(featured image taken from here)
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
Information Overload is Pattern Recognition
April 27, 2014
- Chuckles, COP20+, Post WG3, Earth Day, Earth Year, Energiewende
- Bottom Line, Pricing Nature, Crap Detector, Cook
- Fukushima: Note, News, Policies
- Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica
- Food: Crisis, Fisheries, Prices, Food Riots, Agro Corps, GMO Labelling, Production
- Hurricanes, Monsoon, Notable Weather, Forecasts, GHGs, Aerosols
- Weather Machine, ENSO, Temperatures, Proxies, Satellites
- Tipping Points, Paleoclimate, Oceans, Extinctions, Bees & CCD, Overshoot
- Impacts, Forests, Disease, Phenology
- Tornadoes, Wildfires, Corals, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
- Mitigation, Cities, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Conservation, Adaptation
- Journals, Other Docs, Misc., Science Orgs, Free Science, Wilson, Mann, Hayhoe, Lovelock
- International Politics: UN, IPCC, Bank Tax, Hormuz, South China Sea, Ukraine, Resources
- Solar Spat, Treaties, Nile, Activism, Divestment, Polls, H2O Biz, Groundwater, Education
- National Politics: Britain, Europe, Australia, Abbott, RET, MDBP, Tas Forest Deal
- India, China, Japan, Asia, Russia, Africa, Canada, Lac-Mégantic, Humpbacks, ELA
- Grain Backlog, Pipelines, Salmon, BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Sask, Manitoba, Maritimes
- America, Keystone, Spills & Leaks, Birth Control, USAdmin, Congress
- DeGrowth, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Podcasts, Courts, Mann Suit
- Energy, Transitions, Investment, Fracking, Coal, Oil & Gas, Biofuel
- Wind, Solar, Nukes, Nuclear Waste, Fusion, Grid, Utilities, Efficiency, Cars, Energy Storage
- Business, Other Lists, Quotes, Carbon Lobby, Misc., Useful Links
- Shameless Self Promotion, A Simple Plea, .sig
It's always nice to start with a chuckle:
- 2014/04/26: RealEconomics: (cartoons) Saturday toons
- 2014/04/23: TruthDig: (cartoon - Matson) Earth Day Cleanup
- 2014/04/23: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) Oceana
- 2014/04/23: ParliamAntHill: (cartoon - Sadlemyer) Humpbacks losing 'threatened' status amid pipeline concerns
- 2014/04/22: JoeMohrToons: (cartoon - Mohr) Recycling Old Earth Day Cartoons
- 2014/04/20: TruthDig: (cartoon - Enos) Big Investors
And in the unintentional humour department:
- 2014/04/25: Guardian(UK): Apocalyptic error puts the F in AFR
Newspaper editor apologises for 'World is Fukt' headline and other errors on the front page of its long-weekend edition
Looking ahead to COP20 and future international climate negotiations:
- 2014/04/22: RTCC: [link to 266k pdf] UN releases 'multiple choice' of options for 2015 climate deal
- 2014/04/25: RTCC: China emissions peak key to UN climate deal, says Hedegaard
- 2014/04/24: RNE: 'Censored' IPCC summary reveals jockeying for key UN climate talks
In the wake of this month's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on ways to cut global greenhouse gas emissions, accusations began to fly in the media that the report had been censored by governments. Are these accusations true? Well no, not exactly. Parts were edited out of the summary, although all of the details survive elsewhere in the report. But although this doesn't amount to the censorship scandal some people clearly wanted to read about, the edits do tell an interesting story. They show us that countries are already looking at how their bargaining chips will stack up at the crucial round of United Nations climate negotiations in Paris next year. - 2014/04/23: TheConversation: 'Censored' IPCC summary reveals jockeying for key UN climate talks
Some post WG1/WG2/WG3 commentary:
- 2014/04/22: GEP: IPCC Gives Major Boost to CDR, BECCS
- 2014/04/22: ScienceInsider: Scientists Licking Wounds After Contentious Climate Report Negotiations
- 2014/04/20: Maribo: The rate of change
Rah Rah Earth Day!
- 2014/04/25: CCurrents: An Earth Day Under The Trees
- 2014/04/22: TreeHugger: [SlideShow] Photo: Earth Day, 1970
- 2014/04/22: TreeHugger: [SlideShow] Earth Day march brings green message to Wall Street
- 2014/04/22: DeSmogBlog: In Celebration of Earth Day: Photos Capture the Beauty of Southeastern Louisiana's Wetlands
- 2014/04/22: TP:JR: Legoland Florida To Run On Renewable Energy On Earth Day
- 2014/04/22: NBC: For Earth Day, How About a New Congress?
What do you get Mother Earth on her big day? She's just so hard to shop for and, after all, she already has everything. - 2014/04/22: CBC: Earth Day: NASA to create 'mosaic image' of Earth with #GlobalSelfie
- 2014/04/22: UN: On Mother Earth Day, UN urges protecting planet from 'heavy hand of humankind'
- 2014/04/22: ABC(Au): Farmers celebrate Earth Day by sharing rural stories
- 2014/04/22: RTCC: Earth Day: Ban Ki-moon urges voters to push for tough climate action
- 2014/04/22: Wunderground: Earth Day 2014 Wunderphoto Selections
Boo Hiss Earth Day!
- 2014/04/25: CCurrents: Let This Earth Day Be The Last
- 2014/04/23: CPunch: Earth Day Greenwash - API Front Group Iowa Energy Forum Sponsors Pro-Keystone XL Event
- 2014/04/22: TP:JR: Let's Rename Earth Day
- 2014/04/22: DeSmogBlog: Earth Day Greenwash: API Front Group Iowa Energy Forum Sponsors Pro-Keystone XL Event
How is the German Energy Transition [Energiewende] doing?
- 2014/04/26: CleanTechnica: We Should Have Invested In Solar Sooner, CEO of German Utility RWE Says
- 2014/04/24: GET: German Renewable Energy Act Reform is not a "Feed-in Tariff 2.0"
- 2014/04/22: GET: Energy policy designed to keep industries at home
It is ironic that there is so much talk about the Energiewende hurting Germany's energy-intensive industry, for as Craig Morris points out these firms are the biggest winners in the German energy transition.
And on the Bottom Line:
- 2014/04/23: PSinclair: Survival on a Budget
- 2014/04/22: GLaden: Calculating The Carbon Cost Of ... well, anything
- 2014/04/21: BBC: [Env.] Agency counts cost of 'unprecedented' UK storms
So, If we put a price on nature, will it deal with externalities and lead to greater conservation
or will it lead to greater exploitation or what?
- 2014/04/22: Monbiot: Reframing the Planet
People who think they are protecting nature by costing it are stepping straight into the destroyers' trap.
Here is something for your Crap Detector:
- 2014/04/21: PostMedia: Blinded by scientific gobbledygook
Bad chemistry: How fake research journals are scamming the science community
John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:
- 2014/04/26: SkS: 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #17 by John Hartz
- 2014/04/25: SkS: How global warming broke the thermometer record by Kevin C
- 2014/04/24: SkS: Wave goodbye to the stadium wave - global warming still caused by humans by John Abraham
- 2014/04/23: SkS: Is a Powerful El Niño Brewing in the Pacific Ocean? by Rob Painting
- 2014/04/22: SkS: Climate dollars and sense -- preventing global warming is the cheap option by dana1981
- 2014/04/21: SkS: Skeptical Science consensus paper voted ERL's best article of 2013
- 2014/04/20: SkS: 2014 SkS Weekly Digest #16 by John Hartz
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:
- 2014/04/25: EneNews: Energy Journal: Fukushima "an ongoing crisis... an international issue, its important we all keep our eye on it... we owe it to the Pacific" -- Nuclear fuel dropped into sub-basement and melted through some concrete, no one can get in to see where it is now (audio)
- 2014/04/25: EneNews: PBS Reporter Miles O'Brien: "No one likes to see ocean filled with cesium and strontium and so forth" -- It's arriving on West Coast of U.S. as we speak...
- 2014/04/25: EneNews: NY Times Reporter: Untold story of Fukushima is the radiation issue, gov't doesn't want us talking about it; A lot going on that's never reported by media...
- 2014/04/24: EneNews: Journal: "Fukushima has an Ongoing Melt-Out" -- "Is this not the worst possible outcome?" -- "Nuclear fuel mixing with groundwater and leaking into sea"...
- 2014/04/24: FukuLeaks: TEPCO Gets More Money From Japanese Government
- 2014/04/24: FukuLeaks: NRA Makes Faulty Assumption About Fukushima Leaks
- 2014/04/23: FukuLeaks: Fukushima Unit 4; 704 Fuel Assemblies Removed
- 2014/04/23: FukuLeaks: Fukushima Groundwater Wells Contaminated From Leaking Tanks
- 2014/04/23: FukuLeaks: Fukushima Unit 3 Crane Leaks Oil Into Spent Fuel Pool
- 2014/04/21: EneNews: Mayor in Fukushima during 3/11: Officials lied to everyone and hid the truth -- It's a violation of human rights to expose people to radiation like this, it's terrible...
- 2014/04/21: EneNews: Scientists: Plutonium released from Fukushima "is of radiological concern"; Reactor must be source, not spent fuel pool...
- 2014/04/21: FukuLeaks: Fukushima Nuclear News Roundup
- 2014/04/21: EneNews: Former Official: Fukushima radiation is killing children... heart problems, leukemia, thyroid -- Terrible things are going on -- Authorities hiding truth from world...
- 2014/04/21: EneNews: Top Nuclear Official: "Ground sinking" beneath Fukushima reactor buildings a concern -- Gov't experts looking closely at risks from changes to flow of underground water
- 2014/04/20: EneNews: Japan Times: "Irreparable damage" from Fukushima...
Post Fukushima, nuclear policies are in flux around the world:
The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:
- 2014/04/27: C&S: The Tanana Ice Classic for 2014 is over
- 2014/04/26: Dosbat: What is the future of Arctic Sea Ice? Part 2.
- 2014/04/25: RealClimate: Nenana Ice Classic: Update
- 2014/04/25: ASI: More on melt ponds
- 2014/04/25: CBC: Rare footage shows High Arctic Franklin-era shipwreck from 1853
- 2014/04/24: PSinclair: Dark Snow Project: Ice Sheets, Microbes, and Melt
- 2014/04/22: ArcticNews: Arctic Sea Ice in Steep Descent
- 2014/04/22: GreenGrok: Arctic Sea Ice Update: The Melt Is on, How Low Will It Go?
- 2014/04/20: DosBat: What is the future of Arctic Sea Ice? Part 1
As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:
- 2014/04/24: DeSmogBlog: Report: Arctic Oil Spill Readiness Virtually Nonexistent
- 2014/04/24: TreeHugger: U.S. is NOT prepared for a major oil spill in the Arctic
- 2014/04/24: Grist:If oil spills in the Arctic and no one is around to clean it up, does it just stay there?
- 2014/04/23: NatPo: Canada under increasing pressure to come up with co-ordinated NATO response to Russia in Arctic
Canada, which has long blocked discussion of Arctic issues at NATO, is under increasing pressure from allies to drop its resistance and come up with a co-ordinated response to Russia's aggressive militarization in the Far North. President Vladimir Putin this week detailed Russia's plans for a united system of naval bases, ships and next-generation submarines at a meeting of his country's security council. The Arctic is "a sphere of special interest," he said, and Russia's goal is to not only to restore its influence there "but to make it even stronger." "We need to take additional measures so as not to fall behind our partners, to maintain Russian influence in the region and, maybe in some areas, to be ahead of our partners," he said. Russia is in the process of strengthening military infrastructure in the Arctic Circle, including re-opening two bases 50km from the Finnish border; creating a new Northern Fleet signals intelligence unit, staffed by 3,000 electronic warfare specialists; developing unmanned airships for surveillance; and, building a new 3,000-strong naval aviation unit. - 2014/04/23: JCMorton: Putin says experts should hold on to every area of Russia's Arctic continental shelf
- 2014/04/23: ScienceInsider: Panel Says U.S. Not Ready for Inevitable Arctic Oil Spill
- 2014/04/21: TP:JR: In Russia, World's First Ice-Resistant Oil Platform Starts Production
- 2014/04/21: NOAA: NOAA releases Arctic Action Plan
While in Antarctica:
- 2014/04/25: ERW: B31: huge Antarctic iceberg headed for open ocean
- 2014/04/25: CBC: Massive Antarctic iceberg B31 heads for open ocean
- 2014/04/23: ABC(Au): Scientists pinpoint source of 'bio-duck' sound
- 2014/04/23: BBC: Mystery of 'ocean quack sound' solved
The mystery of a bizarre quacking sound heard in the ocean has finally been solved, scientists report. The noise - nicknamed "the bio-duck" - appears in the winter and spring in the Southern Ocean. However, its source has baffled researchers for decades. Now acoustic recorders have revealed that the sound is in fact the underwater chatter of the Antarctic minke whale. - 2014/04/22: CNN: Iceberg [B31] is twice the size of Atlanta
Iceberg is 255 square miles in size - Massive berg calved from glacier last year - Scientists fear it could get lost in the Antarctic darkness
The food crisis is ongoing:
- 2014/04/26: TP:JR: The Coffee Apocalypse Is Nigh: Brutal Brazilian Drought Forces Starbucks To Pause Purchases
- 2014/04/25: UN: In Central African Republic, 'more children will die from malnutrition than bullets' - UN agency
- 2014/04/23: Eureka: More Americans in their golden years are going hungry
- 2014/04/23: Grist: When your produce gets wasted, it's really a cry for help
- 2014/04/22: RealEconomics: Peak soil?
- 2014/04/22: EurActiv: Deutsche Bank clashes with NGOs over food speculation
- 2014/04/22: RTCC: Climate linked drought adding to Syria's misery
Drier than average conditions placing huge stress on eastern Mediterranean states, says World Food Programme The conflict in Syria has devastated much of the country's agricultural sector. But while the fighting has left large tracts of farmland abandoned, irrigation systems smashed and livestock neglected, other forces have also been at work. - 2014/04/21: WSWS: America's hungry 21st Century
Feeding America, the US national network of food banks, released its annual report on local food insecurity Thursday, showing that one in six Americans, including one in five children, did not have enough to eat at some point in 2012. - 2014/04/21: ABC(Au): Food security concerns in wake of Solomon Islands floods
- 2014/04/20: SFGate: California drought: Food banks drying up, too
- 2014/04/17: SciDaily: Food shortages could be most critical world issue by mid-century
The state of the world's fisheries is a concern. See also, and:
- 2014/04/26: CChallenge: SkyTruth, keeping an eye on illegal fishing, etc.
- 2014/04/25: Grist: Is there a sustainable future for [shrimp] America's most popular seafood?
Food Prices are still problematic:
- FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
- 2014/04/21: CCP: US Produce Prices to Rise on Extreme CA Drought
- 2014/04/20: DD: California drought to cause fruit and veggie sticker shock - 'We predict the increased prices will change consumer purchasing behavior'
Regarding the food factor in rebellion:
- 2014/04/24: SciAm:FM: Rising Up: Using Escalating Food Costs To Predict Riots, Revolutions, and Rebellions
What are the food corps up to?
- 2014/04/25: Grist: Walmart's latest organic scheme is just part of its plot to take over our food system
- 2014/04/24: CBC: Potash Corp. earnings beat expectations -- Greater demand and stability emerging in potash market
[...] [Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc.] reported first quarter earnings of 40 cents per share, or $340 million US, compared to 63 cents per share, or $556 million, in the same period last year.
Regarding labelling GM food:
And how are we going to feed 9 billion, 10 billion, 15 billion?
- 2014/04/16: Nature: (ab$) Predicting biodiversity change and averting collapse in agricultural landscapes by Chase D. Mendenhall et al.
- 2014/04/25: FAO: Summit commits to concrete actions to turn around ocean health and secure food security for millions of people
Global Oceans Action Summit for Blue Growth and Food Security concludes in The Hague - 2014/04/25: UN: Participants at UN-backed summit commit to improve ocean health, secure food security
- 2014/04/24: ABC(Au): Climate champion transforms 'moonscape' farm
Wool grower, John Ive smiles as he gazes out at the gently rolling hills on his farm. Thirty years ago, this same vista looked more like a 'moonscape'. John's holding up an old, laminated photograph taken 35 years ago, in exactly the same spot he stands today. The contrast between the landscape captured in the photo and the view today, is stark. - 2014/04/24: al Jazeera: Climate change and the food security dimension
A new report emphasises that climate change will affect us all, and fundamental changes are needed to avoid the worst. - 2014/04/24: CEH: Nitrogen pollution, climate and land use: why what we eat matters
A new report [European Nitrogen Assessment Special Report on Nitrogen and Food, 'Nitrogen on the Table'] quantifies for the first time how much our food choices affect pollutant nitrogen emissions, climate change and land-use across Europe. - 2014/04/23: UN: Long-term food production must factor in potential impacts of climate change - UN official
- 2014/04/23: ABC(Au): Dragonfruit new cash crop
- 2014/04/23: ABC(Au): Making every drop count -- How do you remain financially viable with limited rainfall?
- 2014/04/22: UN: UN-backed summit on food security, 'blue economy' urges coordinated action
- 2014/04/22: WFP: New Atlas Maps Out Areas Vulnerable To Climate Change, Disasters And Food Insecurity In The Andean Region
- 2014/04/22: FAO: Global Oceans Action Summit for Food Security and Blue Growth opens in The Hague
- 2014/04/21: UCSUSA:B: Transforming Food Policy Through Science from Coast to Coast
- 2014/04/18: SciDaily: Researchers rethink 'natural' habitat for wildlife
It has been blessedly quiet after TC Jack [24S] faded in the South Indian Ocean:
- 2014/04/23: MODIS: Tropical Cyclone Jack (24S) in the South Indian Ocean [on April 21]
- 2014/04/22: ABC(Au): Malaysia Airlines MH370: Ex-Tropical Cyclone Jack halts aerial search for missing plane
- 2014/04/21: NASA: NASA Sees Wind Shear Affecting Newborn Tropical Cyclone Jack
While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:
- 2014/04/26: ABC(Au): Taiwan court rejects typhoon [Morakot (2009)] victims compensation claim
- 2014/04/23: GLaden: Atlantic Hurricanes and El Niño
- 2014/04/22: MODIS: Tropical Cyclone Ita (23P) over Australia [on April 11]
- 2014/04/21: TP:JR: The Jersey Shore Rebuilds Higher After Superstorm Sandy
And on the Monsoon front:
- 2014/04/23: WMO: South Asian Climate Outlook Forum issues Consensus Statement on 2014 summer monsoon season
- 2014/04/21: BBerg: India Said to Forecast Normal Monsoon Rainfall as El Nino Looms
This week in notable weather:
- 2014/04/24: IOTD: Persistent Ice on Lake Superior [on April 20]
- 2014/04/21: al Jazeera: India's wild weather [pix]
Over the past few days, thunderstorms and dust storms have battered the north of the country.
Got any forecasts?
As for GHGs:
- 2014/04/23: TCoE: Calculation: The emissions from those new Chinese coal plants
- 2014/04/23: RTCC: US leads falls in developed country greenhouse gases
Carbon pollution in rich nations falls, but data differences highlight challenge of global climate change deal - 2014/04/22: ABC(Au): Vegetable crops set to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
Research being conducted by the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA) is set to dramatically reduce vegetable crop greenhouse gas emissions. - ] Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a grim milestone last year, and this year that milestone has come around a lot sooner. The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is measured daily at an observatory in Hawaii. It's been regularly surpassing 400 parts per million (ppm) since the middle of last month. That's a level which, until last year, was unprecedented in human history.
Aerosols are making their presence felt:
What's new in the Weather Machine?
- 2014/04/21: TreeHugger: Air pollution from China = stronger storms in the Pacific?
- 2014/04/20: NatureN: Mechanism behind mega-heatwaves pinpointed
Two recent record hot spells traced to feedback loop between dry soils and trapped air.
And on the ENSO front:
- 2014/04/24: BBerg: El Nino Risk Increases as Pacific Gets Warmer: Carbon & Climate
- 2014/04/23: CBC: El Nino forecast suggests next winter will be warm
NOAA says an El Nino appears to be building on Pacific Ocean - 2014/04/23: CCP: Shall we call the next super El Nino "El Pillo"?
- 2014/04/23: ABC(Au): El Nino likely to reduce farm incomes and wheat exports
- 2014/04/22: TP:JR: Does El Niño Plus Global Warming Equal Global Temperature Records In 2014 And 2015?
- 2014/04/22: BoM: ENSO Wrap-Up -- Current state of the Pacific and Indian Ocean
- 2014/04/22: RScribbler: Ocean Temperature Anomaly Hits Extraordinary +1.12 C Above Average Reading on April 22, All Australian Weather Models Now Predict El Nino for 2014
As for the temperature record:
- 2014/04/23: TP:JR: Last Month Was The Fourth-Hottest March On Record
- 2014/04/23: Wunderground: Earth Has Its 4th Warmest March on Record; Weekend Severe Weather Outbreak Coming
What's new in proxies?
Meanwhile in near earth orbit:
- 2014/04/26: CChallenge: SkyTruth, keeping an eye on illegal fishing, etc.
- 2014/04/24: NOAANews: First JPSS-1 [Joint Polar Satellite System] satellite instrument is ready for installation
The cliff, aka tipping points, aka planetary boundaries, put in an appearance:
While in the paleoclimate:
What's the State of the Oceans?:
- 2014/04/22: TreeHugger: What?! 65,000 tonnes of Nazi chemical weapons were dumped in the Baltic Sea 70 years ago
- 2014/04/20: EneNews: CBS San Francisco: Record number of sick seals & sea lions...
And on the extinction watch:
- 2014/04/25: ABC(Au): Cougars show how to survive extinction [be an omnivore]
- 2014/04/25: ABC(Au): Spilt grain proves hazardous to threatened cockatoos
Environmental authorities say a disturbing number of endangered black cockatoos are being killed on roads, while feeding on grain spilled from trucks. Populations of the Carnaby's black cockatoo, which is found across the south-west land division, have declined dramatically in the past 40 years. - 2014/04/23: SciAm:EC: Blue-Footed Boobies Have Stopped Breeding -- But Why?
- 2014/04/22: SciAm:EC: Giant Tusked Insect Saved from Extinction (Just in the Nick of Time)
- 2014/04/20: DD: Land grabs threaten last elephant bastions
The bees and Colony Collapse Disorder are a constant concern. And then, there are the Neonicotinoids:
Intimations of Overshoot:
More GW impacts are being seen:
- 2014/04/22: WFP: New Atlas Maps Out Areas Vulnerable To Climate Change, Disasters And Food Insecurity In The Andean Region
- 2014/04/22: Eureka: Wildlife response to climate change is likely underestimated, experts warn
- 2014/04/22: CPunch: Reality on the Ground -- Ripley's Believe it or Not, Climate Change Version [impax]
And then there are the world's forests:
- 2014/04/27: IOTD: Guitar Forest [on Nov.2, 2007]
- 2014/04/24: Eureka: Amazon rainforest survey could improve carbon offset schemes
- 2014/04/23: NASA: NASA Satellites Show Drought May Take Toll on Congo Rainforest
- 2014/04/23: RTCC: Central African tropical forests becoming browner - study
- 2014/04/21: NSF: Earth Week: Bark beetles change Rocky Mountain stream flows, affect water quality
What happens when millions of dead trees, killed by beetles, no longer need water?
Emerging diseases accompany ecological change:
Changes in natural cycles are showing up:
- 2014/04/25: DD: Naomi Klein: Climate change is the fight of our lives, yet we can hardly bear to look at it
- 2014/04/23: NatureN: CO2 makes growing seasons longer -- Elevated greenhouse gas levels, not just rising temperatures, are extending annual plants' life cycles
On the tornado front:
- 2014/04/24: al Jazeera: The deadliest tornado remembered
A quarter of a century ago a devastating twister produced a massive death toll in one of the world's poorest countries.
As for heatwaves and wild fires:
- 2014/04/26: MODIS: Fires in eastern China and Russia [on April 13]
- 2014/04/25: NASA: Fires in the Yucatan Peninsula in April 2014
- 2014/04/25: TP:JR: U.S. Wildfire Season Comes On Hot As Two Blazes Rage In New Jersey
- 2014/04/23: RScribbler: A Dangerous Dance of Frost and Flame: More Than 100 Wildfires Now Raging Along Siberian Melt-Freeze Line
- 2014/04/23: NASA: Fires in the Primorsky Province of Russia
- 2014/04/21: TP:JR: Wildfires In West Increasing Burn Area At Nearly One Denver Per Year, Study Finds
Corals are a bellwether of the ocean's health:
- 2014/04/24: NatureN: Corals use multiple tricks to adapt to hotter seas -- Genes and physiological acclimation contribute equally to heat resistance
- 2014/04/23: ABC(Au): Research shows seaweed could help improve GBR water quality
- 2014/04/23: ABC(Au): Scientists study seaweed solution to reef threat
- 2014/04/22: ABC(Au): Crown-of-thorns starfish: New method kills more than 250,000 marine pests on Great Barrier Reef
Glaciers are melting:
- 2014/04/27: FaGP: Arago Glacier Retreat, Kerguelen Island
- 2014/04/22: FaGP: Portillon Glacier, French Pyrenees- Retreating and Disappearing
- 2014/04/22: IOTD: Thwaites Glacier [Antarctica] from Sentinel-1A [on April 13]
Sea levels are rising:
- 2014/04/23: Eureka: AGU: Odds of storm waters overflowing Manhattan seawall up 20-fold, new study shows
Newfound rise of storm tides by almost a foot since 1844 adds to risk from sea-level rise - 2014/04/22: Stuff: Rising sea threatens [Wellington, NZ] city's tap water
- 2014/04/22: Grist: Street artist Swoon takes on rising sea levels and drowning communities
- 2014/04/21: UCSUSA:B: Spring Break in Florida: A Lesson in the Costs of Climate Change
As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:
- 2014/04/27: ABC(Au): Death toll in northern Afghanistan floods tops 100, officials say
- 2014/04/26: CBC: Peguis First Nation homes evacuated because of flooding
Dozens of people forced out homes, emergency official says 400 homes threatened - 2014/04/26: ABC(Au): Over 80 killed in Afghanistan's flash floods: officials
- 2014/04/26: ABC(Au): Exmouth flooding: Town in north-west Western Australia cut off by floods
- 2014/04/25: al Jazeera: Dozens dead in Afghanistan flash floods
At least 36 dead and thousands displaced following days of torrential rain in northern Afghanistan. - 2014/04/25: DD: Drought worsens in western U.S. - All of California now in drought, cost estimated to be at least $7.48 billion
- 2014/04/24: ABC(Au): Heavy rain alert issued for flood-hit provinces in Solomon Islands
- 2014/04/24: RTCC: 'No end in sight' to California drought
Falling water levels in US state more severe than any event since the late 1500s megadrought, say scientists California's ground water levels are dropping and the winter just finished has left snow pack at a fraction of historical levels in a continuing drought, the state's Department of Water Resources said this week.
First, stop putting GHGs into the atmosphere,
Second, begin to reduce current levels of GHGs,
Third, save as many species as possible,
Fourth, begin to reduce the human population,
And elsewhere on the mitigation front:- 2014/04/25: RScribbler: Renewable Energy and The Fierce Urgency of Now: A Second Call For Fossil Fuel Abolition
- 2014/04/25: RTCC: Halving meat consumption offers 'significant' climate benefits
Changing global diets could yield biggest cuts in carbon emissions from farming, say scientists - 2014/04/24: RNE: 10 charts that explain climate change mitigation
- 2014/04/23: ABC(Au): Act and adapt or face a bleak future
We could take steps to at least minimise the impact of climate change and population growth, but willful blindness to the current situation creates a poor vision for the future, argues Paul Willis. - 2014/04/22: ABC(Au): Vegetable crops set to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
Can cities take up the slack when nations shirk their responsibilities?
Consider transportation & GHG production:
- 2014/04/25: CleanTechnica: Public Transportation In US Now Better Deal Than Ever, Thanks To Seemingly Ever-Rising Gas Prices
- 2014/04/23: CBC: Toyota world's biggest automaker in Q1 -- 2.58 million vehicles sold, outstripping GM, Volkswagen
Toyota kept its position at the top in global vehicle sales for the first quarter of this year, outpacing rivals General Motors and Volkswagen. Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday that it sold a record 2.583 million vehicles in the January-March period, putting the Japanese automaker ahead of Detroit-based GM at 2.42 million and Volkswagen of Germany at 2.4 million. - 2014/04/22: TheConversation: Which transport is the fairest of them all?
- 2014/04/21: CNN: Want green cities? Lose the cars
Eric Sanderson: Earth Day's theme is green cities. How to get there? Get cars out of town - He says Americans would save substantial money and time by not driving in cities - He says cars pollute and harm the health of humans and the environment - Sanderson: Biking, walking and light rail would obviate need for cars - 2014/04/21: TheConversation: With a bullet: China's high-speed rail dream begins to take flight
- 2014/04/21: Stuff(NZ): Scrapping trolley buses foolhardy
The future of Wellington's trolley buses will be decided in June.
While in the endless quest for zero energy, sustainable buildings and practical codes:
- 2014/04/23: TreeHugger: [SlideShow] AIA/ COTE top ten green buildings awards announced
- 2014/04/21: CleanTechnica: Passive Houses Could Help Norway Significantly Reduce Its Energy Consumption And Carbon Emissions, Research Shows
As for carbon sequestration:
- 2014/04/26: SimpleC: Results show quick CO2 'fix' feasibility [turning CO2 into rock in just a few months] - but its future rests in government hands
- 2014/04/22: GEP: IPCC Gives Major Boost to CDR, BECCS
- 2014/04/16: ClimateInst: [Press Release] Moving Below Zero: Understanding Bio-energy with Carbon Capture & Storage
- 2014/04/16: ClimateInst: [links to several pdfs] Moving Below Zero: Understanding Bio-energy with Carbon Capture & Storage
Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:
- 2014/04/16: Sage:BAS: (ab$) Geoengineering and the politics of science by Clive Hamilton
- 2014/04/23: Eureka: Is nuclear power the only way to avoid geoengineering?
- 2014/04/22: TCoE: 2C in our rear-view mirror, geoengineering dead ahead
- 2014/04/21: QuarkSoup: Billboards Against Climate Engineering
- 2014/04/18: LiSci: Changing Earth: 7 Ideas to Geoengineer Our Planet
What's new in conservation?
- 2014/04/24: TheConversation: We need a global conservation agreement for the high seas
- 2014/04/22: ABC(Au): Huge marine park in Cook Islands on track for 2015
While on the adaptation front:
- 2014/04/23: NatureN: Climate-change adaptation: Designer reefs
Biologists are directing the evolution of corals to prepare them to fight climate change.
Meanwhile in the journals:
- 2014/04/22: PNAS: (ab$) Effects of land use on bird populations and pest control services on coffee farms by Steven F. Railsback & Matthew D. Johnson
- 2014/04/22: PNAS: (ab$) Sugar demand, not auxin, is the initial regulator of apical dominance by Michael G. Mason et al.
- 2014/04/22: PNAS: (ab$) Changes in peat chemistry associated with permafrost thaw increase greenhouse gas production by Suzanne B. Hodgkins et al.
- 2014/04/22: PNAS: (ab$) Nitrogen isotopes in ice core nitrate linked to anthropogenic atmospheric acidity change by Lei Geng et al.
- 2014/04/22: PNAS: (abs) Influence of vapor wall loss in laboratory chambers on yields of secondary organic aerosol by Xuan Zhang et al.
- 2014/04/22: PNAS: (letter$) Functional megadiversity by Miles R. Silman
- 2014/04/16: Sage:BAS: (ab$) Geoengineering and the politics of science by Clive Hamilton
- 2014/04/22: GMD: Simulating high-latitude permafrost regions by the JSBACH terrestrial ecosystem model by A. Ekici et al.
- 2014/04/22: HESSD: Using damage reports to assess different versions of a hydrological early warning system by D. Defrance et al.
- 2014/04/22: TC: Uncertainties in Arctic sea ice thickness and volume: new estimates and implications for trends by M. Zygmuntowska et al.
- 2014/04/23: ACP: Effects of stratospheric ozone recovery on photochemistry and ozone air quality in the troposphere by H. Zhang et al.
- 2014/04/23: ACP: Local impact of solar variation on NO2 in the lower mesosphere and upper stratosphere from 2007 to 2012 by F. Friederich et al.
- 2014/04/22: ACP: A multi-year methane inversion using SCIAMACHY, accounting for systematic errors using TCCON measurements by S. Houweling et al.
- 2014/04/22: ACP: Injection heights of springtime biomass-burning plumes over peninsular Southeast Asia and their impacts on long-range pollutant transport by Y. Jian & T.-M. Fu
- 2014/04/22: ACP: Offsetting effects of aerosols on Arctic and global climate in the late 20th century by Q. Yang et al.
- 2014/04/24: ACPD: Linking climate and air quality over Europe: effects of meteorology on PM2.5 concentrations by A. G. Megaritis et al.
- 2014/04/22: ACPD: Is tropospheric ozone over southern Africa really increasing? Evidence from sonde and aircraft profiles by A. M. Thompson et al.
- 2014/04/25: BG: Changes in soil organic carbon storage predicted by Earth system models during the 21st century by K. E. O. Todd-Brown et al.
- 2014/04/25: BG: Methane and nitrous oxide fluxes across an elevation gradient in the tropical Peruvian Andes by Y. A. Teh et al.
- 2014/04/24: BG: Trade-offs between high yields and greenhouse gas emissions in irrigation wheat cropland in China by Z. L. Cui et al.
- 2014/04/23: BG: Oxygen minimum zone of the open Arabian Sea: variability of oxygen and nitrite from daily to decadal timescales by K. Banse et al.
- 2014/04/25: BGD: Constraint of soil moisture on CO2 efflux from tundra lichen, moss, and tussock in Council, Alaska using a hierarchical Bayesian model by Y. Kim et al.
- 2014/04/22: BGD: Short-term effects of biogas digestate and cattle slurry application on greenhouse gas emissions from high organic carbon grasslands by T. Eickenscheidt et al.
- 2014/04/22: BGD: Local spatial structure of forest biomass and its consequences for remote sensing of carbon stocks by M. Réjou-Méchain et al.
- 2014/04/25: CP: A probabilistic model of chronological errors in layer-counted climate proxies: applications to annually banded coral archives by M. Comboul et al.
- 2014/04/24: CP: Comparing modelled fire dynamics with charcoal records for the Holocene by T. Brücher et al.
- 2014/04/24: CP: Ensemble meteorological reconstruction using circulation analogues of 1781-1785 by P. Yiou et al.
- 2014/04/24: CP: Geochronological reconsideration of the eastern European key loess section at Stayky in Ukraine by A. Kadereit & G. A. Wagner
- 2014/04/22: CP: What controls deuterium excess in global precipitation? by S. Pfahl & H. Sodemann
- 2014/04/22: CPD: Seasonal variations recorded in cave monitoring results and a 10 year monthly resolved speleothem ?18O and ?13C record from the Han-sur-Lesse cave, Belgium by M. Van Rampelbergh et al.
- 2014/04/23: RSBL: (ab$) Cougars' key to survival through the Late Pleistocene extinction: insights from dental microwear texture analysis by Larisa R. G. DeSantis & Ryan J. Haupt
- 2014/04/25: Nature:CC: (ab$) Climate impacts of energy technologies depend on emissions timing by Morgan R. Edwards & Jessika E. Trancik
- 2014/04/25: Nature:CC: (ab$) Strategies for improving adaptation practice in developing countries by Declan Conway & Johanna Mustelin
- 2014/04/25: Nature:CC: (ab$) Natural climate variability and future climate policy by Katharine L. Ricke & Ken Caldeira
- 2014/04/20: Nature:CC: (ab$) September Arctic sea-ice minimum predicted by spring melt-pond fraction by David Schröder et al.
- 2014/04/20: Nature:CC: (ab$) The interpretation of IPCC probabilistic statements around the world by David V. Budescu et al.
- 2014/04/20: Nature:CC: (ab$) Biofuels from crop residue can reduce soil carbon and increase CO2 emissions by Adam J. Liska et al.
- 2014/04/25: ACP: Simultaneous aerosol measurements of unusual aerosol enhancement in the troposphere over Syowa Station, Antarctica by K. Hara et al.
- 2014/04/25: ACPD: Distributions and radiative forcings of various cloud types based on active and passive satellite datasets - Part 1: Geographical distributions and overlap of cloud types by J. Li et al.
- 2014/04/25: ACPD: Comparisons of continuous atmospheric CH4, CO2 and N2O measurements -- results of InGOS travelling instrument campaign at Mace Head by S. N. Vardag et al.
- 2014/04/25: HESS: The potential value of seasonal forecasts in a changing climate in southern Africa by H. C. Winsemius et al.
- 2014/04/24: HESS: Understanding uncertainties when inferring mean transit times of water trough tracer-based lumped-parameter models in Andean tropical montane cloud forest catchments by E. Timbe et al.
- 2014/04/24: HESSD: Historical impact of water infrastructure on water levels of the Mekong River and the Tonle Sap System by T. A. Cochrane et al.
- 2014/04/23: OS: First laboratory study of air-sea gas exchange at hurricane wind speeds by K. E. Krall & B. Jähne
- 2014/04/23: OSD: Effects of bottom topography on dynamics of river discharges in tidal regions: case study of twin plumes in Taiwan Strait by K. A. Korotenko et al.
- 2014/04/24: TC: Adjoint accuracy for the full Stokes ice flow model: limits to the transmission of basal friction variability to the surface by N. Martin & J. Monnier
- 2014/04/25: TCD: Modeling the elastic transmission of tidal stresses to great distances inland in channelized ice streams by J. Thompson et al.
- 2014/04/25: TCD: Quantifying the Jakobshavn Effect: Jakobshavn Isbrae, Greenland, compared to Byrd Glacier, Antarctica by T. Hughes et al.
- 2014/04/24: TCD: Fluctuations of a Greenlandic tidewater glacier driven by changes in atmospheric forcing: observations and modelling of Kangiata Nunaata Sermia, 1859-present by J. M. Lea et al.
- 2014/04/23: TCD: Simulating more accurate snow maps for Norway with MCMC parameter estimation method by T. M. Saloranta
- 2014/03/06: ERL: Groundwater-fed irrigation impacts spatially distributed temporal scaling behavior of the natural system: a spatio-temporal framework for understanding water management impacts by Laura E Condon & Reed M Maxwell
- 2014/04/16: Nature: (ab$) Predicting biodiversity change and averting collapse in agricultural landscapes by Chase D. Mendenhall et al.
- 2014/04/20: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Carbon dioxide released from subduction zones by fluid-mediated reactions by Jay J. Ague & Stefan Nicolescu
- 2014/04/20: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Sand as a stable and sustainable resource for nourishing the Mississippi River delta by Jeffrey A. Nittrouer & Enrica Viparelli
- 2014/04/20: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Mega-heatwave temperatures due to combined soil desiccation and atmospheric heat accumulation by Diego G. Miralles et al.
- 2014/04/20: Nature:CC: (ab$) Hydrological effects of forest transpiration loss in bark beetle-impacted watersheds by Lindsay A. Bearup et al.
And other significant documents:
- 2014/04/24: PI: [links to xls, pdf] British Columbians' opinions on climate change and clean energy
- 2014/04/16: ClimateInst: [links to several pdfs] Moving Below Zero: Understanding Bio-energy with Carbon Capture & Storage
- 2014/04/22: RTCC: [link to 266k pdf] UN releases 'multiple choice' of options for 2015 climate deal
As for miscellaneous science:
- 2014/04/25: RealClimate: Labels for climate data
- 2014/04/24: IsaacHeld: 45. Dynamic retardation of tropical warming
- 2014/04/22: JEB: Objective probability or automatic nonsense?
- 2014/04/22: Eureka: UV-radiation data to help ecological research
- 2014/04/21: Hypergeometric: Comment on "Timescales for detecting a significant acceleration in sea level rise" by Haigh, et al
- 2014/04/21: PostMedia: Blinded by scientific gobbledygook
Bad chemistry: How fake research journals are scamming the science community - 2014/04/21: NSF: Krypton-dating technique allows researchers to accurately date ancient Antarctic ice
- 2014/04/20: QuantPalaeo: Perhaps the most depressing palaeoecology paper ever
In the science organizations:
- 2014/04/23: NatureN: UK foreign aid turns to research
£375 million from development budget will be redirected to science partnerships with middle-income economies.
What developments in the ongoing struggle for Open Science?
Regarding Wilson:
Regarding Mann:
- 2014/04/24: CBC: Michael Mann says it's cheaper to combat climate change than pay for global warming
- 2014/04/24: PSinclair: Michael Mann: Cost of Climate Change Already Greater than Cost of Mitigation
- 2014/04/23: GLaden: Michael Mann on Climate Change and Denialism
Regarding Hayhoe:
- 2014/04/24: UCSUSA:B: The Power of Positive: Science Communication Lessons from Katharine Hayhoe
- 2014/04/24: PSinclair: Dr. Katharine Hayhoe Named to Time's "100 Most Influential" List
- 2014/04/24: CCP: Katharine Hayhoe, climatologist, named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People
- 2014/04/24: TP:JR: Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, Star Of Showtime Climate Series, Makes TIME 100 Most Influential People List [YoLD]
Regarding Lovelock:
Meanwhile at the UN:
There is more talk about changing the IPCC process:
- 2014/04/23: Yale360: Five Questions for IPCC Chairman [Rajendra Pachauri] On Future of Climate Change Action
- 2014/04/22: Grist: It's virtually certain that the IPCC needs to dump its "very likely" crap
- 2014/04/21: ABC(Au): IPCC needs to 'use more numbers'
The Robin Hood tax, aka the Tobin tax, aka the Bank tax, aka the Financial Transaction tax, keeps coming up:
On the international political front, tensions continue as the empire leans on Iran:
South [& East] China Sea tension persists, as the empire leans on China:
- 2014/04/26: WSWS: The danger of war in Asia
- 2014/04/24: AntiWar: Obama: We Will Go To War For Other Nations' Petty Territorial Disputes
President Obama, who is in Japan today, has announced that the U.S. defense treaty with Japan applies to the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. - 2014/04/24: WSWS: Obama affirms US backing for Japan in any conflict with China
- 2014/04/24: al Jazeera: Obama backs Japan in islands row with China
US president says islands at centre of Sino-Japanese dispute are Japanese and fall under terms of US-Japan defence pact. - 2014/04/24: al Jazeera: China frees Japanese cargo ship in $28m deal
Seizure, relating to unpaid compensation for Chinese ships leased in 1936, sparked Japanese formal diplomatic complaint. - 2014/04/24: BBC: Obama Asia tour: US-Japan treaty 'covers disputed islands'
US President Barack Obama has reaffirmed his support for Japan in its row over islands with China, after talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. - 2014/04/23: Xinhuanet: Commentary: Dynamic Asia needs U.S. to reshape anachronistic policy
Six months after a government shutdown forced him to scrap an Asia visit, U.S. President Barack Obama comes to the dynamic continent to consolidate Washington's engagement with the Asia-Pacific region. The four-nation tour unfolds on the background of the Obama administration's so-called "rebalancing to Asia" policy, which features a U.S. commitment to shifting priorities and resources toward the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Washington has good reason to pivot. Asia has grown into the powerhouse of the world economy; it is home to important U.S. allies and brimful of significant U.S. interests. Any country disregarding or even discounting the role of Asia would do so to its own peril. - 2014/04/24: Asia Times: Obama empty-handed in Asia
- 2014/04/24: Asia Times: Steps toward trust in South China Sea
- 2014/04/24: BBC: Obama Asia tour: US-Japan treaty 'covers disputed islands'
US President Barack Obama has reaffirmed his support for Japan in its row over islands with China, after talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. - 2014/04/24: ABC(Au): Barack Obama reaffirms support for Japan in territorial dispute, unable to secure FTA
- 2014/04/23: CNN: Obama enters Japan-China dispute - Obama begins Asia tour with reassurance to Japan
- 2014/04/23: BBC: Obama pledges Japan islands support as Asian tour begins
US President Barack Obama has assured Japan that islands at the centre of its territorial dispute with China are covered by a bilateral defence treaty. In an interview ahead of his Asian tour, Mr Obama said the US would oppose any attempt to undermine Japan's control over the islands. US officials have made such comments in the past, but this is the first time Mr Obama has given such explicit support. - 2014/04/23: WSWS: Japan to erect new radar base close to China
- 2014/04/22: Asia Times: Obama runs China's pivot gauntlet
- 2014/04/22: Asia Times: Japan warns Beijing over ship seizure
- 2014/04/21: BBC: China seizes Japanese cargo ship over pre-war debt
- 2014/04/21: ABC(Au): Japan warns China over ship seizure
Japan's government has warned that the seizure of a Japanese ship in Shanghai over pre-wartime debts threatened its ties with China and could undermine the basis of their diplomatic relationship.
Tensions continue as the empire leans on Syria, Ukraine, Russia...:
- 2014/04/27: BBC: Slovakia and Ukraine agree over gas supply
Slovakia and Ukraine have reached a deal that will allow gas from Central Europe to reach Ukraine via Slovakia. - 2014/04/26: AntiWar: The Kiev Gambit -- Faltering Empire Seeks Meaning
The statement signed last week in Geneva was correctly seen as an attempt to buy time by all the parties involved -- Russia, the Atlantic Empire, and the coup regime in Kiev. But while Moscow may have stalled to give the volatile situation on the ground time to calm down, Washington and Kiev sought to use the truce as a chance to regroup for another attack. - 2014/04/26: WSWS: US and Europe push confrontation with Russia toward war
- 2014/04/25: GET: Achieving Energy Independence from Russia
Can the Ukraine crisis force Germany to backtrack on the Energiewende? No, regardless of Poland's off-the-cuff critique. But it's fueling anew the debate in Germany over supply security. Renewables could go a long way toward bolstering Germany's energy security vis-à-vis Russia, while energy-saving measures could be the true clincher. - 2014/04/24: BBerg: Ukraine Seeks More EU Gas Imports as Russia Demands Billions
Ukraine is seeking to import more natural gas from Europe via Slovakia as Russia demands an extra $11.4 billion for contracted fuel and clashes with pro-Russian forces in the country's east escalate. The European Union, Slovakia and Ukraine failed today to agree on flows from the west, aimed at reducing Kiev's dependence on Russian gas, as officials met in Bratislava, Slovakia. EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said an accord to supply substantial volumes to Ukraine would require Russian consent. With current proposals, European supplies could replace less than half the imports from Moscow-based OAO Gazprom (GAZP) this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. - 2014/04/24: WSWS: Does Washington want war with Russia?
Does Washington want a war with Russia? A review of recent US actions surrounding the crisis in Ukraine clearly poses what would have once seemed an unthinkable question. The Obama administration is playing a very dangerous game of Russian Roulette. - 2014/04/24: CPunch: When in Ukraine... Joe Biden Promotes U.S. as Fracking Missionary Force
- 2014/04/24: EUO: Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak has invited EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger to discuss the Ukrainian gas issue in Moscow on Monday
- 2014/04/23: BBerg: Poland Pushes Coal on Europe as Putin Wields Gas Weapon
- 2014/04/23: DeSmogBlog: Vice President Joe Biden Promotes U.S. as Fracking Missionary Force On Ukraine Trip
- 2014/04/23: CBC: Canadian oil and gas touted for Europe amid Ukraine troubles
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird heads to Poland for two days of meetings - 2014/04/23: RealEconomics: Canada loses its diplomatic mind
- 2014/04/22: EurActiv: Poland calls for EU action to end Russia's energy stranglehold
- 2014/04/22: EUO: Time for EU energy union, says Polish PM
Brussels - The European Union must create an energy union to secure its supply and reduce its dependence on Russian gas, Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said. - 2014/04/21: Tyee: Putin, Petrorubles and Our PM's Bad Posture
On Ukraine, Harper as useful idiot -- but for whom? - 2014/04/21: UBardi: The West and Russia: a tit for tat game. Part 3 by Tatiana Yugay
- 2014/04/21: Grist: Ukraine belatedly seeks renewable energy as weapon against Russia
- 2014/04/20: IPSNews: Poland Uses Ukraine to Push Coal
In the "global competition for natural resources":
- 2014/04/25: BBC: Agreement reached on deep sea mining
Plans to open the world's first mine in the deep ocean have moved significantly closer to becoming reality. A Canadian mining company has finalised an agreement with Papua New Guinea to start digging up an area of seabed. The controversial project aims to extract ores of copper, gold and other valuable metals from a depth of 1,500m. However, environmental campaigners say mining the ocean floor will prove devastating, causing lasting damage to marine life.
While in the solar spat between India and the USA:
- 2014/04/24: Grist: Enviros urge U.S. to stop meddling in Indian solar affairs
A U.S. push to smash open India's fast-growing solar market could end up hurting the climate.
These 'free trade' treaties should be called the corporate control treaties:
- 2014/04/22: iPolitics: Vancouver group calls on Harper, Obama to release TPP text
- 2014/04/25: CPunch: How the Democrats Re-Branded Fast-Track
The Democratic Party has responded to the resistance against ramming through new trade agreements by giving the process a new name. "Fast-track" has been rebranded as "smart-track" and, voilà, new packaging is supposed to make us forget the rotten hulk underneath the thin veneer.
The conflict over damming the Nile above the Aswan is percolating in the background:
- 2014/04/21: al Jazeera: Egypt to 'escalate' Ethiopian dam dispute
While construction of Africa's largest hydroelectric dam continues apace, downstream neighbour Egypt is crying foul.
What are the activists up to?
- 2014/04/26: FukuLeaks: No Nuclear Protests In Taiwan Continue With Large Events
- 2014/04/25: TP:JR: What Was Tom Steyer Doing In [Fort Chipewyan] This Isolated Canadian Town?
- 2014/04/25: Grist: How a cop's blows turned Richmond's Andres Soto into a climate activist
- 2014/04/24: FukuLeaks: No Nukes Protests In Second Day In Taiwan
- 2014/04/23: DeSmogBlog: Only With Political Will Can We Avoid The Worst Of Climate Change [Suzuki]
- 2014/04/21: Nation: Want to Stop Climate Change? Take the Fossil Fuel Industry to Court
The move to divest from fossil fuel investments is growing slowly:
Polls! We have polls!
- 2014/04/24: DeSmogBlog: New Poll Finds Most B.C. Residents Want Shift From Fossil Fuels to Clean Energy
- 2014/04/23: ACLU: Clear Majority of Americans Support Birth Control Rule
- 2014/04/22: CBC: Big Bang, evolution, climate change widely doubted in U.S., poll suggests
Poll finds confidence in major science concepts strongly dependent on politics, religion - 2014/04/22: KSJT: Forget about the science people don't know: How confident are they about what they *do* know?
- 2014/04/22: Eureka: More than two-thirds of Americans support mandated coverage of birth control in health plans
- 2014/04/21: CleanTechnica: Ohioans Are Bonkers About Renewable Energy
Regarding Water Politics and Business; See also:
- 2014/04/25: Reuters: In California drought, big money, many actors, little oversight
- 2014/04/25: JFleck: An update on California towns running out of water. Or not.
- 2014/04/25: JFleck: the palm is a water loving plant
- 2014/04/25: JFleck: Colorado River System Conservation Program
- 2014/04/24: JFleck: El Niño and the Colorado River Basin
- 2014/04/24: JFleck: stuff I wrote elsewhere: a dry summer on the Rio Grande
- 2014/04/24: CNN: This machine makes drinking water from thin air
- 2014/04/23: Eureka: How to avoid water wars between 'fracking' industry and residents
- 2014/04/22: JFleck: Whose river is the Animas?
- 2014/04/22: JFleck: Stuff I wrote elsewhere: with water sales and revenue down, Albuquerque eyes another rate hike
And on the groundwater front:
- 2014/04/24: JFleck: "the groundwater problem"
- 2014/04/24: PSinclair: More Than Half of China's Groundwater is Toxic
- 2014/04/22: Xinhuanet: China's underground water quality worsens: report
Nearly 60 percent of monitored areas of China had "very poor" or "relatively poor" underground water quality last year, a new report showed on Tuesday. Among 4,778 spots in 203 cities monitored by the Ministry of Land and Resources, underground water quality was ranked "relatively poor" in 43.9 percent of them and "very poor" in another 15.7 percent last year, said the annual report unveiled by the ministry. - 2014/04/22: ERW: Irrigation may reduce dependability of groundwater
Regarding science education:
- 2014/04/25: Wonkette: Academic Freedom To Teach Bible As Science Upheld In Lucky Louisiana
- 2014/04/25: RawStory: SC Republican wants to end public schools: Nothing 'in the Bible about state education'
- 2014/04/23: CleanTechnica: Fighting For Science In The Classroom, & America's Future
- 2014/04/23: Grist: Wyoming doesn't want its kids to learn about climate change
While in the UK:
- 2014/04/27: BBC: Scottish universities given funding [by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC)] for low carbon projects
Three Scottish universities are to receive £20m as part of a scheme to help Scotland meet its carbon emission reduction targets. Strathclyde, Stirling and St Andrews universities will be given the Scottish government funding to build a number of new projects. - 2014/04/26: BBC: Insurance premiums down despite floods, says BIBA
The cost of household insurance policies dropped at the start of the year, despite insurers facing a huge bill from flooding damage. The average household premium was 5.5% lower in the first three months of the year compared with the first quarter of 2013, research by the British Insurance Brokers' Association (BIBA) found. - 2014/04/25: BBC: UK science to get £200m polar ship
UK scientists are to get a £200m icebreaker, which will be one of the biggest, most capable polar research vessels in the world. - 2014/04/25: NatureNB: Polar icebreaker pledged as UK launches science spending consultation
- 2014/04/25: EurActiv: UK shale industry claims it could create over 60,000 jobs
- 2014/04/25: ScienceInsider: Britain to Build $340 Million Polar Research Ship
- 2014/04/24: TP:JR: Is This The End Of Onshore Wind In The U.K.?
- 2014/04/24: RTCC: Does Cameron's attack on onshore wind power add up?
- 2014/04/24: PSinclair: In the UK, at Least, Cold Weather does Not Dampen Climate Change Understanding
- 2014/04/24: BBC: Onshore wind farms subsidies would be scrapped by Tories
The Conservatives have said they will not subsidise new onshore wind farms if they win the 2015 general election. - 2014/04/24: WSWS: Oppose the fracking operation at Barton Moss
- 2014/04/23: BBC: Eight renewable energy projects approved
Eight major renewable energy projects, expected to support 8,500 jobs, have been given government approval. The contracts, which include offshore wind farms and conversions of coal-powered plants to run on biomass, are the first awarded under the government's energy market reforms. Energy Secretary Ed Davey said the projects would help power up to three million homes. - 2014/04/22: TPride: Cameron's office calls police on Bishop trying to deliver letter on poverty (not satire!)
- 2014/04/22: BBC: Ministers want to change trespass law to boost fracking
Ministers want to give energy companies the right to run shale gas pipelines under private land, Whitehall sources have confirmed. The planned move - aimed at kick-starting the fracking industry - will be included in the Queen's Speech as part of an Infrastructure Bill. - 2014/04/21: BBC: Agency counts cost of 'unprecedented' UK storms
For the first time in its history, the Environment Agency has assessed the state of all of its flood defences in England following the winter's storms. One thousand sites were identified as in need of repair, with the unprecedented series of storms causing £135m worth of damage. Agency staff and members of the armed forces took six weeks to inspect more than 150,000 sites across the country. To date, 350 defences have been repaired, the Agency said. Over the winter, a series of powerful storms swept across the UK, resulting in coastal areas being battered by high waves and storm surges. The Met Office said it was England's wettest winter on record, leaving saturated river systems struggling to cope with the deluge. - 2014/04/20: al Jazeera: UK row over Christian values and food poverty
David Cameron talks of UK as 'Christian country' while under fire from church leaders over skyrocketing food poverty.
And in Europe:
- 2014/04/25: EurActiv: Bulgaria, [EU Energy] Commission, lost in translation over South Stream
- 2014/04/25: RTCC: UK and Poland to fund joint study into shale gas potential
- 2014/04/24: RTCC: Ireland outlines low-carbon transition plans with new climate bill
- 2014/04/24: RTCC: Just three EU countries on track to meet energy savings target - report
Denmark, Ireland and Croatia praised for efficiency measures, but others falling short - 2014/04/23: BBerg: Poland Pushes Coal on Europe as Putin Wields Gas Weapon
- 2014/04/22: EurActiv: Deutsche Bank clashes with NGOs over food speculation
- 2014/04/22: EurActiv: Environmental NGOs launch election demands as Green support dips
- 2014/04/22: EUO: Time for EU energy union, says Polish PM
Brussels - The European Union must create an energy union to secure its supply and reduce its dependence on Russian gas, Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said. Tusk's energy blueprint, set out in an article in the Financial Times on Tuesday (22 April), would establish a single European body that would buy gas for the whole 28-nation bloc. This would end a system that currently sees the different countries negotiate their own deal with energy giant Gazprom, the government-backed firm which dominates Russia's gas market. Meanwhile, "solidarity mechanisms" between EU countries would kick into action if countries were threatened with being cut off from gas supplies. - 2014/04/20: IPSNews: Poland Uses Ukraine to Push Coal
Meanwhile in Australia:
- 2014/04/25: ABC(Au): Outback mayor urges satellite use to help prioritise drought aid
- 2014/04/25: ABC(Au): Billion-dollar power price shock
Territorians could be in for a nasty shock. An independent watchdog has decided to let Power and Water charge up to a billion dollars in network fees over the next five years. - 2014/04/24: RNE: Graph of the Day: Australia's strongest (and weakest) solar suburbs
- 2014/04/24: RNE: NSW solar tariffs cut again, as regulator approves gas price rises
- 2014/04/24: ABC(Au): Qld Govt shuns calls for more details about gas exports
A proposal by the New South Wales pricing regulator to boost gas prices by as much as $225 a year to some households is prompting calls for more transparency around gas export deals. Australia will triple its gas production in the next few years as key gas projects in Queensland ramp up production. But most of the new gas generated will be exported to Asia. - 2014/04/24: ABC(Au): Cross-border tensions between Qld and NSW over gas supply
- 2014/04/24: ABC(Au): Forecaster says mining in Galilee won't go ahead
A financial analyst says plans for the development of Australia's largest ever coal mine won't go ahead in the Galilee Basin in central west Queensland. Tim Buckley is the Australasian Director at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. He says the global coal industry is in decline, making coal mining in the Galilee Basin commercially unviable. - 2014/04/23: ABC(Au): Queensland Resources Council's ad campaign disputes industry impact on Great Barrier Reef
- 2014/04/23: ABC(Au): Landholders object to Springsure Creek Coal Project
- 2014/04/23: ABC(Au): Australian Beef Association slams global sustainability proposal
- 2014/04/23: ABC(Au): Council to withdraw approval for Bentley anti-gas protest camp
- 2014/04/23: ABC(Au): Gas price hike in NSW could extend to other states
- 2014/04/23: ABC(Au): Energy company responds to proposed increase in [gas] prices
- 2014/04/22: RNE: Renewables advocates hail NEM reforms as win for consumers
- 2014/04/22: ABC(Au): Bill Shorten's push for Labor Party reform on relationship with unions prompts criticism
- 2014/04/20: TheConversation: Taking stock of the opportunities and risks with landscape carbon
- 2014/04/21: ABC(Au): Maules Creek coal mine plan to offset land clearing in Leard State Forest given thumbs up
Now we get to watch the suppository of wisdom destroy what little Australia has done to fight climate change:
- 2014/04/26: ABC(Au): Key Independent wants changes to PM's climate policy
A key Independent says he's not prepared to support the Prime Minister Tony Abbott's climate change policy in its present form. The Independent Senator for South Australia, Nick Xenophon, says he'd like to make the so-called Direct Action policy much more efficient. - 2014/04/25: ABC(Au): Carbon farming red tape freed up under Direct Action Plan
A sustainability specialist says changes proposed for the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) under the Direction Action Policy are a win for farmers. The Federal Government has released the White Paper on Direct Action which details the policy design of its Emissions Reduction Scheme (ERF). But Research Fellow with the Curtin University Sustainability Policy Unit, Jemma Greene, says the most important criteria of how emissions reductions baselines are set is seriously flawed and difficult to determine. Ms Greene believes that using historical emissions data over five years, and setting the baseline at the highest point during that time, won't reduce emissions and could even see them increase. - 2014/04/25: TheConversation: Direct Action policy still leaves loopholes open for big polluters
- 2014/04/25: GReadfearn: George Brandis and the "settled science" of climate change
- 2014/04/24: ABC(Au): Direct Action: Government releases policy white paper on climate change plan
- 2014/04/24: ABC(Au): Direct action plan sets generous emission levels
The Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt has revealed generous baseline emissions criteria with the release of the Direct Action White Paper. Direct Action is the Coalition Government's climate change policy based on an Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) that pays polluters to reduce emissions. Setting emissions baselines will set a floor level of allowable CO2 emissions industries such as oil and gas, mining, electricity and cement. Minister Hunt says the baselines for industry will be set using the highest emissions level over the last five years. - 2014/04/24: BBerg: Australia Puts Off Penalties in Proposed Fund to Cut Emissions
Australia will focus on rewards rather than penalties to slow greenhouse-gas emissions, according to a government blueprint for a new climate policy proposed to start this year. Prime Minister Tony Abbott's government, vowing to throw out the existing levy on emitters, unveiled final details today for an Emissions Reduction Fund with as much as $2.6 billion to help firms lower Australia's emissions, the highest per capita in the developed world. The government will wait until next year to consider consequences for emitters going over their historical baselines, and no more than 130 of the largest polluters would be bound by this "safeguard mechanism." - 2014/04/24: RTCC: Australia slashes emission penalties in new climate plan
- 2014/04/23: RNE: Tony Abbott's business guru insists the world is cooling
- 2014/04/23: RTCC: Australia's climate policies on verge of meltdown
- 2014/04/23: HotWhopper: Is Maurice Newman telling Tony Abbott he should fire him?
- 2014/04/23: ABC(Au): Treasurer Joe Hockey was concerned GrainCorp bidder Archer Daniel Midland 'not of good character'
- 2014/04/22: ABC(Au): PUP 'will not vote for direct action', says Clive Palmer
- 2014/04/22: ABC(Au): Clive Palmer on collision course with Federal Government over Direct Action climate change policy
- 2014/04/22: ABC(Au): No evidence that man has caused warming [says Maurice Newman, the chairman of the Prime Minister's Business Advisory Council]
- 2014/04/21: ABC(Au): Pensions before action on climate change
Clive Palmer has called the Abbott government's direct action policy a 'token effort' and urged that the money be spent on supporting pensioners instead. - 2014/04/21: CPunch: Dark Histories -- Tony Abbott, the NDH and Australia's Fascist Affair
The Renewable Energy Target Review is underway:
- 2014/04/24: RNE: "Farcical" start to Tony Abbott's renewable energy review
- 2014/04/22: RNE: Renewables review kicks off with big battle over numbers
The Abbott government's controversial review of Australia's renewable energy target (RET) begins in earnest on Wednesday with a public meeting in Sydney that will wrestle with one of the key issues -- how to define the numbers.
After years of wrangling, the Murray Darling Basin Plan is in place, but the water management fights are far from finished:
- 2014/04/25: ABC(Au): Lake Wyangan safe after a five month shut down
- 2014/04/24: ABC(Au): New water source [Bungaroo Valley bore] switched on for Pilbara iron ore operations
- 2014/04/23: ABC(Au): Tibooburra to have at least 2 years' water supply
Authorities believe Tibooburra residents now have at least two years' water supply. The town faced a serious water shortage earlier this year, prompting the State Government to step in and fund tanks and water cartage to the town. Tibooburra Water's Dan Hough says the town would have been at crisis point without the help. He says recent rainfall and repairs to the treatment plant's ensured the town will have a secure supply in the future. - 2014/04/23: ABC(Au): Mixed fortunes for drought-ravaged farmers across New South Wales
- 2014/04/22: ABC(Au): South Australians paying highest water prices in the nation: Essential Services Commission
- 2014/04/22: ABC(Au): Conservation Foundation wants Water Commission reprieve
The Australian Conservation Foundation has urged the Federal Government to continue funding the National Water Commission beyond this year. The ABC understands it's likely the independent, national water auditing and monitoring agency will be scrapped in the upcoming Federal Budget, as the government chases savings. - 2014/04/21: ABC(Au): National Water Commission under budget threat
- 2014/04/21: ABC(Au): National Water Commission under threat from Federal Government budget cuts
- 2014/04/21: ABC(Au): Irrigators not worried about Water Commission cuts
The head of the National Irrigators' Council says he's not surprised by reports the National Water Commission faces the axe in the upcoming Federal Budget. The ABC understands the Commission is likely to be cut altogether in the May Budget, after surviving significant cuts to funding in recent years. The Commission was formed almost a decade ago to drive water policy reform, and plays an auditing and monitoring role in the Murray-Darling Basin in particular.
The Federal and now the State Liberals are bent on trashing the hard won Tasmanian forest deal:
- 2014/04/27: ABC(Au): Hundreds rally in the Florentine over the government's move to delist some of Tasmania's world heritage forest
- 2014/04/25: ABC(Au): Timber assets of collapsed company Gunns sell for $330m
A Sydney-based forestry investment company has bought the timber assets of collapsed Tasmanian company Gunns for $330 million. The ABC understands New Forests has bought the timber business, which includes Gunns' plantations and access to the port in Burnie.
And in the Indian subcontinent:
While in China:
- 2014/04/25: TP:JR: China's Legislature Moves To Crack Down On Polluters
- 2014/04/25: DD: China takes on pollution with biggest changes in 25 years - 'It's good news for just about everyone except U.S. coal mining companies'
- 2014/04/24: BBerg: China Takes On Pollution With Biggest Changes in 25 Years
- 2014/04/24: ABC(Au): China amends environmental protection law to tackle pollution
Chinese lawmakers have passed amendments to the country's environmental protection law that will impose tougher punishments for polluters. The revisions - the first change to the legislation in 25 years - were approved by the National People's Congress on Thursday. - 2014/04/22: RTCC: China struggling to meet emissions targets, says top official
Strong policy mechanisms needed to keep China on track to reduce emissions intensity 17% by 2015, says NDRC chief - 2014/04/21: BBerg: China Premier Li Reiterates Plans to Boost Clean Energy
And in Japan:
While elsewhere in Asia:
- 2014/04/24: ABC(Au): Flawed land leases in PNG will be revoked, says PM
Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill says controversial land leases abused by the timber industry will be cancelled.
And in Russia:
- 2014/04/22: RTCC: Russia reveals plans to boost flagging coal industry
Energy chief announces measures to drive development of coal fields, in face of cheaper gas and clean energy options The Russian government has endorsed a long-term coal industry development program, featuring an increase in coal production and coal-powered generation - a day after adopting a brand-new climate action plan.
While in Africa:
In Canada, neocon PM Harper, aka The Blight, pushes petroleum while ignoring the climate and ecology:
- 2014/04/27: BLongstaff: Are we gambling our economy on the tar sands?
- 2014/04/25: CCP: A rising tide: the case against Canada as a world citizen
- 2014/04/25: BCLSB: How Ezra Levant Wrecked The Harper Government's Energy Strategy
- 2014/04/24: BBerg: How Obama Shocked Harper as Keystone Frustrator-in-Chief
- 2014/04/21: Tyee: Putin, Petrorubles and Our PM's Bad Posture
On Ukraine, Harper as useful idiot -- but for whom? - 2014/04/20: TStar: Harper's vision of Canada as energy superpower thwarted by opposition to pipelines
Resonances of the Lac Mégantic tragedy linger:
- 2014/04/25: Grist: Canada orders dangerous oil cars off its railways
- 2014/04/25: PostMedia: Off the rails: B.C. train derailments jump 20 per cent to five-year high (with map and chart)
A total of 110 incidents in 2013 marked a five-year high, according to the Transportation Safety Board - 2014/04/23: BCLSB: Oil By Rail Just Got More Expensive
- 2014/04/23: CBC: Rail safety improvements announced by Lisa Raitt in wake of Lac-Mégantic
Transport minister wants rapid phase-out of old tanker cars, emergency response plans - 2014/04/20: PostMedia: The legal quagmire of Lac-Mégantic
Plans are finally taking shape for financial compensation of derailment victims Nine months after a runaway oil train derailed in Lac-Mégantic, killing 47 people and destroying a large chunk of the town, a plan for financially compensating disaster victims is taking shape. Judges in Quebec and Maine have approved a joint cross-border process for victims of the accident to file claims against Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway and its Canadian operations, Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Canada. The two companies have been under bankruptcy protection since August. Thousands of claims related to the derailment are expected to be filed against MMA. Public information meetings on the financial-claims process are to begin in Lac-Mégantic next week. Claims must be filed by the middle of June.
In case you had any doubt what the Federal Cabinet's decision would be after the NEB approves the Northern Gateway:
- 2014/04/23: DeSmogBlog: Critics Concerned Pipelines, Tankers Reason for Downgrading "Threatened" Status of Humpback Whales
- 2014/04/23: MSimon: The Con Regime and the Whale Songs of Resistance
- 2014/04/22: CfC: Whale of a tale
- 2014/04/22: Reuters: Canada aims to ease whale protection as pipeline decision looms
- 2014/04/22: CBC: Humpback whale losing 'threatened' status amid Northern Gateway concerns
- 2014/04/21: PostMedia: Ottawa removing North Pacific humpback whales from list of 'threatened' species
The Harper government is downgrading the protection of the North Pacific humpback whale despite objections from a clear majority of groups that were consulted. Critics say the whales could face greater danger if two major oilsands pipeline projects get the go-ahead, since both would result in a sharp increase in movement of large vessels on the West Coast that occasionally collide with, and kill, whales like the humpback. The decision was made under the Species At Risk Act (SARA), and declares the humpback a "species of special concern" rather than "threatened." The reclassification means the humpback will no longer be "subject to the general prohibitions set out in SARA, nor would its critical habitat be required to be legally protected under SARA," states the federal government notice published this month in the Canada Gazette. The decision removes a major legal hurdle that the environmental group Ecojustice said stood in the way of the $7.9-billion Northern Gateway pipeline project that would bring 550,000 barrels of diluted bitumen crude from Alberta to Kitimat.
Regarding the ELA:
Regarding the grain backlog:
- 2014/04/23: Rabble:DH: Grain, trains and autocrats: Farmers pay the price of dismantling the Wheat Board
Pipelines - Natural Gasand Liquids:
There are getting to be so manyoil andgas pipelines, one almost needs a scorecard:
- The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on
- There are hearings for the Kinder Morgan expansion coming up
The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on:
- 2014/04/26: CBC: Northern Gateway would up risk of whale strikes: biologist
A marine research group says humpback and other whales are already victims of vessel strikes - 2014/04/21: CBC: Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline: Some B.C. First Nations say there will be no compromise
Haisla, Nak'azdli, Carrier Sekani among nations saying pipeline project threatens their way of life Just a few miles from the spot where Enbridge Inc. plans to build a massive marine terminal for its Northern Gateway oil pipeline, Gerald Amos checks crab traps and explains why no concession from the company could win his support for the project.
They're arguing about the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion hearings:
- 2014/04/23: Tyee: No Cross-Exam in Trans Mountain Hearing Hurts NEB Credibility: Economist
Oral process needed for accountability, says Robyn Allan. - 2014/04/25: Tyee: Cities Demand Cross-Exam of Trans Mountain Pipeline Hearing
Vancouver, Burnaby ask federal regulator to reinstate 'critical' process.
What's the state of the West Coast salmon fishery?
- 2014/04/24: AlexandraMorton: DFO's Mandate is Not What You Think
- 2014/04/23: TheCanadian: First Nations show Nancy Greene, Harper govt positive alternative to open net fish farms
Meanwhile in BC:
- 2014/04/26: TheCanadian: Northwest Transmission Line: Environmental, financial boondoggle
- 2014/04/24: PI: Poll: British Columbians ready to shift away from fossil fuels
Seven in ten see economic opportunity in developing cleaner sources of energy - 2014/04/24: Tyee: Sketchy Claims Inflate BC's Wood Energy Exports
In efforts to sell 'biomass energy' to Europe and beyond, the climate may be the loser. - 2014/04/24: DeSmogBlog: New Poll Finds Most B.C. Residents Want Shift From Fossil Fuels to Clean Energy
- 2014/04/21: TheCanadian: Environment Ministry staff warn BC govt about LNG emissions
- 2014/04/20: G&M: Environment Minister Polak warned about LNG greenhouse gas emissions
British Columbia Environment Ministry staff have warned their minister that the province's dreamed-of liquefied natural gas industry poses some big challenges with greenhouse gas emissions. Internal briefing notes prepared for Environment Minister Mary Polak since she took office last year and obtained by The Canadian Press, single out methane emissions for concern.
Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:
- 2014/04/25: CBC: Syncrude coker shutdown will reduce oil output
- 2014/04/21: PostMedia: Worker killed at Suncor site
An electrician at the Suncor Energy oilsands site in northern Alberta is dead after being severely injured on the job Sunday morning. The man had been working at the company's site about 25 kilometres outside Fort McMurray.
Also in Alberta:
- 2014/04/24: DeSmogBlog: Alberta Ramps Up "Responsible Energy Development" Sales Pitch in Wake of New Keystone XL Delay
While in Saskatchewan:
And in Manitoba:
- 2014/04/21: CBC: Winnipeg's frozen pipes woes drag on into spring
More than 1,200 homes and businesses on wait list for pipe-thawing crews
In the Maritimes:
And on the American political front:
- 2014/04/25: Grist: Al Gore talks climate, Tesla, and the Koch brothers in a new Politico interview
- 2014/04/25: RawStory: SC Republican wants to end public schools: Nothing 'in the Bible about state education'
- 2014/04/24: UCSUSA:B: The U.S. National Climate Assessment: A Detailed Evaluation of the Scientific Evidence on Climate Change
- 2014/04/24: UCSUSA:B: Proposal to Dismantle Ohio's Clean Energy Standards Based More on Science Fiction than Fact
- 2014/04/24: TP:JR: Six Major Cities Add Their Support To Chesapeake Bay Cleanup Plan
- 2014/04/24: TP:JR: The Weird And Wondrous Politics Of Climate Change In Massachusetts
- 2014/04/24: Grist: Oregon tells rail companies to keep oil deliveries secret
- 2014/04/23: RTCC: Carter slams Koch brothers for funding climate denial
Climate debate skewed by "uncontrollable" donations from vested interests, says former US president Jimmy Carter has criticised the Koch brothers for distorting the climate change debate through multi-million dollar donations to sceptic organisations. - 2014/04/23: PSinclair: Republicans Who Oppose Solar "will be wiped out"
- 2014/04/23: TP:JR: After Some Counties In Texas Released Air Pollution Data, A State Agency Cut Their Funding
- 2014/04/23: ICN: Texas Yanks Funding From San Antonio Air Quality Program For Releasing Emissions Data
San Antonio loses 25% of its state-funded air quality grant after an employee makes some draft data on oil and gas drilling pollution public. - 2014/04/22: TP:JR: Will Pennsylvania's Proposed Anti-Smog Regs Actually Create New Pollution Hot Spots?
- 2014/04/22: UCSUSA:B: California, Don't Put the Brakes on Cleaner Diesel Trucks
- 2014/04/22: RNE: How a small county in California went grid positive - Yolo County produces 152 percent more energy than it uses
- 2014/04/21: SFGate: Fracking foes cringe as unions back drilling boom
- 2014/04/21: WSWS: America's hungry 21st Century
Feeding America, the US national network of food banks, released its annual report on local food insecurity Thursday, showing that one in six Americans, including one in five children, did not have enough to eat at some point in 2012.
The Keystone XL wheel grinds slowly. And it grinds woe:
- 2014/04/26: Grist: Cowboys and Indians stage a feisty Keystone XL protest
- 2014/04/25: CensoredNews: Reject Keystone! Ponca Casey Camp opens ceremony at Sec State John Kerry home
- 2014/04/25: PoliticsReSpun: Let's Play Cowboys and Indians
- 2014/04/24: 350orBust: Indians And Cowboys Join Together To Reject & Protect
- 2014/04/24: PSinclair: Has Obama Made up His Mind on Keystone?
- 2014/04/24: CBC: Keystone XL protesters get wet, but not arrested, in D.C. -- Protesters stood in the reflecting pool beside the Lincoln Memorial
- 2014/04/23: CPunch: The Cowboy-Indian Alliance - Building Bridges to Protect the Land
- 2014/04/23: OilChange: Cowboys and Indians Unite Against the KXL
- 2014/04/23: CensoredNews: Hundreds of media cover Cowboy Indian Alliance in DC resisting Keystone XL pipeline
- 2014/04/23: BCLSB: Jonathon Chait On Keystone XL
- 2014/04/22: RTCC: Cowboys and Indians unite on Capitol Hill in Keystone protest
- 2014/04/22: CBC: Keystone XL pipeline protesters gather in Washington
'Reject and Protect' demonstrators promise to fight together against common foe - 2014/04/22: CensoredNews: Marvel Handboy's Photos: Cowboys and Indians Resist Keystone in DC
- 2014/04/22: CensoredNews: Faith Spotted Eagle 'Indian Women defending land from Keystone XL pipeline'
- 2014/04/22: CensoredNews: VIDEO 'Reject and Protect' Cowboy Indian Alliance 'NO!' Keystone pipeline
- 2014/04/22: CensoredNews: John Kane, Mohawk 'It's not just the pipe -- it's what's in it'
- 2014/04/22: TP:JR: Delaying The Keystone XL Decision Wasn't All About Politics
- 2014/04/22: OilChange: KXL: "Reject and Protect" Protest Begins
- 2014/04/21: ICN: What the Latest Keystone XL Delay Really Means
The passage of time may shift the debate to two substantive issues: the pipeline's effect on America's oil supply and on international climate talks. - 2014/04/21: BBerg: Keystone Pipeline Fate Now in Hands of Nebraskan Jurists
The focus of the Keystone XL debate has shifted from a fierce lobbying war in Washington to Lincoln, Nebraska, where the state Supreme Court has been asked to weigh a legal challenge to the pipeline.
Leaks and spills:
Jeez! It's getting hard to keep all the spills and leaks straight. You need a map. Let's see...:
- In West Virginia, Freedom Industries spilled coal cleaning chemicals into the Elk river
- In the Gulf of Mexico, BP and company had the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
- The Battle for Toms River
- Natural Gas Plant Explosion Forces Evacuation Of Opal, Wyoming
In West Virginia, Freedom Industries spilled coal cleaning chemicals into the Elk river:
- 2014/04/23: TP:JR: Federal Report Shines Light On Health Impacts Of West Virginia [Freedom Industries] Chemical Spill
The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:
- 2014/04/22: Grist: Numbers on the board: The Gulf Coast, four years after the BP disaster
- 2014/04/22: SciAm:CS: Our Biases in the Gulf's Recovery from the Oil Spill
- 2014/04/21: DemNow: 4 Years After BP Disaster, Ousted Drilling Chief [Elizabeth Birnbaum] Warns U.S. at Risk of Another Oil Spill
- 2014/04/21: DeSmogBlog: Four Years After the BP Oil Disaster, A Look Back in Photographs
- 2014/04/20: DeSmogBlog: Deepwater Horizon: BP's Toxic Legacy
- 2014/04/20: TP:JR: Four Years After The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, The Gulf Is Still Suffering
Corporations dumped toxic waste in the Toms River for years:
- 2014/04/23: DemNow: Toms River: How a Small Town Fought Back Against Corporate Giants for Toxic Dumping Linked to Cancer
Williams Partners LP Natural Gas Plant Explosion Forces Evacuation Of Opal, Wyoming:
- 2014/04/25: Grist: This [company Williams energy's] gas plants just keep on exploding
- 2014/04/24: TP:JR: Explosion At [Williams Partners LP] Natural Gas Plant Forces Evacuation Of Wyoming Town. Opal
The GOP War on Women continues. See also:
- 2014/04/25: Wonkette: Come Bathe In This Torrent Of Young Republican Tears, Weeping About Wire Hangers
- 2014/04/23: ACLU: Clear Majority of Americans Support Birth Control Rule
- 2014/04/22: Eureka: More than two-thirds of Americans support mandated coverage of birth control in health plans
As Obamacare's contraceptive coverage mandate is challenged in Supreme Court, national survey finds women, blacks and Hispanics more likely to agree with policy
The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:
- 2014/04/26: AutoBG: EPA says automakers ahead of schedule for 54.5 MPG by 2025
- 2014/04/25: UCSUSA:B: EPA Emission Standards: The First Inning is Over, and Automakers are Ahead...For Now
- 2014/04/24: ICN: Federal Pipeline and Oil-by-Rail Regulator Facing 9% Staff Cut, Confounding Experts
Job cuts come at a time when PHMSA is struggling to regulate the nation's aging pipeline network and new pipelines tied to the oil and gas boom. - 2014/04/23: SciAm: Biofuels Mandate Is Cut Drastically [to 810,185 gallons from 6 million gallons]
EPA decision to sharply reduce the amount of cellulosic biofuel in the U.S. fuel supply strangely pleases oil companies and environmental groups - 2014/04/23: CPI: U.S. announces sweeping reforms to protect coal miners from black lung disease
- 2014/04/22: TP:JR: White House Approves Coal Dust Rules Aimed At Dropping Rates Of Black Lung Disease
- 2014/04/22: RTCC: US military told to boost renewables in energy policy overhaul
- 2014/04/21: NOAA: NOAA releases Arctic Action Plan
- 2014/04/21: CleanTechnica: Department Of Energy Releases Strategic Plan With Priority On Vehicle Efficiency
As for what is going on in Congress:
- 2014/04/26: PSinclair: Climate-Change-Denial Doofus Turns Climate-Change-Acknowledging Doofus [Grimm]
- 2014/04/25: TPM: GOP Climate Change Skeptic Becomes A True Believer After Sandy
In a rare move, a sitting Republican congressman is publicly accepting the scientific consensus of man-made climate change, breaking with the vast majority of his party to join the vast majority of climate scientists. Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) reveals his change of heart in an interview with MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes airing Sunday on the Showtime documentary series "Years Of Living Dangerously," the transcript of which was provided in advance to TPM. "[T]he mass majority of respected scientists say that it's conclusive, the evidence is clear. So I don't think the jury is out," Grimm says. - 2014/04/24: ScienceInsider: NSF's Science Board Criticizes Bill to Alter Agency's Programs
- 2014/04/24: EENews: Energy Policy: Following pipeline delay, KXL politics may derail efficiency bill
- 2014/04/23: OilChange: New Bill Aims to Tackle Dirty Money in Politics
- 2014/04/21: NatJo: Not a Single Republican Has Mentioned Earth Day in Congress Since 2010
What comes after Capitalism?
IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology] raised its head once again:
- 2014/04/26: CBC: Canadians in 7 cities protest N.B. abortion clinic closure
The Morgentaler Clinic, the province's only private abortion clinic, is slated for closure - 2014/04/23: Guardian(UK): Why we must defend Josie Cunningham's right to an abortion
Josie Cunningham's decision to put career first is no different to that made by thousands of women seeking abortion. So why has she been subjected to a national hate campaign?
Apocalypso anyone?
- 2014/04/24: CCurrents: Earth: Game Over?
- 2014/04/21: SciShot: Did Lead Poisoning Bring Down Ancient Rome?
- 2014/04/21: FergusB: The Morrow Project, Chapter 2: Is the World coming to an End?
How do the corporate media measure up?
- 2014/04/25: ATTPh: On being alarmed
- 2014/04/24: EENews: Media: How a study of biased reporting on climate change morphed into a tale of biased science
- 2014/04/22: HillHeat: New York Times Joins the Bumbling Keystone XL Cops
- 2014/04/22: V V: Climate Change National Forum introduces the nonsense amplifier
Here is something for your library:
- 2014/04/24: Rabble: 'The Sixth Extinction' and our looming catastrophe
[Book Review] _The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History_ by Elizabeth Kolbert - Abrams: [Book Page] _Terra Nova: The New World After Oil, Cars, and Suburbs_ by Eric W. Sanderson
And for your film & video enjoyment:
- 2014/04/25: Grist: Jon Stewart continues being amazing, rips CNN for lack of climate coverage
- 2014/04/25: DD: Video: Trailer for 6 -- Documenting the sixth mass extinction
- 2014/04/24: AFTIC: Denormalizing the Outrageous
- 2014/04/24: al Jazeera: Bananas!* A small US law firm takes on the world's largest fruit company
- 2014/04/22: DemNow: "Fierce Green Fire" Documentary Explores Environmental Movement's Global Rise
- 2014/04/21: PSinclair: Vice Media Interview with Jason Box
As for podcasts:
- 2014/04/26: CBC:Q&Q: Blue-footed Boobies Endangered in Galapagos
Blue-footed Boobies are not breeding because the sardines that fuel their reproduction are in short supply.
Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:
- 2014/04/26: DeSmogBlog: Favorable Court Ruling Lets Americans Breathe Easier
- 2014/04/24: CleanTechnica: Fracking Loses Huge Fight, In Texas No Less
- 2014/04/24: WSWS: Minnesota renewable energy law overturned by North Dakota coal company lawsuit
On Friday, a federal judge struck down the essential parts of Minnesota's 2007 coal law, which effectively barred Minnesota from building new coal plants and importing new sources of coal-based electricity. The lawsuit, brought by a variety of powerful corporate energy groups, demonstrates the colossal power large corporations have over public policy. - 2014/04/23: Grist: Pony up, frackers: Texas family wins $3 million in contamination lawsuit
- 2014/04/23: DeSmogBlog: Barnett Shale Fracking Victims Win First Round in Court Battle with Gas Industry
- 2014/04/23: TP:JR: In Landmark Ruling, Jury Says Fracking Company Must Pay $3 Million To Sickened Family
- 2014/04/22: DeSmogBlog: Breaking: $3 Million Jury Verdict in Texas Fracking Nuisance Case
- 2014/04/18: StarTrib: Judge strikes down Minnesota's anti-coal energy law
A federal judge on Friday struck down a landmark 2007 Minnesota law that bans new power generation from coal, saying it regulates business activities of out-of-state utilities in violation of the U.S. Constitution's commerce clause. - 2014/04/21: Grist: Minnesota can't say no to coal power, judge rules
Among the several suits involving Michael Mann:
- 2014/04/23: CJR: Climate scientist's privacy victory may prove a loss for journalists -- Court ruling limits access to public information in Virginia
Developing a new energy infrastructure is a fundamental challenge of the current generation:
- 2014/04/26: CleanTechnica: Global Geothermal Market Is Growing
- 2014/04/25: WaPo:A battle is looming over renewable energy, and fossil fuel interests are losing
- 2014/04/24: NBF: Space Based Solar power need robotic assembly in space and reusable rockets for viability
- 2014/04/23: OFW: Eight Energy Myths Explained
- 2014/04/23: ETI:RRapier: Renewable Hydrogen on the Big Island
- 2014/04/22: GEA: New GEA report details trends and substantial growth in the global geothermal market
- 2014/04/22: RNE: How a small county in California went grid positive - Yolo County produces 152 percent more energy than it uses
- 2014/04/21: UCSUSA:B: Power Outages, Extreme Weather, and Climate Change: How Smart Energy Choices Will Help Keep the Lights On
What do you have in energy comparisons and transitions?
- 2014/04/27: Lenz: New Nuclear More Expensive Than Solar/Wind -- So What?
- 2014/04/23: RNE: Wind and solar generation half the cost of nuclear
- 2014/04/22: CNN: As nuclear power dies, solar rises
Writers [Denis Hayes & Scott Denman]: On Earth Day we celebrate the dawn of the Solar Age, decline of nuclear power - They say in the U.S. and worldwide, solar power installations are proliferating - Writers: Nuclear reactors are aging and uncompetitive and it's too expensive to build new ones - Writers: In 2013, U.S. and the world on threshold of sustainable, clean energy future
What's changing in energy investments?
Hey! Let's contaminate the aquifers for thousands of years! It'll be a fracking gas!
- 2014/04/25: TP:JR: Drilling Company Announces It Will Disclose All The Chemicals In Fracking Fluid
- 2014/04/25: RTCC: How long can the fracking revolution last?
Water shortages and concerns over fugitive emissions are causing some to question how long shale drilling will last - 2014/04/25: DeSmogBlog: Ohio Geologists Link Earthquakes to Fracking, State Introduces Seismic Monitoring
- 2014/04/25: TruthDig: Questions on the Future of Fracking
- 2014/04/24: USAToday: Major firm to disclose fracking chemicals
In a major shift quietly announced Thursday, a leading hydraulic fracturing supplier said it would begin disclosing all of the chemicals used in so-called fracking without regard to trade secrets.
Houston-based Baker Hughes said it "believes it is possible to disclose 100% of the chemical ingredients we use in hydraulic fracturing fluids without compromising our formulations -- a balance that increases public trust while encouraging commercial innovation."
- 2014/04/24: CleanTechnica: Fracking Loses Huge Fight, In Texas No Less
- 2014/04/24: WSWS: Oppose the fracking operation at Barton Moss
- 2014/04/23: Grist: Pony up, frackers: Texas family wins $3 million in contamination lawsuit
- 2014/04/23: DeSmogBlog: Barnett Shale Fracking Victims Win First Round in Court Battle with Gas Industry
- 2014/04/21: SFGate: Fracking foes cringe as unions back drilling boom
On the coal front:
- 2014/04/23: CPI: U.S. announces sweeping reforms to protect coal miners from black lung disease
- 2014/04/22: NBF: China and Japan plan on using more coal power
On the gas and oil front:
- 2014/04/25: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
OIL (US$/bbl)
Dated Brent Spot....109.58
WTI Cushing Spot....100.60 - 2014/04/25: al Jazeera: Iran petrol prices surge after subsidies cut
Prices rise by up to 75 percent as president makes potentially risky bid to used saved money to tackle unemployment.
[...]
Subsidised petrol, available to each motorist in limited amounts, rose from $0.16 a litre to $0.28. The price for petrol sold outside that ration rose from $0.28 to $0.39. - 2014/04/23: BBerg: Shale Boom Sends U.S. Crude Supply to Highest Since 1930s
- 2014/04/22: DeSmogBlog: Very Little Cheap Natural Gas in New York Marcellus Shale, New Report Concludes
- 2014/04/20: RI: Perverse outcomes: Lifting U.S. oil export ban would mean greater dependence on foreign oil
Ships and boats and trains -- How to tranport the stuff?
- 2014/04/25: Grist: Canada orders dangerous oil cars off its railways
- 2014/04/24: ICN: Federal Pipeline and Oil-by-Rail Regulator Making 9% Staff Cut, Confounding Experts
Job cuts come at a time when PHMSA is struggling to regulate the nation's aging pipeline network and new pipelines tied to the oil and gas boom. - 2014/04/24: Grist: Oregon tells rail companies to keep oil deliveries secret
Biofuel bickering abounds:
- 2014/04/25: UCSUSA:B: New Study on Corn Waste Biofuel's Emissions: Worthy Topic, Flawed Conclusion
- 2014/04/23: SciAm: Biofuels Mandate Is Cut Drastically [to 810,185 gallons from 6 million gallons]
EPA decision to sharply reduce the amount of cellulosic biofuel in the U.S. fuel supply strangely pleases oil companies and environmental groups - 2014/04/23: NatureN: Renewable energy: Biofuels heat up
A new generation of industrial plants can make liquid fuels from almost any organic scraps -- from corn stalks and wood chips to urban rubbish. - 2014/04/23: Tyee: Biomass Fuel: Worse for Climate than Coal?
It depends. Do you mean now, or decades later? - 2014/04/22: Tyee: Are Climate Claims for Burning Renewable Trees a Smokescreen?
The answer surprised us too. - 2014/04/22: Grist: Turkey's nutty green idea for heating its eco-city? Pistachios
- 2014/04/22: Grist: Corn waste-based ethanol could be worse for the climate than gasoline
- 2014/04/21: AutoBG: AMA points to EPA document to prove ethanol damages small engines
- 2014/04/21: CBC: Ethanol made from corn stalks spews more CO2 than gasoline -- Study suggests biofuel won't qualify for subsidies as renewable fuel
- 2014/04/21: SciAm:PI: Corn-waste biofuels might be worse than gasoline in the short term
- 2014/04/20: UNL: Study casts doubt on climate benefit of biofuels from corn residue
- 2014/04/20: NBF: Ethanol is bad for the environment overall and is increasing the cost of food for 500 million poor people
The answer my friend...
- 2014/04/24: PSinclair: Wind Turbines Hardly Rank as Bird Threat
- 2014/04/24: TP:JR: Is This The End Of Onshore Wind In The U.K.?
- 2014/04/24: CleanTechnica: UGE Vertical Axis Certification: Behind The Hype
- 2014/04/22: CleanTechnica: UGE Raises The Bar For Vertical Axis Micro Wind Turbines
- 2014/04/21: CleanTechnica: Where Is The Real Innovation In Wind Energy?
Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:
- 2014/04/25: CleanTechnica: 10 Times More Solar Power Coming To New York With Expansion of State Program
- 2014/04/25: CleanTechnica: New Solar Cell Efficiency Record Achieved For 9 Millimeter-Squared Cell Made Of Gallium Arsenide [14%]
- 2014/04/25: CleanTechnica: Perovskite's Great Potential As Solar Cell Material Revealed By New Research
- 2014/04/25: CleanTechnica: Yingli Solar Enters Framework Agreement With United PV For Purchase Of 300 MW Worth Of Solar PV Plants [in Hebei, Guangxi, Shanxi & Shandong]
- 2014/04/24: NBF: Solar power has a long way to go to be a cheap environment savior
- 2014/04/24: RNE: Happy 60th anniversary to the modern solar cell
- 2014/04/24: TP:JR: U.S. Solar Capacity Grew 418 Percent In The Last Four Years
- 2014/04/24: CleanTechnica: Yet Another Solar Schools Initiative Launches In The UK
- 2014/04/24: CleanTechnica: US Solar Energy Capacity Grew An Astounding 418% From 2010-2014
- 2014/04/24: Grist: Google wants to bring you affordable solar panels (again)
- 2014/04/23: TreeHugger: Google and SunPower pump $250 million more into residential solar leasing
- 2014/04/23: CleanTechnica: [20 MW] Mililani Solar Project From First Wind Will Provide Energy To O'ahu Grid, Save Ratepayers Money
- 2014/04/23: Lenz: Yingli Solar Retains Top Spot
- 2014/04/23: TruthDig: Top 5 Reasons Solar Energy Will Save the World
- 2014/04/22: CleanTechnica: 20 Cities Leading Rooftop Solar Revolution
- 2014/04/22: TP:JR: A Polluted Superfund Site Is Now Home To 36,000 Solar Panels
- 2014/04/22: RNE: Big off-grid prospects for small 24/7 solar thermal plant
- 2014/04/22: RNE: Next step for solar industry: leases for solar plus storage
- 2014/04/15: NREL: NREL Unlocking Secrets of [perovskite] New Solar Material
The nuclear energy controversy continues:
- 2014/04/26: FukuLeaks: No Nuclear Protests In Taiwan Continue With Large Events
- 2014/04/25: SciShot: Some Birds Thrive in Chernobyl's Radioactive Glow
- 2014/04/25: UCSUSA:B: When Should Nuclear Power Pay for Risk? Is Never Good For You?
- 2014/04/22: CleanTechnica: 7 Interesting Nuclear Energy Graphs
- 2014/04/21: NBF: China looks to buy 8 more AP1000 nuclear reactors and is accelerating nuclear reactor approvals
- 2014/04/20: NBF: China will have over 88 gigawatts of nuclear power by 2020 according to head of China Nuclear Energy Association
Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:
- 2014/04/25: EneNews: Strange Events in Gov't WIPP Report: Emergency personnel needed for 'reddish-brown vapors' observed after 'unplanned, excessive exothermic reaction'...
- 2014/04/24: EneNews: PHOTO: Broken roof bolts directly above WIPP nuclear waste were reported the day before radiation event -- Cracks seen in nearby wall...
- 2014/04/24: EneNews: Gov't Report: 'Green burst' seen at WIPP utility yard just minutes before radiation event began -- 'Popping noise' heard by facility manager investigating incident
- 2014/04/24: EneNews: Wall St. Journal: Report reveals WIPP containment system leaked radiation
- 2014/04/24: EneNews: New data shows spike in babies born missing parts of brain around [Hanford] leaking US nuclear site...
- 2014/04/22: AbqJournal: WIPP workers face big changes
Their jobs won't ever be the same. Now that contamination has been discovered underground - although the extent is still unknown - the contractor that runs the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant says workers will face a new paradigm when they return to the site: more formality, tougher rules and more protective gear. - 2014/04/21: WSWS: Search crew finds location but not source of leak at [WIPP] New Mexico nuclear waste storage site
- 2014/04/20: Guardian(UK): Cumbrian nuclear dump 'virtually certain' to be eroded by rising sea levels
One million cubic metres of waste near Sellafield are housed at a site that was a mistake, admits Environment Agency
Nuclear fusion has been 'Just 20 years away' for the past 60 years:
More people are talking about the electrical grid:
- 2014/04/23: RNE: Reforms needed to stop free-riding of grid on back of solar PV
- 2014/04/23: RNE: Rooftop Solar: Does it really need the grid?
- 2014/04/22: GEB: EnBW and Municipal Utility of Karlsruhe Team Up for Field Test of Smart Meters in Karlsruhe
How are the utilities adjusting (or not)?
- 2014/04/26: CleanTechnica: Oklahoma Law Allows Utilities To Apply For Higher Rooftop Solar Rates
- 2014/04/23: RNE: Oklahoma utilities hit homes using solar with extra fee
- 2014/04/22: EENews: Electricity: Why aren't Southern utilities jumping into the solar business?
- 2014/04/22: NewsOK: Okla. Utilities Hit Homes Using Solar With Extra Fee
- 2014/04/22: CleanTechnica: What Was Kansas Really About? Trying to comprehend the net metering wars.
- 2014/04/22: RNE: Will utilities control behind-the-meter solar batteries?
- 2014/04/21: NewsOK: Oklahoma electric utilities want higher rate for solar, wind energy producers
Senate Bill 1456 allows regulated utilities to apply to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission to charge a higher base rate to customers who generate solar and wind energy and send their excess power back into the grid. The bill passed the Legislature and is on Gov. Mary Fallin's desk. - 2014/04/21: PSinclair: Utilities: Transformation or Die-Off?
And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:
- 2014/04/24: LoE: Slow Down Climate Chaos
- 2014/04/22: TheConversation: Energy-smart appliances cut Australian power bills by billions
- 2014/04/21: UCSUSA:B: Earth Day Ideas: Looking for Air Leaks in all the Right Places
Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:
- 2014/04/27: CleanTechnica: What's The Greenest Car When You Take Fuel Sources Into Account? (chart)
- 2014/04/24: CNN: Chinese drivers hesitant to adopt electric cars
Denza is an affordable electric vehicle that taps the Chinese mass market - Government hopes to put 5 million green cars on the roads by 2020 - Nationwide network of charging stations may soon be reality - 2014/04/24: CleanTechnica: BMW Boosting Production Of The i3 To Keep Up With Strong Demand
- 2014/04/23: CleanTechnica: Canada Approves BYD's eBus
- 2014/04/23: CleanTechnica: Tesla Will Get Less For Its ZEV Credits Under New California Rule
- 2014/04/22: CleanTechnica: Volvo S60 Plug-In Hybrid Debuts In Beijing
- 2014/04/22: UBardi: Lao Tzu on electric vehicles
- 2014/04/22: CBC: Earth Day 2014: Electric cars at a 'tipping point' -- Clean vehicles challenge the auto-industry status quo
As for Energy Storage:
- 2014/04/27: Grist: Germany's key to clean energy is ... this coal mine? [pumped storage]
- 2014/04/27: Lenz: Night Storage Heater
- 2014/04/26: CleanTechnica: "Revolutionary" Advanced Battery Leaps Theoretical Maxiumum Boundary
- 2014/04/24: CleanTechnica: Iron Edison Battery Company Releasing New Battery/Inverter Packages To Reduce Electric Bills
- 2014/04/23: CleanTechnica: "Exceptional Step Forward" For Energy Storage In New York City
- 2014/04/21: PSinclair: Tesla Will Source Battery Materials from North America
The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:
- 2014/04/26: TP:JR: General Electric To Invest $1 Billion A Year In Renewable Projects
- 2014/04/22: TruthDig: Business Leaders Are Concerned About Climate Change, Just Not in North America
What do we have in (weekly) lists?
- 2014/04/26: SkS: 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #17 by John Hartz
- 2014/04/21: FukuLeaks: Fukushima Nuclear News Roundup
Anything in pithy quotes this week?
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.
- 2014/04/23: HotWhopper: Judith Curry, the hero of deniers at WUWT, complains about facts
- 2014/04/23: CBC: The Koch brothers: Who are they and why do Democrats hate them?
- 2014/04/22: QuarkSoup: Dave @ Curryblog is Starting to Get It
- 2014/04/22: ERabett: Tu Quoque or John Quiggin Does the Dozens
- 2014/04/24: CCP: Koch brothers, big utilities attack solar, green energy policies
- 2014/04/23: TreeHugger: NRDC: Agenda 21 conspiracy theorists threaten cities' sustainability efforts
- 2014/04/22: HotWhopper: Matt Ridley can't make up his mind about the future he wants
- 2014/04/22: ATTPh: Free speech
- 2014/04/22: PSinclair: The Right Wing War on Solar
- 2014/04/25: TP:JR: Koch Brothers And ALEC Expand Fight On Clean Energy Users
- 2014/04/24: SciAm:PI: God Controls the Climate, So You Can Relax
- 2014/04/25: Stoat: septic.org?
- 2014/04/24: ERabett: Here and there Eli gets into it with the Breakthrough Institute hippy bashers
- 2014/04/25: PSinclair: Climate Denial Doofus of the Week: Jonah Goldberg
- 2014/04/27: V V: Are debatable scientific questions debatable?
- 2014/04/22: RNE: Top 5 policy tricks used by anti-solar groups
- 2014/04/21: HotWhopper: The Heartland Institute can't get anyone to promote their NIPCC report
More on that forced retraction of the Recursive Fury paper:
- 2014/04/24: HotWhopper: No need for fury: Ethics and internet research
- 2014/04/21: SBrophy: Down the Rabbit Hole: The Surreal Case of Frontiers in Psychology Retracting a Paper by Lewandowsky, et al. (Part 1)
As for climate miscellanea:
- 2014/04/27: EINADW: Data, not just for scientists
- 2014/04/25: NewAnthropocene: The Anthropocene Blueprint Forum
- 2014/04/24: PSinclair: Naomi Klein on Place, Pace, Perspective, and Climate
- 2014/04/22: Vox: Two degrees: How the world failed on climate change
- 1949//: EcoAction: Thinking Like A Mountain by Aldo Leopold
- 2014/04/21: Wunderground:RR: What is the right diagnosis?
And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:
- BoM: ENSO -- Current state of the Pacific and Indian Ocean
- Wiki: Perovskite
- The Anthropocene Blueprint
- Geothermal Energy Association
- Dr Michel Tsamados
- Ecology is not a dirty word
- Musings on Quantitative Palaeoecology
- Feeding America
- Wiki: Global Hunger Index
- BGSD: Biogeosciences - Papers in Open Discussion
- Wiki: Rossby wave
- Wiki: Kelvin wave
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>
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.
"For the first time in human history, food production will be limited on a global scale by the availability of land, water and energy. Food issues could become as politically destabilizing by 2050 as energy issues are today." -Dr. Fred Davies, senior science advisor for USAID
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Last modified April 27, 2014
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