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  2. Another Week of Climate Disruption News, May 18, 2014

Another Week of Climate Disruption News, May 18, 2014

By illconsidered on May 20, 2014.

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

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Confronting a New Age of Consequences

May 18, 2014

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Live and direct from the laugh, it's funny, damnit department:

And in the geopolitical irony department:

 

The TransCanada West-East [aka Energy East] pipeline has passed the first stage:

The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on:

There is wrangling over the NEB trying to restrict the Kinder Morgan expansion hearings:

  • 2014/05/12: TheCanadian: First Nation's legal challenge could delay Kinder Morgan pipeline
  • 2014/05/12: PostMedia: Legal challenges could stall decision on Kinder Morgan pipeline: experts
    $5.4-billion project faces constitutional, aboriginal and procedural actions The federal government's efforts to speed up decisions on oil pipelines are at risk of backfiring, according to legal and policy observers. In the first real test of the National Energy Board's new review rules, Kinder Morgan's $5.4-billion Trans Mountain pipeline is being assailed with legal action and a flurry of motions calling for a more open and lengthy public process. The federal review of the pipeline expansion -- which will nearly triple oil output and bring another 400 tankers each year to the Burrard Inlet -- is set to begin in August and supposed to be complete in 15 months. But the challenges -- particularly those from First Nations -- have the potential to be successful and delay a decision on the project, says University of B.C. law professor Gordon Christie.

The UN special rapporteur for the rights of indigenous peoples reported this week:

What's the state of the West Coast salmon fishery?

Meanwhile in BC:

Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

Also in Alberta:

In Ontario, Wynne has been forced into an election. Poll date is June 12th:

In the North:

As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

And on the American political front:

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

Leaks and spills:

The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:

In North Dakota, a Ron Burgundy oil well is leaking:

An Atwater Village strip club in Los Angeles was anointed with 10,000 gallons of crude oil:

The GOP War on Women continues:

The NorthWest coal export debate remains heated:

    • 2014/05/13: BBerg: Coal Missing Boom as Climate Foes Clean Asia's Backyard
      Bowie Resource Partners LLC wanted to export coal from the port of Oakland, California, promising thousands of construction jobs and a $3 million-a-year payroll in a city whose unemployment rate was almost double the national average. Oakland's response: No, thanks. "We weren't going to sell our souls here," Jack Fleck, a retired engineer and Oakland resident who spoke out against Bowie's plan, said by phone on May 12. "Whatever the economic benefit would've been, it wasn't worth destroying the planet over." Oakland's rejection marks a sea change in the fight against coal exports from the U.S. and underscores an emerging challenge for energy projects. The Sierra Club and other environmental groups have scuttled three of six coal terminals proposed in the U.S. Pacific Northwest that would have shipped as much as 146 million metric tons annually to booming markets in Asia. Where coal projects were once fought on the grounds of local impact, opponents are uniting behind a cause more global in nature, climate change.

The CNA report on National Security and Climate Change tweaked a limbic nerve:

Looking ahead to the 2016 election, it was a Rubio sort of week:

The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

As for what is going on in Congress:

What are the lobbyists pushing?

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

What comes after Capitalism?

What do we tell the children?

Apocalypso anyone?

How do the corporate media measure up?

Here is something for your library:

And for your film & video enjoyment:

As for podcasts:

Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:

What's changing in energy investments?

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

On the coal front:

On the gas and oil front:

Ships and boats and trains -- How to tranport the stuff?

Marvelous! Now the USA has their own Mechanical Mordor:

Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

  • 2014/05/16: ABC(Au): Energy agency [IEA] predicts oil shortage unless supply boosted
  • 2014/05/16: BBC: UK's oil, coal and gas 'gone in five years'
    In just over five years Britain will have run out of oil, coal and gas, researchers have warned. A report by the Global Sustainability Institute said shortages would increase dependency on Norway, Qatar and Russia. There should be a "Europe-wide drive" towards wind, tidal, solar and other sources of renewable power, the institute's Prof Victor Anderson said. The government says complete energy independence is unnecessary, says BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin. The report says Russia has more than 50 years of oil, more than 100 years of gas and more than 500 years of coal left, on current consumption.

The answer my friend...

Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

The nuclear energy controversy continues:

Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:

Low energy nuclear keeps coming up:

More people are talking about the electrical grid:

How are the utilities adjusting (or not)?

And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

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

As for Energy Storage:

The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:

What do we have in (weekly) lists?

Anything in pithy (or piffling) 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.

Silliness a la Bengtsson:

 

  • 2014/05/17: HotWhopper: Denier weirdness: Ignominious legacy of a climate scientist
  • 2014/05/17: C&S: The Bengtsson Affair
  • 2014/05/17: ATTPh: linear vs non-linear
  • 2014/05/17: Guardian(UK): Murdoch-owned media hypes lone metereologist's climate junk science
    Absurd anti-science faux journalism flares up again - as usual, it's Big Oil that's set to benefit, not the public
  • 2014/05/16: JEB: Bengtsson burns his boats?
  • 2014/05/16: QuarkSoup: Bengtsson Statement: No "Cover Up" in Climate Science
  • 2014/05/16: DeSmogBlog: Environmental Research Letters Journal Debunks Conservative Media Claims It Suppressed Climate Research
  • 2014/05/16: NatureNB: Climate row pits academic publisher against The Times
  • 2014/05/16: ERabett: Even the Editors Are As Mad As Hell at Bengtsson
  • 2014/05/16: ERabett: L'Affaire Bengtsson
  • 2014/05/16: IOP: Statement from IOP Publishing on story in The Times
  • 2014/05/16: SlashDot: Climate Journal Publishes Referees' Report In Response To "Witch-Hunt" Claims
  • 2014/05/16: IP: Matt Ridley - Times Makes A Fool Of Him
  • 2014/05/16: ATTPh: Lennart Bengtsson's paper
  • 2014/05/15: ERabett: They Are Mad As Hell And Not Going to Take it Anymore
  • 2014/05/15: GLaden: Lennart Bengtsson Joins, Quits Denialist Think Tank, Cries McCarthyism
  • 2014/05/15: QuarkSoup: Bengtsson and McCarthyism
  • 2014/05/14: QuarkSoup: Lennart Bengtsson resigns from GWPF
  • 2014/05/14: HotWhopper: McCarthyism my foot! Stoat has the story about Lennart Bengtsson and the GWPF...
  • 2014/05/14: IP: Deja vu all over again - the GWPF is losing friends
  • 2014/05/14: Stoat: Ha ha: Lennart Bengtsson leaves advisory board of GWPF
  • 2014/05/14: QuarkSoup: What Did Bengtsson and GWPF See In One Another?
  • 2014/05/14: QuarkSoup: Lennart Bengtsson resigns from GWPF
  • 2014/05/12: DerSpiegel: Climate Change Debate: A Famous Scientist Becomes a Skeptic
    Meteorologist Lennart Bengtsson has long been considered a cool head in the often heated conflict over global warming. In an interview, he defends his decision to join [GWPF] an organization that is skeptical of climate change.

  • This week in intimidation:

  • 2014/05/14: CCP: WWF staff receive death threats for opposing Virunga oil exploitation
  • 2014/05/14: TP:JR: Opponents Of Oil Exploration In Africa's Largest Park Receive Death Threats

    So why is nothing getting done?

    As for climate miscellanea:

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

    Low Key Plug

     

    My first novel _Water_ was published in May 2007. An Introduction is available.
    My most recent novel _The Bottleneck Years_ is being serialized online atmy siteand on AFTIC at Table of Contents
    If you want further information, see A Gentle Introduction. If you want a copy, see The Deal.
    An overview of my writing is available here.

    A Simple Plea

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

    <regards>

    -het

    P.S. Recent postings can be found in the week archive and the ancient postings can be accessed here, which should open to this.

    I notice moyhu has set up a monster index to old AWoGWN on AFTIC.

    "[W]e're dumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at a rate the Earth hasn't seen since the great climate catastrophes of the past, the ones that led to mass extinctions. We just can't seem to break our addiction to the kinds of fuel that will bring back a climate last seen by the dinosaurs, a climate that will drown our coastal cities and wreak havoc on the environment and our ability to feed ourselves. All the while, the glorious sun pours immaculate free energy down upon us, more than we will ever need. Why can't we summon the ingenuity and courage of the generations that came before us? The dinosaurs never saw that asteroid coming. What's our excuse?" -Neil deGrasse Tyson, Cosmos

    Last modified May 18, 2014

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