Another week of GW News, January 2, 2011

(Apologies to those whose week can not begin until they have read each and every link in the weekly news roundup, the fault is mine, het was on time as usual...)

Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years

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Another week of Climate Instability News

Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years

January 2, 2011

• Chuckles, COP16, 2010, 2011+, Gleick, CableGate, Weather, Australia, Crocs, Pakistan
• Bottom Line, Subsidies, The Question, Thermodynamics, Psyche, Cook, Post CRU
• Melting Arctic, Polar Bears
• Food Crisis, Food Production
• GHGs, Temperatures, Aerosols, Clouds, ENSO, Solar, State of the Oceans, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Tornadoes, Wildfires, Acidification, Glaciers, Floods & Droughts
• REDD, Transportation, Buildings, Geoengineering
• Journals, Other Docs , Misc. Science, DIY Science, Hansen, Curry
• Carbon Trade, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
• International Politics: Rare Earths, WTO Suits, Security, Activism, Polls, H2O Biz, Predictions
• National Politics: America, BP Disaster, GOP vs EPA, Pickens, Obama, USAdmin, Congress, Lobbyists
• Britain, Europe, New Zealand, India, China, Japan, Asia, Middle East, South America
• Canada, Poll, Post Igor, BC, Tar Sands, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Maritimes, Canadiana
• Ecological Economics, Children, IPAT, Media, Books, Video, Courts
• Energy, Fracking, Wind, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Gee Whiz, Energy Storage
• Greenwashing, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

Oh goodie! A whole new year of black humour:

• 2010/12/29: uComics: (cartoon - Auth) You do realize...
• 2010/12/27: SeattlePI: (cartoon - Horsey) Under the weather

  And for those interested in exploring the nether reaches of Poe's Law:

• 2011/01/01: HotTopic: NZ cooling since 1909!
• 2010/12/30: Wonkette: Texas 'Clean Coal' Will Finally Bring Twentieth Century Energy To America!
• 2010/12/28: CCP: Gareth Renowden: A Carol for Monckton
• 2010/12/18: Onion: Hurriphoonado Cuts Swath Of Destruction Across Eastern, Western Hemispheres
• 2010/12/27: Wonkette: Evil White Substance Invades East Coast But Spares D.C. Cute Panic

  Hope you had a Happy Saturnalia. Here's more good cheer and Solstice Eclipse pix:

• 2011/01/02: APOD: Looking Back at an Eclipsed Earth
• 2010/12/31: APOD: Analemma 2010
• 2010/12/29: APOD: Eclipse at Moonset
• 2010/12/27: WottsUWT: Season's Greetings!

  Looking back at Cancun:

• 2011/01/01: Belfer: Why Cancun Trumped Copenhagen
• 2011/01/01: EconView: "Why Cancun Trumped Copenhagen" -- Robert Stavins seems happy...
• 2010/12/27: FPIF: Cancun Agreement Succeeds in Meeting Low Expectations
• 2010/12/31: Reuters: China likely bright spot in Asia climate action
  The outcome of U.N. climate talks in Mexico this month should boost steps in Asia to curb greenhouse gas emissions, with China a likely bright spot in 2011, a senior analyst at a leading U.S. think tank said.

Lots of year end retrospectives to choose from:

• 2010/12/29: CJR: Best of 2010: The Observatory -- Curtis Brainard picks the top stories from 2010
• 2010/12/31: Guardian(UK): 2010: The year in environment [24 pix]
• 2010/12/31: Stoat: The year in stoats
• 2010/12/31: SolveClimate: Top Ten Climate Events of 2010
• 2010/12/30: Guardian(UK): End of year review -- The climate change wake-up call
• 2010/12/29: Grist: The 10 most popular Grist posts of 2010
• 2010/12/30: EnviroCan: Canada's Top Ten Weather Stories for 2010
• 2010/12/29: CBC: 'Spring' Olympics 2010's top weather story
• 2010/12/28: RRapier: My Top 10 Energy Related Stories of 2010
• 2010/12/28: REA: The Big List: 2010's Biggest Renewable Energy Projects
• 2010/12/27: Guardian(UK): 2010: The environment year in review
• 2010/12/27: Guardian(UK): 2010: The environment year in review

  And for those looking ahead:

• 2010/12/31: NatureN: New year, new science -- Nature looks at key findings and events that could emerge from the research world in 2011
• 2010/12/29: Reuters: Top 10 Solar Trends for 2011
• 2010/12/30: TStar: From plug-ins to panels -- 5 trends for 2011
• 2010/12/27: EnergyBulletin: Predictions for 2011
• 2010/12/27: TEC: Five Energy Predictions for 2011: Solar Soars As Fossil Fuel Costs Grow
• 2010/12/27: G&M: The future of electricity
• 2010/12/27: NewScientist: Our predictions for 2011
• 2010/12/26: NYT: Next Year Offers Little Cheer for Those Battling Climate Change
• 2010/12/27: TEC: Meredith Angwin: Looking Back at 2010, Looking Forward to 2011
• 2010/12/26: CCP: Dennis Markatos-Soriano: 5 Energy Predictions for 2011: Solar Soars As Fossil Fuel Costs Grow

  Peter Gleick's article resonated with some kindred spirits:

• 2010/12/30: HuffPo: The 2010 Climate B.S.* of the Year Award by Peter H. Gleick
• 2010/12/31: SkeptiSci: The 2010 Climate B.S.* of the Year Award by Peter Gleick
• 2010/12/30: MTobis: Climate BS of the Year
• 2010/12/30: ClimateP: The 2010 Climate B.S.* of the Year Award
• 2010/12/30: DeSmogBlog: 2010 Climate B.S. of the Year Award
• 2010/12/30: S&R: The 2010 Climate B.S.* of the Year Award
• 2010/12/30: TCoE: The 2010 Climate B.S. of the Year Award
• 2010/12/31: HotTopic: The 2010 Climate B.S. of the Year Award
• 2010/12/30: CCP: Peter Gleick: The 2010 Climate B.S.* of the Year Award

  CableGate has quieted down over the holidays, but lurketh yet:

• 2010/12/07: FOE: WikiLeaks Reveals State Department Discord Over U.S. Support for Canadian Tar Sands Oil Program
• 2010/12/31: ClimateP: WikiLeaks reveals State Department discord over U.S. support for Canadian tar sands oil pipeline
• 2010/12/27: CCurrents: Wikileaks Memos Reveal U.S. Gov't Pushing Gene-Altered Crops Worldwide

  More on wintery weather:

• 2010/12/30: TerraDaily: Massive storm blankets central US
• 2010/12/30: BBC: Winter storms pummel western United States
  The western United States is bearing the brunt of new winter storms, with heavy snow blanketing an area from New Mexico to Minnesota.
• 2010/12/29: Stoat: Explaining too much...snow-in-December...
• 2010/12/29: CBC: Holiday storm hits N.L. town 2 years running
  A small coastal community south of St. John's has taken a pummelling from a storm surge over the holidays, for the second year in a row. High winds and waves started slamming into Ferryland on Christmas Eve, eventually breaching the community's breakwater. Deputy Mayor Roddy Paul said the surge forced some people out of their homes for as many as two days, and was eerily familiar to a storm one year ago.
• 2010/12/28: CBC: Major snowstorm moving into Labrador -- Rain and storm surges left a trail of damage
• 2010/12/28: Wunderground: Northeast U.S. digs out from yet another history-making snowstorm
• 2010/12/28: BBC: The north-eastern US is trying to get back to normal after blizzards left tens of thousands of air passengers stranded and many people without power
• 2010/12/28: CBC: Storm disruptions continue in Maritimes -- Effects ease, but region still experiences power outages, cancelled flights
• 2010/12/27: Wunderground: Mighty Post-Christmas Nor'easter wallops the Northeast U.S.
• 2010/12/27: EarthTimes: Blizzard howls into US East Coast, blocking travel
• 2010/12/27: CSM: Blizzard of 2010: Has global warming turned Americans into winter wimps?
• 2010/12/27: CBC: Storm causes travel chaos in U.S. northeast
• 2010/12/27: CBC: East Coast hit by another storm -- Outages, cancellations as Atlantic Canada hit for fourth time in December
• 2010/12/26: CBC: Big storm heads for Atlantic Canada -- Heavy snow, rain and strong winds expected overnight and Monday
• 2010/12/26: BBC: A swathe of the US eastern seaboard is being engulfed in a winter storm dumping heavy snow as it sweeps north
• 2010/12/26: PSinclair: Why is the UK cold? The NAO is stuck

  The Australian flood has become a major calamity:

• 2011/01/02: CNN: Fatality confirmed in Australian flooding; airport to close for weeks
  Electricity is intentionally cut in parts of Queensland - Emergency agency: 200,000 people are directly impacted by flooding - Rockhampton, Queensland, is the worst-hit major population center - Prime minister: Flooding will cost "hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars"
• 2011/01/01: ABC(Au): Man missing in flooded Queensland river
• 2011/01/02: ABC(Au): An air, land and sea search is underway for a man missing near Gladstone in central Queensland
• 2011/01/01: ABC(Au): Emerald residents return home to face damage
• 2011/01/02: ABC(Au): More towns inundated as flood crisis endures
  Twenty-two Queensland towns and cities are now inundated by water or isolated as the state's flooding disaster continues, and authorities say the crisis has claimed eight lives in the past month.
• 2011/01/02: EarthTimes: Dry humour keeps Rocky residents buoyant
• 2011/01/02: EarthTimes: Rockhampton braces for Australia's 'biblical' floods
• 2011/01/01: BBC: Australian flooding claims first victim in Queensland
• 2011/01/01: CBC: Australian flooding at 'biblical proportions'
• 2011/01/01: CBS: Australians Flee Flood of "Biblical Proportions" -- Queensland Residents Evacuate as Torrential Rains, Rising Waters Cover Area Larger Than France, Germany Combined
• 2011/01/01: EarthTimes: Australians flee floods of 'biblical proportions'
• 2011/01/01: EarthTimes: Floods force thousands of Australians from their homes
• 2011/01/01: CSM: Large swath of Queensland, Australia inundated by floodwaters
• 2011/01/01: BBC: Australia's Queensland faces 'biblical' flood
  A senior official has described the flooding in Queensland, Australia, as a disaster of "biblical proportions". State Treasurer Andrew Fraser said the economic impact would be severe, with huge costs compounded by lost income from mining, farming and tourism. Rockhampton, where 77,000 people live, is the latest city bracing for impact, amid warnings of 30ft (9m) floodwaters. More than 20 other towns have already been left cut off or flooded across an area larger than France and Germany. The crisis has been triggered by Australia's wettest spring on record. At least six river systems across Queensland have broken their banks. The floods have affected about 200,000 people, and many have been evacuated.
• 2011/01/01: ABC(Au): Rockhampton to be flooded until mid-January
• 2010/12/31: RawStory: 200,000 displaced in Australia floods
• 2010/12/31: ABC(Au): Bundaberg 'could take months to recover'
  The Bundaberg Chamber of Commerce says the flood damage in the south-east Queensland city may see businesses closed for months.
• 2010/12/31: ABC(Au): Floods close Bundaberg port indefinitely
• 2010/12/31: ABC(Au): Queenslanders warned of worse to come
  Prime Minister Julia Gillard is touring disaster zones in Queensland as the state's flood crisis enters a frightening new phase.
• 2010/12/31: ABC(Au): Flooded residents face weeks without homes
  Thousands of flood-affected Queensland residents had a soggy welcome to the new year, with those staying in evacuation centres facing the prospect of being homeless for weeks to come. With a population of around 75,000, Rockhampton is planning for what could be the city's worst flood on record. The Fitzroy River has broken its banks and is slowly filling low-lying suburbs. It is expected to peak at 9.4 metres early next week and authorities say many people could be out of their homes for weeks.
• 2010/12/31: PlanetArk: Australian Downpour Spreads South, Cuts Off Towns
• 2010/12/31: EarthTimes: Australia tots up the cost of Queensland floods
• 2010/12/31: CBC: Australia flooding affects 200,000 -- Prime Minister Julia Gillard tours evacuation centre, flooded communities
• 2010/12/30: BBC: Australia PM Julia Gillard visits flood-hit Queensland
• 2010/12/29: BBC: In pictures: Floods hit north-east Australia
• 2010/12/30: CBC: Australia flooding could continue for week
• 2010/12/30: CNN: Residents evacuated in Australia amid lengthy flood forecast
  13 townships are evacuated Thursday - Condamine, Emerald, and Rockhampton are seeing the worst flooding - Forecasters say many areas will still be at flood stage in 2 weeks
• 2010/12/29: Guardian(UK): Hundreds of Australians evacuated in Queensland's worst floods for decades
  Authorities declare half the state a disaster zone after cyclone Tasha brings torrential rain to areas already inundated
• 2010/12/30: EarthTimes: Australia's east awash with the worst flooding in 50 years
• 2010/12/29: Wunderground: Unprecedented flooding hits Australia's Queensland
• 2010/12/30: BBC: Australia floods: Queensland water levels still rising
• 2010/12/29: CNN: Australia's PM promises aid to flood-ravaged towns
  Half of Queensland has been declared a disaster zone - Helicopters helped evacuate an entire town of 300 people - Major flooding is heading toward two other cities
• 2010/12/29: UN: Costly Australian floods highlight need for disaster mitigation planning, UN warns
• 2010/12/29: ABC(Au): 'Flood on flood' flows into Lake Eyre
  Floodwaters from Queensland's west are expected to again make it to Lake Eyre in South Australia's far north. Professor Richard Kingsford from the University of New South Wales says water from the Cooper Creek system is flowing into the lake and there is more on the way from floods in the Thomson and Barcoo systems.
• 2010/12/29: PlanetArk: Australian Downpour Spreads South, Cuts Off Towns
• 2010/12/28: TerraDaily: Floods force evacuations in eastern Australia
• 2010/12/29: CBC: Australian town evacuated as flood waters rise
  The Australian military flew out a town's entire population of 300 people by helicopter Wednesday as waters continued to rise after days of drenching rain in eastern Australia. A total of 1,000 people were evacuated from the town of Theodore and other parts of central and southern Queensland state, with swollen rivers there expected to rise higher in coming days. Only a few police officers remained in Theodore, county Mayor Mareen Clancy said.
• 2010/12/28: BBC: Flood chaos forces mass evacuations in Australia
  North-eastern Australia's worst flooding in decades is continuing to cause chaos across the region. Around 1,000 people in Queensland have been evacuated, including the entire population of the town of Theodore. The government has declared Theodore and two other towns in the region to be disaster zones, and forecasters say the floods have not yet peaked.
• 2010/12/28: EarthTimes: Australians hoping for a dry New Year
• 2010/12/28: BBC: Australians evacuate flood-hit Queensland towns
  Flooding in north-eastern Australia has forced residents to evacuate towns and closed down more than 300 roads. In one town, Theodore, 300 residents are being flown out by a fleet of helicopters after floodwaters swamped buildings. The floods have caused hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage to sunflower and cotton crops. The state government of Queensland has declared several areas disaster zones.
• 2010/12/27: ABC(Au): Qld town faces 'worst flood in memory'
  Several southern Queensland towns have been affected by flooding as rain continues to fall across large parts of the state.
• 2010/12/28: ABC(Au): Residents airlifted from flood zone
  Entire towns are under water and hundreds of residents are being forced to leave their homes as flooding continues across Queensland. The State Government has declared a disaster in three towns - Theodore, Chinchilla and Dalby - where the worst flooding in half a century has inundated properties.
• 2010/12/27: Yahoo:Sky: Floods Swamp Australia After Cyclone [Tasha] Hits

  Now here is a danger one doesn't automatically associate with flooding:

• 2011/01/02: Guardian(UK): 'Biblical' floods hit Queensland and leave tens of thousands homeless
  Worst rains for 50 years leave Queensland homes and businesses facing invasion of snakes and killer crocodiles
• 2010/12/27: PhysOrg: Floods bring crocodile warning for Australia's north
  Flooding in Australia's tropical north has prompted a warning about crocodiles, with several of the reptiles spotted in swollen waterways, an official said Monday.

The devastation of the Pakistan monsoon flood persists:

• 2010/12/31: TerraDaily: Pakistan floods, fighting destroy wildlife
• 2010/12/31: UN: Millions of Pakistanis still in need of post-flood assistance, say UN officials
• 2010/12/27: G&M: Six months after Pakistan floods, seven million remain without shelter

  And on the Bottom Line:

• 2010/12/30: SolveClimate: In China, Environmental Price Tag of Economic Growth is $200bn
  Cost of pollution, deteriorating soil and other impacts surged to $200bn (1.3tr yuan) in 2008 - equivalent to 3.9% of country's GDP
• 2010/12/29: TreeHugger: China's Environmental Damage Cost $196 Billion in 2008, About 4% of GDP

  Who's getting the subsidies?

• 2010/12/27: MR: Iran's Subsidy Reductions: Upon Whom Will the Costs Fall?
• 2010/12/29: CNN: Bolivian president to address nation over fuel prices
  Bolivia ended its subsidies of gasoline and diesel - The move increased some prices more than 80% - Bus drivers and teachers were protesting - The government says it will not back down

Here's thatweather questionagain:

• 2010/12/28: Yahoo:DC: Is there any weather pattern that would cast doubt on global warming?
• 2010/12/29: ClimateP: Climatologist Ben Santer on the attribution of extreme weather events to climate change
• 2010/12/29: ABC(Au): Floods, freeze not the end of global warming: CSIRO
  A CSIRO scientist is warning authorities not to interpret floods in eastern Australia and snowstorms over Europe and North America as signalling the end of global warming.
• 2010/12/28: DemNow: From Snowstorms to Heat Waves, How Global Warming Causes Extreme Weather and Climate Instability
• 2010/12/29: ChinaDaily: Global warming not fading away despite cold snap
• 2010/12/28: CCP: Andrew Freedman: Weather Happens -- Winter Does Too
• 2010/12/28: PhysOrg: Climate is warming - despite 'ups and downs'
  Periodic short-term cooling in global temperatures should not be misinterpreted as signalling an end to global warming, according to an Honorary Research Fellow with CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Barrie Hunt.
• 2010/12/28: ABC(Au): CSIRO says climate is warming despite recent weather
• 2010/12/28: Time: The Northeast Blizzard: One More Sign of Global Warming
• 2010/12/27: TreeHugger: Blizzards & Blustery Wind Don't Mean Global Warming Is Fake - Say It With Me (Again) People
• 2010/12/26: QuarkSoup: Cold Spells From Climate Change?

  Still explicating the laws of thermodynamics...:

• 2011/01/02: TSoD: Heat Transfer Basics - Convection -- Part One
• 2010/12/31: moyhu: On greenhouses and the Greenhouse Effect
• 2010/12/30: TSoD: Curious Confusion about "Blackbodies"
• 2010/12/27: TSoD: Emissivity of the Ocean

  More psych:

• 2010/12/28: SciAm: Behavior Frontiers: Can Social Science Combat Climate Change?
  Scientists remove some of the guesswork about how individuals will use energy in 2050 by looking at past campaigns to induce personal change and their effectiveness

John Cook and friends continue their counterpoint articles:

• 2011/01/01: SkeptiSci: Italian translation of The Scientific Guide to Global Warming Skepticism

  Post CRU theft, controversy & inquiry:

• 2011/01/02: SkeptiSci: A retrospective of the Climategate retrospectives

  The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:

• 2010/12/29: ClimateP: NOAA reports 2010 hottest year on record so far, while Arctic sea ice extent hits a stunning December low
• 2010/12/29: BBC: Greenland ice sheet future grim, says Aberystwyth study
  A glaciologist is warning that the Greenland ice sheet is "retreating and thinning extensively" after a year of record-breaking high temperatures. Dr Alun Hubbard on Aberystwyth University says its future is "grim" but disputes claims by other experts that it could collapse within 50 years. He maintains it would be at least 100 to 1,000 years before it "potentially passes any point of no return leading to any widespread collapse".
• 2010/12/29: EarthTimes: Short-term weather extremes cause melting of Greenland Ice Sheet
• 2010/12/27: Tamino: History of Arctic Sea Ice, part 2

  As for the charismatic megafauna:

• 2010/12/31: CBC: Iqaluit polar bear hunting quota goes up in 2011
• 2010/12/30: TreeHugger: Polar Bears Full of More Toxins Than Any Other Creature
• 2010/12/29: BBC: 'Spy cams' film polar bears up close
• 2010/12/29: BBC: Polar bears get the better of spy cameras
• 2010/12/26: CSW: Polar bears: "threatened" or "endangered"?

  The food crisis is ongoing:

• FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
• 2010/12/28: WFP: The Government of Niger and its Partners Determined to Continue Their Efforts Against Malnutrition in Niger
• 2010/12/31: CCurrents: Commodity Price Surge Sets Stage For Global Food Crisis In New Year
  The price of traded food staples such as wheat, corn and rice soared 26 percent from June to November, nearing the peaks reached during the global food crisis of 2008, according to the Food Price Index kept by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization. The price surge has continued in December, with foodstuffs and basic commodities hitting new highs and expected to climb further in 2011.
• 2010/12/27: AlterNet: Food Emergency: Millions of Americans Are Heading to Foodbanks for the First Time in Their Lives
• 2010/12/30: UN: Food security efforts in Bangladesh to receive UN support for another year
• 2010/12/28: Yahoo:AP: Farmers, pecan growers say [Texas] coal plant kills plants
• 2010/12/28: People's Daily: Govt plans for output losses due to climate change
  China has been working to reduce the risk of decreasing grain harvests caused by global warming in coming decades. Estimates placed the losses suffered by 2030 at between 5 percent and 10 percent if climate change continues, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Deputy Dean Tang Huajun said. The threats climate change generates include shrinkages of arable land, water shortages and extreme weather, Tang said.
• 2010/12/27: ProMedMail: White grain disease, wheat - Australia

  And how are we going to feed 9 billion?

• 2010/12/31: WFP: WFP Airlifts Emergency Food Rations To Refugees Fleeing Côte d'Ivoire Crisis
• 2010/12/29: Eureka: Improving nitrogen use efficiency lessens environmental impact -- Grafting proves successful in melon, provides low-input growing strategies
• The Plant List -- A working list for all plant species
• 2010/12/29: CBC: List of all known plants a boon to science
• 2010/12/29: CBC: Making good chocolate better -- Scientists sequence genetic code of rare, superior cacao variety

  On the GHG front:

• 2010/12/31: JapanTimes: 'Super' greenhouse gases [SF6 & N2O] to draw stricter monitoring
• 2010/12/30: TEC: Emily McGlynn: EIA Predicts U.S. Emissions to Rise 6% by 2035
• 2010/12/29: TerraDaily: Potent [N2O] GHG Emissions Could Be Three Times Estimated Levels
• 2010/12/29: TreeHugger: Massive CO2 Savings in 2010: Businesses, Individuals & Government Step Up
• 2010/12/27: Yahoo:Reuters: Japan greehouse gas emissions fall 5.7 percent in 09/10

  As for the temperature record:

• 2011/01/02: BNC: No (statistical) warming since 1995? Wrong
• 2010/12/31: TCoE: Some perspective on 2C for the new year
• 2010/12/29: ClimateP: NOAA reports 2010 hottest year on record so far, while Arctic sea ice extent hits a stunning December low

  Aerosols are making their presence felt:

• 2010/12/29: CCP: Jasper F. Kok, PNAS (2010), A scaling theory for the size distribution of emitted dust aerosols suggests climate models underestimate the size of the global dust cycle
• 2010/12/27: NSF: Broken Glass Yields Clues to Climate Change -- Ordinary drinking glasses and atmospheric dust particles break apart in similar patterns
• 2010/12/27: UCAR: Broken glass yields clues to climate change [aerosols]

  Clouds are one of the major uncertainties in climate. Much research revolves around them:

• 2010/12/29: SkeptiSci: A Positive Outlook For Clouds

  While on the ENSO front:

• 2011/01/01: ABC(Au): La Nina to break down later this year

  Regarding the solar hypothesis:

• 2010/12/29: PhysOrg: Forecasters keep eye on looming 'Solar Max'

  And the State of the Oceans:

• 2010/12/29: MongaBay: Growing Atlantic dead zone shrinks habitat for billfish and tuna, may lead to over-harvest
• 2010/12/27: CCP: Eric D. Prince et al., Fish. Ocean., 19 (2010), Ocean scale hypoxia-based habitat compression of Atlantic istiophorid billfishes

  Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

• 2010/12/30: TerraDaily: NASA: More Earth science missions coming
  NASA says strong support from the White House and Congress will allow it to plan extensive Earth science programs with 16 major missions between 2011 and 2021.
• 2010/12/30: NASA: TRMM Satellite Sees System 98S Raining on Western Australia/A>
• 2010/12/27: NASA: GOES-13 Satellite Captures Powerful Snowmaker Leaving New England

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2010/12/28: PhysOrg: Scientists worry about ocean energy's effect on sea-creature migration
• 2010/12/26: CCTimes: Climate change effects vary widely between rich and poor countries
• 2010/12/26: Guardian(UK): Climate change leaves Assam tea growers in hot water
  Rising temperatures reducing yields and altering distinctive flavour of India's most popular drink

And then there are the world's forests:

• 2010/12/26: NPR: How a Tiny [mountain pine] Beetle Could Decimate Yellowstone
• 2010/12/29: People's Daily: China urges more efforts for forest protection in next 10 years
• 2010/12/28: ABC(Au): Environmentalists alarmed by Coffs Coast koala habitat logging
  The North Coast Environment Council says core koala habitat is being illegally logged in the Coffs Harbour area. The city council has drawn up comprehensive maps to indicate land to be preserved as habitat for the nationally significant koala population.
• 2010/12/27: EarthTimes: Laos to increase forest coverage to preserve hydropower potential
• 2010/12/26: NPR: Small [mountain pine] Beetles Massacre The Rockies' Whitebark Pines

  Meanwhile in tornado alley:

• 2011/01/01: CBS: New Year's Eve Tornadoes' Toll Rises to 7 -- Midwesterners Clean Up From Deadly Storms That Tore Through Several States, Injuring Dozens
• 2011/01/01: EarthTimes: Tornadoes, storms kill six in US
• 2010/12/31: EarthTimes: Tornadoes, storms kill five in US
• 2010/12/31: BBC: Tornado outbreak kills six in south and mid-western US
• 2010/12/31: Guardian(UK): Tornado kills three in Arkansas
• 2010/12/31: CBC: Tornadoes kill 6 in U.S. Midwest
  Tornadoes fuelled by unusually warm winter air sliced through parts of the U.S. South and Midwest on Friday, killing at least six people, injuring dozens of others and knocking out power to thousands of homes and businesses.
• 2010/12/31: Wunderground: Wild weather rings out the old year: tornado kills three in Arkansas
• 2010/12/31: CNN: Suspected tornado kills 3 and heads toward St. Louis
  The storm caused injuries and damage in Pulaski and Laclede Counties in Missouri - It knocked out power at U.S. Army base Fort Leonard Wood, officials say - The line of storms is heading toward St. Louis and the surrounding municipalities - The storm injured at least 12 people; 5 are in critical condition, officials say

As for heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2010/12/30: TerraDaily: Argentina heads for sweltering New Year
• 2010/12/30: ABC(Au): Catastrophic fire warning in southern states
  Emergency services in South Australia and Victoria are bracing themselves for the worst as potentially dangerous weather conditions threaten to spark bushfires. A catastrophic bushfire danger rating has been issued for six of the 15 fire-ban districts in South Australia, while Victoria has issued a statewide fire ban. South Australia CFS state coordinator Lee Miller says crews will be on standby as temperatures are tipped to hit 41 degrees Celsius in Adelaide and 43C at Elizabeth.

Acidification is changing the oceans:

• 2010/12/29: FuturePundit: Increased Ocean Acidity To Reduce Nitrification

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2011/01/02: TDC: A glacier in flux plunges seaward
  On the edge of one of the planet's most ice-covered regions, an Alaska glacier is ignoring all climate signals as it advances to the sea. Scientists aim to find out why - and what it means for sea levels around the world.
• 2011/01/01: NIH:EHP: Out of Equilibrium? The World's Changing Ice Cover

  As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

• 2011/01/02: DesMoinesRegister: River rage: Why Iowa's flood risk is rising
  Changes in Iowa's weather patterns, landscape, cities and farms have rendered some of the state's most trusted flood prevention safeguards outmoded and inadequate, a review by The Des Moines Register shows. That includes the state's system of dams - including Saylorville upstream from Des Moines - which were designed to meet climate conditions and a lay of the land that some scientists say haven't existed for decades. That leaves Iowans, their homes and their businesses increasingly at risk for the sort of devastating floods that ravaged the state in 1993, 2008 and again last year, causing damage in the billions of dollars.
• 2011/01/01: Nation(Ke): Deaths as drought scorches region -- Two people have already died as well as large numbers of livestock as disaster looms large
• 2010/12/31: BBC: Fifteen people, mostly schoolgirls, were drowned when a school bus was swept off the road by flood waters, Egyptian police say
• 2010/12/31: UN: Colombia: UN refugee agency steps up aid to flood-affected communities
• 2010/12/31: BBC: Philippine floods kill two and displace thousands
• 2010/12/30: EarthTimes: Floods, landslides kill two, displace thousands in Philippines
• 2010/12/29: UN: UN disaster assessment team arrives in flood-hit Colombia
• 2010/12/28: CCP: A 25-Year-Old Prediction of Water Scarcity in the Southwest Holds True, Study Finds
• 2010/12/27: CNN: Heavy rains trigger flooding in Sri Lanka
  The torrential rain lasted for 24 hours, official says - More than 500 homes reported damaged More than 200,000 people have been affected by flooding resulting from heavy rains in Sri Lanka, a disaster management official said Monday.
• 2010/12/26: TreeHugger: Drought-Hit Syria Creates Model 'Water Scarcity' Park
• 2010/12/26: CBC: Red River Valley already eyes spring floods
  Flooding in Manitoba's Red River Valley has the potential to be devastating in 2011, given the weather the province experienced in 2010.

Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation has somehow seemed chimeric:

• 2010/12/30: Reuters: Indonesia chooses climate pact pilot province
  Indonesia has chosen once of its largest and richest provinces to test efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by saving forest and peatlands, a key part of a $1 billion climate deal with Norway.
• 2010/12/27: Yale360: Indonesia's Corruption Legacy Clouds a Forest Protection Plan
  Norway and other nations have vowed to invest billions of dollars to help preserve Indonesia's remaining tropical forests. But can foreign involvement stem the tide of graft and uncontrolled logging that has steadily decimated one of the world's largest areas of rainforest?

Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2010/12/31: PlanetArk: Beijing Shows Public Transport Gusto With New Subways

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

• 2010/12/31: ClimateP: What does 'net zero' mean? Sprawl by another name?
• 2010/12/30: ClimateP: Most Buildings Don't Work Properly, Who Cares?
• 2010/12/30: TreeHugger: More on Measuring Energy In Green Building: Absolute vs Relative
• 2010/12/29: CBC: Green apartment buildings seek renters
• 2010/12/29: EarthTimes: Winterizing Your Home to Save Energy and Money
• 2010/12/29: CSM: Make your home more energy efficient
• 2010/12/27: TEC: Huge Net Zero HGA House in Southampton Earns LEED Platinum
• 2010/12/26: PMB: 3 Documentary Films and 9 Ebooks about Natural and Green Building on Permaculture Media Blog

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2010/12/29: CCP: The World's Most Efficient Green Technology? The third part of our interview with Art Rosenfeld. The subject? White roofs.

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2010/12/28: PNAS: [ab$] Relationship of farm salmon, sea lice, and wild salmon populations by Gary D. Marty et al.
• 2010/12/28: PNAS: [ab$] Baseline intrinsic flammability of Earth's ecosystems estimated from paleoatmospheric oxygen over the past 350 million years by Claire M. Belcher et al.
• 2010/12/28: PNAS: [ab$] North Atlantic summers have warmed more than winters since 1353, and the response of marine zooplankton by Nicholas A. Kamenos
• 2010/12/28: PNAS: [Letter$] Reply to Bodenstein: Contextual data about the relative scale of opposing scientific communities by William R. L. Anderegg et al.
• 2010/12/28: PNAS: [Letter$] Regarding Anderegg et al. and climate change credibility by Lawrence Bodenstein
• 2010/12/29: AGWObserver: Papers on sea level in small island countries
• 2010/12/27: AGWObserver: New research from last week 51/2010

  And other significant documents:

• 2010/12/27: Tyee: [link to 2.8 meg pdf] Oil Sands to Boom: Internal Federal Report
  Expect a rise in greenhouse-gas emitting heavy crude oil production in North America, says federal government report.

As for miscellaneous science:

• 2011/01/02: AGWObserver: 2010 -- First full year of AGW Observer
• 2011/01/01: CBS: Wikipedia Raises $16M to Remain Ad-Free
• 2010/12/26: GreenFyre: Climate change and scientific malpractice
• 2010/12/30: TreeHugger: Botanists Create a List of Every Plant Known to Man
• 2010/12/29: RealClimate: Science is self-correcting: Lessons from the arsenic controversy

  More DIY science:

• 2011/01/01: CC&G: Nov 2010 Year-To-Date Global Temperature Anomaly 1st in 2 Series, 2nd in 2 Series
• 2010/12/30: CC&G: Plotting Atmospheric Temperature Structure and Lapse Rate

  Regarding Hansen:

• 2010/12/28: HotTopic: Hansen: shelter from the storm

  Regarding Curry:

• 2011/01/02: GreenFyre: Myth making by Scientific American
• 2010/12/29: GreenFyre: Curry'ed Tripe and other recipes

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2010/12/30 DerSpiegel: Dealing in Hot Air -- The Pitfalls of Europe's New Emissions Trading System
  The next stage in the world's CO2 emissions-trading scheme will begin in two years. Everyone agrees that the rulebook is complicated and that the costs for industry will be enormous. But nobody knows if the system will really help the environment -- or merely create a burdensome bureaucracy.
• 2010/12/27: TEC: Can Carbon Emissions Markets Accelerate Smart Grid Progress?

  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:

• 2010/12/30: DerSpiegel: The Lucrative Business of Polluting -- Will Trading System Encourage Emissions?
  The Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism allows companies to continue polluting at home by assisting in emissions reductions abroad. If its critics are right, however, the system is being massively abused and actually discourages reductions that might otherwise be made.

On the international political front, China is restricting exports of rare earth minerals:

• 2010/12/30: Independent(UK): Hi-tech industries in disarray as China rations vital minerals
• 2010/12/31: PlanetArk: China Defends Rare Earth Quotas As In Line With WTO
• 2010/12/30: Yahoo:Reuters: China defends rare earth quotas as in line with WTO
• 2010/12/30: PlanetArk: China's Rare Earths Export Cut Spurs Trade Concerns
• 2010/12/29: BBC: China has said it will cut exports of rare earth minerals by 10% in 2011
• 2010/12/28: LA Times: China cuts rare earth export quotas
  U.S. expresses concern over shrinking supplies of metals needed to make a range of high-tech products.
• 2010/12/28: CBC: China cuts 'rare earth' quota 11% -- Asian power supplies 97% of world supply

  The USA is starting action against China for subsidizing green energy. When does China start action against the USA for subsidizing dirty energy?

• 2010/12/30: S&R: Blowing in the wind [US China subsidies battle]
• 2010/12/29: REA: China & The US: Opportunity or Threat in the Green Revolution?
• 2010/12/28: Guardian(UK): Washington and Beijing find new desire for co-operation
  Pre-summit talks held in conciliatory tones as row over wind turbine subsidies shows conflicts remain
• 2010/12/28: Grist: Obama admin takes aim at China's renewable-energy subsidies

  As for GW, energy & water security:

• 2010/12/31: Yahoo:CN: How Global Warming Denial Aids Terrorists

  What are the activists up to?

• 2011/01/02: HotTopic: Greenpeace: speaking truth to power
• 2010/12/29: CNN: Why even skeptics should tackle climate change by Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace International

  Polls! We have polls!

• 2010/12/27: PostMedia: Feds should clean up energy sector, poll says
  The study, produced for Natural Resources Canada by Decima Research, found that 88 per cent of Canadians were either "very concerned" (47 per cent) or somewhat concerned (41 per cent) about the environmental impact of energy use and that 87 per cent were "very concerned" (46 per cent) or "somewhat concerned" (41 per cent) about the impact of energy production.
• 2010/12/28: PostMedia: Canadians concerned about impact of energy use
  A majority of Canadians believe the energy sector is one of the most important parts of Canada's economy, and the federal government should lead the way in "cleaning" it up by finding alternatives to oil, says a newly released internal report. The study, produced for Natural Resources Canada by Decima Research, found that 88 per cent of Canadians were either "very concerned" (47 per cent) or somewhat concerned (41 per cent) about the environmental impact of energy use and that 87 per cent were "very concerned" (46 per cent) or "somewhat concerned" (41 per cent) about the impact of energy production.

Regarding Water Politics and Business:

• 2010/12/31: BBC: Water quality in rivers 'good for wildlife'
  Cleaner rivers in England and Wales have helped many species of wildlife, the Environment Agency says. The last decade has been the best for rivers since the industrial revolution, it said.
• 2010/12/29: JFleck: Moving Water, Virgin River Edition
• 2010/12/29: CBC: Northern Ireland faces water shortage
  Frustration and fears of disease mounted in Northern Ireland Wednesday as 36,000 people were left without water, some for more than a week, after a deep freeze and a sudden thaw caused aging pipes to burst. With reservoirs running low, water supplies were cut off in many towns and cities, and residents turned to emergency water tankers and bottled water for their cooking, cleaning and drinking needs.
• 2010/12/27: SolveClimate: In the San Joaquin Valley, Nothing is More Valuable than Water (Part 2) -- California's wealthiest growers, poorest workers, and the water between them
• 2010/12/26: JFleck: The Census and the Water
• 2010/12/27: TreeHugger: China Spending $30 Billion on Water Conservation Next Year

  Who's making predictions this week?

• 2010/12/30: Telegraph(UK): Britain could be heading for coldest winter in 300 years
  Britain is heading for the coldest winter in 300 years if the freezing weather continues, forecasters have warned.
• 2010/12/27: CCurrents: Indian Temperatures Could Rise Significantly By 2030, New Study Shows

  And on the American political front:

• 2010/12/31: EarthTimes: Massachusetts sets stringent emissions curb plans
• 2010/12/29: GNP: Political Landscape: Decision keeps energy bills from increasing [in Glendale, Calif.]
• 2010/12/30: QuarkSoup: Quote of the Day
• 2010/12/29: NYT: Massachusetts Sets Targets to Slash Carbon Emissions
  Massachusetts officials on Wednesday announced a plan to curb heat-trapping gases emitted by homes, cars and businesses in the state by 25 percent below 1990 levels over the next decade.
• 2010/12/28: SacBee: Mary Nichols hopes to carry on at California Air Resources Board
• 2010/12/29: TEC: A Bad Deal with Hydro-Québec [by Vermont (not Newfoundland this time)]
• 2010/12/28: ClimateP: Policy matters: Renewable energy tax credits support private investment, the key to global leadership
• 2010/12/27: ClimateP: Kentucky 'Creationist Theme Park' gets preliminary OK for tax incentives
• 2010/12/26: NYT: A Battle Over Uranium Bodes Ill for U.S. Debate

  The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:

• 2010/12/30: CCurrents: America's Gulf: New Report Says It's Dying
• 2010/12/30: RawStory: Transocean refuses to co-operate with oil spill probe
• 2010/12/30: DemNow: "Deepwater Horizon's Final Hours:" The Explosion that Killed 11 Workers and Led to the Worst Oil Spill in U.S. History
• 2010/12/28: ProPublica: The BP Oil Spill Saga: Where Things Stand Now
• 2010/12/30: CBC: Gulf beaches oil cleanup nears end -- Tarballs from BP spill could be washing up for years to come, chemist says
• 2010/12/29: PlanetArk: Feinberg Strikes Deals To Settle Oil Spill Claims
• 2010/12/29: NOAANews: NOAA Launches Website Housing Previously Released Public Information from the Deepwater Horizon Response
• 2010/12/29: DVoice: America's Gulf Disaster: Accidental or Deliberate?
• 2010/12/28: ProPublica: Where Things Stand: Gulf Oil Spill Claims
• 2010/12/27: MSNBC: Panel challenges Gulf seafood safety all-clear

  It looks like a major battle is looming between the EPA and the carbon lobby's GOP representatives:

• 2011/01/02: ArgusLeader: Battle looms on climate rules -- Foes gear up as EPA develops standards for greenhouse gas emissions
• 2011/01/02: AzCentral: Arizona greenhouse-gas rules to be enforced by EPA -- Arizona reluctantly agrees to federal-permit program
  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will directly enforce new greenhouse-gas rules in parts of Arizona after the state refused to submit its own program for controlling the pollutants.
• 2011/01/01: Reuters: Texas files again to block EPA carbon rules in state
  Texas on Thursday filed a fresh motion in federal appeals court to block the Obama Administration's attempts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions in the state, one day after another federal court rejected the state's petitions.
• 2010/12/30: ScienceInsider: On Eve of New Climate Regs, A Primer, Part II: Lawsuits
• 2010/12/29: ScienceInsider: On Eve of New Climate Regs, A Primer on Federal Greenhouse Gas Regimes: Part I
• 2010/12/30: SLTrib: Industry group seeks change in new air regulation
• 2010/12/30: Reuters: U.S. court denies delay for EPA carbon rules in Texas
  A federal court on Wednesday blocked an attempt by Texas to delay the Environmental Protection Agency's plans to impose carbon regulations in the state early next year.
• 2010/12/30: NYT: E.P.A. Limit on Gases to Pose Risk to Obama and Congress
  With the federal government set to regulate climate-altering gases from factories and power plants for the first time, the Obama administration and the new Congress are headed for a clash that carries substantial risks for both sides. While only the first phase of regulation takes effect on Sunday, the administration is on notice that if it moves too far and too fast in trying to curtail the ubiquitous gases that are heating the planet it risks a Congressional backlash that could set back the effort for years. But the newly muscular Republicans in Congress could also stumble by moving too aggressively to handcuff the Environmental Protection Agency, provoking a popular outcry that they are endangering public health in the service of their well-heeled patrons in industry.
• 2010/12/30: Reuters: U.S. court denies delay for EPA carbon rules in Texas
  A federal court on Wednesday blocked an attempt by Texas to delay the Environmental Protection Agency's plans to impose carbon regulations in the state early next year. The state of Texas is suing the EPA to prevent the agency from forcing it to issue greenhouse gas permits for the biggest polluters when national carbon rules take effect in early January. Until there is a ruling on the case, Texas asked the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to block the EPA's mandate that the state expand its pollution regulations to include greenhouse gases. The court denied the request.
• 2010/12/29: PT: EPA and Congress Headed for Showdowns over Carbon Regulations in 2011
• 2010/12/30: HuffPo: Rick Perry, Texas Continue To Wage Battle Against EPA As Fight Over Regulations Grows Fierce
• 2010/12/29: SolveClimate: EPA and Congress Headed for Showdowns over Carbon Regulations in 2011
  How acrimonious will the relationship between the 112th Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency become?
• 2010/12/29: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Texas Home Alone: Another Court Rejects Challenge to Coming Carbon Standards
• 2010/12/29: DC: TheDC analysis: EPA global warming regulations no 'end run' around Congress
  The Environmental Protection Agency's pending global warming regulations are no "end run" around Congress, as many conservatives are charging. This time, Congress is being held hostage by its own laws.
• 2010/12/27: ClimateP: NY Times: A Coming Assault on the E.P.A.

  Just to keep things confusing...:

• 2010/12/29: CNet: Warren Buffett boosts Iowa wind
  MidAmerican Energy plans to install 593 megawatts worth of wind power in Iowa, the company announced yesterday.

The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2010/12/30: TheHill:e2W: Obama works around Congress on climate change, healthcare
• 2010/12/30: PhysOrg: Obama weathers backlash on climate
• 2010/12/28: Grist: Obama admin takes aim at China's renewable-energy subsidies
• 2010/12/27: ScienceInsider: Why Didn't Obama Mention Landmark Science Legislation?
• 2010/12/27: Politico: President Obama under pressure to deliver on climate

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2010/12/30: TreeHugger: EPA Cooking the Books for the Coal Industry? Agency Inflated Value of Coal Ash Recycling By 20 Times
• 2010/12/29: TDN: New EPA rule could delay Longview Fibre biomass boiler
• 2010/12/28: CSW: Text of John Holdren's talk at the Stephen Schneider Memorial Celebration, December 12, 2010
• 2010/12/27: CSW: Today's war on climate scientists is worse than under the Bush Administration
• 2010/12/27: NRDC:SwitchBoard: EPA orders monitoring of drinking water contaminated by drilling in Montana

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2011/01/01: LA Times: Incoming House chairmen are on a mission
  The new set of committee overseers want to challenge the agenda of the Obama administration, such as the healthcare overhaul, and cut federal spending.
• 2010/12/31: TEC: Will New Congress Move First on Energy?
• 2010/12/29: MoJo: Quote of the Day: BP's Blossom
• 2010/12/29: TheHill:e2W: Key Republican [Upton]: Delay EPA climate action until after courts rule
• 2010/12/29: Grist: [Rep. Fred] Upton (R-Mich) argues Obama plans to destroy America in the name of global warming
• 2010/12/29: TWM: More Republican regress on global warming...
• 2010/12/28: ClimateP: Supported by Tea Party polluters, incoming GOP energy chair Upton flips on threat of global warming
• 2010/12/27: Grist: New House Science chair [Rep. Ralph Hall (R-Tex)] praises 'tremendous' BP spill, plans to subpoena climate scientists
• 2010/12/27: ClimateP: New House Science Committee chair Ralph Hall (R-TX) threatens to subpoena climate scientists
• 2010/12/27: ScienceInsider: In Congress, Small Business Research Is a Lame Duck Loser

  What are the lobbyists pushing?

• 2010/12/29: REA: Top 25 U.S. Energy Lobbyists of 2010

  While in the UK:

• 2011/01/02: Guardian(UK): Rules eased to create more charging points for electric cars
• 2011/01/01: Telegraph(UK): Wind farms becalmed just when needed the most
  Wind farms in Britain generated practically no electricity during the recent cold spell, raising fresh concerns about whether they could be relied upon to meet the country's energy needs.
• 2010/12/30: NatureN: Freak weather could have been predicted -- UK Met Office is being held back by a lack of computing power, says its chief scientist Julia Slingo
• 2010/12/29: Independent(Ie): Greens foiled on carbon 'security clause'
  Green Party attempts to allow ministers to be taken to court for failing to reduce carbon emissions were shot down by the Government's legal adviser. The Greens essentially don't trust a future government to match up to the greenhouse gas reduction targets. Environment Minister John Gormley is understood to have tried to have a clause inserted in the newly published Climate Change Bill to force future ministers to meet the emissions goals. But Attorney General Paul Gallagher dismissed the suggestion as it could leave a future government open to all sorts of court challenges. The AG's argument that it would not make legal sense to pass such an open law was accepted by the Cabinet.
• 2010/12/27: Monbiot: Cold-Hearted -- The level of excess winter deaths in the UK is higher than Siberia's. This is why.

  And in Europe:

• 2010/12/31: EarthTimes: Portugal seeks to boost renewable energy use

  And in New Zealand:

• 2011/01/02: HotTopic: Greenpeace: speaking truth to power

  While in the Indian subcontinent:

• 2010/12/27: CCurrents: Politics Around Farmer Suicides. To Whose Benefit?
• 2010/12/27: CCurrents: Onion Crisis Was Stage Managed

  And in China:

• 2010/12/30: AutoBG: Beijing will try to eliminate gridlock, improve air quality by limiting vehicle registrations
• 2011/01/01: SlashDot: Chinese Intellectual Property Acquisition Tactics Exposed

  While in Japan:

• 2010/12/29: ChinaPost: Japan shelves plans for national carbon emissions trading scheme
• 2010/12/28: Reuters: Japan shelves carbon emissions trading scheme
  Japan postponed plans for a national emissions trading scheme on Tuesday, bowing to powerful business groups that warned of job losses as they compete against overseas rivals facing fewer emissions regulations.
• 2010/12/28: Asahi: DPJ's emissions trading system policy on the edge
  Key environmental goals espoused by the Democratic Party of Japan-led government are falling apart in the face of fierce industry opposition to the proposed emissions trading system.

And elsewhere in Asia:

• 2010/12/28: Reuters: South Korea says to spend $42.6 billion on power plants by 2024
  South Korea plans to invest 49 trillion won ($42.6 billion) on power generation, including 14 nuclear power plants, by 2024 in a bid to meet growing power demand, the government said on Tuesday

In the Middle East:

• 2010/12/28: DVoice: Jesus Recruited for 'Ethnic Cleansing' Forest -- God-TV Helps Israel Oust Bedouin
• 2010/12/28: AlterNet: How God-TV Convinced Its Evangelical Followers to Plant Half a Million Trees in the Middle of Israel's Desert

  And South America:

• 2011/01/01: BBC: Dilma Rousseff sworn in as Brazil's new president

  Bolivian President Evo Morales has a fossil fuel subsidy problem that now requires financial, political and energy solutions:

• 2011/01/01: CBC: Bolivia cancels fuel price decree
  Bolivian President Evo Morales has rescinded a decree issued less than a week ago that raised fuel prices by more than 70 per cent and led to civil unrest. The government withdrew its heavy subsidies on gasoline and diesel fuel, saying it could no longer afford them and that much of the cheap fuel was being smuggled out of Bolivia for profit. The prices had been frozen for six years, and Vice-President Alvaro Garcia Linera said the state was paying $380 million US a year to subsidize gasoline imports.
• 2010/12/31: BBC: The Bolivian army has begun selling bread in response to a strike by bakers angry at government decision to scrap fuel subsidies
• 2010/12/30: CNN: Ending fuel subsidies cuts Bolivia's losses, President Evo Morales says
• 2010/12/29: CNN: Bolivian president to address nation over fuel prices
  Bolivia ended its subsidies of gasoline and diesel - The move increased some prices more than 80% - Bus drivers and teachers were protesting - The government says it will not back down
• 2010/12/26: BBC: Strike called over massive Bolivia fuel price rises
  Bolivia has announced a sharp rise in the price of fuel, with petrol and diesel going up by more than 70%.

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

• 2010/12/27: Rabble:JL: Harper's Christmas Special: The myth of how fortress North America will boost Canadian exports to the U.S.
• 2011/01/01: LeDaro: Stephen Harper Diagnosed -- EOCD
• 2010/12/26: PostMedia: 'New normal' for climate could change the way we live
  Averages of temperature and rainfall mask greater extremes of hot and cold In April this year, farmers in large swaths of Alberta were staring morosely at dusty, parched fields. A few months later, some of the same farmers were coping with floods.

The question is what will Canadians pay for energy, now and ten years from now?

• 2010/12/27: PostMedia: Feds should clean up energy sector, poll says
  The study, produced for Natural Resources Canada by Decima Research, found that 88 per cent of Canadians were either "very concerned" (47 per cent) or somewhat concerned (41 per cent) about the environmental impact of energy use and that 87 per cent were "very concerned" (46 per cent) or "somewhat concerned" (41 per cent) about the impact of energy production.
• 2010/12/28: PostMedia: Canadians concerned about impact of energy use
  A majority of Canadians believe the energy sector is one of the most important parts of Canada's economy, and the federal government should lead the way in "cleaning" it up by finding alternatives to oil, says a newly released internal report. The study, produced for Natural Resources Canada by Decima Research, found that 88 per cent of Canadians were either "very concerned" (47 per cent) or somewhat concerned (41 per cent) about the environmental impact of energy use and that 87 per cent were "very concerned" (46 per cent) or "somewhat concerned" (41 per cent) about the impact of energy production.

Post Igor repercussions:

• 2010/12/31: CBC: After Igor: Tough choices for storm victims

  With Campbell and James both out, BC politics is even more spindizzy than usual:

• 2010/12/28: Tyee: BC Hydro Finalizing $210 Million Pact With First Nations

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2010/12/27: CCurrents: Oil Sands To Boom: Internal Federal Report
• 2010/12/28: SolveClimate: In 2010, Canada's Oil Became a Contentious American Energy Issue
  The world's first major foray into unconventional oil starts to generate heated debates in the U.S., Canada and globally
• 2010/12/27: TreeHugger: Canadian Government Report Predicts a Tar Sands Oil Boom
• 2010/12/27: Tyee: [link to 2.8 meg pdf] Oil Sands to Boom: Internal Federal Report
  Expect a rise in greenhouse-gas emitting heavy crude oil production in North America, says federal government report.

In Manitoba:

• 2010/12/26: CBC: Red River Valley already eyes spring floods
  Flooding in Manitoba's Red River Valley has the potential to be devastating in 2011, given the weather the province experienced in 2010.

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

• 2010/12/31: CBC: New year brings Ont. electricity rebates -- Bills expected to jump 46% over 5 years

  A fnord in the works?

• 2010/12/30: CBC: Toronto mayor [Ford] aims to axe plastic bag fee
• 2010/12/30: TreeHugger: Toronto Mayor Plans To Abolish Plastic Bag Tax

  While in la Belle Province:

• 2010/12/29: TEC: A Bad Deal with Hydro-Québec [by Vermont (not Newfoundland this time)]

  In the Maritimes:

• 2011/01/01: CBC: Nova Scotia power rates rise -- Halifax-area residents also to pay more for water

  As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

• 2010/12/31: PostMedia: Business leaders budget for climate change: study
  With nearly three out of four Canadian business leaders bracing for impacts on their operations due to climate change, some leading stakeholders and experts say that the economy has already been forced to adapt to a new reality. The numbers, from a recent national survey of business and government leaders by Environics Research Group, reflect what is going on in many companies and industries, according to the chairman of a federal advisory panel on economic and environmental issues.

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

• 2010/12/23: Volatility: The Limits to Racketeering
• 2010/12/26: EnergyBulletin: Back to the future
• 2010/12/27: Rabble: Environmental sustainability is the core issue of our times

  And in the Transition movement:

• 2010/12/28: EnergyBulletin: What lies at the core of Pattern Language, and why should we care?

  What do we tell the children?

• 2010/12/27: HotTopic: Children of the future

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

• 2011/01/01: Grist: 2011: The year we'll hit 7 billion
• 2010/12/31: Grist: The GINK Chronicles -- 2010: The year childfree went mainstream (thanks, Oprah!)
• 2011/01/01: NatGeo: 7 Billion
  By 2045 global population is projected to reach nine billion. Can the planet take the strain?

As for how the media handles the science of climatology:

• 2011/01/01: APSmith: The Elusivity of Trust
• 2011/01/01: CCP: Justin Gillis,Green, NYT: Climate change and "balanced" coverage
• 2010/12/30: SMandia: Misinformation at Forbes Magazine by Larry Bell
• 2010/12/27: KSJT: NYTimes: As the US's great holiday snowstorm brewed, it runs exactly the right op-ed essay

  As for how the media handles geography:

• 2011/01/02: JQuiggin: North Queensland secedes: Daily Mail
• 2011/01/02: Deltoid: Daily Fail
• 2010/12/30: QuarkSoup: Tom Nelson's Bad Understand of Geography

  Regarding the quality of blogospheric discussion:

• 2010/12/15: AlterNet: Are Right-Wing Libertarian Internet Trolls Getting Paid to Dumb Down Online Conversations?
• 2010/12/30: BCLSB: On Astroturfing

  Here is something for your library:

• 2010/12/28: PR Log: [Book Plug] Gas and oil prices are rising. Do you really know why?
  _Peak of the Devil: 100 Questions (and Answers) About Peak Oil_ by Chip Haynes
• 2010/12/28: ClimateSight: [Book Review] _Storms of my Grandchildren_ by James Hansen
• 2010/12/27: EnergyBulletin: Top 10 peak oil books of 2010
• 2010/12/26: PMB: 3 Documentary Films and 9 Ebooks about Natural and Green Building on Permaculture Media Blog

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2010/12/31: CSW: Happy New Year ...
• 2010/12/30: MTobis: Extra Dimensions
• 2010/12/30: PSinclair: Plug-In PSAs -- a series of PSA spots promoting the advantages of electric and plug in hybrid vehicles
• 2010/12/30: PSinclair: William Kamkwamba
• 2010/12/29: PSinclair: Global Warming. It's just that. Global. Ask Bill Nye.
• 2010/12/29: PSinclair: Steve Chu -- Titanic: The Sequel
• 2010/12/28: PSinclair: BBC gets it right on Volcanoes
• 2010/12/28: HotTopic: Whatever happened to global warming, eh?
• 2010/12/26: GreenFyre: Global Warming by any other name

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2010/12/30: FDL: Oops! Bribing Nigeria for Cheney's Freedom Not Legal
• 2010/12/30: ScienceInsider: On Eve of New Climate Regs, A Primer, Part II: Lawsuits
• 2011/01/01: Reuters: Texas files again to block EPA carbon rules in state
  Texas on Thursday filed a fresh motion in federal appeals court to block the Obama Administration's attempts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions in the state, one day after another federal court rejected the state's petitions.
• 2010/12/30: Reuters: U.S. court denies delay for EPA carbon rules in Texas
  A federal court on Wednesday blocked an attempt by Texas to delay the Environmental Protection Agency's plans to impose carbon regulations in the state early next year. The state of Texas is suing the EPA to prevent the agency from forcing it to issue greenhouse gas permits for the biggest polluters when national carbon rules take effect in early January. Until there is a ruling on the case, Texas asked the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to block the EPA's mandate that the state expand its pollution regulations to include greenhouse gases. The court denied the request.
• 2010/12/30: TreeHugger: Fiji Water Faces Class Action Lawsuit for Greenwashing
• 2010/12/29: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Texas Home Alone: Another Court Rejects Challenge to Coming Carbon Standards

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

• 2011/01/01: BBC: Russia-China oil pipeline opens
  The first oil pipeline linking the world's biggest oil producer, Russia, and the world's biggest consumer of energy, China, has begun operating. The pipeline, running between Siberia and the northeastern Chinese city of Daqing, will allow a rapid increase in oil exports between the two countries.
• 2010/12/28: FuturePundit: $5 Per Gallon Gasoline In US In 2013?
• 2010/12/31: USAToday: Oil up 34% since May; average gas price hits $3.07
• 2010/12/31: NewsCorp: Asian hunger drives coal, oil price rise
  Strong demand from energy hungry Asian economies will drive the price of thermal coal even higher in 2011, as wet weather continues to shrink supplies of major global coal producing regions.
• 2010/12/31: Tyee: Idea #10: We've Entered the Age of Energy-Intensive Oil
  Exploiting new big reserves like the oil sands will create far more greenhouse gasses per barrel. Let's face that.
• 2010/12/30: TreeHugger: Can Renewables Hold Their Price as Fossil Fuels Get Expensive?
• 2010/12/29: Reuters: ANALYSIS-OPEC caution on output may help bring back $100 oil
  OPEC wary of adding unnecessary oil - OPEC still has spare capacity, inventories in surplus - Speculative long positions at record in United States Oil has burst above top exporter Saudi Arabia's preferred $70-$80 range and yet OPEC is unlikely to stop the rally, helping to prepare the way for the market to bound above $100 a barrel.
• 2010/12/29: OilDrum: EIA Annual Energy Outlook 2011: Don't Worry, Be Happy
• 2010/12/29: AutoBG: Former Shell boss predicts $5/gal gas in 2012
• 2010/12/28: Zawya: Global oil wealth to rise by 2trn barrels -- Saudi Aramco says world has 14trn barrels of crude but are mostly inaccessible
• 2010/12/27: TEC: Is Foreign Affairs Right on Winning the Clean-Energy Race?
• 2010/12/28: TEC: Art Wharton - What about external costs of energy technologies?
• 2010/12/29: TEC: Art Wharton - What about external costs of energy technologies? Part 2
• 2010/12/30: TEC: Art Wharton: External costs of energy technologies, part 3
• 2010/12/27: al Arabiya: China: a record increase in oil demand
  Demand for oil in China has increased at a record pace in 2010, as it jumped to about 8.64 million barrels per day in the period between the beginning of the year and the end of November, or by 7.1 percent relative to the same period in 2009.
• 2010/12/27: OilDrum: Renewable and fossil electricity generation costs compared
• 2010/12/27: BBerg: Iraq's Oil Production Reaches Highest in 20 Years to 2.6 Million Barrels
• 2010/12/27: NBF: EIA has an early release of the 2011 Annual Energy Outlook
• 2010/12/23: GuruFocus: $90 Oil In a Weak Economy Is Telling Us Something -- Deustche Bank Sees Oil Spikes by 2012

  Hey! Let's contaminate the aquifer for thousands of years! It'll be a fracking gas!

• 2011/01/02: Independent(UK): UK joins 'gas rush' despite pollution fears
  As New York bans drilling after concerns about water contamination, Blackpool is to start tapping underground energy source A controversial new technique for drilling gas wells, which campaigners say has polluted water courses in America, is to be tried for the first time in Britain later this month.
• 2010/12/29: ProPublica: Regulation and Disclosure of Fracking at the Center of Gas Drilling Debate
• 2010/12/29: Straight: Local activist Will Koop places fracking at top of 2010 environmental concerns
• 2010/12/27: CCurrents: The Awful Truth Must Stop Global Gasland Disaster
• 2010/12/27: NRDC:SwitchBoard: EPA orders monitoring of drinking water contaminated by drilling in Montana
• 2010/12/27: RigZone: Musings: EIA Forecasts More Shale Gas Resources And Greater Use

  The answer my friend...:

• 2011/01/01: Telegraph(UK): Wind farms becalmed just when needed the most
  Wind farms in Britain generated practically no electricity during the recent cold spell, raising fresh concerns about whether they could be relied upon to meet the country's energy needs.
• 2010/12/31: PlanetArk: Vestas Gets 240 MW Orders In Poland, Germany
• 2010/12/30: PlanetArk: Vestas China Orders Hit High In 2010
• 2010/12/30: EarthTimes: German solar firms came up empty-handed in India in 2010: study
• 2010/12/30: PSinclair: William Kamkwamba
• 2010/12/29: PlanetArk: Tanzania Plans $120 Million 50 MW Wind Power Project
• 2010/12/28: TEC: Germany finds success in forest wind farms

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2010/12/30: PlanetArk: Morocco Preselects Four Of 19 Groups For Solar Plant
• 2010/12/29: REA: China Tier 1 PV producers prepare for vertically integrated assault
• 2010/12/27: TEC: [Southern California Calico project] Solar Plant Nixed to Preserve Native American Artifacts
• 2010/12/27: REA: 2011 Solar Outlook -- The U.S. solar electric market grew by over 100 percent in 2010, now exceeding 1 GW of generating capacity
• 2010/12/27: REA: PV Set To Ride Out the Downturn -- Installations set to top 15 GW in 2010 and to rise again in 2011

  On the coal front:

• 2011/01/02: WaPo: Coal's burnout
  The headline news for the coal industry in 2010 was what didn't happen: Construction did not begin on a single new coal-fired power plant in the United States for the second straight year. This in a nation where a fleet of coal-fired plants generates nearly half the electricity used. But a combination of low natural gas prices, shale gas discoveries, the economic slowdown and litigation by environmental groups has stopped - at least for now - groundbreaking on new ones.
• 2010/12/30: Caixin: Pricing Fracas Leads to Coal Shortage
  Chinese power plants have been staging brown outs, with some functioning only days of coal inventory -- why the shortages aren't from the price of transportation
  [...]
  Qian Pingfan, researcher at the Industry Economics Research Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council, says that the shortage has not been caused by limited transportation capacity, but by the disagreement on coal prices between coal producers and power plants. "Coal producers do not agree with the prices that power plants are willing to pay. Yet power plants are not willing to pay the prices that coal producers are asking for."
• 2010/12/28: AlterNet: 2010: A Precedent-Setting Year In the Fight Against Coal

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2010/12/27: NewScientist: Christmas trees could make a great green fuel
• 2010/12/27: PhysOrg: Scientists overcome major obstacles to cellulosic biofuel production
  A newly engineered yeast strain can simultaneously consume two types of sugar from plants to produce ethanol, researchers report. The sugars are glucose, a six-carbon sugar that is relatively easy to ferment; and xylose, a five-carbon sugar that has been much more difficult to utilize in ethanol production. The new strain, made by combining, optimizing and adding to earlier advances, reduces or eliminates several major inefficiencies associated with current biofuel production methods.

The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2010/12/31: TruthOut: Another Astonishing Holiday: No New Nukes Victory
• 2010/12/29: ClimateP: Nuclear Power: Running on fumes?
• 2010/12/28: Star(My): The case against nuclear energy
• 2010/12/26: NYT: A Battle Over Uranium Bodes Ill for U.S. Debate
  Naturita, Colo. - The future of nuclear power in America is back on the table, with all its vast implications, as global warming revives the search for energy sources that produce less greenhouse gas. But in this depressed corner of western Colorado -- one of the first places in the world that uranium, nuclear energy's primary fuel, was ever dug from the ground in industrial scale -- the debate is both simpler and more complicated. A proposal for a new mill to process uranium ore, which would lead to the opening of long-shuttered mines in Colorado and Utah, has brought global and local concerns into collision -- jobs, health, class-consciousness and historical memory among them -- in ways that suggest, if the pattern here holds, a bitter national debate to come.

Yes we have peak everything:

• 2010/12/30: CCurrents: Peak Oil, International Trade And Population
• 2010/12/29: CleanBreak: Rising oil prices? Wheat and corn? Copper? Rare-earth metals? Get used to it... this isn't speculation
• 2010/12/31: BBC: Copper enters 2011 at record high
  The price of copper has hit a new all-time high, rounding off a year in which industrial metals rebounded strongly. It peaked at $9,631.75 per metric tonne on the London Metal Exchange, its highest ever level, before falling back slightly.
• 2010/12/29: FCNP: The Peak Oil Crisis: 2011 - A Pivotal Year?
• 2010/12/28: Time:B: Energy: Can We Run Out of Oil and Other Natural Resources?
• 2010/12/27: NYT: Economic Optimism? Yes, I'll Take That Bet
• 2010/12/26: NYT: The Finite World
  Oil is back above $90 a barrel. Copper and cotton have hit record highs. Wheat and corn prices are way up. Over all, world commodity prices have risen by a quarter in the past six months. So what's the meaning of this surge? Is it speculation run amok? Is it the result of excessive money creation, a harbinger of runaway inflation just around the corner? No and no. What the commodity markets are telling us is that we're living in a finite world, in which the rapid growth of emerging economies is placing pressure on limited supplies of raw materials, pushing up their prices. And America is, for the most part, just a bystander in this story.

More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2010/12/29: REA: The Smart grid Needs Global Standards

  That tempest in a Jevons teacup is still being spun:

• 2010/12/29: CrTimber: What "lump of energy" fallacy?
• 2010/12/31: BCLSB: On The Rebound Effect

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

• 2010/12/31: CBC: Electric car sales slow to start
• 2010/12/30: TEC: Signs for 2011: London Introduces Electric Car Charging Stations
• 2010/12/30: AutoBG: Report: Tesla Model S will be profitable thanks to cheaper batteries
• 2010/12/30: AutoBG: Report: U.S. to conduct tests of CHAdeMO chargers
• Wiki: CHAdeMO
• 2010/12/29: WaPo: SUVs lead U.S. auto sales growth despite efforts to improve fuel efficiency
• 2010/12/30: QuarkSoup: Quote of the Day
• 2010/12/30: TEC: China is More an Opportunity Than a Threat for the PEV [Plug-in Electric Vehicle] Industry
• 2010/12/29: AutoBG: Coco-Cola will expand diesel-electric hybrid delivery fleet
• 2010/12/30: AutoBG: Report: Facing high gas prices, dealers get cautious with big SUVs
• 2010/12/30: AutoBG: NEC to increase lithium-ion electrode production fivefold
• 2010/12/29: TreeHugger: South-Korea's Capital Starts Commercial Operation of Electric Buses
• 2010/12/29: AutoBG: Seoul's commercial electric bus fleet hits the road

  This week in the Gee Whiz File:

• 2010/12/29: AutoBG: New technology produces hydrogen from concentrated solar at high efficiency
• 2010/12/29: Telegraph(UK): Brazil to replace oil rigs with 'underwater cities'
  Traditional oil rigs will be replaced with "underwater cities" within a decade under ambitious plans being drawn up by Petrobras, Brazil's state-owned energy group.

As for Energy Storage:

• 2010/12/27: AutoBG: USABC [US Advanced Battery Consortium LLC] awards $5.43m for advanced battery research
• 2010/12/26: REA: Germany's E.ON to Add 300MW Pumped Hydro Energy Storage

  Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:

• 2010/12/30: TreeHugger: Orwellian Alan Oxley's Pro-Palm Oil Claims Mislead the Public: Top Indonesian Climate Official

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

• 2011/01/01: ClimateP: Energy and global warming news for January 1...
• 2010/12/31: ClimateP: Energy and global warming news for December 31...
• 2010/12/30: ClimateP: Energy and global warming news for December 30...
• 2010/12/29: ClimateP: Energy and global warming news for December 29...
• 2010/12/28: ClimateP: Energy and global warming news for December 28...

  Other (weekly) lists:

• 2010/12/31: NRDC:SwitchBoard: China counts £130bn cost of economic growth and other environmental news
• 2010/12/29: SkeptiSci: Back from the Dead: Lost Open Mind Posts
• 2010/12/26: CCP: Global Glass Onion news from December 25, 2010

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2011/01/02: BNC: No (statistical) warming since 1995? Wrong
• 2010/12/30: ClimateP: Arctic Sea Ice Snooze Update
• 2010/12/28: QuarkSoup: Tom Minnery Won't Interview
• 2010/12/28: WottsUWT: Monckton's Mexican Missive #3
• 2010/12/28: ClimateP: Simple rebuttals to denier talking points -- with links to the full climate science
• 2010/12/28: BCLSB: On Piers Corbyn: Crazy People Occasionally Get Stuff Right By Accident
• 2010/12/28: TreeHugger: Rebut a Climate Change Denier With These Simple Responses
• 2010/12/27: BBickmore: The Monckton Files: Common Sense
• 2010/12/27: SkeptiSci: Did global warming stop in 1998, 1995, 2002, 2007, 2010?
• 2010/12/26: TPL: A whole lot of stupid going on

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2011/01/01: ClimateSight: New Image Page
• 2010/12/31: PSinclair: David Brower: The Earth's History in one Year
• 2010/12/30: SkeptiSci: The many lines of evidence for global warming in a single graphic
• 2010/12/30: TreeHugger: How We Know Global Warming Is Happening in One Graphic
• 2010/12/29: JEB: Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past
• 2010/12/29: ClimateP: The phrase of the year: Climate Hawk
• 2010/12/29: Grist: Farmer-scientist group wants to 'hack society' through open-source technology
• 2010/12/29: TreeHugger: Human's Dominant Relation to Earth Is a Violent, Closed Fist: Alternative Nobel Winner Leonardo Boff
• 2010/12/29: Ecologist: Climate change: we are like slave-owners
  An economy run on slave labour has much in common with one run on fossil fuels, argues Jean-Francois Mouhot. Ending suffering means we all need to become modern-day abolitionists
• 2010/12/28: QuarkSoup: Quote
  The target audience of denialism is the lay audience, not scientists. It's made up to look like science, but it's PR. (David Archer)
• 2010/12/28: CCP: NOAA's NCDC: November 2010, State of the Climate Global Analysis
• 2010/12/28: Grist: 'Climatopolis' by Matthew Kahn is not a good book [Romm]
• 2010/12/28: RealClimate: Post-holiday round-up
• 2010/12/27: Guardian(UK): Is the world really getting warmer?
• 2010/12/27: TreeHugger: Human-Caused Climate Change Based on Consensus of Evidence, Not Just Consensus of Scientists

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

• ClimateSight: Image Collection
• Wiki: Spörer Minimum
• Wiki: Maunder Minimum
• Wiki: Dalton Minimum
• FOE: Keystone XL Pipeline
• GreenLaw: Discussing China's environmental laws, policies and the power of the public
• Wiki: CHAdeMO
• NOAA:ESRL: GlobalView
• NOAA: Deepwater Horizon Library
• The Plant List -- A working list for all plant species
• PaulChefurka: Peak Oil and the World Problematique
• NCDC: National Climate Data Center
• BAD: Blog Action Day
• USGS: WaterWatch -- Maps and graphs of current water resources conditions
• WtEB: While the Earth Burns

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.

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

"I find my courage where I can, but I take my weapons from science." -XKCD

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