Another week of GW News, May 22, 2011

Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years

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Another week of Climate Disruption News

Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years

May 22, 2011

• Chuckles, IDB, Fukushima News, Nuclear Policy, Fukushima Talk, Socolow, Flooding
• Slave Lake, UK Carbon Plan, Stockholm Memorandum, Bottom Line, Prelude, Cook
• Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica
• Food Crisis, Agro-Corps, Food Prices, Food vs. Biofuel, GMOs, Food Production
• Hurricanes, GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures, Paleoclimate
• ENSO, Extinctions, Anthropocene, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Climate Refugees, Wacky Weather
• Wildfires, Corals, Acidification, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
• Transportation, Buildings, Geoengineering
• Journals, Other Docs , Misc. Science, Models, Wegman, Spencer
• UN, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Religioso, Predictions
• International Politics: Rare Earths, Security, Law & Activism, Polls, H2O Biz
• National Politics: America, BP Disaster, 2012, Pickens, NAS
• Massey, WPI, Obama, USAdmin, Congress, Lobbyists
• Britain, Europe, Australia, Carbon War, Murray-Darling, India, China, Asia
• Canada, Post G20, GHGs, Wheat Board, Assiniboine, Richelieu, Tar Sands, Ontario, Quebec
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Courts
• Energy, Fracking, Coal, Oil & Gas, Fossil Fuel Corps, Pipelines, Peak Oil, Biofuel
• Wind, Solar, Nukes, Nuclear Waste, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Gee Whiz, Focardi & Rossi
• Business, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

Back in the black humour zone:

• 2011/05/21: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Doing less with more
• 2011/05/18: ClimateP: Cartoonist Tom Toles slams GOP denial...
• 2011/05/16: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) They Pretend They Don't Notice

  This week FOE bounced one off Shell:

• 2011/05/18: OilChange: And for Shell We Present an "Erratum"

  And for those who enjoy challenging Poe's Law:

• 2011/05/09: Onion: Budget Mix-Up Provides Nation's Schools With Enough Money To Properly Educate Students

  Apparently today is the International Day for Biodiversity:

• CBD: The International Day for Biological Diversity - 22 May 2011
• 2011/05/20: UNEP: President of UNEP's Governing Council on International Day for Biological Diversity
• 2011/05/20: UNEP: Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Message for the International Day for Biodiversity 2011
• 2011/05/20: UN: On biodiversity day, UN highlights social, economic and green benefits of forests

  Not much good news coming out of Fukushima:

• 2011/05/17: ScienceInsider: Utility: Fukushima Cores More Damaged Than Thought
  Tokyo - Over the last several days, evidence has emerged indicating that the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was far more dire than previously recognized. The main evidence is extensive -- rather than partial -- melting of the nuclear fuel in three reactors in the hours after the 11 March earthquake and tsunami.
• 2011/05/16: Mainichi: TEPCO admits nuclear meltdown occurred at Fukushima reactor 16 hours after quake
• 2011/05/16: BBC: Japan evacuates residents beyond Fukushima no-go zone
  Residents have been moved further away from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in northern Japan as the no-go zone is extended and there is a new setback at the plant.
• 2011/05/15: APR: Core totally demolished at Fukushima Daiichi No. 1
• 2011/05/15: Z3N: TEPCO reveals meltdown occurred hours after quake
• 2011/05/15: Kyodo: Meltdown occurred at Fukushima No. 1 reactor 16 hrs after March 11 quake
• 2011/05/19: Time: [53] Images Released of the Tsunami Striking Fukushima
• 2011/05/17: Mainichi: TEPCO documents reveal chaos at Fukushima nuke plant after quake, tsunami
  If there is one word to describe events at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant in the immediate aftermath of the March 11 quake and tsunami -- with cooling systems failing and the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl brewing in its reactors -- it would be "chaos."
  That is the picture painted by documents released by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) on May 16 describing the situation at the plant in the hours after tsunami slammed into the coastal facility. Coming more than two months after the disaster, the TEPCO data will soon be dissected by a government committee set up to analyze the causes of the nuclear crisis and the actions taken by both the government and TEPCO to contain it.
• 2011/05/20: APR: Fukushima Daiichi update; Friday evening
• 2011/05/21: ABC(Au): 'Mega-float' to hold Japan's radioactive water
  A huge floating structure to hold radioactive water has been berthed at the quay of Japan's disaster-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
• 2011/05/20: Guardian(UK): Operator of Japan's tsunami-hit nuclear plant reports a record loss of £9.5bn
• 2011/05/20: ABC(Au): TEPCO boss quits over nuke crisis
• 2011/05/20: PeakEnergy: The Fukushima meltdown was always worse than thought
• 2011/05/20: APR: TEPCO Board Meeting
• 2011/05/19: APR: Fukushima Daiichi Update... Thursday
• 2011/05/18: Grist: A look inside the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant
• 2011/05/18: APR: Fukushima Daiichi update, Weds. morning
• 2011/05/17: APR: Fukushima Daiichi update: Tuesday
• 2011/05/17: CNN: [TEPCO] sticks with plan to end Japan nuclear crisis in nine months
  Tokyo Electric Power Co. first announced the timetable for ending the crisis in mid-April - Three reactors at plant overheated after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami - The company says it will have to change strategies in cooling the No. 1 reactor
• 2011/05/17: UN: UN to dispatch expert fact-finding mission to damaged Japanese nuclear plant
  The United Nations atomic agency announced today that it will send a team of international experts on a fact-finding mission to Japan to assess nuclear safety in the wake of the damage caused by March's devastating earthquake and tsunami. The mission -- which will visit Japan from 24 May to 2 June -- will comprise nearly 20 experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the wider international community, the IAEA said in a statement issued from its headquarters in Vienna.
• 2011/05/17: ABC(Au): Radioactive water to be drained from Fukushima reactor [#3]
• 2011/05/12: Cryptome: Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Photos 15
• 2011/05/16: PlanetArk: Japan Govt Body Detailed Tsunami Risks Before March 11: Documents
• 2011/05/16: PlanetArk: Radiation Found In Seaweed Near Crippled Japan Plant

  Post Fukushima, nuclear policies are in flux around the world:

• 2011/05/22: BBC: The leaders of Japan, China and South Korea have agreed to set up an early warning system to alert each other of emergencies at nuclear facilities
• 2011/05/19: MLynas: Fukushima: rationality vs emotion in policy-making
• 2011/05/18: ScienceInsider: Report: No Changes for U.K. Nuclear Plants Post-Fukushima
• 2011/05/18: NatureN: Japan rethinks its energy policy -- Renewables come to the fore as universities take the lead on electricity conservation.
• 2011/05/17: DerSpiegel: Vulnerable to Plane Crashes -- German Nuclear Reactor Safety Test Finds Flaws
  None of Germany's 17 nuclear plants is protected from a crash by a heavy plane, a commission concluded on Tuesday after weeks of safety checks. But it did not recommend that any should be taken offline immediately. The government said it wants to postpone a shutdown until alternative sources of energy are found.
• 2011/05/18: CBC: Japan's nuclear regulators need more independence: PM
  Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Wednesday that Japan needs to increase the independence of its nuclear regulators to ensure safety in the wake of the country's nuclear accident. In Japan a single ministry is responsible for both promoting nuclear energy and overseeing its safety, unlike most other nuclear power-producing nations which separate the two functions.
• 2011/05/17: BBC: 'No hold up' anticipated from UK nuclear review
  A safety review of the UK's nuclear industry, to be released on Wednesday, is expected to give a broad all-clear to current reactors and future plans. Energy and Climate Secretary Chris Huhne commissioned the report in the wake of the Fukushima crisis in Japan.
• 2011/05/17: Grist: Why Germany had to phase out nuclear to build its renewables
• 2011/05/16: PlanetArk: Calls For Some [US] Nuclear Plants To Boost Safety
• 2011/05/16: ClimateP: No nukes, No problem. Germany is proving a rapid transition to renewable energy is possible

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

• 2011/05/20: TreeHugger: Fukushima "Worse Than Chernobyl" When It Comes To Oceans
• 2011/05/11: Guardian(UK): The dairy farmers who returned to Fukushima's fallout path
  In a radiation hotspot downwind of Japan's stricken nuclear plant, families care for their cows -- and pour away the milk
• 2011/05/20: CSM: Nuclear power safety: Latest on Japan crisis fuels new concern in US
  Nuclear Regulatory Commission still insists that US nuclear plants with same design as Japan's stricken Fukushima Daiichi facility are safe. But watchdog groups cite failed venting system, which led to hydrogen explosions.
• 2011/05/20: BBC: TEPCO president Masataka Shimizu quits as firm reports $15bn loss
  The president of TEPCO, which operates Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, has resigned as the firm reported a loss of 1.25tn yen ($15.3bn; £9.4bn) for the past financial year. Masataka Shimizu will be replaced by managing director Toshio Nishizawa.
• 2011/05/20: CBC: Japan utility [TEPCO] head [Masataka Shimizu] resigns amid nuclear crisis
  The president of the Japanese utility behind the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl said Friday he was stepping down in disgrace after reporting the biggest financial losses in company history. Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Masataka Shimizu, criticized for his low profile during the disaster's early days, said he was resigning to take "responsibility" but vowed that the utility would continue doing its "utmost" to bring the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant under control. Fuel rods appear to have mostly melted at three of the plant's reactors after a March 11 earthquake triggered a tsunami that knocked out cooling systems. Leaking radiation has prompted the evacuation of thousands of residents, and the perilous struggle to contain the reactors is expected to continue into next year. The crisis raised serious questions about the lax oversight of Japan's nuclear industry, and prompted the country to scrap plans to rely on nuclear power for one-half its electricity needs -- up from its current one-third.
• 2011/05/18: EarthTimes: Greenpeace slams TEPCO's 'utter failure' over Fukushima full meltdown
• 2011/05/16: CCurrents: Fukushima's Secret Radionuclides
• 2011/05/17: NYT: In Japan Reactor Failings, Danger Signs for the U.S.
  Emergency vents that American officials have said would prevent devastating hydrogen explosions at nuclear plants in the United States were put to the test in Japan -- and failed to work, according to experts and officials with the company that operates the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant. The failure of the vents calls into question the safety of similar nuclear power plants in the United States and Japan. After the venting failed at the Fukushima plant, the hydrogen gas fueled explosions that spewed radioactive materials into the atmosphere, reaching levels about 10 percent of estimated emissions at Chernobyl, according to Japan's nuclear regulatory agency.
• 2011/05/16: NYT: Japanese Officials Ignored or Concealed Dangers
  The nuclear power plant, lawyers argued, could not withstand the kind of major earthquake that new seismic research now suggested was likely. If such a quake struck, electrical power could fail, along with backup generators, crippling the cooling system, the lawyers predicted. The reactors would then suffer a meltdown and start spewing radiation into the air and sea. Tens of thousands in the area would be forced to flee. Although the predictions sound eerily like the sequence of events at the Fukushima Daiichi plant following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the lawsuit was filed nearly a decade ago to shut down another plant, long considered the most dangerous in Japan -- the Hamaoka station. It was one of several quixotic legal battles waged -- and lost -- in a long attempt to improve nuclear safety and force Japan's power companies, nuclear regulators, and courts to confront the dangers posed by earthquakes and tsunamis on some of the world's most seismically active ground.
• 2011/05/17: BBC: Japan nuclear crisis: Japan sticks to nuclear deadline -- Fukushima shutdown for January
  Japan still believes it can end its nuclear crisis within months, while accepting damage from March's quake and tsunami was worse than first thought.
• 2011/05/16: NatureN: Fire in Fukushima unit 4 may have been caused by unit 3
• 2011/05/15: APR: BWR Pressure Vessel illustrations
• 2011/05/15: APR: Further Fukushima Daiichi updates
• 2011/05/14: APR: Fukushima Daiichi No. 1: Core melt / exit of pressure vessel speculated by TEPCO, NISA
• 2011/05/15: CStross: Radioactive turd, meet punchbowl
• 2011/05/15: BBC: Japan nuclear: Tepco halts Fukushima cooling plan
  Japanese engineers have abandoned their latest attempt to stabilise a stricken reactor at the Fukushima nuclear plant. The plant's operator, Tepco, had intended to cool reactor 1 by filling the containment chamber with water. But Tepco said melting fuel rods had created a hole in the chamber, allowing 3,000 tonnes of contaminated water to leak into the basement of the reactor building.

After the NatGeo story, Princeton physicist Robert Socolow found his Wedges plan of action twisted beyond recognition:

• 2011/05/17: NatGeo: Climate Scientist Fears His "Wedges" Made It Seem Too Easy
• 2011/05/19: NatureNB: Iconic climate strategy was no mistake - scientist hits back at media reports
  Princeton physicist Robert Socolow, the mastermind -- together with ecologist Stephen Pacala - of the ´wedge´ strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, has told Nature that he stands by his iconic concept -- despite media report to the contrary.
• 2011/05/20: NatureNB: Iconic climate strategy was no mistake - scientist hits back at media reports
  Princeton physicist Robert Socolow, the mastermind -- together with ecologist Stephen Pacala - of the 'wedge' strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, has told Nature that he stands by his iconic concept -- despite media report to the contrary.
• 2011/05/18: ClimateP: Socolow reaffirms 2004 'wedges' paper, urges aggressive low-carbon deployment ASAP
• 2011/05/18: KSJT: Nat'l Geographic: Wonky climate tactic hits the dust? Princeton Prof [Socolow] says his wedges are policy flop
• 2011/05/18: Grist: Prof. Socolow's bizarre climate comments and the pessimism of Serious People

  Major river systems across North America are flooding. See also the Assiniboine:

• 2011/05/21: BBC: In pictures: Mississippi flood disaster
• 2011/05/20: Wunderground: Mississippi River flood of 2011 sets all-time flow record, but has crested
• 2011/05/19: CNN: [Mississippi] Floodwaters carve deadly trail of destruction
  A 69-year-old Vicksburg resident dies from drowning - A slide is detected on a mainline Mississippi levee - The Mississippi River crests at Vicksburg hours earlier than anticipated - Officials urge residents to be vigilant
• 2011/05/17: ClimateP: Record flooding threatens Gulf Coast - again -- "Like a monster coming down the River"
• 2011/05/18: PlanetArk: Louisiana Cities Brace For River Peak As Bayou Floods
• 2011/05/17: BBC: Section of flooding Mississippi River re-opens to ships
  The US Coast Guard has re-opened a section of the swollen Mississippi River to shipping, after closing it to protect strained flood defences.
• 2011/05/17: CNN: Flooding covers millions of acres in U.S. -- Levees hold as Mississippi grows to record
  Record water levels could last more than a month, Louisiana governor says - For the first time, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is using three flood control structures - Residents scramble to save belongings in the Atchafalaya Basin - Areas of Louisiana lowlands are being flooded to spare New Orleans and Baton Rouge
• 2011/05/17: PlanetArk: Historic Vicksburg, Mississippi Faces Flood Siege
• 2011/05/17: PlanetArk: Old Levee Breaches In Mississippi As Main Levee Holds
• 2011/05/16: CNN: Louisiana residents evacuate as spillway fills lowlands
  Coast Guard closes portion of Mississippi River near Natchez, Mississippi - Portions of Louisiana lowlands are being flooded to spare New Orleans and Baton Rouge - President Barack Obama is to meet flooding victims today in Memphis, Tennessee - "I have never experienced anything like this in my life," resident says
• 2011/05/16: Grist: Mississippi flood causes billions in damage, while local representatives deny climate threat
• 2011/05/16: Wunderground: Unprecented floods on the Mississippi, in Colombia, and Canada
• 2011/05/16: BBC: Thousands have evacuated the US state of Louisiana after floodgates were opened on Saturday to relieve pressure from the swollen Mississippi River
• 2011/05/15: Guardian(UK): Thousands of homes sacrificed to save New Orleans from Mississippi floods

  The northern Alberta town of Slave Lake has been devastated by a sudden wildfire -- 374 houses destroyed:

• 2011/05/21: CBC: Alberta wildfire evacuees in limbo -- Residents question emergency warning system
• 2011/05/20: CBC: Slave Lake and the psychology of trauma
• 2011/05/19: 350Org: Wildfires and Spills in the Canadian Tar Sands
• 2011/05/19: CBC: Slave Lake evacuees may get answers Thursday -- Slave Lake residents learn fire ruined 374 properties
  Thousands of people from Slave Lake, Alta., may soon learn whether their homes burned down or survived a wildfire on the weekend. Officials say they will release maps Thursday showing the destruction in the town of 7,000. Located 250 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, Slave Lake was evacuated Sunday when wind-driven wildfires suddenly turned and blazed through town, destroying more than a third of the homes, along with the town hall, government centre and library. People had little warning and many escaped with just the clothes on their backs.
• 2011/05/18: CBC: Alberta wildfires rage as extra help arrives -- Slave Lake residents still in the dark about the fate of their homes
• 2011/05/17: CBC: More than 100 fires raging across Alberta
  More than 100 forest fires continued to burn across Alberta Tuesday -- 36 of them out of control, including three around the already almost half-destroyed town of Slave Lake.
• 2011/05/16: BBC: Wildfires decimate Slave Lake in Alberta
  Wildfires fuelled by high winds have blazed through more than a third of a town in Canada's Alberta province, police say, forcing thousands to flee. Numerous homes and public buildings were destroyed in Slave Lake, Mayor Karina Pillay-Kinnee said. Slave Lake's 10,000 residents were ordered to leave on Sunday, and more than two-thirds had fled by Monday.
• 2011/05/16: CBC: Alberta fires shut down energy operations
  Wildfires in northern Alberta prompted some energy and transportation companies to temporarily shut down their operations Monday. Fires in and around Slave Lake on Sunday have resulted in the mandatory evacuation of the town after the destruction of hundreds of homes, churches and businesses.
• 2011/05/16: CBC: Slave Lake firefighters struggle to save town -- High winds, low humidity challenging firefighting efforts
  Provincial officials say 40 per cent of the town of Slave Lake, Alta., has been destroyed or damaged by wildfires which swept into the community with little warning Sunday night, forcing thousands to flee their homes.
• 2011/05/16: CNN:TJI: Wildfire destroys half of town of 9,800
• 2011/05/16: Daveberta: slave lake fire and evacuation
• 2011/05/15: CBC: Alberta wildfires force evacuation of Slave Lake
• 2011/05/16: CBC: Slave Lake firefighters struggle to save town
  Provincial officials say 40 per cent of the town of Slave Lake, Alta., has been destroyed or damaged by wildfires which swept into the community with little warning Sunday night, forcing thousands to flee their homes. Most the destruction happened in the southwestern section of town, said Alberta Municipal Affairs spokesperson John Muir, where half the homes were consumed by flames. The town's mall, town hall and many downtown businesses were all destroyed, though the hospital and the town's schools look to be safe, he said. The fire is still considered out of control.

This could be a big deal, but it's definitely in the "I'll believe it when I see it" category:

• 2011/05/19: Stoat: Historic climate change deal with legal powers agreed by Cabinet?
• 2011/05/18: PlanetArk: UK To Halve Greenhouse Gases By 2025, If EU Follows
• 2011/05/18: Grist: The U.K.'s emissions targets are awesome
• 2011/05/18: TreeHugger: UK's Emission Reduction Target Is Strong - As Long As Cuts Are Made At Home & Not Overseas
• 2011/05/18: BBC: Will the UK's low-carbon ripples spread?
  For those of us brought up on a regimen of leaky windows, stalled trains and coal mining, the idea that the UK might be a global leader in the race to a clean, green low-carbon future is not an easy one to accept.
• 2011/05/17: Guardian(UK): Chris Huhne pledges to halve UK carbon emissions by 2025
  The UK announces the most ambitious targets on greenhouse gases of any developed country, after a week of cabinet rifts
• 2011/05/17: ClimateP: Britain pledges to cut carbon pollution in half by 2025 (from 1990 levels)
• 2011/05/17: NatureNB: UK unveils post-2020 greenhouse gas targets
• 2011/05/17: WWF: UK sets new legally binding emissions target
• 2011/05/17: TreeHugger: UK Sets World-Leading Legally Binding Emission Reduction Target: 50% by 2025

  A Group of Nobel Laureates in Stockholm issued a Memorandum this week:

• 2011/05/21: EnergyBulletin: The Stockholm Memorandum: tipping the scales towards sustainability
• 2011/05/21: RealClimate: Nobel Laureates Speak Out
• 2011/05/18: NatureNB: Nobel laureates campaign for sustainable development
  Humanity's consumption of natural resources is in danger of turning the Earth into an unsafe place for us to live, a group of 17 Nobel Laureates said today. At the third Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainability on 16-19 May in Stockholm, Sweden, the Laureates signed a memorandum stating that human activity has now become the major driver of global change, moving the Earth into a new geological era, coined the Anthropocene.

And on the Bottom Line:

• 2011/05/18: EconView: "The True Cost of Carbon" -- A reminder that, all things considered, energy costs are too low...

  This should be fun in a Tropical Storm:

• 2011/05/20: BBC: Shell to build Australian giant floating gas platform
  Oil firm Royal Dutch Shell has announced it will build the world's first floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant. The Prelude project was announced on Friday and analysts believe it could cost between $8bn (£4.9bn) and $15bn.

John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:

• 2011/05/21: SkeptiSci: Skeptical Science Educates My Students by Professor Scott Mandia
• 2011/05/21: SkeptiSci: Shapiro et al. -- a New Solar Reconstruction by dana1981
• 2011/05/20: SkeptiSci: Polish translation of The Scientific Guide to Global Warming Skepticism
• 2011/05/18: SkeptiSci: Carter Confusion #1: Anthropogenic Warming by dana1981
• 2011/05/17: SkeptiSci: Another animated version of the Warming Indicators Powerpoint by AdamK
• 2011/05/17: SkeptiSci: National Academy of Sciences on Climate Risk Management by dana1981
• 2011/05/16: SkeptiSci: Is the CRU the 'principal source' of climate change projections? by Robin2

  The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:

• 2011/05/19: ClimateP: Arctic sea ice volume: The death spiral continues -- One-year-old ice in Beaufort Sea now a foot thinner than in 2009
• 2011/05/19: ASI: Ice Age
• 2011/05/15: ASI: SIE update 6: unperturbed

  As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

• 2011/05/18: EurActiv: 'Bolshoi Petroleum' deal collapses
  Negotiations between British Petroleum and Rosneft, Russia's leading oil company, to develop three massive offshore exploration blocks in the Arctic have failed, according to media reports yesterday (17 May).
• 2011/05/18: PlanetArk: BP's Arctic Oil Deal With Rosneft Collapses
• 2011/05/15: GEP: Uphill Battle in the Arctic
• 2011/05/18: BBC: BP offers 'new proposal' to salvage deal, says Rosneft
  Rosneft has said it has received "new proposals" from BP after the deadline for their Arctic deal lapsed. The Russian state oil firm said the proposals went "outside the framework" of the earlier failed deal, and meant talks on a tie-up could continue.
• 2011/05/17: CBC: Denmark plans to stake claim to North Pole
  Denmark plans to lay claim to the North Pole and other areas in the Arctic, where melting ice is uncovering new shipping routes, fishing grounds and drilling opportunities for oil and gas, a leaked government document showed Tuesday. The draft document titled "Strategy for the Arctic" said Denmark's Science Ministry has started collecting data to formally submit a claim for those areas to the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf no later than 2014.
• 2011/05/17: NatureNB: BP! Oil company's Russian Arctic adventure ends (for now)
  BP's troubled attempt to link up with Russian oil giant Rosneft to drill in Arctic waters appears to be scuppered today
• 2011/05/17: OilChange: BP's Credibility in Tatters Again
• 2011/05/17: BBC: BP to continue Rosneft talks after deadline expires
  BP has said that it will continue talking with Russian oil giant Rosneft over a share swap, after a deadline for the deal expired at midnight.
• 2011/05/17: WpgFP: Leaked document shows Denmark preparing to stake claim to North Pole, other Arctic territories

  While in Antarctica:

• 2011/05/19: Wunderground:RR: Sea Ice South (2): Another Brick in the Wall

  The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2011/05/18: Google:AFP: Nepal faces malnutrition crisis as UN scales back
• 2011/05/16: WFP: French G20 Presidency Discusses Food Reserves at WFP
• 2011/05/20: BPA: Wheat Reliance by the Middle Eastern Nations
• 2011/05/20: BPA: The Young and Hopeless Greek Return to their Cheaper Countryside. Could it Happen here?
• 2011/05/19: OpenDem: Greed Revolution?
  Even if we believe that the first Green revolution benefited India by making it a food-surplus nation, it is important to distinguish it from the second Green revolution that unabashedly ties the nation's agricultural interests to the vagaries of institutional and corporate market forces.
• 2011/05/21: Asia Times: Food fight looms over North Korean 'famine'
  The United States and South Korea are on a collision course over a pivotal issue: to feed starving North Koreans or not to feed them.
• 2011/05/20: PlanetArk: [US] Farm States Suffer Expanded Drought, Wheat Suffers
• 2011/05/19: WiC: The new geopolitics of food
• 2011/05/17: EnergyBulletin: New briefing: Food safety for whom? Corporate wealth versus people's health
• 2011/05/16: BPA: Wheat Update and Outlook
• 2011/05/17: BPA: Global Ending Stocks of Vegetable Oil are Expected to Fall 16% in 2010/11 Resulting in Extremely Tight Supplies
• 2011/05/18: BPA: How is the U.S. Using its Corn in 2011/12?
• 2011/05/15: CCurrents: Hunger For More or More For Hunger? Incessant grabbing of productive farmland for more industry is a recipe for disaster
• 2011/05/17: DerSpiegel: North Korea's Food Shortage -- 'We Cannot Leave the Children to Die'
  Yet another hunger crisis is taking shape in North Korea. The government in Pyongyang has asked for help and aid groups have already begun shipments. Bernd Göken, from the German group Cap Anamur, described for SPIEGEL what he saw on a recent visit to the country.
• 2011/05/12: GrainNet: Kansas Wheat Production Could Be Lowest Since 1996
• 2011/05/16: AllAfrica: ZimIndependent: Zimbabwe: Wheat Season in Disarray
  This year's wheat winter season is headed for disaster because farmers are reluctant to start planting the crop due to fears of power outages and inconsistent water supplies. Commercial Farmers Union president Deron Theron said this winter wheat season is likely to be in disaster in terms of output owing to lack of assurance from Zesa, absence of lines of credit from banks and shortages of inputs on the market.

On the food corp. front:

• 2011/05/15: EnergyBulletin: Would vested interests starve the world?

  Food Prices are still problematic:

• FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
• 2011/05/20: ERW: Food prices driven up by global warming, study shows
  Global warming has already harmed the world's food production and has driven up food prices by as much as 20% over recent decades, new research has revealed.

The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

• 2011/05/17: FAO: New tool for weighing pros and cons of bioenergy
  FAO-developed methodology offers policymakers a way to evaluate potential benefits of growing energy crops, avoid pitfalls

Regarding the genetic modification of food:

• 2011/05/21: TreeHugger: GM Drought Resistant Corn Up For Deregulation Even Though the USDA Says it Doesn't Perform Well
• 2011/05/16: Grist: What we know -- and don't know -- about the safety of eating GMOs

  And how are we going to feed 9 billion?

• 2011/05/19: WFP: Vouchers Keep Food Moving Despite Syrian Unrest
• 2011/05/17: WFP: Cash & Vouchers: An Innovative Way to Fight Hunger
• 2011/05/19: FAO: Anti-locust programme in Central Asia and Caucasus -- Locusts threaten food security of 20 million
• 2011/05/19: CCurrents: As Junk Food Goes, So Goes The Planet
• 2011/05/19: UN: UN to battle locusts and their appetites in Central Asia and Caucasus
• 2011/05/19: EnergyBulletin: Innovation of the Week: Researchers find farmers applying rice innovations to their wheat crops
• 2011/05/16: NatureN: Too few fish in the sea -- Scientists and NGOs wary amid ambitious European fisheries reform

  Tropical Storm 04W is threatening the Phillipines; otherwise it has been quiet this week:

• 2011/05/20: Eureka: NASA sees Tropical Storm 04W's thunderstorms grow quickly

  While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

• 2011/05/19: CBC: Busy Atlantic hurricane season forecast
  The Atlantic hurricane season this year will produce an above-average 12 to 18 named storms, and six to 10 of them will likely become hurricanes, the U.S. National Weather Service said Thursday.
• 2011/05/19: NOAANews: NOAA hurricane outlook indicates an above-normal Atlantic season
• 2011/05/19: NOAANews: NOAA predicts below normal Eastern Pacific hurricane season
• 2011/05/18: NOAANews: NOAA expects a below normal Central Pacific hurricane season
• 2011/05/19: Wunderground: NOAA predicts an active Atlantic hurricane season: 15 named storms, 8 hurricanes
• 2011/05/18: Wunderground: PSU Atlantic hurricane season forecast: 16 named storms

  As for GHGs:

• 2011/05/19: EnviroCan: National Inventory Report 1990-2009: Greenhouse Gas Sources and Sinks in Canada - Executive Summary
• 2011/05/18: PlanetArk: EU's Industrial Emissions Rose 3 Percent In 2010

  And in the carbon cycle:

• 2011/05/16: SciNews: Melting icebergs fertilize ocean -- Release of extra iron boosts carbon dioxide uptake by plankton

  As for the temperature record:

• 2011/05/21: ERabett: Eli Got a Brand New Combine Harvester and He's Gonna Pull Some Carrots [Fell et al.]
• 2011/05/20: Tamino: Warts and All
• 2011/05/19: ERabett: Well, what with Fell, et al., and so forth...
• 2011/05/18: PSinclair: April -- Seventh warmest on Record, despite cooling La Nina
• 2011/05/16: ClimateP: NASA: April tied for 4th hottest on record globally
• 2011/05/16: NOAANews: April was seventh warmest on record

  While in the paleoclimate:

• 2011/05/15: NatureN: Bacteria helped early animals to breathe -- Microbial mats might have functioned as oxygen oases for primitive multicellular life
• 2011/05/21: CBC:Q&Q: (mp3) Oxygen for Early Life
• 2011/05/17: Eureka: Greenhouse ocean study offers warning for future
  The mass extinction of marine life in our oceans during prehistoric times is a warning that the Earth will see such an extinction again because of high levels of greenhouse gases, according to new research by geologists.
• 2011/05/17: Eureka: Greenhouse ocean study offers warning for future

  While on the ENSO front:

• 2011/05/17: Wunderground: La Niña fades to neutral; April the globe's 4th - 7th warmest on record

  What's new on the extinction front?

• 2011/05/19: SciNews: Numbers flap has minor implications for global extinctions -- Statistical technique inflates predictions of species disappearances, two ecologists charge
• 2011/05/20: Eureka: Species reemergence after collapse: Possible but different
• 2011/05/19: Grist: Species are going extinct, but how quickly?
• 2011/05/18: CSM: How long does it take species to go extinct? Longer than previously thought.
• 2011/05/17: Eureka: Species extinction rates have been overreported, new study claims [Hubbell]

  Oh look! The Anthropocene came up again:

• 2011/05/18: MLynas: Welcome to the Anthropocene

  Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

• 2011/05/18: NatureN: NASA ready to test the waters -- Satellite mission to monitor ocean salinity may help solve climate questions
• 2011/05/17: Eureka: UCSB scientists track environmental influences on giant kelp with help from satellite data

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2011/05/19: CCP: Striking ecological impact on Canada's Arctic coastline linked to global climate change
• 2011/05/18: RealClimate: Health on a Changing Planet
• 2011/05/17: EarthTimes: Natural disasters linked to climate change, says UN climate chief [Pachauri]

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2011/05/21: Guardian(UK): Brazil's crackdown on deforestation of the Amazon
  Brazil's environment agency IBAMA has cracked down on deforestation -- but in some regions it is on the rise again
• 2011/05/19: BPA: Mato Grosso Deforestration Rapidly Accelerates
• 2011/05/20: Guardian(UK): Brazil forms 'crisis cabinet' following unexpected deforestation surge
• 2011/05/20: PlanetArk: Indonesia Finally Signs Forest Clearing Moratorium
  Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono inked into law on Thursday a two-year moratorium on new permits to clear primary forests, part of a $1 billion deal with Norway that could spur projects to cut emissions and slow expansion of plantations.
• 2011/05/18: MongaBay: Brazil confirms big jump in Amazon deforestation
• 2011/05/18: BBC: Brazil: Amazon rainforest deforestation rises sharply
  Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest has increased by almost six times, new data suggests. New satellite images show deforestation has increased from 103 sq km in March and April 2010 to 593 sq km (229 sq miles) in the same period of 2011, Brazil's space research institute says. Much of the destruction has been in Mato Grosso state, the centre of soya farming in Brazil.
• 2011/05/18: TreeHugger: Deforestation in Critical Part of Amazon Doubled Last Year
• 2011/05/17: USDA:SRS: Forest Service unveils first comprehensive forecast on southern forests -- Urbanization expected to reduce forest area in South during next 50 years
• 2011/05/16: Eureka: Will global climate change enhance boreal forest growth?
• 2011/05/16: TreeHugger: ConocoPhillips Withdraws From Controversial Amazon Oil Project

  Climate refugees are becoming an issue:

• 2011/05/15: MTobis: Do Submerged Nations Exist?

  Wacky Weather is now the New Normal apparently:

• 2011/05/19: Grist: A violent climate is the new normal, say scientists
• 2011/05/19: PlanetArk: U.S. Weather Extremes Show "New Normal" Climate
• 2011/05/18: UCSUSA: Heavy Rains and Flooding May Be "New Norm" -- Insurance Companies, Local Governments Preparing for Likely Future Extreme Weather
• 2011/05/17: HuffPo: Climate Triage and the "New Normal" by Peter H. Gleick

  As for heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2011/05/20: Tyee: More and More, the Boreal Will Burn -- Wildfire, beetles, climate change and their combustible connections
• 2011/05/17: CBC: More than 100 fires raging across Alberta

  Corals are dying:

• 2011/05/20: TreeHugger: Smithsonian Freezing Coral Embryos to Save Great Barrier Reef
• 2011/05/20: SkeptiSci: Coral atolls & rising sea levels: That sinking feeling by Rob Painting

  Acidification is changing the oceans:

• 2011/05/15: NatureNB: Adapting to an acid ocean

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2011/05/15: FGP: Ptarmigan Ridge Glacier Retreat and Separation, North Cascades
• 2011/05/16: IndiaTimes: ISRO: 75% of Himalayan glaciers retreating
• 2011/05/16: TreeHugger: Three Quarters of Himalayan Glaciers Retreating [17% are stable and 8% are advancing]

  Sea levels are rising:

• 2011/05/16: TMoS: What Sea Level Rise Will Look Like
• 2011/05/16: Eureka: Seaports need a plan for weathering climate change, Stanford researchers say

  As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

• 2011/05/20: JFleck: Flood Plains in the Desert
• 2011/05/18: CNN: Water in short supply in parts of eastern China -- The province is in the midst of a months-long drought
• 2011/05/18: CBC: B.C. flooding forces evacuations and demolition
  Heavy rain has forced officials in central B.C. to order the evacuation of seven homes in the village of Burns Lake, while another home on the Cottonwood River near Prince George was destroyed on Tuesday . The Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako also declared a local state of emergency and put another 29 households on evacuation alert for areas along the nearby Bulkley River, including the communites of Quick and Ebenezer Flats, on Tuesday.
• 2011/05/18: PlanetArk: Little Rain For Europe's Farmers Before June
• 2011/05/18: TreeHugger: China Dealing with "Dead Water" As Drought Dries Reservoirs
• 2011/05/17: EurActiv: France in 'crisis situation' as drought deepens
  France has curbed water consumption in 28 of its 96 administrative departments, the environment ministry said on Monday (16 May), as a rainless spell that has wilted grain crops looks set to continue.
• 2011/05/17: PlanetArk: France In Crisis As Drought Deepens -Minister
• 2011/05/16: Wunderground: Unprecented floods on the Mississippi, in Colombia, and Canada

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2011/05/19: AutoBG: Autotrader survey shows most motorists go green to "save money, not the environment"
• 2011/05/17: CalcRisk: High Gasoline Prices impacting consumers

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

• 2011/05/21: TreeHugger: Caltech's Energy Retrofit: From Fuel Cells to a Daylighting Celeostat
• 2011/05/22: TreeHugger: UN Initiative Will Bring Energy Efficiency to East Africa's Buildings
• 2011/05/18: NYT:CW: How Does Your Building Rank Now in Energy Efficiency? Check the 2003 Data

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2011/05/19: NBF: Stratoshield - simple and low cost mitigation of global warming

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2011/05/16: NERC:NORA: Increases in lake phytoplankton biomass caused by future climate-driven changes to seasonal river flow by Ian D. Jones et al.
• 2011/05/19: NERC:NORA: Solar signal propagation: the role of gravity waves and stratospheric sudden warmings by Ingrid Cnossen et al.
• 2011/05/20: ACP: Measurements of the timescales for the mass transfer of water in glassy aerosol at low relative humidity and ambient temperature by H.-J. Tong et al.
• 2011/05/20: ACP: Ice nuclei properties within a Saharan dust event at the Jungfraujoch in the Swiss Alps by C. Chou et al.
• 2011/05/20: ACP: Optimizing global CO emission estimates using a four-dimensional variational data assimilation system and surface network observations by P. B. Hooghiemstra et al.
• 2011/05/20: ACP: The 2009 stratospheric major warming described from synergistic use of BASCOE water vapour analyses and MLS observations by W. A. Lahoz et al.
• 2011/05/20: ACPD: Relativistic electron beams above thunderclouds by M. Füllekrug et al.
• 2011/05/20: ACPD: A comprehensive numerical study of aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions in marine stratocumulus by Y.-C. Chen et al.
• 2011/05/20: ACPD: Impacts of changes in land use and land cover on atmospheric chemistry and air quality over the 21st century by S. Wu et al.
• 2011/05/18: OS: Mixing, heat fluxes and heat content evolution of the Arctic Ocean mixed layer by A. Sirevaag et al.
• 2011/05/18: OS: Comparison between three implementations of automatic identification algorithms for the quantification and characterization of mesoscale eddies in the South Atlantic Ocean by J. M. A. C. Souza et al.
• 2011/05/18: TC: Point observations of liquid water content in wet snow - investigating methodical, spatial and temporal aspects by F. Techel & C. Pielmeier
• 2011/05/18: TC: Snow accumulation and compaction derived from GPR data near Ross Island, Antarctica by N. C. Kruetzmann et al.
• 2011/05/21: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Possible evolution of mobile animals in association with microbial mats by Murray Gingras et al.
• 2011/05/20: CP: The construction of a Central Netherlands temperature by G. van der Schrier et al.
• 2011/05/17: CP: Evaluating climate model performance with various parameter sets using observations over the recent past by M. F. Loutre et al.
• 2011/05/16: CP: High carbon sequestration in Siberian permafrost loess-paleosols during glacials by R. Zech et al.
• 2011/02/23: arXiv: A new approach to long-term reconstruction of the solar irradiance leads to large historical solar forcing by A. I. Shapiro et al.
• 2011/03/28: arXiv: Evolution of the solar irradiance during the Holocene by Luis Eduardo A. Vieira et al.
• 2011/05/19: ACP: Decreases in elemental carbon and fine particle mass in the United States by D. M. Murphy et al.
• 2011/05/18: ACP: Mesosphere-to-stratosphere descent of odd nitrogen in February-March 2009 after sudden stratospheric warming by S.-M. Salmi et al.
• 2011/05/16: ACP: On the aerosol weekly cycle spatiotemporal variability over Europe by A. K. Georgoulias & K. A. Kourtidis
• 2011/05/16: ACP: Modeling sea-salt aerosol in a coupled climate and sectional microphysical model: mass, optical depth and number concentration by T. Fan & O. B. Toon
• 2011/05/18: ACPD: Non-linearity in DMS aerosol-cloud-climate interactions by M. A. Thomas et al.
• 2011/05/17: ACPD: Black carbon aerosol mixing state, organic aerosols and aerosol optical properties over the UK by G. R. McMeeking et al.
• 2011/05/17: ACPD: Evaluation of cloud fraction and its radiative effect simulated by IPCC AR4 global models against ARM surface observations by Y. Qian et al.
• 2011/05/17: ACPD: Revised identification of tropical oceanic cumulus congestus as viewed by CloudSat by S. P. F. Casey et al.
• 2011/05/16: ACPD: Aerosol composition and sources in the Central Arctic Ocean during ASCOS by R. Y.-W. Chang et al.
• 2011/05/17: PNAS: [ab$] Contemporaneous and recent radiations of the world's major succulent plant lineages by Mónica Arakaki et al.
• 2011/05/17: PNAS: [abs] General rules for managing and surveying networks of pests, diseases, and endangered species by Iadine Chadès et al.
• 2011/05/17: PNAS: [ab$] Unexpected patterns of fisheries collapse in the world's oceans by Malin L. Pinsky et al.
• 2011/05/17: PNAS: [abs] Combining high biodiversity with high yields in tropical agroforests by Yann Clough et al.
• 2011/05/17: PNAS: [ab$] Methane contamination of drinking water accompanying gas-well drilling and hydraulic fracturing by Stephen G. Osborn et al.
• 2011/05/17: PNAS: [ab$] Assessing climate change impacts on the near-term stability of the wind energy resource over the United States by S. C. Pryor & R. J. Barthelmie
• 2011/05/17: PNAS: [letter$] Reply to Jordán-Garza et al.: Demographic dynamism as an additional mechanism of coral disease resistance by Laith Yakob & Peter J. Mumby
• 2011/05/17: PNAS: [letter$] Susceptibility of coral-disease models by Adan G. Jordán-Garza et al.
• 2011/05/09: AdvGeoSci: Long-term changes in rainfall and tropical cyclone activity over South and Southeast Asia by H. G. Takahashi
• 2011/05/16: GMD: Automated continuous verification for numerical simulation by P. E. Farrell et al.
• 2011/05/17: GMDD: MIROC-ESM: model description and basic results of CMIP5-20c3m experiments by S. Watanabe et al.
• 2011/05/16: TC: The seasonal cycle and interannual variability of surface energy balance and melt in the ablation zone of the west Greenland ice sheet by M. R. van den Broeke et al.
• 2011/05/16: TCD: Spatial analyses of thermokarst lakes and basins in Yedoma landscapes of the Lena Delta by A. Morgenstern et al.
• 2011/05/17: AGWObserver: Short and long term water vapor feedback
• 2010/01/05: AIP:JSEE (via doi): (ab$) Theory and Manufacturing Processes of Solar Nanoantenna Electromagnetic Collectors by D. K. Kotter et al
• 2011/05/03: IOP:ERL: (abs) Detection of the timing and duration of snowmelt in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya using QuikSCAT, 2000-2008 by Prajjwal K Panday et al.
• 2011/05/16: GRL: (ab$) Repeated pulses of vertical methane flux recorded in glacial sediments from the southeast Bering Sea by Mea S. Cook et al.
• 2011/05/16: Springer:CC: (ab$) Changes in exceptional hydrological and meteorological weekly event frequencies in Greece by T. Mavromatis
• 2011/05/16: AGWObserver: New research from last week 19/2011

  And other significant documents:

• 2011/05/17: FAO: [link to 1.8 meg pdf] Bioenergy and Food Security -- The BEFS Analytical Framework
• 2011/05/19: PI: [link to 296k pdf] Pembina Institute's input on the draft Lower Athabasca Integrated Regional Plan
• 2011/05/10: Cryptome: [Link to 2.3 meg GAO pdf] Commercial Nuclear Waste: Effects of a Termination of the Yucca Mountain Repository Program and Lessons Learned

  As for miscellaneous science:

• 2011/05/17: moyhu: Chladni patterns

  What's new in models?:

• 2011/05/18: SEasterbrook: Workshop on Advancing Climate Modeling (3)

  Regarding Wegman:

• 2011/05/17: HotTopic: Wegmangate: first blood
• 2011/05/17: JQuiggin: Adventures in social network analysis: approaching the finale
• 2011/05/16: ClimateShifts: The denial house of cards
• 2011/05/16: WottsUWT: Wegman paper retraction by Journal
• 2011/05/16: TPL: Why Wegman Matters
• 2011/05/16: DeepClimate: Retraction of Said, Wegman et al 2008, part 2
• 2011/05/16: USAToday: Retracted climate critics' study panned by expert
• 2011/05/16: KSJT: USA Today: Plagiarism trouble, and retraction, for paper that critiqued global warming science
• 2011/05/16: ClimateP: Wegman scandal rocks cornerstone of climate denial
  USA Today: Evidence of plagiarism and complaints about the peer-review process have led a statistics journal to retract a federally funded study that condemned scientific support for global warming
• 2011/05/16: Stoat: Wegman paper pulled for plagiarism
• 2011/05/16: Deltoid: Wegman scandal: the first retraction
• 2011/05/16: BCLSB: Wegman Paper Retracted For Plagiarism
• 2011/05/15: USAToday: Climate study gets pulled after charges of plagiarism
  Evidence of plagiarism and complaints about the peer-review process have led a statistics journal to retract a federally funded study that condemned scientific support for global warming. The study, which appeared in 2008 in the journal Computational Statistics and Data Analysis, was headed by statistician Edward Wegman of George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.
• 2011/05/16: DeSmogBlog: Wegman Paper Retracted for Plagiarism
• 2011/05/15: DeepClimate: Wegman and Said 2011, part 2

  Regarding Spencer:

• 2011/05/22: SkeptiSci: Roy Spencer's Latest Silver Bullet by bbickmore

  While at the UN:

• 2011/05/17: WMO: World Meteorological Congress High-level segment voices support for future priorities
• 2011/05/16: WMO: Highlights of opening day of the 16th World Meteorological Congress (16 May - 3 June 2011)
  High-level segment voices support for proposed Global Framework on Climate Services
• 2011/05/19: NBF: Humanity Can and Must Do More with Less: UNEP Report
• 2011/05/17: ClimateShifts: Australia more vulnerable but prepared, says UN climate chief
• 2011/05/16: UN: Experts meet for UN meteorological forum to discuss action plan on climate change
  More than 600 delegates have gathered today in Geneva for a United Nations meteorological conference to discuss implementing a new action plan to help countries cope with the devastating effects of climate change. For the next three weeks, the 16th World Meteorological Congress will bring together representatives from 189 countries to lay out the future policies of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and address continuing concerns over global warming. The congress will also consider a report by a high-level taskforce recommending the establishment of a Global Framework for Climate Services in an effort to help countries manage both the risks and the opportunities of climate variability.
• 2011/05/12: WMO: Taskforce recommends new climate services framework to save lives, livelihoods and reduce disasters
• 2011/05/16: NatureN: Major reform for climate body -- Intergovernmental panel aims to become more responsive

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2011/05/18: EurActiv: EU finance chiefs call for global air and maritime carbon market
• 2011/05/17: EUO: EU steps up pressure for maritime emissions deal
  EU member states have stepped up pressure for an international agreement to curb emissions from the maritime and aviation sectors, stressing that a system of carbon pricing for ships and planes would help capitalise a $100 billion climate fund

The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:

• 2011/05/20: EnvEcon: Clarifying my stance on driving taxes, fuel efficiency payments and gas taxes

  Meanwhile on the international political front:

• 2011/05/19: BBC: China expands export quotas of rare earth metals

  As for GW, energy & water security:

• 2011/05/20: Guardian(UK): US military goes to war with climate sceptics
  Political action on climate change may be mired in Congress, but one arm of government at least is acting: the Pentagon

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

• 2011/05/16: BBC: Grangemouth biomass protesters arrested
  Seven people have been arrested in a protest against a proposed biomass power station at Grangemouth docks. Twenty protesters from Action Against Agrofuels blocked both the access roads to the port, but police said they had now been reopened. The group claimed the wood-burning power station would threaten forests and worsen climate change.

Polls! We have polls!

• 2011/05/20: AutoBG: 64% of energy industry execs see oil prices exceeding $121 a barrel in 2011
• 2011/05/17: ClimateP: Polls: Americans support 60 mpg fuel economy standard; blame oil companies, OPEC for price hikes
• 2011/05/16: AutoBG: Majority of Americans want 62 mpg CAFE standards; automakers don't
• 2011/05/16: CSM: Poll: With gas prices high, Americans want 60 m.p.g. fuel efficiency

  Regarding Water Politics and Business:

• 2011/05/20: Grist: Three Gorges Dam has serious issues, China admits
• 2011/05/20: Guardian(UK): Turkish dam threatens town that dates back to the bronze age
  Hasankeyf has survived drought, war and empire, but it could be flooded out of existence within a few years
• 2011/05/18: Maplecroft: Maplecroft index identifies Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia as world's most water stressed countries
  Key emerging economies and oil rich nations export water issues to ensure food security through African 'land grab'
• 2011/05/19: Guardian(UK): The Middle East is running dry - and into the perfect storm?
  The most water-stressed nations on Earth are all in the Middle East and North Africa. Add surging populations and food and energy costs, and trouble seems inevitable
• 2011/05/17: NatureN: Massive Chilean dams approved -- Decision widely condemned by citizens

  Among the world's religions:

• 2011/05/21: Deltoid: Cardinal Pell damaging the reputation of the Catholic Church
• 2011/05/17: Grist: Say Earthalujah! Reverend Billy preaches the green gospel

  Who's making predictions this week?

• 2011/05/18: QuarkSoup: US Emissions to Stay Below Pre-Recession Peak Until 2028

  And on the American political front:

• 2011/05/16: RRapier: Analysis Requested by Senate Democrats Highlights the Risks of Their Energy Proposals
  This essay highlights the reason I loathe politics. Here I present a case in which politicians present a partial story and withhold key findings in order to push a specific agenda. But their trump card is that if things don't go as planned they can assign blame elsewhere. The media is complicit because they have simply lapped up the claims uncritically without having a look at the original source material.
• 2011/05/20: Grist: New, 'hidden' source of renewable energy [thermoelectric] fights for tax breaks
• 2011/05/20: Grist: Not just the facts, ma'am: Why science alone can't defeat Big Food's policy stranglehold
• 2011/05/19: Grist: Cash incentives for renewables are twice as effective as tax credits
• 2011/05/19: Grist: Dem Disease claims another victim
• 2011/05/20: EconoSpeak: The Food Stamp Fight
• 2011/05/18: BSD: How Republicans are encouraging command-and-control environmental regulation
• 2011/05/18: Grist: Is climate sanity the kiss of death for Republican presidential candidates?
• 2011/05/18: AlterNet: What Are the Big Oil Companies Thinking When They Fight Having to Pay Taxes?
• 2011/05/18: NatureN: Energy: America's top climate cop
  The United States has abandoned comprehensive greenhouse-gas curbs, but California is pressing ahead. Mary Nichols is leading the fight against emissions.
• 2011/05/17: AlterNet: 6 Absurd Excuses Conservatives Make to Protect Greedy Oil Giants from Paying Their Taxes
• 2011/05/16: USAToday: Our view: America, pick your climate choices
• 2011/05/17: Guardian(UK): US school board teaches 'the controversy' on global warming
• 2011/05/16: ClimateP: Big Oil's political ploy [Becker]
• 2011/05/13: WaPo: Climate change denial becomes harder to justify
  "Climate Change is occurring, is very likely caused by human activities, and poses significant risks for a broad range of human and natural systems." So says -- in response to a request from Congress -- the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, the country's preeminent institution chartered to provide scientific advice to lawmakers. In a report titled "America's Climate Choices," a panel of scientific and policy experts also concludes that the risks of inaction far outweigh the risks or disadvantages of action. And the most sensible and urgently needed action, the panel says, is to put a rising price on carbon emissions, by means of a tax or cap-and-trade system. That would encourage innovation, research and a gradual shift away from the use of energy sources (oil, gas and coal) that are endangering the world.
• 2011/05/16: ClimateP: Loan guarantee program is on hold, creating uncertainty for clean energy projects like Cape Wind
• 2011/05/16: ClimateP: National Academy of Sciences slams climate disinformation campaign, flawed media coverage
• 2011/05/16: PlanetArk: New Jersey An Unlikely Leader In Solar Energy
• 2011/05/16: OilChange: The High Cost of Keeping Gas Prices Low [US pol - subsidies]
• 2011/05/16: AutoBG: Report: CARB says U.S. is leaning towards non-CHAdeMO quick-charge standard
• 2011/05/14: Missoulian: Children, parents file suit to set, enforce limits on greenhouse gases in Montana

  The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:

• 2011/05/20: BBC: BP reaches Deepwater Horizon settlement with MOEX
  One of the owners of the oil well that leaked millions of gallons into the Gulf of Mexico last year has agreed to contribute to BP's compensation fund. MOEX Offshore has agreed to pay $1.065bn (£657m) to BP to settle all claims between the companies relating to the Deepwater Horizon rig accident. MOEX, a unit of Japanese trading house Mitsui, owned 10% of the Macondo well. BP has said it will put the money into the $20bn trust it established to meet claims relating to the oil spill.

Do you want a corporate dweeb, or a sociopathic corporate dweeb? Your choice:

• 2011/05/20: LFR: Bachmann followers threaten 16-year-old girl with rape and violence because she offered to debate the Minnesota Governor
• 2011/05/20: LA Times: In the 2012 campaign, environmentalists don't matter
  That's the message President Obama is sending as the administration caters to smokestack and other industries.
• 2011/05/20: ClimateP: Flashback: In 2003, Romney attacked coal jobs that "kill people"
• 2011/05/20: ClimateP: L.A. Times: Obama is throwing "the environment and public health under a bus" to get reelected
• 2011/05/19: ClimateP: GOP contender Jon Huntsman stuns right by embracing climate science, but still tries to appease them by flip-flopping to oppose any action
• 2011/05/18: TreeHugger: GOP Won't Tolerate a Candidate Who Even Acknowledges Existence of Climate Change
• 2011/05/16: CSM: Donald Trump: Why I'm not running for president
• 2011/05/15: ERabett: Anyone Around Here Got a Tub of Popcorn

  Remember the Pickens Plan?

• 2011/05/18: ClimateP: Pickens drops wind from his energy plan, but industry remains 'healthy' and 'sustainable', says analyst

  Late comment on that NAS report:

• 2011/05/18: ClimateSight: America's Climate Choices
• 2011/05/18: NOAANews: NOAA Administrator welcomes new climate science report [America's Climate Choices]

  Think anybody will do anything abut this?

• 2011/05/20: ProPublica: Despite Mining Disaster, Report Says Coal Giant Massey 'Has Not Changed' and Execs Stay on
• 2011/05/20: LA Times: 'Profoundly reckless' procedures led to deadly mine blast, report says
  A scathing report by a former top federal mine regulator says Massey Energy Co. ignored basic safety procedures that could have prevented an explosion in a West Virginia mine last year that killed 29 people.
• 2011/05/19: CBC: Owner [Massey Energy Co.] to blame for West Virginia coal blast: report
  An independent investigation concludes the West Virginia coal mine explosion that killed 29 men last year was the result of safety failings by owner Massey Energy Co. and rejects the company's argument that a sudden gas buildup caused the deadliest U.S. coalfield disaster since 1970. The report released Thursday and commissioned by the state's former governor said Massey violated basic safety practices, including not ventilating the tunnels enough. The study supported the federal government's theory that methane gas mixed with huge volumes of explosive coal dust turned a small fireball into a preventable earth-shattering explosion

The Worcester Polytechnic Institute incident:

• 2011/05/17: DeSmogBlog: WPI Students Protest ExxonMobil Speaker at Graduation
• 2011/05/16: EnergyBulletin: Peak oil: a chance to change the world [Richard Heinberg's Worcester Polytechnic Institute address]

  The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2011/05/20: DeSmogBlog: On Oil Drilling, Which Obama Do We Trust?
• 2011/05/16: Grist: Obama's oil plan shows he still doesn't get post-truth politics
• 2011/05/16: TreeHugger: Obama Calls for More Offshore Drilling. Again.

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2011/05/22: ClimateP: [EPA head] Lisa Jackson defends Obama's environmental record on the Daily Show
• 2011/05/18: NYT:CW: How Does Your Building Rank Now in Energy Efficiency? Check the 2003 Data
  In 2007, a team of federal energy researchers faced this question: Could their work be done on the cheap? Their agency, the Energy Information Administration, was facing budget pressure. For 25 years, it had collected comprehensive data on commercial buildings, which use a fifth of the country's energy: bowling alleys, fast-food restaurants, hospitals and more. Historically, EIA had used an army of surveyors to walk America's streets and update its building rosters. That gave researchers back at the office confidence that the data were accurate. But putting all those boots on the ground was expensive. So for the 2007 survey, to save money, the researchers decided to take a risk. They hired a well-established contractor at the University of Chicago to use an experimental method that needed fewer boots on the ground. EIA expected to save some 30 percent of the usual survey cost, a few million dollars. The plan failed. Two weeks ago, EIA announced it won't release results from its 2007 survey because the contractor's data were shoddy.
• 2011/05/17: CSW: Include ocean acidification in the National Climate Assessment
• 2011/05/18: TreeHugger: EPA Puts Off Regulating Industrial Boiler Emissions
• 2011/05/16: NOAANews: Dr. Elizabeth Jewett selected to lead NOAA's Ocean Acidification Program

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2011/05/21: Creekside: The North American-Made Energy Security Act
• 2011/05/21: ClimateP: Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) denies he voted for Big Oil subsidies, then gets flustered trying to justify the money -- Also implies BP is an American company
• 2011/05/20: ClimateP: Facing town hall constituents angry about oil subsidies, GOP rep. Cravaack denies that they even exist
• 2011/05/19: ClimateP: League of Women Voters says [Senator Claire] McCaskill's (D-Mo) vote to protect coal polluters "endangered the public health"
• 2011/05/20: PlanetArk: Senate Blocks Move To Open Up Offshore Drilling
• 2011/05/19: AutoBG: Senate votes down bill to end oil company subsidies, see how they voted and who gets oil money
• 2011/05/19: ClimateP: Facing angry and booing constituents, GOP Rep. Herrera Beutler (R-Wa) turns against oil subsidies
• 2011/05/19: ClimateP: Sen. Scott Brown is wrong: Carbon pollution is connected to asthma and sick children
• 2011/05/19: ClimateP: Conservative senators parrot Big Oil's talking points
• 2011/05/18: ClimateP: Senate Republicans cast "suicide pact" vote for Big Oil that expands drilling while weakening oversight
• 2011/05/18: ClimateP: [Rep.] Eric Cantor (R-Va) promises oil speculators that republicans will block financial regulations
• 2011/05/17: ClimateP: Constituents laugh at GOP Rep. Quayle for denying existence of billions in special oil subsidies
• 2011/05/17: Grist: Senate Republicans filibuster to protect oil-industry subsidies -- after getting gusher of oil money
• 2011/05/18: UCSUSA: Rep. Barton Distorts Facts to Argue Toxic Air Emissions Are Not Harmful; Questions Need for Tighter Limits
• 2011/05/17: PubliCola: Republicans Block Democratic Bill to End Oil Subsidies
• 2011/05/18: CSM: American anger at gas prices fueled by rising household energy costs
  Congress's failed bid Tuesday to rein in multibillion-dollar tax breaks for oil companies was merely a first shot across the bow, as Americans frustrated by rising energy costs press their lawmakers to target the industry, according to a new study.
• 2011/05/17: CSM: Bill to chop Big Oil's tax breaks falls short -- but makes its point
• 2011/05/17: DeSmogBlog: GOP House Energy Action Team Is Dirty Energy Dream Team
• 2011/05/15: ClimateP: Markey slams "oil-above-all" approach: "Renewable energy has been an invisible issue" for Republicans

  What are the lobbyists pushing?

• 2011/05/18: ClimateP: Oil-fueled Chamber attacks "punitive" cuts to Big Oil, demands punitive cuts for working families, elderly

  While in the UK. See also UK Carbon Plan:

• 2011/05/20: Guardian(UK): Alistair McGowan: 'Airports are one of the most sad experiences of your life'
  The impressionist on why solar power is a no-brainer and how the coalition government is failing on green issues
• 2011/05/19: Guardian(UK): Tougher carbon emission targets boost confidence in National Grid upgrade
• 2011/05/19: PlanetArk: UK Nuclear Power Gets Green Light
• 2011/05/19: BBC: Aquamarine project sparks new Western Isles link call
  A proposed wave power project off the Western Isles would generate electricity for almost three times the number of properties on the islands. Edinburgh-based Aquamarine Power has secured permission to explore the potential of two sites off Lewis where it could install devices by 2018. However, the islands have no means to export electricity to the mainland surplus to its 13,195 properties. Council leader Angus Campbell said action was needed now on a link.
• 2011/05/18: Guardian(UK): Climate change: the UK must end its double-dealing
  David Cameron's welcome pledge to step up cuts in carbon emissions boosts his government's green credentials, but its actions at home and abroad tell a different story
• 2011/05/17: Guardian(UK): Coalition's climate battle is both victory gained and disaster averted
• 2011/05/16: BBC: Coalition to reveal long-term carbon target
  The government is to set out plans to reduce greenhouse gases and change the way energy is produced. The UK's fourth "carbon budget" has been agreed following recent disputes among ministers on the possible impact such changes will have on business.
• 2011/05/15: Guardian(UK): A golden opportunity for Britain to lead the world in energy production
• 2011/05/19: Guardian(UK): Coalition cuts Carbon Trust funding
• 2011/05/16: Guardian(UK): Carbon Trust maps emissions 'flow' of traded goods
• 2011/05/16: BBC: Cameron intervenes to settle row over emissions targets
  David Cameron has moved to resolve a Cabinet row over the UK's climate change targets, with an agreement on emissions to be announced on Tuesday.
• 2011/05/16: BBC:RB: Climate panel signs off reforms - but how ambitious?
• 2011/05/15: BBC: UK breaks promise on nuclear power subsidies, say MPs
  MPs have urged ministers to admit they are tacitly subsidising nuclear power despite promising that the industry would not receive such support. The Energy and Climate Change Select Committee's report accused ministers of disguising the subsidy and distorting the reforms.
  

And in Europe:

• 2011/05/19: DerSpiegel: First Green State Governor -- 'I Want a Quiet Revolution'
  Winfried Kretschmann, 62, is the new governor of Baden-Württemberg and the first-ever leader of a German state from the Green Party. In a Spiegel interview, he talks about redefining economic growth, his plans to make industry more environmentally friendly and the future of nuclear power in Germany.
• 2011/05/20: EurActiv: Lawmakers back bigger share of CAP money for forests
  The share of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) expenditure earmarked for forest protection should be increased but only if forest owners conform to biodiversity and other environmental policies, says Greek Socialist MEP Kriton Arsenis in an interview with EurActiv.
• 2011/05/20: EurActiv: Zero emission-branded electric cars 'misleading': Consumers
  More transparency for consumers on the benefits of electric vehicles is urgently required, said [FIA: Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile] Europe's biggest motoring consumer group yesterday (19 May).
• 2011/05/20: EurActiv: Carbon market security vote kicked back
  Carbon market queasiness resurfaced yesterday (19 May) when a vote on plans to disguise the serial numbers of EU carbon allowances (EUAs) was postponed to give member states more time for debate.
• 2011/05/20: PlanetArk: Norway Could Retire Permits To Meet CO2 Goals: OECD
• 2011/05/20: Grist: Denmark's government throws down the gauntlet: 100 percent renewables by 2050
• 2011/05/18: EurActiv: EU hails 'outstanding' British climate pledge
  EU Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard has warmly praised a British government decision to halve its 1990 greenhouse gas emission level within 14 years -- if the EU takes similar action.
• 2011/05/18: EUO: EU hails UK decision to cut emissions by 50 percent
  The British government has announced plans to halve carbon dioxide emissions by 2025, winning strong praise from EU climate chief Connie Hedegaard. After months of inter-cabinet wrangling, UK energy and climate secretary Chris Huhne outlined the 50 percent cut, compared with 1990 levels, to members of parliament late on Tuesday afternoon (17 May).
• 2011/05/18: EurActiv: EU finance chiefs call for global air and maritime carbon market
  EU finance ministers have proposed a carbon pricing system for international shipping and aviation, to cut emissions and raise finances for climate change mitigation.
• 2011/05/16: PlanetArk: Analysis: Bioethanol May Win In Crunch Time For EU Biofuels

  Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2011/05/22: ABC(Au): Safety fears spark solar panel tests
  Home solar panels will be tested across New South Wales after a compliance check in Port Macquarie found potentially fatal flaws. The New South Wales Department of Fair Trading checked 55 homes in Port Macquarie in February and discovered that solar panels on three of the homes had defects with incorrect polarity, which could possibly lead to a fire.
• 2011/05/22: ABC(Au): Calls for inquiry into coal seam gas projects
  The New South Wales Greens have called for a special commission of inquiry on coal seam gas drilling to go with the moratorium on new mining licences. The State Government has announced a 60-day freeze on exploration licences for coal seam gas, petroleum and coal projects ahead of a new land use policy. But the Green's mining spokesman, Jeramy Buckingham, says the moratorium should also cover current coal seam gas projects.
• 2011/05/21: ABC(Au): Climate change and carbon emissions under the spotlight
  A forum is being held in the Lake Macquarie suburb of Swansea today, south of Newcastle, to discuss climate change and government policies needed to reduce carbon emissions.
• 2011/05/20: ABC(Au): New coal-fired power plant approved
  The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has approved a new coal-fired power plant in eastern Victoria. The HRL plant at Morwell, in the Latrobe Valley, will use gas from brown coal and natural gas, to produce electricity.
• 2011/05/20: ABC(Au): Solar rebate change sparks Coffs Harbour protest rally
  Hundreds of angry Coffs Harbour residents are today venting their anger about changes to the solar bonus scheme. A protest began at 12:30pm, (AEST) Friday May 20, outside the CBD offices of local Nationals MP Andrew Fraser. The state government has decided to break contracts with 110,000 households that signed up to the solar bonus scheme. Customers currently eligible for the 60-cent tariff will have the rate reduced to 40 cents from July.
• 2011/05/20: ABC(Au): The heat is continuing to rise for the New South Wales Government over its decision to slash a solar energy rebate.
• 2011/05/20: ABC(Au): Coffs MP says constituents angry about solar scheme cuts
  A mid north coast MP says he has been inundated with emails and phone calls from constituents angry about cuts to solar scheme subsidies. Coffs Harbour MP Andrew Fraser says people who invested in the solar scheme are up-in-arms about the government's plans for retrospective legislation to cover the change.
• 2011/05/19: ABC(Au): Holden is getting nearly $40 million from the federal Green Car Innovation Fund for work to reduce the fuel consumption of Commodores by more than 7 per cent
• 2011/05/19: ABC(Au): Rising seas data 'not scare campaign'
  Climate Change Minister Greg Combet says the Federal Government is not trying to scare people by releasing data about the risks of rising sea levels in metropolitan Adelaide.
• 2011/05/19: ABC(Au): NSW Energy Minister defends solar bonus cuts
• 2011/05/19: ABC(Au): A Liberal MP has broken ranks with the New South Wales Government, by describing its decision to slash a solar rebate scheme as unprecedented and repugnant
• 2011/05/18: ABC(Au): A climate change think tank [Beyond Zero Emissions] says the Whitsundays region in north Queensland should be worried about coal seam gas exploration.
• 2011/05/18: ABC(Au): Bob Irwin [father of the late Steve Irwin] fined over gas protest
  Environmental campaigner Bob Irwin has been fined $300 for his part in a coal seam gas protest on the Western Darling Downs.
• 2011/05/17: ABC(Au): A scheme to help more low-income households get solar panels is being considered in South Australia
• 2011/05/16: ABC(Au): The town of Williams in the Great Southern could soon join the growing number of regional communities using wind power to generate electricity, with an ambitious plan to build one of the largest wind farms in Australia

  Malcolm Turnbull is dogging the Mad Abbott's heels:

• 2011/05/20: MTurnbull: Lateline -- what I actually said
• 2011/05/20: ABC(Au): Turnbull blogs climate policy defence
  Federal Opposition frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull has used his personal blog to defend comments he made this week about the Coalition's climate policy.
• 2011/05/19: ABC(Au): Malcolm Turnbull says he still has ambitions to lead the Liberal Party once more, but he has no doubt Tony Abbott will take the Coalition to the next election
• 2011/05/19: ABC(Au): Turnbull exposed Coalition's climate truth: Gillard
  Labor and the Greens have seized on comments by former opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull that the Coalition's 'direct action' climate change policy is costly and easy to scrap.
• 2011/05/19: ABC(Au): Torn Turnbull reopens climate change wounds
• 2011/05/19: NewsCorp: Malcolm Turnbull says direct carbon action short-term fix
  Former Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull has attacked the Coalition's direct action policy on climate change, declaring it cannot produce deep emissions cuts without putting a strain on the budget.
• 2011/05/19: JQuiggin: Turnbull for PM

  The Australian carbon war rages on:

• 2011/05/21: BNC: CO2 avoidance cost with wind energy in Australia and carbon price implications
• 2011/05/20: ABC(Au):TDU: Is that poisoned chalice half full or half empty?
• 2011/05/21: ABC(Au): Gillard not backing away from carbon tax fight
  Julia Gillard has used Labor's Victorian state conference to reaffirm her party's commitment to a carbon price. The Prime Minister told the conference that Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's "campaign of fear" over the carbon tax will be exposed as a sham before the next election.
• 2011/05/19: ABC(Au): Gillard faces community meeting in SA
  [...]
  The carbon tax was also on the agenda with a question on what percentage of it would go towards investing in green energy. Ms Gillard said the details of the tax would be released in the middle of the year.
• 2011/05/19: ABC(Au): The Gippsland Trades and Labour Council says the Latrobe Valley must develop industry plans in preparation for a carbon price
• 2011/05/19: ABC(Au): Australia's electricity sector says uncertainty besetting the industry will not end until the Federal Government lays out all the details of its carbon tax and the carbon trading scheme that will follow
• 2011/05/19: ABC(Au): Oakeshott find some agreement in carbon talks
  Lyne Independent Rob Oakeshott says he remains committed to making sure the federal government's proposed carbon tax is fair On Tuesday Mr Oakeshott was part of talks on the issue as a member of the multi-party Climate Change committee. He says there is bipartisan agreement in Parliament that climate change needs to be addressed. But Mr Oakeshott says there is division about the best price to put on carbon.
• 2011/05/18: ABC(Au): The Western Australian Greens say [Tony Crook] the Member for O'Connor's decision to vote against a carbon tax is a mistake for his constituents
• 2011/05/18: ABC(Au): Carbon tax a 'threat' to Gippsland jobs
  The Nationals' Member for Gippsland, Darren Chester, says Gippsland residents do not want the Federal Government to introduce a carbon price.
• 2011/05/18: ABC(Au): Carbon tax needs to leave out fuel: Oakeshott
  Key independent MP Rob Oakeshott says he thinks fuel should not be subject to a carbon tax, putting him at odds with Greens members of the multi-party climate change committee.
• 2011/05/15: CCurrents: Australia's Carbon Tax And Coal To Gas Transition Will Double Power Generation Greenhouse Gas Pollution [Polya]
• 2011/05/17: ABC(Au): Carbon report to unveil impact on power sector
  The Federal Government will release a report tomorrow on the impact of a carbon price on the electricity sector, amid speculation over its starting price.
• 2011/05/17: ABC(Au): Government denies $40/tonne carbon price
  The Federal Government says the carbon price will be "well south" of a reported $40 a tonne, despite research showing the high price is needed to give investors incentive to switch from coal-fired power plants to gas

After a 10 year drought and recent massive flooding, water usage planning is controversial and difficult:

• 2011/05/21: ABC(Au): Scientists quit 'flawed' Murray-Darling process
  A group of leading scientists contributing to the development of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority's (MDBA) plan has pulled out of the process, calling the plan to fix the ailing river system seriously flawed. The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists says it can not be part of a plan which it says will fail to fix the river system but waste billions of taxpayer dollars.
• 2011/05/18: ABC(Au): Drought recovery boost for lower Murray region
  Federal funding of $118 million has been announced to support recovery of the Lower Lakes and Coorong near the Murray mouth in South Australia.

While in the Indian subcontinent:

• 2011/05/19: OpenDem: Greed Revolution?
  Even if we believe that the first Green revolution benefited India by making it a food-surplus nation, it is important to distinguish it from the second Green revolution that unabashedly ties the nation's agricultural interests to the vagaries of institutional and corporate market forces.
• 2011/05/19: AGupta: India and Organic Farming

  And in China:

• 2011/05/18: BBC: China power cuts set to increase on rising coal costs
  China has started rationing electricity to try and stave off an energy shortage that government officials say could be the worst since 2004. State-owned power generating companies are dealing with high global energy prices that have cut their profits. China has also banned the export of diesel, to try to meet domestic demand. Power cuts occur every summer, but this year rising coal costs and a drop in hydropower output mean they could be much more severe.

Elsewhere in Asia:

• 2011/05/19: BBC:RB: Reaching out for sustainability

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

• 2011/05/18: DVoice: Canada's Election: Stupid Is as Stupid Does

  The G20 controversy lingers:

• 2011/05/21: OrwellsBastard: Toronto Police: Unaccountable, uncaring, unbelievable
• G20Justice: LineUp - Toronto Police
• 2011/05/16: CfC: Pushing back creeping G20-ism
• 2011/05/20: CfC: Ain't nobody here but us chickens
• 2011/05/21: TStar: G20 fallout: Who is the man in the photo?
• 2011/05/18: CBC: G20 detainee [Byron] Sonne free on bail
  Byron Sonne, the man who was charged with explosives and weapons offences in the days leading up to last year's G20 summit in Toronto, has been released on bail.
  

A couple of GHG reports this week:

• 2011/05/19: CBC: Canada's greenhouse gas emissions dip
  [Alberta was the top emitter in 2009 with 33.8 per cent of emissions nationwide.] Canadian emissions of greenhouses gases fell roughly six per cent between 2008 and 2009, Environment Canada reports.
• 2011/05/16: CBC: P.E.I. hits emission [reduction] targets early

  Like all good conservative ideologues, the Tories eschew any collective behaviour which is not corporate. The Canadian Wheat Board is due to disappear thanks to this blindness. Canadians will be amazed how fast laws can be amended when the Tories control both houses:

• 2011/05/20: WesternGrit: Farmer's SHOULD Be Allowed To Vote On Wheat Board Future
• 2011/05/18: CBC: Wheat Board to be axed: federal [Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz]

  The saga of the Assiniboine flood rolls on:

• 2011/05/21: CBC: Manitoba dike resealed but rain a worry
• 2011/05/20: CBC: Dike breach closure begins in Manitoba
  Flood officials in Manitoba have begun to seal up the dike that was cut a week ago, causing a deliberate flood of rural land to protect other homes downstream. The controversial cut at the Hoop and Holler Bend of the Assiniboine River was made on May 14. The spill has covered about 3.42 square kilometres of land in that time. The province initially warned it might have to release up to 3,000 cubic feet of water per second (cfs) but the flow remained around 400 cfs and no homes in the area were seriously damaged by the water.
• 2011/05/19: CBC: Manitoba gaining upper hand in flood fight -- Evacuees preparing to return home in Brandon
• 2011/05/18: CBC: Leaking dike poses new threat in Manitoba -- City of Brandon extends state of emergency
• 2011/05/17: CBC: Manitoba flood cost $200M and rising
• 2011/05/17: PlanetArk: Dry Weather Helps Contain Deliberate Manitoba Flood
• 2011/05/17: CBC: Manitoba residents question flood measures -- Seeking compensation from government
• 2011/05/16: CBC: Traffic rolls on Highway 75
  Highway 75, the main route between Winnipeg and the USA, is open again after being closed for 29 days due to flooding.
• 2011/05/17: WpgFP: Lake Manitoba swallows land -- Property owners protect homes, lash province for water woes
• 2011/05/16: CBC: Manitoba dike breach going as hoped -- Crest of Assiniboine River bearing down on Brandon
  The intentional flooding of a large farming area southeast of Portage La Prairie is going as hoped but is still being closely monitored, the Manitoba government says.
• 2011/05/16: PostMedia: Flooding could cost Manitoba $200 million -- Affected area has been reduced
• 2011/05/15: CBC: Controlled spill slows river's rise -- 2nd day of unprecedented water diversion

  Flooding is still a danger in the Richelieu as well:

• 2011/05/22: CBC: Quebec braces for rising river levels -- Premier calls on military to be vigilant in flooded areas
• 2011/05/21: CBC: Military help is needed again: Charest -- Richelieu River could rise yet again in already flooded area

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2011/05/19: OilChange: Empty threats should not be made at 'friends'
• 2011/05/18: CBC: Alberta fires force more oil shutdowns -- Syncrude sents non-essential crews from Aurora home
• 2011/05/17: CBC: More oil companies cut production at their sites in northern Alberta due to wildfires in the surrounding area

  In Ontario, upcoming election issues are appearing:

• 2011/05/19: CleanBreak: Toronto District School Board to become, in effect, a solar utility: to install PV panels on 450 rooftops under $445-million deal
• 2011/05/17: G&M: Ontario's green energy hub fears winds of political change
  Manufacturers of renewable energy equipment that have set up shop in Ontario are worried that the industry could buckle if incentives disappear under a new provincial government. Last week, Conservative Leader Tim Hudak said that if he were elected premier in the October election, he would kill off the province's feed-in tariff (FIT) program, which pays high prices for electricity generated from renewable sources as long as a minimum proportion of the equipment in a project is manufactured in Ontario.
• 2011/05/18: BCLSB: Even Now Tim Hudak Is Killing Investment In The Province Of Ontario
• 2011/05/18: CleanBreak: Hudak's energy strategy: throw baby out with bath water
• 2011/05/16: CoC: Nuclear waste repository is a serious threat to the Great Lakes, warns Council of Canadians
  The Council of Canadians is warning of the risks from a proposed nuclear waste repository on Lake Huron. The Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has submitted a proposal for a deep geologic disposal facility on the Bruce Nuclear site in Kincardine, Ontario. The facility will be 680 metres underground and only one mile away from Lake Huron.

While in la Belle Province:

• 2011/05/16: CBC: Quebec group against shale gas to march 600 km

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

• 2011/05/20: MR: Star Children: Return to Home
• 2011/05/12: AlterNet: Vision: Nature Needs Rights -- Why Our Human-Centric Model Will Doom Us and the Rest of the Planet
• 2011/05/19: EnergyBulletin: Living buildings, living economies, and a living future [Korten]
• 2011/05/16: CCurrents: Future Of The Environment And Human Well-Being
• 2011/05/15: CCurrents: Humanity Hitting The Resource Ceiling
• 2011/05/16: EnergyBulletin: Two schools and the path to the steady state
• 2011/05/16: EnergyBulletin: Conserving the commons
• 2011/05/15: AlterNet: Vision: Building a World That Can Run Without Fossil Fuels Will Be the Challenge of Our Lifetimes
• 2011/05/15: EnergyBulletin: Would vested interests starve the world?

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

• 2011/05/13: BobPark: What's New?
  #1. Verhulst Equation: Beware of a stable population.
• 2011/05/19: TreeHugger: How Educations Leads to Lower Fertility and Increased Prosperity
• 2011/05/17: CSM: Global middle class: More money, more pollution?

  Apocalypso anyone?

• 2011/05/22: BBC: 'Rapture': Believers perplexed after prediction fails
• 2011/05/20: Slate: Prophecy Fail - What happens to a doomsday cult when the world doesn't end?
• 2011/05/21: BBC: 'Rapture' apocalypse prediction sparks atheist reaction
  US atheists are to hold parties in response to an evangelical broadcaster's prediction that Saturday will be "judgement day".

As for how the media handles science:

• 2011/05/21: TreeHugger: Editorial Boards of Washington Post, LA Times, Pen Scathing Warnings on Climate
• 2011/05/20: ClassM: How asbestos made me a better journalist
• 2011/05/20: KSJT: Yale E360: When one talks only to authors of papers, directors of studies. What's Lost? So What?
• 2011/05/17: Deltoid: The Australian's War on Science 61: Verballing Pachauri, again
• 2011/05/16: MTobis: For the Misleading Headline File

  Here is something for your library:

• 2011/05/21: EnergyBulletin: 'The Ecological Rift': a radical response to capitalism's war on the planet [Book Review] _The Ecological Rift: Capitalism's War on the Earth_ by John Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark & Richard York
• 2011/05/12: AlterNet: A Rare Glimpse Inside the Endangered World of Beekeeping
  [Book Review] _The Beekeeper's Lament: How One Man and Half a Billion Honey Bees Help Feed America_ by Hannah Nordhaus
• 2011/05/10: TAP: [Book Reviews] A Way to Win the Climate Fight?
  _The Climate War: True Believers, Power Brokers, and the Fight to Save the Earth_ by Eric Pooley
  _GLOBAL Warming Gridlock: Creating More Effective Strategies for Protecting the Planet_ by David G. Victor

And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2011/05/18: Grist: A look inside the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant
• 2011/05/18: TCoE: Walk like an e-cono-mist
• 2011/05/16: PSinclair: The "Temp Leads Carbon Crock" - Updated

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2011/05/11: TechDirt: Koch Brothers Can't Abuse Trademark & Hacking Laws To Sue Satirical Critics
• 2011/05/18: FOE: State Department Sued for not Disclosing Clinton Correspondence with Oil Lobbyist
• 2011/05/18: DeSmogBlog: Hillary Clinton's State Department Sued Over Failure To Reveal Contacts With TransCanada Tar Sands Lobbyist
• 2011/05/14: Missoulian: Children, parents file suit to set, enforce limits on greenhouse gases in Montana

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

• 2011/05/22: PeakEnergy: Australian Geothermal industry defends its record
• 2011/05/21: Creekside: The North American-Made Energy Security Act
• 2011/05/19: TreeHugger: High Gas Prices Are Turning the United States Into Europe
• 2011/05/19: BBC: Economic recovery at risk over oil supply says IEA
  The International Energy Agency (IEA) has urged oil producing countries to increase supply to avoid "derailing the economic recovery".
• 2011/05/19: PeakEnergy: Tidal energy -- the UK's best kept secret
• 2011/05/19: PeakEnergy: PG&E's declining interest in wave power
• 2011/05/18: Grist: West Virginia's new coal-to-gasoline plant will produce dirtiest fuel known to humanity
• 2011/05/17: LA Times:GS: Can natural gas fuel the U.S.?

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

• 2011/05/19: ProPublica: Forced Pooling: When Landowners Can't Say No to Drilling
• 2011/05/17: ProPublica: PA Officials Issue Largest Fine Ever to Gas Driller
• 2011/05/17: ProPublica: Gas Drilling Companies Hold Data Needed by Researchers to Assess Risk to Water Quality
• 2011/05/19: Grist: Fracking with our food: how gas drilling affects farming
• 2011/05/19: PlanetArk: Poland To Develop Shale Gas Despite Environment Risk
• 2011/05/18: PlanetArk: Chesapeake Handed Record Fine For Pennsylvania Gas Drilling
• 2011/05/18: TreeHugger: Fracking As A Fractured Relationship With Ourselves
• 2011/05/16: EarthTimes: Hydrofracking impacts water quantity, too
• 2011/05/17: EnergyBulletin: Debunking the 'shale gale'
• 2011/05/15: EconBrowser: Shale gas environmental concerns

  On the coal front:

• 2011/05/18: GreenGrok: Mountaintop Mining Communities: Feeling Verklempt
• 2011/05/20: ProPublica: Despite Mining Disaster, Report Says Coal Giant Massey 'Has Not Changed' and Execs Stay on
• 2011/05/20: LA Times: 'Profoundly reckless' procedures led to deadly mine blast, report says
  A scathing report by a former top federal mine regulator says Massey Energy Co. ignored basic safety procedures that could have prevented an explosion in a West Virginia mine last year that killed 29 people.
• 2011/05/19: CBC: Owner [Massey Energy Co.] to blame for West Virginia coal blast: report
  An independent investigation concludes the West Virginia coal mine explosion that killed 29 men last year was the result of safety failings by owner Massey Energy Co. and rejects the company's argument that a sudden gas buildup caused the deadliest U.S. coalfield disaster since 1970. The report released Thursday and commissioned by the state's former governor said Massey violated basic safety practices, including not ventilating the tunnels enough. The study supported the federal government's theory that methane gas mixed with huge volumes of explosive coal dust turned a small fireball into a preventable earth-shattering explosion
• 2011/05/19: HotTopic: On Lignite: [NZ coal company, Solid Energy Ltd. CEO, Don] Elder not better
• 2011/05/16: Grist: Booming U.S. coal exports forebode a coal-fired 21st century
• 2011/05/16: Grist: Scholastic's pro-coal curriculum pulled from schools
• 2011/05/15: CSW: Scholastic and the American Coal Foundation

  On the gas and oil front:

• 2011/05/22: OilDrum: Tech Talk - American Stripper Well Production
• 2011/05/21: VoxEU: More oil, less democracy: Evidence from worldwide crude oil discoveries by Kevin K. Tsui
  It has been widely argued that natural-resource wealth is a curse that leads to corrupt politicians, closed and illiberal societies, and defunct economies. This column presents new evidence on the political impacts of oil wealth. It argues that the effects depend on geology and history, shedding light on the recent uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa.
• 2011/05/20: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
  OIL (US$/bbl)
  Nymex Crude Future..100.10
  Dated Brent Spot....112.78
  WTI Cushing Spot.....99.49
• 2011/05/19: BBC: Oil spill exercise: UK tests offshore response
  More than 100 people have taken part in an oil spill exercise off Shetland, one of the biggest of its kind in the UK. It followed concerns raised by the Gulf of Mexico spill in April 2010, when a blast at the Deepwater Horizon rig caused a massive oil leak. Exercise Sula tested how authorities would react to and deal with a major deep water spill in the UK.
• 2011/05/18: BRitholtz: OPEC by the Numbers

  In the gas and oil corps:

• 2011/05/20: AutoBG: 64% of energy industry execs see oil prices exceeding $121 a barrel in 2011
• 2011/05/16: TreeHugger: ConocoPhillips Withdraws From Controversial Amazon Oil Project

  And in pipeline news:

• 2011/05/20: AutoBG: BP, Conoco Philips scrap $35b Alaska natural gas pipeline project
• 2011/05/18: FOE: State Department Sued for not Disclosing Clinton Correspondence with Oil Lobbyist
• 2011/05/18: DeSmogBlog: Hillary Clinton's State Department Sued Over Failure To Reveal Contacts With TransCanada Tar Sands Lobbyist
• 2011/05/17: CBC: Denali abandons Alaska pipeline project
  One of two companies planning to build major natural gas pipelines in Alaska has dropped its bid, saying Tuesday that it didn't get the agreements necessary to justify continuing. The Denali-The Alaska Gas Pipeline announcement raises questions about the prospects for building a long-hoped-for line in Alaska. Denali had been competing to build a line with TransCanada Corp., which continues work though lawmakers have expressed frustration with the pace.

Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

• 2011/05/19: CCurrents: The Peak Oil Crisis: The Summer Ahead
• 2011/05/18: EnergyBulletin: The peak oil crisis: the summer ahead
• 2011/05/17: OilDrum: Looking in the Rear View Mirror
• 2011/05/16: JQuiggin: Reasons to be cheerful (Part 1): Peak gasoline

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2011/05/19: QMUL: Wildlife in trouble from oil palm plantations, according to scientists
• 2011/05/19: IaState: Iowa State engineer scales up process that could improve economics of ethanol production
• 2011/05/19: Oregonian: Biogas digester at Oregon's Lochmead Farms turns manure and methane into power
• 2011/05/18: AutoBG: Abengoa Bioenergy expects to sell 793 million gallons of biofuel in 2011
• 2011/05/17: CleanBreak: Here's the poop: biogas systems manufacturer to establish global headquarters in Ontario, hire 200

  The answer my friend...:

• 2011/05/18: OPB: BPA Switches Off Wind, Sticks With Water
• 2011/05/19: BendBulletin: As planned, wind power is cut out of region's grid -- In Wednesday's wee hours, Pacific Northwest was being powered mostly by region's dams

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2011/05/19: ClimateP: By 2015, we could see a new generation of photovoltaic technologies, including 3D solar cells
• 2011/05/16: Reuters: Solar power lights up Bangladesh rural areas
  Solar power is in place in nearly a million homes in rural Bangladesh, which is drastically short of electricity, the World Bank said on Monday.
• 2011/05/16: Monash: Splitting water to create renewable energy simpler than first thought?
  An international team, of scientists, led by a team at Monash University has found the key to the hydrogen economy could come from a very simple mineral, commonly seen as a black stain on rocks.
  [...]
  "The hardest part about turning water into fuel is splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, but the team at Monash seems to have uncovered the process, developing a water-splitting cell based on a manganese-based catalyst," Professor Spiccia said. "Birnessite, it turns out, is what does the work. Like other elements in the middle of the Periodic Table, manganese can exist in a number of what chemists call oxidation states. These correspond to the number of oxygen atoms with which a metal atom could be combined," Professor Spiccia said. "When an electrical voltage is applied to the cell, it splits water into hydrogen and oxygen and when the researchers carefully examined the catalyst as it was working, using advanced spectroscopic methods they found that it had decomposed into a much simpler material called birnessite, well-known to geologists as a black stain on many rocks." The manganese in the catalyst cycles between two oxidation states. First, the voltage is applied to oxidize from the manganese-II state to manganese-IV state in birnessite. Then in sunlight, birnessite goes back to the manganese-II State.
• 2011/05/16: Eureka: ORNL energy harvesters transform waste into electricity

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2011/05/18: NBF: Status of nuclear reactors that should complete in 2011 through 2013

  Nuclear waste storage requires long term thinking:

• 2011/05/10: Cryptome: [Link to 2.3 meg GAO pdf] Commercial Nuclear Waste: Effects of a Termination of the Yucca Mountain Repository Program and Lessons Learned
• 2011/05/19: DerSpiegel: The Nuclear Sell -- Why One Swedish Town Welcomes a Waste Dump
  Hosting a permanent nuclear waste repository is not high on the list for most municipalities. But residents of the Swedish town of Ãsthammar are 77 percent in favor. Transparency on the part of politicians and industrial leaders has made the difference.
• 2011/05/16: CoC: Nuclear waste repository is a serious threat to the Great Lakes, warns Council of Canadians
  The Council of Canadians is warning of the risks from a proposed nuclear waste repository on Lake Huron. The Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has submitted a proposal for a deep geologic disposal facility on the Bruce Nuclear site in Kincardine, Ontario. The facility will be 680 metres underground and only one mile away from Lake Huron.
• 2011/05/17: PlanetArk: Panel Proposes Network Of Nuclear Waste Sites
• 2011/05/17: NatureN: Battle of Yucca Mountain rages on -- Proposed interim storage unlikely to settle US debate
• 2011/05/15: ScienceInsider: U.S. Panel Suggests Moving Used Nuclear Fuel to Interim Sites

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2011/05/20: PlanetArk: Toshiba To Buy Meter Maker Landis+Gyr For $2.3 Billion
• 2011/05/19: Grist: Cost of adding tons of renewables to U.S. electric grid has been almost zero, say studies

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2011/05/19: Grist: Sexiest LED lightbulb ever is first true alternative to incandescents
• 2011/05/17: CleanBreak: 100-watt LED bulbs occupy the spotlight (get it, spotlight?) at LightFair show
• 2011/05/16: Yahoo:AP: LED bulbs hit 100 watts as federal ban looms

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

• 2011/05/20: NatureN: Destination within range -- Stop worrying about the range of electric vehicles - many of us simply don't drive that far.
• 2011/05/17: UDel: When fueling up means plugging in -- Limited range, long charging time concerns for potential electric vehicle customers
• 2011/05/18: AutoBG: Infographic: Scooters save you thousands of dollars
• 2011/05/16: CleanBreak: ZENN chair resigns, CEO dumped and working relationship with EEStor tightened
• 2011/05/17: DerSpiegel: The World from Berlin -- "If They Really are that Good, Electric Cars will Prevail"
  Berlin has announced plans to drive up the number of electric cars in Germany to one million by 2020, touting financial incentives worth two billion euros by 2013. German commentators wonder whether the money is being spent in the right place -- or whether it is simply filling the coffers of large car manufacturers.
• 2011/05/17: AutoBG: ZENN CEO Brian Cott quits; company looks to trim operations, cut costs

  This week in the Gee Whiz File:

• 2011/05/18: Grist: Solar breakthrough could lead to 90 percent efficient panels ... someday
• 2011/05/16: Eureka: New solar product captures up to 95 percent of light energy -- MU engineer plans to make solar panels more effective in collecting energy
• 2011/05/16: MUNews: New Solar Product Captures Up to 95 Percent of Light Energy
• 2010/01/05: AIP:JSEE (via doi): (ab$) Theory and Manufacturing Processes of Solar Nanoantenna Electromagnetic Collectors by D. K. Kotter et al
• 2011/05/16: NBF: New solar product [nanoantennae] captures up to 95 percent of light energy

  The Focardi & Rossi Energy Catalyzer is drawing more attention. I still don't know what to think of it. This work needs replication by other independent researchers:

• 2011/05/16: Aleklett: The sun, Rossi's "energy catalyzer" and the "neutron barometer"
  [...]
  My experience above leads me to point out once again that Rossi's experiment must be reproduced by other independent researchers and that, ultimately, a physical explanation must exist.
• Wiki: Energy Catalyzer [Focardi & Rossi]
• 2011/04/11: Aleklett: Rossi energy catalyst -- a big hoax or new physics?
• 2011/05/20: PeakEnergy: The return of cold fusion?
• 2011/05/19: Eureka: Record efficiency of 18.7 percent for flexible CIGS solar cells on plastics -- Swiss researchers boost efficiency of flexible solar cells to new world record
• 2011/05/19: OilDrum: The return of cold fusion?
• 2011/05/17: NBF: NASA confirms they are working on Widom Larsen theory experiments but not Rossi Replication
• 2011/05/16: NBF: Interview with Energy Catalyzer's Partner Ampenergo in the United States

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

• 2011/05/17: BBC: Puma has become the world's first major corporation to publish details of the cost of its impact on the environment

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

• 2011/05/20: ClimateP: May 20 news...
• 2011/05/19: ClimateP: May 19 News...
• 2011/05/18: ClimateP: May 18 news...
• 2011/05/17: ClimateP: May 17 news...
• 2011/05/16: ClimateP: May 16 news...

  Other (weekly) lists:

• 2011/05/16: CSW: Climate Science Watch Update

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2011/05/17: PRWatch: Scholastic, Inc. Burned by Coal Industry-Sponsored Curriculum
• 2011/05/20: CitizensChallenge: Integrity of Stephen McIntyre examined... a review by Real Climate
• 2011/05/20: WottsUWT: Pat Frank: The New Science of Climate Change
• 2011/05/20: S&R: Milloy proves he's either incompetent or a liar in latest op-ed
• 2011/05/19: CitizensChallenge: Auditing Stephen McIntyre, anatomy of a deception
• 2011/05/19: SMandia: Heartland Institute's Non-Experts: "You Experts Are All Wrong!"
• 2011/05/18: WottsUWT: Western snow pack is well above normal, Squaw Valley sets new all time snow record
• 2011/05/18: BBickmore: Charles Koch Buys an Econ Department
• 2011/05/17: WaPo:TT: Own facts
• 2011/05/18: Deltoid: Oreskes and Switzer on The Drum
• 2011/05/18: MTobis: Morano's Email
• 2011/05/20: ABC(Au):TDU: Climate science and James Hansen misrepresented
• 2011/05/17: Grist: USA Today: Climate science deniers are now like birthers
• 2011/05/16: ClimateP: Pollutocrat Koch fueling far right academic centers at universities nationwide

  Another candidate for the ideal name -- Denialati -- joins ... septics, greenhouse mafia, permanently uninformed, carbon lobby, denialist, fossil fools, climate contrarian, biostitutes, pseudoskeptic, the Slick 60 Climate Change Denial Gang, delusionists, climate cranks, bellignorant, delusionosphere, denyosphere, Warmocaust Collusionists, Denier-Industrial-Complex Kooks (DICKs), Anti-Science Syndrome (ASS), carbonistas, unpersuadables and Climosaurs:

• 2011/05/19: MTobis: More Yucks from the Denialati

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2011/05/21: Stoat: How to be wrong
• 2011/05/16: GreenGrok: Carbon Exports of the American Kind
• 2011/05/19: DeSmogBlog: iMatter Marches Prove Younger Generation Is Ready To Fight Climate Change
• 2011/05/18: CSM: How Mississippi River floods could save Louisiana's sinking coasts
• 2011/05/18: Dispatches: Badass Quote of the Day [Asimov]
• 2011/05/18: ClassM: It is what it is
• 2011/05/18: DVoice: The Green Revolution Backfires -- Sweden's lesson for real sustainability
• 2011/05/17: Tamino: Hot ... and Wet
• 2011/05/17: BVerheggen: Thanks Nick Stokes for the 'Woody Guthrie award for a thinking blogger'
• 2011/05/16: moyhu: The Woody Guthrie Award - Bart Verheggen
• 2011/05/16: Guardian(UK): Can innovation plug the development funding gap?
  The G20 should start a serious discussion about how innovative financing mechanisms could accelerate global development, but this should not distract from concrete commitments on aid
• 2011/05/16: BVerheggen: Different approaches to the climate problem
• 2011/05/16: Grist: Are climate campaigners doing it wrong? I review a book that answers 'yes'
• 2011/05/16: ClimateShifts: Climate change logic lost in translation
• 2011/05/15: ERabett: Rabett Is Always Right
• 2011/05/15: Guardian(UK): Koch brothers under attack by leftwing film-maker

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

• Will Humans Endure?
• Wiki: Energy Catalyzer [Focardi & Rossi]
• From a Glaciers Perspective
• Wiki: Clathrate gun hypothesis
• Alberta SRD - Wildfire Status
• Wiki: Thermokarst
• Warming101 -- Climate Blog Aggregator
• WDCGG: The World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases
• CACOR: Canadian Association for the Club of Rome
• EOL: Encyclopedia of Life
• IPCC: Frequently Asked Questions [WG1 - 2007]

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.

"The main thing is they are in absolute, abject and catastrophic denial about a straightforward set of facts that is probably the most important set of facts we face as a nation, and as human beings on planet earth. They have turned their faces away from climate change in a way that is simply and utterly unforgivable. They now apparently DO feel entitled to their own facts, and they live, campaign and purportedly do their jobs in a zone of outright lies. Lies they have every reason to understand are lies, and lies that will almost certainly result in massive destruction and death. Exactly how would you be 'fair' to these people?" -Tom Toles

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