Another Week of GW News, July 26, 2009

Sipping from the internet firehose...

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Another week of Climate Disruption News

Sipping from the internet firehose...

July 26, 2009

• Chuckle, Clinton in India, Clouds, Pachauri, AMS on Geoengineering, Upcoming Meetings, Carbon Tariffs
• Melting Arctic, Arctic Geopolitics, Antarctica, Desertec, Aerosols, Grumbine, Noctilucent Clouds, Late Comments
• Food Crisis, Food Production
• Hurricanes, Monsoon, GHGs, Temperatures, Paleoclimate, ENSO, Glaciers, Sea Levels
• Impacts, Forests, Corals, Desertification, Wacky Weather, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering
• Journals, Misc. Science
• Kyoto, Kyoto-2, UN, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
• Politics: International, Security, Law and Activism
• America, Obama, Britain, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, China, Asia, South America, Canada
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Courts
• Energy, Wind, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Business, Greenwashing, Insurance
• Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

Here's a chuckle for ya:

• 2009/07/23: ClimateP: (cartoon - OBrion) The Roanoke Times cartoonist gets it

  US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to India did not go particularly well:

• 2009/07/23: FTimes: India widens climate rift with west
  A split between rich and poor nations in the run-up to climate-change talks widened on Thursday. India rejected key scientific findings on global warming, while the European Union called for more action by developing states on greenhouse gas emissions. Jairam Ramesh, the Indian environment minister, accused the developed world of needlessly raising alarm over melting Himalayan glaciers. He dismissed scientists' predictions that Himalayan glaciers might disappear within 40 years as a result of global warming.
• 2009/07/21: Guardian(UK): India says no to emission reduction
• 2009/07/21: NatureTGB: India objects to US climate targeting
• 2009/07/20: ScienceInsider: India Plays Hardball on Cutting Carbon Emissions
• 2009/07/20: Grist: India takes firm line with Clinton on climate change
• 2009/07/20: NYT: Meeting Shows U.S.-India Split on Emissions
  It was supposed to be a showcase for how the United States and India can find common cause in fighting climate change: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton toured an innovative, energy-efficient office building on Sunday in this city on the outskirts of New Delhi. But simmering grievances about how countries should share the burden of cutting greenhouse gases abruptly changed the mood. No sooner had Mrs. Clinton marveled at the building's environmentally friendly features -- like windows that flood rooms with light but keep out heat -- than her hosts vented frustration at American pressure on India to cut its emissions.
• 2009/07/19: Yahoo: India sees climate change "pressure," U.S. upbeat
• 2009/07/20: WaPo: Clinton, Indian Minister Clash Over Emissions Reduction Pact
• 2009/07/19: Hindu: India can't take legally binding GHG emission cuts: [Environment Minister Jairam] Ramesh
• 2009/07/19: EarthTimes: US, India to work together on climate change, Clinton says
• 2009/07/20: WSJ:EnvCap: India: Don't Look to Us for Emissions Reductions
• 2009/07/19: BBC: Clinton in US-India climate plea
  Visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said she hopes India and the US can devise a new plan to deal with the issue of climate change. After arriving in Delhi, Mrs Clinton also sought to assure India the US would not try to impose conditions that might affect India's economic growth.
• 2009/07/20: BBerg: India Refuses to Bend to U.S. Pressure on Carbon Caps
• 2009/07/19: FTimes: India rebuffs US carbon demands
• 2009/07/19: BBerg: India to Resist U.S. Pressure on Carbon Emission Caps

  A paper on clouds and climate change startled some by asserting a positive feedback:

• 2009/07/24: CCP: A.C. Clement, R. Burgman, J.R. Norris, Science, 325 (24 July 2009), Observational and Model Evidence for Positive Low-Level Cloud Feedback
• 2009/07/24: CCP: Richard A. Kerr, Science, 325 (24 July 2009), Clouds Appear to Be Big, Bad Player in Global Warming
• 2009/07/24: NatureCF: Cloud shields breached by warming
• 2009/07/24: ClimateP: Science stunner: "Clouds Appear to Be Big, Bad Player in Global Warming" -- an amplifying feedback (sorry Lindzen and fellow deniers)
• 2009/07/24: ENN: How Clouds Over the Oceans Affect Our Climate
• 2009/07/24: SciDaily: Strong Evidence That Cloud Changes May Exacerbate Global Warming
• 2009/07/24: BBC: Clouds in climate 'vicious cycle'
  Clouds over the North-East Pacific dissipate as the ocean warms, according to a study in the journal Science. Researchers have described this as a "vicious cycle" of warming, as reduced cloud cover allows more of the Sun's rays to heat the Earth. They say warming could gradually reduce the low-level cloud cover that is thought to help cool the globe. But the team stressed that it was not yet possible to quantify how much this might impact on global temperatures.
• 2009/07/23: CBC: Warming oceans mean less cloud cover
• 2009/07/23: PhysOrg: Study shows strong evidence that cloud changes may exacerbate global warming
• 2009/07/23: Eureka: Consulting with clouds: A clear role in climate change -- Study shows strong evidence that cloud changes may exacerbate global warming

  The IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri made some frank and direct comments on the state of climate negotiations:

• 2009/07/21: NYT:CW: IPCC Chief [Pauchauri] Raps G-8, Calls for Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions Cuts After 2015
• 2009/07/22: WSJ:EnvCap: Trading Places: IPCC Boss Slams U.S. Plan for Carbon Tariffs
• 2009/07/21: TreeHugger: G8 Nations 'Clearly Ignored' Our Recommendations on Emission Reductions: IPCC Chairman
• 2009/07/20: EarthTimes: Pachauri: Connect science and policy for progress on climate change
• 2009/07/21: CBC: UN expert [IPCC head, Rajendra Pachauri] pans G8 climate change action
  The chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said Monday that the Group of Eight countries had "clearly ignored" taking any concrete action to accomplish its new goal of limiting climate change. [...] "It's interesting that the G8 leaders agreed on this aspirational goal of [limiting] a temperature increase of [no more than] two degrees Celsius, which certainly is a big step forward in my view," he [Pachauri] told reporters at UN headquarters. "But what I find as a dichotomy in this position is the fact that they clearly ignored what the IPCC came up with."
• 2009/07/20: Guardian(UK): IPCC chief Pachauri: Benefits of tackling climate change will balance cost of action
  The cost of tackling climate change will be paid for by benefits that would come from better energy security, employment and health, Rajendra Pachauri says ahead of major announcement on 2013 reports
• 2009/07/20: UN: G8 leaders 'ignored' UN's scientific findings on climate change, says official
  The world's largest economies have "clearly ignored" the findings of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning United Nations scientific body that evaluates climate change when formulating their recent proposals on slashing greenhouse gases, a top official said today. It was a "big step" for leaders of over one dozen developed nations attending the Major Economies Forum (MEF) -- including the Group of Eight (G8) nations and others -- on 9 July meeting in L'Aquila, Italy, to recognize that the global average temperature should not increase by more than 2 degrees centigrade, Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told reporters in New York today. But they have disregarded the IPCC's findings that emissions will have to reach their pinnacle in 2015 and rapidly decline thereafter, he said.
• 2009/07/20: NatureTGB: IPCC's Pachauri: 'We have very little time'
• 2009/07/20: TreeHugger: Fighting Climate Change Will Be More Profitable Than Costly: IPCC Chairman Says

  The American Meteorological Society published a Policy Statement on Geoengineering Research this week:

• 2009/07/20: AMS: Geoengineering the Climate System -- A Policy Statement of the American Meteorological Society
• 2009/07/21: TreeHugger: Geoengineering Research Given American Meteorological Society Stamp of Approval
• 2009/07/21: Eureka: Geoengineering climate requires more research, cautious consideration and appropriate restrictions [AMS]
• 2009/07/20: NewScientist: Climate engineering research gets green light
• 2009/07/20: Eureka: Geoengineering: The promise and its limits

  We are gonna have meetings up the yin-yang:

• 2009/07/22: PlanetArk: Informal World Climate Talks In Bonn In August
  World climate negotiators will gather in Bonn next month to edit an "indigestible" set of proposals into a manageable document for international consideration, the head of a key U.N. panel said on Tuesday. The August meeting is the first step in a timeline aimed at reaching a new worldwide agreement to combat climate change in Copenhagen in December, said Michael Zammit Cutajar, chairman of a working group of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate change. Not previously planned or publicized, the Bonn meeting precedes already scheduled gatherings in Bangkok and Barcelona, in addition to forums in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and New York City to discussing the problem of climate change.

Rumblings over carbon tariffs echo around the world:

• 2009/07/25: TreeHugger: US Chamber Of Commerce Opposes Possible Carbon Tariff: Indicates "Green Trade War" May Result
• 2009/07/24: Reuters: Germany calls carbon tariffs "eco-imperialism"
  Germany called a French idea to slap "carbon tariffs" on products from countries that are not trying to cut greenhouse gases a form of "eco-imperialism" and a direct violation of WTO rules. The issue of greenhouse tariffs has met bitter opposition from developing countries such as China and India, who count on the developed world to buy their exports as they build their economies in the face of the worst financial crisis in decades.
• 2009/07/23: PlanetArk: U.S. Business Warns Congress Of "Green Trade War"

  The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:

• 2009/07/24: BBC: Getting a grip on Greenland's future
• 2009/07/26: Guardian(UK): Meltdown is a warning the world can't afford to ignore
• 2009/07/26: Guardian(UK): Revealed: the secret evidence of global warming Bush tried to hide
  Photos from US spy satellites declassified by the Obama White House provide the first graphic images of how the polar ice sheets are retreating in the summer. The effects on the world's weather, environments and wildlife could be devastating
• 2009/07/25: AFTIC: Arctic sea ice extent tracking below 2008
• 2009/07/25: BBC: Greenland comes in from the cold
• 2009/07/23: MrGreenBiz: Fluorescent dye may reveal the ultimate fate of the Greenland's ice
• 2009/07/24: CCP: Fluorescent dye may reveal the ultimate fate of the Greenland's ice
• 2009/07/22: CCP: Climate projection animations of global surface temperatures and Arctic Sea ice extent through 2100 from Met Office Hadley Centre
• 2009/07/24: ChronicleHerald: Aspen Institute: Arctic in trouble -- Commission says North is warming fast
• 2009/07/23: CBC: Summer heat 'vacationing' in Canada's North
  Some of the best summer days across Canada this month are north of 60, where people are basking in some relatively balmy conditions.
• 2009/07/23: ClimateP: Will we see record low Arctic ice VOLUME this year?
• 2009/07/21: CCP: The Petermann Glacier: A river runs along the top of it
• 2009/07/20: Guardian(UK): Greenpeace charts a course to measure melting Arctic glaciers (17 pictures)
• 2009/07/20: CCP: Jason Box: Extreme Ice Survey at the Petermann Glacier, Greenland

  As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

• 2009/07/25: CanWest: Arctic sovereignty returns to top of Tory agenda
  Even as it insists the international scramble for polar resources "is not adversarial and it is not a race," the Canadian government is poised to launch a major public relations offensive touting its record on asserting the country's Arctic sovereignty and developing the region's "vast potential," Canwest News Service has learned. At a press conference on Sunday, three federal ministers will unveil a slickly produced, 44-page report -- Canada's Northern Strategy: Our North, Our Heritage, Our Future -- and announce the creation of an official website dedicated to tracking the government's Arctic investments and policy initiatives.
• 2009/07/24: CanWest: Canada, U.S. to survey Arctic undersea mountain range
  The U.S. and Canadian governments have released details of a planned 42-day Arctic Ocean mapping mission as part of the two countries' efforts to extend their sovereignty over resource-rich areas of the polar seabed. The scheduled survey of an underwater mountain range in waters far to the north of the Alaska-Yukon border, to be conducted jointly with scientists from the U.S. and Canada, follows a similar collaborative research expedition last summer in the Beaufort Sea.
• 2009/07/24: CanWest: Canada, U.S. team up on Arctic mapping
• 2009/07/22: WSWS: Denmark to open Arctic military command

  While in Antarctica:

• 2009/07/22: PhysOrg: Massive glacier in sub-Antarctic island shrinks by a fifth
  The Cook glacier on Kerguelen, seen here in an undated photo, shrivelled by a fifth in 40 years, French scientists said on Wednesday. One of the biggest glaciers in the southern hemisphere shrivelled by a fifth in 40 years, French scientists said on Wednesday. The Cook glacier on Kerguelen, an island in France's southern Indian Ocean territories, covered 501 square kilometres (193 square miles) in 1963. Combining satellite images with other data, glaciologists from the Laboratory for Studying Geophysics and Space Oceanography estimate the glacier lost an average of nearly 1.5 metres (4.9 feet) in height each year by 2003, shedding almost 22 percent of its original volume. In terms of area, the glacier shrank by 1.9 sq. kms. (0.74 sq. miles) per year from 1963 to 1991. Thereafter the loss doubled, to 3.8 sq. kms (1.48 sq. miles) per year. By 2003, the glacier covered only 403 sq. kms (155 sq. miles), a retreat of 20 percent compared with 1963.
• 2009/07/20: PhysOrg: New research provides insight into ice sheet behavior
  A new study published this week takes scientists a step further in their quest to understand how Antarctica's vast glaciers will contribute to future sea-level rise. Reporting in the journal Nature Geoscience, scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and University of Durham describe how a new 3-d map created from radar measurements reveals features in the landscape beneath a vast river of ice, ten times wider than the Rhine, in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

They're still talking about the Desertec plan:

• 2009/07/24: NEN: EU solar plan [Desertec] means billions for Sahara
• 2009/07/22: EurActiv: First steps to bring Saharan solar [Desertec] to Europe

  A rather startling assertion about a Chinese dust storm:

• 2009/07/20: PhysOrg: Massive dust storm in China circled the world in 13 days: study
  A wind storm that ripped across western China's Taklimakan desert kicked up hundreds of thousands of tonnes of dust that high-altitude winds then carried around the world in less than two weeks, a study says.

Rob Grumbine continues his gentle education series:

• 2009/07/24: MGS: Introductory Time Series Analysis

  The mystery of more common Noctilucent Clouds:

• 2009/07/19: SlashDot: Noctilucent Clouds Spread and Mystify

  Late comment on the G8:

• 2009/07/14: WaPo: The Summit of Green Futility

  The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2009/07/24: CoastWeek: [Kenya] National alarm over continuing and severe food and water shortages
• 2009/07/22: EnergyBulletin: Can New York State Feed Itself?
  For someone who believes, as I do, that decreasing availability of cheap fossil fuel will eventually make the transportation of food over long distances economically unfeasible, the phrase "local food" acquires a special meaning beyond the usual lifestyle implications.
• 2009/07/22: SciDaily: Warming Climate Threatens California Fruit And Nut Production
• 2009/07/: USWGFC: U.S. Working Group on the Food Crisis Issues Statement to G8 Urging New Approach to Food Security
• 2009/07/: NLR: The Great Himalayan Watershed -- Agrarian Crisis, Mega-Dams and the Environment

  And how are we going to feed 9 billion?

• 2009/07/24: UN: 'Greening' agriculture key to fighting climate change, boosting food security - UN
• 2009/07/23: DotEarth: Hot, Dry, Thriving? A Farm Plan for California
• 2009/07/21: Grist: Notable quotable - Wendell Berry on the promise of GMOs to 'feed the world'
• 2009/07/20: SeedDaily: High food prices defeat harvest gains
• 2009/07/21: SciDaily: Rice Defies Its Reputation As A Thirsty Crop
• 2009/07/21: Guardian(UK): Britain should grow more crops to avoid global food crisis, say MPs
• 2009/07/19: Guardian(UK): UK to spend £100m on supporting GM crops for world's poor
  White paper shows government plans major rise in investment in research, as report calls for moratorium and questions approach

A quiet week in the hurricane wars:

• 2009/07/19: TerraDaily: Bangladesh seeks 1.15 bln dollars for cyclone [Aila] victims

  As for the Monsoon:

• 2009/07/21: TerraDaily: Drought threat for Bangladesh as monsoon fails
• 2009/07/19: TerraDaily: Monsoon rain kills 26 in southern Pakistan: officials
• 2009/07/20: EarthTimes: India monsoon death toll tops 400 after 21 perish in rains
• 2009/07/19: EarthTimes: Monsoon batters Pakistan's largest city, 33 dead
• 2009/07/20: BBC: Monsoon chaos sweeps South Asia
  Scores of people are reported to have been killed by flash floods in eastern India, as an uneven monsoon brings chaos across the subcontinent. Authorities in the Indian state of Orissa say that at least 36 people have died in flooding in the past week. Half a million homes have been flooded. In Pakistan there have been protests amid power outages after heavy rains killed at least 29 people in Karachi. But in Bangladesh, poor monsoon rainfall is causing widespread alarm.

And GHGs:

• 2009/07/23: NatureTGB: Inglorious belchers: the Dirty Thirty [in Europe]
• 2009/07/23: PlanetArk: U.S. Top Greenhouse Gas Emitter, Counting Imports
• 2009/07/22: Guardian(UK): Meet Belcha -- Europe's biggest carbon polluter (and it's about to get even bigger)
  Polish facility [Belchatow Power Plant] pumps out 30m tonnes of CO2 a year -- Activists say giant plants undermine climate fight
• 2009/07/22: JKB: Vrind 2009
• 2009/07/20: TreeHugger: What Is The Carbon Footprint of The Space Program?
• 2009/07/20: SolveClimate: Carbon Disclosure Project Turns Up the Pressure on Cities
• 2009/07/20: WaPo: Chemicals That Eased One Woe Worsen Another [HFCs]

  As for the temperature record:

• 2009/07/25: SciDaily: Global Ocean Surface Temperature Warmest On Record For June
• 2009/07/21: CCP: Global temps are up for June
• 2009/07/21: MongaBay: Global ocean temperatures at warmest level since 1880
• 2009/07/21: TreeHugger: Global Ocean Temperatures Warmest Since 1880 (129 Years Ago!)
• 2009/07/21: ENN: NOAA Reports Record Ocean Surface Temperatures for June

  While in the paleoclimate:

• 2009/07/23: ABC(Au): A Canberra scientist has released new research on ancient deep ocean temperatures which could be used to predict climate change
• 2009/07/21: NewScientist: Stone-age innovation explains ancient population boom [35 kya]

  While on the el Niño/la Niña [ENSO] front:

• 2009/07/23: Maribo: El Nino and the likelihood of mass coral bleaching

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2009/07/16: CNet: Climate change taking toll on Glacier National Park
  Rapid climate change is resulting in the disappearance of the glaciers at Glacier National Park, in Montana. Scientists estimate the last glacier in the park could be gone by 2030. There were at least 150 of them identified in 1850. [...] I had come...to this incredible national park in northern Montana...to see its beauty and grandeur. But I quickly realized what the real story is: in a place like this, the effects of climate change can be seen, right before every visitor's eyes.

Sea levels are rising:

• 2009/07/25: Stuff(NZ): Coastal dwellers left stranded
• 2009/07/24: CCP: Seas rise -- vast amounts of ice melt for every 1 mm gain

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2009/07/24: ABC(Au): Scientists say the effects of climate change could decimate Fraser Island's sand dunes by the end of the century
• 2009/07/23: PhysOrg: Big Advantage for the Small -- Climate change influences the size of marine organisms
• 2009/07/23: ENN: Winter Heat Threatens Calif. Fruit, Nut Crops
• 2009/07/22: NatureTGB: Global warming is shrinking your dinner
• 2009/07/21: SciAm: Will Global Warming Melt the Permafrost Supporting the China-Tibet Railway?
• 2009/07/22: SciDaily: Warming Climate Threatens California Fruit And Nut Production
• 2009/07/22: LA Times: Climate change could put the heat on California crops
• 2009/07/20: Guardian(UK): UN panel to study impact of climate change on poor countries
• 2009/07/20: CBC: Warming waters lead to smaller fish: study
• 2009/07/20: PhysOrg: 'Weedy' Bird Species May Win as Temperatures Rise

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2009/07/25: NYT: An Amazon Culture Withers as Food Dries Up
• 2009/07/25: CCP: "An Amazon culture withers as food dries up" by Elisabeth Rosenthal, New York Times
• 2009/07/21: GreenGrok: Prognosis for Biodiversity in the Amazon Improves
• 2009/07/21: PhysOrg: Ancient Maya Practiced Forest Conservation -- 3,000 Years Ago
• 2009/07/21: TreeHugger: Temperate Forests Beat Tropical for Capturing & Storing Carbon, New Research Shows
• 2009/07/20: KSJT: AP: What? Why plant northern coast rainforest Sitka Spruce in arid mountains of Idaho?

  Corals are dying:

• 2009/07/22: NOAANews: Coral Bleaching Likely in Caribbean -- Similar conditions may develop in Gulf of Mexico and Central Pacific
• 2009/07/22: DotEarth: Caribbean Reefs Face Severe Summer Threat

  Desertification looms as a threat:

• 2009/07/24: UNDispatch: How to stop desertification?
• 2009/07/24: BBC: Wall 'could stop desert spread'
  A plan to build a 6,000km-long wall across the Sahara Desert to stop the spread of the desert has been outlined. The barrier - formed by solidifying sand dunes - would stretch from Mauritania in the west of Africa to Djibouti in the east. The plan was put forward by architect Magnus Larsson at the TED Global conference in Oxford.

Yes we have no wacky weather, except:

• 2009/07/24: EarthTimes: Thunderstorms claim seven in Poland
• 2009/07/21: EarthTimes: Torrential rain in Japan leaves five dead

  As for heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2009/07/25: TerraDaily: Mediterranean wildfires wreak destruction, recrimination
• 2009/07/26: BBC: Mediterranean fires still burning
  Firefighters in several parts of the Mediterranean are still fighting wildfires which began days ago and have left eight dead. Thousands of acres of woodland in Spain, France, Greece and Sardinia were destroyed by fires fuelled by high temperatures and strong winds.
• 2009/07/26: Guardian(UK): Hundreds evacuated as Med coast wildfires spread
  Summer wildfires have forced more than 1,000 people from houses and holiday homes along the Mediterranean coast this weekend. At least 10 people - including six firefighters - have died in fires in Spain, France, Greece and the Italian island of Sardinia in recent days. Thousands of firefighters are still working around the clock to bring blazes under control.
• 2009/07/25: CBC: Eastern Spain wildfires eased by cooler weather
• 2009/07/24: Guardian(UK): Spain: Wildfires claim sixth life as 1,500 evacuated
• 2009/07/24: EarthTimes: Fires burn large areas of brush and woodlands in Corsica
• 2009/07/24: EarthTimes: Heat wave hits Balkans, one fatality
• 2009/07/24: EarthTimes: Fires rage on Italian island of Sardinia
• 2009/07/24: EarthTimes: Fires burn large areas of brush and woodlands in Corsica
• 2009/07/24: BBC: Wildfires rage in southern Europe
  Thousands of firefighters are battling to bring under control summer wildfires that are spreading across parts of southern Europe. At least eight people have died in fires that have struck Spain, France, Greece and the Italian island of Sardinia in the past few days.
• 2009/07/24: CanWest: More evacuations as B.C. fire doubles in size
• 2009/07/24: CanWest: 2,200 more flee before fast-moving B.C. fires
• 2009/07/23: CBC: Evacuees flee as Terrace Mountain fire edges closer -- Residents say officials should have worked to contain the fire sooner
• 2009/07/23: CBC: Terrace Mountain fire forces 2,200 to flee -- Thunderstorms could bring high winds, lightning strikes
• 2009/07/22: TerraDaily: Hundreds battle wildfire in Spain that killed four firefighters
• 2009/07/23: EarthTimes: Wildfires claim eighth victim in Spain
• 2009/07/23: EarthTimes: Brush fire near Marseille brought under control
• 2009/07/23: EarthTimes: Wildfires continue raging in Spain
• 2009/07/22: EarthTimes: Hundreds of people battle wildfires in Spain
• 2009/07/22: CBC: West Kelowna fire evacuation orders lifted
• 2009/07/21: EarthTimes: Four Spanish firefighters killed by wildfire
• 2009/07/21: EarthTimes: Firefighters struggle to contain Canadian wildfires
• 2009/07/20: Reuters: Heat wave to test Southern California power grid
• 2009/07/20: EarthTimes: Bush fires 'forcing rare mountain gorillas to flee to DRC
• 2009/07/20: EarthTimes: Thousands flee Canada bushfires
• 2009/07/19: HoustonChronicle: Crews still battling wildfires throughout Texas
• 2009/07/20: MNS: Firefighters gain on wildfire near Park City [Montana]
• 2009/07/20: CBC: West Kelowna forest fires still burning uncontrolled
• 2009/07/20: CanWest: Thousands evacuated as forest fires rage near Kelowna
• 2009/07/19: BBC: Two wildfires near a western Canadian city have forced the evacuation of around 17,000 people...

  As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

• 2009/07/25: UN: UN health agency joins relief efforts after deadly floods strike Mongolia
• 2009/07/24: TerraDaily: Rainfall To Decrease Over Iberian Peninsula
• 2009/07/23: ABC(Au): A visiting group of American scientists will see first-hand the effect drought has had on the Murray-Darling Basin.
• 2009/07/22: Eureka: Rainfall to decrease over Iberian Peninsula
• 2009/07/23: ABC(Au): The secretary-general of the Ramsar convention on wetlands [Anada Tiega] has been invited to visit the Coorong and lower lakes of the Murray in South Australia, to see the effects of severe drought
• 2009/07/21: ColoradoDaily: CU study: Climate change threatens Colo. River water supply -- Most drastic warming scenario shows 50 percent chance of depletion by 2057
• 2009/07/20: StarTelegram: Drought, heat hitting Texas agriculture for multibillion-dollar loss
  Texas agriculture is facing $3.6 billion in weather-related losses as a broiling summer sun continues to devastate crops and pastures, Texas AgriLife Extension Service experts said Monday. Some parts of the state have been hit by "extreme or exceptional" drought conditions for two consecutive years, they said. Total crop losses this year amount to an estimated $2.6 billion, an extension report said. Since November, $974 million in livestock has been lost.
• 2009/07/21: TreeHugger: Colorado River Reservoirs Could Have 50-50 Chance of Running Dry Due to Climate Change by 2057
• 2009/07/21: SciDaily: Future Of Western U.S. Water Supply Threatened By Climate Change
  As the West warms, a drier Colorado River system could see as much as a one-in-two chance of fully depleting all of its reservoir storage by mid-century assuming current management practices continue on course, according to a new University of Colorado at Boulder study.
• 2009/07/21: BBC: A desalination plant has opened near Barcelona - said to be the biggest of its type in Europe - to ease chronic water shortages
• 2009/07/19: AbqJournal: Abandoned Marina a Sign of Major Drought
  Hite, Utah - The ghostly silence at what used to be Hite Marina, on the shore of Lake Powell, must be what permanent drought sounds like. Today, a single boat sits behind a fence in a storage lot against the hot red cliffs. A few ramshackle remnants of the marina's old floating docks sit stranded far above the current water line.
• 2009/07/20: EarthTimes: At least 26 dead after rainstorms batter Mongolia
• 2009/07/20: UColorado: Future of Western Water Supply Threatened by Climate Change, Says New CU-Boulder Study

  Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2009/07/21: SolveClimate: Europe's Cities Show How to Lower Emissions While Raising Living Standards

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2009/07/25: BRitholtz: Rail Time Indicators
• 2009/07/23: Guardian(UK): Great Western train line to be electrified
• 2009/07/22: BBC: Planes 'should fly on biofuels'
  Biofuel research should focus on planes and not cars, the think tank Policy Exchange has said. A crop area the size of the USA would be needed to biofuel all the world's cars and alternatives, such as electricity, exist for them, it added. Instead, it said the EU should fund research into using plant-based fuel for aviation to help cut emissions. Sceptics say some biofuels create more carbon than they save and push up the price of food for the poor.
• 2009/07/20: CalcRisk: DOT: [May] Vehicle Miles Flat YoY
• 2009/07/20: NatureCF: IMO stalls decision on shipping emissions
• 2009/07/20: S&R: Planes, trains, or automobiles? Green transportation choices are not clear cut

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

• 2009/07/23: SolveClimate: Oh, Those Sexy Building Codes: More Effective Than 100 Nuclear Plants
• 2009/07/24: GEA: Detroit Heads For Bankruptcy; 50 Cities Must "Shrink to Survive"
• 2009/07/23: Guardian(UK): Outer-city, out of mind? Ecotowns are all well and good, but we ignore the problem of suburban England at our peril
• 2009/07/22: Guardian(UK): LEDs and efficient TVs point the way towards my dream green home
• 2009/07/22: TreeHugger: Chicago Net-Zero House is "Clean-Lined and Elegant"
• 2009/07/20: NEN: Monitoring home energy in Austin

  As for carbon sequestration:

• 2009/07/25: SciDaily: New Method To Cleaner And More Efficient Carbon Dioxide Capture
• 2009/07/24: CBC: Carbon capture to cost billions: Alberta report
  Capturing and storing carbon in the ground to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will cost the federal and provincial governments between $1 billion and $3 billion a year, according to a new Alberta report. Alberta has set aside $2 billion for a handful of carbon-capture test projects, but that is not initially enough to meet the province's goal of reducing CO2 by between 25 and 30 megatonnes a year by 2020, the Alberta Carbon Capture and Storage Development Council concluded in a report released Friday.
• 2009/07/23: EconView: "Carbon Sequestration from Forestry and Agriculture"
• 2009/07/20: BelferCenter: Realistic Costs of Carbon Capture by Mohammed Al-Juaied & Adam Whitmore
• 2009/07/22: ClimateP: Harvard stunner: "Realistic" first-generation CCS costs a whopping $150 per ton of CO2, some 20 cents per kWh!
• 2009/07/21: Grist: What Role for U.S. Carbon Sequestration? [Stavins]
• 2009/07/21: SGM: Carbon capture for coal costly, study finds
• 2009/07/22: LLNL: A new method to cleaner and more efficient CO2 capture
  Separating carbon dioxide from its polluting source, such as the flue gas from a coal-fired power plant, may soon become cleaner and more efficient. A Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researcher has developed a screening method that would use ionic liquids -- a special type of molten salt that becomes liquid under the boiling point of water (100 degrees Celsius) -- to separate carbon dioxide from its source, making it a cleaner, more viable and stable method than what is currently available.
• 2009/07/21: EconView: Should Carbon be Sequestered? [Robert Stavins]
• 2009/07/21: ABC(Au): CMAs get $1.5m for biochar trial
  Victoria's largest trial to turn organic waste into charcoal will be run by catchment management authorities (CMA) in the state's south-west and north-east.

Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2009/07/24: SciNow: Humans Emulate Volcanoes in the Stratosphere
• 2009/07/24: BBC: Wall 'could stop desert spread'
  A plan to build a 6,000km-long wall across the Sahara Desert to stop the spread of the desert has been outlined. The barrier - formed by solidifying sand dunes - would stretch from Mauritania in the west of Africa to Djibouti in the east. The plan was put forward by architect Magnus Larsson at the TED Global conference in Oxford.
• 2009/07/22: UN: Blue helmets planting trees in bid to 'green' planet
• 2009/07/22: GreenGrok: Grok Image: The Aral Sea -- Geo-Engineering Gone Awry
• 2009/07/20: KSJT: USA Today: Bill Gates applies for some patents on stopping hurricanes with cold water

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2009/07/24: ACP: Tracking the emission and transport of pollution from wildfires using the IASI CO retrievals: analysis of the summer 2007 Greek fires by S. Turquety et al.
• 2009/07/24: ACPD: Evaluation of black carbon estimations in global aerosol models by D. Koch et al.
• 2009/07/24: ACPD: Extreme Saharan dust event over the southern Iberian Peninsula in september 2007: active and passive remote sensing from surface and satellite by J. L. Guerrero-Rascado et al.
• 2009/07/22: CP: The 15th century Arctic warming in coupled model simulations with data assimilation by E. Crespin et al.
• 2009/07/22: CP: Putting the rise of the Inca Empire within a climatic and land management context by A. J. Chepstow-Lusty et al.
• 2009/07/21: CP: Uncertainties in modelling CH4 emissions from northern wetlands in glacial climates: effect of hydrological model and CH4 model structure by C. Berrittella & J. van Huissteden
• 2009/07/21: TCD: Simulation of the satellite radar altimeter sea ice thickness retrieval uncertainty by R. T. Tonboe et al.
• 2009/07/21: TCD: Diagnostic and prognostic simulations with a full Stokes model accounting for superimposed ice of Midtre Lovénbreen, Svalbard by T. Zwinger & J. C. Moore
• 2009/07/22: ACP: Observations of NOx, $§igma$PNs, $§igma$ANs, and HNO3 at a Rural Site in the California Sierra Nevada Mountains: summertime diurnal cycles by D. A. Day et al.
• 2009/07/21: ACP: First year of upper tropospheric integrated content of CO2 from IASI hyperspectral infrared observations by C. Crevoisier et al.
• 2009/07/20: ACP: Satellite observations and modeling of transport in the upper troposphere through the lower mesosphere during the 2006 major stratospheric sudden warming by G. L. Manney et al.
• 2009/07/20: ACP: East Asian SO2 pollution plume over Europe - Part 2: Evolution and potential impact by V. Fiedler et al.
• 2009/07/20: ACP: East Asian SO2 pollution plume over Europe - Part 1: Airborne trace gas measurements and source identification by particle dispersion model simulations by V. Fiedler et al.
• 2009/07/21: ACPD: Explicit calculation of indirect global warming potentials for halons using atmospheric models by D. Youn et al.
• 2009/07/20: ACPD: Ground-based lidar measurements from Ny-Ãlesund during ASTAR 2007: a statistical overview by A. Hoffmann et al.
• 2009/07/20: ACPD: Cluster analysis of an impact of air back-trajectories on aerosol optical properties at Hornsund, Spitsbergen by A. Rozwadowska et al.
• 2009/07/21: PNAS: Sharing global CO2 emission reductions among one billion high emitters by Shoibal Chakravarty et al.
• 2009/07/21: PNAS: In-situ measurements of the mixing state and optical properties of soot with implications for radiative forcing estimates by Ryan C. Moffet & Kimberly A. Prather
• 2009/07/21: PNAS: Distribution history and climatic controls of the Late Miocene Pikermian chronofauna by Jussi T. Eronen et al.

  Before we get into politics, there was some science done:

• 2009/07/24: MrGreenBiz: The State of the Climate -- and of Climate Science Four scientists discuss where the climate is and where it's going
• 2009/07/22: SciDaily: Could Cosmic Ray Influence Climate By Charging Up More Frequent Lightning Storms?

  Meanwhile on the Kyoto front:

• 2009/07/20: Reuters: U.N. approves new generation carbon offset project -- 30 million CFLs in Mexico

  And on the road to Copenhagen:

• 2009/07/24: PlanetArk: Is Time Running Out To Seal Post-Kyoto Climate Pact?
• 2009/07/24: PlanetArk: U.N. Seeks $10 Billion Aid As Good Start To Climate Pact
• 2009/07/22: BBC: Price put on Copenhagen success
  The UN's top climate official has said that the richest nations will have to put $10bn "on the table" during the Copenhagen climate change summit. Yvo De Boer, who will lead the negotiations, said such a commitment was necessary for their success. He insisted the burden of climate change must be shared and that the money would help developing countries. Leading nations participating in the summit must, he said, sign an agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Mr De Boer, head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said the $10bn (£6bn) pledge would be "a good beginning". "(It) will allow developing countries to begin preparing national plans to limit their own emissions, and to adapt to climate change," he told the BBC World Service's One Planet programme. Mr De Boer was less keen to put an exact figure on the levels of emission cuts the biggest economies should commit to.
• 2009/07/21: Guardian(UK): Activists reveal plan to storm Copenhagen climate summit
• 2009/07/20: EurActiv: EU climate vow 'separate' from Copenhagen deal
  "Our engagement for climate protection should be independent from Copenhagen," the newly-elected chair of the European Parliament's environment committee, German Social Democratic MEP Jo Leinen, told EurActiv in an interview, stressing that "if Copenhagen is a success, all the better; if not, we have to stick to our job".
• 2009/07/19: BNC: We need a real global plan for carbon mitigation
• 2009/07/19: TP:WonkRoom: Despite The New York Times Naysayers, International Climate Talks Are Progressing

  While at the UN:

• 2009/07/24: NatureTGB: Enviro action in China urged by UN chief
• 2009/07/24: Google:AFP: UN's Ban urges China to step up on climate change
• 2009/07/24: BBC: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said there can be no global climate change deal without China's support
• 2009/07/20: EarthTimes: UN chief to visit China, Mongolia - climate change on agenda
• 2009/07/20: UN: Secretary-General to focus on climate change during trip to China and Mongolia

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2009/07/22: CFO: Mayday call for the EU ETS
  A surplus of allowances threatens to make the EU Emissions Trading Scheme irrelevant, says Bryony Worthington -- who suggests how it could be rescued
• 2009/07/24: TreeHugger: Carbon Prices Falling Fast in [RGGI] Northeast US Cap and Trade
• 2009/07/24: PlanetArk: EU Carbon Prices Stick To Range-Bound Trade
• 2009/07/24: PlanetArk: VCS Eases Rules For Issuing Canada Carbon Credits
  A leading standard setter for voluntary carbon market offsets said on Wednesday it has eased its rules for Canadian projects that aim to cut emissions of greenhouse gases to issue carbon credits. The Voluntary Carbon Standard Association said it would allow clean projects hosted in Canada to issue the offsets, known as Voluntary Carbon Units, without corresponding cancellation of credits under the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. Before the VCS move, projects in Canada wanting to issue the credits had to demonstrate that they would not be double-counted in a Kyoto Protocol related program. That problem has happened in other developed countries that have agreed to cut their emissions under the U.N. pact. VCS made the move because "there is no regulatory framework to implement the Kyoto Protocol (in Canada), none is likely to emerge, and the country is unlikely to achieve its Kyoto Protocol reduction commitment." Canada has fallen behind meeting its Kyoto commitments and is not doing enough to curb global warming, a report from environmental group WWF said earlier this month.
• 2009/07/23: PlanetArk: Brazil CVM [Rio de Janeiro-based securities regulator] Says Carbon Credits Are Not Derivatives
• 2009/07/22: BBC: Harrabin's Notebook: Surplus credits
  In a new column, the BBC's environment analyst Roger Harrabin draws on his experience of a quarter of a century reporting the environment to ask if Europe's power consumers are indirectly subsidising firms hit hardest by the downturn. Research suggests that Europe's main system for tackling climate change is cushioning the effects of the recession on major industries. The research, from the pressure group Sandbag, shows that firms which have cut production because of the downturn have been left with surplus pollution credits they can sell on the European carbon market. Europe's power firms are still short of CO2 permits and are keen to buy surplus allowances from cement and steel makers. In effect, through their power bills, Europe's power consumers may indirectly be subsidising those firms worst hit by the downturn. "This is a subsidy for not producing -- it wasn't quite how the EU ETS was supposed to operate," Henrik Hasselknippe from analysts Point Carbon told me. He estimates the surplus is worth about £10bn to struggling industries between now and 2012.

The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

• 2009/07/23: EnvFin: France should adopt carbon tax, government to be told

  The debate over the optimal strategy [carbon trading, carbon offsets, auction vs. allocation, and/or a carbon tax] to use in dealing with GHGs continues:

• 2009/07/25: Smithsonian: The Political History of Cap and Trade
• 2009/07/21: C411: How Cap and Trade Was Born
• 2009/07/22: ClimateP: Nobelist Krugman: Fear of carbon markets and speculation is "99% wrong and bad for the planet"
• 2009/07/21: BSD: Does the David Victor study condemn most offsets?
• 2009/07/21: NYT:PK: Is the threat of speculation a reason to shun cap and trade?
• 2009/07/20: IndiaTimes: CO2 caps, trading central to climate fight: UK
• 2009/07/29: FTimes: Carbon trading could slash 'green' costs
• 2009/07/20: Guardian(UK): Every European carbon trading permit
  Whether you think carbon trading is a con or a blessing, this new data gives us a unique insight into Europe's emissions
• 2009/07/20: Guardian(UK): Carbon emissions trading system 'seriously flawed' -- Report by campaign group Sandbag critical of scheme

  Meanwhile on the international political front:

• 2009/07/24: EurActiv: US must move faster on climate change: Sweden
• 2009/07/23: PeakEnergy: Politics and Climate Change
• 2009/07/24: SolveClimate: America's ACES vs. UK's Low Carbon Transition Plan
• 2009/07/20: Reuters:Env: Tuvalu turns to solar energy - against rising seas
• 2009/07/20: BBC: Tuvalu vows to go carbon neutral
  The tiny Pacific island state of Tuvalu has said it wants all its energy to come from renewable sources by 2020. Public Utilities Minister Kausea Natano said his nation of 12,000 people wanted to set an example to others.

As for GW & security:

• 2009/07/22: Grist: National security emphasis could inspire more support for climate bill, says former Sen. John Warner
• 2009/07/21: BostonGlobe: Kerry panel looks at climate change and national security
  Massive crop devastation, melting glaciers, water shortages, millions of displaced people -- all of these will drag the US military into conflict if global climate change goes unchecked, a Senate panel was warned today. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, convened by Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, focused on what so far has received only modest attention in the climate change debate: the effect it is bound to have on national defense. "Addressing the consequences of changes in the Earth's climate is not simply about saving polar bears or preserving the beauty of mountain glaciers," retired Navy Vice Adm. Lee F. Gunn, president of the American Security Project, told the panel. "Climate change is a threat to our national security."

The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world as nations scramble to deal with climate change:

• 2009/07/23: Grist: [US] Terrorism laws are wrongly being used to round up eco-activists, says author Dean Kuipers
• 2009/07/22: Guardian(UK): Police at Kingsnorth: hiding badges, searching kids, blasting music and suffering bee stings
  Catalogue of complaints over tactics used against both protesters and media

And on the American political front:

• 2009/07/25: ClimateP: Gingrich says Sarah "Four Pinocchios" Palin is a conservative leader on energy issues; Boxer and Kerry write, "The governor's new refrain against global warming action reminds us of every naysayer who has spoken out against progress in cleaning up pollution."
• 2009/07/26: Guardian(UK): Revealed: the secret evidence of global warming Bush tried to hide
  Photos from US spy satellites declassified by the Obama White House provide the first graphic images of how the polar ice sheets are retreating in the summer. The effects on the world's weather, environments and wildlife could be devastating
• 2009/07/23: Grist: [US] Terrorism laws are wrongly being used to round up eco-activists, says author Dean Kuipers
• 2009/07/20: WVGazette:CT: About that cap-and-trade rally ...
• 2009/07/21: ClimateP: Game changer 5: RFK, Jr. on "How to end America's deadly coal addiction -- practically overnight" thanks to "a revolution in natural gas production"
• 2009/07/21: DotEarth: Scientists Weigh in on Research Money and Climate Fixes
• 2009/07/21: TreeHugger: US Governors: We Want Carbon Neutral Buildings by 2030
• 2009/07/19: ClimateP: Public opinion snapshot: Public backs key elements of global warming bill
• 2009/07/20: Grist: North Carolina governor Beverly Perdue (D) calls for better regulation of coal ash dumps
• 2009/07/20: Grist: Jimmy Carter's next big green adventure -- Former president should visit mountaintop removal site
• 2009/07/20: Grist: Hawaii invests in climate change task force
• 2009/07/20: DeSmogBlog: Western Governors Enraged by False Attacks on WCI

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2009/07/23: WSJ:EnvCap: Team Obama: Why Farmers Should Love the Climate Bill
• 2009/07/23: PlanetArk: Climate Bill A Farm Income Boost, USDA Estimates
• 2009/07/22: NOAANews: NOAA Asks Mariners to Safeguard Pacific Data Buoys
• 2009/07/22: ClimateP: USDA: Economic benefits of climate bill for farmers 'easily trump' the costs
• 2009/07/22: Grist: DOE sending out Recovery Act funding as states promise efficiency improvements
• 2009/07/22: Grist: Steven Chu and cap-and-snooze on the Daily Show
• 2009/07/22: PlanetArk: U.S. [Commerce Secretary Gary Locke] Says China Must "Pay" To Cut Greenhouse Gases
• 2009/07/22: DeSmogBlog: Jon Stewart: Steven Chu a Super Hero Battling Global Warming Deniers
• 2009/07/22: WSJ:EnvCap: GOP Questions Commerce Secretary on China Emissions Stance
• 2009/07/22: TP:WR: New USDA Analysis: Economic Benefits Of Waxman-Markey For Farmers 'Easily Trump' The Costs
• 2009/07/21: PhysOrg: NOAA chief says new ocean uses creating conflicts
• 2009/07/21: CSW: Oceanographer Kate Moran joining Holdren's team at White House Science Office
• 2009/07/21: TreeHugger: US Companies Deserve Level Playing Field With Chinese Firms: Commerce Secretary [Gary Locke]

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2009/07/21: C411: The Real Story: Home Energy Provisions in the Climate Bill
• 2009/07/24: Reuters: House OKs money for rail, infrastructure bank
• 2009/07/22: TP:WR: Sen. Byron Dorgan: The 'Trade' In Cap-And-Trade 'Makes No Sense To Me'
• 2009/07/23: GreenGrok: On the Climate Bill Fence: What Sen. McCain Is Thinking
• 2009/07/23: DotEarth: Senate Pressed to Aid Obama on Energy Education
• 2009/07/23: TreeHugger: On Waxman-Markey Climate Change Bill, Aren't We Forgetting Something?
• 2009/07/22: ClimateP: Money can't buy YOU love -- but it can buy the fossil fuel industry the GOP's love
• 2009/07/22: ClimateP: Stop the madness: Congress reverses Chu's decision, flushes $100 million down the toilet pursuing hydrogen cars -- which will not be practical or a cost-effective climate strategy in your lifetime
• 2009/07/22: DotEarth: Will Health Battle Wound Climate Effort?
• 2009/07/22: PlanetArk: Climate Bill Impact On U.S. Farms Bearable: Lawmaker [Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn)]
• 2009/07/22: CommonTragedies: Allocation Mechanisms -- The Details Really Matter
• 2009/07/22: NYT: Editorial - Climate Loopholes
  The House's approval of the Waxman-Markey climate change bill earlier this month was a remarkable political achievement and an important beginning to the task of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But in all the last-minute wheeling and dealing, the House bill acquired two big loopholes that the Senate must close.
  The first loophole involves coal-fired power plants.
  [...]
  The second loophole involves the tricky matter of offsets.
• 2009/07/21: NYT:CW: Senate Democrats Prep Team Girds for Climate Battle
• 2009/07/22: NEN: National security, the economy and new energy
  Summary: Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif), Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, will present what is expected to end up being the Senate's energy and climate legislation when the Senate returns to to Washington, D.C., after the August recess. Aside from generalities about a distribution plan for emissions allowances to ease emitting industries and ratepayers through the transition to a cap' system, Boxer has equivocated on how much her Senate legislation will resemble H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACESA), passed by the House of Representatives in May.
• 2009/07/21: SolveClimate: Grading a Climate Bill: 8 Ways ACES Must Be Strengthened
• 2009/07/22: Reuters: Climate bill needs "off ramp": Senate farm chief
• 2009/07/17: CFI: Ranking Member's Senate Minority Report on Global Warming Not Credible, says Center for Inquiry
• 2009/07/21: TP:WonkRoom: A New Mission For The Senate: Shoot For The Moon And Cut CO2 40% By 2020
• 2009/07/20: ThinkP: On Anniversary Of Apollo Landing, Naysayers Continue To Try To Block Our Generation's Challenge: Clean Energy
• 2009/07/21: NatureN: US Congress revives hydrogen vehicle research -- House votes is set (sic) to put programme back on the road
• 2009/07/21: ClimateP: The Audacity of Nope: The GOP channels Groucho Marx, "Whatever it is, I'm against it."
• 2009/07/21: Grist: Tracking where senators stand on climate legislation
• 2009/07/21: HillHeat: Senate Watch: Barrasso, Bingaman, Boxer, Brown, Carper, Dorgan, Durbin, Johanns, Kerry, McCain, McCaskill, Merkley, Nelson, Reid, Roberts, Voinovich
• 2009/07/20: ClimateP: When Sen. Dorgan finds out what's in the climate bill -- hint, hint, White House -- he might just support it
• 2009/07/20: TP:WonkRoom: Henry Waxman: America 'Cannot Afford To Run Second' In The Clean Energy Race
• 2009/07/20: Grist: Senate Minority Report on global warming not credible, says Center for Inquiry

  What are the lobbyists pushing?

• 2009/07/22: C411: Enemies of Climate Action Turn Up the Heat
• 2009/07/24: TreeHugger: How Much Did It Cost to Buy a Weak Climate Bill?
• 2009/07/23: NYT:GW: Energy Companies Opened Wallets Wide to Sway House Climate Bill
• 2009/06/25: DOS: Pipelines are Forever: Why We Delivered the World's Dirtiest Oil to Secretary Clinton
• 2009/07/22: NatureTGB: Roll up, roll up for the lobbying frenzy -- now with added health reform dollars
• 2009/07/21: Grist: More climate strategy innovation from outside the envelope -- MoveOn's Masterful Move
• 2009/07/21: Grist: Green Jobs, Green Justice -- NAACP resolves to fight climate change
• 2009/07/21: ClimateP: The NAACP joins the clean energy movement, pledging to "call on our nation's elected leaders to ensure" the adoption of a climate bill

  While in the UK:

• 2009/07/25: BBC: PM criticised over climate change
  Gordon Brown's outgoing adviser on sustainable development has accused him of "hindering" work on climate change. Sir Jonathon Porritt told the Independent the PM did not find the environment any more important now than when he was chancellor. Sir Jonathon also said Business Secretary Lord Mandelson had to "change his ways" on environmental issues. Sir Jonathon was appointed Sustainable Development Commission chairman by Tony Blair's government in 2000. Sir Jonathon said Mr Brown's support for a third runway at Heathrow Airport was a "ludicrous decision, with no serious intellectual, economic rationale". He said the Prime Minister had "some incredibly fixed ideas about some of these things".
• 2009/07/23: Guardian(UK): Great Western train line to be electrified
• 2009/07/23: BBC: Scientists 'kept at arm's length'
  The government is keeping scientists at "arm's length" and treating science as "a peripheral policy concern," a group of MPs has said. The Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills committee says knowledge from experts is not being properly used to make informed policy decisions. Instead of being sidelined, scientists should be able to communicate directly with the prime minister, it argues. Former chief scientist Sir David King said reform was "critical"
.
• 2009/07/23: NatureTGB: Science sidelined in government, say [UK] MPs
• 2009/07/22: BBC: £1bn plan to electrify rail line
  A £1bn plan to electrify the main rail route between London and Swansea is to be announced by the government. A second line between Liverpool and Manchester will also be converted from diesel to electric. Ministers say electric trains are lighter and more energy efficient, cutting the running cost and environmental impact of train services.
• 2009/07/21: Guardian(UK): [Letters] Landscape changes over renewables

  Workers have occupied a Vestas turbine factory:

• 2009/07/24: EUO: European wind lobby distances itself from UK turbine factory occupation
• 2009/07/24: Guardian(UK): [Letters] Why Vestas closed Isle of Wight plant
• 2009/07/21: NewInt:TEB: Blades of glory
  The UK's only factory making wind turbines is due to close at the end of this month, with the loss of 600 jobs. This makes a mockery of the Government's rhetoric about becoming a 'world leader in green jobs'. So the workers have taken matters into their own hands, and occupied the factory, owned by Vestas.

And in Europe:

• 2009/07/23: EnvFin: France should adopt carbon tax, government to be told
• 2009/07/25: EarthTimes: EU to press for climate change deal
• 2009/07/23: EurActiv: Commission sets efficiency standards for fridges, TVs
• 2009/07/24: EurActiv: EU warms to binding energy savings goal
• 2009/07/24: Xinhuanet: EU wants targets for energy efficiency to be mandatory
• 2009/07/24: EarthTimes: EU ministers discuss means to achieve climate change goals
  Energy and environment ministers from the 27- nation European Union held a joint session Friday in northern Sweden as part of efforts to promote a common stance on tackling climate change. The session included briefings from Lord Nicholas Stern a leading expert on the economic impact of climate change, who discussed measures like pricing carbon as well as the benefits of promoting more energy-efficient technology.
• 2009/07/22: EurActiv: Ministers pushing for more growth, fewer emissions
• 2009/07/20: EurActiv: EU climate vow 'separate' from Copenhagen deal
  "Our engagement for climate protection should be independent from Copenhagen," the newly-elected chair of the European Parliament's environment committee, German Social Democratic MEP Jo Leinen, told EurActiv in an interview, stressing that "if Copenhagen is a success, all the better; if not, we have to stick to our job".

Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2009/07/23: ABC(Au): The Liddell Power Station near Muswellbrook in New South Wales is set to reduce its carbon footprint, with plans for a $10 million gas pipeline given the go-ahead
• 2009/07/24: ABC(Au): The Hunter's aluminium smelters are being urged to lobby for amendments to the Commonwealth's proposed renewable energy targets, or risk losing tens of millions of dollars
• 2009/07/23: ABC(Au): Rudd ridicules Opposition's nuclear push
• 2009/07/23: ABC(Au): Nuclear power is the only suitable form of energy for Australia's long-term electricity needs as the country seeks to reduce its carbon emissions, the Opposition says
• 2009/07/23: ABC(Au): The Greens say a new report shows the ACT Government has been lacking when it comes to fighting climate change
• 2009/07/23: ABC(Au): The operator of Port Augusta power station, Babcock and Brown, says it will make a commercial decision about the station's future once details of an emissions trading scheme are clear
• 2009/07/23: ABC(Au): Carbon Energy says it hopes to be storing emissions from its power plant and gas fields in the Surat Basin, in Queensland's southern inland, within 18 months
• 2009/07/22: ABC(Au): A Castlemaine environment group says four large employers in the central Victorian region are on track to significantly cut their carbon emissions by next year
• 2009/07/22: ABC(Au): ACT emissions growth higher than average: report
  A new report shows Canberra's greenhouse gas emissions are growing at a faster rate than the national average.
• 2009/07/21: ABC(Au): CMAs get $1.5m for biochar trial
  Victoria's largest trial to turn organic waste into charcoal will be run by catchment management authorities (CMA) in the state's south-west and north-east.
• 2009/07/21: ABC(Au): The Greens are angered that a former Coalition minister has been appointed to head a new Federal Government climate change initiative
• 2009/07/21: ABC(Au): Former Liberal minister Robert Hill will chair a Federal Government trust designed to improve the energy efficiency of buildings
• 2009/07/20: ABC(Au): Business in the dark about emissions trading
  A new report suggests the business sector is largely in the dark about the Government's plans to address climate change. The survey by the Australian Industry Group (AiGroup) discovered only a small number of businesses have thorough knowledge of the proposed carbon pollution reduction scheme. The AiGroup's chief executive Heather Ridout says the Government must act to educate business.
• 2009/07/20: ABC(Au): Councils seek more climate change direction
  The Byron Shire Mayor says the New South Wales Government has been slow to provide direction for councils looking to take action on climate change
• 2009/07/20: TreeHugger: 74% of Australian Businesses Go Green to Comply with Cap and Trade - But 85% Don't Get How it Works

  Federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull announced this week he is willing to haggle over the Aus-ETS:

• 2009/07/24: Reuters: How Australian opposition wants carbon laws changed [text of the key amendments]
• 2009/07/26: ABC(Au): Arrogance, contempt shroud ETS debate: Turnbull
  Federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has lashed out at the Government for refusing to negotiate on its proposed emissions trading scheme. On Friday, Mr Turnbull and the shadow cabinet announced nine conditions they want met before they will agree to vote for the scheme. But on Channel Ten, Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner has demanded more detail on the conditions. "We're happy to consider specific amendments. Malcolm Turnbull's just floated a few slogans, a bit of a wish list," he said The Government wants the scheme passed by the Senate in less than three weeks.
• 2009/07/26: ABC(Au): Turnbull too soft on polluters: Climate Institute
  The Climate Institute says the Opposition Leader's suggested changes to the emissions trading scheme are not tough enough on polluters. Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull says the Coalition will support the emissions trading scheme if the government agrees to nine changes.
• 2009/07/25: ABC(Au): Rudd accuses Turnbull of ETS 'shopping list'
  Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has described the Opposition's demands on climate change as a "shopping list" aimed at patching up divisions within the Coalition. The Opposition says it is willing to vote for the emissions trading scheme (ETS) if the Government agrees to a number of changes. Mr Rudd says he is surprised Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has put forward a raft of amendments, just 19 days before the ETS will be voted on.
• 2009/07/24: ABC(Au): Federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull is still facing division within the Coalition over emissions trading, despite changing the party's policy position yesterday
• 2009/07/24: ABC(Au): Federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has unveiled the details of a significant policy shift on the Government's emissions trading scheme
• 2009/07/24: Xinhuanet: Australian opposition leader asked to clarify climate change stance
  Australian Climate Change Minister Penny Wong on Friday called for Federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull to clarify his stance on climate change.
• 2009/07/24: ABC(Au): The Coalition remains divided over the Government's emissions trading scheme, with two senior frontbenchers at odds over whether the Opposition should pass the bill
• 2009/07/20: ABC(Au): Federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull is indicating that the Coalition will vote for the Government's emissions trading legislation if it can pass enough amendments

  And in New Zealand:

• 2009/07/22: Stuff(NZ): Despite heat, Govt is remaining cool
• 2009/07/22: HotTopic: In Hamilton [NZ]

  While in China:

• 2009/07/21: WSJ:EnvCap: China to Boost Subsidies for Solar Power

  Elsewhere in Asia:

• 2009/07/23: TerraDaily: US in key environment meeting with Mekong countries

  And South America:

• 2009/07/26: ABC(Au): Brazil and Paraguay have reached agreement on a long running dispute over the use of energy from a giant hydro-electric plant on their border

  In Canada, minority neocon PM Harper, continues his do-nothing policy:

• 2009/07/25: CanWest: Arctic sovereignty returns to top of Tory agenda
  Even as it insists the international scramble for polar resources "is not adversarial and it is not a race," the Canadian government is poised to launch a major public relations offensive touting its record on asserting the country's Arctic sovereignty and developing the region's "vast potential," Canwest News Service has learned. At a press conference on Sunday, three federal ministers will unveil a slickly produced, 44-page report -- Canada's Northern Strategy: Our North, Our Heritage, Our Future -- and announce the creation of an official website dedicated to tracking the government's Arctic investments and policy initiatives.
• 2009/07/24: CBC: Northwest Passage surveillance study halted
  The federal government has paused a four-year pilot project to test High Arctic surveillance technology at the entrance to the Northwest Passage, CBC News has learned. As part of the Northern Watch program, scientists from Defence Research and Development Canada began installing underwater listening devices and land-based sensors on Devon Island in the summer of 2008. If successful, the tested technology would help Canada detect ships and submarines passing through the eastern entrance to the Northwest Passage. Contacted by CBC News, a National Defence spokesperson would only say the Northern Watch program is taking a hiatus this summer as researchers want to evaluate data the devices have collected already. They will then decide what to do with the program, the spokesperson added.

In BC, post election adjustments are ongoing:

• 2009/07/22: CanWest: B.C.'s go-green business incentives lead all other provinces, firm says -- Tax breaks on R&D spending, rebates on purchases among 38 enticements

  Ontario has it's Green Energy Act, now comes the implementation:

• 2009/07/23: CBC: Bruce Power drops plan to build Ont. reactors
  Bruce Power has dropped plans to build new reactors in Ontario's Bruce County, the company said Thursday. The company said it has opted to focus on refurbishing its Bruce A and B reactor units at its site about 250 kilometres northwest of Toronto on Lake Huron. The company also said it will withdraw its application to build reactors in Nanticoke, on Lake Erie, citing declining provincial energy demand.
• 2009/07/20: TStar: Ontario plugged in to the reality of electric cars
• 2009/07/20: OSun: Nuclear future dims for Ontario
  Thousands of jobs are on the line as McGuinty government waffles on $26-billion plan to renew the province's aging fleet of nuke plants

Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2009/07/24: CBC: Carbon capture to cost billions: Alberta report
  Capturing and storing carbon in the ground to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will cost the federal and provincial governments between $1 billion and $3 billion a year, according to a new Alberta report. Alberta has set aside $2 billion for a handful of carbon-capture test projects, but that is not initially enough to meet the province's goal of reducing CO2 by between 25 and 30 megatonnes a year by 2020, the Alberta Carbon Capture and Storage Development Council concluded in a report released Friday.
• 2009/07/24: WSJ:EnvCap: Oil Sands: Not Quite So Dirty?
• 2009/07/22: CBC: Suncor loses C$51M in Q2
• 2009/07/21: TStar: Coal giant offers cash for biggest clean rival -- TransAlta hopes to green up its holdings through hostile bid for largest wind farmer
  Canada's biggest generator of dirty power has launched a $1.5 billion hostile bid for the country's leading developer of clean power, including the two largest wind farms in Ontario. Analysts say TransAlta Corp.'s proposed acquisition of Calgary-based Canadian Hydro Developers Inc. could be the first of many moves in an energy sector that sees big polluters trying to green up their assets, partly to limit their exposure to carbon-emission penalties once a national cap-and-trade system is introduced. "This is a big public indication of what's to come," said MacMurray Whale, an alternative energy analyst with Toronto-based Cormark Securities. "It highlights how valuable low-carbon power production is, and it's a massive opportunity in Canada." But Canadian Hydro is playing hard to get. TransAlta chief executive Steve Snyder said his company, based in Calgary, proposed the same transaction back in December and was promptly rebuffed, forcing it to go directly to Canadian Hydro's shareholders.
• 2009/07/20: Guardian(UK): Co-operative gives £53,000 to Canadian Cree for tar sands lawsuit
  A trust fund has been set up for the Beaver Lake Cree Nation, who are fighting the extraction of tar sands from their ancestral lands in Alberta

As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

• 2009/07/24: Tyee: First Nation Takes Lead on Solar Power -- T'Sou-ke project models energy autonomy for other BC Aboriginal communities
• 2009/07/26: CanWest: Quebec: Quick, quiet approval of GM corn questioned

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

• 2009/07/23: Guardian(UK): A force of nature -- What humanity does has important consequences, so we must manage our global life-support system
• 2009/07/21: CCurrents: Where's The Pro-Life 'Stimulus' To Fight Earth's Meltdown?
• 2009/07/20: Scoop(NZ): Green Economics and how it might work

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

• 2009/07/24: DotEarth: Population Ups and Downs
• 2009/07/22: CCurrents: Human Overpopulation, Boiled Frogs And Lipstick
• 2009/07/21: NewScientist: Stone-age innovation explains ancient population boom [35 kya]
• 2009/07/20: Guardian(UK): Population of older people set to surpass number of children, report finds

  Apocalypso anyone?

• 2009/07/22: OilDrum: "Peak Civilization": The Fall of the Roman Empire
• 2009/07/20: BostonGlobe: The end is near
  It used to be that apocalyptic warnings about the approaching end of time came from sign-holding religious nutcases. Now they come from hard scientists.
• 2009/07/19: EnergyBulletin: Why Science won't save us

  You may have noticed I have been avoiding explicitly labelled AP stories...:

• 2009/07/24: CBC: AP creates news registry to guard online content

  Here is something for your library:

• 2009/07/24: Grist: Damning look at Canada's tar sands tops enviro journalism awards [Book Review] _Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent_ by Andrew Nikiforuk

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2009/07/24: WarmingLaw: Update: California Drops Its "Nuisance" Suit Against Carmakers; Other Tort-Based Climate Change Lawsuits Await Decisions in Federal Courts
• 2009/07/24: MontereyHerald: Judges lay out challenges of climate change legislation -- Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill could keep federal judges very busy

  Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:

• 2009/07/26: PeakEnergy: Cheaper Low Temperature Geothermal Power
• 2009/07/20: CSpin: Apollo or Manhattan project for energy won't work
• 2009/07/24: PhysOrg: Fuel cells, energy conversion and mathematics
• 2009/07/24: SolveClimate: Report: Geothermal Could Be Cheap as Coal in 3 Years for $3 Billion
• 2009/07/20: ABC(US): Over a Barrel: The Truth About Oil -- Charlie Gibson Uncovers Little Known Secrets of Oil Industry in Primetime Special
• 2009/07/22: JQuiggin: The myth of baseload power demand
• 2009/07/20: DotEarth: Views on Fueling an Energy Quest
• 2009/07/20: Eureka: US energy use drops in 2008
  Americans used more solar, nuclear, biomass and wind energy in 2008 than they did in 2007, according to the most recent energy flow charts released by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The nation used less coal and petroleum during the same time frame and only slightly increased its natural gas consumption. Geothermal energy use remained the same. The estimated U.S. energy use in 2008 equaled 99.2 quadrillion BTUs ("quads"), down from 101.5 quadrillion BTUs in 2007. (A BTU or British Thermal Unit is a unit of measurement for energy, and is equivalent to about 1.055 kilojoules). Energy use in the industrial and transportation sectors declined by 1.17 and 0.9 quads respectively, while commercial and residential use slightly climbed. The drop in transportation and industrial use - which are both heavily dependent on petroleum - can be attributed to a spike in oil prices in summer 2008. Last year saw a significant increase in biomass with the recent push for the development of more biofuels including ethanol.
• 2009/07/17: SB: Wind, Geothermal Are Most Efficient Renewable Energy Sources - Study
• 2009/07/20: NEN: [JEPO] Study picks wind, geothermal as best new energies
• 2009/07/20: Missoulian: Geothermal energy: Potential for power available, but weak
• 2009/07/20: ScottsDiatribe: "Pay as you save" concept from Britain an environmental idea worthy of consideration.

  The answer my friend...:

• 2009/07/24: BBC: Gull killer [wind] turbines are removed
• 2009/07/24: BBC: Objection to wind farm over birds
  RSPB Scotland has lodged an objection to plans for Scotland's largest community wind farm, on Shetland. The Viking Energy project, for 150 turbines, is a joint venture between Scottish and Southern Energy and the island community. It has been estimated the project could make £37m a year locally and create many jobs. Now RSPB Scotland has added its voice, on the grounds of possible bird species impact, to local resistance. Populations of birds, including the golden plover, could be threatened by some of the turbines, RSPB Scotland said.
• 2009/07/21: SolveClimate: Spanish Wind Giant [Iberdrola Renewables] Seeks $500M Slice of US Clean Energy Pie

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2009/07/24: EurActiv: France enters solar power race
  Yesterday's (23 July) announcement by French electricity giant EDF that it will build the country's largest solar manufacturing plant signalled France's bid to become one of the world's leading solar markets.
• 2009/07/24: SciDaily: New Generation Of Solar Cells Promises Efficiency
  The laboratory for photovoltaics of the University of Luxembourg has produced its first thin film [CIGS] solar cells made from compound semiconductors, already reaching a 12 percent efficiency.
• 2009/07/23: PhysOrg: Project Sage: Bringing Solar Power to the Masses (w/ Video)
• 2009/07/24: PlanetArk: EDF, First Solar To Build French Solar Panel Plant
• 2009/07/24: PlanetArk: LDK Solar Bumps Up Second Quarter Sales Forecast, Shares Rise
• 2009/07/24: PlanetArk: SunPower Second Quarter Earnings Top Street, Shares Rise
• 2009/07/22: Reuters: Yingli says U.S. solar market has improved markedly
• 2009/07/22: NEN: Sun, the resource
  Summary: Concentrating Solar Thermal Power: Clean Energy for the United States, from the World Resources Institute (WRI), chronicles the abundance of the sun's potential and the readiness of solar power plant (SPP) technology to supply utility-scale emissions-free electricity.
• 2009/07/20: PhysOrg: Toyota Plants Giant Solar-Powered Flowers Across US Cities

  The arithmetic of coal carbon is striking home:

• 2009/07/20: BizGreen: Coal on the slide as renewables top 11 per cent of US power mix
  As a raft of states pass new legislation demanding increased renewables capacity, new figures confirm green power now accounts for over a tenth of US energy
• 2009/07/19: FTimes: How to end America's deadly coal addiction by Robert F. Kennedy Jr

  Meanwhile in the clean coal saga:

• 2009/07/26: TreeHugger: Ten Dirty Things About Big King Coal
• 2009/07/20: WSJ:EnvCap: Clean Coal: Competitive Someday, Just Not Today

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2009/07/22: BioEnergyBiz: Panda Ethanol opts for final dissolution
• 2009/07/25: NewScientist: Craig Venter: Programming algae to pump out oil
• 2009/07/22: SciDaily: Beneficial Biofuels: Leading National Experts Reach Consensus

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2009/07/22: BNC: Science Show -- Nuclear power plants -- now safer and cheaper
• 2009/07/20: BFP: Waste storage is dark cloud over nuclear power industry

  Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

• 2009/07/19: SeekingAlpha: Looks Like Oil Production Already Peaked

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2009/07/23: OilDrum: The Smart Meter: Vanguard of the Smart Grid
• 2009/07/21: OregonLive: Wind power throws a curve at the BPA [Bonneville Power Administration]
  Utility wonks have been quipping for years that the future of energy in the Northwest is windy and gassy. When it comes to wind power, the future has already arrived, a reality that has come rushing home in the past two years and created major friction among the Bonneville Power Administration, wind power producers and the agency's utility customers. The BPA, which markets the energy produced at 31 hydroelectric dams and a nuclear plant in the Columbia River Basin, has seen the amount of wind power flowing onto its grid nearly double in each of the past four years. That surge not only taxes the existing transmission system, most of which is operated by the BPA, but relying on such an intermittent resource has also posed reliability issues for the hydro system.
• 2009/07/21: TreeHugger: Good News: 8.3 Million US Homes Now Have Smart Meters

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2009/07/23: EurActiv: Commission sets efficiency standards for fridges, TVs
• 2009/07/22: PhysOrg: A bright idea: Philips lets flat lights out of lab
• 2009/07/22: EarthTimes: EU to ban inefficient fridges and TVs in global-warming battle
• 2009/07/22: SciDaily: Lighting Revolution Forecast By Top Scientist [GaN LEDs]

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

• 2009/07/25: ABC(Au): Canberra first to see electric car network
• 2009/07/24: AutoBG: STUDY: Even with electricity from coal, electric vehicles beat gas in CO2 emissions
• 2009/07/24: BBC: The number of new cars made in the UK fell 30.2% in June from the same month a year earlier, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said
• 2009/07/24: BBC: One-time gain boosts Ford results
  Ford, the only one of the "Big Three" US carmakers not to have gone bankrupt, has reported a quarterly profit of $2.3bn (£1.4bn). However, the profit was largely due to one-off gains related to debt restructuring, with demand for new cars remaining weak.
• 2009/07/23: CBC: Ford posts surprise Q2 profit
• 2009/07/23: HamiltonSpectator: Ford posts profit, snaps losing streak
  Ford Motor posted a surprise profit today of $2.26 billion for the second quarter, ending a streak of four straight quarterly losses.
• 2009/07/23: NewScientist: US vehicle efficiency hardly changed since Model T
• 2009/07/22: PlanetArk: Automakers Worry About More Ethanol In U.S. Gasoline
• 2009/07/21: DerSpiegel: The Next Generation -- Daimler Paves Way Ahead with Electric Smart
  A test drive of a modified Smart shows that the day when the electric car will become commonplace may not be as far off as some critics like to think.
• 2009/07/22: BBC: GM sales fall on production cuts
  Sales at General Motors dropped in the second quarter as the US carmaker slid into bankruptcy. GM sold 1.94 million vehicles in the April to June quarter, including brands it is planning to sell, down 15% on the same period a year earlier.
• 2009/07/21: PhysOrg: Building a Better Battery
• 2009/07/21: TreeHugger: No Wonder Fuel Economy is Stagnant, Cars Ballooned Up Since 1980
• 2009/07/20: NewScientist: Electric cars: Juiced up and ready to go

  Cash-for-Clunkers, aka Scrappage, Plans are being legislated and argued around the world:

• 2009/07/26: AutoBG: Us, too! Mexico introducing cash for clunkers legislation
• 2009/07/25: CalcRisk: 'Cash for Clunkers' Rules Released
• 2009/07/24: WSJ:EnvCap: Cash for Clunkers: Here's What You Can Get
• 2009/07/24: AutoBG: Hyundai: CARS (cash for clunkers) will improve fuel economy by 60 percent
• 2009/07/24: AutoBG: Rules for CARS, the cash for clunkers bill, released
• 2009/07/24: BBC: The US government has unveiled details of its car scrappage scheme, aimed at persuading owners of "gas-guzzling" cars to exchange them for greener ones

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

• 2009/07/21: PlanetArk: Samsung Elec to Invest 5.4 Trln Won for Green R&D
• 2009/07/20: Grist: Silicon Valley VC sees bright future for green tech -- and a need to engage policy makers
• 2009/07/20: BBC: Samsung to invest in green future
  The giant South Korean company Samsung Electronics has said it will invest more than $4bn (£2.4bn) to cut emissions from its plants. The company also said it wants to develop more energy-efficient products. It said it hoped that by the year 2013, the greenhouse gas emissions from its manufacturing facilities will be reduced by 50%.

Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:

• 2009/07/23: Guardian(UK): Greenwash: easyJet's carbon claims written on the wind

  Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:

• 2009/07/23: NatureCF: A new adaptation tool: climate insurance

  Joe Romm posts a daily list of top energy and climate stories:

• 2009/07/24: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for July 24: Ah, the olive groves of balmy England; Recent vets find work retooling America for energy independence
• 2009/07/23: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for July 23rd, 2009: Industry lines up behind bold concentrated solar power project in hopes politicians will follow
• 2009/07/22: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for July 22: Warming Colorado River system faces up to 50% chance of fully depleting all reservoir storage by 2050; Nissan invests $1.6 billion to retool Tennessee factory for electric and hybrid cars
• 2009/07/21: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for July 21st: American Meteorological Society endorses geoengineering research
• 2009/07/20: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for July 20th, 2009: Renewables surge to 11% of US power mix, as coal drops to 46%; Fish "shrinking due to global warming"

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2009/07/26: BCLSB: Chris De Freitas Back Pedals
• 2009/07/26: RealityCheck: Oops, they did it again
• 2009/07/25: DeSmogBlog: Climate Crock of the Week: What's Up With Watts? [flame war edition]
• 2009/07/24: Tamino: Old News
• 2009/07/20: MGS: What cooling trend?
• 2009/07/23: TWTB: Climate denialists George Will, Mark Steyn and school children
• 2009/07/23: CCurrents: Global Cooling? Wish It Was True
• 2009/07/24: GreenGrok: Views on Anthropogenic Climate Change Vary. Why?
• 2009/07/24: ClimateP: The top 10 bogus statements (BS) in the climate debate
• 2009/07/24: Grist: Like splitting hairs with bald people -- Sarah Palin, George Will, and Potemkin debates
• 2009/07/24: MTobis: A Litmus Test for the Naysayers
• 2009/07/24: CCP: Tamino's deconstruction of atrocious paper in J. Geophysical Res., 114, by McLean, Freitas & Carter
• 2009/07/24: CCP: Real Climate: Atrocious paper published in JGR by McClean et al.
• 2009/07/24: MoD: Note to George Will: Using a creationist as your scientific authority is a bad idea
• 2009/07/23: TP:WR: Like A Pig To The Trough, Washington Post's George Will Returns To Climate Denial
• 2009/07/23: JQuiggin: Brisbane Institute credibility down the tubes
• 2009/07/23: ClimateP: Memo to Post: If George Will quotes a lie, it's still a lie
• 2009/07/23: Deltoid: Latest George Will atrocity
• 2009/07/23: Deltoid: Piers Akerman takes denial to the next level
• 2009/07/23: MTobis: If She Weighs the Same as a Duck, She's Made of Wood
• 2009/07/22: MTobis: Think Tanks and Monopsony
• 2009/07/23: DM:Loom: George Will's Crack Fact-Checkers Continue Their Nap
• 2009/07/23: ABC(Au): A biologist and climate change expert says it is becoming increasingly difficult for farmers to adapt to climate change, and being included in an emissions trading scheme will be of little benefit
• 2009/07/22: DeSmogBlog: The 30,000 Global Warming Petition is Easily-Debunked Propaganda
• 2009/07/22: SolveClimate: Top 10 Bogus Statements of the Climate Debate
• 2009/07/22: GreenFyre: Sun, Sun, Sun -- here it comes -- NOT
• 2009/07/21: JQuiggin: Global warming and the moon landings
• 2009/07/21: BCLSB: That's One Confused Denier: Marc Morano Employs Pro-Hindu Young Earth Creationist Talking Points To Refute Global Warming!
• 2009/07/20: ClimateP: Unscientific America, Part 1: From the moon-landing deniers to WattsUpWithThat
• 2009/07/20: BCLSB: Roy Spencer Refuted By Own Website?

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2009/07/26: PeakEnergy: Why people don't act on climate change
• 2009/07/24: CCD: Why we still don't believe in Climate Change
• 2009/07/23: NewScientist: Comment: Why people don't act on climate change
• 2009/07/25: ClimateP: The Hub: Resources for a Clean-Energy Economy
• 2009/07/24: RealClimate: Friday round-up
• 2009/07/21: AFTIC: Lousy feedback analogy
• 2009/07/22: MTobis: Predicting vs Prescribing
• 2009/07/21: MTobis: Literate Climate Model Development
• 2009/07/22: TWTB: Old school players to new school fools
• 2009/07/21: BBC: Waiting for the low carbon revolution
  The low-carbon revolution is not going to happen by itself, says Andrew Pendleton. In this week's Green Room, he calls on governments put the necessary frameworks in place that will allow the private sector to roll out the technologies needed to deliver the ambitious cuts in emissions.
• 2009/07/20: NewScientist: World starts to act on climate change
• 2009/07/20: ERabett: On possibility and necessity
• 2009/07/20: BCLSB: Pielke Sr. Responds...

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

• Wiki: Wireless energy transfer
• Wiki: Space-based solar power
• Alberta Energy
• CARS: Car Allowance Rebate System - Formerly Referred to as Cash for Clunkers
• MrGreenBiz
• DOS: Dirty Oil Sands
• Living without a Fridge
• US Working Group on the Food Crisis
• BC Wildfires
• BC Wildfires
• Reuters - Environment - Global environmental challenges
• Meltfactor

My first novel Water was published in Canada May, 2007. The American release was in October. An Introductionto the novel is available, along with the Unpublished Forewordand the Launch Talk. An overview of my writing is available here.

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

"...the next time you see John Stossel or Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity --- these flat-earthers, these corporate toadies, lying to you, lying to the American public, and telling you that global warming doesn't exist --- you send an email to their advertisers and tell them that you are not going to buy their products anymore." -Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

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