Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
Another week of Global Warming News
Information Overloadis Pattern Recognition
November 13, 2011
- Chuckles, COP17+, Horn of Africa, Bangkok, BEST, Curry, OWS, WEO
- Oceans & Fires, Bottom Line, Subsidies, Greenland, Cook, Post CRU
- Fukushima Note, Fukushima News, Nuclear Policy, I-131 in Europe
- Polar Bears, Methane, Geopolitics
- Food Crisis, Food Prices, Food Riots, Food vs. Biofuel, GMOs, Food Production
- Hurricanes, GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures, Feedbacks, Aerosols, Paleoclimate, Attribution
- ENSO, Solar, Uncertainties, Climate Sensitivity, State of the Oceans, Extinctions, Satellites
- Impacts, Forests, Wacky Weather, Phenology, Tornadoes
- Wildfires, Corals, Acidification, Sea Levels, GW Deluge, Floods & Droughts
- Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Adaptation
- Journals, Other Docs , Misc. Science, DIY Science, Models
- International Politics: UN, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax, Bank Tax, EU ETS & Airlines
- Solar Trade War?, Misc., Security, Law & Activism, Activism, Polls, H2O Biz
- National Politics: America, BP Disaster, 2012, Keystone XL, K XL Protest
- Fracking Panel, Mann, Obama, USAdmin, Congress, Lobbyists
- Britain, Europe, Australia, Carbon Law, MDBP, New Zealand, China, Africa, South America
- Canada, Post G20, CH4 Exports, IISD, Pipelines, Megaloads
- CWB, ISA, BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Sask, Maritimes, North
- Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Podcasts, Courts
- Energy, Fracking, Oil & Gas, Fossil Fuel Corps, Pipelines, Peak Oil, Biofuel, Wind, Solar
- FITs, Nukes, Nuclear Waste, Nuclear Fusion, LENR, Grid, Efficiency, Gee Whiz, Energy Storage
- Greenwashing, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
- New Web Site, Shameless Self Promotion, .sig
- 2011/11/11: uComics: (cartoon - Rall) The REAL issues
- 2011/11/09: JMToons: (cartoon - Mohr) The Blocktopus! Mark Block-ing democracy any way he can.
- 2011/11/09: JMToons: (cartoon - Mohr) Coal "Mine"
- 2011/11/07: TheCanadian: (cartoon - Hummel) ISA Salmon
- 2011/11/07: uComics: (cartoon - Danziger) At The Koch Brothers Mansion
- 2011/11/07: S&R: (cartoon - Szep) Support for Herman Cain
- 2011/11/06: ERabett: (cartoon - McFadden) Happy Climate Change Denial Season
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
- UNFCCC: Durban Climate Change Conference - November 2011
- 2011/11/12: OpenDem: A fair COP by Damian Rafferty
The author prepares to attend the UN Climate Change Summit, COP17, in Durban, and wonders if there is any solution to this particular version of the Prisoner's Dilemma The date the world ends (or doesn't) is set. 9 December 2011. The United Nations Climate Change summit, COP17, concludes that day and so does any realistic hope of keeping climate change to the already significant 2°c increase in global temperatures that countries have signed up to. While it is in the best interests of every man, woman and child on this planet to put into effect massive, sustained and genuine measures to halt global warming, there is a yet higher prize for every single negotiator at the table: to bring about an accord which limits everyone else (thus saving the planet) while leaving their nation free to carry on or even increase emissions (thus saving their political careers). It is therefore recognised as a classic instance of the prisoner's dilemma. - 2011/11/09: EurActiv: EU honors Durban climate pledge
EU finance ministers pledged yesterday (8 November) to add 7.2 billion euros in short term funds to help poor countries deal with the effects of climate change. - 2011/11/09: Reuters: Q+A: The big issues at the Durban climate summit
Representatives of nearly 200 nations will assemble at the end of November in Durban, South Africa, for their annual summit on climate change. Following the failure of talks in Copenhagen in 2009 and Cancun in 2010 to agree a successor to the Kyoto Protocol -- the only global accord on tackling climate change -- diplomats and non-governmental organizations have been managing expectations for the Durban summit. - 2011/11/08: UN: Ban urges consensus on emissions and funding at climate change meeting
- 2011/11/08: CBC: Canada's climate stance expected to spark controversy -- New funding for climate change adaptation
Canada expects to face international pressure at upcoming climate change talks over its refusal to sign onto a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, says Environment Minister Peter Kent. Canada has already declared that it will not renew its Kyoto commitment "however acute the international pressure," Kent said in prepared remarks sent to CBC News by his office ahead of his luncheon speech Tuesday at the Toronto Economic Club. The speech precedes this year's United Nations climate change talks, known as COP 17, which begin Nov. 28. - 2011/11/07: Guardian(UK): Poor and vulnerable countries are defying climate inaction
Slow progress at global climate talks is belied by the plethora of actions in many smaller and more at-risk developing nations - 2011/11/08: JQuiggin: East Africa Famine Appeal
The Bangkok flood travails continue:
- 2011/11/11: PlanetArk: Thai Confidence At 10-Year Low; Floods Hit More Firms
- 2011/11/11: CNN: Prefab shells offer makeshift shelter for flooded Thais
A warren of cement construction materials is now housing for flood victims - Residents have lights, TV, plenty of room - A swimming hole provides diversion for children - 2011/11/10: CNN: Will Bangkok's flood defenses protect its heart?
A series of flood defenses are preventing flooding in Bangkok's central business district - Thailand's worst flooding in 50 years has devastated outlying parts of the capital - Angry residents in north Bangkok say neighborhoods sacrificed for "CBD" - Residents: Predictions that floodwater will be drained from Bangkok in 11 days too optimistic - 2011/11/11: CJR: Puzzling Over the Flood -- James Fahn pieces together the Thai disaster from international and local news
- 2011/11/10: PlanetArk: Thai PM Pledges Flood Relief As Fight For Bangkok Goes On
- 2011/11/09: CNN: Garbage build-up adds to Bangkok's woes
Garbage and problems of clean water add to dilemmas - Thai PM lays out three-point flood recovery plan - More than 500 people have died, interior ministry says - 2011/11/09: ProMedMail: Leptospirosis - Thailand: flood related
- 2011/11/09: PlanetArk: Floods Encircle Bangkok Industrial Estates
- 2011/11/07: CNN: Thousands refuse to flee Bangkok flood -- As floodwaters rise, Thai PM looks to recovery
Thai PM lays out three-point flood recovery plan - Floodwater moving closer to heart of Thai capital - Thousands refusing to leave home, risk being trapped without food = More than 500 people have died, interior ministry says - 2011/11/08: CBC: Bangkok floods to drag on for weeks, official says -- Thailand PM cancels trip to APEC summit
- 2011/11/08: al Jazeera: Thai flood crisis to 'last for another month'
Officials say water-borne diseases on the rise as 12th district in Bangkok is given evacuation warning. - 2011/11/07: CNN: Concerns, floodwaters rise in Bangkok
Governor says 14 flood gates on Bangkok's west side aren't working right - 3.1 million people and 4 million acres of farmland are affected, a report says - The flood relief headquarters in Bangkok is surrounded by water - The months-long flooding has affected 25 of Thailand's 77 provinces - 2011/11/07: CBC: Thailand floods push farther into Bangkok -- Waters receding north of the capital
- 2011/11/07: al Jazeera: Death toll in Thailand floods crosses 500
Advancing pools of polluted black water now threatens Bangkok's underground railway system. - 2011/11/12: SkeptiSci: The BEST Summary by dana1981
- 2011/11/08: GreenGrok: Study Finds Global Warming 'Is Real' While Coverage Suggests the State of Denial Is Too [BEST]
- 2011/11/08: MediaMatters: Wall Street Journal Downplays [BEST] Study Confirming Global Warming
- 2011/11/07: Tamino: Berkeley and the Long-Term Trend
JCurry managed to insert herself in the middle of the BEST debate:
- 2011/11/11: BVerheggen: To publish BS or not, that's the question
- 2011/11/09: Stoat: Tol vs Curry
- 2011/11/08: CQ: Curry has a quiz
- 2011/11/07: CQ: A retroactive context
The Occupy Wall Street movement is energizing American politics:
- 2011/11/11: ZNet: The 99 Percent by Vandana Shiva
- 2011/11/10: WiC: How the 99 percent beat Keystone XL
- 2011/11/09: al Jazeera: Nature is the 99%, too
The economy is built on the idea of relentless growth, which is an environmental and health disaster for all but the 1%. - 2011/11/08: TP:JR: Power for the People: Energy For the 99 Percent
- 2011/11/06: CCP: Occupy Wall Street dissociates itself from "Jobs for the 99%," which is a front for groups supporting the Keystone XL pipeline
- 2011/11/06: Grist: A message of solidarity to the Keystone XL protesters
The IEA released their World Energy Outlook 2011 this week:
- IEA: ($) World Energy Outlook 2011
- 2011/11/09: IEA: [Press Release] The world is locking itself into an unsustainable energy future which would have far-reaching consequences, IEA warns in its latest World Energy Outlook
- 2011/11/11: EnergyBulletin: World headed for irreversible climate change - IEA
- 2011/11/07: EurActiv: IEA economist: 'We have to leave oil before it leaves us'
The International Energy Agency (IEA)'s annual World Energy Outlook, due for publication on 9 November, will contain alarming research that the world is on track for a catastrophic rise in global temperatures unless fossil fuel subsidies are cut, energy efficiency is improved, and more countries introduce some form of carbon pricing. - 2011/11/09: CBC: Time for climate change fix running out, IEA warns
- 2011/11/09: Guardian(UK): World headed for irreversible climate change in five years, IEA warns
- 2011/11/09: Guardian(UK): Oil price may hit $150, warns International Energy Agency
- 2011/11/09: CDreams: Irreversible Climate Change Looms Within Five Years [says IEA-WEO]
- 2011/11/09: TP:JR: IEA's Bombshell Warning: We're Headed Toward 11°F Global Warming and "Delaying Action Is a False Economy"
- 2011/11/09: Grist: [IEA] Study: We have five years to stop climate change, or it will be too late
- 2011/11/09: TreeHugger: Move Away From Fossil Fuels by 2017 or Dangerous Climate Change is Inevitable, IEA Says
- 2011/11/09: BBerg: Energy Costs Will Rise 'Viciously' Without Atomic Power, IEA Outlook Says
- 2011/11/09: OilChange: "The door is closing"
We are used to dire warnings about climate change. But they do not often come from the IEA, the world's energy watch-dog. And for such a conservative body, they do not often sound this dire. Such is our predicted catastrophic path of fossil fuel dependence, that over the next five years the last chance of combating dangerous climate change will be "lost for ever", argues the IEA. - 2011/11/09: CBC: Time for climate change fix running out, IEA warns
Here is one of those curiosities of connectedness:
- 2011/11/10: Eureka: Ocean temperatures can predict Amazon fire season severity
- 2011/11/11: BBC: Amazon fire season 'linked to ocean temperature'
Sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies can help predict the severity of Amazon fire seasons, a study has suggested. A team of US scientists found there was a correlation between El Nino patterns in the Pacific and fire activity in the eastern Amazon. - 2011/11/09: Eureka: Groundbreaking study quantifies health costs of climate-change related disasters in the US
Recent set of climate change related events resulted in billions in health costs and lost lives Health costs exceeding $14 billion dollars, 21,000 emergency room visits, nearly 1,700 deaths, and 9,000 hospitalizations are among the staggering impacts of six climate change-related events in the United States during the last decade, according to a first-of-its-kind study published in November 2011 edition of the journal Health Affairs. - 2011/11/08: PlanetArk: Health Cost Of 6 U.S. Climate Disasters: $14 Billion
- 2011/11/08: SciAm:Obs: What's the Price of Climate Change? $14 Billion in Lost Lives and Health Care
- 2011/11/07: TP:JR: A New Record: 14 U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather Disasters in 2011
Who's getting the subsidies?
- 2011/11/09: BBerg: Fossil Fuels Got Six Times More State Aid Than Clean Energy, IEA Says
Remember the Greenland kaffufle?
- 2011/11/08: RealClimate: Times Atlas map of Greenland to be corrected
John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:
- 2011/11/12: SkeptiSci: The BEST Summary by dana1981
- 2011/11/13: SkeptiSci: How to Avoid the Truth About Climate Change by bbickmore
- 2011/11/11: SkeptiSci: Extreme Events Increase With Global Warming by Rob Painting
- 2011/11/11: SkeptiSci: Increase Of Extreme Events With Global Warming (Basic Version) by Rob Painting
- 2011/11/09: SkeptiSci: Australia Legislates an Emissions Trading Scheme by alan_marshall
- 2011/11/09: SkeptiSci: CO2 Problems: Parallel concerns breed parallel denial by chuckbot
- 2011/11/09: SkeptiSci: Is there a case against human caused global warming in the peer-reviewed literature? Part 2 by Jim Powell
- 2011/11/08: SkeptiSci: Luxembourgish translation of The Scientific Guide to Global Warming Skepticism
- 2011/11/08: SkeptiSci: Going Down the Up Escalator, Part 2 by dana1981
Post CRU theft, controversy & inquiry:
- 2011/11/08: IJISH: SwiftHacker sighting: "RC" wrote "There was no deal made" on 18 Aug 2011
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. Now the Japanese government is talking about 30 years. 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:
- 2011/11/11: NatureNB: Japan funds projects to clean up Fukushima
- 2011/11/11: NatureN: Japan funds projects to clean up Fukushima -- Three major projects aim to make it possible for evacuees to return to their homes
- 2011/11/12: Guardian(UK): Japan's Fukushima plant opened to journalists
Conditions inside stricken nuclear facility 'grim and shambolic', according to firsthand reports - 2011/11/10: GPalast: Fukushima: They Knew
- 2011/11/11: EneNews: BBC journalist on Fukushima story you didn't hear on CNN: "They Knew" -- "I've seen a lot of sick stuff in my career, but this was sick on a new level"
- 2011/11/12: EneNews: Japan Times: Official told of extremely bad conditions at Fukushima -- Workers often abandoned after exceeding radiation limit
- 2011/11/12: EneNews: Former Tepco employee: Plutonium and uranium has all been blown out of Reactor No. 3 -- "This was no ordinary explosion" -- "Our gov't is concealing the truth" (video)
- 2011/11/12: BBC: Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant opened to reporters
Reporters have been allowed inside the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan for the first time since it was crippled by an earthquake and tsunami in March. - 2011/11/12: BBC: In pictures: A first look inside Fukushima
- 2011/11/10: PostMedia: Japan tsunami debris could reach B.C. in days: oceanographer
- 2011/11/10: EneNews: Top Indian nuke official spews incredible propaganda: Fukushima "not a nuclear accident" ...
- 2011/11/09: EneNews: Decontamination Scandal: Japan experts say gov't just waiting for radioactivity to decrease by itself ... "I really doubt their seriousness" says professor
- 2011/11/09: EneNews: Report: Journalist gets inside Fukushima plant, says Reactor No. 4 Spent Fuel Pool is completely exposed (video)
Post Fukushima, nuclear policies are in flux around the world:
- 2011/11/09: OilPrice: Germany Faces Sticker Shock Over Renewable Energy to Replace Nuclear
- 2011/11/09: BBerg: Energy Costs Will Rise 'Viciously' Without Atomic Power, IEA Outlook Says
- 2011/11/07: NBF: Nuclear power is India's gateway to a prosperous future and Uranium news
- 2011/11/07: EneNews: French presidential candidate proposes massive cuts to nuclear industry -- Holds large lead in polls over Sarkozy
- 2011/11/07: PlanetArk: TEPCO Lists Fuel Needs To Make Up For Nuclear Loss
Note the spin. They don't know where the iodine-131 is coming from, but it is not Fukushima (unless there was an unreported recent criticality or ...):
- 2011/11/11: BBC: Low levels of radioactive particles 'found in Europe'
- 2011/11/11: Reuters: Low levels of radioactive particles in Europe: IAEA
Very low levels of radioactive iodine-131 have been detected in Europe but the particles are not believed to pose a public health risk, the U.N. nuclear agency said Friday, saying it was seeking to find the source. - 2011/11/11: EneNews: Elevated radiation also in Germany, Sweden, Slovakia - UK expert claims iodine very unlikely from Fukushima since it was "so many months ago"
- 2011/11/12: EneNews: AP: Anonymous IAEA official says iodine-131 release appears to be continuing across Europe
- 2011/11/11: CBC: Radioactive iodine detected over Europe -- Not due to Fukushima; no public health risk
In the Arctic, the polar bear has had its Canadian status changed:
- 2011/11/10: CBC: Polar bear gets 'species of special concern' status
The majestic but vulnerable polar bear has been formally declared a "species of special concern," further driving a wedge between southern Canadians and many resource-dependant northerners. "Species of concern" is one level below threatened and two levels below endangered under Canada's Species at Risk Act. The listing under the act requires a comprehensive management plan within three years, feeding some northerners' fears that the already-limited bear hunt will be further restricted. - 2011/11/07: DM:80B: As Permafrost Melts, Methane-Munching Soil Bacteria Come to Life
As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:
- 2011/11/11: CDreams: 'It's Our Shores': Medvedev Pushes Russia's Control of the Arctic
- 2011/11/08: CSW: Obama administration to expand offshore drilling in Alaska and Gulf of Mexico
The food crisis is ongoing:
- 2011/11/11: ProMedMail: Panama disease, banana - Philippines (02): (Mindanao)
- 2011/11/11: Grist: Slouching toward a bananapocalypse?
- 2011/11/08: BPA: Climate Change and Agricultural Production
- 2011/11/07: Grist: Incredible shrinking farmland
Food Prices are still problematic:
- FAO: World Food Situation - Food Price Indices
- 2011/11/10: BPA: Dry Bean Prices Rise as Production Falls
Regarding the food factor in the ongoing revolutions:
- 2011/11/10: PeakEnergy: The Cause Of Riots And The Price of Food
The conflict between biofuel and food persists:
- 2011/11/08: Grist: Ethanol is making crap food more expensive than ever
Regarding the genetic modification of food:
- 2011/11/12: TreeHugger: GM Salmon No Longer Dead in the Water Thanks to USDA Funding
- 2011/11/10: CDreams: Maine Farmer Heads Group Challenging Genetics Giant Monsanto
[...]
The nonprofit organization [Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association] created a stir in food and farming communities when, with legal backing from the Public Patent Foundation, it filed a lawsuit in March against the chemical and biotechnology giant Monsanto. OSGATA has since been joined in the lawsuit by 82 other seed businesses, trade organizations and family farmers, which together represent more than 270,000 people. - 2011/11/10: EurActiv: Greens say EU needs tougher import rules on feed crops
European consumers who have little appetite for genetically modified foods are indirectly eating the crops anyway through imported feed crops, say members of the Greens group in the European Parliament who are calling for a shift in trade and farming practices. - 2011/11/09: FAO: Meeting growing demand for fish -- Aquaculture to provide more than half of world consumption
- 2011/11/11: NBF: Progress to making a better [than Haber-Bosch] catalyst for fertilizer process...
- 2011/11/09: ScienceInsider: Largest Fishery in Eastern U.S. [Menhaden Fishery] Gets a Break
- 2011/11/06: AlterNet: Why the Most Important Fish We Need to Save Is One You've Never Heard Of [menhaden]
- 2011/11/09: UN: Aquaculture has potential to cut poverty, combat food insecurity - UN report
- 2011/11/08: EnergyBulletin: While Detroit may be singing the blues a new documentary reveals what is driving its progress
- 2011/11/07: TP:JR: Urban Homesteading is a Popular Trend, but It's also Ruffling Some Feathers
Sean spun up in the Atlantic, but otherwise it has been quiet:
- 2011/11/11: Wunderground: Sean brushes Bermuda; largest wave ever surfed; [Nov. 7th] Tipton tornado an EF-4
- 2011/11/07: Wunderground: Subtropical storm brewing near Bermuda; earthquakes and tornadoes for Oklahoma
As for GHGs:
- 2011/11/10: LA Times:GS: NOAA [AGGI] greenhouse gas index climbs
- 2011/11/11: LA Times: Greenhouse gases climbing, federal report finds
The Annual Greenhouse Gas Index, which measures the combined heating effect of the top greenhouse gases, has risen 29% since 1990. - 2011/11/09: NOAANews: NOAA greenhouse gas index continues climbing
- 2011/11/07: Guardian(UK): Global economy gets dirtier for first time in a decade: it's no time to panic
The world - and UK - economy is pumping out more climate-warming carbon for each bit of growth, making talk of abandoning renewables to save money daft - 2011/11/07: Maribo: New data on carbon emissions per capita
- 2011/11/07: TCoE: More on those record carbon emissions
- 2011/11/07: MPG: Individual CO2 emissions decline in old age -- Ageing could influence climate change
- 2011/11/07: BBC: Dirty secrets: What's behind carbon's rise?
Late last week, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), which hosts the US's official emission-counting agency, released data showing a huge surge in carbon dioxide emissions from 2009 to 2010. Now, consultants Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) has an analysis showing that greenhouse gas emissions rose by more than economic growth. And this in a world where the vast majority of governments have endorsed reports saying that man-made climate change is set to bring serious impacts to societies and economies unless it's checked. So what's going on? - 2011/11/06: InformedComment: Godzilla Carbon Emissions in 2010 Unprecedented
And in the carbon cycle:
- 2011/11/10: TreeHugger: Carbon Stored in Himalayan River Basin Soils Surprisingly Old, With Future Climate Implications
- 2011/11/03: WHOI: Long-Term Carbon Storage in Ganges Basin May Portend Global Warming Worsening
As for the temperature record:
- 2011/11/10: QuarkSoup: GISS's Latest Anomaly, and Decade-over-Decade warming
- 2011/11/08: P3: A picture is worth a thousand words... a graph more so
- 2011/11/08: NOAANews: NOAA: October warmer than average in the United States
Early season storm breaks October snowfall records across the Northeast, while record drought continues across the Southern Plains - 2011/11/06: CCP: Global sea surface temperature anomalies, November 3, 2011
- 2011/11/07: Tamino: Berkeley and the Long-Term Trend
- 2011/11/07: moyhu: GMST trends - a cherrypicker's guide.
- 2011/11/07: ITracker: Graph of the day
- 2011/11/06: QuarkSoup: Has the US Been Cooling? (No.)
Yes we have feedbacks:
- 2011/11/09: P3: Burning Peat as an Exacerbating Feedback of Climate Change
Aerosols are making their presence felt:
- 2011/11/11: TCoE: Do anthropogenic aerosols play an even bigger role?
While in the paleoclimate:
- 2011/11/08: Rice: Methane may be answer to 56-million-year question
Rice researchers show ocean could have contained enough methane to cause drastic climate change The release of massive amounts of carbon from methane hydrate frozen under the seafloor 56 million years ago has been linked to the greatest change in global climate since a dinosaur-killing asteroid presumably hit Earth 9 million years earlier. New calculations by researchers at Rice University show that this long-controversial scenario is quite possible. Nobody knows for sure what started the incident, but there's no doubt Earth's temperature rose by as much as 6 degrees Celsius. That affected the planet for up to 150,000 years, until excess carbon in the oceans and atmosphere was reabsorbed into sediment. - 2011/11/08: TP:JR: Current Global Warming Is Unprecedented Compared to Climate of the Last 20,000 years, Study Finds
- 2011/11/08: SciAm:HoG: The Devil's Tail
In the attribution debate:
- 2011/11/09: Salon: Stop pretending it's not climate change
2011 is further proof that a new era of extreme weather is dawning -- and it's about to get much, much worse - 2011/11/10: NOAA:NCEP: El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion
Synopsis: La Niña is expected to continue through the Northern Hemisphere winter 2011-12. - 2011/11/10: ITracker: Solar activity hits seven-year high
Dealing with uncertainties:
- 2011/11/09: ClimateSight: Uncertainty
Regarding Climate Sensitivity:
- 2011/11/08: JEB: Schmittner on sensitivity
And the State of the Oceans:
- 2011/11/08: ERW: Project CLAMER finds 'disturbing' evidence of changes to Europe's seas
Project CLAMER, an 18-month initiative involving 17 European marine institutes, has amassed some 'convincing' and 'disturbing' evidence of changes in the European marine environment, according to its organisers. - 2011/11/10: CBC: Western black rhino declared extinct
- 2011/11/10: IUCNRedList: IUCN Red List Status
- 2011/11/10: IUCNRedList: Another leap towards the Barometer of Life
- 2011/11/10: CNN: Western black rhino declared extinct
Subspecies of black rhino in Africa extinct according to leading conservation network - One quarter of mammals on IUCN Red List are at risk of extinction - Plants, including a tree used to produce a chemotherapy drug now on endangered list - Five out of eight tuna species are either "threatened" or "near threatened" - 2011/11/10: NatureNB: IUCN Red List holds good and bad news
- 2011/11/09: BBC: Western black rhino declared extinct
No wild black rhinos remain in West Africa, according to the latest global assessment of threatened species. - 2011/11/08: TreeHugger: Extinction Looms for an Entire Genus of Mammal
- 2011/11/07: MongaBay: Aloha, and welcome to the planet's extinction capital
Meanwhile in near earth orbit:
- 2011/11/10: Eureka: NASA'S NPP satellite acquires first ATMS measurements
More GW impacts are being seen:
- 2011/11/11: KSJT: Yale e360: Two features open the eyes: On longleaf pines and armored divisions, and on tar sands and woodland caribou
- 2011/11/09: BirdLife: World experts discuss climate change at RSPB co-organised event
- 2011/11/11: Grist: Climate change is messing with cocktail hour
- 2011/11/07: USGS: Nene Recovering! but Climate Change Threatening Future of Hawaii's Forest Birds
- 2011/11/08: BBC: Toyota profits hit by floods in Thailand
Second quarter profits at Japanese carmaker Toyota have fallen by 18.5% to 80.4bn yen (£642m; $1.03bn) due to supply problems caused by the recent floods in Thailand. - 2011/11/04: NYT:Green: In Changing Ecosystems, Winners and Losers
Two new peer-reviewed studies, one about forests and the other about oceans, predict that existing ecosystems will rearrange themselves over the next 70-plus years in response to global warming. - 2011/11/07: FAO: Protecting forests to preserve livelihoods -- FAO project in Mongolia stresses community involvement
- 2011/11/10: al Jazeera: Brazil court approves building of Amazon dam
Contentious Belo Monte dam project in the north to proceed without additional consulation with indigenous communities. - 2011/11/08: Eureka: Holm oaks will gain ground in northern forests due to climate change
- 2011/11/07: ABC(Au): [New South Wales north coast] Public forests becoming rubbish dumps
- 2011/11/05: STimes: Climate change, beetle may doom rugged pine
Whitebark pines may be among the earliest victims of a warming climate in the Northwest, as rising temperatures at higher elevations have brought the trees into contact with the destructive mountain pine beetle. - 2011/11/07: BBC: Locals 'can play key role in helping forests recover'
Involving local groups has been a key factor in halting the loss of forest cover in the Asia-Pacific region, a UN study has concluded. The report found that low-cost projects offered communities an incentive to protect the habitats in return for job opportunities and income sources. Such schemes also enhanced ecosystems, restored biodiversity and increase carbon storage, the authors added. - 2011/11/11: PlanetArk: Worst Of Alaska Storm Over But More Surges Expected
- 2011/11/10: NPR: Receding Sea Ice Helps Storm Hammer Alaska's Coast
- 2011/11/10: Wunderground: Alaska blizzard pushes 8-foot storm surge into Nome; Sean heads towards Bermuda
- 2011/11/09: CSM: Bering Sea storm: Has global warming made Alaska more vulnerable?
Bering Sea storm winds are lashing the coast of Alaska. Sea ice extending out from the shoreline has protected the coast from past Bering Sea storm surges, but there is little such ice this year, and global warming is likely to blame. - 2011/11/10: CSM: Bering Sea storm lashes Alaska coast (video)
- 2011/11/10: al Jazeera: Massive storm hits Alaska
Record breaking storm has hit the rural west coast of Alaska with hurricane force winds, blizzards and heavy seas - 2011/11/09: AlaskaDispatch: Bering Sea storm leaves trail of damage in Western Alaska
- 2011/11/08: AlaskaDispatch: North Pacific 'super storm' makes its way toward Western Alaska coastline
- 2011/11/09: TP:JR: Historic Hurricane-Force Blizzard Pounds Alaska, Climate Change Likely to Worsen Erosion
- 2011/11/09: BBC: Alaska mauled by huge Arctic snowstorm
An Arctic snowstorm has hit the western coast of Alaska in what could be one of the worst storms on record in the area. The National Weather Service (NWS) has reports of roofs blowing off in the US state's coastal city of Nome, and near-hurricane force winds. - 2011/11/09: CNN:B: Arctic 'hurricane' slams Alaska
- 2011/11/09: ASI: Arctic hurricane slams Alaska
- 2011/11/09: KSJT: AP, Chr. Science Monitor: Colossal, epic, monster storm whirls in from the Bering Sea
- 2011/11/09: Grist: Superstorm hits Alaska
- 2011/11/09: Wunderground: Historic hurricane-force blizzard pounds Alaska and Siberia
- 2011/11/09: CBC: 'Epic magnitude' storm sweeps into Alaska
The U.S. National Weather Service warned western Alaska residents to brace for a "life-threatening storm of an epic magnitude," as a rare Bering Sea disturbance packing hurricane-force winds and giant waves moved into the state. High winds and surging waves pummelled Alaska's western coast Wednesday, churning the Bering Sea and forcing residents of Nome and isolated native villages to seek higher ground inland. - 2011/11/08: CCP: Alaska storm to produce "historic" hurricane-like conditions
- 2011/11/08: Wunderground: Sean, rare Mediterranean hybrid, and AK superstorm forms; quakes and tornadoes in OK
BC had a little storm too, and France:
- 2011/11/11: CBC: B.C. storm cuts power, jams highways, stops ferries -- 50,000 BC Hydro customers lost power on South Coast
- 2011/11/07: PlanetArk: Three Dead After France Hit By Storms In South
Changes in natural cycles are showing up:
- 2011/11/13: Guardian(UK): Nature is fooled into flowering in a 'second spring'
Fruit, frogs, birds, insects, plants: they are all enjoying a warm autumn as the seasons go topsy-turvy. Ecologists are observing a rash of freak occurrences and oddities throughout England - 2011/11/06: CCP: Latest U.S. Tornado Statistics, October 25, 2011
As for heatwaves and wild fires:
- 2011/11/11: BBC: Human-induced fires sow the seeds of the future
Human-made fires are influencing the evolutionary process of some plant species' seeds, a study has shown. - 2011/11/08: ABC(Au): Great Barrier Grief
- 2011/11/07: ABC(Au): Reef chief recommends port rethink
Queensland's iconic Great Barrier Reef could be put at risk if authorities do not rethink plans to allow massive expansion works at ports along the Queensland coast, an expert says. Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority chairman Russell Reichelt has also told ABC TV's Four Corners he warned the Federal Government that huge dredging operations aimed at servicing Queensland's growing coal seam gas industry posed an unacceptable risk to marine life on the reef. - 2011/11/04: CoralCOE: Sea life "must swim faster to survive"
Fish and other sea creatures will have to travel large distances to survive climate change, international marine scientists have warned. Sea life, particularly in the Indian Ocean, the Western and Eastern Pacific and the subarctic oceans will face growing pressures to adapt or relocate to escape extinction, according to a new study by an international team of scientists published in the journal Science. - 2011/11/06: STimes: Ocean acidification is most urgent threat to marine conservation
Sea levels are rising:
- 2011/11/09: QuarkSoup: Sea Level Tics Up
- 2011/11/09: ERabett:BDS: Tidal wetland sediment accretion might keep up with sea level rise in one location. Maybe.
- 2011/11/09: ABC(Au): Rising sea levels pose threat to Qld, expert says
A senior British climate scientist says Queensland authorities need to do more to protect the state's assets from rising sea levels. Diego de Gusmao, from the UK Met Office, is speaking at the Energy and Meteorology conference on the Gold Coast today. He says much of the state's infrastructure is in coastal regions. - 2011/11/08: PSinclair: Now it's Italy. 14 Inches in 6 hours
As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:
- 2011/11/09: JFleck: Stuff I wrote elsewhere: megadrought
- 2011/11/08: Eureka: Precipitation variability in Northeast, Southwest linked in 1,000-year analysis -- Results validate climate predictions of increased extreme weather events
- 2011/11/09: al Jazeera: At least 100 people dead in Vietnam flooding
Death toll rises from 78 to 100 as fresh deluge in central provinces prompts evacuation of about 30,000 people. - 2011/11/07: DerSpiegel: Floods Strike Again -- Italy Faces New Warnings as Rains Continue
Floods claimed the lives of six people in Italy over the weekend. In the city of Genoa furious residents called for their mayor's resignation for not closing local schools in time. Meanwhile, three bodies were recovered in France after heavy currents carried them all the way to the Côte d'Azur. - 2011/11/09: al Jazeera: Agencies say Pakistan flood aid 'drying up'
Aid groups say their work may grind to a halt if international donors fail to meet 73 per cent shortfall in funds. - 2011/11/08: BBC: Agencies warn of acute Pakistan floods relief shortfall
Relief efforts for five million people affected by flooding in Sindh province of Pakistan are threatened because of a lack of funds, aid agencies say. - 2011/11/08: CBC: Pakistan flood aid falls severely short
- 2011/11/08: al Jazeera: Colombia's suffering goes on -- A look at the flooding and mudslides across Colombia
- 2011/11/08: al Jazeera: Not a mirage - rain falls in Doha -- The recent downpour in the Qatari capital - the first since last winter
- 2011/11/07: BBC: Colombia mudslide deaths mount
The number of people known to have died in a mudslide in western Colombia has risen to at least 38. - 2011/11/08: ABC(Au): Storms cause flash flooding in Gippsland
- 2011/11/07: Grist: Texas drought threatens to take away pecan pie
- 2011/11/07: CBC: Colombian family pulled alive from mudslide rubble
- 2011/11/06: BBC: Deadly mudslide strikes western Colombia
At least 24 people have died in landslides in the west of Colombia, rescue workers say. Sniffer dogs are searching for dozens of people feared buried under mud and rubble after their houses were washed away in the city of Manizales. Firefighters said heavy rain temporarily halted the search for survivors. Colombia is experiencing one of the worst rainy seasons in memory, forcing the evacuation of some 250,000 people. - 2011/11/06: BBC: Italian floods: Fresh weather warnings issued
The Italian authorities have issued fresh safety warnings as storms and torrential rain continue to cause havoc across the country. The River Po, Italy's longest river, rose 4m (13 feet) in the city of Turin, as thousands were told to evacuate. One person has died in the province of Naples, bringing this week's country-wide death toll to at least seven. - 2011/11/10: ClassM: The phony breakthrough vs deployment debate
- 2011/11/09: Grist: Can today's technology tackle climate change? Who cares?
- 2011/11/09: Guardian(UK): Why is it so hard to stop climate change?
The science of global warming is clear and so are the solutions, yet the world is moving in reverse. Why? - 2011/11/08: Grist: Green lifestyle choices won't solve the climate problem
Consider transportation & GHG production:
- 2011/11/11: Guardian(UK): Recession linked to reduction in European transport pollution
European Environment Agency says emission levels of all pollutants fell in 2009, in line with decreased demand - 2011/11/09: TP:JR: Advanced Biofuels Taking Off? Use of Non-Food, Bio-Based Jet Fuel Climbing
- 2011/11/07: BBC: HS2: Good case for high-speed rail link, say MPs
There is a "good case" for the government's HS2 high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham and beyond, a committee of MPs has said. The £32bn scheme offers "a new era of inter-urban travel in Britain", the Commons Transport Committee says. But its report says the route must be extended to Leeds and Manchester. - 2011/11/07: PlanetArk: United To Fly Houston-Chicago On Solazyme Biofuel
- 2011/11/02: ManilaBulletin: Container ships make record losses on Asia-to-Europe route
Shipping lines are losing a record $141 for each container they haul to Europe from Asia, the world's second-largest trade route for the boxes, as slowing economies dent demand, ACM/GFI said. Companies are losing money even at a freight rate of $649 a container because of a fuel surcharge of $790 for each box, Mels Boer and Cherry Wang, container-derivatives brokers at ACM/GFI, said in a report e-mailed Oct. 28. Losses were at the highest level last week since a tally of rates began in March 2009, Wang said. - 2011/11/12: CleanBreak: PACE financing for commercial buildings has "irreversible momentum," says Carbon War Room chief Jigar Shah
- 2011/11/10: Grist: An aging rust belt town becomes a laboratory for sustainability
As for carbon sequestration:
- 2011/11/10: NYT: [FutureGen 2.0] Coal Project Hits Snag as a Partner Backs Off
The leading American effort to capture carbon dioxide from coal plants has hit a stumbling block that could imperil the project and set back a promising technology for addressing global warming, people involved in the venture said. Ameren, the Midwestern power company that was to be the host for the project, has told its partners that because of its financial situation, it cannot take part as promised, although it has not told them exactly what it will do. The company had agreed to supply an old oil-fired power plant in Meredosia, Ill., that would be converted to demonstrate the carbon-capture technology on a commercial scale. - 2011/11/09: Guardian(UK): Energy companies join forces for UK's first carbon-capture project
The power company SSE and Shell hope to bolster the case for a carbon-capture and storage plant at Peterhead near Aberdeen - 2011/11/09: BBC: Councillors reject Hunterston coal power station plans
Controversial proposals for a new coal-fired power station at Hunterston have been rejected by the local council.
[...]
Ayrshire Power, which is owned by Peel Energy, wants to build a plant with experimental carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology at the site. - 2011/11/09: BBC: Carbon capture plan for Peterhead
Two large energy firms have agreed to work together to develop carbon-capture and storage (CCS) in Aberdeenshire - if they can get the funding. The UK government said it would hand over £1bn to develop CCS, which captures emissions from power stations and burying them under the sea bed. A pilot project at Longannet in Fife was cancelled last month due to cost. Now Shell and Scottish and Southern Energy want to develop the pioneering technology at Peterhead power station. - 2011/11/08: Guardian(UK): UK carbon capture power station plans suffer further setbacks
Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:
- 2011/11/09: PSinclair: Geoengineering - Is this Really Where We Want to Go?
- 2011/11/08: GEP: UK Government Rejects Call to Suspend SPICE
- 2011/11/08: BNC: Strange bedfellows? Techno-fixes and conservation
While on the adaptation front:
- 2011/11/07: KSJT: Miller-McCune: Here's climate adaptation in action. Wildlife refuge plans to fortify against or migrate with climate change. Wolves and all.
Meanwhile in the journals:
- 2011/11/09: CP: Glacial-interglacial vegetation dynamics in South Eastern Africa coupled to sea surface temperature variations in the Western Indian Ocean by L. M. Dupont et al.
- 2011/11/09: CP: Using synoptic type analysis to understand New Zealand climate during the Mid-Holocene by D. Ackerley et al.
- 2011/11/08: CP: The Middle Miocene climate as modelled in an atmosphere-ocean-biosphere model by M. Krapp & J. H. Jungclaus
- 2011/11/08: CP: Evolution of the seasonal temperature cycle in a transient Holocene simulation: orbital forcing and sea-ice by N. Fischer & J. H. Jungclaus
- 2011/11/11: CPD: Element/Calcium ratios in middle Eocene samples of Oridorsalis umbonatus from Ocean Drilling Program Site 1209 by C. F. Dawber & A. K. Tripati
- 2011/11/10: CPD: Changing climatic and anthropogenic influences on the Bermejo wetland, through archival documents - Mendoza, Argentina, 16th-20th centuries by M. R. Prieto & F. Rojas
- 2011/11/08: CPD: Extreme climate, not extreme weather: the summer of 1816 in Geneva, Switzerland by R. Auchmann et al.
- 2011/11/07: NERC:NORA: Controls on the phosphorus content of fine stream bed sediments in agricultural headwater catchments at the landscape-scale by Barry G. Rawlins
- 2011/11/08: NERC:NORA: A new Holocene relative sea level curve for the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica by E.P. Watcham et al.
- 2011/11/09: NERC:NORA: Characterisation of methane net ecosystem exchange from a Scottish peatland. by C. Helfter et al.
- 2011/11/11: ACP: Biomass burning contribution to black carbon in the Western United States Mountain Ranges by Y. H. Mao et al.
- 2011/11/11: ACP: Change of iron species and iron solubility in Asian dust during the long-range transport from western China to Japan by Y. Takahashi et al.
- 2011/11/11: ACP: The Brewer-Dobson circulation and total ozone from seasonal to decadal time scales by M. Weber et al.
- 2011/11/10: TC: Temperature variability and offset in steep alpine rock and ice faces by A. Hasler et al.
- 2011/11/11: TCD: Brief Communication: Can recent ice discharges following the Larsen-B ice-shelf collapse be used to infer the driving mechanisms of millennial-scale variations of the Laurentide ice sheet? by J. Alvarez-Solas et al.
- 2011/11/11: Science: (ab$) Forecasting Fire Season Severity in South America Using Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies by Yang Chen et al.
- 2011/11/10: ACP: Sources and seasonality of atmospheric methanol based on tall tower measurements in the US Upper Midwest by L. Hu et al.
- 2011/11/09: ACP: Observations of nonmethane organic compounds during ARCTAS - Part 1: Biomass burning emissions and plume enhancements by R. S. Hornbrook et al.
- 2011/11/08: ACP: Controls on the movement and composition of firn air at the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide by M. O. Battle et al.
- 2011/11/07: ACP: In-situ observation of Asian pollution transported into the Arctic lowermost stratosphere by A. Roiger et al.
- 2011/11/10: ACPD: Mean winds, temperatures and the 16- and 5-day planetary waves in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere over Bear Lake Observatory (42° N 111° W) by K. A. Day et al.
- 2011/11/09: ACPD: Atmospheric dust modeling from meso to global scales with the online NMMB/BSC-Dust model - Part 2: Experimental campaigns in Northern Africa by K. Haustein et al.
- 2011/11/08: ACPD: The direct effect of aerosols on solar radiation over the broader Mediterranean basin by C. D. Papadimas et al.
- 2011/11/08: ACPD: Influence of aerosols and thin cirrus clouds on the GOSAT-observed CO2: a case study over Tsukuba by O. Uchino et al.
- 2011/11/08: PNAS: (abs) The supply chain of CO2 emissions by Steven J. Davis et al.
- 2011/11/08: PNAS: (abs) Carbon and nitrogen assimilation in deep subseafloor microbial cells by Yuki Morono et al.
- 2011/11/08: PNAS: (ab$) Marriage exchanges, seed exchanges, and the dynamics of manioc diversity by Marc Delêtre et al.
- 2011/11/09: AGWObserver: Papers on bird and bat mortality caused by wind power
- 2011/04/21: WOL:JAWRA: (ab$) Millennial-Length Records of Streamflow From Three Major Upper Colorado River Tributaries by Stephen T. Gray et al.
- 2011/11/07: Nature: (ab$) Metagenomic analysis of a permafrost microbial community reveals a rapid response to thaw by Rachel Mackelprang et al.
- 2011/11/07: AGWObserver: New research from last week 44/2011
- 2011/11/03: WIR:CC: In defense of the traditional null hypothesis: remarks on the Trenberth and Curry WIREs opinion articles by Myles Allen
- 2011/11/03: WIR:CC: Nullifying the climate null hypothesis by Judith Curry
- 2011/11/03: WIR:CC: Attribution of climate variations and trends to human influences and natural variability by Kevin E. Trenberth
- 2011/11/06: P3: Abstract Round Up: 10/31-11/06
And other significant documents:
- 2011/11/10: Columbia:JHansen: (1.4 meg pdf) Climate Variability and Climate Change: The New Climate Dice by JHansen et al.
- 2011/11/10: WilsonCenter: [Link to 1.3 meg pdf] Report Release: Geoengineering for Decision Makers
- 2011/11/07: SEI: [link to 1.4 meg pdf] Coal Power in the CDM: Issues and Options
As for miscellaneous science:
- 2011/11/11: JEB: More WCRP OSC
- 2011/11/11: BBC: Nature journal libel case begins
- 2011/11/10: JEB: EGU Autumn 2011 election now open
- 2011/11/08: ScienceInsider: One-Third of Turkish Academy [of Sciences (TÃBA)] Resigns in Protest of Government Takeover
- 2011/11/07: ERabett:JF: Science controversies in Physics Today
- 2011/11/07: JEB: The null hypothesis in climate science
More DIY science:
- 2011/11/11: moyhu: A JS gadget for viewing temperature trends
What's new in models?
- 2011/11/06: SEasterbrook: One Model to Rule them All? [WCRP OSC]
While at the UN:
- 2011/11/09: UN: Ban and Norwegian leader discuss climate change and development issues
- 2011/11/08: UN: UN relief official urges donors to support Central American flood relief efforts
- 2011/11/08: UN: Ban urges greater use of data and new technologies to tackle global crises
And on the carbon trading front:
- 2011/11/08: EIA-I: China's greenhouse gas vent threat in bid to extort billions
In the run-up to the international climate negotiations in Durban later this month, China has responded to efforts to ban the trading of widely discredited HFC-23 offsets by threatening to release huge amounts of the potent industrial chemical into the atmosphere unless other nations pay what amounts to a climate ransom. China's threat comes after the European Union and other nations moved to ban HFC-23 credits from internal carbon trading mechanisms in recognition of the perverse incentives created by these credits in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The vast amounts paid for HFC-23 offsets have led to factories in China and elsewhere manufacturing more HCFC-22 and its HFC-23 by-product than necessary, just to maximise the amounts paid to destroy HFC-23 through the UN-backed carbon trading scheme. In a shocking attempt to blackmail the international community, Xie Fei, revenue management director at the China Clean Development Mechanism Fund, threatened: "If there's no trading of [HFC-23] credits, they'll stop incinerating the gases" and vent them directly into the atmosphere. - 2011/11/10: CCP: China blackmails European countries by threatening to release hydrofluorocarbons (HFC-23) if not paid off with billions of euros with exorbitant off-set credits, another form of corruption by Chinese officialdom
- 2011/11/09: Guardian(UK): Green group accuses China of climate blackmail
The row over hydrofluorocarbon-23 offsets has intensified before international climate negotiations in Durban this month - 2011/11/09: Grist: China committing climate blackmail with [HFC23] super-powerful greenhouse gas, say critics
- 2011/11/07: EurActiv: Report questions benefits of coal plant credits
Coal plants in developing countries get billions of euros in climate finance for new projects that do little to reduce CO2 emissions, the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) says in a new report. The study was published as new research by the US Department of Energy showed that greenhouse gas emissions soared 6% in 2010, the highest increase ever recorded. - 2011/11/07: BBC: Australia Senate backs carbon tax
Australia's Senate has approved a controversial law on pollution, after years of bitter political wrangling. The Clean Energy Act will force the country's 500 worst-polluting companies to pay a tax on their carbon emissions from 1 July next year. - 2011/11/11: AlterNet: Nurses Step Up the Call for a Global Financial Tax
- 2011/11/09: EUO: Financial tax divides EU finance ministers [Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Britain & Sweden opposed]
- 2011/11/06: WiC: The Robin Hood tax -- turning a global crisis into a global opportunity
As the deadline for applying the EU-ETS to airlines draws near, we will see who is serious about reducing carbon emissions:
- 2011/11/03: ChinaDialogue: Battle of the skies
As Europe's leaders wait for one court ruling on plans to tackle emissions from planes, China is gearing up to launch a fresh round of legal action. Christian Carey explains why the EU is fighting on. - 2011/11/03: ChinaDialogue: The view from Chinese airspace
China's airlines have made their anger over European emissions-trading plans clear, but what do energy experts think? Meng Si asked three observers for their assessment of the escalating row. - 2011/11/04: ChinaDialogue: Is Europe breaking the law? (2)
China's aviation industry has armoury available in its fight against Europe's emissions policy, writes Cheng Shuaihua, concluding a two-part article. - 2011/11/04: ChinaDialogue: Is Europe breaking the law? (1)
Cheng Shuaihua analyses the legal arguments against Europe's controversial plan to tackle plane emissions, setting out the worst case scenario for China's airlines. - 2011/11/09: NYT: Trade War in Solar Takes Shape
The United States and China are gearing up for a trade war that could catch American users of solar energy in the crossfire. The Commerce Department in Washington on Wednesday opened an investigation sought by American manufacturers who accuse the Chinese of "dumping" solar panels into the United States at prices, aided by government subsidies, lower than the cost of making and distributing them. Anticipating that move, the government-controlled Chinese solar industry has been unusually vitriolic this week. - 2011/11/09: CSM: Solar power probe questions legality of Chinese tactic
- 2011/11/08: PlanetArk: China Shelves U.S. Solar Project In Trade Row
- 2011/11/07: Reuters: China shelves U.S. solar project in trade row
China's largest solar power plant developer has put a planned $500 million U.S. project on hold over an anti-dumping trade dispute, the company's general manager said on Monday. CECEP Solar Energy Technology Co Ltd, a unit of the state-owned giant China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group, said a planned installation of China-made panels to generate solar power in California, New Jersey and Texas would be made uneconomic by U.S. anti-dumping moves. "If the solar panel prices increase by, say 30 percent, in the United States, following the move, then we would certainly drop the plan because there's no profit to be made," Cao Huabin, the general manager of CECEP Solar Energy, told a news conference in Beijing. - 2011/11/07: PlanetArk: Thrift, Innovation To Win From U.S.-China Solar Row
A row between China and the United States over imports of cheaper solar products won't be the sector's death-knell but will ultimately speed innovation and cut costs, a top U.S. renewable energy official said. Seven U.S. solar manufacturers last month asked the Obama administration to impose duties of more than 100 percent on China solar imports, which they said were unfairly undercutting U.S. prices and destroying American jobs. "It's inevitable. It had to happen. I don't believe that in the long run it does anything more than accelerate the pace at which we need to generate new technologies," said Dan Arvizu, director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. NREL is part of the U.S. Department of Energy. - 2011/11/10: BBerg: Oil Riches Languish on China Doorstep
To China, the world's biggest energy consumer, another Saudi Arabia of oil may lie beneath the ocean to its south. Escalating regional tensions mean large-scale drilling may be slipping further into the future. The South China Sea may hold 213 billion barrels of oil, or 80 percent of Saudi Arabia's reserves, according to Chinese studies cited in 2008 by the U.S. Energy Information Agency. - 2011/11/10: Eureka: Rare earth metal shortages could hamper deployment of low-carbon energy technologies
Climate Change is a threat multiplier exacerbating existing conflicts in food, energy, water, race, ideology ... etc.:
- 2011/11/11: BeyondP3: Resource Wars
The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world:
- 2011/11/10: BBC: EDF fined for spying on Greenpeace nuclear campaign
A French court has fined energy giant EDF 1.5 million euros (£1.3 million) and sent two of its staff to jail for spying on Greenpeace campaigners. The company is hoping to build four nuclear reactors in the UK. A court in Nanterre, near Paris, found that EDF employed security firm Kargus to spy on Greenpeace as it campaigned against new reactors in France. The court also sent two Kargus employees to jail and handed Greenpeace 500,000 euros (£428,000) in damages. - 2011/11/08: CCurrents: The Fire Next Time Is Now: Environmental Historian Angus Wright's Call For A Planetary Patriotism
- 2011/11/08: EnergyBulletin: The fire next time is now: Environmental historian Angus Wright's call for a planetary patriotism
Polls! We have polls!
- 2011/11/07: Grist: Gen Y and Gen X get it right on the environment; old folks don't
Regarding Water Politics and Business:
- 2011/11/07: JFleck: The problem with living in good times
And on the American political front:
- 2011/11/10: Grist: Smacking down the latest Solyndra silliness
- 2011/11/11: NYT: A Gold Rush of Subsidies in Clean Energy Search
- 2011/11/11: TreeHugger: If US Followed Germany's Lead on Solar, We'd Create 2.5 MIllion Jobs: Bill Clinton on the Daily Show (Video)
- 2011/11/09: Grist: Energy companies get $24 billion of corporate welfare from taxpayers
- 2011/11/09: S&R: Mississippi votes down zygote personhood
- 2011/11/08: QuarkSoup: Mississippi defeats life-at-fertilization ballot prop
- 2011/11/07: DeSmogBlog: The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Don't Believe in Science (or Many Other Inconvenient Truths)
The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:
- 2011/11/11: EnvEcon: NPR: How To Put A Value On Oil Damaged Life In The Gulf
- 2011/11/10: OilDrum: Deepwater GOM: Reserves versus Production - Part 2: Atlantis, Mad Dog & Eugene Island
- 2011/11/09: PlanetArk: Oil Drilling Plan To Focus On Gulf Of Mexico
- 2011/11/08: CSW: Obama administration to expand offshore drilling in Alaska and Gulf of Mexico
The 2012 clown show rolls along:
- 2011/11/11: GreenGrok: Oops. A Green Turnabout in the Presidential Race?
- 2011/11/10: InformedComment: Perry's Lapse likely owing to Bad Faith and Destructive Politics
- 2011/11/09: AlterNet: GOP Debate Debacle: Audience Boos Woman Moderator for Challenging Cain on Sexual Harassment; Perry Brain-Freeze Spells Doom
- 2011/11/08: DemNow: The Koch-Cain Connection: IRS Urged to Probe Ties Between Cain Campaign and Billionaire Koch Brothers
- 2011/11/07: Guardian(UK): Koch brothers: secretive billionaires to launch vast database with 2012 in mind
David and Charles Koch, oil tycoons with strong right-wing views and connections, look set to tighten their grip on US politics - 2011/11/08: QuarkSoup: Is Ron Paul Blind?
Time-out called in the Keystone XL battle:
- 2011/11/12: CDreams: Keystone Delay Unlikely to Stall Giant Oil Companies
- 2011/11/11: CFR:ML: Can The Keystone XL Coalition Stop Climate Change?
- 2011/11/06: CFR:ML: Missing The Big Picture on Keystone XL
- 2011/11/11: Grist: Keystone "victory" is nothing of the sort, say testy wonks
- 2011/11/10: Grist: We won a temporary victory on Keystone XL, but the fight goes on by Bill McKibben
- 2011/11/10: OilChange: President Obama sides with the "many over the money" by effectively rejecting Keystone XL
- 2011/11/11: AutoBG: Keystone XL Pipeline decision pushed back to 2013
- 2011/11/10: CNN: Keystone pipeline delayed by Obama until 2013
- 2011/11/10: ICT: Indians Score a Win With Pipeline Postponement
- 2011/11/10: Tyee: Obama Delay May Kill Keystone, Won't Slow Oil Sands
As enviro activists rejoice, industry pins more hopes on [Northern Gateway] pipeline crossing BC. - 2011/11/11: TreeHugger: Greens Celebrate Keystone XL Delay, But Biggest Fight Still Looms (Video)
- 2011/11/10: PI: Pembina reacts to additional review of proposed Keystone XL pipeline
- 2011/11/11: CEP: Keystone XL delay a major victory for workers, environmentalists
- 2011/11/11: DemNow: Naomi Klein on Environmental Victory: Obama Delays Keystone XL Oil Pipeline Decision Until 2013
- 2011/11/12: BCLSB: Michael Levi On The Keystone Pipeline: Lamenting A Train That's Already Left The Station
- 2011/11/10: WiC: How the 99 percent beat Keystone XL
- 2011/11/10: AlterNet: Keystone Pipeline Victory: President Puts Disastrous Pipeline on Hold -- May Effectively Kill the Project
- 2011/11/10: TP:JR: ...Obama Sends Keystone XL Back to State for Review...
- 2011/11/10: PSinclair: Obama Kicks [Keystone XL] Pipeline down the Road
- 2011/11/10: ITracker: Keystone XL on hold
- 2011/11/10: StateDept: Keystone XL Pipeline Project Review Process: Decision to Seek Additional Information
- 2011/11/10: DeSmogBlog: State Department Delays Keystone XL Decision Until 2013
- 2011/11/10: 350orBust: #NOKXL! Score One For Our Children's Future (For A Change)
- 2011/11/10: BBC: The Obama administration is to reassess the route of a controversial Canada-US oil pipeline, delaying a decision on the project by up to 18 months
- 2011/11/10: CBC: Keystone pipeline decision shelved until 2013 -- TransCanada says it will work with State Department on new options
- 2011/11/10: CDreams: US Delays Keystone XL Pipeline Project
The State Department will take another look at the route of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, pushing President Barack Obama's difficult decision on the project until after the 2012 election. - 2011/11/10: PlanetArk: Nebraska Lawmakers Debate Pipeline Eminent Domain Rules
- 2011/11/10: TP:JR: The Carbon Bomb: Mini Keystone XLs All Across America
- 2011/11/09: CBC: Keystone route change considered, U.S. official says
The U.S. State Department is considering a plan that would reroute the Keystone XL oil pipeline proposed by Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. away from environmentally sensitive areas of Nebraska, The Associated Press reports. AP quoted a U.S. official on Wednesday, saying the official had asked not to be identified because no decision has been made. - 2011/11/09: Grist: State Dept. might reroute Keystone XL
- 2011/11/09: QuarkSoup: Valero Positioning To Export Tar Sands Oil, Guarding Pot of Gold at End of Keystone XL Pipeline
- 2011/11/08: TP:JR: Keystone XL Audit Boosts Chances Obama Will Delay Pipeline Decision Until After Election
- 2011/11/07: NYT: Keystone XL Pipeline Decision to Be Investigated [by State Department Inspector General]
- 2011/11/07: BBC: State department faces Keystone XL review
The US state department's handing of a request to build Keystone XL, a 1,600-mile (2,700km) oil pipeline, will be reviewed for wrongdoing. Reports have surfaced that a company involved in the environmental review had listed developer TransCanada as a "major client". The review decision comes a day after demonstrators protested against the pipeline plans outside the White House. A review could potentially delay a final decision on the pipeline. - 2011/11/07: Grist: Inspector general will investigate Keystone XL
According to a memo posted by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the State Department's inspector general will conduct an investigation into the Keystone XL permitting process. Fourteen members of Congress requested an audit two weeks ago, citing irregularities in the environmental review for the pipeline. - 2011/11/07: DeSmogBlog: Inspector General To Investigate Keystone XL Conflicts
- 2011/11/07: OilChange: "Yes we can, stop the pipeline."
- 2011/11/07: 350orBust: Mark Ruffalo On Opposing Keystone XL Pipeline: I Look At My Kids and I Say I Can't Betray Them
- 2011/11/06: DeSmogBlog: Bogus Job Numbers Used To Sell Keystone XL Pipeline
Earlier in the week, K XL activists played ring around the WhiteHouse. Did they chant "Out demon! Out!" like the Yippies around the Pentagon in 1967?
- 2011/11/11: CSW: Keystone XL tar sands pipeline demonstrators surround White House - pipeline permit decision blocked until 2013
- 2011/11/06: CBC: Keystone protesters surround White House
- 2011/11/09: Rabble: Thousands encircle White House to protest Keystone XL pipeline
- 2011/11/07: DemNow: 10,000 Surround White House to Protest Keystone XL Tar Sands Oil Pipeline
- 2011/11/07: AlterNet: Thousands Circle White House to Protest Keystone XL: Will They Abandon Obama if Pipeline is Approved?
- 2011/11/06: CCP: From Bill McKibben: more than 12,000 people from every corner of the country descended on Washington DC; then, with great precision, they fanned out to surround the White House and take a stand against the Keystone XL oil pipeline
- 2011/11/06: CCP: A. Siegel: A message from 10,000+ to BarackObama.COM
- 2011/11/07: TP:JR: Thousands Circle White House to Protest Keystone XL: Will They Abandon Obama if Pipeline is Approved?
- 2011/11/06: Grist: Pipeline protesters encircle the White House
- 2011/11/06: SciAm:GP: Oil Pipeline Protesters Surround the White House Today
- 2011/11/06: TreeHugger: 12,000 Tar Sands Protesters Wrap White House in Human Chain
- 2011/11/07: BBC: Keystone XL pipeline protesters encircle White House
Thousands of protesters opposed to a controversial pipeline project surrounded the White House on Sunday. Canadian company TransCanada is seeking permission to build the 1,600-mile (2,700km) Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to the Gulf coast in Texas. Environmentalists are opposed to the project because of the method used for extracting petroleum from Alberta's oil sands. They are also concerned by the risk of pollution on the pipeline route. The proposed pipeline would pass south from Alberta through the US states of Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma before ending up at refineries in Texas. - 2011/11/11: TP:JR: Despite Industry Ties, DOE Fracking Panel Warns of "A Real Risk of Serious Environmental Consequences" Absent Regulation
- 2011/11/11: TreeHugger: Fracking Has "Real Risk Of Serious Environmental Consequences", Federal Subcommittee Reports
- 2011/11/10: WaPo: Panel: Without action, shale gas drilling poses 'serious environmental consequences'
Late comment on the Mann email verdict:
- 2011/11/09: Nature: [Editorial] Academic freedom
A court decision in the United States rescinding an order to turn over academic e-mails in response to a freedom-of-information request is welcome. - 2011/11/09: CCP: Nature: Academic freedom.
A court decision in the United States rescinding an order to turn over academic e-mails [of Michael Mann] in response to a freedom-of-information request [by right-wing faux think tank, American Traditions Institute] is welcome - 2011/11/09: TP:JR: We Have "Learned Nothing" from BP Disaster: Obama Opens More of Arctic to Offshore Drilling
- 2011/11/08: BBC: Obama opens Gulf and Alaska to further drilling
- 2011/11/07: al Jazeera: Obama faces Canadian pipeline dilemma
Environmentalists and unions lobby US president over extension of Keystone pipeline to Texas refineries. - 2011/11/11: TreeHugger: Fracking May Have Polluted Wyoming Aquifer, EPA Investigation Finds
- 2011/11/11: DemNow: White House Could Cast Decisive Vote to Permit 20,000 Fracking Wells in Delaware River Basin
- 2011/11/09: ScienceInsider: Steven Koonin to Step Down as DOE Science Honcho
- 2011/11/09: ScienceInsider: New NSF Program Sidesteps External Peer Review
- 2011/11/09: NatureNB: Steven Koonin leaving US Department of Energy
- 2011/11/08: LA Times:GS: Obama proposes CO2 regulations
The Obama Administration announced Tuesday its intention to regulate CO2 emissions from power plants for the first time. The new rule, nimbly titled "Greenhouse Gas New Source Performance Standard for Electric Utility Steam Generating Units," would allow the Environmental Protection Agency to create emissions standards for new power plants. It is another end-run around a Congress that has balked at passing cap-and-trade legislation or other remedies to curb greenhouse gases. - 2011/11/08: TP:JR: The Power of Persistence: Carol Browner Wins Conservation Award for a Lifetime of Environmental Work
As for what is going on in Congress:
- 2011/11/10: TP:JR: In a Win for Public Health and Environment, [Senator] Rand Paul (R- Ky) Loses Bid to Weaken Air Quality Standards
- 2011/11/11: PlanetArk: Democrats Axe Bill To Block EPA Clean Air Rule
- 2011/11/10: USAToday: Senate says no to blocking EPA rule
- 2011/11/10: Grist: Extreme pollution agenda in Senate targets lifesaving clean air standards
- 2011/11/09: TP:JR: After Being Thanked by Big Oil for Backing Tax Breaks, Pat Toomey Blasts Loans to Cleantech with "Commercial Success"
What are the lobbyists pushing?
- 2011/11/10: CDreams: Report: Natural Gas Industry Spent Millions to Avoid Fracking Regulations
[...]
From 2001 through June 2011, companies now engaged in fracking contributed $20.5 million to current members of Congress. Industry giving more than tripled from the 2001-02 election cycle, when $2 million was contributed, to the 2009-10 election cycle, when $6.8 million was contributed. These same companies spent $726 million on lobbying at the federal level from 2001 through September, 2011. - 2011/11/11: BBC: Chancellor George Osborne has announced an extra £103m of funding for renewable energy in Scotland
- 2011/11/12: BBC: Friends of the Earth legal action over solar subsidy
- 2011/11/10: BBC: CBI criticises solar subsidy [FIT] cut
The UK's biggest business group has criticised the government's decision to halve the subsidies for household solar electricity by next month. Under the scheme, people in Britain with solar panels are paid for the electricity they generate. The CBI said the decision to halve "feed-in tariffs" earlier than planned would force companies to cancel planned work destroying projects and jobs. - 2011/11/07: Guardian(UK): MP calls for transparency over green taxes on energy bills
Cost of levies should be published to ensure 'rational debate' on new low-carbon energy infrastructure in the UK, says Tim Yeo - 2011/11/10: Reuters: Europe set to revive 30 percent carbon cut debate
- 2011/11/08: FuturePundit: Europe Boosting CO2 Emissions With Biofuels Mandate
- 2011/11/09: DerSpiegel: Mining Green Energy -- A Coal Region's Quest to Switch to Renewables
Germany's bituminous coal mines are soon to lose their subsidies. But one Ruhr Valley company is looking to transform its mines into sources of renewable energy. Along the way, they could solve one of Germany's largest challenges as it attempts to switch over to green energy. - 2011/11/09: EurActiv: Parliament may shield pensioners from FTT
The European Parliament may exempt pension funds from a draft proposal to tax a wide variety of financial transactions, the head of the legislature's committee for financial regulation said yesterday (8 November). - 2011/11/09: EurActiv: EU energy official '60%' confident on efficiency target
The EU's chances of meeting its objective of cutting energy consumption 20% by 2020 are only just better than even, the EU's top energy official has told EurActiv. Asked how confident he was that the target could be achieved, Philip Lowe, the European Commission's director general for energy replied: "On present progress, 60%!" - 2011/11/09: EUO: Financial tax divides EU finance ministers [Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Britain & Sweden opposed]
- 2011/11/09: PlanetArk: Denmark Says Higher EU Carbon Goal Politically Vexed
- 2011/11/08: PlanetArk: Germany's Greens: From Unelectable To Unavoidable
Meanwhile in Australia:
- 2011/11/11: ABC(Au): [The Bendigo] Council sets greenhouse emissions target
- 2011/11/11: PeakEnergy: 100% renewables, no hot air
- 2011/11/09: ABC(Au): NT to face worst of climate change
The carbon bill has passed the Senate and previously, the House. Now comes the Proclamation and the implementation:
- 2011/11/12: JQuiggin: Crunch time for carbon sceptics
- 2011/11/12: ABC(Au):TDU: Now begins the campaign for serious climate action
- 2011/11/11: HotTopic: Australia's carbon price mechanism in six dot points
- 2011/11/08: QuarkSoup: Australia Carbon Tax is Passed
- 2011/11/09: KSJT: Lots of Oz Ink: Australia starts taxing carbon. "Social license to operate" in conversation
- 2011/11/09: ABC(Au): Federal Govt urged to deliver on carbon tax aid
- 2011/11/09: ABC(Au): Fears carbon tax to threaten regional jobs
A central western New South Wales Nationals' MP [Member for Parkes, Mark Coulton] says the carbon tax will put regional jobs at risk. - 2011/11/09: ABC(Au): Cattlemen say they will feel pinch from carbon tax
- 2011/11/09: PeakEnergy: Green Day: Australian Carbon Tax Passes Senate
- 2011/11/08: CNN: Australia approves carbon emissions tax
Bill to introduce carbon tax on country's biggest polluters passed by Australian Senate - Carbon price fixed at AUS$23 from July 1 2012 before moving to flexible pricing in 2015 - Prime Minsiter Julia Gillard decribes vote as "history making" - Opposition leader Tony Abbot says tax will threaten jobs and raise taxes - 2011/11/08: ClassM: Big new from Down Under
- 2011/11/08: PlanetJ: Clean Energy Bill only the beginning
- 2011/11/08: ABC(Au): Windsor dismisses Judas attack
Independent MP Tony Windsor has laughed off an attack from the Nationals over his support for the carbon tax. Nationals Senator Ron Boswell branded Mr Windsor "the greatest sell-out since Judas Iscariot" yesterday after the Government's carbon tax bills were passed by the Senate. - 2011/11/09: ABC(Au): Government continues carbon tax sell
- 2011/11/08: Deltoid: Australia passes carbon tax
- 2011/11/08: TreeHugger: Australia Passes National Carbon Pricing Program - Second Outside of EU
- 2011/11/08: Guardian(UK): Australian Senate passes carbon tax
Vote is a victory for Julia Gillard, who staked her government's future on the most comprehensive carbon price scheme outside Europe - 2011/11/08: 350orBust: Australia Leads In Climate Fight, Passes Carbon Tax
- 2011/11/08: CBC: Australia passes carbon tax on big polluters
- 2011/11/08: HotTopic: Baby steps: Australia's carbon tax passes Senate vote
- 2011/11/08: al Jazeera: Australia passes landmark carbon price laws
Putting a price on emissions is one of the biggest economic reforms in a decade, giving impetus to global climate talks. - 2011/11/08: ABC(Au): Abbott 'cutting and running' from carbon tax vote
- 2011/11/08: ABC(Au): Carbon tax passes Senate
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has hailed the passage of the controversial clean energy bills through their final vote in the Senate as "a win for Australia's children". The legislation passed the Senate 36-32 and will become law from July 1 next year. At that time polluting industries will pay $23 per tonne of carbon emissions and households will be compensated for extra costs through tax cuts and increased benefits. - 2011/11/07: BBC: Australia Senate backs carbon tax
Australia's Senate has approved a controversial law on pollution, after years of bitter political wrangling. The Clean Energy Act will force the country's 500 worst-polluting companies to pay a tax on their carbon emissions from 1 July next year. - 2011/11/08: ABC(Au): Carbon tax set to pass the Senate
The carbon tax is expected to pass the Senate today, ending the Government's long battle to introduce a carbon price. After two failed attempts, months of negotiations and many hours of parliamentary debate, the Government and Greens will use their numbers in the Senate to force a final vote. - 2011/11/10: ABC(Au): Olympic Dam expansion bill through SA Lower House
- 2011/11/08: ABC(Au): Release date announced for basin plan
Far western New South Wales residents will be able to see the highly anticipated draft plan for the Murray-Darling Basin in three weeks. Water Minister Tony Burke says the draft plan will be released on November 28 and will return 2,8000 gigalitres to the system. - 2011/11/09: HotTopic: Three years of "very serious" climate policy failure
- 2011/11/09: HotTopic: Oxfam NZ Election Debate: Climate change
While in China:
- 2011/11/07: Google:AFP: Excess heavy metals in 10% of China's land: report
About 10 percent of China's farmland contains excessive levels of heavy metals due to contaminated water and poisonous waste seeping into the soil, state media said Monday, citing a government survey. Pollution from heavy metals such as lead, mercury and cancer-causing cadmium is often blamed for poisoning entire villages and crop-growing land in China as factory bosses flout environmental laws and farmers use toxic fertilisers. - 2011/11/07: China(cn): One-tenth of China's farmland polluted
About 100,000 square kilometers of China's farmland, accounting for close to a tenth of all the fields in the country, is polluted by heavy metal, a government expert said in a conference Monday. Wan Bentai, the chief engineer for China's Ministry of Environmental Protection, said heavy metal from smelter chimneys, water run-offs and tailings has polluted in total about 10 percent of the country's farmland, and the pollution levels have exceeded government limits, according to Southern Metropolitan Daily. - 2011/11/09: PlanetArk: South African Industry Questions Climate Change Plan
- 2011/11/07: Guardian(UK): Greenpeace stages protest at South African coal power station
And South America:
- 2011/10/27: SI: Peru fires top indigenous rights official after she blocks gas project
In Canada, neocon PM Harper, continues his do-nothing policy:
- 2011/11/12: WMTC: harper govt ignores science, puts environment at risk. yes, what else is new.
- 2011/11/11: TMoS: Guardian Exposes Harper's War on the Environment
- 2011/11/10: PostMedia: Global warming comes home
A funny thing happened while Canada was dragging its feet on climate change: The permafrost began to melt. While the political debate raged on, with one Conservative MP musing not long ago about "alarmism" over climate change and Canada, meanwhile, cementing a reputation as an international laggard, reality intervened in the form of thawing tundra, landslides, erosion, flooding, and numerous other symptoms of a quickly warming climate, some in our own backyard. But if you expected climate change at home to inspire politicians to be more aggressive about fighting global warming, you would be wrong. The federal government wants to help Canadians cope with changes, but when it comes to taking a leadership role in cutting greenhouse gases to mitigate future climate change, that's a little more complicated. Canada prefers to move at its own pace which, by any international standard, is slow. - 2011/11/09: Guardian(UK): Canada cuts environment spending
Stephen Harper's administration is cutting budgets for climate, conservation and ozone monitoring projects - 2011/11/09: IPSNews: Harper Government Guts Environment Programmes
Canada's Stephen Harper government is spending more than 60 billion dollars on new military jets and warships while slashing more than 200 million dollars in funding for research and monitoring of the environment. - 2011/11/08: PI: Pembina reacts to Minister Kent's remarks on climate change
- 2011/11/08: PostMedia: Kent says new $149-million investment addresses climate change "reality"
- 2011/11/08: CBC: Canada's climate stance expected to spark controversy
- 2011/11/08: PostMedia: Minister 'hopeful' EU oil penalty will be blocked -- Directive could hurt oilsands reputation, close future markets
Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver says he's hopeful a "blocking minority" in the European Parliament will prevent the EU's fuel-quality standards - which would penalize the oilsands - from being adopted in the short term. Currently, Canada sends approximately 97 per cent of its energy exports to the U.S. and virtually no oil to Europe. But the Conservative government and energy industry have been aggressively lobbying officials from the European Union to reject the EU's proposed Fuel Quality Directive - which would label the oilsands one of the dirtiest forms of crude oil in the world. Last month, the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, approved placing a higher carbon-emissions value on bitumen-derived fuel than conventional oil under the directive. Canada fears the EU's actions could severely damage the oilsands industry's worldwide reputation and close future export markets for the third-largest proven oil reserves in the world. - 2011/11/07: CBC: G20 detainee [Byron Sonne] claims rights violations as trial begins
The trial of a man charged with possessing explosives in the lead up to the G20 economic summit in Toronto began on Monday, with lawyers arguing his charter rights were violated when police detained him and searched his property. - 2011/11/10: Tyee: Natural Gas Exports Threaten Energy Security Says Expert -- Canada judged too quick to deplete fields; domestic demand to soar
- 2011/11/11: EnergyBulletin: Canadian Gas Exports Threaten Energy Security
Don't you just love this sort of duelling headlines?
- 2011/11/07: TStar: Canada's climate change plans to fall short, new study says
Federal and provincial programs to cut greenhouse gas emissions won't even get Canada half of the way toward meeting the reduction targets that have been set for 2020. But the fact that they will even go that far is being presented as a sign of progress in a new report. Such are the low expectations surrounding the policies to tackle global warming in the country. The study, by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, a respected, non-partisan environmental think-tank, suggests Canada is on track to cut out 103 megatonnes of greenhouse gases by 2020. That works out to 46 per cent of the emissions reduction goal that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has set for the country. The gap is equal to 120 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, says the report by Dave Sawyer, the institute's climate change director. - 2011/11/07: CBC: Canada can meet 2020 emissions target, report says
But Ottawa will have to introduce measures for industries it didn't intend to regulate The Conservative government is on the right track with its approach to greenhouse gas reductions, but it needs an extra push to reach its 2020 targets, a group of independent researchers says. The report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, released Monday, examined Ottawa's approach of gradually introducing emissions regulations one industry at a time. - 2011/11/10: PI: Pembina reacts to additional review of proposed Keystone XL pipeline
- 2011/11/11: G&M: Flaherty talks tough with U.S. in wake of Keystone pipeline delay
In a move that reflects a widening rift with Canada's largest trading partner, a senior Harper government minister is warning that Washington's decision to postpone a review of the Keystone XL pipeline could doom the project and speed up Ottawa's efforts to ship oil to Asia instead. - 2011/11/11: JAWL: Miss your quota loose your territory
- 2011/11/12: PostMedia: Keystone: from 'no-brainer' to not so fast
Analysis The battle over the 2,700-kilometre Keystone XL oilsands pipeline was fought on the plains of Nebraska and in Washington's corridors of power. As Sheldon Alberts writes, TransCanada and its allies in Ottawa underestimated their opponents in both places - 2011/11/12: PostMedia: Stopping Keystone XL won't save the planet [DFrum]
- 2011/11/11: TStar: What Harper should learn from pipeline debacle
- 2011/11/11: CBC: Keystone delay could kill project, Flaherty says
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says the decision to delay approval of the Keystone XL pipeline may kill the project and could add momentum to efforts to open up the Asian market for Canadian oil. - 2011/11/09: CBC: Stockpiled Keystone pipes troubling, NDP MP says -- TransCanada stockpiling pipes as delays become more likely
It's troubling that TransCanada is sending pipes to the U.S. before the State Department approves the Keystone XL extension, an NDP critic said Wednesday. Truckloads of pipe from Canada are arriving daily in Gascoyne, N.D., where they are being stockpiled, Radio-Canada reporter Marc Godbout reported Monday. - 2011/11/09: CBC: China keen market for oil sands, Oliver says
- 2011/11/08: G&M: U.S. talks on Keystone route could push project past 2012 election
- 2011/11/08: CBC: Canada delivering Keystone XL pipes to U.S.
As the U.S. State Department proceeds with a special review of the Obama administration's handling of TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline proposal, pipes for the project are already being delivered south of the border. Truckloads of pipe from Canada are arriving daily in Gascoyne, N.D., where they are being stockpiled, Radio-Canada reporter Marc Godbout reported Monday. - 2011/11/06: TP:JR: Canadian PM Harper Says Okaying the Tar Sands Pipeline Is a "Complete No-Brainer." I Could Not Agree More
They're still fighting megaloads in the Pacific North West states:
- 2011/11/07: Oregonian: Opponents force Imperial Oil to send megaloads to Canada's oil sands on interstates, avoiding scenic highways
Meanwhile in the CWB saga:
- 2011/11/11: PSGraham: 7 reasons city slickers should support the Canadian Wheat Board
- 2011/11/11: CBC: Ritz retracts 'stealing' comment to wheat board chair
Gerry Ritz has retracted his accusation that the Canadian Wheat Board's chair was "stealing" farmers' money after the federal agriculture minister was threatened with legal action. "This word was only used figuratively and I retract it," Ritz said in a statement Friday. - 2011/11/08: BuckDog: Those Conservatives who assume Canadian farmers can just truck their grain into the United States are living in a dream world
The ISA virus in BC waters is potentially disastrous:
- 2011/11/12: AlexandraMorton: ISA virus high-stakes global finance
- 2011/11/12: TheCanadian: Shades of Green: ISAv - Threat, Fear, Mystery and Warning
- 2011/11/11: ProMedMail: Infectious salmon anemia - Canada (04): (BC), questioned
- 2011/11/11: NorthernInsights: When up is down and down is up [ISA]
- 2011/11/10: ProMedMail: Infectious salmon anemia - Canada (03): (BC)
- 2011/11/08: PostMedia: Virus fears for B.C. salmon unfounded, officials say
Fears that a deadly virus is infecting B.C. salmon appear to be unfounded, federal officials said Tuesday. Tests at a specialized Moncton laboratory by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Fisheries and Oceans on 48 samples of sockeye smolts found no sign of infectious salmon anemia (ISA), said Con Kiley, CFIA national aquatic animal health program director. - 2011/11/08: TheCanadian: Canadian Food Inspection Agency Denies ISAv Infection in BC
- 2011/11/07: TheCanadian: Special ISAv Session Announced for Cohen Inquiry
- 2011/11/07: AlexandraMorton: The history of ISA virus in BC
- 2011/11/05: Inquiry to hold special session amid fears virus is affecting B.C. salmon
The Cohen Inquiry, looking into the decline of Fraser River sockeye salmon, will hold a special two-day session next month because of the possibility a potentially lethal virus could be affecting wild salmon. "Testing of samples of Pacific salmon from two areas of the province has indicated the possible presence of the infectious salmon anemia (ISA) virus in several Pacific salmon," said Brian Wallace, senior counsel for the Cohen Commission. - 2011/11/09: OPB: Scientists On the Trail of a Potential Salmon Killer
Canadian officials declared Tuesday that previous findings of the Infectious Salmon Anemia Virus in wild salmon in British Columbia were false. But many in the scientific community are calling for further testing because the virus has killed millions of farmed salmon in Europe, Chile and the east coast of North America. - 2011/11/08: PostMedia: Deadly salmon virus not found in B.C. in 'inconclusive' government tests
No confirmed cases of infectious salmon anemia have been found in B.C. wild or farmed salmon tested by the federal government, officials from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Fisheries and Oceans said Tuesday. Results of followup tests, carried out at DFO's reference laboratory in Moncton, N.B., run contrary to findings from tests on the same fish samples conducted at the University of Prince Edward Island, but confirm results from an independent laboratory in Norway, said Con Kiley, director of the CFIA's national aquatic animal health program. However, some questions remain, Kiley said. "The supplementary results must be considered inconclusive because of the poor quality of the samples," he said, adding, "additional testing will continue and the results will be provided when we are ready." The timing of further testing will be decided by scientists, Kiley said. - 2011/11/08: ProMedMail: Infectious salmon anemia - Canada (02): (BC)
- 2011/11/06: STimes: Anxiety up as more salmon virus found in B.C.
BC is wrangling over energy:
- 2011/11/07: PI:B: B.C. paves the way for cleaner cars
- 2011/11/11: CBC: Gas industry health effects to undergo B.C. study
The B.C. government will study any health risks posed by the province's booming gas industry. In a written statement to the CBC, the provincial Ministry of Health said the study is to address concerns raised by the public. - 2011/11/09: PostMedia: B.C. should cap gas sector growth, report says -- Shale gas production is recklessly getting too big, too fast, CCPA warns
British Columbia should cap annual natural gas production as a hedge against economic, environmental and human health risks associated with rapid expansion of the industry, a new report urges. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, along with the Wilderness Committee, is to issue a report today warning that the B.C. government is not keeping pace with accelerating development of B.C.'s natural gas sector, notably a growing dependence on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to extract gas from shale gas deposits. The report describes B.C.'s pursuit of shale gas development, including exclusive access to water and lax regulations for greenhouse gas emissions, as "reckless." - 2011/11/07: DeSmogBlog: BC Tap Water Alliance Calls for Resignation of Energy Minister Coleman Over Fracking
Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:
- 2011/11/10: PI: Pembina reacts to Alberta's new oilsands information portal
- 2011/11/12: TRPS: The Logical Fallacy of Ethical Oil
- 2011/11/11: DVoice: Tar Wars
- 2011/11/11: PostMedia: 'Ethical' oil strategy failed on Keystone, say observers
- 2011/11/08: CCurrents: The Devil In The Tar Sands
- 2011/11/08: BCLSB: Welcome To Mordor
- 2011/11/08: CBC: Alberta premier goes to U.S. to back Keystone pipeline
Premier Alison Redford is going to Washington to convince U.S. lawmakers to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. TransCanada's 2,736-kilometre pipeline would carry oil derived from the Alberta oilsands through Montana, South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma to refineries in Texas. - 2011/11/08: CBC: TransAlta admits to manipulating electricity prices -- Alberta's premier [Alison Redford] says the province should review the entire electrical industry
The Conservative in deed, Saskatchewan Party in name, won the election:
- 2011/11/08: PostMedia: NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter steps down
Faced with the provincial New Democratic Party's worst showing in a general election since 1982 and the loss of his own seat, party leader Dwain Lingenfelter announced his resignation Monday. With results showing the NDP could end up with nine seats in the legislature compared to 49 for Brad Wall's Saskatchewan Party, Lingenfelter said during a media scrum shortly before 10 p.m. he would give up the leader's job. - 2011/11/07: CBC: Saskatchewan Party wins election
In the Maritimes:
- 2011/11/09: CBC: N.B. files RCMP complaint against Windsor Energy
The New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources has filed a complaint against Windsor Energy Inc. with the RCMP for allegedly violating the Oil and Natural Gas Act. The Calgary-based company is accused of directing a contracted company to conduct geophysical exploration within the boundaries of the town of Sussex without the town's permission, according to a statement issued Wednesday by Natural Resources Minister Bruce Northrup. - 2011/11/11: PlanetArk: Canada's Tiny Arctic Port Faces Uncertain Future
- 2011/11/09: CBC: Aglukkaq says no money wasted at CanNor
The federal minister responsible for economic development in the North says the CanNor agency needs to do better at documenting expenses. But Leona Aglukkaq maintains no money was wasted. Aglukkaq has been under fire in recent weeks since the Comptroller General found it broke financial management laws. - 2011/11/11: Grist: Defense insiders: Sustainable communities are key to the future
- 2011/11/11: Rabble: Climate change, capitalism and the transformation of cultural values
- 2011/11/10: NewInt:B: Life beyond growth
- 2011/11/09: Grist: A co-op movement grows in Cleveland
- 2011/11/07: P3: Bugs in the System
- 2011/11/07: Grist: Series Intro -- Sustainability as growth strategy
IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology] raised its head once again:
- 2011/11/11: HotTopic: Too Many People?
- 2011/11/09: DemNow: Mississippi Rejects Bill to Grant Pre-Embryonic "Personhood," Outlaw Fertility Aid, Birth Control
- 2011/11/08: ACLU: Mississippi Voters Reject Dangerous Amendment Designed to Ban Abortion and Set Up Challenge to Roe v. Wade
- 2011/11/09: S&R: Mississippi votes down zygote personhood
- 2011/11/08: QuarkSoup: Mississippi defeats life-at-fertilization ballot prop
- 2011/11/08: NatureNB: Personhood amendment rejected in Mississippi
- 2011/11/08: PeakEnergy: Seven Billion: The Graph
- 2011/11/08: BBC: Mississippi voters decide if fertilized egg is a person
- 2011/11/07: AlterNet: How Mississippi's Vote Today Could Put Pregnant Women Under State Control
- 2011/11/07: CSM: Is an embryo a 'person'? Mississippi set to decide in abortion referendum
After years of antiabortion groups whittling away at the edges of Roe v. Wade, Mississippi is poised to cut straight to the chase by asserting that "personhood" begins at conception, meaning that any type of abortion or postconception birth control could be considered murder. Part of a salvo aimed at overturning Roe v. Wade, Initiative 26 is a ballot measure that comes up for a vote Nov. 8 ... - 2011/11/06: AlterNet: Anti-Choicers Still Just Want to Control Women's Sex Lives
Apocalypso anyone?
- 2011/11/11: EnergyBulletin: Collapse could happen, literally, overnight
- 2011/11/09: Grist: How's it feel to already be living in a post peak-oil apocalypse?
How do the media measure up?
- 2011/11/09: CJR: The Kochs and Keystone XL
InsideClimate fails to make its case about brothers' interest in the pipeline -- but it should keep trying - 2011/11/08: FAIR: Pipeline Protesters Are Noise to the Washington Post
- 2011/11/10: KSJT: Power of broadcast news? Bigger % of Fox News watchers than of MSNBC, CNN don't buy global warming as a serious problem
- 2011/11/08: MediaMatters: Wall Street Journal Downplays [BEST] Study Confirming Global Warming
- 2011/11/09: Deltoid: The Australian's War on Science 73: Blainey's false history
- 2011/11/06: CCP: Howard Friel: Why Joe Romm Should Replace Andrew Revkin as the New York Times' Climate Blogger
- 2011/11/07: TP:JR: Fox Scraping the Barrel for Attacks on UN Climate Panel (or, You Have Got To Be F*!$*%@&! Kidding Me)
- 2011/11/07: Deltoid: The Australian's War on Science 72: George Pell learns nothing
Oh Look! The media in the fossil fuel corporation countries foster denial. Gee, what a surprise:
- 2011/11/11: Grist: Climate denialism: It's an Anglo-Saxon thing
- 2011/11/11: Guardian(UK): Is climate scepticism a largely Anglo-Saxon phenomenon?
A new study shows that climate sceptics feature much more prominently in the UK and US media than in other countries - 2011/11/11: CarbonBrief: Reuters report finds cultural divide in coverage of skeptics
- 2011/11/10: BBC:RB: Across the sceptical divide: Language and lobbying
The world wide web, where climate change is most vociferously debated, is predominantly an Anglo-Saxon medium. [...] is it possible that we're getting a distorted view of the "climate debate" globally, simply because we're missing what's going on elsewhere? - 2011/11/10: QuarkSoup: Pew Center on CC Changes Funders
- 2011/11/09: Google:AFP: US climate study group gets big oil funds
A reputable US think-tank that sought solutions for climate change has lost most of its charitable donations and will now take funding from big oil and energy interests, it said Wednesday. Formerly known as the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions will be funded by Shell, General Electric, Bank of America and others. The changes came after The Pew Charitable Trusts decided to stop giving $3.5 million per year to the group, which made up almost 80 percent of its $4.4 million annual budget, as part of structural changes in the philanthropic organization, a spokesman told AFP. - 2011/11/12: JFleck: The sound of bark beetles [Book Plug] _A Great Aridness_ by Bill deBuys
- 2011/11/11: Guardian(UK): [Book Review] _The Rough Guide to The Future_ by Jon Turney
And for your film & video enjoyment:
- 2011/11/11: ClassM: A convert explains his return from the dark side
- 2011/11/11: PSinclair: The Weekend Wonk: How I Avoided the Truth on Climate Change
- 2011/11/11: BBickmore: How to Avoid the Truth About Climate Change
- 2011/11/11: Stoat: How we avoid the truth
- 2011/11/10: TreeHugger: 200 Years Worth of Temperature Data Compiled in One Alarming Video
- 2011/11/12: 350orBust: Saturday Movies
- 2011/11/12: PSinclair: Global Warming 101: Lecture 6 - What Makes a Greenhouse Gas?
- 2011/11/10: HotTopic: The Climate Show #21: carbon, coal and Cook on BEST
- 2011/11/10: SkeptiSci: The Climate Show 21: Carbon, coal and BEST
- 2011/11/07: NCROnline: 'Tipping Point': A primer on the Alberta tar sands
- 2011/11/09: PSinclair: Josh Willis on Sea Level Rise
- 2011/11/09: TP:JR: Annie Leonard: America Isn't Broke, the System is Broken
- 2011/11/09: Grist: It's not dead yet! The electric car makes a comeback, again, maybe
- 2011/11/08: TreeHugger: Dr. Rajendra Pachauri on Pricing Carbon, the Himalaya Glacier Error, and GOP Climate Denial (Video Interview)
- 2011/11/06: BPA: Film Trailer: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time
- 2011/11/08: AFTIC: "Denial Tango" from Men With Day Jobs
- 2011/11/08: OilChange: Story of Broke
- 2011/11/07: Deltoid: Men With Day Jobs - Denial Tango
- 2011/11/07: PSinclair: First, They Came for the Climatologists...
- 2011/11/06: TP:JR: Director of New Documentary _GrowthBusters_ Says "Stop Drinking the Kool-Aid"
- 2011/11/07: TreeHugger: Top U.S. Climate Scientist [James Hansen]: "Tar Sands are the Critical Juncture" (Video)
- 2011/11/07: HotTopic: The denial tango
- 2011/11/06: TaiWh: Dr Vandana Shiva: No More Food Dictatorships
As for podcasts:
- 2011/11/08: TP:JR: Podcast: Amory Lovins on How to "Reinvent Fire" and Run a 150% Bigger Economy With No Oil, Coal or Nuclear
Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:
- 2011/11/11: BBC: Nature journal libel case begins
A libel case against the scientific journal Nature has begun in the High Court, Central London. The case has been brought against the publication by an Egyptian scientist, Prof Mohamed El Naschie. - 2011/11/12: BBC: Friends of the Earth legal action over solar subsidy
Environmental charity Friends of the Earth is to take the government to court over plans to halve subsidies for households which install solar panels. The charity said it had written to the government and asked it to agree to amend its proposals by Friday, but said it received only a "holding response". It comes after the CBI criticised the government's decision to halve the "feed-in tariffs" earlier than planned. The government said it would defend the challenge at judicial review. - 2011/11/10: CDreams: Maine Farmer Heads Group Challenging Genetics Giant Monsanto
[...]
The nonprofit organization [Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association] created a stir in food and farming communities when, with legal backing from the Public Patent Foundation, it filed a lawsuit in March against the chemical and biotechnology giant Monsanto. OSGATA has since been joined in the lawsuit by 82 other seed businesses, trade organizations and family farmers, which together represent more than 270,000 people. - 2011/11/11: NYT: A Gold Rush of Subsidies in Clean Energy Search
- 2011/11/10: TreeHugger: US Energy Use Climbing Again - After 12yr Low In 2009
- 2011/11/09: Guardian(UK): The burning issue of energy cannot wait for economic good times
- 2011/11/02: LLNL: Americans using more fossil fuels
- 2011/11/07: KSJT: Nat'l Geographic: In Nigeria, the haphazard pace of renewable energy
- 2011/11/07: Grist: We could replace coal power with geothermal --- 10 times over
- 2011/11/07: Grist: Public support for clean energy isn't enough; passion and money win in politics
- 2011/11/07: PeakEnergy: [Natural] Gas prices to double in 20 years as demand explodes, Santos predicts
- 2011/11/07: PeakEnergy: In marine current energy, Siemens wants to be 800-lb gorilla
- 2011/11/07: TAG: USA Can be 100% Powered by Geothermal Energy
- 2011/11/06: JEB: You only lose once
Hey! Let's contaminate the aquifer for thousands of years! It'll be a fracking gas!
- 2011/11/11: TreeHugger: Fracking May Have Polluted Wyoming Aquifer, EPA Investigation Finds
- 2011/11/12: CCP: Fracking chemicals found in Wyoming groundwater
- 2011/11/10: CDreams: Report: Natural Gas Industry Spent Millions to Avoid Fracking Regulations
[...]
From 2001 through June 2011, companies now engaged in fracking contributed $20.5 million to current members of Congress. Industry giving more than tripled from the 2001-02 election cycle, when $2 million was contributed, to the 2009-10 election cycle, when $6.8 million was contributed. These same companies spent $726 million on lobbying at the federal level from 2001 through September, 2011. - 2011/11/11: CBC: Gas industry health effects to undergo B.C. study
- 2011/11/09: PostMedia: B.C. should cap gas sector growth, report says -- Shale gas production is recklessly getting too big, too fast, CCPA warns
- 2011/11/08: NBF: Potential Shale plays in World
- 2011/11/07: BBC: Repsol makes big shale oil find in Argentina
The Spanish energy firm Repsol has made its biggest ever oil discovery in Argentina, finding reserves of nearly 1 billion barrels of shale oil. - 2011/11/06: BCLSB: Did Fracking Cause Sparks Quake?
Doesn't this just give you a big warm fuzzy feeling:
- 2011/11/09: DeSmogBlog: Gas Fracking Industry Using Military Psychological Warfare Tactics and Personnel In U.S. Communities
- 2011/11/09: Grist: Oil and gas reps suggest using counterinsurgency tactics on fracking opponents
It's obvious that the natural gas industry has no love for opponents of fracking in places like Pennsylvania. But recordings from an industry meeting reveal that the industry's animosity goes a little deeper than mere irritation -- they think of opponents as an "insurgency" that should be handled with techniques developed to fight terrorism in the Middle East. Sharon Wilson, who directs Earthworks' Oil & Gas Accountability Project, provided the recordings to CNBC. They're from an oil industry conference held last week in Houston. In the recordings, one communications director says that his company has "several former psy ops folks that work for us." He goes to say that "having that understanding of psy ops in the Army and in the Middle East has applied very helpfully here for us in Pennsylvania." - 2011/11/11: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
OIL (US$/bbl)
Nymex Crude Future...98.99
Dated Brent Spot....113.76
WTI Cushing Spot.....98.99 - 2011/11/09: BBC: Oil prices are in 'danger zone', warns the IEA
In the fossil fuel corps:
- 2011/11/08: OilChange: Bob Dudley: "All Mouth, No Trousers"
BP seems incapable of shrugging off the curse of the Deepwater Horizon at the moment, as the company jolts from one crisis to another. - 2011/11/04: TruthOut: Activists Fight to Hold Exxon Mobil Accountable in Valdez Oil Spill (Part One)
- 2011/11/07: DailyTelegraph(Au): 'BP's behaviour' sinks $7B deal
BP's US$7.06 billion ($6.80 billion) bid to sell its stake in an Argentine oil producer has collapsed. BP agreed last November to sell its 60 per cent stake in Pan American Energy to a joint venture of CNOOC and Bridas. Bridas said in a statement that it decided to end the talks because of "legal reasons" and because of "the way BP has acted during the transaction." - 2011/11/07: PlanetArk: Exxon Mobil Says Montana Spill To Cost $135 Million
- 2011/11/06: NM&PC: Big-Oil Monopolies Engage in Price-Gouging
And in pipeline news:
- 2011/11/08: DerSpiegel: Controversial Project Launched -- Merkel and Medvedev Open Baltic Gas Pipeline
- 2011/11/07: NYT: Keystone XL Pipeline Decision to Be Investigated [by State Department Inspector General]
- 2011/11/08: BBC: Nord Stream gas pipeline opened by Merkel and Medvedev
- 2011/11/07: CSM: Gas pipeline from Russia to Germany reveals weakness in Putin's 'energy weapon'
Yes we have a peak oil sighting:
- 2011/11/09: CCurrents: Peak Oil: The Five Most Common Misconceptions
- 2011/11/09: CCurrents: IEA Confirms The End Of Cheap Oil
- 2011/11/10: EnergyBulletin: Peak oil narratives
- 2011/11/09: EnergyBulletin: Who will sound the peak oil alarm?
- 2011/11/09: EnergyBulletin: Hubbert's third prophecy
- 2011/11/07: EnergyBulletin: Ricardo study suggests global oil demand may peak before 2020
- 2011/11/07: EnergyBulletin: ASPO-Italy 5: beyond peak oil
- 2011/11/02: Scitizen: Time to Worry: World Oil Production Finishes Six Years of No Growth
Biofuel bickering abounds:
- 2011/11/08: FuturePundit: Europe Boosting CO2 Emissions With Biofuels Mandate
- 2011/11/09: EnergyBulletin: The biofuel grind
- 2011/11/08: UBC: Wood biofuel could be a competitive industry by 2020: UBC study
The answer my friend...:
- 2011/11/08: Grist: Wind could provide at least 25 percent of electricity for most states
- 2011/11/07: PeakEnergy: Wind like Spain? It's a no-brainer
Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:
- 2011/11/10: RPI: The Baruch '60 Center for Biochemical Solar Energy Research Conference at Rensselaer Draws Solar Experts from Around the World
Conference focused on harnessing the potential of solar energy conversion by emulating the highly efficient mechanisms of natural photosynthesis to create a carbon-neutral future - 2011/11/10: CER:RRapier: Despite Solyndra's Death, the Future of Solar Energy is Sunny
- 2011/11/10: HotTopic: Let the sun shine in
- 2011/11/10: BBerg: Solar Glut Worsens as Supply Cuts Prices 93%
The cost of solar cells and microchips has nowhere to go but down because of a supply glut for the commodity they're made from, a brittle charcoal-colored semiconductor baked in ovens at 600 degrees centigrade. Polysilicon has plunged 93 percent to $33 a kilogram from $475 three years ago as the top five producers more than doubled output, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The industry next year will produce 28 percent more of the raw material than will be consumed, up from 20 percent this year, said Robert Schramm- Fuchs and Shai Hill, analysts at Macquarie Group Ltd. - 2011/11/07: MoJo: Solar Power and its Discontents
- 2011/11/09: Mercury: California hits renewable energy milestone: 1 gigawatt of solar power installed to date
- 2011/11/08: BBerg: Most Solar Makers Will Disappear by 2015: Trina CEO
[The spot price of solar panels has fallen about 40 percent this year as manufacturers particularly in China ramped up their production capacity, according to New Energy Finance.] Most of the biggest solar-equipment makers may disappear in the next few years as plunging prices erode margins and drive the weakest out of business, according to Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL), the fifth-largest supplier of solar panels. "This is the decade of mergers and acquisitions," Jifan Gao, chief executive officer of Changzhou, China-based Trina, said in an interview. "From now until 2015 is the first phase, when about two-thirds of the players will be shaken out." Three U.S. solar companies including Solyndra LLC have gone bankrupt this year and more, led by First Solar Inc. (FSLR) and Yingli Green Energy Holding Co., slashed sales and margin forecasts, reflecting slower growth in demand and stiffer competition. SunPower Corp. (SPWRA) and Roth & Rau AG (R8R) of Germany agreed to takeovers. - 2011/11/08: Grist: Solar comes out of the shadows
- 2011/11/07: TP:JR: Krugman: Only Politics Can Delay "an Energy Transformation, Driven by the Rapidly Falling Cost of Solar Power"
- 2011/11/07: ABC(Au): Flexible solar cells one step closer
- 2011/11/07: PlanetArk: ATS-Owned French Solar Maker Plans Bankruptcy
- 2011/11/06: NYT: Here Comes the Sun
For decades the story of technology has been dominated, in the popular mind and to a large extent in reality, by computing and the things you can do with it. Moore's Law -- in which the price of computing power falls roughly 50 percent every 18 months -- has powered an ever-expanding range of applications, from faxes to Facebook. Our mastery of the material world, on the other hand, has advanced much more slowly. The sources of energy, the way we move stuff around, are much the same as they were a generation ago. But that may be about to change. We are, or at least we should be, on the cusp of an energy transformation, driven by the rapidly falling cost of solar power. That's right, solar power. If that surprises you, if you still think of solar power as some kind of hippie fantasy, blame our fossilized political system, in which fossil fuel producers have both powerful political allies and a powerful propaganda machine that denigrates alternatives. - 2011/11/07: AFTIC: Here Comes Solar Energy - NYTimes.com
- 2011/11/06: NBF: Printable "small-molecule" solar cells reach 6.7% efficiency...
- 2011/11/06: G&M: Solar power boom hits a wall
This is crap. SpectroLab had 40% plus efficiency rated panels ten years ago:
- 2011/11/11: Grist: Most efficient solar panel ever
Feed-In-Tariffs are being variously implemented around the world:
- 2011/11/10: BBC: CBI criticises solar subsidy [FIT] cut
- 2011/11/08: TreeHugger: Renewable Energy Best Promoted By Feed-In Tariffs, IPCC Working Group Says
The nuclear energy controversy continues:
- 2011/11/12: SwissInfo: Axpo says no to Mayak nuclear fuel
One of Switzerland's leading energy utilities, Axpo, has put a stop to uranium supplies from the controversial Mayak nuclear processing plant in Russia. In a statement published on its website on Saturday, Axpo said its failure to gain access to the complex during a recent visit was the reason for its decision, since this meant the power company could not monitor operations there. The Russian authorities denied the Axpo delegation access to the plant, defending the decision by saying it was located in a military no-go zone. - 2011/11/10: DVoice: The High Cost of Freedom from Fossil Fuels
- 2011/11/11: BBC: Commissioning of India Kudankulam nuclear plant delayed
Commissioning of a controversial planned nuclear plant in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu has been delayed by a few months, officials have told the BBC. Kudankulam plant Chief Superintendent MK Balaji said that the delay was due to public protests at the site which had disrupted building work. He said that the site had been subjected to a total blockade by protesters since 13 October. - 2011/11/10: BNC: CEDA report on Australia's nuclear energy options
- 2011/11/10: BBC: Clean-up exposes 17 people to plutonium at Idaho lab
At least 17 people were exposed to plutonium at a US energy department research facility in Idaho during clean-up of a decommissioned reactor. A statement from the Idaho National Laboratory said there was no evidence that radiation was released outside the facility. - 2011/11/08: NBF: Global Nuclear Power Development: Major Expansion Continues
Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:
- 2011/11/11: ScienceInsider: Germany to Look for New Nuclear Waste Site
- 2011/11/09: PlanetArk: A Pyramid To Warn Of A French Nuclear Waste Site?
- 2011/11/09: BBC: Dounreay company gets leak delayed safety honour
The firm leading the decommissioning of Dounreay has been given a safety award it was due to get last month before a minor leak of radioactive fluid. Dounreay Site Restoration Limited's (DSRL) standards of environmental management had been recognised by the British Safety Council. But awarding of the Globe of Honour was delayed when a liquid effluent leaked inside a treatment facility. - 2011/11/10: Eureka: Feeling the heat: 30 tons of fine control for fusion plasmas
- 2011/11/09: NBF: NPR interviews Michel Laberge of General Fusion
- 2011/11/09: NBF: EMC2 Inertial Electrostatic Fusion Update
The Rossi Energy Catalyzer keeps coming up:
- 2011/11/12: NBF: Catalyzer description at new Leonardo-ecat website
- 2011/11/10: NBF: National Instruments signs to do E-Cat controls
- 2011/11/08: NBF: Latest statements from Rossi on his plans for the energy catalyzer
More people are talking about the electrical grid:
- 2011/11/08: EurActiv: EU must double energy grid funding, says study
European Union nations must nearly double investment in power grid construction in the decade after 2020 if they are to get on the path to carbon-free electricity by mid-century, the European Climate Foundation (ECF) think-tank said yesterday (7 November). - 2011/11/07: PlanetArk: EU Energy Grid Funding Must Double: Think-Tank [European Climate Foundation (ECF)]
And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:
- 2011/11/08: Grist: Debunking common energy efficiency myths
- 2011/11/07: EurActiv: Study says cloud computing can slash carbon emissions
Blue-chip companies could reduce their carbon emissions by 50% if they migrate their data storage operations to the cloud, a new study says. The study conducted by the Carbon Disclosure Project in London focussed on large IT companies in France and the UK and found that they could achieve large cost savings and carbon reductions by 2020 if they moved their IT systems to shared data networks. - 2011/11/08: NASA: NASA Develops Super-Black Material That Absorbs Light Across Multiple Wavelength Bands
- 2011/11/09: TechRev: Researchers Design Super-Absorbent Solar Material
A new material, patterned at the nanoscale, absorbs a broad spectrum of light and could make thin-film solar cells more efficient. - 2011/11/09: NBF: Researchers Design Super-Absorbent Solar Material
As for Energy Storage:
- 2011/11/06: Eureka: More promising natural gas storage? New method removes discovery bottleneck by identifying materials with promise
Meanwhile in the greenwashing chronicles:
- 2011/11/07: Grist: Walmart by the numbers: Green vs. growth
Joe Romm posts a daily list of top energy and climate stories:
- 2011/11/11: TP:JR: November 11 News...
- 2011/11/10: TP:JR: Global Climate News...
- 2011/11/10: TP:JR: November 10 News...
- 2011/11/09: TP:JR: November 9 News...
- 2011/11/08: TP:JR: November 8 News...
- 2011/11/07: TP:JR: November 7 News...
Other (weekly) lists:
- 2011/11/07: BPA: Agriculture News
The carbon lobby are up to the usual:
- 2011/11/10: P3: Isaac Asimov and Bunk
- 2011/11/11: Grist: Climate denialism: It's an Anglo-Saxon thing
- 2011/11/11: DeSmogBlog: Koch Brothers Behind Push To Dismantle EPA
- 2011/11/09: CJR: The Kochs and Keystone XL
InsideClimate fails to make its case about brothers' interest in the pipeline -- but it should keep trying - 2011/11/09: AlterNet: Meet the Koch Brothers' Wealthy Right-Wing Grandfather: How His Pro-Corporate Agenda Is Echoed by the Kochs' Assault on Our Democracy
- 2011/11/10: WottsUWT: Anthony Watts Defeats Himself
- 2011/11/10: DeSmogBlog: Conservatives Attack and Misunderstand A Book They Haven't Read...A Book About Flawed Conservative Reasoning
- 2011/11/08: P3: A picture is worth a thousand words... a graph more so
- 2011/11/09: QuarkSoup: Rush Limbaugh: Meat Eater, Science Denier
- 2011/11/08: QuarkSoup: How Skeptics View Global Warming
- 2011/11/08: GreenFyre: Dan Pangburn
- 2011/11/08: CAbyss: The Crackpot-Einstein Scale
- 2011/11/08: AFTIC: Witch Hunter Watch
- 2011/11/07: WottsUWT: Why is 20 years statistically significant when 10 years is not?
- 2011/11/07: QuarkSoup: The Laughable Result They Call "Cooling"
- 2011/11/07: Grist: Handy image shows how climate deniers manipulate data
- 2011/11/07: DeSmogBlog: The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Don't Believe in Science (or Many Other Inconvenient Truths)
- 2011/11/06: WottsUWT: Trenberth: null and void
Meanwhile in the 'clean coal' saga:
- 2011/11/08: WSWS: Wisconsin power plant spills coal ash into Lake Michigan
As for climate miscellanea:
- 2011/11/11: TP:JR: Veterans Day, 2030
- 2011/11/11: TMoS: Atmospheric Rivers
- 2011/11/12: al Jazeera: Energy markets or energy governance?
As uprisings and political entanglements dominate agendas, the biggest crisis of all must not catch us off guard. - 2011/11/10: Guardian(UK): McKinsey trampled on the rainforests -- it can't be trusted
The firm consulting on the NHS shake-up has given advice on forest protection that benefits only big business. Its secrecy is causing concern - 2011/11/09: UCSUSA: Year of Extremes Underscores Need for Better Preparedness, Emissions Reductions
- 2011/11/09: Eureka: Report provides new analysis of carbon accounting, biomass use, and climate benefits
- 2011/11/06: BNC: Depressing climate-related trends -- but who gets it?
And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:
- Tornado History Project: Maps and Statistics
- Wiki: Ogallala Aquifer
- CLAMER: Climate Change Impacts on Marine Ecosystems: Research
- E-Cat Technology by Andrea Rossi of Leonardo Corporation
- CAN: Climate Action Network Canada
- DOE: Natural Gas Subcommittee of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board
- OurWorld 2.0 - United Nations environmental magazine examining the interconnections between climate change, peak oil, biodiversity and food security
- Watershed Sentinel - Environmental News Magazine from British Columbia, and the world!
- IEA: ($) World Energy Outlook 2011
- NOAA:ESRL: The NOAA Annual Greenhouse Gas Index (AGGI)
- Society of American Foresters
- Survival International - The movement for tribal peoples
- P3: What's New In Science
Here's a wee chuckle for ye:
It is disturbing how little coverage the Horn of Africa drought and famine receive. How many have died?
The BEST is still getting some attention:
And on the Bottom Line:
That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:
And how are we going to feed 9 billion?
While on the ENSO front:
Regarding the solar hypothesis:
What's new on the extinction front?
And then there are the world's forests:
Yes we have no wacky weather, except:
On the tornado front:
Corals are a bellwether of the ocean's health:
Acidification is changing the oceans:
These global warming deluges are becoming all too frequent:
Elsewhere on the mitigation front:
While in the endless quest for zero energy, sustainable buildings and practical codes:
The idea of a carbon tax is still bouncing around. See also:
The Robin Hood tax, aka the Tobin tax, aka the Bank tax, aka the Financial Transaction tax keeps coming up:
The energy race between China and the USA is focussing on solar PV:
Also on the international political front:
What are the activists up to?
The DOE Fracking Panel released a report this week:
The Obama chatter is nonstop:
The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:
While in the UK:
And in Europe:
After a 10 year drought and recent massive flooding, water usage planning is controversial and difficult:
And in New Zealand:
In Africa:
The G20 controversy lingers:
All in favour of freezing in the dark...:
The battle over the Keystone XL and Northern Gateway pipelines rages on:
Also in Alberta:
In the North:
The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:
It will be intersting to see how Pew changes as a result of this:
Here is something for your library:
Developing a new energy infrastructure is a fundamental challenge of the current generation:
On the gas and oil front:
Nuclear fusion projects around the world limp along:
This week in the Gee Whiz File:
Low Key Plug
New Web Site:
I have a new website. Everything that was on Autobahn has been ported over. I have 100 megs to play with here, so the Archives will get deeper.
My first novel Water was published in Canada May, 2007. The American release was in October. An Introductionto the novel is available, along with the Unpublished Forewordand the Launch Talk(which includes some quotations), An overview of my writing is available here.
<regards>
P.S. Recent postings can be found in the week archive and the ancient postings can be accessed here, which should open to this.
I notice moyhu has set up a monster index to old AWoGWN on AFTIC.- Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
- Guide reproduction wisely - improving fitness and diversity.
- Unite humanity with a living new language.
- Rule passion - faith - tradition - and all things with tempered reason.
- Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
- Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
- Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
- Balance personal rights with social duties.
- Prize truth - beauty - love - seeking harmony with the infinite.
- Be not a cancer on the earth - Leave room for nature - Leave room for nature.
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