Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
Another week of Climate Disruption News
Sipping from the Internet Firehose...
June 26, 2011
- Chuckles, Bonn, COP17+, G20, IPSO, The Conversation, Threats
- Bottom Line, Subsidies, Psyche, Cook
- Fukushima Note, Fukushima News, Nuclear Policy, Fukushima Talk
- Melting Arctic, Fauna, Geopolitics
- Food Crisis, Agro-Corps, Prices, Riots, Food vs. Biofuel, Land Grabs, GMOs, Production
- Hurricanes, Monsoon, GHGs, Temperatures, Paleoclimate, Historical Climate, Attribution, Solar
- Impacts, Forests, Desertification, Extreme Weather, Tornadoes, Wildfires, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
- Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Adaptation
- Journals, Misc. Science, DIY Science, Models, Mann
- UN, Carbon Trade, Bank Tax, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy
- International Politics: Airlines & EU ETS, Security, Law & Activism, Activism, Polls, H2O Biz
- National Politics: America, BP Disaster, 2012, Al Gore, Climate Service, Obama, USAdmin, Congress
- Britain, Europe, Australia, Carbon War, Murray-Darling, India, China, Japan, Russia
- Canada, Post G20, Yellowknife, AECL, CWB, On the road
- BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Sask, Manitoba, Canadiana
- Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Courts
- Energy, Fracking, Coal, Oil & Gas, Fossil Fuel Corps, Pipelines, Peak Oil, Biofuel
- Solar, Nukes, Nuclear Waste, LENR, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Gee Whiz, Energy Storage
- Business, Insurance, Greenwashing, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
- Shameless Self Promotion, .sig
- 2011/06/22: TMW: (cartoon - TomTom) The never-ending Carnival of Crazy
- 2011/06/21: Seppo: (cartoon - Seppo) Fossil energy policy
- 2011/06/24: S&R: (cartoon - Szep) Did you hear the one about Newt Gingrich?
- 2011/06/23: PSinclair: (cartoon - Kelly) He is Us
- 2011/06/22: uComics: (cartoon - Rall) Clean Coal
- 2011/06/21: uComics: (cartoon - Auth) Right to Life
I need a category for some of the funny-sad-absurd-unbelievable things that happen:
- 2011/06/20: Wonkette: Obama Impersonator Thrown Out For Mocking GOP: Racist Jokes Were Okay
- 2011/06/21: Wonkette: Mitt Romney Says Helping America's Tornado Victims Is 'Immoral'
- 2011/06/20: Guardian(UK): Republicans stop laughing after Obama impersonator turns jokes on them
Republicans laugh as an Obama impersonator makes racially-tinged jokes -- until he starts making fun of GOP candidates - 2011/06/20: CDreams: A Solstice Approaches, Unnoticed
- USNO: Equinoxes, Solstices, Perihelion, and Aphelion, 2000-2020
- 2011/06/21: CSM: Summer solstice: Everything you want to know
- 2011/06/21: CSM: Huzzah, summer solstice? At South Pole, winter solstice is party time
Looking back at Bonn:
- 2011/06/20: GEP: Minimal Progress on REDD in Bonn
- 2011/06/21: TP:JR: Bonn Climate Talks News Wrap Up: No Agreement in Sight
- 2011/06/20: EUO: EU ties Kyoto extension to greater efforts all-round
The European Union has said major polluters must make greater progress in curbing carbon emissions before the 27-member bloc signs up to a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol. Failure to secure substantive movement on the issue of binding carbon targets overshadowed the end of climate talks in Bonn on Friday (17 June), despite progress in a number of important technical areas. - 2011/06/20: BBerg: Rich Nations Break $30 Billion Climate Promise, Poor World Says
Looking ahead to COP17 and future international climate negotiations:
- 2011/06/21: Reuters: Climate Conversations - With a binding climate treaty dead, what next?
- 2011/06/19: Reuters: Analysis: Hopes fading for climate agreement
- 2011/06/20: TreeHugger: Global Climate Talks "Dead in the Water": Former UN Climate Chief [Yvo de Boer]
The G20 agriculture ministers had a confab in Paris:
- 2011/06/25: BPA: The G-20 Food Summit Goals. What is the Agricultural Market Information System or AMIS?
- 2011/06/24: EurActiv: G20 agree farm deal, soft on regulation
G20 farm ministers struck a deal yesterday (23 June) to tackle high food prices, agreeing to a watered-down declaration that fell short of France's ambitious proposals to tighten regulation of commodity markets. - 2011/06/23: BBC: G20 agrees measures to tackle high global food prices
Agriculture ministers from the G20 group of nations have agreed a series of measures they hope will reduce food price volatility and boost supplies. In a communique following a two day meeting in Paris ministers said they would adopt a new collective rapid response system to help calm any spikes in prices. They have also agreed to look at new rules to tackle food price speculation. However, it remains to be seen whether these will be adopted. - 2011/06/21: BBerg: Century of Hunger Is Warning From France as Farm Ministers From G-20 Meet
- 2011/06/22: BBC: G20 ministers meet in a bid to tackle high food prices
Agriculture ministers from the G20 nations are meeting in Paris, in an attempt to tackle volatile food prices. - IPSO: International Programme on the State of the Ocean
- 2011/06/20: IPSO: Multiple ocean stresses threaten "globally significant" marine extinction
- 2011/06/20: BBC: World's oceans in 'shocking' decline
The oceans are in a worse state than previously suspected, according to an expert panel of scientists. In a new report, they warn that ocean life is "at high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history". They conclude that issues such as over-fishing, pollution and climate change are acting together in ways that have not previously been recognised. The impacts, they say, are already affecting humanity. - 2011/06/25: CDreams: If the Sea Is in Trouble, We Are All in Trouble
- 2011/06/23: HotTopic: The state of the ocean (dire)
- 2011/06/22: KSJT: Lots of Ink: Ocean quality dropping fast. Its quantity is way up. Not so much ink (except Fox): Colorado scientists doctored sea level data.
- 2011/06/21: TP:JR: World's oceans in 'shocking' decline, report finds 'speeds of many negative changes ... are tracking the worst-case scenarios'
- 2011/06/22: GEP: Ocean Scientists Warn of Mass Extinction, Call for CDR
- 2011/06/20: RawStory: Oceans in distress foreshadow mass extinction
- 2011/06/21: ABC(Au): Ocean heading for mass extinction, scientists warn
- 2011/06/21: CBC: Oceans' decline outpaces predictions, report says -- Overfishing and habitat loss are biggest threats, followed by climate change
- 2011/06/21: al Jazeera: Ocean life 'facing mass extinction'
Depleted fish stocks, dying reefs and "dead zones" among consequences of global warming and pollution, scientists warn. - Clearing up the climate debate
- 2011/06/25: Deltoid: The Conversation on climate change concludes
- 2011/06/24: BNC: Clearing up the climate debate
- 2011/06/23: SkeptiSci: The chief troupier: the follies of Mr Monckton
- 2011/06/23: Deltoid: The Conversation on climate change still continues
- 2011/06/22: CCP: John Abraham: The chief troupier: the follies of Mr Monckton
- 2011/06/21: TheConversation: A journey into the weird and wacky world of climate change denial
- 2011/06/21: CCP: A journey into the weird and wacky world of climate change denial
- 2011/06/21: Deltoid: The Conversation on climate change continues
- 2011/06/20: TP:JR: The Greenhouse Effect is Real and It's "irrefutable" that rapid increases in CO2 will cause "rapid future warming"
Threats against Australian scientist continue:
- 2011/06/20: ClimateSight: The Dangers of Being a Scientist
- 2011/06/20: ABC(Au): Top Australian scientists have united in a new campaign to defend their credibility amid fresh death threats aimed at key climate change scientists
- 2011/06/22: Deltoid: Another day, another death threat
- 2011/06/22: ABC(Au): Coalition climate stance creating 'bitter' debate
Professor Ross Garnaut says the Opposition's direct action method is "expensive and foolish". (AAP: Samuel Cardwell) The Federal Opposition has been forced to defend its opposition to pricing carbon in the wake of accusations by the Government's chief climate advisor that "bitterness and rancour" has arisen after the Coalition "changed its mind" on climate policy. Speaking last night, Professor Ross Garnaut pulled no punches, saying the Opposition's direct action method of addressing climate change is "expensive and foolish". "We do have a bitter public discussion of this matter at the moment with a rancour that's unusual, in fact unprecedented, in my experience in Australian public policy discussion," Professor Garnaut told an audience in Sydney. He indicated the bitter debate is due to the Coalition repudiating the support for an emissions trading scheme that it took to the 2007 election under John Howard and continued under Malcolm Turnbull in opposition. - 2011/06/22: PlanetArk: Climate Debate Turns Nasty As Australia Tries To Price CO2
Australian climate scientists say they have received death threats, emails with sexual slurs and other insults in a surge of abuse that appears to be a coordinated campaign of intimidation. The threats have come as the government tries to step up the fight against climate change by trying to win agreement on a deeply unpopular scheme to price carbon emissions, which the political opposition says will cost jobs and raise fuel and power prices. Anna-Maria Arabia of the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies said she received a death threat on Monday and that police were investigating the threat. "There's no doubt that there is an orchestrated campaign," Arabia told Reuters. - 2011/06/24: Deltoid: Correction: Andrew Bolt likely prompted death threat sent to Anna-Maria Arabia
And on the Bottom Line:
- 2011/06/23: KSJT: AP, etc: Routine weather can cost US nearly half a trillion dollars annually. Is that a lot?
- 2011/06/22: Eureka: Economic cost of weather may total $485 billion in US
- 2011/06/22: CSM: Weather is costly -- up to $243 billion a year
Routine weather -- rainy spells, warmer than average days -- can cause the United States economy to lose or gain as much as $242.5 billion in a year, according to a new calculation. In other words, bad weather can lead to a lean year, while the right scenario can mean a bonus. This variation covers only normal weather, not devastating events like tornadoes and hurricanes, or climate change, which is expected to bring more extreme weather. - 2011/06/24: PlanetArk: Urbanites Get $394 Million of U.S. Crop Subsidies: Group
More shrinkology:
- 2011/06/19: AlterNet: How the Right Wing's Worldview Is Torn Apart By Climate Change Science (Major Case of Cognitive Dissonance)
John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:
- 2011/06/26: SkeptiSci: Uncertainty in Global Warming Science by hfranzen
- 2011/06/25: SkeptiSci: Bob Carter's climate counter-consensus is an alternate reality [The Conversation]
- 2011/06/26: SkeptiSci: A journey into the weird and wacky world of climate change denial by Stephan Lewandowsky [The Conversation]
- 2011/06/25: SkeptiSci: A Detailed Look at Renewable Baseload Energy by Mark Diesendorf & dana1981
- 2011/06/24: SkeptiSci: Rogues or respectable? How climate change sceptics spread doubt and denial
- 2011/06/24: SkeptiSci: The Last Interglacial - An Analogue for the Future? by SteveBrown
- 2011/06/23: SkeptiSci: The chief troupier: the follies of Mr Monckton
- 2011/06/22: SkeptiSci: Sea Level Hockey Stick by dana1981
- 2011/06/22: SkeptiSci: IPCC Report on Renewable Energy by dana1981 & MartinS
- 2011/06/22: SkeptiSci: McManufactured Controversy
- 2011/06/20: SkeptiSci: Australia's contribution matters: why we can't ignore our climate responsibilities
- 2011/06/21: SkeptiSci: Introducing the Skeptical Science team
- 2011/06/20: SkeptiSci: When scientists take to the streets it's time to listen up
- 2011/06/20: SkeptiSci: Climate change denial and the abuse of peer review
A note on the Fukushima disaster:
It is evident that the Fukushima disaster is going to persist for some time. TEPCO says 6 to 9 months. We'll see. Meanwhile, I am moving the topic down slightly and setting up its own section to emphasize this ongoing nature.
Not much good news coming out of Fukushima:
- 2011/06/17: BigThink:MKaku: Three-Month Update of Fukushima Accident and the Flood of New Information Coming Out
- 2011/06/24: APR: Fukushima Daiichi Update: Friday
- 2011/06/24: BBC: Japan's Chubu Electric gets 100bn yen emergency loan
Chubu Electric, Japan's third biggest utility, will receive an emergency loan to purchase alternative sources of power, as the country continues to face a shortage. - 2011/06/22: APR: Fukushima Daiichi update: Wednesday
- 2011/06/21: BBC: Moody's Investor Service sharply cut Tokyo Electric Power's (TEPCO) credit rating to junk status...
- 2011/06/18: APR: Fukushima Daiichi update: Saturday
- 2011/06/19: CBC: Japan nuclear plant borrowed disaster gear: report
A new report says Japan's tsunami-ravaged nuclear plant was so unprepared for the disaster that workers had to bring protective gear and an emergency manual from distant buildings and borrow equipment from a contractor. The report by plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. was released over the weekend and is based on interviews of workers and plant data. - 2011/06/22: WMO: WMO Addresses Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Safety
- 2011/06/24: PlanetArk: Russia Among EU Neighbors To Test Nuclear Safety
- 2011/06/24: CBC: IAEA's nuclear-disaster measures stay voluntary
Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, pronounces the Vienna conference a success Friday.Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, pronounces the Vienna conference a success Friday. Associated PressThe IAEA chief declared a nuclear safety conference prompted by Japan's nuclear disaster a success Friday, but he acknowledged any new measures discussed at the meeting will be effective only if applied voluntarily by individual nations. Yukiya Amano, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the conference in Vienna had drawn up a post-Fukushima road map to avoid or mitigate future nuclear reactor disasters. While the recommendations approved by the IAEA's conference were ambitious -- including peer reviews of national nuclear regulatory agencies and random IAEA safety reviews of nuclear plants -- compliance in applying the practices is still voluntary. That means their success will depend on how strictly the new rules are observed -- and by how many nations. - 2011/06/23: BBC: New UK nuclear plant sites named
- 2011/06/22: Guardian(UK): Germany's nuclear phase-out will cause UK emissions to fall, report says
Reliance on fossil fuels will raise price of carbon permits, prompting switch to gas which produces fewer emissions - 2011/06/22: UN: Japanese accident offers lessons for world on nuclear safety - UN team
- 2011/06/22: PlanetArk: World Nuclear Association Urges Cost-Effective Safety
- 2011/06/22: PlanetArk: U.S. Sees Room To Improve Nuclear Plant Safety
- 2011/06/22: Rabble: Energy policy after Fukushima
- 2011/06/21: BBC:RB: Nuclear reviews leave open questions
In a burst of activity on Monday, the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) despatched the two potentially exciting documents of its week-long ministerial meeting into the public domain. - 2011/06/21: EurActiv: IAEA head, Yukiya Amano urges snap atom tests
The UN's nuclear chief has called for random safety tests of all the world's reactors within 18 months, to help prevent any repeat of Japan's atomic crisis three months ago. "I propose that countries with nuclear power should agree to systematic, periodic peer reviews by the IAEA," said Yukiya Amano, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA). - 2011/06/20: EurActiv: Business backlash against nuclear phase-out begins
Business lobbies are pushing for EU action to examine or derail Germany's planned exit from the nuclear power club after the Fukushima disaster. - 2011/06/20: UN: UN nuclear watchdog chief outlines immediate safety steps after accident in Japan
- 2011/06/20: PlanetArk: Nuclear Lobby To Challenge German Exit Plan: Report
Germany's nuclear lobby is mulling plans to take the German government to constitutional court, to halt the country's nuclear exit and seek billions in damages, the online edition of Der Spiegel said on Sunday. - 2011/06/20: SwissInfo: Swiss back binding global nuclear safety rules
Switzerland will call for mandatory nuclear safety regulations at a high-level gathering being held in Vienna in the wake of Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster. The weeklong conference started on Monday and brings together delegates from most of the 150 members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). - 2011/06/20: BBC: IAEA considers nuclear safety rules after Fukushima
And of course, the pundits. lobbyists and politicians have a lot to say:
- 2011/06/24: CDreams: What Happened to Media Coverage of Fukushima?
- 2011/06/24: NYT: 'Safety Myth' Left Japan Ripe for Nuclear Crisis
- 2011/06/25: CCurrents: Japan's Meltdowns Demand New No-Nukes Thinking
- 2011/06/26: PeakEnergy: Mythonium
- 2011/06/22: TCoE: Fukushima is Japanese for "it's much worse than you thought"
- 2011/06/20: TCoE: Nukes gone wild
The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:
- 2011/06/25: ASI: SIE 2011 update 9: back and forth
- 2011/06/23: CCP: "Raman Lidar Profiling of Tropospheric Water Vapor over Kangerlussuaq, Greenland" by Ryan Reynolds Neely, III, & Jeffrey P. Thayer, J. Atmosph. Oceanic Technol.
- 2011/06/23: CBC: Massive ice island heading for southern Labrador
Large pieces of the massive [Petermann] glacier that broke off northern Greenland last year are travelling near southern Labrador. - 2011/06/23: ASI: Sea Ice 3-D
- 2011/06/22: ASI: Hudson Bay
- 2011/06/22: DM:BA: As arctic ice shrinks, so does a denier claim
- 2011/06/21: ASI: New ice thickness map of the Arctic unveiled
- 2011/06/21: ESA: New ice thickness map of the Arctic unveiled
- 2011/06/21: BBC: Cryosat mission delivers first sea-ice map
- 2011/06/20: ASI: 2011 Northwest Passage Animation
- 2011/06/20: ASI: 2011 webcam puddles
- 2011/06/19: CCP: ARCUS: June 2011 Report on the September Arctic Sea Ice Outlook
As for the (charismatic) megafauna:
- 2011/06/20: BBC: Gyrfalcons are 'secret seabirds'
The world's largest falcon, the fast, taloned gyrfalcon, is a secret seabird, scientists have discovered. Gyrfalcons living in the high Arctic overwinter out at sea, spending long periods living and hunting on pack ice. - 2011/06/23 TreeHugger: When the Arctic's Ice-Free, What Happens to the Polar Bears?
As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:
- 2011/06/21: PlanetArk: Arctic Oil Spill Would Challenge Coast Guard
The food crisis is ongoing:
- 2011/06/24: CDreams: America, Land of the Free to Go Hungry
- 2011/06/22: TMoS: The "Century of Hunger"?
- 2011/06/19: BizWeek: Corn Stocks Plunging as China Adds Brazil-Sized Crop to Demand
- 2011/06/19: Guardian(UK): Our battle to end hunger
Access to food is crucial for the world's poorest people. Leadership on this issue has never been more urgently needed - 2011/06/20: CBC: Agrium shares rise on outlook -- Wet spring pushes up fertilizer prices
Shares of Calgary-based Agrium Inc. gained more than four per cent Monday, a day after it raised its profit projections for its current quarter. - FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
- 2011/06/21: PlanetArk: China Food Prices Spike As Floods Ruin Farmland
- 2011/06/19: Guardian(UK): China floods bring steep food price rises
Regional vegetable prices rise by 40% as rains flood more that 1m acres of farmland and affect lives of 5.7 million people - 2011/06/19: PSinclair: How did Climate Change bring about the Arab Uprising?
The conflict between biofuel and food persists:
- 2011/06/17: TechRev: Record Food Prices Linked to Biofuels
Reports from the WTO and USDA show that corn supplies are influenced by biofuel subsidies and mandates. - 2011/06/21: PeakEnergy: Record Food Prices Linked to Biofuels
So, are these land grabs Colonialism V2.0?
- 2011/06/25: FAO: Annan warns hunger could become permanent disaster
Land size of France bought by hedge funds in 2009, says chairman of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa - 2011/06/22: BPA: Current and Potential Arable Land use in Africa
- 2011/06/20: DemNow: Harvard, Vanderbilt, Spelman Exposed for Taking Part in "African Land Grab"
Regarding the genetic modification of food:
- 2011/06/22: CBC: U.S. Congress votes to block GM salmon
And how are we going to feed 9 billion?
- 2011/06/24: Eureka: [Texas AgriLife Research] lab seeks drought-tolerant traits in cotton, other plants
- 2011/06/24: BPA: A Positive 2011 Food Security Story: Rice Production
- 2011/06/24: WUSTL: Deep history of coconuts decoded
Written in coconut DNA are two origins of cultivation, several ancient trade routes, and the history of the colonization of the Americas - 2011/06/23: Eureka: New and old threats to soybean production
- 2011/06/23: EnergyBulletin: The nutritional resilience approach to food security
- 2011/06/22: HotTopic: Oxfam on food justice: clearheaded and admirable
- 2011/06/21: Grist: Dumpster diver says: Trader Joe's must stop wasting food
- 2011/06/20: EnergyBulletin: African agricultural innovations boost continental food production
- 2011/06/20: Grist: The indignity of industrial tomatoes
In the hurricane wars, the action was all in the Pacific; Beatriz, Meari & Haima:
- 2011/06/24: Eureka: NASA sees Tropical Storm Meari headed for North Korea landfall
- 2011/06/24: Eureka: NASA sees Tropical Storm Haima poised for Vietnam landfall
- 2011/06/24: CNN: Tropical storm [Meari] in Philippines kills 11, forces 40,000 out of homes
Philippine agency says 11 fishermen believed killed in storm - Flash floods strike number of Philippine cities, displacing 40,000 people, agency says - 2011/06/23: Eureka: NASA [Aqua] satellite gets 2 tropical cyclones in 1 shot
The Northwestern Pacific Ocean is active with two tropical cyclones today, Tropical Storm Meari near the Philippines, and Tropical Depression Haima moving over China and now toward Vietnam. - 2011/06/22: Eureka: NASA satellite sees massive Tropical Storm Meari headed for Taiwan
- 2011/06/22: Eureka: NASA sees heavy rainfall on southern side of Tropical Depression Haima as it nears Hong Kong
- 2011/06/22: Eureka: NASA and NOAA satellite video shows Tropical Storm Beatriz fizzle in 6 hours
- 2011/06/22: PlanetArk: Beatriz Weakens Back To Tropical Storm Off Mexico
- 2011/06/21: Eureka: Infrared NASA imagery reveals a weaker tropical cyclone in the South China Sea
- 2011/06/21: Wunderground: Hurricane Beatriz slams into Mexico; heavy rains, tornadoes hit the Midwest
- 2011/06/21: NASA: NASA Sees Hurricane Beatriz "Wink" on the Mexican Coast
- 2011/06/21: CBC: Hurricane Beatriz grazes Mexico's Pacific coast
- 2011/06/20: PlanetArk: Tropical Storm Beatriz Forms Off Mexico Coast
- 2011/06/20: Wunderground: Hurricane warnings for Mexico; tornadoes and floods for the Midwest U.S.
And on the Monsoon front:
- 2011/06/24: PlanetArk: East India's Rice Areas Get Heavy Rains In Past Week
Heavy downpour over rice-growing areas of eastern India improved weekly rainfall in the week to June 22, the weather office said on Thursday, erasing the previous week's deficit. The monsoon rains were 23 percent above normal in the past week... - 2011/06/23: JFleck: Using Tree Rings to Track the Monsoon
As for GHGs:
- 2011/06/19: Tamino: Volcanic CO2
As for the temperature record:
- 2011/06/25: MTobis: TX Panhandle all-time record temperature
- 2011/06/21: JEB: Statistically significant
- 2011/06/19: QuarkSoup: Warming Since 1995 Now Significant
While in the paleoclimate:
- 2011/06/22: SciNow: When Islands Rose, Australian Rainforests Fell
- 2011/06/19: Eureka: Atmospheric carbon dioxide buildup unlikely to spark abrupt climate change
And in historical times:
- 2011/06/20: Eureka: Did climate change cause Greenland's ancient Viking community to collapse?
In the attribution debate:
- 2011/06/20: QuarkSoup: (Sigh)
Regarding the solar hypothesis:
- 2011/06/22: CCP: National Solar Observatory Press Release; "What's Down with the Sun? Major Drop in Solar Activity Predicted"; Dr. Frank Hill says "We are NOT predicting a mini-ice age..."
- 2011/06/20: CCurrents: What If The Sun Went Into A New Grand Minimum?
- 2011/06/19: RealClimate: What if the Sun went into a new Grand Minimum?
More GW impacts are being seen:
- 2011/06/24: ScienceInsider: Growing Evidence on Climate Change Affecting U.S. Gardens
- 2011/06/23: CCurrents: Climate Change: It's Bad And Getting Worse
- 2011/06/26: Eureka: Prodigal plankton species makes first known migration from Pacific to Atlantic via Pole
Microscopic plant disappeared from North Atlantic 800,000 years ago; unwanted return 1 of several climate change symptoms already apparent throughout European oceans - 2011/06/26: WpgFP: Scientists say warming waters reshuffling location of marine species
And then there are the world's forests:
- 2011/06/24: EnergyBulletin: Sacred groves sustain bio-cultural richness in Yunnan forest
- 2011/06/24: PlanetArk: Oslo Backs Jakarta's Forest Plan, Despite Hurdles
- 2011/06/23: CCP: Belo Monte Dam, Brazil: Farewell to a wild river
- 2011/06/22: IPSNews: Burkina Faso Losing Thousands of Hectares of Forests Each Year
The Burkina Faso authorities have sounded the alarm over the increased rate of degradation of forests in this Sahelian country. - 2011/06/22: UN: Logging, drug threats put rainforests on UN heritage danger list
Illegal logging, poaching, and other intrusions have led rainforests in Honduras and Indonesia to be placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reported today. - 2011/06/22: PlanetArk: New Congo Law Demands Environmental Impact Studies
- 2011/06/21: KSJT: Yale360, with big Reuters boost: In the Amazon, maybe palm oil plantations are good news
- 2011/06/20: CBC: Replacing crops with trees barely slows warming
Desertification looms as a threat:
- 2011/06/20: BBC: UN project shows how trees help halt desertification
A UN-led pilot scheme hopes to highlight how trees can help people in arid zone, considered to one of the most hostile habitats on the planet. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Acacia project's goal is to show how trees provide, food, fuel, shelter and income during times of hardship. So far, six nations - including Senegal and Sudan - have hosted tree planting schemes for at-risk communities. - 2011/06/20: ERW: Uncharacteristic weather patterns on the rise
False springs, where uncharacteristically early warm weather is followed by a sudden hard freeze, can have a devastating effect on vegetation and agricultural crops by killing off early growth. Now researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, US, who analysed more than 100 years of data to look for a trend in the frequency of false springs over the southeastern US, have found considerable regional variations. - 2011/06/26: HotTopic: Catch a fire (worst year since 1816)
- 2011/06/24: Wunderground: 2010 - 2011: Earth's most extreme weather since 1816?
- 2011/06/23: al Jazeera: Climate Change: It's bad and getting worse
Severe weather events are wracking the planet, and experts warn of even greater consequences to come. - 2011/06/21: CBC: Tornado wrecks 3 Kansas homes
As for heatwaves and wild fires:
- 2011/06/24: PlanetArk: Rain, Falling Temperatures Help Texas Douse Wildfires
- 2011/06/21: BBC: Wildfire kills two forest rangers in Florida
A wildfire in Florida has claimed the lives of two forest rangers, as emergency services continue to battle more than 400 blazes across the state. - 2011/06/19: CBC: U.S. wildfires force thousands more from homes
Sea levels are rising:
- 2011/06/24: Eureka: Newspaper archives help to understand coastal flooding along the South of England
- 2011/06/21: DerSpiegel: Climate Change Debate -- Sea Level Study Leads to Divisions
After reconstructing sea level patterns over the last 2,000 years for the first time ever, researchers have found that the dawn of the industrial age initiated an unprecedented rise in waters. But critics complain the study is too narrow. - 2011/06/20: SciNews: Modern-day sea level rise skyrocketing -- Increase began with the Industrial Revolution
- 2011/06/21: TreeHugger: Sea Level Rise Since 19th Century Greater Than Anytime In Past 2,100 Years
- 2011/06/20: NSF: Fastest Sea-Level Rise in Two Millennia Linked to Increasing Global Temperatures
- 2011/06/20: TP:JR: NSF Study: Fastest Sea-Level Rise in Two Millennia Linked to Increasing Global Temperatures
- 2011/06/20: MTobis: The Shiny-Side Revkin on Sea Level Rise
- 2011/06/20: RealClimate: 2000 Years of Sea Level
As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:
- 2011/06/25: CBC: Gatineau floods follow thunderstorms -- More rain forecast for Saturday
- 2011/06/25: al Jazeera: Severe drought hits eastern Africa
Ten killed in clashes over grazing and water and Red Cross says several have died of starvation in Kenya. - 2011/06/25: CBC: Swamped North Dakota town braces for river's crest -- Souris River could rise 2 more metres
- 2011/06/24: al Jazeera: East Africa: 'It's because of the drought'
Climate change is causing devastating droughts across East Africa - leading to an end of the pastoral way of life. - 2011/06/24: CBC: Souris River engulfs Minot, North Dakota
- 2011/06/24: UN: UN agencies to step up assistance in wake of floods in the Philippines
- 2011/06/23: UN: UN agencies work with Philippine authorities to assist flood-affected families
- 2011/06/24: PlanetArk: Floods To North, But Drought Spreads In South
- 2011/06/23: Wunderground: Floods overwhelm North Dakota levees; floods kill 175 in China
- 2011/06/23: CBC: Minot flood evacuees scramble for shelter
Thousands of residents being forced from their homes due to expected historic flooding in Minot, N.D., are scrambling to find places to relocate. - 2011/06/22: Wunderground: Record flooding in North Dakota forces evacuation of 11,000
- 2011/06/19: BPA: Six Month Precipitation Map for the U.S. December 2010 to May 2011
- 2011/06/19: BPA: Missouri River Floods a Million Acres of Farmland
- 2011/06/22: CBC: Thousands flee flood in Minot, N.D.
- 2011/06/21: CCP: Omaha, Nebraska, flooding news -- Rain the wild card in flooding
- 2011/06/20: CBC: Floods displace hundreds in Saskatchewan
Flood-battered residents of southeast Saskatchewan fled their homes Sunday after another night of heavy rain. About 400 people were ordered to leave the Willow Park Greens trailer park at Estevan, about 200 kilometres southeast of Regina, amid new flood threats after water was released from dams and 27 millimetres of rain fell overnight. - 2011/06/20: CBC: Tiny town deep under water
In terms of flood misery per capita, it would be hard to beat the tiny town of Roche Percee in the southeast corner of Saskatchewan. Following a weekend of heavy rains and a release of water from major dams in the area, much of the village of 147 people is under water. The village, which is built in a valley, had survived several recent waves of water from the overflowing Souris River, but what happened Sunday proved too much. Water started flowing over the dikes at around 7:30 a.m. CST Sunday. Much of the town was evacuated. By Monday morning, the lowest areas were under as much as seven metres of water, according to Sharon Wells, the village's deputy mayor. - 2011/06/20: CBC: 150 km stretch of Trans-Canada closed
A large section of the Trans-Canada Highway east of Regina was closed Monday afternoon due to flooding. - 2011/06/20: Eureka: Endangered snow: How climate change threatens west coast water supplies
- 2011/06/20: CBC: China flooding threatens to top city's dikes -- Heavy rains forecast to continue
More than 70 kilometres of dikes are close to overflowing in a city in eastern China, the country's flood authority said Monday, a day after a senior official warned a critical point had been reached in battling seasonal floods. Heavy rains pounded Zhejiang province over the weekend and the level of a river that passes through Lanxi city has risen sharply, said Zhao Fayuan, deputy director of the flood control headquarters. The level of Lanjiang river has now hit 34 metres, the highest since 1966, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. - 2011/06/19: BBC: China floods: Millions affected by deadly downpours
More than five million people are now reported to have been affected by deadly floods in eastern China. Torrential rain was continuing, leaving large parts of Zhejiang and Hubei provinces under water, state-run news agency Xinhua said. - 2011/06/20: al Jazeera: Millions affected by China flooding
Authorities predict downpours in the country's south after heavy rains wreak havoc in eastern provinces. - 2011/06/20: Guardian(UK): Artificial meat could slice emissions, say scientists
- 2011/06/18: PostMedia: Study: trees not cure for global warming
Planting trees may help appease travellers' guilt about pumping carbon into the atmosphere. But new research suggests it will do little to cool the planet, especially when trees are planted in Canada and other northern countries, says climatologist Alvaro Montenegro, at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. "There is no magic bullet" for global warming, says Montenegro, "and trees are certainly not going to be providing it." - 2011/06/25: AutoBG: Central Japan Railway breaks ground on two 313-mph Maglev train lines
- 2011/06/24: Grist: World's first hybrid-electric plane is aeronautical equivalent of flying pig
- 2011/06/23: EurActiv: Airlines in EU biofuels pact to cut pollution
European airlines, biofuel producers and the European Commission signed up yesterday (22 June) to producing two million tonnes of biofuel for aviation by 2020 even as debate rages over how green such fuels actually are. - 2011/06/22: NBF: China High Speed Rail Debate
- 2011/06/21: TP:JR: Biofuels are Big at the Paris Air Show: But When Will They Truly Meet Demand from the Global Aviation Industry?
- 2011/06/20: CalcRisk: DOT: Vehicle Miles Driven decreased -2.4% in April compared to April 2010
While in the endless quest for zero energy, sustainable buildings and practical codes:
- 2011/06/24: PI:B: New B.C. building regulations require new homes to come solar hot water ready
As for carbon sequestration:
- 2011/06/24: CBC: Alberta inks deal with Shell for carbon capture project
Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:
- 2011/06/24: GEP: Bright Spots for Direct Air Capture
- 2011/06/22: JEB: Geoengineering
- 2011/06/22: GEP: Ocean Scientists Warn of Mass Extinction, Call for CDR
While on the adaptation front:
- 2011/06/24: EnergyBulletin: Brown to green: A new use for blighted industrial sites
Meanwhile in the journals:
- 2011/06/20: NERC:NORA: A review of the impact of climate change on future nitrate concentrations in groundwater of the UK by M.E. Stuart et al.
- 2011/06/20: NERC:NORA: Nonlinear interaction between ocean tides and the Larsen C Ice Shelf system by Matt A. King et al.
- 2011/06/21: NERC:NORA: How will sea level respond to changes in natural and anthropogenic forcings by 2100? by S. Jevrejeva et al.
- 2011/06/21: NERC:NORA: Assessing the catastrophic break-up of Briksdalsbreen, Norway, associated with rapid climate change by Jane K. Hart et al.
- 2011/06/21: NERC:NORA: Freeboard, snow depth and sea-ice roughness in East Antarctica from in situ and multiple satellite data by Thorsten Markus et al.
- 2011/06/21: NERC:NORA: The basal roughness of Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica by D.M. Rippin et al.
- 2011/06/21: NERC:NORA: Influence of tides on melting and freezing beneath Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, Antarctica by Keith Makinson et al.
- 2011/06/23: NERC:NORA: A new projection of sea level change in response to collapse of marine sectors of the Antarctic Ice Sheet by Natalya Gomez et al.
- 2011/06/24: NERC:NORA: The impact of sea level rise and climate change on inshore wave climate: a case study for East Anglia (UK) by Nicolas Chini et al.
- 2011/06/24: NERC:NORA: Abrupt Holocene climate change and potential response to solar forcing in western Canada by Daniel G. Gavin et al.
- 2011/06/24: ACP: Inverse modeling of CO2 sources and sinks using satellite observations of CO2 from TES and surface flask measurements by R. Nassar et al.
- 2011/06/24: ACPD: A global climatology of tropospheric and stratospheric ozone derived from Aura OMI and MLS measurements by J. R. Ziemke et al.
- 2011/06/24: GMDD: Analyzing numerics of bulk microphysics schemes in Community models: warm rain processes by I. Sednev & S. Menon
- 2011/06/23: OSD: Using dissolved oxygen concentrations to determine mixed layer depths in the Bellingshausen Sea by K. Castro-Morales & J. Kaiser
- 2011/06/24: ESA:FiEatE: (ab$) The influences of wolf predation, habitat loss, and human activity on caribou and moose in the Alberta oil sands by Samuel K Wasser et al.
- 2011/06/24: ESD: Soil temperature response to 21st century global warming: the role of and some implications for peat carbon in thawing permafrost soils in North America by D. Wisser et al.
- 2011/06/21: ESD: The energetics response to a warmer climate: relative contributions from the transient and stationary eddies by D. Hernández-Deckers & J.-S. von Storch
- 2011/06/20: ESD: Quantifying the thermodynamic entropy budget of the land surface: is this useful? by N. A. Brunsell et al.
- 2011/06/24: CP: The last deglaciation: timing the bipolar seesaw by J. B. Pedro et al.
- 2011/06/22: CP: A coupled climate model simulation of Marine Isotope Stage 3 stadial climate by J. Brandefelt et al.
- 2011/06/24: CPD: Degree-day melt models for paleoclimate reconstruction from tropical glaciers: calibration from mass balance and meteorological data of the Zongo glacier (Bolivia, 16° S) by P.-H. Blard et al.
- 2011/06/23: CPD: Productivity response of calcareous nannoplankton in the South Atlantic to the Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 (ETM2) by M. Dedert et al.
- 2011/06/22: CPD: Volcanic and ENSO effects in China in simulations and reconstructions: Tambora eruption 1815 by D. Zhang et al.
- 2011/06/22: CPD: Bridging the Faraoni and Selli oceanic anoxic events: short and repetitive dys- and anaerobic episodes during the late Hauterivian to early Aptian in the central Tethys by K. B. Föllmi et al.
- 2011/06/21: CPD: Tropical climate and vegetation changes during Heinrich Event 1: comparing climate model output to pollen-based vegetation reconstructions with emphasis on the region around the tropical Atlantic Ocean by D. Handiani et al.
- 2011/06/23: ACP: Aerosol climatology and planetary boundary influence at the Jungfraujoch analyzed by synoptic weather types by M. Collaud Coen et al.
- 2011/06/23: ACP: Investigations of primary and secondary particulate matter of different wood combustion appliances with a high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer by M. F. Heringa et al.
- 2011/06/23: ACP: Aerosol optical properties in the North China Plain during HaChi campaign: an in-situ optical closure study by N. Ma et al.
- 2011/06/22: ACP: Aerosol ageing in an urban plume -- implication for climate by P. Roldin et al.
- 2011/06/22: ACP: Thin and subvisible cirrus and contrails in a subsaturated environment by M. Kübbeler et al.
- 2011/06/22: ACP: Characterization of wildfire NOx emissions using MODIS fire radiative power and OMI tropospheric NO2 columns by A. K. Mebust et al.
- 2011/06/22: ACP: Global multi-year O3-CO correlation patterns from models and TES satellite observations by A. Voulgarakis et al.
- 2011/06/21: ACP: An investigation of methods for injecting emissions from boreal wildfires using WRF-Chem during ARCTAS by W. R. Sessions et al.
- 2011/06/20: ACP: Variability and budget of CO2 in Europe: analysis of the CAATER airborne campaigns - Part 2: Comparison of CO2 vertical variability and fluxes between observations and a modeling framework by I. Xueref-Remy et al.
- 2011/06/20: ACP: Variability and budget of CO2 in Europe: analysis of the CAATER airborne campaigns - Part 1: Observed variability by I. Xueref-Remy et al.
- 2011/06/22: ACPD: Atmospheric dust modeling from meso to global scales with the online NMMB/BSC-Dust model - Part 1: Model description, annual simulations and evaluation by C. Pérez et al.
- 2011/06/22: ACPD: Sources and seasonality of atmospheric methanol based on tall tower measurements in the US Upper Midwest by L. Hu et al.
- 2011/06/21: ACPD: Validity of satellite measurements used for the monitoring of UV radiation risk on health by F. Jégou et al.
- 2011/06/21: ACPD: Novel application of satellite and in-situ measurements to map surface-level NO2 in the Great Lakes region by C. J. Lee et al.
- 2011/06/21: ACPD: Origins and composition of fine atmospheric carbonaceous aerosol in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California by D. R. Worton et al.
- 2011/06/20: ACPD: The effects of atmospheric waves on the amounts of polar stratospheric clouds by M. Kohma & K. Sato
- 2011/06/21: PNAS: (ab$) Aphids alter host-plant nitrogen isotope fractionation by Alex C. C. Wilson et al.
- 2011/06/21: PNAS: (ab$) Nonlinear effect of climate on plague during the third pandemic in China by Lei Xu et al.
- 2011/06/21: PNAS: (ab$) Host and viral ecology determine bat rabies seasonality and maintenance by Dylan B. George et al.
- 2011/06/21: PNAS: (letter$) Reply to Paoli et al.: Explicit consideration of model uncertainties by Lian Pin Koh et al.
- 2011/06/21: PNAS: (letter$) Policy perils of ignoring uncertainty in oil palm research by Gary D. Paoli et al.
- 2011/06/21: PNAS: (ab$) Jellyfish blooms result in a major microbial respiratory sink of carbon in marine systems by Robert H. Condon et al.
- 2011/06/21: GMDD: The 1-way on-line coupled atmospheric chemistry model system MECO(n) - Part 2: On-line coupling by A. Kerkweg & P. Jöckel
- 2011/06/21: GMDD: The 1-way on-line coupled atmospheric chemistry model system MECO(n) - Part 1: The limited-area atmospheric chemistry model COSMO/MESSy by A. Kerkweg & P. Jöckel
- 2011/06/20: OS: A new tide model for the Mediterranean Sea based on altimetry and tide gauge assimilation by D. N. Arabelos et al.
- 2011/06/21: OSD: Tracer distribution in the Pacific Ocean following a release off Japan -- what does an oceanic general circulation model tell us? by H. Dietze & I. Kriest
- 2011/06/21: OSD: Wind forcing of salinity anomalies in the Denmark Strait overflow by S. Hall et al.
- 2011/06/13: PLoS One: The Development of Open Access Journal Publishing from 1993 to 2009 by Mikael Laakso et al.
- 2011/06/19: NatureGeoSci: (Letter$) Small temperature benefits provided by realistic afforestation efforts by Vivek K. Arora & Alvaro Montenegro
- 2011/05/19: GRL: (ab$) Combining geothermal energy capture with geologic carbon dioxide sequestration by Jimmy B. Randolph & Martin O. Saar
- 2011/06/20: AGWObserver: New research from last week 24/2011
As for miscellaneous science:
- 2011/06/25: UGa: Northern Eurasian snowpack could be an important predictor of winter weather in U. S., team from UGA reports
- 2011/06/22: BVerheggen: How science does and does not work (and how skeptics mostly fall in the latter category)
- 2011/06/21: ScienceInsider: Failure in Science, Quantified
- 2011/06/21: NatureN: Open access comes of age -- Publishing model enters phase of slower but steady growth
More DIY science:
- 2011/06/23: moyhu: Steven Mosher's GHCN V3 R Package
What's new in models?
- 2011/06/21: Wunderground:RR: A Science-Organized Community: Organizing U.S. Climate Modeling (3)
Regarding Mann:
- 2011/06/24: SciAm: Stick to the Science by Michael E. Mann
- 2011/06/24: CCP: Michael E. Mann, SciAm: Stick to the Science
While at the UN:
- 2011/06/22: TreeHugger: IPCC Says Renewable Energy Could Be 77% of Global Energy Supply by 2050
- 2011/06/20: MLynas: New allegation of IPCC renewables report bias
- 2011/06/21: MLynas: The IPCC renewables controversy -- where have we got to?
- 2011/06/21: UN: UN official stresses need for universal access to energy to boost development
- 2011/06/22: SkeptiSci: IPCC Report on Renewable Energy by dana1981 & MartinS
- 2011/06/20: UN: Green growth critical to Asia-Pacific food and energy security, UN says
- 2011/06/20: UN: Cities are key to global energy and climate challenges, Ban tells [US Conference of Mayors in Baltimore]
And on the carbon trading front:
- 2011/06/22: IPSNews: Carbon Markets Are Not Cooling the Planet
Carbon markets have been widely promoted as the only way to generate enough money to enable industries and countries to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions, which are largely responsible for global warming. The only problem is that nearly 20 years after their conception, they have failed to work, and have also been subject to fraud and other financial crimes. - 2011/06/20: PlanetArk: EU Countries Back Emissions Trade Security Changes
- 2011/06/19: Guardian(UK): Europe's top industrial firms have a cache of 240m pollution permits
European Commission estimates energy-intensive sector will have accumulated allowances worth 7-12bn euros by the end of 2012 - 2011/06/23: CDreams: US Nurses Join International Push for Financial Transaction Tax
The debate over the optimal strategy [carbon trading, carbon offsets, auction vs. allocation, cap and trade, cap and dividend, tradable energy quotas and/or a carbon tax] to use in dealing with GHGs continues:
- 2011/06/24: EconView: Wanted: Pain at the Pump
This research finds that "performance standards -- such as CAFE standards -- may be more inefficient than previously thought." Taxes appear to work much better - 2011/06/25: WSJ: China Trips Up Major Airbus Deal
China's anger with the European Union's emissions-trading scheme for airlines has delayed the revealing of a major Airbus deal and could undermine upcoming deals, according to people familiar with the situation. Airbus, a unit of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co., had expected to announce at the Paris Air Show this week that Hong Kong Airlines Ltd. ordered 10 of its A380 superjumbo jetliners, with a catalog value of almost $4 billion. The deal's unveiling was put on ice by officials in Beijing, who must give final approval, these people said. The Chinese government held off because it disapproves of the EU's intention to regulate greenhouse emissions of foreign airlines operating to and from the 27-country bloc, according to the people close to the talks. - 2011/06/23: EUO: US demands exemption from EU plans on aviation emissions
Washington has officially demanded that US airlines be left out of European plans to charge airlines for carbon permits. Opposition prior to a US-EU aviation meeting in Oslo on Wednesday (22 June) has largely come from the industry itself, but US officials have now registered their unhappiness. - 2011/06/24: PlanetArk: Nuclear Terrorism Can Cause Another Fukushima: Expert
The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world:
- 2011/06/24: DemNow: Feeding Resistance: Food Not Bombs Members Arrested in Orlando for Serving Meals Without a Permit
- 2011/06/22: UPI: Greenpeace director banned from Greenland
The global director of Greenpeace was deported and banned from Greenland for one year following a protest against Cairn Energy's work there, the group said. Kumi Naidoo, international executive director of Greenpeace, was arrested last week after scaling a Cairn platform. He was deported from Greenland after four days in jail and is barred from the country for one year, Greenpeace claimed. - 2011/06/22: TreeHugger: Following Arrest, Greenpeace Director Banned From Greenland
- 2011/06/21: DemNow: "If a Tree Falls": New Documentary on Daniel McGowan, Earth Liberation Front and Green Scare
- 2011/06/20: CDreams: Tim DeChristopher: This Hero Didn't Stand a Chance
- 2011/06/20: SwissInfo: Climate protestors on trial in Denmark
Two Swiss are among 11 environmental activists who appeared in a Copenhagen court on Monday after an unusual protest at the 2009 world climate conference. The Greenpeace members are on trial after gate crashing a dinner party given by Queen Margrethe of Denmark. Once inside, they held up signs demanding action to stop global warming. - 2011/06/24: PostMedia: Stars urge protesters to fight Canadian pipeline to U.S. -- Glover, Suzuki among critics
- 2011/06/23: Grist: Join us in civil disobedience to stop the Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline
by Bill McKibben, James Hansen This open letter is coauthored by Maude Barlow, Wendell Berry, Tom Goldtooth, Danny Glover, Wes Jackson, Naomi Klein, George Poitras, David Suzuki, and Gus Speth. - 2011/06/22: SF Gate: Californians oppose new nuclear plants, poll finds
- 2011/06/21: TCoE: The public, climate science, and what scientists think
- 2011/06/20: TreeHugger: Overwhelming Majority of Brazilians Want Strong Forest Protections
Regarding Water Politics and Business:
- 2011/06/24: CSM: A victory in Western water wars? Study shows progress in water use.
- 2011/06/24: PlanetArk: Laos Defies Neighbors On Dam Project: Environmentalists
Laos is forging ahead with construction of a controversial $3.5 billion hydropower dam in breach of an agreement to suspend the project pending approval by ministers of neighboring countries, an environmental group said on Thursday. The Lao government has already given Thai developer Ch Karnchang the go-ahead to resume work on the Xayaburi Dam, informing the company that the Mekong River Commission's (MRC) decision-making process was complete, according to International Rivers, an environmental and human rights group. - 2011/06/24: JFleck: Scientization in the Delta
- 2011/06/23: JFleck: No Water Wasted
- 2011/06/24: BBC: 'Super sand' to help clean up dirty drinking water
Contaminated water can be cleaned much more effectively using a novel, cheap material, say researchers. Dubbed "super sand", it could become a low-cost way to purify water in the developing world. The technology involves coating grains of sand in an oxide of a widely available material called graphite - commonly used as lead in pencils. - 2011/06/23: JFleck: Stuff I wrote elsewhere: Cities' water use in the Colorado Basin
- 2011/06/15: F&WW: Italian Voters Turn Out Against Water Privatization
- 2011/06/22: Eureka: 'Super sand' for better purification of drinking water
- 2011/06/18: NYT: Amid Texas Drought, High-Stakes Battle Over Water
And on the American political front:
- 2011/06/24: CDreams: America, Land of the Free to Go Hungry
- 2011/06/25: CCP: It's official: Maryland Becomes First State to Require Environmental Literacy
- 2011/06/25: TP:JR: "It's Time to Put the Knee-Jerk Reaction that Regulation is Bad Behind Us"
- 2011/06/24: DemNow: Feeding Resistance: Food Not Bombs Members Arrested in Orlando for Serving Meals Without a Permit
- 2011/06/24: PlanetArk: Urbanites Get $394 Million of U.S. Crop Subsidies: Group
- 2011/06/23: AlterNet: 9 States Where Awful GOP Policies Will Actually Drive Up the Abortion Rate
- 2011/06/23: TP:JR: Climate Hawk Jay Inslee to Run for WA Governor
- 2011/06/22: TP:JR: Will an Ideological Opposition to Climate Science Prevent Republicans from Making Government More Efficient?
- 2011/06/22: Grist: Texas' fracking disclosure law has huge omissions
- 2011/06/22: Grist: Harnessing the mighty Mississippi for power
- 2011/06/21: TP:JR: McCain blames illegal immigrants for AZ wildfires -- 4 years after saying CA wildfires were 'symptoms' of climate change
- 2011/06/20: NYT: Texas: Drillers Must Disclose 'Fracking' Chemicals
- 2011/06/20: BBickmore: Minnesota Contrarian Pads His Résumé
- 2011/06/19: BBC: John McCain blames Arizona fires on illegal migrants
The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:
- 2011/06/24: DeSmogBlog: Transocean Report Blames BP For Gulf Oil Disaster
- 2011/06/22: BBC: Transocean says BP 'largely to blame for Gulf spill'
Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig that leaked millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, has largely blamed BP for the disaster. In a report into last year's spill, Swiss-based Transocean said the UK oil giant failed to properly assess and communicate the risks around the well. Transocean and BP - which owns the actual well - continue to be locked in legal dispute over who is to blame. BP said it was studying Transocean's report. - 2011/06/22: CBC: Transocean report blames BP for Gulf blowout
For a non-American, sometimes it is hard to believe these 'candidates' are for real:
- 2011/06/24: TreeHugger: "There is No Such Thing as Global Warming": Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum (Video)
- 2011/06/24: Guardian(UK): Jon Huntsman: a moderate Republican in name only - Don't believe the hype: no 'compassionate conservative' he
- 2011/06/23: TP:JR: Jon Huntsman: Elect Me Leader of the Free World Because I Succumbed To Peer Pressure on Climate Change
- 2011/06/24: Grist: Rick Perry is running as the anti-climate-science candidate
- 2011/06/24: Grist: Santorum: 'There's no such thing as global warming'
- 2011/06/22: RStone: Michele Bachmann's Holy War
- 2011/06/21: CBC: Gingrich campaign fundraisers quit
- 2011/06/21: Wonkette: Mitt Romney Says Helping America's Tornado Victims Is 'Immoral'
- 2011/06/21: CBC: Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman announced Tuesday he has entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination
Al Gore is back with a bang this week:
- 2011/06/22: RStone: Climate of Denial -- Can science and the truth withstand the merchants of poison? by Al Gore
- 2011/06/24: KSJT: Rolling Stone: Al Gore dusts of his old reporter writing and rakes the White House, and the media
- 2011/06/24: CSM: Is there a 'we' in climate change? Or just an 'I'?
- 2011/06/24: HotTopic: Al Gore: denial derails the democratic conversation
- 2011/06/23: Guardian(UK): Al Gore's rallying call: 'Climate crisis is a struggle for the soul of America'
Gore evokes the Iraq war, credit crunch, civil rights and emancipation to argue the US electoral system is broken and only a mass movement can deliver reason on global warming - 2011/06/22: Grist: Right-wingers bash Gore for wanting women to have access to birth control
- 2011/06/22: DeSmogBlog: Al Gore Roasts Obama Over Climate Position
- 2011/06/22: NYT: Gore Criticizes Obama on Climate
Former Vice President Al Gore sharply criticized President Obama for lack of leadership on climate change in a magazine essay published online on Wednesday, saying his policies had been little more effective than those of President George W. Bush. In the 7,000-word article in Rolling Stone, Mr. Gore said that Mr. Obama clearly understood the threat to the planet posed by global warming and that he had appointed a number of committed environmental advocates to key positions. But Mr. Gore charged that in the face of well-financed attacks from fossil fuel industries and denial and delay from Republicans in Congress, Mr. Obama had failed to act decisively to alter the nation's policies on climate change and energy. - 2011/06/22: CCP: Al Gore, Rolling Stone: Climate of Denial: Can science and the truth withstand the merchants of poison?
- 2011/06/22: PSinclair: Al Gore: Reclaim American values, hold Obama to the his Promises
- 2011/06/22: TP:JR: Al Gore slams Obama for Failing to Take on "the Merchants of Poison," Compares Media to Pro Wrestling Referees
- 2011/06/22: Grist: Al Gore attacks Obama for not speaking out on climate change
The would be NOAA Climate Service is being kicked around:
- 2011/06/25: CSW: Letters in support of the NOAA Climate Service that the House Science Committee hasn't made public
- 2011/06/24: CSW: Proposed NOAA Climate Service attacked and defended at House Science Committee hearing
- 2011/06/23: NatureNB: Agency director defends US climate service proposal
- 2011/06/22: NOAANews: Creating a NOAA Climate Service [testimony]
The Obama chatter is nonstop:
- 2011/06/24: TP:JR: Bill Daley: Obama won't sign anti-EPA bills
- 2011/06/23: Grist: Has Obama lost environmental voters?
- 2011/06/21: AlterNet: Where Are the White House Solar Panels Obama Promised This Spring?
- 2011/06/20: CCP: White House Without Excuse For Missed Solar Deadline
- 2011/06/20: CCP: Amazingly weak response from the White House on their failure to re-install solar panels on the roof of the White House by their own spring deadline
- 2011/06/20: CCP: Obama Fails to Meet White House Solar Deadline
The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:
- 2011/06/24: TP:JR: EPA's [Bob] Perciasepe: Benefits of Air Toxics Standards Will Be $140 Billion
- 2011/06/24: PlanetArk: EPA To Study Natgas Fracking In Five U.S. States - Louisiana, North Dakota, Texas, Pennsylvania & Colorado
- 2011/06/24: NOAANews: Climate changing our nation's landscapes: NOAA, American Public Gardens Association unveil partnership to enhance awareness
- 2011/06/22: PlanetArk: U.S. Extends Comment Time On Power Plant Toxics Rule
The Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday it has extended the comment timeline by 30 days on a draft rule on reducing mercury emissions and other toxic pollution from power plants but left the target for finalization of the rule unchanged. - 2011/06/22: AutoBG: EPA sets 2012 renewable fuel standard proposal at 15.2 billion gallons
- 2011/06/21: PlanetArk: Biofuels Are Job Creators, Not Hunger Villain-US
- 2011/06/20: NOAANews: Arctic Symposium address by Dr. Jane Lubchenco
- 2011/06/20: PlanetArk: U.S. Offers $150 Million Loan Aid For Solar Wafers
- 2011/06/20: Grist: Standing up for the EPA: the panel that's sweeping the nation
As for what is going on in Congress:
- 2011/06/24: ScienceInsider: House Science Panel Spars With Lubchenco Over Climate Service
- 2011/06/23: OtCB: Attack on Food Stamps Misses Mark
- 2011/06/23: MoJo: House Republicans Aim Pitchfork at Food-System Reform
U.S. ag policy isn't totally geared to big agribiz -- but it will be if the House gets its way. - 2011/06/23: Grist: Congress: Let's just rename it the 'Dirty Water Act'
- 2011/06/23: Grist: GOP's tiny cuts wound small farmers
- 2011/06/23: Grist: Congress about to let agribiz get liberal -- with pesticides
- 2011/06/22: CSW: 5 Democratic congressmen join Republicans in committee vote to kill EPA's clean water authority
- 2011/06/22: NYT:GW: House Panel Fast-Tracks Bill to Divest EPA of Regulatory Power Over Water
- 2011/06/22: TP:JR: 15 Prominent Republicans Urge President Obama to Strengthen Fuel Efficiency Standards
- 2011/06/22: GovTrack: Budget Report: S. 757: A bill to provide incentives to encourage the development and...
Summary - S. 757 would authorize appropriations for the Department of Energy (DOE) to provide competitive financial awards to support the development of advanced technologies to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. - 2011/06/22: CBC: U.S. Congress votes to block GM salmon
The U.S. Congress has voted to block the approval of genetically-modified salmon produced in part on Prince Edward Island, but the vote is not expected to stop sale of the fish. AquaBounty, a U.S.-based company, is nearing the end of what has been a 15-year process to have its salmon approved for sale as food in the States. The salmon is engineered to grow twice as fast as normal salmon. The eggs would be produced on P.E.I., and the fish would be reared in Panama. - 2011/06/20: DeSmogBlog: Paul Ryan Lies About Ending Oil Subsidies To Protect His Family's Cash Bonanza
- 2011/06/17: NYT:CW: Budget Remedies Could Prevent Climate Plans for More Than a Decade
Spending caps proposed by Republicans would make it "virtually impossible" to enact climate legislation for a decade or longer, according to an analysis released yesterday. Automatically triggering widespread funding cuts if federal spending exceeds a percentage of the gross domestic product is a popular theme in Congress and in presidential campaigns. But the plan would rule out a carbon tax, cap and trade, and other programs that raise -- and spend -- money by limiting greenhouse gas emissions, says the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. - 2011/06/23: Guardian(UK): Tory MEPs warned not to undermine PM over European climate targets
- 2011/06/22: Guardian(UK): The bloody fight for the green soul of the Conservative party
A mutiny by MEPs against action on global warming is only the latest bruising fight for David Cameron. But the battle to win Tory hearts is deeply damaging the battle to save the planet - 2011/06/22: Guardian(UK): David Cameron poised to step into MEP climate target row
Senior Tory MPs in dialogue with MEPs who are seeking to prevent a toughening of Europe's climate targets - 2011/06/21: Guardian(UK): Tory MEPs defy David Cameron over greenhouse gas targets
Conservatives threaten to scupper EU vote on carbon reduction by opposing the 30% cut in emissions committed by the PM - 2011/06/23: CaCC: Fracking Hell? What will shale gas mean for the UK?
- 2011/06/22: BizGreen: DECC renewables expert slams ministers' EV reluctance
Office of Renewable Energy Deployment chairman warns governments will choose biofuels over EVs to reach 2020 renewable fuel targets - 2011/06/23: TreeHugger: Politicians Will Choose Biofuels Over Electric Vehicles
- 2011/06/23: BBC: New UK nuclear plant sites named
Ministers have announced plans for the next generation of UK nuclear plants. The government confirmed a list of eight sites it deems suitable for new power stations by 2025, all of which are adjacent to existing nuclear sites. The sites are: Bradwell, Essex; Hartlepool; Heysham, Lancashire; Hinkley Point, Somerset; Oldbury, Gloucestershire; Sellafield, Cumbria; Sizewell, Suffolk; and Wylfa, Anglesey. The announcement comes three months after the Fukushima disaster in Japan. - 2011/06/22: OilChange: Dave Versus the Dinosaurs
- 2011/06/22: BBC: UK says Poland blocked EU deal on CO2 emissions
The UK government has sharply criticised Poland for blocking an EU effort to set a higher target for cuts in CO2 emissions. "I'm deeply disappointed that the only country in the EU that could not accept a good compromise on how we can move Europe to a low carbon economy was Poland," said UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne. The EU is committed to a 20% cut in CO2 emissions by 2020, from 1990 levels. But there are now calls for a 30% cut. - 2011/06/21: Guardian(UK): Chris Huhne is right -- green 'red tape' can be good for business
The minister is rightly frustrated at an attack on regulation by the Tory right based on flawed notions of freedom and growth - 2011/06/21: Guardian(UK): [Letters] Crucial lessons in climate change
- 2011/06/20: BBC: Carwyn Jones seeking devolved energy powers for Wales
And in Europe:
- 2011/06/24: Guardian(UK): EU emissions reduction vote postponed
Delay provides opportunity for David Cameron to head off a planned rebellion by his MEPs - 2011/06/23: EUO: MEPs demand action from Barroso over climate sceptic remarks
A group of MEPs have demanded action from European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, after the EU's budget commissioner expressed doubts earlier this month over the reality of global warming. In a set of oral questions tabled on Thursday (23 June), Socialist MEP Jo Leinen, Liberal Chris Davies and Green MEP Bas Eickhout also asked for clarifications as to why Janusz Lewandowski feels the EU's emission-cutting targets are overly ambitious. - 2011/06/23: EurActiv: Poland's EU commissioner in surprise climate denial move
EU Budget Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski has shocked colleagues by giving an interview in the Polish press questioning global warming, which emerged one day after his home country, Poland, blocked EU attempts to toughen the bloc's climate commitments. - 2011/06/23: EurActiv: Brussels slaps opt-outs on efficiency plan
EU member states have been granted an opt-out from efficiency plans that would force energy companies to make savings among final customers of 1.5% a year. - 2011/06/15: F&WW: Italian Voters Turn Out Against Water Privatization
- 2011/06/22: EurActiv: Member states fail to endorse concrete actions to protect biodiversity
EU environment ministers yesterday (21 June) failed to endorse concrete measures proposed by the European Commission to protect biodiversity, with some expressing reservations even on the proposed targets of the EU 2020 biodiversity strategy until more clarity is found on actions and funding. EU environment ministers yesterday adopted conclusions on the EU 2020 biodiversity strategy, tabled by the Commission on 3 May, but were unable to endorse 20 concrete measures accompanying six headline targets proposed by the EU executive. - 2011/06/22: EUO: Brussels tells states and companies to use less energy
The European Commission has adopted a 'wait and see' approach over whether to remove surplus carbon credits arising from gains in energy efficiency, from the EU's emissions trading scheme. A second controversial decision on the need to make a voluntary EU energy efficiency target legally binding was also kicked into touch, despite estimates that show member states are substantially behind schedule. - 2011/06/22: EUO: Poland blocks climate efforts in 'dark day' for Europe
Poland has scuppered an attempt to tighten European Union carbon emission targets, sparking widespread concern just days before Warsaw is set to take over the EU's six-month rotating presidency. EU environment ministers met in Luxembourg on Tuesday (21 June) to discuss the European Commission's '2050 Roadmap' towards a greener economy, with all-but-one member states agreeing on the need to do more. - 2011/06/22: EUO: Alarm as EU budget commissioner questions global warming
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso is apparently unconcerned that the chief architect of the EU's forthcoming multi-annual budget has major doubts over the existence of global warming. Environmental groups are sounding alarm bells however, warning that EU budget commissioner Janusz Lewandowski's scepticism towards climate change is almost certain to affect his drafting of the crucial EU document which will shape the bloc's policy for years to come (2014-2020). "There's an emerging point of view, that the thesis about coal energy as the main cause of global warming is highly doubtful," Lewandowski told Polish trade magazine Nowy Przemysl earlier this month. - 2011/06/22: DerSpiegel: The World from Berlin -- 'The Boom Is Almost Over for the Greens'
Protests against "Stuttgart 21" turned violent this week, reigniting the debate over the controversial rail project. While the governing Greens warned protesters to remain peaceful, German commentators said the incident signalled trouble to come for the party. - 2011/06/21: DerSpiegel: Growing Pains -- Are Germany's Greens Ready for More Power?
Germany's Green Party is growing in size and influence. But with power comes responsibility and a party convention this week will go a long way in determining whether the erstwhile protest party is ready. There are signs that it may not be. - 2011/06/21: EurActiv: Commission calls for global 'green economy roadmap'
The European Commission yesterday (20 June) tabled proposals for next year's Rio+20 Earth Summit, spelling out the 'what, how and who' of a transition to a green economy and calling for the adoption of global roadmap to guarantee continued commitment beyond the conference itself. - 2011/06/20: EurActiv: Business backlash against nuclear phase-out begins
Business lobbies are pushing for EU action to examine or derail Germany's planned exit from the nuclear power club after the Fukushima disaster. - 2011/06/20: PlanetArk: Nuclear Lobby To Challenge German Exit Plan: Report
Germany's nuclear lobby is mulling plans to take the German government to constitutional court, to halt the country's nuclear exit and seek billions in damages, the online edition of Der Spiegel said on Sunday. - 2011/06/20: EUO: EU ties Kyoto extension to greater efforts all-round
The European Union has said major polluters must make greater progress in curbing carbon emissions before the 27-member bloc signs up to a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol. Failure to secure substantive movement on the issue of binding carbon targets overshadowed the end of climate talks in Bonn on Friday (17 June), despite progress in a number of important technical areas. - 2011/06/19: Neurope: Europe needs to acknowledge peak oil scenario -- and plan accordingly
Meanwhile in Australia:
- 2011/06/26: ABC(Au): Climate change sceptic Christopher Monckton says he was catastrophically stupid to compare the prominent Australian economist Ross Garnaut to Adolf Hitler
- 2011/06/26: PeakEnergy: Will the Mad Monk be brought low by madder Monckton??
- 2011/06/23: ABC(Au): Monckton welcome at conference despite jibe
Controversial climate change sceptic Lord Christopher Monckton is still welcome to speak at a conference in Perth next week, the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies says. - 2011/06/23: ABC(Au): Monckton's Nazi jibe over the top: Abbott
Tony Abbott has moved to distance himself from controversial comments by British politician Lord Christopher Monckton, but says he is still happy to appear at an upcoming mining industry conference which will also host the prominent climate change sceptic. - 2011/06/22: ABC(Au): Monckton compares Garnaut to Hitler
- 2011/06/26: PeakEnergy: Labor's Solar Flagships: Smoke and Mirrors ... and Coal Seam Gas
- 2011/06/24: ABC(Au): A Senate committee has called for scientific research into the effects of wind farms on human health
- 2011/06/24: ABC(Au): Solar rebate extended at lower rates
The Legislative Council has passed changes to the South Australian Government's solar power [feed in] tariffs scheme. - 2011/06/24: ABC(Au): The Federal Government's chief adviser on climate change will be attending a series of public forums on the mid north coast this Sunday June 26 and Monday June 27
- 2011/06/23: ABC(Au): Health effects of wind turbines under spotlight
- 2011/06/22: ABC(Au): The Premier Colin Barnett has told protesters at the site of the proposed $30 billion gas hub in the Kimberley to 'move on'
- 2011/06/20: ABC(Au): CSIRO website lets public decide on climate change
- 2011/06/20: ABC(Au): Top Australian scientists have united in a new campaign to defend their credibility amid fresh death threats aimed at key climate change scientists
The Australian carbon war rages on:
- 2011/06/26: ABC(Au): Abbott rejects Treasury costing offer
Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has hit back at the Prime Minister after she offered him Treasury officials to cost his tax plans. - 2011/06/26: ABC(Au): Prime Minister Julia Gillard has confirmed nine out of 10 households will be compensated for price increases under Labor's planned carbon tax
- 2011/06/26: ABC(Au): Carbon tax worth the pain: [est Australian Labor leader Eric] Ripper
- 2011/06/26: ABC(Au): Greens leader Bob Brown says ultimately the carbon price has to result in shutting down the coal industry
- 2011/06/24: ABC(Au): Carbon tax will hurt alumina refinery, company says
Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL) has warned the Federal Government's proposed carbon tax could affect the viability of its refinery in Gladstone in the state's central region. QAL told its employees the tax will hurt the company's international competitiveness. - 2011/06/23: ABC(Au): North Burnett Mayor Joy Jensen is concerned a carbon tax will affect council rates.
- 2011/06/22: ABC(Au): Coalition climate stance creating 'bitter' debate
Professor Ross Garnaut says the Opposition's direct action method is "expensive and foolish". (AAP: Samuel Cardwell) The Federal Opposition has been forced to defend its opposition to pricing carbon in the wake of accusations by the Government's chief climate advisor that "bitterness and rancour" has arisen after the Coalition "changed its mind" on climate policy. Speaking last night, Professor Ross Garnaut pulled no punches, saying the Opposition's direct action method of addressing climate change is "expensive and foolish". "We do have a bitter public discussion of this matter at the moment with a rancour that's unusual, in fact unprecedented, in my experience in Australian public policy discussion," Professor Garnaut told an audience in Sydney. He indicated the bitter debate is due to the Coalition repudiating the support for an emissions trading scheme that it took to the 2007 election under John Howard and continued under Malcolm Turnbull in opposition. - 2011/06/22: PlanetArk: Climate Debate Turns Nasty As Australia Tries To Price CO2
Australian climate scientists say they have received death threats, emails with sexual slurs and other insults in a surge of abuse that appears to be a coordinated campaign of intimidation. The threats have come as the government tries to step up the fight against climate change by trying to win agreement on a deeply unpopular scheme to price carbon emissions, which the political opposition says will cost jobs and raise fuel and power prices. Anna-Maria Arabia of the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies said she received a death threat on Monday and that police were investigating the threat. "There's no doubt that there is an orchestrated campaign," Arabia told Reuters. - 2011/06/22: ABC(Au): Carbon tax plebiscite voted down in Senate
- 2011/06/21: ABC(Au): Abbott refuses to accept carbon plebiscite fate
- 2011/06/21: ABC(Au): Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's push for an $80 million non-binding plebiscite on the proposed carbon tax is dead in the water after key Senator Steve Fielding rejected the proposal as a "political stunt"
- 2011/06/21: ABC(Au): Federal Opposition leader Tony Abbott has been told to change the wording of his bill for a carbon tax plebiscite if he wants support in the Senate
- 2011/06/20: ABC(Au): Australia, New Zealand explore joint emissions trading scheme
Australia and New Zealand are working to form a linked trans-Tasman emissions trading scheme following an agreement between the prime ministers of both countries in Canberra today. Since 2008 New Zealand has had a carbon price of NZ$12.50 ($10) per tonne of carbon, which is due to rise to NZ$25 by 2013. Australia's initial carbon price is expected to be between $20 and $30 when and if the scheme is introduced in July next year. - 2011/06/20: ABC(Au): Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he will introduce a bill into Parliament today demanding the Government hold a plebiscite on its proposed carbon tax
- 2011/06/20: ABC(Au): Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's call for a plebiscite over the carbon tax looks unlikely to be adopted by Parliament after key independents Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott denied it support
After a 10 year drought and recent massive flooding, water usage planning is controversial and difficult:
- 2011/06/24: ABC(Au): Flooding could lead to big Macleay oyster kill
Oyster growers in the Lower Macleay are worried acid sulphate runoff released by the recent flooding could lead to a massive oyster kill. - 2011/06/22: ABC(Au): Manning farmers count costs and clean-up after floods
Floodwaters have receded across the region but many farmers are still assessing the damage and mopping up. - 2011/06/20: ABC(Au): Water levels in Dandalup dam low
A dam touted as a new water source for the South West town of Dwellingup is at its lowest level in decades - 2011/06/24: CCurrents: Food Security: Path To Hell They Say Is Paved With Good Intentions
- 2011/06/24: CCurrents: Land Acquisition Temporarily Halted At POSCO Project Area
And in China:
- 2011/06/20: BBC: Shanghai to ration electricity due to power shortage
While in Japan:
- 2011/06/26: JEB: Kan he or can't he?
- 2011/06/23: NBF: Japan Industry Minister Kaieda calls for local permission to restart 20 nuclear reactors to enable the recovery of the Japanese economy
And in Russia:
- 2011/06/15: BBC: How Siberia will feed power-hungry China
One of Russia's richest men, Oleg Deripaska, is investing billions of dollars in new hydro-power dams in remotest Siberia, to export the electricity to China and cash in on its booming economy. - 2011/06/24: PostMedia: Conference slams Canada's stance on asbestos
Delegates at the United Nations Environment Program's Rotterdam Convention accused Canada of "single-handedly" derailing the treaty's conference in Geneva on Friday in order to keep chrysotile asbestos off a UN list of restricted chemicals. - 2011/06/23: PostMedia: Canada drops asbestos 'bombshell' -- After days of silence, government moves to block listing of substance as 'hazardous' at UN summit
- 2011/06/22: CBC: May wants Environment Canada job cuts reversed
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May is calling on Environment Minister Peter Kent to reverse job cuts in his department that she says are disproportionately targeting climate change researchers. - 2011/06/22: CBC: [Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter] discusses greenhouse gas rules with PM
Premier Darrell Dexter says he's concerned new greenhouse gas regulations being drafted in Ottawa will drive up energy costs in Nova Scotia if the federal Environment Department moves too quickly on a plan to require the closure of older coal-fired generating plants. - 2011/06/20: HillTimes: Kent estimates Canada is 'a quarter of way' to meeting 2020 GHG emissions targets
Environment Minister Peter Kent is a good communicator, but critics say he's not interested in seriously tackling climate change. - 2011/06/23: iPolitics: Stories you must be naive to believe
If you begin with the presumption that the innocent have nothing to hide, you have to wonder about the government's comportment on both G-8 spending and the Afghan detainees. Each has inspired so much obfuscation and stonewalling that only the exceedingly charitable or somewhat naive could accept the Conservatives' version of events. News this week that the RCMP are looking into G-8 funding irregularities raised the stakes on a matter the Harper government hoped was being forgotten. Tony Clement is alleged to have run a $50-million political fund for his and neighbouring northern Ontario ridings under the guise of projects to ease Canada-U.S. border congestion. If, as the Conservatives' claim, all hands are clean, why is Clement, now Treasury Board president, not allowed to speak? Why does he refuse day after day to answer pointed questions in the House? The government's idea of accountability is to have John Baird, court jester in the Commons, stand to provide non-answers. - 2011/06/25: CBC: Protesters return to G20 'kettling' corner -- Demonstrators renew calls for police chief Bill Blair to resign
- 2011/06/25: MediaCoop: "G20 Land" and the Real Canada -- One Year After the G20 Protests
- 2011/06/25: TStar: New poll finds 'monumental shift' in public perception of Toronto police because of G20 actions
- 2011/06/25: PaiD: Chief Bill Blair: No Apology, No Resignation
- 2011/06/25: OrwellsBastard: New poll finds 'monumental shift' in public perception of Toronto police because of G20 actions
- 2011/06/25: TheSkinny: Cathie from Canada gets it on the G20 Toronto weekend
- 2011/06/25: OrwellsBastard: @TorontoPolice Tweeter guy weighs in - G20
- 2011/06/24: G&M: Canada's G8/G20 weekend shames all but peaceful protesters
This is the first anniversary of the weekend from hell when Canada hosted the G8 and G20 summits. On a variety of fronts we became a role model other nations will study for years to come. Our peaceable kingdom showed the world how to do absolutely everything wrong. - 2011/06/24: CBC: Man arrested, stripped before G20
The lawyer for a man suing the Toronto Police Service says his client was "terrified" when he was arrested, strip-searched and led naked past a female officer a few days prior to last year's G20 Summit. In an interview on CBC News Network on Friday, lawyer Murray Klippenstein said his client, Sean Salvati, 33, was held without access to a lawyer for 11 hours before being released. A police security video, posted by the Toronto Star after it was obtained by Salvati's lawyer through freedom of information requests, shows a completely naked Salvati being led by three male officers out of an interrogation room and past a female officer. "Sean is asking for a court declaration that his civil rights and constitutional rights were violated," said Klippenstein, who is representing Salvati in a civil lawsuit against the Toronto police. "He's asking for a court order that removes all of these police records and he said 'I did nothing wrong whatsoever and I was brutalized.'" Salvati is also asking for $75,000 in compensation in the Ontario Court of Justice. His lawsuit also names four police officers and the Attorney General of Canada. - 2011/06/24: OrwellsBastard: Mistakes were made, Bill Blair says - G20
- 2011/06/24: CBC: G20/G8 summit opponents infiltrated by police
Newly released G8/G20 summit documents reveal the RCMP and various Ontario police forces spent several months infiltrating anti-war, anti-globalization and anarchist groups with the use of undercover officers ahead of last June's summits in Huntsville and Toronto. The reports by the Joint Intelligence Group formed by the RCMP-led ISU (Integrated Security Unit) show that various police services contributed at least 12 undercover officers to take part in covert surveillance of potential "criminal extremists" in a bid to "detect ... and disrupt" any threats. The reports omit details on specific individuals or groups, nor do they offer conclusions about what, if any, crimes or plots of violence were detected. - 2011/06/24: CBC: G20 tactics too strong at times: top officer
Police tactics used to deal with protesters at last year's G20 summit in Toronto may have been too strong at points, says the head of the city police force's union. Mike McCormack of the Toronto Police Association made the comments to CBC's Metro Morning on Friday, a day after an internal police report identified a number of deficiencies in how police handled the protests during the June 26-27 summit in the city centre. - 2011/06/23: LFR: Police 'overwhelmed' by violence at G20
- 2011/06/23: CBC: G20 overwhelmed Toronto police: report
- 2011/06/23: CBC: G20 accused challenge bail conditions
Two people charged with orchestrating rallies that became violent during last year's G20 summit were in court Thursday challenging bail conditions they say bar them from attending any meeting where political views are expressed. Alex Hundert, 30, and Amanda Hiscocks, 37 --long with 15 others --ere arrested on June 26, 2010, and charged with conspiracy to commit riots and vandalism. Police allege they had organized a G20 demonstration that turned violent. Hundert and Hiscocks are arguing the wording of their current bail restrictions, which were intended to prevent them from participating in further public protests, are defined so broadly they prohibit them from attending almost any kind of public meeting. - 2011/06/22: TStar: Clement dismisses RCMP probe of G8 spending as 'Liberal PR stunt'
- 2011/06/22: TStar: One year later: still no G20 answers
- 2011/06/22: CBC: Liberals call for G8 'value for money' audit
A request for a second audit of the G8 legacy fund has been requested by Liberal MP John McCallum in a letter to the auditor general. - 2011/06/22: TStar: Toronto police swear off G20 kettling tactic
- 2011/06/21: OrwellsBastard: So Toronto cops think they're the #G20 whipping boys?
- 2011/06/21: CBC: RCMP look into G8 spending -- Former Liberal MP requested investigation during election campaign
- 2011/06/21: TRR: RCMP finally investigates Muskoka's G8 'Legacy Infrastructure'
- 2011/06/21: 1TBM: One year after G20: Activist Jaggi Singh's sentence suspended...
- 2011/06/21: CBC: G20 protester Jaggi Singh won't get more jail
- 2011/06/21: TStar: Police under fire as fresh statistics show charges dropped in 59% of G20 cases
There was surprising little reporting of the premiers' annual conference:
- 2011/06/20: CBC: Western premiers to stress disaster relief -- Annual conference in Yellowknife also has trade, economic development on agenda
- 2011/06/20: G&M: Disasters, economy top agenda as western premiers gather in Yellowknife
Disasters, such as spring flooding and forest fires, will be on the agenda when Canada's western premiers hold their annual meeting. The political leaders from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, B.C., Yukon, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories start a three-day meeting Monday in Yellowknife. - 2011/06/24: Envirogy: The sordid sale of AECL
The CWB contradicts Tory ideology. Therefore...:
- 2011/06/22: CBC: Churchill threatened by wheat board demise: NDP
Critics say abolishing the monopoly of the Canadian Wheat Board could be devastating for the Hudson Bay town of Churchill in Manitoba. - 2011/06/22: ChronicleHerald: Critics: Wheat board crucial to Churchill
On the road to the tar sands:
- 2011/06/21: CrossCut: The road leading to Alberta oil sands gets bumpy
As the lawsuits and citizen opposition mount up, the oil companies are looking at other routes and changing their story about the size of the huge modules they hope to haul by truck on a two-lane highway from Lewiston to Alberta's vast oil reserves. - 2011/06/20: PI:B: Tough Decisions in B.C.: carbon taxes and cap-and-trade
- 2011/06/24: PI:B: New B.C. building regulations require new homes to come solar hot water ready
- 2011/06/23: G&M: Research blows BC Hydro's energy predictions out of the water
- 2011/06/21: WCEL: Treaty 8 First Nations appeal to the UN to intervene against proposed Site C Dam
Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:
- 2011/06/20: PI:B: Four years overdue: government's failure to protect woodland caribou triggers another oilsands lawsuit
- 2011/06/22: PI: Woodland caribou battle goes to Federal Court
Aggressive oilsands development places iconic species' habitat -- and future -- in peril - 2011/06/25: CBC:Q&Q: (mp3) Oilsands in Wolf's Clothing
- 2011/06/26: BNet: China eyes Canada oil, US's energy nest egg
- 2011/06/24: WiC: Canada's tar sands carbon bomb
- 2011/06/23: al Jazeera: To the Last Drop
Residents of one Canadian town are engaged in a David and Goliath-style battle over the dirtiest oil project ever known. The small town of Fort Chipewyan in northern Alberta is facing the consequences of being the first to witness the impact of the Tar Sands project, which may be the tipping point for oil development in Canada. The local community has experienced a spike in cancer cases and dire studies have revealed the true consequences of "dirty oil". Gripped in a Faustian pact with the American energy consumer, the Canadian government is doing everything it can to protect the dirtiest oil project ever known. In the following account, filmmaker Tom Radford describes witnessing a David and Goliath struggle. - 2011/06/24: 350orBust: Alberta Tar Sands Destruction: Haven't We Killed Enough Indigenous People On This Continent?
- 2011/06/23: TheCanadian: Boo Hoo for Big Oil: Tar Sands Promoters Lament Tough Opposition
- 2011/06/22: SciNow: Scat-Sniffing Dogs Nose Out Clues to Caribou Decline
- 2011/06/22: Eureka: Caribou in Alberta's oil sands stressed by human activity, not wolves
- 2011/06/22: CBC: Oilsands activity blamed for caribou decline
Humans, not wolves, are behind declining caribou populations in Alberta's oilsands region, an analysis of animal feces shows. The same research also found there may be many more caribou in the region than previously thought, meaning there may still be time for industry to change how it does business without resorting to wolf culls to protect the herds. - 2011/06/21: CBC: Encana-China gas deal falls through
Shares in Calgary-based Encana Corp. fell Tuesday after it announced talks have ended with a subsidiary of PetroChina Ltd. over a proposed $5.4 billion joint venture to tap natural gas in the Cutbank Ridge region of B.C. - 2011/06/24: PI:B: Bonus credits for CCS weaken Alberta's greenhouse gas regulations
- 2011/06/24: PI: Pembina reacts to Government of Alberta decision to provide bonus credits for carbon capture and storage offsets
- 2011/06/24: CBC: Calgary's Niko Resources to pay $9.5M bribery fine
- 2011/06/24: CBC: Alberta inks deal with Shell for carbon capture project
Alberta has committed to spending $2 billion on four projects. Carbon capture projects such as this one in Weburn are already underway in Saskatchewan, which receives the CO2 from North Dakota. Alberta has committed to spending $2 billion on four projects. Carbon capture projects such as this one in Weburn are already underway in Saskatchewan, which receives the CO2 from North Dakota. Troy Fleece/The Canadian PressThe Alberta government has signed a multi-million dollar deal with Shell Canada to start work on a carbon capture project. The plan is to take one million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year from Shell's Scotford upgrader northeast of Edmonton and store it underground. - 2011/06/24: RustyIdols: Guilty of Bribery
- 2011/06/23: G&M: Calgary-based oil and gas firm to admit to bribing Bangladeshi minister
Niko Resources Ltd., NKO-T a Calgary-based oil and gas company, will admit in court Friday that it bribed a Bangladeshi minister after explosions from one of the company's natural gas fields sparked protests in a nearby village and complaints of environmental contamination. - 2011/06/25: BuckDog: Flooded Saskatchewan Community Looted After Evacuation
It's hard to imagine anything lower than what has happened in the flooded and evacuated community of Roche Percee, Saskatchewan. The village has been looted! - 2011/06/24: CBC: Flooded Saskatchewan village looted, mayor says
- 2011/06/20: CBC: Floods displace hundreds in Saskatchewan
Flood-battered residents of southeast Saskatchewan fled their homes Sunday after another night of heavy rain. About 400 people were ordered to leave the Willow Park Greens trailer park at Estevan, about 200 kilometres southeast of Regina, amid new flood threats after water was released from dams and 27 millimetres of rain fell overnight. - 2011/06/20: CBC: Tiny town deep under water
In terms of flood misery per capita, it would be hard to beat the tiny town of Roche Percee in the southeast corner of Saskatchewan. Following a weekend of heavy rains and a release of water from major dams in the area, much of the village of 147 people is under water. The village, which is built in a valley, had survived several recent waves of water from the overflowing Souris River, but what happened Sunday proved too much. Water started flowing over the dikes at around 7:30 a.m. CST Sunday. Much of the town was evacuated. By Monday morning, the lowest areas were under as much as seven metres of water, according to Sharon Wells, the village's deputy mayor. - 2011/06/24: CBC: Trans-Canada Highway reopens after flooding
- 2011/06/20: CBC: 150 km stretch of Trans-Canada closed
A large section of the Trans-Canada Highway east of Regina was closed Monday afternoon due to flooding. - 2011/06/22: CBC: Flooding not over yet: Manitoba officials
As for miscellaneous Canadiana:
- 2011/06/23: ASN: What is the CYD?
The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:
- 2011/06/23: CCurrents: How The Left And Right Can Unite by David Korten
- 2011/06/23: EnergyBulletin: The joy of public banking: What our state legislators need to know
- 2011/06/21: EnergyBulletin: Co-operation and the wealth of nations
- 2011/06/21: EnergyBulletin: Ecosystem services: The traveling salesman and the trophic conundrum
- 2011/06/21: MTobis: Bartlett's Unfamiliar Quotations
- 2011/06/20: EnergyBulletin: Fences of fruit trees
IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology] raised its head once again:
- 2011/06/23: AlterNet: 9 States Where Awful GOP Policies Will Actually Drive Up the Abortion Rate
Apocalypso anyone?
- 2011/06/25: CCP: Chris Hedges's Endgame Strategy. Why the revolution must start in America.
- 2011/06/17: EnergyBulletin: Deus ex Machina: Will economic collapse save us from climate catastrophe?
As for how the media handles science:
- 2011/06/20: RRapier: Media Misinformation Promotes Dysfunctional Energy Policy
Over the years I have had some enlightening interactions with the news media. I have gradually developed the view that many in the media believe their role is more to entertain than to inform. - 2011/06/23: CCurrents: Media Distortion, A Clear Example
- 2011/06/22: QD: Is Science Journalism an Oxymoron, Vanishing Art, or...
- 2011/06/22: DeSmogBlog: Jon Stewart 1, Politifact 0: Fox News Viewers Are The Most Misinformed
- 2011/06/21: HotTopic: Lazy old Garth
- 2011/06/21: AlterNet: Jon Stewart Was Right About Fox 'News' Viewers Being the Most Misinformed Citizens
- 2011/06/20: TP:JR: Solar Beats Peak Gas Today: CNBC Story Offers Wrong Answer to "Does the Solar Industry Have a PR Problem?"
While activists search for effective communication techniques:
- 2011/06/24: CSM: Don't ignore climate skeptics ... talk to them differently
Here is something for your library:
- 2011/06/22: EnergyBulletin: Ecological reality is not what you hypothesize
[Book Review] _The Wealth of Nature: Economics as if Survival Mattered_ by John Michael Greer - 2011/06/21: SkeptiSci: Review of 2084: An Oral History of the Great Warming by James Powell
- 2011/06/20: HotTopic: [Book Review] _Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence_ by Christian Parenti
And for your film & video enjoyment:
- 2011/06/25: PSinclair: The Koch Brothers Denial Machine
- 2011/06/25: BPA: A New Documentary About Dumpster Diving and Food Waste in America -- Dive! Living Off America's Waste by Jeremy Seifert
- 2011/06/24: TreeHugger: Jared Diamond Explains How Modern Civilization Can Choose Not To Collapse (Video)
- 2011/06/23: PSinclair: ".. an extinction unprecedented in human history."
- 2011/06/22: AutoBG: Revenge of the Electric Car plugs in for widespread release this fall
- 2011/06/22: CCP: Senator Sanders breaks down the Koch Echo Chamber [vid]
- 2011/06/22: CCP: Jon Stewart annihilates Tucker Carlson on Crossfire
- 2011/06/22: TreeHugger: Go See This Film: "If A Tree Falls," Sundance-Winning Film About Environmentalism and the ELF
- 2011/06/21: DemNow: "If a Tree Falls": New Documentary on Daniel McGowan, Earth Liberation Front and Green Scare
- 2011/06/20: TP:JR: Jared Diamond Video: With Climate Change, Americans Have Unique Chance to Avoid the Fate of Ancient Maya
- 2011/06/20: AutoBG: Video: The true cost of gas in the U.S. is closer to $15 a gallon
Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:
- 2011/06/25: TP:JR: 'Climate Kids' Find Themselves in Court
- 2011/06/20: PI:B: Four years overdue: government's failure to protect woodland caribou triggers another oilsands lawsuit
- 2011/06/22: PI: Woodland caribou battle goes to Federal Court
Aggressive oilsands development places iconic species' habitat -- and future -- in peril - 2011/06/23: ScienceInsider: U.S. Faces New Suits on Climate From Left and Right
- 2011/06/20: BBC: Chile court suspends Patagonian HidroAysen dam project
A court in Chile has ordered the suspension of a multi-billion-dollar dam project in the south of the country, following objections by legislators and environmentalists. The five dams are to be built on two rivers in the sparsely-populated Aysen area of Chilean Patagonia. - 2011/06/20: SCOTUSBlog: Opinion analysis: Warming an EPA worry, at first
- 2011/06/21: NatureN: Supreme Court ruling is good, bad and ugly
- 2011/06/21: ACSBlog: The "Good" and the "Ugly" Implications of SCOTUS's Climate Change Ruling
- 2011/06/21: ScienceInsider: Court Delays Controversial Patagonian Dams
- 2011/06/21: NYT: Impact of Supreme Court's Greenhouse Gas Ruling Likely to Be Felt in Other Cases
- 2011/06/21: TP:JR: Supreme Court Climate Decision Puts Spotlight on EPA
- 2011/06/20: ScienceInsider: Supreme Court Rejects 'Nuisance' Argument Against Plant Emissions
- 2011/06/20: Reuters: Supreme court rejects global warming lawsuit
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a global warming lawsuit against five big power companies, its most important environmental ruling since 2007 and a victory for the utilities and the Obama administration. - 2011/06/20: Grist: Supreme Court says states can't regulate greenhouse gases
- 2011/06/20: STimes: High court blocks states' climate change lawsuit
The Supreme Court blocked a federal lawsuit Monday by states and conservation groups trying to force cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The court said that the authority to seek reductions in emissions rests with the Environmental Protection Agency, not the courts. The ruling was 8-0. - 2011/06/25: PeakEnergy: Alstom estimates 100 MW wave power by 2020
- 2011/06/23: RRapier: Highlights of BP's 2011 Statistical Review of World Energy
- 2011/06/23: CCurrents: Santa Isn't Bringing Gigawatts
- 2011/06/24: TP:JR: Calpine: We Need to "Create a Responsible and Sustainable Future Through the Generation of Clean Electricity"
- 2011/06/24: TP:JR: Where Renewables Stack Up: Comparative Chart on Levelized Cost of Energy and the "alue"of Clean Energy
- 2011/06/21: TP:JR: How Utilities Make Money While Investing in Cleaner Generation
- 2011/06/22: TreeHugger: IPCC Says Renewable Energy Could Be 77% of Global Energy Supply by 2050
- 2011/06/22: TreeHugger: China Plans For 30 GW Offshore Wind Power By 2020
- 2011/06/21: Grist: Do we have to choose between big or small clean energy projects?
- 2011/06/21: NatureN: Worth a dam? Voluntary agreement enables rating of hydroelectric impacts
- 2011/06/21: TSRBP: US has surplus electricity
- 2011/06/20: PeakEnergy: Australia's Wasabi to join German geothermal venture
The merits and demerits of gas are still being debated:
- 2011/06/26: PeakEnergy: Insiders Sound an Alarm Amid a Natural Gas Rush
- 2011/06/24: Grist: GE's ironic new slogan: 'Natural gas. It's hot stuff.'
- 2011/06/23: DeSmogBlog: Economic Benefits of Unconventional Gas Drilling Overblown by Industry PR
Hey! Let's contaminate the aquifer for thousands of years! It'll be a fracking gas!
- 2011/06/24: ProPublica: EPA Fracking Study to Focus on Five States -- But Not Wyoming
- 2011/06/21: Duke: Responses to Frequently Asked Questions and Comments About the Shale-Gas Paper by Osborn et al. by Robert B. Jackson et al.
- 2011/06/25: DM:JLV: EPA Study Probably Won't Prove That Fracking is Unsafe, Though It May Be
- 2011/06/24: PlanetArk: EPA To Study Natgas Fracking In Five U.S. States - Louisiana, North Dakota, Texas, Pennsylvania & Colorado
- 2011/06/23: CCP: Frack sand mining doesn't just suck, it blows
- 2011/06/23: CaCC: Fracking Hell? What will shale gas mean for the UK?
- 2011/06/22: Grist: Texas' fracking disclosure law has huge omissions
- 2011/06/20: NYT: Texas: Drillers Must Disclose 'Fracking' Chemicals
- 2011/06/20: ProPublica: Critics Find Gaps in State Laws to Disclose Hydrofracking Chemicals
- 2011/06/20: ClassM: The last word (for now) on shale gas
- 2011/06/20: Yale360: Forum: Just How Safe Is 'Fracking' of Natural Gas?
- 2011/06/20: TP:JR: If Natural Gas is the 'Crack Cocaine' of the Power Industry, It Could Prove an Unhealthy Habit
On the coal front:
- 2011/06/22: TP:JR: Another U.S. Coal Plant to Shutter. Will Renewables and Efficiency Fill the Gap?
On the gas and oil front:
- 2011/06/24: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
OIL (US$/bbl)
Nymex Crude Future...91.16
Dated Brent Spot....106.15
WTI Cushing Spot.....90.83 - 2011/06/25: PeakEnergy: US petrol is artificially cheap
- 2011/06/24: Reuters: Loss of Libya oil bigger disruption than Katrina-IEA
- 2011/06/24: CSM: Crude oil steady after big price drop
- 2011/06/21: TreeHugger: Global Oil Consumption Hit Record High in 2010 - Demand Outpaces Supply Increases By One-Third
- 2011/06/20: OilDrum: Tech Talk - The Oil that Lies Offshore California
- 2011/06/20: AutoBG: Video: The true cost of gas in the U.S. is closer to $15 a gallon
- 2011/06/20: BBerg: Crude Oil Falls in New York, Approaching a Bear Market as 2011 Gain Erased
The IEA orchestrated a release of oil from member nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserves:
- 2011/06/24: RRapier: US, Other Countries Battle OPEC With Release From Oil Reserves
- 2011/06/24: EnergyBulletin: Government controlled oil stocks
- 2011/06/24: OilDrum: The IEA SPR release: open thread
- 2011/06/24: AutoBG: U.S. to release 30 million barrels of oil from Strategic Petroleum Reserve
- 2011/06/23: EnergyBulletin: IEA makes 60 million barrels of oil available to market to offset Libyan disruption
- 2011/06/23: TP:JR: U.S. and Allies to Release Oil from Strategic Reserves
- 2011/06/23: Grist: Why tapping the strategic petroleum reserve is a bad idea
- 2011/06/23: BBC: The US is to release 30 million barrels of oil from its strategic petroleum reserve as part of a global effort to reduce disruption to oil supplies
In the gas and oil corps:
- 2011/06/21: PlanetArk: Shell Ordered To Pay $2 Million For UK Gas Fire
And in pipeline news:
- 2011/06/23: Grist: Join us in civil disobedience to stop the Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline
- 2011/06/23: TreeHugger: Environmental Leaders Call For Civil Disobedience to Stop the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline
- 2011/06/20: PostMedia: Canadian [Keystone XL] pipeline sparks fear in America's heartland
Many people in Nebraska are disturbed by a plan to run a major oilsands pipeline through [the Ogallala Aquifer and the Sand Hills] some of the most sensitive lands in the United States... - 2011/06/25: CCurrents: Lies Our Leaders Tell Us -- "Nobody Could Have Predicted"
- 2011/06/22: TVoice: A snarky guide to peak oil
- 2011/06/22: OilDrum: Peak Oil - the clear and present danger
- 2011/06/19: Neurope: Europe needs to acknowledge peak oil scenario -- and plan accordingly
Biofuel bickering abounds:
- 2011/06/24: NYT: The Great Corn Con -- Ethanol Production Wastes Corn
- 2011/06/24: TCoE: A decade of US ethanol production
- 2011/06/22: Minyanville: Ethanol: Distillation Margins Uneconomic, Costlier Than Gas on Energy-Equivalent Basis
Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:
- 2011/06/24: TreeHugger: Behold: The World's First 24/7 Solar Plant is Up and Running (Video)
- 2011/06/22: al Jazeera:Egypt's solar supply and demand
Following the Egyptian revolution, solar energy projects are picking up again and alleviating power cuts. - 2011/06/24: PSinclair: Gemasolar -- Solar Power 24/7
- 2011/06/26: Grist: Value of solar power far exceeds its cost
- 2011/06/23: TP:JR: Solar Panel Prices Continue Dropping, Grid Parity Not Magic Bullet for PV
- 2011/06/20: PeakEnergy: Siemens invests in CPV startup Semprius
- 2011/06/20: PeakEnergy: Solar Dawn: Australian "Solar Flagships" winners announced
The nuclear energy controversy continues:
- 2011/06/25: TP:JR: Was the Three Mile Island Accident in 1979 the Main Cause of US Nuclear Power's Woes?
- 2011/06/21: FuturePundit: Small Nuclear Reactor Site Planned
Tennessee Valley Authority signed a letter of intent with nuclear-reactor maker Babcock & Wilcox to work together to build up to six small reactors near Clinch River, Tennessee. - 2011/06/24: DemNow: New Exposé Reveals Nuclear Regulatory Commission Colluded with Industry to Weaken Safety Standards
- 2011/06/24: NYT:CW: A Nuclear Plant's Flood Defenses Trigger a Yearlong Regulatory Confrontation -- Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant north of Omaha, Neb.
- 2011/06/21: PressEurop: European Union -- Nuclear industry still doing fine
- 2011/06/21: SF Gate: Tritium leaks found at many nuke sites
- 2011/06/23: WSWS: Report reveals majority of US nuclear plants are leaking radioactivity
- 2011/06/22: CCP: Reuters: NRC tracking flooding at two Nebraska nuclear power plants
- 2011/06/22: CBS: Gov't: No quick fix for leaky nuclear reactors
- 2011/06/22: Enviralment: Japan Proves Less Nuclear Means More Air Pollution
- 2011/06/21: TP:JR: Flooding Shuts Down Nebraska Nuke, It "May Be Late Fall" Before Restart
- 2011/06/21: Grist: Small nuclear reactors get their first customer, but are no panacea
- 2011/06/14: Cryptome: Nebraska Nuclear Power Plants Missouri River Flood Conditions
- 2011/06/20: ProPublica: U.S. Nuclear Regulator Faces Fresh Scrutiny for Bending Safety Standards
- 2011/06/20: TP:JR: AP Bombshell: U.S. Nuclear Regulators "Repeatedly" Weaken Safety Rules or are "Simply Failing to Enforce Them"
- 2011/06/19: NBF: TVA signs letter of intent for six MPower modular reactors to be built by 2020
Nuclear waste storage requires long term thinking:
- 2011/06/20: Cryptome: Failed Safety Culture at Nuclear Waste Site
- 2011/06/19: PS: Electrical Fire Knocks Out Spent Fuel Cooling Pool at Nebraska Nuclear Plant
The Rossi Energy Catalyzer keeps coming up:
- 2011/06/25: NBF: Brillouin Energy Corporation [LENR]
- 2011/06/25: NBF: Defkalion internal tests of the Rossi Energy Catalyzer on their forum
- 2011/06/23: NBF: Nobel Laureate, Brian Josephson favors Rossi E-cat in a Video discussion of Credibility
- 2011/06/23: NBF: Defkalion Green Technologies new website and how they plan to commercial the Rossi Energy Catalyzer
More people are talking about the electrical grid:
- 2011/06/21: PeakEnergy: UK and Ireland eye subsea links to boost green-power sharing
- 2011/06/19: AutoBG: DOE says 5 million smart meters installed in U.S.
- 2011/06/19: EnergyBulletin: Solar storms, EMP and the future of the grid
And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:
- 2011/06/24: Grist: Even Republicans and climate skeptics support fuel efficiency and clean energy
Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:
- 2011/06/22: AutoBG: Study: 62 mpg CAFE standard would cost consumers an arm and... $1,450
- 2011/06/21: TreeHugger: Are Electric Motorbikes Being "Virtually Ignored"?
This week in the Gee Whiz File:
- 2011/06/22: Eureka: University of Minnesota engineering researchers discover source for generating [thermoelectric] 'green' electricity
As for Energy Storage:
- 2011/06/25: PeakEnergy: Large Capacity Lithium Ion Storage Units
The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:
- 2011/06/24: TP:JR: GE's Ironic New Slogan for Its Favorite Greenhouse Gas: "Natural Gas. It's Hot Stuff."
- 2011/06/24: AutoBG: Honda targets 30% reduction in global emissions by 2020
Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:
- 2011/06/20: CCP: Insurers forecast worst year for disaster claims since Hurricane Katrina
Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:
- 2011/06/24: CCurrents: Greenwashing
Joe Romm posts a daily list of top energy and climate stories:
- 2011/06/23: TP:JR: June 23 News...
- 2011/06/24: TP:JR: June 24 News...
- 2011/06/21: TP:JR: June 21 news...
- 2011/06/22: TP:JR: June 22 News...
- 2011/06/20: TP:JR: June 20 news...
Other (weekly) lists:
- 2011/06/21: CCentral: This Week in Climate Science: "Unprecedented Heat," Declining Snowpack, and Wildfire Feedbacks
- 2011/06/20: BPA: Agriculture News
The carbon lobby are up to the usual:
- 2011/06/24: TPL: Losing My Religion
- 2011/06/15: Skeptoid: I, Global Warming Skeptic
- 2011/06/25: DeSmogBlog: Fossil Fuel Propaganda In Education: Connecting the Dots
- 2011/06/25: HotTopic: More lunacy from Lomborg
- 2011/06/24: ERabett: A Really Thin, Really Well Paid Bench
- 2011/06/24: BBickmore: Monckton Ureservedl-ish Apologizes for Nazi Comment
- 2011/06/23: TP:JR: Glenn Beck: Empowering Individuals Through Sustainable Development is a "Socialist Crusade"
- 2011/06/26: ABC(Au): Climate change sceptic Christopher Monckton says he was catastrophically stupid to compare the prominent Australian economist Ross Garnaut to Adolf Hitler
- 2011/06/24: BCLSB: E&E Distances Itself From Peiser, GWPF And AGW Denialist Movement
- 2011/06/23: EnvEcon: I personally don't believe in gravity, I choose to believe that we are held in place by the invisible hand, but why not teach both theories and let people choose?
- 2011/06/23: ABC(Au): Monckton welcome at conference despite jibe
Controversial climate change sceptic Lord Christopher Monckton is still welcome to speak at a conference in Perth next week, the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies says. - 2011/06/23: Grist: Drilling company's coloring book sells fracking to kids
- 2011/06/24: DeSmogBlog: Lord Monckton Brands Australian Climate Advisor a Nazi
- 2011/06/22: BBickmore: Guess Who Monckton Embarrassed?
- 2011/06/22: DeSmogBlog: UK Climate Denial Tank Shuts its Doors
- 2011/06/22: DeSmogBlog: Canadian Geologists Embarrass Themselves on Climate
- 2011/06/22: TCoE: Monckton goes Godwin
- 2011/06/21: DeSmogBlog: Talisman Energy Targets Children with "Friendly Fracosaurus" Gas Coloring Book
- 2011/06/21: DeSmogBlog: Heritage Foundation Wastes No Time Spinning Court Ruling On Greenhouse Gas Emissions
- 2011/06/21: ABC(Au):TDU: The environmental Nazi hunter
- 2011/06/21: Deltoid: Monckton says that if you accept mainstream science then you are a Nazi
- 2011/06/20: DeSmogBlog: The Fox News Effect: Sea Level Edition
Coby updated his How to Talk to a Climate Sceptic series:
- AFTIC: [H2T2aCS] How to Talk to a Climate Sceptic
- 2011/06/24: AFTIC: The Greenhouse Effect in a Water World
Meanwhile in the 'clean coal' saga:
- 2011/06/23: TreeHugger: Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining Significantly Increases Birth Defects
- 2011/06/22: DeSmogBlog: Mountaintop Removal Mining Linked To Birth Defects
Let us be clear who has issued death threats:
- 2011/06/24: TP:JR: Lord Monckton Promotes Hate Speech and Disinformation
- 2011/06/24: Deltoid: Correction: Andrew Bolt likely prompted death threat sent to Anna-Maria Arabia
- 2011/06/22: Deltoid: Another day, another death threat
As for climate miscellanea:
- 2011/06/26: TreeHugger: New Garden Of Eden Myth: 'We'll Escape Catastrophic Climate Change By Moving North'
- 2011/06/21: NPR: Climate Change: Public Skeptical, Scientists Sure
- 2011/06/23: 350orBust: It's Time To Stop Spinning Our Wheels On Climate Change
- 2011/06/23: BBC: Pupils test world water in mass chemistry experiment
Children from hundreds of schools in Britain are taking part in what organisers say may be the biggest ever global chemistry experiment. Students from around the world are testing the acidity of water from their local rivers and lakes. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry will collate the data into a map of global water quality. - 2011/06/22: Grist: Interactive climate change maps show just how screwed we are
- 2011/06/20: UCSUSA: New Interactive Map Tracks Impacts of Climate Change Around the Planet
- 2011/06/21: TSoD: What's the Palaver? - Kiehl and Trenberth 1997
- 2011/06/21: ERabett: The political and public perceptions of climate change
- 2011/06/20: MTobis: "Most" (?) of the Warming is Man Made
- 2011/06/20: DM:CCM: How Global Warming Affects Weather: Why Can't We Get the Story Right?
- 2011/06/19: WiseLaw: When Crime Isn't Crime (Or It Is)
And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:
- Clearing up the climate debate
- IPSO: International Programme on the State of the Ocean
- Almost Extinct
- Daniel Griffin - Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research
- Campaign against Climate Change
- Avaaz: No tar sands in Europe [petition]
- Defkalion - Green Technologies
- F&WW: Food & Water Watch
- Climate Hot Map
- Carbon Engineering
- ESA: CryoSat-2
- Wiki: Global Hunger Index
- BGSD: Biogeosciences - Papers in Open Discussion
- Diversitas - An International Programme of Biodiversity Science
- Wiki: Rossby wave
- Wiki: Kelvin wave
We are definitely back in the black humour zone:
[Hope you had a] Happy Solstice!:
The International Programme on the State of the Ocean delivered a devastating report this week:
The Conversation rounded up their series of climate change articles this week:
Who's getting the subsidies?
Post Fukushima, nuclear policies are in flux around the world:
As for the agro-chem corps:
Food Prices are still problematic:
Regarding the food factor in the ongoing revolutions:
This week in extreme weather:
Meanwhile in tornado alley:
Elsewhere on the mitigation front:
Consider transportation & GHG production:
The proposed Financial Transaction [Bank] Tax refuses to die:
As the deadline for applying the EU-ETS to airlines draws near, we will see who is serious about reducing carbon emissions:
As for GW, energy & water security:
What are the activists up to?
Polls! We have polls!
While in the UK:
While in the Indian subcontinent:
In Canada, neocon PM Harper, continues his do-nothing policy:
The one year anniversary of the G20 led to a general regurgitation of issues, complaints and excuses:
Harper & co. want to get rid of the AECL. The question is can they find a buyer or will they let it go like Nortel:
In BC, the stage is set. Now what will Clark and Dix do?
Also in Alberta:
SouthEast Saskatchewan is under water:
In Manitoba, we're still dealing with flooding:
The SCOTUS ruling on warming generated a lot of comment:
Developing a new energy infrastructure is a fundamental challenge of the current generation:
Yes we have a peak oil sighting:
Low Key Plug
My first novel Water was published in Canada May, 2007. The American release was in October. An Introductionto the novel is available, along with the Unpublished Forewordand the Launch Talk(which includes some quotations), An overview of my writing is available here.
<regards>
P.S. Recent postings can be found in the week archive and the ancient postings can be accessed here, which should open to this.
I notice moyhu has set up a monster index to old AWoGWN on AFTIC."The climate crisis, in reality, is a struggle for the soul of America. It is about whether or not we are still capable -- given the ill health of our democracy and the current dominance of wealth over reason -- of perceiving important and complex realities clearly enough to promote and protect the sustainable well-being of the many. What hangs in the balance is the future of civilization as we know it." -Al Gore
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