Another Week of GW News, December 23, 2012

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

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Another Week of Anthropocene Antics

Information is not Knowledge...Knowledge is not Wisdom

December 23 2012

• Chuckles, Bouquet, Solstice, COP19+, Post-Doha, Hargreaves, Retrospectives
• AR5 Leak, Subsidies, WB, Thermodynamics, Cook, TV Meteorologists
• Fukushima Note, Fukushima News, Nuclear Policy
• Melting Arctic, Megafauna, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
• Food Crisis, Fisheries, GMOs, GMO Labelling, Food Production
• Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Paleoclimate
• Earthquakes, Oceans, Extinctions, Overshoot, Volcanoes, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Notable Weather, Wacky Weather, New Weather
• Wildfires, Corals, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Conservation, Adaptation
• Journals, Other Docs, Misc. Science, Models
• International Politics: UN, Carbon Trade, Hormuz, South China Sea, US-China Tariffs
• YPF - Repsol, Security, Law & Activism, Polls, H2O Biz, Education, Predictions
• National Politics: America, BP Disaster, Post Sandy, Keystone , Carbon Tax
• Coal Exports, USGCRP, Obama, USAdmin, Congress, Lobbyists
• Britain, Europe, Australia, Carbon Law, MDBP, India, China, Japan, Asia, Middle East, South America
• Canada, Idle No More, Strange Train, CNOOC, Northern Gateway
• NAFTA Attacks, Salmon, BC, Tar Sands, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Canadiana
• Ecological Economics, IPAT, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Video, Courts
• Energy, Transitions, Fracking, Coal, Oil & Gas, Pipelines, Biofuel
• Wind, Solar, Nukes, Nuclear Fusion, FITs, Hydrogen, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Energy Storage
• Business, Insurance, FAQs, Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Misc, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

 

Ho, Ho, Ho. Happy Humbug!

• 2012/12/21: JoeMohrToons: (cartoon - Mohr) Monsanto Claus: Ho Ho Oh No!
• 2012/12/20: JoeMohrToons: (cartoon - Mohr) Hank D and the Bee: Rethink Stuff
• 2012/12/18: QuarkSoup: (cartoon - ?) Harvesting the Wind
  

  A frosty bouquet from the Arctic:

• 2012/12/19: NPR: Suddenly There's A Meadow In The Ocean With 'Flowers' Everywhere
  

  Hope you had a Happy Solstice:

• USNO: Equinoxes, Solstices, Perihelion, and Aphelion, 2000-2020
• 2012/12/21: NBLuckyDuck: Winter Solstice
• 2012/12/21: CSM: Winter Solstice prompts gatherings of druids, spiritualists, and doomsday party goers
• 2012/12/21: 350orBust: Shift Happens
  

  Looking ahead to COP19 and future international climate negotiations:

• 2012/12/21: CCurrents: The Climate Deal Sham: Only Sharing Can Break The Deadlock
• 2012/12/22: FijiTimes: Kiribati's' desperate plea for action
  

  A little post-Doha chatter:

• 2012/12/21: GEP: NGOs Rally for CCS in Doha
• 2012/12/18: TP:JR: From Doha To Divestment: The Search For A Real Strategy To Combat Climate Change
• 2012/12/17: TP:JR: Dithering In Doha: We Need To Re-Frame The Politics Of Climate
  

  An interesting paper on climate sensitivity by Hargreaves et al.:

• 2012/12/20: GRL: (abs) Can the Last Glacial Maximum constrain climate sensitivity? by J. C. Hargreaves et al.
• 2006/03/02: JEB: Climate sensitivity is 3C
• 2012/12/23: JEB: Can the Last Glacial Maximum constrain climate sensitivity?
  

  End of year retrospectives, synopses and celebrations:

• 2012/12/21: TheCanadian: 2012: The Year of Energy Politics
• 2012/12/21: TP:JR: 10 Energy Numbers To Remember From 2012
• 2012/12/21: TP:JR: Climate Story Of The Year: Extreme Weather From Superstorms To Drought Emerges As Political, Scientific Gamechanger
• 2012/12/21: ICN: 2012 Was a Big Year for America's Clean Energy Economy, Despite Solyndra
• 2012/12/21: UCSUSA:B: Tropical Forests in 2012: A Year in Review
• 2012/12/21: PI: 2012 brought the best and worst of times for energy and environment in Canada
• 2012/12/21: TheCanadian: 2012: The Year of Energy Politics
• 2012/12/21: PI: 2012 brought the best and worst of times for energy and environment in Canada
• 2012/12/21: Grist: Your 2012 climate change scorecard
• 2012/12/21: DD: 2012 another year of record-breaking extreme weather - 'The normal has changed. The normal is extreme.'
• 2012/12/21: Grist:Drought, floods, and one giant storm: The year in climate insanity [video]
• 2012/12/21: SciNow: Top Science Pictures of the Year
• 2012/12/21: Wunderground: Top Ten U.S. Weather Events of 2012
• 2012/12/21: Guardian(UK): Drought, icemelt, superstorms ... a review of 2012's environmental news
• 2012/12/20: CBC: 'Big heat' tops Canadian weather stories of 2012 -- Active hurricane season, flooding in B.C. also major weather stories this year
• 2012/12/23: NewScientist: 2012 review: The year in environment
• 2012/12/18: ABC(Au): 2012 in review: Environment
• 2012/12/18: CBC: 2012's wildest weather events captured in social media
• 2012/12/18: Guardian(UK): 'Climate change is taking place before our eyes' --he weather of 2012
  Review of 2012 - environment: shrinking Arctic sea ice, record temperatures, flooding, droughts, hurricane Sandy and super-typhoon Bopha; the year abnormal weather became normal
• 2012/12/17: GreenGrok: Signing Off Till Next Year: A Look Back at 2012
  

  Post IPCC AR5 leak:

• 2012/12/19: TheConversation: Sun and climate moving in opposite directions, says leaked IPCC report
• 2012/12/17: PSinclair: After Denier Disinfo Faceplant: What We Now Know about the Next IPCC
• 2012/12/17: Maribo: Changing the IPCC to better meet the needs of international climate policy
• 2012/12/17: WtD: War on the IPCC: on that leaked IPCC draft document
• 2012/12/16: CSW: Misrepresentation of leaked review draft IPCC climate assessment report shows intellectual bankruptcy of global warming denialists
• 2012/12/16: TP:JR: Leaked IPCC Draft Report: Recent Warming Is Manmade, Cloud Feedback Is Positive, Inaction Is Suicidal
  

  Who's getting the subsidies?

• 2012/12/17: BBC: Gulf states face hard economic truth about subsidies
  The security and stability of the six-member states of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) rests on a basic assumption.
  Their governments, run by royal families, have a social contract with the people that in its simplest terms effectively says: "In return for your acquiescence we will provide health, education, water, energy and other services virtually free."
  But what happens if the governments are no longer able to fulfil their side of the contract?
  What happens if the cost of subsidising all those services becomes too high to be sustainable?
• 
  

  What's the World Bank up to?

   

• 2012/12/16: CCurrents: World Bank Hypocrisy: Warn About global Warming And Then Finance Coal Plant
  

  Delving into the laws of thermodynamics this week:

• 2012/12/23: TSoD: Clouds & Water Vapor - Part Five - Back of the envelope calcs from Pierrehumbert
  

  John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:

• 2012/12/23: SkS: 2012 SkS Bi-Weekly News Roundup #11 by John Hartz
• 2012/12/22: SkS: Matt Ridley Risk Management Failure Deja Vu by dana1981
• 2012/12/21: SkS: Subcap Methane Feedbacks. Part 3: Methane from beneath the ice by Andy S
• 2012/12/21: SkS: Italian flag curry by gws
• 2012/12/20: SkS: 2012 SkS Bi-Weekly News Roundup #10 by John Hartz
• 2012/12/19: SkS: Sun and climate moving in opposite directions, says leaked IPCC report
• 2012/12/19: SkS: Solar Cycle Model fails to predict the recent warming by Hans Petter Jacobsen
• 2012/12/18: SkS: Add Frame and Stone to the List of Papers Validating IPCC Warming Projections by dana1981
• 2012/12/17: SkS: New research from last week 50/2012 by Ari Jokimäki
• 2012/12/17: SkS: More ice loss through snowfall on Antarctica by John Hartz
• 2012/12/17: SkS: 2012 SkS Weekly Digest #50 by John Hartz, dana1981
  

  TV Meteorologists typically follow the corporate media line...

• 2012/12/19: CJR: Weathercasters on climate -- Rolling Stone refuses to let sleeping dogs lie
  

  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. [Whoops, that has now been updated to 40 years.] We'll see. At any rate this situation is not going to be resolved any time soon and deserves its own section.
  Meanwhile...
  It is very difficult to know for sure what is really going on at Fukushima. Between the company [TEPCO], the Japanese government, the Japanese regulator [NISA], the international monitor [IAEA], as well as independent analysts and commentators, there is a confusing mish-mash of information. One has to evaluate both the content and the source of propagated information.
  How knowledgeable are they [about nuclear power and about Japan]?
  Do they have an agenda?
  Are they pro-nuclear or anti-nuclear?
  Do they want to write a good news story?
  Do they want to write a bad news story?
  Where do they rate on a scale of sensationalism?
  Where do they rate on a scale of play-it-down-ness?
  One fundamental question I would like to see answered:
  If the reactors are in meltdown, how can they be in cold shutdown?

•  

  Not much good news coming out of Fukushima:

   

• 2012/12/22: EneNews: Plutonium found in 3/11 disaster debris
• 2012/12/21: ABC(US): People Flee Japan Nuke Disaster to Faraway Okinawa
• 2012/12/20: EneNews: Tepco admits link between death and Fukushima disaster for 1st time
• 2012/12/20: ABC(Au): Fuel rod problem in Japanese nuclear plant
• 2012/12/20: EneNews: Kyodo: Steel beam removed from Fukushima plant's No. 3 pool after falling on fuel racks - Another steel beam found soon after (photos)
• 2012/11/: SCES(via doi): (ab$) An ensemble estimation of impact times and strength of Fukushima nuclear pollution to the east coast of China and the west coast of America by GuiJun Han et al.
• 2012/12/20: Springer:JR&NC: Semi-quantitative analysis of leaf surface contamination by radioactivity from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident using HPGe and imaging plate by Etsuko Furuta
• 2012/12/19: EneNews: Japan Experts: Active fault runs underneath MOX fuel [reprocessing] plant...
• 2012/12/19: EneNews: Kyodo: Level 1 incident at Japan nuclear plant - Deformed fuel rods stuck together in pool
• 2012/12/18: EneNews: Gov't Experts: No knowledge of what state melted fuel is in at Fukushima plant - Don't know where it's located - Persistent danger surrounds reactors - Collapses of facilities a threat
• 2012/12/17: UN: UN atomic agency and Japan's Fukushima prefecture to cooperate on nuclear safety
• 2012/12/17: ABC(Au): Japan's nuclear stocks react after election
  Shares in TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, have soared almost 33 per cent after national elections in Japan gave the pro-business Liberal Democratic Party a landslide victory. A rally for energy firms on the Tokyo Stock Exchange came after voters on Sunday dumped prime minister Yoshihiko Noda and his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), meaning any short-term plans to ditch atomic power will be shelved. Anti-nuclear sentiment has run high in Japan after last year's Fukushima atomic crisis, with opinion polls showing a majority of voters wanted to phase out nuclear power. However, that failed to translate into wider support for the DPJ, which had pledged to work toward a zero-nuclear country.
• 
  

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

   

• 2012/12/17: ICN: Pro-Nuclear Conservative Party in Japan Wins Election
• 2012/12/17: ScienceInsider: Japan Likely to Reembrace Nuclear Power in Wake of Elections
  

  The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:

• 2012/12/20: CCP: 2013 Arctic sea ice volume expected to decrease to 2,000 km3
• 2012/12/19: NASA: NASA's Operation IceBridge Data Brings New Twist to Sea Ice Forecasting
• 2012/12/23: IOTD: Monitoring the Arctic during Polar Darkness
  

  As for the charismatic megafauna:

• 2012/12/21: Yahoo:Reuters: Ice-dwelling seals to get U.S. Endangered Species Act listings
• 2012/12/17: DD: The fuzzy face of climate change: Will polar bears survive the meltdown of the Arctic?
  

  That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:

• 2012/12/21: Arctic News: Methane contributes to accelerated warming in the Arctic
  

  As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

• 2012/12/20: ABC(Au): Asian push for Arctic power
  China, Japan and South Korea are pushing for permanent observer status on the Arctic Council, the key body influencing Arctic affairs. The council, established in 1996, has mainly been concerned with coordinating the protection of the environment and the rights of indigenous peoples. But the regional group has become more political as melting ice opens the prospect of new trade routes and oil and gas exploration. The Arctic Council is made up of eight permanent members: Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia, the United States, Finland, Iceland, and Sweden.
• 2012/12/20: Yahoo:Reuters: U.S. unveils plan to manage huge Alaskan oil reserve
  

  While in Antarctica:

• 2012/12/21: BBC: Lake Ellsworth Antarctic lake drilling set to restart
• 2012/12/22: ABC(Au): Argentina protests new name for Antarctic territory
  Argentina has summoned the British ambassador to complain about Britain's decision to rename a disputed part of Antarctica in honour of Queen Elizabeth II. The Argentine government has expressed its "firm rejection" of Britain's claim to the territory, which Argentina considers "an area in the Argentine Antarctic sector." British foreign minister William Hague last week announced plans to christen the region "Queen Elizabeth Land" after the reigning monarch, who this year is celebrating 60 years on the throne. Buenos Aires says London, in renaming the territory, has violated the spirit of a half-century-old treaty signed by dozens of countries - including Britain and Argentina - intended to avert territorial disputes in the Antarctic.
• 2012/12/18: BBC: Invasive insects changing Antarctic landscape
  An invasive species has the potential to drastically alter Antarctic ecosystems that have been isolated for millions of years, research suggests.
• 2012/12/17: NatureNB: Lake Ellsworth drill hits deep trouble
  The long-planned attempt to probe Antarctica's subglacial Lake Ellsworth was halted abruptly on Saturday by major technical issues -- namely a broken boiler.
• 2012/12/17: BBC: Lake Ellsworth: Drilling effort runs into trouble
  A British attempt to search for life in an ancient lake beneath the Antarctic ice-sheet has run into trouble. The team has reported "a serious problem" with the main boiler used to heat the water that powers a drill.
• 
  

  The food crisis is ongoing:

   

• 2012/12/23: ProMedMail: Schmallenberg virus - Europe (78): Czech Republic, ovine, suspected, information request
• 2012/12/21: ProMedMail: Schmallenberg virus - Europe (77): (NL, FR) virus RNA in bovine semen
• 2012/12/20: TreeHugger: Expanding Dust Bowls in China and Africa Impact Food Supply by Lester Brown
• 2012/12/21: AllAfrica:ZimIndependent: 'Zim Headed for Food Crisis' Government
  Commercial Farmers Union's president Charles Taffs has castigated government for failing to come up with clear-cut funding for agriculture, saying the nation was headed for another food crisis as the new farming season has begun with nothing to show farmers are ready. In an interview with the Zimbabwe Independent, Taffs said this season the state of preparedness of farmers is the worst at a time the country is likely to receive good rains.
• 2012/12/19: ProMedMail: Schmallenberg virus - Europe (75): International Impact
• 2012/12/18: BBC: Schmallenberg: Rapid spread of livestock virus
  A disease that can lead to lambs and calves being stillborn or deformed has spread to every county in England and Wales. Farmers are expected to lose livestock during the lambing season, which is just getting underway. Schmallenberg virus was first detected in the UK earlier this year in the south and east of England. It has spread rapidly during the summer, probably through midges, say government scientists.
• 2012/12/18: Nature: (ab$) Recent patterns of crop yield growth and stagnation by Deepak K. Ray et al.
• 2012/12/18: UMN: The Green Revolution is wilting
  New Nature Communications paper shows yields have plateaued or dropped in many places for world's most important crops
• 2012/12/17: Reuters: "Peak farmland" is here, crop area to diminish: study
  The amount of land needed to grow crops worldwide is at a peak, and a geographical area more than twice the size of France will be able to return to its natural state by 2060 as a result of rising yields and slower population growth, a group of experts said on Monday.
• 2012/12/18: ABC(Au): Report suggests food crop area to fall [Peak Farmland]
  

  The state of the world's fisheries is a concern:

• 2012/12/21: EurActiv: Ministers snag deal on fishing quotas
  European Union fisheries ministers have hammered out a 2013 quota deal, which they said struck a compromise between protecting over-exploited stocks such as haddock and plaice and safeguarding fishermen's livelihoods. Ministers agreed to limit the cuts to catches proposed by the European Commission in several Northeast Atlantic fisheries such as haddock, herring and plaice, but conservation groups accused them of ignoring data on fish stock sustainability.
• 2012/12/21: ABC(Au): Algal bloom moves north
  A ban on rock lobster fishing off Tasmania's east coast has been extended to include waters in the north, taking effect immediately.
• 2012/12/20: TP:JR: Fish Fry: Study Says Climate Change Means Tough Going For Western Trout
• 2012/12/19: EUO: MEPs vote to end fish discards
• 2012/12/18: NatureNB: EU politicians back science-based fisheries
  

  Regarding the genetic modification of food:

• 2012/12/22: NatureN: Transgenic fish wins US regulatory backing -- A fast-growing salmon moves closer to approval after a fishy delay
• 2012/12/21: CBC: FDA says Newfoundland's 'Frankenfish' unlikely to be harmful -- Health regulators 'clear the way' for approval of genetically modified salmon
• 2012/12/22: CSM: Genetically modified salmon not harmful, FDA says
• 2012/12/19: BBerg: Genetically Enhanced Seeds to Get Carbon Credits
  The United Nations-overseen emissions-market regulator has approved a system of rules that will allow farmers using genetically improved seeds to claim carbon offset credits, according to Arcadia Biosciences Inc. Nitrogen-efficient seed allows farmers to maintain high crop yields while using less fertilizer, the Davis, California- based agricultural-technology company said today in a statement.
• 
  

  Regarding labelling GM food:

   

• 2012/12/20: CDreams: Fight for GMO Labeling Goes On in New Mexico -- 'New Mexicans deserve the right to know what's in the food they are eating'
  

  And how are we going to feed 9 billion, 10 billion, 15 billion?

• 2012/12/20: FAO: FAO helps Darfur farmers and herders live in peace -- Farmers enjoy bumper harvest as deal keeps grazing animals away
• 2012/12/19: ERW: How to cut phosphate fertilizer use
• 2012/12/19: BBerg: Potash Seen Falling as Asia Wields Purchasing Power: Commodities
• 2012/12/18: BPA: Is Vertical Farming a Pipe Dream? Plus, More Agriculture News This Week
  

  After zapping Samoa, Evan brushed Fiji and then faded. Otherwise Tropical Cyclone 04A troubled the Arabian Sea unreported:

• 2012/12/19: NASA: NASA Satellite TRMM Finds an Unusually Tall Storm-cell in Cyclone Evan
• 2012/12/19: ABC(Au): Fijians allowed to return home in wake of Evan
  Fijians who have been sheltering in evacuation centres have been given the all clear to return home and assess the damage from Cyclone Evan. A state of disaster has been declared after Evan hit the Pacific island nation on Monday morning, causing widespread damage to several cities, including Nadi. More than 8,000 who people took shelter in evacuation centres across the island have now been told they can return to their properties. But the Fijian government has warned them that their houses may be seriously damaged and unliveable.
• 2012/12/19: MODIS: Tropical Cyclone Evan (04P) approaching the Fiji Islands
• 2012/12/18: al Jazeera: Cyclone Evan leaves trail of damage over Fiji
  No deaths reported as cyclone is downgraded and moves away from Fiji, having caused destruction across the island.
• 2012/12/17: NASA: A Need to Look Again: TRMM Satellite Observations of Tropical Cyclone Evan
• 2012/12/17: NASA: NASA Sees Dangerous Category 4 Cyclone Evan Lashing Fiji
• 2012/12/17: BBC: Cyclone Evan leaves trail of destruction in Fiji
• 2012/12/18: ABC(Au): Thousands seek shelter as Evan batters Fiji
  Officials in Fiji are starting to assess the damage after Cyclone Evan hit the Pacific island nation, causing major flooding and packing destructive 270 kilometre-per-hour winds.
• 2012/12/18: ABC(Au): Cyclone Evan leaves trail of destruction in Fiji
  Conditions will ease over the next few hours for storm battered Fiji, after a wild night which forced more than 8,000 people into evacuation centres. Cyclone Evan is now moving slowly southwards, and is just to the west of Fiji's Kadavu island.
• 2012/12/17: Wunderground: A grinch in paradise: Category 4 Tropical Cyclone Evan slams Fiji
• 2012/12/17: BBC: Fiji braced for powerful Cyclone Evan
  Fijian authorities have warned people to prepare as Cyclone Evan lashes the Pacific nation, packing very high winds. Flights to and from Fiji were cancelled as the category four storm approached from the north. Thousands of people are in evacuation centres, with storm warnings in effect for the whole nation.
• 2012/12/17: ABC(Au): Homes destroyed as Fiji feels Evan's [Cat 4] fury
• 2012/12/17: ABC(Au): Fiji makes final preparations for Cyclone Evan's arrival
  Fiji is preparing for strong winds and flooding as the first impacts of Tropical Cyclone Evan are felt in the Pacific Island country. After leaving a destructive path in Samoa last week, the category four system is bearing down on Fiji.

• While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

• 2012/12/23: ABC(Au): Mass burial for Philippines typhoon [Bopha] victims
• 2012/12/16: RealClimate: Improving the Tropical Cyclone Climate Record
  

  As for GHGs:

• 2012/12/20: ABC(Au): Soaring coal demand stokes emissions concerns
  A new report highlighting the world's huge demand for coal has cast doubt on the future of low-carbon economies. The International Energy Agency's (IEA) Medium-Term Coal Market Report predicts coal will come close to surpassing oil as the world's top energy source in the next five years. Resource analysts are warning increased coal demand comes hand in hand with a boost in CO2 emissions. The latest IEA report predicts the world will burn about 1.2 billion more tonnes of coal per year by 2017. Analysts say part of the shift can be blamed on high oil prices...
• 2012/12/18: Guardian(UK): At the edge of the carbon cliff
  

  And the temperature record:

• 2012/12/20: ClimateLab: Months since below average temperatures
• 2012/12/19: CapClimate: New South Carolina All-Time State High Temperature Record Confirmed
• 2012/12/18: TP:JR: Halfway To Hell (And High Water): 333rd Month In A Row Global Temperatures Exceed Long-Term Average
• 2012/12/18: Wunderground: November 2012: Earth's 333rd consecutive warmer-than-average month
• 2012/12/17: CapClimate: Global Temperature Update: 5th Warmest November, 2nd Warmest Fall, 8th Warmest Year to Date
  

  While in the paleoclimate:

• 2012/12/21: NatureN: How life emerged from deep-sea rocks
  The origin of ion-pumping proteins could explain how life began in, and escaped from, undersea thermal vents.
• 2012/12/17: MD: Single Microbe May Have Triggered World's Largest Mass Extinction
  About 251 million years ago, 90 percent of the Earth's species became extinct. The mass extinction, called the "Great Dying" or the more scientific-sounding Permian-Triassic extinction event, made 96 percent of marine animals and 70 percent of land-dwelling animals extinct in just a few thousand years...
  [...]
  However, Daniel Rothman from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is floating around a different theory...that the extinction was caused by a single strain of bacteria.
  [...]
  Called methanosarcina, this sea-dwelling microbe is responsible for most of the methane produced biologically even today.
• 
  

  And the State of the Oceans:

   

• 2012/12/20: ABC(Au): Ocean salinity reveals human climate impact
• 2012/12/19: DerSpiegel: Mermaid Tears -- Plastic Chokes Oceans and Trashes Beaches
  A new exhibition in Hamburg seeks to alert people to the dangers of the plastic in our daily lives, painting a stark picture of how it accumulates in the world's oceans. It reveals how plastic particles can enter into the food chain and return to us through our dinner plates.
• 
  

  What's new on the extinction front?

   

• 2012/12/21: SciAm:EC: Once Extinct in the Wild, Kihansi Spray Toad Returns to Tanzania (by Way of the Bronx and Toledo)
• 2012/12/20: TheConversation: Australian endangered species: Spiny Crayfish
• 2012/12/20: TheConversation: Scientists and national park managers are failing northern Australia's vanishing mammals
• 2012/12/19: Eureka: Biologists design method to monitor global bee decline -- Data could act as warning signal for impact on food systems
• 2012/12/19: CSM: 'Extinct' whale found: Odd-looking pygmy whale traced back 2 million years
• 2012/12/19: BBC: Extinct elephant 'survived late' in North China
  Wild elephants living in North China 3,000 years ago belonged to the extinct genus Palaeoloxodon, scientists say. They had previously been identified as Elephas maximus, the Asian elephant that still inhabits southern China. The findings suggest that Palaeoloxodon survived a further 7,000 years than was thought.
• 
  

  Intimations of Overshoot:

   

• 2012/12/21: CCurrents: Ecosystems In Upheaval, Biodiversity In Collapse
  

  What's up with volcanoes this week?

• 2012/12/23: al Jazeera: Volcano alert on Chile-Argentina border
  Low-level alert issued after Copahue Volcano began spewing ash, but officials say no need yet to evacuate people.
• 2012/12/21: MODIS: Activity at Ambrym Volcano, Vanuatu
• 2012/12/22: MODIS: Eruption at Plosky Tolbachik, Kamchatka Peninsula, eastern Russia
  

  We have the Climate Change and Earthquake hypothesis, now the Melting Glaciers and Volcanoes hypothesis?

• 2012/12/19: GeoMar: When the ice melts, the Earth spews fire
  

  Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

• 2012/12/21: USGS: Mission Accomplished for Landsat 5
• 2012/12/20: NASA: Eighth Landsat Satellite Arrives at Launch Site
  

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2012/12/19: Eureka: Affects of climate change to birds worsened by [changes in land use] housing development
• 2012/12/19: CCurrents: Part Of USA Will Be Warmer, Wetter, More Rain Than Snow, Studies Find
• 2012/12/21: DerSpiegel: Humpbacks and Orcas -- Surprise Whale Sightings in Norway
  Amateur photographer Espen Bergersen's career took a serendipitous turn when he spotted an unusual winter appearance of whales near his hometown in northern Norway. His spectacular images, marked by eerie polar light, were made possible by the changing migratory patterns of fish.
• 2012/12/23: ABC(Au): WA ocean heatwave linked to shark attacks
  The West Australian Department of Fisheries says it will conduct further research on a marine heatwave that has been linked to a recent spate of fatal shark attacks in Western Australia. Scientists say the unprecedented heatwave occurred off the WA coast between 2010 and 2011, and could be responsible for declining fish stocks and increased shark activity. Ocean temperatures rose up to five degrees last summer, and the Department says that has led to pockets of cooler water developing near the coastline. The Department's research director, Dr Rick Fletcher, says this may be causing sharks to move closer to shore.
• 2012/12/19: ICN: As Climate Disasters Soar, Environmentalists Take on Role of Relief Agencies
  Greenpeace and others are adding 'climate disaster relief' to their missions both for humanitarian purposes and to raise awareness of global warming.
• 2012/12/19: DeseretNews: Climate change already playing out in West, report says -- Change 'more dramatic' in winter than previously thought, ecologist says
• 2012/12/17: TreeHugger: How Climate Change Can Spawn Flesh-Eating Fungi
  

  And then there are the world's forests:

• 2012/12/20: ERW: Insight: bark-beetle outbreaks harm forest carbon stocks
  New maps produced by remote sensing show that beetle infestations have cut live aboveground carbon stocks by 50% across a landscape in Idaho, US. The interactions between terrestrial and atmospheric carbon will change as a result, because beetle-killed trees no longer absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide through photosynthesis but eventually decay and release carbon dioxide.
• 2012/12/18: BBC: Why are the world's older trees disappearing?
  Gloriously grand, gnarly and twisted, big old trees are the kings of the forest, providing food and shelter for humans and animals since the dawn of time.
• 2012/12/17: SciNow: Cloud Forest Trees Drink From the Fog
  

  This week in notable weather:

• 2012/12/21: BBC: Dozens die in Ukraine's cold snap
  At least 83 people have died in Ukraine from a cold spell that has been gripping the country, officials say. Temperatures as low as -23C (-9F) and heavy snowfall this month have left the capital Kiev and most of the country under a thick frozen layer.
• 2012/12/21: al Jazeera: Major snowstorm paralyzes the US -- Heavy snow and strong winds cause flight cancellations and black-outs
• 2012/12/19: Wunderground: Winter Storm Draco ends record snowless streaks across Midwest
• 2012/12/22: ABC(Au): Deadly cold snap sweeps across eastern Europe
  A vicious cold snap has claimed nearly 200 lives across Russia and eastern Europe, and forecasters say the freeze could last until Christmas Eve. In Russia, the cold has killed two people in the past 24 hours, the Ria-Novosti agency reported, citing medical sources, bringing the total number of deaths over the past week to 56. Thermometers have been stuck below minus 20 degrees Celsius in Moscow and below minus 50 degrees in some parts of Siberia for a week.
• 2012/12/21: NASA: NASA Sees the Major Midwestern Snowstorm in Infrared Light
• 2012/12/22: al Jazeera: Dozens die in Ukraine cold spell
  At least 83 people have died in Ukraine from a cold snap that has been gripping the country, officials say.
• 2012/12/17: al Jazeera: Ukraine Blizzard
  Snow, wind and extreme temperatures are making travel on Ukraine's roads very dangerous
• 
  

  Yes we have no wacky weather, except:

   

• 2012/10/18: BBC: UK experiences 'weirdest' weather
  The UK has experienced its "weirdest" weather on record in the past few months, scientists say.
• 
  

  Rossby Waves? Blocking Patterns? Arctic Oscillation? What is the Arctic melt doing to our weather?

   

• 2012/12/20: Arctic News: Polar jet stream appears hugely deformed
  [...]
  Accelerated warming in the Arctic is decreasing the difference in temperature between the Arctic and the Northern Temperate Zone. This is causing the polar jet to slow down and become more wavy, i.e. with larger loops, as illustrated by the image below.
  This is a feedback of accelerated warming in the Arctic that reinforces itself. As the jet stream slows down and its waves become elongated, cold air can leave the Arctic more easily and come down deep into the Northern Temperate Zone. Conversily, more warm air can at the same time move north into the Arctic.
• 2012/12/19: ClimateSight: Climate change and the jet stream
• 2012/12/16: Eureka: 'Missing' polar weather systems could impact climate predictions
  

  As for heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2012/12/23: ABC(Au): Heatwave puts Victoria, SA on fire alert
  There are fire bans across large parts of Victoria and South Australia, with temperatures expected to top 40 degrees.
• 2012/12/20: IOTD: City Lights of Australia, or Not
• 2012/12/23: ABC(Au): Fire crews battle SA bushfire
  A bushfire is burning out of control in South Australia's south-east, about 18 kilometres north-west of Padthaway.
• 
  

  Corals are a bellwether of the ocean's health:

   

• 2012/12/20: SciNow: Coral Reefs Could Be Decimated by 2100
• 2012/12/19: ABC(Au): Chemistry may save some coral from acidity
  

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2012/12/20: CBC: Everest gigapixel image zooms in on glacier threat
• 2012/12/22: FaGP: Changsang Glacier Retreat and Lake Formation, Sikkim
• 2012/12/21: ERW: Chilean glaciers found to melt in winter
• 2012/12/17: FaGP: Kirtisho Glacier Retreat, Georgia
  

  Sea levels are rising:

• 2012/12/19: ABC(Au): Science advisor warns on rising sea levels
• 2012/12/17: CSW: Sea level rise study misrepresented; humans still raising sea level
  

  As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

• 2012/12/22: BBC: Flooding and a power surge have halted rail services across much of south Wales just three days before Christmas
• 2012/12/22: BBC: A number of flood warnings remain in place across parts of Scotland, with Tayside and Fife the worst affected areas
• 2012/12/20: al Jazeera: Deadly floods strike rain-soaked Sri Lanka
  Officials report 25 people killed, 36 more still missing, and more than 265,000 others marooned inside their homes.
• 2012/12/20: BBC: Torrential rain leaves south-west England flooded
  Several people have been rescued from their vehicles and trains have been cancelled after rain caused flooding across southern and south-west England.
• 2012/12/20: al Jazeera: Floods in Sri Lanka displace 10,000 people
  Two days of torrential rain have caused widespread problems and triggered many landslides.
• 2012/12/22: AllAfrica:ThisDay: Nigeria: NEMA - Flood Disaster Overwhelmed Our Capacity
• 2012/12/23: al Jazeera: UK all set for a wet Christmas
  UK rail passengers and motorists face further misery as the great Christmas getaway is stalled by further flooding.
• 2012/12/22: BBC: UK prepares for further flooding as downpours continue
  Rain-hit rivers in south-west England will struggle to cope with more rain, the Environment Agency has warned. Six severe flood warnings are in place for the west country and nearly 200 flood warnings for other parts of England and Wales.
• 2012/12/18: CSM: Drought's winter toll: Mississippi barges face losses while US blasts river
• 2012/12/18: Resilience: Too big to flood? Megacities face future of major storm risk
• 2012/12/17: USAToday: Rock blasting set on drought-plagued Miss. River
  Months of restricted shipping are likely as river drops to record low levels.
• 2012/12/17: TP:JR: Still Hurting In The Heartland: The Historic Drought Continues
• 2012/12/17: TP:JR: The Water Gap: Interior Department Warns Of Water Shortages In The Colorado River Basin Due To Climate Change
  

  First, stop subsidizing fossil fuels
  Second, put a price on carbon
  And elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2012/12/21: EarlyWarning: Finger Lakes Climate Fund
• 2012/12/21: CSW: Fossil fuel divestment campaign: "If it's wrong to wreck the climate then it's wrong to profit from that wreckage."
• 2012/12/16: Eureka: Nature Climate Change: Action by 2020 key for limiting climate change
  

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2012/12/20: NBF: High Speed Rail Benefits, Costs, Criticism and Responses
• 2012/12/19: NBF: 33.6 million electric bikes production expected for 2013 and start of 48 volt batteries for cars and electric bikes
  

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

• 2012/12/23: Grist: Amazing new house proves that green doesn't have to mean expensive
  In a tough neighborhood in Washington, D.C., the new Empowerhouse generates all of its own energy and captures all the rainwater that falls on site. And it didn't cost a million bucks to build.
• 2012/12/22: TGDaily: The green buildings of the next apocalypse
  

  As for carbon sequestration:

• 2012/12/22: ITracker: Reforestation as carbon sequestration
• 2012/12/21: GEP: NGOs Rally for CCS in Doha
• 2012/12/20: CCurrents: The Role Of Sequestration In Reversing Anthropogenic Climate Change
• 2012/12/20: BBerg: U.S. Oil Fields Could Store Decades of Carbon Emissions
• 2012/12/19: EurActiv: Brussels expects EU-funded CCS demo projects before 2014
• 2012/12/18: Guardian(UK): EU declares no winner in carbon capture competition
  First round of a contest to fund CCS projects has failed to find a winner, after setting aside E275m
• 2012/12/18: TheConversation: Eco-cement, the cheapest carbon sequestration on the planet
• 2012/12/17: Guardian(UK): Let's learn to love carbon capture, before it's too late
  Progress on CCS technology has stalled, but with coal and gas generating much of our electricity for years to come, we need it
• 2012/12/17: ABC(Au): First Australian carbon capture plant to test 'clean coal' viability
  So-called "clean coal" technology is seen as the silver bullet to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Many others say it's just a dream - akin to healthy cigarettes. However the Australian coal industry says it's made a giant step forward with the opening the first carbon capture plant in the country. Fitted onto an old power station in Central Queensland, the project, which is backed by the Japanese government, is designed to test the viability of "clean coal" technology under Australian conditions.
• 2012/12/17: ABC(Au): 'Clean coal' capture plant opened in Queensland
  The coal industry says it has made a giant step forward with the opening of Australia's first 'clean coal' carbon capture plant. The $200 million Callide Oxyfuel project, launched on the weekend, will trap and store greenhouse gas generated by CS Energy's Callide A coal-fired power station in Biloela, central Queensland. The project, which is backed by the Japanese government, is designed to test the viability of clean coal technology under Australian conditions.
• 
  

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

   

• 2012/12/21: ClimateEngineering: [link to 111k pdf] NOAA (2012): State of the Science Fact Sheet. Climate Engineering
• 2012/12/19: YaleCMF: The Ethics of Geoengineering (Pt. 2)
• 2012/12/17: GWIR: Permaculture and Perennial Crops as a Geo-Engineering Strategy
• 2012/12/14: LFPress: Climate change will lead to geo-engineering by Gwynne Dyer
• 2012/12/19: ITracker: Does geoengineering have to continue for thousands of years?
• 2012/12/19: Eureka: Geo-engineering against climate change -- Seeding the oceans with iron may not address carbon emissions
• 2012/12/17: Dosbat: Dangerous Things Done in Desperation
• 2012/12/16: P3: Iron Fertilization Cannot Be A Big Player
  

  What's new in conservation?

• 2012/12/19: BBC: Human wellbeing can strengthen case for conservation
  The growing evidence linking green spaces to human wellbeing could help strengthen the case for conservation, a conference has been told.
• 
  

  While on the adaptation front:

   

• 2012/12/18: TP:JR: An Ounce Of Prevention: Increasing Resiliency To Climate-Related Extreme Weather
  

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2012/12/19: ESDD: Spatio-temporal analysis of the urban-rural gradient structure: an application in a Mediterranean mountainous landscape (Serra San Bruno, Italy) by G. Modica et al.
• 2012/12/21: ESDD: Dynamical and biogeochemical control on the decadal variability of ocean carbon fluxes by R. Séférian et al.
• 2012/08/29: Nature: (ab$) Potential methane reservoirs beneath Antarctica by J. L. Wadham et al.
• 2012/10/22: SSRN: Reining in Phaëthon's Chariot: Principles for the Governance of Geoengineering by Adam D. K. Abelkop & Jonathan C. Carlson
• 2012/12/21: CP: Sea-ice dynamics strongly promote Snowball Earth initiation and destabilize tropical sea-ice margins by A. Voigt & D. S. Abbot
• 2012/12/20: CP: Possible earthquake trigger for 6th century mass wasting deposit at Lake Ohrid (Macedonia/Albania) by B. Wagner et al.
• 2012/12/18: CP: A mechanism for dust-induced destabilization of glacial climates by B. F. Farrell & D. S. Abbot
• 2012/12/18: CP: Investigating the past and recent O18-accumulation relationship seen in Greenland ice cores by S. L. Buchardt et al.
• 2012/12/19: CPD: Detailed insight into Arctic climatic variability during MIS 11 at Lake El'gygytgyn, NE Russia by H. Vogel et al.
• 2012/12/18: CPD: Glacial fluctuations of the Indian monsoon and their relationship with North Atlantic abrupt climate change: new data and climate experiments by C. Marzin et al.
• 2012/12/18: CPD: Modelling Northern Hemisphere ice sheets distribution during MIS5 and MIS7 glacial inceptions by F. Colleoni et al.
• 2012/12/18: CPD: A volcanically triggered regime shift in the subpolar North Atlantic ocean as a possible origin of the Little Ice Age by C. F. Schleussner & G. Feulner
• 2012/12/04: GRL: (ab$) Effects of stratospheric sulfate aerosol geo-engineering on cirrus clouds by Miriam Kuebbeler et al.
• 2012/12/19: ACP: Climate versus emission drivers of methane lifetime against loss by tropospheric OH from 1860-2100 by J. G. John et al.
• 2012/12/17: ACP: On recent (2008-2012) stratospheric aerosols observed by lidar over Japan by O. Uchino et al.
• 2012/12/17: ACP: Selected topics on the interaction between cirrus clouds and embedded contrails by K. Gierens
• 2012/12/17: ACP: Detection in the summer polar stratosphere of pollution plume from East Asia and North America by balloon-borne in situ CO measurements by G. Krysztofiak et al.
• 2012/12/17: ACP: Global CFC-11 (CCl3F) and CFC-12 (CCl2F2) measurements with the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS): retrieval, climatologies and trends by S. Kellmann et al.
• 2012/12/17: ACP: Implications of all season Arctic sea-ice anomalies on the stratosphere by D. Cai et al.
• 2012/12/19: ACPD: Mass deposition fluxes of Saharan mineral dust to the tropical northeast Atlantic Ocean: an intercomparison of methods by N. Niedermeier et al.
• 2012/12/19: ACPD: Intercomparison of shortwave radiative transfer schemes in global aerosol modeling: results from the AeroCom Radiative Transfer Experiment by C. A. Randles et al.
• 2012/12/17: ACPD: Avoiding HFC growth is critical for keeping global warming below 2 °C during the 21st century by Y. Xu et al.
• 2012/12/17: ACPD: Observation of horizontal winds in the middle-atmosphere between 30° S and 55° N during the northern winter 2009-2010 by P. Baron et al.
• 2012/11/: SCES(via doi): (ab$) An ensemble estimation of impact times and strength of Fukushima nuclear pollution to the east coast of China and the west coast of America by GuiJun Han et al.
• 2012/12/21: ACP: Future impact of traffic emissions on atmospheric ozone and OH based on two scenarios by Ø. Hodnebrog et al.
• 2012/12/21: ACP: Quantifying the deep convective temperature signal within the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) by L. C. Paulik & T. Birner
• 2012/12/21: ACP: Evaluation of anthropogenic emissions of carbon monoxide in East Asia derived from the observations of atmospheric radon-222 over the western North Pacific by A. Wada et al.
• 2012/12/21: ACPD: Net radiative forcing and air quality responses to regional CO emission reductions by M. M. Fry et al.
• 2012/12/21: GMD: Coupling technologies for Earth System Modelling by S. Valcke et al.
• 2012/12/21: TC: Greenland ice sheet contribution to sea-level rise from a new-generation ice-sheet model by F. Gillet-Chaulet et al.
• 2012/12/20: TC: Variability of sea ice deformation rates in the Arctic and their relationship with basin-scale wind forcing by A. Herman & O. Glowacki
• 2012/12/20: TC: Area change of glaciers in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, 1919 to 2006 by C. Tennant et al.
• 2012/12/19: TC: Linking glacier annual mass balance and glacier albedo retrieved from MODIS data by M. Dumont et al.
• 2012/12/21: TCD: Glacier volume estimation as an ill-posed boundary value problem by D. B. Bahr et al.
• 2012/12/20: TCD: Transient thermal modeling of permafrost conditions in Southern Norway by S. Westermann et al.
• 2012/12/19: TCD: The Arctic Sea ice in the CMIP3 climate model ensemble - variability and anthropogenic change by L. K. Behrens et al.
• 2012/12/19: TCD: Net accumulation rates derived from ice core stable isotope records of Pío XI glacier, Southern Patagonia Icefield by M. Schwikowski et al.
• 2012/12/20: Springer:JR&NC: Semi-quantitative analysis of leaf surface contamination by radioactivity from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident using HPGe and imaging plate by Etsuko Furuta
• 2012/12/18: PNAS: (ab$) Rise to dominance of angiosperm pioneers in European Cretaceous environments by Clément Coiffard et al.
• 2012/12/18: PNAS: (ab$) Mineral dust photochemistry induces nucleation events in the presence of SO2 by Yoan Dupart et al.
• 2012/12/18: PNAS: (ab$) Maximum entropy production, carbon assimilation, and the spatial organization of vegetation in river basins by Manuel del Jesus et al.
• 2012/12/18: PNAS: (ab$) Triassic leech cocoon from Antarctica contains fossil bell animal by Benjamin Bomfleur et al.
• 2012/12/20: GRL: (abs) Can the Last Glacial Maximum constrain climate sensitivity? by J. C. Hargreaves et al.
• 2012/12/16: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) The impact of polar mesoscale storms on northeast Atlantic Ocean circulation by Alan Condron & Ian A. Renfrew
• 2012/12/19: QI(via doi): (ab$) The latest straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon)? 'Wild elephants' lived 3000 years ago in North China by Ji Li et al.
• 2012/12/18: Nature: (ab$) Recent patterns of crop yield growth and stagnation by Deepak K. Ray et al.
• 2012/12/17: WOL:AFM: (ab$) Highly Stable Nanoporous Sulfur-Bridged Covalent Organic Polymers for Carbon Dioxide Removal by Hasmukh A. Patel et al.
• 2012/12/18: GMDD: Modeling short wave solar radiation using the JGrass-NewAge System by G. Formetta et al.
• 2012/12/18: GMDD: Evaluation of a near-global eddy-resolving ocean model by P. R. Oke et al.
• 2012/12/18: OS: Predictions for oil slicks detected from satellite images using MyOcean forecasting data by G. Zodiatis et al.
• 2012/12/18: OS: Seawater capacitance - a promising proxy for mapping and characterizing drifting hydrocarbon plumes in the deep ocean by J. C. Wynn & J. A. Fleming
• 2012/12/17: OSD: Image of a subsurface current core in the southern South China Sea by Q. S. Tang et al.
• 2012/12/18: TCD: Snow specific surface area simulation using the one-layer snow model in the Canadian LAnd Surface Scheme (CLASS) by A. Roy et al.
• 2012/12/17: TCD: A balanced water layer concept for subglacial hydrology in large scale ice sheet models by S. Goeller et al.
• 2012/12/03: AMetSoc:JC: (ab$) Twentieth-century global-mean sea-level rise: is the whole greater than the sum of the parts? by J. M. Gregory et al.
• 2012/12/17: AGWObserver: New research from last week 50/2012
• 2012/12/16: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) The impact of polar mesoscale storms on northeast Atlantic Ocean circulation by Alan Condron & Ian A. Renfrew
• 2012/12/16: Nature:GeoSci: (ab$) Multiple causes of interannual sea surface temperature variability in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean by Ingo Richter et al.
• 2012/12/16: Nature:CC: (ab$) Last chance for carbon capture and storage by Vivian Scott et al.
• 2012/12/16: Nature:CC: (ab$) 2020 emissions levels required to limit warming to below 2°C by Joeri Rogelj et al.
• 2012/12/16: Nature:CC: (ab$) Global perceptions of local temperature change by Peter D. Howe et al.
  

  And other significant documents:

• 2012/12/21: ClimateEngineering: [link to 111k pdf] NOAA (2012): State of the Science Fact Sheet. Climate Engineering
• 2012/12/20: CDreams: [link to 5.6 meg pdf] Report: Ecosystems in Upheaval, Biodiversity in Collapse
  New study documenting climate change shows sweeping changes happening faster than previously recorded and bringing 'cascading effects'
• 2012/12/20: USGCRP: [links to various pdfs] Technical inputs for the 2013 National Climate Assessment
• 2012/12/18: USGS: [link to 5.4 meg pdf] Emerging Consensus Shows Climate Change Already Having Major Effects on Ecosystems and Species
  

  As for miscellaneous science:

• 2012/12/21: JEB: How cold was the Last Glacial Maximum?
• 2012/12/20: JCBaez: Petri Net Programming (Part 2)
• 2012/11/09: FP: Probable Cause -- Are scientists too cautious to help us stop climate change?
• 2012/12/17: NatureNB: Is the scientific literature self-correcting?
• 2012/12/20: NatGeo:Loom: Redrawing the Tree of Life
  

  What's new in models?

• 2012/12/19: ERabett: Should there be any mistakes the Bunny will disavow all knowledge of your actions
• 2012/12/16: Eureka: Climate model is first to study climate effects of Arctic hurricanes
  

  Meanwhile at the UN:

• 2012/12/19: CCurrents: IPBES: An Unbearable Burden
  

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2012/12/21: Grist: 72 percent of bids at California's carbon auction came from one company's mistake
• 2012/12/20: SacBee: Utilities benefit in [California] state carbon market
• 2012/12/19: BBerg: Genetically Enhanced Seeds to Get Carbon Credits
  

  On the international political front, tensions continue as the empire leans on Iran:

• 2012/12/22: KR: Iran gets a fresh batch of sanctions -- EU enforces new and tougher sanctions on Iran
  The toughest EU measures yet, they include bans on financial transactions, sales to Iran of shipping equipment and steel, and imports of Iranian natural gas, adding to earlier bans, including on the OPEC producer's oil.
• 2012/12/23: OilDrum: Tech Talk - Iranian Potential and the Caspian disputes
• 2012/12/17: Yahoo:Reuters: Iran military says plans more drills in Strait of Hormuz soon
• 2012/12/17: Yahoo:AFP: Iran oil revenues halved by sanctions: minister
  Iran is losing half of its oil revenues because of international sanctions imposed over its disputed nuclear programme, Economy Minister Shamseddin Hosseini said in remarks quoted by media on Monday. "Iran is facing a 50-percent drop in its oil revenues due to sanctions," Hosseini told state television, Jomhuri Eslami newspaper reported.
• 
  

  South [& East] China Sea tension persists:

   

• 2012/12/20: Asia Times: Abe will be firm but flexible on Senkakus
• 2012/12/19: BBerg: China Uses Geology to Challenge Japan on Disputed Islands
  After making its first aerial incursion into Japanese-controlled airspace near disputed islands, China compounded tensions with Japan by bolstering its territorial claims at the United Nations. On Dec. 14, two days before elections in Japan, China submitted to the world body an 11-page report citing the continental shelf's geology to claim ownership of the islands in the East China Sea, which may be surrounded by undersea oil and natural gas fields.
• 2012/12/16: Guardian(UK): Japanese hawk's election victory prompts fears of regional tension
  Shinzo Abe has promised to take tough stance on row with China over Senkaku Islands
• 
  

  What do we have this week in clean tech squabbles?

   

• 2012/12/19: BBerg: U.S. Boosts Import Duties on Chinese Wind-Energy Firms
  

  Further in the Argentina - YPF - Repsol squabble:

• 2012/12/21: Reuters: World Bank tribunal accepts Repsol complaint over YPF takeover
  The World Bank's arbitration body started moving ahead this week on a complaint by Spanish oil major Repsol over Argentina's expropriation of its controlling stake in energy company YPF.
• 
  

  Climate Change is a threat multiplier exacerbating existing conflicts in food, energy, water, race, ideology ... etc.:

   

• 2012/12/18: TP:JR: National Intelligence Council: Climate Change Will Exacerbate Migration And Increase Conflict [Global Trends 2030]
  

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

• 2012/12/19: BBerg: Keystone Protesters Pay Price for Camping in Texas Trees
  

  Polls! We have polls!

• 2012/12/21: TP:JR: Mixed Signals: More Americans Are Taking Climate-Friendly Action, But Fewer Say Those Actions Can Slow Climate Change
• 2012/12/17: KSJT: AP-Whatchamacallit Poll Says American public facing up to global warming reality and who is supposed to fix it
• 2012/12/17: TreeHugger: 57% of Americans Think Government Should Do a "Great Deal" to Combat Global Warming
  

  Regarding Water Politics and Business:

• 2012/12/21: JFleck: Water: contamination v. consumption
• 2012/12/17: JFleck: Is the Upper Basin more vulnerable than I thought?
• 2012/12/17: JFleck: "Climate change is water change"
• 2012/12/17: JFleck: With the Basin Study done, we can get back to draining Lake Mead
  

  So what's new on the education front?

• 2012/12/18: JCBaez: Teaching the Math of Climate Science
  

  Who's making predictions this week?

• 2012/12/21: EurActiv: UK Met Office: 2013 'very likely' to be in Top 10 warmest years
  Next year is likely to be one of the warmest on record with global temperatures 0.57 degrees above the long-term average, Britain's Met Office said in its annual year-ahead forecast.
• 2012/12/21: Guardian(UK): Met Office says 2013 likely to be one of warmest years on record
• 2012/12/17: Eureka: University of Tennessee study predicts extreme climate in Eastern US -- Results show the region will be hotter and wetter
  

  And on the American political front:

• 2012/12/20: QuarkSoup: Shocker: Art Robinson to Be Promoted?
• 2012/12/20: S&R: Do we need winter storm names?
• 2012/12/20: SacBee: Utilities benefit in state carbon market
  Most businesses say California's new cap-and-trade program, designed to curb greenhouse gas emissions, is a job killer that will suck billions of dollars out of the economy. But you won't hear too many protests from some of the biggest businesses of all: California's electric utilities. From SMUD to Southern California Edison, the state's utilities have been placed in a special class that effectively cushions companies and their ratepayers from the cost of reducing carbon emissions.
• 2012/12/21: UCSUSA:B: Don't Let Calls for Improvement Halt Clean Energy Progress in California
• 2012/12/18: LA Times: California issues proposed rules for 'fracking'
  California Gov. Jerry Brown's administration proposes rules that would require more disclosure from oil companies in the state that employ hydraulic fracturing, also known as 'fracking.'
• 
  

  The BP disaster continues to twist US politics:

   

• 2012/12/19: EneNews: Physician: Public health crisis in the Gulf after BP Deepwater Horizon disaster -- Thousands suffering chronic problems
• 2012/12/22: CNN: Judge OKs settlement in BP class-action suit
  With the exception of seafood industry claims, there's no cap - Settlement is fair and reasonable, despite objections, judge says - BP estimates settlement of about $7.8 billion - The judge issued the ruling Friday night
• 2012/12/22: BBerg: BP Gulf Oil Spill Judge Approves $7.8 Billion Settlement
  BP Plc and the lead lawyers representing victims of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill won approval of the economic and environmental loss portion of a proposed $7.8 billion partial settlement of claims. The agreement resolves most private plaintiffs' claims for economic loss and property damage related to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and subsequent spill. It doesn't cover suits brought by the U.S. government and the states of Alabama and Louisiana over the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
• 2012/12/22: al Jazeera: US judge approves BP class action settlement
  British oil company must pay $7.8bn for economic losses and property damage linked to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
• 2012/12/17: EneNews: TV: Massive oil sheen around BP Deepwater Horizon site in Gulf of Mexico (video)
  

  Post-Sandy commentary and news:

• 2012/12/19: TheHill:e2W: Dems seek climate vote on post-Sandy aid bill
  Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) want to use debate over post-Hurricane Sandy aid to put lawmakers on the record on climate change. His amendment declares the "sense of the Senate" that mitigating the effects of "extreme weather," including curbing humans' contribution to climate change, is in the nation's economic interest. Whitehouse and three colleagues proposed attaching the language to the $60.4 billion recovery and reconstruction bill that's currently on the Senate floor.
• 2012/12/19: CSM: GOP Senators vow to trim superstorm Sandy aid to $23.8 billion
• 2012/12/18: Resilience: Hurricane Sandy relief turns to protest
  

  The Keystone XL saga grinds slowly. And it grinds woe:

• 2012/12/21: Reuters: U.S. ruling on Keystone pipeline could slip again - report
  A top risk-management analyst warned on Friday that a decision by Washington on TransCanada Corp's (TRP.TO) Keystone XL pipeline could get delayed again into next summer, adding more pressure to already deeply discounted Canadian oil prices.
• 2012/12/21: CDreams: 'Extraordinary': Three Weeks Later, Keystone Blockaders Still in Texas Jail -- "I think what they are doing is extraordinary"
• 2012/12/18: TreeHugger: TransCanada Builds Keystone XL Pipeline Around Protesters, Blockade Draws to an End
• 2012/12/18: CSM: Keystone XL oil pipeline hits snag in Texas
• 2012/12/18: BWeek: Montana land board approves Keystone pipeline lease
• 2012/12/18: ICN: Keystone XL Tree Protesters Call It Quits After Pipeline Rerouted Around Them
  Activists say their tree blockade may soon be over as construction on the Texas property wraps up. But their efforts to stop the pipeline are not.
• 2012/12/17: ICN: Keystone XL Will Not Use Most Advanced Spill Protection Technology
  It would cost less than $10 million -- roughly 0.2 percent of the Keystone XL's budget -- to add safeguards to protect the crucial Ogallala aquifer from spills.
• 2012/12/14: NRN: Gov. Heineman expects to make Keystone XL decision in next few weeks (audio)
  

  With the deficit hawks panicking about the fiscal cliff, there has been talk of a carbon tax solution:

• 2012/12/18: EnvEcon: An anti-carbon tax pledge?
  

  The NorthWest coal export debate remains heated:

• 2012/12/20: Grist: Push to derail coal-export plan draws strength from all corners of Cascadia
• 2012/12/19: CDreams: Coal Exports Emerging as Major Climate Fight in the Pacific Northwest
• 2012/12/19: TP:JR: Coal Exports Emerging As Major Climate Fight In The Pacific Northwest
  

  The US Global Change Research Program released a disturbing report this week:

• 2012/12/19: TP:JR: [USGCRP] Study: Global Warming Will Drive A Net Loss In Biodiversity
• 2012/12/20: USGCRP: [links to various pdfs] Technical inputs for the 2013 National Climate Assessment
• 2012/12/18: USGS: [link to 5.4 meg pdf] Emerging Consensus Shows Climate Change Already Having Major Effects on Ecosystems and Species
  

  The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2012/12/19: Thehill:e2W: Obama: Climate change among top three priorities for second term
  President Obama has identified climate change as one of his top three priorities in his second term after coming under fire from environmentalists for giving the issue short shrift during the campaign. The president, in an interview for TIME's Person of the Year award, said the economy, immigration, climate change and energy would be at the top of his agenda for the next four years.
• 
  

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

   

• 2012/12/22: CDreams: Obama Administration Snubs Risks, Set to OK 'Frankenfish'
• 2012/12/21: CBC: FDA says Newfoundland's 'Frankenfish' unlikely to be harmful -- Health regulators 'clear the way' for approval of genetically modified salmon
• 2012/12/21: CSM: US government waives pollution laws for 1,500 underground water supplies
• 2012/12/21: Grist: What would Secretary of State John Kerry do on climate and Keystone?
• 2012/12/20: Yahoo:Reuters: U.S. unveils plan to manage huge Alaskan oil reserve
• 2012/12/20: NOAANews: NOAA Seeks Public Comment on Expanding Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries Off Northern California
• 2012/12/19: NOAANews: NOAA explorers discover deepwater gas seeps off U.S. Atlantic coast -- Advanced sonar technology is key to discovery and mapping
• 2012/12/19: BBerg: U.S. Boosts Import Duties on Chinese Wind-Energy Firms
• 2012/12/18: UCSUSA:B: President's Council Report on Agriculture -- What About Ecology?
• 2012/12/16: BBC: Barclays: US $470m energy fine 'unjustified'
  Barclays has said US regulators' proposed fines of $470m (£291m) for the bank's alleged manipulation of energy markets are "unjustified" and the allegations will not stand up in court. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Ferc) has accused four Barclays traders of manipulating power prices in the US from 2006-2008. Barclays denies the charges.
• 
  

  As for what is going on in Congress:

   

• 2012/12/21: UCSUSA:B: Congress Should Renew Wind Production Tax Credit
• 2012/12/20: ScienceInsider: Congressional Negotiators Drop Biofuel Restrictions in U.S. Defense Bill
• 2012/12/19: TP:JR: Senator Boxer Builds Climate Change Clearinghouse: 'We Are Going To Work On Supporting A Major Bill'
• 2012/12/16: CSW: Flood Insurance Reform Act could promote better climate preparedness
  

  What are the lobbyists pushing?

• 2012/12/17: DeSmogBlog: Republican Groups Tell Obama To Back Off Fracking Rules
  

  While in the UK:

• 2012/12/19: CCurrents: Thousands Of UK Households To Fall Into Fuel Poverty
• 2012/12/19: Guardian(UK): Labour joins Tim Yeo in push to deliver decarbonisation target
• 2012/12/19: Guardian(UK): Ed Davey defers decision on aviation and shipping in carbon targets
  A decision had been expected this week, but now will not be made until 2016, after the next general election
• 2012/12/18: Reuters: Britain sets five-year plan to spur solar, biomass energy
  Britain set out a 5-year plan on Tuesday to unlock the solar and biomass investment needed to achieve the country's 2020 green energy targets.
• 2012/12/18: BizGreen: Plans submitted for 1.2GW Anglia offshore wind farm - Vattenfall and ScottishPower submit plans for huge wind farm...
• 2012/12/18: Telegraph(UK): Anger at vast solar panel park on edge of Norfolk Broads
  Villagers are fighting plans for a giant solar farm the size of 43 football pitches on the edge of Norfolk Broads national park.
• 2012/12/18: Guardian(UK): Tim Yeo energy bill speech: 'dash for gas would be a gamble'
• 2012/12/17: Guardian(UK): Coalition faces backbench rebellion on energy bill
  Tim Yeo to lead calls for decarbonisation target to be included in bill, in order to reassure investors and hit emissions targets
• 2012/12/17: EUO: High energy costs push Britons into poverty
  The UK government's fuel poverty advisory group says energy costs have pushed an additional 300,000 Britons to the brink of poverty, reports Reuters.
• 
  

  And in Europe:

   

• 2012/12/21: EurActiv: Ministers snag deal on fishing quotas
• 2012/12/21: DerSpiegel: 'Coal-aholics' -- Poland Wages War on Efforts to Save the Climate
  Poland is addicted to coal. That is the message the country has been sending both domestically and internationally as Warsaw prepares to host the global climate summit next year. In Europe, the Poles are isolated in their fight for looser emissions reduction goals and against fixes to the EU's cap-and-trade system.
• 2012/12/20: EurActiv: Potocnik pledges EU commitment to development after Rio
  The European Union has not forgotten the commitments made at the Rio+20 conference six months ago, said EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik. Next year, the European Commission will publish results of the follow-up work, he promised. Six months after the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, which ended without major binding commitments by participating countries, progress on the issue is far from visible.
• 2012/12/20: EurActiv: Three EU states condemn UK's energy savings 'accounting trick'
  Germany, Austria and Finland have called for the withdrawal of an "absurd and unjustified" gentleman's agreement that allowed the United Kingdom to sign up to the Energy Efficiency Directive. The plea was made in a letter, seen by EurActiv, to Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger.
  The three countries' economic ministers said that if the agreement was allowed to stand, "the level of ambition of the Directive would be substantially reduced and the fulfilment of the EU's 20% energy efficiency target jeapordised."
  At issue is an unpublished EU interpretation note explaining a paragraph in the directive's Article 7, which allows countries exemptions so long as they do not lower by more than one-quarter a 1.5% savings target set for energy companies.
• 2012/12/20: BBC: Fishing industry representatives have welcomed the outcome of talks in Brussels on EU fish conservation measures
• 2012/12/20: BBC: Scottish independence: North Sea oil revenue 'becoming more erratic'
  The value of North Sea oil to Scotland's economy is becoming more erratic and difficult to predict, according to a report by a think tank. The Glasgow-based Centre for Public Policy for the Regions said oil revenue forecasts had halved within 18 months.
• 2012/12/19: BBC: Fisheries reforms: MEPs back plan to protect stocks
  Euro MPs have backed fisheries reforms aimed at protecting endangered stocks and curbing the practice of throwing unwanted fish back into the sea dead.
• 2012/12/18: BBerg: Greeks Can't Find Euros to Buy Heating Oil in Winter Economy
  In the Greek mountain town of Kastoria, less than an hour from the Albanian border, Kostas Tsitskos, 88, can't afford fuel to heat his home against the winter's cold. So he and his son live in a single bedroom, warmed by a small electric heater. "One room is enough," said Tsitskos, who lives on a 734 euro-a-month ($971) pension and doesn't have the 1,000 euros a month he needs to buy heating oil.
• 2012/12/18: NatureNB: EU politicians back science-based fisheries
  Fisheries experts were celebrating today after European politicians advanced and strengthened a major scientific reform of fisheries policy. Members of the European Parliament's fisheries committee voted through a series of reforms including a ban on discards -- the practice of throwing back unwanted and often dead or dying fish -- and an insistence that the levels for fish catches should be set on the basis of scientific advice. Greenpeace's fisheries expert Saskia Richartz called the vote "a turning point after decades of complacency", and the Seas At Risk pressure group declared that "Christmas has come early this year for European fish stocks".
• 
  

  Meanwhile in Australia:

   

• 2012/12/23: ABC(Au): Labor MP asks AFP to investigate Brough
  A Federal Labor MP has asked the Australian Federal Police to investigate the involvement of key Liberal Party figures in the Peter Slipper sexual harassment case. The Federal Court found the failed case was brought by Mr Slipper's former staffer James Ashby to further the interests of former Howard minister Mal Brough, who is the Liberal National Party candidate for Mr Slipper's seat. Queensland Labor MP Graham Perrett says he has written to AFP Commissioner Tony Negus, asking him to investigate if the Liberals used the sexual harassment claim to harm Mr Slipper and the Government.
• 2012/12/21: ABC(Au): Solar farm gets planning nod
  Plans have been approved for another big solar power project near Kerang. The Gannawarra Shire has endorsed the proposal for a 30-megawatt photovoltaic plant along the Old Echuca Road, south of Kerang.
• 2012/12/20: ABC(Au):TDU: A future powered by solar is more than hot air
  The nature of Australia's power grid, not price, is the real hurdle when planning a solar-powered future. The good news, says Lynette Molyneaux, is that it's not insurmountable.
• 2012/12/20: DeSmogBlog: Science Groups Call For Changes To Freedom Of Information Laws in Australia To Protect Climate Scientists From Harassment
• 2012/12/20: ABC(Au): Troubled grain processor points finger at rising power prices
  Increased electricity prices and the high cost of wheat are being blamed for a NSW grain processor calling in the administrators.
• 2012/12/20: JQuiggin: A belated victory for good sense
• 2012/12/20: ABC(Au): Swan dumps budget surplus pledge
  The Federal Government has all but dumped its promise to deliver a budget surplus this financial year, arguing the move will help protect the economy and jobs in the face of falling tax revenue. Treasurer Wayne Swan made the announcement after new figures showed a $4 billion write down in cash receipts during the first four months of the financial year. "Obviously, dramatically lower tax revenue now makes it unlikely that there will be a surplus in 2012-13," he told reporters in Canberra this afternoon.
• 2012/12/20: JQuiggin: Poll blackout
• 2012/12/20: ABC(Au): Buyer found for Gunns sawmills
  Receivers of collapsed Tasmanian timber company Gunns have secured a buyer for some assets, securing the jobs of 380 workers in four states. Sydney-based New Forests will buy Gunns's hardwood sawmills at Tarpeena in South Australia and Bell Bay in Tasmania. It has also agreed to buy warehouses in Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide. New Forests managing director David Brand says the forestry industry has a stable future.
• 2012/12/19: ABC(Au): Victorian electricity prices to rise [5% in next year]
• 2012/12/20: TheAge: Call for cap on solar to limit power price rises
• 2012/12/19: ABC(Au): Slipper seeks costs from Ashby lawyers
  Former parliamentary speaker Peter Slipper has lodged an application in the Federal Court, taking the unusual move of targeting the legal firm involved in the failed sexual harassment claim against him. Harmers Workplace Lawyers filed the case on behalf of Mr Slipper's former staff member, James Ashby.
• 2012/12/19: ABC(Au): Palmer decides against forming own party
  Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer has backed away from forming a new political party. The mining magnate floated the idea after he quit the Liberal National Party (LNP) in November. Mr Palmer says polling shows a new party is not viable.
• 2012/12/17: ABC(Au): Central Victorian water bills rise
  Water bills in central Victoria rose by 10 per cent last financial year. Data from Victoria's Essential Services Commission shows the average household bill for Coliban Water customers was A$966.
• 2012/12/17: ABC(Au): Australia unprepared for bushfire
  Australia is one of the most bushfire-prone nations in the world, yet many of the measures we could be taking to assess and reduce the impact of fire are going begging.
• 2012/12/17: ABC(Au): Abbott's disapproval hits record high
  Tony Abbott's popularity among voters has hit a record low in the latest opinion poll, although it shows the Coalition would still win if an election was held today. The Nielsen poll, published in Fairfax newspapers, shows Mr Abbott's disapproval rating has increased three points to 63 per cent over the past month - his worse result since becoming Opposition Leader, and the second highest in the poll's 40-year history. That compares with Prime Minister Julia Gillard's disapproval rating of 50 per cent, which is up two points since the last survey.
• 
  

  The carbon bill is law. The Aus-EU ETS is codified. Now come the practicalities...and the finagling:

   

• 2012/12/23: ABC(Au): Hodgman to axe tax
  The Tasmanian Opposition leader Will Hodgman is backing Tony Abbott's plan to scrap the carbon tax, despite warnings it will cost the state up to $70 million a year. The federal scheme has significantly boosted Hydro Tasmania's yearly revenue, fuelling projections the state-owned company will return about $1 billion to the state over the next five years. Treasury's latest budget update warns any change to the current carbon pricing arrangements could significantly reduce the amount of return to the cash-strapped Government. But Mr Hodgman said Tasmanians should not be paying the tax.
• 2012/12/19: ABC(Au): Coal industry says renewable energy target redundant under carbon tax
  The Australian Coal Association says it's disappointed, but not surprised, that the Renewable Energy Target (RET) will most likely remain unchanged. The Climate Change Authority has today recommended maintaining the target of 20 per cent of all electricity generation from renewable sources by 2020.
• 2012/12/19: ABC(Au): Renewable target won't be met if carbon tax dumped
• 2012/12/19: PlanetJ: Response to RET Review
  Today the Climate Change Authority (CCA) released the final report of its Renewable Energy Target review. It repeats all the same arguments I debunked in my response to the discussion paper released in October, and makes similar recommendations (though some of the details have been refined).
• 2012/12/18: TheConversation: Biased newspaper reporting on the carbon pricing mechanism
• 2012/12/17: ABC(Au): Carbon project sows seeds for climate change fight
  A far north Queensland project has become the first of its kind in Australia to be approved for carbon farming by the Federal Government. SelectCarbon says it is partnering with a landowner near Ravenshoe on the Tablelands, south-west of Cairns, to plant 20 hectares of native conifers for carbon credits.
• 
  

  After years of wrangling the Murray Darling Basin plan is in place. Now the real fight begins:

   

• 2012/12/21: ABC(Au): Basin authority furious about state funding cuts
  The South Australian Government has cut its funding to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority by nearly $30 million.
• 2012/12/21: ABC(Au): Water worries
  It's been less than a year since southern Queensland was ravaged floods. But there's been barely any rain in parts of the western downs since then.
• 2012/12/20: ABC(Au): Final hurdle cleared in $25m water buyback
  The Commonwealth is expected to send through its final payment this week to almost 220 irrigators involved in a big water buyback in Victoria's west. The Wimmera irrigators will get $900 a megalitre for their entitlements, with more than $25 million to be paid out in total.
• 2012/12/20: ABC(Au): Lake Albert salinity study disappoints irrigators
• 2012/12/20: ABC(Au): Minister, Authority shocked by SA Murray funding cut
  The South Australian Government has taken the Murray Darling Basin Authority by surprise, announcing it will halve its funding contribution to save money.
• 2012/12/19: ABC(Au): Lack of rain pushing [NSW] dam levels down
• 2012/12/17: ABC(Au): Murray flows above average
  The Department of Environment and Water says current River Murray flows are well above average for this time of year.
• 
  

  And in the Indian subcontinent:

   

• 2012/12/19: CCurrents: Children Of Forlorn
• 2012/12/19: CCurrents: Millions Die From Car Emission In India And China
• 2012/12/18: CCurrents: The Koodankulam Struggle: Why We Fight
• 2012/12/16: CCurrents: End Of A Long Wait
  

  While in China:

• 2012/12/19: WaPo: China says it will overhaul solar panel industry by forcing struggling producers to merge
• 2012/12/17: Guardian(UK): Pollution from car emissions killing millions in China and India
  Study published by Lancet says surge in car use in south and east Asia killed 2.1m people prematurely in 2010
• 
  

  And Japan:

   

• 2012/12/17: ICN: Pro-Nuclear Conservative Party in Japan Wins Election
  

  Elsewhere in Asia:

• 2012/12/19: al Jazeera: South Korea elects first female president
  Park Geun-hye, daughter of the country's former military ruler, wins narrow victory over liberal rival.
• 2012/12/19: ABC(Au): Indonesia climate efforts surpass Australia
  A top climate change advisor in Jakarta says Indonesia can slash carbon emissions by more than three times the rate in Australia. The announcement follows today's recommendation by the Climate Change Authority to keep Australia's current renewable energy target - the percentage of electricity generation to come from renewable sources - fixed at 20 per cent by 2020. The head of an Indonesian climate change taskforce, Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, says the country can achieve its ambitious emissions reductions targets despite corruption hindering efforts to reduce deforestation. Indonesia plans to reduce carbon emissions by cutting deforestation, using international carbon markets and providing incentives to protect forests to achieve its goal to cut domestic emissions by between 26 to 41 per cent by 2020.
• 2012/12/17: BBC: South Korea presidential rivals in final election push
  Final campaigning is under way in South Korea ahead of Wednesday's tightly-contested presidential election. Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri party faces Moon Jae-in of the liberal Democratic United Party in the polls. A win by Ms Park would give South Korea its first female president.
• 
  

  In the Middle East:

   

• 2012/12/19: OilChange: Iraq: Exxon Drilling Could Start Civil War
  

  And South America:

• 2012/12/21: CDreams: Bolivia's Morales Calls for New Era of 'Peace and Unity' to Break Greed of Capitalism
  The 'end of the world' it is not, says president of Bolivia, but rather an opportunity to dispose of 'capitalism's greed' and unite in happiness and unselfishness Bolivian President Evo Morales is marking today's winter solstice and the much-discussed calendar date by celebrating a hopeful vision for a "new era of peace and love" in the world, one in which the spirit of community and respect for Mother Earth will win out over the greed induced by global capitalism.
• 2012/12/21: Guardian(UK): Chinese mining firm to raze Peruvian peak for 35 years of mineral wealth
  

  In Canada, neocon PM Harper pushes petroleum while ignoring climate change:

• 2012/12/22: MSimon: Stephen Harper and the Christianist Threat
  Uh oh. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. Stephen Harper has admitted he is getting his guidance from above. Asked about how faith influences his decisions, Harper said that he prays regularly to "ask for strength and for wisdom." Which explains the state our country is in...
• 
  

  The Idle No More grassroots movement is staging demonstrations across the country to protest Bill C-45:

   

• 2012/12/22: CBC: Idle No More protesters remember Oka crisis -- Mohawk communities in Quebec stage demonstration
• 2012/12/22: MSimon: Idle No More: The Sounds of Resistance
• 2012/12/20: TStar: Why 'Idle No More' is gaining strength, and why all Canadians should care
• 2012/12/21: WpgFP: Aboriginal leaders hold national protest in Ottawa demanding change
• 2012/12/20: CBC: Idle No More members march in Montreal to protest omnibus bill -- Kahnawake community members block traffic to protest Bill C-45
• 2012/12/20: CBC: A peoples' movement that is Idle No More
• 2012/12/20: CPW: Elizabeth May's Green Party of Canada supports the #idlenomore movement
• 2012/12/20: OilChange: Kill Bill C-45
  

  The strange story of the train that went back & forth ... repeatedly:

• 2012/12/19: CBC: CN Rail vows co-operation in cross-border biofuels probe -- Canada's border service, U.S. EPA officials probe biodiesel mystery train
• 2012/12/19: CBC: Biofuel credits behind mystery cross-border train shipments -- Back and forth shipments prompt accusation of fraud, EPA and CBSA probes
  The mystery of the trainload of biodiesel that crossed back and forth across the Sarnia-Port Huron border without ever unloading its cargo, as reported by CBC News, has been solved. CBC News received several tips after a recent story about a company shipping the same load of biodiesel back and forth by CN Rail at a cost of $2.6 million in the summer of 2010. It turns out the shipments were part of a deal by a Toronto-based company [Bioversel Trading Inc.], which made several million dollars importing and exporting the fuel to exploit a loophole in a U.S. green energy program.
• 
  

  The CNOOC-Nexen bid now has the makings of farce. What happens if the Yanks say no?

   

• 2012/12/18: TStar: U.S. must approve sale of Nexen to Chinese
  Now that the Canadian government has cleared the $15.1-billion Nexen deal, the focus shifts to the United States, where regulators must do the same. While only a fraction of Calgary-based Nexen's holdings are in the United States, if the sale to a Chinese state-owned company gets the green light from U.S. government regulators, the People's Republic of China will have a firm stake in oilfields in the Gulf of Mexico. The Committee on Foreign Investment has two months to examine the megadeal, searching to see if the foreign acquisition is a threat to U.S. national security.
• 
  

  The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on:

   

• 2012/12/22: CSM: Enbridge ups investment in Northern Gateway pipeline
• 2012/12/14: PostMedia: Spectators barred from Enbridge hearings -- Video link provided off site to avoid protesters drowning out speakers
  Spectators will not be allowed to attend Victoria hearings into the Enbridge Northern Gateway project in January, to avoid the risk of demonstrations. Instead, people interested in watching the proceedings will be sent about three kilometres away to the Ramada Hotel on Gorge Road, where they can watch a live video feed. The hearings are being held at the Delta Ocean Pointe.
• 
  

  Something to look forward to... courtesy of those anti-democratic treaties:

   

• 2012/12/18: CD: U.S. Corporations Launch Wave of NAFTA Attacks on Canada's Energy, Fracking, and Medicines Policies
  

  The ISA/PRV/IHN/Alpha virus in Canadian waters is potentially disastrous:

• 2012/12/19: TheTelegram: New case of infectious salmon anemia confirmed to be at Pot Harbour site
  Nell Halse, the vice-president of communications with Cooke Aquaculture, confirmed Tuesday that the reported outbreak of infectious salmon anemia is at a Cooke aquaculture site located at Pot Harbour in the northern arm of Hermitage Bay. Halse said that while the site contains less than five percent of Cooke's total amount of fish in Newfoundland, the company is talking the matter very seriously and will deal with it quickly and in full co-operation with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
• 2012/12/19: CBC: Another outbreak of infectious salmon anemia confirmed
• 2012/12/21: ProMedMail: Infectious salmon anemia - Canada (05): (NF)
  

  In BC, the stage is set. Now what will Clark and Dix do?

• 2012/12/19: WpgFP: Steelworkers suggest B.C. coal mines controlled by Chinese government
• 2012/12/17: PI: A climate reality check on British Columbia's LNG aspirations
• 2012/12/18: DeSmogBlog: Shell Abandons Fracking Plans For BC's Sacred Headwaters
• 2012/12/19: CBC: Oil, gas development banned in B.C.'s Sacred Headwaters
  The B.C. government has confirmed a ban on oil and gas development in the Sacred Headwaters region of northwestern B.C. "As part of a tripartite agreement, Shell Canada is immediately withdrawing plans to explore for natural gas in the Klappan by relinquishing its tenures," the province said in a release. "In addition, the Province of British Columbia will not issue future petroleum and natural-gas tenure in the area." A four-year ban on oil and gas exploration in the area was set to expire Tuesday.
• 2012/12/18: TheCanadian: Sacred Headwaters Ban on Coal Bed Methane Extended
• 2012/12/13: TheCanadian: Twitter Becomes 24/7 Political Battleground in BC as Rift Errupts Between Green Party Candidate and NDP
• 2012/12/13: TheCanadian: Chinese Miner Launches Complaint Against Steelworkers' Union for 'Creating Contempt' for Chinese People
• 2012/12/14: TheCanadian: Christy Clark Compares BC's Natural Gas, LNG Potential with the Alberta Tar Sands
• 2012/12/18: JToddRing: An open letter to the Green Party
  

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2012/12/20: PostMedia: Oilsands group reverses funding cut to Alberta environmental agency
  In a sudden reversal, oilsands companies will restore funding to a key environmental agency in the province's northeast after meeting with Environment Minister Diana McQueen. McQueen said Wednesday she was pleased the Oil Sands Developers Group agreed to renew a $5-million annual budget for the Cumulative Environmental Management Association (CEMA). The oilsands group last week halved CEMA's proposed budget for the next fiscal year, and called for an immediate review of the agency, suggesting it was time for it to wind down.
• 2012/12/18: BCLSB: Ethical Oil Makes A Move
• 2012/12/14: PostMedia: Japanese oilsands project approved after 34-year wait -- Jacos given green light for 20,000-bpd, $1.4-billion SAGD facility
  A Japanese company that has been active in the oilsands since 1978, the year that the video game Space Invaders was invented in Japan, has approved construction of its first commercial project. Calgary-headquartered Japan Canada Oil Sands Ltd. or Jacos confirmed Friday that its parent company, Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. Ltd. or Japex has made the final investment decision to proceed with its $1.4-billion, 20,000-barrel-per-day Hangingstone thermal oilsands project south of Fort McMurray in northern Alberta.
• 
  

  Also in Alberta:

   

• 2012/12/22: DeSmogBlog: Alberta Finds Mismanagement of Errors Causes Fracking Water Contamination
• 2012/12/17: TheCanadian: Video: Travelling Canada's Carbon Corridor - the Making of Fractured Land
• 2012/12/17: TheCanadian: The Fracking Mess
• 2012/12/18: DeSmogBlog: Little Black Lies: Manufacturing Irony
  

  Now that Dalton has quit, the Liberal leadership is in play and then probably an election:

• 2012/12/21: CleanBreak: Provincial first: Ontario's independent electricity operator embraces new storage methods as effective grid balancer
  

  While in la Belle Province:

• 2012/12/20: PostMedia: More arrests in maple syrup caper
  Police continue to crack down on the great maple syrup caper, with 14 more arrests on Wednesday. This brings to 18 the number of individuals who have been brought before a judge for their alleged part in the $20-million theft. Seven people are still at large and possibly vacationing in Florida.
• 2012/12/20: EnvEcon: Can't have pancakes (and waffles) without it
• 2012/12/19: NYT: In $18 Million Theft, Victim Was a Canadian Maple Syrup Cartel
• 2012/12/18: CBC: 2 charged in $18M maple syrup heist -- 5 more suspects sought by investigators
  

  As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

• 2012/12/17: CBC: Canada's natural gas industry could be worth $1 trillion [says Conference Board]
• 2012/12/17: CBC: Oil pipelines need to be a 'national priority,' TD says
• 2012/12/17: CBC: Laurier LaPierre, ex-senator and broadcaster, dies at 83 -- LaPierre co-hosted CBC's This Hour Has Seven Days in 1960s
• 2012/12/17: TP:JR: A Counterintuitive Take On Trash: The Positive Impact Of An 'Informal Trash Economy'
  

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

• 2012/12/19: CCurrents: Sustainable Planet? The Silent Crisis
  

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

• 2012/12/18: CSM: Ireland announces abortion law reforms, leaving no one satisfied
  Ireland took a step today toward loosening its strict antiabortion regime, as the government announced legislation to legalize abortion in limited circumstances. But a battle lies ahead, as both abortion-rights and antiabortion groups appear dissatisfied with the government's new prescription. A statement issued after a meeting of ministers today announced legislation and medical-legal guidance allowing for the provision of abortion when a woman's life is at risk in pregnancy. The statement also said criminal law would be amended. At present, abortion is outlawed under the 1861 Offenses Against the Person Act. A bill will be published in the New Year, and, after being considered by parliamentary committee, will be put to a vote.
• 2012/12/18: NPR: In France, Free Birth Control For Girls At Age 15
• 2012/12/19: al Jazeera: Philippine Catholics oppose birth-control law
  Church leaders vow to overturn legislation that will make sex education and contraceptives more widely available.
• 2012/12/17: CDreams: Time to Stop Restricting Abortion and Start Restricting Assault Weapons
  

  Apocalypso anyone?

• 2012/12/18: SciAm:Obs: Psychology Reveals the Comforts of the Apocalypse
  

  How do the media measure up?

• 2012/12/23: ERabett: Facts Shill Matter
• 2012/12/21: DeSmogBlog: Australian Press Council Finds Against Climate Sceptic Columnists
• 2012/12/21: CJR: Fronting for fossil fuels -- A study says that the media rarely discloses think tanks' industry funding
• 2012/12/21: Deltoid: The Australian's War on Science 80: The Australian says it's OK to lie about the science
• 2012/12/13: MoJo: Major News Outlets Give Fossil-Fuel-Funded Think Tanks a Free Platform
  National newspapers publish anti-green-energy articles -- without disclosing that the authors work for industry-backed groups, a new study finds.
• 2012/12/12: TC&BP: Report: Fossil Fuel Front Groups on the Front Page
• 2012/12/18: TheConversation: Biased newspaper reporting on the carbon pricing mechanism
  

  Matt Ridley wrote an article for the WSJ that generated a lot of scorn:

• 2012/12/22: Stoat: Cage fight: Ridley vs Romm
• 2012/12/22: TWTB: Matt Ridley and the Wall Street Journal misrepresent paper cited in Ridley column
• 2012/12/22: SkS: Matt Ridley Risk Management Failure Deja Vu by dana1981
• 2012/12/20: QuarkSoup: Why It Doesn't Matter if Matt Ridley is Wrong
• 2012/12/20: CSW: Scientists respond to the Wall Street Journal's latest junk-science climate predictions
• 2012/12/20: MediaMatters: WSJ's Climate "Dynamite" Is A Dud
• 2012/12/20: CCP: Michael Schlesinger: WSJ Wrong About Future Global Warming
• 2012/12/20: SMandia: Wall Street Journal Wolf to its Little Piggies: Trust Me
• 2012/12/20: NewAnthropocene: Tim Worstall Shows Us How to Find an "Expert" By Ignoring Reality in Favour of Matt Ridley
• 2012/12/20: TP:JR: Error-Riddled Matt Ridley Piece Lowballs Climate Change, Discredits Wall Street Journal. World Faces 10°F Warming
  

  More changes in the blogosphere:

• 2012/12/19: TreeHugger: End of an Era: Mat McDermott Shares His Favorite TreeHugger Moments
  

  Here is something for your library:

• 2012/12/16: CCurrents: [Book Review] _Ecological Intelligence -- The Coming Age of Radical Transparency_ by Daniel Goleman
  

  And for your film & video enjoyment:

• 2012/12/20: PSinclair: It's Been 27 Years
• 2012/12/20: RealClimate: Online video lectures on climate change
• 2012/12/20: 350orBust: Happy Holidays: Oil To The World & All That
• 2012/12/19: PSinclair: New Video: Climate 2013 - the View from AGU
• 2012/12/17: Guardian(UK): Fracking lobbyists prepare case against Matt Damon's Promised Land
• 2012/12/18: OilChange: Big Oil v Big Hollywood
  

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2012/12/19: CDreams: Corporate Power vs. People Power in Colorado Fracking Fight
  Oil and gas industry sues city of Longmont contending their right to frack for profits
• 2012/12/19: DeSmogBlog: [Center for Sustainable Economy] Group Sues Obama Administration Over Offshore Oil And Gas Leasing Program
• 2012/12/18: NYT: City in Colorado Is Sued Over a [fracking] Drilling Ban
• 2012/12/17: GTM: Johnson Controls Appeals Sale of A123 to China's Wanxiang
  The latest news in the U.S.-China tug-of-war over a bankrupt advanced battery maker's assets and IP.
• 
  

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

   

• 2012/12/21: ABC(Au): Could your household rubbish power your home?
• 2012/12/20: TreeHugger: Germany Still Kicking Ass on Clean Energy: 2012 Production Forecast to be 15% Above 2011
• 2012/12/18: Tamino: Horseshit Power
• 2012/12/17: Resilience: The great energy journey
• 2012/12/18: OilDrum: The need for crowdsourcing energy data
• 2012/12/17: CSM: Amid energy crisis, a need to define and promote innovation
• 2012/12/17: UKISS: The "renewables cost more" mantra ... busted
• 2012/12/17: OilDrum: Conference: Global Energy Systems - June 26-28 2013
• 2012/12/16: BBC: Barclays: US $470m energy fine 'unjustified'
  

  What do you have in energy comparisons and transitions?

• 2012/12/21: BBerg: Wind Power Generation Beating Natural Gas in U.S. in 2012
  Wind-turbine installations are poised to exceed natural gas-fueled power plants in the U.S. for the first time this year as developers race to complete projects before a renewable energy tax credit expires. New wind capacity reached 6,519 megawatts by Nov. 30, beating the 6,335 megawatts of gas additions and more than double those of coal, according to data from Ventyx Inc., which is owned by the Swiss power transmission equipment maker ABB Ltd. (ABBN) The company plans to release final tallies in January.
• 2012/12/19: EurActiv: Coal to challenge oil's dominance by 2017, says IEA
  Coal is likely to rival oil as the world's biggest source of energy in the next five years, with potentially disastrous consequences for the climate, according to the world's leading authority on energy economics.
• 2012/12/19: BBC: The International Energy Agency (IEA) says that coal will catch up with oil as the world's leading energy source by 2022
• 2012/12/17: IEA: Coal's share of global energy mix to continue rising, with coal closing in on oil as world's top energy source by 2017
• 2012/12/18: Guardian(UK): Coal to challenge oil's dominance by 2017, says IEA
  

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

• 2012/12/19: KSJT: Esquire on fracking: Prose that could blow out a wellhead
• 2012/12/19: CDreams: Corporate Power vs. People Power in Colorado Fracking Fight
  Oil and gas industry sues city of Longmont contending their right to frack for profits
• 2012/12/17: DeutscheWelle: What's behind the natural gas boom in the US?
• 2012/12/18: NYT: City in Colorado Is Sued Over a [fracking] Drilling Ban
• 2012/12/18: FAIR: Fracking: Too Much of a Good Thing, Says Planet Money Guy
• 2012/12/18: Eureka: Analysis of Marcellus flowback finds high levels of ancient brines
  Brine water that flows back from gas wells in the Marcellus Shale region after hydraulic fracturing is many times more salty than seawater, with high contents of various elements, including radium and barium. The chemistry is consistent with brines formed during the Paleozoic era, a study by an undergraduate student and two professors in Penn State's Department of Geosciences found.
• 2012/12/17: Guardian(UK): Fracking lobbyists prepare case against Matt Damon's Promised Land
  Energy in Depth prepares 'cheat sheet' of pro-fracking talking points before release of Gus Van Sant drilling-rights drama
• 2012/12/17: DeSmogBlog: Republican Groups Tell Obama To Back Off Fracking Rules
• 2012/12/17: TP:JR: Why Excitement About The Oil & Gas Boom Misses The Mark On Climate
• 2012/12/16: DeSmogBlog: Medical And Scientific Experts Urge Halting Fracking Rush Until Medical Unknowns Are Better Understood
• 2012/12/14: NPR: The Number of Fracking Trade Secrets in Texas Will Likely Surprise You
• 2012/12/16: HarvardMag: Fracking's Future - Natural gas, the economy, and America's energy prospects
  

  On the coal front:

• 2012/12/20: TreeHugger: IEA: World to Burn 1.2 Billion More Tons of Coal Per Year by 2017...
• 2012/12/19: NYT: Power Company Loses Some of Its Appetite for Coal
  Coal took another serious hit Wednesday --- in the heart of coal country.
  American Electric Power, or A.E.P., the nation's biggest consumer of coal, announced that it would shut its coal-burning boilers at the Big Sandy electric power plant near Louisa, Ky., a 1,100-megawatt facility...
• 2012/12/19: CSM: Coal on the rise as developing nations seek cheap fuel
• 2012/12/19: TMoS: A World Mad for Coal -- There's a big bright future ahead for coal and we'll pay dearly for it
• 2012/12/20: ABC(Au): Soaring coal demand stokes emissions concerns
• 2012/12/19: TMoS: Killing Off Old King Coal While There's Still Time
• 2012/12/18: CDreams: Hastening Climate Change, Worldwide Coal Consumption to Increase Within 5 Years -- China, India expected to lead consumption by 2017
• 2012/12/17: CSM: Edison Mission Energy files for bankruptcy. Is natural gas to blame?
  

  On the gas and oil front:

• 2012/12/21: BBerg: Closing oil prices Friday
  OIL (US$/bbl)
  Dated Brent Spot....108.97
  WTI Cushing Spot.....88.66
• 2012/12/20: OilDrum: Oil Watch: Europe and North America - Total Oil Products Demand
• 2012/12/19: CSM: The one chart about oil's future everyone should see
• 2012/12/16: RI: Previous long-term government, industry oil forecasts badly overestimated supply; why should we listen now?
• 2012/12/18: EconBrowser: Future production from U.S. shale or tight oil
• 2012/12/17: NYT: A Big, and Risky, Energy Bet -- Sasol Betting Big on Gas-to-Liquid Plant in U.S.
• 2012/12/21: BBerg: Tanker Carrying Bakken Oil to Canadian Refinery Runs Aground
  An oil tanker carrying Bakken crude to Irving Oil Corp.'s refinery in Canada from Albany, New York, ran aground yesterday in the Hudson River, delaying the first of what is expected to be many voyages on the route.
• 2012/12/18: CBC: SNC-Lavalin joint venture wins contract to build N.J. [gas-fired] power plant
• 2012/12/16: Resilience: Previous long-term government, industry oil forecasts badly overestimated supply; why should we listen now?
  

  And in pipeline news:

• 2012/12/21: EurActiv: Azerbaijan to buy 50% stake in Nabucco
  Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz II gas group could agree to take a 50% stake in the Nabucco pipeline consortium by January, boosting Nabucco's prospects in a competition between projects that aim to pipe Azeri offshore gas into Europe.
• 2012/12/18: CDreams: Tar Sands Battle Takes Distinct Turns in Vermont, Montana -- Environmental victory in Burlington but fossil fuel fail in Montana
  

  Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2012/12/21: CSM: KiOR starts making biofuel, but future still iffy
  

  The answer my friend...:

• 2012/12/19: TheHill:e2W: EIA: Threat of losing tax credit drives wind installations
  

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2012/12/21: NBF: Graphene sheets coated with nanowires made into flexible solar cells
• 2012/12/21: ABC(Au): Solar farm gets planning nod
• 2012/12/21: BBerg: First Large Solar Plants Without Subsidy Sought in Spain
• 2012/12/20: NREL: Concentrated Solar Power with Thermal Energy Storage Can Help Utilities' Bottom Line, Study Shows
• 2012/12/20: TP:JR: Local Solar: Minnesota Develops Its First Community Solar Project
• 2012/12/20: Eureka: Peel-and-Stick solar panels from Stanford engineering
  Decal-like application process allows thin, flexible solar panels to be applied to virtually any surface
• 2012/12/17: CNN: 'Solar sisters' spreading light in Africa
  Solar Sister is a network of women selling solar lighting to poor communities - The female entrepreneurs make a commission on every sale - More than 270 women in three East African countries have so far joined the group - Founder Katherine Lucey says energy poverty will not be solved by philanthropy
• 2012/12/18: TP:JR: Small Is Big: Bangladesh Installs One Million Solar Home Systems
  

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2012/12/22: APR: Electrabel / GDF Suez submit restart plan for [Belgium's] Doel 3, Tihange 2
• 2012/12/22: CCurrents: A Nuke Reactor Shut Down In Sweden And Two Could Explode In The US
• 2012/12/21: NBF: India has nuclear plant delays and higher costs and Japan shifting to pro-nuclear policies
• 2012/12/21: SwissInfo: Nuclear watchdog calls for Mühleberg measures
  If the Mühleberg nuclear power station near the capital Bern wants to continue operating after 2017, the energy company BKW will have to meet ten requirements set out by the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI).
• 
  

  Nuclear fusion projects around the world limp along:

   

• 2012/12/19: WNN: ITER shapes up as contracts signed
  A flurry of contracts has been awarded by ITER's European domestic agency, Fusion for Energy (F4E) that will see the next generation international fusion facility really begin to take shape.
• 
  

  Feed-In-Tariffs are being variously implemented around the world:

   

• 2012/12/18: PSinclair: Chris Hayes, Dave Roberts on Germany's Feed In Tariff
  

  Like a mirage, the dream of a Hydrogen Economy shimmers on the horizon:

• 2012/12/17: TheConversation: Here's to hydrogen: Australia is missing the potential of solar fuels
  

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2012/12/21: CleanBreak: Provincial first: Ontario's independent electricity operator embraces new storage methods as effective grid balancer
• 2012/12/20: ABC(Au):TDU: A future powered by solar is more than hot air
  The nature of Australia's power grid, not price, is the real hurdle when planning a solar-powered future. The good news, says Lynette Molyneaux, is that it's not insurmountable.
• 2012/12/19: Reuters: German cabinet agrees to expand power grid faster
  German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet agreed on Wednesday to accelerate the construction of 2,800 km of new high-voltage power lines to push forward the country's shift to renewable energy.
• 2012/12/19: ChincagoTrib: Put smart grid back on track -- Senate to ICC: What part of the law don't you understand?
  For the past year, Commonwealth Edison and its state regulator have wrangled over how to implement a new law aimed at upgrading the electric grid and streamlining government oversight of utilities. The Illinois Commerce Commission opposed the so-called smart-grid bill. So did Gov. Pat Quinn, who appoints the members of the ICC. In the months since the Legislature overrode Quinn's veto of the bill in late 2011, the commission has kept up the fight. It has refused ComEd's request for some revenue increases the utility says are necessary to make the improvements to the grid. As a result, ComEd has challenged the ICC in court and postponed the full rollout of the smart-grid system until 2015.
• 2012/12/19: SciAm:PI: Can we store electricity to transform the grid?
• 2012/12/18: SciAm:PI: Are Microgrids the Key to Energy Security?
• 2012/12/17: TreeHugger: Utilities to Spend $1.4 Billion on Smart Grid Analytics Software by 2020
  

  And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2012/12/20: TreeHugger: How Greater Efficiency Leads to Greater Waste, Or Jevons Paradox in the Mens' Room
• 2012/12/20: UCSUSA:B: Look Up, and Rejoice (Shine Bright Like an LED)
• 2012/12/19: TreeHugger: Samsung Leads Energy Efficiency Rankings for Refrigerators
  

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

• 2012/12/22: CSM: Ford hybrids hot sellers despite mileage concerns
• 2012/12/19: UCSUSA:B: Ship It Green: Electrification of Delivery Trucks
• 2012/12/18: EurActiv: Daimler faces legal action threat over green air conditioning
  The German car company, Daimler, is facing potential infringement proceedings from Brussels after announcing an intention to defy EU legislation and continue using [HFO-1234yf] a super greenhouse gas in its car air conditioning systems next year.
• 
  

  As for Energy Storage:

   

• 2012/12/21: AutoBG: Ohio State discovery reveals flaw that may shorten lithium-ion battery life
  

  The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

• 2012/12/20: EurActiv: Unilever eyes EU research to halve its water, CO2 footprint
  The Dutch multinational Unilever wants to boost its participation in EU research programmes to develop the breakthrough technologies it needs to cut the water use and CO2 emissions of its products by half -- two of its key environmental objectives.
• 2012/12/19: TP:JR: Heeding Public Outrage, Pfizer Drops Climate Denial And Tobacco Front Group Heartland Institute
• 2012/12/20: Grist: Bangladesh fire shows why we can't trust Walmart to green its supply chain
  

  Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:

• 2012/12/21: CCurrents: What Is The Cost Of Disasters?
• 2012/12/19: SwissInfo: Cost of global disasters falls to $140 billion
  Natural and man-made disasters this year will cost at least $140 billion (SFr127 billion), says reinsurer Swiss Re. The most important losses were in the United States such as Superstorm Sandy.
• 2012/12/21: Guardian(UK): NOAA: 2012 to rank as second costliest US year since 1980
  The 11 billion-dollar extreme weather events across the US include hurricane Sandy, which alone will cost about $100bn
• 2012/12/19: BBC: Insurance market Lloyd's of London has said that it expects to face claims of between $2bn and $2.5bn (£1.2bn-£1.5bn) for the damage caused by Storm Sandy
• 2012/12/16: CSW: Flood Insurance Reform Act could promote better climate preparedness
  

  Who's fielding theFAQs?

• 2012/12/21: Guardian(UK): How will climate change impact on fresh water security?
• 2012/12/21: Guardian(UK): Is nuclear power necessary for solving climate change?
• 2012/12/19: Guardian(UK): What's REDD and will it help tackle climate change?
  

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

• 2012/12/19: TP:JR: December 19 News...
• 2012/12/18: TP:JR: December 18 News...
• 2012/12/17: TP:JR: December 17 News...
  

  Other (weekly) lists:

• 2012/12/23: SkS: 2012 SkS Bi-Weekly News Roundup #11 by John Hartz
• 2012/12/21: Resilience: ODAC Newsletter
• 2012/12/20: SkS: 2012 SkS Bi-Weekly News Roundup #10 by John Hartz
  

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2012/12/21: CChallenge: Curry misrepresents the "Italian Flag" ~ an examination by GWS
• 2012/12/20: S&R: Corporate values lead engineers to deny industrial climate disruption
• 2012/12/20: Stoat: People, if you want to argue with stoats, first read enough to be a weasel. Parrots needn't apply
• 2012/12/20: S&R: Climate disruption denial: a natural by-product of libertarian values
• 2012/12/20: Tamino: Fake skeptic draws fake picture of Global Temperature
• 2012/12/21: P3: The Golden Horseshoe Award - Nominees
• 2012/12/21: DeSmogBlog: So-Called Skeptics Clinging To Slippery Strands Of Climate Science Denial
• 2012/12/19: CDL: Nic Lewis
• 2012/12/23: JKB: Samuele Furfari's lecture for The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium
• 2012/12/23: UKISS: Anthony Cox, well, what can I say? ppffftttttt
• 2012/12/16: CCurrents: Climate Crisis Denier's Dirty Tricks In The Name Of Sun God
• 2012/12/18: TP:JR: In Ironic Christmas Card, Koch-Backed Group Labels Itself Ebenezer Scrooge
• 2012/12/17: LoE: Reality dawns on people ignoring scientists
  

  This week in intimidation:

• 2012/12/20: DeSmogBlog: Science Groups Call For Changes To Freedom Of Information Laws in Australia To Protect Climate Scientists From Harassment
  

  The Heartland saga drags on:

• 2012/12/22: BCLSB: Pfizer Abandons Heartland Institute
  

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2012/12/22: ASI: The real AR5 bombshell
• 2012/12/19: RWER: Graph of the day: global warming is real
• 2012/12/19: CassandrasLegacy: Russian oil and the future of catalytic chemistry
• 2012/12/18: NewAnthropocene: As We Sit and Wait for Political Action on Climate Change
• 2012/12/18: ABC(Au): Storm season highlights online disaster responses [Google Person Finder]
• 2012/12/17: DeSmogBlog: Powell Climate Science Pie Chart Featured On The Young Turks
  

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

• GlacierWorks
• Recool: Sustainability in Architecture
• The Checks and Balances Project
• United States Global Change Research Program
• Enervee: Energy Efficiency - Energy Conservation and Saving Tips
• Wiki: International Nuclear Event Scale [INES]
• NatGeo:Phenomena
• Wiki: North Atlantic Gyre
• Wiki: Atlantic multidecadal oscillation
• Wiki: East Greenland Current
• Wiki: Norwegian Current
• Wiki: Transpolar Drift Stream
• Wiki: Arctic oscillation
• Wiki: North Atlantic oscillation
• NCSU: Global Patterns - Arctic & North Atlantic Oscillations (AO & NAO)
• NOAA:NCEP: North Atlantic Oscillation

Low Key Plug

My first novel Water was published in Canada May, 2007. The American release was in October. An Introductionto the novel is available, along with the Unpublished Forewordand the Launch Talk(which includes some quotations), An overview of my writing is available here.

<regards>

-het

P.S. Recent postings can be found in the week archive and the ancient postings can be accessed here, which should open to this.

I notice moyhu has set up a monster index to old AWoGWN on AFTIC.

"The time for hope is over; it is simply illogical to continue believing that dangerous future climate projections can be mitigated through national and international agreements, or through pro-active action. We now have to consider life in a 4°C warmer world..." -Chris Vernon

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