Another week of GW News, March 21, 2010

Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years

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Another week of Climate Instability News

Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years

March 21, 2010

• Equinox, COP15, COP16, PWCoCC & MER, Bonn, MEF, State of the Climate, Samanta, Earth Hour
• World Bank, Outsourcing CO2, Mean Green, IPCC Failures, IPCC Support, Wrong Green, CRU
• Melting Arctic, ASTI, CITES, Geopolitics, Antarctica
• Food Crisis, Food Production
• Hurricanes, GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures, Aerosols, Ozone, Paleoclimate
• ENSO, Solar, Climate Sensitivity, Tipping Points, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Desertification, Wacky Weather, Corals, Acidification, Glaciers, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, LEED & Forestry, Sequestration, Geoengineering
• Journals, Other Docs , Misc. Science, DIY Science, Science & PR, Michaelson, Mclean, Curry & Mann, Pielke
• Kyoto, UN, Ban & Gro, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
• International Politics: Misc., Law & Activism, Activism, Religioso, Polls, Water Politics & Biz
• National Politics: America, Carbon Funds, USAdmin, Anti-Endangerment, Pro-Endangerment
• CCATF, SEC, Acidification, Congress, Climate Bill, Lobbyists
• Britain, Europe, Australia, India, China, Japan, Asia, Russia, Africa, South America
• Canada, Scientists Muzzled , Abortion, CITES, MVP, BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Maritimes
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Courts
• Energy, Fracking, Wind, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Energy Storage
• Business, Insurance, Greenwashing, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

Happy Equinox:

• 2010/03/21: APOD: Equinox + 1
• USNO: Equinoxes, Solstices, Perihelion, and Aphelion, 2000-2020
• 2010/03/20: CSM: Old tradition for Spring equinox 2010: burning socks?

  More COP15 blame shifting:

• 2010/03/19: Reuters: Factbox - About 110 nations back Copenhagen climate deal [list of national plans]
• 2010/03/17: TreeHugger: Lord Stern Says Rich Nations' Arrogance Did In COP15
• 2010/03/16: BBC: 'Arrogance' undid climate talks
  The "disappointing" outcome of December's climate summit was largely down to "arrogance" on the part of rich countries, according to Lord Stern. The economist told BBC News that the US and EU nations had not understood well enough the concerns of poorer nations. But, he said, the summit had led to a number of countries outlining what they were prepared to do to curb emissions.
• 2010/03/16: BBC: It's still real and it's still a problem
  Climate-related controversies and the outcome of the Copenhagen summit widely regarded as a failure have left a sense of hopelessness in climate policy, says Lord Chris Smith. In this week's Green Room, he stresses the soundness of the fundamental climate science and the need to continue pushing for meaningful climate deals.
• 2010/03/15: PlanetArk: China's Wen Says Not To Blame For Copenhagen Problems
• 2010/03/15: ChinaDaily: Wen battles claims of 'arrogance'
• 2010/03/14: Guardian(UK): Chinese PM [Wen Jiabao] rebuts criticism over Copenhagen role
  Wen Jiabao warns US on currency and defends China's place on world stage, saying his conscience is clear on climate deal

Looking ahead to COP16 and future international climate negotiations:

• 2010/03/20: Yahoo:AFP: Top climate officials [Pachauri & de Boer] urge progress at Mexico summit
• 2010/03/18: ZeeNews: Kyoto protocol's substitute unlikely by Mexico conference
  Moscow: A new legally binding document that would replace the Kyoto Protocol is unlikely to be ready by the next UN conference on climate change in Mexico, Russia's presidential envoy on climate-related matters said. "The time frame set in Copenhagen UN conference on climate in 2009 will not let a new legally binding agreement to be achieved by the meeting in Mexico," Alexander Bedritsky, said following a meeting of Russia's Security Council Wednesday.
• 2010/03/18: BBerg: Cancun Climate Talks Get Dim Prognosis for Success
• 2010/03/18: BBerg: Cancun Climate Talks Get Dim Prognosis for Success
  Government negotiators are already writing off chances for a global treaty to fight climate change, nine months before the annual talks begin in Cancun, Mexico. Kunihiko Shimada, principal international negotiator at the Japanese Ministry of the Environment, said a deal this year is "almost impossible." Jos Delbeke, who spearheads European Union climate policy at the European Commission, ruled out a "comprehensive legal agreement" in 2010. Their remarks call into question whether efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emissions are progressing after failing in Copenhagen in December. President Barack Obama's energy proposal is bogged down in the U.S. Congress. Without a U.S. commitment, China and India, two of the fastest-growing polluters, may be reluctant to limit greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
• 2010/03/17: SRI: [Swedish environment minister, Andreas] Carlgren: Mexico Climate Talks Will Fail
• 2010/03/17: TerraDaily: Maldives president calls for reframing climate debate
  The climate change debate should be reframed in economic and security terms ahead of a year-end UN summit in Mexico seeking a binding climate deal, the president of the Maldives said Wednesday. A price tag needs to be put on "the extent to which we destroy the atmosphere, the extent to which we pollute the atmosphere," President Mohamed Nasheed said at a climate change seminar in Helsinki. Climate change was not about "hugging trees", he said, insisting that beyond the environmental aspects it was central to future security policies, sustainable economics and human rights. "If we can have a discourse on the feasibility of renewable energy ... I think that would make such a substantial impact on the policy," he said, adding that switching to non-fossil-fuel-based energy sources like wind and solar power made "good economic sense".
• 2010/03/16: EurActiv: Mexico outlines road to Cancún climate conference
  Mexico, the host of the next high-level UN climate conference on climate change, is working to draw up objectives for the Cancún talks, which will continue the search for a new international climate agreement at the end of the year.
• 2010/03/16: EUO: Mexico tells EU to unblock climate funding
• 2010/03/15: EarthTimes: Mexico urges rich states to deliver on climate aid pledges

  The Peoples' World Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth's Rights is coming up in Bolivia:

• 2010/03/18: Xinhuanet: Bolivian world conference representative to propose int'l referendum on global warming
  The Bolivian representative of the Peoples' World Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth's Rights will propose a world referendum that could gather 2 billion people to stop global warming.
• 2010/03/19: Guardian(UK): Bolivia creates a new opportunity for climate talks that failed at Copenhagen
• 2010/03/17: Yahoo:AFP: Bolivia summit to seek global climate change referendum
• 2010/03/17: Grist: Bolivia summit to seek global climate change referendum -- the People's World Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth Rights on April 20-22
• 2010/03/16: Google:AFP: Bolivia summit to seek global climate change referendum

  There is a conference in Bonn too:

• 2010/03/18: EarthTimes: Germany to host international climate conference in May
  [...] Environment ministers from 45 states will be invited to Bonn for informal trust-building talks, to improve the chances of reaching a climate deal, Roettgen said. He stressed that the aim was not to reach any resolutions.[...] Chancellor Angela Merkel is to speak at the opening of the so-called Petersberg Climate Dialogue, on May 2-4, which is to be jointly led by Mexico and Germany.

And the US is convening the Major Emitters again:

• 2010/03/17: IndiaTimes: US calls 17-country green meet in April
  Even though the US climate bill is in doldrums, the Obama administration is going to organise the 17-country Major Economies Forum meeting in April to spur debate with the key players, such as India and China. The MEF is the new avtar created by the Obama administration by morphing the Major Economies Meeting that the Bush administration had earlier backed. While the Bush administration had steadfastly refused to engage in an international deal, the MEF meet is now seen as a US attempt to push other countries towards a deal more amenable to its interests.

The Australian State of the Climate report was released by CSIRO and BOM this week:

• 2010/03/15: CSIRO: [link to 971k pdf] State of the Climate
• 2010/03/19: PeakEnergy: Australian Climate heating up -- ''State of the Climate''
• 2010/03/17: HotTopic: New Aussie state of the climate snapshot: NZ needs one too
• 2010/03/15: PhysOrg: Australia 0.7 degrees warmer over past 50 years: scientists ["State of The Climate" report]
• 2010/03/14: ClimateShifts: State of the Climate (Part 1): CSIRO and BOM release key climate document for Australia
• 2010/03/14: ClimateShifts: State of the climate (Part 2): CSIRO and BOM accuse climate change sceptics of 'smokescreen of denial'
• 2010/03/15: Reuters: Climate report shows Australia getting warmer
  Australia's top scientists on Monday released a "State of the Climate" report at a time of growing scepticism over climate change as a result of revelations of errors in some global scientific reports.
• 2010/03/15: TreeHugger: Australia's Top Scientists Conclude Global Warming Still Happening

  The Samanta controversy caught fire this week:

• 2010/03/05: GRL: (ab$) Amazon forests did not green-up during the 2005 drought by Arindam Samanta et al.
• 2007/10/26: Science: (ab$) Amazon Forests Green-Up During 2005 Drought by Scott R. Saleska et al.
• 2010/03/18: WHRC: [105k pdf] Scientists speak: Amazon "myths" are not debunked.
• 2010/03/20: RealClimate: Saleska Responds (green is green)
• 2010/03/15: RealClimate: Up is Down, Brown is Green (with apologies to Orwell)
• 2010/03/20: ERabett: Pass the Brazilian popcorn
• 2010/03/21: Deltoid: Samantagate
• 2010/03/19: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Amazon Rainforest Still Very Susceptible to Dieback Due to Climate Change
• 2010/03/19: MTobis: No Amazon Rainforest "Myths" Have Been Debunked
• 2010/03/19: ERabett: Mad as Hell...nineteen scientists who know their way around the Amazon...
• 2010/03/19: MongaBay: Scientists: new study does not disprove climate change threat to Amazon
• 2010/03/19: ClimateP: Scientists: "There are multiple, consistent lines of evidence from ground-based studies published in the peer-reviewed literature that Amazon forests are, indeed, very susceptible to drought stress."
• 2010/03/16: MTobis: Bewitched -- More on Samanta et al.
• 2010/03/15: MTobis: Loose Cannon in the Press Office?
• 2010/03/15: MongaBay: Amazon confusion: new research shows forest is resilient to drought, but is this the whole picture?
• 2010/03/15: DeSmogBlog: It Takes More than Dead Trees to Make a Credible Newspaper

  Earth Hour is coming up:

• 2010/03/19: TreeHugger: 8 Days To Earth Hour: 101 Things To Do
• 2010/03/18: TreeHugger: Earth Hour Countdown: Does It Make A Difference?

  The World Bank & Eskom:

• 2010/03/15: NewInt:TWMB: The dirty price of a quick fix
  The World Bank is yet again on the brink of providing a loan that will have only negative effects for the poor and the environment. South Africa faces a power crisis at the moment and it is looking to the parastatal Eskom, which in turn is looking to the ever-willing World Bank to provide a US$4 billion loan. This loan is primarily intended to finance the world's fourth biggest carbon-emitting power plant and fund similar projects that will supposedly address the issue of power in South Africa. At the end of the month we will know whether or not the World Bank will go ahead with the contract...

Late comment on the issue of outsourcing emissions:

• 2010/03/16: GreenGrok: Turning Global CO2 Emissions Upside Down

  Here's one the deniers will love:

• 2010/03/19: AutoBG: If you're green, are you more likely to be mean? A new study suggests you are...
• 2010/03/16: CBC: Buying green permits being mean: study
  Kermit the Frog may have got it only half right when he said "it ain't easy being green." A new study suggests that when you're green, it ain't easy being nice, either. The study, conducted by two University of Toronto professors, found that consumers who bought environmentally friendly products were less likely to be altruistic and more likely to cheat and steal.

Another slant on the IPCC:

• 2010/03/18: Cornell: World policymakers have underestimated climate change impacts, says Cornell expert
• 2010/03/20: TCoE: IPCC got it tragically wrong

  Support for the IPCC:

• 2010/03/18: Economist: The clouds of unknowing -- There are lots of uncertainties in climate science. But that does not mean it is fundamentally wrong
• 2010/03/16: PlanetArk: EU Backs U.N. Climate Report Despite Skepticism
• 2010/03/15: Guardian(UK): IPCC under fire in blogosphere for 'sealevelgate'
• 2010/03/15: TCoE: Scientists' IPCC Open Letter
• 2010/03/15: ClimateP: Open letter to U.S. government from over 250 U.S. scientists on climate change and the IPCC reports
• 2010/03/15: ABC(Au): Weather bureau backs climate change verdict
  Two of the nation's top research bodies - the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO - have come out strongly in defence of the science behind global warming.
• 2010/03/15: ABC(Au): CSIRO chief defends climate science
  The head of Australia's peak science body has spoken out in defence of climate scientists, saying the link between human activity and climate change is beyond doubt. The head of the CSIRO, Dr Megan Clark, says the evidence of global warming is unquestionable, and in Australia it is backed by years of robust research. Dr Clark says climate records are being broken every decade and all parts of the nation are warming. "We are seeing significant evidence of a changing climate," she said.

The Wrong Green redux:

• 2010/03/11: AlterNet: The Real Climategate: Why Are Some Environmental Groups Pushing Policies That Will Make Global Warming Worse?

  The CRU email theft, CRU Inquiry and IOP debacle, stirred lightly:

• 2010/03/21: Deltoid: IOPgate: What did Monckton know and when did he know it?
• 2010/03/20: BCLSB: Climate Scientists Suffer More Email Thefts
• 2010/03/19: BCLSB: More On the Adventures Of The IOP
• 2010/03/18: DeepClimate: IOP Energy Group founder is featured speaker at upcoming Heartland conference
• 2010/03/18: CCP: UK's Institute of Physics may have submitted biased evidence to the UK parliamentary inquiry on climate change -- Concerns raised over Institute of Physics climate submission
• 2010/03/17: AFTIC: FOI requests rattle UK animal research community
• 2010/03/15: MoD: We're not going to take it anymore!
• 2010/03/15: BCLSB: John Quiggan Lays The Blame
• 2010/03/14: TPL: McIntyre's Inquiry Claims - Withholding of Data

  The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:

• 2010/03/18: PhysOrg: NASA IceBridge Mission Prepares for Study of Arctic Glaciers
  NASA's Operation IceBridge mission, the largest airborne survey ever flown of Earth's polar ice, kicks off its second year of study when NASA aircraft arrive in Greenland March 22.
• 2010/03/15: PhysOrg: British team trek to measure CO2 in Arctic Ocean

  The Arctic species biodiversity report report is fodder for spinning headlines:

• ASTI: Arctic Species Trend Index
• 2010/03/17: Eureka: High Arctic species on thin ice
  A new assessment of the Arctic's biodiversity reports a 26 per cent decline in species populations in the high Arctic. Populations of lemmings, caribou and red knot are some of the species that have experienced declines over the past 34 years, according to the first report from The Arctic Species Trend Index (ASTI), which provides crucial information on how the Arctic's ecosystems and wildlife are responding to environmental change.
• 2010/03/20: NewScientist: Boom time for Arctic animals
• 2010/03/18: MongaBay: High Arctic species plummeting across the board, others Arctic residents on the rise
• 2010/03/18: CBC: Number of High Arctic animals declining
  Animals in the Arctic have increased in number over the last 40 years, but populations closest to the North Pole are shrinking, a new international study says. The report, commissioned by the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP) and funded by the government of Canada, found that overall, the number of mammals, birds and fish in the Arctic has increased by 16 per cent since 1970. The Arctic Species Trend Index, released Wednesday at a conference in Miami, credited hunting restrictions in place for decades with the animals' recovery. The number of geese, for example, has doubled, and certain species of whale are also recovering. The biggest recovery was in the southernmost parts of the Arctic, where the number of animals was up 46 per cent from 1970 to 2004. In sharp contrast, though, is the High Arctic, the area closest to the North Pole. The number of animals dropped by 25 per cent in the same time period, while the number of caribou was down by about one-third.

The CITES conference decided to allow the hunting and trading of polar bear parts:

• 2010/03/19: CSM: Conference rejects protection for polar bears
• 2010/03/18: NRDC:SwitchBoard: A big loss for polar bears -- with a small silver lining
• 2010/03/18: NatureTGB: Polar bear trade ban rejected
• 2010/03/18: TreeHugger: Proposal for Worldwide Ban on Polar Bear Trade Defeated
• 2010/03/18: EarthTimes: Trade in polar bears, bluefin tuna can continue, UN [CITES] conference says
• 2010/03/18: CBC: Polar bear trade ban defeated at UN meeting

  As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

• 2010/03/17: CBC: Canada-Russia Arctic tensions rise
  Fresh tensions between Canada and Russia emerged Wednesday after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told a session of his Security Council that his country must be prepared to defend its claims to Arctic mineral riches. Medvedev predicted climate change will spark further conflicts as ice melts, exposing new areas for exploration. "Regrettably, we have seen attempts to limit Russia's access to the exploration and development of the Arctic mineral resources," he said. "That's absolutely inadmissible from the legal viewpoint and unfair given our nation's geographical location and history." In a direct response, Canada said it would reassert its sovereignty over the Far North at what is shaping up to be a controversial five-country Arctic summit it is hosting in two weeks in Chelsea, Que., outside Ottawa.
• 2010/03/18: ChronicleHerald: Whose true North? Tensions mount between Ottawa, Moscow two weeks before Arctic summit
  Another Canada-Russia showdown over untapped Arctic resources is looming later this month at a sleepy retreat near Ottawa. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday his country will aggressively pursue its interests in the Arctic. In a direct response, Canada said it would reassert its sovereignty over the Far North at what is shaping up to be a controversial five-country Arctic summit it is hosting in two weeks in Chelsea, Que., outside Ottawa.

While in Antarctica:

• 2010/03/17: CCP: Jean-Baptiste Sallée: Southern Annular Mode -- winds over the Southern Ocean increasing in strength, shifting closer to Antarctica in recent decades
• 2010/03/16: SciNews: Methane-making microbes thrive under the ice -- Antarctica's ice sheets could hide vast quantities of the greenhouse gas

  The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2010/03/18: CCurrents: Maize Crop Failure Leads To Farmer Suicides In Bihar

  And how are we going to feed 9 billion?

• 2010/03/21: SciDaily: UK Scientists Devise Worldwide Food Alert System
• 2010/03/19: WFP: Food Rations Key As Refugee Tide Reaches Ethiopia [from Somalia]
• 2010/03/19: UN: UN reaches 2.7 million conflict-affected Pakistanis with food aid
• 2010/03/19: AlterNet: Solving Hunger at SXSW -- to end hunger in America
• 2010/03/18: PlanetArk: Scientists Find New Way To Help Crops Fight Pests -- transferring disease resistance from one plant family to another
• 2010/03/18: OilDrum: How do we maintain adequate phosphorus and potassium levels for crops?
• 2010/03/18: AlterNet: Urban Harvesters Scavenge Backyards to Feed the Hungry
• 2010/03/17: ABC(Au): Prepare for new farming revolution, CSIRO says
  Australia's peak scientific body, farmers and supermarkets say they are gearing up for a new Green Revolution. In 50 years the world's population will be more than nine billion people, supplies of fertiliser could be severely depleted, and competition for land will have increased. According to CSIRO scientist Peter Carberry, these factors, combined with climate change, will challenge our agriculture industry like never before. Mr Carberry is deputy director of the CSIRO's Sustainable Agriculture Flagship, established by the Federal Government earlier this year to reduce the carbon footprint of Australia's land use, while boosting productivity. He says we are facing an agricultural revolution similar to the Green Revolution that followed World War II. "The first Green Revolution was a revolution that was essential to feed the world's population at the time. We have to do it again, but the parameters have changed, which makes it a challenge for science," he said.
• 2010/03/16: EnergyBulletin: Ecosystem Modeling
• 2010/03/16: PlanetArk: Scientists Find New Way To Help Crops Fight Pests
• 2010/03/16: Stanford: New report reveals the environmental and social impact of the 'livestock revolution'
  A new report by an international research team explores the impact of the global livestock industry on the environment, the economy and human health. Global meat production has tripled in the past three decades and could double its present level by 2050, according to a new report on the livestock industry by an international team of scientists and policy experts. The impact of this "livestock revolution" is likely to have significant consequences for human health, the environment and the global economy, the authors conclude.
• 2010/03/16: AlterNet: Is Goat the New Cow? Why American Foodies and Environmentalists Are Reviving the Old-World Staple
• 2010/03/14: Times(Za): Global hunt for phosphates is on
  Are we facing a food disaster with catastrophic shortages of fertilisers? Will the world feed the three billion or so more people likely to be added, by 2050, to the six billion already on the planet?

Cyclone Ului moved over Queensland and faded quickly:

• 2010/03/21: EarthTimes: Cyclone [Ului] runs out of puff after crossing Australia's east coast
• 2010/03/21: TheAge: Disaster declared ahead of cyclone's [Ului] arrival
• 2010/03/21: ABC(Au): Cyclone downgraded as north Queensland assesses damage
  Tropical Cyclone Ului is leaving its mark on north Queensland after making landfall early this morning. The cyclone crossed the coast near Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays region at category three at about 1.30am AEST. Winds of up 200-kilometres-an-hour were felt near the eye of the storm and strong winds continue to batter the coastline. The cyclone has now been downgraded to category one.
• 2010/03/20: CNN: Australia braces for cyclone [Ului]
  Eight areas along Australia's eastern coast are under disaster declaration - They are in the predicted path of the storm - Declaration gives emergency officials authority to do mandatory evacuations - Storm can bring winds of 170 km/hr (105 mph) and flooding, forecasters warn
• 2010/03/20: EarthTimes: Australian officials mull forced evacuations ahead of cyclone [Ului]
• 2010/03/17: ABC(Au): Cyclone preparations step up
  Two islands off the central Queensland coast are being evacuated with severe Tropical Cyclone Ului in the Coral Sea now forecast to make landfall this weekend. The category four cyclone is expected to begin moving closer to the Queensland coast on Friday and impact the central Queensland coasts on the weekend.
• 2010/03/15: Wunderground: Wet, windy Nor'easter slams Northeast; season's first Category 5 storm is Ului

  Cyclone Tomas zapped Fiji:

• 2010/03/16: TerraDaily: State of disaster declared in cyclone-hit Fiji
• 2010/03/17: Eureka: Tomas moving away from Fiji Islands after causing damages
• 2010/03/17: WpgSun: Cyclone [Tomas] damage overwhelming: Fiji's PM
• 2010/03/17: ABC(Au): Disaster teams head to cyclone-ravaged Fiji -- Thousands of people in Fiji are expected to be left homeless in the wake of Cyclone Tomas
• 2010/03/16: UN: UNICEF emergency supplies ready for cyclone-hit Fiji, Solomon Islands
• 2010/03/16: TerraDaily: Cyclone [Tomas] leaves trail of damage in Fiji
• 2010/03/16: Wunderground: Major flooding in the Northeast and Midwest; Fiji reels from major cyclone Tomas
• 2010/03/16: EarthTimes: Emergency declared in Fiji as it counts cyclone's cost
• 2010/03/16: NASA: A NASA Satellite Mosaic of Twin Tropical Troublesome Cyclones: Tomas and Ului
• 2010/03/16: CBC: Cyclone Tomas batters Fiji
• 2010/03/15: TerraDaily: Fiji braces for powerful cyclone [Tomas]
• 2010/03/15: EarthTimes: Cyclone Tomas lashes Fiji
• 2010/03/15: BBC: [Cat 4] Cyclone Tomas hits northern Fiji
  A powerful cyclone has hit northern Fiji, damaging buildings and crops, and forcing at least 5,000 people to leave their homes. Cyclone Tomas, a category four storm, is packing winds of up to 170km (106 miles) an hour. The storm is forecast to intensify...

While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

• 2010/03/19: Xinhuanet: UN Assists Relief Efforts after Deadly Tropical Storm in Madagascar
• 2010/03/18: UN: Madagascar: UN assists relief efforts after deadly tropical storm
• 2010/03/15: EarthTimes: Death toll in Madagascar's tropical storm Hubert rises to 28

  As for GHGs:

• 2010/03/16: Reuters: Taiwan says to cut CO2 emissions 30 pct by 2020 [from projected levels]
• 2010/03/17: PhysOrg: Greenhouse Gas Regulations Might Aggravate Climate Change
  University of Arizona engineers find swapping one chemical for another may actually result in greater energy use, compounding the problems the new chemical was supposed to fix. The U.S. government wants to regulate the use of hydrofluorocarbons, which could lead to an increased use of hydrofluoroethers as a replacement. Both are greenhouse gases, and research at the University of Arizona indicates that HFEs might be worse for the environment than HFCs.
• 2010/03/15: SciAm: CO2 at new highs despite economic slowdown -- Levels of the main greenhouse gas in the atmosphere have risen to new highs...
  Levels of the main greenhouse gas in the atmosphere have risen to new highs in 2010 despite an economic slowdown in many nations that braked industrial output, data showed on Monday. Carbon dioxide, measured at Norway's Zeppelin station on the Arctic Svalbard archipelago, rose to a median 393.71 parts per million of the atmosphere in the first two weeks of March from 393.17 in the same period of 2009, extending years of gains.

And in the carbon cycle:

• 2010/03/16: PlanetArk: Deep-Sea Volcanoes Play Key Climate Role: Scientists
• 2010/03/15: CSIRO: Southern Ocean winds open window to the deep sea
  Australian and US scientists have discovered how changes in winds blowing on the Southern Ocean drive variations in the depth of the surface layer of sea water responsible for regulating exchanges of heat and carbon dioxide between the ocean and the atmosphere.
• 2010/03/15: Reuters: Deep-sea volcanoes play key climate role: scientists
  A vast network of under-sea volcanoes pumping out nutrient-rich water in the Southern Ocean plays a key role in soaking up large amounts of carbon dioxide, acting as a brake on climate change, scientists say. A group of Australian and French scientists have shown for the first time that the volcanoes are a major source of iron that single-celled plants called phytoplankton need to bloom and in the process soak up CO2, the main greenhouse gas. Oceans absorb about a quarter of mankind's CO2 from burning fossil fuels and deforestation, with the Southern Ocean between Australia and Antarctica among the largest ocean "carbon sinks." Phytoplankton underpin the ocean's food chain. When they die or are eaten, they carry large amounts of carbon that they absorb to the bottom of the ocean, locking up the carbon for centuries.

As for the temperature record:

• 2010/03/21: TDC: Global cooling is bunk, draft NASA study finds
  Temperatures have risen steadily since the 1970s, Jim Hansen and fellow scientists conclude.
• 2010/03/20: CCP: James Hansen et al., Current GISS Global Surface Temperature Analysis, March 2010
• 2010/03/20: PhysOrg: Canada reports mildest winter on record
• 2010/03/19: ClimateP: NASA: "It is nearly certain that a new record 12-month global temperature will be set in 2010"
• 2010/03/18: TreeHugger: 'Global Cooling' Meme to Finally be Banished by Record High Temps?
• 2010/03/18: Wunderground: Globe has 2nd or 6th warmest February on record; Fiji hard-hit by Tomas
• 2010/03/17: CBC: Canada basks in record high temperatures
• 2010/03/17: ClimateP: Global cooling bites the dust: Hottest January followed by second hottest February. Now March is busting out.
• 2010/03/16: Tamino: Still Not -- Those who can't bear to believe that the laws of physics govern global temperature...
• 2010/03/16: NOAANews: Sixth Warmest February in Combined Global Surface Temperature, Fifth Warmest December-February
• 2010/03/16: IoD: Global cooling, we hardly knew ya
• 2010/03/15: DWWSJ: NOAA- This Past February Was 5th Warmest On Record
• 2010/03/14: Maribo: The warmest, driest winter on record in Canada

  Aerosols are making their presence felt:

• 2010/03/17: SolveClimate: 'Black Carbon' Crackdown Offers Fast-Action Solution to Slow Warming -- Cheap and quick measures available, but CO2 cuts still vital, lawmakers told
• 2010/03/17: NewScientist: Polluting ships have been doing the climate a favour

  The hazards of UV due to ozone depletion:

• 2010/03/19: TerraDaily: UV Exposure Has Increased But Now Stabilized

  While in the paleoclimate:

• 2010/03/15: CBC: Arctic crystals hold evidence of early ocean
  The theory that oceans covered the Earth four billion years ago has received a boost from a study of crystals found in Greenland. The research, published in the current issue of the journal Lithosphere, also sheds light on the processes that formed the continents and crust in the Archaen Era between 2.5 and four billion years ago.

On the ENSO front:

• 2010/03/19: PhysOrg: El Nino's Last Hurrah?
• 2010/03/15: TerraDaily: Improved Tracking Of 2010 El Nino Reveals Marine Life Reductions

  As for the Sun:

• 2010/03/17: GreenGrok: Cold Comfort: What Might a Cool Sun Mean for the Future?

  Regarding Climate Sensitivity:

• 2010/03/19: PhysOrg: Explained: Climate sensitivity

  Tipping points aka planetary boundaries made their presence felt:

• 2010/03/18: SciAm: Is Earth past the tipping point?

  Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

• 2010/03/19: NASA: NASA and NOAA's Environmental [GOES-P] Satellite Now GOES-15
• 2010/03/19: BBC: Europe's Cryosat-2 spacecraft is set to launch on its mission to map the world's ice fields on Thursday 8 April
• 2010/03/19: BBC: Consortium wins big weather prize
  A consortium led by Thales Alenia Space of France will enter into negotiations for a 1.3bn-euro (£1.2bn) contract to build Europe's next weather satellites. The TAS group was selected after a competitive process run by the European Space Agency (Esa). The Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) system will comprise six satellites, with the first spacecraft likely to be ready for launch in 2016.

More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2010/03/19: TreeHugger: It's not God, it's Climate Change
• 2010/03/18: NewScientist: Global warming changes natural event: first causal link
• 2010/03/18: NatureCF: Early butterfly emergence due to climate change
• 2010/03/18: TreeHugger: New Study on Butterflies Links Warming Climate to Human Activities
• 2010/03/17: ABC(Au): Butterflies 'fly early as planet warms'
  Australian scientists say they have uncovered a "causal link" between the early emergence of a common butterfly and human-induced global warming. Dr Michael Kearney of the University of Melbourne and his colleagues report their study on the butterfly heteronympha merope in this week's issue of Royal Society journal Biology Letters. "It's now coming out about 10 days earlier than it was 60 years ago," Dr Kearney said.
• 2010/03/17: ABC(Au): A study by Australian scientists claims to show a link between man-made climate change and the life cycle of butterflies
• 2010/03/16: Guardian(UK): Europe's butterflies, beetles and dragonflies under threat (14 pictures)
• 2010/03/16: PhysOrg: Climate threatens birds, says new bird report - "The State of the Birds: 2010 Report on Climate Change"
  Climate changes will have an increasingly disruptive effect on bird species in all habitats, with oceanic and Hawaiian birds in greatest peril, according to a new report on the state of birds released March 11 by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.

And then there are the world's forests:

• 2010/03/18: SciNow: Burn the Brush, Save Carbon Dioxide
• 2010/03/17: Eureka: Prescribed burns may help reduce US carbon footprint -- Such burns release less carbon dioxide than wildfires, scientists find
• 2010/03/17: OpenDem: The Battle for Khimki Forest
  The plan to construct a section of the new Moscow-St.Petersburg motorway through the legally-protected Khimki Forest Park will destroy a rare eco-system. Dogged local resistance has turned this into a national, even international issue. But it has not derailed the plan
• 2010/03/17: TDC: Saving carbon, by burning forests
  New study suggests prescribed burns can reduce carbon dioxide emissions generated by forest fires. By now everyone knows that forests sequester carbon and that forest fires pump enormous amounts of that stored carbon skyward. But researchers are now coming to a somewhat contrary conclusion: Carefully controlled burns can help reduce forest carbon emissions. The most recent study, from the National Center of Atmospheric Research and Northern Arizona University, looked at dry forests of the western United States and discovered that prescribed burns can reduce carbon fire emissions by nearly a quarter throughout the West -- and by as much as 60 percent in some forests.
• 2010/03/16: Guardian(UK): What's killing the great forests of the American west?
• 2010/03/16: ClimateP: Is human-caused climate change killing the great forests of the American West?
• 2010/03/16: SciDaily: Protected Forest Areas May Be Critical Strategy for Slowing Climate Change [Ricketts et al.]
• 2010/03/15: CanWest: Scorched Tahsish River clearcut sparks call for conservation -- Devastation shows need to preserve old-growth forests on fragile landscape: consultant
  A patch of the Tahsish River Valley on western Vancouver Island is the new poster child for the ecological impact of old-growth logging - this time on limestone karst, perhaps the world's most fragile landscape. The two-square-kilometre patch of old-growth was logged close to a decade ago; then, last July, a forest fire swept through the exposed clearcut. The effect of those two events - only now coming to public light - is a scorched landscape in which the soil has been burned and washed away, leaving an ecological wasteland and a call for greater conservation in future.

Desertification looms as a threat:

• 2010/03/20: PhysOrg: Sandstorms blanket Beijing in yellow dust
  Beijing authorities have issued a rare level five pollution warning, signalling hazardous conditions Beijingers woke up Saturday to find the Chinese capital blanketed in yellow dust, as a sandstorm caused by a severe drought in the north and in Mongolia swept into the city. The storm, which earlier buffeted parts of northeastern China, brought strong winds and cut visibility in the capital.
• 2010/03/20: EarthTimes: Strong winds blanket Beijing in yellow dust
• 2010/03/20: Reuters: Massive sandstorm turns Beijing's streets yellow
  Tons of sand from deserts in China's interior blew into Beijing Saturday, shrouding China's capital in a yellow-orange haze that authorities warned made the air quality "hazardous."
• 2010/03/20: BBC: Beijing shrouded in orange dust
  Beijing has been shrouded in orange dust as a strong sandstorm blew hundreds of miles from drought-struck northern China to the nation's capital.

Yes we have no wacky weather, except:

• 2010/03/16: TP:WR: Global Boiling: Freak Storms On Every Continent
• 2010/03/15: TerraDaily: Mongolia's harsh winter of discontent
• 2010/03/14: CBC: Storm in northeastern U.S. kills 6
  At least six people died and more than 500,000 households lost electricity after weekend torrential storms tore through northeastern United States. Strong winds and heavy rains uprooted trees, downed power lines and flooded creeks in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania at the peak of Saturday's storm.

Corals are dying:

• 2010/03/16: ClimateShifts: Climate change in Australia's tropical waters and the threat to the Reef

  Acidification is changing the oceans:

• 2010/03/14: EnergyBulletin: Ocean acidification: Why the climate change deniers don't want to talk about it

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2010/03/19: NatGeo: The Big Melt
• 2010/03/18: SolveClimate: From Nepal to the Maldives, Eye Witness Sees Impact of Warming & Melting Glaciers -- Bursting glacial lakes, storm surges, and drought among the current dangers

  As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

• 2010/03/20: CBS: N.D. Waters Rise, But Crest Forecast Drops
• 2010/03/19: CNN: Sandbags in place as Red River rises
  Red River was 17 feet above its flood stage in Fargo, North Dakota, on Friday afternoon - River expected to crest this weekend, but not as high as last year's record 40.8 feet - More than 1 million sandbags have been filled in Fargo and Moorhead, Minnesota - Despite flooding, Fargo mayor says, "we're in good shape today"
• 2010/03/19: Wunderground: Red River rising: 18th consecutive year of flooding--why?
• 2010/03/18: PlanetArk: North Dakota Prepares For Flood As Red River Rises
• 2010/03/18: PlanetArk: Parched California To Get More Water [25% of their contracted water allotment, up from just 5% in February]
• 2010/03/18: PlanetArk: Severe Drought Cracks Runway At China Airport
• 2010/03/18: EarthTimes: Crops hit as drought worsens in south-west China
• 2010/03/18: BendBulletin: Klamath drought declaration opens way for assistance
• 2010/03/17: CBC: Sandbags filled as Red River rises
  Volunteers in North Dakota filled thousands of sandbags on Tuesday in the hopes of avoiding some of the damage from the fast-rising waters of the Red River. Contractors also constructed clay levees to help protect nearby homes from the murky waters. Officials don't expect the river to get as high as last year's record flood, but near Fargo and neighbouring Moorhead, Minn., the river is forecast to crest Sunday about six metres above the flood stage.
• 2010/03/17: PhysOrg: China drought leaves millions short of water
  Meteorological officials have said the drought is the worst in 100 years in some areas Millions of people face drinking water shortages in southwestern China because of a once-a-century drought that has dried up rivers and threatens vast farmlands, state media reported Wednesday. The drought has gripped huge areas of Guizhou, Yunnan, and Sichuan provinces, the Guangxi region, and the mega-city of Chongqing for months, with rainfall 60 percent below normal since September, the Global Times said.
• 2010/03/17: PlanetArk: Red River floodwaters Rise In Northern U.S. Plains
• 2010/03/16: MSNBC: Forecast: Flood risk for third of U.S. -- 'Potentially historic' in some areas, government says
  More than a third of the contiguous United States faces a high or above average flood risk this spring, the National Weather Service reported Tuesday. "We are looking at potentially historic flooding in some parts of the country this spring," Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said at a news briefing while presenting the government's spring outlook. NOAA oversees the weather service. The highest threat is in the Dakotas, Minnesota and Iowa. Those areas have already seen some flooding and rivers are rising quickly, especially the Red River between North Dakota and Minnesota.
• 2010/03/17: InForum: Red hits major flood stage in Fargo
• 2010/03/17: MinotDN: On a moment's notice -- Red Cross volunteers helping out with Fargo flood relief
• 2010/03/17: CBS: Kids Join Race to Save Fargo from Flood -- Students among Thousands Working to Stack Sandbags along River and Near Endangered Homes in N.D. Town
• 2010/03/17: TP:WR: Global Boiling: Fargo Sees Fourth 'Ten-Year Flood' In A Row
• 2010/03/17: CBC: Red River rising in North Dakota
• 2010/03/16: NOAANews: Imminent Flood Threat in Midwest, South and East Also at Risk
• 2010/03/16: Reuters: Red River floodwaters rise in northern U.S. Plains
  The Red River rose closer on Tuesday, as expected, to causing major flooding at Fargo, North Dakota, for the second straight spring in the key U.S. wheat-growing state.

Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2010/03/17: Time: Can Small Lifestyle Changes Lead to Huge CO2 Cuts?

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2010/03/17: NBF: China Considers High Speed Rail Line Connections to Europe
• 2010/03/17: PlanetArk: Richard Branson Aims To Rock The Boat For Green Shipping
• 2010/03/16: EUO: China exploring rail routes to Europe
  China is exploring the possibility of extending its high-speed train network as far as Europe, potentially cutting rail travel time between London and Beijing to as little as two days. Officials hope to see the project completed over the next ten years, enabling passengers to travel the roughly 8,000 kilometre journey at speeds of up to 320 kilometres per hour.
• 2010/03/15: Inhabitat: China To Connect Its High Speed Rail All The Way To Europe

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

• 2010/03/20: SMH: Home insulation scheme worth keeping, say green groups
  Conservation groups are calling on the federal government not to abandon the troubled home insulation program, pointing to its considerable environmental benefits. Despite its flaws, the scheme should be seen as a plank in the government's climate change policy, the groups argue. The Total Environment Centre says that the 1.1 million houses that have already been insulated will save more than 15 million tonnes of carbon emissions over 10 years, the equivalent of taking more than 300,000 cars off the road. Household energy bills will also be reduced, by up to 25 per cent in centrally heated insulated homes, and by up to 18 per cent in space-heated homes. The environmental impacts of the botched scheme have been largely overlooked as attention has focused on safety issues, but the Total Environment Centre and the Australian Conservation Foundation have called for it to be retained in some form.
• 2010/03/20: PeakEnergy: Element: Recyclable Concrete
• 2010/03/19: SolveClimate: DOE Unveils Net-Zero 220,000 Square Foot Office Space -- Building showcases best use of existing technologies, but cost still a barrier
• 2010/03/19: PeakEnergy: London landmark building will generate 8% of its energy needs
• 2010/03/18: Reuters: Australian laws to promote building efficiency
• 2010/03/16: Grist: For green homes, should energy trump everything else?
• 2010/03/15: STimes: Rain, even urine, would help make Bullitt HQ city's 'greenest building ever'

  The Tyee did a 5 part series on LEED and forestry:

• 2010/03/15: Tyee: Future of 'Green' Wood Hangs on US Decision [part 1]
  New LEED rules poised to remake market for environmental forest products, Canadian timber.
• 2010/03/16: Tyee: Eco Group's Trade Complaint Targets US Wood Certifier -- ForestEthics charges that SFI's 'vague' standards mislead consumers. (part 2)
• 2010/03/17: Tyee: Wood War Sprawls to IRS, Fortune 500
  Can an industry-created nonprofit meet test for a public-interest charity? (Part 3)
• 2010/03/18: Tyee: LEED Accused of 'Conspiracy to Monopolize'
  Corporate group says US Green Building Council and eco-certifier FSC keep too much North American timber out of green market. (Part 4)
• 2010/03/19: Tyee: Will Green Building Council Kill Green Forestry?
  Some critics say LEED's pending new rules could do just that. As the decision nears, the debate between competing eco-certifiers is nervous and angry. (Part 5)
• 2010/03/16: TreeHugger: Rumble in the Lumberyard: FSC vs SFI

  As for carbon sequestration:

• 2010/03/18: TEC: Cement maker first in world to capture CO2 with algae
• 2010/03/16: NYT:CW: Wyo. Wants More Carbon Dioxide [CCS & EOR]
• 2010/03/15: BBC: Coal power station plan under way
  The first stage of a planning process to build a coal-fired power station in Ayrshire is to get under way on Monday. Ayrshire Power wants to build a power station with experimental carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology on a site at Hunterston near Largs. If its proposal succeeds, the plant would be the first in the UK.

Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2010/03/21: CanWest: Global warming 'fix' could kill marine life -- Adding iron to ocean helps toxic algae grow
• 2010/03/18: UK Parliament: [link to 732k pdf] The Regulation of Geoengineering
• 2010/03/18: ClimateP: Chief sponsor of Asilomar [landmark climate manipulation] conference maintains close financial ties to controversial geo-engineering company
• 2010/03/16: SolveClimate: Ocean Fertilization Could Produce Toxic Effects Up the Food Chain
• 2010/03/15: HtP: Enviros Split on Geoengineering Conference
• 2010/03/16: KSJT: ScienceNOW, NYT, SF Chron, BBC, etc: Uh oh ... yet another reason to fear geotechnical engineering fixes for climate. Iron fertilization might make the oceans, uh ... poisonous.
• 2010/03/16: Grist: Jeff Goodell: 'It's a bad idea for geoengineering to be the equivalent of the Pompeii sex room'
• 2010/03/15: SciNews: Carbon-Capture Method Could Poison Oceans [OIF]
• 2010/03/15: TerraDaily: Adding iron to sea boosts deadly neurotoxin: study
• 2010/03/16: BBC: Toxic troubles for climate 'fix'
  Fertilising the oceans with iron to absorb carbon dioxide could increase concentrations of [domoic acid] a chemical that can kill marine mammals, a study has found.
• 2010/03/15: ClimateP: Sole "Strategic Partner" of [Asilomar] landmark geo-engineering conference is Australia's "dirty coal" state of Victoria
• 2010/03/15: NatureN: Carbon-capture scheme could cause toxic blooms -- Findings raise more concerns over proposals to boost plankton growth in the oceans [Iron hypothesis]
• 2010/03/15: DM:CCM: Enviros Split on Geoengineering Conference

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2010/03/15: arXiv: Significance Tests in Climate Science by Maarten H. P. Ambaum
• 2010/03/21: PLoS One: Network Analytical Tool for Monitoring Global Food Safety Highlights China by Tamás Nepusz et al.
• 2010/03/15: NERC:NORA: The effect of Ocean Dynamics and Orography on Atmospheric Storm Tracks by Christopher Wilson et al.
• 2010/03/19: NERC:NORA: World mineral production 2004-2008 by T.J. Brown et al.
• 2010/03/18: AGWObserver: When carbon dioxide didn't affect climate [ghs & misc sci]
• 2010/03/15: AGWObserver: Papers on polar bear populations
• 2010/03/19: ACP: Molecular characterization of urban organic aerosol in tropical India: contributions of primary emissions and secondary photooxidation by P. Q. Fu et al.
• 2010/03/19: ACPD: Black carbon absorption effects on cloud cover, review and synthesis by D. Koch & A. Del Genio
• 2010/03/19: OS: Sediment 231Pa/230Th as a recorder of the rate of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation: insights from a 2-D model by Y. Luo et al.
• 2008/11/: RSTA: Reframing the climate change challenge in light of post-2000 emission trends by Kevin Anderson & Alice Bows
• 2010/03/17: CP: The MIS 11 - MIS 1 analogy, southern European vegetation, atmospheric methane and the "early anthropogenic hypothesis" by P. C. Tzedakis
• 2010/03/18: ACP: The global SF6 source inferred from long-term high precision atmospheric measurements and its comparison with emission inventories by I. Levin et al.
• 2010/03/18: ACP: On the seasonal dependence of tropical lower-stratospheric temperature trends by Q. Fu et al.
• 2010/03/18: ACP: Dust storms come to Central and Southwestern China, too: implications from a major dust event in Chongqing by Q. Zhao et al.
• 2010/03/16: ACP: Sources of uncertainties in modelling black carbon at the global scale by E. Vignati et al.
• 2010/03/16: ACPD: Biomass burning impact on PM2.5 over the southeastern US during 2007: integrating chemically speciated FRM filter measurements, MODIS fire counts and PMF analysis by X. Zhang et al.
• 2010/02/18: ES&T: (ab$) Terrestrial Carbon Disturbance from Mountaintop Mining Increases Lifecycle Emissions for Clean Coal by James F. Fox & J. Elliott Campbell
• 2010/03/11: Science: (ab$) A Fast Soluble Carbon-Free Molecular Water Oxidation Catalyst Based on Abundant Metals by Qiushi Yin et al.
• 2010/03/16: PNAS: Ecosystem service bundles for analyzing tradeoffs in diverse landscapes by C. Raudsepp-Hearne et al.
• 2010/03/16: PNAS: Tropical cloud forest climate variability and the demise of the Monteverde golden toad by Kevin J. Anchukaitis & Michael N. Evans
• 2010/03/16: PNAS: An atomistic picture of the regeneration process in dye sensitized solar cells by Florian Schiffmann et al.
• 2010/03/17: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Zonally asymmetric response of the Southern Ocean mixed-layer depth to the Southern Annular Mode by J. B. Sallée et al.
• 2010/03/16: PLoS Biology: Indigenous Lands, Protected Areas, and Slowing Climate Change by Taylor H. Ricketts et al.

  And other significant documents:

• 2010/03/18: WHRC: [105k pdf] Scientists speak: Amazon "myths" are not debunked.
• 2010/03/18: UK Parliament: [link to 732k pdf] The Regulation of Geoengineering
• 2010/03/18: OilsandsWatch: [link to 4.7 meg pdf] Drilling Deeper: The In Situ Oil Sands Report Card
• 2010//: USGS: Historical Statistics for Mineral Commodities in the United States, Data Series 2005-140
• 2010/03/15: CAN: [link to 365k pdf] New report details government actions that undermine research into the science of climate change
• 2010/03/17: DeSmogBlog: [link to 2 meg pdf] John Mashey: Crescendo Climategate Cacophony
• 2010/03/17: TCoE: [link to 3.7 meg pdf] Must read presentation from Scott Mandia
• 2010/03/16: WhiteHouse: [link to 227k pdf] Climate Change Adaptation -- Interim Progress Report
• 2010/03/16: EnergyBulletin: [link to 391k pdf] Nat'l Intelligence Council report on Caribbean geopolitics & climate change (review)
• 2010/03/15: CSIRO: [link to 971k pdf] State of the Climate

  As for miscellaneous science:

• 2010/03/18: ClimateShifts: Sharon Begley on why scientists are their own worst enemies
• 2010/03/18: Eureka: Giant sequoias yield longest fire history from tree rings
  A 3,000-year record from 52 of the world's oldest trees shows that California's western Sierra Nevada was droughty and often fiery from 800 to 1300, according to new research. Scientists reconstructed the 3,000-year history of fire by dating fire scars on ancient giant sequoia trees, Sequoiadendron giganteum, in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park. Individual giant sequoias can live more than 3,000 years. "It's the longest tree-ring fire history in the world, and it's from this amazing place with these amazing trees." said lead author Thomas W. Swetnam of the University of Arizona in Tucson. "This is an epic collection of tree rings."
• 2010/03/16: ERabett: A modest suggestion -- Press releases hyping every half baked paper have become a plague on the land...

  More DIY science:

• 2010/03/20: RA: GHCN Processor 1.0

  Scientists are not public relations flacks. Therefore...:

• 2010/03/19: TreeHugger: Do You Trust Scientists?
• 2010/03/18: ClimateP: Monbiot: There is no simple way to battle public hostility to climate research. As the psychologists show, facts barely sway us anyway
• 2010/03/08: Monbiot: The Unpersuadables
  In fighting for science, we subscribe to a comforting illusion: that people can be swayed by the facts. There is one question that no one who denies manmade climate change wants to answer: what would it take to persuade you? In most cases the answer seems to be nothing.
• 2010/03/17: ClimateShifts: Monbiot on the unpersuadables and the revenge of the humanities students

  "A new article claims that 'Scientists Need a New Approach on Climate Change' and goes on to allege that scientists have only diagnosed the illness, not recommended a course of treatment. How much plainer than 'Stop burning fossil fuels!' does Dr Hansen have to be?"-C K Michaelson

• 2010/03/16: HuffPo: Sorry, it's Malignant: Why Scientists Need a New Approach on Climate Change
• 2010/03/17: Guardian(UK): Come on 'philosophers of science', you must do better than this [Jon Butterworth responds to Nicholas Maxwell]
• 2010/03/12: Guardian(UK): Scientists should stop deceiving us [Nicholas Maxwell]

  Regarding Mclean:

• 2010/03/18: SkeptiSci: A peer-reviewed response to McLean's El Nino paper
• 2010/03/17: JEB: Mclean debunked (at last)

  Curry & Mann speak:

• 2010/03/16: NatureCF: Judith Curry and Michael Mann speak out

  The Pielke fan clubbe, alas:

• 2010/03/19: JEB: Statistically improbable phrases [PFC]

  Meanwhile on the Kyoto front:

• 2010/03/16: TEC: All Change -- CDM Awaits Much Needed Attention
  The body charged with the administrative oversight of the United Nations' Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is showing signs that a critical transition in the technical framework may be coming.
• 2010/03/15: BBerg: China, Not UN, Controls Carbon Offsets, Stanford Says
  China's control over the prices of power from wind is dictating the supply of tradable emission credits in the UN carbon market, the world's second biggest, according to a report from Stanford University. The board overseeing the United Nations carbon market is forced to rely on data from China to judge when windfarms qualify for emissions credits, said Richard Morse, a Stanford University research associate and co-author of the report. The board, established to channel funds to greenhouse-gas projects in developing nations, rejected 16 Chinese windfarms since November, including submissions backed by EDF SA, Essent NV and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. To be eligible for UN credits, projects must show they aren't economically viable without such assistance. The rules are designed to weed out projects that don't add to overall emission reduction. Questions in China and India, where governments set prices and data can't be independently verified, threaten investments in sustainable energy, Morse said.

At the UN:

• 2010/03/16: UN: Ban calls for accelerated progress towards [Millennium Development Goals] development targets
• 2010/03/15: HindustanTimes: Pachauri not to quit IPCC
• 2010/03/16: HindustanTimes: India, S Africa in race for UN climate body post
  Cracks are appearing in the Basic group of countries -- Brazil, South Africa, India and China -- over leading the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the body that draws climate policy. Both India and South Africa are in race to head the UN body.
• 2010/03/16: IndiaTimes: Race for climate top job hots up
  New Delhi: The race for the UN's top climate change job is set to get more intense with the number of candidates in the fray increasing. After India and South Africa nominated candidates, Indonesia and Costa Rica too made known their ambitions for the post of UNFCCC executive secretary.
• 2010/03/15: SolveClimate: [UK climate change secretary, Ed] Miliband Suggests UNFCCC Reforms: Smaller Groups, More Expertise
• 2010/03/15: SindhToday: India will fight attempts to unseat Pachauri: Jairam Ramesh
  The government had full confidence in Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chief R.K. Pachauri and would fight "any attempt to unseat him", Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said Monday. "We are backing the IPCC chairman and will fight any attempt to unseat him," Ramesh said in the Rajya Sabha during question hour.

Ban Ki-moon and Gro Harlem Brundtland are debating the path forward:

• 2010/03/18: BizGreen: Splits emerge over UN approach to climate talks
  Secretary-General and climate envoy cross swords over the extent to which UN talks should be supported by separate negotiations between top polluters A potential split at the highest levels of the UN over how to move forward with international climate change negotiations emerged yesterday as Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and his top climate change envoy, former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, appeared to disagree on how the talks should proceed. Speaking on the sidelines of a biofuels summit in Amsterdam earlier this week, Brundtland was quoted as saying she expected the negotiations to proceed along more of a "double track system" where the UN process is mirrored by more informal talks based on the Copenhagen Accord that was agreed late last year.
• 2010/03/16: BWeek: UN chief wants UN in charge of climate talks
  Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday the United Nations will remain in charge of talks on a new global climate change accord, dismissing a shift to negotiations with a streamlined group of countries suggested by U.N. climate envoy Gro Harlem Brundtland. Ban said the former Norwegian prime minister's statement that talks will move to "a double track system" was "not desirable at this time." "That I regard as her personal view," he said, stressing that a new climate change agreement should be negotiated within the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
• 2010/03/16: STimes: UN climate envoy [Gro Harlem Brundtland] expects dual-track negotiations
  Talks on a new global climate change accord, bogged down for years in contested negotiations among nearly 200 countries, will increasingly move outside the sluggish U.N. framework and focus on a streamlined group of countries, special U.N. envoy Gro Harlem Brundtland said Tuesday.

And on the carbon trading front:

• 2010/03/17: CFO: CER market grinds to a halt, exchanges suspend trading
  The market for secondary certified emission reductions (CERs) has seized up today, following confirmation that credits previously used for compliance in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) have been sold back into the market -- prompting two exchanges to suspend CER trading. Traders told Carbon Finance that even in the over-the-counter market, very little CER volume has gone through today, while the European Climate Exchange (ECX) -- which today changed its rules to preclude such CERs being delivered into its contracts -- has not seen any activity in its CER futures.
• 2010/03/18: Reuters: EU blocks re-use of offsets, BluexNext to resume
  The European Commission said on Thursday it would prevent from August the re-entry into its emissions trading scheme of carbon permits which companies had already used for compliance with their emissions caps.
• 2010/03/18: Reuters: North American group [WCI] outlines carbon trade rules
  Members of the Western Climate Initiative laid out some of the ground rules on Thursday on the use and timing of carbon-offset credits allowed under its planned emission cap-and-trade system.
• 2010/03/18: Guardian(UK): Carbon traders voice fears over recycled carbon credits
  Resale of surrendered Certified Emission Reduction credits by Hungarian government prompts warning that "double counting" could damage the integrity of the EU emissions trading scheme.
• 2010/03/18: EurActiv: EU clamps down on carbon market fraud
  EU finance ministers approved on Tuesday (16 March) a directive to clamp down on VAT fraud in carbon markets by allowing member states to shift the levy to the end user.
• 2010/03/18: PlanetArk: Hungary tracing CER sales as carbon trade stalls
  Hungary on Wednesday said it would look into how carbon emissions permits it had sold were illegally reused, as trading in the paper stalled, posing a new challenge to an EU scheme meant to fight climate change. Paris-based emissions exchange BlueNext said earlier on Wednesday it had suspended trading in spot certified emissions reductions (CERs) after it found re-used CERs had traded on its exchange, prompting rival Nordpool to follow suit, as a precaution. Wednesday's developments are the latest setback to the European Union's emissions trading scheme (ETS). Last year fraudsters perpetrated a 5 billion euro pan-EU VAT fraud, adding to technical and over-supply glitches in its five-year history, while it now faces low prices in the wake of recession. Last week Hungary said it had sold carbon offsets or CERs to a Hungarian trading house, with the understanding that these would not be used in the EU ETS, where companies had already surrendered them to count against their emissions targets. The EU Commission's environment spokesman Joe Hennon said on Wednesday the EU executive was working on a solution to close the loophole in the scheme. But it emerged traders had indeed sold some of the used CERs on BlueNext, leading to its own trade suspension and that of Nordic electricity market operator Nordpool.

The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

• 2010/03/15: EnergyBulletin: Two "Robin Hood" Taxes for the Price of One

  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:

• 2010/03/18: Economist: Cap-and-trade's last hurrah -- The decline of a once wildly popular idea
• 2010/03/15: Eureka: Urban CO2 domes increase deaths, poke hole in cap-and-trade proposal
  Everyone knows that carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas driving climate change, is a global problem. Now a Stanford study has shown it is also a local problem, hurting city dwellers' health much more than rural residents', because of the carbon dioxide "domes" that develop over urban areas. That finding, said researcher Mark Z. Jacobson, exposes a serious oversight in current cap-and-trade proposals for reducing emissions of heat-trapping gases, which make no distinction based on a pollutant's point of origin. The finding also provides the first scientific basis for controlling local carbon dioxide emissions based on their local health impacts.

Meanwhile on the international political front:

• 2010/03/19: WaTi: EU climate chief, Connie Hedegaard, urges U.S. to act
• 2010/03/15: MongaBay: Falklands Dispute: Argentine Sovereignty Won't Solve the Problem

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

• 2010/03/18: CCP: Denmark's fascist government takes peaceful activists, Natasha Verco and Noah Weiss, to trial with no evidence
• 2010/03/16: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen activist trial: 'I can't see what evidence there is for the charges'
  Australian honours student 'indignant' over charges of organising violence and disorder at climate summit as trial opens
  Natasha Verco, an Australian honours student, and Noah Weiss, an American citizen who lives in Denmark, will face similar charges in a trial which is due to last all week.
  Verco, who has organised non-violent direct action in her native country and who has been part of the Climate Justice Action (CJA) network in the lead-up to the summit in Copenhagen, has been charged with organising violence, organising public disorder, significant damage to property, and organising disorder during the international talks on climate change which took place in Copenhagen last year. If found guilty, Verco faces a maximum of twelve and a half years in prison.

What are the activists up to?:

• 2010/03/20: MongaBay: A new world?: Social media protest against Nestle may have longstanding ramifications
• 2010/03/18: CCurrents: Getting To Work In 2010 [McKibben]
• 2010/03/15: Guardian(UK): Climate activists predict direct action against Scotland's 'Kingsnorth'
  Ayrshire Power starts planning process for power station which would be UK's first to use carbon capture and storage

Among the world's religions:

• 2010/03/17: Grist: Christian Coalition backs Sen. Graham on climate legislation

  Polls! We have polls!

• 2010/03/19: SolveClimate: Poll Shows 75% Support for Solar on Federal Lands, But Partisan Gap Persists -- Solar is Democrats' first energy choice; for Republicans, it's fourth after wind, nuclear and oil
• 2010/03/19: TEC: Gallup Gets It Wrong with Economy vs. Environment Poll
• 2010/03/18: ClimateP: Memo to policymakers: Public STILL favors the transition to clean energy
• 2010/03/17: ClimateP: Large majority of Americans continue to believe global warming is real and trust scientists
• 2010/03/17: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Second-Hand Smoke and Mirrors
• 2010/03/16: HS: Poll Shows Canadians Support Banning Trade of Polar Bear Parts
  Overwhelming majority of Canadians support CITES ban on commercial trade in polar bear parts
• 2010/03/17: EarthTimes: Slim lead for nuclear power in Swedish poll
• 2010/03/16: USAToday: Poll: Worries about environment hit low
• 2010/03/16: PlanetArk: Poll Charts Rising U.S. Environmental Satisfaction
• 2010/03/15: Grist: New Gallup poll shows sharp partisan divide in understanding of climate change

  Regarding Water Politics and Business:

• 2010/03/17: PRWatch: Marking World Water Day, March 22, 2010
• 2010/03/16: CCurrents: Water Wisdom by Vandana Shiva
• 2010/03/16: UN: Water scarcity becoming a critical issue for the Arab world - UN report
• 2010/03/16: TCoE: Water roundup
• 2010/03/15: Grist: The water wars: California's salmon vs. agribiz interests
• 2010/03/14: LA Times: Deceptive arguments are being made in California's water wars
• 2010/03/14: CDreams: Water Wisdom by Vandana Shiva

  And on the American political front:

• 2010/03/19: ABC(US): Calif. green car rebate plan meets resistance
• 2010/03/19: C411: Weyerhaeuser Joins USCAP
• 2010/03/15: SciAm: Texas Messes with History
  Long a proponent of including nonscientific creationism in the biology curriculum, the Texas State Board of Education last week further illustrated its willingness to sacrifice accuracy for ideology by excluding Thomas Jefferson from a list of influential historical figures.
• 2010/03/20: TP:WR: 'Regulation Reality Tour' Peddles Polluter Lies, Endangering American Prosperity
• 2010/03/19: NRDC:SwitchBoard: California LAO to Texas: don't mess!
• 2010/03/19: TreeHugger: How Vulnerable is Your State to an Oil Price Spike?
• 2010/03/19: AlterNet: Hightower: Two Right-Wing Billionaire Brothers Are Remaking America for Their Own Benefit
• 2010/03/18: Grist: Racing for cleantech jobs: Why America needs an energy education strategy
• 2010/03/17: ScienceInsider: New Ways the U.S. Could Target Soot
• 2010/03/18: NRDC:SwitchBoard: More Business Support for Climate Legislation -- Weyerhauser joins USCAP
• 2010/03/17: AutoBG: Why California's new electric vehicle rebates are good, and why they're not so good
• 2010/03/17: EnergyBulletin: Where Have We Been; Where Are We Going?
• 2010/03/17: SolveClimate: U.S. and Foreign Wind Energy Companies Creating Local American Jobs -- For trend to continue, stable policy support needed
• 2010/03/17: PlanetArk: U.S. Groups Want To Expand Climate Bill Forestry Aid
• 2010/03/17: TreeHugger: Post Cap & Trade, Manufacturing Jobs Will Move To US States With Greener Power, Not China
• 2010/03/16: BBerg: Clinton Warns U.S. May Trail China in Energy Race, Senators Say
• 2010/03/16: RollCall: [Former President Bill] Clinton to Senate Democrats: Climate Change Bill Key to Economic Growth
• 2010/03/15: SolveClimate: Energy-Efficiency Strategy Could Cut Household Bills by $450 a Year -- Federal Building Code Would Have Biggest Impact, [CFA] Report Says
• 2010/03/16: NOAANews: New NOAA Web Site Emphasizes Broader Impacts of Sea Ice Loss -- More than local problem, Arctic's future affects weather, climate elsewhere
• 2010/03/15: SF Gate: Governors seek wind energy boost
  A coalition representing governors of 29 states is urging the federal government to take steps to boost wind energy, such as a renewable electricity standard requiring utilities to produce at least 10 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2012. The bipartisan Governors' Wind Energy Coalition plans to make the recommendations Tuesday in a report to Congress and the White House.
• 2010/03/16: CSM: Governors prod Washington on renewable energy
  A group of 29 state governors has for the first time submitted to the White House and Congress a list of recommendations to implement renewable energy nationwide. The move reveals growing impatience with Washington's inability to put forward a new energy-climate bill to stimulate growth of solar and wind industry jobs. With the capitol still consumed with healthcare legislation and the likelihood of a national bill that combines climate and energy dimming rapidly, many states with renewable energy in their backyards are agitating for job creation from wind, solar, and biomass energy development. In particular, they want a national renewable electricity standard in a new energy bill. Such a standard, the governors say, should set a minimum requirement for electric utilities to get at least 10 percent of their electricity from sources like solar, wind, and biopower by 2012 -- that would put them on track to reach 20 percent by 2020, a target being weighed in Congress.
• 2010/03/15: TreeHugger: Just About Everybody in Building is in the Home Star Coalition
• 2010/03/14: DWWSJ: Texas 1 Science 0 or Why you should pull your kids out of public school in Texas
• 2010/03/15: at-Largely: Texas Indoctrination - changing school books for the far-right...
• 2010/03/14: LA Times: Deceptive arguments are being made in California's water wars

  Cash strapped states have been moving Carbon Funds into General Revenue:

• 2010/03/18: BBerg: Christie Seeks CO2 Revenue to Close N.J. Budget Gap
  New Jersey Governor Chris Christie wants to use funds from carbon-dioxide-permit auctions in the U.S. Northeast's cap-and-trade program to help close the state's $10.7 billion deficit. Taking $65.2 million from the auctions to help cover the budget gap was one of the necessary "hard choices," Christie, a Republican, said in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York today.
• 2010/03/17: Reuters: NJ latest U.S. state to raid carbon auction funds -- NJ moves $65 mln from climate fund to general fund

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2010/03/19: NewsWeek: The Green Fighter -- EPA head, Lisa Jackson
• 2010/03/19: DoC: Statement from Commerce Secretary Gary Locke on National Academy of Science's Review of California Bay Delta Water Issues
• 2010/03/19: ScienceInsider: House Panel, DOE at Loggerheads Over Energy Hubs
• 2010/03/19: TEC: EPA's Plan to Spend $1.9 Million to Study Health, Environmental Impacts of Fracking
• 2010/03/16: HuffPo: Energy Efficiency: Achieving the Potential, Realizing the Savings by U.S. Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu
• 2010/03/17: TreeHugger: Steven Chu Begins Nationwide Energy Efficiency Push in US
• 2010/03/17: SF Gate: Farmers hail increased water allowance
  The sprinklers will go on this summer in the Central Valley, but not as much as farmers would like. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Tuesday that growers south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta will receive 25 percent of the water they were hoping to get. That may not sound good on the surface, but it is better than the 5 percent the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was planning to give them before a series of winter storms drenched the state and left a blanket of snow in the Sierra.
• 2010/03/15: BBerg: EPA Studying Own Carbon-Trading System, Official Says
  The Obama administration is considering a carbon-trading system under existing law if Congress doesn't pass cap-and-trade legislation that allows companies to buy and sell the right to pollute, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official said today. The existing Clean Air Act "could enable us to include emissions trading" within agency regulations aimed at reducing carbon dioxide and other gases that scientists have linked to climate change, Anna Marie Wood, a senior policy analyst at the EPA, said at an event in Washington hosted by the American Bar Association.
• 2010/03/15: Reuters: USDA's Vilsack: proper carbon bill to help farmers
• 2010/03/14: MillerMcCune: New Agency [ARPA-E] Puts Clean Energy on Front Burner
• 2010/03/15: ClimateP: Chu compares climate disinformation campaign to tobacco industry's efforts

  The carbonistas campaign against EPA endangerment regulations is turning into a knockdown, drag'em out brawl:

• 2010/03/19: NYT:GW: States Take Sides in Greenhouse Gas 'Endangerment' Brawl
  States took their places in the trenches this week as they joined the court fight either for or against U.S. EPA's "endangerment" finding for greenhouse gases. Sixteen states asked a federal appeals court this week to become parties in what has grown to be a major legal fight pitting EPA, states and environmental groups against industries, global warming skeptics and other state challengers. Petitioners in the case are asking the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to review EPA's determination that greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare. That finding came in response to a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the agency has the authority to regulate the heat-trapping emissions using the Clean Air Act (Greenwire, Feb. 17). The court consolidated the 16 petitions challenging EPA's endangerment finding into one lawsuit, Coalition for Responsible Regulation Inc., et al., v. EPA. Yesterday marked the deadline for parties to file motions to intervene in the case.
• 2010/03/18: EnvFin: EPA climate rules will identify targets for litigation, lawyers warn
• 2010/03/19: Reuters: US states sue EPA to stop greenhouse gas rules
  States want EPA to reopen endangerment hearings - About as many states support EPA's climate finding
  At least 15 U.S. states have sued the Environmental Protection Agency seeking to stop it from issuing rules controlling greenhouse gas emissions until it reexamines whether the pollution harms human health. Florida, Indiana, South Carolina and at least nine other states filed the petitions in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, states said. They joined petitions filed last month by Virginia, Texas and Alabama. The Obama administration has long said it would attack greenhouse gas emissions with EPA regulation if Congress failed to pass a climate bill.

Some pushback against the carbonistas:

• 2010/03/19: WJZ: Environmental Groups Challenge Va.'S EPA Lawsuit
  Two environmental groups are challenging Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli's legal action to block federal regulation of greenhouse gases. The Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of Wetlands Watch filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington late Thursday supporting the Environmental Protection Agency's findings that greenhouse gases are dangerous to people. The groups say Cuccinelli's challenge to the EPA findings is an "unwarranted stall tactic" that is a dangerous distraction from the impacts of climate change.

The Climate Change Adaptation Task Force reported this week:

• 2010/03/16: WhiteHouse: [link to 227k pdf] Climate Change Adaptation -- Interim Progress Report
• 2010/03/17: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Climate Change "Pervasive, Wide-Ranging" White House Task Force Reports
• 2010/03/17: CSW: Federal Climate Change Adaptation Task Force progress report shows early steps on a long road
• 2010/03/16: NRDC:SwitchBoard: White House releases Climate Change Adaptation Interim Report

  The Republicans attacked the SEC carbon/risk disclosure rules:

• 2010/03/16: TheHill: House Republicans hit SEC on climate disclosure
  Twenty-one House Republicans led by Rep. Bill Posey (Fla.) are alleging that a Securities and Exchange Commission initiative that presses companies to disclose information about climate risks will hurt corporations and investors alike. In a letter to the SEC Monday, the lawmakers criticize the SEC's recent "guidance" to public companies -- they call it an "onerous new mandate" and note that it wasn't steered through Congress or a formal rule-making process. The lawmakers allege the initiative will create confusion and uncertainty for companies.

The possibility of the EPA limiting CO2 to prevent acidification caught some off guard:

• 2010/03/16: SolveClimate: More Than One Way to Limit Greenhouse Gases: EPA Looks at the Clean Water Act -- Ocean Acidification Lawsuit Opens Another Potential Avenue for Action
• 2010/03/16: NatureTGB: Regulating global warming's 'evil twin'

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2010/03/19: MoJo: Lisa Murkowski: Climate Change Double Agent
  The Alaska Republican talks a good game on global warming -- while blocking efforts to tackle it.
• 2010/03/19: IPSNews: Climate Change: A Year On, Little Change in Political Climate
  This time last year, United States federal legislation on climate change was starting to take shape, seemingly more pressing matters were taking up the bulk of U.S. policymakers' time, and a major climate conference was looming at the end of the year.
• 2010/03/19: ProPublica: Biofuel Tax Credit Language in Final Health Care Bill: Help Us Understand Why

  Kerry-Boxer, Waxman-Markey, KGL or whatever -- the future climate bill -- defines a battleline:

• 2010/03/19: Reuters: Senate climate bill to give free permits: sources
• 2010/03/19: GreenGrok: New Climate Bill: Everything's Coming Up Taxes
• 2010/03/19: Grist: Open letter to Sens. Kerry, Graham, and Lieberman: a bipartisan path forward on energy and climate
• 2010/03/18: Grist: Outline of Kerry-Graham-Lieberman appears to hew to Obama's clean energy principles
• 2010/03/17: ClimateP: Graham, Kerry, Lieberman share details of bipartisan climate and clean energy jobs bill with industry groups
• 2010/03/17: Grist: Christian Coalition backs Sen. Graham on climate legislation
• 2010/03/17: CSW: Is stalled Senate climate legislation action linked to polls suggesting decline in public concern?
• 2010/03/17: NYT:GW: Senators Share Emission Bill's Details With Industry Groups
  Lawmakers at the heart of Senate energy and climate negotiations revealed key details today of their legislative proposal during a closed-door meeting with major industry groups they are courting in hopes of winning over Senate moderates and avoiding an expensive advertising war. Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) shared an eight-page outline of their draft legislation that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next four decades, including provisions to limit business costs while ramping up domestic production of oil, gas and nuclear power. According to several sources in the meeting room, the bill calls for greenhouse gas curbs across multiple economic sectors, with a 2020 target of reducing emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels and an 80 percent limit at midcentury. Power plant emissions would be regulated in 2012, with other major industrial sources being phased in starting in 2016. In a bow to industry demands, the senators' proposal would pre-empt U.S. EPA climate regulations under the Clean Air Act and halt dozens of state climate laws and regulations now on the books. Also, only facilities that release 25,000 tons per year of greenhouse gases must participate in the climate program. Additional layers of certainty for industry come via a "hard price collar" that limits greenhouse gas allowances to between $10 and $30 per ton tagged to inflation, with an increase at a to-be-determined "fixed rate" over time. The legislation would also set aside a "strategic reserve" of 4 billion greenhouse gas credits that could be released into the market to help control price volatility fluctuations.
• 2010/03/18: Reuters: Deal nearing on Senate climate bill: lawmaker
  The Senate is close to wrapping up talks ahead of introducing a compromise climate change bill, said a top Democratic lawmaker who discussed ideas with industry groups on Wednesday. "We're planning to button up our efforts somewhere I hope next week," Senator John Kerry told reporters after meeting with a coalition that represents automakers, forestry and paper companies, Big Oil, steel, mining, electricity and others.
• 2010/03/18: TP:WR: In 'Dear John' Letter, [Senator] Carl Levin (D-Mi) Tries To Limit Promise Of Green Economy
• 2010/03/16: Grist: Is Senator Graham looking for an excuse to bail on climate legislation?
• 2010/03/16: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Federal Climate Bills Can Retool the U.S. Auto Industry to Build the Clean Cars of the Future
• 2010/03/15: SolveClimate: Economists: Graham-Kerry's Sector-Specific Approach to Carbon Limits is Less Efficient -- 'We'll Be Getting Less CO2 Reduction for Our Dollar'
• 2010/03/10: HillHeat: AARP Endorses Cantwell-Collins
• 2010/03/15: HillHeat: Sen. Levin (D-Mich.) Outlines Demands In "Dear John" [Kerry] Letter On Climate
• 2010/03/15: Grist: The other half of Kerry-Graham-Lieberman is weak too
• 2010/03/15: TEC: Sen. Lindsey Graham Says Using Reconciliation for Health Care Threatens Climate Bill

  What are the lobbyists pushing?

• 2010/03/20: TEC: Even the Auto Industry Wants Climate Change Action
• 2010/03/18: TheHill: Auto alliance opposes Murkowski on EPA greenhouse gas regs
  The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers is officially opposed to Sen. Lisa Murkowski's (R-Alaska) effort to block EPA from regulating greenhouse gases through a congressional resolution of disapproval. The Alliance, which includes 11 major carmakers, worries the resolution to overturn EPA's finding that greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare would derail an agreement reached with the Obama administration on higher fuel efficiency standards. The so-called endangerment finding is the legal underpinning of EPA's efforts to regulate carbon emissions. Automakers like the agreement they reached with the administration because it allows them to operate under one federal standard and not the "patchwork quilt" of state fuel efficiency regulations they feared.
• 2010/03/17: DetNews: Automakers urge Congress not to block new emissions limits
• 2010/03/16: TEC: United Auto Workers want EPA Regulation of Carbon

  While in the UK:

• 2010/03/19: Guardian(UK): Aiming for a no-carbon economy -- Taking the 'low-carbon' path means we are designing an economy not fit for purpose
• 2010/03/19: TreeHugger: David Cameron Calls for Carbon Tax on Electricity Generated from Coal and Gas
• 2010/03/19: BNC: Britain's energy future -- political and technical considerations
• 2010/03/18: ABC(Au): Britain bans exaggerated climate change ads
  Britain's advertising standards authority has banned two government advertisements for overstating the risks of climate change.
• 2010/03/16: Guardian(UK): Ten sites named in £4bn UK marine energy project
• 2010/03/17: Guardian(UK): Government to continue climate change ads despite criticism from watchdog
• 2010/03/17: Guardian(UK): Climate change adverts help take debate among public back several years
• 2010/03/17: Guardian(UK): Carbon capture storage will 'generate 100,000 jobs and £6.5bn a year'
• 2010/03/17: KSJT: BBC, more UK Press: Brits' Crown Estate leases Scottish seas for wave & tide energy. Uh... y'mean those contraptions actually work?
• 2010/03/17: PlanetArk: UK Hung Parliament A Threat To New Nuke Plants
• 2010/03/17: NatureTGB: [UK] Government climate change adverts banned
• 2010/03/17: TreeHugger: Is This Ad Too Scary for Television? (Video)
• 2010/03/17: CBC: U.K. climate change ads pulled
• 2010/03/16: BBC: Ads 'exaggerated climate change'
  Two government press adverts which used nursery rhymes to raise awareness of climate change have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). It said the advertisements went beyond mainstream scientific consensus in asserting that climate change would cause flooding and drought. A total of 939 people complained to the ASA about the "Act on CO2" campaign.
• 2010/03/15: NYT:CW: U.K. Faces a Major Skills Shortage as Renewable Energy Deadline Looms
  The United Kingdom is facing a crisis that could cripple its efforts to massively boost the amount of electricity it gets from renewable energy sources and cut greenhouse gas emissions -- both within the next decade. It simply does not have enough engineers, designers, scientists, physicists and mathematicians to do the job, let alone enough skilled technicians to install and connect the machinery.
• 2010/03/15: BBC: Coal power station plan under way

  And in Europe:

• 2010/03/19: EurActiv: Oil industry emissions 'underestimated', study warns
  An underestimation of the expected surge in emissions from oil-based fossil fuels could undermine the EU's climate goals, the European Biodiesel Board (EBB) warned yesterday (18 March). Greenhouse gas emissions from oil will reach record levels in future, according to a new study presented by the EBB. It urged the European Commission to take this into account in the implementation of its fuel quality and renewable energy directives so as not to give fossil fuels an advantage over other fuels.
• 2010/03/19: EurActiv: Czech energy giant slowly turning green
  The Czech Republic's leading power company, CEZ, has promised to turn to energy efficiency and environmentally-friendly projects, but local NGOs say it must still improve its green energy strategy. EurActiv Czech Republic reports.
• 2010/03/19: EUO: EU climate chief pessimistic after US visit
  EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard has ended meetings with her various US counterparts dejected by uncertainty as to whether Washington will be able to pass badly-needed climate legislation in time for a summit Mexico.
• 2010/03/18: EarthTimes: Czech minister resigns over CEZ power plant renovation
• 2010/03/18: Reuters: Czech minister quits over controversial power plant
  Czech Environment Minister Jan Dusik resigned Thursday from the caretaker cabinet, saying the prime minister had put pressure on him to decide hastily on plans to upgrade a controversial large coal-fired power plant.
• 2010/03/18: EurActiv: Draft EU gas regulation under Parliament scrutiny
  A European Commission proposal to improve security of gas supplies following last year's price dispute between Russia and Ukraine has inspired 614 amendments from members of the European Parliament.
• 2010/03/18: EarthTimes: [Green] Czech minister resigns over CEZ [coal] power plant renovation
• 2010/03/18: PressEurop: Czech Republic - Speculators reach for the sun
  Buoyed by bountiful state subsidies, the Czech solar sector is booming. Investors the world over are rushing in to snatch up this manna, with little thought to the ecological aims, bemoans Mladá Fronta DNES.
• 2010/03/17: EurActiv: Potocnik calls for 'profound greening' of EU farm policies
  Sustainable agricultural practices play a crucial role in ensuring both environmental and food security, as farmers manage up to 50% of EU land, participants in an agriculture forum stressed yesterday (16 March). Addressing the 3rd Forum for the Future of Agriculture in Brussels, EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik even went as far as saying he sees "somewhere in the future" an EU policy called the 'Common Agricultural and Environmental Policy'. "We need nothing less than a CAP [Common Agricultural Policy] that respects [soil and water] and promotes practices that use them in a sustainable and resource-efficient way. We also need a CAP that can invest in protecting and restoring them when they have been degraded, contaminated or polluted," Potocnik continued, calling for a "profound greening" of the CAP.
• 2010/03/17: PlanetArk: Czechs Seek To Temper Solar Investment Boom
  The Czech Republic does not spring to mind as one of Europe's hot spots, yet an over-used subsidy scheme has created a bonanza for solar power that has ignited fears of a spike in energy prices and grid instability. Lawmakers are now gearing up to cut the country's generous solar incentives, which investors say is needed to cool off the boom that made the Czechs the third-largest builders of solar capacity behind Germany and Italy last year.
• 2010/03/17: PlanetArk: Poland Moves To End Dispute With EC On Carbon
  Poland will ask the European Commission for a new carbon dioxide emission permits quota of 208.5 million tons a year, it said in a statement on Tuesday, in a compromise likely to help end a long dispute with Brussels. Poland had originally requested 284.6 million a year of the permits, called EUAs, under the bloc's scheme to fight global warming. But it was only given 208.5 million by the European Commission. A European tribunal then ruled that the decision to grant Warsaw the lower amount was unjustified, opening the way for new negotiations. "We were arguing for more, but the Commission was arguing for an even tighter limit than 208.5 and that's what we have settled for," a Polish source close to the negotiations told Reuters.
• 2010/03/16: EurActiv: EU emissions target compromises green jobs, Greens warn
  The EU needs to up its emission reduction target if it is to create green jobs, especially now that the economic crisis has brought the bloc's current goals within easy reach, Green MEPs warned yesterday (15 March).
• 2010/03/16: EurActiv: Commission holds on to soil protection law
  Amid resistance from EU ministers, Environment Commissioner Janez Potoc(nik has defended an EU directive on soil by claiming that national policies are not delivering and land management increasingly affects cross-border issues like climate change, biodiversity and water pollution.
• 2010/03/16: PlanetArk: EU Backs U.N. Climate Report Despite Skepticism
• 2010/03/15: Reuters: Germany may delay some [FIT] solar incentive cuts
  Germany may delay some proposed cuts in solar incentives, granting a longer-than-expected grace period to players in the world's biggest solar market, according to a draft law obtained by Reuters on Monday.
• 2010/03/16: IOL: EU backs UN climate report despite scepticism
• 2010/03/16: EarthTimes: EU pushes rich states on fast-start climate funding
• 2010/03/15: EurActiv: Climate target divides environment ministers
  EU environment ministers are meeting today (15 March) to debate their strategy for international climate negotiations, but no consensus is emerging about whether the EU should raise its target for greenhouse gas emission reductions for 2020. One of the central topics to be discussed is whether the EU should hold on to its pledge to reduce emissions by 30% by 2020 only if other countries make similar moves, or make the upgrade unilaterally, diplomats said. Eastern European countries are taking the approach that the EU must first come up with a methodology to analyse how other countries' pledges compare, one senior official said. Other sceptics of a unilateral move include Italy and Finland. Their approach is contrasted by a group of Western member states including the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, which think it is in Europe's own interest to move to 30%, the diplomat explained. Currently, the EU has a unilateral goal of reducing its emissions by 20% by 2020.
• 2010/03/15: Times(UK): Energy bills to go up with tough EU clampdown on greenhouse gas emissions

  Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2010/03/20: SMH: Home insulation scheme worth keeping, say green groups
• 2010/03/18: Reuters: Australian laws to promote building efficiency
  Owners of large commercial buildings in Australia will have to disclose energy efficiency information when putting buildings up for sale or lease, under laws introduced in parliament on Thursday. Assistant Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said the laws were designed to promote energy efficiency in large commercial buildings, and will help Australia curb greenhouse gas emissions, blamed for global warming.
• 2010/03/16: ABC(Au): Opposition rejects climate plan study
  The Federal Opposition has rejected a new study which says the Coalition's climate plan will not cut emissions by as much as it claims. ClimateWorks Australia has made the finding while devising its own plan combining the Government's carbon-price and the Opposition's direct-action measures.
• 2010/03/16: ABC(Au): Climate change report sparks renewable energy push
  A Latrobe Valley environmental group says a report by two leading science agencies justifies a push to phase out coal-fired power. The report by the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology says Australia is experiencing climate change, with more extremely hot days and fewer cold ones.
• 2010/03/16: ABC(Au): McGauran attacks CSIRO on climate change
  A Liberal Senator has accused the Federal Government of turning the CSIRO into a political puppet on the issue of climate change. Victorian Senator Julian McGauran made the comments following the release of a CSIRO report which concluded that climate change is affecting Australia and humans are contributing to it.
• 2010/03/16: ABC(Au): A$20m deal offers solar power station hope
  There has been another step forward for Mildura's A$400 million solar power station. The Sydney-based solar panel manufacturer Silex this morning completed its acquisition of the assets of the troubled former owner Solar Systems.
• 2010/03/16: ABC(Au): A federal parliamentary report on the effects of climate change on farming has called for better counselling services in rural areas
• 2010/03/15: ABC(Au): Former opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull says Tony Abbott's decision last year to ditch Coalition support for an emissions trading scheme (ETS) was motivated by politics, not policy.
• 2010/03/16: ABC(Au): Climate blueprint could slash emissions
  A new report says Australia could cut its emissions by 25 per cent by 2020 through measures which would cost households less than $4 a week. ClimateWorks Australia, a partnership between Monash University and the philanthropic Myer Foundation, is launching the report today and hopes the new blueprint will kickstart the stalled climate debate. The detailed report is broadly a hybrid of the Government and Opposition's positions, but promises to deliver carbon reductions five times greater than the two major parties have promised.

And in the Indian subcontinent:

• 2010/03/18: PeakEnergy: India Said to Propose Sovereign Fund for Oil Assets
• 2010/03/17: NBF: Russia has a Deal to Build 16 Nuclear Reactors in India and Other World Nuclear News
• 2010/03/16: CCurrents: Water Wisdom by Vandana Shiva

  While in China:

• 2010/03/20: People's Daily: China speeds up offshore wind power construction
  China will give top priority to developing offshore wind power projects to boost its flourishing wind power industry in 2010, according to a senior energy official . The government would put large-scale offshore wind power concession projects out to tender, said Shi Lishan, deputy director of the New Energy and Renewable Energy Department of the National Energy Bureau at a recent seminar sponsored by Chinese Renewable Energy Industry Association (CREIA).
• 2010/03/18: DallasNews: Report says China is squeezing U.S. firms out of its massive wind-power market

  And in Japan:

• 2010/03/21: Yahoo:AFP: Japan planning 14 nuclear plants: report
• 2010/03/18: WorldChanging: Japan, China, and the Low-Carbon Economy
• 2010/03/15: PlanetArk: Japan Faces Rocky Path To Emissions Trading System

  While elsewhere in Asia:

• 2010/03/19: PlanetArk: South Korea Green Growth To Hurt Environment: Report

  And in Russia:

• 2010/03/18: EarthTimes: Russia sticks with aim of 26 new nuclear plants says Putin

  In Africa:

• 2010/03/17: BBC: Africa 'lacks climate vocabulary'

  And South America:

• 2010/03/17: PlanetArk: Brazil To Invest $57 Billion In Electricity By 2013

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

• 2010/03/19: G&M: How the Conservatives dodged the climate bullet
  Is dropping any real pretense to enviro-concern the wisest political move for a minority government?
• 2010/03/17: CanWest: Binding climate treaty may take years, Prentice says
  It could take years to turn last December's international climate change agreement into a legally binding treaty, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said on Tuesday. Speaking to a parliamentary committee reviewing spending in his department, Prentice said the international community likely would continue negotiating future commitments and conditions of a treaty to reduce heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere and adapt to climate change well beyond the end of 2010.
• 2010/03/15: CanWest: Privacy rules hinder investigation of rogue scientists -- Government wants stiffer rules for publically funded researchers
  The federal government has been pushing Canada's largest research council to release the names of scientists who fudge research results, plagiarize reports or misspend grant money, according to federal documents obtained by Canwest News Service. But the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council has yet to change its rules, despite pointed recommendations from its political masters. The council, which distributes $1 billion in federal funding every year to thousands of researchers across the country, says federal privacy laws prevent it from identifying scientists involved in misconduct, or their universities.
• 2010/03/15: G&M: Jim Prentice reaches out amid climate backlash

  Besides being defunded, Canadian scientists are being muzzled by the Tories:

• 2010/03/15: CAN: [link to 365k pdf] New report details government actions that undermine research into the science of climate change
• 2010/03/18: ECO-CAN: Report Claims, Canadian Government 'Hiding Truth About Climate Change'
• 2010/03/17: ClimateP: Leaked document reveals Canadian federal climate scientists being muzzled from media contact
• 2010/03/18: Guardian(UK): Canadian government 'hiding truth about climate change', report claims
  Canada's climate researchers are being muzzled, their funding slashed, research stations closed, findings ignored and advice on the critical issue of the century unsought by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, according to a 40-page report by a coalition of 60 non-governmental organisations. "This government says they take climate change seriously but they do nothing and try to hide the truth about climate change," said Graham Saul, representing Climate Action Network Canada (CAN), which produced the report "Troubling Evidence". "We want Canadians to understand what's going on with this government," Saul told IPS.
• 2010/03/18: G&M: It's a tough climate for Elizabeth May and the Greens -- She owns the environment issue, but that suits her poorly
• 2010/03/15: CSW: Leaked document says Canadian federal climate scientists being blocked from media contact
• 2010/03/14: CTV: Scientists warn of demise of Canadian climate research
• 2010/03/15: DeSmogBlog: Is Canadian Government Muzzling the Messengers?
• 2010/03/14: Yahoo:CP: Demise of Canadian climate research would impact global initiatives: scientists
  When government funding for a foundation dedicated to climate research dries up at the end of the year, scientists say the aftershocks of its departure will be felt not only in Canada but by researchers around the globe. The 2010 federal budget, unveiled this month, offered no new cash to the decade-old Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences, a group that has been financing research on everything from melting glaciers to drought on the Prairies to the thawing permafrost.
• 2010/03/15: CanWest: Climate-change scientists feel 'muzzled': documents -- Communications policy reduces interviews by 80%
  A dramatic reduction in Canadian media coverage of climate change science issues is the result of the Harper government introducing new rules in 2007 to control interviews by Environment Canada scientists with journalists, says a newly released federal document. "Scientists have noticed a major reduction in the number of requests, particularly from high profile media, who often have same-day deadlines," said the Environment Canada document. "Media coverage of climate change science, our most high-profile issue, has been reduced by over 80 per cent." The analysis reviewed the impact of a new federal communications policy at Environment Canada, which required senior federal scientists to seek permission from the government prior to giving interviews. In many cases, the policy also required them to get approval from supervisors of written responses to the questions submitted by journalists before any interview, said the document, obtained in an investigation into the government's views and policies on global-warming science that was conducted by Climate Action Network Canada, a coalition of environmental groups.

Harper is madly spinning over abortion. His base disapproves:

• 2010/03/20: ChronicleHerald: Harper needs lessons on facts of life
  Stephen Harper says he won't close the door on offering family planning services to the world's poorest women as part of his much-touted maternal health strategy.
  Not good enough.
  Let's see concrete plans and directed funding and an acknowledgement that family planning -- that's contraception AND abortion -- is central to sexual health, and without it, our big plan to wow the G8 is a laughingstock.
• 2010/03/19: Guardian(UK): Does the Canadian government, G8 president, oppose family planning in Africa?
• 2010/03/19: BCLSB: A Meeting Of Minds...Harper's reversal/capitulation on contraception...
• 2010/03/18: CBC: Contraception 'option' in maternal health plan
• 2010/03/19: EdSun: Easy ammunition on family planning
  Stephen Harper has so botched up the government spin promoting maternal and child health during the G8 that he's left the impression he's against contraception. Perception is everything in politics so the PM had better clarify the situation before ... well, before he feels the need for another prorogation to escape the opposition. Consider this zinger from NDP Leader Jack Layton the other day: "Is Canada's signature initiative at the G8 going to be the 'no condoms for Africa' strategy?" Likewise, Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett wondered whether the Conservatives were going to follow in the footsteps of the right-wing administration of former U.S. president George W. Bush. For some reason, the Tories have been reluctant to include reproductive health issues, such as contraception, as part of their maternal health initiative during the June G8.
• 2010/03/19: TStar: Bible, not medical texts, guide Harper
  Did Prime Minister Stephen Harper put a condom instead of a thinking cap on his head when, two months ago, he announced his now internationally ridiculed policy on "maternal and child health" that he's going to promote at the coming G8 summit? How else to explain his intransigence on women's access to family planning -- as if a mother's ability to have no more babies than she can feed, clothe and protect has nothing to do with either's health? Has he never heard the expression AIDS orphan? Obstetric fistula? High-risk pregnancy? And we're not even talking about abortion here. This is about the pill, IUDs, diaphragms ... and education. Sure Harper appeared to flip-flop Thursday by saying he's not "closing doors" but so far they've been slammed shut.
• 2010/03/17: ACR: RIP common sense and medical science
• 2010/03/17: G&M: Conservatives accused of 'willfully ignoring' contraception research
  Jack Layton accused Stephen Harper today of adopting a "no-condoms-for-Africa strategy" for the government's signature initiative at this summer's G8 summit. The NDP Leader said it was "incredible" that "the Foreign Minister is going around saying that contraception does not save lives." He added: "How can a program aimed at reducing maternal mortality not allow for any contraception as part of the program?" Mr. Layton was raising concerns about comments made by Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon yesterday that birth control will not be part of the "signature" G8 initiative on maternal health. Mr. Cannon told a Commons committee the government's plan is aimed at saving lives of mothers in poor countries and contraception doesn't fit with that. But neither Mr. Cannon nor the Prime Minister, who were both in Question Period, responded. Rather, International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda fielded the questions, sticking closely to her script.

The Tories voted contrary to most Canadians' wishes at the CITES conference:

• 2010/03/16: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Canada Rejects Wishes of Canadians and the Spirit of CITES [polar bear]
• 2010/03/16: HS: Poll Shows Canadians Support Banning Trade of Polar Bear Parts
  Overwhelming majority of Canadians support CITES ban on commercial trade in polar bear parts

The Mackenzie Valley pipeline got pushed back 5 years:

• 2010/03/17: CBC: Mackenzie pipeline needs push: backer
  More delays for the $16.2-billion Mackenzie natural gas project could hurt those in the Northwest Territories waiting for Arctic gas to start flowing, but one of the project's backers remains hopeful the pipeline will become reality. "People should not be concerned," says Fred Carmichael of the Aboriginal Pipeline Group, one of the companies in the pipeline consortium led by Imperial Oil.
• 2010/03/15: CBC: Mackenzie pipeline delayed again -- Start date moved back five years
  The companies proposing to build the $16.2-billion Mackenzie Gas pipeline again delayed its proposed startup date on Monday. The leader of the consortium behind the long-delayed project -- Calgary-based Imperial Oil Ltd. -- said natural gas could start flowing from the Beaufort Sea in 2018 at the earliest.

BC was shaken up by a forestry report, which was almost immediately denied:

• 2010/03/18: CanWest: Pine beetle epidemic will have continent-wide economic impact: report
  A new report on the mountain pine beetle epidemic describes it as one of North America's largest natural environmental disasters that will put an estimated 16 major sawmills out of business in B.C. and lead to long-term lumber shortages in the United States. Canadian lumber production is not expected to recover for the remainder of the century, one of the report authors said Thursday. "We sort of think lumber production has peaked forever, at least relative to our lifetimes and our children's lifetimes." said Russell Taylor, president of the International Wood Markets Group. The Vancouver-based consulting company is one of three consultants who prepared the report for lumber industry clients. Interior sawmills are expected to start running out of good timber within three to five years according to the report.
• 2010/03/19: CBC: Pine beetle won't kill forestry, B.C. says
  The pine beetle attack won't wipe out B.C.'s Interior forest industry -- despite pessimistic predictions in a recent report -- the province's forests minister says. Pat Bell was commenting on a forecast by analysts at Vancouver's International Wood Markets Group, which warns the peak of sawlog availability will occur within three to five years, after which the B.C. Interior's industry is headed for serious downsizing.

Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2010/03/20: CSun: Time to fight back against tarsands propaganda
• 2010/03/18: Reuters: U.S. mustn't discriminate against Canadian oil sands [says Canada's ambassador in Washington]
• 2010/03/17: CanWest: Pembina gives low grades to deep oilsands projects
  A study of nine in-situ oilsands projects by the Pembina Institute found some posed environmental impacts as serious as surface mining and need more scrutiny from regulators.
• 2010/03/18: OilsandsWatch: [link to 4.7 meg pdf] Drilling Deeper: The In Situ Oil Sands Report Card
• 2010/03/18: PlanetArk: More Regulation Needed For Canada Oil Sands: Report [Drilling Deeper: the In Situ Oil Sands Report Card]
• 2010/03/17: CBC: Alberta fights anti-oilsands 'propaganda' -- Aims to combat 'environmental correctness'
  The Alberta government will roll out initiatives over the next few weeks to combat what it calls "propaganda campaigns" against the province's oilsands projects. Energy Minister Ron Liepert says both the province and the oil and gas industry are under attack from well-funded international groups.
• 2010/03/16: CanWest: Environmentalists open two fronts in oilsands fight -- Industry on offensive after release of documentary, WWF report
  Canada's oilsands were the target of a major public relations offensive in Britain on Monday with the nationwide première of the film Dirty Oil narrated by Canadian actor Neve Campbell, and the simultaneous release of a World Wildlife Fund report claiming that a host of global ills -- including four million child deaths annually from poor sanitation and other causes -- could be prevented by diverting the billions being invested by oil giants in Alberta to UN health programs. "This report has thrown up some quite staggering statistics in terms of how this money could be spent trying to save the planet rather than destroying it," said Colin Butfield, the WWF's head of campaigns in Britain, in a statement announcing the study. The latest public relations salvo against the oilsands industry is part of an ongoing battle by British environmentalists and ethical-investment advocates to discourage multinational petroleum companies such as BP and Shell from increasing their stakes in the contentious Canadian energy source.
• 2010/03/15: TreeHugger: Tar Sands Are Misplaced Money - Same Amount Could Decarbonize Europe or Lift Nations Out of Poverty
• 2010/03/15: OilChange: Dirty Oil Money Could Fund Clean Energy Or Water [tar sands opportunity cost]
• 2010/03/15: WWF(UK): Tar sands billions could be better spent
• 2010/03/15: Guardian(UK): Money spent on tar sands projects could decarbonise western economies

  Well, now we know how effective that shareholder's revolt was:

• 2010/03/15: Reuters: BP takes stake in planned oil sands project
  BP Plc..., will take a majority stake in a Canadian oil sands property owned by closely held Value Creation Inc, marking the British oil major's second oil sands deal in a week as it looks to build a presence in the crude-rich region. Value Creation said BP agreed to develop and operate the 185,000-acre Terre de Grace block in northern Alberta. Terms were not disclosed but Columba Yeung, Value Creation's chief executive, said the final price will depend on the results of drilling undertaken by the partners to determine the size of the property's reserves.

Also in Alberta:

• 2010/03/15: CBC: Ensign profits drop 69 per cent -- Praises Alberta's cuts to royalties
  Calgary-based Ensign Energy Services Inc. reported a 69 per cent drop in fourth-quarter profits Monday. The oil and gas drilling company earned $22.6 million, or 15 cents per share, in the last three months of 2009 compared with $73.8 million, or 48 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

In Manitoba:

• 2010/03/20: MetroNews: 13 stranded after ice roads turned to mud rescued, says Manitoba Mounties
  Muddy ice roads that stranded dozens of drivers in the wilderness and prompted 16 northern Manitoba First Nations to declare a state of emergency are proof that permanent all-season roads are needed, the province's grand chief said Friday. Ron Evans, head of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, said this year's early closure of the winter routes has left communities without building supplies and with a dwindling stockpile of fuel and food.
• 2010/03/20: CBC: Dozens stuck on impassable Manitoba roads
  Officials say 81 people -- including about a dozen who were thought to be missing -- are stuck on winter roads in northern Manitoba that have turned to mush.
• 2010/03/19: CCP: Northern Canadian First Nations declare state of emergency on melting ice roads
• 2010/03/17: SpaceDaily: Early thaw strands trucks on Canadian winter roads
• 2010/03/17: CBC: Stuck Manitoba truckers waiting for help
  Some trucking companies are still trying to figure out a way to get stranded drivers back from the shores of Wrong Lake in northern Manitoba. At least half a dozen semi-trailer units became mired when mild temperatures turned frozen roads into soft mud.
• 2010/03/16: CBC: Melting ice roads strand truck drivers

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

• 2010/03/20: TStar: Ontario slaps new 'green' tax on electricity bills -- Levy will cover Liberal conservation programs
  Ontario electricity customers will soon be slapped with an additional tax to cover $53 million of the Liberal government's new conservation and green energy programs, the Star has learned. The levy will appear on hydro bills just as the 13 per cent harmonized sales tax is about to be charged and as smart meters are being phased in, which one industry insider described as "a perfect storm" for consumers already rattled by rising energy costs.
• 2010/03/21: G&M: Critics slam Ontario Liberals' green-energy levy
  Government insists cost will amount to $4 per year, but opposition says consumers have it bad enough with HST

While in la Belle Province:

• 2010/03/16: CanWest: Jean Charest's green smokescreen -- The Quebec Premier's environmental posturing masks his dependence on Albertan oil money

  And in the Maritimes:

• 2010/03/20: CBC: N.B. Power protest rally draws hundreds
  Hundreds of people from across New Brunswick are protesting the proposed sale of some of NB Power's assets to Hydro-Québec, in a rally Saturday afternoon on the front lawn of the legislative assembly. Organizers claim it is the largest to date in a series of protests against the proposed $3.2-billion power deal. The front lawn of the legislative assembly is packed with people, many carrying placards demanding that the public utility keep all of its assets.

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

• 2010/03/21: OilDrum: Politics and Peak Energy
• 2010/03/20: EnergyBulletin: The net energy of pre-industrial agriculture
• 2010/03/18: SciAm: Breaking the Growth Habit: A Q&A with Bill McKibben
  If humankind is to survive, it must change society's economic model from relentless, unbridled growth to maintenance of wealth and resources
• 2010/03/19: HotTopic: This perfect storm of calamities...
• 2010/03/18: RWeyler: Who negotiates for nature?
• 2010/03/01: FPR: Perils of the Stationary State
• 2010/03/18: AlterNet: We Stand on the Cusp of one of Humanity's Most Dangerous Moments
• 2010/03/15: Fool:CAPS: What is "Unsustainable" Really?
• 2010/03/16: AlterNet: Our Obsession With Stuff Is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities and Our Health
• 2010/03/15: EnergyBulletin: Which Train Is Leaving The Station?
• 2010/03/15: OilDrum: What is the Minimum EROI that a Sustainable Society Must Have? Part 1: Surplus Energy and Biological Evolution
• 2010/03/15: AlterNet: The Woman Who Just Might Save the Planet and Our Pocketbooks

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

• PBronson: Population, Over Population, Growth, On-Going Growth, Limits to Growth

  Apocalypso anyone?

• 2010/03/19: CCurrents: Zero Point Of Systemic Collapse
• 2010/03/16: PeakEnergy: Survivalism is the New Black?

  As for how the media handles the science of climatology:

• 2010/03/15: PRWatch: Over Half of News Stories are Spin
• 2010/03/18: ClimateShifts: Viscount Monckton gets ~20X the media cover in Oz than James Hansen
• 2010/03/17: ManuelMoeG: Complicity and Sympathy for Comforting but False & Dangerous Ideas
• 2010/03/17: ERabett: Large bird whistle posting
• 2010/03/15: Crikey: Over half your news is spin
  [...] Under UTS' Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ) head Wendy Bacon ... more than 40 students have got up close and personal with the sticky end of the spin cycle. They've had to analyse, critique, question and then pick up the phone to ask the hard questions of the media and its reliance on public relations to drive news. Hard questions, because this is what came out in the wash: after analysing a five-day working week in the media, across 10 hard-copy papers, ACIJ and Crikey found that nearly 55% of stories analysed were driven by some form of public relations. The Daily Telegraph came out on top of the league ladder with 70% of stories analysed triggered by public relations. The Sydney Morning Herald gets the wooden spoon with (only) 42% PR-driven stories for that week.
• 2010/03/17: GWWatch: How climate denial really works
• 2010/03/17: GWWatch: How climate denial really works #2: 50% of news is spin
• 2010/03/16: TP:WR: New York Times Science Desk 'Doubts That Human-Induced Global Warming Represents A Serious Threat'
• 2010/03/15: DeSmogBlog: Stanford Study Confirms That "Balanced" Media Stories Quoting Skeptics Mislead The Public
• 2010/03/16: ClimateP: Science Times stunner: "... a majority of the section's editorial staff doubts that human-induced global warming represents a serious threat to humanity."
• 2010/03/15: ClimateP: [Former NYT Executive Editor] Howell Raines: "Why has our profession ... helped Fox legitimize a style of journalism that is dishonest in its intellectual process, untrustworthy in its conclusions and biased in its gestalt?"
• 2010/03/15: Deltoid: Leakegate: Is that true, or did you read it in the The Times?

  While activists search for effective communication techniques:

• 2010/03/16: ClimateP: How to be as persuasive as Abe Lincoln and Marc Antony, Part 2: Use irony, the twist we can't resist
• 2010/03/15: CSM: As Climate Change debate wages on, scientists turn to Hollywood for help
  Keeping the public looped in on what scientists are discovering has never been easy. For one thing, the traditional explainers -- journalists -- can distort, hype, or oversimplify the latest breakthroughs. But the need to communicate science broadly and clearly has never been more urgent. Understanding science helps people know "where the truth speakers are on an issue" such as climate change, says Robert Semper, the executive associate director of the Exploratorium, a hands-on science center in San Francisco. "The more educated and knowledgeable the public is about science ... the more responsible they can be when it comes time for voting or expressing opinions about public policy," adds Leslie Fink, a public affairs specialist at the National Science Foundation in Washington. The importance of getting the word out has science organizations scrambling to explore new channels, from souped up websites to asking Hollywood for help. The current climate-change furor has become the poster child for what happens when there's a communications gap between scientists and the public. The vast majority of scientists see compelling evidence that the world's climate is about to change significantly, and that the change is largely driven by human activity. Yet polls show public opinion becoming more skeptical about climate change.

First there was framing, now neuroframing:

• 2010/03/16: SciAm: "Neuroframing" the global warming issue won't win converts

  And censorship:

• 2010/03/19: MongaBay: Nestle's attempt to censor Greenpeace palm oil ad backfires
• 2010/03/19: Grist: Greenpeace won't give Nestle a break from palm oil candy bars
• 2010/03/18: PlanetArk: Nestle Says Drops Palm Oil Supplier [Sinar Mas] After Report

  The ABC Chairman stirred up a hornet's nest:

• 2010/03/19: SMH: ABC should be praised for fair reports on climate change -- An open letter to Mr Maurice Newman, Chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
• 2010/03/20: ERabett: Suggestions needed [Newman]
• 2010/03/18: Deltoid: ABC Chairman smears journalists, scientists

  Here is something for your library:

• 2010/03/19: HotTopic: [Book Review] _Requiem for a Species: Why We Resist the Truth About Climate Change_ by Clive Hamilton

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2010/03/21: HotTopic: Fabulous bad weather
• 2010/03/17: Deltoid: Flogging the scientists [Sinclair video]
• 2010/03/16: TreeHugger: How Climate Disinformation Spreads (Sinclair Video)

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2010/03/18: WaPo: Climate change cited as Mont. leases suspended
  A federal judge has approved a first-of-its-kind settlement requiring the government to suspend 38,000 acres of oil and gas leases in Montana so it can gauge how oil field activities contribute to climate change. At issue are the greenhouse gases emitted by drilling machinery and industry practices such as venting natural gas directly into the atmosphere.
• 2010/03/19: IoD: Now, this is interesting...
• 2010/03/19: PlanetArk: Ecuadoreans Appeal Allowing Of Chevron Arbitration
  Ecuadorean plaintiffs have appealed a U.S. judge's decision to allow Chevron Corp to seek arbitration of a case of alleged pollution in the Amazon rainforest with a potential $27 billion liability. The plaintiffs, indigenous Ecuadoreans, filed the notice of appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit on Thursday, a week after a judge ruled in favor of the second-largest U.S. oil company in its efforts to seek international arbitration. Chevron cites violations under the U.S.-Ecuador Bilateral Investment Treaty in the case, which was originally filed in New York in 1993 and is now being heard by a court in Ecuador. The company says Ecuador breached the treaty by not forcing that court to dismiss the lawsuit, in which indigenous people say Texaco, bought by Chevron in 2001, damaged their health and the forest and polluted rivers while operating there.
• 2010/03/19: Missoulian: [U.S. District Judge Donald] Molloy suspends oil and gas leases, cites lack of climate-change analysis
  A federal judge in Missoula has approved a first-of-its-kind settlement requiring the government to suspend 38,000 acres of oil and gas leases in Montana so it can gauge how oilfield activities contribute to climate change. At issue are the greenhouse gases emitted by drilling machinery and industry practices such as venting natural gas directly into the atmosphere. Environmentalists - who sued when the Montana leases were sold in 2008 - argued the industry has allowed too much waste and uses inefficient technologies that could easily be updated. Under the deal approved Thursday by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy, the Bureau of Land Management will suspend the 61 leases in Montana within 90 days. They will have to go through a new round of environmental reviews before the suspensions can be lifted.
• 2010/03/18: NatureTGB: Sweet ruling for GM beets
  Planting of genetically modified sugar beets can go forward in the United States this spring after a March 16 federal court ruling.
• 2010/03/15: ABC(Au): New legal panel to focus on climate change
  The Victorian Bar is forming a panel of barristers to specialise in cases involving climate change. It is expecting to have a heavy workload, testing out new government regulations likely to be introduced to deal with global warming. Melbourne barrister Adrian Finanzio says, like it or not, climate change and lawyers have a lot in common.
• 2010/03/15: AlterNet: Big Oil Wreaks Havoc in the Amazon, But Communities Are Fighting Back

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

• 2010/03/20: BBerg: China Huaneng Aims to Produce 35% of Power From Clean Energy
• 2010/03/21: PeakEnergy: Clean Energy 2010 Trending Up
• 2010/03/20: PhysOrg: Ore. town uses geothermal energy to stay warm
• 2010/03/19: TEC: The Need for Reliable Energy Data
• 2010/03/18: EnvFin: 1.2GW of wave and tidal power for Scottish waters
• 2010/03/18: EnvFin: Clean energy grows, but solar revenues dip
• 2010/03/18: MSNBC: Gas prices highest level since 2008 -- Cost has jumped 18.9 cents a gallon in the past month
• 2010/03/17: BBC: Iran tightens petrol rations
  Iran has announced it will cut the volume of its cheap petrol ration by 25% to 60 litres per vehicle per month from 21 March. Currently, each vehicle is allowed a quota of 80 litres of fuel at 10 cents a litre, with any amount needed on top of that priced at 40 cents. That compares to a UK price that has been averaging £1.12 a litre ($1.68) and is forecast to reach £1.20.
• 2010/03/19: TreeHugger: How Vulnerable is Your State to an Oil Price Spike?
• 2010/03/19: PeakEnergy: Geothermal energy trials begin near Geelong, Victoria
• 2010/03/19: SeekingAlpha: The U.S. No Longer Controls the Price of Oil
• 2010/03/18: ClimateP: Big oil and coal jump on the natural gas bandwagon -- But continue to oppose clean energy future -- and diss natural gas!
• 2010/03/18: TEC: Britain's energy future -- political and technical considerations
• 2010/03/17: SF Gate: Renewable energy strong despite recession
  A devastating recession slowed but did not stop the clean energy industry's growth in 2009, a report [Clean Energy Trends report from the Clean Edge Inc] issued Tuesday found.
• 2010/03/17: NBF: US Oil Production Will Increase with Offshore Oil, Bakken Oil and New California Oil
• 2010/03/17: BBerg: Renewable Energy Investment May Reach $200 Billion in 2010
• 2010/03/17: PlanetArk: Waste Management To Deploy First Plasma Gasification System
  S4 Energy Solutions LLC, a joint venture by Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE: WM) and InEnTec LLC, announced plans to develop a plasma gasification facility at Waste Management's Columbia Ridge Landfill in Arlington, Oregon. The planned facility will convert municipal solid waste into fuels and energy. Construction is expected to begin in the early summer, with startup scheduled by year end.
• 2010/03/17: TreeHugger: Revenues for Solar PV, Wind, and Biofuels Expand by 11.4% to $139.1B in 2009
• 2010/03/17: Eureka: Layered graphene sheets could solve hydrogen storage issues
• 2010/03/16: EnergyDaily: All renewables: How realistic is it?
  
Europe can meet 100 percent of its power supply from renewable sources by 2050 if countries work together and massively invest in grids and storage, experts and politicians say. "This is not utopia but a vision that can be realized," Michaele Schreyer, a former European Commission member, said Tuesday at an energy conference in Berlin organized by the German Green Party-affiliated Heinrich Boell Foundation.
• 2010/03/11: LA Times: Oil companies look at permanent refinery cutbacks
• 2010/03/16: NewScientist: Crystals + sound + water = clean hydrogen fuel
• 2010/03/16: PhysOrg: Clouds and the Alternative Energy Grid
  California's goal of generating 33 percent of its power from renewable energy sources by 2020 will be challenging on days when clouds shade acres of solar photovoltaic panels or when thousands of wind turbines spin more slowly during calm weather. However, researchers at the University of California, San Diego are developing sophisticated forecasting tools that will give California electricity distributors advance notice of meteorological changes that affect solar output. The technology is being developed to allow energy suppliers to more efficiently schedule their fossil-fuel fired plants or energy-storage facilities to meet the state's demand for electricity.
• 2010/03/16: PhysOrg: Frogs, Foam and Fuel: Researchers Convert Solar Energy to Sugars
  Engineers from the University of Cincinnati devise a foam that captures energy and removes excess carbon dioxide from the air -- thanks to semi-tropical frogs.
• 2010/03/15: BBC: China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) is paying $3.1bn (£2bn) for a 50% stake in Argentine oil and gas group Bridas Corporation
• 2010/03/16: BBC: 'Milestone' for wave energy plans
  Ten sites on the seabed off the north coast of Scotland have been leased out to power companies in an effort to generate wave and tidal energy.
• 2010/03/15: TreeHugger: Turning Wasteful Gas Flares Into Useful Liquid Fuel
• 2010/03/14: EnergyBulletin: The curious return of coaldung fuelballs [in the hills of western India]

  Fracking is back:

• 2010/03/20: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Another state acknowledges the need to update oil and gas rules
• 2010/03/19: PlanetArk: EPA Begins Study On Shale Gas Drilling
• 2010/03/18: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Today's reports of spills from natural gas operations
• 2010/03/19: TEC: EPA's Plan to Spend $1.9 Million to Study Health, Environmental Impacts of Fracking

  The answer my friend...:

• 2010/03/19: BBC: An application for a 132-wind turbine project in southern Scotland has been submitted to the Scottish government

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2010/03/20: JQuiggin: A bit more on solar PV
• 2010/03/15: FuturePundit: Polymer Solar Cells To Hit Higher Efficiencies
• 2010/03/18: PlanetArk: Timminco Suspends Solar-Grade Silicon Production
  Shares of Timminco Ltd dropped 13.3 percent on Wednesday after the company said it was suspending solar-grade silicon production and would not resume operations until customer demand recovered. Timminco said after markets closed on Tuesday that it expects gloomy solar energy market conditions to continue hurting demand for its products and financial results in the foreseeable future. The Toronto-based company has developed its own method of purifying silicon metal into solar-grade silicon to make solar power cells. Depressed solar-grade silicon prices are one effect of a global slump in the solar power market, which is beset by tight project funding and an oversupply of panels and parts. Timminco said its average selling price of solar-grade silicon in the fourth quarter fell to C$36 per kilogram from C$65 at the same time last year.
• 2010/03/18: PlanetArk: SunPower To Supply Panels For [5.23 mw] Italy Project
• 2010/03/18: JQuiggin: Going solar
• 2010/03/17: ABC(Au): Solar proponent plans pilot project
  A company planning a $400 million solar energy plant near Mildura, in north-west Victoria, says it is planning to start work next year on a pilot project at the site. The Sydney-based Silex systems yesterday finalised the purchase of the failed Solar Systems company that had originally proposed the 250 megawatt Mildura photovoltaic power plant.
• 2010/03/17: NewScientist: Algae's solar electrons hijacked to steal power
• 2010/03/16: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Solar in the Central Valley -- The Idea is Catching On
• 2010/03/14: Reuters: Solar energy firms seen vulnerable - Barron's
  Shares of a number of solar energy companies have become vulnerable as the Obama administration has turned out to be a lot less lucrative for green investors than originally hoped, Barron's said.
• 2010/03/14: SolveClimate: Solar Water Heaters Sprouting on Rooftops Worldwide -- Tax Incentives, Rebates and Financing Plans Pique U.S. Interest
• 2010/03/15: PhysOrg: U.S. firms working to lower cost of solar energy
• 2010/03/15: TEC: Southern Company, Turner Renewable Acquire [30 MW] Solar PV Project

  On the coal front:

• 2010/03/17: SGM: Strip mining adds to coal's greenhouse emissions, study says
• 2010/03/16: NRDC:SwitchBoard: The Carbon Footprint of Mountaintop Mining
• 2010/03/15: BNC: How to get rid of existing coal?

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2010/03/19: USDA:ARS: Estimating Ethanol Yields from Conservation Reserve Program [CRP] Croplands
• 2010/03/17: Eureka: First parasitic nematodes reported in biofuel crops -- "...parasitism may contribute to the decline of biomass production,"
• 2010/03/18: TEC: Solazyme's amazing algae
• 2010/03/11: Yale360: The Case Against Biofuels: Probing Ethanol's Hidden Costs
  Despite strong evidence that growing food crops to produce ethanol is harmful to the environment and the world's poor, the Obama administration is backing subsidies and programs that will ensure that half of the U.S.'s corn crop will soon go to biofuel production. It's time to recognize that biofuels are anything but green.
• 2010/03/16: Eureka: The effect of landscape position on biomass crop yield -- Creating a multifunctional agricultural system

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2010/03/18: EnergyBulletin: World Has Much at Stake in Nuclear Power Decision
• 2010/03/18: SolveClimate: Nuclear Waste Disposal: Exit Yucca Mountain, Enter Illinois? Storage options limited as national geologic repository is withdrawn
• 2010/03/16: TEC: President's Science Advisor [John Holdren] replies to [John] Shanahan [nukes]
• 2010/03/15: ClimateP: [Craig] Severance: Nuclear Power Makes No Business Sense

  Yes we have peak everything:

• 2010/03/20: EnergyBulletin: Moving phosphorus from noxious to precious (report on peak phosphorus)
• 2010/03/19: NERC:NORA: World mineral production 2004-2008 by T.J. Brown et al.
• 2010/03/18: CCurrents: Peak Oil In Four Years? Mobility And Economic Vulnerabilities
• 2010//: USGS: Historical Statistics for Mineral Commodities in the United States, Data Series 2005-140
• 2010/03/18: OilDrum: US Minerals Databrowser
• 2010/03/18: AutoBG: Kuwaiti study: Conventional oil to peak in 2014
• 2010/03/17: EnergyBulletin: The peak oil crisis: 2014 -- the year of transition
• 2010/03/16: OilDrum: 'Peak Oil Demand,' Yes... But Not the Nice Kind: Why There Will Be No Recovery

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2010/03/20: PeakEnergy: The convergence of the internet and the smart grid
• 2010/03/15: NYT:BITS: Tracking Electric Use Could Allow Utilities to Track You, Too
• 2010/03/15: TEC: A smart meter for your troubles?
• 2010/03/15: TEC: BackUp Generation Sources [BUGS] in the Smart Grid

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2010/03/20: TreeHugger: Toshiba Cuts Incandescent Bulbs From Line Up, Shaves 430,000 Tons Off Potential CO2 Emissions
• 2010/03/15: SolveClimate: Energy-Efficiency Strategy Could Cut Household Bills by $450 a Year -- Federal Building Code Would Have Biggest Impact, [CFA] Report Says
• 2010/03/16: PhysOrg: Study: Daylight saving time a waste of energy

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

• 2010/03/21: ABC(Au): Emission-free future for Australian cars
  Up to 20 per cent of Australia's cars could be emissions free by 2020, according to a key player in the global electric vehicle industry.
• 2010/03/15: FuturePundit: Smart Charging Stations For Electric Cars
• 2010/03/16: FuturePundit: Home Electric Upgrades For Electric Cars
• 2010/03/19: AutoBG: Report: Hawaii could have 10,000 electric vehicles in five years
• 2010/03/19: AutoBG: Survey says: Only one-quarter of Americans would consider an electric car
• 2010/03/18: BBC: UK car production rises sharply
  UK car production increased sharply in February, figures have shown, rising 62.7% on the same month last year.
• 2010/03/19: Grist: Four obstacles facing electric bike popularity
• 2010/03/19: Grist: What can China teach us about electric bikes?
• 2010/03/18: BBC: UK to produce Nissan electric car -- Nissan is to build its new electric car at its Sunderland plant, the Japanese company has announced
• 2010/03/16: BBerg: BYD Scales Back Its Electric-Car Plans, Morning Post Reports
• 2010/03/16: Grist: Three trends that favor electric bikes
• 2010/03/17: BiofuelDaily: 10,000,000 Flex-Fuel Vehicles Strong In Brazil
• 2010/03/17: OilDrum: UK new car sales and the recession
• 2010/03/15: Google:CP: Toyota, Nissan others set up Japan group to promote electric vehicles, charging standard
• 2010/03/16: PeakEnergy: Smarter Chargers for Electric Vehicles
• 2010/03/15: CBC: New vehicle sales flat in January [at 128,426, Statistics Canada reports]

  As for Energy Storage:

• 2010/03/17: PhysOrg: Compressed Air Energy Storage: Renewable Energy
• 2010/03/16: NBF: Lithium Ion Gets On Track for Five Times Higher Energy Density with Self Assembled Nanocomposite Anodes
• 2010/03/17: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Renewables and Energy Storage: A Misunderstood Partnership
• 2010/03/15: AutoBG: Lithium-sulfur and carbon nanowires could increase battery capacity 4X

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

• 2010/03/19: TEC: Can corporate social responsibility affect your company's bottom line?
• 2010/03/18: EnvFin: Investor groups call for more transparency from oil & gas sector
• 2010/03/19: SolveClimate: Fuel Efficient Fleets Saving Corporations Money -- Lower cost and better efficiency of biodiesel saved Poland Springs $200,000
• 2010/03/16: PlanetArk: Australia's Pension Funds Lag On Carbon Risk: Survey

  Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:

• 2010/03/21: TheAge: Melbourne storm shaping up as one of Australia's costliest
  The freak storm that hit Melbourne two weeks ago is on track to be one of the 10 most costly Australian natural disasters of the past 50 years, according to insurance experts. The Insurance Council of Australia say that insurers have so far received 79,000 claims worth $491 million, but industry experts predict that figure will go past $700 million. If so, it will surpass the $707 million figure - in 2007 dollars - set by a hailstorm in Sydney in 1986, currently the 10th most expensive insurance event since records began in 1967. It is already Victoria's costliest storm. Only bushfires, specifically Ash Wednesday and Black Saturday, have cost the state's insurers more.

Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:

• 2010/03/18: Guardian(UK): Airbus gets a crafty upgrade by flying the flag for biodiversity

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

• 2010/03/19: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for March 19...
• 2010/03/18: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for March 18...
• 2010/03/17: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for March 17...
• 2010/03/16: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for March 16...
• 2010/03/15: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for March 15...

  Other (weekly) lists:

• 2010/03/18: Grist: A Walk Through the Week's Climate News -- Poll results handily explained by what bloggers think

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2010/03/20: ClimateShifts: Bjorn Lomborg on why we shouldn't act on climate change
• 2010/03/21: TreeHugger: Valero Spends $500,000 To Kill California Emissions Law
• 2010/03/20: BCLSB: Denialists Move To Hacking Private Websites
• 2010/03/19: ABC(US): Calif. green car rebate plan meets resistance
• 2010/03/19: ClimateP: The 5 characteristics of scientific denialism
• 2010/03/19: DeSmogBlog: Wanted: David and Charles Koch, Climate Criminals [video]
• 2010/03/19: AlterNet: Hightower: Two Right-Wing Billionaire Brothers Are Remaking America for Their Own Benefit
• 2010/03/17: D-HW: Connect the dots . . .
• 2010/03/18: ClimateShifts: Climate scientist [Bob Carter] busted for fudging data
• 2010/03/17: ClimateShifts: Same old Andrew Bolt, same old slanderous story
• 2010/03/18: CSW: Americans for Prosperity: Distorting climate change science and economics in well-funded campaign
• 2010/03/18: CSW: Koch Industries multibillionaire Koch brothers bankroll attacks on climate change science and policy
• 2010/03/17: TP: 'Climate Crime Scene' declared at Smithsonian's David H. Koch Hall Of Human Origins
• 2010/03/17: SkeptiSci: The 5 characteristics of scientific denialism
• 2010/03/17: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Climate Change Is a Scientific Reality, Not a Political Debate
• 2010/03/16: TPL: "McIntyre Accused" Meme -- Watch It Grow
• 2010/03/15: GreenGrok: The Boys Who Cried 'Climategate'
• 2010/03/16: ClimateP: Climate Crock video on Flogging the Scientists
• 2010/03/16: CCP: Elizabeth May of Canada's Green Party comments on Bjorn Lomborg's documented dishonesty
• 2010/03/16: Deltoid: The Australian's War on Science 48: Bats aren't bugs
• 2010/03/15: D-HW: The Usual Suspects [d]
• 2010/03/15: ClimateP: Chu compares climate disinformation campaign to tobacco industry's efforts
• 2010/03/15: SkeptiSci: Watts Up With That's continued ignorance regarding Antarctic sea ice
• 2010/03/14: ClimateP: The Lomborg Deception: The Septical Environmentalist (sic) says 16 feet of sea level rise wouldn't be so bad, absurdly claims it would only "force the relocation of 15 million" people

  I am reminded of the clowns on sci.env arguing there is no such thing as a fact...:

• 2010/03/19: LaaEx: Postmodernist Conservatism
  [...]
  What if these guys actually do hold that verification is just another opinion? That empiricism is just one way of "knowing", and fact-checking is no better than soul-searching? These misconceptions are downright dangerous.

The nerve of these people trying not to be exploited:

• 2010/03/16: BizInsider: Why Nigeria Just Did Major Damage To The Oil Market, And Why It Will Be Tough To Undo [african pol]
  Nigeria's controversial oil industry bill is expected to eventually pass but the government may find it tough to later shift gears as international oil firms targeted under the legislation scale back their investments. The Nigerian parliament is debating the Petroleum Industry Bill, an attempt at oil-sector reform in which Abuja can negotiate "downward" a foreign firm's share of profits and impose higher royalties and taxes, said Peter Pham, director of the Africa Project at the New York-based National Committee on American Foreign Policy and an associate professor at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Meanwhile in the 'clean coal' saga:

• 2010/03/15: Grist: rising from the (coal) ashes -- Time to bury cheap coal

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2010/03/21: JEB: Is all statistical analysis wrong?
• 2010/03/19: NYT:CW: Language of Religious Fervor Inflames Climate Change Debate
  Apocalyptic visions and the muscular language of religious fervor are invading the climate arena, replacing issues of fact with those of faith and bringing high emotion into science -- an area where it should have no place -- politicians and religious leaders complain. People who say human-induced climate change is a fact that demands urgent action are described as "believers" or "climate evangelists," while those who reject the concept are "deniers," "skeptics" or "atheists." Those in the middle who say they are unconvinced either way are "agnostics." "The use of this language has become increasingly an issue," said Colin Challen, chairman of the United Kingdom's All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group, a committee of U.K. lawmakers studying the global climate phenomenon.
• 2010/03/20: GreenFyre: What does an Ibsen play say to us about the climate wars?
• 2010/03/21: GWWatch: Our problem is climate change is not our problem
• 2010/03/19: AutoBG: It's Friday: Cleaner emissions? Maybe, maybe not
• 2010/03/18: JFleck: Confusing metaphorical warfare with policy substance
• 2010/03/19: TCoE: Loose ends
• 2010/03/19: KSJT: Discover Mag blog, Slate: Two science-policy pundits dig into the climate 'wars'
• 2010/03/19: SkeptiSci: Skeptical Science housekeeping: Contradictions, URLs and getting hacked
• 2010/03/16: SciAm: Can Smiley Faces (and a 14-Step Program to Stop Overconsumption) Save the Global Climate?
  When rational appeals fall short, environmentalists enlist social and economic incentives--and even neuroscience--to get the public in on national efforts to combat climate change
• 2010/03/15: USNWR: Aquatic 'Dead Zones' Contributing to Climate Change -- As oxygen-deprived waters increase, they emit more greenhouse gases into atmosphere
• 2010/03/15: Grist: 'South by Southwest' crowd told to start saving the planet
• 2010/03/14: ClimateShifts: Clive Hamilton to speak in Brisbane: why facing up to Climate Change is "Just too Hard".

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

• Save the Poles
• SourceForge: Residual Analysis Open Source Software
• WHRC: Woods Hole Research Center
• R^2 [Note name & address change]
• SkeptiSci: Global Warming Skeptic Contradictions
• Transition Network
• ECO-CAN News
• Journal of Climate -- Early Online Releases
• ASTI: Arctic Species Trend Index
• PBronson: Population, Over Population, Growth, On-Going Growth, Limits to Growth
• HtP: Hack the Planet
• DOE:EIA: Frequently Asked Questions -- Environment
• NOAA: Future of Arctic Sea Ice and Global Impacts
• Open Letter from U.S. Scientists on the IPCC

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.

"The new paradigm of power, coupled with its bizarre ideology of limitless progress and impossible happiness, has turned whole nations, including the United States, into monsters. We can march in Copenhagen. We can join Bill McKibben's worldwide day of climate protests. We can compost in our backyards and hang our laundry out to dry. We can write letters to our elected officials and vote for Barack Obama, but the power elite is impervious to the charade of democratic participation. Power is in the hands of moral and intellectual trolls who are ruthlessly creating a system of neo-feudalism and killing the ecosystem that sustains the human species. And appealing to their better nature, or seeking to influence the internal levers of power, will no longer work." -Chris Hedges

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