Another week of GW News, April 3, 2011

Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years

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Another week of Climate Disruption News

Sipping from the Internet Firehose...

April 3, 2011

• Chuckles, Fukushima Heroes, Fukushima News, Nuclear Policy, Fukushima Talk
• BEST, Thermodynamics, Cook, Earth Hour
• Melting Arctic, Polar Bears, IPY, Antarctica
• Food Crisis, Food Prices, Food vs. Biofuel, Ecological Services, GMOs, Food Production
• Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Feedbacks, Aerosols, Clouds, Ozone, Paleoclimate, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Extreme Weather, Corals, Sea Levels, GW Deluge, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Geoengineering
• Journals, Other Docs , Misc. Science, DIY Science, Pigasus, Hansen, Muller
• Rio 2012, UN, Carbon Labelling, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
• International Politics: Misc., The Race, Law & Activism, Polls, H2O Biz, Religioso
• National Politics: America, BP Disaster, Contempt, Keystone XL, 2012, Impasse
• Energy Speech, Obama, USAdmin, Congress, Lobbyists, Hearing, Cronon
• Britain, Europe, Australia, Carbon War, Murray-Darling, New Zealand, China
• Canada, Post G20, Greens, Pipelines, AECL, Boreal Forest, BC, Tar Sands, Manitoba, Ontario
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Podcasts, Courts
• Energy, Fracking, Wind, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Gee Whiz
• Business, Greenwashing, FAQs, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

Laugh. I dare ya:

• 2011/03/31: uComics: (cartoon - Auth) The Grim Elephant?
• 2011/03/29: BPA: (cartoon - Adams) Imaginary New Green Energy Technologies

  And for those interested in exploring the nether reaches of Poe's Law:

• 2011/04/02: MTobis: Hockey Stick Gossip
• 2006/07/25: Onion: [History - July 20, 1925] Scopes Monkey Trial Raises Troubling Question: Is Science Being Taught In Our Schools?

  In homage to the Fukushima heroes:

• 2011/03/30: NYT: Workers Give Glimpse of Japan's Nuclear Crisis -- Panic and Heroism Greeted Crisis at Japan Nuclear Plant
• 2011/03/31: BBerg: Fukushima Workers Threatened by Heat Bursts; Sea Radiation Rises
  Japan's damaged nuclear plant may be in danger of emitting sudden bursts of heat and radiation, undermining efforts to cool the reactors and contain fallout. The potential for limited, uncontrolled chain reactions, voiced yesterday by the International Atomic Energy Agency, is among the phenomena that might occur, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters in Tokyo today. The IAEA "emphasized that the nuclear reactors won't explode," he said. Three workers at a separate Japanese plant received high doses of radiation in 1999 from a similar nuclear reaction, known as 'criticality.' Two of them died within seven months.
• 2011/03/29: CNN: Workers endure austere conditions in averting nuclear disaster
  The Fukushima Daiichi workers are sleeping on leaded mats - They eat two meals a day of prepared food and crackers - They are exposed to high levels of radiation - An inspector divulges details of their lives, says they are still upbeat
  [...]
  Tuesday, safety inspector Kazuma Yokota, who spent five days at the plant last week, spoke with CNN about the plight of the 400 workers staying in a building within 1 kilometer (.6 miles) of Reactor No. 1. Japanese officials ordered mandatory evacuations for everyone else within 20 (12.4 miles) kilometers of the plant.
  The workers look tired, Yokota said. They are furiously connecting electrical cables, repairing instrument panels and pumping radioactive water out.
  They work with the burden of their own personal tragedies always weighing heavy.
  "My parents were washed away by the tsunami, and I still don't know where they are," one worker wrote in an e-mail that was verified as authentic by a spokesman for the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which runs the Fukushima plant.
  "Crying is useless," said another e-mail. "If we're in hell now, all we can do is crawl up towards heaven.'
• 2011/03/28: WSJ:JRT: Letters From Fukushima: Tepco Worker Emails
• 2011/03/30: SMH: 'Crying is useless': Fukushima 50 put lives on the line and get dry biscuits, rice and one blanket
• 2011/03/29: LA Times: Workers suffer hardships in effort to stabilize Fukushima plant
  A Japanese nuclear official who spent five days at the plant as an observer describes spare living conditions, limited food rations and no running water on top of the high levels of radiation exposure for the now 400 working in shifts to make repairs.

The Fukushima news isn't getting any better:

• 2011/04/01: ABC(Au): Crews 'facing 100-year battle' at Fukushima
  A nuclear expert has warned that it might be 100 years before melting fuel rods can be safely removed from Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant.
• 2011/04/02: NatureTGB: Fukushima update: the battle continues
• 2011/03/31: CCurrents: Groundwater At Nuclear Plant 'Highly' Radiation-Contaminated: TEPCO
• 2011/04/01: CCurrents: No End In Sight For Japan Nuclear Crisis
• 2011/04/02: ABC(Au): Cracked reactor leaking radioactive water
  Japanese workers struggling to contain a crisis at a crippled nuclear plant discovered a crack in a pit leaking highly radioactive water straight into the sea, the firm operating the facility said.
• 2011/04/02: BBC: Radioactive water from Japan nuclear plant leaks in sea
  Radioactive water is leaking into the sea from a 20-centimetre (8-inch) crack in a containment pit at Japan's quake-hit Fukushima nuclear plant, its operator Tepco has said.
• 2011/04/02: NYT: Reactor Pit Found Leaking Radioactive Water Into Sea
  Highly radioactive water is leaking directly into the sea from a damaged pit near a crippled reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, safety officials said Saturday, the latest setback in the increasingly messy bid to regain control of the reactors. Although higher levels of radiation have been detected in the ocean waters near the plant, the breach discovered Saturday is the first identified direct leak of such high levels of radiation into the sea.
• 2011/03/30: TreeHugger: Japan's Nuclear Crisis: 19 Days Later and Not Much Better
• 2011/03/29: Guardian(UK): Japan may have lost race to save nuclear reactor
  The radioactive core in a reactor at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant appears to have melted through the bottom of its containment vessel and on to a concrete floor, experts say, raising fears of a major release of radiation at the site.
• 2011/03/29: NatureN: Radioactivity spreads in Japan -- Fallout is localized, but could persist for years in some regions
• 2011/03/29: Reuters: Q+A - What is going on at Japan's damaged nuclear reactor?

  Nuclear policy reactions continue around the world:

• 2011/04/01: EurActiv: 'Fukushima fears' boost gas prospects
  Japan's nuclear crisis will speed the elimination of nuclear power from some European countries and render many planned projects too risky, ultimately increasing Europe's dependence on gas. The depth of change, however, still depends on how quickly Japan can stabilise the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. For a region with little history of earthquakes, tsunamis or even major power blackouts, Europe's reaction to a crisis on the other side of the world has been striking. Talk of a European nuclear renaissance had so far amounted to nothing more than half-finished plants in France and Finland, and a lot of unrealised dreams. Those dreams now appear dead.
• 2011/04/01: PlanetArk: Six U.S. Nuclear Plants Undergo Intensive Review: NRC
• 2011/03/31: PressEurop: Europe "in a state of nuclear emergency"
• 2011/03/31: ClimateP: Climate change creates new flooding risks for U.S. nuclear reactors safety
• 2011/03/31: PlanetArk: China May Double Solar Goal After Japan Nuclear Leak: Report
• 2011/03/31: EarthTimes: French president says world needs nuclear safety standards
• 2011/03/30: ScienceInsider: India's Prime Minister Seeks More Nuclear Transparency
• 2011/03/30: EarthTimes: Sweden to conduct 'stress tests' of nuclear plants
• 2011/03/29: PlanetArk: IAEA Calls Nuclear Safety Summit Amid Japan Crisis
• 2011/03/29: NatureN: China forges ahead with nuclear energy -- China pauses its plans to build the most new nuclear reactors in the world - but will not halt them

  And of course, the pundits. lobbyists and politicians have a lot to say:

• 2011/04/01: LFB: Are Current Nuclear Power Plants an Existential Risk?
• 2011/03/31: CCurrents: Japan's Nuclear Crisis: Genesis Of An International Catastrophe
  It is humanly difficult to accept. Yet the worst fears nuclear opponents have voiced for years are becoming true in the nuclear disaster unfolding in Japan. End March, we were almost three weeks into the catastrophe at Fukushima-Daiichi that began on the 11th. Within days it was apparent that the country was likely to face a massive problem of radiation, with the concomitant risks of increased cancer deaths for Japan's population. Now, as the failures of the nuclear complex's owner, TEPCO, to timely re-establish the functioning of the cooling systems in all four damaged reactors is all too apparent, - there is an increasing likelihood that the crisis will turn into an international catastrophe.
• 2011/03/30: DerSpiegel: American Peace Activist Jonathan Schell -- 'Our Most Dangerous Illusion Is that We Can Control Nuclear Energy'
  In a Spiegel interview, peace activist and author Jonathan Schell discusses the lessons of the Fukushima disaster, mankind's false impression that it can somehow safely produce electricity from the atom, and why he thinks the partial meltdown in Japan could mark a turning point for the world.
• 2011/03/31: EnergyBulletin: New report picks apart George Monbiot's support for nuclear power
• 2011/03/31: Guardian(UK): The double standards of green anti-nuclear opponents [George Monbiot]
• 2011/03/31: TreeHugger: There's a Better Energy Assumption Than 'If Not Nuclear, Then Coal'
• 2011/03/30: CCurrents: To Fukushima With Love!
• 2011/03/29: CCurrents: Deconstructing Nuclear Experts
• 2011/03/30: DemNow: "Prescription for Survival": A Debate on the Future of Nuclear Energy Between Anti-Coal Advocate George Monbiot and Anti-Nuclear Activist Dr. Helen Caldicott
• 2011/03/29: DVoice: Nuclear Power -- Not Now, Not Ever
• 2011/03/28: DerSpiegel: How Dangerous Is Japan's Creeping Nuclear Disaster?
• 2011/03/29: ClimateP: Japan may have lost race to save nuclear reactor
• 2011/03/28: ClimateP: Stephen Colbert: Nuclear reactors are as safe as oil, coal, and bank-robbing windmills -- "We have to find the courage to do nothing." [Poe's Law]]
• 2011/03/27: WiC: Chip Ward: the nuclear myth melts down

  While there was a lot of crowing & jeering about the BEST results, I would caution that they are preliminary:

• 2011/04/02: Ph&Ph: Berkeley Earth Group First Data Analysis
• 2011/04/01: Tamino: Richard Muller Love-Fest
• 2011/04/02: TreeHugger: Koch-Funded Climate Skeptic's Own Data Confirms Warming
• 2011/04/01: Salon:HTWW: Climate skeptics lose their cool
  Friends become enemies as a scientist expected to cast doubt on global warming trends does the exact opposite
• 2011/04/01: Grist: Science bites climate skeptics in the ass on the House floor
• 2011/03/31: NatureTGB: Berkeley scientist previews temperature analysis on Capitol Hill
• 2011/04/01: ERabett: A Contest
  The Auditors have a new post up at Denial Depot presaging the response of Tony Watts and his Svengali, Roger Pielke Sr. to the testimony yesterday of Richard Muller, the Svengali of the BEST project.
• 2011/03/31: Guardian(UK): Berkeley team announces early results from global warming review
• 2011/03/31: ERabett: BEST project at Berkeley
• 2011/03/31: LA Times: Berkeley scientists' climate data review puts them at center of national debate
  The head of the study, a longtime critic of the global warming consensus, will testify before a House panel. Leading climate scientists worry that the project, funded in part by an oil billionaire's foundation, has an agenda.
• 2011/03/29: ClimateP: Berkeley temperature team explains attack on its initial findings by WattsUpWithThat was pure fabrication

  Delving into the laws of thermodynamics this week:

• 2011/04/03: TSoD: Understanding Atmospheric Radiation and the "Greenhouse" Effect -- Part Ten

  John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:

• 2011/04/01: SkeptiSci: Crux of a Core, Part 3... Dr. Ole Humlum by Rob Honeycutt
• 2011/03/31: SkeptiSci: Debunking Climate Myths from Politicians by dana1981
• 2011/03/31: SkeptiSci: Acidification: Oceans past, present & yet to come by Rob Painting
• 2011/03/30: SkeptiSci: Understanding Solar Evolution Part 2: Planets by Chris Colose
• 2011/03/30: SkeptiSci: Arctic Ice March 2011 by logicman
• 2011/03/29: SkeptiSci: Muller Misinformation #1: confusing Mike's trick with hide the decline
• 2011/03/29: SkeptiSci: The Day After McLean by dana1981
• 2011/03/28: SkeptiSci: Dana's 50th: Why I Blog by dana1981

  Late Comment on Earth Hour:

• 2011/03/28: ABC(Au): Hunter residents save power during Earth Hour
  Energy company Ausgrid says an outstanding Earth Hour result in the Lower Hunter at the weekend is proof residents are keen to reduce their carbon footprint. There was a 17 per cent drop in the region's power use between 8:30 pm and 9:30 pm on Saturday night.
• 2011/03/28: TreeHugger: Earth Hour Barely Noticed This Year [in Toronto]

  The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:

• 2011/04/01: ASI: SIE 2011 update 3: End of March
• 2011/03/30: ASI: MODIS mode is ON
• 2011/03/29: ClimateSight: In Other News...
• 2011/03/28: CCP: Benjamin Rabe et al., Deep Sea Research 58 (February 2011), An assessment of Arctic Ocean freshwater content changes from the 1990s to the 2006-2008 period
• 2011/03/28: WHOI: Study Sheds Light on How Heat is Transported to Greenland Glaciers

  As for the charismatic megafauna:

• 2011/04/01: CBC: Quebec hunters kill 12 times more polar bears [47 bears killed, average is 4 per year]

  A couple of IPY retrospectives:

• 2011/03/28: WMO: Summary of International Polar Year -- Polar research boosts understanding of our climate and global environment
• 2011/03/29: NatureTGB: What International Polar Year discovered

  While in Antarctica:

• 2011/03/28: Eureka: Icebergs in the Antarctic play important role in carbon cycle

  The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2011/04/01: WFP: New Ambassador 'Strombo' Reports On Hunger In Pakistan
• 2011/04/02: WFP: Horn Of Africa: "5 Million Driven Into Hunger"
• 2011/04/02: UN: UN appeals for more funds to help millions of drought-hit people in Horn of Africa
• 2011/04/01: PlanetArk: U.S. Farmers Going All Out, But Grain Bins Thinner
  U.S. farmers say they will plant some of the biggest corn and soybean crops ever this spring, racing to keep pace with unrelenting global demand that's rapidly depleting stockpiles and driving up food costs. A government survey found corn plantings would be the second-largest since World War Two and soybeans the third highest ever. But traders focused on a companion report that showed unexpectedly small stockpiles, sending corn prices up by 5 percent. Wheat and soybeans surged more than 3 percent. "We are not going to run out of (corn and soybeans) but we are in a very tight situation," said Joe Glauber, Agriculture Department chief economist, in an Insider interview. The USDA reports underscored that U.S. farmers are reaching the limits of arable land in the world's biggest crop exporter, with increased corn crowding out soybeans and cotton. Spring wheat sowing, while among the biggest in decades, could yet shrink.
• 2011/03/31: UN: UN warns of climate change's potentially dire impact on food security
• 2011/03/31: Eureka: Hunger in North America: Risky environments for children and their families -- Researchers examine programs aimed at reducing food insecurity
• 2011/03/30: UN: More than 8 million East Africans in need of food aid due to drought, UN reports
• 2011/03/29: BPA: More Predictions About Climate Change and Agricultural Production
• 2011/03/29: NYT:CW: Where Will 'Amber Waves of Grain' Grow in a Climate-Changed World?
• 2011/03/27: Newswise: Global Crunch in Supplies of Key Fertilizer Could Threaten Food Supply and Raise Prices

  Food Prices are still rising:

• FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
• 2011/04/02: TreeHugger: Corn Price Bubble Could Bring Troubles
• 2011/03/31: BBerg: Grains, Soybeans Surge as U.S. Crop Outlook Signals Increasing Food Costs
• 2011/03/31: UN: High food prices keep millions in Asia-Pacific region in poverty - UN

  The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

• 2011/03/30: Maribo: Food prices and the ongoing biofuel debate
• 2011/03/29: BPA: How the Ethanol Program Contributes to Higher Food Costs for Consumers World Wide
• 2011/03/29: EnergyBulletin: Biofuels vs. animal feed

  Those usually overlooked ecological services that will affect agriculture:

• 2011/03/31: USGS: Bats Worth Billions to Agriculture: Pest-control Services at Risk
• 2011/04/01: PlanetArk: Saving Bats Could Prevent Huge U.S. Farming Losses
  America's bats are dying in their hundreds of thousands due to a mysterious illness called white-nose syndrome, and efforts to save them could prevent billions of dollars in agricultural losses, scientists say. In a paper published in the journal Science, bat researchers estimated that a single colony of 150 brown bats in the U.S. state of Indiana eats around 1.3 million pest insects a year, and that the value of such bats to agriculture may be around $22.9 billion a year.
• 2011/03/29: NatureTGB: Ants and termites increase crop yields

  Regarding the genetic modification of food:

• 2011/04/03: TreeHugger: International Seed Day Reminds Us To Choose Patent-Free Seeds
• 2011/04/02: CO2Art: GMOs Force Farmers into Pre-emptive Lawsuit vs Monsanto
• 2011/03/30: CornucopiaNews: Farmers and Seed Producers Launch Preemptive Strike against Monsanto
• 2011/04/01: PlanetArk: Analysis: More Africa Countries Seen Growing GM Crops
• 2011/03/31: Grist: Reversing roles, farmers sue Monsanto over GMO seeds
• 2011/04/01: TreeHugger: Organic Farmers Sue Monsanto over GM Seed
• 2011/03/29: PubPat: Monsanto Seed Patents
• 2011/03/30: ScienceInsider: Patent Foe Sues Monsanto on Modified Crops
• 2011/03/28: CBC: New GMO crop worries organic farmers
  Alberta's farmers are getting ready to plant their crops for another growing season, but some organic growers are more concerned about a new crop being sown south of the border this year. The U.S. has just given the green light to plant genetically modified alfalfa. It's the first time a genetically modified perennial will be widely planted in North America.

And in Europe, cloned animals:

• 2011/03/30: PlanetArk: EU Talks On Food From Cloned Animals Collapse
• 2011/03/29: NatureN: Europe fails to reach deal on cloned meat -- EU bodies at odds over the labelling and sale of products from clones and their descendants
• 2011/03/29: EurActiv: Novel foods review stumbles over cloning
• 2011/03/29: EUO: Dolly scientist rejects cloning for food, as EU talks break down
  Long-running EU negotiations on 'novel foods' have ended in acrimony, with MEPs and member states diverging over the issue of labeling food produced from the offspring of cloned animals. At the same time, the scientist behind the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, Dolly the sheep, told EUobserver by telephone on Tuesday (29 March) that cloning for food is hard to justify.

And how are we going to feed 9 billion?

• 2011/04/01: Eureka: Research on satellite imagery aims to advance sustainable agriculture -- Artificial neural network model proves accurate in classification study
• 2011/04/01: CCurrents: Organic Farming Just As Productive As Conventional, And Better At Building Soil, Rodale [Institute] Finds
• 2011/03/31: Guardian(UK): Insects will be important part of UK diet by 2020, says scientist
• 2011/03/30: EnergyBulletin: The local food revolution
• 2011/03/30: UN: UN seed investment in Pakistan yields four times its value in crops
• 2011/03/29: AlterNet: Garden As If Your Life Depended On It, Because It Does
• 2011/03/29: ASA: Improve Crop Yield by Removing Manure Solids -- Low-cost removal of slurry solids also a creates a higher nitrogen to phosphorus ratio
• 2011/03/29: Eureka: Calculating livestock numbers by weather and climate [using the GPFARM (Great Plains Framework for Agricultural Resource Management)-Range computer model]

  Only a couple of numbered storms this week, with some analysis:

• 2011/04/03: Wunderground: The global tropical cyclone season of 2010: record inactivity
• 2011/04/01: PlanetArk: Accuweather Sees Above-Average '11 Hurricane Season
• 2011/03/27: Wunderground: Hurricanes Igor and Tomas get their names retired

  As for GHGs:

• 2011/04/01: UN: UN unveils report on size and scale of its carbon footprint
• 2011/03/29: GreenGrok: The Human CO2 Legacy Keeps Going and Going and Going
• 2011/04/01: PlanetArk: UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions Up 2.8 Percent In 2010
• 2011/03/31: DOE:EIA: [link to 1.3 meg pdf] Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the U. S.
• 2011/03/31: TCoE: Doc alert: Greenhouse gas emissions in the US
• 2011/03/31: Guardian(UK): UK greenhouse gas emissions rise [2.8% in 2010]
• 2011/03/29: PlanetArk: EU Commission To Release 2010 [EU-ETS] Emissions Data Apr 1

  As for the temperature record:

• 2011/04/02: CCP: The updated scariest graph you will ever see, the MSU/AMSU Channel TLT Brightness Temperature Anomaly by latitute over time

  Yes we have feedbacks:

• 2011/03/29: ClimateP: Study: Climate-driven vegetation change by boreal forests is yet another positive, amplifying feedback

  Aerosols are making their presence felt:

• 2011/04/02: SkeptiSci: Soot and global warming by Sarah

  Clouds (including artificial ones) are a major uncertainty in climate. Much research revolves around them:

• 2011/03/31: KSJT: Lots of Ink: Airplanes' contrails warm the planet more than their CO2 does
• 2011/03/30: ClimateP: Nature surprise: Aircraft contrails "may be causing more climate warming today than all the carbon dioxide emitted by aircraft since the start of aviation."
• 2011/03/30: PlanetArk: Aircraft Contrails Stoke Warming, Cloud Formation
• 2011/03/29: SciNow: Jet Contrails a Big Global Warmer

  The ozone layer is still under threat:

• 2011/03/30: ClimateSight: Ozone Depletion and Climate Change

  While in the paleoclimate:

• 2011/04/01: ABC(Au): Cave fossils to help paint climate change picture
  This year's Palaeontology Week will feature a research project that is analysing the effects of climate change over the past 50,000 years.
• 2011/04/01: NatureN: The drying of East Africa -- A shift in tropical ocean circulations [2 mya] could explain a historical shift in global climate
• 2011/03/30: NatureTGB: Fossil flower fills evolutionary knowledge gap
• 2011/03/29: SciNews: Climate meddling dates back 8,000 years -- Cutting down trees put carbon in the atmosphere long before the industrial revolution

  Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

• 2011/04/01: Eureka: Research on satellite imagery aims to advance sustainable agriculture -- Artificial neural network model proves accurate in classification study
• 2011/03/31: Guardian(UK): GOCE satellite maps the Earth's gravity in unprecedented precision
• 2011/03/30: Wunderground: Failure of Glory satellite a major loss for climate change science

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2011/04/01: TreeHugger: Climate Change Now! Birds Start Migrating Later & Plants Releasing Less Water Into Atmosphere
• 2011/03/31: PostMedia: B.C.'s sockeye salmon may not survive climate warming: study
  Canadian "superfish" are making an international splash this week. A prime specimen has landed on the cover of one of the world's most influential scientific journals, along with a study showing some of British Columbia's fabled sockeye salmon may not survive climate warming. Peak summer water temperatures in the Fraser River are already "near lethal" for some sockeye populations, says biologist Erika Eliason, lead author of the study that is sure to raise eyebrows at the ongoing federal judicial inquiry into the troubled Fraser River fishery. The salmon are so finely tuned to their environment they appear to undergo "cardiac collapse" when river temperatures get too high, Eliason and her colleagues from the University of B.C. and Fisheries and Oceans Canada report Friday in the journal Science.
• 2011/03/31: CBC: Strong salmon hearts may hedge against climate change
• 2011/03/31: SciNow: Some Salmon Can Take the Heat
• 2011/03/30: Eureka: Smithsonian scientists find declining rainfall is a major influence for migrating birds
• 2011/03/30: Eureka: Warm water causes extra-cold winters in northeastern North America and northeastern Asia
• 2011/03/28: JuneauEmpire: Warming brings unwelcome change to Alaska villages [beavers]
• 2011/03/28: SMandia: Presentation: Impacts of Climate Change on Nature

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2011/04/03: TreeHugger: Saving Ethiopia's 'Church Forests': Embattled Islands of Biodiversity in a Denuded Landscape
• 2011/04/01: CBC: Brazil banks sued for Amazon deforestation
• 2011/03/30: NewKerala: NASA detect extensive drought impact on Amazon forests
  A new NASA-funded study has revealed widespread reductions in the greenness of the forests in the vast Amazon basin in South America caused by the record-breaking drought of 2010.
• 2011/03/30: ClassM: The fate of the Amazon is in doubt
• 2011/03/30: NatureN: Canadian forest deal at risk -- Pact to preserve vast swathe of wilderness faces reluctance from industry and resistance from native groups
• 2011/03/30: PostMedia: North Delta biologist: Massive clearcut 'a real kick in the gut'
  It's a heartbreaking sight for North Delta residents who played as children in the forests and gullies along the Fraser River. Great swaths of tall trees have been cut down to make way for the South Fraser Perimeter Road, transforming the once lush hillside to a scene reminiscent of the cratered war fields of 1917 Belgium. Locals knew it was going to happen, but to actually see the extensive clear-cutting, and the mud and wreckage the machinery has left behind, is hard to take in.
• 2011/03/29: Eureka: Satellites show effect of 2010 drought on Amazon forests...widespread reductions in the greenness...
• 2011/03/24: UVaToday: Russian Boreal Forests Undergoing Vegetation Change, Study Shows
  Russia's boreal forest -- the largest continuous expanse of forest in the world, found in the country's cold northern regions -- is undergoing an accelerating large-scale shift in vegetation types as a result of globally and regionally warming climate.

This week in extreme weather:

• 2011/04/01: CCP: Extreme weather events becoming more common in the Northern Hemisphere

  Corals are dying:

• 2011/03/30: USGS: 2,000 Year-old Deep-sea Black Corals call Gulf of Mexico Home
• 2011/04/02: CSM: 2,000-year-old coral found near BP well site
• 2011/03/31: ClimateShifts: NOAA Coral Reef Watch Virtual Stations
• 2011/04/01: TreeHugger: Corals Packing Up and Moving North To Escape Warming

  Sea levels are rising:

• 2011/03/31: Tamino: So What? [Houston & Dean]

  These 100, 200, 500 year storms are becoming all too frequent:

• 2011/04/02: CCP: Thailand Flooding Impacts Nearly One Million: 50 inches of rain fall in one week, normal monthly average is 1-3 inches
• 2011/03/31: Wunderground: Torrential rains of 40+ inches deluge Thailand

  As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

• 2011/04/01: Tamino: Northeast U.S. Snowfall
• 2011/03/30: EarthTimes: Mudslide kills 10 in flood-hit southern Thailand
• 2011/03/30: BBC: Thailand tourist islands flood in deadly rains
  Severe flooding across the south of Thailand has killed at least 15 people and stranded thousands of tourists.
• 2011/03/29: EarthTimes: Eleven dead as Thailand hit by floods and cold spell
• 2011/03/28: EarthTimes: Floods kill six in southern Thailand

  Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2011/03/30: Guardian(UK): Gas emissions reduced by changing farm animal diet says study
• 2011/03/30: BBC: UK study looks to serve cows and sheep burp-free fodder
  UK scientists have been looking at how changes to the diet of cows and sheep could help reduce the animals' greenhouse gas emissions.

Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2011/04/01: CalcRisk: U.S. Light Vehicle Sales 13.1 million SAAR in March

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

• 2011/04/02: ClimateP: Green Roofs
• 2011/04/01: Tyee: Greening Homes Can Be Big Boost to Economy
  As US programs show, Canada could 'win-win-win' by doing more to help homeowners retrofit.
• 2011/04/01: TCoE: Doc alert: Buildings Energy Data Book
• 2011/03/29: TreeHugger: Lipstick On A Pig Dept: KB Homes Slapping Solar on California Subdivision
• 2011/03/29: TreeHugger: Architect Frank Harmon On The Modern Myths of Green Design
• 2011/03/29: BBC: [UN-Habitat] report: Cities ignore climate change at their peril
  Urban areas are set to become the battleground in the global effort to curb climate change, the UN has warned.

Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2011/03/31: AGWObserver: Papers on geoengineering

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2011/03/29: NERC:NORA: Multi-annual changes of NOx emissions in megacity regions: nonlinear trend analysis of satellite measurement based estimates by I.B. Konovalov et al.
• 2011/03/29: NERC:NORA: The response of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and the ecosystem carbon balance to experimental drought in a temperate shrubland by A. Sowerby et al.
• 2011/04/01: GMDD: The HadGEM2 family of Met Office Unified Model Climate configurations by The HadGEM2 Development Team
• 2011/04/01: ACP: Synergetic monitoring of Saharan dust plumes and potential impact on surface: a case study of dust transport from Canary Islands to Iberian Peninsula by C. Córdoba-Jabonero et al.
• 2011/04/01: ACP: Microphysical and radiative effects of aerosols on warm clouds during the Amazon biomass burning season as observed by MODIS: impacts of water vapor and land cover by J. E. Ten Hoeve et al.
• 2011/03/31: GMDD: The HadGEM2-ES implementation of CMIP5 centennial simulations by C. D. Jones et multi al.
• 2011/03/28: CP: Fingerprints of changes in the terrestrial carbon cycle in response to large reorganizations in ocean circulation by A. Bozbiyik et al.
• 2011/03/31: CPD: Holocene vegetation and biomass changes on the Tibetan Plateau -- a model-pollen data comparison by A. Dallmeyer et al.
• 2011/03/30: CPD: NALPS: a precisely dated European climate record 120-60 ka by R. Boch et al.
• 2011/03/31: TC: Present dynamics and future prognosis of a slowly surging glacier by G. E. Flowers et al.
• 2011/04/01: Science: (ab$) Differences in Thermal Tolerance Among Sockeye Salmon Populations by Erika J. Eliason et al.
• 2011/03/28: ACP: Long-term analysis of carbon dioxide and methane column-averaged mole fractions retrieved from SCIAMACHY by O. Schneising et al.
• 2011/03/30: ACPD: Reanalysis of tropospheric sulphate aerosol and ozone for the period 1980-2005 using the aerosol-chemistry-climate model ECHAM5-HAMMOZ by L. Pozzoli et al.
• 2011/03/29: ACPD: Dehydration of the stratosphere by M. Schoeberl & A. Dessler
• 2011/03/28: ACPD: The H2O-O2 water vapour complex in the Earth's atmosphere by Y. Kasai et al.
• 2011/03/31: AGWObserver: Papers on geoengineering
• 2011/02/17: ESDD: Soil temperature response to 21st century global warming: the role of and some implications for peat carbon in thawing permafrost soils in North America by D. Wisser et al.
• 2011/01/25: ESDD: Spectral solar irradiance and its entropic effect on Earth's climate by W. Wu et al.
• 2011/02/23: ESD: Entropy production and multiple equilibria: the case of the ice-albedo feedback by C. Herbert et al.
• 2011/03/08: ESD: Climate change under a scenario near 1.5 °C of global warming: monsoon intensification, ocean warming and steric sea level rise by J. Schewe et al.
• 2011/02/11: ESD: Estimating maximum global land surface wind power extractability and associated climatic consequences by L. M. Miller et al.
• 2011/03/29: PNAS: (ab$) Identifying governance strategies that effectively support ecosystem services, resource sustainability, and biodiversity by R. E. Kenward et al.
• 2011/03/29: PNAS: (ab$) Climate-related disaster opens a window of opportunity for rural poor in northeastern Honduras by Kendra McSweeney & Oliver T. Coomes
• 2011/03/29: PNAS: (ab$) New host for carbon in the deep Earth by Eglantine Boulard et al.
• 2011/03/29: PNAS: (ab$) Oxygen isotopes of East Asian dinosaurs reveal exceptionally cold Early Cretaceous climates by Romain Amiot et al.
• 2011/03/28: OS: Multifractal analysis of oceanic chlorophyll maps remotely sensed from space by L. de Montera et al.
• 2011/03/29: TC: Isotope hydrological studies of the perennial ice deposit of Saarhalle, Mammuthöhle, Dachstein Mts, Austria by Z. Kern et al.
• 2011/03/29: TC: Co-registration and bias corrections of satellite elevation data sets for quantifying glacier thickness change by C. Nuth & A. Kääb
• 2011/03/29: TC: Ice-stream response to ocean tides and the form of the basal sliding law by G. H. Gudmundsson
• 2011/03/28: AGWObserver: New research from last week 12/2011

  And other significant documents:

• 2011/04/01: PI: [link to 585k pdf] Federal election 2011: A checklist for clean energy success
• 2011/03/31: DOE:EIA: [link to 1.3 meg pdf] Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the U. S.
• 2011/03/29: Pew: [link to 6.8 meg pdf] Who's Winning the Clean Energy Race? 2010 Edition
• 2011/03/29: TCoE: Doc alert: One billion people without enough water by 2050
• 2011/03/29: UNHabitat: [many pdf links] Global Report on Human Settlements 2011 - Cities and Climate Change

  As for miscellaneous science:

• 2011/04/01: MGS: Says who? I think citations are a greatly underappreciated part of scientific works.
• 2011/03/30: Eureka: Study: Emissions trading doesn't cause pollution 'hot spots'
• 2011/03/28: ScienceInsider: Royal Society Report Documents Globalization of Science
• 2011/03/29: RealClimate: Making climate science more useful [CORDEX]
• 2011/03/28: IsaacHeld: 6. Transient response to the well-mixed greenhouse gases
• 2011/03/28: NatureN: Marine microbes digest plastic -- A 'little world' eating ocean garbage might be a mixed blessing

  More DIY science:

• 2011/03/30: CC&G: Comparison of UAH and RSS Time Series with Common Baseline

  Regarding the Pigasus Awards:

• 2011/04/01: ERabett: NASA scientist Richard Hoover wins Pigasus Award
• 2011/04/01: LA Times: Dr. Oz, Andrew Wakefield and others, um, 'honored' by James Randi
  We doubt that either Dr. Oz or Andrew Wakefield will be proudly displaying these honors on their mantelpieces: Both received "Pigasus Awards" this April 1 from the James Randi Educational Foundation for the dubious honor of being among the "5 worst promoters of nonsense."

Regarding Hansen:

• 2011/03/29: ClimateP: NASA's James Hansen: "One sure bet is that this decade will be the warmest" on record

  Regarding Muller:

• 2011/03/28: ClimateP: Koch-funded scientist Richard Muller makes up story about Al Gore, Ralph Cicerone, and polar bears

  There is a steady dribble of 2012 Rio Conference news releases:

• 2011/03/31: Guardian(UK): Will Rio+20 squander green legacy of the original Earth summit?

  While at the UN:

• 2011/04/01: UNEP: UNEP and WFP combine forces by signing agreement
• 2011/04/01: UNEP: Secretary-General welcomes new report on efforts to green the UN
• 2011/03/28: EurActiv: UN nature panel to be launched in autumn
  A new UN body advising governments on how to tackle biodiversity loss and protect so-called "ecosystem services" will be officially launched in early October. The first plenary meeting of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) will take place during the first week of October in Nairobi, Kenya. The new body, modelled on the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is expected to provide world governments with "authoritative" scientific information. This in turn should produce more informed decision-making to help safeguard nature and ecosystems.

How will Carbon Labelling work?

• 2011/03/29: Eureka: Nature paper calls for carbon labeling -- Authors say labeling will help consumers, manufacturers make environmentally friendly choices

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

• 2011/03/31: Belfer: A Wave of the Future: International Linkage of National Climate Change Policies

  Meanwhile on the international political front:

• 2011/03/28: PlanetArk: EU Finds U.S. [& Canadian] Evasion Of Biodiesel Tax: Sources
• 2011/03/28: HotTopic: Umm, a Gummer and carbon nonsense
• 2011/03/27: NBF: Yale study estimates global use of Rare Earths

  It's an energy race! No, it's an investment race! No, it's an education race!

• 2011/03/31: PlanetArk: China Leads Challenge To "Scientific Superpowers"
• 2011/03/30: KSJT: Reuters, BBC, USA Today, etc: China's rise in science. India too. Don't forget Brazil
• 2011/03/29: EarthTimes: China, Germany beat US in clean tech investment
• 2011/03/29: Pew: Who's Winning the Clean Energy Race? 2010 Edition
• 2011/03/29: BBC: China tops global clean energy table
  China remains the world's leading investor in low-carbon energy technology, a global study has shown. The table, published by the US Pew Environment Group, showed that the Chinese invested $54.4bn (£34.1bn) in 2010, up from $39.1bn in 2009. While the US saw investment increase by 51% to $34bn, it still slipped from 2nd to 3rd in the ranking, behind Germany's $41.2bn. However, the UK slipped outside the top 10 as investment fell by 70% in 2010. Globally, the sector - which does not include nuclear power - attracted $243bn of investment, a 30% increase from 2009 and a whopping 630% rise since 2004.
• 2011/03/29: Guardian(UK): UK slips down global green investment rankings
  Britain falls from third to 13th place in league table of countries investing in alternative energy and clean technology
• 2011/03/29: ClimateP: United States slipped to third in clean energy race
• 2011/03/29: SacBee: U.S. falls further behind in clean-energy projects, report says
  The United States is falling further behind China in the race to develop renewable-energy projects, just as major Chinese companies are establishing a foothold in California's fast-growing green economy. In a study released today, the Pew Charitable Trusts said China invested a record $54.4 billion in wind, solar and other green projects in 2010, a 39 percent increase from the year-earlier period. The U.S. invested significantly less -- $34 billion -- in clean energy last year, coming in third behind Germany's $41 billion. The United States last held the top spot in 2008.
• 2011/03/28: BBC: China 'to overtake US on science' in two years

  The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world:

• 2011/03/30: ABC(Au): Activist arrested at coal seam gas blockade
  Environmental activist Drew Hutton has been granted bail after his arrest at an anti-coal seam gas blockade on Queensland's Western Downs yesterday.

Polls! We have polls!

• 2011/03/30: PlanetArk: U.S. Public Support For More Nuclear Power Slips
• 2011/03/27: IBTimes: Americans Favor Moratorium On New Nuclear Reactors

  Regarding Water Politics and Business:

• 2011/04/02: JFleck: River Beat: About that "Law of the River" thing...
• 2011/03/30: ACS: Musseling Out Algae -- Water Quality: Invasive mussels may turn the Great Lakes into a biological desert
• 2011/04/01: JFleck: Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: Dry Year on the Rio Grande
• 2011/04/01: JFleck: River Beat: Rethinking the Law of the River
• 2011/03/31: JFleck: River Beat: Yuma Plant Completes Pilot Run
• 2011/03/31: JFleck: Drought's Over
• 2011/03/28: ABC(Au): Environmental concerns delay Laos superdam
  A key decision on the first dam proposed for the lower main stream of the Mekong River has been delayed, after hundreds of environmental organisations raised last-minute concerns.
• 2011/03/28: JFleck: Water: It's All About the Governance

  Among the world's religions:

• 2011/03/29: TreeHugger: Stewardship Over Creation: Christianity & The Environment

  And on the American political front:

• 2011/04/03: ClimateP: Downplaying or remaining silent about climate change was and is a blunder for progressives
• 2011/04/01: TreeHugger: For the Last Time: Drill, Baby, Drilling Will Not Lower Gas Prices
• 2011/04/01: Grist: Startling new report shines light on farm labor conditions --- and they ain't good
• 2011/03/28: GreenGrok: Look Who's Derailing High-Speed Rail
• 2011/04/01: ClimateP: Grand Oil Party continues drumbeat that only 'drill, baby, drill' will lower gas prices
• 2011/04/01: NYT:CW: State Legislatures Pile Onto Anti-EPA Climate Rule Effort
• 2011/03/31: Berkeley: The Republican ignorance agenda
• 2011/03/30: ProPublica: While Nuclear Waste Piles Up in U.S., Billions in Fund to Handle It Sit Unused
• 2011/03/31: PlanetArk: California Lawmakers Pass Higher Clean Energy Goal
• 2011/03/30: ProPublica: Pennsylvania Limits Authority of Oil and Gas Inspectors
• 2011/03/30: UCSUSA: Hundreds of Scientists Denounce Congress' Attempt to Undermine Endangered Species Act
• 2011/03/30: AutoBG: New Hampshire votes to ban corn ethanol; Renewable Fuels Association [RFA] not pleased
• 2011/03/28: BPA: What is Wrong with Current Ag Policy?
• 2011/03/30: LA Times: California Assembly OKs increased renewable energy requirement
  The mandate, now headed for governor's desk, would require utilities to increase renewable energy sources to 33% by 2020
• 2011/03/28: TreeHugger: Newt Gingrich's Flip Flops Reveal GOP's Legacy of Shifting Stances on Climate
• 2011/03/28: TreeHugger: Coalition that Defeated Prop 23 Reunites to Push for Clean Energy, Green Jobs
• 2011/03/29: TreeHugger: When Food Is High, Corn Gets Political & The Crazy Get Going
• 2011/03/28: PortlandTrib: State greenhouse gas goals could increase driving costs -- Friday summit to explore possible actions to reduce climate change
  Oregon is about to enter a new chapter in its environmental history with the adoption of state rules requiring an overall reduction in motor vehicle emissions
• 2011/03/28: EnvEcon: Republicans for Environmental Progress: An Endangered Species
• 2011/03/28: EconView: Republicans and Environmental Progress
• 2011/03/28: ClimateP: Moms Clean Air Force founder explains how mercury poisoning works
• 2011/03/28: ClimateP: Gingrich's 20 years of global warming flip-flops
• 2011/03/26: STimes: Coal quandary as state considers shipping dirty fuel overseas
  Just as Washington is weaning itself off coal, two companies are pushing to make the state a leading exporter of the fossil fuel. That possibility has sparked a fierce debate: If coal is so dirty that Washington won't use it, should the state really serve as a conduit for shipping it overseas?

The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:

• 2011/03/31: DeSmogBlog: The Ticking Time Bombs In The Gulf of Mexico
• 2011/03/29: NatureTGB: Counting corpses underestimates Deepwater Horizon whale toll
• 2011/03/30: CBC: Gulf oil spill could net manslaughter charges
  People familiar with the probe into the Gulf oil spill say manslaughter and perjury are among possible charges being explored by U.S. Justice Department investigators. The sources say the manslaughter charges may be brought against companies or managers responsible for the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that killed 11 workers. The department is also examining congressional testimony by company executives, including former BP chief executive Tony Hayward, to determine whether their statements were truthful.
• 2011/03/29: Wonkette: The Gulf Coast: Come For the Dead Baby Dolphins, Stay and Get Sick
• 2011/03/28: ProPublica: Oil Exec Undercuts Criticism of Slow Approval Process for Deepwater Wells
• 2011/03/27: ClimateP: Blowout preventers used in ALL deep water drilling are "fundamentally flawed by design" - Maddow

  It's not that they don't understand how it looks; they just don't care:

• 2011/04/03: BBC: Transocean gives bonuses after Gulf of Mexico BP spill
  The offshore drilling firm responsible for running the Deepwater Horizon rig has given its top executives bonuses for its "best year" for safety.
• 2011/04/02: Bronte: When senior executive pay becomes parody: Transocean edition

  The Keystone XL pipeline debate continues:

• 2011/04/02: NYT: No to a New Tar Sands Pipeline
  Later this year, the State Department will decide whether to approve construction of a 1,700-mile oil pipeline from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast called Keystone XL. The underground 36-inch pipeline, built by TransCanada, would link the tar sands fields of northern Alberta to Texas refineries and begin operating in 2013. The department should say no.
• 2011/04/03: CCP: NYT Editorial: No to a New Tar Sands Pipeline (no to the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline)
• 2011/03/30: DeSmogBlog: Controversial TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline Criticized By U.S. Farmers and Mayors

  The 2012 election approacheth:

• 2011/03/29: ClimateP: Tim Pawlenty: "Every one of us" running for president has flip-flopped on climate change

  Speculation about White House and congressional compromises has been rampant:

• 2011/04/01: Grist: Environmentalists stand up to Obama, win big
  Under intense pressure from green groups and their members, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) announced Friday that Republican proposals to gut the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act were off the table in budget negotiations. "Neither the White House nor Senate Leaders is going to accept any EPA riders," Reid said.
• 2011/04/01: TreeHugger: Would You Trade the Endangered Species Act for a Clean Energy Revolution?
• 2011/04/01: SMandia: Tell White House: EPA Authority Over CO2 Must Not Be Compromised
• 2011/04/01: Grist: Should we compromise on key environmental laws to get greentech support? Alexis Madrigal wonders
• 2011/03/31: ClimateP: Will the White House agree to weaken EPA? Now everyone disputes the story
• 2011/03/31: WTelegram: Democrats may compromise on EPA
  Democrats indicated Tuesday they may be willing to accept Republican-backed curbs on the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal regulators as part of an overall deal on spending cuts, a rare hint of compromise in private negotiations marked by public rancor. There was no immediate reaction from the White House, although administration officials are working closely with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the secretive three-way talks that include House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. Any concession by Democrats on non-spending items would mark an attempt to persuade Republicans to accept smaller budget cuts than the $61 billion contained in legislation that passed the House last month.
• 2011/03/28: CSW: Will Senate Democrats stand up for EPA regulation of greenhouse gases -- or vote to block it?

  Obama gave a talk on energy this week to mostly negative reaction:

• 2011/04/01: BPA: Obama's Pipe Dream: Cellulosic Ethanol
• 2011/03/39: BPA: Obama's Plan for Reducing Energy Dependence: Increase Biofuels Production
• 2011/03/30: PI:B: Key to U.S. energy security is decreasing oil demand, not increasing oilsands supply
• 2011/04/01: EnergyBulletin: What President Obama should have said regarding energy policy
• 2011/04/01: KSJT: AAAS ScienceNOW: Obama and his speech writers on energy -- annotated
• 2011/03/31: KSJT: NYTimes: Big package on oil addiction and energy self-reliance. Plus Obama's speech on same.
• 2011/03/31: DM:80B: Obama's Energy Talk: New Ideas, or Same Old Song and Dance?
• 2011/03/31: G&M: Obama's oil independence speech no gift to Canada
• 2011/03/31: CBC: Obama's energy plan good news for Alberta
• 2011/03/31: NYT:GW: Greens See EPA-Sized Hole in Obama Energy Pivot
  For environmentalists fighting to save U.S. EPA regulatory authority from the budgetary chopping block, the most pivotal part of President Obama's energy speech yesterday was what it failed to mention. Obama called for greater use of natural gas vehicles and advanced biofuels yesterday while touting his administration's record on oil drilling and fuel efficiency. But nowhere in his 3,500-word address was a reference to the greenhouse gas emissions regulations facing threats on both sides of the Capitol this week in an epic battle for which many conservationists had hoped to see the White House suit up.
• 2011/03/31: CSM: Obama's latest vision on energy security
• 2011/03/31: ScienceInsider: Energy Expert Annotates Obama's Energy Speech
• 2011/03/30: NYT: An Energy Plan Derailed by Events Is Being Retooled
  In just over two years in the White House, President Obama has seen the major elements of his energy and climate-change strategy demolished by a succession of economic, political, technical and natural disasters.
• 2011/03/30: BizInsider: Obama Unveils His Plan To Massively Cut US Oil Imports (And Yes, It Includes Nuclear)
• 2011/03/30: BBC: Obama sets out energy future for less dependency on oil
  President Barack Obama has vowed to reduce US oil imports by one-third in little more than a decade.
• 2011/03/31: Guardian(UK): Obama calls for cut in US oil imports by a third
• 2011/03/30: CBC: Obama vows to cut oil imports by a third -- President cites Canada as energy partner
• 2011/03/30: TCoE: Obama's non-plan for reducing oil dependence
• 2011/03/30: ClimateP: In big energy speech today, Obama refuses to tell Americans which party has blocked fuel economy standards and demanded deep cuts in clean energy
• 2011/03/30: Grist: Obama's energy security plan lacks imagination, ambition, stones
• 2011/03/30: UCSUSA: President Obama Sets Vital National Oil Savings Goal
• 2011/03/30: TreeHugger: Obama's Energy Speech: Cut Oil Imports, Keep on Fracking, and Fire Up the Nuke Plants
• 2011/03/30: TreeHugger: Does Obama Have a 'Secret' Plan to Adapt Nation to Climate Change?
• 2011/03/30: EarthTimes: Obama sets goal to cut oil imports by one-third
• 2011/03/30: OilChange: Obama and energy security: another missed opportunity
• 2011/03/30: OilChange: Canadian Pipedream -- Why Canadian oil does not make America secure
• 2011/03/29: ClimateP: "All of the above" is no energy policy

  The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2011/03/28: CDreams: All the President's (Coal) Men -- Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Obama's Wyoming Giveaway
• 2011/03/28: Grist: Obama tells government to prepare for climate change, whether Congress likes it or not

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2011/03/30: CSW: Thomas Armstrong of Interior Dept announced as new Director of USGCRP Office
• 2011/03/30: PEER: NOAA scientific integrity plan has big gaps to fill in -- Unresolved Tension between Transparency and Management Content Control
• 2011/03/29: ClimateP: Editorials defending the EPA
• 2011/03/28: NSF: NSF Announces New Awards That Will Investigate More Efficient Ways to Harvest Sunlight to Make New Biofuels and Biomaterials
  Researchers used an "Ideas Lab" to generate potentially transformative projects and stimulate new approaches to a long-standing scientific problem U.S. and U.K. scientists aim to jointly develop new ways to boost the efficiency of photosynthesis.
• 2011/03/28: TreeHugger: Feds Lease Lots of Wyoming Coal & Grossly Inflate Projected Revenue From It

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2011/04/03: ClimateP: Rep. Graves calls GOP's billions in oil subsidies "market manipulation," forgets that he voted to extend them
• 2011/04/01: Grist: Anti-EPA House votes to let agribusiness dump pesticides in our water
• 2011/03/31: FDL: Michigan's Debbie Stabenow Falls Asleep, Becomes Climate Denier Pod Person
• 2011/03/31: BSD: Congressional Republicans admit they can't handle the truth
• 2011/04/01: ClimateP: USAID Administrator: GOP budget cuts would lead to the deaths of 70,000 children globally
• 2011/04/01: PlanetArk: Republicans In New Push To Drill In Alaska Reserve
• 2011/03/31: SF Gate: GOP trying to use tax law to limit abortions
• 2011/03/31: ClimateP: [Senator] Jim Webb (D-Va.) dead wrong on global warming pollution
• 2011/03/31: Grist: Sen. Stabenow jumps on climate denial train
  Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) has joined the pro-polluter frenzy sweeping the U.S. Senate, introducing legislation to permanently cripple Clean Air Act rules on global warming pollution.
• 2011/03/30: Guardian(UK): Senate vote may end Obama's climate change ambitions
  Four proposals seek to ban or limit US government's authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions
• 2011/03/30: ClimateP: Joe Barton claims that "Texas air quality is excellent" while leading the nation in carbon pollution
• 2011/03/30: PlanetArk: Senate Showdown Looms Over EPA Carbon Rules
• 2011/03/29: Berkeley: U.S. House of Representatives v. modern science
• 2011/03/27: ClimateP: Sen. Johnson's reaction to General Electric paying no taxes: Cut the corporate tax rate
• 2011/03/27: CSW: Will House negotiators in budget standoff continue effort to shut down biological and environmental research at DOE?
• 2011/03/27: CSW: The U.S. Congress has entered the anti-science intellectual wilderness of willful ignorance, says the science journal Nature
• 2011/03/28: DeSmogBlog: Get Ready for More Congressional Doubt-Mongering on Climate

  What are the lobbyists pushing?

• 2011/03/31: ClimateP: Clean energy companies call on Congress to save loan guarantee program
  34 companies and 7 associations write that the House proposal to kill the DOE loan guarantee program would cost thousands of jobs all across the country.
• 2011/03/30: ClimateP: Carbon pollution lobby launches anti-EPA blitz

  A House hearing on climate science this week drew scorn, anger and disbelief:

• 2011/04/03: ClimateP: For seventh straight hearing, House Natural Resources Committee shills for Big Oil
• 2011/03/31: DM:CCM: Kerry Emanuel's Powerful Testimony on Climate
• 2011/04/01: Grist: Science bites climate skeptics in the ass on the House floor
• 2011/03/31: NatureTGB: Berkeley scientist previews temperature analysis on Capitol Hill
• 2011/03/30: TPoCS: House Science Hearing to Face Real Time Rebuttal Through Web Portal
• 2011/03/31: BVerheggen: Commentary on US Committee hearing on climate change
• 2011/03/31: ClimateP: GOP's only scientists at 'Scopes' climate hearing are Richard Muller and John Christy. Go figure!
• 2011/03/31: LA Times: Berkeley scientists' climate data review puts them at center of national debate
  The head of the study, a longtime critic of the global warming consensus, will testify before a House panel. Leading climate scientists worry that the project, funded in part by an oil billionaire's foundation, has an agenda.
• 2011/03/29: CCP: House Science Hearing to Face Real Time Rebuttal Through Web Portal
  Congressional hearing: "Climate Change: Examining the Processes Used to Create Science and Policy," on March 31, 2011, to have real time commentary by leading climate scientists in order to correct misleading and inaccurate testimony -- available to journalists -- additionally, a teleconference follows hearing (with Kevin Trenberth, Andrew Dessler, and Gary Yohe)

The Cronon Affair looks to be another saga of Republican infamy:

• 2011/04/01: TPMDC: Univ. of Wisconsin Responds To GOP's Open-Records Request Against Professor
• 2011/03/29: CCP: Wisconsin: The Cronon Affair -- GOP Witch Hunters Go After Professor
• 2011/03/28: ClimateP: NY Times slams GOP's "petty and medieval" strategy to intimidate academics like Cronon and Mann
• 2011/03/25: EconBrowser: Bloggers Beware! (If You Work at a State University in Wisconsin)
• 2011/03/28: EconView: Paul Krugman: American Thought Police -- What happens to people who express views that the GOP's hard right doesn't like?

  While in the UK:

• 2011/04/02: OpenDem: Hi-Speed England by Anthony Barnett
• 2011/04/01: Eureka: Short rotation energy crops could help meet UK's renewable energy targets
  Planting short rotation energy crops on England's unused agricultural land could produce enough biomass to meet renewable energy targets without disrupting the food industry or the environment, according to research led by Professor Gail Taylor from the University of Southampton.
• 2011/03/31: Guardian(UK): Why David Cameron's 'nudge unit' is a waste of time for the environment

  And in Europe:

• 2011/04/01: EurActiv: EU officials to limit travel in drive to cut CO2, costs
• 2011/04/01: Eureka: Oil prices affect inflation in Spain more than in the euro zone
• 2011/03/30: PressEurop: Debate -- Why not a green grid and new nuclear?
• 2011/03/31: PlanetArk: Spain Regulator Halts Subsidies For 350 Solar Plants [of 1,001 inspected with 7,200 to go]
• 2011/03/31: EarthTimes:EU ministers sign off on watered-down limits for van emissions
  European Union transport ministers signed off Thursday on new carbon-dioxide (CO2) emission limits for vans, despite ferocious lobbying by the car industry against the measures. The new law forces all van makers to ensure that their vehicles emit less than 175 grams of CO2 per kilometre (g/km) by 2017, and reduce it to 147 g/km by 2020. Stricter limits are already in force for passenger cars. The law was approved last month by the European Parliament. The targets agreed by EU states and the parliament are less ambitious than the 135g/km for 2020 that the EU's executive, the European Commission, had proposed in 2009.
• 2011/03/30: EurActiv: EU carbon rules hinder Poland's plans for new coal power
  Poland appears to have lost its fight to exempt new coal-fired power stations from paying for European Union emissions permits, an EU document showed on Tuesday (29 March).
• 2011/03/29: EUO: Opposition to EU plan for petrol-car-free cities
  European cities should be free from petrol-fueled cars by 2050, the European Commission has said in a transport strategy document.
• 2011/03/29: NatureN: Europe fails to reach deal on cloned meat -- EU bodies at odds over the labelling and sale of products from clones and their descendants
• 2011/03/29: EurActiv: Novel foods review stumbles over cloning
• 2011/03/29: PlanetArk: Transport To Remain Big Polluter Under New EU Plan
• 2011/03/29: EarthTimes: [Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk] supports search for shale gas
• 2011/03/28: EarthTimes: EU eyes petrol car phase-out, rail enhancements to slash emissions
• 2011/03/28: EarthTimes: Business warns newly powerful Greens: limit German energy costs

  There is much nuclear controversy in Europe post-Fukushima:

• 2011/04/01: DerSpiegel: The World from Berlin -- Al-Qaida as a Justification for Merkel's Nuclear Phase-Out
  Must nuclear reactors be able to withstand a plane crash? Safety checks currently underway on Germany's 17 nuclear reactors will address exactly that question. For German commentators, it has long been clear that German facilities are vulnerable to such attacks -- and that Merkel is merely preparing the country for a rapid atomic phase-out.
• 2011/04/01 DerSpiegel: Radioactive Legal Battle -- Energy Firm RWE Sues Berlin Over Reactor Shutdown
  Chancellor Angela Merkel's temporary shutdown of seven nuclear reactors has landed in court. Energy giant RWE on Friday filed suit against Merkel's move, hampering her efforts to come up with a new policy on nuclear energy.
• 2011/03/29: PressEurop: Corporate panic over Green victory
• 2011/04/01: BBC: Nuclear energy firm RWE sues German state of Hesse
  German energy giant RWE is taking legal action against the state of Hesse after being ordered to shut down a nuclear power plant for three months.
• 2011/03/30: TreeHugger: Historic Election Results - What Does Green Party Win Mean for Germany?
• 2011/03/29: DerSpiegel: Fighting the Nuclear Shutdown -- German Reactor Operators Weigh Legal Action
  Following the center-right election debacle in state votes on Sunday, Chancellor Angela Merkel's government is moving to make the temporary shutdown of seven aging nuclear reactors permanent. But she may encounter stiff resistance from plant operators.
• 2011/03/29: DerSpiegel: The World From Berlin -- 'Can Germans Trust Merkel's About-Face on Nuclear Power?'
  Chancellor Angela Merkel says she has changed her mind about nuclear power following the Fukushima accident, and now intends to speed up plans to close down Germany's 17 reactors. Media commentators say she has no option but to turn her back on nuclear power. But how credible is her about-face?
• 2011/03/28: DerSpiegel: The New Green Mainstream -- A Seismic Shift in Germany's Political Landscape
  Some might argue that the Green Party's success in Sunday state elections was the direct result of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. But it's not. Germany's political landscape has changed dramatically in recent years. And the Greens have been the primary beneficiary.
• 2011/03/28: DerSpiegel: Massive Setback for Merkel -- Greens Score Big in Key German State
  It is being hailed as the start of a new political era in Germany. The Green Party looks set to appoint its first state governor after Sunday's election in the state of Baden-Württemberg. The result is a huge setback for Chancellor Angela Merkel.
• 2011/03/28: EurActiv: Japan, Libya events inflict electoral blow on Merkel
• 2011/03/28: EUO: Merkel suffers from nuclear fallout in key state election
• 2011/03/28: ScienceInsider: In German Elections, Major Research Region Goes Green
• 2011/03/27: Guardian(UK): German Greens hail state victory in vote overshadowed by Fukushima
  'Historic' first ever victory in regional Landtag vote - Chancellor suffers after U-turn on nuclear power

Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2011/04/03: ABC(Au): The new Labor Leader in New South Wales, John Robertson, has stopped short of backing the Federal Government's carbon tax plans
• 2011/04/03: JQuiggin: Menzies' heir
• 2011/03/31: ABC(Au):TDU: Environment laws won't save our farmers
• 2011/03/30: ABC(Au):TDU: I will defend to the death Bolt's right to wallow in the mire
• 2011/03/29: Deltoid: Tony Abbott gets his climate science from Andrew Bolt
• 2011/04/02: ABC(Au): Greens claim 'historic' Lower House victory
  The Greens have won their first seat in the New South Wales Lower House after Jamie Parker defeated former education minister Verity Firth in the inner-western seat of Balmain.
• 2011/04/01: ABC(Au): The Queensland Government's new coal seam gas (CSG) stakeholder group will meet for the first time in Dalby on the state's Darling Downs today
• 2011/03/31: WtD: Coming out of the wood work? John Quiggin asks a pertinent question about right-wing authoritarians in Australia
• 2011/03/30: ABC(Au): Climate change adviser to visit Latrobe Valley
  The Latrobe City Council has welcomed news that a key climate change adviser will visit the region next month. Professor Ross Garnaut has been commissioned by the Federal Government to assess the effects of climate change on the Australian economy.
• 2011/03/30: ABC(Au): Activist arrested at coal seam gas blockade
  Environmental activist Drew Hutton has been granted bail after his arrest at an anti-coal seam gas blockade on Queensland's Western Downs yesterday.
• 2011/03/29: ABC(Au): Bunbury has formed a partnership with neighbouring local governments to address climate change, after it was identified as one of the most vulnerable coastal areas in the nation
• 2011/03/29: ABC(Au): Call for councils to get climate change planning clarity
  An urban planning academic is calling on state and federal governments to clarify the impact of climate change on council planning decisions. Associate Professor Nicole Gurran from the University of Sydney has surveyed 30 coastal councils around Australia.
• 2011/03/29: ABC(Au): The Senate inquiry into the social and economic impacts of wind farms has concluded a hearing at Ballarat
• 2011/03/28: ABC(Au): Wind farm inquiry holds hearings in Ballarat
  A former resident of Waubra, near Ballarat, says he will present evidence to a senate inquiry today that proves a nearby wind farm has made him ill.
• 2011/03/27: WtD: We're being lead to disaster: talk back, think tanks, conservative journalists, the Liberals and big polluters would rather align themselves with the forces of hate (and see the planet burn) than accept the science

  The Australian carbon war rages on:

• 2011/04/03: PlanetJ: Zero Carbon Australia: We can do it
• 2011/04/02: Deltoid: Greg Hunt thinking outside the square
• 2011/04/02: ABC(Au): Combet plays down carbon cost fears
  Climate Change Minister Greg Combet is calling for calm after the release of figures showing the carbon tax could cost average households almost $900 a year.
  [...]
  But Mr Combet played down the importance of the figures, saying concerns were premature as the amount of $30 per tonne is not set in stone and the compensation package to households has not been worked out yet.
• 2011/04/02: PeakEnergy: Pollution Taxes Not Income Taxes - Mass Support For a Carbon Tax
• 2011/04/02: ABC(Au): Rival carbon tax rallies draw thousands
  Opposing sides of the debate on the carbon tax aired their views at two separate rallies in central Sydney on Saturday.
• 2011/04/02: ABC(Au): The Federal Government says it is too early to speculate how much the proposed carbon tax would increase household expenses...
• 2011/04/01: ABC(Au): The Nationals' Member for Morwell, Russell Northe, has criticised the Federal Government for failing to consult with the region over its carbon tax policy
• 2011/04/01: ABC(Au): Treasury releases carbon tax cost estimates
  Treasury documents predict householders could pay more than $860 a year under a $30 a tonne carbon tax.
• 2011/04/01: Deltoid: Two climate rallies in Sydney April 2
• 2011/03/30: ABC(Au): The Federal Government has used a meeting between Climate Change Minister Greg Combet and his Chinese counterpart to try to defuse Opposition claims of worldwide inaction on combating pollution
• 2011/03/30: PlanetArk: Australian Climate Adviser Urges Loan Guarantees For Generators
• 2011/03/29: ABC(Au): Prices will rise, with or without tax: Garnaut
  Professor Ross Garnaut says a price rise from a carbon tax will be small compared to the recent surge in power prices because of an over-investment in electricity networks. The Federal Government's key climate adviser says households on average will face a $5-a-week increase to their electricity bills.
• 2011/03/28: WtD: Dance with the devil: Tony Abbot may be backing away from last weeks protests, but is he aware of the antisemitic "flavour" of climate sceptic's rhetoric?
• 2011/03/29: NewsCorp: 1000-year vision fuels climate fight
  Tony Abbott has leapt on a declaration by Tim Flannery - Julia Gillard's hand-picked salesman for action on climate change - that emissions abatement is a 1000-year proposition to renew his attacks on Labor's proposed carbon tax.
• 2011/03/28: KSJT: The Australian: Gov't critic says it'll take 1000 years to stop climate change, so why go to the bother?

  The Murray-Darling Basin Plan controversy lingers:

• 2011/04/01: ABC(Au): Adelaide has wettest start to year...reservoirs are at 73 per cent...
• 2011/03/30: ABC(Au): Murray Darling Basin Authority chair in Menindee
  The new chair of the Murray Darling Basin Authority will visit Menindee today, to talk face to face with local stakeholders. Regional Development Australia Far West hope the meeting with Craig Knowles will help him and other members of the Authority to understand the issues people face in Menindee.
• 2011/03/29: ABC(Au): Riverina councils have welcomed a flying visit to the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area by the new chairman of the Murray Darling Basin Authority

  And in New Zealand:

• 2011/03/31: EarthTimes: New Zealand aims for 50-per-cent greenhouse gas cuts [from 1990 levels by 2050]

  While in China:

• 2011/04/01: Grist: China charges up the on-ramp of the electric highway

  In Canada, climate change has barely been mentioned so far in the May 2nd election campaign:

• 2011/04/01: PI:B: Pembina's federal election checklist: campaigning for the climate and clean energy
• 2011/04/01: PI: [link to 585k pdf] Federal election 2011: A checklist for clean energy success
• 2011/03/31: PI: Pembina reacts to NDP announcement on fossil fuel subsidies and clean energy
• 2011/04/01: Tyee: Greening Homes Can Be Big Boost to Economy
  As US programs show, Canada could 'win-win-win' by doing more to help homeowners retrofit.
• 2011/04/02: Rabble:BP: Election 2011: Renewable energy not fighter jets
• 2011/03/31: CBC: Layton would slash oilsands subsidies

  The G20 controversy lingers:

• 2011/04/01: CBC: G8/G20 security firm charged for licence violations -- Several violations by firm's staff: OPP

  The Greens are fighting for recognition:

• 2011/04/03: PostMedia: May going to court over debate exclusion -- Legal appeal to be heard on Tuesday
  Green party leader Elizabeth May's battle to be included in the leaders' televised election debates will take its next step Tuesday. Lawyer Peter Rosenthal will appear Tuesday morning, on behalf of May, before the Federal Court of Appeal in Ottawa. The Court will determine whether it will hear May's application. As it stands, only the leaders of the four other major parties have been invited to participate in the debates, which are slated for April 12 (English) and 14 (French).
• 2011/03/31: PostMedia: Environmental apathy stunts growth of Greens

  The battle over the Keystone XL and Northern Gateway pipelines rages on:

• 2011/04/02: NYT: No to a New Tar Sands Pipeline
  Later this year, the State Department will decide whether to approve construction of a 1,700-mile oil pipeline from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast called Keystone XL. The underground 36-inch pipeline, built by TransCanada, would link the tar sands fields of northern Alberta to Texas refineries and begin operating in 2013. The department should say no.
• 2011/04/03: CCP: NYT Editorial: No to a New Tar Sands Pipeline (no to the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline)
• 2011/03/30: DeSmogBlog: Controversial TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline Criticized By U.S. Farmers and Mayors

  The privatization of AECL lurks in the background:

• 2011/03/30: CBC: AECL woes could spell end of Canada's reactor business

  There are reports the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement is in doubt:

• The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement
• 2011/03/30: NatureN: Canadian forest deal at risk -- Pact to preserve vast swathe of wilderness faces reluctance from industry and resistance from native groups

  With the Liberals choosing Clark and the NDP to decide on April 17, how long until the election?

• 2011/03/30: PostMedia: North Delta biologist: Massive clearcut 'a real kick in the gut'

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2011/03/30: PI:B: Key to U.S. energy security is decreasing oil demand, not increasing oilsands supply
• 2011/03/31: G&M: Obama's oil independence speech no gift to Canada
• 2011/03/31: CBC: Obama's energy plan good news for Alberta
• 2011/03/31: DeSmogBlog: European Union Pushing Back on Canada's Taxpayer Funded Tar Sands Lobbying
• 2011/03/30: OilChange: Canadian Pipedream -- Why Canadian oil does not make America secure
• 2011/03/29: Tyee: Alberta's Hired Gun in Washington
  Meet Paul Frazer, the high-powered lobbyist paid by the province to portray an oil sands industry striving to be green.
• 2011/03/30: Tyee: War Cry of Oil Sands Lobby: 'Us against the World'
  That's how Jane Moffat of the Canadian-American Business Council frames the two nations' stake in Alberta crude. Hillary Clinton could be listening
• 2011/03/29: OilChange: EU Looks Set to Label Tar Sands "Dirty"
• 2011/03/28: OilChange: Koching up the Tar Sands
• 2011/03/28: Tyee: Climate Group Says Washington's Oil Sands War Is 'David vs. Goliath'
  Calgary's Pembina Institute established an outpost in the US capital to counter industry lobbyists. And learned secrecy is a weapon.
• 2011/03/27: DeSmogBlog: Koch Brothers Continue Their Canadian Takeover

  In Manitoba, people have flooding on their minds:

• 2011/03/29: CBC: Ex-premier slams province over 'peak oil' -- Schreyer calls NDP's actions 'window dressing' in addressing coming energy crunch

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

• 2011/03/22: ECoO: The True Cost of Renewable Energy and Conservation
• 2011/03/31: CleanBreak: The impact so far of Ontario's FIT/green energy on electricity bills: 0.4 cents

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

• 2011/03/24: AlterNet: The Repair-Ware Revolution: Say Goodbye to Our Throwaway Culture and Hello to Fixing Stuff Yourself
• 2011/03/26: AlterNet: Time for Plan B: Our Civilization Is on the Edge of a Systemic Breakdown

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

• 2011/03/31: SF Gate: GOP trying to use tax law to limit abortions
• 2011/03/31: BBC: India's population has grown by 181 million people over the past decade to 1.21bn, according to the 2011 census
• 2011/03/31: CBC: India's population hits 1.21 billion
• 2011/03/28: DM:SNF: Why I Want A Male Birth Control Pill

  Apocalypso anyone?

• 2011/03/31: HotTopic: Loud and clear
• 1996//: DieOff: Complexity, Problem Solving, and Sustainable Societies, by Joseph A. Tainter
• 2011/03/27: EnergyBulletin: Tainter's law: where is the physics?

  As for how the media handles the science:

• 2011/03/30: ABC(Au):TDU: I will defend to the death Bolt's right to wallow in the mire
• 2011/03/30: Nature: Social media: Self-reflection, online by Virginia Gewin
• 2011/03/31: Eureka: Are we really communicating uncertain climate risks? In the wake of recent shifts in public opinion, researchers analyse climate change communication
• 2011/03/29: Eureka: Communicating uncertain climate risks -- In wake of recent shifts in public opinion, researchers analyze climate change communication
• 2011/03/29: MediaMatters: Sea Level Researchers Debunk Wash. Times' Distortion Of Their Work
• 2011/03/29: MTobis: Classic Bad Headline

  KK at CC -- reactions differ:

• SourceWatch: Keith Kloor
• 2011/04/02: CCP: Climate Central goes completely off the rails and hires Keith Kloor ("the Glenn Beck of bloggers"): what next? funding from the Koch brothers?
• 2011/04/02: MTobis: Kloor: An Appreciation and an Apology

  Here's a fine example of slanted headlines arising from the same report:

• 2011/03/31: PostMedia: B.C.'s sockeye salmon may not survive climate warming: study
• 2011/03/31: CBC: Strong salmon hearts may hedge against climate change
• 2011/03/31: SciNow: Some Salmon Can Take the Heat

  Here is something for your library:

• 2011/03/29: HotTopic: [Book Review] _The Great Disruption: How the Climate Crisis Will Transform the Global Economy_ by Paul Gilding

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2011/04/03: CCP: MIT's Kerry Emanuel's defense of climate science
• 2011/04/03: SkeptiSci: The Climate Show Episode 10: David Suzuki and the sun
• 2011/03/29: DeSmogBlog: Fracking Hell: The True Cost of America's Gas Rush (Video)
• 2011/03/31: TCoE: The Energy Philosopher, Episode 1
• 2011/03/31: HotTopic: The Climate Show #10: David Suzuki survives tech meltdown
• 2011/03/30: DeSmogBlog: Check Out This PBS Show Tonight, Lester Brown's Plan B: Mobilizing To Save Civilization
• 2011/03/29: PSinclair: Biogas in Vietnam [vid]

  As for podcasts:

• 2011/04/02: CBC:Q&Q: (mp3) Super Salmon & Mummified Forest

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2011/04/02: CO2Art: GMOs Force Farmers into Pre-emptive Lawsuit vs Monsanto
• 2011/04/01 DerSpiegel: Radioactive Legal Battle -- Energy Firm RWE Sues Berlin Over Reactor Shutdown
• 2011/04/01: CBC: Brazil banks sued for Amazon deforestation
  Brazil's biggest bank - the state-run Banco do Brasil - is being sued for allegedly funding deforestation in the Amazon. Public prosecutors say the bank lent money to companies that illegally cleared the rainforest and used labour practices bordering on slavery. The smaller state-owned Banco da Amazonia is also being sued.
• 2011/03/30: CornucopiaNews: Farmers and Seed Producers Launch Preemptive Strike against Monsanto
  Lawsuit Filed To Protect Themselves from Unfair Patent Enforcement on Genetically Modified Seed Action Would Prohibit Biotechnology Giant from Suing Organic Farmers and Seed Growers If Innocently Contaminated by Roundup Ready Genes
• 2011/03/31: Grist: Reversing roles, farmers sue Monsanto over GMO seeds
• 2011/04/01: TreeHugger: Organic Farmers Sue Monsanto over GM Seed
• 2011/04/01: BBC: Nuclear energy firm RWE sues German state of Hesse
  German energy giant RWE is taking legal action against the state of Hesse after being ordered to shut down a nuclear power plant for three months.
• 2011/03/30: ScienceInsider: Patent Foe Sues Monsanto on Modified Crops
• 2011/03/30: BCLSB: Tim Ball Sued Again
• 2011/03/29: DeSmogBlog: Michael Mann suing Tim Ball for libel
• 2011/03/28: ERabett: Coming Soon to a Courthouse Near You [Mann - Ball]

  Developing a new energy infrastructure is a fundamental challenge of the current generation:

• 2011/04/03: OilDrum: Tech Talk - thoughts on oil production from the MENA countries in turmoil
• 2011/04/02: UNEP: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Tours Geothermal Plant in East Africa's Great Rift Valley -- Full Steam Ahead Towards a Green Economy in Kenya
• 2011/04/02: PeakEnergy: DeltaStream tidal power Pembrokeshire trial approved
• 2011/03/30: RRapier: Debunking Five Myths about Gas Prices
• 2011/03/30: CBC: Energy sources of the (near) future -- New technologies promise greener power
• 2011/04/01: EurActiv: Renewable energy prospects rise with nuclear unease
• 2011/04/01: DeSmogBlog: Chart: The Deadliest Energy Sources in the World
• 2011/03/30: CBC: Green power projects often hit unexpected hurdles -- But distributed generation is the future, proponents say
• 2011/03/31: AlterNet: There's Nothing Natural About Natural Gas
• 2011/03/31: BBC: Oil price hits 30-month high on new supply fears
  Brent crude for delivery in May rose $2.23 to $117.36 a barrel, its highest close since August 2008 and up 23.9% so far this year. US crude rose $2.45 to $106.72, its highest close since September 2008, and jumping 16.8% for the quarter.
• 2011/03/30: CBC: Natural gas price puts damper on nuclear power
• 2011/03/29: Eureka: Stanford researchers use river water and salty ocean water to generate electricity
• 2011/03/30: OilDrum: Global Refining Capacity
• 2011/03/29: NBF: First practical nanogenerator produces electricity with pinch of the fingers
• 2011/03/28: EnergyBulletin: Commentary: Restrictions on world oil production by Robert L. Hirsch
• 2011/03/28: PSinclair: Japan's Way Forward: The role of Geothermal
• 2011/03/28: TUDelft: TU Delft identifies huge potential of nanocrystals in fuel cells

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

• 2011/04/01: TreeHugger: Are We Done Fracking Around In The Dark Yet?
• 2011/03/29: DeSmogBlog: Fracking Hell: The True Cost of America's Gas Rush (Video)
• 2011/03/30: ProPublica: Pennsylvania Limits Authority of Oil and Gas Inspectors
• 2011/03/31: TreeHugger: Pennsylvania Takes Authority Away From Oil & Gas Inspectors
• 2011/03/29: EarthTimes: [Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk] supports search for shale gas

  The answer my friend...:

• 2011/03/30: CBC: Peace River project a wind-power success story
• 2011/03/29: PeakEnergy: Gigantic Offshore Wind-turbine Testing in Progress
• 2011/03/29: CBC: 2nd TransAlta wind project for Quebec's Gaspe region

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2011/04/02: PeakEnergy: BrightSource Plans 38-Megawatt [solar thermal] Plant for Crete
• 2011/03/31: ClimateP: Schwarzenegger: "Asking whether large solar power plants are appropriate in the Mojave desert is like wondering whether subways makes sense in NY City."

  On the coal front:

• 2011/03/31: Grist: Coal plants don't create the jobs they promise, study finds

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2011/03/31: EnergyBulletin: Grow your own renewable, perennial kindling
• 2011/03/29: Eureka: Blocking carbon dioxide fixation in bacteria increases biofuel production
• 2011/03/30: AutoBG: New Hampshire votes to ban corn ethanol; Renewable Fuels Association [RFA] not pleased
• 2011/03/28: UCR: Key plant traits yield more sugar for biofuels
  Research by UC Riverside's Charles Wyman could lead to less expensive production of biofuels

The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2011/03/28: CBC: Uranium shares fall on worsening Japanese crisis
• 2011/03/28: ABC(Au): Spectre of Chernobyl takes form in Fukushima
• 2011/03/28: Grist: Fukushima may end up as a concrete-encased ghost plant, says expert
• 2011/03/28: NatureN: Chernobyl's legacy
  Twenty-five years after the nuclear disaster, the clean-up grinds on and health studies are faltering. Are there lessons for Japan?
• 2011/03/27: EnergyBulletin: Nuclear options going forward

  Yes we have peak everything:

• 2011/03/29: CBC: Ex-premier slams province over 'peak oil' -- Schreyer calls NDP's actions 'window dressing' in addressing coming energy crunch
• 2011/03/27: Newswise: Global Crunch in Supplies of Key Fertilizer Could Threaten Food Supply and Raise Prices
  Global production of phosphorus fertilizer could peak and decline later this century, causing shortages and price spikes that jeopardize world food production, five major scientific societies warned today. The crisis will come at a time when Earth's population may surge past 9 billion. Rice, corn, wheat and other staple food crops require phosphorus, which along with nitrogen and potassium, is one of the three key fertilizer substances that sustain world food supply. Projections indicate that world population will rise from 6.8 billion today to 8.9 billion in 2050.
• 2011/03/29: EnergyBulletin: The peak oil crisis: Edging towards recession
• 2011/03/29: PeakEnergy: The Oil ConunDRUM
• 2011/03/28: CBC: Record gas prices blamed on peak oil -- Manitoba pump price has never been higher in March
• 2011/03/28: KSJT: AAAS ScienceNow: Is peak oil already here (if you don't count OPEC's supply)?

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2011/03/30: CBC: Is the grid ready for electric cars?

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2011/04/02: Grist: Think energy efficiency isn't working? Think again
• 2011/03/30: NBF: Siemens Superconductor Generator project at 4 Megawatts now with a target of hundreds of megawatts
• 2011/03/31: NBF: Samsung is mass producing transparent LCD displays panels that are 90% more power efficient than backlit LCD
• 2011/03/28: EarthTimes: Efficiency an 'enormous' energy resource in Chinese construction

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

• 2011/03/28: RRapier: Will Range Anxiety Impact Electric Car Sales?
• 2011/03/28: PeakEnergy: Can Electric Vehicles Take Off? A Roadmap to Find the Answer

  This week in the Gee Whiz File:

• 2011/03/30: EnergyBulletin: Artificial leaves and old Buicks
• 2011/03/30: KSJT: Lots of Ink : An efficient cheap way to get hydrogen from water and sun? But not many reporters on hand at ACS mtg
• 2011/03/29: PSinclair: Most Important News of the Decade? Artificial Leaf Announced
• 2011/03/29: NatureTGB: MIT scientist [Daniel Nocera] announces first "practical" artificial leaf
• 2011/03/28: SciNow: Spinning the Sun's Rays Into Fuel
• 2011/03/28: MTobis: Deus ex Machina
• 2011/03/27: NBF: Debut of the first practical "artificial leaf"
• 2011/03/27: Eureka: Debut of the first practical 'artificial leaf'

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

• 2011/04/01: BBC: Green energy investment seeing strong rise, says WEF
  Global investment in clean energy projects saw a big rise last year and is poised for further strong growth, a report suggests. Investment topped $243bn (£152bn) in 2010, a rise of 30% on the $186bn spent a year earlier, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said.

Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:

• 2011/03/30: TreeHugger: 7 Major Companies to Drop Sustainable Forestry Initiative Label Due to Greenwashing Claims

  Who's fielding the FAQs?

• 2011/04/01: Guardian(UK): Can 'peak oil' help slow climate change?
• 2011/03/29: Guardian(UK): Will the Gulf Stream slow down, freezing the UK and northern Europe?

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

• 2011/04/01: ClimateP: April 1 News...
• 2011/03/31: ClimateP: March 30 [31?] News...
• 2011/03/30: ClimateP: March 30 News...
• 2011/03/29: ClimateP: March 29 News...
• 2011/03/28: ClimateP: March 28 News...

  Other (weekly) lists:

• 2011/03/31: BPA: Agricultural News
• 2011/03/29: ClimateC: Weekly Climate Science Roundup: March 22 to 28

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2011/04/01: WtD: White noise: the denial movement is a distraction... and the end of WtD! Generation A is coming!
• 2011/04/01: ClimateP: WattsUpWithThat: Psychic seals have evolved ability to predict future climate AND they know it's cooling
• 2011/03/29: AlterNet: Koch-Backed Right-Wing Group Goes After More Professors, Asking for Emails on Unions and ... Rachel Maddow?
• 2011/03/29: MediaMatters: Sea Level Researchers Debunk Wash. Times' Distortion Of Their Work
• 2011/03/29: CCP: Michael Mann letter to editor of the Payson Roundup, March 29, 2011, refuting the lies and defamatory statements published in it by Terry Putnam
• 2011/03/29: moyhu: What's it like to run out of data?
• 2011/03/30: moyhu: Keith Briffa and the Renaissance [d]
• 2011/03/29: WtD: Not even wrong: climate sceptics "don't get science"

  Meanwhile in the 'clean coal' saga:

• 2011/03/29: NBF: Heavy metal pollution from coal waste remain in river bottoms

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2011/04/02: DVoice: Our Primary Problem
• 2011/03/30: AlterNet: Novelist T.C. Boyle on Humankind's Arrogant Attitude Towards Nature
• 2011/03/31: CDialogue: Adaptation, Fairness and Finance
• 2011/03/30: Guardian(UK): Greenpeace targets Facebook employees in clean energy campaign - Unfriend Coal
• 2011/03/30: CCurrents: Perceptions Of Climate Change
• 2011/03/29: CCurrents: Climate Change Isn't Going Away
• 2011/03/28: Guardian(UK): The mystery of the 1993 global warming TV ad
• 2011/03/27: ClimateP: Science Sunday: Stabilizing CO2 levels is tough for humanity, not stabilizing them is tougher on humanity

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

• SourceWatch: Keith Kloor
• The Cornucopia Institute
• NOAA: Coral Reef Watch Satellite Monitoring
• TPoCS: The Project on Climate Science
• Public Patent Foundation
  Undeserved Patents and Unsound Patent Policy Harm the Public
  ... by making things more expensive, if not impossible to afford;
  ... by preventing scientists from advancing technology;
  ... by unfairly prejudicing small businesses; and
  ... by restraining civil liberties and individual freedoms.
  PUBPAT Represents the Public's Interests Against Undeserved Patents and Unsound Patent Policy
• NIDIS: National Integrated Drought Information System
• ESDD: Earth System Dynamics in Discussion
• The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement
• Wiki: Chart of nuclides
• Wiki: List of nuclides
• Wiki: Radionuclide
• Moms Clean Air Force - Fighting for Our Kids' Health
• Climate Central: Blogs
• BartV: Our Changing Climate
• CO2 Now

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(which includes some quotations), An overview of my writing is available here.

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

"Virtually all [climatologists] are now convinced that global warming poses a clear and present danger to civilization." -Lonnie Thompson

• Global Warming Links
• Global Warming News Archive
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• Energy News
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