Another week of GW News, June 13, 2010

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 An Introductionto the novel is available, along with the Unpublished Forewordand the Launch Talk.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.

-het

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 great obstacle is simply this: the conviction that we cannot change because we are dependent on what is wrong. But that is the addict's excuse, and we know that it will not do." -Wendell Berry

More like this

The thing that first caught my eye here is the federal inquiry, the Cohen Commission, for understanding the decline of Fraser River sockeye. It's almost out of place in Global Warming News, because a lot of the focus will be on other topics. There is some intersection, however, that might be worth investigating. This goes beyond the warming of the Fraser River and the consequent migratory mortality experienced by the sockeye.

First, we have politicians, lawyers, judges, and interest groups taking up a lot of time and resources to "get to the bottom of things." Really, that is what science is for, and it's too bad the money going to support this stuff (Cohen Commission is probably going to cost over 25 million) isn't instead directed to scientific study (DFOs science budget keeps getting cut).

That brings up a second point, but this one highlights a difference between AGW and the Fraser sockeye problem. WRT AGW, the fundamental science is quite mature -- we know that pumping out too much CO2 has consequences, and politicians, lawyers, judges, and interest groups should be involved in finding solutions. Fraser sockeye are still poorly understood, and the inquiry doesn't even hope to arrive at solutions.

A third point of intersection is the subjectivity owing to the background of the person. Detection of the trend in both cases is less controversial; attribution to cause in both cases is frequently divorced from reality. For AGW it's solar output, cosmic rays, ocean cycles, under-water volcanoes, socialist plots, etc that cause the trends in CO2 or temperature. For Fraser sockeye, it's commercial fishing, native poaching, government plots, etc. All we know is that the freshwater can still produce a lot of young sockeye -- fewer come back from the ocean. There are simply too few fish to be caught.

Something is going on in the ocean. I was interested to see climate change among the topics that the Judicial Inquiry will review, and I was a bit surprised to see ocean acidification left out. There is a workshop starting today, organized by the Pacific Salmon Commission, that will address several leading hypotheses for the Fraser sockeye decline. The workshop involves mostly scientists. It's being held now because the Cohen Commission's findings will arrive too late. Interestingly the Judicial Inquiry is in the news, but the scientific inquiry is not.

Another week of GW News, June 13, 2010

Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years

Another week of Climate Instability News

Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years

June 13, 2010

More black humour in a climatic vein:

And for those who enjoy challenging Poe's Law:

The Bonn meeting wrapped up Friday:

Carbon accounting under REDD is under challenge:

More Copenhagen post-mortems:

Looking ahead to COP16 and future international climate negotiations:

The Busan conference has given birth to IPBES:

The International Polar Year - Oslo Science Conference closed yesterday:

One presentation at the Oslo Conference noted the counterintuitive effect of rapid Arctic changes on Northern Hemispheric weather:

A nice roundup from Scott:

And on the Bottom Line:

Normally I wouldn't link to this paywalled piece from from the FTime$, but it is worth the aggravation for the first sentence alone:

Who's getting the subsidies?

After Brown lost the UK election, Norwegian premier Jens Stoltenberg has taken over the UN Climate Finance Group:

A spat between Nature & UCLA gives me an excuse to exercise my hobby horse:

The Beeville hoax got a bit of attention:

Post CRU theft, controversy & inquiry:

The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:

Ah, another Arctic melt prediction:

Charismatic megafauna, anyone?

As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

While in Antarctica:

The food crisis is ongoing:

The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

GMOs foster a steady round of press releases:

And how are we going to feed 9 billion?

Cyclone Phet died over Pakistan, but otherwise it has been quiet:

While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

As for GHGs:

And the temperature record:

Aerosols are making their presence felt:

While in the paleoclimate:

And on the ENSO front:

Regarding the solar hypothesis:

Abrupt Climate Change put in an appearance:

Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

More GW impacts are being seen:

And then there are the world's forests:

North America got zapped by a string of tornadoes:

As for heatwaves and wild fires:

Corals are dying:

Acidification is changing the oceans:

Glaciers are melting:

Sea levels are rising:

As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

Consider transportation & GHG production:

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

As for carbon sequestration:

Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

While on the adaptation front:

Meanwhile in the journals:

And other significant documents:

As for miscellaneous science:

Regarding Wegman:

Regarding Mclean:

And on the carbon trading front:

The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

The proposed G20 Bank Tax is turning into a tussle:

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:

Meanwhile on the international political front:

As for GW, energy & security:

Among the world's religions:

Polls! We have polls!

Regarding Water Politics and Business:

And on the American political front:

Ten states and the DOI have formed the Atlantic Offshore Wind Energy Consortium:

Some are wondering if the Deepwater Horizon disaster marks a watershed:

The Obama chatter is nonstop:

The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

As for what is going on in Congress:

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

What are the lobbyists pushing?

The Murkowski Resolution was voted down:

The Gore-apalooza is still bopping along:

IPAT [Impact=PopulationAffluenceTechnology] raised its head once again: