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 Climate Instability News
Information Overload is Pattern Recognition
November 21, 2010
- Chuckles, COP15, COP16+, GGCS, Kiribati, CSRRT, AGU, Pakistan
- Carbon Tariffs, IEC, EcoCops, Psych, Winter Weather, Cook, Post CRU
- Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica
- Food Crisis, Agro-corps, GMOs, Food Production
- Hurricanes, GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures, Paleoclimate
- State of the Oceans, Volcanoes, Satellites
- Impacts, Forests, Climate Refugees, Wildfires
- Corals, Acidification, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
- Mitigation, REDD, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering
- Journals, Other Docs , Misc. Science, DIY Science, Models, Hansen, Stroeve, Wegman, Lindzen, Curry
- UN, Carbon Trade, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
- International Politics: Misc., Rare Earths, Security, Law & Activism, Activism, Polls, H2O Biz, Software
- National Politics: America, BP Disaster, Republican Denial, Ethanol, Circus, Obama, USAdmin, Congress, Lobbyists
- Britain, Europe, Australia, Murray-Darling, Fracking, India, China, Japan, Middle East
- Canada, Post G20, Mackenzie Valley Pipeline, C-311, Immigrants, AECL, GreenPeace
- Lower Churchill, Geothermal, Poll, Biodiversity, BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Sask
- Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Maritimes, North, Canadiana
- Ecological Economics, IPAT, Media, Books, Video, Courts
- Energy, Fracking, Wind, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Grid, Cars, Energy Storage
- Business, Greenwashing, Control, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
- Shameless Self Promotion, .sig
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- 2010/11/20: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Alms and the man
- 2010/11/19: uComics: (cartoon - Rall) Plants and animals are going extinct...
- 2010/11/19: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) If they don't come to their senses soon...
- 2010/11/16: ClimateP: (cartoon - Lunchbreath) Environmental humor
- 2010/11/15: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) In the middle
- 2010/11/15: ClimateP: (cartoon - Toles) Toles slams the anti-science disinformation campaign
- 2010/11/15: CSW: (Cartoon - Toles) Uncle Sam in the climate abyss
About those Copenhagen Accord committments:
- 2010/11/18: EarthTimes: Developed nations falling behind on Copenhagen climate change promises
- 2010/11/17: EurActiv: EU says it's on track to deliver climate aid
The EU has this year delivered 2.2 billion euros in climate finance to developing countries under obligations agreed last year at the Copenhagen climate conference, according to an EU report to be adopted by finance ministers today (17 November). - 2010/11/17: PlanetArk: Climate Aid Said Focused Too Heavily On C02 Cuts
Too much of the $30 billion pledged as "fast-start" climate aid will go to projects that curb emissions instead of efforts to help vulnerable nations adapt to extreme weather and rising seas, a study said on Wednesday. Under the non-binding Copenhagen Accord agreed at a U.N. summit in December 2009, donors agreed that money to give a quick push to efforts to slow climate change from 2010-12 would have a "balanced allocation between adaptation and mitigation." But only 11 to 16 percent of the money promised so far will go to adaptation actions such as building sea walls and promoting new farming practices, according to the report by the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). - 2010/11/17: PlanetArk: Tiny U.N. Climate Fund Could Take Bigger Role: Chair
- 2010/11/16: Reuters: Factbox: Climate aid pledges at $30 billion goal
Pledges by rich countries to provide developing nations with "fast-start" funds to fight climate change have reached a goal of $30 billion for 2010-12, but some of it is not "new and additional" as promised. - 2010/11/16: Reuters: Factbox: The Copenhagen Accord: climate guide or too weak?
- 2010/11/15: Reuters: EU says fulfils climate aid pledge, but is it new?
European governments have fulfilled a promise to deliver 2.2 billion euros ($3 billion) to help poor countries tackle climate change, EU reports show, but critics say the money might have come from rebranding existing aid pledges. - 2010/11/15: Guardian(UK): $30bn will do more to tackle global warming if it is delivered early
The money pledged to developing countries at Copenhagen is a good start, but it must be made more easily accessible - UNFCCC: The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, 29 November - 10 December 2010
- COP 16, United Nations Climate Change Conference, Cancún, Quintana Roo
- 2010/11/20: WaPo: White House takes a more modest Plan B to Cancun climate talks
- 2010/11/19: Xinhuanet: China urges rich nations to "show sincerity" ahead of Cancun climate talks
- 2010/11/21: Guardian(UK): Why the salt miners of Uganda's lakes are dying for a deal on climate change
- 2010/11/19: UNEP: Billions of trees, cleaner stoves and the power of sugar: 30 Ways in 30 Days to meet Climate Change Challenge
- 2010/11/20: PhysOrg: As world warms, negotiators give talks another try
The last time the world warmed, 120,000 years ago, the Cancun coastline was swamped by a 7-foot (2.1-meter) rise in sea level in a few decades. A week from now at that Mexican resort, frustrated negotiators will try again to head off a new global deluge. - 2010/11/19: Reuters: China rules out linking climate aid to transparency
China said on Friday it will not agree to any deal tying climate change aid from rich nations to its acceptance of tighter international checks of its greenhouse gas emissions, which it said will grow for some time. Huang Huikang, the Chinese Foreign Ministry's special representative for climate change talks, laid bare rifts between Beijing and rich countries, especially the United States, that could trouble high-level negotiations in Cancun, Mexico - 2010/11/19: Belfer: Defining Success for Climate Negotiations in Cancun
- 2010/11/17: Reuters: Q+A: What is the outlook for U.N. climate talks?
- 2010/11/19: Reuters: Climate talks should not set deadline for pact
President Barack Obama's climate envoy [Todd Stern] said on Thursday world powers shouldn't get bogged down on a deadline for greenhouse gas emission cuts at the upcoming global climate talks, but instead should take small steps that could lead to a broader agreement. - 2010/11/18: Reuters: EU not ready to move on climate before U.S., China
The European Union will not harden its existing, carbon emissions pledge into a binding, U.N. decision unless the United States and China do likewise, an unlikely prospect, its chief negotiator [Artur Runge-Metzger] said. - 2010/11/19: KSJT: Reuters, etc: Logging's carbon accounts a key to climate talks
- 2010/11/19: PlanetArk: U.N. Climate Talks Must Solve Forest Carbon Riddle
- 2010/11/19: PlanetArk: Poor Nations Say Rich Fail On Climate Aid Pledge
- 2010/11/19: Grist: U.S. climate envoy, Todd Stern, dismisses climate change skeptics
- 2010/11/18: EarthTimes: US expects 'incremental' progress at Cancun climate summit
- 2010/11/17: Grist: Applying the lessons of Copenhagen in Cancun
- 2010/11/18: TreeHugger: Rich Nations' Aid Fails to Help Poor Adapt to Climate Change
- 2010/11/17: PhysOrg: Action on climate change cannot wait for a global deal, business leaders say
Business leaders of hundreds of companies from around the world yesterday released a renewed demand for "an ambitious, robust and equitable global deal on climate change", adding that businesses are already investing in a low-carbon future and governments must respond to this by both redoubling efforts to secure an international framework but also by pursuing an ambitious "parallel mitigation strategy". - 2010/11/16: Yahoo:AFP: Some 60 cities to sign worldwide climate pact in Mexico
- 2010/11/17: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Important Actions Can be Accomplished at Global Warming Negotiations in Mexico
- 2010/11/16: NYT:CW: The Little Nation That Could Lead by Example -- if It Doesn't Drown First
- 2010/11/16: Reuters: Large investors urge progress at climate talks
Stronger domestic and international policy is needed to help unlock investment in low-carbon technology in the absence of a global climate deal, investors with over $15 trillion of assets said on Tuesday. - 2010/11/16: TerraDaily: Cancun climate talks only a 'staging post': British PM [David Cameron]
- 2010/11/16: TEC: Climate Negotiations on the Eve of Cancún
- 2010/11/16: BBC: Cameron downplays climate deal at Schwarzenegger event
UK Prime Minister David Cameron has played down chances of a global agreement at the next UN climate summit in Mexico later this month. - 2010/11/16: EUO: US promises no 'secret' deals at Cancun climate talks
- 2010/11/16: UN: Ahead of UN climate change talks, investors warn of economic risks of inaction
- 2010/11/16: Reuters: Factbox: Major nations' plans for slowing climate change
- 2010/11/16: Reuters: U.N. climate talks seek limited deal as costs soar
Almost 200 nations meet in Mexico this month to try to agree a "green fund" for poor countries and other steps toward an elusive climate treaty amid warnings that inaction is driving up the costs of tackling global warming. - 2010/11/15: UN: UN's climate change chief: compromise and willingness needed at Cancun conference
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger held his Governors' Global Climate Summit this week:
- GGCS: Governors' Global Climate Summit 3 - Nov. 15-16
- 2010/11/17: LA Times: Schwarzenegger launches new climate-change group [Regions of Climate Action group - R-20]
The international organization of states and provinces intends to move ahead on the issue despite the failure to achieve a global climate pact in Copenhagen last year. - 2010/11/19: EurActiv: EU regions back Schwarzenegger initiative to save climate
Six European regions have joined Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in a global initiative to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions called 'R20'. 'R20' is the name of a new initiative that seeks to bring together regional governments from across the world in order to share knowledge and push ahead with actions to promote energy efficiency, renewable energy and clean transport. The initiative, launched in California this week (15-16 November), is being actively supported by regions across Europe. "The signing of the Climate Action Charter by sub-national groups sends a strong message to national governments and international institutions," said Michèle Sabban, president of the Assembly of European Regions and vice-president of the Ile-de-France Regional Council. - 2010/11/18: CSM: California shows the green revolution is alive and well by Arnold Schwarzenegger
- 2010/11/18: Guardian(UK): Arnold Schwarzenegger: my future as a green activist
- 2010/11/18: PlanetArk: California Leads "Subnational" Summit Climate Push
- 2010/11/16: ENS: Schwarzenegger Forges Global Climate Action Coalition With Regional Leaders [Governors' Global Climate summit]
- 2010/11/15: USAToday: Schwarzenegger pushes for regional climate change pact
- 2010/11/15: Guardian(UK): Arnold Schwarzenegger demands action at final climate summit
California's 'green governor' says leaders can learn from golden state's example as environmental pioneer - 2010/11/15: CalifPE: Schwarzenegger pushes for regional climate pact
Post Kiribati conference:
- 2010/11/16: Guardian(UK): Kiribati climate change conference calls for urgent cash and action
Some of the countries most vulnerable to climate change sign Ambo declaration calling for adaptation funding to be fast-tracked - 2010/11/16: HotTopic: Clutching at straws
A Climate Science Rapid Response Team has been formed:
- CSRRT: Climate Science Rapid Response Team
- 2010/11/20: DM:CCM: New Point of Inquiry Episode: Climate Science Strikes Back
- 2010/11/18: MnDaily: Scientists take on doubters of climate change
University of Minnesota alumnus John Abraham says he has been attacked for advocating solutions to global warming under the assumption that the problem is man-made. Now, Abraham has organized a team of scientists who have volunteered to confront global warming doubts. - 2010/11/17: MoJo: Climate Scientists Strike Back -- A year after ClimateGate, can a trio of scientists clear the air of global warming misinformation?
- 2010/11/17: CCP: Climate Scientists Strike Back: John Abraham, Scott Mandia and Ray Weymann form a Climate Science Rapid Response Team, 40 scientists already on board
- 2010/11/16: ClimateP: Climate rapid response communications team gears up
The AGU meanwhile has backed off:
- 2010/11/18: KSJT: Wash. Post (blog): What is and who is on that AGU climate answers hotline for the press?
- 2010/11/14: TCoE: Needed: Leaders
- 2010/11/15: HotTopic: World leaders pretend
Not much news about Pakistan's flood situation, but ...:
- 2010/11/15: CBC: Canadians give $46.8M to Pakistan flood relief
Carbon Tariffs still have people on edge:
- 2010/11/19: Grist: Leading climate change economist warns U.S. of trade boycott
More on denial as crime:
- 2010/11/18: CCP: "A New Kind of Crime Against Humanity?: The Fossil Fuel Industry's Disinformation Campaign On Climate Change" by Donald A. Brown, Penn State
A movement toward EcoCops?
- 2010/11/16: ENN: World's Police Unite for Environmental Crime Crackdown
The police agencies of the world are supporting INTERPOL's Environmental Crime Programme in an historic display of consensus. Delegates attending INTERPOL's General Assembly in Doha, Qatar last week voted unanimously in favor of a resolution encouraging greater global policing efforts to stem environmental crimes. Environmental crime encompasses activities ranging from illegal trade in wildlife, timber and marine species, to transborder movements of hazardous waste, and the illicit exploitation of natural resources. The resolution approved by INTERPOL's 188 national law enforcement authority members recognizes that "environmental crime is not restricted by borders and involves organized crime networks which engage in other crime types including murder, corruption, fraud and theft." - 2010/11/19: Grist: Study suggests climate scientists should leave out the scary parts
- 2010/11/18: EarthTimes: Doomsday climate change messages may make the public more skeptical about climate change
- 2010/11/16: Berkeley: Dire messages about global warming can backfire, new study shows
Here is one of those papers I would like to see replicated:
- 2010/11/05: GRL: (ab$) A link between reduced Barents-Kara sea ice and cold winter extremes over northern continents by Vladimir Petoukhov & Vladimir A. Semenov
- 2010/11/17: TreeHugger: Melting Arctic Sea Ice May Actually Cause Colder Northern Winters
- 2010/11/17: SciDaily: Global Warming Could Cool Down Northern Temperatures in Winter
John Cook and friends continue their counterpoint articles:
- 2010/11/20: SkeptiSci: The human fingerprint in the daily cycle
- 2010/11/15: SkeptiSci: Are ice sheet losses overestimated? [Robert Way]
- 2010/11/15: SkeptiSci: Economic Impacts of Carbon Pricing [IV]
On the one year anniversary of the CRU theft, retrospective articles were in vogue:
- 2010/11/20: SkeptiSci: Climategate: Tampering with Temperatures?
- 2010/11/20: TPL: "Climategate" One Year Later: Much Ado About Next To Nothing Much
- 2010/11/20: SkeptiSci: The Fake Scandal of Climategate
- 2010/11/20: RealClimate: One year later
- 2010/11/19: Guardian(UK): Head of UN climate body admits surprise at fury over blunder in report
One year on, Rajendra Pachauri speaks of regret at false assertion that Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035 - 2010/11/19: IJISH: FOI2009.zip: osborn-tree6/ context: diagram summarizing what we know
- 2010/11/19: BVerheggen: Mike Hulme on the impacts of "climategate"
- 2010/11/17: Nature: [Editorial] Closing the Climategate
- 2010/11/18: AFTIC: Climategate: one year later
- 2010/11/18: SkeptiSci: The question that skeptics don't want to ask about 'Climategate'
[Has 'Climategate' changed our scientific understanding of global warming?] - 2010/11/17: BVerheggen: "Climategate": The scandal that wasn't and the scandal that was
- 2010/11/17: IJISH: Spread the word! ClimateSight on "The Real Story of Climategate"
- 2010/11/17: ClimateSight: The Real Story of Climategate
- 2010/11/17: SMandia: Nature Did Not Read the Hacked Emails
- 2010/11/16: CSW: 'Climategate' lives on in federal court challenges to EPA greenhouse gas regulations
- 2010/11/17: SkeptiSci: Climategate a year later
- 2010/11/16: Guardian(UK): The year climate science was redefined by Mike Hulme
The 12 months since the leaking of emails written by climate change scientists have seen major shifts in environmental debate - 2010/11/16: APSmith: The nothing that was Climategate
- 2010/11/16: IJISH: Nature: "evidence has emerged effectively ruling out" CRU 'insider leak' theory; more yamal/ doubles
- 2010/11/16: PSinclair: CRU Hack One Year Later: Inside job ruled out -- Investigation Continues
- 2010/11/16: CCP: Arthur Smith: The nothing that was Climategate
- 2010/11/16: KSJT: Guardian: A year ago, the climate debate that wasn't a (science) debate took the stage
- 2010/11/15: Guardian(UK): Climate scientist at the heart of emails controversy [Dr Phil Jones] says he did nothing wrong
- 2010/11/15: PSinclair: The Climate Email Hack: One year out and Still Lame as Hell
- 2010/11/15: ClimateP: A stunning year in climate science reveals that human civilization is on the precipice
The first anniversary of 'Climategate', Part 1: The media blows the story of the century - 2010/11/15: NatureN: Climate: The hottest year
The release of climate-science e-mails last November ripped apart Phil Jones's life. He's now trying to patch it back together. - 2010/11/18: TerraDaily: Delayed ice threatening Canada polar bears
- 2010/11/17: CBC: Late Hudson Bay ice imperils polar bears
- 2010/11/14: ERabett: Less ice
As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:
- 2010/11/20: BBC: Cairn Energy refuse to publish full oil spill plan
The Scots-based energy firm involved in oil exploration in the Arctic has refused to publish full details of its contingency plan should a spill occur. Cairn Energy, based in Edinburgh, is at the forefront of the push to open up oil supplies off Greenland. The company and the Greenland government told a BBC Scotland investigation team the plan was secret to prevent sabotage by "third parties". - 2010/11/19: BBC: 'Chance' saved Norway's Statoil well from blast -- Gullfaks C The Gullfaks C platform was closed for three months
Only "chance" prevented a major accident at a well run by Norway's Statoil, the country's oil safety watchdog has said. The Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) said May's incident, which led to the evacuation of the Gullfaks C platform in the North Sea, was "very serious". - 2010/11/15: CCurrents: Climate Crisis, The Arctic And Geopolitics
- 2010/11/15: TMoS: Shoot, Ready, Aim - Madness on the Arctic Seabed
While in Antarctica:
- 2010/11/19: ScienceInsider: New Antarctic Research Plan for Russia
The food crisis is ongoing:
- FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
- 2010/11/17: WFP: WFP Keeps Careful Watch On Food Prices
- 2010/11/17: BBerg: Food-Price Gains May Lift Aid Costs, World Food Programme Says
- 2010/11/16: FAO: North Korea faces serious cereal deficit -- Food shortages and undernourishment to continue
- 2010/11/17: FAO: One trillion food import bill as prices rise -- International community must be aware of possibility of even higher food prices in 2011
International food import bills could pass the one trillion dollar mark in 2010 with prices in most commodities up sharply from 2009, FAO said today. In the latest edition of its Food Outlook report, the agency also issued a warning to the international community to prepare for harder times ahead unless production of major food crops increases significantly in 2011. Food import bills for the world's poorest countries are predicted to rise 11 percent in 2010 and by 20 percent for low-income food-deficit countries. This means, by passing a trillion dollars, the global import food bill will likely rise to a level not seen since food prices peaked at record levels in 2008. - 2010/11/19: CCurrents: Climate Change And Disease Will Spark New Food Crisis, Says UN
- 2010/11/19: NatureTGB: Controversial Antarctic fishery gains 'sustainable' tag
- 2010/11/19: ScienceInsider: In Controversial Move, Antarctic Fishery Called 'Sustainable'
- 2010/11/18: TreeHugger: Food Prices in World's Poorest Nations May Rise 20% in 2011
- 2010/11/18: Independent(UK): Climate change and disease will spark new food crisis, says UN
A food crisis could overtake the world in 2011, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, an agency of the United Nations. Climate change, speculation, competing uses such as biofuels and soaring demand from emerging markets in East Asia are the factors that will push global food prices sharply higher next year, claims the FAO. The FAO warns the world to "be prepared" for more price hikes and volatility if production and stocks do not respond. Price hikes of 41 per cent in wheat, 47 per cent in maize and a third in sugar are foreseen by the FAO. The last time that happened it sparked riots from Mexico to Indonesia. - 2010/11/17: UN: Global food prices may be even higher next year, warns new UN report
- 2010/11/16: TerraDaily: Fading fish stocks driving Asian sea rivalries
- 2010/11/16: CCurrents: Invisible Cities: Part Two: Hunger
- 2010/11/15: CCurrents: Internally Displaced Hunger
- 2010/11/16: UN: Millions in DPR Korea to face food shortages despite good harvest - UN agencies
- 2010/11/16: CBC: Food bank use rises
Food bank use across Canada is at the highest level since 1997, with nearly 900,000 people turning to them in March 2010, says a survey released Tuesday. The HungerCount 2010 survey found that 867,948 people used food banks in March 2010, an increase of 9.2 per cent or more than 73,000 people compared with the previous year. The figure was 28 per cent higher than in 2008. - 2010/11/16: LA Times: 17.4 million U.S. families went hungry at some point in 2009, USDA says
The agency also found that 6.8 million households with up to 1 million children had continuing financial problems that left them unable to eat regularly. About 15% of U.S. households -- 17.4 million families -- lacked enough money to feed themselves at some point last year, according to a new U.S. Department of Agriculture report. Released Monday, the study also found that 6.8 million of these households -- with as many as 1 million children -- had ongoing financial problems that forced them to miss meals regularly - 2010/11/15: S&R: This year's food crisis
- 2010/11/15: BBC: More US households short of food
Almost 15% of US households experienced a food shortage at some point in 2009, a government report has found. US authorities say that figure is the highest they have seen since they began collecting data in the 1990s, and a slight increase over 2008 levels. Single mothers are among the hardest hit: About 3.5 million said they were at times unable to put sufficient food on the table. - 2010/11/16: CBC: Agrium bid embraced by AWB shareholders -- 97.8% in favour of Canadian company's $1.1B proposal
Shareholders of AWB Limited, formerly the Australian Wheat Board, have overwhelmingly endorsed a $1.1-billion takeover by Canadian fertilizer producer Agrium Incorporated. Tuesday's vote, coming shortly after Anglo-Australian miner BHP Billiton gave up its effort to take over Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, was 97.8 per cent in favour of the bid presented in August with the support of AWB's board and management, Calgary-based Agrium said. - 2010/11/18: PhysOrg: FDA review on transgenic salmon too narrow: study
The review process being used by the Food and Drug Administration to assess the safety of a faster-growing transgenic salmon fails to weigh the full effects of the fish's widespread production, according to analysis by a Duke University-led team in this week's Science. - 2010/11/16: Grist: More revelations of FDA bad behavior around GE salmon
- 2010/11/16: TreeHugger: Release Of Sterile Pests May Help Eliminate Need For Genetically Modified Crops
And how are we going to feed 9 billion?
- 2010/11/19: EnergyBulletin: Innovation of the week: Gathering the food growing at our feet
- 2010/11/19: SciDaily: Defeating Potato Blight
- 2010/11/18: Guardian(UK): China to give food subsidies to poor families
- 2010/11/18: EarthTimes: Asian Food Security Project Granted US$4million [by ADB]
- 2010/11/18: BBSRC: New disease-resistant food crops in prospect
- 2010/11/19: EnergyBulletin: G20 pushes business as usual, small farmers demand system change
- 2010/11/17: BBC: China introduces subsidies amid food shortages
- 2010/11/17: CBC: China promises food subsidies to poor
- 2010/11/16: PhysOrg: Declining nitrogen availability reduces CO2 fertilization effects
- 2010/11/14: BBC: Cocoa genome 'will save chocolate industry'
The public release of the genome of the cacao tree - from which chocolate is made - will save the chocolate industry from collapse, a scientist has said. Howard Yana-Shapiro, a researcher for Mars, said that without engineering higher-yielding cacao trees, demand would outstrip supply within 50 years. - 2010/11/20: PBDN: Not your imagination; study says hurricane seasons are getting longer
- 2010/11/17: Wunderground: Deadly late-season Atlantic hurricanes growing more frequent
- 2010/11/16: UN: Ten of thousands of cyclone [Giri] survivors in Myanmar remain homeless - UN
- 2010/11/16: Wunderground: Record quiet tropical cyclone activity in the Pacific
- 2010/11/15: Wunderground: Little change to Caribbean disturbance 94L
As for GHGs:
- 2010/11/17: ABC(Au): Australia second worst for greenhouse gases: report
An index published in Norway shows Australia is the second worst country in the world for emitting greenhouse gases, behind the United Arab Emirates (UAE). There are 183 countries on the list, which was compiled by a British consultancy and looks at current and historic emissions levels. Rich countries and OPEC members dominated the list. - 2010/11/17: Maplecroft: Maplecroft study identifies UAE, Australia, USA, Canada, Netherlands and Saudi Arabia as worst CO2 polluters
- 2010/11/17: Reuters: UAE, Australia and U.S. top list of carbon emitters
The United Arab Emirates, Australia and the United States have the worst overall records for emitting greenhouse gases, according to an index published [by Maplecroft] on Wednesday combining current and historic emissions. - 2010/11/09: DiscoverMag: Earth On Fire
Thousands of hidden fires smolder and rage through the world's coal deposits, quietly releasing gases that can ruin health, devastate communities, and heat the planet. - 2010/11/15: WHOI: News Release : Novel Ocean-Crust Mechanism Could Affect World's Carbon Budget
The Earth is constantly manufacturing new crust, spewing molten magma up along undersea ridges at the boundaries of tectonic plates. The process is critical to the planet's metabolism, including the cycle of underwater life and the delicate balance of carbon in the ocean and atmosphere. - 2010/11/19: Wunderground: Globe has 3rd or 8th warmest October on record; year-to-date period warmest on record
- 2010/11/18: NOAANews: October Ranked 8th Warmest on Record
- 2010/11/15: Reuters: Troposphere is warming too, decades of data show
Not only is Earth's surface warming, but the troposphere -- the lowest level of the atmosphere, where weather occurs -- is heating up too, U.S. and British meteorologists reported on Monday. - 2010/11/15: NOAANews: Review of Four Decades of Scientific Literature Concludes Lower Atmosphere is Warming
While in the paleoclimate:
- 2010/11/17: TerraDaily: Extreme Global Warming In The [MECO] Ancient Past
- 2010/11/16: Eureka: Study rewrites the evolutionary history of C4 grasses
- 2010/11/15: PhysOrg: Reconstructing an ancient climate with algae
And the State of the Oceans:
- 2010/11/16: CCP: Ocean waves getting bigger, and stronger; Rogue waves challenge pilots; experts differ on whether climate change is the cause
What's up with volcanoes this week?
- 2010/11/16: PhysOrg: Satellites track Mt Merapi volcanic ash clouds
Meanwhile in near earth orbit:
- 2010/11/19: BBC: Weather satellite work begins
A contract has been signed that will finally allow an industrial consortium to begin work on a new generation of Meteosat weather spacecraft for Europe.
[...]
Eumetsat, the international agency charged with looking after Europe's Meteosats, will operate the platforms when they get into orbit, scheduled to be from 2018. - 2010/11/16: RealClimate: The A-train
More GW impacts are being seen:
- 2010/11/18: CCurrents: Global Warming Coming On Rapidly, Scientists Say
- 2010/11/18: PhysOrg: Expect more rain, heat and hurricanes, say scientists
- 2010/11/16: UCincinnati: Budding Research Links Climate Change and Earlier Flowering
- 2010/11/16: AlterNet: 50,000 People Face Humanitarian Disaster -- In South Dakota
- 2010/11/15: SolveClimate: Increasing CO2 Means Added Misery for 30 Million Allergy Sufferers
And then there are the world's forests:
- 2010/11/18: Reuters: Norway climate deal to drive Indonesia reform
A $1 billion dollar deal with Norway to save Indonesia's forests and cut planet-warming carbon emissions will trigger a much-needed shake up of Indonesia's notorious bureaucracy, a top official said on Thursday. - 2010/11/17: KSJT: Phil Inquirer: Between frakking and wind turbines, says an enviro group, 40 percent of state's forests could get hit hard
- 2010/11/16: ABC(Au): Forest project threatens Indonesian tribes
Indigenous people in Kalimantan on the island of Borneo are worried about an Australian-backed project to protect local forests. [...] fear the project will deny them access to their traditional customs and livelihoods. - 2010/11/17: CNN: Climate change set to cause migrant surge
Effects of climate change could cause surge in migration, experts believe - Countries in Asia, Africa face biggest risks from global warming in the next 30 years - U.N. urges richer countries to share global refugee burden more fairly - Gaps in labor market also draw in skilled and unskilled workers to richer countries - 2010/11/20: CCentral: Some Heat Waves Can Be More Harmful Than Others, Study Says
- 2010/11/19: SolveClimate: Degree by Degree, Heat Waves Claim Lives, New Study Warns
For each 1 degree F rise in mean temperature and for each day a heat wave persisted, scientists found a 2.5 percent increased risk of death - 2010/11/17: Eureka: As Arctic temperatures rise, tundra fires increase, researchers find
Corals are dying:
- 2010/11/19: Maribo: Summary of Caribbean Bleaching in PLoS-One by Eakin et al.
- 2010/11/19: ABC(Au): Researchers to examine coral viruses
Researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science hope to understand what damage coral viruses are doing to the Great Barrier Reef. - 2010/11/19: NatureN: Coral bleaching goes from bad to worse -- Raised ocean temperatures result in severe damage to reefs in the Caribbean
- 2010/11/17: ClimateShifts: Pesticide impacts on the Great Barrier Reef -- Croplife misinformation?
- 2010/11/16: NewScientist:SSS: End of the reef written in sand
- 2010/11/16: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Coral Reefs in Hot Water: More Reasons to Protect Cabo Pulmo, Mexico
- 2010/11/15: NOAANews: Heat Stress to Caribbean Corals in 2005 Worst on Record -- Caribbean Reef Ecosystems May Not Survive Repeated Stress
- 2010/11/16: TreeHugger: 2005 Proves Hardest Year on Caribbean Corals...Until 2010?
- 2010/11/15: PlanetArk: [Persian] Gulf corals adapt to warmer water, but still in peril
Acidification is changing the oceans:
- 2010/11/19: NatureTGB: Scientists respond to ocean acidification doubts
Glaciers are melting:
- 2010/11/15: Eureka: Newly discovered drumlin field provides answers about glaciation and climate
- 2010/11/15: KSJT: NYTimes - Dipping into a Greenland fjord to find what's eating the ice
- 2010/11/15: Eureka: Time to prepare for climate change -- Himalayan region's glaciers melting slowly, but impacts still coming
- 2010/11/15: PNNL: Time to prepare for climate change -- Himalayan region's glaciers melting slowly, but impacts still coming
Sea levels are rising:
- 2010/11/16: EarthTimes: South-East Asia's coastal cities brace for Waterworld
- 2010/11/15: RealClimate: Sea level rise: The New York Times got the story
- 2010/11/14: ClimateP: Coastal studies experts: "For coastal management purposes, a [sea level] rise of 7 feet (2 meters) should be utilized for planning major infrastructure"
- 2010/11/15: PlanetArk: Sea Level Rise Threatens Alexandria, Nile Delta
- 2010/11/15: Grist: Melting glaciers make it more likely the coasts will be toast
- 2010/11/15: TreeHugger: Roman Ruins Show Modern Sea Level Rise Didn't Start Until Industrial Revolution
As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:
- 2010/11/18: BBC: Cumbria floods resulted in £276m bill
Damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure caused by the Cumbrian floods in 2009 resulted in a £276m bill, it has emerged on the first anniversary of the disaster. - 2010/11/17: EarthTimes: Eleven dead after floods in Vietnam
- 2010/11/17: BBC: Cornwall floods force evacuation of more than 100 homes
- 2010/11/16: CBC: Vietnam flood death toll hits 178
- 2010/11/15: Reuters: Environmental disaster hits eastern Syria
- 2010/11/16: TreeHugger: Bolivia's Capital City [La Paz] Faces Catastrophic Drought As Lake Titicaca Dries
- 2010/11/15: KSJT: USA Today: La Paz, near shrinking Titicaca, its trees retreating uphill, could flip to desert mode within decades
Elsewhere on the mitigation front:
- 2010/11/19: NRDC:SwitchBoard: NRDC releases new Fact Sheet on biochar
- 2010/11/20: CBC:Q&Q: Can't CO2 the Trees for the Forest
- 2010/11/18: Grist: Debating new strategies for curbing global warming
Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation has somehow seemed chimeric:
- 2010/11/18: Eureka: Cameroon timber tax study shows challenges of distributing REDD payments to local communities
CIFOR study pinpointing problems in Cameroon instructive for plans to distribute forest-based carbon revenues under the REDD+ mechanism - 2010/11/18: ClassM: Mileage milestone ... for the last millennia
You've no doubt come across this before, but it's worth repeating whenever someone does a story on the American auto fleet's fuel economy:
The New York Times reports that "the average fuel economy in 2009 model cars, vans, pickups and S.U.V.'s was 22.4 miles per gallon -- an increase of 7 percent, or 1.4 miles per gallon, over 2008 figures." Environmentalists, we are told, hailed the news.
Which means the fleet average is now just 2.6 mpg shy of what the Ford Model T achieved 102 years ago... - 2010/11/18: AutoBG: EPA: Average fuel economy hit 22.4 mpg, a new record, in 2009
- 2010/11/16: PeakEnergy: High Speed Rail - Europe and the American Election
While in the endless quest for zero energy, sustainable buildings and practical codes:
- 2010/11/18: NRDC:SwitchBoard: US homes are right-sizing and greening
- 2010/11/16: Grist: A Tokyo house built on a piece of land the size of a parking space
- 2010/11/15: Grist: 9 things I learned by shadowing a home-energy inspector
As for carbon sequestration:
- 2010/11/18: GreenGrok: The Murky Future of King Coal
- 2010/11/19: CSTrib: Wyoming officials have high hopes for carbon storage project
- 2010/11/16: DerSpiegel: German Geologist on Carbon Sequestration -- 'CCS Is One of the Few Options to Minimize CO2 Emissions'
Grass-roots movements are protesting against carbon capture and storage pilot projects in various parts of Germany. Geologist Andreas Dahmke talks to SPIEGEL about the shortsightedness of the protests and why nuclear power is much more dangerous than CCS technology. - 2010/11/16: PhysOrg: Sulfur dioxide in Venus' atmosphere could be key to fighting global warming on Earth
Meanwhile in the journals:
- 2010/11/15: NERC:NORA: Strong wind events in the Antarctic by John Turner et al.
- 2010/11/15: NERC:NORA: Contrasting climate change in the two polar regions by John Turner & Jim Overland
- 2010/11/18: NERC:NORA: Quaternary climate changes explain diversity among reptiles and amphibians by Miguel B. Araújo et al.
- 2010/11/18: NERC:NORA: Vulnerability of Antarctic shelf biodiversity to predicted regional warming by David K.A. Barnes & Lloyd S. Peck
- 2010/11/18: NERC:NORA: Spatial and temporal variability in the snowpack of a High Arctic ice cap: implications for mass-change measurements by Christina Bell et al.
- 2010/11/18: NERC:NORA: The Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica by Robert Bindschadler et al.
- 2010/11/18: NERC:NORA: Antarctic Circumpolar Current frontal system in the South Atlantic: monitoring using merged Argo and animal-borne sensor data by Lars Boehme et al.
- 2010/11/19: ACP: Observed 20th century desert dust variability: impact on climate and biogeochemistry by N. M. Mahowald et al.
- 2010/11/17: TCD: Comment on "100-year mass changes in the Swiss Alps linked to the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation" by Matthias Huss et al. (2010) by P. W. Leclercq et al.
- 2010/11/18: CP: Questions of importance to the conservation of biological diversity: answers from the past by K. J. Willis & S. A. Bhagwat
- 2010/11/16: CPD: Glacial cycles and solar insolation: the role of orbital, seasonal, and spatial variations by R. K. Kaufmann & K. Juselius
- 2010/11/15: PLoS One: Caribbean Corals in Crisis: Record Thermal Stress, Bleaching, and Mortality in 2005 by C. Mark Eakin et al.
- 2010/11/18: ACPD: On the structural changes in the Brewer-Dobson circulation after 2000 by H. Bönisch et al.
- 2010/11/18: ACPD: Seasonal variation of CCN concentrations and aerosol activation properties in boreal forest by S.-L. Sihto et al.
- 2010/11/18: AGWObserver: Papers on CO2 fertilization effect
- 2010/11/16: PNAS: (ab$) Carbon isotope compositions of terrestrial C3 plants as indicators of (paleo)ecology and (paleo)climate by Matthew J. Kohn
- 2010/11/16: PNAS: (ab$) Potential for reduced methane and carbon dioxide emissions from livestock and pasture management in the tropics by Philip K. Thornton & Mario Herrero
- 2010/11/16: PNAS: (ab$) Identifying potential synergies and trade-offs for meeting food security and climate change objectives in sub-Saharan Africa by Cheryl A. Palm et al.
- 2010/11/16: PNAS: (ab$) Opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in tropical peatlands by D. Murdiyarso et al.
- 2010/11/16: PNAS: (ab$) Greenhouse gas emissions from alternative futures of deforestation and agricultural management in the southern Amazon by Gillian L. Galford et al.
- 2010/11/16: PNAS: (ab$) Trading carbon for food: Global comparison of carbon stocks vs. crop yields on agricultural land by Paul C. West et al.
- 2010/11/16: PNAS: (ab$) Policies for reduced deforestation and their impact on agricultural production by Arild Angelsen
- 2010/11/16: PNAS: (ab$) Climate mitigation and the future of tropical landscapes by Allison M. Thomson et al.
- 2010/11/16: PNAS: (ab$) Toward a whole-landscape approach for sustainable land use in the tropics by R. DeFries & C. Rosenzweig
- 2010/11/05: GRL: (ab$) A link between reduced Barents-Kara sea ice and cold winter extremes over northern continents by Vladimir Petoukhov & Vladimir A. Semenov
- 2010/11/16: OSD: Upper ocean stratification and sea ice growth rates during the summer-fall transition, as revealed by Elephant seal foraging in the Adélie Depression, East Antarctica by G. D. Williams et al.
- 2010/11/15: TCD: Melting trends over the Greenland ice sheet (1958-2009) from spaceborne microwave data and regional climate models by X. Fettweis et al.
- 2010/11/15: AGWObserver: New research from last week 45/2010
- 2010/11/15: WIR:CC: (abs) Tropospheric temperature trends: history of an ongoing controversy by Peter W. Thorne et al.
And other significant documents:
- 2010/11/16: USGS: [link to 4.2 meg pdf] The Principal Rare Earth Elements Deposits of the United States -- A Summary of Domestic Deposits and a Global Perspective by Keith R. Long et al.
- 2010/11/16: Risø: [link to 7.9 meg pdf] Risø Energy Report 9 -- Non-fossil energy technologies in 2050 and beyond
- 2010/11/15: WWF: [link to 1.8 meg pdf] Carbon and cities central to a sustainable China
- 2010/11/15: RISJ: [link to 1.4 meg pdf] Marked differences between countries in reporting of climate change
As for miscellaneous science:
- 2010/11/18: YaleCMF: Scientists' 'Lessons Learned' - Part 1
- 2010/11/15: TerraDaily: Scientific Grand Challenges Identified To Address Global Sustainability
- 2010/11/14: MTobis: Empiricism as a Job
- 2010/11/18: JKB: Ton Begemann's strange Paleo-Eskimo Artic-agriculture claim
More DIY science:
- 2010/11/17: EarthTimes: Weather at Home - use your computer to help model climate change
- 2010/11/17: Guardian(UK): Extreme weather forecasts: web users unite to power climate change project
- 2010/11/17: Guardian(UK): Weatherathome: how you can predict the effects of climate change on extreme weather events
- 2010/11/17: Guardian(UK): How home computers can predict climate change impact on extreme weather events [7 pix]
- 2010/11/17: PhysOrg: OSU, Oxford, others launch citizen scientist climate modeling initiative
An international group of scientists from the United Kingdom, South Africa and the United States is collaborating on a fascinating new climate modeling initiative -- using the idle computers of thousands of citizens to create a network of digital power that surpasses that of the best supercomputers. Oxford University launched the initial effort in 2003 and its "climateprediction.net" project has used hundreds of volunteers to test climate simulation models. Now that effort is expanding to look at regional, as well as global climate modeling, specifically in southern Africa, Europe and the western United States, and broadening the scope of its volunteers. - 2010/11/18: BNC: Systems modelling for synergistic ecological-climate dynamics
- GMD: Geoscientific Model Development
- 2010/11/16: JEB: ISI for GMD
Regarding Hansen:
- 2010/11/15: CCurrents: Preserve Our Blue Planet -- The Blue Planet Prize acceptance speech made Dr. James E. Hansen in Tokyo, 26 October, 2010
Regarding Stroeve:
- 2010/11/15: Grist: Spotlight: Julienne Stroeve, National Snow and Ice Data Center -- Measuring fast-melting Arctic sea ice
Regarding Wegman:
- 2010/11/16: DeepClimate: Replication and due diligence, Wegman style
- 2010/11/16: Deltoid: Wegman scandal: where was the due diligence?
Regarding Lindzen:
- 2010/11/17: CCP: Climate Denier Dick Lindzen Accuses Colleagues Of 'Overt Cheating'
- 2010/11/17: ClimateP: Climate science disinformer Richard Lindzen accuses colleagues of "overt cheating"
Regarding Curry:
- 2010/11/17: ClimateP: Confusionist Judith Curry goes 'wicked' and mangles the work of Martin Weitzman
While at the UN:
- 2010/11/16: UN: UN development chief talks climate change in Bangladesh
And on the carbon trading front:
- 2010/11/20: EDF:MF: CCX, RIP...or is it "good riddance"?
- 2010/11/20: EnvEcon: Good riddance CCX
- 2010/11/19: BizGreen: Analysts champion US carbon markets despite exchange closure
Experts believe reports of US carbon market death have been greatly exaggerated - 2010/11/18: SF Gate: NRG carbon-trading deal is first for California
Barclays PLC and NRG Energy Inc., the largest U.S. independent power producer, have completed the first deal for carbon-dioxide permits under California's planned cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gases. - 2010/11/17: Reuters: South Korea unveils carbon trading scheme rules
The debate over the optimal strategy [carbon trading, carbon offsets, auction vs. allocation, and/or a carbon tax] to use in dealing with GHGs continues:
- 2010/11/15: ABC(Au): OECD backs carbon price
Miscellaneous international politics:
- 2010/11/18: Guardian(UK): [UK] Government to fund private sector renewable energy schemes for Africa
- 2010/11/18: Grist: India, China buying U.S. coal mines, shale gas fields
- 2010/11/17: PhysOrg: US, China launch clean energy research initiative
US Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Wednesday the United States and China had launched a joint clean energy initiative -- one of the largest research collaborations between two countries in the world. - 2010/11/16: PlanetArk: UK Says India Carbon Tie Could Help Global Deal
- 2010/11/16: PeakEnergy: Our American buddy has gone missing on climate change
The rare earth issue is persisting:
- 2010/11/20: USGS: Rare Earth Elements in U.S. Not So Rare -- Significant Deposits Found in 14 States
- 2010/11/19: NewScientist: US reserves of rare earth elements assessed for first time [by USGS]
- 2010/11/19: PlanetArk: Rare-Earth Surge Is Wake-Up Call For Industrials
- 2010/11/19: BBC: China's exports to Japan of rare earths could resume next week, the Japanese trade minister has said
- 2010/11/18: SciDaily: Rare Earth Elements in US Not So Rare, [USGS] Report Finds
- 2010/11/17: PhysOrg: Experts: rare earths headed for 2011 supply crunch
- 2010/11/17: PlanetArk: EU Official Says To Press China On Rare Earths
As for GW, energy & water security:
- 2010/11/15: ClimateP: Joint Chiefs chair Mullen on "achieving energy security in a sustainable world." -- "A fully burdened cost of diesel fuel approached $400 a gallon"
The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world:
- 2010/11/18: PostMedia: Parliament Hill-scaling Greenpeace activists guilty of mischief
Eighteen Greenpeace members who made national and international news last December when they scaled the Parliament Buildings, pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of mischief.
They will each serve 12-months probation, must keep away from Parliament Hill for a year and are not to communicate or associate with one another to plan or take part in similar demonstrations.
The 18, from all parts of Canada, are: Paul Baker, Sarah Bernier, Vanessa Butterworth, Seychelle Cloutier-Collard, Cyndie Dubois, David Fujii, Denis Hebert, Olivier Huard, Michael Hudema, June Kendall, Naila Lalji, Michele Lavoie, Glenn MacIntosh, David Major, Jesse Richman, Jessica Schwarz, Yannick St-Jacques and Eryn Wheatley.
The sentences, a plea bargain between defence and Crown prosecutors, also required the protesters to pay a total $20,000 in costs to the City of Ottawa. - 2010/11/19: SolveClimate: In McKibben's Toolbox for Cancun, Art Visible from Space
Polls! We have polls!
- 2010/11/19: Envirogy: Poll Suggests that the Conservative Party of Canada is Out of Touch with Canadians...Who Knew?
- 2010/11/18: CBC: Consumerism causes climate change: poll
A majority of Canadians believe that consumerism and a push for economic growth are factors responsible for climate change, suggests a poll released Thursday. The survey, conducted by Environics Research for eight advocacy organizations and unions, found that 80 per cent of those questioned feel the climate is being negatively influenced by economic and social priorities. - 2010/11/20: JFleck: Arizona's Water Hunt
- 2010/11/19: ABC(Au): [WA] Opposition criticises new desal plant costs -- The Opposition's Francis Logan has criticised the operating costs of the new desalination plant in Karratha
- 2010/11/18: TerraDaily: China defends Brahmaputra dam project amid Indian concern
China on Thursday defended its decision to build a dam on the Brahmaputra river in Tibet, amid concerns it could disrupt water supplies downstream in India and harm ecosystems. - 2010/11/16: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Water as a Global Business Issue - Or How I Talked Myself Out of a Job
- 2010/11/15: AlterNet: Simmering Water War: How New Power Plants Will Suck Our Water Sources Dry
- 2010/11/16: JFleck: Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: My Visit to Lake Mead
- 2010/11/16: JFleck: Mexican Desal
- 2010/11/15: JFleck: Powell and Watershed Boundaries
As for SW tools:
- 2010/11/18: SEasterbrook: Plug-compatibility and climate models
- 2010/11/16: SEasterbrook: You can't delegate ill-defined problems to software engineers
And on the American political front:
- 2010/11/19: Atlantic: What's Really Wrong With the Smart Grid
- 2010/11/18: ENS: Eight Local Governments First to Get Climate Adaptation Help
Eight cities and counties - from Boston to San Francisco - are seeking to protect themselves from climate change by being the first to join the nation's first comprehensive climate adaptation program for local governments. - 2010/11/18: CNN: Wind energy, solar power face cloudy future
After years of rapid growth and darling status among many in Washington, the future of the American renewable energy industry is uncertain. That's because the government cash it has come to rely on may dry up on Dec. 31. - 2010/11/19: ClimateP: Federal gridlock leaves climate hawks looking to state capitols for progress, but what will they find there?
- 2010/11/18: Grist: Kentucky cancels coal plant, new power movement electrifies grassroot alliance
- 2010/11/19: CSTrib: Wyoming officials have high hopes for carbon storage project
- 2010/11/18: AutoBG: A look into the [US] politics of plug-in vehicles
- 2010/11/18: ClimateP: Cutting the cost of clean energy 2.0
- 2010/11/18: SolveClimate: Is Sending Wyoming Coal to China Smart Economics?
- 2010/11/17: Grist: Why tax credits make lousy renewable energy policy
- 2010/11/18: Yale360: Green Tech Sector Advances Despite Failure of Climate Bill
While the collapse of climate legislation in Congress was a setback for some green businesses, many others are moving ahead with projects to develop renewable energy. One major reason: The clean-tech sector is rapidly growing worldwide, and U.S. companies don't want to be left behind. - 2010/11/17: BSD: Christy lays down an (unclear, skewed) marker
- 2010/11/17: PlanetArk: Next Congress May Slow Green Job Growth: Expert
- 2010/11/17: PlanetArk: Analysis: U.S. Solar Industry Wants Grant Program Extended
- 2010/11/16: NYT: In the Heartland, Still Investing in Coal
- 2010/11/16: SolveClimate: U.S. Solar Industry Fights to Save Controversial Clean Energy Grants
- 2010/11/15: TEC: The Upcoming Climate Science War
- 2010/11/16: TEC: "The Business Community is in Agreement, We Need a Price on Carbon"
- 2010/11/16: AlterNet: 50,000 People Face Humanitarian Disaster -- In South Dakota
- 2010/11/15: SolveClimate: Clean Energy May Backslide in Pennsylvania but Remains Intact in Colorado
- 2010/11/14: ClimateP: The Debt Commission ignores the carbon budget
- 2010/11/14: LA Times: Lawyers, lobbyists, politicians scramble to determine impact of Prop. 26
The 'sleeper' initiative on November's ballot could make it nearly impossible for state or local governments to pass oil severance fees, cigarette and alcohol surcharges, toxic waste cleanup levies, and more. - 2010/11/18: RawStory: Professor who downplayed oil spill has federal government contracts
- 2010/11/19: WashingtonsBlog: BP Controlling University Research, and Professor Who Downplayed Oil Spill Called a "Shill" By Fellow Professor
- 2010/11/18: CCurrents: America's Gulf: An Ongoing Catastrophic Disaster
- 2010/11/18: OilChange: Deepwater Increases Chance of "Oil Crunch"
- 2010/11/17: DeSmogBlog: Experts Blame BP For Ignoring Warning Signs That Led To Gulf Disaster
- 2010/11/17: KSJT: N'Orleans Times-Picayune: The oil spill. Maybe the bladder effect lulled BP's minions?
- 2010/11/17: Grist: Another report, another BP bashing
- 2010/11/17: ScienceInsider: Expert Report Deplores Poor Decisions Leading to Gulf Oil Spill
- 2010/11/17: ScienceInsider: NRC: Gulf Spill Resulted From 'Insufficient Consideration of Risk'
- 2010/11/17: EarthTimes: New oil spill study faults US government and BP
- 2010/11/17: ENS: Deepwater Horizon Spill Report Blames BP, Contractors, Government
- 2010/11/17: Eureka: Deepwater Horizon interim report
- 2010/11/17: OilChange: "Insufficient Consideration of Risk" on BP Rig
- 2010/11/16: OilChange: Spillcam Enters the Psyche
- 2010/11/16: ProPublica: Some Gulf Spill Claimants Waiting for Months: Feinberg Blames Tricky Policy Decisions
- 2010/11/15: ClimateP: Rand Paul again jumps to BP's defense: Obama's tough stance "sends the wrong signal"
- 2010/11/15: NRDC:SwitchBoard: BP Oil Disaster Victims Vow Never Forget
- 2010/11/15: NOAANews: NOAA Reopens More Than 8,000 Square Miles in the Gulf of Mexico to Fishing -- 99.6 percent of federal waters now open
A couple of departing Republicans decried their colleagues climate change denialism:
- 2010/11/20: ClimateP: Former GOP chair of House Science Committee Sherry Boehlert on "Science the GOP can't wish away"
- 2010/11/19: WaPo: Can the party of Reagan accept the science of climate change?
- 2010/11/19: BBickmore: Another Prominent Republican Bucks the Party Line on Climate Change
- 2010/11/19: PSinclair: OK, The Second to Last Rational Republican
- 2010/11/19: Guardian(UK): Departing Republican attacks climate-change deniers in own party
- 2010/11/19: CCP: Science the GOP Can't Wish Away: Can the party of Reagan accept the science of climate change?
- 2010/11/19: Stoat: Can the party of Reagan accept the science of climate change?
- 2010/11/18: ClimateP: Republican Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) blasts GOP, right-wing pundits for denying global warming science
- 2010/11/17: NYT:CW: Outgoing Rep. Inglis Blasts GOP Skepticism on Global Warming
Outgoing Republican Rep. Bob Inglis (S.C.) broke with his party today and publicly vented his frustration about the apparent turn toward climate skepticism in the next Congress, when Republicans will take control of the House. - 2010/11/16: CCP: Political scene: Republicans vs. climate change
The ethanol subsidy tussle continues:
- 2010/11/18: S&R: Presidential candidates' date with destiny: Ethanol subsidies expire Dec. 31
- 2010/11/18: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Experts lay out facts while coalition calls on Congress to end corn ethanol subsidies
- 2010/11/15: NRDC:SwitchBoard: The final straw? Corn ethanol tax credit being used as export subsidy
A lot of people are wondering just what kind of circus the Republican House will engender:
- 2010/11/17: ERW: Michael Mann expects McCarthy-like hearings on climate in US
- 2010/11/17: CCP: Michael Mann expects McCarthy-like hearings on climate in US
Climate scientist Michael Mann thinks that the US is in for a period "where climate science is likely to be subjected to the sort of politically motivated inquisition that we frankly haven't seen in this country since the 1950s," that is, since the era of Senator Joseph McCarthy's anticommunist crusades. - 2010/11/15: TWM: The Post-Truth Era...
It's never been easier for Americans to keep up on current events and public affairs, but the persistent propensity for large swaths of the electorate to believe demonstrable falsehoods remains astounding. - 2010/11/16: ClimateP: Former whistleblower Piltz on media comparisons between the Obama and Bush White Houses
The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:
- 2010/11/19: ClimateP: For EPA regulations, benefits consistently exceed costs
- 2010/11/17: SolveClimate: National High Speed Rail Plan Unveiled, Despite Political Roadblocks
A transportation option established in Europe and booming in China faces regional challenges in the U.S. - 2010/11/17: ClimateP: Laying the track for high-speed rail
- 2010/11/17: PlanetArk: White House Reviewing 2011 Ethanol Standard
- 2010/11/17: Grist: For EPA regulations, cost predictions are overstated
- 2010/11/17: CBC: CO2 considered water pollutant by U.S. agency
States with coastal water that is becoming more acidic because of carbon dioxide should list them as impaired under the Clean Water Act, the U.S. Environmental Agency says. The federal agency's memo Monday to states recognizes carbon dioxide as not only an air pollutant but a water pollutant, and notes the serious impacts that ocean acidification can have on aquatic life. Ocean acidification refers to the decrease in the alkalinity of oceans, which is caused by the absorption of excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. As water becomes more acidic, scientists have raised concern about dissolving coral reefs and potential effects on fish and other sea life. - 2010/11/16: Grist: More revelations of FDA bad behavior around GE salmon
- 2010/11/16: TDC: Feds understate the cost of climate disruption, critics contend
The Obama Administration has ignored wrenching climate impacts such as ocean acidification in its effort to estimate the cost of carbon emissions, making emissions limits disproportionately expensive, economists say. - 2010/11/15: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Cleaner Heavy Trucks: EPA and DOT Hold Hearings on Proposed Standards to Improve Efficiency and Cut Global Warming Pollution
As for what is going on in Congress:
- 2010/11/20: BBickmore: Orrin Hatch and the Open Mind
- 2010/11/19: Grist: Food-safety bill stalled; Stabenow named Senate ag chair
- 2010/11/18: CCurrents: Senate Votes Cloture On S 510 [Food Safety Modernization Act]: Must Now Be Voted On In 60 Days
- 2010/11/20: TWM: Moderate Republicans are a little late on climate change...
- 2010/11/15: PRWatch: Whopper, Indeed: Republicans More Responsible for Green Outsourcing
- 2010/11/18: DVoice: S.510, Food Control (aka, People Control) for Dummies [US pol - congress]
- 2010/11/19: PlanetArk: Republican [Hastings] asks To Expand Power Of Energy Panel
- 2010/11/18: NYT:GW: Democrats Cling to Possibility of RES Bill This Session, Prepare for Next Year
- 2010/11/19: ClimateP: The climate zombie caucus of the 112th Congress
- 2010/11/17: TheHill:e2W: Hastings seeks expanded energy role for Natural Resources panel
Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) -- the presumptive chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee in the next Congress -- is making a play to expand the panel's jurisdiction over energy policy. Hastings on Wednesday called for creation of an "Energy and Natural Resources Committee" in the House, a move that would yank control of energy policy away from the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee. - 2010/11/18: NatureTGB: One last climate hearing, just for the record...
Humorous. Tragic. Entertaining. Tense. Terrifying. Downright goofy. The Democrats' final climate hearing on the House Science Committee Wednesday was all of the above. - 2010/11/16: TheHill:e2W: Reid won't commit to scheduling vote to block EPA climate rules
- 2010/11/17: SolveClimate: Lame Duck Effort to Stall Clean Air Act Is Quietly Quacking
Bill's sponsor Jay Rockefeller fears that Republicans could gut the entire tenor of his proposal if it were introduced next year - 2010/11/17: ClimateP: House Science hearing "Rational Discussion of Climate Change" with Lindzen, Michaels, and Curry
- 2010/11/16: DeSmogBlog: Incoming Head of House Oversight Committee Rep. Darrell Issa Now Says He Is Unlikely To Probe 'Climategate'
- 2010/11/16: Grist: [Rep. Fred] Upton (R-Mich) takes right-wing beatdown for incandescent bulb ban
- 2010/11/16: TheHill:e2W: Issa downplays prospect of Oversight Committee 'climate-gate' probe
Global warming skeptics eager to see ascendant House Republicans put climate science under the microscope might be disappointed in Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). Issa -- the likely chairman the Oversight and Government Reform Committee in the next Congress -- signaled to reporters Monday that his interest in probing "climate-gate" has waned. - 2010/11/18: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Who Could Be Against Clean Air?
While in the UK:
- 2010/11/21: Guardian(UK): Last chance to prove that UK carbon capture plan can work
Other bids to trap CO2 have failed. But a project in Fife could still transform the use of fossil fuel - 2010/11/19: TEC: Value for money in tough times? Wind and Gas in the United Kingdom
- 2010/11/18: BBC: Cumbria floods resulted in £276m bill
Damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure caused by the Cumbrian floods in 2009 resulted in a £276m bill, it has emerged on the first anniversary of the disaster. - 2010/11/18: Guardian(UK): [DECC Secretary] Chris Huhne signals frustration with Treasury over green investment bank
Energy secretary likens reluctance to give investors government guarantee to mistakes of 1930s which prolonged depression - 2010/11/18: Guardian(UK): David Cameron breaks silence on green matters
From a green investment bank to sustainable development, the PM claims the coalition will stay true to its environment pledges - 2010/11/18: BBC: Downing Street defends PM over flood defences
Downing Street has denied the prime minister misled Parliament when he said flood defence costs had been protected in the Spending Review. On Wednesday, in the wake of the flooding in Cornwall, David Cameron said spending had been protected. When told it had fallen from £2.3bn to £2.1bn the prime minister's spokesman said it was "broadly the same" although overall costs had been cut by a third. Diana Johnson MP said Defra faced 28% cuts and called for a Commons debate. - 2010/11/17: BBC: Oil shock warning to government from UK business
An industry taskforce has called on the government to act to protect the UK economy against a new threat of rising oil prices. A consortium of British business, including retailers Kingfisher and transport group, Stagecoach, say the UK must prepare for the next oil shock. It says not to do so would present energy security problems. A barrel of oil is currently around $80 a barrel, well below the last peak of $145 two-and-a-half years ago. But the group says a new "peak oil threat" is likely to be felt in the UK within the next five years. - 2010/11/18: BBC: National Grid profits rise by 45%
National Grid has reported a 45% jump in pre-tax profits to £938m in the first six months of the year. The operator of the UK's electricity and gas networks said all its key operations performed strongly. - 2010/11/17: Guardian(UK): 'Green stealth tax' carbon reduction scheme delayed
Delay of CRC [Carbon Reduction Commitment] programme follows announcement that Treasury would keep revenues raised - 2010/11/17: WT: Wind resistance -- Turbine plans generate questions, opposition
- 2010/11/16: NatureTGB: UK science shake-up stirs passions
- 2010/11/14: CCP: Legislation to outlaw illegal timber is axed despite coalition pledge
MPs condemn move and warn that companies will cash in on loophole in EU law - 2010/11/19: EurActiv: Brussels outlines vision for 'fairer' EU farm policy
The European Commission yesterday (18 November) unveiled its blueprint for reforming the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), proposing to increase subsidies to smaller East European farmers and to link direct payments to environmental and food security goals. - 2010/11/18: Reuters: Italy, energy firms stall EU carbon reform: critics
Italy accused of acting against emissions trading reform - Some energy firms trying to delay legislation-CDM Watch - 2010/11/19: OilChange: Time to Vote in the EU Worst Lobby Awards
- 2010/11/18: EurActiv: EU says 200bn euros needed for energy grids by 2020
200 billion euros is needed to upgrade Europe's gas and electricity grids over the coming decade, the European Commission said yesterday (17 November), adding that half of the sum will have to come from government coffers at a time of budgetary presssure. - 2010/11/18: EUO: EU farm proposals emphasize environment
The European Commission has announced reform proposals for the EU's common agriculture policy (CAP), emphasizing the need for greater environmental protection with less divergence in payments between 'old' and 'new' member states. - 2010/11/18: EarthTimes: Clean energy - stop the talking, start investing
The European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) has criticised the European Commission for preferring low-carbon rhetoric to action. It wants a clear focus on renewable energy to extend Europe's technological leadership in the sector. - 2010/11/18: Europa: Commission outlines blueprint for forward-looking Common Agricultural Policy after 2013
- 2010/11/18: BBC: EU plans big changes in farm spending
EU farm spending, worth almost 60bn euros (£51bn) annually, should no longer be based on previous subsidy levels for farmers, the European Commission has said. But subsidies are still needed to protect Europe's food supplies and rural diversity, it believes. - 2010/11/17: EUO: Green jobs could help EU influence US on climate, experts say
Europe's main chance of forcing tougher environmental standards in a reluctant US lies in greater competition over green jobs, say Washington insiders. - 2010/11/17: EUO: German commissioner counting on MEPs for coal subsidies
In line with the German government, energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger is counting on MEPs' support for an extension until 2018 of an EU deadline for closing subsidised coal mines, reversing an earlier proposal by the commission which was adopted when he skipped a key meeting. - 2010/11/17: EarthTimes: Italy vague on EU climate aid contribution, despite NGO criticism
- 2010/11/17: EarthTimes: EU targets energy link-ups in 20-year priority plan
- 2010/11/17: DerSpiegel: Success and Contradictions -- How High Can Germany's Greens Rise?
Support for Germany's Greens has surged to record highs thanks to discontent with Angela Merkel's government. This former motley crew of rebels is now a mainstream party adept at milking its ethical image and its protest roots. Its opportunistic policy U-turns and self-contradictions are going unnoticed. - 2010/11/16: EarthTimes: Italy blamed for EU missing its promises on climate change aid
- 2010/11/15: PlanetArk: EU Looks To Tighten GM Crop Assessment Rules
Meanwhile in Australia:
- 2010/11/19: ABC(Au): [WA] Opposition criticises new desal plant costs -- The Opposition's Francis Logan has criticised the operating costs of the new desalination plant in Karratha
- 2010/11/19: ABC(Au): Union backs low carbon emissions transition committee
The Gippsland Trades and Labour Council has backed plans for a community-based committee to manage the future of the Latrobe Valley economy. The Low Carbon Emissions Future Transition Committee will include representatives from industry, unions and the community and will prepare the local economy for a price on carbon. - 2010/11/18: ABC(Au): Carbon offsets on Indigenous land could pay
A group of economists says remote Indigenous communities can earn money by protecting their land. - 2010/11/18: ABC(Au): Wooli residents want the village defended from coastal erosion
The cost of letting the coastal village of Wooli east of Grafton fall victim to serious erosion is estimated at over 150-million dollars. Residents are alarmed by the Clarence Valley Council's proposed policy of 'planned retreat' which would let coastal erosion continue and homes fall into the sea. Roger Goldsmith from the Coastal Communities Protection Alliance in Wooli, says there are about 180-houses in the village. He says there are also businesses that would have to be abandoned. - 2010/11/17: ABC(Au): Abbott on the attack over power prices
- 2010/11/17: ABC(Au): Australia second worst for greenhouse gases: report
- 2010/11/17: ABC(Au): Gillard lauds 'genius' of carbon market
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has warned electricity supplies will shrink and costs will "spiral" if the country does not act to put a price on carbon. - 2010/11/16: ABC(Au): The State Government will redirect almost $6 million into a "solar farm" at Cloncurry in north-west Queensland
- 2010/11/16: ABC(Au): Engineers' survey calls for infrastructure funding, ETS clarity
The peak body representing Australia's engineers is urging the Federal Government to finalise its position on an emissions trading scheme (ETS). Engineers Australia has released its second report evaluating Queensland's infrastructure assets. Queensland president Mike Brady says uncertainty surrounding an ETS is driving investment offshore. - 2010/11/15: Xinhuanet: Australian gov't to study climate policies of foreign countries
- 2010/11/15: ABC(Au): Environmental Assessment results into proposed solar farm at Manildra
A proposed $150 million solar farm in the Central West is expected to have a limited impact on the local environment. Infigen Energy wants to install up to 500,000 panels on 120 hectares east of Manildra. - 2010/11/15: ABC(Au): Commission gets six months to probe carbon price
The Federal Government has tasked the Productivity Commission with investigating how other countries are implementing a carbon price. The move comes as the OECD has urged Australia to introduce a carbon price soon to avoid increased uncertainty in the energy sector. - 2010/11/15: SkeptiSci: Naomi Oreskes' Merchants of Doubt Australian tour
- 2010/11/15: SMH: Gillard bent on climate policies, despite Obama's decision
US President Barack Obama's decision to shelve plans for an emissions trading scheme and the adoption of only modest goals at the international climate change summit next month will have no bearing on the Australian government's plans to put a price on carbon, Julia Gillard says. - 2010/11/19: ABC(Au): Australians willing to pay for better river
A Charles Sturt University academic has found Australians were willing to pay $7.5b to improve the Murray River and Coorong Wetlands. Professor Mark Morrison co-authored the study commissed by the Murray Darling Basin Authority. - 2010/11/19: ABC(Au): Katter down south for Murray talks
Federal Independent MP Bob Katter says he understands how critical his parliamentary role is in deciding the fate of the Murray-Darling Basin. - 2010/11/19: ABC(Au): More water buy-backs open to Murray farmers
The Federal Government has announced another round of its water buy-back program in the Murray-Darling Basin. - 2010/11/18: ABC(Au): The Member for Farrer, Sussan Ley said it was ridiculous to put a deadline for submissions on the Murray Darling Basin Plan in a fortnight when the authority did not need to produce its final plan until early 2012
- 2010/11/17: ABC(Au): Water Lobby: Watch emotion in submissions
A more sophisticated plan for returning water to the Murray Darling Basin needs to be found according to the chairman of a water lobby group. - 2010/11/19: SMH: Toxins found at third site as fracking fears build
- 11/18: ABC(Au): The State Government says drilling has begun at the first site in Queensland to be tested for potential geothermal energy sources
- 2010/11/18: ABC(Au): Singleton Council will ask the State Government to ban coal seam gas exploration and development in parts of the shire
- 2010/11/16: PeakEnergy: Gas drilling goes ahead in Sydney without any checks
While in the Indian subcontinent:
- 2010/11/17: Yahoo:AP: Report: India faces major climate changes by 2030
- 2010/11/16: EarthTimes: Study predicts increased floods in India in 2030s
- 2010/11/14: HTimes: India's climate change report to be released Tuesday
And in China:
- 2010/11/16: FuturePundit: Chinese Government Worries On Domestic Peak Coal
- 2010/11/18: TerraDaily: China says over 81 million disaster-hit [Chinese] people need aid
- 2010/11/17: BBC: China introduces subsidies amid food shortages
China's government has said it will provide poorer households with subsidies in response to double-digit food price inflation. Inflation accelerated to 4.4% in October, with food prices rising 10.1%. The government also said it had not ruled out price controls if current grain and vegetable shortages worsen. - 2010/11/14: SolveClimate: Many 'Low-Carbon' Chinese Cities in Name, But Only One in Fact
- 2010/11/15: PhysOrg: China's ecological footprint continues to grow
- 2010/11/15: TreeHugger: China's Ecological Footprint Unsustainable - We'd Still Need 1.2 Planets if Everyone Had It
While in Japan:
- 2010/11/19: Reuters: Japan set to delay CO2 law, fossil fuel tax mulled
Japan is unlikely to legislate pledged cuts in greenhouse gas emissions before U.N.-led climate talks in Mexico this month as lawmakers are focused on the economy, but its enactment in the new year could include a new tax on initial users of fossil fuels. - 2010/11/18: JapanTimes: Kyoto doubts prompt Japan to hedge carbon-trading bet
And the Middle East:
- 2010/11/15: Reuters: Environmental disaster hits eastern Syria
Jub Shaeer, Syria - The ancient Inezi tribe of Syria reared camels in the sandswept lands north of the Euphrates river from the time of the Prophet Mohammad. Now water shortages have consigned that way of life to distant memory. Drought in the past five years has also killed 85 percent of livestock in eastern Syria, the Inezis' ancestral land. Up to half a million people have left the region in one of Syria's largest internal migrations since France and Britain carved the country out of the Ottoman Empire in 1920. Illegal wells to irrigate subsidized wheat and cotton have contributed to the destruction of the water table. Farms dependent on rain have turned into parched land. Diseases, such as wheat rust, have further devastated crops this season. In the past decade rainfall has become scarcer, official data shows, shrinking to an average 152 mm from 163 in the 1990s and 189 in the 1980s. An unprecedented heat wave struck this year. Temperatures exceeded 40 degrees Celsius for 46 days in a row in July and August. - 2010/11/15: Reuters: Yemenis abandon farms, seek food security in city
[...]
Yemen is grappling with an increasingly dry climate and a booming population. Harvests are shrinking as rainfall declines and groundwater dries up. Farmers, 70 percent of the population, can no longer subsist on their own crops. Youths are flocking from the countryside to the cities in search of jobs to provide for their families. - 2010/11/14: Reuters: Arab world among most vulnerable to climate change
Dust storms scour Iraq. Freak floods wreak havoc in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Rising sea levels erode Egypt's coast. Hotter, drier weather worsens water scarcity in the Middle East, already the world's most water-short region. - 2010/11/17: G&M: It's same old, same old on climate change after Prentice
- 2010/11/15: HillTimes: Baird steps in as acting environment minister, critics concerned
Government House Leader John Baird is also the acting environment minister and critics say the environment will be pushed to the backburner, again. - 2010/11/19: TStar: Toronto shut out of G8, G20 spending spree
The federal government showered $50 million on the Muskoka region to compensate residents for the "inconveniences" of hosting world leaders while Toronto -- which suffered security headaches, protests and property damage -- was shut out of any cash. - 2010/11/16: IoI: "Toronto Police Want To Keep Most G20 Security Cameras"
- 2010/11/16: POGGE: "There is a constitutional right to a reasonable bail" [G20]
- 2010/11/16: CBC: Toronto police want more closed-circuit cameras
Toronto police Chief Bill Blair says he wants about 50 more closed-circuit television cameras purchased for use by the force. At Monday's monthly meeting of the Police Services Board, Blair said he wants 52 of the 77 cameras police rented during the G20 summit in June. There are now 24 cameras in use, most of them in the downtown entertainment district. - 2010/11/15: G&M: Cameras, sound cannons among G20 equipment Toronto police aim to keep
- 2010/11/16: OrwellsBastard: This really doesn't have anything to do with Allen Funt, does it
Note that these guys "accept" the report while rejecting "many of the recommendations":
- 2010/11/16: PostMedia: Major [Mackenzie Valley] pipeline in northern Canada years away, despite approval
A proposed $16 billion pipeline project in northern Canada could still be years away from beginning construction, despite getting a green light from the federal and Northwest Territories governments Monday, says a spokesman from the leading stakeholder, Imperial Oil.
[...]
The two governments delivered a 127-page report on Monday that is rejecting many of the recommendations... - 2010/11/15: CBC: Mackenzie pipeline report OK'd by N.W.T., Ottawa
The proposed $16.2-billion Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline is a step closer to reality after the federal and Northwest Territories governments agreed Monday with most of the recommendations set out by a review panel last year.
[...]
Released in December 2009, the panel's report came with 176 recommendations -- most of which were directed at the federal and N.W.T. governments -- to mitigate any adverse environmental, economic and social impacts the project may have. On Monday, both governments said they accept the intent of "a vast majority" of the panel's recommendations aimed at them. Some recommendations were not accepted because they were deemed to be outside the panel's mandate. The pipeline plan is still being reviewed by the National Energy Board, a federal body that regulates parts of Canada's energy sector. - 2010/11/17: CleanBreak: Ashamed, today, to be Canadian as Conservative-dominated Senate connives to kill Commons-passed climate bill
- 2010/11/17: PI:B: Canada's only proposed climate legislation defeated by government Senators
- 2010/11/17: PI: PM allows unelected Senate to kill climate bill in unprecedented vote
- 2010/11/20: PostMedia: Elizabeth May: Demise of climate bill was undemocratic by Elizabeth May
The Stephen Harper-controlled Senate delivered a brutal blow to climate action -- and democracy itself -- this week when it killed the Climate Change Accountability Act. The NDP private members bill, which passed the House of Commons last May, required five-year plans to tackle reductions in greenhouse gases based on targets derived from scientific advice. - 2010/11/18: NatureTGB: Canada's climate bill flattened
- 2010/11/19: AD: C-311 Roundup
- 2010/11/18: CBC: The inconvenient truth about the climate change bill
- 2010/11/19: TStar: Conservative senators: No sober thought there
Canada has dragged its feet on climate change ever since Stephen Harper took power in 2006. Now, the Prime Minister has taken two steps backward on environmentalism -- and democracy -- by orchestrating the Senate's defeat of a climate change bill previously approved by the House of Commons. - 2010/11/19: PostMedia: Abandoning reform, Harper uses Senate to sink climate bill
- 2010/11/18: PostMedia: It's hard to be a climate scientist when dinosaurs are making the calls
- 2010/11/17: TEC: Monarchy Trumps Democracy: Canadian Prime Minister Harper's Unelected Senate Rejects Passed Climate Bill
- 2010/11/17: CBC: Killed climate change bill flawed: Harper -- Defeating legislation passed by House unprecedented, opposition parties say
- 2010/11/17: BBC: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government has defeated a climate change bill calling for cuts in CO2 emissions
- 2010/11/17: Grist: A royal Canadian disappointment -- Canada's Conservatives kill bill to cut CO2 emissions
- 2010/11/17: DeSmogBlog: Monarchy Trumps Democracy: Canadian Prime Minister Harper's Unelected Senate Rejects Passed Climate Bill
- 2010/11/17: DeSmogBlog: Canadian Conservative Senators Use their Clout to Kill Climate Bill Passed by House of Commons
- 2010/11/17: CAN: Response to the defeat of the Climate Change Accountability Act (Bill C-311) in the Senate
- 2010/11/17: 350orBust: Harper Uses Unelected Senators to Counter Will of Parliament on Climate Change Bill
- 2010/11/17: PR: Climate Change Bill Defeated by Unelected Tories
- 2010/11/17: CBC: Senate kills climate change bill
The Senate's decision to vote down a climate change bill before a UN meeting in Mexico has angered the NDP, with one MP calling it "another ambush move" by the Harper government. "I'm still reeling from the shock, but after no debate, no consideration at all, all of a sudden in another ambush move by Stephen Harper, the Senate voted yesterday to kill the climate change [bill] without debate," said Bruce Hyer, MP for Thunder Bay-Superior North. Bill C-311, which was voted down late Tuesday 43-42, would have called on the government to establish five-year plans to meet greenhouse gas emission targets by 2050, according to Senator Grant Mitchell, the author of the bill in the Senate. - 2010/11/17: G&M: Unelected Tory senators kill climate bill passed by House
It looks like somebody is trying to use another theme of the American right:
- 2010/11/17: Dominion: Greenwashing Hate -- Immigrants scapegoated for environmental degradation
The Centre for Immigration Policy Reform (CIPR), a recently launched immigration reform lobby group based in Ottawa, is using environmental arguments and "green" rhetoric to push for more restrictive immigration policies in Canada - 2010/11/19: CBC: Nuclear deal delay risks Ont. jobs: minister -- Move to sell AECL 'very troublesome,' Duguid says
Ontario's Liberal government warns that federal foot-dragging on the future of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. is jeopardizing 70,000 high-tech jobs. Energy Minister Brad Duguid said Friday in Toronto that the province is getting frustrated waiting for the Conservative federal government to make a decision on a possible sale of AECL. The province wants to build two new atomic reactors -- and it wants to buy Canadian if it can get the right price -- but Duguid complains that no progress is being made while Ottawa dithers. He said the federal "decision to sell off AECL in the middle of the procurement process was very troublesome" to the province. Duguid also accused the Harper Tories of failing to stand up for workers in the Canadian nuclear industry. - 2010/11/16: CBC: Climate banner unfurled on Parliament Hill
Protesters who unfurled a climate change banner on Parliament Hill were quickly apprehended by police on Tuesday morning. The group, which numbered eight or nine, had a number of demands, including shutting down the oilsands and ending tax breaks and subsidies for oil companies. RCMP were out in full force to deal with the group... - 2010/11/18: PostMedia: Parliament Hill-scaling Greenpeace activists guilty of mischief
Nova Scotia and Newfoundland & Labrador came to an agreement on developing Lower Churchill hydropower this week:
One subtext of which non-Canadians may not be aware, is a 1970's agreement between Quebec and Newfoundland & Labrador. Newfoundland & Labrador got taken to the cleaners and they have resented it ever since. The required cooperation of the federales and Indigenous peoples are added spice.
- 2010/11/19: CleanBreak: Congrats to Nalcor, Nova Scotia for opening the tap on Lower Churchill
- 2010/11/19: PI: Pembina reacts to Nova Scotia plan to cut coal and boost renewable energy
- 2010/11/19: G&M: Danny Williams's end run on hydro
- 2010/11/19: CBC: Innu won't allow $6B hydro project yet
Labrador Innu are applauding the new plan to develop a hydroelectric power project at Muskrat Falls, but they say it can't go ahead until they are offered adequate compensation. Labrador Innu Nation Grand Chief Joseph Riche said there are still some outstanding issues that need to be settled by the federal government before the Innu can fully support the project. Power companies in Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia announced Thursday they have agreed to develop Muskrat Falls and route the power to Nova Scotia. - 2010/11/19: CBC: N.B., N.S. premiers discuss energy co-operation
Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter and New Brunswick Premier David Alward used their first formal meeting on Friday to discuss ways to strengthen regional energy co-operation. The two premiers met on Friday morning and discussed potential options for more regional energy co-operation, especially in relation to the massive energy deal announced on Thursday between Nova Scotia's Emera Energy and Newfoundland and Labrador's Nalcor. - 2010/11/19: CBC: Lower Churchill deal draws praise, criticism
- 2010/11/18: REA: Deal Reached for Lower Churchill Hydro Project in Canada
- 2010/11/18: CCA: Expert Panel on Biodiversity Science Calls for a Bold Vision
- 2010/11/18: CBC: Historic hydro pact signed between N.L., N.S. -- Lower Churchill power to flow past Quebec, promises stable prices
The premiers of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia on Thursday announced a $6.2-billion deal to develop the Lower Churchill hydroelectric megaproject, bypassing a historical roadblock at the Quebec border. "It's a huge milestone," Premier Danny Williams told reporters in St. John's as he and Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter revealed a complex deal that will generate power on the Churchill River and supply energy to both provinces -- and possibly beyond. - 2010/11/17: CBC: N.L., Emera reach Lower Churchill hydro deal
Newfoundland and Labrador has finalized a deal to develop the Lower Churchill hydroelectric project with Emera Energy of Nova Scotia, CBC News has learned. Details are expected to be announced at a news conference in St. John's on Thursday. - 2010/11/19: TEC: Sorry to nag, but about that geothermal power thing...
- 2010/11/19: Tyee: Why Is Canada Freezing out Geothermal Power? We're a world leader at creating it -- just about everywhere except in our own country.
An interesting poll:
- 2010/11/19: Envirogy: Poll Suggests that the Conservative Party of Canada is Out of Touch with Canadians...Who Knew?
- 2010/11/18: WMTC: poll confirms what we all know: harper govt out of step with majority of canadians
- 2010/11/18: CoC: Poll suggests Harper Government out of step with Canadians
- 2010/11/18: CBC: Consumerism causes climate change: poll
A majority of Canadians believe that consumerism and a push for economic growth are factors responsible for climate change, suggests a poll released Thursday. The survey, conducted by Environics Research for eight advocacy organizations and unions, found that 80 per cent of those questioned feel the climate is being negatively influenced by economic and social priorities. - 2010/11/17: CBC: Canada lacks biodiversity data: scientists
Canada's declining ability to keep track of its biodiversity leaves the country vulnerable to invasive species, extinctions and poor environmental policy, a new report says. The gaps in data about the country's plants, animal, fungi and microbe species may also limit the country's ability to respond and adapt to global changes such as a warmer climate, says the report released Thursday by the Canadian Council of Academies. - 2010/11/16: Tyee: Naked Truth About BC's Environmental Assessment
Everyone now sees the process has no clothes, as feds reject same lake-killing mine BC approved. - 2010/11/18: NBF: Petrobank THAI [Toe Heal Air Injection] oil process could more than double oil extraction from the oilsands
- 2010/11/18: DeSmogBlog: Toxic Tar Sands Coming to a Community Near You: Profiles From The Front Lines
- 2010/11/17: CBC: Alta. tailings pond OK'd by federal inspectors
- 2010/11/17: CBC: Tailings pond plans not part of public hearings
Plans to construct a northern Alberta tailings pond without a berm on its western edge were not required to be ready when public hearings were held into the Horizon oilsands project in fall 2003. - 2010/11/16: CBC: Environment Canada examining Alta. tailings pond
- 2010/11/16: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Tar Sands and GHG Emissions: Setting the Record Straight
- 2010/11/15: CBC: Alta. tailings pond to get federal inspection
Environment Canada officials will be in northern Alberta on Tuesday to examine a tailings pond operated by Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. that was the subject of a CBC News investigation. - 2010/11/15: CBC: Alta. oilsands pond sludge oozes into bush
A northern Alberta tailings pond appears to have toxic sludge flowing into the muskeg from an uncontained western edge, a situation uncovered by a CBC News investigation. The pond, located in a remote area about 70 kilometres northwest of Fort McMurray, contains toxic waste from the Horizon oilsands project operated by Calgary-based Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNRL). It has been in operation for about a year. - 2010/11/19: CBC: Oil firm fined [C$125k] for leak that killed 300 birds [in 2008]
In Saskatchewan the big question is Potash?
- 2010/11/18: CBC: Potash to bolster Sask. exports
International sales of potash will propel Saskatchewan to an overall increase in exports in the coming months, according to a forecast by Export Development Canada. The federal agency released its predictions for provincial exports, saying potash and energy exports are expected to surge while agriculture exports fall. - 2010/11/18: CBC: Nuclear group gives First Nations $1M for meetings
The Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations has been given $1 million to hold information sessions on nuclear waste storage, but environmentalists are leery about the idea. The money comes from the Nuclear Waste Management Organization, the group created by Canada's nuclear electricity industry to find a new home for nuclear fuel waste. Currently, the waste is stored at various nuclear reactor sites, but the organization wants to bury it deep underground in stable rock formations. The group believes Saskatchewan is among a number of regions that could be candidates for storage. - 2010/11/17: CBC: PotashCorp announces $2B share buyback
The Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, having just fought off what it considered a lowball takeover bid by international mining giant BHP Billiton, now plans a $2 billion US share buyback. - 2010/11/16: CBC: Russian PotashCorp suitor seeks talks -- OAO PhosAgro considering bid as BHP decries protectionism
- 2010/11/15: G&M: Potash takeover failure blamed on billion-dollar pledge requirement
- 2010/11/16: BBerg: PhosAgro Seeks Canada Talks on Potential Potash Bid
OAO PhosAgro, Russia's largest maker of phosphate fertilizers, is seeking talks with the Canadian government about a potential bid to acquire Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. PhosAgro wants to hold discussions after Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Nov. 14 that the government will provide "guidance" to investors on the kinds of foreign takeovers it will tolerate. Canada earlier this month rejected Melbourne-based BHP Billiton Ltd.'s $40 billion bid to acquire Potash Corp. "OAO PhosAgro intends to hold talks with all relevant parties, including the Canadian government, about whether it is worth putting forward a proposal to buy Potash Corp. as an alternative to the offer from BHP Billiton," PhosAgro said in an e-mailed statement today. The Moscow-based company said Nov. 4 it was studying a joint bid with domestic competitors for Potash Corp. and was holding "intensive consultations" with the Russian government, and local and foreign banks on a possible acquisition. - 2010/11/15: BBC: Mining giant BHP Billiton has abandoned its takeover bid for fertiliser group Potash Corporation after it was blocked by the Canadian government
- 2010/11/15: CBC: Ottawa to elaborate on PotashCorp ruling
Ottawa will offer more detail on why BHP Billiton's bid for PotashCorp. failed the "net benefit" test under the Investment Canada Act in the coming days, Industry Minister Tony Clement said Sunday. Earlier this month, Clement rejected the Australian mining giant's $40-billion takeover attempt, claiming it did not meet the net benefit test that all takeovers of more than $299 million must pass. - 2010/11/14: G&M: BHP withdraws Potash bid
In Manitoba:
- 2010/11/17: CBC: Manitoba climate change law up in air
Environmentalists worry Manitoba is backsliding on its commitment to implement a cap and trade system to combat climate change over fears the move will be unpopular with voters. Tuesday's throne speech made no mention of cap and trade, even though Premier Greg Selinger pledged to implement such a system last December, at the UN Climate Change Conference in Denmark. "There's nothing in the speech from the throne," said Gaile Whelan-Enns, national director with Climate Action Network Canada. Manitoba, British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario, together with some western U.S. states, have pledged to participate in regional cap and trade system, called the Western Climate Initiative. - 2010/11/18: CBC: Ontario offers 10% hydro rebate
Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan says his government will introduce a 10 per cent rebate program for electricity bills but admits rates will jump 46 per cent over the next five years. Duncan made the announcement Thursday afternoon during his fall economic update. Electricity rates will continue to rise as the province shifts away from coal-fired generation to renewable, green energy sources for which the government pays much higher prices, and will only start to moderate after 2015, said Duncan. - 2010/11/15: PostMedia: In depth: Shale gas exploration in Quebec
In the Maritimes:
- 2010/11/17: CBC: Energy accord confirms major wind cutback
A new energy plan released by the P.E.I. government Tuesday confirms the province is seriously scaling back on its plans to develop wind power. Under the P.E.I. Energy Accord, the government announced it will add 30 megawatts of publicly-owned wind power on P.E.I. by 2012, along with 10 more megawatts at the Wind Institute in North Cape. That 40 megawatts is a long way from the 130 the province was looking for last spring when it put out a request for proposals, and even further from a 500 megawatt plan unveiled two years ago. - 2010/11/14: CBC: Canada puts $20m into Fundy tidal project
In the North:
- 2010/11/16: CBC: Climate change is top fear in North: report
Northern Canadians are more worried about the impacts of climate change on their communities than the risk of terrorist threats, according to a report on Arctic security by the Conference Board of Canada. The national policy think-tank's Centre for the North surveyed people across the region for the report, Security in Canada's North: Looking Beyond Arctic Sovereignty. - 2010/11/15: CBC: Labrador Innu offer to help N.L save caribou -- Labrador chief says his people can help deal with Quebec Innu hunters
As for miscellaneous Canadiana:
- 2010/11/16: TStar: Documentary praises Canadian sustainable logging efforts
The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:
- 2010/11/18: RWER: Dear National Science Foundation . . .
- 2010/11/17: EnergyBulletin: Enough Is enough
- 2010/11/16: CCurrents: The Dominant Culture Is Killing The Planet...It's Very Important For Us To Start To Build A Culture Of Resistance
- 2010/11/17: AlterNet: Derrick Jensen: Consumer Culture Is Killing the Planet -- We Need to Build a Culture of Resistance
IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology] raised its head once again:
- 2010/11/18: WWI: Better Access to Contraception Could Slow Global Warming
- 2010/11/17: Grist: On the ground in Ethiopia -- The population challenge up close and personal
As for how the media handles the science of climatology:
- 2010/11/19: BCLSB: On Ice
- 2010/11/15: WaPo: Coverage of climate summit called short on science
- 2010/11/15: RISJ: [link to 1.4 meg pdf] Marked differences between countries in reporting of climate change
- 2010/11/15: NatureTGB: Political science: On Copenhagen and the media
- 2010/11/14: Yahoo:Reuters: Climate science "under-reported" at 2009 U.N. summit
Less than 10 percent of the articles written about last year's Copenhagen climate summit dealt primarily with the science of climate change, a study showed on Monday. Based on analysis of 400 articles written about the December 2009 summit, the authors of the report for Oxford University's Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) called for a re-think of reporting on future such conferences. Author James Painter concluded that "science was under-reported" as the essential backdrop to the drama when about 120 world leaders met in Copenhagen but failed to agree a binding treaty to slow climate change. Much coverage from Copenhagen instead focused on hacked e-mails from a British university that some skeptics took as evidence of efforts by scientists to ignore dissenting views. The scientists involved have since been cleared of wrongdoing. - 2010/11/18: CCP: Time to Take Action on Climate Communication (go to www.ClimateEngage.org )
- 2010/11/18: ClimateP: Must-read letter to Science: Time to Take Action on Climate Communication
Here is something for your library:
- 2010/11/15: RI: Why I wrote Prelude, a peak oil novel
- 2010/11/15: EnergyBulletin: [Book Review] _The Impending World Energy Mess_ by Robert Hirsch, Roger Bezdek & Robert Wendling
And for your film & video enjoyment:
- 2010/11/19: SkeptiSci: The Climate Show #2: Merchants of Doubt and Twitterbots
- 2010/11/19: ClimateShifts: Interview with Naomi Oreskes and John Cook (Sceptical Science) [The Climate Show]
- 2010/11/19: PSinclair: The Last Rational Republican
- 2010/11/18: HotTopic: The Climate Show #2: Oreskes and the Merchants of Doubt
- 2010/11/18: PSinclair: Science Debate Dot Org
- 2010/11/17: Grist: Chris Paine prepares 'Revenge of the Electric Car'
- 2010/11/17: Grist: Anatomy of a greenwash -- "We're going to make pretending to care the new caring."
- 2010/11/17: TreeHugger: The Story of Coal (Video)
Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:
- 2010/11/16: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Massey Energy faces 700 angry men (and women) [in court]
Developing a new energy infrastructure is a fundamental challenge of the current generation:
- 2010/11/21: BNC: SNE 2060 - a multi-source energy supply scenario
- 2010/11/20: LA Times: Companies tapping the tides in quest for renewable energy
Pilot projects are underway in Washington, Alaska, Florida, California, Oregon and Hawaii, New York and elsewhere. The technology remains in its infancy, however, and costs are prohibitively high. - 2010/11/18: NBF: Tyler Formation could be one-third to one-half the size of the Bakken oil field
- 2010/11/16: AlterNet: 5 [North American Fossil Fuel] Mining Projects That Could Devastate the Entire Planet
- 2010/11/19: BBC: 'Chance' saved Norway's Statoil well from blast
- 2010/11/18: ProPublica: BP Probation Officer Asks Judge [in Alaska] to Revoke Probation, Citing 'Criminal Negligence'
- 2010/11/18: EarthTimes: Australian Government approved world's first floating LNG processing plant
- 2010/11/18: PeakEnergy: Geothermal hot spots
- 2010/11/17: KSJT: NYTimes - Big special section, "Energy"
- 2010/11/17: KSJT: Phil Inquirer: Between frakking and wind turbines, says an enviro group, 40 percent of state's forests could get hit hard
- 2010/11/17: TEC: The Energy Independence Trust: Where's the Innovation Beef?
- 2010/11/16: Risø: [link to 7.9 meg pdf] Risø Energy Report 9 -- Non-fossil energy technologies in 2050 and beyond
- 2010/11/16: Eureka: Risø Energy Report 9: CO2-free energy can meet the world's energy needs in 2050
- 2010/11/16: Eureka: APS releases report on renewable energy and the electricity grid -- Energy storage technologies crucial toward increasing renewable energy on nation's grid
- 2010/11/05: TechRev: Turbines Could Tap the Mississippi's Power
- 2010/11/15: ScienceInsider: OPEC on the Road to World Oil Dominance
- 2010/11/14: PostMedia: 'Fiery ice' [methane hydrates] in Canadian Arctic could light path to new energy source
For the Japanese, drilling down through Arctic permafrost to get at "fiery ice" was much less daunting than boring into the deep sea. They came up with $48 million - with $3 million from Canada - for an epic experiment in the Northwest Territories that has generated tantalizing evidence, to be detailed in Tokyo this week, that frozen gas hydrates may live up to their billing as a plentiful new energy source. - 2010/11/15: OilDrum: Oil Demand to Decline in the West, according to International Energy Agency
- 2010/11/15: TEC: IRENA - Building a New Energy Agency
Hey! Let's contaminate the aquifer for thousands of years! It'll be a fracking gas!
- 2010/11/19: SMH: Toxins found at third site as fracking fears build
Traces of toxic chemicals have been found at a ''fracking'' operation to extract coal seam gas - the third time this year that gas producers have detected contamination at a drill site. Arrow Energy confirmed that benzene, toluene, ethylene and xylene - together known as BTEX - had been found in wells at a gas site east of Mackay, Queensland. - 2010/11/19: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Fracking Hits the Big Time
- 2010/11/16: ProPublica: Pittsburgh Bans Natural Gas Drilling
- 2010/11/18: SolveClimate: Halliburton Winning Battle in Pennsylvania to Keep Its Fracking Secrets
Of the nine companies EPA has asked for full disclosure of the chemicals used in gas drilling, only Halliburton has refused - 2010/11/17: Reuters: U.S. can slash carbon emissions with natgas: report
The shale gas boom could help the United States reduce greenhouse gas emissions even if Congress does not pass broad climate legislation, according to a Deutsche Bank report. - 2010/11/18: AlterNet: The Delusional People Who Want to Frack This Country Up
- 2010/11/17: EnergyBulletin: The shale gas shell game
- 2010/11/17: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Natural gas operations violate the Clean Water Act in West Virginia
- 2010/11/17: TreeHugger: Pittsburgh Bans Fracking, Eliminates Some Rights of Corporate Personhood With New Ordinance
- 2010/11/16: PeakEnergy: Gas drilling goes ahead in Sydney without any checks
- 2010/11/15: PostMedia: In depth: Shale gas exploration in Quebec
The answer my friend...:
- 2010/11/16: GreenGrok: Thar She Blows? Wind on the Horizon in the American West
- 2010/11/16: NBF: High Altitude wind companies Joby Energy, Makani Power, Ampyx Power, Kitegen and more
Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:
- 2010/11/19: TreeHugger: PowerHouse Solar Shingle Is Clever. But Is It A Good Idea?
- 2010/11/17: TEC: The Sun Is Shining On Oregon Solar Power
- 2010/11/17: REA: 500 MW SolarMillenium CSP Plant Approved
Salazar's approval of the Amargosa Farm Road Solar Project is the eighth utility-scale project to be approved this fall and the second that will be built on public lands in Nevada. - 2010/11/16: TreeHugger: iSuppli Forecasts 15.8GW of Solar PV in 2010, 19.3GW in 2011
- 2010/11/16: BBC: Solar power for Wrexham council houses plan backed
Plans for a £25m project to fit solar panels on a third of Wrexham council homes have been agreed in principle. A business plan to fit photovoltaic (PV) panels to about 3,000 properties must now be presented to the council's executive board on 15 February, 2011. - 2010/11/15: PhysOrg: In Greece's fallow fields, solar energy stirs
- 2010/11/15: TreeHugger: Cogenra's 'Hybrid' Solar System Captures 80% of the Sun's Energy to Generates Electricity and Hot Water
- 2010/11/15: REA: Paula Mints on the Failure of Thin Films
- 2010/11/15: REA: Spain's Solar Power Sector Falls into the Abyss
On the coal front:
- 2010/11/19: Grist: Indiana coal plant will stop sending soot toward Chicago...in a few years
- 2010/11/09: MoJo: Cleaning Up Coal
- 2010/11/18: GreenGrok: The Murky Future of King Coal
- 2010/11/18: Grist: Kentucky cancels coal plant, new power movement electrifies grassroot alliance
- 2010/11/19: OilDrum: The Chinese Coal Monster - running out of puff
Biofuel bickering abounds:
- 2010/11/17: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Bye Bye Bogus Biomass: FirstEnergy Sends Woodchip Plant to the Woodchipper
- 2010/11/16: OilDrum: The Palm Oil Conundrum
- 2010/11/15: PhysOrg: Baking soda dramatically boosts oil production in algae
- 2010/11/15: OilChange: The Madness of US and EU Biofuels Policy
The nuclear energy controversy continues:
- 2010/11/19: ScienceInsider: New ITER Chief Aims to Get Some Financial Wiggle Room
- 2010/11/19: NBF: World nuclear power generation 2010
- 2010/11/17: ScienceInsider: European Budget Snafu Could Delay Progress on Fusion Reactor
Yes we have peak everything:
- 2010/11/20: ClimateShifts: Coal Crash Coming?
- 2010/11/16: FuturePundit: Chinese Government Worries On Domestic Peak Coal
- 2010/11/19: CleanBreak: Oil's slippery slope: Look at the graphic, then let's discuss
- 2010/11/19: CCurrents: Peak Oil: Why The Pentagon Is Pessimistic
- 2010/11/17: ArsTechnica: Should we be planning for the end of cheap coal?
- 2010/11/17: BBerg: Oil Output Likely Peaked in 2006, Will Be Replaced by Biofuels, IEA Says
- 2010/11/18: EnergyBulletin: Peak Oil: why the Pentagon is pessimistic
- 2010/11/18: ClimateShifts: The end of cheap coal?
- 2010/11/17: BBC: Oil shock warning to government from UK business
- 2010/11/17: EnergyBulletin: Peak coal in China
- 2010/11/17: EnergyBulletin: The peak oil crisis: Did we vote ourselves to extinction?
- 2010/11/16: CCurrents: Interview With Chris Martenson: "Prepare For peak Oil While There Is Time"
- 2010/11/16: CCurrents: Techno-Optimism Meets Its Match
- 2010/11/16: CCurrents: The Age Of Cheap Oil Is Over
- 2010/11/15: PeakEnergy: IEA sees oil supply peak looming, ups price view
More people are talking about the electrical grid:
- 2010/11/19: Atlantic: What's Really Wrong With the Smart Grid
- 2010/11/18: TreeHugger: Maine Residents Wary of Smart Meters, GE Pours $55 Million Into Start-Ups, and More Smart Grid News
- 2010/11/17: Grist: Understanding the smart meter backlash
- 2010/11/16: ScienceInsider: Report: Energy Grid Insufficient for Green Power
- 2010/11/16: EurActiv: Smart grids could save Europe 52bn euros [annually say providers]
Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:
- 2010/11/20: AutoBG: GE's electric vehicle order to trigger fleet purchasing trend
- 2010/11/20: AutoBG: Story of a decade: compact cars gain weight, become more fuel efficient
- 2010/11/17: ERabett: Game Changer - Chevie Volt, Car of the Year
- 2010/11/17: Grist: Is the second time the charm for Norway's electric car?
- 2010/11/15: Grist: Ford's first all-electric car to be sold in 20 cities in 2011
- 2010/11/15: TreeHugger: Electric Car Subsidies: Good or Bad?
I have a big soft spot for Clive Sinclair and his creations:
- 2010/11/18: AutoBG: Sinclair X-1 is a bubbly electric bike that's priced right [w/video]
As for Energy Storage:
- 2010/11/19: REA:Korea's POSCO Develops NaS [Sodium Sulphur] Battery for Energy Storage
- 2010/11/17: REA: The Story of an Energy Storage Startup
- 2010/11/16: TreeHugger: The Path to Lithium Batteries: Friend or Foe?
- 2010/11/17: NBF: Ioxus Increases Energy Density By 115 Percent with New Hybrid Ultracapacitor -- lithium-ion battery
The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:
- 2010/11/16: UNEP: Investor group representing over US$15 trillion calls for action on climate change
- 2010/11/17: PhysOrg: Action on climate change cannot wait for a global deal, business leaders say
Business leaders of hundreds of companies from around the world yesterday released a renewed demand for "an ambitious, robust and equitable global deal on climate change", adding that businesses are already investing in a low-carbon future and governments must respond to this by both redoubling efforts to secure an international framework but also by pursuing an ambitious "parallel mitigation strategy". - 2010/11/16: Reuters: Large investors urge progress at climate talks
Stronger domestic and international policy is needed to help unlock investment in low-carbon technology in the absence of a global climate deal, investors with over $15 trillion of assets said on Tuesday. - 2010/11/15: BBC: Unilever says sustainability key to new business model
Consumer products giant Unilever has unveiled a "new business model" putting sustainability at the heart of its global operations. It pledged to halve the environmental impact of its products while doubling sales over the next 10 years. Chief executive Paul Polman said the new model was "the only way to do business long term". - 2010/11/15: BBC: Businesses urge UK and India along low-carbon path
Closer collaboration between the UK and India could kick-start moves to a low-carbon economy, says a report by business leaders in the two countries. - 2010/11/17: Dominion: Greenwashing Hate -- Immigrants scapegoated for environmental degradation
Can you say corporate control?
- 2010/11/18: AlterNet: Hightower: How Wal-Mart, Google and Other Corporate Giants Are Trying to Trick Progressive Consumers
Joe Romm posts a daily list of top energy and climate stories:
- 2010/11/19: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for November 19...
- 2010/11/18: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for November 18...
- 2010/11/17: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for November 17...
- 2010/11/16: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for November 16...
Other (weekly) lists:
- 2010/11/19: NRDC:SwitchBoard: India Climate Change and Energy News - November 3 to November 13, 2010
- 2010/11/19: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Climate, Energy and Environment News from Latin America: 11.15 - 11.19.2010
- 2010/11/18: Grist: A walk through the week's climate news -- The Climate Post: Why solar can't go mainstream without Sarah Palin
- 2010/11/16: Stoat: Time to Opine
The carbon lobby are up to the usual:
- 2010/11/20: CCD: More glaring juxtaphotisions
- 2010/11/19: ABC(Au):TDU: On the origin of the sceptics
- 2010/11/20: GreenFyre: The 1970s 'Ice Age 9? Myth
- 2010/11/18: ClimateP: Scientific American editors slam science deniers Patrick Michaels and George Gilder for misusing their unscientific online poll
- 2010/11/19: UCSUSA: New Documentary on Bjørn Lomborg and Climate Change is Long on Opinion and Short on Facts, Science Group Says
- 2010/11/19: TEC: Oil industry insider exposé: what it took to wake some of them up on climate [PETM]
- 2010/11/18: DWWSJ: Did The Press Miss the Boat on The Black Hole Story??
- 2010/11/18: ERabett: The Wayforward Machine
- 2010/11/18: ClimateP: Americans for Prosperity's Tim Phillips attacks climate science, Al Gore
- 2010/11/18: HotTopic: How to be a denier #2: the truth is what we want it to be
- 2010/11/17: DeSmogBlog: ICSC Climate Scientists' Register: Usual suspects; usual tactics
- 2010/11/17: HotTopic: How to be a denier: lesson #1 (shrivel and die)
- 2010/11/16: ClimateP: Cool It and plausible deniability
- 2010/11/15: MTobis: Pseudo-Empiricism and Denialism
- 2010/11/15: WtD: Wolves in sheep's clothing: how big tobacco wanted to mimic the global warming sceptics and establish a "fake" NGO
- 2010/11/15: JKB: Merchants of doubts : interview with Naomi Oreskes
- 2010/11/15: ClimateP: Caldeira calls Lomborg's vision "a dystopic world out of a science fiction story"
- 2010/11/15: ABC(Au): Who is driving the campaign against climate science?
- 2010/11/15: Tamino: Oreskes Rules
Meanwhile in the 'clean coal' saga:
- 2010/11/19: TreeHugger: Valley Devastated by Coal Ash Waste (Video)
- 2010/11/17: TEC: Clean coal: climate solution or oxymoron?
As for climate miscellanea:
- 2010/11/19: CCurrents: The Burden Of Knowing
- 2010/11/18: ClimateShifts: Uncomfortable Climate [Elizabeth Kolbert]
- 2010/11/18: PhysOrg: Electric, diesel or hybrid car? Cost and CO2 calculator helps consumers choose
As the Environmental Protection Agency struggles with how to accurately label passenger vehicles for fuel economy and greenhouse-gas emissions, a new online cost and CO2 emissions calculator has launched to help fill the void. - 2010/11/17: Grist: A cleantech revolution in four easy steps
- 2010/11/17: Grist: Tech will solve the climate crisis faster than laws
- 2010/11/17: HotTopic: Something changed
- 2010/11/17: Grist: Time for climate hawks to take to the hills?
- 2010/11/17: TreeHugger: New Plan of Attack on Climate: Shame Big Polluters?
- 2010/11/16: QuarkSoup: Please, Shoot Us Now
- 2010/11/15: NewYorker: Uncomfortable Climate
- 2010/11/16: CCP: Elizabeth Kolbert: Uncomfortable Climate
- 2010/11/16: Grist: Changing behavior: it ain't easy
- 2010/11/15: Reuters: Q+A: Who's winning the climate science vs skeptics battle?
- 2010/11/16: TMoS: "No Deal" on Climate Change
- 2010/11/16: BBC:RB: Copenhagen or Babel? A climate conundrum
- 2010/11/15: DeSmogBlog: Climate Progress documents a year of No progress
- 2010/11/14: Heiko: Uncertainty and climate change
- 2010/11/15: Grist: On habits and how to change them
- 2010/11/14: TEC: Stewart Brand: Fearless Follower of Lovelock, not science
And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:
- CSRRT: Climate Science Rapid Response Team
- 2010/11/20: GreenFyre: Greenfyre, greenfyre, where have you been?
- La Via Campesina : International Peasant Movement
- C40 cities: an introduction
- Wiki: Dead zone (ecology)
- EREC: European Renewable Energy Council
- Electric Car Calculator -- Compare Electric Car to Hybrid, Diesel & Gas Cars
- Wiki: Brewer-Dobson circulation
- CCA: Council of Canadian Academies
- WeatherAtHome
- 350orBust
- GMDD: Geoscientific Model Development - Papers in Open Discussion
- GMD: Geoscientific Model Development
- Risø DTU National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy. Research in energy technology, energy planning, energy systems of the future and climate technology
- GGCS: Governors' Global Climate Summit 3 - Nov. 15-16
- Maribo [Simon Donner]
- NOAA: Weekly Palmer Drought Indices
- Media Matters on Global Warming: Misinformation Action Center
Live and direct from the laugh, it's funny, damnit department:
Activity is picking up as we inch toward Cancun:
Oh look. We're back to "don't scare the horses":
The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:
As for the agro-chem corps:
Regarding the genetic modification of food:
No named or numbered storms this week, but some chatter:
And in the carbon cycle:
As for the temperature record:
Climate refugees are becoming an issue:
As for heatwaves and wild fires:
Consider transportation & GHG production:
Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:
What's new in models?:
What are the activists up to?
Regarding Water Politics and Business:
The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:
The Obama chatter is nonstop:
What are the lobbyists pushing?
And in Europe:
The Murray-Darling Basin Plan controversy continues:
Fracking is becoming an Australian issue:
In Canada, minority neocon PM Harper, continues his do-nothing policy:
Residual issues post-G20 keep dragging out:
Tory Senators killed the Climate Change Accountability Act [C-311]:
For non-Canadians, the added irony of this move is that Harper once championed a Triple-E Senate -- elected, equal & effective -- claiming that the appointed Senate was an unrepresentative body.
The Tory privitization of AECL is not going smoothly:
Remember those GreenPeacers who freaked out Parliament Hill security?
A couple of people have been asking why there is so little Canadian support for geothermal:
Biodiversity data needed:
With the resignation of Campbell & the unpopularity of James, BC politics is in a tail spin:
Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:
Also in Alberta:
Ontario has it's Green Energy Act, now comes the implementation:
While in la Belle Province:
While activists search for effective communication techniques:
Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:
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(which includes some quotations), 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.
"The difficulty in dealing with climate deniers (and the birthers and so many others) is not that they don't understand the evidence -- it's that evidence has nothing to do with their belief. The denial comes from deep-seated emotional commitments and fears, in unthinking adherence to some political ideology and, often, in a perceived financial interest in not knowing -- and they simply cannot hear rational arguments." -CK Michaelson
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