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 Anthropocene Antics
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
April 22, 2012
- Chuckles, Rio+20, Earth Day, EGU 2012, Elgin, KPMG, Brotz
- Maldives, Grumbine, B-Corps, Subsidies, World Bank, Cook
- Fukushima Note, Fukushima News, Nuclear Policy
- Melting Arctic, Polar Bears, IPY Conference, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
- Food Crisis, GMOs, Food Production
- Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Feedbacks, Paleoclimate
- Ocean Currents, State of the Oceans, Extinctions, Volcanoes, Satellites
- Impacts, Forests, Climate Refugees, Disease, Wacky Weather, Extreme Weather
- Tornadoes, Corals, Acidification, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
- Mitigation, REDD, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering
- Journals, Other Docs, Misc., DIY, Models, Open Science, Hansen, Wegman, Loehle
- International Politics: Kyoto, UN, Carbon Trade, Bank Tax
- Hormuz, South China Sea , YPF-Repsol, FQD, Rare Earths, Food Weapon, Security
- Law & Activism, Activism, Polls, H2O Biz, Groundwater, Education, Ethics, Psych
- National Politics: America, BP Disaster, 2012, Gas Prices, Keystone
- Clean Tech, NRC, War on Women, Obama, USAdmin, Congress, Lobbyists
- Britain, Europe, Australia, Slipper, MDBP, New Zealand, China, Asia, Middle East, South America
- Canada, Job Cuts, Oil Spill Centre, Streamlining, Muzzled, Northern Gateway, Kinder Morgan
- ForestEthics, Sex Selection, ISA/PRV , BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Maritimes, Canadiana
- Ecological Economics, Children, IPAT, Fixes, Media, Books, Video, Podcasts, Courts
- Energy, Fracking, Coal, Oil & Gas, Fossils, Oil & the Economy, Pipelines, Peak Oil, Biofuel
- Wind, Solar, Nukes, LENR, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Gee Whiz, Energy Storage
- Business, Greenwashing, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
- Shameless Self Promotion, .sig
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- 2012/04/18: JoeMohrToons: (cartoon - Mohr) Is Obama's Blackness Increasing America's Redness?
- 2012/04/16: SMcMillan: (cartoon - McMillan) Inconclusive Data
- 2012/04/18: XKCD: (cartoon - Munro) Quiz: Who Said It?
- 2012/04/18: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) Gas Prices
- 2012/04/16: NewInt: Why I told BP to disclose its interplanetary spaceship
[...]
My turn came at last, and I stepped up to the microphone. Despite my nervousness, I managed to make my voice sound calm as I addressed the board as follows:
"Mr Chairman, we've already heard that, according to your Annual Report, you believe that fossil fuels will still make up 80 per cent of global energy use in 2030, leading to a 28 per cent rise in CO2 emissions. This will lock us into disastrous runaway climate change. So my question is: what's the escape plan? I mean, the really scary stuff will start to kick in over the next twenty to thirty years, and a lot of people in this room will still be around then. So I can only assume that there's some kind of interplanetary escape pod being built in a secret BP bunker, to carry the Board, executives and senior shareholders away as society collapses around us." Laughter began to ripple around the room as I continued: "I'd like to know how many spaces are available on the ship, and where the Board is planning to escape to --- Mars? The moon? Somewhere deep below the earth's surface, or another solar system altogether? Also, are tickets available to shareholders and how do we book our place on board?" - 2012/04/21: Wonkette: Apocalyptic Weather Fools Americans Into Thinking Climate Change Is Real
Looking ahead to Rio+20 :
- 2012/04/17: Guardian(UK): Rio+20 summit asks young people: what environmental future do you want?
Earth Hour, Earth Day. The twitterati want Earth Minute. When do we begin Earth Year?
- UN: International Mother Earth Day - 22 April
- Earth Day 2012
- 2012/04/20: UN: Ahead of International Mother Earth Day, UN officials highlight global concerns
- 2012/04/21: PSinclair: Carl Sagan on Climate Change - Earth Day 1990
- 2012/04/20: Grist: Let's replace Earth Day with Destroy the Earth Day
- 2012/04/20: Grist: My Earth Day wish: A better human brain
- 2012/04/20: TreeHugger: Discovery to Air Frozen Planet Marathon on Earth Day (Attenborough Version)
- 2012/04/19: Smithsonian:B: 10 Things We've Learned About the Earth Since Last Earth Day
- 2012/04/19: Grist: The weirdest, worst PR crap we've seen this Earth Day
- 2012/04/20: CSM: This Earth Day, let's focus on people
- 2012/04/21: CCurrents: The Earth Needs More Than A Day: Why We Occupy (Part 1)
- 2012/04/21: CBC: Earth Day's ups and downs reflect changing environmental movement -- The 42-year-old event is riding a new wave of global protest
- 2012/04/22: SciAm:PI: The Earth Beneath Our Feet
- 2012/04/20: CSM: Earth Day and every day gardening with children
- 2012/04/22: G&M: Canadians to mark Earth Day with events across the country
- 2012/04/19: SciAm:Obs: Earth Day 2012: The Best and Worst Pronouncements
- 2012/04/18: Grist: Earth Day revisited: An environmental patriarch on keeping the dream alive
The EGU 2012 General Assembly kicks off today:
- European Geosciences Union -- General Assembly 2012 -- Vienna, Austria -- 22-27 April 2012
- 2012/04/22: JEB: EGU - Awards & Medals - Arthur Holmes Medal & Honorary Membership - Vincent Courtillot
- 2012/04/22: JEB: EGU 2012
The Elgin site is still spewing methane:
- 2012/04/20: TreeHugger: North Sea Gas Drilling Rig [Elgin] Leak Reduced by One-Third
- 2012/04/17: Reuters: Elgin gas leak to cut supply this summer - Nat Grid
KPMG released a study called _Expect the unexpected_ this week:
- 2012/04/14: KPMG: [link to 4.7 meg pdf] Expect the unexpected: Building business value in a changing world
The resources on which business relies are becoming more difficult to access and more costly. Changing patterns of economic growth and wealth are likely to strain infrastructure and natural systems. The unpredictable results of a changing climate will affect physical assets and supply chains. And businesses can expect an ever more complex web of sustainability legislation and fiscal instruments. - 2012/04/14: KPMG: Sustainability "Megaforces" Impact on Business Will Accelerate, finds KPMG
- 2012/04/19: Guardian(UK): The megatrends companies must face to meet sustainability challenges
Systems thinking comes of age as KPMG says environmental, social and economic problems cannot be solved separately - 2012/04/20: TMoS: Prepping Business for a Turbulent Environmental Future [KPMG]
- 2012/04/20: TMoS: The World 20-Years From Now Will Not Resemble the World Today
Change is happening and the pace of change is accelerating. Most of the changes that are nearing will not be welcome. Some will be enormously challenging. The global consulting giant, KPMG, has identified 10-megaforces that it contends business will have to confront within the next twenty years. - 2012/04/02: Springer:Hydrobiologia: Increasing jellyfish populations: trends in Large Marine Ecosystems by Lucas Brotz et al.
- 2012/04/20: CBC: Jellyfish populations booming -- Increases seem linked to pollution, overfishing
- 2012/04/19: KSJT: Jellyfish -- or jellies, if you prefer -- are spreading in most coastal waters
- 2012/04/18: PostMedia: Jellyfish thrive in adverse conditions, UBC study finds
Global warming, pollution and human activity in marine habitats are not generally regarded as good things - unless you're a jellyfish. Then - according to a study of the jellyfish population by University of B.C. researchers - they have an upside. - 2012/04/18: UBC: Jellyfish on the rise: UBC study
Meanwhile last February...:
- 2012/02/01: Eureka: Global experts question claims about jellyfish populations
- 2012/02/01: AIBS: Are Nuisance Jellyfish Really Taking Over the World's Oceans?
The Maldives dictator has announced elections a comfortable distance in the future:
- 2012/04/18: Guardian(UK): Maldives ousted president appeals for global help to bring early elections
Mohamed Nasheed links fight for democracy to battle against global warning in call for international pressure on successor - 2012/04/18: al Jazeera: Maldives president sets date for poll
Mohammed Waheed Hassan announces presidential election for July 2013, not later this year as demanded by opposition. - 2012/04/18: MGS: In the mean time ...
- Penguin Dreams
- 2012/04/17: PenguinDreams: Introduction to Mathematical Climatology
Here is a new idea. Think it will fly?
- B-Corporation
- 2012/04/15: AlterNet: The Business of a Better World: Can a New Kind of Corporation Save Us and Our Economy?Subsidies, tax exemptions, loan guarantees & grants weave a difficult to penetrate web:
- 2012/04/18: EnergyBulletin: Are oil subsidies worth the price?
What's the World Bank up to?
- 2012/04/20: al Jazeera: Selecting a World Bank president: The resilience of a West-centric world
The governance of the world economy remains neoliberal and West-centric, and for this reason less than legitimate. - 2012/04/17: BBC: The World's Bank's new president, Jim Yong Kim, has said that capitalist "market-based growth is a priority for every single country"
- 2012/04/16: al Jazeera: World Bank names US doctor as new president
Selection of Korean-born Jim Yong Kim draws criticism from other candidates for alleged US dominance of powerful post. - 2012/04/16: TP:JR: Must-See Documentary: The World Bank Forces Its Tragic Legacy Of Coal On Kosovo
- 2012/04/16: ScienceInsider: World Bank Names Kim As New President
John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:
- 2012/04/22: SkeptiSci: Weird Winter - March Madness by Rob Honeycutt, grypo
- 2012/04/21: SkeptiSci: Why Are We Sure We're Right? #1 by Rob Honeycutt
- 2012/04/20: SkeptiSci: Global Surface Warming Since 1995 by dana1981
- 2012/04/19: SkeptiSci: GISTEMP: Cool or Uncool? by Kevin C
- 2012/04/18: SkeptiSci: First Look at HadCRUT4 by dana1981
- 2012/04/17: SkeptiSci: Cliff Ollier: Swimming In A Sea of Misinformation by Rob Painting
- 2012/04/16: SkeptiSci: New research from last week 15/2012 by Ari Jokimäki
- 2012/04/16: SkeptiSci: Which plants will survive droughts, climate change? 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:
- 2012/04/20: CNN:Fortune: Fukushima Daiichi: Inside the debacle
An unprecedented look at the disastrous handling of the accident at TEPCO's nuclear power station explains why Japan still doesn't trust nukes. More than a year has passed since a massive earthquake and a series of tsunamis triggered the worst accident at a nuclear power plant since Chernobyl in 1986, but the epic debacle at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station remains front and center in Japan, at the very core of a historic debate over the future of nuclear energy--one that comes down to a fundamental question: Should nuclear power, which prior to the accident last year generated 30% of the electricity for the world's third-largest economy, have any future at all in Japan? - 2012/04/19: EneNews: Former Fukushima Daiichi Reactor Operator: We falsified data and rewrote daily operative reports (video)
- 2012/04/20: EneNews: Fukushima Investigation: "Within one day complete meltdown and melt through occurred" - "There is no way that gov't did not know this" (video)
- 2012/04/20: EneNews: CNN: Fukushima Daiichi engineer says "we still don't know what's going on inside the reactors" - Cold shut down "wasn't true then, and it's still not true today"
- 2012/04/18: EneNews: NHK: Tepco can't find holes at Reactor No. 2 - Nuclear Expert: It's leaking like a sieve ...
- 2012/04/18: DeutscheWelle: Japanese government criticized for downplaying nuclear disaster
- 2012/04/19: BBC: TEPCO's new chairman named as Kazuhiko Shimokobe
Japan has named a new chairman for the power firm behind last year's Fukushima nuclear plant disaster. Bailout fund official Kazuhiko Shimokobe will take over at the troubled Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) from the current chairman, Tsunehisa Katsumata. The government had been seeking a new boss for TEPCO for months. - 2012/04/17: EneNews: Japan gov't now discussing implementing rolling blackouts -- Top official apologizes for reactor remarks
- 2012/04/18: EneNews: China Syndrome? Japan Times on Melt Through: "Molten 'lava' melted bottom of containment vessel," says nuclear engineer given access by top official -- Huge amounts of fission materials released into environment
- 2012/04/18: EneNews: Gov't Official Shocked: "I never thought there'd be this much of a backlash" -- "We are not guinea pigs!", "How will you extract the melted fuel?", "How can we believe you?"
- 2012/04/16: Guardian(UK): Japan seeks to restart nuclear reactors after May stress tests
Reactors powering industrial city of Osaka among 54 in country that could stay offline even if they pass post-Fukushima checks - 2012/04/16: Reuters: Fukushima damage leaves spent fuel at risk-U.S. lawmaker
Spent fuel rods need to be moved to safety-Wyden - Urges Japan to accept help, asks US officials to do more - 2012/04/16: Senate:Wyden: After Tour of Fukushima Nuclear Power Station, Wyden Says Situation Worse than Reported
Urges Japanese Ambassador to Accept International Help to Mitigate Continued Nuclear Risks - 2012/04/17: WSJ: Fukushima Daiichi's Achilles Heel: Unit 4?s Spent Fuel?
Just how dangerous is the situation at Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant? Very, according to U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, a senior member of the Senate's energy committee who toured the plant earlier this month. - 2012/04/17: EneNews: Confirmed: 35-ton machine "sitting on top of the spent fuel rack in the pool" of Reactor No. 3 - Extent of damage not yet known (videos)
- 2012/04/03: AkioMatsumura: Fukushima Daiichi Site: Cesium-137 is 85 times greater than at Chernobyl Accident
- 2012/02/21: AkioMatsumura: Correspondence on the New Photo of Reactor Unit no. 4 at Fukushima
- 2012/04/14: Asahi: New photos show damaged fuel storage pool at Fukushima plant
- 2012/04/13: Asahi: Fukushima governor rips restart of Oi nuclear reactors
Post Fukushima, nuclear policies are in flux around the world:
- 2012/04/19: WNN: $33 billion cost of Swiss nuclear decision
Switzerland's decision not to build any new nuclear generating capacity will cost the country some CHF 30 billion ($33 billion) up to 2050, according to the country's Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC). The department has undertaken a modeling of Switzerland's energy future to 2050 which will be used in formulating the country's new energy policy. - 2012/04/20: ArcticNews: Will Arctic sea ice collapse in 2014?
- 2012/04/18: ASI: Novaya Zemlya April 2012
- 2012/04/16: Eureka: CU-Boulder study shows Greenland may be slip-sliding away due to surface lake melt
As for the charismatic megafauna:
- 2012/04/20: KSJT: NYTimes, Independent, Reuters etc: Grizzlars, grolars, pizzlies to the contrary -- polar bears aren't new offshoots of brown bears
- 2012/04/20: ABC(Au): Polar bears are no new kids on the block
- 2012/04/19: SciNews: Polar bears older than previously thought -- New analysis reveals the Arctic species dates back about 600,000 years
- 2012/04/19: DM:NERS: Polar bear origins revised -- they're older and more distinct than we thought
- 2012/04/19: CSM: Polar bears emerged far earlier than thought, DNA study indicates
- 2012/04/20: BBC: DNA reveals polar bear's ancient origins
The polar bear is much older than previously thought, according to new genetic evidence. DNA studies suggest the Arctic predator split from its ancestor, the brown bear, about 600,000 years ago. Previous estimates put the polar bear at about 150,000 years old... - 2012/04/17: TreeHugger: Polar Bear Protection Plan Ignores Their Biggest Threats
An International Polar Year followup conference is going down in Montral next week:
- 2012/04/19: CBC: Giant conference to discuss 'dramatic' Arctic changes -- 2,000 scientists expected at Montreal polar conference [next week]
[...]
More than 2,000 scientists are expected at the week-long meeting to discuss the findings of International Polar Year, which lasted from 2007 to 2009. - 2012/04/19: ArcticNews: Methane levels for March 2012 are highest above ESAS [East Siberian Arctic Shelf]
- 2012/04/20: Tamino: More Methane
As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:
- 2012/04/19: GreenPeace: 10 reasons why investing in Arctic drilling is reckless -- according to the world's top risk assessors
- 2012/04/21: JapanToday: China, Iceland announce deal on oil-rich Arctic
- 2012/04/17: TreeHugger: With 13% of World's Undiscovered Oil, Nations Continue Resource Scramble in Arctic
- 2012/03/26: SIPRI: Increased military capabilities in the Arctic reflect border demarcations, says SIPRI
- 2012/04/16: EarthMag: U.S. Navy navigates a sea change in the Arctic
- 2012/04/13: Yahoo:Reuters: Arctic generals agree closer ties at historic meet
Defense chiefs from eight Arctic nations agreed on Friday to cooperate more closely to deal with disasters and search and rescue operations in the remote resource-rich region, Canada's top soldier said. As the Arctic warms up, major nations are jostling for influence in a frozen part of the world believed to contain vast reserves of oil, gas, gold, diamonds, zinc and iron. Canada's chief of the defense staff told Reuters that the inaugural meeting of top Arctic military officials had vowed to work together in a region where there is little infrastructure and coping with a disaster could be very difficult. - 2012/04/16: KSJT: AP: Global warming? Navies of far-north powers say of course so give us a blue-water Arctic fleet
- 2012/04/16: WaPo: The new Cold War? As climate change melts polar ice cap, militaries vie for Arctic advantage
- 2012/04/16: OilChange: Lloyds Warns of Arctic Drilling Risk
While in Antarctica:
- 2012/04/20: CBC: Emperor penguins counted from space
The food crisis is ongoing:
- FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
- 2012/04/19: Asia Times: Salt threatens Mekong rice
- 2012/04/20: SwissInfo: Food crisis in the Sahel threatens famine
Drought has wreaked havoc with the harvests and food stocks in the Sahel region are exhausted This summer, nearly 15 million people are likely to be hit by the food crisis currently spreading across the Sahel regions of Africa. But Fred Lauener of Swiss non-governmental organisation Caritas remains optimistic that there is still time to act and avoid making the same mistakes that occurred in the Horn of Africa. - 2012/04/21: AntiWar: USA PATRIOT Act Kept Somalia Starving
- 2012/04/18: DerSpiegel: Addicted to Antibiotics -- How Factory Farm Drug Abuse Makes Vets Rich
It's no secret that factory farms use unconscionable amounts of antibiotics when fattening up animals for market. In Germany, however, veterinarians play a crucial role in the abuse. Many are getting rich in the process, but the risks to both human and animals are many. - 2012/04/19: WSJ:RTE: Food Stamp Rolls to Grow Through 2014, CBO Says
The Congressional Budget Office said Thursday that 45 million people in 2011 received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, a 70% increase from 2007. It said the number of people receiving the benefits, commonly known as food stamps, would continue growing until 2014. Spending for the program, not including administrative costs, rose to $72 billion in 2011, up from $30 billion four years earlier. The CBO projected that one in seven U.S. residents received food stamps last year. - 2012/04/19: CBO: An Overview of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
- 2012/04/19: ABC(Au): Floods put doubt on Fiji sugar crop
- 2012/04/19: ABC(Au): Researchers warn of risk to South East Asian food production
The Centre for Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security says agricultural productivity in Asia could halve over the next 30 years, if farmers don't adapt to climate change. - 2012/04/17: IBTimes: Schmallenberg Virus: Scientists Say Spread Is "A Warning To Europe"
- 2012/04/18: UN: UN food agency warns of looming health threats in Europe and Central Asia
- 2012/04/18: CCP: Welch's: 95 Percent Of Grapes In Southwest Michigan Destroyed
- 2012/04/18: NatureNB: 'Green menace' [huanglongbing, or citrus greening] strikes California citrus
- 2012/04/15: CCurrents: Feeding Death Squads; UN's World Food Program In Ethiopia
- 2012/04/17: SlashDot: Scientists Say Spread of Schmallenberg Virus Is 'Warning To Europe'
- 2012/04/16: UCSUSA:B: Maple-Syrup Setback, Breakfast-Table Blowback
- 2012/04/16: BBerg: Drought Draining Reserves of [edible] Oils Amid Record Demand
Demand for edible oils is climbing to a record as drought damages crops across South America, leaving buyers with the smallest stockpiles in three decades. The use of soy, palm, rapeseed and six other oils will rise 3.9 percent this year, reducing the ratio of reserves to demand to the lowest since 1977, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates. - 2012/04/16: TP:JR: Drought, Flooding And 'Multiple, Combined Outbreaks' Of Pests Threaten To Reduce Asian Agricultural Output 50%
Regarding the genetic modification of food:
- 2012/04/19: PlanetArk: Farm Group Seeks U.S. Halt On "Dangerous" Crop Chemicals
A coalition of more than 2,000 U.S. farmers and food companies said Wednesday it is taking legal action to force government regulators to analyze potential problems with proposed biotech crops and the weed-killing chemicals to be sprayed over them. Dow AgroSciences, a unit of Dow Chemical, and Monsanto Co. are among several global chemical and seed companies racing to roll out combinations of genetically altered crops and new herbicides designed to work with the crops as a way to counter rapidly spreading herbicide-resistant weeds that are choking millions of acres of U.S. farmland. Dow and Monsanto say the new chemical combinations and new crops that tolerate those chemicals are badly needed by corn, soybean and cotton farmers as weeds increasingly resist treatments of the most commonly used herbicide - glyphosate-based Roundup. - 2012/04/17: Grist: The mother who stood up to Monsanto in Argentina
And how are we going to feed 9 billion, 10 billion, 15 billion?
- 2012/04/19: FAO: Sustainable development goals hinge on hunger battle -- FAO Regional Conference for Europe discusses regional and global priorities
- 2012/04/18: FAO: Health threats on horizon even as hunger declines in Europe and Central Asia
FAO Regional Conference for Europe meets to set priorities for food and agriculture - 2012/04/20: Rabble: Food security: Why hunger is a farm issue
- 2012/04/18: SciAm:GB: Ancient Genes and Modern Science Deliver Salt-Tolerant Wheat
- 2012/04/17: Grist: Farmer responds to the New York Times re: Sustainable meat
- 2012/04/16: TreeHugger: 10 or So Things You Should Know About the Future of Feeding the World
Another quiet week; just a couple of numbered storms which didn't develop:
- 2012/04/20: Eureka: NASA sees slow-developing System 99P dogging Northern Australia
- 2012/04/18: Wunderground: 91L no concern; more postcards from the AMS hurricane conference
While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:
- 2012/04/17: WMO: WMO Hurricane Committee retires Irene from tropical storm list of names
- 2012/04/18: al Jazeera: Hurricane Irene goes into retirement
Following devastation it caused last August, Hurricane Irene's name has been "retired". - 2012/04/17: Wunderground: Postcards from the AMS hurricane conference: Bob Simpson honored
As for GHGs:
- 2012/04/21: SimpleC: N2O cuts are no laughing matter
- 2012/04/19: Eureka: New CU-NOAA monitoring system clarifies murky atmospheric questions
- 2012/04/20: BBC: CO2 from fossil fuels discerned from natural sources
Researchers have demonstrated a way of distinguishing between carbon dioxide in the air coming from fossil fuel burning and that from natural sources. It measures one type, or isotope, of carbon that decays over time - long since gone from fossil fuels. - 2012/04/19: Guardian(UK): How fast are emissions from cars dropping?
- 2012/04/18: Guardian(UK): Britain merely 'outsourcing' carbon emissions to China, say MPs
- 2012/04/18: BBC: MPs warn UK pollution outsourcing
Carbon emissions from goods imported and consumed in the UK are rising faster than the domestic fall in greenhouse gases, MPs say. 'Outsourcing' of pollution overseas will tarnish the UK's record on carbon emissions, experts warned. The UK's carbon dioxide emissions fell by 19% between 1990 and 2008, but its carbon footprint, based on what the UK consumes, grew by 20%. - 2012/04/16: RawStory: U.S. greenhouse gases back up [3.2% in 2010] after decline
And the temperature record:
- 2012/04/20: SciNow: No Letup in World's Warming
- 2012/04/21: DD: Graph of the Day: Mean Sea-Surface Temperature Anomalies for the Australia Region, 1900-2011
- 2012/04/18: SkeptiSci: First Look at HadCRUT4 by dana1981
- 2012/04/16: RealClimate: HadCRUT4 data now available
Yes we have feedbacks:
- 2012/04/15: SciAm: Ocean-Borne Microbes May Help Speed Warming -- The proliferation of cyanobacteria in oceans may accelerate warming
While in the paleoclimate:
- 2012/04/18: Eureka: Evidence for a geologic trigger of the Cambrian explosion
The oceans teemed with life 600 million years ago, but the simple, soft-bodied creatures would have been hardly recognizable as the ancestors of nearly all animals on Earth today. Then something happened. Over several tens of millions of years -- a relative blink of an eye in geologic terms -- a burst of evolution led to a flurry of diversification and increasing complexity, including the expansion of multicellular organisms and the appearance of the first shells and skeletons. The results of this Cambrian explosion are well documented in the fossil record, but its cause -- why and when it happened, and perhaps why nothing similar has happened since -- has been a mystery. New research shows that the answer may lie in a second geological curiosity -- a dramatic boundary, known as the Great Unconformity, between ancient igneous and metamorphic rocks and younger sediments. - 2012/04/17: Guardian(UK): Muddy history books borrowed from the ocean floor library
As for ocean currents:
- 2012/04/19: CCP: Doug O'Harra: What role does the Bering Strait play in moderating global temperatures?
- 2012/04/16: PenguinDreams: Ocean current visualization
And the State of the Oceans:
- 2012/04/22: CNN: Mystery surrounds deaths of 877 dolphins washed ashore in Peru
Official: The dolphins were found over a 220-kilometer (137-mile) area of coastal Peru this year - Report: Most of the dolphins were found in an advanced state of decomposition - The dolphins were not caused by starvation or poisoning with pesticides, officials say - Dozens of dolphins have also washed up in the United States and Brazil this year - 2012/04/22: Guardian(UK): 'They're killing us': world's most endangered tribe cries for help
Logging companies keen to exploit Brazil's rainforest have been accused by human rights organisations of using gunmen to wipe out the Awá, a tribe of just 355. Survival International, with backing from Colin Firth, is campaigning to stop what a judge referred to as 'genocide' - 2012/04/19: al Jazeera: India's Jarawa tribe facing extinction
Poaching, logging and tourism mean only 400 members of tribe, who still hunt with bows and arrows, remain [on the Andaman Islands] - 2012/04/20: NatureNB: Mexican volcano [Popocatépetl] spits ash and rock
Meanwhile in near earth orbit:
- 2012/04/20: KSJT: BBC: A busted European Earth observing satellite gets itself observed -- by another satellite
- 2012/04/20: BBC: Envisat imaged by sharp-eyed Pleiades
Engineers have managed to get the first detailed photographs of the crippled Envisat platform. Europe's flagship Earth observation satellite shut down unexpectedly over the Easter weekend and is not responding to any commands. The French Space Agency (CNES) tasked its high-resolution Pleiades satellite to image Envisat while passing some 100km from the stricken mission. The pictures confirm the flagship has not suffered any obvious impact damage. All of its key structural parts appear to be intact. - 2012/04/20: TP:JR: Corn Growers: Climate Change Is 'A Grave Threat To Rural Livelihoods And Quality Of Life'
- 2012/04/20: Eureka: Study finds that mild winters are detrimental to butterflies
- 2012/04/20: BBC: Rare UK butterflies 'bounce back'
Record-breaking temperatures and dry weather in spring last year led to an increase in the numbers of many species of rare butterfly, a study suggests. - 2012/04/19: Guardian(UK): Warm spring boosts rare butterflies
Despite rise in numbers of UK's rarest species, many butterflies are confused by changing climate, conservationists warn - 2012/04/19: QuarkSoup: And You Think *YOU* Have Climate Problems
- 2012/04/18: TP:JR: Water Shortages Cause Avian Cholera Outbreak, Killing 10,000 Migrating Birds In Klamath Refuge
- 2012/04/16: TUM: A look at tomorrow's climate: Pollen levels are rising across Europe
And then there are the world's forests:
- 2012/04/22: Guardian(UK): 'They're killing us': world's most endangered tribe cries for help
Logging companies keen to exploit Brazil's rainforest have been accused by human rights organisations of using gunmen to wipe out the Awá, a tribe of just 355. Survival International, with backing from Colin Firth, is campaigning to stop what a judge referred to as 'genocide' - 2012/04/19: NatureN: Hydropower threatens Andes-Amazon link
Framework study warns of environmental impact of widespread dam construction. Out of some 151 dams proposed for the Amazon river system, more than half will sever the connectivity between the Amazon lowlands and headwaters in the Andes mountains, according to the latest study. The unimpeded flow of the river over the past 10 million years is thought to have fuelled the extraordinary biodiversity of the Amazon ecosystem. - 2012/04/16: UCSUSA: Illegal Logging Threatens Economies and the Environment -- New Report Outlines How the Lacey Act Addresses These Problems
Climate refugees are becoming an issue:
- 2012/04/18: ABC(Au): Pacific not facing up to resettlement: expert
- 2012/04/16: ABC(Au): Kiribati parliament considers Fiji land deal
The President of Kiribati, Anote Tong, says there are no plans to move climate change refugees to newly purchased land in Fiji. - 2012/04/17: GUMC: Georgetown Researcher on Climate Change: Reduce Contribution, Care for Victims, Advocate
Yes we have no wacky weather, except:
- 2012/04/18: CNN: Freak windstorm blasts Turkey's largest city
This week in the New Normal -- extreme weather:
- 2012/04/20: PSinclair: Richard Alley in USAToday: Why the Extremes?
- 2012/04/17: TP:JR: Must-See Video: Has Global Warming Caused A Quantum Jump In Extreme Weather?
On the tornado front:
- 2012/04/17: Eureka: NASA satellite movie shows Great Plains tornado outbreak from space
- 2012/04/16: CBC: U.S. tornado death toll rises to 6 -- Early and unusually stern warnings credited with saving lives
- 2012/04/16: TP:JR: Government Saves Countless Lives From Tornadoes In Koch And Inhofe Country
- 2012/04/09: SMandia: Global Warming and Tornadoes
- 2012/04/16: Wunderground: Weekend tornado outbreak: 1 EF-4, 2 EF-3s, 6 dead, damage near $300 million
- 2012/04/16: BBC: US tornadoes: Sixth death reported from Midwest storms
- 2012/04/15: Guardian(UK): Five killed, 29 hurt, as 100 tornadoes rake central US
Corals are a bellwether of the ocean's health:
- 2012/04/13: CoralCOE: Coral Reef Winners and Losers in a Warmer World
Acidification is changing the oceans:
- 2012/04/18: Olympian: Die-offs show need to address ocean acidity
- 2012/04/18: ABC(Au): Acidification threatens Barrier Reef coral: researchers
A new study has found ocean acidification can affect the behaviour of baby corals in the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland. - 2012/04/16: ABC(Au): Study finds Himalayan glaciers resisting global warming
- 2012/04/16: NatureN: Renegade glaciers gain ice -- Despite a warming climate, some glaciers in southern Asia are holding their own
- 2012/04/16: TreeHugger: Glaciers in Karakoram Range Buck Worldwide Trend, Put on Mass Instead of Retreating
- 2012/04/16: CSM: Global warming mystery: Some Himalayan glaciers getting bigger
- 2012/04/16: CSM: Himalayan glaciers could be growing, new study finds
- 2012/04/16: al Jazeera: Himalayan glacier region 'gaining ice'
Study finds some glaciers in Karakoram mountain range are growing in mass, despite ice-melt caused by global warming. - 2012/04/15: Guardian(UK): The glaciers are still shrinking -- and rapidly
A couple of glaciers shrinking more slowly than expected does not change the irrefutable fact that most are melting rapidly - 2012/04/15: Guardian(UK): Karakoram glaciers have grown over last decade, new research shows
- 2012/04/15: BBC: Some glaciers on Asia's Karakoram mountains are defying the global trend and getting thicker, say researchers
Sea levels are rising:
- 2012/04/20: Grist: 287 [US-] coastal energy facilities at risk from sea-level rise
- 2012/04/20: CSW: Senate hearing on "Impacts of Rising Sea Levels on Domestic Infrastructures"
As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:
- 2012/04/19: al Jazeera: Further flooding in Colombia
The rainy season has returned to Colombia. The floods and mudslides never really went away. - 2012/04/21: ABC(Au): Floodwaters peak in far west NSW
- 2012/04/20: al Jazeera: Soggy Sydney
Torrential rain has led to flash flooding across coastal parts of New South Wales, Australia. - 2012/04/19: Wunderground: Southeast U.S. drought: another Tropical Storm Alberto needed
- 2012/04/18: ABC(Au): Wet years for SA, but is it now changing?
South Australia has had the wettest two years on record in 2010 and 2011... - 2012/04/19: ABC(Au): More flooding predicted after wild weather hits NSW
- 2012/04/18: al Jazeera: England continues to run dry
The ongoing drought across England continues to expand. Half the country is now affected. - 2012/04/16: BBC: What is a drought and what are the consequences?
Drought conditions now officially extend across all but the most northerly and westerly counties of England. - 2012/04/15: BBC: Official drought zones have been declared in a further 17 English counties, as a warning came that water shortages could last until Christmas
First, stop subsidizing fossil fuels
Second, put a price on carbon
And elsewhere on the mitigation front: - 2012/04/20: ABC(Au): Carbon scheme bogged down
100 million trees were to be planted in Indonesia under an Australian carbon-reduction scheme. Five years on, only 50,000 seedlings are in the ground. - 2012/04/18: Eureka: Saving forests? Take a leaf from insurance industry's book
A group of environmental scientists say a problem-ridden economic model designed to slow deforestation can be improved by applying key concepts from the insurance industry. REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) is a UN-promoted scheme that allows countries to trade in carbon credits to keep forests intact. It is mainly targeted at developing nations where deforestation and exploitation are a major threat. - 2012/04/18: EnergyBulletin: Transportation and the New Generation: Why Young People are Driving Less and What it Means for Transportation Policy
- 2012/04/17: BBC: Italy leads drop in EU car sales
Car sales in Italy were down 26.7% in March compared with a year earlier, leading the falls in European car sales. Registrations across the EU were down 7.0% to their lowest March level since 1998, according to an Association of European Automakers (ACEA) report. March is traditionally the strongest month for car sales across the 27-nation bloc. It was the sixth consecutive month of falling European car sales. The second biggest decline came in France, where sales were down 23.2%. - 2012/04/20: SlashDot: NASA Unveils Greenest Federal Building In the Nation
- 2012/04/16: TreeHugger: Urban Multifamily Passivhaus in Malmö is Cool and Modern
As for carbon sequestration:
- 2012/04/16: GEP: UK Relaunches CCS Policy
- 2012/04/19: Guardian(UK): Carbon capture in UK under threat as study raises doubts
First comprehensive investigation says potentially disastrous flaws in way government trying to revive commercial interest - 2012/04/18: BBC: Carbon capture 'viable with long-term support'
Capturing and burying the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from power stations is viable - but long-term government support will be needed, a report says. Specialists in technology and economics spent two years researching the issue for the UK Energy Research Council. - 2012/04/20: ArcticNews: Discussion: Should patent law apply to geo-engineering?
Meanwhile in the journals:
- 2012/04/19: ACP: The 2009-2010 Arctic stratospheric winter - general evolution, mountain waves and predictability of an operational weather forecast model by A. Dörnbrack et al.
- 2012/04/19: ACP: Emissions halted of the potent greenhouse gas SF5CF3 by W. T. Sturges et al.
- 2012/04/19: ACPD: Global simulations of nitrate and ammonium aerosols and their radiative effects by L. Xu & J. E. Penner
- 2012/04/18: ACPD: CO2 flux estimation errors associated with moist atmospheric processes by N. C. Parazoo et al.
- 2012/04/18: ESDD: On the relation between Meridional Overturning Circulation and sea-level gradients in the Atlantic by H. Kienert & S. Rahmstorf
- 2012/04/18: ESDD: Volcano impacts on climate and biogeochemistry in a coupled carbon-climate model by D. Rothenberg et al.
- 2012/04/20: CP: Natural variability and anthropogenic effects in a Central Mediterranean core by S. Alessio et al.
- 2012/04/20: CP: Multi-century tree-ring based reconstruction of the Neuquén River streamflow, northern Patagonia, Argentina by I. A. Mundo et al.
- 2012/04/18: CP: A climate model intercomparison for the Antarctic region: present and past by M. N. A. Maris et al.
- 2012/04/18: CP: Tropical Pacific spatial trend patterns in observed sea level: internal variability and/or anthropogenic signature? by B. Meyssignac et al.
- 2012/04/18: CP: The extra-tropical Northern Hemisphere temperature in the last two millennia: reconstructions of low-frequency variability by B. Christiansen & F. C. Ljungqvist
- 2012/04/20: CPD: Vegetation history of Central Chukotka deduced from permafrost paleoenvironmental records of the El'gygytgyn Impact Crater by A. A. Andreev et al.
- 2012/04/20: CPD: The climate in the Baltic Sea region during the last millennium by S. Schimanke et al.
- 2012/04/18: CPD: Influence of LGM boundary conditions on the global water isotope distribution in an atmospheric general circulation model by T. Tharammal et al.
- 2012/04/18: CPD: Mechanisms for European summer temperature response to solar forcing over the last millennium by D. Swingedouw et al.
- 2012/04/17: CPD: Isotopic and lithologic variations of one precisely dated stalagmite across the Medieval/LIA period from Heilong Cave, Central China by Y. F. Cui et al.
- 2012/04/16: CPD: A model-data comparison for a multi-model ensemble of early Eocene atmosphere-ocean simulations: EoMIP by D. J. Lunt et al.
- 2012/04/16: CPD: "Oceanic Anoxic Event 3" - a low- to mid-latitude Atlantic oceanic event during the Coniacian-Santonian by M. Wagreich
- 2012/04/20: Science: (ab$) The State and Fate of Himalayan Glaciers by T. Bolch et al.
- 2012/04/17: NERC:NORA: The link between a global 2°C warming threshold and emissions in years 2020, 2050 and beyond by Chris Huntingford et al.
- 2012/04/17: NERC:NORA: Clarity or confusion?: problems in attributing large-scale ecological changes to anthropogenic drivers by S.M. Smart et al.
- 2012/04/19: NERC:NORA: Interpretation of GRACE data of the Nile Basin using a groundwater recharge model by H.C. Bonsor et al.
- 2012/04/20: ACPD: Improvements of organic aerosol representations and their effects in large-scale atmospheric models by H. Tost & K. J. Pringle
- 2012/04/20: ACPD: Influence of the Arctic Oscillation on the vertical distribution of clouds as observed by the A-Train constellation of satellites by A. Devasthale et al.
- 2012/04/20: ACPD: Hemispheric transport and influence of meteorology on global aerosol climatology by T. L. Zhao et al.
- 2012/04/20: GMD: Addressing the impact of environmental uncertainty in plankton model calibration with a dedicated software system: the Marine Model Optimization Testbed (MarMOT 1.1 alpha) by J. C. P. Hemmings & P. G. Challenor
- 2012/04/18: GMDD: Mid-Pliocene climate modelled using the UK Hadley Centre Model: PlioMIP Experiments 1 and 2 by F. J. Bragg et al.
- 2012/04/19: TC: Influence of surface and subsurface heterogeneity on observed borehole temperatures at a mountain permafrost site in the Upper Engadine, Swiss Alps by S. Schneider et al.
- 2012/04/18: TC: Relation between surface topography and sea-salt snow chemistry from Princess Elizabeth Land, East Antarctica by K. Mahalinganathan et al.
- 2012/04/20: OSD: Operational evaluation of the Mediterranean Monitoring and Forecasting Centre products: implementation and results by M. Tonani et al.
- 2012/04/19: OSD: Long-term monitoring programme of the hydrological variability in the Mediterranean Sea: a first overview of the HYDROCHANGES network by K. Schroeder et al.
- 2012/04/19: GRL: (ab$) Linking emissions of fossil fuel CO2 and other anthropogenic trace gases using atmospheric 14CO2 by John B. Miller et al.
- 2012/04/12: WOL:CB: (ab$) Economic Costs of Achieving Current Conservation Goals in the Future as Climate Changes by M. Rebecca Shaw et al.
- 2012/04/12: WOL:CB: (ab$) Climate Change and the Cost of Conserving Species in Madagascar by Jonah Busch et al.
- 2012/04/19: ERL: Quantitative maps of groundwater resources in Africa by A M MacDonald et al.
- 2012/04/18: PLoS One: Proliferation of Hydroelectric Dams in the Andean Amazon and Implications for Andes-Amazon Connectivity by Matt Finer & Clinton N. Jenkins
- 2012/04/02: Springer:Hydrobiologia: Increasing jellyfish populations: trends in Large Marine Ecosystems by Lucas Brotz et al.
- 2012/04/17: PNAS: (ab$) Residual soil phosphorus as the missing piece in the global phosphorus crisis puzzle by Sheida Z. Sattari et al.
- 2012/04/17: PNAS: (ab$) Natural disasters and population mobility in Bangladesh by Clark L. Gray & Valerie Mueller
- 2012/04/17: PNAS: (ab$) Evolution of the global virtual water trade network by Carole Dalin et al.
- 2012/04/17: PNAS: (abs) Fukushima-derived radionuclides in the ocean and biota off Japan by Ken O. Buesseler et al.
- 2012/04/17: PNAS: (ab$) 9,400 years of cosmic radiation and solar activity from ice cores and tree rings by Friedhelm Steinhilber et al.
- 2012/04/17: PNAS: (letter$) Agricultural legacies, food production and its environmental consequences by Alan R. Townsend & Stephen Porder
- 2012/04/17: WOL:CL: (ab$) iREDD hedges against avoided deforestation's unholy trinity of leakage, permanence and additionality by Penny van Oosterzee et al.
- 2012/02/19: RSC:E&ES: Improving the light-harvesting of amorphous silicon solar cells with photochemical upconversion by Yuen Yap Cheng et al.
- 2012/04/16: GMD: Detection, tracking and event localization of jet stream features in 4-D atmospheric data by S. Limbach et al.
- 2012/04/17: GMDD: A semi-analytical solution to accelerate spin-up of a coupled carbon and nitrogen land model to steady state by J. Xia et al.
- 2012/04/17: OS: Wave climate in the Arkona Basin, the Baltic Sea by T. Soomere et al.
- 2012/04/17: OSD: Validation of FOAM near-surface ocean current forecasts using Lagrangian drifting buoys by E. W. Blockley et al.
- 2012/04/16: OSD: The 2011 marine heat wave off southwest Australia by T. H. Rose et al.
- 2012/04/16: TC: A numerical model for meltwater channel evolution in glaciers by A. H. Jarosch & M. T. Gudmundsson
- 2012/04/17: TCD: Surface and snowdrift sublimation at Princess Elisabeth station, East Antarctica by W. Thiery et al.
- 2012/04/16: TCD: Global application of a surface mass balance model using gridded climate data by R. H. Giesen & J. Oerlemans
- 2012/04/15: Nature:GeoSci: Slight mass gain of Karakoram glaciers in the early twenty-first century by Julie Gardelle et al.
- 2012/04/11: GRL: (ab$) Storm-induced upwelling of high pCO2 waters onto the continental shelf of the western Arctic Ocean and implications for carbonate mineral saturation states by Jeremy T. Mathis et al.
- 2012/04/11: GRL: (ab$) Arctic low cloud changes as observed by MISR and CALIOP: Implication for the enhanced autumnal warming and sea ice loss by Dong L. Wu & Jae N. Lee
- 2012/04/16: AGWObserver: New research from last week 15/2012
And other significant documents:
- 2012/04/14: KPMG: [link to 4.7 meg pdf] Expect the unexpected: Building business value in a changing world
The resources on which business relies are becoming more difficult to access and more costly. Changing patterns of economic growth and wealth are likely to strain infrastructure and natural systems. The unpredictable results of a changing climate will affect physical assets and supply chains. And businesses can expect an ever more complex web of sustainability legislation and fiscal instruments. - 2012/04/21: PI: [link to 4 meg pdf] Drivers' Choice -- Options to manage gridlock and fund rapid transit in the GTA: Public opinion survey and policy options
- 2012/04/18: Brookings: [link to 1.2 meg pdf] Beyond Boom and Bust: Putting Clean Tech On a Path To Subsidy Independence by Mark Muro et al.
- 2012/04/18: SixthEstate: [link to 557k pdf] BC Confidential Report on Elimination of Forest Conservation Laws Available as PDF
- 2012/04/16: UCSUSA: [link to 1.4 meg pdf] State of Charge: Electric Vehicles' Global Warming Emissions and Fuel-Cost Savings Across the United States
As for miscellaneous science:
- 2012/04/19: QuarkSoup: The Problem With Non-climate Scientists Denying Climate Science
- 2012/04/16: SciAm:TAA: Mitiochondria Are Related to Ocean Bacteria, But Not to the Ones We Thought
More DIY science:
- 2012/04/20: moyhu: Interactive JS plotter Ver 2
- 2012/04/20: ERabett: Seeing the Science
What's new in models?
- 2012/04/20: SEasterbrook: Climate modeling in an open, transparent world
What developments in the ongoing struggle for Free Science?
- 2012/04/19: THE(UK): Wider open spaces
Freely accessed papers are simply points in a constellation of scientific communication with the public, says Alice Bell
[...]
For me, the main problem is that open access does not equal open science, and that is something we should be talking about more. - 2012/04/20: Guardian(UK): Open access will be crucial to maintain public confidence in science
Making research papers freely available is about much more than breaking the monopoly of rich academic publishers - 2012/04/19: BCLSB: Elsevier Pranked
Regarding Hansen:
- 2012/04/19: HotTopic: Hansen's righteous cause
- 2012/04/19: TP:JR: NASA's James Hansen Reviews Draft American Meteorological Society Climate Statement: Stronger But Still Inadequate
Regarding Wegman:
- 2012/04/17: ERabett: Wegman's Next Move?
Regarding Loehle:
- 2012/04/20: ERabett: Eli Is a Straightforward Bunny
- 2012/04/18: Stoat: Craig Loehle is sad
Meanwhile on the Kyoto front:
- 2012/04/18: GEP: CDM Issues First [A/R] Afforestation/Reforestation Credits for Brazil Project
While at the UN:
- 2012/04/19: UN: Ending hunger critical to ensuring development that is sustainable - UN official
- 2012/04/18: Guardian(UK): Governments must stop short-term outlook, warns UN development head
[Former New Zealand PM] Helen Clark says that 20 years on from Rio Earth summit, sustainable development is still not mainstream policy - 2012/04/18: UN: Assembly chief urges scientific approaches to sustainable development
And on the carbon trading front:
- 2012/04/20: EurActiv: Brussels sets ball rolling for carbon market intervention
A review of the Emissions Trading System (ETS) has been brought forward a year, offering "a golden opportunity" for a re-examination of the current rules to prop up the depressed carbon market, said Connie Hedegaard, the EU's Climate Action commissioner. The reappraisal would be completed within two months, she said at a press conference outside an informal council of energy and environment ministers in Horsens, Denmark. - 2012/04/20: BBerg: EU Starts Five Battles to Resuscitate Carbon Market, SocGen Says
The European Union, already facing criticism after expanding carbon trading this year to airlines, has opened five battlegrounds in its bid to resuscitate its flagging market, according to Societe Generale SA. "It's very clear their primary goal is to increase prices," Emmanuel Fages, an analyst in Paris for the bank, said today by phone. "It's the result of their political ambition." EU permits today rose to the highest in a month after Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said yesterday the bloc may propose a delay in supply at carbon auctions starting next year. Lawmakers would also continue to consider another plan to temporarily cut supply, known as a set-aside, she told reporters in Horsens, Denmark. There are three other policy initiatives that could also boost prices, Fages said. The bloc is considering installing a 2030 target for the first time, tightening its 2020 target and even expanding the market to include cars and trucks. The bloc should consider expanding its emissions trading system to cover the region's transport industry and shouldn't judge the effectiveness of the program by a decline in carbon-permit prices, Poland said in a report this month obtained by Bloomberg News. - 2012/04/18: Guardian(UK): Is the EU 'juking the stats' of its carbon schemes?
The EU's climate goal is the world's most ambitious, but how much of it is based on false accounting? - 2012/04/18: AlterNet: What If the Greedy Rich Paid Their Share? 8 Things to Know About Wealth and Poverty in the US -- Why We Need a Financial Transaction Tax
On the international political front, tensions continue as the USA and Israel lean on Iran:
- 2012/04/19: EUO: Swiss loophole in EU's Iran oil embargo
- 2012/04/20: AntiWar: Amid Nuclear Talks, Iran Warns EU of More Oil Cutoffs if Sanctions Aren't Lifted
The West expected sanctions on Iranian oil would serve as leverage in negotiations, but Iran is using it against them - 2012/04/21: BBC: China frees Vietnamese fishermen held on Paracel Islands
China has freed 21 Vietnamese fishermen detained last month near disputed islands in the South China Sea, officials say. China accused the men of fishing illegally in waters around the Paracel Islands, which it has occupied since 1974. Vietnam, which also claims the islands, said ... - 2012/04/19: Guardian(UK): Tokyo's rightwing governor plans to buy disputed Senkaku Islands
- 2012/04/17: BBerg: Owner of [Senkaku] Islands Claimed by China to Talk Price With Tokyo
- 2012/04/17: CNN: Tokyo governor outlines plan to buy islands claimed by China
Japan, China and Taiwan all claim sovereignty over a set of islands - The islands are currently controlled by Japan but privately owned - The Tokyo governor announces plans to buy them from the private owner - A maritime clash near the islands in 2010 strained ties between Japan and China
The Tokyo metropolitan government expects to strike a deal to buy a set of islands in the East China Sea claimed by both Japan and China, the governor of Tokyo has said. "Tokyo will protect the Senkaku Islands," the governor, Shintato Ishihara, said during a speech in Washington on Monday, using the Japanese name for the islands. China calls them the Diaoyu Islands. - 2012/04/16: BBC: US and Philippines begin South China Sea drills
Joint military exercises between the US and the Philippines are getting under way in the South China Sea, even as Manila remained locked in a stand-off with Beijing over a disputed shoal. The annual exercises, called Balikatan, are due to run until 27 April. - 2012/04/20: EUO: Scandalous double standards in Repsol affair
- 2012/04/20: EUO: MEPs back YPF-Repsol, despite company violations in Argentina
- 2012/04/20: RWER: Argentina's critics get it wrong again
- 2012/04/20: BBC: YPF oil: EU condemns Repsol state seizure
The European Parliament has passed a resolution condemning a nationalisation that has strained relations between Spain and Argentina. Argentina has nationalised YPF, wiping out the Spanish firm Repsol's controlling-stake in the oil firm. The resolution asks the European Commission to consider a "partial suspension" of tariffs that benefit Argentine exports into the EU. - 2012/04/19: BBC: YPF oil: Spain prepares response to Argentina
Spain says it is rallying international support against Argentina's nationalisation of the oil firm, YPF. - 2012/04/21: BRitholtz: The State of Play: Statists at Play
- 2012/04/22: Guardian(UK): Argentinian president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, rejects criticism over YPF nationalisation
Nationalisation of oil company YPF has been criticised as 'unjustifiable' but the takeover has support in Argentina - 2012/04/18: BBC: YPF oil: Spain threatens retaliation against Argentina
- 2012/04/17: GaianEcon: Argentina Claims Resource Sovereignty
- 2012/04/17: EurActiv: EU outraged as Spain's Repsol ousted from Argentina
Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner unveiled plans yesterday (16 April) to seize control of leading energy company YPF, which is controlled by Spain's Repsol, drawing swift warnings from the European Union and risking the country's economic isolation. - 2012/04/17: al Jazeera: Argentina to seize control of oil company
Move to regain majority stake in YPF by ousting Spain's Repsol prompts angry row between Buenos Aires and Madrid. - 2012/04/16: Guardian(UK): Argentinian president moves to nationalise Spanish-owned oil assets
President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner shocks oil industry by planning to seize 51% of Repsol's Argentinian assets - 2012/04/20: G&M: EU vote on tar sands oil delayed until 2013
The European Commission has decided to carry out a full study into the impact of proposed fuel quality laws on business and markets, delaying until next year any ruling on how to rank the polluting effect of oil from tar sands, an EU official said. Ministers had been expected to vote on the regulations in June as part of EU efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said EU member states would not be asked to decide until early 2013 on the scheme, part of the EU's Fuel Quality Directive, which would rank tar sands oil as more polluting than other fuels. The fuel ranking plan has triggered intense lobbying from Canada, one of the world's largest tar-sands oil producers, as well as opposition from some EU member states whose oil firms are active in such unconventional crudes. - 2012/04/20: CBC: EU delays 'anti-oilsands' fuel quality directive decision
In the Rare Earths' tussle:
- 2012/04/18: AutoBG: Honda will recycle rare earth metals from old hybrid batteries
Regarding the food weapon.......:
- 2012/04/18: BBerg: North Korea Breaks Off Nuclear Accord as Food Aid Halted
Climate Change is a threat multiplier exacerbating existing conflicts in food, energy, water, race, ideology ... etc.:
- 2012/04/18: FastCoexist: U.S. Defense Department Maps Future Climate Turmoil in Africa
Not willing to sit on their heels and find out where disaster will strike on the continent, the U.S. army is attempting to project future weather so they know what's coming. - 2012/04/18: TP:JR: Climate Change, Migration And Conflict In Northwest Africa: Rising Dangers Across The Arc Of Tension
The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world:
- 2012/04/18: PlanetArk: Greenpeace Protests Arctic Drilling In Russia, 23 Detained
What are the activists up to?
- 2012/04/17: Grist: Beyond hugging trees: Russian forest activist puts her life on the line, inspires democracy movement
- 2012/04/18: TreeHugger: Russian Mother Takes On Government, Powerful Interests to Save Moscow's Lungs, the Khimki Forest
- 2012/04/17: Grist: The mother who stood up to Monsanto in Argentina
Polls! We have polls!
- 2012/04/17: NYT: In Poll, Many Link Weather Extremes to Climate Change
Scientists may hesitate to link some of the weather extremes of recent years to global warming -- but the public, it seems, is already there. A poll due for release on Wednesday shows that a large majority of Americans believe that this year's unusually warm winter, last year's blistering summer and some other weather disasters were probably made worse by global warming. And by a 2-to-1 margin, the public says the weather has been getting worse, rather than better, in recent years. The survey, the most detailed to date on the public response to weather extremes, comes atop other polling showing a recent uptick in concern about climate change. Read together, the polls suggest that direct experience of erratic weather may be convincing some people that the problem is no longer just a vague and distant threat. - 2012/04/19: TreeHugger: Seven Out of Ten Americans Agree: Climate Change Leads to Extreme Weather
- 2012/04/20: KSJT: NYTimes, LiveScience, etc: Public gets out ahead of climate science -- blames warming for extreme weather
- 2012/04/18: CSM: As extreme weather events increase, so does acceptance of climate science (+video)
- 2012/04/18: RawStory: Activist: New climate poll shows 'reality will trump big dollar denial efforts'
- 2012/04/18: PSinclair: Public Linking Severe Weather to Climate Change
- 2012/04/18: KlimaZwiebel: Climate change in the back of our minds
- 2012/04/18: TP:JR: Poll: Large Majority Of Americans Understand Global Warming Made Several Major Extreme Weather Events Worse
Regarding Water Politics and Business:
- 2012/04/20: JFleck: Best worst Rio Grande forecast briefing ever
- 2012/04/19: JFleck: Paying the cost of savings
- 2012/04/21: Guardian(UK): Hope for the Egyptian Nubians damned by the dam
Half a century after the inundation, Nubians may finally have the prospect of compensation for the loss of their homeland - 2012/04/19: JFleck: When is a forecast not a forecast?
- 2012/04/17: Fraunhofer: Use less water, producing energy and fertilizer at the same time
Water is a valuable resource. New technologies are making it easier to handle drinking water responsibly, purify wastewater effectively and even recover biogas and fertilizer. Fraunhofer researchers will be showing how this is done at the Hannover Fair (23 - 27 April) in the House of Sustainability (Hall 2). - 2012/04/17: JFleck: A border water fight -- not over how much, but rather when
- 2012/04/16: BBC: Water proves a prize asset
And on the groundwater front:
- 2012/04/20: al Jazeera: Study reveals groundwater resources in Africa
Project that maps underground aquifers in multiple countries could be 'of strategic importance' if not mismanaged. - 2012/04/20: CBC: Africa has vast supplies of underground water, study finds
- 2012/04/20: BBC: 'Huge' water resource exists under Africa
Scientists say the notoriously dry continent of Africa is sitting on a vast reservoir of groundwater. They argue that the total volume of water in aquifers underground is 100 times the amount found on the surface. The team have produced the most detailed map yet of the scale and potential of this hidden resource. - 2012/04/19: TCoE: Climate Change Crash Course
- 2012/04/17: CDreams: The Republicans Who Want Ignorance to Get Equal Time in Schools
Education is the new Republican enemy. No more free thinking and empirical evidence, just the Bible, rumour and Fox News - 2012/04/16: TP:JR: What You Should Know About Exxon-Mobil's Hypocritical Science Education Ad Campaign
Ethics? You want to talk about ethics?
- 2012/04/15: TP:JR: Must-Read Caldeira: 'The Only Ethical Path Is To Stop Using The Atmosphere As A Waste Dump For Greenhouse Gas Pollution'
Oy veh - shrinkology:
- 2012/04/19: Grist: People sitting in warm rooms are more likely to believe in global warming
And on the American political front:
- 2012/04/20: TP:JR: Republican Meteorologist: Climate Change Has Nothing To Do With Al Gore
- 2012/04/19: BBerg: Climate Change Has Nothing to Do With Al Gore (Part 1): Paul Douglas
- 2012/04/20: TP:JR: States In [RGGI] Northeast Cap And Trade Program Reduce CO2 20% Faster And Grow GDP At Twice The Rate of Other States
- 2012/04/20: TreeHugger: Vermont Senate Votes to Ban Fracking
- 2012/04/20: OilDrum: The Myth That the US Will Soon Become an Oil Exporter
- 2012/04/20: AutoBG: Will California's ZEV mandate expand across the country?
- 2012/04/19: Oregonian: Oregon's low-carbon fuel standard faces legislative, legal hurdles
Oregon's controversial plans to shift to lower carbon car and truck fuels needs a second blessing by the Legislature to move forward, Gov. John Kitzhaber's top natural resources adviser said today. That means Oregon's "low carbon fuel standard," the environmental highlight of the 2009 Legislature, won't take effect until at least 2015. - 2012/04/20: DbP: Anti-immigrant CAPS: new ad links migrants with carbon emissions
- 2012/04/19: CBO: An Overview of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
- 2012/04/19: AlterNet: Is Vermont's Governor Surrendering to Monsanto?
- 2012/04/21: CCP: [Iowa] State senators disagree over "climate change" (audio)
- 2012/04/19: TP:JR: A Refundable Federal Tax Credit Could Remove Barriers To Community Wind
- 2012/04/19: TP:JR: Can We Stop The Collapse of Federal Clean Energy Support Without Talking About Climate Change Or A Carbon Price?
- 2012/04/18: NYT: Oregon Town Weighs a Future With an Old Energy Source: Coal
- 2012/04/18: STimes: Kitzhaber, Wyden have reservations about coal plan
Gov. John Kitzhaber and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden have expressed reservations about plans to export coal from the Great Plains to Asia by moving it through Oregon. - 2012/04/19: OPB: Climate Change Threats: How Prepared is the PNW?
- 2012/04/17: NPR: War Of The Worlds: When Science, Politics Collide
- 2012/04/18: PSinclair: Northeast Cap and Trade System [RGGI] Boosts Economic Growth
- 2012/04/15: Grist: Four important food and farm stories you may have missed
- 2012/04/16: OPB: Washington Not Ready For Implications Of B.C. Pipeline Expansion
- 2012/04/10: RS: Why GOP Mega-Donor Sheldon Adelson Is Mad, Bad and a Danger to the Republic
- 2012/04/14: AlterNet: Tennessee Skewers Teaching of Evolution in Schools -- Is Your State Next?
- 2012/04/15: AlterNet: It's Time to Stop the Nuclear Energy Welfare Program
The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:
- 2012/04/20: CNN: Three lessons linger from BP oil spill
Donna Brazile: Observances of Earth Day and the second year since BP oil spill are upon us - As spill fades in memory, she says, we must remember why it drew out our shared humanity - She says 3 lessons emerged: One, only Big Business has means to clean up own mess - Brazile: Government staying out of way leads to disaster; any regulation is not overregulation - 2012/04/20: TP:JR: Five Reasons We Can't Forget About The BP Oil Disaster
- 2012/04/19: Guardian(UK): Deepwater Horizon aftermath: how much is a dolphin worth?
Two years after the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, BP and US authorities wrangle over how much should be paid in damages - 2012/04/20: SciAm:Obs: Oil Habit Unchanged on Two-Year Anniversary of BP's Gulf of Mexico Spill
- 2012/04/20: SciAm:GB: The BP Oil Spill Anniversary: Opportunities to Learn
- 2012/04/19: DM:80B: Eyeless Shrimp, Clawless Crabs, & Other Nightmarish Effects of the Gulf Oil Spill
- 2012/04/19: EcoWatch: BP Covered Up [Caspian] Blow-out Two Years Prior to Deadly Deepwater Horizon Spill
- 2012/04/20: EcoWatch: Part 2: BP Covered Up Blow-out Prior to Deepwater Horizon
- 2012/04/20: TreeHugger: 2 Years After the BP Spill: 2 Big Unanswered Questions + A Prior Accident Hidden From Congress
- 2012/04/20: TreeHugger: 2 Years After the BP Spill: Oceana Says It's Not If Another Oil Spill Will Happen, But When
- 2012/04/20: UGa: Marine scientists urge government to reassess oil spill response
- 2012/04/20: Eureka: NCEAS researchers offer new ecological model for deep-water oil spills
On the second anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform blowout, a national panel of researchers is providing new insight into what happened in the disaster, as well as a guide for how to deal with such events in the future, and why existing tools were inadequate to predict what lay before them. The study, produced by the Gulf Oil Spill Ecotox Working Group at UC Santa Barbara's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), is published in the May issue of the journal Bioscience. It is titled, "A Tale of Two Spills: Novel Science and Policy Implications of an Emerging New Oil Spill Model." - 2012/04/20: GreenPeace: 5 important lessons not learnt from Deepwater Horizon
- 2012/04/20: DeSmogBlog: The State Of The Gulf Two Years After Deepwater Horizon Disaster
- 2012/04/20: SciAm:SS: Reflections On The Gulf Oil Spill: Conversations With My Grandpa
- 2012/04/20: AlterNet: Billions in Fines Don't Matter -- Here's How BP Should Be Punished for the Gulf Disaster
- 2012/04/20: al Jazeera: Has safety improved since the BP oil spill?
Two years on, we ask if oil companies can be relied upon to regulate their own standards or if legislation is necessary. - 2012/04/21: al Jazeera: BP blamed for ongoing health problems
Gulf Coast residents and clean up workers have found chemicals present in BP's oil in their own bloodstreams. - 2012/04/20: al Jazeera: Gulf of Mexico spill takes toll on health
While some ailing local residents and clean-up workers have settled with BP, others have filed class-action suits. - 2012/04/19: NakedCapitalism: George Washington: 2 Years After the BP Oil Spill, Is the Gulf Ecosystem Collapsing?
- 2012/04/19: NYT: A Stain That Won't Wash Away
Two years after a series of gambles and ill-advised decisions on a BP drilling project led to the largest accidental oil spill in United States history and the death of 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, no one has been held accountable. - 2012/04/18: Eureka: Scientists find higher concentrations of heavy metals in post-oil spill oysters from Gulf of Mexico
Comparisons between pre- and post-spill specimens show an increase in vanadium, chromium, cobalt, and lead concentrations in shells, gill, and muscle tissue - 2012/04/18: AlterNet: Eyeless Shrimp and Fish With Tumors: The Horrific Consequences of BP's Spill
- 2012/04/19: al Jazeera: BP proposes Gulf spill settlements
Oil company expects to pay $7.8bn to resolve claims, after 2010 Deepwater Horizon rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. - 2012/04/19: al Jazeera: Gulf fisheries in decline after oil disaster
Nearly two years after BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, fishermen and scientists say things are getting worse. - 2012/04/18: TP:JR: API Calls Its Own Post-BP Reform Efforts 'Strong,' 'Stronger,' And 'Strongest'
- 2012/04/17: NYT: Panel Faults Congress for Inaction on Drilling
Members of the presidential panel that investigated the 2010 BP oil rig explosion and spill sharply criticized Congress on Tuesday for refusing to act on any of its recommendations and gave the Obama administration and the oil industry mixed marks. Their report said that federal regulators and major oil companies had generally improved the safety and oversight of drilling operations since the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the worst in the nation's history. But the group said that Congress, hostile to new regulation and mired in partisan gridlock, had utterly failed. - 2012/04/18: TP:JR: Legacy Of BP Oil Spill: Eyeless Shrimp And Fish With Lesions
- 2012/04/18: CSM: BP settles with private plantiffs over Gulf oil spill
- 2012/04/18: al Jazeera: Gulf seafood deformities alarm scientists
Eyeless shrimp and fish with lesions are becoming common, with BP oil pollution believed to be the likely cause. - 2012/04/17: PlanetArk: Judge Extends Deadline For BP Oil Spill Accord [to Wednesday morning from Monday]
- 2012/04/17: PlanetArk: Natural Oil Seep Caused Gulf Of Mexico Sheen: BSEE
- 2012/04/17: NatureN: Lessons of Deepwater Horizon still not learned -- Commission gives mixed ratings to political and industrial response to 2010 disaster
- 2012/04/17: VIMS: Can sound science guide dispersant use during subsea oil spills?
- 2012/04/16: PlanetArk: Florida Seeks To Delay Approval Of BP Settlement
On the 2012 campaign trail:
- 2012/04/20: AutoBG: Ex-Fisker chair blames Mitt Romney's attacks for DOE loan hold-up
- 2012/04/18: Atlantic: Obama vs. Romney: Unknowable Foreign-Policy Differences
There's no sure way to predict who will do what if elected. - 2012/04/20: Grist: How Obama and Romney compare on green issues
- 2012/04/21: CCurrents: What Could Be The Energy Policy Decisions In An Election Year?
- 2012/04/19: MoJo: Charts: Dirty Energy's Election Ad Spending Spree
How much are oil, gas, and coal interests shelling out to influence this year's presidential race? You'll have to see it to believe it. - 2012/04/19: ChicagoTrib: Facts, 360 B.C.-A.D. 2012 -- In memoriam: After years of health problems, Facts has finally died. [2012]
- 2012/04/19: TP:JR: Chart: How Obama And Romney Compare On Energy Issues
- 2012/04/18: TreeHugger: Why the Sierra Club is Endorsing President Obama
- 2012/04/17: AlterNet: Green Party Candidate Jill Stein: 'Political Silence Has Not Been an Effective Strategy'
Gas Prices look to remain a major issue in the election:
- 2012/04/20: TP:JR: A Real Solution To High Gas Prices: New Fuel Economy Standards Will Save Consumers Billions Of Dollars Per Year
- 2012/04/17: TP:JR: Romney Slams Obama's Proposal To Lower Gas Prices By Reining In Excessive Speculation
- 2012/04/18: CSM: Why Obama can't control gas prices
The Keystone XL saga rolls along:
- 2012/04/20: FAIR: NY Times Bungles Keystone Debate (Again)
- 2012/04/19: CBC: New Keystone pipeline Nebraska route unveiled -- Revised path avoids disputed Sandhills region
- 2012/04/18: CBC: Keystone XL pipeline supported by U.S. House -- TransCanada submits new pipeline route through Nebraska
- 2012/04/17: TheHill:e2W: White House threatens veto of highway bill over Keystone pipeline provision
- 2012/04/17: TreeHugger: GOP Slaps Keystone XL Onto (Another) Transportation Bill, Obama Threatens Veto
Federal support for clean tech is falling precipitously:
- 2012/04/20: TreeHugger: U.S. is Pretty Much on Track to Stop Funding Clean Tech Altogether
- 2012/04/18: Grist: U.S. cleantech support about to fall off a cliff
- 2012/04/18: Grist: [US] Cleantech spending drops 75 percent in five years
- 2012/04/18: NatureNB: Averting the clean tech bust
More conflict at the NRC:
- 2012/04/19: EneNews: Senate Leader: NRC Commissioner 'Lied To Congress' - Could bring Senate to grinding halt
- 2012/04/19: APR: The NRC's internal problems resurface in revenge
- 2012/04/20: CSM: 'War on women' rhetoric turns nuclear power spat radioactive
The GOP War on Women is mutating in the background:
- 2012/04/18: TMoS: From the "They Did WHAT?" File
- 2012/04/15: AlterNet: Conservatives' Losing Bet on Birth Control: History Suggests They Might've Woken a Sleeping Giant
- 2012/04/16: al Jazeera: Hilary Rosen, Ann Romney and spinning the "Mommy Wars"
It's Wall Street, not wage-earning women, who threaten civilisation as we know it, writes Paul Rosenberg. - 2012/04/17: CNN: Obama moves to curb oil speculators
- 2012/04/17: CSM: Analysts react to Obama plan for curbing oil speculation
The White House unveiled a proposal on Tuesday to crack down on speculation in oil markets which has been blamed by some politicians for the rising price of crude and fuel. The plan calls for a tenfold increase in the maximum civil and criminal penalties that can be applied for the manipulation of oil futures markets, the White House said. The Obama administration is also calling for Congress to provide more funding to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to increase surveillance and enforcement staff for oil futures market trading. The proposal also calls on the CFTC to be given the power to raise margin requirements in oil futures markets. The rising cost of oil and fuel in the world's top consumer has become a central focus of the U.S. presidential election this year. - 2012/04/17: Cryptome: Executive Order 13605--Supporting Safe and Responsible Development of Unconventional Domestic Natural Gas Resources
The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:
- 2012/04/20: NOAANews: Severe weather: Know your risk, take action, be a force of nature
NOAA, FEMA launch first National Severe Weather Preparedness Week April 22-28 - 2012/04/20: OilChange: New EPA Regs Address Fracking....in 2015
- 2012/04/19: GreenGrok: EPA Rule Co-Benefit: Less Natural Gas Leakage
- 2012/04/20: TreeHugger: Meet ARPA-E, the US Government's Cleantech Incubator (Video)
- 2012/04/19: TP:JR: Let's Get The Facts Straight Over Mercury Standards
- 2012/04/19: PlanetArk: Fracking Rules Let Drillers Flare Till 2015
- 2012/04/19: ERabett:BSD: Live blogging the new EPA coal plant rule - this'll be exciting
- 2012/04/18: EPA: EPA Issues Updated, Achievable Air Pollution Standards for Oil and Natural Gas...
- 2012/04/18: TreeHugger: EPA Finalizes Fracking Rules - Gives Industry 30 Months to Fully Comply
- 2012/04/18: STimes: EPA to cut air pollution from fracking
The Obama administration on Wednesday set the first-ever national standards to control air pollution from gas wells that are drilled using a method called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, but not without making concessions to the oil and gas industry. - 2012/04/18: TP:JR: New EPA Rules Cut Air Pollution From Oil And Gas Drilling
- 2012/04/17: NOAANews: Local students deploy global ocean drifter off of Massachusetts -- Former astronaut joins award-winning students
- 2012/04/18: AutoBG: DOE's Chu again says EVs are a solution to foreign-oil problem
- 2012/04/16: PlanetArk: Obama Streamlines Oversight Of Shale Gas
- 2012/04/16: TreeHugger: President Obama Creates New Fracking Oversight Panel, Overlooks Fracking's Eco-Impact
As for what is going on in Congress:
- 2012/04/20: ScienceInsider: House Panel Would Protect Domestic Fusion Program
- 2012/04/20: CCentral: Senate Testimony on Sea Level Rise by Ben Strauss -- Testimony for Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, April 19, 2012
- 2012/04/18: ScienceInsider: House Bill Would Let NOAA Keep Satellites
- 2012/04/17: ScienceInsider: Senate Panel Would Shake Up Satellite Program
- 2012/04/18: ERabett: Wanna Guess? [Monnett & al.]
- 2012/04/16: TP:JR: Sensible Ocean Policy Falling Victim To Political Games
What are the lobbyists pushing?
- 2012/04/19: AlterNet: Shocking Conflict of Interest: Private Water Companies Partner With Fracking Lobby
- 2012/04/18: TreeHugger: ALEC Kills Controversial Task Force -- But Still Plans Attacks on Enviro Protections, Science Education
- 2012/04/16: DeSmogBlog: Institute for Energy Research Launches "Save Oil Tax Breaks" Offensive
While in the UK:
- 2012/04/19: Guardian(UK): We need this key commitment to climate action by Nick Clegg & Edward Davey
It is crucial that Europe implements a 30% cut in carbon by 2020. And it'll make us globally competitive too - 2012/04/19: Guardian(UK): Nick Clegg calls for tougher carbon penalties for businesses
Deputy PM asserts support for green policies following Tory attacks on wind energy proposals and 'conservatory tax' - 2012/04/17: Scotsman: Scotland 'faces bill of £30bn' after North Sea oil runs out
- 2012/04/18: Guardian(UK): Britain merely 'outsourcing' carbon emissions to China, say MPs
- 2012/04/18: Guardian(UK): Has the carbon footprint of our consumption finally peaked?
New data released by DEFRA shows the total carbon footprint of UK consumption, including imports. Will we ever get back to the peak of 2006? - 2012/04/18: Guardian(UK): On fracking and wind we are having the wrong debates
- 2012/04/18: BBC: MPs warn UK pollution outsourcing
- 2012/04/17: BBC: Green home improvements proposals 'dropped'
Plans to make anyone carrying out a loft or garage conversion pay more for environmental upgrades "will not happen", Downing Street sources say. - 2012/04/17: EurActiv: UK gas 'fracking' gets green light
Ministers have been advised to allow the controversial practice of fracking for shale gas to be extended in Britain, despite it causing two earthquakes and the emergence of serious doubts over the safety of the wells that have already been drilled. - 2012/04/17: Guardian(UK): Fracking: green groups denounce report approving further exploration
- 2012/04/17: BBC: Fracking 'should continue with checks'
A controversial gas extraction method which triggered two earth tremors near Blackpool last year should continue, but under strict conditions, a government-named panel of experts says. - 2012/04/17: ABC(Au): Government backs clean energy fund review
The Federal Government has accepted all the recommendations of an independent review that has mapped out a framework for its proposed clean energy investment fund. The Government is planning to establish the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation fund through legislation announced as part of the carbon tax package that will be put before Parliament next month. A review panel was appointed to design the fund and set out the process for its investments in renewable energy, low emissions and energy efficiency technology. The panel has made an extensive list of recommendations, including a directive that the Government should set the broad mandate for the corporation but should not guide specific investment decisions. - 2012/04/15: Guardian(UK): Green deal under fire from climate change sceptics
Environment policies under attack include the green deal incentive that offers insulation to homeowners - 2012/04/20: EurActiv: Parliament shoots down Commission's energy tax plan
Conservatives in the European Parliament delivered a setback for European Commission plans to erase tax benefits for diesel fuel, saying that a period of austerity and high fuel costs is not the time for such moves. MEPS voted 374-217, with 73 abstentions, for an overhaul of the EU executive's year-old draft energy taxation directive that would require members states to end their practice of taxing diesel fuel at lower rates than gasoline. The vote also calls for changes to the Commission's proposed minimum carbon tax on emissions from households, farms and the transport industry not already covered under the EU's Emissions Trading System, the EU's main tool to reduce carbon dioxide pollution. - 2012/04/19: EurActiv: Commission 'wake up call' on energy savings law
Member states have watered down the draft Energy Efficiency Directive so much that only 38% of the initial savings proposed by the European Commission can now be achieved, according to a "non-paper" by the EU Executive seen by EurActiv. The European Commission wants to place EU member states in front of their responsibilities ahead of an informal meeting of energy and environment ministers taking pace in Horsens, Denmark, today (19 April). In a paper circulated amongst the ministers, the EU executive contrasts the member country's accepted provisions on the draft energy savings bill with its initial proposals. This is the first time the Commission has done this since it put the draft on the table more than a year ago. - 2012/04/21: SwissInfo: Minister defends planned use of gas power
Energy Minister Doris Leuthard has rejected criticism of government plans to replace nuclear energy with gas and water power as well as energy saving measures. Leuthard said the cabinet's energy outlines, presented last Wednesday, were in line with the policy on climate change. It is crucial to reduce the use of fossil energy and promote renewable resources, she said in an interview in Saturday's edition of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper. - 2012/04/20: CBC: French presidential candidates make last pitches
Presidential hopefuls in the first round of France's election are making their final pitches today, the last day of campaigning before Sunday's vote, and polls show a close race between the front-runners -- President Nicholas Sarkozy and socialist candidate Francois Hollande. - 2012/04/18: Guardian(UK): Is the EU 'juking the stats' of its carbon schemes?
The EU's climate goal is the world's most ambitious, but how much of it is based on false accounting? - 2012/04/18: EurActiv: NGO accuses MEP of using anti-Russian bias to tout shale gas
The environmental group Food & Water Europe has accused the Polish author of a European Parliament report on shale gas extraction of resorting to "Cold War" rhetoric against Russia to support the industry's development. - 2012/04/18: EUO: New EU energy savings proposals low on ambition [20% by 2020]
- 2012/04/17: EurActiv: Piebalgs: EU energy aid to include gas, exclude biofuels
Some of the EU's millions of euros of energy aid to the developing world could be spent on gas projects, EU Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has told EurActiv. But biofuels, nuclear and coal energy will not be funded. - 2012/04/16: EurActiv: Solar companies warn against 'dangerous' tariff talk
Meanwhile in Australia:
- 2012/04/20: ABC(Au): [ACT] Govt's climate change action 'inadequate'
The ACT Greens have criticised the Government for its poor performance in implementing its first climate change action plan. The Government released the Weathering the Change Action Plan 1 in 2007, outlining 43 initiatives to tackle climate change. The ACT sustainability and environment commissioner recommended the Government conduct annual reviews of how it is rolling out the plan, but that has not happened. Now the Greens have done their own review. - 2012/04/21: ABC(Au): Abbott tries to trump 'green tape' scheme
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has announced a policy that he hopes will trump the Government's plans to streamline the "green tape" of environmental approvals. In a speech delivered in Brisbane, Mr Abbott outlined a plan for state and territory governments to act as one-stop shops to fast-track environmental approvals for developments. Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the state and territory leaders reached a similar agreement last week, but Mr Abbott says his proposal goes further and that it could also apply to local councils. - 2012/04/19: ABC(Au): Federal Govt under pressure to close polluting power stations
Eleanor Hall: The Federal Government is being lobbied to buy up and shut down two of Australia's most polluting power stations. Residents in Port Augusta in South Australia blame the Playford B and Northern power stations for health and environmental problems in their community, which they say include higher than average cancer levels. Both power stations are under consideration for closure under the Federal Government's Contract for Closure program. Today environmentalists will release a plan to turn them into solar thermal plants. - 2012/04/18: ABC(Au): Carbon neutral next step for organic winery
David Bruer is something of a wine industry pioneer, for his commitment to making his wines carbon neutral. He is pushing for an Australian first, to turn his Langhorne Creek organic winery, south of Adelaide, into a carbon neutral operation. Mr Bruer already runs Australia's largest dedicated organic winery. Going carbon neutral would make his Temple Bruer label the only winery in Australia to be both organic and carbon neutral. - 2012/04/17: ABC(Au): Ludwig defends Henbury Station carbon plan
Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig has defended the Federal Government's decision to help a private company buy a Northern Territory cattle station to try to produce carbon credits. - 2012/04/17: ABC(Au): [Tasmanian Climate Change Minister, Cassy O'Connor] to revamp climate council
Tasmanian's Climate Change Minister is taking steps to strengthen the influence of the Climate Action Council. The move has been recommended in an independent review of the council tabled in Parliament. - 2012/04/17: ABC(Au): $1b carbon tax write-down for NSW generator
A New South Wales Government owned electricity generator, Macquarie Generation, says the carbon tax will devalue its assets by about $1 billion. Macquarie Generation operates the Liddell and Bayswater power stations in the Hunter Valley. The write-down figure is contained in Macquarie Generation's half yearly report, which has been tabled in State Parliament. The revelation is a blow to the State Government's plans to sell its generator assets, which had been hoped to raise billions of dollars. The State Government has been demanding federal compensation for the depreciation. - 2012/04/16: ABC(Au): [Coal and gas-fired, Latrobe Valley] Power station project halted despite legal victory
- 2012/04/16: ABC(Au): Five star energy rating more practical: MBA
The Master Builders Association (MBA) says Victoria has gone too far in demanding new homes be built to six-star energy efficiency standard. - 2012/04/16: ABC(Au): Six star energy rating here to stay: Premier
Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu has ruled out scrapping the six star energy rating requirement for new houses. The requirement sets out minimum energy efficiency levels for properties. - 2012/04/16: PeakEnergy: Farewell Bob Brown
- 2012/04/16: ABC(Au): Greens will not budge on tax cuts: Milne
New Greens leader Christine Milne has put the Federal Government on notice that her party will not support corporate tax cuts for big business. - 2012/04/22: BBC: Australia's Speaker steps down amid harassment claims
- 2012/04/22: ABC(Au): Slipper stands aside amid harassment claims
Peter Slipper has stood aside as Federal Parliamentary Speaker amid allegations he sexually harassed a staffer and misused taxpayer-funded Cabcharges. Mr Slipper flew back to Australia from an overseas trip today amid allegations from former aide James Ashby that were filed in the Federal Court on Frida - 2012/04/22: ABC(Au): Labor on Parliamentary edge as Slipper stands aside
Peter Slipper's dramatic decision to stand aside as Speaker will put Labor back on a Parliamentary knife-edge, but will not bring down the minority Government. The Sunshine Coast MP is facing allegations he sexually harassed a staffer and misused taxpayer-funded Cabcharges. - 2012/04/22: al Jazeera: Australian parliament speaker steps aside
Peter Slipper temporarily replaced amid harassment and fraud allegations, weakening Labor Party's hold on power. - 2012/04/20: ABC(Au): New Queensland Govt gets extension on Murray Darling feedback
- 2012/04/20: ABC(Au): Darling Downs farmers consider legal action against Toowoomba Council
A row over water that was sold to a miner threatens to challenge the next Toowoomba Regional Council. - 2012/04/22: ABC(Au): Water wars
- 2012/04/19: ABC(Au): Council probes flood management measures
The Western Downs Regional Council says a flood study it has commissioned is among a number of flood management strategies it is examining. - 2012/04/19: ABC(Au): Irrigators keen for water buybacks
A South Australian water broker says there has been a sharp rise in expressions of interest for the latest round of Commonwealth water buybacks. Expressions of interest to sell water from the southern part of the Murray-Darling Basin closed last month. Waterfind's analysis shows most of the demand is from South Australian and New South Wales' irrigators along the River Murray and the Murrumbidgee River. Successful applicants have until next Friday to nominate a price for consideration by the Federal Government. - 2012/04/19: ABC(Au): Coal action group says government process to protect aquifers is flawed
- 2012/04/17: ABC(Au): Desal plant on track to produce 100B litres of H2O
A desalination plant in the state's South West is on track to be producing 100 billion litres of water by the end of the year. Construction is underway on the second phase of the Southern Seawater Desalination Plant in Binningup, which was officially opened last September. - 2012/04/17: ABC(Au): Irrigators back call for Murray plan changes
A Riverland irrigators' group has backed the South Australian Government's call for a socioeconomic plan for the River Murray. Premier Jay Weatherill has detailed 71 amendments to the Murray-Darling Basin draft plan. - 2012/04/16: ABC(Au): Community wraps up its thoughts on Murray-Darling water reform
In southern Queensland the state's portion of the Murray-Darling Basin covers 15 per cent of the state and a quarter of the overall Basin. - 2012/04/16: ABC(Au): SA Premier demands 71 Murray plan improvements
And in New Zealand:
- 2012/04/20: TheCanadian: The Canada-New Zealand Fracking Connection
- 2012/04/17: HotTopic: Asking the hard questions
While in China:
- 2012/04/19: AWN: China Aims 5 Million Green Cars on the Road by 2020
- 2012/04/18: BBC: Another 100,000 people may be moved from the area around China's massive Three Gorges Dam because of landslides and bank collapses, state media say
- 2012/04/18: CBC: Three Gorges Dam danger may force out 100,000 people
Landslides and other disasters up 70% since the water level hit maximum level in 2010 Another 100,000 people may have to move away from China's Three Gorges Dam due to the risk of disastrous landslides and bank collapses around the reservoir of the world's biggest hydroelectric facility, state media said Wednesday. - 2012/04/16: PakObs: First climate change adaptation project launched in Pakistan
At a time when glacier melting is a burning issue in Pakistan, concerned experts met here on Monday to highlight the emerging climate-change challenges and to reduce threats of floods in Northern Pakistan. To mitigate the risks caused by sudden discharge of a huge volume of water from glacial lakes, a first of its kind project titled "Reducing Risks and Vulnerabilities from Glacier Lake Outburst Floods" in Northern Pakistan (GLOF Project) was launched. Pakistan's first Climate Change Adaptation project would focus on mitigating risks stemming out from the Glacier Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF). The project, managed by the Ministry of National Disaster Management in collaboration with UNDP, would be implemented in two pilot sites: Bagrot Valley in Gilgit-Baltistan and Drongagh Valley Chitral in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. - 2012/04/18: BBerg: Israel-Cyprus Deal on Gas as Lebanon Refuses Negotiation: Energy
Israel's biggest gas discovery, potentially turning the fuel importer into an exporter, is prompting a race by nations from Lebanon to Turkey to tap similar deposits in disputed waters of the East Mediterranean. Noble Energy Inc. (NBL) is developing the Leviathan and Tamar fields off Israel that hold about 30 trillion cubic feet of gas, more than triple the U.K.'s remaining reserves and worth about $670 billion at today's prices. - 2012/04/20: QuarkSoup: Mexico passes climate-change law : Nature News
- 2012/04/20: NatureN: Mexico passes climate-change law
As the Kyoto Protocol winds down without a strong replacement, countries are implementing their own strategies to reduce global warming. - 2012/04/19: Reuters: Mexican senate clears way for climate bill
Mexico's Senate on Thursday passed a climate change bill aimed at encouraging a voluntary carbon emissions trading market, clearing the way for President Felipe Calderon to sign it, as expected, into law. - 2012/04/20: BBC: Inside Mexico's climate revolution
Following a vote in its Senate on Thursday evening, Mexico is poised to become just the second country in the world to enshrine long-term climate targets into national legislation. The margin of the vote was huge - 78-0 - indicating that all political parties have found common ground on this issue. Now all that's needed is the signature of President Felipe Calderon, which is expected to materialise next week. - 2012/04/15: CCurrents: Cuba Prepares For Rising Sea Levels And Extreme Weather
In Canada, neocon PM Harper pushes petroleum while doing nothing about climate change:
- 2012/04/20: Rabble: Orwellian times for Canada
- 2012/04/19: Straight: Stephen Harper repeats U.S. Republican lines on energy
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and ex-senator Rick Santorum use language touted by right-wing spin doctor Frank Luntz. - 2012/04/20: CBC: Why Canada just pumps out cheap oil
- 2012/04/21: PostMedia: Canada's coal industry pressured feds to weaken regulations, records say
Environment Canada weakened a draft version of regulations to crack down on pollution from coal-fired power plants following pressure from the industry, newly-released federal records have revealed. - 2012/04/18: SudburySteve: Mining and Climate Change, Part 4: The NDP and the Wrong Carbon Pricing Policy
- 2012/04/15: SudburySteve: Mining and Climate Change, Part 3: Multiple Issues with Conservative Party Approaches to Emissions Management
- 2012/04/17: G&M: Oil industry woes weigh down Canadian economy
Troubles facing the Alberta oil patch could become troubles for the Canadian economy. For much of 2012, Canada has faced a dual threat from divergent oil prices, with international crude selling more than $30 (U.S.) a barrel above some Canadian product. Oil prices have sagged in Canada amid growing problems shipping to markets outside Alberta. - 2012/04/17: PEF: The Economics of Deception
- 2012/04/17: BCLSB: On April 26th, The Abortion Debate Gets Briefly Re-Opened
- 2012/04/15: PostMedia: Feds warned not to 'cheerlead' for oilsands
Federal bureaucrats warned Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government not to become "cheerleaders" for the oilpatch as it launched a sophisticated lobbying and marketing campaign - lightheartedly described as "God's work" - to promote the industry abroad and challenge foreign climate change policies, newly released internal documents have revealed. "Given the ever-increasing attention this issue is receiving in the U.S. and Europe, and the importance of the issue to the Canadian economy and our international reputation, a more concerted strategy is needed in some jurisdictions," said a draft strategy produced in the early days of the plan. "At the same time, we must carefully balance our messaging to ensure that we cannot be accused by oil sands opponents of simply being cheerleaders or apologists for the industry; the environmental challenges of the oil sands are huge (although not as dire as some NGOs claim) so taking a facts-based approach is vital." - 2012/04/19: CBC: Federal cuts not fully known until spring 2013
About 19,200 positions expected to be eliminated over 3 years, but details trickling out slowly - 2012/04/16: PostMedia: Environment Canada will see dramatic change of role after budget cuts: critics
With emerging details on cuts to research on air pollution, water quality, industrial waste and emergency disaster response, government officials and its critics are indicating that Environment Canada will soon undergo dramatic changes to its role of using and promoting scientific evidence to protect Canadian society. The department's science and technology branch is facing a $7.5-million reduction in spending following last month's federal budget. It will eliminate key research and monitoring initiatives as well as some long-standing partnerships that promoted a greener economy. - 2012/04/20: TMoS: U-N-Believable. Harper Closes BC Oil Spill Centre
- 2012/04/19: PostMedia: Environment minister questions timing of federal cuts to oil-spill staff in B.C.
B.C. Environment Minister Terry Lake has questioned the timing of the federal government's decision to remove oil spill staff from Vancouver just as industry is proposing an increase in oil tanker traffic in the harbour. - 2012/04/20: PostMedia: Federal government closing oil-spill response centre
The federal government is closing B.C.'s command centre for emergency oil spills at a time when the province is facing two possible pipeline projects and a potential spike in tanker traffic in West Coast waterways. - 2012/04/17: CBC: Environmental emergency unit jobs leaving N.L. -- Federal employees helped respond to offshore spills that killed seabirds
A biologist at Memorial University says job cuts at Environment Canada's environmental emergencies program are disturbing. Ian Jones said Monday the elimination of two positions in Newfoundland and Labrador shows the federal government's disregard for the environment. - 2012/04/18: NatPo: Tories stick to their secretive ways in trying to hide major policy shift
The federal Cabinet should have ultimate authority over large resource infrastructure projects like the Northern Gateway pipeline between the oil sands and the coast of British Columbia. We elect governments to make decisions. When a plurality of voters judge those decisions are wrong, we change governments. That is the nature of our democracy. But what if the government of the day tries its utmost to ensure we don't find out about the decisions it is making? The announcement by Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver Tuesday on the streamlining of regulations for "responsible resource development" was disappointing confirmation that the Conservatives believe open government is an oxymoron -- that you can have one or the other. The bulk of the announcement concerned sensible reforms to streamline the environmental review process for resource projects, with the province being handed sole responsibility for smaller developments. But buried deep within the background document on the Natural Resources website was one sentence outlining the controversial proposal to hand the federal Cabinet the authority to overrule the National Energy Board on projects like Northern Gateway. It wasn't mentioned in the press release, the speech or the presentation deck at the lengthy press conference held by Mr. Oliver at a plant of a company involved in oil and gas pipeline construction in Toronto. - 2012/04/17: PI: Pembina reacts to federal government plans to weaken environmental assessment
- 2012/04/17: G&M: Ottawa elbows regulators in quest for final word on pipeline approvals
The federal government is asserting its control over pipelines -- including the proposed Northern Gateway oil-sands project -- taking from regulators the final word on approvals and limiting the ability of opponents to intervene in environmental assessments. - 2012/04/17: TheCanadian: Harper, Oliver Take Control of Pipeline Approval Over Environmental Regulators
- 2012/04/19: CBC: Cabinet to get final say on pipeline projects -- Little-noticed change to send all National Energy Board approvals to federal cabinet for review
The National Energy Board (NEB) will have to submit all future decisions on major pipeline projects to the federal cabinet for approval, according to a little-noticed change made in the government's economic action plan. Currently, the NEB only has to submit projects it approves to cabinet. With this proposed change, the NEB will have to submit projects it doesn't approve to cabinet as well. - 2012/04/18: G&M: Crosscheck: Bar reset for environmental review
"This isn't about reducing the bar for environmental assessment," says B.C. Environment Minister Terry Lake, referring to federal changes in the environmental review process. Federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver announced sweeping changes this week to the federal environmental review process. Ottawa will limit its reviews to major projects, such as the Northern Gateway pipeline from the Alberta oil sands to the B.C. port of Kitimat. In most other cases, the federal government will step back and let the provinces conduct environmental assessment reviews. The provinces will be expected to meet standards set out in federal legislation. - 2012/04/19: WMTC: shorter wmtc: fraudulent government kills canadian environment
- 2012/04/18: PostMedia: Oliver defends limiting participation to environmental review hearings
Environmental groups that don't have particular expertise to offer, and ordinary citizens concerned about projects like the Northern Gateway oilsands pipeline but who don't live or work near the project, shouldn't be able to participate in environmental review hearings, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said Wednesday. Oliver was defending his government's plan unveiled a day earlier to "strengthen environmental protection" by limiting participation only to members of the public who are "directly affected" by major projects. - 2012/04/17: CBC: Ottawa to slash environment review role
Critics accuse Tories of 'abdicating' government's responsibility to protect environment The federal government is reducing the number of departments and agencies that can do environmental reviews from 40 to just three to speed up approvals for projects that will bolster Canada's economy, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said today. - 2012/04/16: G&M: The ins and outs of environmental assessments
- 2012/04/16: G&M: Ottawa to unveil sweeping changes to environmental oversight
The Harper government is about to dramatically shrink the federal oversight of proposed natural resource developments, handing over environmental reviews for many projects to the provinces and cutting back the number of smaller construction projects that are subject to any environmental assessment. - 2012/04/16: CTV: Ottawa to fast-track major energy projects
In an effort to fast-track lucrative energy and mining projects, the federal government will streamline its environmental assessment process and focus only on major, high-risk developments, such as the Northern Gateway pipeline... - 2012/04/20: SlashDot: Canadian Bureacracy Can't Answer Simple Question: What's This Study With NASA?
- 2012/04/18: CBC: A behind-the-scenes look at a federal scientist 'muzzling' incident -- Innocuous request generates 50 pages of emails at NRC
The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on:
- 2012/04/20: PostMedia: Chief's new federal post raises eyebrows -- NDP MP wonders aloud about pipeline supporter Elmer Derrick's port appointment
The northern B.C. first nation chief who signed a controversial deal to sup-port Enbridge's $5.5-billion oil pipe-line has been appointed by the federal government to the Prince Rupert Port Authority. As a director of the board, Gitxsan hereditary chief Elmer Derrick will receive payment, although it is not clear exactly how much. "It's a strange appointment. It raises the possibility it's a quid pro quo for supporting the pipeline," said NDP Skeena-Bulk-ley Valley MP Nathan Cullen, whose riding includes a large stretch of the Northern Gateway pipeline route. Cullen noted that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government is a supporter of the pipeline, meant to open up new markets in Asia for crude from the Alberta oilsands. - 2012/04/20: TheCanadian: Disgraced Gitxsan Treaty Negotiator Rewarded with Appointment to Prince Rupert Port Authority
- 2012/04/18: PoliCan: Northern Gateway pipeline gets the advanced green light
- 2012/04/17: BCLSB: Glad Somebody Noticed
- 2012/04/16: TheCanadian: Enbridge Pipeline: Radicals and Conservatives
The proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion faces a fight as well:
- 2012/04/18: TheCanadian: Tsleil-Waututh First Nation of Burrard Inlet Make it "Crystal Clear" They Oppose Kinder Morgan's Pipeline, Tanker Expansion Plans
- 2012/04/15: TheCanadian: Kinder Morgan's Massive Pipeline, Tanker Expansion Plans (Finally) Making Headlines
ForestEthics has decided to fight:
- 2012/04/20: TMoS: Is This the Real Canadian Opposition?
With the NDP about to embark on a principle-shredding popularity drive to the top and the Liberals who knows where (or what), organizations like ForestEthics may be the face of future opposition politics in Canada. ForestEthics is about to go to war - on Harper. To do it they're jettisoning their charitable status. FE is breaking in two, ForestEthics Advocacy and ForestEthics Solutions. FE Solutions will continue the organization's work on crafting environmental policies and strategy. It will remain a charity. FE Advocacy, backed by the likes of Clayton Ruby, will take the fight directly to Harper. - 2012/04/18: CBC: ForestEthics giving up charity status to take Tories on -- Environmental group spearheaded campaign to get U.S. companies to boycott oilsands-derived fuel
An environmental group that angered the energy industry has given up its charitable status so it can take on the federal government. ForestEthics, which spearheaded campaigns to get U.S. companies to avoid oilsands-derived fuel, is splitting into two in response to Ottawa's crackdown on charitable groups in the recent budget. One half will continue conservation work and remain a charity, but the other will no longer offer tax receipts and will focus its efforts on what it calls Conservative attacks on the environment. Neither group will be associated with Tides Canada, a charitable umbrella group. The move "shows our resolve in this very hostile climate to continue the work that we feel Canadians actually want," said Valerie Langer, who will head ForestEthics Solutions, which will remain a charity. "Given the climate that we're in, we have to do what we have to do." - 2012/04/17: CBC: Baby sex selection ad targets Indo-Canadians
U.S. clinic offers a service that has been illegal in Canada since 2004 - 2012/04/16: Eureka: Significantly more boys born to Indian mothers in Canada than to Canadian-born mothers
The ISA virus in BC waters is potentially disastrous. And the PRV is no better:
- 2012/04/19: AlexandraMorton: For the Record [piscine reovirus (PRV) reactions]
- 2012/04/17: AlexandraMorton: Two Sockeye Migration Routes, Two Different Fates
- 2012/04/16: CBC: New salmon virus found in farmed salmon: advocate -- B.C. salmon farmers dispute claims
A wild salmon advocate says farmed salmon bought at several Vancouver area grocery stores tested positive for a newly identified Norwegian virus. Alexandra Morton says HSMI, or Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation, appeared in 44 out of 45 fish bought at Superstore and T&T markets in February. Because the fish were purchased from supermarkets, Morton says it's not clear where they came from. - 2012/04/17: G&M: Confidential report warns pine beetle set to destroy B.C. forestry jobs
The full, devastating impact of the pine-beetle epidemic that has swept across British Columbia will be felt in the next few years when up to half the forest-industry jobs in the province's interior will vanish, according to a government report meant to be confidential. The document, a briefing report for the provincial Forests minister, was inadvertently posted on the internet. It gives details on the unfolding timber supply crisis that threatens "the short and medium-term sustainability" of communities that have depended on logging for generations The document suggests possible responses to temporarily blunt the impact of the crisis -- including allowing logging in old-growth areas that have long been set aside to protect the overall health of the forest. The forest industry has been racing to harvest those dead trees before they lose their value. But the report warns that when the forests killed by the pine beetle are logged out, there will be a period -- lasting decades in some areas -- in which the amount of harvestable timber available will fall dramatically. And as the timber supply dwindles, forestry jobs in the B.C. interior will melt away. The current 22,890 jobs across the region could fall to just 10,808 within a few years, a stunning decline of 52 per cent. Prince George alone could lose more than 6,500 jobs. The document was removed from a site open to the public shortly after independent MLA Bob Simpson asked questions about it Tuesday in the provincial legislature. Mr. Simpson said the numbers in the document are shocking, and that the report shows the government doesn't have a plan to deal with the crisis, which could see major layoffs begin within 17 months. - 2012/04/18: Tyee: Open to Cutting Old Growth, Says Premier -- Leaked cabinet document pushes to lift protections, allow unsustainable cuts
- 2012/04/20: PostMedia: British Columbia and pipeline expansions: What's in it for us?
Legally, Alberta may not need to pay compensation to its western neighbour As yet another proposal emerges to carry ever-greater volumes of Alberta oil to the west coast, British Columbians have every good reason to ask: What's in it for us? - 2012/04/20: TheCanadian: Stephen Hume: Campbell/Clark Government May Have Surrendered BC's Sovereignty on Enbridge Pipeline Proposal
- 2012/04/21: TheCanadian: NDP Byelection Wins Bad News for Both Liberals and Conservatives; Good for NDP, Environment
- 2012/04/18: CBC: Confidential pine beetle report warns of 'economic and social' havoc
Timber supplies could plummet up to 67 per cent of pre-mountain beetle levels A confidential report warns the mountain pine beetle epidemic could wreak economic and social havoc on communities in British Columbia's Interior and cost the region thousands of jobs in the coming years. - 2012/04/18: SixthEstate: [link to 557k pdf] BC Confidential Report on Elimination of Forest Conservation Laws Available as PDF
Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:
- 2012/04/20: CBC: Encana signs joint venture with Toyota Tsusho -- Japanese company gets 1/3 interest coalbed methane wells
Toyota Tsusho Corp. is investing $602 million to acquire a share of Encana Corp.'s extensive coalbed methane reserves in southern Alberta, the latest in a series of partnerships that the Calgary-based company has formed. Encana announced Friday that the Japanese company will acquire a 32.5 per cent royalty interest in about 5,500 existing and future Encana coalbed methane wells. - 2012/04/20: G&M: Please stop calling it 'ethical oil' by former Liberal MP Martha Hall Findlay
- 2012/04/18: CBC: Rosneft investing in Alberta -- Russian oil giant looks toward developing unconventional oil technologies
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, second right, toasts with Exxon CEO Rex W. Tillerson, left, and other oil executives and Russian politicians Monday to celebrate Exxon's joint venture with Rosneft. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, second right, toasts with Exxon CEO Rex W. Tillerson, left, and other oil executives and Russian politicians Monday to celebrate Exxon's joint venture with Rosneft. (Alexei Nikolsky/RIA-Novosti/Associated Press) ExxonMobil and Rosneft are teaming up in a joint venture that will see the Russian oil giant invest in an oil development project in Canada. - 2012/04/17: DeSmogBlog: Unethicull Oil: What Alberta's Wolf Cull Plan Tells Us About Canada's Oil Addiction
- 2012/04/16: CBC: Nexen oilsands expansion gets OK
Nexen Inc. says production at its troubled Long Lake oilsands project is improving and regulatory approvals have been secured for expansions to northern Alberta development. - 2012/04/20: WKinsella: Wildrose activist calls for murder of David Suzuki
- 2012/04/18: Tyee: Albertans: Gripped by Stockholm Syndrome? Concessions to Big Oil keep causing deficits. Yet Wildrose promises deeper petro-captivity
- 2012/04/19: 680News: Wildrose stance on climate change met with catcalls at Alberta leaders debate
- 2012/04/20: G&M: A Wildrose win? Lots of climate thorns and no petals
Seventy-seven years ago, in 1935, Alberta elected a government with a unique take on economics. Within a short time, this take and the Social Credit government that promoted it received widespread and mocking attention across the country and, to some extent, outside Canada. On Monday, Alberta history could repeat itself, in the sense that the Wildrose Party might be elected on a platform of debunking the science of climate change... - 2012/04/19: CBC: Wildrose leader takes heat over climate change views
- 2012/04/19: THW: Climate Skeptic In The West
- 2012/04/19: PostMedia: Wildrose's Smith booed during Alta. leaders' debate for doubting climate change
A live audience heckled and booed Alberta Wildrose party leader Danielle Smith at a leaders' debate Thursday after she said she isn't convinced that climate change is real. - 2012/04/16: WpgFP: Front-runner in Alberta election says climate science 'not settled'
The woman leading a front-running party in Alberta's provincial election has cast doubt on the widely accepted scientific theory that human activity is a leading cause of global warming. Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith made the comment in an online leaders debate organized by two Alberta newspapers. - 2012/04/19: CBC: Fake flood evacuees in Manitoba about to lose benefits
The federal government is preparing to cut off Lake St. Martin First Nation members in Manitoba who have been fraudulently claiming flood evacuation benefits. Some members of the First Nation weren't living on the reserve when it was rendered uninhabitable by flooding last spring, forcing 800 people from their homes in May, but they were claiming benefits from the government. - 2012/04/21: PI: New study finds Toronto-area drivers would pay to expand rapid transit and beat gridlock
- 2012/04/18: Rabble: The other Enbridge pipeline: Ontario's Line 9 project -- the reversal of Line 9 between Sarnia and Westover in Ontario
In the Maritimes:
- 2012/04/21: CBC: Muskrat megaproject called burden for future generations -- Critics question long-term risks of Labrador-based hydroelectric project
- 2012/04/14: CBC: Nalcor boss 'baffled' by PUB non-decision
The chief executive officer of Nalcor has revealed he was surprised that Newfoundland and Labrador's Public Utilities Board declined to take a position on the merits of the Muskrat Falls megaproject. Ed Martin, during a featured interview with On Point with David Cochrane, said he was "somewhat baffled" that the PUB determined it did not have enough information to endorse or reject the Muskrat Falls plan. "The PUB basically said we need some expertise and some help to do that, so they went out to hire Manitoba Hydro International, a well-respected firm," Martin said. Martin noted that Manitoba Hydro International wound up endorsing Muskrat Falls as the low-cost option compared to generating the power on the island. - 2012/04/19: TheCanadian: Nova Scotia Joins Growing List of Regions with a Moratorium on Fracking
As for miscellaneous Canadiana:
- 2012/04/20: Rabble: Food security: Why hunger is a farm issue
- 2012/04/20: TheCanadian: The Canada-New Zealand Fracking Connection
The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:
- 2012/04/16: EnergyBulletin: The world is finite, isn't it?
- 2012/04/16: EnergyBulletin: Limits to Growth - of stuff, value, and GDP
- 2012/04/22: JQuiggin: "Future generations" are already here
- 2012/04/17: EnergyBulletin: The Trouble with Money
What do we tell the children?
- 2012/04/16: Guardian(UK): Daughter, my generation is squandering your birthright
IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology] raised its head once again:
- 2012/04/17: CBC: Baby sex selection ad targets Indo-Canadians
U.S. clinic offers a service that has been illegal in Canada since 2004 - 2012/04/16: Eureka: Significantly more boys born to Indian mothers in Canada than to Canadian-born mothers
- 2012/04/15: QuarkSoup: Population Control and Climate Change
Okay hot shot, how are we gonna fix this?
- 2012/04/20: Guardian(UK): Guardians for the future: safeguarding the world from environmental crisis
We [WFC: World Future Council] are calling for a network of special representatives to help protect the resources and livelihoods of future generations - 2012/04/18: LWON: Trust no one, and other lessons I learned from physics reporters
- 2012/04/18: CCP: Shawn Lawrence Otto: An Open Letter to Arianna Huffington
- 2012/04/18: TP:JR: Climate Coverage Plummets 80% On Broadcast Networks From 2009 To 2011
- 2012/04/17: HotTopic: Asking the hard questions
- 2012/04/16: Grist: How Huffington Post aided a demolition job on climate science
- 2012/04/16: TreeHugger: What Happens When Murdoch's New York Post, Fracking, and Selective Editing Combine? Crappy Journalism
- 2012/04/16: TreeHugger: Selfish is the New Green
- 2012/04/09: AlterNet: Cheerleading for Monsanto? The Shocking Lack of Difference Between Oxford University Press and Fox News
Here is something for your library:
- 2012/04/18: OilDrum: [Book Reviews] Two Energy Books of Interest
_Power Plays: Energy Options in the Age of Peak Oil_ by Robert Rapier
_Energy and the Wealth of Nations: Understanding the Biophysical Economy_ by Charles Hall & Kent Klitgaard - 2012/04/15: EnergyBulletin: Cooperative culture -- energy characteristics
[Book Review] _Together: The Rituals, Pleasures, and Politics of Cooperation_ by Richard Sennett - 2012/04/20: CCP: "Much of this is intended to intimidate": Peter Sinclair interviews Dr. Katharine Hayhoe
- 2012/04/21: PSinclair: To the Arctic -- Trailer
- 2012/04/18: GreenGrok: Global Warming Film Wins Best Environmental Documentary Award
- 2012/04/22: SkeptiSci: Weird Winter - March Madness by Rob Honeycutt, grypo
- 2012/04/21: DeSmogBlog: The Climate Change "Hoax" Hoax [Video]
- 2012/04/19: AlterNet: Earth Day: 9 Films That Will Change the Way You Think About the World
- 2012/04/19: PSinclair: Weird Winter/Mad March -- Part 2
- 2012/04/18: AFTIC: Weird Winter, Mad March
- 2012/04/17: ERabett: Who Made This?
- 2012/04/16: PSinclair: Weird Winter - Mad March - Part One
As for podcasts:
- 2012/04/21: CBC:Q&Q: (mp3) 1) Across Atlantic Ice 2) A Theory on Thin Ice 3) A History in Poop 4) The Emperor's new Numbers
Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:
- 2012/04/21: CCP: Virginia Supreme Court has affirmed its previous ruling that Steadfast Insurance Co. has no obligation to defend or indemnify Arlington, Va.-based AES Corp. in a climate change liability suit
- 2012/04/19: PlanetArk: Farm Group Seeks U.S. Halt On "Dangerous" Crop Chemicals
A coalition of more than 2,000 U.S. farmers and food companies said Wednesday it is taking legal action to force government regulators to analyze potential problems with proposed biotech crops and the weed-killing chemicals to be sprayed over them. - 2012/04/18: ERabett: The Judge Doesn't Want to Be Reversed
- 2012/04/16: QuarkSoup: Judge Again Rules in Mann's Favor
- 2012/04/16: PlanetArk: Brazil Shifts Court For Chevron Spill Cases
Developing a new energy infrastructure is a fundamental challenge of the current generation:
- 2012/04/18: EnergyBulletin: The benefits of a lower energy civilization
- 2012/04/18: BBC: Plan to build islands across Severn estuary
Plans to build 12 man-made islands as part of a tidal barrage across the Severn estuary have been revived by a Welsh businessman. Gareth Woodham wants to harness tidal power between south Wales and Weston-super-Mare to create electricity. The UK government in 2010 rejected plans for a publicly-funded barrage, but did not rule out private schemes. - 2012/04/18: EnergyBulletin: Easing Off the Gas by Tom Murphy
- 2012/04/18: Grist: America could power a city on all the small-scale hydroelectric power we're not harvesting
- 2012/04/17: EnergyBulletin: Five renewable sources of energy for farmers in developing countries
- 2012/04/17: TreeHugger: Ask the Experts: Why Hasn't the US Tapped Into Its Geothermal Power Potential More?
Hey! Let's contaminate the aquifer for thousands of years! It'll be a fracking gas!
- 2012/04/20: PSinclair: Irony Alert: Pennsylvania Fracking Operation Stopped due to Drought
- 2012/04/20: TreeHugger: Vermont Senate Votes to Ban Fracking
- 2012/04/20: OilChange: New EPA Regs Address Fracking....in 2015
- 2012/04/21: DeSmogBlog: Exposing the Gas Industry's Myth of 'Recycled Water'
- 2012/04/19: TheCanadian: Nova Scotia Joins Growing List of Regions with a Moratorium on Fracking
- 2012/04/19: PlanetArk: Fracking Rules Let Drillers Flare Till 2015
- 2012/04/19: CSM: Natural gas: Should America export its surplus?
- 2012/04/18: EurActiv: UK has vast shale gas reserves, geologists say
Britain may have enough offshore shale gas to catapult it into the top ranks of global producers, energy experts now believe, and while production costs are still very high, new US technology should eventually make reserves commercially viable. - 2012/04/18: PlanetArk: UK Has Vast Shale Gas Reserves, Geologists Say
- 2012/04/18: TreeHugger: Could Using Propane Instead of Water Clean Up Fracking?
- 2012/04/17: NewInt: Frackers given the go ahead
- 2012/04/17: BBC: Is shale gas the GM of energy?
- 2012/04/17: AlterNet: The Human Cancer Risks Posed by Extreme Fossil Fuel Extraction
- 2012/04/17: CBC: Fracking causes earthquakes, studies confirm
Two separate studies are providing insights into the earth-shaking consequences of the controversial gas extraction process known as fracking. - 2012/04/17: NatureNB: UK government report gives green light to fracking
- 2012/04/17: OilChange: Its Official: Fracking Causes Quakes
- 2012/04/16: BBC: Fracking 'should resume with checks'
A controversial technique to extract shale gas, known as fracking, should resume in the UK, a government-appointed panel of experts says. - 2012/04/19: ChicagoTrib: U.S. coal exports to China may double in 2012: Xcoal
U.S. coal exports to China could more than double to over 12 million tonnes in 2012 thanks to depressed freight rates and a fall in domestic demand in the United States, the chief of top U.S. coal exporter Xcoal Energy & Resources said. - 2012/04/20: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
OIL (US$/bbl)
Nymex Crude Future...103.88
Dated Brent Spot.....118.52
WTI Cushing Spot.....103.05 - 2012/04/19: TreeHugger: Air Pollution from Transportation Causes Around 7,500 Early Deaths per Year in the UK
- 2012/04/20: OilDrum: The Myth That the US Will Soon Become an Oil Exporter
- 2012/04/19: NBF: Saudi Arabia investing hundreds of billions on upstream and downstream oil production
- 2012/04/18: DOI: USGS Releases Global Estimate for Undiscovered, Technically Recoverable Conventional Oil and Gas Resources
- 2012/04/16: TreeHugger: Hope Fades for Oil Spill Cleanup in Nigeria
- 2012/04/16: NCSU: Diesel Technologies Drastically Cut Emissions in Real-World Conditions
- 2012/04/16: OilDrum: Manifa Oil: Malodorous, But Really Not That Bad
- 2012/04/15: OilDrum: Tech Talk - Extracting the Attic Oil From Abqaiq
- 2012/04/14: BizInsider: EIA: We Just Revised Two Decades Of Global Oil Data
In the fossil fuel corps:
- 2012/04/18: BBerg: Halliburton First-Quarter Profit Rises as Fracking Demand Grows
- 2012/04/16: Grist: Oil execs get monster raises after a 'very strong' 2011
Regarding oil and the economy:
- 2012/04/21: G&M: High oil prices threatened by ... high oil prices
- 2012/04/16: CER:RRapier: Cutting Through the Rhetoric on Speculators and Oil Prices
- 2012/04/21: Economist:Buttonwood: Feeling peaky -- The economic impact of high oil prices
- 2012/04/19: EnergyBulletin: A ban on oil speculation? by James Hamilton
- 2012/04/21: EconView: "Speculation in Oil Markets? What Have We Learned?"
- 2012/04/18: EconView: It's Not the Speculators
People are very passionate on this issue for reasons I don't fully understand, and most of you don't agree with me on this topic, but I side with Jim Hamilton on the issue of speculators in oil markets. Speculation is not the cause of high energy prices - 2012/04/19: EUO: Second Nord Stream pipeline complete
- 2012/04/20: DeSmogBlog: Must Read Muckrake on the Whistleblower Behind the Enbridge Tar Sands Pipeline Spill
- World Future Council
- 2012/04/13: OnEarth: The Whistleblower - Part 3: Quest for Redemption
- 2012/04/12: OnEarth: The Whistleblower - Part 2: Buried Secrets
- 2012/04/11: OnEarth: The Whistleblower - Part 1: Oil, Lies, and Videotape
- 2012/04/19: DeSmogBlog: New Bakken Shale Pipeline to Cushing, OK in the Works
- 2012/04/20: FDL: New Bakken Shale Pipeline to Cushing, OK in the Works
Yes we have a peak oil sighting:
- 2012/04/20: FTAlphaville: Peak oil goes mainstream (again)
- 2012/04/16: TreeHugger: Ask the Experts: What's the Greatest Resource Scarcity We Now Face?
- 2012/04/15: AlterNet: 6 Scary Extreme Energy Sources Being Tapped to Fuel the Post Peak Oil Economy
Biofuel bickering abounds:
- 2012/04/22: HotTopic: Aquaflow: next-gen biofuels a commercial reality
- 2012/04/19: TreeHugger: Ask the Experts: Where's All The Cellulosic Ethanol We've Been Promised?
- 2012/04/18: UIllinois: Study: Optimizing biofuel supply chain is a competitive game
As biofuel production has increased -- particularly ethanol derived from corn -- a hotly contested competition for feedstock supplies has emerged between the agricultural grain markets and biofuel refineries. This competition has sparked concern for the more fundamental issue of allocating limited farmland resources, which has far-reaching implications for food security, energy security and environmental sustainability. Numerous studies of land use, food prices, environmental impact and more have fed the so-called "food versus fuel" debate. However, according to new models created by University of Illinois researchers, most studies so far have overlooked a key factor: selfish and possibly competing interests of the biofuel industry and individual farmers, who independently seek the most profit from their crops. - 2012/04/18: PortlandTrib: Forest biomass not a solution for climate change -- Researchers say benefits outweighed by loss of forests
A team of academic researchers including Oregon State University has concluded that a major shift to using forest biomass to produce energy is unsustainable and will increase rather than decrease greenhouse gas emissions. - 2012/04/18: OSU: Analysis raises atmospheric, economic doubts about forest bioenergy
- 2012/04/17: NBF: ORNL process improves catalytic rate of enzymes by 3,000 percent
The answer my friend...:
- 2012/04/19: BBC: Doosan Power pulls out of deal to create hundreds of wind jobs
A project that would have created hundreds of jobs in Scotland's offshore wind sector has been scrapped after a major foreign investor pulled out. Korean company Doosan blamed deteriorating confidence in the offshore wind market for its decision. - 2012/04/18: EurActiv: Europe maintains its wind speed despite Asia's rise
Developing countries such as India and Brazil will drive strong growth of wind energy in the next five years, according to the latest industry forecasts, but European firms still have the edge, says the head of Europe's wind industry. - 2012/04/16: EUO: Wind energy sector grows
Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:
- 2012/04/20: TreeHugger: India Starts Up Asia's Largest Solar Power Plant [214 MW, but will expand to 600 MW]
- 2012/04/19: TreeHugger: Buy an Electric Car [Ford Focus], Get Rooftop Solar for Under $10,000
- 2012/04/19: Yahoo:AP: Asia's largest solar field switched on in India
The west Indian state of Gujarat is flipping the switch on Asia's largest solar power field as part of its 600 megawatt solar energy addition to India's power grid. The Gujarat Solar Park, spread across a desolate 3,000-acre (1,200-hectare) swath of desert, can supply 214 megawatts of electricity, making it larger than China's 200-megawatt Golmud Solar Park. - 2012/04/20: NBF: Competing systems for wearable solar power
- 2012/04/20: NBF: Luminescent 'LED-type' solar cell design breaks efficiency record
- 2012/04/20: NBF: Alta Devices Solar Everywhere Vision for 2020
- 2012/04/20: NBF: Solar Power Efficiency Chart for Different Technologies
- 2012/04/19: Eureka: The solar cell that also shines: Luminescent 'LED-type' design breaks efficiency record
- 2012/04/18: CCurrents: US Solar Energy Company [First Solar] To Cut 2,000 Jobs
- 2012/04/17: CBC: First Solar cuts jobs by 30% -- Firm cites competition from China, waning demand from Europe
- 2012/04/15: BBC: Sun to keep Atacama Desert's grapes growing
- 2012/04/16: EurActiv: Solar companies warn against 'dangerous' tariff talk
Unpredictable cuts to Europe's feed-in tariff schemes for solar energy threaten the recession-hit renewable sector with disaster, the head of the solar industry's business association has told EurActiv. An economic slowdown worsened by strong global competition -- particularly from China -- has increased reluctance among banks to lend to solar energy firms. That in turn could spell calamity if investor uncertainty over the future pricing of solar electricity was factored in, said Reinhold Buttgereit, secretary-general of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association. - 2012/04/19: StL Today: Energy companies seek to develop reactors in Mo.
A pair of energy companies on Thursday announced a new attempt to expand nuclear energy in Missouri, this time by seeking federal energy funds for small nuclear reactors. - 2012/04/20: NBF: China talks with Turkey about $20 billion nuclear project
- 2012/04/19: APR: Westinghouse: SMR (225 MWe) as Callaway-2
- 2012/04/20: NBF: Revisiting the Potential Nuclear Century
- 2012/04/22: BNC: IFR FaD 13 - cost comparison of IFR and thermal reactors
- 2012/04/18: al Jazeera: Nuclear hopes fade with the end of Bulgaria's Belene
Cancellation of the plant is a blow to European nuclear plans, but new energy strategies are being developed. - 2012/04/20: NBF: MIT Hagelstein Cold Fusion Demonstration has been producing excess heat for two months straight
- 2012/04/20: NBF: Brillouin had Los Alamos and SRI validations
- 2012/04/17: NBF: Piantelli Presents Nickel-Hydrogen LENR Research 20 Watts In and 71 Watts Out
More people are talking about the electrical grid:
- 2012/04/19: SoS: Smart Meter Hacks
And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:
- 2012/04/19: PNNL: Save big on heating, cooling costs with efficiency controls
- 2012/04/22: BBC: US introduces $60 LED light bulb
A prize-winning light bulb that lasts for 20 years is going on sale in the US on Sunday - also known as Earth Day. - 2012/04/19: UCSUSA:B: A Spring in My Step Thanks to Home Energy Efficiency
Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:
- 2012/04/19: AutoBG: Sigh. Rush Limbaugh continues plug-in car attacks; Bob Lutz plays defense
- 2012/04/19: NBF: New Polyurethane system can reduce weight of components in cars by 30%
- 2012/04/17: GreenGrok: Natural Gas for Cars
- 2012/04/18: CJR: Equivocal Efficiency? Some articles fail to stress bottom line of electric-vehicles report
- 2012/04/18: CSM: Electric cars: Big climate aid in L.A., but not Wichita
- 2012/04/18: BBC: Sales of low emission cars soar in UK
UK drivers are increasingly choosing fuel efficient cars with historically low carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, according to motor industry body SMMT. - 2012/04/17: BBC: Traffic pollution kills 5,000 a year in UK, says study
Road pollution is more than twice as deadly as traffic accidents, according to a study of UK air quality. - 2012/04/17: TP:JR: Former GM Executive Bob Lutz Slams The GOP's 'Pure Fiction, Knee-Jerk' Hatred Of Electric Cars
- 2012/04/17: PlanetArk: Electric Cars Cheaper To Run, Less Polluting: Report
- 2012/04/16: TreeHugger: Electric Vehicles a Good Environmental Choice Everywhere in US, [UCS] Study Finds
- 2012/04/16: AutoBG: Bob Lutz praises Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt, says national security requires going electric
- 2012/04/16: CSM: Are EVs worth it? Study helps calculate savings on emissions, fuel.
Compared with most cars, electric-drive vehicles are a plus for the environment -- no matter where in the US they charge up. Their lower fuel costs, moreover, make them increasingly competitive with many conventional high-mileage vehicles and hybrids, a new study finds. - 2012/04/16: UCSUSA: Electric Vehicles a Smart Choice Nationwide, But Emissions Vary Greatly By Region
- 2012/04/15: AutoBG: Volvo cuts European fleetwide emissions by 13% over past two years
- 2012/04/16: AutoBG: Hyundai will make 'limited' number of fuel-cell vehicles this year, 'thousands' by 2014
This week in the Gee Whiz File:
- 2012/02/19: RSC:E&ES: Improving the light-harvesting of amorphous silicon solar cells with photochemical upconversion by Yuen Yap Cheng et al.
- 2012/04/18: USydney: Breakthrough in solar cell efficiency
Low cost solar cells suitable for rooftop panels could reach a record-breaking 40 percent efficiency following an early stage breakthrough by a University of Sydney researcher and his German partners. - 2012/04/18: NBF: Upconverting Spectrum could lead to 40% efficient solar power
As for Energy Storage:
- 2012/04/20: XTech: IBM creates breathing, high-density, light-weight lithium-air battery
- 2012/04/20: AutoBG: New partners join IBM's lithium air project to develop 500-mile battery
- 2012/04/21: DailyDisruption: Will IBM's Battery 500 Project Disrupt The Automobile Industry?
- 2012/04/18: PlanetArk: Q1 Electric Car Battery Prices Drop 14 Percent On Year
- 2012/04/18: TreeHugger: Cost of Advanced Lithium-Ion Batteries for EVs Dropped 14% Last Year, 30% Since 2009
- 2012/04/17: AutoBG: Advanced vehicle battery costs dropped 14% in the past year; down 30% since 2009
The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:
- 2012/04/18: TreeHugger: KFC Pushes to Exclude Environmental Campaigners from Key Sustainability Summit
Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:
- 2012/04/18: Grist: While Walmart boasts 'sustainability,' shrimp factory workers protest
- 2012/04/17: TreeHugger: Walmart's Gives Itself a Green Pat on the Back With Its New Sustainability Report
- 2012/04/18: OilChange: 100 Days of Olympic Greenwashing
Joe Romm posts a daily list of top energy and climate stories:
- 2012/04/20: TP:JR: April 20 News...
- 2012/04/19: TP:JR: April 19 News...
- 2012/04/18: TP:JR: April 18 News...
- 2012/04/17: TP:JR: April 17 News...
- 2012/04/16: TP:JR: April 16 News...
Other (weekly) lists:
- 2012/04/20: EnergyBulletin: ODAC Newsletter
- 2012/04/18: BPA: Agriculture News
The carbon lobby are up to the usual:
- 2012/04/21: QuarkSoup: Blogger Steve Goddard Has Died
- 2012/04/21: QuarkSoup: Science Deniers' [intimidation] Tactics Pay Off
- 2012/04/19: MSoderstrom: 15,000 Temperature Records Broken in March 2012, Yet Some Folks Deny Climate Warming Still
- 2012/04/22: Tamino: Defense Against the Dark Arts
- 2012/04/22: Stoat: I'm famous
- 2012/04/18: CSW: On some questions about blogosphere skirmishing
- 2012/04/18: QuarkSoup: Scott Denning Writes About His Heartland Experience
- 2012/04/18: Tamino: Nothin' but Noise
- 2012/04/16: HC: Anthony Watts can't do Attribution
- 2012/04/10: AlterNet: Meet ALEC's Equally Despicable Anti-Choice Cousin -- AUL
- 2012/04/16: HotTopic: Cuckoo cocoon (Prat Watch #5.5)
- 2012/04/15: DeSmogBlog: The Really Inconvenient Truth For The GWPF - Debunking GWPF Briefing Paper No1
As for climate miscellanea:
- 2012/04/20: Grist: 8-year-old environmentalist raises $250 in 12 hours after friends' parents call her 'stupid' for caring
- 2012/04/19: Stoat: Misc
- 2012/04/20: Wunderground: Wunderground launches new Local Climate Change section
- 2012/04/19: ArcticNews: High level of seismic activity in 2012
- 2012/04/19: Guardian(UK): Visualising risk: can we do better than heat maps?
- 2012/04/22: Guardian(UK): The talking penguin's guide to climate change
- 2012/04/18: P3: Economics and Climatology
- 2012/04/17: BVerheggen: Dilemmas in science communication
And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:
- IBM: The Battery 500 Project
- UN: International Mother Earth Day - 22 April
- Earth Day 2012
- Wiki: Anoxic event
- Tides Canada
- Forest Ethics
- European Geosciences Union -- General Assembly 2012 -- Vienna, Austria -- 22-27 April 2012
- Forecast the Facts
- IIED: CBA6 - Community-Based Adaptation Conference - 16-22 April in Hanoi, Vietnam
- Penguin Dreams
- Gaian Economics
- Akio Matsumura
- B-Corporation
- Wiki: Polymerase chain reaction
- Wiki: Phenology
- Wiki: Monsoon
Live and direct from the laugh, it's funny, damnit department:
And for those interested in exploring the nether reaches of Poe's Law:
What's up with the Jellyfish?
Rob Grumbine is opening a new front at Penguin Dreams:
The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:
That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:
What's new on the extinction front?
What's up with volcanoes this week?
More GW impacts are being seen:
Emerging diseases accompany ecological change:
Glaciers are melting, but not the Karakorams:
Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation has somehow seemed chimeric:
Consider transportation & GHG production:
While in the endless quest for zero energy, sustainable buildings and practical codes:
Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:
The Robin Hood tax, aka the Tobin tax, aka the Bank tax, aka the Financial Transaction tax keeps coming up:
The South China Sea tussle took an odd twist this week:
Argentina nationalized YPF, removing the Spanish firm Repsol. Much yelling ensued:
The EU Fuel Quality Directive vote has been postponed a year:
So what's new on the education front?
The Obama chatter is nonstop:
And in Europe:
The Gillard government's majority is in question again with Parliamentary Speaker Peter Slipper stepping down:
The Murray-Darling Basin Plan controversy continues:
And elsewhere in Asia:
In the Middle East:
And South/Central America:
As the implications of the budget roll out, many are nervous:
Here is an unbelievably bad decision for you to chew on:
The Harper gang announced how they are streamlining environmental reviews out of existence this week:
Meanwhile in the _We Are Not Muzzled_ department:
Looks like Canada has a sex selection problem:
In BC, the stage is set. Now what will Clark and Dix do?
Vote early, vote often this coming Monday in Alberta:
In Manitoba:
Ontario is wrestling with its energy policy:
How do the media measure up?
And for your film & video enjoyment:
On the coal front:
On the gas and oil front:
And in pipeline news:
The nuclear energy controversy continues:
Low energy nuclear keeps coming up:
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."My sense from around the country and the world is that people definitely understand that things are getting freaky, During that crazy heat wave in March, everyone in Chicago was out enjoying the weather, but in the back of their mind they were thinking, this is not right." -Bill McKibben
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