Another week of GW News, February 6, 2011

Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years

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Another week of Climate Disruption News

Sipping from the Internet Firehose...

February 6, 2011

• Chuckles, COP17+, IYF, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Oysters
• Bottom Line, Subsidies, EHM, Thermodynamics, Cook
• Melting Arctic, Polar Bears, Geopolitics, Antarctica
• Food Crisis, Fish, Misreporting, Prices, Riots?, Land Grabs, GMOs, Food Production
• Hurricanes, GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures, Aerosols, Paleoclimate
• ENSO, Solar, Climate Sensitivity, Volcanoes, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Climate Refugees, Wacky Weather, Wildfires, Corals, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Geoengineering, Adaptation
• Journals, Other Docs , Misc. Science, Models, Dansgaard, Spencer, Lisbon
• Carbon Trade, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
• International Politics: Misc., Law & Activism, Activism, Polls, Water Politics & Business
• National Politics: America, BP Disaster, LePage, Cuccinelli, Obama, USAdmin, Congress, Lobbyists
• Britain, Europe, Australia, Murray-Darling, New Zealand, China
• Canada, Post G20, NRTEE, Ingram, Pipelines, H&O in DC, Tar Sands, Ontario, Quebec, North
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Podcasts, Courts, Betting
• Energy, Fracking, Wind, Solar, FITs, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Grid
• Efficiency, Cars, Gee Whiz, Energy Storage, Oil & Gas
• Business, FAQs, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

Here's a chuckle for ya:

• 2011/02/06: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Transition 1 - Gort and Klaatu
• 2011/02/06: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) Perchlorate
• 2011/02/01: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) "Alarmist Nutters"
• 2011/02/05: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Global Suicide Pact
• 2011/02/05: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Gish Gallop
• 2011/02/04: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Holiday Snap
• 2011/02/03: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Gatekeeping?
• 2011/02/01: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Well remembered
• 2011/02/01: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Unsustainable Over-development
• 2011/02/01: MTobis: (cartoon - Hendricks) Did You Know?
• 2011/01/26: CA: (cartoon - TomTom) Knowing and Not Knowing

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

• 2011/02/05: CCP: Radiative Forcing Components -- Global Warming Skeptic Approved Version -- Why Leprechauns Can't Explain The Recent Warming
• 2011/02/02: Onion: Republicans Vote To Repeal Obama-Backed Bill That Would Destroy Asteroid Headed For Earth

  Seasonal, I suppose:

• 2011/02/03: Care: How Did Imbolc Become Groundhog Day?
• 2011/02/02: Guardian(UK): Groundhog Day yields forecast of early US spring
• 2011/02/01: Grist: Groundhog Day and climate change: sucky weather for Punxsutawney Phil

  Looking ahead to COP17 and future international climate negotiations:

• Earth Summit 2012: Vision, Cooperation, Transformation
• 2011/02/03: TerraDaily: India says developed world must lead on climate change
• 2011/01/31: BBC:RB: UN sticks with climate agenda - but what prospects?
  Reports suggesting that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is retiring from the climate change agenda have had commentators wondering a) what it means for prospects of a new global climate agreement and b) whether the UN remains committed to the issue. What appears to be happening is that two realities have converged. One consists of indications that a new global deal remains some way away - certainly further away than the next UN climate summit in Durban, South Africa. The other is that a much more major event - Rio+20, Stockholm+40, Earth Summit Mark 2, Earth Summit 2012, whatever you like to call it - is now firmly on the horizon. It's happening in May 2012, which means that the UN chief and his officials need to devote a lot of energy to it now if it's to make a significant impact.
• 2011/01/31: PlanetArk: Extra U.N. climate talks set for April in Bangkok
• 2011/01/28: TerraDaily: Climate: UN talks set for April in Bangkok
  UN climate talks will take place in Bangkok from April 3-8 to follow up on last month's meeting in Mexico, including the future of the Kyoto Protocol, sources close to the negotiations said on Friday.

It's the International Year of Forests:

• 2011/02/01: UNEP: International Year of Forests - "Celebrating Forests for People"
• 2011/02/02: FAO: International Year of Forests launched -- UN calls on forest sector to take innovative actions
• 2011/02/02: UN: UN launches year-long celebration of vital role of world's forests
• 2011/02/02: EarthTimes: UN launches International Year of Forests

  The Sri Lankan floods are ongoing:

• 2011/02/05: CNN: Official: 7 dead, almost 1 million displaced from Sri Lanka flooding
  Five navy personnel out on relief work are missing, a disaster management official says - He says almost 1,000 houses have been destroyed - Displaced victims are housed in 505 welfare centers - At least five people died during a rescue attempt, an army official says
• 2011/02/06: EarthTimes: Over one million displaced in Sri Lankan floods
• 2011/02/05: EarthTimes: Death toll in Sri Lanka floods rises to 13
• 2011/02/04: UN: UN agencies provide additional assistance as further floods hit Sri Lanka
• 2011/02/04: EarthTimes: Five dead, more than 250,000 displaced in Sri Lankan floods
• 2011/02/03: EarthTimes: Four dead, more than 30,000 displaced in floods in Sri Lanka

  Pakistan's ordeal continues:

• 2011/02/04: PSinclair: Little Change in Pakistan Since Flood
• 2011/01/31: AGU: Pakistan floods last summer could have been predicted

  Every once in a while, a report catches me offguard --- 85% of the world's oyster beds are gone!

• 2011/02/03: VIMS: Loss of oyster reefs a global problem, but one with solutions
• 2011/02/03: PhysOrg: Oysters disappearing worldwide: study
  A survey of oyster habitats around the world has found that the succulent mollusks are disappearing fast and 85 percent of their reefs have been lost due to disease and over-harvesting.
• 2011/02/03: TreeHugger: Oysters May Be Functionally Extinct Throughout Much of the World
• 2011/02/03: BBC:RB: Oysters clear seas for local remedies
  This week saw formal scientific publication of a report that produces one of the starkest conclusions I've seen about humanity's relationship with the oceans.
  Globally, 85% of oyster beds have basically disappeared.

And on the Bottom Line:

• 2011/02/03: PhysOrg: 'Radical' clean energy shift could save 4 tn euros: WWF
• 2011/02/02: Grist: Costs of inaction: the economics of high-end warming
• 2011/02/02: TEC: US Venture Capital in Cleantech Grows to Nearly $4B in 2010

  Who's getting the subsidies?

• 2011/02/03: CCP: Markey Report: Big Five Oil Companies (BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Shell) Approach $1 Trillion in Profits for the Decade, Yet Still Rely on 100 Year-Old Subsidies to Sell $100 Oil
• 2011/02/03: OilChange: Push Back Against the Climate Deniers and End Fossil Fuel Subsidies
• 2011/02/02: EurActiv: EU subsidies fuel controversial coal plant in Slovenia
• 2011/01/31: ClimateP: Big Oil's lust for tax loopholes -- Oil prices and profits rise while big oil defends its tax loopholes

  Oh Oh... They're getting wise to Economic Hit Men:

• 2011/02/04: BBC: Nepal climate loan hit by opposition storm
  A loan to be provided by multilateral banks to help Nepal fight the impacts of climate change has kicked off a controversy after it invited criticism from civil societies and non-government organisations. They say it is not fair to burden an already climatically vulnerable country like Nepal with loans in the name of dealing with climatic changes.

Explicating the laws of thermodynamics...:

• 2011/02/05: TSoD: Understanding Atmospheric Radiation and the "Greenhouse" Effect -- Part Five
• 2011/02/03: TSoD: Understanding Atmospheric Radiation and the "Greenhouse" Effect - Part Four

  John Cook and friends continue their counterpoint articles:

• 2011/02/02: SkeptiSci: Skeptical Science iPhone app now with blog posts
• 2011/02/02: SkeptiSci: Norwegian translation of The Scientific Guide to Global Warming Skepticism
• 2011/01/31: SkeptiSci: An efficient world facts checker - Zvon.org guide to CIA World Factbook

  The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:

• 2011/02/04: CCP: R. Kwok & D. A. Rothrock, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36 (2009), Decline in Arctic sea ice thickness from submarine and ICESat records: 1958-2008
• 2011/02/04: CCP: NSIDC, Report of February 2, 2011: Arctic Oscillation brings record low January extent, unusual mid-latitude weather
• 2011/02/04: SciDaily: Still Hope for Arctic Sea Ice
• 2011/02/03: ERW: North Atlantic strait at its warmest for 2000 years
  A stretch of water east of Greenland, considered to be the Arctic's main source of heat from the North Atlantic, is warmer now than it has been in at least 2000 years. That is the claim of researchers in Europe and the US who suggest further warming will amplify the effects of climate change in the Arctic region.
• 2011/02/03: ClimateP: Yes, it's a record-breaking winter: Arctic sees lowest January sea ice extent in satellite record
• 2011/01/31: CBC: Arctic mapping camp abandoned amid ice worry

  As for the charismatic megafauna:

• 2011/02/05: TMoS: Polar Bear Swam Non-Stop Nine Days to Reach Safety
• 2011/02/03: PhysOrg: Polar bear's long swim illustrates ice melt
  In one of the most dramatic signs ever documented of how shrinking Arctic sea ice impacts polar bears, researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska have tracked a female bear that swam nine days across the deep, frigid Beaufort Sea before reaching an ice floe 426 miles offshore. The marathon swim came at a cost: With little food likely available once she arrived, the bear lost 22 percent of her body weight and her year-old female cub, who set off on the journey but did not survive, the researchers said.

As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

• 2011/02/06: Guardian(UK): Greenland's race for minerals threatens culture on the edge of existence
  In his third dispatch from Greenland, Stephen Pax Leonard reports on the changes facing the Inughuit people, as mining of the country's vast untapped mineral wealth looks set to overwhelm their traditions
• 2011/02/04: ENS: Shell Abandons Plans for Summer 2011 Drilling Off Alaska Coast
• 2011/02/04: G&M: Failure to report on fishery undermines Canada's claim to Arctic
• 2011/02/04: CBC: ArcelorMittal gains Baffinland control -- 68% of shares tendered for $1.50 offer
• 2011/02/04: Yahoo:AP: Shell: No Beaufort Sea drilling in Arctic for 2011
• 2011/02/03: CBC: Greenland, Nunavut want Arctic protection
  Some of Greenland's politicians say they want to team up with Nunavut to demand better protection for Arctic waters, as areas like the Northwest Passage open up to more marine traffic. Several members of Greenland's home-rule government's foreign affairs and security policy committee are meeting with Nunavut Premier Eva Aariak and other leaders in Iqaluit this week to talk about issues concerning the regions, both of which have large Inuit populations.

While in Antarctica:

• 2011/02/05: CCP: Loss of Antarctica's Mertz Glacier ice tongue could change seas' salinity levels
• 2011/02/02: PhysOrg: Uncovering climate change clues in Antarctica's icy depths
  New studies of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet have shown that climate change is having a more considerable impact than first thought.
• 2011/02/02: NatureTGB: Team drills near-record ice core - West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide Ice Core Project
• 2011/02/01: RealClimate: West Antarctica: still warming

  The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2011/02/04: CCurrents: Punjab's Agriculture Is Full Of Misery
• 2011/02/04: CCurrents: Systemic Starvation In Melghat
• 2011/02/03: CCurrents: Hunger For Change
• 2011/02/04: OpenDem: Dignity, Bread and Liberty; the start of peak food revolutions
• 2011/02/02: HuffPo: Hunger for Change
• 2011/02/04: al Jazeera: 'More than half a billion' obese -- Nearly one in nine of the world's adults are considered clinically obese, double the numbers of 1980, report finds.
• 2011/02/04: Guardian(UK): How extreme weather could create a global food crisis
• 2011/02/03: NYT: Chinese Leaders Are Alarmed by Drought
  A severe drought in northern China has badly damaged the winter wheat crop and left the ground very dry for the spring planting, fueling inflation and alarming China's leaders. President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao separately toured drought-stricken regions this week and have called for "all-out efforts" to address the effects of water shortages on agriculture, state media reported on Thursday. Mr. Wen made a similar trip just 10 days ago and called for long-term improvements in water management. Rising food prices were a problem last autumn even before the drought began, prompting the government to impose a wide range of price controls in mid-November. The winter wheat crop has been parched since then in northern China while unusually widespread frost has hurt the vegetable crop in southern China. State media began warning a week ago that price controls on food might not be effective.
• 2011/02/03: EconView: An Excess Supply of Austerity -- The use of food stamps is still increasing...now 43.6 million
• 2011/02/03: ABC(Au): Yasi wipes out banana crops
  Cyclone Yasi has devastated banana plantations in far-north Queensland, which supplies 90 per cent of Australia's production.
• 2011/02/02: Grist: How to make sure there will be enough food by Lester Brown
• 2011/02/01: SeedDaily: India's crops affected by erratic climate
• 2011/02/02: BizInsider: Here's The Real Cost Of Food Inflation In America
• 2011/02/02: EnergyBulletin: Mid-East unrest could increase global phosphorus threat

  Fish consumption is high and unsustainable:

• 2011/01/31: FAO: Fish consumption reaches all-time high -- No improvement in level of global fish stocks - FAO report reviews latest data and trends
• 2011/02/01: TreeHugger: Record Amounts of Fish Consumed in 2008 - 80% of World's Fisheries Fully Exploited or Overfished
• 2011/02/01: BBC: Global fish consumption hits record high
  The global consumption of fish has hit a record high, reaching an average of 17kg per person, a UN report has shown. Fisheries and aquaculture supplied the world with about 145m tonnes in 2009, providing about 16% of the population's animal protein intake.
• 2011/01/31: CBC: Global fish consumption at record high: UN -- No improvement in status of global fish stocks, fisheries expert says
• 2011/01/31: UN: Fish demand reaches all-time high but global stocks still low - UN agency [FAO]

  It appears Arctic fish catches have been wildly underreported:

• 2011/01/29: Springer:PB: (ab$) Arctic fisheries catches in Russia, USA, and Canada: baselines for neglected ecosystems by D. Zeller et al.
• 2011/02/04: TreeHugger: 75x More Fish Were Caught In Arctic From 1950-2006 Than Officially Reported: New Data
• 2011/02/04: G&M: Failure to report on fishery undermines Canada's claim to Arctic
• 2011/02/04: UBC: Arctic fisheries catches 75 times higher than previous reports: UBC research
• 2011/02/04: CBC: Arctic fishing grossly underreported: report
  Nearly a million tonnes of fish were caught in the Arctic over the past half-century, despite the fact that less than 13,000 tonnes were reported to the United Nations, B.C. researchers report. "Ineffective reporting, due to governance issues and a lack of credible data on small-scale fisheries, has given us a false sense of comfort that the Arctic is still a pristine frontier when it comes to fisheries," said Dirk Zeller, the lead author of the report on the research findings, in a statement. "We now offer a more accurate baseline against which we can monitor changes in fish catches and to inform policy and conservation efforts."

Food Prices are still rising:

• FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
• 2011/02/05: NYT:PK: Soaring Food Prices
  What's behind the surge in food prices? The usual suspects have made the usual claims -- it's all about the Fed, or it's all about speculators. But I've been looking at the USDA World supply and demand estimates, and what stands out from the data is mainly that we've had a huge global harvest failure.
• 2011/02/03: CTV: Food prices forecast to rise by 5 per cent in Canada
• 2011/02/04: PlanetArk: Food Costs At Record High As U.N. Warns Of Volatile Era
• 2011/02/03: SeedDaily: Sugar prices fall back from 30-year peak
• 2011/02/04: al Jazeera: Global food prices hit record high
  Problem is set to worsen after a massive snowstorm in the United States and floods in Australia.
• 2011/02/03: TMoS: It's Official - UN FAO Food Price Index Shatters Record
• 2011/02/03: CBC: World food prices at record high: UN -- Food and Agriculture Organization warns prices will rise for months to come
• 2011/02/03: CNN: World food prices hit record high
  UN measures cost of basic food supplies: sugar, cereals, dairy, oils and meat - Food Price Index rose by 3.4% in January -- seventh monthly increase in a row - Analysts warn rapidly rising food prices increase the risk of civil unrest
• 2011/02/03: UN: Global food prices rise to new highs, not expected to fall in coming months -- UN
• 2011/02/03: TreeHugger: Global Food Prices Hit Record Highs in January & Will Stay That Way For Months: UN FAO
• 2011/02/03: BBC: World food prices at fresh high, says FAO
• 2011/02/02: FAO: World food prices reach new historic peak -- 3.4 percent surge in January - FAO updates Food Price Index
• 2011/02/01: CCurrents: The Era Of Cheap Food May Be Drawing To A Close
• 2011/01/31: UN: Urgent steps needed to curb rising food and other commodity prices, UN warns

  So, how much is food scarcity contributing to the current wave of popular uprisings?:

• 2011/02/01: CCurrents: Underneath The Egyptian Revolution: The Politics Of Food
• 2011/02/01: CCurrents: What Lies Behind Egypt's Problems? How Do They Affect Others?
• 2011/02/03: CCurrents: Food Prices Hit Record High
• 2011/02/05: DVoice: The Egyptian Tinderbox -- How Banks and Investors are Starving the Third World
• 2011/02/02: TreeHugger: Food Price Rises Contribute to Popular Uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen
• 2011/02/04: ClimateP: Expert consensus grows on contribution of record high food prices to Middle East unrest
• 2011/02/02: PP: Middle East Reaffirms the Power of Protests, and of Food Pressures
• 2011/02/02: QuarkSoup: Egypt's Revolution and Climate Change
• 2011/02/02: TreeHugger: Peak Oil & Poverty - More Background on the Egyptian Popular Uprising
• 2011/02/01: Telegraph(UK): IMF raises spectre of civil wars as global inequalities worsen
  The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that "dangerous" imbalances have emerged that threaten to derail global recovery and stoke tensions that may ultimately set off civil wars in deeply unequal countries.
• 2011/02/01: ClimateP: High food prices are contributing to MidEast unrest -- And, yes, extreme weather and high oil prices are major contributors to those price hikes
• 2011/02/01: NatureTGB: Egyptian seed bank looted
• 2011/02/01: MTobis: In My Defense
• 2011/01/31: McClatchyDC: Egypt's unrest may have roots in food prices, U.S. Fed policy
• 2011/01/31: Grist: How food prices can fuel revolutions like Egypt's
• 2011/01/30: ClimateP: Reports: Egyptian and Tunisian riots were driven in part by the spike in global food prices -- Food prices were driven up by extreme weather and high oil prices

  So, are these land grabs Colonialism V2.0?

• 2011/01/28: Guardian(UK): How land grabs in Africa could herald a new dystopian age of hunger
  Africa is up for sale by the acre to the highest bidder. But how can rice exports from Ethiopia to Saudi Arabia be justified?
• 2011/02/05: CCurrents: With Farmlands Being Grabbed, More Of Africa Await March Of The Millions
• 2011/02/04: AlterNet: Massive UN-Supported African Palm Plantations Leading to Oppression, Kidnapping and Murder
• 2011/01/31: MongaBay: 'Land grab' fears in Africa legitimate
  A new report by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) has found that recent large-scale land deals in Africa are likely to provide scant benefit to some of the world's poorest and most famine-prone nations and will probably create new social and environmental problems. Analyzing 12 recent land leasing contracts investigators found a number of concerns, including contracts that are only a few pages long, exclusion of local people, and in one case actually give land away for free. Many of the contracts last for 100 years, threatening to separate local communities from the land they live on.

Regarding the genetic modification of food:

• 2011/01/28: PRWatch: Whole Foods Market Caves to Monsanto
• 2011/02/04: EurActiv: EU draft: States can ban GM crops for public order
• 2011/02/04: PlanetArk: EU States Can Ban GM Crops For Public Order: Draft
• 2011/02/02: EarthTimes: UN opens Nagoya genetic-sharing agreement for signatures

  And how are we going to feed 9 billion?

• 2011/02/01: NYT:Opinionator: A Food Manifesto for the Future
• 2011/02/04: TreeHugger: USAID's 'New Vision of Agriculture' Unsurprisingly Like the Old Vision of Industrial Monoculture
• 2011/02/03: TreeHugger: Fight Against Gigantic Mega-Farms Continues
• 2011/02/02: McGill: Helping feed the world without polluting its waters
  McGill researchers develop first-ever detailed global map of critical phosphorus use and misuse
• 2011/02/02: TerraDaily: Taking The Scare Out Of Scarcity
• 2011/02/02: BasqueResearch: Neiker-Tecnalia creates air-conditioned greenhouse with alternative energies

  Cat 5 Tropical Cyclone Yasi smashed into Queensland, Australia:

• 2011/02/06: PhysOrg: Cyclone adds to Barrier Reef's flood woes
  Hammered by a monster cyclone just weeks after flooding spewed toxic waste into its pristine waters, Australia's Great Barrier Reef could face a slow recovery due to climate change, experts warn.
• 2011/02/05: WtD: The Long Reach of Yasi Part 2: BoM "We've never seen anything like this in Australia"; more towns evacuated as residents forced to flee
• 2011/02/05: ABC(Au): Yasi does 10yrs damage to Barrier Reef
  Authorities say hundreds of kilometres of the Great Barrier Reef hit by Cyclone Yasi will take up to 10 years to recover.
• 2011/02/05: JQuiggin: This time it's personal
• 2011/02/05: EarthTimes: Cyclone Yasi's tail lashes central Australia
• 2011/02/04: ABC(Au): 'It's just too hard': Yasi leaves farmers reeling -- Banana plantation lies devastated
  North Queensland farmers who had been struggling to recover after Cyclone Larry are now facing financial ruin after Cyclone Yasi wiped out entire farms across the region this week. Yasi decimated numerous banana plantations, with early estimates showing 75 per cent of Queensland's crop has been destroyed. The sugarcane industry has also been dealt a devastating blow and is expected to face losses of up to $500 million.
• 2011/02/04: ABC(Au): Weary residents begin cyclone clean-up
  Torrential rain is hampering recovery efforts in the cyclone-devastated town of Cardwell in far north Queensland. The buildings on Cardwell's beachfront have been shredded, while windows are shattered and shop signs are flapping in the wind. The Bruce Highway, which runs along what is left of the beachfront, has been cracked in half and washed into the ocean. About a metre of beach sand has replaced it and recovery crews are using four-wheel-drives to get through. Huge dead trees up to a metre across are lying like skeletons next to the road. Police are doorknocking to check if residents are OK, but the streets are mostly quiet as locals try to work out where to start the clean-up.
• 2011/02/05: ABC(Au): Flooding threat as Yasi's wrath heads west
  The weather bureau is warning residents in the Alice Springs and Barkly regions of the Northern Territory that heavy rain could cause flash flooding today.
• 2011/02/03: TerraDaily: 'Worst-case' plan saved Australians: officials
  A "worst-case" evacuation plan that herded tens of thousands of Australians from the path of a monster cyclone and its final shift south were credited Thursday for the miraculous lack of casualties. Early reports suggested no one was killed or injured when Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi ploughed into Australia's populous northeast coast shortly before midnight, defying predictions of deadly consequences. In the words of one resident: "We didn't just dodge a bullet, we dodged a rocket."
• 2011/02/03: TerraDaily: Narrow escapes from Australia cyclone horror
• 2011/02/03: TerraDaily: Australia reels from once-in-a-century cyclone [Yasi]
• 2011/02/04: Wunderground: Ice storm cripples Houston; Yasi the 2nd costliest Australian storm on record
• 2011/02/03: ENS: Cyclone Yasi Slams Coastal Queensland
• 2011/02/04: Eureka: NASA measuring Tropical Storm Yasi's inland rainfall from space
• 2011/02/04: CSM: US-sized Cyclone Yasi could cost Australia more than $2 billion
• 2011/02/04: BBC: Queensland rescuers fight through Cyclone Yasi debris
  Thousands of Australian soldiers, police and emergency workers have been sent to help Queensland's stricken coastal communities, left reeling by the state's worst storm in a century.
• 2011/02/04: WtD: WtD reader Joel updates on situation in Queensland
• 2011/02/03: al Jazeera: Storm wreaks havoc in Australia
  Cyclone Yasi batters towns in country's northeast, but residents escape without serious casualties.
• 2011/02/03: NewsCorp: How Cyclone Yasi compares around the world
• 2011/02/03: KSJT: Aussie Press: Cyclone Yasi, wotta monster. Gov't climate man says it's a trend
• 2011/02/03: PhysOrg: Scientists release stunning satellite imagery of cyclone Yasi from space (w/ Video)
• 2011/02/03: ABC(Au): The State Emergency Service (SES) at Mount Isa in north-west Queensland says it has been kept busy sandbagging ahead of Cyclone Yasi's expected arrival in the city later tonight
• 2011/02/03: Wunderground: Nation digs out from massive blizzard; Cyclone Yasi rips through Australia
• 2011/02/03: BBC: In pictures: Cyclone Yasi
• 2011/02/03: BBC:NB: Cyclone Yasi
  [...]
  Happily, the trail of destruction was not nearly as bad as predicted or feared.
  [...]
  Warned to expect the worst storm in Australian history, a category five cyclone with winds nearing 180 miles an hour, the fear was of a significant loss of life. Remarkably, however, there have been no reports as yet of fatalities or even serious injuries. Instead, the story of a baby girl born in an evacuation centre in Cairns as the cyclone thundered overhead - delivered with the assistance of British midwife in Queensland celebrating her 25th wedding anniversary, no less - has become powerfully emblematic. In the early morning hours, it came to symbolise the feeling of profound relief.
• 2011/02/03: CBC: Cyclone Yasi damage assessed by Australia -- Police say 2 missing after storm
• 2011/02/03: ABC(Au): Comparison of large cyclones [Yasi - Larry - Katrina & Tracy]
• 2011/02/03: ABC(Au): Queensland takes stock after night of terror
• 2011/02/03: ABC(Au): Despair and relief in cyclone's wake
  Emergency crews are cutting their way into storm-shattered communities in north Queensland to assess the extent of the damage after category five Cyclone Yasi roared ashore overnight.
• 2011/02/03: WtD: Into the light: Yasi, no deaths or injuries
• 2011/02/02: Guardian(UK): Cyclone Yasi strikes North Queensland
• 2011/02/02: Guardian(UK): Australia prepares for cyclone Yasi [17 pix]
• 2011/02/02: Guardian(UK): Cyclone Yasi approaches Australia -- as it happened
• 2011/02/02: Guardian(UK): Cyclone Yasi expected to make landfall at midnight tonight
• 2011/02/02: BBC: Australia's Queensland battered by Cyclone Yasi
• 2011/02/02: CNN: Category 5 cyclone slams into flood-hit Queensland
• 2011/02/02: WtD: Yasi: Cyclone Video HQ
• 2011/02/02: CCP: Complete news from Australia on Cyclone Yasi, February 2, 2011
• 2011/02/02: TerraDaily: Australia braces for 'worst ever storm'
• 2011/02/02: TreeHugger: Massive Cyclone Yasi (Stronger than Hurricane Katrina) Threatens Northern Australia
• 2011/02/02: Eureka: NASA Aqua Satellite sees powerful Cyclone Yasi make landfall in Queensland, Australia
• 2011/02/02: CBC: Cyclone Yasi hammers northeast Australia -- 'We are in completely uncharted waters' - Queensland state premier
• 2011/02/01: ClimateShifts: Severe cyclone poised to mash up the GBR and northern Queensland
• 2011/02/02: PSinclair: Will it be Two 500 year floods in less than 4 weeks? Cat 5 Yasi Bears Down on Queensland.
• 2011/02/01: BBC: Queensland evacuations urged ahead of Cyclone Yasi
• 2011/02/01: Guardian(UK): Cyclone Yasi roars towards Australia's flooded north
• 2011/02/01: CNN: Forecasters: Cyclone poses 'serious threat to life' in Queensland
  Tropical Cyclone Yasi upgraded to Category 5 - Yasi forecast to hit North Queensland on Wednesday - Authorities warn 290 kph winds, flooding from storm could be life-threatening - Hundreds evacuated from areas at risk, including patients airlifted from hospitals in Cairns
• 2011/02/01: ClimateP: Masters: Extremely dangerous Tropical Cyclone Yasi bears down on flooded Queensland, Australia
• 2011/02/01: ABC(Au): Severe [Cat 5] Tropical Cyclone Yasi unlikely to reach mid north coast
• 2011/02/01: ABC(Au): The Australian Greens say Tropical Cyclone Yasi is a "tragedy of climate change"
• 2011/02/01: EarthTimes: Australians batten down for monster cyclone [Yasi]
• 2011/02/01: ENS: First Floods, Now a Giant Cyclone Roars Toward Australia
• 2011/02/01: Eureka: NASA satellites reveal heavy rains in dangerous Cyclone Yasi on its Australian approach
• 2011/02/01: NASA:JPL: NASA Satellite Tracks Menacing Australian Cyclone [Yasi]
• 2011/02/01: CBC: 'Life-threatening' cyclone [Yasi] nears Australia -- Thousands leave low-lying coastal areas ahead of monstrous storm
• 2011/01/31: MTobis: Queensland Again
• 2011/02/01: WtD: Cyclone Yasi may be worst in FNQ history; hospitals and islands evacuated; fears of major flooding; Queensland wrecked end-to-end
• 2011/01/31: CCP: Monster Tropical Cyclone Yasi a very, very serious threat
• 2011/01/31: TerraDaily: Australia dodges cyclone [Anthony] 'bullet', but worse feared [Cyclone Yasi]
• 2011/01/30: EarthTimes: Flood-weary Australians ready for more cyclones
• 2011/01/31: Eureka: NASA sees large Tropical Cyclone Yasi headed toward Queensland, Australia
• 2011/01/31: CBC: Cyclone threatens Australia's northeast -- Up to 1 metre of rain could hit already swamped regions
• 2011/01/31: BBC: Queensland warning over Cyclone Yasi
  The Australian state of Queensland could be facing one of the worst cyclones in its history, as it works to recover from devastating floods.
• 2011/01/31: ABC(Au): Disaster brews as cyclone stalks north
  Premier Anna Bligh says the cyclone bearing down on the Queensland coast has the potential to be the biggest the state has ever seen.
• 2011/01/30: ABC(Au): 'Ugly sister' cyclone [Yasi] menaces Queensland
  People in north Queensland have been warned to expect wind speeds of up to 260 kilometres per hour when a "big, ugly sister" cyclone makes landfall later this week.
• 2011/01/31: WtD: Cyclone Yasi may rival devestating Cyclone Larry; food prices to rise by 70%; hold on... the "Long Summer" isn't over

  While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

• 2011/02/05: SciDaily: Geographer Recreates 'The Great Louisiana Hurricane of 1812'
• 2011/02/04: BBC: New Orleans lost nearly a third of its population after the 2005 impact of Hurricane Katrina, census data shows

  As for GHGs:

• 2011/02/02: ClimateP: Koch Industries: The 100-Million ton Carbon Gorilla
• 2011/02/02: TreeHugger: UK CO2 Emissions Dropped 8.7% in 2009
• 2011/02/02: TreeHugger: Koch Industries' Carbon Footprint is 300,000,000 Tons a Year
• 2011/02/01: Guardian(UK): UK greenhouse gas emissions fall 8.7% [in 2009] -- Total UK emissions plummet as recession lowers electricity and fuel use
• 2011/01/31: TerraDaily: Recession did not cut back pollution: US agency [EIA]
• 2011/02/01: TreeHugger: New Data Shows China & United States' Carbon Emissions Still Way Higher Than Everyone Else's
• 2011/01/31: Grist: Why arch-polluter Koch Industries owes the planet its entire net worth
• 2011/01/31: Grist: Tea Party-backing Koch Industries is major carbon polluter
• 2011/01/31: Guardian(UK): An atlas of pollution: The world in carbon dioxide emissions

  And in the carbon cycle:

• 2011/02/04: SciNews: Extinctions breed carbon chaos -- Massive die-offs left ecosystems vulnerable, analysis suggests

  As for the temperature record:

• 2011/02/05: PSinclair: Graph of the Day: 2010 was Hot. And it's Going to Get Hotter.
• 2011/02/02: BVerheggen: Past, present and future temperatures
• 2011/02/02: ClimateP: Groundhog Decade: We're stuck in a bad movie, where it's always the hottest decade on record
• 2011/02/02: SEasterbrook: A Tale of Two Graphs
• 2011/02/01: CC&G: Atmospheric Temperature Structure : 2 - Stratospheric Cooling

  Aerosols are making their presence felt:

• 2011/02/03: PhysOrg: Research flights probe particulate impact on climate
  In a winter of unpredicted weather, a multiyear project to investigate the possible effects of air pollution on California's precipitation launches a new phase with a series of research flights that begin today featuring Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego scientists.

While in the paleoclimate:

• 2011/02/03: AGU: New drought record from long-lived Mexican trees may illuminate fates of past civilizations
• 2011/02/02: NSF: Ice Cores Yield Rich History of Climate Change -- Research project completes drilling for the year, reaching two miles below West Antarctic Ice Sheet
• 2011/02/01: TerraDaily: Uncovering Links Between Ancient Climate Change And Mass Extinction

  While on the ENSO front:

• 2011/02/02: PhysOrg: La Nina helping direct winter storm to Midwest

  Regarding the solar hypothesis:

• 2011/02/05: CCP: Sun spots and climate change deniers -- very interesting comment from Tamino's Open Mind blog

  Regarding Climate Sensitivity:

• 2011/02/01: ERW: Planet is 'more sensitive to carbon dioxide than we thought'
  If carbon dioxide emissions continue at their current rate through to the end of this century, atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gas will reach levels that existed about [900-1000 ppm] 30 million to 100 million years ago, according to Jeffrey Kiehl from the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

What's up with volcanoes this week?

• 2011/02/04: PhysOrg: Envisat captures volcanic eruptions in Japan today
  Acquired today by ESA's Envisat satellite, this image shows smoke pouring from Mount Shinmoedake, a volcano in the Kirishima mountain range on Japan's southern island of Kyushu.

Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

• 2011/02/02: Eureka: GOES-13 Satellite sees Groundhog's Day on ice
• 2011/02/01: NASA:JPL: NASA Satellite Captures U.S. 'Big Chill'
• 2011/02/01: NASA:JPL: Monster Cyclone Yasi Eyes Australia in NASA Image

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2011/02/04: BBC: New Zealand scientists record 'biodiversity breakdown'
  Scientists in New Zealand say they have linked the modern-day decline of a common forest shrub with the local extinction of two pollinating birds over a century ago.
• 2011/02/03: SkeptiSci: More animations of the Warming Indicators
• 2011/02/03: NewScientist: After the birds vanish, plants are next to go
• 2011/02/03: UCAR: Wolverine population threatened by climate change
• 2011/02/02: Eureka: Turtle populations affected by climate, habitat loss and overexploitation -- Year of the Turtle campaign is working to save these animals
• 2011/01/31: PhysOrg: Island-scale study reveals climate-change effects
• 2011/01/31: JFleck: In natural disasters, it's the poor who suffer
• 2011/01/30: NM: Alaska seeing impact of climate change in its infrastructure, villages
• 2011/02/01: PressEurop: Global warming could bankrupt Med
• 2011/01/31: BBC: UK set for high end climate costs, as floods spread
  The UK is likely to feel bigger costs from climate change than most other EU countries, a report concludes. Rising sea levels are likely to impact the nation harder than most, negating economic benefits from increased tourism and possibly farm yields. The findings come from a study funded by the European Commission, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). It projects a net cost for most EU nations, but a net benefit for a few.
• 2011/01/31: NatureN: Climate change threatens Europe's living standards -- Southern Europe could face tens of billions in losses, but northern Europe may benefit

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2011/02/06: SkeptiSci: The 2010 Amazon Drought by Andy S
• 2011/02/05: TreeHugger: The Perils of Tree-Planting Programs in Turkey
• 2011/02/04: CNN: Amazon droughts increase climate change fears
  Scientists: 2010 drought was more widespread and damaging than in 2005 - Amazon becomes a net carbon emitter during times of drought - Tropical rainforests act as a natural buffer to man-made emissions - Some climate models suggest climate change will increase number of droughts
• 2011/02/03: Reuters: Amazon drought caused huge carbon emissions
  A widespread drought in the Amazon rain forest last year was worse than the "once-in-a-century" dry spell in 2005 and may have a bigger impact on global warming than the United States does in a year, British and Brazilian scientists said on Thursday.
• 2011/02/04: PlanetArk: Amazon Drought Caused Huge Carbon Emissions
• 2011/02/04: Independent(UK): Carlos Peres: Unthinkably, wild fires are breaking out in rainforests
• 2011/02/04: Independent(UK): Beware the collapse of the planet's lungs -- Amazon drought is consistent with what scientific models predict for a warmer globe
• 2011/02/04: PhysOrg: Tanzanian forests in near crisis due to bushmeat hunting, habitat degradation
• 2011/02/04: Independent(UK): Special report: Catastrophic drought in the Amazon -- Region set to outstrip US as CO2 emitter
• 2011/02/03: TerraDaily: Amazon's double dry spell worries scientists
• 2011/02/04: TreeHugger: Second Severe Amazon Drought This Decade Spells Disaster for Rainforests
• 2011/02/03: BBC: Amazon drought 'severe' in 2010, raising warming fears
• 2011/02/03: Guardian(UK): Mass tree deaths prompt fears of Amazon 'climate tipping point'
  Scientists fear billions of tree deaths caused by 2010 drought could see vast forest turn from carbon sink to carbon source
• 2011/02/03: MongaBay: Two massive droughts evidence that climate change is 'playing Russian roulette' with Amazon
• 2011/02/03: DM:80B: Good News & Bad News for the World's Troubled Forests
• 2011/02/01: TerraDaily: Indonesia makes startling admission on forests
  Indonesia admitted Tuesday that hundreds of mine and plantation companies are operating illegally on Borneo island, and promised to beef up law enforcement to protect forests and threatened species. The forestry ministry made the startling admission that less than 20 percent of plantation companies and less than 1.5 percent of mining firms had official operating permits in Central Kalimantan, on the Indonesian side of Borneo.
• 2011/02/03: EarthTimes: President orders halt on logging in Philippine forests
• 2011/02/02: SolveClimate: Forests Are More than Sinks that Inhale Carbon, Study Warns
• 2011/02/02: MongaBay: From Cambodia to California: world's top 10 most threatened forests
• 2011/02/02: PlanetArk: Malaysia Rapidly Destroying Forests For Palm Oil: Group
  Malaysia, the world's second largest palm oil producer, is destroying large areas of carbon-rich peatswamp forests to expand plantations, a leading conservation group said on Tuesday. Wetlands International and Dutch remote sensing institute Sarvision said palm oil plantations are being expanded largely in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo island. "Unless this trend is halted, none of these forests will be left at the end of this decade," said the report released on Tuesday. It said between 2005-2010, almost 353,000 hectares (883,000 acres) of species-rich, peatswamp forests were opened up largely for palm oil production.
• 2011/02/02: EarthTimes: UN: World forests have multiple values for humans, economy
• 2011/02/02: BBC: Forest loss slows as Asian nations plant
  Forest loss across the world has slowed, largely due to a switch from felling to planting in Asia.
  [...]
  Forests now cover about 40 million sq km - just less than one-third of the Earth's land surface. Although 52,000 sq km were lost per year between 2000 and 2010, that was a marked improvement on the 83,000 sq km annual figure seen during the previous decade.
• 2011/02/01: PhysOrg: Scientists launch major ecological study on Borneo's deforested landscapes
  A giant-scale experiment on deforestation, biodiversity and carbon cycling has got underway in the spectacular forests of Sabah, a Malaysian state on the tropical southeast Asian island of Borneo. Scientists hope the results will help guide the management and conservation of remaining rainforests in tropical Asia.
• 2011/02/01: NatureTGB: Community forests a growth investment report finds

  Climate refugees are becoming an issue:

• 2011/02/05: PostMedia: Asia faces climate-induced migration 'crisis'
  Asia must prepare for millions of people to flee their homes to safer havens within countries and across borders as weather patterns become more extreme, the Asian Development Bank warns. A draft of an ADB report obtained by AFP over the weekend and confirmed by bank officials cautioned that failure to make preparations now for vast movements of people could lead to "humanitarian crises" in the coming decades. Governments are currently focused on mitigating climate change blamed for the weather changes, but the report said they should start laying down policies and mechanisms to deal with the projected population shifts.
• 2011/02/04: Guardian(UK): Climate change not expected to lead to mass cross-border migration
• 2011/02/02: IIED: Climate change: governments should support migration, not fear it
• 2011/02/04: BBC: Climate mass migration fears 'unfounded' [says IIED]

  Lots of people wondering about the weird weather:

• 2011/02/05: CCP: Frigid U.S., warm Arctic -- what gives?
  Weird weather shows 'why we've got to realize the Arctic is important,' expert says
• 2011/02/04: CCurrents: Extreme Weather Report From Home: The Thong Will Drop
• 2011/02/04: KSJT: LiveScience: Woops, some ARE saying the big snow in US is a spot-on symptom of global warming
• 2011/02/03: CSM: Winter storm raises the question: What's going on with the weather?
• 2011/02/04: Wunderground: Ice storm cripples Houston; Yasi the 2nd costliest Australian storm on record
• 2011/02/02: CSM: Climate change will bring more monster winter storms
• 2011/02/03: CBC: Storm in Eastern Canada causes closures -- Atlantic Canadians dig out after Ontario, Quebec survive heavy snowfall
• 2011/02/02: AlterNet: Catastrophic Weather Events Are Becoming the New Normal -- Are You Ready for Life on Our Planet Circa 2011?
• 2011/02/02: Guardian(UK): Winter storm brings much of America's heartland to a standstill -- Weather system stretching across third of US...
• 2011/02/02: CNN: Powerful storm brings record snowfall across the country
  A number of Massachusetts roofs collapse under rain-soaked snow - Rolling power outages sweep across Texas Wednesday due to the blustery weather - A winter storm watch will be in effect Thursday through Friday morning for southeastern Texas - Blizzard warnings for northeastern Illinois, including Chicago, are called off
• 2011/02/01: KCStar: Some scientists believe extreme weather events becoming the norm
• 2011/02/02: Wunderground: Groundhog's Day blizzard pounds U.S.; Category 4 Yasi hits Australia
• 2011/02/02: EarthTimes: Monster snow storm brings much of US to a grinding halt
• 2011/02/02: CBC: Monstrous storm batters U.S. Midwest
• 2011/01/31: MTobis: More Yikes
• 2011/02/01: UCSUSA: Backgrounder: It's Cold and My Car is Buried in Snow. How Can Global Warming be Happening?
• 2011/02/01: NASA: NASA Satellites Capture Data on Monster Winter Storm Affecting 30 States
• 2011/02/01: Wunderground: Great Blizzard pounds Midwest; Australia braces for Category 4 Yasi
• 2011/02/01: CBC: 'Snowpocalypse' pounds U.S. Midwest

  As for heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2011/02/05: TerraDaily: Sydney's 'big sweat' sets heatwave record
• 2011/02/06: BBC: Wildfires hit western Australia after north-east floods
  Wildfires have destroyed a number of homes in western Australia, as the north-east of the country continues to be affected by flooding brought about by Cyclone Yasi last week.
• 2011/02/06: ABC(Au): Strong winds hamper Perth fire fight
  Strong winds are hampering efforts to fight a fierce fire burning in Perth's north-eastern suburbs.

Corals are dying:

• 2011/02/05: ABC(Au): Yasi does 10yrs damage to Barrier Reef
  Authorities say hundreds of kilometres of the Great Barrier Reef hit by Cyclone Yasi will take up to 10 years to recover.
• 2011/01/31: ABC(Au): Warm sea surface temperatures have bleached coral on the Ningaloo Reef

  As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

• 2011/02/04: PlanetArk: Amazon Drought Caused Huge Carbon Emissions
• 2011/02/04: PhysOrg: China's drought may have serious global impact
• 2011/02/03: TerraDaily: Drought threatens 2 million people in Somalia: UN
• 2011/02/04: EarthTimes: Five dead, more than 250,000 displaced in Sri Lankan floods
• 2011/02/04: EarthTimes: Death toll in floods, landslides reaches 82 in Philippines
• 2011/02/03: BBC: Amazon drought 'severe' in 2010, raising warming fears
• 2011/02/03: UN: UN humanitarian chief calls attention to drought crisis in Kenya and Somalia
• 2011/02/03: NYT: Chinese Leaders Are Alarmed by Drought
  A severe drought in northern China has badly damaged the winter wheat crop and left the ground very dry for the spring planting, fueling inflation and alarming China's leaders. President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao separately toured drought-stricken regions this week and have called for "all-out efforts" to address the effects of water shortages on agriculture, state media reported on Thursday. Mr. Wen made a similar trip just 10 days ago and called for long-term improvements in water management. Rising food prices were a problem last autumn even before the drought began, prompting the government to impose a wide range of price controls in mid-November. The winter wheat crop has been parched since then in northern China while unusually widespread frost has hurt the vegetable crop in southern China. State media began warning a week ago that price controls on food might not be effective.
• 2011/02/03: PhysOrg: Severe drought threatens millions in Somalia
• 2011/02/03: NatureTGB: Record droughts raise alarm over the Amazon
  The drought last year in the Amazon basin was even more widespread and intense than the supposedly once-in-a-century dry spell in 2005. The second extreme drought to have hit the region in five years raises concerns that world's largest rain forest -- a major sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide -- could be approaching a tipping point.
• 2011/02/02: TerraDaily: Floods kill four in Philippines
• 2011/02/03: EarthTimes: Somalia facing 'extremely serious' drought, warns UN
• 2011/02/02: EarthTimes: Heavy rains displace over 2 million people in the Philippines
• 2011/02/02: Eureka: Rain in Spain is on the decline
• 2011/02/01: PlanetArk: Floodwaters Sweep Away Bolivian Bus, Killing 31
• 2011/01/31: NatureTGB: More frequent droughts likely in East Africa
• 2011/01/31: AllGeo: Flooding around the world
• 2011/01/31: EarthTimes: Two dead, almost 30,000 displaced in Malaysian flood

  Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2011/02/02: UCSUSA: New Report Recommends Ways to Lower Global Warming Emissions from U.S. Beef Production -- Pasture-Fed Beef Has Significant Advantages over CAFOs

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2011/02/04: PeakEnergy: Australian High Speed Rail Study Underway
• 2011/02/02: CBC: Air travel up 8% in 2010: IATA
  After a tough 2009 airlines enjoyed a rebound in 2010, with passenger traffic up by 8.2 per cent, the International Air Transport Association said Wednesday. Freight traffic was up by even more - 20.6 per cent, IATA said.
• 2011/02/01: CalcRisk: U.S. Light Vehicle Sales 12.62 million SAAR in January
• 2011/02/01: CalcRisk: General Motors: January U.S. sales increase 22% year-over-year
  [...]
  Ford January U.S. sales rise 13.3%
  Chrysler U.S. January sales up 22.7% to 70,118

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

• 2011/02/04: SacBee: Homes go ultra-green
  A Sacramento developer said it plans to roll out a new, ultra-efficient housing development in midtown this fall where energy bills will be as much as 70 percent lower than normal. The 34 houses planned for 25th and R streets will be net-zero energy -- meaning they produce more energy than they use.
• 2011/02/03: NRDC:SwitchBoard: One Way to Win the Future: Improve Commercial Building Efficiency
• 2011/02/01: PSinclair: Building the New Detroit: The Green Garage

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2011/02/06: PeakEnergy: Ocean fertilisation - A drop in the ocean
• 2011/02/01: GreenGrok: 'Plan B' for a Low-Carbon Economy?
• 2011/02/04: TerraDaily: Ocean Fertilization: Summary For Policymakers
• 2011/02/01: GEP: Negative Newsweek Story
• 2011/01/30: NewsWeek: A Climate Cure's Dark Side
• 2011/01/31: Reuters: Fertilising oceans seen fruitless in climate fight
  Fertilising the oceans to boost the growth of tiny plants that soak up greenhouse gases is unlikely to work as a way to slow climate change, a U.N.-backed study showed on Monday.
• 2011/01/31: NatureTGB: UNESCO deals another blow to ocean fertilization hopes
• 2011/01/31: TreeHugger: Message for Policymakers: Ocean Iron Fertilization Chances of Success Low
• 2011/01/31: IGBP: [Link to 1.3 meg pdf] Ocean Fertilization: summary for policymakers
  Geoengineering schemes involving ocean fertilization to affect climate have a low chance of success, according to the first summary for policymakers on the issue.

While on the adaptation front:

• 2011/02/04: UN: Australia's disaster risk preparedness helped prevent Cyclone Yasi casualties - UN official
• 2011/02/03: TerraDaily: 'Worst-case' plan saved Australians: officials
  A "worst-case" evacuation plan that herded tens of thousands of Australians from the path of a monster cyclone and its final shift south were credited Thursday for the miraculous lack of casualties. Early reports suggested no one was killed or injured when Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi ploughed into Australia's populous northeast coast shortly before midnight, defying predictions of deadly consequences. In the words of one resident: "We didn't just dodge a bullet, we dodged a rocket."

Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2011/02/04: Science: (ab$) The 2010 Amazon Drought by Simon L. Lewis et al.
• 2011/02/: RSTA: Theme Issue 'The Anthropocene: a new epoch of geological time?' compiled and edited by Mark Williams, Jan Zalasiewicz, Alan Haywood and Mike Ellis
• 2011/02/03: NERC:NORA: Chemical signatures of the Anthropocene in the Clyde Estuary, UK: sediment hosted Pb, 207/206 Pb, Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH), Polyaromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) and Polychlorinated Bipheny (PCB) pollution records by C.H. Vane et al.
• 2011/02/04: NERC:NORA: Humans as major geological and geomorphological agents in the Anthropocene: the significance of artificial ground in Great Britain by Simon J. Price et al.
• 2011/02/04: ACPD: Zonal asymmetries in middle atmospheric ozone and water vapour derived from Odin satellite data 2001-2010 by A. Gabriel et al.
• 2011/02/04: ACPD: Continuous observations of synoptic-scale dust transport at the Nepal Climate Observatory-Pyramid (5079 m a.s.l.) in the Himalayas by R. Duchi et al.
• 2011/02/04: ACPD: Trace gas fluxes of CO2, CH4 and N2O in a permanent grassland soil exposed to elevated CO2 in the Giessen FACE study by M. K. Abbasi & C. Müller
• 2011/02/04: ACPD: The effect of ENSO activity on lower stratospheric water vapor by F. Xie et al.
• 2011/02/02: OSD: Seasonal and inter-annual temperature variability in the bottom waters over the Black Sea shelf by G. I. Shapiro et al.
• 2011/02/04: TC: Modeling the temperature evolution of Svalbard permafrost during the 20th and 21st century by B. Etzelmüller et al.
• 2011/02/04: TCD: Record mass loss from Greenland's best-observed local glacier by S. H. Mernild et al.
• 2011/02/02: GMD: Evaluation of a present-day climate simulation with a new coupled atmosphere-ocean model GENMOM by J. R. Alder et al.
• 2011/02/03: GMDD: The role of phytoplankton dynamics in the seasonal variability of carbon in the subpolar North Atlantic - a modeling study by S. R. Signorini et al.
• 2011/02/01: GMDD: The CSIRO Mk3L climate system model version 1.0 - Part 1: Description and evaluation by S. J. Phipps et al.
• 2011/02/03: CPD: Holocene evolution of summer winds and marine productivity in the tropical Indian Ocean in response to insolation forcing: data-model comparison by F. C. Bassinot et al.
• 2011/02/03: CPD: Evolution of the seasonal temperature cycle in a transient Holocene simulation: orbital forcing and sea-ice by N. Fischer & J. H. Jungclaus
• 2011/02/01: CPD: Reply to Comment on "Using multiple observationally-based constraints to estimate climate sensitivity by Annan and Hargreaves (2006)" by Henriksson et al. (2010) by J. D. Annan & J. C. Hargreaves
• 2011/02/02: CPD: Continuous and self-consistent CO2 and climate records over the past 20 Myrs by R. S. W. van de Wal et al.
• 2011/01/26: GRL: (ab$) Recovery mechanisms of Arctic summer sea ice by S. Tietsche et al.
• 2011/01/29: Springer:PB: (ab$) Arctic fisheries catches in Russia, USA, and Canada: baselines for neglected ecosystems by D. Zeller et al.
• 2011/02/02: ACP: Hydroxyl in the stratosphere and mesosphere - Part 1: Diurnal variability by K. Minschwaner et al.
• 2011/02/02: ACP: Primary anthropogenic aerosol emission trends for China, 1990-2005 by Y. Lei et al.
• 2011/02/01: ACP: Water content of aged aerosol by G. J. Engelhart et al.
• 2011/01/31: ACP: An integrated modeling study on the effects of mineral dust and sea salt particles on clouds and precipitation by S. Solomos et al.
• 2011/01/31: ACP: Global distributions of methanol and formic acid retrieved for the first time from the IASI/MetOp thermal infrared sounder by A. Razavi et al.
• 2011/02/03: ACPD: Spatial distributions and seasonal cycles of aerosols in India and China seen in global climate-aerosol model by S. V. Henriksson et al.
• 2011/02/01: ACPD: Climatology and trends in the forcing of the stratospheric ozone transport by E. Monier & B. C. Weare
• 2011/02/01: ACPD: Temperature and sunlight controls of mercury oxidation and deposition atop the Greenland ice sheet by S. Brooks et al.
• 2011/01/31: ACPD: Aerosol indirect effects in a multi-scale aerosol-climate model PNNL-MMF by M. Wang et al.
• 2011/01/31: ACPD: Ultraviolet actinic flux in clear and cloudy atmospheres: model calculations and aircraft-based measurements by G. G. Palancar et al.
• 2011/02/03: Nature: (ab$) Late Holocene methane rise caused by orbitally controlled increase in tropical sources by Joy S. Singarayer et al.
• 2011/02/03: AJ: (abs) Predicting Agricultural Management Influence on Long-Term Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics: Implications for Biofuel Production by H. T. Gollany et al.
• 2011/01/27: PNAS: (abs) Physical and economic consequences of climate change in Europe by Juan-Carlos Ciscar et al.
• 2011/02/01: PNAS: Strong evidence for terrestrial support of zooplankton in small lakes based on stable isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen by Jonathan J. Cole et al.
• 2011/02/01: PNAS: Climate change induces demographic resistance to disease in novel coral assemblages by Laith Yakob & Peter J. Mumby
• 2011/02/01: PNAS: Climate and population density drive changes in cod body size throughout a century on the Norwegian coast by Lauren A. Rogers et al.
• 2011/02/02: AGWObserver: Papers of Willi Dansgaard
• 2011/02/01: GRL: (ab$) Change in spring snowmelt timing in Eurasian Arctic rivers by Amanda Tan et al.
• 2011/02/01: OSD: Mixing, heat fluxes and heat content evolution of the Arctic Ocean mixed layer by A. Sirevaag et al.
• 2011/02/01: TCD: A comparison of glacier melt on debris-covered glaciers in the northern and southern Caucasus by A. Lambrecht et al.
• 2011/02/01: TCD: Glacial debris cover and melt water production for glaciers in the Altay, Russia by C. Mayer et al.
• 2011/01/31: TC: Ice genesis and its long-term mass balance and dynamics in Sca(ris,oara Ice Cave, Romania by A. Persoiu & A. Pazdur
• 2011/01/31: TCD: Modelling the spatial pattern of ground thaw in a small basin in the arctic tundra by S. Endrizzi et al.
• 2011/01/31: AGWObserver: New research from last week 4/2011

  And other significant documents:

• 2011/01/12: FS:NRS: Effects of development of a natural gas well and associated pipeline on the natural and scientific resources of the Fernow Experimental Forest by Mary Beth Adams et al.
• 2011/02/01: FAO: [link to 5.3 meg pdf] The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2010
• 2011/02/02: NRDC:SwitchBoard: [link to 2 meg pdf] DOE study finds Keystone XL not needed
• 2011/02/: FAO: [link to 2.5 meg pdf] The State of the World's Forests 2011
• 2011/01/31: IGBP: [Link to 1.3 meg pdf] Ocean Fertilization: summary for policymakers
  Geoengineering schemes involving ocean fertilization to affect climate have a low chance of success, according to the first summary for policymakers on the issue.

As for miscellaneous science:

• 2011/02/02: Eureka: Earth's life support systems discussed in an open-access special issue
• 2011/02/01: ASI: Breaking: CryoSat ice data now open to all!
• 2011/02/01: PhysOrg: CryoSat ice data now open to all
  Scientists can now tap into a flow of new data that will help to determine exactly how Earth's ice is changing. This information from ESA's CryoSat mission is set to make a step change in our understanding of the complex relationship between ice and climate.
• 2011/01/30: ERabett: The Oxidative Capacity of the Atmosphere is Constant
• 2011/01/30: Stoat: More trash from the Indians
• 2011/01/30: ERabett: Pieter Tans on the Role of Scientists...the ethical need for those who study atmospheric carbon contamination to speak out...

  What's new in models?:

• 2011/02/03: USGS: New Discoveries Improve Climate Models -- Underwater Ridges Impact Ocean's Flow of Warm Water
• 2011/02/01: PhysOrg: Refining atmospheric climate models

  A late obit: Willi Dansgaard:

• 2011/01/11: NielsBohrInstitute: Willi Dansgaard has left us
  Professor emer. Dr. Phil. Willi Dansgaard passed away Saturday, January 8, 2011 at the age of 88 years.

Regarding Spencer:

• 2011/02/03: Tamino: A challenge to Dr. Roy Spencer
• 2011/02/05: CCP: Radiative Forcing Components -- Global Warming Skeptic Approved Version -- Why Leprechauns Can't Explain The Recent Warming

  Currygate, Gavingate, Lisbon etc.:

• 2011/02/05: Stoat: Go Judy
• 2011/02/05: ERabett: Gavingate
• 2011/02/04: BVerheggen: Lisbon reconciliation unsettling
• 2011/02/02: CCP: Great Lisboa Reconciliation Bunfest -- headlined by Judith Curry(gate) -- funded by fossil fuel interests
• 2011/02/02: ERabett: That Ol' Devil Rabett -- Eli has been wondering who fronted the money for the Great Lisboa Reconciliation Bunfest...

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2011/02/03: EarthTimes: Five EU states [France, Germany, the Netherlands, Slovakia & Britain] get security clearance to restart emissions trading
• 2011/02/01: Grist: E.U. carbon fraud: Could it happen here?
• 2011/02/01: SolveClimate: Controversy over Burning Trash for Power, and Carbon Credits, in India
• 2011/01/31: NYT:CW: Europe's Carbon Emissions Trading -- Growing Pains or Wholesale Theft?
• 2011/01/31: EurActiv: Greek police trace EU 'carbon thieves' in Romania
  The theft of pollution permits that forced the closure of the spot market in EU emissions permits last week may have originated in Romania, a Greek police official said on Saturday (29 January).
• 2011/01/31: BBerg: Organized Crime Blamed for Roiling $110 Billion [EU-ETS] Carbon Market

  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:

• 2011/02/06: JQuiggin: Catallaxy doesn't like bond markets
• 2011/02/01: TreeHugger: Another Problem with Carbon Credits: They Get Stolen

  Meanwhile on the international political front:

• 2011/02/04: EurActiv: EU, US, Japan should cooperate on rare earth supply
  Major rare earth-consuming countries should join forces to diversify their supply sources and develop substitutes for such materials, Keiichi Kawakami of the Japanese Ministry for Industry said yesterday (3 February)
• 2011/01/29: TehranTimes: China 'winning the green economy race,' UN climate chief [UNFCCC head, Christiana Figueres] says

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

• 2011/02/03: WtD: Is civil disobedience a legitimate tactic in the climate debate?
• 2011/02/03: CCP: Tim DeChristopher on trial February 28, 2011, in Salt Lake City, for bidding on auction of oil and gas parcels in Utah's wilderness

  Now we get to see how the Australian judicial system handles a SLAPP suit against anti-coal activists:

• 2011/02/03: BrisbaneTimes: Tackle Big Coal at your own risk
• 2011/02/04: ABC(Au): Compensation claim continues against climate change activists
  Port Waratah Coal Services hopes its victims compensation claim against seven Newcastle climate change activists will change the protesters behaviour in the future. P-W-C-S will be back in court next month, pursuing the Rising Tide environmentalists, who broke into its Kooragang and Carrington coal terminals in September last year.
• 2011/01/31: ABC(Au): Climate activists in court over coal protests
  Around 80 climate change activists will face court today after two large-scale protests in the Hunter Valley last year. More than 40 protesters broke into Port Waratah Coal Services' terminal in the Port of Newcastle in September, climbing onto machinery and shutting-down coal loading for several hours. School teacher Carly Phillips, 24, is one of seven people facing Newcastle Local Court today, being pursued by PWCS for over $500,000 in lost profits.
• 2011/01/31: ABC(Au): PWCS hopes a compensation claim against climate activists deters future protests
  A Newcastle Court has heard seven climate change activists dressed as employees of a Newcastle coal handling company in order to shut the site down for several hours. In September last year, seven Rising Tide Newcastle protesters broke into Port Waratah Coal Services' terminals at Kooragang Island and Carrington. They were today convicted of entering and remaining on enclosed lands and have been fined $300, plus Court costs. The Court has heard from a PWCS Manager, Shaun Sears who says 140,000 tonnes of coal was not loaded onto ships that day as a result of the protest. He says he has conservatively estimated that cost the company $525,000 in lost revenue and PWCS is now pursuing the activists in a bid to deter any future protests.
• 2011/01/31: ABC(Au): Climate activists in court over coal protests
  Around 80 climate change activists will face court today after two large-scale protests in the Hunter Valley last year.

What are the activists up to?

• 2011/02/03: Guardian(UK): Koch email pranksters speak out for the first time
• Sukey: A tool for non-violent demonstrations
• 2011/02/02: Guardian(UK): Inside the anti-kettling HQ
  A group of young computer geeks is wielding a new weapon in the fight against controversial police tactics at demonstrations
• 2011/01/31: AlterNet: Twenty-Five Arrested, Thousands Converge on Koch Brothers Billionaire's Caucus in the California Desert

  Polls! We have polls!

• 2011/02/04: TreeHugger: 83% of Americans Want a Clean Energy Bill Passed This Year
• 2011/02/04: ClimateP: 63% of Americans say "EPA needs to do more to hold polluters accountable and protect the air and water" -- 83% favor passing a clean energy bill this year
• 2011/01/31: SciDevNet: Brazil beats US in climate change awareness
• 2011/01/31: ClimateP: Despite emails and cold winter, 83% of Brits view climate change as a current or imminent threat
• 2011/01/31: Guardian(UK): Public belief in climate change weathers storm, poll shows
  Events of past 18 months have little effect on Britons' opinion, as 83% view climate change as a current or imminent threat
• 2011/01/31: TreeHugger: 83% of Brits Believe Global Warming is an Imminent Threat

  Regarding Water Politics and Business:

• 2011/01/29: TerraDaily: Iraq water shortages raise ethnic tensions

  And on the American political front:

• 2011/02/06: CCP: NYT Editorial: Clean Air Under Siege
• 2011/02/05: CCP: New Mexico Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a new state rule to limit global warming pollution will go on the books, overruling right-wing denier governor
• 2011/02/05: Guardian(UK): The cost of climate policy uncertainty
  Even a modest price for carbon would encourage investment in green jobs and reduce dependency on foreign oil imports
• 2011/02/04: BBickmore: New Joint Resolution from the Utah Legislature [urging the EPA to forego its plans to regulate GHGs]
• 2011/02/04: TreeHugger: 5 Leading US Health Groups Oppose Efforts to Block EPA Regulating Greenhouse Gases
• 2011/02/03: FT:ES: US states take initiative on cap-and-trade
  As Congress fights over whether or not to block the US Environmental Protection Agency from regulating carbon emissions, 23 states are moving ahead on one level or another to take climate legislation into their own hands and institute cap-and-trade schemes at the local level.
• 2011/02/02: AlterNet: Koch Brothers Hired Goons to Track and Threaten Critics and Reporters?
• 2011/02/02: Grist: Bay Area hands out $3 million to install home electric car chargers
• 2011/02/02: KSJT: St. Louis Beacon: NAS Bigshot [Ralph Cicerone] in town to talk global warming
• 2011/02/02: Grist: The Clean Energy Standard nightmare scenario
• 2011/02/02: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Koch Brothers Hire PR Firm To Combat Public Outrage
• 2011/02/01: AutoBG: Gingrich's support for ethanol subsidies brings out the knives at WSJ
• 2011/01/31: Belfer: Pursuing Real Environmental Justice in California by Robert Stavins
  California Governor Jerry Brown plans to move forward with the implementation of Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act, under which California seeks to take dramatic steps to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Questions have been raised about the wisdom of a single state trying to address a global commons problem, but with national climate policy developments having slowed dramatically in Washington, California is now the focal point of meaningful U.S. climate policy action.
• 2011/01/31: TreeHugger: Is Clean Energy Not the Same As Tackling Climate Change?
• 2011/01/30: LA Times: Gov. Jerry Brown is facing tricky environmental and energy issues in California
  California Gov. Jerry Brown's decisions regarding environmental and energy issues will affect public and private spending and public health for the foreseeable future.

The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:

• 2011/02/05: NakedCapitalism: WashingtonsBlog: Meanwhile, Back In the OTHER Gulf
• 2011/02/04: ScienceInsider: Embattled Author and Critics Agree: Gulf Recovery Assessment 'Not Based on Data'
• 2011/02/03: TerraDaily: Strange floating 'blob' found off Florida
• 2011/02/03: UFl: Oil in Gulf of Mexico: Biologists cite need for critical data to determine ecological consequences
• 2011/02/03: OSU: Forum paper: Scientists urge new research policies in wake of Gulf disaster
• 2011/02/02: Yahoo:Reuters: BP fund underpays oil spill victims: Mississippi
  U.S. courts must compel the administrator of BP's $20 billion oil spill fund to meet his legal obligations and stop short-changing victims of the Gulf of Mexico disaster, Mississippi said on Tuesday. Until now, "sweeping deficiencies and violations of law" characterize the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) fund run by independent administrator Kenneth Feinberg, state Attorney General Jim Hood said in a memorandum to a federal court in Louisiana.
• 2011/02/02: PlanetArk: Gulf To Recover From BP Oil Spill By 2012: Feinberg
• 2011/02/02: Tyee: Gulf Disaster Failed to Ignite Culture Shift: Study
  It's 200 days since the largest oil spill in US history was announced capped. How we missed a prime chance for change.
• 2011/02/01: Eureka: Where has all the Gulf spill oil gone? -- New predictive tool described in Environmental Engineering Science
• 2011/01/31: OilChange: "Compromised" API Set for Key Safety Role

  What did you expect?

• 2011/01/31: SolveClimate: Maine Governor Proposes 63 Clean Energy and Environment Reversals
  The new Tea Party governor says businesses are on the endangered species list, but opponents say his proposals will harm the state's nature-based economy

Cuccinelli's crusade rattles on:

• 2011/02/01: CVille: Fanning the flames -- In the Assembly and in the courts, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's crusade against climate science is heating up.

  The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2011/02/06: NewYorker: Cooling on Warming
• 2011/02/04: ScienceInsider: Obama Proposes Education Technology Agency Modeled After DARPA
• 2011/02/03: RRapier: Oil Price Could Doom Obama
• 2011/01/31: CJR: Science Faltering? Obama wants more R&D, but few willing to discuss research productivity
• 2011/02/03: Grist: Obama gets a little climate hawkish: 'Carbon pollution' is contributing to 'climate change'
• 2011/02/04: TreeHugger: See, Obama Still Cares About Climate Change (Video)
• 2011/02/03: EarthTimes: Obama unveils energy efficiency goal in effort to find compromise
• 2011/02/03: SolveClimate: Obama Taps Bingaman to Build Bipartisan Consensus for Clean Energy Standard
• 2011/02/03: ClimateP: Rebuilding America: President Obama sets commercial building energy efficiency targets
• 2011/02/03: TEC: Achieving Obama's Goal of One Million Plug-in Electric Vehicles is Eminently Doable
• 2011/02/02: CNN: Study: Obama's electric car goal hits roadblock [low demand]
• 2011/02/02: AutoBG: One million plug-in vehicles by 2015: How reasonable is Obama's goal?
• 2011/02/01: ClimateP: White House back to talking about climate change
• 2011/01/31: Grist: White House pressured Vilsack to approve GMO alfalfa, media reports suggest
• 2011/01/31: NYT: Obama's Bid to End Oil Subsidies Revives Debate
• 2011/01/31: TheHill:e2W: White House starts messaging battle on new energy plan
• 2011/01/31: KSJT: New Yorker Talk of Town: Obama won't say 'global warming.' (Maybe we need to heat Congress?)
• 2011/01/31: EarthTimes: Obama's White House launches new partnership to boost [clean energy] start-ups
• 2011/01/31: TEC: Obama's Climate Omission: Can We Disagree on Climate and Win on Clean Energy?

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2011/02/05: Grist: USDA 'partially deregulates' GM sugar beets, defying court order
• 2011/02/03: GreenGrok: The Future of the Environmental Protection Agency
• 2011/02/03: ScienceInsider: EPA to Regulate [perchlorate] Rocket Fuel Chemical in Drinking Water
• 2011/02/03: CSW: New Interior Dept. scientific integrity policy: first agency response to White House guidelines
• 2011/02/02: NYT:GW: Long-Delayed Projects Get Exemption From EPA's New Air, Climate Rules
• 2011/02/02: ClimateP: EPA and greenhouse gases 101 -- Why the agency needs to be allowed to reduce carbon pollution
• 2011/02/01: ScienceInsider: Interior Department Inks Scientific Integrity Policy
• 2011/02/01: NOAANews: NOAA Reopens More Than 4,000 Square Miles of Gulf Waters to Royal Red Shrimping
• 2011/02/01: ClimateP: EIA: New offshore drilling will lower gasoline prices in 2030 a few pennies a gallon
• 2011/02/01: NatureTGB: US Department of Interior leads scientific integrity effort
• 2011/02/01: DOI: Salazar Announces New Scientific Integrity Policy and Designation of Departmental Science Integrity Officer
• 2011/02/01: DM:CCM: Interior Department is First Govt Agency to Release New Scientific Integrity Guidelines
• 2011/01/31: NRDC:SwitchBoard: EPA works to protect wildlands and natural resources in Utah; industry continues to make false claims

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2011/02/04: NYT:GW: 'EPA-Bashing' Won't Work, Sen. Rockefeller Warns Coal Industry
  Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) today delivered a "frank, honest message" to the industry that he counts as a vital political ally: His bid to delay U.S. EPA emissions limits won't work if cleaner-burning coal does not move closer to reality.
• 2011/02/05: ClimateP: Republican budget chairman Paul Ryan spoke at the Koch's pollutocrat strategy meeting
• 2011/02/04: ClimateP: Manchin claims coal "doesn't get a penny of subsidies" -- In fact, the industry gets trillions of pennies
• 2011/02/03: ClimateP: Stop the madness: Mark Kirk, a U.S. Senator, blames his climate flip-flop on ... Al Gore's personal life
• 2011/02/04: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Legislative Watch
• 2011/02/04: NatureTGB: Tough cuts proposed for US science [by GOP]
• 2011/02/03: CSW: Draft Republican bill would repeal EPA scientific "Endangerment Finding" on greenhouse gases and prohibit regulation
• 2011/02/03: UCSUSA: Rep. Upton's Bill to Stifle EPA Threatens Public
• 2011/02/02: HuffPo: The Curious Case of Fred Upton
• 2011/02/03: DM:CCM: Waxman: "You Can't Amend the Laws of Nature"
• 2011/02/02: Guardian(UK): Republicans move to restrict US environment agency
• 2011/02/01: TheHill:e2W: Upton, Inhofe to float plan Wednesday that blocks EPA climate rules
• 2011/02/01: CSW: The Importance of Science in Addressing Climate Change: Scientists' letter to the U.S. Congress
• 2011/02/02: CBC: U.S. Republicans aim to ban greenhouse gas rules
• 2011/02/01: DeSmogBlog: Republicans Aim to Limit EPA Power Through Polluter-Friendly Legislation
• 2011/02/01: CCP: [Open Letter] To the Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate: The Importance of Science in Addressing Climate Change
• 2011/02/01: ClimateP: A letter from scientists to the new Congress on "The importance of science in addressing climate change"
• 2011/01/31: TheHill:e2W: Rockefeller floats bill to delay EPA climate rules by two years
• 2011/02/01: NRDC:SwitchBoard: The REINS Act: Why Congress Should Hold its Horses
• 2011/01/31: ENS: Senate Republican Bill Forbids EPA Limits on Greenhouse Gases
• 2011/02/01: JEmpire: Alaska Sens. introduce 'Frankenfish' ban
  U.S. Senators Mark Begich (D-Alaska) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) formally reintroduced legislation to the 112th Congress to ban genetically engineered salmon.
• 2011/01/30: TheHill:e2W: GOP sees looming 2012 elections as key to blocking climate rules

  What are the lobbyists pushing?

• 2011/02/04: CCP: Simply unbelievable! Clarence Thomas' wife a lobbyist -- meets with congressional tea party members -- makes over $600,000
• 2011/02/03: ClimateP: Chamber of Commerce continues decades-long assault against clean energy economy
• 2011/02/03: ClimateP: Business lobbyists demand Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) launch assault on key environmental safeguards
• 2011/01/31: Yahoo:AP: $46M spent on failed [Prop 23] Calif. global warming measure
• 2011/02/01: DeSmogBlog: American Petroleum Institute's Tar Sands Ad Campaign Pressures State Department To Approve Keystone XL

  While in the UK:

• 2011/02/04: OpenDem: The Government's plans to sell off England's forests are a disaster in the making
• 2011/02/02: OpenDem: The forest sell-off policy is unthought out, undemocratic and unnecessary
• 2011/02/01: Guardian(UK): NHS managers ordered to look at environmental impact of decisions
• 2011/02/01: Guardian(UK): UK greenhouse gas emissions fall 8.7% [in 2009] -- Total UK emissions plummet as recession lowers electricity and fuel use
• 2011/02/01: TreeHugger: Government Forest Sell Off Outrages Left and Right

  And in Europe:

• 2011/02/04: DerSpiegel: Oettinger on the Energy Summit -- EU Commissioner Wants to Fund Super Grid with Euro Bonds
  EU leaders meeting in Brussels are discussing the conditions for expanding Europe's internal electricity market. In an interview, European Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger of Germany discusses his vision for Europe and proposes what might be a surprising method for financing the ambitious project.
• 2011/02/04: EurActiv: EU draft: States can ban GM crops for public order
• 2011/02/04: EarthTimes:EU leaders call for new energy links but disagree on funding
• 2011/02/04: NBF: Europe plans to spend one trillion euros by 2020 for energy grid upgrades and nuclear included as a core part of the plan
• 2011/02/04: BBC: EU leaders tackle energy as trillion-euro bill looms
  A one-day EU summit on energy and innovation is being held in Brussels as Europe faces a heavy infrastructure bill over the next decade. The European Commission estimates that EU countries will have to spend 1tn euros (£850bn; US$1.4tn) on energy infrastructure in that period.
• 2011/02/03: EurActiv: EU leaders to dodge energy efficiency at summit
  EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Friday (4 February) are expected to announce a review of the bloc's energy savings plan only for 2013 and have no intention of making their 20% savings target legally binding, EurActiv has learned.
• 2011/02/02: DerSpiegel: EU Climate Commissioner Hedegaard -- 'Reducing CO2 Emissions Early Can Save Money in the Longer Term'
  In an interview, EU Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard discusses the upcoming energy summit in Brussels, the need for stronger energy efficiency regulations in Europe, the inevitable use of coal in the foreseeable future and plans for a low-carbon future.
• 2011/02/01: PlanetArk: EU Exec Wants Green Energy Subsidies Aligned, Raised
• 2011/01/31: EurActiv: EU pork crisis wake-up call on food dependency
  Europe's livestock farming crisis is a wake-up call that the region could become dependent on ever increasing food imports as farmers, unable to pass on soaring feed costs to supermarket shoppers, are forced out of business.
• 2011/01/31: EurActiv: Oettinger tells Europe: It's double or quits on renewables
  Europe will have to double its spending on renewables if it wants to meet its 2020 energy commitments, EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger has said. He was speaking as the European Commission released a new communication assessing member states' progress toward meeting the 2020 targets. The data showed that EU member states had largely failed to meet the electricity and transport targets they had set themselves for 2010.
• 2011/01/31: Reuters: EU exec wants green energy subsidies aligned, raised
  The EU's executive called for member states to align their subsidies for renewable energy and ensure a doubling of overall investment to 70 billion euros ($95 billion) a year to meet climate and energy security goals. The strategy came ahead of a meeting on Friday where leaders will try to reconcile an EU target of getting 20 percent of energy from renewable sources by 2020 with a debt crisis that has pushed some countries to the financial brink.

Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2011/02/06: ABC(Au): North coast group calls for illegal logging to stop
  A north coast conservation group says the State government has been 'lying' about the illegal logging of koala habitats.
• 2011/02/06: ABC(Au): Industry aid to be kept in new carbon scheme
  Prime Minister Julia Gillard says the Federal Government will not abandon all the industry assistance measures that accompanied its carbon pollution reduction scheme.
• 2011/02/04: JQuiggin: Factor of five
• 2011/02/03: ABC(Au): Federal Government climate change adviser Ross Garnaut says floods and cyclones like those experienced this summer will get more extreme as global warming increases
• 2011/02/03: ABC(Au): Adjusting the pitch on climate change
  Something fascinating is happening to the Government's climate change argument. It's replacing morality with economics.
• 2011/02/03: PlanetArk: Cyclone [Yasi] May Be Tipping Point In Australia Climate Policy Debate
• 2011/02/02: Guardian(UK): Will cyclone Yasi push Australia into action on climate?
• 2011/02/02: SolveClimate: In the Wake of Severe Floods in Australia, Political Irony and Fresh Contention
• 2011/02/02: PeakEnergy: Australia's Power Paradox
• 2011/02/02: CCurrents: Floods Australia's 'Katrina' Moment by John Pilger
• 2011/02/01: ABC(Au): The mining industry spent more than $20 million fighting the Government's resources rent tax before last year's federal election according to figures released by the Australian Electoral Commission
• 2011/01/31: PlanetArk: Australia's Floods Bill Climbs, Takes Toll On PM

  Through flood, fire and cyclone, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan controversy crawls:

• 2011/02/01: ABC(Au): The Australian Conservation Foundation says the benefits of a healthy Murray-Darling Basin can be valued at almost $10 billion a year to the national economy
• 2011/02/01: ABC(Au): Great drying unearths clues to big wet
  Climate change The ancient dry lakes of central Australia could provide clues to modern climate fluctuations, and should recalibrate our thinking on major flood events, Australian scientists say.
• 2011/01/31: ABC(Au): Basin authority to re-engage with community
  The appointment of a new chairman to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority has failed to resolve tensions between some states over water allocations. Craig Knowles says he does not feel a great sense of ownership over the initial draft guide released last year, but still wants to try and produce a final basin plan by December. However he has not ruled out scrapping the draft guide entirely and has promised to travel to affected communities.
• 2011/01/31: ABC(Au): The authority charged with managing south-east Queensland's major dams says there has been no decision to release water from Wivenhoe ahead of Cyclone Yasi
• 2011/01/31: ABC(Au): The new head of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority [Craig Knowles] has not ruled out scrapping the rescue plan and starting again.

  And in New Zealand:

• 2011/02/01: HotTopic: The odds are much worse than 50-50

  While in China:

• 2011/02/04: Guardian(UK): China plots course for green growth amid a boom built on dirty industry
  National economic blueprint set to tackle pollution and waste, and invest in renewable energy
• 2011/02/04: Guardian(UK): China to impose green tax on heavy polluters
• 2011/02/01: Reuters: China plans to spend big on nuclear power, high-speed rail
  Nuclear power and high speed rail will top the focus of China's plan to invest $1.5 trillion in seven key industries and shift the world's number two economy away from its role as a supplier of cheap goods, sources said.
• 2011/02/01: SolveClimate: China Wins Approval for Giant Dam Project in [Nu river] World Heritage Site
  Hydroelectric power company Huadian will build a cascade of 13 dams, similar to the Three Gorges Dam, in the "Grand Canyon of the Orient"
• 2011/02/01: NatureN: China sets 2020 vision for science -- Goals include commercialization of research and emphasis on energy, biomedicine and information technology

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

• 2011/02/06: WpgFP: Feds talk tough on environmental offenders, but convict only a few
  Environment Canada typed up thousands of warnings and carried out tens of thousands of inspections over a recent seven-year stretch. But over that period enforcement officers nailed down only 32 convictions -- or less than five per year.
• 2011/02/04: DeSmogBlog: Kent Insists - Against the Evidence - that Canada has a Plan
• 2011/02/04: PostMedia: Harper government to release plan to curb industrial pollution by year's end
  The Harper government will unveil its plan to crack down on industrial pollution - including greenhouse gas emissions from the oilsands - before the end of 2011, Environment Minister Peter Kent said Friday. Responding to new statistics from his department that suggest Canada is on pace to miss its new climate change target for 2020 by nearly 30 per cent, Kent said further announcements this year will bring the goal within reach...
• 2011/02/04: PostMedia: Government targets won't prevent increased greenhouse gas emissions: Data
  The Harper government's existing climate change policies won't stop greenhouse gas emissions from increasing to levels that are nearly 30 per cent higher than its new target for 2020 under the Copenhagen Accord, Environment Canada has revealed. According to newly released figures posted on the department's website, Canada's annual emissions would rise by about 16 per cent above 2005 levels by 2020 if there is no government action to fight climate change. But even with existing policies announced, such as new standards to reduce tailpipe emissions from new passenger vehicles, annual emissions would rise by seven per cent - from 731 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions up to 785 megatonnes. That projection would be 29 per cent above Canada's international commitment made by the Harper government.
• 2011/02/01: PI:B: New government documents show Canada on track for failure on climate change

  The G20 controversy lingers:

• 2011/02/05: OrwellsBastard: Someone remind me: what does the Police Services Board do again?
  So the cops are going to keep their sound cannons. The deal is done.
• 2011/02/01: MediaCoop: Toronto G-20: Will Police be Held Accountable After Scathing Ombudsman's Report?
• 2011/02/02: Rabble:JB: G20 activist Alex Hundert released from jail after three months in detention
• 2011/02/02: WpgSun: Toronto cop facing new G20 assault charge
  A Toronto Police officer charged in the assault of G20 protester Adam Nobody is facing a new assault charge involving another protester. Const. Andalib-Goortani is accused of hitting a woman with his baton outside Queen's Park on June 26, Toronto Police said Wednesday. He was charged with assault with a weapon on Tuesday.
• 2011/01/31: CBC: G20 protesters expects trial next year
• 2011/01/31: OrwellsBastard: A 'terrorist fist bump' to Alex Hundert

  Late comment on the NRTEE report:

• 2011/01/31: DeSmogBlog: Why Wait For The US? [NRTEE] Report Recommends Unilateral Canadian Action On Climate Change

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

• 2011/02/04: SolveClimate: Controversy over Meaning and Timing of [Keystone XL] Oil Pipeline Report
  TransCanada says their proposed pipeline could free the U.S. of Middle Eastern oil imports. Opponents say DOE's report shows the pipeline is not needed
• 2011/02/04: NRDC:SwitchBoard: 86 groups say no to Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline
• 2011/02/04: NPR: Report Backs Massive Canadian Oil Sands [Keystone XL] Pipeline
• 2011/02/02: CBC: Keystone [XL pipeline] to cut U.S. reliance on Mideast: study
• 2011/02/02: Reuters: Canada-U.S. pipe would cut Mideast oil imports: study
  A proposed pipeline from Canada's oil sands to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico would help "essentially eliminate" U.S. oil imports from the Middle East in a decade or two, according to a new study commissioned by the Department of Energy.
• 2011/01/31: DeSmogBlog: Groups File Appeal Over State Department's Refusal to Disclose Communications with Tar Sands Oil Lobbyist

  Dr. Ingram doesn't want to lend her name to a whitewash:

• 2011/02/03: CBC: Water expert quits Alberta oilsands panel
  A member of the recently appointed government panel that is supposed to design a credible way to monitor the environmental effects of Alberta's oilsands has quit. The panel's members were announced five days ago and are to meet for the first time next week. Helen Ingram, a water expert from the University of California Irvine, sent a letter to the group Tuesday expressing concerns about the lack of aboriginal representatives and how the panel would work.
• 2011/02/02: PostMedia: Debate ensues over oilsand panel -- Scientist quits, saying Alberta muzzling talks
  Just days after the makeup of a provincial panel meant to revamp oilsands monitoring was announced, an American member has quit saying there's not enough scientists in the group and the Alberta government wants to muzzle free discussion. "I'm concerned that First Nations may think this is yet another snow job by a bunch of experts who speak a lot of technical speak," said Helen Ingram, a University of California-Irvine professor emeritus who specializes in public policy on water resources.

Harper went to DC:

• 2011/02/05: PostMedia: Harper appeals to Obama to support $7B pipeline -- Project in limbo as State Department weighs options
• 2011/02/04: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Outside Obama-Harper meeting, environmental groups rally, call on Obama to say no to Keystone XL tar sands pipeline

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2011/01/31: PI:B: Finding a reason for hope after disappointing Total oilsands mine approval
• 2011/02/03: EuroVoice: Tar sands 'more polluting than other fuels'
  Average emissions from tar sands are 23% higher than oil from other fossil fuels, according to leaked study produced for the European Commission.
  [...]
  This latest study, by Adam Brandt, an assistant professor at Stanford University in the United States, was commissioned as part of the Commission's investigation into carbon footprints. The study finds that average greenhouse-gas emissions for tar sands are 107.3 grams of carbon dioxide per mejajoule compared to an average of 87.1 g/CO2/MJ for conventional fuels. This is close to the tar-sands value that the Commission came up with in an early draft -- 107 CO2/MJ -- which was subsequently dropped in the face of pressure from the Canadian government.
• 2011/02/04: KUOW: First "Megaload" Underway Under Watchful Eyes
• 2011/02/03: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Canada - pushing arguments of the past to support their tar sands oil industry
• 2011/02/02: CBC: Suncor earnings triple to $1.3B
• 2011/01/31: Oregonian: Oregon company begins trucking mammoth shipments through Idaho
• 2011/01/31: CBC: Oilsands water monitoring inadequate: panel
  A panel of experts says Alberta has failed to properly measure how oilsands development has affected rivers and lakes in the region. The provincial government set up [RAMP] an aquatics monitoring program in 1997 to detect changes in water quality and in fish that might be due to industrial development. A report by scientists commissioned to do a peer review of the program says it hasn't done its job and isn't capable of doing it.
• 2011/01/31: Guardian(UK): Trade talks could wreck climate change measures, campaigners warn -- Protests staged in London during attempt to promote Canadian tar sands as energy source

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

• 2011/01/31: PI: Ontario's electricity prices will increase with or without green energy
• 2011/02/01: CBC: Enbridge boosts Ontario solar network
  Enbridge Inc. is adding another 20 megawatts of power to its network with the acquisition of two new Ontario solar energy projects from First Solar Inc. for about $90 million.

While in la Belle Province:

• 2011/02/01: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Quebec may ban natural gas drilling due to environmental concerns

  In the North:

• 2011/02/04: G&M: Failure to report on fishery undermines Canada's claim to Arctic
  Canada's claim to sovereignty over the Arctic is being undermined by the federal government's failure to track Northern fisheries and to report catch data to the United Nations, say researchers from the University of British Columbia. "Canada makes a point about the Arctic, asserting sovereignty over the Arctic . . .[but] you have the impression of neglect," said Prof. Daniel Pauly of UBC's Fisheries Centre.
• 2011/02/04: CBC: Arctic fishing grossly underreported: report
  Nearly a million tonnes of fish were caught in the Arctic over the past half-century, despite the fact that less than 13,000 tonnes were reported to the United Nations, B.C. researchers report. "Ineffective reporting, due to governance issues and a lack of credible data on small-scale fisheries, has given us a false sense of comfort that the Arctic is still a pristine frontier when it comes to fisheries," said Dirk Zeller, the lead author of the report on the research findings, in a statement. "We now offer a more accurate baseline against which we can monitor changes in fish catches and to inform policy and conservation efforts."

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

• 2011/02/04: CCurrents: Understanding The Concept Of Commons: A Shared Responsibility
• 2011/02/03: CCurrents: Remembering History (Comment To Tim Murray And Tom Butler)
• 2011/02/01: CCurrents: Beyond The Economic Treadmill And Toward True Well Being
• 2011/01/31: AlterNet: Vision: In it Together -- How Banding into Groups Can Help Us Face the Next Catastrophe

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

• 2011/02/05: Grist: The GINK Videos -- Egypt has a population crisis as well as a democracy crisis
• 2011/02/04: Grist: For the love of God, stop having babies, says U.N.
• 2011/02/03: TreeHugger: Global Population Could Hit 14 Billion By 2100 Without Greater Effort to Slow It: UN
• 2011/02/03: BBC: UN 'concerned' by world population growth trends
  The world population growth rate must slow down significantly to avoid reaching unsustainable levels, says a new UN report.
• 2011/02/01: UN: As world population nears 7 billion, top UN official vows to focus on surging youth

  Apocalypso anyone?

• 2011/02/03: TMoS: If You Want to See What Collapse Looks Like - Check Out Central Asia
• 2011/01/30: EnergyBulletin: Razor blades and the limits of complexity

  As for how the media handles the science of climatology:

• 2011/02/05: CCP: Rush Limbaugh and Drudge Report put our national security at risk by falsely claiming green efforts are to blame for the Texas blackouts
• 2011/02/01: CJR: Introducing 'Earth Journalism' -- A global view of a local beat
• 2011/02/04: PSinclair: Why does Fox News Hate Renewable Energy?
• 2011/02/04: Deltoid: The Australian's War on Science 58: Quote Mining
• 2011/02/03: CCP: Jeffrey Sachs unmasks amoral Rupert Murdock's News Corporation relentless propaganda machine of Fox News, Wall Street Journal, and tabloids for conducting a campaign to falsely vilify Rajendra Pachauri
• 2011/02/03: Grist: 'Objective' political media helps Inhofe lie about EPA
• 2011/02/03: UCSUSA: FoxNews.com Article Uncritically Passes on Climate Misinformation
• 2011/02/02: CCP: NBC's Tom Brokaw launches climate change journalism series at Yale...
• 2011/02/02: KSJT: Yale e360, Yale Forum, and an essayist: Three takes on what reporters ought to watch in the data..
• 2011/02/02: DeSmogBlog: Wall Street Journal: Accurate 7% of the Time -- 93% of WSJ Opinion Pieces Misreport Climate Change
• 2011/01/31: AlterNet: 93 Percent of Wall Street Journal's Climate Op-Eds Misrepresent Science
• 2011/01/31: CCP: Dr. Andrew Dessler's letter to the Wall Street Journal, unpublished, concerning their idiotic and irresponsible lack of informing their readers of the truth about global warming
• 2011/01/31: SMandia: Wall Street Journal: Selectively Pro-Science
• 2011/01/31: NRDC:SwitchBoard: The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board Refuses to Back Up Its EPA Charges
• 2011/01/30: Deltoid: The Australian's War on Science 57: the Monckton Gallop

  Pearce is getting himself a rep:

• 2011/02/05: CCP: Deltoid: Pearcegate -- Fred Pearce fabricates quote by Gavin Schmidt [or why has the New Scientist gone down the same wacky road as Scientific American?]
• 2011/02/04: Deltoid: Pearcegate
• 2011/02/03: ClimateP: New Scientist's Fred Pearce jumps the shark
• 2011/02/03: ERabett: Through a Glass Darkly [Fred]
• 2011/02/03: SMandia: Fred Pearce at New Scientist: Making Stuff Up
• 2011/02/03: Tamino: Not a Misquote. A Nonquote. [Fred]
• 2011/02/03: TWTB: Fred Pearce is *still* a rubbish journalist
• 2011/02/03: Stoat: Porky Pearce

  Interesting that a network would advertise its bias:

• 2011/02/03: Grist: What the Fox -- Single white TV station seeks idiot for lies and doubletalk
• 2011/02/04: TreeHugger: Fox News Places 'Personal Ad' Seeking Debunkers of Al Gore - Is It Still 2006?
• 2011/02/02: Gawker: Fox News Columnist Seeks Sources to Scoff at Global Warming
• 2011/02/02: ClimateP: Fox News science columnist seeks sources to mock climate science -- even if they know it is accurate

  Here is something for your library:

• 2011/02/06: HotTopic: [Book Review] _The Renewable Revolution: How we can Fight Climate Change, Prevent Energy Wars, Revitalise the Economy and Transition to a Sustainable Future_ by Sajed Kamal
• 2011/02/05: CBC:Q&Q: [Book Segment] Fraser's Penguins
• 2011/02/04: OilDrum: [Book Review] _Renewable Energy Systems: The Choice and Modeling of 100% Renewable Solutions_ by Henrik Lund
• MITPress: [Book Site] _Access to Knowledge in the Age of Intellectual Property_ Edited by Gaëlle Krikorian and Amy Kapczynski

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2011/02/06: SkeptiSci: If you don't have 93 spare minutes to watch this film, make the time
• 2011/02/05: CCurrents: The Globe's Limitations: How Peak Oil Threatens Economic Growth
• 2011/02/04: CCurrents: Are We Running Out Of Oil? by Bill McKibben, Noam Chomsky, Nicole Foss & Richard Heinberg
• 2011/02/03: Grist: Climate refugees star in Oscar-nominated 'Sun Come Up'
• 2011/02/04: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Industry Fracking Up the Oscars
• 2011/02/04: TreeHugger: "Death Of A Forest" Documentary Details The Killing of Keystone Species by Pine Beetles
• 2011/02/04: ArtThreat: Flaming faucet doc sends industry fracking -- Friday Film Pick: Gasland
• 2011/02/03: PSinclair: ARkStorm
• 2011/02/02: WtD: Yasi: Cyclone Video HQ
• 2011/02/02: PSinclair: New Crock Video: What the Ice Cores Tell Us
• 2011/01/31: PSinclair: Shell CEO: More Demand, Less supply. Fuel Prices to Rise.
• 2011/01/31: 350-or-Bust: Former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell Takes on Anti-Science Republicans on Bill Maher

  As for podcasts:

• 2011/02/03: HotTopic: The Climate Show #6: Monckton and the iron in the ocean

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2011/02/04: CHN: Climatologist Claims Denier Defamed Him
• 2011/02/04: PlanetArk: Judge Finds Feinberg Not Independent Of BP
  The administrator of BP Plc's $20 billion fund to compensate victims of the Gulf oil spill is not independent and the oil company must refrain from calling him "neutral," a federal judge ruled on Wednesday. Judge Carl Barbier also ruled that BP must disclose in all communications that the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) and its administrator, Kenneth Feinberg, are acting on behalf of BP in fulfilling its legal obligations under the Oil Pollution Act. "While BP may have delegated to Mr. Feinberg and the GCCF independence in the evaluation and payment of individual claims, many other facts support a finding that the GCCF and Mr. Feinberg are not completely 'neutral' or independent from BP," said the New Orleans federal judge in his 15-page ruling.
• 2011/02/04: DeSmogBlog: [Professor Andrew] Weaver Sues Tim Ball for Libel
• 2011/02/03: SF Gate: Calif. cap-trade plan dealt blow by S.F. judge
  The California Air Resources Board violated state environmental law in 2008 when it adopted a comprehensive plan to reduce greenhouse gases and again last year when it passed cap-and-trade regulations, a San Francisco Superior Court judge has ruled in a tentative decision. If the decision is made final, California would be barred from implementing its ambitious plan to combat global warming until it complies with portions of the California Environmental Quality Act, though it is not yet clear what the air board would have to do to be in compliance. The state's plan, which implements AB32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, would reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. The Air Resources Board and those who brought the lawsuit, a variety of environmental groups represented by the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, a San Francisco organization, have until Tuesday to respond before the court makes a final ruling. In his decision, Superior Court Judge Ernest Goldsmith ruled that the air board approved the larger plan to implement AB32 prior to completing the required environmental review, and that the board failed to adequately consider alternatives to cap and trade.
• 2011/02/03: CCP: Corrupt polluter Chevron goes after Ecuador's plaintiff lawyers (Amazon Defense Coalition) with corporate bullying RICO lawsuit -- even naming plaintiff it said did not exist, in attempt to avoid paying for dumping billions of gallons of toxic waste into rivers by Texaco
• 2011/02/02: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Ninth Circuit Sides With Groups Who Want Clean Air In Los Angeles
• 2011/02/02: Reuters: Chevron accuses Ecuadorean plaintiffs of extortion
  Chevron Corp filed a civil racketeering lawsuit against Ecuadorean plaintiffs in U.S. court on Tuesday, opening up another legal front in its 17-year-old battle over pollution claims in the South American country. A week after plaintiffs submitted final arguments in the Ecuadorean court, Chevron filed a U.S. lawsuit against them, their lawyers and various supporters in both countries under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
• 2011/02/02: LA Times: Court rejects U.S. bid to establish corridors for new electric transmission lines
  A federal appellate panel rules 2 to 1 that the Department of Energy failed to adequately consult states or conduct environmental reviews. Involved are 100 million acres in 10 states, including much of the Mojave Desert.
• 2011/02/02: Reuters: California court clouds cap-and-trade outlook
• 2011/02/01: CNN: BP's Russian deal blocked by London court
  BP cannot go ahead on its deal with Rosneft before February 25 - The company resumes paying dividends, giving out 7 cents a share for the fourth quarter - BP is selling off two American refineries, Texas City and Carson - The oil giant set aside $40.9 billion to cover charges related to the undersea gusher

Among the non-members of Gamblers Anonymous:

• 2011/02/05: IdiotTracker: Out with the old

  Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:

• 2011/02/06: PeakEnergy: Is the tide turning for marine energy?
• 2011/02/06: PeakEnergy: Kenya Aims to Make Geothermal Energy Main Power Source By 2014
• 2011/02/03: Grist: How to get to 100 percent renewables globally by 2050
• 2011/02/05: TEC: Nathan Lewis on Energy Realities: Can We Get to 80% by 2035?
• 2011/02/05: TEC: The Nuclear Option in a Post-Partisan Approach on Energy
• 2011/02/03: CCurrents: WWF Energy Report: 100% Renewable Energy By 2050
• 2011/02/04: BNC: An environmentally sound, energy-rich future (Part II)
• 2011/02/01: BNC: IFR: An optimized approach to meeting global energy needs (Part I)
• 2011/02/04: EnergyBulletin: Why oil matters more than rubber
• 2011/02/04: GreenGrok: Going 100% Green: Pie in the Sky or Down to Earth?
• 2011/02/03: NYT:GW: Geothermal-Rich Idaho Aims to Remove Development Obstacles
• 2011/02/03: ORNL: 'Tall order' sunlight-to-hydrogen system works, neutron analysis confirms
  Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a biohybrid photoconversion system -- based on the interaction of photosynthetic plant proteins with synthetic polymers -- that can convert visible light into hydrogen fuel.
• 2011/02/03: EnergyBulletin: The energy report: 100% Renewable Energy by 2050
• 2011/02/03: CCP: Renewable Energy Can Phase Out Fossil Fuels in 40 Years [WWF]
• 2011/02/03: REA: U.S. Installs Only One Geothermal Plant in 2010
• 2011/02/01: PhysOrg: What, exactly, is clean energy?
• 2011/02/02: REA: So Long Fossil Fuels, Hello Wind Power, Solar and Water
• 2011/02/01: Reuters: China to develop controversial Nu River hydro projects
• 2011/01/31: Reuters: EU wind power construction slows, coal gains -EWEA
• 2011/01/31: PhysOrg: New hydrogen storage material could be added directly to fuel tanks
• 2011/01/31: TreeHugger: Top 10 Nations With Clean Power - Hydropower, Nuclear or Small Populations Figure Heavily
• 2011/01/31: REA: Solar Takes Wind in Test

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

• 2011/02/06: SolveClimate: Natural Gas Drilling Fells 1,000 Trees in W. Va. Forest, Scientists Say
• 2011/02/04: NRDC:SwitchBoard: New Mexico: elementary school evacuated due to nearby natural gas well and health impacts
• 2011/02/04: ENS: Toxic Diesel Fuel Used Without Permits in Fracking Operations
• 2011/01/31: PRWatch: Big Oil's Massive Diesel Injection
• 2011/01/12: FS:NRS: Effects of development of a natural gas well and associated pipeline on the natural and scientific resources of the Fernow Experimental Forest by Mary Beth Adams et al.
• 2011/02/04: ProPublica: Anatomy of a Gas Well: What Happened When a Well Was Drilled in a National Forest
• 2011/02/03: ProPublica: Abrahm Lustgarten Answers the Question, "How Clean Is Natural Gas?"
• 2011/02/03: ProPublica: Many PA Gas Wells Go Unreported for Months
• 2011/02/02: ProPublica: Drilling Industry Says Diesel Use Was Legal
• 2011/02/04: ArtThreat: Flaming faucet doc sends industry fracking -- Friday Film Pick: Gasland
• 2011/02/04: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Industry Fracking Up the Oscars
• 2011/01/31: Houston Chronicle: Drillers defend injecting diesel into ground -- 3 in Congress suspect water law broken during hydraulic fracturing
• 2011/02/02: PlanetArk: U.S. Fracking Firms May Have Broken Enviromental Law: Probe
• 2011/02/01: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Quebec may ban natural gas drilling due to environmental concerns
• 2011/02/01: PlanetArk: Total Seeks Partner For France Shale Gas Permit
• 2011/01/31: Reuters: U.S. fracking firms may have broken environmental law: probe
• 2011/01/31: ProPublica: Clearing the Air on ProPublica's Drilling Pollution Story
• 2011/01/31: NYT: Gas Drilling Technique Is Labeled Violation
  Oil and gas service companies injected tens of millions of gallons of diesel fuel into onshore wells in more than a dozen states from 2005 to 2009, Congressional investigators have charged. Those injections appear to have violated the Safe Water Drinking Act, the investigators said in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday. The diesel fuel was used by drillers as part of a contentious process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking...
• 2011/01/31: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Hydraulic fracturing has used diesel fuel in 19 states; "appears to be a violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act"

  The answer my friend...:

• 2011/02/02: AutoBG: Technip launches offshore floating wind turbine project
• 2011/01/31: REA: Uruguay To Develop 500 MW of Wind Power Capacity by 2015

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2011/02/05: TEC: DOE: SunShot Initiative to Cut Cost of Solar PV Systems by 75%
• 2011/02/04: PhysOrg: New approach to solar cells
  An interdisciplinary team of UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz researchers is taking a novel approach to solar power, one that promises to lead to a technological breakthrough. By using nanoparticles of germanium, silicon and other materials, the researchers hope to produce solar cells far more efficient than the current state of the art.
• 2011/02/04: PlanetArk: Norway's REC Builds Solar Power Plant In Italy
• 2011/02/04: SciDaily: High-Efficiency [20,5% Silicon] Photovoltaic Cells Developed
• 2011/02/04: REA: Why Big Solar is not Better Solar
• 2011/02/03: REA: Solar Photovoltaics: A High-tech Commodity
• 2011/02/02: REA: New Data Show Global Solar Industry On Course, Venture Capital Up
• 2011/01/31: PhysOrg: Stanford scientists see the solar future, and it's all about 'nanodomes' and 'plasmonics'
  Stanford engineers have succeeded in harnessing plasmonics -- an emerging branch of science and technology -- to more effectively trap light within thin solar cells. As a result, we're one step closer to thin, inexpensive solar cells.
• 2011/02/01: REA: New Multi-Junction Cell Could Offer a Big Leap for Solar
• 2011/01/31: PhysOrg: Solar panels track the sun for more efficiency

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

• 2011/02/01: REA: Louisiana PUC Orders Limited Feed-in Tariff -- Short contract period and low tariff payments may make the proposal moot

  On the coal front:

• 2011/02/03: BWeek: Coal Exports to Asia Have Green Groups on Edge
  Environmentalists are challenging Ambre Energy's plans for a Washington State export terminal
• 2011/02/04: TreeHugger: Plans for 150 US Coal Plants Have Been Scrapped Since 2001
• 2011/02/03: DeSmogBlog: Breaking: Purdue University Cancels Coal Project Thanks To Student Pressure
• 2011/01/28: ADN: Chevron exiting coal mining
  Petroleum giant Chevron Corp. said Friday it plans to get out of the coal industry by the end of the year.

Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2011/01/31: RRapier: What the RAND Report on Biofuels Really Said
• 2011/02/03: Eureka: Analyzing long-term impacts of biofuel on the land
• 2011/02/02: PlanetArk: Malaysia Rapidly Destroying Forests For Palm Oil: Group
• 2011/02/01: PhysOrg: Malaysian peatswamps obliterated for palm oil: study
  Peatswamp forests home to such species as the Borneo pygmy elephant are being obliterated in Malaysian Borneo to make way for palm oil plantations, according to a new study.
• 2011/01/31: TreeHugger: Shell Quits Last Algae Biofuel Commitment - Still Backing Ethanol & Cellulosic Biofuels

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2011/02/05: NBF: Quickly reviewing the scale of money spent on different [nuclear] energy
• 2011/02/04: UCSUSA: A Decade Later: NRC Reactor Oversight Process Has Failed to Improve Reactor Safety, New Report Finds
• 2011/01/31: NYT: U.S. Pushes, but Reactors Are Lagging
• 2011/01/30: NBF: China has started a Thorium molten salt reactor project

  Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

• 2011/01/31: TheWhig: 'This is bigger than global warming': expert
• 2011/01/31: TMV: Peak Oil and Civil Unrest

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2011/02/04: CPI: 'Clean Energy' Expansion Could Strain U.S. Power Grid
• 2011/02/05: PeakEnergy: Making the Smart Grid Smarter With Smart Transformers
• 2011/02/03: SolveClimate: Smart Grid Acquisitions by ABB, GE, Siemens Point to Coming $20 Billion Boom
• 2011/02/03: Grist: Snappy answers to stupid questions about smart meters
• 2011/02/02: AlterNet: Backlash Against Smart Meters: Are the Green Gizmos Really a Threat to Public Health and Privacy?
• 2011/02/01: TEC: Power Line Communications Now Being Used in More and More Scenarios [such as the smart grid]
• 2011/02/01: BBC: Plans for a subsea electricity cable linking Scotland and Norway will be examined as part of a study into a proposed new North Sea interconnector
• 2011/01/31: REA: Inverters Emerge as Key to a Smarter Grid
• 2011/01/31: REA: The Transmission Imperative for Renewables

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2011/01/31: EDF:TEE: CFLs Again. Different Story -- Same Answers
• 2011/02/05: CSM: A three-minute bedtime routine that will save you $3 a night
• 2011/02/02: CBC: Fluorescent bulbs: the good, bad and ugly
• 2011/02/02: CBC: Fluorescent bulb disposal plan up in the air -- Environmentalists, cities worry mercury will end up in municipal dumps
• 2011/02/02: OilDrum: Energy Efficiency Leads to Higher CO2 Emissions?
• 2011/01/31: TreeHugger: GE 'Energy Smart' 9W LED Lightbulb (Product Review)

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

• 2011/02/04: RRapier: The World's Most Fuel Efficient Car
• 2011/02/04: TCoE: Two EV tidbits
• 2011/02/02: NBF: Twenty times more efficient electric vehicle with a top speed of 375 mph
• 2011/02/02: AutoBG: Four-cylinder engines power 65.4% of cars built in 2010
• 2011/01/31: TCoE: It's the batteries, stupid

  This week in the Gee Whiz File:

• 2011/01/31: NewEnergyTimes: 26. Energy Catalyzer: It Works and It's Not Fusion [not cold fusion, but weak force nuclear reactions]
• 2011/01/30: NBF: New Energy Times Interviews Rossi who hopes to reveal a one megawatt low energy nuclear reaction device in September or October 2011

  As for Energy Storage:

• 2011/02/01: PhysOrg: Lithium-air batteries' high energy density could extend range of electric vehicles

  In the gas and oil biz:

• 2011/02/03: PlanetArk: UK Home Gas Use Sinks Due To Higher Energy Efficiency
• 2011/02/02: EnergyTrib: OPEC´s Oil Reserve Revisionism
• 2011/02/03: BBC: Shell annual profits double to $18.6bn
• 2011/01/31: AutoBG: DOE: Oil will average $99/barrel by end of 2012; gas $3.29 per gallon
• 2011/02/01: BBC: BP reports $4.9bn annual loss after oil spill costs
• 2011/02/01: CBC: BP profit rises to $5.6B US [in Q4 2010] -- Firm raises Gulf spill cost estimate to $40.9B US
• 2011/01/31: OilDrum: OPEC quotas and crude oil production
• 2011/01/31: BBC: Brent crude oil price hits $100 a barrel
• 2011/01/31: BBC: Exxon Mobil profit lifted by oil price -- Q4 2010 net profit $9.25bn (£5.8bn)

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

• 2011/02/04: OilChange: Investors Warn Over Deepwater Risks
• 2011/02/03: CCP: FedEx CEO, Frederick W. Smith, calls for an end to the addiction on oil, fossil fuels, threat to national security -- calls for policy recommendation's of the Electrification Coalition
• 2011/02/02: CCP: Carbon emissions lower company's stock price -- When emissions go up, stock goes down
• 2011/02/02: TreeHugger: Intel #1 on National EPA Green Power List With 2.5 Billion kWhs

  Who's fielding the FAQs?

• 2011/02/03: Guardian(UK): What is carbon?

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

• 2011/02/05: ClimateP: Energy and climate news for February 5...
• 2011/02/03: ClimateP: Energy and global warming news for February 3...
• 2011/02/02: ClimateP: Energy and global warming news for February 2...
• 2011/02/01: ClimateP: Energy and global warming news for February 1...
• 2011/01/31: ClimateP: Energy and global warming news for January 31...

  Other (weekly) lists:

• 2011/02/05: RBroberg: Climate Blog and News Recap
• 2011/02/04: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Climate, Energy and Environment News from Latin America: 1.31 - 2.4.2011
• 2011/02/04: IJISH: Mindless Link Propagation
• 2011/02/03: Grist: A walk through the week's climate news -- The Climate Post: Here come a bunch of bills to block the EPA
• 2011/01/31: NRDC:SwitchBoard: India Climate Change and Energy News - January 16 to January 22, 2011

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2011/02/05: TPL: PNS -- Pretty Nonsensical Stuff
• 2011/02/05: CCP: Radiative Forcing Components -- Global Warming Skeptic Approved Version -- Why Leprechauns Can't Explain The Recent Warming
• 2011/02/05: IJISH: Need Help #2: Joel Hesch at Proven Men Ministries a.k.a. 1 Way Out of Pornography -- information?
• 2011/02/04: GreenFyre: Curiouser and Curiouser
• 2011/02/04: CHN: Climatologist Claims Denier Defamed Him
• 2011/02/05: CCP: Sun spots and climate change deniers -- very interesting comment from Tamino's Open Mind blog
• 2011/02/05: BCLSB: Tim Ball Leaves The Stage
• 2011/02/04: PRWatch: The Kochs' Climate Change Denial Media Machine
• 2011/02/04: TCoE: Yes, deniers, now would be a very good time
• 2011/02/04: CC&G: Assessing Climate Trends: Eyeball versus Regression
• 2011/02/04: SkeptiSci: A Case Study of a Climate Scientist Skeptic by dana1981
• 2011/02/03: PSinclair: Funniest. Denier. Posting. Ever.
• 2011/02/02: HotTopic: Sic transit gloria Moncktoni
• 2011/02/01: WtD: What do you mean by scepticism?
• 2011/02/01: DeSmogBlog: David Koch and Wife Julia Observe Real Grassroots From A Safe Distance
• 2011/02/01: BVerheggen: Monckton climate myths resource and the Overton Window
• 2011/02/01: BBickmore: The Monckton Files: New Monckton Resource!
• 2011/02/01: TCoE: Monckton Myths debuts
• 2011/02/01: ClimateP: Monckton Myths: A one-stop-shop for debunking The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley
• 2011/02/01: AFTIC: Monckton Myths
• 2011/02/01: Deltoid: Monckton Myths
• 2011/01/31: SEasterbrook: Tackling nonsense head on
• 2011/02/01: PSinclair: All Monckton, All the Time. The Ultimate Monckton Debunking Resource
• 2011/02/01: SkeptiSci: Monckton Myths - a one-stop-shop for Monckton misinformation
• 2011/01/31: BBickmore: The Monckton Files: Sad Commentary
• 2011/02/01: Tamino: Peer Pressure
• 2011/01/31: ERabett: Popcorn please
• 2011/01/31: CCP: Monckton scared to death of documentary -- BBC wins battle over climate show
• 2011/01/31: Stoat: Werner Krauss is a tosser

  Meanwhile in the 'clean coal' saga:

• 2011/02/04: TreeHugger: Even More Coal Ash Poison Found in Drinking Water

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2011/02/05: TMoS: 2010 Climate Change Recap, Look Back to See Ahead
• 2011/02/05: MGS: The Way Things Break
• 2011/02/04: HotTopic: Thundersnow is go! (for weather geeks)
• 2011/02/04: CCP: Scott Mandia: Investors charged with managing risk mustn't confuse ideology with science
• 2011/02/04: TerraDaily: New Age Researchers Highlight How Man Is Changing The World
• 2011/02/01: PhysOrg: Feeling warm makes people more likely to believe in global warming, study finds
• 2011/01/31: ERabett: Environmental Services
• 2011/02/01: HotTopic: Singing in the rain
• 2011/01/31: ClimateSight: The Pendulum
• 2011/01/31: PhysOrg: Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by use of game theory
• 2011/01/31: CSW: Climate Science Watch Update
• 2011/01/31: WaPo: In light-bulb business, lumens try to power past watts
• 2011/01/31: SciAm: Elite Scientific Advisory Panel [JASON] Says New Technology is Needed to Verify Emissions Cuts
• 2011/01/30: TCoE: Oh Mother Earth...Pieter Tans nails it
• 2011/01/30: Guardian(UK): Reheating the climate change story
  The media have dropped climate change, with its tricky science. But cast in economic terms, it could recapture public interest

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

• USDA:WASDE: The World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report
• UNPD: United Nations Population Division
• Earth Summit 2012: Vision, Cooperation, Transformation
• Sukey: A tool for non-violent demonstrations
• West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide Ice Core
• UN: International Year of Forests, 2011
• NOAA:ESRL:PSD: Map Room Climate Products
• CU: The Flood Observatory - Space-based Measurement of Surface Water For Research, Humanitarian and Educational Applications
• IGBP: International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme
• NETimes: New Energy Times -- Low-Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR) Research and Next-Generation Nuclear Power
• Koch Watch
• Science Daily
• Eureka Alert
• CDIAC CO2 Info Analysis Centre
• Real Climate
• Wikipedia: Global warming
• WGMS: World Glacier Monitoring Service

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.

"You might think of a roller coaster riding the (Milankovitch) orbital rails, with Heinrich-Bond bungee jumping off the roller coaster while playing with a Dansgaard-Oeschger yo-yo." -Richard B. Alley [describing global climate over last million years]

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