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  2. Another Week in the Ecological Crisis, October 6, 2013

Another Week in the Ecological Crisis, October 6, 2013

By illconsidered on October 10, 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

October 6, 2013

co2now gfx skeptisci app gfx

 

Live and direct from the black humour department:

Looking ahead to COP19 at (Warsaw) and future international climate negotiations:

The IPCC released the complete WG1 report - The Physical Science Basis this week:

Some post-AR5 chatter:

There was a mostly unreported climate meeting under the auspices of ASEAN this week:

The International Programme on the State of the Ocean reported this week:

The Crux of it:

  • 2013/10/04: Monbiot: Climate Breakdown -- How governments bemoan the problem but keep stoking the fires
    [...]
    ... denial is only part of the problem. More significant is the behaviour of powerful people who claim to accept the evidence but keep stoking the fires. This week the former Irish president Mary Robinson added her voice to a call that some of us have been making for years: the only effective means of preventing climate breakdown is to leave fossil fuels in the ground(9,10). Press any minister on this matter in private and, in one way or another, they will concede the point. Yet no government will act on it.
    As if to mark the publication of the new report, the department for business, innovation and skills has now plastered a giant poster across its groundfloor windows: "UK oil and gas: Energising Britain. £13.5bn is being invested in recovering UK oil and gas this year, more than any other industrial sector." The message couldn't have been clearer if it had said "up yours."
    This is an example of the way in which all governments collaborate in the disaster they publicly bemoan. They claim to accept the science and to support the intergovernmental panel. They sagely agree with the need to do something to avert the catastrophe it foresees, while promoting the industries that cause it.
  • 2013/10/06: TFTJO: Up yours, IPCC!

The Old Man, Fergus Brown, has returned to blogging:

And on the Bottom Line:

What are the big banks up to?

Delving into the intricacies of thermodynamics this week:

John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:

A note on theFukushima disaster:

It is evident that the Fukushima disaster is going to persist for some time. TEPCO says 6 to 9 months. The previous Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, said decades. Now the Japanese government is talking about 30 years. [Whoops, that has now been updated to 40 years.]
And the IAEA is now saying 40 years too.
[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:

 

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

What do we have for Fukushima related papers this week?

The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:

As for the charismatic megafauna:

That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:

As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

While in Antarctica:

The food crisis is ongoing:

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

So, are these land grabs Colonialism V2.0?

    • 2013/10/03: EurActiv: Food and drink firms urged to crack down on sugar 'land grabs'
      Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Associated British Foods and other global food and beverage companies are being urged to establish a zero-tolerance policy on land grabs. In its report, Sugar Rush, published on Wednesday, Oxfam said sugar, along with soy and palm oil, was driving large-scale land acquisitions and land conflicts at the expense of small-scale food producers and their families.

Regarding the genetic modification of food:

Regarding labelling GM food:

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

In the Western Pacific, Typhoon Fitow is taking a run at China:

Also in the Western Pacific, Typhoon Danas is projected to curve up and run the length of Japan:

 

  • 2013/10/06: al Jazeera: Typhoons line up in the NW Pacific
    Twin typhoons roll in from the Pacific, threatening damaging winds and flooding rains for China and Japan Eastern China is braced for the arrival of Typhoon Fitow which is expected to make landfall to the north of Taiwan late on Sunday. Meanwhile Typhoon Danas is following in its wake, but is expected to curve north into southern Japan later this week.

 

Earlier in the Western Pacific, Typhoon Wutip zinged Southern China and slammed into Vietnam:

 

 

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