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 Instability News
Sipping from the Internet Firehose...
October 2, 2011
- Chuckles, Horn of Africa, Overshoot, Maathai, Jet Stream, IMECHE
- GDP, Subsidies, Ecocide, Cook
- Fukushima Note, Fukushima News, Nuclear Policy
- Melting Arctic, Geopolitics
- Food Crisis, Food Prices, Food vs. Biofuel, GMOs, Food Production
- Hurricanes, Monsoon, GHGs, Temperatures, Feedbacks, Aerosols, Ozone
- Paleoclimate, Cosmic Rays, State of the Oceans, Satellites
- Impacts, Forests, Extreme Weather, Corals, Floods & Droughts
- Mitigation, Transportation, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Adaptation
- Journals, Other Docs , Misc. Science, Mann, Hansen, Tyndall, Wegman, Pielkes
- Rio 2012, UN, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Bank Tax
- International Politics: Airlines & EU ETS, Activism, Water Politics & Business
- National Politics: America, BP Disaster, 2012, Solyndra, Keystone
- Gore, EPA & IG, CAFE Delayed, Obama, USAdmin, Congress, Lobbyists
- Britain, Europe, Australia, MDBP, New Zealand, India, China, Japan, Asia, Africa, South America
- Canada, Post G20, NRTEE, CWB, Pipelines, Job Cuts, AECL, Cohen
- BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Maritimes, North
- Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Courts
- Energy, Fracking, Coal, Oil & Gas, Pipelines, Peak Oil, Biofuel
- Wind, Solar, FITs, Nukes, LENR, Hydrogen, Efficiency, Cars, Energy Storage
- Business, Greenwashing, FAQs, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous, Useful Links
- New Web Site, Shameless Self Promotion, .sig
 |  |
- 2011/09/29: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Sustained Development
- 2011/09/27: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Inputs and outputs
- 2011/10/02: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) Alternatives
- 2011/09/28: XKCD: (cartoon - Munroe) Hurricane Rina
- 2011/09/26: uComics: (cartoon - Wiley) The Perfect Think Tank
- 2011/09/25: ERabett: (cartoon - Trudeau) More truth
And for those interested in exploring the nether reaches of Poe's Law:
- 2011/09/29: Wonkette: Michelle Malkin Hated Onion Hostage Joke Because It Lacked Democrats
Although largely unreported, the Horn of Africa drought and famine continues to be a major disaster:
- 2011/09/28: CBC: UN reports gains in fight against Somalia's famine
- 2011/09/27: UN: Famine warning signs must never again be ignored, as they were in Somalia -- UN
- 2011/09/25: UN: UN chief and Kenyan premier discuss reform, humanitarian situation in Horn of Africa
We are in Overshoot for this year:
- 2011/09/28: GFP: September 27th, 2011 is Earth Overshoot Day! In 10 months, humanity has exhausted nature's budget for the year
- Global Footprint Network
- 2011/09/28: JTRing: Earth Overshoot Day -- cause for a pause to reflect
The death of Wangari Maathai drew a lot of comment:
- The Green Belt Movement
- 2011/09/27: FAO: Statement by FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf on the death of Wangari Maathai -- The world loses a dedicated activist
- 2011/09/29: DemNow: Nobel Peace Prize, Right Livelihood Winner Wangari Maathai (1940-2011)
- 2011/09/27: CCurrents: A Tribute To Wangari Mathaai
- 2011/09/28: OpenDem: Professor Wangari Maathai remembered
- 2011/09/27: OpenDem: An African future: beyond the culture of dependency by Wangari Maathai
- 2011/09/26: Guardian(UK): Wangari Maathai, Nobel peace prize winner, dies at 71
- 2011/09/26: UN: UN pays tribute to late environmentalist and Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai
- 2011/09/26: TP:JR: The Passing of Nobelist Wangari Maathai...
- 2011/09/26: Grist: Nobel-winning environmentalist Wangari Maathai dies
- 2011/09/26: TreeHugger: Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai Dead at 71
- 2011/09/26: CSM: Wangari Maathai: Her activism saved forests, promoted peace (video)
- 2011/09/26: BBC: Wangari Maathai: Death of a visionary
- 2011/09/26: BBC: Kenya's Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai dies aged 71
- 2011/09/26: al Jazeera: Kenyan Nobel laureate Maathai dies
Africa's first women Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai dies in Nairobi while receiving cancer treatment, aged 71. - 2011/09/29: Reuters: Slowing jet stream shows risk from warming Arctic
A new, unpublished finding that the polar "jet stream" is slowing down provides compelling evidence of a link between rapidly melting Arctic sea ice and colder winters across the northern hemisphere and other extreme weather. The possibility of far flung impacts from a rapidly warming Arctic underlines the danger of unpredictable, economically disruptive knock-on effects of rising greenhouse gas emissions. - 2011/09/29: HotTopic: We have the technology, but...
- 2011/09/23: IMECHE: Future Climate 2: We have the technology to slash global emissions, say engineers
- 2011/09/26: Grist: Engineers: We have all the tech we need to cut carbon
And on the Bottom Line:
- 2011/09/29: Grist: Change GDP, change the world
Who's getting the subsidies?
- 2011/09/28: JFleck: The international implications of U.S. water subsidies
- 2011/09/26: TP:JR: What Free Market? Subsidies Have Always Been a Big Part of Energy Industry, New Report Shows
- 2011/09/26: PeakEnergy: Subsidies for Nuclear Power And Fossil Fuels Dwarf Those Given To Renewable Energy
Another shot at defining a crime of ecocide in an international legal framework:
- 2011/09/30: Stoat: SEP
- 2011/09/29: Guardian(UK): Trial tests whether 'ecocide' could join genocide as global crime
Top lawyers put fossil fuel bosses on trial in the UK's supreme court in a mock case to explore the crime of ecocide - environmental destruction - which is being considered by the UN - 2011/10/02: SkeptiSci: The Deep Ocean Warms When Global Surface Temperatures Stall by Rob Painting
- 2011/10/01: SkeptiSci: Pielke Sr. and SkS Disagreements and Open Questions by dana1981
- 2011/09/30: SkeptiSci: Climate Change Could be Expensive for Canada by John Hartz
- 2011/09/29: SkeptiSci: Modern scientists, following in Galileo's footsteps by Tom Smerling
- 2011/09/28: SkeptiSci: Understanding climate denial
- 2011/09/28: SkeptiSci: Sea level rise due to floating ice? by MartinS
- 2011/09/27: SkeptiSci: 2011 Sea Ice Minimum by Rob Honeycutt
- 2011/09/26: SkeptiSci: The Climate Show #19: A Tale of Two Poles
- 2011/09/27: SkeptiSci: Monckton, the Anti-Nurse by dana1981
A note on theFukushima disaster:
It is evident that the Fukushima disaster is going to persist for some time. TEPCO says 6 to 9 months. The previous Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, said decades. We'll see. At any rate this situation is not going to be resolved any time soon and deserves its own section.
Not much good news coming out of Fukushima:
- 2011/10/01: EneNews: Strontium found 80 km from Fukushima plant -- 15 Bq/m² of plutonium-239 and -240 in Minamisoma (MAP)
- 2011/10/01: EneNews: Japan Professor: Gov't afraid to tell truth -- Radiation 10 times higher than officials claim on Sept. 30 near Kyoto, 500 km from meltdowns
- 2011/09/30: EneNews: First Time: Gov't admits Plutonium-238 detected in locations far from Fukushima plant
- 2011/10/01: EneNews: WSJ: "A potentially disturbing turn" -- Plutonium discovered far from Fukushima reactors
- 2011/09/30: CDreams: Plutonium 'Detected Outside Fukushima Plant'
- 2011/09/30: CBC: Japan eases evacuation zone around Fukushima plant
Japan lifted some evacuation advisories around the tsunami-devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant Friday to reassure tens of thousands of residents, who fled the worst atomic crisis since Chornobyl, that it is safe to return home. A 20-kilometre no-go zone remains in place around the nuclear plant, which was badly damaged by the March 11 tsunami that left nearly 20,000 people dead or missing across Japan's northeast coast. But officials said the advisories for five municipalities that are 20 to 30 kilometres away were lifted because the plant had been restored to a relatively stable condition and radiation levels were within safety standards. - 2011/09/29: EneNews: Scientists: Radioactivity in sea NOT falling off -- Hypothesis says Fukushima groundwater is leaking radiation
- 2011/09/30: EneNews: Tokyo to begin burning massive amounts of radioactive waste from disaster area -- Will continue until March 2014 (video)
- 2011/09/28: CDreams: Japan Sizes Up Task of Fukushima Waste Disposal
Japan faces the prospect of removing and disposing 29 million cubic metres of soil contaminated by the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years from an area nearly the size of Tokyo, the environment ministry said in the first official estimate of the scope and size of the cleanup. - 2011/09/28: EneNews: Fukushima worker: "Danger has reached a point that nobody has ever experienced" -- Strong possibility nuclear fuel melted through protective sheath
- 2011/09/28: EneNews: Ultimate Insider: Prime Minister contemplated evacuating 30 million from Tokyo, didn't because fear of mass panic and chaos -- Said eastern Japan might collapse (audio)
- 2011/09/28: EneNews: ABC Australia: Former special adviser says Japan "too scared" to tell people the truth about Fukushima future
- 2011/09/27: GRC: Fukushima and the Battle for Truth
Large sectors of the Japanese population are accumulating significant levels of internal contamination - 2011/09/25: SciAm: Fukushima Fallout in Japan
The melted down reactors are stabilizing but the real work of repair has yet to begin. David Biello reports - 2011/09/26: UN: Talks begin on UN study of health, environmental impacts of Fukushima accident
- 2011/09/25: TP:JR: Fukushima Surprise: Radioactive Rice "Far Exceeding" Safe Levels Found in Japan
Post Fukushima, nuclear policies are in flux around the world:
- 2011/09/30: EurActiv: Swiss to shut down nuclear power plants by 2034
In a move that echoes German measures following the Fukushima disaster, the Swiss Parliament has approved plans to phase out nuclear power plants by 2034. - 2011/09/28: SwissInfo: Senate endorses nuclear phase out
Parliament has decided to gradually shut down the country's nuclear power plants by 2034 and boost renewable energy resources. - 2011/09/28: WaPo: Swiss plan to phase out use of nuclear power gains full backing in parliament
- 2011/09/29: EneNews: Switzerland votes to abandon nuclear power -- Will close all reactors and develop more hydro-electricity
- 2011/09/29: Grist: Germany's phaseout reveals the true costs of nuclear power
- 2011/09/28: NatureNB: Japan freezes fast breeder plans
The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:
- 2011/10/01: ASI: September 2011 sea ice extent, looking ahead
- 2011/09/30: Tamino: Unnatural variation
- 2011/09/30: Grist: Canada probably didn't NEED that ice sheet, right?
- 2011/09/28: RBroberg: Goddard? Giggitty!
- 2011/09/28: CBC: Canadian ice shelves breaking up at record speed -- Region lost almost half its ice shelves in last six years
- 2011/09/27: Carleton: Canadian Ice Shelves Breaking up at High Speed
- 2011/09/28: ASI: You do it to your shelf
- 2011/09/27: Carleton: Summer 2011 loss of Arctic ice shelves
- 2011/09/27: AFTIC: Arctic Sea Ice - 2011
- 2011/09/26: PSinclair: 2011 Sea Ice Minimum -- the Video is here
- 2011/09/30: KSJT: Smattering of Ink: Bowhead whales in Arctic, East meets West again
As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:
- 2011/09/27: PressEurop: A constitution for Greenland
- 2011/09/29: OilPrice: Russia Claims New Arctic Hydrocarbon Finds Effectively Double Nations Reserves
- 2011/09/25: HurriyetDN: China could open up to Arctic with Iceland deal
A Chinese tycoon's plans to acquire a vast piece of land in Iceland have raised eyebrows in the country, as some say the reason behind Huang Nubo's interest could be energy resources lying under the Arctic seabed - 2011/09/28: FuturePundit: SoCal Bass Stocks Collapsing
- 2011/09/29: ERW: Climate change blamed for decreasing Japanese rice quality
Global warming is affecting rice quality in Japan and urgent action is needed, according to a study published in Environmental Research Letters. - 2011/09/29: BPA: A Breakdown of Food Insecurity in the U.S.
- 2011/09/30: TP:JR: Too Hot for Chocolate? Climate Change Could Decimate the $9 Billion Cocoa Industry, Study Finds
- 2011/10/01: BBC: 'Big rise' in [UK] charity food demand, says Fareshare
- 2011/09/29: TreeHugger: Planet Getting Too Hot for Chocolate? Study Finds Climate Change Could Threaten Cocoa Farmers
- 2011/09/28: ITracker: Watching the rice
- 2011/09/28: TreeHugger: Two Most Important Southern California Recreational Fisheries Have Collapsed
- 2011/09/26: WSJ: Most Food Stamp Recipients Have No Earned Income
- 2011/09/27: Grist: Feeding frenzy: Who's behind the unsavory food stamp parodies
- 2011/09/26: Scripps: 'Illusion of Plenty' Masking Collapse of Two Key Southern California Fisheries
Scripps-led study finds overfishing of spawning areas, environmental conditions behind collapse of two bass species - 2011/09/26: PlanetArk: Insight: Chasing High Corn Prices, U.S. Farmers Skip Rotations
Food Prices are still problematic:
- FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
- 2011/09/29: ITracker: Food prices hockey stick, and the folly of climate isolationism
- 2011/09/28: BPA: Food as a Percent of Total Household Budget by Country
- 2011/09/23: AlterNet: Why the Food Market Will Be the Next Bubble to Burst
- 2011/09/27: Grist: U.S. government gives food speculators the thumbs up
The conflict between biofuel and food persists:
- 2011/10/01: TP:JR: Biofuels May Push 120 Million Into Hunger, Qatar's Shah Says: "The era of low food prices ... is over."
- 2011/09/30: BPA: When Will We Admit that our Corn Ethanol Policy is Immoral?
Regarding the genetic modification of food:
- 2011/09/28: Grist: Busting Monsanto's 'better' broccoli
And how are we going to feed 9 billion?
- 2011/09/30: BPA: The U.S. Corn Crop Accounts for 65% of Nitrogen Use by Farmers
- 2011/09/30: DVoice: Going Global with Perennial Polyculture Agriculture
- 2011/09/30: NatureN: Scientists push for agricultural monitoring -- Network would collect environmental and socioeconomic data from around the world
- 2011/09/30: al Jazeera: Prioritising a solution to world hunger
Whatever the weather, world leaders can make extreme hunger a thing of the past, says writer [Andrew Wander] - 2011/09/29: Eureka: Weeds are vital to the existence of farmland species, study finds
- 2011/09/29: NBF: Stacked shrimp farms will enable 1 million pounds of shrimp per acre of water which is 15 to 50 times more per acre
- 2011/09/26: Grist: Graphic: Fast food is more expensive than homemade
- 2011/09/26: ScienceInsider: Decadal Plan for Plant Science Begins to Take Shape
U.S. plant scientists have taken the first steps toward a 10-year plan to help improve global food supplies using sustainable practices and to make progress in understanding how plants work. - 2011/09/22: SwissInfo: Feeding the world requires "a new paradigm"
Nearly half of all cereal production is used to feed livestock for meat production Agriculture specialists convening in Bern to debate the question of how to feed the world have agreed on one thing: a new paradigm is needed. Farming models are breaking down -- as witnessed by the suicide of a farmer every half hour in India - and new directions for research in agriculture for development are needed to support the sector and combat global poverty. A joint conference hosted by non-government organisation Swissaid and Bern University asked 12 experts which agriculture methods worked and where research should be headed. Although a similar conference was held ten years ago by Swissaid, this time around there is a growing urgency to act, Caroline Morel, head of the agency, told swissinfo.ch. - 2011/10/02: CNN: Philippines hit by back-to-back typhoons that leave dozens dead
Heavy rains in latest typhoon cause a landslide that sweeps a van off a road, killing 1 - Gates are opened at four dams that have reached maximum containment, officials say - At least 52 people were killed by Typhoon Nesat, which hit earlier this week - 2011/10/02: BBC: Philippines recovers after Typhoons Nesat and Nalgae
Rescuers are scrambling to reach people who have been stranded for days on their rooftops following two typhoons in a week. The authorities are still trying to evacuate people amid a threat of further flash floods and landslides in the aftermath of typhoon Nalgae. At least 52 people were killed and thousands made homeless after Typhoon Nesat hit the country on Tuesday. Nalgae has followed the same route, killing at least three people. The death toll is expected to rise following Nalgae's six-hour rampage on Saturday across areas of the main Luzon island already waterlogged by Nesat. - 2011/10/02: al Jazeera: Philippines reels in second typhoon's wake
Hundreds of thousands displaced and many stranded on rooftops after two typhoons in a week batter country's main island. - 2011/10/01: Wunderground: Ophelia brushing Bermuda; Super Typhoon Nalgae hits the Philippines
- 2011/10/01: CNN: Philippines hit with second typhoon [Nalgae] in a week
- 2011/10/01: BBC: Typhoon Nalgae batters flood-hit Philippines
The second typhoon to hit the Philippines in less than a week is battering the north of the country, with ferocious winds and heavy rain. - 2011/10/01: al Jazeera: Philippines hit by second typhoon in a week
Typhoon Nalgae threatens over one million people, as Southeast Asia reels from months of monsoon rains. - 2011/09/30: al Jazeera: Rains wreak havoc across Southeast Asia
More than 100 dead and tens of thousands displaced by monsoon rains causing widespread flooding. - 2011/09/30: CBC: Typhoon [Nesat] weakens as it approaches Vietnam
- 2011/09/29: al Jazeera: Typhoon update -- An update on the progress of tropical storms affecting the Philippines and China
- 2011/09/27: al Jazeera: Typhoon Nesat batters Philippines
At least 16 people killed as powerful storm spreads extreme weather and causes severe floods in Manila. - 2011/09/29: CNN: Typhoon Nesat hits China
Typhoon Nesat has made landfall in southern China - The storm killed at least 39 people in the Philippines - It's the strongest typhoon to hit China this year - 2011/09/29: CBC: Typhoon Nesat wallops southern China
- 2011/09/29: BBC: Typhoon Nesat shuts down Hong Kong
- 2011/09/28: CNN: Typhoon [Nesat] affects hundreds of thousands in Philippines
The tropical storm is forecast to make landfall Saturday - More than 320,000 people are affected by Typhoon Nesat, officials say - Storm expected to move offshore in the afternoon, state news agency says - Typhoon Nesat, known in the Philippines as Pedring, struck early Tuesday - 2011/09/28: CSM: Philippines scrambles to recover from Typhoon Nesat as another storm bears down (video)
- 2011/09/28: BBC: Philippines cleans up after Typhoon Nesat
- 2011/09/28: CBC: Typhoon-smacked Philippines warned of new storm -- Nesat kills at least 21, brings downtown Manila its worst flooding in decades
- 2011/09/28: al Jazeera: Philippines tackles typhoon [Nesat] devastation
Government begins clean-up and damage assessments after Typhoon Nesat leaves at least 21 people dead and dozens missing. - 2011/09/27: CBC: Manila typhoon kills at least 16 in massive flooding
- 2011/09/27: CNN: 7 die in Philippines typhoon [Nesat]
People remain calm despite flooding and power cuts in Manila, a resident says - More than 64,000 people are affected by the typhoon, disaster officials say - Typhoon Nesat, known in the Philippines as Pedring, strikes early Tuesday - The storm has weakened since making landfall - 2011/09/27: Wunderground: Typhoon Nesat kills 12 in the Philippines; Ophelia regenerating
- 2011/09/26: Eureka: NASA sees Typhoon Nesat nearing landfall in northern Philippines
- 2011/09/26: Eureka: NASA's infrared eyes examine Tropical Depression Haitang as it nears Vietnam
- 2011/09/27: BBC: Powerful Typhoon Nesat hits Philippines - At least seven people have been killed
- 2011/09/27: al Jazeera: Typhoon [Nesat] lashes eastern Philippines
Powerful storm unleashes floods, toppled power lines and trees and halted work in the capital Manila. - 2011/09/26: Eureka: NASA sees Hurricane Hilary's heaviest rain in northwest quadrant
- 2011/09/26: PlanetArk: Hurricane Hilary Moves Away From Mexico's West Shore
In the Atlantic:
- 2011/10/02: CBC: Ophelia weakens to Category 3 hurricane
- 2011/10/01: CBC: Hurricane Ophelia heads to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia [probably Monday]
- 2011/10/01: CNN: Hurricane Ophelia grows as it churns toward Bermuda
- 2011/09/30: CNN: Hurricane Ophelia grows to Category 3
- 2011/09/30: CBC: Hurricane Ophelia to bring rain, winds to East Coast
- 2011/09/29: Wunderground: Ophelia strengthening; Typhoon Nalgae a new threat to the Philippines
- 2011/09/28: Wunderground: Ophelia regenerates; Typhoon Nesat heads towards China
- 2011/09/26: Wunderground: Ophelia dies; Philippe, Hilary no threat; Nesat drenching the Philippines
While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:
- 2011/09/26: EnvEcon: For all of you who callously talk about moral hazard this and perverse incentive that [Hurricanes]
As for the Monsoon:
- 2011/09/30: al Jazeera: Rains wreak havoc across Southeast Asia
More than 100 dead and tens of thousands displaced by monsoon rains causing widespread flooding. - 2011/09/28: al Jazeera: The latest victim of monsoon rains -- Torrential downpours bring floods to eastern India
- 2011/09/26: CBC: Monsoon flooding kills dozens in north, east India -- 31 people killed over the weekend by collapsing roofs
- 2011/09/26: BBC: India floods situation worsens in Orissa and Bihar
More than two million people have been displaced by floods in India as torrential rains lash Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states. Heavy monsoon rains have been battering parts of India for the past fortnight. More than 80 people have died in flood-related incidents, and some areas have been cut off by rising waters. - 2011/08/29: GWWatch: World GHG Emissions Flow Chart
- 2011/09/28: TreeHugger: China's Per Capita Emissions May Overtake Those in US by 2017 - Now Same As Italy's
- 2011/09/27: TP:JR: A Case Study in Scientific Integrity: The Science Behind Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards
- 2011/09/25: SciNow: Tick Tock, Modeling Emissions From Trees Around the Clock
And the temperature record:
- 2011/09/27: GreenGrok: Climate Change: What Put the Hiatus in the Global Warming Trend?
- 2011/10/01: BBC: Record UK temperature for October set at 29.9C
The record has been broken for the highest temperature recorded in October - now at 29.9C (85.8F). It was set at 14:42 BST in Gravesend, Kent, beating the previous record of 29.4C (84.9F) recorded on 1 October 1985, in March, Cambridgeshire. In Wales, a new October record was set at 28.2C (82.7F) in Hawarden, Flintshire, at 14:12 BST, the Met Office confirmed. Temperatures in England topped those in Athens, Los Angeles and Barcelona. - 2011/09/26: moyhu: Feedback
Aerosols are making their presence felt:
- 2011/09/30: PlanetArk: Aerosol Particles Dry Out South Asian Monsoons: Study
- 2011/09/29: SciNow: Aerosols Altered Asian monsoons
- 2011/09/26: Guardian(UK): Iran, India, Pakistan and Mongolia have most polluted cities in the world
World Health Organisation's first global survey of fine particle pollutants says US and Canadian towns are among cleanest - 2011/09/27: Eureka: Climate change set to increase ozone-related deaths over next 60 years
While in the paleoclimate:
- 2011/09/30: Eureka: Reefs recovered faster after [P/T] mass extinction than first thought
Regarding the cosmic ray hypothesis:
- 2011/09/27: BCLSB: The Meaning of CLOUD
- 2011/09/26: RealClimate: Cosmic rays and clouds: Potential mechanisms
And the State of the Oceans:
- 2011/09/30: TreeHugger: Nitrate Pollution is Rising in the Pacific Ocean Near Japan and Korea
Meanwhile in near earth orbit:
- 2011/09/28: BBC: UK-built NigeriaSat-2 shows off its vision
More GW impacts are being seen:
- 2011/09/30: TreeHugger: Could Global Warming Cause Animals to Shrink in Size?
- 2011/09/29: PlanetArk: Climate Change Threatens Yellowstone Region: Report
- 2011/09/29: Grist: It takes a village to save a drowning farm [Irene impact]
- 2011/09/29: Eureka: New analysis confirms sharks are in trouble
Sharks are in big trouble on the Great Barrier Reef and worldwide, according to an Australian-based team who have developed a world-first way to measure rates of decline in shark populations. - 2011/09/29: Eureka: Climate change will show which animals can take the heat
- 2011/09/28: TP:JR: An Illustrated Guide to the Science of Global Warming Impacts: How We Know Inaction Is the Gravest Threat Humanity Faces
- 2011/09/28: Guardian(UK): Weatherwatch: Deadly heat
- 2011/09/27: Eureka: How global warming could cause animals to shrink
- 2011/09/26: NYT: Climate Change and the Exodus of Species
- 2011/09/26: CSM: Worry climbs as puzzling bacteria leaves Florida palms withering
And then there are the world's forests:
- 2011/10/01: ITracker: Massive forest die-offs threaten to accelerate global warming
- 2011/09/30: NewInt:B: In the pay of Big Oil, so don't trust the 'evidence'
- 2011/09/27: NewInt:B: Time is ticking for Ecuador's YasunÃ
- 2011/09/29: Guardian(UK): Brazilian judge orders construction of Amazon dam to stop
Belo Monte hydroelectric dam project halted after ruling that it risked damaging fish stocks on Xingu river - 2011/09/30: Grist: Guitar Antihero 4: Gibson's crusade is off-key with U.S. workers
- 2011/09/29: Grist: Guitar Antihero: How Congress fell for Gibson's bunk crusade
- 2011/09/28: Grist: Guitar Antihero: Lawless logging and slaughtered wildlife didn't stop Gibson Guitar
- 2011/09/27: Grist: Guitar Antihero: How Gibson Guitars made illegal logging a conservative cause célèbre
- 2011/09/29: BBC: A judge in Brazil has ordered a halt to construction of a multi-billion-dollar dam project in the Amazon region
- 2011/09/28: Guardian(UK): Death in the Amazon: Brazil accused of protecting trees but not its people
Progress in reducing logging marred by brutal killings of environmental campaigners - 2011/10/01: NYT: With Deaths of Forests, a Loss of Key Climate Protectors
- 2011/10/01: TreeHugger: Massive New York Times Story on Forests and Climate Change Ranks As A Must Read
- 2011/09/28: UN: Madagascar, Panama ask UN-backed body to regulate trade in hardwood species
- 2011/09/28: UN: Ecotourism boom can help save endangered forests, UN and partners say
This week in the New Normal -- extreme weather:
- 2011/10/01: TreeHugger: Hurricane Irene and Extreme Weather Killed the Northeast's Pumpkins. So No Halloween?
- 2011/09/29: SwissInfo: Climate change scenarios confirm warming
Average temperatures and extreme weather events are set to increase in Switzerland, a climate change report has found. In the best case scenario -- supposing a strong reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades -- temperatures would still rise by nearly two degrees celsius by the end of the century. In the worst case, average seasonal temperatures would rise by nearly five degrees. - 2011/09/27: al Jazeera: First autumnal blast hits the Middle East -- Severe weather seen from Italy to Iran
- 2011/09/28: Guardian(UK): Al Gore: clear proof that climate change causes extreme weather
Corals are a bellwether of the ocean's health:
- 2011/09/28: Eureka: Wildlife Conservation Society study uncovers a predictable sequence toward coral reef collapse
Research identifies 8 factors that can alert managers to the threat of overfishing in otherwise healthy-looking reefs - 2011/09/30: UN: Asian floods taking a major human and economic toll, UN says
- 2011/09/30: PlanetArk: Grim Predictions Say 9 More Years Of Texas Drought Possible
- 2011/09/30: Wunderground: Texas drought could last 9 years; Ophelia a Cat 3; Cat 4 Nalgae nears Philippines
- 2011/09/26: CSM: Epic scorching drought testing Texas' ways
- 2011/09/25: Zaman: One dead as floods, landslides wreak havoc in northeastern Turkey
Elsewhere on the mitigation front:
- 2011/09/30: TP:JR: Socolow Re-Reaffirms 2004 'Wedges' Paper, Urges 'Monumental' Levels of Clean Energy Deployment ASAP
- 2011/09/29: KSJT: Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Climate Central: Socolow updates wedges. Media yawn.
- 2011/09/27: TBAS: Wedges reaffirmed by Robert Socolow
Consider transportation & GHG production:
- 2011/09/30: CBC: [NDP MP Olivia] Chow calls for national transit strategy
- 2011/09/29: TreeHugger: The Future of Transportation on a Planet with 7 Billion People
As for carbon sequestration:
- 2011/09/27: FAO: Opening the door to carbon crediting for restoring degraded grasslands
FAO helps herders earn money for the carbon they sequester when rehabilitating damaged ecosystems - 2011/09/30: CCurrents: Carbon Sequestration: Is It Possible?
- 2011/09/29: EnergyBulletin: Putting the genie back in the toothpaste tube
Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:
- 2011/09/29: EPSRC: Update on the SPICE project
- 2011/09/30: NatureNB: SPICE put on ice
- 2011/09/29: GEB: The Biochar Economy
- 2011/09/30: BBC: Climate fix technical test put on hold
A pioneering test of a climate "tech fix" planned for October faces a six-month delay as scientists discuss the issues it raises with their critics. The test is part of the UK-based Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering (Spice) project. It would use a balloon and a kilometre-long hose to spray water into the upper atmosphere - a prelude to spraying climate-cooling sulphate particles. But the funders believe that more talks about the social aspects are needed. - 2011/09/14: TechRev: British to Test Geoengineering Scheme -- Can a garden hose to the stratosphere really keep the planet cool?
- 2011/09/26: ABC(Au): Radical measures mooted as climate 'insurance'
While on the adaptation front:
- 2011/09/27: Maribo: The folly of broad statements about adapting to climate change
- 2011/09/09: AlterNet: We're Locked Into Unavoidable Climate Disruption -- So, How Do We Begin to Adapt?
Meanwhile in the journals:
- 2011/09/26: NERC:NORA: Local ecosystem feedbacks and critical transitions in the climate by Max Rietkerk et al.
- 2011/09/26: NERC:NORA: North Atlantic climate responses to perturbations in Antarctic intermediate water by Jennifer A. Graham et al.
- 2011/09/26: NERC:NORA: On the response of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current transport to climate change in coupled climate models by Zhaomin Wang et al.
- 2011/09/26: NERC:NORA: Late Pleistocene and Holocene drought events at Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile by Michael H. Marshall et al.
- 2011/09/26: NERC:NORA: A reassessment of late glacial-Holocene diatom oxygen isotope record from Lake Baikal using a geochemical mass-balance approach by Anson W. Mackay et al.
- 2011/09/28: GMDD: Modelling oxygen isotopes in the University of Victoria Earth System Climate Model by C. E. Brennan et al.
- 2011/09/29: TC: Deriving mass balance and calving variations from reanalysis data and sparse observations, Glaciar San Rafael, northern Patagonia, 1950-2005 by M. Koppes et al.
- 2011/09/28: OSD: Laminar and weakly turbulent oceanic gravity currents performing inertial oscillations by A. Wirth
- 2011/08/: AEAWeb: (ab$) Environmental Accounting for Pollution in the United States Economy by Nicholas Z. Muller et al.
- 2011/09/28: ESD: Emulating Atlantic overturning strength for low emission scenarios: consequences for sea-level rise along the North American east coast by C. F. Schleussner et al.
- 2011/09/29: CP: Sensitivity of interglacial Greenland temperature and ?18O: ice core data, orbital and increased CO2 climate simulations by V. Masson-Delmotte et al.
- 2011/09/28: CP: Strength of forest-albedo feedback in mid-Holocene climate simulations by J. Otto et al.
- 2011/09/27: CP: Temperature variability at Dürres Maar, Germany during the Migration Period and at High Medieval Times, inferred from stable carbon isotopes of Sphagnum cellulose by R. Moschen et al.
- 2011/09/26: CP: A refined TALDICE-1a age scale from 55 to 112 ka before present for the Talos Dome ice core based on high-resolution methane measurements by S. Schüpbach et al.
- 2011/09/27: CPD: Continental atmospheric circulation over Europe during the Little Ice Age inferred from grape harvest dates by P. Yiou et al.
- 2011/09/29: Science: (ab$) Wireless Solar Water Splitting Using Silicon-Based Semiconductors and Earth-Abundant Catalysts by Steven Y. Reece et al.
- 2011/07/18: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Regional climate response to solar-radiation management by Katharine L. Ricke et al.
- 2011/09/29: ACP: In situ observations of new particle formation in the tropical upper troposphere: the role of clouds and the nucleation mechanism by R. Weigel et al.
- 2011/09/28: ACP: Modeling interfacial liquid layers on environmental ices by M. H. Kuo et al.
- 2011/09/27: ACP: Global precipitation response to changing forcings since 1870 by A. Bichet et al.
- 2011/09/27: ACP: Ethane, ethyne and carbon monoxide concentrations in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere from ACE and GEOS-Chem: a comparison study by G. González Abad et al.
- 2011/09/26: ACP: Zonal asymmetries in middle atmospheric ozone and water vapour derived from Odin satellite data 2001-2010 by A. Gabriel et al.
- 2011/09/29: ACPD: Earth's energy imbalance and implications by J. Hansen et al.
- 2011/09/29: ACPD: Five blind men and an elephant: can NASA Aura measurements quantify the stratosphere-troposphere exchange of ozone flux? by Q. Tang & M. J. Prather
- 2011/09/27: ACPD: The scale problem in quantifying aerosol indirect effects by A. McComiskey & G. Feingold
- 2011/09/27: ACPD: Summertime impacts of Eastern Mediterranean megacity emissions on air quality by U. Im & M. Kanakidou
- 2011/09/26: ACPD: Trends of solar ultraviolet irradiance at Barrow, Alaska, and the effect of measurement uncertainties on trend detection by G. Bernhard
- 2011/09/02: Springer:CC: (ab$) Climate change, the monsoon, and rice yield in India by Maximilian Auffhammer et al.
- 2011/09/27: PNAS: (ab$) Reconciling molecular phylogenies with the fossil record by Hélène Morlon et al.
- 2011/09/27: PNAS: (ab$) A radiation of arboreal basal eutherian mammals beginning in the Late Cretaceous of India by Anjali Goswami et al.
- 2011/09/27: PNAS: (ab$) A dilution effect in the emerging amphibian pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis by Catherine L. Searle et al.
- 2011/09/27: PNAS: (ab$) Different dispersal abilities allow reef fish to coexist by Michael Bode et al.
- 2011/09/27: PNAS: (ab$) Predictive model for sustaining biodiversity in tropical countryside by Chase D. Mendenhall et al.
- 2011/09/27: PNAS: (ab$) Hydrogen production from inexhaustible supplies of fresh and salt water using microbial reverse-electrodialysis electrolysis cells by Younggy Kim & Bruce E. Logan
- 2011/09/27: PNAS: (ab$) Laboratory simulations show diabatic heating drives cumulus-cloud evolution and entrainment by Roddam Narasimha et al.
- 2011/09/27: PNAS: (letter$) Reply to Ge and Sang: A single origin of domesticated rice by Jeanmaire Molina et al.
- 2011/09/27: PNAS: (letter$) Inappropriate model rejects independent domestications of indica and japonica rice by Song Ge & Tao Sang
- 2011/09/27: GMD: FAMOUS, faster: using parallel computing techniques to accelerate the FAMOUS/HadCM3 climate model with a focus on the radiative transfer algorithm by P. Hanappe et al.
- 2011/09/27: GMDD: A Lagrangian model of air-mass photochemistry and mixing using a trajectory ensemble: the Cambridge Tropospheric Trajectory model of Chemistry And Transport (CiTTyCAT) version 4.2 by T. A. M. Pugh et al.
- 2011/09/27: OSD: Net primary productivity, upwelling and coastal currents in the Gulf of Ulloa, Baja California, Mexico by E. González-RodrÃguez et al.
- 2011/09/27: TC: Simulation of permafrost and seasonal thaw depth in the JULES land surface scheme by R. Dankers et al.
- 2011/09/27: TC: Monitoring spatial and temporal variations of surface albedo on Saint Sorlin Glacier (French Alps) using terrestrial photography by M. Dumont et al.
- 2011/09/27: TCD: Use of a thermal imager for snow pit temperatures by C. Shea et al.
- 2011/09/26: TCD: A multi-parameter hydrochemical characterization of proglacial runoff, Cordillera Blanca, Peru by P. Burns et al.
- 2011/08/30: ACS: (ab$) Strong and Reversible Binding of Carbon Dioxide in a Green Metal-Organic Framework by Jeremiah J. Gassensmith et al.
- 2011/09/26: AGWObserver: New research from last week 38/2011
And other significant documents:
- 2011/09/29: NRTEE: [link to 9.7 meg pdf] Paying the Price: The Economic Impacts of Climate Change for Canada
As for miscellaneous science:
- 2011/09/30: SEasterbrook: Climate Knowledge Discovery Workshop
Regarding Mann:
- 2011/10/01: VailDaily: Global warming denier's claims are falsehoods by Michael E. Mann
- 2011/10/01: ERabett: It Must Be The Neighborhood
Regarding Hansen:
- 2011/10/02: HotTopic: Butterfly futures flutter by
- 2011/09/29: TP:JR: NASA's Hansen: "If We Stay on With Business as Usual, the Southern U.S. Will Become Almost Uninhabitable."
Regarding Tyndall:
- 2011/09/28: BBC:RB: Tyndall's climate message, 150 years on
Regarding Wegman:
- 2011/09/28: ERabett: What's too far said he...Wegman chutzpah update.
The Pielkes' fan clubbe alas:
- 2011/09/29: WottsUWT: Getting GRLed
- 2011/09/28: ITracker: Pielke Jr: Greens hate innovation
There is a steady dribble of 2012 Rio Conference news releases:
- 2011/09/30: EurActiv: EU pressed to lead Rio+20 Earth Summit
The European Parliament has called on the EU to take the lead in preparing global green actions for the UN Rio+20 Earth Summit next year. - 2011/09/27: WMO: International Conference on Flood Management includes special session on Mega-Disasters
- 2011/09/29: UN: Universal access to clean energy vital for reducing poverty, UN officials stress
- 2011/09/26: UN: Another three countries sign up to key UN protocol on biodiversity
And on the carbon trading front:
- 2011/08/30: WikiLeaks: Cable 08MUMBAI340, CARBON CREDITS SUFFICIENT BUT NOT NECESSARY FOR SUSTAINING
- 2011/09/19: CDMWatch: Large hydro project in India under scrutiny -- Wikileaks puts integrity of UN carbon offsetting scheme under question
- 2011/09/27: NatureN: Clean-energy credits tarnished -- WikiLeaks reveals that most Indian claims are ineligible
The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around:
- 2011/09/29: EurActiv: France eyes new carbon tax in 2012 budget
France's conservative government is including a new one-off carbon levy in its 11 billion euro cuts package, but weakening growth may spell even more belt-tightening to meet sacrosanct deficit targets. - 2011/09/30: EurActiv: Britain vows to resist 'bonkers' EU Tobin tax
UK diplomats have broken away from traditional British reserve by saying they would oppose a "bonkers" European Commission proposal for a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT), likening EU policymakers to "charlatans". - 2011/09/30: VoxEU: EU's financial transaction tax is feasible, and if set right, desirable by Avinash Persaud
The 'Tobin tax' has once again appeared in the headlines having been proposed by the European Commission and opposed by the US. This column argues that such taxes are more feasible than most think when they are linked to legal enforceability, and that the burden would be disproportionately borne by high-frequency traders that provide liquidity only when the markets don't really need it. - 2011/09/30: BBC: European financial tax not a good idea, says Sweden
A European financial transaction tax is unlikely to raise the sums of money projected as it would encourage firms to move overseas, Sweden's finance minister has told the BBC. Anders Borg said Sweden abandoned its own transaction tax after most trading companies left the country. The tax "had a very detrimental impact on our financial markets", he said. If the European Union introduces the tax, firms could simply move to New York or Asia, Mr Borg said. - 2011/09/29: EurActiv: MEPs, NGOs hail Tobin tax proposal
The European Commission officially presented its proposal for a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT) yesterday (28 September), to the acclaim of the European Parliament's largest political groups, trade unions and development NGOs. The business community and British Conservatives were among those who voiced their opposition in the absence of a global FTT. - 2011/09/28: EUO: Brussels proposes EU financial tax
- 2011/09/28: BBC: European Commission financial tax opposed by UK
The UK has said it will "resist" a financial transaction tax on EU members proposed by the European Commission. The tax would raise about 57bn euros ($78bn; £50bn) a year and would come into effect at the start of 2014. - 2011/09/27: EurActiv: EU to twist UK's arm on FTT
As the European Commission gets ready to unveil a draft proposal on taxing high-value financial transactions, EU sources are confident they can get the least enthusiastic country, the UK, on board to back the tax. - 2011/09/29: EUO: China speaks out against EU aviation emissions trading initiative
- 2011/09/27: EurActiv: EU hits 'Top 10' airlines with historic carbon benchmarks
The European Union has announced that it will give airlines 85% of their carbon emission permits for free in 2012, under a new benchmarking scheme that will cap emissions at below their average for the years 2004-2006. Permits to pollute any more than that will have to be bought in an auctioning scheme, or traded in the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). - 2011/09/27: EUO: EU moves towards aviation carbon trading
What are the activists up to?
- 2011/09/29: Guardian(UK): Heathrow campaigners hit US as battle with the airline industry goes global
The US and UK will this week be sharing information on how to clip the industry's wings following our victory at Heathrow - 2011/09/30: AlterNet: 10 Must-See Artists at "The Value of Water," a Conversationist Art Show in New York
- 2011/09/28: JFleck: The international implications of U.S. water subsidies
- 2011/09/27: SciAm:PI: The Coming Crisis Over Water -- Texas Tribune Festival panel
- 2011/09/27: OpenDem: Water shortages hit Gaza under siege
Many Israeli spokespersons maintain that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and that the siege is being lifted. Facts on the ground indicate otherwise. The water crisis is a major continuation of the siege by other means. - 2011/09/25: JFleck: We're in trouble when we're arguing about the numbers
- 2011/09/25: JFleck: My Fake Rio
- 2011/09/26: Eureka: South Africa's toxic legacy: Acid mine drainage threatens water supplies
And on the American political front:
- 2011/09/26: TheHill: EU climate chief 'shocked' at US debate
European Union climate chief Connie Hedegaard is disposing of diplomatic niceties when describing U.S. political battles over climate change. "I'm shocked that the political debate in the U.S. is so far away from the scientific facts," she said, according to The Copenhagen Post. - 2011/09/30: Grist: Can the wind industry survive without federal tax credits?
- 2011/09/29: TP:JR: Wake Up Democrats: Independents Support Federal Investment in "Green Jobs" 2-to-1 Despite Solyndra Media Storm
- 2011/09/29: TP:JR: It's Not Environment vs. Jobs, It's Sustainable Jobs vs. Unsustainable Ones
- 2011/09/29: TP:JR: Exploring the Business Case for Clean Energy at the Solar Decathlon
- 2011/09/29: TreeHugger: Opposition to Vermont Wind Farm Comes From Former Wildlife Department Commissioner
- 2011/09/29: SF Gate: Cap and trade wins California Supreme Court ruling
Over some environmentalists' objections, the state Supreme Court voted Wednesday to let California air-quality regulators go ahead with a market-oriented cap-and-trade system of pollution credits to combat global warming while appealing a judge's order to look harder at alternatives. The order came in a case that has divided mainstream environmental groups, which support cap and trade, and antipoverty "environmental justice" organizations, which argue that the market approach exposes poor and minority communities to more pollution. At issue is the implementation of AB32, California's first-in-the-nation global warming law, which requires the state to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020. - 2011/09/28: TP:JR: The A.P. Slams U.S. Deniers in 2,000-Word Essay: "The American 'Allergy' to Global Warming: Why?"
- 2011/09/27: TP:JR: Governor Brown Confirms Commitment to Making California a Leader in Clean Energy
- 2011/09/27: TP:JR: Vermont Governor Shumlin: "There Is Nothing More Important You Can Do on this Planet Than Join this 350 Movement"
- 2011/09/27: Oregonian: On global warming, Oregonians see 'separate realities,' survey finds
When it comes to views on global warming, Oregonians are living in "separate realities" based on political ideology, a new online survey indicates. Liberals and conservatives do line up on a lack of enthusiasm for coal and affection for energy conservation that knocks down utility bills, the survey commissioned by Oregon's Global Warming Commission found. - 2011/09/25: AlterNet: The Rise of the Pro-Ignorance Right Wing Puts us All In Danger
- 2011/09/22: Wired:TL: CIA Says Global-Warming Intelligence Is 'Classified'
- 2011/09/26: KSJT: AP: US's allergy to global warming. Why? (Answer: culture war. Maybe.)
- 2011/09/26: TreeHugger: Is Vermont's Governor Peter Shumlin The Strongest US Politician on Climate & Energy? (Video)
- 2011/09/25: TPM:IL: U.S. Army Embarks On $7 billion Renewable Energy Overhaul
The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:
- 2011/09/27: DeSmogBlog: BP Oil Dispersant Corexit Contained Cancer-Causing Agents
- 2011/09/27: NatureN: Trace amounts of crude oil harm fish -- Deepwater Horizon spill affected gene expression in Gulf killifish
On the 2012 campaign trail:
- 2011/09/30: AlterNet: Rick Perry's Hellfire: The GOP Candidate Continues to Deny the Climate Change Linked to the Fires Consuming His State
- 2011/09/29: NYT: E.P.A. Is Longtime Favorite Target for Perry
- 2011/10/01: TreeHugger: Texas Getting Barbecued, While Rick Perry Doubles Down On Climate Denial
- 2011/09/26: TP:JR: Obama Mocks Perry: "You've Got a Governor Whose State Is on Fire Denying Climate Change. It's True."
- 2011/09/25: BLN: Fox News Deletes 'Who Won the Debate?' Poll Page After Ron Paul Wins
- 2011/09/25: QuarkSoup: More Evidence That Rick Perry is a Bonehead
- 2011/09/25: DeSmogBlog: Michele Bachmann Envisions a World Without Food Industry Safety Standards
The Solyndra faux-scandale drags on:
- 2011/09/26: CJR: LAT On Why Solyndra Dazzled the Private and Public Sectors
- 2011/09/30: EconView: The DOE Loan Gurantee Program and the "Mystical Faith That Self-Interest Always Leads to the Common Good"
- 2011/09/29: BRitholtz: The Solyndra Loans as Liar's Loans by William K. Black
- 2011/09/28: TP:JR: GOP's Solyndra Witch-Hunt Halts Project to Employ Veterans Putting Solar Panels on Military Housing
- 2011/09/28: ABC(Au): White House exposed to a bit of green guilt [Solyndra]
- 2011/09/28: Grist: In Solyndra's wake, polling finds support for clean energy remains strong
- 2011/09/28: MediaMatters: Out Of Proportion? The Solyndra Media Storm By The Numbers
- 2011/09/27: TP:JR: Weekly Standard Oil: Former Murdoch Rag, Now an Oil Rag, Launches Error-Riddled Attack on Solyndra
- 2011/09/27: TP:JR: Will the Solyndra Witch-Hunt Hurt Venture Capital Investments in Clean Energy?
- 2011/09/27: SciAm:PI: Solyndra -- Illuminating Energy Funding Flaws?
- 2011/09/24: LA Times: Solyndra's collapse is a tale of too much dazzle
Investors were convinced that the solar company was the harbinger of an alternative-energy boom. But the market changed too swiftly. - 2011/09/25: MoJo: The Solyndra Story
The Keystone XL battle continues:
- 2011/09/30: OilChange: Myth or Miracle? Are Keystone XL jobs and energy security claims exaggerated?
- 2011/09/29: DeSmogBlog: Cornell Report Busts Myth of Keystone XL Job Creation
- 2011/09/28: Grist: Public disservice: Pipeline hearings run by Keystone XL contractor
- 2011/09/29: TreeHugger: State Dept. Documents Show Agency Advised TransCanada on Keystone XL Review Process
- 2011/09/28: CBC: Keystone XL pipeline gets North Dakota backing
- 2011/09/28: TreeHugger: Keystone XL Pipeline Won't 'Play Any Substantial Role' In Putting Americans Back To Work: Cornell Univ. Study
- 2011/09/28: CBC: Keystone XL pipeline gets South Dakota backing
State regulators in North Dakota say they support a controversial pipeline that would carry oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico... - 2011/09/27: DeSmogBlog: Friends of the Earth Asks Justice Department To Investigate TransCanada lobbyist Paul Elliott
What's Al up to this week?
- 2011/09/28: Guardian(UK): Al Gore: clear proof that climate change causes extreme weather
Former US vice president tells Scottish green conference that evidence from floods in Pakistan and China is compelling - 2011/09/29: CSW: More on the EPA Inspector General's report on the Endangerment Finding review process
- 2011/09/28: UCSUSA: EPA Endangerment Finding Followed the Rules, Inspector General Finds
- 2011/09/28: TPL: Shooting the Messenger -- Denialism and the EPA Endangerment Finding
- 2011/09/29: NatureNB: EPA comes under fire for climate finding
- 2011/09/29: TDC: EPA cited for cutting corners on climate-health finding.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should have sought outside review of the science in its bid to regulate greenhouse gases, a federal auditor found. The EPA countered that the science - and the case for action - was solid. - 2011/09/28: SciAm:Obs: Are There "Serious Flaws" in the EPA's Bid to Regulate Greenhouse Gases?
- 2011/09/28: CSW: The EPA Inspector General's report on EPA's Endangerment Finding review process, and some responses
- 2011/09/28: UCSUSA: EPA Endangerment Finding Followed the Rules, Inspector General Finds
- 2011/09/28: WaPo: Report: EPA cut corners on key scientific document supporting controls on greenhouse gases
The Obama administration cut corners before concluding that climate-change pollution can endanger human health, a key finding underpinning costly new regulations, an internal government watchdog said Wednesday. Regulators and the White House disagreed with the finding, and the report itself did not question the science behind the administration's conclusions. Still, the decision by the Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general is sure to encourage global warming doubters in Congress and elsewhere. The report said EPA should have followed a more extensive review process for a technical paper supporting its determination that greenhouse gases pose dangers to human health and welfare, a finding that ultimately compelled it to issue controversial and expensive regulations to control greenhouse gases for the first time. - 2011/09/30: TreeHugger: White House Delays 2017-2025 Fuel Economy Standards
- 2011/09/29: PlanetArk: Deadline For Auto Fuel Economy Proposal To Slip
The Obama administration will push back the release of the most ambitious proposal ever for automakers to improve fuel efficiency of their passenger cars, sport utility vehicles and pickups. The U.S. Transportation Department and the Environmental Protection Agency intended to put out the draft plan for model years 2017-25 for industry and public comment by the end of this week. But it was recently determined that more time is needed to complete the plan, so the deadline was extended. Regulators said they now hope to finish the work and publish the proposal by mid November. - 2011/09/28: AutoBG: White House delaying release of new fuel economy standards
The Obama chatter is nonstop:
- 2011/09/28: BNC: Why Obama should meet Till
The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:
- 2011/09/29: PlanetArk: U.S. gives $136 Million For Advanced Biofuels Research
- 2011/09/29: PlanetArk: U.S. [DOE] Finalizes Loan Aid For Two Solar Plants
- 2011/09/29: AutoBG: DOE ready to shift more money to plug-in vehicles in search of jobs
- 2011/09/28: TP:JR: Brookings: "DOE's Loan Guarantee Program Will Likely Result in Minimal Costs and Large Gains for Taxpayers"
- 2011/09/28: TP:JR: Department of Energy Shifts R&D Focus to Near-Term Technologies in Efficiency and Electric Vehicles
- 2011/09/27: ScienceInsider: DOE Plan Would Boost Technology Spending on Transportation
- 2011/09/27: NatureNB: DOE releases first Quadrennial Technology Review
As for what is going on in Congress:
- 2011/10/01: TP:JR: Before Bashing Clean Energy As Wasteful, Rep. Forbes (R-VA) Asked Secretary Chu For BioFuel Loans
- 2011/10/01: Grist: How Inhofe turns balloon animals into 'news'
- 2011/09/28: SMandia: Senator James Inhofe's Sneer-Reviewed Science
- 2011/09/28: TP:JR: Inhofe Gets Inspector General to Spend $300,000 Confirming EPA Endangerment Finding 'Met Statutory Requirements'
- 2011/09/26: TP:JR: Update: 2011 Sets Record for Most Disasters, GOP Demands Relief Funding Be Offset by Clean Energy Cuts, Then Blinks
- 2011/09/26: CNN: U.S. disaster funds in peril
FEMA funding might last until the new fiscal year starts Saturday - The Senate may consider a possible compromise Monday - Party leaders disagree over whether to cut spending to pay for disaster relief - FEMA considers funding options if the money should run out - 2011/09/26: TP:JR: The Top Ten Lethal Legislators and the Dirty Secrets Behind Their Clean Air Attacks
- 2011/09/26: PlanetArk: House Passes Bill To Block EPA Clean Air Rules
- 2011/09/25: DeSmogBlog: NAT GAS Act That Would Overhaul U.S. Fueling Infrastructure Moves Forward
What are the lobbyists pushing?
- 2011/09/30: NPR: Alaska Town Leaves U.S. Chamber, Citing Politics
- 2011/09/29: Grist: Environmental leaders to Congress: Don't stop funding conservation on farms
While in the UK:
- 2011/09/29: Guardian(UK): In the fast lane to nowhere
Tory plan to increase speed limit to 80mph will spark UK's spluttering economic engine in most hideous ways - 2011/09/29: BBC: Vale council to decide on fracking gas test drilling [in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales]
- 2011/09/27: Guardian(UK): Are green policies good or bad news for energy bills?
- 2011/09/27: Guardian(UK): [Letters] Shale gas find threat to UK carbon goals
- 2011/09/27: BBC: Labour conference: Jack Dromey says UK nuclear 'safe'
Shadow minister Jack Dromey has hailed UK nuclear power as a "sunrise industry" and dismissed safety fears. "The possibility of a Fukushima-type accident in Britain is as remote as me getting hit by a meteor," he told a Labour conference fringe meeting. - 2011/09/26: OilChange: "It's a pie in the sky" number
And in Europe:
- 2011/09/30: PlanetArk: EU Lawmakers Call For Global Green Energy Targets
- 2011/09/30: NatureN: Future of Chernobyl health studies in doubt -- European Commission unlikely to fund lifetime studies of those affected by fallout
- 2011/09/29: EurActiv: France eyes new carbon tax in 2012 budget
- 2011/09/29: EurActiv: Car industry on defensive over 'misleading' efficiency claims
European auto industry representatives have been knocked off balance by new research which appears to contradict well-worn claims by manufacturers that mandatory fuel efficiency targets would make cars unaffordable. - 2011/09/29: EUO: Poland would veto EU law on shale gas fracking - would veto legislation that threatened its sovereignty in energy policy
- 2011/09/28: DeSmogBlog: New Danish Government Axes Bjorn Lomborg's $1.6 Million In Funding
- 2011/09/26: DerSpiegel: From Protest Party to Mainstream -- Papal Blessing Marks End of an Era for Greens
Germany's Green Party began in the 1970s as the party of outsiders and non-conformists. Now, they are part of the mainstream. The pope's praise for the environmentalists in his speech to the German parliament shows that a political era has come to an end. - 2011/09/26: TheHill: EU climate chief 'shocked' at US debate
- 2011/09/27: EurActiv: Brussels slammed for bad science on biofuels
Several environmental NGOs have written to the European Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, demanding action on five scientific studies that question the clean energy benefits of biofuels, as a row over a land use report by the EU's scientific advisors escalates. - 2011/09/27: EUO: Doubts hang over Belgium's 'eco-cheques' scheme
- 2011/09/26: EurActiv: End doublespeak on energy efficiency, EU states told
The European Commission's top energy official has criticised EU member sates for holding a double language on the bloc's target to cut energy use by 20% by the end of the decade. Philip Lowe, the head of the Commission's directorate-general for energy, criticised EU governments for obstructing binding rules to promote energy efficiency, as part of efforts to meet the bloc's aspirational goal of a 20% cut in energy use by 2020. - 2011/09/30: ABC(Au): SA sets solar payment threshold
The South Australian Government has declared a crackdown on solar energy generators it says are profiteering from its feed-in tariff. ETSA Utilities will review customers' accounts to identify people who are putting large amounts of electricity back into the grid, but are consuming little or no power. - 2011/09/27: PeakEnergy: Chevron's Wheatstone LNG project gets go ahead
The Murray-Darling Basin Plan controversy continues:
- 2011/09/30: ABC(Au): Councils incensed by gloomy Murray-Darling report
Victorian councils along the Murray River have received a gloomy report on the impacts of climate change and the new Murray-Darling Basin plan. Four councils commissioned the $800,000 study by Psi Delta on how to use less water. It has found that the combined impacts of the basin plan and climate change will cut the region's agricultural production by 18 per cent, or $204 million, over the next 20 years. The report says 5,589 jobs will be lost across the Mildura, Swan Hill, Moira and Campaspe shires. - 2011/09/27: ABC(Au): Research team checks desalination brine discharge
Researchers are sampling seawater off the coast from Adelaide's desalination plant to help predict the impact of brine on marine life. Flinders University researchers are studying how phytoplankton are affected by increased salinity from the desalination plant's brine discharge. - 2011/09/27: ABC(Au): Wentworth scientists warn SA again on Murray plan
And in New Zealand:
- 2011/10/01: HotTopic: Stating the pleading obvious (big dairy and the ETS review)
While in the Indian subcontinent:
- 2011/08/30: WikiLeaks: Cable 08MUMBAI340, CARBON CREDITS SUFFICIENT BUT NOT NECESSARY FOR SUSTAINING
- 2011/09/19: CDMWatch: Large hydro project in India under scrutiny -- Wikileaks puts integrity of UN carbon offsetting scheme under question
- 2011/09/27: NatureN: Clean-energy credits tarnished -- WikiLeaks reveals that most Indian claims are ineligible
And in China:
- 2011/09/28: al Jazeera: China's diversified energy strategy
China is trying to attract investment from the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman & United Arab Emirates)] in its rural region in order to diversify their energy-security. - 2011/09/26: PlanetArk: China To Invest 2 Trillion Yuan In Low-Carbon Economy
While in Japan:
- 2011/09/30: ScienceInsider: Japan to Boost Science Spending, Reduce Support for Nuclear Power
- 2011/09/28: BBC: Japan's government and the ruling Democratic Party (DPJ) have agreed to temporarily raise taxes to pay for reconstruction after the deadly March earthquake
And elsewhere in Asia:
- 2011/09/30: al Jazeera: Myanmar halts China-backed dam project
President suspends $3.6bn project on the country's Irrawaddy river after opposition outcry. - 2011/09/30: BBC: Burma dam: Work halted on divisive Myitsone project
Burma's president has suspended construction of a controversial, Chinese-backed hydroelectric dam. In a letter read out in parliament on Friday, Thein Sein said the $3.6bn (£2.3bn) Myitsone dam was contrary to the will of the people and lawmakers. - 2011/09/28: Grist: The crude reality of oil in Nigeria
In South America, Evo Morales is caught between conservation and development:
- 2011/09/30: al Jazeera: Bolivia's Morales suspends road project
Decision on Amazon highway follows protests by indigenous Indians worried about the plan's impact. - 2011/10/01: BBC: Bolivia Amazon protesters resume Tipnis road march
Indigenous protesters in the Bolivian Amazon have resumed a long-distance march against a controversial road project, a week after their demonstration was broken up by police. - 2011/09/29: ABC(Au): More protests over Bolivian road plan
- 2011/09/28: BBC: Bolivia highway protests spread, paralysing La Paz
Tens of thousands of demonstrators in Bolivia have brought traffic to a standstill in central La Paz. They were protesting against the construction of a highway which would pass through a nature reserve in the Amazon. The Bolivian government says the road is essential for development and would encourage trade by linking remote communities to market towns. But indigenous communities fear it could encourage illegal settlements. Bolivia's largest labour union had called for a day of protest on Wednesday. - 2011/09/28: al Jazeera: Fresh protests in Bolivia road row
Tens of thousands march against government's violent crackdown on demonstrations against controversial road. - 2011/09/27: al Jazeera: Another Bolivian minister quits over road row
Sacha Llorenti is the second cabinet member to step down over police crackdown on marchers opposed to a jungle highway. - 2011/09/27: BBC: Bolivia minister resigns over Amazon road protest
Bolivian Interior Minister Sacha Llorenti has resigned after being heavily criticised over a police crackdown on a protest march. On Sunday police fired tear gas and arrested hundreds of activists protesting against the building of a road through the Amazon. Mr Llorenti's deputy also quit and the defence minister resigned on Monday. Bolivian President Evo Morales has suspended work on the road until a referendum is held. - 2011/09/27: Guardian(UK): Bolivian president Evo Morales suspends Amazon road project
Referendum promised on £211m Isiboro national park highway after violent clashes between police and protesters - 2011/09/27: BBC: Bolivia's Evo Morales suspends Amazon road project
Bolivian President Evo Morales has suspended work on a highway being built in the Amazon, amid a national furore over the way opposition to the road has been handled. On Sunday police fired tear gas and rounded up hundreds of activists staging a march against the road. A minister quit in protest and Mr Morales condemned the action when he announced the project's suspension. He now says he will allow local regions to decide on the future of the road. - 2011/09/27: al Jazeera: Bolivia minister quits over road protest row
Crackdown on anti-highway indigenous protesters increases pressure on 'environmentally friendly' president. Bolivia's defence minister has resigned in protest against a police crackdown on anti-highway demonstrators, increasing pressure on Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, over his handling of the situation. Forty-one days into a march against government-supported plans to build a 300km highway through an Amazon rainforest reserve, police fired tear gas and briefly detained protesters in the Yucumo region on Sunday, prompting the minister's resignation on Monday. Several people suffered minor injuries, according to local media reports, and the crackdown was criticised by opposition politicians, the ombudsman and several government officials, including Cecilia Chacon, the defence minister. "This is not the way! We agreed to do things differently," Chacon wrote in her resignation letter, which was published by Bolivian media on Monday. - 2011/09/26: BBC: Bolivia minister quits in growing row over road protest
Bolivian Defence Minister Cecilia Chacon has resigned in protest at the government's decision to deploy police to break up an anti-road march. Her resignation came amid growing public anger at the police action which saw some 500 officers fire tear gas and round up indigenous demonstrators. The protesters had been marching since mid-August against plans to build a road through a rainforest reserve. President Evo Morales says the road is essential for Bolivia's development. - 2011/09/26: al Jazeera: Bolivia to hold referendum on forest road
People from the Amazon basin lowlands oppose the project, while migrants from the Andean highlands are for it. - 2011/09/30: CBC: [NDP MP Olivia] Chow calls for national transit strategy
NDP MP Olivia Chow says Canada needs to join other G8 and leading industrial nations and adopt a national transit strategy. Chow, the NDP's transport and infrastructure critic, introduced a private member's bill Friday calling for the federal government to show leadership in co-ordinating a national transit strategy and to work with the provinces and territories to come up with a permanent, stable source of funding for transit. Chow said the lack of a public transit strategy hurts the economy, the environment and the country. - 2011/09/26: ThaG: Canada Can be Powered only by Geothermal Energy
The G8/G20 controversy lingers:
- 2011/09/30: PostMedia: Huntsville mayor plays hide-and-seek over G8 spending
Just before Mayor Claude Doughty was set to meet the press at Huntsville Town Hall on Friday morning, a lady went into the meeting room and papered over the window next to the door. A rugged-looking town worker stood by nonchalantly as another town staffer told me I couldn't attend the mayor's news conference, and then opened the door for local reporters. The mayor, who arrived and departed by a back entrance, never came in view. He issued a statement: "It has come to my attention that there is some misunderstanding about a private meeting that I have invited several members of the local media to this morning. The private meeting is not a press conference open to all." Doughty hasn't been available for comment since the NDP released a series of emails between he and Tony Clement, the MP for Parry Sound-Muskoka, the president of the treasury board. - 2011/09/29: QT: Toronto Sun takes Clement out at the knees!
- 2011/09/28: CBC: Clement defends G8 spending
- 2011/09/26: CBC: Clement told Huntsville mayor he'd help speed up G8 cheques
This week the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy published a report that the Tories will have a hard time ignoring:
- 2011/09/29: NRTEE: [link to 9.7 meg pdf] Paying the Price: The Economic Impacts of Climate Change for Canada
- 2011/09/30: PlanetArk: Climate Change To Cost Canada Billions: [NRTEE] Panel
- 2011/09/29: PostMedia: Metro Vancouver especially vulnerable to climate-change flooding: [NRTEE] report
Metro Vancouver is at greater risk of flood damage to homes due to climate change than any place in Canada, according to a groundbreaking assessment released Thursday by a federal advisory panel. - 2011/09/29: BBC: Climate change 'could hit Canada GDP' - report
Negative effects of climate change could cost Canada the equivalent of 1% of its GDP by 2050 and 2.5% by 2075, a government-backed report has said. Damage could reach C$41bn ($20bn; £27bn), estimates say, depending on global emissions, the economy and population growth. Higher temperatures could kill forests, flood low-lying coastal areas and spread disease, the report said. The panel denied that Canada would gain from global warming. "Climate change presents a growing, long-term economic burden for Canada," said Canada's National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE). - 2011/09/29: PostMedia: Climate change could cost Canada billions: report
Canada can expect to pay between $21 billion and $43 billion each year by 2050 if it fails to come up with a domestic plan within a global agreement to tackle climate change, says a groundbreaking assessment released Thursday by a federal advisory panel. The comprehensive study, titled Paying the Price: The Economic Impacts of Climate Change for Canada, is the first of its kind in the country to analyze Canadian trends in the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, population and the economy in the context of climate-change science. It warns that Canadians could have a steep price to pay if governments reject the science that links human activity and greenhouse-gas pollution to global warming. The costly consequences could include major flooding in coastal cities, effects on human health as well as dramatic changes in the forestry industry and other sectors. "Ignoring climate change costs now will cost us more later," said the report, which was produced by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, an independent organization whose members were appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government. - 2011/09/29: CBC: Climate change could cost billions a year by 2020 -- Adaptation key to limiting costs, report says
Climate change could cost Canada billions a year as early as 2020, depending on how severe it is and how well the country adapts, says a report released Thursday morning. The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy looked at the cost of climate change on Canada's prosperity, public health and in coastal areas affected by weather events. - 2011/09/29: CBC: Wheat board changes could allow new marketing
The federal government has released a report that says the opportunities in ending the Canadian Wheat Board's marketing monopoly will outweigh and overcome any potential challenges. - 2011/09/28: CEP: Keystone XL construction permit expires
- 2011/09/29: PlanetArk: Union Claims Keystone XL's Canadian Permit Expired
- 2011/09/28: Guardian(UK): Keystone XL pipeline protest stirs in Canada
As a decision on the controversial tar sands oil pipeline nears, activists both sides of the border are putting the heat on Big Oil - 2011/09/26: CEP: Union leader arrested over Keystone XL
- 2011/09/26: SEasterbrook: The Keystone XL Pipeline
- 2011/09/27: Grist: More than 100 tar-sands activists politely arrested in polite Canadian protest
- 2011/09/26: BCLSB: The Keystone XL Pipe-Line Is A Side-show
- 2011/09/26: CBC: Keystone pipeline protest nets 117 arrests on Hill
- 2011/09/26: CCP: Hundreds gather on Parliament Hill to tell Harper 'No to Tar Sands'
- 2011/09/26: CBC: The Keystone debate: Forget the pipeline, this is about the oilsands
- 2011/09/26: CBC: Oilsands protesters arrested on Parliament Hill -- Hundreds argue against Keystone pipeline project
- 2011/09/25: TStar: The tarsands and civil disobedience
The Tories don't like the heat about the Environment Canada job cuts, so they're going after the leaker:
- 2011/09/28: PostMedia: Feds try to track whistleblowers on ozone monitoring cuts
Revelations about the federal government's plan to cut monitoring of the ozone layer have prompted denial at the highest levels of Environment Canada, along with an attempt to pinpoint who blew the whistle, alleges an American atmospheric chemist. Jennifer Logan, a senior research fellow from Harvard University's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, was contacted by the department's top bureaucrat a few days after sending him a letter on Sept. 15 to stress the importance of Canada's monitoring network of the ozone layer, which protects life on Earth from the sun's harmful radiation. But instead of discussing the science, Logan alleged that the department's deputy minister, Paul Boothe, was more interested in denying the government's plans to downsize the monitoring and also to identify Canadian sources of an article about the cuts that was published in the British scientific journal, Nature. - 2011/09/28: ERabett: Lies and lying liars
- 2011/09/27: PostMedia: Environment Canada sees 31% drop in grants, other expenditures
As the government attempts to squeeze every dollar it can out of the public service in an attempt to rein in the deficit, it appears to be really wringing Environment Canada. A report by the parliamentary budget officer says grants, as well as operating and capital expenditures are down by $70 million for Environment Canada - a 31 per cent decrease. - 2011/09/29: Envirogy: AECL sale "The dumbest in history"
- 2011/09/27: PostMedia: 'It's insane': Feds invest heavily in AECL even as they sell off reactor division
The federal Conservative government tossed more than $183 million into Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. in the first three months of the fiscal year - nearly double the total annual budget - even as it was selling off the nuclear reactor division for just $15 million, plus royalties. - 2011/09/28: NatureN: Mystery of Canada's missing salmon continues
In BC, the stage is set. Now what will Clark and Dix do?
- 2011/09/29: TheCanadian: A Warning From the People to Christy Clark
- 2011/09/29: CBC: Shale gas boom making us sick, say B.C. residents -- Medical health officers demand proper tracking, surveillance
- 2011/09/29: CBC: Earthquakes could be linked to B.C. gas drilling -- Seismologist says 'seismic swarm' should be investigated
- 2011/09/28: DeSmogBlog: Dogwood Initiative Exposes BC's Dirty Coal Export Secret
- 2011/09/27: DeSmogBlog: World's Biggest Fracking Operations: CBC Covers the Shale Gas Boom in BC
- 2011/09/26: PostMedia: Dawson Creek creates B.C.'s first 'carbon fund' -- Community to use money for energy saving projects
For every tonne of carbon dioxide emitted from its government offices, recreation facilities and fleet of trucks, the City of Dawson Creek is setting aside $100 to put toward energy-saving projects. That new "carbon fund" will generate more than $360,000 annually that the city can use toward becoming carbon-neutral, Mayor Mike Bernier said Monday. Dawson Creek has become the first municipal government in B.C. to create a self-financing carbon fund as part of its effort to comply with a climate change charter it signed four years ago. - 2011/09/29: Tyee: Five Falsehoods About 'Ethical Oil' -- Morality doesn't guide the crude brotherhood, never did.
- 2011/09/30: PI:B: Oilsands protests driven by lack of progress
- 2011/09/30: TMoS: Tar Sands on Trial
- 2011/09/29: CBC: Alberta to probe aboriginal health near oilsands
- 2011/09/28: CBC: Nobel laureates ask Harper to stop oilsands -- Letter praises Ontario energy legislation
- 2011/09/28: CSW: "Greening of Canadian Oil Sands: A View Across the Border"
- 2011/09/28: BCLSB: Velshi Bails...on Ethical Oil
- 2011/09/27: OilChange: Britain Backs Canada Over Tar Sands Fight
- 2011/09/26: CCP: Canadian First Nations, US-based Tribal Governments and Indigenous Advocacy Groups Endorse Mass Civil Disobedience Action to Protest Canadian Tar Sands
- 2011/09/26: CBC: Oilsands growth continues, with or without Keystone
Minister confident pipeline approval will come, but vows development will continue regardless One way or another, more oilsands bitumen will leave Alberta, whether or not protests succeed in stopping TransCanada Pipeline's Keystone XL pipeline from Edmonton to Houston, Texas, Canada's Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver says. - 2011/10/02: CBC: Alison Redford elected Alberta's next premier
Alison Redford is Alberta's premier-designate after winning the leadership of the province's Progressive Conservative party. - 2011/09/27: CCPA: Election 2011 UNSPUN: Why the Manitoba Provincial Election Matters
- 2011/09/26: CD: In the Words of Our Forefathers -- Manitoba's Recurring BiPole III Transmission Line Debate
In Ontario, energy policy is a major issue in the upcoming election:
- 2011/09/30: PI: Behind the switch: pricing Ontario electricity options
- 2011/10/01: CBC: Ontario wind power bringing down property values
Ontario's rapid expansion in wind power projects has provoked a backlash from rural residents living near industrial wind turbines who say their property values are plummeting and they are unable to sell their homes, a CBC News investigation has found. The government and the wind energy industry have long maintained turbines have no adverse effects on property values, health or the environment. - 2011/09/29: CBC: Green groups seek ban on new Ontario nuclear reactors
- 2011/09/28: CBC: Offshore wind company sues province for $2.25 billion
Trillium Wind Power Corp. was planning a wind power project to be the first in Lake Ontario, located between 17 and 28 kilometres from shore.Trillium Wind Power Corp. was planning a wind power project to be the first in Lake Ontario, located between 17 and 28 kilometres from shore. Trillim Wind Power Corp. An Ontario offshore wind company is seeking $2.25 billion in damages from the provincial Liberal government after the province declared a moratorium on off-shore wind farms. "Ontario assassinated the company and the offshore industry by stealth through a press release," John Kourtoff, the head of Trillium Wind Power Corp., told CBC News. The financial damages the company is seeking are to cover the money already spent and the lost potential revenue, Kourtoff said. - 2011/09/28: NUPGE: One step forward not two steps backward!
In the Maritimes:
- 2011/09/30: CleanBreak: Nova Scotia holding competition to attract world's best clean technology companies
In the North:
- 2011/09/27: CBC: Inuit debate polar bear quota -- Nunavut hunters concerned too many bears killed in Nunavik this year
The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:
- 2011/09/30: GG&G: Agriculture and Forestry Top the List of Gross External Damages
- 2011/09/30: NYT:PK: Markets Can Be Very, Very Wrong [ecoecon]
- 2011/09/29: EnergyBulletin: Green economy: fix our 'ends' not just our 'means'
- 2011/09/28: MTobis: Jaron Lanier and the Morita Principle
- 2011/09/25: LIJoSR: Fred Magdoff and John Bellamy Foster: A `realistic' answer to the ecological crisis
- 2011/09/27: TreeHugger: Hurricane Irene: A Great Example of Why GDP Fails as a Measurement of Wellbeing
- 2011/09/26: HotTopic: Support for greening the economy
IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology] raised its head once again:
- 2011/09/28: OfficialWire: The 7th Billion Human On Earth -- Examples Of Our Future Abound
- 2011/10/01: al Jazeera: A global agenda for seven billion
A baby will soon be born, marking the 7th billion citizen in a world that needs much more global cooperation. - 2011/09/28: Grist: Will my baby be the 7 billionth?
- 2011/09/29: BBC: Mexico court upholds Baja California abortion stance
Mexico's Supreme Court has upheld an amendment to Baja California's state constitution that stipulates life begins at conception, in a move hailed by anti-abortion campaigners. Although seven of the 11 justices deemed the measure unconstitutional, eight votes were needed to overturn it. More than half Mexico's 31 states have enacted right-to-life amendments that severely restrict abortions. However, Mexico City allows abortions in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. - 2011/10/01: Grist: Population math explained: Growth rate is down, total is up [video]
- 2011/09/28: TreeHugger: World Contraception Day is For Women's Rights, But It's For the Environment, Too
- 2011/09/26: Slate: Knocked Up and Knocked Down -- Why America's widening fertility class divide is a problem.
- 2011/09/27: Guardian(UK): I decided not to have children for environmental reasons
Editor Lisa Hymas explains her views on population and why she decided to become a GINK -- green inclinations, no kids - 2011/09/27: Grist: I am the population problem
Apocalypso anyone?
- 2011/09/26: CCurrents: Systemic Collapse: The Irony Of Rural Life
As for how the media handles science:
- 2011/09/26: CER:RRapier: When Agendas Trump Facts
- 2011/09/26: CJR: NYTimes Misleads on Pace of Flood Relief -- FEMA's disaster delays are structural, not Congressional
- 2011/09/28: CJR: A Frustrating AP Series on Nuclear Safety -- The industry's blunder-buss response doesn't help; public left confused
- 2011/09/28: CJR: Skeptical of Science -- Among other new roles, journalists becoming more critical of research
- 2011/09/30: Deltoid: Court finds Andrew Bolt "disingenous" and not to be trusted
- 2011/09/29: TP:JR: Memo to Politico: Don't Repeat Right-Wing Lies in Your Headline
- 2011/09/23: PressThink: If "he said, she said" journalism is irretrievably lame, what's better?
- 2011/09/28: S&R: No, Matthew, there won't be 230,000 new EPA jobs, so correct your article accordingly
- 2011/09/28: Grist: No, the EPA is NOT expanding 1,350 percent
- 2011/09/27: TP:JR: Weekly Standard Oil: Former Murdoch Rag, Now an Oil Rag, Launches Error-Riddled Attack on Solyndra
- 2011/09/26: ITracker: Berezow cherry-picked in "Who is antiscience?" smacktown
- 2011/09/25: TP:JR: The Fact Checker Fails: Washington Post Okays McConnell's Lies, While Dissing Bill Clinton's Truths
Here is something for your library:
- 2011/09/25: HuffPo: [Book Excerpt] The Third Industrial Revolution: Toward A New Economic Paradigm
- 2011/09/30: PeakEnergy: [Book Plug] _The Third Industrial Revolution: Toward A New Economic Paradigm_ by Jeremy Rifkin
- 2011/09/27: HotTopic: [Book Review] _Rough Winds: Extreme Weather and Climate Change_ by James Powell
- 2011/09/26: EnergyBulletin: [Book Review] _The Global Warming Reader_ edited and introduced by Bill McKibben
- 2011/09/26: TP:JR: _Rough Winds: Extreme Weather and Climate Change_, James Powell's $0.99 E-Book
And for your film & video enjoyment:
- 2011/09/29: HotTopic: Get a grip!
- 2011/09/28: DeSmogBlog: Tar Trek: Two BC Teenagers Take on the Tar Sands [Video]
- 2011/09/27: BPA: Science Canada's "The Innovators" of Agriculture
- 2011/09/27: PSinclair: Building Out The New Economy -- An American Tradition
- 2011/09/27: TreeHugger: It's The Ecology, Stupid. There Are No Profits Without a Stable Planet. (Video)
- 2011/09/26: PSinclair: GOP Wants to End Loan Guarantees for New Energy. OK, Let's Dance.
- 2011/09/26: PSinclair: NASA: Dr. Tom Wagner on the Sea Ice Minimum
Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:
- 2011/09/30: CCP: Fearing 'Titanic' disaster, groups sue to stop Shell Oil from Arctic offshore drilling in the Beaufort Sea
- 2011/09/28: NYT: Island Nation Girds for Legal Battle Against Industrial Emissions
The Republic of Palau requested last week that the International Court of Justice issue a legal opinion on climate change, a move which -- if successful -- could have a major impact on international law. Palau, which would like the court to find that nations have a responsibility to ensure that their emissions do not have a negative impact on other states, faces a long road to achieve its goal. First it must persuade the General Assembly of the United Nations -- which has the authority to request a legal opinion from the Netherlands-based court -- to approve its proposal. Legal experts on climate change say an opinion, while it wouldn't have a direct effect on any individual nation, could help set the parameters for future climate negotiations and influence litigation both between nations and in domestic courts around the world, including in the United States. In his statement to the General Assembly last week, Palau President Johnson Toribiong said it was essential that "we determine what the international rule of law means in the context of climate change." - 2011/09/29: TreeHugger: Palau Asks International Court to Weigh Whether Polluting Nations Have Obligation to Curb Emissions
- 2011/09/29: SF Gate: Cap and trade wins California Supreme Court ruling
- 2011/09/28: CBC: Offshore wind company sues province for $2.25 billion
- 2011/10/02: CCP: Earthjustice is heading to court to challenge federal approval of Shell Oil's plan to drill in the Alaskan Arctic's Beaufort Sea.
Because the Earth Needs a Good Lawyer - 2011/09/30: EnergyBulletin: The renewable revolution
- 2011/09/30: PSinclair: Negative Pricing: Germany Swamped with Renewable Energy
- 2011/09/30: Grist: Here's a win-win: Geothermal power can make lithium for electric vehicles
- 2011/09/28: Inhabit: Kinetic Energy Generating Pavegen Floor Tiles Will Harvest Footsteps to Light UK Shopping Center
- 2011/09/29: EnergyBulletin: Medieval smokestacks: fossil fuels in pre-industrial times
- 2011/09/29: CNN: Making fuel out of thin air
German company created process to turn carbon dioxide from air into liquid fuel - Theory has been around since 1970s, but implementation too costly until now - Process requires ultra-high temperatures, industrial production a long way off - Technique could also be used to store electricity captured from wind, solar power - 2011/09/29: Grist: Global investment in clean energy blowin' the hell up
- 2011/09/29: SciNow: Solar Fuels Take Two Steps Forward
- 2011/09/28: OilDrum: Long-Run Trends in the Price of Energy and of Energy Services
- 2011/09/28: PeakEnergy: Tidal projects make headway in Australia and New Zealand
- 2011/09/27: Grist: Navy Secretary says getting off fossil fuels is just like ditching sail power
- 2011/09/27: NatureNB: DOE releases first Quadrennial Technology Review
- 2011/09/27: PeakEnergy: CETO Reaches Reunion
- 2011/09/27: PeakEnergy: Clean energy: A faded shade of green
Hey! Let's contaminate the aquifer for thousands of years! It'll be a fracking gas!
- 2011/09/30: TreeHugger: NY-DEC Rushes Fracking Regulations, Skipping Proper Environmental Review Process
- 2011/09/29: AlterNet: Is it Safe to Store Fracking Fluid Underground?
- 2011/09/29: EUO: Poland would veto EU law on shale gas fracking - would veto legislation that threatened its sovereignty in energy policy
- 2011/09/29: TreeHugger: Fracking Could Threaten Hot Springs in UNESCO-listed City of Bath, England
- 2011/09/29: CBC: Shale gas boom making us sick, say B.C. residents -- Medical health officers demand proper tracking, surveillance
- 2011/09/29: CBC: Earthquakes could be linked to B.C. gas drilling -- Seismologist says 'seismic swarm' should be investigated
- 2011/09/28: CBC: Fracking water threat for Lake Ontario feared
- 2011/09/28: TreeHugger: Israel Prepares to Frack Its Water Supply Exploiting Oil Shale
- 2011/09/27: Guardian(UK): [Letters] Shale gas find threat to UK carbon goals
- 2011/09/27: DeSmogBlog: World's Biggest Fracking Operations: CBC Covers the Shale Gas Boom in BC
- 2011/09/26: PlanetArk: Doubts Raised About Giant Shale Gas Find In England
On the coal front:
- 2011/09/30: Grist: Coal is the enemy of the human race, mainstream economics edition
- 2011/09/28: TFP: Appalachia faces steep coal decline
- 2011/09/29: Grist: Economists: Every $1 of electricity from coal does $2 in damage to U.S.
- 2011/09/25: OilDrum: Tech Talk - Can Alaskan Coal Be Considered a Reserve?
On the gas and oil front:
- 2011/09/30: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
OIL (US$/bbl)
Nymex Crude Future...79.20
Dated Brent Spot....104.26
WTI Cushing Spot.....79.20 - 2011/09/30: AutoBG: Global spending on advanced oil, gas exploration tech to hit $10.17 billion in 2011
- 2011/09/30: NBF: Understanding the reduction in percentage of oil imports in the United States
- 2011/09/27: SeekingAlpha: Shell CEO Tells Us Where Oil Prices Are Going - And It Isn't Lower
- 2011/09/29: Guardian(UK): North Sea gas production falls 25%
- 2011/09/30: OilDrum: Deepwater GOM: Reserves versus Production - Part 1: Thunder Horse & Mars-Ursa
- 2011/09/26: Yahoo:AP: Oil refineries seek huge tax refunds
- 2011/09/28: Grist: The crude reality of oil in Nigeria
- 2011/09/28: OilChange: The Flaring Scandal that Shames the US
- 2011/09/27: DeSmogBlog: Top Global Oil and Gas Corporate Executives Head to Conference in Bahrain
- 2011/09/27: TCoE: Unnatural emissions: Flaring gas from oil sites
- 2011/09/27: Grist: Oil drilling wastes 100 million cubic feet of natural gas a day
- 2011/09/26: OilChange: "It's a pie in the sky" number
And in pipeline news:
- 2011/09/29: PlanetArk: Analysis: Snags Lurk For Keystone XL Even After U.S. Approval
- 2011/10/02: OilDrum: Tech Talk - Pipelines in and from Canada
Yes we have peak everything:
- 2011/09/29: CCurrents: Adaptive Technology For Post Peak Oil World
- 2011/09/29: OFW: Is Yergin Correct about Oil Supply? (an Opinion the WSJ did not run)
- 2011/09/28: EnergyBulletin: The peak oil crisis: Adaptive technology
- 2011/09/28: Grist: 'Peak Coal' comes to Appalachia
- 2011/09/27: Grist: 'The Quest' questioned
- 2011/09/23: E&C: Global Resource Crunch -- The Chinese are Coming
- 2011/09/26: EnergyBulletin: Peak Oil: Laherrère responds to Yergin (English translation)
- 2011/09/26: EnergyBulletin: Who's afraid of Daniel Yergin?
- 2011/09/26: OilDrum: A Brief Economic Explanation of Peak Oil
- 2011/09/26: PeakEnergy: Peak Oil - Now or Later? A Response to Daniel Yergin
- 2011/09/20: EarlyWarning: Peak Oil Per Capita
- 2011/09/25: EnergyBulletin: Ignoring Daniel Yergin
Biofuel bickering abounds:
- 2011/09/30: PlanetArk: U.S. Approves Canada Crops For Biodiesel Use
- 2011/09/30: PlanetArk: Greenergy Digs Deeper Into Waste To Make Biodiesel
- 2011/09/29: Eureka: Iowa State researchers produce cheap sugars for sustainable biofuel production
- 2011/09/28: Grist: Company makes fuel from wood using nothing but water
- 2011/09/27: NBF: A Way to Make Motor Fuel Out of Wood
The answer my friend...:
- 2011/09/30: TP:JR: Small Wind Industry Set to Triple by 2015, With U.S Dominating Two-Thirds of the Market
- 2011/09/30: Grist: Can the wind industry survive without federal tax credits?
- 2011/09/29: Grist: Wind turbines: annoying, sure, but probably not actually unhealthy
- 2011/09/27: TP:JR: Another Boom-Bust Cycle? Wind Installations Surge In Anticipation of Tax Credit Expiration
- 2011/09/27: TreeHugger: Wind Turbine Noise May Annoy But Causes No Serious Health Problems, New Study Says
- 2011/09/26: Eureka: New energy in search for future wind
Scientists are taking the first steps to improve estimates of long-term wind speed changes for the fast-growing wind energy sector - 2011/09/29: PlanetArk: Suntech Sees China Gaining From Falling Solar Prices
- 2011/09/28: Grist: Where the sun don't shine: Solar Decathlon beams amid scandal and rain
- 2011/09/28: TreeHugger: Google Invests an Additional $75 Million in Residential Solar Power
- 2011/09/27: Grist: Attention, pundits: We have the makings of a serious U.S. solar program
- 2011/09/27: TreeHugger: 19-Year-Old Improves Solar Power Capacity by 40% [with bimetallic suntracker]
- 2011/09/26: EnergyBulletin: Don't be a PV efficiency snob
Feed-In-Tariffs are being variously implemented around the world:
- 2011/09/29: TreeHugger: German Solar Outlook Sunnier as Government Cancels Cuts
- 2011/09/27: EnergyMatters: Feed In Tariffs Boost UK Solar Energy Uptake 900%
- 2011/09/28: TreeHugger: UK Solar Capacity Grows 900% in 18 Months
The nuclear energy controversy continues:
- 2011/10/01: EneNews: Nearly 500 times more radiation involved in explosion at Marcoule nuke plant than previously admitted -- Level 1 on INES scale
- 2011/09/30: FDL: No Will, No Way: Nuclear Problems Persist, But US Fails to Seize Fukushima Moment
- 2011/09/29: APR: A push for Integral Fast Reactors
- 2011/09/29: CBC: Green groups seek ban on new Ontario nuclear reactors
- 2011/09/27: SSMay: How Much Does that Cost? Part I: Nuclear Energy
- 2011/09/28: BNC: Why Obama should meet Till
- 2011/09/26: NBF: Oskarshamn 3 reactor finally completes 250 megawatt uprate and China reactor build progress
- 2011/09/07: TBAS: Nature and malice: Confronting multiple hazards to nuclear power infrastructure
The Rossi Energy Catalyzer keeps coming up:
- 2011/09/30: CleanBreak: Rossi and Focardi to demonstrate "cold fusion" technology on Oct. 6, but don't expect the mainstream media to pay attention
- 2011/09/28: NBF: New Energy Times Reports NASA investigating Piantelli and other Cold Fusion News
The possibility of a Hydrogen Economy shimmers on the horizon:
- 2011/09/30: MIT: 'Artificial leaf' makes fuel from sunlight
Solar cell bonded to recently developed catalyst can harness the sun, splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. - 2011/09/30: NBF: Artificial leaf solar cell splits water into hydrogen and oxygen
- 2011/09/28: GreenGrok: Hydrogen Economy on the March?
- 2011/09/29: NatureN: Secrets of artificial leaf revealed -- Sunlight falling on a catalyst-coated silicon wafer splits water into hydrogen and oxygen
- 2011/09/29: Eureka: Hydrogen released to fuel cell more quickly when stored in metal nanoparticles
And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:
- 2011/10/01: JQuiggin: Cut your energy bills in half
- 2011/09/29: SciAm:SaH: My Electric Bill Was WHAT?!? Analyze Your Power Use with These Three Websites
- 2011/09/27: BBC: 'Smart' window switches to dark mode to save energy
A new type of "smart" window that switches from summer to winter mode has been made by South Korean scientists. The window darkens when the outside air temperatures soar, and becomes transparent when it gets cold in order to capture free heat from the sun. - 2011/09/27: OPB: Ductless Heat Pumps Get a Northwest Push
- 2011/09/26: SciAm:PI: House Calls - Finding energy inefficiencies using residential energy audits
Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:
- 2011/09/30: BBC: Paris launches electric car-sharing scheme
- 2011/09/30: AutoBG: Nissan addresses Leaf battery life, replacement costs
- 2011/09/29: EurActiv: Car industry on defensive over 'misleading' efficiency claims
- 2011/09/28: NBF: Carbon fiber for cars
- 2011/09/27: AutoBG: Pike Research says annual sales of plug-in vehicles in U.S. will hit 358,959 by 2017
- 2011/09/27: NBF: Plug-in vehicles with small battery packs are better for the environment
- 2011/09/27: AutoBG: Incentives fail to boost electric vehicle sales in Europe
- 2011/09/26: AutoBG: European automakers propose global plug-in connection standard
- 2011/09/26: AutoBG: Pike Research predicts 68% jump in global CNG vehicle sales by 2016
As for Energy Storage:
- 2011/09/28: TechRev: New [sodium/manganese] Battery Could Be Just What the Grid Ordered
A Pittsburgh company says its battery has the long life and cheap cost needed to be practical for energy storage. - 2011/09/30: NBF: A stretchy binder material can Boost Battery Storage by 30%
- 2011/09/29: NBF: First Energy-Storage Membrane
- 2011/09/26: FuturePundit: Lithium Silicon Batteries 8 Times More Energy Dense
- 2011/09/28: KSJT: ZDNet: New Li-Ion battery to give eight times the power of regular ones? (Sure, maybe. Story hasn't a clue)
The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:
- 2011/09/26: PlanetArk: LG To Pour About $7 Billion In "Green New Business"
Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:
- 2011/09/30: GreenGrok: New Ads: Clean Cars or a Trip to the Greenwash?
- 2011/09/25: DeSmogBlog: Pentagon Back to Tried and True PR Tactic - Greenwashing
Who's fielding the FAQs?
- 2011/09/29: Guardian(UK): What was the little ice age?
- 2011/09/26: Guardian(UK): Why do we need low-carbon energy -- and how much is currently produced?
Joe Romm posts a daily list of top energy and climate stories:
- 2011/09/30: TP:JR: September 30 News...
- 2011/09/29: TP:JR: Karma News...
- 2011/09/28: TP:JR: September 28 News...
- 2011/09/27: TP:JR: September 27 News...
- 2011/09/26: TP:JR: September 26 News...
Other (weekly) lists:
- 2011/09/28: CER: This Week in Energy: U.S. Military to Spend Big on Alternative Energy
- 2011/09/26: BPA: Agriculture News
The carbon lobby are up to the usual:
- 2011/10/01: Grist: How Inhofe turns balloon animals into 'news'
- 2011/09/30: CCP: Mother Jones: Key Components of the Climate Change Denial Machine [graphic]
- 2011/09/30: TreeHugger: Note to Self: Repeating Anti-Green Lies Makes Them More Believable
- 2011/09/29: TP:JR: AEI's Kenneth Green Pulls a Charlie Sheen, Plays "Socialist" Card in Exchange With Chris Mooney
- 2011/09/26: NPR: Avoiding Global Warming Stories
- 2011/09/28: DM:BA: Erasing false balance: the right is more antiscience than the left
- 2011/09/28: DeSmogBlog: Evolution and Climate Deniers: Natural Allies?
- 2011/09/27: TP:JR: The Denier Industrial Complex's Molehill-to-Mountain Machine: How Conservatives Beat Progressives at Messaging
- 2011/09/27: ERabett: McCracken Fisks Happer @ Climate Science Watch
- 2011/09/27: DeSmogBlog: Unequivocal: Today's Right is Overwhelmingly More Anti-Science Than Today's Left
- 2011/09/25: AlterNet: The Rise of the Pro-Ignorance Right Wing Puts us All In Danger
- 2011/09/26: DeSmogBlog: "Haynesville" Shale Gas Industry Documentary Exposed on AlterNet
- 2011/09/25: ITracker: Roy Spencer: the unacknowledged legislator of the world
As for climate miscellanea:
- 2011/09/30: ClassM: Scientific literacy and climate concern: An inverse relationship?
- 2011/09/30: ITracker: The tragedy of the commons, illustrated
- 2011/10/01: TP:JR: What Are the "Unknown Unknowns" of Global Warming?
- 2011/09/29: TCoE: For want of urgency
- 2011/09/28: Stoat: Old news
- 2011/09/28: TP:JR: Stephen Colbert: "I Know Global Warming is Real Folks"
- 2011/09/28: SciAm:GB: Save Burger King! Data Bring Global Warming Forecasts to Life in East Boston
- 2011/10/02: ITracker: Judith Curry gets risk backwards
- 2011/09/27: Guardian(UK): Climbers have a key role to play in highlighting global warming
- 2011/09/27: SciAm: Teachers and Scientists: Building the Future
- 2011/09/26: ERabett: Eli Goes Goddard or Where Tamino Dare Not Tread
- 2011/09/25: TP:JR: Is Joe Bastardi the Worst Long-Range Forecaster Ever?
- 2011/09/26: ABC(Au): Climate scientists urged to make voices heard
- 2011/09/25: TheCanadian: Shades of Green: A Weather Report - the Local and the Global
And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:
- Nova Scotia CleanTech Open -- Finding and Funding Global Start-Ups
- Green Energy by Pavegen Systems Ltd.
- Irregular Climate
- Global Footprint Network
- Energy Matters
- Polar Continental Shelf Program
- ArcticNet
- Canadian Ice Service
- DMC: Disaster Monitoring Constellation
- CDM Watch
- The Green Belt Movement
No matter how dark things seem, there are always bad jokes:
A report the polar jet stream is changing:
The engineers have a plan:
John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:
The food crisis is ongoing:
In the Western Pacific:
In the Eastern Pacific:
As for GHGs:
Regarding feedbacks:
As for ozone:
As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:
While at the UN:
The Robin Hood tax, aka the Tobin tax, aka the Bank tax, aka the Financial Transaction tax keeps coming up:
As the deadline for applying the EU-ETS to airlines draws near, we will see who is serious about reducing carbon emissions:
Regarding Water Politics and Business:
The Inspector General's report on the EPA's Endangerment Finding got twisted every which way:
The White House is delaying implementing another greenish measure:
Meanwhile in Australia:
In Africa:
In Canada, neocon PM Harper, continues his do-nothing policy:
The Tories came up with a study to counter losing the CWB vote:
The battle over the Keystone XL and Northern Gateway pipelines rages on:
Regarding the sale of AECL last year:
The Cohen Commission rolls on:
Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:
Also in Alberta:
In Manitoba, an election looms:
Developing a new energy infrastructure is a fundamental challenge of the current generation:
Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:
Low Key Plug
New Web Site:
I have a new website. Everything that was on Autobahn has been ported over. I have 100 megs to play with here, so the Archives will get deeper.
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."We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces." -Carl Sagan
Categories
- Log in to post comments