Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
Another week of Global Warming News
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
October 17, 2010
- Chuckles, Tianjin, Busan, COP16+, CBD, ICAO, ASPO, Jung et al., Lacis et al., Pakistan
- Bottom Line, Carbon Tariffs, Global Institutions, BAD, Living Planet Report, Haigh
- Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica
- Food Crisis, Monsanto, WFD, Pavlovsk Agricultural Station, GMOs, Food Production
- Hurricanes, GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures, Aerosols
- Paleoclimate, ENSO, Ocean Currents, Proxies
- Impacts, Forests, Wacky Weather, Extreme Weather, Tornadoes, Corals, Acidification, Glaciers, Floods & Droughts
- Mitigation, REDD, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Adaptation
- Journals, Other Docs , Misc. Science, DIY Science, Mandelbrot, Scheer, Masters, Mann, Lewis, Wegman
- UN, Carbon Trade, Carbon Labelling
- International Politics: Misc., Energy Race, Law & Activism
- Activism, Polls, Water Politics & Business, Software, Education
- National Politics: America, BP Disaster, November, Prop 23, Yale Survey, E15
- Obama, USAdmin, Congress, Climate Bill, Lobbyists, Energy Only, Ryan Lizza
- Britain, Europe, Australia, Murray-Darling, New Zealand, China, Asia
- Canada, Post G20, Offshore Drilling, Mackenzie Valley, Pipelines, Enron Bomber
- Senator STFU, Post Igor, BC, Tar Sands, Sask, Manitoba, Ontario, Maritimes, North
- Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Video, Courts
- Energy, Fracking, Wind, Solar, Feed-In-Tariffs, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Energy Storage
- Business, Greenwashing, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
- Shameless Self Promotion, .sig
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- 2010/10/13: Tamino: The great conspiracy to destroy freedom, sabotage the USA, increase taxes, undermine the economy, institute world government based on socialism with Al Gore as dictator, and of course --- drive us all back to the stone age
Post Tianjin commentary:
- 2010/10/15: ColorLines: Climate Talks Tank, Global South Sinks Further
- 2010/10/10: CCurrents: The "Conclusive" China Climate Talks...reflect nothing but the rising competition between the climate crisis giants, US and China...
- 2010/10/11: Reuters: Climate talks "troubling," deal eventually: UNEP [head, Achim Steiner]
The impasse in U.N. climate talks is "very troubling" but worsening effects of global warming will eventually force governments to agree a legally binding deal, the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) head said on Monday. - 2010/10/12: Reuters: Time short for climate deal: ex-U.N. envoy
A former U.N. special envoy on climate change said he doesn't expect any major progress by key nations to draw up a new climate pact at a meeting next month in Mexico because opinions are still too divided. "I do not, frankly speaking, expect too much from the COP-16 (conference of parties) in Cancun, because opinions are so divided and an agreement has not been made between major carbon emitters," Han Seung-soo said in an interview as part of Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit. "As you may know, the climate meeting in Tianjin (China) clouded prospects." Frustration between the world's two top carbon polluters, the United States and China, overshadowed last week's U.N. talks in Tianjin which were aimed resolving differences over the shape of a new climate pact. - 2010/10/12: ENS: U.S. and China Sign Environmental Protection Agreement
- 2010/10/11: WaPo:PC: Tianjin climate talks sputter ahead of UN conference
- 2010/10/11: PlanetArk: Climate Talks Marred By Bickering, Progress On Finance
- 2010/10/10: BBerg: Progress in Climate Talks in China `Much Too Slow,' European Union Says [EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard]
The IPCC met in Busan this week:
- IPCC: Thirty-Second Session of the IPCC, Busan, Republic of Korea, 11 - 14 October 2010
- IISD: Thirty-second Session of the IPCC [at Busan]
- 2010/10/15: ScienceInsider: IPCC Meeting Ends, and Pachauri Survives
- 2010/10/15: QuarkSoup: Pachauri is Making a Mistake
- 2010/10/14: Yahoo:AFP: UN climate body to push for reforms, but Pachauri stays
- 2010/10/15: CCP: U.N. Climate-Change Panel Chairman Rajendra Pachauri to Stay
- 2010/10/14: Reuters: U.N. climate panel agrees to reforms
The U.N. panel of climate scientists agreed on Thursday to change its practices in response to errors in a 2007 report, and [IPCC] chairman, Rajendra Pachauri of India, dismissed suggestions he should step down. At an October 11-14 meeting in Busan, South Korea, the 130-nation panel agreed to tighten fact-checking in reports that help guide the world's climate and energy policies and to set up a "task force" to decide on wider reforms by mid-2011. - 2010/10/15: BBC: IPCC aims for clarity and relevance in new report
Providing information that policymakers can use is key to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as work begins on its next global assessment. The report, known as AR5, will focus on factors that materially affect people's lives, such as the Asian monsoon. It will also look at what aspects of climate change might be irreversible. Leaders of the IPCC's scientific assessment were speaking to BBC News during a conference in South Korea aimed at modernising the organisation. - 2010/10/13: BBC:RB: Climate body seeks new wardrobe
- 2010/10/14: Guardian(UK): Rajendra Pachauri to remain chief as IPCC pledges reforms
- 2010/10/14: NatureTGB: IPCC: Pachauri carries on
- 2010/10/14: MTobis: IPCC Good News, Bad News
- 2010/10/14: BBC: Climate panel agrees 'milestone' reforms, defers others
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has adopted new guidelines on dealing with scientific uncertainties following criticism of its 2007 report. But the panel's meeting in South Korea closed with many other reforms proposed in a recent review being passed to committees for further consideration. Chairman Rajendra Pachauri confirmed his intention to stay in post until the next assessment is published in 2014. - 2010/10/11: UN: Top UN official reaffirms leadership of global climate body [32nd plenary session of the IPCC, in Busan, South Korea]
- 2010/10/11: Yahoo:Reuters: UN climate panel head [Rajendra Pachauri] aims to lead "overdue" reforms
The head of the U.N. panel of climate scientists said on Monday he aimed to stay on and lead "overdue" reforms after errors in a 2007 report, including an exaggeration of the thaw of the Himalayan glaciers. - UNFCCC: The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, 29 November - 10 December 2010
- 2010/10/16: Mainichi: Simply extending Kyoto Protocol is out of the question
- 2010/10/16: Guardian(UK): It's time to tackle climate change and agricultural development in tandem
- 2010/10/14: Dominion: Climate Call -- Shifting focus from UN to grassroots organizing in lead-up to Cancun meetings
Battle lines are being drawn as governments, environmental organizations and grassroots organizers are gearing up for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Cancun, Mexico. On one side, nations from the Global North -- including Canada -- are setting up to push the agenda of the Copenhagen Accord, an agreement that emerged from last winter's UN conference in Denmark -- one that failed to establish any binding terms for carbon emissions reductions. On the other side, many nations from the Global South have rallied around the Cochabamba Accord, the end result of April's World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Bolivia. The final text includes calls for a global referendum on climate change, the establishment of an international climate justice tribunal and the recognition of a declaration on the rights of Mother Earth. - 2010/10/15: EUO: EU sets sights on extending current climate deal at Cancun
European environment ministers have agreed a list of priorities for the upcoming UN conference on biodiversity, with the bloc's strategy for crucial climate change talks later this year increasingly shifting towards the issue of an extension of the existing Kyoto Protocol, long a bone of contention between rich and poor countries. - 2010/10/13: EUO: EU to define positions ahead of Nagoya and Cancun
European Union environment ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday (14 October) are set to agree the bloc's main negotiating positions ahead of two key international conferences on biodiversity and climate change in the coming weeks. MEPs last week urged the EU to play a leading role at the UN conference on biodiversity - due to start in Nagoya, Japan (18-29 October)...
[...]
Environment ministers are also set to discuss the possibility of moving beyond the EU's current pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent on 1990 levels over the next decade and agree a negotiating position for the upcoming UN climate talks in Cancun, Mexico. - 2010/10/12: SolveClimate: In Mexico, E.U. Presents Ambitious Agenda for Cancún Climate Talks -- Environmentalists express doubts about the possibility of "binding commitments" from the COP16
- 2010/10/12: HotTopic: Money (that's what I want)
- 2010/10/11: PostMedia: World leaders will pass on faltering climate talks
World leaders will not be attending the next round of international climate change negotiations over concerns the talks will flounder again and could be abandoned. The last United Nations summit on global warming in Copenhagen, last December, ended in failure and recrimination. More than 100 heads of state turned up hoping to be part of a deal that would "save the world," but failed to get any legal agreement to stop rising temperatures. Now they are declining even to attend the event in Mexico next month, instead sending environment ministers and playing down the talks. - CBD: Convention on Biological Diversity
- 2010/10/15: SeedDaily: Japan biodiversity meet adopts rules on GM crop damages
An international meeting on biodiversity held in Japan Friday agreed on rules which hold businesses liable if genetically modified organisms they have imported pollute ecosystems, a report said. The meeting on the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety reached agreement ahead of the major Convention on Biological Diversity which opens in the Japanese city of Nagoya on Monday. - 2010/10/15: ABC(Au): PM, Burke won't attend biodiversity summit
- 2010/10/15: ScienceInsider: Convention Considers Ban on Global Sun-Blocking Schemes [SRM]
- 2010/10/14: PhysOrg: Code RED for biodiversity
While not an outright failure, a 2010 goal set by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) for staunching the loss of the world's species fell far short of expectations for "The International Year of Biodiversity." What does this mean for the 20 proposed 2020 goals being considered by the 10th conference of parties at the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan, on Oct. 18-29, 2010? - 2010/10/11: NatureN: Biodiversity hope faces extinction -- Upcoming meeting will set out global conservation targets.
The future of the world's biodiversity hangs in the balance as countries convene for crucial negotiations next week in Nagoya, Japan. The 193 signatory nations to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) pledged eight years ago to cut species loss "significantly" by this year. But studies show that the health of global biodiversity is reaching a crisis point, with extinctions of mammal and amphibian species continuing to rise... - 2010/10/15: EnergyBulletin: The biggest climate conference you've never heard of
- 2010/10/13: ENS: Civil Aviation [ICAO] Pact Cuts Climate Emissions from Aircraft
- 2010/10/11: EurActiv: EU sees aviation deal as green light for emissions trading
A deal struck by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) on capping emissions from international aviation paves the way for swift inclusion of aviation in the EU's emissions trading scheme, the European Commission said on Saturday (9 October). - 2010/10/11: EUO: EU buoyed by aviation deal but critical of climate talks
The EU has welcomed an international deal to limit carbon emissions from the aviation sector, but criticised the slow pace of progress in separate climate talks ahead of a crucial United Nations meeting in Cancun, Mexico, later this year. - 2010/10/11: PlanetArk: Aviation Deal Clears way for emissions scheme: EU
- 2010/10/11: TreeHugger: Global Aviation Industry Aims to Cap Emissions in 2020 + Strengthens Energy Efficiency Target
- 2010/10/11: EarthTimes: Carbon clean-up for aviation agreed; EU claims victory
The European Union claimed a diplomatic victory after governments from 190 countries agreed to reduce the impact of global aviation carbon emissions on climate change. The United Nations' aviation body, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO,) late Friday backed a global goal of improving fuel efficiency by 2 per cent every year starting as early as 2013 and continuing to 2050. The ICAO said the agreement made it the "first" UN agency "to lead a sector in the establishment of a globally harmonized agreement" to limit carbon dioxide emissions which are blamed for global warming. - 2010/10/15: EnergyBulletin: Future Chaos: There Is No "Plan B"
- 2010/10/14: OilDrum: ASPO-USA Conference, Last Day
- 2010/10/10: OilDrum: ASPO-USA Conference, Second Day, Before Lunch
- 2010/10/12: OilDrum: ASPO-USA Conference, Second Day, After Lunch
- 2010/10/11: ERW: Summary of annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil-USA (ASPO-USA)
Another unsettling paper about water cycle disruption:
- 2010/10/10: Nature: (Letter$) Recent decline in the global land evapotranspiration trend due to limited moisture supply by Martin Jung et al.
- 2010/10/10: Eureka: Land 'evapotranspiration' taking unexpected turn: huge parts of world are drying up
- 2010/10/11: SciDaily: Huge Parts of World Are Drying Up: Land 'Evapotranspiration' Taking Unexpected Turn
The soils in large areas of the Southern Hemisphere, including major portions of Australia, Africa and South America, have been drying up in the past decade, a group of researchers conclude in the first major study to ever examine "evapotranspiration" on a global basis. - 2010/10/10: TCoE: Water's surprising move
A paper by Lacis et al. is bound to draw comment:
- 2010/10/15: Science: (ab$) Atmospheric CO2: Principal Control Knob Governing Earth's Temperature by Andrew A. Lacis et al.
- 2010/10/14: Eureka: Carbon dioxide controls Earth's temperature
- 2010/10/14: NASA: Carbon Dioxide Controls Earth's Temperature
Various atmospheric components differ in their contributions to the greenhouse effect, some through feedbacks and some through forcings. Without carbon dioxide and other non-condensing greenhouse gases, water vapor and clouds would be unable to provide the feedback mechanisms that amplify the greenhouse effect. Credit: NASA GISS Water vapor and clouds are the major contributors to Earth's greenhouse effect, but a new atmosphere-ocean climate modeling study shows that the planet's temperature ultimately depends on the atmospheric level of carbon dioxide. - 2010/10/14: Time:EcoC: Why CO2 Is the "Control Knob" for Global Climate Change
The monsoon floods in Pakistan are an ongoing tragedy:
- 2010/10/15: UN: Pakistan: Ban calls on world to speed up funding for $2 billion flood appeal
- 2010/10/13: NYT:CW: After the Deluge, Blackouts Spread
The devastating floods that swept the whole of this nation damaged or destroyed hundreds of bridges and knocked out several miles of key highways. Much of the nation's cotton and wheat harvest was devastated. Less appreciated, however, is the severe blow the flooding dealt to Pakistan's electricity supply. - 2010/10/14: TCoE: Everything = f(everything else)
- 2010/10/14: UrukNet: Video: Pakistan faces malaria outbreak
- 2010/10/14: BBC: Hillary Clinton: Rich Pakistanis failing flood victims
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said wealthy Pakistanis must do far more to help their countrymen who were devastated by this summer's floods. She said the Pakistani government had to expand its tax base so more could be collected to help reconstruction. It was "absolutely unacceptable" for well-to-do Pakistanis to avoid paying their fair share, she said. - 2010/10/14: CBC: Wealthy Pakistanis must aid flood relief: Clinton
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Pakistan on Thursday to ensure wealthy Pakistanis contribute to helping the country overcome the devastation caused by this summer's floods. Some have estimated that flood recovery will cost tens of billions -- a mammoth sum for a country that has relied on international loans. - 2010/10/13: UN: UN envoy visits flood-ravaged southern Pakistan
- 2010/10/13: ProMedMail: Malaria - Pakistan (03): post flooding risk
- 2010/10/12: NYT:CW: The Night the River Roared in 'Like a Demon' [Pakistan]
- 2010/10/13: TreeHugger: Pakistani Timber Mafia & Climate Change Caused Much of Summer's Flooding
- 2010/10/13: CBC: Pakistan flood damage estimated at $9.6B
International lenders estimate this summer's floods in Pakistan caused damage totalling $9.6 billion Cdn to the country's infrastructure, agriculture and other sectors, a government official in Islamabad said Wednesday. The estimate, drafted by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank in consultation with Pakistani leaders, underscores the financial challenges facing Pakistan, a U.S.-allied nation that is battling an Islamist insurgency and was relying on international loans before the deluge. Although other countries, including the U.S., have contributed millions to the flood relief effort, they have warned Pakistan they cannot foot the entire recovery and reconstruction bill, which some have estimated could surpass $40.44 billion Cdn. - 2010/10/12: UN: UN responds to malaria outbreak in flood-affected Pakistani provinces
- 2010/10/11: UrukNet: Video: Revisiting Pakistan flood victims
And on the Bottom Line:
- 2010/10/12: NewScientist: How much would you pay for planet Earth? [Pearce]
- 2010/10/11: BBC: Nature's sting: The real cost of damaging Planet Earth
You don't have to be an environmentalist to care about protecting the Earth's wildlife. Just ask a Chinese fruit farmer who now has to pay people to pollinate apple trees because there are no longer enough bees to do the job for free. And it's not just the number of bees that is dwindling rapidly - as a direct result of human activity, species are becoming extinct at a rate 1,000 times greater than the natural average. The Earth's natural resources are also suffering. In the past few decades alone, 20% of the oceans' coral reefs have been destroyed, with a further 20% badly degraded or under serious threat of collapse, while tropical forests equivalent in size to the UK are cut down every two years. These statistics, and the many more just like them, impact on everyone, for the very simple reason that, in the end, we will all foot the bill. - 2010/10/10: Reuters: Asia-Pacific firms worried over carbon laws: survey
- 2010/10/10: Hindu: Reject protectionism in climate talks: Jairam Ramesh
Climate officials from developing countries met here on Sunday to come up with a strategy to ensure that any climate agreement will have provisions to restrict attempts by developed nations to impose trade penalties on carbon emitters. Officials from the BASIC group of developing countries -- Brazil, South Africa, India and China -- have, in negotiations here this week, pushed for the introduction of a text to "reject the use of unilateral protectionist measures" by developed countries, said Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh. - 2010/10/15: Google:AFP: WTO official eyes trade rules on fossil fuel subsidies
- 2010/10/14: PostMedia: Canada should tax pollution: OECD
Countries such as Canada, which imposes one of the lightest taxes on polluters among industrialized democracies, should consider using higher taxes and levies to inspire innovative "green technologies," the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says. OECD secretary-general Angel Gurria says companies need a financial motivation to develop new technologies to save the planet. - 2010/10/11: NYT: World Bank Pressured on Clean Energy
Once the coal-fired Medupi Power Station in Lephalale, South Africa, is fully operational in 2015, it will emit 26 million tons of carbon dioxide a year. And when the Tata Ultra Mega plant in western India is fully serviceable in 2012, its annual carbon dioxide emissions are expected to total 23.4 million tons. Both plants, which will rank among the world's largest sources of greenhouse gases -- together producing about as much carbon dioxide as nations like Ireland and Norway -- are being built thanks to more than $4 billion in financing from the World Bank. The amount of money that the World Bank is lending for fossil fuel energy projects like these -- for coal in particular -- is rising faster than ever, even though it said only two years ago in a policy document that climate change posed one of the greatest threats to development in poor countries. - 2010/10/16: SkeptiSci: Climate Change Impacts on California Water Resources
- 2010/10/15: Grist: When I learned that water isn't supposed to have a taste
- 2010/10/14: JFleck: G.K. Gilbert Got It
- 2010/10/15: MTobis: San Antonio and Water
- 2010/10/15: TreeHugger: 8 Facts You Didn't Know About Water
Another reminder we are in overshoot:
- 2010/10/13: WWF: [link to 24 meg pdf] Living Planet Report
- 2010/10/13: WWF: Tropics in decline as natural resources exhausted at alarming rate -- WWF 2010 Living Planet report
- 2010/10/14: ABC(Au): Australia ranked among most unsustainable countries [by WWF Living Planet Report]
- 2010/10/14: ENS: WWF's Living Planet Report Shows Humans Consuming 1.5 Earths
- 2010/10/14: PostMedia: Our planet can't meet demands, [WWF, GFN & ZSoL] report says -- Resources depleted. Canadians at No. 7 in global consumption
Humans are consuming natural resources faster than the planet can keep up, led in part by Canadians, who have the seventh-largest ecological footprint in the world, says a report made public yesterday. - 2010/10/13: Guardian(UK): Western lifestyles plundering tropics at record rate, WWF report shows
Living Planet report shows planet's resources are being used at 1.5 times the rate nature can replace them -- but long-term decline of animal life appears to have been halted - 2010/10/13: MongaBay: Humanity consuming the Earth: by 2030 we'll need two planets
- 2010/10/13: TreeHugger: Overconsumption in Rich Nations Leading Humanity From a Living Planet to a Dead One
- 2010/10/13: RawStory: Time to find a second Earth, WWF says
Carbon pollution and over-use of Earth's natural resources have become so critical that, on current trends, we will need a second planet to meet our needs by 2030, the WWF said on Wednesday. - 2010/10/11: SkeptiSci: The sun upside down
The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:
- 2010/10/16: Tamino: History of Arctic (and Antarctic) Sea Ice, Part 1
- 2010/10/15: Tamino: Go Ice Go! ... Going ... Going ... Gone!!!
- 2010/10/16: HotTopic: Five years (threnody for Arctic sea ice)
- 2010/10/14: ABC(Au): Crew circles North Pole in one summer
A trimaran sailing boat has circled the North Pole in a single summer season, a feat made possible by global warming and the melting of the Arctic ice cap, the boat's international crew said Thursday. The "Northern Passage" left the western Norwegian port of Bergen at the end of June and was expected to arrive back there Thursday after first sailing the northern passage off Russia and then the northwestern passage off Canada. - 2010/10/14: PhysOrg: Crew circles North Pole in one summer
A trimaran sailing boat circled the North Pole in a single summer season, a feat made possible by global warming and the melting of the Arctic ice cap, the boat's international crew said Thursday. - 2010/10/13: SkeptiSci: Explaining Arctic sea ice loss
As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:
- 2010/10/15: Guardian(UK): EU clashes with Greenland over international stewardship of Arctic
Arctic Council told it is failing to safeguard the region, while EU accused of 'panic reactions' over deep-water drilling ban - 2010/10/12: OilChange: Are We Heading for An Arctic Oil War?
- 2010/10/11: Guardian(UK): Climate change could lead to Arctic conflict, warns senior Nato commander [Admiral James G Stavridis]
Global warming and a race for resources could spark a new 'cold war' in the Arctic, US naval admiral warns ahead of key talks on environmental security - 2010/10/13: CBC: UBC robot to probe Antarctic sea ice
- 2010/10/13: PhysOrg: UBC underwater robot to explore Antarctic ice (w/ Video)
Researchers at the University of British Columbia are deploying an underwater robot to survey ice-covered ocean in Antarctica from October 17 through November 12. - 2010/10/16: CBC: 'Hunger banquet' at Eiffel Tower highlights starvation
- 2010/10/16: UN: Enhanced effort needed to address long-term effects of Niger food crisis - UN
- 2010/10/15: SeedDaily: Extreme weather forces Indonesia to import rice
- 2010/10/13: CCurrents: US Corn Prices Surge
- 2010/10/15: RWER: Graph of the week: Number of Americans participating in food-stamp programs
- 2010/10/14: UN: UN humanitarian chief arrives in Niger to address food crisis
- 2010/10/13: GG&G: First a supply shock, now a demand shock
- 2010/10/12: BWeek: Wheat Futures Rise as Dry U.S. Weather May Harm Winter Crops
- 2010/10/11: BWeek: Corn, Soybeans, Wheat Called Higher as Supplies Drop
- 2010/10/12: NYT: Rising Corn Prices Bring Fears of an Upswing in Food Costs
- 2010/10/11: GG&G: Another big revision in USDA's crop forecast -- It wasn't just wheat that was way off earlier forecasts, but corn and soybeans too.
- 2010/10/13: GG&G: The corn-soybean belt is starting to walk North and West
- 2010/10/12: CBC: Corn prices touch 2-year high -- Climb adds to concerns of another food crisis
- 2010/10/12: SciDaily: In Elevated Carbon Dioxide, Soybeans Stumble but Invasive Cheatgrass Keeps on Truckin'
- 2010/10/12: NakedCapitalism: Marshall Auerback: You Can Thank Ben Bernanke for Higher Food Prices
- 2010/10/11: SeedDaily: Crop Failures Set To Increase Under Climate Change
- 2010/10/11: BBC: Hunger index shows one billion without enough food
More than one billion people in the world are now undernourished, according to latest figures. The 2010 Global Hunger Index shows that child malnutrition is the biggest cause of hunger worldwide, accounting for almost half of those affected. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia were shown to have the highest levels of hunger. The report's authors called on nations to tackle child malnutrition in order to reduce global hunger. The Global Hunger Index is produced by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide. - 2010/10/11: IFPRI: 2010 Global Hunger Index
On the agro-chem corp. front:
- 2010/10/12: Grist: What Monsanto's fall from grace reveals about the GMO seed industry
World Food Day went down this week:
- 2010/10/15: UN: On World Food Day, UN calls for united front against hunger
The Pavlovsk Agricultural Station saga lurches on:
- 2010/10/12: Guardian(UK): Russia backs away from plans to break up the unique Pavlovsk seed bank
Regarding the genetic modification of food:
- 2010/10/15: CBC: Golden Rice may be a golden opportunity -- Genetically enginereed crop may soon save millions of lives
- 2010/10/15: ScienceInsider: In China, No Meeting of the Minds on GM Crops
If anyone is under the impression that the Chinese public is ready to embrace genetically modified (GM) crops, they are mistaken. At a hastily arranged session at a symposium here earlier this week, members of the general public berated and quizzed scientists on concerns ranging from the legitimate to the bizarre. - 2010/10/14: PhysOrg: Scientists prepare for confined field trials of life-saving drought-tolerant transgenic maize
Crop specialists in Kenya and Uganda have laid the groundwork for confined field trials to commence later this year for new varieties of maize genetically modified to survive recurrent droughts that threaten over 300 million Africans for whom maize is life, according to a speech given today by the head of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) at the World Food Prize Symposium. - 2010/10/16: News24: UN: Farming needs changes
Geneva - The UN top official on the right to food called for wholesale changes in farming methods to safeguard the environment and ensure everyone has enough to eat. Olivier De Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, said in a statement to mark World Food Day that there is currently "little to rejoice about", and "worse may still be ahead". - 2010/10/11: FAO: Towards improved governance of global food security -- Renewed Committee on World Food Security starts its annual session
- 2010/10/13: FAO: The world's next breadbasket -- Unleashing Eastern Europe and Central Asia's agricultural potential
- 2010/10/17: Reuters: APEC nations aim to boost agricultural productivity
- 2010/10/16: Guardian(UK): It's time to tackle climate change and agricultural development in tandem
- 2010/10/14: AlterNet: Why Food Aid Should Be Bought Locally, Not Shipped Halfway Around the World
- 2010/10/14: EnergyBulletin: Conserving and rebuilding soils by Lester Brown
- 2010/10/14: NatureTGB: Cattle plague goes the way of smallpox -- The planet is rid of rinderpest...
- 2010/10/14: SciNow: Deadly Cattle Disease [rinderpest] Eradicated
- 2010/10/14: TreeHugger: Permaculture Greens the Jordanian Desert, But Why Are People Wary? (Video)
- 2010/10/14: WAF: A reinvention of agriculture is needed to meet global challenges
Des Moines, Iowa USA: World renowned scientists speaking at the World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogue have called for a radical transformation in the agriculture sector to cope with climate change, food security and to transition towards sustainability. - 2010/10/14: BBC: Rinderpest virus has been wiped out, scientists say
Scientists working for the UN say that they have eradicated a virus which can be deadly to cattle. If confirmed, rinderpest would become only the second viral disease - after smallpox - to have been eliminated by humans. - 2010/10/13: Grist: Purdue's Gebisa Ejeta on the vexing task of feeding a growing population
- 2010/10/13: ScienceInsider: Report: Major Boost in Agricultural Productivity Needed
- 2010/10/12: NatureTGB: World hunger meeting kicks off in Rome
- 2010/10/12: SeedDaily: Uruguay, S. Arabia plan for food security
- 2010/10/11: UN: Fighting global hunger tops agenda at high-level UN talks in Rome
In the Western Pacific, Typhoon Megi is winding up to zap the Philippines:
- 2010/10/17: CNN: Philippines on alert as 'monster' Typhoon Megi nears landfall
Typhoon Megi carries sustained winds of about 269 kilometers per hour - Typhoon Megi, also known as Typhoon Juan, is expected to make landfall Monday - Winds could be in excess of 200 kph as it hits northern Luzon - 2010/10/17: EarthTimes: Hundreds flee powerful Typhoon Megi in northern Philippines
- 2010/10/17: EarthTimes: Philippines urges residents to evacuate as Typhoon Megi intensifies
- 2010/10/16: TerraDaily: Philippines on alert for late-season Typhoon Megi
- 2010/10/16: EarthTimes:Philippine on alert as Typhoon Megi approaches
- 2010/10/15: EarthTimes: Philippines braces for Typhoon [Megi], issues warning
In the Caribbean, Paula spun up beside the Yucatan and then hooked around to plague Cuba:
- 2010/10/16: EarthTimes: Havana recovering from blackouts after storm [Paula]
- 2010/10/15: Wunderground: Paula dying; Zambia records its hottest temperature in history
- 2010/10/15: Wunderground: Paula continuing to weaken
- 2010/10/15: EarthTimes: Paula causes blackout in much of Havana
- 2010/10/15: EarthTimes: Paula weakens to tropical storm, dumps rain on Cuba
- 2010/10/15: CBC: Paula weakens to tropical depression
A weakening Paula dumped heavy rains on Cuba's capital, turning some of the streets into shallow rivers and knocking out power before sliding along the island's northern coast. - 2010/10/14: Wunderground: Paula's eyewall disintigrates as the storm weakens
- 2010/10/13: Wunderground: Paula weakens, heads towards Cuba
- 2010/10/14: BBC: Heavy rains hit Cuba as Hurricane Paula approaches
- 2010/10/14: CBC: Paula downgraded to tropical storm in Cuba
- 2010/10/13: CNN: Watch issued for Florida Keys as Paula churns toward Cuba
Paula nearly stationary, but expected to head toward Cuba - Its winds are expected to diminish over Mexico Wednesday - Cuba could experience hurricane conditions by Wednesday night - 2010/10/13: Wunderground: Paula misses Mexico, stalls in Yucatan Channel
- 2010/10/13: Wunderground: Paula intensifies to Category 2
- 2010/10/13: EarthTimes: Hurricane Paula takes aim at Cuba
- 2010/10/13: EarthTimes: Hurricane Paula veers north, set to avoid Mexico
- 2010/10/13: WpgSun: Paula threatens Mexico and Cuba
- 2010/10/12: TerraDaily: Hurricane Paula roils toward Mexico's Yucatan coast
- 2010/10/12: Wunderground: Hurricane Paula sets a rapid intensification record
- 2010/10/11: Wunderground: Tropical Storm Paula forming
- 2010/10/12: EarthTimes: Hurricane Paula threatens Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, western Cuba
- 2010/10/12: BBC: Hurricane Paula is heading towards Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula after bringing strong winds and heavy rain to north-east Honduras
- 2010/10/12: CBC: Hurricane Paula heads for Mexico
- 2010/10/11: CBC: Paula expected to strengthen to a hurricane
- 2010/10/11: Wunderground: 98L well-organized; a 5-year drought in U.S. major hurricanes
While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:
- 2010/10/15: Grist: Spotlight: Thomas Knutson, NOAA -- Global warming promises stronger hurricanes
As for GHGs:
- 2010/10/13: AFTIC: Is CO2 "well mixed"?
- 2010/10/11: SciDaily: Reservoirs: A Neglected Source of Methane Emissions
And in the carbon cycle:
- 2010/10/12: SciDaily: Global Carbon Cycle: Tiny Creatures May Play a Crucial Role in Mixing Ocean Nutrients
As for the temperature record:
- 2010/10/16: CCP: NOAA: Temperature Anomalies August 2010
- 2010/10/17: SkeptiSci: DMI and GISS Arctic Temperatures: Hide the Increase?
- 2010/10/16: Wunderground: September 2010: 4th or 8th warmest on record for the globe
- 2010/10/15: QuarkSoup: GISS: Warmest year-to-date
- 2010/10/15: NOAANews: Year-to-Date Global Temperature Ties for Warmest on Record -- Arctic sea ice reaches its third lowest minimum extent on record
- 2010/10/14: WottsUWT: September 2010 UAH Global Temperature Update: +0.60 deg. C
- 2010/10/14: ClimateP: NASA reports hottest January to September on record
- 2010/10/11: ClimateP: No Maunder mininum (sorry, disinformers) so we're still on track for the hottest decade on record
Aerosols are making their presence felt:
- 2010/10/14: Eureka: New research results change the understanding of atmospheric aerosol properties and climate effects
While in the paleoclimate:
- 2010/10/17: NewScientist: Grey whales took to high seas to survive the ice ages
- 2010/10/12: BBC: Fossils of earliest land plants discovered in Argentina -- Modern liverworts are probably common ancestors of all land plants
The earliest plants to have colonised land have been found in Argentina. The discovery puts back by 10 million years the colonisation of land by plants, and suggests that a diversity of land plants had evolved by 472 million years ago. The newly found plants are liverworts, very simple plants that lack stems or roots, scientists report in the journal the New Phytologist. - 2010/10/12: BBC: Tiny tubes point to ancient life
Tiny tubes thought to have been etched into South African rocks by microbes are at least 3.3 billion years old, scientists can confirm. - 2010/10/11: WMO: El Niño/La Niña Update
Moderate to strong La Niña conditions are now well established in the equatorial Pacific. Sea surface temperature departures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific are now at, or just above, the mid-range of those found during the past La Niña events. These La Niña conditions are likely to continue at least into the first quarter of 2011. - 2010/10/11: WMO: WMO Says Moderate to Strong La Niña Expected to Continue into 2011
- 2010/10/11: UN: La Niña weather, with possible floods and droughts, likely to last for months - UN
- 2010/10/11: PhysOrg: La Nina strengthens: WMO
The disruptive La Nina weather pattern in the Pacific basin should strengthen over the next four to six months, heralding stronger monsoons and more hurricanes, the UN weather agency said on Monday. - 2010/10/14: TreeHugger: Corals Reveal Changes in Ocean Circulation, Prove Climate Modelers Correct
What's new in proxies?
- 2010/10/15: NatGeo: Fuzzy Critters' Crystallized Pee Changes Climate Record?
[Rock hyrax] A rodent-like mammal's ancient outhouses fill in climate-record gaps, experts say. - 2010/10/13: BBC: WWI ships to chart past climate
A new project aims to use old Royal Navy logbooks to help build a more accurate picture of how our climate has changed over the last century. - 2010/10/12: SciDaily: Ancient Animal Urine Provides Insight Into Climate Change
[...]
The animal in question is the rock hyrax, a common species in countries such as Namibia and Botswana. They look like large guinea pigs but are actually related to the elephant. Hyraxes use specific locations as communal toilets, some of which have been used by generations of animals for thousands of years. The urine crystallises and builds up in stratified accumulations known as 'middens', providing a previously untapped resource for studying long-term climate change. - 2010/10/15: PaysonRoundup: Warming wallops Southwest -- Floods, fires, plant loss already escalating as a result of "unequivocal" global warming trend
- 2010/10/15: NewScientist: A warming world could leave cities flattened
- 2010/10/15: SciNews: Climate changes, and there goes the neighborhood -- Ranges of rattlers and voles likely to shift drastically with warming
- 2010/10/12: ABC(Au): A James Cook University scientist in north Queensland is investigating if fish on the Great Barrier Reef are able to adapt to climate change
- 2010/10/12: SMandia: Climate Change Impact on Grasslands & Savannas
- 2010/10/11: CPD:Metro: Warming in the region delays the turning of leaves in fall
And then there are the world's forests:
- 2010/10/13: MongaBay: Satellites show fragmented rainforests significantly drier than intact forest
- 2010/10/14: EarthTimes: Indonesia: West Papua floods not linked to illegal logging
- 2010/10/11: MongaBay: Brazil to launch new deforestation monitoring system that 'sees' through clouds
- 2010/10/12: NewScientist: Tiger video catches illegal loggers red-handed
- 2010/10/12: PlanetArk: Indonesia Probes Illegal Logging Role In Papua Floods
- 2010/10/12: PlanetArk: Brazil Amazon Forest To Be Privately Managed
Brazil will auction large swaths of the Amazon forest to be managed by private timber companies and cooperatives to help reduce demand for illegal logging, a top official told Reuters on Monday. After years of legal battles and political opposition, the government is reviving concessions for private companies to log its national forests. - 2010/10/12: EarthTimes: Illegal deforestation threatens Sumatran tigers, activists say
Yes we have no wacky weather, except:
- 2010/10/15: CBC: Nor'easter causes crashes, power outages
P.E.I. ferries cancelled and Moncton, N.B., airport loses power as winds, rain lash Atlantic Canada - 2010/10/11: KoreaHerald: Report warns of more extreme weather
Tangerine trees, mostly grown in the southern part of the country, could fill Seoul streets by 2040, the nation's first report on climate change predicted. The report, published Monday by the National Institute of Environmental Research, listed the Korean Peninsula in the category of "sensitive region to climate change," saying its warming temperature would affect climate conditions, water resources, agriculture and health issues in the future. The report is an abstract of the government's white paper on climate change the nation's first that will be finalized by the end of this year. - 2010/10/14: AzDailySun: It's official: Tornadoes set record [8] for single day
Corals are dying:
- 2010/10/15: KSJT: AAAS ScienceNOW, AP, etc: Coral bleaching in lots of places. 2010 is a hot, bad year for the polyp-algal alliance
- 2010/10/14: SciNow: Caribbean Coral Die-Off Could Be Worst Ever
- 2010/10/15: DM:80B: Photos: Caribbean Coral Reefs Took a Beating This Summer
- 2010/10/13: SciDaily: Climate Change Remains a Real Threat to Corals
- 2010/10/12: Eureka: Smithsonian reports regional sea temperature rise and coral bleaching event in Western Caribbean
- 2010/10/11: SkeptiSci: The human fingerprint in coral
Acidification is changing the oceans:
- 2010/10/11: WHOI: Listen Up: Ocean Acidification Poses Little Threat to Whales' Hearing
Glaciers are melting:
- 2010/10/12: PhysOrg: High nitrate concentrations in U.S. Rockies' high elevation lakes caused by melting glaciers
Melting glaciers in the American West are releasing chemicals that cause ecosystem changes in alpine lakes, including large quantities of nitrogen that reduces biodiversity, according to an international research team led by University of Maine paleoecologist Jasmine Saros. - 2010/10/16: JFleck: Water in the desert, Kingman, Ariz., edition
- 2010/10/: SmithsonianMag: The Colorado River Runs Dry
- 2010/10/17: EarthTimes: North-eastern Thailand hard hit by floods
- 2010/10/15: ThanhNienNews: Mekong thirst hard to quench -- Residents in the Mekong Delta are suffering as the river's water level hits record low
- 2010/10/12: GreenGrok: Gun Smoke Seen in River Discharge
- 2010/10/15: Eureka: A river ran through it -- Nature and humans leaving mark on rivers and streams, affecting aquatic food webs
- 2010/10/14: UN: Benin: UN disaster team on the ground in response to devastating floods
- 2010/10/14: Eureka: A river ran through it -- New research shows that nature and humans are leaving an indelible mark on rivers and streams, which are affecting the intricate food webs they support
- 2010/10/13: EarthTimes: Two dead, 10 missing after storm hits Vietnamese island [Phu Quoc]
- 2010/10/12: UN: Some 1.5 million people hit by floods in West and Central Africa, UN reports
- 2010/10/12: TerraDaily: Indonesia denies flash floods caused by deforestation
- 2010/10/13: TerraDaily: Alarming Increase In Flow Of Water Into Oceans
- 2010/10/11: UN: Guatemala: UN-backed meeting opens to spur recovery from floods, eruptions
- 2010/10/11: NewScientist: Water cycle goes bust as the world gets warmer
- 2010/10/11: EarthTimes: Mudslide kills one at Thailand resort [Chang] island [after torrential rains]
- 2010/10/11: EarthTimes: Vietnam storm death toll rises to 64
Elsewhere on the mitigation front:
- 2010/10/11: PhysOrg: Urban farming yields small climate gains
Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation has somehow seemed chimeric:
- 2010/10/15: SolveClimate: UN Forestry Plan [REDD] Could Increase Logging, Advocates Warn -- Draft lacks mechanisms to leave untouched forests standing and to prevent corruption
Consider transportation & GHG production:
- 2010/10/17: EarthTimes: Shipping lines to voluntarily cut emissions in Hong Kong -- switch voluntarily to low sulphur fuel while at port in Hong Kong
- 2010/10/11: CalcRisk: Rail Intermodal Traffic at 2008 levels, Carload Traffic Lags
- 2010/10/11: AutoBG: Passenger aircraft takes to the skies burning 100-percent synthetic fuel; a world's first
- 2010/10/11: AutoBG: U.S. walking less than rest of world blamed on cars, inadequate mass transit
While in the endless quest for zero energy, sustainable buildings and practical codes:
- 2010/10/13: PhysOrg: WUSTL's Living Learning Center shares the world's first full 'Living Building' certification
As for carbon sequestration:
- 2010/10/17: PoAC: Controversial pipeline plan would bury carbon dioxide under the ocean off New Jersey
Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:
- 2010/10/16: CBC:Q&Q: Iron in the Ocean [Kasatochi Volcano]
- 2010/10/15: ScienceInsider: Convention Considers Ban on Global Sun-Blocking Schemes
Next week's meeting of the 193-nation Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Nagoya, Japan, will tackle such controversial issues as funding for the Global Environment Facility, hard-to-reach biodiversity targets, and controls on the access of genetic material in plants. If time allows, delegates to the CBD may also debate the first-ever international blanket prohibition on research related to geoengineering, the deliberate tinkering with the climate to reverse global warming. - 2010/10/13: TEC: Solar Warming and Our Sulfur Sunshield
While on the adaptation front:
- 2010/10/11: PhysOrg: With rising sea levels, the time for adapting is now
Meanwhile in the journals:
- 2010/10/15: Science: (ab$) Atmospheric CO2: Principal Control Knob Governing Earth's Temperature by Andrew A. Lacis et al.
- 2010/10/13: NERC:NORA: Biosphere - atmosphere exchange of reactive nitrogen and greenhouse gases at the NitroEurope core flux measurement sites: Measurement strategy and first data sets by U. Skiba et al.
- 2010/10/15: NERC:NORA: Spatial variation in seabed temperatures in the Southern Ocean: implications for benthic ecology and biogeography by Andrew Clarke et al.
- 2010/10/15: NERC:NORA: Geographic variability of nitrate deposition and preservation over the Greenland Ice Sheet by John F. Burkhart et al.
- 2010/10/15: NERC:NORA: Oscillations in the southern extent of the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool during the mid-Holocene by Nerilie J. Abram et al.
- 2010/10/15: NERC:NORA: Interhemispheric Atlantic seesaw response during the last deglaciation by Stephen Barker et al.
- 2010/10/15: NERC:NORA: Geographic range shift responses to climate change by Antarctic benthos: where we should look by David K.A. Barnes et al.
- 2010/10/15: ACP: Hydroxyl radicals in the tropical troposphere over the Suriname rainforest: comparison of measurements with the box model MECCA by D. Kubistin et al.
- 2010/10/14: ACP: Arctic shipping emissions inventories and future scenarios by J. J. Corbett et al.
- 2010/10/15: ACPD: A two-dimensional volatility basis set: 1. organic-aerosol mixing thermodynamics by N. M. Donahue et al.
- 2010/10/15: ACPD: Where do winds come from? A new theory on how water vapor condensation influences atmospheric pressure and dynamics by A. M. Makarieva et al.
- 2010/10/14: ACPD: An integrated modeling study on the effects of mineral dust and sea salt particles on clouds and precipitation by S. Solomos et al.
- 2010/10/15: TCD: Mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet -- a study of ICESat data, surface density and firn compaction modelling by L. S. Sørensen et al.
- 2010/10/15: TCD: An improved bathymetry compilation for the Bellingshausen Sea, Antarctica, to inform ice-sheet and ocean models by A. G. C. Graham et al.
- 2010/10/13: TCD: What's in an elevation difference? Accuracy and corrections of satellite elevation data sets for quantification of glacier changes by C. Nuth & A. Kääb
- 2010/10/15: CPD: Interglacial and glacial variability from the last 800 ka in marine, ice and terrestrial archives by N. Lang & E. W. Wolff
- 2010/10/15: CPD: A permafrost glacial hypothesis to explain atmospheric CO2 and the ice ages during the Pleistocene by R. Zech et al.
- 2010/10/14: CPD: Can oceanic paleothermometers reconstruct the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation? by D. Heslop & A. Paul
- 2010/10/12: CPD: Defining the Little Ice Age by Ã. Paasche & J. Bakke
- 2010/10/15: AGWObserver: Papers on convection and climate
- 2010/10/12: PNAS: (ab$) Occurrence of maize detritus and a transgenic insecticidal protein (Cry1Ab) within the stream network of an agricultural landscape by Jennifer L. Tank et al.
- 2010/10/12: PNAS: (abs) Global demographic trends and future carbon emissions by Brian C. O'Neill et al.
- 2010/10/12: PNAS: (ab$) Fundamental limit of nanophotonic light trapping in solar cells by Zongfu Yu et al.
- 2010/10/14: Nature: (ab$) An amorphous solid state of biogenic secondary organic aerosol particles by Annele Virtanen et al.
- 2010/10/12: ACP: Aircraft observations of enhancement and depletion of black carbon mass in the springtime Arctic by J. R. Spackman et al.
- 2010/10/11: ACP: The complex dynamics of the seasonal component of USA's surface temperature by A. Vecchio et al.
- 2010/10/11: ACP: Will climate change increase ozone depletion from low-energy-electron precipitation? by A. J. G. Baumgaertner et al.
- 2010/10/11: ACP: Updated African biomass burning emission inventories in the framework of the AMMA-IDAF program, with an evaluation of combustion aerosols by C. Liousse et al.
- 2010/10/11: ACP: Seasonal variation and spatial distribution of carbonaceous aerosols in Taiwan by C. C.-K. Chou et al.
- 2010/10/12: ACPD: The influence of the stratosphere on the tropospheric zonal wind response to CO2 doubling by Y. B. L. Hinssen et al.
- 2010/10/12: ACPD: Global dust model intercomparison in AeroCom phase I by N. Huneeus et al.
- 2010/10/12: ACPD: Controls of carbon dioxide concentrations and fluxes above central London by C. Helfter et al.
- 2010/10/12: ACPD: Air quality and emissions in the Yangtze River Delta, China by L. Li et al.
- 2010/10/11: ACPD: Anthropogenic aerosols may have increased upper tropospheric humidity in the 20th century by M. Bister & M. Kulmala
- 2010/10/07: PLoS One: Environmental Symbiont Acquisition May Not Be the Solution to Warming Seas for Reef-Building Corals by Mary Alice Coffroth et al.
- 2010/10/11: OS: Numerical simulations of spreading of the Persian Gulf outflow into the Oman Sea by M. Ezam et al.
- 2010/10/12: TCD: Point observations of liquid water content in natural snow -- investigating methodical, spatial and temporal aspects by F. Teche & C. Pielmeier
- 2010/09/27: NP: (ab$) Early Middle Ordovician evidence for land plants in Argentina (eastern Gondwana) by C. V. Rubinstein et al.
- 2010/10/11: AGWObserver: New research from last week 40/2010
- 2010/10/10: Nature: (Letter$) Recent decline in the global land evapotranspiration trend due to limited moisture supply by Martin Jung et al.
And other significant documents:
- 2010/10/14: Whitehouse: [link to 1 meg pdf] Climate Change Adaptation Task Force
- 2010/09/16: DBCCA: New DBCCA whitepaper addressing the climate change skeptics
- 2010/10/13: NZP: [link to 550k pdf] The next oil shock?
- 2010/10/13: WWF: [link to 24 meg pdf] Living Planet Report
- 2010/10/12: TCoE: [link to 42 meg pdf] Doc alert: Monitoring Climate Change Impacts
As for miscellaneous science:
- 2010/10/15: CCP: Gavin Schmidt: Taking the Measure of the Greenhouse Effect
- 2010/10/13: TCoE: Scientists and unavoidable advocacy
- 2010/10/01: KnoxNews:FMACU: The secret's out: Climate research computer at ORNL to be called 'Gaea, Mother Earth'
Jim Rogers, director of operations at ORNL's National Center for Computational Sciences, today revealed that the name of the new Cray machine that's dedicated to climate research is Gaea, Mother Earth.
[...]
The Cray XT6, which has a peak capability of 260 teraflops, will be upgraded in the future and eventually reach the petascale capability. - 2010/10/12: AGWObserver: Cassiope tetragona as thermometer
- 2010/10/11: OSU: Coral records show ocean thermocline rise with global warming
- 2010/10/12: JEB: Another comment-that-isn't-a-comment
- 2010/10/10: JEB: How to publish a scientific comment in 1 2 3 easy steps...the climate science edition [misc sci]
More DIY science:
- 2010/10/14: moyhu: Wahl & Ammann proxy calculations
Benoit Mandelbrot RIP:
- 2010/10/17: BBC: 'Fractal' mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot dies aged 85
- 2010/10/16: NYT: Benoit Mandelbrot, Mathematician, Dies at 85
- 2010/10/16: SlashDot: Benoit Mandelbrot Dies At 85
Hermann Scheer RIP:
- 2010/10/16: PeakEnergy: RIP Hermann Scheer
- 2010/10/15: REA: Solar Hero Dr. Hermann Scheer Dies
- 2010/10/15: CleanBreak: German solar advocate Hermann Scheer, "father of the feed-in-tariff", dead at 66
- 2010/10/15: DemNow: Hermann Scheer (1944-2010): German Lawmaker, Leading Advocate for Solar Energy and "Hero for the Green Century" in One of His Final Interviews
- 2010/10/15: REA: Dr Hermann Scheer Dies
Regarding Jeff Masters:
- 2010/10/16: CCP: Wunderground.com's Jeff Masters: From 'Mad Scientist Club' to Leading Internet Site
- 2010/10/16: ClimateP: Yale profile of Wunderground.com's Jeff Masters: "The ignorance and greed that human society is showing [on climate change] will be to our ultimate detriment and possible destruction."
Regarding Michael Mann:
- 2010/10/14: DM:BA: Michael Mann responds to Rep. Barton
- 2010/10/14: CCP: Michael Mann responds to Rep. Barton
- 2010/10/13: WottsUWT: Mann's old University gets another subpoena
Regarding Lewis:
- 2010/10/15: NBF: Physicist [Harold Lewis] calls global warming - biggest pseudoscience scam
- 2010/10/13: ERabett: The APS Rips Hal Lewis Theses Down
- 2010/10/12: Stoat: I'm sure Dr Lewis deserves some respect. But his opinion on climate science does not. Let's move along
- 2010/10/11: APSmith: Hal Lewis: Incontrovertibly Emeritus
- 2010/10/11: QuarkSoup: Hal Lewis's Temper Tantrum
- 2010/10/11: ClimateP: Hal Lewis resigns from The American Physical Society
Regarding Wegman:
- 2010/10/16: BCLSB: Even More Even More Wegmania
- 2010/10/15: BCLSB: Even More Wegmania
- 2010/10/13: BVerheggen: Skeptic-gate, Wegman-gate, Copy-gate, Everything-gate-gate-gate
- 2010/10/13: BCLSB: Wegmania Update: Climate Scientist Demands Wegman Report Be Pulled From Congressional Archives!
- 2010/10/11: ERabett: The Chicken or the Wegman Report
- 2010/10/11: ERabett: The Sources of Rapping
- 2010/10/11: BCLSB: More Wegmania!
Meanwhile at the UN:
- 2010/10/11: UN: UN-backed gathering aims to identify climate change adaptation actions
Hundreds of people have gathered at a United Nations-backed meeting in Addis Ababa to identify actions that will promote sustainable development in Africa in the face of climate change. The five-day gathering, which kicked off in the Ethiopian capital yesterday, will focus on strategies to adapt to global warming. - 2010/10/13: UN: Rich countries must live up to pledge to help developing world on climate change - UN
And on the carbon trading front:
- 2010/10/14: PlanetArk: Liberia Seeks Trial Of UK National Over Carbon Deal
Liberia is seeking to prosecute a British citizen for bribery in a proposed carbon deal that would have given him control of a fifth of the West African country's rainforests, the government said. The civil-war ravaged country will also investigate a former government minister and has dismissed several officials in the forestry authority over the case, according to a statement from the presidency issued late Tuesday. Liberia began investigating the accord to grant 400,000 hectares of rainforest to British firm Carbon Harvesting Corporation in July after governance watchdog Global Witness said the deal involved fraud. The accord would have allowed CHC to sell carbon credits from the vast area of forest to companies seeking to offset their emissions on international carbon markets. CHC's CEO Michael Foster was arrested by British police in June and was subsequently released without charge. - UMSL:CIAWorldFactBook: Liberia
- 2010/10/13: KSJT: Mother Jones: Cap and Trade, where criminals play and cops chase. No surprise either.
- 2010/10/10: NYT: In Europe, Companies Work the Angles on the Carbon Trade
Carbon trading, also known as cap and trade, has suffered a lot of hiccups in Europe over the past five years. Conceived to make it more expensive to emit greenhouse gases, the fledgling system in the European Union has been rocked by extreme volatility, cyber- attacks, tax fraud, recycling of used credits and suspicions of profiteering. Despite those difficulties, carbon trading has developed into a business worth about $140 billion annually. While most of that business is concentrated in Europe, Asian nations are rolling out systems and Australia and the United States are still considering using trading as a tool for cutting carbon in the future. The principle reason carbon trading has survived and has the potential to expand beyond Europe is that companies and governments -- when forced to choose between trading and a more straightforward carbon tax to meet environmental goals -- tend to choose trading. - 2010/10/13: Guardian(UK): Tesco's pledge to carbon-label all products set to take centuries
- 2010/10/13: BBC: UK carbon label goods sales 'pass £2bn-a-year mark'
Sales of products carrying labels that show the goods' carbon footprint are set to pass £2bn a year, say the scheme's operators. The Carbon Trust, which oversees the accreditation programme, says nine out of 10 UK households bought a carbon-labelled product in the past 12 months. - 2010/10/15: TechRev: China's Rare-Earth Monopoly -- The rest of the world is trying to find alternatives to these crucial materials
- 2010/10/15: CBC: Russia to build nuclear plant in Venezuela
- 2010/10/14: PressEurop: The black gold of Rockall
- 2010/10/15: WaPo: U.S. to launch inquiry into China's subsidies for clean-energy firms
The energy race between China and the USA is on, or is it?
- 2010/10/13: PlanetArk: China Overtakes U.S. As Biggest Energy Consumer: IEA
- 2010/10/12: Reuters: China overtakes U.S. as biggest energy consumer - IEA
China has become the world's largest energy user, having overtaken the United States, the head of the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday. - 2010/10/12: UrukNet: Spying and lying about the left -- A company hired by the state of Pennsylvania has spied on left-wing, antiwar and student groups
What are the activists up to?
- 2010/10/16: CBC: 'Hunger banquet' at Eiffel Tower highlights starvation
Ten thousand empty plates were lined up in rows on the Champ de Mars next to the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Saturday to mark the United Nations' World Food Day. Workers with the NGO Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger) set up the display for the "Banquet Against Hunger" to draw attention to the 10,000 children who die each day of malnutrition. - 2010/10/16: Guardian(UK): Protesters block road to oil refinery -- Hundreds block road as activists handcuff themselves to lorries
- 2010/10/16: BBC: Hundreds of campaigners blockade oil refinery in Essex
Hundreds of climate campaigners are blockading an Essex oil refinery. About 400 people claiming to be affiliated to the campaign group Crude Awakening are outside the Coryton site. - 2010/10/14: CCP: Conservative Principles and the 350 Work Party by James E. Hansen
- 2010/10/12: CSW: 10/10/10 global warming rally at the White House
- 2010/10/11: Guardian(UK): Climate Rush activists storm Daily Express newsroom
- 2010/10/10: TP:WR: 10-10-10: Regrowing The Climate Movement
Polls! We have polls!
- 2010/10/12: TreeHugger: Everyday Americans Overwhelmingly Show Bipartisan Support For Solar Power, Latest Survey Says
Regarding Water Politics and Business:
- 2010/10/15: TerraDaily: Mekong countries should delay dam projects for decade: study
- 2010/10/14: ENS: Link between Two Canals Could Ease California's Water Crisis
- 2010/10/15: NBF: World Water Statistics and Water and Sanitation Improvement
- 2010/10/13: PlanetArk: World Must Tackle Water-Shortage Threat: Adviser
- 2010/10/13: PlanetArk: ADB: Asia Needs $8 Billion Annual Investment In Water
- 2010/10/13: JQuiggin: Water is heavy [Murray-Darling]
- 2010/10/13: TreeHugger: Is the US Already Past The Point of Peak Water?
- 2010/10/12: EarthTimes: Asian Development Bank warns of severe water crisis in Asia in 20 years
- 2010/10/11: TreeHugger: Spending on Desalination Projects To Increase 191% by 2016
- 2010/10/08: NewsWeek: The New Oil -- Should private companies control [H2O] our most precious natural resource?
As for SW tools:
- 2010/10/13: NatureN: Publish your computer code: it is good enough
Freely provided working code -- whatever its quality -- improves programming and enables others to engage with your research, says Nick Barnes. - 2010/10/16: Stoat: Publishing code
Regarding science education:
- 2010/10/13: CSW: California's new state-issued energy textbook avoids climate change, puts coal on par with solar and wind
And on the American political front:
- 2010/10/15: Grist: Angry county could cut California out of $33 million in efficiency cash
How lovely: California may lose $33 million in energy-efficiency funds because officials in Riverside County are upset they didn't get more than half of the sum for their region. - 2010/10/14: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Lawsuit Threatens to Take Away Millions in Funding for California Clean Energy
- 2010/10/15: Grist: American companies don't want tar-sands oil on their logos, creating an opening
- 2010/10/14: WtD: "Why are you so dissapointed with us?": or how the US Republican party is holding the rest of us to ransom
- 2010/10/14: Reuters: California greenhouse gas trade to start "gently" [CARB chairman Mary Nichols]
California's climate change chief expects a gentle start to a scheme to trade greenhouse gases, as the recession has done much of the work of cutting pollution by idling businesses and people. - 2010/10/13: SolveClimate: Nebraska Ranchers Fear Pipeline Talks Have Gone Awry
- 2010/10/13: MTobis: Fifteen Year Setback
- 2010/10/14: DemNow: Green Party Candidate Excluded from California Governor's Debate
- 2010/10/13: SolveClimate: Nebraska Ranchers Say No to Oil Sands Pipeline "Gag Order" -- Want an easement payout? Just sign this nondisclosure agreement, says TransCanada
- 2010/10/13: SACurrent: CO2 smackdown -- San Antonio advancing green agenda without a carbon reduction plan. Can it last?
- 2010/10/12: ClimateShifts: Why Don't Republicans Believe in Climate Change?
- 2010/10/12: SolveClimate: Some Nebraska Landowners Won't Make Way for Oil Sands Pipeline
TransCanada is offering buyouts -- and threats of eminent domain proceedings -- to farmers and ranchers - 2010/10/12: NewScientist: Tea Party luring US into adventures in irrationality [CCM]
- 2010/10/12: ScienceInsider: On Climate Change, the Party of No
- 2010/10/11: Politico: California climate board to heat up debate
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's environmental team is playing hurry-up offense to issue controversial climate rules before his term ends in January, even if it means wading into an Election Day thicket with the oil industry. California's Air Resources Board (CARB) is on track by the end of the month to release more than 1,000 pages of proposed rules for how the state should curb greenhouse gases at power plants and other large industrial plants. - 2010/10/11: TEC: America's Shame
- 2010/10/10: AlterNet:SE: How Did an Entire Political Party Decide to Reject Climate Change Science?
- 2010/10/09: NatJo: GOP Gives Climate Science A Cold Shoulder
- 2010/10/10: BSD: Republican Party denialism and Roger Pielke Jr.'s analysis
- 2010/10/11: ClimateP: Study finds California is a global cleantech leader, more businesses are opening than leaving, energy bills are lower, and clean manufacturing jobs are up!
- 2010/10/10: LA Times: U.S. energy policy: It's complicated
We should be able to come up with a coherent energy strategy -- if only Congress weren't too paralyzed by partisan bickering to enact one. - 2010/10/11: SBN: Cap-And-Trade Plans Meet Up With Greenhouse Gas Skeptics
- 2010/10/10: CNN: Climate science under attack
- 2010/10/10: ClimateP: National Journal: "The GOP is stampeding toward an absolutist rejection of climate science that appears unmatched among major political parties around the globe, even conservative ones."
The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:
- 2010/10/15: GreenGrok: Obama and Oil Drilling: How Can You Be Sure?
- 2010/10/13: GreenGrok: Gulf Oil Back in the Spotlight
- 2010/10/12: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Drilling Moratorium Should Stay Until Panels Issue Their Safety Recommendations
- 2010/10/13: NatureN: Dearth of research vessels hampers oil-spill science
Efforts to understand the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster are being slowed by a shortage of ships. - 2010/10/13: OilChange: After a Pause for Breath, Let's Drill Baby...
- 2010/10/13: WaPo: U.S. lifts ban on deep-water drilling
- 2010/10/12: Grist: U.S. lifts Gulf of Mexico deepwater drilling ban
- 2010/10/12: DM:VS: Fish Deaths, Fishy Explanations
- 2010/10/11: OilChange: Offshore Safety Inspections Were Compromised
So how do you figure the 2010 elections will crack up?
- 2010/10/16: CSM: Why climate change isn't much of a campaign issue
- 2010/10/15: Deltoid: Art Robinson interviewed
- 2010/10/16: NYT:538: Consensus Points to 50-Seat G.O.P. Gain in House, But May Understate Uncertainty
- 2010/10/15: TP:WR: Gov 2010: Climate Deniers Threaten The Northeast RGGI Climate Compact
- 2010/10/14: SolveClimate: Wis. Senator Defeated with Clean Energy Message
Chris Larson used a "green cudgel" to beat out state Sen. Jeff Plale. His victory is a beacon to Wisconsin progressives. - 2010/10/13: Reuters: US clean energy sector buffeted by US election winds
- 2010/10/14: TreeHugger: More Evidence that Two Coal & Oil Billionaires Mobilized the Tea Party (Video)
- 2010/10/14: Grist: Groups with ties to Karl Rove break fundraising goals, push money to party of climate zombies
- 2010/10/13: DeSmogBlog: David Koch Has Direct Contact With Tea Party Astroturf Organizers At Americans For Prosperity Event
- 2010/10/13: PSinclair: Astounding Interview with "Oregon Petition" Nutjob -- Art Robinson
- 2010/10/12: Grist: Heartland grows new crop of anti-climate governor candidates
- 2010/10/13: NatureN: US midterm elections: Deficit poses threat to science
Research programmes in the United States seem to be heading for a cliff, no matter who wins in Congress. - 2010/10/13: NatureN: US midterm elections: Volatile forces shape US vote -- Science could face budget constraints and ideological challenges in a post-midterm Congress
- 2010/10/13: NatureN: US midterm elections: A chilly season for climate crusaders -- Open scepticism of global warming could rule next Congress
- 2010/10/12: DeSmogBlog: Joe Manchin Loves Coal, Hates Climate Legislation, Proves It With Guns
- 2010/10/12: ClimateP: Can Gov. Manchin kill something that's already dead? Guess that's why they call it 'almost' heaven
- 2010/10/12: Guardian(UK): Democrat [Manchin] opens fire, literally, on Obama's climate change agenda
- 2010/10/12: Grist: The incredible shrinking Manchin
- 2010/10/11: Grist: Stupid goes viral: Climate Zombies of Oregon, Hawaii, Minnesota, and northern Rocky Mountains
- 2010/10/12: TP: [Republican nominee for Senate (Pa.)] Pat Toomey: Global Warming Pollution Is 'Very Much Disputed'
- 2010/10/11: TreeHugger: WV Governor [Manchin] Shoots Down Cap & Trade Bill. Literally.(Video)
The Prop 23 battle rages:
- 2010/10/16: SacBee: Filmmaker [James Cameron] joins governor in climate fight
- 2010/10/14: GreenBiz: Shareholders Challenge Big Oil Efforts to Kill CA Climate Law
- 2010/10/15: ClimateP: Prop 23 becomes first ballot measure ever elected to LCV's Dirty Dozen -- [LCV President, Gene] Karpinski: Prop 23 the "single most important race in the country"
- 2010/10/15: Grist: Silicon Valley enlists Steve Jobs' wife, Elvis Costello in Prop 23 fight
- 2010/10/14: TP: Yes On Prop 23 Campaigners 'Very Thankful' For Out-Of-State Oil Companies' Funding
- 2010/10/13: LA Times: Proposition 23: Opponents surge ahead in fundraising
- 2010/10/13: LA Times: Investor groups balk at oil companies' support of Prop. 23
Shareholder organizations are expected to offer resolutions challenging L.A.'s Occidental Petroleum and two Texas firms over their contributions to the campaign to suspend California's emissions law. - 2010/10/14: DemNow: Environmental Groups Confront Oil Industry-Backed Attempt to Repeal California's Landmark Emissions Law in Prop 23
- 2010/10/12: MiamiHerald: Shareholders to press oil companies over [Prop 23] campaign spending
A Yale survey found Americans' knowledge of climate change deficient:
- 2010/10/12: Yale:F&ES: Americans' Knowledge of Climate Change
- 2010/10/16: TEC: Americans Flunk Climate Test
- 2010/10/15: Grist: Two-thirds of Americans think aerosol spray causes climate change
- 2010/10/15: DM:CCM: Americans Flunk Global Warming
- 2010/10/14: CBC: Global warming confuses Americans
- 2010/10/14: TreeHugger: On A Climate Change Knowledge Test, Half of Americans Would Flunk
- 2010/10/14: Eureka: Large gaps found in public understanding of climate change [polls]
The EPA has come down on one of the biofuel issues; now about the subsidies...:
- 2010/10/13: RRapier: EPA Grants E15 Waiver for Newer Vehicles
- 2010/10/15: Grist: King Corn, meet King Pyrrhus -- EPA hands the ethanol lobby a hollow victory
- 2010/10/15: NRDC:SwitchBoard: EPA's E15 waiver--even EPA knows it threaten the air we breathe
- 2010/10/15: TEC: Splitting the Baby on E15
- 2010/10/15: AutoBG: Critics sound off on EPA's E15 decision, say it's the work of the "Ethanol Promotion Agency"
- 2010/10/14: ClimateP: EPA announces voluntary boost to ethanol blend in gasoline
- 2010/10/13: ENS: EPA Allows 15 Percent Ethanol Blend, Igniting Air Pollution Battle
- 2010/10/14: REA: EPA approves first ethanol content increase in 32 years
- 2010/10/13: MWatch: EPA approves higher ethanol blends for gas -- Vehicle makers, refiners, ranchers, environmentalists opposed plan
- 2010/10/13: CBC: EPA approves higher ethanol in gasoline
- 2010/10/13: EPA: EPA Grants E15 Waiver for Newer Vehicles -- A new label for E15 is being proposed to help ensure consumers use the correct fuel
- 2010/10/13: PhysOrg: US allows higher ethanol content in gasoline for newer cars
- 2010/10/12: CBC: Ethanol firms watch U.S. move to E15 -- EPA could approve higher standard within days
- 2010/10/11: NYT: Clock Ticking Down on U.S. Ethanol Subsidies
A framework of tariffs and subsidies introduced by the U.S. Energy Tax Act of 1978 has long bolstered the American ethanol industry, helping to increase demand while keeping foreign competitors out. But these tariffs are due to expire Dec. 31 and other countries are lobbying hard to get into the U.S. market -- particularly Brazil, the world's largest producer of sugar cane ethanol, which stands to be the biggest beneficiary if the tariffs are allowed to end. - 2010/10/14: WRAL: President orders federal aid to six N.C. counties
Windsor, N.C. - President Barack Obama ordered federal aid on Thursday to supplement state and local recovery efforts for six North Carolina counties struck by severe storms, flooding and straight-line winds between Sept. 27 and Oct. 1. The funding makes federal funds available to residents in Beaufort, Bertie, Craven, Hertford, Onslow and Tyrrell counties. - 2010/10/14: KFGO: Minnesota gets Presidential Flood Declaration
- 2010/10/13: NatureN: Science & politics: Speaking out about science
Barack Obama promised a new era of integrity and openness for American science. Government scientists are now asking what has changed. - 2010/10/11: NYT: Obama Pushes Transportation Spending
- 2010/10/11: TreeHugger: Obama's $50 Billion Infrastructure Plan a Bad Omen for Future of US Transit
The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:
- 2010/10/14: NYT:GW: Petroleum Industry Asks White House to Ease [EPA] Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rules
- 2010/10/16: TreeHugger: EPA Regulator Recommends Against Spruce Mountaintop Removal Project
- 2010/10/14: Whitehouse: Obama Administration Officials Release Progress Report on Work of Climate Change Adaptation Task Force
- 2010/10/15: PhysOrg: 3 Questions: ARPA-E chief [Arun Majumdar] on the energy challenge
- 2010/10/15: Grist: EPA recommends protecting clean water by rejecting giant W.Va. coal mine [Spruce Mine in Logan County, W.Va.]
- 2010/10/15: ScienceInsider: Republicans Charge 'Impropriety' in Halting Yucca Mountain Safety Review
- 2010/10/15: TreeHugger: Dr. Steven Chu Answers Questions from Citizens About Energy Conservation (Video)
- 2010/10/14: NYT:EconoMix: On Climate, How Much Could E.P.A. Do?
- 2010/10/13: NOAANews: NOAA Establishes Supercomputing Center in West Virginia
- 2010/10/12: NakedCapitalism: Marshall Auerback: You Can Thank Ben Bernanke for Higher Food Prices
- 2010/10/11: StarTrib: EPA's impending greenhouse gas regulations may decrease coal market
As for what is going on in Congress:
- 2010/10/15: OilDrum: Congressional Briefing: Can Oil Production Meet Rising Demand?
- 2010/10/13: NatureTGB: NASA Administrator's China visit draws congressional ire
- 2010/10/12: DeSmogBlog: Joe Barton: Misleading Congress; Misleading America
The future climate bill defines a battleline:
- 2010/10/13: NYT:EconoMix: The Cap-and-Trade Blame Game
What are the lobbyists pushing?
- 2010/10/14: BSD: I don't usually join the media-bashing, but this Chamber stuff qualifies
- 2010/10/14: TP: 'Are You Guys Eventually Going To Disclose?' Chamber Responds Bluntly, 'No!'
- 2010/10/13: Salon:HTWW: Why do Republican politicians hate science?
Pay no attention to the lobbyist behind the curtain: Ross Douthat says the GOP is just reflecting the people's will - 2010/10/13: DeSmogBlog: David Koch Has Direct Contact With Tea Party Astroturf Organizers At Americans For Prosperity Event
- 2010/10/12: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Deadly Deception: How Some Industry Lobbyists Peddle Deception to Block Clean Air Protections That Will Save Thousands of American Lives Every Year
Someone has been pushing an energy only replacement for a climate bill:
- 2010/10/15: KSJT: Lotsa Policy Ink: Post-partisan energy call could mean lots of $$ for research
- 2010/10/14: NYT:GW: 'Post-Partisan' Energy Proposal Emphasizes Limited Subsidies, Small Carbon Tax
The United States should emphasize innovation to drive down the cost of clean energy technologies and curb greenhouse gas emissions, according to a report released today by right- and left-leaning policy groups. The conservative American Enterprise Institute and liberal Brookings Institution and Breakthrough Institute say policies focused narrowly on driving down clean-energy costs by improving the technologies will win support from an electorate weary of "climate wars" that have long polarized political debates. - 2010/10/14: NatureTGB: No cap-and-trade? Focus on R&D...
- 2010/10/13: ClimateP: Brookings embraces American Enterprise Institute's climate head fake along with right-wing energy myths
- 2010/10/13: Grist: There is no one correct climate policy
- 2010/10/13: Grist: Think tanks say dump cap-and-trade, pump billions into clean energy
- 2010/10/12: NYT: A Climate Proposal Beyond Cap and Trade
There's still been some talk about that Ryan Lizza article on the death of the climate bill:
- 2010/10/14: Grist: Highlights from our chat with reporter Ryan Lizza on Senate climate politics
- 2010/10/15: TreeHugger: Did a Betrayal from Inside the White House Kill the Senate Climate Bill?
- 2010/10/12: Grist: Anatomy of a Senate climate bill death
While in the UK:
- 2010/10/17: Independent(UK): [Secretary of State for Energy, Chris] Huhne drops Severn barrage to invest in wind power
- 2010/10/17: Guardian(UK): Britain is growing greener at the expense of the rest of the world
- 2010/10/13: BBC: Wylfa nuclear plant to operate for two more years
- 2010/10/13: Guardian(UK): Treasury locked in battle over green investment bank
- 2010/10/13: KSJT: UK Press: Scientists (and science journos, it appears) rally against blanket cuts to research budget
- 2010/10/12: Guardian(UK): Failure to impose CCS levy on energy bills would be 'disastrous', MPs told
Experts fear the government will not impose the levy needed to raise £4bn for demonstration carbon capture and storage plants - 2010/10/12: BBC: Scientists call for defence cuts
A group of scientists has called for cuts to public spending on science to come from military research. Thirty-five senior scientists have said in a letter to the Guardian newspaper that the £2bn spent each year by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to develop nuclear warheads is "disproportionate". They say this especially applies at a time when deep cuts to civil science are being considered by the government. The letter has been co-ordinated by Scientists for Global Responsibility. - 2010/10/13: Guardian(UK): Cut military R&D, not science funding
- 2010/10/11: TEC: £32 Billion needed to Rewire Britain
- 2010/10/11: Guardian(UK): Government's £6m climate change ads cleared [by Ofcom]
- 2010/10/11: Guardian(UK): Are polar bears real? Hoax has Twittersphere wondering about shadow climate secretary [Meg Hillier]
And in Europe:
- 2010/10/15: BizGreen: EU holds off on decision to move to 30 per cent emissions target -- Debate continues on whether to support Kyoto and upgrade emissions goals
- 2010/10/15: EurActiv: Debate on CO2 target exposes rift among EU businesses
Environment ministers yesterday (14 October) postponed a decision on whether the EU should raise its 2020 emissions reduction target, in a debate that brought to the surface a division between businesses. - 2010/10/15: EUO: EU sets sights on extending current climate deal at Cancun
European environment ministers have agreed a list of priorities for the upcoming UN conference on biodiversity, with the bloc's strategy for crucial climate change talks later this year increasingly shifting towards the issue of an extension of the existing Kyoto Protocol, long a bone of contention between rich and poor countries. - 2010/10/15: EUO: Member states strike deal on 'green' toll for lorries
European transport ministers have reached an agreement on a new set of rules that will enable member states to charge heavy lorries an additional "green" tariff according to the air and noise pollution they create. Discussions on the so-called "polluter pays" system have been rumbling on for the past two years, with road haulage groups strongly opposed to the measure. - 2010/10/15: EarthTimes: EU ministers agree to make lorries pay for air and noise pollution
- 2010/10/14: EurActiv: EU set to overshoot [undershoot?] its Kyoto emission targets
A large fall in greenhouse gas emissions brought about by a reduction of industrial activity led by the economic crisis has put the EU on a fast track to meet its Kyoto commitments, but Austria, Denmark and Italy are falling behind, according to new figures. - 2010/10/14: EurActiv: EU to leave decision on CO2 cuts until next year
- 2010/10/14: EurActiv: Brussels climbs down on oil drilling moratorium
The European Commission has softened its call for a moratorium on oil drilling in deep water, calling instead for EU member states to stop granting licences for new installations until safety regimes have been assessed. - 2010/10/13: Guardian(UK): Europe on track for Kyoto targets while emissions from imported goods rise
- 2010/10/13: EUO: Oettinger backtracks on oil drilling ban
The European Commission appears to have backtracked on earlier plans for a compulsory moratorium on deepwater oil drilling inside the EU, with new proposals set to call for a voluntary ban at member state discretion. - 2010/10/13: EUO: EU to define positions ahead of Nagoya and Cancun
- 2010/10/13: EarthTimes: EU backs down on banning offshore oil and gas drilling
- 2010/10/13: DerSpiegel: Berlin Takes on Brussels -- Merkel's Ongoing Fight to Extend Coal Subsidies
The European Commission has decided to end coal subsidies by 2014, a decision which does not sit well with Chancellor Angela Merkel. She wants Europe to revisit the decision, but support is lacking. Even her own economics minister is standing in the way. - 2010/10/13: BBC: The European Commission has proposed tightening the rules for deep-water drilling in the oil industry
- 2010/10/12: EurActiv: UK sees no need for EU deepwater drilling ban
There is no case for declaring a moratorium on deepwater oil or gas drilling in British waters, the UK government said yesterday (11 October), as the EU is expected to call for a temporary ban until probe is completed into the causes of BP's spill in the Gulf of Mexico. - 2010/10/12: EUO: EU to call for paradigm shift on energy
Europe's creaking energy infrastructure must be massively overhauled if the bloc is to meet its energy needs in the year 2020 and beyond, a report by the European Commission is set to say. Outdated and hugely fragmented, the EU's energy grid should be replaced by a "Single European Energy Network", says a draft copy of the commission's communication on Energy Infrastructure Priorities seen by EUobserver. - 2010/10/12: TEC: Denmark Aims to Be Carbon Neutral by Mid-Century
- 2010/10/11: EurActiv: Oettinger plans EU deepwater drilling ban
Europe's energy chief will this week call for a temporary ban on new deepwater drilling for oil until a probe is completed into the causes of BP's spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a draft document shows. - 2010/10/16: ABC(Au): Victims' families welcome insulation report
- 2010/10/15: ABC(Au): Garrett disappointed with 'deficient' advice
Former environment minister Peter Garrett says he is disappointed he got incorrect advice from his department on the scrapped home insulation scheme, but he stands by the quick roll-out of the program. - 2010/10/15: ABC(Au): The Federal Opposition has laid the blame for the failed home insulation program on former minister Peter Garrett and accused the Government of ignoring safety issues following a damning report into the scheme today
- 2010/10/15: ABC(Au): PM, Burke won't attend biodiversity summit
The chief of the United Nations' Convention on biodiversity says he is disappointed that Australia's Environment Minister, Tony Burke, will not be at a major conference on the topic in Japan. World leaders will meet in Nagoya next week to come up with new targets to slow the rapid loss of plant and animal species. But Mr Burke and the Prime Minister will not be attending. - 2010/10/15: ABC(Au): The auditor-general's office will today hand down its report into the Federal Government's scrapped home insulation scheme
- 2010/10/15: PeakEnergy: Tony [the mad Abbott] and the [UK] Tories
- 2010/10/14: ABC(Au): Cutbacks inquiry goes against Gillard's promises: Coalition
- 2010/10/14: ABC(Au): Aussie cities feeling the heat, literally
- 2010/10/13: ABC(Au): Tasmania's Climate Change Minister believes climate change predictions for the state could bring new economic opportunities
- 2010/10/13: ABC(Au): A western Queensland mayor says there are still questions that need to be answered about the development of a coal seam gas sector in the Galilee Basin.
- 2010/10/13: ABC(Au): Industrial water use is rising in South Australia at a time when it is falling in other states, says Family First MP Robert Brokenshire
- 2010/10/13: ABC(Au): The home of the Coffs Harbour Regional Art Gallery and library has been transformed into the city's first solar-powered public building
- 2010/10/12: ABC(Au): Forum focuses on climate change strategies
A forum will be held in Mackay today come up with new ways to cope with climate change. Wendy Eiteneuer from Conservation Volunteers Australia says forums are being held across the country to bring residents, government agencies and experts together to get a better understanding of climate change and to develop local adaptation strategies. - 2010/10/12: ABC(Au): Climate Change Minister Greg Combet says Australia needs to put a price on carbon "as soon as possible" but is refusing to speculate on whether it will happen by the end of next year
- 2010/10/10: TheAge: New coal plant a $750m mistake, says Flannery
Scientist and former Australian of the Year Tim Flannery has called on Premier John Brumby to stop Victoria's proposed brown coal power station, saying he will have ''zero credibility'' on climate change if he allows the project to go ahead. - 2010/10/17: ABC(Au): Authority to take another look at planned basin cuts
The Murray-Darling Basin Authority will commission a wide-ranging study to look at the social and economic consequences of its plan to cut water allocations along the river system. - 2010/10/16: ABC(Au): Environmentalist wins top prize for Murray-Darling work
- 2010/10/16: ABC(Au): Murray authority chairman faces uphill battle -- For Murray Darling Basin Authority chairman Mike Taylor, this week has been mission near impossible
- 2010/10/15: ABC(Au):TDU: The Murray Darling's political sinkhole
- 2010/10/15: ABC(Au): Academics meet to analyse Murray guide
- 2010/10/15: ABC(Au): Some regions in the Murray-Darling basin have already cut their water consumption by more than half the amount recommended by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA), departmental figures show
- 2010/10/14: ABC(Au): The Federal Opposition says the Government is setting up a parliamentary inquiry to avoid taking responsibility for water allocation cuts in the Murray-Darling Basin
- 2010/10/14: ABC(Au): Inquiry called as basin plan anger grows
Independent MP Tony Windsor will head up a six-month federal parliamentary inquiry into the impact of water cuts on communities in the Murray-Darling Basin. - 2010/10/14: ABC(Au): Banks say Murray-Darling cuts could kill towns
Farmers and small businesses in the Murray-Darling Basin may face foreclosure on their loans in the wake of the release of proposed water cuts, a report has found. - 2010/10/13: ABC(Au): Angry crowd burns copy of Murray-Darling report
A report proposing big irrigation cuts has been burned at a community meeting in southern New South Wales this morning. The Murray-Darling Basin Authority proposal to return up to 4,000 gigalitres of water to the system has created great angst, despite calls to let the consultation process take its course. - 2010/10/13: TerraDaily: Australia Must Have Better Plan For A Variable Water Future
- 2010/10/13: JQuiggin: Water is heavy
- 2010/10/12: ABC(Au): Farmers vent Murray plan frustration
Frustrated farmers have accused the Murray-Darling Basin Authority of vastly underestimating the impact of proposed water cuts. - 2010/10/12: ABC(Au): The Total Environment Centre says the Murray Darling Basin Plan should be a catalyst for farmers to re-invent the way they use water
- 2010/10/12: ABC(Au): Murray-Darling communities prepare for irrigation tussle
Communities in the Murray-Darling Basin are gearing up for a fight as consultation begins on a controversial plan to slash irrigation levels in the river system. - 2010/10/11: ABC(Au): Murray plan job losses three times more than predicted
- 2010/10/11: ABC(Au): Premier Kristina Keneally says New South Wales will struggle to find the water savings required in the plan to revitalise the Murray Darling river system
- 2010/10/11: ABC(Au): Locals slam Murray Darling Basin Plan
Murray Irrigation said it could lose half its historic water use under the proposed cuts in the basin guide. The acting chairman of Australia's biggest irrigation company, Mark Robertson said the dramatic cuts proposed would bring about the demise of irrigation communities, cause job losses, force people from family farms and prompt a rapid decline in regional communities. - 2010/10/11: ABC(Au): Brutal, or bare minimum?: Mixed response to Basin Plan
The Ricegrowers Association of Australia said the Murray Darling Basin Authority's recommended water cuts are brutal. - 2010/10/11: ABC(Au): Murray Darling Basin draft plan slammed by MP [Susan Ley (Farrer)]
- 2010/10/11: PlanetArk: Australian Farmers To Lose Water To Restore Rivers
And in New Zealand:
- 2010/10/13: HotTopic: Waving, not drowning (yet)
- 2010/10/11: HotTopic: Gambling with nature's tolerance
While in China:
- 2010/10/17: Xinhuanet: Senior PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) advisor confident in China's green economy
China has laid a firm foundation for green development and will achieve its ambitious target on increasing the use of renewable resources, a senior advisor with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said Saturday. Referring to China's bid to produce 20 percent of its energy with renewable resources by 2020, Thierry Raes, a partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory, said the goal is "very ambitious." - 2010/10/13: PhysOrg: China's wind power capacity to grow five-fold by 2020
And elsewhere in Asia:
- 2010/10/13: Yahoo:AFP: South Korea unveils huge clean energy investment plan
South Korea Wednesday unveiled a five-year plan to spend 36 billion dollars developing renewable energy as its next economic growth engine. The plan, approved at a meeting chaired by President Lee Myung-Bak, aims to transform South Korea into one of the world's five top players in renewable energy. - 2010/10/15: TEC: Is the Canadian cleantech scene invisible to the world?
The G20 policing imbroglio rolls on:
- 2010/10/16: CfC: Hundert is now Canada's Own Invisible Man
- 2010/10/16: TStar: 'Officer Bubbles' sues YouTube and users over cartoons
- 2010/10/17: PostMedia: G20 accused given 'punitive' bail deal
Man forced to agree to strict conditions or be kept in solitary confinement, brother claims A man accused of being a ringleader of the vandalism seen during the G20 summit protests in Toronto this summer was forced to sign strict bail conditions that bar him from speaking to the media, nearly two dozen people and members of several organizations, his family says. Alex Hundert, 30, faces three counts of conspiracy pertaining to G20 activities. His family says Hundert initially refused to sign the stringent bail conditions -- the likes of which one expert says he's never seen before. But Hundert's brother, Jonah, alleges officers at the Toronto East Detention Centre threatened to keep his brother in solitary confinement, in "the hole," for the rest of his trial unless he signed them. - 2010/10/17: TStar: G20 protests: Gag order goes too far
- 2010/10/16: DawgsBlawg: Toronto the police state
- 2010/10/16: TGBeaver: Interview with Alex Hundert
- 2010/10/16: LFR: Dr. Dawg: 'Toronto the Police State' (and beyond)
- 2010/10/16: LFR: CBC, PROFUNC and G20
- 10/13: MediaCoop: Alex Hundert Declines Bail, Refuses Conditions against Expressing Political Views
"Despite incarceration, my commitment to these struggles is only strengthened, as are our movements." - 2010/10/15: LFR: Officer Bubbles sues youtube for $1.2 million
- 2010/10/15: BDBO: Officer Bubbles sues YouTube
- 2010/10/16: DawgsBlawg: Officer Bubbles wants his dignity back
- 2010/10/15: POGGE: Beyond outrageous [G20]
- 2010/10/15: TGBeaver: G8/20 Fallout: Pandora's box
- 2010/10/15: SSM: Did you expect anything else? Charges dropped against 100 G20 protesters
- 2010/10/15: DawgsBlawg: The odour of rotting justice...is emanating once again from Toronto.
- 2010/10/15: TStar: Staggering' conditions on accused G20 ringleader
Alex Hundert's words will not appear in this story.
Unlike other Canadians, he's not allowed to speak to the press.
At least that's how a court interpreted the new bail conditions placed on Hundert, an accused ringleader of violence during the G20 summit in June.
"It's staggering in its breadth," said John Norris, Hundert's lawyer. "I've never heard of anything as broad as that."
Hundert, 30, faces three counts of conspiracy pertaining to G20 activities, and was released in July on $100,000 bail with about 20 terms, including not participating in any public demonstration.
Shortly after his release, the Crown filed an appeal to revoke his bail. Superior Court Justice Todd Ducharme ruled against that appeal.
On Sept. 17, shortly after Ducharme's decision, Hundert was arrested for participating in a panel discussion at Ryerson University -- which police deemed to be a public demonstration. - 2010/10/13: POGGE: There's never a free speech warrior around when you need one
- 2010/10/12: MediaCoop: Environmental Justice Toronto activists drop banner off Gardiner Expressway demanding freedom for G20 arrestee Alex Hundert
Questions and debate about offshore and Arctic drilling continue:
- 2010/10/13: CBC: Newfoundland-Labrodor offshore oil board approves Hibernia South
The board that regulates the province's offshore industry has given the Hibernia South oil project the green light. - 2010/10/12: G&M: Quebec, Newfoundland square off over offshore oil
The Mackenzie Valley pipeline is back with a bang:
- 2010/10/15: PostMedia: Review of [Mackenzie Valley] pipeline critical of Tories -- Government claims environment measures would constrain North
A joint review panel assessing a $16.2-billion northern pipeline proposal has chastised the federal government for lacking transparency in an attempt to reject environmental protection measures recommended for the project in the Mackenzie Valley. In correspondence made public this month, the chairman of the panel, Robert Hornal criticized numerous recommendations from the government, including its suggestions that the environmental protection measures should be rejected on the grounds that they would "constrain future development in the North." - 2010/10/14: CBC: Mackenzie pipeline panel blasts governments
The independent panel that reviewed the proposed Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline has blasted the federal and N.W.T. governments for rejecting many of its recommendations on how to make the project successful. The Joint Review Panel says all of its 176 recommendations must be followed to ensure the proposed 1,200-kilometre pipeline, which would run natural gas through the Northwest Territories to northern Alberta, benefits northerners while having a minimal impact on the environment. Of those 176 recommendations, 115 were aimed at the federal and N.W.T. governments. But in an interim response released earlier this year, the two governments fully accepted only 10 of those recommendations. - 2010/05/17: CBC: Only 10 Mackenzie pipeline recommendations OKed
Ottawa and the Northwest Territories have fully accepted only 10 of the 115 recommendations made by an environmental panel about the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline. The Joint Review Panel made a total of 176 recommendations to mitigate any harmful environmental and socio-economic effects of building and operating a 1,200-kilometre natural gas pipeline. Of those recommendations, 115 were aimed at the federal and N.W.T. governments. When it released its findings in December, the panel said it would support the proposed pipeline -- which would run from gas fields in the Beaufort Delta, through the Northwest Territories south to a hub in northern Alberta -- only if all of its recommendations are implemented. But in their interim response released Monday, the federal and N.W.T. governments said only 10 of the Joint Review Panel's recommendations would be accepted as written. Twenty-eight would be rejected outright and 77 would be acceptable with changes, the governments said. - 2010/10/14: ChronicleHerald: Panel slams Mackenzie pipeline proposals
Proposed federal changes to a report on the Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline will weaken environmental protection and fail to ensure that northerners enjoy maximum benefits from the project, says the panel that reviewed the project. In a rejoinder to the federal government's initial response to the report, the project's Joint Review Panel refused to back off from any of the 176 recommendations it deemed necessary to mitigate the impacts of the $16-billion pipeline. - 2010/10/13: SolveClimate: Nebraska Ranchers Fear Pipeline Talks Have Gone Awry
- 2010/10/13: SolveClimate: Nebraska Ranchers Say No to Oil Sands Pipeline "Gag Order" -- Want an easement payout? Just sign this nondisclosure agreement, says TransCanada
The Enron bomber investigation is back:
- 2010/10/14: CBC: DNA found on pipeline bomber letter: RCMP
DNA found on a mocking and anonymous April letter might provide the key to identifying a pipeline bomber in northeastern B.C., police say. There have been six bombings in the Dawson Creek area since October 2008, all aimed at Encana Corp. wellheads or pipelines. - 2010/10/13: PostMedia: Senator renounces her call for silence
Sen. Nancy Ruth has revisited her shocking advice to women to "shut the f--k up" over the federal government's plan to omit abortion from its program to improve maternal health in poor countries. The blunt-talking Conservative senator makes no apologies for uttering the F-bomb, which has come to be known by its initials, STFU. After all, it wound up becoming the spur for a slim new volume released Tuesday in which Ruth and 25 other women explore the ongoing struggle for women's equality in Canada. Ruth does, however, offer new advice. Women should "never STFU," she writes.Instead, she argues, they should use different volume levels and different strategies to advance their equality efforts. - 2010/10/15: CBC: Don't bank on Igor money, Chantal victims warn
Some families in Newfoundland and Labrador who've had their homes damaged by storms before have a warning for those now rebuilding in the wake of Hurricane Igor: don't expect the province to cover everything. During Tropical Storm Chantal in 2007, heavy wind and rain caused severe damage to many homes, including that of Bridget Foley in Dunville, about 120 kilometres southwest of St. John's on Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula. Foley said the family is still repairing the damage caused by that storm and paying out of pocket for most of the repairs because government assistance simply wasn't enough to cover all of the expenses. - 2010/10/14: CBC: Hundreds of B.C. dams in need of repair: report
- 2010/10/12: TC: Campbell's Fiscal Fiasco: $50 Billion Private Power vs. NDP's $460 Million Fast Ferries by Rafe Mair
Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:
- 2010/10/15: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Tar sands, putting our waters in Jeopardy
- 2010/10/15: Tyee: Hungary's Sludge Pond Catastrophe Could Happen Here -- Alberta's tar sands tail ponds alone cover a Vancouver-sized area, and safety plans are secret
- 2010/10/15: Rabble: Writing about conditions in Suncor's tar sands work camps got me fired by Mike Thomas
- 2010/10/15: Grist: American companies don't want tar-sands oil on their logos, creating an opening
- 2010/10/14: Grist: Tar-sands bathrooms are eco-friendly, which makes up for all that other stuff
- 2010/10/12: Grist: Farmers and travelers in a tar-sands boomtown [Fort McMoney]
- 2010/10/13: Grist: Flying over the tar sands -- Like Tolkien's Mordor, but less pretty
- 2010/10/12: TreeHugger: Fossil Fools Gold: Tar Sands & Oil Shale Eco-Impact Explained
- 2010/10/11: PostMedia: Tarsands worker says he was fired over blog
- 2010/10/11: BDBO: Alberta oilfield blogger fired and blacklisted - adhcanuck and Suncor
In Saskatchewan the big question is Potash?
- 2010/10/15: CBC: Kill BHP bid for PotashCorp: Jarislowsky -- 'Nobody else in the world gives their raw materials away and doesn't have control over them'
One of the biggest shareholders of Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan has called for Ottawa to reject BHP Billiton's $38.6-billion US takeover offer for the Saskatoon-based fertilizer giant. Montreal-based billionaire investor Stephen Jarislowsky said Friday the bid is too low and should be defeated so Canada can avoid having another major company sold to foreign interests. Ottawa is expected to rule on the offer in a little over two weeks. - 2010/10/15: CBC: Sinochem abandons PotashCorp bid: report
Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan shares could come under selllng pressure Friday after a report from Asia that Chinese chemicals giant Sinochem Corp. won't make a rival bid for the fertilizer giant. With investors hoping for a white knight friendly offer, the company's stock has been trading well above the $130 a share hostile offer by Anglo-Australian miner BHP Billiton PLC, which values PotashCorp at nearly $39-billion US. - 2010/10/13: BuckDog: Brad Wall Ignores The Interests Of The People Of Saskatchewan At His Political Peril!
- 2010/10/13: CBC: PotashCorp vows HQ will stay in Sask.
- 2010/10/12: CBC: Sask. First Nations mull PotashCorp injunction
- 2010/10/12: BuckDog: Saskatchewan's First Nations To Sue Over Potash Riches
- 2010/10/11: CBC: Battle for Potash attracts new interest: reports
More interested suitors are circling around Potash Corp. and may try to top BHP Billiton's takeover offer, media reports say. The Economic Times of India reported Monday that China's Sinochem had approached the Indian state-owned iron ore miner, NMDC, about making a joint bid for the Canadian fertilizer company. - 2010/10/12: CBC: Warm weather brings October mosquitoes [Man. pol]
Mild weather and standing water has caused an unusual October mosquito outbreak across southern Manitoba, including Winnipeg. Winnipeg entomologist Taz Stuart said the mosquitoes will keep on buzzing until the temperature takes a big dip. "It's perfect flying conditions," said Stewart. "Mosquitoes don't die unless there is a frost and there hasn't been a good killing frost ... yet." He said the mosquitoes that are still active are not the disease-bearing culex tarsalis variety. - 2010/10/14: PlanetArk: Ontario Puts Focus On Green Energy, Jobs: Minister
- 2010/10/13: BCLSB: [Ontario Conservative leader, Tim] Hudak On The Environment
- 2010/10/12: SolveClimate: Ontario's Green Energy Push Draws Fire From Japan, U.S. and E.U.
In a WTO complaint, leading cleantech countries say policies violate international trade agreements - 2010/10/12: CBC: N.S. manganese eyed for electric car batteries
And in the North:
- 2010/10/12: PostMedia: Canada puts beacon on gigantic [Petermann Glacier] ice island
Island the size of a small city moving fast, presenting long-range threat to shipping - 2010/10/15: AlterNet: We are Facing the Greatest Threat to Humanity: Only Fundamental Change Can Save Us
- 2010/10/15: Guardian(UK): Climate change v capitalism: the feast is almost over by Jerry Mander
Our guest editor, Antony Hegarty, was inspired by Jerry Mander's 1991 book In the Absence of the Sacred. Here Jerry writes about the incompatibility of tackling climate change and prioritising economic growth - 2010/10/13: EnergyBulletin: Our Commons future is already here by Maude Barlow
IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology] raised its head once again:
- 2010/10/12: Grist: NPR's Scott Simon on adoption and environmentalism
- 2010/10/12: NatureTGB: Study sheds light on the demography of climate change
- 2010/10/12: Eureka: Population change: Another influence on climate change -- Changes in population, including aging and urbanization, could affect global carbon dioxide emissions
- 2010/10/11: LA Times: Slowing population: Would it curb climate change?
- 2010/10/12: BBC: Population shifts 'substantially influence' emissions
Changing population dynamics could "substantially influence" future greenhouse gas emissions, a study has suggested. A team of US and Austrian researchers found that urbanisation could increase emissions by up to 25% in some developing nations. However, industrialised countries could see emissions fall by about 20% as a result of ageing populations. - 2010/10/11: Grist: How does population affect climate change?
- 2010/10/11: EnergyBulletin: The big population question
Apocalypso anyone?
- 2010/10/14: EnergyBulletin: Energy and food constraints will collapse global economic recovery
- 2010/10/11: CCurrents: The Reinvention Of Collapse [Orlov revu]
As for how the media handles the science of climatology:
- 2010/10/14: DeSmogBlog: Calgary Herald Uses Royal Society Report as Soapbox to Preach Climate Change Denial
- 2010/10/14: Guardian(UK): Chilean miners leave BBC too broke for live coverage of Cancún climate talks
- 2010/10/14: TreeHugger: Guardian Shames BBC For Proposing to Send One Person to Cover COP16
- 2010/10/13: KlimaZwiebel: Climate change in the media
- 2010/10/13: Telegraph(UK): BBC told to ensure balance on climate change
Climate change sceptics are likely to be given greater prominence in BBC documentaries and news bulletins following new editorial guidelines that call for impartiality in the corporation's science coverage. - 2010/10/12: MTobis: Bee Story A, Bee Story B
And for your film & video enjoyment:
- 2010/10/15: AFTIC: CCW - Extinction: It's not just for Polar Bears anymore [video]
- 2010/10/15: PeakEnergy: Gasland In Australia
- 2010/10/14: PSinclair: Tabletop Global Warming
- 2010/10/11: Guardian(UK): Emily James on climate direct action film Just Do It
- 2010/10/10: PSinclair: The Bird [One Eyed Rhyno song]
Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:
- 2010/10/15: TreeHugger: $100 Million Class Action Filed Against LEED and USGBC
- 2010/10/15: OilChange: Shell to Pay $30 Million to Settle Nigeria Bribery Case
Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:
- 2010/10/14: PhysOrg: Oil boom possible but time is running out
Oil recovery using carbon dioxide could lead to a North Sea oil bonanza worth £150 billion ($240 billion) -- but only if the current infrastructure is enhanced now, according to a new study published today by a world-leading energy expert. - 2010/10/14: EarthTimes: Happy with oil market, OPEC keeps output steady
- 2010/10/13: CBC: Global oil demand seen rising
The International Energy Agency raised its forecast Wednesday for global oil demand this year and next ...
The Paris-based energy watchdog says global demand for crude will reach 86.9 million barrels a day this year...
The IEA said in its monthly report that oil demand next year will reach 88.2 million barrels a day... - 2010/10/12: KSJT: Wash. Post / ScienceNow: A geothermal hotspot in West Virginia, and a AAAS news operation that works more and more like a wire service
- 2010/10/12: ClimateP: Exelon's Rowe: Low gas prices and no carbon price push back nuclear renaissance a "decade, maybe two"
- 2010/10/12: TEC: The Gas Cartel Idea: On the Road to Another OPEC?
- 2010/10/11: Upstream: Iran ups its reserves cache
Iran today unveiled a massive boost in its estimated oil reserves, a move which sees it wrest back its place as the holder of the third-largest reserves base in the world. Last week, Iraq claimed it had overtaken Iran. Coming ahead of an Opec meeting on Thursday, one analyst said the two countries were in a "bidding war" over reserves, which is usually a consideration including other criteria such as production capacity when it comes to allocating quotas. - 2010/10/12: CBC: OPEC boosts oil demand forecast [to 85.59 mb/d in 2010 and 86.64 mb/d in 2011]
Hey! Let's contaminate the aquifer for thousands of years! It'll be a fracking gas!
- 2010/10/15: Tyee: A Fracking Disaster in the Making: Report
Blasting shale rock with toxic fluid can release riches in natural gas, but threatens critical water supplies. - 2010/10/13: STimes: Natural gas elbows its way to center stage
By unlocking decades' worth of natural-gas deposits deep underground across the United States, drillers have ensured that natural gas will be cheap and plentiful for the foreseeable future. It's a reversal from a few years ago that is transforming the energy industry. - 2010/10/13: TEC: The sound and fury of the shale gas fracking debate
- 2010/10/12: PhysOrg: Marcellus shale needs scientific study to set guidelines
The Academy of Natural Sciences is calling for a comprehensive research plan that would result in guidelines and an assessment tool for regulators and managers in order to minimize the environmental impact of Marcellus Shale gas drilling. - 2010/10/12: Grist: Google makes big bet on offshore wind power along East Coast
- 2010/10/12: NYT: Offshore Wind Power Line Wins Backing
- 2010/10/11: NYT:CW: Despite Lease Approval, Future of Cape Wind Remains Up in the Air
- 2010/10/12: Reuters: Wind energy to surge by 2030, but faces grid constraints
- 2010/10/12: TreeHugger: 20% of US Electricity From Wind Power by 2030 Would Get Big Boost From Offshore Projects
- 2010/10/12: TEC: Google's Atlantic coast wind deal
- 2010/10/12: REA: Denmark's Rødsand II 207 MW Offshore Wind Farm Now On Line
A 90-turbine wind farm has been completed by Siemens and E.ON in the Baltic Sea six weeks ahead of schedule. - 2010/10/11: Guardian(UK): Floating turbines promise to deliver reliable wind, says report
Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:
- 2010/10/16: NBF: Solar is now the fastest growing energy industry in the U.S
- 2010/10/13: Cryptogon: Super Soaker Inventor May Hold the Key to Affordable Solar Power
- 2010/10/14: TEC: Schott Solar: Outsourcing, insourcing and hyprocrisy
- 2010/10/14: EarthTimes: ADB powers Asia-Pacific solar energy quest
- 2010/10/13: Reuters: Sharp Solar squares up against "frenemies"
The new head of Sharp Solar's U.S. business expects the country's renewable energy sector to take off in the coming years, overshadowing the leading German market and attracting heavy investment. - 2010/10/13: SolveClimate: U.S. Solar Market Booms, With Utility-Scale Projects Leading the Way -- Industry report says solar installations could increase tenfold by 2015
- 2010/10/13: TEC: U.S. solar power: doubling in 2010!
- 2010/10/13: SF Gate: Solar power production up despite poor economy
- 2010/10/12: REA: Solar Market Heats Up
The US and Canada are waking up to the prospects of solar power generation. Prices for solar PV have fallen and utilities are increasingly developing projects that use the sun to generate electricity. - 2010/10/11: PhysOrg: Taiwan Cement plans large solar power plant
- 2010/10/11: SciDaily: Efficient, Inexpensive Plastic Solar Cells Coming Soon
- 2010/10/10: Eureka: Rutgers discovery paves way for development of efficient, inexpensive plastic solar cells
Feed-In-Tariffs are being variously implemented around the world:
- 2010/10/14: ENS: Hawaii Permits Residents to Generate Clean Energy, Feed It to the Grid
Biofuel bickering abounds:
- 2010/10/15: PhysOrg: The risks and benefits of using poplars for biofuels
- 2010/10/14: PlanetArk: Brazil Ethanol Production Will Continue To Grow: IEA
- 2010/10/13: PhysOrg: Methanol: The fuel of the future?
The nuclear energy controversy continues:
- 2010/10/15: BBC: Russia and Venezuela sign nuclear power and oil deals
Russia is to build a nuclear power plant in Venezuela as part of a series of energy deals between the nations. - 2010/10/14: BNC: SNE 2060 -- are uranium resources sufficient?
- 2010/10/14: TEC: Sources of nuclear cost saving from small and advanced reactors
- 2010/10/15: TEC: Cost of Money for Nuclear Projects - Effect of $880 Million Financing Fee - 30% Increase in Electrical Power Price
- 2010/10/13: PressEurop: TemelÃn project postponed
- 2010/10/14: BBC: Key component contract for ITER fusion reactor
The contract has been signed that will lead to the production of [Tokomak doughnut] the biggest component in the ITER fusion reactor. - 2010/10/13: BBC: Wylfa nuclear plant to operate for two more years
Wylfa nuclear power plant on Anglesey is to continue generating electricity for around another two years, say industry regulators. The Magnox-type reactors were due to shut down in December after 39 years. The extension of the plant's lifespan secures 200 jobs, while there are still hopes of a new plant being built nearby within 10 years. - 2010/10/13: EarthTimes: Report: Czech [Temelin] nuclear power plant expansion faces delay
- 2010/10/13: TEC: Czech utility postpones new build [of up to five reactors] at Temelin
- 2010/10/12: WNN: Uranium imports boost Indian reactor output
Electricity generation from India's nuclear power plants has exceeded targets, partly through imports making uranium more readily available, according to Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL). - 2010/10/10: NYT: Economy Sandbags Plans for Nuclear Reactors
- 2010/10/11: Yale360: The Promise of Fusion: Energy Miracle or Mirage?
The U.S. has invested billions of dollars trying to create a controlled form of nuclear fusion that could be the energy source for an endless supply of electricity. But as a federal laboratory prepares for a key test of the latest technology, even the project's most enthusiastic supporters concede an actual pilot fusion plant is at least a decade away. - 2010/10/15: OilDrum: Congressional Briefing: Can Oil Production Meet Rising Demand?
- 2010/10/14: EnergyBulletin: Review: When Oil Peaked by Ken Deffeyes
- 2010/10/14: PeakEnergy: New Zealand's Parliamentary Library Report On Peak Oil
- 2010/10/13: FT:BB: After peak oil, peak steel?
- 2010/10/12: CtWatchDog: Peak Oil Experts Fear Big New U.S. Job Losses, Economic Downturn
More people are talking about the electrical grid:
- 2010/10/14: PeakEnergy: IBM Joins Australian Grid Project
- 2010/10/12: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Offshore Wind Gets a Boost from Google and Good Energies: Introducing the Atlantic Wind Connection
- 2010/10/12: NatureTGB: Google joins offshore electric transmission venture
- 2010/10/12: TreeHugger: Google Invests in $5 Billion, 350-Mile Wind Power 'Backbone'
- 2010/10/12: TreeHugger: Five Foundational Smart Grid Standards Pinpointed
- 2010/10/08: UVM: Study: It's Hard to Bring Down the Electric Grid
- 2010/10/12: PeakEnergy: Why Microgrids Are Smart
- 2010/10/12: CBC: Google investing in wind farm transmission
Google is investing in an extensive network of deepwater transmission lines worth billions for future wind farms off the U.S. East Coast, the company said Tuesday. The transmission lines, which could cost up to $5 billion US over the next 10 years, would run as far as 32 kilometres offshore from Virginia to New Jersey. The initial phase of the project would be capable of delivering 2,000 megawatts of wind energy -- enough to power about 500,000 homes. - 2010/10/11: TEC: The Convergence of Laws -- Moore, Metcalfe, and Ohm
And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:
- 2010/10/15: TEC: ACEEE 2010 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard: Beyond the Rankings
- 2010/10/14: PhysOrg: Restaurants could cut energy use in half, report says
Coffee shops and fast-food eateries could reduce their energy use more than 50 percent with ultra-efficient appliances, lights and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems and other integrated design methods, according to a new report by the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. - 2010/10/10: CCTimes: Teacher becomes energy sleuth to save district money
Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:
- 2010/10/14: AutoBG: 127 MPG: What Motor Trend got driving the Volt in the real world
- 2010/10/14: TreeHugger: Chevy Volt Gets 127 MPG Over 299 Miles of Real-World Driving
- 2010/10/13: PhysOrg: Michigan to get 5,300 charging stations for electric cars
- 2010/10/11: TEC: Electric cars going mainstream
As for Energy Storage:
- 2010/10/15: NYT:GW: DOE Promotes Pumped Hydro as Option for Renewable Power Storage
- 2010/10/14: Yale360: Rising Hopes that Electric Cars Can Play a Key Role on the Grid [V2G]
- 2010/10/14: Eureka: Silicon strategy shows promise for batteries -- Rice researchers advance lithium-ion technique for electric cars, large-capacity storage
- 2010/10/13: PhysOrg: Silicon strategy shows promise for batteries
- 2010/10/11: PNNL: Planar power -- Flat sodium-nickel chloride battery could improve performance, cost of energy storage
- 2010/10/11: PhysOrg: Who killed the graphite anode? Researchers move silicon anode li-ion battery technology forward
The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:
- 2010/10/11: Reuters: Green investors not waiting on U.N. climate talks
Clean energy funds are not basing investment decisions on United Nations talks for a new global climate pact because the discussions are too drawn out and uncertain, renewable energy investment fund Novusmodus said. - 2010/10/15: ClimateP: Big Oil goes to college
- 2010/10/15: Grist: The 'Troubled Waters' of Big Ag's academic influence
- 2010/10/15: SF Gate: Big Oil money can influence research, study claims
Research universities that accept millions of dollars from oil companies have failed to shield themselves from corporate influence, according to a new study that faults UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Stanford and seven others. - 2010/10/15: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for October 15...
- 2010/10/14: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for October 14...
- 2010/10/13: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for October 13...
- 2010/10/12: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for October 12...
Other (weekly) lists:
- 2010/10/15: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Climate, Energy and Environment News from Latin America: 10.11 - 10.15.2010
- 2010/10/15: IJISH: Mindless Link Propagation
- 2010/10/14: Grist: A walk through the week's climate news -- The Climate Post: Psychoanalyzing the GOP's flourishing climate skepticism
- 2010/10/15: NRDC:SwitchBoard: India Climate Change and Energy News - Week of October 5, 2010 to October 11, 2010
The carbon lobby are up to the usual:
- 2010/10/14: NYT:GW: Petroleum Industry Asks White House to Ease [EPA] Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rules
- 2010/10/16: PKedrosky: When in Doubt, Shout
- 2010/10/16: RealityCheck: The German Sceptics
- 2010/10/15: CSW: On Bjorn Lomborg and the "middle ground"
- 2010/10/15: Deltoid: Art Robinson interviewed
- 2010/10/15: MTobis: Jim Manzi's Cherry Pick
- 2010/10/15: TP: Glenn Beck Brings ExxonMobil-Linked Religious Front Group To Tell Christians Not To Believe In Climate Change
- 2010/10/16: Tamino: Anthony Watts: Pants on Fire
- 2010/10/15: HotTopic: I've been wrong before
- 2010/10/15: SMandia: Shooting the Messenger with Blanks
- 2010/10/15: SkeptiSci: Skeptical Logic Can't Save Greenland Ice - for that you need to stop climate change
- 2010/09/16: DBCCA: New DBCCA whitepaper addressing the climate change skeptics
- 2010/10/14: WottsUWT: ABC interview wrongly torches skeptic position
- 2010/10/14: DeSmogBlog: Calgary Herald Uses Royal Society Report as Soapbox to Preach Climate Change Denial
- 2010/10/13: ClimateShifts: Who, Bob, Who? Bob Carter on abolishing the IPCC.
- 2010/10/12: Grist: Heartland grows new crop of anti-climate governor candidates
- 2010/10/12: DeSmogBlog: Joe Barton: Misleading Congress; Misleading America
- 2010/10/12: WtD: Lomborg, the movie
- 2010/10/12: ClimateSight: Be Critical of Critics
- 2010/10/12: WottsUWT: Length of day correlated to cosmic rays and sunspots
- 2010/10/12: WtD: We speak in facts, they talk about values: denial is not an emotional state but part of ones world view
- 2010/10/11: WtD: Rearguard action: confusion and rendering climate change irrelevant is the goal of the "deniers"
- 2010/10/11: StarTrib: EnCana: Cutting emissions is good business
Meanwhile in the 'clean coal' saga:
- 2010/10/10: Google:AP: Toxic coal sludge pollutes Ky. town 10 years later
As for climate miscellanea:
- 2010/10/16: MTobis: Action Plan to Further Weaken Earth's Defenses
- 2010/10/15: Guardian(UK): Innovation award for 'bubble-maker' that boosts algae growth
Royal Society gives £250,000 prize to fluidic oscillator that transforms the cost and effectiveness of growing algae for biofuels - 2010/10/16: CCP: Peter Goldmark: Time is running out
- 2010/10/15: Guardian(UK): How fear of bias dominates the climate change debate
Climate sceptics say they want science free of politics, yet their campaigning frames discussion - 2010/10/15: CCD: Up in lights
- 2010/10/15: ERabett: Perils of wisdom from the bunny
- 2010/10/12: GG&G: The upsides of bad weather are...
- 2010/10/13: DWWSJ: Royal Society Releases Exc. Summary of Climate Science.
- 2010/10/14: PlanetJ: Do the IPCC use alarmist language?
- 2010/10/13: SkeptiSci: Do the IPCC use alarmist language?
- 2010/10/13: NewScientist: Green Machine: Where do solar cells go when they die?
- 2010/10/12: CCurrents: On Climate Models, The Case For Living With Uncertainty [Pearce]
- 2010/10/12: Guardian(UK): Climate change: local action speaks louder than global words
International climate talks may be failing to make progress, but the grassroots movement around the world has never been stronger - 2010/10/12: TreeHugger: X-Prize Foundation and Indian Government to Launch Prize for Clean Cookstoves
And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:
- MHerrera: Extreme temperatures around the world
- UMSL:CIAWorldFactBook: Liberia
- IISD: Thirty-second Session of the IPCC [at Busan]
- IPCC: Thirty-Second Session of the IPCC, Busan, Republic of Korea, 11 - 14 October 2010
- WAF: World Agroforestry Centre
- BIC: Bank Information Center
- CBD: Convention on Biological Diversity
- NCDC: National Climate Data Center
- BAD: Blog Action Day
- USGS: WaterWatch -- Maps and graphs of current water resources conditions
- WtEB: While the Earth Burns
- CTC Blog
Yes we have no cartoons...
But for those interested in exploring the nether reaches of Poe's Law:
Looking ahead to COP16 and future international climate negotiations:
There is a major Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan next week:
ICAO met in Montreal this week and came to an agreement on future airline emissions:
The ASPO-USA Conference went down this week:
Carbon Tariffs still have people on edge:
What are the global financial institutions up to?
Blog Action Day dealt with water this year:
Late comment on that Haigh solar paper:
While in Antarctica:
The food crisis is ongoing:
And how are we going to feed 9 billion?
While on the ENSO front:
As for ocean currents:
More GW impacts are being seen:
This week in extreme weather:
About those Arizona tornadoes:
As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:
How will Carbon Labelling work?
Miscellaneous international politics:
The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world:
The Obama chatter is nonstop:
Meanwhile in Australia:
The reactions to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan continue:
In Canada, minority neocon PM Harper, continues his do-nothing policy:
Elsewhere in pipelines:
Remember Senator Shut-The-Phuque-Up? She's changed her mind, not her behaviour:
On the post Igor recovery front:
BC is wrangling over energy:
While in Manitoba:
Ontario has it's Green Energy Act, now comes the implementation:
While in the Maritimes:
The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:
The answer my friend...:
Yes we have peak everything:
Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:
Joe Romm posts a daily list of top energy and climate stories:
Low Key Plug
My first novel Water was published in Canada May, 2007. The American release was in October. An Introductionto the novel is available, along with the Unpublished Forewordand the Launch Talk. An overview of my writing is available here.
<regards>
P.S. Recent postings can be found in the week archive and the ancient postings can be accessed here, which should open to this.
"It is difficult for people living now, who have become accustomed to the steady exponential growth in the consumption of energy from fossil fuels, to realize how transitory the fossil fuel epoch will eventually prove to be when it is viewed over a longer span of human history. The situation can better be seen in the perspective of some 10,000 years, half before the present and half afterward. On such a scale the complete cycle of the exploitation of the world's fossil fuels will be seen to encompass perhaps 1,300 years, with the principal segment of the cycle (defined as the period during which all but the first 10 percent and the last 10 percent of the fuels are extracted and burned) covering only about 300 years."
-M. King Hubbert, Scientific American, September 1971, Page 61
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