Another Week of GW News, September 16, 2012

Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years

This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup

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Another Week of Climate Instability News

Sipping from the Internet Firehose...

September 16, 2012

• Chuckles, COP18+, IAC, Death Valley, Bottom Line, GCF, Ecocide, Cook, TV Weather
• Fukushima Note, Fukushima News, Nuclear Policy
• Melting Arctic, Fauna, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
• Food: Crisis, Fisheries, Prices, Food vs. Biofuel, GMOs, GMO Labelling, Production
• Hurricanes, Monsoon, GHGs, Temperatures, ENSO
• New Weather, Oceans, Biosphere, Extinctions, Volcanoes
• Impacts, Forests, Disease, Extreme Weather, Wildfires
• Corals, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Transportation, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Conservation, Restoration
• Journals, Other Docs, Misc. Science, Models, Open Science
• International Politics: Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Optimal Strategy
• Hormuz, South China Sea, EU ETS & Airlines, Gazprom, Security, Activism, Polls, H2O Biz
• National Politics: America, BP Disaster, 2012, Keystone, Birth Control, Obama, USAdmin, Congress
• Britain, Europe, Australia, Feds vs. Qld., MDBP, India, Japan, Asia, South America
• Canada, Gregg, Charlottetown, Bill C-38, CNOOC, Liberals, Northern Gateway
• Dutch Disease, BC, Tar Sands, Ontario, Quebec, Maritimes, North, Canadiana
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Podcasts, Courts
• Energy, Transitions, Fracking, Coal, Oil & Gas, Oil & the Economy, Pipelines, Peak Oil, Biofuel
• Wind, Solar, Nukes, Nuclear Waste, LENR, FITs, Efficiency, Cars
• Business, Greenwashing, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Intimidation, Lewandowsky, Clean Coal
• Misc., Useful Links, Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

 

It's always nice to start with a chuckle:

• 2012/09/12: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) Fact Checkers
• 2009/05/18: PhdComics: (cartoon) The Science News Cycle [an oldie but worth repeating -het]
• 2012/09/12: JoeMohrToons: (cartoon - Mohr) Mitt Romney on the Middle Class and Global Warming
  

  Looking ahead to COP18 and future international climate negotiations:

• 2012/09/13: Yahoo:Reuters: Russia will not cut emissions under extended Kyoto climate pact
• 2012/09/12: ICN: UN Climate Talks Should Stick With 2 Degree Goal: EU Negotiator
• 2012/09/11: EurActiv: UN panel flags Kyoto carbon market overhaul
  The panel recommends establishing a new fund to buy and cancel some of the carbon credit glut that has depressed prices. It also suggests phasing out the issuance of credits to controversial industrial gas projects altogether. But the panel's non-binding recommendations will do little to immediately drain the bloated market for Kyoto's Certified Emissions Reduction units - CERs - or ease uncertainty over their future when the Kyoto deal expires at the end of 2012.
• 2012/09/11: TreeHugger: UN Clean Development Mechanism in "Dire Need of Rescue"
  

  The InterAction Council delivered a timely warning this week:

• 2012/09/10: IAC: World confronts serious water crisis, former heads of government and experts warn in new report
  Elder statesmen call on UN Security Council to recognize water as a top concern
• 2012/09/11: PlanetArk: Twenty more "Niles" needed to feed growing population-leaders [InterAction Council]
• 2012/09/10: TStar: Former world leaders, including Jean Chretien, sound alarm on global water crisis
  

  For some reason that escapes me, a lot of people glommed onto this release:

• 2012/09/13: WMO: Ninety-year-old World temperature record in El Azizia (Libya) is invalid
• 2012/09/13: DWWSJ: WMO Throws Out World Heat Record- Death Valley Wins Gold
• 2012/09/13: Guardian(UK): Death Valley gains title of hottest place ever recorded on Earth [56.7C in 1913]
• 2012/09/13: Eureka: World's hottest temperature cools a bit
• 2012/09/13: Wunderground: The new hottest place on Earth: Death Valley, California
  

  And on the Bottom Line:

• 2012/09/15: DD: Carbon Disclosure Project: 'Extreme weather events are causing significant financial damage to markets'
• 2012/09/14: al Jazeera: Hurricane season reveals economic perils of ignoring climate predictions
  Warming surface waters are increasing tropical cyclone intensity, so why are we being so irresponsible?
• 2012/09/09: BBC: Weather 'cost rural Britain £1bn'
  This year's dreadful weather has cost rural Britain at least £1bn, according to an investigation by BBC One's Countryfile. Data from farmers, tourist businesses, insurers and events organisers show the wettest summer for 100 years has hit the countryside hard.
• 
  

  Regarding the Green Climate Fund:

   

• 2012/09/06: IPS: The Green Climate Fund's "No-Objection" Procedure and Private Finance: Lessons Learned from Existing Institutions
  

  The world inches toward creating a global legal framework for ecological crime:

• 2012/09/13: TreeHugger: Ecocide Law Backed by Green Party of England & Wales
  

  John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:

• 2012/09/16: SkS: Symphony of Science - Our Biggest Challenge by dana1981
• 2012/09/16: SkS: Big Ice and Climate Change: The View from Easton Glacier by greenman3610
• 2012/09/14: SkS: How to Solve the Climate Problem: a Step-by-Step Guide by dana1981
• 2012/09/12: SkS: Climate Change and the Weightier Matters: a Christian view on global warming
• 2012/09/11: SkS: Obama, Romney, and Various National Climate Policies Around the Globe by dana1981
• 2012/09/11: SkS: New research from last week 36/2012 by Ari Jokimäki
  

  TV Meteorologists typically follow the corporate media line...:

• 2012/09/11: TP:JR: TV Forecasters: Please Connect Climate and Extreme Weather
  

  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:

   

• 2012/09/14: EneNews: Crowd Gasps as Mother of Fukushima Worker Speaks: Many young people are passing bloody urine at plant...
• 2012/09/13: EneNews: Fukushima Worker Tweets: No progress has been made - We don't know what is really going on inside Reactors 1, 2 and 3
• 2012/09/12: EneNews: Groundwater with cesium at 9 times gov't limit found in Fukushima
• 2012/09/11: EneNews: *REMOVED* Report: Police target women & kids at [Kudankulam] nuclear protest...
• 2012/09/11: EneNews: Yomiuri: Tepco having difficulty with 'debris' around Unit 3 due to high radiation - Years before spent fuel removal will begin
• 2012/09/11: TheCanadian: Slow Progress at Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Site, New Problems Arise
• 2012/09/10: NHK: One and half years after Fukushima accident
• 2012/09/10: EneNews: NHK: Tainted water leaks plaguing Fukushima 'clean-up' (video)
• 2012/09/11: EneNews: "Don't be a chicken" mayor tells parents concerned their children are eating radioactive lunches...
  

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

• 2012/09/15: al Jazeera: Japan moves to phase out nuclear energy
  Cabinet calls for "society that does not depend on nuclear energy" in 30 years, citing last year's Fukushima disaster.
• 2012/09/14: VoR: Russian scientists find radiation off Fukushima coast
  Russian scientists have detected radiation in the north-west of the Pacific Ocean at a distance between 500-800 km to the east from Japan's troubled Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. The expedition of the Russian geographical society has detected that the concentration of cesium-137 in that area exceeds the norm 10 times.
• 2012/09/14: NatureNB: Japan's nuclear sun to set?
• 2012/09/14: TreeHugger: Japan Plan Phases Out Nuclear Power by 2030, As Renewable Energy Projects Quickly Approved
• 2012/09/14: EneNews: Gov't to End Nuclear in Japan? ...
• 2012/09/14: DD: Japan draws curtain on nuclear energy - Critics call policy a 'climate disaster'
• 2012/09/14: ScienceInsider: Japanese Cabinet Panel Decides to Phase Out Nuclear Power
• 2012/09/14: Guardian(UK): Without nuclear, the battle against global warming is as good as lost by Mark Lynas
  With nuclear, there is a chance that global warming can be limited to 2C - without, we may be heading for 4C or above
• 2012/09/14: Guardian(UK): Japan plans to end reliance on nuclear power within 30 years
  The historic policy shift was prompted by triple meltdown at the country's Fukushima nuclear power plant in March 2011
• 2012/09/14: BBC: Japan unveils plan to phase out nuclear power
  The Japanese government has unveiled a plan to phase out nuclear power by 2030, in a major policy shift after last year's Fukushima disaster. Under proposals put forward by a government panel, the reactors would be shut down completely by the year 2040.
• 2012/09/14: iPolitics: Japan joins Germany in phasing out nuclear power
• 2012/09/14: BBerg: Japan Draws Curtain on Nuclear Energy Following Germany
  Japan plans to scrap atomic power by the end of the 2030s, bowing to public pressure after the Fukushima nuclear disaster caused mass evacuations and left areas north of Tokyo uninhabitable for decades. The country's first post-Fukushima energy policy approved today by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda means the country will join Germany in abandoning the power source that helped both countries build world-beating economies and models for development from the destruction of World War II.
• 2012/09/12: CBC: Japan PM hints at 'nuclear-free society' by 2030
  'I must take this seriously,' Yoshihiko Noda says of proposal to end nuclear dependence
• 2012/09/12: IndiaTimes: Post Fukushima disaster, Japan to abandon nuclear power by 2030s: report
• 2012/09/10: PlanetArk: Nuclear safety boosted to help avert another Fukushima -expert
  Many countries have taken concrete steps to improve safety at nuclear power plants to help prevent extreme natural hazards such as earthquakes from causing another Fukushima-style disaster, the chairman of an expert meeting said on Friday. Speaking after a four-day conference at the Vienna headquarters of the United Nations' atomic agency, Antonio Godoy, an Argentinean seismic expert, said the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan had prompted real change in the industry. "Physical upgrades have been implemented in a number of nuclear installations worldwide," he told a news conference. "Many member states took immediate action to remedy, to enhance safety." However, environmental group Greenpeace, which opposes nuclear energy on safety grounds, dismissed the upbeat assessment.
• 
  

  The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:

   

• 2012/09/14: Guardian(UK): Arctic Sunrise steams into sea ice melt - big picture
• 2012/09/14: Guardian(UK): Vanishing Arctic ice is the planet's white flag of surrender
• 2012/09/14: Guardian(UK): The staggering decline of sea ice at the frontline of climate change
  Scientists on board [Arctic Sunrise] Greenpeace's vessel exploring the minimum extent of the ice cap are shocked at the speed of the melt
• 2012/09/14: Guardian(UK): Arctic sea ice shrinks to smallest extent ever recorded [less than 3.5 million km^2]
• 2012/09/14: Guardian(UK): Arctic sea ice hits record low: live updates and reaction
• 2012/09/14: PSinclair: Still No Minimum, Ice Continues Slide
• 2012/09/13: CCP: Arctic Sea Ice Volume, Area and Extent continue death spiral -- September 12, 2012
• 2012/09/13: CBC: Arctic thaw heats up Northwest Passage dreams
• 2012/09/13: CCP: Radio EcoShock Arctic ice melt special with Jennifer Francis, Mark Serreze and Cecelia Bitz [podcast]
• 2012/09/13: HubPages:DocSnow: Sea Ice Loss 2012: What Do The Records Mean?
• 2012/09/13: ASI: Sea ice loss 2012: what do the records mean?
• 2012/09/11: Guardian(UK): Is it a growler, a rime or a pancake? Learning the language of sea ice
• 2012/09/11: CCP: Nathan Currier, HuffPo: Arctic Crisis: Far From Sight, the Top of the World's Problems
• 2012/09/11: KPLU: 'Astonishing' Arctic ice melt sets new record
• 2012/09/11: CCP: Julienne Stroeve's "Ice Edge 2012" blog from Svalbard and the Arctic
• 2012/09/09: HuffPo: The Latest Proof of Global Warming? Adios Summer Sea Ice
• 2012/09/10: Guardian(UK): Further north than expected, the Arctic Sunrise reaches the edge of the ice cap
• 2012/09/10: MODIS: Iceberg from Petermann Glacier, northern Greenland
• 2012/09/08: AngryBear: Ice melting takes some thought...
  

  As for the charismatic micro and mega fauna:

• 2012/09/10: TStar: Climate change conundrum: Will Arctic animals' wardrobes be able to adapt?
• 2012/09/13: UDel: Surviving without ice -- Arctic crustaceans use currents, deep-water migration to survive sea ice melts
  

  That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:

• 2012/09/15: CCP: Shakhova & Semiletov have discovered spots in the Arctic Ocean where mass emissions of methane can be observed
• 2012/09/11: CCP: Nathan Currier's posts on the Arctic and methane
• 2012/09/11: ITracker: Permafrost carbon feedback update
• 2012/09/11: CBC: Permafrost thaw will speed up global warming, study says
  Permafrost soils in Canada's Arctic are melting at a rate that will significantly speed up global warming, according to new research from the University of Victoria. The study, published this week in Nature Geoscience, predicts that the thawing permafrost will release between 68 billion and 508 billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere by the year 2100.
• 
  

  As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

   

• 2012/09/14: CCurrents: Revisiting An Arctic Tale Of Ice And Shell
• 2012/09/12: BBC: Russia to build biggest nuclear-powered icebreaker
  Russia's plans to build the world's biggest nuclear-powered icebreaker could attract more trade to the country, says a leading UK analyst.
• 2012/09/12: CBC: Sovereignty issues loom as Arctic sea ice shrinks -- Global focus on region's resources intensifying
• 2012/09/10: CCurrents: The Soviet Union Dumped Enormous Quantities Of Nuclear Waste In Kara Sea In The Arctic Ocean
• 2012/09/11: Guardian(UK): Climate activists target Shell with ice protest over Arctic drilling
• 2012/09/14: TreeHugger: Northwest Passage Now Sailable, Thanks to Global Warming
• 2012/09/10: TreeHugger: Shell Already Forced to Stop Arctic Drilling Operation
• 2012/09/10: NatureNB: Arctic oil drilling begins in Chukchi Sea
• 2012/09/09: CNN: Shell starts preparatory drilling for offshore oil well off Alaska
  Mayor says "it will only be a matter of time before something happens out there" - Shell says it has started drilling in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's North Slope - The Obama administration approved preparatory work in late August - Shell says it's capable of handling a big oil spill; environmentalists aren't so sure
• 2012/09/08: WaPo: Shell begins drilling off Alaska
• 2012/09/10: OilChange: RIP the Arctic
  [...] yesterday oil giant Shell begun drilling the first well in the Arctic Chukchi Sea in more than two decades.
• 2012/09/09: QuarkSoup: "Happy, happy, happy"
• 2012/09/09: Guardian(UK): Shell criticised for limited testing of Alaska drilling containment equipment
  Greenpeace says oil company used 'stock-car race' recklessless in testing capping stack to prevent Gulf of Mexico-style blowout
• 2012/09/10: WSWS: Scottish National Party seeks military role in the Arctic
  The Scottish National Party (SNP) is seeking membership of NATO in an effort to secure a share in a new geo-political carve-up of the oil rich Arctic Ocean for its wealthy backers.
• 
  

  While in Antarctica:

   

• 2012/09/10: PlanetArk: Drilling to lakes under Antarctic may give clues to sea rise
  

  The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2012/09/15: EconView: World Hunger - Tyler Cowen
• 2012/09/14: CDreams: The Global Food System Casino by Vandana Shiva
• 2012/09/14: UN: Despite food assistance, Sahel food crisis still persists - UN agency
• 2012/09/14: FAO: Argentina to increase maize exports -- Move should help ease tight world market
• 2012/09/14: ProMedMail: Schmallenberg virus - Europe (58): Switzerland, spread to mountains
• 2012/09/14: TreeHugger: Heat and Drought Ravage U.S. Crop Prospects -- Global Stocks Suffer
• 2012/09/14: CCurrents: Food Crisis Imminent If No Change To Climate Policy And Risk Of Riot Increases
• 2012/09/14: CCurrents: One Year Away From Global Food Riots, Complex Systems Theorists Say
• 2012/09/12: NYT: U.S. Lowers Forecast of Crop Yields for a 3rd Time as Record Heat Lingers
• 2012/09/12: ProMedMail: Leaf rust, soybean - Brazil: (MT), pathogen reservoirs
• 2012/09/11: CBC: Vandals trash Inuvik, N.W.T., food bank -- Food bank to close until security improved
• 2012/09/12: UIllinois: Expert: With food insecurity rising in U.S., SNAP benefits should be left alone
• 2012/09/11: BBerg: Soybean Reserves Smallest in Four Decades After Drought
  

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

• 2012/09/13: NYT: U.S. Declares a Disaster for Fishery in Northeast
• 2012/09/13: IdahoStatesman: Salmon's future tied to food supply
• 2012/09/14: BBC: Call to freeze fishing in Europe to replenish stocks
  A think tank has made a controversial case for freezing fishing in Europe, saying most fish stocks would return to sustainable levels within five years. The London-based New Economics Foundation (Nef) argues in its report that the suspension would generate billions of pounds in profits by 2023. Private investment would compensate fishermen and maintain boats. A senior UK fishing industry representative said stocks were already improving and the idea made no sense. Unsustainable fishing remains a major issue for the EU, where 75% of stocks are still overfished and catches are only a fraction of what they were 15-20 years ago.
• 2012/09/13: ADN: Commerce secretary declares Alaska salmon disaster
• 2012/09/13: NOAANews: Secretary of Commerce declares disaster in Northeast Groundfish Fishery
• 2012/09/13: NOAANews: Secretary of Commerce declares disaster for Alaska King Salmon
  Acting U.S. Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank today declared a commercial fishery failure on Alaska's Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers and in the Cook Inlet due to low Chinook salmon returns during the 2012 fishing season and previous years.
• 2012/09/08: RawStory: Overfishing pushes tuna stocks to the brink: experts
  

  Food Prices are problematic:

• FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
• 2012/09/15: DD: Inflationary effect of U.S. drought on food prices to be felt for years -- Drought most costly disaster since the 1980s
• 2012/09/14: UN: Rise in Argentina's maize exports to ease pressure in international food markets - UN
• 2012/09/11: EnergyBulletin: Is the end of cheap food just an agricultural problem?
• 2012/09/09: BPA: Global Stories of Spending More Personal Income on Food
  

  The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

• 2012/09/13: EurActiv: Paris backs halt in biofuel use to avert food shortages
• 2012/09/11: EurActiv: EU proposal would limit use of crop-based biofuels
  The European Union plans to impose a limit on the use of crop-based biofuels over fears they are less climate-friendly than initially thought and compete with food production, according to draft EU legislation.
• 2012/09/15: CSM: Ethanol industry's big stand on Capitol Hill
  

  Regarding the genetic modification of food:

• 2012/09/14: Grist: Drought-tolerant seeds: Insurance policy for farmers or a big gamble?
• 2012/09/13: UCSUSA:B: A Less Thirsty Future Through Engineered Crops?
• 2012/09/13: TreeHugger: Nature Outsmarts Monsanto: Pests Develop Resistance to GM Corn
• 2012/09/12: ScienceInsider: Firestorm Erupts Over Transgenic Rice Study in Chinese Children
• 2012/09/11: ABC(Au): Opposition calls for rethink on GM wheat trial
  The State Opposition is calling on the Government to ensure a genetically modified wheat variety that is potentially fatal to humans, is not planted in WA.
• 2012/09/07: TechRev: Drought Puts Modified Corn Seed to the Test
  Three major seed producers are working on drought-resistant crops. The conditions this summer are providing a stern test.
• 
  

  Regarding labelling GM food:

   

• 2012/09/13: TreeHugger: Meet the Scientific "Experts" Claiming GMO Foods are Safe
  

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

• 2012/09/11: BPA: Future Challenges of Irrigation and Water Use in U.S. Agriculture
• 2012/09/13: Grist: Dear U.S. government, please get your food waste act together
• 2012/09/12: UCSUSA:B: Reasons to Buy Organic: Let Us Count the Ways
• 2012/09/13: CDreams: Funding Sources of Anti-Organics Stanford Study Questioned in New Report
• 2012/09/10: UN: UN food agency launches nutrition initiative for millions of Afghans
• 2012/09/09: TreeHugger: The Truth Behind Organic Labels
• 2012/09/09: al Jazeera: Designing food systems to protect nature and get rid of hunger by Dr Vandana Shiva
  Industrialisation of agriculture creates hunger and malnutrition, destroying the food web to which we all belong.
• 
  

  In the Western Pacific, Cat 3 Sanba ran up the alley from just east of the Philipines toward the Koreas:

   

• 2012/09/16: CNN: Powerful typhoon rumbles over Japanese island of Okinawa
  Typhoon Sanba is on track to hit South Korea - It made landfall in Okinawa earlier Sunday - The eye of the storm was nearly half the island's length - Sanba has the same intensity as a Category 3 hurricane
• 2012/09/15: CBC: Typhoon Sanba causes blackouts, flooding in Japan
• 2012/09/15: Wunderground: Category 3 Typhoon Sanba hitting Okinawa
• 2012/09/14: CNN: Super typhoon headed for Okinawa, South Korea
  Typhoon Sanba has sustained winds of around 130 mph near its center - It is expected to approach Okinawa early Sunday before heading to South Korea - Last month, another large storm killed more than 60 people on the Korea Peninsula
• 2012/09/14: al Jazeera: Super Typhoon Sanba heads toward Okinawa
  The strongest cyclone for 2012 is making its way north and putting the Ryukyu Islands on alert
• 2012/09/13: NASA: NASA Sees Sanba Become a Super Typhoon
• 2012/09/12: CNN: Typhoon-stricken North Korea rebuffs aid offer from South
  In August, Tropical Storm Bolaven killed at least 48 people, left tens of thousands homeless - South Korea offered aid, and the North requested a list of aid items - South Korea offered the North flour, instant noodles, medical supplies and other aid - "North Korea replied saying that they don't need such aid," South Korean Unification Ministry says - North Korea requested rice and cement instead

• In the Eastern Pacific, Kristy stayed out at sea, amidst some numbered storms and lately, Lane:

   

• 2012/09/14: NASA: NASA's Aqua Satellite Sees Tropical Storm Kristy Weaken, Other System Developing
• 2012/09/12: NASA: NASA Gives Infrared Identification of New Eastern Pacific Tropical Depression
  

  In the Atlantic, Leslie zapped Eastern Canada while Nadine and Michael stayed offshore:

   

• 2012/09/14: MODIS: Tropical Storm Leslie (12L) and Hurricane Michael (13L) in the Atlantic Ocean
• 2012/09/12: al Jazeera: Leslie smashes into Canada
  100,000 households lost power during the storm which brought down trees and power lines.
• 2012/09/12: CBC: Leslie cleanup in Newfoundland kicks into gear
• 2012/09/12: NASA: NASA Global Hawk and Satellites Attend Tropical Storm Nadine's 'Birth'
• 2012/09/12: Wunderground: Tropical Storm Nadine forms; Newfoundland cleans up after Leslie
• 2012/09/11: NASA: NASA Infrared Data Reveals Fading Tropical Storm Leslie and Peanut-Shaped Michael
• 2012/09/11: NASA: NASA's Global Hawk Investigating Atlantic Tropical Depression 14
• 2012/09/11: MODIS: Tropical Storm Leslie (12L) and Hurricane Michael (13L) in the Atlantic Ocean
• 2012/09/11: Wunderground: Tropical Storm Leslie hits Newfoundland; TD 14 forms
• 2012/09/10: Wunderground: Leslie bears down on Newfoundland; TD 14 forming
• 2012/09/10: NASA: NASA Catches Tropical Storm Leslie and Hurricane Michael in the Atlantic
• 2012/09/11: BBerg: Tropical Storm Leslie May Mean Heavy Rain in Newfoundland
• 2012/09/10: PlanetArk: Hurricane Michael expected to weaken further: NHC
• 2012/09/09: Wunderground: Leslie brushing Bermuda, heading for Newfoundland
• 2012/09/09: CSM: Tropical Storm Leslie buffets Bermuda, heads for Newfoundland
• 2012/09/10: CBC: Hurricane watch on for anxious Newfoundland
  

  While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

• 2012/09/14: al Jazeera: Hurricane season reveals economic perils of ignoring climate predictions
  Warming surface waters are increasing tropical cyclone intensity, so why are we being so irresponsible?
• 2012/09/13: CCP: Kerry Emanuel: Strong anthropogenic hurricane signal in the Atlantic... serious increases in hurricane rainfall...categories 3-5 expected to increase [vid]
  

  As for the Monsoon:

• 2012/09/14: ABC(Au): 28 dead, a dozen buried in India landslides
  At least 28 people in northern India have died in landslides and flash floods triggered by heavy overnight monsoon rains and about a dozen others are missing.
• 2012/09/11: al Jazeera: The monsoon's final show of strength
  Just before the rains retreat, torrential falls across many parts of Pakistan.
• 
  

  Meanwhile on the GHG front:

   

• 2012/09/11: LA Times: U.S. carbon emissions fell in three of last four years
• 2012/09/11: ITRacker: Conversions
• 2012/09/07: Google:AFP: Climate: EU emissions down 2.5 percent in 2011 [says EEA]
  

  And the temperature record:

• 2012/09/15: Moyhu: August GISS Temp up 0.09°C - ice news
• 2012/09/10: CapClimate: Attention Climate Conspiracists: NOAA Adjustments Show Summer 2012 3rd Hottest on Record
• 2012/09/11: PlanetArk: In U.S., 2012 so far is hottest year on record
• 2012/09/10: TreeHugger: "Unprecedented Territory": 2012 the Hottest Year Recorded in the U.S. So Far
• 2012/09/10: Wunderground: Summer 2012: 3rd hottest in U.S. history
• 2012/09/10: Moyhu: August TempLS Global Temp up slightly (0.01°C) from July
• 2012/09/09: CapClimate: Only 4% of U.S. Cooler Than Average as Fall Begins With 39th Consecutive Warm Week
  

  And on the ENSO front:

• 2012/09/12: W&C: El Nino Developing this Year
• 2012/09/12: PSinclair: On Heels of Hellish 2012, El Nino Warming Waiting in Wings
• 2012/09/11: PlanetArk: Japan forecaster keeps view El Nino likely till winter
• 2012/09/11: RealClimate: El Nino's effect on CO2 causes confusion about CO2's role for climate change
  

  Rossby Waves, Blocking Patterns, Arctic Oscillation: What is the Arctic melt doing to our weather?

• 2012/09/15: DosBat: Summer Daze? The Arctic Dipole!
• 2012/09/15: TMoS: "We're In Uncharted Territory"
• 2012/09/14: CSM: Blocking patterns: How global warming might have worsened US drought
• 2012/09/14: Guardian(UK): Arctic sea ice melt 'may bring harsh winter to Europe'
• 2012/09/12: NatureN: Ice loss shifts Arctic cycles
  Record shrinkage confounds models and portends atmospheric and ecological change.
• 2012/09/12: CCR: Arctic warning: As the system changes, we must adjust our science
• 2012/09/10: DWWSJ: Arctic Ice Is Disappearing and Our Weather Will Never Be The Same
• 2012/09/10: EarlyWarning: Sea Level Pressure Changes since 2007
• 2012/09/07: Dosbat: Summer Daze 2012
  

  And the State of the Oceans:

• 2012/09/13: ABC(Au): Cable Beach awash with jellyfish
  The normally picturesque Cable Beach in Broome has been lined with hundreds of thousands of rotting jellyfish.
• 
  

  And the State of the Biosphere:

   

• 2012/09/14: SciNow: Plight of the Bumblebee
• 2012/09/14: DD: Video: The most important call to action imaginable
  Futurist Daniel Rirdan's passionate appeal to save what's left of Earth's biosphere
• 2012/09/11: SciNow: Greenland Lemmings' Collapse Pushes Predators to Brink
• 2012/09/09: ProMedMail: Die-off, fish - Canada: (ON) lake inversion susp
  

  What's new on the extinction front?

• 2012/09/14: SciAm:EC: Endangered Cayman Islands Parrots and Iguanas Could Use More Shelters and Havens
• 2012/09/13: BBC: Scottish wildcat extinct within months, association says
  Scottish wildcats will be extinct in the wild within months as numbers of pure-bred cats have fallen to about 35 individuals, conservationists warn.
• 2012/09/11: CSM: Scientists release list of world's 100 most threatened species
• 2012/09/14: DerSpiegel: 'Blood Ivory' -- Brutal Elephant Slaughter Funds African Conflicts
  Rebels and militias across Africa have discovered the illegal trade in elephant ivory. Coveted in Asia, their tusks bring in handsome sums that are funding wars across the continent. Many game wardens hardly stand a chance against the slaughter.
• 2012/09/11: CBC: Scientists identify planet's 100 most threatened species
  International conservation groups have unveiled a list of the earth's most threatened 100 animals, plants and fungi and say urgent action is needed to protect them. The Zoological Society of London and the International Union for Conservation of Nature identified the species Tuesday in a report presented to a global conservation forum on the southern South Korean island of Jeju.
• 
  

  What's up with volcanoes this week?

   

• 2012/09/16: IOTD: Volcán de Fuego
• 2012/09/13: al Jazeera: Thousands flee Guatemala volcano eruption
  More than 33,000 people evacuated from villages around the Fuego volcano, 40km southwest of Guatemala City.
• 2012/09/13: BBC: Guatemala Fuego volcano eruption triggers evacuation
  Guatemala has evacuated thousands of people after the Fuego volcano started spewing ash and lava. Volcanologists said powerful eruptions were catapulting burning rocks as high as 1,000m (3,280ft) above the crater and lava was flowing down its slopes.
• 2012/09/13: CBC: Guatemala's Volcano of Fire spews lava, ash -- More than 30,000 people forced to flee tourist area
• 2012/09/13: Guardian(UK): Volcano erupts in Guatemala forcing thousands to evacuate
  

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2012/09/15: DD: Graph of the Day: Change in Vegetation Cover by Biome across Latin America, 2001-2010
• 2012/09/11: Grist: Climate change could make summer crime waves worse
• 2012/09/11: EnergyBulletin: At edge of Peruvian Andes, tracking impacts of warming
• 2012/09/12: CCNY: Warmer Temperatures Make New USDA Plant Zone Map Obsolete
  

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2012/09/12: TP:JR: Study: Southwestern Forests May Be Victim Of A 'Vicious Cycle' Of Drought Due To Global Warming
• 2012/09/12: USDA:FS: Old Deeds, Witness Trees Offer Glimpse of Pre-settlement Forest in West Virginia
• 2012/09/10: UCSUSA:B: Rethinking Forest Plantations
• 2012/09/09: Eureka: Forest mortality and climate change: The big picture
  

  Emerging diseases accompany ecological change:

• 2012/09/13: NatureN: Birds sound the alarm on West Nile Virus -- Evolving virulence tracked by samples of virus taken from dead crows and blue jays
• 2012/09/12: CBC: Ontario West Nile case count highest in 10 years - 158 confirmed and probable cases as of Sept. 8
• 2012/09/11: Guardian(UK): Climate change will extend hay fever season by six weeks, report warns
• 2012/09/15: TreeHugger: The Public Health Implications of Global Warming
• 2012/09/10: LA Times: West Nile virus may get worse as climate gets hotter, experts say
  

  This week in the New Normal -- extreme weather:

• 2012/09/09: WtD: The new normal: interactive timeline of 2012's extreme weather
  

  As for heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2012/09/16: WpgFP: 'We're helpless here': radio dispatches reveal early minutes of B.C. wildfire
• 2012/09/15: al Jazeera: More Wildfires in the western US
  Firefighters are struggling to contain blazes across many rain-parched areas.
• 2012/09/15: MODIS: Fires and smoke across southeast Europe
• 2012/09/12: SF Gate: Stubborn wildfires vex crews in Northwest, Calif.
• 2012/09/13: IOTD: Wildfires in Siberia
• 2012/09/10: WaPo: Dry Northwest burns after weekend storms as arid West's wildfire season extends into September
• 2012/09/11: PlanetArk: Wildfires threaten homes in northern Rockies, eastern Cascades
• 2012/09/10: CBC: Wildfires scorch U.S. West as homes evacuated -- Fire crews hope for weather change to help cool down temperatures
• 2012/09/10: CBC: Grass fire forces southern Alberta residents from homes
• 2012/09/09: HuffPo: Idaho's Mustang Complex Wildfire Drives Hundreds From Homes
• 2012/09/10: ABC(Au): Bushfire smoke could affect Pacific Highway today
  Drivers are warned of possible heavy smoke along the Pacific highway today from bushfires near Grafton. North coast crews have been busy over the weekend battling scores of bushfires.
• 2012/09/09: CBC: B.C. wildfire evacuation orders grow -- Highway closed, states of local emergency declared
  A raging wildfire in B.C.'s Okanagan Valley has forced 1,500 people from their homes, and officials are asking dozens more to be prepared to leave at a moment's notice.
• 
  

  Corals are a bellwether of the ocean's health:

   

• 2012/09/15: P3: 6/7 of Caribbean Coral is Dead
• 2012/09/12: Maribo: Are Caribbean coral reefs on the verge of collapse?
• 2012/09/10: CCurrents: Climate Change: The Caribbean Coral Reefs Suffer And 500 Million People In The World Threatened
• 2012/09/10: TreeHugger: Just 8% of Caribbean Reefs Now Have Living Coral
• 2012/09/10: Guardian(UK): Caribbean coral reefs face collapse
  Caribbean coral reefs are in danger of disappearing, depriving the world of one of its most beautiful and productive ecosystems
• 2012/09/10: AFTIC: Just a few decades left for coral reefs
  

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2012/09/15: Grist: Photos: See ya later, lovely glaciers
• 2012/09/14: CCP: UPI: Glacial melt in the Himalayas has been increasing over the last 30 years, says a new study
• 2012/09/13: FaGP: Des Poilus Glacier Retreat, British Columbia
• 2012/09/12: BBC: Everest Sherpas in glacial lake study warning
• 2012/09/11: MoJo: Photos: See Ya Later, Lovely Glaciers
• 2012/09/12: Eureka: Himalayan glaciers retreating at accelerated rate in some regions but not others
• 2012/09/10: FaGP: Glacier Post Index 2009-August 2012
• 2012/09/10: TP:JR: As Glaciers Melt In The European Alps, A Famed Austrian Peak Is Nearly Ice-Free
  

  Sea levels are rising:

• 2012/09/10: PlanetArk: Drilling to lakes under Antarctic may give clues to sea rise
  A British plan to drill into a sunless lake deep under Antarctica's ice in December could show the risks of quicker sea level rise caused by climate change, scientists said on Friday. Sediments on the bed of Lake Ellsworth, which is several hundred meters (yards) below sea level and buried under 3 km (1.6 miles) of ice, may include bits of ancient seashells that could be dated to reveal when the ice sheet last broke up. Experts say the West Antarctic ice sheet over the lake contains enough ice to raise world sea levels by 3-5 meters if it ever broke up - a threat to low-lying areas from Bangladesh to Florida, from Buenos Aires to Shanghai.
• 
  

  As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

   

• 2012/09/15: ABC(Au): Families evacuated in Manila floods
  Rescue operations are under way to help people stranded in floods in Manila after the Philippines capital was hit by fierce weekend rainstorms. Hundreds of families have been evacuated to higher ground.
• 2012/09/14: UN: UN humanitarian agencies boosting support to flood victims in Niger
• 2012/09/11: CCurrents: Dramatic Change In Ocean Salinity And A Wetter North
• 2012/09/12: IOTD: Flooding in Nigeria
• 2012/09/12: NOAANews: NOAA researchers join large, international flash flood project in Europe
  10-year project expected to reveal important findings beneficial to the United States
• 2012/09/11: ABC(Au): PNG floods bring death and damage
• 2012/09/15: DD: From dry rivers to dead deer, U.S. drought impact felt everywhere
• 2012/09/10: Eureka: Droughts are pushing trees to the limit
  Droughts in the Southwest exacerbated by warming temperatures are putting plants in stressful growing conditions, identifying an increasingly water-thirsty atmosphere as a key force that sucks moisture from plants
• 2012/09/10: al Jazeera: Further floods for North Korea
  After the recent passage of two tropical storms, another spell of rain has brought devastating floods.
• 2012/09/10: CBC: Heavy rains flood parts of central Nova Scotia -- Cape Breton to get upwards of 125 mm overnight
  

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

• 2012/09/14: SkS: How to Solve the Climate Problem: a Step-by-Step Guide by dana1981
• 2012/09/13: ICN: Gas Glut Threatens Climate Battle: IEA
• 2012/09/10: EurActiv: Climate change expert calls for geoengineering and nuclear 'binge' to avert global warming
  A leading British academic has called for accelerated research into futuristic geo-engineering and a worldwide nuclear power station "binge" to avoid runaway global warming. Peter Wadhams, professor of ocean physics at Cambridge University, said both potential solutions had inherent dangers but were now vital as time was running out.
• 2012/09/09: ITracker: Bottom line: Does switching from coal to shale gas slow climate change?
• 2012/09/09: Guardian(UK): Climate change expert calls for nuclear power 'binge' to avert global warming
  

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2012/09/12: EurActiv: MEPs OK law on cutting sulphur content in shipping fuels
• 2012/09/11: NBF: Estimate of 81.8 million new cars and trucks in 2012 and just over 1 billion old and new vehicles on the roads of the world
• 2012/09/13: Eureka: 'Smart growth' strategies curb car use, greenhouse gas emissions, SF State study suggest
• 2012/09/12: NBF: China High Speed Rail Sufficiently Profitable for the New Expansions
  

  As for carbon sequestration:

• 2012/09/14: LoE: Embracing the madness
• 2012/09/13: Gizmodo: The Next Industrial Revolution Starts in this 20-foot Shipping Container
• 2012/09/11: Stoat: CCS news
  

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2012/09/14: GEP: WWF Supports Geoengineering Research
• 2012/09/14: CoverInBees: "We need to thread a path between anarchy and fascism" - MT
• 2012/09/13: HuffPo: Geo-engineering - A Tool in the Fight to Tackle Climate Change, or a Dangerous Distraction?
• 2012/09/12: Guardian(UK): [Letters] Chaos theory and geoengineering
  

  What's new in conservation?

• 2012/09/14: USAToday: Plans for giant Antarctic marine sanctuary falter
• 2012/09/10: NatureNB: Indigenous peoples play growing role in biodiversity protection
  

  What's new in restoration?

• 2012/09/14: SciAm:GB: Wildfire Restoration
  

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2012/09/12: VoxEU: What does trade have to do with climate change? by Harun Onder
  As multilateral attempts for climate-change mitigation stall, the two-way relationship between trade and climate change is likely to come under further scrutiny. This column explains how liberalised trade has several climate-related consequences. It argues that trade policy could enforce mitigation policies but that multilateral conventions are crucial in preventing undesired protectionist consequences.
• 2012/09/12: VoxEU: Helping poor farmers help themselves against drought by Karen Macours et al.
  Droughts in the US, India, and the Sahel are making headlines, with the farmers themselves often the first to lose out. This column presents findings from a randomised control trial exploring whether providing households with training and capital to diversify their incomes can cushion the shock of severe weather.
• 2012/09/11: PNAS: (abs) Soybean susceptibility to manufactured nanomaterials with evidence for food quality and soil fertility interruption by John H. Priester et al.
• 2012/09/11: PNAS: (ab$) Seasonal migration to high latitudes results in major reproductive benefits in an insect by Jason W. Chapman et al.
• 2012/09/11: PNAS: (ab$) Arthropods in amber from the Triassic Period by Alexander R. Schmidt et al.
• 2012/09/11: PNAS: (abs) Brown carbon and internal mixing in biomass burning particles by Daniel A. Lack et al.
• 2012/09/11: PNAS: (abs) Perception of climate change by James Hansen et al.
• 2012/09/11: PNAS: (letter$) A new face for climate dice by Thomas R. Karl & Richard W. Katz
• 2012/09/11: PNAS: (letter$) Reply to Lima-Ribeiro et al.: Human arrival scenarios have little influence on interpretations of late Quaternary extinctions by Graham W. Prescott et al.
• 2012/09/11: PNAS: (letter$) Human arrival scenarios have a strong influence on interpretations of the late Quaternary extinctions by Matheus S. Lima-Ribeiro et al.
• 2012/09/12: RSPB: (ab$) The impact of past climate change on genetic variation and population connectivity in the Icelandic arctic fox by Andrew Mellows et al.
• 2012/09/11: PLoS Medicine: Misrepresentation of Randomized Controlled Trials in Press Releases and News Coverage: A Cohort Study by Amélie Yavchitz et al.
• 2012/09/12: ACP: Occurrence of lower cloud albedo in ship tracks by Y.-C. Chen et al.
• 2012/09/11: ACP: A methodology for in-situ and remote sensing of microphysical and radiative properties of contrails as they evolve into cirrus by H. M. Jones et al.
• 2012/09/10: ACP: A comparative study of the major sudden stratospheric warmings in the Arctic winters 2003/2004-2009/2010 by J. Kuttippurath & G. Nikulin
• 2012/09/10: ACP: Carbon and hydrogen isotopic ratios of atmospheric methane in the upper troposphere over the Western Pacific by T. Umezawa et al.
• 2012/09/13: ACPD: An empirical model of global climate - Part 2: Implications for future temperature by N. R. Mascioli et al.
• 2012/09/13: ACPD: An empirical model of global climate - Part 1: Reduced impact of volcanoes upon consideration of ocean circulation by T. Canty et al.
• 2012/09/12: ACPD: Could aerosol emissions be used for regional heat wave mitigation? by D. N. Bernstein et al.
• 2012/09/12: ACPD: The 2007-2011 evolution of tropical methane in the mid-troposphere as seen from space by MetOp-A/IASI by C. Crevoisier et al.
• 2012/09/11: ACPD: Interactive ozone and methane chemistry in GISS-E2 historical and future climate simulations by D. T. Shindell et al.
• 2012/09/10: ACPD: The influence of boreal forest fires on the global distribution of non-methane hydrocarbons by A. C. Lewis et al.
• 2012/09/12: Nature: (ab$) Afternoon rain more likely over drier soils by Christopher M. Taylor et al.
• 2012/09/13: CP: Contribution of changes in opal productivity and nutrient distribution in the coastal upwelling systems to Late Pliocene/Early Pleistocene climate cooling by J. Etourneau et al.
• 2012/09/13: CPD: Modulation of Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic climate by variable drawdown of atmospheric pCO2 from weathering of basaltic provinces on continents drifting through the equatorial humid belt by D. V. Kent & G. Muttoni
• 2012/09/12: CPD: Multi-periodic climate dynamics: spectral analysis of long-term instrumental and proxy temperature records by H.-J. Lüdecke et al.
• 2012/09/12: CPD: Tephrostratigraphic studies on a sediment core from Lake Prespa in the Balkans by M. Damaschke et al.
• 2012/09/10: CPD: Long term January-March and May-August temperature reconstructions from tree-ring records from Bosnia and Herzegovina by S. Poljansek et al.
• 2012/09/13: ERL: Seasonal forecasts of northern hemisphere winter 2009/10 by D R Fereday et al.
• 2012/09/01: GRL: (ab$) Weighing the ocean: Using a single mooring to measure changes in the mass of the ocean by Chris W. Hughes et al.
• 2012/09/10: NERC:NORA: Weighing the ocean: Using a single mooring to measure changes in the mass of the ocean by Christopher W. Hughes et al.
• 2012/09/13: NERC:NORA: Large carabid beetle declines in a United Kingdom monitoring network increases evidence for a widespread loss in insect biodiversity by David R. Brooks et al.
• 2012/09/14: ACPD: Quantifying the constraint of biospheric process parameters by CO2 concentration and flux measurement networks through a carbon cycle data assimilation system by E. Koffi et al.
• 2012/09/14: ACPD: Explicit modeling of volatile organic compounds partitioning in the atmospheric aqueous phase by C. Mouchel-Vallon et al.
• 2012/09/14: ACPD: Long-term observations of aerosol size distributions in semi-clean and polluted savannah in South Africa by V. Vakkari et al.
• 2012/09/14: ACPD: Rate coefficients for the reaction of O(1D) with the atmospherically long-lived greenhouse gases NF3, SF3CF3, CHF3, C2F6, c-C3F8, n-C5F12, and n-C6F14 by M. Baasandorj et al.
• 2012/09/13: GMD: Mid-Pliocene climate modelled using the UK Hadley Centre Model: PlioMIP Experiments 1 and 2 by F. J. Bragg et al.
• 2012/09/14: GMDD: The Norwegian Earth System Model, NorESM1-M - Part 2: Climate response and scenario projections by T. Iversen et al.
• 2012/09/14: GMDD: The Norwegian Earth System Model, NorESM1-M - Part 1: Description and basic evaluation by M. Bentsen et al.
• 2012/09/13: GMDD: Simulations of the Mid-Pliocene Warm Period using the NASA/GISS ModelE2-R Earth System Model by M. A. Chandler et al.
• 2012/09/12: GMDD: A methodology for estimating seasonal cycles of atmospheric CO2 resulting from terrestrial net ecosystem exchange (NEE) fluxes using the Transcom T3L2 pulse-response functions by C. D. Nevison et al.
• 2012/09/12: GMDD: Modeling atmospheric ammonia and ammonium using a backward-in-time stochastic Lagrangian air quality model (STILT-Chem v0.7) by D. Wen et al.
• 2012/09/13: OSD: Measurement of turbulence in the oceanic mixed layer using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) by S. G. George & A. R. L. Tatnall
• 2012/09/14: TC: Limitations of a coupled regional climate model in the reproduction of the observed Arctic sea-ice retreat by W. Dorn et al.
• 2012/09/12: TC: Evaluation of the criticality of cracks in ice shelves using finite element simulations by C. Plate et al.
• 2012/09/12: TC: A simple inverse method for the distribution of basal sliding coefficients under ice sheets, applied to Antarctica by D. Pollard & R. M. DeConto
• 2012/09/12: TCD: Seasonal controls on snow distribution and aerial ablation at the snow-patch and landscape scales, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica by J. W. Eveland et al.
• 2012/09/12: TCD: Environmental controls on the thermal structure of alpine glaciers by N. J. Wilson & G. E. Flowers
• 2012/06/17: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Hydrologic cycling over Antarctica during the middle Miocene warming by Sarah J. Feakins et al.
• 2012/09/10: GMDD: CLM4-BeTR, a generic biogeochemical transport and reaction module for CLM4: model development, evaluation, and application by J. Tang et al.
• 2012/09/10: GMDD: PORT, a CESM tool for the diagnosis of radiative forcing by A. J. Conley et al.
• 2012/09/10: TC: 3-D image-based numerical computations of snow permeability: links to specific surface area, density, and microstructural anisotropy by N. Calonne et al.
• 2012/09/10: TC: Glacier dynamics over the last quarter of a century at Helheim, Kangerdlugssuaq and 14 other major Greenland outlet glaciers by S. L. Bevan et al.
• 2012/09/12: PLoS One: Why Most Biomedical Findings Echoed by Newspapers Turn Out to be False: The Case of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder by François Gonon et al.
• 2012/09/04: ERL: Stratospheric passenger flights are likely an inefficient geoengineering strategy by Anton Laakso et al.
• 2012/09/10: AGWObserver: New research from last week 36/2012
• 2012/09/09: Nature:CC: (ab$) Drought alters the structure and functioning of complex food webs by Mark E. Ledger et al.
• 2012/09/09: Nature:CC: (ab$) Ocean acidification causes ecosystem shifts via altered competitive interactions by Kristy J. Kroeker et al.
• 2012/09/09: Nature:CC: (ab$) Geophysical limits to global wind power by Kate Marvel et al.
• 2012/09/09: Nature:CC: (ab$) Consequences of widespread tree mortality triggered by drought and temperature stress by William R. L. Anderegg et al.
  

  And other significant documents:

• 2012/09/12: CDP: [link to 2.6 meg pdf] CDP Global 500 Climate Change Report 2012
• 2012/09/: BZE: [link to 3.9 meg pdf] Laggard to Leader
  

  As for miscellaneous science:

• 2012/09/14: Guardian(UK): Replication is the only solution to scientific fraud
• 2012/09/14: Guardian(UK): False positives: fraud and misconduct are threatening scientific research
  High-profile cases and modern technology are putting scientific deceit under the microscope
• 2012/09/14: KSJT: Science fraud and misconduct: the threat to science
• 2012/09/13: QuarkSoup: Photos from WHOI
• 2012/09/13: BBC: Tropical East Africa's epic flora survey completed
  The complete flora of tropical East Africa has been recorded by scientists, 60 years after the project first began. When researchers started the task in 1948 they thought it would only take 15 years to finish. But it took 135 botanists from 21 countries six decades to catalogue all the 12,104 wild plant species of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. 1,500 plant species new to science have been described during the project from acacia trees to flowering plants. 114 newly discovered plant species were listed in the last four years alone.
• 2012/09/13: ABC(Au): Study finds rain falls mainly on dry plains
• 2012/09/12: SMandia: American Geophysical Union/Climate Science Legal Defense Fund Legal Education Webinar Series
• 2012/09/12: NatureN: EU battles over research billions -- Politicians will spend the next few months negotiating cuts to Horizon 2020's budget
  

  What's new in models?

• 2012/09/14: BBC: Met Office model 'better at predicting extreme winters'
  UK weather forecasters can predict cold winter weather a season ahead with more confidence, according to analysis of a new computer model.
• 2012/09/12: Wunderground:RR: New Report: A National Strategy for Advancing Climate Modeling
  

  What developments in the ongoing struggle for Free Science?

• 2012/09/12: GLaden: Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research embraces open access
  

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2012/09/10: CBC: UN panel warns of climate credit market collapse
  A U.N.-appointed expert panel says international efforts to encourage investment in green technologies could collapse if countries don't boost the market for `climate credits.' The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change says governments need to restore investors' faith in so-called carbon markets, including the U.N.'s Clean Development Mechanism.
• 2012/09/10: Guardian(UK): Global carbon trading system has 'essentially collapsed'
  The UN clean development mechanism, designed to give poor countries access to green technologies, is in dire need of rescue
• 2012/09/10: PlanetArk: Fewer than expected bid for [RGGI] cap-and-trade emission permits
  

  The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

• 2012/09/13: WCEL: Evidence suggests carbon tax is good economic policy
• 2012/09/11: WCI: Goodbye carbon taxes, hello atmospheric user fees
  

  The debate over the optimal strategy to use against GHGs popped up again:

• 2012/09/15: CSM: Gas taxes vs. fuel restrictions: Which is better for reducing emissions?
  

  On the international political front, tensions continue as the empire leans on Iran:

• 2012/09/14: AntiWar: US Renews Japan, EU Waivers to Bypass Iran Sanctions -- Satisfied that Japan, EU Have Cut Oil Purchases
• 2012/09/13: al Jazeera: UN nuclear agency board rebukes Iran
  IAEA's 35-nation board of governors expressed "serious concern" over Tehran's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.
• 
  

  South (& East) China Sea tension persists:

   

• 2012/09/16: BBC: Japan PM Noda urges China to prevent anti-Japan violence
• 2012/09/16: al Jazeera: Anti-Japan protests continue in China
  China urged to protect companies and diplomatic buildings from fresh assaults amid tensions over territorial dispute.
• 2012/09/15: CSM: Chinese protesters clash with police outside Japanese embassy
• 2012/09/15: CBC: Chinese island dispute with Japan escalates with protests -- Mass rally in Beijing turns violent
• 2012/09/15: al Jazeera: In Japan, the right rises on China fears
  As war of words heats up with China over disputed islands, Japan's conservative politicians are pushing a tough line.
• 2012/09/15: al Jazeera: Anti-Japan protests grow in China
  Thousands besiege Japan's embassy in Beijing over Tokyo's assertion of control over disputed islands in East China Sea.
• 2012/09/15: ABC(Au): Beijing crowds protest at Japan embassy
• 2012/09/15: Guardian(UK): Japan's Beijing embassy beseiged by Chinese crowd in islands dispute
• 2012/09/15: BBC: Anti-Japan protests hit China cities amid island row
• 2012/09/14: CSM: China reacts with surveillance ships to Japan's purchase of disputed islands
• 2012/09/14: iPolitics: Japan decries Chinese naval incursion into territorial waters
• 2012/09/14: CBC: Japanese, Chinese ships exchange warnings near disputed islands -- Chinese vessels leave zone as typhoon approaches
• 2012/09/14: al Jazeera: China sends six ships to disputed islands
  Deployment dubbed "unprecedented" by Tokyo comes as reports emerge that Japanese nationals had been attacked in China.
• 2012/09/14: DerSpiegel: Power in the Pacific -- Stronger Chinese Navy Worries Neighbors and US
  China and the US seem to be on a collision course in the Pacific. Beijing is significantly bolstering its navy, and Washington is shifting its military focus to the Asia-Pacific Region. Many fear it could alter the balance of power in a region rich in oil and crucial for global trade.
• 2012/09/13: BBC: China ships enter waters near disputed islands
  Six Chinese surveillance ships have entered waters near islands claimed by both Japan and China. China said the ships were carrying out "law enforcement" to demonstrate its jurisdiction over the islands, known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan.
• 2012/09/13: WSWS: Tensions between China and Japan flare over disputed islands
• 2012/09/12: BBC: The US has called for "cooler heads to prevail" as tension intensifies between China and Japan over disputed islands in the East China Sea
• 2012/09/11: Guardian(UK): Senkaku islands dispute escalates as China sends out patrol ships
• 2012/09/12: CSM: Tensions mount in South China Sea. Here's how to ease them.
• 2012/09/11: CBC: China angered as Japan buys contested islands -- Chinese patrol ships arrive near disputed islands in East China Sea
• 2012/09/11: CNN: China sends patrol ships to islands at center of dispute with Japan
  China issues a statement detailing its claim of sovereignty - The Japanese government has announced plans to buy the islands - Japan: "We don't want for this matter to adversely affect the bilateral relationship" - China disputes the Japan's plan and has sent ships to nearby waters
• 2012/09/11: BBC: China sends patrol ships to disputed East China Sea islands
  Two Chinese patrol ships have been sent to islands disputed with Japan, which has sealed a deal to purchase the territory, Chinese state media say.
• 2012/09/11: al Jazeera: China sends ships in islands row with Japan
  Two patrol ships sent after Tokyo said it would nationalise East China Sea islands.
• 2012/09/11: WSWS: Clinton stokes up tensions with China on tour of Asia
  

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

• 2012/09/12: Guardian(UK): Europe considers suspending airline emissions charge
  Officials stress the need to avert a trade war with major economic powers such as China and the United States
• 
  

  The EU antitrust investigation of Gazprom natural gas pricing has turned into outright wrangling:

   

• 2012/09/15: PCat: Putin prepares for a fistfight with the EU over Gazprom gas policies: Who will win?
• 2012/09/14: RT: EU says Gazprom should set equal gas price for all European buyers
• 2012/09/12: EUO: Putin says 'Niet' to EU anti-trust lawyers
  Russian President Vladimir Putin has passed a law blocking Gazprom from normal co-operation with EU anti-trust officials. Referring to potential EU-Gazprom exchange of information on alleged price-fixing, his new decree on Tuesday (11 September) "establishe[d] the obligation of a federal executive body to refuse permission to conduct the aforementioned activities if they are capable of damaging the economic interests of the Russian Federation." Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov in Moscow the same day told press the EU is trying to extort gas discounts.
• 2012/09/12: CSM: Europe has had enough, but can it stand up to Gazprom?
  Gazprom has Europe's natural gas market in a stranglehold and Europe is attempting to fight back, first with a raid last year on the Russian giant's offices and then with a probe launched earlier this week against its allegedly illicit efforts to control the EU's natural gas supplies. The bottom line is that the same natural gas revolution in the US, which was enabled by hydraulic fracturing (fracking), is now threatening to loosen Gazprom's noose on the EU, and Gazprom simply won't have it. To head off a potential natural gas revolution in the EU, Gazprom is pulling out all the stops, and EU officials say that the company has been illegally throwing obstacles in the way of European gas diversification.
• 2012/09/11: EurActiv: Ukraine invites EU, Russia to co-manage its pipelines
  Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has called for establishing an international consortium consisting of Ukraine, Russia and the European Union to modernise and manage the Ukrainian natural gas transport system.
• 2012/09/11: EUO: Gazprom man calls EU a 'thief'
  Gazprom deputy head, Alexander Medvedev, on Monday became the latest Russian heavyweight to lambast the EU's price-fixing probe.
• 
  

  Climate Change is a threat multiplier exacerbating existing conflicts in food, energy, water, race, ideology ... etc.:

   

• 2012/09/07: EurasiaNet: Uzbekistan Leader Warns of Water Wars in Central Asia
• 2012/09/11: TMoS: Well, Duh. Water Woes = War
• 2012/08/28: AlterNet: Are the Water Wars Coming?
  

  What are the activists up to?

• 2012/09/14: al Jazeera: Deluge of water protests hit India
  Unusual protests become craze as locals submerge themselves in water to protest against dams and nuclear plant.
• 2012/09/14: DeSmogBlog: B.C. Leaders Plan Mass Rally Against Enbridge Gateway Pipeline October 22
• 2012/09/13: CBC: Pipeline opponents plan mass sit-in at B.C. legislature
• 2012/09/13: DeSmogBlog: Thousands Gather In DC To Stop Mountaintop Removal Mining
• 2012/09/11: Guardian(UK): Climate activists target Shell with ice protest over Arctic drilling
• 2012/09/12: TreeHugger: Protestors Block Entrance to Shell HQ With Giant Icy Pyramid
• 2012/09/11: TP:JR: An Interview With Bill McKibben: 'We Need To Go Straight At The Fossil Fuel Industry'
• 2012/09/10: ABC(Au): Two protesters scale rigs at gas hub site [Woodside's work site north of Broome]
  

  Polls! We have polls!

• 2012/09/12: Eureka: Sandia, OurEnergyPolicy.org release 'Goals of Energy Policy' poll results
• 2012/09/12: TreeHugger: Americans Want More Public Transit, Not Roads
  

  Regarding Water Politics and Business:

• 2012/09/14: TheCanadian: CETA Trade Deal, Jumbo Resort Proposal and Water Privatization
• 2012/09/14: WiredSci: The Salton Sea: Death and Politics in the Great American Water Wars
• 2012/09/14: SciAm:Obs: New Agreement Aims to Keep Great Lakes' Water Clean
• 2012/09/11: BBerg: Asia Risks Water Scarcity Amid Coal-Fired Power Embrace
• 2012/09/10: IAC: World confronts serious water crisis, former heads of government and experts warn in new report
  Elder statesmen call on UN Security Council to recognize water as a top concern
• 2012/09/11: NatureNB: Why has the Yangtze River turned red?
• 2012/09/11: TreeHugger: Solar Oven Makes Clean Drinking Water from Salt Water
• 2012/09/10: TreeHugger: US and Canada Sign New Great Lakes Accord
• 2012/09/09: CSW: The collision between power production and the impacts of climatic disruption on water supply
• 2012/09/07: Dailymail(UK): The river that DID run red: Residents of Chinese city left baffled after Yangtze turns scarlet
  

  And on the American political front:

• 2012/09/13: Grist: Dear U.S. government, please get your food waste act together
• 2012/09/12: ICN: Wyoming Governor to Interior: Back Off on Fracking Rules
• 2012/09/11: ICN: Few US States Submitting Oil and Gas Rules for Review
• 2012/09/11: ICN: Will New Fuel-Economy Rules Reduce the Need for Tar Sands Imports?
• 2012/09/12: ICN: Angry Michigan Residents Fight Uneven Battle Against Pipeline Project on Their Land
• 2012/09/11: CSW: New York City struggles with climate impacts preparedness
• 2012/09/12: UIllinois: Expert: With food insecurity rising in U.S., SNAP benefits should be left alone
• 2012/09/14: TP:JR: Majority Of Michigan Voters Support 25% Renewable Energy Target
• 2012/09/14: ICN: Illinois Industry, Enviros Gear Up for Legislative Fight Over Fracking
• 2012/09/11: DD: Climate change challenges U.S. power plant operations
• 2012/09/10: NYT: New York Is Lagging as Seas and Risks Rise, Critics Warn
• 2012/09/11: TP:JR: Are California PACs Cloaking Chevron's Support For A Democrat State Senator Opposed To Climate Action?
• 2012/09/15: CSW: "A Climate of Corporate Control" - public information and the need for inside information
• 2012/09/11: WSWS: More companies charged with manipulating California energy market
• 2012/09/10: PSinclair: Climate Science Finds Foothold Among Conservatives
  

  The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:

• 2012/09/11: TreeHugger: Transocean Talking Settlement With US, As BP Sells Oil Fields Fearing Fines Over Gulf Spill
• 2012/09/11: BBerg: BP Spill Victims Claim Gulf Hurricane Undermines Accord
  BP Plc's proposed $7.8 billion partial settlement of 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil-spill claims shouldn't be approved because last month's hurricane shows how the extent of the spill's damage still isn't known, a victim's lawyer said. Large amounts of weathered oil and tar were washed up after Hurricane Isaac struck land in the Gulf of Mexico, showing that the spill hasn't been contained and is still affecting the region, Stuart Smith, an attorney representing hundreds of Gulf Coast property owners and fishing and tourism businesses, said in a letter to the U.S. magistrate judge overseeing litigation over the 2010 spill.
• 2012/09/11: DeSmogBlog: As BP Tar Balls Litter Gulf Coast, Oil Giant Sells Off Gulf Of Mexico Assets
• 2012/09/11: PlanetArk: Transocean, U.S. discussing $1.5 billion spill settlement
• 2012/09/11: Eureka: At least 200,000 tons of oil and gas from Deepwater Horizon spill consumed by gulf bacteria
• 2012/09/11: BBC: BP sells off Gulf of Mexico oil and gas assets
  BP has agreed to sell a number of assets in the Gulf of Mexico for $5.6bn (£3.5bn) to US company Plains Exploration and Production. The sale comes as the UK oil giant is continuing to sell off parts of its business to pay for damages arising from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill.
• 2012/09/10: CBC: BP sells $5.55B US in Gulf assets
  

  On the 2012 campaign trail:

• 2012/09/15: CSM: Energy tycoon Pickens backs Romney
• 2012/09/14: CSM: Romney energy plan: pro-drilling, anti-regulation, and mum on climate change
• 2012/09/13: CCurrents: 5 Issues This Election Should Be About, And One To Drop
• 2012/09/14: TP:JR: Pro-Fossil Fuel Groups Outspend Clean Energy Advocates 4-1 In Television Campaign Ads
• 2012/09/13: CCP: NYT: Big Oil and Big Coal spend millions to defeat Obama -- Fossil Fuel Ads Dominate TV in Campaign
• 2012/09/13: TP:JR: If Parks Aren't A Drilling Target, What Other Lands Are?
• 2012/09/13: CCP: Kevin Grandia: Jeff Berman, 'Pivotal' Obama Campaigner Lobbied White House on Keystone XL Pipeline Project
• 2012/09/13: ICN: Does Obama's Climate Record Measure Up to Leadership Credentials Touted in Party Platform?
• 2012/09/13: TreeHugger: Whose Climate Policy Proposals Are the Greenest? Obama, Romney, Stein, or Johnson
• 2012/09/12: TP:JR: Three Questions For Romney's Energy Adviser Harold Hamm
• 2012/09/12: PSinclair: Rock the Debates: Bring Climate to the Presidential Debates
• 2012/09/11: TP:JR: International Drilling Trade Group Calls Romney's Plan To Turn Over Federal Lands To States 'Populist Raw Meat'
• 2012/09/11: CSM: Why I miss Ross Perot: Mitt Romney and Barack Obama ads are full of outright lies
• 2012/09/13: Grist: What Obama would do on climate in a second term: Carol Browner explains
• 2012/09/12: ScienceInsider: Vote for 'Obam-ney' if You Support Science?
• 2012/09/11: TP:JR: Paul Ryan Supported Green Auto Loans Before Launching A Political Attack On The Program
• 2012/09/10: Grist: The man without a plan: Romney has no real food and farming platform
• 2012/09/10: SciAm:PI: Mitt Romney gets climate change...wait, just kidding!
• 2012/09/10: TP:JR: Romney To Biosphere: Drop Dead
• 2012/09/10: TP:JR: Gov. Romney And Rep. Paul Ryan Want To Drill, Slash, And Sell Our Public Lands
• 2012/09/10: CCP: Republican meteorologist Paul Douglas to Mitt Romney: How You Can Help Me and My Family
  My Top Ten Reasons for Republicans to Accept Reality on the Climate
• 2012/09/07: IPA: Obama, Romney "Playing Games" with Environmental Disaster
• 2012/09/09: ERabett:JF: Romney, Obama fiddle while the planet burns
  

  The Keystone XL saga grinds along:

• 2012/09/14: ICN: Enbridge Using Eminent Domain for Michigan Pipeline Project
• 2012/09/12: ICN: Texas Farmers Challenge TransCanada's Land Rights
  

  The GOP War on Women continues:

• 2012/09/09: TPM:LW: Romney: It's My 'Preference' That The Supreme Court Reverse Roe V. Wade
• 2012/09/13: RawStory: Missouri lawmakers vote to allow employers to deny birth control coverage
  

  The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2012/09/11: al Jazeera: Obama can say 'climate' after all
  Aside from his acceptance speech and three briefer mentions, "Obama has not brought up climate change publicly in 2012".
• 
  

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

   

• 2012/09/14: TreeHugger: DoE Offers $10M Prize for Cheaper Roof Solar Installation Breakthrough
• 2012/09/14: ScienceInsider: USDA Announces Long-Term Agro-Ecology Network
• 2012/09/13: ADN: Commerce secretary declares Alaska salmon disaster
• 2012/09/13: TreeHugger: There Will Soon Be Oil and Gas Drilling in Up to 42 [US] National Parks
• 2012/09/13: NYT: U.S. Declares a Disaster for Fishery in Northeast
• 2012/09/13: NOAANews: Secretary of Commerce declares disaster in Northeast Groundfish Fishery
• 2012/09/13: NOAANews: Secretary of Commerce declares disaster for Alaska King Salmon
  Acting U.S. Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank today declared a commercial fishery failure on Alaska's Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers and in the Cook Inlet due to low Chinook salmon returns during the 2012 fishing season and previous years.
• 2012/09/13: ICN: U.S. Aims to Encourage Cheap Solar Power
• 2012/09/12: DeSmogBlog: Wyoming Governor To Interior Department: Back Off With Fracking Rules
  

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2012/09/15: NatureNB: Impact of impending US budget cut on science revealed
• 2012/09/14: ScienceInsider: Sequestration Would Cut U.S. Science Budgets By 8.2%, White House Estimates
• 2012/09/15: TP:JR: Blinded By The Right: House GOP Deletes Climate Change 'Concern' From Anti-EPA Bill
• 2012/09/14: TP:JR: House Republicans Voted Against The Environment More Than 300 Times Since 2011
• 2012/09/14: ICN: House Republicans Scrub Climate Change Concerns from EPA Bill
• 2012/09/14: ICN: Hoeven Amendment Would Greenlight Keystone XL
• 2012/09/13: TP:JR: House GOP Votes To Transfer Tens Of Thousands Of Acres Of Minnesota Public Lands To The State For Sulfide Mining
• 2012/09/13: ScienceInsider: U.S. Spending Deal Spares Satellites, Restoration Programs
  Two critical Earth-observing satellite programs -- and a major new initiative to restore Gulf of Mexico ecosystems damaged by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill -- won't be held up by a nasty budget stalemate in Washington. The U.S. House of Representatives today is expected to approve a temporary $1.047 trillion spending deal that holds most federal agencies to current spending levels for 6 months and bars them from launching any new programs.
• 2012/09/12: TP:JR: How Drilling Could Threaten Our National Parks
• 2012/09/13: OilChange: Energy security hearing to be show in industry spin and willful ignorance
• 2012/09/12: CCP: Key Congressmembers on Science Committees Refuse To Answer Science Questions
• 2012/09/10: Grist: Congress has three choices on the farm bill: Pass, renew, or flake
  

  While in the UK:

• 2012/09/15: CCP: Whistling past the climate change graveyard by David Atkins
• 2012/09/14: Guardian(UK): Is the government gas plan going to bust the UK's carbon targets?
  The coalition's climate advisers say the UK is planning so much gas power it will be impossible to meet carbon targets; the government says it can have its cake and eat it. Who's right?
• 2012/09/13: Guardian(UK): UK dash for gas would be illegal, says climate committee
  Letter from climate change committee slams government over comments suggesting unabated gas can play a role in the energy mix after 2030
• 2012/09/13: Guardian(UK): Why is the Co-op sponsoring an anti-aviation tax campaign?
• 2012/09/13: Guardian(UK): Gas warning reignites UK government row over energy policy
  Letter from CCC warning that backing for gas would breach climate targets pits Lord Deben against the chancellor
• 2012/09/13: BBC: Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood will promise a "green new deal" to stimulate the Welsh economy when her party's annual conference opens later
• 2012/09/11: Guardian(UK): Questions over climate change minister's links to his adviser
  Documents show [CC minister] Greg Barker met corporate clients of departmental consultant Miriam Maes's private firm [Air Products]
• 2012/09/11: BBC: The government is to fight an EU ruling that the UK must raise VAT on energy efficiency products from 5% to 20%
• 2012/09/09: Independent(UK): Tories' dash for gas risks climate target
  Go green, vote blue, said David Cameron, but even his environment adviser thinks difficult decisions are being put off
• 2012/09/09: BBC: Weather 'cost rural Britain £1bn'
  

  And in Europe:

• 2012/09/14: BBC: Call to freeze fishing in Europe to replenish stocks
• 2012/09/14: ICN: France's Hollande Wants 40 Percent CO2 Emissions Cut by 2030
• 2012/09/14: EurActiv: France seen turning to renewables for 'ecological patriotism'
  France's government begins a review of the world's most nuclear-dependent country's energy policy on Friday (14 September), strongly in support of its small and ailing renewables sector in an effort to boost local jobs and growth. Ministers, NGOs, unions, industries, parliamentarians and consumers will converge for a two-day conference to agree on how to conduct a six-month national debate that will seek to reshape the way energy is produced, consumed and taxed in France.
• 2012/09/13: EurActiv: Paris backs halt in biofuel use to avert food shortages
  A French plan to fight food price volatility took further shape yesterday (12 September) with a call to pause global development of biofuels, just a day after President François Hollande pushed for creation of strategic food stocks.
• 2012/09/13: EurActiv: Russia to Moldova: Choose cheap gas or EU integration
  Russia told impoverished Moldova yesterday (12 September) to choose between low-priced gas from Russia and its pledge to adopt European energy liberalisation measures opposed by Moscow, which is girding for a conflict with Europe over natural gas.
• 2012/09/13: EUO: Scandal around Slovak solar energy industry
• 2012/09/12: EurActiv: MEPs OK law on cutting sulphur content in shipping fuels
  The European Parliament has approved legislation to slash sulphur levels in shipping fuels, a move environmentalists say will help prevent thousands of deaths linked to maritime pollution.
• 2012/09/12: EurActiv: Parliament gives final green light to energy efficiency directive
  The EU tightened the energy efficiency thumbscrew by one notch yesterday (11 September), when the European Parliament plenary threw its weight behind the new Energy Efficiency Directive, negotiated before the summer break with EU member states. The directive came as a result of the March 2007 EU summit, when member states had struck an agreement on a 20% energy efficiency target by 2020, together with a 20% renewable energy target and a 20% CO2 reduction target. Whilst the latter two were dealt with immediately, the energy efficiency law was postponed to 2012.
• 2012/09/11: EurActiv: Cancelled Russian nuclear plant may cost Bulgaria E1 billion
  Russia's Atomstroyexport is seeking E1 billion in compensation following Bulgaria's decision to shelve plans for building the Belene nuclear power station near the River Danube. Dnevnik, EurActiv's partner publication in Bulgaria, reports.
• 2012/09/11: EurActiv: EU proposal would limit use of crop-based biofuels
  The European Union plans to impose a limit on the use of crop-based biofuels over fears they are less climate-friendly than initially thought and compete with food production, according to draft EU legislation.
• 2012/09/11: EUO: Europe can be 'proud' of its solar energy policy
• 2012/09/11: PlanetArk: EU to limit use of crop-based biofuels - draft law
  The European Union will impose a limit on the use of crop-based biofuels over fears they are less climate-friendly than initially thought and compete with food production, draft EU legislation seen by Reuters showed.
• 2012/09/10: PlanetArk: Balkans drought fuel fear of repeat winter energy crisis
  

  Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2012/09/16: ABC(Au): Firefighters protest over cuts to Qld rural fire service
  Volunteer firefighters in far north Queensland say they will let government property burn if proposed budget cuts are not scrapped. They joined protest action outside a state Community Cabinet meeting in Cairns today. This week, the Queensland Government announced plans to slash almost half of the paid positions in the state's Rural Fire Service as part of an austere budget. The decision has angered volunteer firefighters, with 15 brigades in far north Queensland saying they will no longer fight fires on government land.
• 2012/09/14: ABC(Au): Queensland to shut down quarantine greenhouses
  Queensland's plant and seed importers are scrambling and worried after a State Government budget decision to close a quarantine facility in Brisbane.
• 2012/09/13: ABC(Au): Second forestry group leaves peace talks
  A second industry player has walked out of the Tasmanian forest peace talks over the State Government's plan to restructure Forestry Tasmania.
• 2012/09/13: ABC(Au): Forest activists' camp torched
  Anti-forestry protesters have reported an apparent arson attack on a well-known protest camp in the Upper Florentine Valley. Activists say a large area of Camp Florentine has been destroyed by fire.
• 2012/09/13: ABC(Au): Laws to stop super trawler pass Lower House
  The House of Representatives has narrowly passed new laws aimed at stopping a super trawler from fishing in Commonwealth waters. The Opposition voted against the bill but it passed with the support of most crossbench MPs, including Rob Oakeshott, who had previously voiced concerns about the legislation. The bill will now be considered by the Senate next week.
• 2012/09/12: BBC: Australia rallies support for super-trawler vote
• 2012/09/12: ABC(Au): Coal Seam Gas green light shocks lobbyists
  The [NSW] Premier Barry O'Farrell has defended his Government's renewal of Coal Seam Gas exploration licenses. A moratorium on fracking and a freeze on licensing was lifted yesterday with the announcement of a new Strategic Land Use Policy
• 2012/09/12: ABC(Au): Darwin council concerned about nuke dump safety
  The Darwin City Council wants to know what safety systems would be in place for transporting waste from the proposed Muckaty Station nuclear dump near Tennant Creek. The council has weighed into the debate about Australia's first nuclear waste dump which is expected to be built at Muckaty Station.
• 2012/09/11: ABC(Au):TDU: Forward march of the Greens halted
• 2012/09/11: PlanetJ: Laggard to Leader
  A landmark report was launched a few weeks ago by Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE), Laggard to Leader: How Australia Can Lead the World to Zero Carbon Prosperity. Laggard to Leader is at its heart a response to the oft-heard arguments that Australia is too small for our actions to make a significant difference to global warming, but it is much more than that. The report debunks Australia's claims to be taking meaningful action at home and in UN climate talks. It comprehensively outlines a whole different way of thinking about the role of individual countries in climate change than that of the Australian government and political elite. It challenges the economic excuses for inaction. And it proposes an innovative set of bold actions Australia should take to make a real difference.
• 2012/09/11: ABC(Au): Federal government scuttles supertrawler
  The Federal government has introduced legislation that will prevent the supertrawler, now named Abel Tasman, from operating in Australian waters for two years while scientific research is carried out.
• 2012/09/11: ABC(Au): [WA] Opposition calls for release of bushfire report
  The State Opposition is calling on the Government to immediately release the findings of a report examining how the Margaret River bushfires were managed.
• 2012/09/11: ABC(Au): Industry uneasy about hold on clean energy grants
  The Federal Government has been accused of backing down from another plank of its carbon tax package, by putting a grant scheme on hold. The Australian Industry Group says it's worried about the future of a billion dollar scheme which is meant to help manufacturers become more energy efficient. The Federal Opposition says this is another carbon tax back-flip, but the Government says the review of the program is a normal part of the budget process.
• 2012/09/10: ABC(Au): Lismore residents give coal seam gas the thumbs down
  A region in northern NSW has overwhelmingly voted against coal seam gas mining. At its local elections at the weekend, the Lismore City Council ran an official poll asking 'Do you support coal seam gas (CSG) exploration and production in the Lismore City Council area?' Of the more than 80 per cent of the votes now counted, nearly 87 per cent answered no.
• 2012/09/10: ABC(Au): CEDA report calls for better consultation on coal seam gas
  

  A pissing match between Federal Labor and Queensland LNP over coal, carbon tax and mining taxes is unfolding:

• 2012/09/13: ABC(Au): [Queensland premier Campbell] Newman uses BHP earnings to counter critics
  The Queensland Government's fight with the mining industry over royalties has escalated, with Premier Campbell Newman releasing BHP's earnings figures which he says "fell off the back of a truck". BHP chairman Jac Nasser has criticised the royalties hike announced in Tuesday's state budget, saying it will damage research, investment and employment for decades. Against that, Mr Newman pointed to BHP's apparent $10 billion income from coal as justification for the decision.
• 2012/09/13: WSWS: Australia: Queensland budget spearheads new austerity offensive
• 2012/09/12: WtD: Queensland beautiful one day, coal free the next: QLD conservatives against CTAX hike coal mining royalties putting "billions" of projects at risk
• 2012/09/12: ABC(Au): Queensland shoots coal mining in the foot: BHP
  BHP Billiton's chairman Jac Nasser has slammed the Queensland Government's move to raise royalties, comparing it to handicapping an elite athlete.
• 2012/09/12: ABC(Au): Queensland, Commonwealth brawl over mining taxes
  A fight is brewing between the Federal Government and Queensland over mining royalties, with the Commonwealth threatening to cut infrastructure spending. Queensland's LNP Government yesterday announced plans to increase coal mining royalties, a move which it predicts will raise $1.6 billion over four years. The move threatens to blow a hole in the federal budget because the Commonwealth has agreed to refund state royalty charges as part of the mining tax package.
• 2012/09/11: ABC(Au): Coal mine closures and job losses 'due to consolidation and contract worker culture'
  Analyst Andrew Harrington, from Paterson Securities, says massive consolidation in the coal industry is behind the sudden closures of mines. He says smaller producers have been gobbled up by mining conglomerates which can keep some operations open while they close others.
• 2012/09/11: WSWS: Mining cuts deepen job losses across Australia
• 2012/09/10: ABC(Au): Blame game begins over coal job cuts
• 2012/09/10: ABC(Au): Xstrata, BHP the latest to slash coal jobs
• 2012/09/10: ABC(Au): Closure contracts for coal fired power stations 'corporate welfare'
• 2012/09/10: ABC(Au): BHP shuts Queensland coal mine as prices slide
  BHP Billiton has added to the wave of closures in the coal mining sector, shutting a central Queensland mine due to low prices and high costs. The company's joint venture with Japanese firm Mitsubishi, BMA, says it will cease production at its Gregory open-cut mine near Emerald from October 10. The announcement came as fellow coal miner Xstrata announced it was slashing around 600 jobs across the country.
• 
  

  After a 10 year drought and 2 years of flooding, water usage planning is controversial and difficult:

   

• 2012/09/13: ABC(Au): SA dismissive of Murray legislation
  South Australian Water Minister Paul Caica says legislation to boost the powers of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority is largely irrelevant, as it does not ensure there will be a healthy river. Federal Water Minister Tony Burke has introduced legislation which would give the Authority the power to act without reference to Federal Parliament.
• 2012/09/11: ABC(Au): Heffernan objects to biggest Murray-Darling water buyback
  Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan has protested against a NSW and Commonwealth offer to buy back water from irrigators on the Nimmi-Caira floodplain, between Hay and Balranald in south-west NSW. As chair of the Senate Inquiry into the management of the Murray-Darling Basin, Senator Heffernan told NSW irrigators he thought the biggest single Basin water buyback was expensive, secretive and ineffective.
• 
  

  While in the Indian subcontinent:

   

• 2012/09/14: al Jazeera: Deluge of water protests hit India
  Unusual protests become craze as locals submerge themselves in water to protest against dams and nuclear plant.
• 2012/09/14: CCurrents: The Truth Seekers Of Today
• 2012/09/14: CCurrents: Children Born Of The Sea, Playing In The Waters
• 2012/09/14: CCurrents: Koodankulam Protesters On Second Day Of Occupy Sea Agitation
• 2012/09/13: CCurrents: Koodankulam Agitators Occupy The Sea
• 2012/09/12: CCurrents: Letter From The Women of Koodankulam To All The Women Of The World
• 2012/09/12: CCurrents: We Are Not Terrorists, We Are Not Dangerous Animals by People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy
• 2012/09/12: al Jazeera: 'Coalgate' blackens Indian leaders
  Scandal over coal allotments that allegedly resulted in $33bn loss triggers calls for transparency and regulation.
• 2012/09/11: CCurrents: Mahashweta Devi, Aruna Roy, Vandana Shiva And Other Eminent Citizens Urge CM Jayalalitha To Stop Fuel Loading And Repression In Koodankulam
• 2012/09/11: CCurrents: Villagers On Satyagraha, An Uneasy Calm In Koodankulam
• 2012/09/11: CCurrents: After The Mayhem [Koodankulam]
• 2012/09/10: CCurrents: Police Atrocity In Koodankulam; One Person Shot Dead
• 2012/09/09: CCurrents: 20,000 Villagers Occupy Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant
• 2012/09/10: Kyodo: 1 killed during protest over nuclear power plant in India
  

  And in Japan:

• 2012/09/12: Reuters: Japan sun subsidy fires electric spending rush
  Government expects up to $640 billion investment by 2030 - More than 30,000 households, companies sign up for subsidies
• 2012/09/10: ScienceInsider: Japan's Political Turmoil Threatens University Funding and Delays New Energy Policy
  

  While elsewhere in Asia:

• 2012/09/12: BBC: Everest Sherpas in glacial lake study warning
  The Mount Everest region's Sherpas have said they are angry at the way studies of glaciers and glacial lakes have been conducted in recent years. They say the studies do not involve them and that results are often spread through alarmist media reports that cause panic among locals in the area.
• 
  

  And South America:

   

• 2012/09/11: BBC: Yanomami 'massacre' report dropped by Survival International
• 2012/09/11: Guardian(UK): Campaign group retracts Yanomami 'massacre' claims
  Survival International says account that described murder of 80 members of the jungle community in Venezuela was false
• 
  

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

   

• 2012/09/14: Guardian(UK): Maple leaf ragged: what ails Canada?
  Country's increasingly hardline stances on immigration, tar sands, indigenous people and Quebec separatism spark soul-searching
• 2012/09/15: PostMedia: Rally rails against Harper 'gag' on scientists -- More than 200, some in lab coats, battle cuts
• 2012/09/15: TMoS: Weaver Slams Harper - Again
  

  There was a startling excoriation of Harper by a former Tory pollster this week:

• 2012/09/08: iPolitics: 1984 in 2012 - The assault on reason
• 2012/09/10: PunditsGuide: Q and A with Allan Gregg
• 2012/09/09: NorRe: Gregg On Harperland
• 2012/09/10: HillTimes: Harper government's assault on reason, scientists, 'Orwellian' and 'alarming,' warns pollster
  Harris/Decima's Allan Gregg says feds have twinned 'abandonment of reason' with 'willful dissemination of misinformation.'
• 
  

  Energy ministers met in Charlottetown this week, to no result that I heard:

   

• 2012/09/10: Guardian(PE): Oliver encouraging eastern pipeline
• 2012/09/11: CBC: Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver says there is no need for the provinces to create a National Energy Strategy because Ottawa already has one
• 2012/09/10: Guardian(PE): National energy ministers meeting in P.E.I.
• 2012/09/09: Guardian(PE): Federal-provincial energy ministers to skirt talk of a national strategy
  When federal and provincial energy ministers meet in Charlottetown this week, forging a national energy strategy is conspicuously absent from the agenda. The topic was all the rage this summer, with business groups, environmentalists, aboriginal groups and almost all the premiers saying the time has come for Canadian leaders to hash out a solid plan on how they will handle the country's natural resources.
• 
  

  More ramifications of Bill C-38:

   

• 2012/09/13: CBC: Federal civil service hit with 1,700 more job notices
• 2012/09/07: PostMedia: Stephen Harper's environment watchdog to investigate 'risks' of federal budget bill
  Parliament's environment watchdog says he will investigate the "inherent risks" from the Harper government's overhaul of Canada's environmental laws. "This (change to existing laws) wasn't tinkering," said Scott Vaughan, the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development, in an interview with Postmedia News. "This was a wholesale game changer to put in a new regime. And so with any big change, in any regime, in any system, in the private sector, if you go through a huge change, there are inherent risks that are involved." The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency revealed in August that part of the 400-page budget bill, adopted a few weeks earlier in support of the Harper government's 2012 federal budget, eliminated 2,970 environmental assessments across the country, including hundreds of projects involving fossil fuels or a pipeline. But Vaughan also recognized that the government was taking a "significant step forward" by introducing new minimum fines and giving Environment Canada enforcement officers new powers to issue them on the site after observing violations.
• 
  

  The CNOOC bid for Nexen decision yet looms:

   

• 2012/09/14: G&M: Looming Nexen deal reveals fault lines in Tory camp
  As he prepares the ground for a likely approval of the takeover of Nexen Inc. by a Chinese national oil company, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is cementing his government's transformation from anti-communist China-skeptics to business-oriented pragmatists eager to pursue an economy-first Asia policy.
• 2012/09/14: G&M: In the CNOOC-Nexen decision, less strategy might be more
• 2012/09/13: G&M: Alberta backs foreign oil deals
  Alberta Premier Alison Redford voiced pointed support for foreign investment during a trade mission in China, just as Ottawa is reviewing the merits of China's ambitious bid to acquire Canada's Nexen Inc.
• 2012/09/10: HillTimes: Nexen registered lobbying over, action still happening behind scenes, say Ottawa watchers
  Although the process is closed officially to lobbyists, they will still play a communications role in CNOOC's $15-billion bid for Nexen.
• 
  

  The Liberal party leadership race is on:

   

• 2012/09/13: BCLSB: Justin Scores A Point
  

  The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on:

• 2012/09/14: DeSmogBlog: B.C. Leaders Plan Mass Rally Against Enbridge Gateway Pipeline October 22
• 2012/09/13: CBC: Pipeline opponents plan mass sit-in at B.C. legislature
  Opponents of the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline are organizing what they're calling the largest act of peaceful civil disobedience on the oil sands issue in Canada. Greenpeace Canada says a mass sit-in planned for the front lawn of the B.C. legislature in Victoria on Oct. 22 is backed by more than 80 leaders from the business, First Nations, environmental, labour and academic communities across Canada.
• 2012/09/14: EarthGauge: Earthgauge Radio September 13, 2012: From the frontlines of the Northern Gateway pipeline struggle
• 2012/09/10: TheCanadian: Youth More Likely to Oppose Enbridge Pipeline: New Survey
• 2012/09/10: TMoS: Enbridge Dummies Up About Chinese Pipeline
  Just who is going to own the proposed Northern Gateway bitumen pipeline? Could the totalitarian People's Republic of China be one of the owners? Enbridge tried to change the subject when the question was posed today at the sham federal review panel hearings underway in Edmonton.
• 
  

  Shades of the Dutch Disease:

   

• 2012/09/13: TStar: Unbalanced economy fuelling Ontario job losses, Thomas Mulcair says
• 2012/09/12: Tyee: Canada Next? Oil Money Drives Prices Sky High in Norway
  Don't try to tell Norwegians not to worry about Dutch Disease. Pizzas cost $50.
• 
  

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

   

• 2012/09/14: TheCanadian: CETA Trade Deal, Jumbo Resort Proposal and Water Privatization
• 2012/09/14: CBC: B.C. and Haisla First Nation sign liquefied natural gas deal
• 2012/09/13: TheCanadian: BC Liberals Shift Pain of Falling Gas Revenues Onto Public Sector Workers
• 2012/09/13: PostMedia: B.C. ignoring massive carbon emissions: report
  British Columbia is not taking responsibility for vast amounts of its greenhouse gas emissions, says a paper to be released Thursday by the Sierra Club of B.C.
• 2012/09/13: SierraClub: B.C. Carbon Emissions Four Times Higher than Reported
• 2012/09/13: WCEL: Evidence suggests carbon tax is good economic policy
• 2012/09/12: CBC: B.C. to install over 450 electric vehicle charging stations
• 2012/09/11: Rabble:ML: What's next for B.C.'s carbon tax?
• 2012/09/11: G&M: Mayors seek share of B.C. carbon-tax cash for green initiatives
  Local mayors are pushing the provincial government hard to start using carbon-tax revenue for transit and other greenhouse-gas-reducing projects instead of giving it all back to taxpayers in future years. And the mayors, who have been lobbying the province as it reviews the carbon tax in preparation for its 2013 budget, say residents and businesses won't feel any pain if it is done right.
• 2012/09/10: PEF: What's Next for BC's Carbon Tax?
• 2012/09/10: CBC: Spectra, BG, plan gas pipeline across northern B.C.
  Spectra Energy and BG Group are joining the throng of companies aiming to export Canadian natural gas to Asia, announcing plans Monday to build a pipeline across northern B.C. The proposed 850-kilometre pipeline would run from shale gas fields in the province's northeast to a potential liquefied natural gas terminal in Prince Rupert, B.C., where the resource would be chilled into a liquid state and shipped across the Pacific in specialized tankers.
• 2012/09/09: TheCanadian: BC NDP Must Come Clean on its Full Energy Policy
  

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2012/09/12: TreeHugger: Tar Sands Development Already Bumping Into Air Pollution Limits for Sulphur and Nitrogen Dioxide
• 2012/09/10: G&M: U.S. boom in oil production spells peril for Canadian crude
• 2012/09/14: DeSmogBlog: All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go: Enbridge Looks East for Export Pipeline Route
• 2012/09/11: CBC: Oilsands to exceed Alberta's new pollution limits, say documents
  Less than two weeks after Alberta enacted legally enforceable pollution limits for its oilsands region, industry figures already suggest they will soon be breached by emissions of two major gases causing acid rain. Regulatory documents for Shell's proposed Jackpine mine expansion say annual levels of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide will push past limits contained in the province's Lower Athabasca Regional Plan if all currently planned developments proceed. The documents, filed late last week, also provide what may be the clearest picture yet of what impact two decades of development have had on northeastern Alberta.
• 
  

  In Ontario:

   

• 2012/09/11: CBC: Ont. couple seeks injunction to stop wind-farm expansion
  

  While in la Belle Province:

• 2012/09/12: CBC: Quebec to shut down its only nuclear reactor
  Quebec's new government has confirmed it won't proceed with the multibillion-dollar refurbishment of the province's lone nuclear reactor and will instead shut it down.
• 
  

  In the Maritimes:

   

• 2012/09/12: CBC: Nova Scotia floods put spotlight on infrastructure gaps
  As people in Truro, Nova Scotia clean up from the flood this week, frustration is bubbling to the surface. This is the third time in 10 years the area has flooded. Helen Barron is assessing the damage this time to her house. "They should be able to do something," she said. "They" are politicians -- local, provincial and federal.
• 2012/09/11: CBC: P.E.I. wired for electric vehicles -- Company installing vehicle charging stations across province
• 2012/09/11: CBC: Leslie leaves turbulent wake in Newfoundland
  Post-tropical storm rips off roofs, destroys trees, leaves 45,000 homes without power Post-tropical storm Leslie headed out to sea Tuesday afternoon, leaving behind a path of destruction that included toppled trees, torn power lines and roofs ripped apart from buildings.
• 2012/09/11: CBC: Nova Scotia cleans up after massive flooding
  

  In the North:

• 2012/09/13: EnvEcon: You're going to need a bigger boat
• 2012/09/12: CBC: Liard First Nation says it will veto oil and gas projects
  The Liard First Nation says it will use its veto powers to block oil and gas development in southeast Yukon as a response to what it describes as a lack of respect from the Yukon government.
• 2012/09/11: CBC: Vandals trash Inuvik, N.W.T., food bank -- Food bank to close until security improved
• 2012/09/15: CBC: Baffin Island iron mine gets green light -- Nunavut board's decision comes with close to 200 terms and conditions
  The Nunavut Impact Review Board issued its final report Friday night allowing Baffinland's Mary River iron project to proceed, with conditions. The board's decision is the culmination of a four-year assessment of the project, in which Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation plans to build a massive open-pit mine at its Mary River site about 160 kilometres south of Pond Inlet, Nunavut, along with a railway and port that would allow icebreakers to ship the ore through Arctic waters year-round.
• 2012/09/10: CBC: Experts lament lack of science on 'Amazon of the North' -- Mackenzie River Basin least studied in the world, scientists say
  There is a marked lack of scientific knowledge about the vast northern river basin often referred to as the Amazon of the North, warns a panel of international experts gathered to discuss the future of the Mackenzie River Basin. The watershed is three times the size of France, stretching through B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories, yet it became evident over several days of meetings that it is the least studied and monitored in the world, said Dr. Henry Vaux, chairman of the Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy, a California-based think-tank that organized the panel in Vancouver.
• 
  

  As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

   

• 2012/09/12: CBC: Gas prices spike across Canada
  

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

• 2012/09/13: CCurrents: Three More Growth Fallacies
• 2012/09/12: EnergyBulletin: America the Possible: Breaking the chains of consumerism by Gus Speth
• 2012/09/11: TruthDig: Growth Is the Problem
• 2012/09/11: PaiD: The Limits of Growth
• 2012/09/10: EnergyBulletin: Three more growth fallacies
• 2012/09/09: EnergyBulletin: Pathways to a new society
• 2012/09/09: EnergyBulletin: The next ten billion years
• 2012/09/09: EnergyBulletin: Our years of magical thinking: interview with James Kunstler
  

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

• 2012/09/13: SixthEstate: Religious Right Declares War on Condoms and Wizards in Ontario
  

  Apocalypso anyone?

• 2012/09/11: P3: Stephen Emmott's 'Ten Billion': "In truth, I think we are already ****ed."
  

  How do the media measure up?

• 2012/09/14: FAIR: WaPo's 'Lively Debate,' Brought to You by Big Oil
• 2012/09/13: P3: Being Fair vs Looking Fair
• 2012/09/13: SlashDot: Scientists Themselves Play Large Role In Bad Reporting
• 2012/09/13: CCP: National Geographic sells its soul to Shell Oil
• 2012/09/13: P3: Music is OK or Why every news medium needs a scientist on editorial staff
• 2012/09/13: DeSmogBlog: Looking Back At The Wall Street Journal's Coal Op-Ads
• 2012/09/11: DeSmogBlog: Cleaning Up Information Pollution: TruthMarket Creates Public Market for Truth
• 2012/09/11: PLoS Medicine: Misrepresentation of Randomized Controlled Trials in Press Releases and News Coverage: A Cohort Study by Amélie Yavchitz et al.
• 2009/05/18: PhdComics: (cartoon) The Science News Cycle [an oldie but worth repeating -het]
• 2012/09/11: SciAm:SS: Scientists play a large role in bad medical reporting
• 2012/09/11: FAIR: 'You Can Look Fair or You Can Be Fair': Corporate Media's Dilemma
• 2012/09/10: KSJT: Should Discover bloggers worry about changes in pay?
• 2012/09/11: ABC(US):B: Junk Journalism on Climate, or Too Big to Cover?
• 2012/09/10: TP:JR: ABC's Blakemore: Climate Coverage Drop Due To 'Disinformation And Intimidation Campaign' Plus 'Immensity' Of Crisis
• 2012/09/10: CCP: Bill Blakemore: Junk Journalism on Climate, or Too Big to Cover?
  

  While activists search for effective communication techniques:

• 2012/09/10: Grist: A simple, useful guide to communicating climate change
  

  Here is something for your library:

• 2012/09/14: EnergyBulletin: [Book Review] _Reinventing Fire_ by Amory Lovins
• 2012/09/13: NakedCapitalism: How Coal Brought Us Democracy, and Oil Ended It: Lessons from the New Book "Carbon Democracy"
  [Book Review] _Carbon Democracy Political Power in the Age of Oil_ by Tim Mitchell
• 2012/09/12: EnergyBulletin: [Book Review] _Too Much Magic: Wishful Thinking, Technology, and the Fate of the Nation_ by James Howard Kunstler
• 2012/09/10: BNC: Critique of Lovins book 'Reinventing Fire'
  

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2012/09/12: PSinclair: Symphony of Science: Our Biggest Challenge
• 2012/09/12: P3: Symphony of Science: Our Biggest Challenge
• 2012/09/12: PSinclair: "A Big Problem ... Much Bigger than we thought" - The New Science of Glaciers
• 2012/09/11: TreeHugger: NASA Shows Us 130 Years of Warming in 30 Seconds
• 2012/09/11: TP:JR: Arctic Death Spiral: The Video
• 2012/09/11: P3: Chomsky on AGW
• 2012/09/11: PSinclair: Big Ice and Climate Change: The View from Easton Glacier
• 2012/09/11: PSinclair: 9/11, Climate Change, and Why Facts Matter
• 2012/09/11: P3: 9/11, Climate Change, and Why Facts Matter
• 2012/09/10: PSinclair: The German Renewable Explosion - Feed In Tariffs at Work
  

  As for podcasts:

• 2012/09/15: SkS: The Climate Show #28: transglobal overground (with added ice) by Gareth
• 2012/09/15: CBC:Q&Q: [mp3] #4 When the Antarctic Was Green & #5 Thorium, the Super Fuel
  

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2012/09/13: ICN: Ruling Exempting First U.S. Tar Sands Mine from Water Pollution Monitoring Is Challenged
  Important case concerns mining permit for 6,000 acres of state-owned land in Utah, which has 232,065 acres of land open for oil sands mining.
• 2012/09/14: TreeHugger: Pink Slime Makers Sue ABC News For Defamation
• 2012/09/14: DemNow: Pittsburgh Ban on Natural Gas Fracking Faces Challenge from State Authorities
  

  Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:

• 2012/09/15: DeSmogBlog: No Breakthroughs Necessary: 95 Percent Renewable Energy Possible By 2050
• 2012/09/14: CCurrents: Deceit, Plunder And Destruction
  A way has to be found to end the injustice meted out to people displaced by dams
• 2012/09/14: TP:JR: Majority Of Michigan Voters Support 25% Renewable Energy Target
• 2012/09/14: EurActiv: France seen turning to renewables for 'ecological patriotism'
• 2012/09/14: PSinclair: Why Cheap [Natural] Gas is Hot Air
• 2012/09/12: Grist: On natural gas, green groups can't make up their minds
• 2012/09/13: WaPo: Tidal power delivered to US power grid for 1st time, through Maine company's turbine
• 2012/09/10: Guardian(UK): Indian blackout held no fear for small hamlet where the power stayed on
  In rural Rajasthan, Gram Power's solar-powered microgrid kept the lights working and the buttermilk churning
• 2012/09/11: CSM: Carbon-neutral natural gas? A lab breakthrough but ...
• 2012/09/11: DD: Climate change challenges U.S. power plant operations
• 2012/09/09: TP:JR: Budding Geothermal Markets Light Up East Africa
• 2012/09/09: NBF: Brayton Cycle Supercritical turbine
  

  What's changing in energy sources?

• 2012/09/09: ITracker: Bottom line: Does switching from coal to shale gas slow climate change?
• 2012/09/07: BBerg: Shale Boom Cuts Gulf Oil Premium to 24-Year Low: Energy Markets
  

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

• 2012/09/15: Grist: Fracking and the road to a clean energy future
• 2012/09/14: CSM: Future of fracking: wastewater so clean you can drink it?
• 2012/09/14: DemNow: Pittsburgh Ban on Natural Gas Fracking Faces Challenge from State Authorities
• 2012/09/14: ICN: Illinois Industry, Enviros Gear Up for Legislative Fight Over Fracking
• 2012/09/13: ICN: Gas Glut Threatens Climate Battle: IEA
• 2012/09/12: DeSmogBlog: Wyoming Governor To Interior Department: Back Off With Fracking Rules
• 2012/09/12: DeSmogBlog: What's The Fracking Problem With Natural Gas?
• 2012/09/12: OilChange: Shale Gas Revolution Goes Global
• 2012/09/11: OilChange: Fracking: EU Warns of "High Risk" to Environment
• 2012/09/12: EnergyBulletin: The Magic of Shales
• 2012/09/11: Straight: David Suzuki: Earthquakes and toxic wastewater are only part of the problem with fracking
• 2012/09/11: TreeHugger: California Fracking Set to Expand With New Federal Auction
• 2012/09/11: PeakEnergy: The One And Only Place Fracking Is Causing Water Contamination
• 2012/09/10: PlanetArk: Shale gas will not cut EU import dependence: [EC] study
• 2012/09/09: LoE: More fracking madness
  

  On the coal front:

• 2012/09/13: DeSmogBlog: Thousands Gather In DC To Stop Mountaintop Removal Mining
• 2012/09/13: UCSUSA: New Analysis Shows Detroit Edison and Consumers Energy Spent More Than $1 Billion in 2010 to Import Coal
  

  On the gas and oil front:

• 2012/09/14: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
  OIL (US$/bbl)
  Nymex Crude Future...99.00
  Dated Brent Spot....117.59
  WTI Cushing Spot.....99.00
• 2012/09/14: Trend(Az): Turkey to start oil exploration alone in eastern Med
• 2012/09/14: BBerg: Oil Rises to $100 for First Time Since May After Stimulus
• 2012/09/13: EnergyBulletin: Will Saudi Arabia become an oil importer by 2030?
• 2012/09/12: EarlyWarning: August Oil Supply Numbers
• 2012/09/10: EnergyBulletin: The repricing of oil
  

  Regarding oil and the economy:

• 2012/09/13: CSM: Which came first: economic growth or the energy to sustain it?
• 2012/09/13: CSM: The upside to an economic downturn? A decline in emissions
• 2012/09/12: EconBrowser: Geopolitical unrest and key oil producers
  

  And in pipeline news:

• 2012/09/14: DeSmogBlog: All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go: Enbridge Looks East for Export Pipeline Route
• 2012/09/10: CBC: Spectra, BG, plan gas pipeline across northern B.C.
  

  Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

• 2012/09/14: EnergyBulletin: Whither peak oil?
  

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2012/09/10: BPA: Is Biomass Syngas the Future for U.S. Refineries?
  

  The answer my friend...:

• 2012/09/10: Stanford: Wind could meet many times world's total power demand by 2030, Stanford researchers say
  Adapting a sophisticated climate model, researchers show that there is plenty of wind available to supply half to several times the world's total energy needs within the next two decades.
• 2012/09/12: TP:JR: Wind Week: Two New Reports Highlight The Strong Economic Role Of Wind Energy
• 2012/09/11: ABC(Au): Wind could power the whole world: report
• 2012/09/10: TreeHugger: Wind Power Alone Could Easily Meet All Humanity's Electricity Needs, and Then Some
• 2012/09/03: LLNL: Lawrence Livermore researchers find wind power not enough to affect global climate
• 2012/09/03: Fraunhofer: More accurate wind energy forecasts
• 2012/09/03: Cleveland: Cleveland State University wind turbines at Progressive Field are overachievers
  [...] The four mounted turbines are generating more than 4.5 times as much energy than if the turbines were standing alone, according to data collected by Cleveland State University.
• 2012/09/10: PlanetArk: China pushes wind power, but no quick payoff for producers
• 2012/09/09: Eureka: Enough wind to power global energy demand
  

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2012/09/13: BBerg: Semprius Opening Solar-Panel Factory in North Carolina
• 2012/09/13: Grist: Energy democracy: Three ways to bring solar to the masses
• 2012/09/13: ICN: U.S. Aims to Encourage Cheap Solar Power
• 2012/09/12: Forbes: Another U.S. Solar Manufacturer [GreenVolts] Shuts Down
• 2012/09/12: BBerg: U.S. Solar Industry Bracing for Utility Backlash Over Metering
  Growing installations of rooftop solar panels are increasing concern that U.S. utilities may refuse to buy power generated by the systems, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. Utilities are required to purchase electricity generated by solar panels installed on consumers' homes under so-called net- metering policies, an arrangement that may become less viable as solar systems become more common, said Rhone Resch, chief executive officer of the Washington-based trade group.
• 2012/09/: Spectrum: Tapping the Power of 100 Suns [check out the graph of efficiencies]
• 2012/09/14: SlashDot: Towards a 50% Efficient Solar Cell
• 2012/09/11: EUO: Solar energy in figures: Germany is king
• 2012/09/11: EUO: Silicon valley know-how aims to conquer EU solar market
• 2012/09/11: EUO: The growing pains of the solar industry
• 2012/09/10: TP:JR: U.S. Solar PV Installations Jump 116 Percent Over Q2 2011, Driven Partly By Loan Guarantees
• 2012/09/11: PlanetArk: Solar installations surge on strong utility market
• 2012/09/10: TreeHugger: US On Track to Install 3 GW of Solar PV in 2012
  

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2012/09/14: al Jazeera: Deluge of water protests hit India
  Unusual protests become craze as locals submerge themselves in water to protest against dams and nuclear plant.
• 2012/09/12: CBC: Quebec to shut down its only nuclear reactor
  Quebec's new government has confirmed it won't proceed with the multibillion-dollar refurbishment of the province's lone nuclear reactor and will instead shut it down.
• 2012/09/13: BBC: Nuclear space batteries could boost Sellafield jobs
• 2012/09/13: UCSUSA: Seabrook Owner Must Conduct Tests Assessing Potential Concrete Damage in Containment Buildings, Nuclear Safety Groups Say
• 2012/09/12: CCurrents: Letter From The Women of Koodankulam To All The Women Of The World
• 2012/09/10: Kyodo: 1 killed during protest over nuclear power plant in India
• 2012/09/09: Guardian(UK): Climate change expert calls for nuclear power 'binge' to avert global warming
• 2012/09/10: ABC(Au): Japanese [Monju] nuclear reactor plagued with problems
• 2012/09/09: APR: South Korea's Nuclear Energy Program: A Primer
• 2012/09/09: APR: Export-Import Bank provides funding for UAE nuclear program; supports US jobs in the process
  

  Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:

• 2012/09/12: OilPrice: 6 Things to do with Nuclear Waste: None of them Ideal
• 2012/09/12: ABC(Au): Darwin council concerned about nuke dump safety
  

  Low energy nuclear keeps coming up:

• 2012/09/14: Wired: Cold fusion: smoke and mirrors, or raising a head of steam?
  

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

• 2012/09/10: TreeHugger: Feed-In Tariffs Less Expensive for Consumers Than Wind Power Quotas
• 2012/09/10: PSinclair: The German Renewable Explosion - Feed In Tariffs at Work
  

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2012/09/12: EurActiv: Parliament gives final green light to energy efficiency directive
  

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

• 2012/09/14: AutoBG: Leaf owners challenge Nissan on "we don't have a battery problem"
• 2012/09/14: AutoBG: Pentagon to buy 1,500 Chevy Volts; critical comments can't be far behind
• 2012/09/12: TreeHugger: How Much Does the Chevy Volt Cost to Make? Is It Really $89,000?
• 2012/09/10: Reuters: Insight: GM's Volt: The ugly math of low sales, high costs
  General Motors Co sold a record number of Chevrolet Volt sedans in August -- but that probably isn't a good thing for the automaker's bottom line. Nearly two years after the introduction of the path-breaking plug-in hybrid, GM is still losing as much as $49,000 on each Volt it builds, according to estimates provided to Reuters by industry analysts and manufacturing experts. GM on Monday issued a statement disputing the estimates.
• 2012/09/11: Wonkette: No, GM Is Not Losing $49K On Every Volt; Reuters Just Fails at Basic Business Math
• 2012/09/11: PSinclair: Bob Lutz: Volt Bashers "devoid of any real knowledge"
  

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

• 2012/09/13: DeSmogBlog: Mega Corporations Understand The Dangers Of Climate Change
• 2012/09/12: TheCanadian: Rafe on 'Corporate Citizenship' and Changing Views
• 2012/09/12: Guardian(UK): Rising number of top firms believe climate change is threat to business
  Carbon Disclosure Project reports companies acknowledge risk but are not doing enough to cut emissions
• 2012/09/12: CDP: Extreme weather events drive climate change up boardroom agenda in 2012
• 2012/09/12: TP:JR: Leading Global Companies Say 'Tangible And Present' Climate Change Is Already Creating Business Risk
• 2012/09/11: NYT: Chain Stores Said to Lead Firms in Use of Sun Power
  

  Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:

• 2012/09/14: CBC: 10 worst household products for greenwashing -- Marketplace investigation reveals the truth behind environmental claims
  

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

• 2012/09/14: TP:JR: Sept. 14 News...
• 2012/09/13: TP:JR: Sept. 13 News...
• 2012/09/12: TP:JR: Sept. 12 News...
• 2012/09/11: TP:JR: Sept. 11 News...
• 2012/09/10: TP:JR: Sept. 10 News...
  

  Other (weekly) lists:

• 2012/09/14: EnergyBulletin: ODAC Newsletter
• 2012/09/13: TreeHugger: Energy News...
• 2012/09/12: BPA: Agriculture News
  

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2012/09/14: PSinclair: Fossil Fuel Industry Doubles Down on Decades of Lies
• 2012/09/14: TreeHugger: Here's to Four Decades of Coal Industry Ads Insulting Our Intelligence
• 2012/09/14: ASI: Joe Bastardi found a cherry
• 2012/09/14: GReadfearn: Andrew Bolt's climate fact drought
• 2012/09/13: DeSmogBlog: Heartland Institute Joins Rahm Emanuel's Side of the Picket Line in Chicago
• 2012/09/12: WtD: The "faith" of conservatives and climate change: values and world views in conflict -- god, free markets and denial
• 2012/09/12: GReadfearn: Anti-green activist James Delingpole runs appeal for IPA think-tank [d]
• 2012/09/12: Stoat: CSTPR Noontime Seminar: The Contrarian Discourse in the Blogosphere - What are blogs good for anyway?
• 2012/09/11: UKnowISpeakSense: Denier comment of the day September 12, 2012
• 2012/09/11: DeSmogBlog: James Delingpole Raising Cash for Australian Climate Sceptic Think Tank
• 2012/09/11: TP:JR: Are California PACs Cloaking Chevron's Support For A Democrat State Senator Opposed To Climate Action?
• 2012/09/10: TP:JR: Five Ways Charles Koch Benefits From Practices He Criticizes In Absurd Wall Street Journal Op-Ed
• 2012/09/11: RealClimate: El Nino's effect on CO2 causes confusion about CO2's role for climate change
• 2012/09/10: UKISS: Steve McIntyre butthurt about comment moderation, however...
• 2012/09/10: WtD: Sensitive spot? Galileo Movement ban Idiot Tracker, WtD comments on that "issue"
• 2012/09/10: ITracker: How I got excommunicated by the Galileo Movement
• 2012/09/10: UKnowISpeakSense: Denier comment of the day September 10, 2012
• 2012/09/10: WtD: Ask the climate sceptics: do you reject the Galileo Movement as Andrew Bolt did?
  

  This week in intimidation:

• 2012/09/11: TreeHugger: There is Just One Nation in the World Where Climate Scientists Face Systematic Harassment
• 2012/09/10: TP:JR: ABC's Blakemore: Climate Coverage Drop Due To 'Disinformation And Intimidation Campaign' Plus 'Immensity' Of Crisis
• 2012/09/10: TP:JR: America Is Only Nation Where Climate Scientists Face Organized Harassment
  

  The Lewandowsky circus of denial bops along:

• 2012/09/15: ITracker: Lewandowsky madness: Steve McIntyre equates deleting comments on your own blog to the mass murder of Jews
• 2012/09/15: Bundanga: Blogging 'nutters' out themselves in rejecting climate science [L &]
• 2012/09/15: C&S: Lewandowsky Survey Lunacy
• 2012/09/13: WtD: Watts explains why Lewandowsky paper on conspiracy theories is wrong: its a conspiracy between John Cook and the Prof
• 2012/09/13: AFTIC: Climate denial as a false flag operation
• 2012/09/11: P3: You're In Real Trouble Now, Professor
• 2012/09/11: WtD: Inboxgate: names of sceptic bloggers contacted revealed for NASA paper, sceptics still not happy
• 2012/09/11: AFTIC: Blogstorm alert
• 2012/09/10: ERabett: Celebrity Deathmatch
• 2012/09/10: P3: 4 amnesiac bloggers
• 2012/09/09: ERabett: Assigned Reading
• 2012/09/09: CCP: Lewandowsky: A Cabal of Bankers and Sister Souljah
• 2012/09/09: PSinclair: Gee...Deniers More Likely to Be Conspiracy Nuts. Go Figger.
  

  Meanwhile in the 'clean coal' saga:

• 2012/09/13: TP:JR: Decades Of Deception: The Coal Industry Has Advertised 'Clean Coal' Since At Least 1921
  

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2012/09/13: AFTIC: We cannot avoid this period of consequences, we are in it now
• 2012/09/12: ERabett:BSD: Needed: a November 1 blog blizzard that more snow doesn't mean less warming
• 2012/09/12: UKISS: AGW proponent comment of the day, September 12, 2012
• 2012/09/12: LoE: Making sense of madness
• 2012/09/11: ERabett: The Value of Blogs [BEST]
• 2012/09/14: ITracker: Committed warming
• 2012/09/15: P3: The Fourth Way
• 2012/09/12: CCurrents: The Environmental Antiwar Movement
• 2012/09/09: QuarkSoup: Guess: September is Going to Be Very Warm
  

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

• IAC: InterAction Council
• Kew: Flora of Tropical East Africa
  A major Kew project that started in 1948, dealing with all 12,500 wild plant species from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
• get real
• NOAA:NCDC: U.S. Climate Extremes Index
• Ice Edge 2012
• BZE: Beyond Zero Emissions
• ICN: InsideClimate News
• SourceWatch: American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity
• Dosbat
• UNFPA: United Nations Population Fund
• NOAA:ESRL: Trends in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
• AOSIS: Alliance Of Small Island States
• Wiki: Energy Catalyzer
• Methane Net
• The Daily Impact - Chronicling the Crash of the Industrial Age
• Wiki: Isotopes of xenon

Low Key Plug

My first novel Water was published in Canada May, 2007. The American release was in October. An Introductionto the novel is available, along with the Unpublished Forewordand the Launch Talk(which includes some quotations), An overview of my writing is available here.

<regards>

-het

P.S. Recent postings can be found in the week archive and the ancient postings can be accessed here, which should open to this.

I notice moyhu has set up a monster index to old AWoGWN on AFTIC.

"Not much has changed. You get the sense that psychologically, and we may just be exquisitely designed not to deal with climate change, everyone is focused on their little piece of the pie. You're doing what you can day by day. And the problem is that if you really think climate change is a problem, you need to start looking at solutions that are revolutionary. What we're doing right now is not revolutionary, and frankly, I don't know what's going to get us out of this equation." -Kevin Ummel, CARMA Project Manager

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