Another Week of GW News, May 27, 2012

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

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Another Week in the Planetary Crisis

Sipping from the Internet Firehose...

May 27, 2012

• Chuckles, Rio+20, COP18+, Bonn, G8, Elgin, Peru
• Subsidies, Banks, Cook
• Fukushima Note, Fukushima News, Nuclear Policy
• Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics
• Food Crisis, Fisheries, Food Prices, GMOs, GMO Labelling, Food Production
• Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Aerosols, ENSO
• Solar, Ocean Currents, Extinctions, Proxies, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Extreme Weather, Phenology, Tornadoes
• Wildfires, Acidification, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, REDD, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Conservation, Adaptation
• Journals, Misc. Science, Models, Free Science, Hansen, Gleick, Curry
• International Politics: UN, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Hormuz, Solar Spat
• YPF - Repsol, EU ETS & Airlines, Commodities, South China Sea
• FQD, Law & Activism, Activism, Polls, H2O Biz, Groundwater, Religioso
• National Politics: America, BP Disaster, 2012, Keystone, Coal Exports
• Jaczko, Monnett, Obama, USAdmin, Congress, Lobbyists
• Britain, Europe, Australia, Carbon Law, MDBP, New Zealand, India, China, Japan, Asia, Africa, South America
• Canada, Post G20, BOSO, Bill C-38, Streamlining, Mulcair, Northern Gateway
• Pipelines, De Schutter, Salmon, BC, Tar Sands, Sask
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Podcasts, Courts
• Energy, Fracking, Coal, Oil & Gas, Fossil Fuel Corps, Oil & the Economy, Pipelines, Peak Oil, Biofuel
• Wind, Solar, FITs, Nukes, Nuclear Waste, Nuclear Fusion, LENR, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Energy Storage
• FAQs, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Heartland, Intimidation, Misc., Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

No matter how dark things seem, there are always bad jokes:

• 2012/05/25: VastLeft: (cartoon - VLWC) American Extremists: "Oil change"
• 2012/05/22: SeppoNet: (cartoon - Seppo) It’s the International Day for Marine Diversity
• 2012/05/22: TheCanadian: (cartoon - Hummel) Who You Callin' Goofy? Clark vs. Mulcair on Expanding the Tar Sands
• 2012/05/22: WtD: (cartoon) An open letter to employees of News Ltd (First dog on the moon)
  

  Looking ahead to Rio+20 :

• 2012/05/25: Grist: Greens break silence, ask Obama to attend Earth Summit
• 2012/05/25: SciAm:PI: An Ailing Planet’s Path to Rio+20
• 2012/05/26: Grist: Before Rio Earth Summit, let’s put pressure on world leaders to end fossil fuel subsidies by Bill McKibben
• 2012/05/: SustainabilityTreaties: [10] Draft-Treaties
• 2012/05/24: Guardian(UK): UN chief Ban Ki-moon calls Rio summit negotiations 'painfully slow'
• 2012/05/23: Guardian(UK): The Hard Rain Project Whole Earth exhibition - in [23] pictures
• 2012/05/23: UN: At Rio+20, world must seize generational opportunity to achieve sustainable future -- Ban
• 2012/05/22: TreeHugger: Will President Obama Attend Rio+20? Green Groups Urge Him to Commit
• 2012/05/20: CCurrents: What’s "Rio+20" And Why Should We Care?
• 2012/05/21: WorldBank: High Stakes at Rio: The World Bank's Key Issues for Rio +20
  The UN Conference on Sustainable Development is an opportunity to build the planning and policy structures, measurement systems, and ambition that the world needs to deal with the food, water, and energy crises and prepare for the future.
• 2012/05/23: CGIAR: CGIAR calls for action at Rio+20
• 2012/05/: CGIAR: CGIAR at RIO+20 -- CGIAR key messages for Rio+20
• 2012/05/23: BBC: Nations need food security goals
  The biggest environmental summit for a decade must make meaningful progress on global food security and sustainable agriculture, say researchers. CGIAR, the world's largest publicly funded research body, has published a seven-point "call to action" plan. Ahead of the Rio gathering, scientists are calling for an improved commitment to deliver nutrition security and lessen the need to aid.
• 2012/05/22: UN: Top UN officials stress need for concrete commitments ahead of Rio+20 conference
• 2012/05/21: WaPo: Environmentalists urge Obama to attend Rio Earth summit
  The leaders of nearly two dozen environmental groups called on President Obama to attend next month’s Rio+20 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, underscoring the uncertainty that continues to cloud the historic meeting. More than 130 presidents, prime ministers and other heads of state have committed to attend the conference from June 20 to 22, which is also known as the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. But many experts question whether the session -- coming 20 years after a U.N. summit in Rio that concluded with three global environmental treaties -- will produce a meaningful outcome. And the White House has not said whether Obama will travel there.
• 2012/05/21: al Jazeera: Rio+20: Let's prioritise social sustainability
  Greater policy attention is needed in directing emerging models for a green economy.
• 
  

  Looking ahead to Doha, COP18 and future international climate negotiations:

   

• 2012/05/25: PlanetArk: Analysis - U.N. Doha Climate Talks Risk Sinking "Like Titanic"
• 2012/05/23: TP:JR: What Lies Ahead For International Action On Global Warming In 2012?
  

  The Bonn conference wrapped up this week:

• UNFCCC: Bonn Climate Change Conference - May 2012
• 2012/05/26: BBC: Climate talks stall with nations 'wasting time' -- oil-fuelled states in a "coalition of the unwilling"
  The latest round of UN climate talks has made little progress, observers say. The meeting in Bonn, Germany saw angry exchanges between rich nations, fast-industrialising ones and those prone to climate impacts. Campaigners spoke of a "coalition of the unwilling" including the US, China, India and several Gulf states. Developing countries are also concerned about the lack of firm pledges on finance beyond the end of this year. This was the first negotiating meeting since last December's ministerial summit in Durban, South Africa.
• 2012/05/25: DeutscheWelle: Bonn climate talks end in squabbling
• 2012/05/25: CDreams: Bonn Climate Talks Close in Disappointment; World Leaders Whistle Towards Disaster -- Greenpeace: Climate crisis caused by lack of political action
• 2012/05/25: UCSUSA: Little Progress Made at Bonn Climate Negotiations -- Lack of Political Will Hinders Progress
• 2012/05/24: CSM: Rich-poor divide bogs down UN climate talks
  U.N. climate talks ran into gridlock Thursday as a widening rift between rich and poor countries risked undoing some advances made last year in the decades-long effort to control carbon emissions that scientists say are overheating the planet. As so often in the slow-moving negotiations, the session in Bonn bogged down with disputes over technicalities. But at the heart of the discord was the larger issue of how to divide the burden of emissions cuts between developed and developing nations. Developing nations say the industrialized world - responsible for most of the emissions historically - should bear the brunt of the emissions cuts while developed nations want to make sure that fast-growing economies like China and India don't get off too easy. China is now the world's top polluter. "There is a total stalemate," said Artur Runge-Metzger, the chief negotiator for the European Union.
• 2012/05/25: RawStory: International climate change treaty talks end in discord and disappointment
• 2012/05/24: P3: Climate Action Tracker
• 2012/05/24: BWeek: Greenhouse Gas Gap Grows as Climate Pledges Fall Short
  The gap between the emissions cuts needed to contain global warming and actual reductions by 2020 is at risk of widening as countries including the U.S., Brazil and Mexico fail to meet pledges, Climate Action Tracker said. At best, commitments would lead to emissions 9 gigatons (9 billion tons) higher than the 44 gigatons needed in 2020 to stop the planet warming more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) since industrialization, the project said in Bonn, where two weeks of United Nations talks end tomorrow.
• 2012/05/24: PlanetArk: CO2 Cut Review Could Raise Kyoto Ambition - EU
  A yearly review of countries' greenhouse gas emissions cut pledges under an extension to the global climate pact the Kyoto Protocol could be a way to raise climate ambitions, the European Union's lead climate negotiator said on Wednesday. Negotiators from over 180 countries are meeting in Bonn, Germany, until Friday to work towards getting a new global climate pact signed by 2015 and to ensure ambitious emissions cuts are made after the Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of this year.
• 2012/05/24: Google:AFP: China hits back at claims it is blocking climate talks
• 2012/05/26: People's Daily: Interview: China chief climate negotiator [Su Wei] says Durban outcomes should be understood, implemented completely
• 2012/05/25: Guardian(UK): Bonn climate talks end in discord and disappointment
• 2012/05/24: CAT: Emissions gap looks set to increase if government action doesn’t step up
• 2012/05/23: PlanetArk: U.N. Stalemate Risks Unraveling Durban Climate Deal: EU
  A row over planning how to bind all emitters under a global climate pact from 2020 at U.N. climate talks in Germany is blocking negotiations to deepen nearer term emission cuts and raise cash to help poor countries cope with a warming planet, the EU said Tuesday. Delegates have failed to start work on a new Durban Platform negotiation track after four days of talks in Bonn spent arguing over an agenda to organize work this year and appoint a chair to steer the process. With two negotiating days remaining at the fortnight-long session, the EU and other richer nations say the procedural wrangling risks backtracking on what over 190 nations agreed last year and could leave too little time for officials to map out a deal for politicians to adopt at a year-end summit in Doha, Qatar.
• 2012/05/21: IndiaTimes: Developing nations side with BASIC in climate talks
  With the small island countries and the least developed states veering towards the European line on climate change, the larger developing economies came together with African countries, binding around the BASIC four - India, China, South Africa and Brazil - to demand that principles of equity and 'common but differentiated responsibility' be operationalised in the post-2020 climate regime. The minor economies of small islands and the least developed countries do not foresee any emission reduction targets imposed on them even if the firewall between developed and developing countries break down and have found it in their advantage to go along with the EU position. But developing countries like Malaysia, Argentina, Thailand and Venezuela, along with traditional oil economies like UAE have bundled their cards with the big four emerging economies of the BASIC grouping realizing that they would be the first ones to bear an unfair burden of emission reduction once the firewall is blow away in the new regime under discussion.
• 
  

  After the G8 conference last week, some unheralded climate/energy moves emerged:

   

• 2012/05/24: HotTopic: G8: self-deception on energy and climate
• 2012/05/22: TreeHugger: G8's Camp David Declaration Supports Climate Change Action While Not Acknowledging Its Source
• 2012/05/22: TP:JR: G-8 Leaders Endorse New Plan To Combat Short-Term Climate Pollutants
• 2012/05/22: Grist: G8 summit might have actually done something about climate change
  

  Closing the book on Elgin?

• 2012/05/21: BBC: The operation to plug the gas leak on the Elgin Platform in the North Sea has been a success, according to oil firm Total
  

  Conflicting stories on the Peru dolphin & seabird deaths trail this week:

• 2012/05/24: PlanetArk: Peru Dolphin Death Mystery Deepens, Algae Eyed
• 2012/05/23: CBC: Mass dolphin deaths in Peru remain unsolved
  The mass die-off of nearly 900 dolphins and porpoises along Peru's coast remains unsolved, Peru's government marine research agency says. Tuesday's final report by the Sea Institute ruled out viral and bacterial infections, human intervention, pesticides or heavy metals as causes for the deaths, which were first noticed on Feb. 7 and continued through mid-April. The report speculated that biotoxins, algae blooms or an unknown emerging disease could be to blame.
• 2012/05/23: BBC: Peru dolphins not killed by oil blasts, says minister
  A Peruvian minister has denied claims that explosions used in oil exploration are to blame for the deaths of hundreds of dolphins. Fisheries Minister Gladys Triveno said a government investigation showed that natural causes were to blame. She contradicted a study by an environmental group which suggested that explosions had caused the deaths. The animals have washed up along Peru's northern coastline since the beginning of the year.
• 2012/05/23: ABC(Au): 900 dolphins 'died of natural causes'
  

  Who's getting the subsidies, tax exemptions, loan guarantees & grants?

• 2012/05/25: OilChange: New Study: Oil Subsidies Waste Money, Don’t Encourage Production
• 2012/05/23: OilChange: Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform Gaining Momentum Internationally
  

  What are the big banks up to?

• 2012/05/24: PlanetArk: Goldman Sets $40 Billion [over the next 10 years] Clean Energy Investment Plan
  

  John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:

• 2012/05/27: SkeptiSci: Dead Ahead: Less Rainfall for Drought-Sensitive Southern Hemisphere Regions? by John Hartz
• 2012/05/26: SkeptiSci: Richard Alley's Air Force Ostrich by dana1981
• 2012/05/25: SkeptiSci: Modeled and Observed Ocean Heat Content - Is There a Discrepancy? by dana1981
• 2012/05/24: SkeptiSci: Hansen and Sato Estimate Climate Sensitivity from Earth's History by dana1981
• 2012/05/23: SkeptiSci: If you want them to remember, tell a story by Tom Smerling
• 2012/05/22: SkeptiSci: New research from last week 20/2012 by Ari Jokimäki
• 2012/05/22: SkeptiSci: HadCRUT4: A detailed look by Kevin C
• 2012/05/21: SkeptiSci: Latest Southern Ocean research shows continuing deep ocean 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 propagated 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 out of Fukushima:

   

• 2012/05/24: CNN: Japan utility ups estimate of radiation released in Fukushima disaster
  More radioactive material than thought was released in days after disaster, TEPCO says - TEPCO estimates about 900,000 terabecquerels of radioactive materials were released - A WHO report on people's exposure to radiation following the disaster gives a mixed picture - Some infants were exposed to high radiation doses but levels were low in most of Japan
• 2012/05/24: PlanetArk: WHO Releases Mixed Fukushima Radiation Report
• 2012/05/24: NYT: [TEPCO] Says It Underestimated Radiation Released in Japan
  The amount of radioactive materials released in the first days of the Fukushima nuclear disaster was almost two and a half times the initial estimate by Japanese safety regulators, the operator of the crippled plant said in a report released on Thursday. The operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, said the meltdowns it believes took place at three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant released about 900,000 terabecquerels of radioactive substances into the air during March 2011.
• 2012/05/25: PlanetArk: Fukushima Radiation Higher Than First Estimated
• 2012/05/25: DM:80B: Good News: Fukushima Radiation Should Not Cause a Rise in Cancer Cases
• 2012/05/24: EneNews: "Fukushima amounts to four Chernobyls" of cesium-137 contamination - "It still seems to be just an effort to downplay the real scale of the event"
• 2012/05/25: EneNews: Tepco: As a last resort, we are prepared to spray a concrete-like mixture over fuel rods
• 2012/05/26: NYT: Spent Fuel Rods Drive Growing Fear Over Plant in Japan
• 2012/05/24: Guardian(UK): Fukushima gets mixed radiation report from WHO
  Agency says radiation exposure from nuclear power plant's meltdown was below levels thought to increase risk of cancer, but one town's infants could be at greater risk
• 2012/05/23: EneNews: UPI: Fukushima spent fuel pool a source of growing concern - Calls for more efforts to empty and secure Unit 4 continue in Japan and beyond
• 2012/05/23: EneNews: Tepco estimates total cesium-137 release from Fukushima at 360,000 terabecquerels - 4 times higher than Chernobyl’s 85,000 terabecquerels
• 2012/05/24: EneNews: Ambassador Murata makes public statement in English: Once a quake beyond magnitude 6 or 7 happens, then the world starts heading towards the ultimate catastrophe - Unit 4 a global security issue (video)
• 2012/05/21: TheCanadian: Fukushima Reactor 4: The Most Important Story Nobody's Talking About
• 2012/05/24: BBC: WHO : Post-Fukushima radiation levels in Japan 'low'
  Radiation levels in most of Japan are below cancer-causing levels a year after the Fukushima plant accident, a World Health Organisation (WHO) report published on Wednesday says.
• 2012/05/23: DD: Citizens of Kitakyushu City protest incineration of radioactive debris from Fukushima nuclear disaster
• 2012/05/23: ABC(Au): Fukushima radiation 'low' after accident: WHO
• 2012/05/23: NatureNB: World Health Organization weighs in on Fukushima
• 2012/05/23: NatureN: Fukushima’s doses tallied
  Studies indicate minimal health risks from radiation in the aftermath of Japan’s nuclear disaster.
• 2012/05/23: EneNews: The Australian: Catastrophic radiation contamination at rice fields 60km from Fukushima Daiichi - No crop for at least 300 years - Farmer now living in Queensland
• 2012/05/23: EneNews: Japan researchers believe Reactor No. 1 filled with steam - Gas leaking from upper part
• 2012/05/21: EneNews: Gundersen: Pyrophoric fire if fuel rods in Unit 4 pool are not cooled - Potential contamination of entire northern hemisphere (video)
• 2012/05/19: TheCanadian: CTV Reports on Fukushima's Dire State: "Fate of the World Depends on Reactor 4"
  

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

• 2012/05/24: CNN: Hard lessons for U.S. nuclear safety from Fukushima meltdown
  Daniel Aldrich: The Fukushima meltdowns reveal flaws in nuclear disaster planning - Huge evacuations caused gridlock, he says, and first responders left for their families - Aldrich: a 10-mile evacuation radius is a "fantasy"; at least a 50-mile radius is needed - Aldrich: Half of America lives within 50 miles of a plant; we can't dismiss the risks
• 2012/05/23: WaPo: Germany aims for stronger grip on switchover from nuclear to renewable energy
  The German government will more closely oversee the country’s move from nuclear power to renewable energy, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday -- a mammoth 10-year project for Europe’s biggest economy that has been going slowly so far. Merkel said she will be meeting with all of Germany’s 16 state governors twice a year to take stock of the transformation’s progress and shortcomings, stressing that everything must be done to avoid blackouts and ensure affordable energy.
• 2012/05/24: DerSpiegel: The World from Berlin -- Merkel Faces 'Herculean' Task on Green Energy
  German Chancellor Angela Merkel held a summit Wednesday to review the lack of progress in the country's dramatic nuclear phaseout and shift to renewable energies. On the editorial pages, many commentators are critical of government policies that have caused electricity prices to soar.
• 2012/05/23: Guardian(UK): Busting the carbon and cost myths of Germany's nuclear exit
  Critics of the atomic phase-out said energy emissions, costs and imports would all rise. They were wrong
• 2012/05/22: TreeHugger: Fukushima Meltdown Hastens Decline of Nuclear Power by Lester Brown
• 2012/05/22: Asahi: German-made film takes hard look at Japan's nuclear future
  

  The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:

• 2012/05/26: Moyhu: Arctic Sea Ice - JAXA is back!
• 2012/05/26: DeSmogBlog: Shrinking Arctic Ice May Cause Mercury Poisoning
• 2012/05/24: SciAm:Expeditions: Following the Ice: In the Beginning [Greenland]
• 2012/05/23: ASI: Beaufort break-up
• 2012/05/21: ASI: ASI 2012 update 3: international daily data day
  

  That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:

• 2012/05/25: ArcticNews: Video and poster - methane in the Arctic
• 2012/05/22: SciAm: More Than 150,000 Methane Seeps Appear as Arctic Ice Retreats
  Scientists continue to discover more and more of the powerful greenhouse gas escaping from the thawing Arctic
• 2012/05/21: WtD: Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble, lets melt the ice and heat the world: artic methane released at greater rate
• 2012/05/20: BBC: Arctic melt releasing ancient methane
  Scientists have identified thousands of sites in the Arctic where methane that has been stored for many millennia is bubbling into the atmosphere. The methane has been trapped by ice, but is able to escape as the ice melts. Writing in the journal Nature Geoscience, the researchers say this ancient gas could have a significant impact on climate change.
• 
  

  As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

   

• 2012/05/25: TreeHugger: The $4 Billion Lobbying Blitz That Bought Shell the Arctic
• 2012/05/24: HuffPo: Russia's Hidden 'Arctic Nightmare'
• 2012/05/24: DeSmogBlog: Russia's Hidden Arctic Nightmare Revealed [shocking never-before-seen video]
• 2012/05/22: NOAANews: New Alaska navigational chart makes increased Arctic shipping safer -- Kotzebue Harbor chart replaces measurements last taken in 19th century
  

  The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2012/05/25: UN: Combating malnutrition must be top priority in Yemen - UNICEF
• 2012/05/24: FAO: Funds for the Sahel are needed now, Raúl says -- Over 17 million people at risk of hunger
• 2012/05/27: ABC(Au): North Korea suffering severe drought
• 2012/05/24: ABC(Au):TDU: West Africa crisis: don't wait till it's too late
• 2012/05/24: FaMag: Wheat Fields Parched By Drought From U.S. To Russia
• 2012/05/25: CCurrents: UN Starves One Million Somalis On 10 Cents A Day
• 2012/05/23: AlterNet: How the US Sold Africa to Multinationals Like Monsanto, Cargill, DuPont, PepsiCo and Others
• 2012/05/25: ABC(Au): Niger famine 'inevitable' without aid
• 2012/05/24: ABC(Au): West Africa faces food crisis
  Drought in West Africa's Sahel region means a hunger crisis is inevitable according to aid agencies, also sparking talk of early prevention strategies.
• 2012/05/24: al Jazeera: Donors rush to avert Yemen 'food crisis'
  Friends of Yemen meeting pledges $4bn to avert threat of humanitarian disaster, wih Saudis to pick up bulk of aid bill.
• 2012/05/23: Guardian(UK): Yemen's malnutrition crisis - in [14] pictures
• 2012/05/23: UN: On Burkina Faso visit, UN relief chief stresses need for rapid response to food crisis
• 2012/05/23: AllAfrica:IPS: Zimbabwe: Nothing to Show for Hard Work but Burnt Fields of Maize
  Bulawayo - Gertrude Mkoloi earns a living harvesting maize on a small piece of land in rural Zimbabwe. Or at least she used to. Deep in rural Binga, more than 400 km from the country's second-largest city, Bulawayo, Mkoloi stared blankly at her maize crop, scorched brown by the sun during what was meant to be the rainy season.
• 2012/05/22: Guardian(UK): Yemen food crisis reaching 'catastrophic proportions'
  With nearly 500,000 people displaced, aid agencies warn that Yemen's instability will worsen unless donors increase funding
• 2012/05/22: BBC: Yemen on brink of food crisis, say aid groups
• 2012/05/22: ProMedMail: Schmallenberg virus - Europe (42): genetic reassortment
• 2012/05/21: ProMedMail: Schmallenberg virus - Europe (41): serosurvey, vector
• 2012/05/21: ProMedMail: Undiagnosed disease, maize - Kenya (03): (RV) update
• 2012/05/21: CCP: Climate Chaos Forces Farmers to Rethink Age-Old Practices
  

  The state of the world's fisheries is a concern:

• 2012/05/24: ProMedMail: Infectious salmon anemia - Norway: OIE
• 2012/05/26: TP:JR: Long-Term Fishery Investments Starting To Pay Off
• 2012/05/23: al Jazeera: Sierre Leone cracks down on illegal fishing
  Al Jazeera report spurs authorities into action against foreign trawlers in West African nation's exclusionary zone.
• 2012/05/19: WaPo:B: The end of fish, in one chart
  

  Food Prices are still problematic:

• FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
• 2012/05/24: EUO: World Bank: babies worst hit by high food prices
  

  Regarding the genetic modification of food:

• 2012/05/24: GeekManifesto: The Geek Manifesto on GM crops
• 2012/05/27: BBC: Rothamsted: Security increased at GM wheat trial
  Security around an experimental crop in a Hertfordshire field has been increased to prevent any damage during a day of action by opponents. Campaigners against the genetically modified wheat will be kept away from the Harpenden test site, run by Rothamsted Research, on Sunday.
• 2012/05/27: BBC: Fortress security for GM wheat trial
  Past two barriers of security, a mile inside the Rothamsted Research centre, I was taken to see what must be the most closely guarded field in the United Kingdom.
• 2012/05/20: TheScientist: Revenge of the Weeds
• 2012/05/22: ScienceInsider: E.U. Science Panel Dismisses French GM Concerns--Again
• 2012/05/22: IBTimes: Monsanto Maize: EU Blocks France Ban On MON 810 "Yieldgard"
• 2012/05/23: SlashDot: EU Blocks France's Ban of Monsanto's GM Maize
• 2012/05/21: CDreams: Don’t Put Monsanto in Charge of Ending Hunger in Africa
• 2012/05/22: NatureN: War on weeds loses ground -- The rise of herbicide-resistant varieties drives a search for fresh methods of control
• 2012/05/21: NatureNB: Rothamsted trial attacked
• 2012/05/21: ScienceInsider: Intruder Arrested at [UK] GM Field Trial
• 2012/05/21: BBC: GM wheat trial at Rothamsted vandalised
  A man has been charged with criminal damage following a break-in at the Rothamsted Research centre where a trial of GM wheat is being held. Rothamsted said that crops had been vandalised, causing "significant" damage. The incident took place on Sunday morning at the centre's test site in Harpenden, Hertfordshire. The project aims to see whether the modified crops can deter aphids - a major wheat pest.
• 
  

  Regarding labelling GM food:

   

• 2012/05/25: SlashDot: Battle Brewing Over Labeling of Genetically Modified Food
  

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

• 2012/05/25: FAO: Data portal aims to help unlock food production bottlenecks
  FAO and IIASA launch online Global Agro-ecological Zones Interactive Data Portal
• 2012/05/21: FAO: New partnership to promote nutrition education, reduce household food waste -- FAO and Brazil look to adapt successful Programa Cozinha Brasil program overseas
• 2012/05/24: NatureNB: It’s not sugar that makes heirloom tomatoes taste sweeter
• 2012/05/22: UCSUSA:B: Midwest Farms: Too Big to Be Sustainable?
• 2012/05/22: OPB: Feeding Salmon Bycatch To The Hungry
  A bill that passed in the 2012 Oregon Legislature promises to deliver more fish to the Oregon Food Bank. House Bill 4068 makes it legal for the food bank to pay fish processors to package unintentionally caught fish -- aka bycatch -- that can’t be sold in the marketplace.
• 
  

  Activity is picking up in the Atlantic and Caribbean:

   

• 2012/05/27: CNN: Southeast coast braces for rain, wind from strengthening Beryl
  The storm is centered 215 miles east of Charleston and moving southwest at 7 mph - Beryl has gained strength and has sustained 50 mph winds, the hurricane center says - A tropical storm warning is in effect from northeastern Florida north to South Carolina - A beachgoer says she's OK with the storm "as long as there are cocktails for the weekend"
• 2012/05/27: CBC: Beryl threatens flooding along southeast U.S. coast
  The U.S. coast between central Florida and South Carolina is getting drenched this morning. Subtropical Storm Beryl is passing through the region, with winds of 85 km/h.
• 2012/05/26: CapitalC: Atlantic Tropical Season Quick Start: Beryl is Earliest "B" Storm on Record
• 2012/05/26: Wunderground: Subtropical Storm Beryl forms
• 2012/05/24: Wunderground: 94L may develop this weekend; Hurricane Bud intensifies near Mexico
• 2012/05/23: Eureka: New satellite movie chases post-Tropical Storm Alberto in Atlantic
• 2012/05/23: DeSmogBlog: The Meaning of Tropical Storm Alberto--and a 2012 Hurricane Rap Session
• 2012/05/22: NASA: Tropical Storm Alberto (Atlantic Ocean) Now a Tropical Depression
• 2012/05/22: PlanetArk: Tropical Storm Alberto Turns Away From Shore
• 2012/05/21: Eureka: 2 NASA satellites spy Alberto, the Atlantic Ocean season's first tropical storm
• 2012/05/22: al Jazeera: Tropical storm update
  The hurricane season is off to an early start this year. Storms are rolling away on both sides of North America.
• 2012/05/21: PlanetArk: Tropical Storm Alberto Not Seen To Gain Strength, Forecasters Say
• 2012/05/21: Wunderground: Alberto headed away from land; TD 2-E a concern for Mexico
• 2012/05/20: Wunderground: Alberto weakens, brings light rains to Georgia and South Carolina
• 2012/05/21: al Jazeera: Atlantic hurricane season gets underway
  The east coast of the US is bracing itself for some wet and windy weather as Tropical Storm Alberto passes nearby.

• In the Western Pacific:

   

• 2012/05/24: Eureka: NASA's TRMM satellite sees some heavy rainfall in Typhoon Sanvu
• 2012/05/25: Eureka: Typhoon Sanvu affecting Iwo To, then expected to fade over weekend
• 2012/05/23: Eureka: NASA sees Tropical Storm Sanvu continue to intensify
• 2012/05/22: Eureka: NASA satellite sees Tropical Storm Sanvu pass Guam, strengthen
• 2012/05/21: Eureka: NASA sees Tropical Depression 03W's 'hot tower' on approach to Guam
  

  In the Eastern Pacific:

   

• 2012/05/26: al Jazeera: Bud weakens but still poses a threat
  Mexico's Jalisco state readies for it's first hurricane of 2012
• 2012/05/25: Wunderground: Bud the strongest Eastern Pacific hurricane so early in the year; 94L may develop
• 2012/05/25: Eureka: NASA sees Hurricane Bud threaten western Mexico's coast
• 2012/05/25: CNN: Hurricane Bud weakens [to Cat 1] as it nears Mexican coast
• 2012/05/25: CBC: Hurricane Bud weakens on approach to Mexico coast
• 2012/05/24: CNN: Hurricane Bud now a Category 2
  Maximum sustained winds are near 110 mph, the National Hurricane Center says - Bud's center will be just offshore late Friday, center says - An advisory is in place for mariners in parts of Mexico - It is the second named storm of the East Pacific hurricane season
• 2012/05/24: Eureka: NASA satellites feed forecasters information as Bud becomes a hurricane
• 2012/05/23: Eureka: NASA's TRMM satellite sees heavy rainfall in Tropical Storm Bud
• 2012/05/23: Wunderground: Invest 94L bringing heavy rains; Bud finally strengthening
• 2012/05/22: Eureka: NASA Sees Eastern Pacific's Second Tropical Storm Form -- Tropical Storm Bud forms
• 2012/05/22: Wunderground: [Tropical Storm] Bud a heavy rain threat for Mexico; 1-year anniversary of Joplin tornado
• 2012/05/22: Eureka: NASA sees a 'hot tower' in newborn eastern Pacific Tropical Depression 2E
  

  While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

• 2012/05/24: CNN: NOAA predicts near-normal hurricane seasons
• 2012/05/24: Wunderground: NOAA predicts a near-normal Atlantic hurricane season
• 2012/05/24: CBC: Canadian Hurricane Centre predicts 9 to 15 storms in 2012
• 2012/05/24: BBC: US weather officials [NOAA] predict there will be nine to 15 storms during this year's Atlantic hurricane season
• 2012/05/24: NOAANews: NOAA predicts a near-normal 2012 Atlantic hurricane season
• 2012/05/24: NOAANews: NOAA predicts near-normal Eastern Pacific hurricane season
• 2012/05/24: NOAANews: NOAA expects below-normal Central Pacific hurricane season
• 2012/05/22: ABCAN: 2012 Atlantic hurricane season tropical storm names
  

  As for GHGs:

• 2012/05/25: TP:JR: IEA: Global CO2 Emissions Hit New Record In 2011, Keeping World On Track For ‘Devastating’ 11°F Warming
• 2012/05/25: PlanetArk: Global CO2 Emissions Hit Record In 2011 Led By China: IEA
• 2012/05/24: RBroberg: BOE: Gaussian PDF for Cumulative Fossil Fuel CO2 Emissions
• 2012/05/24: Reuters: Global CO2 emissions hit record in 2011 led by China: IEA
  China spurred a jump in global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to their highest ever recorded level in 2011, offsetting falls in the United States and Europe, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday. CO2 emissions rose by 3.2 percent last year to 31.6 billion metric tons (34.83 billion tons), preliminary estimates from the Paris-based IEA showed.
• 2012/05/26: RBroberg: BOE: Six Degrees of Leavened Baking
• 2012/05/26: DD: Global CO2 emissions hit record in 2011 led by China: IEA
• 2012/05/24: RBroberg: BOE: Improved Estimates for Proven and Optimistic
• 2012/05/24: BCLSB: A Note On Carbon Emissions
• 2012/05/24: TreeHugger: Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions Rose 3.6%, Hit New High in 2011
• 2012/05/22: EarthMag: Carbon and the city: Tracking emissions from megacities
• 2012/05/21: RBroberg: BOE: Upper Limits on Fossil Fuel Contribution to Atm CO2
• 2012/05/22: PlanetArk: Emissions Cut Hiatus Slows Work To Limit Warming
  

  And the temperature record:

• 2012/05/22: CCurrents: Fresh Hockey Sticks From The Southern Hemisphere
• 2012/05/22: RealClimate: Fresh hockey sticks from the Southern Hemisphere
• 2012/05/22: RealClimate: OHC Model/Obs Comparison Errata
  

  Aerosols are making their presence felt:

• 2012/05/25: SciNow: 'Asian Brown Cloud' Threatens U.S.
  

  While on the ENSO front:

• 2012/05/23: PlanetArk: Climate Models Indicate Likely El Nino Return: Australia
  

  Regarding the solar hypothesis:

• 2012/05/21: RBroberg: Archibald 2008 Redux
  

  Regarding Climate Sensitivity:

• 2012/05/25: RBroberg: BOE: Gamma PDF Estimate of Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity
  

  As for ocean currents:

• 2012/05/18: CSIRO: Latest Southern Ocean research shows continuing deep ocean change
  New research by teams of Australian and US scientists has found there has been a massive [~60%] reduction in the amount of Antarctic Bottom Water found off the coast of Antarctica.
• 
  

  While on the extinction front?

   

• 2012/05/26: SimpleC: Baking sands worsen leatherback turtle survival crisis
• 2012/05/26: BBC: Philippine farmer fined for shooting and eating rare eagle [Philippine Eagles, aka Pithecophaga Jefferyi]
• 2012/05/24: BBC: Rare Arabian leopard in need of safe corridors
• 2012/05/23: Drexel: El Niño Weather and Climate Change Threaten Survival of Baby Leatherback Sea Turtles
• 2012/05/23: UCincinnati: Lemur Lessons: Factors Driving Lemur Species Extinctions for Past 2,000 Years Have Also Sparked Ongoing ''Ecological Retreat" by Surviving Species
• 2012/05/22: SciAm:EC: The Last 400 Asiatic Lions Need More Room to Grow...but Where Will They Go?
• 2012/05/21: BBC: Plantlife: 1 in 10 woodland flowers in Wales 'at threat of extinction'
  

  What's new in proxies?

• 2012/05/23: Eureka: Hacking code of leaf vein architecture solves mysteries, allows predictions of past climate
  

  And in near earth orbit:

• 2012/05/25: TreeHugger: How to Spot Income Inequality from Space: Look for the Trees
  

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2012/05/24: DeSmogBlog: NRDC Report Predicts 150,000 Heat-Related Deaths Due To Climate Change
• 2012/05/24: PlanetArk: 150,000 More US Heat Deaths Projected By 2100
• 2012/05/24: CSW: Rising Temperatures Expose Cities' Vulnerable Electrical Supplies
• 2012/05/24: TreeHugger: Climate Change is Frying Our Cities
• 2012/05/23: ERW: Vegetation response may be as important as climate sensitivity
  To date much focus on uncertainty in climate-model predictions has focused on climate sensitivity -- the amount of warming likely to be caused by a doubling of atmospheric CO2. Now researchers from the UK and Australia have found that the uncertainty in land uptake of carbon could be almost as great.
• 2012/05/25: CSM: Climate change allows once-rare British butterfly to thrive
• 2012/05/24: CBC: Once-rare argus butterfly thriving thanks to climate change -- British butterfly one of few species to benefit from global warming
• 2012/05/24: Guardian(UK): British butterfly defies doom prediction to thrive in changing climate
  Brown Argus, once rare and declining, depended on one plant species but warmer temperatures have helped it expand range
• 2012/05/24: BBC: Butterflies move north due to hot summers
• 2012/05/23: TreeHugger: Louisville, Detroit, Cleveland May See Nearly 20,000 More Heat-Related Deaths Each Year by 2100
• 2012/05/23: TreeHugger: Man-made Pollution Shifting Tropics and Sub-Tropics Poleward
• 2012/05/21: SciNews: Climate change miscues may shrink species’ outer limits -- Ecological partnerships are getting out of sync, especially at high latitudes
• 2012/05/18: SciAm: Rapid Climate Changes Turn North Woods into Moose Graveyard
  Moose may disappear from boreal woods as circumpolar regions warm and transform
• 
  

  And then there are the world's forests:

   

• 2012/05/25: NatureNB: Brazilian president vetoes parts -- but not all -- of controverial forestry bill
• 2012/05/24: Guardian(UK): If President Rousseff passes the forest code, it won't be only Brazil that suffers
  Brazil has a proud record of protecting the environment, but a bill allowing deforestation would undermine the Rio+20 summit
• 2012/05/23: NSF: Beetle-infested Pine Trees Contribute to Air Pollution and Haze in Forests
• 2012/05/23: Guardian(UK): Dilma Rousseff must veto Brazil's devastating new forest code
• 2012/05/22: PlanetArk: Indonesia Peatland Back On Protected List In Test Case
  Indonesia's government said on Monday it would protect a strip of peatland in Aceh province at the centre of an international storm over palm oil development, in a case that had become a test of the country's commitment to halt deforestation.
• 2012/05/20: ConservationInt: First Global Study: Seagrasses Can Store as much Carbon as Forests
  Researchers find that the Global Carbon Pool in Seagrass Beds is as much as 19.9 billion metric tons
• 2012/05/22: Reuters: Indonesia forest moratorium won't meet climate pledge - Norway
  Indonesia's progress in reforming its forestry sector will not be sufficient to meet its pledge to reduce carbon emissions by 26 percent by 2020, Norway's environment minister said on Tuesday. Indonesia imposed a two-year moratorium on clearing forest last May under a $1 billion climate deal with Norway aimed at reducing emissions from deforestation, despite resistance from some government departments and from resource firms looking to expand in the archipelago. Norway has been impressed by what Indonesia has achieved in terms of transparency in the forest sector and by a change towards being more pro-environment in policy debates around land use, said its environment minister, Bård Vegar Solhjell. However, deforestation continues in areas not covered by the moratorium as well as illegally in the country's carbon-rich tropical forests and peatlands. Permits to clear land are often given out by local governors and there is a lack of central government enforcement.
• 
  

  This week in the New Normal -- extreme weather:

   

• 2012/05/23: CSW: Federal report warns of costly impacts to US cities from changing weather extremes
• 2012/05/20: CCurrents: As The World Warms Expect More Extreme Weather Patterns
  

  Changes in natural cycles are showing up:

• 2012/05/23: SciNews: Delay of bloom blamed on climate change -- Flowers that fail to open early in spring may be taking cue from previous autumn
  

  On the tornado front:

• 2012/05/26: CBC: Tornado touchdown confirmed near Montreal -- F1 tornado causes signficant damage
• 2012/05/22: CSM: Deadly Joplin tornado remembered, one year later
  

  As for heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2012/05/25: PlanetArk: Sea Breezes Aid Fight To Curb [US] Southwest Wildfires
• 2012/05/25: CSM: Duck Lake fire sweeps across Michigan's Upper Peninsula
  A wildfire that started Wednesday in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is on track to become the state’s third-largest wildfire in more than 140 years. Dry conditions, high temperatures, and strong winds in the region are preventing fire officials from suppressing a blaze in Luce County, which encompasses Lake Superior State Forest. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources says the fire can be tracked to a lightning strike in the area. On Thursday, the blaze spread across 9,500 acres, intensifying Friday when the fire burned a total of 17,000 acres, or more than 26 square miles.
• 2012/05/26: CBC: Wildfires, high winds put northeastern Ontario on alert
  It's going to be a tense weekend in northeastern Ontario where strong, shifting winds have been fuelling a forest fire that has blanketed the Timmins area with smoke and ash. Authorities say the next 24 to 48 hours are crucial as firefighters try to get the upper hand on several large forest fires, including one located about 30 kilometres from Timmins. The city of 43,000 is under a state of emergency and officials are on high alert.
• 2012/05/26: CBC: Labrador fire out of control -- Fire started on 5 Wing Goose Bay base yesterday
  A forest fire continues to burn out of control in Happy Valley-Goose Bay today, according to provincial firefighting officials.
• 2012/05/26: CBC: Timmins fire crews aided by calmer winds
  Lighter winds and cooler temperatures are making things easier for crews battling forest fires near Timmins, Ont., that have been burning since last weekend. The largest fire, called fire No. 9, is about 30 to 35 kilometres south of the city of Timmins.
• 2012/05/25: CBC: Wind and lightning threaten to worsen northern Ontario fires
  About 1,300 people leave their homes in Timmins and Kirkland Lake as forest fires edge closer to communities
• 2012/05/24: CBC: Forest fire smoke blankets Timmins, Ontario -- State of emergency declared in northern Ontario city
• 2012/05/23: CBC: Wind conditions keep Kirkland Lake fire at bay for now
  About 300 residents still on evacuation orders from homes at north end of city, closest to fire
• 2012/05/22: PlanetArk: Crews Gain Upper Hand Battling Wildfires In Southwest
• 2012/05/21: CBC: Forest fire forces 300 from cottage country
• 2012/05/21: PlanetArk: Fed By Dry Brush, Wildfires Persist In Southwest
  

  Acidification is changing the oceans:

• 2012/05/23: AlterNet: Goodbye Fish and Shellfish? Meet the Biggest Threat to Our Oceans
• 2012/05/23: KPLU: Blue Ribbon panel warns about dangers of ocean acidification
• 2012/05/22: OPB: Algae And Acidification: Connecting The Dots, From The Air
  

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2012/05/24: FaGP: Deming Glacier Terminus Retreat
• 2012/05/21: FaGP: Deming Glacier Icefall Decline
  

  Sea levels are rising:

• 2012/05/22: SlashDot: Human Water Use Accounts For 42% of Recent Sea Level Rise
• 2012/05/21: SciNews: Pumping groundwater raises sea level -- Two new studies flag an underreported factor in global ocean change
• 2012/05/21: ABC(Au): Riddle of rising sea levels solved: study
• 2012/05/20: NatureN: Source found for missing water in sea-level rise -- Human use of water contributes markedly to rising tides
• 2012/05/21: TMoS: Mining Groundwater Triggering Sea Level Rise
  

  As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

• 2012/05/26: ABC(Au): A landslide in Indonesia has killed eight people after days of rain in a mountainous part of the island of Java
• 2012/05/26: ABC(Au): North Korea suffering severe drought
• 2012/05/22: OPB: Early Snowmelt Could Spell Water Shortage for Klamath Farmers
• 2012/05/20: al Jazeera: Deadly floods strike north Afghanistan
  At least 21 people killed and scores missing as floods destroy thousands of homes in Sari Pul and Takhar provinces.
• 
  

  First, stop subsidizing fossil fuels
  Second, put a price on carbon
  And elsewhere on the mitigation front:

   

• 2012/05/26: RStavins: Can Market Forces Really be Employed to Address Climate Change?
  

  Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation has somehow seemed chimeric:

• 2012/05/25: PlanetArk: U.N. Risks Investor Stand-Off On REDD By Delaying Work: Green Groups
  

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

• 2012/05/22: TruthOut: Gas Industry Aims to Block Zero-Carbon Building Goal
• 2012/05/24: TreeHugger: Natural Gas Industry Worried Green Building Regs Will Damage Its Reputation [building & d]
• 2012/05/21: Grist: And the winner for greenest building is ... that old thing?
  

  As for carbon sequestration:

• 2012/05/21: TreeHugger: Seagrasses Can Store Twice as Much Carbon as Forests
• 2012/05/18: MTU: From Lemons to Lemonade: Reaction Uses Carbon Dioxide to Make Carbon-Based Semiconductor [carbon nitride]
• 2012/05/21: NSF: Seagrasses Can Store as Much Carbon as Forests -- Researchers find that the global carbon pool in seagrass beds is as much as 19.9 billion metric tons
  

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2012/05/23: Nature: (editorial) A charter for geoengineering
  A controversial field trial of technology to mitigate climate change has been cancelled, but research continues. A robust governance framework is sorely needed to prevent further setbacks.
• 2012/05/23: NatureN: Cancelled project spurs debate over geoengineering patents
  SPICE research consortium decides not to field-test its technology to reflect the Sun’s rays.
• 2012/05/19: Economist: Geoengineering - Implicit promises -- A geoengineering experiment has come unstuck. But there will be more
  

  What's new in conservation?

• 2012/05/21: Eureka: Financial tool considered climate change uncertainty to select land for conservation
  

  While on the adaptation front:

• 2012/05/23: CSM: Can the Midwest adapt to increased flooding?
• 2012/05/22: NewInt: ‘We need a climate change adaptation fund’ - Jeffrey Sachs
  

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2012/05/24: ACP: Fractionation of sulfur isotopes during heterogeneous oxidation of SO2 on sea salt aerosol: a new tool to investigate non-sea salt sulfate production in the marine boundary layer by E. Harris et al.
• 2012/05/24: ACP: Estimating aerosol emissions by assimilating observed aerosol optical depth in a global aerosol model by N. Huneeus et al.
• 2012/05/24: ACP: Does precipitation susceptibility vary with increasing cloud thickness in marine stratocumulus? by C. R. Terai et al.
• 2012/05/24: ACPD: Global emission estimates and radiative impact of C4F10, C5F12, C6F14, C7F16 and C8F18 by D. J. Ivy et al.
• 2012/05/23: ACPD: Impact of HONO on global atmospheric chemistry calculated with an empirical parameterization in the EMAC model by Y. F. Elshorbany et al.
• 2012/05/21: ACPD: Mineral dust variability in central West Antarctica associated with ozone depletion by M. Cataldo et al.
• 2012/05/22: ESD: Comparison of physically- and economically-based CO2-equivalences for methane by O. Boucher
• 2012/05/24: ESDD: Technology and human purpose: the problem of solids transport on the earth's surface by P. K. Haff
• 2012/05/24: CP: The impact of different glacial boundary conditions on atmospheric dynamics and precipitation in the North Atlantic region by D. Hofer et al.
• 2012/05/24: CP: Estimating 750 years of temperature variations and uncertainties in the Pyrenees by tree-ring reconstructions and climate simulations by I. Dorado Liñán et al.
• 2012/05/25: CPD: Glacial-interglacial variability in Tropical Pangaean Precipitation during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age: simulations with the Community Climate System Model by N. G. Heavens et al.
• 2012/05/22: CPD: Modeling the climatic implications of the Guliya O18 record during the past 130 ka by D. Xiao et al.
• 2012/05/22: CPD: The magnesium isotope record of cave carbonate archives by S. Riechelmann et al.
• 2012/05/21: CPD: HadISD: a quality controlled global synoptic report database for selected variables at long-term stations from 1973-2010 by R. J. H. Dunn et al.
• 2012/05/21: CPD: Magnitude and timing of Equatorial Atlantic surface warming during the last glacial bipolar oscillations by S. Weldeab
• 2012/05/25: AGWObserver: Papers on global warming detection from global temperature series
• 2012/05/20: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Model estimates of sea-level change due to anthropogenic impacts on terrestrial water storage by Yadu N. Pokhrel et al.
• 2012/05/22: NERC:NORA: One year on: some thoughts about the ecological fallout from Fukushima by Nick Beresford et al.
• 2012/05/25: ACP: Aerosol charging state at an urban site: new analytical approach and implications for ion-induced nucleation by S. Gagné et al.
• 2012/05/25: ACPD: Factor analysis of combined organic and inorganic aerosol mass spectra from high resolution aerosol mass spectrometer measurements by Y. L. Sun et al.
• 2012/05/25: ACPD: New parameterization of dust emissions in the global atmospheric chemistry-climate model EMAC by M. Astitha et al.
• 2012/05/25: ACPD: On the relationship between total ozone and atmospheric dynamics and chemistry at mid-latitudes - Part 2: The effects of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation, volcanic eruptions and contributions of atmospheric dynamics and chemistry to long-term total ozone changes by H. E. Rieder et al.
• 2012/05/25: ACPD: On the relationship between total ozone and atmospheric dynamics and chemistry at mid-latitudes - Part 1: Statistical models and spatial fingerprints of atmospheric dynamics and chemistry by L. Frossard et al.
• 2012/05/25: ACPD: Sensitivity studies of dust ice nuclei effect on cirrus clouds with the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5 by X. Liu et al.
• 2012/05/25: GMD: Mid-Pliocene global climate simulation with MRI-CGCM2.3: set-up and initial results of PlioMIP Experiments 1 and 2 by Y. Kamae & H. Ueda
• 2012/05/24: GMD: The detailed snowpack scheme Crocus and its implementation in SURFEX v7.2 by V. Vionnet et al.
• 2012/05/23: GMD: Supersaturation calculation in large eddy simulation models for prediction of the droplet number concentration by O. Thouron et al.
• 2012/05/25: GMDD: Inclusion of vegetation in the Town Energy Balance model for modeling urban green areas by A. Lemonsu et al.
• 2012/05/25: OSD: The link between the Barents Sea and ENSO events reproduced by NEMO model by V. N. Stepanov et al.
• 2012/05/24: OSD: Ocean state indicators from MyOcean altimeter products by L. Bessières et al.
• 2012/05/23: TC: Modelling borehole temperatures in Southern Norway - insights into permafrost dynamics during the 20th and 21st century by T. Hipp et al.
• 2012/05/25: TCD: Thermal conductivity of anisotropic snow measured by three independent methods by F. Riche & M. Schneebeli
• 2012/05/24: TCD: Radar diagnosis of the subglacial conditions in Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica by S. Fujita et al.
• 2012/05/22: PNAS: (abs) Environmental biodiversity, human microbiota, and allergy are interrelated by Ilkka Hanski et al.
• 2012/05/22: PNAS: (abs) Co-occurrence of linguistic and biological diversity in biodiversity hotspots and high biodiversity wilderness areas by L. J. Gorenflo et al.
• 2012/05/22: PNAS: (letter$) Apex predators and trophic cascades in large marine ecosystems: Learning from serendipity by Robert S. Steneck
• 2012/05/22: GMD: Implementation and evaluation of online gas-phase chemistry within a regional climate model (RegCM-CHEM4) by A. Shalaby et al.
• 2012/05/21: GMD: Toward a minimal representation of aerosols in climate models: description and evaluation in the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5 by X. Liu et al.
• 2012/05/21: TC: Sensitivity of a distributed temperature-radiation index melt model based on AWS observations and surface energy balance fluxes, Hurd Peninsula glaciers, Livingston Island, Antarctica by U. Y. Jonsell et al.
• 2012/05/21: TCD: Analysis of ice phenology of lakes on the Tibetan Plateau from MODIS data by J. Kropácek et al.
• 2012/05/21: AGWObserver: New research from last week 20/2012
• 2012/05/20: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Geologic methane seeps along boundaries of Arctic permafrost thaw and melting glaciers by Katey M. Walter Anthony et al.
  

  As for miscellaneous science:

• 2012/05/23: GreenGrok: As the Globe Warms, the Tropics Are Expanding
• 2012/05/21: NatureN: Global council aims to coordinate science -- Research-agency heads from around the world agree to formulate shared principles to aid collaborations
  

  What's new in models?

• 2012/05/25: IsaacHeld: 28. The "fruit fly" of climate models
  

  What developments in the ongoing struggle for Open Science?

• 2012/05/25: NatureN: White House petitioned to make research free to access -- Other science agencies should follow NIH policy, say campaigners
• 2012/05/25: WiredSci: Open-Science Geeks Invite Obama Onto Roller Coaster
• 2012/05/24: ScienceInsider: Horizon 2020: A E80 Billion Battlefield for Open Access
• 2012/05/21: SciAm:IC: Take a stand for public access to taxpayer funded research
• 2012/05/21: DM:CV: Marc Sher on the Nonprofit Textbook Movement
  

  Regarding Hansen:

• 2012/05/21: HotTopic: Uncertainty overdone
• 2012/05/20: ERabett: Natural Variability Is Not the Lukewarmers Friend
  

  Regarding Gleick:

• 2012/05/25: QuarkSoup: Gleick Review Not Finalized, Pacific Institute Says
• 2012/05/21: Grist: Peter Gleick did not forge Heartland documents
• 2012/05/22: WtD: Heartland documents not forged, exposing Bast and the think tank as cynical liars
• 2012/05/21: Guardian(UK): Peter Gleick cleared of forging documents in Heartland expose
• 2012/05/21: GLaden: An important revelation regarding Heartland Gate (global warming denialism)
  Peter Gleick has been cleared of faking a key memo.
• 2012/05/20: CCP: Peter Gleick cleared of forging documents in Heartland exposé
  

  Regarding Curry:

• 2012/05/25: ERabett: Judith Curry Thinks Plans to Kill Her Colleagues Is Amusing
  

  While at the UN:

• 2012/05/22: UN:SG: Secretary-General's message on the International Day for Biological Diversity
• 2012/05/22: UN: On biodiversity day, UN chief calls for greater protection of world’s oceans
  

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2012/05/23: PlanetArk: German Bourse Scraps EU Carbon Emissions Trading
  Bavaria's stock exchange will abandon its carbon emissions certificate trading operations in the EU-traded CO2 market on June 30 after volumes in Europe "plunged to practically zero" in recent months, it said on Tuesday. The EU's emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) limits the carbon dioxide emissions of the 27-nation bloc's factories and power plants and covers nearly half of EU emissions. Prices in the ETS have shed around 60 percent of their value over the past year due to market worries about the growing supply glut and weak demand. "Emissions trading will never find its feet again without radical political action," said Christine Bortenlaenger, the head of the exchange, in a statement. "To actually achieve the original goal of reducing carbon emissions, trading prices must be boosted by drastically reducing the number of certificates. Only then will companies perceive investment in carbon reduction technologies as worthwhile," she added
• 
  

  The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

   

• 2012/05/25: G&M: Are Tories aware that B.C. residents are still standing despite the dreaded carbon tax?
  

  On the international political front, tensions continue as the USA and Israel lean on Iran:

• 2012/05/25: EurActiv: Iran rejects West’s plan, talks to continue in June
  Iran and six world powers wrapped up talks yesterday (24 May) still far apart over how to oversee Tehran's nuclear program, but with resolve to keep dialogue going as an alternative to possible military action.
• 2012/05/25: EUO: Iran nuclear talks not enough to halt EU oil ban
• 2012/05/25: National(AE): Iranian crude flowing to China
• 2012/05/25: Guardian(UK): Iranian team to collaborate with US company on nuclear fusion project New Jersey company [Lawrenceville Plasma Physics Inc.] says it has permission for unique partnership to work toward the holy grail of energy sources
• 2012/05/23: BBerg: U.S. Torn Between Israel’s Nuclear Demands Versus Iran’s
• 2012/05/22: BBerg: Oil Drops on Iran’s Agreement to Allow Nuclear Inspectors
• 2012/05/22: BBerg: Iran Oil Deadline Looms as Sanctions Curb Tanker Supply
  The European Union’s ban on Iranian oil shipments that takes full effect July 1 is curbing ship charters now because of the time it takes the vessels to deploy, load and deliver cargoes, the fleet’s biggest re-insurer said. Tanker owners are already avoiding bookings to ship Iranian crude because the 27-nation bloc’s prohibition applies to vessels carrying cargoes from that date, said Andrew Bardot, the executive officer of the London-based International Group of P&I Clubs.
• 
  

  While in the solar panel trade war between China and the USA:

   

• 2012/05/23: OilPrice: Solar Trade Wars: Victory for US Manufacturers, Loss for Solar Overall?
• 2012/05/24: TP:JR: A Level Playing Field Cuts Both Ways: Why We Should Encourage More Chinese Investment In U.S. Clean Energy
• 2012/05/24: FuelFix: China rules US clean energy support improper
• 2012/05/25: TripleCrisis: Blinded by the (solar) light
  The Obama Administration’s preliminary decision to impose a 31 per cent tariff on solar panels imported from China is short sighted. The move could cause a trade war, hurt the US economy, jeopardize US security interests, and put the world further off course in terms of meeting its global climate change goals. The decision opens the US up to a trade war in renewable energy, of all things.
• 2012/05/24: Google:AP: China rules US clean energy support improper
• 2012/05/23: RWER: Obama’s Latest China Move: Blinded by the (solar) light
• 2012/05/21: PlanetArk: China Cries Foul After U.S. Sets Tariffs On Solar Imports
  

  Argentina nationalized YPF, removing the Spanish firm Repsol. Much yelling ensued:

• 2012/05/25: EurActiv: EU-Argentina disputes escalate
  The European Union filed a suit against Argentina's import restrictions with the World Trade Organization (WTO) today (25 May), intensifying the disputes between the South American nation and its trading partners.
  [...]
  The suit is not directly linked to Argentine President Cristina Fernandez's April decision to seize control of its biggest oil company, YPF, a subsidiary of Spain's Repsol, EU officials said (see background). But that case too led to a dispute over Argentina's policies on trade and investment. "The trade and investment climate in Argentina is clearly getting worse," De Gucht said.
• 2012/05/25: EUO: EU files WTO case against Argentina
  

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

• 2012/05/25: EurActiv: Europe’s airline CEOs blast "crazy" carbon pricing scheme
  Europe’s airline executives launched a new salvo against the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) yesterday (24 May), just weeks before an international working group is due to make new proposals aimed at resolving the dispute over pricing air carbon emissions. CEO’s from 13 of Europe’s top airlines lined up at a press conference in the Brussels airport's Sheraton Hotel to savage the ETS as "crazy" at a time when economic growth was imperative.
• 2012/05/25: EUO: EU lambasts India air ban threat
• 2012/05/23: WaPo: EU appeals to China to help reach global emissions agreement to end airline dispute
  A European envoy held out a possible compromise in a fight with China over carbon emissions charges on airlines, saying Wednesday that Europe might alter its system if Beijing helps negotiate global regulations. China, India, the United States and Russia oppose the European Union charges that took effect Jan. 1. Beijing has barred its carriers from cooperating and has suspended purchases of European aircraft. Talks on a global system have begun in the International Civil Aviation Organization, a U.N. body, said Matthew Baldwin, director of aviation for the 27-nation EU. He said Europe might alter its Emissions Trading System if an agreement is reached.
• 
  

  In the "global competition for natural resources":

   

• 2012/05/24: CCurrents: Global Scarcity: Scramble For Dwindling Natural Resources
  

  South China Sea tension persists:

• 2012/05/26: al Jazeera: US Navy warship visits Hong Kong
  "Routine" visit by USS Makin Island seen as a show of force amid rising tensions in South China Sea.
• 2012/05/26: People's Daily: Kerry statement exposes U.S. designs on South China Sea
• 2012/05/23: Guardian(UK): Philippines accuses China of deploying ships in Scarborough shoal
  Manila says nearly 100 vessels have entered disputed South China Sea region, renewing tensions between the countries
• 
  

  Regarding the EU FQD: Fuel Quality Directive:

   

• 2012/05/23: WaPo:B: Just how dirty are Canada’s oil sands, anyway?
  [...] So let’s get some numbers: What would the actual impact be? The Congressional Research Service just put out a new report that takes stock of various academic studies on the subject. Crude from Alberta’s oil sands is heavier, more viscous, and contains more impurities than other types of oil. So it takes more energy to extract and process. When you consider the entire life cycle -- from digging the stuff out of the ground to burning it in your tank -- oil from tar sands produces 14 to 20 percent more carbon emissions than other oil the U.S. imports.
• 2012/05/22: ICN: Why Tar Sands Oil Is More Polluting and Why It Matters
  Adam Brandt, global expert on the carbon footprint of fuels, explains why oil sands' 20% greater greenhouse gas emissions are significant.
• 
  

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

   

• 2012/05/21: ABC(Au): Police escort large convoy past protest camp
  

  What are the activists up to?

• 2012/05/25: ABC(Au): Look beyond coal: climate activist
  A visiting climate change activist is urging young Australians in the Upper Hunter to think beyond coal when discussing the future of the region. Anna Rose is the co-founder of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and is touring parts of regional Australia to talk about climate change with young people.
• 2012/05/23: CCurrents: Eco Warriors, Arise! by Vandana Shiva
• 2012/05/24: PI: Thousands join national Black Out Speak Out campaign
• 2012/05/21: CCP: Climate Activists Plan Coordinated Actions to Highlight Corporate Support of Heartlands Institute's Anti-Science Conference
  

  Polls! We have polls!

• 2012/05/24: EnvEcon: Majority of Americans Agree: Protecting the Environment Creates Jobs
• 2012/05/24: TP:JR: Americans Say ‘Yes’ to Clean Energy, ‘No’ To Fracking Without Safeguards
• 2012/05/24: AlterNet: Americans Heart Marriage, Divide on Abortion, Hate Labels
  

  Regarding Water Politics and Business:

• 2012/05/25: EurActiv: Policymakers weigh options for EU water pricing
  Putting a price on water is essential to encourage savings but EU policymakers are cautious not to spark a social backlash with a one-size-fits-all solution. "Pay more if you use more" is, however, a model which could work, the MEP in charge of water issues told EurActiv.
• 2012/05/25: DD: Mongolia’s dilemma: ‘I don’t care about the gold or the copper, I’m just afraid there won’t be water’
• 2012/05/26: JFleck: Hoover Dam from above
• 2012/05/25: JFleck: Time-of-day watering restrictions in Tucson
• 2012/05/23: EurActiv: Desalination: Solving water problems or creating a new one?
  Faced with water shortages in its sunny south, Spain has become a European trendsetter in harnessing seawater for human use and is an industrial leader in desalination.
• 2012/05/23: NatureN: New desalination technique yields more drinkable water
  A new, more energy-efficient seawater distillation membrane yields more potable water, and less briny discharge.
• 2012/05/22: EurActiv: Brussels rules out EU-wide water efficiency target
• 2012/05/22: DD: Graph of the Day: Number of Global Freeflowing Rivers, pre-1900 - Present
• 2012/05/22: JFleck: Stuff I wrote elsewhere: endangered species problem highlights deeper problems on the Rio Grande
• 2012/05/21: JFleck: Perhaps we shouldn’t call it drought?
• 2012/05/19: EurActiv: Europe urged to 'radically transform' water policy
  The European Union needs to "radically transform" the way it manages water, energy and land to ensure the needs of the poorest people are met and the environment is protected, according to the new European Report on Development. The flagship report, "Confronting scarcity: managing water, energy and land for inclusive and sustainable growth", calls on the EU to adopt an integrated approach to managing the three elements to achieve universal access to water and energy, and sustainable food security.
• 2012/05/21: EurActiv: World Bank bets on 'socially responsible' water pricing
  Making users pay for water should be part of any policymakers' toolkit to manage scarcity, says Lars H. Thunell of the World Bank's International Finance Corporation. But with safe drinking water now officially recognised as a human right, this has to be done in "a socially responsible way," he argues. With the world population growing from 7 billion to around 10 billion by 2050, water scarcity is fast becoming a top political concern for decision-makers around the globe.
• 
  

  And on the groundwater front:

   

• 2012/05/20: Guardian(UK): Fresh water demand driving sea-level rise faster than glacier melt
  Trillions of tonnes of water have been pumped up from deep underground reservoirs in every part of the world, says report
• 
  

  Among the world's religions:

   

• 2012/05/22: BCLSB: I'm From The Church And I'm Here To Help
  

  And on the American political front:

• 2012/05/25: CCP: North Carolina politicians legislate sea level rise, say scientists are wrong, say to plan only for an 8-inch rise by 2100; in the meantime, Maine plans for over 6 feet
• 2012/05/25: LA Times: Utility regulators more than double California's solar power goal
• 2012/05/24: Grist: The promise and peril of a military shift to biofuels
• 2012/05/22: GreenGrok: Climate Change: North Carolinians Hope to Stop It in Its Tracks
• 2012/05/26: TP:JR: Long-Term Fishery Investments Starting To Pay Off
• 2012/05/21: CER:RRapier: If We Only Had a Stable Energy Policy
  I often hear the comment - "If we only had an energy policy" - but what does that really mean?
• 2012/05/26: EconView: Climate Change and Political Polarization
• 2012/05/24: AlterNet: Why I Stopped Being a Right-Winger -- Modern Conservatism Has Become a Form of Mass Hysteria
• 2012/05/23: Grist: Attention, renewable energy supporters: You worship Satan
• 2012/05/22: TruthOut: Gas Industry Aims to Block Zero-Carbon Building Goal
  Natural gas proponents say a plan to zero out fossil-fuel use from a half a million federal buildings could harm its reputation as a cleaner fuel. The natural gas industry and some allies are working behind the scenes in Washington to block a green building rule that was expected to be a national model for carbon-neutral construction. The rule, called Fossil Fuel-Generated Energy Consumption Reduction, would zero out fossil-fuel use -- coal, fuel oil and natural gas -- in all new and renovated federal buildings by 2030.
• The natural gas industry says the policy would harm its image as a more environmentally friendly fuel than coal.
• 2012/05/24: TreeHugger: Natural Gas Industry Worried Green Building Regs Will Damage Its Reputation [building & d]
• 2012/05/21: Grist: Looking for $1 trillion to spend well? Eliminate fossil fuel subsidies.
• 2012/05/23: TP:JR: Mission Critical: A Clean-Energy Call To Arms
• 2012/05/23: TP:JR: Orlando Sentinel Slams The ‘Nuclear Tax’ Ratepayers Must Pay Progress Energy
• 2012/05/23: UCSUSA:B: Charging an Electric Car in California? Save Money with the Right Rate Plan
• 2012/05/22: JQuiggin: Parallel universe collapsing?
• 2012/05/22: Eureka: US Earth observations, science and services are critical to society but are at risk
  Earth observations, science, and services (Earth OSS) inform and guide the activities of virtually all economic sectors and innumerable institutions underlying modern civilization, according to a new study by the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Policy Program. The report also found that Earth OSS in the United States face considerable challenges because economic downturns and Federal budget deficits put efforts to build and maintain Earth OSS capabilities at serious risk.
• 2012/05/22: Missoulian: Missoula City Council supports study of coal trains' effects
• 2012/05/20: WVGazette: [Editorial] Extremes: Climate change
  

  The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:

• 2012/05/24: CBC: Gulf Coast fishermen still reeling from BP oil spill
  

  On the 2012 campaign trail:

• 2012/05/25: TP:JR: Will Mitt Romney Tap American Petroleum Institute’s President For His Chief Of Staff?
• 2012/05/25: ScienceInsider: Romney on Research
• 2012/05/25: GRC: American Politics: The elections won't bring progressive change, so what can?
• 2012/05/22: Grist: Could Romney’s scorn for wind power hurt him in the heartland?
• 2012/05/23: SciAm:Obs: 3 Science Questions to Ask U.S. Presidential Candidates
• 2012/05/20: CSM: Ron Paul 'bloodless coup' in Minnesota takes most delegates. Now what?
  Ron Paul’s forces pulled off "a bloodless coup" in Minnesota, as one observer put it, winning 12 of 13 Republican National Convention delegate slots in St. Cloud Saturday.
• 
  

  The Keystone XL saga rolls along:

   

• 2012/05/22: TheHill:TR: Rep. Kucinich: Keystone approval will cause gas prices to rise
• 2012/05/22: TreeHugger: Ol' Keystone XL Will Raise Gas Prices After All: New Report
• 2012/05/23: OilChange: TransCanada clings to Keystone myths
• 2012/05/22: OilChange: Keystone XL Gas Price Myth Busted
  

  The NW seaport coal exports to Asia controversy continues:

• 2012/05/24: TP:JR: Coal Exports And Carbon Consequences: How Much Is 145 Million Tons Of Coal?
• 2012/05/23: Grist: The carbon consequences of Northwest coal exports
• 2012/05/21: TP:JR: Coal Industry To Northwest: "Back Away From Your Future. Resistance Is Futile."
• 2012/05/21: TP:JR: Why Coal Leasing Should Be The Center Of The Climate Fight
  

  NRC head Gregory Jaczko quit. Obama nominated Allison M. Macfarlane to replace him:

• 2012/05/24: MoJo: Obama Taps Nuclear "Agnostic" for Top Regulatory Post -- Expect a tough Senate battle over new NRC chair
• 2012/05/25: ScienceInsider: Radioactive Waste Expert Nominated to Be Top U.S. Nuclear Regulator
• 2012/05/24: UCSUSA: UCS Gives Thumbs Up to Macfarlane as New NRC Chair
• 2012/05/24: NYT: Geologist Is Nominated to Lead Nuclear Agency
  President Obama on Thursday nominated Allison M. Macfarlane, a professor of environmental science at George Mason University, to serve as chairwoman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
• 2012/05/21: UCSUSA: Nuclear Regulatory Commission Must Replace Chairman Jaczko with Someone with a Proven Track Record that Puts Safety First
• 2012/05/21: TheHill:e2W: NRC chief says resignation unrelated to bullying claims
  Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko insisted Monday that his decision to step down had nothing to do with allegations that he bullied staff at the agency. "The timing was right. It was just a feeling that now was the right time to make the announcement," Jaczko told The Hill, adding that he made his decision within the "last couple of days." Jaczko, a Democrat, said persistent criticism of his tenure as chairman from his colleagues on the commission and Republicans in Congress did not influence his decision. "I really haven’t let that affect what I do," he said in a phone interview. "The thing that I’ve always been guided by is what I think is in the best interest of the American people."
• 2012/05/22: NatureNB: Jaczko resigns from Nuclear Regulatory Commission
• 2012/05/21: ScienceInsider: NRC Head Resigns
• 2012/05/21: EneNews: NYTimes: N.R.C. Chairman Jaczko to Resign
• 2012/05/21: APR: NRC Chairman Jaczko to resign
• 2012/05/21: CNN: Top U.S. nuclear regulator to resign
  Gregory Jaczko, the head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, will step down - Jaczko was criticized by other commissioners over his management style - Jaczko denies accusations he created a hostile work environment - The White House praises Jaczko's tenure, while Republicans criticize him
• 2012/05/21: NBF: Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko Resigns
  

  Remember Charles Monnett? The GOP is still trying to discredit him:

• 2012/05/23: CCP: US science integrity move devolving into mosh pit
• 2012/05/23: CCP: Embattled Alaska polar bear researcher questions inquiry's integrity [Monnett]
  

  The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2012/05/22: CBC: U.S. Catholic groups sue Obama over birth control -- University of Notre Dame says progress on health mandate 'not encouraging'
• 2012/05/23: CSM: Obama and the contraception mandate
  

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2012/05/24: PlanetArk: BP, EPA Reach Deal On Canada Crude At U.S. Refinery
  BP Plc on Wednesday said it will spend $400 million to install pollution controls at its giant Whiting, Indiana refinery, to allow it to process heavy crude oil from Canada, in a deal with U.S. and state regulators. The consent decree reached with the U.S. Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency also requires London-based BP to pay $8 million to resolve prior alleged clean-air violations at its 405,000-barrels-per-day plant, the sixth-largest U.S. refinery. The deal, announced by the government and confirmed by BP, ends years of opposition that might have left BP unable to use $4 billion worth of new processing units being installed at Whiting that will allow it to run Canadian tar sands crude as early as 2013. BP has set plans to use Canadian crudes for more than 85 percent of the refinery's daily needs.
• 2012/05/24: UCSUSA: UCS and Chicago Community Leaders Speak Out in Support of EPA’s Proposed Carbon Pollution Standard
• 2012/05/25: GreenGrok: Nascar and EPA Add a Green Tinge to Burning Rubber
• 2012/05/25: NOAANews: Laura Furgione named as acting assistant administrator of NOAA's National Weather Service
• 2012/05/22: USGS: USGS/BOEM Study Identifies Scientific Method to Differentiate between Natural Seepage and Produced Oils in Southern California
• 2012/05/22: NOAANews: "Wealth and Health of the Nation" -- Dinner Keynote at Global Oceans, Climate, and Security Conference by Jane Lubchenco
• 2012/05/22: AutoBG: Obama administration rethinking support for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles
• 2012/05/21: PlanetArk: EPA Report Outlines Potential Pebble Mine Risks
  Large stretches of salmon-spawning streams and thousands of acres of wetlands would be wiped out if a large-scale mining project were to be built in southwestern Alaska's copper-rich Bristol Bay region, according to a report issued Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency. The report, while not directly addressing it, is a potential blow to the massive Pebble copper and gold mine operation proposed by an international alliance of mining interests, and opposed by environmentalists and local native groups.
• 
  

  As for what is going on in Congress:

   

• 2012/05/24: SciNow: Military's Plan to Buy Biofuels Hits Roadblock in U.S. House
• 2012/05/25: Grist: Senate Republicans join House in second-guessing military leaders on biofuels
• 2012/05/25: ScienceInsider: Senate Committee Wants to Sink Military's Biofuels Program
• 2012/05/23: AutoBG: Democrats battling Republicans over military biofuels
• 2012/05/23: Grist: Republicans try to force the military to use dirty energy it doesn’t want
• 2012/05/22: TP:JR: Sensenbrenner: ‘CO2 Is A Natural Gas. Does This Mean That All Of Us Need To Put Catalytic Converters On Our Noses?’ [HI / congress]
• 2012/05/21: Grist: Politicians, advocates make an 11th-hour push for a better farm bill
• 2012/05/21: Grist: Let’s end polluter welfare by Sen. Bernie Sanders
• 2012/05/21: Grist: U.S. military kicks more ass by using less fossil-fuel energy
• 2012/05/20: AutoBG: House Committee votes to end military biofuel programs
  

  What are the lobbyists pushing?

• 2012/05/25: TreeHugger: The $4 Billion Lobbying Blitz That Bought Shell the Arctic
• 2012/05/22: TruthOut: Koch Operative Steered $55 Million to Front Groups Airing Ads Against Democrats; Ads Assailed Candidates Over Abortion, 9/11, Medicare
• 2012/05/22: AlterNet: Koch Operative Steered $55 Million to Front Groups Airing Ads Against Democrats; Ads Assailed Candidates Over Abortion, 9/11, Medicare
  

  While in the UK:

• 2012/05/25: BBC: Solar feed-in tariff cut delayed by government
• 2012/05/23: Guardian(UK): Overseas investors join in criticism of UK energy bill
• 2012/05/23: EurActiv: UK government announces biggest energy reforms in 20 years
  The biggest reforms to the UK energy sector in two decades were set out yesterday (22 May), prompting warnings from consumer groups and green campaigners that they would raise bills and penalise renewable energy while boosting nuclear power.
• 2012/05/22: NYT: Britain Says It Will Add Reactors for Energy
• 2012/05/23: JCMorton: New nuclear power plants for UK
• 2012/05/22: Guardian(UK): Government announces biggest energy reforms in 20 years
• 2012/05/22: SlashDot: UK Draft Energy Bill Avoids Banning Coal Or Gas Power
• 2012/05/22: BBC: Energy bill avoids carbon pledge
  New electricity legislation will avoid a firm commitment to banish coal and gas by the 2030s. Ministers previously said they wanted to make energy clean within two decades.
• 2012/05/22: BBC: Nuclear waste store gains public backing
  The search for an underground storage site for high-level nuclear waste is likely to go ahead in Cumbria after a poll showed residents are in favour. In Copeland, the local authority area encapsulating Sellafield, 68% of people backed entering formal talks with government on hosting the repository. Across Cumbria as a whole, 53% are in favour and 33% opposed. West Cumbria is the only region to show an interest in the repository; if talks fail, the UK has no "Plan B".
• 2012/05/22: BBC: Energy bill to boost clean energy production
  The government's draft energy bill, designed to encourage major investment in clean energy generation, could result in higher consumer bills, critics have said. The bill outlines long-term contracts to encourage investment in nuclear and renewable energy. But Energy Secretary Ed Davey told the BBC these did not amount to public subsidies for new nuclear plants.
• 2012/05/21: BBC: Energy bill to boost renewable energy production
  The government will publish its long-awaited draft energy bill later, designed to encourage major investment in clean energy generation and help increase security of supply. The bill is expected to outline long-term contracts to encourage investment in nuclear and renewable energy.
• 2012/05/21: BBC: Redefine concept of drought, Environment Agency urges
  Policy makers should drop "drought" as a blanket term and move to a sliding scale to describe dry conditions, the Environment Agency says.
• 2012/05/21: Guardian(UK): Green investment must not suffer in dash for growth, MPs warn
• 2012/05/21: Guardian(UK): Nuclear reactor reprieve puts UK energy plans in doubt
  Office for Nuclear Regulation in talks to extend life of aging power stations earmarked for closure
• 2012/05/20: BBC: Greens' concern for draft energy bill
  Environmentalists now fear that the UK government's draft energy bill to be published on Tuesday will end in a new "dash for gas".
• 
  

  And in Europe:

   

• 2012/05/25: EurActiv: Parliament backs resource-efficiency roadmap
  The EU's roadmap for a resource-efficient Europe received a green light from the European Parliament yesterday (24 May), in a bid to "turn talk into reality" for green economic growth.
• 2012/05/25: EUO: What Big Oil is hiding about EU transparency
• 2012/05/24: EurActiv: Firms scramble to boost water-saving culture
• 2012/05/24: EurActiv: Europe tackles sulphur emissions from ships
  EU governments on Wednesday agreed on legislation to limit the maximum sulphur content of shipping fuels that will come into effect in Europe at the end of the decade.
• 2012/05/24: EUO: Will Europe face up to the resource crunch?
• 2012/05/24: PlanetArk: Europe Cracks Down On Sulphur Emissions From Ships
• 2012/05/25: PlanetArk: Germany Puts Deeper Carbon Cut Back On EU Agenda
• 2012/05/23: DerSpiegel: Energy Revolution Interruptus -- Germany Stalled on the Expressway to a Green Future
  Germany's energy revolution has hardly begun, but it's already running out of steam. There is a lack of political decisiveness and companies are complaining of a dearth of incentives to invest billions in necessary infrastructure. Progress or no progress, taxpayers continue footing the bill.
• 2012/05/23: EurActiv: EU allows aid to limit CO2 cost for big power users
  European Union nations will be able to compensate some big energy users, including steel and aluminium producers, for extra costs resulting from changes to the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) beginning next year, the Commission confirmed yesterday (22 May).
• 2012/05/23: EurActiv: Solar industry pushing for anti-dumping case against China
  A trade row between Brussels and Beijing over claims that China has unfairly priced its solar panels for export could be just weeks away.
• 2012/05/22: EurActiv: EU confronts post-2030 renewables policy vacuum
  The EU is facing an energy policy vacuum after a firm set of policy goals for renewable energy, carbon cutting and energy saving expires in 2020.
• 2012/05/22: EurActiv: Brussels rules out EU-wide water efficiency target
  Huge water leakage differences between member states make an EU-wide water efficiency target "not necessary", says an EU official working on the directive for the European Commission.
• 
  

  Meanwhile in Australia:

   

• 2012/05/26: ABC(Au): Gillard hoses down talk of leadership rumblings
  Prime Minister Julia Gillard has brushed off reports of Labor leadership rumblings, saying she will "happily be leading Australia into the next election". It has been reported that Chief Government Whip Joel Fitzgibbon last week openly canvassed the idea of a Labor leadership change and approached MPs in Parliament to push for movement at the top. It is believed Mr Fitzgibbon was arguing the case for a return to Kevin Rudd because Ms Gillard's minority Government was "killing" the Labor Party.
• 2012/05/25: PlanetJ: No setback for coal port expansion
• 2012/05/25: ABC(Au): Funding for Cloncurry Solar farm switched off
  The Queensland Government is withdrawing funds for the Cloncurry Solar Farm in the state's north-west
• 2012/05/25: ABC(Au): Sun sets on solar farm funds
  Cloncurry Mayor Andrew Daniels says he is not too worried about a Queensland Government decision to pull $5.6 million from a local solar farm project.
• 2012/05/25: ABC(Au): March marks five years of nuclear waste push
  More than a hundred people have taken part in a protest against a proposed nuclear waste facility in the Northern Territory. Muckaty Station, about 130 kilometres north, of Tennant Creek is the site being considered for Australia's first nuclear waste dump. Protesters marched along Tennant Creek's main street, chanting "no dump at Muckaty, don't waste the Territory".
• 2012/05/25: ABC(Au): Fed Opposition slams speedy review of clean energy bill
• 2012/05/25: ABC(Au): Woodside wants access to Aboriginal heritage sites
  Oil and gas company Woodside has applied to access an Aboriginal heritage listed site where the $30 billion Kimberley gas hub is to be developed.
• 2012/05/25: ABC(Au): Look beyond coal: climate activist
• 2012/05/25: ABC(Au):TDU: Abbot Point: No means yes when it comes to big coal
• 2012/05/23: ABC(Au): Opposition relentless despite Thomson health fears
  A member of Federal Parliament's powerful privileges committee says the inquiry into cross-bench MP Craig Thomson could take months.
• 2012/05/22: ABC(Au): Upper House short circuit for NSW power sell-off
  The New South Wales Government's plans to sell the state's electricity generators have come unstuck in the Upper House.
• 2012/05/22: ABC(Au): Doubts over Labor's energy plan
  The head of the Tasmanian Government's expert energy panel is warning new retailers might not want to enter the market under Labor's plan to overhaul the industry. The panel recommended stripping Hydro Tasmania of its power to sell the electricity it generates and sell off Aurora Energy's retail business.
• 2012/05/22: ABC(Au): Locals lobby for renewable power
  Residents at Port Augusta in South Australia's north have launched a campaign to replace the city's two ageing coal-fired power stations.
• 2012/05/21: ABC(Au): Wind companies criticised for [lack of] community consultation
• 2012/05/21: ABC(Au): Country towns told to brace for climate change
  

  The carbon bill has passed the House and the Senate. Now comes the implementation:

• 2012/05/23: ABC(Au): NSW councils 'kept in dark' over carbon tax
  New South Wales local councils have complained they are being kept in the dark about the impact on them of the Federal Government's carbon tax. From July all councils with landfill facilities that produce 25,000 tonnes or more of emissions a year will be liable to pay the carbon tax. The Local Government Association of NSW says around 50 of the state's councils will be paying under the rule, but they still have not been told.
• 2012/05/23: ABC(Au): Council carbon tax double standards 'ridiculous'
  Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce says it is unfair for some councils to have to pay the carbon tax while others do not. A number of councils have been included in the list of organisations that will be subject to the price on carbon. To help clear up confusion, the Clean Energy Regulator has written to more than 100 councils, generally all with populations above 20,000 and that have landfills, to help them determine whether they will have to pay for the greenhouse gases they produce. The Federal Government says councils will not have to pay anything next financial year and most of them would not be liable after that.
• 2012/05/23: ABC(Au): Garbage dumps rubbished in carbon tax confusion
  The Federal Government says Darwin City Council eventually will have to pay for pollution emitted from rubbish. Labor Senator Trish Crossin says the council's Shoal Bay waste facility generates thousands of tonnes carbon dioxide and this will be subject to carbon tax costs. But she says the council is exempt from the tax for the next 12 months and it has the opportunity to cut its pollution.
• 2012/05/24: ABC(Au): [AWU National Secretary, Paul] Howes warns of aluminium sector collapse
  The head of the Australian Workers Union has warned that the aluminium industry faces collapse but says the carbon price is not to blame for the industry's woes.
• 2012/05/23: ABC(Au): 500 jobs to go with aluminium smelter closure
  Up to 500 workers are to lose their jobs with the closure of an aluminium smelter at Kurri Kurri in the New South Wales Hunter Valley. Employees of the Norsk Hydro plant were told this morning that the plant has lost around $35 million this year and is expected to continue losing up to $7 million a month. Earlier this year the company shed 150 jobs and closed one potline due to the high production costs, the impact of the Australian dollar and low world aluminium prices.
• 2012/05/23: ABC(Au): Carbon tax blamed for closure of Hunter Valley smelter
• 2012/05/23: ABC(Au): Carbon tax fight reignites after smelter closure
  The Federal Opposition has savaged the Government over the closure of an aluminium smelter in the New South Wales Hunter Valley, blaming the carbon tax. Norsk Hydro posted a statement on its website saying, among other factors, its long-term profitability would be affected by "increasing energy costs and the carbon tax". This prompted Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to launch a series of attacks on the Government in Question Time, calling on the Prime Minister to apologise. Julia Gillard rejected the carbon tax was to blame, instead referring to other reasons cited by the company, including a plunge in global aluminium prices.
• 2012/05/22: ABC(Au): Wagga Wagga makes top carbon emitters list
  

  The Murray-Darling Basin Plan controversy continues:

• 2012/05/23: ABC(Au): Authority 'playing footsies' with upstream states
  Premier Jay Weatherill has lashed out at the Murray Darling Basin Authority, claiming it is treating South Australians "like idiots". Mr Weatherill accused the Authority of colluding with the upstream states and doing "business on the side" with Victoria. The comments follow the release of a report in Victoria which suggests 2100 gigalitres of water can return the river system to health instead of the 2750 recommended in the Authority's draft basin plan. Mr Weatherill says the Authority helped the Victorian Government come up with the figure.
• 2012/05/24: ABC(Au): Basin Authority prepares revised draft plan
• 2012/05/25: ABC(Au): 12,000 submissions and a lot of paperwork! [MDBP]
• 2012/05/23: ABC(Au): Monitors to gauge Lockyer Valley flood threat
  New digital monitors have been installed on some of the creeks that caused last year's deadly floods in southern Queensland's Lockyer Valley. Sixteen people were killed when floods swept through the Lockyer Valley in January last year. Residents say they had little warning about the torrent of water and the Floods Inquiry recommended the council install additional gauges in creeks and rivers.
• 2012/05/22: ABC(Au): Commonwealth urged to trial new environmental flows
  The Murray-Darling Association is urging the Commonwealth to use environmental water it has bought and get started with the basin plan. Executive officer Adrian Wells says rejecting the basin plan will not be an option because new management of water is needed to create a healthier environment and regional communities.
• 2012/05/22: ABC(Au): Tumut Council to appoint flood project director
  Tumut Shire Council is looking for permanent solutions to flood risks as it prepares to to start a $20m flood recovery program. The General Manager Bob Stewart says the council has approval so far to do $12m worth of works. A project director is being appointed to oversee the two year recovery process and their role will be to find innovative solutions.
• 2012/05/21: ABC(Au): Murray inflows tipped to fall [from 47,000 megalitres a day to about 40,000]
  

  And in New Zealand:

• 2012/05/25: CNN: Captain, second officer jailed over New Zealand cargo ship disaster
  Captain, second officer given seven months for offenses including operating a vessel in dangerous manner - At least 350 tons of fuel oil to spewed into the sea when cargo ship Rena hot a reef off New Zealand - Massive salvage and clean-up operations along New Zealand coastline are still underway - Investigation found the captain authorized a change from planned journey to save time
• 2012/05/25: al Jazeera: Two jailed over New Zealand oil spill
  Captain of ship and his navigation officer sentenced to seven months in prison for causing environmental disaster.
• 
  

  While in the Indian subcontinent:

   

• 2012/05/24: CCurrents: NBA Confirms Monsanto/Mahyco And Others To Be Criminally Prosecuted In B.t. Brinjal Biopiracy Case
• 2012/05/20: CCurrents: Western Ghats: Censuring The Collapse
  

  And in China:

• 2012/05/25: Guardian(UK): China to spend $27bn on energy efficiency and renewables
  Country plans to promote solar and wind power and develop hybrid technologies to cut carbon emissions
• 2012/05/24: NBF: China plans to boost Private Investment in Energy and other Infrastructure
  

  In Japan:

• 2012/05/24: BBerg: Japan Gas Binge Ties Third-Biggest Economy to One Fuel: Energy
  Japanese companies are buying natural gas assets and fields around the world, setting the nation on course to be the first of the 10 largest energy users to bet its future on a less-polluting fuel than oil or coal.
• 
  

  And elsewhere in Asia:

   

• 2012/05/23: al Jazeera: Power outage protests hit Myanmar
  Hundreds angered by chronic power shortage take to the streets in what is said to be the biggest protest since 2007.
• 
  

  While in Africa:

   

• 2012/05/25: Guardian(UK): Kenya's bid to become the first African nation to set up a climate authority
  

  And South America:

• 2012/05/25: UCSUSA: Brazilian President Stands Up for Forest Protections with Vetos
• 2012/05/25: CSM: In Brazil, a showdown over rainforest deforestation
• 2012/05/25: BBC: Brazil President Rousseff vetoes parts of forest law
  

  In Canada, neocon PM Harper pushes petroleum while ignoring climate change:

• 2012/05/26: iPolitics: Canada Lite: our diminished nation
• 2012/05/25: PaiD: Canada For Sale
• 2012/05/25: G&M: Are Tories aware that B.C. residents are still standing despite the dreaded carbon tax?
  If there’s one thing federal Tories hate more than Thomas Mulcair’s facial foliage, it’s a carbon tax. Perhaps unaware that Her Majesty’s loyal subjects in beautiful British Columbia are still standing, despite a levy on carbon use, including gas at the pump, since 2008, the Conservatives repeatedly dismiss such a tax as the Darth Vader of economic destroyers.
• 2012/05/21: PostMedia: Tarsands cut emissions by dumping pollution into other industries: Kent
• 2012/05/23: iPolitics: 5 Things MP David Wilks taught us about Canadian democracy
• 2012/05/23: NorRe: It's Time For The Courts To Take A Stand
• 2012/05/21: JCMorton: Environment Minister Peter Kent's office urged bureaucrats to blame media for recycling controversy
• 2012/05/20: NatPo: Environment minister’s office urged bureaucrats to blame media for recycling controversy
• 2012/05/20: PaiD: New Disgrace For Both Harper And Kent
  

  The G8/G20 controversy lingers:

• 2012/05/25: CBC: G20 police illegally arrested journalists, used gay slur
• 2012/05/23: TStar: ‘Officer Bubbles’ identified other Toronto officers to G20 watchdog
• 2012/05/23: PaiD: Chief Bill Blair Dodges Another Bullet
• 2012/05/22: CdnTrends: The G20 resolution: Another insult to Canadians for your brain to ponder
• 2012/05/22: PaiD: A Star Reader's Thoughts On G20 Justice
• 2012/05/20: ED: In a World Filled With Deceit
• 2012/05/20: CfC: G20 Justice
  

  An internet protest day coming up:

• BlackOutSpeakOut
• 2012/05/24: PI: Thousands join national Black Out Speak Out campaign
  

  Job cuts in the Harper gang's budget bill aren't winning them any friends:

• 2012/05/25: OPSEU: Northern Ontario Crisis
• 2012/05/25: PostMedia: Feds to cut air pollution monitoring team
  The federal government plans to break up a team of Environment Canada smokestack specialists that played a key role working with enforcement officers and industry to crack down on toxic pollution, a Postmedia News investigation has revealed. Details of the cuts emerged through a series of leaked documents and interviews that revealed members of the Ottawa-based group of scientists were told their current roles would be eliminated over the next year. Environment Minister Peter Kent declined an interview request...
• 2012/05/27: TW: Pollution monitoring cuts at Environment Canada
• 2012/05/26: GreenCan: Smokestack Expertise to be Abandoned? W.T.F. is Peter Kent thinking?
• 2012/05/22: TheCanadian: BC Orca, Toxins Expert Loses Job in Harper Cuts to Pollution Monitoring
• 2012/05/23: Tyee: The Gem of Canadian Science that Harper Killed
  Experimental Lakes Area was world famous; its findings might have saved Canada billions.
• 2012/05/23: PostMedia: UVic PhD student shocked by fisheries job cuts in North Saanich -- Student shaken by job losses in North Saanich
  When University of Victoria PhD student Marie Noel decided to study the effects of contaminants on marine mammal health, she thought she was a assured a long marine biology career without pink slips and redundancy notices. "I was thinking it was a very safe choice because there is always going to be contaminants and people should always be interested in knowing what's in their environment, but apparently not," Noel said, who came to Canada from France in 2007. The 29-year-old student is still in shock that her mentor, Canada's only marine mammal toxicologist at the Institute of Ocean Sciences on Vancouver Island, is losing his job as the federal government cuts almost all employees who monitor ocean pollution across Canada. Peter Ross, an expert on killer whales and other marine mammals, and eight of his North Saanich coworkers were among 75 staff members across Canada informed last week that the Department of Fisheries is closing the nation's contaminants program effective next year.
• 2012/05/23: NI: Pollution monitors kicked out the door
• 2012/05/23: CBC: Lobster Science Centre staff cut as funding ends
  About half the staff at the Lobster Science Centre in Charlottetown have been laid off as the centre waits to see if it will get more money from a federal regional development agency. Two research scientists and four technicians were let go early this year, after ACOA funding for two major projects wrapped up. More than $5 million of Atlantic Innovation Funding supported two five-year projects that included lobster quality studies. The Lobster Council of Canada is one of the groups that relies on the centre's research, and it's worried about the layoffs.
• 2012/05/22: CBC: Conservative MPs argue DFO cuts won't hurt research
• 2012/05/20: PostMedia: B.C. killer whale expert out of work as feds cut ocean-pollution monitoring positions
  Canada's only marine mammal toxicologist at the Institute of Ocean Sciences on Vancouver Island is losing his job as the federal government cuts almost all employees who monitor ocean pollution across Canada. Peter Ross, an expert on killer whales and other marine mammals, was the lead author of a report 10 years ago that demonstrated Canada's killer whales are the most contaminated marine mammals on the planet. He has more than a 100 published reports. Now, he's a casualty of the Conservative's budget cuts, one of 75 people across Canada told this past week his services will no longer be needed because the Department of Fisheries is closing the nation's contaminants program. For about a decade, Fisheries and Oceans has been trying to offload the program to Environment Canada, Ross said. Instead, this week, it axed it. In total, 1,075 people working for the Department of Fisheries received letters Thursday telling them their jobs will be redundant or affected - including 215 in the Pacific Region.
• 2012/05/21: NatureN: Canada's renowned freshwater research site [ELA] to close -- Budget fall-out hits environmental research stations
  

  Under the smokescreen of fiscal responsibility, the Harper gang is streamlining environmental reviews out of existence:

• 2012/05/22: PostMedia: Environmental standards should build, not erode -- Sustainability must be at the core of an improved process
  Polls repeatedly show Canadians value honesty, accountability and kindness - attributes that are completely missing these days from the federal government's approach to the environment. A case in point is the government's sweeping budget bill. Tabled on April 26th Bill C-38 dedicates over a third of its 420 pages to rolling back environ-mental legislation that generations of Canadians have fought to establish. Written with no public consultation, the bill wages war on: laws that protect our air and water, regulations to safeguard fish habitat, public participation in environmental assessments, and government oversight of large industrial projects. Ottawa has cloaked these draconian changes with soothing language. Decimating environ-mental standards is portrayed as providing "certainty" and "efficiency" for industry while gutting conservation laws is characterized as "streamlining" and removing "red-tape." This language is misleading and fundamentally dishonest to the vast majority of Canadians who value clean air and fresh water.
• 2012/05/23: EmbassyMag: Why did Harper change the resource review regime?
  

  Mulcair is not retreating from his "Dutch Disease" assertions:

• Wiki: Dutch disease
• 2012/05/25: WpgFP: New poll suggests Canadians split over NDP Leader Tom Mulcair's energy views
• 2012/05/24: PostMedia: Western premiers likely to discuss battle with Thomas Mulcair
  A recent dispute between federal NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair and three western provinces is likely to be on the agenda next week during discussions at the Western Premiers Conference in Edmonton.
• 2012/05/24: CBC: Clement tackles Mulcair over 'reckless' views on oilsands
  NDP critic says Conservatives trying to draw attention away from failure to make polluters pay
• 2012/05/23: WpgFP: It's a 'disease,' the studies agree
• 2012/05/25: BCLSB: A "Gaffe", Eh? Part Hmmm
• 2012/05/23: iPolitics: Mulcair on "Dutch disease": rookie gaffe or fair comment?
• 2012/05/22: ScottsDiatribe: Thoughts on Mulcair and Dutch Disease, etc
• 2012/05/21: PostMedia: Do we have Dutch Disease? At worst a touch
• 2012/05/21: POGGE: Mulcair's right to dig his heels in
• 2012/05/21: BuckDog: Tories train their intellectual big guns on Tom Mulcair: if Rex Murphy fails, there's always Don Cherry!
• 2012/05/21: DClimenhaga: Tories train their intellectual big guns on Tom Mulcair: if Rex Murphy fails, there’s always Don Cherry!
• 2012/05/21: TStar: Tom Mulcair will not move, but Conservatives define oilsands debate
• 2012/05/21: TStar: Thomas Mulcair’s ill-conceived war on the West
  

  The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on:

• 2012/05/25: TheCanadian: Pro-Oil Side a No-Show at Business Community Pipeline, Tanker Discussion
• 2012/05/25: BCLSB: Northern Gateway Preview: What An Oil Spill In Your River Looks Like
• 2012/05/23: BCLSB: With Northern Gateway, Harper = Trudeau And B.C. = Alberta
  

  Other pipelines are in play as well:

• 2012/05/23: MediaCoop: Piping tar sands oil through Ontario protested -- National Energy Boards hearing on Enbridge pipeline reversal shutdown
• 2012/05/25: Dominion: Plan to Pipe Tar Sands to East Coast Protested
  Activists interrupt National Energy Board's hearing on Enbridge's proposal to reverse flow of Line 9 pipe
• 2012/05/24: TheCanadian: Kinder morgan Scales Down Vancouver Pipeline Plan from 850,000 Barrels a Day to 750,000
• 2012/05/21: BCLSB: There’s The Rub [pipeline east]
• 2012/05/20: PostMedia: With Keystone and Gateway in political limbo, pipeline advocates turn to Canada’s East Coast
  The movement to ship Alberta bitumen to Canada's eastern provinces is gathering momentum as plans to build the Gateway and Keystone lines languish in political limbo. Major industry players, politicians and high-profile advocates are starting to pay serious attention to the idea, which could see bitumen piped from the oilsands through Ontario, Quebec and eventually to ports on the East Coast.
• 
  

  Still some talk about De Schutter, Just wait til the official report comes out:

   

• 2012/05/26: JCMorton: Food security
• 2012/05/23: EmbassyMag: Observers split over UN envoy's food fight
  Local food systems are getting less support, said Olivier De Schutter. But some analysts disagree that trade and commercial agriculture are a problem.
• 
  

  The ISA/PRV/IHN virii in BC waters are potentially disastrous:

   

• 2012/05/25: AlexandraMorton: On to the next IHN positive site owned by Norwegian company Grieg
  With Provincial Minister Don McRae putting forward legislation that will make it punishable by law to talk about where farm salmon diseases are occurring, I feel compelled to share as much as I can about the current, growing epidemic before I am no longer allowed to.
• 2012/05/24: AlexandraMorton: Parting shots of Mainstream's IHN site - Dixon
• 2012/05/23: TheCanadian: 2nd BC Salmon Farm Quarantined from [IHN] Virus
• 2012/05/20: AlexandraMorton: [IHN] Viral outbreak in Cermaq farm in Clayoquot
• 2012/05/22: AlexandraMorton: IHN infected farm salmon transported through Alberni Inlet - one of the last farm-free migration routes left
  

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

• 2012/05/26: TheCanadian: BC Liberals Disguised Oil and Gas Support with Fake Green Label
• 2012/05/23: TheCanadian: BC Media and Government Don't Want Accountability on Environment, Public Interest
• 2012/05/24: G&M: Clark to phase out vehicle emissions testing
  B.C. Premier Christy Clark’s government has launched another populist initiative designed to rebuild her party’s flagging support -- this time promising to remove a thorn from the side of motorists in the Lower Mainland by phasing out AirCare emissions testing for cars and trucks. The program, responsible for taking an estimated 20,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions out of the air shed in the lower Fraser Valley each year, was unpopular with many motorists who complained about the time and cost -- up to $45 a test -- involved in having their vehicles tested.
• 2012/05/22: TheCanadian: Rich Coleman and BC Liberals Pull the Plug on Independent Oversight of Hydro Rates
• 2012/05/22: PostMedia: Palmer: Liberals do an about-face on role of utilities commission
  The provincial Liberals emasculated the B.C. Utilities Commission on Tuesday, issuing a special directive that all but terminated the independent commission's pending hearings on a proposed 17-per-cent increase in electricity rates over three years. "Within 30 days of this direction comes into force," said a cabinet order issued over the signatures of Energy Minister Rich Coleman and deputy premier and Finance Minister Kevin Falcon, "the utilities commission must issue orders as follows." There followed a 14-item must-do list, that was as detailed as it was heavy handed. The commission had to approve the rate increase sought by BC Hydro in every respect, as set out in a 1,500-page application.
• 2012/05/23: NI: Coleman regulates the 'independent' regulator
  

  The BC government is formulating regressive legislaton to protect fish farms by keeping people in the dark:

• 2012/05/24: AlexandraMorton: The bill that would make it punishable to speak about disease in animals
• 2012/05/24: AlexandraMorton: BC Liberals pushing through Legislation to make disease reporting illegal
• 2012/05/25: SixthEstate: New BC Draft Legislation Outlaws Phone Books, Pet Store Advertisements, and Media Coverage of Fish Farm Disease Outbreaks
• 2012/05/25: WCEL: Who is silenced by the animal health law?
• 2012/05/22: PostMedia: B.C. law to ban information on farm outbreaks -- Overrides Freedom of Information law, carries stiff penalty
  B.C.'s Liberal government is poised to further choke off the flow of public information, this time with respect to disease outbreaks. The Animal Health Act, expected to be passed into law by month's end, expressly over-rides B.C.'s Freedom of Information Act, duct-taping shut the mouths of any citizens - or journalists - who would publicly identify the location of an outbreak of agriculture-related disease such as the deadly bird flu. "A person must refuse, despite the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, to disclose . . . information that would reveal that a notifiable or reportable disease is or may be present in a specific place or on or in a specific vehicle," Section 16 of the Act reads. It is quite conceivable that the provincial government, in the event of a disease outbreak at a farm, would delay releasing a warning in order to protect the farm in question or the industry it's part of.
• 2012/05/23: NI: Liberals legislate silence from environmentalists
  

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2012/05/24: PlanetArk: BP, EPA Reach Deal On Canada Crude At U.S. Refinery
• 2012/05/23: WaPo:B: Just how dirty are Canada’s oil sands, anyway?
  [...] So let’s get some numbers: What would the actual impact be? The Congressional Research Service just put out a new report that takes stock of various academic studies on the subject. Crude from Alberta’s oil sands is heavier, more viscous, and contains more impurities than other types of oil. So it takes more energy to extract and process. When you consider the entire life cycle -- from digging the stuff out of the ground to burning it in your tank -- oil from tar sands produces 14 to 20 percent more carbon emissions than other oil the U.S. imports.
• 2012/05/23: SciAm:PI: It’s not about tar sands - it’s about us
• 2012/05/23: SciAm:PI: Aerial views of the Alberta tar sands show the beauty and mess of the whole process
• 2012/05/24: OilChange: BP refinery rollover shows tar sands refineries need to clean up
• 2012/05/18: BizInsider: The Canadian Oil Sand Mines Refused Us Access, So We Rented This Plane To See What They Were Up To
• 2012/05/22: ICN: Why Tar Sands Oil Is More Polluting and Why It Matters
  Adam Brandt, global expert on the carbon footprint of fuels, explains why oil sands' 20% greater greenhouse gas emissions are significant.
• 
  

  While in Saskatchewan:

   

• 2012/05/22: PEF: Duel of the Saskatchewan Expatriates
• 2012/05/22: BuckDog: Duel of the Saskatchewan Expatriates: Economist Erin Weir (Yeah!) And Unelected Conservative Senator Pamela Wallin (Boo!)
  

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

• 2012/05/24: Straight: Author Jeff Rubin on The End of Growth and titlesake Richard Heinberg
• 2012/05/25: CCurrents: Think Globally Act Locally
• 2012/05/25: EnergyBulletin: The rise of reuse by Ralph Nader
• 2012/05/25: EnergyBulletin: Limits We are Reaching -- Oil, Debt, and Others
• 2012/05/16: AlterNet: Capitalism Has Failed: 5 Bold Ways to Build a New World
  The problem, in a nutshell, is this: The old economic model has utterly failed us. It has destroyed our communities, our democracy, our economic security, and the planet we live on. The old industrial-age systems -- state communism, fascism, free-market capitalism -- have all let us down hard, and growing numbers of us understand that going back there isn't an option. But we also know that transitioning to some kind of a new economy -- and, probably, a new governing model to match -- will be a civilization-wrenching process. We're having to reverse deep and ancient assumptions about how we allocate goods, labor, money, and power on a rapidly shrinking, endangered, complex, and ever more populated planet. We are bolding taking the global economy -- and all 7 billion souls who depend on it -- where no economy has ever gone before. Right now, all we have to guide us forward are an emerging set of new values and imperatives.
• 2012/05/24: EnergyBulletin: Economics as if the laws of thermodynamics mattered
• 2012/05/24: BBC: The joylessness of shopping
• 2012/05/21: CCurrents: Occupy The G8
  

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

• 2012/05/26: BBC: Male pill: gene discovery may lead to contraceptive
  It may be possible to develop a new male contraceptive pill after researchers in Edinburgh identified a gene critical for the production of healthy sperm. Experiments in mice found that the gene, Katnal1, was vital for the final stages of making sperm.
• 2012/05/23: AlterNet: Dear Girls -- Here's Why Nasty Old Religious Men Are Terrified of You
• 2012/05/23: SciNews: Long-acting contraceptives best by far -- Implants and IUDs outperform the pill and other birth control options
• 2012/05/22: CSM: Teenage pregnancy: High US rates due to poverty, not promiscuity
  

  Apocalypso anyone?

• 2012/05/26: DD: The Fate of the Species: Why the Human Race May Cause Its Own Extinction and How We Can Stop It
• 2012/05/23: CDreams: 'Faster Than We Thought': An Epitaph for Planet Earth
• 2012/05/23: CCP: The Second Dark Ages (2050-4500): "Faster Than We Thought": An Epitaph for Planet Earth" by John Atcheson
• 2012/05/23: Eureka: Study reveals trade patterns for crucial substance played key role in Maya collapse
  

  How do the media measure up?

• 2012/05/24: HC: Telegraph Windfarm Factfail
• 2012/05/25: FAIR: It's Not About Climate Change -- It's About Keeping Advertisers Happy [media]
• 2012/05/22: Grist: Toward a future that makes sense
  

  Regarding the quality of blogosphere discussion:

• 2012/05/25: QuarkSoup: Anonymous Comments Are Meaningless
• 2012/05/20: CCP: John Abraham: On Blogging, Comments ... and Online Civil Discourse
• 2012/05/20: DeSmogBlog: A Scientist's Perspective: On Blogging, Comments -- and Online Civil Discourse
  

  Here is something for your library:

• 2012/05/25: SciAm: Climate Armageddon: How the World's Weather Could Quickly Run AmokClimate scientists think a perfect storm of climate "flips" could cause massive upheavals in a matter of years
  [Book Excerpt] _The Fate of the Species: Why the Human Race May Cause Its Own Extinction and How We Can Stop It_ by Fred Guterl
• 2012/05/22: Grist: Risky business: A look inside the black heart of a goliath oil company
  [Book Review] _Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power_ by Steve Coll
• 2012/05/01: MR: Petroleum and Propaganda -- The Anatomy of the Global Warming Denial Industry
  [Book Review] _The Inquisition of Climate Science_ by James Lawrence Powell
• 2012/05/21: EnergyBulletin: Ten of the best books in the (rather large) pile by my bedside
• 2012/05/21: CSW: [Book Review] _Cold Cash, Cool Climate: Science-Based Advice for Ecological Entrepreneurs_ by Jonathan Koomey
  

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2012/05/25: HotTopic: Brittany speaks truth to power
• 2012/05/24: Grist: Cartoon explains what’s wrong with our food system in under four minutes
• 2012/05/25: RealClimate: Real Video
• 2012/05/24: DeSmogBlog: Russia's Hidden Arctic Nightmare Revealed [shocking never-before-seen video]
• 2012/05/23: PSinclair: New Video: Richard Alley’s Info Nuggets
• 2012/05/22: Asahi: German-made film takes hard look at Japan's nuclear future
• 2012/05/20: TP:JR: Must-See CBS News: We Are "Living On A Planet With A Fever... This Is Our Society’s Sink Or Swim Moment"
  

  As for podcasts:

• 2012/05/26: CBC:Q&Q: Heat Turns Butterfly On -- Before the Lights Go Out
• 2012/05/27: SkeptiSci: The Climate Show #27 by dana1981, John Cook
• 2012/05/27: HotTopic: The Climate Show #27: Aussie hockeysticks, cherry pies and electric planes
  

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2012/05/22: CBC: U.S. Catholic groups sue Obama over birth control -- University of Notre Dame says progress on health mandate 'not encouraging'
  

  Developing a new energy infrastructure is a fundamental challenge of the current generation:

• 2012/05/25: TP:JR: Can Renewable Energy Be The Solution To Rural Alaska’s Energy Crisis?
• 2012/05/21: CER:RRapier: If We Only Had a Stable Energy Policy
  I often hear the comment - "If we only had an energy policy" - but what does that really mean?
• 2012/05/24: Eureka: Argonne scientists uncover a photosynthetic puzzle
• 2012/05/23: ETI: ETI announces Tidal Energy Converter (TEC) System Demonstrator project
• 2012/05/22: TP:JR: New Initiative Addresses Triple Threat To Climate And Human Health By Replacing Charcoal Cookstoves
• 2012/05/21: KoreaTimes: Leading the way to green energy era by Jeremy Rifkin
  Greater efficiencies and mandated global warming gas reductions are not enough to address the unprecedented crisis of global warming and peak oil and gas production.
• 
  

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

   

• 2012/05/25: DeSmogBlog: Public Accountability Initiative Produces New Report on SUNY Buffalo's "Shill Gas Study"
• 2012/05/21: ERW: Fracking production "outstrips scientific knowledge"
• 2012/05/22: Grist: Check the math: Study touting ‘safer’ fracking reveals Big Oil’s ties to academia
  What do you call a report that makes major math mistakes, pulls language directly from other publications without citation, and fails to disclose the researchers’ financial conflicts of interest? In the fight over fracking, it might just be called "peer-reviewed" science. The most recent example of such sketchy research comes from the University of Buffalo...
• 2012/05/23: TreeHugger: There's So Much Fracking in Pennsylvania That Indie Bands and World-Famous Hitchhiking Directors Can't Find Hotels
• 2012/05/23: OilChange: Frac-Sand Nation
• 2012/05/22: CCurrents: How Rural America Got Fracked
• 2012/05/22: HuffPo: Methane Reported In 2 Northern Pennsylvania Water Wells
• 2012/05/21: TP:JR: Oil And Gas Link To Texas Earthquakes Studied
• 2012/05/21: Grist: Against the grain: Fracking companies mine rural Wisconsin for sand
• 2012/05/21: EnergyBulletin: How rural America got fracked
• 2012/05/20: AlterNet: The Enviro Disaster You Know Nothing About: The Eco-Devastating Quest for "Frac Sand" in Rural America
• 2012/05/20: EnergyBulletin: How the fracking mess is about to make the mortgage mess worse
  

  On the coal front:

• 2012/05/25: TP:JR: Coal Industry Pays Fake Activists $50 To Wear Pro-Coal Shirts At Public Hearing
• 2012/05/24: ABC(Au): US moves in on Australian thermal coal market
  Strikes in Bowen Basin may have harmed BHP's reputation, but Australia's biggest challenge is cut-throat competition from the United States to supply thermal coal.
• 2012/05/24: FuelFix: Steffy: Coal plant operators find a convenient scapegoat in the EPA
  

  On the gas and oil front:

• 2012/05/25: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
  OIL (US$/bbl)
  Nymex Crude Future...90.86
  Dated Brent Spot.....107.95
  WTI Cushing Spot.....90.66
• 2012/05/23: G&M: Whatever happened to $200 oil? by Jeff Rubin
• 2012/05/22: FuturePundit: Marginal Oil Production Cost Nearing $92 Per Barrel
• 2012/05/25: EnergyBulletin: Drill, Baby, Drill! More drilling doesn't necessarily mean more oil
• 2012/05/27: OilDrum: Tech Talk - Conditions and Treatments in North Ghawar
• 2012/05/24: EnergyBulletin: Energy policies will lead to diesel fuel rationing in Europe
• 2012/05/23: NBF: Iran Caspian Sea oil discovery about 8 to 10 billion barrels
• 2012/05/21: SeekingAlpha: Why Oil Will Soon Start To Rally
• 2012/05/23: CSM: Oil prices fall to seven-month low
  Oil fell to a seven-month low below $91 a barrel Wednesday after Iran agreed to allow the U.N. nuclear agency to restart an investigation into the country's nuclear program.
• 2012/05/22: EUO: Turkey and Cyprus at odds over gas and oil deposits
• 2012/05/22: OilDrum: Norwegian Actual and Forecast Natural Gas Production towards 2020
• 2012/05/22: OilChange: 70,000 Ask Shell to Clean Up in Nigeria
• 2012/05/21: EarlyWarning: Crude and Condensate Reached New Highs in Jan
• 2012/05/21: Reuters: China's Iran oil imports rebound on month, down on year
  April imports from Iran 388,034 bpd, down 23.7 pct y/y, up 53.1 pct m/m -- Jan-April imports from Iran 355,989 bpd, down 31 pct y/y -- April imports from Saudi Arabia 1.07 mln bpd, up 14 pct
• 2012/05/21: OilDrum: Updating World Deepwater Oil & Gas Discovery
• 2012/05/20: EnergyBulletin: Oil report from the "Diplomatic Council on Energy Security"
  

  In the fossil fuel corps:

• 2012/05/25: EUO: What Big Oil is hiding about EU transparency
  Big Oil is on the warpath. It hates the new transparency provisions in the EU Accounting and Transparency Directives which would require all EU-listed oil and mining companies to publish what they pay to governments around the world on a country-by-country and project-by-project basis. Improving transparency of the money from oil, mining and gas to reduce the appalling levels of diversion and corruption affecting resource-rich countries is a good idea, as even the most vocal opponents of the new EU rules grudgingly agree.
• 
  

  Regarding oil and the economy:

   

• 2012/05/24: SeekingAlpha: Energy Income For A Peak 'Energy Return On Energy Invested' World
• 2012/05/25: JaredB: Does Oil Upside Cancel Europe Downside?
• 2012/05/23: OilDrum: Greasing the Wheel: Oil’s Role in the Global Crisis
  

  And in pipeline news:

• 2012/05/25: EUO: Moment of truth for EU gas pipeline
  The EU-endorsed Nabucco pipeline project is shrinking and by the end of June it might vanish.
• 
  

  Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

   

• 2012/05/23: TheCanadian: Renowned Energy Economist, Peak Oil Expert Jeff Rubin Speaking at Capilano This Thursday
  

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2012/05/24: PlanetArk: U.N. Warns Agrofuel Growth May Breach Human Rights
• 2012/05/25: NatureNB: Butanol hits the biofuels big-time
• 2012/05/21: PlanetArk: Analysis: New Facilities Spotlight Next-Generation Biofuels
  

  The answer my friend...:

• 2012/05/23: ABC(Au):TDU: Wind turbines power mass hysteria
• 2012/05/22: TP:JR: Building Wind Energy Can Save Midwestern Consumers $200 Per Year
  

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2012/05/25: LA Times: Utility regulators more than double California's solar power goal
  The state Public Utilities Commission raises the maximum total capacity for all rooftop solar systems in an electric bill-slashing program to about 5,200 megawatts from 2,400 megawatts.
• 2012/05/25: Eureka: High-speed method to aid search for solar energy storage catalysts
• 2012/05/26: SlashDot: Germany Sets New Solar Power Record
• 2012/05/24: NatureN: 'Artificial leaf' hits development hurdle -- Company founded to commercialize solar hydrogen device goes back to drawing board
• 2012/05/23: SciNow: Solid Advance for Cheap Solar Cells
• 2012/05/23: CNN: $16m solar boat sails into record books
  The "MS Turanor" is the first solar powered boat to sail around the world - The circumnavigation took 585 days to complete - The boat's top speed is 7.5 knots - about that of an oil tanker - The "Turanor" set five Guinness World Records during its voyage
• 
  

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

   

• 2012/05/25: BBC: Solar feed-in tariff cut delayed by government
  A cut in the subsidies on offer to homeowners who install solar panels to generate electricity has been delayed by the government. The feed-in tariff will fall to 16 pence per KW hour from 21p on 1 August, not on 1 July as previously announced. It will then fall every three months, depending on market conditions. Tariffs are being cut to reflect the falling cost of solar panels. Earlier this year, the tariff was reduced from 43p to 21p.
• 
  

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

   

• 2012/05/24: BNC: Is pro-nuclear the best option for our make-or-break century?
• 2012/05/25: APR: An interesting week, to say the least
• 2012/05/25: al Jazeera: Interactive: World nuclear club
  While 14 nations host nuclear weapons, 30 countries generate atomic energy, and another 18 are building future reactors.
• 2012/05/24: JQuiggin: The green fields of nuclear power
• 2012/05/22: MPG: Probability of contamination from severe nuclear reactor accidents is higher than expected
• 2012/05/22: SciDaily: Severe Nuclear Reactor Accidents Likely Every 10 to 20 Years, European Study Suggests
• 2012/05/23: TreeHugger: There Will be Another Nuclear Meltdown Every 10 Years, Report Says
  

  Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:

• 2012/05/25: ABC(Au): March marks five years of nuclear waste push
  

  Nuclear fusion projects around the world limp along:

• 2012/05/25: Guardian(UK): Iranian team to collaborate with US company on nuclear fusion project New Jersey company [Lawrenceville Plasma Physics Inc.] says it has permission for unique partnership to work toward the holy grail of energy sources
  

  Low energy nuclear keeps coming up:

• 2012/05/21: NBF: Rossi Energy Catalyzer, Defkalion and other LENR Updates
  

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2012/05/24: TreeHugger: 1/3 of U.S. Homes Now Have Smart Meters
• 2012/05/26: ERabett:BSD: FEV2Gen to support V2G
  

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2012/05/20: TP:JR: Energy Efficiency: What Are The Laggards Thinking?
  

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

• 2012/05/25: AutoBG: Driving an EV is like paying a buck a gallon, eternally
• 2012/05/24: CSM: Nissan electric vehicle: Van to be built in Spain. NYC next?
• 2012/05/23: AutoBG: GM strikes out against CHAdeMO DC fast charging; opponets say SAE has 'the plug without the cars'
  

  As for Energy Storage:

• 2012/05/24: DerSpiegel: Renewable Energy Ambitions -- Norway Wants to Become Europe's Battery
  Because wind and solar energy are inconsistent, energy managers are looking for ways to fill in the gaps when it is dark outside and the air is still. A Norwegian company wants to turn hydroelectric power stations in the north into Europe's battery packs.
• 2012/05/23: NBF: Tin Anode could triple lithium ion battery capacity and should be on the market next year
• 2012/05/22: NatureN: Manufacturing woes haunt high-tech battery maker
  Clean-technology darling A123 Systems suffers financial losses following recall.
• 2012/05/21: SciAm:PI: Lithium Ion Batteries Help to Reduce Peak Load at UC Riverside
  

  Who's fielding theFAQs?

• 2012/05/21: Guardian(UK): Why do economists describe climate change as a 'market failure'?
  

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

• 2012/05/25: TP:JR: May 25 News...
• 2012/05/24: TP:JR: May 24 News...
• 2012/05/23: TP:JR: May 23 News...
• 2012/05/22: TP:JR: May 22 News...
• 2012/05/21: TP:JR: May 21 News...
  

  Other (weekly) lists:

• 2012/05/25: BPA: The Ag Hot Five No. 8
• 2012/05/25: EnergyBulletin: ODAC Newsletter
• 2012/05/21: BPA: Agriculture News
  

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2012/05/25: WottsUWT: The "well funded" climate business - follow the money
• 2012/05/25: Stoat: Global cooling and spooks, again
• 2012/05/22: TruthOut: Koch Operative Steered $55 Million to Front Groups Airing Ads Against Democrats; Ads Assailed Candidates Over Abortion, 9/11, Medicare
• 2012/05/26: QuarkSoup: The '70s Cooling Meme vs. Knowledge
• 2012/05/25: EnergyBulletin: Oil addiction generates denial
• 2012/05/24: P3: Only In It for the Gold?
• 2012/05/23: Tamino: Big Difference
• 2012/05/22: AlterNet: Koch Operative Steered $55 Million to Front Groups Airing Ads Against Democrats; Ads Assailed Candidates Over Abortion, 9/11, Medicare
• 2012/05/21: P3: Fakegate
• 2012/05/21: DeSmogBlog: Will Climate Denial, Like, Ever End?
• 2012/05/21: DeSmogBlog: Who Are The Australian Backers Of Heartland's Climate Denial?
• 2012/05/21: TP:JR: John Abraham Responds To Christopher Monckton At The Yale Forum On Climate Change & The Media
• 2012/05/21: TP:JR: Climate Science Disinformers Are Nothing Like Holocaust Deniers
  

  The Heartland denialapalooza went down this week:

• 2012/05/24: Grist: Sorry guys, no more Heartland Institute conferences
• 2012/05/24: WottsUWT: Live stream from Heartland conference
• 2012/05/24: P3: On Not Having Joe Bast to Kick Around Anymore
• 2012/05/24: TP:JR: The Self-Inflicted Downfall Of The Heartland Institute
• 2012/05/24: DeSmogBlog: Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline, Verizon, and CUNA Drop Heartland Institute, Continuing Corporate Defections
• 2012/05/23: P3: The end of Heartland’s climate denial conferences
• 2012/05/23: WtD: Looking for sugar daddies: Heartland Institute announces the end of its "annual" conference, begs for cash from "rich uncles"
• 2012/05/23: DeSmogBlog: A Closer Look at Heartland's ICCC7 Denial-a-Palooza Speakers and Sponsors
• 2012/05/23: DeSmogBlog: Joe Bast Announces the Death of Denial-a-Palooza at Final Heartland ICCC Conference
• 2012/05/24: Guardian(UK): Heartland Institute in financial crisis after billboard controversy
• 2012/05/23: KSJT: Guardian: Heartland Institute’s Chicago meeting reveals turmoil inside libertarain-conservative, global warming-contrarian citadel
• 2012/05/23: TP:JR: Heartland Denial Conference: Special Guest Lord Monckton Goes Birther, Admits He Has "No Scientific Qualification"
• 2012/05/23: Grist: Heartland adviser: Heat waves only kill people who were basically dead already
• 2012/05/22: TreeHugger: The Decline and Fall of the Nation's Top Climate-Denying Think Tank
• 2012/05/21: NYT:PK: Godwinization
• 2012/05/22: Guardian(UK): Heartland reflects on its beating
  The ultra-conservative group's climate conference showed how far it has fallen after an internet sting and a disastrous ad
• 2012/05/22: WtD: Operation Heartland: Fakegate, Fakegate, Fakegate (spread the meme)
• 2012/05/21: Grist: Heartland Institute going broke due to dickish billboard campaign
• 2012/05/22: ERabett: Latest update on our friends at Heartland
• 2012/05/22: DeSmogBlog: Heartland Denial-a-Palooza Sponsors Have Received $67 Million From ExxonMobil, Koch and Scaife Foundations
• 2012/05/21: S&R: Heartland Institute attacks critics, still refuses to apologize for Unabomber billboard
• 2012/05/21: TP:JR: Heartland Institute Hemorrhages Donors And Cash For Extremist Agenda, As Coal And Oil Step In
• 2012/05/21: OilChange: Haemorrhaging Heartland Still in Denial
• 2012/05/21: BCLSB: Just Who Has Bailed On The Heartland Institute?
• 2012/05/21: TMoS: It's Hard to Dance Well When You've Just Shot Yourself in the Foot
• 2012/05/20: Guardian(UK): Heartland Institute facing uncertain future as staff depart and cash dries up
  Free-market thinktank's conference opens in Chicago with president admitting defections are hurting group's finances

• This week in intimidation:

• 2012/05/21: Deltoid: Death threat denial
• 2012/05/21: ABC(Au): Media coverage of death threats examined
• 2012/05/21: ERabett: Hide the Bunnies
  

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2012/05/24: Stoat: Costs of adaption
• 2012/05/19: TreeHugger: Why Are We Putting 21st Century Light Bulbs in 19th Century Sockets?
• 2012/05/24: TCoE: Number fiddling on the road to hell and high water
• 2012/05/21: TP:JR: New Study Finds That Loggers And Conservationists Can Be Allies
• 2012/05/22: Stoat: von S jumps the shark
• 2012/05/21: AFTIC: Water, water
• 2012/05/21: ERabett:JF: Petroleum and Propaganda
• 2012/05/21: TreeHugger: Map of Life Website Will Catalog and Track Every Plant and Animal Species
• 2012/05/21: Wunderground:RR: Just Temperature Redux: What about the Cherries and Apples?
  

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

• Climate Action Tracker
• IIASA: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
• GAEZ: Global Agro-Ecological Zones
• BlackOutSpeakOut
• WWF Climate Blog
• Jonathan Koomey
• Wiki: Dutch disease
• Wiki: Sverdrup
• Wiki: Sievert
• NOAAWatch: Floods Monitor
• EcoGeek
• ASA:JEQ: Journal of Environmental Quality
• TBAS: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
• ERW: Environmental Research Web - News
• USNO: Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)
• BEST: Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature
• Technology Review

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>

-het

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.

"How exactly is it in the 'best interests of the Nation' to sell coal that belongs to US taxpayers at a discount so Peabody can strip mine and ship it to Asia?" -Joe Smyth

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Last modified May 27, 2012