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 roundupskip to bottom
Another Week of Anthropocene Antics
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
July 15, 2012
- Chuckles, Post-Rio+20, COP18+, Resource 2012, ICRS, SOTC, Penguins, Cook
- Fukushima Note, Fukushima News, Nuclear Policy
- Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica
- Food Crisis, Fisheries, Food Prices, Food vs. Biofuel, GMOs, GMO Labels, Food Production
- Hurricanes, Monsoon, GHGs, Temperatures, Jet Streams, Paleoclimate, Attribution
- ENSO, Uncertainties, State of the Oceans, Extinctions, Proxies, Satellites
- Impacts, Climate Refugees, Desertification, Wacky Weather, Extreme Weather
- Wildfires, Corals, Glaciers, Sea Levels, GW Deluge, Floods & Droughts
- Mitigation, Cities, Transportation, Sequestration, Conservation
- Journals, Other Docs, Misc. Science, Models, Open Science, Mann, Ehrlich, Wegman
- International Politics: UN, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax
- Hormuz, South China Sea, Rare Earths , EU ETS & Airlines
- Law & Activism, Activism, Polls, H2O Biz, Groundwater, Education
- National Politics: America, BP Disaster, 2012, Gas Prices, NTSB
- Triana Ruling, Birth Control, Coal Exports, USAdmin, Congress, Lobbyists
- Britain, Europe, Australia, Carbon Law, Murray-Darling, New Zealand, China, Japan
- Canada, Death of Evidence, Streamlining, Mulcair, Rae, Wind Study, Northern Gateway
- Kinder Morgan, Post G20, Salmon, BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Ontario, Maritimes, North, Canadiana
- Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Video, Courts
- Energy, Transitions, Fracking, Coal, Oil & Gas, Pipelines, Peak Oil, Biofuel
- Wind, Solar, Nukes, Nuclear Waste, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Energy Storage
- Business, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Intimidation, Misc., Useful Links
- Shameless Self Promotion, .sig
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- 2012/07/14: SMcMillan: (cartoon - McMillan) Ironed Out
- 2012/07/11: DailyKos: (cartoon - TomTom) Your Corporate Democracy
- 2012/07/14: TP:JR: (cartoons - Bennett & Smith) Global Warming Deniers Are Getting Burned
And for those who enjoy challenging Poe's Law:
- 2012/07/09: Wonkette: Fat Cat Gov't Scientists Suggest It's Really Hot Outside All The Time
- 2012/07/10: EnvEcon: For those in the northeast, I would suggest moving to North Carolina where sea level rises of this magnitude will soon be against the law
Looking back at Rio+20:
- 2012/07/10: NEF: The Future /Who/ Wants (or needs)?
- 2012/06/25: Guardian(UK): Rio+20: Tim Jackson on how fear led world leaders to betray green economy
Looking ahead to COP18 and future international climate negotiations:
- 2012/07/14: SimpleC: Rich versus poor obstructs climate progress
The Resource 2012 forum went down in the UK this week:
- 2012/07/14: BBC: Bill Clinton: Voters 'don't know' about resource scarcity
Former US President Bill Clinton has called for more to be done to persuade voters to support schemes that tackle global warming and resource scarcity. Speaking in Oxford at the Resource 2012 forum, he said "the whole consciousness of a significant number of voters" had to be altered. - 2012/07/11: al Jazeera: Let them have contraception
Wednesday's London Summit on Family Planning aims to expand contraception access for women in the developing world. - ICRS: 2012 International Coral Reef Symposium
- 2012/07/13: Maribo: Coral reef decline disproportionately impacts the developing world
- 2012/07/12: Eureka: Our coral reefs: In trouble - but tougher than we thought
- 2012/07/11: ABC(Au): Will slimy green bacteria rule the Great Barrier Reef?
- 2012/07/10: ABC(Au): Coral reefs face uncertain future: scientists
Marine biologists have told a conference that the Great Barrier Reef is under serious threat from climate change within the next century. - 2012/07/10: ScienceInsider: Coral Reef Scientists Issue Call for Action
- 2012/07/10: CoralCOE: "We can still save our reefs": Coral Scientist
- 2012/07/09: C4OS: Scientists Join Forces in Call for Action to Save Coral Reefs
- 2012/07/09: RawStory: Top marine scientists warn reefs in rapid decline
- 2012/07/10: ABC(Au): Climate change could make Barrier Reef 'boring'
A marine scientist says the Great Barrier Reef will be "boring and full of rubble" by the end of the century unless urgent action is taken to slow the rate of ocean acidification. Scientists at the International Coral Reef Symposium in Cairns today focused on their biggest fear; what will happen if climate change continues at its current rate. - 2012/07/10: ABC(Au): Delegates to discuss climate impact on reefs
Delegates at the International Coral Reef Symposium in Cairns will today turn their attention to the impact of climate change on coral reefs around the world. More than 2,500 scientists met yesterday to discuss the Consensus Statement on Climate Change and Coral Reefs and heard reefs are in danger from rising sea temperatures and over-development. - 2012/07/09: Guardian(UK): Rising ocean acid levels are 'the biggest threat to coral reefs'
- 2012/07/09: CBC: Rising acidity of oceans a major threat to coral reefs
NOAA, scientists sound alarm about CO2 effect on oceans at Australia reef conference - 2012/07/09: ABC(Au): Scientists warn reefs at danger due to global warming
- 2012/07/09: NOAANews: Keynote Address by the NOAA Administrator at the International Coral Reef Symposium 2010, Cairns, Australia
- 2012/07/08: PostMedia: Higher ocean acidity is climate change's 'evil twin,' major threat to coral reefs: [says National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco]
Ocean acidification has emerged as one of the biggest threats to coral reefs across the world, acting as the "osteoporosis of the sea" and threatening everything from food security to tourism to livelihoods, the head of a U.S. scientific agency said Monday. The speed by which the oceans' acid levels has risen caught scientists off-guard, with the problem now considered to be climate change's "equally evil twin,"... - 2012/07/09: ABC(Au): Marine scientists gather for coral reef talks
More than 2,000 marine scientists have gathered in Cairns to discuss the state of the world's coral reefs. The International Coral Reef Symposium will start with an overview of the state of coral reefs around the world and the measures required to preserve them. Australia's management of the Great Barrier Reef will also be scrutinised by scientists from some 80 countries. - 2012/07/09: AMS: Explaining Extreme Events of 2011 from a Climate Perspective by Thomas C. Peterson et al.
- 2012/07/11: NOAA:NCDC:SOTC: [link to 7.4 meg pdf] Explaining Extreme Events of 2011 from a Climate Perspective by Thomas Peterson et al.
- 2012/07/11: NatureNB: 2011 weather extremes down to global warming and La Niña
- 2012/07/10: SciNow: Global Warming Punched Up Some 2011 Weather Extremes
- 2012/07/11: SciNews: Warming indicted for extreme weather -- Climate change can explain some 2011 departures from the norm
- 2012/07/11: Wunderground: Extreme events of 2011: climate change a major factor in some, but not all
- 2012/07/12: KSJT: Lots of Ink: New study says, sometimes, one really can blame that storm (drought, heatwave, cold, etc.) on anthropogenic climate change
- 2012/07/12: ABC(Au): [SOTC] Climate report warns of more extreme weather
- 2012/07/11: TreeHugger: La Niña Now 20x More Likely to Cause Record Heat Waves Than in 1960s
- 2012/07/11: Guardian(UK): The climate of the climate change debate is changing
Quantifying how greenhouse gases contribute to extreme weather is a crucial step in calculating the cost of human influence - 2012/07/11: HotTopic: State of the climate 2011: extreme heat our fault
- 2012/07/11: PlanetArk: Texas drought, British heat linked to climate change
- 2012/07/11: OilChange: Climate Change Causing Extreme Weather
- 2012/07/10: NYT: Global Warming Makes Heat Waves More Likely, Study Finds
- 2012/07/11: CCurrents: Report: Extreme Weather Tied to Man-Made Climate Change
- 2012/07/10: CSM: Does climate change increase the odds of extreme weather events? (+video)
- 2012/07/11: al Jazeera: Severe weather caused by climate change
Scientists link individual events of 2011 to the warming of the planet. - 2012/07/10: ABC(Au): Climate change boosts odds of extreme weather: report
Severe droughts, floods and heat waves rocked the world last year as greenhouse gas levels climbed, boosting the odds of some extreme weather events, international scientists say. The details are contained in the annual State of the Climate in 2011 report, compiled by nearly 400 scientists from 48 countries and published in the peer-reviewed Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. The report itself remains "consciously conservative" when it comes to attributing the causes of certain weather events to climate change, and instead refers only to widely understood phenomena such as La Nina. However, it is accompanied for the first time by a separate analysis that explains how climate change may have influenced certain key events, from droughts in the US and Africa to extreme cold and warm spells in Britain. - 2012/07/10: Guardian(UK): Scientists attribute extreme weather to man-made climate change
- 2012/07/10: NOAANews: Back-to-back La Niñas cooled globe and influenced extreme weather in 2011
Another weird mass death:
- 2012/07/14: BBC: Brazilian biologists are investigating the deaths of more than 500 penguins found washed up on the beaches of Rio Grande do Sul state
- 2012/07/14: al Jazeera: Brazil investigates mass penguin deaths
Veterinarians puzzled by hundreds of dead, mostly young penguins, being found on beaches in Brazil's southern state. Brazilian authorities are investigating the deaths of more than 500 penguins found washed up on beaches of Brazil's southern Rio Grande do Sul state, authorities said Friday. - 2012/07/15: SkeptiSci: Welcome to the Rest of Our Lives by greenman3610
- 2012/07/14: SkeptiSci: What is the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund? by doug_bostrom
- 2012/07/13: SkeptiSci: Exxon-Mobil CEO Downplays the Global Warming Threat by dana1981
- 2012/07/12: SkeptiSci: Ivar Giaever - Nobel Winning Physicist and Climate Pseudoscientist by dana1981
- 2012/07/11: SkeptiSci: Carbon - the Huge and Yet Overlooked Fossil Fuel Subsidy by dana1981
- 2012/07/10: SkeptiSci: New research special - cloud papers 2010-2011 by Ari Jokimäki
- 2012/07/09: SkeptiSci: Remote Siberian Lake Holds Clues to Arctic--and Antarctic--Climate Change by John Hartz
A note on theFukushima disaster:
It is evident that the Fukushima disaster is going to persist for some time. TEPCO says 6 to 9 months. The previous Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, said decades. Now the Japanese government is talking about 30 years. [Whoops, that has now been updated to 40 years.] We'll see. At any rate this situation is not going to be resolved any time soon and deserves its own section.
Meanwhile...
It is very difficult to know for sure what is really going on at Fukushima. Between the company [TEPCO], the Japanese government, the Japanese regulator [NISA], the international monitor [IAEA], as well as independent analysts and commentators, there is a confusing mish-mash of information. One has to evaluate both the content and the source of 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:
- 2012/07/12: ABC(Au): Fukushima kids cop 'lifetime' radiation dose
A Japanese study has found some children who live near the Fukushima nuclear plant have received "lifetime" doses of radiation to their thyroid glands. A team from Japan's Institute of Radiological Sciences used government data to measure the internal radiation exposure of more than 1,000 Fukushima children. - 2012/07/12: NHK: Court order sought to stop restart of reactors
A trial hearing has begun in a lawsuit filed by residents seeking a court order to stop the restart of a nuclear plant in Niigata Prefecture, central Japan. - 2012/07/13: EneNews: NHK: Fuel rods to be removed from No. 4 fuel pool - Concerns about sea water damage...
- 2012/07/13: EneNews: Watch: Tepco releases footage of Reactor No. 3 from crane (videos)
- 2012/07/12: EneNews: We were told Fukushima reactors could blow up within 300 km -Prime Minister Kan's secretary (video)
- 2012/07/09: ERL: Model simulations on the long-term dispersal of 137Cs released into the Pacific Ocean off Fukushima by Erik Behrens et al.
- 2012/07/14: EneNews: Analyst on Fukushima Reactors: What's happening with the corium? Where is this? - Not good that I've read very little about it (video)
- 2012/07/06: Cryptome: (10.1 meg pdf) NAIIC Fukushima Nuclear Accident Report
- 2012/07/06: Cryptome: (652k pdf) IAEA Fukushma Daiichi NPS Status Report
- 2012/07/06: Cryptome: (68k pdf) Fukushima Daiichi NPP Unit 1 Investigation
- 2012/07/06: Cryptome: (382k pdf) Fukushima Daiichi NPP Units 2-3 Investigation
- 2012/07/09: Cryptome: Fukushima Daiichi NPS When the Tsunami Hit 11 March 2011 [pix]
- 2012/07/09: ERW: Fukushima radiation could reach US coast in five years
Radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan could reach the US West Coast in the next 5-6 years, doubling the radioactivity of US coastal waters, according to simulations carried out by German oceanographers. - 2012/07/09: SwissInfo: Atomic facilities able to resist major tremors
Switzerland's nuclear power plants could withstand a severe earthquake without consequences for the public or the environment, according to the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate. - 2012/07/12: ASI: Polls July 2012
- 2012/07/12: SciAm:Exp: Following the Ice: Is this Global Warming?
- 2012/07/15: IOTD: Icebergs off Western Greenland
- 2012/07/15: ASI: The wet side of Greenland
- 2012/07/11: ASI: Nares: from collapse to transport
- 2012/07/10: Grist: Strange things are afoot in the Arctic Circle
- 2012/07/10: ASI: July SEARCH Contribution
- 2012/07/08: CBC: Researchers to document all Arctic species -- Goal is to understand changing state of life in North
- 2012/07/08: ASI: Stronghold
As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:
- 2012/07/11: Guardian(UK): BP halts offshore Alaska project
British oil firm suspends controversial plans for Liberty field owing to cost of meeting its new safety code - 2012/07/13: TreeHugger: Shell Asks EPA to Bend Air Pollution Rules So It Can Drill in Arctic
- 2012/07/11: TreeHugger: Shell Says It Will Only 'Encounter' 90% of Arctic Oil Spill Near the Rig, Not Recover the Oil
- 2012/07/11: G&M: BP abandons plan to develop Alaska field
BP PLC has decided not to proceed with a groundbreaking $1.5-billion (U.S.) offshore oil project in Alaska after concluding it would be too expensive. A review carried out in the wake of BP's 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill found that the plan for the Liberty field did not meet BP's new, higher safety standards. Putting it right would have driven up project costs and caused further delays to a development that is already well behind schedule. - 2012/07/09: TP:JR: Shell Fails To Get Its Arctic Oil Spill Barge Certified By The Coast Guard
While in Antarctica:
- 2012/07/12: Eureka: Antarctica faces major threats in the 21st century, says Texas A&M researcher
The food crisis is ongoing:
- 2012/07/12: ABC(Au): USDA slashes corn harvest estimate
- 2012/07/13: UN: UN agency to provide assistance to thousands in Malawi due to crop failure
- 2012/07/12: TP:JR: Drought Covers One-Third Of U.S. Counties, The Largest Agricultural Disaster Area Ever Declared
- 2012/07/10: Guardian(UK): Food security index: why does the UK have the worst record of Western European countries?
- 2012/07/11: AgWeb: WASDE: Largest Corn Yield Reduction in a Decade
- 2012/07/12: BBC: Aid agencies working in the world's largest refugee camp in Kenya say they are running out of funds, putting tens of thousands of lives at risk
- 2012/07/11: ABC(Au): Niger struggles with food crisis
In Niger, the third severe food crisis in less than 10 years has forced many people to leave their villages in search of food. Harvests have failed and up to 18 million people across West Africa are now facing severe food shortages. - 2012/07/11: ABC(Au): Heatwave hits US cattle herd
- 2012/07/11: UWash: Got milk? Climate change means stressed cows in southern U.S. may have less
- 2012/07/10: CNN: Northwest heat endangers crops
Temperatures are as much as 15 degrees above normal in the Northwest - A Montana farmer fears he could lose 30% to 40% of his crop because of the heat - Temperatures Tuesday in California may go as high as 125 - Last 12 months were the hottest on record in the U.S., report says - 2012/07/10: ITracker: Watching the corn
- 2012/07/10: PlanetArk: Corn Belt heat wave breaks, but this week's rains light
- 2012/07/09: TP:JR: Biologist On The Midwestern Drought: 'It's Like Farming In Hell'
- 2012/07/09: Eureka: Recession's bite: Nearly 4 million Californians struggled to put food on table during downturn
- 2012/07/09: Eureka: Sustainability of rice landscapes in South East Asia threatened
Scientists raise concerns on the future sustainability of rice ecosystems in South East Asia - Threats are caused by global change but also by human mistakes and political neglect - 2012/07/11: MoJo: Climate Change Driving Salmon Evolution
Two of our hottest-button topics -- climate change and evolution -- are linked by old and new genetic research on migrating salmon. - 2012/07/08: FuturePundit: White Abalone Endangered Off Southern California
- 2012/07/11: NatureN: Pink salmon evolve to migrate earlier in warmer waters -- Study finds genetic evidence of climate-change adaptation
- 2012/07/09: FAO: Fisheries and aquaculture - enabling a vital sector to contribute more -- FAO releases new State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture report
- 2012/07/09: FAO: [link to 6.1 meg pdf] The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2012
- 2012/07/09: Grist: Beyond red lists: The power of community-supported fisheries
- 2012/07/09: UN: UN report urges improved fisheries management to help ensure food security
- 2012/07/08: DD: Graph of the Day: Discarded, Lost, and Wasted Seafood Catch for Different Regions, 2011
Food Prices are still problematic:
- FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
- 2012/07/12: TreeHugger: When Corn Prices Rise 50%, Expect Food Prices to Climb 1%
- 2012/07/10: WSJ: Corn Prices Soar [29% in the past 3 weeks] as Midwest Bakes
The conflict between biofuel and food persists:
- 2012/07/12: TP:JR: The Corn Identity: The US Will Make Ethanol Out Of Enough Corn To Feed 412 Million People
- 2012/07/13: CER:RRapier: Poor Corn Crop Will Have Major Impact on Ethanol Market
Regarding the genetic modification of food:
- 2012/07/15: BBC: A team of British plant scientists has won a $10m (£6.4m) grant from the Gates Foundation to develop GM cereal crops
- 2012/07/11: SciNow: ScienceShot: Will the Genome Save the Banana?
- 2012/05/10: UCSUSA: [link to 2 meg pdf] High and Dry: Why Genetic Engineering Is Not Solving Agriculture's Drought Problem in a Thirsty World
- 2012/07/08: RawStory: Rootworms have developed resistance to genetically engineered corn
Regarding labelling GM food:
- 2012/07/11: FSN: California GMO Labeling Law Named Prop. 37
California's Office of the Secretary of State announced on Monday that the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act, also known as the GMO labeling initiative, will appear on voter ballots as Proposition 37 for the November 6 elections. - 2012/07/12: ABC(Au): Researchers find why some crops tolerate salt
- 2012/07/12: UN: Strong response to UN fundraising campaign provides food aid for thousands in Sahel
- 2012/07/12: Eureka: Salt cress genome yields new clues to salt tolerance
- 2012/07/11: FAO: Increased productivity and a more sustainable food system will improve global food security
OECD and FAO publish new Agricultural Outlook - 2012/07/13: FAO: Agricultural research to be strengthened with Rome accord -- FAO and CGIAR Consortium sign declaration of intent
- 2012/07/09: FAO: FAO opens new liaison office for agricultural cooperatives
- 2012/07/11: Guardian(UK): The British farmers growing exotic crops
From bananas to tea to chillis, UK producers are increasingly turning to non-native plants - 2012/07/11: UN: Increased productivity needed to improve food security - UN report
- 2012/07/15: SciAm:LR: How Barley Protects Against Invasion
- 2012/07/10: TreeHugger: Ecuadorian Farmers Organize 'Illegal' Fairs to Bring Healthy, Fair Priced Food to Communities
- 2012/07/10: TreeHugger: 3 Steps to Protecting Food Stamps From a Cruel Congress
- 2012/07/09: ABC(Au): Reforestation project adds hope to food crisis
A project to reforest areas of drought in Niger is helping to buck the trend of food shortage. - 2012/07/10: Grist: The latest New York Times exposé won't stop me from eating organic
- 2012/07/07: NYT: Has 'Organic' Been Oversized?
- 2012/07/09: Grist: Multinational food corporations thank you for buying 'organic'
- 2012/07/09: JQuiggin: Tribalism and locavorism
In the warm waters of the Eastern Pacific, three cyclones spun up one after the other:
- 2012/07/12: NASA: Satellite Sees Remnants of Former Tropical Storm Daniel
- 2012/07/12: NASA: NASA's Aqua Satellite Providing Two Views of Hurricane Emilia
- 2012/07/12: NASA: NASA Sees Hot Towers as Tropical Storm Fabio's Trigger
- 2012/07/11: Eureka: NASA sees Tropical Storm Daniel move over cooler water
- 2012/07/11: NASA: NASA Sees Emilia as a Category 2 Hurricane Now
- 2012/07/10: Eureka: Satellite sees 2 tropical cyclones chase Tropical Storm Daniel
- 2012/07/10: Eureka: NASA gets a cold stare from Emilia's eye
- 2012/07/10: CNN: Emilia strengthens to Category 4 hurricane in Pacific
- 2012/07/09: Eureka: NASA analyzes twin hurricanes [Daniel & Emilia] in the eastern Pacific
- 2012/07/10: CSM: [Cat 4] Hurricane Emilia packs the biggest punch of 2012 season
While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:
- 2012/07/13: Wunderground: July Atlantic hurricane outlook
And on the Monsoon front:
- 2012/07/15: al Jazeera: Destructive yet beautiful
The North American monsoon began this week bringing with it flash floods, but also a bit of colour. Internationally, when you mention the word monsoon, what normally comes to mind is the seasonal changing of winds that affects the Indian subcontinent and Asia. But on smaller scales it can also affect Australia, Europe, Africa as well as North America. This past week it was in the American states of California, Nevada and Arizona that saw the start of their monsoon. - 2012/07/10: Guardian(UK): Climate risks heat up as world switches on to air conditioning
- 2012/07/10: IndianaU: Rising carbon dioxide in atmosphere also speeds carbon loss from forest soils, IU-led research finds
- 2012/07/09: ESA: Europe clears the air
Satellite measurements show that nitrogen dioxide in the lower atmosphere over parts of Europe and the US has fallen over the past decade. - 2012/07/12: Moyhu: June GISS Temp down 0.08°C - ice news
- 2012/07/12: RBroberg: Eschenbach: Poisson Pill
- 2012/07/14: Tamino: Fifteen
- 2012/07/14: DD: Graph of the Day: Departure from Average of U.S. Temperature, June 2012
- 2012/07/11: P3: June 2012 NOT Hottest June in US
- 2012/07/10: CCurrents: U.S. Sees Hottest 12 Months And Hottest Half Year On Record: NOAA Calls Record Heat A One-In-1.6-Million Event
- 2012/07/09: P3: U.S. heat over the past 13 months: a one in 1.6 million event
- 2012/07/10: PlanetArk: Continental US breaks heat record in first half of 2012
- 2012/07/10: Grist: Gambling advice: Don't bet that the warm weather is just a fluke
- 2012/07/09: TreeHugger: Hot as Hell: That Was the Warmest First Half of Any Year in U.S. History
- 2012/07/09: Wunderground: U.S. experiences warmest 12-month period on record--again
- 2012/07/10: al Jazeera: Cold snap leaves over a dozen dead in Chile
The homeless have been particularly susceptible to the overnight low temperatures - 2012/07/09: TP:JR: U.S. Sees Hottest 12 Months And Hottest Half Year On Record: NOAA Calls Record Heat A One-In-1.6-Million-Event
- 2012/07/09: Tamino: Seasons Change
- 2012/07/09: CLB: Global temperatures over the past decade
- 2012/07/09: Grist: June's 3,282 heat records, in one handy chart
- 2012/07/09: UMainz: Climate in northern Europe reconstructed for the past 2,000 years: Cooling trend calculated precisely for the first time
- 2012/07/08: TP:JR: We're Already Topping Dust Bowl Temperatures -- Imagine What'll Happen If We Fail To Stop 10°F Warming
Note the BBC's annoying re-use of URLs:
- 2012/07/10: BBC: US has hottest year since 1895, say scientists
The last year in the continental US has been the country's hottest since modern record-keeping began in 1895, say government scientists. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also said the US had broken its record for the hottest six months in a calendar year. One of the agency's weather experts suggested climate change was playing a role in the hot temperatures. A recent 11-day heatwave in the US has claimed at least 46 lives. - 2012/07/09: BBC: US heatwave eases as cold front brings rain
Cooler weather and a band of rain is bringing relief to millions of Americans and an end to a heatwave that has claimed at least 46 lives. - 2012/07/10: BBC: Why, oh why, does it keep raining?
While in the paleoclimate:
- 2012/07/13: NatureNB: Study says asteroids delivered water to Earth
- 2012/07/11: RealClimate: My oh Miocene!
In the attribution debate:
- 2012/07/12: ERW: Scientists say ongoing weather extremes offer proof of climate change
And on the ENSO front:
- 2012/07/11: PlanetArk: Japan agency says high chance El Nino to emerge this summer
Dealing with uncertainties:
- 2012/07/10: ERabett: Good Answers
And the State of the Oceans:
- 2012/07/12: AlterNet: Dead Zone Pollution Is Growing Despite Decades of Work, So Who's the Culprit?
What's new on the extinction front?
- 2012/07/12: NatureN: Amazon's extinction debt still to be paid -- Current species losses are just the tip of the iceberg
- 2012/07/13: TreeHugger: Lemurs Far More Endangered Than We Thought
- 2012/07/12: TreeHugger: These Amazon Animals Would Still Go Extinct Even if Deforestation Stopped Tomorrow
- 2012/07/13: BBC: Lemurs sliding towards extinction
A new survey shows lemurs are far more threatened than previously thought. A group of specialists is in Madagascar - the only place where lemurs are found in the wild - to systematically assess the animals and decide where they sit on the Red List of Threatened Species. More than 90% of the 103 species should be on the Red List, they say. Since a coup in 2009, conservation groups have repeatedly found evidence of illegal logging, and hunting of lemurs has emerged as a new threat. - 2012/07/13: CSM: Lemurs likely most endangered vertebrates, biologists report
- 2012/07/10: SciAm:EC: Little Time Left for the Tamaraw? Philippine Buffalo Species Down to Last 300 Animals
What's new in proxies?
- 2012/07/08: RealClimate: Tree Rings and Climate: Some Recent Developments
You may not believe it, but it seems that DSCOVR [Deep Space Climate Observatory] is in play once again:
- 2012/07/10: BostonHerald: Once-derided climate-change satellite may launch with new goal
An Earth observation satellite conceived by former Vice President Al Gore -- but banished to a Maryland warehouse by foes of climate change after George W. Bush beat Gore for the presidency -- could get a ride into space as early as 2014. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wants about $23 million next year to continue a quiet reboot of the satellite, and spending bills circulating in Congress show that lawmakers -- so far -- are willing go along with it. But given the satellite's history, supporters won't breathe easy until the Deep Space Climate Observatory rises from a launchpad. - 2012/07/10: CSW: JPSS satellite delays risk loss of global climate data continuity
More GW impacts are being seen:
- 2012/07/13: TP:JR: First The Fire, Then The Flood: Why Colorado Can't Catch A Break
- 2012/07/13: Grist: Heat waves lead to a rise at nudist resorts
- 2012/07/11: HotTopic: You'll see with your own eyes
- 2012/07/10: TP:JR: Planes, Trains & Automobiles: How Global Warming Could Derail Your Commute
- 2012/07/09: al Jazeera: The DC blackouts and global warming
The whole planet contributes to global warming, but the world's poor are facing the consequences. - 2012/07/12: DD: Alaska Native communities facing climate-induced relocation
- 2012/07/11: EUO: UN: 54 Italy-bound migrants die of thirst
- 2012/07/11: BBC: African migrants sailing to Italy 'die of thirst'
- 2012/07/11: al Jazeera: Migrants die of thirst off N African coast
Fifty-four people trying to reach Italy die after a voyage in which their rubber boat gradually deflated, says UNHCR. - 2012/07/12: Guardian(UK): Senegal begins planting the Great Green Wall against climate change
Africa's proposed 4,000-mile wall of trees stretching from Senegal to Djibouti is designed to stop encroaching desertification - 2012/07/12: CBC: Massive storm floods Edmonton streets -- Lightning, hail damage homes
A severe thunderstorm early Thursday morning flooded streets, yards, basements and construction sites in Edmonton. Sections of Whitemud Drive were underwater at 111th Street west of Calgary Trail. City workers arrived shortly after 7:30 a.m. to begin clearing the water. To the chagrin of commuters, the road did not reopen until noon. - 2012/07/09: S&R: So much for the fires: an ark with two animals of each kind just floated down my street...
- 2012/07/09: TMoS: Boiling Frogs
This week in the New Normal -- extreme weather:
- 2012/07/14: WtD: The Long Emergency has begun: primer on the new normal
- 2012/07/10: GreenGrok: Extreme Weather: Here, There, Everywhere
- 2012/07/14: ArcticNews: How extreme will it get?
- 2012/07/12: WtD: Year of the flood: WMO confirms climate change has "accelerated" in the last ten years
- 2012/07/11: CNN: Why we should expect more weather disasters by Steven Cohen
NOAA reports the past 12 months were the hottest since record-keeping began - Steven Cohen says effects of extreme weather are indisputable, whatever the cause - More and more people live in places especially vulnerable to rough weather, he says - Cohen: Government and industry must prepare for the inevitability of weather disasters - 2012/07/14: CCP: Sam Carana, Arctic News: How extreme will it get?
- 2012/07/11: PSinclair: PBS: Extremes Linked to Climate Change (ya think?)
- 2012/07/11: Tamino: Thirteen
- 2012/07/10: CSM: Expect more weird weather, says NOAA
- 2012/07/10: Guardian(UK): US experienced extremes of extreme weather in first half of 2012
- 2012/07/08: AlterNet: Climate Change: 'This Is Just the Beginning'
- 2012/07/08: TMoS: The Loaded Dice of Climate Change
As for heatwaves and wild fires:
- 2012/07/12: DD: 2011 was hottest year in U.S. since records began in 1895
- 2012/07/12: LA Times: Colorado's most-destructive fire ever, Waldo Canyon, is contained
The most destructive fire in Colorado history -- which killed two people, scorched almost 29 square miles and destroyed more than 346 homes in less than three weeks -- is now fully contained. - 2012/07/13: DD: Farmers suffer as soaring temperatures worsen drought in Midwest U.S. - Over 1000 counties declared natural disaster areas
- 2012/07/12: DD: Siberia forest fires: 'Burn scar was around 100 km across, just massive'
- 2012/07/12: Grist: L.A. braces for hellish heat waves while world leaders diddle
- 2012/07/12: OPB: The Importance of Burls and 4 Other Surprises From The Biscuit Fire
- 2012/07/12: Wunderground: Russian wildfire smoke reaches Canada, U.S.; Death Valley hits 128°F
- 2012/07/12: IOTD: Wildfires in Siberia
- 2012/07/14: CBC: Heat wave bakes Canada
- 2012/07/10: DD: Image of the Day: Satellite view of Siberia wildfires, 9 July 2012
- 2012/07/11: IOTD: When Wildfire Smoke and Thunderstorms Collide
- 2012/07/10: KSJT: Magazine does up western fires + global warming. Is it advocacy journalism, plain advocacy, or what??
- 2012/07/10: DM:80B: Look At This: A Space-Eye View of Colorado's Burn Scar
- 2012/07/09: DD: How forest fires are changing the landscape of the U.S. West
- 2012/07/08: HuffPo: Twin Falls, Idaho: Wildfire West Of City Grows As Colorado, Utah And Montana Also Battle Blazes
- 2012/07/09: TP:JR: Western Wildfires Getting Worse In A Warming World
- 2012/07/08: PlanetArk: Huge swaths of US swelter amid prolonged outages, new storms
- 2012/07/09: PlanetArk: Relief comes for US Midwest, Northeast after heat wave
- 2012/07/03: AlterNet: Newest Victims of Climate Change: Notes From a Wildfire Refugee
- 2012/07/08: CBC: U.S. heat wave blamed for 60 deaths in 2 weeks
Corals are a bellwether of the ocean's health:
- 2012/07/14: DD: A world without coral reefs
- 2012/07/09: NOAANews: NOAA's global coral bleaching prediction and monitoring get major upgrades
First four-month forecast issued; no bleaching seen in Northern Hemisphere through October - 2012/07/09: EarthMag: Karakoram glaciers buck global, regional trends
Sea levels are rising:
- 2012/07/10: UCSUSA:B: Beach Daze: With Rising Seas, Sand Now Bad Place to Hide Head
These global warming deluges are becoming all too frequent:
- 2012/07/12: ABC(Au): One in a hundred rainfall playing havoc with sugar harvest
One of Australia's leading climatologists says the rain pattern being experienced in the state's northern sugar regions is something that we have not seen in a hundred years. The rain is playing havoc with this year's sugar harvest and milling and also has grain growers in central and southern areas worried. - 2012/07/12: ABC(Au): Deadly storm lashes southern Japan
A storm has dumped 500 millimetres of rain in just eight hours in southern Japan, killing several people and forcing thousands to evacuate their homes. The rain pounded the island of Kyushu in Japan's south-west, with some parts of Kumamoto prefecture copping the full brunt of the deluge. - 2012/07/14: P3: "Unprecedented" Floods in Japan Bring Fatalities, Evacuation
As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:
- 2012/07/15: BBC: Japan floods: Troops airlift supplies to Kyushu
Japanese troops are airlifting supplies to thousands of people trapped in mountainous districts cut off by floods on the southern island of Kyushu. Rescue teams have been searching for those missing following flooding and landslides caused by record rainfall. So far, 22 people have reportedly been killed. Hundreds of thousands have been affected. Many of them are staying in evacuation centres. Heavy rain has also caused flooding in Japan's historic capital, Kyoto. - 2012/07/15: al Jazeera: Japan dispatches rescuers to flood-hit areas
Rescue operations stepped up as more heavy rain and flooding are forecast in the country's south western regions. - 2012/07/14: CBC: Japan floods force massive evacuation -- Island of Kyushu soaked by downpour for 3 days
- 2012/07/12: al Jazeera: Japan island ravaged by deadly floods
Floods kill at least 20 in southwestern Japan as tens of thousands ordered to evacuate island of Kyushu. - 2012/07/12: DD: Farmer says Arkansas drought turns cattle ranch into 'desert'
- 2012/07/12: PlanetArk: England flood risk to rise fourfold by 2035: report
- 2012/07/13: EarlyWarning: Rainfall in British Summers
- 2012/07/12: al Jazeera: South Africa's poor hit hardest by floods
More than 30,000 people, mostly from poor areas in Cape Town, struggle to cope with damage. - 2012/07/12: Guardian(UK): Drought leads to declaration of natural disaster in 26 US states
- 2012/07/10: P3: Severe Weather Disaster Compounded by Poor Public Decisions - Krymsk Edition
- 2012/07/14: BBC: Japan floods: 250,000 people ordered to leave homes
About 250,000 people have been ordered to leave their homes to avoid floods caused by torrential rainfall in south-west Japan, officials say. Flooding and landslides on the southern island of Kyushu have left at least 20 people dead in the past three days. - 2012/07/14: BBC: Flood warnings as further heavy rain forecast
A number of flood warnings are in place as further heavy rainfall is forecast for many parts of the country. Storms that brought flash flooding to parts of Wales and Shropshire are expected to extend into south-east England on Saturday. - 2012/07/14: ABC(Au): Thousands ordered from homes amid Japan deluge
About 400,000 people were ordered or advised to leave their homes in south-west Japan on Saturday as heavy rain pounded the area for a third day leaving 29 dead or missing, officials and media said. The Japan Meteorological Agency warned of more landslides and floods on the main southern island of Kyushu as rainfall of up to 11 centimetres per hour was recorded on Saturday. Evacuation orders were issued to about 260,000 people in the north of the island where more rivers burst their banks, Kyushu's local media reported. - 2012/07/14: al Jazeera: Japanese ordered to evacuate flood-hit Island
Evacuation order issued for 240,000 people hit by heavy rains on main southern island of Kyushu. Almost a quarter of a million people have been ordered to leave their homes in southwest Japan as heavy rain pounds the area for the third day, leaving at least 20 people dead, officials and reports say. The Japan Meteorological Agency warned of more landslides and floods on the main southern island of Kyushu as rainfall of up to 11 centimetres per hour was recorded early on Saturday. - 2012/07/13: RWER: Factoid of the day (13/7/2012). Northern Hemisphere Snow Cover Anomaly June 1967-2012
- 2012/07/13: BBC: Wales weather: Flash floods in north Powys after heavy rain
- 2012/07/12: al Jazeera: Flash flooding hits Japan
The summer has been exceptionally wet for many parts of the country. - 2012/07/09: TDI: How They Do Drought in Texas
- 2012/07/11: CBC: Drought aid announced by U.S. Agriculture Dept.-- 1,000 counties to automatically qualify
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is streamlining the process for farmers to apply for government disaster help as crops in many states burn up in the widest drought in nearly 25 years. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says more than 1,000 counties nationwide will automatically qualify for disaster assistance if they're in a severe drought for at least eight weeks or were in extreme drought this growing season. - 2012/07/11: CNN: Dry storms and heat torment the western United States
Dry storms threaten to spark new fires in the Northwest - Temperatures on Wednesday in California may go as high as 125 - Temperatures are as much as 15 degrees above normal in the Northwest - At least 51 people in the U.S. have died from heat-related causes in the past two weeks - 2012/07/11: PlanetArk: England flood risk to rise fourfold by 2035: report
- 2012/07/10: BBC: More disruption as flooding continues in Britain
Flood disruptions have continued on Tuesday as more rain hits areas already waterlogged by recent downpours. - 2012/07/09: DD: Freak storms, flash floods, record rain - and there's more to come in Britain's miserable summer of 2012
- 2012/07/09: Wunderground: Extreme flood in Russia kills 171
- 2012/07/09: BBC: Russian officials failed to give adequate warnings before flash floods that killed at least 171 people in the southern Krasnodar region, the Russian government says
- 2012/07/09: CBC: Russia admits alert system failed after 171 flood deaths
- 2012/07/08: Guardian(UK): Freak storms, flash floods, record rain - and there's more to come
- 2012/07/08: Guardian(UK): Russian floods kill 150 and leave thousands homeless
First, stop subsidizing fossil fuels
Second, put a price on carbon
And elsewhere on the mitigation front: - 2012/07/09: ABC(Au): Scientist says cattle feed supplements don't have lasting effects on methane emissions
Can cities take up the slack when nations shirk their responsibilities?
- 2012/07/13: EnergyBulletin: New city moves help wipe away tears after RIO +20
Consider transportation & GHG production:
- 2012/07/11: TreeHugger: California to Get a Tiny, Important Chunk of High Speed Rail
- 2012/07/11: CBC: Canada's first cargo airship still grounded
Canada's first cargo airship is being prevented from getting off the ground by red tape and a lack of helium, according to the people behind the project. - 2012/07/14: NBF: China expected to have 25 million cars sold in 2015, USA 15.9 million in 2015
- 2012/07/05: SciAm: Has the U.S. Reached "Peak Car"?
Traffic is easing as more Americans are deciding to drive less, sell their cars or not buy one at all - 2012/07/10: EurActiv: Aviation industry presses for biofuels support
Under pressure to cut carbon emissions, the aviation industry is urging policymakers to support the development of biofuels for aircraft in the same way they have done for road transport. EurActiv reports from the Farnborough Airshow. - 2012/07/09: AtlanticCities: Of Course People Will Ride California HSR [High-Speed Rail]
As for carbon sequestration:
- 2012/07/13: BizGreen: Don Valley leads UK CCS charge for E1.5bn EU funds
Yorkshire carbon capture project heads up list including four UK projects, but EU says initial funds may not cover lower ranked proposals - 2012/07/11: P3: Mechanical CO2 Sequestration Questioned
- 2012/07/11: CBC: Shell Canada's carbon capture project gets green light
What's new in conservation?
- 2012/07/13: P3: Wildlife Conservation and Climate Change
Meanwhile in the journals:
- 2012/07/12: ACP: Tropospheric methanol observations from space: retrieval evaluation and constraints on the seasonality of biogenic emissions by K. C. Wells et al.
- 2012/07/12: ACP: Middle atmosphere response to different descriptions of the 11-yr solar cycle in spectral irradiance in a chemistry-climate model by W. H. Swartz et al.
- 2012/07/12: ACPD: Vertical profiles of aerosol optical properties over Central Illinois and comparison with surface and satellite measurements by P. J. Sheridan et al.
- 2012/07/12: ACPD: Impact of anthropogenic emission on air-quality over a megacity - revealed from an intensive atmospheric campaign during the Chinese Spring Festival by K. Huang et al.
- 2012/07/11: ACPD: Age of stratospheric air in the ERA-Interim by M. Diallo et al.
- 2012/05/01: RSC:E&ES: Air as the renewable carbon source of the future: an overview of CO2 capture from the atmosphere by Alain Goeppert et al.
- 2012/05/17: Springer:CC: Climate policy under uncertainty: a case for solar geoengineering by Juan B. Moreno-Cruz & David W. Keith
- 2012/07/12: ESDD: Strengthening of the hydrological cycle in future scenarios: atmospheric energy and water balance perspective by A. Alessandri et al.
- 2012/07/11: CP: Millennial-length forward models and pseudoproxies of stalagmite O18: an example from NW Scotland by A. Baker et al.
- 2012/07/10: CP: Identification of climatic state with limited proxy data by J. D. Annan & J. C. Hargreaves
- 2012/07/09: CP: Climate bifurcation during the last deglaciation? by T. M. Lenton et al.
- 2012/07/11: CPD: A re-evaluation of the palaeoclimatic significance of phosphorus variability in speleothems revealed by high-resolution synchrotron micro XRF mapping by S. Frisia et al.
- 2012/07/09: CPD: An automated approach for annual layer counting in ice cores by M. Winstrup et al.
- 2012/07/11: MDPI:Sustainability: Does Energy Efficiency Reduce Emissions and Peak Demand? A Case Study of 50 Years of Space Heating in Melbourne by Graham Palmer
- 2012/07/12: Science: (ab$) The Provenances of Asteroids, and Their Contributions to the Volatile Inventories of the Terrestrial Planets by C. M. O'D. Alexander et al.
- 2012/07/11: RSPB(via doi): Genetic change for earlier migration timing in a pink salmon population by Ryan P. Kovach et al.
- 2012/07/12: CCP: SST and circulation trend biases cause an underestimation of European precipitation trends by R. van Haren et al.
- 2012/07/10: NERC:NORA: Eddlestone Water Floodplain Project : data report by B.E. O Dochartaigh et al.
- 2012/07/12: NERC:NORA: Permo-Carboniferous conglomerates in the Trinity Peninsula Group at View Point, Antarctic Peninsula : sedimentology, geochronology and isotope evidence for provenance and tectonic setting in Gondwana by J.D. Bradshaw et al.
- 2012/07/12: NERC:NORA: Spatially integrated assessment reveals widespread changes in penguin populations on the Antarctic Peninsula by Heather J. Lynch et al.
- 2012/07/13: ACP: Carbon monoxide and related trace gases and aerosols over the Amazon Basin during the wet and dry seasons by M. O. Andreae et al.
- 2012/07/13: ACP: Aerosol indirect effects from shipping emissions: sensitivity studies with the global aerosol-climate model ECHAM-HAM by K. Peters et al.
- 2012/07/12: ACP: The lofting of Western Pacific regional aerosol by island thermodynamics as observed around Borneo by N. H. Robinson et al.
- 2012/07/13: ACPD: Indirect radiative forcing by ion-mediated nucleation of aerosol by F. Yu et al.
- 2012/07/13: ACPD: In-situ aircraft observations of ice concentrations within clouds over the Antarctic Peninsula and Larsen Ice Shelf by D. P. Grosvenor et al.
- 2012/07/12: TC: Significant contribution to total mass from very small glaciers by D. B. Bahr & V. Radic'
- 2012/07/11: TC: Refreezing on the Greenland ice sheet: a comparison of parameterizations by C. H. Reijmer et al.
- 2012/07/10: PNAS: (ab$) Lead poisoning and the deceptive recovery of the critically endangered California condor by Myra E. Finkelstein et al.
- 2012/07/10: PNAS: (abs) Degradation and resilience in Louisiana salt marshes after the BP-Deepwater Horizon oil spill by Brian R. Silliman et al.
- 2012/07/10: PNAS: (ab$) Role of social interactions in dynamic patterns of resource patches and forager aggregation by Nessy Tania et al.
- 2012/07/10: PNAS: (ab$) Younger Dryas cooling and the Greenland climate response to CO2 by Zhengyu Liu et al.
- 2012/07/10: PNAS: (abs) Very high-temperature impact melt products as evidence for cosmic airbursts and impacts 12,900 years ago by Ted E. Bunch et al.
- 2012/07/10: PNAS: (letter$) Reply to Li and Wu: Arctic sea ice and winter snowfall by Jiping Liu et al.
- 2012/07/10: PNAS: (letter$) Importance of autumn Arctic sea ice to northern winter snowfall by Jianping Li & Zhiwei Wu
- 2012/07/09: ERL: Model simulations on the long-term dispersal of 137Cs released into the Pacific Ocean off Fukushima by Erik Behrens et al.
- 2012/07/09: AMS: Explaining Extreme Events of 2011 from a Climate Perspective by Thomas C. Peterson et al.
- 2012/07/11: Nature: (abs) The banana (Musa acuminata) genome and the evolution of monocotyledonous plants by Angélique D'Hont et multi alia
- 2012/07/10: OS: On the influence of wind and waves on underwater irradiance fluctuations by M. Hieronymi & A. Macke
- 2012/07/10: OS: Support to oil spill emergencies in the Bonifacio Strait, western Mediterranean by A. Cucco et al.
- 2012/07/10: OS: Transport of warm Upper Circumpolar Deep Water onto the western Antarctic Peninsula continental shelf by D. G. Martinson & D. C. McKee
- 2012/07/09: OS: Influence of Ross Sea Bottom Water changes on the warming and freshening of the Antarctic Bottom Water in the Australian-Antarctic Basin by K. Shimada et al.
- 2012/07/09: OSD: Arctic rapid sea ice loss events in regional coupled climate scenario experiments by R. Döscher & T. Koenigk
- 2012/07/10: TC: Laboratory study of initial sea-ice growth: properties of grease ice and nilas by A. K. Naumann et al.
- 2012/07/10: TCD: Linking glacier annual mass balance and glacier albedo retrieved from MODIS data by M. Dumont et al.
- 2012/07/09: TCD: Area change of glaciers in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, 1919 to 2006 by C. Tennant et al.
- 2012/07/09: Nature:CC: (ab$) Orbital forcing of tree-ring data by Jan Esper et al.
And other significant documents:
- 2012/05/27: UCSUSA: [link to 5.6 meg pdf] A Climate of Corporate Control
How Corporations Have Influenced the U.S. Dialogue on Climate Science and Policy - 2012/07/11: NOAA:NCDC:SOTC: [link to 7.4 meg pdf] Explaining Extreme Events of 2011 from a Climate Perspective by Thomas Peterson et al.
- 2012/07/09: FAO: [link to 6.1 meg pdf] The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2012
- 2012/05/10: UCSUSA: [link to 2 meg pdf] High and Dry: Why Genetic Engineering Is Not Solving Agriculture's Drought Problem in a Thirsty World
- 2012/07/06: Cryptome: (10.1 meg pdf) NAIIC Fukushima Nuclear Accident Report
- 2012/07/06: Cryptome: (652k pdf) IAEA Fukushma Daiichi NPS Status Report
- 2012/07/06: Cryptome: (68k pdf) Fukushima Daiichi NPP Unit 1 Investigation
- 2012/07/06: Cryptome: (382k pdf) Fukushima Daiichi NPP Units 2-3 Investigation
As for miscellaneous science:
- 2012/07/13: SciNow: Sailing Expedition Reveals Oceans' Tiniest Secrets
A scientific sailing trip around the world has shed new light on the vast biodiversity in the world's oceans. The expedition, called Tara Oceans, has yielded about 1.5 million different plankton taxa, based on an initial preliminary analysis of samples. - 2012/07/13: NatureNB: European research chief warns that austerity is hitting science excellence
- 2012/07/10: WMO: WMO Executive Council honours scientists
- 2012/07/13: BLongstaff: Call for international solidarity with Canadian scientists
- 2012/07/11: NatureN: Staff cuts sound 'death knell' for atmospheric observatory -- International scientists decry cutbacks at world-class New Zealand facility
- 2012/07/09: NOAANews: NOAA Great Lakes researchers join U.S.-Canadian study of Lake Huron ecosystem
What's new in models?
- 2012/07/13: ClimateSight: Climate Model Acronyms
What developments in the ongoing struggle for Free Science?
- 2012/07/13: NatureN: Japan and Vietnam join forces to exploit rare-earth elements
Short supplies of the metals used in high-tech applications prompt countries to establish joint research centre. - 2012/07/12: NIB: Predatory Open-Access Journals?
Regarding Mann:
- 2012/07/10: ABC(US): 'New McCarthyism' Described by Climate Scientist Michael Mann
- 2012/07/08: CSW: Michael Mann-Bill Blakemore ABC(US) News interview on climate change and the global warming disinformation campaign
Regarding Ehrlich:
- 2012/07/10: SciAm:GB: The "Sustainability" Paradox - Interview with Paul Ehrlich
Regarding Wegman:
- 2012/07/14: BCLSB: Wegmania: The Denouement
- 2012/07/13: DeepClimate: Wegman and Said leave Wiley journal and Said disappears from GMU
- 2012/07/13: DeSmogBlog: Ed Wegman Promised Data to Rep. Henry Waxman Six Years Ago - Where Is It?
Meanwhile at the UN:
- 2012/07/12: UN: UNESCO adds 20 new sites to global network of biosphere reserves
- 2012/07/10: UN: UN experts urge action to achieve Millennium Development Goals ahead of 2015
And on the carbon trading front:
- 2012/07/11: EurActiv: Poland demands free carbon allowances for ghost coal plants
- 2012/07/11: PlanetArk: EU's Hedegaard still plans ETS review before summer
- 2012/07/10: PlanetArk: Quick fix to EU carbon scheme expected in weeks
The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:
- 2012/07/11: TreeHugger: Ex-GOP Congressman and Reagan's Economic Adviser Call for a Carbon Tax
- 2012/07/11: PostMedia: Washington, Oregon should take cue from B.C.'s carbon tax
It's been a rough year for climate solutions in Canada. Prime Minister Stephen Harper officially pulled the plug on Canada's participation in the Kyoto accord last December. The move was all the more discouraging for being largely symbolic: Canada's greenhouse gas emissions trends are nowhere close to achieving the reductions called for by the agreement. Meanwhile, coal mining and oil extraction are on the rise in Western Canada. Even British Columbia's carbon tax - arguably the world's best climate policy - seems at risk of stalling out. Yet on the occasion of the carbon tax's fourth birthday - and final scheduled increase - British Columbians have reason for good cheer. With apologies to Shakespeare, we come not to bury the carbon tax but to praise it. - 2012/07/09: EnvEcon: An update on the job-killing BC carbon tax
On the international political front, tensions continue as the empire leans on Iran:
- 2012/07/14: al Jazeera: Iran renews oil blockade warning
Naval chief of Revolutionary Guards says it could prevent even "a single drop of oil" passing through Strait of Hormuz. - 2012/07/12: BBerg: Abu Dhabi Leads Gulf Nations With Oil Pipe to Avoid Iran
Abu Dhabi is exporting oil through the first Middle Eastern pipeline in three decades to circumvent the Strait of Hormuz as producers seek to nullify Iranian threats to block the shipping chokepoint. The $3.3 billion link across the United Arab Emirates to the port of Fujairah, to be inaugurated July 15, ensures that at least some Abu Dhabi crude will reach buyers if Iran shuts the waterway. A closure of the transit point would put at risk a fifth of the world's oil supplies. - 2012/07/14: WaPo: Iran Oil Minister: Tehran will soon make oil embargo ineffective
- 2012/07/09: AntiWar: Rep. Berman Threatens Tuvalu Over Iranian Oil Shipping -- Follows Up Similar Threats Against Tanzania by Going After Tiny Island Nation
Following up on reported similar threats to Tanzania, Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), the former House Committee on Foreign Affairs chairman has threatened the tiny island nation of Tuvalu with sanctions over their reflagging service, which is reportedly be using by some Iranian oil tankers. - 2012/07/15: CBC: Chinese warship freed from disputed shoal, averts stand-off -- Philippines will not protest Chinese frigate's passage
- 2012/07/13: al Jazeera: South China Sea issue dominates ASEAN summit
US warns of more conflict if China doesn't agree to maritime code, as Philippines and Vietnam push for code of conduct. - 2012/07/13: al Jazeera: ASEAN talks fail over South China Sea dispute
Failure to issue joint statement marks sharp deterioration in efforts to cool territorial tensions in South China Sea. - 2012/07/11: TAC: No War for Manila -- America risks conflict with China for a feeble ally.
[...]
The Philippines long has been the sick man of East Asia. Its democracy is almost feudal, with bouts of military interference. The Filipino economy, while growing, remains bureaucratic, inefficient, and corrupt. Manila's military strength is marginal. Despite years of U.S. assistance to the government, Islamic insurgencies in the nation's south continue to smolder. Yet this spring the Philippines played a dangerous game with China over control of islands in the South China Sea. When eight Chinese fishing vessels entered disputed waters near Scarborough Shoal in April, Filipino warships attempted to arrest the crews. Beijing sent surveillance vessels in response, sparking a lengthy standoff. Beijing suspended tours to the Philippines and slowed agriculture imports from the country. - 2012/07/13: Guardian(UK): Chinese frigate runs aground in disputed part of South China Sea
Collision comes amid increasingly heated dispute between China, Philippines, Vietnam and other countries over sea - 2012/07/12: al Jazeera: US plunges into China-ASEAN maritime talks
Hillary Clinton in Cambodia to urge China's to accept South China Sea pact meant to ease tension in vital shipping lane. - 2012/07/11: al Jazeera: Tensions rise over South Sea island dispute
Chinese patrol move close to disputed island territory prompting a new diplomatic row with Japan. - 2012/07/11: BBC: Japan protests at Chinese ships near disputed islands
Japan has summoned China's ambassador to protest against the appearance of Chinese patrol boats near a disputed chain of islands in the East China Sea. - 2012/07/11: al Jazeera: ASEAN and China adrift over maritime pact
China and Southeast Asian nations argue over wording of code of conduct meant to ease tensions in South China Sea. - 2012/07/09: al Jazeera: ASEAN seeks to smooth South China Sea dispute
Southeast Asian nations meet in Cambodia to push for "code of conduct" to ease sea disputes with superpower China. - 2012/07/08: BBC: South China Sea tension tops ASEAN regional agenda
In the global competition for Rare Earths and other natural resources:
- 2012/07/13: PlanetArk: China to launch rare earth trading platform in Aug: paper
- 2012/07/12: Guardian(UK): Global fight for natural resources 'has only just begun'
Academics and business figures gave a grim warning at the Resource 2012 conference, but defended the Rio+20 outcomes - 2012/07/11: PlanetArk: China reshapes role in rare earths, could be importer by 2014
As the EU-ETS is applied to airlines, we will see who is serious about reducing carbon emissions:
- 2012/07/13: EurActiv: EU 'committed' to reaching accord on aviation ETS
The European Union is "totally committed" to reaching a global deal on carbon emissions from airlines, the Commission said yesterday (12 July) as efforts resumed to defuse an international row over the issue. - 2012/07/15: ABC(Au): Anti-nuclear protesters disperse after police stand-off
Anti-nuclear demonstrators have called off today's protest outside the Olympic Dam uranium mine in South Australia's outback after a two hour stand-off with police. Organisers say about 450 people had just started their march from their campsite to the gate of the BHP Billiton mine, when their route was blocked by police officers. Police say protestors broke an agreement not to use cars in the demonstration. But organisers says the car in question was not being driven, but pushed, by demonstrators. - 2012/07/11: ABC(Au): Police to roadblock protesters heading for Olympic Dam
South Australian police are planning road closures around the Olympic Dam copper mine as protesters plan to gather over the next six days. The mine sits on one of the biggest known deposits of uranium in the world and is being considered for a massive expansion. Police say they'll stop all traffic heading into the mine for safety reasons and deny they're taking sides. The protesters say if there's any trouble it will be initiated by police. - 2012/07/10: ABC(Au): Tree-sit protest breaks record
A Tasmanian activist has broken the national record for the longest tree-sit protest, spending 209 days in the wilderness. Miranda Gibson has been strapped to a platform 60 metres up a tree in the Tyenna Valley in the state's south since December 14. Ms Gibson told ABC Local Radio she did not set out to break any records, but will stick to her post while logging continues in areas deemed to have conservation value under the Tasmanian forest peace deal. - 2012/07/09: OilChange: A Wind Turbine for the Turbine Hall
Polls! We have polls!
- 2012/07/12: WaPo: Temperatures climbing, weather more unstable, a majority says in poll
Most Americans say they believe temperatures around the world are going up and that weather patterns have become more unstable in the past few years, according to a new poll from The Washington Post and Stanford University. - 2012/07/13: TP:JR: Most Americans Understand Climate Is Warming And Making Droughts Worse, 77% Say We Should Limit Carbon Pollution
Regarding Water Politics and Business:
- 2012/07/13: CCP: Water situation has deteriorated for Spicewood Beach, TX. Lake Travis not helped by recent rain.
- 2012/07/13: PlanetArk: Nestle's "Mr Water" more worried about H2O than CO2
- 2012/07/12: TreeHugger: New Desalination Technology Achieves 99% Water Recovery Rate at Bottling Plant
- 2012/07/08: NPR: Texas Seeks New Water Supplies Amid Drought
- 2012/07/08: JFleck: On "regulatory assurance" in the Sacramento Delta
And on the groundwater front:
- 2012/07/11: JFleck: Science isn't enough [g water]
Regarding science education:
- 2012/07/12: ERabett: Popcorn Please
And on the American political front:
- 2012/07/12: TP:JR: GOP Doubles Down On 'Pants On Fire' Claims About Clean Energy That Fact Checkers Call 'Ridiculous'
- 2012/07/13: TP:JR: Newt Gingrich On Blackout And Record Heat Wave: Forget Climate, Let's Worry About Electromagnetic Pulses
- 2012/07/12: ICN: Cap and Trade Resurrected? Some States Awaken to Its Economic Benefits
- 2012/07/12: DeSmogBlog: Marcellus Money: Statehouse Bought and Sold by Shale Gas Industry in PA
- 2012/07/11: FSN: California GMO Labeling Law Named Prop. 37
California's Office of the Secretary of State announced on Monday that the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act, also known as the GMO labeling initiative, will appear on voter ballots as Proposition 37 for the November 6 elections. - 2012/07/14: TreeHugger: California GMO Labeling Law Successfully Makes It on the Ballot
- 2012/07/13: RWER: The D.C. Blackouts and Global Warming
- 2012/07/11: EnergyBulletin: Battening down the hatches
- 2012/07/11: PlanetArk: [US] Navy unveils new shore energy policy
The Navy unveiled a major update of its energy policies ashore on Tuesday, calling for improved efficiency, greater conservation and increased use of renewable power to cut energy consumption in half at bases worldwide by the end of the decade. - 2012/07/11: Grist: The left's gone left but the right's gone nuts: Asymmetrical polarization in action
- 2012/07/10: Time: Now Do You Believe in Global Warming?
- 2012/07/11: CSM: Schwarzenegger still a man of (environmental) action
Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is all about action, whether it's on a film set or working to terminate fossil fuels. "When I was governor, I believed in the important role government played in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, but I also knew that leadership was not going to come at a national level," now former Governor Schwarzenegger said in a statement to The Christian Science Monitor. This idea -- that local and state-level efforts can more effectively combat climate change than complex international agreements -- led Schwarzenegger to found R20 Regions of Climate Action. The nonprofit organization counts states, cities, financial institutions, foundations, and various United Nations programs as its members, partners, and observers. The year-old group isn't waiting for political gridlock to break free or national laws to be passed -- obstacles that can block needed actions in the United States and around the world, Schwarzenegger says. - 2012/07/11: DeSmogBlog: Science Trumped by Politics In Cuomo's NY Fracking Plans?
- 2012/07/10: CCP: Former Rep. Bob Inglis, (GOP-SC), says conservatives must end 'denial' on climate
- 2012/07/09: TP:JR: Report: Public Lands Leverage 2.4 Million Jobs And $385 Billion In Economic Impacts
- 2012/07/10: TP:JR: Republicans Tired Of Climate Change Deniers Launch Initiative For Global Warming Action, Carbon Price
- 2012/07/10: PlanetArk: Power industry braces for court air pollution ruling
The power industry is waiting for a federal appeals court to rule on proposed emissions controls for coal-fired power plants, a decision with implications for energy sectors ranging from natural gas to coal to tradeable pollution permits. The Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is expected as soon as Tuesday to issue its decision on the Environmental Protection Agency's Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, or CSAPR. It delayed the decision on December 30, just two days before the rule was to enter force. - 2012/07/10: Grist: Hey, look, a Republican who cares about climate change!
- 2012/07/09: CSW: To Politicians Napping on the Fireline: Wake Up, Smell the Smoke and Act on Climate Change
- 2012/07/10: TreeHugger: 3 Steps to Protecting Food Stamps From a Cruel Congress
- 2012/07/09: TreeHugger: California's Air Resources Board Approves $27 Million in Incentives for Greener Vehicles
- 2012/07/09: DeSmogBlog: More Evidence That Republicans Are More Factually Challenged Than Democrats
- 2012/07/06: ITT: Is Union Busting to Blame for Power Outages in D.C.?
The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:
- 2012/07/13: ERW: Oil components still present in Gulf of Mexico
More than 15 months after the Deepwater Horizon spill traces of oil can still be found in deep water in the Gulf of Mexico. That's according to researchers from the US. - 2012/07/13: Grist: Green streak: Green Party aims to stir up presidential race
- 2012/07/13: DemNow: Green New Deal: Organizer, Physician Jill Stein Poised to Win Green Party's Presidential Nomination
- 2012/07/13: DemNow: Green Party Nominee Jill Stein & Running Mate, Activist Cheri Honkala: "We Represent the 99 Percent"
- 2012/07/13: DemNow: Green Party Members Worldwide Join U.S. Counterparts to Forge Global Solidarity in Trying Times
- 2012/07/12: NYT: Party Strains to Be Heard Now That Its Voice Isn't Nader's
- 2012/07/13: FAIR: The Third-Party Lock Out
The New York Times has a long profile (7/13/12) of presumptive Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein.
[...]
"If they actually have to debate a living, thinking, informed person, it's very hard for them," Ms. Stein added, referring to Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney. "They have kind of a mutual agreement, which you can see evident in the nature of their debate right now. If it's important, they won't go there. Many issues are not on the table." - 2012/07/13: Guardian(UK): Obama pumps $80m into Everglades as some environmentalists ponder motive
- 2012/07/11: Wonkette: OK Fine, Here Is Mitt Romney Being Booed (And Booed, And Booed) By The NAACP (Video)
- 2012/07/14: TP:JR: Will The Epic Drought 'Darken Obama Reelection Prospects'?
- 2012/07/09: CSM: Koch Brothers: N. Y. fundraiser for Mitt Romney draws protestors
The GOP has dropped Gas Prices as an issue:
- 2012/07/14: BRitholtz: Daily Gas Prices
The NTSB delivered a damning report on Enbridge's Kalamazoo dilbit spill:
- 2012/07/10: NTSB: Enbridge, Inc. Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Rupture -- Synopsis from the National Transportation Safety Board's report
- 2012/07/10: PostMedia: Enbridge handled Michigan spill like 'Keystone Kops,' says U.S. regulator
The head of a U.S. federal agency has urged Canadian authorities to make sure Calgary-based Enbridge Inc., found culpable Tuesday in a "tragic and needless" 2010 oil spill in Michigan, has learned its lesson before letting it build the proposed $5.5-billion Northern Gateway oilsands pipeline to the B.C. coast. National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman made the comment after outlining how Enbridge officials, during and after the disastrous pipeline rupture, acted like the "Keystone Kops" in the face of the most costly onshore oil spill in American history. - 2012/07/12: PlanetArk: Enbridge says pipeline safe after NTSB blasts company
- 2012/07/14: DeSmogBlog: Federal Investigation: "Complete Breakdown of Safety at Enbridge" Caused Kalamazoo River Tar Sands Oil Spill
- 2012/07/13: PostMedia: Enbridge brand can be repaired after pipeline spill response: analysts
Enbridge's 2010 spill response has also raised questions over whether Prime Minister Stephen Harper needs to distance his government from Enbridge's proposed $5.5 billion oilsands pipeline megaproject from Alberta to the B.C. coast Enbridge officials made a mounting public relations disaster worse this week by not immediately accepting blame in their official statement issued after an outspoken American regulator compared one of Canada's energy giants to the "Keystone Kops," public relations consultants say. U.S. National Transportation Safety Board chairman Debbie Hersman's scathing assessment of Enbridge's 2010 oil spill in Michigan has also raised questions over whether Prime Minister Stephen Harper needs to distance his government from Enbridge's proposed $5.5-billion oilsands pipeline project to the B.C. coast from Alberta. - 2012/07/13: DeSmogBlog: Enbridge Mismanagement Caused Kalamazoo Tragedy, Says NTSB
- 2012/07/11: DeepClimate: Can Enbridge be trusted?
- 2012/07/10: WaPo: NTSB blames Enbridge, 'weak' regulations in Kalamazoo oil [dilbit] spill
The National Transportation Safety Board blamed multiple corrosion cracks and "pervasive organizational failures" at the Calgary-based Enbridge pipeline company for a more-than-20,000-barrel oil spill two years ago near Michigan's Kalamazoo River. The cost of the spill has reached $800million and is rising, the NTSB said, making the pipeline rupture the most expensive on-shore oil spill in U.S. history. The pipeline's contents -- heavy crude oil from Canada's oil sands -- have made the spill a closely watched case with implications for other pipelines carrying such crude. The NTSB also blamed "weak federal regulations" by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration for the accident, which spilled at least 843,444 gallons of oil into a tributary of the Kalamazoo in Marshall, Mich. The oil spread into a 40-mile stretch of the Kalamazoo and a nearby wetlands area. - 2012/07/11: PlanetArk: US agency likens Enbridge oil spill response to ["Keystone Kops"]
- 2012/07/10: TreeHugger: Faults Leading to 2010 Michigan Tar Sands Spill Known to Pipeline Operator For 5 Years
- 2012/07/10: Tyee: 'Culture of Deviance' at Enbridge, Finds US Transport Safety Board
'Corrosion' of safety culture 'throughout the Enbridge organization' led to Kalamazoo disaster - 2012/07/10: CBC: Enbridge failed to fix cracks in leaking Michigan pipeline
Enbridge like 'Keystone Kops' in poor handling of pipe rupture, NTSB head says A U.S. government agency has approved investigators' findings that Canadian pipeline builder Enbridge Inc. knew about cracks that led to a 2010 leak of more than three million litres of oil into a Michigan river. The most expensive onshore cleanup in U.S. history, which is nearly complete, has already cost about $800 million US. A five-person panel of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) voted Tuesday to accept the conclusions of investigators on the cause of the leak. - 2012/07/10: CBC: Enbridge Michigan pipeline spill cause to be revealed
U.S. investigators Tuesday were preparing to determine the likely cause of a pipeline rupture that spilled more than 3 million litres of crude oil into a southwestern Michigan river nearly two years ago. Staffers were presenting their findings Tuesday during a meeting of the National Transportation Safety Board. The five-member panel will decide whether to accept, reject or modify the conclusions before issuing a final report, which will include recommendations to improve pipeline safety. - 2012/07/11: WaPo: Texas judge rules atmosphere, air to be protected like water, may aid climate change lawsuits
A Texas judge has ruled that the atmosphere and air must be protected for public use, just like water, which could help attorneys tasked with arguing climate change lawsuits designed to force states to cut emissions. The written ruling, issued in a letter Monday by Texas District Court Judge Gisela Triana, shot down arguments by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that only water is a :public trust," a doctrine that dates to the Roman Empire stating a government must protect certain resources -- usually water, sometimes wildlife -- for the common good. - 2012/07/12: CCP: Texas District Court Judge Gisela Triana rules that the atmosphere and air are public trusts and must be protected for for the common good, just like water
The GOP War on Women continues:
- 2012/07/12: ACLU: Women's Health Groups File Lawsuit Challenging Arizona Abortion Ban
American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Arizona Join Center for Reproductive Rights Against Most Extreme Ban in the Nation - 2012/07/14: CSM: Judge saves Mississippi's only abortion clinic ... for now
A federal judge on Friday allowed Mississippi's only remaining abortion clinic to stay open by giving it time to adjust to a new state law that beefs up professional requirements for the Jackson facility's staff. But so far, the clinic has had little luck in abiding by the law, which requires it to get "admission privileges" from local hospitals. One hospital recently told the clinic "not to bother." - 2012/07/11: CSM: Judge blocks law (again) that would close Mississippi's last abortion clinic
A federal judge on Wednesday continued to block a law that threatened to shut down Mississippi's only abortion clinic and make it nearly impossible for a woman in one of the poorest states in the U.S. to get the procedure. U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III temporarily blocked the state law July 1 and extended that order Wednesday. He did not say how long it would last. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that states can't place undue burdens or substantial obstacles for women seeking abortion. The law would require anyone performing clinic abortions to be an OB-GYN with privileges to admit patients to a local hospital. The doctors at the clinic do not have those privileges, and the clinic says the privileges aren't medically necessary. - 2012/07/11: CBC: Melinda Gates pledges $560M for contraception access
The fight over NW coal exports continues:
- 2012/07/12: TreeHugger: Three Coal Trains Derailed Just in the Last Week
- 2012/07/11: TAP: Digging for China
A fight against planned coal-export terminals in the Pacific Northwest is becoming the next big climate battle. - 2012/07/12: NatureN: Food science deserves a place at the table
US agricultural-research chief aims to raise the profile of farming and nutrition science. - 2012/07/13: TreeHugger: Shell Asks EPA to Bend Air Pollution Rules So It Can Drill in Arctic
As for what is going on in Congress:
- 2012/07/11: TP:JR: The 'No More Solyndras Act': Rep. Stearns Wants To Turn a Good Program Into A Bad One
- 2012/07/13: Grist: Insult to injury: How the House snuck protection for GMOs into its farm bill
- 2012/07/13: UCSUSA: House Farm Bill Fails to Support Healthy Food and Farms
- 2012/07/12: TreeHugger: We Need a No More Oil Spills Act, Not a No More Solyndras Act
- 2012/07/12: DeSmogBlog: Republican Senator Scott Brown Suffering From "Subsidy Amnesia"
- 2012/07/11: Guardian(UK): Democrats fail to remove cuts to food stamps from farm bill
'Immoral' Republican plans to cut billions of dollars in food assistance to poor families survive amendment vote - 2012/07/10: TheHill:e2W: Renewable fuel standard hits political divide at energy hearing
The renewable fuel standard (RFS) for transportation fuel is becoming another proxy battleground between Republicans and Democrats in the renewable energy debate... - 2012/07/11: TP:JR: [Senator] Scott Brown (R-MA): "Oil Companies Don't Get Subsidies"
- 2012/07/11: Grist: Will the farm bill prop up doomed crops in this extreme climate?
What are the lobbyists pushing?
- 2012/07/11: AlterNet: The 9 Most Loathsome Lobbyists in Washington
While in the UK:
- 2012/07/14: al Jazeera: Heavens above - St Swithin's Day
15 July is the day when a saintly prediction supposedly foretells the weather for the rest of the UK's summer. - 2012/07/11: BBC: Prof Brian Cox claimed the UK has spent more on saving banks in a year than it had on science "since Jesus"
- 2012/07/09: EnergyBulletin: Will Commoning in England's New Forest Disappear?
- 2012/07/10: BBC: Panel attacks flood defence cuts
Four times as many homes and firms risk flooding in the next 20 years if the UK does not prepare for climate change, a government advisory panel has said. The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) blames the government for cutting funds for flood defences. - 2012/07/10: Guardian(UK): Government defends £400m energy and climate budget underspend
- 2012/07/10: Guardian(UK): Could climate change make the English character more Nordic?
- 2012/07/10: Guardian(UK): Flood protection to cost UK at least £860m by 2015, ministers warned
- 2012/07/10: NatureN: Libel win reveals need for reform -- Campaigners in Britain argue for public-interest defence
- 2012/07/10: BBC: Green food report favours home-grown curry
England could spice up its food production by growing more herbs and spices, says a report looking at the nation's future food security. - 2012/07/09: Guardian(UK): End of hosepipe bans does not mean an end to our water woes
And in Europe:
- 2012/07/12: EUO: Poland on the hook for non-existent coal plant
- 2012/07/12: EUO: EU proposes lower CO2 limits for cars
- 2012/07/13: PlanetArk: EU says up to 1.5 billion euros ready for low-carbon investment
- 2012/07/11: Guardian(UK): New cars in Europe may have to cut carbon emissions by one-third
- 2012/07/11: EurActiv: New cars in Europe may have to cut carbon emissions by one-third
New cars and vans in the European Union will produce one-third less carbon dioxide within eight years, under proposed new rules set out on Wednesday (11 July) in Brussels. - 2012/07/11: EurActiv: Poland demands free carbon allowances for ghost coal plants
At least one of the coal plants for which Poland is requesting E7 billion of free carbon allowances under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS)'s little-known '10c derogation' does not exist, a EurActiv investigation has found. Poland has applied for E33-million worth of free allowances for the Leczna coal plant, near the Ukrainian border, but there is no visible evidence that any construction work has begun at the sleepy greenfield site. Chris Davies, the Liberal Democrat MEP and environment spokesman, said he was "outraged" at the lack of work at ?e;czna. "The dirty tricks brigade is out and there's an attempt to cheat the system," he told EurActiv. - 2012/07/11: EurActiv: Carmakers to win 'super credits' from low-emission vehicles
The European Commission is planning to re-introduce a clause for 'super credits' that would reward manufacturers that switch to electric cars with permits to make high-emitting gas guzzlers, EurActiv understands. The controversial clause will be part of proposals for CO2 in Cars, due to be announced today (11 July). The overall draft target for 2020 -- of 95 grams of CO2 per km (g/km) for cars and 147 g/km for vans -- is expected to remain unchanged. But sources indicate that the super-credit threshold for cars will be lowered to 35g/km, with a "multiplier factor" of 1.3, and a cap of 20,000 vehicles per manufacturer. - 2012/07/11: PlanetArk: EU's Hedegaard still plans ETS review before summer
- 2012/07/10: EurActiv: EU energy saving debate heading for new round of campaigning
It took months of political argument to secure a compromise EU deal on energy efficiency, but more months of campaigning are likely to follow to ensure consumers reap all the benefits they are entitled to and energy suppliers change their business models. - 2012/07/09: Guardian(UK): BMW accused of hypocrisy over opposition to European car targets
- 2012/07/09: EurActiv: EU's ambitions for green air traffic rules grounded
Europe's plan to consolidate a patchwork of national air traffic control systems to reduce flight delays and boost environmental performance appears grounded for now, hampered by national governments' inaction and fear of losing sovereignty. - 2012/07/15: ABC(Au): Greens say voters won't be fazed by Labor rift
- 2012/07/13: ABC(Au): Energy Watch fined $1.9m over misleading ads
A Federal Court judge has fined the energy broker Energy Watch almost $2 million for running misleading advertisements. Justice Shane Marshall says people were misled and deceived by the sharp business practices employed by Energy Watch and its former chief executive Ben Polis during an ad blitz last year. The company was ordered to pay $1.95 million while Polis was fined $65,000. The 80 ads suggested Energy Watch compared rates with many or all energy retailers when it only compared prices with some. - 2012/07/13: ABC(Au): Slipper journalist fights to keep documents secret
The journalist embroiled in the Peter Slipper sexual harassment case has been told to confirm whether he will break a confidentiality agreement by revealing documents in court. News Limited reporter Steve Lewis has been ordered to produce communications he had with the Speaker's former staffer, James Ashby, before the harassment claims were made public in April. - 2012/07/12: ABC(Au): Solar power station moves closer to reality
Morawa Shire president Karen Chappel says she is excited about the potential of a new solar power station that has received Western Australian Government funding. The Government contributed more than $3.5 million to build the station, which is expected to significantly improve the reliability of power in the mid-west. The Morawa Shire believes the technology used is a breakthrough for renewable solar power generation, as it allows the plant to store the sun's energy. - 2012/07/12: ABC(Au): Flood affected [Lockyer Valley] Council left millions of dollars out of pocket
- 2012/07/13: WtD: False prophets: Queensland LNP votes to remove climate change from schools
- 2012/07/13: ABC(Au): Mayor unconvinced by climate change report
A local mayor is unmoved by a report which says White Cliffs is the centre most at risk from climate change in Australia. A report by the University of Adelaide found that the small town in the Central Darling Shire is the most at risk from higher temperatures and less rain. Central Darling Shire Mayor, Ray Longfellow, said he's not convinced the hot weather isn't due to natural weather patterns. - 2012/07/14: JQuiggin: In the name of God, go!
- 2012/07/14: ABC(Au): NSW Labor ends Greens preferencing 'free ride'
The NSW Labor Party conference has passed a motion to stop giving automatic preferences to the Greens. Labor and the Greens have been involved in a war of words in recent weeks, and the Greens say the stoush will only bolster support for the Opposition. The rift widened in Sydney today, with fierce debate about how Labor should best distance itself from the Greens. NSW Labor secretary Sam Dastyari, who has led recent attacks against the Greens, urged his party to take the Greens on in an attempt to increase Labor's primary vote. Mr Dastyari told delegates Labor must redefine its relationship with the Greens. - 2012/07/14: ABC(Au): Fishers want Coral Sea marine park reassessed
Commercial fishing operators want the Federal Government to take a closer look at the impact of shipping through the Coral Sea, before proclaiming it a marine park. The proposed Coral Sea marine reserve was announced last month as part of a series of 33 new marine reserves around the country. Commercial fishing is to be excluded from a big proportion of the protected areas, but not shipping. - 2012/07/12: ABC(Au): Greens seek donations for anti-Labor fighting fund
The Greens have issued an urgent appeal to party supporters for donations to set up a "fighting fund" amid an increasingly bitter row with the Labor Party. At the weekend, senior Labor figures launched a concerted campaign to differentiate the ALP from the Greens, the party it relies on to stay in government. - 2012/07/12: ABC(Au): Climate change scepticism could wipe out rural towns
A new report is warning hundreds of inland Australian towns could cease to exist by 2050 if locals do not adapt to climate change. - 2012/07/10: ABC(Au): Great Ocean Road assets at risk from sea level rise
- 2012/07/11: BBC: Australia declares Tanami 'largest' conservation zone
Australia has declared more than 10 million hectares (24.71 million acres) of Aboriginal land as its largest conservation zone. The southern Tanami Desert in the Northern Territory is home to the country's most endangered species. - 2012/07/10: PlanetJ: Yes, the Greens do compromise
- 2012/07/09: ABC(Au): Coonamble farmers to oppose gas exploration
A group of farmers in the Coonamble area has decided to 'lock the gate' against coal seam gas exploration. About 300 people attended a meeting yesterday to discuss the impact of CSG exploration on the water sources in the region. - 2012/07/12: ABC(Au): Hope carbon tax funding could revive Cloncurry solar farm project
- 2012/07/12: ABC(Au): Producers challenge Combet to pass on Carbon Tax himself
- 2012/07/11: ABC(Au): Watchdog hit with 630 carbon tax complaints
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says it has received 630 complaints and enquiries about the carbon tax since it came into effect 10 days ago. The competition watchdog says it is a low figure given it received more than 8,000 general complaints in the same period. Deputy chairman Michael Schaper says it has launched 20 formal investigations. - 2012/07/10: ABC(Au): Mid north coast target of carbon tax rebate scam
Mid north coast locals are being warned to question telephone offers of carbon tax refunds. The Office of Fair Trading said the mid north coast in particular is being targeted as part of a carbon tax rebate scam. Some residents have already been contacted by international callers familiar with their personal details. - 2012/07/11: ABC(Au): Carbon tax uncertainty cripples refrigeration industry
- 2012/07/09: ABC(Au): Combet downplays carbon tax alliance
The Climate Change Minister Greg Combet says the Labor party has different policies than the Greens and they'll be highlighted before the next election. Labor party heavyweights and the New South Wales branch secretary, Sam Dastyari, and union boss, Paul Howes, spent the weekend arguing that Labor should distance itself from the Greens and preference them last at the next election. - 2012/07/09: ABC(Au): Cemeteries warned against carbon tax 'rip offs'
The Federal Government has expressed concern that the carbon tax is being used as an excuse to raise the cost of funerals. A Melbourne cemetery is alleged to have told a grieving family that a $55 charge for burial was due to the carbon tax - a move labelled "reprehensible" by Climate Change Minister Greg Combet. Mr Combet says cemeteries or crematoriums are not liable under the carbon price mechanism. - 2012/07/12: ABC(Au): Environ groups say Murray-Darling Basin plan could breach wetlands treaty
Environment groups claim Australia could be in breach of an international wetlands treaty if the current Murray-Darling Basin Plan is adopted. It's claimed that under the draft at least eight of the 16 internationally recognised wetlands in the basin won't receive enough water to ensure their health, leaving it open to a legal challenge. - 2012/07/11: ABC(Au): Cautious optimism about political 'consensus' on Basin plan
- 2012/07/11: ABC(Au): States reach consensus over Basin Plan
- 2012/07/10: ABC(Au): Signs at last of consensus between governments on Basin Plan
- 2012/07/10: ABC(Au): Murray-Darling agreement finds approval
Irrigators have applauded the latest step towards a final plan for the Murray-Darling Basin. Last night the Federal Government and the states reached agreement on a framework for returning water to the river system in response to the latest draft plan. - 2012/07/10: ABC(Au): Burke says vital progress made in Murray talks
Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke says negotiations with the states and territories on the management of the Murray-Darling system have reached a higher level of agreement than ever before. - 2012/07/12: HotTopic: Groser underplays the real risks
- 2012/07/11: NatureN: Staff cuts sound 'death knell' for atmospheric observatory -- International scientists decry cutbacks at world-class New Zealand facility
While in China:
- 2012/07/11: BBC: China cuts retail fuel price by 5% as oil demand falls
And Japan:
- 2012/07/11: PlanetArk: Japan aims to create $628 billion green energy market: government draft
Japan will aim to create a 50 trillion yen ($628 billion) green energy market by 2020 through deregulation and subsidies to promote development of renewable energy and low-emission cars, a draft of the government's growth strategy showed. The government will also work with the Bank of Japan to ensure the country exits deflation and achieves stable price growth, according to the draft obtained by Reuters on Tuesday. - 2012/07/12: PostMedia: Ottawa leaves fracking oversight to province, industry
The federal government needs to step up its oversight of horizontal hydraulic fracturing operations, critics say, responding to letters between Ottawa and an oil industry group. In a March letter to the president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers obtained by the Journal through access to information legislation, Natural Resources Canada Minister Joe Oliver applauded the industry group's work to develop a cross-country approach to water management and fracturing, or fracking. But in the letter, other correspondence and briefing notes, and in an email response to questions, Oliver and his department made clear the federal government has no interest in inserting itself in the regulation of the practice, which injects water, sand and chemicals underground at high pressures to break up rock and free oil and gas. - 2012/07/12: PostMedia: Harper deploys diplomats to counter U.S. climate change campaign
The Harper government has deployed a network of Canadian diplomats to lobby Fortune 500 companies in the United States in order to counter a global warming campaign launched by an environmental advocacy group targeting the oilsands industry, says a newly-released internal memorandum from Natural Resources Canada. - 2012/07/13: TStar: Stephen Harper is blind to science
- 2012/07/14: PostMedia: Canada's reality suffers from Tory spin
Government's control over science information has placed our country's freedom-of-information ranking at 51 - below Angola and Colombia - 2012/07/11: Impolitical: Bad environmental choices, bad economics too
- 2012/07/14: PaiD: The Conservatives' Contempt For Truth
- 2012/07/11: MSimon: Stephen Harper's Most Horrible Day
A notable event. Thousands of scientists march in Ottawa to protest "the Death of Evidence":
- 2012/07/10: NatureNB: Scientists march on Canadian parliament
- 2012/07/11: ScienceInsider: Canadian Pro-Science Protest March Draws More Than 2000
- 2012/07/10: TreeHugger: Canadian Scientists March on Ottawa to Protest the "Death of Evidence"
- 2012/07/09: CBC: Scientists rally on Parliament Hill to mourn 'death of evidence'
- 2012/07/10: DeSmogBlog: Scientists Storm Ottawa After Harper Government Cuts Environmental Protections and Research Again
- 2012/07/10: CBC: Death of scientific evidence mourned on Parliament Hill -- Scientists, concerned citizens hold mock funeral in Ottawa to protest federal cuts
- 2012/07/09: Guardian(UK): Canada's PM Stephen Harper faces revolt by scientists
- 2012/07/10: ScienceInsider: Scientists Protest Cuts to Canadian Science
- 2012/07/09: CBC: Scientists rally on Parliament Hill to mourn 'Death of Evidence'
- 2012/07/10: WpgFP: Scientists to march in Ottawa to protest 'death of evidence'
- 2012/07/08: PostMedia: Scientists unite to protest death of research -- Budget cuts will kill evidence, group argues
Budget cuts are only partly to blame for Canada's loss of federal science, say the scientists who do the research. They also say politics is undermining the research that governments need to make decisions. With 2,400 biologists coming to town this weekend for a conference, scientists from universities and government labs have organized a protest march to Parliament Hill at noon on Tuesday. They're calling the event the Death of Evidence. - 2012/07/12: CBC: Parks threatened by cuts, environmental group says
- 2012/07/13: BLongstaff: Call for international solidarity with Canadian scientists
- 2012/07/12: CBC: Parks and wildlife threatened by cuts, says environmental group
Annual report warns agains development and laying off scientists Canada's parks and other wildlife areas are increasingly under threat because of resource development, budget cuts and job losses, according to the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. The environmental group warned in its annual report released Thursday morning that development and laying off scientists at Parks Canada is putting more pressure than ever on the fragile ecosystem. Éric Hébert-Daly, national director of the organization, says the loss of scientists is troubling because their work has proved valuable. - 2012/07/11: Guardian(UK): Why Canada's scientists need our support
Protests by scientists in Canada may seem like a national issue, but their funding cuts could have a global impact - 2012/07/11: Rabble:DS: Lakes research shutdown doesn't make sense
- 2012/07/10: CBC: Unique glacier research facility in Yukon hit by federal cuts -- Scientists at Kluane Lake research station hoping for a reprieve
The Federal NDP came out clearly against the Northern Gateway pipeline this week:
- 2012/07/12: DtPB: The Oil Industry and Pipelines - What the NDP has been saying all along
- 2012/07/11: G&M: Mulcair predicts demise of Northern Gateway pipeline project
Federal NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair has waded into the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline debate, predicting the demise of the project as he attempted to rally support in British Columbia on Wednesday. "I don't think the Northern Gateway is on," Mr. Mulcair said after a news conference in Vancouver. - 2012/07/11: PostMedia: Pull plug on Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipeline, says NDP's Thomas Mulcair
- 2012/07/11: BCLSB: Mulcair Makes Play For B.C. Vote
- 2012/07/11: PostMedia: Pull plug on Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipeline, says NDP's Thomas Mulclair
A damning report on Enbridge Inc.'s inept handling of the 2010 crude oil spill in Michigan should kill the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline, NDP leader Thomas Mulcair said Tuesday in Victoria. "Northern Gateway should be stopped and the plug should be pulled on it," said Mulcair, after meeting with local community groups and business leaders. "Today's conclusive report by the Americans, I think, should be the final nail in that coffin." The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday that Enbridge managed the massive Michigan spill like the "Keystone Kops." - 2012/07/11: FortMcMurrayToday: Development of oilsands 'important': Rae
Interim federal Liberal leader Bob Rae continued his visit to the Wood Buffalo region Tuesday with a visit to nearby Syncrude mining and reclamation facilities, including a helicopter tour. - 2012/07/11: Impolitical:Dear Health Canada
- 2012/07/10: PostMedia: Wind power foes welcome new federal study on health effects
The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on:
- 2012/07/13: ScottsDiaTribes: 'It won't happen here' is the likely Conservative defence for Northern Gateway pipeline
- 2012/07/10: PI:B: Pipeline spills and safety violations justify an independent review
- 2012/07/12: VanObs: In light of U.S. report, Canada must abandon proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway project
It's time to abandon the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline project. Enbridge's safety record has been discredited. - 2012/07/13: G&M: Enbridge fiasco becoming political touchstone
If they haven't already, executives at Enbridge may want to commence action on Plan B --- if there is one. The company's dreams of building a pipeline from the oil sands of Alberta to the Pacific are fading fast. Public support for the project in British Columbia is diminishing by the day. And the company can't find many who want to champion its cause outside of Alberta. - 2012/07/13: PostMedia: Enbridge brand can be repaired after pipeline spill response: analysts
Enbridge's 2010 spill response has also raised questions over whether Prime Minister Stephen Harper needs to distance his government from Enbridge's proposed $5.5 billion oilsands pipeline megaproject from Alberta to the B.C. coast Enbridge officials made a mounting public relations disaster worse this week by not immediately accepting blame in their official statement issued after an outspoken American regulator compared one of Canada's energy giants to the "Keystone Kops," public relations consultants say. U.S. National Transportation Safety Board chairman Debbie Hersman's scathing assessment of Enbridge's 2010 oil spill in Michigan has also raised questions over whether Prime Minister Stephen Harper needs to distance his government from Enbridge's proposed $5.5-billion oilsands pipeline project to the B.C. coast from Alberta. - 2012/07/12: NI: Trust in God, but not in Enbridge
- 2012/07/11: TheCanadian: Vaughn Palmer: Enbridge 'Doomed' Following Damning Indictment for Kalamazoo Spill
- 2012/07/08: TheCanadian: Enbridge 'Jobs' Argument Rings Hollow as US Vets Recruited to Work in Canadian Oil Industry
- 2012/07/11: TheCanadian: No Time for Relief as Regulators, Media Dismiss Enbridge's Pipedreams
- 2012/07/11: DeepClimate: Can Enbridge be trusted?
- 2012/07/11: Rabble:TM: Disrespecting democracy: Hazelton community hearing on Enbridge pipeline moved to avoid protests
- 2012/07/11: TMoS: Wear This, Enbridge
- 2012/07/10: CBC: Enbridge failed to fix cracks in leaking Michigan pipeline
Enbridge like 'Keystone Kops' in poor handling of pipe rupture, NTSB head says - 2012/07/10: VanObs: Vancouver's dilemma: the quiet, incremental expansion of Kinder Morgan's pipeline to the Pacific
The G20 controversy lingers:
- 2012/07/05: TRN: No Accountability Yet for Toronto G20 Police Crimes
Paul Jay: Until police and their political masters are held responsible under the criminal code, it can all happen again - 2012/07/12: WatershedWatch: [link to 946k pdf] Watershed Watch Releases Report on Cohen Inquiry Highlights
- 2012/07/12: NI: Important summary of Cohen Inquiry evidence
- 2012/07/12: CBC: DFO closes dozens of Newfoundland salmon rivers -- Low water levels and warm conditions lead to action
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has closed about 65 salmon rivers in Newfoundland because the water is too low and too warm. Under those conditions, salmon tend to stay still rather than move upstream to spawn. DFO said closing the rivers will help ensure more fish make it upriver when conditions improve. - 2012/07/14: CBC: Sockeye salmon collapse due to lack of food, study says -- Stocks low in 2009 due to lack of herring
- 2012/07/09: CBC: N.L. fish farm hopes to sell infected salmon
An aquaculture company hopes the Canadian Food Inspection Agency will allow it to harvest and sell farmed salmon that the agency ordered be destroyed, according to an industry source. The CFIA ordered the Gray Aqua Group's aquaculture facility in Butter Cove on Newfoundland's south coast to destroy 450,000 fish after it confirmed some of them are infected with infectious salmon anemia... - 2012/07/09: ProMedMail: Infectious salmon anemia - Canada (04): (NF)
In BC, the stage is set. Now what will Clark and Dix do?
- 2012/07/12: TheCanadian: Another Open Letter to MP John Weston on Tankers, Salmon - from his Constituent, Rafe Mair
- 2012/07/12: G&M: B.C. NDP Leader Adrian Dix mobilizes to nix Northern Gateway
With a regulatory review for the contentious Northern Gateway project still under way -- and a provincial election on the horizon -- British Columbia's New Democratic Party is already looking at ways to stop the $5.5-billion project should it be approved. That includes a legal team considering strategies to prevent it from being built, NDP Leader Adrian Dix says. - 2012/07/12: CdnTrends: What does 'sustainable' really mean?
- 2012/07/11: G&M: B.C. Premier puts Enbridge on notice over pipeline safety
British Columbia Premier Christy Clark has issued a public warning to Enbridge Inc. about its proposed Northern Gateway pipeline in the wake of revelations about the company's handling of a massive 2010 oil spill in Michigan. "I think the company should be deeply embarrassed about what unfolded, we saw that in the report. If they think they're going to operate like that in British Columbia ... forget it," the Premier told reporters in Kamloops. - 2012/07/11: WCEL: Tsleil-Waututh Nation and Squamish Nation sign Save the Fraser Declaration
- 2012/07/10: PostMedia: Poll offers disheartening news for premier, Liberals -- The poll is more bad news for Premier Christy Clark
- 2012/07/09: Tyee: If the Dollar Rules, Let's Dam the Fraser -- And other arguments against letting the 'economy' trump nature in BC.
- 2012/07/09: EnvEcon: An update on the job-killing BC carbon tax
Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:
- 2012/07/09: GreenPeace: When the government won't act we must: call the pipeline spill tip line
- 2012/07/09: CBC: Environmentalists, landowners set up pipeline spill tipline
Also in Alberta:
- 2012/07/12: CCP: After 3 tar sands (dilbit) pipeline spills totaling 400,000 gallons, Alberta's reputation is tarnished
- 2012/07/10: CBC: Power blackouts 'suspicious,' says Wildrose critic
Opposition MLA wants possible price manipulation probed after failure of six power plants - 2012/07/10: CBC: Alberta heat wave prompts warnings -- Certain cities experience rolling blackouts
- 2012/07/09: CdnTrends: Update-1: Alberta, Canada's 'Energy Capital', implements rolling blackouts
- 2012/07/09: CBC: Alberta hit by rolling power blackouts -- 'Great concern' grid would go down, Calgary mayor says
Meanwhile in Ontario:
- 2012/07/12: CBC: Why the power stayed on during Ontario's heat waves
In the Maritimes:
- 2012/07/11: CBC: Danny Williams and mining company sue environmentalists, blogger
Former Newfoundland and Labrador premier Danny Williams and mining company Alderon have filed a lawsuit against the Sierra Club Canada, environmental activist Bruno Marcocchio and political blogger Brad Cabana. In court papers obtained by the CBC, the plaintiffs alleged that Marcocchio, on behalf of Sierra Club Canada, made defamatory statements during VOCM's "Backtalk" radio program, agreeing on live radio that the plaintiffs were "a bunch of corporate psychopaths ... who stand to make millions by pulling this deal off". - 2012/07/10: CBC: Charlottetown threatens water restrictions
If residents of Charlottetown don't start using less water, or if there isn't some rain soon, city council could start putting restrictions on water use in the city. - 2012/07/09: CBC: P.E.I. fish kill larger than initial estimates
A fish kill in Trout River is now being called a complete kill, as scientists have discovered the incident is more severe than initially thought. "Everything in the area is dead," said Todd Dupuis of the Atlantic Salmon Federation. - 2012/07/10: CBC: MacKay announces $9.3M arctic vessel study
- 2012/07/10: PostMedia: Renewed interest in High Arctic coal mining unearths angry opposition
A proposed Arctic coal-mining project that was rejected by a Nunavut development regulator in 2010 but has been revived by another Canadian company has triggered renewed concern about the potential impact on wildlife, Inuit hunting grounds and world-renowned fossil sites on Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg islands. - 2012/07/12: CleanBreak: Canada near bottom of heap when it comes to energy efficiency: report
- 2012/07/09: CBC: Elizabeth May calls for Lyme disease strategy -- Green Party leader says Lyme disease is no longer rare
The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:
- 2012/07/14: CCurrents: Limits To Growth And Climate Change
- 2012/07/00: EnergyBulletin: Towards an ecological macroeconomics
- 2012/07/09: EnergyBulletin: The rise and fall and rise of great public spaces
- 2012/07/09: TreeHugger: Post Growth Futures Are Already Here
IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology] raised its head once again:
- 2012/07/14: Guardian(UK): Stephen Emmott: overpopulation is at the root of all the planet's troubles
Science has not shouted out about unchecked human expansion. Now, one professor will proclaim its dangers on stage - 2012/07/12: NBF: Various Groups that want to use Population Reduction as the Main Solution to the Environmental Problems they see
- 2012/07/12: ABC(Au):TDU: My womb is not terra nullius
- 2012/07/13: ABC(Au):TDU: Family planning saves lives and money
- 2012/07/11: NBF: China's One Child Policy and Forced Abortions Faces a Populist Uprising
- 2012/07/11: CBC: Melinda Gates pledges $560M for contraception access
- 2012/07/10: CCurrents: Nine Population Strategies To Stop Short of 9 Billion
- 2012/07/10: UN: World Population Day: UN highlights key role of access to reproductive health care
- 2012/07/10: Grist: Caring about family planning does not make you a slut, according to Melinda Gates
Apocalypso anyone?
- 2012/07/12: AlterNet: The Biggest Threats We Face From Conservative Religion
- 2012/07/12: CCurrents: Before The Collapse
- 2012/07/09: CCurrents: "Hope Is For The Lazy: The Challenge Of Our Dead World" by Robert Jensen
- 2012/07/09: EnergyBulletin: Hope is for the lazy: The challenge of our dead world
- 2012/07/08: QE: What Am I Watching? Signs that the End is Nigh
How do the media measure up?
- 2012/07/10: LA Times: Can somebody, please, help George Will understand climate?
- 2012/07/12: SciAm:IC: How to classify science news stories?
- 2012/07/10: SciAm:BAtC: Science Blogs -- definition, and a history
- 2012/07/13: TreeHugger: Watch a CNN Anchor Call Bill Nye "a Kook," and then Watch Bill Nye Make her Look Foolish
- 2012/07/12: CJR: The heatwave debate -- How the science of probability affects science coverage
- 2012/07/11: CapClimate: Man Bites Dog: Extreme Weather and Climate Change Lead National Newscast
- 2012/07/11: TP:JR: Every Network Gets Extreme Weather Story Right, 'Now's The Time We Start Limiting Manmade Greenhouse Gases' - ABC
- 2012/07/09: FAIR: Keystone Pipeline: When Industry Ads and Industry-Friendly Coverage Collide
- 2012/07/09: FAIR: The Future of the Planet? Get Over It
- 2012/07/09: Grist: TV news endumbens viewers on climate, again
- 2012/07/08: FDL: George Will, Climate Scientist, Explains the Weather: It's Just Summer
And for your film & video enjoyment:
- 2012/07/12: TP:JR: Must-See Videos: ABC Interviews Climatologist Michael Mann
- 2012/07/12: TP:JR: Documentary Short: Natural Gas Drilling Threatens The Wild Heart Of Wyoming's Bridger-Teton National Forest
- 2012/07/12: Grist: Vandana Shiva talks with Bill Moyers about the food system [video]
- 2012/07/12: 350orBust: TED Talk Thursday: Poverty, Crime, And Greenhouse Gas Emissions
- 2012/07/10: Grist: This video proves we're living in a disaster movie
- 2012/07/11: SciAm:PsiVid: Green Screen Climate Fix Flicks and the Green Ninja
- 2012/07/11: PSinclair: Yes, Virginia, There is Sea Level Rise
- 2012/07/10: CCP: Peter Sinclair's "Welcome to the rest of our lives" video, with comments by Adam Siegel
- 2012/07/10: TCoE: A video postcard from Eaarth
- 2012/07/10: PSinclair: New Video: "Welcome to the Rest of Our Lives"
- 2012/07/10: TP:JR: Must-See Video Compilation Of Extreme Weather: 'Welcome To The Rest Of Our Lives'
Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:
- 2012/07/11: WaPo: Texas judge rules atmosphere, air to be protected like water, may aid climate change lawsuits
A Texas judge has ruled that the atmosphere and air must be protected for public use, just like water, which could help attorneys tasked with arguing climate change lawsuits designed to force states to cut emissions. The written ruling, issued in a letter Monday by Texas District Court Judge Gisela Triana, shot down arguments by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that only water is a :public trust," a doctrine that dates to the Roman Empire stating a government must protect certain resources -- usually water, sometimes wildlife -- for the common good. - 2012/07/12: NHK: Court order sought to stop restart of reactors
- 2012/07/12: CCP: Texas District Court Judge Gisela Triana rules that the atmosphere and air are public trusts and must be protected for for the common good, just like water
- 2012/07/14: BBerg: Alaska Seeks to Block Emissions Control Rules by Suing Agencies
Alaska sued the Obama administration to block the Environmental Protection Agency and the Coast Guard from extending the North American Emissions Control Area to the state. The regulations, set to be enforced Aug. 1, require marine cargo carriers and cruise lines to use costly and difficult-to- obtain low-sulfur fuel, Alaska Attorney General Michael Geraghty said in an e-mail yesterday. - 2012/07/11: CBC: Danny Williams and mining company sue environmentalists, blogger
- 2012/07/10: PlanetArk: Power industry braces for court air pollution ruling
Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:
- 2012/07/11: HuffPo: Maryland Power Companies To Bill Customers For Lost Service
Power customers in Maryland will likely be fuming when they learn that electric utilities Pepco and BGE will be recouping lost revenue from the recent mass power outages from ratepayers. According to WUSA-TV/9News, it's called "bill stabilization," which allows the electric utilities to bill customers for the electricity they weren't able to bill for during the outage. - 2012/07/13: TreeHugger: Triple Threat: MIT Chip Harvests Energy from Heat, Light and Movement
- 2012/07/09: CER:RRapier: Renewable Energy - Facts and Figures
- 2012/07/12: Eureka: Platinum is wrong stuff for fuel cells -- Material wastes energy, Case Western Reserve University researcher suggests
- 2012/07/12: OilDrum: Ruthless Extrapolation by Tom Murphy
- 2012/07/11: TreeHugger: Energy Monitor Concept Gives Realtime Feedback
- 2012/07/09: TreeHugger: One Block Off the Grid Merges With Pure Energies
Transitioning from energy source to another:
- 2012/07/11: NBF: Switching from Coal to Natural Gas reduces Greenhouse gases by 40%
Hey! Let's contaminate the aquifer for thousands of years! It'll be a fracking gas!
- 2012/07/12: Eureka: The ecology of natural gas -- Scientists examine process chain of natural gas, from rural extraction to urban distribution
- 2012/07/13: BBC: Shale will free US from oil imports, says ex-BP boss
The big growth in oil extracted from shale rock means the US will not need to import any crude within two decades, the former boss of BP has said. Lord Browne told a conference in Oxford the US would be "completely independent of imported oil, probably by 2030". He also said the amount of shale gas in the US was "effectively infinite". Shale oil and gas is extracted using a method called fracking, but the process has been controversial because of the environmental risks associated with it. Lord Browne is a director of fracking firm Cuadrilla. - 2012/07/12: DeSmogBlog: Marcellus Money: Statehouse Bought and Sold by Shale Gas Industry in PA
- 2012/07/13: TP:JR: Do Shale Gas Activities Play A Role In Rising Ozone Levels?
- 2012/07/11: DeSmogBlog: Wisconsin v. Yoder Redux? MN Amish Citizens Revolt Against Frac Sand Mining
- 2012/07/11: DeSmogBlog: Science Trumped by Politics In Cuomo's NY Fracking Plans?
- 2012/07/09: Salon: Confirmed: Fracking can pollute
A new study explodes the gas industry's claim that fracking won't contaminate local drinking water - 2012/07/10: TP:JR: Brine Beneath Natural Gas Fields Moving Upward Toward Drinking Water: What Are Implications For Fracking?
- 2012/07/10: OilChange: Fracking Can Pollute, Confirms Study
- 2012/07/09: ProPublica: New Study: Fluids From Marcellus Shale Likely Seeping Into PA Drinking Water
- 2012/07/09: NI: Being fracked
On the coal front:
- 2012/07/09: TP:JR: Investigation: As Black Lung Cases Doubled In The Last Decade, The Coal Industry Fought New Health Protections
On the gas and oil front:
- 2012/07/13: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
OIL (US$/bbl)
Nymex Crude Future...87.10
Dated Brent Spot....102.62
WTI Cushing Spot.....87.10 - 2012/07/12: EnergyBulletin: Shale oil and tight oil by James D. Hamilton
- 2012/07/13: CSM: Thanks to North Dakota, US waste of natural gas grows rapidly
The United States is flaring so much natural gas into the atmosphere - burning it as oil-field waste rather than extracting energy from it in power plants - that it now leads the world in the growth rate at which it is trashing that energy source. - 2012/07/11: EnergyBulletin: How Much Oil Does the World Produce?
- 2012/07/14: P3: The Oblivious Celebration of Oil Abundance
- 2012/07/15: OilDrum: Tech Talk - Saudi Arabia and what lies ahead
- 2012/07/15: al Jazeera: Energy independence in an interdependent world
By 2023, the US will export more energy than it imports. - 2012/07/10: EurActiv: Norway's government intervenes to avoid oil industry closure
Norway's government ordered on Monday (9 July) a last-minute settlement in a dispute between striking oil workers and employers, averting the shutdown of Western Europe's top oil producer. - 2012/07/10: Eureka: No matter the drilling method, natural gas is a much-needed tool to battle global warming
- 2012/07/10: OilDrum: Response to Leonardo Maugeri's Decline Rate Assumptions in "Oil: The Next Revolution"
- 2012/07/09: BBC: Oil and gas production in Norway will be shut down from Tuesday because of a dispute over pensions, a government minister has confirmed
- 2012/07/08: EnergyBulletin: How changing the definition of oil has deceived both policymakers and the public
Everyone knows that world oil production has been running between 88 and 89 million barrels per day (mbpd) this year because government, industry and media sources tell us so. As it turns out, what everyone knows is wrong. It's wrong not because the range quoted above can't be found in official sources. It's wrong because the numbers include things which are not oil such as natural gas plant liquids and biofuels. If you strip these other things out, then world oil production has been running around 75 mbpd this year. The main thing you need to know about the worldwide rate of production of crude oil alone is that it has been stuck between 71 and 75 mbpd since 2005 (calculated on a monthly basis). And, that has already had huge negative effects on the world economy and world society through high energy prices that are partly responsible for our current economic stagnation. But because natural gas plant liquids production has been growing rather rapidly due to recent intensive drilling for natural gas and because those liquids are misleadingly lumped in with oil supplies, people have been mistakenly given the impression that world oil production continues to grow. Not true! What's growing is a category called "total liquids" which encompasses oil, natural gas plant liquids, biofuels and some other minor fuels. Total liquids are growing only because of large gains in natural gas plant liquids and minor gains in biofuels. - 2012/07/12: Tyee: Enbridge Execs Got Big Pay Raises After Continent's Costliest Pipeline Spill
CEO's salary jumped 35 per cent to $8.1 million just months after disaster. - 2012/07/12: EnergyBulletin: The peak oil crisis: The summer of 2012
Biofuel bickering abounds:
- 2012/07/13: PlanetArk: Insight: Environment or profit - palm oil firm tests Indonesia
- 2012/07/13: ABC(Au): Chance lab concoction excites scientists
Scientists say the chance discovery of a what they have called a super strain of algae could lead to new biofuels. The South Australian Research and Development Institute has spent six years gathering algae from across South Australia and in the Great Australian Bight. - 2012/07/11: Eureka: White rot fungus boosts ethanol production from corn stalks, cobs and leaves
- 2012/07/10: G&M: Sewage as energy: An essentially unlimited renewable resource
- 2012/07/09: TreeHugger: US Navy Moving Forward With Biofuels Program, Against Republican Opposition
The answer my friend...:
- 2012/07/15: TP:JR: Wind Turbines Waste Much Less Energy Than Fossil Fuels
- 2012/07/09: PSinclair: Land Based Wind Healthy in New England
Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:
- 2012/07/15: Grist: Why we pay double for solar in America (but won't forever)
- 2012/07/11: TreeHugger: Telescope-Inspired Solar Power Design Could Produce Twice as Much Energy
- 2012/07/09: TreeHugger: Easier Rooftop Installation = Cheaper Solar Power
- 2012/07/09: BBerg: First Solar Bonds Financing $4.6 Billion U.S. Panel Boom
- 2012/07/09: UCSUSA:B: Solar for You and Me (Not Just the 1%)
The nuclear energy controversy continues:
- 2012/07/13: EUO: Lithuania warned on Soviet power plant
- 2012/07/12: PlanetArk: Honeywell to upgrade nuclear plant to improve safety
Honeywell International Inc said it is evaluating upgrades to its Metropolis Works nuclear conversion plant, following a regulatory inspection that looked at preparedness for natural disasters such as strong earthquakes and tornadoes. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspected Honeywell's Metropolis Works in Illinois as part of a comprehensive assessment of all U.S. nuclear-related facilities in the wake of last year's Fukushima disaster in Japan. - 2012/07/12: CBC: Workers sprayed with uranium dust at Cameco refinery
- 2012/07/10: EurActiv: Lithuania warns of nuclear decommissioning funding gap
Lithuania, which closed its Ignalina nuclear power plant as part of its EU accession in 2004, warned that it needed more generous European funding for the site's decommissioning for many years to come. EurActiv reports from Ignalina. - 2012/07/10: EUO: Soviet-era atomic plant troubles Lithuania
- 2012/07/10: BNC: Radio debate on nuclear power for addressing climate change - Brook vs Ludlum
- 2012/07/08: EneNews: Large outbreak of jellyfish swarm Japan's only restarted nuclear plant - May delay full operation of reactor
Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:
- 2012/07/13: SciNow: A Million-Year Hard Disk
- 2012/07/09: MLynas: World's first nuclear waste-burning PRISM reactor moves a step closer in the UK
More people are talking about the electrical grid:
- 2012/07/11: UCSUSA:B: UCS Files in Support of FERC's Groundbreaking Transmission Rule
- 2012/07/08: PSinclair: ABC News: Powering your Home from your Car
And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:
- 2012/07/13: BNC: Does energy efficiency reduce emissions and peak demand?
- 2012/07/08: NBF: Conservation is only a small part of a viable and realistic energy plan
Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:
- 2012/07/13: CNN: Electric car [battery & fuel cell] concept drives progress with extended 500-mile range
- 2012/07/12: TreeHugger: GE Partners with Paypal to Make EV Charging Payment Simpler
- 2012/07/13: AutoBG: Renault-Nissan Alliance pushes electric vehicle vision at Rio+20
- 2012/07/12: AutoBG: Protean Electric snags $84 million to produce in-wheel motors in China
As for Energy Storage:
- 2012/07/02: Fraunhofer: Keeping electric vehicle batteries cool
- 2012/07/11: TreeHugger: It's About Time: Battery Manufacturers Plan Nationwide Recycling Program
- 2012/07/10: Drexel: Making "Renewable" Viable: Drexel Engineers Develop [flow batteries & supercaps] New Technology for Grid-Level Electrical Energy Storage
- 2012/07/10: TP:JR: Despite Cautious Cost Reduction Projections, Innovation In Battery Technologies Continues
The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:
- 2012/07/14: BBC: Apple u-turn as Mac maker rejoins EPEAT green registry
- 2012/07/11: TP:JR: Apple Is Missing A Major Opportunity To Build A Better Neighborhood
- 2012/07/10: BBC: San Francisco plans to ban officials from buying Apple Macs
Joe Romm posts a daily list of top energy and climate stories:
- 2012/07/13: TP:JR: July 13 News...
- 2012/07/12: TP:JR: July 12 News...
- 2012/07/11: TP:JR: July 11 News...
- 2012/07/10: TP:JR: July 10 News...
- 2012/07/09: TP:JR: July 9 News...
Other (weekly) lists:
- 2012/07/12: BPA: Hot 5: Barn Kits. Agricultural Machinery Sales. Soil Erosion. Farm Tours. Lyme Disease
- 2012/07/13: EnergyBulletin: ODAC Newsletter
- 2012/07/14: QuarkSoup: The History of Science Blogging, and More
- 2012/07/09: BPA: Agriculture News
- 2012/07/09: QuarkSoup: Miscellaneous Stuff
The carbon lobby are up to the usual:
- 2012/07/12: Cryptome: The Gentleperson's Guide To Forum Spies
- COINTELPRO Techniques for dilution, misdirection and control of a internet forum
- Twenty-Five Rules of Disinformation
- Eight Traits of the Disinformationalist
- How to Spot a Spy (Cointelpro Agent)
- Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression
- 2012/07/13: Tamino: Reply to TLM
- 2012/07/13: JQuiggin: Quiggin and Bolt: One last try for agreement on the numbers
- 2012/07/13: ERabett: Gold Amdst the Dross
- 2012/07/14: Tamino: Question Mark?
- 2012/07/13: TP:JR: Pfizer Refuses To Pull Funding From Anti-Science Front Group, Says $45,000 Grant To Heartland Is 'Best For Shareholders'
- 2012/07/12: DeSmogBlog: Anthony Watts Is Right Because He's Older Than Me
- 2012/07/10: Register(UK): Climate was HOTTER in Roman, medieval times than now: Study -- IPCC has got it all wrong, say boffins
- 2012/07/15: HC: Donna's Magnificent Contradiction
- 2012/07/08: DeSmogBlog: Donna Laframboise Flown To Australia By Climate Science Denying Think Tank
- 2012/07/11: WottsUWT: A wave of heated peer pressure results in shrinking integrity
- 2012/07/11: WtD: Andrew Bolt's blog collapses in on itself: surprised?
- 2012/07/09: CCurrents: Weather Of Wrath And Climate Crisis Deniers
- 2012/07/10: Guardian(UK): Climate change is not science fiction, Jeremy Clarkson
- 2012/07/10: Guardian(UK): Rightwing US thinktank uses FoI laws to pursue climate scientists
American Tradition Institute seeks the release of emails with journalists to find details that could be used to discredit science - 2012/07/10: DeSmogBlog: Oil Sands Fact Check: New API Front Group
- 2012/07/10: WtD: Climate sceptics vs 40,000 US heat records: Watt's calls it an "ordinary summer", yet public accepts the reality of climate change
- 2012/07/09: CChallenge: Watching the Deniers: Evidence Library for Strategic Denial Documents
- 2012/07/09: MGS: Logical Fallacies and Scientific Method
- 2012/07/08: ERabett:JF: Claim of arsenic-eating bacteria refuted, while climate-change denialism sputters on.
- 2012/07/08: Tamino: What is "ad hominem"?
This week in intimidation:
- 2012/07/08: ITracker: Threats against climate scientists: Phil Jones' inbox
As for climate miscellanea:
- 2012/07/15: TSoD: Visualizing the Climate Response
- 2012/07/10: CCurrents: Cooling A Warming Planet: A Global Air Conditioning Surge
- 2012/07/10: P3: A Precedent for Failure of Consensus
- 2012/07/10: CCP: Are we all in mourning? Here is George Monbiot's latest lament (no snark intended): Anomie
- 2012/07/10: PlanetArk: Anglo American says water issue solved in Peru
- 2012/07/09: TreeHugger: This is What Climate Change Looks Like: Airplane Sinks Into Boiling Runway
- 2012/07/09: THzA: Announcing Bad Science Watch
- 2012/07/09: WtD: Attribution and adaptation: New Scientist issue on climate extremes
- 2012/07/08: TheCanadian: From Market Economy to Market Society
And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:
- MDPI - Open Access Publishing
- IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
- Watershed Watch Salmon Society -- Watching out for BC's wild salmon
- ReSource 2012 -- Food Energy Water (for all) -- 12-13 July 2012
- FERN: Food and Environment Reporting Network
- Wiki: The Long Emergency
- SOA: Beall's List of Predatory Open-Access Publishers
- USDA: World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates
- The Daily Impact -- Chronicling the Crash of the Industrial Age
- Bad Science Watch
- DEFRA: Green Food Project
- ICRS: 2012 International Coral Reef Symposium
- NASA: Aquarius Mission Web Site
- Carbon Brief
- CTC: Carbon Tax Center
- FPN: FootPrint Network
We are definitely back in the black humour zone:
In Cairns, Australia, the International Coral Reef Symposium grabbed a few headlines:
The State of the Climate 2011 report with the Peterson et al. paper drew a lot of attention:
John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:
Post Fukushima, nuclear policies are in flux around the world:
The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:
The state of the world's fisheries is a concern:
And how are we going to feed 9 billion, 10 billion, 15 billion?
As for GHGs:
And the temperature record:
What's up with the Jet Streams?
And in other satellite news:
Climate refugees are becoming an issue:
Desertification looms as a threat:
Freak Weather just isn't very Freaky any more:
Glaciers are melting:
South China Sea tension persists:
The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world:
What are the activists up to?
On the 2012 campaign trail:
I suspect we will hear a lot more about this ruling:
The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:
Meanwhile in Australia:
The carbon bill is law. Now comes the implementation:
The Murray-Darling Basin Plan controversy continues:
And in New Zealand:
In Canada, neocon PM Harper pushes petroleum while ignoring climate change:
Under the smokescreen of fiscal responsibility, the Harper gang is streamlining environmental reviews out of existence:
Bob Rae of the Liberals meanwhile tried to stake centre ground:
The Harper gang quietly unsupport renewable energy:
Not to forget the Kinder Morgan expansion:
The ISA/PRV/IHN/Alpha virus in Canadian waters is potentially disastrous:
In the North:
As for miscellaneous Canadiana:
And in pipeline news:
Yes we have a peak oil sighting:
Low Key Plug
My first novel Water was published in Canada May, 2007. The American release was in October. An Introductionto the novel is available, along with the Unpublished Forewordand the Launch Talk(which includes some quotations), An overview of my writing is available here.
<regards>
P.S. Recent postings can be found in the week archive and the ancient postings can be accessed here, which should open to this.
I notice moyhu has set up a monster index to old AWoGWN on AFTIC."Pollution is a symbol of design failure." -William McDonough
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