Another Week of Global Warming News, June 2, 2013

Sipping from the Internet Firehose...

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

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June 2, 2013

• Chuckles, Roll Cloud, COP19+, Black Carbon, WIN, Patriot, Bodman
• Otto, Cook et al, Aurornis, Bottom Line, Pricing Nature, Cook
• Fukushima: Note, News, Policies
• Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica
• Food: Crisis, Fisheries, Prices, Land Grabs, GMOs, Production
• Hurricanes, Monsoon, Notable Weather, Extreme Weather, New Weather
• GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures, Aerosols, Paleoclimate
• ENSO, Biosphere, Extinctions, Bees & CCD, Volcanoes, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Disease
• Tornadoes, Wildfires, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
• REDD, Biomimicry, Transportation, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Conservation, Restoration
• Journals, Other Docs, Misc. Science, Free Science, Hansen, Callendar, Lu
• International Politics: UN, Carbon Trade, Bank Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
• South China Sea, TPP, Solar Spat, Misc., Security, Law & Activism
• Activism, Divestment, Polls, H2O Biz, Religioso, Education
• National Politics: Britain, Europe, Australia, Election, MDBP, India, China, South America
• Canada, Post G20, Science, Nukes, Energy Plan, Dutch Disease
• Northern Gateway, East-West, CFIA, BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Canadiana
• America, BP Disaster, Post Sandy, Post Moore EF5, Keystone , Carbon Tax
• Birth Control, Coal Exports, Sequestration, 2016, Obama, USAdmin, Congress
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Courts
• Energy, Transitions, Fracking, Coal, Oil & Gas, Economy, Pipelines, Independence, Biofuel
• Wind, Solar, Nukes, Nuclear Waste, LENR, Grid, Efficiency, Cars
• Insurance, FAQs, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Misc., Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, A Simple Plea, .sig

Live and direct from the black humour department:

• 2013/06/01: TP:JR: (cartoon - Sorensen) Where Were You When CO2 Hit 400 PPM?
• 2013/06/01: RealEconomics: Saturday toons
• 2013/05/28: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) Cooking Frogs
  

  Just because it looks neat:

• 2013/06/02: APOD: A Roll Cloud Over Uruguay
  

  Looking ahead to COP19 and future international climate negotiations:

• 2013/05/31: RTCC: New UN deal could split developing nations: negotiator
• 2013/05/31: RTCC: EU: US climate plan could put 2°C goal at riskA proposal by the US for nations to set their own greenhouse gas reduction targets could put the goal of limiting warming to 2°C at risk.
• 2013/05/31: QuarkSoup: U.S. Unlikely to Meet Obama's Copenhagen Pledge
• 2013/05/31: RTCC: UN goals could tackle clean energy, fossil fuel subsidies
  A report sketching out the framework of the new UN development agenda has included targets for renewable energy, the eradication of fossil fuel subsidies and energy efficiency.
• 2013/05/30: TP:JR: How China May Have Just Changed The Climate Game
• 2013/05/30: P3: The Climate Talks: Could an equity tipping point be on the horizon?
• 2013/05/29: EurActiv: EU seeks pathway to strong UN climate deal in 2015
  All countries should outline their long-term plans for curbing greenhouse gases next year, earlier than favoured by Washington, to revive the stalled fight against climate change, the European Union proposed on Tuesday (28 May).
• 2013/05/29: RTCC: Ban Ki-moon could oversee climate target debate
  The EU has suggested that a UN meeting of world leaders on climate change to be convened next September could host a debate on climate change targets.
• 2013/05/28: RTCC: Governments face uphill struggle to hit UN energy goals - report
  

  Inventorying Black Carbon is a significant step for UNFCCC data:

• 2013/05/31: ScienceInsider: New Agreement Casts Spotlight on Efforts to Inventory Black Carbon
  Researchers are about to take a big step toward better understanding a tiny air pollutant. A U.N. expert panel earlier this month agreed on a technical road map that will guide the first multinational effort to create a standardized emissions inventory of black carbon, a kind of microscopic soot particle. Scientists say that black carbon emissions play an important but poorly understood role in both global climate change and air pollution.
• 
  

  Almost no coverage of this in the MSM:

   

• 2013/05/27: ABC(Au): 1200 gather for world-first Indigenous conference
  The inaugural conference for the World Indigenous Network is happening this week in Darwin, with more than 1,200 delegates from 50 countries attending the conference. Over the next five days attendees will be covering topics from buffalo management in the Top End, through to food security in Ecuador. PEW Environment Group director Barry Traill says the international forum is the first of its kind, looking at Indigenous people managing country.
• 
  

  So Peabody Coal spins off Patriot Coal and lets it go bankrupt to screw the workers out of their pensions and health benefits. It's business as usual in the oligarchy:

   

• 2013/05/31: CDreams: Judge Gives Patriot Coal OK to Cut Benefits
• 2013/05/30: UCSUSA:B: Patriot Coal: Broken Promises
• 2013/05/29: WVGazette:CoalTattoo: Judge allows Patriot to reject contract, benefits
  

  This Bodman paper on temperature projections went almost unnoticed:

• 2013/05/26: Nature:CC: (ab$) Uncertainty in temperature projections reduced using carbon cycle and climate observations by Roger W. Bodman et al.
• 2013/05/29: HotWhopper: More certain of the temperature rise before the end of the century ...
• 2013/05/28: CCurrents: Scientists Narrow Global Warming Range
  

  Late comment on the Otto et al. sensitivity paper:

• 2013/05/27: RScribbler: "Slow Feedbacks," Paleoclimate Data Show Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity Misses Half of Future Warming
  

  The Cook et al. consensus paper is still drawing fire:

• 2013/05/29: DeSmogBlog: Enemies of Science Want to Confuse You About The 97-Percent Consensus Study
• 2013/05/28: Guardian(UK): 97% global warming consensus meets resistance from scientific denialism
  The robust climate consensus faces resistance from conspiracy theories, cherry picking, and misrepresentations
• 2013/05/27: ERabett: Tol erasion
  

  I quite enjoy these stories that get twisted every which way:

• 2013/05/30: CSM: World's first bird? New fossil bumps Archaeopteryx off its perch.
• 2013/05/30: SciNow: Earliest Bird Claim Ruffles Feathers
• 2013/05/30: NatureN: New contender for first bird -- Feathered creature shakes up avian family tree
• 2013/05/29: SciNews: Fossil muddies the origin of birds
  New specimen may be a feathered dinosaur - or the earliest avian yet discovered
• 2013/05/29: BBC: Archaeopteryx restored in fossil reshuffle
  What may be the earliest creature yet discovered on the evolutionary line to birds has been unearthed in China. The fossil animal, which retains impressions of feathers, is dated to be about 160 million years old. Scientists have given it the name Aurornis, which means "dawn bird". The significance of the find, they tell Nature magazine, is that it helps simplify not only our understanding for how birds emerged from dinosaurs but also for how powered flight originated.
• 2013/05/29: KSJT: Bird origin just got simpler. No, more complicated! Both? Angles in all directions on China's latest Jurassic fossils
  

  And on the Bottom Line:

• 2013/06/02: BBC: US counts cost of deadly Midwest storms
• 2013/05/31: EnvEcon: Tracking the price of climate change
• 2013/05/31: DD: Natural catastrophes in 2012 dominated by U.S. weather extremes
• 2013/05/30: CDreams: US Loses Billions to 'Weather Whiplash'
  Following extreme storms and drought, the US alone accounted for nearly 70 percent of global losses in 2012
• 2013/05/29: Guardian(UK): Erratic US 'weather whiplash' accounts for billions of dollars in global losses
• 2013/05/29: RScribbler: Global Warming Induced Record Drought Set to Re-Expand, Could Cost $200 Billion
• 2013/05/29: AgProfessional: [US] Drought damage could top $200 billion
• 2013/05/28: EnvEcon: Economics of Natural Hazards on the Moore, OK Tornado
  

  So, If we put a price on nature, will it deal with externalities and lead to greater conservation
  or will it lead to greater exploitation or what?

• 2013/05/28: RTCC: Panama's forest tribes want UN carbon projects scrapped
  Indigenous people in Panama are asking the United Nations to close down its global forestry programme, REDD, in their country.
  [...]
  Instead of safeguarding the forests for the indigenous people of Panama, the chief argues, the UN scheme is being used to wrest control of the forests from them for exploitation by outsiders.
• 
  

  John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:

   

• 2013/06/02: SkS: New Climate Magazine Launched - ClimateState by dana1981
• 2013/06/01: SkS: Video: Lake El'gygytgyn, Pleistocene super-Interglacials and Arctic warmth by John Mason
• 2013/05/31: SkS: 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #22B by John Hartz
• 2013/05/31: SkS: Will Tropical Forests Remain Carbon Sinks? by AlexanderAc
• 2013/05/31: SkS: 2013 SkS News Bulletin 14: Alberta Tar Sands and Keystone XL Pipeline by John Hartz
• 2013/05/30: SkS: Global warming is here to stay, whichever way you look at it by Kevin Trenberth
• 2013/05/29: SkS: 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #22A by John Hartz
• 2013/05/28: SkS: The 5 characteristics of global warming consensus denial by John Cook, dana1981
• 2013/05/26: SkS: 2013 SkS Weekly Digest #21 by John Hartz
• 2013/05/26: SkS: Uncertainty no excuse for procrastinating on climate change by dkaroly
  

  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.]
  And the IAEA is now saying 40 years too.
  We'll see.
  At any rate this situation is not going to be resolved any time soon and deserves its own section.
  Meanwhile...
  It is very difficult to know for sure what is really going on at Fukushima. Between the company [TEPCO], the Japanese government, the Japanese regulator [NISA], the international monitor [IAEA], as well as independent analysts and commentators, there is a confusing mish-mash of information. One has to evaluate both the content and the source of propagated information.
  How knowledgeable are they [about nuclear power and about Japan]?
  Do they have an agenda?
  Are they pro-nuclear or anti-nuclear?
  Do they want to write a good news story?
  Do they want to write a bad news story?
  Where do they rate on a scale of sensationalism?
  Where do they rate on a scale of play-it-down-ness?
  One fundamental question I would like to see answered:
  If the reactors are in meltdown, how can they be in cold shutdown?

• 
  

  Not much good news coming out of Fukushima:

   

• 2013/06/01: EneNews: UN: "Fukushima nuclear disaster poses no IMMEDIATE health risks" - Unknown if increase in thyroid cancer is due to radioactivity
• 2013/06/01: Xinhuanet: Fukushima poses no immediate health risks: UN experts
• 2013/05/31: BBC: No rise in cancer rates after Fukushima disaster - UNSCEAR
  Cancer rates are not expected to rise as a result of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, UN scientists say.
• 2013/05/31: EneNews: Cement-like grout to be injected into Fukushima reactor? (photo)
• 2013/05/31: ABC(Au): Soil around Fukushima to be frozen to stop groundwater leaking in
• 2013/05/31: UNIS: No Immediate Health Risks from Fukushima Nuclear Accident Says UN Expert Science Panel [UNSCEAR: United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effect of Atomic Radiation]
• 2013/05/31: UN: Japan's 2011 nuclear disaster 'unlikely' to have future health affects, says draft UN report
• 2013/05/30: EneNews: ABC: Ground to be frozen around Fukushima reactors? "An unprecedented challenge in the world" (video)
• 2013/05/29: DD: Strict radiation reference levels shunned to stem Fukushima exodus...
  

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

• 2013/05/27: Grist: Fukushima meltdown's latest victims: American uranium jobs
• 2013/05/26: CDreams: Exposed: Japanese Officials Upped Radiation Yardsticks to Dodge Compensation Costs
  Investigation by The Asahi Shimbun shows higher level was sought to lower number of evacuees, limit compensation
• 
  

  The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:

   

• 2013/05/31: Dosbat: Seven Days In May
• 2013/05/31: RScribbler: Sea Ice Thickness 2012 vs 2013 in Late May
• 2013/05/31: Grist: Ice going, humanity: Arctic melting at alarming rates
• 2013/05/30: ASI: If this is real...
• 2013/05/30: RScribbler: Summer's Insults Begin: Week-Long Cyclone Chews Away Fragile Arctic Sea Ice
• 2013/05/29: DD: The Arctic sea ice 'death spiral' - 'The ice is dwindling away. That is a fact.'
• 2013/05/29: SaskBoy: Thawing Out
• 2013/05/27: OParachute: Collapse of Arctic sea ice
• 2013/05/26: ASI: ASI 2013 update 1: a slow start
  

  As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

• 2013/05/31: Reuters: Oil executives tune out the call of the wild Arctic
• 2013/05/31: Yahoo:Reuters: Analysis - Oil executives tune out the call of the wild Arctic
  The high Arctic, once the irresistible frontier for oil and gas exploration, is quickly losing its appeal as energy firms grow fearful of the financial and public relations risk of working in the pristine icy wilderness.
• 2013/05/30: SciAm:PI: The Cold Rush: An Effort to Protect the Arctic from Oil Spills During Rapid Development
• 2013/05/28: TP:JR: Shell Admits Real Reason Coast Guard Had To Rescue Its Arctic Drilling Rig: Failed Tax Avoidance Scheme
  

  While in Antarctica:

• 2013/05/30: CNN: Stunning time-lapse brings Antarctic ice breaking adventure to life
• 2013/05/27: UGR: The Antarctic polar icecap is 33.6 million years old
  

  The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2013/06/01: WSWS: 165 million children malnourished worldwide
• 2013/06/01: CDreams: Peak Water, Peak Oil ... Now, Peak Soil?
• 2013/05/31: EconView: Paul Krugman: From the Mouths of Babes -- The "ugly, destructive war against food stamps"
• 2013/05/30: NYT: From the Mouths of Babes
• 2013/05/31: ABC(Au): Demand for UK food banks surges as welfare cuts bite
• 2013/05/31: Guardian(UK): Chinese Smithfield takeover comes with added warnings for US food safety
• 2013/05/30: BBC: Food bank reliance in the UK triples, says Oxfam
  More than half a million UK people may rely on food banks, says a study by Church Action Poverty and Oxfam. It blames benefit cuts, unemployment and the increased cost of living for the growth in hunger and poverty.
• 2013/05/30: DemNow: As Lawmakers Target Food Stamp Funding, New Report Finds 1 in 6 in U.S. Are Going Hungry
• 2013/05/29: RTCC: Food in the shadow of climate change
• 2013/05/29: DD: Guadeloupe and Martinique threatened as pesticide contaminates food chain...
• 2013/05/29: ABC(Au): Land too dry for some farmers to start seeding
• 2013/05/29: CDreams: The Case for Food Stamps
  Slashing food aid makes no sense in humanitarian, economic or public health terms.
• 2013/05/28: PortageOnline: Researching Wheat Quality Concerns
• 2013/05/27: SaveTheChildren: [link to 1.5 meg pdf] Food for Thought -- Tackling child malnutrition to unlock potential and boost prosperity
• 2013/05/27: SaveTheChildren: Food for Thought Report
• 2013/05/27: ProMedMail: Leaf rust, coffee - Panama: 1st report
• 2013/05/27: WSWS: US farm bill proposals include huge cuts to food assistance
  

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

• 2013/05/31: Grist:Study: Climate change a death knell for most Californian fish
• 2013/05/30: FAO: Sting operation - jellyfish "blooms" may endanger fish stocks -- With overfishing, "vicious circle" created
• 2013/05/30: BBC: Key EU fishing reform deal clinched
• 2013/05/30: EUO: EU agrees overhaul of fisheries policy
• 2013/05/30: UN: Reality stings: UN reports jellyfish 'blooms' may endanger fish stocks
• 2013/05/30: ProMedMail: Infectious salmon anemia - Norway (02): OIE
• 2013/05/30: ABC(Au): Scheme looks to rehabilitate native fish habitats
• 2013/05/29: DD: Graph of the Day: Biomass decline of tuna species, 1960s-2008
• 2013/05/28: Guardian(UK): Warmer seas could lead to more dolphin deaths in South Australia
  Washing up of thousands of dead fish earlier this year might be a foretaste of future impact of climate change, expert warns
• 2013/05/28: TheConversation: Dolphin-friendly tuna: we're worrying about the wrong species
  

  Food Prices are still problematic:

• FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
• 2013/06/01: NakedCapitalism: Sasha Breger: How Big Finance is Eating the World's Lunch Agricultural Wealth
• 2013/05/29: DerSpiegel: 'Taking Responsibility': German Banking Giant Quits Food Speculation
  The financial sector continues to insist that the controversial practice of speculating on agricultural commodities does not cause high food prices. But some German banks disagree. Now DZ Bank, the country's fourth largest financial institution, has announced it has stopped the practice.
• 2013/05/28: Salon: Is the government helping speculators manipulate grain futures?
  How sophisticated traders exploit an obscure USDA rule change to get rich, fleece farmers, and drive up food prices
• 
  

  So, are these land grabs Colonialism V2.0?

   

• 2013/05/27: EurActiv: European banks accused of fuelling land grabs in Uganda
  Several well-known European banks and pension funds have financed a palm oil project in Uganda that has caused land grabs and deforestation, a new research paper has found.
  Household banking names such as HSBC, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Rabobank have offered over E1 billion of financial assistance worth to Wilmar International, a Singapore-based agribusiness company, according to the research commissioned by Friends of the Earth (FoE).
  The report says that a palm oil project on Uganda's Kalangala Island led by Wilmar has displaced local communities, increased food insecurity, rendered local water sources unusable, and caused 3,600 hectares of deforestation.
• 
  

  Regarding the genetic modification of food:

   

• 2013/06/01: NakedCapitalism: Wolf Richter: Lobbying And GMO Giant Monsanto Buckles In Europe
• 2013/06/01: CDreams: Repealing the Monsanto Protection Act
• 2013/05/31: Reuters: U.S. seeks source of errant gene altered wheat as importers flee
  The United States is still racing to determine how unapproved genetically modified wheat was found growing in an Oregon field, a discovery that continued to roil global wheat markets on Friday as South Korean buyers stepped aside.
• 2013/05/31: MoJo: Rogue Monsanto Wheat Sprouts in Oregon -- Wheat is the only major US crop to fall under Monsanto's control
• 2013/05/31: Guardian(UK): Asia curbs US imports of wheat after genetically modified sample found
  Billions in food exports at stake following disclosure by US Department of Agriculture of the existence of the GM wheat
• 2013/05/31: CDreams: Monsanto's 'Genetic Pollution' Threatens US Wheat Industry
• 2013/05/31: Grist: Japan and other nations say no to U.S. wheat, worried about GMOs
• 2013/05/31: ABC(Au): Rogue strain of genetically modified Monsanto wheat found in US field 'poses no risk to Australia'
• 2013/05/30: RT: Discovery of Monsanto GMO wheat threatens US exports
• 2013/05/30: Grist: Frankensalmon could breed with trout, produce frankentrout
• 2013/05/30: Resilience: March Against Monsanto Unites Global Food Activists
• 2013/05/30: Grist: Illegal Monsanto GMO wheat found in Oregon
• 2013/05/30: RT: Monsanto website downed as Anonymous claims hack
• 2013/05/29: CCurrents: GMO And The March Of Millions
• 2013/05/29: CCurrents: The Monsanto Revolution
• 2013/05/29: Guardian(UK): GM 'hybrid' fish pose threat to natural populations, scientists warn
  Study shows genetically modified salmon that breed with wild trout can produce a fast-growing, competitive fish
• 2013/05/29: CDreams: Non-Approved GMO Wheat Found On Oregon Farm
  Discovery of Monsanto crop may affect food-label fight
• 2013/05/29: CDreams: GM Salmon Would Wreak Havoc on Natural Ecosystems, Say Researchers
  The genetically modified fish can breed with trout and take over
• 2013/05/29: BBC: GM salmon can breed with wild fish and pass on genes
  The potential risks of genetically modified fish escaping into the wild have been highlighted in a new study.
• 2013/05/29: CDreams: Move Over, God, the Biotech Companies Are Here by Vandana Shiva
• 2013/05/29: ABC(Au): Farmers push for repeal of GM restrictive Act
• 2013/05/28: CCurrents: Tanzania Told To Sever Link With Monsanto
• 2013/05/28: Grist: GMO-free ingredients are tough to round up in the U.S.
• 2013/05/26: WashingtonsBlog: 2 Million People In 52 Countries March Against Monsanto
• 2013/05/27: JFleck: Rachael Ludwick on Monsanto
• 2013/05/26: RT: March against Monsanto: Rallying for our future
• 2013/05/25: FancyBeans: How to Really March Against Monsanto
  

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

• 2013/06/01: FAO: Food security to be at center of Africa development agenda -- UN food agency heads call for hunger eradication by 2025
• 2013/05/30: NBF: Green the deserts by using seawater to cool greenhouses
• 2013/05/30: Grist:Strengthening the food chain: Farmers and workers unite, find power in numbers
• 2013/05/30: ABC(Au): Changing climate means changing farms
• 2013/05/30: UN: UN food relief agency ramps up operations in Syria, preparing to feed 3 million people
• 2013/05/30: CDreams: From Food Security to Food Sovereignty
• 2013/05/29: UMN: Improving 'crop per drop' could boost global food security and water sustainability
• 2013/05/29: OSU: Researchers help threatened wheat crops in Asia
• 2013/05/28: CDreams: UN [IPBES]: Accelerating Biodiversity Loss a 'Fundamental Threat' to the 'Survival of Humankind'
  'We must combat agri-food corporations' phenomenal economic and political power,' says author
• 2013/05/28: EurActiv: UK should spend millions to combat malnutrition, charity says
  The charity group Save the Children is urging Prime Minister David Cameron to commit Britain to spending £132 million (€154.3 million) a year until 2020 to combat malnutrition in poor countries before a hunger summit in London.
• 2013/05/28: UN: Sustainable farming can help meet global demand for cassava - UN food agency
• 2013/05/28: FAO: Cassava's huge potential as 21st Century crop -- FAO offers sustainable farming model to meet increased demand
• 2013/05/26: Prensa: Bolivia Reduces Infant Malnutrition [by 43%]
  

  Tropical Cyclone Barbara spun up in the Eastern Pacific, zapped Southern Mexico and faded:

• 2013/06/01: IOTD: Barbara Ushers in a Potentially Busy Hurricane Season
• 2013/05/30: al Jazeera: Hurricane Barbara batters Mexican coast
  At least two killed as floods wreak havoc in Oaxaca and Chiapis states, forcing hundreds to evacuate homes.
• 2013/05/30: NASA: NASA Sees Hurricane Barbara Quickly Weaken to a Depression
• 2013/05/30: Wunderground: Hurricane Barbara Hits Mexico; Severe Weather Outbreak Continues in Midwest
• 2013/05/29: Wunderground: Barbara Nearing Mexico at Hurricane Strength; Midwest Tornado Outbreak Today
• 2013/05/29: CNN: Hurricane Barbara hits Mexico
  Rapid weakening is forecast Wednesday night into Thursday - It's expected to dump as much as 20 inches of rain in some places - Barbara crashes ashore in the southern state of Chiapas
• 2013/05/29: CBC: Hurricane warning issued for Mexico's west coast
  Tropical Storm Barbara approaches Pacific coast, winds rising to 95 km/h
• 2013/05/29: BBC: Hurricane Barbara lashes Mexico's southern coast
• 2013/05/28: Wunderground: 92E bringing heavy rains to Mexico; 150th anniversary of only U.S. May hurricane
• 2013/05/28: NASA: System 92E - NASA Sees Developing Tropical Cyclone Near Southwestern Mexico
  

  While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

• 2013/06/01: MGS: Atlantic Hurricane Season opens in US
• 2013/05/31: TP:JR: How Climate Change And Budget Cuts Could Make This The Most Dangerous Hurricane Season Ever
• 2013/05/31: WMO: Active Atlantic Hurricane Season Predicted
• 2013/05/31: ABC(Au): Samoa economy begins to recover after cyclone
  New economic figures show Samoa's economy is starting to recover from Cyclone Evan, almost six months after it tore through the island's capital Apia.
• 2013/05/30: CCentral: As Hurricane Season Starts, U.S. Facing Heightened Risk
• 2013/05/28: BBC: Sri Lanka official sorry for name of cyclone Mahasen
  Sri Lanka's top meteorologist has publicly apologised for the naming of a recent deadly cyclone after a revered third century ruler, King Mahasen. The cyclone, which hit two weeks ago, killed 18 people across Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Burma. Majority Sinhalese nationalists said the king's name should not have been used in such a negative context. The name Mahasen was one of a pool of names compiled by eight Indian Ocean nations a decade ago.
• 
  

  As for the Monsoons:

   

• 2013/06/02: al Jazeera: Monsoon rains arrive on time in India
  Arrival of monsoon in Kerala state comes much to the relief of farmers after droughts of 2012.
• 2013/05/30: Asia Times: Sri Lanka readies for the rain, and after
• 2013/05/28: SciNews: [US] Southwest's monsoon season may heat up with the climate
  Warmer temperatures may bring stronger rainy seasons over the long term, study finds
• 
  

  This week in notable weather:

   

• 2013/06/01: ABC(Au): Severe weather warnings issued across Victoria -- Two rescued from floodwaters as heavy rain hits Melbourne
• 2013/05/31: DerSpiegel: Rain, Rain, Go Away: Germany Drowns in Endless Downpour
  After barely surviving the darkest winter in decades, Germans are now suffering through one of the soggiest springs in memory. Flooding has led to major damage and one death, and only one corner of Germany can expect any relief soon.
• 2013/05/28: BBC: Thick Sydney fog causes travel disruption
• 2013/05/28: al Jazeera: Chinese ocean passenger service disrupted
  About 13,000 fishing boats in Yantai stranded after gale-force winds sweep through sea.
• 
  

  This week in the New Normal -- extreme weather:

   

• 2013/05/31: Wunderground: Tornadoes, Floods, and Severe Thunderstorms Continue in the Midwest
• 2013/05/30: LoE: So much for global warming being beneficial
• 2013/05/29: CNN: Severe weather threatens more than half the country
  Storm-battered Oklahoma City area added to watch zone - Tornado watches stretch from Texas Panhandle to Nebraska - Threat of severe weather covers more than half the U.S., forecasters say - Warm Gulf moisture is fueling the storm system
• 
  

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

   

• 2013/06/01: RScribbler: Mangled Jet Stream Serves Up Scandinavian Heat Wave
• 2013/05/30: TP:JR: The Jet Stream: How Its Response To Enhanced Arctic Warming Is Driving More Extreme Weather
• 2013/05/28: Eureka: Study explores atmospheric impact of declining Arctic sea ice
  

  Meanwhile on the GHG front:

• 2013/05/30: RTCC: EU has already hit Kyoto target: claims
• 2013/05/29: Grist: Where greenhouse gases come from, in one graph
• 2013/05/29: EUO: EU greenhouse gas emissions down [3,3% in 2011]
• 2013/05/29: RTCC: EU greenhouse gas emissions lowest since 1990
  EU greenhouse gas emissions are at their lowest level since 1990, according to figures released today. According to the data for 2011 released by the European Environment Agency (EEA), the EU's emissions are 18.4% lower than in 1990. The bloc has a commitment under the Kyoto Protocol to cut emissions by 20% by 2020.
• 2013/05/29: Guardian(UK): UK emissions fell further than other EU nations after mild 2011
  Greenhouse gas emissions dropped 7% in the UK, compared with an EU average of 3.3%, according to new data
• 2013/05/28: PSinclair: US CO2 Output Drops. Is it Really Due to Natural Gas?
• 2013/05/28: RTCC: Infograph: The world's greenhouse gases by source
  

  And in the carbon cycle:

• 2013/05/28: Eureka: Fast-sinking jellyfish could boost the oceans' uptake of carbon dioxide
  

  How is the temperature record?

• 2013/06/01: PSinclair: The Weekend Wonk: Trenberth on Ocean Heat and Surface Temps
• 2013/05/31: Grist: It's hard to sea, but the globe is still warming
• 2013/05/30: BBC: Spring will be coldest in 50 years, Met Office says
  This spring is on track to be the coldest for more than 50 years, provisional Met Office figures suggest. This month has seen lower than average temperatures and it has been wetter than usual, forecasters said.
• 2013/05/28: CLBook: Comparing global temperature observations and simulations, again
• 2013/05/27: Wunderground: April 2013: Earth's 13th warmest April; 92E a threat to Mexico and Guatemala
  

  Aerosols are making their presence felt:

• 2013/05/30: MODIS: Saharan dust over the Mediterranean Sea
• 2013/05/28: MODIS: Dust storm over the Persian Gulf
• 2013/05/27: MODIS: Saharan dust over the Mediterranean Sea [on May 17th]
  

  While in the paleoclimate:

• 2013/05/28: WHOI: Scientists Find Possible Solution to an Ancient Enigma
  The widespread disappearance of stromatolites, the earliest visible manifestation of life on Earth, may have been driven by single-celled organisms called foraminifera.
• 
  

  And on the ENSO front:

   

• 2013/05/30: ABC(Au): Scientists get a better grip on El Nino
  A team of Sydney climate researchers believe they now have a better understanding of when droughts will end and when rain may fall.
• 2013/05/26: Eureka: Climate researchers discover new rhythm for El Niño
  

  What's the State of the Biosphere?

• 2013/05/27: Reuters: Decline in biodiversity of farmed plants, animals gathering pace
  A decline in the diversity of farmed plants and livestock breeds is gathering pace, threatening future food supplies for the world's growing population, the head of a new United Nations panel on biodiversity said on Monday.
• 2013/05/29: NatureN: Terrible toll of fishing nets on seabirds revealed
  Fisheries closure backs up suspicions that nets drive down diving-bird populations.
• 2013/05/30: P3: Biodiversity as Security
• 2013/05/28: Grist: Climate change thaws out 400-year-old plants
• 2013/05/27: SciNews: Mosses frozen in time come back to life
  Buried under a glacier for hundreds of years, plants regrow in the lab
• 2013/05/27: BBC: Centuries-old frozen plants revived
  Plants that were frozen during the "Little Ice Age" centuries ago have been observed sprouting new growth, scientists say.
• 
  

  And on the extinction watch:

   

• 2013/06/02: ABC(Au): Whale meat advertised as source of strength amid flagging sales in Japan
  Japan's peak whaling body has launched a new campaign to promote whale meat as a nutritious food that enhances physical strength and reduces fatigue. With about 5,000 tonnes of whale meat sitting unwanted in freezers around Japan, the country's Institute for Cetacean Research has decided to launch a new campaign to promote the by-product of its so-called scientific whaling program.
• 2013/06/01: CBC: Sharks worth more in ocean than in soup, B.C. study finds -- Ecotourism could overtake global shark fin fishery within two decades
  Researchers at the University of British Columbia's Fisheries Centre say protecting sharks would lead to a big economic payoff. A study published Thursday in Oryx, The International Journal of Conservation, says shark fisheries are declining, mostly due to overfishing, but the industry around shark watchers is thriving.
• 2013/06/01: SciAm:EC: The Last 50 Corroboree Frogs and Other Links from the Brink
• 2013/05/31: BBC: Costa Rica poachers 'kill turtle activist'
  An environmentalist campaigning for the protection of endangered sea turtles in Costa Rica has been found dead in a suspected killing by smugglers. Jairo Mora was reportedly found face down with his hands tied on Moin beach, 170km (105 miles) east of the capital, San Jose.
• 2013/05/30: UCDavis: Climate change threatens extinction for 82 percent of California native fish
• 2013/05/30: TreeHugger: Kenya significantly increases fines and jail time for poachers
• 2013/05/30: TheConversation: How to hunt a species to extinction
• 2013/05/28: SciAm:EC: Lion Meat Tacos (You Read That Right) Are the Latest Threat to Conservation
• 2013/05/28: TreeHugger: Endangered whales are turned into... luxury Japanese dog food?!
• 2013/05/28: TreeHugger: 'Dwarf' foxes, saved from extinction, make an incredible recovery
• 2013/05/28: ABC(Au): Endangered whales killed for Japanese pet treats
• 2013/05/28: USGS: Endangered Sea Turtle Feeding Grounds Discovered in Gulf
• 2013/05/27: Eureka: Even farm animal diversity is declining as accelerating species loss threatens humanity -- Founding Chair of new world biodiversity body offers first public remarks
  

  The bees and Colony Collapse Disorder are a constant concern:

• 2013/05/28: NatureNB: European science advisers deem another pesticide [fipronil] to be a risk to bees
• 2013/05/28: EurActiv: EU agency links another insecticide to bee decline
  

  What's up with volcanoes this week?

• 2013/05/27: BBC: Chile and Argentina have ordered the evacuation of some 3,000 people living near the Copahue volcano in the south of their border
• 2013/05/27: CBC: Chile issues red alert over Copahue volcano
  

  Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

• 2013/05/30: USGS: Landsat 8 Satellite Begins Watch
  

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2013/05/31: ABC(Au): Winter's deathly grip slips in Australia
  Winter is coming ... Winter is coming, but unlike Game of Thrones, the death toll from the onset of the cold season in Australia appears to be falling. The trend comes from an Australian National University study that aims to track the impact of climate change on human health. The researchers analysed Australian Bureau of Statistics mortality data across the past 40 years to track seasonal shifts in when older Australians die. They conclude the influence of climate change is already detectable in the modern Australian mortality record, pointing to results that suggest less people are dying in the Australian winter thanks to the trend toward warmer weather.
• 2013/05/31: AGU: Elevated carbon dioxide making arid regions greener
  

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2013/05/31: TheConversation: Clearing more land: we all lose
• 2013/05/30: BBC: Brazil rainforest deforestation leads to seed shrinkage
  The destruction of tropical rainforests is having an even greater impact on the environment than was previously thought, a study suggests. Scientists have found that deforestation in Brazil is causing trees to produce smaller, weaker seeds that are less likely to regenerate. They believe this has been triggered by the loss of large birds from the forests, which have beaks big enough to feed on and disperse the seeds.
• 2013/05/29: Eureka: Simplified solutions to deforestation ineffective in the long run
  Deforestation is the second largest source of CO2 emissions after consumption of fossil fuels. So-called PES programmes, where landowners are paid to replant or protect forests, have been promoted as a way to reduce deforestation. However, the effectiveness of the programmes has been questioned, and new research from the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, points to potential negative long-term effects and a need for broader guidelines and policies.
• 2013/05/28: GreenGrok: Forests Fuel Hydropower
• 2013/05/28: ABC(Au): Australia's loneliest tree [acacia peuce, aka waddy-wood] finds some friends
• 2013/05/28: Eureka: Study explores 100 year increase in forestry diseases -- New study places ash dieback disease into its historical context
• 2013/05/26: CDreams: 'Corporate Colonialism' Runs Wild as 'Growth' Bulldozes Forests
  Multinational corporations seizing, deforesting land in Indonesia
• 
  

  Emerging diseases accompany ecological change:

   

• 2013/05/30: RTCC: Time to protect against climate-aided spread of disease
• 2013/05/30: RTCC: UNICEF: Children bear brunt of climate health impacts
• 2013/05/28: RTCC: Health impacts will hit climate migrants even harder
• 2013/05/27: NYT: New Tools to Hunt New Viruses
  

  On the tornado front:

• 2013/06/02: ABC(Au): Oklahoma tornado: 12 confirmed dead, more than 80 treated for injuries
• 2013/06/02: BBC: US counts cost of deadly Midwest storms
  Thousands of homes remain without power in the US Midwest after a huge storm system swept through, killing at least 12 people. Nine people died in Oklahoma City and its suburbs and three more in Missouri. Hundreds of people were injured, many of them on roads as they tried to flee tornadoes. Heavy rain has also left many areas flooded.
• 2013/06/01: Wunderground: A Night of Tornado Chaos in Oklahoma City: 9 Killed, 71 Injured
• 2013/06/01: Guardian(UK): Oklahoma City authorities say nine killed in latest tornado outbreak
• 2013/06/01: CBC: 9 dead after multiple U.S. tornadoes -- At least 75 injured
• 2013/06/01: Reuters: Five killed in Oklahoma tornadoes, storms move northeast
• 2013/06/01: CNN: 'There's just no rest' as new twisters kill 5 in tornado-traumatized Oklahoma
  Storms move east, causing damage in Missouri and Illinois - A mother and child were killed in the Oklahoma storms, an official says - At least 71 others were injured in Oklahoma - Oklahoma City covered in flood waters
• 2013/06/01: al Jazeera: Several die in new Oklahoma tornado
  Mother and child among those killed as second deadly storm hits US region in less than two weeks.
• 2013/06/01: RT: Second strike: Several tornados sweep Oklahoma, 1 repeating fatal EF5 Moore twister route (video, photos)
• 2013/06/01: BBC: New Oklahoma tornadoes 'kill five'
• 2013/06/01: ABC(Au): Oklahoma tornado kills five people, including woman and baby [pix]
• 2013/05/31: CBC: Tornado emergency issued in Oklahoma City -- Funnels touch down west of city
• 2013/05/31: CBC: Canadian relief for Moore tornado victims denied at border
• 2013/05/30: CBC: Tornadoes touch down on Oklahoma, Arkansas -- 9 injuries reported as storms move through central U.S.
  

  As for heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2013/05/31: CBC: New Mexico residents evacuated amid fast-moving blaze -- 140 homes, 40 hikers, campers evacuated
• 2013/05/31: NASA: Agricultural Fires in Western Mexico
• 2013/05/30: NASA: Farmland Fires in Angola
• 2013/05/29: NASA: Wildfires in Siberia
• 2013/05/29: CDreams: Parched California Ablaze With Worsening Conditions Expected
• 2013/05/29: TP:JR: Intense Heat Wave In India Brings Sunstroke Deaths, Electric Grid Meltdown, And Spoiled Fruit
• 2013/05/28: CNN: Southern California fire burns 1,000 acres; thousands flee
  The White Fire covers 1,000 acres and is 5% contained - Up to 6,000 people were evacuated from a popular camping area - The wildfire is moving away from homes and structures, authorities say
• 
  

  Glaciers are melting:

   

• 2013/06/01: DD: As glaciers melt, Alpine mountains lose their glue, threatening Swiss village
• 2013/05/30: FaGP: Hkakabo Razi Glacier Retreat, Myanmar and China Border
• 2013/05/27: FaGP: Bode Zangbo Headwaters Glacier Retreat, Tibet, China
  

  Sea levels are rising:

• 2013/05/30: ABC(Au): Councils unite against coastal erosion threat
  The City of Bunbury and eight neighbouring councils have agreed to work together to protect coastal areas from rising seal levels.
• 2013/05/29: Stoat: Sea level lies?
• 2013/05/29: Maribo: Kiribati's battle against sea-level rise: the perception and the reality [SLR]
• 2013/05/28: ABC(Au): Report says hundreds of buildings vulnerable to flooding from rising sea levels at Port Fairy
  

  As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

• 2013/06/01: DD: Record rainfall in Little Rock, Hanover, Melbourne
• 2013/06/01: CBC: Two rivers near Quebec City overflow, flooding homes -- Over 5,000 homes without power in Quebec this morning
• 2013/05/30: CBC: Rocky Mountain snowpack loss foreshadows water woes
  Snowpack in the American Rockies shrunk by roughly 20 per cent since 1980 with warmer springs The snowpack in the Rocky Mountains is getting smaller, according to a new study from scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey. It found the snowpack in the American Rockies has shrunk by roughly 20 per cent since 1980, largely because of warmer springs. Scientists say it will have serious repercussions for the water supply on both sides of the border.
• 2013/05/30: PSinclair: Flood Warnings Up in Midwest
• 2013/05/30: TP:JR: [US] Drought Will Magnify Water Scarcity Issues
• 2013/05/29: CBC: Severe flooding closes Toronto's busy Don Valley Parkway
• 2013/05/26: Guardian(UK): Texas flash floods leave two dead in San Antonio
• 2013/05/13: USGS: Warmer Springs Causing Loss of Snow Cover throughout the Rocky Mountains
  

  Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation has somehow seemed chimeric:

• 2013/05/28: RTCC: Panama's forest tribes want [REDD] UN carbon projects scrapped
  

  What's new in biomimicry?

• 2013/05/28: Asahi: Company develops technology to mass-produce 'spider silk' fabric
  

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2013/05/31: UCSUSA:B: Russia Torpedoes Cleaner Shipping
• 2013/05/31: TreeHugger: Walmart Introduces Supercube Tractor Trailers to increase fuel economy, get trucks off the road
• 2013/05/30: Resilience: World car production grows 3 times faster than global oil supplies
  

  As for carbon sequestration:

• 2013/05/29: TP:JR: Climatologist Myles Allen Says We're 'Doomed' If We Keep Burning Carbon, Then Embraces Dubious Silver Bullet
• 2013/05/28: LLNL: Livermore scientists develop CO2 sequestration technique that produces 'supergreen' hydrogen fuel, offsets ocean acidification
  Lawrence Livermore scientists have discovered and demonstrated a new technique to remove and store atmospheric carbon dioxide while generating carbon-negative hydrogen and producing alkalinity, which can be used to offset ocean acidification. The team demonstrated, at a laboratory scale, a system that uses the acidity normally produced in saline water electrolysis to accelerate silicate mineral dissolution while producing hydrogen fuel and other gases. The resulting electrolyte solution was shown to be significantly elevated in hydroxide concentration that in turn proved strongly absorptive and retentive of atmospheric CO2.
• 
  

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

   

• 2013/05/29: GEP: June Haida OIF Test Postponed Indefinitely
• 2013/05/28: CDreams: Climate Crisis: Radical Action or a New Battlefront in the War on Nature?
  Climate change is happening, but geoengineering schemes are not the solutions we need
• 2013/05/26: NYT: Geoengineering: Our Last Hope, or a False Promise? [Hamilton]
• 2013/05/23: IEET: Engineering the Future: Geoengineering -- Ethical Technology
• 2013/05/27: DD: [NYT] Geoengineering: Our last hope, or a false promise?
  

  What's new in conservation?

• 2013/05/29: TreeHugger: An engineering solution to preserve costal biodiversity
  

  What's new in restoration?

• 2013/05/27: Guardian(UK): My manifesto for rewilding the world [Monbiot]
  

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2013/05/28: PNAS: (ab$) Experimental evidence that evolutionarily diverse assemblages result in higher productivity by Marc W. Cadotte
• 2013/05/28: PNAS: (abs) Functional ecology of an Antarctic Dry Valley by Yuki Chan et al.
• 2013/05/28: PNAS: (ab$) Benefit of pulsation in soft corals by Maya Kremien et al.
• 2013/05/28: PNAS: (ab$) Millennial-scale isotope records from a wide-ranging predator show evidence of recent human impact to oceanic food webs by Anne E. Wiley et al.
• 2013/05/28: PNAS: (ab$) High regional climate sensitivity over continental China constrained by glacial-recent changes in temperature and the hydrological cycle by Robert A. Eagle et al.
• 2013/05/28: PNAS: (ab$) Climate change frames debate over the extinction of megafauna in Sahul (Pleistocene Australia-New Guinea) by Stephen Wroe et al.
• 2013/05/28: PNAS: (letter$) Effect of active water movement on energy and nutrient acquisition in coral reef-associated benthic organisms by Christian Wild & Malik S. Naumann
• 2013/05/29: RSBL: (ab$) Canadian fishery closures provide a large-scale test of the impact of gillnet bycatch on seabird populations by Paul Regular et al.
• 2013/05/29: RSPB: Hybridization between genetically modified Atlantic salmon and wild brown trout reveals novel ecological interactions by Krista B. Oke et al.
• 2013/05/26: Nature:CC: (ab$) Woody plant encroachment facilitated by increased precipitation intensity by Andrew Kulmatiski & Karen H. Beard
• 2013/05/26: Nature:CC: (ab$) Uncertainty in temperature projections reduced using carbon cycle and climate observations by Roger W. Bodman et al.
• 2013/05/29: ACP: Net radiative forcing and air quality responses to regional CO emission reductions by M. M. Fry et al.
• 2013/05/28: ACP: CLARA-A1: a cloud, albedo, and radiation dataset from 28 yr of global AVHRR data by K.-G. Karlsson et al.
• 2013/05/27: ACP: Why unprecedented ozone loss in the Arctic in 2011? Is it related to climate change? by J.-P. Pommereau et al.
• 2013/05/30: ACPD: Characteristics of dust storm events over the western United States by H. Lei & J. X. L. Wang
• 2013/05/29: ACPD: Airborne observations of trace gases over boreal Canada during BORTAS: campaign climatology, airmass analysis and enhancement ratios by S. J. O'Shea et al.
• 2013/05/28: ACPD: An evaluation of the CMAQ reproducibility of satellite tropospheric NO2 column observations at different local times over East Asia by H. Irie et al.
• 2013/05/27: ACPD: Impact of the North Atlantic Oscillation on the variations of aerosol ground levels through local processes over Europe by S. Jerez et al.
• 2013/05/29: Nature: (ab$) Emergence of two types of terrestrial planet on solidification of magma ocean by Keiko Hamano et al.
• 2013/05/30: IJoMP-B: (ab$) Cosmic-ray-driven reaction and greenhouse effect of halogenated molecules: Culprits for atmospheric ozone depletion and global climate change by Q.-B. Lu
• 2013/05/12: WoL:GRL: (ab$) Regional patterns and proximal causes of the recent snowpack decline in the Rocky Mountains, U.S. by Gregory T. Pederson et al.
• 2013/05/28: GMDD: Test of validity of a dynamic soil carbon model using data from leaf litter decomposition in a West African tropical forest by G. H. S. Guendehou et al.
• 2013/05/27: OS: Assessment of MERIS ocean color data products for European seas by G. Zibordi et al.
• 2013/05/28: TC: Quantifying present and future glacier melt-water contribution to runoff in a central Himalayan river basin by M. Prasch et al.
• 2013/05/27: TC: Density assumptions for converting geodetic glacier volume change to mass change by M. Huss
• 2013/05/27: TC: Mass balance, runoff and surges of Bering Glacier, Alaska by W. Tangborn
• 2013/05/29: BG: Photosynthetic parameters in the Beaufort Sea in relation to the phytoplankton community structure by Y. Huot et al.
• 2013/05/27: BG: Coral Patch seamount (NE Atlantic) - a sedimentological and megafaunal reconnaissance based on video and hydroacoustic surveys by C. Wienberg et al.
• 2013/05/29: BGD: Improved light and temperature responses for light use efficiency based GPP models by I. McCallum et al.
• 2013/05/28: BGD: Global changes in dryland vegetation dynamics (1988-2008) assessed by satellite remote sensing: combining a new passive microwave vegetation density record with reflective greenness data by N. Andela et al.
• 2013/05/27: BGD: A short history of ocean acidification science in the 20th century: a chemist's view by P. G. Brewer
• 2013/05/31: CP: Orbital changes, variation in solar activity and increased anthropogenic activities: controls on the Holocene flood frequency in the Lake Ledro area, Northern Italy by B. Vannière et al.
• 2013/05/29: CP: Abrupt shifts of the Sahara-Sahel boundary during Heinrich stadials by J. A. Collins et al.
• 2013/05/28: CP: The Irish famine of 1740-1741: famine vulnerability and "climate migration" by S. Engler et al.
• 2013/05/27: CP: Temperature changes over the past 2000 yr in China and comparison with the Northern Hemisphere by Q. Ge et al.
• 2013/05/31: CPD: A first chronology for the NEEM ice core by S. O. Rasmussen et al.
• 2013/05/30: CPD: Inferred changes in El Niño-Southern Oscillation variance over the past six centuries by S. McGregor et al.
• 2013/05/29: CPD: Mid and late Holocene dust deposition in western Europe: the Misten peat bog (Hautes Fagnes - Belgium) by M. Allan et al.
• 2013/05/28: CPD: Using ice-flow models to evaluate potential sites of million year-old ice in Antarctica by B. Van Liefferinge & F. Pattyn
• 2013/05/27: CPD: High resolution measurements of carbon monoxide along a late Holocene Greenland ice core: evidence for in-situ production by X. Faïn et al.
• 2013/05/27: CPD: Where to find 1.5 million yr old ice for the IPICS "Oldest Ice" ice core by H. Fischer et al.
• 2013/05/31: PNAS: (abs) Direct electrolytic dissolution of silicate minerals for air CO2 mitigation and carbon-negative H2 production by Greg H. Rau et al.
• 2013/05/29: OSD: Interannual correlations between sea surface temperature and concentration of chlorophyll pigment off Punta Eugenia, Baja California during different remote forcing conditions by H. Herrera-Cervantes et al.
• 2013/06/01: TCD: Changing basal conditions during the speed-up of Jakobshavn Isbræ, Greenland by M. Habermann et al.
• 2013/05/31: TCD: Monitoring water accumulation in a glacier using magnetic resonance imaging by A. Legchenko et al.
• 2013/05/31: TCD: Evidence for spring mountain snowpack retreat from a Landsat-derived snow cover climate data record by C. J. Crawford
• 2013/06/01: CJO:Oryx: Global economic value of shark ecotourism: implications for conservation by Andrés M. Cisneros-Montemayor et al.
• 2013/05/26: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) A combination mode of the annual cycle and the El Niño/Southern Oscillation by Malte F. Stuecker et al.
• 2013/05/26: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Graphite formation by carbonate reduction during subduction by Matthieu E. Galvez et al.
• 2013/05/26: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Hydrogen generation from low-temperature water-rock reactions by L. E. Mayhew et al.
  

  And other significant documents:

• 2013/05/28: BPA: [link to 1.3 meg pdf] The USDA's Latest Report on Energy Use in Agriculture
• 2013/05/27: SaveTheChildren: [link to 1.5 meg pdf] Food for Thought -- Tackling child malnutrition to unlock potential and boost prosperity
  

  As for miscellaneous science:

• 2013/05/30: Nature:GeoSci: [Editorial] Double-blind peer review
• 2013/05/29: NatureN: Japan aims high for growth
  Innovation in science is at the heart of government plans to boost the economy.
• 2013/05/29: Guardian(UK): We are armed only with peer review -- Science funding bodies should be opened up to the public, not just industry
• 2013/05/28: SciAm:GB: The Emerging Field of Human Macroecology
  

  What developments in the ongoing struggle for Open Science?

• 2013/05/30: ScienceInsider: Research Funders Propose Steps to Promote Open Access
• 2013/05/30: OpenSource: Could California bill mandate open access to research?
• 2013/05/29: NatureNB: World's research funders launch open-access action plan
• 2013/05/29: Eureka: Results of the 'Global Research Council' in Berlin announced
  Heads of 70 research funding organizations from around the world met on May 27-29, 2013, in Berlin; endorsed statements concerning 'open access' and 'research integrity'
• 
  

  Regarding Hansen:

   

• 2013/05/07: Nation: The Courage to Fight Climate Change
  

  Regarding Callendar:

• 2013/06/01: SimpleC: Lifting the fog of war and climate
  

  Regarding Lu:

• 2013/05/13: arXiv: Cosmic-Ray-Driven Reaction and Greenhouse Effect of Halogenated Molecules: Culprits for Atmospheric Ozone Depletion and Global Climate Change by Qing-Bin Lu
• 2013/05/30: IJoMP-B: (ab$) Cosmic-ray-driven reaction and greenhouse effect of halogenated molecules: Culprits for atmospheric ozone depletion and global climate change by Q.-B. Lu
• 2013/06/01: ERabett: Eli's Not Fond of Lu
• 2013/05/31: RBroberg: Lu: Cosmic-Ray-Driven Reaction and Greenhouse Effect of Halogenated Molecules: Culprits for Atmospheric Ozone Depletion and Global Climate Change
• 2013/05/31: PostMedia: Climate change claims raise eyebrows -- Physicist says CFCs 'conspiring with cosmic rays' are to blame
• 2013/05/31: CSW: Qing-Bin Lu revives debunked claims about cosmic rays and CFCs
• 2013/05/30: UWaterloo: Global warming caused by CFCs, not carbon dioxide, study says
  

  Meanwhile at the UN:

• 2013/05/31: WMO: African communities benefit from severe weather forecasting project
  

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2013/05/30: TreeHugger: South Korea plans the world's most ambitious carbon market
• 2013/05/30: NBF: China announces carbon trading and more aggressive emission targets for peak emissions by 2025 will mean more nuclear and hydro power
• 2013/05/30: BBerg: Backloading Insufficient to Fix Carbon Market, Vattenfall Says
• 2013/05/29: BBerg: EU Carbon Nears 2-Week High [E3.78 ($4.87)/tonne] as Lawmakers Consider Surplus Fix
  

  Britain is still hammering away; the EU is circling; heaven only knows how the EU-FTT will shake out:

• 2013/05/31: EUO: Divisions emerge over Tobin tax [says WSJ]
• 2013/05/31: EUO: Reports of Tobin Tax death exaggerated, EU says
• 2013/05/31: BBC: [Nigel] Lawson condemns 'perverse' EU financial tax plan
• 2013/05/30: Reuters: Europe plans major scaling back of financial trading tax
  European countries planning a tax on financial transactions are set to drastically scale back the levy, cutting the charge by as much as 90 percent and delaying its full roll-out for years, in what would be a major victory for banks. Such sweeping changes would blunt the impact of the tax, pushed for by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and popular with voters who blame bankers for the financial crisis. The revisions have yet to be formally proposed but were revealed to Reuters by officials working on the project.
• 
  

  The debate over the optimal strategy [carbon trading, carbon offsets, auction vs. allocation, cap and trade, cap and dividend, tradable energy quotas and/or a carbon tax] to use in dealing with GHGs continues:

   

• 2013/05/29: Eureka: Forest and soil carbon is important but does not offset fossil fuel emissions -- Why land-based carbon offsets are providing false hope
  

  South [& East] China Sea tension persists:

• 2013/06/02: IndiaTimes: Chinese patrols in Asian seas 'legitimate': Chinese general
• 2013/06/02: BBC: China general defends maritime role in island disputes
  A senior Chinese general has rejected criticism over his country's role in territorial disputes in the South and East China seas. Gen Qi Jianguo, deputy chief of staff of the People's Liberation Army, insisted that China wanted peaceful development alongside its neighbours. He insisted on China's sovereignty to the Diaoyu islands but distanced it from claims to the Okinawa group.
• 2013/06/02: al Jazeera: China defends patrolling disputed waters
  People's Liberation Army says military patrols in South China Sea and East China Sea are legitimate
• 2013/05/30: Xinhuanet: China rejects Philippines' illegal seizure of Ren'ai Reef: FM spokesman
• 2013/05/29: WSWS: Visiting Europe, Chinese premier demands Japan return "stolen" territories
• 2013/05/29: WSWS: Armed stand-off, mounting tensions, in the South China Sea
  A tense stand-off is unfolding in the South China Sea between a group of Philippine marines and several Chinese naval vessels. The confrontation occurs around a shoal, which has been occupied by the Philippines, in the disputed Spratly Islands. This confrontation in the South China Sea takes place as tensions continue to simmer between Taiwan and the Philippines over the latter's killing of a Taiwanese fisherman.
  [...]
  The Spratly Islands, of which Ayungin shoal is part, are claimed by China, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines. The Spratlys are at the center of one of the busiest and most vital sea-lanes in the world.
• 2013/05/28: Asia Times: Li makes his Potsdam declaration
  

  Calling these stealth corporate takeovers 'free trade' is pure PR:

• 2013/05/28: CDreams: Groups Slam Trade Deal for Choosing "Private Interests and Profits" over People and Planet
  Over 130 organizations publish statement denouncing the Trans-Pacific Partnership and similar 'free trade' pacts
• 2013/05/31: EurActiv: Groups warn EU-US trade deal could weaken consumer laws 'via the backdoor'
  Consumer groups on both sides of the Atlantic have raised concerns about a proposed EU-US free trade agreement, saying it could weaken health, banking and food safety regulations through the back door.
• 
  

  In the solar squabbles between China and Europe:

   

• 2013/05/30: Xinhuanet: China sincere about resolving PV disputes with EU: MOC
• 2013/05/29: EurActiv: EU trade chief vows no U-turn in solar panel row with China
  EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht bluntly told China and leading European states that they were wasting their time trying to put pressure on him to drop plans to impose punitive import duties on Chinese solar panels.
• 2013/05/28: EUO: Majority of EU countries against China solar duties
• 2013/05/28: Xinhuanet: Punitive duties on Chinese solar panels to delay EU steps towards grid parity: expert
• 2013/05/27: EurActiv: Merkel, Li want to end solar trade row
  German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Sunday (26 May) called for an end to a trade row between Europe and China over solar panels and wireless equipment, telling a joint news conference they were both for free trade.
• 
  

  And in miscellaneous international politics:

   

• 2013/05/29: RT: Full speed ahead: Rosneft partners with Japan's largest energy explorer
• 2013/05/27: ABC(Au): Indian Ocean countries unite to improve weather forecasting
  Scientist from Indian Ocean nations have gathered in Perth today to learn about Australia's ocean forecasting models to better predict the weather. 17 countries from right around the Indian Ocean are represented at today's workshop whom all sit under umbrella of the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Corporation (IOT-ARC). It's hoped each country can contribute their local information to one big system to help predict weather up to seven days ahead.
• 
  

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

   

• 2013/05/27: TP:JR: Syria Today Is A Preview Of Memorial Day, 2030
  

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

• 2013/05/31: BBC: Costa Rica poachers 'kill turtle activist'
• 2013/05/29: CDreams: We're Being Watched: How Corporations and Law Enforcement Are Spying on Environmentalists
• 2013/05/28: CChallenge: Why Bidder70, Tim DeChristopher, Went to Prison
  

  What are the activists up to?

• 2013/06/01: PCat: Fortune 500 Nightmare: Revolutionary Wiki Buycott will put power in our hands
• 2013/05/28: Guardian(UK): Environmental protest in Brazil - picture of the day
  

  The move to divest from fossil fuel investments is growing slowly:

• 2013/05/30: Guardian(UK): It's time to stop investing in the fossil fuel industry
  

  Polls! We have polls!

• 2013/05/30: Grist:Most Americans don't give a frack about fracking
  

  Regarding Water Politics and Business:

• 2013/05/30: al Jazeera: Death on the Nile
  As Ethiopia diverts the river to build a dam, we examine the impact on water supply for Egypt's growing population.
• 2013/05/30: CBC: Egypt fears grow as Ethiopia builds giant Nile dam -- Diversion of water of the Nile River began earlier this week
• 2013/05/29: DD: Global majority faces water shortages 'within two generations' - 4.5 billion people already live within 50km of an impaired water resource - 'These are self-inflicted wounds'
• 2013/05/29: JFleck: Stuff I wrote elsewhere: Colorado River shortage possible by 2016
• 2013/05/29: BBC: Ethiopia diverts Blue Nile for controversial dam build
  Ethiopia has started diverting a stretch of the Blue Nile to make way for a $4.7bn (£3.1bn) hydroelectric dam that has caused a dispute with countries downstream, state media say. The Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which is currently under construction, is part of a $12bn (£8bn) investment project to boost power exports. The Blue Nile is one of two major tributaries of the Nile - one of the world's longest rivers. Egypt and Sudan object to the dam. They say it violates a colonial-era agreement, which gives them rights to 90% of the Nile's water.
• 2013/05/29: al Jazeera: Ethiopia diverts flow of Blue Nile
  Egypt and Sudan express concern over multi-billion dollar dam on Nile which violates colonial-era agreement.
• 2013/05/28: AGU: Small dams on Chinese river harm environment more than expected, study finds
• 2013/05/28: SF Gate: Colorado River users, interests meet in San Diego
  Discussion about the future of the drought-struck Colorado River is on the agenda in San Diego for officials from seven Western states, Indian tribes and conservation groups in a meeting hosted by federal water managers. Tuesday's meeting comes amid predictions of looming shortages on the river serving some 40 million city dwellers, farmers, boaters and businesses in California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming.
• 2013/05/28: JFleck: Pat Mulroy doesn't think much of the Salton Sea
• 2013/05/28: RT: Free flow: Israel lifts 49-year blockage of Jordan River
• 2013/05/26: SciAm: Water Waste May Leave Us Thirsty
  

  Among the world's religions:

• 2013/05/26: VVenema: Christians on the climate consensus
  

  So what's new on the education front?

• 2013/05/31: DebunkingDenialism: Elizabeth Mitchell's Flawed Defense of a Creationist "Science" Quiz
  

  While in the UK:

• 2013/06/03: Guardian(UK): Why do we have to trawl for the facts about Britain and the EU?
  With fishing policy, as with Italy's attempt to ban plastic bags, our government is terrified of appearing to allow the EU to undermine British 'interests'
• 2013/05/31: BBC: Illegal fuel: 48% rise in 'pop-up garages'
  There has been a 48% increase in the detection of illegal fuel sales from so called "pop-up garages" in the UK, HM Revenue and Customs figures show. The operators sell fuel which has been smuggled or is substandard after being mixed with cheaper chemicals.
• 2013/05/30: BBC: Northamptonshire water mill to generate electricity
• 2013/05/29: BBC: Cheap coal 'threatens UK pollution targets'
  Coal on the global market is so cheap that it threatens government attempts to tackle climate change, the chairman of the Environment Agency has warned.
• 2013/05/27: EurActiv: Britain resists EU bid to set new target on renewable energy
• 2013/05/27: LoE: The 'threadbare hypothesis' of climate change
• 2013/05/26: Guardian(UK): Green groups attack government resistance to EU climate change goals
  

  And in Europe:

• 2013/05/31: EurActiv: Desertec abandons Sahara solar power export dream
• 2013/05/30: RealEconomics: Euro energy update
• 2013/05/30: EurActiv: EU ministers approve crackdown on over-fishing
  The European Union agreed early today (30 May) to put an end to decades of over-fishing and rebuild dwindling stocks by 2020, as part of a deal to overhaul of fisheries policy.
• 2013/05/29: EurActiv: Battle of narratives erupts over 2020 energy savings progress
  The European Commission traded fire with energy savings campaigners yesterday (28 May) over the EU's chances of meeting its goal of cutting power use 20% by 2020, as both sides read different runes from energy projections submitted by member states last month.
• 2013/05/29: EUO: Brussels to draft shale gas rules by end of year
• 2013/05/29: AutoBG: German chancellor stands by one-million EVs target despite slow sales
• 2013/05/29: DerSpiegel: War on Subsidies: Brussels Takes Aim at German Energy Revolution
  As part of Germany's switch to renewables, industry has been exempt from paying higher prices associated with solar and wind energy. The European Commission, however, believes the practice distorts competition on the Continent. Huge penalties could be in store.
• 2013/05/28: Time: The Cost of Green: Germany Tussles Over the Bill for Its Energy Revolution
• 2013/05/27: EurActiv: European banks accused of fuelling land grabs in Uganda
  

  Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2013/05/31: ABC(Au): New Carnarvon plant powers up
• 2013/05/31: ABC(Au): Huge hike in Queensland electricity prices
  Queensland's power prices will soar after July with a 22.6 per cent increase announced today. The average household will pay an extra $268 a year for electricity. The Queensland Competition Authority has blamed the spike mostly on rising network costs and State and Federal Government policy decisions.
• 2013/05/30: ABC(Au): Councils unite against coastal erosion threat
  The City of Bunbury and eight neighbouring councils have agreed to work together to protect coastal areas from rising seal levels. The local governments, from Rockingham to Busselton, formed an alliance called the Peron Naturaliste Partnership.
• 2013/05/30: Guardian(UK): Australia on course to beat 2020 renewable energy target, says study
  Consultancy forecasts that country will derive 22.5% of its power from renewables by 2020
• 2013/05/30: ABC(Au): Green group puzzled by gas hub legal stoush
  The Wilderness Society says a Supreme Court challenge over the Kimberley gas hub site is still going ahead, despite Woodside's decision to abandon the project. The society last year lodged legal action against the Environmental Protection Authority's (EPA) decision to recommend the project at James Price Point go ahead. Although Woodside abandoned the plan, the court hearings are still due to go ahead next week. Society spokesman Peter Robertson says he is puzzled that the state wants to proceed with the hearings, despite being given the option to adjourn them.
• 2013/05/29: ABC(Au): Sleeping out under wind turbines to assess noise
  A member of the Windfarm Select Committee slept under a turbine at the Waterloo wind farm last night to experience the conditions that local residents face. Greens MLC Mark Parnell pitched a tent in the blustery conditions despite disgruntling the rest of the committee who had planned to make the trip later this month.
• 2013/05/29: ABC(Au): Farmers push for repeal of GM restrictive Act
• 2013/05/29: Guardian(UK): Coalition is asking us to act illegally, says green investment bank
  Clean Energy Finance Corporation says shadow ministers asked it to break its legal obligations by not committing to any loans
• 2013/05/28: TheConversation: Another budget in massive deficit
  Now that the federal budget is out of the way, it's time to look at another budget soon to be massively in deficit -- Australia's greenhouse emissions budget.
• 2013/05/28: ABC(Au): Interest sought in solar farm plans
  The Town of Port Hedland is looking for businesses interested in establishing Australia's largest solar farm.
• 2013/05/28: ABC(Au): GMO ban set to stay
  The Tasmanian Government has indicated it is unlikely to lift a ban on genetically-modified crops.
• 2013/05/28: ABC(Au): PGA urges rethink on GM crop laws
  The Pastoralists and Graziers Association (PGA) of Western Australia says there is a clear need to repeal laws that allow the State Government to ban the use of genetically modified (GM) crops.
• 2013/05/28: ABC(Au): Reports vindicates handling of Harrietville bushfire
  A report into the handling of the Harrietville bushfire, in north-eastern Victoria, has found there is nothing firefighters could have done to stop the blaze from spreading. The Harrietville blaze killed two firefighters and destroyed 37,000 hectares of bush.
• 2013/05/27: TheConversation: Victorian law change abandons native forests to loggers
• 2013/05/27: ABC(Au): Farmers call for right of veto on fracking
  "What we are calling for is a right of veto on exploration for gas and petroleum, like we have with mining, because that actually makes the negotiations a lot more equal when dealing with drillers and gas companies." That's Dale Park, the head of the WA Farmers Federation. He is calling on the Government to provide greater protection for farmers against the potential damages which could be caused during the process of 'hydraulic fracturing' or 'fracking'.
• 2013/05/27: ABC(Au): Experts warn Victorian logging laws may drive Leadbeater's possum to extinction
• 2013/05/27: ABC(Au): Australia awash with gas
• 2013/05/27: ABC(Au): Manufacturers call for domestic gas reserves
  A business coalition of Australia's largest manufacturers is warning the Ford job losses announced last week will be nothing compared to other retrenchments unless there is intervention by the Commonwealth and state governments to ensure access to cheaper natural gas. The group says a gas supply crisis will come to a head by 2015 because gas currently earmarked for domestic manufacturing is being diverted to export, leaving Australians to pay one of the world's highest gas prices despite having some of the world's largest supplies of natural gas.
• 
  

  It's a long way to the September election:

   

• 2013/06/01: Wonkette: Australian Prime Minister's Sandwich Woes Generate Best Headline Of 2013
• 2013/05/31: ABC(Au): Oakeshott rebuffs 'pathetic' Opposition bid to woo independents for no-confidence motion
  The Federal Opposition is looking increasingly unlikely to move a no-confidence motion against the Government, with key independents dismissing the Coalition's latest moves to secure their support as "pathetic" and a "stunt".
• 2013/05/30: ABC(Au):TDU: Here's what the Liberals really think of Tony Abbott
• 2013/05/30: ABC(Au): Climate adviser [David King] disappointed with Coalition climate stance
• 2013/05/29: NewAnthropocene: Turning votes into consumer items: The swine who found a way
• 2013/05/29: ABC(Au): Green energy industry cautious of Coalition cuts
• 2013/05/29: ABC(Au): Clean energy sector faces uncertain future if Coalition wins federal election
• 2013/05/28: ABC(Au):TDU: Direct action set to be a Coalition climate headache
  

  After years of wrangling, the Murray Darling Basin plan is in place, but the water management fights are not over:

• 2013/05/31: ABC(Au): Minister defends water licence allocations
  Queensland Natural Resources Minister Andrew Cripps says water allocations in the state's North and North West will encourage the growth of rural industry.
• 2013/05/31: ABC(Au): Queensland's largest river system gets a pass mark
  Scientists have released a report on the health of the Fitzroy River system for the first time and have given it a 'C' grading.
• 2013/05/28: ABC(Au): Irrigators to get water bill relief
  Queensland Water Minister Mark McArdle has announced a rebate for irrigators hit hard by increased water usage charges.
• 2013/05/28: ABC(Au): Scientist wants Gulf irrigation scheme monitored
  A member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists has raised questions about the Queensland Government's granting of irrigation licences in the Gulf region.
• 
  

  And in the Indian subcontinent:

   

• 2013/06/01: WSWS: India's Supreme Court approves nuclear plant, saying "destiny" to decide if it is safe
• 2013/06/01: CCurrents: Water Meant For Drinking And Irrigation Goes To Power Plants In Maharashtra
• 2013/05/28: CCurrents: Letter From The Women And Children Of Idinthakarai, Koodankulam
  

  While in China:

• 2013/05/30: NBF: China announces carbon trading and more aggressive emission targets for peak emissions by 2025 will mean more nuclear and hydro power
  

  And South America:

• 2013/05/31: UDW: Bolivia: Amid Gas, Where Is the Revolution?
  The political victories of anti-neoliberal movements and regimes have opened a new chapter in Latin American history, yet the embrace of extractive industries has generated deep paradoxes for those committed to addressing inequality and the crisis of nature.
• 2013/05/31: BoliviaRising: Bolivia vs. the billionaires: limitations of the "climate justice movement" in international negotiations
• 2013/05/30: CCurrents: Bolivia: Nationalisation Puts Wealth In Hands Of The People
• 2013/05/26: CBC: Colombia, FARC rebels reach land reform deal
  

  In Canada, neocon PM Harper, aka The Blight, pushes petroleum while ignoring climate and ecology:

• 2013/05/30: NatPo: Michael Den Tandt: The Harper government has lost its moral standing
• 2013/05/28: CSM: Has Canada bet too much on oil?
• 2013/05/27: CPW: Tories spend on Keystone XL ads, while cutting environment funding
• 2013/05/27: TMoS: Another Harper/Enbridge Lie [dilbit floats] Sent Straight to the Bottom
• 2013/05/26: TStar: Climate activist's book claims Conservatives tried to silence her
  A new book by Toronto artist Franke James says her frequent criticism of Conservative climate change policy cost her federal funding for a European tour.
• 
  

  Hey I bet you thought that G20 malarkey was over and done:

   

• 2013/05/31: CBC: G20 officer found not guilty on assault charges
  Judge says only eyewitness in case was 'unreliable'
• 2013/05/27: CBC: G20 police officer in Toronto court today on assault charges -- Const. Glenn Weddell charged with assault, assault causing bodily harm
  The first trial of a Toronto police officer criminally charged in the wake of the G20 protests in 2010 is set to start today. Const. Glenn Weddell is charged with assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm.
• 2013/05/27: WpgFP: First trial of Toronto police officer facing G20 charges set to start
  The first trial of a Toronto police officer criminally charged in the wake of the G20 protests in 2010 is set to start today. Const. Glenn Weddell is charged with assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm. Dorian Barton said his arm was broken by officers who arrested him during a G20 protest nearly three years ago.
• 
  

  The Harper gang is pushing some fundamentally destructive science policies:

   

• 2013/06/01: CSW: "No science, no evidence, no truth, no democracy" [Harperland]
• 2013/05/31: PostMedia: DFO declines interview with scientist on oilsands because it disagrees with media report
  

  Nuclear issues popped up:

• 2013/05/30: CBC: Probe into AECL contracts hushed up
• 2013/05/27: CBC: Nuclear waste site on Lake Huron concerns Michigan, Sarnia
  

  And the mythical Canadian Energy Plan:

• 2013/05/31: Tyee: Don't Exclude Cities from Canada's Energy Plan
  

  Not quite the Dutch Disease:

• 2013/05/31: G&M: How the oil sands industry is distorting Canada's economy
  [...]
  On a planet with a rapidly changing climate, Canada should be figuring out now how to wind down carbon-intensive resource extraction. Otherwise we may soon find that we're producing masses of stuff we can't sell.
  But anyone who even hints at this idea in Canada is regarded as nuts. Any politician aspiring to national leadership who says such a thing can kiss his or her political career goodbye.
  The realities of climate change mean that the oil sands have a best-by date, and that date could come much sooner than industry boosters say.
• 
  

  The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on:

   

• 2013/05/30: G&M: Fewer Canadians back plans for new oil pipelines to West Coast ports: poll
  Support has declined for proposals to build western oil pipelines to help meet Asian demand, according to a new poll commissioned by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. The online survey conducted by Angus Reid Public Opinion shows that 45 per cent of respondents nationally in March said they support the construction of new pipelines to West Coast ports, down from 53 per cent a year earlier.
• 
  

  While on the fabled West-East line:

   

• 2013/05/29: CBC: [Quebec Federation of Chambers of Commerce] supports Line 9 reversal
  

  Driven no doubt by corporate advertising concerns, the CFIA is messing with the meaning of the word "local":

• 2013/05/28: CBC: Canadian definition of 'local' food greatly expanded
  CFIA interim policy says local food is anything grown within the same province
• 
  

  Now that Christy Clark has a mandate, what will she do?

   

• 2013/05/29: TheCanadian: Gas Pains: B.C.'s gas plan is a short-sighted pipe dream [Suzuki]
• 2013/05/29: POGGE: BC provincial election elaboration 3: Positivity
• 2013/05/27: POGGE: BC provincial election elaboration 2: Negativity
  

  A cynic might say Clark hasn't said "No"; she has just raised the ante, but we'll see:

• 2013/05/31: CBC: B.C. officially opposes Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline
• 2013/05/31: Tyee: BC Gov't to Enbridge: 'Trust Me' Is Not Good Enough
• 2013/05/31: PI: Pembina reacts to British Columbia's rejection of the Northern Gateway Pipeline
• 2013/05/31: BBerg: British Columbia Says It Can't Back Northern Gateway
  British Columbia, Canada's westernmost province, said today it can't support Enbridge Inc.'s Northern Gateway bitumen pipeline because project plans fail to address the risk of spills on land or sea.
• 2013/05/31: TheCanadian: If Enbridge is a No-go, Kinder Morgan Should be Too
  

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2013/05/31: SkS: 2013 SkS News Bulletin 14: Alberta Tar Sands and Keystone XL Pipeline by John Hartz
• 2013/05/30: PSinclair: Killer Karbon Petcoke Pile Looms Over Motown
  

  Also in Alberta:

• 2013/05/28: Global: Introduction: 37 years of oil spills in Alberta
• 2013/05/28: DEaves: Some Nice Journalistic Data Visualization - Global's Crude Awakening
  

  As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

• 2013/05/30: CBC: A crusader's legacy: How Henry Morgentaler changed Canada's laws
  Whether Canadians agree with abortion or not, they owe him for an important legal protection
• 2013/05/29: CBC: Abortion rights activist Dr. Henry Morgentaler dies at 90
  Montreal doctor, seen as hero by some and murderer by others, dies of heart attack
• 
  

  And on the American political front:

   

• 2013/05/27: TreeHugger: Track pending advanced energy legislation across the U.S. with this free online database [Advanced Energy Legislation Tracker]
• 2013/06/01: CSM: How will businesses finance the future of energy?
• 2013/05/31: EconView: Paul Krugman: From the Mouths of Babes -- The "ugly, destructive war against food stamps"
• 2013/05/31: Grist: Colorado to get its own climate czar
• 2013/05/31: TP:JR: Efforts To Repeal North Carolina's Clean Energy Standard Not Dead Yet
• 2013/05/31: TP:JR: First County In The U.S. Bans Fracking To Save Its Water
• 2013/05/30: NYT: From the Mouths of Babes
• 2013/05/30: DeSmogBlog: Fracking "Shock Doctrine" Unveiled as 2013 Illinois Legislative Session Nears End
• 2013/05/30: DemNow: As Lawmakers Target Food Stamp Funding, New Report Finds 1 in 6 in U.S. Are Going Hungry
• 2013/05/29: RawStory: Louisiana lawmakers kill repeal of unconstitutional creationism law
• 2013/05/29: UCSUSA:B: Climate Debate Stuck in a Washington Rut
• 2013/05/29: CDreams: The Case for Food Stamps
  Slashing food aid makes no sense in humanitarian, economic or public health terms.
• 2013/05/28: TP:JR: The Three Best Things Minnesota Did For Solar Energy In The Last Week
  

  The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:

• 2013/05/31: Grist: Court orders feds to review oil dispersant risks
  

  Post-Sandy commentary and news:

• 2013/05/28: Guardian(UK): 'The Jersey shore is back' says Obama after tour of Sandy recovery efforts
• 2013/05/27: Guardian(UK): Obama returns to the Jersey shore to boost storm recovery - and his image
  

  Post-Moore EF5 news and commentary:

• 2013/05/30: CSM: Miranda Lambert tears up at Oklahoma benefit concert
• 2013/05/28: CSM: Oklahoma tornado debris could pile a mile high: Obama promises help
• 2013/05/27: RealEconomics: Building on the cheap - Moore, Oklahoma
• 2013/05/23: Cryptome: DoD Photos of Moore, OK, Damage
• 2013/05/27: DD: For Republicans, Oklahoma tornado revives questions about disaster relief
• 2013/05/26: RawStory: [Senator Tom] Coburn (R-Ok): Disaster victims getting federal aid think they 'don't have to be responsible'
  

  The Keystone XL wheel grinds slowly. And it grinds woe:

• 2013/06/01: TP:JR: What TransCanada's CEO Is Not Saying About The Keystone Tar Sands Pipeline
• 2013/05/31: Grist: Keystone backers hire lobbyists with ties to John Kerry
• 2013/05/30: FuelFix: Repairs done on portions of Keystone XL in Texas
• 2013/05/28: CBC: Push on for petroleum coke study before Keystone pipeline gets OK
  Michigan Congressman [Rep. Gary Peters (D-Mi)] concerned about petroleum coke piles on banks of Detroit River A U.S. congressman is calling for a complete health review of petroleum coke before Washington approves the Keystone XL Pipeline. Michigan Representative Gary Peters claims that one third of the cheap, combustible carbon byproduct, used mainly in overseas power plants, comes from the Alberta oilsands. He announced Tuesday in Detroit that he intends to introduce legislation next week calling for a complete and comprehensive study of the environmental and health effects of petroleum coke, also known as pet coke.
• 2013/05/30: CCP: Van Jones: The Obama Keystone Pipeline?
• 2013/05/30: DeSmogBlog: State Department Inspector General Investigating Keystone XL Contractor ERM's Conflicts of Interest
• 2013/05/29: TheConversation: Keystone XL threatens true American 'energy independence'
• 2013/05/29: DD: Watchdog group calls for U.S. State Dept. investigation into Keystone XL consultant's conflicts of interest
• 2013/05/28: C&BP: C&BP Calls for State Dept. Investigation into Keystone XL Consultant's Conflicts of Interest
• 2013/05/28: ICN: In Age of Electronic Democracy, Keystone Voices Get Wide Audience
• 2013/05/28: OilChange: 'No' KXL Threatens $9 Billion Tar Sands Investment
• 2013/05/27: Grist: GOP to Obama on Keystone: Don't think about climate
• 2013/05/26: TP:JR: Kolbert: Keystone XL is 'Just Another Step On The March To Disaster'
  

  With the deficit hawks panicking about things financial, there has been talk of a carbon tax solution:

• 2013/05/30: EnvEcon: [US] Attitude's about carbon taxes
  

  The GOP War on Women continues. See also:

• 2013/05/31: DemNow: Four Years After Murder of Dr. George Tiller, His Wichita Abortion Clinic Reopens Despite Threats
• 2013/05/30: al Jazeera: Abortion in the US: Agreeing to agree
  Providing contraception freely and universally will result in fewer unintended pregnancies, and fewer abortions.
• 
  

  The NorthWest coal export debate remains heated:

   

• 2013/05/30: Grist: Local elections in Washington state are big deal for coal industry and global climate
  

  The impacts of budgetary sequestration are beginning to add up:

• 2013/05/31: TP:JR: How Climate Change And Budget Cuts Could Make This The Most Dangerous Hurricane Season Ever
• 2013/05/29: CSW: Undermining preparedness: National Weather Service cutbacks
• 2013/05/29: CSW: Undermining preparedness: flood mapping budget slashed
  

  Looking forward to 2014, 2016 election:

• 2013/06/01: CSM: Jesse Ventura for president in 2016?
  

  At what point do you stop listening to the pretty lies and realize you've been had?

• 2013/05/30: CSM: 'All of the above' -- What does that really mean?
• 2013/05/30: TheHill:e2W: Obama: No 'patience' for climate skeptics
  

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2013/05/31: UCSUSA:B: Why Are Electric Companies Standing on Their Own Ignorance to Block Solar Savings? Because the Regulator Lets Them.
• 2013/05/31: WSWS: Obama official who oversaw BP oil spill hired as Apple's environmental fixer
• 2013/05/30: WSWS: US officials cover up evidence of radioactive leak Washington
  Internal emails obtained by a Seattle news station show that the US Department of Energy (DOE) and a private contractor in charge of managing the radioactive waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation deliberately suppressed evidence of a leak in one of the main holding tanks. Over the course of a year, numerous red flags were ignored and the public was lied to. KING 5 News broke the story last week, exposing the DOE for withholding information about a leak. The leak was conclusively discovered in a double-shelled tank last August but the public was not informed until October 22, 2012.
• 2013/05/29: SciAm:PI: Secretary of Energy sees a critical role for energy efficiency
• 2013/05/30: MWEN:E&E: FERC chairman, a champion of green power, to step down
  Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff, a driving force behind the Obama administration's efforts to green the electric grid, is resigning. Wellinghoff told Greenwire Wednesday he'll stay in his post until President Obama taps a replacement and secures Senate confirmation.
• 2013/05/29: TP:JR: Steven Chu Is The $100 Billion Man, But How Much Energy Will Secretary Moniz Save?
• 2013/05/28: Grist: John Kerry's wishful thinking on climate change [admin]
  

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2013/06/01: CDreams: Repealing the Monsanto Protection Act
• 2013/05/31: PSinclair: Republican Senator Steps Forward on Climate Change, Solar Energy
• 2013/05/30: UCSUSA:B: Don't Be Fooled by the "Moderate" Tag: The Regulatory Accountability Act Threatens Federal Scientific Integrity
• 2013/05/29: NatJo: Lamar Alexander Unveils His Maverick GOP Vision for Energy Future
• 2013/05/29: QuarkSoup: A Good Day for Science in America
• 2013/05/29: QuarkSoup: A Joke of a Congressional Hearing
• 2013/05/28: CCentral: [House] Bill Would Shift NOAA Resources from Climate Research
• 2013/05/27: Grist: Chesapeake oil? Offshore drilling pushed by Virginia lawmakers
• 2013/05/27: Grist: As world marches against Monsanto, senators protect it from labeling laws
• 2013/05/26: TP:JR: Four Things The Farm Bill Could Do For Clean Energy
• 2013/05/27: WSWS: US farm bill proposals include huge cuts to food assistance
  On May 15, the House Agricultural Committee passed its 2013 farm bill called the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013. The bill includes almost $21 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program over the next ten years. Close to two million low-income people will be cut off altogether the food assistance program formerly known as food stamps. An estimated $39.7 billion would be cut from the entire farm bill. Over half of those cuts come from SNAP. This will mean a loss of an average of $25 of monthly SNAP benefits for a family of four.The SNAP program, upon which 48 million people depended last year for their survival, half of them children, is the principal remaining assistance offered to the poorest in America.
• 2013/05/26: TP:JR: [Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)]: 'There Is Only One Leg On Which Climate Change Denial Stands: Money.'
  

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

• 2013/05/30: CCurrents: The Natural Limits Of Confronting Our Limits
• 2013/05/30: Resilience: Supply Shock: Ecological Economics Comes of Age, Part 2
• 2013/05/29: Resilience: A mind like compost?
• 2013/05/28: CCurrents: Golden Age or Peak Civilization?
• 2013/05/27: Resilience: For a Future that Won't Destroy Life on Earth, Look to the Global Indigenous Uprising
• 2013/05/09: FPN: Footprint Science - Introduction -- How can we all live well and live within the means of one planet?
  

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

• 2013/05/31: al Jazeera: Salvadorian woman allowed to end pregnancy
  Chronically ill woman to terminate pregnancy through C-section after having application for abortion overturned.
• 2013/05/31: BBC: El Salvador abortion woman allowed early C-section
  A seriously ill woman who was denied an abortion by the Supreme Court of El Salvador says she will undergo a premature Caesarean section next week.
• 2013/05/30: RawStory: El Salvador's Supreme Court denies life-saving abortion to woman
• 2013/05/30: Salon: These pro-lifers are fine when women die
  El Salvador's strict abortion laws mean a woman's likely to die. Laws in other countries, and here, aren't better
• 2013/05/30: BBC: El Salvador court denies seriously ill woman abortion
  The Supreme Court of El Salvador has refused to allow a seriously ill pregnant woman to have an abortion, even though her foetus has almost no chance of survival. Lawyers for the young woman - who suffers from lupus and kidney failure - had argued that continuing the pregnancy would place her life at risk. The foetus itself is missing part or all of its brain. All abortions are prohibited in El Salvador under any circumstances.
• 2013/05/29: WtD: Children, to have or to have not: be childless for the environment?
• 2013/05/30: CBC: A crusader's legacy: How Henry Morgentaler changed Canada's laws
  Whether Canadians agree with abortion or not, they owe him for an important legal protection
• 2013/05/29: CBC: Abortion rights activist Dr. Henry Morgentaler dies at 90
  Montreal doctor, seen as hero by some and murderer by others, dies of heart attack
• 2013/05/29: EUO: Lithuania takes first step towards abortion ban
  

  Apocalypso anyone?

• 2013/06/01: CDreams: The United States of Whatever: Ecocide and the Soul of a Nation
• 2013/05/31: SciAm:GB: Can Humans Survive Mass Extinction?
  

  How do the media measure up?

• 2013/05/31: ERabett:BSD: Dear Slate: please fire whoever wrote the headlines below, immediately. Thank you. [media]
• 2013/05/30: DemNow: Did Public Television Commit Self-Censorship to Appease Billionaire Funder David Koch?
• 2013/05/29: CCurrents: The Monsanto Revolution
  The protests against the Monsanto Protection Act were not covered by the corporately run news media in the United States. This treacherous act itself has not been discussed by the majority of people and the information about what it really means to us is being hidden by those charged to provide this information. The very fact that the corporate media has tried to minimize the coverage of the protests, and the fact that they hid the role of Congress in protecting a company that has the potential to damage our lives is something that is actually criminal. The fact that most Americans still don't know about the potential effects of GMO seeds to the American people cannot be defended.
• 2013/05/30: TP:JR: NPR Airs Story On Melting Glaciers Without Explaining Why They Are Melting
• 2013/05/30: AntiMatter: Climate change, The Economist and The Irish Times
• 2013/05/29: 350orBust: Face The Nation Faces The Reality Of a Warmer World
• 2013/05/29: DeSmogBlog: Rallies in 12 U.S. Cities Protest Koch Brothers' Tribune Takeover Bid
• 2013/05/28: TP:JR: CBS News Ties Extreme Weather To Manmade Climate Change
• 2013/05/26: QuarkSoup: Today's CBS "Face the Nation" Segment
  

  Here is something for your library:

• 2013/05/31: Guardian(UK): Global warning: the rise of 'cli-fi'
• 2013/05/31: Guardian(UK): The Burning Question by Mike Berners-Lee and Duncan Clark - review
• 2013/05/31: Guardian(UK): Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power by Steve Coll - review
• 2013/05/31: Resilience: The Age of Oil: Every man a master, every man a slave
  [Book Review] _The Energy of Slaves: Oil and the New Servitude_ by Andrew Nikiforuk
• 2013/05/30: Tyee: The Book to Thwart Energy Spin Doctors -- Rafe Mair reviews Nikiforuk's 'theories be damned' look at our fossil fuel servitude.
  [Book Review] _The Energy of Slaves: Oil and the New Servitude_ by Andrew Nikiforuk
• 2013/05/26: Guardian(UK): [Book Review] _Feeding Frenzy_ by Paul McMahon & _A Greedy Man in a Hungry World_ by Jay Rayner
  Two books addressing the burgeoning food crisis offer refreshingly ordinary answers
• 2013/05/16: C&C: [Book Review] _The Wrath of Capital: Neoliberalism and Climate Change Politics_ by Adrian Parr
  

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2013/06/01: CSM: Why 'After Earth' father-son movie doesn't impress critics
• 2013/06/01: SkS: Video: Lake El'gygytgyn, Pleistocene super-Interglacials and Arctic warmth by John Mason
• 2013/05/30: P3: The Population Bomb
• 2013/05/30: QuarkSoup: Another Movie Gets Climate Change Wrong [After Earth]
• 2013/05/30: AFTIC: Coal is Bad
• 2013/05/30: Grist: Coal is the enemy of the human race, video edition
• 2013/05/30: PSinclair: Coal 101
• 2013/05/29: TP:JR: Must-See Video Shows Impact Of Coal As Its Use In U.S. Power Sector Rebounds
• 2013/05/28: Grist: Mesmerizing animation shows a full day of Earth's weather patterns
  

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2013/05/31: Grist: Court orders feds to review oil dispersant risks
  

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

• 2013/06/01: CSM: How will businesses finance the future of energy?
• 2013/05/31: ABC(Au): New Carnarvon plant powers up
  A new power plant, recently installed in Carnarvon, could soon begin generating electricity for about 500 homes and businesses. Enerji Limited has entered into an agreement with Horizon Power for the electricity generated from its 'Opcon' powerbox. The Swedish technology will generate about 10 per cent of the town's total power by converting wasted heat energy into electricity.
• 2013/05/30: BBC: Northamptonshire water mill to generate electricity
• 2013/05/30: Guardian(UK): Clean energy for a carbon-choked world
• 2013/05/28: GreenGrok: Forests Fuel Hydropower
• 2013/05/28: UCSUSA:B: Playing a Shell Game with a Power Plant: Ratepayers Lose
• 2013/05/26: SciAm:PI: Five Energy Companies Disrupting the Status Quo
• 2013/05/26: NBF: Components of Solar power satellite alpha
  

  What do you have in energy comparisons and transitions?

• 2013/05/29: Grist: Coal is rebounding, natural gas prices are up, and the world's oil cartel is quite content
  Times are good for the merchants of fossil fuels.
• 2013/05/27: FinPo: IEA says U.S. gas prices of US$5 could spur return to coal
• 2013/05/27: Reuters: IEA says U.S. gas prices of $5 could spur return to coal
  U.S. gas prices of around $5 per million British thermal units could prompt the world's largest economy to step up use of coal, after years of cutting back on its consumption in favour of cleaner-burning gas, the West's energy agency said on Monday.
• 
  

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

   

• 2013/05/31: TP:JR: First County In The U.S. Bans Fracking To Save Its Water
• 2013/05/29: EUO: Brussels to draft shale gas rules by end of year
• 2013/05/28: NPR:StateImpact: Gas Industry Building Database Of Water Test Results, But Won't Make It Public
• 2013/05/29: NYT: Some in Europe Are Rethinking Opposition to Fracking
• 2013/05/28: RT: Worse than fracking? California environmentalists terrified by acid jobs
• 2013/05/27: CBC: GE investing billions in fracking technology -- Intends to use energy, engineering expertise to make contentious drilling practice safer
• 2013/05/27: ABC(Au): Farmers call for right of veto on fracking
• 2013/05/27: ABC(Au): Australia awash with gas
  Delegates at the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association conference have been told that within the resources sector, LNG has seen the largest absolute growth, attracting investment of $200 billion in the past decade, which is more than the mining industry. Geoscience Australia's senior science advisor Marita Bradshaw says Australia has around 300 trillion cubic feet of proven gas (TCF) reserves.
• 
  

  On the coal front:

   

• 2013/05/28: WaPo:B: Coal is making a comeback in 2013
• 2013/05/28: TreeHugger: Is coal making a comeback? Yes, according to new data
• 2013/05/27: TheConversation: Coal: full steam ahead?
  

  On the gas and oil front:

• 2013/05/31: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
  OIL (US$/bbl)
  Dated Brent Spot....100.39
  WTI Cushing Spot.....91.97
• 2013/06/02: OilDrum: Tech Talk - Future oil production from Iraq - an optimistic view
• 2013/05/30: Nola: $30 million crude oil terminal at Port of New Orleans to start receiving [rail] shipments next week
• 2013/05/27: EUO: EU [natural] gas prices see 10% spike
• 2013/05/27: RT: Shell to invest $30bn in Australia, demands better tax regime
  

  Regarding oil and the economy:

• 2013/05/31: NakedCapitalism: Richard Alford: The "Dutch Disease" and Once and Future Economic Crises in the US
  

  And in pipeline news:

• 2013/05/29: ICN: April Flooding Could Affect Cleanup of 2010 Michigan Oil Spill
  Tests are being conducted to determine whether some of the oil that remains in the Kalamazoo River has been pushed into previously uncontaminated areas.
• 
  

  A rush of American triumphalism pervades the energy independence PR campaign. Think it will last?

   

• 2013/05/28: Resilience: Drilling Faster Just To Stay Still: A Proposal To Use 'Production Per Unit Effort' (PPUE) As An Indicator Of Peak Oil
  

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2013/05/29: CSM: Exxon's $100 million algae biofuel investment comes up short
• 2013/05/29: IMechE: Biomass power plants need not cause significant land-use tensions
  New policy statement calls for Government to invest in the development of biomass with Carbon Capture and Storage technology
• 2013/05/29: Grist: U.S. trees burned in British coal plants count as renewable energy. WTF?
  

  The answer my friend...:

• 2013/05/31: UKISS: Wind Turbine Syndrome -- so much pain!
• 2013/05/30: SciAm:EC: Does Controversial Decision Pit California Condors against Wind Turbines?
• 2013/05/29: ABC(Au): Sleeping out under wind turbines to assess noise
• 2013/05/28: VTT: Cold climate wind energy showing huge potential
• 2013/05/27: NBF: Makani Airborne Wind Power Company Bought by Google
  

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2013/05/31: RealEconomics: Shoddy Solar Panels From China
• 2013/05/31: EurActiv: Desertec abandons Sahara solar power export dream
  The Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII) has abandoned its strategy to export solar power generated from the Sahara to Europe, killing hopes of boosting the continent's share of renewable electricity with cheap external supplies.
• 2013/05/31: TreeHugger: Google invests in 96 megawatt solar project in South Africa
• 2013/05/30: TreeHugger: New Jersey Approves $446 Million Solar Power Proposal
• 2013/05/29: UCSUSA:B: Solar Power Heats Up in Minnesota
• 2013/05/28: TP:JR: The Three Best Things Minnesota Did For Solar Energy In The Last Week
• 2013/05/29: Grist: Crappy solar panels threaten industry growth
• 2013/05/28: NYT: Solar Industry Anxious Over Defective Panels
• 2013/05/29: RealEconomics: Solar dumping update
• 2013/05/28: PSinclair: Solar Energy: This is What a Disruptive Technology Looks Like
• 2013/05/28: TreeHugger: Kansas City to install solar panels on 80 municipal buildings, save taxpayers $40k/year
• 2013/05/28: EneNews: Seaweed causes shut down of multiple nuclear reactors
• 2013/05/28: BBerg: Canadian Solar Surges on Increased Panel Demand in Japan
  

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2013/06/01: NBF: Small modular reactors might end up being lower cost energy if the full advantages of factory mass production can be leveraged
• 2013/05/31: TRR: Great Lakes nuclear map shows troubling hot spots
• 2013/05/29: NBF: GE has successfully demonstrated laser enrichment of uranium and may start construction of a full scale laser enrichment plant by year end
• 2013/05/29: Eureka: Despite safety and other concerns, nuclear power saves lives, greenhouse gas emissions
• 2013/05/28: EneNews: U.S. senator reveals "truly shocking" information about California nuclear plant - "Restart of San Onofre reactors is now off the table"
• 2013/05/28: BBC: South Korea suspends more nuclear reactors over unapproved parts
  South Korea has suspended operations at two more nuclear reactors over the use of unauthorised parts. The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission also delayed the start of operations at two other reactors, but said there was no public safety threat. Two reactors were suspended in late 2012, amid a scandal over parts with fake safety certificates. South Korea has 23 nuclear reactors which supply about a third of its electricity needs.
• 
  

  Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:

   

• 2013/05/30: WSWS: US officials cover up evidence of radioactive leak Washington
  Internal emails obtained by a Seattle news station show that the US Department of Energy (DOE) and a private contractor in charge of managing the radioactive waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation deliberately suppressed evidence of a leak in one of the main holding tanks. Over the course of a year, numerous red flags were ignored and the public was lied to. KING 5 News broke the story last week, exposing the DOE for withholding information about a leak. The leak was conclusively discovered in a double-shelled tank last August but the public was not informed until October 22, 2012.
• 2013/05/27: CBC: Nuclear waste site on Lake Huron concerns Michigan, Sarnia
  Ontario Power Generation plans to build underground repository in Kindcardine, 1.6 km from Lake Huron The mayor of Sarnia, Ont., is rallying opposition to Ontario Power Generation's plan to store nuclear waste underground on the shores of Lake Huron. The proposed site in Kincardine, Ont., would not contain high-level nuclear waste, such as spent fuel. Instead, it would contain low-level waste, such as protective clothing worn by workers or mops and towels used to wipe up spills of contaminated water. According to Ontario Power Generation, the "deep geologic repository" would be located 680 metres below ground, "in stable rock formations over 450 million years old." The CN Tower stands 553 metres tall. The site is to be located 1.6 kilometres from Lake Huron.
• 
  

  Low energy nuclear keeps coming up:

   

• 2013/05/27: CassandrasLegacy: Ethics of the E-Cat
  

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2013/05/31: TP:JR: Combining Electric Cars With Smart Grid Technology Can Cut Charging Costs In Half
• 2013/05/31: UCSUSA:B: Why Are Electric Companies Standing on Their Own Ignorance to Block Solar Savings? Because the Regulator Lets Them.
• 2013/05/29: Grist: What's threatening utilities: Innovation at the edge of the grid (with dik-diks!)
  

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2013/05/31: SciAm:PI: How to be 20% more efficient for just $50
  

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

• 2013/06/01: TheCanadian: Why the Electric Automobile is for Real this Time
• 2013/05/31: TreeHugger: World's first high-capacity flash charging electric bus system tops off charge in 15 seconds
• 2013/05/30: TreeHugger: Tesla announces huge expansion of Supercharger network, upgrade to cut charging time in half
• 2013/05/30: BBerg: Tesla Adding Chargers for U.S. Coast-to-Coast Car Range
  Tesla Motors Inc. is expanding a network of fast-charging stations, letting owners of its luxury electric cars drive coast-to-coast this year with devices able to repower them in 20 to 30 minutes.
• 2013/05/30: AutoBG: BMW, Audi lead the pack on misrepresenting CO2 figures in Europe
• 2013/05/29: CSM: Tesla Motors made a profit in Q1, but not on its electric cars
• 2013/05/28: EurActiv: Car fuel efficiency falls further below EU makers' claim, study finds
• 2013/05/28: TreeHugger: Electric car battery swapping startup Better Place files for bankruptcy
• 2013/05/28: TheCanadian: Rise of the Electric Automobile
• 2013/05/27: CBC: Israeli electric car pioneer Better Place shuts down
  

  Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:

• 2013/05/29: CBC: Weather disasters increasing, insurance industry warns
  

  Who's fielding theFAQs?

• DOE:EIA: FAQs about Electricity
  

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

• 2013/05/31: TP:JR: May 31 News...
• 2013/05/30: TP:JR: May 30 News...
• 2013/05/29: TP:JR: May 29 News...
• 2013/05/28: TP:JR: May 28 News...
  

  Other (weekly) lists:

• 2013/05/31: SkS: 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #22B by John Hartz
• 2013/05/31: BPA: 3 Picks: GM Wheat, Resilient Growing Methods, Soil Products
• 2013/05/29: BPA: 3 Picks: Smithfield Foods, Africa's Soils, Phytonutrients
• 2013/05/29: SkS: 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #22A by John Hartz
  

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2013/05/29: HotWhopper: Anthony Watts' Next Trick is to Disappear the Data - or Laughing at Pat Michaels
• 2013/05/30: HotWhopper: Making a meal of Pat 'n Chip on WUWT ...or...Don't shoot the messenger
• 2013/05/29: ItsNotNova: Argo Update - David Evans needs new Specs
• 2013/05/30: WottsUWT: Apparently we're all climate skeptics now!
• 2013/05/30: TP:JR: Exxon CEO [Tillerson]: 'What Good Is It To Save The Planet If Humanity Suffers?'
• 2013/05/31: UKISS: Too loony for Bolt?
• 2013/05/31: CWars: Denial movement reeling: Andrew Bolt threatens to pull out of astroturfed rally
• 2013/05/28: WottsUWT: Web of "lack of" Knowledge?
• 2013/06/01: HotWhopper: TGIF on WUWT and what fake skeptics see...
• 2013/05/31: CWars: Conspiracy theorist Jo Nova denies being conspiracy theorist
• 2013/05/31: SotW: Exxon's Love for the Poor
• 2013/05/31: WottsUWT: Watt about the CFCs?
• 2013/06/02: WottsUWT: Watt about Richard Tol?
• 2013/05/28: LoE: The elephant in the room with Lewandowsky
• 2013/05/27: RealEconomics: Zombie theories
• 2013/05/28: HotWhopper: DuKE-ing it out...
• 2013/05/27: WottsUWT: Lies, damned lies and statistics!
• 2013/05/27: HotWhopper: More Tisdale Tricks....Don't Worry...
• 2013/05/26: WottsUWT: Is Otto et al. (2013) just simply wrong?
  

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2013/05/29: Bundanga: The Heat is On....Stop Procrastinating, People
• 2013/05/30: Guardian(UK): Why did the 400ppm carbon milestone cause barely a ripple?
• 2013/05/31: Guardian(UK): Coming off fossil fuels is akin to quitting smoking -- only harder
• 2013/05/26: CWN: Monsanto UK Hacked, Data leaked by @Ag3nt47
• 2013/05/26: TFTJO: Climate change: what influences the level of public concern?
• 2013/05/27: TheConversation: Uncertainty no excuse for procrastinating on climate change
  

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

• OpenSource
• CCL: Citizens Climate Lobby - Creating the political will for a sustainable climate
• ClimateState
• DOE:EIA: FAQs about Electricity
• George Monbiot
• AELTracker: Advanced Energy Legislation Tracker
• IPBES: Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
• 2012/10/11: IFPRI: 2012 Global Hunger Index
• Ecocentric: A blog about food, water and energy
• Oxfam: Land grabs Q&A
• GEOMAR - Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel
• USGS Fact sheet: Gas (Methane) Hydrates
• Wiki: SAE J1772

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.

A Simple Plea

Webmasters, web coders and content providers have mercy on your low bandwidth brethren. Because I am on dial-up, I am a text surfer -- no images, no javascript and no flash. When you post a graphic, will you please use the alt text field ... and when you embed a youtube/vimeo/flash video, please add some minimal description. Thank you.

<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.

"Climate change. We're heading into an era where if we don't change what we're doing, we're going to be fundamentally in really deep trouble. We're already in trouble. So we have to transition to better solutions." -Former Energy Secretary, Dr. Steven Chu, when asked "What's the No. 1 problem on your list?"

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