Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
Another week of Climate Disruption News
Sipping from the Internet Firehose...
March 25, 2012
- Chuckles, Equinox, WWD, Heatwave, SEI, Earth Hour, Maldives
- Exxon Valdez, WMO, SkS Hacked, World Bank, Value, Cook
- Fukushima Note, Fukushima News, Nuclear Policy
- Melting Arctic, Polar Bears, Methane, Antarctica
- Food Crisis, Fisheries, GMOs, Food Production
- Hurricanes, GHGs, Nitrogen Cycle, Temperatures, Aerosols, Paleoclimate
- Attribution, Solar, Climate Sensitivity, Extinctions, Proxies, Satellites
- Impacts, Forests, Extreme Weather, Phenology, Tornadoes
- Wildfires, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
- Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Conservation, Adaptation
- Journals, Other Docs, Misc. Science, DIY Science, Models, Free Science, Mann, Wilson
- International Politics: UN, IPCC, Carbon Tax, Bank Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
- Hormuz, EU ETS & Airlines, Solar Spat, Rare Earths, Canada-Chile
- Malvinas, Security, Activism, H2O Biz, Software, Religioso, Education
- National Politics: America, BP Disaster, 2012, Gas Prices, Keystone
- Birth Control, War on Women, Obama, USAdmin, Congress
- Britain, Europe, Australia, Queensland, Palmer & CIA, India, China, Africa
- Canada, Budget, Buck Passing, Senate, NEP, Northern Gateway, NDP, Streamlining
- Grassy Narrows, Viterra, ISA, BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Maritimes
- Ecological Economics, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Courts
- Energy, SBS, Fracking, Coal, Oil & Gas, Fossil Fuel Corps, Pipelines, Peak Oil, Biofuel
- Wind, Solar, FITs, Nukes, Nuclear Waste, Fusion, Hydrogen, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Energy Storage
- Business, Greenwashing, FAQs, Joe's List, Michael's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
- Shameless Self Promotion, .sig
 |  |
- 2012/03/21: DailyKos: (cartoon - TomTom) Our Top Story Tonight...
- 2012/03/24: TP:JR: (cartoon - Smith) What will be the impact of rising gas prices?
- 2012/03/23: uComics: (cartoon - Rall) Do We need help yet?
- 2012/03/23: uComics: (cartoon - McMillan) Capitalism Is In a Crisis
- 2012/03/23: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) Etech-a-Stretch
- 2012/03/23: ERabett: (cartoon - Weiner) The Climate of Physics
- 2012/03/22: uComics: (cartoon - McMillan) We're Far Behind...
- 2012/03/21: uComics: (cartoon - Wiley) Do you have any idea...
Shazaam! Equinox!
- USNO: Equinoxes, Solstices, Perihelion, and Aphelion, 2000-2020
- 2012/03/19: SciAm: Spring Arrives with Equinox Tuesday, Earliest in More Than a Century
- 2012/03/20: S&R: Happy Equinox
- 2012/03/20: Stoat: Happy Equinox
World Water Day 2012 was March 22nd:
- 2012/03/22: World Water Day 2012 - Water and Food Security
- 2012/03/22: FAO: Success in hunger fight hinges on better use of water
On World Water Day, UN community says better management of finite water resources is key to feeding the world - 2012/03/22: WRI: World Water Day: Understanding Water Risk
- 2012/03/22: TreeHugger: NASA Data Lights Up Times Square to Advertise the Groundwater Crisis
- 2012/03/23: UNC: UN hits water target, but 1.8 billion people still drinking unsafe water, study shows
- 2012/03/22: CSM: World Water Day 2012: Two innovations for purifying water
There has been lots of chatter about the warm winter and the March heatwave in North America:
- 2012/03/18: RI: An eerie winter
- 2012/03/21: P3: Beauceville
- 2012/03/23: KSJT: Lots of ink, plus sweat: High temperature records tumble all across the US. Is it just a blocking high to blame?
- 2012/03/23: Wunderground: Summer in March, 2012 draws to a close
- 2012/03/22: QuarkSoup: Bill McFibben on the Weirdest Weather
- 2012/03/22: P3: Record Number of Records?
- 2012/03/22: TP:JR: March Madness: 'This May Be An Unprecedented Event Since Modern U.S. Weather Records Began In The Late 19th Century'
- 2012/03/22: PlanetArk: As Winter Becomes Spring, Another Summer-Like Day In Much Of U.S
- 2012/03/22: Wunderground: Summer in March peaks in U.S. and Canada; record late snow in Oregon
- 2012/03/21: CSM: Warm spring weather and global warming: If only scientists could be so persuasive
- 2012/03/22: al Jazeera: Spring arrives early in eastern North America
It has been a record-breaking March as parts of the U.S. and Canada bask in unseasonal warmth - 2012/03/21: Maribo: Heat wave factoids
- 2012/03/19: P3: Madison This Month
- 2012/03/20: P3: An anomalous anomaly
- 2012/03/21: Wunderground: Summer in March: more all-time March temperature records in U.S., Canada
- 2012/03/20: Maribo: Unprecedented heat wave continues
- 2012/03/19: Grist: Freak heat wave makes Obama and Oprah 'nervous' about climate
- 2012/03/19: CBC: Wacky weather hits Canada on winter's last day -- Winnipeg, Ottawa break record highs for month of March
- 2012/03/18: Wunderground: Nation's Icebox basks in 77°F warmth
- 2012/03/18: EnergyBulletin: An eerie winter
The Stockholm Environment Institute released their "Valuing the Ocean" report this week:
- 2012/03/21: SEI: [link to 1.5 meg pdf] Valuing the Ocean: Preview Summary
This study, the work of an international, multi-disciplinary team of experts coordinated by SEI, will be published as a peer-reviewed book later this year; this summary is being released to inform preparations for the Rio+20 Earth Summit. - 2012/03/23: PlanetArk: Damage To World's Oceans 'To Reach $2 Trillion A Year'
- 2012/03/22: ClimateShifts: Scientists predict US$2trn cost to ocean economies
- 2012/03/22: VIMS: VIMS professor helps lead international study of ocean value
- 2012/03/21: SEI: Multiple stressors pushing ocean ecosystems, livelihoods to the brink
- 2012/03/21: MSNBC: Damage to world's oceans could hit $2 trillion a year, experts say
The cost of damage to the world's oceans from climate change could reach $2 trillion a year by 2100 if measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions are not stepped up, a study by marine experts said Wednesday. The study found that without action to limit rising greenhouse gas emissions, the global average temperature could rise by 4 degrees Celsius (about 7 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century causing ocean acidification, sea level rise, marine pollution, species migration and more intense tropical cyclones. It would also threaten coral reefs, disrupt fisheries and deplete fish stocks. In the study, "Valuing the Ocean," marine experts led by the Stockholm Environment Institute analyzed the most severe threats facing the world's marine environment and estimated the cost of damage from global warming. - 2012/03/21: al Jazeera: Oceans suffer in a warmer world
The economic cost of increasing ocean temperatures - Earth Hour
- 2012/03/21: Grist: Earth Day too committed for you? Celebrate Earth Hour instead [March 31]
The Maldives coup situation is unchanged:
- 2012/03/19: al Jazeera: Protests as Maldives parliament opens
Opposition supporters demonstrate against President Mohammed Waheed Hassan, who they say took power in a coup. - 2012/03/23: CSM: Exxon Valdez bound for scrap heap in India
The notorious Exxon Valdez tanker, responsible for one of the worst oil spills in US history two decades ago, has been bought by an Indian company almost certainly to be scrapped for its steel and spare parts. - 2012/03/20: BBerg: Exxon Valdez to Be Junked Years After Worst U.S. Ship Spill
WMO issued their annual statement this week:
- 2012/03/24: TP:JR: Manmade Climate Change Accelerated In 2001-2010, World Meteorological Organization Reports
- 2012/03/23: Reuters: Mankind kept 2011 global temperatures near record - WMO
Human activity kept global temperatures close to a record high in 2011 despite the cooling influence of a powerful La Nina weather pattern, the World Meteorological Organization said on Friday. - 2012/03/23: WMO: WMO annual statement confirms 2011 as 11th warmest on record -- Climate change accelerated in 2001-2010, according to preliminary assessment
The Skeptical Science site has been hacked:
- 2012/03/24: SkeptiSci: Skeptical Science hacked, private user details publicly posted online by John Cook
Sometime over the last few days, the Skeptical Science website has been hacked. The hacker has taken much or all of the Skeptical Science database, zipped various excerpts into a single file, uploaded the file onto a Russian website then linked to the zip file from various blogs. While we are still attempting to verify the authenticity of the file, initial scans seem to indicate the hacker has included the entire database of Skeptical Science users. Access to the full database (which includes private details) is restricted only to myself and I am the only one with access to all of the raw data - this fact alone indicates that this breach of privacy came in the form of an external hack rather than from within Skeptical Science itself. - 2012/03/24: IJISH: SwiftHack 3.0? Skeptical Science web site reportedly hacked
What are the global financial institutions up to?
- 2012/03/24: al Jazeera: Three in running for World Bank job
US nominates Jim Yong Kim for leadership of global lender, but Nigerian and Colombian candidates also in running. - 2012/03/23: NatureNB: Global health leader Kim nominated to lead World Bank
- 2012/03/25: RWER: Why Ocampo - Not Kim - Should be Next World Bank President
- 2012/03/23: ScienceInsider: Obama Nominates Dartmouth President to Head World Bank
- 2012/03/23: BBC: President Obama has nominated Korean-born US academic Jim Yong Kim to be the next president of the World Bank
- 2012/03/23: al Jazeera: US nominates health expert as World Bank head
Jim Yong Kim, a physician by training, comes as surprise pick for international financial institution's top job. - 2012/03/22: VIMS: VIMS professor helps lead international study of ocean value
- 2012/03/21: BBC: Valuing nature, changing economics
The concept of natural capital accounting - valuing natural resources as accurately as possible, and including in national accounts the costs and benefits of conserving vs destroying them - has emerged as a major theme in international environmental circles in recent years. - 2012/03/24: SkeptiSci: Skeptical Science hacked, private user details publicly posted online by John Cook
Sometime over the last few days, the Skeptical Science website has been hacked. The hacker has taken much or all of the Skeptical Science database, zipped various excerpts into a single file, uploaded the file onto a Russian website then linked to the zip file from various blogs. While we are still attempting to verify the authenticity of the file, initial scans seem to indicate the hacker has included the entire database of Skeptical Science users. Access to the full database (which includes private details) is restricted only to myself and I am the only one with access to all of the raw data - this fact alone indicates that this breach of privacy came in the form of an external hack rather than from within Skeptical Science itself. - 2012/03/24: SkeptiSci: Peter Hadfield Letter to Chris Monckton by Rob Honeycutt, dana1981
- 2012/03/24: SkeptiSci: Catching up with the Younger Dryas: do mass-extinctions always need impacts? by John Mason
- 2012/03/23: SkeptiSci: Fred Singer Debunks and then Denies by dana1981
- 2012/03/22: SkeptiSci: Stauning and Friis-Christensen on Solar Cycle Length and Global Warming by Klaus Flemløse
- 2012/03/21: SkeptiSci: Inhofe's Myths on Maddow by dana1981
- 2012/03/20: SkeptiSci: New research from last week 11/2012 by Ari Jokimäki
- 2012/03/20: SkeptiSci: An Open Letter to the Future by climatesight
- 2012/03/19: SkeptiSci: New Research Lowers Past Estimates of Sea-Level Rise by John Hartz
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 sensationalism?
Where do they rate on a scale of play-it-down-ness?
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:
- 2012/03/23: RT: Mystery of lost Fukushima radiation emails 'a major cover-up'
- 2012/03/21: NBF: High estimate of 100 excess cancer deaths from Fukushima if all 2 million in the area stood outside during each radiation release event
- 2012/03/21: JapanTimes: No. 1 long way from being out of the woods
[...]
...the fact that no one knows precisely what has happened inside the reactors and where the melted nuclear fuel is located means there is still great uncertainty over the complex's status. - 2012/03/18: al Jazeera: Experts struggle to collect data in Fukushima
Is enough being done to ensure solid data, key to making future nuclear safety plans, is being gathered in Fukushima? - 2012/03/19: EneNews: Bloomberg: Growing global threat of radiation-contaminated metal - Plutonium, weapons-grade uranium found - Chronic exposure to low doses of radiation can lead to cancer and birth defects
- 2012/03/18: EneNews: Fukushima is adversely affecting neighboring countries says Nobel Prize-winning author [Kenzaburo Oe] - "What is the most important ethic for humans to act is not to destroy conditions that are necessary for the next generation to live"
Post Fukushima, nuclear policies are in flux around the world:
- 2012/03/23: GRC: One Year after Fukushima: Is Nuclear Power Phase-out a Feasible Alternative? by Dr. Ernst Pauli
The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:
- 2012/03/20: ERW: Insight: shrub height affects future Arctic climate and permafrost
The boreal trees and shrubs that are already invading the tundra regions of the north are expected to expand their territory even further as climate-change progresses. A study recently published in Environmental Research Letters indicates that invading shrubs will increasingly warm the northern high latitudes at a rate that depends on the height of the plants. - 2012/03/22: ASI: CT SIA: maximum reached (this time for real)
- 2012/03/14: ESA: GlobIce: mapping the movement of sea ice
- 2012/03/20: ASI: GlobIce: mapping the movement of sea ice
- 2012/03/20: CCP: "Regions of rapid sea ice change: An inter-hemispheric seasonal comparison" by Sharon Stammerjohn et al. GRL 39 (2012); doi: 10.1029/2012GL050874
- 2012/03/20: ASI: Use of graphs
- 2012/03/19: MGS: Tempest in an ice pot
- 2012/03/18: ArcticNews: Warming in the Arctic
- 2012/03/18: ASI: WACC [Warm Arctic Cold Contintents] overview
As for the charismatic megafauna:
- 2012/03/23: Missoulian: Warming causing polar bear-human conflicts, Alberta professor says
That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:
- 2012/03/22: Stoat: More sea ice and more methane
- 2012/03/19: GEP: Climate Scientists, Geoengineering Community Slam AMEG
While in Antarctica:
- 2012/03/20: NOAANews: Amount of coldest Antarctic water near ocean floor decreasing for decades
The food crisis is ongoing:
- FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
- 2012/03/23: FAO: FAO appeals for urgent Horn of Africa funds -- Funding needed to build strength against crisis
- 2012/03/22: FAO: Major foot-and-mouth outbreak in Egypt threatens the region -- Mobilizing vaccines, strong regional coordinated action crucial
- 2012/03/21: FAO: FAO Director-General vows new approach in ending hunger -- Highlights role South-South Cooperation can play in Asia and Pacific
- 2012/03/23: UN: UN: $50 million urgently needed within 90 days to help Horn of Africa farmers
- 2012/03/23: CCP: Extreme Warm Weather in Michigan Puts Fruit Crops At Risk of Frost Damage -- Extreme Weather Puts Crops At Risk
- 2012/03/21: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Zimbabwe: Farmers Warn That Agriculture Is in 'Major Crisis'
The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) has warned that Zimbabwe is facing a "major crisis," after a third of the country's maize crops were declared a write off. - 2012/03/19: ConvEcon: The Food Stamp Explosion
- 2012/03/20: ProMedMail: Colony collapse disorder, apis - Europe: poss. insecticide link
- 2012/03/20: ProMedMail: Schmallenberg virus - Europe (30): update
- 2012/03/17: NBCPhiladelphia: Groups Say They Won't Stop Feeding Homeless in City Parks
The city of Philadelphia will institute a ban on the outdoor feeding of the homeless, but groups who provide meals to the needy vow not to stop. - 2012/03/23: NOAANews: New NOAA-supported West Coast studies to look at models for sustaining America's fishing industry
- 2012/03/23: Grist: The big blue: Can deepwater fish farming be sustainable?
- 2012/03/23: Eureka: Ancient civilizations reveal ways to manage fisheries for sustainability
In the search for sustainability of the ocean's fisheries, solutions can be found in a surprising place: the ancient past. - 2012/03/19: Eureka: 1 solution to global overfishing found
Largest study of tropical coral reef fisheries ever conducted shows how government, local fishers, and organizations can protect livelihoods and fish A study by the Wildlife Conservation Society, the ARC Centre for Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, and other groups on more than 40 coral reefs in the Indian and Pacific Oceans indicates that "co-management" -- a collaborative arrangement between local communities, conservation groups, and governments -- provides one solution to a vexing global problem: overfishing. - 2012/03/18: Guardian(UK): UK steps in to help West Africa in fight to overturn EU fishing abuses
Britain helps block move by Spain that would have allowed European trawlers to continue overfishing in African waters - 2012/03/23: PlanetArk: GMO Drought-Tolerant Corn Over-Promises: Plant Scientist
Utilizing biotech "drought-tolerant" corn to boost global food production would be a less-effective tactic than planting conventional corn and improving agronomic practices, a veteran plant scientist said on Tuesday. "The technology has gotten a tremendous amount of attention. We think undue attention," said Doug Gurian-Sherman, a plant pathologist and senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, in an interview at the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit. - 2012/03/22: TreeHugger: Connecticut Takes First Step Toward GMO Labeling Law
- 2012/03/19: PlanetArk: France Restores Ban On GMO Maize Crops
And how are we going to feed 9 billion, 10 billion, 15 billion?
- 2012/03/20: FAO: New FAO Statistical Yearbook links figures to trends -- Revised format gives the big picture around food and agriculture numbers
- 2012/03/21: FAO: FAO-EBRD accord to boost cooperation in the Mediterranean -- Accord marks expanded private sector support for investment in agriculture
- 2012/03/21: ABC(Au): Australian PlantBank to safeguard diversity
The largest seed bank in the southern hemisphere is being constructed in Sydney's south-west to help prevent a loss to the planet's diversity of flora. Scientists are collecting and housing a range of plants and seeds to fill Mt Annan's PlantBank, which is being built under the management of the Australian Botanic Gardens. It will eventually house up to 25,000 plant species not only from Australia, but from across the Asia-Pacific. Project manager Brett Summerell says the PlantBank will be a form of "ultimate insurance". - 2012/03/19: Eureka: NASA satellites see rainfall left behind from Cyclone Lua's landfall
As for GHGs:
- 2012/03/19: POGGE: Focused like a laser on... anything but this -- O.E.C.D. Warns Greenhouse Gas Emissions could rise 50 percent by 2050
And in the nitrogen cycle:
- 2012/03/22: UGa: Trace element [molybdenum] plays major role in tropical forest nitrogen cycle
As for the temperature record:
- 2012/03/25: moyhu: Autocorrelation, regression and temperatures
- 2012/03/22: EarlyWarning: February Climate
- 2012/03/19: MetOffice(UK): Updates to HadCRUT global temperature dataset
The global temperature dataset compiled by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit has been updated. - 2012/03/21: JEB: HadCRUT4: 1998 and all that
- 2012/03/21: ClimateShifts: The update of a 160-year-old global temperature record by British scientists...
- 2012/03/21: DM:BA: Revision to temperature measurements doesn't change global warming
- 2012/03/20: CCP: Met Office: World warmed even more in last ten years than previously thought when Arctic data added. 2010 now hottest year
- 2012/03/20: CCP: "Hemispheric and large-scale land-surface air temperature variations: An extensive revision and an update to 2010" by Phil D. Jones et al., JGR 117 (2012) doi:10.1029/2011JD017139
- 2012/03/20: RealClimate: Updating the CRU and HadCRUT temperature data
- 2012/03/19: BBC: Update for world temperature data
Researchers have updated HadCRUT - one of the main global temperate records, which dates back to 1850. One of the main changes is the inclusion of more data from the Arctic region, which has experienced one of the greatest levels of warming. The amendments do not change the long-term trend, but the data now lists 2010, rather than 1998, as the warmest year on record. - 2012/03/19: CCP: BBC: Researchers have updated HadCRUT - one of the main global temperate records, which dates back to 1850
- 2012/03/19: TP:JR: Bombshell: After Fixing Errors, UK Met Office Says 2010, 2005 Hottest Years on Record, World Warming Faster Than Thought
Aerosols are making their presence felt:
- 2012/03/22: ERW: Insight: black-carbon aerosols in the Himalayas
Light-absorbing aerosols such as black carbon have been found to be the main culprit for significant atmospheric heating over sparsely inhabited high-elevation regions of the Himalayas. - 2012/03/19: USGS: Confidence in Climate Data: Using 3 Million-Year-Old Records
- 2012/03/24: BBC: 'Humans killed off Australia's giant beasts'
Humans hunted Australia's giant vertebrates to extinction about 40,000 years ago, the latest research published in Science has concluded. The cause of the widespread extinction has provoked much debate, with climate change being one theory. However, scientists studied dung samples from 130,000 and 41,000 years ago, when humans arrived, and concluded hunting and fire were the cause. The extinction in turn caused major ecological changes to the landscape. - 2012/03/23: KSJT: Lots of Aussie ink, elsewhere too: 40,000 years ago something killed off Australia's strange big beasts. Probably that something used spears.
- 2012/03/23: ABC(Au): Megafauna collapse led to mega changes
- 2012/03/20: KSJT: Big media ignore spherules, nanodiamonds in Mexico lakebed and what they mean for extinct mammoths
- 2012/03/19: ABC(Au): Early Earth hazy one day, clear the next
- 2012/03/18: Eureka: Hazy shades of life on early Earth
A 'see-sawing' atmosphere over 2.5 billion years ago preceded the oxygenation of our planet and the development of complex life on Earth, a new study has shown. Research, led by experts at Newcastle University, UK, and published today in the journal Nature Geoscience, reveals that the Earth's early atmosphere periodically flipped from a hydrocarbon-free state into a hydrocarbon-rich state similar to that of Saturn's moon, Titan. This switch between "organic haze" and a "haze-free" environment was the result of intense microbial activity and would have had a profound effect on the climate of the Earth system. - 2012/03/24: P3: The Wrong Question by Kevin Trenberth
- 2012/03/21: Springer:CC: Framing the way to relate climate extremes to climate change by Kevin E. Trenberth
Regarding the solar hypothesis:
- 2012/03/22: SkeptiSci: Stauning and Friis-Christensen on Solar Cycle Length and Global Warming by Klaus Flemløse
Regarding Climate Sensitivity:
- 2012/03/18: QuarkSoup: A Better Way to Calculate Climate Sensitivity
What's new on the extinction front?
- 2012/03/20: USGS: Another Vertebrate Species Reported Extinct from the Hawaiian Islands [copper striped blue-tailed skink (Emoia impar)]
- 2012/03/23: BBC: Mammoths' extinction not due to inbreeding, study finds
The last known population of woolly mammoths did not "inevitably" die out because of inbreeding and lack of genetic diversity, a study suggests. Scientists used techniques normally used to tackle crime scenes to carry out DNA analysis of samples taken from Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean. They said that it was more likely that human activity or environmental factors killed off the healthy creatures. - 2012/03/22: DM:NERS: Dung fungus reveal that humans, not climate change, killed Australia's giant beasts
- 2012/03/19: TreeHugger: Rhinos May be Extinct in South Africa by 2015
What's new in proxies?
- 2012/03/21: Eureka: Scientists use rare mineral [ikaite] to correlate past climate events in Europe, Antarctica
- 2012/03/20: Guardian(UK): Swiss soil reveals climate change in mountain ecosystems
Meanwhile in near earth orbit:
- 2012/03/20: ESA: Satellite captures images of sandstorm
More GW impacts are being seen:
- 2012/03/22: Grist: Climate change threatens baby seals
- 2012/03/23: TreeHugger: Climate Change Will Destroy 5% of Pakistan's GDP
- 2012/03/22: TMoS: Sailing Into Uncharted Waters
You don't have to like it but you're going to have to live with it. Climate change is setting in - hard. It's already here and we're going to have to come to grips with what it means. - 2012/03/22: Grist: Global warming affects penguins' sex lives
- 2012/03/21: Eureka: Energy requirements make Antarctic fur seal pups vulnerable to climate change
- 2012/03/21: CBC: Mild winter weather will get bugs buzzing sooner
And then there are the world's forests:
- 2012/03/23: al Jazeera: Ecuadorians protest over mining controversy
Protesters both in support and against the Ecuadorian president flooded to the capital over a copper mining issue. - 2012/03/22: BBC: Rival marches in Ecuador over Amazon mining plans
Two competing marches have been held in Ecuador's capital Quito, one in protest against the government's mining policies and one supporting them. - 2012/03/22: PlanetArk: Follow The Money To Catch Illegal Loggers: World Bank
- 2012/03/21: UCSUSA: Recipes for Success: Solutions for Deforestation-Free Vegetable Oils
- 2012/03/20: BBC: Illegal logging makes billions for gangs, report says
Illegal logging generates $10-15bn (£7.5-11bn) around the world, according to new analysis from the World Bank. Its report, Justice for Forests, says that most illegal logging operations are run by organised crime, and much of the profit goes to corrupt officials. Countries affected include Indonesia, Madagascar and several in West Africa. - 2012/03/20: IndiaTimes: Climate change could wipe out rarest forests
Many of the world's rarest and richest forests, located in high-altitudes, could be all but wiped out by the combined impact of man-made climate change and habitat destruction. - 2012/03/18: Missoulian: Report defies conventional wisdom on pine beetles and wildfire
This week in the New Normal -- extreme weather:
- 2012/03/20: Eureka: NASA sees more severe weather over eastern Texas, Oklahoma
- 2012/03/20: Wunderground: Torrential rains in Oklahoma; Summer in March continues for Midwest
- 2012/03/19: Eureka: Infrared NASA satellite data indicates severe weather for south central US this week
- 2012/03/19: CSM: Arizona digs out from mega snow storm
Changes in natural cycles are showing up:
- 2012/03/23: SciNow: Backyard Birders Spy Something New
- 2012/03/25: CCP: Brad Johnson: The Winter That Wasn't Caused 'Stunning' Bird Migrations
- 2012/03/22: CBC: Wonky winter brings Arctic birds south, sparks early migration -- Great Backyard Bird Count breaks records
On the tornado front:
- 2012/03/21: PlanetArk: At Least One Texas Tornado Damages Homes, Storms Cause Flooding
- 2012/03/20: PlanetArk: Nebraska Cleans Up After Tornadoes Injure Two
- 2012/03/20: CSM: Flooding, tornado hit San Antonio and other parts of Texas
- 2012/03/19: Wunderground: Tornadoes, extreme flooding, unprecedented heat expected in U.S. today
As for heatwaves and wild fires:
- 2012/03/23: TreeHugger: Massive Forest Fire Continues to Burn the Slopes of Mountain Kenya
- 2012/03/22: al Jazeera: Fire devours Kenya's ancient forests
Week-long blaze destroys thousands of hectares of forest crucial for water catchment and threatens wildlife. - 2012/03/21: RedOrbit: Global Sea Level Could Rise As Much As 70 Feet In The Future
- 2012/03/19: Eureka: Global sea level likely to rise as much as 70 feet for future generations
As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:
- 2012/03/23: CAbyss: Texas Drought Update
- 2012/03/23: CBC: Flooding causes state of emergency in N.B. community [Perth-Andover] -- Premier David Alward calls flood damage 'devastating'
- 2012/03/23: TP:JR: Warming-Fueled Texas Drought Cost Farmers $7.6 Billion: 'No One Alive Has Seen Single-Year Drought Damage To This Extent'
- 2012/03/24: CBC: Flooding continues across western New Brunswick -- Historical and near-historical high water levels
- 2012/03/23: TreeHugger: Extreme Drought In Mexico: Refugees Will Travel Farther North To Find Water & Work
- 2012/03/22: CBC: Quebec City-area floods force evacuation -- Warm weather contributing to ice jams
- 2012/03/22: PlanetArk: Stubborn Drought Expected To Tax Mexico For Years
- 2012/03/22: HuffPo: Texas Drought Cost $2 Billion More Than Previously Thought
Agriculture officials say losses from Texas' historic drought are more than $2 billion more than previously thought. The Texas AgriLife Extension Service now estimates crop and livestock losses at $7.62 billion for 2011. - 2012/03/22: ABC(Au): Evacuations after flash flooding in southern Qld
Emergency services on the Sunshine Coast in south-east Queensland have received almost 550 calls for help after heavy rain caused flash flooding. Evacuations are underway after up to 250 millimetres of rain fell in some parts of the coast in just three hours on Thursday afternoon, inundating homes and businesses. - 2012/03/21: CSM: Flood warnings for Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri
- 2012/03/21: al Jazeera: Flash floods drench New Zealand
Torrential rain has caused widespread flooding across much of the North Island of New Zealand. - 2012/03/18: BBC: Wildlife drought threat warning issued by Environment Agency
The drought in parts of England could have a serious impact on wildlife, the Environment Agency has warned. - 2012/03/22: Rice: Cooking better biochar: Study improves recipe for soil additive
- 2012/03/19: Eureka: Focus on technology overlooks human behavior when addressing climate change
Consider transportation & GHG production:
- 2012/03/21: DerSpiegel: Weight Loss for Superjumbos -- The A380 and the Aviation Engineering Dilemma
To reduce fuel consumption, Airbus used extremely lightweight materials in its flagship A380. Now cracks have appeared in the wings, and repairs will cost the company hundreds of millions of euros. The problem highlights the engineering dilemma caused by the industry drive for fuel efficiency. - 2012/03/23: CalcRisk: DOT: Vehicle Miles Driven increased 1.6% in January
- 2012/03/19: Dominion: The Case for Permanent Free Public Transit
While in the endless quest for zero energy, sustainable buildings and practical codes:
- 2012/03/16: AlterNet: Kiss the McMansion Goodbye: Is the American Home Shrinking?
As for carbon sequestration:
- 2012/03/11: MGunther: Direct air capture of CO2 is becoming a business, for better or worse
- 2012/03/20: Guardian(UK): US consortium to build carbon capture and storage plant at Grangemouth
- 2012/03/19: Eureka: MIT research: Study finds room to store CO2 underground
New MIT analysis shows there's enough room to safely store at least a century's worth of US fossil fuel emissions - 2012/03/20: BBC: Coal-fuelled power station plans for Grangemouth
A US power company is planning to build a coal-fuelled power station at Grangemouth, BBC Scotland has learned. The plant would use carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology in a bid to reduce emissions by more than 90%. Seattle-based Summit Power Group has joined forces with National Grid PLC and the oil services company Petrofac for the project. The scheme's backers hope to win funding for the Caledonia Clean Energy Project from the UK government. - 2012/03/23: ERW: White roofs are more cool
Policymakers should phase out the use of black asphalt on roofs in hot climates. That's according to researchers in the US who have analysed different roofing membranes for their effectiveness at reducing the urban heat island effect. - 2012/03/22: GeoBlog: "Why I study Geoengineering" -- Canary in the Gemeinschaft
- 2012/03/19: Grist: Engineer wants to stop Arctic warming with a cloud-whitening machine
What's new in conservation?
- 2012/03/21: IUCN: Nature in need: Half of world's most important nature sites left unprotected
The world's governments have committed to increasing the coverage of protected areas by 2020 to address rapid rates of environmental destruction, however, a new study led by BirdLife International, with contributions from IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), shows that only half of the most important sites for wildlife have been fully protected. These findings highlight an urgent need for improved targeting of new and expanded protected areas in order to protect the planet's wildlife. - 2012/03/23: NewInt: Adapting to climate change in Bangladesh
Meanwhile in the journals:
- 2012/03/19: NERC:NORA: Malthus revisited by Andrew Bloodworth et al.
- 2012/03/20: NERC:NORA: Mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet (2003-2008) from ICESat data - the impact of interpolation, sampling and firn density by Sørensen Sandberg et al.
- 2012/03/20: NERC:NORA: A new, high resolution surface mass balance map of Antarctica (1979-2010) based on regional climate modeling by J.T.M. Lenaerts et al.
- 2012/03/21: NERC:NORA: A three-dimensional full Stokes model of the grounding line dynamics: effect of a pinning point beneath the ice shelf by L. Favier et al.
- 2012/03/23: ACP: Atmospheric dust modeling from meso to global scales with the online NMMB/BSC-Dust model - Part 2: Experimental campaigns in Northern Africa by K. Haustein et al.
- 2012/03/23: ACP: A-train CALIOP and MLS observations of early winter Antarctic polar stratospheric clouds and nitric acid in 2008 by A. Lambert et al.
- 2012/03/23: ACP: Satellite constraint for emissions of nitrogen oxides from anthropogenic, lightning and soil sources over East China on a high-resolution grid by J.-T. Lin
- 2012/03/23: ACP: Quasi-stationary planetary waves in late winter Antarctic stratosphere temperature as a possible indicator of spring total ozone by V. O. Kravchenko et al.
- 2012/03/23: ACPD: Carbon monoxide and related trace gases and aerosols over the Amazon Basin during the wet and dry seasons by M. O. Andreae et al.
- 2012/03/23: ACPD: Simulations of column-average CO2 and CH4 using the NIES TM with a hybrid sigma-isentropic (?-?) vertical coordinate by D. A. Belikov et al.
- 2012/03/23: GMD: Development of the high-order decoupled direct method in three dimensions for particulate matter: enabling advanced sensitivity analysis in air quality models by W. Zhang et al.
- 2012/03/23: OSD: The Mediterranean Ocean Colour Observing System: system development and product validation by G. Volpe et al.
- 2012/03/22: OSD: High Resolution 3-D temperature and salinity fields derived from in situ and satellite observations by S. Guinehut et al.
- 2012/03/21: OSD: The CORA dataset: validation and diagnostics of ocean temperature and salinity in situ measurements by C. Cabanes et al.
- 2012/03/23: TC: Inter-annual variations of snow days over Switzerland from 2000-2010 derived from MODIS satellite data by N. Foppa & G. Seiz
- 2012/03/22: TC: Stable water isotopes of precipitation and firn cores from the northern Antarctic Peninsula region as a proxy for climate reconstruction by F. Fernandoy et al.
- 2012/03/21: TCD: Surge dynamics on Bering Glacier, Alaska, in 2008-2011 by E. W. Burgess et al.
- 2012/03/24: Science: (ab$) The Aftermath of Megafaunal Extinction: Ecosystem Transformation in Pleistocene Australia by Susan Rule et al.
- 2012/03/23: Wiley:ME: (ab$) Microsatellite genotyping reveals end-Pleistocene decline in mammoth autosomal genetic variation by Veronica Nyström et al.
- 2012/03/22: CP: The quantitative reconstruction of the palaeoclimate between 5200 and 4300 cal yr BP in the Tianshui Basin, NW China by N. Sun & X. Q. Li
- 2012/03/22: CP: Centennial mineral dust variability in high-resolution ice core data from Dome C, Antarctica by F. Lambert et al.
- 2012/03/20: CP: Systematic study of the impact of fresh water fluxes on the glacial carbon cycle by N. Bouttes et al.
- 2012/03/19: CP: Continental atmospheric circulation over Europe during the Little Ice Age inferred from grape harvest dates by P. Yiou et al.
- 2012/03/23: CPD: Holocene climate variability in North-Eastern Italy: potential influence of the NAO and solar activity recorded by speleothem data by D. Scholz et al.
- 2012/03/20: Springer:Ambio: (ab$) Ecosystem Impacts of Geoengineering: A Review for Developing a Science Plan by Lynn M. Russell et al.
- 2012/03/14: Nature: (ab$) Collapse of polar ice sheets during the stage 11 interglacial by Maureen E. Raymo & Jerry X. Mitrovica
- 2012/03/21: Springer:CC: Framing the way to relate climate extremes to climate change by Kevin E. Trenberth
- 2012/03/18: Nature:CC: (ab$) Do alternative energy sources displace fossil fuels? by Richard York
- 2012/03/20: ACP: Microphysical controls on the stratocumulus topped boundary-layer structure during VOCALS-REx by I. A. Boutle & S. J. Abel
- 2012/03/21: ACPD: Importance of tropospheric volcanic aerosol for indirect radiative forcing of climate by A. Schmidt et al.
- 2012/03/21: ACPD: The carbon emissions of Chinese cities by H. Wang et al.
- 2012/03/20: ACPD: A methodology for in-situ and remote sensing of microphysical and radiative properties of contrails as they evolve into cirrus by H. M. Jones et al.
- 2012/03/20: ACPD: A stratospheric intrusion at the subtropical jet over the Mediterranean Sea: air-borne remote sensing observations and model results by K. Weigel et al.
- 2012/03/20: PNAS: (ab$) Quantitative global analysis of the role of climate and people in explaining late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions by Graham W. Prescott et al.
- 2012/03/20: PNAS: (abs) Isotope composition and volume of Earth's early oceans by Emily C. Pope et al.
- 2012/03/20: PNAS: (letter$) Reply to Jenkins et al.: Evidence for contaminating oil exposure is closely linked in space and time to biological effects by Andrew Whitehead et al.
- 2012/03/20: GMD: ASAMgpu V1.0 - a moist fully compressible atmospheric model using graphics processing units (GPUs) by S. Horn
- 2012/03/20: GMD: Simulations over South Asia using the Weather Research and Forecasting model with Chemistry (WRF-Chem): set-up and meteorological evaluation by R. Kumar et al.
- 2012/03/20: OSD: Obstacles and benefits of the implementation of a reduced rank smoother with a high resolution model of the Atlantic ocean by N. Freychet et al.
- 2012/03/20: OSD: Evaluation of real time and future global monitoring and forecasting systems at Mercator Océan by J.-M. Lellouche et al.
- 2012/03/19: OSD: Estimation of positive sum-to-one constrained zooplankton grazing preferences with the DEnKF: a twin experiment by E. Simon et al.
- 2012/03/19: TCD: 3-D image-based numerical computations of snow permeability: links to specific surface area, density, and microstructural anisotropy by N. Calonne et al.
- 2012/03/14: GRL: (ab$) Hemispheric and large-scale land-surface air temperature variations: An extensive revision and an update to 2010 by P. D. Jones et al.
- 2012/02/24: GRL: (ab$) Quantifying uncertainties in global and regional temperature change using an ensemble of observational estimates: The HadCRUT4 dataset by Colin P Morice et al.
- 2012/03/16: Science: (ab$) Navigating the Anthropocene: Improving Earth System Governance by F. Biermann et al.
- 2012/03/19: AGWObserver: New research from last week 11/2012
And other significant documents:
- InTechOpen: Climate Change - Geophysical Foundations and Ecological Effects - editors: Juan Blanco & Houshang Kheradmand
- BGS: Mineral profiles
- BGS: Mineral Planning Factsheets
- [links to several pdfs] Planet Under Pressure: Rio+20 Policy Briefs
- 2012/03/21: SEI: [link to 1.5 meg pdf] Valuing the Ocean: Preview Summary
This study, the work of an international, multi-disciplinary team of experts coordinated by SEI, will be published as a peer-reviewed book later this year; this summary is being released to inform preparations for the Rio+20 Earth Summit. - 2012/03/23: RealClimate: Data presentation: A trend lesson
- 2012/03/21: ERabett: Explaining Science
- 2012/03/21: NatureNB: The new gatekeepers: reducing research misconduct
- 2012/03/19: JEB: No good deed goes unpunished
- 2012/03/18: CSW: US Climate Policy: Lecture at George Washington University, Elliott School of International Affairs
- 2012/03/19: GeoSociety: Melting Glaciers, Enough Sand to Bury London, and Ancient Ecosystem Engineering
More DIY science:
- 2012/03/22: moyhu: Interactive JS climate plotter
What's new in models?
- 2012/03/24: SimpleC: Climate models pass prehistoric test
- 2012/03/22: MGS: Technical followup on the simplest climate model
- 2012/03/20: MGS: Return of the simplest climate model
What developments in the ongoing struggle for Open Science?
- 2012/03/18: SingHub: 8,200+ Strong, Researchers Band Together To Force Science Journals To Open Access
- 2012/03/19: SlashDot: Boycott of Elsevier Exceeds 8000 Researchers
Regarding Mann:
- 2012/03/23: CSW: Update on the unresolved fight over who gets to read Michael Mann's email
- 2012/03/19: PSinclair: The Hockey Stick Under Oath: Mike Mann's 2006 Testimony
Regarding Wilson:
- 2012/03/22: Smithsonian: What Does E.O. Wilson Mean By a "Social Conquest of the Earth"
- 2012/03/23: DM:Loom: A Smithsonian Q & A with E. O. Wilson: complete with outtakes
While at the UN:
- 2012/03/22: WMO: World Meteorological Day 23 March highlights role of weather, climate and water in sustainable development
- 2012/03/23: UN: UN spotlights role of weather and water services in addressing climate change challenges
- 2012/03/20: UNFCCC: Call for proposals for hosting the Climate Technology Centre
The Fifth IPCC report is coming up:
- 2012/03/20: JEB: A very British coup
The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:
- 2012/03/25: ABC(Au): GE chairman praises 'gutsy' carbon tax
A top executive at one of the world's largest companies has praised the Australian Government for introducing a carbon tax. GE's vice-chairman John Rice says there needs to be a cost associated with producing carbon, whether it is through a tax or a type of trading mechanism. GE makes a range of products, including wind turbines. He has told ABC TV's Inside Business it is not easy for governments to introduce such measures. But he says it takes "gutsy politicians" to take the lead on introducing such costs. - 2012/03/23: EurActiv: Brussels makes new push for financial tax
European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said yesterday (22 March) that an EU-wide financial transaction tax could save EU countries as much as half of their contribution to the EU budget. - 2012/03/22: EUO: Transaction tax would half member states' contribution to EU budget
- 2012/03/22: EUO: Commission: 'Robin Hood tax' would save EU countries billions
- 2012/03/20: DerSpiegel: Financial Lobby in Revolt -- How Much Longer Can Transaction Tax Be Delayed?
The banking industry is resisting a European Union tax on financial transactions, but Brussels is sticking to its plans. EU officials argue the tax would reduce risks in the capital markets and force the industry to help cover the costs of any future crisis. The idea also has backing in Berlin and Paris. - 2012/03/19: Grist: Does cap-and-trade produce technological innovation?
On the international political front, tensions continue as the USA and Israel lean on Iran:
- 2012/03/23: IndiaTimes: Iran oil sanctions: India tells West to appreciate its needs
India will continue to import oil from Iran without violating any international law and has requested the United States and the European Union to take into account the country's oil needs, oil minister Jaipal Reddy said on Friday. "We have a systematic plan for receiving oil from Iran," Reddy told reporters at the Asia Gas Partnership Summit, but did not elaborate. - 2012/03/23: Reuters: Iran sanctions bring unintended, unwanted results
Western sanctions have so far failed to deter Iran from pursuing its nuclear programme and their unexpected and unintended side-effects are producing a new collection of challenges. The expected loss of Iranian crude production has helped push oil prices to levels seen threatening the global economy. Already Iran's oil exports appear to have fallen this month by some 300,000 barrels per day (bpd), or 14 percent, the first sizeable drop in shipments this year, according to estimates from industry consultant Petrologistics and an oil company. Oil rose sharply on the news, with Brent jumping to over $127 a barrel, up almost $4 from the day's low. - 2012/03/23: AntiWar: Obama Blames Iran for High Gas Prices -- Says 'Uncertainty' Adding $20 or $30 to Oil Prices
- 2012/03/21: BBerg: U.S. Exempts Japan, 10 EU Nations From Iran Oil Sanctions
As the EU-ETS is applied to airlines, we will see who is serious about reducing carbon emissions:
- 2012/03/23: EurActiv: Boeing, Airbus team up on EU carbon charge, biofuels
Boeing threw its weight behind Airbus in a dispute over European Union airline emissions on Thursday (22 March), announcing at the same time an agreement to develop and commercialise sustainable biofuels for use in airplanes. The chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes joined a chorus of criticism of the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme that will charge airlines for emissions, something Brussels believes necessary to help defeat climate change. - 2012/03/23: EUO: India to withhold CO2 aviation tax data
- 2012/03/23: BBC: India boycotts EU aviation carbon charge
Indian airlines will not comply with the European Union's (EU) carbon charging scheme, according to civil aviation minister Ajit Singh. The EU has directed Indian carriers to submit the emissions details of their aircraft by 31 March. - 2012/03/22: EUO: South Africa urges EU to suspend airline carbon tax
- 2012/03/21: NYT: [EU ETS] Carbon Plan Could Pay Off for Airlines
- 2012/03/21: EurActiv: India to urge airlines to opt out of EU carbon scheme
India will urge its airlines not to take part in the European Union Emissions Trading System (ETS), a senior government official said, the latest salvo in the row over an EU law requiring all flights in and out of Europe to pay for their emissions. - 2012/03/21: PlanetArk: India To Urge Airlines To Opt Out Of EU Carbon Scheme
- 2012/03/21: PlanetArk: Airline CO2 Friction Is Hint Of New Climate Politics
- 2012/03/20: Reuters: India to urge airlines to opt out of EU carbon scheme
India will urge its airlines not to take part in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), a senior official said, the latest salvo in an escalating row over an EU law requiring all flights in and out of Europe to pay for their emissions. - 2012/03/19: al Jazeera: India likely to reject EU carbon trading plan
No official go-ahead yet in the wake of China's move to bar its airlines from participating in anti-emission scheme. - 2012/03/23: PlanetArk: Manufacturers See Higher China Solar Duties Ahead
- 2012/03/22: Guardian(UK): Threat of US-China trade war hangs over dealings of century's superpowers
- 2012/03/20: TP:JR: Commerce Department Announces Small Tariffs On Chinese Solar Panels
- 2012/03/21: PlanetArk: U.S. Sets "Surprisingly Low" China Solar Panel Duties
- 2012/03/21: TreeHugger: U.S. Slaps Tariff on Chinese Solar Panels
- 2012/03/20: Oregonian: Can tariff on Chinese solar cells and panels save U.S. manufacturers like Oregon's SolarWorld?
- 2012/03/21: BBC: US imposes solar duties on China because of subsidies
The US has imposed duties on Chinese solar panel manufacturers after it said that they received unfair subsidies. Chinese exporters into the US - including Suntech - will now face customs tariffs of between 2.9% and 4.73%, the Commerce Department said. In 2011, imports of solar cells from China into the US were valued at $3.1bn (£1.96bn), it added. The price of solar panels dropped more than 30% last year, mainly linked to cheaper panels made in China. - 2012/03/20: Guardian(UK): US to impose tariff on Chinese solar panels in victory for domestic makers
Europe might get in on the act too:
- 2012/03/21: EurActiv: EU mulls 'green lawsuits' against China
Massive state subsidies are "squeezing out" European wind and solar companies from China's renewables market, the head of EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht's cabinet has said, adding that court action should be considered against barriers to trade. - 2012/03/20: PlanetArk: Pollution The Big Barrier To Freer Trade In Rare Earths
- 2012/03/22: EnergyBulletin: Tom Murphy Interview: Resource depletion is a bigger threat than climate change
Canadian mining interests in Chile?
- 2012/03/20: CCurrents: Unveiling Canada's Role In Chile's Environmental And Political Conflicts
The fight over South Atlantic sea floor oil fields is building:
- 2012/03/20: Guardian(UK): Falklands 30 years on: oil dream could end days of squid and subsidy
- 2012/03/20: BBC: Peru cancels Royal Navy visit over Falklands
[HMS Montrose was due to dock near Lima for a friendly visit to Peru] Peru has cancelled a visit by a Royal Navy frigate as an act of solidarity with Argentina in its dispute with the UK over the Falkland Islands. - 2012/03/23: PlanetArk: U.S. Intelligence Sees Global Water Conflict Risks Rising
- 2012/03/24: TMoS: Water Wars Warning, Part Deux
- 2012/03/22: SeattlePI: US intel: water a cause for war in coming decades
Drought, floods and a lack of fresh water may cause significant global instability and conflict in the coming decades, as developing countries scramble to meet demand from exploding populations while dealing with the effects of climate change, U.S. intelligence agencies said in a report Thursday. - 2012/03/19: RS: The Deadly Scramble for the World's Last Resources
What are the activists up to?
- 2012/03/23: CCurrents: Occupy's Disrupt Dirty Power Earth Month
- 2012/03/23: Rabble:DO'K: A visit to Occupy Wall Street: This movement is too important to fail
- 2012/03/20: Straight: David Suzuki: Dirty fuel should be consigned to the coal bin of history
- 2012/03/20: CCurrents: No One Form Of Resistance Is Going To Succeed: Arundhati Roy
Regarding Water Politics and Business:
- 2012/03/24: JFleck: Capillaries and the cost of desal
- 2012/03/24: ERabett: Nuclear energy versus flood control - choose one
- 2012/03/24: TMoS: Robbing Peter to Pay Paul - Vegas Style
- 2012/03/23: JFleck: You mean we have to pay for our own water?
- 2012/03/22: JFleck: Prediction: Science won't settle Cadiz
- 2012/03/22: EurActiv: Water savings often hampered at national level
Efforts to improve water efficiency and avert scarcity are hampered by illegal wells, lack of metering, and in some cases national opposition to tougher European Union standards, analyses of water allocation in agriculture show. - 2012/03/22: UN: Ensuring access to water for agriculture vital for sustainable future - UN
- 2012/03/22: TCoE: Water in 2050
- 2012/03/22: SciAm:PI: Getting to Know Your Water
- 2012/03/21: AlterNet: 5 Deadly Threats to Our Precious Drinking Water Supply
- 2012/03/21: JFleck: Stuff I wrote elsewhere: on our ability to cope with reduced water supply
- 2012/03/20: JFleck: Last concrete diaries: someone has to pay for it
- 2012/03/19: JFleck: MWD decides to sit out HR1837
- 2012/03/19: CSW: "Last Call at the Oasis"
- 2012/03/18: NYT: Push Comes to Shove Over Water Restrictions
As for SW tools:
- 2012/03/19: NASA: NASA's New 'Earth Now' App: Your World, Unplugged
A free, new iPhone app from NASA literally puts the whole world in the palm of your hands. "Earth Now" immerses cyber explorers in dazzling visualizations of near-real-time global climate data from NASA's fleet of Earth science satellites. - 2012/03/20: SciAm:PI: Earth Now app from NASA lets you view Earth's vital signs
Among the world's religions:
- 2012/03/19: GreenGrok: Climate, Science, and Religion
So what's new on the education front?
- 2012/03/20: AlterNet: Outrageous Lies Monsanto and Friends Are Trying to Pass off to Kids as Science
- 2012/03/22: TP:JR: Which Economics Textbooks Get An 'A' on Climate Change, Which An 'F'?
And on the American political front:
- 2012/03/23: UCSUSA: California Governor's $120 Million Settlement Advances Electric Vehicle Infrastructure
- 2012/03/23: AutoBG: California moves forward with big, $120m EV investment; New Jersey follows with smaller bill
- 2012/03/22: CCP: Conservative Bob Lutz slams conservative liars, asks, "Who am I going to believe now?"
- 2012/03/20: AutoBG: Bob Lutz gives up trying to convince the right they're wrong about the Chevy Volt
Bob Lutz has learned something: you can't teach right-wing pundits the truth.
Yes, in his ongoing series of Chevrolet Volt defense columns for Forbes (see previous entries here and here), the former GM vice chairman has finally decided to throw in the towel. The short version of his awakening goes like this: "I am, sadly, coming to the conclusion that all the icons of conservatism are (shock, horror!) deliberately not telling the truth!" - 2012/03/23: EarlyWarning: What US Energy Independence Would Take
- 2012/03/25: TP:JR: German Policy Could Make Solar In America 'Wunderbar'
- 2012/03/22: TreeHugger: Corporations Wrote a Law Requiring Climate Denial be Taught in School. Tennessee Just Passed It.
- 2012/03/22: ScienceInsider: Antievolution Measure Advances in Tennessee
- 2012/03/22: DM:BA: Tennessee legislature boldly sets the science clocks back 150 years
- 2012/03/21: DeSmogBlog: ALEC Climate Change Denial Model Bill Passes in Tennessee
- 2012/03/21: Guardian(UK): Tennessee bill protects teachers who challenge evolution and climate change
State legislature gives legal protection to teachers who do not believe in the science and want to debate alternate explanations - 2012/03/20: KPLU: Controversy continues over proposed coal export terminals
- 2012/03/20: TP:JR: Anti-Science 'Monkey Bill' Passes Tennessee Senate
- 2012/03/20: QuarkSoup: Pennsylvania Gags Doctors
- 2012/03/19: ConvEcon: The Food Stamp Explosion
- 2012/03/20: TP:JR: What If Rest Of U.S. Did What California Has Done On Climate?
- 2012/03/17: NBCPhiladelphia: Groups Say They Won't Stop Feeding Homeless in City Parks
The city of Philadelphia will institute a ban on the outdoor feeding of the homeless, but groups who provide meals to the needy vow not to stop. - 2012/03/19: QuarkSoup: Science Teachers Should Welcome "Monkey Bills"
- 2012/03/19: TP:JR: The Clean Energy Solution to Federal Deficit -- A Carbon Price
- 2012/03/19: TreeHugger: Sustainable Development, Smart Growth and Agenda 21 Now Illegal in Tennessee
Congratulations to the State of Tennessee, for acting to stop Agenda 21,the communist plot cleverly disguised as bike lanes, historic preservation, environmental regulation and smart growth, leading inevitably to the end of private property and forced abortions as a way of controlling population growth. - 2012/03/16: RS: Why Conservatives Are Still Crazy After All These Years
- 2012/03/18: IJISH: (Digression) The stupidification of American policy discourse?
The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:
- 2012/03/21: OilChange: BP's Oil "Entered Food Chain"
On the 2012 campaign trail:
- 2012/03/24: Tyee: Why America's Politics Seem out of Control -- They are, partly because parties there are so much weaker than in Canada
- 2012/03/24: BBC: Republican contest: Rick Santorum 'wins' Louisiana poll
- 2012/03/23: NYT:PK: Paul Krugman: Paranoia Strikes Deeper -- Mitt Romney is "helping to further a dangerous trend"
- 2012/03/23: DeSmogBlog: Look to Canada for Proof that Neither Presidents Nor Pro-Drilling Policies Control Gas Prices
- 2012/03/23: TP:JR: Romney Can Create Jobs: Etch A Sketch Sales Jump 1500%. Eight Reasons The Gaffe Will Endure
- 2012/03/23: CNN: Why Etch A Sketch gibe will be hard for Romney to shake
- 2012/03/22: NPR: Obama Returns To Oklahoma Talking Oil
- 2012/03/23: PSinclair: Santorum: Scientists Not just Snobs, They are "Pharisees".
- 2012/03/22: TP:JR: Obama's Worst Speech Ever: "We've Added Enough New Oil And Gas Pipeline To Encircle The Earth"
- 2012/03/22: TP:JR: Another Etch A Sketch Moment: In 2006, Romney Supported High Gasoline Prices To Discourage Consumption
- 2012/03/22: TP:JR: Bill McKibben: Obama's Pipeline Decision Underscores His Incoherent 'All Of The Above' Energy Policy
- 2012/03/21: BBC: Mitt Romney has secured a key endorsement for his presidential bid from former Florida Governor Jeb Bush
- 2012/03/21: PSinclair: I knew Tom Edison. Mitt, You're no Tom Edison.[2012]
- 2012/03/21: CCP: Kiss sustainable agriculture and organic foods goodbye if Romney becomes President
- 2012/03/20: DeSmogBlog: Obama Sojourns to "Pipeline Crossroads of the World" for Campaign Speech
- 2012/03/20: CBC: Romney wins Illinois Republican primary
- 2012/03/20: Guardian(UK): Record-breaking dead heat in Illinois for both polls and temperature
I can forecast with complete confidence that the real hot topic will be totally ignored by the Republican presidential challengers, says Bill McKibben - 2012/03/19: BizInsider: Hey, Rick Santorum, Why Do You Hate America?
- 2012/03/20: AlterNet: Santorum Shamelessly Uses Kids to Attack Porn
- 2012/03/19: CBC: Obama heading to Keystone XL Oklahoma site -- Recent praise for southern segment signals attitude shift
- 2012/03/18: TheHill:e2W: Mitt Romney calls on Obama to fire 'gas hike trio' over rising prices
Mitt Romney is ramping up attacks on President Obama over rising gasoline prices by calling for the firing of Obama's Interior and Energy secretaries and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. - 2012/03/18: AlterNet: Birthers, Racists, Sexists and Homophobes: 13 Toxic Endorsers of GOP Presidential Candidates
Gas Prices look to remain a major issue in the election:
- 2012/03/23: DeSmogBlog: Tracking The Origins Of The "Blame Obama For Gas Prices" Talking Point
- 2012/03/22: MediaMatters: 20 Experts Who Say Drilling Won't Lower Gas Prices
- 2012/03/22: EnvEcon: Domestic drilling and gasoline prices
- 2012/03/22: KSJT: AP: So ... if we produce more gasoline prices will drop? Right?
- 2012/03/22: OilChange: Gas Price Reality Check
- 2012/03/22: CSM: Obama, Congress, traders? Public unsure who to blame for high gas prices.
- 2012/03/21: HuffPo: U.S. Oil Drilling May Not Improve Gas Prices, Study Says
It's the political cure-all for high gas prices: Drill here, drill now. But more U.S. drilling has not changed how deeply the gas pump drills into your wallet, math and history show. A statistical analysis of 36 years of monthly, inflation-adjusted gasoline prices and U.S. domestic oil production by The Associated Press shows no statistical correlation between how much oil comes out of U.S. wells and the price at the pump. - 2012/03/19: TP:JR: The Charts That Prove Obama Doesn't Set Gas Prices
- 2012/03/19: CSM: Gas prices rising: Why GOP won't address real cause [Reich]
The Keystone XL saga rolls along:
- 2012/03/22: BBerg: Obama's Speedy Keystone Review Won't Accelerate Cushing Pipe
- 2012/03/23: TreeHugger: Wealthy Donors Dump Obama Over Climate Fails, Keystone XL Approval
- 2012/03/22: DemNow: Bill McKibben: Winter Heat Wave Underscores Need for Obama to Reject, Not Fast-Track, Keystone XL
- 2012/03/22: CNN: Keystone pipeline: Separating reality from rhetoric
- 2012/03/22: Grist: Texas landowner calls out Obama on Keystone XL fast-tracking
- 2012/03/22: BBC: Obama calls for southern Keystone XL approval
- 2012/03/22: TreeHugger: In Bit of Political Theater, Obama "Fast Tracks" Half of Keystone XL
- 2012/03/21: CBC: Obama to urge fast-tracking Keystone XL Gulf leg
- 2012/03/21: Guardian(UK): Keystone XL pipeline: Obama to oil progress as pump prices rise
- 2012/03/20: CBC: Obama said ready to push partial Keystone XL approval
- 2012/03/19: TriplePundit: Keystone XL Pipeline Could Cost More Jobs Than It Creates
The Birth Control issue simmers in barely contained fury:
- 2012/03/24: CSM: Susan G. Komen executives: More resignations
At least five high-ranking executives with the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer charity have resigned in the aftermath of the organization's decision to eliminate its funding for Planned Parenthood. - 2012/03/21: Nation: Reproductive Rights and the Long Hand of Slave Breeding
- 2012/03/24: TGBeaver: Goppers got slaveholder minds . . .
- 2012/03/20: UOH: Tsk, what a shame
- 2012/03/20: ArtThreat: Doonesbury "Shaming Room" too much for sensitive newspapers
- 2012/03/20: AlterNet: 5 Reasons the GOP's Attack on Birth Control Screws Men
- 2012/03/15: SST: The bishops have decided...
The GOP War on Women is picking up where the birth control battle leaves off:
- 2012/03/22: CDreams: GOP Wants To Be Sure Women/Idiot Children Understand What Rape Is and Get Permission Slips For Pretty Much Everything
- 2012/03/20: AlterNet: How The War on Women Opens the Door for Politics in Your Doctor's Office
- 2012/03/21: Wonkette: Arizona Lawmaker Woman Wants Women To Watch An Abortion Before Having One
- 2012/03/17: AlterNet: How the "Pro-Life" Movement Puts Women Behind Bars
The Obama chatter is nonstop:
- 2012/03/23: CSW: Still drunk on oil: Obama's speech in Cushing
- 2012/03/23: CSM: President Algae? Obama not green enough, say environmentalists
- 2012/03/22: Grist: The White House's secret plan to make American households more energy-efficient
- 2012/03/20: EnergyBulletin: Why won't Obama mention peak oil? Blame Rush Limbaugh
The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:
- 2012/03/22: TheHill:e2W: EPA chief: No date yet for power plant carbon rules
Is the environmental Protection Agency's schedule for proposing power plant greenhouse gas standards slipping yet again? It depends on your definition of "early." The agency has for months said the rules -- which the White House is currently vetting -- would be proposed "early" in 2012 after missing several earlier deadlines. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on Thursday told reporters that there's no date yet for proposing the regulations, which would set first-time standards for new and modified power plants that run on coal, oil and natural gas. - 2012/03/20: UCSUSA: EPA Power Plant Standards Will Help Clean Up and Modernize Our Electric System
- 2012/03/21: TreeHugger: Study Finds Fracking Poses Air Pollution Health Risks, But EPA Still Denying Groundwater Impacts
- 2012/03/20: NOAANews: NOAA science supports New York's offshore energy planning
Study provides mapping, analysis for renewable energy planning, offshore habitat protection - 2012/03/19: PlanetArk: Fracking Did Not Pollute Water near Homes: U.S. [EPA]
- 2012/03/19: PlanetArk: Regulator [NRC] To Update Environmental Study On [Indian Point] Reactor Near NYC
As for what is going on in Congress:
- 2012/03/21: TreeHugger: GOP Budget Gives Billions to Big Oil, Slashes Programs for the Poor
- 2012/03/21: Grist: House Republican accidentally tells truth about Solyndra investigation
- 2012/03/22: MoJo: From the Annals of Bad Political Spin
- 2012/03/21: ScienceInsider: Proposed U.S. Fusion Cuts Ignite Debate
- 2012/03/20: Grist: Despite the headlines, Big Ag subsidies aren't going anywhere
- 2012/03/19: TreeHugger: Alec Baldwin Says Sen. James Inhofe is an "Oil Whore", Should "Retire to a Solar-Powered Gay Bar"
- 2012/03/19: Guardian(UK): Climate change: make industry pay for carbon emissions, US congressman says
Putting a price on carbon will benefit environment and cut deficit by raising money, Henry Waxman argues - 2012/03/19: TP:JR: Rep. Waxman: 'A Confluence Of Important Events' Makes Carbon Pricing Essential To Debt Deal
While in the UK:
- 2012/03/23: BBC: Solar panel tariff appeal loss for government
The government has lost an appeal over its plan to cut subsidies for solar panels on homes. The appeal, launched in January, was against a High Court ruling that blocked government plans to halve the payments made to households with solar panels. - 2012/03/23: BBC: Nuclear waste consultation closes
Friday marks the end of a consultation that could determine the fate of the UK's high-level radioactive waste. - 2012/03/23: BBC: BP given consent for deep-water well North Uist west of Shetland
- 2012/03/22: Guardian(UK): Open Weekend: Does the planet have time to wait for austerity to end?
- 2012/03/22: PlanetArk: Britain Mulls Replacing Corporate CO2 Scheme
The UK government will consider replacing a scheme to cut corporate energy use with an alternative environmental tax if it cannot reduce the scheme's administrative costs, finance minister George Osborne said in his budget statement on Wednesday. The so-called Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) was devised under the previous Labour government. The mandatory energy efficiency scheme forces businesses like banks, hotels, hospitals and schools to help cut Britain's greenhouse gas emissions by 4 million tonnes and corporate energy bills by 1 billion pounds a year by 2020. - 2012/03/19: Guardian(UK): Slashing of environment 'red tape' is far from over
Almost three-quarters of green regulation is affected by the cuts confirmed on Monday, but work is underway on a further 'significant rationalisation of guidance' And lo, Oliver Letwin's scythe swept through the "red tape" of environmental regulations. As I revealed on Friday, 73% of the 255 rules protecting the nation's land, air and water, and all that lives there, are affected. - 2012/03/21: Guardian(UK): [New UK energy and climate secretary] Ed Davey's dash for gas will not help UK meet carbon targets
- 2012/03/21: Guardian(UK): Budget 2012: green measures at a glance
- 2012/03/21: Guardian(UK): Budget 2012: chancellor fires starting gun on dash for gas
- 2012/03/20: BBC: Coal-fuelled power station plans for Grangemouth
- 2012/03/16: E3G: Nuclear power will fail to achieve what George Monbiot wants
- 2012/03/18: BBC: Just 2% believe coalition is 'greenest government', survey suggests
Just 2% of the UK public believe they live under the "greenest government ever", according to an opinion poll. And only 4% want to see laws protecting the countryside weakened, as the government is expected to do this week. Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to lead the "greenest government ever" on taking office in 2010. Critics say that recent decisions on climate change, forests, badger culling, urban pollution and nature protection have undermined the claim. - 2012/03/22: DerSpiegel: Sluggish Reaction to Fukushima -- Germany Unprepared for Major Nuclear Disaster
If a nuclear disaster comparable to Fukushima were to hit a German nuclear plant, authorities would be unprepared to handle it, and scientific projections show that radiation would likely spread much further than previous estimates. But government agencies have done little to address the problem. Critics call the delay a "scandal." - 2012/03/23: Grist: Why Germany is phasing out nuclear power
- 2012/03/23: TreeHugger: Denmark Unveils Strong New Renewable Energy, Climate Targets for 2020
- 2012/03/20: EurActiv: Europe's chief scientist warns against climate delays
The EU cannot use the economic slowdown as an excuse to delay action on fighting climate change, the bloc's first-ever chief scientific advisor has warned. Molecular biologist Anne Glover took on the newly created role reporting to the European Commission's President José Manuel Barroso at the start of this year, having previously served as chief scientific advisor to Scotland's devolved government. - 2012/03/20: EurActiv: EU climate broker: World faces 4 degrees of warming
The world is on track for around four degrees Celsius of global warming under current carbon emissions trends, says the EU's chief climate negotiator, a trajectory that some scientists say risks a planetary mass extinction event. "When you look at the global emissions, with the current pledges which are on the table ... we are probably heading towards 3.8 or 4.2 degrees [warming]," said Artur Runge-Metzger, speaking at a roundtable hosted in Brussels by the Institut français des relations internationales on 14 March. - 2012/03/19: BBerg: Germany's $263 Billion Renewables Shift Biggest Since War
Not since the allies leveled Germany in World War II has Europe's biggest economy undertaken a reconstruction of its energy market on this scale. Chancellor Angela Merkel is planning to build offshore wind farms that will cover an area six times the size of New York City and erect power lines that could stretch from London to Baghdad. The program will cost 200 billion euros ($263 billion), about 8 percent of the country's gross domestic product in 2011, according to the DIW economic institute in Berlin. - 2012/03/24: ABC(Au): Mixed reaction to Gippsland coal export plans
- 2012/03/24: BNC: Dietary Guidelines Committee ignores climate change
- 2012/03/23: ABC(Au): Opposition says Henbury Station carbon farming is a 'joke'
The Federal Opposition has slammed a report which suggests a Northern Territory cattle station will make upwards of $78 million a year from carbon sequestration. - 2012/03/23: ABC(Au): The Moira Shire Council says the initial estimate of the shire's flood damage bill is more than $10 million.
- 2012/03/23: ABC(Au): Bob Brown accused of threatening forest peace deal
- 2012/03/25: ABC(Au): Cyclone [Lua] victims made eligible for relief funding
- 2012/03/25: ABC(Au): GE chairman praises 'gutsy' carbon tax
- 2012/03/22: NBF: Australian Outlook for World Economy and Energy until 2017
- 2012/03/23: ABC(Au): Greens celebrate 40 years of movement
About 300 people have turned out to a function in Hobart to celebrate the birth of the Green political movement 40 years ago. Australian Greens leader Bob Brown was given a standing ovation as he addressed the crowd of party members and supporters. - 2012/03/22: ABC(Au): [WA] Government denies secrecy on water privatisation
The State Government says it is no secret that some water services have been outsourced. The State Opposition today suspended standing orders to propose a motion condemning the Government for not informing the parliament or the general public about the privatisation, but the motion was defeated. - 2012/03/21: OilPrice: Australian Industry on Offensive against Imminent Carbon Tax
- 2012/03/21: TP:JR: Australia's New Foreign Minister Uses Opening Speech To Talk About 'The Grim Reality' Of Manmade Climate Change
- 2012/03/21: ABC(Au): Carbon Farming Challenge
The Australian Government has appointed an expert panel to assess proposed methods for developing carbon credits under the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI). - 2012/03/21: ABC(Au): Stoush erupts over brown coal exports
A row has broken out between the federal Greens and federal Labor over a Victorian plan to export more Latrobe Valley brown coal. The Victorian Government has announced it will offer new brown coal resources from the Latrobe Valley for tender. - 2012/03/20: ABC(Au): Victorian Govt plans brown coal expansion
- 2012/03/20: ABC(Au): Thomson in stoush over failed jobs project
Embattled MP Craig Thomson is at the centre of a bitter new fight in his electorate after the collapse of a $2.7 million jobs project promised by the Gillard Government. - 2012/03/20: ABC(Au): Tax challenge may see states lose mining profits
Constitutional law experts are warning the states run the risk of losing their ownership of mineral rights to the Commonwealth in any legal challenge to the mining tax. Fortescue Metals says it will challenge the constitutional validity of the Federal Government's minerals resource rent tax (MRRT) in the High Court after the legislation passed the Senate on Monday night. West Australian Premier Colin Barnett says his Government will back any challenge that is mounted. - 2012/03/20: al Jazeera: Australia mining tax clears final hurdle
Mining firms decry move as parliament passes 30 per cent tax on iron ore and coal mine profits. - 2012/03/19: ABC(Au): Mining tax laws pass Senate
The Federal Government's mining tax legislation has passed the Senate and will soon become law. The tax gives the Federal Government an estimated $10 billion war chest to win over small- and medium-sized businesses before the next election. - 2012/03/19: ABC(Au): Senate clears Greens over political donation
A Senate inquiry has found no evidence to support allegations that Greens senators Bob Brown and Christine Milne acted inappropriately in relation to a political donor. The Opposition accused the two senators of advocating for businessman Graham Wood after accepting a $1.6 million donation from the founder of travel website Wotif. - 2012/03/25: ABC(Au): Bligh resigns after election wipe-out
Anna Bligh has announced she is standing aside as leader of the Queensland Labor party and resigning from Parliament after leading her party to its worst electoral defeat. - 2012/03/25: ABC(Au): New era as LNP takes power in Queensland
- 2012/03/24: ABC(Au): LNP sweeps to power in landslide victory
The Liberal National Party and premier-elect Campbell Newman have swept to power in Queensland, dealing Labor an astonishing and demoralising election defeat. Labor's 14-year reign was over soon after polling booths closed, with a massive swing seeing the LNP projected to hold as many as 78 seats to as little as 7 for Anna Bligh's ALP. - 2012/03/24: JQuiggin: Labor in denial
- 2012/03/23: JQuiggin: Shedding no tears
Clive Palmer raised a few eyebrows this week when he accused the CIA of funding the Greens:
- 2012/03/21: ABC(Au): CIA denies funding Australian green groups
- 2012/03/21: ABC(Au): CIA hits back at Palmer conspiracy claims
The CIA has denied mining magnate Clive Palmer's claims that it is funding a campaign to attack the Australian coal industry. The Federal Government sought to bracket the Coalition with Mr Palmer during another testy session of Question Time, while Queensland's LNP leader Campbell Newman said the donor's conspiracy theory had nothing to do with him. The billionaire yesterday alleged that a Greenpeace plan to launch legal action against future coal mining projects was funded by the CIA with the aim of harming Australian industry and helping American interests. He also targeted the Greens, claiming they were "tools" of the United States government. - 2012/03/20: WtD: Clive Palmer's "big" conspiracy theory: billionaire trades hard hat for tin foil hat
- 2012/03/20: ABC(Au): Palmer accuses CIA of sabotaging mining
Billionaire mine owner Clive Palmer has accused the CIA of funding environmental groups opposed to his latest coal venture, and accused the Greens of treason. - 2012/03/20: ABC(Au): Palmer says green groups funded by CIA
Mining magnate Clive Palmer has accused the United States government of funding environmental group Greenpeace via the CIA to undermine Australia's coal mining sector. Mr Palmer made the extraordinary claim over Greenpeace's plan to use the court system to tie up coal mining applications. He is angry at Greenpeace's plan to use lawyers to thwart future coal mining projects and claims funding is coming from US environmental charity the Rockefeller Foundation. He alleges it is funded by the CIA and says it is trying to harm Australia's industry and help American interests. - 2012/03/24: CCurrents: Forest Dwellers Deprived of Livelihood And Facing Forcible Eviction in Assam
- 2012/03/24: CCurrents: Koodankulam: Police Forces Withdrawn But PMANE Vows To Fight On
- 2012/03/23: CCurrents: Of Manmohan Singh, Koodankulam Anti-Nuclear Struggle And The Politics of Foreign Hand: Or, Who Is The Real Foreign Hand?
- 2012/03/23: CCurrents: What Is Illegal At Koodankulam: Protests or The Reactors?
- 2012/03/23: CCurrents: Koodankulam: The Situation Is Grim
- 2012/03/23: al Jazeera: India's coal rush
The country's dependence on coal is leaving a dirty trail of violence, landlessness and poverty. India is hungry for energy. Over 173 power plants, all of them coal-fired, will be built to power the nation's high-tech industries and booming cities. - 2012/03/22: al Jazeera: Indian PM faces heat over coalfields sale
Draft audit report leaked to newspaper says government lost $211b by selling coalfieds too cheaply to firms. - 2012/03/21: NBF: India's national and local authorities approve the completion of the Kudankulam Nuclear plant
- 2012/03/22: BBC: Outrage over report that India lost $210bn in coal scam
[The Gevra coal mine in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh India is one of the largest producers of coal in the world] There was outrage in India's parliament after a draft report by government auditors estimated India lost $210bn by selling coalfields too cheaply. Opposition politicians accused the government of "looting the country" by selling coalfields to companies without competitive bidding. Private and state companies benefited from the allocations between 2004 and 2010, says a Times of India report. But the auditor says the leaked draft is "exceedingly misleading". - 2012/03/20: Reuters: Work restarts at Indian nuclear plant, protesters arrested
Police clear protest site, workers return - Government wants to increase nuclear generation Work to start up a large nuclear power plant on the southern tip on India resumed on Tuesday after police arrested dozens of protesters who had blocked access to the site for months, in a breakthrough for the power-short emerging economy. The Kudankulam project will initially provide 2 gigawatts of electricity - enough to power 20 million Indian homes. - 2012/03/21: CCurrents: State Terror Continues In Koodankulam: Idinthakarai Is Being Choked
- 2012/03/21: CCurrents: Koodankulam Protesters Under Siege
And in China:
- 2012/03/25: ABC(Au): Beijing pollution to take decades to clear
- 2012/03/21: ERW: Winds of change blow through China as spending on renewable energy soars
- 2012/03/20: NBF: China making a practical Eco-city as a testbed for technology that other cities can adopt
And Africa:
- 2012/03/21: DerSpiegel: Africa's Belt of Misery -- Religion and Climate Change Fuel Chaos in Sahel
Bloody conflicts in a band of Africa stretching from Senegal to Somalia are hampering efforts to bring progress to the troubled region. Muslims are increasingly pitted against Christians, and nomads against sedentary farmers. Matters are made worse by climate change and a flood of weapons. - 2012/03/15: AfricaFiles: 'Green Morocco Plan' fails to confront climate change
- 2012/03/20: BBC: South Africa debates whether to allow fracking
In Canada, neocon PM Harper pursues petroleum while continuing his do-nothing climate policy:
- 2012/03/22: CoC: Harper insults World Water Day by investing a mere 0.7% of needed amount for Great Lakes clean-up
- 2012/03/24: PostMedia: Short-changing the Arctic
The Tories have talked a good game about Canada being an Arctic country. Prime Minister Stephen Harper never misses a chance to tag along with the military during Operation Nanook, an annual military exercise in the Far North. Our leaders get touchy when Moscow or Copenhagen calls into question our sovereignty over northern waters. We fret about Russian bombers and American submarines going where they aren't wanted. And so, in the spirit of projecting Canada's power northward, way back in the long-ago era of 2007, the Tories promised a major naval base in the Arctic. And then we didn't hear much about it. Until now. Turns out the "major" northern naval base will consist of a few trailers and a guy with a satellite phone. And not all the time, of course. Just in the summer. - 2012/03/25: ChronicleHerald: Ottawa says unforeseen challenges made plans for Arctic [Nanisivik] station too costly
- 2012/03/21: CCP: The Harper Government's "Friends With Benefits" [$1.38 billion a year in subsidies]
Next week the budget will be brought down revealing Harper's not so hidden agenda:
- 2012/03/24: G&M: First majority budget will reveal Harper unleashed
Stephen Harper's plan to transform Canada is about to take shape. After years of having his hands tied by minority Parliaments, Thursday's budget marks the first one written by the Harper Conservatives with the freedom of a majority. There is no fear of a snap election. The government can take risks. Be controversial. Think long-term. As the Prime Minister's landmark speech two months ago in Davos made clear, he plans to do all three. This budget won't just cover the next four years. Mr. Harper says he wants to make an impact that lasts for generations. - 2012/03/21: CBC: Federal budget may rile environmentalists -- Ending federal oversight of fresh water proves hard for some provinces to swallow
Next week's budget will propose a streamlined environmental assessment process, something that will delight the oil patch and give provinces a larger say over resource development. But one part under consideration for the package -- reforms to the Fisheries Act that would end federal oversight over much of the country's fresh water -- is proving difficult for some provinces to swallow, sources say. The environmental changes will be pitched as part of a major theme of the budget: get government out of the way and let corporations flourish. - 2012/03/20: BBerg: Canada Budget Said to Have Measures to Speed Energy Approvals
- 2012/03/24: PostMedia: Canada's 'pearl' of Arctic research hit with funding freeze
[...]
Federal grants that have kept the station running continuously since 2005 have run out, forcing the science team that runs PEARL to shut it down, at least temporarily. With no money for salaries, the station's three operators were let go in December. And on April 5, the two researchers now at the station collecting one last batch of atmospheric data will turn off the lights. - 2012/03/21: EmbassyMag: Concerns of scientist 'muzzling' driven by impatient reporters: Kent
In a wide-ranging interview, Environment Minister Peter Kent addresses the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, Canada's Copenhagen target and the 'post-Kyoto period.' - 2012/03/21: WMTC: david suzuki fights back: he needs our help
- 2012/03/20: SWRWN: The used
A modest suggestion. A national energy policy:
- 2012/03/21: PostMedia: Atlantic Canadians should be burning Alta. oil: Senator Mike Duffy
Senator Mike Duffy says Atlantic Canada needs access to Alberta oil to combat the high international price of crude and to solidify the country's long-term energy security. - 2012/03/23: TP:JR: Pipeline Or Pipe Dream? A China-Bound Alternative To Keystone XL Is No Easy Feat
- 2012/03/22: BCLSB: Pro-Northern Gateway Pipeline Astroturf Group Struggles To Find Warm Bodies
The New Democrats have chosen Thomas Mulcair to lead them:
- 2012/03/25: PostMedia: Ten challenges for Thomas Mulcair
- 2012/03/24: CBC: Mulcair bests Topp to win NDP leadership
- 2012/03/24: WMTC: and now to defeat the harper government
- 2012/03/24: CBC: NDP to choose new leader today -- New Democrats voting on who will follow Jack Layton
- 2012/03/23: NatPo: Andrew Coyne reviews the seven candidate speeches at the NDP leadership convention
- 2012/03/22: HillTimes: No one can predict NDP leadership outcome with certainty, and it's getting interesting
- 2012/03/19: HillTimes: Seventy per cent of ballots will already be cast when NDP leadership convention begins Friday
- 2012/03/20: PunditsGuide: Money, Momentum and Mudslinging Mark Final Week of NDP Leadership Race
The Harper gang plans to streamline environmental protections right out of existence:
- 2012/03/24: Tyee: Don't Gut Fisheries Act, Plead 625 Scientists -- Tories' plan to stop protecting waterways with fish deemed to lack 'economic, cultural or ecological value.'
- 2012/03/20: PostMedia: Don't water down Fisheries Act, scientists urge Harper in letter
Pressure on the Harper government to reject private sector pressure to water down the Fisheries Act mounted Thursday as a letter endorsed by 625 scientists warned Prime Minister Stephen Harper against any move to weaken the federal government's most potent tool to protect the environment. - 2012/03/22: CBC: Don't ease fish protection rules, PM urged
- 2012/03/19: PostMedia: Scientists speak out against proposed Fisheries Act changes
Scientists are calling on the Harper government to scrap plans to weaken the federal Fisheries Act, saying it will "severely impair" Canada's ability to protect biodiversity and species at risk. They also want Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield to come clean about what scientists inside his own department think of the proposed changes. "In the interests of transparency and accountability, and in the interests of Canadian society, we respectfully request that the science advice received in this regard be made publicly available without delay," Jeffrey Hutchings, president of the Canadian Society For Ecology and Evolution, says in a letter sent to Ashfield on Monday. The group, representing 1,000 ecologists and evolutionary biologists across Canada, joins a growing chorus calling on the federal government to abandon plans to weaken the Fisheries Act. - 2012/03/23: Dominion: "What They Call Development, We Call Destruction" -- Grassy Narrows resistance to corporate logging continues
Viterra is a done deal. Next!
- 2012/03/20: BBC: Glencore buys Canadian grain firm Viterra for $6.2bn
- 2012/03/20: CBC: Glencore bids $6.1B for Viterra -- Commodities trader offers $16.25 a share for Saskatchewan grain handler
- 2012/03/20: WpgFP: Winnipeg's Richardson grows with Viterra deal
The empire of Winnipeg's Richardson family is growing. Again. It was announced this morning that Richardson International Ltd. has agreed to purchase more than $900 million worth of assets belonging to Viterra, including grain handling, crop input and processing facilities and related working capital. The acquisition includes 19 country elevators, which will complement the Richardson Pioneer network of grain elevators and crop input centres across Western Canada, as well as a 25 per cent stake in Vancouver's Cascadia Terminal and a Viterra terminal in Thunder Bay. Richardson will also purchase the Can-Oat Milling business with oat processing plants in Portage la Prairie, Martensville, Sask., and Barrhead, Alta.,, as well as 21st Century Grain Processing, which has an oat processing plant in South Sioux City, Nebraska and a wheat mill in Dawn, Texas. The Richardson deal is concurrent with [Switzerland's] Glencore International PLC's acquisition of all of the outstanding shares of Viterra. - 2012/03/19: PostMedia: Coyne: Caterwauling over pending sale of Viterra predictable and meaningless
A week ago, before the company let it be known it was putting itself up for sale, shares in Regina-based Viterra, Canada's largest grain handler, were trading hands for $11. By Friday the shares were selling for $16, and by the time the terms of the deal the company says it is negotiating are revealed, the price could be higher yet. Even a $16 offer, however, would value the company at $6 billion, meaning Viterra's shareholders, most of them Canadian, would be taking home a premium of close to $2-billion. Viterra hasn't said whom it's negotiating with, but the betting line is it's a consortium of Swiss-based Glencore, the world's largest grain company, Calgary-based fertilizer distributor Agrium, and Winnipeg's Richardson family. - 2012/03/19: CBC: Viterra confirms 'exclusive' takeover talks
The ISA virus in BC waters is potentially disastrous:
- 2012/03/21: AlexandraMorton: Chinook Collapse and Salmon Feedlot viruses -- Scientific Papers by DFO on Salmon Leumkemia [misc sci & ISA]
In BC, the stage is set. Now what will Clark and Dix do?
- 2012/03/23: Tyee: Lake Killing Made Easy -- How healthy wild lakes are being reclassified as 'tailings impoundment areas.'
- 2012/03/14: TheCanadian: Fracking Rig Fire Rages Near Hudson's Hope, BC
Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:
- 2012/03/20: PI:B: Pembina policy director testifies before U.S. congressional committee on oilsands
- 2012/03/22: EnergyBulletin: Scientists doubt fix to wetlands damaged by oil sands
- 2012/03/22: BCLSB: Kathryn Marshall Demoted At Ethical Oil
- 2012/03/20: SWRWN: Tar Sands: difference between The Tyee and StunTV is journalism
- 2012/03/18: QuarkSoup: How Many Skating Rinks Will the Tar Sands Buy?
- 2012/03/22: CBC: Oilsands critics in Europe to counter fuel directive lobby
Council of Canadians, Climate Action Network and Assembly of First Nations lobby European politicians The Canadian government isn't alone in lobbying European governments about the European Commission's proposed new fuel quality directive (FQD). - 2012/03/21: Wonkette: Campaign Bus Boob Wheels Delight Canadian Countryside
Ontario is still wrestling with its energy policy:
- 2012/03/22: CleanBreak: My quick review of Ontario's much anticipated FIT Review
- 2012/03/22: PI: Pembina reacts to Ontario's feed-in tariff review
- 2012/03/22: TStar: Ontario renewable energy [FIT] prices slashed
- 2012/03/22: CBC: Ontario to cut rates paid for wind, solar power
While in la Belle Province:
- 2012/03/22: CBC: Quebec City-area floods force evacuation -- Warm weather contributing to ice jams
In the Maritimes:
- 2012/03/19: PI: Pembina Institute available to comment on joint announcement between Nova Scotia and Government of Canada
- 2012/03/23: CBC: Flooding causes state of emergency in N.B. community [Perth-Andover] -- Premier David Alward calls flood damage 'devastating'
- 2012/03/24: CBC: Flooding continues across western New Brunswick -- Historical and near-historical high water levels
The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:
- 2012/03/24: CCurrents: Tom Murphy Interview: Resource Depletion Is A Bigger Threat Than Climate Change
- 2012/03/23: CCurrents: Heal The Planet!
If Mother Earth were a patient in the hands of a good doctor what would the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis look like? Can the planet be cured of its ills at all and what would it take to achieve this? Is there an alternative to the path of willful suicide forced on all life forms on the globe by the blind greed and inhumanity of a few? - 2012/03/24: BBC: Metal thieves 'threaten Scottish heritage'
Metal theft could be causing "irreparable" damage to Scotland's heritage - as well as costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds, a BBC Scotland investigation has found. A survey of all 32 Scottish councils showed the total cost of repairing damage caused by metal thieves across the country has reached some £600,000. - 2012/03/23: al Jazeera: Spanish co-op weathers financial storm
The world's largest worker-owned co-operative remains strong despite Spain's financial woes. - 2012/03/22: EnergyBulletin: Tom Murphy Interview: Resource depletion is a bigger threat than climate change
- 2012/03/22: EnergyBulletin: How much will it cost to save our economy's foundation? by Lester Brown
- 2012/03/21: EnergyBulletin: Preparing for the unimaginable
- 2012/03/20: CCurrents: The Future Is Ours If We Want It
- 2012/03/20: CCurrents: Capitalism: A Ghost Story by Arundhati Roy
- 2012/03/19: CCurrents: Economic Theology: Angels Dancing On The Head of A Pin
- 2012/03/20: MWatch: No-Growth Capitalism's post-crash manifesto -- Branson leads war against 'business as usual'
Apocalypso anyone?
- 2012/03/23: P3: The complexities of collapse
- 2012/03/21: Wired: Vernor Vinge Is Optimistic About the Collapse of Civilization
How do the media measure up?
- 2012/03/22: Grist: What it means for media to take climate seriously
- 2012/03/21: TP:JR: This American Lie: Is It O.K. For Climate Science Deniers To Lie And For Journalists To Quote Those Lies?
- 2012/03/21: TP:JR: Politico Runs Story On Global Warming 'Rebranding' 3 Years Late -- Then Gets Story Backwards
- 2012/03/21: Grist: Media produces, laments public ignorance on gas prices
- 2012/03/20: TP:JR: 500 Days Of Summer: Get Used To It, Says ABC News, Thanks to Global Warming. But NBC Is Still Out In The Cold.
- 2012/03/22: Grist: The new Climate Desk: Getting hotter
- 2012/03/19: Grist: Help Grist build a Fast Green News Machine
While activists search for effective communication techniques:
- 2012/03/19: DeSmogBlog: Got Framing? Why Scientists Must Pay Attention to Communication Science, and Not Just as an Afterthought
Here is something for your library:
- 2012/03/05: CDimension: Are We Coming to the End of the Growth Era?
[Book Review] _The End of Growth_ by Richard Heinberg - 2012/03/23: EnergyBulletin: [Book Review] _Farmers of Forty Centuries: Organic Farming in China, Korea and Japan_ by F.H. King (1911, reprinted in 2004 by Dover Publications)
And for your film & video enjoyment:
- 2012/03/23: HotTopic: The Climate Show #25: Box on ice (a polar special)
- 2012/03/21: GreenGrok: An All-Electric Vehicle: Up Close and Personal
- 2012/03/23: Grist: Triumph, tragedy, and climate change: 'The Island President'
- 2012/03/23: OilDrum: From Qurayyah to Khurais: Turning Water Into Oil
- 2012/03/21: Stoat: Collapsing iceberg
- 2012/03/21: TreeHugger: Maldives' Mohamed Nasheed Pleads for a Solution to Rising Sea Levels in Film "The Island President" (Video)
- 2012/03/20: QuarkSoup: Cool Video of Crashing Iceberg
- 2012/03/19: PSinclair: The Hockey Stick Under Oath: Mike Mann's 2006 Testimony
- 2012/03/19: CSM: 'Frozen Planet' will make you fall in love with north, south poles
Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:
- 2012/03/24: Reuters: Brazil may shift jurisdiction of Chevron case
A judge in Campos, Brazil, could shift the criminal charges filed against Chevron and drill-rig operator Transocean to Rio de Janeiro, a decision that would remove a crusading prosecutor from the case. - 2012/03/23: BBC: Shell in court over Nigeria oil spill compensation
Lawyers representing a Nigerian fishing community are taking the oil firm Shell to court in London over alleged unpaid compensation for recent oil spills. - 2012/03/22: PlanetArk: Chevron, Transocean Charged In Brazilian Oil Spill
- 2012/03/22: al Jazeera: Chevron staff charged over Brazil oil spill
Seventeen Chevron and Transocean executives accused of environmental crimes over the oil leak off the Rio coast in 2011. - 2012/03/21: CBC: Brazil oil spill prompts charges -- Canadian among those charged with 'crimes against the environment'
Federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against 17 Chevron and Transocean company executives on Wednesday for an oil leak in the Atlantic, a move deemed outrageous by those targeted but applauded by environmentalists. Prosecutors accused the executives of environmental crimes, of misleading Brazil's oil regulator about safety plans and of not providing accurate information in the wake of the spill. - 2012/03/24: PeakEnergy: Petratherm spells out green vision for South Australia
- 2012/03/23: TreeHugger: The Devastating Cost of Not Switching to Clean Energy
- 2012/03/23: BBC: Fossil fuels: Stubborn to substitution
A cautionary tale emerged earlier this week for anyone who advocates investment in low-carbon energy power as a way to curb climate change. - 2012/03/21: EarlyWarning: Latest EIA Fuel Breakdown
- 2012/03/21: BNC: Further critique of '100% renewable electricity in Australia' - winter demand and other problems
- 2012/03/21: TP:JR: Minnesota Electricity Could Be 100% Renewable, 100% Local
- 2012/03/20: SciAm: How Ball State [University] Will Get Its Heating and Cooling from Underground
- 2012/03/20: Grist: Renewable hydropower could supply all of Africa's electricity
- 2012/03/19: Sandia: Polycrystalline diamond drill bits open up options for geothermal energy
- 2012/03/19: PeakEnergy: Mighty RIver Opens Geothermal Plant At Salton Sea
- 2012/03/19: BBerg: Germany's $263 Billion Renewables Shift Biggest Since War
Not since the allies leveled Germany in World War II has Europe's biggest economy undertaken a reconstruction of its energy market on this scale. Chancellor Angela Merkel is planning to build offshore wind farms that will cover an area six times the size of New York City and erect power lines that could stretch from London to Baghdad. The program will cost 200 billion euros ($263 billion), about 8 percent of the country's gross domestic product in 2011, according to the DIW economic institute in Berlin. - 2012/03/24: CCurrents: Space-Based Solar Power by Tom Murphy
- 2012/03/22: NBF: Summarizing how Space Based Solar Power fits into the Big Energy Picture
- 2012/03/21: NBF: Al Globus updated Plans for a Profitable Space Based Solar Power System
- 2012/03/21: NBF: Japans Space Based Solar Power Schedule
- 2012/03/21: NBF: Ways to make Space Solar Power Work
- 2012/03/21: OilDrum: Space-Based Solar Power [Tom Murphy]
Hey! Let's contaminate the aquifer for thousands of years! It'll be a fracking gas!
- 2012/03/23: CNN:Fortune: Shale gas is no alternative to renewables
If we really want to cool the planet this century, we need rapid and massive deployment of a mix of conservation, wind, solar, and nuclear energy -- not natural gas. - 2012/03/21: BBerg: Poland Says Shale Reserves May Be 85% Below U.S. Estimate
- 2012/03/20: ProPublica: So, Is Dimock's Water Really Safe to Drink?
- 2012/03/22: BBC: Shell signs first shale gas production pact in China
Royal Dutch Shell said it has signed its first-ever production sharing contract for shale gas in China with state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). - 2012/03/21: DeSmogBlog: Documents Reveal USDA Risking Lawsuits by Ignoring Own Staff On Fracking Mortgages Review
- 2012/03/21: KSJT: Scant big-media ink but bloggers take note. Study says natural gas is false climate hope
- 2012/03/21: Grist: EPA: 'This water is fine, apart from all the methane'
- 2012/03/21: TreeHugger: Study Finds Fracking Poses Air Pollution Health Risks, But EPA Still Denying Groundwater Impacts
- 2012/03/20: QuarkSoup: Pennsylvania Gags Doctors
- 2012/03/19: BWeek: Fracking Wells' Air Emissions Pose Health Risks, Study Finds
- 2012/03/18: McClatchyDC: As natural gas production grows, questions arise about methane leaks
- 2012/03/18: TruthOut: Fracking: Pennsylvania Gags Physicians
- 2012/03/19: Eureka: Study shows air emissions near fracking sites may impact health -- They contain hydrocarbons including benzene
- 2012/03/18: TPR: Fracking: Pennsylvania Gags Physicians
A new Pennsylvania law endangers public health by forbidding health care professionals from sharing information they learn about certain chemicals and procedures used in high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing. The procedure is commonly known as fracking. - 2012/03/23: al Jazeera: India's coal rush
- 2012/03/21: PlanetJ: The real coal export scandal
- 2012/03/20: TP:JR: Coal Is Expensive And Not Getting Any Cheaper
- 2012/03/20: BBC: Coal-fuelled power station plans for Grangemouth
On the gas and oil front:
- 2012/03/23: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
OIL (US$/bbl)
Nymex Crude Future...106.87
Dated Brent Spot.....125.86
WTI Cushing Spot.....106.47 - 2012/03/24: RBroberg: Conventional Oil Production: 8 year plateau
- 2012/03/22: CJR: Reporter's Toolbox: Oil and Gas Prices -- Resources to help journalists stop the spin
- 2012/03/22: WSJ:TR: Citi's Report: Fuelish or Farsighted?
- 2012/03/24: EnergyBulletin: The New York Times exaggerates the significance of shale oil
- 2012/03/23: BBC: [UK] Petrol prices hit another record high
Petrol prices have hit another record, according to industry analysts Experian Catalist. The average price of a litre of unleaded petrol hit 140.20 pence. - 2012/03/21: EconBrowser: Why do gasoline prices differ across U.S. states?
- 2012/03/21: BBC: Oil gains despite Saudi Arabia's pledge to boost supply
- 2012/03/20: CBC: Oil price spike would have 'serious consequences,' IMF warns
- 2012/03/21: BizInsider: CITI: The US Energy Industry Is Going To Grow So Fast, It Will Spark A New 'Industrial Revolution'
- 2012/03/20: PlanetArk: Brazil Chevron Oil Leak Charges To Focus On Safety
- 2012/03/20: OilChange: IEA's "golden rules for the golden age of gas"
- 2012/03/20: BBC: China has raised the price of petrol by about 6% and diesel about 7% for the second time in 2012, as it struggles with the rising cost of crude oil
- 2012/03/19: BBC: Energy giants Statoil and Exxon target East African gas
The balmy waters of the Indian Ocean, close to East Africa, are a long way from the cold and notoriously stormy North Sea, but Tanzania could soon be profitable territory for Statoil of Norway. Statoil and its American partner Exxon Mobil have made the biggest offshore discovery yet of gas reserves off the coast of Tanzania. - 2012/03/19: EnergyBulletin: Threat of diesel rationing in Europe
- 2012/03/19: Guardian(UK): The oil market is warming up
The global economy remains vulnerable to steep rise in crude oil prices, which would raise business costs and hammer consumers - 2012/03/18: VoxEU: Shock 'n' oil by Marco Annunziata
Oil prices are again on the rise -- will this derail the economic recovery? And what if there is an oil shock on the horizon? This column presents an overview of the oil market and its possible effects on the global economy. It argues that if there is a shock, the list of casualties will have Europe at the top with the US close behind. - 2012/03/18: CalcRisk: Oil and Gasoline Prices
- 2012/03/18: EconView: Strategic Petroleum Reserve to the Rescue? -Jim Hamilton
In the fossil fuel corps:
- 2012/03/20: BBC: Oil explorer Cairn Energy made a record profit of $4.6bn (£2.9bn) last year, after completing the sale of a 40% stake in Cairn India.
And in pipeline news:
- 2012/03/23: Reuters: Two major U.S. oil cos interested in TAPI pipeline
Two major U.S. oil companies are interested in a four-country pipeline that would ship gas worth billions of dollars from Turkmenistan to India and Pakistan, a U.S. government official said on Friday. The building of the U.S.-backed "TAPI" pipeline through some of Afghanistan's most volatile regions presents a major challenge, adding to the project's other hurdles such as gas pricing and transit fees. - 2012/03/24: CCurrents: The Peak Oil Crisis: Parsing The Bakken
- 2012/03/21: EnergyBulletin: The Peak Oil Crisis: Parsing the Bakken
Biofuel bickering abounds:
- 2012/03/23: PlanetArk: Cargill Sticking With Ethanol Despite Challenges
The answer my friend...:
- 2012/03/23: Grist: One giant, offshore [6 megawatt] wind turbine can provide power for 6,000 people
- 2012/03/21: OPB: BPA Wind Power Sets New Record - 4,000 megawatts
- 2012/03/21: LBL: Berkeley Lab Study Shows Significantly Higher Potential for Wind Energy in India than Previously Estimated
- 2012/03/21: CCurrents: Wind Energy or Windfall?
- 2012/03/20: NOAANews: NOAA science supports New York's offshore energy planning
Study provides mapping, analysis for renewable energy planning, offshore habitat protection - 2012/03/19: Stanford:SoE: Engineers enlist weather model to optimize offshore wind plan
Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:
- 2012/03/21: FuturePundit: Data Center Solar Farms Waste Of Money?
- 2012/03/22: PeakEnergy: Dawn Of The Solar Peaking Plant
- 2012/03/22: CSM: Solar energy in Nevada. The next Hoover Dam?
- 2012/03/21: BBerg: Solar's 80% Plunge Hurts Utilities From Hawaii to Spain
On grassy pasture in western Spain, Fotowatio SL is preparing to build a solar plant to supply electricity 25 percent cheaper than a local utility charges for traditional power, a breakthrough that's sending tremors through the global energy industry.
[...]
Solar panels costs have tumbled 80 percent in the past five years. A technology that in the 1970s was so expensive it only made economic sense for satellites and offshore drilling rigs is today a $100 billion industry that's transforming the world's power supply in the same way semiconductor efficiencies put personal computers everywhere, changing the way information flows. - 2012/03/19: TreeHugger: Startup Simplifies Going Solar With Design-Your-Own Online Tool
- 2012/03/19: TP:JR: As U.S. Installations Doubled, Global Solar PV Market Grew 40% In 2011 To 27 GW
Feed-In-Tariffs are being variously implemented around the world:
- 2012/03/20: TP:JR: CLEAN Sweep: Feed-In Tariffs Build Stable Clean Energy Markets And Boost Local Economies
The nuclear energy controversy continues:
- 2012/03/23: NBF: Overview of Theoretical and Experimental Progress in Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR)
- 2012/03/23: NBF: Permission to Restart refurbished Point Lepreau nuclear reactor in Canada
- 2012/03/23: NBF: Russian plans first SVBR-100 lead bismuth modular fast reactor for 2017
- 2012/03/22: YakimaHerald: Technical problems still bedevil Hanford plant
- 2012/03/22: STimes: Hanford contractors admit big safety problems remain
Hanford nuclear-reservation contractors acknowledge they still haven't resolved major safety problems and technical issues with a half-built, $12.2 billion plant to dispose of millions of gallons of radioactive waste. - 2012/03/22: WNN: Safety culture questions after loss of power at Kori 1
The manager of the Kori 1 nuclear power reactor in South Korea has been sacked for covering up a safety-related incident at the plant last month. The plant owner now faces prosecution by safety regulators. - 2012/03/21: NBF: India's national and local authorities approve the completion of the Kudankulam Nuclear plant
- 2012/03/21: WNN: Postponing retirement in Spain
Capitalising on a more positive political outlook, Spain's nuclear industry group has made the case for longer operating lives for the country's reactors based on commercial and safety imperatives. - 2012/03/20: NYT: As Reactors Age, the Money to Close Them Lags
The operators of 20 of the nation's aging nuclear reactors, including some whose licenses expire soon, have not saved nearly enough money for prompt and proper dismantling. If it turns out that they must close, the owners intend to let them sit like industrial relics for 20 to 60 years or even longer while interest accrues in the reactors' retirement accounts. Decommissioning a reactor is a painstaking and expensive process that involves taking down huge structures and transporting the radioactive materials to the few sites around the country that can bury them. The cost is projected at $400 million to $1 billion per reactor, which in some cases is more than what it cost to build the plants in the 1960s and '70s. - 2012/03/21: Rabble: Pushing back on the nuclear path: Part 1
- 2012/03/20: Reuters: Work restarts at Indian nuclear plant, protesters arrested
Police clear protest site, workers return - Government wants to increase nuclear generation Work to start up a large nuclear power plant on the southern tip on India resumed on Tuesday after police arrested dozens of protesters who had blocked access to the site for months, in a breakthrough for the power-short emerging economy. The Kudankulam project will initially provide 2 gigawatts of electricity - enough to power 20 million Indian homes. - 2012/03/20: APR: Greenpeace: Really?
- 2012/03/19: SciAm:PI: Nuclear Energy Innovation - Getting off the bench
Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:
- 2012/03/18: EneNews: US to burn 100s of tons of radioactive waste from Germany in Tennessee
Nuclear fusion projects around the world limp along:
- 2012/03/21: ScienceInsider: Proposed U.S. Fusion Cuts Ignite Debate
- 2012/03/20: NBF: Nuclear fusion simulation shows high-gain energy output of 100 to 1000 times input current
- 2012/03/20: SlashDot: Is It Time For the US Government To Back Fusion At NIF Over ITER?
- 2012/03/20: NatureN: National Ignition Facility fires record laser shot -- Powerful pulse a milepost on the way to fusion energy
- 2012/03/20: NatureNB: National Ignition Facility fires record laser shot
Like a mirage, the dream of a Hydrogen Economy shimmers on the horizon:
- 2012/03/19: SciNews: Better hydrogen storage process unveiled -- Scientists create a chemical switch to catch and release useful gas
More people are talking about the electrical grid:
- 2012/03/23: TreeHugger: Smart Meter Opt Out Requirements Spreading Through California
And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:
- 2012/03/22: EconoSpeak: The Lovins Paradox: "this old canard"
Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:
- 2012/03/22: CCP: Conservative Bob Lutz slams conservative liars, asks, "Who am I going to believe now?"
- 2012/03/20: AutoBG: Bob Lutz gives up trying to convince the right they're wrong about the Chevy Volt
Bob Lutz has learned something: you can't teach right-wing pundits the truth.
Yes, in his ongoing series of Chevrolet Volt defense columns for Forbes (see previous entries here and here), the former GM vice chairman has finally decided to throw in the towel. The short version of his awakening goes like this: "I am, sadly, coming to the conclusion that all the icons of conservatism are (shock, horror!) deliberately not telling the truth!" - 2012/03/21: GreenGrok: An All-Electric Vehicle: Up Close and Personal
As for Energy Storage:
- 2012/03/24: PeakEnergy: Envia: Record Battery Energy Density in Context
- 2012/03/19: NBF: California Lithium Battery To Commercialize Lowest Cost Lithium Battery
The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:
- 2012/03/21: TP:JR: Investors Are Making Big Money On Renewable Energy
- 2012/03/19: TreeHugger: Verizon to Reduce Carbon Footprint 50% by 2020, CEO Says
Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:
- 2012/03/21: Dominion: The Greenwashing of Sustainable Seafood
Who's fielding theFAQs?
- 2012/03/23: Guardian(UK): Do you believe in climate change?
That's not a question you should be asking -- it's a matter of empirical evidence, not belief - 2012/03/19: EnergyBulletin: Foundation Concepts: What Is Sustainability?
Joe Romm posts a daily list of top energy and climate stories:
- 2012/03/23: TP:JR: March 23 News...
- 2012/03/22: TP:JR: March 22 News...
- 2012/03/21: TP:JR: March 21 News...
- 2012/03/20: TP:JR: March 20 News...
- 2012/03/19: TP:JR: March 19 News...
Looks like Michael is going to post a list occasionally as well:
- 2012/03/22: P3: Sustainability links du jour
- 2012/03/19: P3: Global Change Links du Jour
Other (weekly) lists:
- 2012/03/21: BPA: Hot Five #2
- 2012/03/23: EnergyBulletin: ODAC Newsletter
- 2012/03/22: TreeHugger: Energy News...
- 2012/03/18: BPA: Agriculture News
The carbon lobby are up to the usual:
- 2012/03/24: PSinclair: Potholer54 and The Search for Lord Monckton
- 2012/03/23: TWTB: Christopher Monckton, birther - Part II
- 2012/03/23: CCP: Anthony Watts Misleading His Readers About Surface Temperature Record
- 2012/03/23: PSinclair: Dear Chris. Potholer's Open Letter to Lord Bonckton
- 2012/03/25: HC: Monty slams the door
- 2012/03/24: GLaden: Al Gore and Lord Mockinworthy Debate!!!
- 2012/03/24: BLongstaff: Joseph Lister, climate change and the arrogance of ignorance
- 2012/03/22: IJISH: Denialgate: Wrong to gloss over PR lies for being 'dog bites man': Jim Hoggan
- 2012/03/22: HotTopic: Kiwiblog kobblers
- 2012/03/22: Tamino: Mathturbation King
- 2012/03/20: DeSmogBlog: SPINalysis: Heartland's Echo Chamber Shifts the Target
- 2012/03/20: DeSmogBlog: GWPF & The Hockey Stick Curve
- 2012/03/20: HotTopic: Prat Watch #4: Foundation and Empire
- 2012/03/19: P3: Find the Bug
- 2012/03/19: TP:JR: California GOP Invite Discredited [TVMOB] To Address Legislature!
- 2012/03/19: QuarkSoup: Steve Goddard Bullshit Alert
- 2012/03/18: TP:JR: The Glass House Effect: Heartland Institute Tried To Steal Documents From Greenpeace
- 2012/03/18: JFleck: The power of Snopes. Or not.
- 2012/03/19: OilChange: Yet More Hypocrisy from Heartland
- 2012/03/18: ERabett: Snow Job
As for climate miscellanea:
- 2012/03/25: HotTopic: Underneath the shade: Homebrew Crew on climate change
- 2012/03/23: TMoS: Something to Ponder
- 2012/03/21: S&R: Feathered weather experts better than the pros
- 2012/03/21: P3: Climate Change: The 24 Point Summary
- 2012/03/20: PSinclair: If You're Under 35, You've Never Experienced "Normal" Temperatures
- 2012/03/20: EnergyBulletin: Fun with Trends
- 2012/03/19: P3: Who will tell us whom to believe? by Doug Bostrom
- 2012/03/20: CSM: Henry David Thoreau as global-warming researcher?
- 2012/03/20: AlterNet: How the Right-Wing Brain Works and What That Means for Progressives
- 2012/03/19: ERabett: Elsewhere
- 2012/03/18: TP:JR: The Hunger Games: Post-Apocalypse Now For Young Adults
- 2012/03/19: Eureka: Health must be central to climate change policies, say experts
- 2012/03/18: CIP: Is The Climate Debate Over?
And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:
- HP Alliance: Hunger is Not a Game
- InTechOpen: Open Science Open Minds
- Another Nail in the Coffin...
- UMT: The Ethics of Geoengineering: Investigating the Moral Challenges of Solar Radiation Management
- Climate Desk
- EEA: Climate Change Adaptation in Europe
- Center for Communicating Science - Flame Challenge
- Oxford GeoBlog
- SEI: Stockholm Environment Institute
- Earth Hour
- Crikey: Behind the Seams -- A Crikey, FAQ Research joint investigation into the issue of coal seam gas
- USNO: Equinoxes, Solstices, Perihelion, and Aphelion, 2000-2020
- E3G - Change Agents for Sustainable Development
- NASA: Glory Mission
- GHCNM: Global Historical Climatology Network-Monthly
- The Great Energy Challenge
- GCP: Global Carbon Project
- C&C: Climate and Capitalism -- Ecosocialism or Barbarism: There is no third way
It's always nice to start with a laugh:
Earth Hour is coming:
The Exxon Valdez sails into the sunset:
So, If we put a price on nature, will it deal with externalities and lead to greater conservation
or will it lead to greater exploitation or what?
John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:
The state of the world's fisheries is a concern:
Regarding the genetic modification of food:
Thankfully, a quiet week in the hurricane wars:
While in the paleoclimate:
In the attribution debate:
Sea levels are rising:
First, stop subsidizing fossil fuels
Second, put a price on carbon
And elsewhere on the mitigation front:
Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:
While on the adaptation front:
As for miscellaneous science:
The Robin Hood tax, aka the Tobin tax, aka the Bank tax, aka the Financial Transaction tax keeps coming up:
The debate over the optimal strategy [carbon trading, carbon offsets, auction vs. allocation, cap and trade, cap and dividend, tradable energy quotas and/or a carbon tax] to use in dealing with GHGs continues:
Meanwhile in the solar panel trade war between China and the USA:
In the "global competition for natural resources":
Climate Change is a threat multiplier exacerbating existing conflicts in food, energy, water, race, ideology ... etc.:
And in Europe:
Meanwhile in Australia:
The Liberal National Party have defeated Labor in Queensland:
While in the Indian subcontinent:
It's all the media's fault. Oh yeah:
The senate is investigating them dang furriners and their funding:
The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on:
Meanwhile on Turtle Island:
Also in Alberta:
Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:
This seems to be the week for SBS:
On the coal front:
Yes we have a peak oil sighting:
Low Key Plug
My first novel Water was published in Canada May, 2007. The American release was in October. An Introductionto the novel is available, along with the Unpublished Forewordand the Launch Talk(which includes some quotations), An overview of my writing is available here.
<regards>
P.S. Recent postings can be found in the week archive and the ancient postings can be accessed here, which should open to this.
I notice moyhu has set up a monster index to old AWoGWN on AFTIC."The ability to sustain change globally across the entire human population over periods far beyond anything ever attempted would appear to push the relevant objectives well beyond the realm of the attainable. If we are ever to cope with climate change in any fundamental way, radical solutions on the social side is where we must focus, though. The relative efficiency of the next generation of solar cells is trivial by comparison." -Gary Stix
Categories
- Log in to post comments