15: Guardian(UK): Arctic summer ice could disappear within decades, survey data suggests
  Catlin Arctic survey finds evidence that ice is thinning more rapidly than expected, say analysts

Blog Action Day was Thursday October 15th -- Google shows 415,000 English pages in the last week:

• 2009/10/16: BSD: Would you compromise your purity to stop climate change?
• 2009/10/15: JKB: International Blog Action Day on Climate Change
• 2009/10/16: ERabett: Rabett Reprises
• 2009/10/16: Deltoid: Blog Action Day
• 2009/10/15: MTobis: It's Blog Action Day
• 2009/10/15: TreeHugger: Top Stories From Tonic: Denying Climate Change Deniers
• 2009/10/15: DeSmogBlog: Blog Action Day - Big Bloggers Covering Climate Change Around the World
• 2009/10/15: TWTB: Blog Action Day 2009 -- Climate Change
• 2009/10/15: OBMB: Blog Action Day: Making a Down Payment On Global Warming
• 2009/10/14: CNN: Bloggers unite on climate change
  Bloggers of the world unite in a day of discussion about climate change - Well over 15 million posts are expected on third annual Blog Action Day - Governments, charities, businesses, individuals posting their opinions - Thousands of bloggers have registered their participation in 144 countries

A minor blogstorm has broken out over Superfreakonomics:

• 2009/10/17: TP:WR: Ken Caldeira Contradicts SuperFreaks: 'Carbon Dioxide Is The Right Villain'
• 2009/10/17: TP:MY: Steven Dubner Digs the Hole Deeper
• 2009/10/17: ClimateP: Error-riddled Superfreakonomics, Part 4: They get the economics dead wrong, too, and their response to critics is full of misrepresentations, just like their book
• 2009/10/17: Maribo: Superfreakeconomics and the glory of contrarianism
• 2009/10/16: EnvEcon: More criticism of the SuperFreakonomics climate chapter
• 2009/10/15: TP: SuperFreakonomics Gets Climate Change Super Freaking Wrong
• 2009/10/16: NYT:PK: A counterintuitive train wreck
• 2009/10/17: NYT:PK: Superfreakonomics on climate, part 1
• 2009/10/16: ClimateP: Error-riddled 'Superfreakonomics', Part 3: It takes a village to debunk their anti-scientific nonsense, but why did they stop Amazon from allowing text searches?
• 2009/10/16: Deltoid: Why Everything in Superfreakonomics About Global Warming Is Wrong
• 2009/10/16: DM:CCM: Levitt and Dubner Embarrass Themselves on Climate Change
• 2009/10/16: MTobis: Romm vs Freakshow II
• 2009/10/14: ClimateP: Error-riddled 'Superfreakonomics', Part 2: Who else have Nathan Myhrvold and the Groupthinkers at Intellectual Ventures duped and confused? Would you believe Bill Gates and Warren Buffett?
• 2009/10/14: NatureCF: Superfreakonomists spout off about global cooling
• 2009/10/12: ClimateP: Error-riddled 'Superfreakonomics'...
• 2009/10/12: HillHeat: 'SuperFreakonomics' Calls Global Warming a 'Religion'
• 2009/10/13: Stoat: SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling (and some other stuff)?
• 2009/10/12: Guardian(UK): 'Asking people to reduce their carbon emissions is a noble invitation, but as incentives go, it isn't a strong one'
  In their follow-up to Freakonomics, Superfreakonomics, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner put forward their solution to global warming -- and some other startling facts

The Major Emitters Forum is meeting in London this weekend:

• 2009/10/18: Google:AP: Biggest economies try again to strike climate deal
• 2009/10/17: BBC: UK looks to break climate logjam
  The UK government is hoping to bridge some difficult divides over tackling climate change at a meeting in London. The Major Economies Forum (MEF) brings together 17 of the world's biggest greenhouse gas-emitting countries. The meeting on Sunday and Monday will aim to make progress on protecting forests and providing finance to help poor countries adapt to climate change. Ministers hope that discussions here will increase chances of agreeing a new climate treaty at December's UN summit.
• 2009/10/18: Guardian(UK): The world's future is being decided this weekend [Nicholas Stern][MEF]
  We must agree to halt deforestation and curtail air travel now if the Copenhagen summit is to succeed
• 2009/10/17: PhysOrg: Biggest economies try again to strike climate deal [MEF]
• 2009/10/17: EarthTimes: Maldivan cabinet holds underwater meeting to highlight climate fear
• 2009/10/15: Reuters: UK targets "all issues" at London climate meet

  In the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed held a cabinet meeting underwater for climate change PR:

• 2009/10/18: ABC(Au): Undersea cabinet calls for climate change deal
  The Maldives' government has held an underwater cabinet meeting in a bid to focus global attention on rising sea levels that threaten to submerge the low-lying atoll nation.
• 2009/10/17: CNN: From underwater, Maldives sends warning on climate change
  President, Cabinet don scuba gear to sign carbon emissions declaration - "We are all going to die," leader says, if climate change isn't checked - Most of archipelago lies less than 5 feet above sea level - Experts expect water levels to rise more than 7 inches by end of century
• 2009/10/17: BBC: Maldives leader in climate change stunt -- the world's first underwater cabinet meeting
• 2009/10/17: BBC: Maldives cabinet makes a splash
  The government of the Maldives has held a cabinet meeting underwater to highlight the threat of global warming to the low-lying Indian Ocean nation.
• 2009/10/17: CBC: Maldives cabinet holds underwater meeting -- Ministers urge action to curb global warming

  And on the Bottom Line:

• 2009/10/11: CSW: California: "Going for broke" on climate policies? Or too broke to take them on?
• 2009/10/14: EurActiv: IEA calls for massive investments in carbon capture
  The world will need to set up 100 CO2 capture and underground storage projects by 2020 to ensure that the fight against climate change remains affordable, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said yesterday (13 October). The agency's roadmap says that between $2.5 and $3 trillion of additional investment will be needed worldwide within the next four decades to launch the technology commercially. This would require building 100 demonstration projects by 2020 and over 3,000 by 2050, it said.
• 2009/10/14: CBC: IEA wants $3.4 trillion spent on carbon capture -- Paris-based energy agency says 3,400 projects needed

  So will North America have an el Nino winter or what?:

• 2009/10/14: TerraDaily: Snow predicted for U.S. South this winter
• 2009/10/15: PhysOrg: Winter forecast: Warmer West, North; cooler South
  The Midwest and Northern United States are likely to get a warmer winter, while the Southeast can expect just the opposite: cooler and wetter conditions. In Thursday's winter outlook, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says an El Nino weather event - warming in parts of the Pacific that affects weather worldwide - will be a major player in America's winter temperatures.

The idea of Carbon Tariffs is still upsetting people:

• 2009/10/15: FTimes: Financial penalty [border taxes] seen as way to curb flight to less stringent regimes
• 2009/10/15: FTimes: EU attacks carbon border tax initiative

  A modest suggestion:

• 2009/10/14: CanWest: Climate scientists suggest revisiting the 1987 Montreal Protocol
  International climate scientists have a new idea to shorten the agonizingly slow business of hammering out climate change laws: rewrite a hugely successful treaty written in Canada. The Montreal Protocol, negotiated in 1987, has been extremely effective in reducing the world's output of gases that destroy the ozone layer. Now, the scientists write, countries should just add a few greenhouse gases - pollutants that cause global warming - to the existing Montreal Protocol.

The Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum had a mostly unreported meeting:

• 2009/10/13: Google:AFP: Carbon storage key to UN climate deal: ministers
  New technology to capture carbon emissions and store them safely must be part of climate change talks in December, ministers from a 23-country group said at a meeting here Tuesday. The Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF), holding a four-day gathering in the capital, agreed to ramp up the case for carbon capture and storage (CCS) to be included at climate talks in Copenhagen in December.

The echo of 4 degrees is still reverberating:

• 2009/10/15: NJNR: Global warming: Four degrees of devastation
• 2009/10/15: WorldChanging: [UNEP] Update of IPCC Report Says Pace of Warming Is Rapidly Increasing
• 2009/10/16: CCP: No easy way out: Scientists look seriously at the possibility of warming beyond the 2 °C target
• 2009/10/15: TreeHugger: We're Now Committed to 1.4 - 4.3°C Warming by 2100 - But That's No Reason Not to Act!
• 2009/10/15: AlterNet: Without Drastic CO2 Cuts Immediately, the World Faces a Massive 'Oh Shit' Moment
• 2009/10/13: Grist: A scary new climate study will have you saying 'Oh, shit!' [WBGU]
• 2009/10/14: TreeHugger: 40-Year Time Window To Avert Abrupt, Severe Climate Shift & Widespread Economic Pain
• 2009/10/12: JKB: Warning : Alarmism ahead! [Tripati]

  The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:

• 2009/10/14: USGS: Arctic Now Traps 25 Percent of World's Carbon -- But That Could Change
• 2009/10/15: SciDaily: Arctic Has Potential To Alter Earth's Climate: Arctic Land And Seas Account For Up To 25 Percent Of World's Carbon Sink
• 2009/10/14: PhysOrg: Arctic land and seas account for up to 25 percent of world's carbon sink
• 2009/10/13: GreenGrok: Climate Update: Of Ice and Men
• 2009/10/09: NewsWeek: On Top of the World -- Most climate researchers see the Arctic in color-coded satellite pictures. Fewer go to see it up close.
• 2009/10/12: BCLSB: What's Going On With The Retreat Of Arctic Sea Ice?
• 2009/10/11: Guardian(UK): Mammoth remains from the Russian permafrost offer up rich bounty

  The US DOI has proposed changing polar bears' CITES classification:

• 2009/10/16: CBC: U.S. effort to nix polar bear trade angers Inuit
  Canadian Inuit are outraged over a U.S. plan to use an international treaty to eliminate all trade in polar bears anywhere in the world. [...] On Friday, Tom Strickland, the United States assistant secretary of the interior, released a proposal to the 175 countries that have signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. The proposal says polar bears should be moved to a classification that would outlaw all commercial trade in the animals.
• 2009/10/16: USFWS: Assistant Secretary of the Interior Tom Strickland Announces Species Proposals, other Submissions for Upcoming CITES Meeting in Doha, Qatar
  [,,,] Submitted proposals include: A proposal to move the polar bear (Ursus maritimus) from Appendix II to Appendix I due to current and anticipated future habitat loss due to climate change. The polar bear has been listed under CITES Appendix II since 1975.
• 2009/10/16: NRDC:SwitchBoard: The U.S. Takes the Lead in Restricting Polar Bear Hunting and International Trade
• 2009/10/13: TWTB: Greenland and Antarctic ice sheet decay, continued

  While in Antarctica:

• 2009/10/16: PhysOrg: NASA flies over Antarctica to measure icemelt
  Hoping to better understand how a melting Antarctica could swamp the planet, a NASA plane outfitted with lasers and ground-penetrating radar made its first flight over the icy continent on Friday.

The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2009/10/14: WFP: Economic Crisis Is Devastating For World's Hungry
• 2009/10/15: FAO: Desert Locust outbreak develops in western Mauritania
• 2009/10/: SoN: Climate Change, Food Crises & Socialist Reimaginings
• 2009/10/16: US: Food security
• 2009/10/16: IRIN: Zimbabwe - No Collateral, No Inputs, Then No Food
• 2009/10/16: PhysOrg: Mauritana locust infestation spreading to Morocco: UN
• 2009/10/16: IRRI: Climate change threatens rice production
• 2009/10/12: FAO: Agriculture to 2050 - the challenges ahead -- [FAO Director-General Jacques] Diouf opens High-Level Forum on food's future
• 2009/10/14: FAO: Economic crisis is devastating for the world's hungry -- 1.02 billion hungry people in 2009 - FAO hunger report published
• 2009/10/12: CCurrents: Millions Will Starve As Rich Nations Cut Food Aid Funding, Warns UN
• 2009/10/14: BBC: Global hunger worsening, warns UN
  Targets to cut the number of hungry people in the world will not be met without greater international effort, UN food agencies have warned. The UN's annual report on global food security confirms that more than one billion people - a sixth of the world's population - are undernourished. It says the number of hungry people was growing before the economic crisis, which has made the situation worse. The report comes ahead of World Food Day on Friday.
• 2009/10/14: CBC: Undernourished surpass 1 billion: UN -- Decline in aid, agriculture investment blamed on growing numbers
• 2009/10/13: TreeHugger: We Need to Produce 70% More Food in Next 40 Years

  World Food Day was Friday Oct 16:

• 2009/10/16: WFP: World Food Day Is No Food Day For More Than A Billion Of World's Hungry
• 2009/10/16: FAO: Diouf calls for rapid elimination of hunger -- World Food Day: Official aid to agriculture to increase
• 2009/10/15: CDreams: On World Food Day: Crunching the Numbers
• 2009/10/16: BBC: Food Day praise for Brazil, China
  Brazil and China have been praised, but India criticised, in a new report that evaluates the efforts of developing countries to tackle hunger. ActionAid produced the set of rankings in a report released on Friday, designated World Food Day by the UN. The report also judges the efforts of rich countries, saying Luxembourg is trying hardest to end global hunger. The US and New Zealand rank bottom.
• 2009/10/15: CNN: More than 1 billion going hungry, U.N. says
  World Food Programme: One in six of world's population is now going hungry - Nearly all the world's undernourished live in developing countries - Number of hungry spiked as the global economic crisis took hold, report says - Calls for greater investment in agriculture to tackle long and short-term hunger

And how are we going to feed 9 billion?

• 2009/10/15: Guardian(UK): Kew Gardens completes 'Noah's ark' seed bank with a pink banana
• 2009/10/13: BBC: Bank on seeds - the world's buffer
  Conserving genetic diversity in botanic gardens and seed banks is a sensible and practical precaution for an uncertain future, says Steve Hopper. With species loss at an unnatural high and with climate change threatening many ecosystems, he argues that the need to invest in these facilities has never been greater. "Plant diversity is invaluable to humanity; it sustains us now, and in the future it will enable us to adapt, innovate and ultimately to survive"
• 2009/10/11: PhysOrg: Taiwan scientists identify flood-tolerant gene in rice
• 2009/10/12: TreeHugger: Permaculture Principles: Nature's Design for Our Living World (Slideshow)

  The Philippines are preparing for Lupit, after Ketsana and Parma:

• 2009/10/18: EarthTimes: Philippines braces for new typhoon after 818 die in previous storms
• 2009/10/16: CBC: Typhoon-weary Philippines prepares for 3rd storm [Lupit]
• 2009/10/16: NASA: NASA Satellite Tracking Typhoon Lupit on a March Toward the Northern Philippines
• 2009/10/14: EarthTimes: Death toll in Philippine storms hits 712

  In the Eastern Pacific Hurricane Rick has roared into a Cat 5:

• 2009/10/18: CNN: Hurricane Rick roars across eastern North Pacific
  Hurricane Rick is category five - Storm center is 295 miles (475 kms) south-southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico - Forecasters: Rick to lose some of its punch as it swings to southern Baja - Strongest hurricane in the eastern North Pacific was Hurricane Linda in 1997
• 2009/10/18: EarthTimes: Hurricane Rick roars to dangerous category 5
• 2009/10/17: EarthTimes: Hurricane Rick picks up power, packs winds of 260 kph
• 2009/10/17: CBC: Hurricane Rick grows to Category 4 storm
• 2009/10/17: ABC(US): Rick 'Extremely Dangerous' Category 4 Hurricane -- Hurricane Rick 'extremely dangerous' Category 4 off Mexico's Pacific coast; winds near 135 mph
• 2009/10/17: CBS: "Extremely Dangerous" Rick a Category 4 -- Hurricane Rapidly Develops Off Mexico's Pacific Coast; Winds Near 150 MPH
• 2009/10/17: CBC: Hurricane Rick strengthens [to Cat 2] off Mexican coast
• 2009/10/16: NASA: Baja California Residents Should Prepare for Hurricane Rick

  While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

• 2009/10/15: Wunderground: Outlook for the remainder of hurricane season
• 2009/10/14: Wunderground: Thirsty California soaks up Melor's Deluge
• 2009/10/13: Eureka: Baja watching Tropical Storm Patricia in the latest GOES-11 satellite movie
• 2009/10/13: Eureka: Tropical Storm Nepartak becoming extra-tropical at sea
• 2009/10/14: CBC: California orders evacuation warnings as storm hits
• 2009/10/14: CBC: Tropical storm Patricia weakens over Mexico
• 2009/10/14: CBC: Vietnam braces for arrival of Parma
• 2009/10/13: UN: Months of hard work ahead in storm-battered Philippines, says top UN official
• 2009/10/13: PhysOrg: Tropical Storm Patricia approaches Mexico
• 2009/10/13: PhysOrg: Tropical Storm Parma headed to Vietnam
• 2009/10/12: TerraDaily: Tropical Storm Patricia churns toward Baja California
• 2009/10/13: TerraDaily: Three die as Tropical Storm Parma hits China: report
• 2009/10/13: Wunderground: Typhoon Melor's remnants pound California; Tropical Storm Patricia nears Baja
• 2009/10/13: Eureka: Tropical Storm Parma headed to Vietnam
• 2009/10/13: CBC: Tropical storm warning issued for Baja [Patricia]
• 2009/10/12: Wunderground: Baja braces for Patricia; California getting soaked; contact your Senator

  As for GHGs:

• 2009/10/17: IR^2: A Massive Decline in Carbon Emissions?
• 2009/10/15: Reuters: Finland says aims to cut emissions 80 pct [from 1990 levels] by 2050
• 2009/10/15: TreeHugger: Yale Reduced Emissions 7% While Growing by 5.5% Since 2005
• 2009/10/13: CCP: Cutting non-CO2 pollutants can delay abrupt climate change, solve "fast half" of climate problem
• 2009/10/12: NatureCF: Cutting non-CO2 climate agents
• 2009/10/11: ERabett: It's not a bug it's a feature

  While in the temperature record:

• 2009/10/18: SciDaily: Global Surface Temperature Was Second Warmest For September
• 2009/10/16: CCP: NOAA's NCDC Global Climate Report for September 2009
• 2009/10/16: DWWSJ: September Heat- What an Image!
• 2009/10/16: ClimateP: NOAA: Second hottest September on record and virtual tie for hottest in lower troposphere from satellite data
• 2009/10/16: Wunderground: Second warmest September on record for the globe
• 2009/10/16: DWWSJ: September Temperatures Second Warmest On Record
• 2009/10/15: NOAANews: NOAA: Global Surface Temperature Was Second Warmest for September
• 2009/10/08: CC&G: Solar Trends: Comparison of TSI and GISS Temperature Anomaly Trends
• 2009/10/13: ClimateP: NASA reports hottest June to September on record*; NOAA says "weak" El Niño "expected to strengthen and last through" winter

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2009/10/12: OpenDem: After glaciers: a new climate world
  A field campaign to the remote south Atlantic reveals that glaciers on the island of South Georgia are disappearing at remarkable speed. This massive glacial retreat is part of an emerging climatic pattern with global consequences, says Ãyvind Paasche.
• 2009/10/14: PhysOrg: Toxic legacy seeps from melting Alpine glaciers: study
• 2009/10/13: TerraDaily: Kashmir glaciers shrinking at 'alarming' speed: study
• 2009/10/13: KSJT: Wires: Kashmir glaciers going fast. This is important. Is it news?
• 2009/10/13: CBC: Glaciers in Indian Kashmir melting, says study
• 2009/10/12: Reuters: Kashmir's main glacier "melting at alarming speed"
  Indian Kashmir's biggest glacier, which feeds the region's main river, is melting faster than other Himalayas glaciers, threatening the water supply of tens of thousands of people, a new report warned on Monday. Experts say rising temperatures are rapidly shrinking Himalayan glaciers, underscoring the effects of climate change that has caused temperatures in the mountainous region to rise by about 1.1 degrees Celsius in the past 100 years. The biggest glacier in Indian Kashmir, the Kolahoi glacier spread over just a little above 11 sq km (4.25 sq mile), has shrunk 2.63 sq km in the past three decades, a new study said. "Kolahoi glacier is shrinking 0.08 square kilometers a year, which is an alarming speed," said the study, presented at a workshop on "Climate Change, Glacial Retreat and Livelihoods," in Srinagar, Indian Kashmir's summer capital. The three year-long study was led by glaciologist Shakil Ramsoo, assistant professor in the department of geology at the University of Kashmir.

Sea levels are rising:

• 2009/10/12: AlterNet: Countries Are Preparing for Rising Seas But the U.S. Is Far Behind

  Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

• 2009/10/16: PhysOrg: GOES-P satellite preparing for launch in March 2010

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2009/10/18: LA Times: Global warming blamed for aspen die-off across the West
• 2009/10/15: Yale360: The Spread of New Diseases: The Climate Connection
• 2009/10/16: Guardian(UK): Jamie Hewlett's views of the impact of climate change in Bangladesh on show (17 pictures)
• 2009/10/15: MongaBay: Freshwater species worse off than land or marine
• 2009/10/15: PhysOrg: Study predicts Australian seabed response to climate change
• 2009/10/14: ABC(Au): Fishermen: 'Not affected by climate change'
  Fishermen on the New South Wales far south coast say they are not seeing the effects of climate change despite the dire predictions of global warming. The manager of the Eden Fishing Co-operative, Glen Richardson, says stocks remain steady and fishermen are having little difficulty maintaining quotas.
• 2009/10/13: SciDaily: Climate Change Boosts Scallop Stocks In UK Waters
• 2009/10/06: UGothenburg: Warmer climate not the cause of oxygen deficiency in the Baltic Sea
  Oxygen deficiency in the Baltic Sea has never been greater than it is now. But it is not an effect of climate change but rather of increased inputs of nutrients and fertilisers. This is the finding of researchers at the University of Gothenburg, who have analysed the ocean climate of the Baltic Sea since the 16th century.
• 2009/10/12: ABC(Au): A doctor in the lower Murray region blames bacterial and mosquito-borne disease on drought conditions.
  Dr Michael Kerrigan from the Coorong Medical Clinic in South Australia says the drying lakes have attracted more mosquitoes which he believes are causing an increase in cases of ross river virus.
• 2009/10/11: BBC: New fears for species extinctions
  Scientists have warned of an alarming increase in the extinction of animal species, because of threats to biodiversity and ecosystems. The threats are posed by pollution, climate change and urban spread. The comments come two days ahead of a meeting of the Diversitas group of global experts on biodiversity in the South African city of Cape Town.
• 2009/10/11: Guardian(UK): Freshwater creatures and plants are most threatened species on earth

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2009/10/16: COP15: Offset potential from forests hugely overestimated
  Bolivian flagship project in forest conservation has only achieved 11 percent of its planned carbon offsetting. Greenpeace: A scam.
• 2009/10/15: SolveClimate: Greenpeace Says Model Forest Protection Project Proves REDD Offsets Don't Work
• 2009/10/15: MongaBay: Business and conservation groups team up to conserve and better manage US's southern forests
• 2009/10/15: WaPo: Use of Forests as Carbon Offsets Fails to Impress In First Big Trial -- Project in Bolivia Keeps Trees Standing But Has Little Clear Effect on Emissions
• 2009/10/15: EarthTimes: Environmentalists call for boycott of Madagascar precious wood
• 2009/10/14: ClimateP: Brazil's President: "I foresee that by 2020 we will be able to reduce deforestation by 80 percent; in other words, we will emit some 4.8 billion fewer tons of carbon dioxide gas."
• 2009/10/14: CBC: Tree-killing beetle arrives in Cape Breton
  A foreign beetle that destroys spruce trees is now on Cape Breton Island. The brown spruce longhorn beetle was recently found in Big Harbour, Victoria County. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says 15 properties are affected.
• 2009/10/13: Grist: Brazil's Lula vows to slow rate of Amazon deforestation

  Climate refugees are becoming an issue:

• 2009/10/17: Google:AFP: 'Climate refugees' in Bangladesh capital
• 2009/10/16: SolveClimate: Disaster Displacement Driving Millions into Exile
  In 2008 alone, at least 36 million people were displaced by sudden-onset natural disasters, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, IDMC. Of those disasters, more than 55 percent were climate related.
• 2009/10/15: COP15: Climate refugees in legal vacuum
  International law has rules on people who are exiled due to wars and politically motivated persecution, but what if your island has sunk into the sea?

As for heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2009/10/18: ABC(Au): Residents return home as bushfire threat eases
  Firefighters say the threat to properties from a large bushfire in the Mount Archer area in central Queensland have eased.
• 2009/10/18: TV3(NZ): Residents flee as wildfires tear through Queensland
  An emergency situation was declared in Queensland, Australia, as fierce wildfires continued to burn on Sunday, destroying properties and forcing residents to be evacuated from their homes. The blaze at Mount Archer national park near Rockhampton in Central Queensland flared up late on Saturday, forcing frantic residents to flee. Fire crews had been battling the large wildfire for several days.

And speaking of floods & droughts:

• 2009/10/16: UN: Stricken by drought, the Horn of Africa readies for expected flooding -- UN
• 2009/10/15: CNN: Massive African lake could dry up, U.N. agency says
  Lake Chad could dry up in 20 years, U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization says - Lake supports livelihoods of 30 million people - In 2001, lake was one-fifth of 1963 size - Climate change, population pressure fuel lake's decline, agency says
• 2009/10/15: TerraDaily: Warming threatens Canada's rivers and lakes: WWF
• 2009/10/15: PhysOrg: Some Canadian rivers at risk of drying up
  Some Canadian rivers are at risk of drying up as impacts of climate change intersect with growing water demand from the country's cities, industries and agriculture, a new WWF report has found.
• 2009/10/15: DWWSJ: California Mud- It's just getting Started
• 2009/10/13: FTimes: Record drought takes its toll on Arizona
• 2009/10/13: TerraDaily: Water shortages causes 100,000 to flee homes in Iraq: UN
• 2009/10/14: EarthTimes: UN: Millions of drought-hit African children now face flooding
• 2009/10/14: EarthTimes: EU sends Afghanistan 2 million euros in flood aid
• 2009/10/14: EarthTimes: Austria gets record snowfall, Poland suffers power outages
• 2009/10/13: NOAANews: NOAA Scientists Study Historic 'Dust Bowl' and Plains Droughts for Triggers -- Knowing Different Global Causes Could Aid Future Drought Warnings
• 2009/10/13: Google:AFP: Global warming 'to triple rain over Taiwan'
• 2009/10/13: BBC: Lack of Mid-East peace deepens water crisis
  For the past two years Iraq, Syria, Jordan and parts of Turkey and Lebanon, have suffered the devastating effects of the worst drought the Middle East has experienced in decades.
• 2009/10/11: Google:AFP: Flood victims in Burkina Faso illustrate the effects of climate change

  Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2009/10/14: UNEP: Healthy Oceans New Key to Combating Climate Change
  Seagrasses to Salt Marshes Among the Most Cost Effective Carbon Capture and Storage Systems on the Planet But Urgent Action Needed to Maintain and Restore 'Blue Carbon' Sinks Warns Three UN Agencies
• 2009/10/16: ClimateShifts: Marine plant life holds the secret to preventing global warming
• 2009/10/14: Ecologist: Forests and oceans more effective than carbon capture technology
• 2009/10/14: FAO: Healthy oceans new key to combating climate change -- Action needed to maintain and restore 'blue carbon' sinks warn three UN agencies
• 2009/10/14: Times(UK): Marine plant life holds the secret to preventing global warming

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2009/10/17: Asymptotia: They Couldn't Car Less
• 2009/10/16: TreeHugger: New Record: Hydrogen Fuel Cell Plane Flies 23 Hours With Zero Emissions
• 2009/10/16: EarthTimes: EU eyes 10-per-cent emissions cut for airlines, 20 per cent for ships [by 2020, base unstated]
• 2009/10/13: PeakEnergy: The need for speed: Europe's trains beat planes

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

• 2009/10/16: SciDaily: Sustainable Architecture: Setting Sail In An Ecological 'Earthship'
• 2009/10/15: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Strategies to Promote Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Advanced State Codes
• 2009/10/14: Guardian(UK): MIT's 'chameleon' tiles promise to slash building energy use
• 2009/10/12: Eureka: Setting sail in an ecological 'Earthship' -- Sustainable architecture
  Could sustainable architecture address pollution, climate change and resource depletion by helping us build self-sufficient, off-grid, housing from "waste", including vehicle tires and metal drinks containers? That's the question researchers at the University of South Australia hope to answer in the International Journal of Sustainable Design.
• 2009/10/12: PlanetArk: EU Boosts Builders With Green Renovation Plan
  Fifteen million European buildings should have eco-friendly renovations over the next decade to cut energy use, with builders and architects re-educated to do the lucrative job, a draft EU report says. The European Union should also make mandatory its goal of cutting energy use by a fifth over the next decade, creating about 2 million new jobs, says a draft of the EU's "energy efficiency action plan" obtained by Reuters

As for carbon sequestration:

• 2009/10/11: CleanBreak: CCS, the cost, the risk, and the law of unintended consequences
• 2009/10/16: BBC: Carbon capture plant backed by EU
  Plans for Britain's first coal-fired power station equipped with carbon capture technology have been backed by the European Commission. The commission has recommended that a plant in Hatfield, near Doncaster, should receive £164m of EU funding. The sum would be matched by a similar sum from the UK government.
• 2009/10/16: Guardian(UK): Britain's first carbon capture and storage plant to be built in Yorkshire
  EU funds demonstration project with 180m pounds award to be matched by UK government for 900MW coal-fired power station
• 2009/10/15: NatureTGB: Carbon storage: searching for space
• 2009/10/15: WSJ:EnvCap: Carbon Capture: China's Got Huge Carbon-Storage Potential, Researchers Say
• 2009/10/14: EurActiv: IEA calls for massive investments in carbon capture
  The world will need to set up 100 CO2 capture and underground storage projects by 2020 to ensure that the fight against climate change remains affordable, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said yesterday (13 October). The agency's roadmap says that between $2.5 and $3 trillion of additional investment will be needed worldwide within the next four decades to launch the technology commercially. This would require building 100 demonstration projects by 2020 and over 3,000 by 2050, it said.
• 2009/10/14: PhysOrg: Carbon capture shows major potential in China
• 2009/10/13: Reuters: Norway plans record 2010 carbon capture spending
  Norway plans to raise investments in capturing and storing greenhouse gases in 2010 to a record of almost 3.5 billion crowns ($621 million) to help fight climate change, Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen said on Tuesday. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg once said Norway wanted to lead international efforts to develop carbon capture, likening it to the 1960s U.S.-Soviet race to the Moon.
• 2009/10/14: WSJ:EnvCap: Catch Me If You Can: Does the IEA's Carbon Capture Plan Make Any Sense?
• 2009/10/13: CCurrents: Let's Call The Bluff On Carbon Capture And Storage
• 2009/10/14: CBC: IEA wants $3.4 trillion spent on carbon capture -- Paris-based energy agency says 3,400 projects needed
• 2009/10/14: SMH: Britain rebuffed on carbon capture commitment
  Australia has turned down an approach by the British Government to pledge not to build any coal-fired power plants without ''significant'' carbon capture and storage technology built in. [...] It is understood that the US and Canada have also rejected the coal power plant principle.
• 2009/10/13: TreeHugger: Captured Carbon from Coal Plants to Help Pump Oil 500 Miles Away?
• 2009/10/13: SolveClimate: Carbon Capture and Storage Still a Pipe Dream?

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2009/10/18: MTobis: The Geoengineering Quandary (In Living Color)

  While on the adaptation front:

• 2009/10/16: Maribo: Can the world meet the high cost of adaptation?
• 2009/10/15: COP15: Adaptation fund remains almost empty
  The UN fund set up to help vulnerable countries adapt to climate change has received only a fraction of the amounts needed.
• 2009/10/13: UN: Seal the deal: UN lends a hand to community efforts to adapt to climate change
• 2009/10/12: PhysOrg: Growth versus global warming
  Houses on stilts, small scale energy generation and recycling our dishwater are just some of the measures that are being proposed to prepare our cities for the effects of global warming. A three-year project led by Newcastle University for the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research has outlined how our major cities must respond if they are to continue to grow in the face of climate change. Using the new UK Climate Predictions '09 data for weather patterns over the next century, the research looks at the impact of predicted rises in temperature - particularly in urban areas - increased flooding in winter and less water availability in summer.

Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2009/10/17: AGWObserver: Timing of carbon dioxide and temperature in Vostok ice core
• 2009/10/16: AGWObserver: Papers on Earth's radiation budget
• 2009/10/14: NERC:NORA: The impact of nitrogen deposition on carbon sequestration by European forests and heathlands by W. de Vries et al.
• 2009/10/15: NERC:NORA: Atmosphere-soil-stream greenhouse gas fluxes from peatlands by Kerry Dinsmore et al.
• 2009/10/16: ACP: Simulation of particle size distribution with a global aerosol model: contribution of nucleation to aerosol and CCN number concentrations by F. Yu & G. Luo
• 2009/10/16: ACPD: On the seasonal dependence of tropical lower-stratospheric temperature trends by Q. Fu et al.
• 2009/10/14: CP: Extracting a common high frequency signal from Northern Quebec black spruce tree-rings with a Bayesian hierarchical model by J.-J. Boreux et al.
• 2009/10/12: CP: High resolution climate and vegetation simulations of the Late Pliocene, a model-data comparison over western Europe and the Mediterranean region by A. Jost et al.
• 2009/10/13: CPD: Effects of orbital forcing on atmosphere and ocean heat transports in Holocene and Eemian climate simulations with a comprehensive Earth system model by N. Fischer & J. Jungclaus
• 2009/10/12: CPD: Simulation of the last glacial cycle with a coupled climate ice-sheet model of intermediate complexity by A. Ganopolski et al.
• 2009/10/13: AGWObserver: Papers on water vapor feedback observations
• 2009/10/12: AGWObserver: Papers on global sea level
• 2009/10/13: TCD: Geometric changes and mass balance of the Austfonna ice cap, Svalbard by G. Moholdt et al.
• 2009/10/13: GRL: (ab$) Increasing rates of ice mass loss from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets revealed by GRACE by I. Velicogna
• 2009/10/13: ACP: Chemical apportionment of southern African aerosol mass and optical depth by B. I. Magi
• 2009/10/12: ACP: CALIPSO polar stratospheric cloud observations: second-generation detection algorithm and composition discrimination by M. C. Pitts et al.
• 2009/10/14: ACPD: Recent increase in aerosol loading over the Australian arid zone by R. M. Mitchell et al.
• 2009/10/13: ACPD: Atmospheric data over a solar cycle: no connection between galactic cosmic rays and new particle formation by M. Kulmala et al.
• 2009/10/12: ACPD: Statistical properties of aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions in South America by T. A. Jones & S. A. Christopher
• 2009/10/12: ACPD: Origin and transport of Mediterranean moisture and air by I. Schicker et al.
• 2009/10/02: BGS: Statistical validation of a 3-D bio-physical model of the western North Atlantic by M. K. Lehmann et al.
• 2009/10/08: BGS: Carbon-nitrogen interactions regulate climate-carbon cycle feedbacks: results from an atmosphere-ocean general circulation model by P. E. Thornton et al.

  And other significant documents:

• 2009/10/14: FAO: [link to 1 meg pdf or subsections] The state of food insecurity in the world 2009

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

• 2009/10/13: NatureCF: IMarEST [Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology] launches position statement on climate change

  On the Kyoto front:

• 2009/10/12: GreenGrok: Did the Kyoto Protocol Miss the Target?

  While at the UN:

• 2009/10/16: CCurrents: Carbon Emissions Must Peak By 2015: UN Climate Scientist
• 2009/10/15: Yahoo:AFP: Carbon emissions must peak by 2015: UN climate scientist [IPCC head, Rajendra Pachauri]
  The UN's top climate scientist on Thursday urged a key conference on global warming to set tough mid-term goals and warned carbon emissions had to peak by 2015 to meet a widely-shared vision. Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said the talks in Copenhagen in December must focus on 2020, a far more important target than mid-century. "Strong, urgent and effective action" is needed, Pachauri told a meeting of ministers of the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris. "It is not enough to set any aspirational goal for 2050, it is critically important that we bring about a commitment to reduce emissions effectively by 2020," he said.
• 2009/10/15: TreeHugger: IPCC Head [Rajendra Pachauri] Says Aspirational Statements Not Enough, We Need Deep Emission Reductions by 2020
• 2009/10/14: KSJT: Reuters: Head of IPCC, at home in India, confident a climate deal CAN be made in Copenhagen, and other ambiguities...

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2009/10/16: BBerg: Seven Carbon Markets May Replace Kyoto, Barclays Says
  At least seven carbon markets will probably replace the Kyoto Protocol, the world's largest greenhouse gas program by credits, making climate protection more complicated after 2012, according to Barclays Capital. The U.S. and other nations may resist handing control of environmental regulation over to the United Nations or a new international regulator, creating a patchwork of markets in the eight years through 2020, Trevor Sikorski, a London-based analyst at Barclays Capital, said yesterday by phone. Separate markets in the EU, U.S. and Japan would provide differing incentives to curb greenhouse gases, which are blamed for climate change. A delayed global carbon market will probably be the price of enticing the U.S. to increase the pace at which it cuts emissions, Sikorski said.
• 2009/10/14: PlanetArk: Voluntary CO2 Market Not Netting Emissions Cuts

  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:

• 2009/10/13: AutoBG: Who should get carbon credits, automakers or utilities?

  Meanwhile on the international political front:

• 2009/10/14: EarthTimes: India, Argentina sign pact on nuclear energy
• 2009/10/12: TerraDaily: SKorea seeks talks with NKorea after deadly flood

  As for GW & security:

• 2009/10/15: EarthTimes: Defence minister commissions study on climate change and security
  Stockholm - Swedish Defence Minister Sten Tolgfors Thursday commissioned a study on the linkages between climate change and security, arguing there was need for more knowledge. "It is often said that there is a clear link between climate change and conflicts over the depletion of natural resources. And a lot seems to support it, but there is little research that enhances knowledge about it," Tolgfors said. The study was to be conducted by the Swedish Defence Research Agency and completed at the end of 2010.
• 2009/10/14: JFleck: Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: The Ecology of National Security
• 2009/10/09: MillerMcCune: War Games Start to Include Climate Change
  U.S. military and intelligence officials are factoring the symptoms of climate change into their estimates of where and what kind of conflicts are in store.

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

• 2009/10/17: NYT:Reuters: Police Arrest 21 People at U.K. Coal Plant Protest
• 2009/10/17: Guardian(UK): Protesters and police in violent clashes at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station
• 2009/10/17: BBC: Arrests in power station protest
  Twenty one people have been arrested and police and campaigners have been injured during protests at a Nottinghamshire power station.
• 2009/10/16: Guardian(UK): Environmental activist arrested ahead of coal-fired power station protest
  Campaigners claim police have stepped up intimidation in week in which four activists were detained on way to Copenhagen
• 2009/10/16: OilChange: Police Use Anti-Terror Laws Against Climate Activists
• 2009/10/15: Guardian(UK): Light-touch police get heavy-handed on climate change campaigners
  Police are getting serious over climate change protests -- by using conspiracy laws that carry 10-year jail sentences
• 2009/10/14: Guardian(UK): Climate change activist stopped from travelling to Copenhagen
  Chris Kitchen held under anti-terrorist legislation - Activist planned to attend UN summit protest talks
• 2009/10/13: Guardian(UK): How a six-month sentence could stop activists in their tracks
  A charge of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass would have catastrophic implications for climate activists

And on the American political front:

• 2009/10/17: ClimateP: Creating 1.7 million clean energy jobs to drive economic recovery: The national strategy and the Pennsylvania opportunity
• 2009/10/13: REA: California FIT [feed-in tariff] & Net Metering Bills Signed
• 2009/10/15: Reuters: CEOs no longer refute climate change
  U.S. chief executives no longer reject claims of human-caused climate change, putting to rest a dispute that has raged in boardrooms for decades, said the head of PG&E on Thursday. Members of the Business Council, a group of executives from the top 120 U.S. companies, have altered their beliefs about climate change significantly, said PG&E Chief Executive Officer Peter Darbee in an interview. Darbee was attending the Business Council's October gathering in Cary, North Carolina. "No one among the group was arguing the science of climate change," said Darbee. "That debate, at least in that forum, appears to be over. The discussion was really about, 'climate change is happening, it is a challenge of vast proportions and it will require an effort on the part of mankind to respond to this challenge.'"
• 2009/10/16: SolveClimate: Fuel-Thirsty U.S. Navy Pledges 50% Cut in Oil Use by 2020, and More
• 2009/10/15: ClimateP: New report finds 31 states have the renewable resources to be "energy self-reliant"
• 2009/10/14: HillHeat: DailyKos Contributors Launch DK GreenRoots, Adopt-A-Senator
• 2009/10/13: PhiladelphiaInquirer: Exelon chief [John W. Rowe] backs cap-and-trade system
• 2009/10/12: SolveClimate: California Fights Shipping Pollution As International Shippers Push Back

  The CBO Congressional testimony on Cap & Trade got spun:

• 2009/10/15: C411: Washington Post's Headline Got the [CBO] Story Wrong
• 2009/10/15: WaPo: Cap-and-Trade Would Slow Economy, CBO Chief Says
• 2009/10/14: Grist: How CBO budget scoring devalues efficiency ... WITH PUPPIES!
• 2009/10/15: WSJ:EnvCap: Climate Costs: The CBO's Take on Cap-and-Trade -- and Carbon Taxes
• 2009/10/15: BBerg: Climate Legislation Would Cost U.S. Jobs, CBO's Elmendorf Says
• 2009/10/15: SF Gate: Climate change laws to bring major job shifts [says Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf]
  Although nationwide employment is likely to remain stable under congressional proposals to combat climate change, the initiatives would deal a heavy blow to those working for petroleum refiners and other industries tied to polluting fossil fuels, a government economist said Wednesday. Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change would "shift production, investment and employment away from industries involved in the production of carbon-based energy and energy-intensive goods and services." Instead, he said, capital and jobs would go "toward industries involved in the development and production of alternative energy sources," such as wind and solar power.
• 2009/10/14: Guardian(UK): Obama's climate change bill could hurt US economy, Senate told
  Testimony by congressional budget office director casts a shadow over Obama's efforts to sell his climate change agenda

The Chamber of Commerce PR disaster grinds on:

• 2009/10/16: NYT:CW: U.S. Chamber Executive Urges Members to Stay Put Amid 'Activist' Uprising
• 2009/10/16: WaPo: Defections Expose Chamber's Dirty Little Secrets
• 2009/10/16: TP:WR: Seventh Generation Founder: 'The US Chamber Of Commerce Doesn't Act In The Best Interest Of Business'
• 2009/10/15: EconPop: Elliot Spitzer Lays Out Game Plan to Get Rid of the Chamber of Commerce
• 2009/10/16: NRDC:SwitchBoard: San Francisco Chamber Pulls Out of US Chamber
• 2009/10/16: NRDC:SwitchBoard: The Chamber and Climate Change Debacle: Ignoring the First Rule of Holes
• 2009/10/15: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Shell: The US Chamber Does Not Speak for Us on Climate
• 2009/10/15: TPMM: Behind Chamber Controversy: What's Driving Energy Firms On Climate Change?
• 2009/10/15: ClimateP: The Biggest Loser: Incredible, shrinking Chamber of Commerce goes from 3 million members to just 300,000 in one day!
• 2009/10/15: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Minnesota Businesses: The US Chamber Doesn't Speak for Us
• 2009/10/15: NRDC:SwitchBoard: ACCCE: the American Chamber of Connected Coal Executives
• 2009/10/14 DeSmogBlog: The Incredible Shrinking U.S. Chamber of Commerce Faces Intense Pressure Over Extreme Climate Position
• 2009/10/14: TP: Chamber of Commerce goes from 3 million members to just 300,000 in one day.
• 2009/10/15: AlterNet: Not Your Father's Chamber of Commerce: National Organization Is Now a Tool of the Radical Right
• 2009/10/14: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Chamber Membership Falls by 2.7 Million Due to ... Scrutiny
• 2009/10/13: NRDC:SwitchBoard: The US Chamber's Continuing Climate Credibility Crisis
• 2009/10/13: TP: Chamber of Commerce inflates its membership numbers from 200,000 to 3 million
• 2009/10/13: HuffPo: Another Company May Leave Chamber of Commerce Over Extreme Position On Climate Change
• 2009/10/13: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Is the US Chamber Guilty of Member-Inflating?
• 2009/10/13: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Toyota Distances Itself From US Chamber Climate Stance
• 2009/10/12: NewYorker: Exit Through Lobby

  The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2009/10/16: ABC(US): Climate Concerns: Is President Obama's Plate Too Full? -- Between Health Care and Afghanistan, Could Climate Change Effort Take Back Seat?
• 2009/10/16: Guardian(UK): Obama isn't helping. At least the world argued with Bush
  For all the global love-in, the new president has led rich nations to neglect principled action and row back from climate deals
• 2009/10/16: TreeHugger: Obama Plans Climate Bill Push, Supports Nuclear and Drilling Compromises
• 2009/10/15: NYT:CW: Obama Pledges Climate Push After Health Care; Senate Timing in Flux
• 2009/10/12: WaPo: Obama Urged to Intensify Push for Climate Measure -- Backers Fear Administration Is Giving Issue Short Shrift

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2009/10/16: SolveClimate: EPA Takes First Step Toward Rare Veto of Mountaintop Mining Permit
• 2009/10/16: Guardian(UK): Seeding a safer world by Hillary Clinton [US pol admin]
  Food and security are inextricably linked: all our futures rely on a co-ordinated effort to revitalise the blighted global farming market
• 2009/10/16: NRDC:SwitchBoard: DOE and EPA Agree to Make a Brighter Energy Star
• 2009/10/15: NYT: U.S. [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] Rejects Nuclear Plant Over Design of Key Piece
• 2009/10/14: BBerg: U.S. 'Deeply Committed' to Solving Climate Change [says Energy Secretary Steven Chu]
• 2009/10/13: AutoBG: Report: Energy Secretary Chu: "I would put every cent into electric cars"
• 2009/10/12: AutoBG: U.S. feds spends $300 million on green vehicles, will save $40 million in fuel costs
• 2009/10/12: Reuters: Carbon capture coal tech must be ready by 2019: U.S.
  A technology to bury underground the greenhouse gas emissions produced from burning coal must be ready for global deployment by 2017-2019, U.S. energy secretary Steven Chu said on Monday. Coal is the world's single biggest source of carbon emissions, at 40 percent. Other sources included burning oil and natural gas, and deforestation and the production of cement. Chu was optimistic about the prospects for carbon capture and storage (CCS), even though no commercial-scale plant is being built yet anywhere. He said that the United States could have 10 demonstration plants online by 2016. Most analysts do not expect the technology to be widely available before 2020 at the earliest.
• 2009/10/08: Cryptome: Executive Order 13514--Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance

  The EPA is re-evaluating MTR; the Army Corps is holding hearings; the noise level is building :

• 2009/10/16: NRDC:SwitchBoard: EPA Denies Permit for Infamous WV Mountaintop Removal Mine
• 2009/10/16: NJN:Star-Ledger: Coal-fueled electric plant pits workers against environmentalists
• 2009/10/15: NRDC:SwitchBoard: EPA's Lisa Jackson Quizzed on Mountaintop Removal by Congress
• 2009/10/14: SolveClimate: Mountaintop Mining, Up Close and Personal
• 2009/10/14: Grist: Shoutin' Down the Army Corps Hearing on Mountaintop Removal -- Should the Department of Justice investigate Big Coal bedlam?
• 2009/10/14: NRDC:SwitchBoard: 'Scary Times' in Appalachia: Mountaintop Removal Hearings Pushing People to the Brink

  A suppressed Bush-era EPA greenhouse gas endangerment finding has been released:

• 2009/10/14: TreeHugger: Secret Report Revealed: Bush Admin Determined CO2 to be Public Threat in 2007
• 2009/10/14: SolveClimate: EPA Releases Bush Administration's Proposed Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding
• 2009/10/14: SF Gate: Obama EPA releases Bush-era global warming finding
• 2009/10/14: LA Times: Bush-era EPA document on climate change released
  The 2007 draft suppressed until now calls for regulation of greenhouse gases, citing global warming as a serious risk to the U.S.

As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2009/10/17: TreeHugger: Congress Approves DOE Funding for Three-Wheeled Vehicles
• 2009/10/16: AutoBG: Congress approves three-wheelers for DOE funds
• 2009/10/16: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Congress Gets in the Act on Coal Ash
• 2009/10/15: GadsdenTimes: Davis asks EPA to reveal risks, raise coal ash standards
  U.S. Rep. Artur Davis has asked the federal environmental agency to determine whether millions of tons of coal ash that is being buried in a Perry County landfill is bad for the health of residents.
• 2009/10/15: HillHeat: Senate Watch, Responses to Kerry-Graham: Brownback, Carper, Durbin, Gregg, Inhofe, Kerry, Levin, Murkowski, Sessions, Voinovich
• 2009/10/13: Grist: Boxer's committee will start Senate climate-bill hearings on Oct. 27
• 2009/10/13: ScienceInsider: Vote Likely on $172 Million Cut From NOAA Budget
• 2009/10/13: ClimateP: Lisa Murkowski (R-AK): "We must reduce greenhouse gas emissions... Congress ... must take the lead."
• 2009/10/12: JSOnline: [Rep. David] Obey (D-Wisc) measure could block new EPA ship pollution regulations
• 2009/10/13: OBMB: A Letter to Senator Lindsey Graham

  Kerry-Boxer aka CEJAPA defines a battleline:

• 2009/10/15: ClimateP: EPA analysis for Feingold appears doubly flawed: Climate bill allocations are not unfair to the Midwest
• 2009/10/15: NewScientist: US steel-makers temper climate deal hopes
• 2009/10/14: WBCSD: US climate bill will have modest economic impact: report
• 2009/10/13: BizGreen: US carbon price to hit $15 a ton under Boxer-Kerry
  New analysis suggests price of carbon in a US cap-and-trade scheme is unlikely to rise above the price floor proposed in the new climate bill
• 2009/10/13: Reuters: Senators say U.S. climate bill making progress
• 2009/10/12: Grist: Seven reasons for optimism about the Senate climate bill
• 2009/10/12: WSJ:EnvCap: Climate Roadmap: Kerry and Graham Chart a Compromise Course -- Of Sorts
• 2009/10/13: AutoBG: Who should get carbon credits, automakers or utilities?

  ACCE's PR intrument, Bonner & Associates, get to testify before a Congressional committee:

• 2009/10/15: Google:AP: The Influence Game: Forged letters went unreported
• 2009/10/13: TPMM: Congress To Hold Hearing On Bonner's Forged Letters
• 2009/10/14: TPMM: Bonner To Testify On Forged Letters
• 2009/10/13: DeSmogBlog: House Committee Hearing To Investigate Coal Lobby's Fraudulent Letters to Congress

  The Gore-apalooza is still bopping along:

• 2009/10/14: TSun: Gore brings his truth to T.O.

  While in the UK:

• 2009/10/16: Guardian(UK): More than 200 complaints at government's climate change TV ad
• 2009/10/16: Guardian(UK): North-east takes electric car lead
  The north-east is to become the UK's electric car capital, with plans to install up to 1,000 charging points around Newcastle and Gateshead over the next two years.
• 2009/10/14: Guardian(UK): [British] Environment Agency warns of climate change flood risk
• 2009/10/13: Guardian(UK): Carbon capture plans won't be derailed by Kingsnorth, insists Miliband
  Energy and climate change secretary says viable CCS technologies will be pursued with 'great urgency'
• 2009/10/13: Guardian(UK): Dr Rowan Williams says climate crisis a chance to become human again
• 2009/10/13: Guardian(UK): The ecocidal moment by Rowan Williams
  The climate and financial crises reveal an amnesia about the human calling. Heed Moses: choose life
• 2009/10/13: PlanetArk: UK Climate Body [CCC] Urges
  Britain must cut greenhouse gas emissions six times faster than at present and consider more aggressive intervention in energy markets if it is to meet its low carbon targets, the government's chief climate change adviser said on Monday. [...] The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) said annual emissions cuts must rise from an average of 0.5 percent between 2003-07 to 2-3 percent each year.
• 2009/10/12: TerraDaily: 'Urgent' probe into protest on roof of British parliament
• 2009/10/12: ABC(Au): Greenpeace protesters scale Westminster roof
• 2009/10/12: OilChange: Protestors and Advisors Tell UK Gov to Act on Climate
• 2009/10/12: BBC: UK 'needs step change' on climate
  The UK needs a "step change" in policies to reduce carbon emissions if it is to meet its own climate targets, government advisers have said. The Committee on Climate Change says emissions are falling at 0.5% per year, whereas 2-3% is needed to meet targets.
• 2009/10/11: BBC: Parliament protesters vow to stay
  At least 20 climate protesters will remain on the roof of Parliament overnight, Greenpeace has said. More than 50 had scaled Westminster Hall in the latest security breach there but about half have now come down assisted by police.
• 2009/10/12: Guardian(UK): Climate change: Vision of green Britain calls for swift carbon emissions policy
• 2009/10/12: Guardian(UK): Recession 'threatens UK effort to tackle global warming'
  Investment in green housing, power and transport at risk, says government committee -- Millions of new electric cars plus rescue of carbon trading schemes among proposed measures
• 2009/10/12: Guardian(UK): Climate change committee puts electric cars at the heart of new transport policy

  And in Europe:

• 2009/10/15: Reuters: Finland says aims to cut emissions 80 pct [from 1990 levels] by 2050
• 2009/10/16: EarthTimes: EU eyes 10-per-cent emissions cut for airlines, 20 per cent for ships [by 2020, base unstated]
• 2009/10/14: EurActiv: Commission asked to weaken planned CO2 cuts for vans
  France, Italy and Germany have asked the European Commission to either delay or soften a planned proposal to curb CO2 emissions from new vans, EU diplomats say.
• 2009/10/15: EurActiv: EU grapples with deforestation ahead of Copenhagen
  European countries are still undecided on how to handle the thorny issue of deforestation under a new international climate change agreement, with national interests coming into play as EU ministers gear up for a series of meetings next week.
• 2009/10/15: EarthTimes: Warning lights flash over EU plans [not] to cut van emissions
• 2009/10/15: EarthTimes: Plutonium surprise in France provokes security worries
  The surprise discovery of 22 kilos of plutonium during the dismantling of a nuclear technology plant in southern France has raised worries about atomic security, French media reported Thursday. The French Nuclear Security Authority (ASN) announced that the plutonium was found stored in glove lockers in a disused plant in the city of Cadareche.
• 2009/10/15: EarthTimes: German parties agree to extend nuclear-power era
• 2009/10/14: EurActiv: EU countries get cold feet on raising climate goals
  As international climate change negotiations drag on, EU countries are calling for a "rigorous assessment" of what other nations are prepared to do before scaling up their own commitments, EurActiv has learned.
• 2009/10/14: PlanetArk: EU's Big 3 Van Makers Put Brakes On CO2 Curbs
• 2009/10/13: Reuters: Norway plans record 2010 carbon capture spending
  Norway plans to raise investments in capturing and storing greenhouse gases in 2010 to a record of almost 3.5 billion crowns ($621 million) to help fight climate change, Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen said on Tuesday. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg once said Norway wanted to lead international efforts to develop carbon capture, likening it to the 1960s U.S.-Soviet race to the Moon.
• 2009/10/14: COP15: Reduced subsidies to renewable energy in Germany
• 2009/10/13: DerSpiegel: Recycling Atomic Waste -- Nuclear Materials Stored In Siberian Parking Lots
  A French documentary has revealed that radioactive materials from nuclear power plants are being being stored in containers in a Siberian parking lot. Meanwhile the largest power company in Europe, France's EDF, which sent the materials there, says it is not responsible.
• 2009/10/13: DerSpiegel: Experts Sound Warning -- German Nuclear Comeback Spells Bad News for Wind Power
• 2009/10/13: CBC: France calls for nuclear waste probe
• 2009/10/13: EurActiv: Brussels to propose mandatory EU energy savings goal
• 2009/10/12: NYT: Memo Calls for Reversing Law to Phase Out German Nuclear Plants
  Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives want to prolong the life of Germany's nuclear reactors by overturning a law aimed at phasing out atomic energy by the 2020s, according to a party working document. In a country in which the public is deeply opposed to nuclear power but obsessed with climate protection, Mrs. Merkel will have to persuade even her supporters that prolonging the life of the 17 power plants is necessary until there are sufficient alternative sources of clean energy to replace the plants once they are closed.
• 2009/10/12: EurActiv: EU promotes smart metering in fight against global warming
• 2009/10/12: COP15: Denmark's chief climate negotiator [Thomas Becker] resigns
• 2009/10/12: PlanetArk: EU Boosts Builders With Green Renovation Plan
  Fifteen million European buildings should have eco-friendly renovations over the next decade to cut energy use, with builders and architects re-educated to do the lucrative job, a draft EU report says. The European Union should also make mandatory its goal of cutting energy use by a fifth over the next decade, creating about 2 million new jobs, says a draft of the EU's "energy efficiency action plan" obtained by Reuters

Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2009/10/18: ABC(Au): Wong offers December vote on carbon laws
  The Federal Government says it is willing to extend Parliament into December to allow the Opposition more time to debate the emissions trading legislation.
• 2009/10/16: ABC(Au): More time has been given for administrators to try to sell [Solar Systems] a company that was planning a north-west Victorian solar plant
• 2009/10/16: ABC(Au): Ad hits back at ETS job loss claims
  A community lobby group has hit back at the Australian Coal Association's advertising campaign, which claims the emissions trading scheme (ETS) will cost jobs, with one of its own.
• 2009/10/16: ABC(Au): Independent Member for New England Tony Windsor says if there is to be an international agreement on climate change, it must be made clear now whether agriculture is in or out
• 2009/10/16: ABC(Au): Internal government documents show the Federal Government backed away from acting against illegal red gum logging along the Murray River in south-west New South Wales five months ago
• 2009/10/16: ABC(Au): A new climate change study warns of challenging times ahead for the Hunter Valley's multi-billion dollar wine industry
• 2009/10/15: ABC(Au): Solar schools scheme put on ice
  The Federal Government has suspended its solar schools program for the rest of this year. The scheme offers schools up to $50,000 to install solar power, rainwater tanks or other energy efficiency measures. The Government says demand has been very high and it has received enough claims to meet the program's full budget.
• 2009/10/15: ABC(Au): Energy services key to cutting emissions: Corbell
  The ACT Government is considering a plan to cut carbon emissions by changing the role of electricity providers. Environment Minister Simon Corbell says the legislation being investigated would force energy suppliers to reduce carbon emissions in households and businesses by providing customers with new services.
• 2009/10/15: ABC(Au): A push by Hunter Valley miners to force the Government to amend its proposed Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) has not been well received by Muswellbrook council
• 2009/10/16: ABC(Au): Ribbon cut at first Qld solar power station
  The state's first solar power station will be unveiled in a tiny town in western Queensland today. The multi-million dollar facility at Windorah is expected to provide up to 80 per cent of power for the community's 100 residents.
• 2009/10/14: ABC(Au): Farmers urge emissions rule change
  The New South Wales Farmers Association is pushing for a change to international rules on agricultural emissions, saying it is crucial for the industry's survival. The Federal Government says it will decide in 2013 whether agricultural emissions will be included in its proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.
• 2009/10/15: ABC(Au): Global climate deal 'still has wiggle room'
• 2009/10/14: PeakEnergy: A dirty habit: Brown coal addiction
• 2009/10/14: ABC(Au): Farmers urged to push for better climate change deal
  The Climate Institute says Victorian farmers should accept that agriculture will be covered by the Federal Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme and try to negotiate a better position for themselves.
• 2009/10/13: ABC(Au): People open to nuclear power: Carr
  Former New South Wales premier Bob Carr says there needs to be a clear-headed debate in Australia about nuclear power.
• 2009/10/13: JQuiggin: The right in LaLaRouche land
• 2009/10/12: ABC(Au): Businesses concerned by ETS plans: survey
  A new survey of businesses shows that almost half consider the Federal Government's proposed carbon pollution reduction scheme will have a negative impact on them. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry's (ACCI) latest survey of investor confidence shows that more than half of businesses are not motivated to invest in capital to reduce greenhouse gases.
• 2009/10/12: ABC(Au): Greens unveil emissions scheme amendments
  The Greens have unveiled their proposed changes to the Government's emissions trading scheme which, as expected, call for higher emissions reduction targets and less compensation to big polluters. The Greens have issued 22 amendments to the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS). They propose several major alterations to the scheme, including lifting the minimum emissions cut from 5 per cent to at least 25 per cent by 2020. Compensation for electricity generators is also "not justified" and all permits should be auctioned, with no free permits going to emissions-intensive trade-exposed industries. The Greens are also pushing for the $10 price cap on permits to be abolished and a limit of 20 per cent put on the amount of permits that can be bought from overseas. Overseas permits could only be bought from "least developed" countries which meet a "gold standard" requirement to ensure they are credible.

It looks like Malcolm Turnbull's ETS travail has come to a head:

• 2009/10/18: ABC(Au): Turnbull wins support for ETS amendments
  Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has secured the support of the Coalition party room to negotiate amendments to the Government's emissions trading scheme.
• 2009/10/18: ABC(Au): Turnbull faces colleagues in party room showdown
• 2009/10/12: ABC(Au): '$3b hole' in Turnbull's emissions scheme
  The Federal Government says it has found a $3 billion black hole in the Opposition's economic modelling on emissions trading. Treasury has analysed modelling from Frontier Economics which has formed the basis of the Coalition's ETS figures. Its conclusion will not help an Opposition Leader who is struggling to convince his backbench that he has a credible position on climate change.

So are Australians as fickle as Americans? or is this a bogus survey?

• 2009/10/13: ABC(Au): Climate change falling off policy radar
  A new poll shows that climate change is sliding down the pecking order of foreign policy issues most important to Australians.
• 2009/10/12: Reuters: Climate no longer top policy issue with Australians

  And South America:

• 2009/10/13: Reuters: Brazil eyes capping emissions at 2005 levels

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

• 2009/10/16: CanWest: Climate deal in Copenhagen unlikely: Canada
  Less than two months from key global climate-change talks, federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice says he has doubts that an agreement will be hammered out in Copenhagen.
• 2009/10/12: DeSmogBlog: Canada: Criminal NegliGENTS are us.

  Jim Prentice got himself into a 'Did So! Did Not!' tussle over the Bangkok G77 walkout:

• 2009/10/15: TStar: Prentice denies walkout report -- Says climate delegates left before Canada spoke
• 2009/10/13: Uranowski: South Africa and Other G77 Nations Walk Out On Jim Prentice
• 2009/10/13: BuckDog: 77 Nations Walk Out On Canada's Speech To Kyoto Conference
• 2009/10/13: TStar: Canada's Kyoto view triggers a walkout -- Developing nations at climate talks protest call to replace protocol
  The government's push to abandon much of the Kyoto Protocol prompted dozens of developing countries to walk out on Canada's address during recent climate talks in Thailand, The Canadian Press has learned. The mass walkout came after the Canadian delegation suggested replacing the Kyoto Protocol with an entirely new global-warming pact, according to one of the negotiators and notes taken by others at the meeting. A widening and bitter rift between rich and developing countries over climate change was laid bare last week when delegates from 180 nations met in Bangkok to shape a successor to Kyoto before its first phase expires in just over two years. The United Nations hopes to broker a draft deal in time for a meeting in Copenhagen this December.

The Tories have now announced major funding for two carbon capture projects:

• 2009/10/14: Yahoo:AFP: Canada announces second carbon capture project
• 2009/10/14: CBC: Feds, Alberta pledge $779M to carbon-capture project

  The Tories are plumbing a new low by lobbying the US-EPA to kill shipping pollution regulation:

• 2009/10/17: GAB: Planet killing idiots strike again! [EPA bunker fuel regs]
• 2009/10/17: MWatkins: Canada Torpedoes Great Lakes Pollution Effort
• 2009/10/17: G&M: Canada quietly asks EPA to weaken anti-pollution measures
  Embassy in Washington asks agency to alter plan that would force lake freighters to stop burning dirty bunker fuel The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed tough new measures to reduce the health toll from air pollution around the Great Lakes by forcing lake freighters to stop burning dirty bunker fuel. But the plan has an unusual opponent: The Canadian embassy in Washington has quietly asked the EPA to weaken the measures, arguing that they could harm trade.

As for the Liberals:

• 2009/10/14: CuriosityCat: Significant clean energy thrust by Liberal Party

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

• 2009/10/12: REA: Ontario FIT [feed-in tariff] Program Off to a Cautious Start

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2009/10/17: G&M: U.S. lobby group defends Alberta's oil sands
  As climate change fight heats up, American Petroleum Institute argues that benefits of development will flow to both sides of border
• 2009/10/16: TreeHugger: Quote of the Day: Marcel Coutu Buries Head In Oil Sands
• 2009/10/16: G&M: Allow higher oil sands emissions: CEO [of Canadian Oil Sands Trust, Marcel Coutu]
  Move would impose greater burden on others, but strict limits on producers would stifle the industry's growth, says head of Canadian Oil Sands Trust Alberta's oil sands producers should be allowed to significantly increase their greenhouse gas emissions, even if that means forcing other sectors to take on additional expensive obligations to meet Canada's climate change targets, an industry executive says.
• 2009/10/15: OilChange: Big Oil Front Group [CEA] Fights for Tar Sands
• 2009/10/11: CanWest: Battle over Alberta oilsands now being fought abroad -- Activists targeting investors in Europe, clients in U. S.

  As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

• 2009/10/17: CanWest: Eco-delinquents: the next social outcasts -- Most of us consider not being green a faux-pas
  Attitudes about the environment have shifted so profoundly that, in as few as five years, eco-delinquency will be akin to lighting up a cigarette in an elevator, says a leading Canadian expert on the issue. According to David Bell, professor emeritus and former dean of environmental studies at York University, the dovetailing of government legislation, public policy incentives and corporate leadership has created an atmosphere in which conservation is increasingly the norm. A new survey of some 1,500 people, in fact, reveals that seven in 10 Canadians now believe environmental irresponsibility is a social faux pas.
• 2009/10/15: CanWest: AECL sale could be 'death knell' for CANDU reactors
  The federal government is preparing to unveil recommendations on how to restructure Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, and several foreign and domestic players in the nuclear industry are positioning themselves to make a bid for AECL's assets. But industry insiders and experts say the sale of the Crown corporation's reactor business could spell the beginning of the end for AECL's storied CANDU technology, long considered the cornerstone of Canada's nuclear industry.
• 2009/10/13: CBC: Deal on Northwest Passage marine park close: Inuit group
  Canada is moving to firm up control over the disputed Northwest Passage by designating the waters of its eastern entrance a national marine conservation area. The federal and Nunavut governments as well as the regional land claim organization are close to signing a memorandum of understanding intended to make Lancaster Sound Canada's fourth such protected region.
• 2009/10/14: TStar: 'Alternative Nobel' prize bittersweet for David Suzuki -- Proud to be honoured, 'humiliated' by Canada's climate change stance
• 2009/10/13: ChronicleHerald: Creation of Arctic marine park a step closer

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

• 2009/10/15: WorldChanging: Stiglitz and Sen's Manifesto on Measuring Economic Performance and Social Progress
• 2009/10/16: WorldChanging: Tragedy of the Commons, R.I.P.
• 2009/10/12: Guardian(UK): Thinking beyond electric cars
  A new report on climate change argues we must change our behaviour, not rely on technology, to solve our carbon problems
• 2009/10/13: DVoice: Thomas Greco's The End of Money and the Future of Civilization
• 2009/10/12: OilDrum: One (or two) years on - they have learned nothing

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

• 2009/10/14: Yahoo:AP: Report: Unsafe abortions kill 70,000 annually
• 2009/07/: EarthIsland: The Vindication of a Public Scholar
  Forty Years After The Population Bomb Ignited Controversy, Paul Ehrlich Continues to Stir Debate
• 2009/10/12: Reuters: Rising US population makes 2050 climate cut harder

  Apocalypso anyone?

• 2009/10/16: CCurrents: Apocalypse Or Extinction?
• 2009/10/14: TP:WR: Entergy CEO Warns Of Humanity's Extinction If Climate Legislation Not Passed

  As for how the media handles the science:

• 2009/10/15: C411: Washington Post's Headline Got the [CBO] Story Wrong
• 2009/10/16: MTobis: In Defense of Revkin
• 2009/10/13: CCP: Of moles and whacking: "Mojib Latif predicted two decades of cooling" [Tenney here: NOT!]
  Or: Journalists should report what climate science actually "says", rather than what they mistakenly "believe" it to say - Part II

While activists search for effective communication techniques:

• 2009/10/16: GMU: Television Has Less Effect on Education about Climate Change than Other Forms of Media

  Here is something for your library:

• 2009/10/18: HotTopic: [Book Review] _Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming_ by James Hoggan
• 2009/10/15: TreeHugger: Author Margaret Atwood on The Year of the Flood [interview]
• 2009/10/14: DeSmogBlog: [Book] Reviews of _Climate Cover Up_ Starting to Roll In
• 2009/10/15: CC&G: [Book Plug] _Global Warming -- Understanding the Forecast_ by David Archer
• 2009/10/13: ClimateP: Lester Brown on his must-read new book "Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization"
• 2009/10/12: HotTopic: Plan B (not from outer space)
• 2009/10/12: JKB: Currently reading : Climate Cover Up

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2009/10/14: TreeHugger: 9 Best Eco Apocalyptic Science Fiction Films of All Time

  Among the non-members of Gamblers Anonymous:

• 2009/10/14: JEB: Sea Ice forecasts and outcome

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

• 2009/10/17: FuturePundit: Comparative Electric Energy Costs
• 2009/10/14: FuturePundit: Will Natural Gas Shale Plays Replace Dwindling Oil?
• 2009/10/17: PeakEnergy: The immediate answer is gas?
• 2009/10/15: TechRev: Natural Gas Changes the Energy Map
  Vast amounts of the clean-burning fossil fuel have been discovered in shale deposits, setting off a gas rush. But how it will affect our energy use is still uncertain.
• 2009/10/15: EnvEcon: Can alternative energy effectively replace fossil fuels?
• 2009/10/16: EnergyBulletin: Commentary: Response to "Energy Crisis is postponed as new gas rescues the world"
• 2009/10/16: EurActiv: Fossil fuel production soars despite recession
  Fossil fuel producers are dodging the global downturn as production of oil, coal and natural gas reached record levels last year, the Worldwatch Institute said yesterday (15 October). The Washington-based research organisation showed that world fossil fuel production increased by 2.9% in 2008, reaching the highest level ever recorded, 27.4 million tons of oil equivalent (Mtoe) per day. Most of this growth was in the Asia Pacific region, which has been leading for the past decade.
• 2009/10/15: TreeHugger: Germany: Unveiling Our Energy Future Before Our Eyes And Putting the Power Back In Our Hands
• 2009/10/16: EarthTimes: [Spanish-Argentine oil giant] Repsol discovers Venezuelas largest gas deposit
• 2009/10/16: PeakEnergy: Germany: Unveiling Our Energy Future Before Our Eyes And Putting the Power Back In Our Hands
• 2009/10/16: SolveClimate: Fuel-Thirsty U.S. Navy Pledges 50% Cut in Oil Use by 2020, and More
• 2009/10/15: ClimateP: New report finds 31 states have the renewable resources to be "energy self-reliant"
• 2009/10/13: CNN: 'Imagineer' touts geothermal energy invention
  Resort owner makes electricity with water the temperature of a cup of coffee - Alaskan entrepreneur goes from diesel to geothermal, saving $625K in 3 years - He invented portable geothermal generator that he says can power 250 homes - MIT: Most of U.S. can be transformed into a huge geothermal power zone
• 2009/10/14: OilDrum: Shale Gas Estimates Perhaps Optimistic - An Interesting and Worrying Talk at ASPO
• 2009/10/14: PeakEnergy: Coal seam gas: And Industry whose time has come?
• 2009/10/14: OilChange: Oil Demand from Developed Countries Peaked in 2005
• 2009/10/14: DerSpiegel: Hive Electricity -- The Coming Energy Revolution
  Electric cars, intelligent washing machines, mini power plants in your basement: Germany is on the verge of an energy revolution. SPIEGEL ONLINE looks at the latest developments in the smart grid and how it will change the relationship between consumers and energy suppliers.
• 2009/10/14: BBC: Oil reaches 2009 high above $75
• 2009/10/13: OilDrum: Half a trillion barrels more than we thought? (Or, "The Tupi Field, the Pre-salt, and the Very Distant Future")
• 2009/10/11: Grist: The violent twilight of oil and a strategy to expose it

  The answer my friend...:

• 2009/10/16: TreeHugger: US Wind Industry Follows "Starbucks Rule" For Turbine Siting
• 2009/10/15: SolveClimate: America's Offshore Wind Race is On: Can the US Compete with Canada?
• 2009/10/13: CCP: Idaho National Laboratory Center for Advanced Energy Studies tests new wind energy system

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2009/10/16: CNN: Germany nabs second Solar Decathlon win
  20 universities built solar-powered homes on National Mall - Team Illinois takes second; Team California places third - German team worried that their house lacked "curb appeal" - But their submission put large amounts of power back into grid
• 2009/10/16: PhysOrg: More efficient solar power with space technology [weather satellite data used to estimate the potential of solar cell power plants]
• 2009/10/16: PlanetArk: U.S. Army To Build 500 MW Solar Power Plant [at Fort Irwin in California]
• 2009/10/14: Reuters: Will solar speed up emerging cell phone revolution?
• 2009/10/15: WSJ:EnvCap: Solar City: Austin Sees Huge Potential for Solar Power, Thanks to Satellites [pictures of rooftop space]
• 2009/10/14: SolveClimate: Solar Power: Finally, Coming to South Africa
• 2009/10/14: HeraldTrib: Solar plant set to open, even as shadows loom
• 2009/10/13: PlanetArk: California Heats Up Incentives For Solar Power [Feed-in tariffs after net-metering]
• 2009/10/13: PlanetArk: Solar Thermal Company eSolar Expands In Africa
• 2009/10/13: Grist: Why solar won't topple in Germany
• 2009/10/13: DM:CCM: So Let's Talk About Energy (By Which I Mean, Solar)
• 2009/10/13: DM:80B: The Best and the Brightest: Great Solar-Powered Houses [Solar Deacathlon]
• 2009/10/11: Mercury: Solar users to feel surge in wallet
  Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed two solar energy bills that will make it possible for consumers and businesses to actually make money if they generate surplus electricity.
• 2009/10/12: CNBC: New Jersey Outshines Most Others in Solar Energy
• 2009/10/12: PlanetArk: New German Government Won't Slash Solar Power Rates: Source
  Germany's conservatives and their Free Democrat allies will reform the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) but cuts for solar power rates will be modest to prevent harming the fast-growing industry, a coalition source said on Sunday. "We're not going to take an axe to the EEG and we obviously won't agree to any changes that would damage such an important sector," a source told Reuters. "Any cut in feed-in tariffs will be modest -- not anywhere near as high (as) some are suggesting."
• 2009/10/11: Grist: The Spanish solar collapse

  The arithmetic of coal carbon is striking home:

• 2009/10/15: JQuiggin: Buying out brown coal
• 2009/10/14: SMH: Britain rebuffed on carbon capture commitment
  Australia has turned down an approach by the British Government to pledge not to build any coal-fired power plants without ''significant'' carbon capture and storage technology built in. [...] It is understood that the US and Canada have also rejected the coal power plant principle.

Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2009/10/16: UNEP: Biofuels - New Report Brings Greater Clarity to Burning Issue
  New International Panel Launches Wide-Ranging Assessment on Environmental Pros and Cons of Crop-Based Fuels
• 2009/10/17: PhysOrg: Climate concerns turn city's smell into cash cow [manure to methane in Greeley Colo.]
• 2009/10/16: AutoBG: Coskata's new Lighthouse cellulosic ethanol plant, in depth
• 2009/10/16: Reuters: U.N. calls for more sophisticated biofuels debate
• 2009/10/13: DM:SRK: Okay, Let's Talk About Energy: Biofuels

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2009/10/15: DerSpiegel: Nuclear Renaissance Stalls -- Problems Plague Launch of 'Safer' Next-Generation Reactors
  The executives of electric utilities worldwide are dreaming of a renaissance in nuclear power. But problems with a new, state-of-the-art reactor in Finland suggest that this is unlikely to happen. The industry's alternative strategy is to modernize older plants to drastically extend reactor lifetimes.
• 2009/10/16: EarthTimes: Russian environmentalists criticise uranium storage in Siberia
• 2009/10/16: WSJ:EnvCap: Nuclear Blues: Regulatory Hurdles for Westinghouse's New Reactor
• 2009/10/16: BNC: The Integral Fast Reactor -- Summary for Policy Makers
• 2009/10/15: PeakEnergy: Nuclear Nonsense: Amory Lovins On Stewart Brand
• 2009/10/13: Grist: Stewart Brand's nuclear fever falls short on facts and logic [by Amory Lovins]
• 2009/10/13: DerSpiegel: Recycling Atomic Waste -- Nuclear Materials Stored In Siberian Parking Lots
  A French documentary has revealed that radioactive materials from nuclear power plants are being being stored in containers in a Siberian parking lot. Meanwhile the largest power company in Europe, France's EDF, which sent the materials there, says it is not responsible.
• 2009/10/13: DerSpiegel: Experts Sound Warning -- German Nuclear Comeback Spells Bad News for Wind Power
• 2009/10/13: NatureN: Fusion delays sow concern -- Construction on ITER won't begin until 2010.

  Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

• 2009/10/14: CJR: An (Oil) Peak Too High -- Energy crisis too big, too complex for media to handle on its own, experts say
• 2009/10/11: EconBrowser: Working harder and harder to keep oil production from falling

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2009/10/15: TreeHugger: "Tres Amigas" Superstation Could Connect the 3 US Electrical Grids [with superconductors]
• 2009/10/13: SlashDot: High-Temp Superconductors To Connect Power Grids
• 2009/10/13: Grist: A rollicking tour of America's energy landscape A Grist Special Series -- Our old electric grid is no match for our new green energy plans

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2009/10/16: NRDC:SwitchBoard: DOE and EPA Agree to Make a Brighter Energy Star
• 2009/10/15: PlanetArk: Cane Ethanol Helps Cut Greenhouse Emissions: Study
• 2009/10/13: TreeHugger: Nation's First TV Energy Efficiency Standards Will Cut CO2 By 3.5 Million Tons

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

• 2009/10/13: FuturePundit: Redox Flow Batteries To Enabel Fast Liquid Refill
• 2009/10/16: AutoBG: Redox flow batteries promise near-instant recharging times
• 2009/10/14: AutoBG: Report: Tata increases Nano production to keep up with strong demand
• 2009/10/13: AutoBG: Last pre-production Volt comes off the assembly line
• 2009/10/11: BBC: Turbochargers, best known for making cars go faster, are taking a lead in the race to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, according to motor industry officials
• 2009/10/14: CBC: [Canadian] August new car sales slip [0.3% to 126,401]
• 2009/10/13: AutoBG: Greenlings: What is CAFE?

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

• 2009/10/15: OilDrum: Clunker Flunker? In Hindsight, Perhaps Not

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

• 2009/10/16: PlanetArk: GE Eyes $6 Billion In Renewable Investment By 2010
• 2009/10/15: Reuters: CEOs no longer refute climate change
  U.S. chief executives no longer reject claims of human-caused climate change, putting to rest a dispute that has raged in boardrooms for decades, said the head of PG&E on Thursday. Members of the Business Council, a group of executives from the top 120 U.S. companies, have altered their beliefs about climate change significantly, said PG&E Chief Executive Officer Peter Darbee in an interview. Darbee was attending the Business Council's October gathering in Cary, North Carolina. "No one among the group was arguing the science of climate change," said Darbee. "That debate, at least in that forum, appears to be over. The discussion was really about, 'climate change is happening, it is a challenge of vast proportions and it will require an effort on the part of mankind to respond to this challenge.'"
• 2009/10/15: PlanetArk: GE Takes New Stakes In Clean Technology Start-Ups
• 2009/10/13: NatureTGB: Soros commits $1bn to clean-tech
• 2009/10/12: Guardian(UK): George Soros pledges $1bn to search for clean energy

  Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:

• 2009/10/14: Reuters: Quiet Atlantic hurricane season a boon for insurers

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

• 2009/10/16: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for October 16...
• 2009/10/15: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for October 15...
• 2009/10/14: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for October 14...
• 2009/10/13: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for October 13...

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2009/10/17: G&M: U.S. lobby group defends Alberta's oil sands
  As climate change fight heats up, American Petroleum Institute argues that benefits of development will flow to both sides of border
• 2009/10/17: Examiner: Copenhagen, it's not about climate change
• 2009/10/16: Salon:HTWW: It's official: The media no longer believes in global warming
• 2009/10/16: DM:CCM: Lies 2.0
• 2009/10/16: DeSmogBlog: If it's Not Evil, Fraser Institute should open its books
• 2009/10/15: ClimateP: Santer, Jones, and Schneider respond to CEI's phony attack on the temperature record
• 2009/10/15: OilChange: Big Oil Front Group [CEA] Fights for Tar Sands
• 2009/10/15: HotTopic: Is Garth George capable of original thought?
• 2009/10/15: BuckDog: The Opening Arctic Seaway Provides A Crack In The 'Climate Change Denial' Argument
• 2009/10/14: CSW: Stephen Schneider comments on the CEI and Pat Michaels petition on the global warming data record
• 2009/10/14: HotTopic: Fomenting unhappy mischief...
• 2009/10/13: Guardian(UK): Climate change sceptics seize on BBC after lines blur between news and views
• 2009/10/13: ClimateP: The BBC asks "What happened to global warming?" during the hottest decade in recorded history!
• 2009/10/13: CSW: Phil Jones and Ben Santer respond to CEI and Pat Michaels attack on temperature data record
• 2009/10/13: ERabett: Auditing the auditor, or Dr. Once-ler tree hater
• 2009/10/12: NatureTGB: Climate sceptics celebrate BBC story
• 2009/10/12: ClimateP: Memo to deniers, delayers, and disinformers: When I propose a sucker bet, the only conclusion you can draw is that I'm looking for suckers
• 2009/10/11: ClimateP: As the planet hits record high temperatures, a falsehood-pushing film-maker tries to shout down real journalists from asking Al Gore questions
• 2009/10/12: ClimateShifts: George Will: wrong about climate change

  Meanwhile in the 'clean coal' saga:

• 2009/10/15: SolveClimate: TVA's Coal Ash Dumping Plan Sparks Health Concerns
• 2009/10/14: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Coal-Fired Power Plants Shifting Pollution from Air to Water
• 2009/10/14: PeakEnergy: A dirty habit: Brown coal addiction
• 2009/10/13: TreeHugger: US Coal Plants Dump Thousands of Gallons of Waste Into Drinking Water Supplies a Day
• 2009/10/13: NYT: Cleansing the Air at the Expense of Waterways
  For years, residents here complained about the yellow smoke pouring from the tall chimneys of the nearby coal-fired power plant, which left a film on their cars and pebbles of coal waste in their yards. Five states -- including New York and New Jersey -- sued the plant's owner, Allegheny Energy, claiming the air pollution was causing respiratory diseases and acid rain. So three years ago, when Allegheny Energy decided to install scrubbers to clean the plant's air emissions, environmentalists were overjoyed. The technology would spray water and chemicals through the plant's chimneys, trapping more than 150,000 tons of pollutants each year before they escaped into the sky. But the cleaner air has come at a cost. Each day since the equipment was switched on in June, the company has dumped tens of thousands of gallons of wastewater containing chemicals from the scrubbing process into the Monongahela River, which provides drinking water to 350,000 people and flows into Pittsburgh, 40 miles to the north.
• 2009/10/12: ClimateP: Byrd rips Massey Energy for refusing to fund a new school so students can move away from coal processing plant

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2009/10/16: AFTIC: Consensus, what is it good for?
• 2009/10/17: MTobis: Hockey Sticks and False Dichotomies
• 2009/10/17: AlterNet: Politicians Have Failed in Efforts to Stave Off Climate Change, Now It's Up to Us [McKibben]
• 2009/10/17: Guardian(UK): The environment in the decade of climate change
• 2009/10/17: Guardian(UK): Q&A: Wangari Maathai
• 2009/10/15: GreenGrok: 1950s Vs. 2000s: The Drive to Supersize
• 2009/10/15: Grist: The genesis of the climate change stalemate
• 2009/10/14: Grist: Dispassion as the world ends: The absent heart of the great climate affair
• 2009/10/15: Maribo: Living in "the age of stupid"
• 2009/10/13: Guardian(UK): Earth Alert: A Photographic Response To Climate Change (24 pictures)
• 2009/10/14: BNC: Life and death on Earth ... the Cronus hypothesis
• 2009/10/13: CCurrents: Resources And Anthropocentrism
• 2009/10/13: CCurrents: Climate Change, Poverty And 'Natural' Disasters
• 2009/10/13: NatureCF: The greedy side of green consumers
• 2009/10/13: SolveClimate: Day of Climate Action: 2,250 Events, 152 Countries
• 2009/10/12: ClimateSight: Credibility in a Bewildered World
• 2009/10/13: JKB: It's getting hot in here?
• 2009/10/10: Time: Off the Interstate: Turning 'Blue Highways' Green
  Kim Gallagher has a plan for America's "blue highways," the thousands of miles of dusty, old, single-lane heritage routes that wend desolately through the countryside: turn them green. Superseded by high-speed interstates, many of these narrow byways have been long forgotten, along with the faded small towns they connect, says Gallagher, a project manager for the Southwest Michigan Planning Commission. But off-the-beaten-path America could be revived, she says, by transforming little-used roadways into "green highways" that cater specifically to electric-vehicle drivers and other slow-moving, eco-minded tourists traveling by bicycle or on foot.
• 2009/10/12: ClimateShifts: The truth about climate change
• 2009/10/11: CSW: In "Day Six" campaign, people of faith advocate stepped up adaptation assistance
• 2009/10/12: PeakEnergy: Worldchanging Interviews Paul Hawken
• 2009/10/12: QuarkSoup: Climate Hype vs Climate Reality

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

• ProCon: Can alternative energy effectively replace fossil fuels?
• CC&G: Climate Charts & Graphs
• DoC: Degrees of Change
• CSLF: Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum
• Wiki: Global Hunger Index
• BGSD: Biogeosciences - Papers in Open Discussion
• BGS: Biogeosciences
• UBHeidelberg: The Schauinsland CO2 record: 30 years of continental observations and their implications for the variability of the European CO2 budget by Martina Schmidt et al.
• Diversitas - An International Programme of Biodiversity Science
• Diversitas Conference
• MongaBay
• T&E: European Federation for Transport and Environment
• WMO:GAW: Global Atmosphere Watch
• IGHIH: It's Getting Hot In Here
• GCP: Global Carbon Project

My first novel Water was published in Canada May, 2007. The American release was in October. An Introductionto the novel is available, along with the Unpublished Forewordand the Launch Talk. An overview of my writing is available here.

P.S. Recent postings can be found in the week archive and the ancient postings can be accessed here, which should open to this.

"We do not inherit this land from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." -First Nations' saying

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