Another Week of Climate Instability News, September 1, 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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Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years

September 1, 2013

• Chuckles, COP19+, G20, ICW, PIF, DMS, Hiatus, Potash, Salted, Overshoot
• Bottom Line, Big Banks, Cook, Meteorologists
• Fukushima: Note, News, Related Papers
• Melting Arctic, Mega-Canyon, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
• Food: Crisis, Fisheries, Prices, Microbial Revolution, GMOs, Production
• Hurricanes, Weather Machine, Notable Weather
• GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures, Aerosols, Paleoclimate
• Oceans, Extinctions, Bees & CCD, Proxies, Volcanoes, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Desertification, Disease
• Wildfires, Acidification, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, REDD, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering
• Journals, Other Docs, Misc. Science, Science Orgs, Models, Free Science
• International Politics: IPCC, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Hormuz, South China Sea, Airline Emissions
• Solar Spat, Treaties, Law & Activism, Activism, Divestment, H2O Biz, Groundwater, Predictions
• National Politics: Britain, Europe, Australia, Election, MDBP, India, China, Africa, South America
• Canada, Lac-Mégantic, Salmon, BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Ontario, North, Canadiana
• America, Post Sandy, Keystone, Carbon Tax, Birth Control, Obama, USAdmin, Congress, Lobbyists
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Courts, BP Trial, Betting
• Energy, Transitions, Fracking, Coal, Oil & Gas, Corps, Pipelines, Independence, Peak Oil, Biofuel
• Wind, Solar, Nukes, Nuclear Waste, FITs, Hydrogen, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Energy Storage
• Other Lists, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, A Simple Plea, .sig

 

We are definitely back in the black humour zone:

• 2013/08/27: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) Whistling Past His Graveyard

Not really GW, but everybody loves a mystery:

• 2013/08/28: CBC: Mysterious underground fire perplexes Alaska town
  Possible volcano or shale gas fire has been burning for more than a year.
  Residents of Eagle, Alaska, are getting worried about possibly toxic gases wafting into town from a mysterious underground fire on a nearby mountain that's been burning for almost a year.
  Nobody seems to know exactly what's burning. Experts suspect it's either a volcano forming or natural gas or oil burning in underground shale deposits. Whatever it is, the fire has been burning on a remote mountaintop, about 40 kilometres north of the community since last October at least.

Looking ahead to COP19 and future international climate negotiations:

• 2013/08/27: RTCC: Comment: COP19 must discuss losses caused by climate change
  COP 19 attendees should fund research on loss and damage from climate change related disasters

There's a G20 meet coming up in Petersberg:

• 2013/08/30: UN: Ahead of G20 summit, Ban calls for leadership towards building more sustainable future

Ecuador is to Host the International Congress on Water in January 2014:

• 2013/08/26: PLNA: Ecuador to Host Intl. Congress on Water
  Ecuador will hold the International Congress on Water 2014: International Perspective about Water Resources and Environment, in January, 2014.

The Pacific Island Forum coming up next week:

• The Majuro Declaration
• 2013/09/01: Guardian(UK): 'We are fighting for survival,' Pacific islands leader warns
  Atolls are at risk of becoming uninhabitable as sea levels rise, Marshall islands president will tell summit
• 2013/09/01: ABC(Au): Pacific summit aims to renew global climate efforts
• 2013/08/30: RTCC: Pacific Islands to push for climate ambition at Majuro summit
  Leaders set to push for more ambitious vision on climate change, as Marshall Islands sink into Pacific
  A high level forum taking place next week in the Marshall Islands will aim to address the increasingly pressing issue of climate change that is threatening the Pacific Islands region.
• 2013/08/28: ABC(Au): EU Climate Commissioner urges Pacific Nations to share their experience of climate change
  The Pacific Island nations must show the world how climate change is affecting them says the EU head of Climate Action.
  Connie Hedegaard, European commissioner for Climate Action will be joining the Pacific Island Forum next month.

A slightly unnerving new feedback discovered. Acidification inhibits DMS production which means fewer clouds:

• 2013/08/25: Nature:CC: (ab$) Global warming amplified by reduced sulphur fluxes as a result of ocean acidification by Katharina D. Six et al.
• 2013/08/30: SciAm:CS: How One Little Molecule Influences Earth's Climate
• 2013/08/28: Grist: Vanishing ocean smell could also mean fewer clouds
• 2013/08/27: CSM: How tiny plankton could give global warming a significant boost
• 2013/08/26: ArcticNews: The astounding global warming impact on our oceans that will reduce cloud cover and bring tears to your eyes
• 2013/08/26: TP:JR: Ocean Acidification May Amplify Global Warming This Century Up To 0.9°F
• 2013/08/26: UKISS: The astounding global warming impact on our oceans that will reduce cloud cover and bring tears to your eyes [DMS]
• 2013/08/26: ABC(Au): Scientists identify new factor in global warming
• 2013/08/26: ABC(Au): Ocean acidification increases warming
• 2013/08/26: ABC(Au): Studies highlight dangers of rising acidity in oceans
• 2013/08/26: ABC(Au): Climate study adds more heat to global warming
• 2013/08/25: NatureN: Rising ocean acidity will exacerbate global warming
  Carbon dioxide soaked up by seawater will cause plankton to release less cloud-forming compounds back into atmosphere.

The Kosaka & Xie paper on the atmospheric hiatus triggered a lot of comment:

• 2013/08/30: Nature: (ab$) Recent global-warming hiatus tied to equatorial Pacific surface cooling by Yu Kosaka & Shang-Ping Xie
• 2013/04/08: AMetSoc:JoC: (ab$) Externally forced and internally generated decadal climate variability associated with the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation by Gerald A. Meehl et al.
• 2013/08/30: KSJT: Spotty coverage for La Niña as plausible reason surface global warming hit the brakes
• 2013/08/30: WottsUWTB: Judith Curry is blown away?
• 2013/08/30: CAbyss: Learning From the Hiatus
• 2013/08/29: ABC(Au): Pacific cooling explains slowdown in global warming: study
• 2013/08/29: ABC(Au): US researchers link Pacific cooling to slowdown in global warming
• 2013/08/28: Nature: [Editorial] Hidden heat
  Scientists are homing in on the reasons for the current hiatus in global warming, but all must recognize that the long-term risk of warming from carbon dioxide remains high.
• 2013/08/28: Guardian(UK): Cooling Pacific has dampened global warming, research shows
• 2013/08/28: Guardian(UK): Global warming and oceans: what are the known unknowns?
• 2013/08/28: BBerg: Oceans Storing Earth's Excess Heat in Leaked UN Report
  While the researchers said the ocean remains basic rather than acidic, meaning it has a pH level greater than 7, falling pH is a measure of acidification that may harm marine life from mollusks to fish, according to an Aug. 25 study in the journal Nature Climate Change.
  The oceans are becoming a repository for almost all of Earth's excess heat, driving up sea levels and threatening coastlines, according to a leaked draft of the most comprehensive United Nations report addressing climate science.
  Temperatures in the shallowest waters rose by more than 0.1 degree Celsius (0.18 degree Fahrenheit) a decade for the 40 years through 2010, the study found. Average sea levels have increased worldwide by about 19 centimeters (7.5 inches) since 1901 and researchers said it's "very likely" the system of ocean currents that includes the Gulf Stream will slow in the coming decades.
• 2013/08/28: BBC: Global warming slowdown linked to cooler Pacific waters
• 2013/08/28: CSM: Why has global warming paused? Pacific Ocean's 'engine room' runningcool
• 2013/08/28: CSM: Is the Pacific Ocean holding back global warming?
• 2013/08/28: SciNow: A Reprieve From Warming, Thanks to the Pacific
• 2013/08/28: P3: The Hiatus, Continued
• 2013/08/29: TheConversation: Warming slowed by cooling Pacific Ocean
• 2013/08/28: NatureN: Tropical ocean key to global warming 'hiatus' [Tollefson]
  Surface cooling in equatorial Pacific drives decade-long pause in global temperature rise.
• 2013/08/28: SciNews: Global warming hiatus tied to cooler temps in Pacific
  Average air temperatures' rise has paused, but not stopped, because of normal variation in ocean temperatures

Half the potash cartel fell apart; Billiton bets billions on the farm. This week Russia and Belarus are spitting cats:

• 2013/08/30: Guardian(UK): Russia bans Belarusian pork imports in trade war over businessman's arrest
  Moscow responds with fury after Vladislav Baumgertner, head of potash firm Uralkali, is seized at Minsk airport
• 2013/08/29: RT: Belarus targets Russian billionaire as 'potash war' intensifies
  Suleiman Kerimov, a majority shareholder in Uralkali, could be the next victim in the 'potash war' as diplomatic relations sour between Minsk and Moscow.
  A main shareholder in Uralkali, Kerimov may soon join Uralkali CEO Baumgertner in jail, as Belarusian investigators claim they have 'reason' to open a criminal case against him...
• 2013/08/28: RT: Russia hints at 'milk war' after Belarus takes 'potash war' hostage
• 2013/08/29: BBC: Belarus-Russia potash dispute escalates with trade tensions
• 2013/08/26: BBC: Belarus holds Russian Uralkali potash boss in price row
  Investigators in Belarus have detained the head of Russia's largest potash producer Uralkali on suspicion of abusing his authority.
  Criminal proceedings have been launched against the firm's CEO Vladislav Baumgertner and several top managers in the Belarus Potash Company (BPC).
  On 30 July Uralkali pulled out of a joint trading venture with BPC.
• 2013/08/26: CBC: Uralkali CEO arrested in Belarus amid potash dispute
  Investigators in Minsk, Belarus have arrested and charged the head of Russia's largest potash producer Uralkali on charges of abusing its power -- just weeks after the company pulled out of a trade venture with its neighbouring country.
  Uralkali's chief executive Vladislav Baumgertner was held Monday after being arrested at Minsk airport as he was leaving for Moscow following a meeting with the Belarusian prime minister.

Cum grano salis:

• 2013/08/25: Independent(IE): Wave goodbye to global warming, GM and pesticides
  Radio wave-treated water could change agriculture as we know it. Its Irish pioneers meet Tom Prendeville
  Miracle grow: Treated water results in larger, healthier crops, says Professor Austin Darragh of Limerick University
  A groundbreaking new Irish technology which could be the greatest breakthrough in agriculture since the plough is set to change the face of modern farming forever.

Late comment on Earth Overshoot Day:

• 2013/08/26: DD: The day the Earth ran out: The causes and consequences of Earth Overshoot Day

And on the Bottom Line:

• 2013/08/26: DeSmogBlog: Official Price of the Enbridge Kalamazoo Spill, A Whopping $1,039,000,000

What are the global financial institutions up to?

• 2013/08/30: RTCC: RBS' carbon footprint dwarfs emissions of entire UK
• 2013/08/30: RTCC: World's top banks to penalise businesses that damage nature
  43 leading financial institutions plan to cut credit for companies which rely on nature but fail to value it

John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:

• 2013/08/31: SkS: 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #35B by John Hartz
• 2013/08/30: SkS: Global warming...still happening by Ari Jokimäki
• 2013/08/29: SkS: Abraham et al. (2013) explore the known unknowns in the oceans and global warming by John Abraham
• 2013/08/27: SkS: 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #35A by John Hartz
• 2013/08/28: SkS: The Beginners Guide to Representative Concentration Pathways - Part 3 by gpwayne
• 2013/08/27: SkS: The Beginners Guide to Representative Concentration Pathways - Part 2 by gpwayne
• 2013/08/26: SkS: The Beginners Guide to Representative Concentration Pathways - Part 1 by gpwayne
• 2013/08/25: SkS: 2013 SkS Weekly Digest #34 by John Hartz

TV Meteorologists typically follow the corporate media line, but not always...

• 2013/08/30: TP:JR: Squeezing The Future Of The World Into 3 Minutes Of Air Time

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.
[Now some people are talking about a century or more. Sealing it in concrete for 500 years.]
We'll see.
At any rate this situation is not going to be resolved any time soon
and deserves its own section.
Meanwhile...
It is very difficult to know for sure what is really going on at Fukushima.
Between the company [TEPCO], the Japanese government, the Japanese regulator [NISA], the international monitor [IAEA], as well as independent analysts and commentators, there is a confusing mish-mash of information.
One has to evaluate both the content and the source of propagated information.
How knowledgeable are they [about nuclear power and about Japan]?
Do they have an agenda?
Are they pro-nuclear or anti-nuclear?
Do they want to write a good news story?
Do they want to write a bad news story?
Where do they rate on a scale of sensationalism?
Where do they rate on a scale of play-it-down-ness?
One fundamental question I would like to see answered:
If the reactors are in meltdown, how can they be in cold shutdown?

Not much good news coming out of Fukushima:

• 2013/09/01: CBC: Fukushima radiation levels spike
  Radiation near a tank holding highly contaminated water at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has spiked 18-fold, the plant's operator said on Sunday, highlighting the struggle to bring the crisis under control after more than two years.
  Radiation of 1,800 millisieverts per hour -- enough to kill an exposed person in four hours -- was detected near the bottom of one storage tank on Saturday, Tokyo Electric Power Co , also known as Tepco, said.
• 2013/09/01: BBC: Fukushima radiation levels '18 times higher' than thought
  Radiation levels around Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant are 18 times higher than previously thought, Japanese authorities have warned.
  Last week the plant's operator reported radioactive water had leaked from a storage tank into the ground.
  It now says readings taken near the leaking tank on Saturday showed radiation was high enough to prove lethal within four hours of exposure.
• 2013/09/01: CNN: Fukushima radiation levels spike, company says
• 2013/09/01: ABC(Au): New radiation hotspots found at Fukushima nuclear plant
• 2013/09/01: IndiaTimes: High radiation readings found at Fukushima tanks
• 2013/09/01: IndiaTimes: Radiation readings spike at water tank at Japan's ruined nuclear plant
  [...] Radiation of 1,800 millisieverts per hour - enough to kill an exposed person in four hours - was detected near the bottom of one storage tank on Saturday...
• 2013/08/31: EneNews: Contamination levels skyrocket at Fukushima plant, up nearly 2,000% - NHK: Quadrillions of becquerels already released...
• 2013/08/31: EneNews: U.S. Nuclear Insider: Will be challenge to get "what's left" of Fukushima's melted fuel...
• 2013/08/30: Asahi: Government under fire for slow response to Fukushima leak
• 2013/08/30: EneNews: Experts: Fukushima "literally a matter of national security" - "This is becoming rapidly an international issue"...
• 2013/08/30: EneNews: Experts on Fukushima Unit 4: CNBC: "Far from under control, could get a lot worse" - Japan Times: "Could very quickly get much worse" - CNN: "Could still get a lot worse"...
• 2013/08/30: CNN:B: Why Fukushima is worse than you think by Mycle Schneider
• 2013/08/30: DD: Fukushima meltdowns have not polluted the entire Pacific Ocean, no need to panic!
• 2013/08/30: EneNews: Professor: Fukushima disaster "beyond a cover-up" - Japan gov't thinks they can get away with tricking masses about extent of problem...
• 2013/08/29: TP:JR: Eating Fish From The Pacific Ocean Won't Turn You Into A Mutant
• 2013/08/29: CBC: Fukushima radiation devastates fishing industry -- Radiation contamination makes catch inedible
  [...]
  For the last 2½ years, fishermen from the port of Yotsukura near the stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant have been mostly stuck on land with little to do. There is no commercial fishing along most of the Fukushima coast.
• 2013/08/29: EneNews: Will Fukushima now officially be referred to as worst nuclear disaster in world history? Study estimates Japan plant released 100 quadrillion becquerels (PBq) of cesium into atmosphere... In a single day
• 2013/08/29: ABC(Au): Shock at TEPCO's announcement that they did not notice highly radioactive leaking water
• 2013/08/29: BBerg: Fukushima Fishermen Ruined by Tepco Now Key in Radiation Fight
• 2013/08/29: NatureN: Government 'must step in' to halt Fukushima leaks
  Ministers called on to intervene as regulators upgrade severity level of the leakage.
• 2013/08/28: Arirang(Kr): Radioactive water may contaminate entire Pacific Ocean in 6 years
• 2013/08/28: DemNow: As Fukushima Raises Severity Level, Nuclear Expert Warns Radioactive Leaks Will Only "Get Worse"
• 2013/08/28: CBC: Japan Fukushima plant's radioactive leak severity upgraded [to INES 3]
• 2013/08/28: EneNews: UPI: Fukushima plume to reach U.S. West Coast in months; Measurable increase in radioactive material...
• 2013/08/28: EneNews: Underground water just 4 inches from surface by Fukushima reactor - AP: Groundwater closer to surface than Tepco told officials investigating tank leak
• 2013/08/28: CSM: Fukushima leak: Who will clean up the mess?
• 2013/08/28: Grist: Fukushima keeps on leaking, Japan keeps on issuing confusing explanations
• 2013/08/28: ABC(Au): Fukushima alert level officially raised to 'serious incident' [INES 3]
• 2013/08/28: EneNews: Newspaper: Nations across Pacific are fearing impact from Fukushima...
• 2013/08/28: IndiaTimes: Japanese regulator raises alert for nuclear leaks
• 2013/08/28: WSWS: TEPCO reports new leaks at Fukushima reactor
• 2013/08/27: CNN: Japan fed up with 'whack-a-mole' approach to Fukushima
  Attempts by the operator of Japan's stricken nuclear power plant to deal with alarming leaks of toxic water are like a game of "whack-a-mole," the country's industry minister said this week.
• 2013/08/27: EneNews: Study: "Fuel materials" introduced to Pacific Ocean via drains of Fukushima plant resulting in potentially serious contamination of marine environment
• 2013/08/27: EneNews: 'The Coming Fallout': Experts now fear massive reservoir of Fukushima contamination about to reach Pacific Ocean...
• 2013/08/27: EneNews: Nuclear experts concerned about water flow "reversing" due to Fukushima underground ice plan - Even more highly radioactive liquid inside reactor buildings to enter aquifer?
• 2013/08/27: Xinhuanet: News Analysis: Rising nuclear crisis casts dark shadow over Tokyo's 2020 Olympic bid
• 2013/08/27: EneNews: Nuclear Official: Tepco made Fukushima plant into a "machine for generating radioactive water" - Runoff from molten atomic cores now in groundwater, ocean - 'Air cooling' should be used
• 2013/08/26: EneNews: Japan Times: Extreme contamination in Fukushima reactor buildings 'most likely' mixing into aquifer, reveals Tepco...
• 2013/08/26: EneNews: Experts: Fukushima leaks "much worse" than authorities will admit...
• 2013/08/26: RT: Japan eyes emergency funds for Fukushima containment bid
• 2013/08/26: Resilience: Fukushima's legacy is just beginning
• 2013/08/26: SaskBoy: Fukushima Keeps Staying The Worst
• 2013/08/26: CBC: Fukushima operator apologizes for radioactive water leak
• 2013/08/26: BBerg: Fukushima Leaks Prompt Government to 'Emergency Measures'
• 2013/08/26: Grist: Ask Umbra: What can Fukushima teach us?
• 2013/08/25: DD: Radioactive groundwater at Fukushima nears Pacific...
• 2013/08/26: EneNews: Local Gov't Official in Fukushima: "One day the world will sue Japan for this" (video)
• 2013/08/25: JuneauEmpire: [Editorial] Is Fukushima tainting one of Alaska's most valuable resources?
• 2013/08/25: Asahi: Ground subsidence could have damaged leaky tank at Fukushima plant
• 2013/08/25: al Jazeera:B:Fukushima: a disaster with a long half-life
  No solutions and no end in sight to leaks and contamination, more than two years after Japanese nuclear disaster
• 2013/08/25: BBerg: Russia Offers Fukushima Cleanup Help as Tepco Reaches Out

What do we have for Fukushima related papers this week?

• 2013/08/29: BG: Horizontal distribution of Fukushima-derived radiocesium in zooplankton in the northwestern Pacific Ocean by M. Kitamura et al.
• 2012/07/21: Springer:AE: (ab$) Estimation of radionuclide emission during the march 15, 2011 accident at the fukushima-1 npp (japan) by R. V. Arutyunyan et al.

The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:

• 2013/08/31: SimpleC: Bouncing lasers off satellites backs faster Greenland melt
• 2013/08/28: ASI: Crowd-Source Prediction of September Sea Ice Extent (August report)
• 2013/08/28: NatureN: Summer storms bolster Arctic ice -- This year's cyclones grant sea ice a temporary reprieve
• 2013/08/28: Eureka: Researchers predict greener Greenland
  In 2100, a warmer climate will allow growth of trees and bushes in large parts of that Greenland, which is currently ice-free
• 2013/08/28: CBC: Greenland to become greener with climate change, scientists say -- Country will be able to host forests by 2100
• 2013/08/28: Guardian(UK): Climate change could turn Greenland green by 2100
• 2013/08/27: Guardian(UK): Drones proving useful in polar regions to study the melting of the ice
• 2013/08/27: Guardian(UK): Flying low over Greenland, Icepod tracks changes in the ice sheet
• 2013/08/26: Dosbat: Prediction Update

There is a certain fascination with Greenland's hidden mega-canyon:

• 2013/08/30: CCP: Greenland's subterranean mega-canyon flows to the Petermann Glacier
• 2013/08/30: ASI: New year, new Healy expedition
• 2013/08/30: CSM: Humongous 'grand canyon' locked between Greenland's ice, scientists say
• 2013/08/30: PSinclair: Newly Found: Canyon Under Greenland Ice
• 2013/08/29: BBC: Huge canyon discovered under Greenland ice
• 2013/08/29: CSM: Greenland has its own Grand Canyon deep under ice, study says
• 2013/08/29: NASA: NASA Data Reveals Mega-Canyon under Greenland Ice Sheet
• 2013/08/29: CNN: Beneath Greenland's ice, a grand canyon
  A 460-mile canyon up to half a mile deep lies beneath Greenland's ice - The discovery was reported in a scientific journal Thursday - "It looks like it was a pretty extensive river system millions of years ago," scientist says
• 2013/08/29: SciNews: Big canyon entombed beneath Greenland's ice -- Newly discovered chasm helps explain island's lack of subglacial lakes

That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:

• 2013/08/30: ArcticNews: Historic killer methane could erupt from Arctic
• 2013/08/27: P3: Climatifact: Seven Points in Support of Shakhova? Or not?

As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

• 2013/08/30: WSWS: Canada spearheads exploitation and militarization of the Arctic
• 2013/08/27: al Jazeera: How the Arctic Ocean could transform world trade
  Melting northern waters attract Asia's commercial giants, but they will need the help of Arctic nations to succeed.

While in Antarctica:

• 2013/08/30: Grist: Antarctic moss a charming but chilling sign of warming
• 2013/08/29: BBC: East Antarctic ice sheet 'vulnerable' to temperature changes
  The world's thickest ice sheet may be at greater risk from variations in the climate than previously believed.
• 2013/08/28: SciAm:TCW: East Antarctic glaciers could be much more vulnerable to climate change than previously thought
• 2013/08/26: DD: Krill face greater risks in warming Antarctic waters

The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2013/08/30: CCurrents: Rising Temperature, Rising Food Prices by Lester R. Brown
• 2013/08/30: ABC(Au): Impact of parasites on global food security
• 2013/08/29: RT: US farm income approaching record high despite falling farming household income
• 2013/08/28: BPA: Remarkable Graphs of Corn & Soybean Profitability
• 2013/08/28: RWER: Malthus redux? 2. The danger is real
• 2013/08/27: RWER: Malthus redux? (1)
• 2013/08/28: Grist: U.S. government paid $17 billion for weather-withered crops last year
• 2013/08/27: TreeHugger: Rising Temperature, Rising Food Prices by Lester Brown
• 2013/08/26: USA Today: Kansas crops face water questions as aquifer levels fall
• 2013/08/26: ERW: Insight: crops will face more extreme heat during flowering season
  Extreme heat during the flowering period of crops can interfere with pollination and grain formation, and severely reduce yields.

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

• 2013/08/26: ABC(Au): Call for China to reflag its tuna boats

Food Prices are still problematic:

• FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
• 2013/08/27: BPA: Since 2006, Food Prices Have Risen 20 Percent
  Food prices grew by 35 percent from 1993 to 2005, or about 2-3 percent each year.
• 2013/04/11: WWI: Global Food Prices Continue to Rise
  As both climate change and population growth continue to increase, there is reason to believe that food commodity prices will be both higher and more volatile in the decades to come.

Are we going to see a microbial revolution next?

• 2013/08/27: Eureka: Report proposes microbiology's grand challenge to help feed the world

Regarding the genetic modification of food:

• 2013/08/29: Grist: Golden Rice: Fool's gold or golden opportunity?
• 2013/08/29: BPA: Punditry: Grist, Pollan and Harmon
• 2013/08/28: Grist: Pointed talk: Michael Pollan and Amy Harmon dissect a GM controversy
• 2013/08/26: KSJT: GMO, Oranges, and the Narrative Writer

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

• 2013/08/30: UN: Central African Republic: UN food relief agency scaling-up operations despite deteriorating security
• 2013/08/30: UCSUSA:B: Let's Drop "Feed The World": A Plea To Move Beyond an Unhelpful Phrase
• 2013/08/29: Resilience: Permaculture in China
• 2013/08/27: Guardian(UK): India approves food bill to subsidise grain for the poor
• 2013/08/26: UN: Healthy ecosystems can help avoid food insecurity in Africa, UN-backed conference
• 2013/08/26: BLongstaff: Will India defeat malnutrition?
• 2013/08/26: BBC: India lower house of parliament passes cheap food plan
  India's lower house of parliament has passed a controversial Food Security Bill that aims to provide subsidised food to two-thirds of the population.
  Under the plan, which still needs to be approved by the upper house, 800m poor people would receive to give 5kg (11lb) of cheap grain every month.
  Its backers argue it is a big step towards eradicating the widespread hunger and malnutrition plaguing India.
  But critics say it is a profligate plan which will hurt India's economy.

In the Western Pacific, tropical storm Kong-Rey sideswiped the Philippines and Taiwan before heading for Japan:

• 2013/08/28: ABC(Au): Philippines battered by tropical storm Kong-Rey
  A powerful storm has pounded the northern Philippines, causing substantial flooding and at least one death.
  Tropical storm Kong-Rey has flooded provinces in the northern and central Philippines as it moves towards southern Japan.
• 2013/08/28: Xinhuanet: China issues yellow alert as tropical storm [Kong-rey] nears
• 2013/08/26: NASA: NASA Catches Tropical Storm Kong-Rey Form in Northwestern Pacific

In the Eastern Pacific, TS Juliette brushed the Baja before fading only to be replaced by unreported Kiko:

• 2013/08/29: NASA: NASA Sees Tropical Storm Juliette Waning Near Mexico's Baja California
  

  In the Caribbean, Tropical Storm Fernand spun up and drenched Mexico:

• 2013/08/29: al Jazeera: 13 killed by landslides in Mexico -- Tropical Storm Fernand slams into the Veracruz State bringing torrential downpours
• 2013/08/27: Wunderground: Fernand's Rains Kill 13 in Mexico
• 2013/08/27: Xinhuanet: Tropical storm Fernand leaves 13 people dead in eastern Mexico
• 2013/08/27: IndiaTimes: Tropical depression Fernand kills 13 in Mexico, dissipates
• 2013/08/26: CNN: Tropical Storm Fernand hits Mexico, dumps rain
  Tropical Storm Fernand is expected to weaken more over land - A tropical storm warning is in effect from Veracruz to Barra de Nautla, Mexico -
  Fernand could dump as much as a foot of rain in some places - The storm made landfall late Sunday
• 2013/08/26: Wunderground: Fernand Hits Veracruz, Mexico; Active Atlantic Hurricane Pattern Setting Up
• 2013/08/26: NASA: NASA Sees Quick Forming Tropical Storm Fernand Soaking Mexico
• 2013/08/26: IndiaTimes: Tropical Storm Fernand forms off Mexico's coast
• 2013/08/25: Wunderground: Tropical Depression Six Forms in the Gulf of Mexico
  

  While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

• 2013/08/31: IOTD: Dissecting Typhoon Utor [on Aug 21]
• 2013/08/31: Wunderground: Rains From Invest 96L Kill 55 in Mali
• 2013/08/30: Wunderground: August Ends With a Whimper for the Atlantic Hurricane Season
• 2013/08/29: MODIS: Typhoon Trami (12W) approaching China and Taiwan [on Aug 21]
• 2013/08/29: Wunderground: Genesis of New Atlantic Tropical Cyclones: Which Model Should You Trust?
• 2013/08/29: TP:JR: Eight Years After Katrina, New Orleans Is A Monument Of Both Hope And Future Climate Threats
• 2013/08/28: ABC(Au): Push to name hurricanes after climate change deniers
• 2013/08/26: Grist: Brilliant proposal: Name hurricanes after obstructionist lawmakers
• 2013/08/26: CDreams: Katrina Pain Index 2013 -- Eight Years After the Hurricane
• 2013/08/26: NASA: NASA Sees Depression Pewa Pass in Pacific
  

  What's new in the Weather Machine?

  • 2013/08/27: SEasterbrook: The Climate as a System, part 3: greenhouse gases
  • 2013/08/26: SEasterbrook: The Climate as a System, part 2: energy consumption

  This week in notable weather:

  • 2013/08/31: BBC: Peru snow state of emergency extended to more regions
    The Peruvian government has extended to nine more regions a state of emergency called to cope with unusually cold weather and heavy snowfall.
    At least two people have died and 33,000 others have been affected by the cold spell, local officials say.
    Tens of thousands of animals have frozen to death over the past week.
    President Ollanta Humala has travelled to Apurimac, one of the worst-hit areas, to oversee the distribution of emergency aid.
    The state of emergency would be in place for 20 days, an official statement said.
    The heaviest snow fall to hit Peru in a decade has killed tens of thousands of llamas, alpacas, cattle and sheep, and left farmers destitute.

  As for GHGs:

  • 2013/08/31: Grist: Mind the carbon gap
  • 2013/08/28: PeakEnergy: The Carbon Dioxide Problem Worsens
  • 2013/08/28: TP:JR: Vicious Cycle: Extreme Climate Events Release 11 Billion Tons Of CO2 Into The Air Every Year
  • 2013/08/27: ETI:RRapier: The Carbon Dioxide Problem Worsens - data from the 2013 BP Statistical Review of World Energy

  And in the carbon cycle:

  • 2013/08/30: Grist: Don't diss dung beetles -- they're cooling the planet
  • 2013/08/27: RTCC: Dung beetles reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cow pats

  As for the temperature record:

  • 2013/09/01: ABC(Au): ACT has warmest winter on record
    The ACT has set a new record for the warmest winter reaching a new average temperature of 14.1 degrees.
    The city recorded a very wet June with 250 per cent of the normal rainfall during the month, while July 2013 was Canberra's warmest July on record.
  • 2013/08/31: Moyhu: Significant warming

  Aerosols are making their presence felt:

  • 2013/08/29: IOTD: Tracking Dust Across the Atlantic
  • 2013/08/27: CSM: Phoenix haboob: massive dust storm rolls into Arizona

  While in the paleoclimate:

  • 2013/08/26: UPenn: Penn Study Finds Earlier Peak for Spain's Glaciers [26 kya]

  What's the State of the Oceans?:

  • 2013/08/28: TheCanadian: Costa Rican shark finning may be far worse than previously thought
  • 2013/08/28: ScienceInsider: Measleslike [Morbillivirus] Virus Likely Culprit in U.S. Dolphin Die-Off
  • 2013/08/28: NOAA: 2013 Bottlenose Dolphin Unusual Mortality Event in the Mid-Atlantic
  • 2013/08/28: Guardian(UK): Eighty sea turtles wash up dead on the coast of Guatemala
  • 2013/08/27: CBC: Right whale breeding ground discovered off N.S. -- Aerial surveys and DNA testing tracks whale promiscuity
  • 2013/08/27: NatureNB: Virus [morbillivirus] pinpointed in US dolphin die-off
    More than 300 bottlenose dolphins have stranded themselves along the US East Coast this summer, and now researchers think they know why: they are sick.
    Preliminary tests suggest that cetacean morbillivirus, a cousin of the virus that causes measles in humans, is killing dolphins from New York to North Carolina, officials with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said today.
  • 2013/08/27: BasqueResearch: An alga stressed by the light
  • 2013/08/26: UHawaii: Submarine canyons a source of marine invertebrate diversity, abundance
  • 2013/08/26: BBC: Sea otter return boosts ailing seagrass in California

  What's new on the extinction front?

  • 2013/08/31: RT: Open-sea US Navy testing will kill hundreds of dolphins and whales
  • 2013/08/31: DD: Graph of the Day: Decline of butterfly populations in Europe and EU, 1990-2011
  • 2013/08/29: DD: Denmark defends whale and dolphin slaughter in Faroe Islands - 1,085 dolphins killed since 21 July 2013
  • 2013/08/28: UBristol: Not the end of the world: why Earth's greatest mass extinction was the making of modern mammals
  • 2013/08/26: CSM: As elephants vanish, Kenya puts Chinese ivory smuggler in prison
  • 2013/08/26: CBC: India bans shark 'finning' -- Hunting solely for sharks fins grown due to demand from China for shark fin soup
  • 2013/08/26: TreeHugger: [Slideshow] 14 of North America's most endangered birds

  The bees and Colony Collapse Disorder are a constant concern.
  And then, there are the Neonicotinoids:

  • 2013/08/30: Grist: Farm kills millions of bees with illegal pesticide spraying, gets slap on wrist
  • 2013/08/29: TreeHugger: Florida citrus grower fined $1,500 for killing millions of honeybees
  • 2013/08/29: CDreams: A Safe Place for Bees: Will US Follow Europe in Banning Hive-Killing Pesticides?
  • 2013/08/28: ScienceInsider: Pesticidemakers Challenge E.U. Neonicotinoid Ban in Court
  • 2013/08/27: Grist: Syngenta to take a continent to court to upend pesticide ban
    Syngenta is preparing to spray its lawyerly might all over Europe in a bid to be allowed to keep killing bees.
    The agro-chemical giant announced Tuesday that it would haul the European Commission before the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg in an effort to block the looming suspension of its neonic insecticide thiamethoxam -- aka Cruiser.
  • 2013/08/27: ERabett: Dano on Bees - Lack of Same

  What's new in proxies?

  • 2013/08/31: JFleck: Tree rings: it's not just the width any more, it's the isotopes

  What's up with volcanoes this week?

  • 2013/08/27: IOTD: Big Blast at Sakurajima Volcano, Japan

  Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

  • 2013/08/28: EUMetSat: EUMETSAT and NOAA sign long-term agreement for weather and climate monitoring from space
  • 2013/08/28: NOAANews: NOAA, EUMETSAT sign long-term agreement for weather, climate monitoring
  • 2013/08/26: IndiaTimes: Ukraine, Japan to monitor Chernobyl and Fukushima from space

  More GW impacts are being seen:

  • 2013/08/30: RtS: Nemo the Climate Refugee
  • 2013/08/26: CCurrents: Climate Crisis To Harm All Forms Of Marine Life, Finds Study

  And then there are the world's forests:

  • 2013/08/30: USDA:FS:NRS: Red spruce reviving in New England, but why?
    Scientists surprised to find red spruce thriving, now looking for cause of historic growth rate

  Desertification looms as a threat:

  • 2013/08/28: Xinhuanet: China's media compaign on combating desertification "inspires hope": UN body

  Emerging diseases accompany ecological change:

  • 2013/08/26: Grist: We're already sick of climate change -- and getting sicker

  As for heatwaves and wild fires:

  • 2013/09/01: MODIS: The Rim Fire, California (morning overpass) [on Aug 26]
  • 2013/09/01: APOD: Fire on Earth - in the year 2000, stunned elk avoid a fire sweeping through Montana's Bitterroot Valley by standing in a river
  • 2013/08/30: TP:JR: 4 Consequences Of The Midwest's Scorching Late-Season Heat Wave
  • 2013/08/30: CBC: Firefighters make progress on Yosemite wildfire
  • 2013/08/30: NASA: Rim Fire Update
  • 2013/08/30: LA Times: Let it burn? Yosemite park officials won't say that, but it's policy
    Unless a naturally occurring fire threatens lives or structures, Yosemite and other national parks are likely to let nature run its course.
  • 2013/08/30: CNN: Some evacuations lifted as firefighters in California battle Rim Fire near Yosemite
    The Rim Fire, which has burned nearly 200,000 acres, is 32% contained - It's the fifth largest wildfire in California's history -
    The blaze has cost the state more than $39 million to date - Forest Service chief says firefighting will continue for weeks
  • 2013/08/30: MODIS: Fires in western United States [on Aug 19]
  • 2013/08/29: NASA: NASA's Landsat Revisits Old Flames in Fire Trends
  • 2013/08/29: DD: Video: Time lapse of Rim Fire viewed from Yosemite National Park, August 2013
  • 2013/08/29: IndiaTimes: Wildfires blamed for massive blackout in northeastern Brazil
  • 2013/08/29: NASA: Fires Plague Portugal
  • 2013/08/29: NASA: Rim Fire Update
  • 2013/08/29: CNN: On the edge of a firestorm, Yosemite hikers escape the flames
  • 2013/08/29: CBC: California wildfire prompts Yosemite travel restrictions -- Blaze scorches over 776 square km of forest land
  • 2013/08/28: CBC: California wildfire prompts air quality warnings in Nevada
  • 2013/08/28: DD: Forest fires in Indonesia trigger haze fear in Singapore
  • 2013/08/28: UCSUSA:B: Colors of Wildfire Risk: Do Dead Trees Increase the Threat?
  • 2013/08/28: Wunderground: Rim Fire California's 7th Largest on Record, and is 23% Contained
  • 2013/08/28: Harvard:SEAS: Wildfires projected to worsen with climate change
    Harvard model predicts wildfire seasons by 2050 will be three weeks longer, up to twice as smoky, and will burn a wider area in the western United States
  • 2013/08/28: NASA: Rim Fire Update
  • 2013/08/28: DD: Image of the Day: Satellite view of Rim fire entering Yosemite Valley, 26 August 2013
  • 2013/08/28: IOTD: A Nighttime View of California's Rim Fire [On Aug 23,24,25 & 26]
  • 2013/08/28: MODIS: The Rim Fire, California [on Aug 22]
  • 2013/08/27: Guardian(UK): California officials ask residents to avoid social media for Rim fire updates
    Residents have remained calm during the ordeal but the digital rumour mill has churned anxieties into terrors, sheriff said
  • 2013/08/27: CNN: Yosemite wildfire grows, threatens reservoir, power station
  • 2013/08/27: LA Times: Rim fire spreads deeper into Yosemite
    The Rim fire is 20% contained, but has a clear path into Yosemite, leaving firefighters fewer options to control it.
  • 2013/08/27: al Jazeera: Wildfire woes don't end when the smoke clears
    The blazes ravaging the US West often leave flooding and contaminated water in their wake.
  • 2013/08/27: DD: Image of the Day: Nighttime satellite view of California's Rim Fire encroaching on Yosemite National Park
  • 2013/08/27: DD: VIdeo: Flyby of the Yosemite Rim Fire from National Guard firefighting plane
  • 2013/08/27: DD: First fire, then floods besiege forests in U.S. West...
  • 2013/08/27: Grist: 9 scary facts about the Yosemite fire
  • 2013/08/27: NASA: Illegal Fires Set in Indonesia Cause Smog Problem
  • 2013/08/27: NASA: Rim Fire Update
  • 2013/08/27: IndiaTimes: Wildfire closing in on US Bay area's water source
  • 2013/08/27: CBC: California crews gain ground on Yosemite wildfire
  • 2013/08/27: WSWS: Forest fire rages in Northern California near Yosemite National Park
  • 2013/08/26: CSM: Yosemite Rim Fire: new stress on California's stretched energy grid
  • 2013/08/26: CSM: Is the Yosemite fire a good fire?
  • 2013/08/26: Guardian(UK): California wildfire grows but officials say fire crews making progress
  • 2013/08/26: Guardian(UK): Firefighters rush to defend town from California's raging Rim fire
    Though firefighters have made progress in taming the blaze, Tuolumne City could still become the next major battlefront
  • 2013/08/25: CSM: Yosemite fire keeps growing, threatening giant sequoias
  • 2013/08/26: CBC: California wildfire still growing... -- Only 7% of massive outbreak contained
  • 2013/08/25: al Jazeera: Portugal blaze 'under control'
    After a 24 hour struggle, firefighters contain the fire in Serra da Estrela National Park
  • 2013/08/26: BBerg: Yosemite Fire Costs San Francisco Power as Water Unharmed
    A wildfire spreading within miles of water and hydropower sources for San Francisco in Yosemite National Park has cost the city $600,000 for replacement electricity, officials said yesterday.
    California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for the city on Aug. 23 as the Rim Fire moved toward the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. The lake, 160 miles (257 kilometers) east of San Francisco, supplies about 85 percent of the city's water and powers San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco General Hospital and the city's transit system.
    The Rim Fire has charred more than 134,000 acres (54,000 hectares) or 200 square miles, and was only 7 percent contained, fire officials said late yesterday.
  • 2013/08/26: MODIS: Fires in Idaho [on Aug 20]
  • 2013/08/26: TreeHugger: Yosemite fire rages, could burn for months
  • 2013/08/26: NASA: Rim fire in California
  • 2013/08/25: BBC: Yosemite boundary burns in California Rim Fire
  • 2013/08/25: CBC: California wildfires grow as strong winds fan flames -- Just 7% of blaze contained
  • 2013/08/25: Guardian(UK): Yosemite wildfire could worsen as firefighters brace for strong winds

  Acidification is changing the oceans:

  • 2013/08/29: GreenGrok: A 'Winners and Losers' Shell Game in the Ocean
  • 2013/08/27: TP:JR: The Ocean Is Going To Start Confusing Fish And Dissolving Seashells
  • 2013/08/25: Guardian(UK): Rising levels of acids in seas may endanger marine life, says study

  Glaciers are melting:

  • 2013/08/29: BBC: Ancient artefacts found in melting snow
    An Iron Age tunic is amongst the discoveries found under melting snow on Norwegian mountains.
    Other findings include Neolithic arrows and bow fragments, thought to be about 6000 years old.
    Snow on the Norwegian mountains, and elsewhere, is rapidly melting due to climate change, which is now unveiling a world of well preserved new discoveries.
  • 2013/08/25: FaGP: Storstrømmen [on northeast Greenland] Susceptible to Rapid Retreat

  Sea levels are rising:

  • 2013/08/30: ABC(Au): Wet weather in Australia reverses rising sea levels
  • 2013/08/29: Eureka: Sea-level rise drives shoreline retreat in Hawaii
  • 2013/08/26: CCP: Hudson shoreline faces threat from Greenland thaw and sea level rise [SLR]

  As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

  • 2013/08/31: DD: Photo gallery: Aerial views of of record flooding in NE China
  • 2013/08/30: al Jazeera: Death toll rises in Mali floods
    Officials say more than 30 people have died in floods that has left a trail of destruction behind.
  • 2013/08/30: PLNA: Russian Amur Continues Overflowed
  • 2013/08/30: PLNA: Heavy Rainfall Kill 55 in Mali
  • 2013/08/29: Guardian(UK): Yemen flash floods destroy camps for displaced people
  • 2013/08/29: RT: Cost of Russian Far East floods to top record $900mn
  • 2013/08/29: al Jazeera: China braces for surge in flood waters
    With more rain on the way, the army works non-stop to reinforce dikes and build barriers along Heilongjiang river.
  • 2013/08/29: RScribbler: A Requiem for Flooded Cities: Russian Flood Disaster Worsens, Amur River to Hit 30 Feet
  • 2013/08/29: DD: Putin tours flood destruction in Russia's Far East, orders inquiry into behavior of officials - 'I don't expect any heroic deeds. You just need to do your duty professionally, work hard and be honest.'
  • 2013/08/28: al Jazeera: Torrential rains pour across Laos -- At least 20 people have been killed in the severe weather
  • 2013/08/28: DD: Unprecedented floodwaters continue to rise In Russia's Far East - Some towns to be rebuilt in new, flood-safe areas
  • 2013/08/28: DD: Kansas drought update: Some counties improve, others in emergency status
  • 2013/08/28: DD: Amur flooding breaks records in China - Flood peak reaches Harbin...
  • 2013/08/27: UN: UN, partners assisting hundreds of thousands affected by floods in Sudan
  • 2013/08/27: DD: UN set to predict drowning of coastal cities by 2100...
  • 2013/08/27: DD: Record flooding affects more than 2 million in NE China -- Heilong River sees worst floods in history
  • 2013/08/27: DD: First fire, then floods besiege forests in U.S. West...
  • 2013/08/27: al Jazeera: Flooding across China
    Many central, southern and northeastern parts of the country have been hit by the worst flooding in many years.
  • 2013/08/26: DD: Record flooding prompts emergency in Russia's Far East...
  • 2013/08/26: DD: Sudan's worst floods for 25 years leave 500,000 facing destruction and disease
  • 2013/08/26: DD: Graph of the Day: Sacramento River runoff, 1906-2011
  • 2013/08/26: Xinhuanet: Rainstorms and floods wreak havoc
    Rainstorms and floods have wreaked havoc on China's northeastern and southern regions, while meteorological authorities forecast heavy rain will continue to batter many parts of the country.
    The latest round of flood crests on the Songhua River is expected to reach Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, on Tuesday, flood control experts said on Sunday.
    The major city in northeastern China has a population of more than 10 million.
  • 2013/08/26: Xinhuanet: 45 dead, 1.6 mln affected in Yunnan floods

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

  • 2013/08/30: CCP: Peter Dorman: More Mental Clutter on Climate Change
  • 2013/08/30: ABC(Au): Biochar trials head north
  • 2013/08/30: GEP: Switzerland Officially Approves Biochar

  Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation has somehow seemed chimeric:

  • 2013/08/29: TheConversation: We need a carbon deal on rainforests, and we have one [REDD]

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

  • 2013/09/01: PeakEnergy: Peak [US] Vehicle Miles Travelled
  • 2013/08/29: TP:JR: Americans Are Driving Less In Nearly Every State

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

  • 2013/08/30: Grist: Why are some states trying to ban LEED green building standards?
    [...]
    Behind the bans are a group of industries -- primarily conventional timber, plastics, and chemicals -- unhappy that much of their product goes unrecognized by the LEED standard...

  As for carbon sequestration:

  • 2013/08/30: ABC(Au): Rock solid approach to carbon storage
  • 2013/08/26: RenewEcon: Orica looks to green carbon brick to capture emissions

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

  • 2013/08/31: DD: Experimental climate fixes stir hopes, fears, lawyers...
  • 2013/08/30: Xconomy: Sea Level Rise: Time for a Barrage of New Ideas
  • 2013/08/26: GEP: Gore Down, Suzuki in the Middle on Geoengineering

  Meanwhile in the journals:

  • 2013/08/27: PNAS: (ab$) Soil food web properties explain ecosystem services across European land use systems by Franciska T. de Vries et al.
  • 2013/08/27: PNAS: (abs) Near-term climate mitigation by short-lived forcers by Steven J. Smith & Andrew Mizrah
  • 2013/08/27: PNAS: (ab$) Differential mobilization of terrestrial carbon pools in Eurasian Arctic river basins by Xiaojuan Feng et al.
  • 2013/08/27: PNAS: (ab$) State-dependent climate sensitivity in past warm climates and its implications for future climate projections by Rodrigo Caballero & Matthew Huber
  • 2013/08/27: PNAS: (ab$) Enhanced basal lubrication and the contribution of the Greenland ice sheet to future sea-level rise by Sarah R. Shannon et al.
  • 2013/08/27: PNAS: (letter$) Hot climates, high sensitivity by R. T. Pierrehumbert
  • 2013/08/29: Science: (ab$) Paleofluvial Mega-Canyon Beneath the Central Greenland Ice Sheet by Jonathan L. Bamber et al.
  • 2013/08/29: ESD: Consistent increase in Indian monsoon rainfall and its variability across CMIP-5 models by A. Menon et al.
  • 2013/08/29: ESDD: The dynamics of the Snowball Earth Hadley circulation for off-equatorial and seasonally-varying insolation by A. Voigt
  • 2013/08/27: ESDD: Towards decision-based global land use models for improved understanding of the Earth system by M. D. A. Rounsevell et al.
  • 2013/08/27: ACP: A net decrease in the Earth's cloud, aerosol, and surface 340 nm reflectivity during the past 33 yr (1979-2011) by J. Herman et al.
  • 2013/08/26: ACP: Dimethylsulphide (DMS) emissions from the western Pacific Ocean: a potential marine source for stratospheric sulphur? by C. A. Marandino et al.
  • 2013/08/26: ACP: The influence of cruise ship emissions on air pollution in Svalbard - a harbinger of a more polluted Arctic? by S. Eckhardt et al.
  • 2013/08/29: ACPD: Characteristics of Arctic low-tropospheric humidity inversions based on radio soundings by T. Nygård et al.
  • 2013/08/29: ACPD: A climatology of the diurnal variations of stratospheric and mesospheric ozone over Bern, Switzerland by S. Studer et al.
  • 2013/08/28: ACPD: Aerosols and nucleation in Eastern China: first insights from the new SORPES-Station by E. Herrmann et al.
  • 2013/08/29: AGWObserver: Papers on early 20th century warming
  • 2012/07/21: Springer:AE: (ab$) Estimation of radionuclide emission during the march 15, 2011 accident at the fukushima-1 npp (japan) by R. V. Arutyunyan et al.
  • 2013/08/28: Nature: (ab$) Rapid, climate-driven changes in outlet glaciers on the Pacific coast of East Antarctica by B. W. J. Miles et al.
  • 2013/07/11: VirologyJ: Whole-genome analysis of piscine reovirus (PRV) shows PRV represents a new genus in family Reoviridae and its genome segment S1 sequences group it into two separate sub-genotypes by Molly JT Kibenge et al.
  • 2013/08/26: TCD: A statistical approach to refining snow water equivalent climatologies in Alpine terrain by S. Jörg-Hess et al.
  • 2013/08/26: TCD: Frontal ablation and temporal variations in surface velocity of Livingston Island ice cap, Antarctica by B. Osmanoglu et al.
  • 2013/08/29: BG: Horizontal distribution of Fukushima-derived radiocesium in zooplankton in the northwestern Pacific Ocean by M. Kitamura et al.
  • 2013/08/27: BG: Respiration of Mediterranean cold-water corals is not affected by ocean acidification as projected for the end of the century by C. Maier et al.
  • 2013/08/27: BG: Equatorial Pacific peak in biological production regulated by nutrient and upwelling during the late Pliocene/early Pleistocene cooling by J. Etourneau et al.
  • 2013/08/27: BGD: Effect of hypoxia and anoxia on invertebrate behaviour: ecological perspectives from species to community level by B. Riedel et al.
  • 2013/08/27: BGD: Can seasonal and interannual variation in landscape CO2 fluxes be detected by atmospheric observations of CO2 concentrations made at a tall tower? by T. L. Smallman et al.
  • 2013/08/26: BGD: Polar coralline algal CaCO3-production rates correspond to intensity and duration of the solar radiation by S. Teichert & A. Freiwald
  • 2013/08/26: BGD: Spatiotemporal variability and drivers of pCO2 and air-sea CO2 fluxes in the California Current System: an eddy-resolving modeling study by G. Turi et al.
  • 2013/08/26: BGD: Synthesis of observed air-sea CO2 exchange fluxes in the river-dominated East China Sea and improved estimates of annual and seasonal net mean fluxes by C.-M. Tseng et al.
  • 2013/08/30: CPD: Water mass evolution of the Greenland Sea since lateglacial times by M. M. Telesinski et al.
  • 2013/08/28: CPD: Reexamining the barrier effect of Tibetan Plateau on the South Asian summer monsoon by G.-S. Chen et al.
  • 2013/08/28: CPD: Changing correlation structures of the Northern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation from 1000 to 2100 AD by C. C. Raible et al.
  • 2013/08/27: CPD: Towards an improved organic carbon budget for the Barents Sea shelf, marginal Arctic Ocean by I. Pathirana et al.
  • 2013/08/30: Nature: (ab$) Recent global-warming hiatus tied to equatorial Pacific surface cooling by Yu Kosaka & Shang-Ping Xie
  • 2013/04/08: AMetSoc:JoC: (ab$) Externally forced and internally generated decadal climate variability associated with the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation by Gerald A. Meehl et al.
  • 2013/08/30: ACPD: Temporal changes in the emissions of CH4 and CO from China estimated from CH4 / CO2 and CO / CO2 correlations observed at Hateruma Island by Y. Tohjima et al.
  • 2013/08/30: ACPD: Satellite observations indicate substantial spatiotemporal variability in biomass burning NOx emission factors for South America by P. Castellanos et al.
  • 2013/08/30: ACPD: Terrestrial carbon sink observed from space: variation of growth rates and seasonal cycle amplitudes in response to interannual surface temperature variability by O. Schneising et al.
  • 2013/08/30: ACPD: Analysis of a strong wildfire event over Valencia (Spain) during Summer 2012 - Part 1: Aerosol microphysics and optical properties by J. L. Gómez-Amo et al.
  • 2013/08/30: ACPD: On the presence of equatorial waves in the lower stratosphere of a general circulation model by P. Maury & F. Lott
  • 2013/08/30: GMDD: The Cache la Poudre river basin snow water equivalent modeling with NewAge-JGrass by G. Formetta et al.
  • 2013/08/29: OSD: The CO2 system in the Mediterranean Sea: a basin wide perspective by M. Álvarez et al.
  • 2013/08/30: TCD: Empirical sea ice thickness retrieval during the freeze up period from SMOS high incident angle observations by M. Huntemann et al.
  • 2013/08/30: TCD: Sea ice and the ocean mixed layer over the Antarctic shelf seas by A. A. Petty et al.
  • 2013/08/30: TCD: A range correction for ICESat and its potential impact on ice sheet mass balance studies by A. A. Borsa et al.
  • 2013/08/25: Nature:CC: (ab$) Sensitivities of extant animal taxa to ocean acidification by Astrid C. Wittmann & Hans-O. Pörtner
  • 2013/08/25: Nature:CC: (ab$) Global warming amplified by reduced sulphur fluxes as a result of ocean acidification by Katharina D. Six et al.
  • 2013/08/25: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Independent variations of CH4 emissions and isotopic composition over the past 160,000 years by Lars Möller et al.

  And other significant documents:

  • 2013/08/29: TheHill:e2W: [link to 2.3 meg pdf] Report: Keystone XL will drive oil sands growth, boost emissions
    The Keystone XL pipeline will expand oil sands production in Canada by 36 percent, and therefore, ramp up carbon emissions, according to a report released Thursday by [the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Environment America and Oil Change International.]

  As for miscellaneous science:

  • 2013/08/30: SIAM: How vegetation competes for rainfall in dry regions
  • 2013/08/27: TheConversation: Study offers clues on 20th century global warming wobbles [Wang & Dickinson]
  • 2013/08/27: ABC(Au): Deep sea mercury mystery solved
  • 2013/08/27: NatureN: Brazilian citation scheme outed -- Thomson Reuters suspends journals from its rankings for 'citation stacking'
  • 2013/08/26: CCurrents: The Paid Journal Trend: A Roadblock To Quality Higher Education

  In the science organizations:

  • 2013/08/30: ScienceInsider: Dog Bites Man? Researchers Say U.S. Government Should Fund More Science

  What's new in models?

  • 2013/08/27: MTU: New Insights on Wildfire Smoke Could Improve Climate Change Models

  What developments in the ongoing struggle for Open Science?

  • 2013/08/31: NatureN: Popular plant database set to charge users
    Loss of grant support leaves resource with no other option.
    As funds dwindle, scientists running The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR) have made the decision to ask users to pay to access the database.

  The Fifth IPCC report is coming up:

  • 2013/08/30: Guardian(UK): Now available: a guide to the IPCC's new RCP emissions pathways
    The new IPCC RCPs describe four scenarios how the planet might change in the future, for climate research and modeling
  • 2013/08/28: UCSUSA:B: Creating the IPCC: How to Speak Truth to Power
  • 2013/08/25: Rappler: Can UN scientists revive drive against climate change?

  And on the carbon trading front:

  • 2013/08/27: CleanTechnica: California Cap And Trade Comes To A Crossroads As Carbon Prices Fall

  The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

  • 2013/08/31: EconView: A Carbon Tax That America Could Live With?
  • 2013/08/27: Grist: Carbon targets, carbon taxes, and the search for Archimedes' lever

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

  • 2013/08/30: Guardian(UK): Oman sultan's Iran visit sparks hopes of progress in nuclear standoff
  • 2013/08/28: AntiWar: New IAEA Data: Iran Still Not Close to Israel's 'Red Line' -- Iran Has More or Less Same Stockpile It Had in May
  • 2013/08/28: BBC: Iran has boosted nuclear capabilities, says IAEA - 1,008 advanced IR2m centrifuges at Natanz plant

  South [& East] China Sea tension persists:

  • 2013/08/30: IndiaTimes: Philippine president asked to cancel China visit
    Beijing: Philippine President Benigno Aquino's visit to China has [been] called off amid sharp differences between the two countries over ownership of South China Sea islands.
    The Philippine foreign ministry said it was the host who asked Aquino not to make the trip.
  • 2013/08/27: Xinhuanet: China-Japan bilateral meeting unlikely at G20 summit
  • 2013/08/27: IndiaTimes: Islands dispute: No basis for talks with Japan, China says
  • 2013/08/27: BBC: China rules out top-level talks with Japan at G20
    China has ruled out a top-level meeting with Japan to discuss a territorial dispute in the East China Sea, accusing Tokyo of "empty talk".

  Who is serious about reducing airline carbon emissions?

  • 2013/08/30: RTCC: Aviation industry unlikely to agree emissions reduction deal until 2016
    Draft text to be presented at ICAO Council meeting next week suggests decision on global deal will be delayed
  • 2013/08/27: DeSmogBlog: New Report Finds Climate Can't Wait for More Delays on Aviation Industry Emissions Action

  In the solar squabbles between China and Europe:

  • 2013/08/28: EurActiv: EU says China gave illegal aid to solar industry
    The European Union has warned Beijing over evidence that Chinese solar companies benefited from illegal subsidies, sources close to the issue said on Tuesday (27 August), but Brussels will delay taking action following a deal to defuse the row.

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

  • 2013/08/28: OpenMedia: OpenMedia.ca welcomes Official Opposition call for access to text of TPP agreement which threatens online expression
  • 2013/08/27: BBC: Colombian government to negotiate with striking farmers
    Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos says his government will enter into negotiations with agricultural workers as their strike enters its ninth day.
    [...]
    Eleven major roads continue to be blocked by the protesters, who include dairy farmers; potato, onion, rice and coffee growers; and lorry drivers.
    The protesters accuse the government of running the agricultural sector into the ground.
    They say that free trade agreements with the United States and the European Union are flooding the market with cheap imports while their costs for items such as fertilisers and fuel have gone up.

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

  • 2013/08/29: Grist: Kalamazoo pipeline protester could get two years in jail
  • 2013/08/26: Grist: Is the NSA surveillance program really about spying on environmentalists?

  What are the activists up to?

  • 2013/08/30: TreeHugger: Greenpeace protests Shell's Arctic drilling with bear suits and break-in
  • 2013/08/28: CCP: Save the Arctic banner at Belgian Grand Prix
  • 2013/08/27: LA Times: A strong voice for environmental action in Louisiana's Cancer Alley
    Wilma Subra, a diminutive grandmother, has long challenged the corporate polluters in one of the nation's most toxic regions.
  • 2013/08/27: Tyee: How Anti-Keystone Activists Plan to Solve Climate Change
    Build a massive movement, ignore deniers and topple industry says lead strategist.
  • 2013/08/26: TreeHugger: One in eight Americans would engage in civil disobedience to stop global warming
  • 2013/08/26: CBC: Greenpeace defies Russia in Arctic protest

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

  • 2013/08/28: ERabett:BSD: We did our divestment

  Regarding Water Politics and Business; See also:

  • 2013/08/31: JFleck: The audacity of building rivers: Parker Dam and the Colorado River Aqueduct
  • 2013/08/31: SciAm:PI: As a River Runs Dry
  • 2013/08/30: JFleck: Stuff I wrote elsewhere: oil and water
  • 2013/08/30: CBC: Canada, U.S. urged to curb phosphorus runoff into lakes
    Phosphorus runoff blamed for rash of harmful algae blooms on Lake Erie
  • 2013/08/30: WMO: WMO participates in World Water Week
    World Water Week"Water Cooperation - Building Partnerships" is the theme of World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden, September 1-6.
  • 2013/08/29: TStar: U.S. and Canada need to stop phosphorous runoff causing algae blooms in Lake Erie, [IJC] report says
    Canada and the U.S. should crack down on sources of phosphorus runoff blamed for a rash of harmful algae blooms on Lake Erie, an advisory agency said Thursday.
    The International Joint Commission said in a draft report that urgent steps are needed to curb runaway algae -- which produce harmful toxins and contribute to oxygen-deprived "dead zones" where fish cannot survive.
  • 2013/08/28: DallasNews: Around oil and gas fields in Texas, water supplies run thin
  • 2013/08/29: UCSUSA:B: Water-Smart Power Can Help Declining Aquifers
  • 2013/08/27: JFleck: Fallowing - the path of least resistance?
  • 2013/08/27: Xinhuanet: Water supplies in eastern U.S. threatened by river alkalinization: study
  • 2013/08/26: Eureka: Eastern US water supplies threatened by a legacy of acid rain
  • 2013/08/26: Eureka: Changing river chemistry affects Eastern US water supplies
    25+ years of records show two-thirds of region's rivers are now alkaline -- a legacy of acid rain, researchers say

  And on the groundwater front:

  • 2013/08/31: JFleck: Stretching the Ogallala Aquifer
  • 2013/08/28: NatureN: Overpumping threatens to deplete US high plains groundwater
    The former dust bowl's lone water source [the High Plains Aquifer System] could run dry without a change in agricultural practices.
  • 2013/08/19: Ensia: Groundwater Wake-Up -- A new view of global groundwater reveals an urgent need to reverse depletion trends
  • 2013/08/28: JFleck: Global groundwater trends - not encouraging
  • 2013/08/27: CSM: Ogallala aquifer: Could critical water source run dry?
  • 2013/08/26: USA Today: Kansas crops face water questions as aquifer levels fall
    What's the matter with Kansas? Too much water is being pumped out of its aquifers for irrigation, suggests an agriculture study.

  Who's making predictions this week?

  • 2013/08/26: CSM: Farmers' Almanac: Prepare for cold winter, stormy Super Bowl

  While in the UK:

  • 2013/08/30: Guardian(UK): Fracking brings climate debate closer to home [Monbiot]
  • 2013/08/30: Guardian(UK): [UK] Green party leader Natalie Bennett: 'We have a complete suite of policies'
  • 2013/08/24: Ag&g: Letter to the [UK] Prime Minister: Public disclosure on shale gas

  And in Europe:

  • 2013/08/30: PressEurop: German elections 2013 [on Set.22]: Angela über alles
  • 2013/08/30: EurActiv: Recycling stats do not paper over EU's waste problem
    A study has said that Europe recycles 71.7% of its paper and cardboard, but landfill and incineration rates for other types of waste remain high across the continent.
  • 2013/08/30: EurActiv: EU survey finds 'enormous disparity' in national energy efficiency policies
    An expert study has uncovered vast differences in the ambition and nature of energy efficiency policies implemented across the 28 EU member states.
    The EU-funded Energy Efficiency Watch analysis interviewed 80 experts and collected 655 questionnaires before concluding that an "enormous disparity" between EU states needed to be overcome with more harmonisation and integration of policies.
  • 2013/08/29: ABC(Au): Gas problems for resources companies
    An Australian fertiliser company says the price of gas is becoming unsustainable for manufacturers.
    Incitec Pivot Limited has struggled in recent years to cover the rising cost of gas, which Manufacturing Australia estimates will quadruple by 2015.
    IPL Spokesman Stewart Murrihy says too much gas is going overseas, driving up domestic prices.
  • 2013/08/29: ABC(Au): NT Government says Henbury carbon farming was "illegal"
  • 2013/08/29: ABC(Au): [Tasmania's] Forest peace deal clears another parliamentary hurdle
  • 2013/08/29: EurActiv: Romania wants EU compensation for abandoned Nabucco project
    Romanian President Traian Basescu has asked for compensation from the EU for the abandoned Nabucco pipeline project which had been planned to carry Azeri gas to Austria through Romanian territory.
  • 2013/08/29: EUO: Public opinion stands in way of EU shale gas revolution
  • 2013/08/27: EurActiv: EU energy chief warns against German renewable subsidy cuts
    Germany should not introduce cuts to already guaranteed renewable subsidies, European Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger has said, warning that such a move would seriously hurt investor confidence.
  • 2013/08/27: EurActiv: Oettinger hails 'historic day' as first EU-Moldova pipeline opens
    Moldova will take its first steps towards diversifying its energy supplies today (27 August) when it inaugurates a gas pipeline with the EU, so ending its energy dependence on Russia.
  • 2013/08/27: EUO: Dutch shale gas needs environmental all-clear
  • 2013/08/27: OilChange: The Dutch Want to Frack too
  • 2013/08/26: EurActiv: Researchers revise 'overestimated' biofuels subsidies
    [IISD] Experts, who estimated that the biofuels industry received the equivalent of a E10-billion "Cyprus bailout" in public support in 2011, have shaved the figure by a fifth.
  • 2013/08/26: CleanTechnica: Malta Cancels E5.5M Rooftop Solar Scheme

  Meanwhile in Australia:

  • 2013/08/31: PeakEnergy: Floating an LNG revolution in Western Australia
  • 2013/08/30: TheConversation: Marine parks won't work unless fishers are on side
  • 2013/08/30: ABC(Au): More angst as Coalition promises to review marine park 'science'
  • 2013/08/30: ABC(Au): Julia Gillard to receive honorary professorship from the University of Adelaide
  • 2013/08/30: Guardian(UK): Climate campaigners start 'hunger strike' to block Queensland coal project
    Australia's coal industry is being targeted by a range of campaigns from divestment to civil disobedience
  • 2013/08/30: ABC(Au): Biochar trials head north
    Biochar has been trialled on Australian farms for years now, but has rarely been tested on horticultural crops, and has never been trialled as far north as Darwin.
    Until now. This week an organic farm at Lambells Lagoon, has spread biochar onto a two hectare block of zucchinis, cucumber and watermelons.
  • 2013/08/29: Guardian(UK): Bushfire authorities urged to revise safety advice
  • 2013/08/27: TheConversation: Politicians have forgotten the 'dry' in dry tropics and the change in the climate
  • 2013/08/27: ABC(Au): Debate continues over coal seam gas
    In many rural communities, if a series of protests are anything to go by, in New South Wales and Queensland many landholders are very much against coal seam gas mining and exploration.
    Sensing this mood, the Greens policy is without a doubt the strongest on mining. Senator Lee Rhiannon says her party us calling for no further coal seam gas exploration and no new coal mines.
  • 2013/08/27: BBerg: Carnegie Signs Pact for Wave-Powered Desalination Pilot Plant
    Carnegie Wave Energy Ltd., an Australian marine technology developer, said it signed a support agreement with Water Corp. of Western Australia to help build the world's first wave-powered desalination plant
  • 2013/08/26: ABC(Au): Date set for court fight over Muckaty nuclear waste dump
    A date has been set in the Federal Court case of Aboriginal traditional owners fighting plans to use their land as a nuclear waste dump.
  • 2013/08/26: ABC(Au): Residents angry about solar farm plans

  Just one short hectic week to the September 7th election:

  • 2013/09/01: PeakEnergy: Who Would The Planet Vote For?
  • 2013/09/01: IndiaTimes: Australian PM makes final major campaign pitch
  • 2013/09/01: ABC(Au): Labor Party launch: Kevin Rudd makes jobs, training the focus
  • 2013/08/31: ABC(Au): Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott agree election neck-and-neck heading into final week
  • 2013/08/30: ABC(Au): [Opposition Climate spokesman] Greg Hunt not giving the full story on climate research
  • 2013/08/30: ABC(Au): Corruption findings against Ian Macdonald another blow for Federal Labor
    The Federal Labor Party has been a dealt a blow in its fight to hold on to marginal seats in New South Wales.
    Today the state's Independent Commission Against Corruption made yet another finding of corruption against former New South Wales minister, Ian Macdonald.
    The anti-corruption commission has recommended criminal charges against Mr Macdonald and the former union heavyweight, John Maitland, over a coal licence in the New South Wales Hunter Valley.
    The corruption findings over the mine have sparked fresh calls for the New South Wales Government to immediately cancel the mine licence and freeze the profits from the mine.
  • 2013/08/30: TheConversation: Putting coal seam gas clashes on the election map
  • 2013/08/30: Guardian(UK): Syria: Tony Abbott urges caution
  • 2013/08/29: Guardian(UK): Coalition's climate policy would cost vastly more than budgeted, study finds
    Modelling commissioned by WWF-Australia says funds set aside to meet emissions targets would fall short by at least $20bn
  • 2013/08/29: Guardian(UK): Syria: Kevin Rudd backs 'robust response' over chemical weapons
  • 2013/08/29: WSWS: WikiLeaks Party mired in crisis
  • 2013/08/28: ABC(Au): Tony Abbott's claim households will be $550 a year better off without the carbon tax is outdated
  • 2013/08/28: TheConversation: Wanted: political leader with a vision for a sustainable future
  • 2013/08/28: ABC(Au): Election live: Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott hold third leaders' debate after Coalition releases more costings
    Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott are going head to head in what's scheduled to be the final debate of the election campaign.
    The Prime Minister has used the forum to press the Opposition Leader on the issue of budget cuts.
  • 2013/08/28: Guardian(UK): Election 2013: this likability race is so vulgar you could vomit
    Clive Palmer did get one thing right: in a modern election, there is no greater sin than being boring. Why should the Australian candidates bother with policy?
  • 2013/08/27: Guardian(UK): Opposition to Abbott's key policies raises possibility of double dissolution
  • 2013/08/27: ABC(Au):TDU: The real threat to Australia's sovereignty
    It is rife in mainstream Australian politics, especially in the ALP, for senior figures to be compromised by US connections, writes Julian Assange.
    [...]
    Take Bob Carr, for example, our current Foreign Minister, who was sucked into the US system back in the 1970s when he was feeding information to the US embassy about the Australian union movement. He admits that while working with the unions in his 20s he met with the US embassy. Well, what does a New South Wales union man have to do with the United States embassy? Or consider Mark Arbib, formerly a member of the Labor cabinet and one of the primary power-brokers that put Gillard in place in the coup against Rudd. In US cables released by WikiLeaks, he is described as a key source for the US Embassy throughout his political rise. The Kissinger Cables released by WikiLeaks this year also reveal the extent of Bob Hawke's attempted political subversion by giving the US political intelligence on the Whitlam government.
    Who do these people really represent when they get into Canberra?
  • 2013/08/27: TheConversation: Coalition's carbon policy based on failed Labor scheme
  • 2013/08/26: ABC(Au):TDU: Abbott and co can't ignore climate change forever by Clive Hamilton
    Six years ago, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was 90 per cent certain that human activity was the main cause of climate change. That percentage has since risen to 95, according to a new draft report leaked last week. Try as climate deniers might, they can't hide from the science forever...
  • 2013/08/26: ABC(Au): Climate change looms as challenge for all parties - the electorate leans toward supporting a carbon price
  • 2013/08/26: PrecariousC: Can a new political party save the planet?
  • 2013/08/26: CleanTechnica: Australian Greens' Community Renewable Energy Policy
  • 2013/08/26: TheConversation: A more sustainable Australia: from suburbia to newburbia
  • 2013/08/26: ABC(Au): Who are they? ACT candidates for the Senate
  • 2013/08/26: ABC(Au): Kevin Rudd pledges funding towards high-speed rail network on east coast
  • 2013/08/26: ABC(Au): Vote Compass: Australians want more action on climate change
  • 2013/08/26: ABC(Au): Tony Windsor reveals he would have supported Malcolm Turnbull after 2010 election

  After years of wrangling, the Murray Darling Basin Plan is in place, but the water management fights are far from finished:

  • 2013/08/30: ABC(Au): Farmers say their water needs are being forgotten
    The Southern Highlands Irrigation scheme remains in limbo after four years of development and farmers in the area say they want action.
    Spokesman Richard Hallett says the area around Hamilton, Bothwell and Ouse is one of the driest in the state and the irrigation scheme is much needed.
  • 2013/08/30: ABC(Au): Expert warn that mining development in Sydney could cause irreparable damage to drinking water
  • 2013/08/30: ABC(Au): Dam recalculations see drop in ACT water figures
  • 2013/08/28: ABC(Au): Water Security Alliance to make FOI application to access federal Macquarie Pipeline report
    Questions have been raised as to why the federal Environment Department has not publicly released a report outlining its approval of the Macquarie River Pipeline.
    The Orange and Region Water Security Alliance has been told it will need to make a 'Freedom Of Information' (FOI) application to access the document.
  • 2013/08/27: ABC(Au): Macquarie Marshes graziers concerned about Orange pipeline's long term impacts
    Graziers on the Macquarie Marshes are calling for ongoing research into the possible impacts of a pipeline on the system.
    Last week Orange City Council's Macquarie River Pipeline, which aims to drought proof the city, was given final approval by the federal government.
  • 2013/08/27: ABC(Au): August on track for five-year water trading high
    August appears set to be the busiest trading month on the temporary market in five years.
    Waterfind chief executive Tom Rooney says irrigators have been purchasing water off the temporary market instead of investing in permanent water allocations.
  • 2013/08/27: ABC(Au): Environment council pleads for release of Paradise Dam findings
    The Wide Bay Environment Council says the Queensland Government needs to release findings of an investigation into Paradise Dam.
    In June, Water Minister Mark McArdle commissioned a $35,000 review into why January's floods caused more than $25 million worth of damage to part of the dam.
    Emma-Kate Currie from the environment council says the findings were handed to the Government several weeks ago but have not been made public.
  • 2013/08/26: ABC(Au): Basin communities briefed on Murray-Darling plan review
  • 2013/08/26: ABC(Au): [Vic Water Minister, Peter] Walsh to hear rising groundwater woes

  And in the Indian subcontinent:

  • 2013/08/28: CCurrents: Koodankulam NPP Verdict From Supreme Court Requires Review And Recall
  • 2013/08/27: Guardian(UK): India's most industrialised state pushes for clean energy
    New, tough measures [by MERC, the electricity regulatory authority of Maharashtra] may encourage solar power
  • 2013/08/27: Guardian(UK): India approves food bill to subsidise grain for the poor
  • 2013/08/26: BLongstaff: Will India defeat malnutrition?
  • 2013/08/26: BBC: India lower house of parliament passes cheap food plan

  While in China:

  • 2013/08/30: CleanTechnica: China's Future Energy Mix - Graph Of The Day

  And in Africa:

  • 2013/08/30: EurActiv: Report: Renewable projects 'uphold occupation' in Western Sahara
    Morocco's plans to generate 1000MW of renewable electricity in the Western Sahara upholds a partial occupation of the desert territory which is not recognised by the UN or any of its members, a new report says.
  • 2013/08/29: CNN: Bright sun, bright future: Can Africa unlock its solar potential?
  • 2013/08/28: WMO: Climate Services Road Map for South Africa
  • 2013/08/27: BBerg: South Africa Shale Pits Shell Against Sheep Farmers
    Royal Dutch Shell Plc's shale gas drilling plans for South Africa's Karoo semi-desert are pitting the government and its energy goals against farmers and conservationists like billionaire Johann Rupert who say the land will be spoiled.

  And South America:

  • 2013/08/30: Guardian(UK): Troops patrol Colombian capital after rioting
    President orders military on to streets after two are killed in protests in support of growing national strike
    Colombia's president has ordered troops to patrol the capital following rioting in which at least two people died.
    Violence broke out on Thursday afternoon after 30,000 university students and others marched peacefully in support of a 10-day protest by small farmers.
  • 2013/08/29: UDW: Bolivia: Criminal Charges Against Indigenous Leaders, Revelations of Police Infiltration Reignite TIPNIS Conflict
  • 2013/08/29: BBC: Colombia farmers' strike gets Bogota marchers' support
  • 2013/08/29: Guardian(UK): Colombia braced for nationwide protests
    Students and labour unions to march in support of farmers unhappy with free trade agreements
  • 2013/08/26: UDW: Civil Society Calls for Vote on Drilling in Ecuador's Yasuní Park
  • 2013/08/26: UDW: Transnational Mercenaries behind Energy Reforms in Mexico

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

  • 2013/08/28: OpenMedia: OpenMedia.ca welcomes Official Opposition call for access to text of TPP agreement which threatens online expression
  • 2013/08/27: TheCanadian: Beaver Lake Cree case reveals flaws in environmental review process
  • 2013/08/28: TheCanadian: First Nations slam court's rejection of Canada-China trade deal challenge
    ... reaction of the Hupacasath First Nation to news of a feral court's rejection of its appeal of the secretive Canada-China trade agreement, known as FIPPA.

  The Lac-Mégantic tragedy slowly plays on:

  • 2013/08/30: CBC: U.S. oil worries predated Lac-Mégantic disaster
    Bakken oil from North Dakota set off alarms before Lac-Mégantic disaster
  • 2013/08/28: CBC: Lac-Mégantic schools ready for students after derailment -- 'Return to normal' a relative term in town devastated by train derailment
  • 2013/08/28: BBerg: Revamping 'Ford Pinto' of Rail Cars Urged by Group
  • 2013/08/26: CBC: Lac-Mégantic library to get Maine donations after explosion
    Farmington Public Library raises funds to help rebuild destroyed library in Quebec town

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

  • 2013/08/28: TheCanadian: Peter Ladner: Harper Govt doing nothing to stem collapse of $1.5 billion wild salmon industries
  • 2013/08/28: TheCanadian: New Norwegian salmon [piscine reovirus] plagues BC's salmon
  • 2013/08/27: BiV: Federal government failing to reverse salmon decline in B.C.
    Salmon are the feeder species for almost half of B.C.'s $1.5 billion in annual direct spending on nature tourism
  • 2013/08/25: VanObs: Norway's awful gift to BC
  • 2013/07/11: VirologyJ: Whole-genome analysis of piscine reovirus (PRV) shows PRV represents a new genus in family Reoviridae and its genome segment S1 sequences group it into two separate sub-genotypes by Molly JT Kibenge et al.

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

  • 2013/08/29: WCEL: The Lemon Creek jet spill and emergency release of data
  • 2013/08/28: TheCanadian: Final evidence in for Prospertiy Mine proposal
  • 2013/08/28: TheCanadian: BC Hydro inflates demand to justify Site C Dam
  • 2013/08/25: TMoS: A Coast Undefended

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

  • 2013/08/30: Grist: Five things you probably didn't know about being a tar-sands worker
  • 2013/08/30: BLongstaff: Tar sands ain't funny, says Travel Alberta
  • 2013/08/29: PI: Protecting the Athabasca River offers industry a chance to earn social licence
  • 2013/08/26: ICTMN: 'Every Tree and Plant Died': Massive Toxic Spill Guts Alberta
  • 2013/08/26: CDreams: Following US Lead, Canadian Officials Go Mum on How New Pipelines Fuel Tar Sands Expansion
    Internal documents show how official talking points changed after State Department draft came out
  • 2013/08/25: NYT: Canadian Documents Suggest Shift on Pipeline

  Also in Alberta:

  • 2013/08/29: CBC: Insurance policies changing in wake of floods -- Water damage now a 'major issue' as claims skyrocket
  • 2013/08/27: CBC: Alberta floods cost workers 5.1 million hours
  • 2013/08/30: MSimon: Alberta and the Climate Change Deniers

  In Ontario, Wynne is struggling to establish herself. Energy still looms large:

  • 2013/08/30: SudburySteve: Cynical Politics, Bad Economics: Feed-in-Tarriffs and the Political Left
  • 2013/08/30: CBC: Experimental Lakes Area's future to be made clearer Monday
    Supporters hope for agreement to save internationally renowned research facility in Ontario
    The future of an internationally renowned research facility for the study of water pollution and lake ecosystems will be announced by the province of Ontario and the International Institute for Sustainable Development on Monday.
  • 2013/08/30: CBC: Canada, U.S. urged to curb phosphorus runoff into lakes
    Phosphorus runoff blamed for rash of harmful algae blooms on Lake Erie
  • 2013/08/25: WawatayNews: Nuclear waste disposal site creeps closer to reality
    A location is yet to be set and the timelines stretch 25 years in the future, but one thing seems certain: nuclear waste will be buried in the Canadian shield.
    As the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) - a not-for-profit organization established by the federal government - starts analyzing communities as part of the process of selecting a site to bury used nuclear rods, details continue to sharpen on how the project will one day look.

  In the North:

  • 2013/08/30: CBC: Arctic internet [fibre optic] project moves closer to approval
  • 2013/08/30: WSWS: Canada spearheads exploitation and militarization of the Arctic

  As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

  • 2013/08/26: BCLSB: Whither The Green Party Of Canada?

  And on the American political front:

  • 2013/08/29: TMoS: Billionaire Hedge Fund Manager [Steyer] Invokes MLK In Call For Mass Civil Disobedience Over Climate Change
  • 2013/08/29: VoA: Study: Air Pollution Causes 200,000 Early Deaths in US
  • 2013/08/29: HuffPo: Ken Cuccinelli, Noted Climate-Change Denier, Won't State Position On Climate Change (video)
  • 2013/08/29: TP:JR: As Scientists Leave GOP, Utah State Climatologist Warns, 'Ignoring Science Comes With Risk'
  • 2013/08/29: Grist: Bobby Jindal doesn't think Big Oil should have to clean up its mess
  • 2013/08/28: SLTrib: Scientists leave GOP due to attitudes toward science
  • 2013/08/29: TP:JR: Are Ken Cuccinelli's Ties to Big Coal And Gas Hurting Him In Deeply Red Southwest Virginia?
  • 2013/08/28: CCentral: Nearly Half of All Western Wildfire Costs Go To California
  • 2013/08/28: NewsObserver: Officials OK rule to force fracking on NC landowners
    Raleigh - North Carolina landowners would be forced to sell the natural gas under their homes and farms - whether they want to or not - under a fracking recommendation approved Wednesday that's expected to be enacted by the state legislature this fall
  • 2013/08/28: TP:JR: Drought And Heat Waves Are Costing The Federal Government Billions In Crop Insurance Payouts
  • 2013/08/28: Grist: U.S. government paid $17 billion for weather-withered crops last year
  • 2013/08/27: NPR: [Pennsylvania] DEP Attempted To Suppress Controversial Study That Criticized Shale Gas
  • 2013/08/27: Grist: Carbon targets, carbon taxes, and the search for Archimedes' lever

  Post-Sandy commentary and news:

  • 2013/08/29: Grist: Superstorm Sandy washed away half of Fire Island's sand
  • 2013/08/24: USGS: Hurricane Sandy Eroded Half of Fire Island's Beaches and Dunes: New Report Quantifies Coastal Change

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

  • 2013/08/29: TheHill:e2W: [link to 2.3 meg pdf] Report: Keystone XL will drive oil sands growth, boost emissions
    The Keystone XL pipeline will expand oil sands production in Canada by 36 percent, and therefore, ramp up carbon emissions, according to a report released Thursday by [the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Environment America and Oil Change International.]
  • 2013/08/27: FuelFix: TransCanada wins right to build Keystone XL through Texas family farm
  • 2013/08/26: CleanTechnica: Another Delay Looms For Keystone XL Pipeline

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

  • 2013/08/31: EconView: A Carbon Tax That America Could Live With?

  The GOP War on Women continues. See also:

  • 2013/08/26: Wonkette: 'Pro-Lifers' Save Women From Specter Of Open Health Clinics

  Now that he doesn't need their vote any more, how will Obama treat liberals and their policy issues?

  • 2013/08/27: SciAm:Obs: "All of the Above" Energy Means More Fracking, Renewables, Nukes and Clean Coal
  • 2013/08/26: TheHill:RW: Regulation Nation: Obama bypassing Congress on climate

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

  • 2013/08/30: TP:JR: Why The Energy Department Hires Industry Advocates As Regulators
  • 2013/08/29: TheHill:e2W: Energy Dept. unveils new efficiency regs
    The Obama administration proposed a pair of energy efficiency regulations Thursday for certain appliances it says will slash energy bills and carbon emissions.
    The rules, which had been under review at the White House Office of Management and Budget for nearly two years, would affect commercial refrigeration equipment such as "restaurant-size fridges" and walk-in coolers and freezers...
  • 2013/08/29: Grist: Cool news: Big fridges to get more efficient under new Obama rules
  • 2013/08/28: BBerg: Revamping 'Ford Pinto' of Rail Cars Urged by Group
    The head of a rail safety group compared a widely used train tank car to the recalled Ford Pinto in urging U.S. regulators to require upgrades that would prevent accidents like a Quebec derailment that killed 47 people.
    Karen Darch, the co-chairman of a coalition of communities around Chicago formed in response to a merger of railroads, said regulators dragged their feet in mandating safety improvements to the car, known as the DOT-111, amid evidence showing the tankers are more prone to rupture in a derailment than other types.
    "Unfortunately, your combined track record has been less than stellar when it comes to improving the crash-worthiness of the DOT-111 tank car -- the primary car used in the transport of dangerous hazmat like crude and ethanol in this country and in Canada," Darch, mayor of Barrington, Illinois, told a panel of Federal Railroad Administration and Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration officials today.
  • 2013/08/27: TP:JR: On Alaska Listening Tour, EPA Administrator Gets An Earful From Both Sides Of The Pebble Mine Debate
  • 2013/08/27: CleanTechnica: Almost $1 Million Awarded To Princeton For Battery Development
  • 2013/08/27: CleanTechnica: Cloteam Awarded $3.5 Million By DOE For Battery R&D
  • 2013/08/27: CCP: Why is Obama Administration Appointing Another Big Oil and Gas Executive to DOE?
  • 2013/08/27: TP:JR: Moniz Throws Down For Clean Energy Loans, Says Cleaner Auto Loan Program May Return
  • 2013/08/26: TP:JR: FAA Approves Use Of Drones By ConocoPhillips To Monitor Oil Drilling Activities In Alaska

  As for what is going on in Congress:

  • 2013/08/30: TP:JR: House Dems Call On Interior Department To Put Public Health Before Profit Of Fracking Companies
  • 2013/08/30: Grist: Climate denier [Senator] Ron Johnson (R-Wis) denies denying climate change
  • 2013/08/29: TP:JR: Eric Cantor Skipped The March On Washington To Meet With Oil Lobbyists
  • 2013/08/27: BBickmore: SL Trib: Chris Stewart and LaMar Smith -- Conspiracy Theorists
  • 2013/08/27: TP:JR: Congressman [Rep. Todd Rokita (R-IN)] Says It's 'Arrogant' To Believe In Man-Made Climate Change

  What are the lobbyists pushing?

  • 2013/08/25: TheHill:e2W: Climate 'hawks' hatch super-PAC ahead of 2014 races

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

  • 2013/08/29: DeSmogBlog: At the Limits of the Market: Why Capitalism Won't Solve Climate Change, Part 1
  • 2013/08/30: DeSmogBlog: At the Limits of the Market Part 2: Why Capitalism Hasn't Solved Climate Change

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

  • 2013/08/31: Tyee: BC Pro-Choice Activist 'Vindicated' in Court Ruling
    Judge throws out defamation suit against Joyce Arthur, who published 2009 exposé on crisis pregnancy centres.

  Apocalypso anyone?

  • 2013/08/30: RTCC: Could humans cause another Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum?
    The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum lasted 200,000 years and temperatures soared by at least 5° and perhaps 9°C

  How do the corporate media measure up?

  • 2013/08/27: DeSmogBlog: Reuters Boss Accused Of Climate Scepticism Denies Agency Has Cut Climate Reporting

  Here is something for your library:

  • 2013/08/31: TheConversation: [Book Review] _Big Coal: Australia's Dirtiest Habit_ by Guy Pearse, David McKnight & Bob Burton
  • 2013/08/28: RScribbler: [Book Plug] Growth Shock Launch: "I Have a Confession to Make ... We are in Trouble"

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

  • 2013/09/01: SciAm:NBS: [Film Review] _More than honey_ directed and produced by the Swiss film-maker Markus Imhoof
  • 2013/08/31: CChallenge: Greenfyre's "Mr. Sinclair's Video collection" - manmade global warming education made easy
  • 2013/08/30: AFTIC: Hot Stuff
  • 2013/08/30: AFTIC: Super Cell
  • 2013/08/30: GreenGrok: A Labor Day Weekend How-to-Help-Save-the Ocean Video
  • 2013/08/29: WtD: Credit where credit due: naming disasters after climate sceptics
  • 2013/08/28: CCP: Save the Arctic banner at Belgian Grand Prix
  • 2013/08/28: OilChange: YouTube Censors Anti-Oil Videos
  • 2013/08/25: SciAm:RoU: The Most Breathtaking Video of the Weather You'll Watch This Week

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

  • 2013/08/31: PSinclair: Judge Drops Hammer on Deniers: Climate Scientist's Case against Slander Goes Forward
  • 2013/08/31: Tyee: BC Pro-Choice Activist 'Vindicated' in Court Ruling
  • 2013/08/30: ERabett: On Her Way Out the Door, Judge Natalia Combes Green Roasts National Review On Line
  • 2013/08/30: CSW: Judge denies National Review's Motion to Reconsider ruling in Michael Mann's defamation case
  • 2013/08/30: TreeHugger: EPA sued for failure to protect school children from pesticides
  • 2013/08/29: NatureNB: Taiwan court set to decide on libel case against scientist
  • 2013/08/28: NatureNB: EU insecticide ban triggers legal action
  • 2013/08/28: ScienceInsider: Pesticidemakers Challenge E.U. Neonicotinoid Ban in Court
  • 2013/08/28: CSW: Federal court ruling threatens whistleblower and civil service protections
  • 2013/08/28: EurActiv: Syngenta takes EU to court over pesticide ban
  • 2013/08/28: EUO: Syngenta takes EU to court over bee pesticides
  • 2013/08/27: Grist: Syngenta to take a continent to court to upend pesticide ban
    Syngenta is preparing to spray its lawyerly might all over Europe in a bid to be allowed to keep killing bees.
    The agro-chemical giant announced Tuesday that it would haul the European Commission before the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg in an effort to block the looming suspension of its neonic insecticide thiamethoxam -- aka Cruiser.
  • 2013/08/26: ABC(Au): Date set for court fight over Muckaty nuclear waste dump
  • 2013/08/25: DD: National Review's new motion to dismiss climate scientist's defamation lawsuit contains false claims...

  It looks like this BP trial over the Gulf oil spill is going to take a long while:

  • 2013/08/30: ABC(US): BP: Jindal administration 'misrepresents' company's record regarding 2010 oil spill
  • 2013/08/29: DD: BP loses renewed bid to halt oil spill settlement payments - 'No credible evidence of fraud'
  • 2013/08/28: BBC: BP loses second bid to suspend oil disaster payments
    BP has lost a second attempt to suspend compensation payments over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil rig disaster.
    The UK oil giant has said that fraud and false compensation payments are behind the escalating costs it faces.
    But Judge Carl Barbier ruled that there was no "credible evidence of fraud" or that the compensation process was tainted by conflicts of interest.
  • 2013/08/26: TP:JR: BP Accuses Deepwater Horizon Settlement Victims Of Taking 'Money They Don't Deserve'
  • 2013/08/26: DeSmogBlog: BP Launches Massive PR Campaign To Demonize Oil Spill Victims

  Among the non-members of Gamblers Anonymous:

  • 2013/08/30: VvattsUWT: Faites Votre Jeux...
  • 2013/08/30: TFTJO: Earth's temperatures: to bet or not to bet?
  • 2013/08/28: ERabett: Wanna Bet?
  • 2013/08/28: DeSmogBlog: Monckton Challenged To Put Up Or Shut Up By John Abraham
  • 2013/08/28: GLaden: Can Monckton Put His Money Where Is Mouth Is?

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

  • 2013/08/29: SciAm:TCW: Renewables: Fewer subsidies and more R&D please
  • 2013/08/28: CleanTechnica: US Renewable Energy Generation Up In First Half Of 2013
  • 2013/08/28: OilDrum: Emergy as a Metric of Sustainability
  • 2013/08/27: SciAm:PI: Iceland wants to know: "who needs coal when you have FIRE?"
  • 2013/08/25: TP:JR: Does Your iPhone Use As Much Electricity As A New Refrigerator? Not Even Close.
  • 2013/08/23: NREL: NREL Study Suggests Cost Gap for Western Renewables Could Narrow by 2025
    A new Energy Department study conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) indicates that by 2025 wind and solar power electricity generation could become cost-competitive without federal subsidies, if new renewable energy development occurs in the most productive locations.
  • 2013/08/26: OilDrum: Back to Basics: Direct Hydropower
  • 2013/08/25: CCurrents: In 90 Minutes, Enough Sunlight Strikes The Earth To Provide The Entire Planet's Energy Needs For One Year
  • 2013/08/23: MoBo: This Satellite Could Be Beaming Solar Power Down from Space by 2025

  What do you have in energy comparisons and transitions?

  • 2013/08/30: CSM: Solar and wind energy to be cost competitive by 2025, [NREL] report finds
  • 2013/08/30: CleanTechnica: Solar & Wind Power To Be Cost-Competitive Without Subsidies By 2025 (NREL)...
  • 2013/08/29: PSinclair: FERC Chair: Solar is Going to Overtake Everything
  • 2013/08/28: FuelFix: New data shows shifting US energy landscape, as petroleum exports soar

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

  • 2013/08/31: CleanTechnica: Fracking Wastewater Cited In Blackside Dace Die-Off, Probably
  • 2013/08/30: CCP: Frackers cut billions in royalty payments to landowners
  • 2013/08/28: USGS: Hydraulic Fracturing Fluids Likely Harmed Threatened Kentucky Fish Species
    Hydraulic fracturing fluids are believed to be the cause of the widespread death or distress of aquatic species in Kentucky's Acorn Fork, after spilling from nearby natural gas well sites. These findings are the result of a joint study by the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
  • 2013/08/28: Grist: Drill next door: Here's what it looks like when a fracking rig moves in
  • 2013/08/27: NPR: [Pennsylvania] DEP Attempted To Suppress Controversial Study That Criticized Shale Gas
  • 2013/08/27: GreenGrok: Injection of Fracking Fluids Linked to Ohio Earthquakes
  • 2013/08/27: UCSUSA:B: A Change We Didn't See Coming: Hydraulic Fracturing and Sand Mining in Wisconsin
  • 2013/08/26: TP:JR: More Than Flaming Water: New Report Tracks Health Impacts of Fracking on Pennsylvania Residents' Health
  • 2013/08/25: HuffPo: Pennsylvania Fracking Study Preliminary Results Released

  The arithmetic of coal carbon is striking home:

  • 2013/08/27: PSinclair: Coal Fading to Black?

  On the gas and oil front:

  • 2013/08/30: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
    OIL (US$/bbl)
    Dated Brent Spot....114.01
    WTI Cushing Spot....107.65
  • 2013/08/30: OilDrum: Modeling Bakken Oil Production: The Oil Shock Model Explained
  • 2013/08/28: AutoBG: Global petroleum use hits record high, thanks to boom in Asia
  • 2013/08/28: NBF: US hits another post-1989 Crude oil production record of 7.6 million barrels per day
  • 2013/08/27: BBerg: Crude Rises to 18-Month High on Syria Tension
  • 2013/08/26: TheHill:e2W: Energy Department: World oil use hit new high in 2012
  • 2013/08/25: OilDrum: Tech Talk - Where to Expect More Oil to Come This Year
  • 2013/08/25: DeSmogBlog: The Deadly Truth About Oil And Gas Industry Safety Standards

  In the gas and oil corps:

  • 2013/08/26: BBC: Sinopec profits surge as China eases pricing rules
    Asia's biggest oil refiner, China Petrochemical Corporation also known as Sinopec, has posted a 24% jump in profit in the January to June period.
    It made a net profit of 30.3bn yuan ($4.9bn; £3.2bn) during the six months, up from 24.5bn yuan a year earlier.
    Its margins were boosted after China introduced measures to allow domestic fuel prices to be linked more closely with international prices.

  And in pipeline news:

  • 2013/08/30: TreeHugger: Exxon's Pegasus pipeline crosses 18 watersheds for Arkansas drinking water sources
  • 2013/08/26: DeSmogBlog: Official Price of the Enbridge Kalamazoo Spill, A Whopping $1,039,000,000
  • 2013/08/25: CCP: Flanagan South Pipeline -- who needs the Keystone XL?

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

  • 2013/09/01: PeakEnergy: Shale Grab Stalls as Falling Values Repel Buyers
  • 2013/08/31: RealEconomics: Countering the shale gas and oil BS
  • 2013/08/28: PSinclair: Fracking Fraying at Edges
  • 2013/08/28: NakedCapitalism: Has the Shale Bubble Already Burst?
  • 2013/08/25: Resilience: Are fracked oil and natural gas really "snake oil"?

  Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

  • 2013/08/31: OilDrum: Tech Talk - A Dickensian Situation revisited
  • 2013/08/29: CassandrasLegacy: Peak Oil: a fertile concept
  • 2013/08/27: EarlyWarning: What The Oil Drum Meant
  • 2013/08/25: CassandrasLegacy: Who said that peak oil models were wrong?

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

  • 2013/09/01: PeakEnergy: Cool Planet's Wood Waste to Fuel Project
  • 2013/08/29: Eureka: More efficient production of biofuels from waste with the help of modified yeasts

  The answer my friend...

  • 2013/08/30: CleanTechnica: Ohioans Pledge To Buy Power From Lake Erie Wind Farm
  • 2013/08/28: CSM: Wind energy takes flight in Europe and beyond
  • 2013/08/28: CleanTechnica: Norway Greenlights 8 Wind Farms To Triple National Capacity
  • 2013/08/28: CleanTechnica: Texas Electric Trucks Could Run On The Wind
  • 2013/08/28: PeakEnergy: Norway opens doors for a major onshore wind power boost
  • 2013/08/27: MWEN: In Nebraska, farmers hope to take control of wind production

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

  • 2013/08/29: CNN: Bright sun, bright future: Can Africa unlock its solar potential?
    Solar power projects are increasingly being announced across Africa - Experts say that Africa can use solar power to fuel its future growth -
    Lack of awareness and financing are still major challenges - Industry insiders also call for new policies to help the sector to take off
  • 2013/08/29: RTCC: UK solar market hits 1 gigawatt for the first time
  • 2013/08/28: Resilience: Cooperative Co-Production of Solar Power in a Small Town
  • 2013/08/28: CleanTechnica: Two Californian Cities Vying For Solar Capital Of The US - Lancaster & Sebastopol
  • 2013/08/28: CleanTechnica: Battery Backup Has An Incentive In California
  • 2013/08/27: TP:JR: Construction Begins On [Nevada's 250 MegaWatt Copper Mountain 3 Solar Plant]
  • 2013/08/27: PeakEnergy: Japanese Solar Energy Soars
  • 2013/08/26: NBF: 3D Graphene replaces platinum in dye sensitized solar power
  • 2013/08/26: TreeHugger: Germany broke world solar power generation record in July with 5.1 TWh, leaving U.S. in dust

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

  • 2013/08/29: Guardian(UK): Just say no to nuclear power -- from Fukushima to Vermont
  • 2013/08/28: DemNow: In Victory for Activists, Entergy to Close Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant; Will More Follow?
  • 2013/08/28: Grist: Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to shutter
  • 2013/08/27: EneNews: Vermont Yankee closing permanently - Embattled nuclear plant will be decommissioned in 2014 when current fuel cycle ends - Had license to operate until 2032
  • 2013/08/27: NBF: US Closes Nuclear Plant, China and Saudi Arabia continue with nuclear power plans
  • 2013/08/27: CDreams: [Vermont Yankee] Nuke Plant to Shut Doors: Environmental Victory But Vital Work Still Ahead
  • 2013/08/27: TheCanadian: The Thorium reactor energy option
  • 2013/08/27: CNN: Vermont Yankee nuclear plant to be shut
    "This asset is not financially viable," owner Entergy says - The 40-year-old plant employs 630 workers - Decommissioning will probably take decades
  • 2013/08/27: IndiaTimes: Saudi Arabia to have 16 nuclear reactors by 2030
  • 2013/08/26: IndiaTimes: Ukraine, Japan to monitor Chernobyl and Fukushima from space
  • 2013/07/30: WNR: The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2013

  Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:

  • 2013/08/27: PBS:Nova: A Salty Solution for Nuclear Waste
  • DOE: WIPP/TRU - Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and the NationalTransuranic Program
  • 2013/08/27: SciAm:TCW: Who's afraid of nuclear waste?: WIPPing transuranics into shape
  • 2013/08/25: WawatayNews: Nuclear waste disposal site creeps closer to reality
    A location is yet to be set and the timelines stretch 25 years in the future, but one thing seems certain: nuclear waste will be buried in the Canadian shield.
    As the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) - a not-for-profit organization established by the federal government - starts analyzing communities as part of the process of selecting a site to bury used nuclear rods, details continue to sharpen on how the project will one day look.

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

  • 2013/08/26: CleanTechnica: Sunrun Supports Net Metering, Not Feed-in Tariffs or Value Of Solar Tariffs
  • 2013/08/26: CleanTechnica: US Solar Feed-in Tariff & Value Of Solar Tariff Beneficiaries May Face More Taxes [solar & US pol]

  Like a mirage, the dream of a Hydrogen Economy shimmers on the horizon:

  • 2013/08/29: LBL: Hydrogen Fuel From Sunlight
    Berkeley Lab Researchers at Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis Make Unique Semiconductor/Catalyst Construct

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

  • 2013/08/30: RTCC: Japanese grid faces clean energy 'congestion' dilemma
  • 2013/08/29: PSinclair: US Grid as We've Known it Is Over
  • 2013/08/25: NatureN: US electrical grid on the edge of failure -- Network analysis suggests geography makes grid inherently unstable

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

  • 2013/08/30: CleanTechnica: Smart Glass To Hit $890 Million Annually By 2022
  • 2013/08/28: RTCC: Energy efficiency is on 80% of UK businesses' agendas
  • 2013/08/27: NakedCapitalism: The US Wastes Enough Energy Each Year to Power the UK for Seven Years
  • 2013/08/26: TreeHugger: Update: Lessons from the Livermore Laboratory's energy use graph
  • 2013/08/26: TreeHugger: The United States uses 39% of the energy it produces, wastes 61%...

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

  • 2013/08/29: TP:JR: A New Pilot Project Is Bringing Electric Delivery Trucks To Texas
  • 2013/08/27: PeakEnergy: Electric Vehicles and the Future of Personal Transportation

  As for Energy Storage:

  • 2013/08/29: CleanTechnica: GE Flow Battery Aims For 240-Mile EV Range... And Beyond
  • 2013/08/29: CleanTechnica: Australian [zinc bromine] RedFlow Battery Manufacturing Coming Soon
  • 2013/08/27: CleanTechnica: Compressed Air Energy Storage [CAES] To Grow Dramatically Over The Next Decade

  What do we have in (weekly) lists?

  • 2013/08/31: SkS: 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #35B by John Hartz
  • 2013/08/30: BPA: 3 Picks: Production Costs, Syrian Crisis, Australian Conundrum
  • 2013/08/27: SkS: 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #35A by John Hartz
  • 2013/08/27: BPA: 3 Picks: Ogallala Aquifer, Biofortified Millet, Agriculture Students
  • 2013/08/27: BPA: 3 Picks: Farmer Co-Operatives, Organic Cane, Golden Rice
  • 2013/08/27: CleanTechnica: Cleantech Buffet ...

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

  Note: You may notice my denialist coverage flagging. I am finding it
  increasingly difficult to give any attention to these people.

  • 2013/08/28: Stoat: World Federation of Scientists (Permanent Monitoring Panel - Climatology) weirdness
  • 2013/08/28: PSinclair: Oregon's New GOP Chairman is Fringe Science Fan [d]
  • 2013/08/28: TMoS: Denialism 2.0 - Even More Dangerous Than the Original
  • 2013/08/28: Guardian(UK): The era of climate change 'denial' is over
  • 2013/08/30: VvattsUWT: Now that we've got that straight
  • 2013/09/01: HotWhopper: Planet Earth is losing water, sez WUWT
  • 2013/08/31: VvattsUWT: Pollowitz Polynyas & Morano Moraines
  • 2013/08/27: Grist:Glenn Beck will fire any employee caught using CFLs
  • 2013/08/26: TMoS: Why Does the American South Embrace Climate Change Denialism?
  • 2013/08/22: Yale360: Why Pushing Alternate Fuels Makes for Bad Public Policy by John Decicco
  • 2013/08/26: WottsUWTB: Watt about sticking it to the Mann?

  As for climate miscellanea:

  • 2013/08/28: GLaden: Climate Threats, Climate Future
  • 2013/08/28: CassandrasLegacy: A list of organizations that give some hope for the future
  • 2013/08/25: SanDiegoFP: Global Warming is Cooking the Planet Now - Not in Some Far-Off Future
  • 2013/08/31: AutoBG: MIT: vehicle emissions cause 53,000 extra deaths a year
  • 2013/08/29: RT: Air pollution cause of 200,000 premature US deaths - study
  • 2013/08/30: Grist: Hope and fellowship
  • 2013/08/30: Monbiot: Backwards Reasoning -- Could fracking prevent climate change denial?
  • 2013/08/26: UCSUSA:B: Small Insect's Big Lessons for the Farm Bill: Agroecology and Breeding Top Monsanto's Industrial Agriculture
  • 2013/08/25: TheCanadian: The Carbon Dilemma

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

  • The Pacific Decadal Oscillation
  • Wiki: Hotelling's rule
  • The Majuro Declaration
  • Permaculture Research Institute
  • Shrink That Footprint Ltd
  • Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW): monitoring of the ozone layer
  • DOE: WIPP/TRU - Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and the NationalTransuranic Program
  • InciWeb the Incident Information System: Current Incidents
  • Japan - Nuclear Regulation Authority
  • Wiki: Madden-Julian oscillation
  • IRI: Net Assessment Forecasts (global - precip/temp)
  • Wiki: Climate change and agriculture

  ---

  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 want further information, see A Gentle Introduction.
  If you want a copy, 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.

  ---

  "Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias." -Wendell Berry

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

  ---

  Last modified September 1, 2013