Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
Another week of Climate Disruption News
Information is not Knowledge...Knowledge is notWisdom
September 18, 2011
- Chuckles, COP17+, Horn of Africa, Pakistan, BGS
- Monnett, WikiLeaks, Subsidies, Cook
- Fukushima Note, Fukushima News, Nuclear Policy
- Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics
- Food Crisis, Food Prices, GMOs, Food Production
- Hurricanes, Monsoon, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures, Ozone, Paleoclimate
- Attribution, Solar, Cosmic Rays, State of the Oceans, Extinctions
- Impacts, Forests, Extreme Weather, Wildfires, Corals
- Acidification, Glaciers, Sea Levels, GW Deluge, Floods & Droughts
- Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering
- Journals, Other Docs , Misc. Science, DIY Science, Models, Mann, Giaever, Spencer
- International Politics: Kyoto, UN, IPCC, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Bank Tax
- Rare Earths, Law & Activism, Activism, Polls, H2O Biz
- National Politics: America, BP Disaster, 2012, Gore, Solyndra, EPA, Obama, USAdmin, Congress
- Britain, Europe, Australia, Carbon War, Murray-Darling, New Zealand, China, Japan, Asia, Africa, South America
- Canada, Post G20, CYCC, Layoffs, Reaction, Pipelines, Quebecor, Radiation Testing
- CWB, NEB, Geothermal, Cohen Commission, BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Maritimes
- Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Courts
- Energy, Fracking, Oil & Gas, Pipelines, Peak Oil, Biofuel, Wind, Solar
- Nukes, Nuclear Waste, Fusion, LENR, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Energy Storage
- Business, Greenwashing, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
- New Web Site, Shameless Self Promotion, .sig
 |  |
- 2011/09/18: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) Chesapeake Bay
- 2011/09/16: QuarkSoup: (cartoon - Jonik) The Tee Party Has Spoken
- 2011/09/16: MTobis: (cartoon - Jonik) Democracy at Work
- 2011/09/14: uComics: (cartoon - Rall) People Have Questions
And for those interested in exploring the nether reaches of Poe's Law:
- 2011/09/16: AlterNet: 10 Signs God Is Furious With the Right [Poe's Law]
- 2011/09/13: Wonkette: Bachmann's Insane Vaccine Claim Is Too Insane, Say Other Insane People
Looking ahead to COP17 and future international climate negotiations:
- 2011/09/14: FAO: Africa must face climate change head on
Agriculture should be placed front and centre at upcoming meeting of UN Climate Change Convention - 2011/09/16: UN: Conditions worsen for famine-wracked Somalis in Mogadishu, but improve in Ethiopia
- 2011/09/13: CJR: Starving for Coverage -- Unlike the 1980s, journalists pay little attention to famine ravaging the Horn of Africa
- 2011/09/12: DerSpiegel: Development Aid for Africa -- 'The Problems Don't Disappear with Sacks of Rice'
Does aid to Africa do more harm than help? In a SPIEGEL interview, Zambian author and economist Dambisa Moyo explains how Western efforts have stalled real progress in Africa for the last 40 years and why it should be stopped. Africans, she argues, need to finally take responsibility for themselves. - 2011/09/13: Guardian(UK): Small-holder farmers in Kenya dig for survival - in [14] pictures
- 2011/09/13: TreeHugger: Deforestation Making Somalia Famine Worse, Forestry Experts Say
The monsoon floods in Pakistan are once again a major disaster:
- 2011/09/15: UN: Voicing concern over floods in Pakistan, Ban pledges continued UN assistance
- 2011/09/15: BBC: Pakistan floods: Two million hit by disease in Sindh
- 2011/09/15: al Jazeera: Crisis worsens in flood-hit Pakistan
Aid groups warn victims at growing risk of potentially fatal diseases, as government is criticised for slow response. - 2011/09/14: BBC: Pakistan floods: Oxfam launches emergency aid response
Immediate relief must be provided to millions of people by floods in southern Pakistan or more lives will be lost, Oxfam has warned. The international aid agency said it was launching an emergency aid response to help flood victims in the Sindh province. It said that some 5.3m people were now affected by the floods, caused by days of torrential rains. More than 200 people have already been killed by the floods, reports say. The growing crisis is already being compared with last year's devastating floods. - 2011/09/14: CNN: Heavy rains, floods kill 233, affect 5.5 million in Pakistan
300,000 people are in camps, a U.N. agency spokeswoman says - Seven die in the past 24 hours, a disaster agency spokesman says Wednesday - At least 5.5 million people have been affected - More rain is expected "over most parts of the country" - 2011/09/14: UN: Toll from Pakistani rains mounts as flooding spreads, UN reports
- 2011/09/14: Wunderground: New floods in Pakistan kill 226; Maria heads towards brush with Bermuda
- 2011/09/14: al Jazeera: Pakistan's Sindh braced for heavy rains
Hundreds dead and millions left homeless in the southern province since the monsoons began in August. - 2011/09/13: al Jazeera: Flooding cripples southern Pakistan
Pakistan's biggest city shuts down and as many as 280,000 people are left homeless as floods devastate Sindh province. - 2011/09/13: CNN: Heavy rains, flooding leave 226 dead in Pakistan
Some 5.3 million people have been affected - A strong weather system could bring more heavy rains - China, Iran have donated aid to flooding victims - 2011/09/13: BBC: Pakistan: Torrential rains and floods paralyse Karachi
- 2011/09/12: UN: With torrential rains exacerbating Pakistani floods, UN ramps up food and health aid
The British Geological Survey has created a comprehensive list rare metal resources:
- 2011/09/13: BGS: [link to 237k pdf] Risk list 2011
A new supply risk index for chemical elements or element groups which are of economic value - 2011/09/13: BBC: Earth's rarest metals ranked in a new 'risk list'
The relative risks to the supply of some of Earth's rarest elements have been detailed in a new list published by the British Geological Survey (BGS). So-called "technology metals" like indium and niobium are extracted from the Earth and are used in a wide range of modern digital devices and green technologies. They are therefore increasingly in demand from global industries. The list highlights 52 elements most at risk from "supply disruption". Incorporating information about each metal's abundance in the Earth, the distribution of its deposits, and the political stability of the country in which it is found, the list ranks these highly desired elements on a relative scale. - 2011/09/16: SCV: Investigation of arctic scientist going nowhere
Is. Dr. Charles Monnett being muzzled for his work on global warming and polar bears? - 2011/09/17: SlashDot: Inspector General Investigated For Muzzling Inconvenient Science
- 2011/09/17: CCP: Polar bear study probe falls flat - Inspector General Concerns on Joint U.S.-Canadian Study Prove Groundless
- 2011/09/15: ERabett: Yes, We Have Some Dead Polar Bear Pictures
- 2011/09/15: ASI: Kafka, eat your heart out
- 2011/09/15: CCP: Transcript of the BOEMRE IG's interview of Dr. Charles Monnett by Eric May
- 2011/09/14: PEER: Polar Bear Study Probe Falls Flat -- Inspector General Concerns on Joint U.S.-Canadian Study Prove Groundless
- 2011/09/14: ERabett: Peer on IG Persuit of Dead Polar Bear
- 2011/09/14: ERabett: David Brown, DOI IG Special Agent in Charge of Untruth, or the Trial of Charles M
Another trenchant WikiLeak:
- 2011/09/12: ABC(Au): Leaked cables reveal watered down reef protection
Leaked diplomatic cables show the Federal Government watered down reef protection laws in 2009 to avoid a dispute with the US government. - 2011/09/12: PeakEnergy: Orwell, 9/11, Emmanuel Goldstein and WikiLeaks
Who's getting the subsidies?
- 2011/09/15: DeSmogBlog: Pennies to Clean Energy, Billions to Big Oil -- Mainstream Media Missing the Real Story on Solyndra
- 2011/09/13: TreeHugger: Why Won't Big Oil Subsidies Die?
John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:
- 2011/09/18: SkeptiSci: Observations of Climate Change from Indigenous Alaskans by John Hartz
- 2011/09/17: SkeptiSci: Heat from the Earth's interior does not control climate by Andy S
- 2011/09/16: SkeptiSci: One-Sided 'Skepticism' by dana1981
- 2011/09/14: SkeptiSci: Arctic sea ice low - what does it really mean? by Verity
- 2011/09/14: SkeptiSci: Santer et al. Catch Christy Exaggerating by dana1981
- 2011/09/13: SkeptiSci: Climate Communication: Making Science Heard and Understood by Susan Joy Hassol
- 2011/09/13: SkeptiSci: CERN - Saying Nothing About Cosmic Ray Effects on Climate by dana1981
- 2011/09/12: SkeptiSci: Climate Denial Video #6: Past climate change
A note on theFukushima disaster:
It is evident that the Fukushima disaster is going to persist for some time. TEPCO says 6 to 9 months. The previous Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, said decades. We'll see. At any rate this situation is not going to be resolved any time soon and deserves its own section.
Not much good news coming out of Fukushima:
- 2011/09/16: EneNews: Japan Gov't: Reactors at Fuksuhima Dai-Ni nuclear plant will be decommissioned
- 2011/09/17: EneNews: Insurers say difficult to renew contract for Fukushima Daiichi as radioactive substances still leaking out -- Would complicate matters "if another emergency unfolds"
- 2011/09/09: Guardian(UK): Fukushima disaster: it's not over yet
Six months after the multiple meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the streets have been cleared but the psychological damage remains - 2011/09/14: APR: Fukushima Daiichi: Reactor buildings
- 2011/09/14: APR: Fukushima Daiichi: Reactor water injection
- 2011/09/14: WashingtonsBlog: Massive New Radiation Releases Possible from Fukushima -- Especially If Melted Core Materials Hit Water
- 2011/09/09: Cryptome: Fukushima Daiichi NPS Photos
- 2011/09/12: CBC: 6 months into Japan's cleanup, radiation a major worry
- 2011/09/12: PlanetArk: Sea Radiation From Fukushima Seen Triple TEPCO Estimate
- 2011/09/11: EneNews: Japan Times: Nuclear fuel is escaping from holes and cracks -- Years before leaking stops?
Post Fukushima, nuclear policies are in flux around the world:
- 2011/09/15: DerSpiegel: Greenwashing after the Phase-Out -- German 'Energy Revolution' Depends on Nuclear Imports
Germany's decision to phase out its nuclear power plants by 2022 has rapidly transformed it from power exporter to importer. Despite Berlin's pledge to move away from nuclear, the country is now merely buying atomic energy from neighbors like the Czech Republic and France. - 2011/09/18: BBC: Siemens to quit nuclear industry
German industrial and engineering conglomerate Siemens is to withdraw entirely from the nuclear industry. The move is a response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in March, chief executive Peter Loescher said. He told Spiegel magazine it was the firm's answer to "the clear positioning of German society and politics for a pullout from nuclear energy". "The chapter for us is closed," he said, announcing that the firm will no longer build nuclear power stations. - 2011/09/15: BNC: The Swiss army nuclear knife
- 2011/09/13: BBC: New Japan PM Noda in nuclear restart call
New Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has called for nuclear plants halted after the Fukushima crisis to be restarted. But in his first policy speech since taking office, he told parliament that Japan should aim to reduce its reliance on nuclear power in the long term. - 2011/09/12: Reuters: Switch from nuclear power would cost Japan $280 bln-Greenpeace
- 2011/09/12: UN: After Japanese reactor accident, UN agency pledges to restore faith in nuclear power
- 2011/09/12: Grist: Can Japan get off nuclear by 2012 without wrecking its economy?
- 2011/09/11: SwissInfo: Door "still open" for new Swiss nuclear reactors
Switzerland has five nuclear power stations that account for around 40% of the country's electricity production The accident at Fukushima in Japan seems to have had little impact on global attitudes towards nuclear power, a Swiss energy official tells swissinfo.ch. Jean-Christophe Füeg, head of international energy affairs at the Federal Energy Office, explains why, despite the decision to phase out nuclear power in Switzerland, the door remains open for the construction of new generation reactors. - 2011/09/17: ASI: NASA video of 2011 melting season
- 2011/09/18: Wunderground: Arctic sea ice bottoms out near all-time low; August was Earth's 4th - 8th warmest
- 2011/09/16: BBC: Arctic ice hits second-lowest level, US scientists say
Sea ice cover in the Arctic in 2011 has passed its annual minimum, reaching the second-lowest level since satellite records began, US scientists say. The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) says the minimum, reached on 9 September, was 4.33 million sq km. That value is 36% lower than the average minimum for 1979-2000. - 2011/09/15: QuarkSoup: Arctic Sea Ice in 2nd Place, However...
- 2011/09/16: PSinclair: NSIDC: Ice Bottoms Out, Second Lowest on Record (maybe)
- 2011/09/15: ASI: NSIDC also calls the minimum
- 2011/09/15: CBC: Arctic ice near all-time low, 2nd study confirms
- 2011/09/15: PlanetArk: Arctic Sea Ice Coverage Second Lowest On Record: Report
- 2011/09/14: SciNews: Summer Arctic melt among worst ever -- No obvious weather patterns explain near-record annual ice retreat
- 2011/09/15: Eureka: Arctic sea ice reaches minimum 2011 extent, making it second lowest in satellite record
- 2011/09/14: PostMedia: Arctic sea ice coverage second lowest on record: report
Sea-ice coverage across the Arctic Ocean has dwindled to its second-lowest level since satellite records started in 1979, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. - 2011/09/15: PSinclair: Graph of the Day: Sea Ice Before Satellites
- 2011/09/14: ASI: Final score: 2011 vs 2007
- 2011/09/14: SkeptiSci: Arctic sea ice low - what does it really mean? by Verity
- 2011/09/14: PlanetArk: Summer Arctic Sea Ice Melt At Or Near Record
- 2011/09/14: NatureNB: Arctic Sea Ice: This is a low, no?
- 2011/09/14: TreeHugger: US Arctic Sea Ice Measurements Show No New Record Minimum Set in 2011, Yet
- 2011/09/13: ASI: The fat lady's singing
- 2011/09/12: TP:JR: German Physicists: Historic Low Arctic Ice is a "Consequence of Man-Made Global Warming with Global Consequences"
- 2011/09/12: PSinclair: Down to the Wire: Arctic Ice Close to Bottom (we hope..)
- 2011/09/12: CBC: Arctic sea ice hits record low
- 2011/09/12: TreeHugger: Arctic Sea Ice Sets New Record Low in 2011
- 2011/09/11: TP:JR: The New Arctic Abnormal: Record Low Sea Ice Volume, Area and Extent
- 2011/09/12: Grist: New record low for arctic sea ice
- 2011/09/12: NatureNB: Arctic sea ice drops to record low
- 2011/09/11: ASI: First uptick IJIS
- 2011/09/11: Guardian(UK): Arctic sea ice is melting at its fastest pace in almost 40 years
The Northwest Passage was, again, free of ice this summer and the polar region could be unfrozen in just 30 years - 2011/09/14: Tyee: Study to examine global warming's impact on permafrost
- 2011/09/12: CBC: $4M study to look at North's thawing permafrost
As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:
- 2011/09/16: TStar: To plunder or protect the Arctic?
- 2011/09/16: S&R: Trashing Ultima Thule
- 2011/09/13: OilChange: Cairn Suffers Another Greenland Setback
- 2011/09/11: AlaskaDispatch: No easy solutions for cleaning up Arctic oil spills, environmental group [WWF] says
- 2011/09/11: G&M: Arctic drilling under the microscope
Oil companies' plans for Arctic drilling face a crucial test this week at a high-stakes meeting in Inuvik, NWT, as they seek to reassure the National Energy Board of their ability to prevent blowouts and respond effectively to spills. Many northern residents and southern environmental groups remain deeply skeptical, and their doubts were fuelled last week with two reports that challenge industry claims that it is prepared to meet the environmental risks associated with operating in such a hostile environment. - 2011/09/11: OilDrum: Tech Talk - Reaching the Oil: Offshore Alaska
The food crisis is ongoing:
- 2011/09/12: FAO: 'Ending Hunger' web portal earns Premio Italia special award
- 2011/09/16: BPA: The September 2011 Rice Outlook
- 2011/09/11: USAToday: Many older adults scramble to pay for food
Food Prices are still problematic:
- FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
- 2011/09/17: TP:JR: Global Food Prices Stuck Near Record High Levels
- 2011/09/12: CBC: Food prices could rise on smaller U.S. corn crop
Food prices could rise next year because an unseasonably hot summer likely damaged much of this year's corn crop. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated Monday that a surplus of 672 million bushels of corn will be left over at the end of next summer. The estimated surplus is down from last month's forecast and well below levels that are considered healthy. This spring, farmers planted the second-largest crop since World War II. But high temperatures stunted the plants. - 2011/09/13: Grist: Roundup weed killer is showing up in air and water
- 2011/09/13: Grist: Not your grandma's milk
- 2011/09/12: ScienceInsider: French Government Defies E.U. Court on GM Maize
The French government continues to stand its ground against lifting the ban on growing genetically modified corn in France. On Thursday, the European Court of Justice said that France's 2008 prohibition against Monsanto's MON810 variety was out of line on procedural grounds. But in a reaction, the French minister for the environment, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, told reporters she was more convinced than ever that MON810 should be kept from French fields, according to the French daily Le Figaro. - 2011/09/16: UN: World leaders must take binding steps to curb unhealthy food industry - UN expert
- 2011/09/18: BBC: Scientists are starting a novel project to investigate whether overfishing alters fish behaviour and changes their pattern of development
- 2011/09/14: UN: UN working on ways to mitigate climate change's impact on African agriculture
- 2011/09/11: BPA: How Do We Feed the World Without Destroying it? TED Talk on Agriculture.
In the Western Pacific, Roke and Sonca threatened:
- 2011/09/15: NASA: Infrared NASA Satellite Imagery Confirmed Newborn Tropical Storm Sonca
- 2011/09/15: NASA: Tropical Storm Roke Closing in on Kadena Air Base: Infrared NASA Satellite Imagery
- 2011/09/15: NASA: NASA's TRMM Satellite Reveals Heaviest Rainfall in Maria's Northwestern Quadrant
In the Atlantic, Maria brushed by Newfoundland:
- 2011/09/16: Wunderground: Hurricane Maria rushes towards Newfoundland
- 2011/09/16: CBC: Hurricane Maria to drench eastern Newfoundland -- Hurricane warning in effect for southern Avalon Peninsula
- 2011/09/15: CBC: Hurricane Maria bears down on Newfoundland Tropical storm Maria has become a Category 1 hurricane and is expected to make landfall Friday afternoon in southeast Newfoundland.
The Canadian Hurricane Centre issued a statement Thursday night indicating Maria had reached maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometres an hour. - 2011/09/15: Wunderground: Maria bushes Bermuda; 24-hour blitz by Climate Reality Project underway
- 2011/09/14: CBC: Tropical storm Maria heads to Atlantic Canada
Canadian Hurricane Centre predicting eastern Newfoundland may be hit hardest - 2011/09/13: Wunderground: Little change to Maria; Extratropical Storm Katia batters the U.K.
- 2011/09/13: BBC: Mexico rescues oil workers drifting on life raft
Six oil workers are recovering in hospital after three days drifting on a life raft in the Gulf of Mexico. Mexican state oil company Pemex said four Mexicans, two Americans and a Bangladeshi were found off Campeche state. The Bangladeshi later died. Two bodies have also been found while the search continues for a third man. The contractors evacuated their offshore vessel, known as a liftboat, after it was hit by Tropical Storm Nate. - 2011/09/11: Guardian(UK): Severe weather warning as Hurricane Katia tail approaches [UK]
Gales, combined with heavy rain, could cause significant disruption in Ireland, England and Scotland - 2011/09/12: Wunderground: Maria pulling away from the Antillies; Ex-Katia pounding the U.K.
- 2011/09/11: Wunderground: Nate makes landfall; Maria organizing, but pulling away from the islands
As for the Monsoon:
- 2011/09/12: CBC: Monsoon flooding kills 16 in eastern India
Nearly 2,800 villages affected by 10 days of heavy rain - 2011/09/12: BBC: Floods bring chaos to India and Pakistan
More than a million people have been displaced and at least 16 killed as floods in India's Orissa state submerged entire villages, officials say. Heavy monsoon rains submerged about 2,600 villages across 19 districts. Meanwhile more rain has been forecast in Pakistan's southern Sindh province where, officials say, 199 people have died over the last two weeks. Millions have been affected by floods there and the UN has begun relief work. - 2011/09/15: Eureka: Carbon cycle reaches Earth's lower mantle, Science study reports -- Evidence of carbon cycle found in 'superdeep' diamonds From Brazil
As for the temperature record:
- 2011/09/15: NOAANews: Globe had eighth warmest August on record
- 2011/09/14: PlanetArk: Dallas Breaks Much-Awaited Heat Record, With Mixed Emotions
- 2011/09/13: moyhu: August GISS - Very small rise - TempLS map comparison
- 2011/09/12: QuarkSoup: 4th Warmest August -- GISS puts August as the 4th warmest in their records, +0.61°C above their baseline
- 2011/09/12: ITracker: GISS: +0.61C, 4th warmest August on record
As for ozone:
- 2011/09/16: WMO: Preserve the ozone layer, protect the global climate system
While in the paleoclimate:
- 2011/09/18: Gizmodo: A 5-Year-Old Girl Dug Up a [16 inch] 160 Million Year Old [Ammonite] Fossil
- 2011/09/14: Eureka: The cause of Earth's largest environmental catastrophe -- Siberian traps and their relation to the mass extinction 250 million years ago
In the attribution debate:
- 2011/09/12: CSM: Did global warming cause hurricane Irene?
Regarding the solar hypothesis:
- 2011/09/13: HotTopic: It isn't the sun
Regarding the cosmic ray hypothesis:
- 2011/09/12: GreenGrok: Climate's Cosmic Connection?
And the State of the Oceans:
- 2011/08/18: BBC: Who, What, Why: Why are we plagued by jellyfish?
What's new on the extinction front?
- 2011/09/15: BBC: Freshwater pearl mussels among IUCN's 'most endangered'
Scottish freshwater pearl mussels join giant pandas and Javan rhinos in a new book listing 365 of the world's "most endangered species". Species on the Edge of Survival has been put together by the International Union for Conservation (IUCN). It keeps a red list of threatened wildlife using information gathered by scientists and conservationists. - 2011/09/12: Independent(UK): Coral reefs 'will be gone by end of the century'
They will be the first entire ecosystem to be destroyed by human activity, says top UN scientist [Professor Peter Sale] - 2011/09/12: NatureN: Seals slide towards extinction in Hawaiian reserve -- Endangered monk seals are dying off despite being in protected areas
More GW impacts are being seen:
- 2011/09/13: USGS: Observations of Climate Change from Indigenous Alaskans
- 2011/09/13: ERW: Bluetongue to increase with climate change
Researchers from the University of Liverpool, UK, are predicting that rising temperatures in Northern Europe will mean an increase in bluetongue -- a viral disease that affects cattle and sheep. - 2011/09/15: Guardian(UK): Global warming brings exotic fish to British waters but at a cost
- 2011/09/15: BBC: Climate change boon to UK seafood
UK waters may become more productive fishing grounds as climate change brings new species in from the south, according to researchers. Fish such as red mullet, hake and sole have become more abundant in the last 30 years, as the waters have warmed. But established favourites such as cod and haddock may be on the wane. - 2011/09/15: TreeHugger: New Atlas Recognizes World's Newest Island - Direct Result of Climate Change
- 2011/09/15: Eureka: Some like it hot -- European fish stocks changing with warming seas
- 2011/09/15: Eureka: In rapidly warming seas, some fish lose while others gain
- 2011/09/14: Guardian(UK): Himalayas expedition finds evidence of 'disaster in the making'
- 2011/09/14: EurActiv: Europe's oceans changing at unprecedented rate, report says
Europe's seas are changing at an unprecedented rate as ice sheets melt, temperatures rise and marine life migrates due to climate change, a report by the Climate Change and European Marine Ecosystem Research (CLAMER) project has warned. - 2011/09/14: PlanetArk: Europe's Oceans Changing At Unprecedented Rate: Report
- 2011/09/14: Grist: Indigenous Alaskans have no doubt the climate is changing
- 2011/09/13: USGS: Observations of Climate Change from Indigenous Alaskans
And then there are the world's forests:
- 2011/09/15: BBC: 'No substitute' for virgin forest
The crucial role that virgin forests play in conserving nature is confirmed in a study that spans the tropics. An international team of researchers analysed more than 100 existing studies comparing wildlife in forests that had been modified and those that had not. - 2011/09/14: Eureka: Old-growth rainforests must be saved for tropical biodiversity
- 2011/09/14: BBC: Disease threat leaves UK oaks' future 'at crossroads'
- 2011/09/13: UN: Failure to protect forests will lead to huge financial losses - UN-backed report
- 2011/09/13: TreeHugger: Deforestation Making Somalia Famine Worse, Forestry Experts Say
This week in the New Normal -- extreme weather:
- 2011/09/17: CSW: Weather extremes in a changing climate: Like Barry Bonds on steroids
- 2011/09/13: GreenGrok: Going to Computational Extremes on Weather Extremes
- 2011/09/16: OPB: A Warming Climate May Lead To More Extreme Weather In The Northwest
- 2011/09/13: MTobis: Nielsen-Gammon vs the New Normal
- 2011/09/13: KSJT: Reuters, AP: Bits and pieces of climate change and drastic weather news
- 2011/09/12: AlterNet: The 10 Worst Weather Disasters This Year and Why They Are Happening
As for heatwaves and wild fires:
- 2011/09/14: NSF: Scorched Earth: The Past, Present and Future of Human Influences on Wildfires
A new framework for evaluating human influences on wildfires is developed - 2011/09/13: SciAm:PI: Update on the Bastrop, TX fires
- 2011/09/14: TreeHugger: Wildfire Spreading Rapidly Through Northern Minnesota, Locals Prepare to Evacuate
- 2011/09/13: SciAm:EC: Texas Wildfires Devastate Last Habitat for Endangered Houston Toad
- 2011/09/11: NewsMiner: Recovery after world's largest tundra fire raises questions
- 2011/09/11: CBC: Texas wildfire destroyed almost 1,600 homes -- 17 people still unaccounted for
Corals are a bellwether of the ocean's health:
- 2011/09/12: Independent(UK): Coral reefs 'will be gone by end of the century'
Acidification is changing the oceans:
- 2011/09/14: TP:JR: The Great Oyster Crash and Why Ocean Acidification Is "A Ticking Time Bomb" for Both Marine Life and Humanity
Glaciers are melting:
- 2011/09/16: Guardian(UK): Watching a glacier die at Imja Lake [Nepal]
Sea levels are rising:
- 2011/09/17: TreeHugger: Rising Seas to Wash Away Iconic California Beaches, Tourism
- 2011/09/16: PlanetArk: Rising Seas Expected To Wash Out Key California Beaches
- 2011/09/14: LA Times: Rising sea levels could take economic toll on California beaches
A state-commissioned study by San Francisco State says erosion and storm damage by the advancing ocean over the next century could cut into tourism and tax revenue. - 2011/09/13: Eureka: Study predicts sea level rise may take economic toll on California coast
- 2011/09/11: OilDrum: New coral dating method hints at possible future sea-level changes
These global warming deluges are becoming all too frequent:
- 2011/09/13: TP:JR: Virginia Deluge Was an "Off the Charts Above a 1000-year Rainfall," Says National Weather Service
As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:
- 2011/09/17: BBC: Drought remains in parts of England
Parts of England are still considered to be experiencing a drought, with low ground water levels despite the wet summer, the Environment Agency said. Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, west Norfolk and parts of Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire remain in drought due to 2011's exceptionally dry spring. September's rainfall for central and eastern England has so far been about 30% of the long-term monthly average. Other areas in England and Wales had received between 41% and 65%. The drought was first declared in June, and if normal autumn conditions prevail, the status could be lifted by November or December, the agency said. - 2011/09/15: CAbyss: Texas Drought: Good News and Bad News
First the really good news: according to the latest US Drought Monitor, only 0.83% of Texas is in moderate drought.
Next the moderately good news: only 2.42% of Texas is in severe drought.
Not so good news: 8.88% of Texas is in extreme drought.
Bad news: that leaves fully 87.83% of Texas in exceptional drought, the worst drought category. - 2011/09/15: QuarkSoup: About that Texas Drought
- 2011/09/14: TreeHugger: Here's Why Climate Change Makes Future Texas Droughts More Likely
- 2011/09/13: CNN: Drought lingers in southern China, impacts 44 million people
Guizhou province is suffering its worst drought since 1951 - Millions of people are short of drinking water - The drought has had a large impact on agriculture - The economic loss is estimated at $4.5 billion - 2011/09/15: DerSpiegel: The Battle for Germany's Roads -- Tempers Fray as Bikes and Cars Vie for Supremacy
Germany may have a reputation as a bicycle-friendly country, but its streets are becoming increasingly tough as cyclists battle drivers and pedestrians for their share of limited space. A history of misguided transport policy is partly to blame for the growing aggressiveness. But model projects across Germany show harmony between bikes and cars is possible. - 2011/09/15: Grist: You want a war on cars? Fine, here's your war on cars
- 2011/09/14: SciAm:PI: (Un)Reliable Energy Supplies - Transportation
While in the endless quest for zero energy, sustainable buildings and practical codes:
- 2011/09/14: Atlantic: The Beginning of the End for Suburban America
For decades, Americans have consumed more energy, built bigger houses, and driven more miles with each passing year. Not anymore. - 2011/09/15: TreeHugger: Zero Net Energy zHome is "A Model For Mainstream Housing In The Future"
As for carbon sequestration:
- 2011/09/13: TreeHugger: Odds Are Better For Winning The Lottery Than Being Poisoned By A Leaking Carbon Capture Project
- 2011/09/13: BBC:RB: Carbon capture is 'safe' - but how attractive?
Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:
- 2011/09/14: KSJT: BBC, UK Press, etc: Artificial volcano? Odd way to describe a balloon...
- 2011/09/15: PeakEnergy: Australia to host geoengineering conference
- 2011/09/15: BBC:RB: Balloon goes up for geo-engineering - but that's the easy part...
- 2011/09/14: Guardian(UK): Geoengineering: we need more evidence before we cast our vote
Government and scientists need more and better information on the pros and cons, and the only way to achieve this is with appropriate research - 2011/09/14: PlanetArk: Hosepipe And Balloon: Think Of It As A Volcano
- 2011/09/14: Grist: Scientists are about to test a scheme to cool the Earth
- 2011/09/13: NBF: Stratospheric Geoengineering test
- IAGP: Integrated Assessment of Geoengineering Proposals
- 2011/09/14: IAGP: Members of the Public Deliberate Geoengineering - Press release from Cardiff University
- 2011/09/14: BBC: Giant balloon to be launched to test climate fix hope [SPICE (Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering)]
A huge helium-filled balloon attached to a 1km length of hosepipe is to be launched next month to help investigate the feasibility of climate engineering. One method involves pumping particles into the stratosphere, to mimic the short-term cooling effects of volcanic eruptions. The balloon test next month will investigate the engineering challenges posed by such a project. Representatives discussed the project at the Science Festival in Bradford. Scientists from universities across the country, and Marshall Aerospace are working together on the SPICE project (Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering), which will research this particular type of geo-engineering. They are investigating the best kind of particle that can be put in the atmosphere, the best way to deliver it, and the potential effects this will have on the Earth's climate. - 2011/09/17: TE: "The Atmosphere Should Not Be Our Waste Dump" [Ken Caldeira interview]
- 2011/09/16: ACP: Use of satellite erythemal UV products in analysing the global UV changes by I. Ialongo et al.
- 2011/09/16: ACP: Re-analysis of tropospheric sulfate aerosol and ozone for the period 1980-2005 using the aerosol-chemistry-climate model ECHAM5-HAMMOZ by L. Pozzoli et al.
- 2011/09/16: ACP: The detection of post-monsoon tropospheric ozone variability over south Asia using IASI data by B. Barret et al.
- 2011/09/16: ACP: The impact of China's vehicle emissions on regional air quality in 2000 and 2020: a scenario analysis by E. Saikawa et al.
- 2011/09/16: ACPD: Odin-OSIRIS stratospheric aerosol data product and SAGE III intercomparison by A. E. Bourassa et al.
- 2011/09/16: ACPD: The global atmospheric budget ethanol revisited by W. V. Kirstine & I. E. Galbally
- 2011/09/16: GMD: The global middle-atmosphere aerosol model MAECHAM5-SAM2: comparison with satellite and in-situ observations by R. Hommel et al.
- 2011/09/14: TC: The Potsdam Parallel Ice Sheet Model (PISM-PIK) - Part 2: Dynamic equilibrium simulation of the Antarctic ice sheet by M. A. Martin et al.
- 2011/09/14: TC: The Potsdam Parallel Ice Sheet Model (PISM-PIK) - Part 1: Model description by R. Winkelmann et al.
- 2011/09/16: TCD: Inter-annual variations of snow days over Switzerland from 2000-2010 derived from MODIS satellite data by N. Foppa & G. Seiz
- 2011/09/15: ESDD: Climate sensitivity in the Anthropocene by M. Previdi et al.
- 2011/09/16: CPD: Inferences on weather extremes and weather-related disasters: a review of statistical methods by H. Visser & A. C. Petersen
- 2011/09/15: CPD: Modeling of stability of gas hydrates under permafrost in an environment of surface climatic change -- terrestrial case, Beaufort-Mackenzie basin, Canada by J. Majorowicz et al.
- 2011/09/14: CPD: A novel approach to climate reconstructions using Ensemble Kalman Filtering by J. Bhend et al.
- 2011/09/12: ACP: Variations in time and space of trace metal aerosol concentrations in urban areas and their surroundings by T. Moreno et al.
- 2011/09/12: ACP: Simple kinematic models for the environmental interaction of tropical cyclones in vertical wind shear by M. Riemer & M. T. Montgomery
- 2011/09/15: ACPD: A case study of aerosol processing and evolution in summer in New York City by Y. L. Sun et al.
- 2011/09/12: ACPD: Assessing filtering of mountaintop CO2 mixing ratios for application to inverse models of biosphere-atmosphere carbon exchange by B.-G. J. Brooks et al.
- 2011/09/13: PNAS: (ab$) Mass extinction of birds at the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary by Nicholas R. Longrich et al.
- 2011/09/13: PNAS: (ab$) Biologically induced initiation of Neoproterozoic snowball-Earth events by Eli Tziperman et al.
- 2011/09/13: PNAS: (ab$) Implications for the hydrologic cycle under climate change due to the expansion of bioenergy crops in the Midwestern United States by Phong V. V. Le et al.
- 2011/09/13: PNAS: (letter$) Reply to Saba and Orzechowski and Schon: Methane contamination of drinking water accompanying gas-well drilling and hydraulic fracturing by Stephen G. Osborn et al.
- 2011/09/13: PNAS: (letter$) Hydraulic fracturing not responsible for methane migration by Samuel C. Schon
- 2011/09/13: PNAS: (letter$) Lack of data to support a relationship between methane contamination of drinking water wells and hydraulic fracturing by Tarek Saba & Mark Orzechowski
- 2011/09/14: Nature: (ab$) Linking mantle plumes, large igneous provinces and environmental catastrophes by Stephan V. Sobolev et al.
- 2011/09/12: TCD: Hydrologic controls on coastal suspended sediment plumes around the Greenland ice sheet by V. W. Chu et al.
- 2011/09/12: AGWObserver: New research from last week 36/2011
And other significant documents:
- 2011/09/15: GreenAlliance(UK): [link to 1 meg pdf] Climate Check: an analysis of the government's delivery of its low carbon commitments
- 2011/09/15: LBL: [link to 1 meg pdf] Installed Cost of Solar Photovoltaic Systems in the U.S. Declined Significantly in 2010 and 2011
- 2011/09/13: ClimateChange(Au): [links to many bills] Clean Energy Legislative Package
- 2011/09/13: BGS: [link to 237k pdf] Risk list 2011
A new supply risk index for chemical elements or element groups which are of economic value - 2011/09/14: ERW: HIPPO proves atmospheric heavyweight
An aeroplane that behaves like a rollercoaster is reshaping scientists' understanding of atmospheric processes. Unanticipated results from a nearly three-year-long study were discussed as the US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) HIPPO project concluded last week. - 2011/09/15: IsaacHeld: 17. Structure of low frequency internal variability in models
- 2011/09/14: NatureN: Researchers failing to make raw data public
Adherence to data-sharing policies is as inconsistent as the policies themselves. - 2011/09/14: Eureka: Revolutionary changes to the Botanical Code published in 16 journals and 5 languages [misc sci]
- 2011/09/13: TP:JR: Susan Hassol, Director of Climate Communication: The Science Has Never Been More Compelling, the Public Never So Misled
- 2011/09/13: TreeHugger: 'Diamond Planet' Astrophysicist: I'd Be Treated Differently If I Were a Climate Scientist
More DIY science:
- 2011/09/13: moyhu: August GISS - Very small rise - TempLS map comparison
What's new in models?
- 2011/09/15: FuturePundit: UCLA Climate Forecast Accuracy To 16 Months
- 2011/09/15: SEasterbrook: The CMIP5 Climate Experiments
Regarding Mann:
- 2011/09/11: ERabett: So Where is This Going
Regarding Giaever:
- 2011/09/17: GreenGrok: An Incontrovertible Objection?
- 2011/09/17: QuarkSoup: Nobel Laureautes and Global Warming
- 2011/09/16: DeSmogBlog: Nobel Prize Winner, Ivar Giaever, Resigns from the American Physical Society Over Global Warming Stance
- 2011/09/15: CQ: Curry on incontrovertible evidence
Regarding Spencer:
- 2011/09/16: ERabett: Whacking the Moles in their Holes
- 2011/09/15: moyhu: Green's Functions and Dessler's data
- 2011/09/13: BBickmore: Deseret News Article on L'Affaire Spencer
- 2011/09/14: SkeptiSci: Santer et al. Catch Christy Exaggerating by dana1981
- 2011/09/13: moyhu: FFT, impulse response, clouds, GMST
- 2011/09/12: moyhu: Impulse responses and the Spencer/Dessler Cloud models
There is a steady dribble of 2012 Rio Conference news releases:
- 2011/09/12: Guardian(UK): Rio+20 must 'unenvironmentalise' green issues, says G77 negotiator
Focus should shift to economics to make notion of sustainability more widely accepted, says senior organiser for Brazil - 2011/09/16: UN: Ban warns world not to replace ozone-depleting gases with greenhouse substitutes
- 2011/09/13: NatureN: Science enters desert debate -- United Nations considers creating advisory panel on land degradation akin to IPCC.
A desert may need no defining, but desertification is not so easy to pin down. Although the loss of soil nutrients and moisture threatens roughly a third of the world's land area, imperilling farming and biodiversity, scientists lack a clear definition of it or agreed standards to measure its causes and progression. That absence has hampered global efforts to tackle these problems under the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) -- unable to track the impact of their funding, donors are reluctant to invest. Next week, a meeting of UN member states in New York will begin to set out the steps needed to close that science gap and boost international efforts to tackle desertification. Possible actions include improving irrigation, increasing fertilization and promoting the use of land-management techniques that integrate forests with agriculture. The gathering will set the tone for a broader meeting, to be held on 10-21 October in Changwon, South Korea, of the 193 nations that are party to the UNCCD. - 2011/09/16: SEasterbrook: A first glimpse at model results for the next IPCC assessment
And on the carbon trading front:
- 2011/09/16: Guardian(UK): A complete guide to carbon offsetting
The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:
- 2011/09/13: Guardian(UK): A crude carbon tax rebate would be a missed opportunity
Done right, support for energy intensive industries could help green our economy. But at worst, it'd just be a carbon tax rebate for our worst polluters - 2011/09/13: Guardian(UK): Australian carbon tax plan goes to parliament
The Robin Hood tax, aka the Tobin tax, aka the Bank tax, aka the Financial Transaction tax keeps coming up:
- 2011/09/17: TP:JR: Austerity vs. Jobs: Finding New Funds to Revive America
- 2011/09/12: EurActiv: Paris, Berlin lay down plans for EU transaction tax
France and Germany are piling more pressure on the European Union to approve a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT), a measure that is met with huge resistance by many governments, economists and the financial industry. - 2011/09/14: USGS: USGS Releases Resource Estimate for Afghanistan Rare Earth Prospect
- 2011/09/15: NYT: China Consolidates Grip on Rare Earths
- 2011/09/16: PlanetArk: Rare Earth Prices To Stay High As China Extends Crackdown
The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world:
- 2011/09/17: CCurrents: Koodamkulam Protest: Hunger Strikers Health Deteriorates
- 2011/09/16: CCurrents: Indefinite Fast Against Nuclear Plant in Koodankulam
- 2011/09/09: CensoredNews: Blood Women arrested at Alberta fracking blockade
- 2011/09/12: 350orBust: First Nations Women Arrested For Protesting Hydraulic Fracking On Their Land, Charged with "Intimidation"
What are the activists up to?
- 2011/09/09: CensoredNews: Photos: Blood Nation women blockade fracking
- 2011/09/11: TheCanadian: When Civil Disobedience is Justified
Polls! We have polls!
- 2011/09/16: EnvEcon: Anti-science
- 2011/09/16: TP:JR: Public Opinion Stunner: More Americans Understand World is Warming -- Thanks to Rick Perry, Reports Reuters
- 2011/09/16: PSinclair: In a Year of Catastrophes, More Americans See Climate Changing
- 2011/09/16: TreeHugger: 8 in 10 Americans Now Believe Global Warming Is Real - Majority Think Humans To Blame, Too
- 2011/09/15: CAbyss: Don't Tell Me What I Think
Regarding Water Politics and Business:
- 2011/09/17: al Jazeera: Egypt and Ethiopia to review Nile river dam
Egypt says Ethiopia's planned Nile project "could be source of benefit" as two countries open new chapter in relations. - 2011/09/16: TreeHugger: Is the U.S. Reaching Peak Water?
- 2011/09/14: EnergyBulletin: Water, oil and food -- a crisis for Saudi Arabia and the world
- 2011/09/14: Guardian(UK): West Bank villagers' daily battle with Israel over water
Al-Amniyr villagers in the West Bank face a catch-22: if they obey the law they cannot collect water. But if they fail to water the land, they lose it anyway - 2011/09/13: CalWB: Water Storage in California
- 2011/09/14: JFleck: Unpacking the water storage question
- 2011/09/13: JFleck: Shifting Water [Aral Sea]
- 2011/09/12: JFleck: The politics of flood control
- 2011/09/12: JFleck: Desal is apparently now a jobs program
- 2011/09/01: MoJo: As Texas Withers, Gas Industry Guzzles
- 2011/09/12: PlanetArk: Saudi Arabia's Water Needs Eating Into Oil Wealth
And on the American political front:
- 2011/09/17: CCP: Peter C. Frumhoff and Kerry Emanuel: Two parties, one approach to climate science
- 2011/09/15: OPB: Oregon Gets a Jump on Greenhouse Gas Emission Reporting
- 2011/09/16: Grist: FDA: It's corn syrup, now shut up and own it
- 2011/09/16: Grist: Climate-denying candidates make more Americans believe in global warming
- 2011/09/16: TreeHugger: GOP Climate Change Denial is Making More People Believe in Climate Change
- 2011/09/15: TP:JR: Bipartisan Scientists: "We Cannot Afford to Have Those Leading Our Nation Misrepresent or Be Silent About the Reality and Risks of Climate Change"
- 2011/09/16: TP:JR: Carbon Pricing Would Cut the Deficit and Create Jobs
- 2011/09/15: WiC: Michael Klare: Is Washington out of gas?
- 2011/09/13: GuttMacher: States Enact Record Number of Abortion Restrictions in First Half of 2011
In the first six months of 2011, states enacted 162 new provisions related to reproductive health and rights. Fully 49% of these new laws seek to restrict access to abortion services, a sharp increase from 2010, when 26% of new laws restricted abortion. The 80 abortion restrictions enacted this year are more than double the previous record of 34 abortion restrictions enacted in 2005--and more than triple the 23 enacted in 2010. All of these new provisions were enacted in just 19 states. - 2011/09/14: RemappingDebate: Growing set of state abortion restrictions visualized
- 2011/09/15: EnergyBulletin: America and Oil: Declining together? by Michael Klare
- 2011/09/15: Guardian(UK): Virginia vote threatens abortion clinics
Critics denounce Virginia vote to impose health regulations to limit access to abortion as 'politically motivated' - 2011/09/15: TP:JR: Can We Handle Nature's (Temporary) New Norm?
- 2011/09/15: PlanetArk: Power Plants Can Comply With Green Regulations: FERC
U.S. power plants can comply with new environmental rules without disrupting the supply of electricity if providers and local authorities have time to plan for the changes, energy regulators told congressional Republicans seeking to unwind the rules. - 2011/09/15: TreeHugger: Tea Party Says Don't Build Light Rail, It Might Attract Terrorists
- 2011/09/15: PeakEnergy: 33% Renewable Energy Now the Law in California
- 2011/09/14: TP:JR: Even Cass Sunstein Says GOP's Proposed Regulatory Moratorium Would Be "Like a Nuclear Bomb"
- 2011/09/14: ITracker: Bad climate policy? Yale study fingers public opinion, not political stonewalling, for many of the defects
- 2011/09/14: TP:JR: Tom Friedman on Rick Perry, Global Weirding, Solyndra, and Why a Carbon Price is Patriotic
- 2011/09/13: TP:JR: Big Oil Bets Against America's Energy Future, Congressional Research Service Report Finds
- 2011/09/13: TreeHugger: Why Won't Big Oil Subsidies Die?
- 2011/09/12: BDL: Yes, Global Warming Is Very Real
- 2011/09/08: BBC: A White House 'sceptic': Would it matter?
- 2011/09/07: WaPo: The magical world of voodoo 'economists'
- 2011/09/08: AlterNet: Why the Anti-Science Creationist Movement Is So Dangerous
They want to wipe out all the findings of hundreds of years of scientific investigation and have taken to schools, the courts and political leaders to get things done. - 2011/09/11: ITracker: September 11th, ten years on: What the response to 9/11 can tell us about responding to climate change
The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:
- 2011/09/14: al Jazeera: US report spreads blame for Gulf oil spill
Federal report finds BP, Transocean and Halliburton, all responsible for disaster last year that left 11 people dead. - 2011/09/15: TP:JR: BP's "Failure of Supervision and Accountability" Caused the Nation's Largest Oil Spill
- 2011/09/15: ABC(Au): BP spill report spreads blame
- 2011/09/15: PlanetArk: U.S. Blames BP For Gulf Spill
- 2011/09/14: CSM: Majority of blame for Gulf oil spill lies with BP, two US agencies find
- 2011/09/14: SciAm: U.S. Probe Lays Gulf Spill Blame on BP, Contractors
- 2011/09/14: CBC: BP oil disaster largely blamed on cement failure
- 2011/09/14: BBC: US report into Gulf of Mexico oil spill blames BP, Transocean and Halliburton for disaster
- 2011/09/14: DeSmogBlog: Deepwater Horizon Still A Massive Headache For BP
- 2011/09/14: PlanetArk: Chevron Confirms Gulf Of Mexico Oil Leak
- 2011/09/14: Grist: Shocker: BP oil spill was BP's fault
- 2011/09/14: NatureNB: Final Deepwater disaster report paints bleak picture
- 2011/09/14: OilChange: Gov Report into Deepwater "Spreads Blame"
- 2011/09/14: CBC: BP spill mistakes cited in panel's report -- Poor management decisions blamed
- 2011/09/12: al Jazeera: No end in sight for oil in the Gulf of Mexico
Fresh oil seepages raise questions about further problems with BP's damaged oil well. - 2011/09/13: Grist: Return of the Monster Tar Balls!!
The 2012 clown show rolls along:
- 2011/09/14: ProPublica: Our Handy Guide to the Best Coverage on Gov. Rick Perry and His Record
- 2011/09/13: ProPublica: Our Guide to the Best Coverage of Herman Cain
- 2011/09/15: QuarkSoup: How Michele Bachmann Gives Me Hope
- 2011/09/14: PlanetArk: Perry Sidelines Critic Of Texas Nuclear Waste Site
- 2011/09/14: Grist: Fiddling while his state burns isn't just a metaphor for Perry, says Thomas Friedman
- 2011/09/14: Grist: Mitt Romney's energy policy crafted by coal-funded shill
- 2011/09/12: HotTopic: Jolting Contrasts
- 2011/09/12: DeSmogBlog: Memo to Rick Perry: Galileo Was a Liberal
- 2011/09/11: TP:JR: Scorched Earth Strategy: Perry Wants to Bring All America the Texas Miracle, Firefighters Paying for Gear, Engine Fuel
- 2011/09/11: Grist: Rick Perry stumbles and mumbles as he tries to defend abstinence education [video]
- 2011/09/11: S&R: The GOP Presidential Candidate Reader: Fun with Rick and Jane (and Spotty) [2012]
Al Gore's Climate Reality Project went down this week:
- 2011/09/17: TP:JR: Gore's Climate Reality Finale -- What Do You Think?
- 2011/09/16: CSM: A climate gadfly's job
- 2011/09/16: NatureNB: [8] Invited guests weigh in on Al Gore's Climate Reality Project
- 2011/09/16: Tamino: Climate Reality Success
- 2011/09/15: 350orBust: Climate Denial Hits the Fan
- 2011/09/15: PlanetArk: Al Gore: Climate Science "Reality" Versus Republicans
- 2011/09/15: NatureNB: Al Gore kicks off 24 hours of reality
- 2011/09/14: Deltoid: Climate Reality
- 2011/09/15: Tamino: Climate Reality
- 2011/09/14: TP:JR: Al Gore's 24 Hours of Reality Starts Tonight: "It's Urgent to Rendezvous with Reality to Save the Future of Civilization"
- 2011/09/14: Grist: 24 Hours of Reality, starting tonight [video]
- 2011/09/14: Grist: Al Gore on Colbert, chatting about climate reality and Rick Perry [video]
- 2011/09/14: TreeHugger: Today: Al Gore Launches 24 Hours of Climate Reality
- 2011/09/13: PlanetArk: Al Gore In 24-Hour Broadcast To Convert Climate Skeptics
- 2011/09/12: Guardian(UK): Al Gore wants your Twitter account for climate push
- 2011/09/12: Maribo: Climate reality... What a concept
The Republicans are trying to spin the bankruptcy of Solyndra:
- 2011/09/16: DemNow: Obama Admin Faces Controversy over Rushed $535 Million Backing of Failed Solar Power Firm, Solyndra
- 2011/09/15: ProPublica: What's Happening With That Solar Company Scandal? Here's Our Guide on Solyndra
- 2011/09/18: ITracker: Solyndra "scandal": Explaining the free market to right-wingers
- 2011/09/16: TP:JR: A Post-Solyndra Video Primer on How Loan Guarantees Work
- 2011/09/16: Guardian(UK): LightSquared and Solyndra: double trouble for Obama
Republicans are trying to embarrass the White House by turning the spotlight on federal funding and political influence - 2011/09/16: TreeHugger: Daily Show Weighs in on Solyndra 'Scandal' (Video)
- 2011/09/16: TreeHugger: Graph of the Day: Cost of Solyndra's Failure Vs. Cost of Military 'Boondoggles'
- 2011/09/15: Grist: Fossil-fueled Republicans grandstand against Solyndra, solar energy
- 2011/09/14: Grist: Solyndra is the next 'Climategate'
- 2011/09/15: DeSmogBlog: Pennies to Clean Energy, Billions to Big Oil -- Mainstream Media Missing the Real Story on Solyndra
- 2011/09/14: AlterNet: How Conservatives and Big Oil are Using a Phony Scandal to Undermine Obama, Clean Energy, and Government Itself
- 2011/09/14: BBC: The White House could have rushed approval on a major government-backed loan to a failed solar panel firm for political reasons, say US Republicans
- 2011/09/13: TP:JR: Bush Administration Advanced Solyndra Loan Guarantee for Two Years, Media Blow the Story
- 2011/09/12: CCP: Solyndra's Failure Is No Reason To Abandon Federal Energy Innovation Policy
The EPA is delaying implementing the proposed greenhouse gas emission standards:
- 2011/09/16: PlanetArk: Greenhouse Gas Proposal To Miss Deadline: EPA Chief
- 2011/09/15: TreeHugger: Major Utility Contradicts GOP Talking Points On EPA's Proposed Air Emission Standards
- 2011/09/15: Guardian(UK): US environment agency to delay greenhouse gas proposals
EPA administrator Lisa Jackson admits the agency will miss target to float new utility-focused proposals by end of September - 2011/09/15: Grist: Oh, now we're not regulating greenhouse gases either
- 2011/09/15: UCSUSA: EPA Climate Rule Delay Part of Dangerous Trend
How it works:
- 2011/09/14: DeSmogBlog: Seamless Transition: Pentagon Spokesman Geoff Morrell Moves to BP America
The Obama chatter is nonstop:
- 2011/09/16: CSM: Is Obama dragging his feet on environmental issues to get reelected?
- 2011/09/15: TP:JR: Ten Things Obama Must Do to Help Slow the Rise of the Oceans and Heal the Planet -- Without Waiting for Congress
- 2011/09/15: TP:JR: The Stupid Politics Behind Obama's Ozone Cave
- 2011/09/15: Grist: How is Obama's overall record on the environment?
- 2011/09/13: TP:JR: Obama Proposes Cutting Oil and Gas Subsidies $41 Billion to Help Fund Jobs Package
- 2011/09/12: Grist: The stupid politics behind Obama's ozone cave
The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:
- 2011/09/16: NatureNB: NOAA deputy highlights 'critical environmental intelligence'
- 2011/09/16: PlanetArk: Despite Probe, SEC Says Not Regulating Fracking
- 2011/09/13: CSW: Review comments on draft EPA Scientific Integrity Policy
- 2011/09/12: CSW: Review comments on draft NOAA Scientific Integrity Policy
- 2011/09/12: AutoBG: DOE funds 16 projects to speed adoption of plug-in vehicles with $14.9 million
- 2011/09/11: TCoE: New US vehicle fuel economy
As for what is going on in Congress:
- 2011/09/13: Guardian(UK): The most anti-environment Congress ever?
- 2011/09/16: AutoBG: Republicans want to halve advanced technology loans, Chrysler's bid for funds in jeopardy
- 2011/09/15: DeSmogBlog: Vitter-Johnson FARE Act: "Shock Doctrine" Attacks On Renewable Energy
- 2011/09/15: TP:JR: Advanced Vehicle Manufacturing, Another Bush-Era Jobs Program, Is GOP Leaders' No. 1 Target
- 2011/09/15: DM:80B: Beyond Frugality: Senate Panel Cuts NSF Budget by $162 Million
- 2011/09/14: ScienceInsider: Senate Panel Cuts NSF Budget by $162 Million
- 2011/09/14: TPMDC: Why Is One House Office Building Ditching Energy-Efficient Bulbs?
- 2011/09/13: TreeHugger: GOP Congress Has Made 125 Anti-Environment Votes This Year So Far
- 2011/09/12: TP:JR: Memo to Right-Wing Anti-EPA Job-Killers: Sick and Dead People Aren't Very Productive
- 2011/09/12: TP:JR: Mike Pompeo (R-Koch) Attacks 'Radical' Environmental Justice, Global Warming Internships
- 2011/09/12: Grist: Republicans risk $1 billion in revenue to squash a trickle of funding for biking and walking
While in the UK:
- 2011/09/15: BBC: What would Britain look like without a green belt?
- 2011/09/16: BBC: UK 'set to miss' climate targets
The UK is set to miss climate change targets it is legally bound to meet, according to an independent analysis. Cambridge Econometrics says the UK will narrowly miss carbon budgets up to 2017, and by bigger margins after that. The government is legally bound to keep emissions within its carbon budgets. - 2011/09/15: GreenAlliance(UK): [link to 1 meg pdf] Climate Check: an analysis of the government's delivery of its low carbon commitments
- 2011/09/16: Guardian(UK): UK will miss carbon targets by wider margins each year, study shows
Without radical policy measures, it will be impossible for the coalition to 'make a reality out of rhetoric' - 2011/09/15: Guardian(UK): Coalition making slow progress on most green pledges, analysis shows
- 2011/09/15: Guardian(UK): [Letters] How greens can connect with the political mainstream
- 2011/09/13: ScienceInsider: U.K. Masks Cuts to Science By Redefining 'Science Budget'
- 2011/09/13: BBC: Trains are a rich man's toy, says [Transport Secretary Philip Hammond]
And in Europe:
- 2011/09/16: EurActiv: Parliament backs EU crackdown on energy market abuse
New rules to monitor trading and prevent abuses in European wholesale energy markets were approved by EU lawmakers on Wednesday (14 September), in a move which MEPs said would help bring down prices for consumers. - 2011/09/15: PlanetArk: [EU] Bioenergy Targets Based On Flawed Science, Report Shows
- 2011/09/13: EUO: EU's new fisheries policy: throwing a lifeline to the oceans.
Fisheries policy has never been the type of issue that lives in the spotlight. Yet we now find ourselves at a time when what is at stake with the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is nothing short of the future of European fisheries. European consumers eat nearly twice the fish that our oceans can provide, our over-subsidized fleet is too big, too powerful and not selective enough, and according to the Commission, 91 percent of fish stocks in Europe could be at risk in the next decade if nothing is done to reverse this trend. It is clear that this reform will affect everyone from fishermen to consumers, and from policy makers to their constituents. - 2011/09/13: EUO: EU food labelling law spotlights strength of industry lobbying
- 2011/09/12: Guardian(UK): Can Poland lead on coal, shale gas and Europe's climate negotiations?
- 2011/09/12: ScienceInsider: French Government Defies E.U. Court on GM Maize
- 2011/09/12: SwissInfo: Nuclear power, economy mark parliament session
Parliament on Monday meets for the start of its final three-week session ahead of the October 23 elections. High on the agenda are debates in the Senate on a proposed opt-out from nuclear energy and the promotion of renewable energy resources. - 2011/09/14: ABC(Au): Opponent questions planned wind farm site
- 2011/09/14: ABC(Au): Tropical Top End enjoys record dry season chill
The Australian carbon plan legislation was introduced this week:
- 2011/09/13: ClimateChange(Au): [links to many bills] Clean Energy Legislative Package
- 2011/09/13: CEF: Legislation introduced to Parliament
- 2011/09/15: PeakEnergy: Australian Carbon Tax Law Introduced To Parliament
- 2011/09/15: PlanetArk: Australia Adds Opt-In Rule For Polluters In CO2 Scheme
Big fuel users such as airlines, miners and rail transport firms may opt-in to Australia's carbon pricing scheme to help manage their carbon costs, the government said on Wednesday. The rule change, included in a suite of carbon pricing laws introduced into the lower house of parliament on Tuesday, was made at the request of major companies such as Qantas to improve risk management. Under the national carbon pricing scheme, about 500 top polluters responsible for 60 percent of the country's greenhouse gas emissions will have to pay A$23 ($23.5) for each tonne of carbon emissions from July 1 next year. Emissions trading and more flexible pricing follows three years later, assuming parliament passes the package before the end of this year. Large companies, such as miners with large diesel bills for transport, will have to pay an effective carbon price through fuel excise and fuel tax credit schemes. Opting in allow firms to manage these carbon costs themselves, such as buying domestic carbon offsets. - 2011/09/14: ABC(Au): Abbott opens carbon debate
- 2011/09/13: Guardian(UK): Australian carbon tax plan goes to parliament
- 2011/09/13: ABC(Au): Govt accused of trying to railroad carbon debate
- 2011/09/13: ABC(Au): Prime Minister Julia Gillard has introduced the long-awaited carbon price legislation
- 2011/09/13: PlanetArk: Australian Parliament Plans Extra Sitting For Carbon Bills
- 2011/09/13: BBC: Australian PM Julia Gillard presents carbon tax bill
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has presented her bill for a controversial carbon tax to parliament. The legislation would force about 500 of the biggest polluters to pay for each tonne of carbon dioxide they emit. - 2011/09/12: ABC(Au): Carbon tax vote set for next month
The Federal Government says its carbon tax plan will go to a vote in the House of Representatives in a month's time. The legislation is due to be introduced into the Lower House tomorrow and is set for a voted on October 12. - 2011/09/14: ABC(Au): Commission urges coherent approach to water management
- 2011/09/09: ABC(Au): Farm to use coal seam water for irrigation
A project using treated coal seam gas water for irrigation and beef production has kicked off in Roma in southern Queensland. Gas company Santos says it's the first partnership between a coal gas producer and a family-owned agribusiness in Queensland. - 2011/09/16: PlanetArk: NZ Carbon Trading Expansion Should Be Slowed: Review
- 2011/09/16: HotTopic: The NZ ETS Review 2011: Clear signals for business as usual
- 2011/09/13: HotTopic: SOS Roadshow: Final Days
While in China:
- 2011/09/18: BBC: China: Villagers protest at Zhejiang solar panel plant
Hundreds of villagers in eastern China have held three days of protests at a solar panel plant over pollution fears. Around 500 people started gathering at Zhejiang Jinko Solar company in Haining city, Zhejiang province, on Thursday. Some of protesters stormed the factory, overturning several company cars and destroying offices, officials said. Residents in the nearby village of Hongxiao said they became concerned after the deaths of a large number of river fish. - 2011/09/13: PlanetArk: [Softbank Corp's Masayoshi Son] Eyes Wind Power, Geothermal [along with solar]
- 2011/09/12: ITWorld: Softbank founder backs Japan's shift to renewable energy
Japan's richest entrepreneur outlined a plan Monday to rebuild the country's energy infrastructure in the wake of its nuclear disaster, shifting the majority of supply to natural, renewable resources by 2030. Masayoshi Son, founder and CEO of Softbank, spoke at the launch of his Japan Renewable Energy Foundation. He said Japan could shift to renewable energy sources for 60 percent of its electricity requirements over the next two decades, calling for a 2 trillion yen (US$26 billion) "super grid" across the country, and underwater off the coast, that would zip electricity around cheaply and efficiently to meet demand. - 2011/09/16: BBC: Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has cancelled a trip to next week's UN General Assembly in New York because of floods in Sindh province
While in Africa:
- 2011/09/17: al Jazeera: The climate gamble on African soil
Environmental rights groups say internationally backed carbon capture schemes distract from real climate justice needs. - 2011/09/14: al Jazeera: Evading indigenous consultation in Bolivia
Indigenous Bolivians are searching for social justice as the government plans to build a new highway. - 2011/09/16: TStar: To plunder or protect the Arctic?
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's latest chest-thumping visit to the Arctic this summer played to Canadians' fears that our country will some day lose control over our most romanticized national icon: the North. But do we Canadians deserve the right to be caretakers of the Arctic? The Canadian government hasn't come close to demonstrating that it is genuinely concerned about either the North's extremely fragile communities, or its extremely fragile ecology. If our concern about the Arctic is genuine, Canadians should insist that Harper stop focusing so intently on the importance of developing northern resources in the interests of southern Canada. - 2011/09/12: CBC: Cleary calls out DFO, calls for fishery inquiry
New Democrat MP Ryan Cleary accused the Department of Fisheries and Ocean's of mismanagement Monday while calling for an inquiry into the province's fishery. - 2011/09/12: CBC: Make high-speed rail a priority: Masse
Windsor-West MP Brian Masse announced Monday he intends to pursue international high-speed rail service between Chicago and Quebec. - 2011/09/13: PostMedia: Opposition pushed for wide review of G8 legacy funding
The opposition parties are pressuring the Conservatives to ensure the committee tasked with probing government spending conducts a thorough study of the G8 legacy funding - the $50 million that went to gazebos and parks in a Conservative minister's riding rather than to the border infrastructure Parliament was told the money would fund. - 2011/09/13: KWS: What's good for the goose is apparently criminal defamation to the gander
- 2011/09/13: CBC: Liberals to push for committee hearing on G8 fund
The Liberals are challenging Stephen Harper's Conservative government to show the same degree of accountability on G8 spending that a previous Liberal government displayed in the wake of the sponsorship scandal. John McCallum, the Liberal Treasury Board critic, has given formal notice that he's asking a parliamentary committee to examine how $50 million was diverted from a border infrastructure fund into G8 beautification projects in the riding of cabinet minister Tony Clement. The Liberals have already asked the auditor general to do a value-for-money audit of the spending, similar to one ordered on the sponsorship program in March 2002. - 2011/09/12: CBC: G20 conspiracy charges hearing begins
The preliminary hearing into conspiracy charges for 17 people arrested on the first day of last year's G20 summit in Toronto got underway Monday. Most of the 17 defendants were arrested on June 26, 2010. The Crown alleges the group planned and organized protests that eventually turned violent during the two-day summit. CBC's Lorenda Reddekopp covered Monday's hearing. A publication ban prohibits the CBC from reporting anything said during the proceedings. - 2011/09/14: WpgFP: Climate change activists target Environment Canada with hoax releases ... again
- 2011/09/14: CYCC: Youth take Government of Canada to School on Climate Change
- 2011/09/14: CBC: PrankWatch: Environment Canada targeted by hoax press release on climate change
There has been a bit of a kafuffle over Harper getting rid of more pesky scientists:
- 2011/09/16: CBC: Canada's ozone tracking in jeopardy
International scientists are expressing concern that cuts at Environment Canada could hobble a program monitoring ozone, a component of the atmosphere that protects living things from the sun's ultraviolet rays. - 2011/09/15: NatureN: Canada's ice cores seek new home -- Funding cuts may sacrifice glacial expertise
- 2011/09/15: PostMedia: Ozone watch faces Tory axe -- Measuring program started 45 years ago
Environment Canada is planning to axe a monitoring network that is key to assessing Earth's protective ozone layer, according to a report in a leading science journal. The British journal Nature says scientists and research institutes around the world have been informally told the Canadian network will be shut down as early as this winter, putting an end to continuous ozone measurements that go back 45 years. - 2011/09/14: PostMedia: Harper government cutting vital climate science: Critics
Environment Canada is planning to axe a monitoring network that is key to assessing Earth's protective ozone layer, according to a report in a leading science journal. The British journal Nature says scientists and research institutes around the world have been informally told the Canadian network will be shut down as early as this winter putting an end to continuous ozone measurements that go back 45 years. "People are gob smacked by this decision," Thomas Duck, an atmospheric researcher at Dalhousie University, said in an interview with Postmedia News. He and his international colleagues say they've been told the network and a related data archive will be closed down as part of the Harper government's deep cuts at Environment Canada where hundreds of jobs are being are eliminated. The scientists say the "drastic" cuts to the ozone program threaten not only international monitoring programs, but Canada's reputation. - 2011/09/14: SSM: Oil Illiteracy. University of Calgary paid to deny climate change.
- 2011/09/14: LFR: Who cares about that silly old ozone layer anyway? [Can pol]
- 2011/09/12: NatureN: Canadian ozone network faces axe -- Arctic monitoring stations hit by budget constraints
A key source of information about the health of the ozone layer above the Arctic looks set to be choked off. In a year that saw the first genuine 'ozone hole' appear in the Northern Hemisphere, atmospheric scientists say they are shocked to learn that Environment Canada, the country's environment agency, has decided to drastically reduce its ozone science and monitoring programme. - 2011/09/15: CBC: Arctic research funding of $67M finally announced
The federal government formally announced $67.3 million for research on Arctic climate change Thursday, though the funding has already been flowing for months and an official website has long since divulged it. - 2011/09/15: WCEL: Campaigners to stop Enbridge and super tankers make a pilgrimage to northern coastal ecosystems and communities being put at risk
Kai Nagata posted a series on Quebecor:
- 2011/09/12: Tyee: Kai Nagata: Warnings from Québec
Why concentrated media ownership is great for corporate profits, dangerous for democracy. - 2011/09/13: Tyee: Kai Nagata: Warnings from Québec, Part 2
How media giant Quebecor's play for a new hockey arena helped ice the PQ. - 2011/09/14: Tyee: Nagata: The Roots of 'Fox News North'
Beware the agendas of media barons. Sun News Network's vitriol feeds a wider erosion of our public conversation. - 2011/09/16: CBC: No radiation detected in West Coast fish
No radiation has been detected in West Coast fish stocks following the Fukushima nuclear incident, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is reporting. Twelve fish samples were tested on August 22 and 23 and all were below Health Canada action levels for radioactivity, the CFIA announced Friday. The CFIA did not release details on the type of fish tested or the locations where they were caught. - 2011/09/15: CBC: NDP takes on Conservatives over jobs, Wheat Board
- 2011/09/13: G&M: Playing the Wheat Board card
The results of the Canadian Wheat Board's plebiscite over the Conservative government's plan to end the CWB's single-desk-selling monopoly for wheat and barley isn't likely to change things. According to the CWB, a majority of farmers oppose dismantling the board. But Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said earlier it's full steam ahead no matter the vote. - 2011/09/12: CBC: Prairie farmers vote in favour of wheat board monopoly
Prairie farmers have voted in favour of the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly over wheat and barley sales. Just over 60 per cent of wheat growers and 51 per cent of barley growers voted in favour of maintaining the board's monopoly. Some 55 per cent of wheat growers and 47 per cent of barley growers voted in the plebiscite. The board conducted a plebiscite after federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz refused to hold one as required under the Canadian Wheat Board Act. - 2011/09/12: WpgFP: Majority of wheat growers vote to keep CWB as sole marketing agent
Is this a case of "Stick them in a room and let them talk before we go ahead with drilling"?
- 2011/09/12: CBC: Offshore oil drilling debated at Arctic meetings
A major roundtable on Arctic offshore oil and gas drilling began in Inuvik, N.W.T., on Monday. The National Energy Board is in the final stretch of a year-long review of the safety and environmental requirements for possible Arctic offshore petroleum operations. Over the last year, the NEB gathered information from scientists, the oil and gas industry, other regulators, environmental groups and northerners. This week, it's bringing together interested parties for five days of discussions about how offshore drilling could impact the Arctic. Groups ranging from the Mittimatalik Hunters and Trappers Organization in Pond Inlet to the Canadian Labour Congress are slated to present their views. Representatives of oil giants Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Imperial Oil will also take the floor. More than 150 people have registered to take part. - 2011/09/17: CleanBreak: There is no geothermal temperature/condition data for 60% of Canada, though Geological Survey estimates potential is enormous
- 2011/09/14: PostMedia: Massive store of energy right beneath our feet -- Clean, renewable, constant source
A "massive" store of clean, renewable energy is sitting at Canadians' feet, according to a federal report on geothermal energy. Tapping into hot rocks that are tantalizingly close to the surface in western and northern Canada could generate more electricity than the entire country now consumes and generate few greenhouse gas emissions, says the report by a team of 12 scientists led by Stephen Grasby at the federal Geological Survey of Canada. "As few as 100 projects could meet Canada's energy needs," according to the team's findings, to be presented at a geohermal conference in Torono on Thursday. The 322-page report suggests the clean, renewable source of energy could be a game-changer. - Cohen Commission -- Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River
- 2011/09/17: AlexandraMorton: On the Stand at Cohen
- 2011/09/17: TheCanadian: Shades of Green: The Sockeye Salmon Murder Mystery
BC is wrangling over energy:
- 2011/09/14: Tyee: BC gov must rein in shale gas industry, says enviro group
- 2011/09/14: PI:B: B.C. community puts its money where its mouth is in the fight against climate change
- 2011/09/14: PI: New reports find B.C. needs stronger oversight for shale gas development
- 2011/09/14: PI: Shale gas in British Columbia: Risks to B.C.'s water resources
- 2011/09/17: BCLSB: David Suzuki Confirms That NDP Is No Longer The Party Of Environmentalists
- 2011/09/16: NI/P: People in NE BC, prepare for this
- 2011/09/13: BCLocalNews: Power producers plead their case
B.C.'s private power producers held a news conference here in the capital last week, to plead with the B.C. government not to back down from its target of self-sufficiency in clean energy by 2016. - 2011/09/16: PI: Oilsands and climate change -- How Canada's oilsands are standing in the way of effective climate action
- 2011/09/17: KlimaZwiebel: Calgary Herald reports about [strange] financial arrangements
- 2011/09/17: Guardian(UK): Wolves fall prey to Canada's rapacious tar sands business
- 2011/09/14: BCLocalNews: Woodland caribou at a crossroads
- 2011/09/14: PostMedia: University of Calgary climate research accounts used for PR, travel, wining and dining: records
A pair of "research" accounts at the University of Calgary, funded mainly by the oil and gas industry, were used for a sophisticated international political campaign that involved high-priced consultants, lobbying, wining, dining, and travel with the goal of casting doubt on climate change science, newly-released accounting records have revealed. The records showed that the strategy was crafted by professional firms, in collaboration with well-known climate change skeptics in Canada and abroad, allowing donors to earn tax receipts by channeling their money through the university. All of the activities and $507,975 in spending were organized by the Friends of Science, an anti-Kyoto Protocol group founded by retired oil industry workers and academics who are skeptical about peer-reviewed research linking human activity to global warming observed in recent decades. - 2011/09/14: CCP: Talisman Energy kick-started U of C climate skeptic fund
- 2011/09/09: NewInt: Taking on tar sands
- 2011/09/14: Rabble: A call to action: Non-violent civil disobedience against the tar sands [Sept 26]
- 2011/09/13: PostMedia: Talisman Energy kick-started U of C climate skeptic fund
A major Alberta-based oil and gas company helped to kick-start an elaborate public relations project designed to cast doubt on scientific evidence linking human activity to global warming with a $175,000 donation in 2004 channelled through the University of Calgary, a newly-released letter has revealed. The donation from Talisman Energy was the largest single contribution to a pair of trust accounts at the university that received $507,975 in donations to produce a video and engage in public relations, advertising and lobbying activities against the Kyoto Protocol and government measures to restrict fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. - 2011/09/14: WpgFP: Canada's oil ethics confused
- 2011/09/13: DeSmogBlog: Talisman funded Friends of Science skeptic film
- 2011/09/13: CBC: Canada looks to diversify oil export markets
Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver says a big priority for his government is finding new places to sell Canadian oil other than the U.S. Oliver is in California to attend the APEC Transportation and Energy conference, but he told reporters on a conference call that at the top of his agenda is talking about new markets. - 2011/09/13: CBC: Former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed opposes the Keystone X-L pipeline on economic grounds.
Former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed is adding his voice to the opposition to the controversial Keystone X-L pipeline project. However his opposition is based on economic reasons, rather than environmental. "We should be refining the bitumen in Alberta and we should make it public policy in the province," he said. - 2011/09/12: CBC: Enbridge to expand oilsands pipeline
Calgary-based energy pipeline firm Enbridge says it will spend about $1.2 billion to expand its network serving the oilsands in northern Alberta. Enbridge will twin the 345-kilometre southern section of the Athabasca Pipeline, which runs from Kirby Lake to a crude oil processing hub in Hardisty in east-central Alberta, increasing capacity by about 450,000 barrels per day. - 2011/09/18: CBC: Alberta Tories face 2nd leadership vote [on Oct 1]
The race for the leadership of Alberta's Progressive Conservatives is going to a second ballot, the CBC has learned. None of the six candidates managed to scoop the 50 per cent plus one ballots required for a decision in Saturday's vote. A second ballot featuring the top three finishers -- Gary Mar, Alison Redford and Doug Horner -- will be held in two weeks. - 2011/09/09: CensoredNews: Photos: Blood Nation women blockade fracking
- 2011/09/09: CensoredNews: Blood Women arrested at Alberta fracking blockade
- 2011/09/11: CensoredNews: Mike Bruised Head: Sad day when Blood Women arrested defending Mother Earth
- 2011/09/11: CensoredNews: Elle-Maija Tailfeathers, Blood Nation: Statement on arrest at [hydraulic] fracturing blockade
- 2011/09/11: PBL: Official Press Release, Written by Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers
- 2011/09/12: 350orBust: First Nations Women Arrested For Protesting Hydraulic Fracking On Their Land, Charged with "Intimidation"
In Ontario, energy policy is a major issue in the upcoming election:
- 2011/09/15: CleanBreak: In defense of the Ontario FIT program
- 2011/09/17: CleanBreak: Power Workers' Union spreading misinformation to protect its fiefdom [Ont pol]
- 2011/09/15: Rabble: New initiatives in the green energy sector
- 2011/09/16: G&M: Idled solar plant puts McGuinty on his heels
- 2011/09/17: TStar: [Ontario] Oct. 6 election is too close to call
- 2011/09/16: Impolitical: The fun with green energy columns continues
- 2011/09/14: TSTar: The Greens have fallen off the scales
- 2011/09/13: PlanetArk: Samsung, Pattern Buy Ontario Wind Project
South Korea's Samsung and Pattern Energy Group have acquired a wind power project in Ontario for an undisclosed price. The companies, which bought the project from Spain's Acciona, will increase the planned capacity of the Armow project in Kincardine, Ontario, to 180 megawatts. Construction will begin in 2013 and finish the next year. - 2011/09/16: PI: Recommendations for Quebec's draft cap-and-trade regulations
- 2011/09/17: CO2Art: What Happened to the REC Mega Solar-Grade Silicon Plant Announced for Quebec?
In the Maritimes:
- 2011/09/15: CBC: Review supports Nalcor's Muskrat Falls plan
Proponents of the controversial Lower Churchill hydroelectric project say a consultant's report released Thursday resolves doubts raised by an environmental review. - 2011/09/17: EnergyBulletin: The social-democratic illusion by Immanuel Wallerstein
- 2011/09/16: CCurrents: Alexandra And The Consensus Trance
- 2011/09/16: CCurrents: Cassandra's Curse: How "The Limits To Growth" Was Demonized
- 2011/09/16: CCurrents: Water, Oil And Food -- A Crisis For Saudi Arabia And The world
- 2011/09/15: EnergyBulletin: Cassandra's curse: how "The Limits to Growth" was demonized
- 2011/09/14: EnergyBulletin: Learning from China: Why the existing economic model will fail
- 2011/09/13: EnergyBulletin: The Mondragon bank -- an old model for a new type of finance
- 2011/09/12: EnergyBulletin: Discovering limits to growth
IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology] raised its head once again:
- 2011/09/17: Grist: Can smartphones serve as birth control? [video]
- 2011/09/13: GuttMacher: States Enact Record Number of Abortion Restrictions in First Half of 2011
In the first six months of 2011, states enacted 162 new provisions related to reproductive health and rights. Fully 49% of these new laws seek to restrict access to abortion services, a sharp increase from 2010, when 26% of new laws restricted abortion. The 80 abortion restrictions enacted this year are more than double the previous record of 34 abortion restrictions enacted in 2005--and more than triple the 23 enacted in 2010. All of these new provisions were enacted in just 19 states. - 2011/09/14: RemappingDebate: Growing set of state abortion restrictions visualized
- 2011/09/15: Guardian(UK): Virginia vote threatens abortion clinics
Critics denounce Virginia vote to impose health regulations to limit access to abortion as 'politically motivated' - 2011/09/12: AlterNet: Anti-Choice Zealots Go After Clinic Owner's Children -- Here's How He's Fighting Back
Apocalypso anyone?
- 2011/09/16: Wonkette: Coming Soon To An America Near You: Insane Riots, Says Bloomberg
As for how the media handles science:
- 2011/09/17: TP:JR: NYTimes.com Strikes False Balance On Climate Change
- 2011/09/13: CJR: Starving for Coverage -- Unlike the 1980s, journalists pay little attention to famine ravaging the Horn of Africa
- 2011/09/16: Deltoid: Robert Manne vs The Australian
- 2011/09/15: DeSmogBlog: How The Australian Newspaper Warps The World of Climate Science
- 2011/09/14: PolReSpun: CTV Spins the Daily Show for Tarsands and Farmed Fish
- 2011/09/12: APR: The Rabid Media - and the Marcoule incident
Here is something for your library:
- 2011/09/18: HotTopic: [Book Review] _Climate Change and Global Energy Security: Technology and Policy Options_ by Marilyn Brown & Benjamin Sovacool
- 2011/09/15: QuarkSoup: [Book Review] _Global Warming and Political Intimidation: How Politicians Cracked Down on Scientists as the Earth Heated Up_ by Ray Bradley
- 2011/09/12: EnergyBulletin: [Book Review] _Economics Unmasked: From Power and Greed to Compassion and the Common Good_ by Phillip B. Smith & Manfred Max-Neef
- 2011/09/12: HotTopic: [Book Review] _The Case for a Carbon Tax_ by Shi-Ling Hsu
And for your film & video enjoyment:
- 2011/09/16: EnvEcon: A Mighty Wind
- 2011/09/13: USGS: New Video/Images of Walrus Haulout
- 2011/09/16: TP:JR: A Post-Solyndra Video Primer on How Loan Guarantees Work
- 2011/09/16: TreeHugger: Daily Show Weighs in on Solyndra 'Scandal' (Video)
- 2011/09/16: TreeHugger: Must-See Climate Reality Videos: 'Doubt', 'Climate 101', and 'Grassroots'
- 2011/09/14: Grist: Josh Fox scores an Emmy for fracking documentary 'Gasland'
- 2011/09/14: MTobis: Is There a Swarm Solution?
- 2011/09/15: TreeHugger: Fox's Hypocrisy: Bash Solar in Primetime, Then Hype it at the Emmys (Video)
- 2011/09/12: CCP: Houston 8: "Climate Change -- Man vs. Nature" ; Andrew Dessler interview
Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:
- 2011/09/16: Guardian(UK): Amazon pollution victims ask New York judge to award $8bn Chevron money
Developing a new energy infrastructure is a fundamental challenge of the current generation:
- 2011/09/12: RRapier: Bombshell: Solar and Wind Power Would Speed Up, Not Reduce, Global Warming [by reducing aerosols]
- 2011/09/11: TheCanadian: Shades of Green: The World's Changing Energy Equation
- 2011/09/15: APR: Are we still dealing with the fallout of the energy crisis?
- 2011/09/15: Eureka: Rice reinforces gas hydrate strategy -- New study goes deeper in proving simple technique to pinpoint valuable energy source
- 2011/09/15: PeakEnergy: 33% Renewable Energy Now the Law in California
- 2011/09/14: TreeHugger: Colorado Wind Power Company to Compete With Fossil Fuel Prices
- 2011/09/14: MIT: Shake, rattle and - power up? A new MEMS device generates energy from small vibrations
- 2011/09/12: CleanBreak: REGEN Energy raises $5.5 million to expand marketing of "swarm logic" energy management smart devices
- 2011/09/14: HotTopic: Natural Gas is Not a Green Fuel
- 2011/09/13: CCP: Hog Waste Producing Electricity, Carbon Offsets. Duke pilot project at Yadkinville farm gets Google endorsement
- 2011/09/12: KSJT: Reuters, Mother Jones, Time Mag etc: Why natural gas may hardly be better for climate than coal
- 2011/09/13: Grist: Gigantic flywheels recover, recycle subway trains' energy
- 2011/09/11: EnergyBulletin: A guide for the perplexed energy policymaker
- 2011/09/12: PlanetArk: Renewables Outlook Cloudy But Not Bleak, Say Analysts
- 2011/09/10: CBC:Q&Q: (link to mp3) Hoarding Electrons to Power the Future
Hey! Let's contaminate the aquifer for thousands of years! It'll be a fracking gas!
- 2011/09/14: Tyee: BC gov must rein in shale gas industry, says enviro group
- 2011/09/16: ProPublica: Science Lags As Health Problems Emerge Near Gas Fields
- 2011/09/16: NI/P: People in NE BC, prepare for this
- 2011/09/16: PlanetArk: Despite Probe, SEC Says Not Regulating Fracking
- 2011/09/15: AlterNet: Why I'm Donating My Heinz Award Money to the Fight Against Fracking
- 2011/09/13: EnergyBulletin: Have frackers pushed their luck too far?
- 2011/09/01: MoJo: As Texas Withers, Gas Industry Guzzles
On the gas and oil front:
- 2011/09/16: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
OIL (US$/bbl)
Nymex Crude Future...87.96
Dated Brent Spot....114.38
WTI Cushing Spot.....87.96 - 2011/09/14: GreenGrok: Natural Gas Takes Another Climate Change Hit
- 2011/09/15: WiC: Michael Klare: Is Washington out of gas?
- 2011/09/15: EnergyBulletin: America and Oil: Declining together? by Michael Klare
- 2011/09/15: ABC(Au): BP set to start Bight oil exploration
BP says it has final approval to start seismic surveys in its oil search in the Great Australian Bight. Its surveys will be within marine parks which overlap the exploration permit areas. - 2011/09/15: OilDrum: Goldman [Sachs] Predicts US As Top Oil Producer In 2017
- 2011/09/15: PeakEnergy: US Gas-to-Liquid Plant Planned By SASOL May Cost $10 Billion
- 2011/09/13: NBF: IEA reports August world oil (all liquids) supply rose 1 million barrels per day to 89.1 million barrels
And in pipeline news:
- 2011/09/17: BBC: Gazprom signs three European gas pipeline partners
Three European energy companies have signed a legal agreement with the Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom to build the South Stream gas pipeline into eastern Europe. - 2011/09/16: DNAIndia: US threatens Pakistan with sanctions over Iran gas pipeline deal
- 2011/09/18: OilDrum: Tech Talk - pipelines from the Arctic
- 2011/09/16: DeSmogBlog: America's Woefully Inadequate Oversight of Pipeline Safety: A New York Times Stunner
- 2011/09/13: CBC: Kenya pipeline blast death toll hits 87
- 2011/09/13: DeSmogBlog: Video of Keystone XL Tar Sands Protesters Arrested At The White House
- 2011/09/13: DeSmogBlog: Environmental Impact Deemed "Limited" For Potentially Explosive Shale Gas Pipeline Into Lower Manhattan
- 2011/09/12: NBF: Trans-Siberian Bering Strait Oil Pipeline could make sense
- 2011/09/12: BBC: Kenya fire: Nairobi pipeline blaze 'kills at least 75'
- 2011/09/12: Guardian(UK): Pipeline fire kills dozens in Nairobi slum
- 2011/09/11: TP:JR: McKibben: "Constantly and Disastrously" Leaking U.S. Pipelines Are the Mess in the Middle of the Keystone XL Debate
- 2011/09/12: al Jazeera: Scores dead in Kenyan pipeline inferno
At least 100 people feared dead when leaking fuel pipeline explodes in a densely population Nairobi slum. - 2011/09/16: TreeHugger: Is the U.S. Reaching Peak Water?
- 2011/09/14: EnergyBulletin: The peak oil crisis: a September recap
- 2011/09/13: TreeHugger: Infographic on Peak Oil - Who Uses How Much, and Where We Go From Here
- 2011/09/13: BBC: Earth's rarest metals ranked in a new 'risk list'
Biofuel bickering abounds:
- 2011/09/15: RRapier: Thiel vs. Khosla on Cleantech: Who is Right? Battle Over the Definition of Success in the 'Cleantech' Industry
- 2011/09/17: BBC: Anglesey biomass plant given UK government go-ahead
- 2011/09/14: BPA: Biomass is Being Used to Offset Greenhouse Emissions from Ethanol Plants and from Coal Electrical Generation
- 2011/09/13: TreeHugger: Wood Industry Opposes Biomass Power Too
- 2011/09/12: TreeHugger: Replacing Coal With Biomass For Electricity Is No Climate Solution (Video)
The answer my friend...:
- 2011/09/17: KSJT: KQED Quest: A stratosphere wind energy farm machine...
- 2011/09/16: PlanetArk: New York Offshore Wind Group Files For Lease
- 2011/09/11: CCurrents: Global Wind Power Potential: Physical And Technological Limits
Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:
- 2011/09/16: TP:JR: Solar is the "Fastest Growing Industry in America" and Made Record Cost Reductions in 2010
- 2011/09/15: ERW: Distributed solar power is best option for many African communities
Decreasing prices for photovoltaic solar cells have made renewable energy the best option for electricity generation in many African rural communities, according to researchers in Europe. - 2011/09/18: BBC: China: Villagers protest at Zhejiang solar panel plant
- 2011/09/16: TreeHugger: SunRun Wants To Debunk Some Myths About Home Solar Power - First, High Upfront Cost
- 2011/09/16: TreeHugger: Solar Power Is Among Fastest Growing Industries in America - Solyndra Is An Exception
- 2011/09/16: Grist: Reports of the death of solar power are highly exaggerated
- 2011/09/15: LBL: [link to 1 meg pdf] Installed Cost of Solar Photovoltaic Systems in the U.S. Declined Significantly in 2010 and 2011
- 2011/09/15: NBF: Printed solar cells on paper
- 2011/09/15: TreeHugger: Build a Solar Charger For iPhones In 30 Minutes
- 2011/08/22: MWatch: Running your home on sunshine is cheaper -- Why solar panels will continue to become less expensive
- 2011/09/13: Grist: World solar market to increase 130 percent by 2020
- 2011/09/13: TreeHugger: Planned Solar Projects Swell from 17GW to 24GW Due to Falling Prices
- 2011/09/12: TP:JR: As PV Prices Keep Falling, U.S. Solar Project Pipeline Booms
The nuclear energy controversy continues:
- 2011/09/18: BBC: Siemens to quit nuclear industry
- 2011/09/16: NBF: World Nuclear generation Update for first half of 2011 and part of third quarter
- 2011/09/16: NBF: World Nuclear Energy projected to double by 2030
- 2011/09/13: PlanetArk: IAEA Still Sees "Significant" Nuclear Energy Growth
- 2011/09/12: CBC: Iran's 1st nuclear plant up to 40% power -- Bushehr has been under construction for decades
Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:
- 2011/09/13: EurActiv: Safety fears after explosion at French nuclear [waste] site
A Green MEP has called for the Centraco nuclear waste treatment site in Marcoule to be shut down, as the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) begins an inquiry into a blast there yesterday (12 September) that killed one man and injured four others, one with severe burns. - 2011/09/12: NatureNB: Yucca Mountain is dead, long live Yucca Mountain
- 2011/09/12: BBC: France nuclear: Marcoule site explosion kills one
- 2011/09/12: Guardian(UK): Explosion at French nuclear waste plant
- 2011/09/12: CBC: French nuclear officials downplay risks from blast -- No leak of radioactive material in explosion that killed 1, safety body says
- 2011/09/12: TP:JR: Explosion at French Nuclear Waste Plant Leaves 1 Dead, 4 Injured, No Apparent Radiation Leak
- 2011/09/12: NatureNB: Explosion rocks French nuclear [waste] site
- 2011/09/12: ScienceInsider: Blast at French Nuclear Waste Facility Kills One
- 2011/09/12: al Jazeera: Explosion at nuclear site in France
Explosion confirmed but no clear information on severity of the accident, or whether there is potential for leaks. - 2011/09/13: NBF: International Collaboration on Laser Fusion
The Rossi Energy Catalyzer keeps coming up:
- 2011/09/16: NBF: Swedish Ny Teknik assists with self sustained e-cat test and shows pictures of the 1 megawatt cold fusion unit
More people are talking about the electrical grid:
- 2011/09/13: KPLU: Electric vehicles could help store NW wind power
And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:
- 2011/09/16: TreeHugger: FZLed PAR38 22-Watt LED Spotlight (Product Review)
- 2011/09/15: NBF: New Infrared Coating for Windows could halve air conditioning and lighting energy usage
- 2011/09/12: TreeHugger: Haitz's Law: Moore's Law for LED Lightbulbs
Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:
- 2011/09/16: AutoBG: Toyota pins comeback hopes on hybrids; predicts they'll be 20% of market by 2020
- 2011/09/14: DerSpiegel: A Slow Farewell to Fossil Fuels -- Electric Car Revolution Remains a Distant Prospect
The Frankfurt Motor Show is devoting an entire exhibition hall to electric mobility this year -- but truly marketable electric vehicles are conspicuous by their absence. The technology is being developed more slowly than expected. It will be a long time before the world can bid farewell to the combustion engine. - 2011/09/13: FuturePundit: Lithium Titanium Battery Offers Fast Charge
- 2011/09/16: FuturePundit: Rapid EV Battery Cost Declines Not Realistic?
- 2011/09/13: CSM: Jelly batteries seen as safer, cheaper alternative to traditional cells
- 2011/09/13: CBC: High-tech storage for green energy
- 2011/09/08: TechRev: Battery Storage Could Get a Huge Boost from Seaweed
A binding agent found in everything from ice cream to cosmetics could let lithium-ion cells hold much more energy. - 2011/09/15: BBC: 'Most environmentally aware' firms highlighted
A report has identified 16 companies from across the developing world that are best showing how to grow profits at the same time as actively tackling environmental and social challenges. The study by the World Economic Forum (WEF) pinpointed firms in countries as diverse as Costa Rica, Egypt and China. The WEF said it showed that global "green" businesses were not the only ones with sustainability credentials. The report looked at 1,000 companies in the developing world. - 2011/09/15: BBC: Low carbon companies outperform, says CDP
Companies that implement policies to reduce carbon emissions perform better on the stock market compared with those that do not, a survey suggests. The annual Carbon Disclosure Project also found that, for the first time, the majority of the world's largest corporations incorporate climate change action in their business strategies.
[...]
The report, written by PriceWaterhouse Coopers, analysed data provided by 396 of the world's biggest listed companies, and found climate change was central to the business plans of 68% of the respondents, up from 48% last year. There was also a big increase in the number of companies reporting reduced greenhouse gas emissions - 45% compared with 19% a year earlier. - 2011/09/14: Guardian(UK): Why low carbon means high profit - eventually
The global companies with climate-smart strategies deliver double the returns of their rivals. But will this wisdom sink in fully before global warming really starts to rage? - 2011/09/14: Guardian(UK): World's largest firms 'acting on climate change', analysis shows
Climate is central to business strategy of 68% of the world's 500 largest companies, compared with 48% last year - 2011/09/12: Guardian(UK): Businesses should link environmental and financial impact, investors urge
Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:
- 2011/09/12: Grist: [Ethical Oil] Ad claims tar-sands oil will save women
Joe Romm posts a daily list of top energy and climate stories:
- 2011/09/16: TP:JR: September 16 News...
- 2011/09/15: TP:JR: September 15 News...
- 2011/09/14: TP:JR: September 14 News...
- 2011/09/13: TP:JR: September 13 News...
- 2011/09/12: TP:JR: September 12 News...
Other (weekly) lists:
- 2011/09/12: BPA: Agriculture News
- 2011/09/11: TP:JR: Climate and Energy Week in Review
The carbon lobby are up to the usual:
- 2011/09/17: Tamino: Cold Cherries from Joe D'Aleo
- 2011/09/17: Tamino: More Cherry Ice from Joe D'Aleo
- 2011/09/17: Tamino: Cherry Herring
- 2011/09/17: DeSmogBlog: "Doubt" Video On Fossil Fuel Industry's Tobacco PR Tactics To Undermine Science
- 2011/09/16: LucyPepper: The Troll Catalogue
- 2011/09/15: SciAm: What Is Pseudoscience? Distinguishing between science and pseudoscience is problematic
- 2011/09/16: ERabett: Nicotine is Not Addictive
- 2011/09/16: ITracker: They tried to teach my baby (climate) science
- 2011/09/14: PSinclair: New Lows: Sea Ice and "Steven Goddard" credibility
- 2011/09/14: DeSmogBlog: Want to Sway Climate Change Skeptics? Ask About Their Personal Strengths (And Show Pictures!)
- 2011/09/11: QuarkSoup: If Galileo Could Speak For Himself
As for climate miscellanea:
- 2011/09/17: ITracker: Polarizing the debate -- for the win
- 2011/09/17: HotTopic: A lecture not to miss [Tim Naish]
- 2011/09/16: SciAm:Obs: Hackers Use Open Hardware to Solve Environmental Problems
- 2011/09/16: RealClimate: Hooked on 'theWeather'
- 2011/09/15: ClimateSight: What Does the Public Know?
- 2011/09/15: ITracker: Bad climate policy, ctd: that unshakable 10%
- 2011/09/13: BPA: "The Sun" Interviews Stewart Brand
- 2011/09/13: TheConversation: Diamond planets, climate change and the scientific method
- 2011/09/14: HotTopic: Climate Change: The Long View
- 2011/09/12: ITracker: What if we took +4C as inevitable?
- 2011/09/12: Stoat: Natural disasters (again)
And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:
- Ending Hunger
- Wiki: Citric acid cycle (Krebs cycle)
- Intersection [change of address]
- Clean Energy Future
- CYCC: Canadian Youth Climate Coalition
- IAGP: Integrated Assessment of Geoengineering Proposals
- Climate Communication - Science & Outreach
- ProtectBloodLand: Protect Blood/Kainai Land
- Arctic Sea Ice
- Polar Science Conference
- Yale360 - Yale Environment 360
- NSIDC: Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis
- Wiki: World Oceans Day
Here's a chuckle for ya:
The Horn of Africa drought and famine continues to be a major disaster:
As the Monnett saga plays out, BOEMRE looks worse and worse:
The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:
That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:
Regarding the genetic modification of food:
And how are we going to feed 9 billion?
Also in the Carribean/Atlantic:
In the carbon cycle:
On the mitigation front, consider transportation & GHG production:
Meanwhile in the journals:
As for miscellaneous science:
While at the UN:
The Fifth IPCC report is coming up:
On the international political front, the Rare Earths' tussle continues:
Meanwhile in Australia:
After a 10 year drought and recent massive flooding, water usage planning is controversial and difficult:
And in New Zealand:
In Japan:
And elsewhere in Asia:
And South America:
In Canada, neocon PM Harper, continues his do-nothing policy:
The G8/G20 controversy lingers:
CYCC bounced one off Environment Canada this week. Nothing changed:
With all the bad publicity, the Tories rushed out a fake 'positive' announcement:
The battle over the Keystone XL and Northern Gateway pipelines rages on:
So they tested 12 fish, ay?
What do you think this is? A democracy?
The Geological Survey of Canada reports the country could be powered by Geothermal:
This week at the Cohen Commission:
Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:
Also in Alberta:
While in la Belle Province:
The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:
Yes we have peak everything:
Nuclear fusion projects around the world limp along:
As for Energy Storage:
The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:
Low Key Plug
New Web Site:
I have a new website. Everything that was on Autobahn has been ported over. I have 100 megs to play with here, so the Archives will get deeper.
My first novel Water was published in Canada May, 2007. The American release was in October. An Introductionto the novel is available, along with the Unpublished Forewordand the Launch Talk(which includes some quotations), An overview of my writing is available here.
<regards>
P.S. Recent postings can be found in the week archive and the ancient postings can be accessed here, which should open to this.
I notice moyhu has set up a monster index to old AWoGWN on AFTIC."There's really no such thing as natural weather anymore. Anything that takes place today in the weather system has been affected by the changes we've made to the climate system. That's just the background situation and it's good for people to know that." -Donald Wuebbles
Categories
- Log in to post comments
More like this
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
skip to bottom Another week of Climate Disruption News Information Overloadis Pattern RecognitionSeptember 11, 2011…
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
skip to bottom Another week of Climate Disruption News Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck YearsSeptember 25, 2011…
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
skip to bottom Another Week in the Ecological Crisis Information Overloadis Pattern RecognitionOctober 16, 2011…
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
skip to bottom Another week of Climate Disruption News Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck YearsJune 19, 2011 Chuckles…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI5ulKiZAoE
What he said.
This is a fantastic roundup of news on climate change! You may be interested in Connect4Climate, which was launched this week to encourage an interactive dialogue on climate change leading up to COP17 in Durban.
http://www.connect4climate.org
http://www.facebook.com/connect4climate
Thanks Chris.
I really love the ad for Mafia Wars 2 on Facebook and the "related link" off to the right involving the "amazing pole dancer."
LOL.
Maybe we need more sex and violence in the climate debate.
I reckon you are half right skip.
Hm.
Maybe climate models showing people will be less likely to get laid and rugby will be impossible in a warmer world . . .
. . . ugh.
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_18960996
And after this drubbing maybe a climate mercy rule would be the best thing that ever happened to the US.
All our best athletes play gridiron . . . that's my excuse.