Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
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
Another week of Climate Disruption News
Information overload is pattern recognition
January 31, 2010
- Chuckles, COP15, Copenhagen Accord, Scorecard, BASIC, COP16, Solomon et al., EPI, WGMS, Usama, IPCC Attack
- Bottom Line, Cold Snap, Frank et al., WEF, WSF, China & AGW, Gates, OIC - Oct 2011
- Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
- Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Land Grabs, Food Production
- Hurricanes, GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures, Feedbacks, Aerosols, Ozone, Satellites
- Impacts, Forests, Wacky Weather, Wildfires, Corals, Acidification, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
- Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering
- Journals, Misc. Science, DIY Science, Hansen, Schwartz
- Carbon Trade, Tobin Tax, Security, Law & Activism, Polls
- America, Obama, Congress, Britain, Europe, Australia, India, China, Middle East, Canada
- Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Courts, Betting
- Energy, Fracking, Wind, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Business, Greenwashing
- Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
- Shameless Self Promotion, .sig
- 2010/01/26: Onion: Science Channel Refuses To Dumb Down Science Any Further
Frustrated by continued demands from viewers for more awesome and extreme programming, Science Channel president Clark Bunting told reporters Tuesday that his cable network was "completely incapable" of watering down science any further than it already had. "Look, we've tried, we really have, but it's simply not possible to set the bar any lower," said a visibly exhausted Bunting, adding that he "could not in good conscience" make science any more mindless or insultingly juvenile. - 2010/01/26: SeattlePI: (cartoon - Horsey) State of the Union
Copenhagen post mortems continue:
- 2010/01/29: Google:AFP: Climate: The long and winding road after Copenhagen
- 2010/01/31: EarthTimes: India reiterates opposition to binding carbon targets
- 2010/01/30: TCoE: Infonugget: China: Voluntary only restrictions, please
- 2010/01/30: CCP: Copenhagen: what next?
- 2010/01/29: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen: what next?
- 2010/01/28: Grist: So Now What? Climate groups grapple for a path forward from Copenhagen
- 2010/01/26: TEC: Copenhagen -- Filling in the Appendices
- 2010/01/24: Yahoo:AFP: Saudi sees deadlock in climate talks
Saudi Arabia does not expect any global climate change pact soon because current proposals lack fair burden-sharing and would hit oil exporters unfairly, the country's top climate negotiator said on Sunday. "There was no real agreement in Copenhagen and I don't foresee any agreement in the near term," Mohammed al-Sabban told AFP, referring to December's summit in the Danish capital. - 2010/01/24: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen dampens banks' green commitment
Speculation on the usefulness and fate of the Copenhagen Accord came with the end of the month deadline:
- 2010/01/31: ABC(Au): Canada announces carbon targets
Canada has formally notified the United Nations that it has embraced the Copenhagen Accord and by 2020 will cut its carbon emissions by 17 per cent from 2005 levels. - 2010/01/28: CommonTragedies: Guilty by voluntary association
- 2010/01/28: TheAge: Minimal climate goal set
Australia has declared it will not go beyond a 5 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 without guaranteed action by major emitters including the US, China and India. - 2010/01/28: Hindu: Copenhagen Accord not legally binding: UNFCC
- 2010/01/29: TreeHugger: US's 17% Emissions Reduction Pledge: It's Official! Or At Least, "Formal"
- 2010/01/28: Reuters: Oslo reiterates pledge of at least 30 pct CO2 cut [below 1990 levels by 2020]
- 2010/01/27: Reuters: EU agrees to make lowest climate offer to U.N [20% below 1990 levels by 2020]
- 2010/01/28: Hindu: UN Chief asks to implement key elements of Copenhagen Accord
Underlining the need to move beyond the procedural controversies of Copenhagen Accord, UN Chief Ban Ki-moon has asked the world to implement the key elements of the document. [...] "There are two very important elements which we have to implement," He said. The first, the head of the UN, noted is to have the financial flow of fast-start fund of USD 10 billion for the next three years. [...] The second element is for states to announce their mitigation targets. - 2010/01/26: Reuters: Japan sticks to 25 percent carbon cut target
- 2010/01/27: Reuters: Australia keeps 5 to 25 pct CO2 cut range for accord
- 2010/01/26: ChinaDaily: China reaffirms to fulfill emission mitigation plans
- 2010/01/25: Times(Za): Copenhagen climate accord faces $30bn aid test
Rich nations are pledging almost $30 billion in aid from 2010-12 to help the poor combat climate change in an early test of last month's "Copenhagen Accord" that is vague about conditions and who gets cash. - 2010/01/25: BBerg: China, India, Brazil Commit to Meet Copenhagen Accord Deadline
A handy scorecard for Copenhagen Accord pledges:
- 2010/01/: US CAN: Who's On Board With The Copenhagen Accord?
The BASIC block meeting last weekend gave rise to statements and comments:
- 2010/01/26: IPSNews: 'Copenhagen Accord Not Legal, Kyoto Protocol Is'
While the BASIC bloc countries - Brazil, South Africa, India and China - will submit their plans for voluntary mitigation actions by the Jan. 31 deadline stipulated by the Copenhagen Accord, they have taken care to emphasise that the agreement, reached at the end of the December climate change summit in the Danish capital, has no legal basis. - 2010/01/25: EurActiv: Emerging economies up climate pressure on rich nations
Four nations led by China pledged on Sunday to meet an end-month deadline to submit action plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions and challenged rich countries to come up with funding to help fight global warming. Environment ministers and envoys from Brazil, South Africa, India and China, the so-called BASIC countries, met in New Delhi in a show of unity by countries whose greenhouse gas emissions are among the fastest rising in the world. - 2010/01/24: Yahoo:AFP: Emerging nations pledge climate change unity in India
Environment ministers from Brazil, South Africa, India and China said on Sunday that talks in New Delhi had further cemented their alliance following the Copenhagen climate change summit. The four emerging economies -- a key bloc within troubled negotiations on how to tackle global warming -- lobbied successfully at the Copenhagen meeting in December against binding emissions caps.
[...]
The four ministers meeting in Delhi also issued a joint statement calling for rapid distribution of the ten billion dollars that wealthy countries pledged for tackling climate change in the developing world during 2010. - 2010/01/24: EarthTimes: BASIC countries want climate negotiations by March
- 2010/01/25: IndianExp: BASIC countries won't let Copenhagen push Kyoto away
- 2010/01/24: BBC: Donors urged to pay climate cash
Environment ministers from Brazil, India, China and South Africa during talks in Delhi Brazil, China, India and South Africa have urged wealthy nations to hand over $10bn (£6bn) pledged to poor nations in 2010 to fight climate change. The group - known as BASIC - said the money must be available at once "as proof of their commitment" to address the global challenge. The plea was issued after a meeting of the four nations in Delhi. - 2010/01/25: SolveClimate: BASIC Bloc Latest Countries to Brush Off Copenhagen Accord
- 2010/01/26: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Copenhagen Accord on Track
The BASIC Countries (Brazil, South Africa [Afrique du Sud], India and China) reiterated their commitment to a global climate agreement at their meeting in Delhi on Sunday January 24th. The Ministers issued a joint statement supporting the Copenhagen Accord and their intention to submit their mitigation actions to the UNFCCC by this Sunday January 31, 2010. - 2010/01/29: Hindu: Restart climate change negotiations, India urges Denmark
Restart climate change negotiations, India urges Denmark Two-track process must be activated in the run-up to COP-16. Centrality of UNFCCC must be preserved India promises continued support for ambitious, equitable outcome in Mexico - 2010/01/29: EarthTimes: Mexican president [Felipe Calderon] wants Cancun parley [COP16] to reach climate deal
A somewhat surprising paper on stratospheric water vapour caused a stir:
- 2010/01/28: Science: (ab$) Contributions of Stratospheric Water Vapor to Decadal Changes in the Rate of Global Warming by Susan Solomon et al.
- 2010/01/29: RealClimate: The wisdom of [Susan] Solomon
- 2010/01/29: Guardian(UK): Water vapour caused one-third of global warming in 1990s, study reveals
- 2010/01/29: KSJT: WS Journal, NYTimes, more major media: Global warming not only slowed, here's one reason. A drier stratosphere
- 2010/01/29: Wunderground: Stratospheric water vapor decline credited with slowing global warming
- 2010/01/28: CCP: S. Solomon et al., Science, Contributions of stratospheric water vapor to decadal changes in the rate of global warming
- 2010/01/28: CBC: Slowdown in warming may be due to water vapour: study
- 2010/01/28: NatureN: Water vapour could be behind warming slowdown -- Mysterious changes in the stratosphere may have offset greenhouse effect
- 2010/01/28: SciNews: Water vapor slowed recent global warming trend -- Temperatures linked to unexplained decline in stratospheric moisture
- 2010/01/28: NOAANews: Stratospheric Water Vapor is a Global Warming Wild Card
- 2010/01/28: PhysOrg: Stratospheric Water Vapor is a Global Warming Wild Card
A 10 percent drop in water vapor ten miles above Earth's surface has had a big impact on global warming, say researchers in a study published online January 28 in the journal Science. The findings might help explain why global surface temperatures have not risen as fast in the last ten years as they did in the 1980s and 1990s. Observations from satellites and balloons show that stratospheric water vapor has had its ups and downs lately, increasing in the 1980s and 1990s, and then dropping after 2000. The authors show that these changes occurred precisely in a narrow altitude region of the stratosphere where they would have the biggest effects on climate. - EPI: 2010 Environmental Performance Index
- 2010/01/27: MongaBay: Iceland leads world on environmental issues, but China, US, and Canada plummet
- 2010/01/27: Grist: U.S. slips in Environmental Performance Index
- 2010/01/26: NYT: Iceland Leads Environmental [Performance] Index as U.S. Falls
A new ranking of the world's nations by environmental performance puts some of the globe's largest economies far down the list, with the United States sinking to 61st and China to 121st. In the previous version of the Environmental Performance Index, compiled every two years by Yale and Columbia University researchers, the United States ranked 39th, and China 105th. The top performer this year is Iceland, which gets virtually all of its power from renewable sources -- hydropower and geothermal energy. It was joined in the top tier by a cluster of European countries known for their green efforts, including Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and Finland. - 2010/01/25: WGMS: Preliminary Glacier Mass Balance Data 2007/2008
- 2010/01/25: Guardian(UK): World's glaciers continue to melt at historic rates [WGMS]
Oh joy! Usama chimes in. I can just see the right wing deniers twisting this:
- 2010/01/29: Guardian(UK): Bin Laden, eco warrior
- 2010/01/29: Guardian(UK): Osama bin Laden lends unwelcome support in fight against climate change
Drudge, Fox News and other right-wing media seize on al-Qaida leader's taped comments reportedly sent to al-Jazeera - 2010/01/30: ABC(Au): Industrial nations to blame for global warming: bin Laden
- 2010/01/29: Grist: Bin Laden blames industrial nations for global warming
- 2010/01/29: DeSmogBlog: Will 'Climate Jihad' Bring Al Queda To Our Rescue?
- 2010/01/29: TWTB: The media's infantile coverage of climate -- Bin Laden addition
- 2010/01/29: al Jazeera: Bin Laden deplores climate change
- 2010/01/29: NatureCF: Bin Laden says 'climate change is real'
- 2010/01/29: CBC: Bin Laden slams U.S over global warming
The campaign to discredit Pachauri, the IPCC and climate scientists in general continues:
- 2010/01/31: PhysOrg: UN climate panel based claims on student essay: report
- 2010/01/30: ClimateShifts: More on the IPCC process
- 2010/01/30: ClimateShifts: More hot air from Andrew Bolt over the IPCC
- 2010/01/31: OneIndia: IPCC's claim over Amazonian rainforest 'unsubstantiated'
- 2010/01/30: TPL: More Questionable IPCC Sources
- 2010/01/30: IoD: Delingpole invents another "--gate" for his pseudoskeptical fans
- 2010/01/31: KlimaZwiebel: Over the top? [the mounting criticisms of the IPCC]
- 2010/01/30: MoD: Amazon(non)gate
- 2010/01/29: CJR: MIA on the IPCC -- American press largely ignores latest controversies
- 2010/01/30: BBC: Harrabin's Notes: IPCC under scrutiny
In his regular column, BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin considers whether another mistake by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has come to light. After the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) admitted it had made a mistake in its Himalaya glacier forecast in its Fourth Assessment Report, climate "sceptics" are busy searching the rest of the panel's report for more mistakes. It appears that this week, they have found one. In parts of the blogosphere it has been dubbed "Amazongate". There was a dire warning in chapter 13 of the report of IPCC Working Group II: - 2010/01/29: Guardian(UK): Indian glaciologist [VK Raina] criticised by IPCC chief joins calls for resignation
- 2010/01/29: NatureTGB: IPCC under fire round up
- 2010/01/28: SciAm: Negating "Climategate": Copenhagen Talks and Climate Science Survive Stolen E-Mail Controversy
- 2010/01/29: TreeHugger: It's Time for the IPCC to Open Up & the Blogosphere Can Help
- 2010/01/29: TEC: IPCC Chairman Pachauri: "Not Going to Tailor the Truth"
- 2010/01/29: Yahoo:AP: UN climate chief [Yvo de Boer] plays down scandals
- 2010/01/25: HindustanTimes: Panel linked warming, disasters without proof
- 2010/01/27: KSJT: IPCC Under fire in India, Europe press, not all by climate change skeptics. US reporters largely quiet.
- 2010/01/27: NewScientist: Let the sunlight in on climate change
- 2010/01/27: SciProg: Yet Another Climate Science Mess -- IPCC Error Ignites New Wave of Attacks on Research
- 2010/01/27: MoD: The Himalayas circa 2035
- 2010/01/26: CCurrents: Glaciergate Was A Blunder, But It's The Sceptics Who Dissemble
- 2010/01/27: DerSpiegel: Confidence Melting Away -- Can Climate Forecasts Still Be Trusted?
First, it was a series of e-mails that led many to begin doubting the veracity of climate scientists. Then, the United Nations climate body itself had to reverse dire predictions about the melting of glaciers in the Himalayan Mountains. Other claims have raised doubts as well. - 2010/01/25: DerSpiegel: Opinion -- Save the Panel on Climate Change! [Richard Tol, Roger Pielke & Hans von Storch]
- 2010/01/26: HotTopic: UK Sunday Times' sloppy journalism attacks IPCC
- 2010/01/26: IoD: Daily Mail invents a climate conspiracy
- 2010/01/26: Guardian(UK): IPCC denies newspaper claim that it overstated costs of natural disasters
UN body rebutts Sunday Times allegation that it exaggerated link between costs of natural disasters and climate change - 2010/01/26: Guardian(UK): 'Disastergate' is an excuse for IPCC critics to dig up old academic rows
Attempts to dig up an old academic row in order to create the impression of an IPCC under siege are predictable opportunism - 2010/01/26: EurActiv: Top climate scientist downplays Himalayan blunder
The vice-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defended the scientific body's review processes in Brussels yesterday (25 January), after it was forced to apologise last week for its mistake about the impact of global warming on Himalayan glaciers. - 2010/01/26: KSJT: German Lang. Media: IPCC's Voodoo Science
- 2010/01/26: ClimateP: Pseudo-science begets pseudo-insurance -- and another phony attack on the IPCC is debunked
Climate change is the greatest risk facing the insurance industry - 2010/01/25: ClimateP: UN scientist [Dr. Murari Lal] refutes Daily Mail claim he said Himalayan glacier error was politically motivated
- 2010/01/26: TreeHugger: Notes From a Quasi-Scandal: IPCC Chair Says He Won't Step Down + Glacier Error Not Politically Motivated
- 2010/01/26: Telegraph(UK): UN climate science report on climate change and natural disasters was 'balanced'
- 2010/01/26: NatureCF: Pachauri under Pressure: Quotes of the Day Special
- 2010/01/26: IPSNews: Indian Glaciologist [Hasnain] Fires Back at Climate Sceptics
"It is a fact that global warming is happening. If the Arctic Sea ice is melting, how can the Himalayan glaciers not be melting?" glaciologist Syed Iqbal Hasnain asked indignantly. Amid the brouhaha over last week's retraction by a United Nations body of its 2007 report that the Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035, global warming sceptics quickly seized on the error, noting the rash of media reports on the issue, which they believed bolstered their position. But Hasnain, who found himself at the centre of the Himalayan meltdown controversy, said it is "ridiculous" to assume that the glaciers are not melting. - 2010/01/25: BBC: Harrabin's Notes: A bleak forecast?
In his regular column, BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin looks at how the world's leading authority on climate science has been rocked by allegations of serious faults in its key report. - 2010/01/25: Stoat: Himalayan glaciers to disappear by... when?
- 2010/01/25: BBC: I will not go, says climate chief
The chairman of the UN's climate science body said he would not resign in the wake of a row about a mistake on glaciers that appeared in a key report. Rajendra Pachauri told BBC News: "I am not going to stand down, I am going to stand up." The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) admitted that it had made a mistake in asserting that Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035. Critics say the mistake has damaged the scientific credibility of the IPCC. "I was re-elected by acclamation, essentially - I imagine - because everyone was satisfied with my performance on the fourth assessment report," Dr Pachauri said. "I am now charged with producing the fifth assessment report, which I will do faithfully and to the best of my abilities." - 2010/01/25: NatureTGB: Bring me the head of Rajendra Pachauri?
- 2010/01/25: ScienceInsider: Three Scientists Criticize IPCC, Pachauri's Leadership
- 2010/01/25: KSJT: Washington Post: The head of IPCC, after taking back that Himalaya glacier flub, hopes it won't be held against his team...
- 2010/01/24: WaPo: U.N. climate panel chief [Rajendra Pachauri]: Error shouldn't derail global warming efforts in India
- 2010/01/25: TerraDaily: IPCC Doubts: Only the Tip of the Iceberg
- 2010/01/24: DeSmogBlog: Nature takes on stolen emails
- 2010/01/25: KlimaZwiebel: Save the IPCC
- 2010/01/24: ClimateSight: Mistakes
And on the Bottom Line:
- 2010/01/27: TEC: The cost of carbon mitigation with renewables
Cold snap commentary:
- 2010/01/29: AlterNet: Could All the Freezing Weather Lately Have Anything to Do With Climate Change?
- 2010/01/27: TerraDaily: Cold snap kills 20 in China's Xinjiang: state media
- 2010/01/26: TerraDaily: Cold weather claims more lives in Europe
- 2010/01/25: TerraDaily: Cold snap kills 40 in eastern Europe
- 2010/01/26: EarthTimes: Ten more Romanians die in icy spell
- 2010/01/26: EarthTimes: Polish winter fatalities exceed 200
- 2010/01/26: EarthTimes: North-west China struggles under strongest snowfalls in 60 years
Frank et al. have provided another angle on estimating climate sensitivity:
- 2010/01/28: Nature: (ab$) Ensemble reconstruction constraints on the global carbon cycle sensitivity to climate by David C. Frank et al.
- 2010/01/27: Reuters: Global warming to trigger more warming [Frank et al.]
- 2010/01/28: BBC: Runaway CO2 rise 'could be lower' [David Frank et al.]
The most alarming forecasts of natural systems amplifying the human-induced greenhouse effect may be too high, according to a new report. The study in Nature confirms that as the planet warms, oceans and forests will absorb proportionally less CO2. It says this will increase the effects of man-made warming - but much less than recent research has suggested. - 2010/01/29: BBC: Leaders in Davos vow climate deal -- Politicians at the World Economic Forum in Davos have vowed to reach a "substantial" deal on climate change
- 2010/01/28: Guardian(UK): Davos: Funding switch threatens aid to developing world, campaigner warns
Rich countries are raiding their aid budgets to bankroll a new global fund to help poor countries adapt to climate change, one of the world's leading development campaign groups warned today. - 2010/01/28: PeakEnergy: Highlights from Global Energy Outlook debate at WEF [Davos]
- 2010/01/27: BizGreen: Davos business leaders urge global support for Copenhagen Accord
And on the other side of the world, the World Social Forum was largely ignored by the MSM:
- 2010/01/30: TreeHugger: World Social Forum - Day 1: "Another World is Possible"
On a hot and muggy afternoon, thousands gathered to attend a march today for the opening of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. This marks the tenth anniversary of the event which brings global leaders, intellectuals, and enthusiastic spectators from around the world to meet and discuss ways to combat "imperialism, neoliberalism and any form of world domination by capital." Hoping to unify the movements of the far left, the event aims to end the "ideological crisis of the left" and fulfill its motto that "another world is possible." This year, special focus is given to issues concerning the environment that "threaten mankind with extinction." - 2010/01/26: TreeHugger: World Social Forum - Day 2: "Rich Nations, Clean Your Mess!"
- 2010/01/27: TreeHugger: World Social Forum - Day 3: "Earth Can't Sustain Capitalism"
- 2010/01/28: TreeHugger: World Social Forum - Day 4: "We've Reached the Age of Limits"
- 2010/01/29: TreeHugger: World Social Forum - Day 5: "The Fight Will Go On"
For a while this week, it looked like China was taking a natural variation tack:
- 2010/01/26: ChinaDaily: Top envoy not 'seeking excuse' -- Beijing will continue its commitment to climate fight
China's determination to combat global warming will not be shaken, though its top climate change envoy said on Monday he was keeping an open mind on whether global warming was man-made or the result of natural cycles. Lu Xuedu, deputy director of the National Climate Center, reaffirmed China's commitment when commenting on envoy Xie Zhenhua's remarks that there was no doubt that warming was taking place, but more and better scientific research was needed to establish the causes. "The two things (commitment and climate debate) are separate and I agree with what Xie has expressed," Lu, also a senior climate change negotiator, told China Daily on Monday. "We should keep a scientific attitude and lend ears to the scientists who hold various views." When Xie made his remarks in New Delhi Monday, at the end of a two-day meeting of ministers from the BASIC countries - China, India, Brazil and South Africa - Western media reported that his open-minded attitude "surprised" the summit. But Lu said there is no need to play it up. "Xie just revealed his personal attitude on climate science, and of course, we should pay attention to opposite views during the climatic debate." According to Lu, at least 10 percent of climate scientists in the world didn't believe that global warming is man-made. "Their views have pushed forward the progress of climatic science." - 2010/01/25: ScienceInsider: China Questions Warming Cause While Backing IPCC
- 2010/01/25: BBC: China has 'open mind' on climate
China's lead climate change negotiator has said he was keeping an "open attitude" as to whether global warming was man-made or due to natural cycles. Xie Zhenhua said climate warming was a "solid fact" and that mainstream scientific opinion held it was due to emissions of gases such as CO2. He was speaking in Delhi at a meeting of envoys from Brazil, China, India and South Africa. - 2010/01/24: Guardian(UK): Climate change: Chinese adviser calls for open mind on causes
China's most senior negotiator on climate change says more research needed to establish whether warming is man-made - 2010/01/26: ClimateP: Bill Gates disses energy efficiency, renewables, and near-term climate action while embracing the magical thinking of Bjorn Lomborg (and George Bush)
- 2010/01/26: ScienceInsider: Bill Gates Funding Geoengineering Research
- 2010/01/27: TCoE: Overcoming Gates' cosmic fail
- 2010/01/25: NatureTGB: Health at risk as climate aid spending increases, warns Bill Gates
Meetings coming up:
- 2010/01/27: CBC: Arctic marine health focus of circumpolar meeting
Scientists want to bring together people from Canada and other circumpolar nations in Iqaluit next year to talk about the health of the Arctic marine environment and the North's fisheries. The annual Ocean Innovation Conference, to be held in the Nunavut capital in October 2011, is being organized amid concerns about the effects of climate change in the North. - 2010/01/28: Time: Melting Arctic Ice: What Satellite Images Don't See
- 2010/01/28: CCP: NASA (T. Markus et al.): Arctic 'Melt Season' Is Growing Longer, New Research Demonstrates
- 2010/01/27: PhysOrg: Arctic 'Melt Season' Is Growing Longer, New Research Demonstrates
That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:
- 2010/01/30: CCP: A. A. Bloom et al., Science, 327(5963), Large-scale controls of methanogenesis inferred from methane and gravity spaceborne data
- 2010/01/26: CCurrents: Arctic Methane Emissions Jump, Hint Of Warming
- 2010/01/26: NPR: Methane Causes Vicious Cycle In Global Warming
As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:
- 2010/01/26: Yahoo:AFP: Greenpeace calls for moratorium on industrial activity in Arctic
While in Antarctica:
- 2010/01/25: TCoE: Alarming Antarctica alerts abound
The food crisis is ongoing:
- 2010/01/27: FAO:GIEWS: Poor crop outlook in several Southern African countries
- 2010/01/30: TreeHugger: 'Great Recession' Plus High Corn Prices Are Changing The American Diet
- 2010/01/30: CCurrents: India's Agriculture Minister Fiddles, While The Country Faces The Heat On Food Prices
- 2010/01/30: CCurrents: Another Intrusion Called Cargill Changes Food Market
- 2010/01/28: SeedDaily: Protests in eastern India over soaring food prices
- 2010/01/08: AsiaOne: Investors add spice to rising food prices
Global food prices are rising again with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) food price index hitting 168 points in November, the fourth consecutive month of increase and the highest since September 2008. While this is still about 21 per cent lower than the most recent peak in June 2008 when the index hit 213.5 points, FAO does note that the index has never exceeded 120 points prior to the price spike between 2007/2008. Several reasons have been highlighted for the rising prices. However, FAO has possibly for the first time highlighted the 'growing appetite by speculators and index funds for a wider commodity portfolio investments on the back of enormous global excess liquidity', as exacerbating the situation. - 2010/01/27: OPB: Hunger Problem Returns To Oregon With The Bad Economy
- 2010/01/27: CBC: High sugar prices will soon hit bakeries
World sugar prices have been on the rise for nine months and now are more than double what they were last April. Poor growing conditions in Brazil and India, two of the world's largest producers of sugar cane, have led to a worldwide shortage. The world market price of sugar was 12 cents a pound in April but now is 28 cents a pound. - 2010/01/26: AllAfrica: IRIN: Zimbabwe: Hope and Crops Scorched Again
- 2010/01/25: AllAfrica: ZimStandard: Zimbabwe: Rusape Villagers Face Starvation
The conflict between biofuel and food persists:
- 2010/01/26: OilChange: A Quarter of US Grain Goes to Biofuels
So, are these land grabs Colonialism V2.0?
- 2010/01/30: BBC: Kazakh protest over Chinese lease
Several hundred people have gathered in the Kazakh city of Almaty to protest against what they call "Chinese expansionism". - 2010/01/29: NewScientist: Genetically modified seeds 'are everywhere'
- 2010/01/29: Eureka: ARS genetic analysis helps spot sugarcane rusts
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have analyzed rust fungi from more than 160 sugarcane samples from 25 countries to provide a valuable resource for plant breeders and pathologists who are searching for genetic resistance to the deadly orange and brown rusts. - 2010/01/28: MongaBay: Will it be possible to feed nine billion people sustainably?
- 2010/01/28: ABC(Au): Research centre to boost global food efforts
A new agricultural research facility at Adelaide's Waite campus is expected to produce discoveries which will help secure global food needs. - 2010/01/27: EnergyBulletin: A farming model to sustain the world
- 2010/01/27: NatureTGB: Agricultural science key to food security
- 2010/01/27: Grist: The future of farming and food at the Eco Farm Conference
- 2010/01/27: AlterNet: Is Eating Sugar Really That Bad for Us?
- 2010/01/26: SciDaily: Bigger Corn Plants Bully Smaller Neighbors in No-Till Fields
- 2010/01/26: OilDrum: The Food System and Resilience
- 2010/01/26: AlterNet: The Overuse of Antibiotics in Livestock Feed Is Killing Us
Tropical Storm Olga plagued the north coast of Australia, while Nisha blew around the mid Pacific and numbered storms formed in the Indian Ocean:
- 2010/01/29: Eureka: 2 NASA satellites see TD11S going extra-tropical
- 2010/01/29: Eureka: Tropical Storm Nisha being battered by wind shear
- 2010/01/29: Eureka: Tropical Storm Olga: Three times a lady
Just like 1980s song by the Commodores, "Three Times a Lady," Olga has become a tropical storm for the third time in northern Australia. NASA satellite imagery showed that Olga's center moved back into the warm waters of the Gulf of Carpentaria and it has regained strength. - 2010/01/28: Eureka: NASA's TRMM sees Depression 10P strengthen into Tropical Storm Nisha
- 2010/01/28: Eureka: Tropical Depression 11S forms in the southern Indian Ocean
- 2010/01/28: Eureka: Olga's track is a puzzle forecasters are putting together
- 2010/01/27: Eureka: NASA satellite sees Tropical Depression 10P Strengthening in south Pacific
- 2010/01/27: Eureka: Olga restrengthens into a tropical storm
While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:
- 2010/01/28: PhysOrg: A NASA Satellite Look at the Cape Verde Islands and the Region's Hurricane Relevance
- 2010/01/27: NYT:CW: Quiet Hurricane Seasons Run Counter to Computer Predictions
- 2010/01/27: Eureka: A forensic analysis of Hurricane Katrina's impact: methods and findings
As for GHGs:
- 2010/01/30: TCoE: Infonugget: China: Voluntary only restrictions, please
- 2010/01/28: Stoat: Airbourne fraction, again
- 2010/01/27: NOAANews: Emissions of Potent Greenhouse Gas Increase Despite Reduction Efforts -- Byproduct of refrigerant chemicals remains in the atmosphere 300 years
- 2010/01/27: EarthTimes: EU confirms CO2 emissions-cut targets for UN deadline [20% by 2020 from 1990 levels]
- 2010/01/26: Eureka: Study documents reaction rates for three chemicals with high global warming potential
India inadvertently demonstrated the uselessness of intensity reductions:
- 2010/01/31: Yahoo:AFP: India reaffirms opposition to binding carbon cuts
India reaffirmed to the United Nations that it would reject any attempt to impose legally binding climate change goals, but pledged to reduce emissions intensity. - 2010/01/27: Oregonian: Oregon wildfires released far less greenhouse gas than previously estimated, researchers say
- 2010/01/27: OSU: Effects of forest fire on carbon, climate overestimated
As for the temperature record:
- 2010/01/30: OpenLeft: Global warming truth (hottest decade ever) vs. big lies (it's stopped!)
- 2010/01/28: SkeptiSci: Guest post in Guardian on microsite influences [surface stations]
- 2010/01/29: TreeHugger: Poorly-Placed US Weather Stations Produce Cool Bias in Temperature Record - Not Warm as Claimed
- 2010/01/28: ClimateP: Watts not to love: New study finds the poor weather stations tend to have a slight COOL bias, not a warm one
- 2010/01/27: MongaBay: The warmest decade on record
- 2010/01/27: DWWSJ: Last 10 years Warmest Decade on Record-NASA GISS
- 2010/01/25: GreenGrok: The Heat Goes On [in spite of denier controversies]
- 2010/01/25: Wunderground: Poorly sited U.S. temperature instruments not responsible for artificial warming
- 2010/01/25: Deltoid: So that's why surfacestations.org hasn't published
- 2010/01/25: S&R: New analysis shows US temperature record is reliable, rejects 2009 claims by Anthony Watts
Yes we have feedbacks:
- 2010/01/26: KSJT: Science News: Cooler in corn country lately? Maybe it's the corn farmers' doing
Aerosols are making their presence felt:
- 2010/01/25: TCoE: Another climate catch-22
As for ozone:
- 2010/01/28: GreenGrok: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
- 2010/01/26: SciDaily: Ozone Hole Healing Could Cause Further Climate Warming
- 2010/01/26: ULeeds: Ozone hole healing could cause further climate warming
Meanwhile in near earth orbit:
- 2010/01/30: PhysOrg: Next generation weather/environmental satellite marks major milestone
[...] The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) will be one of five instruments to fly on the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP) spacecraft. VIIRS is regarded as a key component in NPP's suite of instruments because it will provide highly detailed imagery of clouds, vegetation, snow cover, dust storms, sea surface temperature and other environmental phenomena. - 2010/01/28: USDA: NASS releases new geospatial data products -- New Satellite Images Show Ag Land Cover for 2009 Crop Year
More GW impacts are being seen:
- 2010/01/29: BBC: Quakes 'decade's worst disasters'
Almost 60% of the people killed by natural disasters in the past decade lost their lives in earthquakes, a UN-backed report has revealed. Storms were responsible for 22% of lives lost, while extreme temperatures caused 11% of deaths from 2000 to 2009. - 2010/01/29: JEB: Adapt or die
- 2010/01/28: Eureka: With climate change, birds are taking off for migration sooner; not reaching destinations earlier
- 2010/01/26: TreeHugger: Extreme Waves are Getting Bigger and Causing More Damage
- 2010/01/25: TP:WR: Global Boiling: Preparing For Frankenstorms
- 2010/01/25: PhysOrg: Maximum height of extreme waves up dramatically in Pacific Northwest
- 2010/01/24: SkeptiSci: Peer reviewed impacts of global warming
And then there are the world's forests:
- 2010/01/24: JapanTimes: Saving the planet through its trees
Now is the time to act on the fact that much of our future is linked to the conservation of forests - 2010/01/30: PhysOrg: Farmers mainly to blame for deforestation in the Amazon
- 2010/01/29: Yahoo:AFP: Indonesian military behind illegal logging: study
- 2010/01/26: DerSpiegel: Well Intended, Poorly Executed -- Can the Rainforests Be Saved Without a Plan?
The West wants to direct billions toward protecting forest lands, but the lack of any standardized rules and enforcement methods could lead to disaster. Experts warn that the wrong people might benefit from the money and argue indiginous peoples, not bureaucrats, should watch over the rainforests. - 2010/01/25: Independent(UK): Campaign to save tropical forests failed by food giants -- Project to create sustainable palm oil project undermined by Western firms
- 2010/01/22: ScienceInPublic: Will the $3.5 billion forest fund work? Citing Collapse of Copenhagen Climate Process, Study Projects Increased Conflict and Speculation in Tropical Forests
Yes we have no wacky weather, except:
- 2010/01/29: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Global Warming Brings Wacky Winter Weather
- 2010/01/28: Reuters: Extreme US winter signals climate change- [NWF]report
- 2010/01/28: WaPo: Harsh winter a sign of disruptive climate change, report says
This winter's extreme weather -- with heavy snowfall in some places and unusually low temperatures -- is in fact a sign of how climate change disrupts long-standing patterns, according to a new report by the National Wildlife Federation. - 2010/01/29: ABC(Au): Riverina faces more deadly blazes: report
Greenpeace says there is a deadly risk to Riverina communities with predictions of more catastrophic fires as the globe warms. - 2010/01/29: PlanetArk: Australia "Faces Worse Bushfires Without CO2 Deal"
- 2010/01/28: ABC(Au): Heatwaves on the rise as record lows decline
New research from the Bureau of Meteorology shows that in the past 50 years, Australia's had far more record high temperatures than low temperatures. - 2010/01/27: Google:AFP: Climate change to triple Australia fire danger: report
- 2010/01/28: Reuters: Australia "faces worse bushfires without CO2 deal"
Australia faces a possible 300 percent increase in extreme bushfires by 2050 unless world leaders can agree to dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions, a new report said on Thursday. The report, commissioned by Australia's firefighters and environmental group Greenpeace, said the failure of U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen to agree on a treaty to tackle climate change had left Australia facing future catastrophic bushfire seasons. The "Future Risk: Battling Australia's Bushfires" report comes only days before the Copenhagen Accord Jan 31. deadline for nations to announce emissions reduction targets. - 2010/01/28: ABC(Au): Scientists close to predicting bushfire behaviour
- 2010/01/27: ABC(Au): Scientists discuss climate change, bushfire link
Climate experts are meeting in Canberra to discuss the impact of climate change on health and natural disasters. - 2010/01/27: PhysOrg: The secret life of smoke in fostering rebirth and renewal of burned landscape
Corals are dying:
- 2010/01/30: PhysOrg: Coral in Florida Keys suffers lethal hit from cold -- Bitter cold this month may have wiped out many of the shallow water corals in the Keys
- 2010/01/27: ClimateShifts: Cold water coral bleaching in the Florida Keys
Acidification is changing the oceans:
- 2010/01/26: GreenGrok: Ocean Basin Ocean Acidification
Glaciers are melting:
- 2010/01/31: LA Times: Mt. Rainier's melting glaciers create hazard
Exposed gravel and sediment are increasingly rolling downhill into rivers, increasing the threat of flooding in the national park complex and Puget Sound communities. - 2010/01/28: Asia Times: Indian glaciologist [Hasnain] fires back at skeptics
"It is a fact that global warming is happening. If the Arctic Sea ice is melting, how can the Himalayan glaciers not be melting?" glaciologist Syed Iqbal Hasnain asked indignantly. Amid the brouhaha over last week's retraction by a United Nations body of its 2007 report that the Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035, global warming skeptics quickly seized on the error, noting the rash of media reports on the issue, which they believe bolstered their position. But Hasnain, who found himself at the center of the Himalayan meltdown controversy, said it is "ridiculous" to assume that the glaciers are not melting. - 2010/01/27: PhysOrg: Glaciers discovered in 'cursed' mountains of Albania
A team of geographers from the University of Manchester have discovered a group of glaciers in one of Europe's most inhospitable places. - 2010/01/26: CCurrents: Climate Change, The Himalayas And India
- 2010/01/26: CCurrents: World's Glaciers Continue To Melt At Historic Rates [WGMS]
Sea levels are rising:
- 2010/01/31: HamptonRoads: Sea-level rise slowly becomes issue in Outer Banks
- 2010/01/31: TNP: Much of Collier, Lee counties put at risk by rising sea
- 2010/01/28: ChinaDaily: China sea levels reach record high
The sea level in China late last year hit a record high for the past three decades, threatening the safety of thousands of people in the coastal areas, the national ocean agency said yesterday. The average rise in sea level for the past three decades occurred at a rate of 2.6 mm a year, much higher than the average rate of 1.7 mm annually across the world, a report on the sea-level rise in China for 2009 released by the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) showed. - 2010/01/26: Eureka: The sea level has been rising and falling over the last 2,500 years
As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:
- 2010/01/31: BBC: Death toll rises in Peru floods
The number of people killed in heavy flooding over the past several days in southern Peru has risen to 20, local officials say. They say that at least five more people are missing and almost 40,000 others have been affected. - 2010/01/30: BBC: Who said it never rains in Southern California?
California, a part of the world usually associated with sunny skies and sandy beaches, is suffering from such heavy rains that a state of emergency has been declared in several areas including Los Angeles, as David Willis reports. - 2010/01/29: Guardian(UK): Cost of UK flood protection doubles to £1bn a year
- 2010/01/29: PlanetArk: UN Says Darfur Refugees Desperately Need Water
- 2010/01/29: BBC: Floods prompt Bolivia emergency
Bolivian President Evo Morales has declared a state of emergency in areas of the country, as heavy rains and floods affect some 24,000 families. The worst-hit areas are La Paz, Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, Chuquisaca and Beni. The flooding is expected to get worse as more rain is forecast. Rivers have broken their banks and overflowed. There have been mudslides. - 2010/01/26: CSM: Gray water's grass roots
- 2010/01/27: BBC: Charting unknown Himalayan waters
In the wake of a recent controversy over the retreat of Himalayan glaciers in which the UN's climate science body admitted that it was an error to assert that they would disappear by 2035, water availability has emerged as a key issue with even more uncertainty. Receding Himalayan glaciers grabbed headlines because they feed major rivers in South Asia and some parts of Southeast Asia, which is home to a sizeable proportion of the planet's population. If the glaciers significantly retreated or even disappeared, it would be an issue of life and death for many millions of people who depend on these rivers. - 2010/01/26: OU: Environmental Change Impacts Oklahoma Rivers
Elsewhere on the mitigation front:
- 2010/01/26: SciDaily: Ecologists Outline Necessary Actions for Mitigating and Adapting to a Changing Climate
- 2010/01/26: Eureka: Managing ecosystems in a changing climate -- Ecologists outline necessary actions for mitigating and adapting to a changing climate
Consider transportation & GHG production:
- 2010/01/29: Time: Can High-Speed Rail Succeed in America?
- 2010/01/29: AutoBG: Should we be building electric cars or streetcars?
- 2010/01/14: Railfax: Traffic Trends of North American Rail Freight Traffic 2005 - 2009
- 2010/01/27: BBC: 'Worst year for airlines' in 2009
The year 2009 saw the biggest decline in air passenger traffic in the post-war era, according to the International Air Transport Association (Iata). "In terms of demand, 2009 goes into the history books as the worst year the industry has ever seen," said the group's boss Giovanni Bisignani. Passenger traffic dropped by 3.5% from a year earlier, while freight traffic fell 10.1% as the downturn hit demand. - 2010/01/25: CalcRisk: ATA Truck Tonnage Index Increases [2.1%] in December
- 2010/01/25: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Transit-oriented development requires more than transit and development
While in the endless quest for zero energy, sustainable buildings and practical codes:
- 2010/01/27: CSM: The new generation of green builders
- 2010/01/25: TCoE: Your house sucks energy
- 2010/01/26: PhysOrg: zeroHouse Speaks To The Conservationist And The Romanticist
As if designing an energy-neutral, self-sustaining home for four was not enough for Scott Specht and Louise Harpman, of the NYC/Austin-based architectural firm Specht Harpman, the zeroHouse -- has even more appealing features... zeroHouse is prefabricated - 2010/01/25: PhysOrg: Smart Windows: Energy Efficiency with a View
Buildings consume 40 percent of our nation's energy. NREL is testing and researching electrochromic windows that could knock that back significantly. - 2010/01/25: TDC: US loses opportunity with home energy efficiency -- EPA makes gains with Energy Star program, but US housing stock remains woefully 'sick.'
As for carbon sequestration:
- 2010/01/30: SF Gate: Exelon says it will join Illinois' FutureGen Alliance
- 2010/01/27: NatureTGB: Dutch MPs approve controversial carbon capture store
Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:
- 2010/01/31: TreeHugger: Experts Advocate International Geo-enineering Research and Governance
- 2010/01/27: FuturePundit: Call For Climate Engineering Research
- 2010/01/29: DM:80B: With $4.5M of Pocket Change, Bill Gates Funds Geoengineering Research
- 2010/01/29: TEC: Geoengineering research: curb your enthusiasm
- 2010/01/28: Slate: The Earth TrialsCan we test our geoengineering schemes before we have to use them?
- 2010/01/28: Telegraph(UK): Simulated volcanic eruptions to block sun
A geoengineering project to block the sun by simulating volcanic eruptions would be 100 times cheaper than cutting greenhouse gas emissions, climate change scientists said. - 2010/01/28: NatureCF: Testing geoengineering: a catch 22
- 2010/01/28: MongaBay: White roofs could cool cities
- 2010/01/28: LFPress: Time to start researching global 'sun block': scientist [David Keith]
- 2010/01/28: SciDaily: Research on Global 'Sun Block' Needed Now, Experts Argue
Internationally coordinated research and field-testing on 'geoengineering' the planet's atmosphere to limit risk of climate change should begin soon along with building international governance of the technology, say scientists from the University of Calgary and the United States. - 2010/01/27: MongaBay: Scientists call for research on geoengineering scheme to block sunlight
- 2010/01/27: PhysOrg: Climate change experts argue for international geoengineering effort
- 2010/01/27: Eureka: Research on global 'sun block' needed now -- Climate change experts argue for international geoengineering effort
Meanwhile in the journals:
- 2010/01/29: AGWObserver: Papers on natural variability
- 2010/01/28: NERC:NORA: Responses of the reflectance indices PRI and NDVI to experimental warming and drought in European shrublands along a north-south climatic gradient by Pille Mänd et al.
- 2010/01/29: TC: Forecasting temperate alpine glacier survival from accumulation zone observations by M. S. Pelto
- 2009/12/16: GRL: (ab$) Stratospheric influence on the tropospheric circulation revealed by idealized ensemble forecasts by E. P. Gerber et al.
- 2010/01/29: CP: High Arabian Sea productivity conditions during MIS 13 - odd monsoon event or intensified overturning circulation at the end of the Mid-Pleistocene transition? by M. Ziegler et al.
- 2010/01/26: CP: Reconstructing past atmospheric circulation changes using oxygen isotopes in lake sediments from Sweden by C. E. Jonsson et al.
- 2010/01/29: CPD: Patterns of millennial variability over the last 500 ka by M. Siddall et al.
- 2010/01/29: GRL: (ab$) Persistent englacial drainage features in the Greenland Ice Sheet by G. A. Catania & T. A. Neumann
- 2010/01/28: Science: (ab$) Contributions of Stratospheric Water Vapor to Decadal Changes in the Rate of Global Warming by Susan Solomon et al.
- 2010/01/26: ACP: The effect of Arctic sea-ice extent on the absorbed (net) solar flux at the surface, based on ISCCP-D2 cloud data for 1983-2007 by C. Matsoukas et al.
- 2010/01/26: ACP: Weather response to a large wind turbine array by D. B. Barrie & D. B. Kirk-Davidoff
- 2010/01/25: ACP: Planetary wave activity in the polar lower stratosphere by S. P. Alexander & M. G. Shepherd
- 2010/01/25: ACP: Effects of boundary layer particle formation on cloud droplet number and changes in cloud albedo from 1850 to 2000 by J. Merikanto et al.
- 2010/01/28: ACPD: The basic mechanism behind the hurricane-free warm tropical ocean by Z. Yuan et al.
- 2010/01/25: ACPD: Aerosol-induced changes of convective cloud anvils produce strong climate warming by I. Koren et al.
- 2010/01/28: Nature: (ab$) Ensemble reconstruction constraints on the global carbon cycle sensitivity to climate by David C. Frank et al.
- 2009/12/29: GRL: (ab$) Recent changes in Arctic sea ice melt onset, freezeup, and melt season length by Thorsten Markus et al.
- 2010/01/25: TCD: On the potential of very high-resolution repeat DEMs [Digital Elevation Models] in glacial and periglacial environments by J. Abermann et al.
- 2010/01/27: TCD: Applicability of time-lapse refraction seismic tomography for the detection of ground ice degradation by C. Hilbich
- 2010/01/26: PNAS: Mixed-power scaling of whole-plant respiration from seedlings to giant trees by Shigeta Mori et al.
- 2010/01/26: PNAS: Sustaining multiple ecosystem functions in grassland communities requires higher biodiversity by Erika S. Zavaleta et al.
- 2010/01/26: PNAS: Estimating least-developed countries' vulnerability to climate-related extreme events over the next 50 years by Anthony G. Patt et al.
- 2010/01/26: PNAS: Potential on-shore and off-shore reservoirs for CO2 sequestration in Central Atlantic magmatic province basalts by David S. Goldberg et al.
- 2010/01/26: PNAS: Changes in Arctic vegetation amplify high-latitude warming through the greenhouse effect by Abigail L. Swann et al.
Before we get into politics, there was some science done:
- 2010/01/30: ERabett: Tom's trick and experimental design
- 2010/01/30: SciDaily: Upper Atmosphere Influences Weather Near Earth's Surface [Gerber et al.]
- 2010/01/29: SciDaily: Solutions to Climate Change: Using Trees and Grasses to Capture Carbon and Produce Energy
- 2010/01/27: Eureka: Green energy management -- How plants cope with variable light conditions
- 2010/01/25: PhysOrg: Researchers Determine Winter Moisture Linked to Rapid Glacial Climate Shifts
If past records regarding periods of warming and cooling climate are an accurate indication of weather patterns, then the southwestern United States is likely headed into a period of severe long-term drought say researchers at the University of New Mexico in new research published in the February issue of Nature Geoscience. Variable winter moisture, or the lack thereof in the southwestern United States, is linked to rapid glacial climate shifts say Yemane Asmerom and Victor Polyak, researchers in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department at the University of New Mexico. - 2010/01/24: PhysOrg: Scientists create model of monster 'Frankenstorm'
More DIY science:
- 2010/01/28: CC&G: RClimate Script: NINO 3.4 SST Anomaly Trends
- 2010/01/27: CC&G: RClimate Script: Polar Amplification -- 2000 to 2009
- 2010/01/26: OnlineDegreePrograms: 100 Amazing Lectures to Follow the Future of Energy
Hansen, again:
- 2010/01/29: SolveClimate: If It's That Warm, How Come It's So Darned Cold? [Hansen excerpt]
Schwartz et al.:
- 2010/01/27: AGWObserver: Comments on Schwartz et al. (2010), version 2
- 2010/01/25: JEB: More Schwartz
And on the carbon trading front:
- 2010/01/29: NYT:GreenInc: Carbon Market Could Grow 33% This Year
- 2010/01/28: TEC: Regional carbon markets have a tough go of it in a global economy
- 2010/01/27: PlanetArk: EU Carbon Rises On Higher Energy Prices
- 2010/01/25: Ecologist: Carbon traders quit emissions market amid drop in demand
- 2010/01/25: Guardian(UK): Don't let the carbon market die
- 2010/01/25: BBerg: Carbon Markets Are Under 'Dark Cloud,' Merrill Says
Carbon markets are under a "big, dark cloud" of uncertainty about future regulation and falling natural-gas prices, analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a research report. European Union carbon dioxide emission volumes from fossil fuels probably dropped 9.5 percent last year, reducing demand for EU permits, Merrill analysts including Sabine Schels said today. The EU market probably has 166 million too many allowances in the five years through 2012, they said. Prices are holding up because allowances can be saved and used after 2012, the report said, without giving a specific forecast. - 2010/01/26: NakedCapitalism: UK Claims Global Support Increasing for Transaction Tax [aka Tobin Tax]
As for GW & security:
- 2010/01/30: TheHill: Pentagon review to address climate change for the first time
The Pentagon is addressing climate change for the first time in its sweeping review of military strategy. The Pentagon is set to release the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) on Monday, along with the 2011 budget request. In the review, Pentagon officials conclude that climate change will act as an "accelerant of instability and conflict," ultimately placing a burden on civilian institutions and militaries around the world.The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world as nations scramble to deal with climate change:
- 2010/01/30: TheHill: Pentagon review to address climate change for the first time
- 2010/01/29: BBC: Russian police raid Baikal group
Russian police have raided the offices of an environmental group after it criticised a plan to reopen a paper mill next to Lake Baikal in Siberia. Several computers were confiscated by police, who said they were checking the alleged use of unlicensed software. - 2010/01/26: TreeHugger: UK Government Classifies Eco Activists as 'Extremists' Alongside Al Qaeda
- 2010/01/26: Guardian(UK): Ministry of Justice lists eco-activists alongside terrorists
Campaigners lumped in with al-Qaida and far right - Government criticised for tarring peaceful protesters - 2010/01/27: Yale360: Concern About Global Warming Continues to Drop in the U.S., Poll Shows
- 2010/01/27: CNN: Americans cooling on climate change, survey says
- 2010/01/27: DeSmogBlog: New Poll Results Reveal The Impact of Decades-Long Climate Confusion Campaign
- 2010/01/27: Eureka: American opinion cools on global warming
- 01/27: GMU: American Opinion Cools on Global Warming
Public concern about global warming has dropped sharply since the fall of 2008, according to the results of a national survey released today by researchers at Yale and George Mason universities.
The survey found:- Only 50 percent of Americans now say they are "somewhat" or "very worried" about global warming, a 13-point decrease.
- The percentage of Americans who think global warming is happening has declined 14 points, to 57 percent.
- The percentage of Americans who think global warming is caused mostly by human activities dropped 10 points, to 47 percent.
- 2010/01/27: TreeHugger: Americans' Attitudes Cool Towards Global Warming - Less Than Half Now Think Humans Responsible
- 2010/01/26: TheHill: Global warming last, economy first among public's top priorities - Pew poll
- 2010/01/25: Reuters: Governments, business seen too slow to save climate - poll
About two thirds of people believe their government and business leaders are not taking the rights steps or at the right pace to prevent global climate change, according to a joint Reuters/Ipsos international poll. The survey of about 24,000 people in 23 countries, conducted in the lead up to, during and following the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December last year, found 65 percent of respondents were not happy with the progress and actions to date to conserve the environment. - 2010/01/28: TP:WR: Clean Energy Forum: Standing Up For The Future
- 2010/01/28: TCJ: Kentucky greenhouse-emission growth is worst in nation, panel told
Kentucky's greenhouse gas emissions are increasing at twice the rate of the rest of the nation, according to a draft inventory prepared for state environment officials. The Center for Climate Strategies found greenhouse gases -- mainly carbon dioxide -- rose 33 percent from 1990 to 2005, compared to 16 percent for the nation. Left unchecked, emissions are projected to increase to 62 percent above 1990 levels by 2030. - 2010/01/28: KSJT: Bus. Week: On polling, science, and cap-and-trade prospects
- 2010/01/28: TreeHugger: How Republicans in Congress Really Feel About Science (Video)
- 2010/01/21: FP: On Proliferation, Climate, and Oil: Solving for Pattern [Lovins]
The problems of proliferation, climate change, and oil dependence share both a nuclear non-solution that confounds U.S. policy goals and a non-nuclear solution that achieves them. - 2010/01/27: StLToday: Climate change: Lead, follow or get out of the way
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward with plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. At the same time, Congress -- a leading source of hot air -- is debating a resolution that would strip the EPA of its authority to act. - 2010/01/27: Belfer: Unintended Consequences of Government Policies: The Depletion of America's Wetlands
- 2010/01/27: WVGazette: [West Virginia Governor Joe] Manchin promises review of coal critics' complaints
- 2010/01/26: TP:WR: The Spending Freeze And Clean Energy Reform
- 2010/01/26: TP:WR: Countering Sarah Palin's Oil-Soaked Spin
- 2010/01/25: ClimateP: Bipartisan group of 1,198 state legislators urges Congress, Obama to pass climate and clean energy jobs bill
- 2010/01/25: Grist: Opinion vs. Science -- The six Americas of climate change
- 2010/01/25: Reuters: California aims for permit auction in cap-and-trade -- Top climate regulator aims for 100 percent auction goal
- 2010/01/25: SF Gate: The clean, green desert
It's an environmental catch-22. California needs to meet its aggressive goals for renewable-energy production, but solar and wind farms require lots of space. The farms' land gobbling can conflict with one of Californians' most cherished values: the preservation of pristine wilderness and animal habitat. As the state gets serious about increasing its renewable-energy portfolio, there's going to be tension. - 2010/01/25: ClimateP: Palin urges America to stay addicted to oil
- 2010/01/25: LA Times:GS: Global Warming: Ballot initiative would curb California efforts
So what happens if California delays the implementation of its landmark global warming law, Assembly Bill 32? The state's nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office has done the math on Measure 94, a proposed ballot measure, and assessed the fallout. Its verdict? The measure would cripple but not completely dismantle the state's efforts to slash its greenhouse gas emissions; it could lead to bigger short-term profits for some businesses, but dampen investments in clean technology and green jobs. - 2010/01/25: TEC: Colorado May Boost Renewable Energy Standard to 30% by 2020
- 2010/01/25: MR: Should Climate Activists Support Limits on Immigration?
In a little noted ruling, the SCOTUS put the kibosh on a federally directed grid:
- 2010/01/27: ClimateP: Transmitting the Clean Energy Future -- Supreme Court dashes hopes for federal transmission siting
In a regulation liable to have major repercussions, the Securities Exchange Commission has ruled all companies listed on the stock exchange must publish a climate risk statistics:
- 2010/01/28: NYT:CW: SEC Issues Climate-Risk Guidance Despite Tough Political Environment
- 2010/01/29: SolveClimate: SEC Decision Requiring Disclosure of Climate Risks Could Have Broad Impact -- Polluting Industries in North America, like Oil Sands, Under New Scrutiny
- 2010/01/27: TP:WR: In 3-2 Vote, SEC Requires Companies To Disclose Climate Risks To Investors
- 2010/01/27: ClimateP: In 3-2 Vote, SEC requires companies to disclose climate risks to investors
- 2010/01/27: BBerg: SEC Sets Corporate Climate-Change Disclosure Standard
The Obama chatter is nonstop:
- 2010/01/31: PhysOrg: Obama pushes nuclear energy to boost climate bill
- 2010/01/29: Rabble:MCB: Weekly Mulch: Climate change on Obama's back burner
- 2010/01/29: ABC(US): Obama Spells out Differences With GOP on Energy
- 2010/01/28: NYT:CW: Obama Holds Firm on Climate Bill, but Most Senators Shrug
- 2010/01/28: Guardian(UK): Barack Obama pledges $8bn to upgrade aged US rail network
- 2010/01/28: Guardian(UK): Barack Obama commits to climate change bill
President Obama pledges to help pass 'comprehensive' climate change law, but also backed nuclear power and drilling - 2010/01/28: Guardian(UK): Obama sees the positives as US gives formal notice on greenhouse gases
State department climate change envoy Todd Stern writes to UN to formally promise to reduce emissions by 17% [from 2005 levels] by 2020 - 2010/01/27: ScienceInsider: What Obama Didn't Say While Making a "Climate Bill" Part of the Jobs Pitch
- 2010/01/27: ClimateP: Obama: "To create more of these clean energy jobs ... means passing a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America."
The State of the Union [SOTU] speech came in for a lot of comment:
- 2010/01/31: CanWest: The folly of forgetting global warming
- 2010/01/29: GreenGrok: Keeping the Presidents' State of the Union Words
- 2010/01/28: KlimaZwiebel: Beyond Climate Science: State of the Union
- 2010/01/28: NatureTGB: Science scarce in State of the Union
- 2010/01/27: Grist: In State of the Union, Obama panders to conservatives on 'clean energy'
- 2010/01/28: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Obama: Clean Energy Key to U.S. Competitiveness
- 2010/01/27: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Obama Gives Full-Throated Call for Clean Energy and Climate Legislation that Puts America Back to Work
- 2010/01/28: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Obama and the Warming Political Climate
- 2010/01/28: CSW: Obama State of the Union evasive and inadequate on climate change and climate science
- 2010/01/28: DM:CCM: Obama on Climate and Energy in the SOTU
- 2010/01/28: Yahoo:AFP: Obama sticks to climate before divided Congress
- 2010/01/28: EarthTimes:Obama: Energy, climate measures in US interest
[...] "I know that there are those who disagree with the overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change. But even if you doubt the evidence, providing incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future," Obama said... - 2010/01/28: TEC: The SOTU and Energy
- 2010/01/28: Reuters: Obama eager to help advance climate bill
- 2010/01/27: CSW: State of the Union a key opportunity for Obama to raise profile of climate change impacts
- 2010/01/25: NRDC:SwitchBoard: The Case for Tackling the Climate Crisis
The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:
- 2010/01/29: TEC: Chu names blue ribbon panel on spent nuclear fuel
- 2010/01/28: SolveClimate: Salazar Tells Congress of Hundreds of Thousands of Domestic Jobs in Solar Energy -- Inhofe is skeptical and Senate is gridlocked, but state governments are charging forward
- 2010/01/29: TreeHugger: Steven Chu Announces $1.4 Billion Loan to Nissan for LEAF Electric Car
- 2010/01/29: TEC: US Announces $20.5 million for Community Renewable Energy Projects
- 2010/01/29: WaPo: U.S. pledges 17 percent emissions reduction [from 2005 levels] by 2020
- 2010/01/28: TP: Demoralizing His Supporters, Obama Calls Nukes, Coal, And Oil Drilling 'Clean Energy Jobs'
- 2010/01/28: AutoBG: DC 2010: DOE Secretary Chu announces closing of Nissan's $1.4 billion loan for Leaf electric vehicle
- 2010/01/27: SF Gate: High-speed rail in California getting $2 billion
- 2010/01/26: NRDC:SwitchBoard: USDA sets Biomass Crop Assistance Program [BCAP] on horrid path
- 2010/01/25: Reuters: U.S. assessing climate change financing - envoy
The United States is weighing how to help finance the global fight against climate change without having one country shoulder a disproportionate share of the burden, a top U.S. envoy said on Monday. "What are our priorities? Clearly we are worried that not only one country acts independently and therefore takes political or economic costs exclusively upon itself while others do not," said Jonathan Pershing, the U.S. deputy special climate envoy. - 2010/01/29: Guardian(UK): US pledges to cut federal government emissions by 28% [from 2005 levels] by 2020
- 2010/01/29: CNN: Obama pledges government will cut [its own] greenhouse emissions [28% by 2020 presumably from 2005 levels]
- 2010/01/29: EarthTimes: US government will cut greenhouse gases 28 per cent by 2020
Obama's embraces nuclear power?
- 2010/01/29: BBerg: Obama Said to Seek $54 Billion in Nuclear-Power Loans
- 2010/01/29: BizWeek: Obama Said to Seek $54 Billion in Nuclear-Power Loans
- 2010/01/29: TexasVox: Nuclear Renaissance Dealt Blow by South Texas Project Troubles
A critical court ruling today rang the first chime in what could be the death knell of the so-called "nuclear renaissance," starting with the failed expansion of the South Texas Project (STP). This afternoon's ruling by 408th District Court Judge Larry Noll that CPS Energy can safely withdraw from the proposed STP expansion project without losing all its investment offers the utility and the city of San Antonio the cue they've been waiting for to exit the national nuclear stage. Combined with the NRG Energy CEO's announcement during a shareholder and press conference call this morning that NRG would "wind down the project as quickly and economically as possible" if CPS withdraws or STP does not receive federal loan guarantees, this news marks a major blow to those who claim nuclear power is a viable alternative to fossil fuel energy. - 2010/01/29: DeSmogBlog: It's Not Those Saturday Radio Talks That Make Obama Radioactive
As for what is going on in Congress:
- 2010/01/31: ClimateP: Ben Nelson's strange stance on cap and trade
- 2010/01/29: HillHeat: Senate Watch: Bayh, Bingaman, Cardin, Dorgan, Feinstein, Graham, Kerry, Landrieu, Lieberman, Lugar, McCain, Murkowski, Nelson, Snowe, Udall, Voinovich, Webb
- 2010/01/28: TheHill: Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) joins newly-formed coal caucus worried about climate bill
A caucus of coal state lawmakers has picked up a valuable member: the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) said Thursday he had joined the newly formed caucus of coal-state lawmakers who have largely opposed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) signature climate change bill. - 2010/01/28: ClimateP: Lindsey Graham: "The idea of not pricing carbon, in my view, means you're not serious about energy independence. The odd thing is you'll never have energy independence until you clean up the air, and you'll never clean up the air until you price carbon."
- 2010/01/27: TP:WR: Ben Nelson's Logically Incoherent Stance On Cap And Trade
- 2010/01/28: TP: Kerry tells climate advocates to get as angry as Tea Partiers
- 2010/01/27: AutoBG: Proposals would give U.S. Postal Service billions to electrify fleet
- 2010/01/25: Grist: Congressional coal ash defenders ignore damages back home
- 2010/01/25: NYT:CW: Exxon-Xto Deal Forces Congress to Reconsider Natural Gas
- 2010/01/25: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Seven Murkowski Mistakes About the Clean Air Act and Global Warming
Kerry-Boxer, Waxman-Markey or whatever -- the future climate bill -- defines a battleline:
- 2010/01/29: PlanetArk: Senators Try To Raise Climate Bill From Ashes
- 2010/01/28: Reuters: U.S. embraces Copenhagen pact, Senators rework bill
- 2010/01/28: Grist: Cap-and-trade death knell, revisited and revised
- 2010/01/27: Reuters: U.S. climate bill possible this year: Sen. Graham
- 2010/01/27: ScienceInsider: Is a Full-Economy Cap-and-Trade Program Dead in the Water?
- 2010/01/27: ClimateP: Is there going to be a bipartisan climate, energy security, clean air and clean energy jobs bill this year?
- 2010/01/27: Grist: The death knell for comprehensive cap-and-trade
- 2010/01/27: NRDC:SwitchBoard: The Business Case for Comprehensive Climate and Energy Legislation
- 2010/01/26: NYT: Advocates of Climate Bill Scale Down Their Goals -- Climate-Bill Advocates Back Off Cap-and-Trade Effort
- 2010/01/27: NYT: Got Ideas About a Climate Bill? Kerry, Graham and Lieberman Want to Hear From You
- 2010/01/24: DeSmogBlog: The NY Time's Case for a Climate Bill
What are the lobbyists pushing?
- 2010/01/29: PlanetArk: U.S. Cap And Trade Must Take Back Seat: Executives
Business executives and policy officials said a U.S. cap and trade scheme must give way to a clean energy law, after U.S. President Barack Obama favored "green jobs" in his State of the Union Address. - 2010/01/28: Grist: Enviros take action to counter the might of the coal ash lobby
- 2010/01/28: TreeHugger: Foreign Oil Lobbyists Mobilize to Protect Newfound Ability to Influence US Elections
- 2010/01/27: NYT:GW: U.S. Chamber Ended 2009 With Spending Spree [Q4 lobbying with US$71.1 million]
- 2010/01/27: TEC: Chamber of Commerce Spent $123 Million on Lobbying in 2009 [Graph]
While in the UK:
- 2010/01/31: HotTopic: Miliband: denialism profoundly dangerous
- 2010/01/31: Guardian(UK): Ed Miliband declares war on climate change sceptics
- 2010/01/31: Guardian(UK): Green energy firms fear new feed-in tariffs will be too low
Campaigners fear government's cashback offer for microgeneration will not be enough to stimulate renewables industry - 2010/01/30: Guardian(UK): We need ideas to stop a third runway
- 2010/01/29: Guardian(UK): Cost of UK flood protection doubles to £1bn a year
- 2010/01/28: BBC: Climate data sound - science head [John Beddington]
The government's chief scientist says his confidence in climate science remains unshaken despite allegations about the withholding of research data. Professor John Beddington told the BBC the fundamental science behind man-made global warming was "correct". He said was concerned that the debate on climate change was becoming artificially polarised. But he urged scientists to be more open about the uncertainty of predicting the rate of climate change. - 2010/01/28: Guardian(UK): Greenpeace plans to build fortress on Heathrow runway site
Environmental group says the plan will create a legal headache for any government pushing ahead with airport's expansion - 2010/01/27: Times(UK): Science chief John Beddington calls for honesty on climate change
- 2010/01/27: Guardian(UK): UK's top scientist [John Beddington] urges care in presenting results of climate change
Be frank on degree of uncertainty, but as such it is no excuse for inaction - 2010/01/25: HotTopic: Welcome words from a politician [Hilary Benn on limits]
- 2010/01/25: Guardian(UK): Climate fund 'recycled' from existing aid budget, UK government admits
CRU broke the British FOI law in ignoring the skeptics' data requests:
- 2010/01/28: NatureTGB: Climate row university 'broke law on information disclosures'
- 2010/01/28: ScienceInsider: Climatic Research Unit Broke British Information Law
- 2010/01/28: TreeHugger: 'Climategate' University of East Anglia "Breached Data Laws"
- 2010/01/28: IJI: "UEA broke FoI law" -- but the real question is, what will the Heartland Institute say?
- 2010/01/28: BBC: Climate row unit 'broke data law'
A university unit involved in a row over stolen e-mails on climate research breached rules by withholding data, the Information Commissioner's Office says. Officials said messages hacked in November showed that requests under the Freedom of Information Act were "not dealt with as they should have been". But too much time has passed for action against the University of East Anglia. - 2010/01/28: BBC:OS: Climate data: Why ministers refused to change the law
- 2010/01/28: Times(UK): Scientists in stolen e-mail scandal hid climate data
- 2010/01/27: Guardian(UK): University in hacked climate change emails row broke FOI rules
Too late to take action, says deputy commissioner - University of East Anglia 'will act as appropriate' - 2010/01/28: EurActiv: EU agrees to make lowest climate offer to UN
- 2010/01/28: EurActiv: MEPs want farm policy to ease climate change
Members of the European Parliamen's agriculture committee agreed yesterday (27 January) that EU farm policy can help slow climate change, and that the post-2013 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) should be used to make the transition to sustainable farming by creating more synergy between EU agriculture and environmental policies. - 2010/01/28: EurActiv: EU funding for energy technologies still elusive
EU countries want to open the debate about increasing funds for low-carbon technologies in the next EU budget for 2013-19, but they are not willing to make any concrete commitments at this stage, shows a draft paper discussed by national experts on Wednesday (26 January). - 2010/01/28: EUO: EU climate offer unchanged
- 2010/01/28: EarthTimes: EU to allow Latvia to subsidize construction of new power plant
[...] The 400 megawatt plant will be built between 2015-2025 and will be powered either by liquefied natural gas or from solid fuel such as coal, with a 10 per cent quota of eco-friendly biomass. - 2010/01/27: Yahoo:AFP: EU maintains pledge for deeper emissions cuts, if others follow
- 2010/01/26: Reuters: German CSU wants delays in solar incentive [FIT] cuts
- 2010/01/26: EurActiv: EU body gives thumbs up to 'green' road charging
The overall benefit of charging trucks for the pollution they cause outweighs the limited negative price impact on consumers, shows a new report from the European Commission's in-house Joint Research Centre (JRC). - 2010/01/25: EurActiv: EU nations confident on renewable energy goals
- 2010/01/25: NBF: Germany keeping all nuclear plants online and Other Nuclear News
Meanwhile in Australia:
- 2010/01/31: ABC(Au): Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the Opposition's new climate change policy will be funded by a "mega tax" on Australians
- 2010/01/31: ABC(Au): Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says his climate change policy will be paid for with savings from the federal budget, rejecting claims it will include a "mega tax" on Australians
- 2010/01/31: BNC: Alternative to the CPRS (cap-and-trade)
- 2010/01/28: TheAge: Minimal climate goal set
Australia has declared it will not go beyond a 5 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 without guaranteed action by major emitters including the US, China and India. - 2010/01/29: ABC(Au): No new tax for climate change policy, says Abbott
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has ruled out funding the Coalition's new climate change policy with any new tax increases. - 2010/01/29: ABC(Au): Riverina faces more deadly blazes: report
Greenpeace says there is a deadly risk to Riverina communities with predictions of more catastrophic fires as the globe warms. - 2010/01/28: ABC(Au): The Federal Government has announced it will stick to its existing targets for cutting greenhouse gases
- 2010/01/27: JQuiggin: The circuit breaker [Greens' ctax]
- 2010/01/27: SMH: Turnbull to cross the floor on climate
- 2010/01/27: Australian: Wong keeps greenhouse emissions reduction target at 5pc
- 2010/01/27: Star(My): Australia opposition eyeing voluntary CO2 cuts plan
- 2010/01/27: BBerg: Australia's Govt to Reintroduce Carbon Plan Next Week
- 2010/01/27: ABC(Au): Hills may help winegrowers fight climate change
New research suggests central Victoria's wine industry will do better than other Victorian regions under climate change. - 2010/01/26: ABC(Au): Garnaut urges early election
Parliament has not even begun sitting this year but already there is talk of an early election to break the Senate deadlock on the Government's emissions trading scheme (ETS). - 2010/01/27: ABC(Au): Greens renew push for energy target changes
The Greens are making a fresh push for changes to the Federal Government's renewable energy target scheme, saying it is blocking investment in large-scale projects. - 2010/01/26: ABC(Au): Bushfire good Samaritan fears expense
- 2010/01/26: SMH: Scrap ETS and go for a carbon tax: Garnaut
Kevin Rudd's former climate change adviser, Ross Garnaut, has urged the Government to put behind it the ''fiasco'' of Copenhagen and to forge ahead with a scheme to reduce greenhouse gases, even if that means turning its emissions trading scheme into a de facto carbon tax. In a speech yesterday, Professor Garnaut said a binding international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases would never be reached at such open forums as the United Nations conference in Copenhagen last month. - 2010/01/25: BNC: Nuclear safeguards and Australian uranium export policy
And in the Indian subcontinent:
- 2010/01/31: EarthTimes: India reiterates opposition to binding carbon targets
- 2010/01/30: CCurrents: India's Agriculture Minister Fiddles, While The Country Faces The Heat On Food Prices
While in China:
- 2010/01/30: NYT: China Leading Global Race to Make Clean Energy
- 2010/01/28: PlanetArk: Is Clean Tech China's Moon Shot? The global race to develop clean technology
- 2010/01/28: EarthTimes: China launches National Energy Commission
The Chinese government has decided to establish a National Energy Commission headed by Premier Wen Jiabao, national media reported Thursday. The new commission, consisting of members of 21 existing bodies, will aim to "strengthen strategic energy policy and coordinate overall planning," the State Council said in a statement. China, already the world's second-largest energy consumer, faced soaring domestic requirements and a growing reliance on energy imports, the Global Times reported. - 2010/01/25: PlanetArk: Climate Talks Bigger Threat To Saudi Than Oil Rivals
- 2010/01/24: Yahoo:AFP: Climate talks threaten Saudi with anti-oil bias: official
In Canada, minority neocon PM Harper, continues his do-nothing policy:
- 2010/01/28: CTV: Harper faces off on climate change at global forum
- 2010/01/29: G&M: Taking the measure of Canada's environmental performance
Canada announced its Copenhagen Accord goals this week, the same as the American goals:
- 2010/01/31: CanWest: Tories back off climate target -- New plan cuts emissions by 17%, not 20%
- 2010/01/30: G&M: Wait for the details on Canada's Copenhagen submission
Today, in Calgary, Jim Prentice announced that Canada has "inscribed" its emission reduction target with the UN, meeting the deadline agreed to in Copenhagen. As expected, the target matches that of the United States, which was submitted on Thursday -- a reduction of 17 per cent from 1995 levels. However, according to a report in the Washington Post, the U.S. submission was provisional, "in conformity with anticipated U.S. energy and climate legislation, recognizing that the final target will be reported to the Secretariat in light of enacted legislation." Having been burned once -- when the Clinton-Gore administration decided not to submit for Senate ratification the agreement it had negotiated in Kyoto -- it will be interesting to see whether the Canadian submission contains a similar proviso. - 2010/01/30: CBC: Canada files emissions target with UN
Canada has aligned itself with U.S. policy as it gave the United Nations its target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions under the Copenhagen Accord. Environment Minister Jim Prentice on Saturday said that by 2020 Canada would reduce emissions 17 per cent from 2005 levels, the same target the U.S. announced to the UN on Thursday. - 2010/01/30: CanWest: PM edging away from climate issue -- Instead of waiting for U.S., Canada might strike out on its own
Tomorrow is the notional deadline for countries to fill in the blanks on the Copenhagen agreement on climate change by stating their targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. To be clear, each country can establish its own mitigation targets, and does not have to say how they will be achieved. Canada is expected to maintain its previously announced target of a 20-per-cent reduction below 2006 levels by 2020. - 2010/01/29: CanWest: The federal environment policy is made in Canada, not Washington by Minister of the Environment, Jim Prentice
- 2010/01/28: G&M: Tories hedge on emissions targets
The Harper government is hedging on its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020, saying the actual Canadian goal will depend the level of ambition adopted by the United States. In an interview Wednesday, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said the government's overwhelming priority is harmonizing its regulatory approach with that of the U.S. -- including the targets for emissions reduction. - 2010/01/29: CBC: Environmental panel's demands could kill Mackenzie project: Imperial
An environmental review panel's recommendation to impose noise limits on any Mackenzie Valley pipeline facilities built inside a bird sanctuary could scuttle the $16.2-billion project, its backers have told the National Energy Board. - 2010/01/27: G&M: Bean-counting trumps carbon counting -- Belt-tightening puts the squeeze on companies' eco efforts
A survey of Canadian corporate travel managers released last week found that the business community may not be quite as behind the green revolution as some of their PR campaigns would imply. For those who worry about air travel's significant contribution to pollution and climate change, this is not great news. The survey, conducted by the Conference Board of Canada and the Association of Corporate Travel Executives, found the number of companies in Canada who reported voluntary carbon offset programs was slashed almost in half from 2008 to 2009. The number who said they were "looking into it," an indicator of the role of carbon offsets in the image a company is interested in conveying to the public, fell from almost half to just a third. - 2010/01/27: CCurrents: Canada's Long Road To Mining Reform
Rape. Murder. Corruption. Environmental contamination. Impunity. These are just some of the charges and incidents that have plagued Canadian mining operations abroad for years. Now one Canadian lawmaker has taken on the Herculean challenge of legislating mining reform in a country that has traditionally acted like a parent in denial. - 2010/01/27: CBC: Oil and gas drilling to rise: forecast -- Industry group predicts 12 per cent increase
An industry forecast predicted Wednesday that drilling for oil and natural gas will rebound strongly across Canada this year. The Calgary-based Petroleum Services Association of Canada said 9,000 new wells are expected to be drilled across Canada in 2010 -- a 12 per cent increase over 2009. - 2010/01/26: CBC: Federal delay threatens environment groups
Sixteen environmental groups across Atlantic Canada say they are facing financial trouble if the federal government does not move more quickly on a funding commitment. Groups that are part of the Atlantic Coastal Action Program, a federal program created 16 years ago, normally receive news of their funding in December, but this year they have been told they must wait until March. "We don't know what's going on. Many groups are in limbo. We're not sure: do we close our doors, do we scale back, how long can we go?" Tracy Brown, executive director of P.E.I.'s Bedeque Bay Environmental Management Association, told CBC News on Monday. The 16 associations belonging to ACAP offer programs like water testing, climate change information and best farming practices. They all rely on federal funding, which this year has been delayed. In an email to CBC, Environment Canada said it's doing a review of how it funds ecosystem projects across Canada. - 2010/01/27: CBC: Proposed Baffin Bay polar bear quota rejected
Funny that we see so many of these turn-arounds:
- 2010/01/31: CanWest: Prof [Andrew Weaver] clarifies position on climate panel [IPCC]
- 2010/01/27: CanWest: UN global warming panel tainted: expert -- 'Glaciergate' latest evidence international body has lost its way
A senior Canadian climate scientist says the United Nations' panel on global warming has become tainted by political advocacy, that its chairman should resign, and that its approach to science should be overhauled. Andrew Weaver, a climatologist at the University of Victoria, says the leadership of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has allowed it to advocate for action on global warming, rather than serve simply as a neutral science advisory body. - 2010/01/28: CanWest: Half of B.C. must be protected as hedge against climate change, report says
- 2010/01/27: CBC: Scientists urge huge B.C. land preservation
A coalition of environmental groups is calling on the B.C. government to conserve 50 per cent of the province's land base to fight climate change. Seven B.C.-based groups -- including the David Suzuki Foundation, ForestEthics and West Coast Environmental Law Society -- were preparing to release a report Thursday. The report concludes that a 50-per-cent conservation target gives plants and animals the opportunity to survive and adapt to the ravages of climate change. The report is the work of B.C. ecologist and forester Jim Pojar, who has studied the B.C. ecosystem for more than 30 years. - 2010/01/28: Straight: Hydro-fracturing has a lucrative dirty secret
The B.C. government isn't asking many questions about a natural-gas-drilling technique involving toxic compounds. - 2010/01/28: Rabble: Ontario green energy deal: Sellout or sweet deal?
- 2010/01/25: TEC: Samsung deal: Criticism justified, but missing the bigger picture
Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:
- 2010/01/29: CBC: Oil company buys into oilsands technology
Calgary-based Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. is buying into a proposed technologically advanced plant to upgrade bitumen from the Alberta oilsands and produce low-sulphur diesel fuel. The oil and gas producer said Thursday it plans to buy 50 per cent of the assets in North West Upgrading Inc., another Calgary company, and form a partnership to operate the refinery, planned for northeast of Edmonton. - 2010/01/28: CanWest: Butt out of oilsands, Canada West Foundation tells easterners
Negative talk about the environment threatens economic well-being of all Canadians, new report declares Put a sock in it -- that's the message delivered by a new Canada West Foundation report to eastern Canadians beefing about the environmental impact of Alberta's oilsands. The report, released this morning, warns: "If the oil and gas sector that underpins so much of the western Canadian economy is hamstrung by policies aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions, the whole country will suffer." The 22-page report, titled Look Before You Leap, was produced by the Calgary-based non-partisan research group following criticisms at the Copenhagen climate-change conference in December from Ontario and Quebec officials about the environmental impact of the oilsands. - 2010/01/27: OilChange: "Shock waves of anxiety" over Shell's tar sands move
- 2010/01/31: CSun: Oil equals civilization
- 2010/01/26: SolveClimate: Investors Applaud Shell's Newfound Caution about the Tar Sands -- Shareholder Resolutions Highlight Environmental, Social and Economic Risks
- 2010/01/25: OilChange: Shell's "Strategic Shift" Away From Tar Sands
- 2010/01/25: CBC: Shell slows tarsands expansion: report
- 2010/01/28: CanWest: Climate change skeptic [Wildrose Alliance Party leader] Danielle Smith is in good company
As for miscellaneous Canadiana:
- 2010/01/28: CBC: Climate change blamed for Olympic snow shortage -- Winter snow season has been slowly shrinkng in past 50 years, says researcher
- 2010/01/30: ClimateSight: Why Canada Is the Way it Is
The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:
- 2010/01/29: CCurrents: Who Will Build The Ark?
- 2010/01/29: EnergyBulletin: Vision for Sustainability, Resiliency by Post Carbon Institute
- 2010/01/22: Ecologist: Pavan Sukhdev: you can have progress without GDP-led growth
Deutsche Bank economist Pavan Sukhdev is heading up the groundbreaking TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) report and doing for nature what Sir Nicholas Stern did for climate change - valuing it - 2010/01/28: EnergyBulletin: The Peak Oil Crisis: A Meeting in California
- 2010/01/28: EnergyBulletin: 387 ppm and Rising: A Plea for Greater Urgency in Developing Post-Carbon Living Arrangements
- 2010/01/28: OilDrum: What Can We Learn from Gift Economies?
- 2010/01/27: FTimes:Alphaville: What happens when the world defaults?
- 2010/01/26: EnergyBulletin: Wanted: two miracles
- 2010/01/26: EnergyBulletin: Growth Isn't Possible (report excerpt)
- 2010/01/26: BBC: Economic growth cannot buy the planet more time
Global economic growth - in its current form - cannot continue if nations are serious about curbing climate change, says Andrew Simms. In this week's Green Room, he warns that the consumer society cannot "have its planet and eat it". - 2010/01/25: Guardian(UK): Growth is good ... isn't it?
Expansion has progressed so far that key resource boundaries have been broken: we're teetering on the edge of an ecological cliff - 2010/01/25: SolveClimate: Northern Consumption Reaches Deep into Other Countries' Ecologies -- Study: UK Food Chain Emissions Rise When Land Use Changes Considered
- 2010/01/25: BBC: Economic growth 'cannot continue'
Continuing global economic growth "is not possible" if nations are to tackle climate change, a report by an environmental think-tank has warned. The New Economics Foundation (Nef) said "unprecedented and probably impossible" carbon reductions would be needed to hold temperature rises below 2C (3.6F). Scientists say exceeding this limit could lead to dangerous global warming. - 2010/01/25: Guardian(UK): World economic growth at odds with climate targets
As the UK is expected to emerge from recession, the New Economics Foundation says endless growth is pushing the planet's biosphere 'beyond its safe limits' - 2010/01/29: CBC: New morning-after pill works for up to 5 days
Apocalypso anyone?
- 2010/01/29: AlterNet: The Big Theories Underwriting Society Are Crashing All Around Us -- Are You Ready for a New World?
As for how the media handles the science of climatology:
- 2010/01/29: CJR: MIA on the IPCC -- American press largely ignores latest controversies
- 2010/01/29: GreenFyre: War of the Words -- Monbiot vs Delingpole
- 2010/01/29: ClimateP: Is Ed Wallace's Business Week column a "Crock of S*%t"?
- 2010/01/28: DM:CV: Guest Post: Faye Flam on the Challenge of Climate Reporting
- 2010/01/28: Eureka: Financial crisis in news: Government financial support of news media continues steep decline
- 2010/01/26: Yale360: A Journalist [Andrew Revkin] Reflects on the Rising Heat in Climate Debate
- 2010/01/27: Deltoid: Rosegate
- 2010/01/25: GreenHerring: Fool me five times...
- 2010/01/25: GreenHerring: The Wrong Foot? Media coverage of a new denialist talking point
Regarding the quality of blogospheric discussion:
- 2010/01/25: ABC(Au): Scientists 'losing climate fight'
A leading Australian climate change scientist says experts are losing the fight against sceptics, who are distorting the science of global warming. - 2010/01/25 ClimateShifts: "Climate scientists are losing the fight with the sceptics" [says Andy Pitman]
Here is something for your library:
- 2010/01/27: DeSmogBlog: Climate Cover-up "a convincing and riveting tale of conspiracy " - Nature
- 2010/01/27: TEC: The top 50 green books
- 2010/01/23: Guardian(UK): [Book Review] _Prosperity Without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet_ by Tim Jackson
We must repudiate traditional economics if we're to save the planet, says Jeremy Leggett - 2010/01/25: PRWatch: Dahlia Lithwick on Propaganda and James Hansen's New Book--Both Worth Reading!
- 2010/01/25: HotTopic: [Book Review] _Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto_ by Stewart Brand
Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:
- 2010/01/27: CommonTragedies: Will Courts Set Climate Policy through Nuisance Suits?
- 2010/01/28: NatureTGB: Micronesia forces review of Czech coal-power plant
- 2010/01/26: NYT: Courts as Battlefields in Climate Fights
- 2010/01/25: WaPo: Kan. utility, federal agencies settle lawsuit
- 2010/01/27: ClimateP: Transmitting the Clean Energy Future -- Supreme Court dashes hopes for federal transmission siting
Among the non-members of Gamblers Anonymous:
- 2010/01/28: Stoat: Sea ice again?
- 2010/01/26: BSD: Climate betting baseline set
Developing a new energy infrastructure is a fundamental challenge of the current generation:
- 2010/01/31: OilDrum: Burning Coal in Place, or Underground Coal Gasification
- 2010/01/31: PeakEnergy: Northern Territory Tidal power project could run all homes
- 2010/01/31: PeakEnergy: Gas-to-Liquids and Coal-to-Liquids Production Statistics
- 2010/01/25: IR^2: Top 10 Sources for U.S. Oil for 2009
- 2010/01/28: PhysOrg: Nanocables could lead to more powerful lithium-ion batteries
- 2010/01/29: PlanetArk: Renewable Power Growth To Beat Coal: [Power equipment maker] Alstom
- 2010/01/29: PlanetArk: Green Investors Should Go Geothermal, Says VCH [Investment Group]
- 2010/01/29: Eureka: Natural gas supplies could be augmented with methane hydrate
- 2010/01/29: OilDrum: The Price of Energy
- 2010/01/29: PeakEnergy: Who's Afraid of a Clean-Energy Future?
- 2010/01/29: BBC: Chevron hit by weak petrol demand
Chevron has posted a big fall in quarterly profits, due to petrol and diesel prices failing to keep up with a big rise in the cost of crude oil. The second-largest oil company in the US made a net profit of $3bn (£1.9bn) between October and December, down 37% from the same period in 2008. - 2010/01/28: PhysOrg: Geothermal power could be solution for Indiana's abandoned coal mines
- 2010/01/28: PhysOrg: Honda Begins Operation of New Solar Hydrogen Station in LA
- 2010/01/28: OilDrum: What difference would Nord Stream mean to European energy supply?
- 2010/01/28: PeakEnergy: Ice Energy begins 53MW energy storage project
- 2010/01/25: LBNL: Mismatched alloys are a good match for thermoelectrics
- 2010/01/27: OilDrum: January 2010 US Natural Gas Update
- 2010/01/27: PeakEnergy: Indonesian Govt reduces geothermal energy plan target
- 2010/01/27: PeakEnergy: Chevron signs $18bn North West Shelf natural gas deal with Japanese utility
- 2010/01/25: PhysOrg: Developing better batteries for energy alternatives
- 2010/01/25: NYT:GreenInc: Advancing the Flywheel for Energy Storage and Grid Regulation
- 2010/01/26: OnlineDegreePrograms: 100 Amazing Lectures to Follow the Future of Energy
- 2010/01/26: PeakEnergy: 100 Lectures on the Future of Energy
- 2010/01/26: PeakEnergy: The Latest Developments in Wave Power Technology
- 2010/01/25: PlanetArk: China's BYD To Invest $3.3 Billion In Solar Battery Plant
Fracking is back:
- 2010/01/30: PeakEnergy: Gasland [video]
- 2010/01/28: Straight: Hydro-fracturing has a lucrative dirty secret
The B.C. government isn't asking many questions about a natural-gas-drilling technique involving toxic compounds. - 2010/01/27: ProPublica: Pennsylvania's Gas Wells Booming -- But So Are Spills
- 2010/01/27: PlanetArk: Investors target Marcellus Shale drillers
- 2010/01/27: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Inspections and enforcement of oil and gas wells not protecting communities or the environment
- 2010/01/25: NYT:CW: Exxon-Xto Deal Forces Congress to Reconsider Natural Gas
The answer my friend...:
- 2010/01/27: Reuters: "Stealth" wind turbine blade may end radar problem
The development of a "stealth" turbine blade, based on military technology, may help overcome the problem of wind farms interfering with aviation radar systems, its developers said. - 2010/01/31: CanWest: Blowback from wind farms threatens air-traffic control -- Engineers develop software to cut through turbine blackouts
- 2010/01/19: Asahi: Sickness claims prompt study of wind turbines
- 2010/01/28: Telegraph(UK): Wind farms can cause noise problems finds study -- The noise caused by wind farms can make some people ill, according to experts.
- 2010/01/28: TreeHugger: 9,922 Megawatts of New Wind in U.S. in 2009, 39% Growth from 2008
- 2010/01/26: ClimateP: Wind power makes record gains in 2009
- 2010/01/26: TEC: A mighty wind
- 2010/01/26: PeakEnergy: There is (offshore wind powered) light at the end of the tunnel!
- 2010/01/25: NYT: Wind Power Grows 39% for the Year
Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:
- 2010/01/27: AzCentral: Avondale condemns home: Solar, batteries insufficient -- Avondale woman says city treated her unfairly
- 2010/01/28: Reuters: U.S. solar startup [Suniva Inc] teams up with battery maker [GS Yuasa]
- 2010/01/28: PeakEnergy: Solar Beam-Down Plants For Cheaper Solar Thermal
- 2010/01/27: PlanetArk: Italy To Unveil New Solar Incentives
- 2010/01/27: PlanetArk: Solar Project Desertec Wants Political Support
Desertec, the world's most ambitious 400 billion euro ($563.6 billion) solar power project, needs political support more than financial backing to reach its formidable goals, one of its initiators said. The project would use concentrated solar power (CSP), a technology that uses mirrors to harness the sun's rays to produce steam and drive turbines to produce electricity, from the Sahara to supply power to local markets and to Europe. "The most important thing now is to establish the political framework," Nikolaus von Bomhard, chief executive of reinsurer Munich Re, told Reuters in an interview at the Ditigal Life Design conference. "That is even more important than technology and financing," von Bomhard said, adding that soon a so-called political chief executive officer (CEO) for the Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII) will be named to garner support from governments. "The person would have to be well-connected internationally," he said. Industry observers expect a political CEO to be named in February. - 2010/01/27: PlanetArk: Enel, Marcegaglia To Build 4 MW Solar Roof [in Italy]
- 2010/01/27: TechRev: A Safer Way to Coat Long-Lasting Solar Cells -- Antireflective film helps the cells maintain their yield
On the coal front:
- 2010/01/29: PeakEnergy: Long queues at port as demand for coal soars
- 2010/01/28: TP: For eighth day, climate activists block bulldozers at WV's Coal River Mountain
- 2010/01/27: TCoE: Coal's future
- 2010/01/25: PlanetArk: Cold Spells To Hasten Thermal Coal Recovery
Biofuel bickering abounds:
- 2010/01/28: NewScientist: Algal power not so green after all, yet
- 2010/01/28: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Some thoughts on recent Algae Biofuels Lifecycle Analysis
- 2010/01/28: DM:80B: Engineered E. Coli Bacteria Produces Road-Ready Diesel
- 2010/01/28: TechRev: Bacteria Make Diesel from Biomass -- Newly engineered E. coli streamline the conversion of cellulose into fuel.
- 2010/01/27: NatureN: Altered microbe makes biofuel -- Bacterium could work directly on grass or crop waste
- 2010/01/26: SciNews: Algae as biofuel still rough around the edges -- Sources of nutrients, carbon dioxide can make or break this potential renewable fuel heavyweight
- 2010/01/27: CBC: Land use for biofuel can be small: expert
Biofuels can replace a significant amount of our reliance on fossil fuels without eating into too much valuable farming land, says an Australian expert. Prof. Robert Henry of the Bioenergy Research Institute at Southern Cross University in Lismore reports his findings in the current issue of the journal Plant Biotechnology. "It is possible to replace oil by using a relatively small proportion of our total arable land," says Henry, who has also just completed the book Plant Resources for Food, Fuel and Conservation. - 2010/01/25: Eureka: Sweet success for sustainable biofuel research
The nuclear energy controversy continues:
- 2010/01/31: BostonGlobe: Leaks imperil nuclear industry -- Vermont Yankee among troubled
The nuclear industry, once an environmental pariah, is recasting itself as green as it attempts to extend the life of many power plants and build new ones. But a leak of radioactive water at Vermont Yankee, along with similar incidents at more than 20 other US nuclear plants in recent years, has kindled doubts about the reliability, durability, and maintenance of the nation's aging nuclear installations. - 2010/01/29: CJ: Kentucky studies 42 locations with best potential for nuclear plants
- 2010/01/30: TEC: When a coal state goes nuclear
- 2010/01/31: TEC: Next generation of nuclear reactors in Europe
- 2010/01/30: NewScientist: Molecular Venus flytrap could munch nuclear waste
- 2010/01/25: FuturePundit: New Nuclear Power Costs Too High?
- 2010/01/25: FuturePundit: Michael Kanellos On Nuclear Power
- 2010/01/30: NBF: World Nuclear Power for 2009 and 2010 and up to 2014
- 2010/01/29: TCoE: Nuclear predictions
- 2010/01/29: NatureTGB: Light and heat from NIF [National Ignition Facility]
- 2010/01/29: KSJT: Chronicle, BBC, Cosmos, etc: The big boys in fusion speak up. That laser-crazy NIF machine is ready to strut its stuff
- 2010/01/29: BBC: Fusion energy hurdle swept aside
A major hurdle to producing fusion energy using lasers has been swept aside, results in a new report show. The controlled fusion of atoms - creating conditions like those in our Sun - has long been touted as a possible revolutionary energy source. However, there have been doubts about the use of powerful lasers for fusion energy because the "plasma" they create could interrupt the fusion. An article in Science showed the plasma is far less of a problem than expected. The report is based on the first experiments from the National Ignition Facility (Nif) in the US that used all 192 of its laser beams. Along the way, the experiments smashed the record for the highest energy from a laser - by a factor of 20. - 2010/01/28: SolveClimate: Three Mile Island Generator Finds New Home at Plant in North Carolina -- Meltdown Era Equipment of Concern to Watchdogs
- 2010/01/26: KSJT: PopSci, not much else: Fusion hopes rise, a bit, on a levitating toroidal magnet in a MIT lab
- 2010/01/24: Eureka: Levitating magnet may yield new approach to clean energy -- "turbulent pinching" to induce fusion
Yes we have a peak oil sighting:
- 2010/01/25: EnergyBulletin: Top 10 Pieces of the Peak Oil Puzzle during the 2000s
- 2010/01/25: OilDrum: Peak Oil: The Mother of All Risk Management Scenarios
More people are talking about the electrical grid:
- 2010/01/29: PhysOrg: Smart grid could reduce emissions by 12 percent [PNNL Report: The Smart Grid: An Estimation of the Energy and CO2 Benefits]
- 2010/01/26: TreeHugger: Getting From Point A To Point B: Why Fixing The Electric Grid Is Critical To Our Energy Future
- 2010/01/25: BBerg: South Korea May Spend $24 Billion on Smart Power Grid by 2030
And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:
- 2010/01/31: PeakEnergy: The Low-Hanging Fruit of Energy Efficiency
- 2010/01/27: ClimateP: Farmers, Idaho utility embrace efficiency and demand response
- 2010/01/26: NYT:GreenInc: How to Make a More Efficient Light Bulb? Make it Dimmer
- 2010/01/26: SolveClimate: Energy Star Steps Up: LG Refrigerators Put Federal Oversight to the Test -- At Stake Is the Label Consumers Rely on to Ensure Energy Efficiency
- 2010/01/25: TEC: Billions of dollars pour into energy efficiency
Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:
- 2010/01/31: PeakEnergy: How will we recharge all the electric cars?
- 2010/01/27: AutoBG: DC 2010: NRDC gives us some numbers to crunch about why tough standards are a good thing
- 2010/01/28: BBC: Ford posts $2.7bn annual profit -- Ford has posted an annual profit for the first time in four years
- 2010/01/28: BBC: Car sales boost Hyundai profits
Hyundai has reported a fourfold increase in profits between October and December as government incentives helped to boost car sales. Net profit for the period was 945.5bn won ($820m; £505m), compared with 243.5bn won a year earlier. - 2010/01/27: PhysOrg: Norwegian firm [Th!nk] seeks to charge into US electric car market
- 2010/01/27: TreeHugger: EnerDel Announces Bigtime Battery Expansion for Electric Vehicles
- 2010/01/27: AutoBG: Honda unveils new solar-powered hydrogen generating and fueling station
- 2010/01/26: AutoBG: General Motors announces that it will build electric motors in-house
- 2010/01/26: AutoBG: Volvo Trucks start field tests of methane-diesel engines
- 2010/01/26: LA Times: GM will make its own electric motors starting in 2013
- 2010/01/25: PhysOrg: Advanced engine-control system reduces biodiesel fuel consumption and emissions
The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:
- 2010/01/28: PlanetArk: Cleantech "Needs Billions" To Scale Up: Fund
- 2010/01/27: Grist: How innovative financing is changing energy in America
- 2010/01/27: G&M: Bean-counting trumps carbon counting -- Belt-tightening puts the squeeze on companies' eco efforts
A survey of Canadian corporate travel managers released last week found that the business community may not be quite as behind the green revolution as some of their PR campaigns would imply. For those who worry about air travel's significant contribution to pollution and climate change, this is not great news. The survey, conducted by the Conference Board of Canada and the Association of Corporate Travel Executives, found the number of companies in Canada who reported voluntary carbon offset programs was slashed almost in half from 2008 to 2009. The number who said they were "looking into it," an indicator of the role of carbon offsets in the image a company is interested in conveying to the public, fell from almost half to just a third. - 2010/01/27: SolveClimate: Cradle to Grave: Greenhouse Gas Protocol Adds Up Companies' Lifecyle Emissions -- Coke, Levi Strauss, GE Among 60 Companies Testing the Protocol
Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:
- 2010/01/29: Grist: A Seussical retort to a "Green Coal" company claiming the Lorax name
- 2010/01/29: PeakEnergy: The Lorax: "I speak for clean coal"
- 2010/01/28: TreeHugger: New 'Green Coal' Company Names Itself After the Lorax Without Permisson
- 2010/01/27: TP:WR: 'Green Coal' Company LoraxAg Dirties Dr. Seuss Legacy
Joe Romm posts a daily list of top energy and climate stories:
- 2010/01/29: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for January 29...
- 2010/01/28: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for January 28...
- 2010/01/27: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for January 27...
- 2010/01/26: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for January 26...
- 2010/01/25: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for January 25...
Other (weekly) lists:
- 2010/01/28: Grist: A Walk Through the Week's Climate News -- The Climate Post: The documents ... they are ... Alive! Alive!
The carbon lobby are up to the usual:
- 2010/01/30: ClimateShifts: Same old Bolt, same old story
- 2010/01/30: MoD: Deniers are not making scientific arguments
- 2010/01/30: DeSmogBlog: Lies Don Blankenship Told Me: Why Climate Activists Are Heading To The West Virginian Coal Fields
- 2010/01/31: Guardian(UK): Climate change: Sceptics fiddle while the planet burns
- 2010/01/29: ClimateP: DelingpoleGate: Monbiot slams anti-science columnist for leading "Telegraph into vicious climate over email"
- 2010/01/29: C411: Rolling Stone Calls out "The Climate Killers"
- 2010/01/30: GreenHerring: Jim Lippard on climate skeptics
- 2010/01/30: Deltoid: Rosegate: David Rose caught misrepresenting another scientist
- 2010/01/30: OpenLeft: Global warming truth (hottest decade ever) vs. big lies (it's stopped!)
- 2010/01/29: HotTopic: New dimensions in earth science uncovered by NZ blogger
- 2010/01/29: GreenFyre: War of the Words -- Monbiot vs Delingpole
- 2010/01/29: SkeptiSci: Lessons from the Monckton/Plimer debate
- 2010/01/29: JQuiggin: My response to Monckton's conspiracy theory
- 2010/01/29: Deltoid: Rosegate scandal still growing: David Rose admits that he has no credibility
- 2010/01/29: FTimes: Climate sceptics bask in the light as science steers clear of debate
- 2010/01/28: TCoE: Infonugget: Climate inaction
- 2010/01/28: DeSmogBlog: The Commonwealth Foundation's Favorite Strawman
- 2010/01/29: HotTopic: Monckton, "high priest of climate sceptics", tells lies on TV NZ
- 2010/01/27: Deltoid: Rosegate scandal grows
- 2010/01/27: Guardian(UK): Climate sceptics distract us from the scientific realities of global warming
Is the goal of climate sceptics to lead us into greater scientific truth -- or merely to sow doubt about the temperature record? - 2010/01/27: Guardian(UK): James Delingpole leads Telegraph into vicious climate over email
Columnist and climate change denier should be congratulated for his attempt to do even more damage to his purported cause - 2010/01/27: ABC(Au): A British climate change sceptic [VMB] is warning there will be nothing more damaging to Hunter Valley jobs than the Federal Government's proposed emissions trading scheme (ETS)
- 2010/01/27: Deltoid: Rosegate
- 2010/01/27: MTobis: Giant Mutant Space Hamsters
- 2009/08/06: SEasterbrook: Social epistemology and climate denialism
- 2010/01/26: AFTIC: The Oregon Petition
- 2010/01/25: DeSmogBlog: Why Won't Monckton Join the Scientific "Debate"?
- 2010/01/25: ABC(Au): Scientists 'losing climate fight' [VMB]
- 2010/01/25: ABC(Au): Sceptic opens fire on climate change [VMB]
As for climate miscellanea:
- 2010/01/31: MTobis: How to answer this one?
- 2010/01/27: GreenGrok: Don't Shoot the Science Messenger
- 2010/01/27: IoD: The public-scientist disconnect
- 2010/01/27: SkeptiSci: The upcoming ice age has been postponed indefinitely
- 2010/01/24: HoustonChronicle: Climate change activists work to regain momentum
- 2010/01/26: DM:CCM: The Disastrous Setback for Climate Advocacy of Late 2009
- 2010/01/25: MTobis: The Dread Exponential
- 2010/01/25: NOAANews: Picture This: NOAA, Google Join Forces to Visualize Scientific Data
- 2010/01/25: TreeHugger: New Search Engine For Carbon Emissions Data Launched By AMEE
- 2010/01/25: BBC: Religious talk to fight climate change
If the case for tackling climate change is backed by science, why do so many green campaigners rely on the language of religion? - 2010/01/24: KlimaZwiebel: Miscalculation in the Stern Review
And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:
- Early Warning -- Risks to Global Civilization
- TPL: She Wonk
- Wiki: Milankovitch cycles
- CRED: Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters
- The Lippard Blog
- Wiki: Criticism of the IPCC AR4
- Wiki: Climate sensitivity
- EPI: 2010 Environmental Performance Index
- NERC: Public dialogue on geoengineering
- The Oil Sands of Canada
- The Mountain Sentinel [Dale Allen Pfeiffer]
- ScienceAlert - Australia & NZ - News
- Dr. Luann Becker
- IR^2: IR-Squared
- Worldwatch Institute
Laugh. I dare ya:
Don't you just love these contradictory headlines? Agenda? What agenda?
COP-16 positioning has begun:
The 2010 Environmental Performance Index, implicitly ranking nations, came out this week:
The WGMS released its latest mass balance report this week:
The World Economic Forum in Davos gave rise to several climate articles:
640k Gates posted a roundly critisized essay this week:
The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:
And how are we going to feed 9 billion?
And in the carbon cycle:
As for heatwaves and wild fires:
The Tobin tax is back:
Polls! We have polls!
And on the American political front:
After pledging to lower the country's emissions by 17% [from 2005 levels by 2020], the administration pledged to lower the government's emissions by 17% [from 2005 levels by 2020], causing some confusion among the unwary:
And in Europe:
In the Middle East, the Saudis demonstrated that the Israelis are not the only ones with chutzpah:
What are the corps up to?
More of Harper's old tricks:
In the north, there is wrangling over the polar bear:
In BC, conservation or a hedge againt climate change?
Fracking in BC?
Ontario has it's Green Energy Act, now comes the implementation:
IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology] raised its head once again:
Low Key Plug
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.
<regards>
P.S. Recent postings can be found in the week archive and the ancient postings can be accessed here, which should open to this.
- Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
- Guide reproduction wisely - improving fitness and diversity.
- Unite humanity with a living new language.
- Rule passion - faith - tradition - and all things with tempered reason.
- Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
- Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
- Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
- Balance personal rights with social duties.
- Prize truth - beauty - love - seeking harmony with the infinite.
- Be not a cancer on the earth - Leave room for nature - Leave room for nature.
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Damn, how can you keep up with this??
after 2 articles my eyes start to glaze over and I just stop reading beyond the first paragraph of many of these.
are there no summaries of the summaries of the news?
I hear ya, Jerry! It is on my wish list to follow these posts with a "best of".
Any volunteers?
Are the peer reviewed? :-)
Speaking of which, it appears Jones has a lot of explaining to do:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/01/leaked-emails-climate…
There is also the question of scientific fraud, which should be investigated, unless truth is no longer the goal. What the climate change community in general has done is to ignore this crucial aspect of the scientific process.
The great IPCC scam continues to unravel, the latest piece of bull shit is this:
http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg2/en/ch15s15-7-2.html
This scandalous piece of fabrication came from a tourist operator here:
http://climatequotes.com/2010/02/01/ipcc-cites-boot-cleaning-guide-for-…
Essentially the IPCC cut and paste what they said but added the words "climate change". When will this sudden fall from grace end?
crakar
Ha ha. I know you don't believe anything you say here. You are so clever!!!
Mandas,
Did the IPCC use an Antarctic tourism guide as a reference in AR4? Did the IPCC reword it to include the words "climate change".
Simply answer yes or no to both questions please.
Its going to get ugly watching the once complicent media start trying to back peddle out of the AGW quagmire they find themselves in. You know the tide has turned when the media start printing stories they have had kept under wraps for years.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/02/01/climategate-intensifies-jones-and…
My dear, my very dear Crakar . . . .
Once again you did even read your own links.
Again though, what is great about you is you keep us allâwith the possible exception of yourselfâhonest. I never would have gone out looking for this link so you are my shortcut.
How section 15.7.2 âEconomic activity and sustainability in the Antarcticâ of IPCC *really* reads:
The multiple stresses of climate change and increasing human activity on the Antarctic Peninsula represent a clear vulnerability **(see Section 15.6.3)**, [my emphasis] and have necessitated the implementation of stringent clothing decontamination guidelines for tourist landings on the Antarctic Peninsula (IAATO, 2005).
This in fact, is exactly the block quote your own link at âclimatequotesâ cited, but unlike the IPCC report, your source did *not* provide the hyperlink to Section 15.6.3, so people like you (who would never bother to look anyway once they found something that conformed to their narrative) or me (who in fact did) would be in minimal danger of finding the truth. Section 15.6.3 is the crucial evidence, not the clothing guide, because it is in 15.6.3 that all the scientific studies for the impact of global warming on the Anarctic *are* cited.
It is thus *utterly false*--repeat *utterly false* that the IPCC
cites a boot and clothing cleaning guide as evidence that the "multiple stresses of climate change...have necessitated the implementation of stringent clothing decontamination guidelines".
Your source blatantly ripped the crucial words â . . .and increasing human activity on the Antarctic Peninsula represent a clear vulnerability (see Section 15.6.3) . . .â. to twist the meaning of the paragraph.
He obviously had you fooled, Crakar. (Yawn . . . narratives . . . )
But stunts like that don't fool people who check their sources, mate.
But keep toiling; Iâve always said youâre at *least* as important to this blog as I am.
Skip
What is even more interesting about this latest bullshit from crakar and the denialist community is how much it represents the typical denialist strategy of quote mining. The section of the IPCC Report referred to is clearly entitled:
"15.7.2 Economic activity and sustainability in the Antarctic"
which to my obviously uneducated mind means they will be discussing the implications of climate change on economic activities in the Antarctic, of which tourism is an obvious topic.
The FULL quote (not the small section ripped by the denialists) says:
"...Fishing and tourism are the only significant economic activities in the Antarctic at present. Over 27,000 tourists visited Antarctica in the 2005/06 summer and the industry is growing rapidly (IAATO, 2006). The multiple stresses of climate change and increasing human activity on the Antarctic Peninsula represent a clear vulnerability...etc"
It then goes on to say:
"...Significant research since the TAR has focused on the impact of climate change on Arctic indigenous populations, and accordingly, this chapter has placed an emphasis on these segments of the population. However, the impacts on the wider population need also be considered, and in particular, the economic impacts, which are difficult to address at present due to the dearth of information...."
To address these problems, the IPCC recommends:
"Uncertainty: Impacts of multiple drivers (e.g., increasing human activities and ocean acidity) to modify or even magnify the effects of climate change at both poles.
Recommendation and Approach: Development of integrated bio-geophysical and socio-economic studies."
So, in a chapter on (inter alia) tourism in Antarctica, where the document states it will study some of the impacts on tourism operators and what issues they face, the Report provides information on exactly that. And they reference, not a boot cleaning guide as is asserted, but a paper presented by the peak tourism body (the IAATO) to a meeting of the inter-governmental treaty body. The aim of the paper was, as per the title, to discuss:
"The Introduction and Detection of Diseases in Antarctic Wildlife: IAATOâs Perspective"
and what steps the opeators had to undertake, including the decontamination of tourist's clothing.
So once again crakar, if you had done your research instead of just cutting and pasting crap from the flat-earth society, you might actually know what you are talking about. Alas, all our advice to you to this effect have been wasted. You sir, are a fool. But worse than that, you are not just a naive fool, you are a deliberate fool, because you have been shown where you are wrong, you just refuse to accept it.
I put a long winded post up here for you Skip but it never made it through so will have another go this time i will include the deluded Mandas.
Have you ever heard of desease control? here are two examples i have encountered in my life time. Firstly if i drive a few hundred k's up the road i will drive into the fruit fly exclusion zone where i will be stopped and my car inspected for fruit that could harbour the fruit fly larvae. This ensures the fruit fly cannot migrate into a fruit growing area.
Secondly a few years ago i was working in NZ (and no Skip i did not bang a sheep so put it away)at times i had to trudge through farmers paddocks or maybe fields for you Skip to get to remote equipment. At the same time there was an outbreak of foot and mouth desease in the UK so the Aust Gov. activated quarintine measures at airports etc. Upon my arrival home customs checked my BOOTS and CLOTHING for any foreign material.
I am sure both of you have experienced a similar thing, or maybe not.
Now onto Antarctica, Antarctica is a remote continent as we all know and it would be a good idea not to introduce any foreign deseases/insects etc so the tourism company have a policy to ensure this does not happen, i suspect it would be enforced by some gov regulation.
Now we have the IPCC who in their wisdom now claim the Antarctic in under stress from foreign invaders based on a tourism companies policy of clean boots and clothing a policy which as i said before is more than likely enforced, is their a peer reviewed scientific study that claims the Antarctic is in fact under any stress from such a thing?
Then the IPCC throw in the scary "climate change" to somehow show that in fact the Antarctic is really under stress and it will all be melted by 2035 or was that 2013....sorry got a little carried away and got my booga booga stories mixed up.
Oh by the way you know how all these morons keep banging on about "all the reefs will dissappear i tells ya" stories based on acidification and warming of the oceans, well it appears that the shallow reefs near Florida are in fact dying but not from warming but from the COLD. I am sure that you will now tell me that in the bizzaro world of AGW, AGW will in fact make the oceans colder and kill all the reefs.