Another week of GW News, February 27, 2011

Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years

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Another week of Climate Instability News

Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years

February 27, 2011

• Chuckles, COP17+, G20, Vulnerability, Cablegate, Sock Puppets, Pakistan
• Subsidies, E&E Threat, Cook, Post CRU
• Melting Arctic, Methane Feedback, Geopolitics
• Food Crisis, Agro Corps, Food Prices, Food Riots, Food vs. Biofuel, IP Issues, GMOs, Food Production
• Hurricanes, GHGs, Aerosols, Paleoclimate, Historical Climate, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Climate Refugees, Corals, Sea Levels, GW Deluge, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Geoengineering, Adaptation
• Journals, Other Docs , Misc. Science, DIY Science, Models, Legras, Spencer, Curry
• UN, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
• International Politics: Misc., Security, Law & Activism, Activism, Polls, Water Politics & Business
• National Politics: America, BP Disaster, Privateers, Obama, USAdmin, Congress, Climate Bill, Lobbyists, Lakoff
• Britain, Europe, Australia, Carbon Tax, India, China, Japan, South America
• Canada, Post G20, Poll, Pipelines, Inuit, BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Sask, Maritimes, North
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Podcasts, Courts
• Energy, Fracking, Wind, Solar, FITs, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Grid
• Efficiency, Cars, Gee Whiz, Energy Storage, Oil & Gas Biz
• FAQs, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

The things that pass for humour nowadays:

• 2011/02/26: CA: (cartoon - TomTom) The Republican war on women
• 2011/02/26: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Transition 9
• 2011/02/21: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) Hybrid

  Looking ahead to COP17 and future international climate negotiations:

• 2011/02/22: PlanetArk: U.S. Sees Major Emitters Setting Own Climate Goals
  Major greenhouse gas emitters should set voluntary curbs on emissions for the time being since a U.N. climate treaty looks out of reach in 2011, the U.S. climate envoy said on Monday. Todd Stern said Washington did not expect a legally binding deal at U.N. climate talks in South Africa late this year. Many countries have lowered ambitions after a summit of world leaders failed to agree a treaty at a 2009 summit in Copenhagen.

That G20 meeting last weekend did nothing about high food prices:

• 2011/02/21: BBC: G20 reaches deal on imbalance indicators

  The UN is drawing up a list of the most vulnerable countries:

• 2011/02/24: PlanetArk: U.N. "Climate Vulnerability" List Urged To Guide Aid
• 2011/02/24: NYT:CW: Which Nations Are Most Vulnerable to Climate Change? The Daunting Politics of Choosing

  Cablegate memos are still turning up:

• 2011/02/21: WtD: Running on empty: leaked cable reveals Saudi reserves lower than publically stated

  About that sock puppet software:

• 2011/02/22: RawStory: Military's 'persona' software cost millions, used for 'classified social media activities'
• 2011/02/24: AlterNet: Corporate-Funded Online 'Astroturfing' Is More Advanced and More Automated Than You Might Think
• 2011/02/23: ClimateP: Plan solicited by Chamber of Commerce lawyers included malware hacking of activist computers
• 2011/02/22: DeSmogBlog: Are Climate Deniers and Front Groups Polluting Online Conversation With Denier-Bots?
• 2011/02/21: TCoE: Denier bots are real
• 2011/02/20: ClimateP: Denier-bots live! Why are online comments' sections over-run by the anti-science, pro-pollution crowd?
• 2011/02/20: BCLSB: Creating An On-Line Army of Automated Sock Puppets

  The Pakistan monsoon flood lingers:

• 2011/02/23: UN: UN development chief pledges continued support for post-flood recovery in Pakistan

  Who's getting the subsidies?

• 2011/02/25: Rabble: It's time to end Canada's billion-dollar handout to big oil and coal

  It's still at the stage of threats and posturing, but E&E has threatened a suit against Gavin Schmidt of RealClimate:

• 2011/02/27: JEB: E&E caves in
• 2011/02/26: BCLSB: Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen On The E&E Vs. RealClimate Lawsuit
• 2011/02/25: Stoat: E+E libel: Gavin strikes again
• 2011/02/25: Guardian(UK): Real Climate faces libel suit
  Prominent blog run by climate scientists could be sued by E&E after accusing the journal of 'shoddy' peer review
• 2011/02/23: Deltoid: The Energy and Environment Effect
• 2011/02/23: BCLSB: Peer Review At E&E: A Case Study
• 2011/02/22: CCP: One of the worst journals ever, Energy & Environment ... now wants to sue Gavin Schmidt for libel for stating the obvious
• 2011/02/22: RealClimate: E&E threatens a libel suit [against Gavin Schmidt]

  John Cook and friends continue their point - counterpoint articles:

• 2011/02/27: SkeptiSci: Australia's departing Chief Scientist on climate change by steve.oconnor
• 2011/02/26: SkeptiSci: Crux of a Core, Part 1 - addressing J Storrs Hall by Rob Honeycutt
• 2011/02/26: SkeptiSci: Prudent Risk by dana1981
• 2011/02/25: SkeptiSci: Prudent Path Week: Polar Regions by Robert Way
• 2011/02/24: SkeptiSci: Dispelling two myths about the tropospheric hot spot by thingsbreak
• 2011/02/24: SkeptiSci: Carbon Cycle Feedbacks by Andy S
• 2011/02/23: SkeptiSci: Hockey Stick Own Goal by dana1981
• 2011/02/22: SkeptiSci: Radiative forcing by aerosol used as a wild card: NIPCC vs Lindzen by Bart Verheggen
• 2011/02/21: SkeptiSci: Prudent Path Week by dana1981

  Post CRU theft, controversy & inquiry:

• 2011/02/18: OIG: [link to 2.5 meg pdf] Response to Sen. James Inhofe's Request to OIG to Examine Issues Related to Internet Posting of Email Exchanges Taken from the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, UK
• 2011/02/25: KSJT: Scattered Ink: Review clears US researchers of misdeeds in climate research (Think e-mails)
• 2011/02/25: ClimateP: Climate science vindicated for umpteenth time -- Deniers still demand Inquisition
• 2011/02/25: PlanetArk: NOAA Scientists Cleared In Climate Email Review
• 2011/02/25: NatureTGB: NOAA scientists cleared of 'Climategate' accusations
• 2011/02/25: ScienceInsider: U.S. Ocean Agency Mostly Unscathed on Climate E-mails Inquiry
• 2011/02/25: SlashDot: Scientists Cleared of Misusing Global Warming Data
• 2011/02/24: CBC: U.S. scientists cleared in 'climategate'
• 2011/02/24: PSinclair: NOAA Inspector General: No Wrongdoing in Climate Emails (other than mocking Inhofe)
• 2011/02/24: NOAANews: Inspector General's Review of Stolen Emails Confirms No Evidence of Wrong-Doing by NOAA Climate Scientists
  Report is the latest independent analysis to clear climate scientists of allegations of mishandling of climate information
• 2011/02/24: CSW: Inspector General's review of stolen emails confirms no evidence of wrong-doing by NOAA climate scientists
• 2011/02/24: MTobis: "Climategate": Yet More Bupkis
• 2011/02/22: CSW: Straight talk from Kevin Trenberth on denialists, climate science communication, and climate change policy
• 2011/02/22: GMU: 'Climategate' Undermined Belief in Global Warming among Many TV Meteorologists, Study Shows

  The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:

• 2011/02/22: CC&G: September 2011 Arctic Sea Ice Extent Forecast

  That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:

• 2011/02/23: CCP: Permafrost Timebomb: about Kevin Schaefer's article in Tellus
• 2011/02/21: CCurrents: Permafrost Melt Soon Irreversible Without Major Fossil Fuel Cuts

  As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

• 2011/02/24: CBC: Inuit leaders to draft resource guidelines
  Inuit leaders from around the Arctic say they will work on guidelines to boost regulatory standards for mining, offshore drilling and other development in the North. Representatives from Canada, the United States, Greenland and Russia announced in Ottawa on Thursday that their guidelines will be in a declaration they plan to adopt this spring on "responsible resource development principles" on Inuit lands. The announcement capped a two-day summit, organized by the Inuit Circumpolar Council, in which leaders sought a common front on what kinds of Arctic development to support. The Inuit leaders did not emerge with that unified position. But Mary Simon, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami in Canada, said she and other leaders plan to hold another summit in Greenland at a later date to continue talks.
• 2011/02/24: PlanetArk: Libyan Turmoil Puts Focus On Arctic Oil: Greenland
  Unrest in the Middle East means the potential oil riches in Arctic areas like Greenland are more important than ever, the island's premier said on Wednesday [at an Ottawa conference on the Arctic], criticizing environmental groups that want to hamper exploration.
• 2011/02/23: CBC: Inuit leaders tackle resource development debate -- Greenland defends oil, gas development amid environmental concerns
• 2011/02/22: CBC: Arctic marine weather, nav tools get $35M
• 2011/02/21: PlanetArk: Russia May Tweak Arctic Park Border For Oil Firms: WWF

  The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2011/02/21: FuturePundit: Two Thirds Of Large Fish Gone In Last 100 Years -- Yet more evidence that the world's fisheries are over-harvested
• 2011/02/25: CCurrents: The Oil-Fired, Grain-Fed Global Food Crisis
• 2011/02/25: CBC: Produce supplies hurt by frost in Mexico
• 2011/02/24: USDA:ARS: Examining Climate Change Effects on Wheat
• 2011/02/23: Grist: Charts explain our current situation and how to improve it by Lester Brown
• 2011/02/24: BBC: Charities warn of food shortages in North Korea
  Officials from five aid agencies who have just returned from a trip to North Korea say they saw evidence of looming food shortages and alarming malnutrition, including people picking wild grasses to eat.
• 2011/02/23: ITracker: Watch the food
• 2011/02/22: BPA: U.S. Agricultural Imports
• 2011/02/15: NYT:RFD: Is the World Producing Enough Food? Corn's Domino Effect
• 2011/02/22: NatureCF: AAAS 2011: Climate change poses challenge to food safety
• 2011/02/22: AlterNet: From Food Crisis to Food Sovereignty: The Challenge of Social Movements
• 2011/02/22: BBerg: Farmers Fail to Meet Demand as Corn Stockpiles Drop to 1974 Low
  The smallest corn inventories in 37 years are a sign farmers around the globe are failing to produce enough grain to meet rising consumption, even as planting expands and food prices surge. Growers from Canada to Russia boosted annual output of wheat, rice and feed grain by 16 percent since 2000, not enough to keep up with the 20 percent gain in demand, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show. While a Bloomberg survey of 25 analysts shows the agency on Feb. 24 may forecast a 3.5 percent increase in U.S. corn planting, the government says world stockpiles will equal 15 percent of use, the lowest since 1974. Global inventories for all grain will drop 13 percent before the next harvest, the USDA estimates. That's the first decline since 2007, when surging food prices sparked more than 60 riots from Haiti to Egypt. Increasing demand is causing isolated food shortages and accelerating inflation in developing countries even as it boosts farmers' incomes and shifts planting strategies.
• 2011/02/21: Eureka: Climate change affecting food safety -- Unless action taken, the world's food supply could be endangered by climate change
• 2011/02/21: BBC: Pacific fishing: Tuna and other stocks 'at risk'
  New Zealand has called on the United States and Australia for help in saving one of the world's last sustainable fishing areas, the Pacific. Foreign Minister Murray McCully said time was running out. He said new, concerted efforts were needed to stop illegal fishing which was endangering tuna and other fish stocks.
• 2011/02/20: ClimateP: Grantham's "Things that Really Matter in 2011 and Beyond": "Global warming causing destabilized weather patterns, adding to agricultural price pressures"
• 2011/02/20: CBC: Big fish numbers dwindling: UBC study -- Prey fish populations have doubled as predators overfished

  As for the agro-chem corps:

• 2011/02/21: TruthOut: Monsanto Shifts ALL Liability to Farmers
• 2011/02/21: WFS: (111k pdf) Monsanto Technology Stewardship Agreement
• 2011/02/25: TreeHugger: Monsanto Shifts All Liability For Damages Caused By Its GM Crops to Farmers, Now & For Perpetuity

  Food Prices are still rising:

• FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
• 2011/02/24: ClimateP: China's droughts nears worst in 200 years, adding pressure to world food prices
• 2011/02/24: BBerg: Wheat Resumes Plunge as African Unrest Drives Away Speculators
  Wheat extended a collapse and corn and soybeans also fell as traders speculated that a jump in energy costs caused by protests across North Africa and the Middle East will curb growth and demand for grains. Riots already ousted leaders in Egypt, the world's biggest wheat importer, and in Tunisia, and opposition groups have seized control of eastern cities in Libya. While wheat traded in Chicago dropped 10 percent in the past four sessions, crude oil traded in New York jumped 14 percent. Grain prices surged last month as North African and Middle East nations bought more shipments to damp a surge in domestic prices that helped spark the protests from Morocco to Bahrain. Speculators including hedge funds last week cut their bets on higher wheat prices by 20 percent, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show.
• 2011/02/23: Wunderground: Drought in China adds pressure to world food prices
• 2011/02/23: VoxEU: Soaring food and fuel prices: Their impact on public finances and other causes of persistently high consumer price inflation in North African and Middle Eastern countries by Ronald Albers & Marga Peeters
  World food prices are now even higher than their peak just before the global crisis. During periods of high commodity prices, North African and Middle Eastern governments have a long tradition of subsidising food and fuel products. But this column shows that food price inflation and consequently subsidies were also high during periods when global commodity prices were falling. Now these countries have an opportunity to correct this.
• 2011/02/22: Guardian(UK): Middle East unrest adds to pressure on world food prices

  Regarding the role of food shortages, high prices and hunger in the current wave of third world revolutions:

• 2011/02/26: BRitholtz: WashingtonsBlog: Leading Indicators of Revolt in the Middle East and Northern Africa: Corruption, Unemployment and Percentage of Household Money Spent on Food
• 2011/02/21: WFP: Who's Feeling The Effects Of Rising Food Prices?
  Three years after the 2008 food and financial crises, food prices on international markets are rising again. Price volatility hits poor people the hardest, as they already spend the majority of their income on feeding their families.
• 2011/02/23: TreeHugger: Arab States Stockpiling Food As Hedge Against Price Rises & Scarcity (Revolution?)
• 2011/02/21: ClimateP: Making Egypt More Food Secure
• 2011/02/21: BBerg: Nations May Expand Food Stockpiles, Subsidies, Traders Say
  Governments worldwide will increase their role in global food markets and may boost stockpiles and subsidies or impose trade curbs to head off the protests that have rippled through the Middle East, commodity traders said.

The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

• 2011/02/26: MSNBC: Forget fuel costs, U.S. farmers cheer oil surge
• 2011/02/25: AutoBG: Bill Clinton warns against corn ethanol's impact on "food riots" at biofuel conference
• 2011/02/25: PlanetArk: U.S. Has Foot On The Gas On Ethanol: Vilsack
  The United States "can do it all" -- turn more corn into ethanol without running short of food, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Thursday, as oil prices soared and the government raised its forecast of food price increases this year. "There is no reason for us to take the foot off the gas," said Vilsack, referring to biofuels at a two-day Agriculture Department conference on the outlook for this year's crops. "We can do it all."
• 2011/02/24: ClimateP: The Corn Ultimatum: How long can Americans keep burning one sixth the world's corn supply in our cars?
• 2011/02/22: AutoBG: Chu: "We have only just begun to realize the benefits of homegrown fuels"
• 2011/02/21: BPA: How Much Ethanol Will the World Produce in 2011?
• 2011/02/21: TheAge: US the blind policy giant puts farmers before food
• 2011/02/21: PeakEnergy: US the blind policy giant puts farmers before food [food vs biofuel]
  [...]
  There's a lot more to higher global grain prices than just the US preoccupation with gas-guzzling cars and subsidising farmers. Drought in China, floods in Australia, fires in Russia, more people wanting more food, they all play a role. But while natural disasters and human hunger happen, willfully burning food is a particular form of obscenity.

Look out! the IP Rentiers are coming!

• 2011/02/23: CSM: Control over your food: Why Monsanto's GM seeds are undemocratic

  Regarding the genetic modification of food:

• 2011/02/21: MEN: Pathogen in Roundup Ready Soy and Corn Could Lead to Calamity, Scientist Warns
• 2011/02/21: SaveNMSeeds: Letter to Vilsack About Dangers of Roundup Leaked
  [...]
  Dear Secretary Vilsack:
  A team of senior plant and animal scientists have recently brought to my attention the discovery of an electron microscopic pathogen that appears to significantly impact the health of plants, animals, and probably human beings. Based on a review of the data, it is widespread, very serious, and is in much higher concentrations in Roundup Ready (RR) soybeans and corn--suggesting a link with the RR gene or more likely the presence of Roundup. This organism appears NEW to science!
  
  This is highly sensitive information that could result in a collapse of US soy and corn export markets and significant disruption of domestic food and feed supplies. On the other hand, this new organism may already be responsible for significant harm (see below). My colleagues and I are therefore moving our investigation forward with speed and discretion, and seek assistance from the USDA and other entities to identify the pathogen's source, prevalence, implications, and remedies.
• 2011/02/23: PlanetArk: Global Planting of Biotech Crops Jumps 10 Percent: Report
• 2011/02/23: BBC: GM crops continue spread, passing 'billion hectares'
  The area of the world's farmland used for growing genetically modified crops increased by about 10% last year.
• 2011/02/23: PostMedia: Fish stocks could be at risk from genetically modified species
  Department of Fisheries and Oceans experts concerned about limited regulatory powers available to them to control exposure
  There's a risk Canadian fish stocks could be harmed if the world's first genetically engineered salmon is approved for commercialization, federal scientists suggest. Internal records obtained by Postmedia News also indicate experts from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans are concerned about "limited" and possibly "constrained" regulatory powers around the approvals for GE fish. The analysis, from senior scientists specializing in biotechnology and aquaculture, comes as a company called AquaBounty Technologies works to bring GE salmon to the dinner plate.
• 2011/02/22: TreeHugger: New Research Finds That Roundup Ready GMO Crops May Cause Animal Miscarriages

  And how are we going to feed 9 billion?

• 2011/02/25: SciDaily: Rare, Unique Seeds Arrive at Svalbard Vault, as Crises Threaten World Crop Collections
• 2011/02/25: Eureka: Notre Dame research offers important clues about grasshopper population explosions
• 2011/02/25: LNF: Svalbard Seed Vault
• 2011/02/23: CCurrents: Climate Change And Agriculture by Dr. Vandana Shiva
  Biodiverse Ecological Farming is the Answer, not Genetic Engineering

Carlos, Dianne and Atu faded over the week:

• 2011/02/22: al Jazeera: Cyclone Atu batters Vanuatu islands
  The latest tropical storm is set to wreak havoc on the archipelago off the northeast coast of Australia.
• 2011/02/22: ABC(Au): Cyclone Carlos tracks south towards Onslow
  Weather forecasters are expecting the recently downgraded Cyclone Carlos to weaken as it continues to move down the coast. The Bureau of Meteorology says over the next 24 hours the cyclone's centre will straddle the coast as it moves towards North-West Cape. A cyclone warning is in place for coastal areas from Whim Creek to Cape Cuvier.

As for GHGs:

• 2011/02/24: TSoD: Water Vapor vs CO2 as a "Greenhouse" Gas
• 2011/02/21: PlanetArk: Economy Spikes U.S. Power Plant Carbon Output: Group [Environmental Integrity Project]
• 2011/02/18: EIP: [link to 206k pdf] Getting Warmer: US CO2 Emissions from Power Plant Emissions Rise 5.6% in 2010
• 2011/02/21: TreeHugger: US Power-Plant, CO2 Emissions Up 5.6% In 2010 - Top Ten Emitter States Named

  Aerosols are making their presence felt:

• 2011/02/23: Guardian(UK): Target 'black carbon' to tackle climate change, recommends UN
• 2011/02/23: NatureTGB: Cutting soot, ozone will keep climate change in check, says UN
• 2011/02/22: BBC: Benefit to cutting 'black carbon'
  Cutting atmospheric soot, methane and ground-level ozone is the quickest way to tackle climate change in the short term, according to a new [UNEP-WMO] report.
• 2011/02/22: BVerheggen: Radiative forcing by aerosol used as a wild card: NIPCC vs Lindzen
• 2011/02/21: PlanetArk: Curbing Soot Could Slow Climate Change: U.N.

  While in the paleoclimate:

• 2011/02/25: TreeHugger: How Dry Can Our Climate Get? Africa's Lake Victoria Dried Up... 17,000 Years Ago
• 2011/02/25: NOC: Arctic environment during [PETM] an ancient bout of natural global warming
  Scientists are unravelling the environmental changes that took place around the Arctic during an exceptional episode of ancient global warming. Newly published results from a high-resolution study of sediments collected on Spitsbergen represent a significant contribution to this endeavour. The study was led by Dr Ian Harding and Prof John Marshall of the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science (SOES), based at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.
• 2011/02/24: NatureN: Rare sulphur [trisulphur ion] dominates the deep -- A type of sulphur found far underground could rewrite theories of early Earth
• 2011/02/24: NSF: Ancient Catastrophic Drought Leads to Question: How Severe Can Climate Change Become?
  Extreme megadrought in Afro-Asian region likely had consequences for Paleolithic cultures
• 2011/02/23: CCP: Peter J. Fawcett et al., Nature 470 (February 2011), Extended megadroughts in the southwestern United States during Pleistocene interglacials
• 2011/02/21: Pitt: Pitt-Led Researchers Report 6,000-Year Climate Record Suggests Longer Droughts, Drier Wet Periods for Pacific Northwest
  The multi-university team used a sediment core from Washington state's Castor Lake to unravel regional wet/dry cycles since 4,000 BCE and found longer, more extreme periods have occurred since 1200 AD, possibly associated with changing El Niño/La Niña patterns, according to a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

And in historical times:

• 2011/02/22: Eureka: Captain Scott's century-old collections suggests marine life is capturing more carbon
• 2011/02/22: BBC: Scott's Antarctic [bryozoa] samples give climate clues
• 2011/02/21: Eureka: Carbon sink at South Pole has grown recently, historical collections reveal
  By studying collections of a marine bryozoan that date back to a famous 1901 expedition to the South Pole, researchers have found that those organisms were growing steadily up until 1990, when their growth more than doubled.

Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

• 2011/02/25: BBC: Meteosat £2.9bn weather satellite programme approved
  The all clear has been given for Europe to press ahead with the 3.4bn-euro (£2.9bn) project to build a next-generation weather satellite system. Eumetsat, the international agency charged with looking after Europe's Meteosats, said on Friday that all participating nations had now agreed to the programme and its financing. The new system should bring a step change in weather forecasting capability, guaranteeing European access to space-acquired meteorological data until at least the late 2030s.
• 2011/02/25: NatureTGB: Discovery soars while Glory waits in the wings [until at least mid-March]
• 2011/02/24: NASA: NASA Assessing New Launch Dates For The Glory Mission
  Preparations for the launch of NASA's Glory mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California have been suspended temporarily. Engineers continue to troubleshoot a malfunction in ground support equipment associated with the Taurus XL rocket. On Feb. 23, a false indication was received about the rocket's status after commands were sent approximately 15 minutes before launch to activate the Taurus.
• 2011/02/23: NASA: NASA Postpones Launch of Glory Mission
• 2011/02/23: Eureka: Feb. 23 NASA mission to tote $28 million CU-Boulder instrument and tiny student satellite
  Total Irradiance Monitor on Glory to study changes in the sun's brightness, impact on climate change
• 2011/02/23: CBC: NASA Glory satellite launch delayed [24 hours]
• 2011/02/22: TreeHugger: NASA Launching Glory Satellite Tomorrow, Part of $424 Million Mission to Measure Aerosols

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2011/02/25: ClimateP: Top medical groups warn Americans of health risks posed by climate change
• 2011/02/22: Eureka: USDA study confirms links between longer ragweed season and climate change
• 2011/02/22: CBC: Allergy season expands with climate change -- Ragweed causes hay fever and asthma among people who are allergic to it
• 2011/02/22: PlanetArk: Climate Change Creates Longer Ragweed Season
• 2011/02/22: BBC: Owls change colour as climate warms
• 2011/02/21: Eureka: New study illustrates shifting biomes in Alaska [caused by a warming climate]

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2011/02/26: al Jazeera: Brazil court halts Amazon dam
  Judge orders suspension of hydroelectric plant in the Amazon, citing environemental concerns.
• 2011/02/26: BBC: Brazil judge blocks Amazon Belo Monte dam
  A Brazilian judge has blocked plans to build a huge hydro-electric dam in the Amazon rainforest because of environmental concerns. Federal judge Ronaldo Desterro said environmental requirements to build the Belo Monte dam had not been met. He also barred the national development bank, BNDES, from funding the project. The dam is a cornerstone of President Dilma Rousseff's plans to upgrade Brazil's energy infrastructure.
• 2011/02/25: TreeHugger: Indonesian Islands of Sumatra & Borneo Lost 9% of Their Forests in First 8 Years of 21st Century

  Climate refugees are becoming an issue:

• 2011/02/21: RawStory: 50 million 'environmental refugees' by 2020, experts say
• 2011/02/22: Yahoo:AFP: 50 million 'environmental refugees' by 2020, experts say

  Corals are dying:

• 2011/02/23: UNEP: 75% of World's Coral Reefs Currently Under Threat, New Analysis Finds
• 2011/02/24: GreenGrok: Coral Reefs Head North
• 2011/02/24: Grist: Scientist: 75 percent of coral reefs are threatened...
• 2011/02/23: NatureTGB: Coral reefs are taking a dive
• 2011/02/24: UN: UN-backed report shows most of world's coral reefs under threat
• 2011/02/24: ABC(Au): Study warns coral reefs could be gone by 2050
• 2011/02/24: PlanetArk: Climate Change Fuels "Dire" Threat To Coral Reefs
• 2011/02/23: NOAANews: 'Reefs at Risk: Global Threats Require Global Action'
• 2011/02/23: Guardian(UK): Coral reefs report warns of mass loss threat
• 2011/02/23: TCoE: Doc alert: Reefs at Risk
• 2011/02/23: ScienceInsider: Three-Quarters of Coral Reefs Threatened, Report Says
• 2011/02/23: WRI: Reefs at Risk Revisited: Threats and Response
  75% of coral reefs around the globe are under threat. How can the world respond?
• 2011/02/23: BBC: Coral reefs heading for fishing and climate crisis
  Three-quarters of the world's coral reefs are at risk due to overfishing, pollution, climate change and other factors, says a major new assessment. Reefs at Risk Revisited collates the work of hundreds of scientists and took three years to compile. The biggest threat is exploitative fishing, the researchers say, though most reefs will be feeling the impact of climate change within 20 years. But, they say, there are measures that can be taken to protect at least some. The report is compiled by a group of more than 20 research and conservation organisations, led by the World Resources Institute (WRI) in Washington DC.
• 2011/02/21: WtD: March of the Triffids: Japanese corals shifting polewards 14km per year

  Sea levels are rising:

• 2011/02/24: ERabett: Science as She Should Be Reported
• 2011/02/23: ABC(Au): Communities urged to plan for rising sea levels

  These 100, 200, 500 year storms are becoming all too frequent:

• 2011/02/22: ClimateP: Northern Territory Chief Minister on Carlos's deluge: "So a really one in 500 year event; nobody's experienced anything like this before."
  Paul Gilding: "The Great Disruption has arrived"

As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

• 2011/02/23: FuturePundit: American Pacific Northwest Headed For Drier Climate?
• 2011/02/25: CCP: Peter Fawcett: Ancient megadroughts in U.S. Southwest preceded warmer climate according to sediment cores from the Valles Caldera dried lake bed in northern New Mexico
• 2011/02/24: GreenGrok: More Raindrops Are Falling on Our Head
• 2011/02/24: USGS: Drier Conditions Projected to Accelerate Dust Storms in the Southwest
• 2011/02/24: PlanetArk: Ancient Megadroughts Preview Warmer Climate: [Fawcett] Study
• 2011/02/24: JFleck: Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: Megadroughts -- Peter Fawcett has a terrific paper in Nature this week on southwestern megadrought.
• 2011/02/23: NatureN: Mega-drought threat to US Southwest -- Global warming could tip region towards repeat of Pleistocene events
• 2011/02/21: Wunderground: Dakotas blizzard adds to extreme spring flooding risk

  Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2011/02/24: PeakEnergy: The Six-Legged Meat of the Future
• 2011/02/23: TreeHugger: Reducing Black Carbon Soot Would Slash Arctic Warming Two-Thirds by 2030, Cut Temp Rise by 0.5C
• 2011/02/22: CSM: Study: Eating bugs could reduce global warming
• 2011/02/21: NatureN: 'Blue carbon' plan takes shape -- Mangroves and seagrasses could be protected by valuing the carbon they store

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2011/02/23: CalcRisk: ATA Truck Tonnage Index increased in January
• 2011/02/23: OpenDem: All stations but America: why the US can't fall in love with rail
  There are many reasons why Amtrak suffers from an unenviable reputation: sluggish operating speeds, expensive tickets and long journeys being among the most obvious. But just as important is the American philosophy of 'individualism', which has proven incompatible with the idea of nationalized transport.
• 2011/02/21: Guardian(UK): Maersk claims new 'mega containers' could cut shipping emissions
• 2011/02/20: SciNow: A Warming World Could Add Billions to Shipping Costs [by stimulating the growth of barnacles and other ship-clinging creatures]
• 2011/02/21: TreeHugger: Maersk Goes Big & Really, Really Energy Efficient With Massive New Container Ships
• 2011/02/21: TreeHugger: Our High Speed Rail Plan Should Look More Like China's
• 2011/02/21: NBF: Largest container ship will be 16% larger and 20% less CO2 and 35% more fuel efficient

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

• 2011/02/24: TreeHugger: LEED Is Not An Excuse To Demolish And Build A Monster Home
• 2011/02/24: PeakEnergy: Solucent...a material that can be used to control the amount of light let into buildings...
• 2011/02/21: SEasterbrook: Passive houses need no heating

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2011/02/22: GEP: New ISIS Consortium Launches

  While on the adaptation front:

• 2011/02/26: ClimateP: What are you doing now to prepare for climate impacts?

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2011/02/24: TC: Comparison of direct and geodetic mass balances on a multi-annual time scale by A. Fischer
• 2011/02/25: TCD: Glacier changes on Sierra Velluda massif, Chile (37° S): mountain glaciers of an intensively-used mid-latitude landscape by A. Fernández et al.
• 2011/01/13: RSTA: (abs) Beyond 'dangerous' climate change: emission scenarios for a new world by Kevin Anderson & Alice Bows
• 2011/02/23: PLoS One: Metaphors We Think With: The Role of Metaphor in Reasoning by Paul H. Thibodeau & Lera Boroditsky
• 2011/02/25: GMDD: Evaluation of ice and snow content in the global numerical weather prediction model GME with CloudSat by S. Eikenberg et al.
• 2011/02/22: CP: A comparison of climate simulations for the last glacial maximum with three different versions of the ECHAM model and implications for summer-green tree refugia by K. Arpe et al.
• 2011/02/23: CPD: Impact of maximum borehole depths on inverted temperature histories in borehole paleoclimatology by H. Beltrami et al.
• 2011/02/22: CPD: High-resolution records of the beryllium-10 solar activity proxy in ice from Law Dome, East Antarctica: measurement, reproducibility and principal trends by J. B. Pedro et al.
• 2011/02/21: CPD: Tracking climate variability in the western Mediterranean during the Late Holocene: a multiproxy approach by V. Nieto-Moreno et al.
• 2011/02/25: ACP: Characterizing summertime chemical boundary conditions for airmasses entering the US West Coast by G. G. Pfister et al.
• 2011/02/21: ACP: Impact of the East Asian summer monsoon on long-term variations in the acidity of summer precipitation in Central China by B. Z. Ge et al.
• 2011/02/25: ACPD: Modelling the impacts of climate change on tropospheric ozone over three centuries by G. B. Hedegaard et al.
• 2011/02/25: ACPD: Interpreting methane variations in the past two decades using measurements of CH4 mixing ratio and isotopic composition by G. Monteil et al.
• 2011/02/23: ACPD: Microwave Limb Sounder observations of biomass-burning products from the Australian bush fires of February 2009 by H. C. Pumphrey et al.
• 2011/02/23: ACPD: Seasonal impact of natural and anthropogenic emissions on the highest glacier of the Eastern European Alps by J. Gabrieli et al.
• 2011/02/23: ACPD: Microphysical, macrophysical and radiative signatures of volcanic aerosols in trade wind cumulus observed by the A-Train by T. Yuan et al.
• 2011/02/21: ACPD: The CO2 release and Oxygen uptake from Fossil Fuel Emission Estimate (COFFEE) dataset: effects from varying oxidative ratios by J. Steinbach et al.
• 2011/02/21: ACPD: Operational, regional-scale, chemical weather forecasting models in Europe by J. Kukkonen et al.
• 2011/02/21: ACPD: Source contributions to Northern Hemisphere CO and black carbon during spring and summer 2008 from POLARCAT and START08/preHIPPO observations and MOZART-4 by S. Tilmes et al.
• 2011/02/23: ERL: Remotely sensed forest cover loss shows high spatial and temporal variation across Sumatera and Kalimantan, Indonesia 2000-2008 by Mark Broich et al.
• 2011/02/25: E&PSL(via doi): (ab$) Sea-level and salinity fluctuations during the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum in Arctic Spitsbergen by Ian C. Harding et al.
• 2011/02/24: AGWObserver: Papers on coral response to global warming
• 2011/02/23: Nature: [Letter$] Extended megadroughts in the southwestern United States during Pleistocene interglacials by Peter J. Fawcett et al.
• 2011/02/23: Nature: [Letter$] An armoured Cambrian lobopodian from China with arthropod-like appendages by Jianni Liu et al.
• 2011/02/21: AGWObserver: New research from last week 7/2011

  And other significant documents:

• 2011/02/24: PI: [link to 4.4. meg pdf] Options for Reducing GHG Emissions in Calgary
• 2011/02/21: WFS: (111k pdf) Monsanto Technology Stewardship Agreement
• 2011/02/18: OIG: [link to 2.5 meg pdf] Response to Sen. James Inhofe's Request to OIG to Examine Issues Related to Internet Posting of Email Exchanges Taken from the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, UK
• 2011/02/23: WRI: [links to many pdfs] Reefs at Risk Revisited
• 2011/02/18: EIP: [link to 206k pdf] Getting Warmer: US CO2 Emissions from Power Plant Emissions Rise 5.6% in 2010

  As for miscellaneous science:

• 2011/02/24: ClimateSight: Climate Scientists Out in the Cold
• 2011/02/23: MIT: Scientists say ocean currents cause microbes to filter light
• 2011/02/23: SMandia: [Dr Greg] Ayers vs. Errors: Defending Climate Science
• 2011/02/23: Maribo: Scientists fearing judgement from their peers
• 2011/02/20: Tamino: Fooled Again
• 2011/02/20: Research^2: [UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser, John] Beddington goes to war against bad science -- Selective use of science 'as bad as racism or homophobia'
• 2011/02/20: Stoat: Zero tolerance for pseudo-science?
• 2011/02/20: ERabett: Mad As Hell and Not Gonna Take This No More
  Since like forever Eli has been telling scientists that it is time to get angry and not take anymore crap.

More DIY science:

• 2011/02/24: moyhu: Antarctic, RO10, Steig and TempLS
• 2011/02/22: CC&G: September 2011 Arctic Sea Ice Extent Forecast

  What's new in models?:

• 2011/02/24: TCoE: Dangerously optimistic computer models
• 2011/02/24: Guardian(UK): Models guiding climate policy are 'dangerously optimistic'
  Computer models predicting future climate change are underestimating emissions and overestimating technology, warns climate scientist Kevin Anderson
• 2011/02/22: CSM: How climate change models could get better, thanks to NASA [Glory]

  Regarding Legras:

• 2011/02/23: Tamino: Fooled Yet Again
• 2011/02/21: ERabett: Metadata -- The recently published paper by Legras, Mestre, Bard, and Yiou...

  Regarding Spencer:

• 2011/02/27: SkeptiSci: Roy Spencer's Great Blunder, Part 1 by bbickmore

  Regarding Curry:

• 2011/02/25: ERabett: L. Carey Plays Carnac
• 2011/02/23: ERabett: Gavin gets it wrong -- Gavin has run out of patience with Miss Muffet...
• 2011/02/23: TPL: The Jeanne d'Arc of Science
• 2011/02/23: CCP: More Currygate: Judith curryja Curry getting fast and loose with the facts again, Gavin Schmidt weighs in
• 2011/02/23: ClimateP: BEST climate joke: Hockey Stick fight at the you're-not-OK Corral

  While at the UN:

• 2011/02/21: UNEP: Green Economy Report: How two per cent of global GDP can trigger green growth and fight poverty
• 2011/02/23: UNEP: European Commission and UNEP Announce New Partnership to Catalyze Green Economy
• 2011/02/24: UNEP: Green Economy and Environment Governance reform backed by world's environment ministers
• 2011/02/24: CCurrents: 'Green Economy' Can Lead To Faster Poverty Eradication Says UNEP Paper
• 2011/02/24: UN: Delegates to UN forum stress key role of 'green economy' to sustainable development
• 2011/02/22: Guardian(UK): Ban Ki-moon takes climate change to Hollywood
• 2011/02/21: LA Times:GS: Global warming: The United Nations courts Tinseltown
• 2011/02/21: Guardian(UK): Green economy needs 2% of every nation's income, says UN
• 2011/02/21: Guardian(UK): UN sets out blueprint for greening the world's economy
• 2011/02/21: UN: Investing in 'green economy' can boost growth, reduce poverty - UN report
  Investing around $1.3 trillion -- or two per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) -- into ten key sectors can kick-start a transition towards a low-carbon, resource-efficient 'green economy' that can also help reduce poverty, says a new United Nations report launched today. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) presented the report, "Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication," to environment ministers from over 100 countries at the opening of the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum in Nairobi.
• 2011/02/21: NatureTGB: Green economy will promote growth, says UN
• 2011/02/21: EarthTimes: UN calls for global 2 per cent GDP investment in green economy
• 2011/02/21: BBC: Green economies for growth, urges UN
  Investing $1.3 trillion (£800bn) each year in green sectors would deliver long-term stability in the global economy, a UN report has suggested. Spending about 2% of global GDP in 10 key areas would kick-start a "low carbon, resource efficient green economy", the authors observed. They also recommended following policies that decoupled economic growth from intensive consumption. The findings have been published at a meeting attended by 100 ministers.

And on the carbon trading front:

• 2011/02/22: EarthTimes:Three more states to rejoin EU emission trading scheme on Thursday
  Belgium, Estonia and Luxembourg are set to rejoin the European Union's emission trading system (ETS) on Thursday after proving that their national schemes are hacker-proof, the bloc's executive said. Last month the ETS was shut down after it was discovered that hackers had managed to log into the databases of five EU nations and steal millions of euros' worth of permits.
• 2011/02/20: Guardian(UK): European Union faces legal action over fraudulent carbon emissions trading
  Court case in Belgium has been brought by TCEI of Italy, which is hoping to recover 267,991 stolen carbon trading permits

The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

• 2011/02/24: Crikey: Gillard, Greens unveil fixed carbon price
• 2011/02/24: ABC(Au): Carbon tax plan raises long list of questions

  The debate over the optimal strategy [carbon trading, carbon offsets, auction vs. allocation, cap and trade, cap and dividend, tradable energy quotas and/or a carbon tax] to use in dealing with GHGs continues:

• 2011/02/24: Economist:DiA: The irony of the tragedy of the commons
• 2011/02/23: PEF: Next generation carbon pricing

  Meanwhile on the international political front:

• 2011/02/24: BBC: US climate cuts threaten isolation
  The latest flirtations of the US political right with "climate denial" look set to marginalise the country even further within the global community of nations - at least when it comes to climate change.

As for GW, energy & water security:

• 2011/02/25: TreeHugger: The West's Faustian Pact on Oil Comes Home to Roost
• 2011/02/21: CCurrents: Unmistakable Link Between Security Concerns And Climate Change States UNFCCC Head [Christiana Figueres]

  The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world:

• 2011/02/25: TreeHugger: Middle School Teacher Fired for Leading Students in Climate Activism
• 2011/02/24: CCP: Tim DeChristopher's trial for disrupting an oil and gas auction starts Monday in Utah
• 2011/02/22: Grist: Utah's auction hero -- Climate activist Tim DeChristopher goes to trial
• 2011/02/21: Guardian(UK): Plane Stupid demo at Manchester airport increased emissions, court hears
• 2011/02/21: ABC(Au): Logging protester arrested -- Police have arrested a protester who had chained herself under a log truck at Hobart's wharf

  What are the activists up to?

• 2011/02/24: CCP: National Coal Council meeting in downtown St. Louis was canceled following a protest from Washington University Green Action and Missourians Organized for Reform and Empowerment
• 2011/02/24: ClimateP: 350.Org to launch new campaign: "The U.S. Chamber doesn't speak for me"

  Polls! We have polls!

• 2011/02/25: THW: Canada Believes in Climate Change
• 2011/02/24: ClimateP: Strong opposition nationally and in key districts to House votes to block [the EPA's] public health protections
• 2011/02/23: Grist: New polls: Americans trust the EPA over Congress
• 2011/02/22: CBC: Climate change an issue in Canada: Survey

  Regarding Water Politics and Business:

• 2011/02/26: JFleck: 3 million acre feet
• 2011/02/24: JFleck: Kenney on How to Fix Our River Management System
• 2011/02/24: TreeHugger: Western US Energy & Water Use Policy Established In Wettest Period For 350 Years, With Drought Coming
• 2011/02/23: JFleck: Add Water
• 2011/02/22: JFleck: China's Water Investment
• 2011/02/23: McGill: Producing clean water in an emergency
  McGill researchers develop a new and inexpensive way of filtering water using silver nanoparticles
• 2011/02/23: UBuffalo: A Nano-Solution to Global Water Problem: Nanomembranes Could Filter Bacteria

  And on the American political front:

• 2011/02/25: AlterNet: Get Ready: The GOP Has Declared War on the Environment
• 2011/02/25: PSinclair: Thomas Friedman: "Mother of All Wake Up Calls" for Oil Addicted America in Arab Awakening
• 2011/02/24: GreenGrok: Curiouser and Curiouser: How the Hill Is Handling Being in the Hole
• 2011/02/24: Grist: Montanans rally against mega-loads to the tar sands
• 2011/02/24: BSD: Offsets and cap-and-trade: coming soon to the Clean Water Act
• 2011/02/24: USU Statesman: Cutting through the political talk by Rob Davies
• 2011/02/23: TheHill:CB: The limits of doubt-mongering
• 2011/02/23: SciAm: Why Are Americans So Ill-Informed about Climate Change?
  Scientists and journalists debate why Americans still resist the consensus among research organizations that humans are warming the globe
• 2011/02/24: Grist: Bill Nye the Science Guy says not having high-speed rail in the U.S. is embarrassing
• 2011/02/24: UCSUSA: Clean Energy Jobs Bill Passed by State Senate; Would Make California National Leader
• 2011/02/24: TreeHugger: Western US Energy & Water Use Policy Established In Wettest Period For 350 Years, With Drought Coming
• 2011/02/23: AlterNet: Will the GOP Blackmail Dems into Defunding Planned Parenthood?
• 2011/02/21: NYT: The Dirty Energy Party
• 2011/02/22: ClimateP: NY Times on "The dirty energy party": "The Republican agenda is breathtakingly negative"
• 2011/02/23: Grist: Prank call proves billionaire David Koch owns Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and the GOP
• 2011/02/23: Grist: New polls: Americans trust the EPA over Congress
• 2011/02/21: TreeHugger: US Power-Plant, CO2 Emissions Up 5.6% In 2010 - Top Ten Emitter States Named
• 2011/02/21: DeSmogBlog: Top EIA Energy Trends Watcher Agrees: We Do Not Count Damage to Public Property in Price of Fossil Fuels

  The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:

• 2011/02/25: Grist: As if the Gulf Coast hasn't had enough to deal with, now there are dead baby dolphins
• 2011/02/25: RigZone: Salazar: Won't Bow to Political Pressure to Restart Gulf Deepwater Drilling
• 2011/02/23: RRapier: A Closer Look at The Commission Report on the Deepwater Horizon Disaster
• 2011/02/26: ABC(Au): Dolphin death toll rises in Gulf Coast
  The death toll of dolphins found washed ashore along the U.S. Gulf Coast since last month has climbed to nearly 60, as puzzled scientists clamored to determine what was killing the marine mammals.
• 2011/02/21: IMMS: Baby Dolphin Deaths Spike on Gulf Coast
• 2011/02/24: KSJT: Wires, USA Today, etc: Is oil spill behind the newborn dolphins washing up along Gulf coast?
• 2011/02/23: Grist: BP's oil: still causing trouble in the Gulf
• 2011/02/21: SunHerald: Spike reported in number of stillborn dolphins on coast
  Baby dolphins, some barely three feet in length, are washing up along the Mississippi and Alabama shorelines at about 10 times the normal number for the first two months of the year, researchers are finding.
• 2011/02/20: SciNews: Gulf floor fouled by bacterial oil feast -- Patchy seafloor deposits are mix of microbial waste, oil and other remnants of clean-up effort
• 2011/02/21: TreeHugger: Gulf Oil Spill Caused Inches of Dead Animals & Oil to Coat Seafloor
• 2011/02/21: OilChange: Welcome to the "Invertebrate Graveyard"
• 2011/02/20: BBC: Gulf spill's effects 'may not be seen for a decade'
  The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill "devastated" life on and near the seafloor, a marine scientist has said.

One aspect of the Walker union busting bill is not getting much publicity:

• 2011/02/24: CCP: Dirty polluters power plant power grab in Wisconsin snuck into bill on collective bargaining by public sector unions
• 2011/02/23: TreeHugger: Wisconsin Governor Selling State Power Plants to the Kochs?
• 2011/02/23: PeakEnergy: The Less Discussed Part of Walker's Wisconsin Plan: No-Bid Energy Assets Firesales
• 2011/02/22: BRitholtz: The Less Discussed Part of Walker's Wisconsin Plan: No-Bid Energy Assets Firesales
• 2011/02/22: CCP: The Koch Brothers' End Game in Wisconsin: take over state-owned power plants for pennies

  The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2011/02/22: ClimateP: The Recovery Act: The most important energy bill in American history
  Obama has failed to lead on climate, but his clean energy achievements are impressive.

The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2011/02/23: NYT: E.P.A. Scales Back Emission Rules
  Responding to a changed political climate and a court-ordered deadline, the Obama administration issued significantly revised new air pollution rules on Wednesday that will make it easier for operators of thousands of industrial boilers and incinerators to meet federal air quality standards. The new regulations represent a major step back from more demanding and costly rules proposed last spring that provoked an outcry from members of Congress from both parties and from thousands of affected businesses. One industry-financed study said the proposed standard would cost businesses $20 billion to comply and cause the loss of more than 300,000 jobs.
• 2011/02/25: ScienceInsider: Chu Asks Energy Maverick to Plug a Big Hole in the Department
• 2011/02/21: SaveNMSeeds: Letter to Vilsack About Dangers of Roundup Leaked
  [...]
  Dear Secretary Vilsack:
  A team of senior plant and animal scientists have recently brought to my attention the discovery of an electron microscopic pathogen that appears to significantly impact the health of plants, animals, and probably human beings. Based on a review of the data, it is widespread, very serious, and is in much higher concentrations in Roundup Ready (RR) soybeans and corn--suggesting a link with the RR gene or more likely the presence of Roundup. This organism appears NEW to science!
  
  This is highly sensitive information that could result in a collapse of US soy and corn export markets and significant disruption of domestic food and feed supplies. On the other hand, this new organism may already be responsible for significant harm (see below). My colleagues and I are therefore moving our investigation forward with speed and discretion, and seek assistance from the USDA and other entities to identify the pathogen's source, prevalence, implications, and remedies.
• 2011/02/24: TreeHugger: EPA Study Finds Where You Live Matters More Than How You Live
• 2011/02/22: AutoBG: Chu: "We have only just begun to realize the benefits of homegrown fuels"

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2011/02/24: Grist: Meet the members of Congress who sided with corporate polluters over children and your health
• 2011/02/25: CSW: House research budget cuts "would effectively end America's legendary status as the leader of the worldwide scientific community" - Ray Orbach, Bush's Energy Dept. Science Under Secretary
• 2011/02/25: CSW: Waxman letter to Upton on Pat Michaels's statements about funding sources
• 2011/02/25: DM:CCM: Fighting Climate Science in DC, Dealing With Climate Change Back Home
• 2011/02/25: AutoBG: Ethanol loses big supporter in Congress; Iowa Sen. Grassley (R-Iowa) ready to "bite the bullet"
• 2011/02/25: AlterNet: Legislators Are Going to Unbelievable Lengths to Gouge Clean Water Laws and Cozy Up to Big Coal
• 2011/02/21: Guardian(UK): House Republicans cut funding to UN climate science body -- Funding ban to IPCC part of cuts package that would slash spending on environmental protection
• 2011/02/20: EnergyBulletin: My congressman has selective science disorder

  Remember the climate bill?

• 2011/02/22: NatureN: Climate strife and political life
  Joe Aldy, former adviser to Barack Obama for energy and environment, assesses the state of US climate legislation. Joe Aldy was special assistant to President Barack Obama for energy and environment, and represented the White House during climate negotiations in Copenhagen in 2009 and in Cancún, Mexico, in 2010. He stepped down last December and now teaches public policy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

What are the lobbyists pushing?

• 2011/02/25: CCP: Big Oil Lobby, American Petroleum Institute, Announces It Will Start Donating Directly To Candidates
• 2011/02/24: Grist: Big Oil lobby announces it will start donating directly to candidates
• 2011/02/24: ClimateP: Big Oil's lobby announces it will start donating directly to candidates
• 2011/02/22: HuffPo: Money Pollution: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Darkens the Skies by Bill McKibben

  Ah! The root of it:

  If one were of an optimistic frame of mind, one could say that the recent resurgence of conservatism is a scream of desperation. They see a vicariously connected, interactive and multicultural future coming and it scares them featherless. -het

• 2011/02/22: BerkeleyBlog: What conservatives really want by George Lakoff

  While in the UK:

• 2011/02/26: BBC: UN Food and Agriculture Organization warned over UK funds
  The UK is threatening to switch funding away from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization unless its performance improves...

And in Europe:

• 2011/02/24: Guardian(UK): Denmark joins the fray over Europe's climate change targets
• 2011/02/24: EUO: Putin and Barroso in public scrap on EU energy law
• 2011/02/25: ABC(Au): Denmark and Britain urge deeper CO2 cuts
  Britain and Denmark have called on fellow European Union members to adopt a more ambitious target for cutting carbon emissions.
• 2011/02/23: EUO: 'New dawn' for GMOs after EU vote, green groups warn
• 2011/02/22: HotTopic: Europe looks to bolder targets
• 2011/02/21: PIK: EU climate target: Less CO2-emissions could trigger more economic growth
  Increasing the EU's 2020 greenhouse gas reduction target from 20% to 30% could help boosting European investments from 18% to 22% of GDP, leading to a GDP increase of up to 620bn euros ($840bn) and the creation of up to 6 millions additional jobs. These are the key findings of a report launched today.
• 2011/02/22: PlanetArk: Tougher EU Climate Goal Could Boost GDP: [Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research] Study
• 2011/02/21: TreeHugger: Will 30% CO2 Cuts Mean Deindustrialization or Green Growth?

  Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2011/02/27: JQuiggin: The Bureau fights back
• 2011/02/24: ABC(Au):TDU: Career lost gives a voice to climate change [Sackett]
• 2011/02/22: ABC(Au):TDU: The great rock 'n' coal swindle
• 2011/02/25: ABC(Au): Minister briefed on moratorium
  The signatories to Tasmania's forest peace deal have agreed to what is being described as a new position on the proposal for a moratorium on logging in high conservation value state forest. The leader of peace talks, the former union leader Bill Kelty, says the new position was reached during today's meeting in Launceston and he was expecting to brief the Federal Environment Minister, Tony Burke, on the development tonight. Mr Kelty refused to provide any more details, but did say progress had been made in discussion about which forests would be classified as being of high conservation value. It is understood today's talks included Gunns representatives.
• 2011/02/25: ABC(Au): Riverland floodwaters good news for some
  Rising waters in the Murray have now flooded about 100 shacks at Morgan in the Riverland, but there is a silver lining for the region.
• 2011/02/25: Deltoid: The Bureau of Meteorology fights back
• 2011/02/25: ABC(Au): Forest deadline looms for greens
  Forest activists and the Tasmanian forest industry are on a collision course over green expectations of an end to logging in conservation value areas by mid March.
• 2011/02/23: ABC(Au): Communities urged to plan for rising sea levels
  The Northern Agricultural Catchments Council is hosting a series of seminars in Geraldton to discuss how coastal communities can prepare for the impact of rising sea levels.
• 2011/02/23: ABC(Au): Study to review Port Fairy climate change risk
  The Moyne Shire has agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Sustainability and Environment for an assessment of the risks of climate change around Port Fairy.
• 2011/02/23: ABC(Au): Storm damages Brisbane's water treatment plants
  Electrical engineers are working to repair two water treatments plants west of Brisbane which were damaged during Monday's fierce storms in south-east Queensland.
• 2011/02/23: ABC(Au): MDBA confirms review of draft plan
  There has been an assurance the new chairman of the Murray Darling Basin Authority will support regional communities facing water cuts.
• 2011/02/22: CCP: The head of the Bureau of Meteorology, Greg Ayers, has rebuked Sydney's Catholic Archbishop Cardinal George Pell for his scepticism about climate change....
• 2011/02/22: ABC(Au): The Federal Opposition has quizzed the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) about whether the Government has tried to influence the level of proposed water cuts
• 2011/02/22: ABC(Au): The Federal Government has granted Origin Energy environmental approval for its coal seam gas (CSG) joint venture with Conoco Phillips north of Gladstone in central Queensland
• 2011/02/22: ABC(Au): The Victorian Government's proposed new wind farm policy will face its first test today
• 2011/02/22: ABC(Au): 'Provocative' protest at timber mill
  Conservationists have today held a protest at the Ta Ann veneer mill in southern Tasmania. About 30 members of the Huon Valley Environment Centre demonstrated against what they say is the mill's use of high conservation native forest. The Environment Centre's Jenny Weber says the group's not about wrecking the forest peace talks but protecting native forests from logging.
• 2011/02/22: ABC(Au): Loggers: Protesters thumbing their noses
  Forest protesters in the New South Wales south east are being accused of thumbing their nose at the law.
• 2011/02/22: ABC(Au): Blackwater reaches Murray's lower lakes
  Environment agencies are monitoring the lower lakes of the Murray as a plume of blackwater spreads. The dirty water is due to organic matter washed downstream by floodwaters from eastern Australia. Andrew Beale from the Water Department says the blackwater is not toxic.
• 2011/02/22: ScienceInsider: Aussie Science Chief [Penny Sackett] Resigns
• 2011/02/22: PeakEnergy: Saving Solar From The Floods (Levy)
• 2011/02/22: PeakEnergy: The Gas Rush
• 2011/02/21: ABC(Au): The Federal Environment Department has blamed computer problems for delays to the Government's solar rebate scheme
• 2011/02/21: ABC(Au): Logging protester arrested -- Police have arrested a protester who had chained herself under a log truck at Hobart's wharf
• 2011/02/21: NatureTGB: Australia's top government scientist [Penny Sackett] quits

  Gillard did a flip. A carbon tax is coming in 2012 with a later shift to cap & trade. At least, that is the plan:

• 2011/02/27: ABC(Au): Business in jeopardy without carbon tax subsidies
  The New South Wales Business Chamber has warned that businesses will suffer if they are not entitled to subsidies under the proposed federal carbon tax.
• 2011/02/24: Crikey: Gillard, Greens unveil fixed carbon price
• 2011/02/27: Deltoid: Carbon Tax Backflips
• 2011/02/26: ABC(Au): Keneally, O'Farrell trade blows over carbon tax
  New South Wales' Premier Kristina Keneally is standing firm on her support of the proposed carbon tax, despite the Opposition's campaign to convince voters that it will hurt households and cost jobs. It is a federal issue the state Coalition will be exploiting for the next four weeks. Ms Keneally spent the morning trying to discredit Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell, who is opposed to the proposed new carbon tax. She called him a climate change denier.
• 2011/02/25: ABC(Au):TDU: Another step towards renewable energy
  You could feel the increased energy in Parliament House yesterday after the historic carbon tax agreement between the Labor Government and the Australian Greens. The Greens senators and the Labor side were energised by the victory of having made mutual concessions and negotiated a foundation agreement. As Michelle Grattan writes today in her analysis, "The bottom line is that the Government is right to be pursuing a carbon price because that is the correct policy for Australia to have". The ABC's Tony Eastley was also right on AM this morning when he introduced the story saying that the tax "raises more questions than answers".
• 2011/02/25: ABC(Au): Gillard comes out swinging in carbon war
  Prime Minister Julia Gillard endured a fiery morning on talkback radio today as she came out swinging in the political war over her plans to put a price on Australia's carbon emissions.
• 2011/02/25: ABC(Au): Taxing our carbon waste dump
  One of the key items on Prime Minister Julia Gillard's agenda is pricing carbon and her new multi-party committee aims to spearhead legislation this term. With the backing of the members of the committee, Ms Gillard has announced her framework for pricing carbon, which is set to begin on July 1, 2012. Under the plan, the carbon price will initially be a fixed price set by the Government, before moving to a market-based cap-and-trade scheme. The initial fixed price essentially constitutes a carbon tax. The aim of the cap-and-trade scheme, also known as an emissions trading scheme, and a carbon tax are similar: to lower harmful emissions to help reduce the impact of climate change. But both use different mechanisms to achieve that goal.
• 2011/02/25: ABC(Au): Western Australia's mining industry says the Federal Government needs to supply more detail to the sector if it wants to implement a carbon price by July next year
• 2011/02/25: ABC(Au): The New South Wales election campaign has become embroiled in the Federal Government's push to introduce a tax on carbon
• 2011/02/26: ABC(Au): Coal industry fears job losses under carbon scheme
• 2011/02/25: ABC(Au): Coal industry concerned at carbon price plan
  One day after the announcement of the Government's new carbon reduction strategy, emission-intensive industries are already lining up to express their concerns about the plan.
• 2011/02/25: ABC(Au): Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has refused to say if he would repeal the Government's carbon tax legislation if it was implemented before the next election
• 2011/02/25: ABC(Au): Carbon tax unearths Gillard's royal doppelganger
• 2011/02/25: ABC(Au): Queensland wants more carbon tax plan details
• 2011/02/25: ABC(Au): Carbon pricing: where death and taxes collide
• 2011/02/25: ABC(Au): Warning on carbon tax and power bills
  The Tasmanian Government has welcomed the new carbon tax as a boon for Tasmania's low carbon economy. But the State opposition has warned of rising power bills.
• 2011/02/25: PlanetArk: Australia Government To Set Carbon Price From Mid 2012
• 2011/02/24: Guardian(UK): Australia unveils plans for a fixed carbon price
  Julia Gillard said polluters would pay a fixed price from July 2012, followed by a market-based system by 2017
• 2011/02/24: ABC(Au): Carbon tax plan raises long list of questions
• 2011/02/24: ABC(Au): We will have a carbon price... stay tuned for any details
• 2011/02/24: ABC(Au): Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says Julia Gillard's announcement of a carbon price is a "betrayal of the Australian people" and predicts a "people's revolt" in response
• 2011/02/24: ABC(Au): Gillard unveils carbon price details
  Prime Minister Julia Gillard says the Government's carbon price scheme will be rolled out from July 2012. Announcing details of the scheme today, Ms Gillard said the price on carbon would be fixed for a period of three to five years before moving to a cap-and-trade system. "I'm determined to price carbon," Ms Gillard told a joint press conference with Greens leader Bob Brown and Senator Christine Milne well as independent MPs Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor. "History teaches us that the countries and the economies who prosper at times of historic change are those who get in and shape and manage the changes. The time is right and the time is now.
• 2011/02/24: EarthTimes: Australia to put a price on carbon emissions
  Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Thursday that Australia would put a price on carbon emission in 2012 and have a emissions trading scheme in operation three to five years later. The announcement is a policy reversal as Gillard promised voters at the August parliamentary election that she would not introduce a carbon price if Labor were re-elected. "I'm determined to price carbon," Gillard said. "We can't afford not to move to a clean energy future."
• 2011/02/22: PlanetArk: Australia Industry Wants CO2 Price To Fight Rising Power Costs

  While in the Indian subcontinent:

• 2011/02/24: NatureTGB: India to launch national mission for forests

  And in China:

• 2011/02/24: Grist: New wind and solar sectors won't solve China's water scarcity

  And Japan:

• 2011/02/25: AutoBG: Report: Japan to invest $514M to slash use of Chinese rare earth metals

  And South America:

• 2011/02/21: NatureTGB: Brazil cuts its science budget

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

• 2011/02/24: ClimateSight: Climate Scientists Out in the Cold
• 2011/02/21: BCLSB: Go Get 'Em KAIROS
• 2011/02/25: PI:B: How cities take the renewable energy lead when provinces don't
• 2011/02/24: CoC: Canada-EU trade deal will hurt climate policy regardless of EU decision on tar sands
• 2011/02/25: Rabble: It's time to end Canada's billion-dollar handout to big oil and coal
• 2011/02/23: PEF: Next generation carbon pricing
• 2011/02/20: WpgFP: Fed document suggests Saskatchewan, New Bruinswick most receptive sites for nuclear waste dump

  The G20 controversy lingers:

• 2011/02/26: DtPB: Toronto G20: CBC The Fifth Estate - "You Should've Stayed At Home"
• 2011/02/25: TSun: Same old story -- eight months later
• 2011/02/25: CfC: It's still fish and it still stinks
• 2011/02/26: OrwellsBastard: Toronto's brutal cops and their shit-for-brains enablers
• 2011/02/26: PaiD: The Fifth Estate and the Shame of the G20
• 2011/02/26: ACR: Why do the Conservatives want to kill the CBC?
• 2011/02/24: TStar: Law Society dismisses complaint against SIU
• 2011/02/24: PaiD: Police Response to Criticism? The Best Defence is an Offence (to all of us)
• 2011/02/23: G&M: RCMP has no policy for crowd 'kettling' used during G20, documents reveal

  Canadians are concerned about climate change:

• 2011/02/25: THW: Canada Believes in Climate Change
• 2011/02/22: CBC: Climate change an issue in Canada: Poll

  The battle over the Keystone XL and Northern Gateway pipelines rages on:

• 2011/02/24: G&M: Western premiers urge PM to kill tanker bill
  Canada's three western premiers are urging Prime Minister Stephen Harper to defeat an opposition bill that would ban oil tanker traffic on British Columbia's north coast, saying it would kill pipeline plans meant to open up the region's energy markets. Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach submitted a letter to the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday saying the private member's bill, C-606, is "aimed squarely at limiting Western Canada's opportunities to grow our economies." The letter was co-signed by Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall and outgoing B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell.

A circumpolar Inuit conference went down in Ottawa this week:

• 2011/02/24: CBC: Inuit leaders to draft resource guidelines
  Inuit leaders from around the Arctic say they will work on guidelines to boost regulatory standards for mining, offshore drilling and other development in the North. Representatives from Canada, the United States, Greenland and Russia announced in Ottawa on Thursday that their guidelines will be in a declaration they plan to adopt this spring on "responsible resource development principles" on Inuit lands. The announcement capped a two-day summit, organized by the Inuit Circumpolar Council, in which leaders sought a common front on what kinds of Arctic development to support. The Inuit leaders did not emerge with that unified position. But Mary Simon, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami in Canada, said she and other leaders plan to hold another summit in Greenland at a later date to continue talks.
• 2011/02/23: CBC: Inuit leaders tackle resource development debate -- Greenland defends oil, gas development amid environmental concerns

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

• 2011/02/26: CBC: Christy Clark voted B.C. Liberal leader
  Radio talk show host and former deputy premier Christy Clark has won the B.C. Liberal leadership on the third ballot and will succeed Gordon Campbell as premier.

Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2011/02/24: Grist: Montanans rally against mega-loads to the tar sands
• 2011/02/23: OilChange: Tar Sands Threatens Canada-EU Deal
• 2011/02/21: WpgFP: Canada calls oilsands controversy side issue to EU free trade talks
• 2011/02/21: G&M: Oil sands row threatening to spoil Canada-EU trade deal
• 2011/02/21: Tyee: Alberta Fills Pipes with Corrosive Denial
  With so many now heeding the harsh effect oil sands bitumen has on pipelines and refineries, why aren't the province's regulators?
• 2011/02/21: TMoS: If You Think It's Oil That's Coming Out of Athabasca, Think Again
• 2011/02/21: DeSmogBlog: Canada Bullying The European Union Over Tar Sands, Threatening To Scuttle Trade Agreement

  Also in Alberta:

• 2011/02/24: PI: [link to 4.4. meg pdf] Options for Reducing GHG Emissions in Calgary
• 2011/02/24: PostMedia: Oil exec to run for Alberta Party leadership
  An oil and gas executive has announced his candidacy for the leadership of the Alberta Party. Chris Tesarski became the third candidate launch a campaign to lead the fledgling political party. "I truly believe that Albertans need and want to be governed, they're tired of politicking," he said. "We need an actual plan." Tesarski, CEO of Sandbox Energy Corporation with 28 years in the oil and gas industry, released a 12-point plan targeting the issues that "keep me up at night." Many are zerotolerance objectives with targets as far out as 50 years.

In Saskatchewan the question is Potash Royalties?

• 2011/02/26: LHubich: PotashCorp's Annual Report: The Fine Print
• 2011/02/26: BuckDog: Trinidad Receives More Corporate Tax From PotashCorp For One Small Nitrogen Plant Than Saskatchewan Does For BILLIONS In Mine Production!

  In the Maritimes:

• 2011/02/25: CBC: N.L. fishery report recommends massive cuts -- Minister says he won't endorse independent report
• 2011/02/23: CBC: Thin ice cancels Dildo Pond derby
  The annual ice-fishing derby on Newfoundland's Dildo Pond has been cancelled because of concerns about thin ice. Two weeks ago the pond, near Blaketown on the Avalon Peninsula, was still ice-free. Blaketown fire chief Stan Smith said the ice was tested this week, and it's not safe for a crowd of people.

In the North:

• 2011/02/22: CBC: Arctic marine weather, nav tools get $35M

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

• 2011/02/24: Grist: Why it's hard to make polluters pay for their own messes
  [...]
  Pricing externalities shifts costs from being dispersed and hidden to being concentrated and transparent. This is smart economics, but turns out to be incredibly difficult politics.
• 2011/02/22: Grist: The shaky foundations of free-market environmentalism
• 2011/02/22: Grist: Climate reformists challenge old economic models
• 2011/02/22: Grist: Reflecting on a century of economic progress and environmental problems [Robert Stavins]
• 2011/02/21: EconView: "The Problem of the Commons: Still Unsettled After 100 Years"
• 2011/02/20: Eureka: It's time to take a unified approach toward measuring sustainability

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

• 2011/02/23: AlterNet: Will the GOP Blackmail Dems into Defunding Planned Parenthood?
• 2011/02/20: Grist: Family values for population hawks: adopting a foster child
• 2011/02/21: Grist: The GINK videos -- Yo, Congress, you need to pony up $1B for global family planning
• 2011/02/20: TreeHugger: Earth Will be "Unrecognizable" by 2050

  Apocalypso anyone?

• 2011/02/20: FuturePundit: Personal Responses To Large Scale Collapse

  As for how the media handles science:

• 2011/02/26: ClimateP: USA Today gets it wrong: More drilling won't help
• 2011/02/26: TreeHugger: Glenn Beck Calls Several Enviro Groups 'Communist', Offers No Evidence
• 2011/02/24: CJR: Extreme Measures -- Must reporters cite climate change in every article about severe weather?
• 2011/02/24: Grist: Forbes writer: GMO labeling would violate corporate speech rights
• 2011/02/24: ERabett: Science as She Should Be Reported
• 2011/02/23: CCP: Letter from Gilbert P. Compo, Jeffrey S. Whitaker and Prashant D. Sardeshmukh published in the Wall Street Journal correcting the misinterpretation of their work...
• 2011/02/21: MTobis: The Press and Climate: An Anti-Testimonial
• 2011/02/21: ClimateP: UK's Chief Scientific Adviser [John Beddington] criticizes "journalists wilfully misusing science, distorting evidence by cherry-picking data that suits their view, giving bogus authority to people who misrepresent the absolute basics of science, and worse"

  While activists search for effective communication techniques:

• 2011/02/24: WtD: Google joins the conspiracy: Google employs "science fellows" to communicate science, including climate change
• 2011/02/22: CSW: Straight talk from Kevin Trenberth on denialists, climate science communication, and climate change policy

  Here is something for your library:

• 2011/02/26: TSoD: Find Stuff Out and Book Reviews
• 2011/02/24: SEasterbrook: The Ethics of Climate Change
  [Book Plug] _The Ethics of Climate Change_ by James Garvey
• 2011/02/25: Wunderground: Into the Storm: A book review
• 2011/02/21: MGS: [Book Review] _The Invention of Air_ by Steven Johnson
• 2011/02/21: ERabett: Review of James Hansen's Storms of My Grandchildren

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2011/02/26: CWD: Gasland and Natural Gas Drilling
• 2011/02/25: TreeHugger: [Dr. Richard Alley] Ice Cores & Climate Change 101 (Video)
• 2011/02/25: PSinclair: Thomas Friedman: "Mother of All Wake Up Calls" for Oil Addicted America in Arab Awakening
• 2011/02/25: TCoE: Deniers, ice cores, and Richard Alley
• 2011/02/24: PSinclair: New Crock Video: What Ice Cores Tell Us, and How Deniers Distort it
• 2011/02/23: PSinclair: Tim DeChristopher Got me Fired...
• 2011/02/22: AlterNet: Oscar-Nominated 'Gasland' Director Calls Latest Attack on His Film 'Outlandish' and Tells Why the Industry Is Getting Desperate
• 2011/02/23: PSinclair: John Holdren's BBC Interview: Anti Science Repubs to "get illuminated."
• 2011/02/22: PSinclair: Potholer: Monckton Bunkum Part 3
• 2011/02/22: PSinclair: Climate Science in a Nutshell Part 5
• 2011/02/21: Guardian(UK): Oscar buzz for Gasland fuelled by US energy lobby attacks
• 2011/02/21: PSinclair: The Right Wing Noise Machine: There is no Climate Change. Anti Christ Here. End of the World Soon. Details at 11. [vid]
• 2011/02/21: Deltoid: potholer54 on Monckton
• 2011/02/21: PSinclair: Climate in a Nutshell Part 4

  As for podcasts:

• 2011/02/23: SkeptiSci: Smoking, cancer and global warming by Stephan Lewandowsky
• 2011/02/22: SkeptiSci: Irregular Climate's triumphant (if somewhat irregular) return
• 2011/02/20: SciNow: Podcast: International Responses to Climate Change

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2011/02/23: AutoBG: Dump truck owners suing CARB over diesel emissions regulations
  On February 11th, the California Dump Truck Owners Association (CDTOA) filed a lawsuit against the California Air Resources Board (CARB), challenging the legality of a statewide rule that requires truck and bus owners equip their rigs with diesel exhaust filters and, eventually, to replace pre-2010 engines with emissions-compliant mills.
• 2011/02/21: PlanetArk: U.S. Judge Delays Decision In Chevron-Ecuador Case
  A U.S. judge asked lawyers in the long-running Chevron Corp pollution dispute in Ecuador's Amazon rain forest to do more work on Ecuadorean law before he decides whether any judgment against the oil company can be enforced. At a hearing in U.S. District Court in New York on Friday, Judge Lewis Kaplan did not convert his February 8 temporary restraining order halting the enforcement of any damages award against Chevron into an injunction. Kaplan's order lasts until March 8. The issue is part of a hard-fought 18 year-long legal battle in which rain forest residents have sought as much as $27 billion in damages over accusations that the second-largest U.S. oil company is responsible for oil dumped on their land in the 1970s and 1980s that causes death and illness. The litigation is considered a test case widely watched by international oil companies wary of damages claims.
• 2011/02/20: Guardian(UK): European Union faces legal action over fraudulent carbon emissions trading
  Court case in Belgium has been brought by TCEI of Italy, which is hoping to recover 267,991 stolen carbon trading permits

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

• 2011/02/27: OilDrum: Tech Talk - Lower second tier oil producers - Norway, Brazil, Iraq and Algeria
• 2011/02/21: RRapier: Due Diligence: How to Evaluate a Renewable Energy Technology
• 2011/02/25: DOE:EIA: Crude Oil and Total Petroleum Imports Top 15 Countries [table]
• 2011/02/25: PlanetArk: DOE Approves $100 Million Loan Aid For U.S. Geothermal
• 2011/02/25: OilDrum: World Oil Supplies as Reported in EIA's most recent International Energy Statistics
• 2011/02/23: EnergyBulletin: Energy: embracing the real alternative
• 2011/02/24: AutoBG: UK climate secretary: renewable energy pays off when oil exceeds $100 barrel
• 2011/02/24: BBC: Newcastle borehole drilling starts in search of heat [geothermal]
• 2011/02/22: EconBrowser: Brent-WTI spread
• 2011/02/21: ClassM: Just how much power do we need anyway?

  Lots of chatter about turmoil in energy markets due to Middle Eastern & North African revolutions:

• 2011/02/26: RRapier: Oil Back at $100
• 2011/02/25: AutoBG: Saudi Arabia increases oil output to compensate for shortage from Libya
• 2011/02/23: DeutscheWelle: Political unrest casts a shadow over Desertec energy project
• 2011/02/24: EnergyBulletin: Spare capacity theory
• 2011/02/24: Guardian(UK): Saudis hold talks with refiners amid warnings of oil crisis and rationing
• 2011/02/24: OilChange: Here we go again! Blah baby Blah [oil prices surge]
• 2011/02/24: BBC: Oil prices hit fresh highs on Libya unrest fears
  Oil prices have hit their highest levels in two-and-a-half years after violence in Libya disrupted output and markets feared that the unrest could spread to larger oil producing nations. Brent crude hit $119.79 a barrel in early Thursday trade, before falling back to $114.65. US light crude earlier reached $103.41 a barrel before slipping to $99.47.
• 2011/02/23: EconBrowser: Libya, oil prices, and the economic outlook
• 2011/02/23: EUO: EU registers first energy shock from Libya unrest
  Italy has been forced to shut down the Greenstream pipeline from Libya, losing 13 percent of its daily gas imports. Regional experts warn that worse is to come.
• 2011/02/23: TreeHugger: Gas Price Joke is Sign of the Times. Ready for the Next Spike?
• 2011/02/23: OilDrum: North African gas supplies to the European gas market
• 2011/02/23: BBC: Libya unrest pushes Brent oil price to $110 a barrel
• 2011/02/23: CBC: Oil soars as Libya production slows -- Japanese bank says $220 a barrel is possible
• 2011/02/22: BBC: Oil prices have continued to climb in Asian trading, hitting their highest levels since October 2008 after Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi refused to stand down
• 2011/02/22: Guardian(UK): Oil prices in 'danger zone' for global economy, says IEA's Fatih Birol
• 2011/02/22: EarthTimes: Libyan gas supplies to Italy via underwater pipeline suspended
• 2011/02/22: EarthTimes: OPEC oil breaks 100-dollar mark
• 2011/02/21: OilDrum: Libya and World Oil Exports

  Again this is a paywalled site I normally wouldn't log, but the first paragraph is worth noting:

• 2011/02/25: FT: ($) Oil price spikes set grim precedents
  The past five global recessions have all followed sharp jumps in the oil price. Investors, traders and analysts this week have all been nervously asking: is a sixth imminent?

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

• 2011/02/26: NYT: Regulation Is Lax for Water From Gas Wells
  [...]
  ...the relatively new drilling method -- known as high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking -- carries significant environmental risks. It involves injecting huge amounts of water, mixed with sand and chemicals, at high pressures to break up rock formations and release the gas. With hydrofracking, a well can produce over a million gallons of wastewater that is often laced with highly corrosive salts, carcinogens like benzene and radioactive elements like radium, all of which can occur naturally thousands of feet underground. Other carcinogenic materials can be added to the wastewater by the chemicals used in the hydrofracking itself. While the existence of the toxic wastes has been reported, thousands of internal documents obtained by The New York Times from the Environmental Protection Agency, state regulators and drillers show that the dangers to the environment and health are greater than previously understood.
• 2011/02/26: CCP: NYT bombshell! Radioactive fracking waste sent to Pennsylvania public sewage plants, then discharged into streams, levels thousands of times higher than approved
• 2011/02/26: DeSmogBlog: Must-Read NY Times Story On Gas Fracking Reveals Radioactive Wastewater Threat
• 2011/02/25: DeSmogBlog: Natural Gas Industry Rhetoric Versus Reality
• 2011/02/24: HuffPo: Mayor Calvin Tillman Leaves Dish, Texas Fearing 'Fracking' Effects On Family's Health
• 2011/02/24: DeSmogBlog: Mayor Calvin Tillman Leaves Dish, Texas Fearing 'Fracking' Effects On Family's Health
• 2011/02/25: ProPublica: Hydrofracked? One Man's Mystery Leads to a Backlash Against Natural Gas Drilling
• 2011/02/22: AlterNet: Oscar-Nominated 'Gasland' Director Calls Latest Attack on His Film 'Outlandish' and Tells Why the Industry Is Getting Desperate
• 2011/02/22: NatureTGB: A 'fracking' inconvenience for South African astronomy
• 2011/02/22: PeakEnergy: The Gas Rush
• 2011/02/21: ABC(Au): Farmers count cost of coal seam gas rush
  The company behind a $15 billion coal seam gas development in Queensland is being investigated for damaging an underground water source within the Great Artesian Basin system, Monday's Four Corners program reveals. The incident was uncovered by a sleuthing Queensland farmer, Anne Bridle, as she investigated rumours of a fracking mishap near her beef and grain property in Dalby. Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, involves blasting a mixture of water, sand and diluted chemicals into a well to help open coal seams, increasing gas production. The problems arose when Queensland Gas Company (QGC) fracked its Myrtle 3 well, connecting the Springbok aquifer to the coal seam below, the Walloon Coal Measures, in 2009. Ms Bridle has raised several concerns: that chemicals used in the process - which included 130 litres of THPS - may have migrated into the water supply; that water from the different aquifers could intermingle, affecting the water quality; and also that water levels in the aquifer could fall.

The answer my friend...:

• 2011/02/16: AlterNet: Vision: Why the Mid-Atlantic Can Be the 'Persian Gulf of Offshore Wind Energy'
• 2011/02/22: BBC: The UK's first commercial wind farm, at Delabole in Cornwall, has reopened following a multimillion-pound redevelopment

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2011/02/25: CleanBreak: Snow, cold and Canada: How does solar PV hold up in the Great White North?
• 2011/02/25: PlanetArk: Italy To Install 5,000 MW Solar Capacity In 2011: GIFI [Gruppo Imprese Fotovoltaiche Italiane (Italian Photovoltaic Firms Group)]
• 2011/02/24: SBO: Oregon's solar industry stumbles
• 2011/02/21: ACS:S&T: Making Solar Panels Greener -- Producing photovoltaic panels more sustainably will require reducing energy consumption, toxic substances
• 2011/02/23: TechRev: New Materials Make Photovoltaics Better
  A startup [Solar Junction] says it can beat the performance of the most efficient solar cells on the market today.
• 2011/02/21: NBF: Quantum dot solar can potentially boost solar cell efficiency by three times

  Feed-In-Tariffs are being variously implemented around the world:

• 2011/02/21: PlanetArk: Japan Plans New Renewable [Feed In] Tariffs From 2012

  On the coal front:

• 2011/02/24: CCP: National Coal Council meeting in downtown St. Louis was canceled following a protest from Washington University Green Action and Missourians Organized for Reform and Empowerment
• 2011/02/22: Sightline: Coal Exports and Carbon Consequences
• 2011/02/21: BCLSB: Go Get 'Em KAIROS

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2011/02/26: CBC: UBC launches green energy project
  The University of British Columbia has begun work on a $27-million green energy project that will generate enough clean energy to power 1,500 homes. The UBC Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Project will also eliminate about 4,500 tons of greenhouse gas emissions from UBC's campus every year, the equivalent of taking 1,100 cars off the road. The project uses biofuel, including wood chips and trees killed by pine beetles, to generate heat and power for the university.
• 2011/02/25: Eureka: Overfertilizing corn undermines ethanol -- Rice University researchers find feeding crops too heavily bad for biofuel, environment
• 2011/02/25: AutoBG: Ethanol loses big supporter in Congress; Iowa Sen. Grassley (R-Iowa) ready to "bite the bullet"

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2011/02/24: BNC: Advanced nuclear power systems to mitigate climate change (Part III)
• 2011/02/23: UCSUSA: After 50 Years, Nuclear Power is Still Not Viable without Subsidies, New Report Finds
  Value of Subsidies Often Exceed Price of Nuclear Energy Produced; Obama Administration Wants to Nearly Triple Loan Guarantees
• 2011/02/22: EarthTimes: Saudi Arabia, France sign nuclear agreement
• 2011/02/21: NatureTGB: South Korean reactor [at Daejeon] suffers leak
• 2011/02/20: Eureka: Spent nuclear fuel is anything but waste -- Time has come revive long-dormant reprocessing program

  When are we going to see independent verification of these claims?

• 2011/02/22: NBF: Rossi Low Energy Nuclear Reactions tested with at least 15 kilowatts of heat continuously for 18 hours

  Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

• 2011/02/23: EnergyBulletin: The peak oil crisis: inflection point

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2011/02/26: NBF: Grid issues causing a reduction of wind in Chinas Energy Plans
• 2011/02/22: NBF: Thin superconducting cables for stronger magnets and overhead wire

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2011/02/25: Guardian(UK): Spain to lower speed limit as oil prices rise
• 2011/02/25: CBC: Spain lowers speed limit to curb oil use
• 2011/02/23: ClimateP: Energy efficiency and the 'rebound effect'

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

• 2011/02/24: AutoBG: Mitsubishi i-MiEV crash tested by NCAP, earns 4-star rating [w/video]
• 2011/02/22: AutoBG: Video: DIY-er modifies Nissan Leaf for faster charging
• 2011/02/20: AutoBG: Video: Green Overdrive cruises the streets in electrified $18,000 VW Bug

  This week in the Gee Whiz File:

• 2011/02/25: NBF: Transphorm claims 90 per cent more efficient alternate to direct current conversion which could improve energy efficiency and reduce overall energy consumption by 10%
• 2011/02/25: Grist: Google-backed startup claims energy efficiency breakthrough -- super-efficient power conversion modules

  As for Energy Storage:

• 2011/02/20: SciNews: New batteries fix themselves -- Self-healing versions last longer and are less likely to burst into flames

  In the gas and oil biz:

• 2011/02/23: PlanetArk: BP Puts Package Of UK Oil, Gas Assets On Sale
• 2011/02/23: EarthTimes: Cashed up BHP buys US shale gas assets
• 2011/02/22: OilChange: "The last man will switch off the button"
• 2011/02/22: BBC: BHP Billiton enters shale gas in Chesapeake asset deal
  Anglo-Australian miner BHP Billiton has agreed to buy shale gas assets from US firm Chesapeake Energy for $4.75bn (£2.9bn).

Who's fielding the FAQs?

• 2011/02/25: Guardian(UK): What is the carbon cycle?
• 2011/02/21: Guardian(UK): What are the main man-made greenhouse gases?

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

• 2011/02/25: ClimateP: Energy and global warming news for February 25...
• 2011/02/24: ClimateP: Energy and global warming news for February 24...
• 2011/02/23: ClimateP: Energy and global warming news for February 23...
• 2011/02/22: ClimateP: Energy and global warming news for February 22...
• 2011/02/21: ClimateP: News for February 21...

  Other (weekly) lists:

• 2011/02/26: RBroberg: Climate Blog and News Recap
• 2011/02/24: Grist: A walk through the week's climate news -- The Climate Post: Tension over Middle East oil

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2011/02/26: Tamino: Mathturbation
• 2011/02/25: CCP: Big Oil Lobby, American Petroleum Institute, Announces It Will Start Donating Directly To Candidates
• 2011/02/24: JFleck: Will an Empty Lake Mead Sell Skeptics on the Reality of Climate Change?
• 2011/02/24: ABC(Au):TDU: Heavenly belief in science fiction
  The director of Australia's Bureau of Meteorology Dr Greg Ayers must surely possess the patience of a saint or, if you don't believe in saints, then the patience of my wife who has been waiting for me to fix the hole in the bathroom ceiling for well over three years. Dr Ayers has finally gained some closure on an issue concerning Cardinal George Pell, the head of the Catholic church in Australia who while believing in saints, doesn't believe in human-caused climate change. Dr Ayer's unloaded his frustrations on a senate estimates committee this week, saying he believed Cardinal Pell had been "misled" by a book called Heaven and Earth, written by Australian climate sceptic and mining director Professor Ian Plimer. He then told the committee why.
• 2011/02/24: CitChall: Professor Ian Plimer ~ what a skeptic looks like
• 2011/02/24: Tamino: While We Fiddle ...
• 2011/02/23: TheHill:CB: The limits of doubt-mongering
• 2011/02/24: SkeptiSci: Motl-ey Cruel by dana1981
• 2011/02/24: SkeptiSci: Monckton Myth #14: Monckton's Hunt for the H-spot Leaves me Unsatisfied by MarkR
• 2011/02/24: WtD: Robust conversation part one: Climate Sceptics Party v Watching the Deniers
• 2011/02/21: HuffPo: Climate Cranks Gin Up the Right Wing Noise Machine
• 2011/02/22: Guardian(UK): 'Brainwashing' children with 'climate propaganda': what did Johnny Ball mean?
• 2011/02/21: Guardian(UK): Johnny Ball denies 'climate zealots are ruining my career' claims
• 2011/02/22: PSinclair: Potholer: Monckton Bunkum Part 3
• 2011/02/22: BVerheggen: Radiative forcing by aerosol used as a wild card: NIPCC vs Lindzen
• 2011/02/22: CCP: The head of the Bureau of Meteorology, Greg Ayers, has rebuked Sydney's Catholic Archbishop Cardinal George Pell for his scepticism about climate change....
• 2011/02/22: TreeHugger: Climate Skeptic Threatened by Greens? Or Maybe Not...
• 2011/02/21: ClimateP: Accuweather's Joe Bastardi, denier of basic climate science, resigns after 32 years
• 2011/02/22: SkeptiSci: Radiative forcing by aerosol used as a wild card: NIPCC vs Lindzen by Bart Verheggen
• 2011/02/21: S&R: Heartland Institute VIPs misrepresent facts again
• 2011/02/21: CCP: Heartland Institute VIPs Joseph L. Bast and James M. Taylor misrepresent facts again, dishonestly smearing an honest scientist, Mark Boslough
• 2011/02/10: CBrief: Lord Monckton attacked from all sides... by climate sceptics

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2011/02/27: HotTopic: The road to ruin
• 2011/02/24: EnergyBulletin: Announcing Dark Mountain: Issue 2
• 2011/02/24: CCP: Justin Gillis, Green, NYT: Reading Deep in Climate Science
• 2011/02/23: Grist: Linking 'big weather' to global warming
• 2011/02/23: ClassM: Climate and the Singularity [Kurzweil]
• 2011/02/23: CCurrents: Corporate Environmentalism: The Race To The Bottom
• 2011/02/22: TreeHugger: It's Really, Really Unlikely that Climate Change is "Naturally Occurring"
• 2011/02/20: MTobis: Past Performance Doesn't Predict Future Results

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

• Climate Dialogue
• ISIS Consortium [iron fertilization]
• Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
• Carbon Brief
• EIP: Environmental Integrity Project
• IMD: India Meteorological Department
• NOAA: Interactive Atmospheric Data Visualization
• Wiki: Effects of ENSO in the United States
• Wiki: Jet Stream
• Wiki: United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
• IFAP: International Federation of Agricultural Producers
• UN: United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
• CBD: Convention on Biological Diversity
• NSIDC: Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis
• SolveClimate: Today's Climate
• Environmental Defence(CA)

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.

"There's a lot more to higher global grain prices than just the US preoccupation with gas-guzzling cars and subsidising farmers. Drought in China, floods in Australia, fires in Russia, more people wanting more food, they all play a role. But while natural disasters and human hunger happen, willfully burning food is a particular form of obscenity." -Michael Pascoe

• Global Warming Links
• Global Warming News Archive
• Energy
• Energy News
• Environmental Issues
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• H.E. Taylor (homepage)