Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
Another Week in the Planetary Crisis
Information is not Knowledge...Knowledge is notWisdom
June 10, 2012
- Chuckles, Rio+20, GOE, COP18+, Bonn, WOD, WED, Barnosky
- Elmendorf, Dyings, Yes Men, Trade, Woodie, Psyche, Cook
- Fukushima Note, Fukushima News, Nuclear Policy
- Melting Arctic, Jet Streams, Plankton, Methane, Geopolitics
- Food: Crisis, Fisheries, Prices, GMOs, GMO Labelling, Production
- Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Paleoclimate
- ENSO, Uncertainties, Extinctions, Satellites
- Impacts, Forests, Wacky Weather, Extreme Weather, Phenology, Tornadoes
- Wildfires, Glaciers, Sea Levels, GW Deluge, Floods & Droughts
- Mitigation, Cities, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Conservation
- Journals, Other Docs, Misc. Science, DIY Science, Free Science, Gleick, Mann
- International Politics: UN, Carbon Trade, Carbon Labelling, Hormuz
- South China Sea, EU ETS & Airlines, Misc, Activism, Polls, H2O Biz
- National Politics: America, BP Disaster, 2012, Gas Prices, Keystone
- Canute, Satellites, Birth Control, USAdmin, Congress, Lobbyists
- Britain, Europe, Australia, Carbon Law, MDBP, Reef Row, India, China, Japan
- Canada, Post G20, Mulcair, Bill C-38, BOSO, NorGate, Job Cuts, Terrorists
- Salmon, BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Sask, Quebec, Maritimes, Canadiana
- Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Courts
- Energy, Transitions, Fracking, Coal, Oil & Gas, Oil & Economy, Pipelines, Peak Oil, Biofuel
- Wind, Solar, Nukes, Nuclear Waste, LENR, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Energy Storage
- Business, Insurance, FAQs, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
- Shameless Self Promotion, .sig
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- 2012/06/09: SeppoNet: (cartoon - Seppo) Summer Bird Watch
- 2012/06/03: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) even the rain...
- 2012/06/09: SMcMillan: (cartoon - McMillan) New Campaign
- 2012/06/07: GaianEcon: (cartoon - Shaw) Flying Down to Rio
- 2012/06/06: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) Solutions
- 2012/06/06: uComics: (cartoon - Danziger) Koch Brothers' Money Saves Scott Walker From Recall Drive
And for those who enjoy challenging Poe's Law:
- 2012/06/04: Wonkette: EPA Drones Terrorizing Ranchers Because the EPA Hates the Heartland
Looking ahead to Rio+20 :
- 2012/06/08: CDreams: Rio+20 Earth Summit: Leaked Draft Portends Another Failed Climate Summit
- 2012/06/07: TreeHugger: Just 4 of 90 Most-Important Environmental Goals Show Significant Progress: UNEP
- 2012/06/07: TreeHugger: What Rio+20 Is All About in Just Over a Minute (Video)
- 2012/06/08: WaPo:B: The 1992 Earth Summit failed. Will this year's edition be different?
- 2012/06/08: UN: French President calls for action 'today' ahead of Rio+20 conference in Brazil
- 2012/06/09: al Jazeera: Science is key to our sustainable future
Scientists must urgently take an active role in public debate if we are to achieve global sustainability. - 2012/06/09: OilChange: Call on Governments to End Fossil Fuel Subsidies
- 2012/06/05: NewInt: Rio+20: The Great Greenwashers
- 2012/06/08: Rio+20: Peoples Summit for Social and Environmental Justice in defense of the commons
- 2012/06/08: EnergyBulletin: The commons emerges as a theme at the People's Summit in Rio
- 2012/06/08: Guardian(UK): Speak up for children at Rio+20 Earth summit
- 2012/06/06: Guardian(UK): Q&A: Rio+20 Earth summit
Who are the key players, what are the main sticking points, and what does the conference hope to achieve? - 2012/06/06: Guardian(UK): Rio+ 20 Earth summit could collapse, WWF warns
Countries fail to agree on draft text for sustainable development goals and definition of key objectives including green economy - 2012/06/06: Guardian(UK): Rio+20 Earth summit: Ban Ki-moon 'optimistic' about sustainability deal
- 2012/06/06: UN: Rio+20 must result in 'concrete' decisions to advance sustainable development - Ban
- 2012/06/06: UN: Countries must fully support right to water at Rio+20 conference, says UN expert
- 2012/06/06: NatureN: Return to Rio: Second chance for the planet
- 2012/06/06: TreeHugger: Battling Climate Change in Rio and Beyond
- 2012/06/05: CCurrents: Disempowering Women Through The Green Economy
- 2012/06/04: BBC: Stockholm: Birth of the green generation
Stockholm, 1972. Five years after the Summer of Love, four after the Paris riots; the Cold War is in full swing.
[...]
On 5 June 1972, in the Swedish capital, they began to build their response, in the form of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment - the first UN summit on the environment, and the event that really put the issue on the global political agenda. - 2012/06/04: Grist: 17-year-old tells world leaders to step up, give her a future
The Global Environmental Outlook report for Rio+20 came out this week:
- 2012/06/05: UNEP: [link to 77.4 meg pdf] Global Environmental Outlook
- 2012/06/08: CSM: Ahead of Rio +20 summit, UN sounds environmental alarm (+video)
- 2012/06/06: UN: Despite agreed environmental goals, world still on unsustainable path - UN
- 2012/06/07: PlanetArk: U.N. Sounds Environment Alarm Ahead Of Rio Summit
- 2012/06/06: Grist: U.N. report: 'Oh, man.'
- 2012/06/06: NSF: Ecologists Call for Preservation of Planet's Remaining Biological Diversity
Two decades after Rio Earth Summit, scientists recommend international efforts to halt biodiversity losses - 2012/06/06: NatureN: Earth summit: Rio report card
The world has failed to deliver on many of the promises it made 20 years ago at the Earth summit in Brazil. - 2012/06/07: Guardian(UK): Many treaties to save the earth, but where's the will to implement them?
Governments spend years negotiating environmental agreements, but then willfully ignore them - it's a dismal record - 2012/06/04: UNFCCC: UNFCCC calls for applications of activities addressing climate change in urban communities in developing countries
Remember Bonn?
- 2012/06/07: P3: Global Climate Justice gets its 15 Minutes
World Oceans Day went down this week:
- World Oceans Day
- 2012/06/08: UN: On World Oceans Day, Ban urges countries to protect marine environment
- 2012/06/08: SciAm:PI: Happy World Oceans Day from North Carolina!
- 2012/06/07: Grist: World Oceans Day: Don't mess with them or they'll mess with you
And apparently there was a World Environment Day, as well:
- 2012/06/05: UN: On World Environment Day, UN officials highlight need to ensure sustainability of resources
The Barnosky et al. paper on the biosphere made a lot of people sit up and take notice:
- 2012/06/07: Nature: (ab$) Approaching a state shift in Earth's biosphere by Anthony D. Barnosky et al.
- 2012/06/08: KSJT: Some Ink: In Nature, forecast of planetary "state shift," aka tipping point on path to eco-collapse...
- 2012/06/07: Grist: We're about to push the Earth over the brink, new study finds
- 2012/06/07: LA Times: Earth may be near tipping point, scientists warn
A group of scientists warns that population growth, climate change and environmental damage are pushing Earth toward calamitous and irreversible changes. - 2012/06/06: Berkeley: Scientists uncover evidence of impending tipping point for Earth
- 2012/06/07: TMoS: Just How Close Are We to the Edge?
- 2012/06/06: FuturePundit: Earth Ecological Collapse Approaching?
- 2012/06/08: CCurrents: Earth Facing Imminent Environmental 'Tipping Point
- 2012/06/06: TreeHugger: Scientists Fear Global Ecological Collapse Once 50% of the Natural Landscape is Gone
- 2012/06/07: CSM: Earth's ecosystems nearing catastrophic 'tipping point,' warn scientists
- 2012/06/06: CSM: Report: Humans near tipping point that could dramatically change Earth
- 2012/06/06: RawStory: Environmental collapse now a serious threat: scientists
- 2012/06/07: PostMedia: Earth near point of no return, scientists warn
Effects of civilization on planet threaten collapse of ecosystems in 50 years - with no going back - 2012/04/08: Nature:CC: (ab$) Plot-scale evidence of tundra vegetation change and links to recent summer warming by Sarah C. Elmendorf et multi alia
- 2012/06/07: ITracker: Pop-up forests; positive or negative climate feedback?
- 2012/06/05: PSinclair: Tundra to Forest Feedback: Century Changes in "just a few Decades"
- 2012/06/03: Reuters: Global warming turns tundra to forest-study
Shrubs have grown to trees in just a few decades - More trees in tundra will speed warming - 2012/06/04: Time:Ecocentric: How Climate Change Is Growing Forests in the Arctic
- 2012/06/04: Oxford: Warming turns tundra to forest
There were two strange mass dyings in Japan's coastal regions this week. Not sure what it means, if anything:
- 2012/06/08: ProMedMail: Die-off, starfish - Japan: starvation
- 2012/06/08: EneNews: NBC: Ocean stained with blood at Japanese port city - Gizmodo: "The scariest thing is that no one is sure why this is happening" - 200 tons of dead sardines (photos)
- 2012/06/06: EneNews: Massive fish kill outside Tokyo in Chiba - "The sight is somewhat apocalyptic" - "Almost looks like a carpet of sardines" (photos)
- 2012/06/04: BBC: 'Starving' crown-of-thorns starfish in mass stranding
Hundreds of crown-of-thorns starfish found on a beach in southern Japan in January stranded themselves because they were starving, say researchers. More than 800 were discovered on a 300m stretch of sand on Ishigaki island. - 2012/06/08: UpstreamOnline: Internet hoax takes aim at Shell's Arctic plan
- 2012/06/08: Salon: Behind the Shell hoax
Yesterday, a fake video of an oil industry party went viral. I was there. Here's how it all went down - 2012/06/09: BCLSB: The Yes Men Strike Back
- 2012/06/08: 350orBust: #EpicFail At Shell's Arctic Launch Celebration
- 2012/06/07: TreeHugger: Shell's Arctic Oil Drilling Launch Party Was Literally a Disaster
The demand side of the equation:
- 2012/06/06: ABC(Au): Trade exports threaten biodiversity
- 2012/06/07: PlanetArk: Global Trade Plays Key Role In Species Threats: Study
Nearly a third of animal species under threat in developing nations can be linked to global trade of manufactured goods and commodities such as sugar, coffee and cocoa, researchers said on Wednesday. Policies aimed at curbing threats to species should take into account not only local producers who degrade the land but also foreign consumers who benefit from products at the expense of the habitat, said a study led by the University of Sydney. - 2012/06/06: NatureNB: International trade puts species in peril
Eli, James & Woodie - a strange brew:
- 2012/06/06: JEB: Woody Guthrie Award
- 2012/06/10: ERabett: Joe Romm for the Woodie Committee Meets Here
- 2012/06/08: ERabett: James should pass the Woodie Guthrie Award on to Joe
- 2012/06/03: CAbyss: Award Announcement - Woody Guthrie Award Presented to James Annan
Chris Mooney keeps pushing this shrinkology:
- 2012/06/08: KSJT: The Republican Brain: The perils and promise of taking a stand
- 2012/06/05: DeSmogBlog: The Polarizing Poles: Yet Another Study Shows That More Knowledgeable Conservatives Are *Worse* on Global Warming
John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:
- 2012/06/10: SkeptiSci: Today's Climate More Sensitive to Carbon Dioxide Than in Past 12 Million Years by John Hartz
- 2012/06/08: SkeptiSci: Richard Alley Looks at The Big Picture by dana1981
- 2012/06/08: SkeptiSci: Fred Singer Promotes Fossil Fuels through Myths and Misinformation by dana1981
- 2012/06/07: SkeptiSci: Don Easterbrook's Heartland Distortion of Reality by dana1981
- 2012/06/06: SkeptiSci: Pal Review - the True Story and the Fairy Tale by dana1981, JohnMashey
- 2012/06/06: SkeptiSci: New research from last week 22/2012 by Ari Jokimäki
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 coming out of Fukushima:
- 2012/06/07: EneNews: Sources: Gov't gives up plan to decide on restarting reactors - Procedures have stalled amid deep-rooted public opposition
- 2012/06/08: EneNews: Tepco adds 60-ton cover on No. 4 fuel pool (photos)
- 2012/06/07: StatesmanJournal: Worries persist about dangers of Japan's nuclear reactors to West Coast
- 2012/06/07: PanOrientNews: Fukushima Reactor Global Security Issue: Japanese Former Diplomat
The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant Number 4 reactor presents a security problem for the entire world, Mitsuhei Murata, Japan's former ambassador to Switzerland said. - 2012/06/06: EneNews: Kyodo: No. 4 fuel pool warms - Backup pump stopped Wednesday - Main pump stopped Tuesday - Tepco expects temperature to start falling
- 2012/06/06: EneNews: Temperature spikes in No. 4 fuel pool after pump burns - Backup also breaks
- 2012/06/04: Atlantic: Japan's Latest Nuclear Crisis: Getting Rid of the Radioactive Debris
A plan to disperse the waste to incineration facilities across the country, meant to instill national unity, is doing the opposite, and further delaying Japan's ability to move beyond Fukushima. - 2012/06/05: BBC: Dounreay staff offer advice on Japan's Fukushima
- 2012/06/05: ABC(Au): Japanese nuke agency drops 'radioactive wife'
The Japanese Atomic Energy Agency has dropped a page from its website which compared radioactive material to an angry wife. The agency says it was merely trying to explain nuclear power to women. - 2012/06/04: TreeHugger: Fukushima Nuclear Plant Wall Bulge Raises New Concerns About Another Disaster
- 2012/06/03: EneNews: Japan Representative: Tepco and the gov't have been telling lies to the people - Officials have hidden the real numbers or given wrong ones (video)
- 2012/06/04: EneNews: Nuclear Expert on Japan's MOX: "I think the ship is sinking beneath them" - "It's crazy" - "There really is a credibility problem here"
- 2012/05/16: ANS-NC: Spent fuel at Fukushima Daiichi safer than asserted
Post Fukushima, nuclear policies are in flux around the world:
- 2012/06/06: DerSpiegel: The Move to Renewables -- Germany's Nuclear Phase-Out Brings Unexpected Costs
The German government was quick to approve a phase-out of nuclear power in the country after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Now the costs of moving toward renewable energy are just being realized, and low-income consumers are paying the price. - 2012/06/09: al Jazeera: Japanese PM says no choice but nuclear
Yoshihiko Noda angers anti-nuclear lobby with call for two reactors to be restarted to head off energy crisis. - 2012/06/06: NatureN: Japan considers nuclear-free future -- Options require big boost for renewable energy sources
The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:
- 2012/06/10: ASI: NSIDC Arctic sea ice news May 2012
- 2012/06/07: QuarkSoup: The Long-Term Loss of Arctic Sea Ice
- 2012/06/07: QuarkSoup: Annual Arctic Sea Ice Volume the Lowest Ever
- 2012/06/07: ITracker: Pop-up forests; positive or negative climate feedback?
- 2012/06/07: Moyhu: Arctic Ice Volume Anomalies
- 2012/06/07: ASI: Naive Predictions of 2012 Sea Ice
- 2012/06/06: NSIDC: Arctic sea ice variable, ends May below average
- 2012/06/06: CCP: NSIDC Arctic Sea Ice Report, June 6, 2012: Arctic sea ice variable, ends May below average
- 2012/06/05: ASI: SEARCH (Study of Environmental Arctic Change) Outlook Contribution May 2012
- 2012/06/05: ASI: PIOMAS June 2012
- 2012/06/04: TP:JR: Unprecedented May Heat In Greenland, Temperature Hits Stunning 76.6°F
Arctic melting will trigger unusual weather in the mid-latitudes:
- 2012/06/08: PSinclair: More Evidence: Arctic Warming Effect on Jet Stream = More Extremes
- 2012/06/06: Eureka: Cornell researchers warn that Arctic ice melt is setting stage for severe winters
[...]
The recent observations present a new twist to the Arctic Oscillation -- a natural pattern of climate variability in the Northern Hemisphere. Before humans began warming the planet, the Arctic's climate system naturally oscillated between conditions favorable and those unfavorable for invasions of cold Arctic air. "What's happening now is that we are changing the climate system, especially in the Arctic, and that's increasing the odds for the negative AO conditions that favor cold air invasions and severe winter weather outbreaks," Greene said. "It's something to think about given our recent history." - 2012/06/07: SciNow: Life Blooms Under Arctic Ice
- 2012/06/08: SciNews: Plankton flourish under Arctic sea ice -- Scientists shocked to find phytoplankton thriving under frozen surface
- 2012/06/07: WHOI: Scientists Discover Huge Phytoplankton Bloom in Ice Covered Waters
- 2012/06/07: CCP: Doug O'Harra: Phytoplankton explosion beneath Chukchi Sea ice intrigues scientists
- 2012/06/07: PSinclair: NASA: Massive Plankton Bloom under Thinning Ice
- 2012/06/07: NatureN: Huge phytoplankton bloom found under Arctic ice
- 2012/06/09: CIP: Phytoplankton Feedback
- 2012/06/08: Grist: Climate change causes monster patch of microscopic plants in the Arctic
- 2012/06/07: CSM: Beneath Arctic ice, scientists find an ecosystem never imagined (+video)
- 2012/06/08: CSM: Bizarre Arctic discovery baffles NASA scientists (+video)
That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:
- 2012/06/07: ArcticNews: Methane sequestration in hydrates
- 2012/06/08: RBroberg: BOE: Quantifying Catastrophe ... Now with CH4!!!
As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:
- 2012/06/09: ASI: An early opening of the Northern Sea Route?
- 2012/06/08: MoscowTimes: Canada Can Help Russia With Northern Sea Route
The Arctic Ocean's coastline belongs mostly to Russia and Canada, the two largest countries in the world. Each country owns territory on either side of a series of contested, and increasingly ice-free, Arctic straits. Russia considers the narrowest parts of the Northern Sea Route to be "internal waters." Canada takes the same view of the Northwest Passage. Internal waters are not territorial waters, and foreign ships have no right to access them without permission from the coastal state. Russia and Canada face a single, common source of opposition to their claims -- namely, the United States, which insists that both the Northern Sea Route and the Northwest Passage are "international straits." The United States thus accepts that Russia and Canada "own" the Northern Sea Route and Northwest Passage, while asserting that foreign vessels have a right of "transit passage" through the straits that exceeds the right of "innocent passage" in regular territorial waters. A right of transit passage entitles foreign ships to pass through a strait without coastal state permission. It also means that foreign submarines can sail submerged, something that they are not allowed to do in regular territorial waters. - 2012/06/08: CCurrents: Protecting Birds And Caribou From Drilling In The Arctic
- 2012/06/07: EurActiv: Oil rush in the Arctic gambles with nature and diplomacy
In Svalbard politicians and scientists talk of global warming and a low carbon economy. Outside, the drilling rigs are moving in. - 2012/06/06: UPI: Arctic interests have spillover effects
- 2012/06/05: Guardian(UK): Oil rush in the Arctic gambles with nature and diplomacy
In Svalbard politicians and scientists talk of global warming and a low carbon economy. Outside, the drilling rigs are moving in - 2012/06/05: BBC: BP faces new court action in Russia
A court in Siberia has ordered a new hearing into BP's failed bid last year to form an alliance with Rosneft, the Russian state oil group. An attempt by minority shareholders in TNK-BP, the UK firm's Russian joint venture, to seek damages of $13bn (£8.5bn) from BP failed in November. - 2012/06/03: Guardian(UK): BP investors in line for £10bn windfall from sale of TNK-BP stake
The food crisis is ongoing:
- 2012/06/07: ProMedMail: Schmallenberg virus - Europe (46): Denmark, bovine
- 2012/06/07: LA Times:B: Locusts menace already hunger-stricken Mali and Niger
- 2012/06/08: Grist: Libya is overrun with locusts
- 2012/06/07: FAO: FAO Cereal Supply and Demand Brief
- 2012/06/05: FAO: Niger, Mali on alert to Desert Locust risk -- Insecurity and conflict hinder control efforts
- 2012/06/03: RI: Antibiotics, the war on weeds, and the medical model in agriculture
- 2012/06/07: UN: UN relief official voices concern as fighting, food shortages uproot more Sudanese
- 2012/06/07: ProMedMail: Stem rust, wheat - Africa: new races
- 2012/06/05: ProMedMail: Schmallenberg virus - Europe (45): Denmark, serological evidence
- 2012/06/05: MSNBC: Farms covered by 4 feet of sand after flooding -- "We'll be working on this for years," says one Iowa farmer of cleanup
- 2012/06/05: UN: UN food agency warns of danger to croplands in Mali and Niger from locust swarms
- 2012/06/04: PSinclair: Post-Flood Midwest Farms a Wasteland. Deniers - "They need more CO2"
- 2012/06/03: EnergyBulletin: Antibiotics, the war on weeds and the medical model in agriculture
The state of the world's fisheries is a concern:
- 2012/06/08: Europa: Fishing opportunities for 2013: improvements for some fish stocks
Food Prices are still problematic:
- FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
- 2012/06/07: UN: UN food price index registers sharp drop in prices during May
- 2012/06/07: Reuters: World food prices fall in May -UN's FAO
- 2012/06/07: CBC: Food prices dropping due to bumper crop yields
- 2012/06/07: FAO: FAO Food Price Index drops sharply -- World cereal supplies expected to be abundant in 2012/13
- 2012/06/07: ABC(Au): Global food prices fall 4 per cent
Regarding the genetic modification of food:
- 2012/06/07: Grist: Feds to farmers: Grow GMO beets or face sugar shortage
- 2012/06/07: TreeHugger: Genetically Modified Canola Found Growing Wild in Switzerland, Even Though It's Banned There
- 2012/06/05: AlterNet: Monsanto Vs Nature: The Weeds Fight Back
- 2012/06/06: TreeHugger: Monsanto's Drought Tolerant Corn Outpaced by Conventional Breeding, Better Farming Practices
- 2012/06/05: DigitalJournal: 5 million Brazilian farmers sue Monsanto in huge class action
- 2012/06/05: TheCanadian: Attack of the Biotech Guys
- 2012/06/04: TheCanadian: Monsanto busted by Wikileaks - Documents Show US Government Working for Monsanto, Threatening 'Military-Style Trade Wars'
- 2012/06/04: DigitalJournal: Op-Ed: WikiLeaks exposes corruption as France bans Monsanto's GMO maize
- 2012/06/05: UCSUSA: Monsanto's "DroughtGard" Corn Barely a Drop in the Bucket
- 2012/06/03: Eureka: Larger refuges needed to sustain success of transgenic corn -- Scientists recommend doubling the size of refuges in Bt corn fields to delay insect resistance
Regarding labelling GM food:
- 2012/05/29: AlterNet: 90 Percent of People Want Labeling on Engineered Food, But We Still Don't Have it: Why Is that?
And how are we going to feed 9 billion, 10 billion, 15 billion?
- 2012/06/08: Grist: Tiny corn could be the next big thing
- 2012/06/05: CBC: Disney to phase out junk food ads
Ads currently running on Disney channels would not meet new nutrition standards, company VP says - 2012/06/03: Eureka: Maize diversity discoveries may help ease world's hunger pangs
In the Western Pacific:
- 2012/06/08: CBC: U.K. rower rescued in typhoon [Mawar] off Japan
- 2012/06/05: Eureka: NASA satellites see changes in weakening Typhoon Mawar
- 2012/06/04: Eureka: NASA looks at Typhoon Mawar, now heading to sea
In the South Indian Ocean:
- 2012/06/08: Eureka: Tropical Depression Keuna's rainfall weakens -- NASA TRMM satellite data reveals lighter rainfall
While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:
- 2012/06/06: GreenGrok: Welcome to Hurricane Season Circa 2012
- 2012/06/04: PlanetArk: Colorado Researchers Raise Atlantic Storm Forecast
Colorado State University researchers on Friday raised their forecast for the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season to 13 tropical storms, with five hurricanes and two major hurricanes. In April they forecast 10 tropical storms, with four strengthening into hurricanes and two becoming major hurricanes with winds of at least 111 miles per hour during the six-month season that began on Friday. - 2012/06/04: Wunderground: Rick Knabb takes over as director of NHC
As for GHGs:
- 2012/06/08: ABC(Au): Asia-Pacific fastest source of greenhouse gases: UN
- 2012/06/04: HotTopic: Life's a gas
And the temperature record:
- 2012/06/08: CCP: Andrew Freedman: Four Major Heat Records Fall in Stunning NOAA Report
- 2012/06/08: PlanetArk: Warmest U.S. Spring On Record: NOAA
- 2012/06/07: EnvEcon: One point does not a trend make (but many more points like this and I might reconsider)
- 2012/06/07: TreeHugger: Thus Far, 2012 is Hottest Ever Recorded in the US
- 2012/06/08: Wunderground: Spring 2012: most extreme season in U.S. history
- 2012/06/07: SciDaily: U.S. Experienced Second Warmest May, Warmest Spring On Record, NOAA Reports
- 2012/06/08: TP:JR: Four Major U.S. Heat Records Fall In Stunning NOAA Report
- 2012/06/07: CLB: A 150 year temperature history from Berkshire
While in the paleoclimate:
- 2012/06/06: NSF: Today's Climate More Sensitive to Carbon Dioxide Than in Past 12 Million Years
Geologic record shows evolution in Earth's climate system - 2012/06/06: Eureka: Sea temperatures less sensitive to CO2 13 million years ago
In the modern global climate, higher levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere are associated with rising ocean temperatures. But the seas were not always so sensitive to this CO2 "forcing," according to a new report. Around 5 to 13 million years ago, oceans were warmer than they are today -- even though atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations were considerably lower. The unusual mismatch between sea temperatures and CO2 levels during this time period hints that the relationship between climate and carbon dioxide hasn't always been the same as it is today, said Petra Dekens, assistant professor of geosciences and a co-author of the new study published in the journal Nature. "There was a transition, from the Earth's climate system being not as sensitive to changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide to becoming more sensitive to these changes," Dekens said. "What's interesting is that we can see this transition happening within the last 13 million years." - 2012/06/05: EarthMag: Ecosystem collapse in Pleistocene Australia
And on the ENSO front:
- 2012/06/07: NOAA:NCEP: El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion
Synopsis: There is a 50% chance that El Niño conditions will develop during the second half of 2012. - 2012/06/07: BBerg: U.S. Issues El Nino Watch That May Affect Atlantic Storms
- 2012/06/07: TP:JR: NOAA Says "50% Chance" El Niño Will Develop In Second Half Of 2012, Which NASA Says Would Lead To "Rapid Warming"
Dealing with uncertainties:
- 2012/06/10: JEB: The costs of uncertainty
- 2012/06/05: P3: Climate Uncertainty and Emission Cuts by Stephan Lewandowsky
What's new on the extinction front?
- 2012/06/08: ABC(Au): Bettongs beset
Kangaroo cull protesters have vandalised a fence protecting rare Bettongs at Canberra's Mulligans Flat Nature Reserve. - 2012/06/08: SciAm:EC: Report: 100 Amazon Bird Species Are at Greater Risk of Extinction Due to Deforestation
- 2012/06/08: TreeHugger: Half of Republic of Congo's Forest Elephants Killed in Past Five Years
- 2012/06/09: BBC: Golden and sea eagle decline since Dark Ages mapped
- 2012/06/07: BBC: Denmark's Baltic island of Bornholm has become a new home for the European bison, an endangered species that was almost wiped out in the last century
- 2012/06/07: IUCN: Threat to the Amazon's birds is greater than ever
The risk of extinction has increased substantially for nearly 100 species of Amazonian birds, reveals the 2012 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species - update for birds released today by BirdLife International. The new assessment is based on models projecting the extent and pattern of deforestation across the Amazon. - 2012/06/05: IUCN: 2012 marks the start of The International Year of the Rhino
Meanwhile in near earth orbit:
- 2012/06/09: HotTopic: High and dry
- 2012/06/04: DM:CV: NASA Gets a Present
More GW impacts are being seen:
- 2012/06/09: SimpleC: Hotter summers set to make power generators sweat
- 2012/06/06: SciNews: Arctic's wintry blanket can be warming
Forest snows keep northern soils relatively toasty, diminishing how much climate-warming carbon they can sequester - 2012/06/05: Guardian(UK): The threat posed by climate change in Bangladesh - in [8] pictures
- 2012/06/06: Eureka: Botswana, climate and tourism -- Saving Botswana's tourist industry from climate change
- 2012/06/05: Reuters: Price tag on climate change in Latin America: $100 billion
Damage from climate change could cost Latin American and Caribbean countries $100 billion per year by 2050 if average temperatures rise 2C (3.6F) from pre-industrial levels, as is seen likely, a new report said on Tuesday. - 2012/06/03: Eureka: Nuclear and coal-fired electrical plants vulnerable to climate change
- 2012/06/03: Eureka: US and European energy supplies vulnerable to climate change - Nature Climate Change
Water supply -- a limiting factor in energy production - 2012/06/08: ERW: 'Better' data show no change in Amazon greenness for 2000-2009
Scientists using satellite data to investigate greenness dynamics should take more care to filter out all corrupt data before drawing any conclusions, according to researchers in the US. - 2012/06/06: ERW: Insight: drought and flooding in the upper Amazon
- 2012/06/09: TheAge: No credits due as forests plundered
- 2012/06/05: GEP: Revised Brazil Forest Code Mandates Reforestation
- 2012/06/08: BBC: Global alliance aims to tackle forest crime
Interpol and the United Nations have joined forces to launch an initiative to tackle global forest crime. Project Leaf will target criminals involved in illegal logging and timber trafficking. The scheme will also provide support to enforcement agencies in countries with the biggest problems, Interpol said. - 2012/06/05: Interpol: INTERPOL launches Project LEAF to combat illegal logging worldwide
- 2012/06/04: NatureN: [Brazilian] President [Dilma Rousseff] prunes forest reforms -- Rousseff rejects elements of Brazil's revised forest code
Yes we have no weird weather, except:
- 2012/06/07: Wunderground: Hottest rain on record? Rain falls at 109°F in Saudi Arabia
- 2012/06/10: ABC(Au): Wild winds lash south-west WA
Over 160,000 homes are without power in Western Australia after a fierce storm lashed the south-west in what the weather bureau described as a "once in a decade event." Residents in south-west Western Australia are reporting damage to houses, downed power lines and debris spread across roads. - 2012/06/05: ABC(Au): Wild storm lashes NSW coast
The large storm battering the New South Wales coastline is continuing to wreak havoc as it moves further north. The State Emergency Service has received more than 800 calls for help, mainly for fallen trees brought down by winds of up to 125 kilometres per hour. Power has been restored to 20,000 homes in Sydney and the Central Coast, but thousands of residents in the Illawarra and the Southern Highlands remain in the dark. - 2012/06/07: NASA: NASA Provides Satellite Views of Maryland's Severe Weather Outbreak
- 2012/06/05: HuffPo: Extreme Weather Is the New Reality
Changes in natural cycles are showing up:
- 2012/06/03: SCV: Global warming: Extreme spring warmth affects popular firefly watching event in Great Smoky Mountains NP
On the tornado front:
- 2012/06/08: al Jazeera: Tornadoes touch down in Western Australia
Perth's suburbs get hit by a rare autumn severe storm - 2012/06/08: ABC(Au): Tornado tears through Perth suburbs
- 2012/06/07: ABC(Au): Tornadoes tear through northern Perth suburbs
A number of Tornados have swept through northern Perth, damaging homes and businesses and terrifying residents. Roofs were ripped off, windows shattered, trees uprooted and power lines brought down as the tornados tore through the northern Perth suburbs of Morley and Dianella. The town of York, east of the state's capital, was also struck in the storm whose damage bill could run into the millions. - 2012/06/05: CBC: Tornadoes and thunderstorms hit southern Alberta
Southern Alberta was shaken by tornadoes late Tuesday, downing trees and cutting power in at least one town, with the same weather system bringing thunderstorms to Calgary. Environment Canada confirmed one tornado near Taber and was investigating reports of three others late Tuesday and early Wednesday. - 2012/06/07: PostMedia: Climate change to bring more severe wildfires to B.C.: report
The number of major forest fires in B.C. will likely increase by 50 per cent or more in the next 40 years according to a recent report on climate change. Telling the Weather Story, released this week by the Insurance Bureau of Canada, addresses altering weather patterns across the country in the coming decades and urges Canadians to adjust to the realities of climate change. The study predicts B.C. can expect an increase in wildfires over the average of nearly 2,000 blazes a year between 2000 and 2010. Furthermore, the province will likely see a host of other weather-related issues like warmer temperatures, declining - and, in some regions, disappearing - mountain snowpacks, more intense rainfall during the winter, and drier summers. The number of wildfires sparked by lightning strikes - responsible for nearly 60 per cent of fires - is also expected to rise. - 2012/06/07: al Jazeera: In Pictures - The largest fire in New Mexico's history -- Gila National Park continues to burn
- 2012/06/06: CAbyss: Some of the Most Destructive United States Fires Ever
- 2012/06/04: USA Today: Several wildfires scorching New Mexico
- 2012/06/05: JFleck: Stuff I wrote elsewhere: climate change and megafires
- 2012/06/04: TreeHugger: The Biggest Wildfire in New Mexico's History, as Seen From Space
- 2012/06/04: CNN: Crews make progress in battle with largest wildfire in New Mexico's history
Nearly 1,200 personnel are fighting the Whitewater Baldy Complex wildfire - Firefighters use aircraft to ignite low intensity fires in the wildfire's northwest path to rob it of fuel - Residents return to an evacuated community - The blaze scorches more than 241,000 acres of rugged terrain in southwestern New Mexico - 2012/06/04: KSJT: AP: Oklahoma, OK! Beats TX in hottest-ever summer, USA division
- 2012/06/03: TP:JR: New Mexico Wildfire Now a Record-Setting 'Megafire', Budget Cuts In Congress May Undermine Federal Response
Glaciers are melting:
- 2012/06/09: FaGP: Devon Ice Cap Northern Outlet Glacier Retreat
- 2012/06/05: FaGP: Gietro Glacier Retreat and Hydropower, Switzerland
Sea levels are rising:
- 2012/06/03: JFleck: Sacramento Delta sinking faster than sea level is rising
These global warming deluges are becoming all too frequent:
- 2012/06/05: ABC(Au): Thousands without power as rivers keep rising [pix]
Several townships in Gippsland in eastern Victoria are on high alert, as eight river systems across the region move closer to their peak. Up to 200 millimetres of rain has fallen in eastern Victoria over the past day as the region braces for what could be the most widespread flooding in decades. - 2012/06/07: WtD: Victorian flood threat eases, damage to agriculture as crops lost
- 2012/06/07: CBC: B.C. rain brings flooding, mudslides, highway closures
- 2012/06/09: BBC: Wales flooding: Major rescue under way near Aberystwyth
A major rescue is continuing in mid Wales after severe flooding with nearly 100 people taken to safety. Villages in Ceredigion have been cut off with houses and caravan parks being flooded. Emergency services have helped people get to safety with some being rescued by helicopter. - 2012/06/09: BBC: Severe flooding in west Wales causes 'massive' damage
- 2012/06/07: ABC(Au): Vic towns on alert as floodwater rises
Several small towns in Victoria will spend an anxious night as floodwater levels continue to rise around the Gippsland Lakes. - 2012/06/10: Wunderground: Torrential rain causes widespread flooding in Florida panhandle
- 2012/06/10: BBC: Wales flooding: Victims hoping for return to homes
Hundreds of residents and holidaymakers in mid Wales are surveying damage to their homes and caravans after being evacuated as floodwaters swept in. - 2012/06/10: al Jazeera: Wet and windy Wales awash
Torrential rainfall caused widespread flooding across west Wales leading to a major rescue operation over the weekend. - 2012/06/09: CBC: High water, flooding alerts blanket southern Alberta
Predicted rain forecasts could spell trouble for rivers already reaching capacity - 2012/06/06: WtD: Dispatches from climate change's front line: Gippsland lakes threaten to flood, residents evacuated and 600 homes at risk
- 2012/06/06: ABC(Au): Floods threaten Vic power supplies
- 2012/06/06: ABC(Au): Flood warning for Australia's south east
- 2012/06/06: ABC(Au): Gippsland residents told to evacuate as water rises
- 2012/06/06: ABC(Au): Vic towns brace for flooding
Floodwater flowing down river in eastern Victoria is threatening several towns as well as a power station. - 2012/06/05: WtD: A wave that could drown the world part 2: three years of continuous "record" flooding in Victoria
- 2012/06/06: ABC(Au): Victorian flood crisis shifts to Gippsland Lakes
The focus of the flood crisis in eastern Victoria is turning to the Gippsland Lakes as the floodwaters move down from the high country. - 2012/06/05: al Jazeera: Heavy rain floods southeastern Australia
The wettest start to winter across parts of Victoria and New South Wales have left some many underwater. - 2012/06/05: ABC(Au): Warning of widespread flooding in eastern Victoria
Major flood warnings have been issued for rivers throughout Gippsland as the region braces for what could be the most widespread flooding in decades. Up to 200 millimetres of rain has fallen in eastern Victoria over the past 24 hours and another 50 millimetres is forecast in some areas for today. - 2012/06/04: TP:JR: Dead Ahead: Less Rainfall For Drought-Sensitive Southern Hemisphere Regions?
First, stop subsidizing fossil fuels
Second, put a price on carbon
And elsewhere on the mitigation front: - 2012/06/03: GEP: IBI Issues First Biochar Standards
- 2012/06/01: CDreams: For an Ailing Planet, the Cure Already Exists
Can cities take up the slack when nations shirk their responsibilities?
- 2012/06/07: USA Today: U.S. cities trail Latin America in climate change efforts
Major U.S. cities are among the world's wealthiest and technologically advanced, but they lag behind their counterparts in Latin America in preparing for climate change, a survey finds. Nearly all, or 95%, of major cities in Latin America are making plans to deal with the adverse impact of climate change, compared to 59% of such cities in the United States. according to a survey of 468 cities worldwide released this week by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. - 2012/06/04: USA Today: Use of public transit is soaring in 2012
Use of public transit is soaring. Transit agencies had record or near-record ridership in the first three months of the year, thanks to high gas prices, a mild winter and, in one city, the Super Bowl. At least a dozen communities set records for the number of people riding buses, trains and light rail, even though some cut service because of tight budgets, according to the American Public Transportation Association. - 2012/06/04: BBC: [High-Speed] HS2 rail 'dither and delay' criticised by Lord Adonis
While in the endless quest for zero energy, sustainable buildings and practical codes:
- 2012/06/07: BuildingGreen: Chemical Industry Attacks LEED: BuildingGreen Checks the Facts
- 2012/06/07: TreeHugger: BC's First Energy Star Qualified Home is a Round Beauty
- 2012/06/05: Grist: The 9 billion-person question: What kind of cities will we build?
- 2012/06/05: TreeHugger: LEED Green Building Update Delayed From 2012, Now LEED V4
- 2012/06/04: EurActiv: Lessons from London: cutting carbon emissions without the financial risk
The GLA's retrofitting scheme is set to save the public sector £6m and 36,000 tonnes of carbon by 2015. - 2012/06/04: TreeHugger: LEED Bashing: Government Study Finds "Equivalence" between LEED and Green Globes
As for carbon sequestration:
- 2012/06/08: ABC(Au): Search on for Hunter carbon storage sites
Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:
- 2012/06/04: ArcticNews: Project Lucy
Project Lucy is a proposal to decompose methane in the atmosphere using beamed radio frequency transmissions, possibly assisted by further technologies. - 2012/06/04: ArcticNews: The ANGELS proposal
The Arctic Natural Gas Extraction, Liquefaction & Sales (ANGELS) Proposal aims to reduce the threat of large, abrupt releases of methane in the Arctic, by extracting methane from hydrates prone to destabilization. - 2012/06/07: PlanetArk: Scientists Warn Geoengineering May Disrupt Rainfall
- 2012/06/06: TWTB: Would geoengineering really have NO impact on ocean acidification?
- 2012/06/05: Eureka: [SRM] Geoengineering could disrupt rainfall patterns
What's new in conservation?
- 2012/06/07: CO: Resilient Sites for Terrestrial Conservation in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Region
- 2012/06/07: TMoS: A Climate Change Noah's Ark
- 2012/06/09: The5thC: Endangered Species Legislation Wrong Approach
Meanwhile in the journals:
- 2012/05/04: GRL: (ab$) Sensitivity of stratospheric geoengineering with black carbon to aerosol size and altitude of injection by Ben Kravitz et al.
- 2012/06/08: ESD: The problem of the second wind turbine - a note on a common but flawed wind power estimation method by F. Gans et al.
- 2012/06/06: ESD: Solar irradiance reduction to counteract radiative forcing from a quadrupling of CO2: climate responses simulated by four earth system models by H. Schmidt et al.
- 2012/06/08: CP: Volcanic synchronisation between the EPICA Dome C and Vostok ice cores (Antarctica) 0-145 kyr BP by F. Parrenin et al.
- 2012/06/08: CPD: Modeling the consequences on late Triassic environment of intense pulse-like degassing during the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province using the GEOCLIM model by G. Paris et al.
- 2012/06/07: CPD: Cascading climate effects and related ecological consequences during past centuries by B. Naef-Daenzer et al.
- 2012/06/07: Nature: (ab$) Approaching a state shift in Earth's biosphere by Anthony D. Barnosky et al.
- 2012/06/06: Nature:Comm: (ab$) Anomalous high capacitance in a coaxial single nanowire capacitor by Zheng Liu et al.
- 2012/06/08: ACP: Uncertainties of parameterized surface downward clear-sky shortwave and all-sky longwave radiation. by S. Gubler et al.
- 2012/06/08: ACPD: Influence of a Carrington-like event on the atmospheric chemistry, temperature and dynamics by M. Calisto et al.
- 2012/06/08: ACPD: On the scaling effect in global surface air temperature anomalies by C. A. Varotsos & M. N. Efstathiou
- 2012/06/08: ACPD: Impact of natural and anthropogenic aerosols on stratocumulus and precipitation in the Southeast Pacific: a regional modelling study using WRF-Chem by Q. Yang et al.
- 2012/06/08: GMD: GEWEX Cloud System Study (GCSS) cirrus cloud working group: development of an observation-based case study for model evaluation by H. Yang et al.
- 2012/06/08: GMDD: Performance of McRAS-AC in the GEOS-5 AGCM: aerosol-cloud-microphysics, precipitation, cloud radiative effects, and circulation by Y. C. Sud et al.
- 2012/06/07: OS: A vertical-mode decomposition to investigate low-frequency internal motion across the Atlantic at 26° N by Z. B. Szuts et al.
- 2012/06/07: OS: Transports and budgets in a 1/4 ° global ocean reanalysis 1989-2010 by K. Haines et al.
- 2012/06/08: TC: Simulating melt, runoff and refreezing on Nordenskiöldbreen, Svalbard, using a coupled snow and energy balance model by W. J. J. van Pelt et al.
- 2012/06/06: TC: Multi-decadal marine- and land-terminating glacier recession in the Ammassalik region, southeast Greenland by S. H. Mernild et al.
- 2012/06/07: ACP: The impact of circulation patterns on regional transport pathways and air quality over Beijing and its surroundings by J. P. Zhang et al.
- 2012/06/07: ACP: Aerosol and precipitation chemistry measurements in a remote site in Central Amazonia: the role of biogenic contribution by T. Pauliquevis et al.
- 2012/06/07: ACP: Ice formation and development in aged, wintertime cumulus over the UK: observations and modelling by I. Crawford et al.
- 2012/06/04: ACP: Renewed methane increase for five years (2007-2011) observed by solar FTIR spectrometry by R. Sussmann et al.
- 2012/06/07: ACPD: Ship impacts on the marine atmosphere: insights into the contribution of shipping emissions to the properties of marine aerosol and clouds by M. M. Coggon et al.
- 2012/06/07: ACPD: Crop harvest in Central Europe causes episodes of high airborne Alternaria spore concentrations in Copenhagen by C. A. Skjøth et al.
- 2012/06/07: ACPD: Aerosol indirect effect on warm clouds over South-East Atlantic, from co-located MODIS and CALIPSO observations by L. Costantino F.-M. Bréon
- 2012/06/06: ACPD: Atmospheric impacts on climatic variability of surface incident solar radiation by K. Wang et al.
- 2012/06/05: ACPD: Long-term changes in lower tropospheric baseline ozone concentrations at northern mid-latitudes by D. D. Parrish et al.
- 2012/06/05: ACPD: Evaluation of the absolute regional temperature potential by D. T. Shindell
- 2012/06/04: ACPD: Relationships between particles, cloud condensation nuclei and cloud droplet activation during the third Pallas Cloud Experiment by T. Anttila et al.
- 2012/06/03: Nature:CC: (ab$) Eurasian Arctic greening reveals teleconnections and the potential for structurally novel ecosystems by Marc Macias-Fauria et al.
- 2012/06/05: PNAS: (ab$) Divergent responses to spring and winter warming drive community level flowering trends by Benjamin I. Cook et al.
- 2012/06/05: PNAS: (abs) Frequent skipped spawning in the world's largest cod population by Jon Egil Skjæraasen et al.
- 2012/06/05: PNAS: (ab$) Allee effect promotes diversity in traveling waves of colonization by Lionel Roques et al.
- 2012/06/05: PNAS: (ab$) Genome-wide association mapping of leaf metabolic profiles for dissecting complex traits in maize by Christian Riedelsheimer et al.
- 2012/06/05: PNAS: (ab$) Efficient genetic modification and germ-line transmission of primordial germ cells using piggyBac and Tol2 transposons by Joni Macdonald et al.
- 2012/06/05: PNAS: (ab$) Predominance of heavily calcified coccolithophores at low CaCO3 saturation during winter in the Bay of Biscay by Helen E. K. Smith et al.
- 2012/06/05: PNAS: (ab$) Asymmetric forest transition driven by the interaction of socioeconomic development and environmental heterogeneity in Central America by Daniel J. Redo et al.
- 2012/06/05: PNAS: (ab$) Sulfur isotope variability of oceanic DMSP generation and its contributions to marine biogenic sulfur emissions by Harry Oduro et al.
- 2012/06/05: GMD: Towards a public, standardized, diagnostic benchmarking system for land surface models by G. Abramowitz
- 2012/06/05: GMD: Water isotope variations in the global ocean model MPI-OM by X. Xu et al.
- 2012/06/05: OS: Cs137 off Fukushima Dai-ichi, Japan - model based estimates of dilution and fate by H. Dietze & I. Kriest
- 2012/06/04: TC: Numerical modeling of permafrost dynamics in Alaska using a high spatial resolution dataset by E. E. Jafarov et al.
- 2012/06/04: AGWObserver: New research from last week 22/2012
- 2012/04/08: Nature:CC: (ab$) Plot-scale evidence of tundra vegetation change and links to recent summer warming by Sarah C. Elmendorf et multi alia
And other significant documents:
- 2012/06/05: UNEP: [link to 77.4 meg pdf] Global Environmental Outlook
- 2012/06/06: CCES: [link to pdf] Impacts and Adaptation Options in the Gulf Coast
- 2012/05/18: UCSUSA: [link to 1.2 meg pdf] The Half the Oil Plan -- A realistic plan to cut the United States' projected oil use in half over 20 years
As for miscellaneous science:
- 2012/06/04: OSU: Practical tool can 'take pulse' of blue-green algae status in lakes
More DIY science:
- 2012/06/07: Moyhu: Arctic Ice Volume Anomalies
- 2012/06/04: RBroberg: wxcalc: building a library of weather related functions
What developments in the ongoing struggle for Open Science?
- 2012/06/05: BackReaction: Scientific Publishing - Investing in our Future
- 2012/06/04: ScienceInsider: White House Petition Urging Open Access Reaches 25,000 Signers
Regarding Gleick:
- 2012/06/07: Guardian(UK): Peter Gleick reinstated by Pacific Institute following Heartland exposé
- 2012/06/08: NatureNB: Apology accepted, climate scientist reinstated at Pacific Institute
- 2012/06/07: QuarkSoup: Here's Who Did the Peter Gleick Investigation [Independent Employment Counsel, LLP,]
- 2012/06/06: CSW: Pacific Institute reinstates Peter Gleick after Heartland Institute incident
- 2012/06/10: WottsUWT: Heartland Institute Responds to Pacific Institute's Reinstatement of Gleick -- cites Federal criminal prosecution
- 2012/06/06: P3: Fakegate exhonerations
- 2012/06/06: QuarkSoup: Gleick Review Won't Be Made Public, Pacific Institute Says
- 2012/06/06: TP:JR: Pacific Institute Reinstates Peter Gleick After Outside Review Confirms His Public Statements On Heartland Affair
- 2012/06/06: PacificInstitute: Pacific Institute Board of Directors Statement
The Pacific Institute is pleased to welcome Dr. Peter Gleick back to his position as president of the Institute. - 2012/06/06: S&R: Peter Gleick reinstated to his position at the Pacific Institute
- 2012/06/04: JEB: Colour me sceptical
Regarding Mann:
- 2012/06/08: CCP: Michael Mann: Climate change deniers blinded by political ideology
- 2012/06/08: PostMedia: Climate change deniers blinded by political ideology by Michael E. Mann
A recent commentary by Frank Hilliard of the Individual Rights Party of B.C. that appeared in The Vancouver Sun June 4 misinformed readers when it comes to the reality and seriousness of human-caused climate change. Further, Hilliard's tirade was riddled with fabrications and dishonest personal attacks against me and other climate scientists. Hilliard demonstrates that he does not understand the so-called "Hockey Stick" graph that my co-authors and I published more than a decade ago, which demonstrated that the nature of recent warming is unprecedented. Our temperature reconstruction was based on hundreds of climate "proxy" records around the world, including tree-ring data from every continent as well as ice cores from polar regions, coral records from the tropical oceans, and other sources of information. Yet, Hillard claims they were based only on "one set of observations of tree rings in Russia." That is simply a blatant fabrication. - 2012/06/04: UN: UN Environment Programme names its '2012 Champions of the Earth' winners
And on the carbon trading front:
- 2012/06/05: WaPo:B: Around the world, cap-and-trade is still alive and kicking
- 2012/06/05: TP:JR: RGGI States Cut CO2 By 23 Percent In First Three Years
- 2012/06/05: EurActiv: EU-Chinese carbon market contacts intensifying
Meetings between EU and Chinese officials aimed at helping Beijing to draft plans for its own carbon emissions market are "increasing in intensity," the EU's chief climate negotiator, Artur Runge-Metzger has told EurActiv. The EU and China are currently involved in a high-stakes game of brinkmanship over the inclusion of international airlines within the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), with Brussels saying that it would exempt Beijing, if it implements an equivalent scheme of its own. An EU special advisor travelled to China last month for talks, EurActiv has learned, and these ended with a sense of frustration in Brussels at Beijing's apparently fragmented and uncoordinated climate policy-making process. - 2012/06/04: EurActiv: Consumer watchdog slams 'useless' carbon footprint labels
European consumers are being flooded with confusing, misleading and corporate-friendly product information about carbon footprints, according to a new report by the European consumer rights watchdog for standardisation. - 2012/06/08: WaPo: As Iran tensions fester, United Arab Emirates nears start of oil pipeline to dodge key strait
South China Sea tension persists:
- 2012/06/04: IndRus: Marking territory in South China Sea
- 2012/06/02: BBerg: U.S. Navy's Pacific Presence to Expand, Panetta Says
U.S. naval power in the Pacific will increase as the Pentagon rebalances American forces toward the Asia-Pacific region, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in Singapore while calling on countries to beef up their capacity.
[...]
Disagreements and clashes in the South China Sea have been building since 2009, according to "Stirring Up the South China Sea," a report published in April by Brussels-based International Crisis Group. Oil reserves in the South China Sea may be as much as 213 billion barrels, according to Chinese studies cited in 2008 by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In the most recent incident, China and the Philippines have been in a standoff since April over the Scarborough Reef in the South China Sea, which is claimed by both countries. - 2012/06/09: al Jazeera: US urges diplomacy in South China Sea dispute
Obama urges a peaceful resolution of disputes on the South China Sea, amid high tension between Beijing and Manila. - 2012/06/08: PlanetArk: U.S. Stiffens Opposition To EU Law On Aviation Emissions
- 2012/06/04: PlanetArk: EU Aviation Carbon Spat Seen Unlikely To Reach WTO
And in miscellaneous international political jousting:
- 2012/06/06: ScienceInsider: Japan and the United States Eye Cooperation in Disaster Research
- 2012/06/05: EnergyBulletin: Food, Farmers and the TPP
What are the activists up to?
- 2012/06/07: TreeHugger: 24 Hour 'Twitter Storm' Against Fossil Fuel Subsidies Happening June 18
- 2012/06/07: CCurrents: Time For Outrage On Behalf Of The Planet by Bill McKibben
- 2012/06/10: al Jazeera: The planet wreckers -- Climate-change deniers are on the ropes - but so is our planet [McKibben]
- 2012/06/04: TP:JR: Bill McKibben: Climate-Change Deniers Are On The Ropes -- But So Is The Planet
Polls! We have polls!
- 2012/06/05: PewGlobal: Japanese Wary of Nuclear Energy
Regarding Water Politics and Business:
- 2012/06/07: USGS: Climate Change and Water Supply in California's Central Valley: A Model Approach
- 2012/06/03: FuturePundit: US Southern Great Plains Groundwater Gone In 30 Years?
- 2012/06/08: TreeHugger: New Low-Cost Desalination System Targets Fracking Wastewater
- 2012/06/07: JFleck: River Beat: only one color needed on the Colorado
- 2012/06/06: RBroberg: Upper Colorado River Basin Storage: Lake Mead and Lake Powell
- 2012/06/05: UCSUSA: Plant Washington Coal Facility Would Severely Stress Water Basin
- 2012/06/05: MoJo: Fighting Back Against Big Water -- No, you don't need eight glasses of water a day
- 2012/06/04: MoJo: Factlet of the Day: Power Plants and Freshwater Use
- 2012/06/03: JFleck: Inkstain Weather Central: a dry May
- 2012/06/03: JFleck: In Arizona, a Colorado River shortfall would hit ag first
And on the American political front:
- 2012/06/07: CSM: Wishful thinking: If we only had a stable energy policy
In this column energy expert Rapier provides three examples -- originating with both Democrats and Republicans and impacting both renewable energy and fossil fuels -- of how constantly shifting legislation makes it very difficult to plan and execute energy projects. - 2012/06/04: CER:RRapier: How Taxpayers Could Benefit From High Oil Prices
- 2012/06/07: DeSmogBlog: States Continue To Push For Anti-Climate and Anti-Evolution Curriculum Laws
- 2012/06/07: TP:JR: More Poor Grades For America's Ocean Policy
- 2012/06/07: PlanetArk: New Jersey Sued For Pulling Out Of Climate Initiative
- 2012/06/06: STimes: We must do more to accelerate solutions to climate change
Climate change should be the subject of a robust national dialogue about the best strategies for solutions, write William Ruckelshaus and K.C. Golden. Politics should stop at reality's edge. - 2012/06/05: Grist: Lay off the Konarka: Dem energy message risks defeating Dem energy message
- 2012/06/05: Grist: The dirt on Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's environmental record
- 2012/05/18: UCSUSA: [link to 1.2 meg pdf] The Half the Oil Plan -- A realistic plan to cut the United States' projected oil use in half over 20 years
- 2012/06/05: OPB: Oregon's New Energy Plan Pushes Renewables And Conservation
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber Tuesday released a draft plan to increase renewable energy in the state. Both Washington and Idaho already have energy plans in place. - 2012/06/06: al Jazeera: US Republican governor survives recall poll
Scott Walker survives bid to remove him in presidential battleground state of Wisconsin, in blow to Barack Obama. - 2012/06/05: TP:JR: RGGI States Cut CO2 By 23 Percent In First Three Years
- 2012/05/29: AlterNet: 90 Percent of People Want Labeling on Engineered Food, But We Still Don't Have it: Why Is that?
- 2012/06/04: Grist: The top five things voters need to know about conservatives and climate change
- 2012/06/05: TreeHugger: Alabama Becomes First State To Officially Adopt Anti-Agenda 21 Legislation
- 2012/05/26: TheNewInquiry: How Bad Is It?
- 2012/06/04: PlanetArk: New York Landowners Seek To Overturn Fracking Ban
- 2012/06/04: al Jazeera: California as a model for climate policy
Many innovations in the fight against climate change have come out of this nature-friendly state. - 2012/06/06: SciProg: BP in Deep Water with Scientific Integrity Advocates
- 2012/06/07: CBC: BP's subpoena of emails casts 'chill,' scientists say -- Demand for private correspondence undermines scientific process, researchers say
- 2012/06/04: WiredSci: BP Demands Scientist Emails in Gulf Oil Spill Lawsuit
- 2012/06/08: TreeHugger: BP Oil Spill Messed Up Microbial Communities on Gulf of Mexico Shores
- 2012/06/08: DeSmogBlog: Is BP's Attempted Climategate Strategy To Attack Scientists Ethical?
- 2012/06/06: CCES: Impacts and Adaptation Options in the Gulf Coast - Report Highlights Climate Change Risks to Key Gulf Coast Industries
- 2012/06/06: CCES: [link to pdf] Impacts and Adaptation Options in the Gulf Coast
- 2012/06/06: Nola: Gulf Coast energy, fishing industries should adapt now to climate change, new report says
- 2012/06/07: OilChange: BP and the Attack on Academic Freedom
- 2012/06/06: InsuranceJournal: New Gulf Oil Spill Claims Process to Begin
- 2012/06/03: BostonGlobe: Science out of context -- BP's demand for e-mail will erode the scientific deliberative process
- 2012/06/05: PSinclair: Sound Familiar? Scientists Voice Misgivings over BP's Use of Private Emails.
- 2012/06/04: Guardian(UK): BP accused of attack on academic freedoms after scientists subpoenaed
Oceanographers say they fear erosion of scientific process after they were forced to turn over emails related to BP oil spill - 2012/06/04: UCSUSA:B: BP Goes After Scientists Who Helped Them During the Gulf Oil Disaster
- 2012/06/04: ScienceInsider: BP Wins Right to Scientists' Oil Spill E-mails
This election is turning into a cruel joke. Do you want a vulture capitalist or the hopey-changey kill-list guy?
- 2012/06/09: TP:JR: Romney Energy Plan Includes Drilling 'Virtually Every Part' Of U.S., With No Protections Even For National Parks
- 2012/06/06: TP:JR: CNN On Solyndra Loan: Bush Started It, There's No Evidence of Wrongdoing, And Romney's Attacks Are Made Up
- 2012/06/06: OilChange: Big Oil Uses Influence to "Sway Election"
- 2012/06/09: AlterNet: 7 Plutocrats That Bankrolled the GOP Primary -- and What They Want in Return
- 2012/06/04: TreeHugger: Mitt Drops by Solyndra
- 2012/06/04: RawStory: Louisiana GOP spirals into chaos as Ron Paul delegates injured, arrested
- 2012/06/04: ERabett:BSD: The bully pulpit gets its best-case test with same sex marriage
- 2012/06/03: AlterNet: Birthers, Billionaires and Fox: The GOP Freak Show in Full Effect
Gas Prices look to remain a major issue in the election:
- 2012/06/08: AutoBG: The U.S. is exporting oil products, so why is the price of gas still high?
- 2012/06/07: CER:RRapier: Why Gas Prices are Higher in the West
The Keystone XL saga rolls along:
- 2012/06/09: DeSmogBlog: Will Dismal Jobs Report Give New Life To Keystone XL Plan?
- 2012/06/09: CSW: At Netroots Nation, activists vs. the 'inevitable' tar sands pipeline
- 2012/06/09: TreeHugger: Stopping Keystone XL: Talking Dirty (Oil)
Reports differ on the final sea level rise law coming out of North Carolina. Canute?
- 2012/06/07: NewsObserver: Senate committee likes the slow-rise approach for sea-level forecasts
Raleigh -- Rejecting a science panel's warning that the North Carolina coast should prepare for an increasingly rapid rise in sea level later in this century, a Senate committee on Thursday endorsed far-reaching rules that would force planning and regulatory agencies to base sea-level forecasts only on the slower rates recorded in the past. - 2012/06/07: GreenGrok: Sea Level Rise, Melting Glaciers, and North Carolina Law
- 2012/06/08: ArsTechnica: N. Carolina Senate decides to include science in sea level projections after all -- Grudgingly accepts that sea level rises may accelerate
- 2012/06/05: P3: Making sea level rise illegal
- 2012/06/05: PNT: "Sea no evil"
- 2012/06/05: TP:JR: Must-See Colbert Report On North Carolina GOP Bill To Make Use Of Climate Science Illegal
The projected decline of satellites has more than a few shirt tails in knots:
- 2012/06/04: USGS: Aging Landsat 5 Changes Glasses -- At 28, Vintage Satellite Finds New Life with Alternate Imaging System
- 2012/06/08: CSM: Decline of American satellites is a matter of national security
- 2012/06/08: ERabett: Why NASA has issues
- 2012/06/04: DM:CV: NASA Gets a Present
The GOP War on Women grinds along:
- 2012/06/08: ABC(Au):TDU: America's war on women
- 2012/06/09: AlterNet: War On Women Extends to Their Paychecks: Senate Republicans Refuse to Pass Paycheck Fairness Act
- 2012/06/03: RawStory: Romney adviser dismisses women's issues as 'shiny objects'
The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:
- 2012/06/07: TP:JR: Carbon Limits Will Help Fix a Broken Energy Market and Spur Economic Growth
- 2012/06/07: ScienceInsider: U.S. Agencies Unveil Competition to Develop Personal Pollution Sensor
- 2012/06/04: NYT: A Threat to Bristol Bay
The possibility that a giant gold-and-copper mine might someday be built near the headwaters that feed Bristol Bay in Alaska, one of the richest salmon fisheries in the world, is cause for alarm. A new report from the Environmental Protection Agency reinforces those fears. - 2012/06/04: ScienceInsider: White House Petition Urging Open Access Reaches 25,000 Signers
- 2012/06/04: Wunderground: Rick Knabb takes over as director of NHC
- 2012/05/31: ITT: Fracking Fatalities: Organized Labor Implores Federal Agencies to Stop the Killings
As for what is going on in Congress:
- 2012/06/07: TP:JR: House GOP Unveil Energy Package Of 7 Bills Mandating More Drilling And Rolling Back Public Health Standards
- 2012/06/08: TP:JR: Darrell Issa Again Shows Deep Disdain For Green Jobs, Even With 338,000 Of Them In His State
- 2012/06/08: ScienceInsider: House Approves Slimmed Down DOE Budget
- 2012/06/07: OilChange: The Dirtiest Congress in History
- 2012/06/05: AlterNet: Maria Gunnoe Testifies Before Congress: Mountaintop Removal Is Killing People
- 2012/06/07: Reuters: Tweaking U.S. tax code could spur green energy: senator [Christopher A. Coons (D-DE)]
A freshman Democratic senator thinks he may have found a way to encourage investment in wind, solar and biofuel projects without sapping too many taxpayer dollars or injecting new venom into a bitter partisan battle over energy incentives. Chris Coons will introduce legislation on Thursday that would allow a broad range of renewable power generation and transmission projects to qualify for a tax structure used widely by pipeline and other energy-related companies. - 2012/06/07: TP:JR: House Republicans Censor Photo Showing Impacts Of Mountain Top Removal, Calling It Child Porn
- 2012/06/04: Grist: Bathtub photo lands coal activist in child-porn hot water
- 2012/06/05: TP:JR: Republican Plan Would Increase Spending On Unproven Oil Shale, While Congress Stalls On Tax Credits For Wind
- 2012/06/05: TP:JR: We Need To Use The 2012 Farm Bill To Help American Farmers Prepare For Climate Change
- 2012/06/05: Grist: Celebrity chefs and food movement leaders tell Congress: "This farm bill stinks"
What are the lobbyists pushing?
- 2012/06/04: TP:JR: Exxon Contributes $86,000 To ALEC, Which Then Helps Promote Weak Fracking Regulations
While in the UK:
- 2012/06/08: TP:JR: Scotland's New International Climate Financing Program Leads The Way
- 2012/06/07: Guardian(UK): Green Party leader hopefuls launch bids
Wales party spokeswoman Pippa Bartolotti and North West MEP candidate Peter Cranie launch bids to replace Caroline Lucas - 2012/06/06: Guardian(UK): Zac Goldsmith: climate change pushes other issues off the agenda
- 2012/06/06: Guardian(UK): UK signs 'landmark' energy agreement with Norway
David Cameron signs deal in Oslo to ensure UK can continue to depend on Norway for secure energy supplies David Cameron will pave the way for an increase in British imports of Norwegian gas and oil when he signs a new energy agreement with one of the world's largest exporters of fossil fuels on Thursday. - 2012/06/06: Guardian(UK): Scotland announces 'climate justice' fund for world's poorest
- 2012/06/05: Guardian(UK): Super farms are needed in UK, says leader of National Farmers Union
- 2012/06/04: Guardian(UK): Renewable energy schemes help boost farmers' profits
- 2012/06/04: BBC: [High-Speed] HS2 rail 'dither and delay' criticised by Lord Adonis
The HS2 rail scheme might not be ready before 2030 because of "dither and delay" by ministers, former Transport Secretary Lord Adonis has said. The Labour peer said he feared the legislation needed for the project may not be passed within this parliament. Phase one of the £33bn high-speed rail link, between London and Birmingham, is due to start operating in 2026. - 2012/06/03: Guardian(UK): Government giving firms mixed signals on carbon emissions, says thinktank [IPPR]
- 2012/06/03: BBC: Think-tank urges clarity over green policies
Ministers must send clear signals that they believe in new forms of green technology if they want companies to invest in them, a think tank has said. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said the government had been blowing "hot and cold" on its commitment to cut carbon emissions. That caution had made the energy sector jittery about investing, it concluded. - 2012/06/04: EurActiv: Leaked documents reveal UK fight to dilute EU green energy targets
Allegations of coalition hypocrisy over green issues as critics say documents show UK has caved in to fossil fuel lobbyists. The government has been trying to water down key environmental regulations in Brussels despite trumpeting its commitment to green issues at home, leaked documents show. - 2012/06/04: EUO: UK tries to dilute EU green targets
- 2012/06/03: Guardian(UK): Leaked documents reveal UK fight to dilute EU green energy targets
Allegations of coalition hypocrisy over green issues as critics say documents show UK has caved in to fossil fuel lobbyists - 2012/06/08: EurActiv: Europe takes 'baby steps' to revamp public buildings
A year-long fight over renovation rates for public buildings in Europe has resulted in "a brilliant architecture" for revamping the existing stock, the European Parliament's chief negotiator has announced. But only central government "owned and occupied" buildings will be concerned, leaving whole sections unaddressed. The draft Energy Efficiency Directive, which introduces a 3% renovation rate for all central government "owned and occupied" buildings in Europe, has entered the final straight. - 2012/06/08: EurActiv: EU gears up CO2 car targets for 2025, 2030
Brussels is poised to set two new carbon emissions targets that all new cars will need to meet by 2025 and 2030, as well as a standard of 95 grams of CO2 emissions per km (g/km) for 2020, according to a draft regulation seen by EurActiv. The paper, due for release next month, is a statement of intent to the car industry, as the EU inches forward its plans to decarbonise the continent's economy to between 80-95% of 1990 levels, by 2050. - 2012/06/07: EurActiv: Europe's factories braced for power price squeeze
EU member states are expected to close a deal on the bloc's proposed energy efficiency directive by the end of June amid worries over the consequences it could have over the price of electricity in Europe's factories. - 2012/06/07: EurActiv: EU: Green energy needs milestones to grow
Europe must agree 2030 milestones as soon as possible to spur investment in renewable energy, or green power growth will fizzle once firm policy runs out in 2020, the European Commission said on Wednesday (6 June) in its latest strategy statement. Many in the renewable energy sector agree there is a need for strong guidance, but want binding targets, rather than vague aims. At the other extreme, some of the 27 member states are strongly opposed to legal goals for renewables. - 2012/06/07: PlanetArk: Green Energy Needs Milestones To Grow: EU Commission
Europe must agree on 2030 goals as soon as possible to spur investment in renewable energy, or green power growth will fizzle after 2020, the European Commission said on Wednesday in its latest strategy statement. - 2012/06/07: PlanetArk: Europe Set To Regulate For Greener Cars
The European Commission is set to propose tighter carbon emissions standards for new EU cars, according to a draft proposal that is likely to divide the auto industry. The proposal, expected to be made public next month, would make binding a 2020 goal to lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to an average of 95 grams per kilometer (g/km). So far it is only a provisional, non-binding goal and compares with an existing, binding target of 130 g/km. - 2012/06/07: AutoBG: EU considering lowering CO2 emissions targets
- 2012/06/06: EurActiv: German workers lead EU 'green jobs' revolution
Germany's building renovation programme has already mobilised E100 billion in investments, yielding around 300,000 direct jobs per year, according to a new report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). However, much remains to be done to fulfil the promise of green jobs, experts warn. - 2012/06/06: NatureN: Fisheries science falls foul of privacy rules
European restrictions on personal data endanger marine research and sustainability, scientists warn. - 2012/06/06: DerSpiegel: Environment Minister Peter Altmaier 'We Can't Allow Electricity to Become a Luxury'
After a year of little progress in Germany's so-called energy revolution, Chancellor Merkel recently reshuffled her cabinet to give it some fresh impetus. In a Spiegel interview, new Environment Minister Peter Altmaier discusses the need to inject reality into rosy assumptions and defuse anger sparked by the turnaround's costs. - 2012/06/05: EurActiv: Efficiency law could 'triple' energy services market
The EU's upcoming energy efficiency directive could send strong enough signals to jump-start the market in energy services for commercial buildings, industry experts told EurActiv. The draft bill contains the strongest incentives to date for triggering a boom in the market for energy efficiency services, according to a number of experts working in the field. - 2012/06/05: EUO: EU energy legislation faces resistance
With only a couple of weeks left in its six-month EU presidency, Denmark is pressing lawmakers in Brussels to finalise an energy saving deal to reduce overall energy consumption by 20 percent by 2020. The Danish EU presidency, which made energy efficiency one of its priorities, is meeting resistance from critics who claim the plans will stifle growth by requiring costly investments. - 2012/06/04: EurActiv: Energy meltdown looms large over Greece
Greece's debt crisis threatened to turn into an energy crunch, with the power regulator calling an emergency meeting this week to avert a collapse of the country's electricity and natural gas system. - 2012/06/04: EurActiv: Leaked documents reveal UK fight to dilute EU green energy targets
Allegations of coalition hypocrisy over green issues as critics say documents show UK has caved in to fossil fuel lobbyists. The government has been trying to water down key environmental regulations in Brussels despite trumpeting its commitment to green issues at home, leaked documents show. - 2012/06/04: EUO: Growing Greek fears of energy meltdown
- 2012/06/04: PlanetArk: EU Minister Meeting To Tackle Carbon Cuts: Draft
- 2012/06/04: PlanetArk: CO2 Market Wants Tougher EU 2020 Climate Goal
- 2012/06/03: DeSmogBlog: Dirty Energy Lobby Wins In EU -- Shale Gas Now Considered "Green Energy"
Meanwhile in Australia:
- 2012/06/05: PlanetJ: It's time to stop saying yes
- 2012/06/06: PlanetJ: Stop saying yes: A not-so-clean energy future
- 2012/06/09: PlanetJ: Stop saying yes: What went wrong?
- 2012/06/10: PlanetJ: Stop saying yes: Bright-siding
- 2012/06/08: ABC(Au): No go flood insurance zone worries regional council leaders
- 2012/06/08: ABC(Au): Politicians see red over Greenpeace ads
- 2012/06/08: ABC(Au): Swan slams 'deplorable' Greenpeace anti-coal ad
Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan says a Greenpeace advertisement that warns against investing in Queensland coal projects is "deplorable and obnoxious". The full-page Greenpeace ad, published in an Indian newspaper, warns about the Alpha project and other proposed mines in the Galilee Basin. The federal and Queensland governments have been in a dispute over the environmental assessment process for the Alpha project, which is part owned by Indian company GVK. - 2012/06/07: ABC(Au): Audit raises school solar power safety concerns
- 2012/06/07: ABC(Au): Bob Brown takes on personal role in gas hub fight
Former Greens' leader Bob Brown says leaving the Senate will enable him to be more involved in trying to stop the Western Australian Government processing gas in the Kimberley. Senator Brown is on a farewell tour in Broome after announcing his retirement in April. Last night, he met about 450 people after visiting James Price Point - the site which Woodside wants to use to process gas from the Browse Basin. Senator Brown says he is now free to be involved in the campaign in person. - 2012/06/06: ABC(Au): No-go wind farms zone being considered
- 2012/06/05: ABC(Au): SA Premier rejects nuclear argument
Premier Jay Weatherill says the South Australian Government remains opposed to nuclear energy as an avenue to cutting carbon emissions. A nuclear power advocate Professor Barry Brook of Adelaide University thinks it is inevitable Australia will embrace nuclear energy. - 2012/06/04: ABC(Au): Queensland Environment Minister Andrew Powell not convinced on man-made climate change
- 2012/06/04: PlanetArk: Insight: Australia's Coal Bed LNG Export Expansion Plans Falter
Confidence in Australia's coal seam gas industry, one of the nation's brightest economic prospects, has begun to flicker. For the first time since energy firms kicked off $50 billion of projects to drill for gas in the region's rich coal deposits less than two years ago, there is a consensus emerging among industry executives and experts that plans are well off track. Patchy drilling results, rising costs and a world-wide glut of gas threaten to jeopardize what could amount to more than $60 billion of additional investment in liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants, based on current project costs, and leave an industry that would be just half the size its architects once envisaged. - 2012/06/09: ABC(Au): Power bills to rise by $130 annually
Residential power bills in Perth and the South West are set to rise by an average of $130 a year with the introduction of the carbon tax. Financial modelling by electricity retailer Synergy has found that its residential customers can expect to pay about nine per cent more for their power. - 2012/06/08: ABC(Au): Australia not alone in carbon pricing
- 2012/06/08: ABC(Au): Carbon tax powers energy innovators
- 2012/06/07: ABC(Au): Tip may help ease carbon tax impact
The Mackay Regional Council says it is looking at whether the old dump at Bayersville can be used to help offset the impact of the carbon tax. - 2012/06/05: ABC(Au): Council acts to ease carbon tax cost
The Townsville City Council says it is doing all it can to limit flow-on costs to ratepayers from the Federal Government's carbon tax. - 2012/06/05: ABC(Au): Lord Mayor defends cost of meeting carbon price
Darwin City Council may have the highest fees of any municipality in Australia to cover the cost of carbon emissions. DCC proposes to raise waste disposal charges by about $29 a year per ratepayer, or 57 cents a week, to cover the carbon price generated by emissions from its landfill operation at the Shoal Bay rubbish tip. - 2012/06/10: ABC(Au): Government pours $500m into Murray-Darling projects
The Federal Government has granted a request from New South Wales for $500 million to fund water infrastructure along the Murray-Darling river system. Federal Water Minister Tony Burke has approved funding for four major water infrastructure projects across the state. The money will fund projects designed to return an average of 80 billion litres of water to the system each year. - 2012/06/07: ABC(Au): Crean: Basin Plan can be done through buyback
The Regional Australia Minister says he believes the requirements of the Murray Darling Basin Plan can be fulfilled through water buybacks. Simon Crean made the comments in Wagga Wagga, after announcing Regional Development Australia Funding for the Riverina freight hub at Bomen. Mr Crean says the Basin Plan is a challenge for the Commonwealth and state governments but it is vital to develop sustainable river systems. - 2012/06/08: ABC(Au): Detail irrelevant in 'flawed' Murray plan: Caica
South Australia's Water Minister says his counterparts from the Murray-Darling Basin states and the ACT are refusing to negotiate any increase in the volume of water to be returned to the river system. The revised draft plan has been discussed at a ministerial forum in Sydney. Paul Caica said he was not prepared to discuss the finer points of the plan until it could provide a better deal for South Australian irrigators and meet the requirements of the Water Act. - 2012/06/07: ABC(Au): Wheatbelt towns to get stormwater storage
The Minister for Agriculture and Food says several towns in Western Australia's wheatbelt will benefit from a proposal to trap and store stormwater for irrigation - 2012/06/04: ABC(Au): Irrigators worried that submissions on Basin environmental works may be rushed
- 2012/06/04: ABC(Au): Short time frame for latest basin plan probe
The Federal Government's Regional Australia Committee is conducting another inquiry into the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. This time, the committee is calling for submissions on environmental works and projects to help save water but submissions close in a fortnight. - 2012/06/04: ABC(Au): Office of Water admits Basin Plan water hard to deliver
The New South Wales Office of Water says it will be extremely hard to deliver the environmental water that has been identified for the Murray Darling Basin. The revised draft Basin Plan released last week still wants to return 2750 gigalitres of surface water to the environment each year. - 2012/06/04: ABC(Au): [SA Premier Jay] Weatherill offers 20 billion litres back to Murray
A fight over coal mining and protecting the Great Barrier Reef erupted in Queensland this week:
- 2012/06/06: NatureNB: Australian infrastructure triggers Great Barrier Reef row
- 2012/06/06: ABC(Au): Queensland mining industry hits back at Burke over Alpha project
- 2012/06/06: ABC(Au): Newman, Burke clash over Alpha environmental study
- 2012/06/06: PlanetArk: Australia Delays OK Of A$9.7 Billion Coal Project By India's GVK
- 2012/06/06: ABC(Au): Gillard ramps up pressure over reef row
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has written a strongly worded letter to Queensland Premier Campbell Newman, accusing his Government of undermining community confidence in the approval process for major resource projects. The letter is a further escalation in the war of words between the Commonwealth and the Queensland Government over a multi-billion-dollar mining project in central Queensland. The Alpha Coal Project's location in the Galilee Basin means it could have an impact on the health of the Great Barrier Reef. - 2012/06/05: ABC(Au): Burke slams Queensland environment assessment of huge coal project
The Federal Environment Minister has 'stopped the clock' on the Alpha coal project for central Queensland while he seeks further information about its impact on the environment. Indian company GVK and Gina Rinehart's Hancock Coal are planning to begin construction next year on the $6 billion project, pending federal approvals. But Environment Minister Tony Burke has come out swinging against the Queensland Government's environmental assessment, saying it falls "abysmally short". - 2012/06/05: ABC(Au): Newman says Burke has gone "rogue"
The Queensland Premier has accused the Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke of going "rogue" and has called on the Prime Minister to pull him into line. It's the latest verbal salvo over the approval process for the multi-billion-dollar Alpha Coal Project, which has now been halted. Mr Burke took that drastic step today because of the Queensland Government's environmental impact statement which he described as "abysmal" and a "shambolic joke". - 2012/06/05: PlanetArk: Australia's Great Barrier Reef Under Clear Threat: U.N.
Australia's iconic Great Barrier Reef is under imminent threat from industrial development and may be considered for listing as a world heritage site "in danger" within the next year, a U.N. report said this week. Citing the findings of a mission to the world's largest living structure in March, the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) recommended that "in the absence of substantial progress", its World Heritage Committee would consider such a listing in February next year. - 2012/06/05: ClimateShifts: "We're in the coal business": [Queensland] Premier Campbell Newman
- 2012/06/05: ABC(Au): Newman slams 'rogue' Burke in reef mine spat
The Queensland Premier has accused Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke of going "rogue" and has called on the Prime Minister to pull him into line. It is the latest verbal salvo over the approval process for a multi-million-dollar mine project in central Queensland. The state and federal governments had been working on a single environmental approval process for the Alpha Coal Project in the Galilee Basin. Mr Burke has halted the approval process in response to the State Government's environmental impact statement, which he labelled a "shambolic joke". - 2012/06/05: CCurrents: Koodankulan And Democracy: People Vs State
- 2012/06/05: CCurrents: Petrol, Politics And The People: A Discordant Note [Indian pol]
- 2012/06/04: CCurrents: The Battle For The Corporate Control Of India
And in China:
- 2012/06/08: BBC: China cuts fuel prices again as economic slowdown bites
China's price-control body, the NDRC, is reducing petrol and diesel prices by 5% from Saturday. - 2012/06/06: PlanetArk: China Says Only It Has Right To Monitor Air Pollution
- 2012/06/05: ABC(Au): China tells embassies to stop reporting pollution
- 2012/06/05: HuffPo: China Air Pollution: Official Says Illegal For Foreign Embassies To Issue Readings
While in Japan:
- 2012/06/08: BBC: Japan must restart two nuclear reactors to protect the country's economy and livelihoods, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has said in a televised broadcast
- 2012/06/08: CBC: Japan needs to restart nuclear reactors, PM says
All 50 reactors are offline since the 2011 earthquake sparked a nuclear disaster Japan's prime minister appealed to the nation Friday to accept that two nuclear reactors that remained shuttered after the Fukushima disaster must be restarted to protect the economy and people's livelihoods. Prime Minister Yasuhiko Noda said the government has taken ample measures to ensure the two reactors in western Japan would be safe from radiation leaks if an earthquake or tsunami as severe as last year's should strike them. - 2012/06/06: PlanetArk: Japan PM Urged To Be Cautious About Nuclear Restarts
Nearly a third of Japan's ruling party lawmakers are petitioning Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to be cautious about restarting nuclear reactors given safety concerns after last year's earthquake and tsunami, an organizer said on Tuesday. Noda, keen to restart two reactors in western Japan before electricity demand peaks this summer, could decide as early as this week to reconnect them to the grid - despite the risk of a backlash that would weaken his already sagging voter ratings. - 2012/06/08: MSimon: Stephen Harper and the Silent Coup
- 2012/06/07: PostMedia: Harper's new enemy: conservatives
There is a new front opening, as opposition to Stephen Harper's budget - and his broader agenda - gathers strength. Increasingly, criticism is coming from dismayed conservatives offended by Harper's hostility, or indifference, to the environment. And to democratic tradition. The dissidents are mostly Progressive Conservatives, but not exclusively. This week, for instance, former Alberta Reform MP Bob Mills joined Green Party Leader Elizabeth May in decrying the elimination of the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy (a Mulroney-era initiative.) - 2012/06/07: CBC: Environment advisory panel's closure 'dumb', Harper told -- Government needs advice of smart people, not 'cheerleaders,' panel member says
A former Conservative MP and member of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy is calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to reconsider his "dumb" decision to kill the independent advisory panel. "Stephen Harper puts other priorities, I think, ahead of the environment and I think that's a mistake. Obviously, I wouldn't be here if I didn't really strongly believe that the Round Table was doing an excellent job," said Bob Mills, a former Alberta Conservative MP, at a press conference in Ottawa Thursday. The shutting down of the NRTEE, along with a multitude of other changes to environmental laws, is included in the omnibus budget implementation bill currently before Parliament. - 2012/06/07: Tyee: Senator to Harper Government: Stop 'Slandering' Charities
Saskatchewan's Sen. Bob Peterson sticks up for advocacy by Suzuki Foundation, and the Fraser Institute, too. - 2012/06/09: TheCanadian: Radicalizing Scientists
- 2012/06/07: NorRe: Marching Backwards
- 2012/06/06: Rabble: Harper's campaign against environmental groups
- 2012/06/06: Rabble: The Harper Phenomenon explained to Perfesser Dave
- 2012/06/06: WpgFP: 'Province-worshippers' doom real Canada
Canada will never fulfil Prime Minister Stephen Harper's dream of it becoming an "energy superpower." Superpowers are coherent states capable of national policy making. They're not governed by a toxic combination of provincial autonomists and federal decentralists. Frightened by the fury unleashed in Alberta over the original National Energy Program in the early 1980s, successive federal and provincial governments of all political stripes have avoided even putting the words national and energy together in one sentence. - 2012/06/05: DeSmogBlog: What is Harper Afraid Of? [Animated Video]
- 2012/06/04: TStar: Stephen Harper government turns environmentalists into public enemies
The G20 controversy lingers:
- 2012/06/06: PaiD: Apparently, Talk Of Charter Rights Is Just Nonsense
- 2012/06/06: TStar: [G20] Protester sues 'This ain't Canada' cop after York police board refuses to charge himQuestions and debate about offshore and Arctic drilling continue:Now that the Harper gang has killed the CWB, the rest of the agricultural infrastructure is in play:Meanwhile in the CWB saga:The senate is investigating them dang furriners and their funding:In their ideological quest for small government, the Harper gang is getting rid of all the 'inconvenient' people:The Harper gang is afraid of what scientists might say:The battle over the Keystone XL and Northern Gateway pipelines rages on:The ramifications of the various Keystone XL decisions are being argued:The interprovincial fight over the petro-loonie and tarsands support will not likely end soon:A modest suggestion. A national energy policy:As part of the budget, the Harper gang is moving to defund anybody who opposes them environmentally:There is a still a lot of talk about the Harper gang streamlining environmental reviews out of existence:Under the smokescreen of fiscal responsibility, the Harperites are eliminating their enemies:
The skirmishing over Mulcair's Dutch Disease statement continues:
- 2012/06/08: CBC: Wall says Mulcair's comments on resources a problem for Saskatchewan
- 2012/06/08: BCLSB: A "Gaffe", Eh? Part Nope
- 2012/06/08: G&M: Oil-sands criticism 'incrementally helped' Mulcair, poll shows
- 2012/06/07: PostMedia: Brian Mulroney blasts Thomas Mulcair for criticizing oilsands
- 2012/06/09: DClimenhaga: Harper Conservative response to NDP seems delusional -- and apparently ineffective
- 2012/06/09: CBC: Mulcair's oilsands position 'hypocritical' [says Preston Manning]
- 2012/06/04: TStar: NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair treads lightly while visiting the tarsands
Under the smokescreen of fiscal responsibility, the Harper gang is streamlining environmental reviews out of existence:
- 2012/06/08: CBC: MPs could see more than 600 amendments to budget bill
Opposition parties propose changes to budget in last-ditch protest against C-38 MPs could be facing votes on more than 600 proposed changes to the federal budget next week, with the House of Commons speaker expected to rule Monday on how to group them to weed out duplicate amendments and speed up voting. The Liberal Party was the first of the opposition parties, presenting the House of Commons with 503 proposed changes to Bill C-38, the budget implementation bill. The NDP followed with 504 amendments. The Bloc says they want 22 more focused changes, though they will support the changes proposed by the other opposition parties. Party Leader Daniel Paillé said Friday they are amendments of substance, focused on elements that are contentious to Quebeckers. Green Party Leader Elizabeth May is still working on her amendments, but is expected to have 200 to 300. - 2012/06/08: Grist: Conspiracy of the day: American non-profits oppose Canadian tar sands
- 2012/06/07: PostMedia: Green gets mean with federal Conservatives
Fourth in a four-part series: Conservatives' proposed dilution of environmental laws, attacks on groups has created backlash Discord between the Tories and environmentalists began when the federal natural resources minister maligned environmental groups as radicals. It escalated with the introduction of Bill C-38, a package of new laws, some directly targeting charities and environmental protections. Now it's war. Environmental groups are fighting back after the Conservatives accused them of hijacking public decision-making and using foreign funding to damage national economic interests. Their target is Bill C-38 which opponents say weakens fish habitat protection and strengthens the taxman's powers to question charities. - 2012/06/05: NatPo: Opposition parties joining forces to delay passage of 'Trojan Horse' budget bill
- 2012/06/04: Macleans: "To allow C-38 to masquerade as a legitimate omnibus bill will bring our institutions into greater disrepute" [Elizabeth May]
- 2012/06/06: TheCanadian: Widespread Oppostion to Gutting of Fisheries Act Through Bill C-38: [Vancouver] Sun Special Report
- 2012/06/07: TheCanadian: Opposition Parties Turn Up Heat on Harper's Omnibus Bill
- 2012/06/08: TStar: Omnibus budget bill is an affront to Parliament and the public
- 2012/06/09: NatPo: Elizabeth May at centre of fight against Conserative omnibus budget bill
- 2012/06/04: Straight: Grand Chief Stewart Phillip calls Bill C-38 "fault line" for Canada's future
The president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) held nothing back today (June 4) as he panned the federal government's omnibus budget Bill C-38. "Bill C-38 is absolutely the turning point in the history of this country and the fault line that will determine the future of this country," Grand Chief Stewart Phillip told reporters at the media conference convened by several prominent environmental groups concerned about the size and scope of the proposed legislation. "I urge all Canadians to go and understand that silence is not an option. We all have a duty and an obligation to our grandchildren and their grandchildren to speak out against this legislation, Bill C-38." - 2012/06/05: CBC: Opposition MPs warn budget votes could take hours
Budget implementation bill so big it could take hours to get through proposed changes The NDP say they will move to delete 200 provisions in the bill to implement the budget, forcing hours of votes in the House of Commons, in an attempt to force the government to break up the massive bill into smaller pieces. NDP House Leader Nathan Cullen said the party can move to amend the bill when it returns to the House from the finance committee. He says Green Party Leader Elizabeth May could have up to 200 changes to propose. May is working with the Liberals on the parliamentary tactic that threatens to tie up proceedings with more than 50 hours of consecutive votes. Cullen estimated the process could take more than 30 hours of voting. - 2012/06/05: ChronicleHerald: May: Budget bill an outrage
The fate of this year's and all future omnibus budget bills will be placed in the hands of the Speaker of the House of Commons. Elizabeth May, leader of the Green party, rose Monday in the House on a point of order to argue that the Conservatives' budget bill is so broad, it breaks parliamentary rules. She asked Speaker Andrew Scheer to rule the bill out of order, thus sending it back to the government to be chopped into smaller pieces. - 2012/06/04: WaPo: Canadian government overhauling environmental rules to aid oil extraction
For years, Canada has been seen as an environmental leader on the world stage, pushing other nations to tackle acid rain, save the ozone layer and sign global treaties to protect biodiversity. Those were the old days. The government of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is rewriting the nation's environmental laws to speed the extraction and export of oil, minerals and other materials to a global market clamoring for Canada's natural resources. - 2012/06/03: G&M: [Editorial] Federal Fisheries Act amendments could spell disaster
- 2012/06/04: HillTimes: Grits, Green to table 200 amendments on feds' omnibus budget bill, expect 60 hours of House roll call votes
The government's sweeping Budget Implementation Act will change 70 laws, but opposition MPs plan to fight it. - 2012/06/09: CleanBreak: BlackOutSpeakOut for your environment and democratic rights...
- 2012/06/04: PI: Websites black out across Canada in support of nature and democracy
- 2012/06/05: P3: Black Out, Speak Out
- 2012/06/04: VanObs: Black Out Speak Out campaign protests Harper government's assault on environment
- 2012/06/05: WMTC: blackout speakout a success: government truthspeak squad dispatched to spread lies
- 2012/06/04: TreeHugger: Hundreds of Canadian Websites Go Dark To Protest Government's Treatment of Environmental Charities
- 2012/06/03: CBC: Websites go dark in anti-budget protest -- Environmental groups lead online protest against Bill C-38
The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on:
- 2012/06/07: WatershedSentinel: First Nations who Oppose Enbridge
- 2012/06/07: NM&PC: Al Jazeera Reports On The Enbridge Pipeline
- 2012/06/05: Tyee: Enbridge Not Positioned to Pay for Gateway Oil Spill: Report -- BC taxpayers could be on hook for massive clean-up costs says economist Allan
- 2012/06/08: Rabble: Retired sea captain: Don't be fooled by Harper's pipeline plans
- 2012/06/08: TLS: Standing in the Circle of the Cedar
- 2012/06/09: GreenCanada: Will the Northern Gateway Pipeline be the Conservatives 'NEP'?
- 2012/06/04: Tyee: Vancouver Oil Sands Tanker Spill Could Cause Evacuation Nightmare
Diluted bitumen creates toxic cloud public would be forced to flee, as occurred in Kalamazoo. - 2012/06/07: NM&PC: What A Bitumen Spill In Vancouver Harbour Would Look Like
- 2012/06/07: PostMedia: Cash not king when it comes to aboriginals, pipelines
Native groups dispute Enbridge's claim that 60 per cent of first nations along route support project
[...]
Art Sterritt, executive director of the Coastal First Nations, maintains the Enbridge support was secured from "groups that either aren't located on the pipeline corridor or don't have land in B.C." - 2012/06/05: CBC: Majority of aboriginal communities sign on to Northern Gateway -- Deal will give communities 10 per cent stake in $5.5 billion pipeline project
Nearly 60 per cent of the aboriginal groups along the proposed route of the Northern Gateway Pipeline Project through B.C. and Alberta have signed on to share in the ownership and profits of the project, Enbridge officials say. The communities each agreed to take a share of a 10 per cent equity stake in the $5.5 billion project, meaning they will also get to share in the profits generated by the pipeline. - 2012/06/05: TheCanadian: Spoof Video Turns New Enbridge Ad Campaign on its Head
- 2012/06/05: VanObs: Concerned BC citizens opposing Enbridge oilsands pipeline infuriated by "radical" label
Many of the groups opposing Northern Gateway aren't led by stereotypical environmentalists --- but some say the polarized debate is leading to "infuriating" assumptions and labeling. - 2012/06/09: CBC: More DFO cuts could be on the way, minister says
Federal Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield is not ruling out more cuts to his department. Earlier this week, CBC News reported that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) will close six small enforcement offices in Newfoundland and Labrador over the next couple of years. Ashfield says the fiscal restraint may not end there. - 2012/06/06: Guardian(PE): Fisheries science could die on the vine due to federal cuts: academia
- 2012/06/05: PostMedia: U of A scientist, colleagues condemn research cuts -- Letter urges Ottawa to rethink closing of Ontario facility
World-recognized Alberta scientist David Schindler joined colleagues Tuesday in condemning Ottawa's move to shutter the Experimental Lakes Area, where researchers unravelled the effects of acid rain on marine life and continue to work on the long-term ecological impacts of mercury and other toxins. Scientists and students have long used the area in northwestern Ontario to study how watersheds work, the effects of sewage and human waste on ecosystems, and models for reducing acid rain and minimizing greenhouse gas emissions. Schindler was a founding director of the facility in 1968 and stayed there through the late 1980s. Scientists from across Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom sent an open letter Tuesday to "strongly urge" the federal government to reconsider its decision, calling it just one more example of "many recent cuts to federal environmental programming ... (that) undermine our capacity to protect and manage Canada's freshwater and marine resources." - 2012/06/05: CBC: Scientists lobby to keep Experimental Lakes Area station
- 2012/06/04: TreeHugger: Canadian Government Shuts Down Freshwater Research After 40 Years of Groundbreaking Science
- 2012/06/04: CBC: Labrador area to lose Coast Guard ship [Harp]
Harper is setting up an Alberta counter-terrorism unit:
- 2012/06/08: TMoS: Steve Harper's Taxpayer-Funded Enemies List
- 2012/06/06: PostMedia: Counter-terrorism unit set up in Alberta to help protect energy industry, public
The federal government has set up a counter-terrorism unit in Alberta and one of its main jobs will be to help protect the energy industry from attacks by extremists. The integrated national security enforcement team will be led by the RCMP and include officers from CSIS, the Edmonton and Calgary police forces and federal border patrol. Assistant Commissioner Gilles Michaud said the key to effectively guarding the labyrinth of oil and natural gas wells, pipelines and refineries in Alberta will be to gather intelligence to prevent attacks before they happen. - 2012/06/07: TMoS: Are You A Terrorist? To Harper, the RCMP and CSIS, You Might Well Be.
The ISA/PRV/IHN virus in BC waters is potentially disastrous:
- 2012/06/06: AlexandraMorton: Reply to CFIA
- 2012/06/04: AlexandraMorton: Dear Mr. Alf-Helge Aarskog, CEO Marine Harvest
- 2012/06/02: CBC: B.C. salmon farmers on 'high alert' for lethal virus
Canadian Food Inspection Agency says the virus does not pose a risk to human health Officials are still awaiting test results from some B.C. fish farms. Officials are still awaiting test results from some B.C. fish farms. (Canadian Press) B.C. salmon farmers say most of their operations have been untouched by a lethal fish virus, but the industry is "not out of the woods yet." Infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus, a highly contagious disease, first showed up more than two weeks ago in routine testing at a farm near Tofino, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, owned by Mainstream Canada. The Dixon Bay site was quarantined and more than 500,000 fish were destroyed. Another quarantine was imposed at a second Mainstream Canada farm, but follow-up testing for the virus at that site hasn't been completed. - 2012/06/07: PostMedia: Climate change to bring more severe wildfires to B.C.: report
- 2012/06/06: TheCanadian: Stephen Hume on BC Govt's Routine Failure to Inform Public on Health, Safety Issues, Salmon Diseases
- 2012/06/07: TheCanadian: Marvin Shaffer: BC Hydro Problems Stem from Bad Government Policy
- 2012/06/08: TheCanadian: BC Hydro's Exploding Debt - Accident or by Design?
- 2012/06/05: TheCanadian: Shell Hiring TransCanada to Build Pipeline to Proposed Kitimat LNG Plant
- 2012/06/05: CBC: TransCanada to build B.C. gas pipeline
Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. said Tuesday it has been chosen by Shell Canada Ltd. to build, own and operate a $4-billion natural gas pipeline across northern British Columbia. The company said the pipeline will transport natural gas from the Montney region in northeastern B.C. to a liquefied natural gas export facility near Kitimat, B.C. - 2012/06/05: G&M: Emphasis on oil sands called a "historic mistake for Canada"
A high-profile adviser on renewable energy to the European Union says Canada is making a huge mistake in placing so much emphasis on the oil sands as the key component of the country's energy policy. Jeremy Rifkin, a Maryland-based author and consultant, said in an interview Tuesday that focusing on the oil sands "is putting [Canada] back in the 20th century, when Europe and Asia are absolutely moving into the 21st century." Because other economies are shifting dramatically to renewable energy, he said, "this is a really, really historic mistake for Canada.....[It] could potentially become a second tier country." - 2012/06/07: G&M: Report warns of drop in oil sands R&D
The federal government has ratcheted back its support for industrial research and development just as oil sands companies are gearing up their effort to find innovative ways to cut costs and improve environmental performance. - 2012/06/05: CBC: Canadian oil production to double by 2030, industry [CAPP] predicts
- 2012/06/04: G&M: Crude glut, price plunge put oil sands projects at risk
- 2012/06/03: WCI: Who benefits from the oil sands? Who benefits from saying that only Alberta does?
- 2012/06/01: HuffPo: Deformed Tarsands Fish Appearing In Lake Athabasca, Says First Nation
Also in Alberta:
- 2012/06/08: CBC: Alberta pipeline spews oil into Red Deer River tributary
- 2012/06/09: G&M: Redford calls Alberta oil spill an 'exception' as cleanup continues
- 2012/06/10: SCC: The Red Deer River Oil Spill - Update #2
- 2012/06/09: SCC: The Red Deer River Oil Spill - Update #1
- 2012/06/09: CBC: Oil spill worries Albertans -- Red Deer River supplies thousands of Albertans with drinking water
- 2012/06/08: G&M: Cleanup of latest Alberta oil spill could take all summer
- 2012/06/08: PostMedia: Redford confident Alberta can handle pipeline breaks -- Critics raise questions about enforcement of environmental laws
Premier Alison Redford acknowledged Friday that Alberta's latest oil leak will raise questions about its network of pipelines, as critics pointed to the Sundre spill as another sign of weak enforcement of the province's environmental laws. But as the premier surveyed the site of the light sour crude spill, she said Alberta still has a strong system in place to prevent and deal with pipeline breaks. - 2012/06/08: MSimon: When the Harper Oil Pimps Destroy Themselves
- 2012/06/08: BCLSB: Ethical Oil
While in Saskatchewan:
- 2012/06/08: PEF: Debating Hoback on Resource Royalties
And in la Belle Province:
- 2012/06/04: MediaCoop: "We are not against wind mills," says Six Nations group
In the Maritimes:
- 2012/06/08: G&M: NAFTA panel rules against Canada over Newfoundland's oil-sector requirement
As for miscellaneous Canadiana:
- 2012/06/08: CBC: B.C., Ontario score highest in environmental progress
British Columbia and Ontario score highest in environmental stewardship, according to a national report card published by a Canadian business magazine. Corporate Knights, a Toronto-based quarterly focused on "clean capitalism," released its Green Provinces 2012 survey today. - 2012/06/09: SixthEstate: Our Warming Capital: Environment Canada Weather Data Shows Climate Change in Ottawa Since 1930s
- 2012/06/06: PostMedia: All-party climate caucus seeks to 'educate' MPs
Members of an all-party committee of federal politicians believes that "education" is one of their main goals Thursday as they sit through a full day of briefings from 20 different groups on scientific evidence linking human activity to global warming and potential solutions to the problem. - 2012/06/05: DeSmogBlog: Time to Audit the Fraser Institute
- 2012/06/03: G&M: Pipeline toll battle focuses on future of TransCanada's Mainline
The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:
- 2012/06/05: CCurrents: Of Birds, Rivers And Greed
IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology] raised its head once again:
- 2012/06/09: al Jazeera: Abortion ban latest issue to polarise Turkey
Women share their views on government's plans for bill that would outlaw abortion beyond first month of pregnancy. - 2012/06/08: ABC(Au):TDU: America's war on women
- 2012/06/05: CCurrents: Disempowering Women Through The Green Economy
- 2012/06/05: ABC(Au): Nun's sex talk raises the Vatican's ire
The Vatican has denounced an American nun after she wrote an award-winning book on sexual ethics, which includes topics such as gay marriage and masturbation. The Vatican's department responsible for doctrine says the book, written by respected Yale University theologian Sister Margaret Farley, contradicts Catholic teaching and must not be used by Catholic educators. - 2012/06/04: AlterNet: Not Satisfied With Attacking Nuns, Catholic Bishops Go After Girl Scouts
- 2012/06/03: Guardian(UK): Turkish women join pro-choice rally as fears grow of abortion ban
Thousands take to Istanbul streets as legislation prepared following PM's comparison of terminations to murder - 2012/06/04: EnergyBulletin: Give me that doom time religion
As for how the media handles science:
- 2012/06/05: KSJT: Will Scientists Ever Get Science Writing?
- 2012/06/05: KSJT: Science Magazine: A platform for a funny guy who says he really hates science journalism
- 2012/06/04: Stoat: Yes, climate change is a problem and yes, we do have to do something: but in Britain, we've done it already?
While activists search for effective communication techniques:
- 2012/06/06: HotTopic: Communicating science across cultural divides
Here is something for your library:
- 2012/05/30: SForum: [Book Plug] _Only One Earth: The Long Road via Rio to Sustainable Development_ by Felix Dodds and Michael Strauss with Maurice F. Strong
- 2012/06/05: CSM: [Book Review] _The Ocean of Life_ by Callum Roberts
And for your film & video enjoyment:
- 2012/06/05: P3: What's Harper Afraid of?
Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:
- 2012/06/08: NYT: Court Forces a Rethinking of Nuclear Fuel Storage
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission acted hastily in concluding that spent fuel can be stored safely at nuclear plants for the next century or so in the absence of a permanent repository, and it must consider what will happen if none are ever established, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday. In a unanimous opinion, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said that in deciding that the fuel would be safe for many decades, the commission did not carry out an analysis of individual storage pools at reactors across the country, treating them generically instead. The commission also did not adequately analyze the risk that cooling water will leak from the pools or that the fuel will ignite, the court wrote. The commission has relied on its conclusion that spent fuel rods can be safely stored at plants to extend the operating licenses of dozens of power reactors in recent years and to license four new ones. The plaintiffs -- four states, including New York, environmental groups and an American Indian organization -- declared victory, although the precise implications were not clear. - 2012/06/07: PlanetArk: New Jersey Sued For Pulling Out Of Climate Initiative
Environmental groups sued New Jersey on Wednesday for Governor Chris Christie's decision to pull the state out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a 10-state compact that aims to cut air pollution from power plants. Last May, Christie declared the compact, known as RGGI and pronounced "Reggie," was an ineffective way of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and announced the state would withdraw. In a lawsuit filed in Trenton's Superior Court, Appellate Division, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Environment New Jersey said that decision was illegal because state law required the Christie administration to notify the public of its intention and to provide a meaningful public comment period. - 2012/06/05: DigitalJournal: 5 million Brazilian farmers sue Monsanto in huge class action
- 2012/06/05: AutoBG: OK court rules neighborhood electric vehicle buyers can get $5,000 rebates
Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:
- 2012/06/07: NBF: A new paradigm for space-based solar power
- 2012/06/09: SimpleC: Hotter summers set to make power generators sweat
- 2012/06/06: BPA: Bill Reinert Describes What the Future of Energy Looks Like to his University of Colorado Audience
- 2012/06/07: TP:JR: Why Local Ownership Of Renewable Energy Projects Matters In One Simple Chart
- 2012/06/06: Rabble:DS: Germany shows that renewable is doable
- 2012/06/05: PlanetArk: Nuclear, Coal Power Face Climate Change Risk: Study
- 2012/06/04: TP:JR: Global Warming May Reduce U.S. Nuclear And Coal Power Output Up To 16 Percent By 2060
- 2012/06/04: Grist: The new new hydropower: Small-scale turbines have big potential
- 2012/06/03: Eureka: US and European energy supplies vulnerable to climate change - Nature Climate Change
Water supply -- a limiting factor in energy production - 2012/06/07: MO: Global Energy Transition Is Moving Fast
- 2012/06/07: Grist: Coal down, cleantech up in electric utility survey
Hey! Let's contaminate the aquifer for thousands of years! It'll be a fracking gas!
- 2012/06/06: HuffPo: West Virginia Gas Drilling Triggers Backyard Geysers
- 2012/06/08: TreeHugger: New Low-Cost Desalination System Targets Fracking Wastewater
- 2012/06/05: Yahoo:Reuters: Exxon Mobil warns red tape risks snuffing out gas boom
- 2012/06/07: BBC: Halliburton blames guar bean shortage for profit warning
Halliburton has warned that a shortage of guar beans in India will hit its profits. The oilfield services company said its North American profit margins would fall by twice as much as expected in the current quarter. - 2012/06/04: PlanetArk: New York Landowners Seek To Overturn Fracking Ban
- 2012/05/31: ITT: Fracking Fatalities: Organized Labor Implores Federal Agencies to Stop the Killings
On the coal front:
- 2012/06/10: TP:JR: Global Coal Markets Are Far Riskier Than You Think
- 2012/06/06: ERabett:BSD: Improving existing coal plant efficiency is the political sweet spot
- 2012/06/05: UCSUSA: Plant Washington Coal Facility Would Severely Stress Water Basin
On the gas and oil front:
- 2012/06/08: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
OIL (US$/bbl)
Nymex Crude Future...84.10
Dated Brent Spot.....99.64
WTI Cushing Spot.....84.10 - 2012/06/08: BBC: Oil prices hit a 17-month low on China slowdown fears
- 2012/06/10: OilDrum: Tech Talk - Saudi Arabia and Natural Gas Liquids
- 2012/06/08: AlterNet: The Dark Side to North Dakota's Oil Boom
- 2012/06/05: WaPo:B: For first time in years, the world is producing more oil than it needs
- 2012/06/06: CCurrents: Oil Prices: Where Are We Headed?
- 2012/06/04: BWeek: Falling Oil Prices Are No Mystery
- 2012/06/05: CBC: Chinese natural gas demand to double by 2017 [says IEA]
- 2012/06/03: NBF: Shell Estimates Iraq could Produce 6 to 10 million barrels of oil per day in the early 2020s
Regarding oil and the economy:
- 2012/06/07: EconBrowser: Aggregate factors in the price of oil
- 2012/06/04: MoJo: Oil Prices are Down, and That's Very Bad News
It means the global economy is tanking, and reduces the incentive to invest in more reliable energy sources. - 2012/06/05: BBerg: Exxon, Shell See U.S.-Led Gas Boom Boosting Global Growth
And in pipeline news:
- 2012/06/06: DeSmogBlog: TransCanada's Latest Extreme Energy Export Pipelines in the U.S. and Canada
- 2012/05/30: ICN: Enbridge Restarted Ruptured Oil Pipeline "Twice" During 2010 Michigan Oil Spill
Yes we have a peak oil sighting:
- 2012/06/07: OilDrum: Reflections on ASPO 10, Vienna 2012 - Part 2
- 2012/06/05: OilDrum: Reflections on ASPO 10, Vienna 2012 - Part 1
- 2012/06/03: EnergyBulletin: Parliamentary question, debate on Peak Oil in the Swedish parliament
Biofuel bickering abounds:
- 2012/06/08: Eureka: Environmental benefit of biofuels is overestimated, new study reveals
- 2012/06/07: CBC: Lower cost of biofuels, airlines urge governments
- 2012/06/08: TreeHugger: Are We Overestimating Biofuels' Benefits by Double Counting Emission Reductions?
- 2012/06/06: TP:JR: Into The Wild Green Yonder: When Will Algae Scale?
- 2012/06/04: TreeHugger: How Cheap Will Algae Biofuel Really Get?
- 2012/06/04: Purdue: Energy-dense biofuel from cellulose close to being economical
- 2012/06/04: OilDrum: Current and Projected Costs for Biofuels from Algae and Pyrolysis
The answer my friend...:
- 2012/06/06: PSinclair: Wind Power: From NIMBY to YIMBY
- 2012/06/06: PSinclair: What does the Sierra Club have in Common with Karl Rove? Both Support Wind Energy
- 2012/06/03: TP:JR: Do Flying Wind Turbines Make Sense?
Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:
- 2012/06/08: PSinclair: Solar Auction Turns Roof Space into Energy and $$$
- 2012/06/06: TreeHugger: A DIY Solar USB Charger for Occupiers
- 2012/06/05: NBF: Hybrid Silicon Nanocone-Polymer Solar Cells
- 2012/06/06: BBC: Giant solar plane completes Spain-Morocco flight
- 2012/06/05: Reuters: Solar makers bet on Japan nuclear crisis being a game-changer
Solar power firms to get boost from feed-in tariff - Foreign players looking to grab slice of Japan's solar market - Companies say FIT will encourage economies of scale - Public faith in nuclear power still in tatters after Fukushima - 2012/06/04: NYT: Solar Panel Payments Set Off a Fairness Debate
- 2012/06/05: Grist: A solar-powered cell phone charging station inspired by Occupy Wall Street
- 2012/06/05: BBC: Solar plane en route from Spain to Morocco
- 2012/06/04: IdahoStatesman: Will Idaho's solar industry go dark?
The nuclear energy controversy continues:
- 2012/06/08: APR: San Onofre 6/7 update from SoCal Ed
- 2012/06/04: NBF: Rosatom signs international nuclear deals
Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:
- 2012/06/07: APR: A fresh life for spent fuel storage?
- 2012/06/08: NYT: Court Forces a Rethinking of Nuclear Fuel Storage
Low energy nuclear keeps coming up:
- 2012/06/05: NBF: Rossi claims 40 days of continuous operation for a 10 kilowatt Energy Catalyzer at 600 degrees celsius
More people are talking about the electrical grid:
- 2012/06/05: ITracker: Better power lines, dammit!
And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:
- 2012/06/01: WaPo:B: Why we ignore low-tech fixes for the climate
- 2012/06/04: EurActiv: Crisis puts off investors from big energy-saving spend
The financial crisis has made owners of large commercial and public buildings more cautious about spending on energy efficiency improvements. But experts argue that upfront investments are recovered fast and go beyond merely saving energy and reducing electricity bills. - 2012/06/04: SMania: It is Easy to Save Money and Our Planet at the Same Time
Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:
- 2012/06/07: TreeHugger: 2013 Honda Fit EV Receives Best-in-Class EPA Rating of 118 MPGe!
- 2012/06/06: AutoBG: Honda Fit EV rated at 118 MPGe with 82-mile range by EPA
- 2012/06/04: TP:JR: Prius Success Undermines Attacks On Electric Vehicles
As for Energy Storage:
- 2012/06/07: Rice: "Nanocable" could be big boon for energy storage
- 2012/06/06: TreeHugger: Army Scientists Boost Single Cell Battery Density by 30%
- 2012/06/04: TreeHugger: Liquid Metal Battery Startup Raises $15M in Additional Financing
The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:
- 2012/06/05: AlterNet: Can Big Tech Go Green? How Facebook, Apple and Google Stack Up
Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:
- 2012/06/08: ABC(Au): No go flood insurance zone worries regional council leaders
Many Queensland councils are scrambling to put in place flood mitigation projects before next summer's storm season. Adding to the urgency is a recent refusal by Suncorp to issue new insurance policies for the flood-prone towns of Emerald and Roma, with many councils fearing their communities could be next on the no-go list. The issue of insurance is contentious, with premiums soaring in the wake of the floods. And some flood victims are still doing battle with their insurers, over whether they were covered. - 2012/06/05: Reuters: Price tag on climate change in Latin America: $100 billion
Damage from climate change could cost Latin American and Caribbean countries $100 billion per year by 2050 if average temperatures rise 2C (3.6F) from pre-industrial levels, as is seen likely, a new report said on Tuesday. - 2012/06/08: Guardian(UK): What's energy efficiency and how much can it help cut emissions?
- 2012/06/06: Guardian(UK): Are there errors in the IPCC reports?
Joe Romm posts a daily list of top energy and climate stories:
- 2012/06/08: TP:JR: June 8 News...
- 2012/06/07: TP:JR: June 7 News...
- 2012/06/05: TP:JR: June 5 News...
- 2012/06/04: TP:JR: June 4 News...
Other (weekly) lists:
- 2012/06/08: EnergyBulletin: ODAC Newsletter
- 2012/06/04: BPA: Agriculture News
The carbon lobby are up to the usual:
- 2012/06/07: Tamino: CO2 Sanity
- 2012/06/09: QuarkSoup: On Pretending to Be Stupid
- 2012/06/07: JQuiggin: Dunning-Kruger goes Catallactic
- 2012/06/10: HotTopic: The incorrigible Easterbrook
- 2012/06/06: TP:JR: The Heartland Institute's Special Guest: Scott Walker
- 2012/06/04: CCurrents: Climate-Change Deniers Are On the Ropes -- But So Is The Planet
- 2012/06/05: ERabett: His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free
- 2012/06/05: Stoat: The Guardian's ridiculous claim of 75% Arctic sea ice loss in 30 years -- patently false?
- 2012/06/03: ERabett: Judith Curry Doesn't Wants to Know
This week in intimidation:
- 2012/06/05: ABC(Au): Scientists threatened by vandals
There is growing outrage in the community over ongoing vandal attacks and death threats issued to Australian National University researchers. But anti-kangaroo cull protestors say they are unrepentant and have nothing to lose. - 2012/06/08: WtD: Inside view of Heartland conference denying climate change
- 2012/06/07: S&R: More deception and dishonesty in Heartland's May 1 press release announcing results of Memo investigation
- 2012/06/06: S&R: Digital forensic investigation fails to exonerate Heartland of authoring climate strategy memo
- 2012/06/04: Guardian(UK): The climate change deniers: influence out of all proportion to science
The Heartland Institute's recent shaming has put the denialist camp on the defensive. But they've already done massive harm - 2012/06/03: AlterNet: How a Bunch of Corporate-Backed Buffoons Took Over U.S. Climate Policy
Meanwhile in the 'clean coal' saga:
- 2012/06/03: TP:JR: The Ethics Of 'Clean Coal' Propaganda
As for climate miscellanea:
- 2012/06/07: JEB: (gfx) Logo
- 2012/06/06: Grist: Can climate hawks campaign for something good instead of against something bad?
- 2012/06/07: SixthEstate: Only 60% of Conservatives Think a 20-foot Sea Level Rise Would be a Problem
- 2012/06/05: AlterNet: Affluenza Afloat: The Dangers of Supersized Cruise Ships in Our Peak-Oil World
And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:
- ClimatePhys (Chris Colose)
- BuildingGreen
- Wiki: Solar storm of 1859 or Carrington Event
- IBI: International Biochar Initiative
- Marine Reserves Coalition
- Interpol: Project LEAF
- NASA:EO: Image of the Day
- World Oceans Day
- RGGI: Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative
- Mark Lynas
- Carbon Brief: Blogs
- Sustainable Cities Collective: An urban sustainability, green building, and alternative transportation community
- iWN: iWatch News - Center for Public Integrity
- Worldwide Permaculture Network
- APR: Atomic Power Review
- State of Arctic Coasts 2010
- Research Blogging
- Cohen Commission -- Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River
It's always nice to start with a laugh:
Looking ahead to COP18 and future international climate negotiations:
The Elmendorf et al. paper on rapid change in the Arctic surprised some:
The Yes Men struck again, this time targeting Shell:
The unexpected discovery of a huge phytoplankton bloom under Arctic ice generated some chatter:
And then there are the world's forests:
This week in the New Normal -- extreme weather:
As for heatwaves and wild fires:
As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:
Consider transportation & GHG production:
While at the UN:
How will Carbon Labelling work?
On the international political front, tensions continue as the USA and Israel lean on Iran:
As the EU-ETS is applied to airlines, we will see who is serious about reducing carbon emissions:
The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:
The truth about the Greenest Government Ever leaks out:
And in Europe:
The carbon bill is law. Now comes the implementation:
The Murray-Darling Basin Plan controversy continues:
While in the Indian subcontinent:
In Canada, neocon PM Harper pushes petroleum while ignoring climate change:
BlackOutSpeakOut went down this week to little notice:
The Harper gang's job cuts have many unhappy:
In BC, the stage is set. Now what will Clark and Dix do?
Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:
Apocalypso anyone?
What's changing in energy sources?
Who's fielding theFAQs?
The Heartland saga drags on:
Low Key Plug
My first novel Water was published in Canada May, 2007. The American release was in October. An Introductionto the novel is available, along with the Unpublished Forewordand the Launch Talk(which includes some quotations), An overview of my writing is available here.
<regards>
P.S. Recent postings can be found in the week archive and the ancient postings can be accessed here, which should open to this.
I notice moyhu has set up a monster index to old AWoGWN on AFTIC."So, if we have an emergency, and we have the tools to fight it, the only question is why we're not doing so. And the answer, I think, is clear: it's in the interest of some of the most powerful players on earth to prolong the status quo." -Bill McKibben
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~$2 billion in damage from hail storms in Dallas might be worth a mention for next week.
Damage estimate from Dallas-area hailstorms could hit $2 billion
Heck, look at the USA pouring billions into the transport infrastructure because the fossil fuel production has moved.
Didn't even blink at the expense.
And what happens when windfarms have access roads built (at their expense)? Wails to the heavens.