Another Week of GW News, June 30, 2013

By illconsidered on July 4, 2013.

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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Information is not Knowledge...Knowledge is not Wisdom

June 30, 2013

Chuckles, COP19+, Montreal Protocol, Indian Monsoon, Obama's Plan, Sumatran Smog
Bottom Line, World Bank, Cook
Fukushima: Note, News, Policies, Related Papers
Melting Arctic, Geopolitics
Food: Crisis, Fisheries, Food vs. Biofuel, Land Grabs, GMOs, GMO Labelling, Production
Hurricanes, Monsoon, Notable Weather, Extreme Weather, New Weather
GHGs, Temperatures, Aerosols, Paleoclimate, Attribution
ENSO, Oceans, Biosphere, Extinctions, Bees & CCD, Overshoot, Volcanoes, Satellites
Impacts, Forests, Desertification, Disease, Phenology
Wildfires, Corals, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Conservation, Adaptation
Journals, Other Docs, Misc. Science, Free Science
International Politics: UN, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Hormuz, South China Sea, Treaties
Solar Spat, Misc., Security, Law & Activism, Activism, Polls, H2O Biz, Groundwater
National Politics: Britain, Europe, Australia, Switcheroo, Election, MDBP
India, China, Asia, Middle East, Russia, South America
Canada, Idle No More, Surveillance, Secret Meeting, NorGate, Kinder Morgan, East-West Line
Alberta Flood, Salmon, BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Maritimes, North, Canadiana
America, BP Disaster, Keystone, Mayflower, Carbon Tax, Birth Control
Coal Exports, Sequestration, Obama's Plan, 2016, Obama, USAdmin, Congress, Lobbyists
Ecological Economics, IPAT, Rose Coloured, Media, Books, Video, Courts, BP Trial, Betting
Energy, Transitions, Fracking, Coal, Oil & Gas, Economy, Pipelines, US Tar Sands
Wind, Solar, Nukes, Nuclear Waste, Nuclear Fusion, Hydrogen, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Energy Storage
Insurance, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Misc., Useful Links
Shameless Self Promotion, A Simple Plea, .sig

No matter how dark things seem, there are always bad jokes:

Looking ahead to COP19 and future international climate negotiations:

2013/06/28: RTCC: [UNFCCC head, Christiana] Figueres: No country doing enough on climate change
2013/06/26: RTCC: UK on track to miss key 2022 carbon target: report
2013/06/26: RTCC: Russia: New UN climate deal could be 'outdated' from start
2013/06/24: RTCC: Least Developed Countries climate adaptation fund gets $200m boost
Belgium, Germany, Norway, Switzerland and the USA have pledged nearly $200 million in climate adaptation investment to the world's poorest countries.
2013/06/24: RTCC: Why poorest nations can take control of our climate destiny
As rich nations dither on everything from decades-old aid promises and recent pledges of climate finance, it is time for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to stop playing the waiting game and start acting like leaders.

This is the only report I have seen on the Montreal Protocol meeting this week:

2013/06/28: ABC(Au): Governments meet on expanding agreement to include damaging greenhouse gasses
Governments from around the world are meeting in Thailand in an attempt to come to an agreement to phase out the use of damaging greenhouse gases often used in refrigeration.
Now if agreed to, it would see the dramatic expansion of the Montreal Protocol, which was originally designed to tackle ozone depleting CFCs.
Environment campaigners say unlike in previous years, there's growing international agreement.

The Indian Monsoon has triggered a major disaster this year. See also :

American President Obama gave a speech this week. See also :

Singapore and Malaysia are still being afflicted by that heavy Sumatran smog:

2013/06/27: WSWS: Air pollution emergency in South East Asia points to systemic failure
On Sunday, June 23, 2013, the government of Malaysia declared a state of emergency for the two southern districts of Muar and Ledang, where raging forest and plantation fires are causing air pollution at a level not seen in history.
The Air Pollutant Index (API) climbed to 746 at 7 a.m., reaching double the level considered to be hazardous and life threatening to elderly people and young children if exposed over a long period of time. Government offices, schools, factories, plantations and construction sites were closed as well as schools in the region of Malacca, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.
In Singapore, the Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) spiked at 401 on Friday afternoon, surpassing by far the level for unhealthy air, which is at 100. All values above 300 are considered as hazardous.
2013/06/27: TheConversation: Southeast Asian smoke warns of never-ending fires
2013/06/26: DD: 8 arrested for allegedly setting forest fires in Indonesia -- 1,000 flee choking haze on Sumatra
2013/06/26: UCSUSA:B: Sources of the Haze in Southeast Asia, Fires Are Quickly Located with Public GIS Data
2013/06/25: IndiaTimes: Indonesian president apologizes over haze
Jakarta: Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has apologised to Singapore and Malaysia after they were cloaked in thick haze from raging forest fires on Sumatra island.
"As the president of Indonesia, I apologize for what has happened and ask for the understanding of the people of Malaysia and Singapore," he said late on Monday.
"We accept it is our responsibility to tackle the problem."
2013/06/24: al Jazeera: Severe smog suffocates Malaysians
Country declares state of emergency even as haze from Indonesia forest fires eases in Singapore.

And on the Bottom Line:

What's the World Bank up to?

2013/06/28: Grist: U.S. and World Bank might stop financing dirty coal plants
2013/06/27: RTCC: World Bank to stop financing coal projects
The World Bank plans to stop providing financial support to new coal projects, unless the developments take place poor countries where alternatives like renewable energy would be too expensive.

John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:

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:

As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

The food crisis is ongoing:

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

2013/06/28: ABC(Au): New hope for fisheries development in the Pacific
An Australian fishing centre has provided a new model of fisheries development for the Pacific.
The centre has been officially opened in Australia's Northern Territory to process sea cucumber.
Will Bowman, hatchery manager at Tasmanian Seafoods, says the fishing centre will be engaging in sea cucumber production and will be releasing them in waters for sea ranching.
2013/06/28: ProMedMail: Infectious salmon anemia - Norway (03): OIE
2013/06/28: TP:JR: Comment Period Closing On Bristol Bay Mining... [Pebble Mine]
2013/06/26: TheCanadian: Alaska's Pebble Mine: The End of Sockeye Salmon?
2013/06/23: ERabett: Dano on Ecology

The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

2013/06/26: BPA: [link to 3.5 meg pdf] Special UN Report: Biofuels Impact Food Prices and Availability

So, are these land grabs Colonialism V2.0?

2013/06/26: Guardian(UK): Guatemala's sugar cane land rush anything but sweet for corn growers
Sugar cane and palm oil companies able to afford inflated rents are forcing Guatemala's smallholder farmers off their land

Regarding the genetic modification of food:

2013/06/30: Grist: Should the "Nobel prize for food" go to a Monsanto exec?
2013/06/30: RT: Monsanto unapproved GMO wheat govt-stored up to 2011
Monsanto's unapproved GMO wheat, which made its way onto an Oregon field and is feared to have contaminated US wheat supplies, was stored at a US government-controlled facility until at least late 2011.
The confirmation that the controversial strain of wheat was stored at the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation in Fort Collins, Colorado, comes as US Department of Agriculture (USDA) investigates how the unapproved wheat ended up in an Oregon field this spring.
The documents detailing shipments of the bioengineered wheat received by Reuters consist of correspondence between Monsanto and the Colorado facility. The site can store seeds for decades while retaining their viability, much longer than is possible with conventional storage.
2013/04/26: NaturalNews: Monsanto buys leading bee research firm after being implicated in bee colony collapse
2013/06/26: HuffPo: Choice of Monsanto Betrays World Food Prize Purpose, Say Global Leaders
2013/06/26: Forbes: Alleged Danger of GMOs Not Looking Very Real
2013/06/25: AlterNet: Research Shows that Monsanto's Big Claims for GMO Food Are Probably Wrong
2013/06/25: CDreams: GM Crops: The Genetic Colonialists
The UK and Owen Paterson can help 'feed the world and save the planet' -- by opposing GM crops and African land grabs
2013/06/25: ABC(Au): Review into GMO moratorium in Tasmania
2013/06/24: ABC(Au): More WA farmers embrace GM canola
Genetically modified canola breeder Monsanto has sold record amounts of GM canola seed to Western Australian growers this year.
WA farmers have purchased 416 tonnes of Roundup Ready canola seed and more than 730 WA growers have made the switch from conventional to GM canola this year, an increase of 18 per cent on last season.
2013/06/22: al Jazeera: Roundup Ready religion: The Vatican and GMOs
Pressure has been mounting on to Vatican to come out in support of GMOs.

Regarding labelling GM food:

2013/06/20: NYT: U.S. Approves a Label for Meat From Animals Fed a Diet Free of Gene-Modified Products

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

2013/06/28: BBC: Advance in battle against wheat pest
Scientists have engineered wheat that is resistant to stem rust, a fungal disease that has ruined crops in Africa, Yemen and Iran.
2013/06/28: Guardian(UK): Grasshopper breeder up for design award and educating western palates
Mansour Ourasanah hopes the Lepsis becomes a desirable design object and helps turn west on to more sustainable meat
2013/06/27: SciNews: Genes in wheat relatives help stave off stem rust -- Wild and obscure species provide resistance to deadly fungus
2013/06/27: CSM: Food hub links local produce with local buyers
[...] Nashville Grown is a new food hub that enables large food purchasers to source produce from farms just outside the city -- and even from backyard micro-farms within the city itself.
2013/06/25: Guardian(UK): Central American farmers stay one step ahead of profit-hungry 'coyotes'
Farmers are forming co-operatives in El Salvador and Honduras to bypass the middlemen who paid a pittance for their produce
2013/06/25: Guardian(UK): Follow the Niger and Mali models to tackle malnutrition
How combining health and nutrition programmes can save lives and help children grow, even in the most difficult places
2013/06/25: TheConversation: Food waste is the symptom, not the problem
2013/06/23: Grist: In New Orleans, a Vietnamese community bounces back with urban agriculture
2013/06/20: PRI:TheWorld: Alt Staple Lunch: Mexicans Push Return of an Ancient Grain - Amaranth
Once as fundamental to Central and South American diets as corn and beans, amaranth virtually disappeared after the Spanish banned it because of its use in Aztec human sacrifice rituals. Now there are efforts to bring it back as a staple in Mexico, for its both superior nutritional qualities and its resistance to the pressures of a changing climate.

The warm waters of the Eastern Pacific are generating a stream of storms: Cosme, Dalila and several TDs:

In the Western Pacific, unreported Tropical Storm (06W) Rumbia crossed the Phillipines and is heading for Hainan,
While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

2013/06/29: ERabett: Rabett Does Hurricanes
2013/06/24: ABC(Au): Aerosols reduced the frequency of North Atlantic hurricanes in the 20th century
2013/06/24: SciNews: Cleaner air may have brought more storms
Pollution during the 20th century appears to have suppressed North Atlantic hurricanes
As for the Monsoon:
- 2013/06/29: PLNA: More than 10,000 Fatalities in India Caused by Flooding
- 2013/06/30: ABC(Au): India floods: 3,000 still missing in Himalayan state of Uttarakhand
- 2013/06/30: Xinhuanet: Flood affects eastern Indian state West Bengal [3 pix]
- 2013/06/29: IndiaTimes: More areas flooded in Assam as rivers rise
- 2013/06/29: IndiaTimes: Rivers on rise as heavy rain lashes UP
  Lucknow: With heavy rainfall lashing various parts of Uttar Pradesh during the past 24 hours, water level in major rivers including Ganga, Sharda and Ghaghra, continued to rise, putting the authorities on alert.
- 2013/06/29: IndiaTimes: Uttarakhand assembly speaker says toll may cross 10,000
- 2013/06/29: Xinhuanet: Over 10,000 people killed in monsoon floods in N. India
- 2013/06/27: DD: Rotting corpses spark fears of epidemic amid 'Himalayan tsunami' - 'It's very difficult to know the real figures and the scale of the disaster'
- 2013/06/27: KSJT: Times of India: A disaster's "childish" finger of blame, and what science says to back it up.
- 2013/06/27: BBC: India floods: Mass cremations begin in Uttarakhand
  Mass cremations are taking place in the Indian state of Uttarakhand where more than 800 people have died in floods and landslides.
- 2013/06/27: al Jazeera: Mass cremations for Indian flood victims
  Hindu priests and tonnes of logs airlifted to worst-hit town of Kedarnath for last rites of 300 people who died.
- 2013/06/26: RTCC: Climate change to make India monsoons worse
  Rising global temperatures as a result of climate change have been unanimously linked to the erratic and unpredictable weather displayed last week in Uttarakhand, said researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany.
- 2013/06/26: Xinhuanet: 5,000 still stranded in flood-hit northern Indian state
- 2013/06/26: CBC: India flood rescue helicopter crash kills 8 -- Floods, landslides, leave thousands stranded
- 2013/06/26: BBC: India floods: Rescue operations resume in Uttarakhand
- 2013/06/25: P3: Extraordinary Flooding in North India
- 2013/06/25: Guardian(UK): Were India's floods caused by reckless human greed?
- 2013/06/25: CNN: Indian floods a man-made disaster, say environmentalists
  Environmentalists blame rampant development for high death toll in Uttarakhand - They blame hydro projects and ad hoc road building for exacerbating the problem -
  Massive Hindu pilgrimages every year strain resources in the Himalayan state - Uttarakhand is home to Rishikesh, the meditation retreat made famous by The Beatles
- 2013/06/25: GLaden: Statement on Uttarakhand Catastrophe by India Climate Justice.
  We cannot ignore the climate crisis anymore!
- 2013/06/25: ABC(Au): Severe monsoon ravages northern India
- 2013/06/25: Xinhuanet: 7,000 people still stranded in flood-hit northern India
- 2013/06/25: BBC: India floods: Bad weather delays rescue and mass cremations
- 2013/06/25: al Jazeera: Bad weather hits Indian flood rescue
  More rains expected in Uttarakhand as authorities struggle to reach thousands stranded by floods and landslides.
- 2013/06/24: Guardian(UK): India's death toll in aftermath of floods reaches 1,000
- 2013/06/24: TFTJO: The Gods themselves contend in vain.....
- 2013/06/24: Xinhuanet: Death toll in monsoon floods in northern India could reach 8,000: official
- 2013/06/24: BBC: India floods: Rescuers race to save survivors
  Rescuers in northern India are making a concerted push to reach 7,000 people still stranded in the mountains after flash floods and landslides.
- 2013/06/24: WSWS: At least 1,000 killed in Indian floods and landslides
- 2013/06/24: al Jazeera: India plans mass cremation for flood victims
  Up to 1,000 people feared dead and more than 8,000 pilgrims and tourists awaiting rescue in Uttarakhand state.
- 2013/06/24: al Jazeera: India floods death toll soars to 1,000
  Army suspends rescue helicopter flights in Uttarakhand state due to dense fog as death toll rises.
This week in notable weather:
- 2013/06/24: al Jazeera: Storms in US leave thousands without power
  Sheltering women killed in South Dakota and more than 200,000 homes and businesses in upper Midwest left without power.
- 2013/06/24: MODIS: Storm over the northeastern United States [on June 13th] [low-end derecho]
- 2013/06/24: ABC(Au): NSW residents brace for more wild weather
This week in the New Normal -- extreme weather:
- 2013/06/27: al Jazeera: Weather extremes hit Australia
  Drought grips some parts of the country while others see record rainfall.
- 2013/06/26: RScribbler: From Archangel to Alaska, Heatwaves, Extreme Weather Now Flank the Arctic
- 2013/06/25: GLaden: Twin Cities June 21st Mega-Storm
Rossby Waves? Blocking Patterns? Arctic Oscillation?
What is the Arctic melt doing to our weather?
- 2013/06/30: RScribbler: Unprecedented Jet Stream Wave Sparks 120+ Degree Temps in the US Southwest and Tundra Fires in Extreme Northern Canada
- 2013/06/27: KSJT: AP - One more run at why global warming and wandering jet stream may cause weather weirding, + other odds'n ends [misc]
- 2013/06/27: RScribbler: Mangled Jet Stream and Global Warming to Shatter Earth's Highest Recorded Temperature This Week?
- 2013/06/27: CAbyss: The Jet Stream and Recent Flooding
- 2013/06/24: RScribbler: Arctic Heatwave Sizzles Northeastern Europe With 92 Degree Temperatures, Mangled Jet Stream Hosts Record Canadian Floods, and the Persistent Arctic Cyclone is Coring Through the North Pole
- 2013/06/21: CSIRO: Climate tug of war disrupting Australian atmospheric circulation patterns
  Further evidence of climate change shifting atmospheric circulation in the southern Australian-New Zealand region has been identified in a new study.
Meanwhile on the GHG front:
- 2013/06/27: TP:JR: The 21 Percent: One Fifth Of Households Generate Half The Carbon Pollution
- 2013/06/26: Eureka: 21 percent of homes account for 50 percent of greenhouse gas emissions
- 2013/06/25: TCoE: Some graphical perspective on emissions goals
- 2013/06/23: CNN: 'Climate bomb' warning over China coolant release
  Under scheme, some Chinese factories receive credits for incinerating harmful gases - Companies say that ban on trading credits leaves them little incentive to incinerate gases -
  Releasing HFC-23 gases into the atmosphere is not illegal, despite threat to environment - Xi and Obama said last month they agreed to work to reduce hydrofluorocarbon levels
As for the temperature record:
- 2013/06/28: HotWhopper: On GISTemp, baselines and anomalies
- 2013/06/24: Guardian(UK): We haven't hit the global warming pause button
  Recent articles about a global warming 'pause' miss that the planet as a whole is still rapidly warming
Aerosols are making their presence felt:
- 2013/06/27: MODIS: Dust storm over the southern Caspian Sea
- 2013/06/26: ERabett: One Paper and Another
While in the paleoclimate:
- 2013/06/26: BBC: Ancient horse bone yields oldest DNA sequence
  A fragment of a fossilised bone thought to be more than 700,000 years old has yielded the genome of an ancient relative of modern-day horses.
- 2013/06/26: CalTech: A Stepping-Stone for Oxygen on Earth -- Caltech researchers find evidence of an early manganese-oxidizing photosystem
- 2013/06/26: SciNow: 700,000-Year-Old Horse Becomes Oldest Creature With Sequenced Genome
- 2013/06/26: NatureN: First horses arose 4 million years ago
  The oldest full genome sequence, recovered from ancient horse bone, pushes back equine origins by 2 million years.
- 2013/06/26: SciAm:Obs: Horse Fossil Yields Astonishingly Old Genome -- Are Similarly Ancient Human Genomes Next?
- 2013/06/26: CBC: Ancient Yukon horse yields oldest genome ever -- 700,000-year-old DNA reveals history of horse evolution
  A 700,000-year-old horse bone found in the permafrost of a Yukon gold mine has yielded a complete genetic profile, breaking scientific records and revealing many new insights about the evolution of horses.
In the attribution debate:
And on the ENSO front:
What's the State of the Oceans?:
And the State of the Biosphere?
And on the extinction watch:
- 2013/06/18: NWF: [link to 7.8 meg pdf] Shifting Skies: Migratory Birds in a Warming World -- Urgent Action Needed to Protect Birds and their Habitats
- 2013/06/28: RTCC: Climate change will force new species onto endangered list
  Many birds, amphibians and corals that will suffer the most as a result of climate change are not currently conservation priorities, according to a new study.
  [...] Up to 83% of birds, 66% of amphibians and 70% of corals were identified as highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change...
- 2013/06/28: Guardian(UK): Let's not martyr the white-throated needletail to the anti-wind cause
  The death of any bird is tragic, but when it comes to climate change we are talking about extinction of whole species
- 2013/06/26: DD: Japan to ignore fishing ban on endangered sharks - 'We use more sharks than anyone else in the world!'
- 2013/06/25: CCurrents: A World Without Tigers?
- 2013/06/25: Guardian(UK): Whaling's day in court is a sea change for conservation
  Representatives from the Australian government are facing their Japanese counterparts to end 'scientific whaling'. The survival of the species depends on it
- 2013/06/25: GreenGrok: Linking Livelihoods to Lion Conservation
- 2013/06/25: DD: Illegal wildlife trade flourishes in Sumatra...
- 2013/06/24: TP:JR: Birds Highly Threatened By Climate Change, Report Warns
- 2013/06/24: Grist: Climate change threatening the David Hasselhoff crab
- 2013/06/24: SciAm:Symbiartic: Future of the Big Five
- 2013/06/23: DD: Indian River Lagoon mystery ailment killing dolphins, manatees, pelicans
- 2013/06/23: DD: Hong Kong's pink dolphins dwindle to just dozens as calves die from 'toxins in the mother's milk, accumulated from polluted seawater'
- 2013/06/18: UWits: Surprise species at risk from climate change
The bees and Colony Collapse Disorder are a constant concern:
Intimations of Overshoot:
- 2013/06/27: TreeHugger: Stealing from the Future
What's up with volcanoes this week?
- 2013/06/24: IOTD: Nevados de Chillán, Chile - a large volcanic area near the Chile-Argentina border
Meanwhile in near earth orbit:
- 2013/06/27: NOAANews: NOAA's Joint Polar Satellite System completes critical program reviews -- Satellite moves forward to 2017 launch
More GW impacts are being seen:
- 2013/06/24: UNDispatch: In the Sahel, Time Has Already Run Out on Climate Change
- 2013/06/23: CCurrents: The Surprising Role Of CO2 In Changes On The African Savanna - favoring the growth of trees over grasslands
And then there are the world's forests:
- 2013/06/28: ERW: Brazil exports more carbon emissions
  The international community is driving the deforestation of Brazilian forest at an increasing rate, a Norwegian study has found. The study reveals that the last decade saw 30% of the carbon emissions associated with Brazilian deforestation exported to consumers outside the country, up from 20% in the 1990s.
- 2013/06/28: UN: UN online platform gives experts access to vital data on global forest health
- 2013/06/27: OSU: Climate change threatens forest survival on drier, low-elevation sites
- 2013/06/27: Resilience: From Mexico, Global Lessons for Forest Governance
Desertification looms as a threat:
- 2013/06/24: DD: Two thirds of Chile faces desertification, says president Sebastian Pinera
Emerging diseases accompany ecological change:
Changes in natural cycles are showing up:
- 2013/06/27: ERW: Insight: alpine plants prefer longer winters
As for heatwaves and wild fires:
- 2013/06/30: CNN: Record-setting heat wave turns fatal in Southwest
  Excessive heat warnings from California to Arizona may last through Tuesday - The heat may have contributed to the death of a Las Vegas man -
  The temperature reached 127 in Death Valley on Saturday - 134 was the "highest reliably recorded air temperature on Earth" on July 10, 1913
- 2013/06/29: CSM: Yucaipa fire burns through California amid broiling heat wave
- 2013/06/29: CSM: Heat wave scorches Death Valley, America's hottest of the hot
- 2013/06/30: CBC: U.S. heatwave bakes southwest states -- Temperatures between 46 C and 48 C expected for Arizona, Nevada and California
- 2013/06/30: IOTD: Doce Fire Burn Scar and Retardant Trail [on June 23rd]
- 2013/06/30: MODIS: Fires in Sardinia [on June 18th]
- 2013/06/30: ABC(Au): California set to swelter in heatwave temperature of 53C
- 2013/06/29: BBC: Dozens succumb to heat in western US
  Dozens of people across western US states have been treated for exhaustion and dehydration, as the region is continuing to bake in a heat wave.
  Air-conditioned "cooling centres" have been set up in California, Nevada and Arizona, as officials warn the heat could be life-threatening.
- 2013/06/29: al Jazeera: Sweltering in the southwest
  A heatwave is gripping parts of the USA, including California, Arizona and Nevada.
- 2013/06/29: CDreams: Western US Swelters Under Blistering, Record-Breaking Heat
- 2013/06/29: CSM: How hot is the heat wave? Very, very hot
- 2013/06/29: MODIS: Fires in western United States and Mexico
- 2013/06/28: BBC: Western US states baked by blistering heat wave
  Western US states are baking under an extended heat wave, with temperatures threatening to break the all-time high recorded on Earth.
  In Phoenix, Arizona, the mercury hit 47C (116F) on Friday, and in the desert of Death Valley, California, the thermometer approached 51C.
  The heat wave is expected to last through the weekend.
- 2013/06/28: Grist: It's so hot in Arizona, you can bake cookies in a car
- 2013/06/28: CapClimate: Southwest Scorched by Historic Heat
- 2013/06/28: IOTD: A Vertical View of Wildfire Smoke as it Heads to Sea [in Quebec, Canada on June 23rd]
- 2013/06/28: CBC: Forest fire puts Labrador town on evacuation notice
  Mining company in Wabush using heavy equipment as a fire block near forest's edge
- 2013/06/28: CSM: Heat wave scorches California
- 2013/06/27: ArcticNews: The Threat of Wildfires in the North
- 2013/06/27: IOTD: Aftermath of Colorado's [Black Forest] Most Destructive Wildfire [on June 20,21]
- 2013/06/26: GLaden: Historic Heat Wave in the US West Next Week
- 2013/06/26: IOTD: Astronaut View of Fires in Colorado [on June 19th]
- 2013/06/26: NASA:EO: East Peak Fire Burn Scar, Colorado
- 2013/06/26: NASA:EO: Astronaut View of Fires in Colorado [on June 19th]
- 2013/06/24: P3: American Southwest Entering Summer with Extraordinary Fire Danger
- 2013/06/24: Eureka: NASA sees West Fork complex fires, Colorado
- 2013/06/24: Eureka: NASA satellite sees Jaroso fire, New Mexico
- 2013/06/24: CSM: South Fork fire forces 1,500 people to evacuate
Corals are a bellwether of the ocean's health:
- 2013/06/28: Eureka: Major changes needed for coral reef survival
- 2013/06/25: UKISS: Increasing pCO2 levels force spatial shift in coral communities
Glaciers are melting:
- 2013/06/27: FaGP: Jaundhar Bamak Glacier tributary retreat, Tons River, Uttarakhand, India
- 2013/06/24: FaGP: Glacier du Tour Retreat, France
Sea levels are rising:
As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]. See also :
- 2013/06/30: Xinhuanet: Heavy rain to hit north China, Sichuan
- 2013/06/29: Xinhuanet: East China downpour affects 666,000 people
- 2013/06/29: DD: Lake Urmia [Azerbaijan] water level decreases by 28 cm in one year
- 2013/06/28: al Jazeera: Flooding closes parts of Iguazu National Park [on the border between Paraguay & Brazil]
  Access to walkways and sightseeing boats have been suspended.
- 2013/06/27: ABC(Au): Dry Wheatbelt facing 'desperation stages'
  Western Australia's peak farming lobby has warned grain growers in the eastern Wheatbelt are facing increasingly desperate times, after a dry start to winter.
  The WA Farmers Federation warned earlier this year that eastern Wheatbelt growers were in crisis, with major debt problems and a run of consecutive bad seasons.
- 2013/06/27: ABC(Au): Record rainfall for South Australia's Upper North
- 2013/06/26: CapClimate: New York on Track for Wettest June in 145-Year Climate Record
- 2013/06/26: EurActiv: Flooding costs farmers E1 billion as damage tally continues
  This month's floods along the Danube and other Central European rivers could add up to the costliest weather-related disaster since 1999, with the cost to agriculture alone expected to exceed €1 billion. Farm groups representatives pressed EU negotiators to reach a final deal on the Common Agricultural Policy, arguing that its direct-payments scheme helps sustain farmers in times of climate uncertainty.
- 2013/06/26: PLNA: Severe Flooding in Paraguay from Heavy Rain
- 2013/06/25: ERW: Insight: a simple explanation for the complex climate variations in the Sahel
  A recent article in Environmental Research Letters (ERL) provides a simple interpretation of how the oceans influence the climate in the Sahel. The analysis makes sense of past droughts and the current trends towards increased rainfall, consistent with near- and long-term model projections.
- 2013/06/25: al Jazeera: Record rain drenches parts of Australia
  Heavy rainfall has brought flooding to some areas of Australia from the northwest down to the southeast of the country.
- 2013/06/25: ABC(Au): Floods prompt evacuation warnings at Goulburn in southern NSW
First, stop subsidizing fossil fuels
Second, put a price on carbon
Third, begin to reduce the human population
And elsewhere on the mitigation front:
- 2013/06/28: GEP: IMechE Calls on UK Government to Support BECCS
Consider transportation & GHG production:
While in the endless quest for zero energy, sustainable buildings and practical codes:
- 2013/06/26: TreeHugger: Passive House, Passivhaus, what's in a name?
- 2013/06/26: Eureka: 21 percent of homes account for 50 percent of greenhouse gas emissions
As for carbon sequestration:
- 2013/06/28: Grist: Centuries worth of CO2 emissions could be stored underground, but at what cost?
- 2013/06/27: NPR: This Climate Fix Might Be Decades Ahead Of Its Time
- 2013/06/26: DoI: Interior Releases First-Ever Comprehensive National Assessment of Geologic Carbon Dioxide Storage Potential
- 2013/06/26: USGS: Interior Releases First-Ever Comprehensive National Assessment of Geologic Carbon Dioxide Storage Potential
  Geologic Carbon Sequestration Gauges Potential to Reduce Emissions that Contribute to Climate Change
- 2013/06/25: MIT: Getting the carbon out of emissions
  Proposed method could be more efficient than previous systems and easier to retrofit in existing power plants.
- 2013/06/24: PIK: Carbon Dioxide Removal: Assessing potentials - and risks
- 2013/06/24: Eureka: Farming carbon: Study reveals potent carbon-storage potential of manmade wetlands
Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:
What's new in conservation?
While on the adaptation front:
Meanwhile in the journals:
And other significant documents:
As for miscellaneous science:
- 2013/06/28: RealClimate: A new experiment with science publication
- 2013/06/27: WottsUWT: Tests of a climate forecast
- 2013/06/24: ABC(Au): Science doesn't meet business
  Fundamental differences between science and business hinder their ability to work together to build a better world, argues Paul Willis.
What developments in the ongoing struggle for Open Science?
- 2013/06/27: EnvEcon: Haggle properly. Your review isn't worth 80 Euro/hour.
Meanwhile at the UN:
- 2013/06/28: WMO: Global initiative to provide climate services for society gains momentum
- 2013/06/27: RTCC: UN moves closer to establishing drought reduction targets
  Governments should set domestic and international targets to combat drought, desertification and land degradation, a panel of experts has advised a UN meeting.
  The call came at the conclusion of a two day session of the UN's Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the agency charged with restoring poor soils and tackling drought.
- 2013/06/25: UN: Extreme flooding must be 'turning point' on disaster response - UN official
And on the carbon trading front:
- 2013/06/26: TheConversation: Emissions trading in China: risky, difficult, but necessary
- 2013/06/25: Guardian(UK): EU emissions trading scheme 'set to cancel out renewable energy gains'
  Huge oversupply of carbon pollution permits will cancel out efforts made in other areas to cut carbon, study finds
- 2013/06/25: ConvEcon: Setting a Carbon Price: What's Known, What's Not
The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:
On the international political front, tensions continue as the empire leans on Iran:
- 2013/06/28: Asia Times: A projection of Moscow's mindset
  [...]
  The mainstream media usually points to Moscow's support of Damascus, ignoring the fact that Moscow's relationship with Teheran actually worsens as the Syrian Civil War rages. Moscow continues to deny Tehran's request to send S-300 missiles despite the 2007 contract and a recent Tehran law suit in an international court.
  The Bushehr nuclear plant - still operated mostly by Russian personnel - has stopped working, and Iranian questions about nature of the problems were left without a response. Nor has Moscow responded to Israel's tough statement that S-300 missiles would be immediately attacked by Israel if they are, indeed, delivered to Syria.
  All of this indicates that, while defending its national interests, neither the Kremlin nor the majority of ethnic Russians ... are anxious to join the East in a full-fledged alliance to confront the West, including the US.
- 2013/06/27: Rediff:B: Khurshid's faux paus on Iran is puzzling
- 2013/06/27: AntiWar: Khamenei: Nuclear Solution Would Be Easy if US Were Serious -- Notes That Many Don't Want Dispute Solved
- 2013/06/27: Asia Times: New dynamic in Iran's European ties
- 2013/06/26: OilDrum: Additional Iranian Oil Sanctions May Be Counterproductive
- 2013/06/26: al Jazeera: Can Rouhani solve 'the Iran nuclear issue'?
  "The Iranian nuclear crisis is no crisis at all. It is a fabricated issue," writes Hamid Dabashi.
South [& East] China Sea tension persists:
- 2013/06/29: WSWS: US, Japan to establish military bases in the Philippines
- 2013/06/29: Reuters: China media warns Philippines of "counterstrike" in Sth China Sea
  China's state media warned on Saturday that a "counterstrike" against the Philippines was inevitable if it continues to provoke Beijing in the South China Sea, potentially Asia's biggest military troublespot.
  The warning comes as ministers from both countries attend an Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Brunei, starting Saturday, which hopes to reach a legally binding code of conduct to manage maritime conduct in disputed areas.
  At stake are potentially massive offshore oil reserves. The seas also lie on shipping lanes and fishing grounds.
- 2013/06/27: Xinhuanet: Philippine, U.S. start Naval exercise in South China Sea
These 'free trade' treaties feature fundamentally anti-democratic dispute resolution mechanisms:
- 2013/06/26: ZNet: Trans-Pacific Partnership and Monsanto
A cute move in the ongoing solar squabble between China and Europe:
And in miscellaneous international political jousting:
- 2013/06/24: RTCC: US - India climate pact hinges on technology and finance
- 2013/06/24: RTCC: Kerry invites India to join US-China HFC agreement
Climate Change is a threat multiplier exacerbating existing conflicts in food, energy, water, race, resources, religion, ideology ... etc.:
The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world:
What are the activists up to?
- 2013/06/27: TP:JR: Tim DeChristopher On Letterman: "Stop And Think About What It Means To Be Too Late" On Climate
Polls! We have polls!
Regarding Water Politics and Business:
And on the groundwater front:
- 2013/06/25: VietnamNet: Ca Mau sinking with water table
  Southernmost Ca Mau Province is in danger of sinking below sea level in the next few decades due to over-exploitation of underground water if something isn't done urgently.
- 2013/06/25: JFleck: An aqueduct to replenish the Ogallala?
While in the UK:
- 2013/06/28: BBC: Energy minister 'fully behind' National Grid
  The government says energy minister Michael Fallon is "fully behind" a National Grid consultation that could see big businesses paid to cut their energy usage in times of shortage.
- 2013/06/28: RTCC: Shale gas could help UK hit carbon targets
- 2013/06/27: Guardian(UK): Investment in renewables may get hit despite rise in wind farm subsidies
- 2013/06/27: Guardian(UK): Scottish ministers accused of 'dismal' strategy to cut climate emissions
- 2013/06/27: BBC: No Green Deal work yet completed
  A flagship government scheme to make homes more energy-efficient has still not resulted in any actual home improvements.
- 2013/06/26: BBC: Budget cuts to the UK environment department DEFRA have prompted one of the country's biggest conservation charities to call for a fresh way of funding wildlife protection
- 2013/06/26: ScienceInsider: Budget Plan Leaves U.K. Science Treading Water
- 2013/06/26: BBC: UK science spending to remain 'flat'
  Publicly funded science in the UK will have to get by with another period of fixed spending.
  Chancellor George Osborne says he intends to keep the country's R&D budget at its current level through to the next election.
- 2013/06/26: Guardian(UK): UK 'could miss carbon emissions targets in 2020s'
- 2013/06/25: BBC: UK given carbon emissions warning
  The UK is not on track to hit its climate change targets through the 2020s, government advisers have warned.
  The Committee on Climate Change said carbon emissions rose in 2012 by 3.5%.
- 2013/06/25: RTCC: Flint: Tory 'game playing' on climate affecting UK credibility
And in Europe:
- 2013/06/28: AutoBG: Germany lobbies EU for emissions leniency to allow more gas-guzzlers
- 2013/06/28: EurActiv: Diplomat: Germany 'dictated' delay to CO2 in cars deal
  German diktats to the Irish EU presidency are responsible for freezing a hard-fought deal to cap emissions from Europe's cars by 2020, which was set to be rubber-stamped at the European summit, diplomatic sources say.
- 2013/06/28: EurActiv: Governments short-change energy efficiency, investors say
  The buildings sector is facing a huge challenge: how to encourage investment in the refurbishment of Europe's old building stock, and for the near-zero buildings of the future? Industry sources tell EurActiv that member states are at fault for not doing enough to stimulate a market in energy efficiency investments.
- 2013/06/28: EUO: Merkel puts car industry above enviroment
- 2013/06/28: CBC: Germany blocks EU caps on emissions to protect car industry
- 2013/06/28: Guardian(UK): Angela Merkel 'blocks' EU plan on limiting emissions from new cars
- 2013/06/28: Guardian(UK): EU plans to make it mandatory for ship owners to measure carbon emissions
  Carbon reporting for ships using EU ports will become legally binding if approved by the European parliament
- 2013/06/27: DerSpiegel: Car Clash: Germany Blocks CO2 Reduction Deal
  There were threats, lobbying and even a call from Chancellor Merkel to the Irish prime minister. In the end, Germany got its way and managed to delay an EU decision on lowering the amount of CO2 European-made cars may emit.
- 2013/06/27: ScienceInsider: E.U. Leaders Agree on Science Budget
- 2013/06/27: EurActiv: Merkel seeks to derail EU compromise deal on car emissions
  Germany is working to derail a compromise deal to enforce stricter rules on carbon dioxide emissions for all new cars in the European Union from 2020, EU sources said on Wednesday (26 June).
  Government sources in Berlin said Germany would not support the deal reached early this week to enforce a new CO2 limit of 95 grams per kilometre (g/km) as an average across the EU fleet.
  In Brussels three sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Germany was seeking allies to overturn the provisional agreement and was applying intense pressure on fellow member states.
- 2013/06/27: EurActiv: 'Damn tough' deal on CAP leaves little room for celebration
  EU negotiators sealed a deal yesterday (26 June) on future farm policy after months of haggling over how ambitious the policy would be on ending quotas, overhauling direct payments to farmers and making agriculture more environmentally responsible.
- 2013/06/26: EurActiv: With no final deal in hand, CAP talks shift to Brussels
  Negotiations on the future of the post-2013 Common Agricultural Policy are to resume on Wednesday (26 June) at the European Parliament in Brussels after three days of talks failed to produce a hoped-for final agreement.
- 2013/06/27: BBC: EU to cut subsidies to big farms
- 2013/06/27: EUO: EU agrees agriculture policy reform
- 2013/06/26: ScienceInsider: E.U. Reaches Decisive Deal on Horizon 2020
- 2013/06/26: DerSpiegel: EU Commissioner: 'People Now Realize What Climate Change Means'
  The European system of carbon trading has practically collapsed as politicians prioritize the economy over the environment. EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard discusses renewed efforts and why the issue remains so critical.
- 2013/06/26: NatureN: Horizon 2020 deal reached in Brussels -- Agreement thrashed out on EU research programme by MEPs and member states
- 2013/06/25: Guardian(UK): EU emissions trading scheme 'set to cancel out renewable energy gains'
  Huge oversupply of carbon pollution permits will cancel out efforts made in other areas to cut carbon, study finds
- 2013/06/25: EurActiv: EU reaches deal to cut automotive carbon emissions
  The European Union has agreed a compromise deal to enforce stricter rules on carbon dioxide emissions for all new EU automobiles from 2020.
  The outline agreement on implementing a target of 95 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre (g/km), agreed late Monday (24 June), still needs the official endorsement of EU member states.
  German efforts to ensure that its luxury car makers, such as BMW and Daimler, can continue to produce more polluting, less fuel-efficient cars complicated the final stages of talks.
  But Ireland, holder of the rotating EU presidency, which has brokered the deal, said the compromise struck the right balance between environmental ambition and economic considerations.
- 2013/06/25: EurActiv: 'Last action hero' sexes up EU climate change gathering
  Former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a film star who is also an environmentalist, stole the show at a gathering of mayors committed to climate and energy objectives held in the European Parliament yesterday (24 June).
- 2013/06/25: EUO: Big landowners to lose 30% of EU farm aid
- 2013/06/24: EurActiv: Buildings renovation takes centre stage as debate heats up over energy efficiency targets for 2030
  With Europe's hard-fought over Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) coming into force next year, advocates are pushing for the EU to come forward with a target for 2030, and adopt proposals to dramatically cut energy use in Europe's building stock by 2050.
  Campaigners are urging policymakers to act now and tackle the huge potential for energy savings in Europe's building stock, which currently accounts for 40% of Europe's final energy demand.
- 2013/06/24: EurActiv: Farmers, green groups line up in final push for CAP
  EU farm ministers are meeting Monday (24 June) for their latest round of negotiations on the post-2013 Common Agricultural Policy, under pressure to hammer out an agreement in time for a parliamentary vote next month. EurActiv reports from Luxembourg.
  Negotiators from the three institutions involved in the CAP talks - farm ministers representing national governments, the European Parliament and the Commission - must resolve lingering differences over environmental standards for farmers, a revamped subsidy scheme, and market protections for sugar beet producers.
Meanwhile in Australia:
- 2013/06/30: ABC(Au): Labor announces three new women in Labor Cabinet reshuffle
- 2013/06/30: ABC(Au): Abortion pill RU486 and three cancer drugs added to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
- 2013/06/29: ABC(Au): Hydro boss Roy Adair out
  The head of Hydro Tasmania, Roy Adair, has left the company in the midst of major energy reforms.
  The chief executive is three years into a four-year contract and the circumstances around his departure are unclear.
- 2013/06/29: ABC(Au): Premier attacked over green credentials
  The Wilderness Society has rejected Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett's suggestion that the mining sector is being held back by environmental regulation.
- 2013/06/29: ABC(Au): Queensland pushes for 50-50 deal on rail project
  The fight over funding for Brisbane's $4.4 billion Cross River Rail project continues between the State and Federal Governments.
- 2013/06/28: ABC(Au): Indonesian foreign affairs spokesman says Rudd's conflict suggestion an Australian political matter
  Indonesia has dismissed Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's suggestion that the Coalition's asylum seeker policy could cause "conflict" as an internal Australian political matter.
- 2013/06/28: ABC(Au):TDU: Could the UN be Gillard's next destination?
- 2013/06/26: Guardian(UK): Julia Gillard is a flawed human being. But she wasn't allowed to be one
- 2013/06/28: WSWS: The political crisis in Australia
- 2013/06/28: WSWS: Australia: Research links mining to high lead levels in Mount Isa
- 2013/06/28: WSWS: Scientist speaks to WSWS about lead cover-up in Mount Isa
- 2013/06/28: ABC(Au): Business groups pushing for Kevin Rudd to make changes to the carbon tax
- 2013/06/27: JQuiggin: Can Parliament sit again?
- 2013/06/27: NewAnthropocene: Australian Spills in the Hope We Won't Slip
- 2013/06/27: ABC(Au):TDU: Who will 'stand with Wendy' on Australian abortion rights?
  A Texas Senator staged a dramatic filibuster in the state legislature yesterday. It captured the imagination of Australian feminists but where is the concern about Australia's laws on abortion, asks Amy Gray.
- 2013/06/27: ABC(Au): Peter Slipper calls for royal commission into events surrounding James Ashby case
- 2013/06/27: ABC(Au): Environmental Defender's Office to boost Kimberley presence
- 2013/06/26: ABC(Au): Climate change adaptation initiative feted and farewelled
  Young researchers have been left with an uncertain future as a federally-funded climate change organisation closes.
  A 'visionary' federally-funded climate change research initiative has come to an end, leaving its extensive network of researchers -- many of them recent graduates -- pondering an uncertain future.
- 2013/06/26: NewAnthropocene: Call Now To Vote For Your Favourite Pollie: Spills and Games of Political Media
- 2013/06/25: ABC(Au): Review into GMO moratorium in Tasmania
  The moratorium on GMOs ends in Tasmania in November next year and a review of the GMO status will now begin.
  Today in State Parliament, the Primary Industries Minister Bryan Green announced the terms of reference for the review.
- 2013/06/25: TheConversation:Can we do without a clean energy finance bank?
- 2013/06/25: ABC(Au): Rapid growth in Tasmanian aquaculture
  An industry scorecard has found that the Tasmanian seafood sector has grown by up to $200 million in two years, and is now valued at $861 million a year.
  The 2011-2012 scorecard produced by the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries found the value of the rock lobster, abalone and the oyster industries have remained steady, with farmed salmon responsible for most of the growth.
- 2013/06/25: ABC(Au): True cost of desalination plant blamed for water bill increases
  The price of water in Melbourne is about to increase, with bills set to rise by an average of around 22 per cent, and that's not including inflation.
  The chairman of Victoria's Essential Services Commission says about two thirds of that is due to the state's mammoth desalination plant.
  Victorian taxpayers are paying just under $2 million a day for the plant which began operating in December last year.
  With Melbourne's water storage levels above 70 per cent, the plant hasn't been required to deliver any water and may not for many years to come.
- 2013/06/25: ABC(Au): Julia Gillard agrees to knitting photo shoot in Women's Weekly; says no regrets on election timing
- 2013/06/25: ABC(Au): Coalition split as senators defy party line on local government referendum
- 2013/06/24: BrisbaneTimes: Greens plot exit from fossil fuels by 2030
  Could NSW be made to operate completely free of fossil-fuelled electricity within 17 years?
  The Greens think so. The state branch of the party will this week unveil a bold plan to close down every coal- or gas-fired power plant in the state by 2030, while guaranteeing employment for displaced power sector workers.
- 2013/06/24: ABC(Au): Greens call for full disclosure on coal report
  The Senate is expected to vote on a Greens motion today calling for the Federal Government to release all documents relating to a controversial study of coal train dust in the Hunter Valley.
  The Australian Rail Track Corporation emissions monitoring report found coal trains do not create any more dust than regular trains.
  But the Greens say a leaked draft report shows 15 of the ARTC's 18 conclusions were changed in the final copy.
- 2013/06/24: ABC(Au): Hydro goes ahead with King Island Wind Farm plan
  A move from Hydro to go ahead with a study into a giant wind farm on King Island comes after the release of voting on the subject by local residents.
  Just under 59 per cent of the residents voted yes to a feasibility study while just over 41 per cent said no to the plan.
- 2013/06/24: ABC(Au): Green light for expanded World Heritage Area
  Some of Tasmania's most contentious forests have been given the highest level of environmental protection with a listing by UNESCO's World Heritage Committee.
  A total of 170,000 hectares of forests will now become part of Tasmania's World Heritage Area.
  The listing includes the Southern Forests, the Styx, the Florentine and the Great Western Tiers. Achieving the listing has been a major goal of environmental groups for decades.
- 2013/06/24: WSWS: Three years since the US-backed coup against Australian Labor PM
- 2013/06/24: BBerg: Australian Factories Meet Carbon Deadline Ahead of Cap-and-Trade
  Australian factories and power stations handed in carbon permits and offsets covering 212 million metric tons of greenhouse gases emitted in the past year as the nation prepares for a cap-and-trade program in 2015.
  Companies were obliged to surrender permits covering 75 percent of their emissions in the year to June 30 by an interim deadline on June 17, data from the nation's Clean Energy Regulator show. The balance of allowances must be surrendered by Feb. 3.
- 2013/06/24: ABC(Au): Gillard dismisses talk of challenge after Newspoll shows Labor's primary vote below 30 per cent
Gillard is out; Rudd is back:
- 2013/06/28: Guardian(UK): Was Julia Gillard the most productive prime minister in Australia's history?
- 2013/06/28: BBerg: World's Highest Carbon Price Bedevils Australia's New Leader
  Kevin Rudd, sworn in yesterday for his second stint as Australia's prime minister, may seek to amend his predecessor's flagship clean-energy policy that's left the nation with the world's highest carbon price, analysts say.
  Bloomberg New Energy Finance joined RepuTex in Melbourne and Climate Mundial in London in predicting Rudd will try to deflect attacks on Australia's fixed carbon price, set to rise next month to almost four times the European rate, by pledging to speed up the shift to a market-based trading system.
  Rudd ousted Julia Gillard after winning a ballot for the leadership of the governing Labor party on June 26. He will need to craft a policy platform as he seeks to close the gap with the opposition before elections currently due Sept. 14. Opposition leader Tony Abbott has vowed to scrap the carbon price system introduced by Gillard should he win, calling it a toxic tax.
- 2013/06/26: WSWS: Australian Labor Party dumps Gillard as prime minister
- 2013/06/27: WSWS: Kevin Rudd reinstalled as Australian prime minister
- 2013/06/27: Grist: Will dumping Australia's climate-savvy prime minister help the climate?
- 2013/06/27: JQuiggin: What should Rudd do now?
- 2013/06/27: ABC(Au): Live blog: Kevin Rudd sworn in as prime minister after dramatic Labor leadership comeback
- 2013/06/27: ABC(Au): Penny Wong explains why she switched support from Julia Gillard to Kevin Rudd -- Mr Rudd was Labor's best chance to win the upcoming election
- 2013/06/26: ABC(Au): Live: Kevin Rudd defeats Julia Gillard in Labor leadership spill
- 2013/06/26: ABC(Au): Kevin Rudd defeats Julia Gillard 57-45 in Labor leadership ballot, paving way for a return to PM
- 2013/06/26: ABC(Au): Kevin Rudd: spoiler or saviour?
- 2013/06/26: ABC(Au): Julia Gillard: From first female PM to deposed leader [pix]
- 2013/06/26: ABC(Au): In pictures: Julia Gillard's political career
- 2013/06/26: ABC(Au): Labor's leadership team: winners and losers
- 2013/06/26: ABC(Au): Julia Gillard v Kevin Rudd in Labor leadership showdown [in quotes]
- 2013/06/26: ABC(Au): Antony Green dissects the constitutional issues surrounding Rudd's return to Labor leadership
- 2013/06/26: CBC: Australian PM Julia Gillard ousted in party vote -- Kevin Rudd becomes new Labor leader; could become new PM
- 2013/06/26: al Jazeera: Australian PM loses party leadership vote
  Intra-party rival Kevin Rudd unseats Julia Gillard as Labor Party leader in snap ballot.
- 2013/06/26: BBC: Kevin Rudd ousts Australia Prime Minister Julia Gillard
  Kevin Rudd has ousted Prime Minister Julia Gillard as leader of Australia's Labor Party.
  He won 57 votes in a leadership ballot of Labor MPs and senators called by Ms Gillard, who received 45 votes.
  The change comes ahead of a general election due in September, which polls suggest Labor is set to lose.
  After the vote, Ms Gillard confirmed she would stand by a pledge to resign from politics following a loss in the leadership challenge.
  "I will not recontest the federal electorate... at the forthcoming election," she said.
- 2013/06/26: JQuiggin: Game on
- 2013/06/26: Xinhuanet: Australia's former leader Rudd wins Labor caucus ballot
- 2013/06/26: RT: 'Boomerang' Rudd: Gillard replaced as Australian PM by man she deposed
- 2013/06/26: BBC: Kevin Rudd sworn in as new Australian prime minister
- 2013/06/26: Guardian(UK): Can Kevin Rudd protect Australia's climate change crediblity?
- 2013/06/26: Guardian(UK): Julia Gillard ousted as Australia prime minister
- 2013/06/26: Guardian(UK): Labor leadership spill: Julia Gillard v Kevin Rudd - as it happened
- 2013/06/26: Guardian(UK): Labor leadership spill: Kevin Rudd's real battle is now ahead of him
The September election is getting closer...:
- 2013/06/30: ABC(Au): Kevin Rudd leads Tony Abbott as preferred Prime Minister: poll
- 2013/06/29: ABC(Au): Federal Labor frontbencher Greg Combet to quit politics
  Former federal Labor frontbencher Greg Combet has announced he is quitting politics for personal reasons.
  Mr Combet quit the frontbench last week after the Labor Party voted to remove Julia Gillard as prime minister and reinstate Kevin Rudd.
  He was one of six Gillard government ministers to tender his resignation after the Wednesday night leadership ballot, but he now joins Peter Garrett and Craig Emerson in leaving parliament altogether.
  He will retire from politics at the upcoming election, citing his reasons as personal and having nothing to do with the Labor leadership change.
- 2013/06/29: TheConversation: Opposition plan to surrender environmental approvals a messy backward step
- 2013/06/28: ABC(Au): Will Labor scrap the tax?
  The latest indication from the Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare is that Australia is inching closer to a market price on carbon.
  Now the carbon tax has been in place for almost a year now with the fixed price but as we've just heard in Peter's interview, it looks set to be scrapped in favour of a market-based trading scheme.
  Experts believe a change wouldn't help the environment or the budget bottom line but it would make big business happy.
- 2013/06/28: Guardian(UK): Coalition to hand mines and ports approval powers back to the states
- 2013/06/28: Guardian(UK): What Labor needs to do to win the election: panel verdict
- 2013/06/28: ABC(Au): Abbott says there will be questions of credibility over Kevin Rudd's new Cabinet line-up
- 2013/06/28: BBC: Australian PM Kevin Rudd 'has learnt lessons from past'
  Newly returned Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says he has learnt from his last experience as premier and will strive to consult with colleagues during his new tenure.
- 2013/06/28: ABC(Au): Kevin Rudd outlines key policy ideas, warns Abbott's asylum policy could risk conflict with Indonesia
- 2013/06/28: TheConversation: Switching carbon from fixed price to ETS: should Rudd do it?
- 2013/06/28: TheConversation: Romancing the north: the food bowl furphy
- 2013/06/28: NewAnthropocene: Rudd: Is it clever to call back an angry mob?
- 2013/06/28: JQuiggin: Rudd and policy substance
- 2013/06/27: ABC(Au):TDU: Can Kevin Rudd deliver a genuine contest of ideas?
- 2013/06/27: ABC(Au): Kevin Rudd produces fresh uncertainty over federal election date in Question Time
- 2013/06/26: ABC(Au): Environment policy: where the parties stand
- 2013/06/26: ABC(Au): Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott announce they are quitting politics
- 2013/06/24: CCurrents: 100 Reasons Why Australians Must Reject Gillard Labor [Polya]
After years of wrangling, the Murray Darling Basin Plan is in place, but the water management fights are not over:
- 2013/06/27: ABC(Au): South Australia signs up to Murray-Darling plan
- 2013/06/27: ABC(Au): Council to take ownership of fixed Ibis Dam
  The Tablelands Mayor says the Irvinebank community has finally secured its water supply for the long-term.
  The Queensland Government will officially hand over ownership of the Ibis Dam to the council next week, along with a $700,000 grant to cover operating and maintenance expenses for the next five years.
- 2013/06/27: ABC(Au): Loddon Mayor defends flood recovery efforts
  The Loddon Shire's Mayor says the Victorian auditor-general's criticism of the state's flood recovery coordination is surprising.
- 2013/06/27: ABC(Au): Flood report findings no surprise says councillor
  A Campaspe Shire councillor says he is not surprised by the finding of the Victorian auditor-general's report into the aftermath of flooding more than two years ago.
  The report looked at the aftermath of flooding mainly in the Victoria's north and found a fragmented, confusing and too complicated approach to relief arrangements, involving 45 different programs across nine government departments.
- 2013/06/26: ABC(Au): ACT water bills drop by 7% or $83 a year
- 2013/06/24: ABC(Au): Standoff continues over Murray-Darling Plan
  Queensland has joined the standoff with the Federal Government over the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. The states have been offered a share of $1.7 billion for water saving projects, if they agree to help the Federal Government roll out the plan.
  But the Queensland and New South Wales say it's not a fair deal, and they won't sign up until it becomes one. Conservationists say it's time both states got out of the way...
And in the Indian subcontinent:
- 2013/06/28: BBC: India doubles price of natural gas to attract investment
While in China:
- 2013/06/27: Asia Times: China pledges pollution cut
- 2013/06/24: NBF: China's power needs will nearly triple to 15000 TWh by 2030 and most of it will still be coal power
And elsewhere in Asia:
- 2013/06/29: CleanTechnica: Philippines Makes 100% Renewable Energy In 10 Years Plan
- 2013/06/28: ABC(Au): Marshall Islands calls for regional climate leadership
  Marshall Islands officials say it could be years before the water table and food crops recover in the islands' drought-affected north.
- 2013/06/24: WSWS: [44%] Fuel price rise provokes unrest in Indonesia
In the Middle East:
And in Russia:
- 2013/06/29: ScienceInsider: New Law Would Deal a Blow to Russian Academy
And South America:
- 2013/06/29: Guardian(UK): Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff's support plummets [from 57% to 30%] in wake of protests
- 2013/06/25: BBC: Nicaragua canal plan not a joke - Chinese businessman
- 2013/06/24: RTCC: Report: Brazil is at climate change crossroads
  Brazil is questioning whether to continue investing in renewable energy or explore its deep-water oil reserves, according to a new report by Carbon Tracker Initiative.
In Canada, neocon PM Harper, aka The Blight, pushes petroleum while ignoring the climate and ecology:
The IdleNoMore movement is not going away:
- Idle No More
- 2013/06/28: Rabble: Sovereignty Summer: Idle No More launches new website to amplify impact of the movement
I spy with my little eye...:
The carbon Lobby tries to use GeoEngineering to put off substantive change, so it's no wonder the Harper gang would investigate:
- 2013/06/27: GEP: Documents Shed Additional Light on 2012 Canadian Government Meeting
- 2013/06/27: TMoS: Harper Explores Geo-Engineering to Arrest Global Warming
- 2013/06/26: Straight: Harper's Conservatives look at geoengineering to stop global warming
- 2013/06/26: TheCanadian: Canadian Security Officials Invited to Secret Briefing on Climate Change Responses, incl. Geoengineering
- 2013/06/25: GEP: Senior Canadian Government Meeting Looked at Geoengineering
- 2013/06/25: GEP: Senior Canadian Government Meeting Looked at Geoengineering
- 2013/06/24: PostMedia: Canadian spy agency, top security officials invited to 'secret' meeting on climate dangers in 2012
  Prime Minister Stephen Harper's national security adviser Stephen Rigby turned down a request to join a secret meeting attended by other senior government officials invited last summer to plan for worst-case global warming scenarios.
  The public service department that supports the prime minister's office - the Privy Council Office - said Monday that it didn't send anyone to the meeting, convened by the former deputy minister at Environment Canada, Paul Boothe, who also invited the heads of Canada's spy agency, the Department of National Defence and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade to attend. A spokeswoman for PCO wasn't immediately able to say whether it followed up on information shared during the session
  The discussion, outlined in documents that were marked "secret" but declassified for release through access to information legislation, predicted that the world would likely reach a tipping point in global warming by 2050, missing an international target agreed to by Harper and other international leaders at 2009 negotiations in Copenhagen as part of a deal to avoid irreversible damage to the planet's ecosystems and its economy.
The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on:
And the Kinder Morgan expansion:
And on the fabled West-East line:
- 2013/06/26: TStar: Enbridge protesters evicted, arrested -- Hamilton police arrest at least 10 in early morning operation.
  At least 10 protesters were arrested Wednesday morning on the seventh day of protest over the western Ontario Enbridge pipeline project. Activists at the Enbridge compound near Hamilton were arrested just after 7 a.m. when a convoy of about eight police vehicles converged on the area.
- 2013/06/26: Rabble:JB: Swamp Line 9 camp activists served an injunction, protesters lock themselves to pump station gates
That major flood event continues in Alberta:
- 2013/06/29: IOTD: ISERV observes flooding in Calgary [on June 22nd, 24th]
- 2013/06/29: CBC: High River flood evacuees come home
  5,000 flooded-out residents allowed to return to their homes to assess the damage
- 2013/06/28: CBC: Calgary floods spotlight cities' costly failure to plan for climate change -- Municipalities not ready for rising number of severe weather events
- 2013/06/27: Resilience: Calgary's Manhattan Moment
- 2013/06/27: CBC: Flood cost will top $1B but Alberta GDP will rebound fast, TD says
- 2013/06/27: TheCanadian: Calgary Mayor a Rare Climate Progressive in Alberta
- 2013/06/26: CPW: Extend EI coverage for all Southern Alberta flood victims: AFL
- 2013/06/26: Tyee: Authorities 'Caught Flatfooted' on Alberta Flood Disaster: Expert -- Hydrologist finds prediction efforts crippled by poor monitoring systems
- 2013/06/26: CBC: High River residents' return a 'matter of days, not weeks' -- Frustrated flood evacuees to receive emergency funds Thursday
- 2013/06/25: Grist: Calgary floods trigger an oil spill and a mass evacuation
- 2013/06/25: Rabble: Chronicle of a disaster foretold: Calgary and the floods
- 2013/06/25: CBC: Calgary floods to cost economy billions
- 2013/06/25: CBC: Return to High River homes still too risky, officials say
- 2013/06/24: DD: Worst floods in Alberta history spread as water subsides in oil hub of Calgary
  PM Harper: 'I never imagined you could have a flood of this magnitude in this part of the country'
- 2013/06/24: Tyee: Calgary's Manhattan Moment -- I only hope my city's nightmare is the climate change wake-up Alberta, and Canada, needs
- 2013/06/24: TreeHugger: Did climate change cause the Alberta flooding?
- 2013/06/24: Wunderground: Calgary Flood May be Canada's Most Expensive Flood in History
- 2013/06/24: CBC: Calgary's Mayor Nenshi shines amid flood crisis -- Mayor says his job is keep people safe, give them hope in time of crisis
- 2013/06/24: CBC: Alberta floods: How Canadians can help
- 2013/06/24: al Jazeera: Floodwaters retreat in Calgary
  Record rains clear away from western Canada leaving residents to mop up and survey the extensive and widespread damage
- 2013/06/24: WpgFP: Alberta flood damage could have been reduced if report heeded: experts
- 2013/06/24: CDreams: Massive Flooding Hits Canada's Dirty Energy Center: A Wakeup Call on Climate Change?
- 2013/06/24: CBC: Alberta could have reduced flood damage, critics say -- Government failed to act on report shelved after disastrous 2005 flood
- 2013/06/24: CBC: Calgarians cleaning up after massive flood
- 2013/06/24: CBC: Medicine Hat shifts focus to Alberta flood recovery
- 2013/06/24: BBerg: Alberta Floods Spread as Water Subsides in Oil Hub of Calgary
  The worst flooding in Alberta's history spread to new parts of the province as water levels began to subside in Calgary and other southern Alberta cities hit this weekend by rain-swollen rivers.
  Evacuation orders were issued to towns north and east of Calgary, with a flood-warning zone stretching some 250 miles (402 kilometers) north from the Montana border. About 10,000 people evacuated Medicine Hat as Canadian military forces sandbagged the city in preparation for the arrival of the surging waters flowing from the Rocky Mountains that inundated cities to the west.
  Twenty-five Alberta communities remained under states of emergency, the provincial government said in a statement yesterday.
- 2013/06/23: RT: Record-breaking floods hit western Canada [pic]
- 2013/06/23: CBC: Hundreds of Siksika First Nation homes lost to flood -- Anger and despair as disaster strikes small community
- 2013/06/23: CBC: Floodwaters devastate First Nations communities in Alberta -- Communities near Calgary are under evacuation order
- 2013/06/23: CTV: Siksika First Nation in crisis from flooding on Bow River
- 2013/06/23: BuckDog: Alberta Warned - Stop Development on Flood Plains - Nobody Listened, as Usual
The ISA/PRV/IHN/Alpha virus in Canadian waters is potentially disastrous:
- 2013/06/26: AlexandraMorton: The deck keeps stacking higher against wild salmon
- 2013/06/26: TheCanadian: Morton: Salmon Virus Lab Stripped of World Body Certification
Now that Christy Clark has a mandate, what will she do?
Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:
- 2013/06/24: PI: [link to 1 meg pdf] Key issues to watch in federal oil and gas climate regulations
- 2013/06/30: TMoS: They Sell It But They Supposedly Have Nothing to Do With It
- 2013/06/28: TP:JR: TD Bank Press Release Hoax Raises Question Of Why Companies Invest In Keystone Tar Sands Pipeline
- 2013/06/28: CDreams: TD Bank Gets Punked: Tar Sands Blockade Highlights Bank's Tar Sands Support
  The bank "should be held accountable" for bankrolling "the most dangerous and ecologically devastating practice on earth," says group
- 2013/06/28: Rabble:EP: How my grandfather taught me to be an ally in the fight against the tar sands
- 2013/06/24: PI: New analysis shows that weak oil and gas regulations would paint Ottawa into a corner for its climate target
- 2013/06/24: A4A: The Resource Trap Explained
Also in Alberta:
In Manitoba:
- 2013/06/25: CBC: Alberta floodwaters head to Manitoba
- 2013/06/24: CBC: Manitoba communities being affected by Alberta floods -- Rural Manitoba municipalities dealing with flash floods
In Ontario, Wynne is struggling to establish herself. Energy still looms large:
In the Maritimes:
- 2013/06/30: CBC: Wabush evacuees spend 2nd night away from Labrador homes -- Forest fires continue to blaze, not moving closer to town
- 2013/06/29: CBC: Wabush evacuated as fires compromise air quality -- Residents moved to nearby Labrador City
- 2013/06/28: CBC: Forest fire puts Labrador town on evacuation notice
  Mining company in Wabush using heavy equipment as a fire block near forest's edge
- 2013/06/25: Rabble: New Brunswick: Tensions rise as anti-fracking protests dig in
- 2013/06/24: CBC: Western Labrador forest fire flares up, traffic halted
In the North:
As for miscellaneous Canadiana:
- 2013/06/27: PostMedia: Canadian nuclear agency receives application for toxic waste container
  The agency that regulates nuclear safety in Canada has received an application to approve a container designed to carry liquid nuclear waste.
  NAC International Inc., a U.S. company that specializes in nuclear packaging and transport, made a request to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission this month to certify a cask or "package" designed to transport a liquid solution of highly-enriched uranium (HEU).
- 2013/06/25: Rabble:EM: Climate change deniers at it again [Lu]
- 2013/06/25: CBC: Ex-BlackBerry co-CEO to chair federal cleantech funds
  Former BlackBerry executive Jim Balsillie is being appointed to a five-year term as chair of Sustainable Development Technology Canada, a federal agency that helps companies in the emerging clean-tech industry.
And on the American political front:
The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:
The Keystone XL wheel grinds slowly. And it grinds woe:
The Mayflower oil spill continues to weigh heavily on the Keystone decision:
- 2013/06/27: EENews: Pipelines: Secrecy surrounding Exxon's Pegasus probe fuels questions over Keystone XL plans
- 2013/06/25: ICN: InsideClimate News, Arkansas Times Launch Campaign to Crowdfund Oil Spill Reporting Project
  An innovative national-local collaboration to investigate the Exxon oil spill in Mayflower, Ark., raises 25 percent of its target on the first day.
With the deficit hawks panicking about things financial, there has been talk of a carbon tax solution:
The GOP War on Women continues. See also:
- 2013/06/28: CDreams: Understanding 'God's War' Against Abortion and Wendy Davis in Texas
  Religious activists who want anti-choice bills passed in Texas and elsewhere view politics as a battle between good and evil
- 2013/06/28: ACLU: Federal Judge Blocks Alabama Abortion Law -- Law Would Have Forced Most Clinics in the State to Stop Providing Abortions
- 2013/06/28: ACLU: Obama Administration Finalizes Contraception Rule
  The Obama administration today released the final rule implementing the requirement that insurance plans cover contraception with no cost-sharing. The administration's decision ensures effective birth control will be more affordable for millions of women.
- 2013/06/28: Guardian(UK): Wendy Davis's pink shoes spark sales boom and abortion debate on Amazon
- 2013/06/28: Guardian(UK): Wendy Davis channels anger of millions as new Texas makes itself heard
- 2013/06/28: Guardian(UK): Understanding 'God's war' against abortion and Wendy Davis in Texas
- 2013/06/27: ACLU: Tenth Circuit Rules on Craft Store's Challenge to Contraception Coverage Rule
- 2013/06/27: CDreams: Small Words, Small Guys
- 2013/06/27: DemNow: The People's Filibuster: Texas Governor Revives Anti-Abortion Bill Defeated by Protesters, Lawmakers
- 2013/06/26: CDreams: 'People's Filibuster' Defeats GOP Assault on Women in Texas
  State Sen. Wendy Davis is joined by hundreds of citizens who drown GOP hopes for nation's strictest anti-choice law
- 2013/06/26: DemNow: Texas Showdown: Anti-Abortion Bill Fails After Protesters Fill Capitol to Cheer Marathon Filibuster
- 2013/06/26: ACLU: Sweeping Texas Anti-Abortion Bill Defeated in Dramatic Late Night Filibuster
- 2013/06/26: CBC: Texas abortion bill falls after challenge -- Late-night session up-ended by filibuster and raucous protest
- 2013/06/29: BBerg: U.S. Refuses to Expand Birth Control Religious Exemption
- 2013/06/26: MoJo: Here's How Texas Republicans Will Crush the Wendy Davis Abortion Filibuster
  Gov. Rick Perry has called another special session -- meaning Davis would need to filibuster an anti-abortion bill for weeks.
- 2013/06/26: BBC: New life for Texas abortion bill blocked by Wendy Davis
  The governor of Texas has called a special legislative session in an attempt to pass an anti-abortion law blocked when a Democratic senator undertook a marathon [filibuster] delaying speech.
- 2013/06/25: CSM: Texas abortion law, that would shut down clinics, stalls in Senate
The NorthWest coal export debate remains heated:
- 2013/06/28: Grist: The biggest oversight in Obama's climate plan is a doozy - coal mining, leasing, transport, and export in the U.S. Northwest
The impacts of budgetary sequestration are adding up:
- 2013/06/24: CDreams: 'A Slow-Motion Train Wreck': The Real Consequences of the Sequester
Obama gave that widely telegraphed climate change speech this week:
- 2013/06/27: DD: Transcript of President Obama's climate change speech...
- 2013/06/25: WhiteHouse: President Obama's Plan to Fight Climate Change
- 2013/06/25: TreeHugger: Read President Obama's Climate Change Plan
- 2013/06/29: RealEconomics: Obama's Climate Action Plan
- 2013/06/29: ERabett: The Cyanobacteria's Friend and Obama's Second Speech
- 2013/06/28: CNN: Obama is right on climate change
  Chris Field: U.S. urgently needs to heed Obama's Climate Action Plan - He says we've been pumping massive amounts of CO2 into atmosphere since 1800s -
  He says our buildings, cars, power plants commit us to to a path that needs to change - Field: If we don't, we face weather extremes, threats to human health
- 2013/06/28: RTCC: Why I cannot congratulate President Obama on his climate plan
- 2013/06/28: TreeHugger: President Obama's Climate Change Plan (Infographic)
- 2013/06/28: Grist: House responds to Obama's climate plan with an offshore drilling plan
- 2013/06/28: KSJT: NPR: Science Friday's Ira Flatow talks Obama-climate-care with Grist's Dave Roberts
- 2013/06/28: CPW: Obama's Climate Action Plan a "Full-Throttle Endorsement" of Fracking: Experts
- 2013/06/28: NakedCapitalism: Gaius Publius: Obama's New Climate Plan: Less Coal, More Fracking
- 2013/06/27: ICN: Artful and Delphic: Obama on Keystone Pipeline Is All Things at Once
  As the media tries to make sense of Obama's obscure remarks on Keystone, the president becomes both an opponent and supporter of the project.
- 2013/06/27: 350orBust: President Obama Takes First Step On Path To Climate Sanity
- 2013/06/27: TP:JR: Moral Majority: Team Obama Finally Embraces The Winning Argument For Climate Action
- 2013/06/27: UCSUSA:B: How Might History Judge President Obama's Climate Plan?
- 2013/06/27: TheCanadian: Obama Vows Tough Action on Climate Change - Video
- 2013/06/27: EnvEcon: Proposed climate regulations might not be too bad on the cost side
- 2013/06/27: CPW: President Obama showed leadership on climate change: Environmental Defence
- 2013/06/28: EUO: Obama climate speech: More hot air?
- 2013/06/27: Grist: Republicans say Obama's climate plan is a war on America
- 2013/06/26: GG&G: Taking action on climate change
- 2013/06/26: CDreams: President Unveils 'Obama Climate Pollution Test' for Future Energy Projects
- 2013/06/26: CDreams: Obama's Fracked-Up Climate Strategy Will Guarantee Global Warming Disaster
- 2013/06/26: CDreams: Obama's Faulty Plan a 'Full-Throttle' Endorsement of Fracking
- 2013/06/26: CSW: Obama's climate action plan: The devil is in the follow-through
- 2013/06/26: Grist: The two things we learned about Obama's plans to regulate coal
- 2013/06/26: SciAm:Obs: Obama Has a Plan for Climate, What If It Involves Tar Sands?
- 2013/06/26: UCSUSA:B: President Takes Historic First Step on Climate Action: Near-term Target for CO2 Reductions
- 2013/06/26: UCSUSA:B: What We Know: Renewable Energy Can Deliver for the President's Carbon Reduction Plan
- 2013/06/26: TreeHugger: Four key moments of Obama's climate change speech
- 2013/06/26: TheConversation: Obama's climate change plan: Congress not required
- 2013/06/26: ABC(Au): Obama sidesteps 'flat earth' science deniers with new climate change plan
- 2013/06/26: ABC(Au): Early domestic support for Obama's climate announcements
- 2013/06/26: ABC(Au): Federal Government seizes on Obama's climate speech
- 2013/06/26: LoE: Obama: 'Climate Change sceptics = Flat Earth Society'
- 2013/06/26: TCoE: Some overnight thoughts on Obama's speech
- 2013/06/26: NYT:PK: Aggregate Supply, Aggregate Demand, and Coal
- 2013/06/26: TheHill:e2W: Republican leaders steer clear of climate science fight
- 2013/06/26: TP:JR: Possible And Profitable Action On Climate Change: Danish Minister Praises Obama's New Plan
- 2013/06/26: TP:JR: Senator: Obama's Action On Climate Change Is A 'War On America'
  Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) went on Fox News on Wednesday to slam President Obama's renewed push to take action on climate change. However, returning to the refrain that Obama has declared a "war on coal" appears not to be enough this time. Now, the coal-backed senator has upgraded his rhetoric to a "war on America."
- 2013/06/26: Wunderground: Quarterback Obama's New Climate Change Game Plan
- 2013/06/26: DemNow: Obama's Climate Plan: A Historic Turning Point or Too Reliant on Oil, Coal, Natural Gas?
- 2013/06/26: RTCC: Obama climate change plan: latest reaction
- 2013/06/26: RTCC: Comment: Obama raised expectations, now he must meet them
- 2013/06/26: CSM: How Obama's climate change plan promotes natural gas
- 2013/06/26: PennLive: Corbett reacts coldly to Obama climate change plan
  Pennsylvania's governor isn't warming up to President Barack Obama's plan to address global climate change.
  Gov. Tom Corbett issued a statement late Tuesday calling it "not only a war on coal ... but also a war on jobs."
  The Republican governor says U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are at their lowest level in two decades. He blames China and other countries for much of the growth in global carbon emissions.
- 2013/06/26: DeSmogBlog: Is Obama's Faith in Carbon Capture a Technicolor Dream?
- 2013/06/25: UNDispatch: The Global Implications of Obama's Climate Action Plan
- 2013/06/25: CDreams: Obama's Climate Plan: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
- 2013/06/25: CDreams: Critics: Obama's Plan Lacks Urgency on Climate Crisis
- 2013/06/25: ICN: President's Climate Policy Speech Soars. On the Ground, Obstacles Await
  Effect on climate change will impact Keystone decision, he said, but his comments left him plenty of room to maneuver.
- 2013/06/25: SFD Gate:B: Republicans: Obama climate plan is "anti-American" war on energy
- 2013/06/25: KSJT: Upstream Ink: Obama's tough carbon speech leaves Keystone in limbo - and Voting Rights ruling upstages it all.
- 2013/06/25: Grist: Obama: "We don't have time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society"
- 2013/06/25: NatureN: Obama calls for limits on existing power plants -- White House would avoid Congress in plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions
- 2013/06/25: SciAm:PI: Obama Looks to the Clean Air Act as Inspiration for Tackling Climate
- 2013/06/25: SciAm:Obs: Science Will Protect Us from Climate Change, Obama Says
- 2013/06/25: UCSUSA:B: Let's Live Long and Prosper: President Obama's Call to Combat Climate Change
- 2013/06/25: UCSUSA:B: Obama Directs the EPA to "Work Expeditiously" to Complete Standards for New and Existing Power Plants: Now the Details on How the EPA Can Deliver the Goods
- 2013/06/25: UCSUSA: Obama Shares More Details on Climate Plans
- 2013/06/25: WaPo:B: 5 takeaways from President Obama's climate speech
- 2013/06/25: BBerg: Obama's Challenge on Climate Change
- 2013/06/25: BaltimoreSun: Obama's global warming plan: Not enough but better than nothing
  Our view: President Obama's latest climate change plan may prove helpful, but U.S. will need to do much more to address the coming storm
- 2013/06/25: PI: Pembina reacts to Obama's new climate plan
- 2013/06/25: OilChange: Reaction from Oil Change International to Climate Speech
- 2013/06/25: APR: Obama's Climate Action Plan
- 2013/06/25: AutoBG: President Obama calls for cleaner coal plants, which will make EVs cleaner
- 2013/06/25: BPA: President Obama's Climate Action Plan & How it Relates to Agriculture
- 2013/06/25: CSM: Obama and Congress must fight climate change like they do terrorism
- 2013/06/25: PCat: Climate Change: President Obama declares war on the Flat Earth Society
- 2013/06/26: OilChange: All We Ever Asked: Keystone, Climate, and the National Interest
- 2013/06/26: CPunch: Greenwash Our Way Into Oblivion -- The Vacant Climate Plan
- 2013/06/26: BBC: Obama: No time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society
  [...] "We don't have time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society," he said. "Sticking your head in the sand might make you feel safer but it's not going to protect you from the coming storm."
- 2013/06/25: BBC: Obama lays out climate action plan
- 2013/06/26: ABC(Au): Barack Obama lays out new US plan to fight climate change
- 2013/06/25: SkS: President Obama acts on climate change by enforcing the law by dana1981
- 2013/06/25: HillHeat: Does Obama's Climate Speech Signal New Era of Polluter Liability for Weather Disasters?
- 2013/06/25: WtD: Obama's climate plan: what the world has been waiting for?
- 2013/06/25: Stoat: Evaluating Obama's speech: follow the money
- 2013/06/25: Wunderground:RR: Reaction to President Obama's Speech: A U.S. Climate Action Plan?
- 2013/06/25: TP:JR: 'Invest, Divest': Obama Goes Full Climate Hawk In Speech Unveiling Plan To Cut Carbon Pollution
- 2013/06/25: QuarkSoup: "We don't have time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society." [speech]
- 2013/06/25: QuarkSoup: Stock Market Not Impressed with Obama's Speech
- 2013/06/25: DeSmogBlog: Obama Climate Plan Touts Gas Fracking As "Transition Fuel," Doubling Down on Methane Risk
- 2013/06/25: DeSmogBlog: President Obama Pegs Fate of Keystone XL On Climate Change Impact; Slams Climate Denial Flat Earth Society
- 2013/06/25: CPW: President Barack Obama's speech on climate change - full text
- 2013/06/25: Guardian(UK): President Obama is talking big on climate change, but will he act?
- 2013/06/25: Guardian(UK): President Obama acts on climate change by enforcing the law
- 2013/06/25: Guardian(UK): Barack Obama pledges to bypass Congress to tackle climate change
  US president says country is already paying price of inaction and backs nuclear energy and fracking in comprehensive strategy
- 2013/06/25: Guardian(UK): Obama's fracked-up climate strategy will guarantee global warming disaster by Nafeez Ahmed
  Fatally flawed energy policies and inadequate emissions pledges cannot prevent dangerous climate change
- 2013/06/25: Guardian(UK): Obama's climate speech: 'It is time for Congress to share his ambition'
  Was it enough? Our experts give their verdict on the US president's long-awaited speech addressing climate change
- 2013/06/25: CBC: Keystone XL must not lead to increase in emissions: Obama
- 2013/06/25: TMoS: No Telling Whether Obama's Okay with Keystone XL
- 2013/06/25: UN: UN climate change official applauds US climate change strategy
- 2013/06/25: NYT: Obama to Outline Ambitious Plan to Cut Greenhouse Gases
- 2013/06/25: TP:JR: President Obama's Second-Term Plan To Address Climate Change
- 2013/06/25: Grist: No-drama Obama unveils series of modest, sensible steps on climate change
- 2013/06/25: Grist: Obama's climate plan in 3 easy bullet points (and a few sub-bullet points)
- 2013/06/24: Grist: Superman, Obama, and limits on power
- 2013/06/25: UCSUSA: President Obama Pledges To Help Communities Prepare for Climate Change, Reduce U.S. Emissions
- 2013/06/25: RTCC: Obama promises to 'cut carbon pollution' in new Climate Action Plan
- 2013/06/25: Wunderground: President Obama Delivering Major Climate Change Speech Today
- 2013/06/25: BCLSB: The President's Climate Action Plan
- 2013/06/25: BBC: Obama to outline climate strategy [at Georgetown University on Tuesday]
- 2013/06/24: TP:JR: Tuesday's Climate Speech Doesn't Mean Obama Is Superman, But It May Mean He's Not Superfluous
- 2013/06/24: TCoE: A few predictions about President Obama's speech
- 2013/06/23: GLaden: Addressing Climate Change is Legacy Building Stuff. YOUR Legacy
Looking forward to the 2016 election:
- 2013/06/26: CSM: Why many 2016 GOP hopefuls are mum on Supreme Court gay marriage moves
The Obama chatter is nonstop:
- 2013/06/29: CCP: Obama asks Americans to declare they won't vote for those who don't act on climate change
- 2013/06/24: OilChange: Climate Action Means Ditching "All of the Above"
The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:
- 2013/06/28: MoJo: Why Is the Obama Administration Suddenly So Interested in African Farms?
  It might have a little something to do with the vast business opportunities for American corporations.
- 2013/06/28: CDreams: EPA Ups Allowable Residue of Monsanto's Toxic Herbicide on Food
  Regulatory agency raises limits of known endocrine disruptor glysophate in produce and animal feed
- 2013/06/28: Grist: In win for fish, oil companies allowed to abandon old rigs
- 2013/06/28: TP:JR: Comment Period Closing On Bristol Bay Mining... [Pebble Mine]
- 2013/06/28: NOAANews: NOAA seeks public input on nomination process for potential new marine sanctuaries
- 2013/06/28: DeSmogBlog: Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz Relies on Dubious Coal Tech for Obama Climate Strategy
- 2013/06/27: ColumbusDispatch: Ohio law shielding details of fracking chemicals may violate federal statute
  U.S. EPA suggests 1986 Right-to-Know Act requires information be shared with first responders
- 2013/06/27: Grist: EPA tells Ohio to stop keeping fracking secrets from first responders
- 2013/06/26: DoI: Interior Releases First-Ever Comprehensive National Assessment of Geologic Carbon Dioxide Storage Potential
- 2013/06/26: USGS: Interior Releases First-Ever Comprehensive National Assessment of Geologic Carbon Dioxide Storage Potential
  Geologic Carbon Sequestration Gauges Potential to Reduce Emissions that Contribute to Climate Change
- 2013/06/25: CSM: What Obama's climate plan means for his pick to head EPA
- 2013/06/25: AddictingInfo: Bush EPA Rushed Approval Of Pesticide Now Tied To Honeybee Genocide
- 2013/06/24: Grist: Kerry implores India to tackle climate change, ticks off Indian enviros
- 2013/06/24: Grist: EPA delays fracking safety study until 2016
As for what is going on in Congress:
- 2013/06/24: Wonkette: GOP Not Ready To Abandon Grand Strategy Of Achieving Success By Throwing Tantrums
- 2013/06/29: AutoBG: Congress may change, or even repeal, 2007 ethanol mandate
- 2013/06/29: CSM: House eyes major budget cuts to energy innovation
- 2013/06/28: CSM: Go North, America --- to the Arctic by US Senator Lisa Murkowski
- 2013/06/28: TP:JR: House Republicans' Response To Obama's Climate Plan: Drill, Baby, Drill
- 2013/06/29: TP:JR: House Republicans Want To Cut Nearly $1 Billion In Renewable Funding For 2014
- 2013/06/28: BBerg: Republicans Eye Splitting Farms, Food Stamps for Measure
  Republican leaders in the U.S. House are exploring divorcing farm subsidies from food stamps to revive an agriculture bill, breaking up a political alliance that for decades expanded spending on farmers and hungry families.
- 2013/06/27: UCSUSA: Nuclear Waste Bill Fails to Address Near-Term On-Site Management and Risks from Overcrowded Pools
- 2013/06/28: Reuters: Obama's environmental nominee in jeopardy from Senate Republicans
  President Barack Obama made a plea this week for the U.S. Senate to confirm his choice to head the agency that will oversee the core of his new climate change plan, but nominee Gina McCarthy's prospects seem increasingly in doubt.
- 2013/06/27: Grist: Anthony Foxx, transit booster, confirmed as transportation secretary
- 2013/06/27: TP:JR: Time To Reauthorize Weatherization Assistance Program, Which Returns $2.50 In Savings For Every Dollar Invested
- 2013/06/26: ScienceInsider: Reversals of Fortune in House Version of DOE Research Budget
- 2013/06/26: TP:JR: Climate Champion Ed Markey Wins Massachusetts Senate Race
- 2013/06/26: TP:JR: The Anti-Science Climate Denier Caucus: 113th Congress Edition
- 2013/06/25: TP:JR: TWIMC: It's A War On Climate Change, Conservatives Launched A War On Coal When They Killed The Climate Bill
- 2013/06/25: TP:JR: Don't Let Congress Off The Hook On Climate Change
What are the lobbyists pushing?
- 2013/06/27: DeSmogBlog: API Spent $22 Million Lobbying for Keystone XL; State Dept Contractor ERM an API Member
- 2013/06/27: OilChange: API Spent $22 Million Lobbying for Keystone XL; State Dept Contractor ERM an API Member
The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:
IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology]
raised its head once again:
- 2013/06/30: ABC(Au): Abortion pill RU486 and three cancer drugs added to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
- 2013/06/29: Guardian(UK): Humans: the real threat to life on Earth
  If population levels continue to rise at the current rate, our grandchildren will see the Earth plunged into an unprecedented environmental crisis, argues computational scientist Stephen Emmott in this extract from his book Ten Billion
- 2013/06/27: ABC(Au):TDU: Who will 'stand with Wendy' on Australian abortion rights?
  A Texas Senator staged a dramatic filibuster in the state legislature yesterday. It captured the imagination of Australian feminists but where is the concern about Australia's laws on abortion, asks Amy Gray.
- 2013/06/25: NBF: Error in population observations and population forecast errors
- 2013/06/24: CCurrents: Our Overcrowded Planet: A Failure Of Family Planning
- 2013/06/24: Atlantic: After Jailing Women, Bolivia Weighs Legalizing Abortion
Put on the rose coloured glasses please:
- 2013/06/24: TheConversation: Looking back from 2030: how the climate war was won
How do the corporate media measure up?
- 2013/06/28: FAIR: NPR: And Now, for Balance, Bigots and Big Coal
- 2013/06/25: ICN: InsideClimate News, Arkansas Times Launch Campaign to Crowdfund Oil Spill Reporting Project
  An innovative national-local collaboration to investigate the Exxon oil spill in Mayflower, Ark., raises 25 percent of its target on the first day.
- 2013/06/25: SkS: Media Overlooking 90% of Global Warming by dana1981
Here is something for your library:
- 2013/06/24: CCurrents: [Book Review] _Sustaining the Commons_ by John M. Anderies & Marco A. Janssen
- 2013/06/24: CassandrasLegacy: [Book Excerpt] _The Five Stages of Collapse_ by Dmitry Orlov
And for your film & video enjoyment:
Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:
- 2013/06/29: TheConversation: Whaling in the Antarctic: Australia v. Japan -- week one
- 2013/06/28: Guardian(UK): Chinese wind-turbine firm charged with stealing US trade secrets
  Sinovel Wind Group accused of illegally downloading software from former supplier American Superconductor
- 2013/06/28: ABC(Au): Judge considers bushfire court costs
  The ACT Supreme Court is hearing arguments on who should pay the costs of the negligence case taken against the New South Wales Government over the 2003 Canberra bushfires.
- 2013/06/27: CSM: Obamacare contraceptives impose religious burden, US appeals court rules
- 2013/06/27: TheConversation: Whales in court: Australia v Japan in The Hague
- 2013/06/27: UN: UN court opens hearings on whaling dispute between Australia and Japan
- 2013/06/27: TreeHugger: Supreme Court decision on property rights is an environmental disaster
- 2013/06/26: BBC: Australia-Japan whaling case in international court [courts]
  Public hearings are under way in The Hague as Australia and Japan take their fight over whaling to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
  Australia will argue that Tokyo's scientific research programme - under which it kills whales - is commercial whaling in disguise.
- 2013/06/26: Grist: Supreme Court will hear big clean-air case
- 2013/06/26: TP:JR: The Texas-Oklahoma Red River Smackdown Foreshadows Water Fights To Come
- 2013/06/26: NYT: A Legal Blow to Sustainable Development
- 2013/06/25: AutoBG: SCOTUS rebuffs automakers, refuses to block 15% ethanol sales
- 2013/06/24: Reuters: U.S. justices to hear EPA appeal over air pollution rule
  In a win for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider the legality of a controversial Obama administration effort to regulate air pollution that crosses state lines.
  At the request of the administration, the American Lung Association and environmental groups, the justices will revisit an appeals court ruling that invalidated the Cross-State Air Pollution rule, which the EPA implemented to enforce a provision of the Clean Air Act.
  Oral arguments and a decision are due in the court's next term, which starts in October and ends in June 2014.
- 2013/06/24: CSM: Supreme Court sides with ethanol in renewable fuel debate
  The Supreme Court blocked the oil and gas industry's challenge to a high-ethanol blend of gasoline Monday, scoring a point for a renewable fuel industry aiming to mix more plant-based materials into the nation's gasoline.
It looks like this BP trial over the Gulf oil spill is going to take a long while:
- 2013/06/26: WSWS: BP attempts to dodge fines in connection with Gulf Coast oil disaster
- 2013/06/26: CSM: BP oil spill: Oil giant challenges Gulf payments
Among the non-members of Gamblers Anonymous:
Developing a new energy infrastructure is a fundamental challenge of the current generation:
- 2013/06/29: CleanTechnica: Philippines Makes 100% Renewable Energy In 10 Years Plan
- 2013/06/28: RScribbler: Renewables to Replace Nat Gas as World's Second Largest Electricity Source by 2016, Generate 25% by 2018
- 2013/06/28: TreeHugger: World's first hybrid wind/current generator could generate double the power
- 2013/06/28: SciAm:PI: Africa's energy poverty, as seen from space
- 2013/06/28: CNN: Will 'world's biggest' hydro power project light up Africa?
  DR Congo moving ahead with plans to build the world's biggest hydroelectric project - When complete, Grand Inga could have a massive capacity of 40,000 megawatts -
  Project construction will begin in October 2015 - But critics argue that the project will only serve the mining firms and not benefit the rural poor
- 2013/06/27: CSM: Clean energy will be world's No. 2 source of power by 2016, IEA says
- 2013/06/27: CSM: Renewable energy is growing, but ...
- 2013/06/27: CDreams: A Sustainable Energy Future is Within Our Grasp
- 2013/06/26: Mercury: Renewable energy will be second to coal by 2016, IEA predicts
- 2013/06/26: ERabett: Worthwhile IEA initiative
- 2013/06/26: CBC: Renewables to make up 1/4 of world's energy by 2018
- 2013/06/25: EurActiv: Norway overtakes Russia as EU's biggest gas supplier
  Norway overtook Russia as the main supplier of the EU's natural gas in 2012, a first for the Scandinavian country, the chief economist for the British Petroleum Group chief said in unveiling a new energy report in Brussels.
- 2013/06/24: RG&B: It's happening NOW - a massive paradigm shift in power production
- 2013/06/24: BrisbaneTimes: [NSW] Greens plot exit from fossil fuels by 2030
- 2013/06/24: NatureN: Location may stymie wind and solar power benefits
  The health and climate gains made by green energies are often lowest in the windiest or sunniest places.
- 2013/06/24: WSWS: [44%] Fuel price rise provokes unrest in Indonesia
What do you have in energy comparisons and transitions?
Hey! Let's contaminate the aquifer for thousands of years! It'll be a fracking gas!
- 2013/06/29: CleanTechnica: Study Finds Methane-Contaminated Wells Near Fracking Sites
- 2013/06/28: CSM: British shale gas reserves double. Will the UK frack?
- 2013/06/29: CSM: Just how much shale gas does the UK have?
- 2013/06/27: BBC: UK shale gas resources 'greater than thought'
  UK shale gas resources may be far greater than previously thought, a report for the government says.
  The British Geological Survey estimates there may be 1,300 trillion cubic feet of shale gas present in the north of England - double previous estimates.
  Meanwhile the government has announced measures to enable shale gas drilling as part of its infrastructure plans.
- 2013/06/27: BBerg: U.K. Says Shale Gas Fields Twice Size of Previous Estimates
  The U.K. said fields of shale gas in northern England are twice as large as previously estimated, offering the potential to boost economic growth, replace depleted North Sea deposits and cut energy imports.
  The shale rocks under counties including Lancashire and Yorkshire may hold as much as 1,300 trillion cubic feet of gas, Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander said in parliament today, citing the British Geological Survey. While only a fraction of that gas will be extracted, a recovery rate of 10 percent, similar to fields in the U.S., would give the U.K. enough gas to meet demand for about 47 years.
- 2013/06/26: TP:JR: Bombshell Study Finds Drinking Water Near Fracking Wells Contaminated With Methane
- 2013/06/26: CDreams: Fracked Gas Isn't a Bridge Fuel -- It's a Gangplank
- 2013/06/26: RT: Study links fracking with methane-contaminated drinking water
- 2013/06/26: Resilience: Can Frackers Be Paid Off? How One Community Is Trying to Buy Out Oil and Gas Leases
- 2013/06/25: SciNews: High methane in drinking water near fracking sites -- Well construction and geology may both play a role
- 2013/06/25: Grist: Study links fracking to drinking water pollution
- 2013/06/25: Resilience: Food, Farms, and Fracking in California
- 2013/06/25: ICN: Studies Find Methane in Pennsylvania Drinking Water
- 2013/06/25: NatureN: Gas drilling taints groundwater -- Chemical analysis links methane in drinking wells to shale-gas extraction
- 2013/06/25: CSM: How shale gas can slow global climate change
- 2013/06/25: DeSmogBlog: Duke Study Links Fracking to Water Contamination As EPA Drops Study on Fracking Water Contamination
- 2013/06/24: QuarkSoup: Study: Fracking is Affecting Some Water Quality
- 2013/06/23: CSM: Methane leaks of shale gas may undermine its climate benefits
- 2013/06/22: BDCamera: [18 month] Extension of Boulder County fracking moratorium deemed a win for many
On the coal front:
On the gas and oil front:
- 2013/06/28: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
  OIL (US$/bbl)
  Dated Brent Spot....102.16
  WTI Cushing Spot.....96.56
- 2013/06/29: CalcRisk: Oil: The Disappearing Brent / WTI Spread
- 2013/06/28: DOE:TiE: Price difference between Brent and WTI crude oil narrowing
- 2013/06/26: CSM: Global warming and the politics of fossil fuel
Regarding energy and the economy:
- 2013/06/26: CCurrents: Shale Gas Won't Stop Peak Oil, But Could Create An Economic Crisis
And in pipeline news:
- 2013/06/27: RT: Nabucco loses key Azerbaijan gas supplier to TAP
- Wiki: Nabucco Pipeline
- Wiki: Trans Adriatic Pipeline
- 2013/06/27: EurActiv: EU-backed Nabucco project 'over' after rival pipeline wins Azeri gas bid
  Nabucco West, the Austrian-led consortium that was bidding to build a pipeline to bring Azeri gas to Europe, has not been selected by the gas field's operators, the company announced yesterday (26 June). The choice of the Shah Deniz consortium is for the rival Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).
- 2013/06/27: EUO: Setback for EU plan to curb Russia gas dependency
  Brussels - EU plans to lower dependence on Russian gas in south-eastern member states have suffered a setback with the death of the "Nabucco" pipeline scheme.
  Austrian firm OMV, part of the Nabucco consortium, said on Wednesday (26 June) that Azerbaijan, the gas supplier, has opted for the rival "Tap" pipeline instead.
- 2013/06/26: BBC: South Sudan moves closer to oil pipeline to the south
  South Sudan has moved closer to its target of gaining access to a pipeline to export its oil to the south.
  The presidents of Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda have agreed to build two pipelines across East Africa.
  One would run from South Sudan to the Kenyan port city of Lamu and the other would stretch from Rwanda to Mombasa.
  Currently, South Sudan exports its oil through Sudan and supplies are often disrupted as the two countries disagree over pricing and security issues.
- 2013/06/26: ICN: Narrow and Flawed, Federal Pipeline Safety Study Fails to Settle Controversy
  Tar sands oil poses no greater risk to pipelines, study says, but is mum on question of its relative danger to humans and the environment when spilled.
- 2013/06/26: Grist: Study says tar-sands oil not more likely to leak; activists fault study
- 2013/06/27: SciAm:Obs: Tar Sands No Worse than Other Oils for Pipeline Spills
- 2013/06/24: FreeP: Three years after [Enbridge] oil spill, a slow recovery haunts Kalamazoo River
Marvelous. Now the USA have their own Mechanical Mordor:
- 2013/06/15: AlterNet: Tar Sands Mining Beginning in Utah: Why the U.S. Is Becoming Ground Zero For the Dirtiest Energy [With Slideshow]
The answer my friend...:
- 2013/06/28: C&S: Bird Deaths by Wind Turbines
- 2013/06/24: TreeHugger: TwingTec lightweight kite harvests wind energy up high
Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:
- 2013/06/28: TreeHugger: Solar coming to 200 more Walgreens roofs
- 2013/06/27: Grist: L.A. launches nation's largest solar rooftop program
- 2013/06/24: NREL: NREL Reports 31.1% Efficiency for III-V Solar Cell
  Conversion-efficiency mark is a world record for a two-junction solar cell measured under one-sun illumination
- 2013/06/26: Eureka: Solar power heads in a new direction: Thinner
- 2013/06/23: CleanTechnica: Solar Cell Efficiency World Record Set By Sharp - 44.4%
- 2013/06/19: CleanTechnica: Forecast: Cost Of PV Panels To Drop To $0.36/Watt By 2017
- 2013/06/20: Forbes: Siemens Exits Solar Industry, Suffers $1 Billion In Losses
The nuclear energy controversy continues:
- 2013/06/27: APR: £10 Billion Guarantee for Hinkley Point C in UK
- 2013/06/26: EneNews: Seattle TV: Children now sicker than ever from Chernobyl disaster -- Contamination to go on for centuries to come...
- 2013/06/26: APR: [Press Release] SCE begins job elimination process at SONGS
- 2013/06/26: IPSNet: U.N. Downplays Health Effects of Nuclear Radiation
  The United Nations has come under criticism from medical experts and members of civil society for what these critics consider inaccurate statements about the effects of lingering radioactivity on local populations.
  Scientists and doctors met with top U.N. officials last week to discuss the effects of radioactivity in Japan and Ukraine, and the U.N. has enlisted several of its agencies, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the U.N. Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), to address the matter.
- 2013/06/25: NYT: U.S. Moves to Abandon Costly Reactor Fuel Plant
  The Energy Department is moving toward abandoning a half-built factory that has cost $3.7 billion so far and was intended to make reactor fuel out of plutonium from retired nuclear bombs -- part of an agreement with Russia to shrink the world's supply of nuclear bomb fuel after the cold war.
  The department's estimate of the cost to complete the plant, at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., has jumped to $7.7 billion from $4.9 billion. The Obama administration is seeking to reduce the construction budget for the fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1, and has proposed allocating no money at all in subsequent years. If the plant were to be abandoned, the government would owe its contractors a cancellation fee that is likely to run into the tens of millions of dollars, according to experts, although details are not public.
- 2013/06/24: SciAm: At Chernobyl, Radioactive Danger Lurks in the Trees
  For 26 years, forests around Chernobyl have been absorbing radioactive elements but a fire would send them skyward again - a concern as summers grow longer, hotter and drier
Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:
- 2013/06/27: BellinghamHerald: PNNL staffers exposed to radioactive tritium in Richland
- 2013/06/27: PostMedia: Canadian nuclear agency receives application for toxic waste container
  The agency that regulates nuclear safety in Canada has received an application to approve a container designed to carry liquid nuclear waste.
  NAC International Inc., a U.S. company that specializes in nuclear packaging and transport, made a request to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission this month to certify a cask or "package" designed to transport a liquid solution of highly-enriched uranium (HEU).
- 2013/06/24: Grist: Nuclear waste leaking at Hanford site in Washington, again
- 2013/06/24: EneNews: Official: "This stands out from the string of recent bad news ... about leaking U.S. nuclear site" [Hanford]
Nuclear fusion projects around the world limp along:
- 2013/06/26: NBF: Alan Boyle review nuclear fusion and considers whether nuclear fusion energy funding should be cut
- 2013/06/25: ScienceInsider: Senate Spending Panel Votes to Stop U.S. Contributions to ITER
Like a mirage, the dream of a Hydrogen Economy shimmers on the horizon:
- 2013/06/24: AutoBG: Cheap metal-free catalyst could replace platinum in H2 fuel cells - a cathode coated with graphene nanoparticles edged with iodine
More people are talking about the electrical grid:
- 2013/06/28: AutoBG: Boulder EV rolling out vehicle-to-grid charging in electric trucks
- 2013/06/27: EurActiv: EU smart meter roll-out lags behind ambition
  Europe's ambitious plan for 80% market penetration of smart meters by 2020 is failing to live up to expectations. A senior energy official at the European Commission admits that market penetration is still very low, particularly in the new member states, and that there is a big shortfall in investment.
- 2013/06/24: Grist: Germany takes the first step toward a supergrid
- 2013/06/24: Asia Times: Tajikistan deviates from CASA script
And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:
- 2013/06/24: UCSUSA:B: Save Money, Cut Emissions, and Create Jobs: The Benefits of Half the Oil
Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:
As for Energy Storage:
- 2013/06/26: NatureN: Sulphur back in vogue for batteries -- Lithium-sulphur batteries benefit from new materials
Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:
Joe Romm posts a daily list of top energy and climate stories:
Other (weekly) lists:
2013/06/29: CleanTechnica: Top Solar Energy Stories Of The Week
2013/06/29: CleanTechnica: Top Electric Car & Clean Transport Stories Of The Week
2013/06/29: CleanTechnica: More Top Energy Stories Of The Week
2013/06/26: BPA: 3 Picks: Guerrilla Gardeners, Heritage Chickens, Jet Stream
2013/06/26: BPA: 3 Picks: EU Farm Policy, Biodiversity Solution, 2013 Food Prize
2013/06/25: BPA: 3 Picks: Cover Crops, Desalination in China, Rabbit Meat
2013/06/26: SkS: 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #26A by John Hartz
2013/06/29: SkS: 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #26B by John Hartz
2013/06/24: GLaden: Climate Change Items

The carbon lobby are up to the usual:
As for climate miscellanea:
And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:
Low Key Plug

My first novel _Water_ was published in May 2007.
An Introduction is available.
My most recent novel _The Bottleneck Years_ is being serialized online atmy siteand on AFTIC at Table of Contents
If you wany a copy of TBY, see The Deal.
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.

"Why is there so much febrile resignation? It's arrogant to despair.
We've multiplied so many options we can't even name them. Anything
is possible, and that's what gets me out of bed."
-Bruce Sterling, closing rant at SXSW, 2010.
Last modified June 30, 2013

More like this

Creating Sustainable Communities under Ecological Limits to Growth
By Gabor Zovanyi
More than two decades of mounting evidence confirms that the existing scale of the human enterprise has surpassed global ecological limits to growth. Based on such limits,The No-Growth Imperative discounts current efforts to maintain growth through eco-efficiency initiatives and smart-growth programs, and argues growth is inherently unsustainable and that the true nature of the challenge confronting us now is one of replacing the current growth imperative with a no-growth imperative.
Gabor Zovanyi asserts that anything less than stopping growth would merely slow today’s dramatic degradation and destruction of ecosystems and their critical life-support services. Zovanyi makes the case that local communities must take action to stop their unsustainable demographic, economic, and urban increases, as an essential prerequisite to the realization of sustainable states.
The book presents rationales and legally defensible strategies for stopping growth in local jurisdictions, and portrays the viability of no-growth communities by outlining their likely economic, social, political, and physical features. It will serve as a resource for those interested in shifting the focus of planning from growth accommodation to the creation of stable, sustainable communities... Zovanyi concludes by presenting evidence that suggests that prospects for realizing states of no growth are greater than might be assumed.

Something that everyone should read. A comprensive study over the past 7 years which has reconstructed temperature trends over the past two thousand years.

Results? No globally synchronous MWP, and the 'hockey stick' confirmed.

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=2&hl=en&ie=UTF…

Nobody want to comment on the findings of that study?

Nope. They sure don't want to discuss the findings of reputable scientists.

They prefer to parrot the nonsense non-scientist Anthony Watts is telling them.

craigtroll, why are YOU refusing to comment the study

BTW, i did a brief comment and it appeared for some time but as of a sudden WTF it had disappeared (looked like coby has deleted it)

maybe coby does not like contrarians on this one wholy agw ideology bible appraising "paper"

Maybe Coby is going to try to make sure you adhere to some minimum standards of coherence and honesty?

I'm happy to comment on the study: yet again, yet another independent study has looked at the available data and yet again, it has found that Mann's "Hockey Stick" was perfectly correct.

So, this study isn't hugely significant - it is only repeating for about the 20th time the same thing that all previous studies have shown.
So far, a grand total of zero studies have contradicted Mann - they all agree with him.

Conclusion: "freddy" is wrong, as usual.

@ craigtroll

so are really not aware that mike mann "invented" a methodology which always produces a hockeystick whatever values you feed in this grossly unscientific methodology. even if you feed in random numbers into mann's methodology you get a hockeystick. AND YOU DEFEND THIS JUNK AND HOAX METHOD?????? you very poorly informed and defend a scandalous methodology.

BTW, for once i agree to you that the study, which enlightens mandas so much, is totally uninspired, does not contain anything new, no original data, etc.

i can't understand tolerates such a view when YOU express this, and NOT I when practically say the same

the whole excitation of mandas about the study is no way understandable to me. as he is no scientist he may react differenty to things he encounters for the first time and please him.

No "freddy", Mann invented no such thing. The story you dumbly repeat was invented by some crank on the internet who isn't any kind of competent scientist.

How are you liking the Arctic sea ice "recovery", by the way freddy?
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/charctic-interactive-sea-ice-graph/

Another Week of GW News, June 30, 2013

Information is not Knowledge...Knowledge is not Wisdom

June 30, 2013

No matter how dark things seem, there are always bad jokes:

Looking ahead to COP19 and future international climate negotiations:

This is the only report I have seen on the Montreal Protocol meeting this week:

The Indian Monsoon has triggered a major disaster this year. See also :

American President Obama gave a speech this week. See also :

Singapore and Malaysia are still being afflicted by that heavy Sumatran smog:

And on the Bottom Line:

What's the World Bank up to?

John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:

A note on theFukushima disaster:

Not much good news coming out of Fukushima:

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

What do we have for Fukushima related papers this week?

The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:

As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

The food crisis is ongoing:

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

The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

So, are these land grabs Colonialism V2.0?

Regarding the genetic modification of food:

Regarding labelling GM food:

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

The warm waters of the Eastern Pacific are generating a stream of storms: Cosme, Dalila and several TDs:

In the Western Pacific, unreported Tropical Storm (06W) Rumbia crossed the Phillipines and is heading for Hainan, While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

As for the Monsoon:

This week in notable weather:

This week in the New Normal -- extreme weather:

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

Meanwhile on the GHG front:

As for the temperature record:

Aerosols are making their presence felt:

While in the paleoclimate:

In the attribution debate:

And on the ENSO front:

What's the State of the Oceans?:

And the State of the Biosphere?

And on the extinction watch:

The bees and Colony Collapse Disorder are a constant concern:

Intimations of Overshoot:

What's up with volcanoes this week?

Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

More GW impacts are being seen:

And then there are the world's forests:

Desertification looms as a threat:

Emerging diseases accompany ecological change:

Changes in natural cycles are showing up:

As for heatwaves and wild fires:

Corals are a bellwether of the ocean's health:

Glaciers are melting:

Sea levels are rising:

As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]. See also :

First, stop subsidizing fossil fuels Second, put a price on carbon Third, begin to reduce the human population And elsewhere on the mitigation front:

Consider transportation & GHG production:

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

As for carbon sequestration:

Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

What's new in conservation?

While on the adaptation front:

Meanwhile in the journals:

And other significant documents:

As for miscellaneous science:

What developments in the ongoing struggle for Open Science?

Meanwhile at the UN:

And on the carbon trading front:

The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

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

South [& East] China Sea tension persists:

These 'free trade' treaties feature fundamentally anti-democratic dispute resolution mechanisms:

A cute move in the ongoing solar squabble between China and Europe:

And in miscellaneous international political jousting:

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

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

What are the activists up to?

Polls! We have polls!

Regarding Water Politics and Business:

And on the groundwater front:

While in the UK:

In the Western Pacific, unreported Tropical Storm (06W) Rumbia crossed the Phillipines and is heading for Hainan,
While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

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

First, stop subsidizing fossil fuels
Second, put a price on carbon
Third, begin to reduce the human population
And elsewhere on the mitigation front:

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