Another Week of GW News, September 2, 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

skip to bottom

Another Week of Climate Disruption News

Information is not Knowledge...Knowledge is notWisdom

September 2, 2012

• Chuckles, COP18+, PIF, AMS, Wadham, Maldives EU-Aus ETS, GCF, Cook, Meteorologists
• Fukushima Note, Fukushima News, Nuclear Policy
• Melting Arctic, Polar Bears, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
• Food Crisis, Fisheries, Prices, Food vs. Biofuel, Land Grabs, GMO Labelling, Production
• Hurricanes, Monsoon, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures, Feedbacks
• Aerosols, Clouds, Solar, Tipping Points, Biosphere, Extinctions
• Impacts, Forests, Disease, Wacky Weather, Extreme Weather
• Wildfires, Corals, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Conservation
• Journals, Other Docs, Misc. Science, DIY Science, Models, Open Science
• International Politics: UN, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, South China Sea, Energy Race
• Security, Law & Activism, Activism, H2O Biz, Education, Predictions
• National Politics: America, 2012, Tampa, Blank, Charlotte, Gas Prices
• Keystone, Ethanol Mandate, Birth Control, Questions, USAdmin, Congress
• Britain, Europe, Australia, EU-Aus ETS, MDBP, India, Africa, South America
• Canada, Bill C-38, CNOOC, Northern Gateway, Salmon, BC, Tar Sands, Sask, Ontario, North, Canadiana
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video
• Energy, Fracking, Coal, Oil & Gas, Pipelines, Peak Oil
• Wind, Solar, Nukes, LENR, Grid, Cars, Energy Storage
• Business, Insurance, Greenwashing, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Misc., Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

The things that pass for humour nowadays:

• 2012/09/02: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) Where There's No Will...
• 2012/08/31: CoIC: (cartoon - Horsey) Oil Based Economy
• 2012/08/30: S&R: (cartoon - Szep) Christie cheers Mitt on to victory!
• 2012/08/27: DailyKos: (cartoon - TomTom) The Invaders
• 2012/08/30: JoeMohrToons: (cartoon - Mohr) Hank D and the Bee: Political Signs
• 2012/08/: MoJo: (gfx) Pregnancy Flowchart
• 2012/08/29: VastLeft: (cartoon - VLWC) American Extremists: "In the pocket"
• 2012/08/29: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) Mitt's Policy
• 2012/08/29: uComics: (cartoon - Danziger) Coalition
• 2012/08/27: VastLeft: (cartoon - VLWC) American Extremists: "A more perfect storm"
  

  And for those who enjoy challenging Poe's Law:

• 2012/08/27: Onion: RNC Builds Levee Out Of Poor People To Protect Convention Site
• 2012/08/27: Grist: Rush Limbaugh says Obama manipulated hurricane forecasts to delay GOP convention
  

  Looking ahead to COP18 and future international climate negotiations:

• UNFCCC: Bangkok Climate Change Conference - August 2012
• 2012/08/31: PlanetArk: Nations warn of broken promises at U.N. climate talks
  Almost 50 of the world's poorest nations said pledges made by rich countries to provide funds to help them adapt to a warmer planet risk being overlooked as U.N. negotiations over a global climate pact to start in 2020 got underway in Bangkok on Thursday.
• 2012/08/30: WRI: 3 Key Issues to Watch During the Bangkok Climate Talks
• 2012/08/30: Google:AFP: Storms, drought overshadow UN climate talks
• 2012/08/30: ABC(Au): Asia's extreme storm season dominates climate talks
• 2012/08/29: PlanetArk: Finance key as U.N. talks on climate deal resume
  The U.S., Japan and the EU will come under pressure this week to pledge billions of dollars a year from 2013 to help the world's poorest nations fight climate change, as negotiators from more than 190 countries meet to advance talks on a new global climate pact. Delegates will gather for a week-long U.N. meeting in Thailand on Thursday to agree a work plan towards signing in 2015 a new pact that would force all nations to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases starting in 2020.
• 
  

  The Pacific Islands Forum went down on the Cook Islands this week:

   

• 2012/08/28: ABC(Au): Pacific leaders gather for forum
  Leaders from across the Pacific are arriving in the Cook Islands for this week's Pacific Islands Forum. Representatives of 15 Pacific states, along with hundreds of dignitaries are beginning to gather in the nation.
• 2012/08/29: ABC(Au): Trade, climate on agenda for Pacific leaders talks
  Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has arrived in Cook Islands to join Pacific Island leaders for discussions on trade, climate change and ocean protection at the Pacific Islands Forum.
• 
  

  The AMS came out with a new statement on climate change:

   

• 2012/08/20: AMS: Climate Change -- An Information Statement of the American Meteorological Society
• 2012/08/27: C&S: American Meteorological Society Statement on Climate Change
• 2012/09/01: DD: American Meteorological Society issues updated statement on climate change - 'Warming of the climate system now is unequivocal'
• 2012/09/01: DWWSJ: American Meteorological Society Issues Updated Statement On Climate Change
• 2012/08/28: TP:JR: Meteorological Society: Warming Is 'Unequivocal', We're The 'Dominant Cause', We Need 'Rapid Reduction' Of CO2
  

  The Wadham et al. paper on Antarctic methane raised a few eyebrows:

• 2012/08/29: Nature: (ab$) Potential methane reservoirs beneath Antarctica by J. L. Wadham et al.
• 2012/09/02: SkS: Potential methane reservoirs beneath Antarctica by John Hartz
• 2012/08/30: CarbonBrief: Methane deposits in Antarctica and more emitted from Arctic permafrost. What does this mean for the climate?
• 2012/08/29: Eureka: Study suggests large methane reservoirs beneath Antarctic ice sheet
• 2012/08/30: PlanetArk: Antarctic methane could worsen global warming: scientists
• 2012/08/29: Eureka: Potential methane reservoirs beneath Antarctica
• 2012/08/31: CCP: "Potential methane reservoirs beneath Antarctica" by J. L. Wadham et al., Nature 488 (2012); doi: 10.1038/nature11374
• 2012/08/29: CSM: Beneath Antarctic ice, a potent greenhouse gas?
• 2012/08/29: BBC: Antarctic may host methane stores
  Large volumes of methane - a potent greenhouse gas - could be locked beneath the ice-covered regions of Antarctica, according to a new study.
• 2012/08/29: Guardian(UK): 'Vast reservoir' of methane locked beneath beneath Antarctic ice sheet
  Scientists say as much as 4bn tonnes of the potent greenhouse gas could be released into the atmosphere if ice melts
• 
  

  Oh! What a surprise!

   

• 2012/08/30: al Jazeera: Panel rules Maldives power transfer 'legal'
  Commonwealth-backed inquiry disputes Mohamed Nasheed's claim that he was forced from the presidency by a coup.
• 2012/08/30: UN: UN chief welcomes report into Maldives' transfer of power, urges parties to accept findings
  

  EU-ETS & Aus-ETS. See also:

• 2012/08/28: ABC(Au): Australia signs carbon trading deal with Europe
  The Federal Government has signed a carbon trading deal with the European Union, which will see credits from both regions traded back and forth by mid-2018. As part of the deal, Australia will not implement the carbon floor price of $15 a tonne.
• 
  

  So, what did the GCF decide?

   

• 2012/08/27: PlanetArk: U.N. green climate fund, aiding poor, to pick HQ in 2012
  

  John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:

• 2012/09/02: SkS: Potential methane reservoirs beneath Antarctica by John Hartz
• 2012/09/01: SkS: Arctic Sea Ice Extent: We're gonna need a bigger graph by Daniel Bailey
• 2012/08/31: SkS: Realistically What Might the Future Climate Look Like? by dana1981
• 2012/08/30: SkS: Will the Wet Get Wetter and the Dry Drier? by Rob Painting
• 2012/08/29: SkS: Matt Ridley - Wired for Lukewarm Catastrophe by dana1981
• 2012/08/28: SkS: New research from last week 34/2012 by Ari Jokimäki
• 2012/08/28: SkS: Arctic sea ice breaks lowest extent on record by John Hartz
• 2012/08/27: SkS: Why Arctic sea ice shouldn't leave anyone cold by Neven
  

  Meteorologists typically follow the corporate media line, unlike climatologists:

• 2012/08/27: DD: Why your weathercaster doesn't mention climate change
• 2012/08/28: SummitCV: Global warming: American Meteorological Society says there's no room for doubt on climate change
  

  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?

• 
  

  No good news out of Fukushima:

   

• 2012/08/31: EneNews: Kyodo: Doctors urge radiation action - Gov't should pay to evacuate irradiated areas, women and children first
• 2012/08/31: EneNews: Symposium in Japan: Gov't must be stopped from burying effects of Fukushima radiation...
• 2012/08/30: NatureNB: First nuclear material is out of Fukushima
• 2012/08/30: EneNews: Kyodo: Sharp drop in water at Fukushima Reactors No. 1-3 - "Below level regarded as necessary to keep fuel inside cool"
• 2012/08/28: FRCSR: "Thyroid Examination" The Cabinet Office policy to compare with children outside Fukushima Prefecture
• 2012/08/28: EneNews: Tepco: Dozen pieces of rubble found in fuel rod assembly removed from Fukushima No. 4 unit
• 2012/08/28: EneNews: Fukushima Mom: 5 hospitals refuse to provide medical care to children;..
• 2012/08/27: EneNews: Pacific cod fish shipments 200 miles from Fukushima suspended - "High levels of radioactive caesium found"
• 2012/08/27: EneNews: Japanese officials report concerns about gamma rays being emitted from Fukushima plant debris
• 2012/08/27: EneNews: 5 Weeks Later: Tepco begins checking fuel assemblies it removed from Unit 4 pool - Says no 'major' deformations so far
• 2012/08/28: EneNews: Japan Newspaper: Hospitals refused to treat Fukushima plant workers
• 2012/08/26: EneNews: NHK: "Strong concerns" over 36% of Fukushima kids having thyroid lumps -- Now testing outside Fukushima to begin
  

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

• 2012/08/28: Asahi: Government to consider nuclear-free option
  In the face of strident anti-nuclear public sentiment, the government will consider abandoning nuclear power generation, sources said, a turnaround from its previous stance of continued reliance. In response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year, the government proposed three options for the ratio of nuclear energy in power generation in 2030 -- zero percent, 15 percent and 20-25 percent -- as a basis for a new energy policy. To facilitate a "national debate" on the options, the government conducted deliberative polling, held public hearings and sought public opinion through the Internet and other means from July to August. Now, a government panel tasked with analyzing the results of that debate is set to conclude that many citizens favor a nuclear-free society, the sources said. The government had previously expected to choose the 15-percent option.
• 2012/08/29: EurActiv: Nuclear phaseout costs may hurt Germany's green ambitions
  Germany may have to slow down its planned transformation to green energy, Environment Minister Peter Altmaier said in an effort to assuage worries that consumers will bear the brunt of the immense costs of the switch from nuclear.
• 2012/08/28: PlanetArk: One in five big Japan firms wants exit from atomic power by 2030
  

  The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:

• 2012/09/01: ArcticNews: Sea ice area falls below 2.5 million square km
• 2012/09/01: PSinclair: You Are Here and It Is Now.
• 2012/09/01: Tamino: Arctic Sea Ice: Turning Points
• 2012/08/31: ASI: Record dominoes 9: PIOMAS sea ice volume
• 2012/08/31: EarlyWarning: More on Arctic Sea Ice Volume
• 2012/08/31: PSinclair: Sea Ice Minimum - Historical Comparison
• 2012/08/31: PSinclair: Ice Fall Continues
• 2012/08/31: Stoat: Arctic collapse dramatically increases global warming?
• 2012/08/31: ArcticNews: Paul Beckwith on ice speed and drift - update 1
• 2012/08/30: TCoE: Big doings on top of the world
• 2012/08/30: Tamino: Sea Ice Triple Play
• 2012/08/30: EarlyWarning: Arctic Sea Ice Volume
• 2012/08/30: Tamino: Sea Ice: Climate vs Weather
• 2012/08/30: PSinclair: How Low it will Go Depends on How Warm it Still is...
• 2012/08/30: PSinclair: Sea Ice Update: The Long Dissolve of 2012
• 2012/08/29: PSinclair: Sea Ice UPDATE: JAXA Extent graph for 08/29
• 2012/08/29: ArcticNews: Arctic sea ice area already shrank by over 81 percent this year
• 2012/08/27: ArcticNews: Paul Beckwith on ice speed and drift
• 2012/08/27: ArcticNews: NSIDC: Arctic sea ice breaks lowest extent on record
• 2012/08/27: NSIDC: Media Advisory: Arctic sea ice breaks lowest extent on record
• 2012/08/31: P3: Sea Ice: Climate vs Weather
• 2012/08/29: DeepClimate:2012 Arctic sea ice minimum, part 2: September 2012 projected at 3.6 million sq km, 700K below previous low in 2007
• 2012/08/29: CBC: Arctic sea ice levels hit record low
• 2012/08/29: PlanetJ: Arctic sea ice in a death spiral
• 2012/08/29: CCP: Peter Wadhams: Arctic sea ice gone in 3 years
• 2012/08/29: PSinclair: Sea Ice Collapse Continues
• 2012/08/29: PSinclair: Arctic Ice: Why it Matters
• 2012/08/29: ASI: Similar melts from 1938-43?
• 2012/08/28: SciNews: Arctic sea ice hits record low, and keeps going -- Summer storm and thin ice probably contributed to massive melt
• 2012/08/28: Atlantic: The Mystery at the Heart of This Year's Record-Setting Arctic Ice Melt
• 2012/08/27: LA Times: No ice in Barrow, Alaska: Arctic ice shrinks to record low
• 2012/08/27: CCurrents: Artic Sea-Ice Melt Record Just Not Being Broken, It's Being Smashed
• 2012/08/26: CCurrents: Arctic Sea Ice Shrinks To Smallest Ever: Satellite Data
• 2012/08/28: CSM: Parts of Arctic now 'like a giant slushie'
• 2012/08/29: Tamino: Ice Over
• 2012/08/27: Forbes: As Arctic Ice Reaches Record Low, Meteorologists Name Humans 'Dominant' Cause Of Climate Change
• 2012/08/28: ERabett: Nothing Here, Keep Moving
• 2012/08/28: PSinclair: World Turning its Eyes to the Ice
• 2012/08/28: CCP: Arctic sea ice extent accelerates decline, just stunning!
• 2012/08/27: NSIDC: Arctic sea ice extent breaks 2007 record low
• 2012/08/28: QuarkSoup: The Arctic Records That Still Remain
• 2012/08/27: S&R: New Arctic ice minimum set three weeks early
• 2012/08/28: KSJT: Wash. Post, Wires, etc: It's Official. Arctic sea ice breaks record low, if only for the satellite record - since 1979
• 2012/08/27: TP:JR: Arctic Sea Ice Reaches Lowest Extent Ever Measured, Reports National Snow and Ice Data Center
• 2012/08/28: ABC(Au): Arctic ice melts to record low
• 2012/08/27: NatureNB: Arctic sea ice declines to record low
• 2012/08/27: SciAm:Obs: Arctic Sea Ice Reaches New Low
• 2012/08/27: DM:BA: Update: New NASA map of sea ice minimum
• 2012/08/27: NASA: Arctic Sea Ice Shrinks To New Low In Satellite Era
• 2012/08/27: Eureka: Arctic sea ice reaches lowest extent ever recorded, says CU-Boulder research team
• 2012/08/28: CSM: Arctic sea ice sets record low
• 2012/08/28: EarthGauge: Sea Ice in Arctic Measured at Record Low - NYTimes.com
• 2012/08/28: al Jazeera: Arctic sea ice 'hits record low'
  Findings are widely seen by scientists as latest dramatic sign of the long-term impact of global warming.
• 2012/08/28: IOTD: Arctic Sea Ice Drops below 2007 Record
• 2012/08/27: PSinclair: NSIDC Official. New Record Low Extent and Still Falling
• 2012/08/27: BBC: The Arctic has lost more sea ice this year than at any time since satellite records began in 1979, NASA says
• 2012/08/27: Guardian(UK): Arctic sea ice shrinks to lowest extent ever recorded
• 2012/08/27: JQuiggin: Arctic ice at record low
• 2012/08/27: DM:BA: Arctic sea ice extent now at record low levels
• 2012/08/27: AFTIC: Most Arctic Sea Ice Records already set with still 4 weeks to go
• 2012/08/26: ASI: Why Arctic sea ice shouldn't leave anyone cold
• 2012/08/26: RealClimate: An update on the Arctic sea-ice
• 2012/08/27: PSinclair: The Biggest Story You Aren't Seeing on the News. Sea Ice in Free Fall.
• 2012/08/27: WtD: Reprint: Groundhog Day, the ice extent in the Arctic Ocean reaches a new minimum
• 2012/08/29: MODIS: Iceberg from Petermann Glacier, northern Greenland
  

  As for the charismatic megafauna:

• 2012/08/23: MoJo: [link to 1.1 meg pdf] Chart: What's a Polar Bear Worth?
  

  That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:

• 2012/08/30: CCP: Siberian subsea permafrost emitting methane, also from coastal erosion (Shakhova, Semiletov)
• 2012/08/30: TP:JR: What Do Methane Deposits In The Antarctic And Arctic Mean For The Climate?
• 2012/08/28: ArcticNews: Diagram of Doom
• 2012/08/28: ArcticNews: Opening further Doorways to Doom
  

  As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

• 2012/08/30: WaPo: Shell gets partial go-ahead off Alaska coast
• 2012/08/31: CBC: Coast guard clearing way for bigger ships in Arctic
• 2012/08/30: BBerg: Shell Wins U.S. Permit to Prepare for Arctic Drilling
• 2012/08/30: CBC: Northwest Passage sailors complete most northern route [by sail]
• 2012/08/29: Guardian(UK): Plug pulled on Russia's flagship Shtokman energy project
  Soaring costs, falling European demand and cheap shale gas in America see Gazprom's ambitious Arctic scheme shelved A $15bn (£9.4bn) flagship energy project in the Russian Arctic promoted by Vladimir Putin and state-owned Gazprom has been sunk by soaring costs, falling European demand and cheap shale gas in America. The ambitious Shtokman gas production scheme in the Barent Sea, described by the Russian president as recently as May as having "global significance", was officially killed off on Wednesday.
• 2012/08/28: Reuters: Shell seeks extension of Alaska Chukchi drill season
• 2012/08/28: DD: Russia announces enormous finds of radioactive waste and nuclear reactors in Arctic seas
• 2012/08/27: TP:JR: Ice Not Melting Fast Enough For Shell, So Oil Giant Asks To Extend Arctic Drilling Closer To Winter
• 2012/08/28: JQuiggin: The Northwest Passage
• 2012/08/26: LA Times: Shell seeks more time to drill exploratory well in Chukchi Sea
  

  While in Antarctica:

• 2012/08/28: Guardian(UK): [Letter] Antarctic climate
  

  The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2012/09/01: DD: World Bank issues hunger warning after droughts in U.S. and Europe
• 2012/08/31: ProMedMail: Stem & stripe rusts, wheat: double resistance breeding
• 2012/08/30: ProMedMail: New crop viruses & strains - multicountry
• 2012/08/31: NatureNB: Researchers step up fight against wheat pathogens
• 2012/08/31: AllAfrica:SACSIS: Africa: Food Security - a Perfect Storm
  Food prices are rapidly heading toward new record territory, with far more at play than a simple drought in the US Midwest. There are serious implications, especially for nations with high rates of inequality and poverty. We will almost certainly face a potentially catastrophic, global scale famine in the next couple of decades.
  The main reason there are now over seven billion people on earth is largely due to the emergence of two separate technologies. Firstly, cheap fossil fuels have enabled us to grow food on industrial scales. We presently require around 10 calories of fossil fuel energy to produce one calorie of food. A century ago each calorie of energy expended produced two calories of food. Secondly, advances in health care, primarily antibiotics and vaccines, have increased human life-spans.
  It is an increasing challenge to feed this exponentially increasing population. We produce sufficiently for everyone on earth to have enough food, yet despite this cornucopia a significant proportion of people cannot afford to eat properly. Why?
  There are three major reasons for this. Firstly, unequal wealth distribution. Secondly, meat consumption has grown as wealth has increased. Grazing area for meat production, mainly beef, uses more than a quarter of ice-free land surface. Additionally, more than a third of all cropland is used to grow crops to feed livestock. These are produced using energy intensive, industrial agricultural practices.
  Third, the risks associated with diminishing energy supplies has encouraged wealthy governments to promote the production and consumption of "biofuels". These are produced from agricultural resources such as sugar cane, beet, maize, soy, and oil crops such as palm oil and canola.
• 2012/08/31: Guardian(UK): Quebec police seek sticky-fingered thieves with $30m of maple syrup
• 2012/08/28: BBerg: Poor in India Starve as Politicians Steal $14.5 Billion of Food
• 2012/08/28: CCurrents: Our Hunger Games by Vandana Shiva
• 2012/08/29: GRC: Our Hunger Games
• 2012/08/28: EnergyBulletin: No water, no crops: how this year's North American drought will impact you
• 2012/08/27: UN: Zimbabwe food situation deteriorating, UN food relief agency warns
• 2012/08/28: ProMedMail: Schmallenberg virus - Europe (56): Netherlands, milk-bulk survey
• 2012/08/27: ProMedMail: African swine fever - Ukraine (05): international trade
• 2012/08/28: PlanetArk: Ivory Coast cocoa weather remains patchy as disease spreads
  Ivory Coast's main cocoa growing regions saw patchy rains and intermittent sunshine last week, as farmers said an outbreak of the fungal black pod disease continued to gain ground little a over a month before the start of the 2012/13 season.
• 2012/08/28: NatureN: [African swine] fever sweeps across Russia -- Deadly virus may be poised to spread to neighbouring states
  

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

• 2012/08/31: PlanetArk: Cod, haddock may be hard to find as New England quotas likely cut
• 2012/08/27: EnergyBulletin: Some notes on fish
  Even official agencies are getting impatient about collapsing fish stocks. But it needs policy intervention to change behaviour.
• 
  

  Food Prices are rising:

   

• FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
• 2012/08/31: BBerg: Farm Exports Seen Rising as Drought Pushes Up U.S. Crop Prices
• 2012/08/30: WB: Severe Droughts Drive Food Prices Higher, Threatening the Poor
• 2012/08/31: CNN: Long, hot summer sends food prices soaring
  World Bank report reveals global food prices soared by 10% in July this year - Droughts and extreme temperatures across the world are the main cause - Domestic prices in some of the world's poorest countries rising sharply - World Bank calls on countries to do more to protect the vulnerable
• 2012/08/31: EUO: Eastern Europe droughts contibuting to food price hikes
• 2012/08/30: BBC: Global food prices have leapt by 10% in the month of July, raising fears of soaring prices for the planet's poorest, the World Bank has warned
• 2012/08/27: BPA: Global Wheat Stocks and Price. Why Has the Wheat Price Skyrocketed?
• 2012/08/26: SoberLook: The soy price shock in the US will reverberate across China
• 2012/08/28: PlanetArk: U.N. body [FAO] urges G20 action on food prices, waste
  

  The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

• 2012/08/28: EurActiv: Ethanol industry hits back over food price claims
  Europe's biofuel producers are hitting back at claims that they are at fault for this summer's high food prices and challenge assertions that crops grown for fuel production are a threat to food supplies.
• 
  

  So, are these land grabs Colonialism V2.0?

   

• 2012/08/30: DerSpiegel: Corn-Mania -- Biogas Boom in Germany Leads to Modern-Day Land Grab
  Creating energy from corn once seemed like a revolutionary idea in Germany. But subsidies for the biogas industry have led to entire regions of the country being covered by the crop, and investors are eagerly waiting for local farmers' land to go for sale. Some of those farmers who lease their land say they have been "ruined."
• 
  

  Regarding labelling GM food:

   

• 2012/08/27: Grist: Monsanto's 10 most misleading talking points on GMO labeling
  

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

• 2012/08/30: NatureN: Global survey reveals routes to boosting crop yields
  Improved fertilizer management and more irrigation could increase productivity by up to 70%, study finds.
• 2012/08/29: UMn: Study offers new hope for increasing global food production, reducing environmental impact of agriculture
• 2012/08/30: FAO: Greener cities crucial to African food security -- FAO releases first status report on urban gardening in Africa
• 2012/08/30: CSM: Grow your own food: five simple steps
• 2012/08/26: Guardian(UK): Food shortages could force world into vegetarianism, warn scientists
  Water scarcity's effect on food production means radical steps will be needed to feed population expected to reach 9bn by 2050
• 2012/08/27: UN: UN food agency launches water management framework to combat food insecurity
  

  In the Western Pacific, Tembin & Bolaven made life interesting:

• 2012/08/30: DD: 2nd typhoon hits South Korea, moves toward North Korea
• 2012/08/30: NASA: NASA Sees Tropical Storm Tembin Make Landfall in South Korea
• 2012/08/30: CBC: Typhoons [Tembin & Bolaven] stoke fears of humanitarian crisis in North Korea
• 2012/08/30: MODIS: Super Typhoon Bolaven (16W) in the Philippine Sea
• 2012/08/29: Guardian(UK): Second typhoon to hit storm-ravaged North and South Korea
  Approach of typhoon Tembin sparks fears for North Korea, where heavy downpours are often catastrophic
• 2012/08/29: DD: Typhoon Bolaven batters Korean Peninsula -- Typhoon Tembin to hit South Korea tomorrow
• 2012/08/28: al Jazeera: Chinese fishermen killed in Typhoon Bolaven
  Storm with winds of up to 170kmph buffets South Korea's west coast, forcing Chinese fishermen's vessels to capsize.
• 2012/08/28: CBC: 9 killed as Typhoon Bolaven hits South Korea
  North Korea, already lashed by heavy rain and wind, is next in typhoon's path
• 2012/08/28: Guardian(UK): Typhoon Bolaven kills South Korean fishermen
• 2012/08/28: DD: Typhoon Bolaven pounds South Korea, smashes ships; 9 dead - Typhoon Tembin skirts Taiwan
• 2012/08/27: DD: Typhoon Tembin seen looping back to Taiwan
• 2012/08/27: NASA: NASA Sees Typhoon Bolaven Dwarf Typhoon Tembin
• 2012/08/27: BBC: Fishermen missing as Typhoon Bolaven hits South Korea
  At least 31 Chinese fishermen are missing after their boats sank when a typhoon hit South Korea, reports say.
• 2012/08/27: BBC: Typhoon Bolaven heads to S Korea after lashing Okinawa
• 2012/08/27: al Jazeera: Typhoon Bolaven heads to Korean peninsula
  Category-4 typhoon expected to pass near South Korean island of Jeju after battering Japan's Okinawa prefecture.
• 2012/08/26: BBC: Typhoon Bolaven lashes Japan's Okinawa
  

  In the Eastern Pacific, amidst several numbered TDs, Ileana has remained safely out at sea:

   

• 2012/08/30: NASA: NASA Spotted Hot Towers in Ileana That Indicated its Increase to Hurricane Status
  

  In the Atlantic & Caribbean, Joyce, Kirk & Leslie stayed out at sea while Isaac zapped the US:

   

• 2012/09/02: CBC: Isaac lurches further north as Gulf Coast recovers -- 400,000 customers still without power in Louisiana
• 2012/09/01: CBC: Isaac drifts north as thousands displaced by flooding -- Storm dumped as much as 41 centimetres of rain in some areas
• 2012/09/01: al Jazeera: Tropical Depression Isaac Update
  Hurricane Isaac weakens into a tropical depression, but widespread flooding is still likely across the Ohio valley.
• 2012/09/01: MODIS: Tropical Storm Isaac (09L) over Louisiana
• 2012/08/31: Guardian(UK): Louisiana confronts Isaac clean-up as Obama releases federal aid for region
• 2012/08/31: WRI: Hurricane Isaac Caps Off America's Summer of Extreme Weather
• 2012/08/31: Wunderground: Unanswered questions concerning Hurricane Isaac
• 2012/08/31: BBC: Hurricane Isaac 'drove Mississippi River backwards'
  The storm surge ahead of Hurricane Isaac made the Mississippi River run backwards for 24 hours. US Geological Survey (USGS) instruments at Belle Chasse in Louisiana recorded the flow of the river, finding it running in reverse on Tuesday. The flow reached nearly 5,200 cubic metres per second (182,000 cubic feet per second) upriver, with a height of nearly 3m (10ft) above average. Normal flow is about 3,540 cubic metres per second in the opposite direction.
• 2012/08/31: CBC: Isaac leaves misery in storm-weary Louisiana
• 2012/08/31: PlanetArk: Flooding from Isaac forces evacuation of 60,000
• 2012/08/31: PlanetArk: "Uncharacteristic" Isaac lacked punch but not size
• 2012/08/30: NASA: NASA Spies Fifth Atlantic Hurricane [Kirk] and Twelfth Tropical Depression
• 2012/08/31: WSWS: Hurricane Isaac ... and the seven years since Hurricane Katrina
• 2012/08/30: Guardian(UK): Isaac moves inland and prompts warnings for Arkansas and Missouri
• 2012/08/30: Guardian(UK): New Orleans defences hold up to Hurricane Isaac
• 2012/08/30: BBC: Tropical Storm Isaac loses steam over Louisiana
• 2012/08/30: BBC: Louisiana officials have ordered people to evacuate an area in the south-east of the state because a dam has been damaged by Hurricane Isaac
• 2012/08/30: CBC: Weakened Isaac drenches Louisiana, Mississippi
• 2012/08/30: WSWS: Seven years after the Katrina disaster -- Hurricane Isaac pounds Gulf Coast
• 2012/08/30: al Jazeera: Isaac brings heavy rains to US Gulf Coast
  Tropical storm to spread inland and water levels expected to remain high along northern coast, US authorities say.
• 2012/08/30: IOTD: Night View of Hurricane Isaac
• 2012/08/30: ABC(Au): Hurricane tops Louisiana levee on Katrina anniversary
• 2012/08/30: Wunderground: Isaac slamming Gulf Coast with damaging floods, tornadoes
• 2012/08/29: Guardian(UK): Isaac downgraded to a tropical storm as Gulf residents enter survival mode
• 2012/08/29: Guardian(UK): New Orleans defences strained as hurricane Isaac pounds Gulf coast
• 2012/08/29: Guardian(UK): Hurricane Isaac: Louisiana faces serious flooding as levee overflows
• 2012/08/29: Wunderground: Isaac downgraded to tropical storm, but impacts continue
• 2012/08/29: Wunderground: Isaac pounding Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida
• 2012/08/30: Eureka: NASA watching Tropical Storm Isaac drench US Gulf Coast region and lower Mississippi River Valley
• 2012/08/29: DemNow: Hurricane Isaac Makes Landfall in Louisiana, Threatening New Orleans with Heavy Flooding
• 2012/08/29: USGS: Mississippi River Flows Backwards Due to Isaac
• 2012/08/28: USGS: USGS Storm-Surge Sensors Deployed Ahead of Isaac
• 2012/08/28: USGS: Isaac Expected to Change Sandy Coasts from Louisiana to Florida
• 2012/08/29: PlanetArk: Isaac a blessing and a curse for U.S. farmers
• 2012/08/29: Wunderground: Hurricane Isaac hits Louisiana, driving dangerous storm surges
• 2012/08/28: Wunderground: Hurricane Isaac continues to organize as it nears landfall
• 2012/08/28: Wunderground: Isaac makes its final approach towards Louisiana
• 2012/08/29: CSM: Hurricane Isaac tests levees, knocks out power in Louisiana
• 2012/08/29: BBC: Hurricane Isaac bears down on New Orleans, Louisiana
• 2012/08/29: CBC: Hurricane Isaac heads for New Orleans -- Water flows over tops of some levees southeast of New Orleans
• 2012/08/29: WSWS: Hurricane Isaac takes aim at US Gulf Coast
• 2012/08/28: al Jazeera: Tropical storm Isaac heads towards New Orleans
  Isaac, on track to hit southern US coast on Wednesday, is less powerful than hurricane that devastated city in 2005.
• 2012/08/29: IOTD: Hurricane Isaac
• 2012/08/28: MODIS: Tropical Storm Isaac (09L) over Florida and Cuba
• 2012/08/28: al Jazeera: Hurricane Isaac makes landfall in S Louisiana
  With the category one hurricane comes heavy rains, strong winds and warnings to residents to leave their homes.
• 2012/08/28: CBC: Hurricane Isaac hits land near New Orleans -- Storm expected to weaken as it continues north
• 2012/08/28: BBC: Hurricane Isaac hits Gulf Coast, headed for New Orleans
• 2012/08/28: Guardian(UK): Hurricane Isaac makes landfall as category 1 in south-eastern Louisiana
• 2012/08/28: UN: In wake of Tropical Storm Isaac, UN steps up Haiti humanitarian response
• 2012/08/28: DWWSJ: Isaac heads For The Big Un-Easy
• 2012/08/26: BitTooth: Hurricane ISAAC and the Gulf Coast
• 2012/08/28: GLaden: Isaac is a Hurricane
• 2012/08/27: TP:JR: Isaac Poised To 'Torment' New Orleans As Category 1 Hurricane On Anniversary Of Katrina
• 2012/08/27: Wunderground: Isaac approaching hurricane strength
• 2012/08/27: Wunderground: Little change to Isaac, but storm poses a serious storm surge threat
• 2012/08/27: NASA: NASA Infrared Time Series of Tropical Storm Isaac Shows Consolidation
• 2012/08/27: CSM: Tropical Storm Isaac expected to hit Gulf Coast as hurricane
• 2012/08/27: CSM: Gulf Coast evacuations begin ahead of Isaac
• 2012/08/27: Guardian(UK): How tropical storm Isaac matches up against hurricane Katrina
• 2012/08/27: CNN: Eerie similarities: Isaac follows track of Katrina, evacuations ordered for coast
  The Gulf Coast from Morgan City, Louisiana, to Destin, Florida, is under a hurricane watch - Tropical Storm Isaac is expected to make landfall as a hurricane - Isaac could make landfall on or near the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall - "I am urging everyone to take precautions now," Alabama's governor says
• 2012/08/27: PlanetArk: Isaac storm surge could put $36 billion worth of homes at risk
• 2012/08/27: PlanetArk: Storm Isaac bearing down on U.S. refining hub
• 2012/08/26: CSM: Isaac lashes Florida Keys: Is New Orleans next?
• 2012/08/27: BBC: Tropical Storm Isaac: New warning for Louisiana
• 2012/08/27: CBC: Isaac aims at north Gulf Coast after raking Florida -- Isaac expected to grow to a hurricane over the warm Gulf of Mexico
• 2012/08/27: BBerg: Hurricane Warning Posted for U.S. Gulf as Isaac Nears
• 2012/08/26: Wunderground: Isaac becomes better organized, remains a tropical storm
• 2012/08/26: Wunderground: Isaac lashing the Keys; an eyewall is building
• 2012/08/27: al Jazeera: US Gulf Coast braced for tropical storm Isaac
  Three more states declare states of emergency as Republicans scramble to rearrange convention schedule in Florida.

• While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

• 2012/08/27: UCSUSA:B: Hurricane Watch Checklist: Four Factors that Strengthen and Four that Weaken Tropical Cyclones
  

  And on the Monsoon front:

• 2012/09/01: WSWS: Millions in India affected by severe drought
  An estimated 20 percent shortfall in the annual June-September South-West monsoon has severely affected the lives of hundreds of millions of farmers and agricultural workers in rural India. Severe drought is causing significant crop and financial losses and for many hunger and even starvation.
• 2012/08/27: DD: Millions suffer from late monsoons in India - Crops are so dry 'even our cattle won't eat it'
• 2012/08/27: WaPo: Millions of Indian farmers stricken with weak monsoon rains, as drought looms in many states
  

  Meanwhile in the carbon cycle:

• 2012/08/30: IODP: New Nature Study Illuminates 55 Million Years of the Carbon Cycle and Climate History
  

  As for the temperature record:

• 2012/08/30: C&S: The Effect on slope using base period from 1931 to 1995
• 2012/08/29: CapClimate: Warm U.S. Year Rolls Through 37th Consecutive Week
• 2012/08/27: DD: Graph of the Day: Shifting Distribution of Global Temperature Anomalies, 1981-2011
  

  Yes we have feedbacks:

• 2012/08/31: TP:JR: For Peat's Sake: Record Temperatures And Wildfires In Eastern Russia Drive Amplifying Carbon-Cycle Feedback
  

  Aerosols are making their presence felt:

• 2012/08/30: Eureka: Up in the air: Heating by black carbon aerosol re-evaluated
  First field study finds soot particles absorb significantly less sunlight than predicted by models
• 
  

  Clouds are one of the major uncertainties in climate. Much research revolves around them:

   

• 2012/08/29: JEB: I wanna start a fight
  

  Regarding the solar hypothesis:

• 2012/08/31: GreenGrok: Sunspots and Climate: A New Frozen Connection
  

  Tipping points aka planetary boundaries popped up again:

• 2012/08/30: Yale360: Arctic Tipping Point: A North Pole Without Ice
  Scientists say this year's record declines in Arctic sea ice extent and volume are powerful evidence that the giant cap of ice at the top of the planet is on a trajectory to largely disappear in summer within a decade or two, with profound global consequences.
• 
  

  And the State of the Biosphere:

   

• 2012/08/30: Eureka: Ecological monitoring on bird populations in Europe re-evaluated
• 2012/08/29: Eureka: URI oceanographers find there is one-third less life on Earth -- New estimate represents fewer subseafloor microbes
• 2012/08/27: Eureka: One third less life on planet Earth -- New estimate of living biomass
  

  What's new on the extinction front?

• 2012/08/31: IUCN: Spineless creatures that rule the world
  One-fifth of the world's invertebrates may be threatened with extinction according to 'Spineless,' a report published today by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), in conjunction with IUCN.
• 2012/08/31: ABC(Au): Vital spineless creatures facing extinction: [IUCN] report
• 2012/08/31: BBC: 'Spineless' animals under threat of extinction
  A fifth of animals without backbones could be at risk of extinction, say scientists. Almost 80% of the world's species are invertebrates, meaning they lack a spinal column. Reviewing over 12,000 species known to be threatened, biologists found that freshwater ones are most at risk. Researchers urged for comprehensive studies of those vulnerable, to help inform conservation and protect species. Human pressures, ranging from habitat disruption to increased temperatures, were key concerns according to the report published by the Zoological Society of London.
• 2012/08/29: SciAm:EC: Updates from the Brink: Dying Devils, Disappearing Vultures and a $473,000 Fish
• 2012/08/26: CCurrents: Flight Of The Bumblebee: From India To Europe, Are We Poisoning Our Future?
  

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2012/08/30: QuarkSoup: Climate Moving at One Foot Per Hour
• 2012/08/30: Eureka: Unexpected finding shows climate change complexities in soil
• 2012/08/31: DD: Heatstroke deaths prompt new high school football rules, as global warming causes hotter summers
• 2012/08/30: ERW: Fast climate response differs over land and sea
• 2012/08/29: UCSUSA: Latest Science on Climate Change, Coastal Flooding, Hurricanes
  

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2012/08/30: SciNow: Amazon Seeds Its Own Rain
• 2012/08/31: NatureNB: Brazilian Congress waters down forest protection
• 2012/08/31: TreeHugger: World Forest Area Still on the Decline by Lester Brown
• 2012/08/29: TP:JR: In Fear Of Firebugs: Helped By A Warming Planet, How The Pine Beetle Is Altering America's Forests
• 2012/08/29: NatureN: Brazil unveils tool to track emissions -- Carbon releases lag behind Amazon deforestation
  

  Emerging diseases accompany ecological change:

• 2012/08/29: Reuters: U.S. cases of West Nile virus set record, deaths rise: CDC
  A total of 1,590 cases of West Nile virus, including 66 deaths, were reported through late August this year in the United States, the highest human toll by that point in the calendar since the mosquito-borne disease was first detected in the country in 1999, health officials said on Wednesday.
• 2012/09/01: WSWS: West Nile virus cases set seasonal record [in the US - 1,590 cases, 66 deaths as of August 28]
• 2012/08/29: TP:JR: Dust-Bowlification Threatens Public Health With More Asthma Attacks, Toxic Chemicals And Disease
• 2012/08/29: CBC: West Nile Virus cases spike in Ontario and U.S.
• 2012/08/29: Eureka: Climate change could increase levels of avian influenza in wild birds
• 2012/08/27: CBC: West Nile virus worsens in Ontario -- Parts of province looking at 'fairly significant swing,' health officer says
• 2012/08/27: WSWS: US West Nile virus cases double in one week
  

  Yes we have no wacky weather, except:

• 2012/08/30: CBC: Wind blows part of roof off Maurice Richard Arena
  

  This week in the New Normal -- extreme weather:

• 2012/08/27: TP:JR: Scenes From An Extreme Summer: 'We've Never Seen Anything Like This Before'
  

  As for heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2012/08/31: al Jazeera: Marbella wildfire causes mass evacuation
  At least one person killed and homes and campsites evacuated as fire threatens tourist resorts in south of Spain.
• 2012/08/29: Scripps: Heatwaves to Move Toward Coasts, Study Finds
• 2012/08/31: ABC(Au): Bush fire danger period begins
• 2012/08/30: DM:80B: Watch This: 12 Years of Fires Burn Across the Globe
• 2012/08/31: BBC: Huge wildfire reaches Marbella in southern Spain
  A huge wildfire is approaching the wealthy resort of Marbella on Spain's Costa del Sol, where the authorities have evacuated thousands of people.
• 2012/08/31: MODIS: Fires and smoke in western United States
• 2012/08/31: CNN: Thousands evacuated as wildfire threatens Spanish coast
  Thousands of people are evacuated in the Marbella area of the Costa del Sol - The forest fire broke out Thursday to the north of the resort town - A charred body has been found and two people have been injured, authorities say
• 2012/08/31: BBC: In pictures: Spain wildfire
• 2012/09/01: BBC: Spain fires: Costa del Sol blaze 'mostly halted'
  The advance of huge wildfires that have destroyed properties on Spain's Costa del Sol has been mostly halted, though pockets remain, officials say.
• 2012/08/27: al Jazeera: Forest fires continue to rage across Balkans
  Firefighters battle to contain flames as region experiences 15-day heat wave and worst drought in 50 years.
• 2012/08/28: ABC(Au): The above average risk of bushfires this summer [in WA]
• 2012/08/26: NYDN: Wildfire rages unchecked in Alaska as blankets of black smoke shrouds Fairbanks area
  Location of fire leaving officials with few options. They've opted to allow it to burn 'as nature dictates.'
• 2012/08/27: PlanetArk: Army, firefighters keep fires from Serbian villages
• 2012/08/27: PlanetArk: Serb villages evacuated, wildfires rage unabated
  

  Corals are a bellwether of the ocean's health:

• 2012/08/29: Eureka: Coral scientists use new model to find where corals are most likely to survive climate change
• 2012/08/28 BBC: Underwater robots to 'repair' Scotland's coral reefs
  Underwater robots tasked with saving coral reefs are being developed at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland. Dubbed "coralbots", they are being designed to work in groups, in a similar manner to bees and ants.
• 2012/08/27: PSU: Darwin Discovered to Be Right: Eastern Pacific Barrier is Virtually Impassable by Coral Species
  

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2012/08/31: DD: Graph of the Day: Glacier retreat, area reduction, and mass balance change for Himalaya glaciers
• 2012/09/01: IOTD: Ice Loss on Puncak Jaya [of Indonesia]
• 2012/08/27: FaGP: Zachariæ Isstrøm Further Retreat, NE Greenland
  

  Sea levels are rising:

• 2012/08/29: USAToday: Study: Climate change threatens Atlantic seashores
• 2012/08/31: UCSUSA:B: Sea Level Rise in Florida Is No Laughing Matter
  

  As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

• 2012/08/30: ABC(Au): Antarctic ice confirms we've had a dry spell - for a century
  Ice cores in the Antarctic have confirmed rainfall in eastern Australia over the past 100 years has been below the average for the past millennium. Dr Tessa Vance, from the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC, says while Australia's land-based rainfall records extend back around a century, the ice cores confirm the lower rainfall over a much longer period of time.
• 2012/08/31: ABC(Au): Parched Alice heads towards record
  Alice Springs is experiencing its longest dry spell in 40 years.
• 2012/08/30: EnergyBulletin: The U.S. drought is hitting harder than most realize
• 2012/08/30: BBC: Summer 'wettest in 100 years', Met Office figures show
• 2012/08/28: DD: Graph of the Day: Average Size of Largest Annual Rain or Snow Storm in the U.S., 1948-2011
• 2012/09/02: IOTD: Flooding and Drought in Etosha Pan [Namibia]
• 2012/08/28: DD: Most serious drought for 6 decades in Hubei Province, China - 'We don't have enough water for residents, let alone for irrigation'
• 2012/08/27: CNN: Flooding in Myanmar forces thousands to flee
  Torrential rain in Myanmar has forced thousands to flee their homes - The Irrawaddy Delta region close to the capital Yangon worst hit - Two weeks of heavy monsoon rain caused the flooding
• 2012/08/27: ABC(Au): US drought revives memories of 1930s dust bowl
• 2012/08/26: JFleck: Don't call it "drought"
• 2012/08/26: al Jazeera: Serbs urged to pray for rain as fires rage
  Bishop makes plea as Russia joins efforts to tackle fires by sending planes equipped to drop water.
• 2012/08/26: BBC: Drought-hit Serbian town of Valjevo prays for rain
  Orthodox worshippers in Serbia have prayed for rain in order to end a weeks-long drought that has ruined crops and caused forest fires.
• 
  

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

   

• 2012/08/27: Eureka: Cooled coal emissions would clean air and lower health and climate-change costs
  

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2012/08/30: TP:JR: How Big Data Drives Intelligent Transportation
• 2012/08/31: TreeHugger: Prototype of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Powered Train Unveiled in the UK
• 2012/08/31: ABC(Au): Ships leave air pollution in their wake
  Shipping may produce 30 per cent of all nitrogen oxide and 20 per cent of total sulphur emissions in Australia, a study suggests.
• 2012/08/30: TreeHugger: Yep, High Speed Rail Will Slash Emissions
• 2012/08/27: CalcRisk: DOT: Vehicle Miles Driven increased 0.4% in June
  

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

• 2012/08/26: TP:JR: It's Time For A National Buildings Policy For Energy Use
  

  As for carbon sequestration:

• 2012/08/31: ABC(Au): Soil fungi may not be effective carbon sink
• 2012/08/29: ABC(Au): Carbon capture a prize-winning idea [MOFs: metal organic frameworks]
  

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2012/08/31: ERW: Geoengineering 'comparatively inexpensive'
  Researchers in the US have estimated that modification of stratospheric albedo -- a widely discussed geoengineering technique to counteract some of the effects of climate change -- could cost as little as $5 bn a year. Although this is just a small fraction of the gross domestic product (GDP) of most western countries, the team stresses that there are many potential risks of geoengineering the planet in this way.
• 2012/08/24: E&FT Ngr: Can geoengineering help Africa's climate fight?
  

  What's new in conservation?

• 2012/08/28: Grist: Contrarian conservationist: Nature Conservancy's chief scientist [Peter Kareiva] riles old-school greens
  

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2012/08/29: Nature: (ab$) Potential methane reservoirs beneath Antarctica by J. L. Wadham et al.
• 2012/08/29: Nature: (ab$) A Cenozoic record of the equatorial Pacific carbonate compensation depth by Heiko Pälike et al.
• 2012/08/30: ACP: Measurements of the movement of the jet streams at mid-latitudes, in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, 1979 to 2010 by R. D. Hudson
• 2012/08/28: ACP: Observations of middle atmospheric H2O and O3 during the 2010 major sudden stratospheric warming by a network of microwave radiometers by D. Scheiben et al.
• 2012/08/30: ACPD: A new method for measuring optical scattering properties of atmospherically relevant dusts using the Cloud Aerosol Spectrometer Polarization (CASPOL) instrument by A. Glen & S. D. Brooks
• 2012/08/30: ACPD: Radiative forcing of the direct aerosol effect from AeroCom Phase II simulations by G. Myhre et al.
• 2012/08/29: ACPD: Investigation of gaseous and particulate emissions from various marine vessel types measured on the banks of the Elbe in Northern Germany by J.-M. Diesch et al.
• 2012/08/27: ACPD: Impact of very short-lived halogens on stratospheric ozone abundance and UV radiation in a geo-engineered atmosphere by S. Tilmes et al.
• 2012/08/29: Nature: (ab$) Activation of old carbon by erosion of coastal and subsea permafrost in Arctic Siberia by J. E. Vonk et al.
• 2012/08/23: WOL:ASL: (ab$) Weakening of hurricanes via marine cloud brightening (MCB) by John Latham et al.
• 2012/08/30: ERL: Cost analysis of stratospheric albedo modification delivery systems by Justin McClellan et al.
• 2012/08/30: ESDD: A synthesis of climate-based emission metrics with applications by B. Aamaas et al.
• 2012/08/27: CP: Holocene climate variability in north-eastern Italy: potential influence of the NAO and solar activity recorded by speleothem data by D. Scholz et al.
• 2012/08/27: CP: Statistical framework for evaluation of climate model simulations by use of climate proxy data from the last millennium - Part 2: A pseudo-proxy study addressing the amplitude of solar forcing by A. Hind et al.
• 2012/08/27: CP: Statistical framework for evaluation of climate model simulations by use of climate proxy data from the last millennium - Part 1: Theory by R. Sundberg et al.
• 2012/08/30: CPD: Variability of the ocean heat content during the last millennium - an assessment with the ECHO-g Model by P. Ortega et al.
• 2012/08/29: CPD: Vegetation dynamics in the Northeastern Mediterranean region during the past 23 000 yr: insight from a new pollen record from the Sea of Marmara (core MD01-2430) by V. Valsecchi et al.
• 2012/08/28: CPD: Historical and idealized climate model experiments: an EMIC intercomparison by M. Eby et al.
• 2012/08/27: CPD: Investigating the past and recent O18-accumulation relationship seen in Greenland ice cores by S. L. Buchardt et al.
• 2012/08/28: NERC:NORA: An ice-core proxy for northerly air mass incursions into West Antarctica by Daniel A. Dixon et al.
• 2012/08/28: NERC:NORA: South Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (SAMOC) - Fourth Workshop by Silvia Garzoli et al.
• 2012/08/28: NERC:NORA: Autonomous underwater vehicle exploration of the ocean cavity beneath an Antarctic ice shelf by A. Jenkins et al.
• 2012/08/30: NERC:NORA: A 'hurricane-like' polar low fuelled by sensible heat flux: high-resolution numerical simulations by Ivan Føre et al.
• 2012/08/31: ACP: Observing the continental-scale carbon balance: assessment of sampling complementarity and redundancy in a terrestrial assimilation system by means of quantitative network design by T. Kaminski et al.
• 2012/08/31: ACP: The EMEP MSC-W chemical transport model - technical description by D. Simpson et al.
• 2012/08/31: ACPD: Wintertime aerosol chemical composition and source apportionment of the organic fraction in the metropolitan area of Paris by M. Crippa et al.
• 2012/08/31: ACPD: Modelling and intepreting the isotopic composition of water vapour in convective updrafts by M. Bolot et al.
• 2012/08/31: GMDD: A web-based software tool to estimate unregulated daily streamflow at ungauged rivers by S. A. Archfield et al.
• 2012/09/01: OS: On the shelf resonances of the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Arafura Sea by D. J. Webb
• 2012/08/31: OS: An operational model for the West Iberian coast: products and services by M. Mateus et al.
• 2012/08/30: OS: Net primary productivity, upwelling and coastal currents in the Gulf of Ulloa, Baja California, México by E. González-Rodríguez et al.
• 2012/08/30: OS: Assessment of a physical-biogeochemical coupled model system for operational service in the Baltic Sea by Z. Wan et al.
• 2012/08/31: TCD: Satellite-Derived Volume Loss Rates and Glacier Speeds for the Cordillera Darwin Icefield, Chile by A. K. Melkonian et al.
• 2012/08/31: TCD: Brief communication: Historical glacier length changes in West Greenland by P. W. Leclercq et al.
• 2012/08/28: PNAS: (ab$) Temperature during embryonic development has persistent effects on thermal acclimation capacity in zebrafish by Graham R. Scott & Ian A. Johnston
• 2012/08/28: PNAS: (ab$) Protected areas facilitate species' range expansions by Chris D. Thomas et al.
• 2012/08/28: PNAS: (ab$) Rapid responses of soil microorganisms improve plant fitness in novel environments by Jennifer A. Lau & Jay T. Lennon
• 2012/08/28: PNAS: (abs) Climate-driven regime shifts in Arctic marine benthos by Susanne Kortsch et al.
• 2012/08/28: PNAS: (ab$) Global environmental predictors of benthic marine biogeographic structure by Christina L. Belanger et al.
• 2012/08/28: PNAS: (ab$) Multiple B-vitamin depletion in large areas of the coastal ocean by Sergio A. Sañudo-Wilhelmy et al.
• 2012/08/28: PNAS: (ab$) Suicide and drought in New South Wales, Australia, 1970-2007 by Ivan C. Hanigan et al.
• 2012/08/28: PNAS: (ab$) Two-year survey comparing earthquake activity and injection-well locations in the Barnett Shale, Texas by Cliff Frohlich
• 2012/08/28: PNAS: (ab$) Classic Period collapse of the Central Maya Lowlands: Insights about human-environment relationships for sustainability by B. L. Turner II & Jeremy A. Sabloff
• 2012/08/28: PNAS: (letter$) Reply to Dunkel and Weber: Probability distributions and shortfall risk measures in conservation portfolio analysis by Amy W. Ando & Mindy L. Mallory
• 2012/08/28: PNAS: (letter$) Improving risk assessment for biodiversity conservation by Jörn Dunkel & Stefan Weber
• 2012/08/26: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Northern Hemisphere ice-sheet responses to past climate warming by Anders E. Carlson & Kelsey Winsor
• 2012/08/28: GMDD: The Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Model Intercomparison Project (ACCMIP): overview and description of models, simulations and climate diagnostics by J.-F. Lamarque et al.
• 2012/08/27: AGWObserver: New research from last week 34/2012
• 2012/08/25: GRL: (ab$) Trends in Arctic sea ice extent from CMIP5, CMIP3 and observations by Julienne C. Stroeve et al.
  

  And other significant documents:

• 2012/08/31: PI: [link to 267k pdf] Pembina Institute recommendations for B.C.'s carbon tax review
• 2012/08/23: MoJo: [link to 1.1 meg pdf] Chart: What's a Polar Bear Worth?
  

  As for miscellaneous science:

• 2012/08/29: CoveredInBees: What's the difference between a boxplot and an x-ray? Visualisation and Processing
• 2012/08/28: NASA: Tracking Shuttle Exhaust Reveals More Information About Atmospheric Winds
• 2012/09/01: IsaacHeld: 31. Relative humidity in GCMs
  

  More DIY science:

• 2012/08/29: CC&G: R Script to Build Animation of Arctic Sea Ice Extent
  

  What's new in models?

• 2012/08/30: UCDavis: Climate models may overstate black carbon's influence
• 2012/09/01: Wunderground:RR: Looking Under the Cloak of Complexity: Models, Water, and Temperature (7)
  

  What developments in the ongoing struggle for Free Science?

• 2012/08/28: NotEvenWrong: Simons Foundation and the arXiv
  

  While at the UN:

• 2012/08/30: UN: African cities must implement green measures to ensure food security - UN report
  

  And on the carbon trading front. See also:

• 2012/08/31: Grist: Curtain rises on California's planned carbon market
• 2012/08/29: Mercury: California's cap-and-trade program to cut emissions starts trial run
• 2012/08/28: ABC(Au): Australia signs carbon trading deal with Europe
  The Federal Government has signed a carbon trading deal with the European Union, which will see credits from both regions traded back and forth by mid-2018. As part of the deal, Australia will not implement the carbon floor price of $15 a tonne.
• 2012/08/29: EUO: EU in talks on more international emission deals [with South Korea, China, Switzerland & California]
  

  The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

• 2012/08/30: Grist: The carbon tax, demystified
• 2012/08/26: EconoSpeak:Some Frank Talk About Carbon Taxes
• 2012/08/27: PSinclair: Voices Rise Across the Spectrum in Favor of Carbon Tax
  

  On the international political front, South China Sea tension persists:

• 2012/09/02: al Jazeera: Japanese officials tour disputed islands
  Tokyo city officials visit uninhabited archipelago in East China Sea, as Beijing state media calls survey "illegal".
• 2012/08/31: al Jazeera: Domestic politics bedevil island disputes in NE Asia
  Domestic politics will necessarily complicate the diplomatic manoeuvers in Northeast Asia, writes Tng Ying Hui.
• 2012/08/30: CSM: What's behind the China - Japan island dispute?
• 2012/08/28: BWeek: China Offers Oil-Exploration Blocks Near Disputed Waters
  China National Offshore Oil Corp. offered foreign companies oil and gas blocks that lie near waters also claimed by Vietnam and Japan as tensions flare among the countries over rights to resources in the area.
• 2012/08/27: CBC: Trouble ahead in China's disputed seas
  

  The energy race between China and the USA is on, or is it?

• 2012/08/28: ENN: China Beats U.S. to Become Number One In Installed Wind Power
  

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

• 2012/08/30: TP:JR: Understanding The Historical Conflicts Behind Violence In Assam, And How Climate Change Could Make It Worse
• 2012/08/30: al Jazeera: The corporate scramble for Africa
  If it continues to be business as usual in Africa, it could set the stage for Resource Conflict 2.0.
• 2012/08/26: al Jazeera: Risk of water wars rises with scarcity
  Almost half of humanity will face water scarcity by 2030 and strategists from Israel to Central Asia prepare for strife.
• 
  

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

   

• 2012/08/31: Guardian(UK): Cross-border undercover networks are a 'global puzzle'
  Exposure of police spy Mark Kennedy revealed a little about international espionage, but much remains hidden More light has been shed recently on a particularly hidden area of undercover policing. The Mark Kennedy controversy helped to provide a little glimpse of this, but much remains unknown. During his seven years infiltrating the environmental movement, Kennedy spent quite a lot of time spying on, and disrupting, activists in other countries.
• 2012/08/28: ABC(Au): Police move to break 9-day CSG blockade
  Police say they are disappointed a coal seam gas protest at Fullerton Cove near Newcastle had to end in a confrontation. Police removed more than 50 protesters who had been blockading a coal seam gas test drill site for the last nine days.
• 
  

  What are the activists up to?

   

• 2012/08/28: TreeHugger: Seven Arrested While Blocking Construction of Keystone XL in Texas
  

  Regarding Water Politics and Business:

• 2012/08/30: Guardian(UK): Water crisis will make Gaza strip 'unliveable'
• 2012/08/31: ERabett: Virtual Water
• 2012/08/27: JFleck: Thinking about California headwaters
• 2012/08/27: Guardian(UK): Time running out for solution to Yemen's water crisis
  

  So what's new on the education front?

• 2012/08/30: TP:JR: Crisis And Opportunity In The Environmental Century: Inspiring A Generation To Greatness In The Classroom
• 2012/08/28: TP:JR: Educating The Next Generation To Compete In The Clean Energy Economy
  

  Who's making predictions this week?

• 2012/08/27: WpgFP: Fall to start warm, says the Weather Network outlook for the season
  

  And on the American political front:

• 2012/08/29: TP:JR: Climate Denial In Florida Is A Risky Proposition
• 2012/08/31: SciAm:Obs: Can the US Achieve Energy Independence by 2020?
• 2012/08/30: TreeHugger: We're One Step Closer to Tars Sands in the U.S.
• 2012/09/01: TP:JR: Massachusetts' Clean Economy Sees Massive Growth, Now Hosts 71,000 Jobs In Cleantech
• 2012/08/29: DeSmogBlog: Coalition Calls On Duke Energy To Dump American Legislative Exchange Council
• 2012/08/29: Wonkette: Lubbock County Still Going on About the U.N. and Armed Insurrection
• 2012/08/30: TP:JR: Al Gore On Media's Failure To Address Global Warming: 'There's Hardly Any Discussion About It. It Drives Me Crazy'
• 2012/08/30: Grist: Al Gore condemns media for dropping the ball on climate change coverage
• 2012/08/28: OilChange: Fires, storms and the energy independence myth
• 2012/08/28: al Jazeera: Half measures and the limits of legitimacy in American politics
  The idea that Americans can address their addiction to oil without addressing military industrial complex is ludicrous.
• 2012/08/28: TP:JR: 22 Of The Top 25 CO2 Emitting Congressional Districts In 2009 Were Republican
• 2012/08/26: BBickmore: Is the Republican Party Anti-Science?
• 2012/08/27: Grist: Red state residents would be hardest hit by their politicians' plans to cut food stamps
  

  On the 2012 campaign trail:

• 2012/08/29: NakedCapitalism: Why The Big Issues Are Missing from the 2012 Race
• 2012/08/30: TP:JR: Cleantech Experts On Romney's Energy Plan: 'A Political Document Not Worth Serious Analysis'
• 2012/08/30: Stoat: mt on Pierrehumbert on Paul Ryan on global warming
• 2012/08/31: Grist: As Romney and Ryan lie with abandon, how should journalists navigate post-truth politics?
• 2012/08/30: ERabett:BSD: Raymond on Ryan and Romney
• 2012/08/31: CSW: Climate scientist Ray Pierrehumbert: "Paul Ryan Is a Climate Change Denialist"
• 2012/08/30: TP:JR: Obama To College Students: 'Denying Climate Change Won't Make It Stop'. Seriously!
• 2012/08/29: GreenGrok: The Romney-Ryan Energy Plan by the Numbers
• 2012/08/31: EnergyBulletin: Romney's energy plan follows the money
• 2012/08/29: P3: Pierrehumbert on Paul Ryan
• 2012/08/30: PSinclair: Obama Says the C Word
• 2012/08/29: TP:JR: Renewable Electricity Nearly Doubles Under Obama: 'I Think They're The Future. They're Worth Fighting For' [2012]
• 2012/08/29: TreeHugger: What Does Mitt Romney Think About Climate Change?
• 2012/08/28: AutoBG: How Romney and Obama differ on fossil fuel and energy debate
• 2012/08/27: CCurrents: Romney's Dirtier, Deadlier Energy Future: Is There Another Way?
• 2012/08/28: al Jazeera: Romney affirmed as Republican nominee
  Ann Romney gives speech as Conservative presidential hopeful officially given his party's nomination in Tampa.
• 2012/08/28: TP:JR: Five National Parks That Could Be Threatened Under The Romney Energy Plan
• 2012/08/27: DeSmogBlog: Romney's "Oil Above All" Energy Plan Short on Variety, and on Energy
• 2012/08/28: WaPo: Ryan opposes new, Obama-backed aid regime that has disaster coffers flush as Isaac bears down
• 2012/08/28: TP:JR: Romney Opposes Fuel Efficiency Standards Actually Moving U.S. Toward Energy Independence
• 2012/08/28: TP:JR: Miners Say They Were Forced To Attend Romney Campaign Event Without Pay: 'We Knew What Would Happen'
• 2012/08/27: MSimon: Mitt Romney and Wrath of Lord Mo Mo
  

  The GOP convention went down in Tampa, after Isaac:

• 2012/08/31: Bundanga: Very odd Mitt Romney - and his wars on the planet (climate and Iran?)
• 2012/08/31: P3: The Joke
• 2012/08/31: QuarkSoup: The Tea Party's Fundamental Error
• 2012/08/31: CCD: Romney Channels Beck
• 2012/08/31: TreeHugger: Reactions to Mitt Romney Joke About Climate Change
• 2012/08/31: TreeHugger: Agenda 21 Update: Republican Convention approves Anti-Agenda 21 Stand
• 2012/08/31: TP:JR: Republican Convention Recap: As Experts Warn 'The Door Is Closing' On Climate, The GOP Mocks The Problem
• 2012/08/31: TreeHugger: In Romney's Tone-Deaf Climate Comment, Hints of a Coming War on Science
• 2012/08/31: CSW: Extraordinary anti-environmental science moment at GOP convention
• 2012/08/30: TP:JR: Romney Mocks Obama's Pledge To Address Global Warming -- As GOP Delegates Laugh At The Whole Notion
• 2012/08/30: NatJo: Romney Invokes Global Warming Against Obama
• 2012/08/30: Grist: Energy and environment in the GOP platform: They said what?
• 2012/08/30: Grist: Romney treats climate as a punchline
• 2012/08/30: WaPo: GOP platform highlights the party's abrupt shift on energy, climate
• 2012/08/30: ITracker: Fighting climate denial: the Akin line
• 2012/08/30: P3: Republican Platform Explicitly Opposes Sustainable Development, Implicitly Opposes Bike Paths
• 2012/08/29: ScienceInsider: Republican Party Platform Has a Lot to Say About Science
  Addressing climate change and reducing demand for fossil fuels are out, and more neuroscience research and space science missions are in. Those shifts from 2008 are evident in the 2012 Republican Party Platform approved yesterday at the GOP's national convention in Tampa, Florida.
• 2012/08/29: TreeHugger: 5 Anti-Environment Directives in the GOP's New Platform
• 2012/08/29: Grist: Surprise! The GOP's climate position tracks closely with oil industry donations
• 2012/08/29: BBC: Yahoo News fires Washington chief over Isaac gaffe
  Yahoo News has fired its Washington bureau chief for saying White House hopeful Mitt Romney was "happy to have a party with black people drowning". Caught on an open microphone, David Chalian was discussing Hurricane Isaac, which hit Louisiana with the Republican convention under way.
• 2012/08/29: TP:JR: GOP Budget Cuts Would Devastate Hurricane And Weather Forecasting
• 2012/08/28: TreeHugger: GOP Gets Ready to Approve Predictably Oily Energy Platform at the RNC
• 2012/08/28: Guardian(UK): Romney likely to sacrifice poll boost as Isaac steals convention spotlight
• 2012/08/28: TheHill:e2W: GOP platform: Block carbon regulations, expand offshore drilling
  The Republican platform slated for approval at the party's convention includes expanded offshore oil-and-gas development, opening Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling rigs and thwarting Environmental Protection Agency climate change regulations.
• 2012/08/27: TP:JR: Rush Limbaugh Says Obama Manipulated Isaac Storm Track To Delay GOP Convention: 'The Hurricane Center Is ... Obama'
• 2012/08/27: Grist: Rush Limbaugh says Obama manipulated hurricane forecasts to delay GOP convention
• 2012/08/27: TreeHugger: Republican Platform Comes Out Against Agenda 21, Law of the Sea, Women's Rights, Kids and People with Disabilities
• 2012/08/27: RReich: George W. Bush as Hurricane Isaac
• 2012/08/28: al Jazeera: Southern US states brace for 'Isaac' to hit
  Republican convention in Tampa opens with a recess, as President Barack Obama declares state of emergency in Louisiana.
• 2012/08/27: Guardian(UK): Republicans braced for more disruption as Isaac heads for New Orleans
• 2012/08/27: CBC: Isaac forces Republican convention planners to be 'nimble'
  Tropical storm on course for New Orleans could further shake up party's abbreviated 3-day event
• 2012/08/26: CSM: Republicans retool convention to avoid Isaac: who's in, who's out?
  

  And in the "this space intentionally left blank" department:

• 2012/08/30: Grist: GOP convention addresses the climate issue: Our comprehensive coverage, day two
• 2012/08/29: Grist: GOP convention addresses the climate issue: Our comprehensive coverage, day one
  

  Meanwhile I wouldn't want the Democrats to feel left out:

• 2012/08/28: WSWS: Corporate bribery and political corruption on display at Republican, Democratic conventions
  

  Gas Prices are on the rise again:

• 2012/08/30: CSM: Isaac behind biggest one-day jump in gas prices
• 2012/08/29: BBerg: U.S. Gasoline a Bargain as Drivers Pay 63% Less Than Norway
  For all the complaints about U.S. gasoline prices, Americans spent 63 percent less at the pump in July than Norwegians did on a gallon of the fuel. The U.S. ranked 49th of 60 countries, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, with premium gasoline at $3.75 a gallon on July 23, compared with $10.12 in top-ranked Norway.
• 
  

  The Keystone XL saga bumps along:

   

• 2012/08/28: TreeHugger: Seven Arrested While Blocking Construction of Keystone XL in Texas
• 2012/08/29: OilChange: Support the Texas KXL Protestors!
  

  The Ethanol Mandate tension is not going away:

• 2012/08/30: ColumbusDispatch: OSU agricultural expert favors ethanol waiver to avert global crisis
• 2012/08/27: EnvEcon: "Can we finally get the ethanol mandate monkey off of our backs?"
  

  The GOP War on Women drags on. See also:

• 2012/08/29: al Jazeera: The abortion war
  Fault Lines investigates the forces behind the so-called war on women in the US.
• 2012/08/29: ERabett: Someone Noticed
• 2012/08/: MoJo: (gfx) Pregnancy Flowchart
• 2012/08/27: al Jazeera: What the 'legitimate rape' fiasco reveals about Paul Ryan's extremist past
  Todd Akin's insensitive remarks regarding "legitimate rape" could provide the Romney ticket with a good smokescreen.
• 
  

  A notable aberration:

   

• 2012/08/29: TheDataBank: Congressmembers Refuse Science Questions
  

  The Obama administration has negotiated a new CAFE target of 54.5 mpg by 2025:

• 2012/08/28: UCSUSA: Historic Fuel Efficiency and Auto Pollution Standards Finalized
  54.5 Mpg-Equivalent Standard a Big Step toward Halving U.S. Oil Use within 20 Years, Science Group Says
• 2012/08/28: TreeHugger: White House Sets Fuel Economy Target of 54.5 MPG by 2025
• 2012/08/28: STimes: A win in the war on warming
  The best news out of the Obama administration in a long time came in this week's announcement of a deal struck with the auto industry to double the fuel efficiency of U.S. cars and trucks by 2025, to an average of 54.5 mpg across the entire fleet.
• 2012/08/28: AutoBG: New CAFE rules officially finalized; 54.5 mpg is like making gas $1/gallon cheaper
• 2012/08/28: CSM: Fuel-efficient US cars? Obama sets target of 54.5 mpg by 2025
• 2012/08/27: TP:JR: Why Fuel Mileage Standards Will Benefit The Auto Industry And Create Nearly 700,000 New Jobs
• 2012/08/28: WhiteHouse: Obama Administration Finalizes Historic 54.5 MPG Fuel Efficiency Standards
• 2012/08/28: NYT: U.S. Sets Higher Fuel-Efficiency Standards
• 2012/08/27: DeSmogBlog: Fuel Economy Standards To Save U.S. Consumers Billions, Create Jobs, Yet Republicans Say Too Expensive
  

  The Obama chatter is nonstop:

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2012/08/30: TP:JR: Big Moves In Industrial Efficiency: White House Directive Could Stimulate $40 Billion In New Manufacturing Investments
• 2012/08/30: NOAANews: NOAA selects University of Colorado-Boulder to lead Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
• 2012/08/30: WaPo: Shell gets partial go-ahead off Alaska coast
  Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Thursday that Royal Dutch Shell would be allowed to start "certain limited preparatory activities" for oil drilling in the environmentally sensitive waters off Alaska's northwest coast.
• 2012/08/31: CCurrents: Obama Ignores Huge Dangers In Approving Arctic Drilling Permit For Shell
• 2012/08/30: CSM: Hurricane Isaac aftermath: Will FEMA have enough money?
• 2012/08/27: NOAANews: New NOAA awards to fund studies of weather warnings, social media, Internet tools and public response
• 2012/08/26: LA Times: Shell seeks more time to drill exploratory well in Chukchi Sea
  

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2012/08/29: Grist: The Chesapeake Bay: Another possible casualty of this year's farm bill
• 2012/08/27: NYT: Military Spending on Biofuels Draws Fire [from House GOP]
  

  While in the UK:

• 2012/08/29: TreeHugger: UK Conservatives Divided Over Third Runway Opposition, Again
• 2012/08/28: Guardian(UK): Orkney, leader in green energy, launches wave power competition
• 2012/08/28: Guardian(UK): Rail is a gigantic scam for siphoning off public money
  Branson and FirstGroup have both gamed a disastrous privatisation. The case for public ownership is compelling
• 
  

  And in Europe:

   

• 2012/08/31: EurActiv: UN panel blows cold air on EU renewables policy
  A United Nations body has found that the European Union has failed in its commitments towards transparency and public participation in renewable energy policies - a move which has been hailed as a victory by wind farm opposition groups. The Compliance Committee for the Aarhus Convention, an international agreement on environment policy transparency, claimed the EU - which is a signatory - has failed to put in place a proper regulatory framework and clear instructions on how to consult local populations in their renewable energy plans. In the firing line are the national renewable energy action plans (NREAP) that all 27 EU countries have submitted under the 2009 renewable energy directive.
• 2012/08/31: EurActiv: Light goes out for incandescent bulbs
  After more than a century lighting up the world, the switch will be flicked off across the EU for the final time on incandescent bulbs on Saturday as the phased ban on their sale is completed.
• 2012/08/30: PlanetArk: German cabinet passes draft law on offshore wind
  German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet approved a draft law on Wednesday to accelerate the expansion of offshore windparks, a crucial part of a planned shift to green energy from nuclear.
• 2012/08/30: PlanetArk: Glimmer of hope for copper from Europe green energy target
• 2012/08/31: DerSpiegel: 'Dictatorship of the Bureaucrats' -- Light-Bulb Ban Casts Shadow over EU Democracy
  Beginning Saturday, it will be illegal to import or produce traditional incandescent light bulbs in EU member states. The move has upset consumers and many environmentalists, but it serves to highlight the EU's democratic deficiencies.
• 2012/08/29: DerSpiegel: Power Failures -- Germany Rethinks Path to Green Future
  Germany's energy revolution is the government's only major project -- but the problems keep piling up. The pace of grid expansion is sluggish, and electricity costs for consumers are rising. The environment minister wants to fundamentally alter the way green energy is subsidized, but will it mean putting the brakes on the entire project?
• 2012/08/30: DerSpiegel: Sea Change -- German Shipyards See Future in Wind Power
  After years of decline, Germany's shipyards are now pinning their hopes on offshore wind farms, a key component of the country's energy revolution. Some have converted entirely to building equipment for wind farms. But the initial euphoria has worn off as the true challenges of the transition become clear.
• 2012/08/26: BBerg: Merkel's Other Crisis Spurs German Quest for Energy [Storage] Holy Grail
• 2012/08/29: EUO: EU in talks on more international emission deals [with South Korea, China, Switzerland & California]
• 2012/08/29: PlanetArk: German minister mulls slower green revolution
  Germany may have to slow down its planned transformation to green energy, Environment Minister Peter Altmaier said on Tuesday in an effort to assuage worries that consumers will bear the brunt of the immense costs of the switch from nuclear.
• 2012/08/28: DerSpiegel: The World from Berlin -- Germany Hits Brakes on Race to Renewable Energy Future
• 2012/08/28: PlanetArk: Private sector must fund bulk of green energy: EIB
  Most of the funding for Europe's push into green energy needs to come from the private sector, the president of the EU's long-term lending arm said on Monday, adding that the continent's credibility hinged on its ability to manage the shift. "If we want to switch to renewables in Europe on a permanent basis, the lion's share (of investment) needs to come from the private sector," Werner Hoyer, president of the European Investment Bank (EIB), said at the annual Handelsblatt renewable energy conference.
• 2012/08/28: PlanetArk: Green energy to hit Germans' bills: Vattenfall
  

  Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2012/09/02: ABC(Au): Billion dollar light rail plans unveiled
  The [WA] State Government is unveiling its billion dollar plans for a light rail network to relieve traffic congestion in Perth.
• 2012/08/31: ABC(Au): Greens MP wants tougher fracking laws
• 2012/08/30: ABC(Au): High-speed rail link study touts benefits
• 2012/08/30: ABC(Au): Energy rebate scheme nears end
  Tomorrow is the last chance for Alice Springs residents to take advantage of an energy rebate program worth hundreds of dollars per household.
• 2012/09/01: ABC(Au): Foreign bid for Cubbie Station raises concerns
  Concerns have been raised over the Government's approval of a foreign bid for Australia's largest cotton farm, with Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce labelling it "a disgrace". Treasurer Wayne Swan has approved a consortium made up of Chinese and Japanese investors to make a bid for Cubbie Station, near Dirranbandi in southern Queensland. The station was placed in administration three years ago with debts of more than $300 million.
• 2012/08/30: BBerg: Africa Gas Rush Imperils $100 Billion in Australian LNG
• 2012/08/29: ABC(Au): Hot rocks go cold
• 2012/08/29: ABC(Au): Measuring soil carbon
  Farmers and land managers could play a big role in reducing Australia's carbon footprint by storing carbon in the soil.
• 2012/08/29: ABC(Au): 'Fracking' in WA to be more tightly regulated
• 2012/08/28: ABC(Au): Energy company fights wind farm rejection
  Electricity company TRUenergy has gone to court to try to overturn a council's decision to reject a $300 million wind farm proposed for the mid-north of South Australia. The planned Stony Gap wind farm, near Burra, was rejected by the Development Assessment Panel of Goyder council this month. It was the first time a wind farm application had been rejected at council level under new South Australian Government legislation.
• 2012/08/28: ABC(Au): The above average risk of bushfires this summer [in WA]
• 2012/08/28: WSWS: Australia: Labor loses office in the Northern Territory
• 2012/08/27: WSWS: Australian government pushes electricity privatisation
  The federal Labor government is cynically using public hostility over skyrocketing electricity prices to ramp up the drive, on behalf of the financial markets, for the full privatisation of state-owned energy assets across Australia. According to TD Securities, electricity prices have risen more than 80 percent in five years.
• 
  

  The EU-ETS and the Aus-ETS are being amalgamated:

   

• 2012/09/02: ABC(Au): Carbon scheme link 'a sovereign risk'
• 2012/09/02: ABC(Au): Investors steering clear of carbon scheme: panel
• 2012/08/29: ABC(Au): Carbon price to follow Europe
  The electricity sector and some in the business community have welcomed the Federal Government's policy back-flip, which abolishes the floor price of its emissions trading scheme from 2015. Now, the Government is being urged to drop the fixed price of the carbon tax which is more than double the going rate in Europe at the moment.
• 2012/08/29: ABC(Au): Mixed news for farmers under Europe carbon deal
• 2012/08/29: ABC(Au): Climate change: backflipping on a policy bugger
  Greg Combet has announced the carbon floor price will be ditched. Alan Kohler examines this latest backflip and the many problems that arise for Tony Abbott.
• 2012/08/29: EUO: Australia-EU carbon link branded 'wrongheaded' [by the mad Abbott]
• 2012/08/29: PlanetArk: Australia scraps carbon floor price, agrees EU link
• 2012/08/29: BBC: Australia joins EU carbon emissions market
  Australia plans to link its carbon trading scheme with the EU's, enabling firms to use European permits from mid-2015 to emit carbon dioxide (CO2).
• 2012/08/29: BBerg: Australia EU Link Makes Carbon-Market Theory Real, Marcu Says
• 2012/08/28: Guardian(UK): Australian and EU carbon markets to be linked
• 2012/08/28: EurActiv: Australia to join EU's emissions trading system
  Australia will scrap its planned floor price for carbon emissions and will link directly with the European Union's emissions trading system by 2018, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said today (28 August).
• 2012/08/28: EUO: Australia and EU in emissions deal
• 2012/08/28: PlanetJ: Unclear implications from [Aus -] EU carbon link
• 2012/08/28: Reuters: Australia to cut carbon floor price, link to EU scheme
  Australia will scrap its planned floor price for carbon emissions and will link directly with the European Union's emissions trading scheme by 2018, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said on Tuesday.
• 2012/08/28: ABC(Au): Australia signs carbon trading deal with Europe
  The Federal Government has signed a carbon trading deal with the European Union, which will see credits from both regions traded back and forth by mid-2018. As part of the deal, Australia will not implement the carbon floor price of $15 a tonne.
• 2012/08/28: ABC(Au): Combet ditches carbon floor price in deal with Europe
  Australia and the European Union will be linked in what will become the world's largest carbon market under a deal announced by Climate Change Minister Greg Combet.
• 2012/08/28: ABC(Au): Government dumps carbon floor price
• 2012/08/28: ABC(Au): Carbon expert welcomes more trading certainty for business
  Martijn Wilder is an expert on emissions trading with the law firm Baker & McKenzie, and he's welcomed the Government's scrapping of the carbon floor price. Mr Wilder says it removes significant uncertainties for major polluters. In effect, he told Matt Peacock, today's announcement would move Australia into the global emissions trade much faster than first planned and should lower the cost to Australian business.
• 2012/08/28: ABC(Au): Scrapping carbon floor raises budget uncertainty
  Policy think tank Australia Institute says the Federal Government's decision to scrap the floor price on carbon is likely to lead to a hole in future budgets. The Government has announced Australia's emissions trading scheme will be linked with Europe's in 2015, and the proposed floor price of $15 a tonne will be scrapped. A tonne of carbon in Europe currently costs less than $10. Australia Institute director Richard Denniss says it is hard to see that price increasing as rapidly as the Treasury has forecast.
• 2012/08/28: ABC(Au): Government dumps carbon floor price
  The Federal Government has announced it will abolish the carbon floor price when a trading scheme replaces the current tax in 2015, and instead link Australia to Europe's carbon pricing system.
• 
  

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

   

• 2012/08/31: ABC(Au): [NSW] Water Commissioner welcomes Basin Plan delay
  The state's Water Commissioner says water saving projects to reduce the impact of the Murray Darling Basin Plan in the Murrumbidgee region, are likely to be funded.
• 2012/08/28: ABC(Au): State given more time to agree on Basin Plan
  The Federal Water Minister Tony Burke will allow state ministers more time to come to a consensus on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
• 2012/08/29: ABC(Au): Authority backs more time for basin talks
• 2012/08/27: ABC(Au): High flow warning for Murray in SA
  A high flow advice has been issued for the Murray in South Australia, with the flow expected to increase to 45,000 megalitres this week. Daily flows at the South Australian-Victorian border had reached 40,000 megalitres last week, boosted by eastern states' rainfall. Richard Brown of the SA Department of Environment and Water said people using the river should be careful of its rapid flow.
• 
  

  And in the Indian subcontinent:

   

• 2012/08/30: PlanetArk: India approves $4.1 billion green vehicle push over eight years
• 2012/08/28: BBerg: Poor in India Starve as Politicians Steal $14.5 Billion of Food
• 2012/08/29: PlanetArk: India orders Sesa Goa to shut coke unit on pollution
• 2012/08/29: NatureN: India's nuclear watchdog criticized -- Board on 'very tenuous ground' as rule-maker and enforcer, performance audit finds
• 2012/09/02: CCurrents: Courting Injustice In The Name Of The Nuclear Nod
• 2012/08/27: CSM: 'Coalgate' scandal roils India's politics
  Indian lawmakers chanting "quit prime minister" drowned out Manmohan Singh on Monday as he sought to defend his government's role in an affair dubbed "coalgate" that has paralysed parliament and created a sense of political crisis.
• 2012/08/27: al Jazeera: India PM rejects coal scandal accusations
  Manmohan Singh says charges that country lost huge sums after sale of coal without competitive bidding are baseless.
• 2012/08/26: BBC: India coal scandal: Hundreds protest against PM Singh
  Police in the Indian capital Delhi have baton-charged hundreds of anti-corruption protesters angered by the government's sale of coalfields without open bidding.
• 
  

  While in Africa:

   

• 2012/08/29: BBC: Abolish Senegal Senate to fund flood relief, says Sall
  Senegal's President Macky Sall has called for the country's Senate to be abolished, with the money saved going to pay for flood relief.
• 
  

  And South America:

   

• 2012/09/01: Guardian(UK): Brazil asks Venezuela to investigate village massacre claims
• 2012/08/30: Guardian(UK): Amazon tribe massacre alleged in Venezuela
  Village of 80 people was firebombed from the air, say activists, by illegal gold miners based in neighbouring Brazil
• 2012/08/31: CCurrents: 80 Yanomami People Massacred [in the Amazon & in the Arctic] Shell Gets Drilling Permit
  

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

• 2012/08/31: Rabble:RS: Harper ignores issues facing northern communities
• 2012/08/29: TMoS: Our Prime Minister's Warped Vision for the Arctic
• 2012/08/29: Rabble:JC: Harper in the Arctic: The end of ice tour?
• 2012/08/27: HillTimes: PM Harper 'owns' North as public policy issue
  

  More post Bill C-38 ramifications:

• 2012/08/30: TStar: Ottawa says it's streamlining environmental review process, reducing "paperwork"
  Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver says cancellation of nearly 600 federal environmental assessments in Ontario does not mean important pipeline proposals or plans to upgrade Chalk River nuclear facilities won't get a proper review. Those major projects will still be reviewed, but Ottawa is merely dropping what Oliver and Environment Minister Peter Kent say is unnecessary "paperwork." The 2012 federal budget led to a change in regulation that means nationwide, nearly 3,000 proposed developments will no longer be subject to a review for potential environmental damage by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA).
• 2012/08/27: CBC: Scientists fight to save library from federal cuts -- Conservative MP John Williamson says he will listen to opponents' concerns
  Scientists are continuing to fight to save the library at the St. Andrews Biological Station from federal funding cuts. The library is used by Fisheries and Oceans Canada scientists, outside researchers and by university students for teaching and research in southwestern New Brunswick.
• 
  

  The CNOOC bid for Nexen is still up in the air:

   

• 2012/08/30: CBC: China's Nexen offer hard for Ottawa to refuse
• 2012/08/30: CBC: NDP urges Ottawa to clarify 'net benefit' in Nexen deal
  Misspeak by junior finance minister Ted Menzies sows further confusion
• 2012/08/29: CBC: Ottawa begins review of CNOOC's $15.1-b takeover of Nexen
  

  The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on:

• 2012/09/01: EarthGauge: Independent engineering report on Northern Gateway: "This is clearly an unacceptable risk."
• 2012/09/01: PostMedia: Tankers too risky for coast environment, independent engineering report says
  The Enbridge Northern Gate-way proposal to ship oilsands bitumen from Kitimat along the B.C. coast carries an unacceptable risk of a significant spill, according to an independent analysis by three professional engineers. The engineers, who include two emeritus professors from the University of B.C., find that the risks of an eventual spill are too high through the expected 50-year lifetime of the project, "and the unrefined bitumen too toxic and hard to clean up to be acceptable for a pristine coastline."
• 2012/09/01: TheCanadian: Tankers too risky for coast environment
• 2012/08/29: TheCanadian: The Enbridge Pipeline - it's all about PR now
• 2012/08/31: Tyee: Enbridge Spill: 'I Wouldn't Alarm Them Right Now'
  Inside firm's communications and response breakdown after rupture was confirmed. Third in a series drawn from US investigators' files.
• 2012/08/29: Tyee: Missed Chances While Oil Gushed from Enbridge Pipeline
  What investigators learned about first night of the Kalamazoo spill. Second in a series drawn from NTSB files.
• 2012/08/27: Tyee: Enbridge's Kalamazoo Disaster: Straight from the Files
  US investigators gathered 376 documents on the pipeline rupture nightmare. Direct from those pages, here's the story.
• 2012/08/29: CBC: Government tries to block MP's questions at pipeline review -- Nathan Cullen wants answers from federal officials at Northern Gateway hearings
  NDP MP Nathan Cullen speaks to reporters at the site of the proposed Enbridge bitumen terminal on Douglas Channel, south of Kitimat, B.C., during the NDP's tour of resource development sites in northwestern B.C. in June. NDP MP Nathan Cullen speaks to reporters at the site of the proposed Enbridge bitumen terminal on Douglas Channel, south of Kitimat, B.C., during the NDP's tour of resource development sites in northwestern B.C. in June. (Robin Rowland/Canadian Press) The NDP's natural resources critic claims the government is trying to shut him up when it comes to questioning federal bureaucrats at the joint review panel looking into Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipeline proposal. Nathan Cullen's request to cross-examine officials from the departments of the environment, natural resources, transport and fisheries and oceans was met by a letter from the Department of Justice asking the panel to deny his appeal. "It's a bit of an intimidation tactic," says Cullen. "All along, if you've been opposed or raised concerns about this pipeline, Mr. Harper's government has called you a radical or an enemy of the state. These are all tactics to say 'you're just going to have to accept what we tell you to accept.'"
• 2012/08/28: WpgFP: Pipelines fuel refinery debate, but observers say 'ship probably has sailed'
  Whether they're crossing the border into the United States or heading west to the British Columbia coast, the controversial pipelines linked to the Alberta oil sands have one purpose: to get the thick, heavy bitumen out of the country. But Enbridge's (TSX:ENB) Northern Gateway and TransCanada's (TSX:TRP) Keystone XL pipelines, which have been fighting for the approval of governments, regulatory agencies and the public, have renewed a debate over whether Canada should be refining the raw bitumen at home instead of exporting it to be refined farther afield. The federal NDP think we should, arguing new refineries would be a boost to the economy and create much-needed jobs. So does B.C. newspaper mogul David Black, who raised eyebrows -- and rolled some eyes -- earlier this month when he proposed a $13-billion refinery at the end of the Northern Gateway pipeline on British Columbia's coast. However, there hasn't been a new refinery in Canada since 1984, and many observers say that's unlikely to change any time soon, whether in B.C. or elsewhere.
• 
  

  The ISA/PRV/IHN/Alpha virus in Canadian waters is potentially disastrous:

   

• 2012/08/31: Tyee: Alexandra Morton's Fight for BC's Iconic Salmon
  Her crusade is 'fueled by love.' Second in a series on People's Order of BC winners voted by Tyee readers.
• 2012/08/31: AlexandraMorton: Reading the Fish
  

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

• 2012/09/01: BCLSB: Crazy Guy Has Inside Track On BC Conservatives
• 2012/08/31: PI: Carbon Tax Could Help Fund a Better Future, Say 1,500 British Columbians
• 2012/08/31: PI: [link to 267k pdf] Pembina Institute recommendations for B.C.'s carbon tax review
• 2012/08/30: CBC: More B.C. Liberal resignations expected ahead of cabinet shuffle
• 2012/08/29: CBC: B.C. finance minister steps down from cabinet -- Kevin Falcon is 7th Liberal MLA to decide not to run in May election
• 2012/08/30: PostMedia: [BC finance minister, Kevin] Falcon's resignation leaves B.C. Liberals in dire straits
• 2012/08/30: NatPo: Less than 24 hours after finance minister stepped down, three more B.C. Liberals set to resign
• 2012/08/26: TheCanadian: Premier Clark should step aside
  

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2012/08/31: CBC: Kuwait [Petroleum Corp.] signs $4B oilsands deal with Athabasca [Oil Corp.]
• 2012/08/27: PI: "Responsible resource development" must be more than a slogan [tarsands]
• 2012/08/30: OilChange: Tar sands reality check
• 2012/08/27: ChronicleHerald: Federal scientists have concerns about [Jackpine] tarsands project
• 2012/08/27: CBC: Federal scientists still wary of Shell's Jackpine oilsands expansion
  Documents reveal concerns ahead of fall public hearings into northern Alberta mine expansion Regulatory documents indicate federal scientists still have significant concerns over Shell's proposed Jackpine oilsands mine expansion north of Fort McMurray, Alta., even as the project heads into public hearings. Five years after Shell Canada first proposed the 100,000-barrel-a-day project, it has been finally scheduled to go before a joint federal-provincial environmental hearing Oct. 29.
• 2012/08/27: CBC: Should Canada refine its own oilsands bitumen?
  NDP calls for more 'value-added jobs' but natural resources minister says economics aren't there
• 2012/08/24: Tyee: First Nation [Athabasca Chipewyan] says Alberta oilsands plan will 'annihilate' its lands and future
  

  While in Saskatchewan:

• 2012/08/31: BuckDog: Saskatchewan New Democrats Prepare To Launch Leadership Campaign
  

  In Ontario:

• 2012/08/29: PostMedia: Drought-hit farmers asked to repay funds from mad-cow crisis -- Ontario agency sends letters seeking repayment
  

  In the North:

• 2012/08/31: CBC: Coast guard clearing way for bigger ships in Arctic -- Annual northern mission a multi-faceted affair
  When the Canadian Coast Guard offers help this summer in the search for the lost ships of Sir John Franklin's polar expedition, its efforts will be only one part of its multi-faceted annual mission to the Arctic. Its return to the northern waters will also feature work that reflects the changing nature of the life in the area: bigger ships are starting to travel and work there and the coast guard will be moving beacons to make way for the larger vessels.
• 
  

  As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

   

• 2012/08/30: PaiD: Is Oil Our Economic Salvation?
• 2012/08/28: PostMedia: Federal government offers livestock tax relief to drought-stricken farmers
  

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

• 2012/08/28: NakedCapitalism: The Promise and Circumscribed Potential of Worker-Owned Businesses
• 2012/08/28: EnergyBulletin: Humans seems to need external energy
• 2012/08/27: EnergyBulletin: Commons: Alternatives to Markets and States
  

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

• 2012/08/31: ABC(Au):TDU: RU486: a win for women and choice
• 2012/08/30: WSWS: US appeals court upholds Texas ban on Medicaid funds for Planned Parenthood
• 2012/08/28: Guardian(UK): [Letters] There are too many people on this overcrowded planet
  

  Apocalypso anyone?

• 2012/08/31: CCP: John Atcheson: We Are Writing the Epilogue to the World We Knew
  

  How do the media measure up?

• 2012/08/29: Grist: Global warming debate needs less 'both sides' wankery
• 2012/08/31: Grist: As Romney and Ryan lie with abandon, how should journalists navigate post-truth politics?
• 2012/08/31: BBC: Farewell and thanks for reading by Richard Black
  This is my last entry for this page - I'm leaving the BBC to work, initially, on ocean conservation issues.
• 2012/08/31: CCP: Richard Black unleashed! Whoo hoo!!!
• 2012/08/30: CJR: Water woes -- Regional papers turn out series on sea level, drought
• 2012/08/31: FAIR: For Brokaw, It Doesn't Get Better Than Global Warming Denial
• 2012/08/31: FAIR: Factchecking the Minnows and Letting the Whales Swim Away
• 2012/08/31: Guardian(UK): Don't give climate change heretics an easy ride
  Climate change heretics rarely have a science background, but editors are still happy to air their views
• 2012/08/29: BBC: Yahoo News fires Washington chief over Isaac gaffe
  Yahoo News has fired its Washington bureau chief for saying White House hopeful Mitt Romney was "happy to have a party with black people drowning". Caught on an open microphone, David Chalian was discussing Hurricane Isaac, which hit Louisiana with the Republican convention under way.
• 2012/08/29: Guardian(UK): The day the world went mad [Monbiot]
  As record sea ice melt scarcely makes the news while the third runway grabs headlines, is there a form of reactive denial at work?
• 2012/08/25: Straight: How one Black Press paper covers David Black's refinery proposal in Kitimat
  Some industry experts question the economics of David Black's proposed oil refinery in Kitimat, but will this receive serious analysis in his newspapers in the future?
• 2012/08/27: ERabett:BSD: I'd seriously like to make a Wall Street Journal Daily LaughAlong App
  

  Here is something for your library:

• 2012/08/29: TP:JR: The Dog Stars: A Must-Read Novel On Climate Change That Doesn't Use The Words 'Climate Change'
• 2012/08/28: Grist: Through a green glass, darkly: How climate will reshape American history
  [Book Review] _Republic of Nature: An Environmental History of the United States_ by Mark Fiege
• 
  

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

   

• 2012/08/30: PSinclair: The Irrational Exuberance of Fracking
• 2012/08/30: ERabett: Monckton Will Help
• 2012/08/29: TreeHugger: Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon Speak Out Against Natural Gas Fracking
• 2012/08/30: DM:80B: Watch This: 12 Years of Fires Burn Across the Globe
• 2012/08/28: ArcticNews: Arctic Sea Ice Collapse Food Emergency
• 2012/09/01: P3: Climate Change: Lines of Evidence
  

  Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:

• 2012/08/29: TP:JR: Free Market Hypocrisy: Why Do We Hold Renewables To Different Standards Than Fossil Fuels And Nuclear?
• 2012/08/31: SciAm:Obs: Can the US Achieve Energy Independence by 2020?
• 2012/08/31: UCSUSA:B: Smiley Faces vs. Vampires: Knowledge (About Power) Is Power
• 2012/08/30: QuarkSoup: The Discouraging Trendlines of US Energy Sources
• 2012/08/29: ABC(Au): Hot rocks go cold
  What happened to geothermal energy? Not long ago power from the heat under the earth's crust was seen as the great hope - a renewable resource that could provide baseload electricity. Now, technical difficulties and a lack of funding have dissipated the hope, and geothermal power is virtually non-existent in Australia. Origin Energy, for instance, recently decided to write-off it's investments in one of Australia's only active geothermal companies. Those in the industry still believe geothermal power has a future, but they all agree, it will take many years.
• 
  

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

   

• 2012/08/31: ABC(Au): Greens MP wants tougher fracking laws
• 2012/08/14: BBerg: Fracking Hazards Obscured in Failure to Disclose Wells
• 2012/08/29: ABC(Au): 'Fracking' in WA to be more tightly regulated
• 2012/08/29: Grist: Frackers' faulty concrete leads to methane in Pennsylvania wells
• 2012/08/29: BCLSB: Is Shale Gas The Future?
• 2012/08/28: OilChange: NY Mayor Bloomberg Backs Fracking
  

  On the coal front:

• 2012/08/29: BBerg: Big Coal Faces Steel Slowdown Amid Shale-Gas Pain: Commodities
  

  On the gas and oil front:

• 2012/08/31: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
  OIL (US$/bbl)
  Nymex Crude Future...96.47
  Dated Brent Spot....115.46
  WTI Cushing Spot.....96.47
• 2012/08/31: BizInsider: Look At How Much Shell Is Paying To Militants, Gangs And 'Kill And Go' Police In Nigeria
• 2012/08/30: EnergyBulletin: The Real Reason Behind Oil Price Rises - An Interview with James Hamilton
• 2012/08/29: CBC: Oil prices ease as Isaac spares refineries -- G7 finance ministers call for more crude output
• 2012/08/29: TreeHugger: Hurricane Isaac Forces Shutdown of 93% of Gulf of Mexico Oil Production
• 2012/08/29: PlanetArk: Brazil judges uphold Chevron, Transocean operating ban
• 2012/09/02: OilDrum: Tech Talk - Oil production within China
• 2012/08/27: OilDrum: Isaac Halts Petroleum Production and Refining: Open Thread
• 2012/08/27: PlanetArk: U.S. government: 24.19 percent U.S. Gulf oil, 8.24 percent gas output shut on Isaac
  

  And in pipeline news:

• 2012/08/28: EurActiv: Gazprom links gas price to South Steam participation
  Russia's Gazprom and the Bulgarian government have reached a deal under which Bulgaria will commit to the developing the South Stream pipeline while simultaneously signing a long-term pricing agreement for Russian natural gas.
• 
  

  Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

   

• 2012/08/29: CResearch: Doug Casey on Peak Oil
• 2012/08/30: EnergyBulletin: The Peak Oil Crisis: Summer's End
• 2012/08/30: CCurrents: Don't Worry, There's Plenty Of Oil
• 2012/08/27: PeakEnergy: Peak cheap oil is an incontrovertible fact
  

  The answer my friend...:

• 2012/08/30: TreeHugger: New Bird-Friendly Bladeless Wind Turbine Design to be Tested and Manufactured in NJ
• 2012/08/30: BizGreen: Debunking wind energy myths -- At a glance
• 2012/08/28: PlanetArk: Offshore wind investors look to Baltic: 50Hertz
  50Hertz, one of Germany's four power network operators, sees growing investor interest in setting up offshore wind parks in the Baltic, as connection problems hamper growth in the North Sea, its chief executive said.
• 
  

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

   

• 2012/08/30: EurActiv: South Korea's Hanwha buys German solar business
  A struggling German solar business has been bought by a South Korean firm as the appetite of Asian companies for their western rivals shows no sign of letting up. Creditors of Q-Cells agreed on Wednesday to hand over ownership to Hanwha of South Korea with the loss of a further 200 jobs. One of its local German rivals, Solon, which was also in severe financial difficulties, was bought earlier this year by Indian firm Microsol. European renewable energy companies have fallen on hard times due to the credit crunch, low-cost far east competition and increasing political uncertainty about subsidy levels in the west.
• 2012/08/30: ABC(Au): Solar festival to light up Broken Hill
  What's believed to be Australia's first solar-themed art festival is about to power up in Broken Hill
• 2012/08/27: ERW: Layered structures for next-generation solar cells
• 2012/08/27: BizGreen: US solar PV market more than doubles to topple Europe
• 2012/08/29: PlanetArk: E.ON expands in U.S. solar market: unit head
• 2012/08/27: TreeHugger: Solar PV Boom is Shaving Off Mid-Day Energy Demand Peak in Australia
• 2012/08/26: Oregonian: Dark days for SolarWorld, anchor of Oregon's solar sector
  

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2012/08/31: APR: B&W's Matt Miles on the mPower SMR [Small Modular Reactor]
• 2012/08/30: EneNews: U.S. denies reactor license - Only 2nd time in history
  A three judge Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) today denied a license for the proposed Calvert Cliffs-3 nuclear reactor on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.
• 2012/08/28: APR: SCE Defueling San Onofre Unit 3
• 2012/08/28: BNC: 21st century nuclear... for beginners
• 2012/08/28: DD: World nuclear electric production peaked in 2006 and is already declining
• 2012/08/28: PeakEnergy: Korean plans for more nuclear power plants delayed or scrapped
• 2012/08/22: Cryptome: Nuclear Power Plant Safety Computer Software
• 2012/08/27: OilDrum: A Few Insights Regarding Today's Nuclear Situation
• 2012/08/27: APR: Westinghouse study for seventh plant at Kozloduy, Bulgaria
• 2012/08/27: NBF: Beryllium Oxide for Nuclear Fuel will enable 4% efficiency increase for uranium and 25% enhanced safety margin
  

  Low energy nuclear keeps coming up:

• 2012/08/31: NBF: SRI International will soon Sign Contract with Brillouin Energy
  

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2012/08/28: TreeHugger: Texans Using Guns to Resist Smart Meter Installations
• 2012/08/28: DerSpiegel: The World from Berlin -- Germany Hits Brakes on Race to Renewable Energy Future
  The share of renewable energies in Germany's power mix has shot up so high that the electricity grid and the subsidy framework has been unable to keep up. Now, the government wants to slow down the process. German commentators say that the current chaos endangers the entire project.
• 2012/08/27: TP:JR: The Networked Energy Web: How The Convergence Of IT And Energy Can Remake The U.S. For The Better
  

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

• 2012/08/28: BBC: Chinese carmaker BYD posts 94% drop in half year profit
  The Chinese car and battery maker BYD, suffered a 94% drop in earnings for the first half of the year and warned of further declines. The company blamed the slide on slowing car sales both in its home Chinese market and internationally.
• 
  

  As for Energy Storage:

   

• 2012/08/26: BBerg: Merkel's Other Crisis Spurs German Quest for Energy [Storage] Holy Grail
• 2012/08/30: OilDrum: Battery Performance Deficit Disorder
• 2012/08/27: EarlyWarning: Global Lithium Production 1950-2011
  

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

• 2012/08/29: PlanetArk: Wal-Mart joins agriculture sustainability group [Field to Market alliance]
  

  Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:

• 2012/08/30: CERES: Wild Weather A New Normal And Insurance Companies Must Act
• 2012/08/27: CNN: Drought to cost insurers billions in losses
  

  Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:

• 2012/08/31: CCurrents: Green-washing "Sustainability"
  

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

• 2012/08/31: TP:JR: August 31 News...
• 2012/08/30: TP:JR: August 30 News...
• 2012/08/29: TP:JR: August 29 News...
• 2012/08/28: TP:JR: August 28 News...
• 2012/08/27: TP:JR: August 27 News...
  

  Other (weekly) lists:

• 2012/08/29: BPA: Hot 5: Global Water Demand Chart. Cartoon Corner. Farmland Prices. DDGS is a Poor Product. Honey Uses.
• 2012/08/31: BPA: Agriculture News
• 2012/08/31: QuarkSoup: Stochastic Observations of Climate News
  

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2012/08/31: PSinclair: "Look! Over There!" - In Face of Record Melt, Deniers Furiously Jingle Shiny Keys...
• 2012/08/31: Guardian(UK): Don't give climate change heretics an easy ride
  Climate change heretics rarely have a science background, but editors are still happy to air their views
• 2012/08/29: WottsUWT: 'Reach for the Stars' now becomes 'Retreat to the Past'
• 2012/08/29: ITracker: Curry's Review
• 2012/08/28: ERabett: Anthony Watts Is Sad
• 2012/09/02: Bundanga: On Motivated Rejection ... and anti-science bloggers who are miffed at being ignored by scientists
• 2012/09/01: QuarkSoup: On Claims of Data Manipulation
• 2012/08/27: Wonkette: A Children's Treasury of Contrarian Republican Commentary on Hurricane Isaac
• 2012/08/28: WtD: Climate deniers object to being called conspiracy theorists: propose conspiracy to explain why labelled such
• 2012/08/27: C&S: Watts disappears a post!
• 2012/08/28: Tamino: Anthony Watts Breaks the Record
• 2012/08/27: QuarkSoup: These Aren't Merely "Negative Things"
• 2012/08/27: BCLSB: Antarctic Temperature Increases Caused By Urban Heat Island Effect?
  

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2012/08/31: CCP: The Reality of Climate Change
• 2012/08/31: RealClimate: Climate indices to watch
• 2012/08/30: TMoS: In Defence of Alarmists
• 2012/09/01: TP:JR: Realistically What Might The Future Climate Look Like?
• 2012/08/28: Stoat: Sea ice but mostly other stuff
• 2012/08/28: CCurrents: Along With The Arctic Ice, The Rich World's Smugness Will Melt
• 2012/08/28: CCP: George Monbiot: The Heat of the Moment -- Climate breakdown is right here, right now
• 2012/08/27: Guardian(UK): Along with the Arctic ice, the rich world's smugness will melt
• 2012/09/01: Stoat: Evan Jones speaks
• 2012/08/28: Rabble:DS: Water: Is the glass half empty or half full?
• 2012/08/28: QuarkSoup: Will NRO Get Access to Mann's Emails?
• 2012/08/29: WtD: The global heat engine: climate change as humanities crucible
• 2012/08/28: EnergyBulletin: Converging global crises and why we deny them
• 2012/08/28: SciNews: Unmixing oil and water -- A new filter that separates the two substances only using gravity could help clean oil spills
• 2012/08/26: EnergyBulletin: Why doesn't more communication translate into greater consensus about the world's problems?
  

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

• Wiki: Atmospheric circulation
• MethaneNet
• EPA: Climate Change Indicators in the United States
• NOAA: Climate Indicators
• NOAA: Central Pacific Hurricane Center
• CoIC: Collapse of Industrial Civilization
• UNFCCC: Doha Climate Change Conference - November 2012
• UNFCCC: Bangkok Climate Change Conference - August 2012
• FRCSR: FukushimaVoice
• Bit Tooth Energy
• Climate Asylum [change of name]
• Wiki: Citric acid cycle (Krebs cycle)
• Food & Water Watch
• The Earthjustice Blog
• Wiki: Malthusian catastrophe
• Fukushima Diary

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.

"The only game in town is the Last Ton game, where the lower the amount of fossil fuels burnt before the last ton is burnt, the better the ultimate result is for humanity and pretty much all other species." -Michael Tobis

• Global Warming Links
• Global Warming News Archive
• Energy
• Energy News
• Environmental Issues
• ---
• H.E. Taylor (homepage)