Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years

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Another Week of Climate Disruption News

Information is not Knowledge...Knowledge is notWisdom

January 15, 2012

• Chuckles, Rio+20, Horn of Africa, Doomsday Clock, India, 2 Minute Hates, Cohen et al.
• Tzedakis et al., Oliver, Northern Gateway, Bottom Line, Hype, Cook, Post CRU
• Fukushima Note, Fukushima News, Nuclear Policy
• Melting Arctic, Megafauna, Methane, Geopolitics
• Food Crisis, Food Prices, Land Grabs, GMOs, Food Production
• Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Paleoclimate
• Impacts, Forests, Desertification, Wacky Weather, Extreme Weather, Tornadoes
• Wildfires, Acidification, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Transportation, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Adaptation
• Journals, Misc. Science, Haber
• International Politics: Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Bank Tax
• EU ETS & Airlines, Energy Race, Hormuz, Security, H2O Biz, Religioso, Ethics
• National Politics: America, BP Disaster, 2012, Keystone XL, Restructuring
• GHG Map, Al Gore, Obama, USAdmin, Congress, Lobbyists
• Britain, Europe, Australia, Murray-Darling, India, China, Russia, Africa, South America
• Canada, Post G20, Offshore Drilling, Jobs, Kyoto, Pipelines, Nukes, CWB
• ISA, BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Sask, Manitoba, North, Canadiana
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Courts, Betting
• Energy, Fracking, Coal, Oil & Gas, Pipelines, Peak Oil, Biofuel
• Wind, Solar, Nukes, Nuclear Waste, LENR, Efficiency, Cars, Energy Storage
• Business, FAQs, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

Live and direct from the laugh, it's funny, damnit department:

• 2012/01/09: Tyee: (cartoon - Perry) Canada? Oh, We're Bad -- Nice is so over. Nice is for pussies
• 2012/01/13: CBites: [cartoon - KAL] Leading the way. . . with the climate denial shibboleth
• 2012/01/15: uComics: (cartoon - Trudeau) The National Museum of Newtisms
• 2012/01/11: uComics: (cartoon - Wiley) Welcome
• 2012/01/11: P3: (cartoon - Roberts) Bathtub Analogy

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

• 2012/01/12: Wonkette: New York Times Wondering Whether It Should Tell the Truth About Anything

  A leak of a draft version of a Rio+20 document triggered a round of comments:

• 2012/01/12: NatureNB: Agenda set for earth summit
• 2012/01/12: TreeHugger: Leaked Rio+20 Document Has Lots For Treehuggers To Like, With One Glaring Shortcoming
• 2012/01/11: BBC: Rio looks to the future
• 2012/01/11: Guardian(UK): Decisions must be made at Rio Earth summit, urges UN official
• 2012/01/11: EurActiv: Leaked document reveals Rio+20 sustainable development goals
  Countries will be asked this summer to sign up for 10 new sustainable development goals for the planet and promise to build green economies at the first earth summit in 20 years.
• 2012/01/11: TreeHugger: Countries To Be Asked To Sign 10 Sustainable Development Goals At Rio+20 Summit
• 2012/01/10: Guardian(UK): Leaked document reveals Rio+20 sustainable development goals

  The Horn of Africa drought and famine continues to be a major disaster, with amazingly little coverage:

• 2012/01/12: UN: Somalia requires continued assistance despite gains against famine - UN official
• 2012/01/13: ABC(Au): Food aid suspended in hostile Horn of Africa

  The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists advanced the Doomsday Clock to five minutes to midnight this week:

• 2012/01/10: TBAS: Doomsday Clock moves to five minutes to midnight
• 2012/01/11: TP:JR: Doomsday Clock Moves to Five Minutes to Midnight -- Thanks in Part to Inaction on Climate Change
• 2012/01/11: ABC(Au): 'Doomsday' ticks closer to midnight
• 2012/01/10: ScienceInsider: Doomsday Clock Ticks Closer to Midnight
• 2012/01/11: BBC: Doomsday Clock moves one minute closer to midnight
  The Doomsday Clock, a symbolic gauge of nuclear danger, has moved one minute closer to midnight because of "inadequate progress" on nuclear and climate issues.
• 2012/01/11: CSM: Doomsday Clock suggests danger to world grows [due to nuke proliferation and climate inaction]
• 2012/01/10: Guardian(UK): Doomsday Clock ticks one minute closer to midnight
  The symbolic clock face, maintained since 1947 by the board of directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago, counts down to nuclear armageddon

It is rare to see such a succinct statement of our situation in a newspaper. Kudos to India Times:

• 2012/01/07: IndiaTimes: India's climate change choices
  The greatest problem facing India is global warming. War, internal subversion and a global economic meltdown are all very serious threats, but they can be stopped or contained. Global warming, on the other hand, seems unstoppable and uncontainable. The outcome of the Durban summit on climate change suggests it is already too late to prevent the two degrees Celsius temperature increase that scientists say is the maximum tolerable.
  
  Indians have scarcely understood the magnitude of the problem. With global warming, sea levels will rise, submerging habitations, small and big. Fertile areas will become deserts. Rivers and underground water will dry up. Rainfall patterns will change and glaciers will melt, at first causing floods, later causing rivers to die. The rising heat and lack of water will cause an agricultural catastrophe.
  
  People will be displaced in search of safety, cooler climes, water, better soil, food, and security from others. Social amenities will deteriorate, disease will spread, frictions will bubble to the surface and our political order could collapse altogether. Since the problem of global warming will be as acute if not worse in Bangladesh and Pakistan, our crisis will be even greater than we think. Desperate people will cross the border into India in search of sanctuary.
  
  What, then, are the choices before us?

Two-minute hates directed at climate scientists Emanuel and Hayhoe:

• 2012/01/13: Guardian(UK): US climate scientist's wife suffers email 'frenzy of hate'
  Inbox of MIT scientist Kerry Emanuel's wife was flooded with menacing emails after he appeared in a video featuring Republicans who believe in man-made climate change
• 2012/01/13: MoJo: MIT Climate Scientist's Wife Threatened In A "Frenzy of Hate"
  Kerry Emanuel's inbox was flooded with menacing emails after Climate Desk's video on Republican climate hawks.
• 2012/01/13: Grist: MIT climate scientist [Kerry Emanuel] receives frenzy of hate mail
• 2012/01/10: G&M: Canadian climate scientist finds fame, hate mail in U.S.
  She once was a science-minded undergrad who spent her nights minding the telescopes on the top floors of the University of Toronto's McLennan building. Katharine Hayhoe is now a figure of some fame and controversy in the United States, for her sin is that she is an evangelical Christian who is also a climate scientist trying to convince skeptics that climate change is for real.
• 2012/01/11: PSinclair: Hey, Hey. Hayhoe. -- Climate Denialist Hatred and Intimidation campaigns have Got to Go

  The counterintuitive result of the Cohen et al. paper triggered some chatter:

• 2012/01/12: ERL: Arctic warming, increasing snow cover and widespread boreal winter cooling by Judah L Cohen et al.
• 2012/01/13: ERW: Global warming set to bring colder, snowier winters
  The world is getting warmer, which should mean warmer winters - right? Wrong - a new study shows that global warming produces colder winters and heavier dumps of snow for large swathes of the northern hemisphere.
• 2012/01/13: CBC: Global warming won't heat up cold Canadian winters
• 2012/01/12: SciNow: Global Warming May Trigger [Local] Winter Cooling

  The Tzedakis et al. paper generated a lot of confusion or was it spin?

• 2012/01/09: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Determining the natural length of the current interglacial by P. C. Tzedakis et al.
• 2012/01/10: PSinclair: No Virginia, we didn't Avoid another Ice Age
• 2012/01/09: BBC: Carbon emissions 'will defer Ice Age'
  Human emissions of carbon dioxide will defer the next Ice Age, say scientists. The last Ice Age ended about 11,500 years ago, and when the next one should begin has not been entirely clear. Researchers used data on the Earth's orbit and other things to find the historical warm interglacial period that looks most like the current one. In the journal Nature Geoscience, they write that the next Ice Age would begin within 1,500 years - but emissions have been so high that it will not.

In Canada, the Harper gang kicked off the week with a direct assault on everyone concerned for the environment:

• 2012/01/09: G&M: An open letter from Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver
• 2012/01/14: ReginaMom: Round-up Ready Radicals
• 2012/01/11: Tyee: Elizabeth May Takes on Joe Oliver
• 2012/01/11: Tyee: An Open Reply to Joe Oliver's Propaganda for the Petro State by Andrew Nikiforuk
• 2012/01/12: G&M: 'Radical ideological agenda' easy to spot from downtown Toronto
• 2012/01/12: G&M: Pipeline politics: Don't demonize the charitable sector
• 2012/01/12: PostMedia: The real foreign interests in the oilsands
  If there were a global competition for the most brazen and preposterously transparent attempt by a ruling political party to change a necessary subject of national debate with alarmist distractions and hubbub, the Conservative escapade engineered in Ottawa these past few days really deserves some kind of grand prize.
• 2012/01/12: G&M: In Canada's energy sector, foreign influence cuts both ways
• 2012/01/11: CBC: Attack on 'radicals' sign of tougher federal strategy -- Government expected to get more aggressive in defending major economic projects
  If the federal government's salvo at environmentalists opposed to the Northern Gateway pipeline this week came as a surprise to some, it was a welcome defence of an important economic project to others.
• 2012/01/11: MSimon: Joe Oliver and the Leaking Pipeline
• 2012/01/11: NI/P: "Mistruths and half-truths" from our government
• 2012/01/10: G&M: Pipeline rhetoric is a radical attack on due process
• 2012/01/11: G&M: 'Foreign money' is a hypocritical diversion
  It has been rich, even comic, to listen to the Harper government blasting away at "foreign money," "radical groups" and Hollywood movie stars for interfering in the environmental review of the Northern Gateway pipeline that's just starting.
• 2012/01/10: GABrigade: Labelling radicals or creating them?
• 2012/01/10: 350orBust: The Real Radicals Are Those Who Pollute Our Air and Water and Destabilize Our Climate, Mr. Oliver
• 2012/01/10: TreeHugger: Canada's Minister of Natural Resources Calls Anti-pipeline Protesters Radicals Supported by "Jet-Setting Celebrities"
• 2012/01/10: WCEL: Our 'radical' perspective: environmental assessment that respects the environment, the public, First Nations and the economy
• 2012/01/10: PostMedia: Spin cycle on pipelines, 'foreign interests' hits warp speed
  The gladiators of spin arrive in their shining armour and logic departs the arena faster than common sense flees a drunken Vancouver hockey crowd. Welcome to the Internet Age, when any sophist with a slogan, some cherry-picked research and a laptop can muddy the waters.
• 2012/01/10: PostMedia: Foreign influence foolish target
  Some day, the Harper Conservatives will get over their fondness for calling enemies names. They will learn that it is not a prepossessing habit, that many Canadians have negative memories of those who employed the tactic during their junior-high years, and that it often backfires badly if the target has the wit, courage and resources to lock-and-load with names of his own. But someday is clearly not any day soon, if the Tory lash-out at "radical greens" is anything to go by as hearings begin into the massive Northern Gateway pipeline proposal.
• 2012/01/09: Macleans: Joe Oliver vs. the radicals, or among them
• 2012/01/09: CBC: Radicals working against oilsands, Ottawa says
  Environment groups 'threaten to hijack' system, natural resources minister says
• 2012/01/09: OilChange: Oh the Canadian hypocrisy..
• 2012/01/08: Creekside: Steve frets about foreign influence on Enbridge pipeline
• 2012/01/09: CBC: 'Radical' environmentalists slammed by Tory minister -- Resources minister says groups 'threaten to hijack our regulatory system'

  And the reason for the minister's diatribe was the Northern Gateway hearings which began this week:

• 2012/01/11: Tyee: In Kitimat, First Nations Say No to Oil Sands Pipeline -- Haisla chiefs open Northern Gateway hearings with quiet plea, warning
• 2012/01/12: Rabble: Pipeline politics and Canada's 'national economic interests'
• 2012/01/13: Rabble:TM: The interests of Enbridge are not the same as the interests of Canada
• 2012/01/12: Tyee: The Expert's Report that Damns the Northern Gateway Pipeline
  Veteran energy analyst David Hughes calculates three reasons the project is bad for Canada.
• 2012/01/13: PEF: Are Enbridge's job numbers credible?
• 2012/01/13: EnergyBulletin: The expert's report that damns the northern gateway pipeline
• 2012/01/13: TheCanadian: Clark, Harper, Enbridge Taking Suicidal Risks With BC's Future
• 2012/01/12: LFR: BigCityLib cleans up journalist's mess. Confirms Brazilian did sign up to speak at pipeline hearings.
• 2012/01/12: BCLSB: Intervenor Confusion At Northern Gateway Pipeline Hearings? Not As Much As Reported!
• 2012/01/12: Creekside: Enbridge hearings hit with Snuffaluffagus hoax
• 2012/01/12: PostMedia: Pipeline has one backer in two days -- Native elders oppose project
• 2012/01/11: CBC: Northern Gateway pipeline: benefits vs. concerns
• 2012/01/11: PlanetArk: Canadian Natives Warn Against Pipeline To Pacific
• 2012/01/11: OilChange: "It would be the end of our history" [NorG]
• 2012/01/11: PostMedia: First Nation says Enbridge pipeline spill would devastate its way of life
  A lengthy federal review into Enbridge's proposed $5.5-billion Northern Gateway pipeline began Tuesday with the Haisla warning a three-member panel that an oil spill would devastate their way of life.
• 2012/01/11: TRM: About that northern pipeline...Poetic Justice! Enbridge reports leak from U.S. pipeline as Northern Gateway hearings begin.
• 2012/01/11: DEaves: Ethical Oil and the Northern Gateway Pipeline Process
• 2012/01/10: G&M: As review begins for Gateway pipeline, a warning from wary first nations
• 2012/01/10: G&M: Enbridge reports leak from U.S. pipeline as Northern Gateway hearings begin
• 2012/01/09: G&M: The Northern Gateway pipeline, politics and the law
  After years of preparation, a project that would reshape the geography of Canada's energy landscape is entering public hearings. But with the tremendous rancour already stoked by Enbridge Inc.'s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, it's likely some of the most important decisions that will clear -- or block -- the path for its construction won't be made by the three-person federal joint review panel that expects to render a verdict by the end of 2013. Instead, it's possible the courts -- and perhaps even Parliament -- will be called on to play defining roles. The pipeline represents such an important confluence of issues -- Canada's future energy development versus its commitment to environmental obligations and first nations rights -- that legal and political intervention could set important national precedents. There are several ways this could happen, and several important possible outcomes -- both if the National Energy Board approves Gateway, angering opponents, or if it denies a project the Harper government has vocally supported.
• 2012/01/11: G&M: Our ecological treasure is the issue with Northern Gateway
  The hearings to decide the future of the Great Bear Sea and Rainforest got off to quite a start this week. Big oil, foreign intrigue, a grassroots uprising, duelling polls, angry ministers -- this one has all the makings of a blockbuster. But the fervour obscures the heart of the matter: whether and under what conditions we should permit supertankers and a bitumen pipeline in one of the last intact temperate coastal rain forests on Earth.
• 2012/01/11: TStar: Stephen Harper's Northern Gateway pipeline parody
  The federal government's claim that big-money foreign interests are trying to hijack hearings into a proposed west coast oil pipeline is, at one level, high parody. It is also deeply disturbing. The parody lies with the fact that Canada's oil industry is dominated by multinationals. That means there will indeed be a lot of big-money foreign interests pushing the three-person federal review panel to okay a pipeline from Alberta's oilsands to a tanker port at Kitimat on the British Columbia coast. America's Exxon Mobil, Britain's BP, France's Total E&P, China's SinoCanada Petroleum Corp. and Japan Canada Oil Sands Ltd. have all asked for intervenor status at the hearings. So has the South Korean conglomerate Daewoo.
• 2012/01/10: G&M: 'We want to have a voice,' Haisla chief pleads at Gateway hearings
  The public relations battle surrounding the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline kicked up once again Tuesday, but the people at centre stage at the start of environmental hearings delivered a more quiet plea and warning. "I know all the history, laws, ins and outs of the native culture," said Rod Bolton, a hereditary Haisla chief who spoke at the opening of the hearings in Kitimat, B.C. "Please, hear me. We will not be walked over again like was done in the reserve system. We want to have a voice."
• 2012/01/09: Guardian(UK): Oil sands pipeline battle turns ugly
• 2012/01/10: GPP: Canada's Third Great Pipeline Debate: The Political Landscape as the Northern Gateway Pipeline Hearings Start
• 2012/01/10: BCLSB: As The Debate Over The Northern Gateway Pipeline Heats Up
• 2012/01/10: TGBeaver: Northern Gateway Pipeline notes
• 2012/01/10: WCEL: Attacks on Canadian public registered to participate in Enbridge Process are unacceptable
• 2012/01/09: G&M: For the Harper government, the Gateway must be open
  The Harper government has launched an all-out campaign against opponents of the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline as it seeks to blunt a global campaign by environmentalists to halt booming oil sands development. With regulatory hearings set to begin in Kitimat, B.C., Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver singled out a Canadian charity, Tides Canada Inc., for channelling U.S. donor money to pipeline opponents, while the Prime Minister's Office took aim at the Washington-based Natural Resources Defense Council.
• 2012/01/10: CBC: Northern Gateway pipeline hearings open -- Enbridge's Northern Gateway project would send oilsands crude to Kitimat, B.C.
• 2012/01/09: TStar: Crude start to oil debate
• 2012/01/09: PostMedia: Effort to silence Northern Gateway pipeline critics called 'red herring'
  Blaming opposition to the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline on foreign cash is a red herring designed to obscure the controversial project's risks, say environmental organizations. The anti-pipeline groups were reacting to the offensive launched in recent days by the federal Conservative government against what it called "radical" environmentalists who receive money from U.S.-based foundations. "The Conservatives are clearly trying to delegitimize the opposition because that is the only tactic they have left," said Emma Gilchrist, communications director for the Dogwood Initiative, a B.C. environmental group.
• 2012/01/10: PostMedia: Alberta's voice at hearings limited -- B.C. has many more speakers taking part in Gateway pipeline debate
• 2012/01/10: PostMedia: Kitimat a town divided over pipeline project -- Economic benefits badly needed, but fears of spill remain
• 2012/01/10: PostMedia: Harper interfering with Northern Gateway review: Liberals
  Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government was blasted Tuesday with allegations it is intimidating witnesses and interfering with the National Energy Board's hearings into Enbridge Inc.'s Northern Gateway pipeline proposal. Liberal interim leader Bob Rae said recent comments by Harper and Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver show disrespect for the NEB's independence, and violate the rule of law.
• 2012/01/10: PostMedia: Feds play risky game with pro-pipeline talk
  Remarks about 'radical' groups hijacking regulatory process raises thorny questions about impartiality of Northern Gateway Project review Pro-pipeline statements by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver on the eve of formal hearings into the Northern Gateway Project are a risky business. Clearly Harper and Oliver are playing to the Conservatives' political base, reinforcing a message the Harper team is all about protecting the economy and creating jobs. But remarks about "environmental and other radical groups [that would] hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda" threaten to damage the credibility of the review process.
• 2012/01/10: WpgFP: Kitimat warns politicians to stay out of Northern Gateway pipeline debate
• 2012/01/08: PostMedia: B.C. First Nations fear disastrous spill is inevitable
• 2012/01/07: PostMedia: What if a supertanker tanks?
• 2012/01/08: CBC: Northern Gateway pipeline hearings to start in B.C. -- 4,300 to speak about $5.5B project that would carry Alberta oil to West Coast
• 2012/01/08: TheCanadian: Enbridge Admits There Will Be Spills [from the Northern Gateway]

  And on the Bottom Line:

• 2012/01/13: EurActiv: Green energy investment soars to $260bn globally
  Global investment in clean energy reached a new high of $260bn (E203bn) last year, despite the financial crisis and the anti-environment agenda of Republicans in the US Congress, a United Nations investors' summit was told on Thursday (12 January).
• 2012/01/12: TP:JR: One Trillionth Dollar Invested in Clean Energy in 2011: Will American Business Capture the Second Trillion?

  This week's hype:

• 2012/01/13: CSM: Elusive particles could help to stem climate change
• 2012/01/13: Grist: Don't believe the hype about the 'molecule that could solve climate change'

  John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:

• 2012/01/14: SkeptiSci: Gillett et al. Estimate Human and Natural Global Warming by dana1981
• 2012/01/15: SkeptiSci: Katharine Hayhoe's labour of love inspires a torrent of hate
• 2012/01/12: SkeptiSci: Climate and Sea Level: An Emerging Hockey Stick by Rob Honeycutt
• 2012/01/13: SkeptiSci: U.S. 2011: The Wet Get Wetter, the Dry Get Drier by Tom Smerling
• 2012/01/12: SkeptiSci: Climate Change Denial and the Media - Banishment of Science Reality by Brian Purdue
• 2012/01/11: SkeptiSci: Just Science app shows climate change is happening in pictures anyone can understand by Nick Orenstein
• 2012/01/11: SkeptiSci: Lean and Rind Estimate Human and Natural Global Warming by dana1981, KR
• 2012/01/10: SkeptiSci: New research from last week 1/2012 by Ari Jokimäki
• 2012/01/10: SkeptiSci: 2011 Year in Review (part 2) by MarkR
• 2012/01/09: SkeptiSci: 2011 Expected to be Second Warmest Year on Record for the UK by John Hartz

  Post CRU-Two ... boredom:

• 2012/01/10: IJISH: SwiftHack 2.0: another phantom lawsuit by Roger Tattersall, this time against Greg Laden?

  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. Now the Japanese government is talking about 30 years. [Whoops, that has now been updated to 40 years.] We'll see. At any rate this situation is not going to be resolved any time soon and deserves its own section.
  Meanwhile...
  It is very difficult to know for sure what is really going on at Fukushima. Between the company [TEPCO], the Japanese government, the Japanese regulator [NISA], the international monitor [IAEA], as well as independent analysts and commentators, there is a confusing mish-mash of information. One has to evaluate both the content and the source of new information.
  How knowledgeable are they [about nuclear power and about Japan]?
  Do they have an agenda?
  Are they pro-nuclear or anti-nuclear?
  Do they want to write a good news story?
  Do they want to write a bad news story?
  Where do they rate on a scale of sensationalistic tendencies?
  Where do they rate on a scale of play-it-down tendencies?
  One fundamental question I would like to see answered:
  If the reactors are in meltdown, how can they be in cold shutdown?

  Not much good news coming out of Fukushima:

• 2012/01/14: PostMedia: Japanese radiation may pose threat to Canadian fish eaters: anti-nuclear group
• 2012/01/13: EneNews: Kyodo: 300 tons of highly contaminated water found under Reactor No. 3 -- Tepco checking how it got there
• 2012/01/11: APR: Nuclear Lunch, Fukushima, and other issues
• 2012/01/09: Yale360: As Fukushima Cleanup Begins, Long-term Impacts are Weighed
  The Japanese government is launching a large-scale cleanup of the fields, forests, and villages contaminated by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. But some experts caution that an overly aggressive remediation program could create a host of other environmental problems.
• 2012/01/09: EneNews: Just In: Fukushima *DAINI* reactor has broken containment vessel, says Tokyo Professor -- Probably caused by quake, not tsunami

  Post Fukushima, nuclear policies are in flux around the world:

• 2012/01/11: NatureN: France 'imagines the unimaginable'
  Regulator demands safety upgrades for nuclear plants to guard against a Fukushima-like disaster.

The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:

• 2012/01/10: NASA:EO: Greenland's Ice Is Growing Darker

  As for the charismatic megafauna:

• 2012/01/10: CBC: Climate change leaves some Hudson Bay polar bears starving
  Experts say the slow formation of winter ice on Hudson Bay this year has pushed some of Canada's polar bears to the brink of starvation and forced them to scrounge for food near old garbage dumps. The bears weren't able to get onto the ice to hunt seals until late November this year, which observers say is becoming the norm.
• 2012/01/08: TreeHugger: Seals and Walruses Found Dead in Alaska with Mysterious Sores and Hair Loss: Scientists Baffled

  That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:

• 2012/01/10: GEB: The potential for methane releases in the Arctic to cause runaway global warming
• 2012/01/15: SkeptiSci: Arctic methane outgassing on the E Siberian Shelf part 1 - the background by John Mason
• 2012/01/10: ERW: Keeping tabs on Eurasian methane
  As the second most important greenhouse gas, methane could have a considerable role to play in our planet's future. But it's not clear just how big some of the wetlands that are emitting the gas actually are and how climate change will affect them. With that in mind, a team from the US, Russia and China has used a terrestrial ecosystem model to investigate likely methane emissions from Northern Eurasia into the 21st century.
• 2012/01/11: HuffPo: Methane in the Twilight Zone (First Episode)
• 2012/01/11: TP:JR: RealClimate Is Alarmed by Arctic Methane, Should You Be?
• 2012/01/11: RealClimate: An online model of methane in the atmosphere
• 2012/01/: EarthMag: Source code: the methane race
• 2012/01/10: CCurrents: An Arctic Methane Worst-Case Scenario
• 2012/01/09: SciAm:GB: Much Ado about Methane
• 2012/01/10: ERabett: Go to bed. . .
• 2012/01/09: KSJT: Real Climate: Finally, an expert analysis of the Arctic methane news...

  As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

• 2012/01/13: CCP: Shell Oil, still with no viable spill cleanup plan, clears yet another hurdle in its quest to drill in the Arctic
• 2012/01/13: TP:JR: Nome Fuel Delivery Exposes Serious Concerns for Arctic Drilling
  If We Have Trouble Delivering Fuel on Land, How Would We Handle a Winter Oil Spill in the Arctic Ocean?
• 2012/01/13: NatureN: Gas-hydrate tests to begin in Alaska -- US team will pump waste carbon dioxide into natural-gas well to extract methane
• 2012/01/12: CBC: Shell Arctic drilling permit affirmed
  Shell has permit for drilling on outer continental shelf off Alaska's northwest coast in 2012
• 2012/01/10: OilChange: British MPs to Examine Arctic Drilling Risks

  The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2012/01/13: CCurrents: Only Lip-Sympathy For The Malnourished
• 2012/01/13: TreeHugger: Bumper 2011 Grain Harvest Fails to Rebuild Global Stocks
• 2012/01/12: EnergyBulletin: How resilient is the food system?
• 2012/01/12: al Jazeera: The world can't afford to keep wasting soil
  One-third of Earth's soil is degraded because of unsustainable farming methods, which could lead to a major food crisis.
• 2012/01/09: Guardian(UK): Sahel's looming food crisis gets swift response but no long-term answers
• 2012/01/09: BondPapers: A familiar, fishy tale

  Food Prices are still problematic:

• FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
• 2012/01/12: FAO: FAO Food Price Index ends year with sharp decline -- But record high prices mark year as a whole
• 2012/01/12: CBC: Global food prices fall in December
• 2012/01/12: UN: Despite end-of-year decline, 2011 food prices highest on record - UN
• 2012/01/11: BBC: Orange juice prices hit record
  The price of orange juice on the global markets has hit a record high, after surging over the past few days. Traders say the main reasons are safety concerns about juice from Brazil, the world's largest producer of orange juice, and cold weather in Florida.

So, are these land grabs Colonialism V2.0?

• 2012/01/13: EUO: EU ministers look to Israeli grab of Palestinian farmland

  Regarding the genetic modification of food:

• 2012/01/11: AlterNet: How Genetically Modified Foods Could Affect Our Health in Unexpected Ways
• 2012/01/10: NatSoc: Monsanto's GMO Corn Approved Despite 45,000 Public Comments in Opposition
• 2012/01/12: CBC: 'Super weed' found in Alberta -- Kochia resistant to [Roundup] world's top-selling herbicide
• 2012/01/12: SciAm:SS: The Very Real Scaremongering of Ari Levaux
• 2012/01/09: Atlantic: The Very Real Danger of Genetically Modified Foods
• 2012/01/12: GRC: Killer Seeds: The Devastating Impacts of Monsanto's Genetically Modified Seeds in India
• 2012/01/11: NBF: China's new super rice increases yield by 15% over 2004 and will help feed China and the World
• 2012/01/03: NatSoc: Leaked: US to Start 'Trade Wars' with Nations Opposed to Monsanto, GMO Crops
  The United States is threatening nations who oppose Monsanto's genetically modified (GM) crops with military-style trade wars, according to information obtained and released by the organization WikiLeaks. Nations like France, which have moved to ban one of Monsanto's GM corn varieties, were requested to be 'penalized' by the United States for opposing Monsanto and genetically modified foods. The information reveals just how deep Monsanto's roots have penetrated key positions within the United States government, with the cables reporting that many U.S. diplomats work directly for Monsanto.
• 2012/01/04: Cornucopia: Wholesale Approval of Genetically Engineered Foods -- Obama Administration Disappoints/Angers Public
• 2012/01/08: CCurrents: Wholesale Approval Of Genetically Engineered Foods -- Obama Administration Disappoints/Angers Public
• 2012/01/10: KSJT: The Atlantic: Why GM foods are dangerous. Oh? Some cry foul.
• 2012/01/10: Grist: The next generation of GMOs could be especially dangerous

  And how are we going to feed 9 billion, 10 billion, 15 billion?

• 2012/01/11: BasqueResearch: ULMA and Tecnalia conduct crop testing with a special photovoltaic panel for greenhouses
• 2012/01/09: CCurrents: One Small Step Towards Chemical-Free Agriculture
• 2012/01/09: EnergyBulletin: The perennial search for perennial grains
• 2012/01/09: PeakEnergy: The Coming Green Wave: Ocean Farming to Fight Climate Change

  Cat 2 Cyclone Heidi zapped the West Coast of Australia:

• 2012/01/12: NASA: Tropical Storm Heidi's Temperature, Cloud Heights and Rainfall Grabbed by NASA Satellites
• 2012/01/13: ABC(Au): Pilbara residents mop up after Cyclone Heidi
• 2012/01/11: BBC: Tropical Cyclone Heidi batters Western Australia
  Tropical Cyclone Heidi has hit Western Australia, forcing residents to flee rising tidewaters and closing the world's largest iron ore export ports. About 2,000 houses in and around the city of Port Hedland are without power after the category-two storm struck.
• 2012/01/12: ABC(Au): Cyclone Heidi hits Port Hedland
• 2012/01/11: Eureka: NASA sees Tropical Storm Heidi approaching Australia's Pilbara coast
• 2012/01/11: ABC(Au): Cyclone Heidi bears down on WA town
  Tropical Cyclone Heidi is bearing down on the Pilbara region of Western Australia and is expected to hit the town of Port Hedland in the early hours of Thursday morning. The category two cyclone is about 85 kilometres off the coast of Port Hedland and moving south at about 10 kilometres per hour. The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting destructive winds with gusts of up to 140 kilometres per hour, up to 250 millimetres of rain and dangerous storm tides.
• 2012/01/11: ABC(Au): Cyclone Heidi headed for WA's Pilbara

  While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

• 2012/01/13: SciAm:Obs: New Orleans Finally Gets a Hurricane Protection Plan

  As for GHGs:

• 2012/01/12: TreeHugger: Who Cares How Much Green House Gases Are Emitted By Big Factories and Power Plants? [ghgs]
• 2012/01/11: SEasterbrook: How much extra energy are we adding to the earth system?

  As for the temperature record:

• 2012/01/14: TP:JR: Seven National All-Time Heat Records Set in 2011
• 2012/01/13: moyhu: December TempLS surface temp - little change
• 2012/01/13: Wunderground: Extreme temperatures of 2011: 7 national all-time heat records; 1 cold record
• 2012/01/09: CBC: Canada basks in balmy temperatures
  The skating rink at The Forks in Winnipeg was roped off on Thursday as warm temperatures turned the ice into water. The skating rink at The Forks in Winnipeg was roped off on Thursday as warm temperatures turned the ice into water. (CBC)Much of the country is continuing to enjoy a six-week stretch of mild winter weather despite earlier predictions that Canada was headed for the deep-freeze. From Calgary to Toronto, temperatures have been five to seven degrees above normal since early December, CBC meteorologist Johanna Wagstaffe reported Monday.
• 2012/01/08: CCP: South Pole Records Warmest Temperature on Record, December 25, 2011

  While in the paleoclimate:

• 2012/01/10: SciNow: The First Oxygen Users?
• 2012/01/09: Eureka: Could Siberian volcanism have caused the Earth's largest extinction event?

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2012/01/09: USGS: Dramatic Links Found Between Climate Change, Elk, Plants, and Birds
• 2012/01/11: SummitCV: Global warming: Researchers document profound cascading ecological effects as Rocky Mountain snowpack diminishes
• 2012/01/13: PSinclair: I, for One, Welcome Our New Super-Intelligent Reptilian Overlords
• 2012/01/12: SciNow: Climate Change Gives the Albatross a Lift
• 2012/01/12: Eureka: Largest bird [albatross] alters its foraging due to climate change -- Adapting to changing environmental conditions in the Southern Ocean
• 2012/01/12: BBC: Plants at risk from seed dispersal threats
  Drivers of biodiversity loss, such as habitat fragmentation and climate change, are threatening seed dispersal around the globe, a study has warned. Scientists said plant species that were unable to adapt were being driven "to the brink of extinction in most human-modified landscapes".
• 2012/01/11: SciNow: Could Climate Change Alter Lizard Learning?
• 2012/01/12: CBC: NASA says Canada in 'hot spot' of ecological change -- Prairie grasslands and boreal regions to shift north by 2100
• 2012/01/10: NatureN: Disaster toll tallied -- The soaring cost of natural catastrophes is due more to socio-economic than climatic factors
• 2012/01/10: TreeHugger: Climate Change Pushing Alpine Plants Off the Mountain
• 2012/01/08: Eureka: European mountain vegetation shows effects of warmer climate
• 2012/01/08: Eureka: Colorado mountain hail may disappear in a warmer future
  NOAA-led study shows less hail, more rain in region's future, with possible increase in flood risk
• 2012/01/08: Eureka: Climate change is altering mountain vegetation at large scale
• 2012/01/09: CBC: Texas drought threatens whooping cranes -- North America's only surviving flock nests in Canada
• 2012/01/08: CBC: Boreal ducks threatened by climate change -- Ducks doomed by earlier snow melts brought on by global warming, study finds

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2012/01/13: ScienceInsider: With $116 Million Pledged, Ecuador Moves Forward With Plan to Protect Rainforest
• 2012/01/14: DM:GNXP: The old Amazon
• 2012/01/10: CBC: Ontario could lose its maple trees, watchdog warns -- Environment commissioner says province has no plan to protect species

  Desertification looms as a threat:

• 2012/01/12: Eureka: Diverse ecosystems are crucial climate change buffer
  Preserving diverse plant life will help buffer the negative effects of climate change and desertification in drylands

Yes we have no wacky weather, except:

• 2012/01/12: Guardian(UK): Weird weather around the world sees in 2012
  With unusual weather in Europe and the Americas, low Arctic ice, droughts in Africa and Latin America, 2012 picks up where 2011 left off

This week in the New Normal -- extreme weather:

• 2012/01/11: HotTopic: Hansen: extreme heat the new normal
• 2012/01/10: BBC: Alaska snow and ice cuts off Cordova and Nome
  Extreme winter weather has left one Alaskan town battling huge snowdrifts and forced another to seek fuel supplies from a Russian tanker.

On the tornado front:

• 2012/01/12: CSM: Was North Carolina hit by rare winter tornado?
• 2012/01/10: Wunderground: Heavy rains, snows, and season's first tornadoes hit Texas

  As for heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2012/01/13: ABC(Au): Praise heaped on Gascoyne firefighters
  The head of the Carnarvon community has thanked the people working to put out a fire in Western Australia's Gascoyne. Crews have been working for more than a week to contain the fire, which has burnt 320,000 hectares.
• 2012/01/13: ABC(Au): Central Queensland residents on bushfire alert
• 2012/01/10: HotTopic: Signs of things to come: Salinger on Australian heatwaves

  Acidification is changing the oceans:

• 2012/01/06: ReadTheDirt: Oysters and Ocean Acidification

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2012/01/13: CBC: Glacier time-lapse images reveal 'epochal change'
  U.S. photography wants to bring time-lapse cameras to B.C. coastal glacier
• 2012/01/08: Eureka: Global warming caused by greenhouse gases delays natural patterns of glaciation, researchers say
• 2012/01/07: YakimaHerald: Shrinking glaciers on Mount Adams signal growing water problem

  Sea levels are rising:

• 2012/01/08: OrlandoSentinel: South Florida prepares for rising seas -- Action plan calls for protecting roads, wells and property

  As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

• 2012/01/13: CCP: Tom Smerling: 2011's wettest and driest, in technicolor
• 2012/01/11: CNN: 29 dead in Brazil floods
  13 people are killed in a mudslide in Rio de Janeiro state - Officials estimate that nine people remain buried - In the state of Minas Gerais, at least 15 people have died amid heavy rain
• 2012/01/11: TP:JR: Must-Read on 2011's Unprecedented Rains and Wet-Dry Extremes, Just What You'd Expect From Global Warming
• 2012/01/11: JFleck: Dust and North American megadrought
• 2012/01/06: LDEO: Global Decadal Hydroclimate Predictability, Variability and Change: A Data-Enriched Modeling Study (GloDecH)
• 2012/01/11: Wunderground: U.S. weather in 2011: unprecedented rains and wet/dry extremes
• 2012/01/10: EarlyWarning: Current European Drought Map
• 2012/01/10: al Jazeera: Argentina faces a continuous drought
  This summer the South American nation has experienced sweltering heat with very little rain.
• 2012/01/09: PlanetArk: 2011 Was The Driest Year On Record In Texas

  Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2012/01/13: KSJT: Lots of Ink: Leave most CO2 for later. Tackle the little global warming stuff, CH4 and soot, now.
• 2012/01/13: TreeHugger: 12 Simple(ish) Ways To Quickly Reduce Global Warming Two-Thirds by 2050
• 2012/01/13: P3: A shortcut to restraining climate change?
• 2012/01/13: TCoE: A shortcut to restraining climate change?
• 2012/01/13: Guardian(UK): How to tackle the climate, health and food crises, all at the same time
  Reducing the soot pumped out by cars and cooking fires and the methane from coal mines and oil wells would rapidly curb global warming, prevent air pollution deaths and boost crop yields
• 2012/01/14: CBC:Q&Q: Global Warming's Low-hanging Fruit
• 2012/01/12: SciNews: Small efforts to reduce methane, soot could have big effect -- Simple measures could slow global warming, reduce premature deaths
• 2012/01/12: NASA: NASA Study Shows Health, Food Security Benefits From Climate Change Actions
  A new study led by a NASA scientist highlights 14 key air pollution control measures that, if implemented, could slow the pace of global warming, improve health and boost agricultural production. This slideshow highlights key emission control strategies that could help limit the release of black carbon and methane into the atmosphere. NASA's Drew Shindell and a team of colleagues from around the world have published a study in Science that highlights how various regions and countries would benefit by limiting emissions of the two pollutants.
• 2012/01/12: STimes: Scientists say global warming 'solutions at hand': Cut soot, methane
  An international team of scientists says it's figured out how to slow global warming in the short run and prevent millions of deaths from dirty air: Stop focusing so much on carbon dioxide.
• 2012/01/12: EnergyBulletin: "Peasant Farming Can Cool Down the Earth"

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2012/01/13: CSM: California's high speed rail hits a speed bump -- The head of California's High Speed Rail project [Roelof van Ark] has resigned
• 2012/01/11: EconBrowser: Reducing Petroleum Consumption from Transportation
• 2012/01/10: AutoBG: Taiwan plans battery swapping stations and free-use electric motorcycles
• 2012/01/10: Guardian(UK): HS2 high-speed route may only marginally cut emissions, studies show
• 2012/01/11: ABC(Au): Britain's high-speed rail given green light

  As for carbon sequestration:

• 2012/01/09: SciNow: New CO2 Sucker Could Help Clear the Air
• 2012/01/09: KSJT: Carbon capture breakthrough? Prob'ly not. But it's news and press release took days to break through.

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2012/01/11: GEP: Geoengineering and the Liberal-Conservative Divide

  While on the adaptation front:

• 2012/01/14: Wunderground:RR: Using Predictions to Plan: Case Study -- La Nina and the Missouri River (1)
• 2012/01/13: EnergyBulletin: Florida counties band together to ready for warming's effects
• 2012/01/13: maribo: Adapting to milder winters

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2012/01/09: NERC:NORA: Rapid deglaciation of Marguerite Bay, western Antarctic Peninsula in the Early Holocene by M.J. Bentley et al.
• 2012/01/10: NERC:NORA: Upper temperature limits of tropical marine ectotherms: global warming implications by Khanh Dung T. Nguyen et al.
• 2012/01/10: NERC:NORA: Introduction: the future of South East Asian rainforests in a changing landscape and climate by Andy Hector et al.
• 2012/01/11: NERC:NORA: A modelling study of the response of Hatherton Glacier to Ross Ice Sheet grounding line retreat by Brian M. Anderson et al.
• 2012/01/12: NERC:NORA: Lidar observations of polar mesospheric clouds at Rothera, Antarctica (67.5 degrees S, 68.0 degrees W) by Xinzhao Chu et al.
• 2012/01/12: NERC:NORA: Coupling of climate change and biotic UV exposure through changing snow-ice covers in terrestrial habitats by Charles S. Cockell et al.
• 2012/01/13: NERC:NORA: The large-scale dynamics of the mesosphere-lower thermosphere during the Southern Hemisphere stratospheric warming of 2002 by Andrew J. Dowdy et al.
• 2012/01/13: ACPD: Overview of the 2010 Carbonaceous Aerosols and Radiative Effects Study (CARES) by R. A. Zaveri et multi alia
• 2012/01/11: GMD: Use of agricultural statistics to verify the interannual variability in land surface models: a case study over France with ISBA-A-gs by J.-C. Calvet et al.
• 2012/01/13: GMDD: Pre-industrial and mid-Pliocene simulations with NorESM-L by Z. S. Zhang et al.
• 2012/01/13: OS: The vertical structure of oceanic Rossby waves: a comparison of high-resolution model data to theoretical vertical structures by F. K. Hunt et al.
• 2012/01/13: TC: Comparison of MODIS-derived land surface temperatures with ground surface and air temperature measurements in continuous permafrost terrain by S. Hachem et al.
• 2012/01/13: TCD: Initial sea-ice growth in open water: properties of grease ice and nilas by A. K. Naumann et al.
• 2012/01/13: ESDD: Comparison of physically- and economically-based CO2-equivalences for methane by O. Boucher
• 2012/01/10: CP: Climate variability in Andalusia (southern Spain) during the period 1701-1850 based on documentary sources: evaluation and comparison with climate model simulations by F. S. Rodrigo et al.
• 2012/01/10: CP: Benchmarking homogenization algorithms for monthly data by V. K. C. Venema et al.
• 2012/01/13: CPD: Tropical Pacific spatial trend patterns in observed sea level: internal variability and/or anthropogenic signature? by B. Meyssignac et al.
• 2012/01/12: CPD: Climate bifurcation during the last deglaciation by T. M. Lenton et al.
• 2012/01/12: CPD: Statistical framework for evaluation of climate model simulations by use of climate proxy data from the last millennium by A. Hind et al.
• 2012/01/10: CPD: Little Ice Age climate and oceanic conditions of the Ross Sea, Antarctica from a coastal ice core record by R. H. Rhodes et al.
• 2012/01/09: CPD: Modelling large-scale ice-sheet -- climate interactions following glacial inception by J. M. Gregory et al.
• 2012/01/12: ERL: Arctic warming, increasing snow cover and widespread boreal winter cooling by Judah L Cohen et al.
• 2012/01/12: ACP: Odin-OSIRIS stratospheric aerosol data product and SAGE III intercomparison by A. E. Bourassa et al.
• 2012/01/11: ACP: Organic matter and non-refractory aerosol over the remote Southeast Pacific: oceanic and combustion sources by L. M. Shank et al.
• 2012/01/11: ACP: The global atmospheric budget of ethanol revisited by W. V. Kirstine & I. E. Galbally
• 2012/01/10: ACP: A high-resolution emission inventory of primary pollutants for the Huabei region, China by B. Zhao et al.
• 2012/01/09: ACP: Observation and modeling of the evolution of Texas power plant plumes by W. Zhou et al.
• 2012/01/09: ACP: Have primary emission reduction measures reduced ozone across Europe? An analysis of European rural background ozone trends 1996-2005 by R. C. Wilson et al.
• 2012/01/12: ACPD: The lofting of Western Pacific regional aerosol by island thermodynamics as observed around Borneo by N. H. Robinson et al.
• 2012/01/11: ACPD: The summer aerosol in the Central Arctic 1991-2008: did it change or not? by J. Heintzenberg & C. Leck
• 2012/01/19: ACPD: Emissions halted of the potent greenhouse gas SF5CF3 by W. T. Sturges et al.
• 2012/01/12: AGWObserver: Papers on end-Permian mass extinction and climate
• 2012/01/10: PNAS: (ab$) Unexpectedly high mortality in Pacific herring embryos exposed to the 2007 Cosco Busan oil spill in San Francisco Bay by John P. Incardona et al.
• 2012/01/10: PNAS: (abs) Safe storage and effective monitoring of CO2 in depleted gas fields by Charles R. Jenkins et al.
• 2012/01/10: GMDD: Carbon-nitrogen feedbacks in the UVic ESCM by R. Wania et al.
• 2012/01/10: OS: Mapping turbidity layers using seismic oceanography methods by E. A. Vsemirnova et al.
• 2012/01/10: OSD: High frequency fluctuations in the heat content of an ocean general circulation model by A. M. Huerta-Casas & D. J. Webb
• 2012/01/10: TC: The impact of a seasonally ice free Arctic Ocean on the temperature, precipitation and surface mass balance of Svalbard by J. J. Day et al.
• 2012/01/09: AGWObserver: New research from last week 1/2012
• 2012/01/09: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Determining the natural length of the current interglacial by P. C. Tzedakis et al.

  As for miscellaneous science:

• 2011/12/16: Wired: Trials and Errors: Why Science Is Failing Us
• 2012/01/13: CCP: Kerry Emanuel: Science Self-Corrects Even When Scientists Don't
• 2012/01/15: TSoD: The Coriolis Effect and Geostrophic Motion
• 2012/01/11: TSoD: The Rotational Effect
• 2012/01/10: Tamino: Step 2
• 2012/01/09: Tamino: Steps

  Regarding Fritz Haber:

• 2012/01/14: SciAm:Osc: Nitrogen Fixation [Haber]

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2012/01/11: PlanetArk: Global CO2 Market Totals 96 Billion Euros In 2011

  The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

• 2012/01/12: IndiaTimes: No decision on China CO2 tax, says [China's chief negotiator on climate change, Su Wei]
• 2012/01/12: NBF: China considers a small carbon tax of 10 yuan ($1.55) per ton of CO2
• 2012/01/05: Reuters: China to levy carbon tax before 2015 - report

  The Robin Hood tax, aka the Tobin tax, aka the Bank tax, aka the Financial Transaction tax keeps coming up:

• 2012/01/12: EUO: Monti and Merkel: Financial tax must cover whole EU
• 2012/01/09: PressEurop: Tobin tax: Sarkozy rides alone
• 2012/01/11: VoxEU: Is a European Tobin tax likely to be efficient? by Donato Masciandaro & Francesco Passarelli
  Italy's prime minister, Mario Monti, is the latest in a growing line of senior public figures to support the idea of a financial transaction tax - also known as a Tobin tax or Robin Hood tax. Rather than give a case for or against, this column looks at what the realistic options are and asks whether they will be better for Europe, or worse.
• 2012/01/11: DerSpiegel: Taking on the Speculators -- What Would a European Tobin Tax Really Mean?
  Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy are pressing forward with plans to introduce a financial transaction tax in the EU -- if necessary without Britain, home to Europe's largest financial center. Critics believe it will cause an exodus of the industry from the euro zone. But a closer look at the proposal suggests the worst wouldn't necessarily come true.
• 2012/01/11: EUO: Germany and Italy undermine French bid for financial tax
  German and Italian leaders at a meeting in Berlin said they would only back a financial transactions tax at the level of the EU-27, not just the eurozone-17...
• 2012/01/10: EurActiv: Merkel warns Greece, endorses Tobin tax
• 2012/01/10: EUO: Danish minister says financial tax would cost jobs
• 2012/01/09: EurActiv: Cameron vows to veto financial tax
  British Prime Minister David Cameron said yesterday (8 January) he would veto a European-wide financial transaction tax unless it was adopted globally, deepening a confrontation with European Union heavyweights France and Germany.
• 2012/01/09: EUO: France to push for financial tax at Berlin meeting

  As the EU-ETS is applied to airlines, we will see who is serious about reducing carbon emissions:

• 2012/01/13: PlanetArk: Some Airlines Embrace CO2 Trade, Buy Permits
• 2012/01/12: Guardian(UK): Ryanair adds 25p green tax levy to fares
• 2012/01/11: EurActiv: Report: US airlines may net E2 billion ETS 'windfall'
  Far from damaging US airlines, the EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS) could deliver it a E2 billion windfall profit, according to a new report by a US Federal Aviation Administration-funded group of academics.
• 2012/01/10: Reuters: Passenger fare hike may earn airlines a CO2 windfall
  Airlines could reap windfall profits from a $3 passenger surcharge, introduced to cover new costs from an EU law regulating greenhouse gas emissions, because the carriers will receive most of their CO2 permits for free.
• 2012/01/09: PlanetArk: Analysis: U.S. Weighs Retaliation Over Europe Aviation Law

  The energy race between China and the USA is on, or is it?

• 2012/01/10: PlanetArk: Wind Energy Dispute May Test U.S.-China IP Resolve
  A little-known dispute between a U.S. renewable energy company and its Chinese customer over the theft of trade secrets could prove to be a significant test of China's intellectual property laws, and the success of Western companies in pursuing claims in China.

The oil market -- Iran, USA, China & Israel -- the situation is getting more complex:

• 2012/01/15: BBC: China angry at US sanctions on oil firm Zhuhai Zhenrong
• 2012/01/14: NBF: US Tells Israel not to Attack Iran and China could make up to $100 million every day there are full Sanctions on Irans oil
• 2012/01/13: BWeek: China Gets Cheaper Iran Oil as U.S. Pays for Hormuz Patrols
• 2012/01/13: CBC: U.S. warns Iran against Hormuz Strait closure
  Shutdown of key shipping route would prompt U.S. military response, officials say
• 2012/01/12: NYT: U.S. Sends Top Iranian Leader a Warning on Strait Threat
• 2012/01/09: GolemXIV: A new Reserve currency to challenge the dollar -- What's really going on in The Straits of Hormuz
• 2012/01/08: GRC: The Geo-Politics of the Strait of Hormuz: Could the U.S. Navy be defeated by Iran in the Persian Gulf?

  Climate Change is a threat multiplier exacerbating existing conflicts in food, energy, water, race, ideology ... etc.:

• 2012/01/14: TP:JR: NY Times Dialogue on Human Violence Omits Climate Change
• 2012/01/10: AlterNet: 3 Places Where a Looming Energy War Could Mean Global Economic Disaster in 2012 [Klare]
• 2012/01/10: EnergyBulletin: Danger waters [Klare]
• 2012/01/10: TD: Michael Klare, Energy Wars 2012

  Regarding Water Politics and Business:

• 2012/01/14: JFleck: River Beat: a forecast for decline on the Colorado again this year
• 2012/01/14: PeakEnergy: Energy And Water
• 2012/01/13: JFleck: Amid uncertainty, [Imperial Irrigation District] bumps up fallowing $'s
• 2012/01/12: JFleck: Commodity prices and the economics of fallowing
• 2012/01/12: CSM: Ethiopia's 'grand dam' rouses citizens, dismays critics
• 2012/01/10: CDreams: Florida Legislation Paves Ground for Water Privatization
  Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn open to selling water for industry, agriculture; may consider "toilet to tap" measures
• 2012/01/10: JFleck: It's the landscaping, stupid
• 2012/01/09: JFleck: In praise of the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center
• 2012/01/09: JFleck: Abandoning the whiskey quote
• 2012/01/10: al Jazeera: Rivers must flow: The case against big dams
  Large dams threaten the planet's riverine lifelines and action must be taken soon.
• 2012/01/08: JFleck: As Southern California eyes the Delta, a question of cost

  Among the world's religions:

• 2012/01/06: NatSoc: Vatican Condemns Monsanto Genetically Modified Crops as "New Form of Slavery"

  Ethics? You want to talk about ethics?

• 2012/01/10: TP:JR: Ethical Analysis of the Climate Change Disinformation Campaign

  And on the American political front:

• 2012/01/13: Guardian(UK): US teachers offered support for climate change lessons
  National Centre for Science Education gives teachers advice on how to deal with demand to drop classes on climate change
• 2012/01/13: TP:JR: Policy Uncertainty Threatens 1,600 American Wind Jobs at Vestas -- and 37,000 Jobs Nationwide
• 2012/01/14: CSW: Honest Appalachia: New whistleblower website aims to promote corporate and government accountability
• 2012/01/13: CSM: California's high speed rail hits a speed bump -- The head of California's High Speed Rail project [Roelof van Ark] has resigned
• 2012/01/12: TP:JR: Debunking the Myths of Tom Donohue and the U.S. Chamber of Pollution
• 2012/01/12: TP:JR: One Trillionth Dollar Invested in Clean Energy in 2011: Will American Business Capture the Second Trillion?
• 2012/01/11: CSW: The American '99%' as part of the global '1%' in contributing to climate change
• 2012/01/12: al Jazeera: Is the American dream fading?
  With more people living on the breadline in the US, we ask if it is time to abandon the American dream.
• 2012/01/10: CDreams: Florida Legislation Paves Ground for Water Privatization
  Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn open to selling water for industry, agriculture; may consider "toilet to tap" measures
• 2012/01/03: NatSoc: Leaked: US to Start 'Trade Wars' with Nations Opposed to Monsanto, GMO Crops
• 2012/01/11: EnergyBulletin: If you want more local food, stop criminalizing family farmers
• 2012/01/11: TP:JR: U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Makes Climate Change a Top Priority
• 2012/01/10: CSW: Does the USGCRP have high-level political buy-in for connecting climate science to society?
• 2012/01/11: SF Gate: State shift of carbon fee to deficit questioned
  Gov. Jerry Brown's budget proposal includes nearly $500 million in spending from the proceeds of California's first-in-the-nation cap-and-trade program, but the plan is raising questions about whether the governor is using the new money to cut the budget deficit instead of promoting new greenhouse-gas-reducing programs.
• 2012/01/11: CSM: Renewable energy projects delayed in squabble
  A long-running disagreement between federal agencies and Southern California Edison has stalled millions of dollars in renewable energy projects expected to provide power to facilities in California's national parks and forests.
• 2012/01/11: DWR: Access to Abortion under Siege in the US -- The Guttmacher Institute's Depressing Overview
• 2012/01/10: DeSmogBlog: The Fracking Job Creation Myth
• 2012/01/10: TP:JR: We Can't Win the Clean Energy Race Without Government Investments
• 2012/01/09: AutoBG: Wards: Volt is a symbol of headwinds _against_ U.S. innovation
• 2012/01/08: TP:JR: Climate Change Is Undeniable and Must Be Addressed Now, Says Former U.S. Senator Ted Kaufman
• 2012/01/09: Grist: Monsanto won't have to clean up dioxin in West Virginia
• 2012/01/09: Grist: Live and let dioxin: Big Ag is worried about scaring us off meat and milk
• 2012/01/08: AlterNet: 24 States Enacted 92 Abortion Restrictions In 2011

  The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:

• 2012/01/11: MSNBC: Locals call BP's feel-good Gulf ads 'propaganda'
• 2012/01/09: DeSmogBlog: BP Launches PR Blitz To Repair Image
• 2012/01/09: SciNews: Recirculation aided Gulf plume's degradation -- Research offers new explanation for disappearance of subsea oil and gas
• 2012/01/09: NOAANews: Chemical measurements confirm official estimate of Gulf oil spill rate
  New NOAA-led analysis shows gases and oil in three chemically different mixtures deep underwater, in the surface slick, in the air
• 2012/01/09: SciAm:Obs: How Going with the Flow Helped Microbes Eat BP's Oil Spill
• 2012/01/09: WHOI: Four WHOI Scientists Contribute to Comprehensive Picture of the Fate of Oil from Deepwater Horizon Spill

  For a non-American, sometimes it is hard to believe these 'candidates' are for real:

• 2012/01/13: EurActiv: US Republicans stir transatlantic tensions over climate change
  Concerns are growing in Brussels that persistent denial of human-caused global warming among Republican presidential hopefuls could damage EU-US relations and even spark a trade conflict. All the leading challengers for the White House have staked out positions on global warming that defy the international scientific consensus, causing what Thomas Legge, a climate officer for the German Marshall Fund, called "exasperation" in Brussels. Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said in September she was "shocked that the political debate in the US is so far away from the scientific facts." "When you hear American presidential candidates denying climate change, it's difficult to take," she said.
• 2012/01/13: Reuters: Judge rejects adding candidates to Virginia ballot
  A federal judge in Virginia on Friday refused to order that candidates Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich and Jon Huntsman be added to the ballot in the state's March 6 Republican presidential primary election after they failed to qualify.
• 2012/01/12: Grist: Let's make fun of Rick Santorum talking about climate change
• 2012/01/13: PlanetArk: New York Closes Heated Fracking Comment Period
• 2012/01/14: CSW: "Inside Story: US 2012" -- Are environmental concerns being sacrificed?
• 2012/01/11: MoJo: Rick Santorum's Big Coal Buddies
  The "local" company Santorum brags about helping was a coal mining giant that gave him tens of thousands of dollars during and after his time in Congress.
• 2012/01/11: TreeHugger: Mitt vs. Mitt, Newt vs. Newt: GOP Candidates Debate Themselves on Climate Change (Video)
• 2012/01/10: AlterNet: Romney Wins New Hampshire; Huntsman Surprises With Top-Tier Finish
• 2012/01/11: DemNow: Romney Cements Front-Runner Status with Unlimited Spending from Unregulated Super PACs
• 2012/01/10: TP:JR: The 1% Win the New Hampshire Primary
• 2012/01/10: TP:JR: Okay, Romney, Now You're Just Lying About Solar: The Industry Needs to Hold Candidates Accountable
• 2012/01/10: Grist: Campaign dreams: A GOP primary race where climate matters
• 2012/01/08: InformedComment: Dear Republican Candidates, You Have us all Wrong
• 2012/01/08: SST: A Sorry Lot
• 2012/01/08: AlterNet: Gingrich, Defending Race-Tinged Food Stamp Comments, Is Dogged by Occupy Protesters
• 2012/01/08: AlterNet: Why Ron Paul Challenges Liberals to Come Up with Real Solutions on Finance and War

  The Keystone XL saga rolls on:

• 2012/01/13: TreeHugger: Remember: Keystone XL Will Create Scant Few Jobs
• 2012/01/13: CCP: Cornell: "Almost All" Keystone XL Jobs Will Be Temporary - Permanent U.S. Jobs Could Be "As Few As 50."
• 2012/01/13: TP:JR: Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline is Not a Jobs Plan, But an Oil Export Plan
  The Oil Goes to China, the Permanent Jobs Go to Canada, We Get the Spills, and the World Gets Warmer
• 2012/01/13: PlanetArk: Republicans Move To Control Keystone Approval
• 2012/01/13: PlanetArk: White House: Keystone Pipeline Review Needs Time
• 2012/01/13: TreeHugger: Congress Has a Backup Plan for Approving the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline
• 2012/01/12: TheHill:e2W: Business groups, Republicans launch onslaught on president over Keystone
• 2012/01/12: PostMedia: Republicans drafting pipeline fallback plan
  U.S. Congressional Republicans, who are urging President Barack Obama to back the Canada-to- Texas Keystone XL oil pipeline, are now working on plans to take the reins of approval from the hands of the president should the White House say no. North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven, whose state is counting on the pipe-line to help move its new-found bounty of shale oil, is drafting legislation that would see Congress give the green light to the project by using its constitutional powers to regulate commerce with foreign nations, an aide said.
• 2012/01/11: TP:JR: A Pipeline of Oil Dollars Flowing to Members of Congress Pushing Keystone XL Decision
• 2012/01/11: Guardian(UK): Oil lobby's financial pressure on Obama over Keystone XL pipeline revealed
  Study shows money flowing to oil lobby ahead of decision on tar sands pipeline in the November elections
• 2012/01/11: OilChange: Keystone XL: playing the Iran card, ignoring the facts
• 2012/01/11: OilChange: Keystone XL and Dirty Energy Money
• 2012/01/09: Grist: Caving on Keystone: Still a dumb idea
• 2012/01/10: CBC: Keystone job claims released as pipeline hearings begin
  TransCanada Corp. has stepped up its publicity campaign for the politically charged Keystone XL pipeline, releasing a detailed breakdown of where the $7-billion project would create 20,000 jobs in the United States, if approved.
• 2012/01/09: NotR: Keystone XL: Dirty oil barons threaten Obama
• 2012/01/08: DeSmogBlog: Bechtel Whistleblower Warns Against Keystone XL; Witnessed Shoddy Work on TransCanada's Keystone I

  The Obama administration has proposed restructuring six executive departments:

• 2012/01/14: NatureNB: With a jab at Nixon, Obama proposes moving NOAA to Interior
• 2012/01/13: ScienceInsider: Why NOAA Is in the Commerce Department
• 2012/01/13: ScienceInsider: What Would Wiping Out the Commerce Department Mean for Science?
• 2012/01/13: ScienceInsider: Rough Sailing for Plan to Move NOAA?

  The EPA released a map of GHG emissions which got a few people going:

• EPA: Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program Data for Calendar Year 2010
• EPA: 2010 Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Large Facilities
• 2012/01/12: GreenGrok: Greenhouse Gas Emitters Mapped, and Carbon Captured?
• 2012/01/12: Oregonian: Power plants Oregon's largest single sources of global warming emissions, new EPA inventory shows
• 2012/01/12: TP:JR: EPA Report Reveals Top Ten Greenhouse Gas Emitting Power Plants in U.S.
• 2012/01/11: OPB: EPA: Power Plants, Refineries Are Top NW Greenhouse Gas Polluters

  Al Gore popped up with a video game:

• 2012/01/12: TP:JR: Gaming for Good: Al Gore Brings Climate Reality to Video Games

  The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2012/01/13: Grist: Will Obama address climate threat in State of the Union speech?
• 2012/01/10: Grist: Obama is hanging out at the EPA today
• 2012/01/10: TP:JR: Video: In Big Environmental Speech, Obama Thanks EPA Staff, Mentions Climate Change in Passing
• 2012/01/10: Maplight: How Much Would 'Huge Political Consequences' From the Oil & Gas Industry Cost?
  Last week, the head of the American Petroleum Institute, Jack Gerard, delivered a message to President Obama: approve the Keystone XL pipeline or face "huge political consequences."
• 2012/01/08: CSW: What to do when the White House sets science aside?

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2012/01/15: NOAANews: Statement from Jack Hayes, Director of NOAA's National Weather Service on Bill Read's announcement to retire as National Hurricane Center director, effective June 1
• 2012/01/12: NOAANews: NOAA flights over Pacific to boost North American weather forecasting
• 2012/01/10: Grist: Chief of Staff Bill Daley resigns, environment rejoices
• 2012/01/10: NatureNB: US announces 20-year ban on uranium mining in the Grand Canyon
• 2012/01/09: Guardian(UK): Grand Canyon uranium mining to be banned for 20 years
• 2012/01/09: Grist: U.S. becomes first country on Earth to limit catch size for all fish

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2012/01/12: TheHill:e2W: Union chief: Congress controlled by 'climate change deniers'
  AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Thursday that climate change deniers call the shots in Congress. "[I]t is clear that as long as Congress is effectively controlled by climate change deniers, all of us -- investors, companies, workers and the broader public -- must take action ourselves," Trumka said. In a wide-ranging speech in New York at the Investor Summit on Climate Risk & Energy Solutions, Trumka made the case for creating jobs with the build-out of low-carbon infrastructure.
• 2012/01/12: Grist: Koch fiends: AFP's favorite members of Congress
• 2012/01/11: TP:JR: What Will Congress Achieve (Or Destroy) in Wilderness Conservation in 2012?
• 2012/01/09: Grist: Why the 2012 Farm Bill is a climate bill

  What are the lobbyists pushing?

• 2012/01/13: DeSmogBlog: US Chamber of Commerce Jobs Plan Rehashes Old, Debunked Talking Points
• 2012/01/12: Grist: Chamber of Commerce pushes civilization-ending pollution agenda
• 2012/01/12: TreeHugger: U.S. Chamber of Commerce Calls for Fossil Fuels Bonanza, Catastrophic Global Warming
• 2012/01/11: TP:JR: A Pipeline of Oil Dollars Flowing to Members of Congress Pushing Keystone XL Decision

  While in the UK:

• 2012/01/14: OpenDem: Britishness and anti-intellectualism
• 2012/01/12: DerSpiegel: High-Speed Controversy -- Massive Rail Project Has Britain Divided
  Politicians in the British capital are staunchly in favor of a high-speed rail project that would link London with northern England. But those who live near where the tracks would run aren't so sure. Though the government gave the enterprise the green light this week, many are hoping to block it.
• 2012/01/11: Guardian(UK): Secret forest sell-off 'shopping lists' drawn up by conservation groups
  Secret "shopping lists" of public woodlands were handed to the government by the National Trust and the Wildlife Trusts before huge public anger halted the proposed sell-off, the Guardian can reveal.
• 2012/01/10: Guardian(UK): HS2 high-speed route may only marginally cut emissions, studies show
  Local authorities say the impact surveys done on landscape, townscape, wildlife, water, and flooding are insufficient
• 2012/01/10: Guardian(UK): Low carbon Leeds City Region would 'save money and create jobs'
  University study makes 'compelling' case for major investment in energy-saving, in the first UK pilot area to produce a low carbon plan
• 2012/01/11: ABC(Au): Britain's high-speed rail given green light
• 2012/01/10: BBC: HS2 go-ahead sees mixed reaction
  Plans for a £33bn high-speed rail network have received a mixed reaction, after being approved by the government.
• 2012/01/10: BBC: HS2 go-ahead sees mixed reaction
  A new high-speed rail line between London and Birmingham has been approved by Transport Secretary Justine Greening. Here is her statement in full

And in Europe:

• 2012/01/13: ScienceInsider: Spanish Secretary of State for Science Promises to 'Do the Impossible'
• 2012/01/13: DerSpiegel: Nuclear Nimbyism -- Germans Oppose New Plants Next Door
  Germany famously moved to phase out nuclear energy following the atomic disaster in Japan last spring. Now states in the country are skeptically eyeing plans in neighboring countries, including the Netherlands and Poland, to construct nuclear power plants.
• 2012/01/13: EurActiv: Ambitions watered down on energy savings in buildings
  The proposed Energy Efficiency Directive, hailed as the most important piece of EU legislation on energy savings so far, is being heavily criticised for "considerably" watering down the measures initially foreseen for the renovation of public buildings.
• 2012/01/11: EurActiv: Energy efficiency talks focus on finance, deal uncertain
  Financing aspects are dominating ongoing talks on the energy efficiency directive, but member states are keeping their hands firmly on their wallets, EurActiv has learned. As negotiations over the energy efficiency directive reopen under the Danish EU presidency, discussions are focusing heavily on financing aspects. However, several options floated by the European Parliament to break the deadlock already look like non-starters, EurActiv was told. And opposition by some EU states is making a binding 20% energy efficiency target impossible, Martin Lidegaard, Danish minister for climate, energy and building, told journalists in Copenhagen.
• 2012/01/11: EUO: Ukraine's New Year gas nightmare
• 2012/01/11: PlanetArk: Poland Detains 7 Suspected Of Shale Gas Corruption
  Polish internal security agency ABW Tuesday detained seven people, including state officials, suspected of bribery related to the granting of shale gas exploration licences.
• 2012/01/10: EurActiv: Greece appeals EU decision to return illegal farm subsidies
• 2012/01/10: EurActiv: 'Climate farmers' highlight green agriculture practices
  Breaking with an older generation of agricultural practices, a group of young European farmers is encouraging a shift to sustainable agriculture and hopes Brussels policymakers take note.
• 2012/01/10: EurActiv: Eastern EU courted to accept 30% CO2 cuts
  A proposal allowing eastern European member states to bank some E3.2 billion of unused carbon credits if they agree to extend the EU's emissions reductions target from 20% to 30% was made in a policy paper at the Durban Climate Summit last month, seen by EurActiv.

Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2012/01/13: ABC(Au): Carbon capture firm looks to boost planting
  A Perth-based carbon capture company is expecting to plant 10,000 hectares of mallee trees in Western Australia's wheatbelt by the end of the year. Carbon Conscious Limited says strong interest in the sector has encouraged it to significantly expand its planting program.
• 2012/01/13: ABC(Au): CSG company [Santos] failed to report saline spill
• 2012/01/13: ABC(Au): $33 billion NT gas deal [gets] the green light
• 2012/01/12: ABC(Au): Australia ranked top on nuclear safety [but has no nuclear reactors...?]
• 2012/01/11: ABC(Au): Brown and Gillard in forestry stoush
• 2012/01/10: ABC(Au): Coal production expected to increase
  The New South Wales Mineral Council is expecting coal production across the state to increase by as much as a third this year. An additional 50 million tonnes of coal is expected to be mined in 2012 if extensions and new developments are given the go-ahead by planning officials.

The Murray-Darling Basin Plan controversy continues:

• 2012/01/12: ABC(Au): Controversy over timing of [Murray Darling Basin Authority] talks

  While in the Indian subcontinent:

• 2012/01/09: CCurrents: A Fresh Indo-US Deal, To Subvert The Nuclear Liability Act
• 2012/01/09: TP:JR: Flatland: Will the Bangalore Boom Help or Hinder Low-Carbon Innovation in India?
• 2012/01/07: IndiaTimes: India's climate change choices

  And in China:

• 2012/01/12: Guardian(UK): China's renewables surge outweighed by growth in coal consumption
• 2012/01/11: PlanetArk: China's Wen To Visit Key Mideast Energy Powers

  In Russia:

• 2012/01/10: OpenDem: Fishing: Russia's other civil battlefront
  The recent wave of demonstrations against election fraud across Russia were preceded in the spring and autumn by protests from grassroots fishermen's organisations, who marched to defend their right to fish for free. Authorities soon climbed down from their controversial plans to privatise rivers and lakes, but not before radicalising an estimated 15-20 million amateur fishermen, writes Oleg Pavlov.

While in Africa:

• 2012/01/14: WaPo: Twitter generation fuels rage of Nigeria gas protests as users demand end of corruption
• 2012/01/13: al Jazeera: Nigeria protests on hold as oil strike looms
  Unions call for weekend halt of mass protests to allow talks on fuel crisis that threatens to choke off oil production.
• 2012/01/13: BBC: Nigeria fuel subsidy strike: Protests suspended
  Nigeria's trade unions have suspended protests and some strikes for two days to allow more talks with officials.
• 2012/01/13: al Jazeera: Nigerian strike rumbles on after talks
  Union official says discussions with president were "fruitful", but threatened shutdown of country's oil industry looms.
• 2012/01/12: al Jazeera: Nigerian oil union issues shutdown deadline
  Largest union says it will shut down oil and gas production from Sunday over government's ending of fuel subsidies.
• 2012/01/12: CNN: Nigeria protests rage as calls for accountability grow
  The fuel subsidy was the one benefit Nigerians got from the state, a businessman says - An oil industry union says the government has 48 hours to restore oil subsidies - Nigeria's government says it is negotiating with labor unions - The government's decision to end a subsidy has more than doubled fuel prices
• 2012/01/11: Guardian(UK): Nigerian government warns of anarchy as strikes over fuel continue
• 2012/01/10: CCurrents: General Strike Over Fuel Hike Paralyzes Nigeria
• 2012/01/11: al Jazeera: Deaths in Nigeria as tensions sharpen
  Eight people killed in the north and an Islamic school burnt down in the south, as a fuel strike rattles the country.
• 2012/01/11: al Jazeera: Is Nigeria sliding into chaos?
  From protests over fuel subsidies to attacks by Boko Haram, the most populous African nation is facing a crisis.
• 2012/01/09: Guardian(UK): Nigeria fuel protests: two killed and dozens wounded as police open fire
• 2012/01/09: BBC: A general strike in Nigeria over the elimination of a fuel subsidy has brought the country to a standstill
• 2012/01/09: al Jazeera: Nigerian fuel protests turn deadly
  One person reportedly killed by police as thousands continue to demonstrate against a rollback of fuel subsidies.
• 2012/01/09: al Jazeera: Nationwide fuel protests sweep Nigeria
  Clashes reported as thousands take to the streets to demonstrate against government's decision to end fuel subsidies.
• 2012/01/08: Guardian(UK): Nigeria faces mass strike and protests over discontinued state fuel subsidy
  Thousands expected to march through streets of Lagos and Abuja after petrol pump prices more than double overnight

And South America:

• 2012/01/09: BBC: [Chilean] Mapuche leader's house burned in suspected arson
  A suspicious blaze has destroyed the home of an indigenous Mapuche leader in Chile, amid tension over a spate of forest fires. The suspected arson in Araucania, a region beset by land conflict, happened as the funerals were held for seven firefighters. Chilean authorities have suggested Mapuche activists may have been behind the fire that killed the men last week. The activists say the government is trying to criminalise their movement.

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

• 2012/01/13: BLongstaff: Harper -- the prime minister of oil
• 2012/01/12: PI:B: A provincial approach to regulating coal doesn't mean the Feds are off the hook
• 2012/01/14: CBC: $1.28B for Port Hope radioactive cleanup
• 2012/01/12: TheCanadian: EthicalOil.org and the Harper Government
• 2012/01/12: PostMedia: Academics defend PM's promotion of oil pipeline
  Harper is not overstepping his authority or undermining review process, experts say Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government isn't overstepping its authority by aggressively promoting the Northern Gateway pipe-line and attacking the mega-project's opponents while it is before a quasi-judicial tribunal, says one of Canada's top authorities on governance and political power. "This is not just an Alberta project. It goes to the very heart of the country's energy policy," said Donald Savoie, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Public Administration and Governance at the University of Moncton.
• 2012/01/11: CBC: Northern Gateway pipeline: benefits vs. concerns
• 2012/01/11: CBC: Attack on 'radicals' sign of tougher federal strategy -- Government expected to get more aggressive in defending major economic projects
  If the federal government's salvo at environmentalists opposed to the Northern Gateway pipeline this week came as a surprise to some, it was a welcome defence of an important economic project to others.
• 2012/01/10: BLongstaff: Slowing Harper's rush to environmental ruin
• 2012/01/09: SudburySteve: It's Official: The Harper Regime has Declared War on the Environment

  The G20 controversy lingers:

• 2012/01/13: Dominion: G20 Fallout Continues -- Legal battles and jail time continue months after the showdown in Toronto
• 2012/01/13: G&M: Facing sentencing, G20 activist [Amanda Hiscocks] says she'd 'do it again in a second'

  Questions and debate about offshore and Arctic drilling continue:

• 2012/01/13: CBC: Chevron bullish on deepsea exploration bid
  A new agreement to search for oil in deep waters northeast of St. John's is an important step forward for Newfoundland's petroleum industry, an executive said Friday.

In their ideolgical quest for small government, the Harper gang is getting rid of all the 'inconvenient' people:

• 2012/01/13: CMKL: Language instructors and scientists. That's who they're firing this week
• 2012/01/12: LFR: Harper: "Scientists? We don't need no stinking scientists!"
• 2012/01/12: PostMedia: Environment Canada to get rid of 60 scientists
  Environment Canada is sending notices to 60 scientists and other researchers that their jobs are being declared surplus. Gary Corbett, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, confirmed his union was notified by the department that surplus notices would be going out this week. They are fallout from the department's announcement last August that it would be cutting or reassigning 776 people - which is about 10 per cent of the workforce. But Corbett said the department is under "strict orders" not to reveal precisely what work these surplus scientists are doing. They broadly include engineers, scientists, biologists, climatologists, and chemical analysts from across the country, including 18 or so in the national capital region. They work in areas such as pollution, monitoring water quality, and climate research.

Lingering Canada and Kyoto news:

• 2012/01/13: CTV: Ex-Bloc MP [Daniel Turp] takes feds to court for ditching Kyoto

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

• 2012/01/11: PI: Government statements on Gateway hearings show Canada is open for business, closed to criticism
• 2012/01/13: PostMedia: Politicians demand to be consulted on [Kinder Morgan] pipeline plan
  The spectre of oil lapping into Botanical Beach pools or coating nooks and crannies on Gulf Island beaches is prompting more southern Vancouver Island politicians to demand consultation on pipeline expansion. Kinder Morgan is considering asking the National Energy Bard for permission to twin its 1,150 kilometre Trans Mountain pipeline, which runs from Alberta to Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby. That would at least double the capacity to 600,000 barrels a day, increasing the number of tankers travelling under the Second Narrows Bridge, to the southern Gulf Islands and Juan de Fuca Strait. "We haven't made an application to the National Energy Board yet. Right now, our first step is making sure we have commercial support from our customers," said Kinder Morgan spokeswoman Lexa Hobenshield.
• 2012/01/12: PostMedia: Enbridge affiliates have had 175 leaks, spills over 10 years in U.S.
• 2012/01/13: PostMedia: Pipeline project a gateway to disaster
  Since we're using strong language, let's call the Conservative government's eagerness to ship tarsands oil to China through the Northern Gateway Pipeline what it is: humiliating, irresponsible and short-sighted. That may sound "radical," perhaps; unpatriotic to some. But our government, in our name, is ready to accelerate climate change, imperil pristine British Columbia wilderness, risk a catastrophic oil spill on the Pacific coast - and for what? The almighty dollar. Specifically, for highly uncertain, and certainly exaggerated, economic gains.
• 2012/01/11: CBC: New Keystone XL route almost ready [says TransCanada Corp. executive]
• 2012/01/10: G&M: Foes of Northern Gateway pipeline fear revocation of charitable status
• 2012/01/11: TStar: Stephen Harper's Northern Gateway pipeline parody
  The federal government's claim that big-money foreign interests are trying to hijack hearings into a proposed west coast oil pipeline is, at one level, high parody. It is also deeply disturbing. The parody lies with the fact that Canada's oil industry is dominated by multinationals. That means there will indeed be a lot of big-money foreign interests pushing the three-person federal review panel to okay a pipeline from Alberta's oilsands to a tanker port at Kitimat on the British Columbia coast. America's Exxon Mobil, Britain's BP, France's Total E&P, China's SinoCanada Petroleum Corp. and Japan Canada Oil Sands Ltd. have all asked for intervenor status at the hearings. So has the South Korean conglomerate Daewoo.
• 2011/06/02: BCLSB: Vivian Krause On Sea-Lice
• 2012/01/10: G&M: Blogger [Vivian Krause at Fair Questions blog] fuels PM's claim U.S. is backing Canadian environmentalists

  Nukes in Canada:

• 2012/01/12: PostMedia: Canada in only 10th place in nuclear security index
• 2012/01/09: CBC: A closer look at Canada's nuclear plants
• 2012/01/09: CBC: Nuclear commission says Point Lepreau leaks 'unsettling' -- Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission head concerned by recent incidents at plant

  Meanwhile in the CWB saga:

• 2012/01/09: CBC: Farmers launch wheat board class action -- $15.4 billion in damages sought as compensation for end of farmers' control
  A class action lawsuit was launched in Saskatoon Monday seeking $15.4 billion in damages resulting from changes made by the Harper government to the Canadian Wheat Board. Plaintiff Duane Filson, a farmer, teacher and municipal politician from Woodrow, Sask., represents a class that could include any Prairie grain farmer who sold wheat or barley to the Canadian Wheat Board in 2011 or 2012.

The ISA virus in BC waters is potentially disastrous:

• 2012/01/14: TheCanadian: Salmon Virus Cover-up About Protecting Markets, Not Fish
• 2012/01/14: AlexandraMorton: Two Norwegian Salmon Farmers in Court Next Week

  In BC, the stage is set. Now what will Clark and Dix do?

• 2012/01/13: WpgFP: New B.C. Liberal chief of staff [Ken Boessenkool] is staunch Tory, signed "firewall" letter
• 2012/01/13: SSM: Christy, what are you thinking? BC Liberals hire Harper aide and Enbridge lobbyist Ken Boessenkool as chief of staff
• 2012/01/12: G&M: [BC Premier Christy] Clark's new chief of staff advised Harper, lobbied for Enbridge
• 2012/01/11: G&M: B.C. Finance Minister breaks ranks to bash pipeline critics
  B.C. Finance Minister Kevin Falcon went off script this week, deviating from his government's carefully neutral stand on the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. Premier Christy Clark has refused to be drawn into taking a position, stating that her government will await the outcome of the National Energy Board process before arriving at any conclusions.
• 2012/01/10: PostMedia: Chemicals used in fracking operations to be listed on new website
• 2012/01/06: PostMedia: Greenhouse gas emissions targets conflict with development plans
  The British Columbia government is not going to let its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions constrain northern development, says Environment Minister Terry Lake. Lake told The Vancouver Sun that the province is committed to developing the north even if it means using fossil fuels like natural gas to produce electricity to power future development.

Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2012/01/13: LFR: Huffington Post's Kathryn Marshall has meltdown on Power & Politics. Goes viral.
• 2012/01/13: DeSmogBlog: Cozy Ties: Astroturf 'Ethical Oil' and Conservative Alliance to Promote Tar Sands Expansion
• 2012/01/13: LJ: Kathryn Marshall Makes Sexist Comment On Twitter
• 2012/01/13: BCLSB: Even More Ethical Oil/Tory Connections Shit!
• 2012/01/13: DeepClimate: Ethical Oil political connections, part 1: Conservatives "Go Newclear"
• 2012/01/13: BCLSB: Ethical Oil Pot-Pourri
• 2012/01/13: 350orBust: Alberta Oil Sands Crude: Not As Conflict-Free As "Ethical Oil" Proponents Wish
• 2012/01/12: EnergyBulletin: The oil sands and KeystoneXL
• 2012/01/11: PEF: Foreign influence in Canada's oil patch
• 2012/01/11: LFR: Why is Ethical Oil so terrified of confirming if it is funded by Enbridge?
• 2012/01/10: TStar: Chinese money and 'ethical oil'
• 2012/01/10: DeSmogBlog: Unethical Oil and Its Friends
• 2012/01/10: TGBeaver: Oil-stupid
• 2012/01/10: TreeHugger: How Tar Sands Will Devastate Agriculture, Increase Hunger in Africa
• 2012/01/09: PolReSpun: The Galling Hypocrisy of EthicalOil.org
• 2012/01/09: SSM: Next time some 'Ethical Oil' salesperson gives you the 'foreign influence' bunk on the pipeline hearings, mention Alison's post on the subject at Creekside
• 2012/01/08: TGBeaver: There's nothing "ethical" about it

  Also in Alberta:

• 2012/01/14: BuckDog: Free-Market Deregulation Of Alberta's Electrical Industry Has Seen Consumer Prices Increase By 100%
• 2012/01/12: G&M: [Alberta Premier Alison] Redford questions credibility of Northern Gateway hearings
• 2012/01/11: PostMedia: [Alberta Premier Alison] Redford 'disappointed' with setup of Gateway pipeline hearing
  As hearings began on Tuesday on the divisive Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline, Premier Alison Redford said she has significant concerns about the lengthy and laborious regulatory process. The Alberta government is a strong supporter of the $5.5-billion project, which is intended to ship bitumen from Alberta's oilsands to Asia-bound tankers off the British Columbia coast. Hearings by the National Energy Board are now underway in Kitimat, B.C., and expected to last 18 months because of the sheer volume of submissions.

Questions about potash in Saskatchewan:

• 2012/01/13: PEF: Wall of Silence on Canpotex
  Saskatchewan's newspapers reported today that BHP Billiton intends to sell the province's potash outside of Canpotex, the marketing board that helps to maximize the price for which Saskatchewan potash is exported offshore. BHP executive Tim Cutt stated, "We will not market through Canpotex. We talked to the premier (Brad Wall) about that. He understands that."

In Manitoba:

• 2012/01/11: CBC: Remote First Nations declare ice-road emergency -- Manitoba ice roads threatened by mild weather
  Remote Manitoba First Nations that rely on winter ice roads to get groceries, fuel and other essential supplies fear a shortened season due to a mild start to winter. Several First Nations communities declared states of emergency on Wednesday, saying the delay in winter road construction could result in a shorter season, which in turn would mean higher shipping prices. "We know already the season is too late," Grand Chief David Harper of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, which represents the province's northern First Nations, told reporters in Winnipeg.
• 2012/01/11: WpgFP: First Nation sends city bills for water use -- Threatening to take legal action

  In the North:

• 2012/01/11: CBC: Alarm sounded over Innu caribou hunt

  As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

• 2012/01/12: CBC: NASA says Canada in 'hot spot' of ecological change -- Prairie grasslands and boreal regions to shift north by 2100

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

• 2012/01/13: EnergyBulletin: Man and the natural world
• 2012/01/11: P3: Economic Growth and Human Well-Being
• 2012/01/11: EnergyBulletin: [link to 297k pdf] Premises for a New Economy
• 2012/01/11: EnergyBulletin: The Faustian bargain that modern economists never mention
• 2012/01/10: NBF: New Scientist Attempts to Serve up Revised Limits to Growth
• 2012/01/10: CCurrents: Boom And Doom: Revisiting Prophecies Of Collapse
• 2012/01/10: EnergyBulletin: The return of "The Limits to Growth"
• 2012/01/10: CCP: Boom and doom: Revisiting prophecies of collapse

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

• 2012/01/14: DM:GNXP: The extraordinary sex ratio of our age
• 2012/01/11: DWR: Access to Abortion under Siege in the US -- The Guttmacher Institute's Depressing Overview
• 2012/01/08: AlterNet: 24 States Enacted 92 Abortion Restrictions In 2011

  Apocalypso anyone?

• 2012/01/13: ITRacker: Carl Sagan vs the 21st century

  How do the media measure up?

• 2012/01/10: CJR: Down, But Not Out? A closer look at the quantity of climate coverage in 2011
• 2012/01/13: CJR: Critical Juncture for HuffPo Science -- With new section, David Freeman has an opportunity to raise the bar
• 2012/01/13: NYT:PK: Untruths, Wholly Untrue, And Nothing But Untruths
• 2012/01/13: CIP: New York Times Shocked
• 2012/01/12: TP:JR: NY Times Public Editor Asks If Paper Should Publish Uncorrected Lies or Be a "Truth Vigilante." Seriously.
• 2012/01/13: Deltoid: The Australian's War on Science 76: Dad Jokes
• 2012/01/11: P3: The Problem with the Press
• 2012/01/11: DeSmogBlog: Does PolitiFact Adequately Cover Scientific Misinformation? Well, Sort Of
• 2012/01/10: Guardian(UK): A challenge to Christopher Booker: try DECC's future energy calculator properly
  Christopher Booker earns a living from promoting conspiracy theories and his recent column on the 2050 calculator was a textbook example
• 2012/01/10: WtD: Spot the difference: are all News Limited bloggers the same person, or a piece of automated software?
• 2012/01/09: DeSmogBlog: Rupert Murdoch's Newspapers Mislead Public On Climate Change and Environment
• 2012/01/09: KSJT: New HuffPost Science: So far, mostly just aggregation ... but not all
• 2012/01/09: TP:JR: Network News Coverage of Climate Change Collapsed in 2011

  While activists search for effective communication techniques:

• 2012/01/08: CAbyss: Three Lessons from Jaynes on Climate Communication

  Here is something for your library:

• 2012/01/13: CCurrents: How Much Is An Earth, And Do You Have One In Extra Large?
  [Book Review] _Green Washed: Why We Can't Buy Our Way to a Green Planet_ by Kendra Pierre-Louis
• 2012/01/10: P3: The Setting Sun and the Living Great Lakes
  [Book Review] _The Living Great Lakes: In Search of the Heart of the Inland Seas_ by Jerry Dennis
• 2012/01/09: WtD: The God Species review: managing the planet via economic growth, genetic engineering and nuclear energy
• 2012/01/09: WtD: The God Species review: managing the planet via economic growth, genetic engineering and nuclear energy (Part 1)

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2012/01/14: Grist: David Roberts on 'Up with Chris Hayes'
• 2012/01/11: CForce: The Runaway Greenhouse Effect - James Hansen
• 2012/01/09: CCP: Must-see video on AGU sea level rise research, with Josh Willis and Jason Box: Climate Change and Sea Level Rise: "An Emerging Hockey Stick"
• 2012/01/09: PSinclair: Climate Change and Sea Level Rise: "An Emerging Hockey Stick"

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2012/01/13: NewInt: Chevron's excuses go into overdrive
• 2012/01/13: CTV: Ex-Bloc MP [Daniel Turp] takes feds to court for ditching Kyoto
• 2012/01/12: Guardian(UK): Should your views on global warming affect your employment?
• 2012/01/09: CBC: Farmers launch wheat board class action
• 2012/01/09: PlanetArk: NY Court Loss For Chevron On Ecuador Pollution
  A federal court judge on Friday denied a Chevron Corp bid to prevent Ecuadorean plaintiffs from collecting on an $18 billion damages award against the U.S. oil giant over pollution in the Amazon jungle.

Among the non-members of Gamblers Anonymous:

• 2012/01/14: JEB: Not so fast!
• 2012/01/14: JEB: The Whitehouse bet
• 2012/01/13: Grist: Congressional staffers will stop betting on wildfire destruction

  Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:

• 2012/01/13: P3: Solar to Gas
• 2012/01/14: PeakEnergy: German Energy Consumption Drops 4.8% in 2011, With Renewables Providing 20% of Electricity
• 2012/01/12: TP:JR: Report: States Must Develop Entire Clean Energy Economy, Not Just Fund Project Deployment
• 2012/01/10: BBC: Wind and sunlight make Kenyan profits
  Many things may be lacking in Africa but there are two which are abundant and free all over the continent - wind and sunlight - and Kenya's Anthony Kiptoo Ng'eno decided to turn them into a profit.
• 2012/01/14: PeakEnergy: Top 10 Clean Tech Stories of 2011
• 2012/01/11: EnergyBulletin: Warm and fuzzy on geothermal?
• 2012/01/09: CCurrents: The Myth Of Renewable Energy
• 2012/01/09: TP:JR: Cleantech Venture Investments Grew 13% in 2011, With Solar Leading the Way
• 2012/01/09: Grist: Cooking grease is now so valuable that people are stealing it

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

• 2012/01/11: BBerg: Super Fracking Goes Deeper to Pump Up Natural Gas Production
• 2012/01/14: DeSmogBlog: Radionuclides Tied To Shale Gas Fracking Can't Be Ignored As Possible Health Hazard
• 2012/01/10: GreenGrok: Minds Meet on Shale Gas, Fracking
• 2012/01/13: TP:JR: What Do Falling Natural Gas Prices Mean for Renewables?
• 2012/01/03: MIT: A shale gas revolution? MIT report shows prosperous shale gas market could hurt future R&D, if we let it
• 2012/01/13: PlanetArk: New York Closes Heated Fracking Comment Period
• 2012/01/12: DeSmogBlog: 'Theoretically, Super Fracking Would Be Super Bad': Gas Industry Touts Even More Extreme Drilling
• 2012/01/12: NatureNB: Fracking's future in the US comes down to upcoming New York State decisions
• 2012/01/11: SciAm:Obs: Fracking's Future in the U.S. Comes Down to Upcoming New York State Decisions
• 2012/01/11: DeSmogBlog: Shale Gas Bubble: Bloomberg News Confirms NY Times Finding That Fracking Boom Is a Bust
• 2012/01/10: AlterNet: One More Day to Act: Gas Drilling May Begin in New York Soon
• 2012/01/10: EnergyBulletin: Fracking nonsense: The job myth of gas drilling
• 2012/01/10: DeSmogBlog: The Fracking Job Creation Myth
• 2012/01/10: CCP: Fracking Moratorium Urged as Doctors Call for Health Study
• 2012/01/10: PlanetArk: Study Needed On Shale Gas Effects On Health: Group [public health professionals and advocates]
• 2012/01/10: PostMedia: Chemicals used in fracking operations to be listed on new website
  The British Columbia government made good on its promise to provide online details starting Jan. 1 about chemicals being pumped underground by the oil and gas industry when it activated a database called FracFocus.ca. But companies involved in hydraulic fracturing of shale formations to extract oil and gas won't be required to post information until 30 days after they have completed the process, one of several flaws in Victoria's promise to provide transparent accounting of fracking practices, according to critic Ben Parfitt. The B.C. Oil and Gas Commission, which is responsible for the site, confirmed Monday that although the website is up and running, it will be at least one or two months before data begins to appear as the posting deadline is 30 days after the completion of operations at specific well sites. Only operations that ended after the Jan. 1 introduction of the posting regulation will appear on the site.
• 2012/01/09: AlterNet: Fracking on Shaky Ground: How Our Latest Fossil Fuel Addiction Is Linked to Earthquakes
• 2012/01/09: NakedCapitalism: Doctors Call for Fracking Moratorium
• 2012/01/09: BBerg: Fracking Moratorium Urged by U.S. Doctors Until Health Studies Conducted
• 2012/01/08: DeSmogBlog: Fracking Earthquakes Becoming Serious Cause for Concern

  On the coal front:

• 2012/01/10: ABC(Au): Coal production expected to increase

  On the gas and oil front:

• 2012/01/13: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
  OIL (US$/bbl)
  Nymex Crude Future....98.70
  Dated Brent Spot.....110.87
  WTI Cushing Spot......98.70
• 2012/01/13: EmptyWheel: PG&E's Profitable Threat to Our Critical Infrastructure
• 2012/01/09: CER:RRapier: What's So Bad About Exporting Gasoline?
• 2012/01/15: OilDrum: Tech Talk - Oil production from the Volga-Ural Basin
• 2012/01/12: CBC: Natural gas price slump deepens
  [Natural gas prices, which have ranged between three and four dollars US for two years, have fallen a further 13 per cent in the past week.] The price of natural gas continued to drop Thursday after the government said U.S. supplies are well above normal for this time of year. Natural gas prices closed eight cents, or 3.1 per cent, at $2.69 US per 1,000 cubic feet in New York. Gas supplies have ballooned since the fall.
• 2012/01/11: EarlyWarning: Oil Prices
• 2012/01/11: OilDrum: Naked Oil
• 2012/01/10: CCurrents: Afghanistan Signs Oil Contract With Chinese Giant [CNPC]
• 2012/01/10: NakedCapitalism: Chris Cook: Naked Oil
• 2012/01/10: EurActiv: Big oil and gas finds in northern Europe
  Norway's Statoil has made a second big oil discovery in the Barents Sea in less than a year and predicted more discoveries to come in the region. The new oil find, called Havis, may hold between 200 million and 300 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe). The new find combined with the previous and nearby discovery, Skrugard, could provide between 400 million and 600 million boe, Statoil said yesterday (9 January).
• 2012/01/10: TP:JR: Oil Is More Toxic Than We Thought, Study Finds
• 2012/01/10: SciAm:PI: World's First Oil Cartel -- Deep in the Heart of Texas
• 2012/01/10: OilDrum: The Oil Potential of Iraqi Kurdistan

  And in pipeline news:

• 2012/01/12: PostMedia: Enbridge affiliates have had 175 leaks, spills over 10 years in U.S.
• 2012/01/10: G&M: Enbridge reports leak from U.S. pipeline as Northern Gateway hearings begin

  Yes we have peak everything:

• 2012/01/12: PeakEnergy: Peak oil can fuel a change for the better?
• 2012/01/11: CCurrents: Geopolitical Implications Of "Peak Everything"
• 2012/01/11: CCurrents: The Peak Oil Crisis: Gasoline In 2012
• 2012/01/10: EnergyBulletin: Geopolitical implications of "Peak Everything"

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2012/01/14: EnergyBulletin: Why biofuels are not a good idea
• 2012/01/13: SciAm: Scientists Tweak Photosynthesis in Pursuit of a Better Biofuel
  By altering how plants turn sunlight into chemical energy, scientists hope to produce biofuels that make economic sense
• 2012/01/13: OilDrum: Ethanol Subsidy Ends; Will it Raise or Lower Prices at the Pump?
• 2012/01/10: UMass: UMass Amherst Engineers Make 'Building Blocks of Chemical Industry' From Wood While Boosting Production 40 Percent
• 2012/01/09: LBL: Clearing a Potential Road Block to Bisabolane -- Joint BioEnergy Institute Researchers Identify Key Enzyme Structure
• 2012/01/10: Eureka: Algae for your fuel tank -- New process for producing biodiesel from microalgae oil
• 2012/01/09: EnergyBulletin: The end of the U.S. ethanol tariff

  The answer my friend...:

• 2012/01/13: TP:JR: Policy Uncertainty Threatens 1,600 American Wind Jobs at Vestas -- and 37,000 Jobs Nationwide
• 2012/01/12: CBC: Wind firm Vestas to cut 2,335 jobs -- More cuts could come if U.S. ends tax breaks
• 2012/01/11: PlanetArk: Sempra, BP To Build Two New Large Wind Power Farms [in Pennsylvania & Kansas]
• 2012/01/08: TP:JR: China Targets 1,000 GW Wind by 2050, Even With 'Slowdown'

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2012/01/13: TreeHugger: IKEA's Solar Efforts to Cover Nearly 85% of US Stores
• 2012/01/13: PlanetArk: CPS Energy To Partner With OCI Solar Power
• 2012/01/15: Grist: Solar grid parity 101 -- and why you should care
• 2012/01/12: TreeHugger: San Antonio Utility Negotiating Another 400MW of Solar in Next 5 Years
• 2012/01/11: NatureN: Engineering slimmer solar cells -- A recipe to increase a thin film's appetite for light
• 2012/01/10: TreeHugger: Germany Installs More Solar Panels in December 2011 Than US Did All Year
• 2012/01/10: CNN: Solar lamps replace toxic kerosene in poorest countries
  A fifth of the world's population still live without access to electricity - After dark, most rely on the light from kerosene and other fuel-based lamps - However, Kerosene is toxic, polluting, dim and very expensive - Now a new market has opened in developing world for solar-powered LED lamps
• 2012/01/10: TP:JR: Germany Installed 2 GW of Solar PV in December -- The U.S. Installed 1.7 GW in All of 2011
• 2012/01/10: PlanetArk: German Solar Boom Strengthens Critics Of Subsidies
• 2012/01/09: EurActiv: Sun shines on German solar energy
  Germany's solar energy output defied government subsidy cuts to rise by a record 60% last year, according to the German Solar Industry Association BSW-Solar. "Solar power has become an indispensable ingredient for the success of the energy transformation," said Carsten Körnig, BSW-Solar's chief executive. The clean energy technology generated more than 18 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2011, BSW-Solar figures showed, enough to power the state of Thuringia -- or 5.1 million households for a whole year. The renewables surge comes despite a 13% cut in Germany's solar subsidies last year, which will be augmented by a further 24% reduction in 2012, implemented in two phases.
• 2012/01/09: PlanetArk: German Solar Market Stable In 2011: Industry Body [BSW]
• 2012/01/08: TreeHugger: Pakistan Fights Extended Blackouts With Solar Power, After Worst Floods in Country's History
• 2012/01/09: PeakEnergy: India Announces Plans to Produce 33.4 Gigawatts of Solar Energy by 2022

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2012/01/14: BNC: Could nuclear fission energy,etc., solve the greenhouse problem? The affirmative case
• 2012/01/05: DJYSrv: Plentiful Energy -- the book on the Integral Fast Reactor
• 2012/01/12: NBF: China cleared to buy worlds fourth largest uranium deposit and China will speed up revision of nuclear power development

  Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:

• 2012/01/14: CBC: $1.28B for Port Hope radioactive cleanup
  Ottawa says it will spend $1.28 billion over 10 years to clean up low-level radioactive waste in the Port Hope area east of Toronto. The waste came from radium and uranium refining operations of the former Crown corporation Eldorado Nuclear and its private sector predecessors from 1933 to 1988. The federal government says about 1.7 million cubic metres of the waste is located at sites in Port Hope and Clarington, about 100 kilometres east of Toronto.

The Rossi Energy Catalyzer keeps coming up:

• 2012/01/13: NBF: NASA has video confirming their belief in LENR and their research and Rossi claims to have started producing small Energy Catalyzers at $100-150 per kilowatt
• 2012/01/15: SlashDot: Can NASA Warm Cold Fusion?

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2012/01/09: FuturePundit: Declining ROI From Electric Power Energy Efficiency
• 2012/01/12: TP:JR: Energy Efficiency Lives! Devastating Debunking of Rebound Effect and Breakthrough Institute

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

• 2012/01/09: FuturePundit: Nissan Scaling For Electric Car Production
• 2012/01/13: EurActiv: Hydrogen vehicle makers still look to EU for help
  Hydrogen vehicles are nimble, quiet and easy on the environment, and auto manufacturers are eyeing a commercial launch within a few years despite a lack of infrastructure for refuelling stations.
• 2012/01/12: NBF: Lead Battery Capacitor Hybrid could enable widespread microhybrid cars for 4-10% efficiency boost
• 2012/01/11: TreeHugger: 2012 Sonata Hybrid Gets 'Lifetime Battery Replacement Guarantee' from Hyundai
• 2012/01/09: AutoBG: Wards: Volt is a symbol of headwinds against U.S. innovation

  As for Energy Storage:

• 2012/01/12: AutoBG: IBM developing [Lithium-] air battery with 500-mile range

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

• 2012/01/13: CCP: Reuters: Investors: private sector must tackle climate change

  Who's fielding theFAQs?

• 2007//: IPCC: FAQ 6.1 - What Caused the Ice Ages and Other Important Climate Changes Before the Industrial Era?

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

• 2012/01/13: TP:JR: January 13 News...
• 2012/01/12: TP:JR: January 12 News...
• 2012/01/11: TP:JR: January 11 News...
• 2012/01/10: TP:JR: January 10 News...
• 2012/01/09: TP:JR: January 9 News...

  Other (weekly) lists:

• 2012/01/13: Grist: Climate primer: Global warming made scintillating
• 2012/01/13: TreeHugger: Energy News Recap...
• 2012/01/12: TreeHugger: Climate News Recap...
• 2012/01/11: TreeHugger: Energy News Recap...
• 2012/01/09: BPA: Agriculture News
• 2012/01/10: TreeHugger: Energy News Recap...
• 2012/01/09: TreeHugger: Climate News Recap...

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2012/01/09: Sci-ence: The Red Flags of Quackery v2
• 2012/01/15: HotTopic: Prat Watch #3: through the looking glass
• 2012/01/13: S&R: Marc Morano abets emailed threats of violence
• 2012/01/15: WottsUWT: The new Hollywood blacklist
• 2012/01/12: HotTopic: McLean's folly 2: the reckoning
• 2012/01/12: MGS: Parts per million
• 2012/01/12: WottsUWT: Monckton responds to "potholer54"
• 2012/01/12: TP:JR: Debunking the Myths of Tom Donohue and the U.S. Chamber of Pollution
• 2012/01/11: WottsUWT: Media 101 - How to jump a shark
• 2012/01/10: ITracker: Five denier memes for 2012
• 2012/01/10: ERabett: Cutting down the mightiest tree in the forest with a herring
• 2012/01/08: TPL: The Top Ten Signs That You're A Denier

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2012/01/14: Grist: Why railroads care about coal exports
• 2012/01/06: LWoN: The Lorax in the Anthropocene
• 2012/01/15: TP:JR: Are We Pursuing "Sustainable Development" Unsustainably?
• 2012/01/11: AlterNet: Is There a Scientific Reason Many Conservatives Hate Science?
• 2012/01/12: NatureNB: Anti-GM groups attempt to sully transgenic control of dengue fever
• 2012/01/11: CAccess: The Question of Climate Terminology
• 2012/01/11: PlanetArk: [Sherpa] Climber To Take Climate Message On "Unique" Trek
• 2012/01/10: TCoE: Evolving a sustainable mindset
• 2012/01/09: P3: On Credibility: As Many Walks as Talks
• 2012/01/09: TreeHugger: Should We Work Towards A 3°C World, If A 2°C Target Is Really Out of Reach?
• 2012/01/09: DeSmogBlog: How to Get a Liberal to Question Global Warming

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

• Extreme Ice Survey
• GCCA: Global Cool Cities Alliance
• Cool Roofs and Cool Pavements Toolkit
• ClimateBites
• Honest Appalachia
• The Natural Society Newsletter
• Our Finite World
• EPA: Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program Data for Calendar Year 2010
• EPA: 2010 Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Large Facilities
• The Cornucopia Institute
• 2007//: IPCC: FAQs
• European Drought Centre
• GPP: GreenPolicyProf
• Scotese: Climate History
• IBOL: International Barcode of Life
• Wiki: Dyson-Harrop satellite
• Climate Change Answers
• CfCCL: Center for Climage Change Law
• Wiki: Burgess Shale

My first novel Water was published in Canada May, 2007. The American release was in October. An Introductionto the novel is available, along with the Unpublished Forewordand the Launch Talk(which includes some quotations), An overview of my writing is available here.

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

"Right now, as the limits to growth tighten around us like a noose and an economy geared to perpetual expansion shudders and cracks in the throes of decline, one of the things that's needed most is the willingness, in a time of gathering darkness, to locate what lamps can still be found, and light them." -John Greer

• Global Warming Links
• Global Warming News Archive
• Energy
• Energy News
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