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 in the Ecological Crisis
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
October 30, 2011
- Chuckles, COP17+, Rogelj, Maplecroft, BEST, OWS, WCRP, Monnett
- The Cree Prophecy, Bottom Line, Subsidies, Planet 3.0, Cook
- Fukushima Note, Fukushima News
- Melting Arctic, Polar Bears, Geopolitics
- Food Crisis, Agro-Corps, Food Prices, Land Grabs, GMOs, Food Production
- Hurricanes, Monsoon, GHGs, Temperatures, Paleoclimate, Attribution
- Climate Sensitivity, Tipping Points, State of the Oceans, Extinctions, Anthropocene, Volcanoes, Satellites
- Impacts, Forests, Climate Refugees, Desertification, Wacky Weather, Phenology
- Wildfires, Corals, Acidification, Glaciers, Sea Levels, GW Deluge, Floods & Droughts
- Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering
- Journals, Other Docs , Misc. Science, DIY Science, Models, McCarthy, Curry, Pielke
- International Politics: Rio +20, UN, Carbon Trade, Bank Tax
- EU ETS & Airlines, Energy Race, Polls, Water Politics & Business, SW Tools, Ethics
- National Politics: America, BP Disaster, 2012, Keystone XL, ASPO Letter, USAdmin, Congress
- Britain, Europe, Australia, Carbon Law, Murray-Darling, China, Japan, Middle East, Africa, South America
- Canada, Post G8/G20, Job Cuts, CWB, Pipelines, CC Caucus, EU & Tarsands
- ISA, BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Sask, Ontario, Maritimes, North
- Ecological Economics, Children, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Podcasts, Courts
- Energy, Fracking, Coal, Oil & Gas, FF Corps, Peak Oil, Biofuel
- Wind, Solar, FITs, Nukes, Nuclear Waste, LENR, Hydrogen, Grid, Cars
- Business, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
- New Web Site, Shameless Self Promotion, .sig
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- 2011/10/27: JMToons: (cartoon - Mohr) How to market deforestation
- 2011/10/24: DailyKos: (cartoon - TomTom) Breaking News: Povert Eliminated
- 2011/10/27: SeattlePI: (cartoon - Horsey) Separating the truly scary from the bogus frights
- 2011/10/27: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) A Design for Life
- 2011/10/27: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Pre-Occupied
- 2011/10/29: TP:JR: (cartoons - Peters?) Solar Cartoon(s) of the Day
- 2011/10/29: PeakEnergy: (cartoon - Pett?) A Better World?
Looking ahead to COP17 and future international climate negotiations:
- COP17/CMP7 - Durban
- UNFCCC: The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, COP 17 / CMP 7, 28 November - 9 December 2011
- 2011/10/27: ERabett: China follows up India in committing to being better than US on per-capita emissions
- 2011/10/24: PlanetArk: U.N. Completes Draft Of Green Climate Fund: Official
- 2011/10/27: PlanetArk: China Urges Way Out Of "Deadlock" In Durban Climate Talks
The Rogelj et al. paper provides an ominous note heading into Durban:
- 2011/10/23: NatureCC: (ab$) Emission pathways consistent with a 2°C global temperature limit by Joeri Rogelj et al.
- 2011/10/24: UMelbourne: Global warming target to stay below 2 degrees requires more action this decade
Climate scientists say the world's target to stay below a global warming of 2 degrees, made at the United Nations conference in Copenhagen in 2009 and Cancun 2010 will require decisive action this decade. - 2011/10/23: IPSNews: Durban May Be Last Chance to Stabilise Climate Under Two Degrees
The window to limit global warming to less than two degrees C is closing so fast it can be measured in months, a new scientific analysis [Rogelj et al.] revealed Sunday. - 2011/10/24: ABC(Au): Temperature targets slipping away: study
Carbon economy The international community will not meet agreed temperature targets unless it puts the brakes on current levels of carbon emissions now, warn climate scientists. The team of scientists led by Dr Joeri Rogelj from the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science in Zurich, analysed emission scenarios to identify the likelihood of limiting global temperature rises to 2°C above pre-industrial levels. - 2011/10/23: SciNow: Bleak Prospects for Avoiding Dangerous Global Warming
- 2011/10/23: Reuters: Warming could exceed safe levels in this lifetime - report
Global temperature rise could exceed "safe" levels of two degrees Celsius in some parts of the world in many of our lifetimes if greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase, two research papers published in the journal Nature warned. - 2011/10/27: PlanetArk: Asia, Africa Megacities Top Climate Change Risk Survey
- 2011/10/26: Guardian(UK): Map reveals stark divide in who caused climate change and who's being hit
- 2011/10/26: Maplecroft: World's fastest growing populations increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change -- 4th global atlas reports
Calcutta, Dhaka, Jakarta and Manila rated 'extreme risk' in study of climate change vulnerability The fourth release of Maplecroft's Climate Change and Environment Risk Atlas includes a new Climate Change Vulnerability Index (CCVI)... - 2011/10/26: CNN: 'Risk Atlas' assesses climate vulnerability
New report assesses vulnerability of different nations to climate change effects - Areas with fastest growing populations most at risk from environmental impacts - Megacities in Asia and Africa most threatened including Calcutta and Addis Ababa - United Nations launch youth focus on eve of seventh billion population milestone - 2011/10/22: TPMDC: Climate Change Deniers Abandon 'Befuddled Warmist' Physicist Who Came Around On Global Warming
- 2011/10/24: GreenGrok: Global Warming: Flip Flopping on the Trees, But What About the Forest?
- 2011/10/28: Tamino: Decadal Variations and AMO - Part II
- 2011/10/26: CDreams: The War Against Climate Science Unravels
- 2011/10/26: TCoE: The BEST brouhaha
- 2011/10/26: Grist: Climate scientists to reformed skeptic: 'Duh'
- 2011/10/26: ClimateShifts: Polite professional responses -- from the experts
- 2011/10/25: ClimateShifts: Oops -- its real after all
- 2011/10/25: CCP: Peter Sinclair's Climate Denial Crock of the Week: Bad, Badder, BEST [Richard Muller]
- 2011/10/25: PSinclair: Deniers Eat Their Own in BEST Feeding Frenzy
- 2011/10/25: moyhu: BEST has same data as GHCN pre-1850
- 2011/10/25: TP:JR: WashPost: "The Scientific Finding that Settles the Climate-Change Debate" and "Confirms" the Hockey Stick Graph
- 2011/10/25: WaPo: The scientific finding that settles the climate-change debate
- 2011/10/24: RealClimate: Berkeley earthquake called off
- 2011/10/24: Tamino: Decadal Variations and AMO, Part I
- 2011/10/24: PSinclair: Spinning and Armwaving: Deniers Decide How Best to Deny BEST
- 2011/10/24: Grist: Climate deniers refuse to accept skeptical scientists' results
- 2011/10/23: ERabett:JF: BEST outburst: another blow to global warming rejectionism
- 2011/10/24: HotTopic: You're (not) the BEST thing
- 2011/10/23: Tamino: Fake Skeptic Criticism of "Decadal Variations in the Global Atmospheric Land Temperatures"
- 2011/10/23: GreenFyre: Global Warming is real (according to Dellingpole)
- 2011/10/22: WiC: A skeptical physicist ends up confirming climate data
The Occupy Wall Street movement resonates with many environmentalists:
- 2011/10/28: QuarkSoup: [pic] If the Climate Were a Bank....
- 2011/10/29: Grist: Occupy Wall Street plans green Sunday
- 2011/10/27: CCurrents: Occupy Earth: Nature Is The 99%, Too
- 2011/10/27: AlterNet: How the 1% Pillage the Environment
- 2011/10/27: EnergyBulletin: Occupy Earth: nature is the 99%, too
- 2011/10/24: CAccess: What Occupy Means for the Climate Movement
The World Climate Research Programme Conference went down in Denver this week:
- WCRP OSC - Climate Research in Service to Society -- 24-28 October 2011 - Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel, Denver, CO, USA
- 2011/10/24: WMO: World Climate Research Programme Conference: Science Serves Society
- 2011/10/29: JEB: WCRP OSC Day 4 and 5
- 2011/10/28: JEB: WCRP OSC Day 3
- 2011/10/26: JEB: WCRP OSC Day 2
The Monnett saga drags on:
- 2011/10/26: PEER: Polar bear probe careens in new directions -- Inspector General Claims Even More Drowned Bears Seen Than Previously Reported
- 2011/10/28: CCP: Polar bear probe careens in new directions
- 2011/10/28: CCP: Second Alaska polar bear scientist grilled by government
Gestapo-BOEMRE IG agents interrogate Dr. Jeffrey Gleason, tell him his case has been referred to the Department of Justice for prosecution without telling him what they want to prosecute him for, ask bizarre questions, and go through his trash - 2011/10/26: NPR: Feds Asked Polar Bear Researcher To Take Polygraph
- 2011/10/26: ERabett: More Dead Bears
The Cree Prophecy:
- 2011/10/27: AllAfrica: FinancialGazette: The Cree Prophecy
Over 200 years ago, an old wise woman of the Cree Indian nation, named "Eyes of Fire", had a vision of the future.
She prophesied that one day, because of the mankind's greed, there would come a time, when the earth being ravaged and polluted, the forests being destroyed, the birds would fall from the air, the waters would be blackened, the fish being poisoned in the streams, and the trees would no longer be, mankind as we would know it would all but cease to exist.
There would come a time when the "keepers of the legend, stories, culture rituals, and myths, and all the ancient tribal customs" would be needed to restore us to health, making the earth green again. They would be humankind's key to survival; they were the "Warriors of the Rainbow". - 2011/10/26: GreenGrok: Climate Change Waits For No One -- Too costly to cut emissions or too costly to wait?
Who's getting the subsidies?
- 2011/10/27: TP:JR: As Oil Companies Announce $24B in Profits, Rep. [Cliff] Stearns (R-Fla) Says, "When Somebody Is Successful Then You Give Them Subsidies"
- 2011/10/26: Grist: Direct subsidies to fossil fuels are the tip of the (melting) iceburg
- 2011/10/24: EurActiv: IEA top economist calls for bonfire of the fossil fuel subsidies
The chief economist of the International Energy Agency (IEA) has urged the world to slash hundreds of billions of dollars of fossil fuel subsidies or face the prospect of a catastrophic 3.5 degrees Centigrade rise in global temperatures. - 2011/10/23: NYT: Cost of Subsidizing Fossil Fuels Is High, but Cutting Them Is Tough
Michael's hopes and plans for Planet 3.0:
- 2011/10/29: P3: The Big Big Picture
John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:
- 2011/10/29: SkeptiSci: Pielke Sr. and SkS Dialogue Final Summary by dana1981
- 2011/10/28: SkeptiSci: Yes, It's Still Us, and It's Still Bad by dana1981
- 2011/10/27: SkeptiSci: Amazon Drought: Heat Stress Linked To Mass Tree Die Off In 2005 & 2010 by Rob Painting
- 2011/10/26: SkeptiSci: Bad, Badder, BEST by Rob Honeycutt
- 2011/10/26: SkeptiSci: Not so Permanent Permafrost by Agnostic
- 2011/10/30: SkeptiSci: Richard Milne separates skepticism from denial
- 2011/10/25: SkeptiSci: 9 Months After McLean 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:
- 2011/10/28: EneNews: France: 20 times more cesium was released from Fukushima into sea than TEPCO claims
- 2011/10/28: EneNews: Major Study: Reactor No. 5 releases may explain why so much radioactive xenon detected --- or "recriticality has occurred in one of the reactor units"
- 2011/10/28: EneNews: "High concentrations" of radiation hit US and Canada - Plume was rich in Cesium-137 and "close to the surface" from Vancouver southward - See also Hawaii, Florida (MAPS)
- 2011/10/28: APR: Fukushima Daiichi update
- 2011/10/28: KSJT: Estimate of Fukushima release of Cs-137 goes up. Terabecquer-what-the-hell-is-that involved
- 2011/10/28: DM:80B: New Study: Fukushima Released Twice as Much Radiation as Official Estimate Claimed
- 2011/10/27: WaPo: New report: Fukushima released twice as much radiation as government estimated
The Fukushima nuclear disaster released twice as much of a radioactive substance into the atmosphere as Japanese authorities estimated, reaching 40 percent of the total from Chernobyl, a preliminary report says. The estimate of much higher levels of radioactive cesium-137 comes from a worldwide network of sensors. Study author Andreas Stohl of the Norwegian Institute for Air Research says the Japanese government estimate came only from data in Japan, and that would have missed emissions blown out to sea. The study did not consider health implications of the radiation. Cesium-137 is dangerous because it can last for decades in the environment, releasing cancer-causing radiation. - 2011/10/27: EneNews: Asahi: Western Tokyo may have been contaminated when radiation plume fell to ground after Reactor No. 2?s core was exposed, says Japan prof.
- 2011/10/27: EneNews: French Gov't: Fukushima to make Pacific TWICE as radioacitve as after atmospheric nuclear testing in '60s -- "Significant" releases could persist
- 2011/10/27: EneNews: Physician: Does Fukushima fallout explain rise in blood clots? -- Circulatory diseases one of most widespread consequences after Chernobyl
- 2011/10/27: APR: Report from Fukushima Daiichi - #2
- 2011/10/27: TreeHugger: Fukushima Meltdown Has Led to 'World's Worst' Nuclear Pollution of the Sea
- 2011/10/27: ABC(Au): Japan ignored nuke safety iodine advice
Japanese media is reporting the government repeatedly ignored advice from the country's Nuclear Safety Commission to issue iodine tablets to residents affected by the Fukushima meltdowns. - 2011/10/26: EneNews: Disguised Fukushima Engineer: "If people think nuclear power is safe, I'd like them to work with me for a day" -- BBC: "Opinion is shifting even inside the plant itself" (VIDEO)
- 2011/10/27: EneNews: Former UN Advisor: Many scientists are emphasizing precarious situation of Fukushima Spent Fuel Pool No. 4 -- If rods spill onto ground, it will force Tokyo and Yokohama to close
- 2011/10/27: EneNews: NRC Chairman discusses 'Core on the Floor': It's possible that severely damaged melted nuclear fuel has migrated outside reactor vessel (VIDEO)
- 2011/10/26: SlashDot: Fukushima's Fallout Worse Than Thought
- 2011/10/25: EneNews: Community Leader near Fukushima: "It's our duty to ensure an accident like this never happens again... by eliminating nuclear power" (VIDEOS)
- 2011/10/25: EneNews: "Obviously Worrying": New estimate says Fukushima released "far more" radiation than Japan claims -- Gov't didn't count what went over Pacific
- 2011/10/25: CBC: 18M tonnes of tsunami debris drifting to B.C.
Huge mass from Japan projected to reach West Coast by 2014 - 2011/10/25: ABC(Au): Concentrated radiation found in Tokyo
Radiation levels as high as those in the evacuation zone around the Fukushima nuclear plant have been detected in a Tokyo suburb. The radiation hotspot was found in a vacant lot in Kashiwa, a commuter suburb on the outskirts of Japan's capital. - 2011/10/25: NatureN: Fallout forensics hike radiation toll -- Global data on Fukushima challenge Japanese estimates.
The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March released far more radiation than the Japanese government has claimed. So concludes a study1 that combines radioactivity data from across the globe to estimate the scale and fate of emissions from the shattered plant. The study also suggests that, contrary to government claims, pools used to store spent nuclear fuel played a significant part in the release of the long-lived environmental contaminant caesium-137, which could have been prevented by prompt action. - 2011/10/24: EneNews: New NILU, ZAMG study: Release of radioactive xenon from Fukushima more than double Chernobyl -- Largest in history -- Started "immediately" after quake
- 2011/10/24: EneNews: Report: Fukushima Reactors No. 5, 6 now in crisis -- Cesium outside release points up 1,000% in recent days -- Local says Hitachi engineers coming to help
- 2011/10/24: JapanTimes: Tsunami steps saved Tokai from meltdown -- Revised wave forecast led to higher sea wall, unlike Fukushima
The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:
- 2011/10/26: ABC(Au):TDU: Can we ignore the second warning? by Stefan Rahmstorf
- 2011/10/13: CCNY: Extreme Melting on Greenland Ice Sheet, Reports CCNY Team
Glacial Melt Cycle Could Become Self-Amplifying, Making it Difficult to Halt - 2011/10/26: ITracker: Skeptical Science on permafrost melting
- 2011/10/24: CCP: M. Tedesco et al., Year 2011 Greenland melting remains well above the (1979-2010) average; close-to-record mass loss
- 2011/10/24: CuttingTheCarbon: The Arctic -- a personal reflection...
- 2011/10/24: TP:JR: Greenland Ice Sheet "Could Undergo a Self-Amplifying Cycle of Melting and Warming ... Difficult to Halt," Scientists Find
Coca-Cola is funding polar bear research to the tune of $2 million plus. Greenwash or what?
- 2011/10/29: CCP: Coca-Cola revamps can in name of polar bear research
- 2011/10/26: CBC: Polar bear campaign seeks 'last ice' Arctic preserve
- 2011/10/25: CBC: Coca-Cola to fund polar bear research
Coca-Cola Ltd. announced Tuesday it is changing its iconic can and pledging millions of dollars to help fund research programs in the Arctic related to habitat and wildlife survival, particularly with regard to polar bears.Coca-Cola Ltd. announced Tuesday it is changing its iconic can and pledging millions of dollars to help fund research programs in the Arctic related to habitat and wildlife survival, particularly with regard to polar bears. Coca-Cola/Canadian PressSoft drink giant Coca-Cola Tuesday unveiled changes to its iconic can and pledged millions of dollars to fund research programs in Canada's Arctic related to habitat and wildlife survival. Coca-Cola will commit $2 million over five years to a partnership with the World Wildlife Fund in a project called Arctic Home. It promised another $1 million for matching donations from the public. The research will have a particular focus on polar bears. - 2011/10/28: PostMedia: Arrival of China in Arctic puts Canada on alert
A new Great Game is making a quiet appearance in Canada's Arctic. In a speech Friday in Beijing, the Danish ambassador to China, Friis Arne Peterson, said the communist country has "natural and legitimate economic and scientific interests in the Arctic," even though it lacks a coastline in the rapidly thawing polar region. He went on to say that his government would like to see China given permanent observer status in the eight-member Arctic Council, which includes Canada, Russia, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and the United States. China has applied to become a permanent observer in the forum. - 2011/10/25: CDreams: Obama Administration Clears Way for Wave of Industrial Offshore Oil Drilling in Arctic
- 2011/10/23: NBF: Russian Prime Minister Putin reviewed plans for Umka, a 5000 person domed Arctic City
- 2011/10/20: NYT: The Arctic and the Lessons of the Gulf
- 2011/10/19: Ecologist: Arctic special Putin's Russia will lead a 'new era of Arctic
The food crisis is ongoing:
- 2011/10/29: ProMedMail: Infectious salmon anemia - Chile (02)
- 2011/10/25: ZNet: The Food Crisis Strikes Again
- 2011/10/26: TP:JR: Media Alert: Nature Publishes My Piece on Dust-Bowlification and the Grave Threat It Poses to Food Security
- 2011/10/26: BPA: U.S. Ending Stocks of Corn, Sorghum, Barley, and Oats 1995 to 2011
- 2011/10/25: BPA: Dry Edible Bean Production Has Dropped Sharply
- 2011/10/24: AlterNet: Worst Food Additive Ever? It's in Half of All Foods We Eat and Its Production Destroys Rainforests and Enslaves Children [palmoil]
- 2011/10/24: Reuters: Crop scientists now fret about heat not just water
Crop scientists in the United States, the world's largest food exporter, are pondering an odd question: could the danger of global warming really be the heat? - 2011/10/26: AlterNet: Corporate Crimes In the Cereal Aisle: How Companies Are Fooling You Into Thinking Their Products Are Healthy
Food Prices are still problematic:
- FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
- 2011/10/27: Grist: High and dry: Southwest drought means rising food prices
- 2011/10/26: TP:JR: A $3 Pear: Food Prices that Even Oprah Can't Stomach?
So, are these land grabs Colonialism V2.0?
- 2011/10/07: OutlookIndia: Ethiopian 'Land Grab' -- 'India, Once Colonised, Has Turned Into A Coloniser'
- 2011/09/: OaklandInstitute: Land Deal Brief: Half a Million Lives Threatened by Land Development for Sugar Plantations in Ethiopia's Lower Omo Valley
- 2011/09/22: Oxfam: Land grabs push thousands further into poverty
- 2011/10/14: TheAge: PNG's great land grab sparks fightback by traditional owners
Developers hover as 5 million hectares, and national pride, are signed away in 99-year leases that have raised fears of corruption. - Flickr: (gfx) The 21st Century African Land Rush
- 2011/09/22: NYT: In Scramble for Land, Group Says, Company Pushed Ugandans Out
- 2011/09/: OaklandInstitute: Special Investigation: Understanding Land Investment Deals in Africa
- 2011/10/26: CDreams: Civil Society Groups Call for Action to Curb Land Grabbing
Regarding the genetic modification of food:
- 2011/10/28: PlanetArk: Food Companies Petitioned To Ban New Monsanto GMO Corn
- 2011/10/27: CBC: GMO salmon egg sales plan alarms environmentalists -- Producer [AquaBounty] hopes to sell eggs to approved fish farmers
And how are we going to feed 9 billion?
- 2011/10/26: FAO: CFS moves on important food security issues -- Committee on World Food Security wraps up discussions in Rome
- 2011/10/26: FAO: Forests, potential solution in the fight against hunger -- More attention to forest foods and services can improve food security in poor nations
- 2011/10/27: BPA: Soil: Exporting our Nutrients versus Biointensive Agriculture
- 2011/10/27: al Jazeera: China's farming history misapplied in Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa is being sold misguided agricultural policies based on hybrid seeds and chemical inputs. - 2011/10/27: TP:JR: Urban Hydroponics: A Model for Feeding a Growing Population Using Fewer Resources?
- 2011/10/26: UN: Forests can feed world's hungry and over-exploitation for timber must be curbed - UN
- 2011/10/25: TreeHugger: Factory Farming Is Not the Best We Have to Offer
- 2011/10/24: USDA:ARS: Stem Rust-resistant Wheat Landraces Identified
- 2011/10/23: Eureka: Breakthrough in the production of flood-tolerant crops [eventually]
In the Caribbean, Rina threatened but fizzled over cooler waters, otherwise it was quiet:
- 2011/10/28: CNN: Rina fizzles out over the Yucatan Channel
- 2011/10/28: Wunderground: Rina pulls its punch; Thai floods worsen; Texas gets snow
- 2011/10/27: Wunderground: Tropical Storm Rina continues to deteriorate; close to landfall in Mexico
- 2011/10/28: CBC: Tropical storm Rina lashes Mexico's Yucatan
- 2011/10/27: BBC: Hurricane Rina has been downgraded to a tropical storm as it approaches Mexico's Caribbean coast, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) says
- 2011/10/27: Wunderground: Rina continues to weaken; nearing landfall in Mexico
- 2011/10/26: Wunderground: Hurricane Rina weakens as it slides toward the Yucatan
- 2011/10/27: CBC: Rina weakens to tropical storm -- Storm weakening as it brushes Yucatan's Caribbean coast
- 2011/10/26: CNN: Weakening Rina to hit Mexico as Category 1 storm
- 2011/10/26: Wunderground: Rina still a Cat 2, and may have peaked in intensity
- 2011/10/25: Wunderground: Hurricane Rina a strong category 2
- 2011/10/25: Eureka: NASA satellite sees a more powerful Hurricane Rina, warnings up in Mexico
- 2011/10/25: CSM: Hurricane Rina closes in on Mexican beach resorts
- 2011/10/26: CBC: Hurricane Rina takes aim at Cancun
- 2011/10/25: CNN: Hurricane Rina lumbers toward Mexican resort towns
Cancun's hotel association says shelters and transportation are ready for guests - Rina could become a Category 3 hurricane later Tuesday - Shoppers head to local supermarkets, lining up to buy bread and water - Rescuers find a missing boat of evacuees off Nicaragua's coast - 2011/10/25: Wunderground: Hurricane Rina a Category 2, headed towards the Yucatan
- 2011/10/24: Wunderground: Rina rapidly intensifies into a hurricane
- 2011/10/24: Eureka: NASA caught Tropical Storm Rina forming, strengthening
- 2011/10/25: BBC: Hurricane Rina has swelled to a Category 2 storm as it sweeps towards Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and Caribbean beach resorts
- 2011/10/24: CSM: Hurricane Rina ramping up quickly in the Caribbean
- 2011/10/25: CBC: Nicaraguans missing as Hurricane Rina strengthens
- 2011/10/24: BBC: Hurricane Rina has formed in the western Caribbean, threatening to bring heavy rain and powerful winds to southern Mexico and Central America
- 2011/10/24: CBC: Rina becomes hurricane off Honduras
- 2011/10/24: CNN: Tropical Storm Rina menaces southern Mexico
Forecasters say the storm will become a hurricane Tuesday - It could make landfall in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula later this week - Tropical Storm Rina carries 45 mph winds and is moving northwest at 6 mph - Rina could bring several inches of rain to flood-soaked Honduras, forecasters warn - 2011/10/24: Wunderground: Tropical Storm Rina forms
As for the Monsoon:
- 2011/10/30: BBC: Thailand PM Yingluck hopeful as inner Bangkok stays dry
Thailand's prime minister has expressed optimism that central Bangkok will be mostly spared from the city's flooding, as defences held despite high tides. Yingluck Shinawatra told residents in the capital that the country would "recover soon". Floods have inundated over than a third of the country's provinces since July, killing more than 370 people. - 2011/10/30: al Jazeera: Peak tides test Bangkok's flood defences
Prime minister expresses optimism as most of the Thai capital's flood barriers hold firm during record water levels. - 2011/10/29: CNN: Central Bangkok spared worst of flooding, but more high tides to come
Some areas outside of central Bangkok are covered in waist-deep water - The flooding in Thailand is the worst since 1942 and has killed 373 people - Thailand is dealing with massive runoff from monsoon rains compounded by high tides - Another high tide of about 4 meters (13 feet) is forecast for Sunday morning - 2011/10/28: CNN: Bangkok facing 'perfect storm'
Steffensen: Bangkok facing 480,000 Olympic-sized pools of water - Main Suvarnabhumi airport operating normally, is protected by dike system - World Bank estimates 2 percent decline in GDP because of floods - Bangkok needs to raise dikes, invest in pump stations; faces more floods - 2011/10/28: CNN: Bangkok braces for flooding from high tides
"We don't see that the government is doing anything much," a Bangkok resident says - The outer suburbs are already flooded but the central city has largely been spared - The prime minister orders workers to cut channels into roadways to allow drainage - The Thai floods have killed 373 people and affected more than 9.5 million - 2011/10/28: UN: As flood disaster worsens in Thailand, UN steps up relief efforts
- 2011/10/29: CSM: Thailand floods: Bangkok flood defenses are holding
- 2011/10/29: CBC: Bangkok flood barriers hold back massive surge
Bangkok residents are breathing a little sigh of relief as flood barriers held their ground Saturday in what experts had predicted would be the worst flood surge, but they are not out of the safety zone yet. More high tides are expected over the weekend in the inundated Thai capital. - 2011/10/29: al Jazeera: Thai PM says Bangkok flood threat receding
High tide in capital lower than expected as Yingluck Shinawatra urges Thais to start focusing on recovery efforts. - 2011/10/28: BBC: US military helicopters to survey deadly Thai flooding
The Thai authorities have asked US military helicopters to survey flooding, which has hit the north and is now threatening the capital Bangkok. - 2011/10/28: Guardian(UK): Bangkok residents flee as floods threaten to overwhelm capital
- 2011/10/28: BBC: Thailand floods: Bangkok residents leave as river rises
- 2011/10/28: CBC: Bangkok flooding swells river to record high
- 2011/10/28: al Jazeera: Main Thailand river swells to record highs
Chao Phraya spills over briefly as rising floodwaters prompt residents to flee from the capital. - 2011/10/27: Guardian(UK): Bangkok braced for month of flooding as big evacuation gets under way
- 2011/10/27: CBC: Bangkok braces for rising floodwaters
Thousands of Bangkok residents are moving out of the Thai capital as officials warn that flooding could get worse in the coming days. Most of the city remained dry and most of its more than nine million residents were staying put to protect their homes. Still, uncertainty over Bangkok's fate and the start of a government-declared five-day holiday fuelled an exodus of thousands of people fearing the worst. Tears welling in her eyes, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra acknowledged her government could not control the approaching deluge. "What we're doing today is resisting the force of nature," Yingluck told reporters. She said the water bearing down on Bangkok was so massive that "we cannot resist all of it." - 2011/10/27: ABC(Au): Uncertain future when Cambodian floods recede
- 2011/10/27: BBC: Bangkok floods: Thousands flee as waters approach
- 2011/10/27: al Jazeera: Bangkok residents flee worsening flood
Evacuations ordered across Thai capital as huge run-off expected to arrive at the same time as seasonal high tides. - 2011/10/26: CNN: Bangkok faces worst flooding yet, governor warns
Bangkok's governor [Sukhumbhand Paripatra] warns of the highest water levels in next few days - Evacuations include 600 inmates at a prison, some animals from a zoo - PM [Yingluck Shinawatra] warns capital could be submerged by as much as 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) - Authorities: Floods have killed 373 people and affected more than 9.5 million - 2011/10/25: PlanetArk: Thais Tense As Floods Set To Swamp More Of Capital
- 2011/10/26: PlanetArk: Thailand Calls Holiday To Allow Escape From Floods
- 2011/10/25: CSM: As Bangkok prepares for flooding, evacuees are urged to evacuate again
- 2011/10/26: BBC: All parts of Bangkok are now vulnerable to flooding, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has warned
- 2011/10/26: CBC: Thailand floodwaters force people from shelter
- 2011/10/26: al Jazeera: Thai PM sounds Bangkok inundation warning
Locals residents scramble for safety as experts pin the Thai capital's fate on dykes along the Chao Phraya River. - 2011/10/26: TheAge: Thais given holiday as waters close in
- 2011/10/25: CNN: Thai flood causes dike breakage, threatening area village
Residents of Munag Ake village are being urged to evacuate after parts of an area dike broke - The Thai Cabinet announced national holidays to give residents time to prepare for high tide - Thailand's Public Health Minister has ordered health units be established to help people dealing with stress caused by flooding - Damage from the flood is estimated at more than $6 billion, the government estimates - 2011/10/25: BBC: Thai floods: Bangkok Don Muang airport suspends flights
- 2011/10/25: al Jazeera: Advancing floods test Bangkok's defences
Authorities declare five-day holiday as thousands move to higher ground and Bangkok's domestic airport is shut down. - 2011/10/25: CBC: Thailand floodwaters cancel Bangkok flights
- 2011/10/24: CBC: Bangkok floodwaters threaten central districts -- Thai capital's governor warns residents to prepare for deluge
- 2011/10/24: CNN: Floods reach Bangkok airport, force evacuations
Thammasat University's gymnasium, an evacuation center, is being evacuated - Volunteers sought for sandbagging industrial estates - PM says authorities were trying to control the water levels by using all dams and dikes - Flood costs expected to top more than $6 billion, government estimates - 2011/10/24: PlanetArk: Thailand Shores Up Capital As Waters Creep Higher
- 2011/10/24: al Jazeera: Rising floods threaten central Bangkok
Millions of residents told to evacuate their homes as waters creep closer to the centre of the Thai capital. - 2011/10/24: BBC: Thailand floods: Waters advance on north Bangkok areas
Floodwaters are creeping further into the Thai capital, Bangkok, with residents of six more districts told to move to higher ground. - 2011/10/29: CCP: Provoked scientists try to explain lag in global warming
- 2011/10/24: IEA: IEA releases latest statistics on global CO2 emissions
- 2011/10/26: QuarkSoup: Nice Chart on Last 20 Years of CO2 Emissions
- 2011/10/24: TreeHugger: Emissions Must Peak by 2020 to Have 66% Chance of Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change
And the temperature record:
- 2011/10/24: CCP: Svante Björck, Climate Research 48, Current global warming appears anomalous in relation to the climate of the last 20,000 years
- 2011/10/24: CCP: New study shows no simultaneous warming of northern and southern hemispheres as a result of climate change for 20,000 years
While in the paleoclimate:
- 2011/10/29: CBC:Q&Q: Mastodon Massacre -- 7 Billion and Counting
- 2011/10/27: MUNews: Prehistoric Greenhouse Data from Ocean Floor Could Predict Earth's Future, MU Study Finds
Evidence of water mass moving south 70 million years ago shows how warmth was distributed - 2011/10/27: TP:JR: NOAA Bombshell: Human-Caused Climate Change Already a Major Factor in More Frequent Mediterranean Droughts
- 2011/10/26: P3: Extreme Events -- 2010 Moscow Heatwave Probably Anthropogenic
- 2011/10/27: NOAANews: NOAA study: Human-caused climate change a major factor in more frequent Mediterranean droughts
- 2011/10/24: WiredSci: Russian Heat Wave Statistically Linked to Climate Change
- 2011/10/24: TP:JR: Bombshell: Study Finds 80% Chance Russia's 2010 July Heat Record Would Not Have Occurred Without Climate Warming
Regarding Climate Sensitivity:
- 2011/10/24: P3: Science: John Baez & Nathan Urban on Climate Sensitivity
The cliff, aka tipping points, aka planetary boundaries, put in an appearance:
- 2011/10/28: MLynas: Why land and water are 'planetary boundaries' - not population
- 2011/10/25: CCP: "Projections of when temperature change will exceed 2 °C above pre-industrial levels" by Manoj Joshi et al., Nature Climate Change
And the State of the Oceans:
- 2011/10/27: TP:JR: Can Our Oceans Be Saved?
What's new on the extinction front?
- 2011/10/26: IBTimes: "Living Fossil" Coelacanth Still Breeds in African Coast But Population At Risk Due to Over Fishing [photos]
- 2011/10/25: ABC(Au): Vietnam's javan rhinos poached into oblivion
- 2011/10/24: BBC: Javan rhino 'now extinct in Vietnam'
- 2011/10/25: CBC: Vietnam's last rhino killed by poachers
Oh look! The Anthropocene came up again:
- 2011/10/26: Maribo: Climate in the era of humans
A little fun on the volcano front:
- 2011/10/27: DerSpiegel: Underwater Lava -- Eruptions Could Create New Island in the Canaries
What would the island be called? And who would own it? Spewing magma and growing in height, an underwater volcano off the Canary Island of El Hierro has captured the imagination of locals in recent weeks. It could eventually rise from the sea to create a new part of the archipelago. - 2011/10/28: BBC: NPP weather and climate satellite launches
- 2011/10/28: NOAANews: Nation's newest environmental satellite successfully launched -- NPP is vital for NOAA's weather forecast mission
- 2011/10/28: NatureNB: [NPP] Satellite to bridge gap in environmental data, if only for a while
- 2011/10/28: NatureN: Climate researchers warn of data crisis -- Looming gaps in satellite coverage challenge sustained climate observation
- 2011/10/28: ScienceInsider: Whew! U.S. Earth-Observing Satellite Actually Makes It Into Orbit
- 2011/10/28: RealClimate: NPP lift off
- 2011/10/28: CSM: New [NPP] satellite launches: Will it improve weather forecasts?
- 2011/10/27: CSM: Prototype of next-generation weather satellite [NPP]: Can it go to work fast enough?
More GW impacts are being seen:
- 2011/10/26: HoustonChronicle: Galveston Island gets tough advice from Rice study
- 2011/10/28: CCP: 25% of temperate seaweed species in Australia face extinction due to rising sea temperatures -- Hot seaweed in dire straits: report
- 2011/10/30: Guardian(UK): Rare birds flock to British shores in record numbers
- 2011/10/28: ABC(Au): Seaweed advances south to extinction
Swathes of Australia's seaweed are shifting south to escape warming oceans and many risk becoming extinct, a new study has found. - 2011/10/28: BBC: Thailand slashes growth forecast [from 4.1% to 2.6%] as floods hurt economy
- 2011/10/27: PSinclair: It's not the Heat...Well, Yeah, maybe it is the Heat
- 2011/10/27: Eureka: Seaweed records show impact of ocean warming
- 2011/10/26: BBC: Carmaker Toyota cuts output after Thailand floods
- 2011/10/24: Guardian(UK): American pikas: The Rocky Mountains' 'canary in the coal mine'
And then there are the world's forests:
- 2011/10/27: BBC: Hundreds of campaigners have occupied the construction site of the Belo Monte dam project in the Brazilian Amazon
- 2011/10/26: TreeHugger: Environmental Activist [Joao Chupel Primo] Shot in Brazil, Eighth Since May
Climate refugees are becoming an issue:
- 2011/10/28: PlanetArk: Countries Must Plan For Climate Refugees: Report
- 2011/10/28: Reuters: Countries must plan for climate refugees - report
- 2011/10/28: TMoS: Move Along Now - Preparing for Climate Migrants
Desertification looms as a threat:
- 2011/10/24: CSM: Saving US grasslands: a bid to turn back the clock on desertification
Yes we have no wacky weather, except:
- 2011/10/30: CNN: Three dead, millions without power from East Coast snowstorm
Hundreds of stranded passengers camp out at a Connecticut airport - Connecticut governor: Those without power shouldn't expect to get it "for a prolonged period" - Three deaths are linked to the storm - The National Weather Service reports 15 inches of snow in one New Jersey town - 2011/10/29: CBC: Winter storm hammers U.S. northeast
- 2011/10/30: al Jazeera: NY 'Occupy' protesters battle cold
Rare snowstorm tests resolve of anti-Wall Street protesters camped out in a New York City park. - 2011/10/29: Guardian(UK): Snow storm hits many parts of north-eastern United States
- 2011/10/29: CSM: October Nor'easter threatens to knock out power with heavy snow
- 2011/10/28: BBC: Early snowstorm to hit US East Coast this weekend
An unseasonable snowstorm may bring up to 10 inches (25 cm) of early snowfall to the US East Coast this weekend. - 2011/10/24: Slate: The Fading of Fall -- Why the bright red leaves of New England are in danger
As for heatwaves and wild fires:
- 2011/10/26: RealClimate: The Moscow Warming Hole
- 2011/10/24: Wunderground:RR: Climate Case Studies -- The 2010 Russian Heat Wave: Risks (2)
- 2011/10/24: UC3M: Forest fires are becoming larger and more frequent
Research in which scientists from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) are participating analyzes the causes and characteristics of fires that have occurred in the Mediterranean basin in recent decades, and determines that rural exodus and changes in land use have increased the number and size of these fires. - 2011/10/26: Eureka: An online global map of coral and zooxanthellae data for climate change study is released [GeoSymbio]
Acidification is changing the oceans:
- 2011/10/23: UGA: Run-off, emissions deliver double whammy to coastal marine creatures, UGA study finds
Glaciers are melting:
- 2011/10/25: MLynas: Glaciers and water supplies - the climate connection
- 2011/10/25: ERW: Chinese glaciers advance and retreat
Sea levels are rising:
- 2011/10/28: CCP: American climate refugees: West end of Galveston Island, TX, should be abandoned, according to Rice University study "Atlas of Sustainable Strategies for Galveston Island"
- 2011/10/26: CCP: The disappearing island in the Chesapeake Bay
BBC: The first American climate refugees? Rising sea levels threaten the 500 residents of Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay - 2011/10/29: TP:JR: Up to 5 Feet of Rain in 10 Days Spurred by Warming Waters is "One of the Most Dramatic Disasters in its History," Prez Says
As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:
- 2011/10/28: CNN: 7 killed after flooding ravages parts of northern Italy, officials say
The death toll rises to seven and a state of emergency is declared - 348 Italian military personnel are dispatched to help in flood-ravaged areas - Cinque Terre town is "isolated, accessible only by sea," its mayor says - The storms have caused transportation problems across Liguria - 2011/10/24: USGS: Have Floods Changed with Increasing CO2 Levels?
- 2011/10/25: TP:JR: Flawed USGS Study Still Links Southwestern Drying to Increasing Carbon Dioxide Pollution and Climate Change
- 2011/10/28: CSM: Global warming: Middle East's vital wet winters are disappearing
- 2011/10/28: NatureNB: Mexico's biodiversity oasis [Cuatro Ciénegas basin] faces destruction
- 2011/10/27: PlanetArk: Heavy Rainstorms Cause Five Deaths In Italy
- 2011/10/27: Grist: Flooding hits Italian countryside; climate change will bring more torrential rains
- 2011/10/26: PressEurop: The Danube is running dry
- 2011/10/27: BBC: Deadly floods hit Ghana capital Accra
Heavy floods have swept through Ghana's capital, Accra, killing nine people, officials say. - 2011/10/26: CBC: Italy flash flooding leaves 9 dead, several missing -- Liguia, Tuscany hardest hit by storm
- 2011/10/25: UN: UN agencies step up assistance to flood-ravaged El Salvador
- 2011/10/26: PlanetArk: Two Dead, Hundreds Stranded In Irish Flooding
- 2011/10/26: HotTopic: Wake of the flood (first reprise)
- 2011/10/24: BBC: Torrential rain has flooded parts of south-west England, Northern Ireland and Wales
- 2011/10/24: BBC: Dublin on emergency footing as floods cause chaos
Elsewhere on the mitigation front:
- 2011/10/26: NatureN: Piecemeal cuts won't add up to radical reductions
To meet ambitious emissions targets will require systems thinking and massive breakthroughs in technology and fuels, says Jane C. S. Long. - 2011/10/27: DerSpiegel: Germany's Longest Subway -- Billions Upon Billions for Berlin-Munich Bullet Train
The new rail route being built between Berlin and Munich is nothing if not ambitious -- as well as being the most expensive transportation project to take shape since reunification. But the line is yet another example of how France beats Germany in the high-speed rail game and critics say its costs may not justify the advantages it will bring. - 2011/10/28: AlterNet: What Do Republicans Have Against Biking and Walking?
- 2011/10/26: NBF: Solar powered hybrid airships
- 2011/10/27: BBC: Saudi railway to be built by Spanish-led consortium
A Spanish consortium has won a contract to build a high-speed rail link in Saudi Arabia. The contract, worth 6.7bn euros ($9.3bn; £5.8bn) involves supplying 35 trains and operating the network for 12 years, the Saudi Railways Organisation said. The project links the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina. - 2011/10/26: TreeHugger: SolarShip: A Solar-Powered, Helium-Filled Cargo Plane That Floats (Video)
- 2011/10/24: CalcRisk: DOT: Vehicle Miles Driven decreased 1.7% in August compared to August 2010
- 2011/10/22: G&M: Are we reaching 'peak car'?
Anyone who has been stuck in big-city gridlock lately may find this hard to believe, but millions of Westerners are giving up their cars. Experts say our love affair with the automobile is ending, and that could change much more than how we get around -- it presents both an opportunity and an imperative to rethink how we build cities, how governments budget and even the contours of the political landscape. - 2011/10/24: ABC(Au): Six-star home for climate change research
The Australian National University (ANU) has unveiled a new multi-million dollar energy efficient building for scientific research. The $11 million Frank Fenner Building will house the Fenner School of Environment and Society and the Climate Change Institute (CCI). The office building has a six star rating for environmental performance. - 2011/10/28: ABC(Au): Clean coal project in liquidation
A company behind a major carbon capture and storage project in central Queensland has been placed into liquidation. The State and Federal Government backed ZeroGen project was supposed to build a trial coal fired power station near Rockhampton using carbon capture technology. The Queensland Government had invested $108 million in the project. Deputy Premier Andrew Fraser says the technology was not financially viable. - 2011/10/27: PlanetArk: Air Capture Technology Ready By 2018: UK Engineers
- 2011/10/27: Guardian(UK): White roofs are not a global warming silver bullet, study finds
Plans to slow climate change by reflecting sunlight back into space could in fact raise temperatures, a new study concludes - 2011/10/26: Eureka: Testing geoengineering
- 2011/10/25: GEP: Public Opinion Supports SRM Research
- 2011/10/24: Grist: Carbon-eating paint could clean air and strengthen buildings
- 2011/10/23: ScienceInsider: Public Awareness of Geoengineering Science Increasing
- 2011/10/24: BBC: Public supports geo-engineering ideas, study suggests
There is strong support among the public in the US, UK and Canada for more research on geo-engineering technology, a study has suggested. The survey focused on "solar radiation management", which involves reflecting energy from the Sun away from the Earth's surface, and received support from 72% of respondents. The internet survey was commissioned by researchers from North America. The findings appear in the Environmental Research Letters journal. - 2011/10/28: Science: (ab$) Preparing for Resettlement Associated with Climate Change by A. de Sherbinin et al.
- 2011/09/29: Science: (ab$) Anthropogenic Aerosols and the Weakening of the South Asian Summer Monsoon by Massimo A. Bollasina et al.
- 2011/10/26: CP: Interhemispheric gradient of atmospheric radiocarbon reveals natural variability of Southern Ocean winds by K. B. Rodgers et al.
- 2011/10/28: CPD: Volcanic synchronisation of the EPICA-DC and TALDICE ice cores for the last 42 kyr BP by M. Severi et al.
- 2011/10/27: CPD: Natural variability and anthropogenic effects in a Central Mediterranean core by S. Alessio et al.
- 2011/10/26: CPD: Climatic interpretation of the length fluctuations of Glaciar FrÃas, North Patagonia, Argentina by P. W. Leclercq et al.
- 2011/10/24: CPD: Monsoonal response to mid-holocene orbital forcing in a high resolution GCM by J. H. C. Bosmans et al.
- 2011/10/24: CPD: A model comparison study for the Antarctic region: present and past by M. N. A. Maris et al.
- 2011/10/26: NERC:NORA: West Antarctic links to sea level estimation by D.G. Vaughan et al.
- 2011/10/27: NERC:NORA: Past atmospheric composition and chemistry from ice cores - progress and prospects by Eric W. Wolff et al.
- 2011/10/27: NERC:NORA: Atmospheric trends and radiative forcings of CF4 and C2F6 inferred from firn air by David R. Worton et al.
- 2011/10/27: NERC:NORA: Simulation of the climatic effects of natural forcings during the pre-industrial era by ChongHua Yin et al.
- 2011/10/28: NERC:NORA: Getting around Antarctica: new high-resolution mappings of the grounded and freely-floating boundaries of the Antarctic ice sheet created for the International Polar Year. by R. Bindschadler et al.
- 2011/10/28: NERC:NORA: On the effective aerodynamic and scalar roughness length of Weddell Sea ice by Alexandra I. Weiss et al.
- 2011/10/28: ACP: Dust optical properties over North Africa and Arabian Peninsula derived from the AERONET dataset by D. Kim et al.
- 2011/10/28: ACP: Uncertainty of the stratospheric/tropospheric temperature trends in 1979-2008: multiple satellite MSU, radiosonde, and reanalysis datasets by J. Xu & A. M. Powell Jr.
- 2011/10/28: ACP: Comparison of lidar-derived PM10 with regional modeling and ground-based observations in the frame of MEGAPOLI experiment by P. Royer et al.
- 2011/10/28: ACPD: The Morning NOx maximum in the forest atmosphere boundary layer by M. Alaghmand et al.
- 2011/10/28: ACPD: An extended Kalman-filter for regional scale inverse emission estimation by D. Brunner et al.
- 2011/10/26: GMD: The Met Office Unified Model Global Atmosphere 3.0/3.1 and JULES Global Land 3.0/3.1 configurations by D. N. Walters et al.
- 2011/10/26: TC: Modeling the impact of wintertime rain events on the thermal regime of permafrost by S. Westermann et al.
- 2011/10/27: TCD: Melt ponds on Arctic sea ice determined from MODIS satellite data using an artificial neural network by A. Rösel et al.
- 2011/10/27: TCD: Relation between surface topography and sea-salt snow chemistry from Princess Elizabeth Land, East Antarctica by K. Mahalinganathan et al.
- 2011/10/26: TCD: Transfer function models to quantify the delay between air and ground temperatures in thawed active layers by E. Zenklusen Mutter et al.
- 2011/10/27: ACP: Aerosol climatology over Nile Delta based on MODIS, MISR and OMI satellite data by H. S. Marey et al.
- 2011/10/27: ACP: Aerosol composition and sources in the central Arctic Ocean during ASCOS by R. Y.-W. Chang et al.
- 2011/10/24: ACP: An important fingerprint of wildfires on the European aerosol load by F. Barnaba et al.
- 2011/10/27: ACPD: Thermal structure of intense convective clouds derived from GPS radio occultations by R. Biondi et al.
- 2011/10/26: ACPD: Quasi-stationary planetary waves in late winter Antarctic stratosphere temperature as a possible indicator of spring total ozone by V. O. Kravchenko et al.
- 2011/10/26: ACPD: Atmospheric greenhouse gases retrieved from SCIAMACHY: comparison to ground-based FTS measurements and model results by O. Schneising et al.
- 2011/10/25: ACPD: Long-term simulations (2001-2006) of biomass burning and mineral dust optical properties over West Africa: comparisons with new satellite retrievals by F. Malavelle et al.
- 2011/10/24: ACPD: Evidence of a possible turning point of UVB increase over Canada, Europe and Japan by C. S. Zerefos et al.
- 2011/10/25: PNAS: (ab$) Early Archean serpentine mud volcanoes at Isua, Greenland, as a niche for early life by Marie-Laure Pons et al.
- 2011/10/25: PNAS: (ab$) Rapid expansion of oceanic anoxia immediately before the end-Permian mass extinction by Gregory A. Brennecka et al.
- 2011/10/25: PNAS: (abs) Temporal clustering of tropical cyclones and its ecosystem impacts by Peter J. Mumby et al.
- 2011/10/25: PNAS: (letter$) Reply to Davies: Hydraulic fracturing remains a possible mechanism for observed methane contamination of drinking water by Robert B. Jackson et al.
- 2011/10/25: PNAS: (letter$) Methane contamination of drinking water caused by hydraulic fracturing remains unproven by Richard J. Davies
- 2011/10/25: ERL: Public understanding of solar radiation management by A M Mercer et al.
- 2011/10/24: GMD: Modeling anthropogenically controlled secondary organic aerosols in a megacity: a simplified framework for global and climate models by A. Hodzic & J. L. Jimenez
- 2011/10/24: GMDD: GEWEX Cloud System Study (GCSS) cirrus cloud working group: modelling case development based on 9 March 2000 ARM SGP observations by H. Yang et al.
- 2011/10/25: OS: ENSO-correlated fluctuations in ocean bottom pressure and wind-stress curl in the North Pacific by D. P. Chambers
- 2011/10/24: TC: The evolution of the western rift area of the Fimbul Ice Shelf, Antarctica by A. Humbert & D. Steinhage
- 2011/10/24: TC: Variability and changes of Arctic sea ice draft distribution -- submarine sonar measurements revisited by A. Oikkonen & J. Haapala
- 2011/10/24: OSD: Modeling of wave-induced irradiance variability in the upper ocean mixed layer by M. Hieronymi et al.
- 2011/10/24: TCD: Thermal remote sensing of ice-debris landforms using ASTER by A. Brenning et al.
- 2011/10/25: NatureCC: (ab$) Projections of when temperature change will exceed 2 °C above pre-industrial levels by Manoj Joshi et al.
- 2011/10/24: ECC: A Review of Solar Energy: Markets, Economics and Policies by Govinda R. Timilsina et al.
- 2011/10/24: T&F Online:HSJ: Has the magnitude of floods across the USA changed with global CO2 levels? by R. M. Hirsch & K. R. Ryberg
- 2011/10/23: NatureCC: (ab$) Emission pathways consistent with a 2°C global temperature limit by Joeri Rogelj et al.
- 2011/10/24: AGWObserver: New research from last week 42/2011
- 2011/02/23: Springer:CC: (ab$) Fire regime changes in the Western Mediterranean Basin: from fuel-limited to drought-driven fire regime by Juli G. Pausas & Santiago Fernández-Muñoz
- 2011/10/24: ERL: (ab$) Public understanding of solar radiation management by A M Mercer et al.
- 2011/10/21: Science: (ab$) Pre-Clovis Mastodon Hunting 13,800 Years Ago at the Manis Site, Washington by Michael R. Waters et al.
And other significant documents:
- 2011/10/27: Lulu: [link to 156meg pdf] Atlas of Sustainable Strategies for Galveston Island by Christopher Hight et al.
- 2011/10/24: IEA: [link to 1.7 meg pdf] CO2 Emissions from Fuel Combustion 2011 - Highlights
As for miscellaneous science:
- 2011/10/26: Nature: [Editorial] Scientific climate
- 2011/10/26: IsaacHeld: 19. Radiative-convective equilibrium
- 2011/10/26: NatureNB: Royal Society frees up journal archive
- 2011/10/26: SlashDot: 350 Years of Science Online
- 2011/10/25: BBC: Strange tales from the Royal Society
The world's oldest scientific academy, the Royal Society, has made its historical journal, which includes about 60,000 scientific papers, permanently free to access online. - 2011/10/24: moyhu: World coverage by decade of BEST, GHCN, GSOD and CRUTEM3
What's new in models?
- 2011/10/28: SEasterbrook: Climate Modeling: Scientific or Operational?
- 2011/10/27: SEasterbrook: Benchmarking to assess validity of data homogenization algorithms
- 2011/10/06: LLNL: New tool clears the air on cloud simulations
McCarthy obit:
- 2011/10/25: ERabett: Say some good about the dead
- 2011/10/26: NatureNB: AI pioneer John McCarthy dies
- 2011/10/25: BBC: Artificial intelligence community mourns John McCarthy
- 2011/10/25: Stoat: He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense
Regarding Curry:
- 2011/10/28: CQ: Curry on model tuning
- 2011/10/30: LFR: BEST study challenged by Koch-sponsored 'crank'
The Pielke fan clubbe, alas:
- 2011/10/29: SkeptiSci: Pielke Sr. and SkS Dialogue Final Summary by dana1981
- 2011/10/25: TWTB: Roger Pielke Jr. just can't help himself
- 2011/10/25: ITracker: Preach it, Roger
I wonder if other Commonwealth deniers will take this tack?
- 2011/10/26: Guardian(UK): David Cameron to snub Rio +20 Earth summit, despite MPs' calls
- 2011/10/25: BBC: Jubilee puts pall on green summit
UK Prime Minister David Cameron will not be going to the Rio+20 Summit in Brazil next year despite his pledge to lead the "greenest ever government". The meeting will mark 20 years since the seminal Earth Summit of 1992, and is regarded as a chance for leaders to put humanity on a sustainable track. But the June date clashes with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. - 2011/10/28: UN: UN launches appeal to help victims of Nicaraguan floods
- 2011/10/28: UN: Needs of Pakistani flood survivors rise as winter approaches - UN
- 2011/10/277: UN: UN officials urge concerted effort to achieve global food security
- 2011/10/27: UN: Ban voices concern at impact of floods in meeting with El Salvador's First Lady
- 2011/10/27: UN: UN agencies to present plan for sustainable future of oceans
And on the carbon trading front:
- 2011/10/27: GEP: An End to Forest Offsets?
The Robin Hood tax, aka the Tobin tax, aka the Bank tax, aka the Financial Transaction tax keeps coming up:
- 2011/10/26: BLongstaff: The Pope supports a Tobin tax
As the deadline for applying the EU-ETS to airlines draws near, we will see who is serious about reducing carbon emissions:
- 2011/10/28: TP:JR: House Airline Bill is Bad for Business, Jobs and the Climate
- 2011/10/26: EUO: EU and US heading towards trade war over airplane emissions
The US is heading towards a trade war with the EU over greenhouse gas charges for airlines flying into Europe, after the House of Representatives rejected the obligation for American carriers to comply with EU law. - 2011/10/25: EUO: US House votes against EU emissions trading plan
- 2011/10/24: CCP: House to vote on bill that tries to move us closer to a trade war with the EU over aviation's carbon pollution: bill should be rejected
Now it looks like a global energy race:
- 2011/10/27: EurActiv: Chinese solar subsidy storm heads for Europe
Solarworld AG is preparing an anti-dumping suit against Chinese firms operating in the EU, following a $1 billion action the German company launched in the US earlier this month. The move reflects mounting concern in Europe and America about subsidised Chinese firms flooding the market with solar PV panels at artificially low cost. - 2011/10/27: al Jazeera: Asia's colliding giants
Tensions are growing in the South China sea, where India, China and other countries have spared over drilling rights. - 2011/10/24: TP:JR: China Aims to Dominate U.S. in Smart Grid Investments Just As It Has With Renewables
- 2011/10/24: PlanetArk: China Slams U.S. Over Solar Complaint
- 2011/10/24: SlashDot: Solar Panel Trade War Heats Up
Polls! We have polls!
- 2011/10/26: iPolitics: Pollsters can use leading questions to manipulate the uninformed
- 2011/10/24: Guardian(UK): Public supports geoengineering research, survey finds
First international survey on the perception of geoengineering finds 72% of respondents approve of research - 2011/10/24: BBC: Public supports geo-engineering ideas, study suggests
Regarding Water Politics and Business:
- 2011/10/29: UN: UN assistance gives Thai officials better monitoring data to deal with flood crisis
- 2011/10/27: FAO: FAO-Italy project seeks to head off future problems in the Nile Basin
New information on agricultural water use will support better planning, prevent future food insecurity - 2011/10/28: PlanetArk: Climate Change Making Country's Water Problems Worse: Expert
- 2011/10/28: PlanetArk: Weather Changes Mean More Dead Zones For Lake Erie: Expert
- 2011/10/27: PlanetArk: Namibian Capital Needs "Water Banks" For Dry Times
- 2011/10/26: PlanetArk: Water Use Rising Faster Than World Population
- 2011/10/26: TreeHugger: Solar Still Makes Water Purification Easy, Works Like an Upside-Down Coffee Maker
- 2011/10/29: JFleck: Imperial Valley - What's Plan B?
- 2011/10/25: TCoE: Good news about water, for a change
- 2011/10/25: NatureN: Conflicting studies fuel arsenic debate -- Uncertainties over contaminated groundwater in southern Asia highlight gaps in science
- 2011/10/23: JFleck: Q: What's behind the Bay Delta Conservation Plan process?
- 2011/10/23: NYT: To Get Water to Cities, California Farmers Paid Not to Plant -- Empty Fields Fill Urban Basins and Farmers' Pockets
As for SW tools:
- 2011/10/26: UN: Online game that helps UN fight hunger launches Chinese version
- 2011/10/25: Guardian(UK): Climate change strikes Minecraft
Ethics? You want to talk ethics?
- 2011/10/28: CDreams: Map Reveals Stark Divide in Who Caused Climate Change and Who's Being Hit
- 2011/10/28: Grist: Developing countries take the climate change bullet for the rest of us
- 2011/10/27: Grist: Three's a crowd: Is it unethical to have more than two kids?
- 2011/10/25: EnergyBulletin: The ethical dimension of tackling climate change
And on the American political front:
- 2011/10/29: Grist: San Diego residents push for new urban agriculture rules
- 2011/10/28: NYT:PK: Coalmines And Military Keynesians
- 2011/10/28: TP:JR: We Can Clean the Air, Create Jobs and Power the Economy at the Same Time
- 2011/10/28: PlanetArk: California Eyes Solar Path Around Solyndra Wreckage
- 2011/10/25: CCP: "Jay Inslee, candidate for WA governor, chats with Grist about clean energy and coal ports" by David Roberts of Grist
- 2011/10/25: TP:JR: The Heritage Foundation Is Wrong In Opposing All Federal Loans and Loan Guarantees
- 2011/10/24: UCSUSA: Celebrate the First Annual Food Day by Supporting Local Food; New Bill in Congress Would Help Healthy Farms
- 2011/10/24: SF Gate: California's big bet on curbing greenhouse gases
California's efforts to scrub its dirty skies and curb greenhouse gases are well under way. Tailpipe emission rules, wider use of alternative energy and cleaner fuel are examples of a pioneering 2006 law. Now comes the hard part: bringing down industrial pollution through a cap-and-trade system never tried at such a large scale. The state Air Resources Board gave its blessing to a steady-step system targeting mainly oil refineries, power plants and major smokestack facilities. Instead of standard regulations, the state will peg emission levels and then set up an auction and trading system that rewards clean facilities and obliges others to buy credits. Come 2013, polluters will need to get clean or pay up to bring themselves in line. - 2011/10/24: PlanetArk: California Approves Carbon Market Rules
- 2011/10/23: ERabett:BDS: California creates second-largest cap and trade market, to start next year
The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:
- 2011/10/25: CRG: "Stage Two" of the BP Gulf of Mexico Environmental Disaster -- New Drilling Permits amid 28,000 Unmonitored Abandoned Wells
On the 2012 campaign trail:
- 2011/10/29: JQuiggin: Wrong turn for the right
- 2011/10/28: CCP: Flip-Flop Romney - the guy is a gumby! Becomes climate change denialist overnight -- embraces fossil fuels
- 2011/10/28: TP:JR: Mitt Romney IS a Member of a Cult: Likely GOP Nominee Asserts, "We Don't Know What's Causing Climate Change"
- 2011/10/28: Grist: Mitt Romney, political windsock, flips to climate change denial
- 2011/10/28: TreeHugger: Mitt Romney's Downward Spiral to Climate Denial Now Complete
- 2011/10/27: AlterNet: Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann Kowtowing to Christian Extremists -- What Kind of America Do These Radicals Want?
- 2011/10/20: AlterNet: Rick Perry's Shady Connections to Extremist Right-Wing Pastors
- 2011/10/26: RS: Rick Perry: The Best Little Whore In Texas
The Texas governor has one driving passion: selling off government to the highest bidder - 2011/10/26: TreeHugger: Mitt Romney's Energy Plan: Boost Big Oil, Slash Environmental Protections
- 2011/10/25: AlterNet: 6 Things to Know About "Smoking Man" in Herman Cain's Weird New Ad (Dude Was Banned From Electoral Politics)
- 2011/10/25: TP:JR: Romney Attacks "Environmentally Friendly" Jobs, Ignoring the 64,000 Green Jobs Created in His State
- 2011/10/24: CSM: Herman Cain: What did he say about abortion?
- 2011/10/24: CBC: Texas Gov. Perry doubts Obama's birth certificate
The Keystone XL battle rages:
- 2011/10/28: TP:JR: Actor David Strathairn Joins Activist Movement Against the Dangerous Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline
- 2011/10/27: Grist: Democrats ask for investigation into Keystone XL
- 2011/10/27: Grist: Is the Keystone XL pipeline actually worse than the alternatives?
- 2011/10/26: USAToday: Opposing view: Keystone pipeline's a disaster by Bill McKibben
- 2011/10/26: CBC: Obama confronted by Keystone protesters in Denver -- Assures demonstrators no decision yet on pipeline deal
- 2011/10/26: PlanetArk: Green Groups Sue U.S. Over Keystone Pipeline Project
- 2011/10/26: TreeHugger: Keystone XL Pipeline Will "Comfort Our Enemies", US Brigadier General Says
- 2011/10/25: DeSmogBlog: TransCanada Spent $540,000 Lobbying in Third Quarter For Keystone XL Pipeline
- 2011/10/30: CSW: Democratic Congress members call for investigation of conflicts of interest in tar sands pipeline permitting
- 2011/10/30: TreeHugger: CNN's Steve Hargreaves Peddles Untruths On Keystone XL, No Retraction To Be Found (Video)
- 2011/10/29: DawgsBlawg: TransCanada : an "American company"
- 2011/10/25: TreeHugger: Nebraska Legislature to Consider Rerouting Keystone XL Pipeline
- 2011/10/25: OilChange: Talking Dirty in the President's Ear
- 2011/10/24: TheHill:e2W: Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman (R) said Monday he is calling a special session of the state's legislature in a last-ditch effort to alter the route of a controversial proposed oil pipeline
- 2011/10/24: CBC: Keystone may face Nebraska legislative challenge
ASPO-USA published a ltter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu:
- 2011/10/27: OilDrum: ASPO-USA Conference, November 2 - 5; Letter to Secretary Chu
- 2011/10/26: EnergyBulletin: Energy experts demand "Truth in Energy" from Energy Secretary Steven Chu
- 2011/10/26: EnergyBulletin: Letter from ASPO-USA to Energy Secretary Steven Chu
- 2011/10/26: EnergyBulletin: Individual statements in support of ASPO-USA's letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu
The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:
- 2011/10/28: EurActiv: Concentrated solar gets a boost from US
A US Department of Energy decision to invest $60 million in concentrated solar power (CSP) research and development over the next three years is a boon for an industry that is struggling to gain traction. - 2011/10/29: BBC: White House orders loan review after Solyndra fallout
Clean energy loans made by the US Department of Energy will receive a independent review. The head of the administration's bailout programme, Herb Allison, will review the loans and issue a report. - 2011/10/26: NetworkWorld:B: US to fund aggressive technology that cuts solar power costs 75%
In 10 years, the Department of Energy wants to get to solar power costs down to 6¢/kWh from current 21¢/kWh - 2011/10/25: TP:JR: Energy Department to Invest $60 Million in Emerging Concentrating Solar Power Technologies
- 2011/10/25: CCP: Jane Lubchenko: "We're entering a no-analogue world"
- 2011/10/25: CDreams: Obama Administration Clears Way for Wave of Industrial Offshore Oil Drilling in Arctic
- 2011/10/24: Grist: Obama administration hires former TransCanada lobbyist
- 2011/10/24: PlanetArk: EPA Delays Pollution Rule For Coal Plants To December
As for what is going on in Congress:
- 2011/10/27: TP:JR: As Oil Companies Announce $24B in Profits, Rep. [Cliff] Stearns (R-Fla) Says, "When Somebody Is Successful Then You Give Them Subsidies"
- 2011/10/28: TP:JR: House Airline Bill is Bad for Business, Jobs and the Climate
- 2011/10/28: 350orBust: Save Our Climate Act Introduced in U.S. Congress
- 2011/10/26: Grist: Rep. Markey blasts GOP for making real laws to solve fake problems
- 2011/10/26: Grist: Rep. Ralph Hall attacks his own badly designed clean energy standard
- 2011/10/26: Grist: Farming with a smaller footprint: Why it matters [Farm Bill]
- 2011/10/25: CSW: House Science Committee Republicans aim to slash climate and sustainable energy programs
- 2011/10/25: CDreams: How HR 358, the Let Women Die Act 2011, Violates International Human Rights Standards
- 2011/10/25: EUO: US House votes against EU emissions trading plan
- 2011/10/24: Grist: Quick and dirty: Will lawmakers rewrite the Farm Bill in less than two weeks?
While in the UK:
- 2011/10/28: EurActiv: [UK] Solar subsidies to be cut by more than half
Britain's solar subsidies will be dramatically cut by more than half, according to government documents that were prematurely published online and quickly taken down. - 2011/10/28: BBC: Flood defence funding gap huge, warns Labour MP
The one in six properties in England that are flood-prone are being put at risk by funding cuts and a lack of technical expertise, a report has said. - 2011/10/27: Guardian(UK): How to solve 'green growth denial' in one stroke
- 2011/10/26: BBC: Lack of computing power 'hindering weather forecasting'
A lack of computing power is limiting the improvements the Met Office can make to the accuracy of its weather forecasts, MPs have been told. - 2011/10/26: BBC: SSE drops Waterhead Moor wind farm over 'bird fears'
A major energy firm has withdrawn its planning application to develop a 29-turbine wind farm at Waterhead Moor near Largs, North Ayrshire. SSE - formerly Scottish and Southern Electric - said the decision had been made due to "a range of construction and planning challenges" over the site. Most of the wind farm fell within a Special Protection Area, designated due to its importance for hen harriers. - 2011/10/26: Guardian(UK): David Cameron to snub Rio +20 Earth summit, despite MPs' calls
- 2011/10/26: EurActiv: Britain accused of stalling EU tar sands regulation
National representatives from EU member countries have delayed a vote to tighten the EU's Fuel Quality Directive yesterday (October 25), amid acute pressure from the Canadian government and alleged stalling attempts by the United Kingdom. An EU diplomat told EurActiv that several delegations on the EU's Fuel Quality Committee were not ready to vote on approving the directive, which would assign fuel from Canada's highly polluting oil sands a high default greenhouse gas value, reflecting the environmental damage it causes. The diplomat said that "there was a request shared by many member states that the Commission deliver a further impact assessment concerning consequences for prices, competitiveness [and] security of energy supply." Environmentalists said that some member states, notably the UK, had been urging more consultation and research in order to delay the EU's taking a position. - 2011/10/26: OilChange: Britain Backs Canadian Bullying Over Tar Sands
- 2011/10/25: BBC: Jubilee puts pall on green summit
UK Prime Minister David Cameron will not be going to the Rio+20 Summit in Brazil next year despite his pledge to lead the "greenest ever government". The meeting will mark 20 years since the seminal Earth Summit of 1992, and is regarded as a chance for leaders to put humanity on a sustainable track. But the June date clashes with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. - 2011/10/28: EurActiv: Drive for 'green' consumption a chimera, NGOs warn
Encouraging consumers to 'buy green' by making environmentally-friendly goods cheaper might have drawbacks as the much feared 'rebound effect' could offset gains by pushing for ever more consumption, environmentalists argue. - 2011/10/28: PlanetArk: New EU Rules Seek To Avoid Repeat Of BP Oil Spill
- 2011/10/26: EurActiv: EU crackdown on oil firms will not extend to overseas operations
European plans to crack down on oil companies, with orders to improve safety to prevent a spill like that in the Gulf of Mexico last year, will be unveiled on Thursday (26 October). - 2011/10/26: PlanetArk: UK And Norway Sign Energy Pact To Develop Resources
- 2011/10/25: EurActiv: Brussels discusses Greek solar payback
EU's energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger, the director general for energy Philip Lowe, and the head of the EU's Athens task force Horst Reichenbach have discussed the idea of enabling Greece to repay some of its debts to EU member states, such as Germany, by providing them with solar energy. - 2011/10/28: ABC(Au): Clean coal project in liquidation
- 2011/10/28: ABC(Au):TDU: Will negative Abbott get a positive result?
- 2011/10/26: ABC(Au):TDU: No republic on a dead planet: Abbott's real carbon plan
- 2011/10/26: ABC(Au): Hope for climate change study to boost farm viability
- 2011/10/26: ABC(Au): Queensland prepares for electric car revolution [with a network of 20 recharge points]
- 2011/10/26: ABC(Au): Gloucester group outlines CSG mining fears
- 2011/10/25: PeakEnergy: A cheaper path to 100% renewables
The carbon bill has passed the House. Now comes the Senate, the Proclamation and the implementation:
- 2011/10/25: ABC(Au): Council support aired for carbon tax
A small majority of local government representatives in New South Wales have voted in favour of supporting the carbon tax after heated debate at the Local Government Association conference in Nowra. Wollondilly Shire Council, south of Sydney, asked fellow councils to speak out against the tax, while the City of Sydney wanted the association to endorse a price on carbon. - 2011/10/28: ABC(Au): Minister angry over basin plan support claims
The New South Wales Primary Industries Minister has hit out at the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA), saying it should focus on delivering a balanced basin plan, not make false claims. - 2011/10/26: ABC(Au): Mayors call for lower dam levels
Two south east Queensland mayors say the Wivenhoe Dam level should be lowered now. The flood inquiry's interim report recommended Wivenhoe be reduced to 75 per cent of full supply if the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) predicted a similar wet season to the last. BOM's outlook says while it will not be as bad, above average rainfall is likely. - 2011/10/26: ABC(Au): SA unity the key on Murray's future: [SA] Premier [Jay Weatherill]
- 2011/10/25: ABC(Au): Snap meeting called by [SA Premier, Jay] Weatherill on Murray plan
While in China:
- 2011/10/27: ERabett: China follows up India in committing to being better than US on per-capita emissions
- 2011/10/25: BBC: China 'won't follow US' on carbon emissions
China will not allow its carbon dioxide emissions per person to reach levels seen in the US, according to the minister in charge of climate policy. Xie Zhenhua, vice chair of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that to let emissions rise that high would be a "disaster for the world". Chinese per-capita emissions may reach US levels by 2017, a recent study said. - 2011/10/25: CSM: Post-tsunami 'eco' vision for Japan's restart
All along the once picturesque coast of northeastern Japan, the devastation wrought by the tsunami in March has also made way for a new step forward: the opportunity to rebuild using the latest sustainable technologies that would reduce dependency on coal and nuclear energy. Under strong public pressure to rely less on nuclear power after the meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, officials at every level of government say such development is a top priority. - 2011/10/28: OpenDem: US tells Turkey to protect pipelines -- Washington is trying to influence Turkey's energy policies
- 2011/10/25: BBerg: Kuwait Sets Biggest Gulf Clean-Energy Goal to Boost Oil Exports - aims to generate 10 percent of its electricity from sustainable sources by 2020
While in Africa:
- 2011/10/25: DerSpiegel: One Man's Plan for a Lost Country -- 'There Is No Reason for Somalis to Starve'
A Somali politician living in Berlin has a simple plan for his country: He wants German construction aid to build a small harbor complex in Somalia's Galmudug region that he says could help stimulate the local economy and lift people out of poverty. With civil war, Islamist gunmen and pirates, however, that is easier said than done. - 2011/10/24: NatureN: Brazilian scientists fight for cut of oil royalties -- Senate passes bill that would slash research funding
In Canada, neocon PM Harper, continues his do-nothing policy:
- 2011/10/26: PI: Pembina Institute Comments on Canada's Proposed Reduction of Carbon Dioxide from Coal-Âfired Generation of Electricity Regulations
- 2011/10/26: PI:B: Canada's draft coal regulations: a halfhearted approach to climate change
- 2011/10/27: CBC: New coal regulations called weak
Environmental groups say more than 5,000 people have written to the federal government demanding tougher rules for coal-fired power plants. Wednesday marked the end of a 60-day period for public comments on new regulations that will govern those power plants in the future. The rules have been controversial because they won't kick in until July, 2015 and apply only to coal-fired power plants built after that date or to existing plants once they have been in operation for 45 years. - 2011/10/26: CBC: Canada commits $350M for world's hungry
The G8/G20 controversy lingers:
- 2011/10/28: TStar: Clement to appear at G8 committee next week
- 2011/10/25: TStar: Kent denies speaking to consultant about G8
- 2011/10/25: TStar: Consultant's email 'false and ridiculous': Clement
Tony Clement said a Toronto-based media consultant he recommended for a municipal job in his riding did not know what he was talking about when he said infrastructure projects were being approved directly by Cabinet. - 2011/10/24: TStar: Huntsville emails raise new questions about G8 fund
The job cuts issue lurks in the background:
- 2011/10/28: Dominion: Environment Canada Terminates Funding to Environmental Networks
- 2011/10/27: CBC: Environment Minister Peter Kent talks climate change
Peter Kent, Canada's environment minister, is taking issue with Environment Commissioner Scott Vaughan's recent conclusion that the federal government's climate change plans are so off-track that it will be nearly impossible for the country to reach its Kyoto target. "I disagree completely," Kent told CBC's The Current Thursday during an in-depth interview about Canada's climate change plans and policies. He said Vaughan's criticisms, released in a report earlier in October, were largely the result of a misunderstanding. - 2011/10/28: Impolitical: Wheat Board rally
- 2011/10/28: CBC: Wheat board supporters rally in Winnipeg
- 2011/10/27: CBC: Wheat growers to sue marketing board
The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association says it will sue the Canadian Wheat Board and eight of its directors for alleged misuse of farmers' money. The lawsuit would be the third legal action filed in connection with Ottawa's plans to open up western Canadian wheat and barley marketing. The CWB announced this week it is suing the federal government over Bill C-18, which, if passed, would end single desk selling of western wheat and barley through the board. And another group, Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board wants the courts to review the federal legislation. - 2011/10/26: JCMorton: The lawsuit over the Canadian Wheat Board
- 2011/10/26: CBC: Wheat board sues federal government
- 2011/10/26: WpgFP: Killing CWB nets nothing
Wilf "Butch" Harder, former director of the Canadian Wheat Board and chairman of its former farmer advisory committee, says the federal government's legislation to abolish the CWB's single desk imposes "a corporate takeover of agriculture... a vertically-integrated system." And, he warns, "Canadian consumers should start to be a little concerned." Vertical integration, Harder continues, means farmers will soon have no choice but to buy everything, from seed to fertilizer to marketing services, from one of the big private agribusiness giants. At that point, they lose control over their input costs, their negotiating power and ultimately, their livelihoods. - 2011/10/25: CBC: NDP motion calls on Tories to stop dismantling wheat board -- Motion calls for 'full and free' vote to determine farmers' wishes
- 2011/10/23: G&M: All farmers are equal -- but some are more equal than others
- 2011/10/24: CBC: Wheat board bill clears 2nd vote
NDP critic suggests Tory MPs involved in prairie grain farming have conflict of interest - 2011/10/24: CBC: 'Talking Eskimo' wheat board video sparks controversy
The battle over the Keystone XL and Northern Gateway pipelines rages on:
- 2011/10/29: DawgsBlawg: TransCanada : an "American company"
- 2011/10/28: CEP: NEB's "incredible" Keystone XL ruling highlights Canada's inferior regulations
- 2011/10/25: G&M: Pipeline politics trump sisterhood of the premiers
The Northern Gateway pipeline could be the most glittering jewel of all in Premier Christy Clark's highly-hyped jobs plan for British Columbia. The proposed, $5.5-billion project to carry Alberta crude from the oil sands through northern B.C. to the West Coast port of Kitimat would create 4,000 well-paying construction jobs and hundreds of permanent positions. Yet, awash in mutual admiration as women leaders of Canada's two westernmost provinces, Ms. Clark nonetheless found herself differing with Alberta's freshly-minted premier, Alison Redford, on the ambitious Gateway megaproject during Ms. Clark's brief visit to Calgary last week.
Ms. Redford is all for it. Ms. Clark, not so much.
Pressed repeatedly for her position on the pipeline during a joint Calgary press conference with her new sister-in-arms, Ms. Clark doggedly dodged the issue. Over and over, she repeated that B.C. would not say "yea" or "nay" until the federal environmental review of the project is complete, at least two years down the road. - 2011/10/28: BLongstaff: The "climate change caucus" -- good news on two fronts
- 2011/10/26: 350orBust: Finally, Some Good News Out Of Ottawa: All-Party Climate Caucus Formed
The Tories and their corporate sponsors are agitating against the EU's fuel quality directive:
- 2011/10/26: PI:B: Fuel for Change: Could Europe's fuel rules force Canada to clean up the oilsands?
- 2011/10/26: EmbassyMag: Feds intensify lobbying against EU fuel label -- Experts split on whether issue could spoil trade talks
- 2011/10/26: EurActiv: Britain accused of stalling EU tar sands regulation
- 2011/10/26: OilChange: Britain Backs Canadian Bullying Over Tar Sands
- 2011/10/24: CBC: Canada pushes back in EU oilsands trade spat
Canada's natural resources minister is criticizing the European Union over its plan to discriminate against Canadian oil derived from Alberta's oilsands. Joe Oliver released a letter Sunday to EU energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger in which he lambastes the EU's fuel quality directive -- a proposal that ranks fuels based on their carbon footprint, and suggests ranking Canadian oil derived from oilsands in a separate category because it is perceived to be so dirty. - 2011/10/24: PlanetArk: Canada Warns EU On Oil Sands Ranking Plan
The ISA virus in BC waters is potentially disastrous:
- 2011/10/26: AlexandraMorton: Industry seems to know more about the ISA virus in BC
- 2011/10/23: AlexandraMorton: European ISA virus in BC sockeye - what to do?
- 2011/10/21: AlexandraMorton: And what about the wild salmon?
- 2011/10/24: PlanetArk: Further Study Urged On [ISA] Virus Found In Pacific Salmon
- 2011/10/22: STimes: Why [ISA] fish virus spooks scientists
To understand why scientists were so alarmed last week to see a potentially lethal fish virus surface in two sockeye, consider what happened in South America in 2007. Millions of farmed fish died, cost billions of dollars and drove thousands of people out of work. - 2011/10/28: TheCanadian: Kicking the Can Down the Road, BC Hydro Style - Billions in Bogus Accounting Revealed
- 2011/10/28: G&M: Auditor General sounds alarm over BC Hydro accounting
BC Hydro is keeping rates artificially low by funnelling billions of dollars in expenses into deferral accounts, the province's auditor general says. And the day of reckoning for ratepayers will come, Auditor General John Doyle warns, because BC Hydro has no clear plan to repay those burgeoning accounts, which now stand at $2.2-billion. By 2017, BC Hydro expects to have deferred $5-billion in expenses. - 2011/10/27: TheCanadian: Oil Pipelines and Tankers: A Bad Proposition for BC's Economy and Environment
- 2011/10/27: Tyee: California's Big Move on Climate Policy Challenges BC -- Seventh largest economy just approved cap and trade. What will we do?
Usually, those of us who live on the West Coast are acutely tuned to tectonic activity, but the regulatory shift last week triggered by the California Air Resources Board (ARB) did not register on the seismographs of any major Canadian newspapers. This is surprising, given that the cap and trade system that California approved represents the most significant advance in climate policy in the U.S. and Canada in decades. - 2011/10/25: CBC: 18M tonnes of tsunami debris drifting to B.C.
Huge mass from Japan projected to reach West Coast by 2014 - 2011/10/28: CDreams: Killing Wolves: A Product of Alberta's Big Oil and Gas Boom
The development of the tar sands and other oil and gas fields in Alberta has carved up the Canadian province's boreal forest, threatening herds of woodland caribou. But rather than protect caribou habitat, officials have taken a controversial step: the large-scale killing of the wolves that prey on the caribou. - 2011/10/26: Tyee: Two More Ethical Challenges to Canada's Oil Sands -- Listing the limitations to bitumen boosting. Part two.
- 2011/10/28: EnergyBulletin: Two more ethical challenges to Canada's oil sands
- 2011/10/28: PlanetArk: EU Climate Chief: Science Shows Canada Oil Sand Risk
- 2011/10/28: DeSmogBlog: Canadian Embassy Coaches Diplomats To Promote Tar Sands, Overstate Environmental Protection Efforts
- 2011/10/27: DeSmogBlog: Why Ethical Oil's Deceptive 'Women's Rights' Defense of Tar Sands is Insulting and Wrong
- 2011/10/25: DeepClimate: The Ethical Oil Institute on oil sands emissions
- 2011/10/29: CBC: Cancer rate in Fort Good Hope growing, says chief
Community plans to get independent test done on its drinking water - 2011/10/25: NBF: New extraction technologies for Alberta Tarsands
Also in Alberta:
- 2011/10/27: DeSmogBlog: Massive Natural Gas Export Deal Inked by BG Group, So Much for Industry's "Domestic Energy" Claims
In Saskatchewan the election wrangling is getting louder:
- 2011/10/29: BuckDog: How Brad Wall Shills For PotashCorp
- 2011/10/28: ByckDog: Brad Wall SCRAMBLES To Change Channel From Windfall Potash Profits To ..... No School Until After Labour Day!?
- 2011/10/28: PEF: Sask Party Shills for PotashCorp
- 2011/10/28: CBC: PotashCorp profits prompt political spin
- 2011/10/27: BuckDog: How PotashCorp Hauls BILLIONS Of OUR Dollars Out Of Saskatchewan Every Year
Ontario is wrestling with its energy policy:
- 2011/10/27: Wonkette: Toronto Mayor Calls 911 In Panic After Comedian Tries To Interview Him
- 2011/10/29: CleanBreak: Election outcome in Ontario doesn't mean green energy strategy doesn't need some fixin'
In the Maritimes:
- 2011/10/24: PostMedia: Tories accused of 'backroom deal' with energy firms Williams Energy, Nova Chemicals -- Ethane policy shift disclosed prior to cabinet approval: Grits
In the North:
- 2011/10/27: CBC: Bob McLeod chosen as N.W.T. premier
Yellowknife South MLA Bob McLeod has been selected as the new premier of the Northwest Territories, after MLAs voted in a secret ballot in the legislative assembly in Yellowknife just after noon MT. The N.W.T. has no political parties, and its legislative assembly is run by consensus government, where the individual MLAs decide which of them becomes premier. - 2011/10/26: CBC: CanNor to implement audit recommendations
The federal government says it will implement all the recommendations of an audit on its northern development agency after the review found that CanNor was regularly breaking the law when it comes to contracts, travel and financial management. The Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, considered the centrepiece of the government's northern economic strategy, is accused of breaking two sections of the law, according to a final audit, CBC News has learned. The audit also shows the agency broke all but one of 13 different government directives on financial administration. The rules were broken more than 20 per cent of the time, according to the audit. - 2011/10/28: al Jazeera: The solutions generation
The next generation will have to bring about major transitions in order to build a more sustainable future. - 2011/10/26: EnergyBulletin: Stranded resources
- 2011/10/26: OilDrum: Are We Reaching "Limits to Growth"?
- 2011/10/25: al Jazeera: Rethinking GNP: From welfare to cost
Gross National Product is a blunt tool that largely fails to take into account environmental and human well-being. - 2011/10/23: NBF: True Limits for food, energy and minerals are very distant
- 2011/10/21: CL: The Club of Rome is back
What do we tell the children?
- 2011/10/28: TreeHugger: Shloppity Shlop! Here Comes Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax"
IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology] raised its head once again:
- 2011/10/28: Grist: Climate change is our biggest challenge, says McKibben -- but we need to keep working on population
- 2011/10/24: Guardian(UK): Why women's education in Tanzania is critical for slowing population growth
- 2011/10/24: NewYorker: Billions and Billions
- 2011/10/29: MoJo: Then They Came for Your Birth Control -- Mississippi's "Personhood" measure could outlaw birth control. And it's not an accident
- 2011/10/27: NewsRevu: Welcome to Earth -- There are now 7 billion people living on the planet. If it weren't so scary, it would be hilarious.
- 2011/10/25: AlterNet: What Are the "San Jose Articles"? Don't Be Fooled By the Conservative Global Elites' Latest Ploy to Attack Science, Women, and the United Nations
- 2011/10/28: TP:JR: People and the Planet: The World at 7 Billion
- 2011/10/28: Grist: This is the weekend we hit 7 billion
- 2011/10/28: TMoS: 7 Billion Reasons to Wake Up
- 2011/10/27: Guardian(UK): Population is just a sidekick to the real big baddie -- consumption
- 2011/10/27: Grist: Three's a crowd: Is it unethical to have more than two kids?
- 2011/10/27: Eureka: 7 billion people are not the issue - human development is what counts [says IIASA]
- 2011/10/26: AlterNet: Legal Rights for Fertilized Eggs? How a Terrifying Law Could Lead to Jail-time for Miscarriages, Birth Control Bans, and the End of Legal Abortion
- 2011/10/26: BBC: Population seven billion: UN sets out challenges
A major United Nations report has set out the challenges facing humanity a few days before the world's population is expected to reach seven billion. The report calls for a change of focus, no longer asking "are we too many", and instead concentrate on making the world better. It identifies many reasons to celebrate, including increased life expectancy and falling fertility rates. But it also acknowledges the risks of rapid population growth. - 2011/10/26: CBC: World needs family planning access as population nears 7B -- Birth control unavailable to 250 million women who seek it
- 2011/10/26: CNN: U.N.: World can 'thrive' as population reaches 7 billion
World population could surpass 15 billion by the end of the century, the U.N. says - In 1927, the world's population was 2 billion - People under age 25 make up 43% of the current population - Africa's population is expected to more than triple this century - 2011/10/26: UN: World must seize birth of 7 billionth inhabitant as clarion call to decisive action - UN
- 2011/10/25: TP:JR: I Helped Put World Population Over 3 Billion. How About You? Plus Powerful Video of Women, Families and Climate Change
- 2011/10/23: NYT: Seven Billion by Joel E. Cohen
- 2011/10/26: Grist: Is the environmental crisis caused by the 7 billion or the 1%?
- 2011/10/24: CCurrents: Questions Relating To The Future Of Humankind
- 2011/10/25: CDreams: How HR 358, the Let Women Die Act 2011, Violates International Human Rights Standards
- 2011/10/30: CNN: Just how big is 7 billion?
- 2011/10/24: Grist: 7 billion, unpacked - a comic
- 2011/10/25: NBF: It will not be a problem to feed 15 billion people
- 2011/10/24: al Jazeera: Millions of aborted girls imbalance India
Gender selective abortions have skewed birthrates, so millions of men will never find wives, potentially causing strife. - 2011/10/24: Guardian(UK): [Letters] Fertile approaches to population
- 2011/10/24: Guardian(UK): Paul Ehrlich, a prophet of global population doom who is gloomier than ever
Population surge means there is only a 10% chance of avoiding a collapse of world civilisation, says professor - 2011/10/23: DD: Population of world 'could grow to 15 billion by 2100'
- 2011/10/13: Yale360: Revisiting Population Growth: The Impact of Ecological Limits
Demographers are predicting that world population will climb to 10 billion later this century. But with the planet heating up and growing numbers of people putting increasing pressure on water and food supplies and on life-sustaining ecosystems, will this projected population boom turn into a bust? - 2011/10/22: Guardian(UK): Population of world 'could grow to 15bn by 2100'
Nearly 7 billion people now inhabit planet but projections that number will double this century have shocked academics - 2011/10/25: MWatch: An apocalyptic end to world's biggest bubble -- Denial, addictions feed inability to deal with population
The theme: Repent. Haunting images of fanatical serial killers warning, "The End is Near, Repent!" That message seared my brain as the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" rode into "Dexter's" dark world, the Miami Metro Police cable TV series. Now duty calls Dexter, CSI blood splatter expert by day, serial avenger by night. - 2011/10/23: BFiles: Huffington Post: Irresponsible mouthpiece for the World of Woo
- 2011/10/25: CJR: Salazar Calls for Coverage -- Interior Secretary highlights underreported environment stories
- 2011/10/28: CJR: Cracking the Case -- Why is it so difficult to cover investigations of environmental crimes?
- 2011/10/28: Grist: Why does ABC News hate electric cars?
- 2011/10/27: ClassM: Fighting the "he said, she said" cowardice
[...] Basically, the problem is NPR is afraid to let its reporters come right out and call a spade a spade, lest someone in Washington should accuse the network of ideological bias. - 2011/10/26: MediaMatters: ABC Still Fumbling Green Car Story
- 2011/10/26: TP:JR: The New York Times Abandons the Story of the Century and Joins the Energy and Climate Ignorati
- 2011/10/25: MediaMatters: After Pushing "Climategate," Fox Ignores Study Confirming Temp. Record
- 2011/10/30: TreeHugger: CNN's Steve Hargreaves Peddles Untruths On Keystone XL, No Retraction To Be Found (Video)
- 2011/10/23: TP:JR: CBS, ABC Joke About Global Warming's Effect on Coffee. When Will The Media Start Talking Seriously About Food Security?
Here is something for your library:
- 2011/10/28: SciAm:C: [Book Review] _The God Species_ by Mark Lynas
- 2011/10/28: SciAm:GB: [Book Review] _Blue Revolution: Unmaking America's Water Crisis_ by Cynthia Barnett
- 2011/10/24: SF Gate:B: The Third Industrial Revolution -- an interview with Jeremy Rifkin
- 2011/10/25: ClimateSight: _A Vast Machine_ by Paul Edward
- 2011/10/25: HotTopic: [BookReview] _The Ecological Rift: Capitalism's War on the Earth_ by John Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark & Richard York
- 2011/10/25: P3: [Book Review] _Fool Me Twice - Fighting the Assault on Science in America_ by Shawn Lawrence Otto
And for your film & video enjoyment:
- 2011/10/28: TreeHugger: The State of Science in America (Daily Show Video)
- 2011/10/29: 350orBust: Saturday At The Movies
- 2011/10/28: PSinclair: The Weekend Wonk: Refining the Climate Models
- 2011/10/28: PSinclair: Global Warming 101: The Greenhouse Effect
- 2011/10/28: TreeHugger: Daily Show Blasts Media for Failing to Cover Study that Confirms Climate Change (Video)
- 2011/10/28: Tamino: Republican "Science"
- 2011/10/27: DeSmogBlog: The Daily Show Notes Irony of Koch-Funded Study Affirming Global Warming is Real
- 2011/10/26: SEasterbrook: Data Rescue
- 2011/10/26: BPA: A Food Security Presentation by Julian Cribb
- 2011/10/25: CCP: Peter Sinclair's Climate Denial Crock of the Week: Bad, Badder, BEST [Richard Muller]
- 2011/10/24: CSW: "Climate Change: From Science to Policy" - webcast videos from the 2011 Stephen H. Schneider Symposium
- 2011/10/25: PSinclair: Cost of Electricity in Texas? On a Windy Night, maybe Nothing...
As for podcasts:
- 2011/10/29: CBC:Q&Q: Mastodon Massacre -- 7 Billion and Counting
- 2011/10/28: HotTopic: (mp3) We can't rule out catastrophic climate change
- 2011/10/24: TP:JR: Introducing the Climate Progress Podcast: Jigar Shah on Why Renewables Will Win This Decade, Even Beating Natural Gas
Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:
- 2011/10/26: PlanetArk: Green Groups Sue U.S. Over Keystone Pipeline Project
- 2011/10/26: JCMorton: The lawsuit over the Canadian Wheat Board
- 2011/10/26: CBC: Wheat board sues federal government
- 2011/10/24: PlanetArk: U.S. Court Backs Rules Protecting National Forests
- 2011/10/23: TreeHugger: Judge Rules Against the Corn Processors in "Corn Sugar" Case
Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:
- 2011/10/29: BPA: Electricity Use Continues to Rise
- 2011/10/28: NBF: Snapshot of deaths per terawatt hour [by energy sources] ...
- 2011/10/29: BNC: Geographical wind smoothing, supergrids and energy storage
- 2011/10/28: TreeHugger: Nuclear Power Still Blocks Clean Energy Development
- 2011/10/26: P3: Clogs in the works: The transition to a sustainable energy economy and its deliberate and unconscious sabotage
- 2011/10/27: KSJT: NYTimes : A big energy section. Is it news? Sure. Is it about what ought'a be? No.
- 2011/10/27: Grist: Solar and wave power solution: Fill the ocean with balls
- 2011/10/27: SciAm:PI: Energy Miracles: Innovating to Zero CO2
- 2011/10/27: PeakEnergy: Harnessing The Power Of The Thames
- 2011/10/26: NYT: Economic Slowdown Challenges Renewable Energy
- 2011/10/26: TreeHugger: US Geothermal Power Potential 10x That Of Coal Power Plants, New Analysis Shows
- 2011/10/25: NYT: New Technologies Redraw the World's Energy Picture [tar sands, shale & Arctic]
- 2011/10/25: Grist: Energy prices haven't budged in 50 years -- but oil is crazy expensive
- 2011/10/24: SMU: First Google.Org-funded geothermal mapping report confirms vast coast-to-coast clean energy source
- 2011/10/24: SciAm:PI: Turning off the Lights Won't Save Oil
- 2011/10/20: AlterNet: Four Reasons We Need Less Gas by Lester R. Brown
Hey! Let's contaminate the aquifer for thousands of years! It'll be a fracking gas!
- 2011/10/30: OilDrum: Tech Talk - The Niobrara, the Tuscaloosa and the Chattanooga shales
- 2011/10/27: OGJ: EIA shale predictions need closer scrutiny, peak oil group [ASPO-USA] says
- 2011/10/25: PressEurop: Poland - Shale gas, fuelling jobs
- 2011/10/26: S&R: Will fracking save the world?
- 2011/10/23: CCurrents: Science Says World Must Stop Coal Seam Gas Exploitation [Polya]
- 2011/10/24: TP:JR: China Has More Shale Gas Than We Do. Will They Embrace Environmental Safeguards on Fracking? Will We?
On the coal front:
- 2011/10/27: NPR: The Global Coal Trade's Complex Calculation
On the gas and oil front:
- 2011/10/28: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
OIL (US$/bbl)
Nymex Crude Future...93.32
Dated Brent Spot....110.83
WTI Cushing Spot.....93.32 - 2011/10/27: OpenDem: In the backyard of Russia's oil paradise
Pavlovo village was once a quiet backwater in the forest-steppe of Perm Region. In 1997, however, ecological disaster struck, with oil and chemicals entering the local river and food chain. The culprits of the catastrophe were both rich and obvious, but justice was a long while in coming, writes Roman Yushkov - 2011/10/28: TreeHugger: Major Victory: Dangerous Leaded Gasoline Now Banned Worldwide
- 2011/10/24: EnergyBulletin: Daniel Yergin massively reduced his energy estimates
- 2011/10/24: EnergyBulletin: Commentary: Oil and the economy
In the fossil fuel corps:
- 2011/10/29: BBC: Chevron and Total see profits jump on higher oil price
Oil giants Chevron and Total have reported sharp rises in third quarter profits, in line with other global oil and gas giants. Chevron saw net profit more than double to $7.8bn (£4.8bn) in the three months to the end of September, against a year earlier. Sales rose sharply to $61.3bn. Total's net income rose 13% to 2.8bn euros ($4bn; £2.5bn), with sales rising to 46.2bn euros. - 2011/10/28: TP:JR: Chevron Announces $7.8 Billion in Q3 Profits, 2011 Profits for Big-Five Oil Companies Hit a Staggering $101 Billion
- 2011/10/27: TP:JR: Royal Dutch Shell Doubles Q3 Profits Over Last Year, Climbing to $6.98 Billion
- 2011/10/27: TP:JR: ExxonMobil Profits Jump by 41%, to $10.3 Billion
- 2011/10/27: CSM: Exxon Mobil profit jumps 41 percent
Exxon Mobil's quarterly profit rose 41 percent because the company sold oil and natural gas at higher prices, making up for lower production.
[...]
Still, Exxon Mobil Corp.'s total net income rose to $10.33 billion, or $2.13 per share, in the third quarter. That compared with $7.35 billion, or $1.44 per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 32 percent to $125.3 billion. - 2011/10/27: BBC: Shell profits double on higher gas and oil prices
Higher gas and oil prices allowed Shell to double its profits in the three months to the end of September compared with the previous year. Current cost of supply net income rose to $7.2bn (£4.5bn) compared with $3.5bn during the same period a year ago. - 2011/10/26: TP:JR: ConocoPhillips Announces $2.6 Billion in Q3 Profits
- 2011/10/25: TP:JR: BP Doubles Profits in Third Quarter to $4.9 Billion
Yes we have a peak oil sighting:
- 2011/10/26: EnergyBulletin: The peak oil crisis: the energy trap
- 2011/10/25: PeakEnergy: Peak Oil for Economists
Biofuel bickering abounds:
- 2011/10/28: PlanetArk: Analysis: Promising Biodiesel Crop [pongamia pinnata tree] needs Time To Prove Itself
- 2011/10/26: TreeHugger: Making Biofuels from West Coast Forests is a Bad Idea
- 2011/10/26: TreeHugger: UK Company Pulls Out of Controversial Kenya Biofuel Project
- 2011/10/25: ORNL: First-of-a-kind tension wood study broadens biofuels research
- 2011/10/24: Purdue: Dividing corn stover makes ethanol conversion more efficient
- 2011/10/24: TreeHugger: Sanergy Is Putting A Price On Poop and Cleaning Up in Kenya
- 2011/10/23: Eureka: Production of biofuel from forests will increase greenhouse emissions
- 2011/10/23: AutoBG: Cellulosic ethanol "floodgates" will open in 2013
- 2011/10/23: Oregonian: Using Oregon's forests for bioenergy production has a down side: increased carbon emissions
The answer my friend...:
- 2011/10/26: BBC: SSE drops Waterhead Moor wind farm over 'bird fears'
- 2011/10/26: TreeHugger: UK Offshore Wind Power Industry May Struggle To Keep Up, As Nation Adds 2.5 GW Per Year By 2016
- 2011/10/25: Grist: Wind turbine with Inspector Gadget arms makes twice the power
Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:
- 2011/10/28: EurActiv: [UK] Solar subsidies to be cut by more than half
- 2011/10/28: EurActiv: Concentrated solar gets a boost from US
- 2011/10/29: Grist: Don't let Solyndra fool you: Solar PV is on fire
- 2011/10/28: TreeHugger: The Steady Rise of the Solar PV Manufacturing Industry Signals a Bright Future by Lester Brown
- 2011/10/26: MIT: Shining brightly
Vast amounts of solar energy radiate to the Earth constantly, but tapping that energy cost-effectively remains a challenge. - 2011/10/26: EurActiv: Solar recession signals end of 'Wild West' gold rush
A clean-energy recession caused by massive over-capacity in the solar panel market could have unexpected benefits for the nascent renewable industry, industry insiders say. - 2011/10/26: InformedComment: Namibia: Largest Solar Plant in S. Hemisphere Planned
- 2011/10/26: CSM: In India, SELCO blazes an entrepreneurial trail to bring solar power to the people
- 2011/10/24: TP:JR: Solar Freedom: Ranking States with the Best Solar PV Interconnection Policies
- 2011/10/25: TreeHugger: By 2031, Could Solar Be Main Source of Energy for Many Utilities?
- 2011/10/25: NBF: Solar Power is getting cheaper and getting grid stabilized with natural gas
- 2011/10/25: NBF: Breakthrough Furnace Can Cut Solar Costs with 1200 wafers per hour of 20 percent efficient solar cells
- 2011/10/24: EurActiv: Solar heating 'can provide over half of households' hot water
Solar heating systems can provide over half of households' hot water needs, according to the largest ever field trial of the green energy devices, conducted in the UK. - 2011/10/24: Grist: Tile your roof with solar shingles
Feed-In-Tariffs are being variously implemented around the world:
- 2011/10/26: TP:JR: Which Are Cheaper? Tradeable Credits or Feed-in Tariffs?
- 2011/10/25: PlanetArk: Italy, Serbia Agree Renewable Power Feed-In Tariffs
The nuclear energy controversy continues:
- 2011/10/27: PlanetArk: China Environment Minister Says Nuclear Safety Risks Climbing
- 2011/10/26: BNC: Fuel use for Gen III+ nuclear power
- 2011/10/24: EneNews: Fire at Swedish nuke plant -- Reactor shut down for safety reasons -- Extinguished by rescue workers -- Cause of blaze unknown
Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:
- 2011/10/26: BBC: Work to start on Dounreay low-level waste store
Work to construct a £100m store to hold low-level radioactive waste from Dounreay is due to start next month. The dump at the former experimental nuclear power plant in Caithness will have six vaults, with the first vault expected to open in 2014. Low-level rubbish includes paper, rags, tools, glass, concrete and clothing contaminated by radioactivity. The demolition and clean-up of the Dounreay plant is expected to create 240,000 tonnes of such waste. - 2011/10/28: NBF: Video of Rossi Claiming Breakthrough with Energy Catalyzer test of October 28, 2011
- 2011/10/28: NBF: Wired UK and Forbes coverage of the Rossi Energy Catalyzer
- 2011/10/28: NBF: Reports on the Rossi 1 MW October 28, 2011 test
- 2011/10/28: NBF: The Rossi one megawatt Energy Catalyzer test has started and reports 470 kW maintained continuously during self-sustained operation with customer satisfied
- 2011/10/28: PESWiki: Test of the One Megawatt E-Cat
- 2011/10/28: E-CatWorld: E-Day Thread: Rossi's 1 MW E-Cat Plant Tested By First Customer
- 2011/10/27: E-CatWorld: October 28th E-Cat Test Pre-Game Thread...
- 2011/10/23: NBF: Rossi's E-Cat Commercialization Plans for November and Beyond
The possibility of a Hydrogen Economy shimmers on the horizon:
- 2011/10/28: MIT: Highly efficient oxygen catalyst found
New catalyst, made of inexpensive and abundant materials, could prove useful in rechargeable batteries and hydrogen-fuel production. - 2011/10/27: SciAm:GB: Vehicle-to-grid technology: Electric cars become power-grid batteries
- 2011/10/24: TP:JR: China Aims to Dominate U.S. in Smart Grid Investments Just As It Has With Renewables
Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:
- 2011/10/27: TreeHugger: Delorean (Yes, That Delorean) Goes Electric
- 2011/10/27: AutoBG: Fisker fighting back against ABC(US) News, right wing inaccuracies
- 2011/10/27: AutoBG: Study: hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will grow slower than expected
The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:
- 2011/10/28: TreeHugger: Drought & Floods Cutting Profits For Major Retailers
- 2011/10/25: Grist: Investors representing $20 trillion get behind climate change prevention
Joe Romm posts a daily list of top energy and climate stories:
- 2011/10/28: TP:JR: October 28 News...
- 2011/10/27: TP:JR: Global News...
- 2011/10/26: TP:JR: October 26 News...
- 2011/10/25: TP:JR: October 25 News...
- 2011/10/25: TP:JR: Global News...
- 2011/10/24: TP:JR: October 24 News...
Other (weekly) lists:
- 2011/10/27: CER: This Week in Energy: Geothermal's Potential
- 2011/10/24: BPA: Agriculture News
The carbon lobby are up to the usual:
- 2011/10/29: TP:JR: The 1% Have a Stranglehold on Politics: New Al Jazeera Documentary Sheds Light on the Koch Brothers
- 2011/10/28: ERabett: The Law of Climate Change Denial
- 2011/10/29: NYT:PK: Denial In Depth
- 2011/10/29: ERabett: Denial in Depth
- 2011/10/30: PSinclair: A Parable
- 2011/10/28: BCLSB: By Day He Denies, Part III
- 2011/10/27: DeSmogBlog: Lord Lawson's Global Warming Policy Foundation Mistaken On Actual Facts
- 2011/10/26: TAP: Climate Control -- As their ranks diminish, global warming skeptics target scientists
- 2011/10/26: PSinclair: Junior Woodchucks: No Climate Change
- 2011/10/26: TreeHugger: Understanding the Anti-Science Blogger: Contagion Screenwriter Talks To Jude Law's Character (Video) [d]
- 2011/10/30: HotTopic: Wrapped up in books: Don Easterbrook drags Elsevier through the mud
- 2011/10/24: DeSmogBlog: Why Hard Core Climate "Skeptics" Don't Change Their Minds
- 2011/10/24: OilChange: From selling cigarettes to dirty oil
- 2011/10/23: ITracker: Idiot comment of the day: the circle of denial
As for climate miscellanea:
- 2011/10/29: DeSmogBlog: Byron Kennard: Why I'm Ridiculing Climate Deniers
- 2011/10/28: Grist: Cool energy-storage projects make mockery of politicians' pessimism
- 2011/10/28: SciAm:Obs: Can Collective Intelligence Provide Answers to Climate Change Questions?
- 2011/10/27: Guardian(UK): Facebook builds 'green' datacentre in Sweden
- 2011/10/27: moyhu: A Javascript index for Moyhu
- 2011/10/27: ERabett: Sing Along with RayP
- 2011/10/25: SciNow: The Sun'll Come Out Tomorrow? Maybe Not
- 2011/10/24: Grist: Dangerous levels of warming could happen in your lifetime
- 2011/10/23: TreeHugger: Proof of Global Domination By a Few Corporations
And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:
- Citizens Climate Lobby -- Creating the political will for a sustainable climate
- E-CatWorld
- WCRP OSC - Climate Research in Service to Society -- 24-28 October 2011 - Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel, Denver, CO, USA
- GeoSymbio
- FreeRice
- Wiki: Thermohaline circulation
- ECC: Economics of Climate Change
- CuttingTheCarbon
- UNFPA: United Nations Population Fund
- EcoNexus
- SciBlogs - New Zealand science blog
- SEARCH: Study of Environmental Arctic Change
- SolarBuzz
- Wiki: Precautionary principle
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>
-hetP.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 know that the rise in temperatures over the past five decades is abrupt and very large. We know it is consistent with models developed by other climate researchers that posit greenhouse gas emissions -- the burning of fossil fuels by humans -- as the cause. And now we know, thanks to Muller, that those other scientists have been both careful and honorable in their work.
Nobody's fudging the numbers. Nobody's manipulating data to win research grants, as Perry claims, or making an undue fuss over a "naturally occurring" warm-up, as Bachmann alleges. Contrary to what Cain says, the science is real.
It is the know-nothing politicians -- not scientists -- who are committing an unforgivable fraud." -Eugene Robinson
Here's a chuckle for ya:
Maplecroft released their Climate Change and Environment Risk Atlas this week:
The implications of BEST are still echoing around the net:
And on the Bottom Line:
As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:
As for the agro-chem corps:
Regarding GHGs:
In the attribution debate:
NPP = NPOESS Preparatory Project & NPOESS = National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System. At least it's not recursive:
Changes in natural cycles are showing up:
Corals are a bellwether of the ocean's health:
These 100, 200, 500 year storms are becoming all too frequent:
Consider transportation & GHG production:
While in the endless quest for zero energy, sustainable buildings and practical codes:
As for carbon sequestration:
Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:
Meanwhile in the journals:
More DIY science:
While at the UN:
And in Europe:
Meanwhile in Australia:
The Murray-Darling Basin Plan controversy continues:
And in Japan:
In the Middle East:
And South America:
The Wheat Board saga drags on:
A multipartisan climate change caucus has been formed in Parliament:
In BC, the stage is set. Now what will Clark and Dix do?
Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:
The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:
Apocalypso anyone?
How do the media measure up?
The Rossi Energy Catalyzer keeps coming up:
More people are talking about the electrical grid:
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